I was going to write about Spencer Horseman's latest failed escape, but Andy at The Jerx has it covered pretty well.
Good enough for a Sunday.
- Andster
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
AGT Wrapup
Spoilers incoming, obviously.
I had to stop writing about each episode as it aired because it was just turning into "I liked him, I still liked him, I don't like them" with no real commentary. I still watched every week, though sometimes not until late in the week, and voted as much as I remembered to.
I have to say, this was the best final I can remember seeing. There were magicians, comedians, a ventriloquist, a regurgitator, circus stunts, and best of all, only two singers! This was truly what (I feel) America's Got Talent should be: a showcase of variety arts that you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else.
It was hard to pick who to root for. Obviously, I liked all the magicians and would have been happy with two magic winners in a row. I feel like Derek and Piff's performances in the finale were lacking, but if we were to judge them based on all of their AGT performances, I think they were both strong. Drew Lynch was hilarious and I thought he had a great chance of going all the way. (Sidenote: According to Google, he is Stephen Lynch's brother. I did not know this and was surprised it wasn't brought up on the show. Maybe it was and I missed it.)
I'm still very much on the fence about Stevie Starr and his regurgitation. I'm like 99.9% sure he's not doing what he claims to be doing, though I have no idea what methods he is using. The logical part of me is saying there's no way you can manipulate locks and film canisters with your stomach or swallow smoke or lighter gas. It has to be trickery and sleight of hand, which makes him more of a magician in my eyes. Which is fine, but I'm not sure how I feel about getting to the top five of AGT on a premise that's entirely a lie. At least the magicians are coming out and saying they're doing tricks, or at worst not saying anything and just presenting it for what it is. I feel like what Stevie is doing is similar to a doing a dance act in shadow, but all you do is go behind a screen and stand there while something gets projected onto the screen. Or maybe not, because he actually has magical talent, he's just dressed it in a realistic way. Maybe he's more of a Uri Geller or John Edwards type of magician. I feel like either of those guys wouldn't have made it past auditions, so I guess Stevie's got something going for him.
I do have to say, the Craig Lewis Band was really amazing in the finals. I skipped their performance while watching my tape, but got to see it while watching the recaps before the live finals and I was blown away. Even as someone who doesn't really like singers, I had to appreciate that they were good. If all of their performances were of that caliber, I wouldn't have been surprised to see them win.
One thing I didn't like was the performances with a guest star, or whatever you want to call that. I feel like a lot of the bits fell flat. The singers were all right, but that's because they were just doing a duet, which is whatever. I really didn't care for the magic mash-up. I felt bad for Piff not being able to get his card sword to light. I didn't like Stevie's bit with Penn and Teller either because it came off so forced. It felt like, "Here, I'll watch your trick and now you watch mine." (I did notice when Teller made a mark on the film canister, he wrote 'Piff', which I thought was hilarious.) The one I felt really bad for was Uzeyer Novruzov. (Full disclosure, I Googled to find out how to spell his name. All I had to type was u and it was the first result.) He was injured in the previous round, and ended up doing a weird dance routine with Freelusion. He looked lost and out of his element, which he was. I think it was a mistake to have him do that.
Ultimately, the ventriloquist Paul Zerdin won the season. I have mixed feelings about it, and it's not just because I wanted to see another magician win. For some reason, ventriloquism just doesn't do it for me. It's a guy talking to himself. Moving your mouth or not, you're doing what amounts to a monologue and that's just not that funny to me. I know comedy is subjective and obviously people liked him, but it's not my cup of tea. All that being said, I think he is the most entertaining ventriloquist I've seen. I liked that he mixes things up, like with the puppet talking and moving when he walked offstage, or the mask he put on Howie. Switching voices with the puppet was something I hadn't seen before and I really liked that. He has more variety than most people who just say "Here's a guy you'll like," and pull a puppet out that seems to have only been created to make very specific jokes, then dump it and pull out another one. If Paul's show doesn't devolve into that, I think it would actually be pretty entertaining.
Put it this way: If I was in Vegas and got offered a comp ticket to his show, I'd probably go check it out. If I was offered a comp ticket to Jeff Dunham, I'd just say no. That's as close to a rave review as a ventriloquist is going to get from me.
