America's Got Talent Season 9

Cafe Society
101

Yes poor Mara. They should invite her back next season. Even with the technical problems I think she sounded quite good.

My Predictions
(1) Emily West
(2) Mat Franco
(3) Sons of Serendip
(4) AcroArmy
(5) E&D (?)
(6) Miguel (?)

I honestly have no idea. This is the least confident I’ve been in my predictions. It is so tight, it could be anybody.

But wow what a night. All of them were super good to stunningly amazing. Wow. Wow. Wow. To answer the question “Are you not entertained?” … yes, yes I am entertained.

102

Based on what I could see and hear, I would put Emily West and Acro Army at the top of the list. I have no idea how they’ll handle the Mara Justine issue. Quintavious had a great performance but I don’t know how the voters will react. As a singer I don’t think he topped Emily, but America may feel differently.

103

I want all the magicians to go through.

104

First off, great night of performances. Nobody sucked. Now for the rundown.

Mara Justine: I thought the sound reverb was intentional arrangement, and I thought it sucked. I thought she gave her best performance, and had emotional connection, but it was all lost in the reverb. But then the judges didn’t say anything about it and everybody loved her performance, so I don’t know what’s up there.

David and Leeman: Good banter and timing. Good trick with the scratch off. Weird suit with the wet spot. Decent act. Sometimes I get a bit tired of the “we got it wrong - no wait, we predicted that, too” gimmick.

Sons of Serendip - Elegant and beautiful. Good song choice, good delivery. Great balance of instruments and voice.

I hope this doesn’t get lost at the beginning of the night and get overlooked.

Christian Stoinev - A little Scooby 2 to add some color, then him doing his strength thing. I see how putting a little more interaction could be good. I like that he did lots of strength acts, I’m not sure he topped one finger in a champagne bottle. Improved over last week, but I don’t think it’s going to be enough.

Emil & Dariel - I think the song choice was good for the instruments, I think overall the balance was pretty good.

I liked the backing vocals without having a lead singer. I see what Heidi said about not rocking as much as they have in other performances. But it was elegant. I didn’t feel they were overwhelmed by the other instruments this time. I’m afraid a lead singer would make them the background act in their own show. I think Howard’s comparison to Van Halen is off.

Acro Army - WOW! Just Wow! Best acro act of the night. They were amazing.

Quintavious Johnson - He’s a great singer. I’m not as thrilled by this performance, but that’s a personal opinion on style and song. He has a lot of talent.

Mike Super - Okay, I’ve been very critical of him, so I will say this was a good act. He was engaging and entertaining, the card prediction was good, and the reveal was interesting. And the absence of his imaginary friend was a welcome change.

Blue Journey - Interesting, engaging. Better than last week. I don’t know that it was their best, but it was good.

Emily West - Flawless. Spectacular. Beautiful song, beautiful delivery, good balance of soft and then loud. Exquisite.

Matt Franco - Great show. Yeah, the first card force was obvious, but the rest of the act was magnificent. I still enjoyed it better than Mike Super, but I don’t know how much of that was carryover impressions. Yes, it’s close up sleight of hand, it’s still great.

Miguel Dakota - I think this was his best performance, I think he found the right sound for his voice. He sounded pretty good doing rock. I think Howie is right, he’ll get through.

Now for my picks.

Acro Army
Emily West
Sons of Serendip
Matt Franco
Blue Journey

Sixth is hard. I liked Mike Super, Quintavious, and Miguel Dakota. I also liked Emil & Dariel.

I think America will put through Miguel Dakota. I think they will probably put through Quintavious, and Sons of Serendip probably won’t go through because of their early seed. Blue Journey may have a tough time.

We will see.

105

Oh crap. Not that it makes a difference, but I forgot to vote last night.:frowning:

106

Wow.

Emily, Acro Army, Quintavious, and Matt Franco.

Sons of Serendip got the Snapple Save.

Judges surprised me. I wasn’t sure on the ladies, but I was expecting Howie to go with Miguel and he didn’t. And then Howard picked Emil and Dariel, which I kinda thought he might. That put it 2/2, and America put through … Miguel.

