Welcome to Pure America’s Got Talent

I’m sure many of you have been frantically voting for your favorites from tonight’s America’s Got Talent. The problem is that you don’t get to find out the results of your votes until next week.

So, vote in the following poll for which acts will be the final 5 acts to make it to the America’s Got Talent top 20 (vote for your favorite 5)

Feel free to leave a comment below on who received your votes and who are your favorites.

Tonight, they announced the next 5 to make it to the America’s Got Talent top 20 (currently only 15 members). I previously posted the videos from AGT Semis part 3 and all the music from AGT semis part 3. Take a look at those to see their full performances. Below you’ll find my personal thoughts about each AGT act.

The 5 members that made it into the top 20 are the following:
Sarah Lenore – Fabulous talent with a huge voice. I have no idea why they gave her the dress she did, because it did nothing but bad for her. However, I still have a little boy crush on Jessica Price. I’m not sure America will vote for both of them.
The Taubl Family – I wasn’t so impressed with them before, but their semifinal performance really was a breathe of fresh air and I could honestly almost see their act as one fit for Vegas. Too bad it’s just almost. I’m not sure they’ll go past the top 20.
Jonathan Burkin – Good old Baton Boy. I wanted to hate him at the beginning of the show when he first performed. He impressed me then, but his act needed some work. His semifinal act was just awesome. It was amazing he never dropped it. I still prefer fire knife dancers to Jonathan Burkin, but he has definitely surprised me with what he’s done.
Joseph Hall – I was so glad that he stayed. I usually hate Elvis impersonators. Maybe because there are so many of them here in Las Vegas. I’m not sure Joseph can really be super successful as Elvis in Las Vegas, but the guy definitely has something about him which is fun to watch.
SickStep – I’ll admit that I was hoping that Michael Strelo-smith would make it over SickStep. They weren’t bad, but after watching so much So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Best Dance Crew this summer, SickStep just seems a step below in my book.

The 5 members who got sent home were:
Michael Strelo-Smith – Michael does talk to much, but I would have loved to see him perform some more. I thought his song selection was horrible, so if only for that I’m ok that he’s gone. He should have sung something that featured his voice and he’d probably still be around.
Texas State Strutters – Horrible outfits. I expected much more, but glad their gone because they aren’t even close to the best sports dancers I’ve seen. Trust me, I’m an expert on sports dancers.
Bruce Block – He really disgraced magicians with this performance. Not even close to previous AGT magician standards
Shequida Hall – Shequida’s shocking talent is to sing the male and the female part of the opera. Shequida’s semifinal performance was so weak and annoying that I’m so glad we won’t have to listen to that singing again.
Matthew Piazzi – Some great voices, but the content and singing was off. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Matthew Piazzi again somewhere down the road.

Below you’ll find a list of the various performances and music from America’s Got Talent semifinalists participating on September 2, 2008. Here’s a link to find all the AGT Semifinal videos from this batch or feel free to browse through the entire list of AGT music.

Texas State Strutters
General: precision dance team from Texas State University.
Preliminaries, Week 6: Performed to “September” as made famous by Earth, Wind, and Fire
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Performed to “Boogie Wonderland”

Michael Strelo-Smith
General: Opera singer who appeared on America’s Got Talent, Season 2, however, was not passed through to the live shows.
Preliminaries, Not Shown: Passed through.
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): sang “Somewhere” from the musical West Side Story
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Sang “I Am What I Am”.

Bruce Block
General: Magician/general performer. Appeared in the previous season of the show as well.
Preliminaries, Week 5: Brock lay on a bed of nails and held a board on top of himself for his assistant to dance on and sing “Anything Goes” . Hasselhoff then asked to stand on Brock as well, to establish that the bed of nails was indeed real.
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): escaped from a straitjacket
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Performed an act where he transformed a divided pantomime horse into a small living pony.

Shequida Hall
General: Female impersonator and operatic singer. Able to sing both in a very low bass range and a extremely high tenor range, sounding both male and female in a single performance.
Preliminaries, Not Shown: Passed through.
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Passed through.
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Sang “I will Survive” completely in falsetto.

The Taubl Family
General: Family performing group. Singers and miscellaneous instruments
Preliminaries, Week 2: Performed “The Sound of Music” from the musical “The Sound of Music”
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Sang and performed to Umbrella by Rihanna

Jonathan Burkin
General: Baton twirler
Preliminaries, Week 1: Passed through
Las Vegas Callbacks: Only shown briefly in a montage. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Performed to “I’m Still Standing” . His performance included large amounts of flames, a sequence with him spinning flaming batons around his neck, and a more traditional juggling sequence with the batons.

