TUKWILA, Wash. - Knees shaking and battling a terrible case of the jitters, CU loan officer David Johnson stepped onto the "America's Got Talent" stage and discovered just how much performing skill he has.
That skill carried BECU's Johnson farther than he ever expected, to the quarterfinals of the NBC national talent show that awards $1 million and a contract for
"I thought it was a pipe dream that I'd ever get on the show, let alone go as far as I did," said Johnson, recalling his first performance on "America's Got Talent" when he played a comedic serenade to former "Baywatch" star David Hasselhoff, one of the show's judges. "I just bit the bullet and went for it. The five minutes leading up to auditioning in front of the judges was nerve-racking. I got sort of close to passing out."
Previously, Johnson had not performed in front of an audience larger than 20 people, showing up at open microphone nights at bars in the Seattle area. But the success he'd had in the clubs and the fact he had written the song about Hasselhoff long before he even considered trying out for "America's Got Talent," made auditioning for the show an interesting proposition.
"I heard the show was coming to Tacoma in April to be taped, and I thought it would be hilarious to play the song in front of Hasselhoff," Johnson said. He did more than that, making it to the round of 40, beating out 120 contestants and garnering praise from Piers Morgan, considered the show's most critical judge. "It was nice to get a compliment from the tough judge. That's when I started falling in love with performing, hearing that from Morgan and getting a standing ovation from the crowd. It was a feeling I'd never had before."
What wasn't so great about the show was all the waiting, Johnson said. "That's what the viewers don't see. During those first auditions in Tacoma I had to wait eight hours before I even performed in front of one of the show's producers. And when we moved on to Las Vegas and they reduced the acts to 40, all we did was wait. The waiting, by far, is the most difficult part of the show."
When Johnson made it through to the quarter finals, the show's producers encouraged him — and all performers — to step up the performance and "think big. Like a Las Vegas act. They will give you what you need. But backup dancers and pyrotechnics don't work well with comedy."
When Johnson's second and final performance got cut short by all three judges hitting their buzzers, it was "a little hard on my ego," he admitted about his elimination following a national viewer vote. "My second act was going well during rehearsals, but I think the judges just didn't get the humor." Johnson played another funny song he wrote, this time about the main cast members from the TV sitcom "The Golden Girls," which ran on NBC from the mid-1980s to the early '90s.
His three TV appearances, which took place from June through early August, have yet to change Johnson's life a great deal. "I got recognized at the grocery store a couple times, and at work people stop me in the hallway," shared Johnson, who said his time on NBC could lead to other performing opportunities.
Would he take another shot at "America's Got Talent" next year?
"There's a small chance," he said. "If I came up with something I think would be good for the show, I'd like to come back and let the judges see how I had improved."
