Sitting in The Audience of America's Got Talent
A cartoonist's view from the balcony of live TV...
Wouldn't you say yes if your daughter’s dance teacher invited you to a taping of America’s Got Talent in Los Angeles?
We sure did and enjoyed every second of the experience, with a few surprises thrown in. Watching a live taping is an experience I’ll never forget. So, who is this teacher who hooked us up with tickets? She’s Nona Sensei to my daughter and my niece in Japan, who’s been taking regular dance lessons from her for several years. To everyone else, she’s Nona, one of the lead members of the twenty-person Avantgardey dance group from Japan.
They shocked the world with their creative and uniform dance moves, identical schoolgirl attire, and short black wigs in their first audition for America’s Got Talent in June.
The semi-final performance was in the middle of the week last Tuesday, with the results shown on Wednesday. The idea of taking two days off from teaching and pulling my daughter out of school to go to Hollywood to see the show felt crazy at first. Thinking about how rare it is to know someone performing on TV and to be invited there to watch, we quickly came to our senses and arranged to go.
Living in northern California meant we could drive down to L.A., Pasadena to be exact, in about six hours. We chose to take two days off and see the Tuesday performance, then drive back Wednesday afternoon. Getting back to work and school on Thursday.
Exhausting? Yes.
Inspiring and exciting? Hell, yes!
Picking up tickets and taking in the show
I’ll admit, the thought of us going to pick up tickets after driving all the way down to Pasadena, and there not being any there for us, did cross my mind—too many times.
Maybe Nona sensei would forget to let the show know we’re coming. Perhaps the AGT staff didn’t put the tickets aside for us for some strange reason. My anxiety was tugging at me like a rottweiler biting my butt! Hours of driving can mess with you that way.
After arriving and checking into our hotel, we found the Will Call tent for Friends and Family outside of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
Thankfully, they had our tickets and told us to return at 3:30 to go through security.
Our seats were up on the balcony on the right side with all the performers' other friends and family members. I loved being able to look down and see the judges easily. Even though they shared that the live broadcast would begin at 5 pm (for the 8 pm viewers on the East Coast), they filmed one segment at 4:30 because it took a lot of setup.
In the show The Ramadhani Brothers, where one brother balances the other on his head and then walks up and down stairs, was taped in advance. When they ran the edited version during the live broadcast, we were told to act like we hadn’t seen it before.
They were amazing!
When the live show started, we were standing up, cheering, sitting down, clapping, and having a fantastic time.
Looking at the judges, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara, and Simon Cowell, during the commercial breaks was quite interesting. They jumped on their phones just as soon as the cameras stopped rolling. I guess they were posting to Twitter X or Instagram storyin’ the whole time.
All except for Simon. Apparently, he doesn’t own a cell phone. In fact, Simon Cowell was the biggest surprise. He was actually nice!
Simon can be so direct, brutally honest, and rude with his criticism and feedback during the show, but he was such a gracious host when the cameras were off.
As the creator and executive producer of AGT, he is the boss. But he didn’t act mean or overbearing. Simon walked around quietly, talking with the crew during breaks, standing on the side of the stage, looking out at the audience, and taking it all in. At one point, he went down to the audience, took pictures with elementary school students, and joked around with them.
I was shocked! He acted like we were all visiting his home and wanted to ensure everyone felt relaxed and had a good time.
I can still see him walking up to the stage at the very end of the show to shake hands with each member of the 82nd Airborne Chorus after they finished singing. He calmly talked and thanked them for their service, and they took several pictures together.
Avantgardey stole the show!
Even though you know I’m a little biased by now, I felt like Avantgardey was the most interesting and creative performance. They’re an act you’ll never forget, and I can see them expanding it into a longer version and traveling the world selling out large venues.
Here’s the performance we watched at the semi-finals that evening.
If they also add singers (like Simon suggested) or acrobats and maybe even a storyline, they could have a very engrossing two-hour show in Las Vegas. I’d pay to see them!
But you already knew that.
My daughter was in awe of what her dance teacher, Nona sensei, could do and how the group danced together so beautifully. My wife and I were proud to be a part of this era of Avantgardey history and look forward to more exciting success in their future.
The next night during the results show (we were driving back to the Bay Area by then), they didn’t make the final two spots at first, but host Terry Crews announced one more act would be voted for in a wild-card round at the end of the show. They gave viewers only five minutes to vote—which I read online pissed many people off—but was in Avantgardey’s favor because they got the spot!
On our phones in the car, we were excited to find out they would be going to the finals in Las Vegas and performing today! Please watch and vote on the AGT app if you’re a fan.
Let’s hope Avantgardey wins America’s Got Talent. Even if they don’t, I think at this point, they have enough fans around the world to build a business and grow their brand.
I hope you’ll join us by cheering them on.
How I sketched the judges first before cartooning them
I’ll show the art below only to my paying subscribers—thank you, guys!
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