People in show business are often backstage when magic acts go on and get to see a lot of things that the audience doesn’t. It’s considered bad form to reveal those things. Magicians have no choice but to count on that. Plenty of people backstage would have seen how Tuesday’s trick was done.
Well, yeah, of course. But I think Kevin Downey Jr. and tellAvision at least outperformed them. (and maybe Hype and even shudder Fresh Faces.) I love rock and roll, and I’d love to see a band win, but take away their patriotic backstory and the Hitmen are nothing special.
Certainly, but I would think he’d like to keep the judges in the status of audience rather than confidant, since they will continue to have a role in determining his status. Whereas if Nick were involved in a trick, that would be different, IMO.
Speaking of which, we discussed the previous trick where he used “Nick’s” popcorn from backstage in his audition. Subsequent viewing of the show and identification of the popcorn as one of the sponsors suggests that that popcorn is placed backstage as available snacks for the cast and crew, and thus would easily be staged as “Nick’s” popcorn.
arguable
Disputed.
Definitely agreed. Even that performance didn’t really impress me or sway me to keep them. If you look at my pre-show evaluation, I didn’t even list them in the running for 4th slot.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think the talent of rock band would be their own music, or possibly a good imitation of a well known band. These guys are good, but don’t seem different from the average garage band.
That’s a definite line to question.
Howie seems to feel that the talent is best displayed via their singing and playing, and that they are better served performing a song that the audience knows and loves so the audience can sing along and whatnot, thus garnering good will bonus. Whereas singing an original song has the downside that it is original, and thus unknown, so the audience doesn’t carry their emotional connection with the song to boost their appreciation of the performers.
The flipside is that our current expectations in pop music are weighted to original music, singer/songwriters or bands putting out new music. There’s some counter tendencies to that - look at the popularity of 80’s music and classic rock. But still there does seem to be a predominant expectation of making new music to be successful.
Singing competition shows seem to take the ground that it is easier to have them do lots of cover songs and find their voice in how they interpret and deliver the well-known. This is largely because creating new music for dozens of acts to perform weekly would be [del]impossible[/del] ridiculously impractical. However, AGT is not explicitly a singing competition, but rather a talent competition, and a performer’s talent might lie more in the songwriting aspect rather than the singing side. Of course, some singing ability is required to convey the writing side.
For a generic rock band to perform standard rock songs and really stand out, they need to (a) sound excellent; (b) find some way to make it their own - whether by changing the tone or style or tempo or whatever. Doing even a good performance that sounds basically like a poorer version of the original band is ultimately not going to stand up to a guy pouring gasoline (or at least looking like pouring gasoline) over his head and then juggling burning torches. Or an 11 year old girl who sounds like a 30 year old blues singer. Or a comedian with a fun sense of humor, a skewed perspective, and a sharp wit.
OOH, I think I just hit on what KriStef should do for their next bit thing - have the big one bench press two guys simultaneously who are juggling flaming torches.
My X out of 10 ratings and quick notes (mostly sentence fragments) for tonight’s performances.
**Innovation Force **(dancers)- 8/10 - A little too much going on, but otherwise pretty good.
Ciana Pelekai(12 year old singer) - 7/10 - She needed a little more power and better enunciation.
Alexander Magala(sword swallower) - 6/10 - Not impressed with flair. Mistakes were made with the sword part. And he moved too slow.
Struck Boyz(dancers) - 5/10 - Bored. Nothing special. Needed better synchronization.
Brad Byers(danger) - 6/10 - Tongue on fan been done before. Run over on a bed of nails; A little better. Disagreed with judges about lack of showmanship. For me it was the “tricks” that were weak.
Kid the Wiz(hat tricks) - 7/10 - I think he upped his game. The hat drop didn’t bother me.
Forte(operatic singers) - 7/10 - Not a fan of taking pop or easy listening songs and singing them in an operatic fashion. Agreed with Mel that it was a little over the top. And just a personal preference, but they sang with a little too much vibrato for my taste.
Angela Hoover(impersonator/comedy) - 9/10 - The Mel impersonation was slightly more Irish than English. Anyway, I agree with Howard that it was not her strongest performance, but I gave her a 9 because I can see attending an hour long performance from her, but not the others.
Dave Shirley(comedy using image boards?) - 4/10 - Boring and out of synch. Even with practice the act itself didn’t do anything for me.
Marty Brown(country singer) - 6/10 - I usually like him, but tonight he had a poor song choice and his singing was off.
Aquanuts - 5/10 - Can’t really articulate why, but I was bored. Partially could have been all the different camera angles, some of which weren’t flattering.
Tone the Chiefrocca - 5/10 - The video and dancers, and everything was too much and unnecessary. I thought it wasn’t as good as the first. But I do like the personality of the two guys.
