Quarterfinals Round 2
August 11
(C-Note: the following was from a session
we had with Gordon, who also works with YesButNoButYes.com. The subject,
round 2 of the quarterfinals this week. They've got a tough act to
follow. Can they do it?)
Our special guests this week are Travis
Schario (from last week) and Chico Alexander (Co-Editor on
GameShowNewsNet.com). Our first special guests tonight are The Fab
Five, who tap dance to 'Fire' by tapping on a scalfold, sliding down
fire engine poles and then dancing in the center with jets of flame
shooting from the edges of the stage.
The Good: Very clean and technically sound. Much cleaner than any
dance act last week. Their looks don't hurt, either.
The Bad: We got too much and not enough at the same time. Too
much in terms of pyrotechnics. Not enough in terms of originality. I
don't know if you could do any more with a clogging act, but if felt
like I saw the same act during the auditions and didn't see anything
new.
The Chico: Props to them for going to the party and bringing what
got them there. However, at the end of the day, it's just clogging. If
you take away the fire and the props, it's nothing new.
The Travis: I'm not going to be as jaded as Chico. The
choreography was tight, props were appropriate, song was good.
The Verdict: They definitely stepped up their game to show what
they could do. If they were on last week's show, they are in. However,
we have 3 other dance groups tonight, and I'd have to see them before
figuring out where to put the cloggers.
Charles DeWayne is the second act of the evening. He sings and
plays the piano. The choice of song - 'Just the Two of Us'. But can he
get more than 2 people to vote for him?
The Good: DeWayne's vocals are really nice on the song. He sings
beautifully and with passion. Nice job on the song, vocally.
The Bad: But I didn't like the choice of the song, because I
thought it was too safe. His piano playing also lets him down. He
noticeably flubs the piano solo and just like Scott MacIntyre on Idol,
DeWayne distances himself from the audience by sticking a piano in the
way. I think him singing sans piano in front of the audience would have
been the better play here.
The Travis: His voice was perfect for the song choice. His talent
absolutely shown through. A+ performance.
The Chico: I didn't think he was as dead on as Travis said he
was, but what he lacks in vocal ability he makes up in presence and
showmanship. A good performance.
The Verdict: Sharon Osbourne is right - it was a great
performance on the song, but it would have been nice to hear something
more challenging. Based on the history of the voting patterns of the
audience, he could return, but he needs to step his game up.
We have our second dancer of the evening. Carol Loo wants to live
out her dream. I'm wondering how she got in the Top 40 to begin with,
and after seeing her pull out some veritcal cage dancing and Salt N'
Pepa moves, I'm still wondering.
The Good: The clothes fit her nicely. You couldn't tell that she
was 63 when she was dancing. She didn't look a shade over 58.
The Bad: Watching this was equivalent to seeing Madonna dance
after being pumped with 2 quarts of amphetamines. Nick Cannon told her
she was shaking what her mama gave her. In that case, I need to go to
her mom's house and build a concrete dome around it so no shaking ever
escapes her residency again. And a special boo to Piers, who X'ed her
when he was the moron who put her in the Top 40 to begin with.
The Chico: She obviously saw the tape of the Platt Brothers and
went by their playbook, which is screw the coherence, let's make a show.
It didn't work out for her.
The Travis: The choreography was bad. The song was bad. The
dancers were not needed. I agree with Piers' X. I was hitting my X when
she was in the go-go booth.
The Verdict: A 63 year old gets to live out her dreams on the
stage. That's nice. AwwwwBarf. Now please get off my tv set.
This show is going to the dogs. Literally. Tony Hoard and Rory
give us dog tricks, complete with Baywatch Intro.
The Good: The Baywatch intro was funny. Rory did a very good job
playing his part in the act.
The Bad: The same, however, can not be said about his owner. Tony
made a lot of silly mistakes, causing the dog to not catch the frisbee
and causing Piers to hit his buzzer. I would have hit it too. Very poor
execution by the human.
The Travis: The Baywatch thing was the only thing going for it.
Piers correctly buzzed on the first miss. There were easily 3 or 4 more.
The dog got confused twice. 4 misses total. Horrible. I pass.
The Chico: There's an old saying in Hollywood - the 2 worst
things to work with are kids and animals. One look at the act and you
know why the saying is true. America. Is. Not. Going. To. Vote. For. A.
Dog.
The Verdict: If Tony was throwing cheeseburgers, then David
Hasselhoff catching them with his mouth would have been more
entertaining - and David would have caught them all. This is incredibly
sloppy. If Tony performed like this in his first audition, he almost
assuredly doesn't get to Vegas, never mind the Top 40. This is one of
the reasons why all of the acts needed to perform again in Vegas to
prove their worth. This is a dog of an act and by being fleabitten, will
be sent to the showers.
