A lack of cringe-worthy performances and drama gave New Zealand's Got Talent a decidedly more light and fluffy feel than usual.

In the fourth round of auditions there were a few entertaining non-starters, but no real oddballs or tear-jerkers.

The only tears in this episode were caused by a cartwheel-related injury and the young dancer still managed to soldier on.

But this is, after all, a talent show and there was definitely plenty of that.

A group of dancing shoe salesmen performing "island moves to hip hop" were one of the standouts of the night, winning a standing ovation from the crowd and a customary flirty comment from judge Rachel Hunter.

"You can come put shoes on me any day," she told the group.

With the bar set so high from the start, it was no surprise to see the judges' hands hovering over their buzzers during Tony Jenkins' shaky fire dancing performance.

Judge Jason Kerrison said he cut the performance short out of concern for the 20-year-old's safety, while fellow judge Ali Campbell said he was more concerned for his own. Needless to say it was a "no, no, no" for him.

Among the acts that impressed the judges was a "mesmerising" baton-throwing performance, a pair of juggling brothers and some performing dogs.

It looked like 18-year-old Logan Walker was going to be the first upset of the night when the crowd booed the judges for cutting the musician short during his performance of his song Beautiful.

"I buzzed for exactly the same reason as Rachel and Jason did - we don't need you here anymore," Campbell said.

"That was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful."

Another young hopeful, 15-year-old Monica Orbe, wowed the judges and audience with her performance of Christina Aguilera's Hurt.

"I reckon you nailed it and you could potentially win this show," Kerrison said.
Hunter described it as "perfection".

Real estate agent Jack Fraser easily crooned his way into the next round.

Other standouts were hip hop freestyle dancer Connor Masseurs, Broadway hopeful Rosie Roulette and rapper Goevanny Mariner.

Six-time New Zealand beat box champion King Home Boy left the stage with three yeses and an admission from Hunter that she wanted to give him the "biggest kiss".

Celine Dion's classics proved to be the kiss of death for two contestants booted off the stage.

When 12-year-old Josh Rubens announced he would be singing Power of Love to a chorus of gasps from the audience it was clear things were going downhill from there for the young hopeful.

After hitting his buzzer, Kerrison told Hunter and Campbell the schoolboy was singing in the wrong key and was out of time with the backing track - the sound of their buzzers then followed suit.  

Musical saw player Cameron Daly didn't fare much better with his unintentionally hilarious rendition of My Heart Will Go On.

Overall this bunch certainly had talent, but a few more oddballs and some over-30s would be welcome next week.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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