The members of the Israeli Circus Bomba, made up of brothers Noam and Yaron Davidovich and collaborator Amit Gerbi, drove the audience and the judges crazy on the popular show " America's Got Talent," when they appeared on stage naked and armed only with paddles from the Israeli game matkot. They arrived at the Ynet studio in clothing and talked about the behind-the-scenes drama at the show's taping.
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"There was a practice where one of our matkot paddles broke and we had no spares, and the production team had to find us a paddle in the United States," says Yaron Davidovich. "They only had smaller ones for rehearsals, we performed with the paddle that was about to break. There was a lot of stress," adds his brother.
Matkot is such an Israeli game, did you think about that when you chose the routine?
"Totally. More than that, while rehearsing we also added a movement from (an old comedy routine). We rely on a lot of things that came before us, but we also bring our own twist. Our own comedy."
"This segment actually came out first at a small juggling conference in Israel, it received a lot of praise, people were rolling on the floor," Gerbi says of the path they took to the program. "We sent this video to the program and out of 75,000 videos that were sent, 200 were accepted and we are among them." Even now the number of views online compared to others is "astronomical" and "one of the most watched of the season," adds Noam.
How does it feel that in one moment the whole United States knew who you are?
"At any moment the matkot paddle can fall. And 1,400 people in the audience and cameras..."
How do you function in this stress, on such a big stage?
"We didn't think it would be this crazy. It hits each of us differently, but there is something very interesting about testing ourselves, how we really function on such a big stage and seeing how our body reacts. It's also a kind of small victory amid the pressure, it's personal achievements," according to Gerbi.
The trio reveals it is not clear if they will indeed continue to the next stage of the program.
"The next audition is live, it's not closed yet, we haven't received an answer yet," says Gerbi. "Of the segments that passed, about half are edited, so it is still not clear who is continuing to the next stage, which is live performances," explains Noam.
The judges responded pretty well, didn't they?
"They really liked it. We also got a 'yes' in Hebrew that wasn't broadcast at all, from Howie Mandel, a Jewish-Canadian comedian."
Who were you most influenced by?
"Simon (Cowell). We were told about him before that he doesn't like the circus and he doesn't like clowns. We went up with costumes, and as we got down he said he didn't like them, that it was colorful and that it was for children and that it didn't fit in. A moment later, we went up without the costumes and when we finished he asked what we were doing in life, and we said that we do circus, acrobatics, juggling. He said, 'How lucky that you didn't do it now.' Its cooperation and creativity and playfulness. It's a circus for adults."
Since this video was broadcast, has your agent's phone, if you have one, collapsed yet?
"We are planning our next series of concerts in cultural halls all over the country, there is still time until it opens. We do get followers on the internet. We have been invited to more places, to France and Germany. Moshavim and kibbutzim have closed performance dates."
You sat across from Heidi Klum, and you talk to me about moshavim and kibbutzim?
"We want to bring circus everywhere and make it clear to the Israeli audience that there is an excellent circus in Israel. There are amazing artists in Israel and unlike theater, dance and music, the audience does not come and do not know. There are great things to see in Israel today."