America’s Got Talent – Episode 27: Semifinal #2

It’s Semifinal time again!  In Semifinal #2 for America’s Got Talent, 12 Acts are performing live for America’s vote.  On Wednesday’s results show, 5 acts will advance to complete the Final 10 who will compete for the one million dollars.  In case you missed it, here are the acts who advanced to the Semifinals from the quarterfinal rounds:  Nathaniel Kenyon, Christina & Ali, Future Funk, and Fighting Gravity -QF#1;  Alice Tan Ridley, Michael Grimm, AscenDance, and Antonio Restivo-QF#2; Debra Romer, Haspop, Studio One Young Beast Society, and Jeremy Vanschoonhoven-QF#3; Taylor Matthews, Murray, Prince Poppycock, and ArcAttack-QF#4; Jackie Evancho, Kristina Young, Dan Sperry, & Maestro Alexander Bui-QF#5; Anna & Patryk, Michael Grasso, Connor Doran, and Michael Lipari & Ashleigh Dejon-QF#6.  See last week’s posts for a recap of Semifinal #1 – performance, results.  For a rundown of the original top 48 acts and a summary of their journey so far, see our previous Las Vegas week posts (Part 1 & Part 2).  Will we see a continuation of singing acts advancing to the Finals?  Or will other talents be represented in the Final 10?  Who will join Jackie Evancho in advancing to the Finals?  Let’s find out!  And please leave your thoughts in the comment section.

Alice Tan Ridley – Singer (QF#2)
Alice performs “I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston.  This is a tough song to sing with Whitney setting the bar so high, but if you nail it, it’s a starmaking performance.  Alice starts a little subdued but as soon as she gets to the power part (“Don’t make me close one more door…”) she absolutely nails it with ease.  And unlike some of the singing acts last week, there is almost no background/supporting vocals.  She doesn’t need that.  I think that was fantastic.  As much I think there are going to be too many singing acts in the finals, Alice absolutely belongs there.  And unlike some of the other contestants, American Idol isn’t an option for Alice due to her age.  A strong start to the show and a performance worthy of advancing.

Haspop – Dancer (QF#3)
Haspop performs to a medley of songs and images in a routine meant to tell a story about angry neighbors.  I hear “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer, and some other instrumental numbers.  I think though that there is too much.  It makes the performance choppy and takes the focus away from Haspop and the incredible way he can move his body.  And then Piers buzzes him.  I think this was a disappointment and he’s going to be a longshot to advance.

Maestro Alexander Bui – Pianist (QF#5)
Alexander performs a classical uptempo piece.  I recognize the early part (“Flight of the Bumblebees”?) so that’s a step in the right direction, but then in the middle it’s just a chaotic jumble of notes.  I’m sure it’s impressive playing but I not sure it’s enough to connect with a large enough audience.  Howie actually buzzes him, so that’s unusual.  Howie kind of backs me up with his critique.  Piers trumpets Alexander’s raw talent, which is undeniable, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the voting audience agrees with Howie.

Micheal Lipari & Ashleigh Dejon – Aerialists (QF#6)
Michael and Ashleigh perform a routine to “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis.  They do what I think is  a smart thing by not trying to out-shock their last performance and instead going with a romantic routine with many impressive strength moves and longing looks.  I’ll be interested to hear what the judges have to say.  On the one hand it wasn’t as exciting as their previous performance but on the other hand they combined some really impressive moves with a heartfelt story.  Cool, the judges liked it!  And Howie pretty much summed up my feelings with his critique and good on Howie for crediting the difficulty of the strength moves, especially the one where Ashleigh is upside down and lifting Michael as he does other moves.  I think it will come down to what kind of performances we get from the rest of the acts.  I’ll have to see what I think at the end of the show.

Michael Grasso – Magician (QF#6)
Michael really took advantage of his second chance in the last quarterfinal.  We finally get more backstory on Michael including the fact he has had 3 kidney transplants (wow…).  Michael puts his lovely assistant in a cage at the center of the stage and then a curtain comes down and the open bottom is wheeled away.  Michael spins the top half of the cage as the curtain is removed to reveal an empty cage.  Then Michael removes the hooded costume he’s wearing to reveal he is actually the lovely assistant!  Whoa!  That’s what I like about Michael’s act, you get the unexpected.  Then the real Michael is behind Sharon with a rose in his hand.  Once I backed up the TIVO you can see where Michael get’s close to the stage curtain and the switch happens but it doesn’t take away from the fact that the lovely assistant got out of the cage in the first place and that the trick works specifically because you’re not looking for the switch at that time with the popping, spinning cage.  Nicely done, Michael.  This is what magician acts are supposed to be like and this is exactly the kind of thing you would see in Vegas.  I give Michael a good chance to advance.

Debra Romer – Singer (QF#3)
Debra really works the sob story tonight in her interview clip, or the AGT producer’s do.  Who knows how long the actual interview was or what questions were asked.  And then Debra goes without her guitar and performs “To Make You Feel My Love” by Bob Dylan (and also covered by Billy Joel, Garth Brooks, and Adele).  It’s a good choice as it puts Debra’s vulnerablilty to good use and isn’t a challenging song vocally like Alice Tan Ridley’s song choice.  Debra has a good but not sensational voice, and her real advantage is in the entire package she presents:  She’s a good singer, she’s really attractive, and she’s got a vulnerablility that other people just can’t have.  Debra gets a little stung by the judges with Sharon criticizing the lack of range of the song (you do know it’s a Bob Dylan song, don’t you Sharon?) but I think Debra’s performance was what Debra’s fans and supporters want so I would give her an outside chance to advance tomorrow.

