S10.E02: Auditions 2

[Tara Ariano]

Auditions continue.

[theabsolution]

So, this episode didn't really have too much insanely amazing acts.

The only one that really impressed me was the rain one. But it's been done before and I'm certain I'll get sick of it soon.

The only other one that I really liked was the magician. That guy was kinda cool.

[Commando Cody]

I wanted to know what was going on with that giant furry monster - the one Howard hated and they didn't show the act.  That thing was walking off the stage and I"m thinking I want to see that.  Instead, we had to watch some kid shoot milk out of his eye.  

 

The problem I had with the girl singer was she only half good.  It was impressive that she can belt out some lyrics, but she was pretty much a nothing at the beginning of the song.  I don't think singers even bother to learn how to sing softly anymore because their depending on wowing the audience on how well they can sing the big part.  To me, it's only singing part of a song well.

 

I liked those two male singers at the beginning.  One of the guys voices was too high for my taste, but I thought they sang the song well.  I would have liked to hear some harmonizing.  

 

I started noticing the Heidi "glasses" thing tonight too.  Probably because so many pointed it out already.  That's kind of weird.

 

I don't like danger acts.  I have nothing more to say about that.  

 

The 87 year old lady sang great for an 87 year old lady.  Even for a 60 year old lady.  Being a horny 87 year old woman shouldn't really give you a pass.  She was another one who seemed to hit the big notes pretty well.  Just not the regular notes.  I was starting to wonder if she was going to let go of Nick.  Good for her in believing she can still get the young studs.  Maybe she does.   

 

Did any of you think that the regurgitator man was hitting on Nick?  He also looked like he was checking him out at the end before he walked away.

 

The all woman hip hop group in the beginning looked pretty sharp.  

 

I didn't hear how old the sight impaired kid was or how long he's been dancing,   He might have potential, but he has a long way to go.  

 

More muti-media dancing.  It's not really different anymore.  I thought last year's couple were better.  This year's director was Val.  It wasn't as funny as Howie made over last year's director.  I can't remember his name.  Even though Howie repeated it several times.

 

Another waste of the golden buzzer.  I thought maybe they would save that thing for acts that they loved that the other judges hated - like those Kung Fu defense guys from last year that Howie and Howard thought were great and Heidi and Melb just didn't get it.  

[mrsdalgliesh]

Some of these acts are waved through but I guarantee we'll never see them again (or only in brief flashes).  Each judge got to say "yes" for a feel good moment, but none of them are RCMH-worthy and NBC will not want us to see them get voted down. Tonight's examples: 87 year old showgirl and 14 year old dancer.

 

I have a feeling that "danger" act was actually a magic act (and maybe most are).  The guy seemed to be breathing in a specific way when the "firecracker" was in his mouth.  My guess is that they are all rigged to explode but that he can dislodge or disengage something with his mouth/breath.

 

Still, it's an entertaining summer show and a throw-back to the variety shows of the past.  I'm a weird one: I'll watch this pablum and then turn around and watch Hannibal.

[Subrookie]

I'm having a hard time with this. I've watched this show since it started and I'm almost done caring. I'm convinced they let semi-pro people through just like last season. When this show started it was fun watching people be embarrassed, I wish it was the same now as it was.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Another use of the golden buzzer to spare contestants the burden of having to come up with new material for two more appearances.  That act certainly merited moving forward, but I doubt they would be able to come up with enough routines to go all the way.  Now, they only need, I think, two more routines total.  They might could manage that.

 

My biggest issue tonight was the special effects editing of a couple of the acts who were voted through.  The slow-motion used for some, but not all who would have benefited, is cheating.  Plain and simple.   That treadmill deal was as boring as could be.  The apparatus hid so much.  So, TPTB choose low angle and slo-mo to better show them off to the voters at home.  I call shenanigans.

 

I didn't like the old singer.  A classic golddigger was she.  Yuck.  She did have the intelligence to choose a song which 1) Featured a loud/brash big band to cover her and 2)  A song which one more speaks, than sings on pitch.  I guess I should just count the blessings that she was not a golden buzzer babe.

Edited June 3, 2015 by Lonesome Rhodes

[NikSac]

Ugh... that's it - professional regurgitator?  I deleted the rest of the episode.  Subrookie, I was with you on the not caring very much anymore up until tonight's episode. Now I actively dislike it, so it's off my DVR schedule.

 

I'll check in here to see if it gets better and I might watch towards the end, but I'm definitely done with the early episodes.

[Kromm]

So it looks like those super out-of-the-box opening titles weren't just for show #1.  The ones this time were even crazier (and tons more trouble to make).  Just the CGI bill on transposing the names on top of the candid footage like that is a nice chunk of change.  Add onto that the extreme planning for the complicated tracking shots they're doing?

 

Wish the rest of the show was living up to the trouble they took to make the titles.  Maybe the titles are to distract us.

[Kromm]

re: Barf-Man.

 

You can clearly see one of the costs of his chosen profession (or is it just a hobby he's overhyping?)--the teeth.  It's the same thing as with Bulimia Nervosa (maybe he even has some odd form of that).  His teeth are pretty much rotted away from the acid he's churning up into his mouth from his stomach.  I mean even if we don't actually SEE vomit, there's still fumes.  

