For night five of the America’s Got Talent Season 21 auditions, 15 more acts took the stage to perform for Simon Cowell, Mel B, Sofia Vergara, and Howie Mandel. They included a theatrical dance crew, a beatboxer from the country of Georgia, two magicians, a 15-year old guitarist from Thailand, an all-ages tumbling crew from Chicago, a trick balancer from Ethiopia, and two guys begging for a Golden Buzzer through song.
This season, each of the judges and Terry Crews have two Golden Buzzers to hand out. The 10 acts chosen in that way earn a ticket straight to the live shows. Acts not originally chosen to advance, but who earned yes votes from three or more judges, would participate in an all-new Judges’ Callbacks round for another chance to earn their spot through judges’ deliberations.
On previous nights, Howie used both of his Golden Buzzers on South Korean magic act Hundred Fingers and Cuban rapper Luke Taleno. Simon’s went to singer Lai Noelle and one-legged parkour athlete Rubén Roldán Bustos. Mel went all-in for two singers: Isaac Atkins and Mackenzie Sol. Sofia gave one to Australian vocalist Lara D and Terry gave his first to the dance crew-dog act Acro Crew.
Read on for our “Auditions 5” recap of the performances on America’s Got Talent Season 21, Episode 5, which aired July 7 on NBC.
Barrio Dance Factory
Talent: Dance crew
Hometown: Madison, Wisc.
Votes Yes/No: No — Howie; Yes — Mel, Sofia, Simon
Buzzers: None
Mel’s comments: “My gosh your energy is on fire, let me tell you … for 28 of you to be that in sync, that flawless, that correct, well done.”
Howie’s comments: “I’ll be honest, I was not as blown away as Mel was.”
Sofia’s comments: “I loved it, I thought you were more people … it felt like 50 people dancing.”
Simon’s comments: “Have we seen more interesting dancers over the years? I would say yes. However, your energy was so infectious.”
Godfrey Daniels
Talent: Costumed clown
Votes Yes/No: No — Sofia, Mel
Buzzers: X — Mel, Sofia
Howie’s comments: “My favorite act today.”
Mel’s comments: “I think it’s obvious what I think. It’s not my cup of tea. Kinda made me want to fall asleep.”
Sofia’s comments: “You are very cute, yes, but this is not a 3-year-old birthday party.”
Vahtang
Talent: Singer and beatboxer
Hometown: Georgia
Votes Yes/No: Yes — Mel, Howie, Sofia, Simon
Buzzers: None
Howie’s comments: “You are a one-man party. I loved it.”
Sofia’s comments: “We’ve seen this kind of stuff, but never this good.”
Simon’s comments: “I’m so happy you’ve made these two so excited … it was a surprise, I think in a very good way.”
Kameron Marshall
Talent: Close-up magic
Votes Yes/No: Yes — Sofia, Mel, Howie, Simon
Buzzers: None
Mel’s comments: “Magic is alive, it’s real, and you my friend you blew my brain away.”
Sofia’s comments: “Your personality, how fast you are, how confident. I don’t usually love magic and you are like my favorite today.”
Simon’s comments: “I’m just curious where you take this in the next stage coz if it’s just cards again, I don’t think that’s gonna work.”
Howie’s comments: “If you should be lucky enough to come back, you have to figure out a way to present it that it’s even bigger.”
Darrell Moten
Talent: Online magician
Hometown: Philadelphia
Votes Yes/No: Yes — Sofia, Howie, Simon; No — Mel
Buzzers: None
Howie’s comments: “I’m at a loss for words… we had a magician earlier and I said you come back you gotta make it worth this stage… you are the example of what I was talking about.”
Mel’s comments: “I’m just confused. Too much to follow and I didn’t really get it.”
Sofia’s comments: “I loved it. I thought it was very interesting. … We were like really confused and then we were like poor guy and then we were the poor ones.”
Simon’s comments: “I love seeing stuff I’ve never seen before even though I almost ruined your act. … You probably do need a lot more stage experience.”
Nene Royal
Talent: Guitarist
Hometown: Phuket, Thailand
Votes Yes/No: Yes — Howie, Mel, Simon, Sofia
Buzzers: None
Sofia’s comments: “That was spectacular. You have a very big chance to do really good in this competition.”
Howie’s comments: “You are a rock star, young lady.”
Mel’s comments: “You’ve got really good vocal control and you can really kill it on the guitar.”
Simon’s comments: “The tone of your voice, it was like really authentic. Even the fact it was all a bit messy actually made, for me, the audition really good.”
