I only saw the clips on Hulu and the last half hour of the show, but I’m going with your picks. I’d like to add in Jonah Smith somewhere if I could but then I’d have to take someone out. I’d take out Mat Franco but I’m afraid that it might be Smoothini. AcroArmy was great, but somehow I’d rather have Jonah Smith than them because that’s just my personal squeamishness about those kinds of acts.
I’ll watch it in a bit, so nothing for this week yet, but some catch up comments.
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America has 317 million people. Seems a little presumptive to write them off as ignorant.
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No doubt there are plenty of Americans like me, who have some interest in how magic is done and has studied enough (like watching the Masked Magician specials) to have some familiarity to how much of it is done. However, I think the average American is pretty naive about how magic is done. Sure, they know some basics like the old sawing a woman in half, but watching the judges react to the magic and being floored by performances that are easy to see through by the informed gives some idea of how I feel the Average American is responding. When Howie, Heidi, and Mel are amazed and don’t have any clue how the magician did it, then I think America as a whole is thinking the same thing. Honestly, that’s the only way I can explain the results where magicians get rated higher than I think they deserve.
It’s not just Mike Super, it’s magicians across the board.
Yeah, that’s something that is the mysterious inner workings. Auditions I think are kinda lumped but then reedited to scatter them around. Second chance week works in sets to cross compare acts directly with similar acts, on purpose. After that, they try to get a mix for the biggest variety in any night. How they decide with groups go which night, though, is a mystery. Also, how they decide the order of the acts. There does appear to be a trend that earlier acts are less thrilling.
Big dance teams can show off talent, but it’s hard not to seem repetitive. What gets wins is innovative and constantly improving. Visual/musical combination groups like Aerial Animation and Blue Journey do well if they stay exciting, convey emotion well, and don’t screw up. Singers can change song styles or pick a different mix on a famous song and get lots of hits that way.
I think there were 5 card types, each of the four judges had one of each card. Typical Zener cards work that way, though the triangle is not one of the standard ones. So I did see a triangle in the bag, but I saw other cards in the bag as well.
I think we were looking from the side the cards were placed, turned to the camera so ensure we saw a variety of cards.
As Stern says, at this point, there’s no question they are all talented. Nobody was really terrible, but a couple of acts just probably weren’t good enough to go through.
Jonah Smith - Good but probably not good enough.
Baila Conmigo - I’m really tired of this act. I hate that they all but admitted they’re relying on the cute kids vote.
Jaycob Curlee - A little bit weaker than Jonah, so he’s done. He definitely lacks stage presence.
Mat Franco - I’ll be honest, I don’t remember his act, because I remember Smoothini’s and that’s not good for him. Now looking it up and reminding myself, it was a good act. However, if this was Clue the answer would be “Smoothini with a more entertaining act”.
AcroArmy - Ok, I love acrobatics so I have a bias, but wow these guys are amazing.
Kelli Glover - Fear is the mind killer.
Wendy Liebman - As I’ve mentioned before, I’m very familiar with her act, and in the early 2000s she was amazingly funny. Last night she was very funny. Enough to get through… she might squeak by but probably not.
Blue Journey - I happen to like their last dance better, but this was still amazing.
Emil & Dariel - I liked this a lot, but there does seem to be something missing. Maybe adding a singer would help but it my put them out of the spotlight…
Smoothini - I don’t want to know how he did, it spoils the magic for me. But I would love to know (not really) how he got that ring from the shoelace to the pen. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Wow. He killed Mat Franco I think.
Christian Stoinev - The judges were right, he’s counting on the cute dog vote and that’s a shame.
Quin Johnson - Great singer should go through.
Predictions
(1) Blue Journey
(2) Quin Johnson
(3) Emil & Dariel
(4) AcroArmy
(5) Smoothini
(6) Christian Stoinev or Baila Conmigo
I guess you’d have to throw me into that boat. I’m a very curious person by nature but I honestly don’t want to know how the magic works. I want to be amazed, I want to be entertained, and peeking behind the curtain will only ruin it for me.
I’m surprised at all the love for Smoothini. In my opinion his act last night was poorly executed slight-of-hand. Usually I will go back and try to figure out the act, but last night I was calling the moves as they happened. It upset my wife quite a bit. When I can figure out how a magician does his act as I’m seeing it for the first time it takes me out of the act. I thought Mat Franco’s act was more entertaining.
Now that I’ve watched it, I have to say that this is what a semifinals should look like. There were a lot of great acts, hard to decide who I want through. Someone going home this week would have been safe last week.
My rundown:
Jonah Smith: I agree he started off the night pretty good. The energy was there, but I don’t find his voice that compelling.
