Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

Not really digging the show this season. I find most of the singers to be coffee house/open mic quality at best. The show is more interested in building their personal stories then their actual talent.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

No matter the level of the talent, they're always going to sell the personal stories, because in general, that's how these shows work these days.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

I watched this last night and dont remember anyone from the ep.

I've never seen Hough in anything but DWTS and I have a little bit of a crush on her on this show.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

I agree that if you analyze each voice they're not all that good, but he certainly knows how to sell it in the moment. The tambourine act I just don't get. Of course, if more of the singers went through, people would be complaining about that, too. I've always look at the acts with the mind-set "Would I pay a premium to see this act" or "Could this act headline a show" (since that's the basis of the series), and I can't say I've seen much (if anything) this season that fits the bill.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

The show is fresh out of ideas. Those acts that could headline have been done time and time again... so now it's just good singers or people with a horrible back-story. This is the first season in ages that we've mostly avoided due to the lack of interesting acts.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

I still don't get how guy doing a medley of ok to bad impressions of movie quotes is so impressive to the judges.

Feels like Kodi Lee had this thing won after the first audition episode.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

As I've said before I'll give him points for "packaging", -he hits so many so quick that its hard to realize how mediocre they are. I think he creates more of an experience that feeds off the audience's good will toward the films than his actual talent. That being said, I thought last night's performance was his weakest, wasting a lot of time with the "Aliens" material. I thought he'd be called out and I was surprised when the panel seemed delighted.

I'll be curious about this vote, since they're pitting several of their "quirkiest" singers against each other. The "Wild Card" was the least impressive, though I'm glad Simon actually let her finish a song.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

How many other shows have blindfolded Sikhs crushing watermelons with axes?

How far can Bir Khalsa go without getting hurt?

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

We're about 1.5 episodes behind and this season is just hot garbage.

They could honestly just have skipped most of the judge cuts and gone straight to the golden buzzer acts.

I do live the acoustic guitar kid from Poland(?). Dude is phenomenal but I doubt voters would ever vote an instrumentalist to the finals, let alone win.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

Sophie Pecora a local girl from Danville did not advance

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

If they did use a see through blindfold or cheating wouldn't the producers have checked before letting them on the show?

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

Watching this today with the wife and when he was done I looked at her and said everyone knows at least three people who can do that and wishes they wouldn't. The effusive praise from the judges is mind boggling.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

It's been proven time and time again that the producers enable a lot of the magic acts. Go on youtube and you'll see how they purposely pan the camera away or darken scenes so you can't see card tricks manifest real-time on black felt back grounds. Once I saw this, I had little faith in anything being a quality act.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

Some of you might want to sit down for this one... magic isn't real. Using a fake blindfold isn't cheating, that's just a part of "magic" acts. It's up to them to be more discreet about their tricks and make a believer out of the viewer.

One of Shin Lim's(?) early tricks where coins or cards would seemingly disappear on the black felt mat always bothered me though. It definitely felt like the producers were in on it like Rob says. The show producers helping a magic act look more talented than they are seems like it goes against the nature of the show.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

All magic tricks, when you get down to it, rely on cheap gimmicks like that. Trap doors. Secret compartments. Mirrors. Slipping stuff in and out of your pockets.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

When production resorts to that the magician is displaying no more ability than Barbara Eden did on "I Dream of Jeannie."

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

The slight of hand stuff is legit though... I thought "hey, let's learn a quick card trick using slight of hand". So my dumb ass watches a few youtube videos and think that it should be pretty easy with some practice. Practice or not, contorting some of my fingers to hold cards behind my hand or wrist is never going to happen. I do give props for the magicians who can pull this off.

The rest of the guys who use props... doesn't do it for me. I have wondered how the mind-readers work though. There was the act where the guy "allegedly" pre-recorded a video of the answers he was given. I figure that was helped along by production too but never really confirmed it.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

Perfect timing on all the discussion just previous in this thread with the mess that was the mentalist act last. First Gabrielle's face when the lady in the act said the flavor was bubblegum, which was clearly not what she was tasting. Then the guy covering up the butterscotch part of what Simon wrote, Simon calling it out and then him saying that part wasn't important.

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

It was obvious that the act wasn't working, and another obvious disaster was the knife-throwing act (which could have been helped with camera angles but clearly they wouldn't or couldn't).

Re: America's Got Talent (NBC) -- Season 14 Thread -- premieres 5/28/19
 

No question this was a great example of why mentalist acts are such garbage. "Simon, I want you to write something - anything you want to eat on this pad of paper and I don't want you to let me see it." Simon writes something, and the handler snatches it from him and looks at it.

I do agree with Simon that Howie (who I genuinely enjoy) was being an ass, though maybe in his mind he was bailing out the sinking ship

With traditional magicians it is understood that they are fooling you by using their various skills, and they leave you wondering how they did it. Mentalism employs no skills so they must desperately act like there is something real behind it because otherwise it is glaringly obvious just how utterly pointless it is.