Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25150955-20160915004152

Another year, another season where an undeserving singer is probably gonna win. What is this, Season 5?

With all joking aside, though, this was a pretty good season (despite the overwhelming number of singers in the competition), and it was nice to be able to be a part of this community for the summer this season lasted (and I'll be back when the time comes!). I've spent a good amount of time looking over every single performance of the season, and I've finally finished compiling them into one final list talking about the best this season.

Now, I couldn't include everyone that performed this season on this list, so there will be a few honorable mentions: apologies to the fans of Vello Vaher, Good Girl, Sos & Victoria, Moya Angela, FLIP, Daniel Joyner, Kadie Lynn, Duo Guerrero, and Dan Meyer, for you won't be seeing them on the list. And there's probably a few more that I haven't mentioned that were good, but not good enough to make the list. With all that said, let's get started!

40. Kadan Bart Rockett and the Great Escape (Quarterfinals) I think it's safe to say that about 90% of us here never loved Kadan OR his lil' sis, and I'm part of that majority; his tricks never really impressed me until the quarterfinals, where he managed to pop out of his toolbox with a nice escape trick. It was easily his best yet, and he never topped it afterwards (especially after his pitiful Semifinals performance).

39. Christopher is a One-Man Band (Audition) Look, if you didn't burst out into laughter the first time you saw this guy, you're lying to yourself. Or maybe this isn't your thing. I dunno. It was a great audition, albeit gimmicky.

38. Ryan Stock and AmberLynn Terrify Everyone (All Performances) It's a shame that their catastrophic mistake in the quarters brought them to an unfortunate elimination. Having said that, despite how terrifyingly gross their act was, they always had your eyes glued to the screen. Hell, even their quarterfinals act was going really strongly before the accident. They're definitely the best sideshow act we've seen in the history of the show, and they always had our attention grabbed with whatever gross shit Ryan pulled off.

37. Grace VanderWaal Is A Pretty Good Sister (Quarterfinals) Grace had probably the best chance out of any act in the finals to win, which is a shame considering that there are about three or four more deserving acts. Out of all of the songs she mumbled through in the live shows, however, Grace did her best job with the song dedicated to her sister. She definitely didn't mumble as much as later on, that's for sure.

36. Ryan Beard Attracts The Ladies (Audition) This was a bit unfortunate. Beard had one of my favorite auditions, and half-blew it the next round. His audition song, unlike his Judge Cut one, was funny, relatable, and he had me laughing even before the song began with some awkward-yet-endearing banter with the judges.

35. Sam Morril Comes Out Of Nowhere (Judges Cuts) This comedian didn't even have an aired audition, but his actually aired set was funny and charming. I especially laughed out loud during the joke where he was dumped by a hoarder. Shame he didn't go through.

34. Musicality Makes Us Cry (Audition) I never emotionally connected with them enough to support them going farther than I expected; which America did. The best of them was their audition, with a rousing rendition of Night Changes.

33. Lori Mae Hernandez Doesn't Talk About Politics (Judges Cuts) Contrary to popular belief, I always liked Hernandez, and thought she had good content when she wasn't talking about Donald Trump. Her best set was her Judges Cuts performance, where she talked about being a tween and quipped about Disney songs.

32. Calysta Bevier Picks A Brave Song Choice (Quarterfinals) Like Musicality, her story was always stronger than her musical skill, which led to her downfall in the Semis. The one time I did like her was in the Quarters, when she sang a good Sara Bareilles song and got a standing ovation.

31. Gary Sladek Makes the Climb (Audition) In the same boat as Ryan Beard, Gary Sladek had a thrilling, dangerous hand-balanced act for his audition, only to complete fuck up with a terrible drag trampoline act with his brother the next round.

30. Malevo Whips, Clogs, and Drums (All Performances) They did relatively identical things every time they performed, but they had the benefit of being skilled, thrilling, and dead sexy. So let's just mash all their performances into one spot. Works for me.

29. The Passing Zone and the Jugglenauts (Quarterfinals) The comedic daredevils were a pointless wild card in the semifinals that basically could've filled a spot performing in the finale results over filling in that ONE wild card spot; however, in the quarterfinals, their genius torture method of juggling humans may not have been enjoyable for the judges, but everyone else completely loved it.

