Thursday was the\u00a0final night of \u201cX Factor\u201d auditions, and not a moment too soon. Two-hour tryout tracks run together to the point where it all blends\u00a0into a medley of pop\/hip-hop\/country twee.At least Newark, the first stop of the night, offered something unique. For starters, the crowd seemed quicker to break out the boos, and some of the unsuccessful acts had to feel like they were trapped<\/p>\n
Thursday was the\u00a0final night of \u201cX Factor\u201d auditions, and not a moment too soon. Two-hour tryout tracks run together to the point where it all blends\u00a0into a medley of pop\/hip-hop\/country twee.<\/p>\n
At least Newark, the first stop of the night, offered something unique. For starters, the crowd seemed quicker to break out the boos, and some of the unsuccessful acts had to feel like they were trapped in a remake of the Gong Show. But at least Simon Cowell was happy to be there.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since I watched ‘Jersey Shore,’ I had to go to New Jersey,\u201d Simon said.<\/p>\n
Sadly, Snooki and the gang couldn\u2019t make it to try out. Cross-promotion fail! But it did offer the incandescent 14-year-old Brian Bradley.<\/p>\n
Brian was precocious — or arrogant and annoying. It depends on what you thought of him blaming his lack of a record deal on \u201cpolitics, man,\u201d and picking a fight with Simon. But his original song, which featured a lot of him yelling \u201cStop looking at my mom!\u201d was surprisingly good.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are arrogant, obnoxious, argumentative … but you are one of the most talented young people I\u2019ve\u00a0heard in a long, long time,\u201d Simon said.\u00a0The\u00a0performance\u00a0also impressed fellow judge L.A. Reid, who could have used him while at Def Jam records to create half of this generation\u2019s Kris Kross. And it ended any possibility of his mom getting a date in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
Other notables: Liliana Rose Andreano became the first reality show contestant ever to audition with \u201cYou Are My Sunshine,\u201d and did so without getting laughed on the stage. She may be too quirky even for this show, but she was pleasant to listen to. Kelly Warner cuts hair in a nursing home and didn\u2019t grate on the nerves with \u201cHallelujah,\u201d so she advanced.<\/p>\n
Cari Fletcher got points from Nicole Scherzinger for being beautiful, which is why Nicole is not a judge on \u201cThe Voice,\u201d and advanced unanimously despite Simon\u2019s lukewarm response.<\/p>\n
Also, either Nicole is really annoying or she\u2019s done something to make the producers mad. When the otherwise forgettable teen duo Ausem auditioned, Nicole could seemingly not make up her mind. She finally agreed with Simon and L.A. to send them through (and Paula agreed as well), but was it really worth the airtime watching her hemming and hawing? Be decisive! Judge!<\/p>\n
After that, San Francisco raced by like a turbocharged cable car. And speaking of cars, Tora Woloshin wants to own her own her own auto shop someday. Did the judges like that more than her version of \u201cI Want You Back?\u201d Who knows. But she was funky and fun and she made it to boot camp.<\/p>\n
Simon thinks he can turn Brennin Hunt into a great artist despite the fact that he wasn\u2019t crazy about his original song, and he\u2019ll get the chance to prove it. Then Nick Dean sang his own original, and the 14-year-old was fine in a \u201cBig Time Rush\u201d kind of way. If you don\u2019t know what that reference is, you probably won\u2019t vote for him, but the kids watching the Disney Channel will.<\/p>\n
But the best San Francisco had to offer was the final singer, 16-year-old Jazzlyn Little. She took the concept of the soft-sell a little too far, meekly saying she had one YouTube clip with about 500 hits, but sang a powerful \u201cI\u2019m Goin\u2019 Down\u201d by Mary J. Blige.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we made this show, to find people like you and give them a platform,\u201d Simon said. And also, to make billions of dollars.<\/p>\n
But to do that, a lot more people are going to have to start watching. Hopefully for\u00a0Simon’s sake, next week\u2019s boot camp episodes will be more compelling than the auditions were.<\/p>\n