Eastern Shore native takes her shot on America’s Got Talent

An Eastern Shore native is taking a shot on America’s Got Talent.

Morgan Barbour was born and raised on the Eastern Shore of Virginia for most of her life. Spending her early years in Pungoteague before moving to California, her family returned to Tasley when she was eight. She graduated from Nandua High School in 2010. 

According to the Media Entertainment Arts WorldWide, Barbour and her performance partner Roxi Kevill specialize in the art of hair hangs, jaw hangs, and trapeze acts. According to Morgan’s profile, she has specialized in aerial hoops, iron jaws, aerial ladders, and flying trapezes. In 2022, Morgan teamed with Tash Hutchinson and bagged gold at BPASF to become the UK National Champions in Women’s Duo Hoop. Morgan has also earned second place in the IPSF elite athlete global ranking.

Barbour’s episode that aired this week was recorded in April. The live show begin on August 22, and the acts that are progressing to the live shows should be announced next week. She couldn’t say whether or not they’d be featured on the live shows before the network’s announcement.

In an interview with ShoreDailyNews.com, Barbour talked about how she got interested in auditioning for America’s Got Talent:

“AGT as always been on my radar, but my old partner and I got approached about submitting our act last year and we figured there was no harm in trying. By the time we had secured a spot for the celebrity judge auditions my old partner learned she could not proceed due to being hired by Cirque du Soliel, so we had to change gears fast and brought Roxi on board. It was a risk but it paid off, and Roxi and I have since done work together independent of AGT and plan to continue to work together as a duo after the season finishes.”

She added that just making the show has been success:

“Honestly just getting to be part of the show is success. It is such a huge platform and a great opportunity. It allows us to share our ideas and choreography with people who would otherwise never get to see us perform (and allows us to share niche circus skills like hair and jaw hanging with the general public). We are hoping to be able to stay on the show through the finals as we have two more brand new acts prepared that we are very proud of, but every stage we progress to is a huge win in our book.”

Barbour said winning would be amazing:

“Winning is such a surreal concept to be honest. I think we are just so focused on the present — we started building acts for the live shows immediately after auditioning in the hopes we will get to proceed — that it’s hard to imagine anything beyond the joy of getting to perform them. Winning would of course be incredible — we’d be the first aerial duo to ever win and only the second circus act to win! — but as long as we can keep skin in the game, that’s a win in our books. Regardless, we are hoping to leave AGT with work lined up, and definitely have Vegas in our sights.”

She credited Shane Kio, her 5th grade teacher at Accawmacke Elementary School, for introducing her to circus.