Baila Conmigo: Very vibrant colors, lots of energy as usual. They had one big move that was new - throwing the girls to the guys behind. But otherwise it does feel repetitive. Relying on the cute kid vote isn’t going to win.
Joycob Curlee: He was a bit better this time, but I don’t really care for the character of his voice, and his stage presence, as noted, is weak. May get the girl vote, but I don’t think it will be enough to save him.
Mat Franco: I thought this was a top notch job. He picked his foil in Mel B superbly, and it was entertaining and engaging throughout. One of my top picks.
AcroArmy: I thought they were awesome all the way through. They started the act with three guys hanging from the frame by one arm, holding that until the kickoff. They added the big throws, the girl handspringing into the guy’s arms and flowing through, and the final part tossing the girl. Amazing.
Kelli Glover: Pretty good, but not amazing. I did enjoy the backup dancers.
Wendy Liebman: I thought she was funny. She may be in the runoff zone.
Blue Journey: Tonight’s performance lacked a little something for me. I think the surreal flow of the story may hurt them with America.
Emil & Dariel: When I heard Nick say they were doing a Bond theme, I immediately called “Live and Let Die”. Overall, it was a good performance. They have heart and energy and charisma. I did notice they were slightly overwhelmed by their backing music at times, and the chorus theme didn’t shine out as much as it should have. I don’t think they need a singer, they need the cellos to pop more. But it was very good.
Smoothini: His flow was smooth and fast, he was definitely in his comfort zone. I think the close up tricks worked for the audience at home with the cameras. I thought he had good use of misdirection and pacing to keep the audience from outguessing the moves; however, from my standpoint, it was very obvious. I watched him set up the moves. The one I didn’t see coming was the ring on his own shoe, but think I have that worked out, too. At least one method to do it. While he was entertaining, I don’t think it was as good as Matt Franco.
Christian Stoinev: The judges pegged this one, it was much more about cuteness with the dogs rather than his strength act. Bringing the dog in was fine, but this became dog gimmick. Having the dog ride in on a tiny jet was cute, but took up too much of his 90 seconds that he could have been doing something himself. Same thing with the end of the act, where he worked in a magic act with the appearance of the new dog, but really overall it was a letdown. I appreciate his comment about having worked on the hand walking and how challenging that was, but it didn’t convey to the audience at home, and there were missed opportunities to do things himself. Rolling across the floor for Scooby to walk over him was fine the first time Scooby came out, this show he should have skipped that for something more dramatic. I think this will hurt him.
Quintavious Johnson: Very good performance, best singer of the night. He should get an end of the night boost on votes, but will it put him through?
As I said, tough night. My picks:
AcroArmy
Matt Franco
Emil & Dariel
Blue Journey
Smoothini
Quintavious Johnson
My guess at America’s picks:
AcroArmy
Matt Franco
Quintavious Johnson
Emil & Dariel
Snapple save contestants:
Smoothini - save
Blue Journey
Christian Stoinev or Wendy Liebman
Judges will pick Blue Journey.
Of course, my record on how America perceives magic is poor, so it’s entirely possible Smoothini will rate higher and Matt Franco will be on the bubble instead.
Really? I disagree. From my perspective, Matt had a much more interesting routine. I mean
He had to get Mel’s phone off her and planted in the fake seat before the audience was seated, plant a fake on her, and somehow keep her from using her phone in all that time. That way he could take the fake phone and email/text the picture to her phone while he was supposedly taking the second picture. When he pulled up the picture he took, he pulled it from texts instead of camera, but he kept that obscured from the camera.
Smoothini had a smooth flow and fast banter, he was very comfortable doing what he does all the time, but it was bog-common sleight of hand with no mystery at all.
Not mysterious at all. You watch his hands do the acts right in front of you. He’s not even particularly clever about it. Yeah, reading the spoiler will take away the amazement.
When he holds the ring on his palm with the lace through it and has the ladies check it is secure, he’s trying to show the ring won’t go through the lace. When he turns his hand over, he takes the left end and reaches over his hand and gives it to Heidi. Then reaching back to grab the other right end, his right hand goes under and he simply palms the ring and slides it off the end of the lace as he hands that end to Mel to hold. Then he takes his right hand to grab the pen, he slides the ring onto the pen, grabs the pen, and pushes the pen against his chest to slide it into his grip better. He has to do it that way because he is holding the ring on the pen at that point. Then he has Heidi and Mel grasp the ends of the pen, but the ring is in place. 1 2 3 and poof he’s swapped places.
