JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum America's Got Talent

Anyone watch this? I swear, a little "just turned foe-wa" year old girl sang, and my heart was in my throat.

THEN, to close it out, a very emotional 32 year old insurance salesman named Neil sang opera. OH my lord, did he sing opera! Had me tearing up as much as he was. Sure hope he makes it...and I hope he'll get whatever help he needs (this competition could do it) to lose some weight. He is very much at risk being as overweight as he is. Of course, Pavarotti was also.....

There were about 2-3 reasonably talented/amusing people across the entire show. The little girl was okay for a little girl.. not much different than any other little girls singing at the age, though she handled the stage well. The Opera singer was good, but not quite as good as I hoped. But compared to all the others they showed the entire night, he was the most talented... and frankly one of the only talented ones they had. Some of the useless acts they put through were a joke.

We've had JPF members in the finals of this show each year and I've talked with them while the shows were ongoing and learned a lot about how manipulated and fake this particular show is. Sure, some of the acts are really just folks who audition, but most of it is heavily planned and manipulated in all ways. As someone who grew up with a single mom who worked all the time to support us alone I don't see what the big hardship was since I know many folks who also grew up that way. So perhaps I wasn't moved by it for that reason. At least he had talent.. of the 3 years, so far this is clearly the weakest. I am hoping they are holding the actual talent until later in the series.

Brian

Hi Brian well it appears that Britain has not got much talent either. We have just had our show and the standards were laughable. It amazes me to think that people will do anything to get on TV and some have delusions that they can actually entertain just by standing there making a fool of themselves. There were two women who came on with "dancing ferrets." They had about six or seven of these creatures. Well they just ran about the set causing mayhem till they were recaptured.... and the ferretss were not much better either.
The winner of the show was a break dance type, I have seen much better, who did his breakdancing to a hip hop version of singing in the rain under a huge shower rigged up on the stage. He got soaked. It was a bit of a copy of the Flashdance sequence but fell way short.
Cheap reality TV has taken over. SAD.

I started watching this show last year and was mildly entertained until they put through the Boy Shikira(?) and dropped the Hillbilly Tenors...At that point, I simply got disgusted(partly because I was forced to agree with Da Hoff--ack!!!) and went back to searching for "Whose Line Is It Anyway" on You-Tube.

Midnite

Doesn't sound like I need to record this to DVR....Good...watching too many TV shows puts a crimp in my music making....I just got back into solid practicing 2-3 hours a day again. It feels good!

Hey Big Jim: nice avatar/photo!

Well, the few four year olds I've heard sing were flat, far more than that little doll.

As far as the talent, the format has changed to an imitation of AI (don't know if it's because Cowell is now hailed as EP...he might have been from the outset, but I never heard him mentioned until this year). THEREFORE, it's kinda silly to make an across the board judgment about there being 2 or 3 "reasonably talented" people. There were I don't know how many acts that you barely saw snippets of that were put thru...no way to make a definitive statement as to their talent or lack thereof.

A lot of emphasis (ala AI) in the first (and I assume next) week is on those who don't make it, yet SEEM to think they actually have talent (again, like AI does). I'm not keen on that idea...it's borderline inhumane, and I fear one of these days, someone will go ballistic from the blatant humiliation(like the guy on Jenny Jones who killed the person who had a crush on him...another GUY...not too long afterwards.

As for the opera singer, I don't claim to be an opera buff, but in my limited purview, I thought he sounded excellent. Regarding his difficult upbringing, I feel the overriding implication was, that he wasn't only from a broken home, but his Mother is white, and he and his bro are obviously mixed, so he might have had to endure cruelty from that, which, coupled with a weight problem (and I don't KNOW that he was overweight as a kid) could be sheer hell for a kid.

Well, as someone who has traveled a lot and stayed with musicians all over the US, Canada and around Europe last year as well I have heard some truly horrendous stories of how people grew up and what they had to overcome. Things like extreme physical and emotional abuse (which he didn't claim or suggest), things like extreme poverty where even having food was a challenge on a day to day basis (which he didn't suggest), where the parent(s) didn't love them at all (which was clearly not the case with his mom), where they were sexually molested and/or prostituted out (again, doesn't apply to him), or where they had serious health and disability problems (other than his weight, that didn't seem to apply either) and those folks wouldn't use their upbringing as a tool for sympathy on a talent show. But he chose to take what I suggest was sadly far more common of an upbringing (i.e. single mom who has to work a lot) and try to milk it like he overcame what some of the above had to. Sure, I am sure that interacial issues were likely difficult, there's no doubt. But he barely touched on that in his recounts of life. It was focused on having a single mom. Big deal.

He certainly is talented though. But if you listen to grads from schools with Opera/Classical Vocal programs, you'll hear a lot of other really great singers there as well. There's no doubt that compared to the really weak competition, he seemed amazing. He was the reasonably smart kid in the class full of dullards. As for those they put forward, they did show snippets of them and nothing seemed very interesting, let alone entertaining. And the ones they did show that got put forward were not very talented. At least some of the crazy performers were funny.

America's Got Talent has always been the worst edited and produced show of it's kind. Simon Cowell has been Executive Producer since day 1. It's part of his deal to keep doing American Idol. They have definitely improved it over the first year and bringing in Sharon Osbourne and Jerry Springer surprisingly upgraded the show a great deal. (Yeah.. hard to consider Jerry an upgrade over Regis, but Regis seemed totally miserable over the train wreck first season).