I was surprised Miguel didn’t get through on the Snapple save.

I think the win will come from Emily West, Acro Army, or Matt Franco on an outside shot. I think Quintavious is good, but as singers go, Emily is better. I thing Sons of Serendip are good, but they’ll be outshone again by Emily and Quintavious. And I think Miguel will get bested.

I guess we will find out next week.

107

In the fifth season I thought that Jackie Evancho would win, but the victory ended up going to Michael Grimm.

As good as Quintavious is, I don’t think he’s a good a singer as Jackie, so I don’t think he’ll win. Maybe this season will be similar and Emily will win with Quin coming in second.

Kenichi won last season, so AcroArmy has a chance, but I think it’s usually singers that win, so I’m going with Emily. Miguel is good, but I don’t think he’s good enough to win, and I’d be happy if Sons of Serendip won, but I think that they’re too mellow to get enough votes.

108

What an awesome show. But weren’t there only three acts in the finals in the past?

Anyway, I split my 10 votes between AcroArmy and Emily West. And with AcroArmy, I wish the cameras wouldn’t cut to the judges reactions. Just focus on the damn act!

Personally I think Miguel Dakota was the lowest ranking act. I agree his second song was his best performance, but I don’t think it was enough.

Sons of Serendip’s second song was a strange choice, but they did a pretty good job with it.

Quin Johnson. He has stage presence, he has a great voice, he has great control and pitch. But I can’t get over him sounding his age.

And finally, I’ve been feeling grumpy about magic acts lately, but I thought that Mat Franco did a great job.

109

Yes damnit Nobody, they have to fire that asswipe director that cut to the judges in the middle of the Acro performances.

This is one tough final round.

First, I have to hope Mat Franco wins because he’s from Rhode Island.

But the top three to me were Acro, Quint, and Emily.

Then I think Emily didn’t have her best night. She was incredible last week, the song, her voice, and the performance all came together. Tonight those things didn’t mix as well for me.

Quint did really well, he made the mix work, he’s been a front-runner all along. I didn’t think he could pull off Let It Be when he started, and then he did. Simply incredible.

Acro was the best though. Why? Because I liked them better than the others. There’s just something about the energy they put into the act. And they always stick the ending with attitude. It’s as if the energy emanates from the TV. I hope they win. And some theater in Vegas hopes they win too because Acro has a Vegas act.

110

I agree with just about everything Nobody just posted, except for the second sentence because I haven’t seen AGT before.

I would bump Emily West a point or two higher. I started out not liking her in the auditions, but I really liked that song and she’s growing on me. She really has an ability to create a mood and atmosphere - so elegant and haunting sometimes and this time, just beautiful.

AcroArmy had me emotional because of their love for each other and their great performance. That was an amazing feat.

Matt Franco’s act was too slow while he was doing it. Watching Howard Stern go through a whole deck was pretty tedious. But it left me with the ‘how did he do that’ feeling, so it was pretty good.

Sons of Serendip wasn’t as great this week as last week. If they did last week’s song this week, it would have been more competitive.

Quintavious is great for a kid, and I don’t know if people vote for that. But it’s obvious that he’s a kid.

I don’t even get how Miguel got this far. I thought he should have been out weeks ago, certainly not winning over Emil and Dariel. His singing isn’t more than mediocre. But he’s got a cute smile.

I found myself missing Blue Journey. I wish they had made it further. The acts that stayed with me are Smoothini, Mike Super, Adrian Romoff, Aerial Animation and the comedian who bombed out after the auditions with no jokes. I can’t remember his name so he wasn’t that memorable, but I was hoping he’d get further.

111

What a great night! What a fantastic group of finalists. I like Stern’s comment that he was going to sound like a “blithering idiot” by telling one act he hoped they would win it, followed by the same comment to the next act. However, it was that kind of night.

I hope AcroArmy takes it. If not them then either Emily West or Sons of Serendip.