28. Axel Perez's Balancing Act (Judges Cuts) The kid had a montaged audition, which is unforgivable considering he had a flawless performance in the second round. Even more unforgivable is the fact that he was eliminated in the same episode.

27. Pato & Ginger Make Us Smile (Audition) This Spanish guy and his adorable terrier aren't the last of the acts that disappeared following the auditions, but there was no forgetting Ginger's fantastic audition, the highlight of which being the pup balancing on a tightrope, something we have never seen on this show before.

26. Edgar Overcomes Their Problem Before Going Back to Square One (Quarterfinals) Edgar suffered from trying to give everyone an equal part in the song, instead of basing their performance around Nikki, the true star of the group. In the quarterfinals, they managed to fix that and do what I wanted, giving them a fantastic performance. It's a shame they went right back to Square One in the Semis.

25. Linkin' Bridge Overcomes Their Problem Before Going Back to Square One (Semifinals) Linkin' Bridge suffered from poor song choices and relatively incoherent harmonies, even with the star of the group carrying the rest of them. In the semifinals, they managed to fix that and do what I wanted, giving them a fantastic performance. It's a shame they went right back to Square One in the Finals.

24. Jayna Brown Rises To The Occasion (Semifinals) Despite having the benefit of the Golden Buzzer later on, I never really loved Jayna as much as everyone on the judging panel, though I always acknowledged her talent. Her semifinals performance was easily her best, where she knocked Katy Perry's Rise out of the park.

23. Sila Sveta Dazzles The Audience (Audition) They were given the equivalent of a sixth Golden Buzzer following this audition for a reason: Sila Sveta's dazzling reenactment of Sleeping Beauty was visually spectacular and technically flawless. Shame they underwhelmed in the live shows, or they could've gone really far.

22. Tape Face Gives a Letter To The Postman (Judges Cuts) As you progress through the list, you may notice that some acts have more than one slot dedicated to them, while other acts have several of their performances in one slot. That's because, if the act does something similar during those times, while those who have multiple slots do something special on separate occasions. Tape Face is one of 6 acts that have had more than one slot dedicated to them, and this one is easy to explain: he does something different every time we see him. And I think we all enjoyed his free fallin', or when he made an envelope puppet out of Howie Mandel.

21. Russian Bar Trio Raise the BAR (Audition) Considering they came back to fix the mistake they did 8 years ago, it's perplexing they didn't continue with the competition from there: they had a fantastic audition, and definitely my favorite danger-themed audition (though not my favorite danger performance).

20. Julia Scotti Makes Us Laugh (Audition/Judges Cuts) This transgender comedienne impressed me twice in a row before underwhelming in the live shows. Her edgy humor is my cup of tea, and she was absolutely hilarious in both of the above listed performances.

19. Elevenplay Dances with Drones (Audition) Of all the acts that disappeared after their auditions, Elevenplay was easily my favorite: a quintet of Japanese women dancing around about thirty drones, utilizing the lights on the drones to make it a dazzling display of dance.

18. Deadly Games Play With Sharp Objects (Quarterfinals) They took a lot of risks that paid off in the quarterfinals, including a blindfolded knife thrower who almost impaled his wife at one point. It was scary, thrilling, and fantastic.

17. Blake Vogt Shocks America!!! (Judges Cuts) Joking aside, this allergy-riddled magician's audition wasn't even aired, yet he managed to captivate all of his audience by managing to switcheroo some dollar corners with his mouth. He never really shocked any of us afterwards, so, uh, sorry, Xboy.

16. Laura Bretan Gets the Gold (Audition) Despite her past success in Romania's Got Talent, she definitely deserved her Golden Buzzer after a rousing rendition of the opera song that everyone sin–uh, I mean, Nessun Dorma. She's like Arielle Baril, except better.

15. Jon Dorenbos Counts His Cards (Audition) Our first look at the football player-turned-magician was a "counting cards" type of act, ending with a fantastic card trick that left all of America's jaws dropped. He remained a frontrunner for the entire show.

14. Sofie Dossi Gets A Bullseye (Semifinals/All Performances) Like Malevo, Sofie Dossi performed many similar acts every time she came on stage, but, unlike Malevo, I could probably pinpoint her best performance; in the semifinals, when she OPENLY ACKNOWLEDGED the fact that her bow trick was getting old, which led to a flawless hoop-aerialist performance. But substitute any other performance of her's if you want.