Royal Lasers
Talent: Laser and light dance group
Hometown: Las Vegas
Votes Yes/No: n/a
Buzzers: Terry’s Golden Buzzer
Terry’s comments: “You gave us monsters, you gave us fire, but I’m gonna give you one thing … the Golden Buzzer!”
Jesse White Tumbling Team
Talent: Acrobatics
Hometown: Chicago
Votes Yes/No: Yes — Howie, Mel, Sofia, Simon
Buzzers: None
Sofia’s comments: “This has been the most exciting thing that I’ve seen today. You guys literally fly. You know how to fly.”
Mel’s comments: “You just went bang, bang, bang… it was constant, constant. It was brilliant.”
Howie’s comments: “She’s right, you kept getting higher and further and longer and more extreme than I could ever imagine.”
Simon’s comments: “I thought it was sensational. You’re following an act with lasers and pyrotechnics and this was all about you as a group, as individuals, being great.”
Israel Isaac
Talent: Singer
Votes Yes/No: Yes — Mel; No — Simon
Buzzers: None
Mel’s comments: “You have a really beautiful voice. It’s like silk.”
Simon’s comments: “Your voice is great, but I don’t think you can sing well live. You’re so nervous so I’m gonna say, for today, no.”
Travis Garland
Talent: Singer
Hometown: Los Angeles
Votes Yes/No: Yes — Mel, Sofia, Simon; No — Howie
Buzzers: None
Mel’s comments: “That is how you sing that song, brother. Wowza. You are obviously a very seasoned singer and I recognize that voice. It’s got soul, it’s got grit, it’s got passion, it’s got everything. Tick, tick, tick, tickety, tick.”
Howie’s comments: “You have an incredible talent. You do have a voice. For me, it was so theatrical… I felt like you played this in front of your mirror a hundred times. … I think today you’ve got to live real and authentically. You’ve got to sing that song, not worry about how you look, not worry about where your hand is, where your glasses are.”
Sofia’s comments: “I’m a little bit in the middle of both of them. … I did wish you had picked another song, but your voice is spectacular.”
Simon’s comments: “I can understand what put Howie off. Having said that, there’s no question you can sing. … Personally, I would have spent more time working on an interesting arrangement of that song.”
Abresh
Talent: Trick balancing
Hometown: Ethiopia
Votes Yes/No: Yes — Howie, Sofia, Mel
Buzzers: None
Howie’s comments: “I love the originality of what you’re doing.”
Sofia’s comments: “When you started, I thought it looked messy. I thought that it looked like he’s gonna fall at any time, but you actually did it.”
Simon’s comments: “It just looked like a regular person decided to get on top of a basketball and it got bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Mel’s comments: “We were all on the edge of our seats. That is proper entertainment. That was fantastic.”
Nathan Noah Tsuji
Talent: Handstanding
Votes Yes/No: No — Howie
Buzzers: None
Howie’s comments: “You think handstanding is worth a million dollars?”
Daniel Alvarez
Talent: Stand-up comedy
Hometown: Los Angeles
Votes Yes/No: Yes — Howie, Mel, Sofia, Simon
Buzzers: None
Simon’s comments: “I think you are hilarious. It’s the hardest thing, I think, to be a comedian, but you’ve just got everyone. I think you’re one of the funniest comedians we’ve had on this year.”
Sofia’s comments: “Daniel, I love you. You’re so funny … you’re inspirational. It’s like we all should be like you and I can tell that you’ve gone through a lot of things, but it still hasn’t killed that good soul that you have.”
Mel’s comments: “I was worried for a second about you coz I could feel your nervousness. You’re naughty, you made everybody laugh when you shouldn’t be laughing … comedy, it comes from something tragic.”
Howie’s comments: “I think your life is gonna change. I think people are gonna know your name. You’re going places, young man.”
Jack & Haley
Talent: Band
Votes Yes/No: No — Howie, Simon
Buzzers: X — Howie, Simon
Sofia’s comments: “I feel bad for Howie… it’s a no, but thank you for coming.”
Neil & Bryan
Talent: Comedy performers
Hometown: Minneapolis
Votes Yes/No: No — Howie, Sofia; Yes — Simon
Buzzers: X — Mel
Sofia’s comments: “You would never win anything with this.”
Howie’s comments: “I don’t think they can do good in this contest.”
Mel’s comments: “No, no, no.”
Simon’s comments: “I have an idea. I want to imagine we have just given someone a Golden Buzzer and that’s the song we hear every single time.” [simulates Golden Buzzer moment] “I want you two dancing every time it happens … I actually like it. I can’t get that chorus out of my head.”
