Canada's Got Talent - S3E6: A child knows the flags of every land; a pianist rocks with just one hand; Lindsay loves art made of sand
TrishStratus.com special guest columnist Bob Kapur recaps Canada's Got Talent airing Tuesdays on Citytv.
Hi, all, and welcome back to our weekly coverage of Canada’s Got Talent right here on TrishStratus.com. Once again, my name is Bob Kapur, and I will be your guide through all of the fun, excitement, drama, and comedy of this week’s auditions.
There were some definite highlights tonight – and some lowlights, too. So let’s find out who got this week’s Golden Buzzer, and who got the dreaded red X. I certainly don’t want to risk getting voted No by you for wasting time – so let’s get right to the stage!
Ben said he spent his formative years in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, and that city is the muse for the songs he writes and sings. The city of Kitchener-Waterloo should sue him.
The playing was bad, the singing was bad, and the lyrics weren’t funny after the first ten seconds. Unfortunately, the song lasted much longer than that – long enough, in fact, to earn Ben Xs from Kardi and Howie. The judges liked Ben’s personality, but four No votes sent him off the stage-r.
During his pre-interview, Sd’s got emotional, talking about how his wife encouraged him to keep chasing his musical dreams, even after he lost his left arm from his elbow-down due to an accident with high explosives.
His song choice reflected his never-give-up spirit, performing the Hall & Oates classic “You Make My Dreams Come True” accompanying himself on piano while he sang. His performance was upbeat and uplifting, as Levi played the crowd as well as he played the ivories, getting them all to sing the closing line with him. Levi’s voice was great – a bit show-tuney, which tracks with his musical theatre background – but clear, strong, and able to hit all the notes, including the high falsetto notes that the song is famous for.
All the judges liked Levi both as a performer and a person, and gave him Yesses across the board.
Noah is six-years old and is certainly confident in himself, calling himself a good boy and a smart boy during his pre-audition interview. For his audition, he showed off his smarts by naming the flags of various countries when they were shown on-screen. They showed a montage of him correctly naming about two dozen of them, including several from lesser-known countries and some that were very similar to others.
The judges and audience were duly-impressed by Noah’s talent, with Howie saying it was a million-dollar trick. Trish admired his bravery to go out there despite the huge audience, and nail it. The judges gave Noah four big Yesses.
My hot take: Look, I’m not going to deny that what Noah did was impressive. Assuming the montage wasn’t edited and he really did correctly-identify all the flags he was shown, that’s pretty amazing – moreso for someone so young. But, as I like to ask, how do you take this to the next level? What can he do next time that makes him more than a one-trick pony? This is a great party trick, but that’s about it. Look, I wish nothing but the best for the kid, and I’m sure he has a bright future ahead of him. But precociousness and memorization skills doesn’t make me want to buy a ticket to see you live.
Sam is Noah’s older brother, and the judges noted that since only one can win, it might come down to two siblings fighting it out for the grand prize. Sam, to his credit, said that if it comes down to it, he would want Noah to win. Sam played the violin like a champ, mixing up musical genres flawlessly. From classical to what sounded like a jig, even doing a rendition of Boney M’s “Rasputin” which was note-perfect.
The judges and audience loved the energy of the performance and the joy that Sam exuded while playing. They gave him four Yesses. Let the sibling rivalry begin.
Iceboxsound’s gimmick was using a device that allowed him to sing with an electronically-modified voice connected to his keyboard. The judges gave him an extremely cold reaction, unanimously voting No.
This act consisted of guy with a mullet and fake buck teeth (or at least I hope for his sake they were fake), who took sunglasses out of his pocket, put them on, took them off, and discarded them into the crowd. He didn’t need them anyway, since his future was not looking bright. Four Xs and the dude abided… by leaving the stage.
This was a ventriloquist act, with Norbert being a puppet of a toad – though it looked more like a frog to me. The act croaked.
