The editing on NBC’s America’s Got Talent is slicker than usual this season. And it’s perhaps even more pronounced for comedians.
Take Kevin Downey Jr., for example.
Downey advanced to the Las Vegas rounds out of his audition, but we only see him for a minute, only hear him tell one actual joke.
There’s none of the set-up yet to introduce him, or to allow for the pauses and cold open forced upon comedians performing on the AGT stage. After we see Downey’s one joke, a succession of quick cuts, followed by Howie Mandel telling us who Downey reminds him of. And surprisingly enough to anyone old enough (or savvy enough to find an old clip of Mandel’s stand-up from the 1980s) to remember, it’s not himself.
Roll the clip!