Cellcert: Clay at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan IL

[Pamela]

Hey everyone!  Welcome to the first cellcert of the Clay Aiken Symphonic Christmas Tour!!

Does this tour even have an OH-fficial name?  The OFC tour page saysClay Aiken Holiday Symphony Appearances.

Hmmm. I think we need our own name.  Any suggestions?  Post them here and we’ll have a poll to choose the best one.

Claymaniacs onboard the Christmas Claytrain tonight:

Kelly / Claygirl
Johanna / clayharmony
Meesa / kschristian4clay
Marilyn
Thea /claydevotee
Terry /leveland
Amy / doglover6
GrammaBarb / grammaof6
WiscBarb / wisconsinmaniac
Sarah / sjlogghe
Lauren 
Audra / STLClaycrazy

Suggestions:

Clay's Christmas Caroling Tour
Going by the Seat of My Pants Tour

[clayMaine-iac]

TONIGHT'S BEST BETS

Hi Pamela!!

[clayMaine-iac]

Clay's Christmas Caroling  

[heater]

Hi Pamnadia and Deanna!!

[GWENN]

I WILL NOT BE JOINING YOU GUYS, BUT I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL TIME.  TRYING TO BE VIRGINAL FOR WEDNESDAY.  STOP LAUGHING.

GWENN

[clayMaine-iac]

can't stop

[aikenseeker]

Hey everyone!

I'm so excited for everyone who made it tonight!!!!

I cant decide if I want to watch or be surprised for my show!

Decisions, decisions!

[Pamela]

TONIGHT'S BEST BETS

Hi Pamela!!

Oh that's funny.....

Hey Deanna!

[clayMaine-iac]

Hi Heater!!  I had my Timezone Map out today! Pamela told me to. 

Susy, do you have the willpower to stay away from Clay? 

[ann]

Does anyone know if Meesa made it?

[Ilovetowrite]

Hi everyone. I am so excited for a cell cert. Being I can not attend a concert this year.

[Pamela]

Heater!!!!!!!!!!  Hope you're still feeling good...!

I can't wait....I don't get to see Clay until the very last show! 

Hi Shannon! Hi Ann!  Yes, Meesa made it!

I'm waiting to hear if Johanna made it to the theatre in time, her flight was cancelled and rescheduled. 

GWENN,  I don't blame you at all!  I'm not sure exactly how much info we will get though....

And, I don't care where Clay's hands have been. 

[aikenseeker]

Susy, do you have the willpower to stay away from Clay? 

I'm not sure, somehow I don't think so... .nope, not at all... especially not if there's clack of that beautiful man!

[Tiffany]

Hey Pamela, Deanna, Susy, and Heather.

I'm so excited about hearing the 1st concert. 

I'm seeing Clay on Wednesday also and I don't want to be surprised. I can't wait.

Sorry if I'm slow catching up. Pages are loading slow.

[heater]

Oh Deanna!  I'm so glad that is still coming in handy!

Pamela, yep, I'm still feeling good! 

[WilsonClaymate]

     Hi Deanna, Pamela, Heather, Gwenn, Susy and everyone else joining in.

Heather, are you feeling all right now?  I sure hope so.

I love cellcerts but that is just one more excuse for me not to get anything done.  

I would love to be there tonight but for once I let my head over rule my heart - which doesn't happen very often where Clay is concerned.  If we can't be there, this is the next best thing.

[clayMaine-iac]

Christmas with Clay 'American Idol' idol to give holiday concert at Genesee Theatre
November 30, 2006 By DAN MORAN DMORAN@SCN1.COM

WAUKEGAN -- A little more than three years ago, Clay Aiken was just another kid with a voice going up against Simon Cowell. Today, having achieved his professional dreams, he is yet another star being stalked by a media helicopter.

On the phone Wednesday morning from his home base in North Carolina, Aiken said he had just conducted a media tour of the house he built nine months ago -- a tour he arranged as a bit of revenge against a local flying news crew.

"It started during this whole Kelly Ripa scandal," he said, referring to the tempest sparked earlier this month when he silenced and then outraged Ripa by placing his hand on her mouth while co-hosting "Live With Regis & Kelly."

"There was a news crew that was kind of rude about it -- they came up and rang my bell (and) flew their helicopter over my house," he said. "I thought, 'How rude is that?' So I called up their competition and invited them to come over to my house for a tour."

Though he laughed as he told the tale, Aiken was asked if he could do without the downside of his quick rise to fame. "Yeah," he said, "but I'm learning how to deal with it."

The "American Idol" star, who celebrates his 28th birthday today, is also learning to pace himself through life on the road. Friday night's appearance at the Genesee Theatre will be the first of 18 shows in 22 days, culminating Dec. 23 in Greensboro, N.C.

How will he pull off singing at the top of his register that often over that period of time? "Don't ask me how, because I've never done it before," he said. "When I did the first 'Idol' tour, we did, I think, 50 shows in about 60 days, so typically you do about five shows a week. This is six shows a week or more."

Adding to the challenge, Aiken said, will be performing at each stop with a local symphony. At the Genesee, he will be working with the FullScore Chamber Orchestra.

"Oh, my gosh, I'm going to tell on myself here, but we won't be doing any rehearsing ahead of time," he said. "We do have the same conductor who travels with us, but we're going to fly by the seat of our pants. (We'll) cross our fingers and hope it goes well."

Aiken then joked that "people will hear that and be like, 'Oh, I can't wait to see that train wreck.'" But he added that he will have the advantage of working with familiar material, having spent the last three Christmas seasons conducting some type of holiday tour.

"The first year, December of '03, I spent quite a bit of time leading into Christmas doing 'jingle jams' and (promotions) for radio stations. That did not feel like Christmas at all," he said. "But the last two years (with the Joyful Noise tours) and with a tour like this, people are in the Christmas spirit and we're doing all Christmas music, so it's kind of exciting.

"What I'm really excited about is that usually you just tour with a band; this is a full orchestra, and we're really going to focus on just the music," he said, adding that he has a tough time nailing down a favorite holiday song. "It's tough because every year it becomes something different. This year, I like 'Merry Christmas With Love' and 'Don't Save It All for Christmas,' which I close the show with. And then 'Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel' is probably my favorite standard."

SCN

[HavinaClayAffair]

  Here............

How about the "Going by the seat of my pants" tour.....

Lora

[Pamela]

Has everyone heard the latest radio interviews?

WHUD Peekskill NY

WALK 97.5 Long Island NY

These are great!  Left clicker.....

[heater]

FROM CV:

I just got a phone call from LauraQ. There was NO security searching done. Everyone got into the venue with everything.......if you know what I mean. 


From the cellstream I am hearing that there are signs that say no recording devices, but they were able to get all cameras and recorders in, so we'll see what happens when the show starts.

The orchestra is warming up right now.

Meesa is the reporter!