Knowing what to look for, it’s almost clumsy how easy it is to spot those moves. The non-spoiler clue: watch for any time he does something strange with the lace instead of running straight. Why cross the laces for Heidi and Mel? Because it allows him to move his hands where he wants them to go.
Like I said, the only mild surprise for me was the ring on his own shoelace at the end.
I would guess he starts by planting a ring on his shoelace before he comes out. Nobody looks closely at his feet, so there’s no giveaway. When he palms Howie’s ring when Mel is picking up the shoelace, he stuffs it in his pocket when he takes the pen. Then after the reveal, he takes the real ring from his pocket and does a swap when he unties his lace to give Howie his ring back. Just takes a decent copy of the ring.
Really, Matt had smoother and cleaner sleight of hand (making the phone disappear with the smoke), and his trick was much more clever and harder to pull off.
I think Blue Journey’s routine wasn’t well integrated with the background this time. The background was very dark and maybe it didn’t come through well on TV. The live audience loved them, and I like what they do in general, but this one didn’t engage me as much as their previous performances.
Both magicians did well but they are doing a lot of close-up magic and I don’t know if it’s coming across well. I think they both can use some more stage experience, they’re patter isn’t well polished. It’s also hard to tell on TV, the camera is spending a lot of time on close ups of their hands, I don’t know what it looks like to the audience. I think they’re both a little frenetic also, inevitable because of the short time frame they have to work in, no time for elaboration and build up of suspense.
Acro Army was very impressive. I think they’re doing newer stuff and they aren’t quite as tight as they were previously, but it’s still very impressive.
I like Scooby, he should drop his assistant and do a solo act, maybe use the new dog.
Quintavious can’t be ignored. He stepped it up a little in this performance. I think the finals format of 12 acts in the last vote helps him. The vote will be widely split among all those performers, but he may have broader appeal and get the most votes even if it’s by a narrow margin. Other singers may have better voices with more range, but he is polished and confident, and I think the others see him as guy to beat.
Overall, pretty good season.
I really liked when Howie addressed his comments to Scooby instead of Christian. It was a good way to get the point across while allowing him to remain the goofy happy judge.
I just thought of something. The criticism of Smoothini being good for camera close ups, but not for the live audience. There are far more people voting at home than in the audience, so even if the live audience doesn’t vote for him, as long as most people at home do, then that’s what counts for getting through to the next round.
I think America and the Judges got it right. I will reconcile that with my previous picks.
First off, I called America’s top 4.
Second, I’m happy America got the magic right, Matt Franco was better than Smoothini.
Third, I said Smoothini was a higher pick than Christian Stoinev. I was basing that call on the acts from last night only, not all prior acts. On their overall record, I agree with Howard that Christian has been better overall and just stumbled last night.
Fourth, I said the final three would be Smoothini, Blue Journey, and Christian Stoinev or Wendy Liebman. Wendy was a stretch call, I picked the three in the vote off.
But I goofed on America’s vote. I overcompensated on the magic call and said they’d pick Smoothini, when instead they agreed more with me and picked Blue Journey.
That put the judge’s pick between Smoothini and Christian. I didn’t go that far down the alternative conditions in my predictions, but agree with all three judges, Christian - if he does his strength act - will command the stage better than Smoothini.
Plus, given that there are already three other magic acts in the finals - Matt Franco, Mike Super, David and Leeman - Smoothini would have had a hard time competing just on those acts to command the stage, nevermind against the big music acts or Acro Army. Christian gives a wider variety into the finals, which is another reason to pick him.
So I’m very happy with this week’s results, and am really looking forward to next week.
Magic:
Mat Franco, David & Leeman, Mike Super
Solo singers:
Emily West, Quintavious Johnson, Mara Justine, Miguel Dakota
Music groups:
Sons of Serendip, Emil & Dariel
Acrobatics:
AcroArmy, Christian Stoinev
Dance art:
Blue Journey
That’s twelve acts. They are listed across as I rank them, except I put Sons of Serendip even with Emil & Dariel, and AcroArmy even with Christian Stoinev.
Miguel Dakota is technically a bit better than Mara Justine, but I like her singing better.
Those are the only two I don’t think have a real chance.
Emily is a better singer than Quintavious, but he is so young to be that could, that could bump his score.
Everyone else, it is going to come down to performances on the night. I’ve got too many to root for.
One other comment on types of acts I forgot to make earlier: last season, the classical/opera singers did really well, but this season they were all eliminated early in favor of pop/rock singers. Sons of Serendip is the closest to that category.
I’m stunned they picked Christian over Smoothini. I don’t think prior performances should be a factor and Smoothini was better than Christian last night.
