America's Got Talent!

Cafe Society
41

[QUOTE=glee]
You are a good judge of character. :slight_smile:

Simon Cowell can be rude too, but at least he’s professionally successful and does know something about showbiz.

Here in England, I think we are an entire series behind. :eek:
I’ve just seen a chap (Cass Haley?) sing an excellent version of Sting’s ‘Walking on the Moon’.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah. It was last year. I was absolutely blown away by that song the first time I heard it. Cas Haley came into town a couple of weeks ago in concert and I’m disappointed I missed it.

42

I love how a tubby guy in shorts walks on and absolutely nails the song. :cool:
But the ventriloquist is fantastic too. :eek: :smiley:

43

On Tuesday’s show (right now), there was a dog act with frisbees, where the dog was doing backflips… fricking amazing!!

That’s all.

S^G

44

Wow, the married couple in yellow – wow. That was so… wow.

45

Oh good lord, that autistic boy at the end – no, David, he didn’t win the heart of every American watching the show. Putting him through to Vegas was cruel, just cruel.

46

Just so horrible I can’t look away.

The Spanish dancing couple tonight may have been good but I couldn’t tell. They kept cutting away from the performance to the audience, to one judge, to another judge, to another judge, then to Jerry frikin’ Springer telling me they were “Amazing.” If I could have seen them dancing I could have made up my own mind.

And they promote the crap out of the chick with the enormous tits, then don’t show us her act. What the hell?

And all the fucking crying! Just show me the damn act! And don’t subject me to Karen frickin’ Carpenter on the soundtrack during all the fucking crying!!

America may have talent but the producers of this horrible piece of shit have zilch.

Can’t wait til next week. I’ll just have to look for some horrible automobile accidents to stare at in the meantime.

47

Just started on TiVo… Gonna sort of stream-of-conscious this while I watch.

(First off–do they give asshole lessons/coaching to the audience ahead of time?)

I"m confused. What did the guy in black with the black hat do? It said he was a ballroom dance teacher but he didn’t do anything and they all pushed the X? I don’t get it.

The ditzy blonde from Georgia is irritating. She doesn’t even know where her town is, geographically. I don’t think she has any kind of a special singing voice, either. Oh wait, ok when she did the Dolly Parton song that was better.

I liked the acrobats in leopard print. (I met my boyfriend at a juggling convention in an acrobatics workshop. That shit is HARD!)

Piano kid was good. Also good to see young kids with a feel for classical music.

The 22 member “Beyond Belief Dance Company”… why the hell is that chick crying in the intro? Sorry, but that wasn’t even a touching story or anything. They aren’t bad dancers, but they’re pretty much exactly like the dance squad at my high school that performed at football games. Pretty much exactly the same moves and exactly the same level of ability. Ok, they made it to Vegas… but they have to get 22 new costumes. That’s not gonna be cheap.

I liked the pig! I’m sure he was scared as hell with all that noise, those lights, those people… Poor piggy. He looks terrified.

WTF they didn’t let the monkey do his thing.

I love Tucker! That dog loves him some Frizbee.

Ok this guy may sound like Frank Sinatra, but that doesn’t impress me because I guess I’m too young–I never saw the appeal of the original beyond being a guy who could hit the right notes, same as several million other guys. (And from what I’ve read, the guy was something of a dick in real life.)

The brother/sister dance duo? Someone needs to teach that girl how to wear makeup. If your worst feature is that your eyes are freakishly far apart? You don’t accent that by wearing makeup that makes your eyes look even further apart. They’re good dancers, though.

Ewwwww George the Giant! Being disgusting is not a talent!

Guitar girl is too unpolished. She wouldn’t make it through the audition round of American Idol.

I liked Smirky McQueen!

Oh my GAWD that was hideous pole dancing!

Woohoo for flaming boobie tassels.

Busty Hearrt is gross. How is that talent?

I like the clogging girls! They rocked it!

Hate sword swallowing. I know someone who does it and I can’t even watch him. It’s too gross.

Gah! Small autistic boy is cute and it’s AWESOME that he is doing what he is doing, but I would not pay to sit through a Vegas show of that.

And I second everything anyone’s said about the directors/producers of this. QUIT SHOWING ME THE AUDIENCE! Let me see the freakin’ ACT!

48

Yeah, the quick cutting to the audience is horrible. It was the one thing the American show did better than the British version. Last year, they tended to let you see the whole act. “Britain’s Got Talent” is hyperfrenetic with the fast cuts between the audience, the judges, the act, backstage, the judges again, the audience, backstage, oh yeah the performer…

Seriously, I’ve watched a few youtube videos of the best acts, but the camera cuts are so annoying it’s almost unwatchable. And now the American show is doing it. Gah.

