Creative Editing 101: How Media Dolts Dupe the Public

So now we have the TMZ Fox Affiliate with their own attempt at getting a little publicity for themselves at Clay Aiken's expense. I think it's just one unsavory employee but it's still a reflection on the station and the network, in my opinion. According to first reports hitting the internet, a couple of local talents were "bumped" from a concert because Clay wanted to sing an extra song. Well, after a couple of people checked it out they discovered that the concert had the same set list and ran about the same amount of time as the others except for the couple of concerts where there were strict time constraints at the venue and Clay left out one of his own songs rather than cut the orchestra's time short. Hmmmmm... doesn't sound divaish to me. We also found out the local talents at his last concert were NOT "bumped" by Clay Aiken.

Someone actually asked a couple of questions and got some honest answers from Ms. Crawford of the Greensboro Symphony and they are as follows:

1_ Greensboro Symphony was hired by a promoter to be the orchestra for Clay Aiken

2_ The promoter informed the Symphony that we needed to prepare a 50 minute first half

3_Although we protested and said it was too long and people were coming to hear Clay, we were still requested to prepare a first half. This was also included in the rider sent by Aiken management.

4_ After checking with several orchestras, we prepared both a 50 minute and 30 minute first half.

5_ Due to our contracts with musicians, we are not allowed to perform something without a rehearsal, if it has not been performed within 30 days.

6_ We were told that we would only have about 15 minutes to rehearse. We informed promoter we would be performing pieces from our Holiday Concert so we would not need much rehearsal time. Our Holiday concert is mostly singing. We informed promoter we would have singers and e-mailed the program

7_ We received an e-mail from Community Theater asking if the 2 Triad Idol singers could perform on concert. They had performed with us in October at our education concerts. We checked with promoter and were given the green light to invite them to perform WITH the Symphony not WITH Clay Aiken.

8_ Once rehearsal began, Aiken management asked that we not perform any non-Holiday songs. We only had orchestra charts for the Triad Idols for 2 songs and they were non-Holiday.

9_ We told the 2 Triad Idol singers, we would need to cancel their songs. We still wanted to include them in the concert and we asked Aiken 'MANAGEMENT' if they could lead the Christmas Song sing-along. Aiken management was very gracious and said this would be fine along with the little girl singing the Hippo song. When we told the Triad idol singers, they seemed very glad to still be part of the show. Throughout the evening, they did not indicate they were unhappy.

10_ We cannot control what people do in order to gain 15 minutes of fame. We do not believe in feeding a media frenzy over nothing.

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Now the young man comes forward and tattles on whomever did the interview and here are the pertinent admissions:

"Well, I was on the news Fri. before the concert and Fox 8 was expecting me to be on stage Sat., and I wasn't!!! So they called me Wed. @ 9:27 AM and asked me what happened!!! And all I did was answer honestly!!! It is not my fault that not everything of my 45 min. interview was put on the news!!! So all you people saw was what was against Clay!!! You people need to understand that all I did was answer questions!!! "
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Oh, we understand quite well but what the young man doesn't understand is Clay Aiken had NOTHING to do with this set of circumstances. This was between/among the Greensboro Symphony, the promoter, the Community Theater representative who sent the e-mail, the Triad Idols, and Clay's MANAGEMENT who wanted to keep with the Seasonal Songs because it was a CHRISTMAS CONCERT........HELLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Clay Aiken doesn't even enter the picture...probably because he was still asleep when the decision was made and it was made by whomever told the young Idols... who, according to the above, still made an appearance leading in the singing of a.. ummmm... Seasonal Song.

My heart goes out to the youngsters who got a taste of show biz. Major acts have been "bumped" by major shows because they ran longer than planned with other guests. These major stars that are "bumped" often spend hundreds on flight, taxi, and hotel accommodations only to be asked to come back at a later date. It's tough for anyone to have to suck it up when you're looking forward to sharing a spotlight; the show must go on and that's just what happened.

Perhaps a certain interviewer should have had a little more maturity in his thinking and should not have subjected a 15 year old to "Creative Editing" consequences...which I'm sure he (the interviewer) was counting on. It happens everytime an unsavory person (in my opinion) has an unsavory agenda.

Mr. V and TMZ, shame on you! Would you like beers to go with that egg on your faces?

When does Someone's Butt Look Better than Someone's Face?

Enough Said!

Comedian Clay Aiken

Don't you just love his snark?

Usually I'm frantic for the downloads of Clay's performances from the wonderful Clack Goddesses but this Christmas Tour has provided us with some of the best off-the-cuff comedy that puts the likes of Conads NoNads, Leno and other professional comedians to shame. They have writers but our guy needs none. The natural connection and affection between Clay and his fans allows for enough material to keep him and us in stitches forever. The difference between his type of humor and the scripted kind is that Clay can poke fun at himself and us without being hurtful. We adore him for his many quirks (he so knows) and he's proven 10 times over that he loves our quirkiness as well.

What a smart man! Clay has taken the sting out of the next bit of bird cage fodder allegedly coming to a grocery store near you. We've seen the post elsewhere from a gal claiming that Clay is the father of her "love child" from his college days in Charlotte. The comedy of this error is that he doesn't know this person (nor does anyone else) so he had no problem making jokes about this Not-a-Story during his Christmas Not-a-Tour. Yet another "in your face" by the King of Snark.

What I have heard that is NOT so funny (and I can't remember where I saw this) is that someone is angry enough to try tracking down who or where the photo of the little boy came from for the purpose of reporting the parent(s) to Children's Services for using an innocent child in this tabloid manner. It would be sad if someone is using their own child or if someone "borrowed" the child from innocent, unsuspecting parents who might be implicated in this latest scam.

Back to my CLACK!