#26: "Irreverent, surprisingly fearless, a total delight and a surprise!"

[luckiest1]

Yeah, kind of makes you afraid to do/say anything because you could be next based on someone's filters... eh, maybe that's just me.

Hee, all anyone can do is state their opinion. Sure, bound to be someone who disagrees with it, but who cares? It's yours, that's all that matters.

The thing I have the hardest time with, and I realize it is MY issue, is the angst/worry/handwringing over things that a person can't do anything about... the new one (although it really isn't new just being rehashed in a new format) is how some of Clay's friends haven't been to the show yet so it's obviously an indication of their lack of respect or support to him even though he gives and gives and gives... is it possible to at least wait until May 5th before crucifying his friends for their lack of support? And even then, who knows why someone didn't get there. Sheesh, it can wear a person out... Eh, another reason I keep my opinion to myself most times - I'll probably get in trouble... but for once, thought I'd say what I think too.

Yep, that's when I just scroll, scroll, scroll. But seriously, people are doing that? How the hell does anyone KNOW that some particular friend hasn't been there? Just because no one has reported it? Hee, sometimes people just seem to look for things to angst over, don't they?

Ok, I admit it, I had a power nap. There was no way not to, I would have fallen asleep at the keyboard otherwise. And now it's past 4:00 pm - quitting time in my books.

[Couch Tomato]

I'm sorry, I know we are "stalkers" but how on god's green earth do we know who has or hasn't been to the show. Are we watching at the door as they walk in? Do we have the entire theater covered. Are we watching to see when Clay arrives an exits? I mean how on earth can we know this? We can't. And I won't even start on whether somebody else is busy, has a life, has a sick relative, can't afford to travel, has a job, etc. This is the kind of thing that bugs me.

[playbiller]

Heh, fans are waiting for Clay to arrive at the theater, I am not sure but am willing to believe there are people watching to see him leave as well. I know I have seen pictures of Clay arriving with Jerome.

[JennaZ]

and as for the whole sexy clay thing, i agree that while clay may know what he's doing sometimes, i don't think he actually believes he's sexy and i think he thinks its funny.

I agree, justclay12. I think he knows that certain things drive the fans crazy (tugging at his shirt, grinding with Angela, grabbing the microphone, etc.) and so he does them to please his audience, but I have a feeling he doesn't personally feel sexy. I think he is slightly baffled as to why fans find him attractive, which is why he finds the response so funny.

The thing I have the hardest time with, and I realize it is MY issue, is the angst/worry/handwringing over things that a person can't do anything about... the new one (although it really isn't new just being rehashed in a new format) is how some of Clay's friends haven't been to the show yet so it's obviously an indication of their lack of respect or support to him even though he gives and gives and gives... is it possible to at least wait until May 5th before crucifying his friends for their lack of support?

I do sometimes feel that there are those who actively look for something to angst about. I have no doubt that his friends would like to see him, and that they probably will before the end of his run. What always amazes me is how so many fans feel they are in a position to judge his personal relationships. He knows his friends better than we do. Why they worry about who is or is not his "true" friend is beyond me.

[lilyshine]

I've been watching AI Rewind and the part that fascinates me are the small changes. I often have to go back and compare to the original. Yeah, I'm compulsive. No, I don't think the music or singing has been changed, but some of the fluff has been edited in interesting ways. There are more glimpses of the top three - Ruben, Clay & K-Lo than in the original, sometimes just a few seconds edited it.

The biggest change was the Group 2 (?) dialog that Clay has with Ryan on the couch, when Ryan's playing "Name that judge". In AI it went something like this:

Ryan: "Yo, Dawg, the Man"

Clay: That's Randy.

Ryan: No, that's Simon.

In Rewind it's:

Ryan: "Wow"

Clay; ( in a puzzled voice) "Paula"

Ryan: No that's Simon.

Ryan: I love your hair yadda, yadda

Clay: That's Paula

Ryan Yo, Dawg, the Man

Clay: That's Randy

Now, why they would bother changing that, I can't fathom. The only thing I can think of is that the AI did a last minute edit to make a joke that bombed funny and when they did AIR, they just used the original tape.

It also exposes the "live" show.

