America’s Got Talent Episode 8 Thoughts
Time for a few more thoughts on the second episode of America’s Got Talent this week.
Kari Callin reminded me of America’s Got Talent trying to find Susan Boyle. Frumpy. Check. Never had a boyfriend. Check. Great singing voice. Not a check for me. Ok, so it wasn’t horrible, but some of it felt like screaming and some of it really felt stretched. Susan Boyle knocked hers out of the park and had very few flaws. I do like Kari’s cruise ship story. See what I mean about Kari Callin:
I don’t know why, but I really like Mia Boostrom. Maybe it was just that she kind of made doubting Piers eat a little crow. Maybe it was that I love people that really pursue their dreams and do great. She needs some help with her look, but I’m excited to see more of Mia.
Matt Lucas and Anthony Morigerato really shocked me. The guitar player isn’t all that good. He’s an average player and singer. However, the tap was such a nice mix with his playing that it was like a sweet percussion background. Plus, the tapper (Anthony) just killed it for me. Plus, the fact that they didn’t have a name was absolutely hilarious. This was probably my favorite performance of the night. Check it out:
Destined 2 Be was pretty disappointing for me. They’ve had some really good dance acts. In fact, one just won Britain’s Got Talent, and so I think the bar has been set much higher than this group. It was entertaining, but I’ve seen so much better than what they offered. I did like a little bit of Krumping in the middle. Be your own judge:
Simon Chaban had a few interesting fire tricks, but won’t last in Las Vegas with what we saw.
Keith Johnson chose the same audition song as Eli Mattson, and so all I could think is that it paled in comparison to Eli’s version of the song. We’ll see if he has something better.
Pixie Mystere was a great name that matched the troupe. We’ll see if they have more to offer.
Rashida Jolley had an incredible voice. I loved her voice. The harp didn’t quite match the voice, but I like the innovation. She’s got some talent. Just not sure if it’s the right mix to wow America.
Louis Bar & Laura Cantu were Tango dancers. I don’t see any couples dancing making it on the show. Especially not Tango.
The Kalinins remind me of this act that I’ve seen at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas a number of times. I think they perform in the V theatre also. So, for me it was kind of old hat, but many in America will like it.
I need to see more of the whip act by Christopher and Laura Camp. Too had to understand what’s happening and it happens so quick.
Pink Gorilla costume was hilarious. I wanted more of The Shanghai Pearl.
I thought the judges messed up with Reality. Sure, what they were doing was old, but it was still talent. I don’t think they deserved what they got from the judges. I would have liked to see what else they could have done. Maybe they’ll come back next year.
show continues string oh been there done that talnt good but not that wow factor disagree about reality old fashioned not great voices only thng going was clean cut look with so many dance shows now with great talent dancers have little chance on this show the judges need to stop saying to every act they like yuthe best”put in type f act” we’ve ever had on this show cause it aint true and hype doesn’t work americas has ears and eyes nd can see thru the bs
I, too, disagree about Reality. I thought they were like the Brady Bunch and I don’t mean that in a good way. But I also thought they weren’t arrogant enough for the judges to have been so harsh on them with their comments. I think the walked off that stage terribly embarrassed. They just didn’t have a clue as to how awful they truly were as performers.
Who were the Kalinins again? I’m having trouble recalling what their act was.
StevieCat,
The Kalinins were the guy with his son who would balance him on his hands.
Oh, right. They were the two with the “big” hair as I recall. Very cute look a likes, but I didn’t care for their act too much. I mean, it was definitely a talent, but not one I’d want to watch for an hour. The boy was very cute. Thanks for the info.
John just to defend you I also though Reality were really good. I even liked them better than Kari, the Susan Boyle story without the voice. I liked Simon better than you did, but my faves were Matt and Anthony also. Check out my blog for recaps of each episode here: http://mel31602.blogspot.com/
MEL31602,
Have you seen some of the other great fire acts or the fireknife dancers before? Check out the bottom video to see what I mean: https://pureamericasgottalent.com/2008/09/03/jonathan-burkin-baton-boy-versus-polynesian-fireknife-dancer/
Nice to have a fellow AGT blogger. Surprisingly, there aren’t that many people covering AGT considering its popularity.
Hey that video doesn’t work anymore (stupid copyrights!) but I do remember that kid from last year and thought he was very good, but the act got boring kind of quickly. And yeah I can’t find too many other blogs either which makes it hard for me to get readers since I just started the recaps this season.
Mel,
Yep, the top video you’ll have to search for again. Lately, I’ve only been using the NBC.com stuff. Just simpler.
