America's Got Talent Christmas Special

Christmas is streaking to the wire, with nearly every tv series doing a holiday theme and more Christmas specials than any sane person could watch. Even that oldie but goodie Seinfeld in which George’s father renews his old Festivus shtick. But last night we watched the America’s Got Talent Christmas Special and it was probably the best special we’ve ever seen. Nick Cannon, the best host of all tv hosts, announced all the acts. The most special bits were the Silhouettes doing their shadow story-telling with The Sons of Serendip’s Micah Christian singing the background “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and the AcroArmy doing their unbelievable acrobatics. We also got to hear the grownup Jackie Evancho and a growingup Grace VanderWaal.

And we had the magic of Piff the Magic Dragon, Penn and Teller, the Clairvoyants, Mat Franco, and Jon Derenbos. The show began with the first season’s winner, Terry Fator outdoing Edgar Bergen with his ventriloquism (His lips simply don’t move!). Dog lovers, even cat lovers, had to love the act put on by the Olate Dogs. Almost the entire two hours was wonderful. I say “almost” because I could have done without The Regurgitator coughing up Christmas tree ornaments and Professor Splash diving into ten inches of eggnog. If you didn’t get to see it, go to NBC and watch it on your computer or tablet. And tonight we have a feast of Michael Bublé for an hour and Tony Bennett for two hours. Can’t wait.