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From the CB's atlantamm:
Georgia Girl and I just got back to the hotel... I don't even think the handshake line is over yet, but we just didn't feel like standing in the muggy heat tonight. But when we got back here, we were just too hyper to go to bed. So thought we'd drop by the CB. :)From the CB's wandacleo:
Speaking of HYPER...
Angela and Quiana told Clay he was very hyper tonight, and had been acting weird all day! He told a story about how, on the bus this afternoon, Quiana asked him if he'd taken his meds. He replied NO, and Angela... who was on the phone talking to her sister... threw the phone down and started frantically asking Clay, "Where are they... Do you usually take two... Do you want three?!" It was so funny!
Clay was indeed in high spirits tonight, that's for sure. And he talked, and talked. Which we loved, of course.
Unfortunately for him, every time he opened his mouth he seemed to say something that some "dirty-minded" Claymates... not US though :innocent ... could give a different interpretation to. Like when he told the french horn player to "Hold it up and be proud of your instrument." Clay reminded the audience that there were children present and scolded us. Then he proceeded to tell the oboe player to "stick in your reed" to get ready to play a few notes, but that caused another stir. He got quite exasperated with us!... but loved every minute of it!
At some point during the show, Bob... of Bob & Linda... was making a barking sound when we were all clapping for Clay. Clay called him on it, then proceeded to talk about the "regulars" who came to multiple shows and "stalked" him. And he CALLED SEVERAL BY NAME!... Bob & Linda, Wanda, Toni, Heather... can't remember who all.
Today was Sean's birthday, so Clay had two people who had never been to this summer's concerts try to guess how old Sean was. The lady said 18, and the older gentleman said 30. Sean was actually 31 today, so Clay said the man had just won $100 for guessing so closely! But I don't think he ever gave the money to the man.
Actually, when Angela did her "pole dance," Clay slipped the $100 bill into her belt! Then turned to the man and said, "Oops, that was your money!" Angela tucked the bill into her bra, and Clay told the man, "You can come get it yourself after the show!"
Clay certainly seemed to be enjoying himself this evening, that's for sure, and the audience loved it and was very enthusiastic with many standing ovations.
I know we didn't even begin to cover everything that happened tonight, but now it's all jumbling together. I guess we'd better go to bed now after all! :offtobed
WEST PALM BEACH tomorrow night -- WOOHOO!!!!!!!!
We just got back from the Tampa Bay show (skipped the busline to get back early), and I’m crouched down in our motel room in case a stray bullet goes through the window. My friend CarolJean decided to help out and made reservations “only 5 miles from the venue” in the LOW rent district. The tub is leaking, the air conditioner is leaking, and there’s some major party going on with cars coming in and out constantly. I think they rent by the hour here. The Internet only works in the lobby, so I’m going to have to type this out and then run like hell around the building. This is true dedication to the Clay Nation, my friends.From the CB's clangel13:
I met a lot of people from CB, CV, and OFC at the preparty after we finally found it! We had a good time eating and visiting.
The TBPACenter is really lovely with balconies up to the sky and a large orchestra seating with seats that stretch about 48 or so across with no middle aisle. I asked the usher working our area how the crowd was, and she said that the whole place fills up for Broadway-type shows, but that this was a very good turnout for this type of show. There were, of course, lots of women, but also quite a lot of couples and all ages. OK, preliminaries out of the way. (Carol just tried to wipe a bug off the door and discovered it’s a hole—probably from a gunshot. If someone else doesn’t kill us tonight, I’m killing Carol tomorrow.) I talked to a couple before the show, and the woman said that they have been coming to all the shows for years, and they have NEVER seen so many people arriving early for the show. She was amazed.
On to the show—as per my usual disclaimer, I will try to be as accurate as possible, but I’m paraphrasing.
HYCA started with Clay coming out to our left and sounding and looking mightly fine in a dark linen-looking jacket, dk. Blue shirt, and jeans. After the song, while we were standing and cheering liked crazed lunatics, he whispered something to Q who ran backstage for awhile. The orchestra seemed quite loud for the first song and seemed to tone down, but I don’t really know why she ran back.
During EIH, Clay kept wiggling his fingers on both hands. I think that’s some kind of signal about the sound as I recall—although he could have just been having spasms of some kindf.
During IWTKWLI, Clay did his back and forth looking, trying to guess who was going to sing, and Q sang. They TORE IT UP!!! Clay did his falsetto and Q beckoned to him like BRING IT! He played around with the ending.
Clay looked up at the balcony and said, “What’s that torch in the balcony?” and they yelled that they were holding “hearts,” and Clay said they just looked like “big balls of light.” He commented on the smiling faces (little lit-up ones) and said “I appreciate that and Radio Shack appreciates it too.”