[ldyjocelyn]

broadway.com

Clay Aiken

Clay Aiken

by Kathy Henderson

Everybody knows that Clay Aiken can sing, but—surprise!—he can also hold his own on a Broadway stage. To be more precise, he can hula, ogle scantily clad girls, discuss flying coconuts in a British accent, pretend to poop in his tunic, do a Cossack-style line dance and perform a lightning-fast patter song ("You won't succeed on Broadway if you don't have any Jews") without dropping a syllable. As Sir Robin in Spamalot, the 29-year-old American Idol runner-up appears perfectly at ease in the world of Monty Python—which, he recently claimed, he thought was a person until he saw the show. The "fish out of water" angle of Clay Aiken starring in Spamalot has already led to a couple of snarky magazine articles, including one in New York in which the writer recorded Aiken's quotes in an exaggerated imitation of his North Carolina accent. No wonder his personal publicist now keeps a sharp ear (and a stopwatch) on Aiken's interviews. The truth is, Clay is smart guy who knows what works for him, and he was shrewd enough to realize that Spamalot, in its own nutty way, would be a good match for his talents and his sunny sensibility. "If somebody said to me, 'Who in this cast has never done theater?' he is the last person I would have chosen," says Hannah Waddingham, the Olivier Award-nominated British musical star who joined the show as the Lady of the Lake the same night Aiken debuted. Three weeks into his run, Broadway's new Sir Robin shared his impressions of life in Spamalot.

How did you feel after your first Broadway performance?

I thought, "Well, thank god that's over!" [Laughs.] A lot of people had asked me if I was nervous, and I didn't know the appropriate response. I really wasn't. I don't know if that's bad—to not be nervous. Yeah, it was the first time I was doing this, but the audience thing doesn't freak me out that much. I figured I was going to screw up at some point, so there's no reason to be nervous about wondering when [laughs]. It was actually somewhat relaxing, because the rehearsals are sooo grueling. It's not just the schedule, it's all the information and learning "this that, this that, this that, this that." Having the opportunity to go out and do everything you learned was kind of refreshing and kind of nice.

Had you ever acted on stage?

I played Will Parker in Oklahoma! when I was in tenth grade.

That's a good part for you.

After that, nothing. I got cut from a high school musical [Guys and Dolls]. I must have done so bad, they didn't want me back! [Laughs.]

Were you a fan of Broadway musicals?

I didn't really know much about them. My knowledge of Broadway musicals ended at Oklahoma! When you do a show in high school, it's supposed to be a learning experience, so you learn a little bit about where the show started and who wrote it and where it was produced, etcetera. I saw Miss Saigon on Broadway when I was in tenth grade; I drove up here with some friends from church and we saw that, and it was pretty impressive. But as I've told a number of people, the only other show I remember seeing outside of high school was a regional theater production of Big River when I was in seventh or eighth grade.

And Martin Moran, who preceded you as Sir Robin on Broadway, was the star of that show, right?

Yeah, that was kind of neat for me. I still haven't met him, actually!

So, who talked you into coming to Broadway?

I wasn't talked into it. My manager is not a pushy person at all; he brings opportunities to me and says, "Think about it. If you want to do it, that's great. If you don't, you don't." We had had...I wouldn't say offers, I would say interest from a number of shows in the past.

Which ones?

I'm not telling who I didn't pick! We'd had interest, but it was never something I ever thought I'd do. Nothing really struck me as exciting, but my manager said, "You know what? If you're going to do one, I think [spamalot] is the one to do." And I was like, "Really?" So I saw the show and then I called him and said, "How do you figure this is the one to do?" He said, "Because of that reaction—because no one is going to expect it. It's not a show where you get to sing huge ballads and moving, soaring numbers. It's something completely different, and if you're going to do something like this, you should do it not as 'I'm bored,' but as 'This is an opportunity for me to grow and learn something new and branch out a little bit.'" And that's the reason I wanted to do it.

You didn't have to audition, or try out a British accent?

Well, almost all the people I work with are British; it's been that way for five years, so I just mimic them. I did meet with [spamalot director] Mike Nichols and we discussed some things and I did a few lines with him. They didn't ask me to sing or dance; they probably should have asked me to dance. We sat down and very casually walked through a few things that they had already asked me to do before we committed to it on either side. I think they wanted to see how they felt about it and I wanted to see how I felt about it too, so we kind of auditioned each other. I didn't audition Mike Nichols—don't say that! But I wanted to get a feel for what this would be like, because I knew it was going to be very different from what I'm used to.

