Grace VanderWaal, The Clairvoyants and Tape Face of ‘AGT’ headline at Planet Hollywood
Judges and viewers of Season 11 of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” had the toughest time in a decade selecting from the Top Three finalists. In the end, the $1 million prize went to 12-year-old Grace VanderWaal, who stole their hearts with her passion for music. The New York youngster started making up songs when she was only 3, then started piano lessons at 4.
At 10, Grace played saxophone in the school’s marching band and at 11 on her birthday bought a ukulele to teach herself to play by watching YouTube videos. Her talent — and cuteness — never really gave her runners-up a chance.
But now all Top Three winners, including the mystifying Clairvoyants and the comedic mime Tape Face, will be at Planet Hollywood Showroom for four shows Thursday through Sunday. Ticket sales for “America’s Got Talent Live” was so strong that producers added a fourth night, and all four are sellouts.
Pint-sized Grace will be celebrating her headline debut and $1 million prize, but it’s Thommy Ten and Amelie van Taas who received the first standing ovation from all four celebrity judges and who will rock the audiences. The first time they met, they discovered that they had a special connection, and what began as a heightened sense of intuition grew into something far more fascinating.
Their incredible connection blossomed into a skill that went from amusing family and friends to fame. Here’s their finale performance that won the first-ever ovation from judges Mel B., Heidi Klum, Simon Cowell and Howie Mandel.
I talked via transatlantic phone to their home in Austria just before their flight to Las Vegas. Thommy told me: “We are overwhelmed, happy and blessed that we reached the finals and are now coming to Las Vegas, the home of the world’s greatest magicians. We will demonstrate some of the talents we showed on the TV program but also try some new, even more advanced challenges — a combination of both!
“All our shows are different because the cool thing is that audiences always give us new challenges. We are human, so I will confess along the way that it hasn’t always been 100 percent. We have made some errors.
“A lot of people have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we do it. They want a solution, but it’s just our amazing connection, so whatever they want to believe, they can. However, it’s just a very rare communication between a couple. We amaze ourselves.
“Our success comes because people can relate to it. How often has the phone rung and when you’ve picked it up, you say, ‘Strange, I was just thinking of you, and then you called.’ ”
Here’s a video link to their semifinal performance.
I had two questions for The Clairvoyants: I asked Thommy if their link was so strong that it could turn out to be dangerous for him if he thought of somebody other than Amelie. I also wanted to know if they knew when they would marry!
“We try to be as normal as we can be,” said Thommy. “We’re going to try and surprise ourselves when it comes time to plan a marriage, but for Amelie reading my mind all the time, that is a mental stress on me!”
The Clairvoyants’ appearance at Planet Hollywood this weekend is a Las Vegas exclusive, but they hope that they can return. Thommy added: “Piff the Magic Dragon also lost ‘AGT,’ and he opened his own Las Vegas show last year. We hope that we also can come back.”
Here’s the NBC video of Grace’s victory over The Clairvoyants.
An “AGT” exec told me: “Ticket sales went through the roof for this year’s show. It’s a combination of the singing, magic and comedy. We’ve never had a season like this one. We had to add the show because of the demand and could probably have run for a week more. It’s been a great problem to have.”