I just want to say that the camera police were out in force, but at the beginning, one of the ushers actually had the nerve to take a picture with her camera phone, right before she started yellilng at people to “Put that camera away.” I’m sure this is some kind of injustice.
Clay looked at the audience and said, “I would not want to be you people in the middle if someone yells FIRE!”
Clay talked a little about the types of songs he had sung “rock turned into yodeling.”
Then, he went into a spiel about how it was a special day and he couldn’t remember why, and then said it was Sean’s birthday (getting screams from a group of girls, whom Clay referred to as Sean’s groupies). Clay said he had to keep Sean “hermetically sealed” in plastic to protect him from the groupies. Then, he asked for a show of hands and people immediately started raising their hands before he asked the questions, and he said, “They don’t even wait!! What if I asked who has bad breath??” When he asked who had been and hadn’t been at the concerts, I think it was about half and half—lots of new blood. Then Clay said, “Some of you are lying!!” He talked about family of A, Q, and Sean in the audience, and talked about the audience, “I know your names,” and started naming off people he knew: Bob and Linda, Toni, ?Hill, He said Toni was from NY, but she corrected him and he said, “Well, you stalked us most in NY!”
He asked for a couple of people (Antonia and Gene) to stand up to guess how old Sean was and had Sean come out and stand in front. One guessed 18 but the guy guessed 30, and Clay said “THIRTY, How old do you think I am—45???” Sean was 31. (He honest-to-God looks about 14!! I should be so well-preserved!) Clay said they got Sean a cake that said “Happy 16th). He said the guy who guessed 30 won $100 and pulled it out of his pocket. Some lunatic, drunk, obnoxious woman who drove us nuts all evening yelled out “I LOVE YOUR HAIR!” while he was talking and he said, “It’s the same hair I’ve always had.”
After West Wing played, Clay suggested that Q put that on her phone as his ring, like the President, so she would know he was calling, but she said that she has IWTKWLI as his tone because she’s singing on it. He said something about her getting 1/2 cent of royalty for it. Then he said, “We get carried away and forget you are here!”
When he did the intro to the TV, Q mentioned Maury Povich show as one of her favorites and Clay said, “Who you baby’s daddy?” He divided the audience up and we all sang along while Clay pantomimed during the Brady bunch, rubbing his two index fingers together [censored] and then showing his fingers for all the kids. (It was VERY funny!) He talked about being a couch potato and watching too much TV and said people were saying, “I want my money back!”
When Angie did her pole dance, Clay took out the $100 and stuck it in her belt and yelled at the guy who “won” it, “that was your money! You can come and get it later!”
After the singing was over and he was chatting a bit more about TV and Maury Povich he did the “Who you baby’s daddy?” line again and Angie pretended she was a guest on the MP show, “It could be one of two. I think it’s him. I don’t know, look at the nose!” (I actually went to a MP taping once—he was interviewing people who were victims of Satanism. I about fell out of my chair laughing at Clay and Angela.)
Clay said, “Where’s Brendan” and an 8-year old boy stood up, and Clay introduced him and asked us to say “hey,” which we all dutifully did. The kid was the son of a disk jockey on one of the radio stations and had come to the M&G and asked Clay who his favorite singers were, and of course, people started yelling out the answer, and Clay said, “Trying to steal attention from a little child!!” scolding the audience.
Clay started clapping while Q was singing.
I talked to our usher during the break and she LOVED the show. She sat down in the empty seat beside me at the end of the row and was really watching (and completely ignoring the cameras!) One guy came by to chat and I asked him if he was enjoying the show, and he said, “My wife says I am,” but he was grinning.
Clay screwed up the words of 2 ATD and then SSTBTHW (only noticeable to those who know every word) and said something like “Clap when I get the words right, not when I mess up 2 songs in a row!” When he was singing “sorry” he rubbed a circle on his chest to apologize. So cute. During MOAM as he started singing he sang, “Broken down, he’s forgotten the words.”
Q told him he’d been hyper. OH YES, when he was talking about the others having family and friends there, he said, “I don’t have anybody here, but you can be my family.”
Then he talked about how they had sat on the stools so much the padding was gone and said, “We should sign them and auction them off at the last concert for BAF and Unicef.” He said 2 for BAF and 1 for Unicef and said, “ Bring a checkbook because they aint gonna be cheap!” Someone called out “We love you” and Clay said “Thank you” but they said they were yelling for Jesse, so Clay said, “You don’t get to bid on my stool” then someone called out something (scatological, I’m sure) to which he replied, “Now that’s disgusting” followed by (I swear!) “Some of you are so nuts someone probably WOUILD bid on my stool!” (You can imagine the hilarity of THAT! The man was on a roll tonight! The end is in sight.)