That meeting obviously went well.

There was a big concern for me—and I'll speak to you about this because your outlet speaks directly to [theater] people—about what they call "stunt casting." Based on some research I did, I know that a lot of diehard Broadway fans can't stand it, so there was automatic concern that people within the industry were going to be upset that I was doing this because I took [the role] away from somebody else or I didn't earn my way; I didn't audition the way everybody else does. I was concerned about that, not just in terms of Broadway fans but people in the cast who might have wanted to see somebody else get it. And I could not have been more wrong when it comes to the people who work in the industry. There's always going to be some 13-year-old sitting at his computer in Topeka who's bitter. But every person I've worked with has been unbelievably phenomenal and welcoming.

Mike Nichols isn't known for stunt casting. And in any case, you are a natural at this. What's been the biggest challenge for you?

It's so physically demanding, which is interesting because [original Sir Robin] David Hyde Pierce is an amazing actor, but he's not a dancer and neither am I. The fact that they would ask us to do this part cracks me up. David Hibbard, who plays Patsy in the show and whose dressing room is next to mine, has become one of my favorite people because he's been so warm and inviting. He was telling me that when he first got to the show, for whatever reason they had him play Robin for two weeks, and he said he was never able to breathe because it's such a hard part. And he was in Cats for years. I said, "How interesting, because I can't breathe either!" Every single night, it just kicks my rear end! It's exhausting. So I'm not to the point where I think I've got everything right. They say that eventually your body gets used to it and it doesn't wear you out as much. I'm hoping that when that day happens, I'll be able to reflect a little bit more as I'm doing it. When I do a concert, I know the songs frontways and backways; I can sing a song and be thinking about something completely different while I'm doing it.

I doubt that!

Are you kidding me? When I'm singing a song onstage in concert, I'm wondering what I'm doing for dinner. I'm like, "Oh wow, look at that person in the third row. Does she know her buttons are not in order?" I don't worry, I don't listen to the lyrics, I don't pay attention at all. I know that sounds horrible and I probably shouldn't tell you that, but it's true. I can think, "Oh that sounded good, I did well there." I can critique myself as I go. Here, I'm still thinking about "OK, left, right, jump, left, up, down, left, left, switch switch, flip, turn!" I don't have enough brain cells left over to consider whether or not I'm doing it well.

Is it fun to sing the show's politically incorrect song about Broadway shows needing Jews to be a success?

You know, I'm kind of politically incorrect myself. I do worry sometimes, because it's a very fine line between humor and anti-Semitism, so I'm very careful as to how I say it. It's interesting, though—the first time I saw the show, I remember that being the song I laughed the hardest at. Every time I've seen it, it always gets the biggest laugh. I don't know that I'm doing it justice because I can't really get the audience's reaction. I'll watch other people's scenes and listen to the audience laughing and enjoying themselves, but in mine, I can't hear the audience for the amount of breathing that's going on in my ear [laughs].

What are you enjoying most about being on Broadway?

I love the people I work with. I really enjoy getting there [to the theater] and talking to them and listening to what goes on backstage. It's kind of nice to have a big group of people to work with as opposed to being by yourself [doing concerts]. I've only been doing this for three weeks, so it's still new.

What's been the biggest surprise?

I think I've been surprised at how much of a family the backstage is. David [Hibbard] put together this little quiz about knowing your fellow cast and crew members and whatnot. He got tiny secrets about each person, things that no one would expect about you, and he put about 100 of them into this quiz. You would not believe how much that has occupied everybody in the building. Everybody is running around trying to figure out everybody else's thing. It's really like a family.

How does eight Broadway shows a week compare in difficulty to ten weeks of competition on American Idol?

Sixteen weeks! Without question, Idol was harder because there was the rehearsal period, kind of like I was telling you about for this, and the performance period all put together. There were so many different things involved, with eight-hour days, 10-hour days, 13, 14, every day of the week on Idol. Here, it is eight shows a week, but only two and a half hours a night. The weekends are unbelievably exhausting because we do five shows, but Idol does beat it as far as the amount of work. I don't think people understand how much work is involved for the contestants on that show. It's not just showing up on Tuesday and Wednesday night. At the same time, it's different than a touring schedule. On tour, I do five shows a week, and they're not as physically exhausting because I'm not dancing. But I'm sleeping on a bus and traveling to a different city every night, so it's six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Are you surprised that so many American Idol alums have turned up on Broadway?