Readers is sometimes an issue. I’ve been doing this for a couple years now and so have kind of built up some readership over time. If you find the right topic, you can see your readers skyrocket.
Have you ever considered writing for someone else (like myself?). I’m always looking to bring on other writers.
My favorites last night were the tap/guitar duo without a name, and Rashida, harp and vocal. Truly two unique acts which I LOVED. And I agree about Reality. My 5 and 10 year old watched them and could not figure out why the judges treated them like that. I thought they were quite “Show Choir”ish, very adolescent, and I would probably enjoy them on a local theatre stage, but the judges were so insulting. They were not terrible, though.
John- sure I’d love to start writing for you. Do I have to apply or something or can I just send you my entries after I am done with them? I do SYTYCD as well and just started doing Hell’s Kitchen yesterday, and may do some other shows in the fall. Though just as a warning I will be at school then so my entries won’t be as timely necessarily.
MEL31602,
I’ll send you an email and we can chat more about the details.
I think it’s shameful how AGT so blatantly copies what is successful on BGT – eg. Susan Boyle / Kari Callin. So many truly talented people are denied exposure because they don’t have a good enough story or because they give spots away to copycat acts that did well in Britan. I know for a fact that many amazing acts have been left out in the cold because of the way the show is produced.
Unless Reality has very thick skin I highly doubt that they will be back. It’s very likely that someone will call them next season and try to get them to come audition. There are a lot of ex-auditioners (with actual talent) who are very unhappy with the way they were treated on the show and will never come back to be exploited.
I just have to throw a side note about Hell’s Kitchen – Anyone who is just shocked at the lack of skills shown in the first two eps really doesn’t understand how reality tv works. They cast those people just like the bad acts on AGT for drama and creative effect. Also I have it on good authority that Gordon Ramsey’s lines are scripted and he almost never yells off camera.
I don’t mean to sound like a know-it-all but I am just disgusted by “reality” TV.
Cypress – I totally second what you say. So much about these “reality” shows aren’t really a reality and is actually edited. A lot of people mentioned it and for a lot of shows.
Some examples:
– I heard that producers tell singers what to sing. Sure, in some cases there are copyright issues, but often it’s just on a whim or for a “dramatic effect”. I remember some little girl that we saw in second two that they presented to us as a “Bianca Ryan wannabe”, talking about her and singing the same song too. I later read that the producers asked the girl to sing the same song.
– In some cases we see only parts of acts with good parts shown to us for people who made it and bad parts for people who didn’t. Case in point – Dorothy Bishop whom we saw as a really bad (P)opera-wannabe on show 7. A simple search on her name on YouTube and google presents a completely different picture – a legitimate classically trained soprano voice, some well sung Broadway songs, some POP opera arrangements, a little real opera and with the ability to switch voice from one style to the next. Maybe not the greatest opera soprano in the world, but better than most POPera singers; or Broadway – her version of I dream a dream could easily challenge Susan Boyle’s. With past credits that include small opera theaters, Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. For the record – I don’t know her, the reason I looked her up because the name sounded very familiar to me. Don’t believe me – search on her name on YouTube. You’ll be surprised. Someone commented under her AGT video that what we saw was a creative editing job, showing us a few bad notes from an arrangement they made for her which included these strange notes in an awkward transition from classical part (that she did well, but that they failed to show us) and disco part. All we heard were these strange notes.
– stuff that Cypress mentions. We see an act on BGT, then the next season there is something similar on AGT. Sometimes a similar setup.
Can’t keep quiet on this one. Your show on July 27th was everything sadistic and not the least bit entertaining. As a retired music director, I am aware of how devistating a cruel, sadistic appraisal can be to some one who has spent a great part of their life preparing for such a performance and how much it hurts not to receive at least an acknowledgement of hard work or talent , no matter how remote it may be. These are living, breathing human beings with dreams and ambitions. The consequences of smashing those dreams can result in leaving these combatant participants with nothing but shattered (no, not exaggerated) dreams and lives. I hope it doesn’t happen, but tragedy has followed lesser sadistic criticism. False promises, confusing and changing objectives, grouping contestantants like cattle going to slaughter – even the Judges led some successful participants were led to believe that they had been cut out of competition (how sick can you get?) was the “grand finale” to this sick, sick. sick event. I have totallyi changed my opinion of these Judges.
Whose idea was this, anyway?
Please comment.