And Howie, you’re not looking for a Vegas act, just a talented one? If part of the prize is a headlining show on the Vegas strip, then yeah, you are looking for a Vegas act. Or at least one that can do Vegas. And B-Double O-T-Y isn’t it.
Edit, my top 4 picks are
1 Angela Hoover
2 Innovation Force
3 Ciana Pelekai
4 Kid the Wiz
I use a simpler 5 step rating system, goes from – to - to 0 to + to ++
Last night I only awards two single +s (Innovative Force and Forte) and one 0 (Angela Hoover) and all the rest were single or double minuses.
It was a really sad grouping.
What they haven’t mentioned so far: there will be four weeks of these quarter finals, with four acts going on each time, for a total of 16.
Then there will be two semifinals, meaning that they need 24 acts.
Last time they had a wild card show with the Judges picking acts for a second chance, and then four acts going on from that.
And then they had the Internet show, and took four from that. But they’ve said nothing about that kind of show this time, and I think they would have to by now.
So…two call back shows, maybe?
My rundown for the night:
**Innovation Force **(dancers)- they came out first and set a pretty good baseline for the night. They were interesting and enjoyable.
Ciana Pelekai(12 year old singer) - There was something about her enunciation that had a little odd feel, but she was pretty good. I enjoyed her performance. She has what they call a signature voice.
Alexander Magala(sword swallower) - On the one hand, there is some real risk in what he’s doing. And the hand slip while walking in handstand was a big oops moment with potential consequences. On the other hand, there’s something about the act that just doesn’t pop. Like Nobody said, he moved too slow. It’s a definite challenge, he has to keep his body rigid so he doesn’t stab himself, but then move fast to make the dance/pole/gymnastics part up to performance expectations.
Struck Boyz(dancers) - they’re the male counterpart to Fresh Faces. Then can dance, though I agreed with Howard Stern about the moves and showing off their abs. It’s not an act I want to see go on.
Brad Byers(danger) - His act is standard sideshow danger stuff. The fan trick uses a gimmick, which he did well in covering up. The bed of nails is fairly understood. Using the ATV was a neat update, but I could see through it, though I don’t know how much of the audience could. He took his shirt off because part of the showmanship is seeing the impression marks on his back from the nails. But I agree with the judges, something about his style doesn’t get that emotional connection with the audience.
Kid the Wiz(hat tricks) - I think he had a good act, good use of the stage, good integration of dance with the hat tricks. I did see the drop, and they made such a big deal about it in Vegas I knew the judges would pick up on it. It was entertaining, though ultimately the hat juggling is something of a gimmick act and so I don’t know how much farther it can go.
Forte(operatic singers) - Really good voices, really good harmonies. I see what Mel was saying about their style, I would describe it as Broadway. They were doing a very showtunes version of singing, which is acceptable for the material and their style, whereas she was more expecting a pop radio style. It’s not really my thing, but I can certainly see them going forward, or working on Broadway.
Angela Hoover(impersonator/comedy) - I liked her act overall. I thought her Mel B was pretty good, her Heidi wasn’t bad. The material was a little thin. I liked the Voice joke and the tie back with Christina. I liked the concept of her Christina joke, but I didn’t think her Christina impression was very good. I was amused with Heidi’s criticism to go with the German word jokes, and how quickly Angela responded with one. I want to see her go forward.
Dave Shirley(comedy using image boards?) - I think he has an interesting concept. Some of the movements I’m not sure how much better he could synch, but then there were some obvious out of synch spots where he splits from the image, and that ruins the effect. And then his show choices were kinda ho-hum. I like that he’s willing to make fun of himself and commit to the humor. Overall it just didn’t work, it definitely needed more practice for the timing.
Marty Brown(country singer) - Totally fucked up tonight. Seemed like a very poor song choice for him, and getting choked up by the video certainly hurt him. That performance was dreadful - sounded like the country bumpkin that he appeared, not the smooth singer he has shown us he can be. Mel B seemed harsh but she was right, the competition is tight with only a third of the acts going forward, and he probably bumped himself out with that.
Aquanuts - 5/10 - I’m with Nobody, it just didn’t translate to the screen and hold my attention. Yes, they’re lifting each other out of the water purely with swimming power, not using the floor, but it just didn’t excite me.
Tone the Chiefrocca - I think he’s on minute 14.5, with the last half minute tonight when he gets let go. It was fun the first show, I agree the amping up didn’t improve the fun. I don’t care for the personality. We’ve seen it, let’s move on.
I pick Innovative Force, Ciana Pelekai, Angela Hoover, and Forte.
I can see a difference between the prize being a Vegas contract, and the criteria for evaluation being able to support a 1 hour Vegas show. Ultimately, this show is about finding talent, and the transitioning it to a Vegas show is somebody else’s problem later. But they’ve used it as an evaluation criteria before, so I’m not convinced it isn’t a criteria.