Not really. My situation is slightly different because I went into a show that was kind of unexpected; it's not a singing show. The other people who have done stage work from Idol have done shows where singing is important, and Idol finds people who are vocally talented. Fantasia was unbelievable in The Color Purple, but we always knew she could sing; we knew she had the ability to perform on stage. And we knew, because she was on Idol, that she had the ability to work hard. The same, I think, is true for everybody who has done [broadway]. Diana DeGarmo was there with Fantasia, Frenchie Davis, Ruben [studdard] is about to head out [on tour in Ain't Misbehavin'], so it doesn't surprise me that much. If you can handle three weeks of Idol, you've got the stamina [to do Broadway] because it's very stressful. I will say this, though: If I ever hear Simon Cowell insult someone on the show by using "You belong on Broadway" as a put-down, he can kiss my butt for that!

There you go!

People on Broadway are, without question, the most talented people in the country because they're doing seven things at once! They're dancing and they're singing and they're acting and they're speaking in tongues and they're playing piano and tapping. I mean, if Simon uses that as an insult again, he can kiss it! If you think about the people who are most well known for being phenomenal at their craft—Glenn Close as a prime example—the reason they're so good is because they started on stage. If you can do this Broadway thing, you can do anything. I'm considering running for President! [Laughs.]

How do you see your career progressing? Will you continue to do covers or record new music?

We did the cover thing last time; it's not a goal to do that again right now. Our next album is going to be all new stuff. That's kind of what I wanted to do last time and we took a detour. We're in the process of working on it. There's not horribly much to say about the next album, but we're hoping it's out in May.

Where are you on the spectrum of, say, a singer like Michael Buble vs. the kind of pop music they play on a top-40 station?

I'm not going to compare myself to anybody. I don't know that I want to be on the spectrum. I don't plan to be on the radio. I'm not cool enough to be on radio. I'm still dorky and not relevant enough to some people to be on radio, and it's not a goal of mine. We've got this amazing producer who's going to do the entire album, and one of the challenges for him has been not worrying about radio, because he's been so attuned to trying to make hits. We're like, "Uhhh, nooo," because once you try to cater to the radio stations, you stop catering to (a) the listener and ( me. I was discussing this very thing with my executive producers the other day and we said, if you try to make the music fit what you think radio is going to want, you're going to miss the mark. But if we just go out and do what we do well, then it's going to be natural and maybe radio will like it. It's not something that I'm averse to; I would absolutely love it if it happens, but it's not something to work toward at the expense of doing what we want to do.

You were a teacher before American Idol, and now you're involved with UNICEF. Do you see yourself performing for the rest of your life, or could you walk away and do something totally different?

I'm never really good at answering that question; the answer changes every day. I enjoy what I'm doing right now. As long as I'm having fun, I'm going to continue to do it. When it stops being fun, I'll stop. But right now, it's fun.

See Clay Aiken in Spamalot at the Shubert Theatre.

[liney23]

Well, I think it's one thing to say that fans did something that annoyed you and quite another to name them, categorize, them, castigate them, pass judgement about how Clay feels about them, and then beat the living shit out of the poor dead horse from one board to another.

Now, THAT's my idea of bad behavior.

wanda.... AMEN!!!

I've been watching AI Rewind and the part that fascinates me are the small changes. I often have to go back and compare to the original. Yeah, I'm compulsive. No, I don't think the music or singing has been changed, but some of the fluff has been edited in interesting ways. There are more glimpses of the top three - Ruben, Clay & K-Lo than in the original, sometimes just a few seconds edited it.

The biggest change was the Group 2 (?) dialog that Clay has with Ryan on the couch, when Ryan's playing "Name that judge". In AI it went something like this:

Ryan: "Yo, Dawg, the Man"

Clay: That's Randy.

Ryan: No, that's Simon.

In Rewind it's:

Ryan: "Wow"

Clay; ( in a puzzled voice) "Paula"

Ryan: No that's Simon.

Ryan: I love your hair yadda, yadda

Clay: That's Paula

Ryan Yo, Dawg, the Man

Clay: That's Randy

Now, why they would bother changing that, I can't fathom. The only thing I can think of is that the AI did a last minute edit to make a joke that bombed funny and when they did AIR, they just used the original tape.

