Whats Hot On TV

After a two week break to air the Olympics, NBC is finally getting to the semi-finals of America’s Got Talent. It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out for them ratings-wise. Then again, there’s nothing else on TV yet, so I’m guessing they didn’t lose too many viewers during this quick hiatus. Tonight we’ll see ten of the top forty acts, and we’ll vote on them, finding out tomorrow night which five will stay, just before we see the next ten.

Piers Morgan explains he has itchy fingers tonight hovering over his X button, and Sharon Osbourne warns everyone they need to step it up tonight and show a huge improvement from last time. David Hasselhoff explains his good and bad news. The bad is that one contestant had to pull out because of injury, and that would be the Russian bar act. They are being replaced in the top forty, and America got to vote on this online, just before we went on hiatus. At the end of the night tonight, we’ll find out which act was voted back in.

Extreme Dance FX is a better act than they sound. They are what host Jerry Springer explains as traditional clog dancing meeting the 21st century. I didn’t get to hear too much else of their intro package, as the sound edit is off and all I can hear is the cheering crowd. They are going for a faster, tighter, new look. Their clogging hip hop routine is really interesting, and I like them much better than before. So, whatever they did, it worked. Piers admits he wasn’t their biggest fan before, but he has to say tonight they’re terrific. Sharon enjoyed their smoking on fire energy, saying you can just feel it in the room. David gets an age check, from 14 to 26 for this group, and he agrees with Piers that they proved them wrong tonight. He now finds them inspirational.

I can’t figure out why this isn’t a copyright infringement of some type, as the next group is called The James Gang, and it just makes me think of the same group that features Joe Walsh. They couldn’t be more different, though, as this group escaped the ghetto of New York, mixing 1920s music with hip hop. Part of the song they’re singing reminds me a little of the intro to Fresh Prince of Bel Air, but then they give us everything but the kitchen sink, throwing in Russian dancing and magic. Piers thinks they are a very talented group of guys having an incredible achievement coming room the ghetto. However, he thought they tried a little hard to impress us throwing in the magic. Sharon personally loves The James Gang, but agrees they gave us too much too soon. David thinks they are as American as the Olympics (Umm, isn’t that worldwide … just asking.) with the Cab Calloway style of music, but he’d also like to see them tighten up the act, as he thinks they could win this thing.

Britney Spears impersonator Derrick Barry is up next, and thinks this is make or break time for him to get others to see that impersonation is a true art form. Piers thinks he’ll need to do something pretty amazing, and ends up Xing him before he even reaches the first chorus of Hit Me Baby One More Time. Sometimes when I look at him I cannot believe he’s really a guy, yet other times it’s very obvious. He pulls out some pyrotechnics at the end. Piers wasn’t as shocked as he wanted to be, and thinks Derrick should concentrate on being Derrick and leave Britney to being Britney. Sharon just loves Derrick and thinks there’s room for the two Britneys. She also jealous of his “lovely flat tummy.” David is again questioning his sexuality and likes Derrick’s positive attitude, just like his own, as he shows the back of his pants that say, “Back Hoff.” Derrick tells Jerry he started impersonating Britney one Halloween.

Elite, the ten year old martial artist/stunt girl act is next up. She thinks she would have to go to the hospital if she won, as she’d be so excited. She’s throwing in some new stunts. David thinks what she does is dangerous for adults, but watching her, I have to say this pirate routine is more cheesy choreography than anything else, and I’ve seen better. Bringing my own martial arts knowledge in, I’ve seen better from our students of the same age. She does more acrobatics than defense, and from a self defense angle, she’s not defending herself well at all, leaving herself open if the people she was against were actually fighting her instead of pretending to fall. Piers is glad not to be her father and thinks every woman in America is watching and saying way to go. Sharon thinks she could be the next Lara Croft. David can only smile watching her.

I have no idea why this guy that looks like a badly singing bug made it to the final 40, however Ronny B. did. He normally performs at Los Angeles bus stops, prompting me to wonder if people hop on the wrong bus just to get away. He sings She Bangs tonight, and honestly, William Hung did it better. He seems to have gone from weirdly entertaining to just bad, as he’s now taking himself too seriously. Piers jokes Ronny is a better singer and dancer than David will ever be, and says if Ronny wins the show, he’ll leave the country which may prove to get him more votes. Sharon compares Ronny to Jiminy Cricket, and David compares him to a singing ant.