13. The Clairvoyants Bring Everything Together (Finals) They were my favorite magicians/mentalists/wizards of the season from the beginning, and being able to combine all four of their performances from the past with such ease and smoothness made a great moment for last night.

12. Brian Justin Crum Takes a Risk (or Two) (Semifinals/Finals) For me, my favorite singer of the season had two performances that tied with each-other in quality, mostly because, in both his renditions of Everybody Wants To Rule The World and Man in the Mirror, he took a huge risk that paid off fantastically. Wonderful singer, wonderful.

11. Grace VanderWaal Makes All of America Love Her (Audition) I'm not Grace's biggest fan, but I'm also the first to admit, her audition was spectacular. Considering I could hear every lyric clearly, and her voice sounded less squeaky and more strong, it was hard not to love her during her audition performance.

10. Hara Tells A Story (Quarterfinals) Hara was one of my favorites early on, but I had low expectations going into the live shows after his less-then-stellar Judges Cuts performance. However, he not only went back to his audition style, but actually made it better; complete with better tricks, an actual story, and one mother of Hara to boot. How he was somehow eliminated afterwards was beyond me.

9. The Clairvoyants Gather Everyone Around (Semifinals) The Clairvoyants had a great semifinals performance, and nothing less: how does someone engrave the word "Iris" into a pendant BEFORE the actual performance all for the end trick?? It completely baffles me. My god.

8. Viktor Kee Makes Juggling Amazing (Finals/All Performances) Take what I said about Sofie and bump it up, like, 100 rungs. Viktor was my new favorite of the competition after Hara's elimination, and, even if he dropped a few balls (hue hue), he was always someone who dazzled every time we saw him. For me, his finals performance impressed me the most, but substitute your favorite Viktor performance if you want. Doesn't matter, he's still the best juggler we've seen on the show, ever.

7. Tape Face Surprises Everyone (Auditions) Did anyone expect this? At all? Like, the creepy dude with the black make-up and the duct-taped mouth coming out on the stage with his satchel ended up being one of the fan favorites of the season. Everyone on the Internet must've LOL'ed when he pulled out his red dress.

6. Jon Dorenbos Makes a Touchdown (Semifinals) For me, the DorenBoss's best touchdown was his semifinals performance, if only because he got the audience to find out that Heidi is a better football thrower than Simon is. Oh, and the trick was fantastic, too.

5. Tape Face Does What He Does Best (Finals) If the Audition was a surprise, than the Finals performance was a complete show-stopper. Seriously, I may be in the minority, but his finals performance was easily his best– because, really, who didn't laugh at Tape Face toilet-seating and bag-heading Scary Spice?

4. Laura Bretan Blows the Roof Off (Quarterfinals) Here's something people can agree with; Bretan's best performance, by far, was her rendition of The Prayer in the quarterfinals; this was proof that she is better than Arielle Baril was, if anything. It was just that amazing.

3. Steven Brundage Makes Rubiks Cubes Amazing (All Performances) Did you guys think I wasn't gonna include this nerd? Seriously, I cannot pinpoint his best moment of the season, just because he was consistently fantastic. Whether it was the lightning-fast solving of the cubes, or making Brad Pitt's face out of hundreds of the small things, he always shocked America like Vogt never did.

2. Brian Justin Crum Is Hauntingly Fantastic (Judges Cuts/Finale) Crum always had fantastic moments in every song he performed, even in the performances not mentioned on the list; however, his best was easily his cover of Radiohead's Creep, in which he belted out completely. And he did the same song in the Finale as a special performance, albeit a bit shorter, and it was still fuckin' fantastic, maybe even better than the first time.

1. The Clairvoyants Can Control People, Run While You Still Can (Quarterfinals) What can I say about the Austrian couple that hasn't already been said? Seriously, this was the best performance all season by anyone, so of course other people loved it, right? I mean, they managed to FULLY-ACCURATELY guess a number of jelly beans, specific jelly beans consumed by the judges, and GUESSED HOWIE'S DREAM JELLY BEAN FLAVOR???? ALL OF WHICH WAS WRITTEN ON A CONCEALED CHALKBOARD BEFORE THE PERFORMANCE??????????????? My mind was basically jelly afterwards, it was just blown.

Note: This was written prior to the winner being announced, so these comments on who may win may be invalid after tonight. 