Sarah Lenore
General: Singer
Preliminaries, Week 4: Sang “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Teardrops On My Guitar” by Taylor Swift
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): “Not Ready To Make Nice” by the Dixie Chicks

SickStep
General: hip hop dance troop.
Preliminaries, Week 1: Passed through
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3):

Matthew Piazzi
General: impersonator
Preliminaries, Week 7: Passed through
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Did impressions of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jack Nicholson, Vince Vaughn, and George Clooney.

Joseph Hall
General: “young Elvis” impersonator
Preliminaries, Week 2: Sang “Hound Dog”
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Heartbreak Hotel”
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Sang “Jailhouse Rock”

Part 3 of the America’s Got Talent semifinals happened tonight. I’ll talk about the results from part 2 of the semifinals in another post. In this post, you’ll find all the videos from America’s Got Talent semifinals including performances by the Texas State Strutters, Michael Strelo-Smith, Bruce Block, Shequida Hall, The Taubl Family, Jonathan Burkin, Sarah Lenore, SickStep, Matthew Piazzi and Joseph Hall.

**Click on the arrows to skip to the next AGT video.

I’ll be posting my commentary on these acts very soon along with link to the AGT semifinal music.

Someone has compiled a nice short video of America’s Got Talent top 40 results show. It’s in 2 parts and shows almost all of the top 40.

Part 1 – America’s Got Talent Top 40

Part 2 – America’s Got Talent Top 40 (starts with my favorite contestant Jessica Price)

Here’s the list of acts in the top 40. I’m missing a couple of them, but this is what they showed on the results show:
Jonathan Arons, New York, New York (dancing musician)
Indiggo from New York, New York (twin singers)
Nuttin’ But Stringz, Jamaica Queens, New York (musicians)
Kaitlyn Maher, Ashburn, Virginia (four-year-old singer)
Slippery Kittens, Salt Lake City, Utah (burlesque dancers)
Jonathan Burkin, Clyde, Ohio (baton twirler)
Derrick Barry, Modesto, California (Britney Spears impersonator)
Sick Step, Los Angeles/ Orange County, California (dance crew)
Extreme Dance FX, West Covina, California (dance group)
Neal E. Boyd, Silkeston, Missouri (opera singer)
Eli Mattson, Door County, Wisconsin (singer/musician)
The Taubl Family, New Haven, Connecticut (musicians)
D.C. Cowboys Dance Company, Washington, D.C. (dance group)
Joseph Hall, Lincoln, Nebraska (Elvis impersonator)
Beyond Belief Dance Company, Mesquite, Texas (dance troupe)
Paul Salos, Garland, Texas (Frank Sinatra impersonator)
George the Giant, Bakersfield, California (giant/side show performer)
Jessica Price, Freeport, Michigan (singer/musician)
Alex “Elite” Pyles, Galax, Virginia (martial arts)
Sarah Lenore, Plymouth, Michigan (singer/musician)
Flambeaux, New York, New York (fire performance artist)
The James Gang, New York, New York (performance artists)
Texas State Strutters, San Marcos, Texas (dance troupe)
Ronny B, Honolulu, Hawaii (singer/dancer)
Queen Emily, Stockton, California (singer)
The Cadence, Springfield, Missouri (drummers)
The Tapping Dads, Temecula, California (tap dancers)
Shimshi, Las Vegas, Nevada (magician)
Matthew Piazzi, New York, New York (impressionist)
Kazual, Columbus, Georgia (boy band)
Shequida (Gary Hall), New York, New York (operatic drag queen)
The Wright Kids, Rocky Mount, Virginia (family band)
Michael Strelo-Smith, Castro Valley, California (opera singer)
Spc. Daniel Jens, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (singer/musician)
Bruce Block, St. Joseph, Michigan (performance artist)
Dorae Saunders, Columbia, South Carolina (Tina Turner impersonator)
Bryan Cheatham, Dallas, Texas (singer)
ZOOperstars, Louisville, Kentucky (acrobatic dance troupe)
Dallas Desperados Dancers, Dallas, Texas (cheerleading squad)

Now we’ll just have to wait until after the Olympics to see them.