Warning! The following contains spoilers for the America's Got Talent episode that aired Tuesday, July 14. Read at your own risk!
America's Got Talent was already operating outside its usual format when it was forced to go audience-less, but things were taken to another level when even sitting in the studio without a live audience wasn't enough. The judges were forced to wrap up Season 15 auditions from home, and surprisingly, one contestant came out looking even better through that process.
Mentalists always seem to do well on America's Got Talent in general, but there was something extra special about the performance by Max Major. Check out Major in the video below, and watch him stun the judges as he reads the thoughts of judge Sofia Vergara from across the internet.
As I mentioned, mentalists aren't at all novel to America's Got Talent, and yes, most are impressive. Having said that I was a much bigger fan of Max Major than many I've seen in the past, and I think it's tied to the at-home format of his audition.
The skeptic in me has always had it out for America's Got Talent's mentalist acts, mostly because I believe there's some form of deception in the act. Sometimes, their tricks are so good it's almost impossible not to believe that the whole thing wasn't a skit explicitly worked out with the judges beforehand. Like, how the hell do some of these people know what Howie Mandel's favorite country he has visited is without a conversation beforehand?
Max Major's card trick was an incredibly parred down mentalist performance compared to what America's Got Talent has done, but it was so impressive because of how much of the act relied on Sofia Vergara. She had her separate deck from what Major had, and while I'm sure there's still some suspicious behind-the-scenes business happening, the whole thing felt so much more organic with the simplicity of the trick.
I think how pared-down it was combined with the experience of the act happening over a video call sold me on Max Major, and made the act one of the best I saw in the episode. We're probably all aware by now that there are about a hundred things that can go wrong during the average video call without magic, so the fact that this act was so clean and without fault struck a chord with me. I'm not sure Max Major will be the winner of America's Got Talent Season 15, but I'll certainly be rooting for him going forward because of this act.
America's Got Talent airs on NBC Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend for more on Season 15, and the latest happenings in the world of television and movies.