[LadyMustang65]

Note to Howie, Heidi, MelB and Howard:  No, *everyone* does not want to see some guy swallow stuff and barf it back up.  That was just gross.  I am amazed that he can do it without actually vomiting?  I guess, although I'm not sure that's the right word.  Do I want to watch him do it again?  No way.  The five people watching in my living room were unanimously agreed that was . . .  ugh.  I cannot believe they put him through.  I truly cannot.

 

As with last week, none of the acts really wowed us, although we came in late and missed the first 25 minutes. I thought I had it recording, but when I went to rewind to see what we missed, I couldn't do it.  So I don't know if the best was first?  

 

I am glad they put the blind kid through.  He still needs a lot of work and he won't last until the end, but this is one of those times when I'm okay with giving someone who has worked hard and is overcoming a big challenge some encouragement. 

 

I liked the dancers at the end, but as has been pointed out already, I don't know what they were talking about when the judges were saying it was something we haven't seen before.  It really is.  They were good, but as soon as they finished, I asked the room at large if they'd really be able to come up with enough different routines to keep it seeming fresh and not repetitive.  But that particular routine they did last night was quite good and very entertaining, although I remember thinking that those two were just good as dancers.  If the act had to rely purely on their dance skills, I don't think they could carry it.

[marketdoctor]

 

Wish the rest of the show was living up to the trouble they took to make the titles.  Maybe the titles are to distract us.

 

Except for the "maybe", I'm with you.  The titles are there to draw us in, and then...they got their ratings.  

I liked the treadmill dancers, but I wanted to see their actual act in real time (or it wasn't as good that way and I didn't want to see it at all.  Both would be better choices than what happened.)

 

I figured out Heidi's hand-glasses: she does this to cut down on glare; she is lighted to show herself, not the acts, which makes it harder for *her* to see the acts.  Why the camera keeps showing this is an interesting question; it's like the producers are trying to draw attention to their own bad lighting choices by using a bad direction choice.  Points to Heidi for being professional enough to try to do her job properly; I hope they invest in a dimmer switch, or a nice hat with a visor.

 

 

Note to Howie, Heidi, MelB and Howard:  No, *everyone* does not want to see some guy swallow stuff and barf it back up.

 

I'm among those that don't; I think the sugar was a trick, but I don't need to see it again either way.

Edited June 3, 2015 by marketdoctor

[KarateKate]

 

Note to Howie, Heidi, MelB and Howard:  No, *everyone* does not want to see some guy swallow stuff and barf it back up.

 

 

I'm among those that don't; I think the sugar was a trick, but I don't need to see it again either way.

Ugh, the only thing I liked less about this guy is that he went through. I consoled myself to think like marketdoctor - only for the whole act, not just sugar: thinking of this as more of a limited range magic act. Perhaps some slight of hand; not all slight of esophagus. 

[Primetimer]

Like America itself, the show features a lot of weirdos and nerds and only a few who actually have talent, but that's the draw. Plus lots of magicians.

Read the story

[CrashTextDummie]

The regurgitator actually has a remarkable and unique talent. Your mileage may vary on whether he makes for good television, but I prefer him over yet another singer, dance group or magician.

 

I'm just surprised he hasn't been an AGT before. I figured he had done every talent show on the planet by this point (this is the fourth time I see him). At least he does come up with new tricks occasionally.

[SFoster21]

The "regurgitator" is actually what used to be a sword swallower long ago. Not that big a trick, actually.

[Panopticon]

I think this is the first time I've watched this show and summarized more than one act as "ew, gross." I hope there will be fewer things coming into and out of bodily orifices for the rest of the season.

[helenamonster]

I get on an intellectual level that the regurgitator guy is probably talented, but I just couldn't bring myself to watch his act. Mostly because I was eating at the time but also because I can't handle people doing weird shit like that with their bodies. Ditto the milk guy.

 

I thought the first dance crew were very good. The blind dancer was technically good and seems like a sweetheart (so does his mom) but I'll be the asshole and say that if he wasn't blind, he wouldn't have made it through. And I know the whole dance/light show combination thing has been done to death, but I'm still a sucker for those kinds of acts and am happy that that last group went straight to the live rounds.

 

Shirley Claire is goals af. You go, girl!

 

I remember there was a magician last year who did a "pick a card" and ended up pulling it out of his ass and the judges hated it. Maybe this guy had better patter? Anyway, I liked him, and I agree with the review that he looked like Jason Sudeikis. I can't for the life of me understand why the guy who sawed Heidi in half went through. Hasn't that trick been around since the beginning of time? Anyone who buys one of those boxes can figure out how to do it. There's nothing original or innovative about it.

 

I don't want to jinx it, but I feel like so far we're a lot lighter than usual on kids, singers, and kid singers. Hopefully some poor intern has been trolling these boards and gave the producers a heads up.

