‘America’s Got Talent’ review: Meet Special Head, Angela Hoover, and a ‘booty’ song

“America’s Got Talent” is back, and that means some pretty great / awful things. We have a chance to meet some uniquely talented acts, see some things that drive us crazy (such as all of the filler nonsense and product placement), and also have a few delusional people go out on stage like lambs being led to the slaughter. There’s really nothing like it, which helps to explain why we’ve stuck with NBC’s summer train-wreck for eight straight years.

Before we get into the actual review of the acts, we are going to start by groaning about how tired we are already of hearing that the show is going to be in Radio City Music Hall, which does not really mean anything to viewers save for the prestige of the name.

We’re going to divide this up into two separate categories: Successful acts, and acts that were either sent home (or really should have been).

Advancing

David Weathers – This is completely stupid, which is why we loved it: A guy whose talent was to poke snakes that could kill him at any given moment. What makes someone go down this road? Masochism? Anyhow, this guy managed to get a snake to pop a balloon, which we suppose is a talent. (Watch a video of this act here!)

Marty Brown – We’ll warn your now: This is going to be a recurring theme of these articles all season, because we have a real love / hate relationship with singers. We appreciate their talent, but at the same time, it’s a tad annoying to have yet another show that is all about people singing when there are a billion other shows they can go on. Granted, Marty (who is the ham version of Kevin Skinner) wouldn’t really work on any other show, and he is good, but could this guy really be a star? We’re a little skeptical on that, and we really want a winner this season who is remembered years down the road.

Catapult Entertainment – It’s a very cool act, but the problem here is that we’ve seen something very much like this on the show before and it’s not as unique as it once was. The twist? At least they were extremely cool in their shadow imagery, and they also had a touch of humor and fun to their storytelling.

Hype – This almost felt like a plant, with the judges complaining about how little time was put into this routine, only to quickly find out that it was awesome. We do love the dance trio more than the larger dance crew, since we are able to see all of the individual personalities so much better. This was cool, and the ceiling is very, very high for these Hawaiians.

Anna Christine – Probably our least favorite kind of act: The child singer. They’re talented but inexperienced, and they’ll get further than everyone else just because they’re kids.

Pacific Boys Choir – This was pretty cool editing in how the show actually used their performance as a background package, and they were so good that we didn’t even notice that they were just another contestant. Awesome.

Special Head – This was by far the craziest thing that we’ve ever seen in our entire life. We’re actually pretty sure that this guy is a witch with levitating powers. The throat singing almost sounds like our electric razor, but the rest of this? Simply astounding.

Angela Hoover – Angela is a pretty funny comedienne, although she’s probably not as strong as fellow impressionist Francine Lewis on the British version of the show, but there is some potential here. The one thing she needs to work on is a personal pet peeve of ours, which is not telling us who the impersonations are of (I guess if we can’t tell then they aren’t really that great.)

“B-O-O-T-Y” – We don’t remember the guy’s name, but this is hardly a big deal since you probably don’t, either. What really matters here is that this man came out and delivered what had to be the weirdest audition of all time. We personally love that he’s set his sights low, and has a goal in life to be a one-hit wonder. Nothing about this made any sense, and it was horrible … but also great? The song is literally still in our head right now.

The “ugh” and the “oh really?”

Miu – Oh, the classic Simon Cowell gig of putting someone on who speaks little English, and then making fun of their terrible talent. At least this “dancer” went for it.

Chuck from the Bronx – Okay, this was just weird. Let’s watch a guy eat spicy food! How is this a talent at all? It’s mostly just something that you do when you want to make your friends leave the room.

Who was your favorite act from this week’s “America’s Got Talent” premiere? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below! Also, check out some more news on this season over at the link here.

Photo: NBC