City
'What the heck did we get into?'
BUCKFIELD —The night before auditioning for the trio of celebrity judges of "America's Got Talent," performers Jason and Matthew Tardy watched the show's audience get a lesson in booing.
"They really encourage the audience to be mean," Jason Tardy said. "They'd say, 'Make sure you boo real loud. Tell them to get off the stage, and yell.'"
The Buckfield brothers, who'd been asked to audition by producers for the hit NBC show, were appalled. "We were seeing this and thinking, 'What the heck did we get into?'" Jason said.
The big day came in March, but the brothers couldn't talk about it until Thursday, after the show finished televising the last of its auditions.
"It was fun in some ways and dreadful in other ways," Jason said.
When the guys were called in March, they'd begun putting together a new act. Wearing jumpsuits with electronic triggers sewn in, they combined comedy, acrobatics and the music they'd been performing for several years as AudioBody.
But when the show called, they were looking for jugglers. The duo had performed at the White House and across the country as jugglers under the title Two.
The brothers drove to New York and met with producers. There, the Tardys sold them on AudioBody.
A few days later, Jason and Matthew returned to New York to appear on stage for 2,000 people. Among them were judges Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff.
For the uninitiated, the show works simply. Performers have 90 seconds to impress the judges.
Each judge is armed with a red button. When all three are pressed the lights go dim and the performance ends. However, if a performance goes the distance, the three judges vote on whether to send the act to the next level. The show's winner will earn $1 million and a regular gig in Las Vegas.
Back stage, the performers are treated "like pieces of meat," Jason said. There are long lines and little courtesy. "You feel like a cow and they are herding you around."
When they finally made it on stage, the pair stirred the audience. Almost immediately, people clapped.
Seconds later, Morgan hit his red button. The guys kept going.
"People were standing up and clapping," Jason said. "They were really into it."
At about the minute mark, Osbourne and Hasselhoff hit their buttons. The performance ended and the judges commented.
"Sharon said, 'I don't understand what you're doing,'" Jason said.
Had the performance been televised, the brothers hoped to use the comment in advertisements for their upcoming shows. The brothers are slated to perform Friday at Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield and on Sept. 12 at the Great Falls Performing Arts Center in Auburn.
"We were almost relieved when it was over," Jason said of the audition. "We did nothing wrong. In a hall auditorium of 2,000 people, we entertained 1,997 of them."
dhartill@sunjournal.com
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I gotta agree with Ginger.
I gotta agree with Ginger. The new site definitely keeps me from making the SJ part of my daily routine. While I'm sure that is welcome news to some on this site, word of mouth is the best advertisement and the SJ isn't getting it from me anymore, at least not the positive kind. I'm in the under 50 crowd, and I think the change is awful. Just my opinion, of course, but we all have one, right?
Ginger, there is a black
Ginger, there is a black feedback button on the right side of each story page. You can voice your ideas for improvement by clicking on that button. I had some ideas and they were responsive. But, you got to give them specifics - what exact features you're missing from the past site. Hope that helps.
Uh, Ginger, here's a clue
Uh, Ginger, here's a clue for you. I'm well over 50. While I'm no fan of the changes (the site needed changing but they didn't quite hit the mark IMHO), I don't find that it discourages me.
America's got talent is
America's got talent is looking for an act that reaches across the mainstream-anything outside of that wide stripe down the middle falls by the wayside. Some oddities make it though, otherwise they wouldn't have enough "filler" to make it the full run of the season-it would be over after a couple of weeks. Also, I thinks there's a bit of a tendency to use ridicule as an entertainment element, meaning some acts that simply shouldn't be out there are allowed to perform simply so they can be ridiculed. I thought maybe the producers might have learned their lesson with Susan Boyle, but then again people are still entertained by car wrecks-theres just something that draws us in.
I think, unfortunately, that Jason and Matthew got sucked into the whole process. Hopefully it will be a lesson learned for them. I haven't seen their act, but I encourage them to keep going and developing what they do. If they have done well enough to get the attention of the the AGT producers, then they are onto something. Keep persevering. Like they said, they pleased 1997 people out of 2000. That ain't bad!
I just saw these guys in
I just saw these guys in Topsham...they were great!! they were a bit unpolished at times but it was fun and very entertaining...and the show was very affordable...if you have the time to see them when they come to Auburn in September I highly recommend it!!! I can see though how the judges might have been confused by seeing a 90 second performance taken out of context of the whole show...perhaps if they had done something with their drums rather than the suits??? oh, well!!! we are fans anyway!!! keep it up guys!!!
Ginger Now I know why many
Ginger
Now I know why many guys picked Maryann.
this web site is a joke.how
this web site is a joke.how much longer are you idiots going to inconvenience the poor older people that have been loyal customers for all these years? whoever changed the web site from the previous format should be fired. 90% of your viewers are over 20 yrs old,and are not that computer savy;so what do you rocket scientists do?change the web site and make it more difficult for them.
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