112

Season 1 had 10 finalists
Season 2 - 4
Season 3 - 5
Season 4 - 10
Seasons 5 & 6 - 4 each
Seasons 7-9 - 6 each

113

For the people who know the magic tricks in the thread, I’m really curious how Matt Franco got the cards on the people on the stage to match the colors. He didn’t go up there and MelB was just picking them at random. He didn’t even seem to be looking at the stage. I rarely wonder how a trick is done. I generally look at the presentation. But this presentation wasn’t as great as the feeling at the end, wondering how he did that.

114

Wow! WOW! WOW! Awesome night.

My rankings and comments:

#1: Acro Army. One word - Win. Their repeat performance was excellent the second time around. They are exciting and stunning and leave me with my jaw on the floor. And then they did their new performance. When they flipped the girl and caught her by her ankles - WIN! I think they had the best performance tonight, and I think they deserve to win.

#2: Emily West. She gave two amazing performances. She sings beautifully and with great voice character and tone. She’s a delight to hear. The red dress was pretty except for the tent that was attached, but the black dress was stunning and looked like the waterfall. She deserves a music career. This should get her one.

#3: Mat Franco. Awesome act. I liked the cup and balls routine. He had a good flow, was fast-paced with a good rhythm and good banter. Though I did see one move. But then the second act was great. Left me wondering how it could work. Except then I think I figured things out, and dammit, it was a better act before I knew that.

[spoiler]For Howard’s deck, it’s not that difficult. Notice he actually fudged a few cards that weren’t in the right lines. If you set up the deck with two halves, and each half is stacked 13 red and 13 black, then take the 3 of clubs and put it near the top (third card). Do one standard shuffle, keeping the top 3 cards on top. When he did the pull out, he cleaned up two mis-shuffles. Now you have shuffled red cards with red cards in the front half the deck and black cards with black cards in the bottom half the deck. Now the first half of sorting, he’s putting “Red” on the left and the second half he’s putting “red” on the right, but what he’s really doing is putting reds in both and then blacks in both, with a few misfires from the shuffle. When he spreads the two stacks, one stack is left to right, one stack is right to left. He fudged a couple if you looked, like the 8 of clubs on the end and one in the middle. That leaves the 3 clubs in the red section.

Now for Mel’s stack. This part is even more spoilerish.

I think he’s using “instant stooges”. Look at everyone’s faces. Everyone there is given an instruction for when they line up to be in the front half or back half. Then the shuffling doesn’t matter, it’s when they line up that matters. Second, the left lined up front line/back line. The right lines up back line/front line. Ergo, the red/black vs black/red dynamic. That leaves the 3 of clubs. I think he was a full stooge. Notice when he checks for the 3 of clubs he looks directly at his own card.

With those elements, Mel B’s works just like Howard’s. Like I said, a lot less impressive.

Making 52 instant stooges is a bit cheeky. See thread on ethics of magic. [/spoiler]

#4. Sons of Serendip. They make beautiful music. They are talented. I like the song, but I’m not sure that arrangement quite worked for me. Maybe they can still get a music career out of this. They are good.

#5. Quintavious Johnson. I didn’t like his repeat act. I didn’t like it the first time, I didn’t like it this time. His second song was excellent, but I don’t think it beats Emily and I don’t think it’s a win.

#6. Miguel Dakota. I wouldn’t have got him to the finals. His repeat song was about the same, still kinda blah. I think maybe he should try some Jim Morrison. His second song choice was interesting and a different arrangement from Michael Jackson. He sounded okay, but he doesn’t really wow me.

I think America will pick one of my top 3. I’m not certain who. They’re all excellent.

I was thinking the same thing. I sometimes hate the camera work. They’re looking at dynamic groups and they focus close up on one element. When they were building the final pyramid, we could have watched the rest of the flourishes for some action rather than the slow focused moves getting into position that weren’t really exciting. And then when they have a magician on, the cameras are looking at the judges when they should be looking at the magician. How are we to have a chance to spot his moves if we don’t see the critical moments he makes them? “Wow, that’s amazing, I mean I closed my eyes for half the act, but I can’t possibly figure out how you did it.”

This season they had “Semifinals” over two weeks, then had Finals over two weeks - week 1 was 12 acts, week 2 was 6 acts. Weird labeling. But yes, final show was 6 acts.

