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America’s Got Talent aired a two-and-a-hour episode last night, though a solid chunk of that was wasted by an extended introduction by Nick Cannon. To New York. Even though the show was airing from New Jersey. Darn the New York Football Giants for messing everything up! Now, on to the review… The Scott Brothers Perform on America’s Got Talent Distinguished Men of Brass – I didn’t understand the two sides with “fans” while they performed “Crazy in Love.” There were way too many colors, too many swoops, and the fact that they were wearing black, that I couldn’t appreciate their performance. I like them, but the producers didn’t do them any justice at all cutting away to such far shots. Grade: B Edon – There was something nice seeing Edon go from an audition with a keyboard to grand piano with fog all around him. He attempted “Titanium” but he was nervous in the verse where he warbled through the sections. I liked the fact the arrangement went to somewhere intense. Edon generally hit the right notes; I think that he needed to pick a song that had more lyrics so it wouldn’t have been as redundant. Grade: B+ Jarrett & Raja – The combined music/magic act has always been a good concept on paper, but the whole showering thing seemed dumb. I didn’t get the connection between the two and the appearance at the end was useless. Were we supposed to see the women’s feet under the towels? The crowd started to turn and I would have buzzed the two immediately. Grade: D+ Lil Starr – I liked the box concept because it helped show how she could spread to a large stage. I thought that the harem/MC Hammer pants made her legs look sloppy, but according to the sound of her shoes, she was on beat. Starr has personality and the fact that she didn’t start crying when Howard started to berate her gets points in my book. Grade: B Todd Oliver & Irving – Todd brought along Lucy to pair with Irving, but started with Irving alone. Irving seemed restless but by the time that Lucy popped up, Irving settled down. The attachment on Lucy looked more natural than it ever did on Irving. The act had weak material. Grade: C American BMX Stunt Team – The stunt team created their own ramps because of the stage. I would suggest all of the bicycles have some neon sidewalls so we could better see the tricks as they went by. The tricks were pretty passive for the first half of the routine, but they started to progress. By the end there was no defining trick. Grade: C+ Nikki Jensen – Nikki chose Coldplay’s “The Scientist” and had this awful arrangement to it. If she kept the song slow, she would have sounded like The Cranberries. Instead, she sounded like she was chasing the tempo of the song the whole way through. Grade: C The Scott Brothers – The brothers have been doing street dancing for 30+ years and understood that they can’t do flips and tricks. The two were really smooth and the simplicity of not having an extreme amount of lights helped them. The floating hat trick at the end was a very nice touch. Grade: A- Michael Nejad – Michael started with a clarinet/baseball bat and it sounded awful. The audience started booing as he switched over to the shovel/violin. There was something about his key that was off and sounded a lot like killing cats. He then went to the vacuum cleaner/harpsichord. While Howard and Howie buzzed him early, Sharon only buzzed him when he was done. Grade: D- 787 Crew – When I hear this group talk about limited opportunities I have to remind them that they lost America’s Best Dance Crew. Their opening choreography was the same as always. The swoops of camera made was distracting. Some of their formations were a bit too cheerleader instead of innovative. They had a lot of sloppy moments including the botched flip near the end. Grade: B Shanice and Maurice Hayes – There must be jealousy when Shanice gets solo time with her father because they are from such a large family. The two sang “There You’ll Be” from Pearl Harbor. I didn’t think anyone wanted to remember that movie. Shanice had a bit too much melisma, but Maurice had this great gruff. Once in a while there was a flat note, but I loved how their chemistry blended some mistakes. Grade: B+ David Garibaldi and His CMYKs – I am happy that the producers took a chance and gave David the pimp spot. David had a different technique for painting this time than the first two acts incorporating a circle with a more white background. Weirdly enough, the close up shots in the beginning didn’t do the piece justice. I credit the judges for having patience to get Mick Jagger at the end. Grade: A

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America’s Got Talent Review: Vacuum Antics