Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5598112-20180830010529/@comment-33043619-20180905110455

YESSS! THE SHOW IS ALMOST OV...I MEAN YAY SEMI-FINALS..yay

11. Makayla Phillips. How is it that the guy who was championing giant gnomes and a dude butchering tracks from the Titanic with his fake flute broom is now the only remaining voice of reason on the show? Howie pretty much said everything there needed to be said. I listened to her performance again just 10 minutes ago to get ready to write this and I've already forgotten what song she was singing so either that fall from the ladder when I was 5 years old is starting to catch up with me or it really all was that forgettable.

10: Amanda Mena. Nice song choice. And that's about all I have to say about her so I'll just mention that the Christmas light ornament the prop department had found for her was blinking VERY nicely and made me go "OOH" once or twice. Maybe even "AAH".

9: Voices of Hope Children’s Choir. I'm guessing they spent the last few weeks watching musicals other than The Greatest Showman and thus ran out of time to rehearse, because I thought they sounded pretty underwhelming this time. And the sound department playing Tic Tac Toe behind the scenes instead of actually doing their job didn't help much.

8: Front Pictures. Thist was a huge step backward for the act. They fell into the same trap every other multimedia act seems to where they let the effects take over the whole act. Last time they had found the perfect way to balance the effects with the movement and it all blended together nicely. This time it was like they themselves were just marveling at the effects they had created and hoped the audience would be bedazzled by giant CGI turtles flying around. First of all, only Hans can bedazzle. And secondly I've seen Finding Nemo too many times for that. We are way past it now.

7: Michael Ketterer.. It's just all about the story with this one, the judges can't be bothered to talk about anything other than his job. And while he's earned himself a lifetime supply of free "World's greatest dad" mugs, I'm just waiting for his singing to catch up with the rest of his story and so far...it really hasn't for me. I WANT to like him more, but I'm just not seeing anything interesting here if you look past the story.

6: Junior New System. These boots were made for dancing and that's just what they'll do...until they start to itch too bad and have to be thrown off the stage at anyone unlucky enough to be sitting in the front row. I actually found some of their moves genuinely impressive and the energy was high enough that I didn't get bored during the act. But the whole sassy, high heeled "WORK IT, HANAI" gimmick has officially taken them as far as they can go right now.

5: Us the Duo. It's time to give in and join the masses by embracing the sweet sweet melodies of latte macchiato and frappuccino establishments all over the world. I like the songs they sing, I like how they sound together and I think they come across as pretty genuine in the middle of all the Brady bunch cheesiness. I just really like cheese, okay? DON'T JUDGE ME!

4: Duo Transcend. I have been pretty dismissing of these two in the past, but I'll give them props...just when I was beginning to think they had run out of anything to show us, they quick changed into Billy & Emily. Sure, quick changing into Artyon & Paige or the dogs from Pompeyo would have been more impressive, but at least this was a start. They managed to overcome the obstacle so many of these acts run into by genuinely switching gears and showing us something new, Unfortunately for them, it's something we've seen before from other acts...but at least it proves they have range and I wouldn't mind seeing them go on to the top 10.

3: Samuel J. Comroe. Was PROPAH BELLEH LAFFIN at quite a few spots so in my eyes it was his best set so far! He continues to be likable and amusing in general too so no real complaints from me...

2: Zurcaroh. All the best (and watchable) bits of the Olympic Opening ceremonies now in a neat package. At this point they are better than half the guest performers we get on the show and each time we see them, it's a completely different motif that's well thought out, creative and ultimately just impressive to watch. Someone hand me a hat so I can take it off right now.

1: Shin Lim. There are videos online of people claiming Shin is a devil worshiping dark wizard who harnesses black magic from hell. I am inclined to agree with them since nothing else could explain that HAIR! GOOD LORD, MAN, Is it EVER not perfect? Even Aaron Crow must be swooning. The tricks were good too. It's one of his most known routines so I knew where everything was headed, but it remains one of the most impressive magic tricks I've ever seen.

Zurcaroh, Michael Ketterer and Shin Lim seem like a pretty safe top 3. If there's any justice in the world, Samuel will join them from the Dunkin save. I actually think Duo Transcend have a decent shot of making it there after the massive praise from the judges and the general enthusiasm I've seen on social media. If not, hoping Us The Duo will take the spot, though it could also be Amanda or Junior New System. Overall my predictions would look something like this:

11. Front Pictures 10. Makayla Phillips 9. Voices of Hope Children’s Choir 8. Junior New System 7. Amanda Mena 6. Us The Duo (lose judge's choice) 5. Duo Transcend (win judge's choice) 4. Samuel J. Comroe (Dunkin save) 3. Michael Ketterer 2. Zurcaroh 1. Shin Lim

I've already accepted that Michael is going through, but if he's at least joined by Shin, Samuel, Zurcaroh and either of the Duo's, then I can count the results as a success overall.