Author Topic: Talents and talent shows (Read 42306 times)

JavaJones · « **on:** August 21, 2014, 12:40 PM »

Hi folks. Guess what: my girlfriend is on America's Got Talent this year! And now she's in the semifinals, holy cow. Her name is Abigail Baird, she's an acrobat, and her act is called Aerial Animation. Here's her first audition a couple months ago:

Aerial Animation AGT Audition

And her second performance in the Quarterfinals:

The official video doesn't include the judges comments, but it's here:
https://www.youtube..../watch?v=Jz5uU-6Bbnk

She has been working incredibly hard on this and it's pretty amazing to see her dedication and perseverance. She's been a professional acrobat and teacher for a number of years now and she has been getting by on earnings from teaching acrobatics to kids and the gigs she has been able to get here and there (it turns out making a living as an acrobat is hard!), but this could be an opportunity to perform full-time and it's tremendously exciting.

I've been pretty quiet around here lately, I have to minimize my DC time because otherwise it'll take most of my *free* time.

But I still consider you guys part of my Internet family and this remains one of the best communities around, so I'm excited to share this moment in my life. I know some of you have already seen Abigail on the show, so hopefully it's interesting to know she's a distant DC cousin, in a way.

Abigail will be be on the live show again for the semifinals coming up August 26th, and she'll need votes to continue. If you're already watching the show, vote for your favorites, but maybe put a couple of your votes in for her even if she's not your top pick.

If you weren't already watching, then you weren't going to vote anyway, right? So I figure you might as well give her *all* your votes.

There are 3 ways to vote and you get 10 points for each voting method. But I'll go into all that a bit more in an update early next week before the show.

Anyway, I've been encouraged to post about this by mouser and other DC'ers, but in the spirit of community involvement I also want to open this up a bit more widely. Because as it turns out at least one other DC'er has an upcoming brush with fame (you know who you are), and maybe there are more! So if you've been on a talent show before, or have an appearance/audition upcoming, or you just have a talent you want to showcase, let 'er rip! Singing, dancing, expert armpit fart noises, playing the William Tell Overture on 5 parts of your body (real talent a friend of mine showcases at parties), whatever you can do, let's see it! In the meantime I'll be posting occasional updates about my sweetheart, including shameless requests for your votes.

- Oshyan

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #1 on:** August 21, 2014, 01:44 PM »

The wife and I have been watching AGT, and I remember that act was cool as hell. So she's got our votes!

tomos · « **Reply #2 on:** August 21, 2014, 01:48 PM »

Wow

I couldn't view either of those, but did find this one:
https://www.youtube..../watch?v=w-VA0w_eX4Y

It's a brilliant idea and she is just great!
I cant vote over this side of the water, but wish her the best of luck !

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #3 on:** August 21, 2014, 01:57 PM »

It's a brilliant idea and she is just great!
I cant vote over this side of the water, but wish her the best of luck !
-tomos (August 21, 2014, 01:48 PM)

cough *Proxy Server* cough

40hz · « **Reply #4 on:** August 21, 2014, 02:08 PM »

I watch very little (more like zero) network TV.

And for once I'm sorry I missed something.

Terrific concept, great execution - and ORIGINAL! (How rare is that?)

Thanks for sharing. I wish her all the success her talent and hard work promises.

(P.S. Howard is right. She is adorable. Definitely a keeper.)

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** August 21, 2014, 02:21 PM »

Very very cool. I'll be on family vacation aug 26 so i hope to watch it with my two nieces, who i know will love it.
Please remind us when it's time to vote!

JavaJones · « **Reply #6 on:** August 21, 2014, 02:30 PM »

Thanks everyone! I am really proud of her. She's also a pretty good girlfriend.

I'll definitely post again about voting, both as a reminder and with some additional info (3 methods, etc.).

