The winners of the second quarterfinal round of "America's Got Talent:" (l-r) Mat Franco, Aerial Animation, Mara Justine, Andrey Moraru, Jacob Curlee. (Michael Parmelee/NBC)
Daphne's Jaycob Curlee passed through the quarterfinals round of "America's Got Talent" with his head held high on Wednesday, sounding a note of defiance as he cleared the show's latest hurdle.
It looked a little dicey there for a minute. When the results of the show's voting are announced, two or three acts are called forward at a time. In most cases, only one of them gets good news. Curlee's singing hadn't bowled the judges over during Tuesday night's performances, and now he was called along with rollerblade dancer Juan Carlos. While it's questionable whether Carlos has any actual talent, in the conventional sense of the term, his performance on Tuesday had been brilliantly over the top and he seemed to have three of the show's four celebrity judges in his corner.
But it was Curlee who got the votes from the viewers at home, and he left no doubt that he knew where they came from. Asked by host Nick Cannon how he felt, he said, "Speechless. Speechless. It goes to show that it's up to America. Three of the judges didn't think that it was good enough, but that just shows that America is amazing, and from here on out, I'll be singing to them. So thank you all."
Howie Mandel, the one judge who'd reacted positively to Curlee's performance on Tuesday, also had been Juan Carlos's biggest supporter. But he quickly shrugged off the rollerblade boogie artist's loss, conceding he'd always been "an acquired taste." Curlee's strength, he raved, was his likeability.
The night's other winners included hand balancer Andrey Moraru, who'd had a particularly strong performance on Tuesday; Aerial Animation, whose work combines aerial work and gymnastic techniques with animated backdrops; and magician Mat Franco.
The hardest choice of the night is left to the judges, and this time they had to decide between operatic duo Acte II and 12-year-old singer Mara Justine. All three performers were in tears as they confronted the judges, but they didn't have long to wait: The first three judges to speak – Heidi Klum, Mel B. and Howard Stern – all went with Justine.
Curlee has at least two weeks to savor his latest success, as two more rounds of quarterfinals are ahead. Next week's contestants are child prodigy pianist Adrian Romoff; interactive multimedia performers Blue Journey; "mystifier" Mike Super; musical groups Sons of Serendip and Kieran & Finian Makepeace; singers Paul Ieti and Anna Clendening; dance teams Dragon House and Cornell Bhangra; acrobatic/gymnastic squad AcroArmy; popping/animation team Dragon House "The Agents;" and comedian Wendy Liebman.