Edited June 4, 2015 by helenamonster

[reggiejax]

Watching the magician saw Heidi Klum in half, I agree her legs looked fake, but they shouldn't. That version of the trick requires no fake limbs. Those should be, and I presume are, Heidi's legs. I don't know why she had them so straight and stiff. Still, while it is just about the oldest illusion in the world, it is a crowd pleaser. It is my favorite, and I never fail to watch even if it is the absolutely worst magician performing it. This guy wasn't the worst, but he's not going to make anyone forget Copperfield.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I get on an intellectual level that the regurgitator guy is probably talented, but I just couldn't bring myself to watch his act. Mostly because I was eating at the time but also because I can't handle people doing weird shit like that with their bodies. Ditto the milk guy.

The regurgitator guy has appeared on all kinds of shows, but one of his earliest American appearances was on the Stern show back in the 80's:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=306_1212982457

 

Of course the milk out of the eye guy reminded me of Kenneth Keith Kallenbach:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWZ59PhSVDM

 

 

The "regurgitator" is actually what used to be a sword swallower long ago. Not that big a trick, actually.

In a way, but really the sword swallowing depends even more on just keeping your back EXTREMELY straight.  That's what the sword swallowers at Coney Island say, anyway.

Edited June 4, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[UsernameGoesHere]

I like how they did a segment about how Howie always likes the stupid acts. That made me laugh. But why on Earth did they spend so much time on milk boy? I had to turn away.

 

I honestly love the joke/really bad acts, so I wish they had shown more of those Segway people and that weird act Howard hated. WTF was that?

 

Two weeks in a row now where they've pretty much spoiled in the previews who gets the golden buzzer. Can they stop with that?

[Kromm]

The regurgitator guy has appeared on all kinds of shows, but one of his earliest American appearances was on the Stern show back in the 80's:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=306_1212982457

I wasn't paying attention.  Was Howard playing that game where he pretended he'd never seen any act like that before? (doubly ironic if he'd actually seen that SPECIFIC act before)

[marketdoctor]

 

I don't want to jinx it, but I feel like so far we're a lot lighter than usual on kids, singers, and kid singers. Hopefully some poor intern has been trolling these boards and gave the producers a heads up.

 

I know they do surveys, and this season (maybe last season as well) they've been pushing the hashtags, so someone's checking Twitter.  I don't know how thorough they are.  Shows like this might get even better when they can measure which acts people fast-forward/change the channel for, though there are privacy issues, and from the network's perspective, the problem that people like different things.  (I'm more likely to slow-motion on a magic act, not because it's "good" but because I want to figure out how it's done if I can't tell from watching it.)  

 

That said, thanks to everyone who reads this, and if you're responsible for us seeing even one fewer child singer, mere gratitude is not nearly enough.

Edited June 4, 2015 by marketdoctor

[helenamonster]

Two weeks in a row now where they've pretty much spoiled in the previews who gets the golden buzzer. Can they stop with that?

 

Yeah, I noticed that too. I get that they want to end the episodes on a high note but come on.

 

Depending on how far the treadmill people make it, if they don't do some kind of homage to OK Go's "Here It Goes Again" they're wasting everybody's time.

 

[bluepiano]

With that large all-women dance group there was more arm waving then anything else. I've noticed that with many of the large troupes. Lots of arm waving and jumping up and down in place. All that motion, plus the pounding music, creates excitement, but there's very little actual dancing going on. When I see a huge number of dancers taking the stage I expect to be bored. I enjoy the solo or couple dancers more. No where to hide.

Speaking of which, the 14 year old dancer with the visual issue wasn't great, but I like that they put him through. He won't go further but it gave a nice moment to him and his mother. Who seemed like a super person.

 

There were some really questionable 4 yes acts. As someone posted earlier, the sawing the woman in half trick is a piece of apparatus you buy. What elevates it is a magician who has great style, or witty patter. I thought this guy was a snooze.

 

The woman who sang "I'd Rather Go Blind" was like your typical American Idol contestant who only seems to care about hitting the glory notes. I liked the two dudes from Atlanta more, but "It's a Man's World," like "Blind," is one of those clichéd, done to death Idol/Voice songs. Come on people, show some imagination. There are more than 20 songs ever written in the history of popular music.

 

But at least none of the singers we've heard so far has been 13. That little girl who screamed every song almost single handedly ruined last season for me. And so far there has only been one kid dance act. (plus a father-daughter act). Let's hope things continue this way.

 

I could see how some people might be annoyed by the 87 year old woman, but I thought she was harmless, especially considering that, like the 14 year old dancer, we'll see her only once more. I would rather see a sexy 87 year old than a precocious 14 year old any day. (Loved the choice of "Material Girl" for her background music.)

 

Edited June 5, 2015 by bluepiano

[A Boston Gal]

 

 

Depending on how far the treadmill people make it, if they don't do some kind of homage to OK Go's "Here It Goes Again" they're wasting everybody's time.

 

Helenamonster, once again you and I share a brain, albeit your half is much younger. I was wondering how much more interesting one can make treadmill dancing than the Ok Go video.  If they judges slam the group for plateauing, perhaps they can add elipticals or stairmasters for some variety.