“America’s Got Talent” may have saved the best for last: This season’s only New York City competitor made it onto the NBC talent show during the final round of auditions.
“I was there to do my own style, my own thing. I’ve been in [comedy] now enough to know that everybody has a different opinion in stand-up, so I was just there to have fun myself,” says Astoria-based comedian Carmen Lynch, who’s been performing in the city for nearly 15 years.
Her fan-favorite stand-up set about teachers telling her she had the body of a model (“What about my face? My face wants to be a model too!”) was met by a standing ovation from the audience and hard-to-crack judges when she appeared on Tuesday night’s episode.
“I was very curious to meet the judges. I definitely was interested to hear what they’d say and it was all great,” she reflects of the audition, which took place in April. She made it onto “AGT” after her first public tryout this past spring. “You want to hear good things from comedians, so it was nice to have Howie [Mandel] there.”
Judges Simon Cowell, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Mandel all voted to send Lynch through as an official competitor on season 13, which probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to Lynch’s fans.
The comedian is a regular performer at the Comedy Cellar, the Greenwich Village club that’s served as a career-launching venue for Louis C.K., Artie Lange, Dave Chappelle and Jim Norton, among other well-known comics. Currently, she’s on tour promoting her debut comedy album, “Dance Like You Don’t Need The Money,” and has shows booked through August.
Finding inspiration from her family, the New York City experience and “just from living my life,” the comedian has drawn the attention of late-night hosts and television networks by “performing in the mecca of comedy,” she explains.
She performed a set on “The Late Show with David Letterman” back in 2013; joked about finding dating tips online on “Conan” in 2016; and landed guest spots on television series like “Inside Amy Schumer” (2013-2015) and “The Good Wife” (2014).
Still, the scale of the “AGT” experience was a new one for the comedian.
“I’d never been on a reality show like ‘America’s Got Talent,’ where you have such a wide array of talent,” she reflects. “Between dogs, magicians, acrobats it’s just such a wide range of people. That’s what made it the most different for me, and a lot of fun.
“It kind of felt like I was at the circus and we were just having a good time,” she adds.
Tuesday’s episode marked the final round of judge auditions, meaning those who made it past this episode by way of the golden buzzer will land one step closer to landing their own show on the Las Vegas strip and $1 million.
Previous “AGT” winners include teen singer and ukulele player Grace VanderWaal (2016) and 13-year-old ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer (2017).
While Lynch kept it tight-lipped on what her “AGT” future looks like, she says she’s hoping the major network exposure will help propel her stand-up career.
“I’d love a bigger fan base and I’d love to travel more and work in venues that are at the next level,” she says.
