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Clay Aiken meets Monty Python

NEW YORK (AP) — Clay Aiken is trying to become the next American Idle.

The singer, who burst to fame during the second season of American Idol, has made his Broadway debut in Monty Python’s Spamalot — in creator Eric Idle’s old role.

There’s a lot of pressure, Aiken says. To think about how many people dream of doing something like this and to have the opportunity is pretty humbling.

Humbling, and possibly a little bit puzzling: What’s a nice North Carolina boy with scant theater background and a penchant for pop lite doing in a scatological English stage comedy?

Exactly.

One of the reasons that it intrigued me was that it was so different. Nobody I think would have expected me to show up in ‘Spamalot,’ he says, laughing.

It’s very irreverent. … I mean, my character soils his pants on stage multiple times.

This also is different territory for Aiken, who hasn’t really acted much and was even cut from his high school’s production of Guys and Dolls. Just nailing the stage lingo has him rattled.

I’m having to learn a whole new language. Upstage, downstage. I’m like, ‘Upstage? What’s that mean? Behind? Oh, got it. Why didn’t you just say behind? …’ It makes me crazier than I already am.

Aiken, 29, has taken over the role of Sir Robin, the cowardly knight that Idle once played on film and David Hyde Pierce originated when the Tony Award-winning musical debuted in 2005.

I think I’m probably just like the character — kind of chicken, afraid of everything and likes to sing. This particular character becomes a knight because he really just wants to sing and dance. He’s so surprised when he finds out there’s fighting involved. That kind of silly stupidity? — yeah, that’s me.

Aiken, a performer who has sold 6 million CDs and continues to draw fans to his concerts, confesses to being sore and exhausted as he prepares for his debut. Aiken’s first performance was Friday.

Probably more preparation has gone into this than anything I’ve ever done, he says. It’s not just learning music and lines and even steps. It’s mentally preparing yourself to do all of it at once.

Associate director Peter Lawrence says Aiken has been no idle diva; the singer asked to be treated like any other company member and has been surprisingly fearless.

Clay really surprised me. When you meet him, he’s this sweet kid from North Carolina with an accent. And you think there’s no way he can do Cambridge material. And then he does, says Lawrence.

It’s been a total delight and a surprise for me and everyone in the company to work with Clay because he can do things you’d never imagine he could do.

The show is based on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which came out in 1975. The film, in turn, grew out of the success of the cult BBC comedy series.

Aiken, it turns out, was a stranger to both.

Until three months ago, I thought Monty Python was a person, he says, sheepishly.

Not surprisingly, the Python-Aiken partnership started poorly. After being courted by Spamalot producers a year ago, Aiken went to see the show and left befuddled.

And why not? He was expecting something like The Phantom of the Opera and instead saw characters slapped with fish, dancing plague corpses, a killer rabbit and cow tossing.

It was, in my opinion, the stupidest thing ever produced, he recalls. There’s no plot.

Persuaded over the summer to return, Aiken finally got it. It’s just completely off-base. So I went in and realized that. You have to go understanding that they even advertise it as being the silliest thing ever. It really is.

That’s something Python purists will be happy to hear. Even so, Aiken is bracing for criticism from die-hard fans who can be more caustic than Simon, Randy and Paula.

I’m anticipating and expecting some sort of fallout. I think it’s a little bit different when someone who’s never done Broadway before, who may be more well known in the pop world, comes in to Broadway, he says.

There’s always this skepticism that they’ve been brought in for the wrong reasons or they didn’t play their dues or they’re not going to do their part well, he says.

So I even told the choreographer and the director ahead of time, ‘I don’t want you to go easy on me. I want to do everything that everybody else does. Don’t change things and make them easier for me,’ he adds, laughing. I’ve since changed my mind.

Aiken, who got a degree in special education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was teaching grade school kids with autism before he tried out for Idol in Atlanta. He was a former member of the Raleigh Boys Choir, and occasionally sang at weddings and at church.

There’s not really a market in North Carolina to sing for a living. There’s not that career path for people. So I never really assumed or had any dreams or aspirations to sing, he says.

That changed in the seventh grade when his mother took him and a friend to a local production of the musical Big River, starring Martin Moran as Huckleberry Finn.

It was the first time ever that I looked on stage and saw people — you know, adults — singing. And I thought, ‘Wow, wait a second. You can actually sing for a living?’ he recalls. From that point on, I kind of allowed music to be a part of my what-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up scenario.

After finishing second to Ruben Studdard on Idol, Aiken went on to release his debut CD Measure of a Man, which went double platinum in 2003. His other albums are Merry Christmas With Love and A Thousand Different Ways. He’s currently working on his fourth CD, due possibly by May.

In one of the weirder twists of Aikens’ Broadway debut, he looked down at the Playbill while catching a Spamalot performance before he officially signed on and saw a familiar name: Martin Moran as Sir Robin.

So I’ll take over Robin from the same person who you could say kind of inspired me to actually make music something that I would do, he says. It’s a very small world — kind of a full-circle thing. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The Campaign Trail video archive

January 25, 2008

On the trail in South Carolina

Psychology of voters

The truth-o-meter: Week four

January 18, 2008

Campaign moves on

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The truth-o-meter: Week three

January 11, 2008

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The truth-o-meter: Week two

January 4, 2008

I-o-OUCH!