A percussion group, The Cadence, explains their biggest struggle is that they all have jobs on top of this, as they have to afford to live and eat. Sharon is hoping they took the judges’ advice and added music to the act to spice it up. Tonight they have Beat It in the background, and they do just that. They have two drumsets along with two hanging basses and all their other drums. They show some great choreography switching drums and people, but do drown out the music at one point. Piers didn’t love the start, but thinks they ended brilliantly. Next time, he’d like to see a more dynamic beginning. Sharon notes The Blue Man Group has painted faces, and she thinks Cadence needs to bring out more of an animal instinct as well. David agrees, wanting them to take it to the next level, as he thinks they have potential.

Small town singer Jessica Price talks about the effect it had on her when her dad left her when she was young. After her first audition, he contacted her, and she never thought she’d have the chance to hear from him again. Sharon wants her to start believing in herself. Jessica takes the floor in a floor length dress and sings a very countrified version of Time After Time. Comparing it to American Idol, she doesn’t have the smooth vocals Kristy Lee Cook was capable of, but has so much more character and personality to her performance. I wouldn’t even try to compare her to Carrie Underwood. Piers’ only criticism is that Jessica didn’t smile enough. She needs to lighten up and enjoy it. Sharon tells her if she was her dad, nothing could stop her from coming to Los Angeles to give her a big hug. David liked that she wasn’t nervous this time and thinks she has a chance of winning.

Shimshi wanted to be a magician since he was a little kid and first amazed his parents. He moved to Las Vegas ten years ago trying to make it and sees this as his second chance. Tonight he made a last minute change and hopes he made the right decision. He gets a member from the audience to help him and does a card trick with some acrobatics involved. Piers is curious as to why Shimshi is on the biggest stage in the world doing a card trick. Shimshi explains he wanted to make the trick about himself and magic, not about the stage. Sharon calls Piers’ opinion rubbish and thinks Shimshi’s execution and timing were perfect and precise. David thinks it was a great card trick, but thinks if he gets voted back in, he should come with an even bigger trick next time.

The DC Cowboys call making the top forty a dream come true after putting the act together fourteen years ago to entertain at a rodeo. Their dream is to give up their 9 to 5s to pursue this passion. They’ve been training like athletes and know that one misstep, and it will all be over. They come out dancing to Footloose, shaking their butts in that honky tonk kind of fashion, with flips and cartwheels added in. They’re not always together, but have great showmanship. Piers ends up buzzing them and explains it was because they mentioned one misstep, and after twenty, he had to buzz. Sharon tells them what they lack in dancing ability they make up with personalities. David tells them he loved them from the beginning, but also admits they were off just a little. They’re asked by Jerry if they could add just one guy to their act would it be Piers or David, and they wisely choose Sharon.

Opera singer Neal E. Boyd explains his mom always knew the one thing he needed out of life more than anything else was encouragement. She lost her own mother the night after his first audition. His grandmother called and told him he did good, and the next day she was gone. An emotional time for him, he hopes it doesn’t affect him tonight as he dedicates this performance to his grandmother who always asked him to “sing pretty for me.” I’m in tears by the time he starts singing Somewhere Out There, so how could he not be. Nerves are getting him a little, but nothing beats this guy when he belts. After the judges give him a standing ovation, Piers tells him somewhere his grandmother was watching and is now saying he sang pretty for her. He calls him the Michael Phelps of the competition. Sharon wants to give him great big hugs as she just can’t help but fall in love with him. David loves the choice of song, and says somewhere there’s a place for us, and that place for him is right there at the top.

Jerry brings the eight acts out onstage that America voted on to replace the Russian bar act. Our choices were Lil’ Countrie and Page 1ne from New Orleans, Victoria Jacoby the young contortionist, Donald Braswell with the severed vocal chord, Miss Pussycat the spark girl, Xclusive the hip hop dancer, Dan Myer the sword swallower, Junior and Emily a dance act, and Kyle Rifkin the R&B singer. I’m figuring it’s going to be one of the acts that pulls out our emotions, like the group from New Orleans, Donald, or Kyle, and that proves correct as Donald is voted back in. He’ll get his second chance next week and thanks everyone that voted for him.

Wednesday night we’ll find out which five of tonight’s performers we voted through and see ten more of our top ten acts for America’s Got Talent. I’m guessing of the acts to be sent home, it will be Shimshi, Ronny B., and Elite. Those acts weren’t nearly as memorable by the time the voting started, but two more need to join them, and I can’t even imagine who the others would be.

For more information on America’s Got Talent, see SirLinksalot: America’s Got Talent.

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