Americas Got Talent 10 Semifinals - Semifinal One: Derek Hughes and Oz Pearlman

(For British Viewers, This Article May Contain Spoilers)

What Did Derek Hughes Do?

On paper, Derek Hughes' Semifianl performance sounded like a potential disaster. A version of the Torn and Restored Newspaper routine performed whilst wearing pyjamas . Even the idea of Derek doing a "sentimental" routine dedicated to his children did not inspire much confidence, as the magician Drew Thomas failed to impress when he used that theme in Series 4 of AGT. However, Derek's routine was far better than I expected. Derek told the audience that he wanted to read a bedtime story to his children, and told a tale about Humpty Dumpty, using a picture book to aid him. The story Derek told depicted Humpty Dumpty's attempts at escaping his miserable life by creating a ladder to climb over the wall surrounding his kingdom. As he told his story, Derek tore the picture book up before showing the pieces, claiming that the kingdom believed Humpty Dumpty had fallen off the wall and broken into bits of eggshell. He then stated that this story was misleading, and restored the picture book to its original state, except for one missing piece. Derek revealed that this piece had fallen to the floor as he was restoring the picture book - it showed an illustration of a smiling Humpty Dumpty, representing his successful escape. The Torn and Restored Newspaper routine is one of the oldest tricks in magic (even though this is the first time it has been performed by a magician on AGT), but I liked the twist Derek put on it. He provided a very smooth performance, even managing to make a few moments where he interrupted the story or dropped pieces of the torn book seem entirely natural. During the Judges comments, Derek stated that he had created the story himself (a friend had illustrated the picture book for him) and he deserves praise for coming up with such a creative story and telling it so well. Derek's showmanship and personality have allowed him to stand out, and even with the slower, quieter nature of this routine, Derek continued to emphasise those two defining features.

What Did Oz Pearlman Do?

For his Semifinal performance, Oz Pearlman promised to "loosen things up a bit" with a routine themed around party drinks. Judges Howard and Heidi joined Oz on stage, and he begun by showing Howard five cups, each one filled with a different drink (from left to right, the drinks on the table were: Wine, Orange Juice, Cola, Beer and Water). Oz then told Heidi to cover his eyes, before asking Howard to take a sip from three of the cups at random. Even with Heidi covering his eyes, Oz was able to correctly predict the cups that Howard had chosen as he was drinking from them. Oz then repeated this process, but instead of predicting the three cups that Howard had chosen one at a time, he waited until Howard had drank all three cups to correctly guess the ones Howard had drank from in the order he drank them. Once he had done this, Oz then turned his attention to the remaining judges, Howie and Mel B, and asked them to think of a drink. He wrote down the drink he thought Mel B had chosen, showed his prediction to Howard and Heidi, then Told Mel B to reveal her chosen drink. Needless to say, Oz's prediction (a dirty Vodka Martini) was correct. Oz  finished his routine by correctly guessing the drink that Howie had chosen (A strawberry, banana and chocolate smoothie). Oz's routine was probably superior to his previous performance, as he did not do anything that exposed his secrets, and, as with his Judges Cuts performance, he was able to combine a number of impressive Mentalism feats into a single performance with a single strong theme.

What Was The Competition Like?

 Puppet Act Ira opened the show by placing greater emphasis on character comedy, but their old-fashioned song choices made their routine seem less impressive. Bluegrass Band Mountain Faith Band tried to provide an edgier song choice, but their lead singer was out of her depth, and their instrumentalists did not get enough opportunities to stand out. Motocross Stunt Bikers Metal Mulisha Fitz's Army did not do enough to differentiate their latest routine from their previous two. RnB/ Soul Singer Samantha Johnson's performance started slowly, but came to life in the last thirty seconds or so. Stuttering Comedian Drew Lynch provided his best performance to date, cancelling out his speech impediment with a routine that allowed him to emphasise his ability at controlling his body language  as he re-enacted an unusual phone call. RnB/ Soul Vocal Duo The CraigLewis Band delivered some powerful vocals, but sounded like they were fighting for attention during their harmonies. I didn't enjoy Rock/Country Singer Benton Blount's performance, due to his emphasis on high notes that did not suit his rough rock vocals, but he seems to be very popular with Facebook and Youtube users. Videomapping Dance Troupe Siro-A repeated many of the effects from their first two performances, but were still generally impressive to watch. Preteen Opera Singer Areille Baril was the last act of the evening to perform, and though she has a very powerful voice, I think that her similarities with Jackie Evancho will prevent her from being a potential winner. In spite of the fact that my summary emphasises the flaws of the various competitors, they all proved themselves worthy of their place in the Semifinals, and they all represent formidable opposition to Derek and Oz.

Verdict

Although I enjoyed Derek's Semifinal performance, he might have been overshadowed by flashier acts, so his chances of making the Finals are only Moderate at best. If he makes it through, it will probably be as a Judges Choice. In contrast, Oz has a Good chance of making it through automatically. He represents the sort of variety act that AGT viewers love, and the Judges were full of praise for him. I'm not sure if he can win, but he will prove a very strong finalist if he makes it though.