Wednesday, September 5, 2012

America's Got Talent Semi Final Recap: Unexpected Awesomeness


America's Got Talent is moving forward with the last episode of the Semi-Finals. This was probably the best episode yet as far as the performances go, and it's going to be REALLY tough to see some of these acts go. Some of my favorites didn't do exactly what I'd hoped, and some that I didn't like before blew me away.


For mr, it all came down to the performances. A few were less than expected and some were absolutely outstanding. Click through the jump for my top 3.





1. Tim Hockenberry 
Song choice can win this competition for any of the singers, and damn… he nailed this song. "Imagine" by John Lennon hasn't sounded this good in years. 



2. David Garibaldi and his CMYK's 
I've been waiting a good month or two to see him again. He needs to win this competition. The bigger the budget, the bigger his performance can be. And as raw as he is, he actually uses the budget in a solid creative way. He's the clear winner this year.




3. The Untouchables 
Wow…. this was so cool. A bunch of kids doing a tango dance, and doing it really well. The choreography was great, and the mid-performance outfit change was pretty flawless. Definitely top 3 material. And not a normal favorite of mine.

...and the rest:

All That!
That was the first time I really enjoyed their performance. Instead of a bunch of guys just tap-dancing at once on stage, there was a lot more going on. You could blame the editors of previous episodes, but tonight there was focus and direction. Much, much improved. Great all around performance.

Sebastien
I think he did a medley? The crowd and judges went nuts, but I think they are being light on him because he's so young. He's surrounded by great musicians and dancers and has a great voice, but the performance is nothing groundbreaking.

The Magic of Puck I need to rematch this one and figured out what the hell he did. He did a large scale magic trick, levitating a woman and making her disappear and reappear. It looked pretty flawless. Was it the same woman? Need to rematch. Either way, he's definitely capable of putting on a great show.

Clint Carvalho
This guy worked product placement into his act! Totally going to win it when the producers skew the results. Clint has some birds and they do tricks. But the tricks didn't seem THAT impressive to me?? The bird flew through some hoops and grabbed a 7Up can. It was all on call, which makes it that much better, but is it that great?

Jacob Williams
Jacob was pretty off tonight. I love his non-standard whiny awkward style (reminds me of Nick Swardson), but I don't think he's going to capture the majority of the American vote. Especially with an off performance in the semi-finals.

Shanice & Maurice Hayes 
I want to go back in time and have these two sing at my wedding. Great voices, and perfect style. My one critique is that Maurice needs some moves. My second is they need to nail the emotion like a few episodes back. Otherwise, I want to see much more from them.

All Wheel Sports 
I guess their thing is a whole bunch of stuff going on at once. Bikes flying around, people doing flips, etc… but I feel like it NEEDS a focal point, even if just for a few seconds. There is too much to watch at once, and as a result the ultimate user experience is lost.


Olate Dogs 
Well that was pretty damn impressive. Really enjoyed seeing the guys get into the tricks along with the dogs. I was hoping I wouldn't like this tonight, but three dogs riding a scooter just did it for me. Damn!

Lightwire Theater 
I'm worried because this wasn't their best performance, but I think it was their best material. Slow motion special effect shots done with lightsaber battling dinosaurs made of light. The concept and work was amazing. It was just performed a little rougher than usual.

Reminder... the results show is on Thursday this week.

2 comments:

  1. I don’t think this was Lightwire’s best performance either, but I don’t think that will affect the voting at all. The top four acts will likely be LightWire, Olate Dogs, Puck, and Tim Hockenberry (based on the blogging fervor). Sometimes, have you noticed how boated the show is with filler? What makes that more tolerable is that I can watch commercial free with Auto Hop on my PrimeTime Anytime recordings. I save time that way that not only makes boring parts seem quicker, but I can also watch another show when I used to run out of time.

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  2. The Untouchables, David Garibaldi and His CMYK's and Olate Dogs made it through. Next Wednesday it's the top 6 in the finals. Still gunning for David Garibaldi. Tom Cotter is my runner up.

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