77 replies to this topic

[TWoP Gadget]

NBC’S HIT TALENT COMPETITION SERIES RETURNS WITH THE HOTTEST PERFORMERS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY– Hosted by Jerry Springer and presided over by celebrity judges David Hasselhoff, Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne, “America’s Got Talent” brings the variety format back to the forefront of American culture by showcasing performers from across the country. A colorful array of hopeful stars, including singers, dancers, comedians, contortionists, impressionists, jugglers, magicians and ventriloquists perform for the judges. The third season kicks off with auditions shot on-location in theaters across the nation.

[MoreRidonkulous]

Do we call Neil, the Opera singer, "Paul Potts II: Homeboy Bugaloo"?

[noahsotherwife]

The audience was so hostile, I thought I was watching Showtime at the Apollo. I don't remember them being so rowdy last year.

[HelloooKitty]

I think Neil was better than Paul Potts. I had tears streaming down my face as Neil preformed. I don't usually watch, but I will tune in to see Neil as long as he is there.

[troubleinmind]

I thought the audience hostility was very staged, but that's nothing new. I really enjoyed listening to Neil. Best of luck to him!

[aquarian1]

I loved Neil too. That was amazing. I actually stopped reading TWoP and just sat back and watched.

Up until then I was liking Nuttin But Strings, and the Britney impersonator was mostly impressive in the looks copying department.

[Whosyermama]

Ooh, the opera singer and his backstory got me! I'll keep watching.

Does anyone know the title of the song he sang? My son was really moved by the song and I wanted to track it down for him.

[MoreRidonkulous]

The audience was so hostile, I thought I was watching Showtime at the Apollo.

Actually the New York and L.A. audiences seemed fine. Apparently its just Chicago audiences that are beasts.

So what's the general opinion?

--Is Piers still trying too hard to act like Simon (note that on Britain's Got Talent, Piers is usually a lot nicer, leaving more of the nastiness to Simon)?
--Was this year's cross dressing Britney impersonator better than last year's? (at least in this case he/she looked female...)
--Am I the only one who thinks the trombone player sucked?
--Were those Romanian twins auditioning for a porn film, or what?
--Is anyone else flabbergasted at Terry Fator, a freaking ventriloquist, getting, basically, a $20 million a year future for the entire next decade? ($100 mil for the next five years and apparently a renewal option for $110 mil for five more...)
--Did anyone else want to see more of the raw dead chicken puppet?
--How scary is it to have a 4 year old singer on the show? I almost want her to lose so her parents don't push her onto a child star route...

[tominboston]

In the past I've found AGT's trainwreck audition shows pretty funny, but the overly rabid audience was just too much tonight. I assume that they were coached this season to scream and jeer and gesture like a drunken Roman audience giving the thumbs-down sign to a defeated gladiator, but a (very) little of that goes a long way.

The two fiddle guys from New York were unique and really good... hope they go far.

[MoreRidonkulous]

Does anyone know the title of the song he sang? My son was really moved by the song and I wanted to track it down for him.

Puccini's "Nessun Dorma".

Paul Potts, the guy who won the first Brit version of the show, sang the same song for his audition. It's a very well known "short" aria for tenors, that tends to impress easily. Pavarotti had a famous version of it that actually "charted" on radio in a lot of the world.

Edited by MoreRidonkulous, Jun 17, 2008 @ 10:21 PM.

[KookaMonga]

I would have liked to see more of the good acts, like the dancers and the cloggers. I did laugh each time Jerry said "Watch the stage." When the 80 year old tap dancer was dancing.

[yellowdog]

When I saw the promo for the show and the Potts-like moment that aired tonight, I muttered, "No freakin' way are they going to try and pull that!"

It just seems awfully contrived that the American version of this show has a "moment" that faithfully duplicates the "moment" that marked the high-water mark of the British original. That doesn't mean I don't think Neil has "talent", it's just a rather transparent move to copy a magical moment. I'm betting talent scouts scoured the country, looking for an American Paul Potts, and had him sing the same damn song.

The original has been watched more than 26 million times on YouTube, so the performance will seem awfully familiar to a lot of people, including some critics.

Funny that Piers doesn't remember being there for the original.

[MoreRidonkulous]

Funny that Piers doesn't remember being there for the original.

That's why the big emotional outpourings came from SHA-ronnnn and Hoff-en-burger...

[MdMaxx]

I guess I'm going to be the jerk and say that the 4 year old did not deserve to make it.

[aquarian1]

No, I agree with you, MdMaxx. I was surprised they put her through. I understand she's 4 and they don't want to make her cry, but they could have lied and said she was too young or something.

[MoreRidonkulous]

I guess I'm going to be the jerk and say that the 4 year old did not deserve to make it.