Can Eleisha Miller improve on her singing? She doesn't have to
work on her acting, or charm, or taking lessons from her stage mom.
The Good: The singing does indeed improve. This is a very
impressive routine that she's trying to pull off, and props go to her
for the attempt.
The Bad: For the attempt - but not the results. The improvement
is not good enough - there's still a lot of bum notes. What concerns me
more is that the song is both too old and too big for her. An 8 year old
should not be singing 'I've Got The Music In Me' - and the screaming
that she loves America is less inspiration and more cheesy desperation.
The Chico: An act like Eleisha Miller has to do 3 things -
improve on her vocals, tone down the precociousness and be less annoying
in general. So far, she's 0 for 3.
The Travis: I agree with Chico and Piers. Next!
The Verdict: If singing is in her heart, then pain and bleeding
is in my eardrums. She reminds me of Michaela Gordon, but in a bad way.
Michaela got as far as the Top 12 before America released her from the
show. Since America's vote skews old this season, I see Eleisha leaving
at around this time.
Paradiso Dance has decided that they need to step their game up.
They do more balancing and feats of strength-defying dancing acts, to
the tune of Beyonce's 'Halo'. Can they be crowned by America?
The Good: The nail their moves. It's a very impressive
performance. And we see a giant halo that they use at the end of the
routine, which sends Zoey spinning upwards into the night.
The Bad: There was a lot of throwing Zoey around the stage, which
was impressive, but not much of the 120 pound Zoey carrying the 200+
pound Dave around. It's those sort of moves that put them on the map, so
not seeing anything revolutionary from them in that venue was sort of
disappointing.
The Travis: The dancing would have been good if there was ice
under them. It was ice dancing on a stage (though I give the woman props
for picking up the guy.)
The Chico: I'm still mesmerized on how Zoey picked Dave up. This
was the first act that had everything going perfectly. This is a shoo-in
for them getting to the next round.
The Verdict: I don't know about shoo-in, but I think they have
too much hype to be ignored. I think they still need to see some acts
flounder, but they are in good shape to advance.
The second half of the show begins with The Texas Tenors. They
are proud to be Americans, and are not afraid to let you know it as they
sing 'G-d Bless the U.S.A.'.
The Good: It's a very smart song choice. 'G-d Bless the U.S.A.'
bailed out Kristy Lee Cook in American Idol 6 and gave her another week
on the stage. The anthem is a staple that's sure to get the public's
vote, regardless of how badly it's sung.
The Bad: And it's good for them, because my eardrums are still
trying to recover. I would be much prouder to be an American if they got
the notes right. Their voices do not mesh well together, which makes it
sound like their harmonies were pressed through a cheese grater.
The Chico: Vote pandering aside, you have a group with
expectation. Harmony was an expectation. With the vocal overpowering,
that was an expectation unfulfilled.
The Travis:I'm not going to say anything about the song, because
that would be unpatriotic. If they're calling themselves tenors, they
have to match pitches across the board. They don't do it, but I think
the vote pandering is going to work.
The Verdict: I hated the performance. It was cheesy and the
vocals didn't work. To make matters worse for them, the Voices of Glory
have yet to go and are waiting to sing them into the floor. To make
matters worse for me, I think that the vocal pandering will work and
we'll see them in the semi-finals. Yuck.
Who's up for some acts to come back for their second chance? SQ
Entertainment promises dancing AND stunts. Can they show that they
have earned their second chance from Simon Cowell and make the next
round?
The Good: I give them props for pulling out the stops. It's not a
safe performance, and they needed to not be safe. You had the SWAT team
coming in with some nice moves, and you had some unique stepping going
on.
The Bad: Unfortunately, it's all undermined by the sloppiness of
the act. The dancing was not in unison. The line dancing was not
symmetrically even and any good will they had with the nice sweeps was
upset by some of the missed easy moves.
The Travis: The choreography was sloppy. I didn't get it. Moving
on.
The Chico: Finally, a Wild Card act worth bringing back. I
thought it was pretty decent. They were going for the America's Best
Dance Crew crowd. It's a toss-up.
The Verdict: I completely disagree with Chico. Last Sunday, I saw
the debut of ABDC with 9 new crews. All of them would have pounded SQ
Entertainment to a bloody pulp. And again, I think that Iconic should
have taken that spot, and not SQ. Add the older skewing audience, and I
think SQ could stand for supremely quashed, which I think their chances
are.
