Canada’s Got Talent, episode 5: sword fighting and Dina Pugliese dancing with a broom

On Sunday night’s episode of Canada’s Got Talent, the judges head back to Toronto to see what the city has to offer. As in episodes past, we see a bit of judge Martin Short’s ego come out when he jokes “I’m kind of carrying this thing” before his grand entrance announced by host Dina Pugliese (though, to be fair, he definitely is the biggest celeb on the show), judge Measha Brueggergosman wears kooky things (this time the wildest was a royal blue crushed velvet jacket) and third judge Stephan Moccio manages to sound pretentious, noting to one contestant “I believe I had a gift for the world.” Also, far too much uncomfortable dancing by the team: Pugliese vamps with a broom (it seems she loves props), and Short, Brueggergosman and Moccio actually get on the stage to cut a rug. Things are really cooking now—in addition to the contestants that get screen time, the team burned through 17 quick yeses.

Michael Smith performs some acrobatic b-boying, spinning on his head for what seems like an eternity. Though he doesn’t get much screen time this episode, we look forward to seeing his energetic dancing in the next round.

It’s a tie between Wushu By Storm and Baba Deep Singh Gatka Akhara, two sword fighting troupes that wowed the crowd (and us) with their spirited swordplay representing Canada’s proud multicultural heritage.

Furious Pete is a competitive eater, and while we could probably get into watching a dude stuff his face at a carnival or the Ex, it doesn’t quite work here on stage. Cramming his gullet with three slices of Canadian bacon (we thought it was just called back bacon in the Great White North), five hard boiled eggs, two bananas and the oh-so-Canadian bag of milk in under a minute is impressive, we guess, but we agree with the judges—it can’t win the competition. We won’t be seeing Furious Pete again.

Eleven-year-old Shale Wagman looks adorable in his white bullfighter costume and busts out a rousing ballet dance from Carmen. He says he “wants to inspire Canadians to achieve their dreams”.

Rod Soiree can read (and speak) really, really fast. He spits out a ton of syllables but he goes so fast it’s hard to tell if he’s actually saying anything or just speaking gibberish. As Short notes, he’d probably have a great career as an auctioneer, but not so much as the winner of Canada’s Got Talent.

We’ll probably get heat for calling out someone who plans to give the entirety of his winnings to charity (the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, to be specific), but Ryan “Six-Pack” Lapadat, who squatted 2,661 pounds (just an average day at the gym for us) six times (earning $1,200 for the JDRF), lost major points saying, “Superman didn’t get paid for what he does.” No one likes a god complex. “Six-Pack” will be back to compete.