Tried to post this earlier, but it didn’t go through. So first is my impressions, then I’ll add my response to the results.
Tough night for competitions.
Top Picks:
Blue Journey: just impressive. Emotive and good dance. Nitpicking one or two minor placement issues that weren’t drastic and didn’t really stand out. A few more days of practice would have helped. But just superb.
AcroArmy: Another spectacular act. Good blend of dance and acrobatics. Big moves.
Christian Stoinev: Combined awesome hand balancing with cute dog balancing. Yeah, he’ll be a top pick. Great act.
Sons of Serendip: Tiny bit weak voice in the soft beginning versus the louder music, but picked up. Good song, good sound, great performance. Blew away other singing acts of the night.
Adrian Romoff: Cocky kid, I get the same nonpersonable vibe, but great musician and great emotion and connection in the performance.
Rest of the pack:
Wendy Liebman: She was pretty funny, was a little slow on the start, but warmed up quickly. I liked it, but I think the other acts stacked up better overall.
Cornell Bhangra: High energy dance, blended cultural with contemporary. I’m not sure any cultural dance act is going to win AGT. While they were good, they didn’t demand my attention the way my top acts did.
Anna Clendening: Wasn’t her best. I thought the song choice was an interesting use to twist to meet her story. I liked it, but it didn’t pop.
Paul Ieti: Emotional song, but I heard a lot of pitch issues. Not great.
Kieran and Finian: I’m trying to remember what they were like before. Not a strong choice for the performance. They are talented, changing up instruments, but vocally it didn’t sound very good.
Dragon House “The Agents”: They are unique, but as Howard said, it gets repetitive. As mentioned, no emotion and no story.
Mike [del]Stupid[/del] Super: Stupid act, stupid effects, and more Desmond. Thank you, Howard. Notice how when he asked Mel where she felt touched, she was actually trying to point at her back, not the top of her shoulder? Rigged chair. Then he does the “put your hands out front” and the camera cuts to the judges, so we can’t see whether he actually touched her hands or not, but he was stepping right in front of her when the camera cut. Here’s what happened. He had her stick out her hands flat. He grabbed both palms, secretly applying the black charcoal and a chemical agent to her palms, as he lifted her hands a little higher. Then he tells her to clench her fists. Then he said “A little higher, I don’t want to touch your hands.” Of course we didn’t see that because of the camera, but that’s exactly what he did. The chemical heats her hands briefly, he lights the fires, then opens her hands to magically discover the fire affected her. Yawn Finally, he tazed Mel B with the rigged chair. He should get points deducted for tazing Mel B. What a load of crap, I want to kick him in the balls.
I think the judge’s pick will come down to Adrian vs Cornell Bhangra, and the judges will keep Adrian.
Paul Ieti made it into the finals? And beat out Acro Army? Wow, how did I hear a different performance than everybody else?
Given that, I see how Adrian was on the outs.
As for Mike Super being on the bubble, I keep forgetting that America isn’t as informed about magic as I am, so they see things differently. They were apparently impressed enough with his voodoo act. Meh, at least the judges had sense and sent him packing. Good call there. I would have been ticked if they had booted Acro Army for that crap. Acro Army was a top 3 performance, can’t see how they were number 5 or 6.