After a season full of surprises, drama, and—even more surprising—talent, the finals of season seven of America’s Got Talent are finally here.  There will be time for jokes and reminiscing tomorrow.  For now, focus on the talent that Sharon Osbourne, Howie Mandel, and Judge Howard Stern brought to the show for Nick Cannon to host.  Not too shabby guys.

David Garibaldi and His CMYK’s
David on this the day of your last performance, it can be said with absolutely no mocking, that your glasses are a smidge ridiculous.  But that could be the key to his charm.  Yet again, David Garibaldi and His CMYK’s created a piece of art while they danced and painted to music.  Even though the CMYK’s played background dancers for a bit, they eventually became involved in the creation.  And although the recipe was the same, the reveal of David’s portrait of Albert Einstein was still fantastic.  He’s perfected the art of dragging out the painting in a way that prevents viewers from figuring out what the subject is until the last possible second.  Appropriately flanked by paintings of the letters C-M-Y-K, the artwork was a resounding success.  But even with that endorsement, it’s hard to imagine David & Company being crowned the winner.  They’re a talented group, but they can’t measure up to the excitement of the other contenders.  More than likely, there will still be big things in their future.

Tom Cotter
There has never been a comedian that made it this far in the competition before.  That might be because there’s never been a comedian as talented, hardworking, and hilarious as Tom Cotter.  For his final performance Tom brought out a comedy cube: a huge die with six different topics on it he was ready to perform.  That’s dangerously similar to what he did for his semi-finals routine, but luckily it’s no less impressive.  His set on poor examples was peppered with nursery rhymes with horrible imagery.  There were chuckles in the beginnings but it took a Sleeping Beauty anvil of a joke to let the floodgates open.  (“Sleeping Beauty, remember this story?  The girl passes out and the guy starts kissing her.  That’s illegal ladies and gentlemen.”)  Tom’s strong suit has been and continues to be his ability to create material that’s relatable to a vast amount of people without ever having to water down his acerbic wit.  The judges marveled at his talent, but Sharon said it best: “I’d love to see you when you’ve got a drink in you.  I bet it’s filthy.”  And yet again, just when the laughs should be over, Tom rips open his shirt to display the last digits of his voting phone number painted on his chest as he did a peck dance.  Someone like that is always entertaining, never wasting an opportunity to put a smile on someone’s place.  Hopefully you guys won’t waste the opportunity to make him the winner.

The Untouchables
You raise your children in the hopes that one day they’ll accomplish more than you ever did.  Never has that had a clearer or more literal example than with The Untouchables.  As you all know, the creator of last year’s Miami All Stars not only leads this group of talented tots, but his two children are the stars of the group.  His daughter Ruby, also known as the girl who worked the tears, was the starlet of the night, showcasing her ability to command the stage alone as the group began a dance that can only be describe as “a Tina [Turner} jive.”  Dancing to the ever popular “Proud Mary,” the kids showed off their exemplary abilities yet again.  There was no short supply of tricks, or moments that took your breath away.  Howard and Sharon loved it, but Howie found the performance lacking compared with last week’s.  The performance was electrifying and definitely put the kids in the top tier of hopeful in live for the win.  Knowing to play to their strengths, the group allowed Daughter Ruby to speak for them again; her earnest shout that they are the future of America was the icing on their performance sundae.  Whether or not they win depends on if you sprinkled some votes on top of their dream.

Joe Castillo
As far as finale’s go, Joe Castillo is the only one yours truly believes should have been left out of the finals.  To drive that point home, Joe performed an America’s Got Talent themed sand story.  Beginning with a sand portrait of Nick, he morphed it into Howie’s likeness, then Sharon’s, and finally Howard’s., with a little beret to boot.  It seemed more like the kind of routine one would put together for the auditions, especially when you remember his elaborate and message filled previous performances.  Howard joked about how a couple of the sand portraits didn’t look quite right but it’s true; Sharon looked weird and Howard’s likeness more closely resembled that of Dee Snider’s. Joe is talented for sure, but when compared to the other amazing competitor it’s more than likely he’ll be ending the night with a ticket home instead of a million dollars.

William Close
For certain, William Close is the kind of performer that scares me.  Everyone sees him as the lead contender, but I seem to be the only one hoping against hope that someone else wins.  He’s incredibly talented; constructing, playing, and composing music from the instruments he made is no small feat.  But still, somehow the appeal still hasn’t broken through.  For the finals, William brought out all of his usual instruments, those spinning drums and the Earth Harp being the central focus.  For pizazz, there was a young lady hanging from the ceiling playing an instrument that wasn’t easily discernible but definitely one of William’s creations.  Instead of the usual loud soloist he uses, William chose a female singer to perform “America the Beautiful” as the orchestra played their symphony.  The judges all but gave the man the competition, ladling him with praise that still boggles the mind.  Luckily the last and most important decision is in the hands of the viewers.  Hopefully they’ll choose something worth a million that isn’t truly entertaining.

Olate Dogs
The finals wouldn’t be complete without another sensational performance from the best animal act this recapper has ever seen.  Olate Dogs started their performance off by having one of their talented pooches drive a small kids car out on stage.  As usual, that was the least of their dogs amazing feats.  They had the usual trappings of course; a dog that does back flips and another that hopped across the stage.  A new dog walked on its hind legs across the stage like in was a person.  A few leapt and hopped over obstacles, and even though one of the dogs didn’t quite clear the last obstacle, it was still wonderful.  The finale was two dogs wheel barrel walking across the judges table.  Of course Sharon tried to steal one of the pups, but whether or not Olate Dogs stole America’s heart is yet to be seen.

Who Should Advance: It was a stellar finale, but my money’s on Tom Cotter and Olate Dogs.

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