Monday, December 11, 2006
Aiken injects holiday performance with humor
BY GERI ANNE KAIKOWSKI
STAFF WRITER
Clay Aiken brought a surprising dose of humor along with holiday song and spirit to his Christmas concert before a sold-out crowd at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts in Wilkes-Barre on Sunday night.
The 2003 American Idol runner-up poked fun at his recent mouth-covering incident with morning television talk show host Kelly Ripa by incorporating it into a set of rules that he reminded the audience of during breaks in his Christmas song list.
He told the crowd not to be rude and if they did have the urge to say something wrong, they should incorporate the Clay Aiken hand-over-mouth method, and then put his hand over his own mouth to demonstrate.
It is very effective at shutting up people who talk too much, he said to a cheering audience.
Taking another poke at the brouhaha over Ripas protest, he asked the audience to support the local arts.
I got my start in the local arts community, he said. I think every celebrity did, except Britney Spears.
Then he paused and added, And Kelly Ripa.
Aiken, sporting a longer and lightened version of his new hair style and wearing wire rimmed glasses, teased the audience by opening the button on his blue pinstriped suit jacket stating, Dont read anything into this. Ive just gotten a little fat recently.
Aiken brought a refreshing contrast to a traditional holiday concert by mixing the more familiar Christmas standards, such as Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, with some newer selections like My Grown-Up Christmas List and Merry Christmas with Love, which were as equally received as the more well-known tunes.
The American Idol finalists vocals are well-suited to the histrionics of Christmas carols, especially when he held the notes on such classics as Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
He was accompanied by the Lee Vincent Holiday Orchestra, comprised of musicians from the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic as well as symphonies from Allentown and Binghamton, N.Y.
In-between songs, Aiken teased several concert attendees in the third row for bringing binoculars to the show by asking them, Just what did you hope to see, my nose hair?
He also poked fun at the male members of the audience by asking them if they were coerced into coming to his concert, telling them not to worry that, What happens here stays here. No one will ever know you attended a Clay Aiken show.
sorry guys not saavy enough to put the link in....somebody help me.