Following yellowdog's theory, that was another deliberate manipulative copy of the U.K. version, which if you traced it on YouTube had a 6 year old cute wittle giwl do the same kind of act, and get the same kind of reaction.

EDIT - YouTube seach for "Britains Got Talent Connie". Reviewing it, lil' Connie is actually miles better than the American wittle giwl.

Edited by MoreRidonkulous, Jun 17, 2008 @ 10:31 PM.

[MdMaxx]

MoreRidonkulous, I've seen little Connie and she rocked. Her version of Over the Rainbow is awesome. I knew I was seeing deja vu once Paul 2.0 came out.

[junemeatcleaver]

I thought the Paul Potts guy was a contrived move to replicate that bit of success from the Brit show here. It's not like Paul Potts isn't unknown here, he was on the Today Show for Pete's sake, yet they're pretending Paul Potts clone is something special and unique. I hope they actually mention that guy's similarities to Paul Potts next round, though I doubt they will, these reality shows don't like mentioning their foreign counterparts.

They should have said no to the little girl. I don't think I could stand it if she made it to the top ten, little kid (I mean small children like 8 and under) singing is irritating to me.

Nuttin But Strings are my favorites so far.

ETA: I did think of Connie when itty four year old was performing, but I didn't make the connection between the two. Thanks.

Edited by junemeatcleaver, Jun 17, 2008 @ 10:42 PM.

[MoreRidonkulous]

So we can call her "Connie Minus". For her being both younger, and er... less.

Along with Paul 2.0 (would it be too politically incorrect to try "HispaniPaul" as a nickname?), you can see the obvious attempts to make AGT the smash that BGT is. But it won't work. People will watch because there's little else on, but it won't be watercooler talk.

And yet it still makes me wonder how the big brains in Vegas justify that ludicrous salary to Terry Fator. A MILLION a year would have seemed like a lot. Twenty million a year is just...

[Bookhouse Boy]

That whole stupid thing with the Paul Potts Clone was, to paraphrase someone on this thread... Ridonkulous !

The thing is... for people who have no idea who Paul Potts is, the Xeroxing of the schtick probably works really, really well. But you'd think they'd wait a season or two more. Potts won Britain's Got Talent *exactly* one year ago tonight, on June 17th, 2007.

With the same freakin' song as this America's Got British Clones! guy.

Edited by Bookhouse Boy, Jun 17, 2008 @ 11:00 PM.

[NIU Huskie13]

In sifting through those who only got snippets of their talent to air. I'm a little intrigued by the Asian singing quartet (or quadruplets, I'm not totally sure)Jazmin?, as well as the Sick Step Crew (I know they have or had some connection to the SYTYCD world).

Interesting to hear that the much hyped opera singer is somewhat a copy of a contestant from the British version. He was really good, but I still question whether his talent will translate when the audience actually votes. Even with massive pimpage...

Trotting your four year old out for a reality show is just all kinds of wrong. The judges have to ultimately pull the plug on her don't they? It just seemed like tonight would have been the better setting to do that gently rather than to wait until Las Vegas.

[chesslover]

I liked the flaming baton twirler :)

[MoreRidonkulous]

The thing is... for people who have no idea who Paul Potts is, the Xeroxing of the schtick probably works really, really well. But you'd think they'd wait a season or two more. Potts won Britain's Got Talent *exactly* one year ago tonight, on June 17th, 2007.

To be fair, apparently the cloning went both ways. Last year's BGT had a "Quick Change" type act, after the first American version (it aired here first) had one.

Still, I think it establishes that once they've noticed that a certain type of act hits big, they cull through the auditions (and maybe even go looking for) similar types. I mean... the lil' girl is no coincidence either, although as has already been stated she isn't a patch on the British lil' girl's talent level.

I wonder if this year's BGT contestants (their second series just finished a few weeks ago) will be aped in the NEXT AGT after this one. They had, for example, one act with a bunch of hot chicks doing a kind of high-tech sexy electric string quartet, for example.

Or if there's an unexpected breakout on this AGT, if next spring's BGT gets more of the same...

Edited by MoreRidonkulous, Jun 17, 2008 @ 11:16 PM.

[MDKNIGHT]

I missed a little bit of this ep. I know people are saying Fator is getting $100 million for 5 years but the only source I found on the internet (MSNBC) is saying

He recently signed a five-year, $1.5 million deal to perform in a theater named after him at The Mirage

. Could the 100 million thing have been phrased is such a way as to leave ambiguity so that they aren't actually saying HE is getting 100million? Like for instance if a rock band sells out a concert and the gate is 1 million and t-shirt sales etc are another million it is not the same as saying X Rock Band made 2 million on that concert. I'm asking because I didn't hear the actual wording and I'm not finding confirmation of this.