- Oshyan

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #7 on:** August 21, 2014, 02:57 PM »

Awesome to see this posted on here, glad the little push on IRC helped

...and Yes...I know who I am

I will be Auditioning for Britain's Got Talent in 2015. No confirmed dates yet but hopefully it should go well xD!

Anyhow, good luck to your Girl and I will be wanting a link so I can stream the show live from this side of the pond!!!

JavaJones · « **Reply #8 on:** August 21, 2014, 03:07 PM »

Good luck indeed Stephen! That's incredibly cool. Hopefully you'll let us all know more about it as the date draws nearer.

- Oshyan

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 21, 2014, 06:18 PM »

Good luck indeed Stephen! That's incredibly cool. Hopefully you'll let us all know more about it as the date draws nearer.

- Oshyan
-JavaJones (August 21, 2014, 03:07 PM)

Will certainly do so xD

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #10 on:** August 22, 2014, 05:17 AM »

I loved it!!

Who did the animation and in what?

kwacky1 · « **Reply #11 on:** August 22, 2014, 06:09 AM »

Awesome, absolutely amazing.

Well done.

Renegade · « **Reply #12 on:** August 22, 2014, 08:45 AM »

I don't even have a TV. Had a few - threw them all in the garbage. (Haven't had cable for years upon end.) I loathe them (even though I do work on smart TVs).

I hate reality TV and talent shows just as much...

But...

That...

Was...

Wicked...

Cool...

I would totally tune in to see that. If I had a TV.

Best of luck to Abigail!

she's an acrobat
-JavaJones (August 21, 2014, 12:40 PM)

That's way beyond acrobatics. She's an artist in that ephemeral sense that we can never define, but can recognise it when we see it.

wraith808 · « **Reply #13 on:** August 22, 2014, 09:45 AM »

Congrats! That's a great and very creative and innovative act! Loved the idea from the moment that I saw it... reminded me of the winner from last year in that she takes something she's good at, and elevates it to another level with storytelling. But you never lose sight of the athletic and technical expertise behind it.

JavaJones · « **Reply #14 on:** August 22, 2014, 10:55 AM »

Wow, thanks you guys.

Perry, she works with an animator friend of hers who uses mostly After Effects (and hand drawing, of course). She did some of the original sketches for the original 6 minute piece that was created in I think 2009. Part of that was adapted for the 1st performance while the 2nd was largely new material and animation.

wraith, yes she seems to remind many people of Kenichi's stuff from last year, which is understandable as the interaction with a projection is similar between the two. She actually did her original animation act that I mentioned above a few years before Kenichi was on AGT, but as far as the show and its viewers are concerned Kenichi invented the concept.

- Oshyan

40hz · « **Reply #15 on:** August 22, 2014, 03:06 PM »

...she seems to remind many people of Kenichi's stuff from last year, which is understandable as the interaction with a projection is similar between the two. She actually did her original animation act that I mentioned above a few years before Kenichi was on AGT, but as far as the show and its viewers are concerned Kenichi invented the concept.

- Oshyan
-JavaJones (August 22, 2014, 10:55 AM)

That happens. It's been said that only one product can own a 'word.' Fedex owns "overnight" while DHL owns "worldwide." Same goes for a creative concept. Somebody gets dubbed as the inventor and that's that.

Not that it matters when it comes to your GF. She's good. Very good indeed. And it doesn't matter so much who's first. All that really matters is who's best at it.

JavaJones · « **Reply #16 on:** August 22, 2014, 03:21 PM »

I'm onboard with all that 40hz.

- Oshyan

JavaJones · « **Reply #17 on:** August 25, 2014, 09:20 PM »

Well folks, Abbey's next performance on America's Got Talent has almost arrived. So here's the info to vote, if you don't mind helping out.

