America's Got Talent - Las Vegas Round(8/5) and Cut to 40 Results show (8/7)

 

By Arthur Perkins

I apologize for the lateness of this recap but longstanding commitments made it impossible to do this recap any sooner. I want to say up front that I regard these two shows as completely unnecessary. If Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff were not such bleeding hearts then they could have managed the prior rounds differently by not letting so much marginal talent reach Las Vegas. They could have and should have managed the qualifying rounds so that there were only 40 contestants left. NBC's desire to milk this show made the decisions reached on the 8/5 show "The good, the Bad and the Ugly". Bad is primarily a comment on the prior judging. So now past sins have to be corrected and the first is to cut 113 acts to 94. Four groups were brought in and seated. As Piers Morgan said to his fellow judges "You have to be brutal" was the style of making decisions. All the losers were in one group and that turned out be be Group B.

 

They next step was to cut to 60 by the end of the show, which meant that each had a 64% chance of surviving. The acts were grouped by type to make it easier on the judges. First up was the Extreme Performance category. I did not see the Russian Bar Group actually compete, but they moved ahead. One of that group mentioned that "if I do it wrong,

she(Christine) gets a trip to the hospital" due to the extreme risk of their routines.

 

Kevin Taylor - broke bricks with his hands and head; I think the judges saw this as highly repetitive with their first performance Dan Meyer - sword swallower incorporated the dangerous curved word into his act

 

The next category was Tribute:

Derrick Barry - Brittany spears impersonator DoRae Saunders - Tina Turner impersonator Joseph Hall - Elvis impersonator; he was asked by David if performing without an audience was a problem; Joseph lied and said no.

 

The next category was Variety.

Illusionist David Milich led off and did the illusion of sawing a woman in half.

Victoria Jacoby the young contortionist did show new stuff.

Young dancer Allie Alzedy finished what was shown on NBC for this category.

 

Announcements were made at the first half of the show that Kevin was eliminated and so was David. A total of 34 moved ahead.

 

The next category was Opera. At this point I noticed a bad trend of inane questions to the contestants by the judges. These included "why are you worthy of winning" (OK in audition rounds but absurd here), "how do you think you did"?, "and how bad do you want this"? It's all stupid filler in a program that does not have enough time to show all the good acts so far.

 

Neil Boyd - sang a popular tune, not an operatic one. His excellent voice is good for both types.

Don Braswell - a crooner; he isn't top-notch Sheqida - a singer who does low bass and falsetto soprano vocals; this is tough to do well and he pulls it off Michael Smith

 

The next category is Juvenile Vocals:

Ejazz

Michael Bestrom

David Millitello - a nice young lad, but his voice is not that good to go further in this competition Kaitlyn Maher - a nice young lady aged 4 who can sing, but the range of her voice is limited and high notes in her song were not sung in tune because she couldn't quite reach them. She was asked a question by David about how she could win; she answered it by saying "because I practice", a very good answer particularly since the judges had warned the contestants that not enough acts they were seeing were truly polished.

 

The next category is Male Vocal:

Neil Boyd sang a crooner song, not opera. It showcased his versatility.

David Jens did not bring his guitar to the stage; he went for a vocal-only performance and his voice was really good. However, he stopped 2/3 of the way through because he had forgotten the lyrics. I can relate to that as I have had recent experiences in singing solos where a small segment of the lyrics deserted me, which puts you under incredible pressure.

Kyle Rifkin - R&B singer; I thought he sang OK but had done better in the qualifying round. Piers thought he was "cracking all over the place", which I did not hear.

Brian Cheatham - R&B singer who sang "When a Man Loves a Woman?" well.

 

The next category is FEMALE VOCALS:

Kat sang "Let the Good Times Roll" well.

Holly Hardin moved around a lot and sang decently.

Queen Emily - she gave it her all but she was just not as good as the others as I saw it. Wanting it badly is not enough in a talent competition.

 

The results for the second half were announced at the end of the show:

Juvenile Vocal - there were two eliminations of acts I had never seen before. all the above move ahead.

Male Vocals - all were relieved to find that they move ahead.

Female Vocals - Holly Hardin and somebody else I've never seen were eliminated.

So now there are 60 left in the competition.

 

On 8/7 there was a results show with each of those 60 facing the judges to find out their fate in reaching the round of 40. Each has a 2/3 chance of surviving. I will just summarize those decisions:

 

Joseph Hall - yes

Brian Cheatham wins out over Kyle Rifkin Nuttin' but Strings - yes George the Giant - yes Russian Bar Trio - yes the James Gang - yes DoRae Saunders - yes Taupl Family - yes Michael Piazzi - yes The Wright Kids - yes Eli Mattson - yes Ronny B - yes Indiggo - yes Paul Salos - yes Kaitlyn Maher - yes Daniel Jens - yes Shimshi - yes Flambeaux - yes Alex Pyles - yes Shequida - yes Plastik Musik - yes Sarah Lenore - yes Bruce Block - yes Jonathan Arons - yes Queen Emily - yes Jonathan Burkin - yes Jessica Price - yes Dan Meyer - no Holly Stone - no Miss PussyKat - no David Militello - no Junior and Emily - no Lil Countrie & Page - no Derrick Barry - yes Xclusive - no Donald Braswell - no Zooperstars - yes Slippery Kittens - yes Extreme Dance FX - yes Dallas Desperado Dancers - yes Sick Step - yes Tapping Dads - yes Texas State Strutters - yes DC Cowboys - yes Beyond Belief Dance Company - yes Sterling Silver - yes Michael Strelo-Smith - yes Neil Boyd - yes

 

That would be it except for an accident. Remember Christine of the Russian Bar Trio, one of my top favorites? She was injured practicing recently and so that group is out. NBC has started an audience vote to decide which of 8 groups gets the last spot. Those are Donald Braswell, Victoria Jacoby, Junior and Emily, Lil Countrie & Page, Dan Meyer, Miss PussyKat, Kyle Rifkin and Xclusive. I would like to see either Victoria or Kyle get it.

 

That's it until Aug. 27.

 

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(Photo courtesty of NBC)