We had a fun chat today with pop singer and Raleigh native Clay Aiken about his upcoming Christmas concert at the DPAC (more on that coming next week).

Clay is a fun interview. He's always chatty and funny and he laughs a lot. So naturally, I took advantage of his friendly disposition to ask him about coming in second on "Celebrity Apprentice" earlier this year, and also, what he thinks about some of the recent controversy that show's host, Donald Trump, has created with comments about President Obama and the presidential election.

Here's a bit of our conversation, in Q&A form.

Q: Were you surprised you didn't win "Celebrity Apprentice?"

CLAY: Weren't we all?! I felt I shouldn't be surprised because I think that's just my lot in life. I think second place is really where I belong. And I will never get in a competition with a black man again, that's for sure! I knew going into 'Apprentice' that it was a very arbitrary show, and that [winning] wasn't necessarily based on one thing or the other. I love Arsenio [Hall] and I couldn't be any more happy for him. I think it's great that he won. He and I are still friends and we stay in touch. I did think I had it, but like I said, I knew it was arbitrary, and let's not lie to ourselves, you know, Mr. Trump's judgment is not always pristine. And we know that it has a lot to do with branding.

(First off, sorry for the spoilers. But because Clay Aiken lives here, we've been following this every week and if the outcome of "Celebrity Apprentice" was that important to you, you'd have watched it live!)

Sigh. I call foul. Foul!!

But it's Donald Trump's world, we just live in it, right? He can pick whoever he wants for his stupid show...

Okay, here's the stupid recap.

Hallelujah! In the first five minutes of tonight's "Celebrity Apprentice," Donald Trump fired the insufferably bratty Aubrey O'Day. Yes!!

Not only did that mean Aubrey couldn't possibly win the competition, it meant Clay Aiken was a finalist -- against his pal Arsenio Hall.

"I'm having a little deja vu," Clay said, referencing the 2003 season of "American Idol" when he was a finalist on that show with Ruben Studdard. Arsenio joked that he's "not that heavy."

Trump asked Clay if "Celebrity Apprentice" was harder than "American Idol." "Oh, it's so much harder than American Idol," Clay answered.

Raleigh native and current Durham resident Clay Aiken, a runner-up on the second season of "American Idol," is currently a favorite (at least by the way I call it!) to win the top spot in this season's "Celebrity Apprentice" show on NBC.

Clay's time on the show has served him -- and his charity -- well (he is playing to earn money for The National Inclusion Project, a charity he helped form). Viewers this season have discovered that Clay is pretty proficient at a lot of things besides singing and acting. For many of the tasks he and his teammates have been charged with, Clay has written, produced, directed, managed and designed. And he wowed us during one project with his puppetry skills -- skills he said he learned attending Vacation Bible School while growing up in Raleigh.

Earlier this week I got a chance to talk to Clay by phone about his experiences on the show. The interview is below. "Celebrity Apprentice" airs this Sunday night at 9 on NBC, and the season finale will air next Sunday at 9.

There's a lot of great TV on Sunday night but I'll wager nothing was more entertaining in the 9 o'clock hour than Lisa Lampanelli negotiating for models against Teresa Guidice on "The Celebrity Apprentice."

Each team (Lisa & Clay Aiken vs. Teresa, Aubrey O'Day & Arsenio Hall) needed four models each for an Elle magazine ad campaign for a touchscreen hair dryer, and Lisa and Clay had no real preference as far as models. But as soon as project manager Teresa revealed her desperation for the only redheaded model, project manager Lisa proceeded to hilariously eat her lunch. It was something to behold.

Even though Clay wasn't the project manager this week, he did an awful lot of the work. Lisa went shopping with her models because, according to her, "Clay is the only gay guy in the world who doesn't know anything about fashion," and Clay supervised the photography.  

Filling in for Brooke on "The Celebrity Apprentice" recap this week -- the first episode since Clay Aiken's brush with firing. And our North Carolina home boy has another rough go of it as he gets caught between the ever-battling Bickersons -- comedian Lisa Lampanelli and former Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza.

This week's task is to come up with a jingle for the Good Sam Club, which is apparently for RV enthusiasts. (We'll pause briefly for you to conjure up the highly unlikely image of Donald Trump cruising the backroads in some sort of gold-plated Winnebago with a big ole "T" on it.)

Because Clay, center, was project manager last week, he agrees to let Dayana, right, handle it this week. Hmmm, this could be a problem, seeing as how he's a professional singer and she knows so little about music that Clay actually has to explain to her that a jingle has nothing to do with "Jingle Bells." Still, he and Lisa, left, try to teach her. And for a while, they listen patiently while Dayana suggests a jingle that sounds like Duran Duran. Cause we all know RV drivers can't get enough "Hungry Like the Wolf."

Last night's "Celebrity Apprentice" was really too close for comfort for Clay Aiken fans. The Raleigh recording star came unbelievably close to being fired by Donald Trump after Clay's team lost the night's challenge. I personally thought Clay was a goner.

But let us back up a little before we get to the boardroom dramatics...

The episode began with Aubrey O'Day and Arsenio Hall both separately -- and hilariously -- assessing what's left of their team (it's the two of them plus Teresa Guidice).

Arsenio: "I'm stuck with two women now. One's damn near genius and the other is damn near not." I'm sure Arsenio meant to say "evil genius" in describing Aubrey. Obviously a slip.

Aubrey: "Arsenio is shifty and Teresa's not strong."

Okay, so -- go team!

Thanks to "Celebrity Apprentice," we now know that Clay Aiken can do almost anything.

He can sing (of course) and he can act. He can also write, direct, design and produce.

But the coolest thing Clay has done so far this season is display his mastery as an improvisational puppeteer.

For this week's challenge, the "Celebrity Apprentice" teams had to put on a show for the audience of Henson Alternative's Stuffed and Unstrung puppet show (which has a show in Durham this week!). Brian Henson, son of Jim, is the force behind "Stuffed and Unstrung," along with Patrick Bristow, who you may recognize from Ellen Degeneres' old sitcom "Ellen." 

The teams had to design and build their own puppets, get some quick lessons on how to handle the puppets (which Clay didn't need -- thank you very much, Vacation Bible School!) and a rundown on the rules of improv, and then finally, perform the show.

As promised, lots of fighting tonight! The show started with Arsenio Hall still ranting about Aubrey O'Day. When Lisa Lampanelli came in and heard the language he was using to describe Aubrey, she calmly suggested Arsenio might want to reconsider his choice of words.

Nah, just kidding. Lisa totally went off on Arsenio, screaming at him and calling him out for his language (b-word, w-word). Arsenio -- very correctly -- pointed out that Lisa is about the last person on earth who should be telling someone what kind of language to use. Lisa -- also correctly -- pointed out that Arsenio could be trashing his image and career by alienating women at home.

Lisa also made a comment to Teresa Guidice about how she felt bad for Aubrey being ganged up on by "those two" -- and I think she meant Arsenio and our boy, Clay Aiken, left.

The music ended for two contestants on last night's super-sized "Celebrity Apprentice" episode, both victims (in my humble opinion) of poor team leadership. But we'll get to that later (don't worry -- Clay Aiken is still safe). The most interesting part of last night's show was watching Arsenio Hall's slow burn build to a full inferno of hate, which engulfed his toxic -- but entertaining -- teammate Aubrey O'Day.

Just, wow. It's saying something when the person on your team most famous for crazy, violent freakouts (table-flipping reality star Teresa Guidice) is frightened by your outburst and thinks you might be unstable.