Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-28218516-20180821190426/@comment-33043619-20180829094831

12: Joseph O’Brien. I love how what was probably just a throwaway line during the audition interviews ("I'm single") has now turned into a fully produced sketch involving Joseph going from door to door to various women holding a lousy bouquet and getting rejected. I mean...fuck. If that doesn't sum up everything wrong with the show right there, I'm not sure what does. I, personally, spent the entire act wondering what dollar store Halloween decoration they used to cover up his piano, because the song was dull as can be. He seems like a nice guy, but if there's any integrity left on the show, he should absolutely be the singer booted out at this stage. On the plus side, he has a little bit extra to take with him to whatever show he goes on next, as "Tyra Banks made me speak out the name of my secret crush on national television" is a sob story even I can get behind.

11: Rob Lake. Although I'm quite sick of them at this point, there IS a way to make these big stage illusions work. This was not it. Vegas is full of cool, interesting magicians with a ton of personality doing these old tricks with a fresh new twist. Unfortunately Rob Lake is a magician of the gorgonzola variety. The sign mess-up didn't help, but the whole act before that was just underwhelming and...lame as you said. At least his final trick worked well enough, but he's such a charisma vacuum that I completely forgot about it seconds later when I felt my soul being sucked out through my skull by his smile.

10: Michael Ketterer. I get it, the tears and the emotions and the kids and the story and everything. Guy seems like a SUPER great dude and the world needs more people like him, but if ever there was an act solely relying on a sob story, this is kind of it...I can't exactly categorize him as a typical "bland" singer on the show, he certainly knows how to convey emotion and he clearly sings with passion, but his actual voice is just...missing something. Besides the emotions, I found the whole performance underwhelming and think this really wasn't the right song for his limited range. Hopefully his next pick will be better because he IS going through.

9: Daniel Emmet. I'm pretty sure Simon just brought him back because he was the only person who would accept the offer to have a wall of FIRE behind him. Great vocals, overplayed song, but done differently enough that it wasn't boring. The show has fallen out of love with opera recently so I don't really know how well people will respond to this. Thankfully he has the support of youngsters all over America, as Tyra said, with Aerosmith, because y'know...nothing gets the teens going these days more than a wrinkly old Steven Tyler coughing up his remaining lung on stage.

8: The Future Kingz. I found these guys to be much more interesting than whatever #StockDanceAct9887 was last week, but I also still find it really hard to personally get excited over groups like this so I'll just say that names ending with Z are cool.

7: Christina Wells. As far as singers go on this show, I thought she pretty much brought the roof down on the building. Not literally, we aren't that lucky. Woman can SING, but the producer's can't use the volume button competently. Still, it was powerful.

6: Us the Duo. The whole "I HAVE A TINY HUMAN BEING INSIDE OF ME" angle was viewer manipulation at its finest, but I like these two. I've been on board with them from the beginning and I still am. Maybe I'm just crazy, it's really nothing all too different from something you'd hear at a local coffee shop, but DAMN IT I like coffee. And I liked the song, their chemistry and voices blending together. Sue me, but the act works in my eyes.

5: UDI Dance. I must have been watching something different than everyone else, because throughout the performance I was thinking "oh this is so through" only to to then hear the judge's comments and see the general lack of enthusiasm online (I saw they were the least retweeted act this entire season). It was sloppy, sure, at times the act comes across like a kid trying to recreate The Avengers in their room using cardboard boxes and some crayons, but that comes with the territory. Acts like these still haven't figured out how to make it all look polished and seamless, but I thought this was creative and fun. They DID step it up, by adding costumes and elements we have never seen from an act like this before and yet I'm pretty sure they are toast this week. Shame.

4: Aaron Crow. This guy could charm Dracula out of his own castle. The act took longer than the entire Lord Of The Rings Extended Trilogy combined, but I was enthralled throughout even though it was a fairly simple and known trick. I had pretty much written this guy off before the semi, because I knew how much the viewers dislike danger acts, so I was happy to see him do some straight up magic...unfortunately it didn't really all go down as great as I hoped and Mel B's buzzer pretty much sealed his fate shut. I'm also not sure it ended like it was supposed to. Howie's pick amounted to nothing, as Aaron already knew where the knife was, but considering he had spent what seemed like an hour fondling these boxes on stage himself, it seemed odd for that to be the big finish. I'm not sure if it just went wrong here or was supposed to end like this, but something didn't feel quite right. It kills me inside to say that he's probably a goner, as he's an interesting and talented enough act to deserve a spot in the actual FINAL, but this wasn't the way to win the rest of the audience over.

3: Brian King Joseph. This wasn't his best performance. Still impressive as hell, but I got too distracted by the Troy James gang playing charades behind him. It wasn't needed, but thankfully Brian is good enough to still stand out.

2: Hans. On a show that mostly serves to disappoint or piss me off these days, Hans managed to make me forget all that as I did a little jig in my room and had the biggest smile possible on my face. Bless you, Hans. We are not worthy!

1: Zurcaroh. This really did feel short, but I checked the time on YouTube and it was basically the same as a few other singers last night so I guess that just meant I WANTED MORE. And boy do I. This is just a professional, well thought out group that rivals Diavolo, but it was actually easier to keep track of people and tricks because it was all so well put together. Any act that can tell a story through dance that even Mel B can understand, must be doing something right!

Decent enough night as usual, made even better by the complete lack of any songs from The Greatest Showman! Before the show started, I thought this would be the hardest one to predict yet (and I haven't been doing a good job so far), but as the show progressed things became pretty obvious...

Zurcaroh, Brian King Joseph, Us The Duo, Christina Wells, Daniel Emmett and Michael Ketterer all seem like certain qualifiers. Of course, one has to end up in the dunkin save and this is where things get difficult, because it could be ANY of them. I'll just go out on a limb and predict Us The Duo won't have charmed people quite as much as they did me, but will make it through with ease thanks to the save anyways.

Last spot is harder to predict. Aaron is likely out thanks to the buzzer alone (when was the last time an act that got buzzed came anywhere close to going through?). UDI seemed to underwhelm people and combined with the judge's dismissing comments, I'm afraid they are goners too. Joseph should be gone no matter what as even if he gets to the middle 3, I doubt the judges would pick him. Rob Lake will likely be in the save simply because magic and hotness and because I'm feeling adventurous I'll say that the third one in the save will be HANS!!!!! (but it will actually be The Future Kingz). So overall these are my predictions for tonight:

12. Aaron Crow 11. UDI 10. Joseph O’Brien 9. Hans 8. Rob Lake (loses judge's pick) 7. The Future Kingz (judge's pick) 6. Us The Duo (dunkin save) 5. Christina Wells 4. Daniel Emmet 3. Brian King Joseph 2. Zurcaroh´ 1. Michael Ketterer