‘America’s Got Talent’ finale: Does winner Paul Zerdin have chance of real success?

Last night, ventriloquist Paul Zerdin was crowned the winner of “America’s Got Talent” in an incredibly-tight vote over comedian Drew Lynch, and as a result of this, he is now a million dollars richer!

However, you have to assume that this is far from the end of his journey. Instead, he is kickstarting what is going to be a career of hopefully getting a chance to do a variety of bigger performances that were previously impossible for him.

So what is his ceiling ultimately? It’s a good question, since “AGT” winners do not often have the biggest track record in the world of going on to do huge things. If you look at the first seven seasons, we would say that Terry Fator is the only person who has really been invited back on multiple occasions for performances. Luckily, he is also a ventriloquist. Magician Mat Franco last season also seems like someone who is going to have a big career in Las Vegas, and we have in Paul someone who, more than likely, is going to have a chance for something similar.

If you are a ventriloquist, there are two questions you really should ask: Are you funny enough, and are you also innovative enough? We think the answers to both of those questions has to be “yes” for him. We do see the argument that he should have more voices than he does, but it is so rare to be as good at this as he is. There’s a charm with his act that works for all audiences, and a wit that should keep him coming back for many years.

Ultimately, we anticipate Paul being at least back on the show next year, and having a reasonably good shot of being a Vegas performer. It all comes down to how hard he works.

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