Who is that Huckabee guy?

The truth-o-meter: Week one

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Afghan aid group appeals for captive’s return

(CNN) — An Afghan aid group is appealing for the safe return of one of its employees, an American worker who was kidnapped from Kandahar province Saturday morning.

Three days have passed since gunmen snatched Cyd Mizell and her Afghan driver from a residential neighborhood in the southern Afghanistan province.

By Tuesday, no one had claimed responsibility for the abductions.

We just want those who have done this to know that she is a loved daughter and a wonderful person who basically is there helping to rebuild a country devastated by war, said Jeff Palmer, director of the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation. And she’s doing this out of the good of her heart.

While a spate of kidnappings have gripped Afghanistan recently, including the abduction of 23 South Korean Christian aid workers and a German woman last year, it was the first such abduction for the foundation. Watch what Afghan police are doing to find Mizell

The organization, whose offices are in Thailand and the Philippines, runs several projects in the Kandahar area. It also has a presence in about 12 other Asian countries.

Palmer told CNN Monday that Mizell’s family was doing as well as possible given the circumstances.

Of course, they are waiting to hear something, he said.

Palmer said there has been no word whatsoever. That’s the most frustrating part right now.

Mizell, 49, was born in California and grew up in Washington. She joined the foundation three years ago, and in that time, learned to speak the local language fluently.

She traveled around Kandahar in a burqa — the traditional attire of some Afghan women that covers them from head to toe.

At the time of her abduction, Mizell had been working on projects that help women and families learn to generate income. She also taught English at a high school and embroidery lessons at a girls school, the organization said.

She went to Afghanistan just as a real concern for the people and the turmoil within the country, and just as far as trying to reach out to women, said Tony Rodgers of Acworth, Georgia, who has known Mizell for almost two decades.

The driver who was kidnapped, Muhammad Hadi, has been with the organization for two years. He is the father of five children, all under 15.
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Florida critical for GOP contenders

(CNN) — Republicans have battled fiercely for votes in Tuesday’s critical Florida primary, as Democrats have largely ignored the state after national leadership said it would not seat Florida’s delegates because of a squabble over scheduling.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts appear to be neck-and-neck in the Republican primary. If McCain wins in Florida, his status as the national front-runner will be cemented.

If Romney comes out on top, the battle for the GOP presidential nomination will be up in the air.

The primary calendar is playing in Florida’s favor. Other than Republican caucuses in Maine this weekend, Florida is the last contest before the coast to coast primaries and caucuses on February 5, known as Super Tuesday.

Romney and McCain are competing in Florida’s crucial Republican primary as very different candidates, on very different core GOP issues. Romney, on the economy, as the multimillionaire businessman who says he knows how to fix it and says Sen. McCain doesn’t get it, said CNN political correspondent Dana Bash.

McCain is playing the war hero, digging away at Romney’s lack of national security experience. McCain calls security and the war on terror the transcendent issue, she added.

McCain, Romney and the three other candidates engaged in a civil debate in Florida Thursday night. But since Friday, the McCain and Romney camps, and the candidates themselves, have fired away at each other over the war in Iraq, the economy, illegal immigration and border security, campaign finance reform and the environment. Watch scenes from the 2008 battle for the White House

And the negative attacks are not just occurring at campaign events and being reported by the media.

It’s also raging in paid advertising on TV and radio. Romney has spent $30 million on TV ads in Florida this year, said Bash. That’s five times as much as the McCain campaign, which is now using less expensive radio commercials to directly question Romney’s credibility on the economy.

But McCain and Romney aren’t the only candidates with a lot on the line in Florida. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has lived in the state over the past month, bypassing the earlier contests to concentrate all his firepower there.

It was a gamble for Giuliani to count on Florida, and he’s now an underdog, said CNN political reporter Mary Snow. Giuliani’s been hitting two main themes, national security and his days as mayor of New York during 9/11 and economic security touting his plans for tax cuts, she added.

The two other candidates in the Republican field don’t have as much on the line. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has campaigned in Florida, but he’s also spent time stumping in some of the southern states that will vote on Super Tuesday.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is also concentrating on the February 5 states.

Florida is a closed primary, which means that only registered party members may vote in their own party’s primary. McCain won primary contests in New Hampshire and South Carolina, thanks in part to the backing of independent voters who cast ballots in the Republican contests. McCain won’t have that luxury in Florida.

A McCain victory in Florida will be particularly significant because only registered Republicans can vote in the Republican primary. It will be a way for McCain to prove his bona fides with the base, said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. If Mitt Romney wins Florida, it will be a clear signal that the base is not happy with McCain. The Arizona senator could be facing a conservative revolt.

Nearly 1 million Florida voters have already cast their ballots through early voting and absentees — a sign the state will likely experience a record turnout despite the fact party sanctions have rendered the Democratic contest meaningless.

According to the Florida Secretary of State’s office, more than 474,000 Republicans and just over 400,000 Democrats have already voted. Early voting began January 14 and ended Sunday.

