(I'm sorry for the fact that I've posted this review so late. I've been busy with many things lately. In contrast to other posts published during the recent series of AGT, where the results of each magician were revealed immediately after an assessment of their performance, their results here will be revealed at the end of the article)
The Grand Final of Americas Got Talent aired a couple of months ago, with ten acts providing one more performance in order to earn enough votes from the public to win the series, and gain a $1 million dollar prize and the opportunity to headline a show in Las Vegas. The ten Grand Finalists included two magic acts: Mentalist duo The Clairvoyants and Close-up Magician/Mentalist Jon Dorenbos. Given the high quality of the competition, the two acts needed to provide an especially incredible performance if they wanted to follow in Mat Franco's footsteps and become the second magic act to win AGT.
How Did The Clairvoyants Do?
At the very start of The Clairvoyants' Grand Final performance, Thommy and Amelie promised that "we have saved the best for last". The duo managed to live up to this claim as they wowed viewers with a routine which used elements from all their previous performances on AGT.
The Clairvoyants began their routine by claiming that they had been planning it since their audition was filmed. They then asked Heidi to select a random audience member by throwing a large ball into the seats behind her.After this, The Clairvoyants returned to the object-based mentalism of their first two performances on AGT, as Amelie blindfolded herself and stood at the centre of the stage with her back to the audience, whilst Thommy headed into the audience to meet the man who had caught Heidi's ball. The chosen audience member (who was named Victor) was instructed to hand the items in his pocket to Thommy. When he did this, Amelie was able to correctly guess that the items Thommy was now holding were a wallet and a Driver's License. Next, Thommy asked Amelie to identify the date of Victor's birthday. She correctly guessed that it occurred on May 12th.
After this, Thommy headed back to judges table, and Amelie removed her blindfold. In the second part of the routine, The Clairvoyants returned to using the judges as volunteers. Thommy asked Simon to take out his wallet and give it to Howie, before Mel B was instructed to come up with a jelly bean flavor which could be used to describe Howie (she chose to call him a "Wanna-Bean"). After this, Howie was told to join Thommy and Amelie on stage, The Clairvoyants then revealed a large water tank at the back of the stage, and showed that there were no monitors or hidden items in it. Whilst Amelie prepared to enter the water tank, Howie was asked to choose a random credit card from Simon's wallet. Amelie dived into the water tank with a marker pen, and Thommy asked Howie to look at the expiration date on the chosen credit card, then memorise the last four digits of the credit card number. As Howie did this, Amelie correctly guessed the date and number, writing them on the wall of the water tank. Amelie then climbed out of the water tank, and Howie returned to the judges table. However, there was still time for one more trick, as Amelie gave Thommy a pendant which she had hidden inside her clothing for the entire routine. Thommy went up to Mel B, placed the pendant in her hand, and opened it to reveal that her chosen jelly bean flavor was engraved on the inside,
Out of the two magicians who performed in the the Grand Final, The Clairvoyants gave the better performance by some margin, This is not intended as an insult to Jon Dorenbos, but The Clairvoyants' Grand Final routine was really impressive, Their mentalism is as impossible to figure out as ever, and the main addition, the water tank, highlighted their showmanship without detracting from their abilities as magicians. Out of all the correct predictions provided by The Clairvoyants in this routine, the most impressive was them guessing the date of the volunteer's birthday. However, the best aspect of this routine was the manner in which it drew on elements of The Clairvoyants' previous performances. Amelie correctly guessed the items inside a volunteers pocket, as she did at the auditions The decision to use Simon's wallet was based on their Judges Cuts routine, and Mel B being asked to name a jelly bean flavor to describe Howie was inspired by the fact Howie came up with a jelly bean flavor to describe Mel B in the Quarter Finals. Finally, the pendant which contained Mel B's chosen flavor engraved inside was the same one used in The Clairvoyants' Semi Final routine. The Clairvoyants' decision to combine all these elements into one big routine highlighted their creativity, whilst demonstrating how far they had progressed since their initial audition.
The judges were full of praise for The Clairvoyants. Howie called them the best act of their kind "I've ever seen in the history of this show". Mel B said that the duo were "mesmerising" and "amazing". Both Heidi and Simon said that they could see The Clairvoyants as headliners in Las Vegas.
How Did Jon Dorenbos Do?
Although a solid magician, Jon Dorenbos made it to the Grand Final based on his likeable personality, moving backstory and his existing fame playing American Football for the Philadelphia Eagles. For his Grand Final performance, Jon chose to provide a close-up routine with an important message. He began his performance by taking the two's out of a deck of cards, and giving one of them to each of the judges. The judges were instructed to sign their cards, with Howie, Mel B and Heidi being asked to write their name. Simon was asked to write the name of someone close to him on his card,a and he chose to use the name of his son, Eric. The judges' four cards were returned to Jon. After this, Jon went to a small glass table nearby and performed a card routine set to The Script's feelgood anthem "Hall of Fame". He put the judges' signed cards into the centre of the deck, and began making a speech about how he used magic to cope with the difficulties he faced in life and adopt a positive attitude in the face of adversity. Early in the speech, Jon showed a random card, and transformed it into Howie's signed card whilst saying the line "we will find ourselves". Jon then revealed Mel B and Heidi's cards in the same way, still using the line "we will find ourselves" to represent their reappearance. In order to find Simon's signed card, Jon did something a little different. He divided the deck into face-up and face-down cards, and mixed them together. He then snapped his fingers, and revealed that Simon's signed card was now the only face-up card in the deck. Jon finished his performance by going up to a mini chalkboard, which had been on stage for the entire routine, with its back to the audience. Instructing Simon to "tell Eric you love him", Jon turned the chalkboard around to reveal that Eric's name was written on it - he had correctly predicted that Simon would choose to think of his son before the routine had even started.
