'America's Got Talent' stunt goes wrong for married trapeze performers
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“America’s Got Talent” rewards big risks, but that means stakes for failure are usually high. One married trapeze couple learned that the hard way when their performance went horribly awry on the live stage.
Mary and Tyce, who call themselves Duo Transcend, performed some death-defying acrobatics while suspended on a bar several feet above the stage. The height was enough to put the audience on the edge of their seats, which made it all the more surprising when fire was introduced. The area below them on stage lit up, as well as the ends of their suspension bar.
However, the pro couple acted as though it was par for the course and continued their act.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Things took a turn during their final trick, when Tyce blindfolded himself and hung upside down. Mary was meant to fall backward and have her husband catch her ankles. Unfortunately, she slipped through his grip and came crashing to the stage below with a heavy thud.
Making matters worse, the duo’s 2-year-old son, Jaxx, was in the audience watching. Fearing the worst, his grandmother quickly covered his eyes.
Fortunately for Jaxx, Mary fell on a heavy safety mat, not the hard stage. While she will likely be pretty sore, she stood up after a few terrifying seconds to show the crowd that she had not suffered any serious injuries.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After Tyce came down, he gave his wife a big kiss before they asked judges Simon Cowell, Mel B, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and guest Ken Jeong if they could attempt the blindfolded finish one more time. Despite their determination, Jeong talked them out of it.
“This is not ‘America’s Got Perfection,’ it’s ‘America’s Got Talent,’” he said. “Nobody can do this.
Cowell echoed his sentiments noting that the “AGT” stage sees many singers that aren’t pitch-perfect, but that doesn’t mean they’re not talented.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“You almost got hurt very badly and your first thought was ‘Let me do that again!’ only on America’s Got Talent does that happen,” Howie Mandel told Mary when he noticed her starting to cry.
Despite the potentially life-threatening flub, the couple’s performance prior to the big moment was enough for them to advance to the next round of the competition.
On Wednesday, the pair opened up about what they thought went wrong on the live stage. "There were things, multiple things, that we think caused it," Mary told TMZ.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We have never done trapeze with a fire before. It did make us really sweaty. So there was the sweat. There were different lengths we weren't quite used to," she explained, adding that "the biggest thing was actually the audience reaction."
"I normally go off of a verbal cue," Mary noted. "Tyce will call me out, and that's when I drop for that particular trick, and I couldn't hear anything because of the audience, which it's great that they were cheering for us, we love that, but in that moment, I'm like, 'Um. Okay. I'm just going to for it.'"
Tyce shared that the couple had previously rehearsed the performance, and they "caught it every time." "It was just one of those things," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mary also assured fans that she was fine. "The only injury I had was a little bruise on my back, but other than that I was okay," she said.
"I've had a lot worse injuries in the past from other things, and I've given birth to a child naturally, so compared to that, I was like, 'I'm good,'" she added.