It also exposes the "live" show.

lilyshine... now that is very interesting! Just goes to show that even live shows aren't always "live". I'm sure parts are live, but that red room part obviously was filmed and then edited for the actual show.

With all the experience I've had over these last 5 years with Clay, I no longer believe anything from any media source anymore. Unless it's good, of course!

[spikesmom]

broadway.com

Clay Aiken

OMG! I wanted to quote this whole article! What a great read! Put me in a very happy place! It felt like the writer had no agenda, just asked questions and gave his answers. Loved his answers too! I'll let others quote specifics, I'm just happy as a, what was that?, a cat chasing a leaky cow?!

[Gibby]

Wow, that was an EXCELLENT article! They actually quoted Clay, instead of twisting his words! I have to run off to rehearsal, so I can't comment on everything I want, but I will say this - I LOVE Clay's comments about Simon. BWAH! Kiss my butt, indeed!

[muskifest]

I will say this, though: If I ever hear Simon Cowell insult someone on the show by using "You belong on Broadway" as a put-down, he can kiss my butt for that!

OMG! This might be my favorite Clay Aiken interview of all time! Great questions and thoughtful answers. WOW!

God, I love that guy.

[aikim]

What a great article! So many things to love about it, but I especially love the quote from Hannah!

Kim

[luckiest1]

broadway.com

Clay Aiken

OMG! I wanted to quote this whole article! What a great read! Put me in a very happy place! It felt like the writer had no agenda, just asked questions and gave his answers. Loved his answers too! I'll let others quote specifics, I'm just happy as a, what was that?, a cat chasing a leaky cow?!

OMG, WORD! What a freaking fantastic interview! I am sitting here with perma-grin right now!

[KAndre]

I love that man sooo much!

I like the article too.

[ldyjocelyn]

Ok, now that I've read the article more than a few times....

Love the opening paragraph. It seems to me to capture the essence of Clay Aiken quite well, IMO.

I wasn't talked into it. My manager is not a pushy person at all; he brings opportunities to me and says, "Think about it. If you want to do it, that's great. If you don't, you don't."

I think I love his manager. A lot. Shows me that he knows that Clay's a smart man, and ultimately, Clay's the one in charge of his career.

There's always going to be some 13-year-old sitting at his computer in Topeka who's bitter.

Heh.

David Hibbard, who plays Patsy in the show and whose dressing room is next to mine, has become one of my favorite people because he's been so warm and inviting. He was telling me that when he first got to the show, for whatever reason they had him play Robin for two weeks, and he said he was never able to breathe because it's such a hard part. And he was in Cats for years.

I :::heart::: David Hibbard at the moment too.

When I do a concert, I know the songs frontways and backways;

Unless its WYSYLM, or MDYK. *g*

Here, I'm still thinking about "OK, left, right, jump, left, up, down, left, left, switch switch, flip, turn!" I don't have enough brain cells left over to consider whether or not I'm doing it well.

I can just imagine that for him at the moment. Wow.

I love the people I work with. I really enjoy getting there [to the theater] and talking to them and listening to what goes on backstage. It's kind of nice to have a big group of people to work with as opposed to being by yourself [doing concerts].

Probably a fantastic experience for him. :::heart:::

If I ever hear Simon Cowell insult someone on the show by using "You belong on Broadway" as a put-down, he can kiss my butt for that!

YOU GO CLAY!!!!

I'm considering running for President!

Thread title?

We've got this amazing producer who's going to do the entire album, and one of the challenges for him has been not worrying about radio, because he's been so attuned to trying to make hits. We're like, "Uhhh, nooo," because once you try to cater to the radio stations, you stop catering to (a) the listener and ( me. I was discussing this very thing with my executive producers the other day and we said, if you try to make the music fit what you think radio is going to want, you're going to miss the mark. But if we just go out and do what we do well, then it's going to be natural and maybe radio will like it. It's not something that I'm averse to; I would absolutely love it if it happens, but it's not something to work toward at the expense of doing what we want to do.

I've thought this for YEARS regarding Clay Aiken. Glad to know that he feels the way I do. I :::heart::: Clay.

Time to leave work (ha ha) now, but I've got this stupid grin on my face.