Pete Peterkin promises to bring back Barack Obama in a way that
you've never seen him before. That way includes talking to Snoop Dogg,
playing the piano and singing 'Georgia On my Mind'.
The Good: He's got the Barack Obama voice down pat. And he
dresses nice.
The Bad: Really slow to start. And I have a joke for you. What
did the comedy and the singing have in common? They all felt flatter
than my car tires running across a board of tacks. Not funny, huh? Well,
neither was Peterkin.
The Chico: I was bored.
The Travis: I have issues with his Obama impression but his Ray
Charles impression was spot on. The comedy didn't work for me though.
The Verdict: If Peterkin came out with the charm like he had on
the first performance or if the singing was great, then America could
see a president moving on. But after that, I think Obama (now spelt
O-bomb-a, because it was a bomb) gets stopped in the primaries.
Speaking of bombs, Alizma looks like a good old-fashioned train
wreck. But they do have the looks and the violin talent. Can they heed
the judges advice and let the violins speak for themselves instead of
their vocal chords?
The Good: The outfits makes them look hot and sexy. Blonde. Tan.
Black leather clothing and metal chains. Yum. And yes, the violin
playing is well done.
The Bad: Unfortunately, they sing Aretha Franklin's 'You Make Me
Feel Like a Natural Woman'. It's bad. Very very very bad. And the high
pitch at the end makes all 3 judges hit their buttons and has most
livestock in Ohio searching for a bale of hay to stick their heads in to
muffle the ensuing musical chaos.
The Travis: If I was Aretha Franklin, and I witnessed that
performance, I would no longer be embarrassed to be seen wearing that
foppy hat to Barack Obama's inauguration. Where's my button? I need my
button...(X)
The Chico: Somebody obviously didn't get the memo that they can't
sing. (X)
The Verdict: They remind me of what would happen if they wanted
to wash my car (which they could do in those outfits). It's pretty for
the 60 seconds that they are doing it, until you have to roll down the
window and have to listen to them. As a result, they don't continue any
further and you leave them out on the corner. I trust America will put
them out of their misery tomorrow.
The Beale Street Flippers are the second group with a second
chance. With 2 dance groups already performing tonight, they want to
steal the dance vote. Can they?
The Good: They do flip. And they hit all their moves. So
technically, they work.
The Bad: All they did was flip. No innovation or originality, and
most importantly, no routine, noticeable choreography or showmanship. I
was bored and couldn't wait for the act to end.
The Chico: Let's be honest. They are not dancers. They are
flippers. The flipping was good. Everything else was awkward.
The Travis: They are male cheerleaders. They need women and a
team.
The Verdict: I've seen this all before last week with Acrodunk,
and they did it much better than the Flippers. There is an audience out
there for this group, but I don't see America rewarding them for it and
I expect Mr. Cowell to go 0-4 in returning acts.
Finally, the Voices of Glory end the show with an uplifting
gospel. Will it be enough to uplift them past this round?
The Good: The second half of the song had some of the better
melodies from anyone this season. They had flashes of brilliance
throughout the performance.
The Bad: I hate pounding on kids, but the vocals were both uneven
and out of tune. The first half was VERY shaky and uneven, and there
were clear spots where the kids were not on the same page as the
background musical accompaniment.
The Travis: The girl was the strongest member of the group, but I
really couldn't understand a quarter of the lyrics she was singing. Keep
it in the church and they'll be ok.
The Chico: They had me until the end. The pacing just died then.
The Verdict: Oh they'll get through this week, if nothing else
because of all of the hype they've been getting and the lack of viable
challengers in this episode. That being said, if they do this same
unevenness in the semi-finals, they are going to be shocked right out of
the competition.
Overall Verdict: Not nearly as good as last week's performances.
There was a lot of raw talent who had the opportunities to step up. Most
of them did not take advantage of it, but the people who did made their
marks. Here's the predictions.
Gordon's Top 4:
Paradiso Dance
Charles DeWayne
Voices of Glory
Texas Tenors
Judge's Call: Fab 5 Vs. Eleisha Miller - Fab 5 Advances
Travis's Top 4:
Texas Tenors
Voices of Glory
Charles DeWayne
Paradiso Dance
Judges Call: Fab 5 Vs. Pete Peterkin - Fab 5 Advances
Chico's Top 4:
Paradiso Dance
Voices of Glory
Texas Tenors
Pete Peterkin
Judges Call: Fab 5 Vs. SQ Entertainment - SQ Entertainment Advances
Join us in 24 hours to see who gets the glory.
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