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RSS'America's Got Talent': Viva Las Vegas!
Viva the Dancing Dog and Hairo the Breakdancer headline tonight's "America's Got Talent."
Just to be clear: Kevin Skinner is by no means the best singer I've ever heard or something. The reason he moved me so much is because he is a talented singer and he also was just so earnest and heartfelt. It was really moving to see someone from a farm in Kentucky realize his dreams like that.
Tonight we kick it off in Houston, Texas with a pretty blonde girl named Divani. She sings "Queen of the Night," but the only thing she is queen of is strangling cats. The crowd boos heartily. When asked what happened she says, "Well, I can't sing when everybody's loud." I think she should've just stopped before "when."
After a montage involving two bad singers and some hillbillies who play in a jug band while chopping vegetables with a lawn mower, we move on to an act that actually lives up to this show's name.
Unfortunately, it comes in a package of a bunch of creepy little girls in Annie wigs. They are called Lake Houston Performing Arts Center and range in age from 11 to 14. Their act consists of disco dancing to "Shake Your Groove Thing." It's cute and they are talented, but there are FAR too many of them. It's like the end of "A Chorus Line" when dancers just keep multiplying out of the mirrors. They should pick the best 14-16 dancers and call it a day. Also, their spokesgirl has a Cindy Brady lisp going on, which is annoying. They are through to Vegas.
Viva the Dancing Dog is our next act. Viva dances to "Boogie Shoes" and while she's no Felicity Huffman, it's a pretty cute act. They are through to Vegas, no big surprise there. Piers beats me to the "Viva Las Vegas" joke, I am deeply shamed. Seriously, I usually have that stuff coming a mile away and yet I hadn't even thought of it. I should hang up my recapping hat. *hangs head*
Magician Marti Brill is up now. He looks like an extra from "Miami Vice." His act is set to "What is Love," like, "Hi, welcome to 2009." Jim Carrey is no longer funny and this song is so 1998. Marty struggles quite a bit and gets buzzed off.
Bad Montage (set to Edwin Starr's awesome song "War"). Brandon Paxton, beat poet extraordinaire (that's really all I need to say right?); Diego Baner, another "singer" who also happens to look like a serial killer; and the Midwest Entertainers, a wrestling troupe a tad past their prime.
Next is a husband-wife team named Joseph and KC Constantine. He is an illustionist and she is his assistant. He puts her inside a box and slides knife into both sides, then flips open the shade and she has VANISHED! It's okay, but I mean, it's pretty much every illusionist act ever. The only interesting thing is she has changed her outfit while inside the box. Hasselhoff says no because it's a typical trick that every illusionist can do. Piers and Sharon say yes, but I can't really see this guy advancing unless he really steps it up.
The show acted like the Constantines were some big triumphant sob story, but they didn't provide any details. I mean, does anybody show up to audition for this show who it WOULDN'T mean a lot to? It's $1 million and a Vegas show. What makes it so important for Joseph Constantine? If you're going to foist these sob stories on me, I'd like some details please.
Good Montage. Fuchsia Fox belly dances and all the tassels seem to go the same way, so that's cool; Circus R Us is just a cornucopia of circus acts, which is fairly entertaining for the 3 seconds we see it; and the Hurricane Tricksterz are like Martial Arts Chippendales.
Our last act of the night is Hairo Torres. He's a breakdancer and he's actually quite entertaining. He's got some killer moves with his sweatshirt and also an unexpected element of comedy incorporated into the routine. I was not expecting to like him, but I do. The judges love him and he's through to Vegas.
Nothing really stellar tonight, guys. Hairo was cool and Viva was cute, but the Constantines were absolutely nothing special and the Lake Houston dancers were actually kind of scary. I hope the auditions next week step it up.
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I'd be surprised if any of tonight's auditions actually make it through to live performances. It was quite the boring episode.
http://mel31602.blogspot.com/2009/07/americas-got-talent-audition-show-four.html
Check out my recap here. I agree no one on tonight's show blew me away but I did like the cute dancers and the dancing dog. The magician was okay but there have been better ones this year and the last guy was okay at what he does but it didn't really entertain me.
speaking of breakdancers...where are the poppers......i kno watchin so you think you can dance...there were a couple good poppers...thought id see a couple on here.....
I didn't really like Hairo because I've seen the style done 100 times better on So You Think You Can Dance.
I can get through the audition episodes of this show in about 10 minutes on Tivo and that's ridiculous. They should have more interesting content at this stage. I really don't care too much about this show until they start actually showing the GOOD talent.
The magician with family's sob story was how they lost their house and times were so tough that it broke his heart to tell the kids that they couold not get the toys that they wanted. Sometimes you forget that performers are people supporting families not just doing their talents for the love of it.
What about Thai? Or was she on the previous night?
I can't believe you think those girls were creepy. they were so cute and talented! you probably just don't understand the importance of stage make-up, and when they zoomed in it looks sorta weird. they usually only have about fifteen on the stage at a time. so saying there were too many is just ignorant. the full twenty eight were only on for thirty seconds. the little girl does sound like a hick, but that is texas and there isn't anything wrong with that.the ages are actually 8-14. you are a terrible person for speaking so illfully about a bunch of elementary school girls. creepy? more like adorable.
I agree that the Lake Houston dancers were cute, but they need to have two troupes, because with so many members, it was difficult to see what everyone was doing (blame that also on atrocious camera work and directing/editing by the NBC crew). I found their act to merely average, as I've seen girls from other dance studios on AGT and elsewhere who had much better material. Too many dancers means fewer moves they can pull off without running into each other. And those wigs...*shudder*
Once again, the night was taken up by too many bedamned sob stories and way, way too many commercials. I doubt if the actual auditions shown totaled more than fifteen minutes; the rest was all taken up with blathering and commercial breaks. I hope the actual competition nights are better than this, because this season's constant interruptions are getting very annoying.
Last point: what is with the promos showing who is going to be heading to Vegas on the next episode? What's the point of watching if they're going to give it all away in a promo? And NBC wonders why they're mired in last place...
I have a degree in theatre, so I understand a lot about stage makeup. I don't recall complaining about the makeup.
The wigs were creepy, there were too many of them and the girl had a lisp, which is not the same as hick (a word you used, Amy, not me).
I completely agree with Aaron about the atrocious camera work and directing/editing by the NBC crew. Most of the time I can't tell if I like an act or not because they cut away from them for half the performance! OK, with singers (though still not good), and horrible when it's any act that relies on watching them!