115

Well I’m shocked.

Miguel Dakota, not sure how he made it to the finals, but no surprise he was out first.

Quintavious, surprising he went next, but then four out of the six were singers so that vote may have been split.

Sons of Serendip, that wasn’t my type of music but they were very talented.

The true shock was Acro Army. They were so good through the whole season, and so good last night. Last night was the hardest on them having to do two acts in something so physically strenuous. I fully expected them to win.

At the end I was pleasantly surprised. Emily didn’t have a great night last night. Her earlier performances were better, but I still thought she would be the winner after the others had gone.

Mat Franco, way to go dude! I think I’ve been too critical of him. I know a little bit about magic so my opinion of him was biased. I think Irishman got it right for his second act last night. But he’s charismatic, and he’s grown better on the show, hard to say the same thing about the others. I think based on last night’s performances, between him and Emily he was better. I just didn’t expect that order among the finalists.

I think this was the best year of the show.

Also it was great to see the replay of Nick as the mime. Of all the shens* on the show this year that routine was the best. I knew nothing of him before he joined the show, and what I’ve seen impresses me. He’s been funny, athletic, he dances, he jokes, another great talent from this show.

*Shens, a new word I learned on the Dope. Short for shenanigans.

116

Mat Franco is good, but I still think that Acroarmy and Emily West are better. I agree with the rest of the rankings however.

I don’t know about Miguel, but I’m sure Quintavious has a very bright future. And I hope SOS get a recording contract.

117

I was so bummed to miss it live. From what I’ve just read here, I can pretty much guess the line-up. The interesting thing (to me) is that I read an article last night that had the bet-makers in Vegas having best odds on Mat Franco, then Emily West, then Acro Army. I just shrugged it off because I didn’t think Mat Franco had a chance. I’m shocked. From the looks of the clip at the end, so was Mat Franco.

118

Yes it was.
Winner - Mat Franco
2nd place - Emily West
3rd place - AcroArmy
4th place - SOS
5th place - Quintavious Johnson
6th place - Miguel Dakota

119

The top four were effectively equal in my mind. Any one of them could have won and I would have been happy. I was pulling for AcroArmy but I really expected Emily West to win. It is always nice to be surprised and see Mat Franco win. Definitely a great magician so I’m happy to see him win.

120

I am stunned that Acro Army didn’t win. What the hell does an acrobatic/dance team act have to do to win? Is there any way?

I was also surprised that Mat Franco won. I’m happy with that result, but I didn’t expect it. But maybe it’s my inability to judge how America responds to magic acts rearing its head again.

Emily was great, even though she got second.

I did call the first three out correctly.

As far as Mat Franco, the trick he did as his “duet” shows one of the main advantages that the magician has over the audience - the magician knows what the trick is but the audience doesn’t. By that, I mean the magician has to tell the audience what is going on. That gives him a lot of room and a lot of leeway. In this particular trick, by the time he tells the audience what is going on, he’s already done the manipulation, the trick is over. So the audience didn’t know what to look for or when to look for it.

[spoiler]The three is a force - it’s the bottom card from the deck. So his shuffling is pulling cards off the top, when he gets the stop, he then shows the bottom card. :smack:

So he knows how many cards he’s going to move when he’s having Rosie and Howard count their cards. He has Rosie count off 10 cards, he holds those 10 while Rosie hands the other 10 to Howard. Then Mat hands Rosie the “10” cards she just counted out. Except he was holding them, and palmed three. Rosie has 7 cards but doesn’t realize the number changed, and she tucks those away safely.

Now Mat has Howard count his 10 into Mat’s hand, then he slaps the three palms on top when he “applauds”. Then he gives Howard the 13 cards to store safely. The trick is done, but the audience doesn’t know exactly what is coming, and doesn’t know it’s three cards that get to be moved until after the cards are put away. “How does he know he has to move 3 cards?”

It’s a beautiful demonstration of misdirection by explanation - don’t tell the audience what they don’t need to know, and you have room to work where they don’t know what to look for. [/spoiler]