Jerry Springer brings best of ‘America’s Got Talent’ to Foxwoods

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, January 13, 2010

By Bryan Rourke
Journal Staff Writer

Jerry Springer is hosting a show in this area. Be warned. What you see may shock you.

There will be no yelling and screaming, no chair-throwing and fist-fighting. Instead, there will be singing and joking and other forms of performing.

This is not “The Jerry Springer Show.” This is the stage version of television’s “America’s Got Talent.”

“This is a totally different show,” Springer says. “First of all, everyone has teeth.”

“America’s Got Talent” has run for four years (it returns for a fifth season this summer). “The Jerry Springer Show” has run for 19, and it’s the show for which Springer is best known. And Springer wants to make sure you know something about it.

“I never behave outrageously on my show. I’m always in a jacket and speaking proper English. The guests behave badly.”

Sometimes the guests on “America’s Got Talent” perform badly, too, and for that, they’re voted off the NBC show. Singers, dancers, comedians and impersonators, among others, try to impress three judges: David Hasselhoff, Sharon Osborne and Piers Morgan. At the end of a season, one performer is judged the best, and receives $1 million. But there won’t be any judging and won’t be any bad acts in the stage show, which opens at Foxwoods this weekend and runs through Feb. 7. While the TV version of “America’s Got Talent” is a talent contest, the stage version, which is only a few months old, is a talent showcase. It’s the best performers of the TV show’s fourth season.

“These are the winners. You’re only getting good acts. We don’t have the judges. No one is getting buzzed. These are the acts people voted for. The audience comes to this show pumped.”

This show features, among others: Barbara Padilla, an opera singer; Recycled Percussion, a rock band with a drumming duo that uses trash cans and plastic containers; The Texas Tenors, which is self-explanatory; Acrodunk, a trampoline basketball troupe; Jay Mattioli, a magician; and Kevin Skinner, a singer and guitarist, who won season four.

The show, Springer says, is about achieving the American dream.

“You don’t have to be rich or famous, or have a dad in the business. You could be a chicken farmer living outside Paducah, Ky., and love playing guitar and dream of making it big one day. Four months later, you’re in Vegas and have a million dollars.”

That would be Skinner, who along with the others performed in Las Vegas for three months last fall. And now the show has gone on the road, with its first stop Foxwoods.

Springer’s job on the show as host is to introduce the acts and to interact with the audience.

“I just like performing. I love a live audience.”

After Regis Philbin hosted the first TV season of “America’s Got Talent,” Springer hosted the second and third seasons. He withdrew from the show last summer to take a role in the musical “Chicago,” which played in London, then New York.

“That was one of my lifetime dreams to be on Broadway.”

When the show decided to create a stage version for the fall, it sought out Springer, which surprised Springer.

“I thought they would want someone younger and hotter. I’m warm and wrinkled.”

Springer is educated and experienced in media, politics and public performance. He is a lawyer who worked for the presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy. He served five terms on the Cincinnati City Council and two terms as the city’s mayor. He was a TV news anchor in Cincinnati, and won seven Emmy awards. He has hosted a radio talk show, and, in 2006, he competed on “Dancing With the Stars,” finishing in the top five.

But most people know Springer for “The Jerry Springer Show” (weekdays at 11 a.m. on Channel 64), which Springer still hosts. He shoots three shows on Monday and two on Tuesday.

“If you aim a show at young people, it continues. It’s not a show I would ever watch because I’m 66. Would I have watched it when I was in college? I guess so. It’s a silly show.”

The weekends Springer devotes to hosting the stage show of “America’s Got Talent,” which he says is a great show.

“We get these people before they’re famous and not yet jaded. It’s a feel-good show.”

The show lasts one hour and 20 minutes.

“People love the show. It’s old-time television. It’s a variety act. Time goes by very quickly.”

“America’s Got Talent” is at Foxwoods in Mashantucket, Conn., Jan. 17 through Feb. 7. For tickets, $25, $35 and $69, call (866) 646-0609 or visit mgmatfoxwoods.com.

brourke@projo.com