by  Arthur Perkins

 

Welcome back to America's Got Talent. I have been anticipating this since last summer's crackling shows. The job of emcee, held by Jerry Springer most recently, has gone to comedian Nick Cannon. I have to admit that Springer had a little too much gravitas for me even though he did bring an earnestness and plainspoken quality that I liked. Cannon is funny and that makes all the difference. I had the impression that Nick was just itching to go out on stage with some of the acts. He gets a big positive rating from me.

 

David Hasselhoff, Sharon Osbourne, and Piers Morgan are back as judges. They can get rid of the first two to give the show less fluff and irrelevance. Sharon is constantly telling teams essentially "No, but I'm Ok and You're OK". It gets old very fast. Sharon had two ratings of No when the other two said yes, but that is not recorded below. I was with them both times. David is wishy-washy sometimes having trouble making up his mind. The only time I liked him last night was his response to a "Love letter" song from a male contestant. David was really squirming but he stayed upright and said some reasonable things to get himself out of the embarrassment. That contestant is going forward because his original song was very clever and he did a good job performing it. Only Piers does a consistently good job of judging. Sharon and David don't want to make enemies, so their votes reflect that. Piers knows that at least one of the judges has to tell it like it is.

 

The acts themselves were from the preliminary rounds in New York City, Chicago and Seattle. It was the good, the bad and the ugly.  NBC decided to showcase much of the worst talent in NYC to start the show. Let's get to it. I will on the right hand side on the line give the judges' ratings unless obvious. I will cite the number of positive votes in front of a P and the number of negative votes in front of a N. 2P or 3P means moving forward to the Las Vegas round.

 

These NYC acts got the hook very quickly:

Ray Schwarz - 26yom (my abbreviation for year old male), singer and dancer performing an Elvis piece Elvis style                                                        3N

Jay Brunelle - 29yom guitar act                                                                                                                                                                                              3N  

Andy Lapota  - 41yom rapper; this act fell flat quickly                                                                                                                                                            3N

Sky and Vlad, fire dancers - she fell into a flaming area of the stage while fire dancing, which ended this act precipitously as her hair caught fire. Probably too much hairspray!

 

The rest of the performances in Chicago, Seattle and New York were a mixed bag:

 

David Lanham- 48yom turned his feet all the way to 180 degrees and walked on them. The judges were grossed out but they knew this guy has talent 3N

Footwork Kingz - several males 16 to 24 had a high energy break dancing routine that was very good                                                                               3P

Christina, singer - I don't remember her and she is out.                                                                                                                                                         3N

Peter Peterkin- an impersonator who sings James Taylor R&B. His singing is average but his impressions of President Obama and others are excellent.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  3P

Draconik- who plays with fire and was entertaining.                                                                                                                                                               3P

Dave Johnson- songwriter, singer and guitarist, who has the song about his love for David Hasselhoff. This is the surprise hit of the evening.                3P

Anointed S- vocal percussion did not impress me but they did the judges.                                                                                                                            3P

Brad Byers- who was riveting to watch as he put a hook up his nose and then used a drill up it. David Hasselhoff was so grossed out that he

could not watch this act but he voted for it anyway.                                                                                                                                                                3P

Original- a young woman dances in a bikini, contorting through a hoop, while an older one plays the accordion                                                                 3N  

Rockin Rory- a fabulous dog with trainer act. The dog is incredible but the trainer is very good too. This act is going places                                             3P

Debbie Victor- animal impersonator-  who is interested by this?                                                                                                                                           3N

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Eri-Am Sisters - singers who I thought were OK but the judges really liked                                                                                                                          3P 

Joseph Maracini- impressions of Jack Nicholson and Anthony Hopkins but David says "you just didn't sounds like those 

guys", reflecting the consensus                                                                                                                                                                                              3N       

Dave and Zoe, Paradizo dance- he 37, she 29 essentially do gymnastics together and do lifts of the other one and supported (by the others hands) 

handstands. The impressive thing is that she at 100 pounds, he at 240 pounds she has no difficulty leveraged him into the air                                        3P 

Shine - a quartet of siblings singing Walking on Sunshine                                                                                                                                                     3N

Voices of Glory (Michael 16, Avery 13, Nadia 9) sing God Bless America inspired by their mother, who is asked by the judges to come onstage for bows

from her wheelchair. This was fantastic harmony and they are are highly talented signers.                                                                                                 3P

 

So, the acts identified with 3Ps above are going to the next round in Las Vegas (after multiple more preliminary rounds). The Las Vegas round had more than 100 acts last year, so it is essentially an indication of how the judges abdicate so that more acts can have the satisfaction of elimination in Las Vegas than really deserve to. More discrimination (read that as eliminations) by the judge could make a good show a very good one. I missed maybe 5 acts last night; I'm not sure how this happened but they can go by very fast.

 

Who do I like from those I saw? Voices of Glory was special and could go all the way. I loved Dave and Zoe but I don't know what they can do for multiple rounds of encores. Rockin Rory could go all the way. I have never seen a better dog act. Peter Peterkin's impersonations were extremely good. Tonight at 9pm EDT is the next of the preliminary rounds, including from Houston and Miami.