These two are gothic-looking mind-readers with a creepy vibe. Their act was all about performing bad tricks that mostly didn’t work – but delivering them in such over-the-top character style that you had to laugh. Equally funny and bizarre was the running gag throughout the trick that saw them curse each judge with an intolerance to gluten, which was quite wry. Wry, rye, gluten – see what I did there?
Howie enjoyed the originality of the act and voted Yes. Lilly didn’t like the pacing and voted No. Kardi voted Yes, leaving the deciding vote to Trish. She did not toast to their success, giving them a No and sending Carson and Taylor back to the underworld… well, Sarnia, Ontario, but that’s kind of a pick ‘em.
Ashwin moved from New Delhi, India to attend the University of Waterloo, and moved to Toronto after graduating to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. Seems like a wise choice, because he had the crowd and judges laughing with even his pre-audition interview.
His routine centred around being a new Permanent Resident of Canada, which he attained in 2022, and some of the ironic experiences he went through on the way to do so. The material was pretty funny, if a bit one-note, but it killed with the audience and judges, who gave him a standing ovation.
Lilly really enjoyed the performance, saying that Ashywyn made her proud to be a judge on the show. She and Kardi even forgave the bashing of York University during his jokes. Howie said that Ashwyn has a chance to be the next big Canadian comedian, and gave him the first of four Yesses.
My take: Ashwyn’s material will certainly strike a chord with a lot of new Canadians, but will that be enough to take him to a national or global level? Inevitably, given his background and material, there’s a high likelihood that he’s going to be compared to fellow Indo-Canadian comedian Russell Peters. When I first saw Peters on a “Just For Laughs” special, I immediately sought out videos to hear more of his stuff. Ashwyn is certainly likeable, and makes you want to see him succeed, but I’m not sure he should be burning his Computer Science diploma quite just yet – let’s see what happens with his next performance.
This mother-daughter combo – Maria and Nikole – are originally from Ukraine, but moved to Quebec to get out of the turmoil in their home country. They want to use their performance to inspire peace throughout the world.
Their performance saw them create sand art – essentially, moving sand in a sandbox to create a picture on the bottom of the box that shone light from the bottom so you could see the silhouette image they made, which was projected onto a big screen. With only a few strokes and brushes of their hand, they created a stunning piece – a landscape of a city in the distance with a sun rising, while in the foreground, the use of negative space featured the profile of a woman and child. As if that weren’t beautiful enough, they then brushed that aside and reset their palette, to design another image, this one of the family holding a globe in their hands while a dove of peace watched over them.
The image they were able to put together that medium, and the message they promoted, was simply amazing and inspirational.
The audience was awed into a stunned silence during the performance, and Trish and Lindsay were both visibly moved, choking up and holding back tears.
Kardi said that not only was the sand transformed, but the audience was too, through that performance. Trish thanked them for bringing their story and their gift to the stage. Lilly loved not only the emotion, but appreciated how good the artwork actually was.
Before the judges could vote, Lindsay Ell emerged to the stage and made her way to the judges’ desk. She said that she was so inspired by the strength that Together For Peace exhibited in their performance and their story, that she felt moved enough to award them her Golden Buzzer pick.
This was a great audition, and a breathtaking performance with a great message – and certainly was deserving of the Golden Buzzer.
Do you agree? Or was there another act on this week’s episode that you feel was more deserving? Let me know your thoughts. Send in your comments below, or hit me up on the socials (@ReadBobsTweets on the Twitter, or on the ‘Gram @BobKapur).
See you all next week – for the final round of auditions.
Other notes:
Stills from episode »
Hi, all, and welcome back to our weekly coverage of Canada’s Got Talent right here on TrishStratus.com. Once again, my name is Bob Kapur, and I will be your guide through all of the fun, excitement, drama, and comedy of this week’s auditions.
There were some definite highlights tonight – and some lowlights, too. So let’s find out who got this week’s Golden Buzzer, and who got the dreaded red X. I certainly don’t want to risk getting voted No by you for wasting time – so let’s get right to the stage!
Ben Stager
Ben said he spent his formative years in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, and that city is the muse for the songs he writes and sings. The city of Kitchener-Waterloo should sue him.