Studio One Young Beast Society – Dance Crew (QF#3)
Studio One does a performance to a song I don’t recognize.  It sounds like it could be an original about them?  It’s easy to tell why these guys are the last dance crew left.  The creativity of some of the moves and the athleticism is really impressive.  And it’s not just one or two members, it’s all eight of them.  A really impressive performance and it will be a real test of the taste of the voting audience.  The judges are really high on them and really want them to advance.

Jeremy Vanschoonhoven – Trick Bike Rider (QF#3)
Jeremy had a bad fall during rehearsals and ended up in the hospital.  So not only is he hurt, he didn’t get as much practice in as he normally would.  Will he make it through the routine clean tonight?  Jeremy performs to “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz in a set that kind of resembles a park near the mountians.  Jeremy has a little bobble trying to bridge a pair of park benches and then he actual falls.  He gets back into the routine and Piers doesn’t even buzz him.  Piers must feel bad about the rehearsal fall.  Jeremy climbs the fake rock set and then goes single wheel to single wheel down the facade where he fell during rehearsal for the big finish.  And this time he nails it!  Wow, if only he hadn’t fallen on the earlier trick it would have been a perfect performance.  Jeremy really celebrates the finish and you can feel the relief he feels.  You can tell that he’s still really sore.  He even gets a standing ovation from the judges.  Wow, considering all the love from the crowd and the judges I wouldn’t be surprised if he slipped into the Finals.

Nathaniel Kenyon – Singer (QF#1)
Nathaniel also gets to work some backstory about his family and then he also goes without his guitar and performs “You and Me” by Lifehouse.  Another good song choice tonight as Nathaniel’s really able to play up his heartthrob status and give a good performance.  Well, he was doing good.  He gets to the chorus and then my pet peeve of too much background/support pops up.  Then Piers buzzes him, which has been a rarity tonight, and I don’t know if it put him off his game or if he was going there anyway but the last half of the performance is not as good as the first half.  That’s strange as usually singer’s are better toward the end once they get into a performance and warm up.  If Piers’ buzz did knock him off though, that’s no excuse as we’re at the level where you have to fight through that.  Given tonight and the quality of the competition it would be surprising if Nathaniel advances.

Murray – Magician (QF#4)
Murray points out what we already suspected, there’s probably only going to be one magic act in the top 10 (if any) so he has to be better than Michael Grasso.  Murray has a very different style from Michael in that Murray talks to the crowd through the trick while Michael’s performances are only accompanied by tense mood music which makes the trick very compelling.  Murray has brought a 24′ steel train onto the stage in honor of his family’s history working the railways.  He covers the train, raises it up, and then removes the curtain to reveal no train.  It’s impressive, but I liked Michael Grasso better.  The misdirection and mood of Michael’s trick impressed me more than Murray’s.  Given that, I have to predict that Murray will not make it tomorrow night.

Jackie Evancho – Opera Singer (QF#5)
I don’t know opera but Jackie manages to sing an opera song I do know, “Con Te Partiro”, made famous by Andrea Bocelli and the all-time sales record holder in Germany and Belgium for a single.  I was introduced to the song by the cover version by Donna Summer called “I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro)” and then heard the Andrea Bocelli version.  The intro piece touched on the controversy of whether Jackie is actually singing and it should continue.  I believe 100% that Jackie is singing but the sound is so incongruous with the little 10 year old blonde girl on the stage that the naysayers will continue to cry foul.  Jackie gives an awesome performance and is a virtual lock to advance to the Finals and has to be the front-runner for the title.

Fighting Gravity – Performance Artists (QF#1)
Fighting Gravity wants to step up their game and has even taken this semester off from classes at Virginia Tech so they can concentrate on their act.  They really up the props in this performance and I especially thought the wipe-out reveal of the white suits and the orange skateboards were particularly effective.  The originality of this act is unparalleled on this season and it would be a shame if they don’t make it to the Finals.

Summary
Well, this was more like it.  The performances tonight were head and shoulders above last week.  Poor Kristina Young got as many buzzes during her performance last week as we had all show tonight.  It’s kind of a shame as some really worthy acts from tonight won’t make it while other less worthy acts made it last week.  Ignore any advancing predictions I made above as the depth of the quality of the performances will push out some acts that were really good.  Picking 5 acts to advance is going to be hard.

Favorite Performances:
Michael Grasso & Fighting Gravity (special nod to Jackie but I wanted to highlight some non-singing acts)

The 5 Acts I Would Advance to the Next Round:
Jackie Evancho, Fighting Gravity, Michael Grasso, Jeremy Vanschoonhoven, and Alice Tan Ridley.
(Honorable Mention to Studio One Young Beast Society, Michael Lipari & Ashleigh Dejon, and Debra Romer who would have been good enough last week but not this week.)

The 5 Acts I Think Will Advance Tomorrow Night:
Jackie Evancho, Fighting Gravity, Michael Grasso, Alice Tan Ridley, and Debra Romer.

Come back tomorrow for the Semifinal #2 Results Show.