An America’s Got Talent first: a male pole dancer auditions!

Some of the acts not going through:

• Ray of sunshine 27-year-old Riley Schillaci, one of less than 20 women in the world who perform sword swallowing acts, performed an emotionless act in which she not only swallowed swords but also a drum stick that she pushed down with a hammer. We have to admit that her swallowing tricks were impressive but her act lacked in presentation. Howie so disliked the performance that he said there was too much disdain in her performance. As usual, Piers Xed her right from the start as he doesn’t like this type of act at all. See for yourself below.

• Triple Threat, a Broadway act composed of four friends, failed to impress the judges and the crowd with their singing, dancing, and acting. The singer was not only off key but she seemed out of breath, clearly not capable of being a true Triple Threat who can do it all at once! The dancing was way too basic. Triple Threat got Triple Xed and Tripled No-ed.
• The Boston Typewriter Orchestra as well as The Parrot Wizard — who is not a wizard and who’s parrot cannot perform a single trick — also got sent packing.

The Worst of the Worst:

• Joel “The Cannon” Podelsky not only lacked true talent but offered us a rather disgusting pumkin pie eating performance.

Some of the acts going through:

• Snap Boogie, a street performer whose life hasn’t been easy, wowed the crowd and judges with his energetic dance routine. If he had performed this routine at a So You Think You Can Dance audition, he would have gotten a golden ticket to go straight to the next round. His moves included some well timed slow movements, some great robot-like moves that “snapped,” and fantastic flips, and so much more!

• When Michael Turco started to perform his magic tricks, I said to myself “Yet another magician performing box tricks, haven’t we seen enough of those?” Looks like I was wrong. Turco’s didn’t just perform one box trick, he performed five! Not only was each box different but the tricks were performed so quickly that it made the entire performance way more impressive. The best trick was probably the first one where Turco and an assistance keep the box moving while women keep coming out of it.

The “I Can’t Believe this Act is Going to Vegas” act: Do you remember Soleil, the pole dancer from last week’s episode, who was voted through to Vegas? Well, considering that she was voted through, it was a given that this week’s pole dancer, who was as good as Soleil, would be voted through. Based on that, I can believe that Steven Retchless got voted through to the next round. However, if it weren’t for Soleil going through, Steven would have probably deserved the “I Can’t Believe this Act Is Going to Vegas” title.

It is unusual to see a male pole dancer. It’s even more unusual when this pole dancer wears high heals and has glitter all over. But you got to admit that Steven’s performance was very good for this type of act. After all, he is a “polefessional!” Piers didn’t get it, so he voted no. But Sharon and Howie, as well as the crowd, supported Steven and voted him through to the Vegas round.

The Show Stealer: 36-year-old car washer Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. proved that looks can be deceiving. For his first audition ever, he arrived on stage chewing gum, which he had to put in his pocket after Piers told him not to chew. The first seconds of his performance were not that great as he didn’t have much stange presence. But when he got more confident, thanks to the crowd supporting him, he started to own the stage, the crowd, and the song. He performed an impressive “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” which a voice reminiscent of Frank Sinatra’s. Not only is Landau moving to the next round but he has a good chance of making it very far!

The Best of the Best: ELEW, pianist extraordinaire with “mutant powers” (his words), offered us a very unique and skilled performance that aimed at balacing strenght and beauty. The intro of his piece was amazing. Then it took a few twists and turns into weird and chaotic piano playing when he started to add strenght into the mix. What was amazing was that we could still recognize the song amidst his madness. It was impressive to see him tap on the chords inside the grand piano to make it sound like distortions done on guitars. ELEW described his music best: It’s Jimmy Hendrix meets Beethoven! See for yourself the mad genius at work in the clip below.

Clacked by Isabelle Carreau
on Jun 23, 2011 @ 21:40 EST5EDT