Innovation Force and Angela Hoover are the only ones I’d like to see move forward. I think IF used their best move right at the beginning and should have held that off to finish the act. Hoover does well, she’ll succeed one way or another.
Well mainly I had Tone the Chiefrocca in mind because that’s who Howie was talking about. I’ll rephrase.
A huge part of the show is growth. I wish him/them the best in becoming a one hit wonder*, but if that’s all someone is after then I think it’s a wast of time to bring them to the semifinals. I guess you don’t have to be a Vegas act, but you should be able to at least put on a one hour show (or at least a half hour), and someone just singing the same song over and over again doesn’t cut it.
*Except for singing while Nick was trying to talk, he seems like a nice guy and I love his attitude, so I am sincere in wishing him success.
Maybe one wildcard and one YouTube? That could be cool.
What pisses me off is seeing some of theses acts that did make it to RCMH in favor of those that got cut. You could have gotten rid of Struck Kidz, Kid the Wiz and Aquanuts and replaced them with the countertenor, the old-time sounding black country singer and someone else.
Yeah, some of the acts that got cut and the acts that went through baffled me too. I really wish I was a fly on the wall when the judges were discussing who to cut and who to bring to the semi-finals.
Innovation Force - Good for them. They put on a decent show and deserved to go through.
Marty Brown - I’m a huge believer in second chances. He normally is better than yesterday’s performance and I’m fine with giving him another chance to prove it.
Forte - Pretty good job. I’d prefer Ciana instead though, and if they have a wildcard round, I hope she comes back.
Halfway through the show a thought hit me. “I bet Tone the Chiefrocca will be in the group that the judges pick, and that will allow him to go through.”
Thank goodness I was only halfway right. I am so glad Angela is going through.
And looking at next weeks acts. I can’t believe the dancing dog lady made it through. It’s very cute and all, but a million dollar act? I don’t think so.
Marty Brown made it? Fuck me. Maybe I should start calling him Kevin Skinner Jr because he should never made it to RCMH and he’s only getting by on his story.
From my perspective, I agree that somebody wanting to be a one hit wonder is a poor criteria for passing them through. Howie seemed to think he had upped his game with the same stupid song, and was blabbering about doing it orchestra style and whatnot. I think it’s stupid.
I kinda get the fun they had, but was surprised they passed through to live rounds on the merits of “one hit wonder” versus the review in Vegas. It was a bit fun the first time, but I’m over it. There’s plenty of real talent that deserves to win over this clown.
So Innovative Force was a good call, they’re talented. Then they did the “nobody wins” from the second set, and I knew that was so they could let the judges pick.
Question, is the judges picking a new thing this season? If not, how did they do it in the past that they never had any “nobody wins” groups? Because if they always do 4 sets of 3, and always picked one of the three, they’d never have two in the last group for the judges to pick.
Marty Brown was a surprise, but it looks like America was voting on past performance. I think his tribute video really helped his chances, because it explained why he’s doing it. From the blind auditions, we were just told his wife tricked him into auditioning, but didn’t get told how interested he is in competing. The video described his longtime desire that he never acted on. He did lousy on that performance, but his previous was so great that there’s reason to think he can come back strong. It was inexperience that overwhelmed him.
I liked Ciana, and I hope she gets a wild card. I understand why Alexandr didn’t get through.
I expected Forte and they got in.
That left Angela against Tone the Chiefrocca. First, I can’t believe Tone was that high (beating out Kid the Whiz and Ciana). Second, I can’t believe it was that tough a call. No surprise Howie likes Tone, but a bit surprised Heidi went with him over Angela. I’m clearly with Howard Stern on this one. And so it was another split decision, so another tie breaker from America’s vote, which put Angela ahead. At least the guys were pretty cool with their loss.
No, it’s not new. The judging, three picked by America and the last picked by judges is the way it’s been since I started watching three seasons ago.
Speaking of which, this too is a huge ass scam.
One million dollar prize?
Well…kind of:
“From season three onwards, the prize includes the one million dollars, payable in a financial annuity over 40 years (or the present cash value of such annuity).”
This means about $25,000 per year for 40 years…so unless you are really a young kid, if you win I wouldn’t exactly go out an buy that big house and Mercedes just yet…
I think they should pay the Howies and non-Howies THEIR salaries over 40 years as well.
I noticed that as well. Kinda takes some of the glamour away.
That’s only a partial quote:
“From season three onwards, the prize includes the one million dollars, payable in a financial annuity over 40 years (or the present cash value of such annuity), and a show as the headliner on the Las Vegas Strip.”
I’m not sure but I think the million was always an annuity and the Vegas show was added in season 3. Just like the lottery and almost every other million dollar prize the money is really an annuity costing the prize provider much less than the stated amount.