America’s Got Talent Fan Site

Simon Cowell is out to change the world one nobody at a time. You too can be elevated to star status or humiliated before millions next week when Cowell’s new talent show, “America’s Got Talent!” holds auditions in Los Angeles.
April 6 through 8, nobodys with talent to spare, or nobodys seeking attention can find their way to auditions for “America’s Got Talent!” Here is what the website says:
You can be 2 years old, 100 years old. You can be the next Destiny’s Child, you can be the next Jackson 5 or you can be the next David Copperfield,” Cowell said. “This is a show literally open to anybody.”
Let us know if you have an elaborate set up, such as bands, illusionists, animals…so we can give you time to set up. Also, call us if you have animals or are performing physical and/or dangerous stunts as there is paperwork we need you to fill out before. Production reserves the right to refuse an audition to any individual or act, in its sole discretion.
But you can’t just show up – you need to bring an ID, a legal guardian if you’re under 18, a decent enough costume (look as weird as possible if you want to be seen on TV), have a VISA or be a citizen, and animals you might use (gasp) must have proper immunization papers! All singers must come with two songs. Doors open at 10am. Are you scared yet? Or merely exhilarated?
You too have a chance to win $1,000,000. A million dollars is worth a shred of dignity or two, don’t you think? But realize, you’ll have to be good, I mean, really good to get anywhere near even being able to utter the words “prize money,” and the rest of the time you will be unpaid talent making NBC and Simon Cowell, among others, rich. Think of it like the lottery. Or selling a screenplay.
The desire to be lifted out of obscurity can’t compete with the producers’ desire to make money without having to pay people to participate. It’s an unholy alliance where everybody wins. The public gets to live vicariously through those crazy enough to take their shot, the nobodys get lifted out of obscurity and the cash register goes ka-ching.
Talent shows haven’t done as well as American Idol, well, no show of any kind has, including the Olympics. But even still, the only shows like this audiences seem willing to tolerate are ones involving stars – you have to love how they throw the word star around. Okay, well maybe they like nannies too and super nannies and queer eyes and survivors and our fear factors and amazing racers, or the next top model or the best inventor.
Gosh, is everyone going to be famous for fifteen minutes like Warhol said?
At least Simon Cowell has proved that American audiences are as shallow and fame-obsessed as audiences in England. He’s not laughing at us, he’s laughing with us. And fortunately for him, there will always be a healthy supply of fools to put it all on the line for the chance of holding the public’s fickle attention for about as long as it takes to burn a match.
Auditions are being held Thursday, April 6, Friday, April 7 and Saturday, April 8 at the Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown Hotel, 711 South Hope St. (south side of Wilshire).
To find out more, visit the NBC “America’s Got Talent” website, nbc.com/Movies_Specials_More/Americas_Got_Talent/

America’s Got Talent News

Simon Cowell’s new TV talent show promises to be a real circus.

Singers, comedians, jugglers, animal acts and anyone else hungry for stardom will be welcome on America’s Got Talent, the summertime series that Cowell, the tart-tongued judge on Fox’s American Idol, is producing for NBC.

Group acts or singles, old or young - all are eligible to try for the US$1 million (HK$7.8 million) prize, he told a telephone news conference Monday.

“You can be two years old, 100 years old. You can be the next Destiny’s Child, you can be the next Jackson 5 or you can be the next David Copperfield,” Cowell said.

“This is a show literally open to anybody.”

Auditions dates were announced Monday, with tryouts set for Los Angeles on April 6-8; Chicago, April 12-13; New York City, April 17; East Elmhurst, New York, April 19, and Atlanta, April 22-23. Would-be contestants can also apply online.

An air date for the series has yet to be set, NBC said.

Cowell, an English record-company executive who became a celebrity on the American Idol singing competition and was part of its British precursor, Pop Idol, said he is a longtime fan of American shows that feature a variety of performers. The “time is right” for a contest open to performers of every stripe, he said.

Cowell will not be a judge on the show but very qualified “A-list” celebrities have expressed interest, he and fellow executive producer Ken Warwick said.

Cowell was asked about whether he was aware of Wayne Newton’s The Entertainer, which ran on E! Television Network last year and had a similar goal of showcasing diverse talent.

“Yes. And I hated it,” he said.

For such shows to work, Cowell said, it is crucial to include the audition process. In America’s Got Talent, as in American Idol, viewers will learn who makes the cut in the five city auditions and then see further dismissals as the semifinals unfold in a Los Angeles studio.

How the semifinalists are dumped will be “very brutal,” Cowell said. He did not offer details.

Cowell, who has joined ranks with the American Idol producing team on America’s Got Talent, is apparently intent on giving every American - and every TV network - a chance for fame and fortune: He is also producing American Inventor on ABC, in which contestants view for a US$1 million prize and the chance to have their invention end up in homes across the land.

American Idol is a consistent ratings leader for Fox. American Inventor scored as a top-20 show in its March 16 debut against college basketball but now has to prove itself against CBS’ tougher Survivor.

Does Cowell fear diluting the valuable American Idol brand?

No, he said. Instead, he hopes that America’s Got Talent will be a different type of show that fills the gap when Idol is off the air.

Asked if the new show might compete directly against Fox’s, Cowell replied: “That will never happen.”

America’s Got Talent News

Zack Roybal creates art.
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His hands are the paintbrush. His canvas is the air. His paint is a deck of cards.

The 15-year-old Stebbins High School sophomore is part of a small, but growing, worldwide-reintroduction of extreme card manipulation, or XCM.

Roybal’s talents led him to audition this month for America’s Got Talent, a television show produced by Simon Cowell of American Idol fame.

His audition was a three-minute skit during which he performed numerous variations of card manipulations set to techno music.

Roybal hopes to receive a callback for America’s Got Talent around May 7 to find out if he’ll appear on the slow slated to air this summer on NBC.

XCM is fancy work done with a deck of cards, like those seen performed by casino dealers — only taken to the next level, Roybal said.

“Some call it showing off,” he said as he performed basic card manipulations. “I call it visual art.”

XCM is a demonstration of skill, physics and practice, Roybal said.

In the diamond display, a standard-size deck of 52 cards is held in one hand. Then, the hand holding the deck flips portions of it different ways, eventually creating what looks like a diamond, or two triangles reflecting the other — all completed in one hand.

His began practicing XCM in December 2004. Now he takes a deck of cards everywhere, including school.

All the practice helped get him find wild success at his first performance at Magi-Fest, held in February in Columbus, where he performed for 225 people over two performances.

America’s Got Talent News