S19.E11: Quarterfinals 2/S19.E12: Quarterfinals Results

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Acts vie for America's votes to advance in the competition.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Brutal night.  Thoroughly excellent acts are gonna be eliminated.  AGT at its best.

Legion got jobbed by the flaming red background.  It were as if someone wore green in front of a green screen.  The body flames themselves were muted by that overwhelming backdrop.  They did themselves no service by doing so much pure dance choreo, dropping their percussive instruments.  Their timing was pretty bad/not in sync.  Howie is again correct as the Prophet of Doom.  I love this type of act, I fear they are toast. 

Flower petal magician created a beautiful space.  I guessed part way through that there was some type of image projection involved when the lone petal came down his left side and into his cupped hands.  The release of a bunch of petals from those hands happened a tick before the single petal reached his hands.  Having said this, the end was phenomenal in concept and darn good in execution.  1,000,000% Vegas show material.  A bit surprising he did not get the GB.  Perhaps Howie was counting on America's vote, as Simon predicted.

If the boyband singer were my finalist, I'd have to never watch AGT again.

BBoy certainly is inspirational.  I don't see the act as scalable, as in what new/different elements can be added?  I was a bit stunned he did not get the GB.  

Brooke sang aight.  Howie is again right.  Hard pass for me.

Sky Elements' drone act just doesn't translate to home TV.  Maybe it does on IMAX.  It is not fair that they get a post edit (It was not LIVE.  Sunset was 10:30 ET).  I got a chuckle when Simon's visage appeared.  It looked more like Dick Clark, to me.  Wonderful concept but it needs to be outdoors, or perhaps re-created in the Sphere.

The Footworks act from Japan is so cool as they mimic zero gravity.  I liked the choreo better the first time, but this was darn good.  Deserving of a GB, imo.  I did wonder why Howie had held off to that point.  Turns out it was in service to another faux jidge controversy.  ZZZZZ  

Love the South African group.  Hated the arrangement of that iconic song.  Not Top 3 for me tonight.

Schumacher.  Next.

Ashley Montague ramped up using a firewalk over bottles (not unlike Legion's fire gambit).  I am in awe of her ability, I just can't give her a Top 3 vote.  Hope she is in the Vegas act.

Man, NiNi is such an amazing act.  Simon is right, though, about the backing track choices.  Another obvious Vegas act.  LOVED her intro when she said she would like to buy Hurricane.  

Another super tough week to predict.  I would vote for Nini, Legion, and the disappearing magician.  My guess is that Bboy, Sky Elements, and the magician go through.

[rr2911]

The best act of the night I thought was the sand magician.  He upped his act considerably from his audition.

The drones were another act that I enjoyed.  I think they go through.

I'm not sure about the third act going through.  I wasn't overly impressed with the rest of them.  I have a gut feeling it will be the ballerina girl.

I get that the AGT loves that the audience gets into the show, but I wish they would allow the viewer to hear the judges critiques.  I'm sure they have a guy that controls the audience.

 

 

[Tango64]

The drone act is pretty cool, but where do you draw the line? Can a group of acrobatic jets do a demo over the parking lot? Can someone do a huge fireworks show outside? Can 100 skydivers (plus an AGT camera crew) jump out of a plane 5,000 feet over studio?

As with previous outdoor performances, it seems like a different category of acts that shouldn't compete with people doing something on a normal stage. Plus, the drone act got the benefit of it being pre-taped and edited.

Edited August 21 by Tango64

[rr2911]

1 hour ago, Tango64 said:

The drone act is pretty cool, but where do you draw the line? Can a group of acrobatic jets do a demo over the parking lot? Can someone do a huge fireworks show outside? Can 100 skydivers (plus an AGT camera crew) jump out of a plane 5,000 feet over studio?

As with previous outdoor performances, it seems like a different category of acts that shouldn't compete with people doing something on a normal stage. Plus, the drone act got the benefit of it being pre-taped and edited.

Good point!  I'm guessing the drone act can be programmed to fit a smaller venue, but I'm just guessing here.

[Diana Berry]

23 hours ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

Brutal night.  Thoroughly excellent acts are gonna be eliminated.  AGT at its best.

Legion got jobbed by the flaming red background.  It were as if someone wore green in front of a green screen.  The body flames themselves were muted by that overwhelming backdrop.  They did themselves no service by doing so much pure dance choreo, dropping their percussive instruments.  Their timing was pretty bad/not in sync.  Howie is again correct as the Prophet of Doom.  I love this type of act, I fear they are toast. 

Flower petal magician created a beautiful space.  I guessed part way through that there was some type of image projection involved when the lone petal came down his left side and into his cupped hands.  The release of a bunch of petals from those hands happened a tick before the single petal reached his hands.  Having said this, the end was phenomenal in concept and darn good in execution.  1,000,000% Vegas show material.  A bit surprising he did not get the GB.  Perhaps Howie was counting on America's vote, as Simon predicted.

If the boyband singer were my finalist, I'd have to never watch AGT again.

BBoy certainly is inspirational.  I don't see the act as scalable, as in what new/different elements can be added?  I was a bit stunned he did not get the GB.  

Brooke sang aight.  Howie is again right.  Hard pass for me.

Sky Elements' drone act just doesn't translate to home TV.  Maybe it does on IMAX.  It is not fair that they get a post edit (It was not LIVE.  Sunset was 10:30 ET).  I got a chuckle when Simon's visage appeared.  It looked more like Dick Clark, to me.  Wonderful concept but it needs to be outdoors, or perhaps re-created in the Sphere.

The Footworks act from Japan is so cool as they mimic zero gravity.  I liked the choreo better the first time, but this was darn good.  Deserving of a GB, imo.  I did wonder why Howie had held off to that point.  Turns out it was in service to another faux jidge controversy.  ZZZZZ  

Love the South African group.  Hated the arrangement of that iconic song.  Not Top 3 for me tonight.

Schumacher.  Next.

Ashley Montague ramped up using a firewalk over bottles (not unlike Legion's fire gambit).  I am in awe of her ability, I just can't give her a Top 3 vote.  Hope she is in the Vegas act.

Man, NiNi is such an amazing act.  Simon is right, though, about the backing track choices.  Another obvious Vegas act.  LOVED her intro when she said she would like to buy Hurricane.  

Another super tough week to predict.  I would vote for Nini, Legion, and the disappearing magician.  My guess is that Bboy, Sky Elements, and the magician go through.

Well boybander made it but we will let you continue to watch the show. 

[Lonesome Rhodes]

I get it, but I hate it.  Cutey Patootie boy was by far, the weakest in performance of the Top 5.  In terms of the young ladies who shriek a lot, he was unquestionably the most popular.  

I managed two out of three, missing on Bboy.  Ameriker did Ameriker things.  The big question for me is Sky Elements (drones).  AGT had one heckuva problem on their hands should these guys have made the Finals.  Two more taped presentations?  Was this an occasion for SYCO to go against the actual vote?  I have ZERO evidence they ever have.  I do know, however, that they have reserved the right to do anything they want.  Does anyone remember the "panels" they've used for instant results?  I wish Sky Elements all the best.

Franco's act tonight wasn't all that, imo.  I was most impressed by the card trick.  Then again, he knew it had to be an Ace through 5 since he was using Sofia's hand to determine the value.  The "future" board appeared to be electronic, which could easily be used to write in the tricks used to that point.  I genuinely loved the conversation that he and Shin Lin had.  Sure, it was heavily edited.  Yet, I sensed they were each expressing real gratitude with a sense of wonder.  Very compelling to me.

Next week's menu looked quite underwhelming.