When a celebrity joins the audience of Canada’s Got Talent, it’s a sure thing that the producers are going to make a fuss. Roberto Alomar is on hand for this episode, and host Dina Pugliese says hello, talks about Twitter and even throws out a reference to his 1994 McCain juice campaign, Catch The Taste (timely!). Measha Brueggergosman jokes about how her enormous Mohawk has its own postal code, Stephan Moccio wears a scarf (this time hidden under the lapels of a jacket) and Martin Short gets in the filthiest innuendo we’ve heard yet—talking about a magic act, he says, “How many swords can you put in one box? I mean, I guess that’s the old joke.” A prize has been added to the pot, too: an all-inclusive trip to Tobago.
Hamilton factory worker Mathew “The Emsee” Cathcart won his way onto the show via his YouTube video (though Short has no qualms about saying he likes Mathew mostly because he’s also from Hamilton). Cathcart brings a raucous rap performance, complete with name-dropping Citytv and CGT, but our favourite rhyme is “got more rhymes in my head than Stephan’s got scarves.” And though we’d like to fault him for making Pugliese do her painful “I’m hip” rap introduction, we don’t think we can. We’re hoping this Hamilton MC makes it to the next round so he can make more jokes about Moccio’s neck party.
The Forestier family gets points for overall cuteness—adorable lead violinist Jack is seven years old and strums a mean fiddle. The act starts slow and gets progressively faster, but if Jack were 20 and not seven, we’re not sure how into the performance we’d be. We don’t see the Forestier family moving forward to the next round, but we love their act.
Enigma Dance Productions impressed us in a previous episode with a dance dedicated to a friend who was in an abusive relationship. Tonight’s number, about a dancer’s mom being in the hospital with septic shock, isn’t as moving or powerful (despite the sensitive subject matter). For an interpretive dance, it seems a little too on-the-nose for us, with props like an actual hospital bed and lots of wrung hands brought up to the sky. Short and Moccio aren’t fans either (they think it’s boring), but Brueggergosman, in a rare move for her, says, “I have only positive things to say.”
Ivan Daigle has a great voice and a knack for schmaltzy songs, but this new country tune is too much. In “Love Your Love the Most,” he rattles off a checklist of stereotypes from country music, saying he loves “cold beer,” “[his] truck,” “a good honky tonk,” “scuffed-up cowboy boots,” “Jack D and Coke” and more. By the end of his song, we’re convinced it was written as a parody by the South Park guys. We’re fans of the country music genre, but Daigle’s song lacks subtlety.
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