[Kareneh]

This is my favorite article, too. A great Q & A.......And that quote by Hannah Waddingham put a huge ol' grin on my face. Very very nice. He IS doing good up there in the Big Apple.

I will say this, though: If I ever hear Simon Cowell insult someone on the show by using "You belong on Broadway" as a put-down, he can kiss my butt for that!

I wonder if he knows there's a line up for that.

I'm considering running for President!

Thread title?

I think that's a great one ldjy!

Man Holding Bottle

Man Holding Bottle, The Sequel

I can't actually see these pics on my work computer, so I'll just sigh and appreciate the captions...

bc, he seems to be screwing it.... and is having a hard time... I hope this helps...

Well, well, well...

With that thought in my head, I'm off to a staff meeting where I hope I won't be expected to be coherent.

Scarlett, were you implying that he was having some trouble getting it off?

ITA on the unconscious sexy things he does. I think he may do things that gets a reaction like the shirt tug but he does it because we react not because he believes he is sexy doing it. That was how I saw the gala auction behavior. he was willing to do things that were getting reactions from people and getting the auction going but I never thought he did it to look sexy. I think when he ends up laughing ...thats when he thinks about him being sexy. He just loses the moment IMO.

Fan police behavior...I think its pretty understanding when people complain about loud fans. But what makes me wonder about the discussion about the McVargas is what are some people actually complaining about...the fact that they are loud and do shout outs ...or the fact that they do it for Jesse and Sean. I mean someone said it was so inapprorpiate for them to do a Ilove you Jesse during the skating event...but why was that inappropriate? lots of people do shout outs in that situation...I thought it was great that Jesse has his own fans giving him support.

I also think that a lot of the fan behavior discussion about the stage door is the result of speculations about clay's lack of eye contact with fans. I think the answer is simple...lots of fans...lots of autographs...little time to do it...

re: the sexy and Clay's consideration thereof.....your take on it ansa pretty much sums it up for me. He knows what will get a reaction and he knows when to use that knowledge very very well. And in his case, he makes it so that I really don't being mind being played all that much. If he wants to put his ring in his mouth and roll his tongue in, around and through it because he knows I would open my......um...wallet faster and wider, well so be it. Unfortunately there is nothing in my wallet but the change....

...of life.

I figure since the McVargas girls got their schtick going and they think that it's working for them, they're going to be around for a while. I can't say I saw any overtly negative reaction on Clay's part, but if I was standing next to them and listening to that for ten minutes, I'd be saying "Why don't you just shut the fuck up for a little while?".......totally in my head. I can really see where it could get annoying, but have to accept that being a fan is what it is to each an every one of us as an individual (or small autonomous collective). As long as people are having fun behaving in a certain way, they'll keep up that behavior. I'm all for fun and accept that there isn't much I can do about it if my fun and someone else's fun collide. I did spend one night, I think it was at the Cleveland NAT turning over a woman's blinkie light necklace so the red light would flash into her shoulder blade rather than in my face. She was having so much fun, she didn't even notice that there was a stranger touching her back every ten minutes. If I had of grabbed the cord and tried to strangle her with it, that probably would have gotten her attention, but me arrested and then I would have missed my show the next night. No fun for me and I bet the clack privelges suck in the joint.

Oh....violence at a Clay concert! That reminds me of a story I was telling the eHP this weekend about something I witnessed at the Interlochen JBT. Without naming names since I don't know the name of the person who did it even though I recognized her from some concerts.....This took place during the last song of the first set, Ain't No Mountain High Enough. Clay had said something just before this in his banter about us being quiet or something to that effect. When he began ANMHE some of the young people there (plenty of students since this was a music school) began to drift down the aisles toward the front. Clay seemed to encourage it, everyone stood up, more people came down the aisles and the previously dead crowd actually started to rock out a little bit. The problem was a few people took exception to the aisle fillers and even though the energy in the place had just taken off and the concert got better, they got mad mad mad. They called out to the little old lady ushers to clear the aisles to no avail. This took place in the seats along the aisle immediately in front of mine. Right next to those seats stood a family. Mom, Dad, and two young kids. The angry angry person in front of me kept tugging on the woman's arm and was waving for her to go back to her seat. The woman ignored her and stayed where she was in the aisle clapping her hands and singing along with the rest of the crowd. This made the fan in front of me even more infuriated.....so much so that she reached out in the aisle grabbed the woman's long blond hair and yanked as hard as she could. The woman's head snapped back and to her credit she didn't haul off and deck her attacker right there and then.....she just looked at her like...."Are you insane?" She tucked her hair inside her jacket collar and told her husband what had happened. Intermission came within a few minutes, and an usher came down to ask if she had pulled this woman's hair. A little old lady usher. The fan denied it and the little old lady usher left. End of story. But you know that the next time that Clay plays northern Michigan this family is going to run right out and by tickets again. You betcha! :sport-smiley-002:

