The third episode of the Judges Cuts round of Americas Got Talent aired earlier this week. Actor and comedian George Lopez was the "Guest Judge", helping Howie, Heidi, Mel B and Simon choose seven more acts to make it through to the Live Shows
In this episode, Blake Vogt was the only magician competing for a place in the next round. This meant that he didn't have to be compared with any other magic acts, but he still had to provide an impressive performance in order to stand out.
How Did Blake Vogt Do?
Blake Vogt's audition went untelevised, which generally tends to be a bad sign. As a rule of thumb, if an act is introduced to us at the Judges Cuts stage, it usually implies that they are less interesting than other acts and thus not worth following. However, before Blake's Judges Cut's performance, they showed a brief clip of his audition, which featured him correctly revealing the allergies which affected Heidi and two audience members. This footage revealed that Blake was a creative magician, and proved that the people editing the Audition stages had made a mistake by not showing his performance.
For his Judges Cuts performance (Below), Blake switched from the mentalism of his audition to perform a close-up routine. He went to the judges table, and asked for two dollar bills of "widely different" value. George provided a $100 Bill and Howie provided a $1 Bill. Blake then asked George and Howie to sign their bills, before instructing Mel B to tear off a corner of Howie's Bill. George was then asked to tear off a corner of his Bill, and the two torn corners were given to Blake. When Blake received the pieces, he put them in his mouth and appeared to swallow them. After this, Blake promised to do something "no-one has ever done before in the history of magic". Blake put the $100 Bill in his mouth, and revealed that the corner of the $1 Bill was now attached to the torn end. He then put the $1 Bill in his mouth and the corner of the $100 Bill appeared, attached to the torn end. Blake finished the performance by getting the judges to verify that the switched corners were firmly attached to their new bills. Overall, I enjoyed the performance, but did not find it spectacular. The trick was impressive, and I especially liked the way in which Blake used the judges. They tore off the corners themselves, and were holding the bills whilst Blake switched the torn corners. Their increased involvement made it harder to figure out how Blake carried out the central switch. However, I thought that Blake lacked showmanship, and I think that a softer, more relaxed style of presentation might have made the performance seem even more impressive. Ultimately, in spite of my issues with his performance style, Blake should be primarily judged based on the trick he performed, and that trick was excellent.
The judges gave Blake highly positive feedback. George claimed that the central trick was "unbelievable", Heidi praised the "original magic" which Blake provided, and Simon called the performance a "great, great second audition". At the end of the episode, the judges chose to put Blake into the Live Shows, making him the fourth magician to get through the Judges Cuts this year. Hopefully, he will be able to match, or even surpass, the high standards set by Jon Dorenbos, Hara and Kadan Bart Rockett.
Who Made It Through To The Live Shows?
In addition to Blake Vogt, six other acts made it through Episode 3 of the Judges Cuts. They were:
- Mother and Son Dance Duo Alla & Daniel Novikov
- Pop/Rock Singer Brian Justin Crum
- Jazz/Swing Singer Daniel Joyner
- Drumming/Tap Dancing Group Malevo
- Sideshow Performers Ryan Stock and AmberLynn
- Mime/Physical Comedian Tape Face
I wish all of them the best of luck in the Live Shows.
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