America’s Got Punting

By Adam at September 2nd, 2009.

Coming into last night’s Semi-final, it was announced, the top 3 acts would move on to the Finals, and #4 and #5 would face the judges.

America cast some interesting votes that suggested perhaps the show might need to be renamed, “America Lacks Good Taste”  and #4 and #5 standing before the judges were young singing group Voices of Glory and cloggers The Fab Five.

After a three minute break, the judges came back and Sharon Osbourne declined to make a decision. Then so did David Hasselhoff. The whole thing went into a huddle and Piers Morgan announced that there would be no judge’s choice and that both Voices of Glory and Fab Five would go to the finals. A happy non-competitive soccer ending to the whole saga that played out on national television.

As happy as I am for both groups, this leads me to think that America’s Got Talent Examiner Michael Ross may have a point when he calls for all the judges to be fired. Or get sacked as two of them would better understand it. Fundamentally, the judges abdicated their only basic role at this stage of the game.

As successful as the show is, it pales in comparison to Britain’s Got Talent.  Other than Kevin Skinner with a Cockney accent, it’s hard to imagine any of the acts that will compete in the Finals from tonight’s show making it through to the final on Britain’s Got Talent.  BGT has more the feel of a genuine talent contest, while on AGT, the whims of the judges reign supreme, and it’s a circus of egos. The sad thing is that there are talented people whose time is totally wasted by the judge-inflicted nonsense.

Putting that aside, I do understand why it was hard for the judges to pick between Fab Five and Voices of Glory (though I believe making tough decisions is what they’re paid to do.)  Both will make interesting Finalists. Fab Five is-well-fab, at what they do. But I don’t think any clogging will be victorious.

Voices of Glory do have a shot at winning this thing. Their problem has been that one of the things the judges have told them they need to do, they’re not willing to do. After their Quarter Final, Piers Morgan told them that they needed to let the younger Sister, Nadia take the lead on the singing. In the semi-finals, they split up the vocals pretty much evenly, and they ended up falling behind Kevin Skinner and the Texas Tenors.  The boys voices are not up to the level of their little sister on these big songs they’re performing. Their harmonies worked great on, “God Bless America” in the audition. But, they’ve gotten so far on her talent, and they’re chemistry. In the finals, the brothers need to step back if they want to win this thing in two weeks.

More thoughts follow on the rest of the evening’s contestants. 

Moving On:

Kevin Skinner: Skinner gave another moving performance. I’d like to see some more confidence from him. However, if the second semi-finals turn out the same way the first one did, with fairly weak competitors advancing, Skinner could win it all by default. 

The Texas Tenors:  Their semi-final was a big step up. I think they had a pretty good mix of voices. They also had a singer identified by Sharon Osbourne as being quite hot lead off the show and take a prominent role. They may not have the most talent, but they really did a good job making the most of it.

Grandma Lee: This has got to be the decision I disagree with the most on the “through” side. I must concede that  she appeals to a big segment of the country though to finish in the top 3. I just tended not to view her “dirty old woman” act as being all that funny, and somewhat repetitive from her Quarter Finals performance.

Going Home:

Acrodunk: This was really the biggest mistake America made in my humble opinion. Acrodunk gave the performance of the night. They came to play. Through a series of injuries to members of Acrodunk, they put on a stunning performance, doing a slam dunk into a burning a hoop and then doing a dunk, jumping through a burning hoop. I don’t think there’s anything they could have done. America was just more into a woman in her 70s telling dirty jokes.

Drew Thomas Magic: I actually cast quite a few votes for Drew Thomas Magic. His act really went for people’s heartstrings, with some soft music, and including his daughter in the act. Piers Morgan gave the act a tongue lashing, reducing Thomas’ daughter to tears. The hard lesson learned for Thomas is that while this trick would be okay in a longer form act, on America’s Got Talent, what’s expected of magicians is thrills and excitement.

Paradizo Dance: I really liked their new routine, which was a little more comic acrobat dance than their previous pieces.  This may have been part of the problem. If there’s a lesson in this season that future acts should take is that if America likes you enough to vote you through, don’t mess with the performance because you’ll lose some of the people who sent you through in the first place. Thus Paradizo Dance, Arcadian Broad, and Drew Thomas may have been able to do very diverse performances fairly well and going home, Grandma Lee is doing similar performances over and over again and moving on to the finals.

Tony Hoard & Rockin’ Rory:  Tony Hoard chose to quit his job of twenty-four years to follow his dream after his employer refused to give him unpaid time to go on the show. This makes me feel especially sorry for him given the final result. Hoard and Roary stepped it up considerably from the Quarterfinal where they really didn’t deserve to move on. At this level, the act just couldn’t cut it.

Arcadian Broad: Arcadian did a solid performance of a “High School Musical” themed performance, with a lot of energy. I think the act really had a strong potential appeal to teenage girls, which are often big voting blocks in these talent contests. I think he really hurt himself when responding to some unconstructive criticism from Piers Morgan declaring that Arcadian had not done as well as other acts. Broad lashed out at the producers, saying he hadn’t wanted to do a “High School musical.” performance.  Host Nick Gannon repeated that the acts had final say in what they informed. This is correct, but producers are going to have a lot of influence on inexperienced performers who are planning their first or second national stage performance. From a voter standpoint, what Broad did is come off as a bit of complainer, and not quite there maturity wise. In addition, crossing Simon Cowell is not a great career move in the entertainment industry.

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