Clitheroe's Jasper Cherry to appear on America's Got Talent: All-Stars

Jasper Cherry, 16, from Clitheroe, was chosen to appear on America’s Got Talent: All-Stars, a spin-off to the original America’s Got Talent show that pits 60 of the best acts from past series in the franchise against each other.

The teenager made it to the final of season 14 of Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) in 2020 after wowing the judges with his sleight of hand, card tricks, and mind-reading skills.

Jasper outside one of the AGT studios (Image: Clare Cherry)

His semi-final and final performance were done without a crowd due to the pandemic, but Jasper was excited to get back in front of an audience and show off what he does best.

He said: “It was filmed in a studio in Los Angeles with a bunch of screens with my name and stuff on the backdrop, it was really cool.

“They had a real audience as well, I’d say about 400 people. It wasn’t many but it was a live audience and I really like that when you do magic.

Jasper spent two weeks in LA during his AGT experience (Image: Clare Cherry)

“It helps when you do a piece of magic and you get that audience reaction, I really enjoy audience participation.

“It was nice to have a live audience because for my BGT semi-finals and final I didn’t have that, so to get that reception and buzz was really good.”

Jasper’s performance on the show came about in a whirlwind few weeks.

Having completed his GCSE’s last summer, he was contacted by the show’s producers while on holiday in Turkey in August.

Filming began in late October, in which time he sought the help of some magician friends to help him come up with some ideas, before staying in LA for two weeks for the filming process.

Jasper getting ready for the show (Image: Clare Cherry)

Jasper was unable to give too much away about his trick as the episode has not yet aired, but he feels it has gone up a gear from his BGT performances.

He said: “With the trick I wanted to base it off my semi-finals. In that I did a little bit to do with technology, I did some card magic, and I hinted at time travel.

“In my AGT performance I take this to the next level and revolve the whole thing around time travel and going back in time.

“I got Heidi Klum up on stage and she basically helped me prove time travel really does exist.”

Jasper had help from judge Heidi Klum for his performance (Image: Clare Cherry)

With an increased profile since his appearances on BGT, it’s been a busy time for Jasper with gigs at parties and weddings as well as increasing his social media following by posting regular content.

With sixth form to focus on at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School as well as his magic passion, it can be hard for him to keep the balance.

He said: “At times I do find it hard when I’ve got assignments or essays and I’m trying to keep up with practicing my magic or I’m doing shows at the weekend.

“I have to be on top of everything all at once and make sure I’m managing my time as well as possible because it does get difficult.”

America’s Got Talent: All-Stars is streaming on Peacock.