A lot of the choices could have gone either way. Do you have a harmonica player or not? How many soloists/singing groups/dance crews do you put in? etc.
But the old lady singer, air guitarists and Indian actor are in no way talented and should not have made it.
Yeah, my wife and I were surprised that the Indian guy made it. When Howie and Sharron were getting after him for listening to Piers and doing something other than impressions my wife was like, “But he’s terrible either way.”
I’m really puzzled by this show. I just started watching last year and was mystified when they passed through a little girl who was heavy on personality but not a very good musician, but sent a girl about the same age whose voice was nothing less than phenomenal home.
I love vocal harmony so I would have enjoyed seeing the veterans a few more times, and from the standpoint of “We can’t take everybody” understand why they didn’t go through. If however, I were in charge they would have continued on rather than the sisters.
I can only assume the producers know a lot more than I do about who’s watching. There has got to be some explanation that makes sense for keeping the keyboard lady who sang badly for ten minutes, and the impressionist/actor who isn’t great at either.
In each of several threads we’ve had on this show I beleive I’ve expressed appreciation for my DVR. I won’t have to watch either of them. I can speed through to Fighting Gravity and the Bicycle guy.
The air band would be entertaining as an opening act but I wouldn’t pay any serious money to see them headline. I think the other people in the Band category were right to be a little miffed at their inclusion.
The mistake I make and I think others make is that they are truly trying to find the best talent for the show. They are trying to find a diveristy of talents and some unusual talents as well. In the end they will get to someone with considerable talent. But the final 20 or whatever is not necessarily the 20 best out of all of them. It is the 20 best mitigated by the fact that they need to have a variety of acts.
This is exactly it. The show needs drama, it needs variety, it needs arguments among the judges, and it needs the acts to be entertaining. Not necessarily good, just entertaining to watch.
Did you notice that they don’t let through any ‘normal’ people who just have mediocre or poor talent? On this show, you either have to be great, or you have to be a trainwreck. Both types can get through. The nice singer who’s just slightly off key, or the young talented male singer who wasn’t quite as good on the guitar or vocals as the other two? Not so much.
But don’t worry - the novelty acts get voted off on the first or second ‘real’ show, and so long as none of the better-yet-boring acts that got sent home didn’t have the talent to win, nothing is really lost by putting in a few entertaining lemons. Especially since the show probably wouldn’t exist at all without them.
Howie has specifically said that one of his goals on this show is to try to find the next strange-yet-compelling act. He thinks we have a dearth of craziness. In the 70’s and 80’s, the airwaves were filled with strange characters like Tiny Tim and Boy George and ‘character’ comedians like Phylis Diller and Paul Lynde. He wants to find an act like that.
I generally liked the mix of acts they put through. The only mistake I think they made was sending home the closeup magician. The guy was incredibly smooth doing the most difficult kind of magic. I’m not very impressed by magicians who just build characters around off-the-shelf magic props. The guys who impress me are the ones like Teller, who can make things appear and disappear at will right in front of your face, simply because they’ve spent their lives practicing over, and over, and over again.
How can anybody be entertained by someone who isn’t good?
I guess you could be entertained by how terrible they are. It’s the curse of American Idol. We like laughing at people.
Unless the slightly off key singer has overcome illness, extreme hardship, or survived something devastating.
I find myself wondering if the other posters in this thread will be voting? I didn’t vote last year.
But one magician tha passed through uses fire. Who care that his tricks were dome better by other magicians during this season alone. He’s got FUCKING FIRE MAN!!!
I completely agree about the Vegas act requirement… completely skews everything.
And how painful must it be for the people with REAL talent to see acts like the freaky redhead old woman get put through?
I think that AGT should get together with some Vegas hotel to put together a “Best of American’s God Talent” show… so many of these acts are GREAT…but only for five or ten minutes. So why not take the best of them and put them together? Thats a win for everyone.
The producers are trying to find a new Fator each year, and that’s not a reasonable expectation. Fator is a remarkable talent.
