Matto1020

Semi finals starting now. Tonight's episode is going to be, as Mel B says, Off the chain! Let's do this!

Sal Valenteneti
Ha ha god I love this guy! And this song choice was so much better than last time. And he fucking nailed it! Great start to the show, and I hope he goes through!

Blake Vogt
This kid's stage presence is still a list wonky, but he was much better and less awkward tonight. Ha, and the invisibility joke was pretty funny. But as a magic act, it was a tiny bit underwhelming. The problem is we see people "disappear and reappear in the rafters" all...the... time. I'm guessing he won't go through. Very rarely do I agree with Heidi... but that blonde minx was spot on.

Edgar
Ugh, the sob story! This the worst part of the show... the sob stories. And I'm not talking about the stories of people like Brian Crum, but ones like, "Oh I got knocked up as a teenager and married a guy who almost overdosed." And this song did nothing for me... please let them be done after tonight.

Lorie Mae Hernandez
Let's see if this girl is as edgy as she was last time. I remember giving her props for basically alienating half of her voting audience... here we go. Not fantastic material, but I really like her. Wouldn't be upset if she goes through, unless it means Tape Face doesn't go through.

Musicality
See, now this is my kind of sob story. People who have to overcome life challenges because of choices they have no control over. Ha, and what an excellence choice for a song! I just wish they would of had a bit more of a "BIGGER" act. Everyone standing in the same spot just makes it feel a bit static. Either way, I enjoyed this performance. (Mel B nailed it)

Deadly Games
God I love these two. Not just because his wife is hot, but I love that they've gone from knife throwing to whips, and now back to awesome knife throwing! They just killed it tonight. These two better make it through!

Tape Face
Oh no... I'm so sad the audience member didn't know what to do. He's with out a doubt my FAVORITE act, but I'm afraid this might not put him through. I've watched all his stuff on YouTube, and the dude is pretty smart. This wasn't his best act, and he had better material he could of went with. Either way, I'm giving him all 10 votes to help put him through. And fuck Mel B for taking the judging time and making it about her.. goddammit.

Jon Dorenbos
Ha ha I love this guy. His personality is fantastic, and the last thing you'd expect from a professional football player. And by god, the best magician I've seen on this show all five years I've watched. PUT HIM THROUGH! PUT HIM THROGH!

#SaveTapeFace

Grace Vanderwall
This is one of those act I just don't get. She constantly sounds like she's mimicking modern singers, there really isn't anything unique to her voice. And while we say the same thing about Sal, at least Sal has a great personality. Not to mention she sounds a bit horse tonight... Again, I just don't get the fascination with her.

She sounds like


Malevo
Same problem I had with them last time... their house music is so loud you can't hear their tap dancing, and their drumming sounds like its not really coming from them. They are a cool act, I just wish they'd scale it back just a bit.

Laura Benton
This girl is just amazing. I really think this will be the year of the singer. And it could be her.

My realistic picks for tomorrow night:

• Sal Valenteniti
• Deadly Games
• Jon Dorenbos
• Grace Vanderwall (ugh)
• Laura Benton

#SaveTapeface

mphtrilogy

tape face was robbed, what the hell!

Josh-da-man

How did Tapeface get robbed? Looked like he was supposed to have a staplegun fight with the bearded guy and he did. Was there supposed to be more to the act?

Anyhoo...

Sal Valenreneti - Not my thing at all. Just seems like he's doing a karaoke bar Sinatra riff. Don't get it at all.

Blake Vogt - Agree with Heidi that the card trick was better. The invisible-flight trick was lame.

Edgar - Not bad, but forgettable.

Lori Mae - Not her best routine, but I like her stage presence.

Musicality - Meh. Not really into a lot of the singers.

Deadly Games - Knife throwing is old hat, but these two are great. Lot of fun to watch.

Tape Face - He does very little, but he's such a bizarre character that I can't stop watching him. Can't believe I'm saying this, but he's a mine I'd watch for an hour.

Jon Dorenbos - That would have been a killer trick if he hadn't rushed through the end. He didn't really pull off the fake-out with the wrong coin count (it was a fake-out, wasn't it?), and he also slipped up and said Hawaii when he shouldn't have. Also not sure if he revealed all of the quarters. Didn't help that Howie couldn't read or count, either.

Grace - she's great for her age, but she doesn't do anything you can't hear in every coffee shop in the country on a Friday night. Everyone seems to like her, though. I can see her winning this.

Malevo - I guess they're good, but the whole dancing/percussion thing doesn't hold my attention.

Laura - Very good.

mphtrilogy

mel b, got into it with simon, shenanigans followed and they didn't talk about his act.

writer106

I like Lori Mae, but I hope she doesn't win. She will improve in time. Too bad a kid sketch comedy show like All That isn't on these days she would be good for it.