I think Irishman is right about the judges pick. Neither has a realistic chance of wining but Christian gives them more diverse acts.
I’m pleasantly surprised as well that America showed some class in selecting Blue Journey to move on. I don’t have a way to choose between Smoothini and Christian, but Scooby probably made the difference in voting. I can see why, I’d rather see Scooby again than Smoothini. It’s a rough break, a performer never wants to compete with animal or children acts. If either of them were doing better it would be a tougher decision, but it’s hard to believe either will win the big one.
I got five out of six right. Awesome. 
As for Smoothini vs Christian, I’m shocked. Christian was awful, and I can’t remember his exact words, but he said he really couldn’t step up his act. I’m really not looking forward to seeing him perform again. I’m afraid it will be boring and repetitive. I found Smoothini entertaining. Oh well.
I felt bad for poor Wendy. You could tell she knew she probably wouldn’t make it, and then when she didn’t you could see her disappointment.
And finally, I’m glad that Blue Journey squeaked by, but the just barely did better than Arial Animation. Does American not really care for these kinds of acts?
And finally, if I have to make a prediction on who will win the whole thing, right now my money’s on Quin.
When it comes to the judges’ vote, they have to consider which person has the best chance of succeeding. I think prior performance can and should affect that decision. For instance, Aerial Animation was a good act with an off week. They went out because David and Leeman were a good act that did well with no problems, but the judges could have decided that the previous sets Aerial Animation did were so good that they deserved another opportunity. If they had been up against Mara Justine for judges’ vote, would you have picked them or her?
Yes, it kinda sucks when on act does well and another has a glitch, and they go with the glitch. In this case, though, Smoothini gave his best stuff, the stuff he’s most comfortable with, and the judges just didn’t think his act is right for a big stage. He’d had a couple opportunities to make it work and hadn’t. Whereas Christian had done sucessively bigger and more surprising stuff up till this week. They’re hoping he’s got one more round of awesome, which he has delivered, over Smoothini’s good but small.
I think if Christian can balance his components better, he definitely could contend. I suppose you’re thinking a singer is going to have a stronger chance?
What he said was that learning the hand walking trick was very time consuming, that is what he had spent all his time perfecting, so he didn’t have time to develop more tricks. It wasn’t just hand walking, but doing so while balancing Snoopy on his feet, so he had to hold very tight form. He didn’t wobble or bounce or anything, he was very tight and controlled. I can see how that would make it tougher. So I can see he has a point, putting together a lot of new big moves is tough. But he could string together some moves he already knows and uses to give more strength elements.
Given that Kenichi Ibina won last season, I think it’s not that America doesn’t love the acts, it’s that they had bad weeks. We’ve already discussed Arial Animation’s failings on that last performance. For Blue Journey, I think the style of the piece was less engaging. I think the dark blue on dark stage made it wash out a bit. I did enjoy when the girl had the paint leak down over her and it blocked her out - that was a neat element. I didn’t find the dancing as compelling for some reason. I know the previous week they had relied on the down camera angle to the floor, which played well at home but made it less compelling for the audience. They have to find the right balance of artistry, flow, and engaging the audience along for the ride. Realistically, connecting with the viewers at home is much more important than the audience, especially for this last performance. For previous rounds, judges might take into consideration how the show might play to a live audience on a stage, since that’s part of the stated prize.
Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
When will there be a mediocre act?!?
Wow!! What an amazing night so far!
Ok. Magic is real and Mat Franco is a magician. I wonder what Hogwart’s school he went to? Amazing.
The first act sounded dreadful here, I think there was some sort of technical problem with the sound. Poor Mara. 
I couldn’t tell what she was singing at all. Howie mentioned the problem later on. Terrible thing to happen to her. She was in a bad enough spot opening the show.
Every time I watch the show I take notes, because if I don’t I’ll forget which act was which and what I thought of them. I’m not very good at giving a descriptive critique sometimes, so for tonight I only have notes on three of the acts.
Cristian Stoinev - He’s an amazing performer, but his act is pretty repetitive. I know he can’t help it, but still. Also, he needs to find a balance of him and his dog.
Emil & Dariel - I didn’t like the backup singers/choir and too many times I felt that they blended into the background instead of standing out.
Mat Franco - In the first trick the King of Hearts was an obvious force. I’m trying to stop analyzing the magicians, but that was too blatant to ignore. Also, the judges criticized Smoothini for being too small. This was a big act? Seriously?
OK, so, if I had my way, here would be the top 6.
AcroArmy
Emily West
Sons of Serendip
Quin Johnson
Mike Super
Mara Justine or David & Leeman