I'm sorry, I know we are "stalkers" but how on god's green earth do we know who has or hasn't been to the show. Are we watching at the door as they walk in? Do we have the entire theater covered. Are we watching to see when Clay arrives an exits? I mean how on earth can we know this? We can't. And I won't even start on whether somebody else is busy, has a life, has a sick relative, can't afford to travel, has a job, etc. This is the kind of thing that bugs me.

If they haven't been yet, it's probably because they're still waiting for someone to get around to mailing out their comps.....and he probably doesn't remember where he put them.

[bottlecap]

I want to marry that article and have its little Broadway.com babies. That is all.

[laughn]

Maybe it's the teacher geek in me, but this is my favorite part...

my manager said, "You know what? If you're going to do one, I think [spamalot] is the one to do." And I was like, "Really?" So I saw the show and then I called him and said, "How do you figure this is the one to do?" He said, "Because of that reaction—because no one is going to expect it. It's not a show where you get to sing huge ballads and moving, soaring numbers. It's something completely different, and if you're going to do something like this, you should do it not as 'I'm bored,' but as 'This is an opportunity for me to grow and learn something new and branch out a little bit.'" And that's the reason I wanted to do it.

What a fantastic interview. There is so much to love. If you marry that interview bottlecap and have it's little Broadway babies, can I be the Godmother?

When I do a concert, I know the songs frontways and backways;

Unless its WYSYLM, or MDYK. *g*

cracked me up too ldyj

[liney23]

Karen Eh...

If they haven't been yet, it's probably because they're still waiting for someone to get around to mailing out their comps.....and he probably doesn't remember where he put them.

That article is FANTASTIC!!!! Read it at broadway.com if you can to give it hits! Simon did mean it as a put-down at the time tho he would probably deny it now... idjit (Slimon, not Clay... hehe).

[KAndre]

I wanna know who are all the British people he's hanging around all the time....

eyes merrieeee with suspicion as she know the eHP has no problem holding out on fellow members...

[Couch Tomato]

love it. everything about it. wonder if it believes in bigamy.

[laughn]

They have a link for the interview up at Broadway.com's main page now

Clay's the Thing! "Spamalot's New Star Speaks Out"

[muskifest]

love it. everything about it. wonder if it believes in bigamy.

Polygamy, anyone?

[cha cha trusty]

I want to marry that article and have its little Broadway.com babies. That is all.

Count me in for that too!!!

:F_05BL17blowkiss:

Look what I found in my files!!!

[muskifest]

Oh and in case you haven't already figured this out, this article is the PERFECT one to send to friends as a way of 'catching up' with Clay Aiken...don't you think? I've already forwarded the link to two of my hotel contacts who've expressed an interest in the man....

[Ansamcw]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE yeah!!! article...LOVE....Clay...LOVE MORE!!!

Karen eh...what an interesting story. thanks for sharing. I know that the few times I have been to concerts it has been really interesting to watch the fans when Clay is not there. I love the people that are just having fun...but for some people... being in the concert seem like work. Too much worrying about what NJU's say...or trying to see which fans are behaving or trying to get a better view of Clay or trying to get his attention.

Ok things I love about the article...

the quote from Hannah...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I love how this writer characterized the New York article as snark and mentioned the exaggeration in the way she imitated his accent.

The way the guy confirmed that Mike Nichols does not do stunt casting...Mike Nichols isn't known for stunt casting. And in any case, you are a natural at this. ....EEEEEEEEEEE

His characterization of his relationship with Simon Renshaw...that shows respect in both sides.

his answer about radio...what a great attitude...

Awww he has another family in this cast and I heart patsy...what a fun quiz

how truly grounded he is...

what he said about Simon...

How intelligent he sounds...

I like his answer about where he is on the spectrum...

Love his answer about the bitter kid from topeka...

I als found his answer about the work in idol really interesting