Anyone hoping to impress Howard Stern would probably need some combination of scantilly-clad women and sordid tales involving sex or scandalous behavior.
Local daredevil performer Jeremy Kinison and a few of his fellow freaks, however, needed only some broken glass, an ordinary chair, and a couple of swords to astonish the iconic radio personality.
The overly tattooed 32-year-old touring sideshow artist and adrenaline junkie, who has performed at many First Friday art walks over the years, appeared on last night's episode of America's Got Talent along with his Cut Throat Freak Show troupe.
Needless to say, they put on a showstopping performance that wowed the crowd, nabbed some major kudos from Stern, and earned them a spot in the next round of competition.
As we reported earlier this month, Kinison tried out for AGT last October in Saint Louis along with fiancée Lauren "CandyPants" Grace and fellow sideshow artist Eric Odditorium during the reality show's opening rounds. Tuesday evening's episode finally featured their performance. And it definitely was one of the highlights of the night.
As you can see via the aboveYouTube clip, Kinison -- who divides his time between Phoenix, Oklahoma City, and other cities that the CTFS performs in around the country -- and his cohorts provided viewers around the nation with the same sort of visceral thrills common to a Cut Throat show.
He dumped out a huge bucket of broken glass (gathered from nearby dumpsters and bars, which Grace walked and stomped upon with her bare feet. Kinison then connected hooks to his cheeks and lower eyelids and proceeded to lift metal chair into the air. Odditorium then capped off the performance by swallowing a couple of large swords, one of which was removed by Kinison with his eye-chains.
Kinison posted the following on his Facebook page last night about the performance: "For the record, we dumpster dove for our props, and came up with our angle the morning of that AGT shoot. Barely slept, and we were wearing clothes we washed in [the] sink, and dried in front of our free hotel's AC unit."
The Saint Louis crowd was shocked and awed by the stunt, as were a couple of the AGT celebrity judges. Nick Cannon, the show's host, grimaced and stated "Let me know when it's over." Both Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel seemed equally stunned by the CTFS antics.
Meanwhile, Kininson was grinning broadly and couldn't have been happier. The sideshow artist once told us years ago that he enjoys getting any sort of reaction from a crowd, whether its positive or negative.
He wasn't the only one digging the performance, as Stern smiled, laughed, and applauded Kinison and his crew. He also kept Osbourne from hiding her eyes. It seems only natural that he would be a fan of such crazed antics, as the "King of All Media" has made a career out of spotlighting freaks, geeks, and other wackos on his popular radio program.
"You had the whole crowd like going crazy. Sharon couldn't watch...I forced her to watch it," Stern stated afterwards. "I think you've done something that's been done a million times and made it new again. I enjoyed it."
Stern, who also called the CTFS "captivating," and Mandel voted to send them to AGT's next round, which takes place in Las Vegas in late June.
Its a far better result than when Kinison last appeared on AGT in 2010 and lit off a firecracker next to his junk. The crowd was equally stunned, but the judges quickly eliminated him.
If the CTFS makes it all the way to the end of the competition and wins the grand prize of $1 million and a chance to perform on the Las Vegas strip, at least we can say we knew them back when.