Freaks and Geeks

I have been watching Americas Got Talent tonight. I don’t really want to like it, but I do. It is set up and produced to wring emotion out of us. There are so many of the contestants that have had horrible things happen in their lives, or they wrap themselves in the American flag telling us how they kept going in Afghanistan so that they could play their dead fathers favourite song and make his dream come true.

Bullshit!

There just can’t be that many talented, damaged people in the USA. Now that I have said that, I find that I am addicted to the show. Oh, I miss the show some weeks and I tend to wander away from the screen and get caught up with something shiny. Sometimes, like tonight I wandered away to write this blog.

I find that I don’t watch the show with any negative thoughts towards any of the performers. I truly want them all to succeed. Who wouldn’t want to watch someone at the moment they achieve the dream of a lifetime? It may be staged, but if so, it is staged by the best in the business. I hope the dancer is flawless; the singer has a set of pipes that never quits and the acrobat stuns and amazes. Some things like the sword swallower, I don’t enjoy, but I suspect that is just me being squeamish.

It’s even enjoyable to watch the people who are really, really bad. They think they are good and I have to wonder if they are putting us on or if they are actually deranged. I’m amazed by people who believe in themselves in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

I know why I like Americas Got Talent so much. It takes me back to when I was a kid on Sunday nights, sitting in front of the TV with my mom, dad and brother watching the Ed Sullivan show. For those that don’t know (what planet are you from), the Ed Sullivan show was the best variety show bar none! He had dancing bears on the stage, bears that rode bicycles, seals that balanced balls on their noses, dog acts, birds that sang and a mouse that was just too cute for words, Topo Gigio. There were dancers and acrobats, singers, comedians and bands. If you made it onto the Ed Sullivan show you had made the big time. I like millions of others saw The Beatles for the first time on the Ed Sullivan show.

 

Most of us lived in places where it was nearly impossible to see these acts in person and to see this kind of entertainment was fantastic. I personally liked the plate spinners the most. These people would spin plates or bowls on sticks and they would keep adding more and more plates until they had so many spinning, you would think they were all going to fall. They sometimes did, but I cheered the spinner on anyways.

I think the thing that attracts me to Americas Got Talent is the same thing that kept me glued to the TV every Sunday night in my living room. It was entertainment plain and simple. Well, it was either that or I perhaps I just love to watch the freaks and geeks.