When a stand-up comic auditions for America’s Got Talent, the energy of the audience can play a big role in the energy they bring to the stage. For comedian Michael Yo, however, he faced the unique challenge of having no audience at all, save for the show’s judges.
As America’s Got Talent attempted to navigate the early days of the coronavirus outbreak back in March, the show attempted to stave off a shutdown by nixing the audience while taping the last two nights of the audition rounds.
In this sneak peek from the upcoming episode, airing next week, Yo delivers his stand-up routine directly to Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara and guest judge Eric Stonestreet — who filled in for Heidi Klum when she had to take time off due to illness.
However, Yo didn’t let the smaller-than-usual audience keep him from giving it his all.
“If you’re still confused on if you’re really old or not, here’s how you know you’re getting old: When you start saying things your parents used to say to you,” Yo jokes in the sneak peek. “I checked into the hotel not too long ago, and the guy at the front desk was like, ‘Good morning, Mr. Yo, how are you?’ I said, ‘Any day you wake up, it’s a great day!'”
While this exclusive clip doesn’t reveal whether or not Yo got the votes to move on, the celeb judges certainly seemed to enjoy his material. Fans will have to tune in to see Yo’s full routine and find out if he’ll get another chance to make viewers laugh in the next round of competition.
Earlier this month, 360aproko spoke with Cowell regarding the audition rounds, and he explained how the show tried to push through until that was no longer an option.
“When we first started, we had a full audience, and then day by day, you know, things started to get worse, so we went nine days with an audience and then we had to do two days without an audience, which we’d never done before,” Cowell recalled. “By day 11, we just went OK, it really, really isn’t safe now.”
As for the rest of the season, it’s yet to be seen how AGT will continue into the next rounds and whether or not they’ll film performances remotely, as several other reality competition series have done.