But how many 5-10 minute acts would it take to make up a decent show? At least 90 minutes, some padding with an emcee, some showgirl time… you might be talking 8 novelty acts. Could they pay these people enough to live on if they had to pay for that many? Especially the dance troupes – 16 or so little girls plus parents would take a fair wad of change.
you obviously don’t know the economics of Las Vegas. Which boil down to: losing money on shows, food, and hotels doesn’t matter if it gets them in your casino. The showrooms are small, the tickets don’t cover the cost of any decent production - what do you think they paid Celine Dion and her Cast of A Thousand? Especially when so many seats are comped.
I think a Best of AGT show would be great, and I think it would sell tickets. It would probably sell a lot more than almost any of the single acts.
I’m tellin’ ya, Fator is a once in a blue moon guy - that’s also why every other show is Cirque de Soleil: variety. There’s what, 5 or 6 Cirque shows now?
Also, they don’t need to be novelty - I liked a LOT of the singers this year. VERY interesting and different. Use a bunch of those with some dancers and novelty thrown in. Great show.
And while The Hoff had his own special ridiculous charm, Howie is terrific, just great.
While I love Piers for his love of fleshy women, he simply MUST find out if there’s someplace he can buy a sense of humor. He’s so clueless!
I don’t know what the judges were smoking to put through so many crap acts that should have been laughed off the stage in the first round (lipstick eyeliner keyboard yodeling lady, elderly hand-whistling lady, that stupid comedy “magician,” the Indian "impressionist, etc.) and yet they did not let Carlos Zaponte (sp?) go through to Hollywood, who IMO had the best singing voice out of anyone in the entire competition.
The sisters with cystic fibrosis aren’t great singers, they got through simply because of their story.
The lady in the devil horns with the huge boobs didn’t do anything either. She got through cause she wore a skimpy outfit.
No one wants to pay to listen to a harmonica player, both those guys should be gone.
The one magician they did put through, all he did was drop a black curtain that had been covering a red car. There was absolutely nothing special or interesting to his trick. The other guy was the one who did that amazing routine in the auditions and some nicely done closeup card tricks this time. The soldier magician was also leagues better than the guy they put through.
Was that the Puerto Rican opera singer? Because if so, I agree and think he should have gone through instead of…damn I’m bad with names…the black opera singer who went through.
I thought they were great. What was wrong with their singing?
Well she made paintings, and she wasn’t that bad, but I couldn’t imagine paying money to see that.
I’m surprised they didn’t pass the one guy through who walked on glass, juggling dangerous objects while blindfolded. I think given a chance he could go far.
Stoid, you are so correct in this!
There are very few showrooms open for any act, and the competition is fierce! Every magician from every country comes here and tries to become the new Siegfried and Roy - every singer wants to be the new Celine Dion - good luck with that.
It is amazing and sad that so many people come here and expect to be swept up in a limo and driven to their show room and have the hoards of tourists fighting for tickets to see them - for every act that has made it, thousands didn’t even get an audition, let alone a show. Even Bette Midler ticket sales were not stellar and they were comping her show towards the end of her run, and lots of fairly big names come into town and can barely sell out two or three nights, let alone carry a stage week after week.
The winners of AGT should take their $1 million and run…Terry Fator was in the right place at the right time. As far as any of these current acts seriously selling tickets for a 90 minute show, 7 or 8 time a week? Sorry - but you have a better chance winning $1 million on the slots = zip.
Yes that’s him. The young guy who sounded a bit shy and nervous. I have no idea why they didn’t put him through, and yet Hannibal (the Black opera singer in the rainbow coat & rooster hat) gets to go to Hollywood.
They’re not bad, but they’re nothing special either. Like Piers said during their audition, if they voted purely based on talent they probably would not have gone to Las Vegas, as there are plenty of passable female singers. I thought their second performance was weaker than the audition piece.
The problem with the sisters’ singing is that it’s only the little one who has a “great” voice, and even she just has the voice of a 12 year old girl singer. No more or less than you’d find at most choirs in schools everywhere.
They remind me A LOT of the “voices of america” from last year. Family of black kids, 2 boys and a girl, who were only decent singers…but their mom had some wheelchair bound disease for a compelling story. They went too far in the tournament based on their story alone, and I sense this will happen too.
Yes, Hannibal, that’s the guy. I do think though that the guy in white makeup and wig was a good choice to go through.
I agree that the younger sister has the better voice, but not listening to school choirs I guess I didn’t realize that it was just average.