Canada’s Got Talent, episode 7: the frenetic Susan Boyle of the Great White North

In this episode, the Canada’s Got Talent team heads to Montreal for the final round of auditions before the semi-finals. As always, the prizes at stake are mentioned, but has anyone else noted how unclear it is to say the winner of CGT “could have a chance to perform in a Las Vegas show?” Is the show covering its bases in case Canada doesn’t have talent and they have to award the honour to some hula hoop artist from Calgary? What is clear about Sunday’s episode is that Measha Brueggergosman’s hair is the biggest and most sparkly we’ve seen yet, perpetually sunny host Dina Pugliese acts out of character by wanting to give an X to a contestant, and, thankfully, the look-how-fun-we-are dancing by the judges has been cut (save for one quick bit of Stephan Moccio shaking).

Eric Saintonge is a 37-year-old ex-gymnast who works with a modified German wheel, which looks remarkably similar to that contestant favourite, the hula hoop. His backflips, high speed spins and thoroughly entertaining routine impress us and Brueggergosman (she jokes, “I’m not usually a screamer”), and we look forward to seeing what he brings to the semi-finals.

Jose (we aren’t sure what his last name is because one of those wildly annoying watermarks advertising the show we are currently watching is blocking out the title) comes out in painter’s overalls, which he doffs to reveal a pink and white ensemble (we didn’t get it), and performs some butt-shaking (although one might call it something like salsa, if they were being generous). We won’t be seeing any more of Jose.

Julie Lafontaine is a 45-year-old mother of four with a beautiful aria (while amazing, it wasn’t quite the Susan Boyle moment we were hoping for)—even soprano Brueggergosman was impressed, noting the opera world missed a great talent. If we could offer one suggestion, we’d like to see Lafontaine cool it on the arm gestures (she flailed around so much she looked like an air traffic controller), but we are still very excited to hear her next performance.

Rosie D Clown is the first contestant we’ve seen Pugliese want canned. Rosie’s shimmery, multicoloured clown costume isn’t enough to distract from her boring routine, which is why we’re with the judges in giving her the boot (a clown as a talent, really?).

Daddy Cool is a dance troupe of dads (see what they did there?) who met while taking their daughters to dance class. Their hip hop routine wasn’t as strong as many of the younger competitors (they say knee problems plague them) and there were a few too many faux-hawks for our liking, but their energetic routine, culminating in a Dirty Dancing–style over-the-head lift was certainly entertaining.

Spacemak3r impressed the judges (and if we’re being fair, they do have singing talent) but they make our worst list for being the creepiest act we’ve seen thus far. The singing group wears clown makeup, zombie masks, and scream “welcome to my circus” while running around the stage. Energetic and interesting, yes, but also terrifying—even Moccio says they are like his “worst nightmare and best dream together.” Unnerving or not, Spacemak3r moves on to the next round.