Season 20 of America’s Got Talent has seen plenty of married couples audition together as an Act, from aerialists to acrobats, but on the ninth night of Auditions, the Judges were surprised to discover a husband and wife who were auditioning separately. As in, competing against each other!
Just after Ontario native comedian Matt O’Brien earned four Yes votes, Julia Hladkowicz took the stage and introduced herself. She’s also from Ontario, and also a comic. Howie Mandel asked if he’d ever crossed paths with O’Brien. “I know Matt a bit because he’s my husband,” she joked. He ran out to give her a kiss and Hladkowicz smiled and swooned.
“Now you’re competing against each other,” Mandel continued, asking, “Matt is really good, but what if you do better?” But Hladkowicz wasn’t afraid. “Well, good!” she answered.
No, her critiques of O’Brien were strictly saved for her set, in which she took issue with how he’s been snoring “more and more” over the years.
“Men snoring is disgusting. Men snoring is the patriarchy. You’re already asleep. You already won. Why do you have to add a soundtrack to it?” she asked “Even while you’re asleep, part of your subconscious is like, ‘only I may sleep while the women suffer.'”
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How Matt O’Brien and Julia Hladkowicz met
The two’s love story fittingly began at Toronto’s Comedy Bar in 2010. However, their shared careers in stand-up nearly kept them apart.
“I would see her around and of course thought she was an absolute babe, but there’s an unwritten rule that comedians shouldn’t date each other,” Matt told NBC Insider. “After we hung out a few times after shows, I realized we had so much in common, we had such a fun time together, and I figured there was a reason that rule was not written down anywhere, and we decided to give it a go.”
Julia added, “I didn’t want to date a comedian because comedy is already hard enough without all the drama that can go along with dating someone you work with. Luckily, I didn’t just date him, I married him. Twice!”
Yes, you read that right. Their first wedding was an intimate ceremony in Ottawa in 2016, while their second was at Las Vegas’ Graceland Chapel.
“It was the best five minute wedding I’ve ever been to, and also, I’m glad we spent the extra money for the ‘good Elvis’ because the cheaper one had fake side burns taped on the side of his face,” Matt said.
Now based in Los Angeles, they’ve performed all over the country together and are the proud parents of a chihuahua named Shangela.
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Why Matt and Julia didn’t audition on AGT together
When asked why they decided to compete on the show individually, the answer was simple for the couple.
“We’ve always been two separate acts,” Matt told us. “Sometimes we’ll host a show together which is fun, or other times a club will book us together to co-headline, which I think they like because it saves them from booking two hotel rooms. Show biz baby!”
Julia added, “We never set out to compete against each other. We’re just a married couple who happen to be in the same industry. We often go out for the same opportunities. Like Matt said, we’re separate acts. Maybe one day we’ll do a Sonny and Cher thing.”
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Matt’s interest in AGT started with a preliminary audition at L.A.’s Ice House Comedy Club, while initially, Julia wasn’t even going to audition at all until she made a last minute decision.
“Part of me didn’t feel like I was right for the show, and being on a reality show with millions of viewers scared me,” she said. “Matt got the audition, and I was super happy for him. A few days before the showcase the booker reached out to me and asked if I wanted to audition too. Because it was so last minute I didn’t have time to over-think it and said, ‘Sure, why the heck not?'”
Simon Cowell couldn’t pit Matt and Julia against each other
Julia’s jokes on the AGT stage might have been about the long-running men-versus-women battle, but when Simon Cowell tried to stir up a rivalry, Julia didn’t take the bait. “Secretly, probably one of you wants to be the only one to get a yes,” Cowell remarked, to which the comedian responded, “No, absolutely not. In what world would I want my husband not to get yeses?”
When Cowell joked “my world,” she immediately parroted, “my world” in a British accent that made Mel B. cackle, and soon enough both Mel B. and Sofía Vergara were saying they liked Hladkowicz even more than they’d liked her husband. Receiving that compliment, Hladkowicz said, “We’re getting a divorce! Simon, is that what you wanted?” (All in good fun; backstage, O’Brien was cracking up and happy for his wife.)
Mandel, too, was impressed. “You’re amazing and he’s amazing and the fact that you’re willing to put your relationship on the line shows us how important this show is, this show is so much more important —” he said, and Hladkowicz finished his sentence: “than our marriage, yes.”
While the duo were supportive of one another and not incredibly competitive, they did reveal to NBC Insider that they didn’t see each other’s sets before taking the AGT stage.
“People find out that we’re two married comedians and they picture a stage in our living room where we just spritz and try stuff out, but in reality, we’re very quiet people at home and we’ll sometimes just bounce ideas off each other throughout the day,” Matt said. “The only place to test a set is at a comedy show in front of an audience.”
Julia echoed his sentiment, emphasizing they “do not” ever preview their Acts with each other.
“We might ask each other for a tag, or help with the arrangement of a joke. I often find myself asking him, ‘Does this make sense?’ Although we have a lot of similar subject matter, they’re completely unique takes.”
