We’ve got talent

Five Snohomish County performing acts are getting closer to strutting their stuff for Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel, the celebrity judges on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”

The network show is gearing

up for a local visit to audition new contestants. As part of the hype, a Seattle television station is conducting its own competition, “You’ve Got Talent,” and nearly half of the finalists are from Snohomish County.

KING-TV’s “Evening Magazine” auditioned about 100 acts before narrowing the field to 13. There were only suppose to be a dozen, but two groups tied for last place.

The 13 acts will give free five-minute performances Friday on a stage in the Sky Church at Seattle’s Experience Music Project. At the end of the day, the field will be narrowed. Local celebrities, including KKWF (100.7 FM) WOLF-FM’s Fitz in the Morning and Mountlake Terrace comedian Kermet Apio, will name the top three acts based on ability and stage presence.

Those three are guaranteed an audition in front of the national judges when “America’s Got Talent” comes to Tacoma on Feb. 19 and 20. The top local performer will then be flown to Las Vegas to perform at Planet Hollywood.

“It’s been a very pleasant surprise to see the level of talent,” “Evening Magazine” reporter Jim Dever said. “The diversity will be a lot of fun for people to watch.”

Here’s an introduction to Snohomish County’s entries (in alphabetical order):

Johnny Gray, Marysville

Raised in musical family in Fort Worth, Texas, Gray, 36, has a soulful voice but feels at home singing just about anything.

“I’m a renegade,” he said. “I like everything.”

He works as an entertainer, hosting karaoke nights at various locations, trying to bring out the gift of song that he says lives inside all of us.

The gift of music is strong in him, he said. “I’m only doing this to show (people) that you can’t stop anybody’s dream. I wouldn’t have this gift for no reason.”

He’s spontaneous on stage and likes to reflect the love and vitality he feels from his audiences.

“I feel great,” he said. He’s pleased to have come this far in the competition and hopes he makes it even farther.

“It’s just fun and amazing.”

Mother Funkers, Mountlake Terrace

Despite the off-color name, the Mother Funkers, a dancing duo of Yoshi Wright, 23, a Mountlake Terrace High School grad, and Rodney Young, 26, who went to Mariner, perform a family-friendly mix of dance, hip-hop, comedy and performance art, heavy on the dance.

As a member of Kontagious Movement, Wright won the World of Dance 2010 Seattle competition. Then he paired up with Young to form the Mother Funkers. Together they have more than a decade of dance experience.

“We practiced and got the routine together in about a week,” Wright said.

Both men work as dance instructors.

“It feels great. We’ve been receiving a lot of support from friends,” Wright said. “We can’t wait to go perform on TV again. It feels good to be in the same running as so many other talented performers.”

Josh Mundell, Lake Stevens

Josh Mundell is a bit like the character Finn Hudson on “Glee,” a handsome athlete with a big voice who isn’t shy about singing his heart out. Mundell played high school football, soccer and basketball but soon got swept up into starring roles on a different stage.

“I kind of ended up giving all that up for music,” the Lake Stevens 19-year-old said.

During his junior year at Lake Stevens High School he was cast in a lead role in the musical version of “Some Like It Hot.” The next year he was the star of “Beauty and the Beast.”

Mundell said his passion isn’t just musical theater. He’s a singer-songwriter who sounds a bit like a blend of Jason Mraz and John Mayer.

“I want to be my own recording artist,” he said.

He’s working on writing enough songs to record an album in between his day job and taking classes at Everett Community College. Maybe, he said, this contest will be his lucky break.

“It’s exciting,” Mundell said. “It’s a really good opportunity to get to the next level of what I want to do.”

May Palmer, Lynnwood

There’s nothing shy about May Palmer, who for the past few years has crowned herself the “Queen of Ivory Soul.”

The Lynnwood singer, 47, has a big voice and a bigger personality.

She says she’s “half black, half white, all woman.”

Palmer grew up in Providence, R.I., where her dad played Southern soul music on an eight-track tape player.

“That was like chocolate in my ears,” she said.

She’s been singing ever since and recently has started to develop a local following, spurred on by her success in the “You’ve Got Talent” competition.

She loves to sing and perform and can’t wait to take the stage.

“I knew this was the only way to get my brand out fast,” Palmer said. “I didn’t get into this darn thing to lose.”

Rishi’s Egypt Bellydance Company, Everett

Several years ago Rishi Brown signed up for an dance class. She thought it was going to be Asian or Oriental dance. To her surprise it was belly dancing.

“That was the beginning of the rest of my life,” Brown said.

Today she owns a professional belly dance troupe that performs around Snohomish County including at the Prohibition Grille, which Brown also owns.

Her company of seven dancers performs all the time, but they draw the line at bachelor parties.

“We’re professional dancers not strippers,” she said. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that’s not what we do.”

The dancers got a boost of confidence after taking second place in Dr. Sanford Wright’s recent Christmas Spectacular.

“This is exactly where we want to be,” Brown said. “Oh my gosh, we’re so excited. We’re aggressively getting ready. We’re totally excited.”

Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3447; jholtz@heraldnet.com.

See the finalists

The 13 acts will perform from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m, at the Sky Church at Experience Music Project, 325 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle. The Friday performances in the Sky Church are free. To visit the museum exhibits the admission is $15.

Performances also will be broadcast Tuesdays beginning Feb. 8 on “Evening Magazine,” which airs at 7 p.m. on KING-TV.