You mean the one at the end? It was nothing more than simply swapping out Howie’s cube for one preset to the same pattern as his own and the big one, right?
The odds of anyone having noticed – and be able to remember – the exact random design Howie had created are basically zilch.
I’ve thought that was the basic flaw with all his routines. The cube is simply too bulky to do smooth palmings/slipping into pockets and such, which is why he has to use the bag. But it’s such a blatant clue to what is going on.
Watching the interaction of the judges over the seasons is interesting. It seems there has to be a ‘dominant’ judge the other judges look to for guidance when uncertain. Howard Stern seemed to fill that role when he was on. Simon for obvious reasons occupies that position now.
I was surprised that Kadie Lynn was on the bubble. I thought for sure the judges would put her through and didn’t expect a tie. But thankfully America came through for the rescue.
As for Steven Brundage, yeah, he didn’t conceal his methods very well, but I’m willing to cut him some slack because he’s not doing the same six tricks* most magicians do that we’ve seen a million times before.
*Levitation, sawing someone in half, putting blades through a box somebody is in, teleportation, card tricks, and escape acts.
And AGT is back after the Olympics. This one was OK, but in my opinion not a lot of great talents.
tldr; my five picks to go through: Brian Justin Crum, Edgar, Malevo, Ronee Martin, and the Passing Zone.
=============================================== Vello Vaher - It was OK. Not horrible but not good enough to go through in my opinion. Ronee Martin - If you’re going to sing a mellow song with minimal instruments you better be very engaging. And I thought she was. I hope she moves on. Kadan Bart Rockett - The steampunk chainsaws of doom was kind of cute, but the you have x number of seconds or minutes to escape has been done to death. I just wasn’t feeling it. Linkin’ Bridge - I was kind of bored to be honest. Listening to this song, and thinking of the others, made me feel like they’re one note (no pun intended). Alla and Daniel - I was kind of busy and missed some of the dancing, but what I saw was OK. Although I think they’ll be on the bubble if not outright eliminated. Blake Vogt - I thought he put on a pretty good show, although the averting of expectations joke, “That would have been cool,” is getting old. Edgar - I really enjoyed this. One thing I could do without, and this goes for all of the acts, is stop telling the background story. It’s overkill. Julia Scotti - I’m probably the only one who didn’t care too much for the old and grumpy cliche. But ignoring that, I didn’t think she did that great. But I’m guessing that enough of America did so she’ll go through. Brian Justin Crum - I really liked his rendition of “In the Air Tonight”. I thought he did a great job and deserves to go though. I think he will. Malevo - Another great performance, although not as great as the performance that got them the golden buzzer IMHO, but I hope they go through. The Passing Zone - That looked liked fun. Like being on a ride at the fair. I really enjoyed the performance. Grace Vanderwaal - I’m not a fan of that type of “indie” music. Plus, I think doing a personal song she got a tiny bit emotional. Still, I do hear some talent in there so I didn’t hate it. I just write it off as not for me. I have no idea if she’ll go through or not.
Agreed with Simon that the contortionist in the first act was boring. We know he can assume that position and move around, so it’s not entertaining to just see him do it again. Plus, it looked to me like he was supposed to do something with those ropes at the end but fumbled it.
Linkin’ Bridge didn’t sound very good to me. I was surprised that the judges responded so well.
Alla and Daniel are an example of the kind of act that should never make it this far because they’re destined to fail. Mom and son dancing together is cute, and they’re good at it as far as that goes, but that’s all it is.
Agreed, we should never see another magician do the “wouldn’t that have been cool!” line. I cringed when he said it because it is so hackneyed now that no one laughs.
The Passing Zone was hilarious, but afterward I realized they didn’t do a lot. They hooked up the three hosts and spun them around while we laughed. I suppose they’re more like comedians than jugglers or whatever, and I guess that’s fine as long as we’re entertained.
I was really surprised that the judges were so enthusiastic about Grace Vanderwaal. I couldn’t understand hardly any of the lyrics, her voice was cracking, and she looked absolutely terrified. I was sure we were about to see the judges struggle to tell her she blew it without crushing a young girl’s soul.
The contortionist is creepy, just not really doing anything. Mother and son dancing is even creepier, they have to go. All the rest were decent, not all my favorites, yet i don’t see any of them needing to leave. I understand Grace Vanderwaal writes her own songs and that should be considered part of the talent, but there are little girls with better voices this year. Passing Zone made juggling entertaining, they deserve some credit for that. The little kid magician and sister are cute but this one wasn’t great, I don’t expect them to continue.
