Welcome to Pure America's Got Talent

Next up was Jackie Evancho. Before I started the interview with Jackie, I had to ask about her mother and if she remembered visiting Pure America’s Got Talent. I think it was about two seasons ago that Jackie’s mom visited Pure America’s Got Talent and posted some videos of Jackie singing. Jackie’s mother did remember visiting the site, but quickly deferred to Jackie who was the star. Of course, it’s REALLY fun for me to think that readers of Pure America’s Got Talent end up on the show. Jackie’s not the first, but definitely the first reader of this site to make the finals (that I know of).

Ok, enough about that. For such a young girl, Jackie was incredibly articulate in her interview and very sweet (as we’ve seen on camera many times).

I started off by asking her when she first started signing and realized she had this voice. She told me that a couple years ago she went with her family to a performance of Phantom of the Opera. After the performance she was singing through the house and her mom asked her if she wanted to take classes. Shortly after that she entered a singing competition and was runner up to a 20 year old opera singer and that was the start of her singing in competitions. Jackie said she has had a couple teachers, but currently doesn’t have a teacher. She just works with her mom. I asked if her mom could sing well, and she said, No. Oh kids….how funny is that?

When I asked her what crazy things had happened to her since being on America’s Got Talent, she couldn’t think of anything, but that people come up and want her autograph all the time now.

When asked about who was sent home that she wishes was still on the show, she wanted the piano player and Alice Tan Ridley back on the show. She also said that she gets really nervous right before the show, but just fights through it.

When asked what she’d do with the million dollar prize if she won she said, “I want to help the baby seals.” Looks like she definitely loves animals.

I asked her if she could give any hints about what she’ll be doing for her next performance, she said it will be calm and soothing. I mentioned readers of this site suggested she sing “Over the Rainbow”, “Hallelujah”, “Amazing Grace” she replied, Oh…it’s really close.

Jackie Evancho is just the sweetest little girl. No matter what happens in the competition, she’s going to have a thrilling life ahead of her.

Since this was a phone interview, I got to interview one member of the Studio One Young Beast Society. Next year, I’m going to have to make the extra effort to go to LA and do the interviews in person.

The girl from Studio One Young Beast Society that I interviewed was named Kelly. She was quite delightful and a great interview. She had a really nice energy to her that I enjoyed.

First up, I asked where the Studio One Young Beast Society came from. They are a part of a larger group called Studio One in Orlando. For America’s Got Talent they just took 8 from that group and added on the “Young Beast Society” to the name. As we talked, you could really tell that Kelly and the crew were really happy to be representing Orlando and dance on AGT.

I asked her about what she thought of the other dance shows like America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC) and So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). She said, they like the other dance shows like ABDC, but they couldn’t go on that show since many of the dancers in their act are too young to go on that show. So, they are very happy that America’s Got Talent gave them the opportunity to show their stuff.

Kelly described that they are really focused on doing some creative choreography and bringing something different each time they perform. In fact, she mentioned a few times that they were getting hurt. They’ve been working on a bunch of new tricks and while practicing them they’ve been getting hurt in the process. These injuries have made it to prepare for the weekly shows while still keeping their act fresh and new.

When asked about the million dollar prize, Kelly said they would divide the winnings equally between the dancers, but that she thought many of them would use the winnings to create a dance studio in Orlando where they can practice and teach. First, because they are practicing in a gym which she was grateful to have, but wasn’t the best conditions to practice dancing. Plus, opening their own studio would help to create jobs for them to be able to continue doing their dancing full time.

Kelly was fantastic and I bet it would be a lot of fun to hang out with this crew or even go dancing. Granted, I’d sit on the sideline and just enjoy them do their thing. Plus, how cool is it that they want to start a dance studio if they win. That’s a really fantastic idea.

For being such a young kid, Taylor was a great interview. He had a lot to say and was pleasant to talk with. Plus, he gave some interesting insights into him and even the rumors about him and Debra Roemer being together.

First up, I asked him about his background in music. He said his father was the one that taught him music. From his description, it sounded like he’s kind of living out his dad’s dreams of performing like this which is kind of cool since he seems to really love it also. I asked Taylor if we would see a duet between him and his father in one of his America’s Got Talent performances. Taylor said that he’s proposed it a few times, but it hasn’t gone anywhere. It sounded like his dad was the one who didn’t want to be on stage. His dad told Taylor that he was so much better. It’s unfortunate, because I’d really love to see Taylor and his dad perform together.

Taylor also explained how his dad was a bit concerned over him and not getting Taylor too excited about winning or not seeing him get too down if he didn’t make it. I guess like any good father, Taylor’s dad wants to see him succeed but also wants to do everything he can to not let him get hurt. A hard balance for someone being seen by millions and hoping to become a star.

I wish I had the recording, but Taylor also described well how before the show “the ladies” were kind of missing in his life, but now that he’s been on the show things are looking up. We even had a discussion about him and Debra Roemer being a couple. I suggested they do a duet together on the America’s Got Talent tour. He thought that would be fun, but denied any rumors that him and Debra were an item. He said, that she’s not his type. Although, he did mention he had some other girls in mind. Hmmmm…

Taylor’s biggest musical influence was John Mayer. He also mentioned that he loved the underground music scene and mentioned a few artists in New Orleans. Turns out that thanks to the show he’s gotten to know and become friends with these artists, and he was really excited about that.