Edgar-I didn't care for last night's performance but I like them more than Musicality.

I agree with Josh-da-man on Grace.

Matto1020

Semi Finals Live Results

Tape Face is one of the Dunkin Saves. Come on DVDTALK, let's save this awesome act!!!


Act 01 - Grace Vanderwall
I mean, not surprising. I just don't get the love for her.

Act 02 - Sal Valteniti
Thank god! I think Malevo hid behind way to much background music.

Act 03 - Jon Dorenbos
Sad to see Deadly Games go, but goddamn Jon has killed it EVERY...SINGLE...TIME!

Act 04 (Dunkin Save) - TAPE FACE!!!!
Fuck yes!!! Thank you America!

Act 05 (Judges Save) - Laura
Fantastic. She absolutely deserved it over Edgar. What a finale this will be!!!

mphtrilogy

Only 200 votes separation, i'd like to think my vote helped! Thanks for the bump!

Matto1020

That's insane how close it was, and to be honest, I'm shocked he made it through. Like I said before, he's my favorite act this season (originality), but last night was easily his weakest act. Not to mention the audience member he picked wasn't fantastic, and Mel B totally fucking him over last night.

But glad he went through. Cant wait to see his final act!

Josh-da-man

Ah. I FFed through most of the judge's comments last night. The judges critiques are generally useless on the live shows, so I skip over them.

Matto1020

Another reason why I miss Stern. He would at least offer constructive criticism and give advice to each act on what they should work on for their next performance.

DRG

So, 3 of 5 going through are singers... and I'm reminded why I quit this show for so many years.

And next week we have:
Jayna Brown
Calysta Bevier
Kadie Lynn
The Clairvoyants
Viktor Kee
Sofie Dossi
Brian Justin Crum
Linkin' Bridge
Kadan Bart Rockett
Steven Brundage
The Passing Zone

So in that final group, we have 5 music acts, 3 magic-type acts, and 3 stunt acts. Honestly there's one musical act in that bunch that impressed me (Brian) but I'm guessing at least 2 more music acts will go through, meaning at least half the finals will be music... blah.

Also, that second group seems noticeably weaker overall. You have two acts that have already been eliminated once and a couple of young acts I forgot had even made it this far. I wonder if Simon engineered it to give his Golden Buzzer girl a better shot of getting through.

Yeah, I don't get it either. These types of acts seem to pop up every other year on one of these shows and they always act like its the first time we've seen this sort of thing since Sinatra. I don't think he's bad at what he does but I also don't think it's all that unique.

Maxflier

Can not believe Tape Face is in the final after that shit act. I am shocked that everyone is still so behind this guy, he blew his load in the first audition. If he had done this as his first audition I would bet he would have gotten buzzed out by all 4 judges, there was nothing funny or entertaining about what he did this week.

whotony

Thats for sure Tapeface has no act left.

Josh-da-man

Tapeface speaks!

Really weird to see him without the tape and hear his voice.

Matto1020

What an interesting interview, and I'm intrigued when he said, "It's a nonsense show with little sketches and a big ridiculous finale for no reason whatsoever."

Makes me VERY intrigued if this will play into his final performance.

creekdipper

Yup...you nailed exactly what we've been thinking all along...and why we may quit the show since it's following the recent pattern of rounding up the usual suspects of categories (singers, comedians, magic). Not a huge fan of Malevo (their dance routine seems to be the same; only the props & backdrops change), but at least they were different. And Dangerous Games were always incredibly entertaining & had the whole package (costumes, dangerous elements, skill, beauty & grace) and kept upping the ante each time. Now almost all of the non-traditional acts have been eliminated (glad they brought back Passing Zone). Victor Klee always amazes, but that won't be enough to save him since he's already past puberty. The contortionist/crossbow girl has a better shot due to the age factor.

We like Tape Face, too, but that was a weak routine by any standards. It would be all right for a breather & to get the audience involved in long set, but that was a disaster in a competition in which you're supposed to be showcasing your best stuff.

We were hoping this year might be different and some more variety might make it to the end (like the Earth Harp guy, the sand artist, or another performance act combining visuals with technology), but it seems that we're destined to see a weak imitation of The Voice finals.

Despite Mandel's obligatory "this is the best season yet," the overall talent seems pretty weak this year (and there were a lot of similar acts). More like the old Ted Mack Amateur Hour with some good one-off performers who basically did their whole repertoire during their auditions.

This has been discussed in previous seasons, but it honestly seems that the voting public just goes with what seems familiar (the types of acts most commonly associated with "talent"), the best backstories, who's "cutest," etc. over actual talent.

The kids have some talent, but honestly, Lorie Mae flamed out (her awkward charm just became awkwardly weak material) and Grace just does the same song over & over (breathy, halting, slightly-off-kilter delivery...even the audience doesn't seem to know when she's finished).

