Carrollton archery trick expert James Jean is one of the semi-finalists on TBS’s “The Go-Big Show.” His next performance will air on Thursday, March 4 at 9 p.m.
The show is like an extreme version of “America’s Got Talent” focused exclusively on the jaw-dropping, risk-taking, circus-type acts, and it was shot last summer at the Macon Coliseum featuring judges Snoop Dogg, Rosario Dawson, Jennifer Nettles and Cody Rhodes.
Jean is the only Georgian to actually make the first cut to win the $100,000. His first act featured him curving arrows around a barrier and hitting a target he can’t even see. He also can do it from behind his back. The judges were suitably impressed and gave him a higher score than a yo-yo trickster.
He received a bow from his dad at age 18 and began practicing regularly. He first learned to hit stationary objects well, then moving objects. He also adeptly hunts deer, turkey and other game.
The tricks came later after he saw fellow archer Byron Ferguson on TV and became inspired to try out some tricks himself. He made up the curving arrow trick himself. “I just wanted to challenge myself,” he said. “It’s a lot of trial and error.” He said he shoots so much that he can now aim based on muscle memory.
He has a bow sponsor, Hoyt Satori, who provided him a new bow a year ago. (Beginner bows can cost around $100. His retails at around $1,300, he said.)
Win or lose, he just has enjoyed the experience and meeting these other great artists, who now stay in touch via group chat.
“It’s like comparing apples to oranges, depending on how the judges think,” he said. “If I lose, I won’t take it to heart. I’m pretty much competing against myself to do the best I can do on stage. Whether the judges like it, that’s up to them. I just try to do the best I can.”
WHERE TO WATCH
“The Go-Big Show,” 9 p.m. Thursdays on TBS
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Credit: Jonathan Phillips
Credit: Jonathan Phillips
Veteran comic George Wallace, who lives in Buckhead, has signed on for a Norman Lear-produced show for IMDb-TV called “Clean Slate.”
The show, which stars him and Laverne Cox (”Orange Is the New Black”), was originally part of the NBCUniversal development slate a year ago, according to Deadline.com.
The sitcom features Wallace as an old-school car wash owner who finds out his estranged child has returned to Alabama after 17 years. But his son is now a proud, determined transgender woman, Desiree (Cox.)
Wallace, in a text to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday explained how this all happened with Lear, the legendary 98-year-old producer of classic sitcoms such as “All in the Family,” “Maude,” “Good Times,” “One Day at a Time,” “Sanford and Son” and “The Jeffersons.”
“I wanted to reboot ‘Sanford and Son,’” Wallace wrote. “He took my meeting... My writing partner [Dan Ewen] and I were chatting about his transgender child. A light went off. What if, instead of ‘Sanford and Son,’ we had ‘Sanford and Daughter’? He goes away as a son and returns as a daughter which shocks the hell out of everyone. He left 17 years ago with anger. Now we must educate the world that love conquers all. As her dad, I’ve got lots to learn. So does the world.”
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Atlanta-based show “Inside the NBA” is getting a four-night documentary treatment, set to debut March 4 on TNT and run each night through Sunday, March 7.
The first episode of the Turner Sports production will air after the conclusion of the Miami Heat/New Orleans Pelicans game.
The documentary was meant to debut at first in May 2020 to coincide with the NBA playoffs, but the pandemic put the kibosh on that.
In a press release, the documentary goes back to 1989 when the show debuted and follows the evolution of the show, with a focus on four key players: Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.
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