The playing was bad, the singing was bad, and the lyrics weren’t funny after the first ten seconds. Unfortunately, the song lasted much longer than that – long enough, in fact, to earn Ben Xs from Kardi and Howie. The judges liked Ben’s personality, but four No votes sent him off the stage-r.
Levi Stanford
During his pre-interview, Sd’s got emotional, talking about how his wife encouraged him to keep chasing his musical dreams, even after he lost his left arm from his elbow-down due to an accident with high explosives.
His song choice reflected his never-give-up spirit, performing the Hall & Oates classic “You Make My Dreams Come True” accompanying himself on piano while he sang. His performance was upbeat and uplifting, as Levi played the crowd as well as he played the ivories, getting them all to sing the closing line with him. Levi’s voice was great – a bit show-tuney, which tracks with his musical theatre background – but clear, strong, and able to hit all the notes, including the high falsetto notes that the song is famous for.
All the judges liked Levi both as a performer and a person, and gave him Yesses across the board.
Noah Taju George
Noah is six-years old and is certainly confident in himself, calling himself a good boy and a smart boy during his pre-audition interview. For his audition, he showed off his smarts by naming the flags of various countries when they were shown on-screen. They showed a montage of him correctly naming about two dozen of them, including several from lesser-known countries and some that were very similar to others.
The judges and audience were duly-impressed by Noah’s talent, with Howie saying it was a million-dollar trick. Trish admired his bravery to go out there despite the huge audience, and nail it. The judges gave Noah four big Yesses.
My hot take: Look, I’m not going to deny that what Noah did was impressive. Assuming the montage wasn’t edited and he really did correctly-identify all the flags he was shown, that’s pretty amazing – moreso for someone so young. But, as I like to ask, how do you take this to the next level? What can he do next time that makes him more than a one-trick pony? This is a great party trick, but that’s about it. Look, I wish nothing but the best for the kid, and I’m sure he has a bright future ahead of him. But precociousness and memorization skills doesn’t make me want to buy a ticket to see you live.
Sam Taju Ninan
Sam is Noah’s older brother, and the judges noted that since only one can win, it might come down to two siblings fighting it out for the grand prize. Sam, to his credit, said that if it comes down to it, he would want Noah to win. Sam played the violin like a champ, mixing up musical genres flawlessly. From classical to what sounded like a jig, even doing a rendition of Boney M’s “Rasputin” which was note-perfect.
The judges and audience loved the energy of the performance and the joy that Sam exuded while playing. They gave him four Yesses. Let the sibling rivalry begin.
Iceboxsound
Iceboxsound’s gimmick was using a device that allowed him to sing with an electronically-modified voice connected to his keyboard. The judges gave him an extremely cold reaction, unanimously voting No.
Super Slick Dude
This act consisted of guy with a mullet and fake buck teeth (or at least I hope for his sake they were fake), who took sunglasses out of his pocket, put them on, took them off, and discarded them into the crowd. He didn’t need them anyway, since his future was not looking bright. Four Xs and the dude abided… by leaving the stage.
Norbert the Toad
This was a ventriloquist act, with Norbert being a puppet of a toad – though it looked more like a frog to me. The act croaked.
Carson and Taylor
These two are gothic-looking mind-readers with a creepy vibe. Their act was all about performing bad tricks that mostly didn’t work – but delivering them in such over-the-top character style that you had to laugh. Equally funny and bizarre was the running gag throughout the trick that saw them curse each judge with an intolerance to gluten, which was quite wry. Wry, rye, gluten – see what I did there?
Howie enjoyed the originality of the act and voted Yes. Lilly didn’t like the pacing and voted No. Kardi voted Yes, leaving the deciding vote to Trish. She did not toast to their success, giving them a No and sending Carson and Taylor back to the underworld… well, Sarnia, Ontario, but that’s kind of a pick ‘em.
Ashwyn Singh
Ashwin moved from New Delhi, India to attend the University of Waterloo, and moved to Toronto after graduating to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. Seems like a wise choice, because he had the crowd and judges laughing with even his pre-audition interview.
