Jeffery Ou of Carrollton embodied America's Got Talent: a person who had a special talent and needed only this NBC program to show it off. As celeb judge David Hasselhoff liked to blurt out, "You're what this show is all about!"
But even Ou couldn't disagree on the final outcome of this year's America's Got Talent.
Kevin Skinner, an unemployed chicken catcher from Kentucky, crooned his way to victory in the million-dollar talent show Tuesday night.
"Well, literally and virtually, it is is a talent competition," Ou wrote in an e-mail interview after Skinner's victory. "Talent has been the basis for judgement from the beginning, and I'm almost positive that one criteria held through to tonight.
"However, at least when I see him, Kevin has the complete image of the American spirit."
Ou, who made it to the semifinals with his piano-playing skills, posted photos of him and Skinner on a Facebook account, each smiling broadly and flashing peace signs.
"I did have the privilege of meeting him several times," Ou wrote. "He always kept a calm and modest composure, always a down-to-earth, humble, normal person who had this apparently genuine and unique ability to draw people in and around him, to make people feel -- not just see and hear -- his performances.
"I think it is precisely his calm and subtle genius to connect with an audience with such a natural disposition, combined with a fervent love for what he does and his ambition to develop all his qualities despite his modest upbringing and lifestyle, which ultimately led him to being successful here."
Piers Morgan, the British judge who was quick to buzz acts that went off-track, praised Skinner in his final performance but also noted a few flat notes. But Morgan said he was forgiving because Skinner, as an unemployed American, represented the country's struggle to pull itself out of a deep recession.
Ou, who moved here from Taiwan when he was three, noticed it as well.
"I don't know how else to argue except that he symbolized America, for America, and the promise of this nation to 'life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness,' " Ou wrote.
