Will Tim Hockenberry Advance to ‘America’s Got Talent’ Finals?

finds out tonight if he’ll advance to the finals of America’s Got Talent on NBC.

But regardless of what the show's viewing voters thought of his performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine” on Tuesday night’s show, there’s no doubt that Hockenberry stood out from the pack. On a night that featured a parrot named Kitty, dogs doing a conga line and riding scooters and a lightsaber battle between a tiger and dinosaur made of electro-luminescent wires, Hockenberry served up an antidote to the mayhem.

In a video clip shown before his performamce, Hockenberry said, “I don’t have a lot of props. I show up with an instrument and my voice. Hopefully that’s enough for America.”

Hockenberry sat down at the keyboard in all white and was accompanied only by cellist Dave Eggar, who has performed with the likes of Coldplay, Ray Lamontagne and Josh Groban. Hockenberry’s spare presentation of Lennon’s iconic tune offered a stark counterpoint to the sensory overload that came before and after it.

“There was a lot of talent on the stage last night,” Hockenberry said Wednesday. “I’m up against dogs and birds and light saber-wielding creatures – it’s crazy.”

Hockenberry said he made the mistake of taking one too many glances at judges Howard Stern, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel before starting into his performance.

“It was so nerve wracking,” he said. “I literally could barely sing when I first started. It was not coming out the way I wanted it to. It took me almost took me to the end of the song to where I was comfortable. I was just getting warmed up and that was it. But I thought we still pulled it off.”

The show’s voting audience will decide. But Hockenberry definitely won over two of the three judges.

He got a mixed review from Mandel, who said he was unsure if Hockenberry was original enough to deserve a headlining show in Las Vegas, which is part of the prize for the show’s winner, in addition to $1 million.

Osbourne, however, said she found the simplicity refreshing.

“So many of these performer have lights flashing and people flying all around the air and yours was a very true, refreshing performance for me,” she said. “I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Stern went even further.

“This was the most moving performance we’ve had from a singer in a long time,” he said. “Let’s get real already. No props. No effects. He chose a song that moves everyone. You went back to sounding like the Tim Hockenberry I love. You deserve a place in the finals.”

As Hockenberry sees it, if voters decide to send through any of the night’s singers to the finals – the list also includes 10-year-old Mexican singer Sebastien El Charro de Oro and father-daughter duo Shanice & Maurice Hayes – he likes his chances.

“If a singer gets through, I think it’ll be me,” he said.

Hockenberry heads to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center Thursday afternoon for a day of preparation and interviews with the AGT production crew to be used on that night‘s episode.

“I have as much invested in this as any of the people who have made it this far, so to get turned away now that would be a drag,” he said. “But if I make it to the finals and get turned away there, I could definitely live with it.”

The 411: America’s Got Talent airs on NBC on Thursday night at 8 p.m. PT.

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