Wills,
This is just a fan site, so you might want to direct your comments to the official AGT site: http://www.nbc.com/americas-got-talent/
I agree that the last episode was harsh and for that matter pretty boring. I’d rather see more performances. However, anyone that’s going on America’s Got Talent should know exactly what they’re getting into. They do the exact same thing every year. Personally, I’m not real sympathetic if someone goes on the show and hasn’t watched the past seasons. The first season I can cut people some slack, but this is the fourth season of doing the same thing. In fact, American Idol’s been doing for many more seasons. People should be familiar with this style already.
I just personally don’t find it that interesting. As a fan of the show, I already knew all but one of the results and so their twists for me weren’t even twists. I could see them a mile away.
Anyway, hopefully 3 celebrities that are trying to produce a TV show and not make talent happen are taken for what they are.
I could NOT believe they didn’t put Kari Callin through and they put that ridiculous disco dancing (nasty) 90 year old through although they then threw him out. Perhaps that was done on purpose for the shock value. He was nasty from the get go and was ungracious when they kindly and carefully let him go. He told Nick that he’d be dead next year and so he wanted to win this year. How did he honestly think he was better than at least 10 of the others nevermind ALL of the others?? I felt bad for Kari. They should have given her a chance and then explained to her why she wasn’t picked. Now she’ll go on thinking it was because of her looks. They should have called her up there and then explained after reviewing her tape, it wasn’t as good as they initially thought. Such a shame.
And, Piers keeps saying “It’s a million dollar prize, they have to be worth that kind of money.” Well, it’s actually a $25,000 a year for 40 years prize and many of them were worth $25,000 if not the million for crying out loud.
I’m still a huge fan of the show, but these 2 points ticked me off.
StevieCat,
Maybe some more wishful thinking, but maybe they did tell Kari more, but just edited it out.
At the end of the day, Kari just needs to go online and she’ll be showered with love with a ton of fans. She should feel really good about that.
True, I certainly hope so. There was that snippet of Sharon on the plane saying “oh, no, I do NOT want to be the one to have to tell her she’s not going through.” Sharon seemed genuinely sorry for Kari, so perhaps you’re right. Perhaps she sought Kari out and spoke to her personally.
I thought I would answer these questions from all of the blogs about my “terrible” singing on AGT vs. my great singing in real life and youtube videos and my successful career as a professiona; singer. AGT would not let me sing my original song (said that they could not get the copyright) It was a cool funky version of Nessun Dorma which got me thru 3 rounds and right up to the executive producer of NBC. Suddenly I was told I could not sing it and that they would produce a track for me for a disco Carmen. They waited and waited and finally gave it to me the day before the taping of the live show with the instruction “make this high and flashy like your Nessun Dorma” Well I tried………got nervous……cracked at that one part. But the rest was quite lovely. But did they show that part? No. Its all about ratings, and putting on a show.
Thank you Kitty for being open minded and looking at my vids on youtube. AGT was a fun experience despite the bad press. I will survive. LOL!
Thanks for watching and realizing that it is indeed manipulated and unfair.
But thats show biz. I have no regrets.
God bless
Dorothy Bishop
Dorothy, I hope you don’t mind but I copied and pasted your remarks to the other Pure AGT blog where Kitty was posting about you so she could read your answer. Here’s the link https://pureamericasgottalent.com/2009/09/01/arcadian-broad-calls-out-americas-got-talent-producers-and-piers-becomes-a-shill/
Thanks for the insight. I did go on YouTube and view your videos. You are FAR too good for that show!!!!
Thanks a lot Dorothy for the information. Always nice to get the real story. That’s part of the reason I like doing this site.
Glad to here you have no regrets and that you’re doing well.
Dorothy, thank you so much for the response. I really liked all of your videos – until I saw your videos I hadn’t thought much about popera much preferring the real thing, but your singing is excellent and you make it fun. As StevieCat said – you are much too good for this show. Really, you are probably much more qualified to judge singing than these 3 clowns. As I said, I stumbled upon your videos by accident – your name seemed familiar probably because I read parterre blog occasionally – and this got me angry so I started posting on it. I have an almost child-like sense of fairness and stuff that’s unfair bugs me.
Hope, you don’t mind if I link your response from other places. I’ll wait for a few days before doing it in case there is some problem: e.g. NBC people coming after you.
StevieCat – thanks for telling me about Dorothy’s response.
Way to go, Kitty. And, Dorothy, we wish you continued success.
Post my response!
I am just telling the truth. I knew the risks when I went in but hey……I wanted a contract in Vegas! Now maybe I will find another way.
Thanks for your support guys!
xox