Over the past few years it’s been nice to see America’s Got Talent and its British counterpart giving high profile exposure to a number of puppet acts like Gareth Oliver, The Gluvets and (most famously) Terry Fator. The latest puppetry act in the spotlight thanks to the “Got Talent” franchise is Fighting Gravity, a black light puppet and dance act that’s made it to the semi-finals of the latest season of America’s Got Talent.
Fighting Gravity is made up of a group of 13 Virginia Tech engineering students from the school’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. As much as it’s nice to see how enthusiastic they are, I’m a little disappointed by the way the show is overselling them. Despite what the hosts of “AGT” claim, Fighting Gravity isn’t terribly original at all, as of the millions of Americans who have seen clips from Kasou Taishou online could tell you. Tim Lagasse has posted a wonderfully curmudgeonly rant about this over at Sons of Punch and I agree with him completely.
America’s Got Talent airs Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central) on NBC. Full episodes are available to watch on the America’s Got Talent web site.
