Sunday, June 7, 2009

America's Got Talent

I've just caught up with last week's AGT. What a mixed bag - from the sublime to the ridiculous. Having skipped hurriedly through the sublimes, of particular note were the burlesque dancers Slippery Kittens - sound seedy but the girls were extremely talented.

Another act that sounded a bit odd but was actually very entertaining was a young guy called Johnathan Burkin. He'd been called every name under the sun because he had a rather 'girlie' obsession with baton twirling! Hmmm, I thought, sounds extremely dodgy but this young man was, in effect, an extremely dextrous fire juggler who was an equally dextrous dancer. Nothing girlie about him at all. Once again, goes to prove you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

However, the highlight of the night was a 32 year old, Neal Boyd who claimed to be an insurance salesman by day. He didn't look particularly confident, he went on stage and informed everyone that he'd loved opera from an early age and he was going to sing. Once again, I judged the book by it's cover and instantly wrote him off. He seemed such a nice unassuming sort of a guy and I hoped for his sake that he didn't get boo-ed off stage as so many acts this week seemed to have been. But he was gobsmackingly good. He sang out Nessun Dorma as if he'd been an opera singer all his life.

I'm interested to see how the series pans out but, to date, these are three acts - all completely different - that would win my vote. All three of the above can be viewed on Youtube.