The nearly 1 million Floridians who have voted early already rivals the 1.3 million total voters who participated in the state’s 2000 primary — the last time both party’s held a contested primary.

The record-breaking early turnout is likely a result of the highly competitive races on both sides, and Florida’s decision to move its primary from mid-March to late January. But that decision drew strict sanctions from both national parties — the Republicans barred half of Florida’s delegates from the convention while the Democrats stripped the state of its delegates entirely.

The nearly 400,00 Democrats who have already cast ballots is particularly surprising, given the leading presidential candidates — including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards — all pledged not to campaign in the state or run television advertising following the party’s sanctions.

But Clinton, who polls show is heavily favored to win the state, has increasingly stressed its importance to the Democratic race. Following her defeat Saturday in South Carolina to Obama, the New York senator said Florida is the next battlefront. Obama has disagreed with her, considering no delegates are at stake.

Clinton has also called on the Democratic Party to formally lift sanctions on the state, and on Sunday, she announced she will be in Florida Tuesday night.
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Florida critical for GOP contenders

(CNN) — Republicans have battled fiercely for votes in Tuesday’s critical Florida primary, as Democrats have largely ignored the state after national leadership said it would not seat Florida’s delegates because of a squabble over scheduling.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts appear to be neck-and-neck in the Republican primary. If McCain wins in Florida, his status as the national front-runner will be cemented.

If Romney comes out on top, the battle for the GOP presidential nomination will be up in the air.

The primary calendar is playing in Florida’s favor. Other than Republican caucuses in Maine this weekend, Florida is the last contest before the coast to coast primaries and caucuses on February 5, known as Super Tuesday.

Romney and McCain are competing in Florida’s crucial Republican primary as very different candidates, on very different core GOP issues. Romney, on the economy, as the multimillionaire businessman who says he knows how to fix it and says Sen. McCain doesn’t get it, said CNN political correspondent Dana Bash.

McCain is playing the war hero, digging away at Romney’s lack of national security experience. McCain calls security and the war on terror the transcendent issue, she added.

McCain, Romney and the three other candidates engaged in a civil debate in Florida Thursday night. But since Friday, the McCain and Romney camps, and the candidates themselves, have fired away at each other over the war in Iraq, the economy, illegal immigration and border security, campaign finance reform and the environment. Watch scenes from the 2008 battle for the White House

And the negative attacks are not just occurring at campaign events and being reported by the media.

It’s also raging in paid advertising on TV and radio. Romney has spent $30 million on TV ads in Florida this year, said Bash. That’s five times as much as the McCain campaign, which is now using less expensive radio commercials to directly question Romney’s credibility on the economy.

But McCain and Romney aren’t the only candidates with a lot on the line in Florida. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has lived in the state over the past month, bypassing the earlier contests to concentrate all his firepower there.

It was a gamble for Giuliani to count on Florida, and he’s now an underdog, said CNN political reporter Mary Snow. Giuliani’s been hitting two main themes, national security and his days as mayor of New York during 9/11 and economic security touting his plans for tax cuts, she added.

The two other candidates in the Republican field don’t have as much on the line. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has campaigned in Florida, but he’s also spent time stumping in some of the southern states that will vote on Super Tuesday.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is also concentrating on the February 5 states.

Florida is a closed primary, which means that only registered party members may vote in their own party’s primary. McCain won primary contests in New Hampshire and South Carolina, thanks in part to the backing of independent voters who cast ballots in the Republican contests. McCain won’t have that luxury in Florida.

A McCain victory in Florida will be particularly significant because only registered Republicans can vote in the Republican primary. It will be a way for McCain to prove his bona fides with the base, said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. If Mitt Romney wins Florida, it will be a clear signal that the base is not happy with McCain. The Arizona senator could be facing a conservative revolt.

Nearly 1 million Florida voters have already cast their ballots through early voting and absentees — a sign the state will likely experience a record turnout despite the fact party sanctions have rendered the Democratic contest meaningless.

According to the Florida Secretary of State’s office, more than 474,000 Republicans and just over 400,000 Democrats have already voted. Early voting began January 14 and ended Sunday.

The nearly 1 million Floridians who have voted early already rivals the 1.3 million total voters who participated in the state’s 2000 primary — the last time both party’s held a contested primary.

The record-breaking early turnout is likely a result of the highly competitive races on both sides, and Florida’s decision to move its primary from mid-March to late January. But that decision drew strict sanctions from both national parties — the Republicans barred half of Florida’s delegates from the convention while the Democrats stripped the state of its delegates entirely.

The nearly 400,00 Democrats who have already cast ballots is particularly surprising, given the leading presidential candidates — including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards — all pledged not to campaign in the state or run television advertising following the party’s sanctions.

But Clinton, who polls show is heavily favored to win the state, has increasingly stressed its importance to the Democratic race. Following her defeat Saturday in South Carolina to Obama, the New York senator said Florida is the next battlefront. Obama has disagreed with her, considering no delegates are at stake.

Clinton has also called on the Democratic Party to formally lift sanctions on the state, and on Sunday, she announced she will be in Florida Tuesday night.
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