Singers. Magicians. Painters. Mimes. Animals. "America's Got Talent" features them all -- and more. The variety is one of the draws of NBC's popular summer competition show. But the array of skills often includes some rather ... umm ... interesting acts, as Heidi Klum and Mel B. will soon learn as they join Howie Mandel and Howard Stern in judging season eight of the show.
Here are some of the strangest auditions the show has seen so far:
Juggling stun guns
Yes, you read that right. Stun guns. Fully functioning ones. Not only that, they could deliver 500,000 volts -- each -- and Frank Miles was juggling three of them for a total of 1.5 million volts of electricity. "That's enough juice to knock a grown man off his feet," he told the audience. But Frank didn't just juggle while standing on the stage, he also endangered his life even more by splashing his feet in a tub of water.
Impression of a fishing trip gone wrong
This might sound like a goofy act, but we assure you, it's not. (If anything, it's kind of grossly amazing.) Rather than flop around the stage while making strange noises, Brad Byers put an 18" hook up his nose, attached an anchor to the end that came out of his mouth, and swung the thing around like a pendulum. The act earned him a standing ovation from then-judge David Hasselhoff, but Brad wasn't done yet. Next to go into his nose? A drill bit. To be more specific, a working drill bit. "Don't try none of that at home," warned host Nick Cannon.
The human pancreas
"I don't know what he is, but he's nasty!" Nick declared from the side of the stage as Joseph Ravens -- dressed as a pancreas wearing rainbow sneakers -- rode a stationary bike and "spit" pillows out of its "mouth" as the audience booed.
That's nuts
A hopeful named Horse showed how insanely tough he was -- emphasis on the "insanely" -- with an act that he thought would "shock the shock jock," new judge Howard Stern. Horse proceeded to make Stern laugh as judges Howie and then-judge Sharon Osbourne looked on in horror as the young man on stage took blow after blow -- from a friend's kicks to a sledgehammer and more -- to his private parts.
Fit for a sideshow
"Yaaaaaaaargh!" "No! No! Noooo!" "Let me know when it's over!" That's how the judges and Nick Cannon responded to the acts performed by The Cut Throat Freak Show. The trio shocked and disturbed the judges by jumping barefoot on broken beer bottles, lifting a chair with nothing but hooks in eyelids (yes, eyelids!) sword-swallowing and more. "I can't. I just can't!" Sharon said after their performance.
Not so magnificent?
When Leonid the Magnificent made his big entrance in 2011, judge Piers Morgan was not pleased. "Like a yo-yo, you keep coming back the harder I try to transfer you out," he said. But clearly, the audience didn't agree with him. After the drag queen did some (bad) singing and fantastically quick costume changes during his quirky act, he received a standing ovation.
"America's Got Talent" premieres June 4 at 8 p.m. on NBC.