His routine centred around being a new Permanent Resident of Canada, which he attained in 2022, and some of the ironic experiences he went through on the way to do so. The material was pretty funny, if a bit one-note, but it killed with the audience and judges, who gave him a standing ovation.
Lilly really enjoyed the performance, saying that Ashywyn made her proud to be a judge on the show. She and Kardi even forgave the bashing of York University during his jokes. Howie said that Ashwyn has a chance to be the next big Canadian comedian, and gave him the first of four Yesses.
My take: Ashwyn’s material will certainly strike a chord with a lot of new Canadians, but will that be enough to take him to a national or global level? Inevitably, given his background and material, there’s a high likelihood that he’s going to be compared to fellow Indo-Canadian comedian Russell Peters. When I first saw Peters on a “Just For Laughs” special, I immediately sought out videos to hear more of his stuff. Ashwyn is certainly likeable, and makes you want to see him succeed, but I’m not sure he should be burning his Computer Science diploma quite just yet – let’s see what happens with his next performance.
Together For Peace
This mother-daughter combo – Maria and Nikole – are originally from Ukraine, but moved to Quebec to get out of the turmoil in their home country. They want to use their performance to inspire peace throughout the world.
Their performance saw them create sand art – essentially, moving sand in a sandbox to create a picture on the bottom of the box that shone light from the bottom so you could see the silhouette image they made, which was projected onto a big screen. With only a few strokes and brushes of their hand, they created a stunning piece – a landscape of a city in the distance with a sun rising, while in the foreground, the use of negative space featured the profile of a woman and child. As if that weren’t beautiful enough, they then brushed that aside and reset their palette, to design another image, this one of the family holding a globe in their hands while a dove of peace watched over them.
The image they were able to put together that medium, and the message they promoted, was simply amazing and inspirational.
The audience was awed into a stunned silence during the performance, and Trish and Lindsay were both visibly moved, choking up and holding back tears.
Kardi said that not only was the sand transformed, but the audience was too, through that performance. Trish thanked them for bringing their story and their gift to the stage. Lilly loved not only the emotion, but appreciated how good the artwork actually was.
Before the judges could vote, Lindsay Ell emerged to the stage and made her way to the judges’ desk. She said that she was so inspired by the strength that Together For Peace exhibited in their performance and their story, that she felt moved enough to award them her Golden Buzzer pick.
This was a great audition, and a breathtaking performance with a great message – and certainly was deserving of the Golden Buzzer.
Do you agree? Or was there another act on this week’s episode that you feel was more deserving? Let me know your thoughts. Send in your comments below, or hit me up on the socials (@ReadBobsTweets on the Twitter, or on the ‘Gram @BobKapur).
See you all next week – for the final round of auditions.
Other notes:
- As I’ve mentioned in previous recaps, I have a soft spot for Kitchener-Waterloo, having spent five years at University there. I liked the area so much, I had even contemplating moving there after graduation. If nothing else, just because Morty’s chicken wings are the best I’ve ever eaten in my life. And I eat a whole lot of chicken wings.
- When I was a kid about Noah’s age, we had a board game at home called Match II, which was a memory game in which there were 32 pairs of tiles that had different countries’ flags on one side, and you had to match pairs by flipping them over. My brother, who is nearly six years older than me, used to kick my butt at that game every time, and I’ve never fully gotten over it. Unlike Sam and Noah, neither of us are content with letting the other one win. We still have the game, over 40 years later. At our next family dinner, it’s on.
- Coming out of a commercial break, Howie was doing a cartoon voice, and it made me remember that not only was he the voice of Gizmo in “Gremlins” but also the outstanding work he did on the cartoon Bobby’s World. That show was great, just for the name itself.
- I try not to get political in these reviews, because after all, the point of CGT is to entertain. To give us a chance to escape the stresses of the “real world” and instead focus on the positivity and goodness of people and celebrate their talents. That all being said: F Putin.
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