Let’s not waste anytime in this blog. There’s a lot to get to. Auditions 5 was jam packed. You saw it in the headline. We had two Kings. One more and they could’ve been from Orient (just a little Christmas song humor for you). We had a Duo of Duos. We had world records broken involving a scientist’s butt. We had the return to the screen for Tom Sandoval. We had a band from Appalachia that will knock your socks off. We had our best Golden Buzzer of the season so far. This show was dying for a jolt to the system after the first month, and Auditions 5 delivered.
This was the best episode of the season. Not a tall task, but still, the best of the season. The episode opened with King number one of the night. I don’t want to start with King though. The show really started when we finally had the return of our beloved Adjudicator. This man has my heart.
He walks out and the crowd goes nuts. As they should. Mel asks if he is from the Guinness Book of Records. Look what he is wearing and carrying in that picture. Have to get up pretty early to get one by Mel B. Sofia notes that “he’s always here”. Yes he is, Sofia. Yes he is. And thank goodness that he is because he brings the JUICE. This man loves adjudicating. He loves it. He was born to adjudicate. On the episode, he came to adjudicate this lady Andrea as she attempted to break the record for longest hula hooping on your butt. She beat it by like 15 minutes. Congrats to Andrea.
All the while Andrea was backstage breaking records (she had to go for over an hour to break the record so they let her do it backstage. Not a great talent show act), we were treated with a handful of solid auditions.
Bill Taylor & The Appalachian Heathens show up and they are exactly what this season needed.
The season is rapidly getting saturated with strength/physical feat acts. It’s a real problem. It’s like when all of a sudden every restaurant had some type of ‘truffle’ item on the menu. We couldn’t escape truffles. Should there be SOME truffles? Certainly. But sometimes you just need a classic waffle fry with salt. This band was tremendous. Bill is a star, the Heathens are perfect accompaniment, and the song choice was great. A really nice audition.
The truffles returned immediately. The Bodyguards walk on the stage and Sofia short circuits.
These guys were amazing. The strength was next level. The stunts were innovative and creative. Their problem was that they were somewhat horribly boring. They had a whole Bodyguard bit they were doing at the beginning where they didn’t talk (hence the group name).
They need to find some flair. Some pizzazz. They need to wow us with something more than strength.
Tom Sandoval showed up next with his cover band and droned on about how he was a terrible person and in turn he lost everything and so now he is coming on the show to repair his life and image. And the judges BOUGHT IT. It was stunning. Hook, line, and sinker. They ate it up. By all accounts this guy is a world class cheater. Loves cheating on his girlfriends. He went on and on about how the New York Times said he was the most hated man in America (they did).
Either way, he wasn’t good enough to go through regardless of his past. But, he won the judges over and off he went. I get it. There’s some curb appeal when he’s on the thumbnail. Just wasn’t a good act.
Up next was the best Golden Buzzer of the season. Sofia stepped up to the plate and hit it for Duo Stardust.
It was all about the finish with this act. The first 75% of this performance was everything we have seen dozens of times from this type of act. Roller skating circles, loops around heads, aerialist straps. You name it. Frankly, I was bored. And then the final 25 seconds showed up and blew me away. Her skate turned into something crossed with a thruster and a firework. It was mesmerizing. I was mesmerized. It takes a lot to mesmerize me anymore after two decades of AGT (I famously was quoted last year saying that we had “seen it all”). But they did. Kudos to Duo Stardust. Great name too.
I’ll wrap up with our final act of the night, The Benn Family Band. They recounted their tragic experience in the Los Angeles area wildfires earlier this year. They then stepped up to the plate and whipped out Lauren Daigle’s “Rescue”. It was the right song choice. Five family members construct the group. Alone, they aren’t good enough for the show. But when they come together, they can do some really nice things. The lead singer is the best in the group by far. She needs to be more powerful to take the group to the next level. But there is something there with them.
Auditions 5 felt a little more like prime AGT. Good acts. Fun storylines. The Adjudicator! What a night. I’ll finish with my Auditions 5 Power Rankings:
1. Duo Stardust 2. The Bodyguards 3. Bill Taylor & The Appalachian Heathens 4. The Benn Family Band 5. Chuck Adams 6. Alain Simonov 7. King Moore 8. Shuler King 9. Tom Sandoval 10. Andrea
And my Updated Top 10:
1. TT Boys 2. Duo Soma 3. Jacqueline & Wagner 4. Duo Stardust 5. The Bodyguards 6. The Messoudi Brothers 7. Duo Turkeev 8. Jonglissimo 9. Bill Taylor & The Appalachian Heathens 10. Jourdan Blue
No episode next week so we will see you in two weeks (and also you might be seeing my return to the AGT Time Podcast airwaves over the break so stay tuned on that). Until next time.
