America’s Got Talent: Unleash the Talent
This week was the season premiere of America’s Got Talent. Of course, like all competition reality shows, there was both the good and the bad acts. Bill “Serious Mysterious” Curlee was told he was like Elvis doing Tom Jones (so true!). Nick Afansaiev grossed out the judges by touching his eyeball – with his tongue! Then there was the cute acts – 80 year old Mary Bly who tapped dancer her way into the judges hearts, but not Vegas. And, 4-year-old Kaitlyn Maher was cute singing “Somewhere Out There” but really, how far can she go? This show cannot decide if it wants to be American Idol or Extreme Home Makeover sometimes and that irritates me. The cute acts are cute, but then the judges preach about how this is a competition for a million dollars and how serious it is – then they put a 4-year-old singer through to Vegas. Ugh.
Some of the better acts were Jonathan Arons, the classically trained trombonist who cracked the audience up with his unclassically trained dancing. I was very surprised yet happy to see Nuttin’ But Stringz there. I heard about these guys a year or so ago (they combine hip-hop with classical music and the brothers both play the violin) and even have one of their songs on my iPod. I already see them going to the finals or there just isn’t any justice. There were some percussionists that copied the Blue Man Group’s act – they made it to Vegas. Slippery Kittens, which reminded me of that boring fat girl singers from last year, made it to Vegas. There was Indiggo, the Romanian twin sister act with the attitude. As Piers said, they have everything – except the voices to sing! Jonathan Burkin was another bad luck story turned good. He was the kid that twirled the baton, but got ridiculed for it at school. He was good, but I don’t know how far he can go. Derrick Berry was the Britney in drag dude that seemed to confuse the Hoff. “Are you a guy?” he had to ask. Duh, David, you think? Despite the fact that Piers X’d him, David thought he was “hot,” so off to Vegas he goes.
The last act was Neal Boyd. Very touching story, he talked about growing up poor and all that his mom did for him. And, he was a good opera singer. Only problem is the big guy who was a salesman, but can sing opera thing has already been done by Paul Potts, a cell phone salesman, when he won Britain’s Got Talent last year. Oh well, maybe some of the America’s Got Talent viewers didn’t get the memo on that one. I am not saying Neal was not good – he was, but really, what are the chances of two fat salesmen singing opera perfectly on the same show on two different continents?
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