America's Got Talent, which kicked off its fifth season last night, is usually associated with the Cirque du Freak school of showmanship, the kind of magic, mayhem and fire-hocking you might see in traveling carnival or an embarrassing Pink video. Maybe the addition of Howie Mandel to the judges' panel has added a new layer of, ahem, cleanliness to ATG, because an actual talent launched off our screens like a feisty farmhand leaping off a hay loft. Thirty-year-old Michael Grimm is a guitar-clasping folkie with a Hurricane Katrina back-story and a tip can full of earnestness. But even better, he's a superior singer to Lee DeWyze and he resembles a post-Knight's Tale Heath Ledger. Read: Chilling perfection.
A triumph. Ray Charles-meets-Daughtry-and-could-be-played-by-Joseph-Gordon-Levitt. I'm in.
Fuddy-duddy Piers Morgan may have his first Susan Boyle-level protege in Grimm -- and who knows, maybe he even likes Burger King that way too. Last season's countrified winner Kevin Skinner may have delighted viewers with his sincerity and subtlety (particularly when compared to all the dance troupes and magic acts), but Michael already seems more bankable. For one thing, I'd already rather hear his Lite-FM cover of U2's "Beautiful Day."
