AGT Final Twelve (With a Special Spotlight on Magic)

[Jester]

So the final 12 of AGT. Don't know how many of you have been watching this season, but I sure have. And I've resisted commenting for the most part, other than my insight into the magicians. But here's my take on the performances of the final 12.

Mara Justine: My favorite for the season. This girl can belt it out. The fact that the tv crew somehow screwed up her sound and gave her all that reverb, which apparently the live audience didn't hear, is just heartbreaking to me. I hope' though, that she gets through to the final 6, because if she does, I really think she can win it. It would be a shame, though, if a technical error not of her doing got Mara cut. Sadly, I fear that that will be exactly what happens.

(Note: some of you may think that I have a soft spot for the young female singers. It's because I do. It's nothing pervy, though...I have six nieces, so of course I have a certain bias there. And for that I won't apologize.)

Emily West: Howie nailed it when he called her iconic. She may not technically be that yet, but I honestly believe she will be. Her performances are captivating and mesmerizing, her voice is fantastic, and her stage presence is beyond belief. Probably the odds on favorite to win it all, and for good reason.

Sons of Serendip: Not really my cup of tea, normally. But Tuesday night, they rose above any musical bias one might have and just delivered a stellar performance. One of the high points of the show for me, and that is a surprise, to me more than anyone.

Quintavious Johnson: There is simply no denying this kid's talent, and he always delivers. And he delivered again. Completely unflappable on stage, and with the right amount of swagger without crossing over into arrogance. Q has a definite future in the music industry.

Acroarmy: Like Sons of Serendip, I am not really a fan of this act, normally. But like S.O.S., they pulled out all the stops and nailed it. If they performed like this all the time, I would have been a fan sooner.

Christian Stoinev: Nice hand balancing act. Definite sense of humor. Sadly, my favorite part was how he opened with a nod to his last performance's shortcomings. After that, while impressive, it just felt repetitive. We've seen this before. He's fantastic at what he does, but he didn't rise above his past performances, as S.O.S. and Acroarmy did, I thought.

Blue Journey: I was with Mel B. I was mostly bored. And with an act like this, it's important to get the timing between the dancing and the animation dead on, and they were off quite a bit, and quite often. Nice act, but they were out shown by the others.

Emil & Dariel: The whole point of these guys is that they rock out on the cello, and tear the stage up. And this time, they did what most any other cellists could have done. Yes, it was a nice rendition of an Aerosmith song, and the addition of the choir was nice, but I agree with Howard that a lead singer would have been nice, and I definitely agree with Heidi that they played it way safe. Probably the biggest disappointment of the night for me, as I really like these guys and what they do.

Miguel Dakota: Very talented. Very charismatic. Very good singer. And totally dropped the ball this time. His distinctive voice was nowhere to be found, he was belting out a great song in a way it should never be belted out (despite the fact that this is, in fact, a song that can and should be belted out), and he basically butchered one of my all time favorite songs by one of my all time favorite artists. Fly me, an unforgivable sin. Damn shame, because he was probably one of the favorites coming into this show. He'll still get a lot of the teen girl votes, but in don't know if it will be enough. After this performance, I hope not.

And I've saved the magicians for last.

*sigh*

I'm in a different position than most people, in that I don't want to just be amazed by magicians, I want them to amaze me in ways that I have no idea what they're doing. Sadly, not one of the three magic acts did this for me tonight.

David & Leeman: My favorite of the three acts tonight. Their patter and chemistry is always spot on. And their trick was fantastic. The disappointing part for me is that it was basically a big stage version of a close up card trick I perform on a regular basis. They did it quite well, and I don't know all the mechanics, but I have a better idea of how it was done than I think I ever should when it comes to stage magic, as I don't do stage magic. So while I wasn't blown away, I did love what they did with this, and think they should go through.

Mat Franco: A close up magician like myself, and very personable and funny, Mat should be my favorite of the three. And he was, until tonight. His last performance was utterly brilliant, and made me proud to be a magician. This one was...nice. And I hope it impressed all of you, but for me, there wasn't a single thing he did that I didn't understand. After last week, I expected more from him.

Mike Super: Meh. Never been a big fan of this guy, though what he did with the exploding water pitcher in Heidi's hand was pretty impressive. And while I'm not a huge fan of his, I have to admit his last performance was pretty damn good. This week, though, was forgettable. And when I say that, I don't mean figuratively, I mean literally....I'm struggling to remember what he did, and may have to rewind my DVR to be reminded. Nothing I've had to do with any of the acts this week, magic or otherwise. All these notes have been from memory after watching the show this morning, and Mike's....oh, yeah, just remembered it, right before I went to rewind. Again, this may have been impressive to a magic civilian, but to me, it was flat. Remember, I see things a bit differently for these three acts. And I am fairly certain I know how he did it. And when I say that, I mean that most of it I know exactly how he did it, and one small big I'm relatively sure, but not absolutely certain. If Super gets through, as a magician myself, I'll be nauseous. Easily the worst of here three magic acts, and in my mind, one of if not the worst of the final twelve.

[Jetfire]

Just watching the episode now. With regards to Mike Super, it was all in the setup. You can just catch the deck manipulation at the end (or at least the deck flip which makes it worth) when he hands it to Nick. After that, everything is obviously pre-prepared to make it work.

