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'Edgy' North Bay comic in the running for AGT's $1-million top prize

'You are so edgy and so funny, that is why you are here,' said Simon Cowell after Ahren Belisle's performance
2023-09-26-agt-final-ahren-belisle
Ahren Belisle dodged a technical issue to put on another great performance on AGT. Photo courtesy AGT.

Ahren Belisle is hoping to win $1 million today. 

The 28-year-old standup comedian who grew up in North Bay, was one of the 11 final performances Tuesday night an NBC's "America's Got Talent." 

Belisle, who now lives in the Toronto area, lives with cerebral palsy and uses a computer-generated voice from his phone to help with his comedy act.

His unique act helped him make his way through to the final event and even was able to dodge a technical glitch with his phone to still take his performance out of the park by making the studio audience and the judges laugh at his jokes while poking fun at his own disability and his service dog.  

"I do love when the audio doesn't work and I need to use a backup phone full of typos, misordered lines, and a different software - talk about adversity on adversity," Ahren stated on his social media page about the technical issue. 

An engineer by day, the former Chippewa and West Ferris alum says he took a stab at comedy just over a year ago and now he is an America's Got Talent finalist. 

"You are so edgy and so funny, that is why you are here," said Simon Cowell after the performance. 

"Well done, I love when you get edgy, you are funny and you deserve to be here," said Howie Mandell.

Tonight during the two-hour final results show, America's vote determines who wins the $1 million grand prize and a show in Las Vegas.

See the performance for yourself here: 


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Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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