NCWANNABE AT CV
Observations and stories from Greensburg.
Subtitle: Clay called me a “big mouth” and a “stalker.” Should I be offended?
I love the opening shtick with the tape recorder. He was really working it, and looking worried and taking breaths like he was ready to start singing, then blowing out the breath when the music didn’t begin. What’s cool is that folks started calling out support. And then really laughing as they realized it was part of the routine. When he came out with the recorder and pulled the cassette out of his pocket, I heard someone snort with laughter as they said “OMG it’s a cassette!”
I was in the second row of the pit, and directly in front of me in the front row were two guys there with their girlfriends. I was especially curious to see how the guys would react. By all signs, they really enjoyed it. They were laughing a lot, and even clapping in the middle of songs at times. It was good to see. The man directly in front of me even let go of his girlfriend’s hand to clap a few times.
You may have seen the clack on this already, but Clay gave a big shout out to PA. He started off on his “this is a special night for me” thing, explaining that he hadn’t messed up the lyrics yet. He said a few days ago he was in … and he paused for a moment, and I thought he was trying to recall the name of the town, but he went on to say “central Pennsylvania.” Well, in the midst of him continuing on to say “central PA,” since I thought he couldn’t recall the town, I said “Shippensburg” (and I think some other people might have said it too.) Anyway, he looked over in our direction and said “I know the name of the town, people!” LOL (we’ll come back to this later)
He went on to explain that he wanted to get one of those tally boards like at a factory or something that says “X days without an accident” and use it for the number of days he went without a lyric error, but he said he went on to Boston the next day and blew it. But now, here in Greensburg, he was error free again. So he concluded, “It must be PA! “ (woo hoo for us!!!!)
The remember the lyrics contestant was sitting right beside me. I didn’t know her - she is a fan since Idol, but not someone on the boards. She told me she had seen him 4 times locally over the years. When I sat down next to her, she promptly asked if I was a Claymate? She proceeded to ask me how many times I had seen him, if I had met him, how many shows of this tour I’d been to, etc. When she asked me if I had ever been on stage with him, I told her about reading one of the stories, and that she would hear more about the stories later. She responded that she would LOVE to be on stage with him. So I told her that she would have an opportunity tonight, and that when she heard Clay start to talk about how difficult it is to remember the words to songs, and he asks if anyone sings carols, she should shout out to him that she does, and try to get his attention. Sure enough, it worked and he picked her to go up on stage. She was thrilled and sooooo excited! When she first got up on stage with him, he asked her if she was the one who had yelled out “Shippensburg” earlier, as if he were going to scold her. She said “no, it was the lady beside me.” He looked out , saw me, and said “Oh, that bigmouth, “ then said to me, “See, you almost got her in trouble.” Oops.
Have I mentioned before his kick-ass Prada shoes? The black loafers he wears are shiny and have a silver bar with PRADA sort of engraved on it in raised letters. The toes upturn a bit, and they look really expensive. When he sat on the stool to sing, he was constantly hooking and rehooking his feet on the rungs. Occasionally his foot would just slip off the rung, and he’d have to readjust. At times he hooked his foot on the inside of the rung too. Whenever his foot would slip off, I’d look to see if his face would register it. But it never did – he never skipped a beat or looked at all phased by it. And it appears that the venue must provide the stool, as it’s been a different one each time. The brown shoes are ones we’ve seen before - soft leather laceless oxfords/wingtips.
The gray suit coat that he wears for the second costume change is missing the button on the left sleeve. It’s not a traditional jacket button, but just a single button that is more decorative. I looked on his right sleeve, and that one is hanging by a thread.
As he was beginning his intro leading into "The First Noel", he asked if anyone knew what his favorite Christmas Carol was this year? As he had just told us that in Boston two nights before, out of my mouth comes “The First Noel.” Others had shouted out other songs as well. But he heard someone say "The First Noel" (I don’t think he knew it was me) but he said “someone’s been to my show before.” Then he went on to say, (and I may be getting this mixed up a bit – memory is fuzzy on this part) that “people follow me around.” And he paused, then added, looking at the lyric contestant lady, “like that stalker sitting next to you.” Oops again.
I noticed that when he rests his hands on his thigh, often times he scratches at the material. He takes his index finger and goes back and forth with it.
I met the girl who got the tattoo. She is a 19 year old from Kentucky. She said she’s been a fan since she was 9 years old when she watched him on Idol. She had him sign her back at the M&G.
We got a little bit of a cappella singing as he told us about the “one” vs. “once” background vocals in MCWL. Then, he thought that tonight during "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" the background singers said “Come and behold him, born the king of ‘DAVID.’” But he had to half sing/half hum his way through the song to get to that point. Nice!
When pointing out the men in the audience, he missed a guy in the front row. Looked in that direction but skipped right over him. Uh oh. When people pointed him out, Clay really got himself out of a sticky situation by saying he couldn’t see well because of the lights in his eyes, and that he “saw the earring” and he moved on. The guy did have a big hoop earring in his ear. Whew. Nice save, Clay.
I think that’s about it. Sorry this is so late in coming. And for whatever reason, I seem a bit foggy on this one. So check the clack for inaccuracies!!!! And thank you so much for the sweetheart who went out of her way to stop me and tell me she loves my recaps. Awwwww. You know who you are