David and Leeman have the patter/act which works well for them. Sadly they didn't get through. I would've loved a 2 Magician final, and they and Mat would have been a great Top 6. I think I can guess how they did it, but I don't know all the magician tricks. (Though I'm guessing (spoiler) Howard's 'ticket' didn't come from inside the balloon.(/spoiler))

Mat Franco's trick, the first one was pretty obvious, the slight hangtime on the King. Manipulating the marked card from Howard was more impressive. While I didn't see how he did it, I think I know how. A lot of these tricks seem dependent on making things appear to drop out of things when they don't really drop out of them. I think he got the biggest boost by being the last magician, so that as much as anything is why he got voted through.

Hopefully he has something impressive for next week; but regardless he's got some time booked in Vegas for the AGT show I'm sure. (That's usually made up of the Top 6 acts and maybe a couple of the TOp 12 or more; at least from when I saw it last)

[Jester]

Pissed that Mara didn't get through, and completely convinced she got screwed by a technical error by the show's staff. Based on the audience's and judges' reactions, if America had seen and more importantly heard her the way the theater did, I'm certain she would have gone through.

That being said....based on who's left, I am hoping that Emily West wins, and am convinced it will come down to her and Quintavious Johnson. Of course, if Emily doesn't win, I want it to be the magician, Mat. But he damn well better step it from his last performance, which I consider his weakest so far.

As for Jetfire's theories on how the various magicians did their tricks....I'm not saying a word. As if I would actually reveal anything done by my fellow magicians!

[Jetfire]

Watching the Top 6 now; mostly indifferent to who wins it in the end.

Matt Franco's cup and balls trick was OK; but his moves were a bit too telegraphed. After seeing how smoothly Penn and Teller do it, and seeing the other magician do it on "Fool Us" a few weeks ago, his cup and balls trick was decent, but still needed a lot more practice to make smoother.

On the other hand, his big cards trick was pretty impressive, especially how he mixed close up and stage magic that way. And I can't think of how he could manipulate the stage part to get those results like that.

[Jester]

Sorry for my lateness in chiming in....for various reasons, I just now watched the finale. And since I didn't know if anyone here had commented on the final results, I dared not poke my head in here until I had seen the results myself.

SPOILER ALERT!!! If you haven't yet seen the finale, walk away and go watch it, then come back here for the commentary. That out of the way....

The final performances were all impressive. I am totally enthralled by Emily West, but as a magician, of course I was paying the most attention to Mat Franco. More on him in a moment, as I have to say I was highly impressed with all six acts. They all raised the bar, and I mean high.

But as for Mat: his cups and balls routine was very good. Unfortunately for him, I have had the pleasure of seeing the best cups and balls artist in the the world, and on numerous occasions, as he used to perform regularly right here in Key West, at the world famous Mallory Square and its Sunset Celebration. If you've never seen Gazzo, google him, but understand that nothing is like seeing him in person. As for Mat's car trick, I've done something very similar to it, at least as far as the close up portion went. The stage version, I'll admit, I'm still scratching my head about. I really am gonna have to think about that one, to be honest.

On the finale, it was nice to see all the artists perform without pressure, and they all delivered. Emily West with Cyndi Lauper was simply amazing, as was Miguel Dakota with Lenny Kravitz. I did think the Train/S.O.S. duet treated S.O.S. more as an opening act for Train, and less as an actual duet, and I felt that did S.O.S. a disservice. Luckily for them, this would not affect the final results.

As they announced the winners, I was surprised and even shocked as the musical acts kept falling. Then we were left with the incomparably Emily West, the amazingly talented AcroArmy, which I never thought would be in the top three, and Mat Franco, not just a magician, but a close up magician--which is what I am. I was, to say the least, a bit shocked. Pleasantly shocked, but shocked nonetheless. AA was eliminated, and I knew for sure that this was going to be the inevitable coronation of Emily West. And I was cool with that. She freakin' rocks.

And so, when they announced the winner, I was absolutely shocked. I just kept saying, "What? What? Wait....what?!?!?" It was cool to see a magician finally win, but for it to be a closeup magician was something special for me. And from all I saw, Mat was nothing but gracious and poised the whole way, an excellent representation of my comrades in cards.

So, I'm sure many of you are wondering, did I "get" his final performance with Rosie O'Donnell and Howard Stern? Well, yes and no. On my first watching, I had a theory. I rewatching it, and realized that my initial theory was completely wrong, but now I understood what he did. I did. And it was not only devious and sly, but damned difficult to do with thousands watching in the theater and millions more on tv. And he pulled it off. I know some magicians who could do that, though I know only one personally that could do it that well. Because what he did, from a magician's standpoint, was not that complicated. But the skill with which he did it? Slick. Utterly and completely slick. Even knowing what I know, I had a tough time seeing it.

And if you saw it, or think you did, do all of us magicians a favor, and don't put it out here publicly. Feel free to message me privately about it, but don't mess with the brilliance of Mat Franco--stating publicly how he did something like that, or any of his tricks, would be the equivalent of cutting the mic cord on a singer. Maybe worse.

My guess, though, is that anyone without experience in hey to field of magic will not get what he did. Because, as I said, he did it very, very slickly. In my personal opinion, anyways.

And with a magician finally winning this show, I think I may retire from my commentary of it here. To put it simply, my work here is done. Time to go make some beers disappear.

[Akasa]

I was wondering why you hadn't commented on the winner, and if you were displeased with the results.

Glad you finally chimed in.

I have a RL friend who is an optical illusionist in Vegas. Sometimes when we hang out he's bounce ideas off me. Test things, see if I can guess how it was done. IF I get it right he tells me, otherwise he thinks its part of the fun to figure it out.

I would never publicly tell how he does stuff. That's just not right!