The NFL magician is gregarious, but his tricks are pretty easy to figure out. The guest Illusionists, by comparison, did some things that make you say "How did they do that?"

Maxflier

Can you explain his last trick for me? It always drives me crazy trying to figure out how these people do these magic tricks.

wmansir

Edit: It looks like the chest/coin trick is a commercial product and can be bought for $7500.

Maxflier

Thanks.

creekdipper

wmansir's excellent explanation falls almost exactly in line with how we hypothesized he did it...right down to the journal switch (my wife noticed that the rubber band placement had changed) to the coin-dispensing box.

My first thought was that the assistant was hidden in the cart, but it seemed to be transparent since you could see not the humans, the footballs, and the waving stars backdrop matching up exactly where they should be. That got me to thinking about how the box could be the key to the coin dispensing. Notice how he was hurrying Howie to pick up the coins, leaving no time for Mandel to examine the box or for camera closeups.

It was still a fun trick, but it's like the clairvoyant writing on the board trick. With technology, it's easy to accomplish what would have been more difficult in the past. The challenge for magicians these days should be to come up with tricks that can't be easily explained away by technology (although theater trap doors, smoke & mirrors, etc. have been the staple of magic acts for decades if not centuries).

That's why the rubic's cube stuff boggles my mind. Unless the guy is using some rigged device, it's hard (for me) to figure out how he does it.

John's tricks were more entertaining than the skinny magician with the old "torn card" trick (notice how he covered the edge of the card & did a weird "tearing" of the already-torn card) and the masked assistant gag...both which were pretty lame & could be accomplished by the preteen kid magicians.

That's why I prefer acts such as the Passing Zone which combine good stage presence/comedy with some hard-to-fake tricks.

DRG

Thoughts on Last Night...

Jayna - A decent performance, but I still think she's in that list of 'wouldn't make the live shows if this were the Voice' singers.

Kadan & Brooklyn - It's cute and not terrible, but I don't think it's worthy of being in the finals.

Kadie Lynn - Just like Jayna, I'm indifferent to her. It was much better than her last performance, but I don't think she should have even made it this far.

Viktor Kee - I like his act, although I wanted to see something a lit different here.

Linkin Bridge - This didn't work for me. The harmonizing here just didn't feel right for the song... it didn't feel organic to the melody and just felt tacked on so they could put their own spin on it or something. It wasn't awful, just not memorable.

Passing Zone - It's a fun act, but since they put so much into the idea of torturing the judges I wonder if it would be as fun when they're not around.

Calysta - I think she sounds good in the gentle parts of the song, but can't quite reach those big notes. Jayna may have actually been more consistent here.

Brundage - I think he's great at the small stuff, but his big centerpieces fail to impress me. See comments below.

Sofie - I love she changed it up and ditched the bow this time. I think the producers may have dropped the ball a bit by not cutting to a wide shot to better show the height she was at for that last neck suspension move.

Clairvoyants - I just love the presentation of this whole thing. Even if it's not the most impressive 'trickery' of the season I just dig the vibe of this act and hope they move on.

Brian - I think he's the most talented singer of this bunch. This wasn't my favorite song choice for him, but even on a down week I found him heads above the other musical acts this week.

My personal top 5 would be: Clairvoyants, Sofie, Viktor, Passing Zone, and either Brundage or Brian.

Who I think will be the actual top 5: Brian, Calysta, Jayna, Brundage, and Clairvoyants.

See, to me his quick sleight of hand stuff is still impressive, but his big centerpiece tricks all seem to revolve around the concept of 'make the judges do something to make it seem like they were in control, but ultimately has no bearing on anything'.

My theory on last night's trick:

Rob V

I think the Clairvoyants did an excellent job setting up their "skill" with the backstory on the house and book they found. They should win, hands down. I have no idea how they do it, but they've put together a Vegas-worthy show compared to the others... and singers have no place on this show with The Voice and American Idol type shows out there.

windom

Well, American Idol just ended in the spring...so expect more singers on AGT next year. Really the only other option is The Voice.

The Infidel

RE: Cube trick...

I thought it was interesting that he said there was a different celebrity on each card, considering there were two Brad Pitt cards. After Nick took his card, Brundage fanned the other cards out on the table to show they were all different, and I clearly saw a Brad Pitt card on the table.

whotony

Brundage's act is relatively lame I think.

Solving a cube can be done without even looking at the cube so he does that without looking at it.
The "wall" was obviously a pre-made set piece.

What is Kee's act?

He juggles a little and uses those gravity balls that they sell at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Passing Zone needs to change the name of the act and they should switch to being billed as comedians.
They're funny but the rest is just dressing.