‘America’s Got Talent’ review: Drew Lynch, Samantha Johnson, Siro-A, Paul Zerdin in live show #1

Tonight’s “America’s Got Talent” aired its first live show of the season, and we’d say that for the most part, this is a ton of fun to watch … though there are some duds as we’ve watched the night from start to the finish.

We’re going to hand down in this article our take on how everyone did, and we’ll be back at the end with our picks of the seven to advance. You can also compare these these to where we ranked everyone going into the night.

Siro-A – It is rather unusual to start the night with an act this good. Usually “AGT” has a tendency to give you a little bit more of a slow burn. These guys continue to be great, and from our vantage point really are favorites to take the whole competition if they continue to show more and more of this every week.

Alondra Santos – You have to be a really perfect singer at this point to advance in the competition. Alondra was strong at points, but her tuning issues, plus going early in the show, likely seal her fate as going home.

Vita Radionova – She is so good at what she does, but the problem is just that contortionists as solo acts just often do not pop. So much of the entertainment is about the surprise factor, and no one is at this point surprised. It’s a shame for Vita.

Triple Threat – The first real dud of the night. They were flat throughout, boring, and just didn’t have any of the charm. They probably had some nerves going on and were completely out of their element. A shame, really.

The Gentlemen – They were fine, but this was almost a repeat performance with a new twist. Most of their talent is in the venue of “aww, how cute.” Sooner or later, that sentiment starts to rub off. He was not as good as Siro-A or Vita.

Piff the Magic Dragon – The judges had a hard time pinning down their primary issue with Piff, but we feel like we’ve got it figured out: He’s funnier when his set looks like it costs about $5. It was a little too high-production, and the timing felt a little strange with the crowd and the live show. The trick was actually really fun, but something didn’t deliver right.

Benton Blount – We’re not going to say that Benton is going to set the Billboard charts on fire tomorrow, but in between his story, personality, and giving a very solid performance of “Say Something,” he’s done enough to advance.

Craig and Micheline – This is another one of those Vita-like acts where the two of them are really talented, but we’ve seen similar acts before and the surprise factor is gone. Really, their biggest thing working against them is just a lack of screen time.

Drew Lynch – We were a little worried for Drew, mostly just because there are unfortunately only so many jokes that he can fit in to his allotted time due to his stutter. Therefore, he has a smaller room for recovery if a joke doesn’t land. Luckily, most of his did tonight. Genuinely funny and genuinely inspiring. We’re not calling him the winner of the competition, but he’s a lock to advance.

Showproject – Their biggest crime may be sticking a little too close to the original audition with the addition of the lights on the jeans. For the most part, we’d say that this was a really fun performance to watch, but we’re not sure we would enjoy it another time without something new.

Paul Zerdin – Allow this to serve as our apology to Paul for ranking him last going into this episode. We were wrong … way long! We really just didn’t like the creepy baby last time and it got in our heads. The ventriloquism is really good, but it was the creativity tonight that was so genius, and the puppet “coming to life” when Paul was off the stage.

Samantha Johnson – Samantha was very good. The sad news for her is that she went after Paul, who was arguably the best of the night, and we have heard similar singers before. At least it was a solid way to end the night.

As for who should advance? We’d put through, based on this show and recent ones, that Samantha, Paul, Drew, Piff, Siro-A, Benton, and then Vita are the ones that have stood out the most. Vita is the wild-card of the group.

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