Out of Jon's performances during his time on AGT, his Grand Final performance was probably his weakest. This is understandable, given that the NFL season resumed just before the Grand Final, making it harder for Jon to prepare. However, it's a little disappointing that this was essentially a less complex version of his audition routine, which also saw him perform sleight-of-hand tricks with cards. That said, it's impressive to see a big, muscular American Football player like Jon perform card tricks which require a great deal of dexterity. I also liked the message, which was highly personal to Jon, but holds universal appeal. As Richard Jones demonstrated in the Grand Final of Britain's Got Talent earlier this year, a moving and inspiring message can make even the simplest magic tricks stand out. Therefore, although I feel that Jon should have provided a more spectacular performance for the Grand Final, I still enjoyed this routine.
The judges' comments were very positive. Howie said that Jon's routine was "inspirational". Mel B said that she initially "didn't quite understand what is going on" as she was too focused on Jon's speech, but came to realise that the magic was "brilliant". Heidi called Jon a "class act" and Simon said that he was a potential winner
The Results Show Performance
During the Results Show, the finalists got to enjoy one final performance before the results were revealed. As viewers were no longer voting for their favourites, this simply provided an opportunity for the acts to have some fun, with many of them getting to perform with a celebrity guest. As the two remaining magic acts in the competition, The Clairvoyants and Jon Dorenbos gave their Results Show performances simultaneously, sharing the same celebrity guest.
The Clairvoyants performed first, with Thommy showing the judges a small flip-book containing photos of 200 celebrities. He asked Heidi to choose one of them at random, and she chose former singer and American Idol judge Paula Abdul. The Clairvoyants then revealed that Paula would be their celebrity guest for the routine, and she joined The Clairvoyants on stage, carrying a small black box in her hands. The Clairvoyants then talked about playing the lottery, and provided a lottery-themed mentalism routine. They had to find six numbers between one and 50, and asked Paula to write down a number of her choice within this range. After this, Mel B, Howie, Heidi and Simon were instructed to choose numbers range related to embarrassing questions about themselves. Paula then chose the final number, which would represent the "Powerball". When all six numbers had been chosen, Thommy opened the black box to reveal a lottery ticket, which had been hidden inside it for the entire routine. The lottery ticket featured all six of the chosen numbers, printed in the order they were selected. After The Clairvoyants had finished their trick, they gave Paula a golden envelope, and introduced Jon Dorenbos.
Jon's Results Show routine began with him providing a small comedic effect where he made Paula's lottery ticket "vanish" by throwing it into the air. He then showed Paula a giant deck of cards and asked her to choose one. Paula was then instructed to tear this card into quarters, Before placing these quarters into a paper bag, Jon gave one of them to Paula because "it makes the trick better at the end". He then tore the bag open to reveal that the other three had vanished. After this, Paula was instructed to open the golden envelope which The Clairvoyants had given her. It contained the other three pieces of her chosen card, which had been fused back together.
The routines which The Clairvoyants and Jon Dorenbos provided for the Results Show were not very sophisticated, but they didn't need to be, as their performances were merely meant to entertain viewers waiting for the results. However, it was interesting to see The Clairvoyants provide a more comedic routine than usual. Jon's routine was also fun, as he tricked Paula into tearing her chosen card in half at the start, then made an amusing reference to her signature song, "Opposites Attract" ("It's as if we took two steps forward, and we just take two steps back"). Overall, the Results Show routines provided by The Clairvoyants and Jon succeeded in providing some much-needed light relief before the winner of this season of AGT was revealed.
The Results
After the Results Show performances, it was time to find out the results. Both Jon Dorenbos and The Clairvoyants were announced as in the Top 5, and found out their final placement in the viewers vote shortly afterwards. Jon Dorenbos was revealed to have finished in Third Place, and The Clairvoyants came in Second Place, with both magic acts finishing narrowly behind the eventual winner, 12 year-old Singer/Songwriter Grace VanderWaal. I am really pleased that The Clairvoyants and Jon Dorenbos did so well in the competition, and they both deserved to be so successful. I am looking forward to seeing what they will do in the future.
(P.S: The Clairvoyants and Jon Dorenbos will participate in the Americas Got Talent Holiday Spectacular, which will air on December 19th. A wide variety of iconic AGT contestants will be also be featured, including magicians Mat Franco, Piff the Magic Dragon, and The Professional Regurgitator, and Penn & Teller will be special guests. I can't wait to see all these great acts perform again.)
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