"America's Got Talent" is one of the biggest shows on television these days. Now in the second round, called the Judge Cuts, everyone in Philadelphia is talking about one act: Jon Dorenbos. Dorenbos is the Philadelphia Eagles' long snapper, but the six foot, 250 pound football player is having an unusual offseason this year. Over the past month, Dorenbos has displayed his magic card tricks to the world on "America's Got Talent," just recently being propelled into the finals during his last performance.
The next night of Judge Cuts, another magician took his second performance to the AGT stage. Steven Brundage, a young New York native, casually flipped his Rubik's cube magic for an awe-stricken audience. Brundage, however will not be appearing alongside Dorenbos in the Talent Finals.
Steven Brundage was one of the best acts on America's Got Talent. If you haven't seen him perform, you are missing out, and I urge you to watch this video right now. That link shows his first performance, which either displayed true magic or proved Brundage has history's quickest fingers. In less than a second, he turned mixed up Rubik's cube back to its original form. Then, when we thought he had reached the pinnacle of his presentation, he wowed us even more, copying exactly judge Simon Cowell's randomly mixed-up cube in just seconds.
Brundage brought back even more magic in his second–and unfortunately last–AGT performance. After tossing up a mixed cube, he caught it as it fell in his hand, solved. Then, taking out a deck of cards, Brundage magically found a randomly-picked six of diamonds within the corner piece of his cube. Again, if you have not seen Brundage's second show, do so here.
Magic talent like Jon Dorenbos' and Steven Brundage's is hard to come by. On the show, he told a story of getting pulled over for speeding and using his tricks to charm his way out of a ticket. So when the judges had to decide which acts to cut and which to send on to the next round, Brundage was seemingly safe. The judges paired him with comedian Julia Scotti. They had to save one, cut the other.
Steven Brundage was wrongfully cut from America's Got Talent. Scotti, albeit decent competition, was considerably less unique an act. One may come across a talent like Brundage's with the Rubik's cube once in a lifetime. Scotti, while hitting the judges in the funny bone, is more like a hysterical grandma than a world class entertainer.
One can only wonder what drove the judges to toss such a promising act from the show. From his charming, honest charisma to his wickedly adept, truly magical fingers, Brundage was, and still is, one of America's best talents.