I think Peirce buzzed that dance group for having ugly clothes just to call attention to himself. He may have also been doing those kids a favor as maybe America will move to want to save those sweet kids from the Big Bad Brit. Not that I don't think they deserve to go on, because I liked them a lot. I'm just saying I'm not buying that Pierce is that petty deep down. I think he's playing a role he's been given.

Somehow I don't think I'd want my 4 year old to go to Vegas. I don't hate the parents yet although there is obvious a bad road they may go down (Danny Bonaduci's parents I'm looking at you!). I hope they keep their heads and think of this more as a fun memory they can share and not expect money out of it. Send her to voice and music lessons, be supportive, and leave it at that. If she wants to work at it she'll be fine. If she wants to do something else instead, support that.

ETA Now if it DOES turn out Fator is getting the big bucks, I'm fine with that because I thought he was REALLY talented and I'm used to seeing mediocre or even talentless "rockers" make zillions. I can think of a hell of a lot of people who are worthless and yet are rich (cough Paris Hilton cough)so if he found his pot of gold by practicing for a billion hours, enjoy (and help your sick sister like you said you would). Do that and I'm cool.

Edited by MDKNIGHT, Jun 17, 2008 @ 11:42 PM.

[MoreRidonkulous]

MDKnight,

It's the VERY top result on Google News if you search with the term "Terry Fator".

http://www.usatoday....ent-fator_N.htm

He'll begin headlining at Las Vegas' Mirage casino next Valentine's Day under a five-year, $100 million contract with an option for another five years at $110 million. "It's surreal," says Fator, 43. "I feel like Gilligan just inherited Thurston Howell's money."

I don't see a lot of room for ambiguity. It can't be much clearer than that.

Edited by MoreRidonkulous, Jun 17, 2008 @ 11:46 PM.

[camom]

I agree that the little 4 year old shouldn't be going to Vegas. With some work she could be very good, but she sure isn't going to win. She is awfully cute, though.

Loved Jerry worrying about the 80 year old tap dancer getting too close to the edge of the stage.

[Vermicious Knid]

They shouldn't have put the little girl through. She was cute and all but just a 4 year old who sings, and not very well at that. Really they should just weed out all the singers before the finals. There are enough shows for that around. Notice there's absolutely no mention of Bianca Ryan. The Britney impersonator was very good but this town already has three in shows. Including a midget. Are they actually doing the semis in Vegas? I thought they were in LA.

The hip-hop violinist brothers aren't unique. Miri Ben-Ari got there first.

[troubleinmind]

I forgot to mention that I've seen the Nuttin But Stringz guys floating around for years. They have been on various shows, even, apparently appearing on CSI and they have a cd on Amazon. Is that kosher? http://www.amazon.co...z/dp/B000HKDE7Y

I do like them, but, to me, they're old news.

Edited by troubleinmind, Jun 18, 2008 @ 3:04 AM.

[Taeolas]

Well IIRC, even if they get to Vegas, not all of the acts get the chance to go on stage. Hopefully the 4 year old will be one of the ones that gets quietly dropped through the cracks. "Passing" her seems to have been mainly a way to not make them look TOO much like the "Big Bads", since I'm pretty sure at that age I'm not sure how she would have taken being buzzed.

As was said last year, this show REALLY needs to have a minimum age set on it for the contestants (16 or 18 or 19 or 21 or something). Hell it could be a good chance for NBC to spin it off too, creating an "America's Youth Has Talent" version, without that 1million prize but a chance to get some training to nurture their talents or something.

The baton twirler was ok, but not the best. I'm sure some of those dancing groups were great, but the ones we saw longer views of didn't wow me as much as some of the groups in past years. I'm a little surprised there weren't any ventriloquists yet, but maybe NBC is filtering them out or something. The trombone player seemed okay, but seems like a 1 trick wonder. The violinists look like they have a lot more potential to me for some reason.

[whatevausay]

When I saw the promo for the show and the Potts-like moment that aired tonight, I muttered, "No freakin' way are they going to try and pull that!"

It just seems awfully contrived that the American version of this show has a "moment" that faithfully duplicates the "moment" that marked the high-water mark of the British original. That doesn't mean I don't think Neil has "talent", it's just a rather transparent move to copy a magical moment. I'm betting talent scouts scoured the country, looking for an American Paul Potts, and had him sing the same damn song.

The original has been watched more than 26 million times on YouTube, so the performance will seem awfully familiar to a lot of people, including some critics.

Funny that Piers doesn't remember being there for the original.

I totally agree 100% with each word. I also think that he is not half the singer of the UK version.

If that 4 year old gets through, I will vote and vote and vote for her. I don't care that she is 4 and that there would be issues with her in Vegas. That is pure talent, no bones about it. She had me crying so heavily, I was heaving!