- Andster
I had to stop writing about each episode as it aired because it was just turning into "I liked him, I still liked him, I don't like them" with no real commentary. I still watched every week, though sometimes not until late in the week, and voted as much as I remembered to.
I have to say, this was the best final I can remember seeing. There were magicians, comedians, a ventriloquist, a regurgitator, circus stunts, and best of all, only two singers! This was truly what (I feel) America's Got Talent should be: a showcase of variety arts that you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else.
It was hard to pick who to root for. Obviously, I liked all the magicians and would have been happy with two magic winners in a row. I feel like Derek and Piff's performances in the finale were lacking, but if we were to judge them based on all of their AGT performances, I think they were both strong. Drew Lynch was hilarious and I thought he had a great chance of going all the way. (Sidenote: According to Google, he is Stephen Lynch's brother. I did not know this and was surprised it wasn't brought up on the show. Maybe it was and I missed it.)
I'm still very much on the fence about Stevie Starr and his regurgitation. I'm like 99.9% sure he's not doing what he claims to be doing, though I have no idea what methods he is using. The logical part of me is saying there's no way you can manipulate locks and film canisters with your stomach or swallow smoke or lighter gas. It has to be trickery and sleight of hand, which makes him more of a magician in my eyes. Which is fine, but I'm not sure how I feel about getting to the top five of AGT on a premise that's entirely a lie. At least the magicians are coming out and saying they're doing tricks, or at worst not saying anything and just presenting it for what it is. I feel like what Stevie is doing is similar to a doing a dance act in shadow, but all you do is go behind a screen and stand there while something gets projected onto the screen. Or maybe not, because he actually has magical talent, he's just dressed it in a realistic way. Maybe he's more of a Uri Geller or John Edwards type of magician. I feel like either of those guys wouldn't have made it past auditions, so I guess Stevie's got something going for him.
I do have to say, the Craig Lewis Band was really amazing in the finals. I skipped their performance while watching my tape, but got to see it while watching the recaps before the live finals and I was blown away. Even as someone who doesn't really like singers, I had to appreciate that they were good. If all of their performances were of that caliber, I wouldn't have been surprised to see them win.
One thing I didn't like was the performances with a guest star, or whatever you want to call that. I feel like a lot of the bits fell flat. The singers were all right, but that's because they were just doing a duet, which is whatever. I really didn't care for the magic mash-up. I felt bad for Piff not being able to get his card sword to light. I didn't like Stevie's bit with Penn and Teller either because it came off so forced. It felt like, "Here, I'll watch your trick and now you watch mine." (I did notice when Teller made a mark on the film canister, he wrote 'Piff', which I thought was hilarious.) The one I felt really bad for was Uzeyer Novruzov. (Full disclosure, I Googled to find out how to spell his name. All I had to type was u and it was the first result.) He was injured in the previous round, and ended up doing a weird dance routine with Freelusion. He looked lost and out of his element, which he was. I think it was a mistake to have him do that.
Ultimately, the ventriloquist Paul Zerdin won the season. I have mixed feelings about it, and it's not just because I wanted to see another magician win. For some reason, ventriloquism just doesn't do it for me. It's a guy talking to himself. Moving your mouth or not, you're doing what amounts to a monologue and that's just not that funny to me. I know comedy is subjective and obviously people liked him, but it's not my cup of tea. All that being said, I think he is the most entertaining ventriloquist I've seen. I liked that he mixes things up, like with the puppet talking and moving when he walked offstage, or the mask he put on Howie. Switching voices with the puppet was something I hadn't seen before and I really liked that. He has more variety than most people who just say "Here's a guy you'll like," and pull a puppet out that seems to have only been created to make very specific jokes, then dump it and pull out another one. If Paul's show doesn't devolve into that, I think it would actually be pretty entertaining.
Put it this way: If I was in Vegas and got offered a comp ticket to his show, I'd probably go check it out. If I was offered a comp ticket to Jeff Dunham, I'd just say no. That's as close to a rave review as a ventriloquist is going to get from me.
- Andster
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