by  Arthur Perkins
 
Here we are at the final round of about 10 preliminary rounds.  I believe that it is leftovers from an earlier Los Angeles round that they packaged up to make a 36 minute show including commercials (the rest going to a Meredith Vieira interview of Susan Boyle who surprisingly did not win Britain's Got Talent but placed second).
 
The lesser rated acts go first tonight:
 
Joseph James, 40 yom - a choral director who sings. Does he sing in a normal way? Not quite. He goes into high-pitched off-key nonsense on a standard song. His brand of singing does not sit well with the judges, who are polite but firm in rejecting him
 
Inara Darko 25 yof - she has a marginal classical voice
 
Scott Renkes and Darren Kessner 27, 36 yom - their version of a comedy circus is despised by the judges
 
Reverend Franklin Ruehl 65 yom drives 10 straws through a potato. The audience and judges do not consider this a true talent
 
Brian and Anthony, brothers, 26 and 28 yom pianist and acrobat all around, under and over the keyboard/bench; it's not a propitious combination
 
The better rate acts going to Las Vegas include:
 
Breaksk8 - a break dance group of 6 guys ages 21 to 36 who break dance on roller skates. It's very impressive but this was a split vote, with Piers against this act moving ahead; however, they will. Piers states that the problem with this act is the skates as they are superb break dancers.
 
Mosaic - a cappella group of 7 ages 30 to 34 sang with great harmony and synchronized moves
 
Lollipop girls - eye candy for the men in the audience, a burlesque show of 8 comely females. Although they are going to Las Vegas, this group will not get far.
 
Recycled Percussion - 4 guys 22 to 34 who create quite a racket
 
Jeffrey Ou - 18 yom on the keyboard, but imagine what he will sound like on a real piano. He has great talent.
 
SQ Entertainment- 9 guys age 18 to 23 who are a dance crew
 
Koshka Raenelle, 33 yof female singer of "Feel Like a Natural Woman"
 
Beale Street Flippers - these 4 guys do high speed aerial somersaults starting from the ground. they ratchet the difficult up until you quickly ask "How could they have done that?" This is an exceptional act. David calls it the "best flippers we've ever had on this show" which, while OK, is damning with faint praise.
 
Giana Pelekai - 8 yof from Hawaii, she has a 14 year old's vocal cords and can really dazzle. She will make the final 10.
 
There was also a series of 5 acts that are going to Las Vegas but we know nothing about them, not even their names. Couldn't NBC have rearranged things to show us who they were and what they do? You know that the answer is yes, so why doesn't they "waste" one minute total on these 5 acts. There was ample opportunity to cut out fluff from Meredith Vieira's interview of Susan Boyle which was good but at 21 minutes could have been trimmed by one minute  without any impact.
 
So we now know most of the more than 160 acts going to Las Vegas for the partially live cut to the round of 40 next week (the judges have to use memory and video to cull before anybody takes the stage there). Why couldn't the judges have exercise more discretion and sent fewer acts onward? Let's see who I predict to reach the rounds of 5, 10 and 20:
 
Top 5 - Pete Peterson (impressions), Jay Mattioli (magician), Mosaic (a cappella), Beale Street Flippers (acrobatics), Giada Pelekai (young singer)
Top 10 (there are some really excellent singers here, but I think the quality of non-singing acts forces them out of the top 5) - Barbara Padilla, Lawrence Beaman, Charles Dorsey, Texas Tenors, I Shaara
Top 20 - Rockin' Rory, Voices of Glory, Kari Kellams, Thea Magea, the Fab 5, Alizma, Platt Brothers, Joseph Constantine, Tallas Noble Latz
Top 25 (the five teams who just miss top 20) - Eric and Richie, Mario and Jenny, Mark and Anthony, Eleisha Miller, Jessica Martin
 
These ratings are certainly open to criticism and revision, particularly after we see those chosen to perform (which should be all of the above).