“I can’t wait,” Leake told reporters on a Zoom call after Tuesday night’s performance show. “I am doing a poem that is an ode to AGT, an ode to my city, and an ode to my art form with four youth poets from my city.” When Leake returns tonight, the pressure should be off. America already voted him the $1 million prize, but he says returning to the AGT stage—although, in his season, thanks to COVID, the show wasn’t at the Dolby Theater, but at Universal Studios—he still puts in the same amount of energy and effort. “There’s no difference in terms of the preparation,” Leake said. “I try to be excellent no matter who is watching, no matter if it is five people or a thousand. I’d say the difference is I’m going to do what I like to do this time, but honestly, I still want America to like it, so I’m just kind of tackling it as, ‘Let’s just show them a poem, but it’s a poem that I want.’” Leake’s win last season was not without its controversy. Apparently, there were some haters who believed the only reason that a spoken word poet could win was that the audience was empty, but tonight he will be able to prove them wrong. As a result, he took his experience into consideration when thinking about advice for this season’s acts. “My biggest piece of advice is to just be you, honestly,” he says. “YouTube comments are going to love you or hate you no matter what. If you are going to get loved or get hated, you might as well get hated for just being yourself. Honestly, just be yourself and let the talent and the hard work speak for itself." COVID is still taking its toll on the AGT competition with everyone having to mask up and be tested, so Leake hasn’t had a chance to interact with a lot of the contestants, but Sofia Vergara’s Golden Buzzer Jimmie Herrod is one that he has. “I love that skill set,” he says referring to Herrod. “It’s really inspiring. All I told Jimmie was just to continue to put in the work, day after day and it’ll show through. His performance [last night], it was the epitome of what I was telling him." A lot has happened for Leake since winning last season. A major highpoint will take place in the next two weeks with the birth of his son, but he also wrote, produced, directed and starred in a movie that will be coming out in December. “The title is Complexity,” he tells Parade.com. “I’m super excited for it. Along with that, I have a book coming out in January entitled Unraveling, a spoken word poetry album that’ll be coming out September 29, and then my Las Vegas residency starts November 4 that we just got cleared for so you can come highlight me in Vegas at the Luxor.” America’s Got Talent airs performance shows on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT and results shows on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Next, Everything You Need to Know About Season 16, Including All the Golden Buzzers
