America’s Got Talent: 7/10 Quarterfinal #2

Another terrible night of talent.  With the exception of one act, were these acts pitted against actual talent, none would go through.  Though, on a positive note, the camera work was about 50% better.  Still a bit much movement, and panning long shots over the dance group especially, but much better from last week.

Oh, and a note for Nick Cannon:  Lady Gaga hasn’t been around that long, she doesn’t HAVE classics, thank you.

Ok, on to the acts!

Lion Dance Me are the dance/martial arts team that hops around on poles dressed in Chinese dragon costumes.  This act looked neat. Not cool, not dangerous, but neat.  That is a kiss of death on this show, an act really needs to be above the ‘neat’ level to move on, and they were not.  I also agreed with Howard, in that the costumes made it really difficult to see the difficulty of their act.  I feel that if we could see how hard what they are doing is, it would be a lot more interesting.

Turf is the contortionist dancer, and he did his thing again.  The biggest problem with his act is it seems so small.  With just him in on the stage, it is very hard to see how this could even be a small town stage show, let alone a Vega s stage show.  Apparently, he moved to Vegas since the Vegas round, and his moves seemed to have been stepped up, but it’s just not enough to fill a whole stage show.  His street dancing, though, is probably amazing.

The All Ways sang a Lady Gaga song(Telephone), so that’s one strike.  They didn’t have background vocals or a modern sound, so that’s strike two.  Finally, their singer seemed like an imitation rocker, not a real rock star…one that pretends in his bedroom when no one is looking, and no one has bothered to tell him how dumb he looks.  That's strike three, and they are so out. 

Hawley Magic went old school in the theatricality department, with the dramatic poses and hand waves.  The trick wasn’t booed, so that’s a plus, but the machinations behind it were terribly obvious.  As my notes say, “obvious hidden panel is obvious.”  If you don’t want people to stare at it, stop trying to hide it with your hands, female assistant.

Lisa Clark Dancers had a boring routine.  Even though their devotion to their choreographer was cute, it was definitely misguided.  The choreography was overly simplistic, and much too small for this stage of the competition.  When they go for that low level of difficulty, it needs to be performed perfectly.  It was not, and that really hurt them.

Aurora Light Painters lived up to Sharon’s expectations, in that they were not quite ready for prime time.  Their concept is fantastic, but they need a couple of non-fruitcakes on their creative team to nail down the more technical aspects of their performance.  The effect is still cool, but it really didn’t even feel like they utilized it at all in their performance besides for a few small bits, and it suffered for that.

Danielle Stallings sang a song I know I recognize, but I can’t think of the title off the top of my head.  It was a poor song choice, and her glory note were forgettable.  It’s too bad she got no screentime prior to that moment, because there were definite glimmers of talent, and if she had time before, she would have had a fanbase for sure.

Donovan and Rebecca wowed me again with their strength.  I can’t believe the lifts and holds they can do, and this time it was suspended via aerial silks.  This was an amazing act, and if they don’t get through, I will be incredibly surprised.

Big Barry can die in a fire, and I’ll be darned if I didn’t agree with Howard for the second time tonight.  Howie needs to apologize to the acts that didn’t make it through in deference to this turd.

Tom Cotter had another intense, rapid fire joke delivery, many of which made Joe bust out laughing throughout.  His act was only slightly raunchy, though I am surprised at the number of cusses he used, or at least, surprised they made it through to the broadcast.

Ben Blacque actually impressed me today.  Normally, I’m not a huge fan of the crossbow acts, but he and his assistant made it fun.  I was super amused at the end of the act, when the final balloon just didn’t want to die, even though he hit it dead on.  It just sat there, slowly letting out air hilariously as the assistant looked on.

Tim Hockenberry got the prime final slot, and didn’t waste it.  Even though he sang a Katy Perry song(Part of Me), he made it his own, and did it well. 

So, of all the acts tonight, only four will make it through, and it’s almost difficult to decide who that will be.  Due to the abysmal lack of talent, my should and will go through list is the same this week.  A note, I think that Turf and LCD will split the dance vote, and so neither will get through(and their weak performance didn’t help either.)

Should/will go through

Donovan and Rebecca

Tom Cotter

Ben Blacque

Tim Hockenberry

The results air tomorrow, so we’ll find out then how I did.