By Arthur Perkins

With another show completed it is now possible for me to start recapping America's Got Talent. There have now been 5 weeks of preliminary rounds in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas. There will be another 3 rounds prior to the Olympics. After the Olympics, the promised Las Vegas live competitions will start on Aug. 26, with a results show each Wednesday ass long as the competition continues. Tonight's show started in Atlanta and then went to Dallas. there was a brief visual summary of most of the best acts to start the show.
 
Michelle Wallace the singer was shown first. She had the audacity to ask the audience to stand up and to wave back and forth.  Her vocal talent did not match her bravado and fell far short of that required to get to the Las Vegas round.
 
Bruce Block won my award for most interesting act. He had a bed of nails to lay on and he gingerly got onto them while his pretty assistant sang and danced quite well. Then a circular platform was placed on him and the assistant got on top of it and jumped up and down. David Hasselhoff asked about the impression that the nails made in his back because it did not appear to be much. David decided to join the act and he got on the platform weighing almost twice what the assistant did. this time the impressions of the nails on Bruce's back was much more obvious. All voted yes.
 
DoRae Saunders (who I about 90% certain is a man) impersonated Tina Turner with dancing to "Proud Mary". Unfortunately he cannot sing like her so he used a recording. If he had been able to equal Tina's singing and dancing, that would have been some act. As it stood the impersonator got an invite to Las Vegas but has little chance of getting far there.
 
There was a quick succession of 4 acts that all got the invite to Las Vegas:
Tropidanz Samba Group - very colorful costumes and good dancing
Fast Wally - juggler
Brian Cheatham - singer
Zooperstars- acrobatic dance troupe
 
The Dallas Desperados are 12 young women who are cheerleader types. They danced well and are moving forward.
 
Kenneth Parrio "Xclusive" - I refer to his act as "the mechanical man" with moves of his body choreographed to music and rhythm. He had the most creative act. He is going to Las Vegas
 
Barry Collier - he does animal barnyard noises very well, but who wants to hear barnyard animal noises as the entire act. He is going home.
 
Nance Upchurch - singer who did nothing noteworthy. She is going home.
 
the Freak Show - 4 guys who displayed no particular talent. They are going home.
 
Music Makes the World go Round - in the opening credits, Piers stated that "there's only one thing worse than 1 accordion player, it's 2 accordion players". Well, guess what this act was and how well it did with the judges. If I told you they did not make it to Las Vegas, would you be shocked?
 
Ray McChesney - he came out trying to make as a "pretty boy" but he was deluding himself. The judges gave him the hook.
 
Donald Drasswell - 11 years ago he had to abandon singing because his vocal cords were cut and he has spent the intervening years reacquiring the ability to speak and just recently to sing again. He started with a hostile Dallas audience, but his singing was excellent so they eventually came around. He is going to Las Vegas.
 
So, that makes a total of 8 acts shown tonight who are joining the many others already approved for Las Vegas. After 3 more rounds, if they average 8 from each one it will mean about 64 acts in Las Vegas. That strikes me as a very large group, but NBC has already telegraphed their desire for this show to extend as far as possible (at least until the fall season starts in late September). Tonight I did not see Piers voting against the majority of David Hasselhoff and Sharon Osbourne, who tend to be bleeding hearts voting yes for many acts.
 
Donald Drasswell and Kenneth Parriot are the only acts that might make it to the final group. I do not rate them of the same quality as these 6 others I saw in earlier weeks:
 
Russian Bar Trio - one female gymnast doing stunts on a board between poles held by two strong males
Jonathan Burkin - twirler
Jospeh Hall - Elvis impersonator
Neal Boyd - opera tenor
Victoria Jacoby - contortionist
Kyle Rifkin - singer
 
 For more America's Got Talent Links visit Sirlinksalot.net
(Photo Courtesy of NBC)