Welcome to Pure America's Got Talent

There has been a lot of comments flying around in regards to several acts in the supposed “standby” group not really being in the “standby” group despite being televised as such.

One such group is Iron Horse. In the opening scenes they are plainly seen in Group A sitting in the lower right hand corner of the screen (two of the guys were wearing their blue “country-ish” shirts). If you look at the group carefully there are other acts that were in the “standby” show that were really in Group A.
- NU Covenant
- Cristina & Ali
- New Directions Choir
- Strange Familiar

So essentially the majority (if not all) of the Bands/Singing Duos, etc were in Group A rather than the “standby” group. As much as I wished they would not purposely rearrange people that way on television and were instead more straight up with their audience, I would have to suppose they did it this way to keep the audience on their feet in what I believe to be their version of drama.

At the same time, television (as a whole) and in particular reality television, I have found have been disrespecting their audience bit by bit with every passing year… particular when it comes to situations like these when they are trying to script a reality show and fall short because the audience could see which acts were really where and etc.

To me, if reality television producers truely trusted their audience and kept everything true instead of trying so hard to stick with a particular formula (it’s called thinking out of the box, all other industries are doing it) perhaps they will find that the audience they are trying so hard to entice to continue to watch television, will continue to do so.

It’s like any relationship… it starts with trust.

Well eleven spots are left the Group B “Stand bys” have a tough job to try to prove that they have what it takes to be part of the top 48.

Like in the Part Two post, I will have only the acts that made it through to Hollywood, with links so you could find more information about them. The acts will also be broken down into the groups as notated by the show…

Danger
- Kung Fu Heroes: Martial Artists (Los Angeles)
- Jeremy Vanschoonhoven: Bicyclist (Portland)

Dance Group
- Rated Next Generation aka RNG (Portland)

Male Singer
- Luigi Seno (Final Auditions)
- Nathaniel Kenyon (Orlando)
- Paul Safy Jr (Portland)

Comedian
- Ronith (Los Angeles)
- Airpocalypse (Portland)

Music Bands/Groups/Duo
- Iron Horse (Portland/Chicago)
- Strange Familiar (Portland)
- NU Covenant (Chicago)
- Cristina and Ali (Portland)

So there you have it:
- 10 acts that were guaranteed a spot in Hollywood and as thus didn’t need to audition in Vegas
- 27 acts that were guaranteed an audition in Las Vegas to prove their muttle and made it through.. also known as the Judges Favorites
- 11 acts that were “stand bys” and eventually were given a chance to shine and earn their spot for Hollywood

That leaves just ONE act left… which came from the YouTube Auditions. If you had forgotten, the producers of AGT chose forty acts for you to sift through and vote on. The YouTube act with the most votes is guaranteed a spot in the top 48 in Hollywood.

The voting phase has ended but the vids are still up, so head over to YouTube.com/AGT and look through the acts and see if you can guess you made it to the show.

The YouTube act will be revealed on the August 10th!

So here it… who knows how many acts were in the ever so important Group A category as mentioned in the previous Las Vegas post. These acts were ones that the judges believed stand the best chance of moving on to Hollywood… every one of these acts were given the chance to audition once again for the judges.

In the primary lobby there were sheets set up in various categories breaking the acts down so they could practice together, and size up the competition. From here each group would be called up together where they would see each other perform from the wings. Talk about tension and competition.

I’ve managed to get a good list of categories and acts. So below is going to be all the acts that have gone on to Hollywood as broken down by category. I will try to list the audition city that we met various acts throughout the season thus far if applicable and link previous posts to them so you could learn more informtion about the acts that have made it thus far.

And now, without further ado… Group A!

Novelty
- Maricar: Painting (Los Angeles)
- Sally Cohn: Hand Whistler (Portland)

Magicians
- Murray Sawchuck (Orlando)
- Chipps Cooney: Comedic Magician (New York)

Danger
- John Beatty: Strongman (Chicago)
- Twisted Trystan & Krystan: Side Show Performers (Orlando)
- Antonio Restivo: Fire Magician (New York)

Aerial/Movement/Acrobatic
- AscenDance Project: Rock Climbing Dance (Portland)
- Rudi Macaggi (New York)

Hip Hop Dance
- Wreckless Dance Crew (Orlando)
- Lindsey Stirling: Violinist/Dancer (Final Auditions)
- Studio One Young Beast Society (Orlando)

Bollywood Dance
- Mona Sampath Dance Company (Los Angeles)

Tap Dance
- The Hot Shot Tap Dancers (Portland)

Ballroom Dance
- Anna & Patryk (New York)

Youth Performers
- CJ Dippa (Dallas)
- Lil Chris (Orlando)

Harmonica
- Harmonica Pierre Herbineaux (Portland)

Comedian
- Doogie Horner (New York)

Classical Singers
- Hannibal Means (Los Angeles)
- Prince Poppycock (New York)

Female Singers
- Mary Ellen: Yodeler (New York)
- Alice Tan Ridley (New York)
- Debra Romer (Chicago)

Male Singers
- Taylor Matthews (Dallas)
- Michael Grimm (Los Angeles)

So here it is! The first day of Las Vegas week.

In prior seasons of America’s Got Talent, there were acts that were eliminated right away. What that did however (in my humble opinion) was put the judges into a corner where of the remaining acts there might not be those that shined while in Vegas when they did in the individual cities while those that were eliminated early didn’t get a chance to show any kind of growth.

So what the show changed up is the following. There are three groups of acts and only 48 spots open. The groups are:
Group A: These are acts that the judges believed have the best chance of making it through to Hollywood… so they were guaranteed a chance to audition for the judges again in Vegas. AKA the Judges favorites

Group B: These acts were not as good as Group A, so once Group A has gone through, if there are still spots remaining, these acts would get their chance to audition… If and only If.

Group C: Everyone loved these acts so much that they were going to go straight to Hollywood without ever having to audition.

Since Group C consisted of ten acts, of the 48 spots there are only 38 remaining…

So below are the the acts that have a free pass to Hollywood aka Group C (the links included are previous posts where you could find information about them):

Chicago Auditions:
- Belly Dancing Duo
- Polina Volchek
- Strikers All Stars

Los Angeles Auditions:
- Cheer San Francisco
- Haspop
- Future Funk

Dallas Auditions:
- Arc Attack
- Da Maniacs

New York Auditions:
- Fighting Gravity
- South Philly Vikings

So there you have it… the ten acts with a free pass to Hollywood. What are your opinions? What do you think? Stay tuned for tomorrow where I will list the acts from Group B that were chosen to go to Hollywood after they impressed the judges in Las Vegas.