49

It’s not just the cutting, it’s the relentless zooming and panning. I’d much rather have two alternating cameras, one fixed to show the entire stage, and one that focuses narrowly on points of interest as the act progresses, much as my own attention would focus and widen were I an audience member. Showing the audience is stupid, though I can imagine showing the judges for a few brief moments here and there if their expressions were of genuine horror at some preposterously bad act.

50

I thought the dancing troupe was pretty good, but agree with Piers that their costumes were awful. I kinda liked the makeup though.

I’ve never watched before and I’m not sure I get it. Is there a big prize for the winner? A contract, like Idol? Because as good as those dancers were, there’s not much market for that kind of an act, outside of sports half-time shows or county fairs.

51

The winner gets $1,000,000 and a contract for their own Vegas show.

52

[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
Because as good as those dancers were, there’s not much market for that kind of an act, outside of sports half-time shows or county fairs.
[/QUOTE]

I 'unno, Sharon Osbourne referred to “that Riverdance guy” (Michael Flatley, I assume) and I bet he didn’t have any problem paying the mortgage. If the four of them added some sexier costumes and backup dancers, all tapping in elaborate sync, I bet it’d go over pretty well.

53

I missed that group. The dancers I saw were wearing skimpy black costumes – I think there were 20+ dancers, all girls and one guy. They did a lot of acrobatics – it was more like cheerleading than dancing.

OpalCat, $1,000,000? Excellent!

54

[QUOTE=OpalCat]
The winner gets $1,000,000 and a contract for their own Vegas show.
[/QUOTE]

Well, “contract” for a Vegas show it a bit of an exaggeration. They get a gig performing in Jubilee! at Bally’s (an excellent show, BTW) which is basically a variety show with topless dancers in the old Vegas style. Still - technically I guess you could say it is a contract for a Vegas show, but not exactly headliner marquee. They also don’t mention how long that contract is for - one night? A week? A month?

Last year’s winner did indeed get a great, multi-million dollar gig - he is getting his own showroom (the old Danny Gans theater in the Mirage when Gans moves across the street to the new Encore! Hotel Casino). But that gig was gotten on his own - not through the producers of America’s Got Talent.

I am still waiting for the Kinsey Sicks to show up and perform on America’s Got Talent! They showed them in all the promos before the show started this summer, but so far - nothing! Maybe they are waiting until the last show? Trust me when I say they will blow the audience away! (See my links at the beginning of this thread for a sample of what they do.)

55

I was totally amazed to see the Pendragons on the show. Aren’t they a long-time top ranked magic act? I believe they best known for the trick they did – something like they do ‘metamorphosis’ faster than any other magicians.

56

[QUOTE=StarvingButStrong]
I was totally amazed to see the Pendragons on the show. Aren’t they a long-time top ranked magic act? I believe they best known for the trick they did – something like they do ‘metamorphosis’ faster than any other magicians.
[/QUOTE]
That’s one of the weird things about this show. You’ve got, conceivably, a young kid with his first magic kit competing against seasoned professionals. On the other hand, it’s one of the things that could, conceivably make for good television, if not a fair competition.

To answer your question, yes, the Pendragons have been performing professionally for 30 years. Jonathan had a non-performing accident (he fell on an arrow) a while back and was gravely injured. He has been recuperating since. What this gives the show is a weepy “fighting back against all odds” act. And the weepy bullshit seems as important to the producers, if not more so, than the actual talent show.

This is not to say that the Pendragons aren’t very talented. Seeing their version of the “Metamorphisis” is always a treat and it will be fun to watch what they do next.

57

They’re just getting to Vegas now? It’s August, for crying out loud! what are they going to do, halve the group every week?

58

[QUOTE=twickster]
They’re just getting to Vegas now? It’s August, for crying out loud! what are they going to do, halve the group every week?
[/QUOTE]

And like American Idol, it looks like they haven’t shown all the final contestants who made it to the Las Vegas shows. Once again, they are showing the Kinsey Sicks in promos for the finals, but they have not been in any of the pre-shows to date. My guess is we will be seeing quite a few good acts they have withheld from showing until the final competition.

59

They put through both the autistic kid and the four-year-old to the next round? I am so appalled by that. For the variety acts, the criterion is “would anyone want to watch an hour and a half of this,” but not for these children?

60

[QUOTE=twickster]
They put through both the autistic kid and the four-year-old to the next round? I am so appalled by that. For the variety acts, the criterion is “would anyone want to watch an hour and a half of this,” but not for these children?
[/QUOTE]

I wonder if that young woman who played the piano and was a little more heavyset has a webpage. I am happy that the kids went on, although I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I think it was absolutely criminal that that young woman got cut.