AGT: 9/12 The FINALS

Here we go.  What we have been building to for for four months.  The finals.  The best of the best, and one douche.  Oh, and NO SINGERS!

Let’s get right to it.

First up, David Garibaldi and his CYMK’s.  The act started off with a Who song, and the guys danced around and did their thing with the paint splashes and whatnot.  It ended with an upside down Einstein, and sideways C M Y K.  They of course were flipped to the correct way, and pronounced to be amazeballs by the judges.  It was a little slow to me, and it felt a bit recycled, similar to what they did in their audition, maybe?

Next was Tom Cotter, who went with the die of randomness, as opposed to Howie chosing for him, and it comes up with Poor Examples.  Tom goes on a riff about the weirdness of fairy tales and nursery rhymes, and it was freaking hilarious.  Tom capped it all off with the number two written across his bare chest, and even that was funny.  Tom was great.

After that came The Untouchables.  Unfortunately for them, they didn’t live up to their name this week.   The danced quickly to Proud Mary, and their technique was not nearly as good as it normally is.  They had a random sheet that only seemed to cover them up for no real reason, and then they were done.  For a final performance, it was really lackluster, and not at all what they needed to even think about winning.

Douchy Mc Doucherson, aka Joe Castillo, came next, and managed to squelch most of his douche tendencies for the evening, but you could see it oozing out of his every pore, from his slight nod and half salute, to his brown-nosing the judges.  Again, even if I didn’t hate him, his performance tonight was not strong.  He made the judges faces after starting with a caricature of Nick.  It was super lame, and not something that would get him votes anyway, so good riddance, I say.

And then: amazing.  William Close and the Earth Harp collective come out, and they won the whole thing.  He started off with a bit of Canon in D, and was joined by violins, his crazy drums, a girl with chimes on a curved bar, and a singer who sang an alternate tune version of America the Beautiful.  And then, the chime girl flew up to the rafters on aerial silks!  That, folks, is how you win a million dollars, and preview a show that is going to make that group more money than they even know what to do with.  That act was amazing.  It hit all the right beats, brownnosed subtly to the American public, and was incredibly professional and well done.  If the earth harp doesn’t win, I’ll eat my (non-existent) hat.

Finally, Olate Dogs came out.  They had a lot of new tricks, a few old ones, and more stage presence than you can shake a stick at.  Britain, this is a dog act that should win the show.  And they would too, if it weren’t for that meddling earth harp.  They even ended the show on a high note, with Sharon threatening to dognap the dog that ended up in her lap.  It’s almost too bad, this act could have won it easily in a previous season, but the Earth Harp is so far and above the rest of the competition, it’s almost unfair.

Anyway, to sum up:  Fantastic show, nearly all the acts deserved to be on the stage for the final, and yay for a non-singer winner!

Here’s my ranking for the night, with #1 being my winner:

1) William Close and the Earth Harp Collective

2)Olate Dogs

3)Tom Cotter

4)David Garibaldi

5)The Untouchables

6)Joe Castillo

Tune in tomorrow to see how I did!