[Oh, for the love of Pete, CarolJean just took her shower and put her clothes back on because she won’t let me go to the office to use the internet by myself. She apparently thinks there’s an advantage in BOTH of us being killed for Clay.]
Anyhow, to continue my stool story, Clay sang WY, and when he got to the line, “I can’t forget this evening” he shook his head vigorously for “YES!” He was trying very hard not to laugh and couldn’t look at A & Q who were in a state over his stool remarks, so he had to cover his eyes a couple of times.
Bob of Bob and Linda was apparently doing some barking (I’m not kidding) and Clay started talking about the fans and how Bob and Linda live in Santa Monica and “stalk” him and pointed out “Debbie” who stalked him. (I’m probably getting some of this out of order or becoming repetitive since I’m getting close to the time I have to put my life on the line to run my computer to the lobby.”
Clay talked about getting the same 4000 people to follow him from show to show.
He asked Q about her Spanx (spelling??) Angie said she took hers off but wouldn’t say why.
Clay asked some members of the orchestra to play solos—starting with the French horn, and yelled at him to “Be proud of your instrument!” You can, I’m sure, imagine the audience reaction to THAT! (Q was shaking her had and telling him to “stop it!” So Clay, all innocent, said, “I said something very benign and they took it a different way” and added something about “our minds are not in the gutter.” Honestly, it was flat out hilarious. The Oboe played and Clay yelled out, “Put your reed in,” which caused another wave of hysterical laughter. Clay talked about trying to learn the oboe for “about 10 minutes.” The viola played.
Clay did the introductions and kept calling Jesse, “Jesse Vargas” and said that some names just had to have two parts like “Jesse Vargas” and someone called out “Clay Aiken” and Clay added, “Jesus Christ” and then said, he wasn’t comparing them, but the names always go together.
Clay left out the “cool routine” altogether tonight and said he felt excited and needed more fast songs and kept yelling at Jesse to “Make it work.” (He was SO FUNNY!) He squatted WAY down for the beginning of 1999. He said he felt quite cool when he was done and said “I don’t want to hear that ballad crap or Clay Aiken crap, and if it don’t say ‘sexy back.’ I don’t want to hear it!”
He didn’t do the usual introduction for LAA, but said, “You want to feel really bad?? Listen to the words of this song.” He sang beautifully and there was not a sound—even the [censored] screaming behind me shut up.
Clay said that at some point Q asked him if he had taken his medicine today and said A THREW down her phone and wanted to know where they were and how many he needed—“two or three?”
The audience was a blooming garden of lights waving. I heard one of the ushers say, “This must be a tradition” as she looked around. Another usher came and sat with me during the second half.
As we were leaving, the two ushers were on either side of the door and just beaming!!
Aw, it was a lovely night, my friends. There is some loud bass booming in a car radio outside, and if I get killed trying to get this to you, I just want you to know that I love the Clay Nation and I died for a good cause.
Hi, all!
Wanda and atlanta have done a great job at recapping. You all are so good at remembering details.
The floor of the venue seemed pretty packed to me, not so much in the upper three balconies. It looked like lots of repeat fans, maybe 1/4 new. Clay was hilarious and great to watch having so much fun on the stage. Too bad the opening number was hindered by humming in the mikes. Otherwise he was in great voice, although I think it was on ATD, he covered his face awhile as if to get focus on his voice. I think he said it was a little difficult tonight. There might have been another reason for it, but that's my impression.
The "medicine" banter was hilarious. I missed his including the intro to LAL, especially since hubby was along and hadn't heard it and likes to know when artists write their own music. (I didn't give him much info before the show about what was happening so he'd form his own impressions.) Hope
Clay puts it back in for Orlando, our next show.
Unfortunately, we were a little far back to get really good pictures and hubby was very adamant about putting the camera away when he saw ushers talking to people the first half. He talked with an usher during intermission who said the "ban" was being lifted for the second half, so he took a few more, but none worth sharing :( :(
Wanda, I'm sorry about your hotel arrangements. I'm staying with my cousin just outside of Tampa proper (just off Clay Ave :) :) ) and she warned us about not wanting to be in that area (Ybor) after dark.
Many Thanks to the Tampa party committee who put on a tremendous party with lots of goodies and fun games at Spaghetti Warehouse. They certainly outdid themselves. It was fun to get to know some new and old fans better.
Looking forward with mixed emotions to Orlando!
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