I am sure they'll find a few other talented folks. The guy who won last year was really just a seasoned pro getting ready to launch a new vegas show who used the show as a summer long preview of his now 100 million dollar act. If anyone believes all that came about because he was discovered on that show (as if he wasn't a known entity already) is probably the dream viewer of this show. You have to suspend disbelief a bit to watch it without seeing right through most of it. That said, I did find stuff to enjoy in previous seasons and I am sure there will be some things to enjoy this year as well.

Brian

If suspension of disbelief or naivety are necessary to watch the show with an unjaundiced eye, then I must have them in spades. I find it infinitely more difficult to accept the premise that the show is nothing but a set-up to bring....I dunno...to bring about WHAT? To whose benefit does it accrue for the ventriloquist to win and thereby garner a $100,000,000 contract? The Vegas hotel where he performs?

Or, is it all a case of "the fix is in?" And NBC will share the kitty brought about by sticking this already fairly well-known, established ringer (Boy, does that sound paradoxical) into the mix. I would think it would be a darn sight easier (and FAR less risky) to simply give the guy an hour special, let him showcase his talent, and THEN play to crowds worthy of his sizable salary in Vegas. I don't get it. If it IS nothing but a "bilk the public charade", seems to me they are risking potential across the board credibility issues for the entire network that would be far too devastating a risk..think the game show Twenty-One..to reap whatever it is they make on advertising for a not-that-widely-watched summer show. ESPECIALLY since it is a live, votes-driven program. Let the people find out how their votes were cooked, their time wasted, and watch the hue and cry.

It sounds like the opera guy's back story is an integral part of the master plan. If it is all about deviousness, why didn't they embellish his story to meet winner's (read loser's) criteria for a Queen For A Day whizzing contest? You know the one...MY problems are much worse than YOUR problems! THAT is jaundice to the max. Further, I haven't the foggiest notion what the problems of musicians you've stayed with have to do with the price of oil on the moon anyway...this guy is an insurance salesman. But wait...that, too, is probably a fabrication! But jeepers, I still can't figure why they didn't give him more of a sob story...unless...his tears were unrehearsed, so they went with it, figuring MOST people WOULDN'T view it as a reason to invoke memories of the horrendous hardships of the Jews in Nazi Germany (don't believe there is ANY way to pull oneupmanship on THAT one, eh?)as a frame of comparative reference, thereby diminishing whatever the UNKNOWN, underlying reasons for his obvious discomfiture.

Nope, gives me a headache to become so analytical over a show of this nature. HOWEVER, when the truth as you tell it wins out, as it is wont to do, NBC will be in a peck of trouble (publically speaking) for its scandalous manipulation of said public.

Weirdly I had never watched the show and happen to be changing channels when I came upon the little girl part. Talk about perfect timing. She was precious and priceless and reminded me that there are still wonderful, innocent, beautiful things in the world. I got all teary eyed. I loved the part when they asked her if she was from New York and she said I'm from America. The crowd went wild!!!

Lynn,

I forgot about that part. It was PRICELESS! I teared up, too, though it was probably staged.

I actually was channel surfing at the time too and that 4 year old blew me away! Wow.... such composure... she's not old enough to be "afraid" yet... hahah

Seems to me they are using the tear jerky formula of that show where they redo someone's house. And the fakey host with the weird hair, gets all teary over every family.. and then takes all the credit at the end.... (which makes me sick)

Not to mention, they spend like $20,000 on a girls room to decorate it in Barbies.. which she will absolutely HATE in 2 years. That money could have went to her college fund for god's sake.

They totally waste money on over-doing things so that the advertisers get their products on the air.

Contrite is the word, but people have been eating it up for years. That's why they watch TV so much, because their brains are yogurt.......and they just eat up whatever is put in front of them. Sort of like a fat guy at McDonalds..... geesh.

But.. that 4 year old.. was amazing..........! Let's face it, you can't get a 4 year old to fake much of anything.... and she was more on key that most people on American Idol.. LOL

Well, tonight I was amazed. They had on a magic act that has been close to the VERY TOP, performed for Presidents (Bush & Clinton), and all over the world, but used the fact that he nearly died rehearsing a trick 2 years ago as reason for them to "try out" for the show!

This REALLY does blow me away. The Pendragons are to the magic profession as someone like, heck, just think of a solid country star...not a SUPERstar, like Hank, Jr. (Comparing country to magic, Hank would be akin to David Copperfield), but say someone like Keith Urban. I just can't believe they allowed someone so widely seen to audition. What Brian said is certainly evident with this stupid decision...well, unless these morons DIDN'T know who they are. Be anxious to see if there is any backlash in the next few days...

The Pendragons are a world famous duo. They have performed all over the world for many years including "The Royal Variety Performance" that is about as good as it gets.
I have worked with them at some of the large holiday camps in Scotland and North England. What they are doing on Americas got talent is open to question as this show is supposed to be for unknowns. What next Madonna or Bon Jovi?

I watched an episode this evening, we get it screened here, It featured a talking rabbit and oversized bimbos singing "Lady Marmalade" very very badly.

I do not doubt that America does have talent but this show does not try very hard to find it.