IMHO: once you’ve put a contortionist through to the next round, you’ve abandoned all access to the argument that their act is not evolving or progressing. Did you expect that he’d find a new and entertaining way to wrap his legs around his neck? He is literally (ok, not really) a one-trick pony.
I also though all of the singers demonstrated good voice but poor choices in arrangements. They ruined good songs…for instance, trying to turn the soft and gentle “You’ve Got a Friend” into some kind of power ballad.
I also don’t get the praise for Grace Vanderwahl. OTOH, for the first time I actually enjoyed Blake Vogt’s act. I think that Passing Zone made a canny move with their announcement of Simon being in for it next time – gotta be worth a few thousand extra votes.
Of the singers, I enjoyed Brian Justin Crum best though I heartily wish they’d drop all of the My Life Has Been Hard sob stories. Especially since we’ve now seen them all three times!
So I counted them up. Of the 21 semifinalists we saw:
10 were singers/singing groups
5 were magicians/illusionists
and one each:
Comic
Danger act
Mime
Juggler
Contortionist
Dance group
Presumably there will be a few more (called Wild Cards or whatever), hopefully they won’t be yet more singers.
I also noticed all the regularjudges Gold Buzzer choices are still in it plus three of the guest judges (but I may have missed the fourth one?), but Nick’s (90 year old stripper) is out.
Edgar - I’ve just liked them from the very beginning and I think they consistently put on a good show. Laura Bretan - This will probably be another case of people like me who don’t listen to opera on a regular basis love her and opera connoisseurs hate her. Malevo - Last time they took a step down, but tonight they really stepped it up. I thought that they were great.
As for the last 2, Grace Vanderwaal - Not my cup of tea but she does have talent. Tape Face - I have mixed feelings. On the one hand none of his performances have been very strong, on the other he has enough variety to do a headlining act.
And the rest.
Blake Vogt - I figured out both tricks so easily. That was very disappointing. Deadly Games - The pacing was slow and I’ve seen those stunts so many times before. Jon Deorenbos - I saw him switch out the diary. D’oh! Lori Mae Hernandez - In my opinion, meh. I was kind of shocked at her very last joke. Thankfully Nick didn’t seem bothered by it. Anyway, I’ve always seen her as so-so. She did pretty well to come this far, but I don’t see her winning. Musicality - Last week and tonight sealed it for me. They don’t seem to be getting any better; they past last week by the skin of their teeth; but I don’t think they’ll survive past tomorrow. Sal Valentinetti - He’ll make a great lounge singer somewhere.
Lori Mae Hernandez needs better material and better delivery. She might be funnier if it didn’t always seem like she’s on the verge of hysterics.
Grace Vanderwaal seems like the proverbial dog walking on its hind legs; it’s not that she does it well, but that she’s doing it at all. It’s possible that she’s a good song writer, but her singing style renders her lyrics so unintelligible that it’s hard to tell.
Lori Mae bombed. Blake Vogt was ok but he didn’t really raise the bar. Tape Face is just limited in his act. Everyone else did very well, very impressive round. I think deadly games was fantastic, really took their act up with the right music and styling, that’s a sign of a great act. Sal got drowned out by his backup band at the end of his song, he may have trouble with all the good competition from last night. Musicality has already done their best, too many people there, maybe if they thinned the herd they’d look better.
“Laura Bretan - This will probably be another case of people like me who don’t listen to opera on a regular basis love her and opera connoisseurs hate her.”
Yeah, great voice, but the singers like that aren’t making it all the way through. I don’t think it’s just opera connoisseurs either, a lot of people just don’t like that kind of stuff.
The second one was obvious - a similar sized guy in a matching brick suit was on the platform. I couldn’t believe how Simon was shilling for him.
How was the first one done? I don’t remember him touching that box after ripping off the corner of Simon’s card. I guess maybe he forced Simon’s choice?
Simon probably stills falls for the “got your nose!” and pulling a quarter from behind your ear tricks. Unless he’s just hamming it up for the show, he seems unbelievably naive. Like a country bumpkin who’s never even been to the county fair.
Granted, some of the close up and card tricks are impressive, but the brick body suit thing and some of the other tricks where he gapes in awe at true sorcery? C’mon…
Those were wild cards from the judges’ cuts. I have a feeling that there will be one wild card added from the first live shows into the semi-finals; it doesn’t seem fair to have one semi-final with 5 out of 11 advancing while the other would have 5 out of only 10.
They don’t make a big deal out of announcing the wild cards; you don’t know about them until they announce “next week’s acts” and one or two who weren’t announced as advancing are included.
