America's Got Talent recap: quarterfinal 4

America's Got Talent recap

First up for the night was the Bollywood dance group Ishaara. I'm going to sound completely horrible when I say this, but the blonde girl bothers me. She stands out in the crowd of dark-haired dancers and it makes it hard to concentrate on the group as a whole. This week they did a cute boy meets girl story that had a little too much lead up before we got to the dancing. Overall, I like them and I'd like to see them advance to the next round.

Next up on America's Got Talent was opera singer Barbara Padilla. Usually I don't get behind singers in this competition but I think she's unusual enough to hold a Vegas audience. Lovely lady with a wonderful voice but if she makes it through I'd love to hear her sing something by Andrew Lloyd Webber, or maybe she did -- her song did sound rather Phantom of the Operaish.

Pam Martin took the America's Got Talent stage next with her dog Spy. Excuse me while I yawn about another dog act. Definitely better than the one they put through earlier in the rounds. Pam has more personality and the choreography, done to the song Do You Love Me, was cute. I pity anyone who ends up against her if she lands in the judges' choice spot because Sharon will never let a dog act get cut.

Now, here's where I started yelling at the TV. The African High Flyers performed an incredible acrobatic dance routine with high pyramids and cool flips and they even do the limbo under a burning stick. Sure it lacked the polish of a good Vegas routine but they're incredible. Piers buzzed them because he said they didn't advance enough from the audition round! What? The dog walks on his front legs and he's a hero, these guys stand on their hands ten feet off the ground and it's boring?!? Put them through - now!

Mia's mess

And it's singer time, but not just any singer. Mia Boostrom has Liberace's candelabras on her piano and it's creepy and so are her dancers.

To make matters worse, she sings Hallelujah, which is a heart-wrenching tune with words that must be carefully pronounced so they're understandable. I didn't like any of it.

The judges, on the other hand, thought she was great but Piers did say she wasn't as good as some of the other singers in the competition. Me, I'm back to yelling at the TV.

Next we have tiny little Eric and Rickie doing a Paso Doble. I groaned at the start but these kids were actually really good. The Paso is a tough dance to pull off because you have to have attitude and Eric took charge! I don't see them in Vegas, but they were fun to watch. Send them over to Dancing with the Stars.

Then...oh my...Coney Island Chris takes the stage with his Boardwalk sideshow act. In the auditions it was chewing glass. Now he's swallowing fire and making jokes but he's doing both of them badly. It sounded like he was channeling PeeWee Herman but he was so far off the mark it was painful to watch and not in a swallowing fire kind of way. The judges all buzz him off before he's done.

The odd combo of Matt & Anthony are up next on the America's Got Talent stage. One plays guitar and sings while the other taps. I can see where this might be an interesting street corner act, kept small with his taps acting as percussion to the guitar, but here they try to glitz it up and it's amateur hour. They were running up and down stairs and climbing on glittery boxes and I was so worried they were going to fall -- I couldn't enjoy a moment of the act. These guys are over, I'm afraid.

Up next...The Lollipop Girls and Pam and we Ask the Hoff!