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Drew Lynch tells Gossip Cop he made it to the “America’s Got Talent” season 10 finale because he’s genuinely funny, and not because he’s simply riding a sympathy vote due to his stutter.
As Gossip Cop has reported, Lynch began stuttering after he was hit in the throat with a softball at age 20. Though he initially looked at the medical condition as a disability, he’s since become a stand-up comedian. And on the “America’s Got Talent” premiere earlier this year, a captivated Howie Mandel used his one and only Golden Buzzer to send Lynch directly to the quarterfinals.
He’s since remained a favorite among Mandel and his fellow judges. And on Wednesday’s results show, Lynch was announced as one of this year’s five finalists after winning America’s vote. Another five will be chosen next week, and the finale will take place the following week.
Gossip Cop exclusively spoke to Lynch not long before he got the good news, and he candidly addressed accusations that his backstory and stuttering have viewers voting for him out of sympathy. “I think people have some validity with thinking that,” admits Lynch. “I didn’t want to put emphasis on my story. I just wanted to do comedy.”
The contestant explains, “My first audition, I just wanted to make the judges laugh. I saw the package they put together, which was beautiful, but they put so much emphasis on the story that there are going to be some people who think that’s the only reason I’m here. But I think it’s getting down to a point where if I didn’t prove myself, I probably wouldn’t be able to continue on.”
“There are people who think that I’m funny despite my situation, and that is something I truly am grateful for,” he adds. Still, Lynch is the first to acknowledge his stuttering has significantly changed his life, but he’d argue for the better. He confessed on “AGT” that he wasn’t always the most caring person before his accident, and now tells Gossip Cop he would tell his former self to be “less afraid to be vulnerable with people and down to earth.”
Lynch says, “[I would make sure to] not be so caught up in my own problems that I [don’t] empathize with others, because there’s a lot of times people are going through way worse, and I [used to] think the most miniscule of problems was just the end of the world. And now I obviously have a much bigger obstacle every day. So that’s definitely humbled me.”
Girlfriend Veronica has stuck by Lynch’s side, and he calls her “very supportive” of his run on “AGT.” In fact, she even thinks the legions of young girls who have become enamored with Lynch are “cute” and “funny.” Most adorable, though, is the response Lynch gives when asked how he’d spend the competition’s $1 million prize.
“Oh, man. It’s so not about the money for me. I’ve never quite thought it through. So that would be quite the delight if that were to be on the table,” Lynch initially says, before revealing his selfless plan. “But my girlfriend’s done so much for me. She’s accumulated quite a few jobs so I can do this. So if I had that amount of money, I would pay off all of her debts.”
Never missing the opportunity for a joke, Lynch adds, “Right now she has three jobs to allow me to do what I wanna do. If I won the million, I’d let her go back to two.” TELL US: What do you think of Lynch’s interview, and will you be rooting for him in the “America’s Got Talent” finale later this month?
