Britain's Got Talent - The Live Tour

If you, like me, are addicted to TV talent shows and just can't get enough of the 5-minutes-of-fame wannabies that feature in them then I recommend catching one of the live tours associated with the shows. It's a couple of hours of good clean fun, there's a civilised interval, everyone leaves in an orderly fashion at the close and you'll still be home in time to see your favourite night-time show on TV such is the reasonable hour that it all winds up at… oh, and you'll be entertained too, very much so.

BGT hits Dublin
My only hope heading along to see the Britain's Got Talent Live Tour in Dublin was that it'd be a bit of fun and that I'd get to see Stravros Flatley and the genius of Diversity up close and personal. With seats in the third row (yes, I unashamedly was one of the first people to buy my tickets!) I was as close as you'd like to be for comfort. Any nearer and I'd have been straining my neck… and as for the fun, well yeah, there was plenty of it. Clapping along became involuntary, as did squealing like a 6-year-old every time Stavros Flatley graced the stage!

No camera tricks or staging gimmicks
What I was really interested to see on the live tour was how some of the acts would fare on the live stage, without the benefit of different camera angles and television trickery and most of them were pretty impressive. In fact, some of the acts performed much better in the live show than I remember them performing during their TV stint. Susan Boyle was one such performer. All the talk was initially 'will she, won't she?' show up but when host Stephen Mulhern (not nearly as annoying in the live environment) announced at the beginning that Susan would be gracing the stage the reception was decidedly positive, with everyone genuinely seeming to want to will her on. And she didn't disappoint.

Now I'm the first to admit that I wasn't a big fan of Susan while the show was ongoing. I agreed with Lily Allen that she was a little over-rated but I have to give credit where it's due. She was decent in the live tour and she seemed gracious and thrilled to be there and so pleased when people instantly jumped to their feet to applaud her after her second song. In a way you felt you had to, like she deserved the rapturous applause just for making the effort to be there, after all the pressure that she's reportedly been under lately.

The wow factor
For me Diversity were the ones that I just had to see live. I loved them from their first audition. I thought Flawless were great too (as they were live) but Diversity's style and smart moves set them apart for me. It was the same on the live stage. In a way it was almost easier to watch them on television because you just had to look straight at the screen and try to capture what was going on in that box. In a live setting you just spend the whole time turning your head, trying not to miss any tricks. I realised at one stage I was staring into the wings and missing some of the action on the stage because I saw little Perri gearing up to launch himself into one of his spectacular mid-air displays and didn't want to miss any of it.

And speaking of the wow factor, Stavros Flatley also had it. Those guys just crack me up. I may never laugh as much as did when I watched their first audition performance but it still never gets old. I love the sense of fun that they bring to what they do. We could all learn a lesson in not taking life too seriously from that pair.

Recreating the show
Most of the acts actually recreated performances previously featured on the television show. It wasn't lazy. It was more giving the people what they really wanted to see. I was dying to see that Diversity red buzzers routine up close. I wanted to see if Julian Smith could make me cry yet again (How does that man do it? One man, one saxophone, no tricks… it shouldn't be that emotional but he gets me every time he starts that Somewhere song). And it wasn't only the finalists who were given a chance to be stadium crowd-pleasers. The blingtastic DJ Talent (too funny for words) and the odd (and so much more so this week) Darth Jackson also featured in the show, as did the music of Michael Jackson (In both fitting tributes and ill-advised routines… I won't point any fingers. If you were there you know what I'm talking about).

But the show wasn't just about rehashing all the old performances. There were a few nice collaborations – 2 Grand meets Hollie Steel, Flawless meets former winner George Sampson, Stavros Flatley meets Darth Jackson in a face-off and the kiddies Aidan (brilliant live), Shaheen (what a voice) and Diversity's little ones (who looked like they were struggling to get on board with the simple dance moves in the Jackson Five routine… give those kids backflips and robot moves any day!).

What was nice to see at the live show was that everyone, regardless of favourites or the influence of press stories, seemed to receive a really warm reception, with some (Shaun Smith knows who I'm talking about!) inspiring the crowd, particularly the female contingent, to tear down the house in appreciation!

I'd go again, not to this particular show because once you've seen it once that's pretty much it, but I'd go to another live tour. Why not? I feel no shame admitting that I had great fun at this. Good to show some love to the reality TV stars that keep us entertained in the comfort of our own sitting rooms!

Linda McGee