When asked about whether he preferred, the piano, the guitar or singing best, he said he loved the piano and thought it had a real classical feel to it which he enjoyed. However, he was most at home with the guitar and jamming out on the guitar.

Turns out Taylor has some loyal fans that have been writing to Sony to try and get Sony to pick him up as an artist which he thought was crazy and cool. He also mentioned Disney Records, but thought that they might not be the right label for the type of style that he wants to do. He wants to be known as a musician and not just a star.

I asked him what crazy things have happened to him since being on the show. He said, he couldn’t mention some of them since he didn’t want to mention the acts since we’d know who they were. Although, he did say the craziest thing that’s happened to him is that he’s performed and that America has embraced him and brought him this far. This really surprised him.

He said if he won the million dollars he’d help to pay back hid dad for all the support his dad has given him to be able to live his dream and learn his music. Then, he wanted to help a hospital that had been really supportive of him on the show and that he’d sung at a few times before.

Taylor sounded like a really grounded kid to me that was a bit overwhelmed by the whole experience. Seems natural since he went from coffee shop performing to being on TV in front of millions. I’ll be interested to see Taylor’s next performance. Watch for Debra Roemer cheering for him in the audience;-)

Jeremy was a surprisingly interesting interview. Obviously I needed to find out how he learned his talent. Hopefully I captured his story properly below.

Jeremy Vanschoonhoven learned about trail riding at a local bike shop when he was getting ready to go mountain biking. He found a guy who popped up on his back wheel and started hopping around on it. Jeremy knew then that he had to learn how to do that. So, he went home and for 3 hours started learning how to do it.

Jeremy has actually won a number of national titles on his bike and even gone to the world championships for it, but he admitted that there’s just no money in the sport right now. So, at the end of the year he’d end up spending more on the competitions than he made. He’d make in the hundreds of dollars at competitions.

Jeremy also said he has to build the sets himself and pay for them himself which was news to me. The last set he used was being built until right before they had to take it apart and ship it. He only got to ride on it one time before it shipped. Then, his bags and bike got lost by the airlines and so he couldn’t practice with the bike since he had no bike. The table and benches were in LA already while he waited for the rest the mountain set, but when he was practicing on the table it broke the wood and so he couldn’t practice on that anymore either. The fall they showed us on America’s Got Talent was the first time he’d had a chance to try out the full set. It was the worst fall he’s ever had and was the first time he’s had to go to the emergency room for a fall.

Jeremy noted that normally he’d have practiced the act 100 times, but in this case he’d had very little time to practice his act before the show, so that made him really nervous.

Jeremy said he feels very comfortable on his bike. Now he just needs to work more on the performance aspect of the show. He plans to increase the performance aspect while still incorporating the danger aspect as well.

I found Jeremy’s background and experience fascinating. It makes me want to go and check out videos of Jeremy and others at the national and world championships.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m going to be posting details from my interviews with the America’s Got Talent top 10. I was lucky enough to be able to interview all 10 of them. Here’s some details from my interview with Christina and Ali.

First off, I’m glad I didn’t make a fool of myself, but for some reason I always thought that Christina was the older one, but she’s not. Ali is the older one and Christina is the younger one. As most of you readers know, I’ve been a big fan of Christina and Ali since I first saw them perform at the Las Vegas Auditions. I’m quite sure I did a horrible job at the interview because of that, but hopefully it was fun for them to talk to one of their fans. I know it was a real pleasure for me.

First up, I talked to Ali. Unfortunately, because Christina and Ali were first and we had technical difficulties a couple times, we had to restart our conversation a number of times. Ali was incredibly gracious despite all the dropped calls (it wasn’t even a cell phone). Props to her for that.

Of course, I’m still rattled a bit from the technical problems myself, but I did find out some interesting info.

First, I had to ask Ali more details about what it’s like performing with cystic fibrosis (CF). I’m not sure she felt totally comfortable talking about it. I got the impression she didn’t really want that to be the focus of the conversation, but I (and I think many others were interested).

Despite this, she did say that having CF was tough sometimes. However, Ali also said that singing is actually kind of therapeutic for them since the singing helps to clear out the lungs. I think she’d kind of mentioned this one before on the show, but it’s interesting to consider the idea.

I told her a bit about my friend who has cystic fibrosis and giving him percussion therapy. She said yeah, that her dad did that for them also. Honestly, I didn’t want to dive into that anymore, because it’s heart breaking for me to even think about even though it’s what will likely save their lives.

So, I moved on quickly to ask her what it would be like to perform in the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas where the regular performers are: Celine Dion, Cher, Elton John and Jerry Seinfeld? (I asked this of almost all the top 10). Ali then shared that Celine Dion is her idol and so performing on the stage where Celine performs would be a dream come true.

Ali also shared with me that her sister gives her a lot of support back stage to help her feel more relaxed and less stressed. They’re pretty lucky to have each other to experience this together.

When I asked Ali which of the top 10 (besides their act) was her favorite, she said Prince Poppycock.

I think talked briefly with Christina since I’d already spent quite a bit of time with Ali. I asked Christina if she was glad that she was able to miss out on the start of school so she could be on the show. She answered that it was a nice thing to go on vacation and miss school, but that she still has to go to school. Her and a number of the other kids are required to go to school.

It was also funny, because Christina mentioned that Ali would kind of tease her when she had to go to school. Pretty funny. Sounds like something I’d do with my siblings.

When I asked Christina what she’d do if they won a million dollars and she said, “Buy my brother a really fast car.”