‘America’s Got Talent’ review: Anna Clendening, Mighty Atom Jr., Mike Super perform again
“America’s Got Talent” kicked off the middle portion of the competition tonight with many of the categories that will be a part of the live shows. Since almost everyone left is pretty good, we had a night of entertainment we can stand behind so much more than we could any of the earlier acts.
We’re going to go through this round-by-round, and even though this was a long night with a ton of performers shown off, we do appreciate the editing being slick and giving us a nice little snapshot of anyone.
Advancing straight through – Blue Journey, David & Leeman, Dom the Bom’s Triple Threat, Jonatan Riquelman, Dan Naturman, Acte II, Emil & Daniel.
You may only vaguely remember some of these acts, but to us Blue Journey (the dance group with a twist) and magicians David & Leeman are the only two are the real threats to win the entire competition.
The Magicians
Mike Super – Incredible. We don’t buy the whole “Desmond” act, but even still the guy is an incredible magician.
Psycho Jack – There’s a reason why we have never seen this guy before. He’s just not good enough … at least in this.
Franklin Saint – Not the best showman out there, but his trick making a 7-Up can into something actually containing soda was cool.
Mat Franco – Super cool card trick. We’ve seen the “magician names your card” trick a billion times, but never quite in this visual form.
Dance
Sean & Luke – Hokey, and not that good compared to others that we’ve seen. They wouldn’t make it past the first round on “So You Think You Can Dance.”
The Agents – Doing this sort of animation without mistakes is incredible. Probably the most overrated of this whole group.
John & Andrew – We wish that the show focused a little more on the dancing and less on the fact that one is straight, and one is gay. That seems to be how they want it, and the show pushing it so much takes away from what they actually do. Luckily, their talent was at least recognized enough that they went straight through.
Kid Singers
Quintavious Johnson – Way to pick a tough song! This kid is legit. We do worry about some of the kids in this category, but this is one of the few with a real shot at this.
Grace Ann Gregorio – There’s just something a little too stage-momish about Grace Ann. She’s good, but we’ve heard better, more charismatic opera singers, even some that are close to her age.
Mara Justine – Hate the song choice. Why in the world would a girl her age sing “I Am Nothing” from Whitney Houston? Why hasn’t this song been retired yet? Also, she was the weakest of the three singers we’ve mentioned here so far. Yet, she went straight through, which makes us wonder what we really know.
Julia Goodwin – A pretty solid performance, but we would’ve wanted more of that singer / songwriter side to be shown off.
Comedians
Darik Santos – We feel for any comic has an impossible task coming in there and making four people laugh, but he’s pretty funny. The problem is that his “awkward comic” persona lags behind Joe Machi on “Last Comic Standing.”
Wendy Liebman – Heidi Klum’s critique of this was almost proof that she has no real understanding of how comedy works. It’s about confidence and feeding off your audience; without that, there’s nothing. Wendy had some good jokes (the nurse one was great), but they were inconsistent.
Joe Matarese – The problem is that anyone who does the whole “my kids are terrible” shtick will be compared to Louis CK, and that’s a tough act to follow.
Variety
Juan Carlos – This guy is totally going to advance over some of the other acts in this category, and probably tick a lot of people off in the process.
John Narum – He is really good for a yo-yo act … but it is still a yo-yo act. There are only so many things he can do with this.
Loop Rawlins – This guy is a great cowboy act, and the degree of difficulty here is incredible with that burning rope.
Mighty Atom Jr. – The guy does some amazing things for age 93, but there’s admittedly a part of us that worried that he’s going to pass out the moment he finishes all of these. Plus, what else can he do?
JD Anderson – This dud is legitimately crazy. Clearly, the cut on his head proves that this is certainly dangerous and then some.
Female Singers
Emily West – A great voice, but more than that we loved the Roy Orbison song choice. Hats off for actually doing something different for a change.
Carly Jo Jackson – A tough song from Gotye, but her voice just isn’t good enough.
Anna Clendening – She has the YouTube following, and she also had a great first audition. Unfortunately, her anxiety got the best of her here at first, as she tried to flee before performing. When she did get out on stage, though, she was great. She has a very distinct and interesting swagger to how she performs.
Kelli Glover – We’ve always liked Kelli’s voice dating back to the original “American Idol,” but the problem has been that there is something missing. We don’t quite know if she will ever be a star, but this was as good of a performance as we’ve ever seen her give, and it was a nice way to cap the night. Grade: B+.
Who was your favorite on “America’s Got Talent” tonight? Share your thoughts with a comment, and head over here to get some further talented TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: NBC