America’s Got Talent is back tonight and tomorrow on NBC at 8p and there is another new face joining the show this season. David Hasselhoff left the show to have his own and even though he left a huge seat to fill, Howie Mandel agreed to do it. A few weeks ago I attended an NBC panel and he told us why doing the show was such a Deal for him, “When I first came out, I was just getting on at The Comedy Store, and then you would get on ‘The Tonight Show.’ I think ‘America’s Got Talent’ in America is the foremost to get that kind of exposure. Even if you don’t go all the way and win, you are getting exposure like you can’t get any other place. So when you asked would I like to do it as a talent? I don’t think there’s any other choice. If you have opportunity to get this kind of exposure on our show, you can only be propelled to something bigger than you already are. So I think it’s a phenomenal vehicle for talent.”
When asked if we should expect more comedians getting through because he joined the show, he said that is sort of a No Deal. “No. I’ve been a fan for the last four seasons, and now it’s an honor to be part of it. I don’t think they’re changing it up because I’m a judge. There are comedians on, but I think the beauty of this show,that it’s an open forum for everything, and that’s what I love about this show is you can be a singer. You can be a dancer. You can be a mime. You can have a troupe. I am seeing things that I can’t even put under a category. It’s not dance. It’s not music. It’s just incredibly and I don’t think from as a viewer, now being on the show, there isn’t more stand-up comedy. There are stand-up comics, but I don’t think — that’s not what this show is about. They don’t want it leaning towards what I do.”
There was also something that he was leaning towards and that was actually joining an act of one of the contestants who auditioned. Fellow judge (and only original member of the show) Piers Morgan had this to say about it, “He decided to get on stage with some weird acrobatic act in a sort of steel wheel. And I am gonna say, for a bloke who is as old as him, he can move pretty good. He started wheeling around like a hamster.” I can’t wait to see that. Howie isn’t the only who lent a helping hand or ball, show host Nick Cannon took part in a more than one. Piers Morgan enjoyed talking about Nick’s misadventures this season, “The big story of this year, apart from Howie joining the panel and being hilarious and irritating in equal measures, is this guy (Nick) is dying repeatedly. This guy is literally lucky to be alive. We had a cyclist who jumped up and down on his bike and missed his lower abdominal regions by two inches, which could have been very distressing to Mariah Carey. We’ve had Nick and another guy who was throwing playing cards at 100 miles an hour. Literally the fastest thrower of playing cards in the world. Cut two sticks of celery in half and missed his neck by an inch. He set fire to the underpants, he was [inaudible], and literally nearly blew himself up in the process. And then in one bizarre scene, a quite slight lady asked Nick to jump up and down on her back and nearly paralyzed himself. So he nearly died and so did she. This guy is a walking miracle.” Sounds like we have some interesting things to look forward to this season, but the one that Piers is really excited for us to see is, “We had a dominatrix in Oregon who piants like Picasso. My favorite act. Really accommodating. Made me laugh.” Yeah those two go together.
See what other interesting acts judge Sharon Osbourne got to experience and we get to enjoy this season Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8p on NBC.
