Being a part of the Claynation

I love this story and wanted to share. I post this with permission from both the writer CarolinaClay and Mariedrummond.

Claying It Forward on Broadway

When Clay says he has the best fans in the world, he’s not kidding—and he’s right. Everyone in the fan community has either participated in or read about the “Claying It Forward” incidences that take place almost daily. Sometimes it’s a CD or a DVD of performance clack; other times it’s passing along an extra concert ticket.

You may have read about just such an incident at Spamalot in February. After seeing a nutshell of the chain of events, I looked up the original post at the OFC. With permission, this is the extraordinary experience of Canadian fan Mariedrummond:

On my birthday weekend, Feb. 16-17, I saw Spamalot four times. While I was waiting for the Sunday matinee, I met several Clay fans, and one introduced me to Scarlett. I just discovered Clay last December, and I thanked her profusely for all the great clack that has allowed me to reconstruct Clay’s journey of the last five years.

Incredibly, Scarlett invited me, a total stranger, to sit with her for the evening show in seat A111. The ticket had originally belonged to Toni7babe, who had to fly home before the show that night.
I gave my E6 ticket to Michelle, a fan I met that weekend and who had a row K seat. Then I met Nikki, who had a row Q ticket, so I gave her the K seat.

Still holding the Q ticket, I went back to the SRO (standing room only) section and asked a mother and her young son if they would like to share the seat. It turned out that this was her son’s 12th birthday, and he became very excited and started jumping up and down.

“Spamalot” on Feb. 17 turned out to be one amazing “Claying It Forward".

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I post this story to share a little about the Clay fandom that I’m so thankful to be a part of. Being a Clay fan does not just mean being a fan of Clay. Obviously that is a big factor, and why the Claynation exists, but there is so much more.

When CarolinaClay mentions that these types of “Claying it Forward” incidences happen daily she’s not kidding. For example, during tours the Claynation has a website set up for ticket donation for those occasions where you suddenly have six tickets to a concert that just you and your roommate are going to. I don’t know how it happens because I’ve never had it happen to me, *cough*, but it does. And then when all of the upgrading of tickets finishes and you end up with however many extra tickets you have *cough* you can donate your tickets to The Way We Make A Difference site, who then works with places like Best Buddies, Special Olympics, YMCA, Ronald McDonald houses, etc. to allow people with and without disabilities be able to experience the joy of attending a concert together. It’s fantastic.

There are many other opportunities for fundraising and donations which I won’t go through.

And then there are the people I’ve met. I don’t really spend much time on the Official Fan Club, but there is one thread on The Clayboard that I frequent. I’ve met ladies from all around the country, all around the world in fact! I’m definitely the young[er] ones out of the group but we all have such a great time. No matter what age, no one is left out. I truly hope I have the opportunity to meet up with everyone during the summer concert series.

I came home recently and found a small yellow envelope addressed to me. It’s so exciting to get things besides bills. But in this case I had no idea who the person was. I stood there for a minute wondering who the heck I know in Connecticut. Yeah, nothing was coming to me. But whatever, it was mail and it was addressed to me! I opened it and found a Spamalot playbill. And then I let out a squeal of excitement. A lady on the message board had inquired if anyone was interested in one, as she had scooped up a bunch after the show that people had left behind. I provided my address just in case she had an extra but said I would be going to a show as well, so don’t worry about it if she ran out. This lady, who I had never before talked to, made my week! I now have the playbill in my cubicle at work preparing me for my trip to NYC.

Anyway, I will not take any more of your time. For anyone who wonders what the heck I see in that Clay Aiken guy, make fun all you like but I’m not leaving the Claynation anytime soon!