Las Vegas Weekly

October 9, 2009 · 11:34 AM

Photo Gallery: Jerry Springer’s AGT Live! debuts to ovations

By Robin Leach

Kevin Skinner and Jerry Springer at America's Got Talent Live! at Planet Hollywood.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

Country singer and $1 million winner Kevin Skinner, who chased chickens for slaughter until he was voted No. 1 on this Season 4’s America’s Got Talent, led the NBC show’s favorite acts onto the stage at Planet Hollywood last night.

“I cannot believe I’m standing here in Vegas with my name up in lights,” said the 35-year-old guitarist from Paducah, Ky. For eight years, Kevin was on a six-man catching crew risking potential throat, skin and lung problems to grab, he joked, 60,000 birds each day for processing!

“I never, ever believed I could wind up winning. I still don’t think I won. It’s totally changed my life overnight, but I will never change the way I am inside. My entire family believed I could go all the way and they stood right there beside me and behind me all the way to the final show.”

Talk show host Jerry Springer, who is emcee of the talent show running until Dec. 13 on the Strip, joked: “I’m going to make you the new spokesman for Kentucky Fried Chicken. I’ll just take the usual 20 percent commission, but it’s worth at least another million to you!”

It was a cavalcade of entertainment that produced one standing ovation after another with the audience. The show began with the unbelievable athletics of the basketball-dunking and tumbling team of Acrodunk and cancer survivor and opera singer Barbara Padilla, who was this year’s runner-up and had the audience in tears with her “voice of an angel” songs. Even 75-year-old comedienne Grandma Lee shot off one of the two feisty David Letterman jokes of the night!

Photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage

The Texas Tenors and Barbara Padilla at the opening-night after-party for America's Got Talent Live! at Planet Hollywood.

My personal favorite was Recycled Percussion, who produced music from drumming on an amazing collection of items that definitely weren’t Tommy Lee’s skins! Can you imagine two guys drumming up the side of tall stepladders and then leaping backward from the top and drumming down the steps before they landed safely? But kudos and applause also to The Texas Tenors and Hairo Torres, who performed the most breathtaking display of contortionist acrobatic dancing imaginable. How on Earth is it possible to do sliding splits with both legs tangled up behind your neck?

The fans loved it! The show is an exciting, nonstop extravaganza of talents who might never have risen to the top without the NBC show. “I love this,” Jerry told me at the first night after-party. “It’s so American and democratic that these people who had no connections whatsoever to show business can become stars on the Strip solely because of their talent.

Photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage

Recycled Percussion performs on America's Got Talent Live! at Planet Hollywood.

“We’ve gone from where powerful studio heads in Hollywood determined who would become a star or not to the Internet and YouTube age, whereby the general public now decides who is the real talent. That’s so exciting, and the stories of courage they overcame to get the one shot at stardom are remarkable. It proves that everybody can make a dream come true with the right determination. I’m so happy we are all on the Strip at Planet Hollywood.”

Click HERE for our Senior Editor John Katsilometes’ critique of the performances and evening.

Today, Jerry will get a tour of our new downtown Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, and next Wednesday, Jerry and Planet Hollywood chieftain Robert Earl are turning over the entire one night’s box office receipts to our Keep Memory Alive charity that funds the center. Click HERE for our interview with Jerry and the details of the charity night that we posted yesterday. Jerry and the AGT Live! producers celebrated their premiere night with a dinner at Koi in Planet Hollywood last night.

Photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage

Jerry Springer hosts America's Got Talent Live! at Planet Hollywood.

Now the big question over the next few weeks is if any of this year’s AGT Live! stars will be able to land the ultimate coup just like Terry Fator, who as the show’s first ever $1 million winner, in Season 2, went on to a 10-year, $100 million contract as The Mirage’s resident headliner!

Our leading lens lady Denise Truscello shot the official performance photos for our photo gallery, and contributing photographer Erik Kabik shot the stars mingling after the show at their meet-and-greet party.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter HERE.

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Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter HERE.

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