Her act is called Aerial Animation and the show is on tomorrow night, Tuesday August 26th at 9PM Pacific/Eastern Time/8 Central (it airs live for East Coasters, delayed for West Coasters). It runs for 2 hours and voting is at the end. There are 3 ways to vote, and you get 10 points *for each voting method* to distribute to the acts you like. You will be able to vote on the official AGT site here (after the show airs): http://www.nbc.com/a...icas-got-talent/vote

You can also do a Google search for "America's Got Talent" and you should be able to vote live on Google itself. This will be a voting "widget" on the Google search results page, you vote right there, don't follow any links. Again this will only work after the show airs. And since you're all DC-ers and you can handle complexity, I'll let you in on a little secret: you can vote 10 points for *each* Google account you have (not including Google Apps accounts). So if you have multiple you can just Switch Accounts and vote some more (if desired).

Last but not least, you will also be able to call-in (info should be on the page above, after the show). There are unique numbers for each act and it records one vote per call, automatically, then hangs up on you. It's kind of annoying, but not too bad to just keep redialing and wait a moment until it hangs up on you. I wouldn't blame you if you don't do the phone thing. But the NBC and Google site voting is easy.

Phone voting closes 2 hours after the show airs (local time, so if you're on the East Coast, phone voting is over at 1AM Eastern; they do it by area code I think), but I think Internet voting works until 9 or 10AM the next day, so if it's a little past your bedtime to vote at 11, feel free to give it a shot on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday will be the results show where we find out if she made it through. Again I think it's at 9PM. I'll post the results here afterward for anyone who doesn't want to watch (I wouldn't blame you, hehe).

Thanks everyone!

P.S. I was serious about wanting to see other people's talents. Anyone want to show anything cool? Are you a painter? Sculpter? Singer? Do you have perfect push-up form? A really interesting-looking eyeball?

- Oshyan

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #18 on:** August 25, 2014, 09:46 PM »

You can also do a Google search for "America's Got Talent" and you should be able to vote live on Google itself. This will be a voting "widget" on the Google search results page, you vote right there, don't follow any links. Again this will only work after the show airs. And since you're all DC-ers and you can handle complexity, I'll let you in on a little secret: you can vote 10 points for *each* Google account you have (not including Google Apps accounts). So if you have multiple you can just Switch Accounts and vote some more (if desired).

A> What time will voting open (In the UK)
B> I have like 5 GMail accounts...so........

JavaJones · « **Reply #19 on:** August 25, 2014, 10:02 PM »

Hah! Well, I think technically UK people aren't allowed to vote. :-p I guess I should have clarified the America part. But you can try! Internet voting should be available from 11PM Eastern Time onward, so um... what is that, 3PM, 4PM your time?

- Oshyan

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #20 on:** August 26, 2014, 12:39 AM »

Who said I would be voting without using a proxy? Lol

JavaJones · « **Reply #21 on:** August 26, 2014, 01:14 AM »

Ahhh yes, clever devil. I love posting this to DC mainly because many other people I've sent it to have gotten confused about how voting works. I trust DC-ers won't have that problem.

- Oshyan

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #22 on:** August 26, 2014, 02:20 AM »

Pretty sure if a proxy doesn't work, a US based VPS will...so...always a way around these things

Failing that I could always just boot up Tor so it just plain doesn't have a clue where I am haha

erikts · « **Reply #23 on:** August 26, 2014, 02:37 AM »

Her act is called Aerial Animation and the show is on tomorrow night, Tuesday August 26th at 9PM Pacific/Eastern Time/8 Central (it airs live for East Coasters, delayed for West Coasters). It runs for 2 hours and voting is at the end.
-JavaJones (August 25, 2014, 09:20 PM)

Well, the voting here will be Wed, 27-Aug-2014 1PM.

tomos · « **Reply #24 on:** August 26, 2014, 03:58 AM »

Well, the voting here will be Wed, 27-Aug-2014 1PM.
-erikts (August 26, 2014, 02:37 AM)

... trying to figure out where 'here' is

**

11pm Eastern time would be 4am GMT

** I did click on your map icon, but that doesnt seem to work at the moment (or any more maybe)