Originally, I was going to write about the returning AGT magic acts I enjoyed as part of America’s Got Talent Fantasy League qualifier rounds that ended not too long ago but then Anna DeGuzman pulled out this whopper of a performance for her Semi Finals performance and I couldn’t not look at it to see what went wrong and why.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch it here before we discuss what happened together and try not to cringe as you watch it.
Okay, did you fail the challenge and cringe?
Because I did the first time I saw it as I couldn’t believe what was happening in front of such a massive audience!
Let’s take a look at what went wrong to reduce Anna’s chances of making it to the finals round.
The act itself was straightforward and had a theme of controlling people’s perceptions:
You’re shown 5 one dollar bills and with a wave of the hand they turn into 20s, 50s and 100s!
You think you are following five cards which show a royal flush and are red backed, but there were never any cards and the backs are blue!
You believe you’re holding a 100 dollar bill, but it sadly turns out to be a one dollar bill.
You thought you thoroughly shuffled a deck of cards, and yet the top few cards match the serial number of a one dollar bill.
A great theme with solid effects routined together to create this act, but unfortunately we’re not here to talk about the magic itself, but instead look at what was said and not said.
Anna opens with the line that it’s easy for her to control cards, but
“even harder to control people, and their perceptions”,
which was unfortunate foreshadowing on multiple levels.
Anna had a lot of troubles dealing with Mel B as a participant, beginning with the 5 card effect where Mel was given the instruction to “focus on the cards” and then when asked how many there were, wasn’t able to answer, instead apologetically saying “Oh I didn’t know I had to count them!”, which while awkward it was also funny and any magician would be able to continue as normal like Anna did. (though a magical note would be to tighten the script and ask them to remember the cards, suits, colours and how many cards there are - see my silly version of this trick here)
Then the bill transposition effect added more fuel to Anna’s inner fire, already burnt on one effect, when Mel was asked what bill she was holding when Anna took the one dollar out, she said “twenty”, which wasn’t even an option, which was once again awkward and funny, but the best way Anna thought to handle it was with a line “it’s okay, you’re pretty”, which came across more patronising than funny. Heidi Klum and the crowd didn’t like the line, considering it rude.
In the climax of the act, where the serial number is being read out by Mel, after she reads out the first number, Anna jokes “wow, she can read!”, which further sends the crowd against her, and while they applaud at the finale with the cards matching the serial number, she had already lost favour with the crowd and Heidi.
In a final nail to herself, during judges comments she said that she should have picked Heidi instead and said she was joking, which caused Howie, her Fantasy League mentor to tell her to shush, so things wouldn’t get any worse than they already were.
Comments online varied from finding her rude to saying she was just joking and that Heidi and the audience should chill, but most everyone understood it’s a tough gig being on the AGT stage and you learn from your mistakes.
Personally, I wouldn’t have made those jokes, and if I did that “you’re pretty” joke, I would have been cancelled and buzzed off the stage at that point.
BUT jokes and lines like that are part of Anna’s character, she’s a magician who is the Queen of Cards and jokes like this create part of her character. This is how she performs when she was at The Magic Castle and you either like it, hate it or don’t mind. There are other magicians, comedians and acts that are like that such as Jason Ladanye, who is so confident in his cardsharp abilities he jokes about courting people’s sisters and wives and gets away with it because we know he’s joking and he picks on those who troll him.
Anna is good, but she chose the wrong person to pick on, which is a skill she is going to learn and hone better as she continues performing for more types of people.
Of all the judges on AGT, Simon and Howie are suitable candidates to be the butt of any joke but to do it to Heidi, Mel B or Sofia Vergara (in the main AGT series) requires you to have already built an excellent rapport with them, something Anna thought she had based on having Mel help out with her qualifier performance but this unfortunately wasn’t the case when it came to Heidi’s perception.
The difficult part of comedy is bombing and trying to win your favour with the crowd back, some comedians can do it but most times it requires self deprecation.
Anna’s character is not a self deprecating magician, so the only jokes she has are to poke fun at others, which only digs yourself deeper if you’re trying to win a crowd back. I’ve seen a comedian lose a crowd off of one offhanded comment to the wrong audience member and for the rest of his set and beyond (as he stayed longer) his desperate attempt to win the crowd failed because they no longer liked him, no matter how funny his jokes were.
In the same way, Heidi no longer liked Anna based off how she treated Mel, even if Mel wasn’t perturbed by the comments.
How would you handle it when things go a bit awry?
Personally, after the second time something went wrong with Mel, I’d make it a running gag and treat it as such, but understand with the American television audience and internet audience watching and a time limit that you have to keep, you’re under pressure and got to pick your battles accordingly. Anna stuck with her character and her jokes and it didn’t pay off like she would have wanted, and an apology at the end was seen as too little, too late.
The good thing is in a few days no one will remember this and would have moved on. In Anna’s case, she just finished performing her first full show at the Mastercard Midnight Theatre in New York City, and she’ll perform many more, because that’s what people do, move on and continue being better.
“Anna jokes “wow, she can read!”
Rule number 1 never insult your audience. 😏
Anna is a good card magician. Nice persona when she’s not insulting you. She’s best with the card gymnastics, but I’ve never been a fan of finger slingers. But that’s just my personal taste.
The first problem was she wasn't quick enough to realize what she was dealing with in her choice of volunteer . Mel may be the nicest lady on the planet. I don't know her. But, as soon as she demonstrated that she was the kind of volunteer who wasn't focused and a bit dim, (during an act is NOT the time to give the benefit of the doubt) “Oh I didn’t know I had to count them!” There were only FIVE. Anna should have changed gears like you do with a child volunteer that won't be able to follow directions. Second - You immediately upon that realization switch to the volunteer who you know is quick AND on your side, ie: Howie. Mel then becomes the observer, but, it will appear like you are simply dividing up the tasks in the trick between the volunteers. ... If your persona is that of a wise ass you better have the mileage to know how to pull it off .