Clay Aiken knows he's become a whipping boy for late night talk show hosts, who question either his singing ability or sexuality.

But the second season runnerup on American Idol has both a healthy sense of humour about it and a thick skin.

"I spent years and years in middle school getting picked on, so I'm kind of used it," says Aiken, 27, down the line from Chicago this week. He has his solo concert debut in Toronto tonight at the Molson Amphitheatre.

"First of all, I usually don't watch (the talk shows) and someone else will tell me about them. And, heck, half the time, I think it's funny."

But are the shots at his sexuality more hurtful or do they just roll off his back too?

"Heck, it's just as insulting as when someone like you interviews me and asks a question like that, no matter how you word it," says Aiken in a Canadian newspaper exclusive with the Sun. "It's part of the game. You just do it."

And it's not as if Aiken, who hails from Raleigh, N.C., doesn't have a lot of support.

His rabid fans, known as Claymates, attack anyone who would dare sully the reputation of their beloved Aiken, whose 2003 debut, Measure Of A Man, was followed by a 2004 Christmas album, Merry Christmas With Love.

I should know because of reader response when I dared to suggest he should be singing musical theatre on Broadway when I reviewed Measure Of A Man.

"They formed themselves while I was on the show, and have grown in strength and energy ever since, which is nothing but thrilling for us," says Aiken of the Claymates. So who are they exactly?

"I have a feeling they are probably mostly ladies," says Aiken. "We don't get played in gentlemen's clubs," he adds with a giggle.

Aiken says he has no desire to hit the Great White Way although he did see Idol alumna Vanessa Olivarez in Hairspray at the Princess Of Wales Theatre here last summer.

"I've seen some shows and they seem fun," he says. "But in the popular music world that's kind of an insult to say someone belongs on Broadway, so thanks a lot. I mean I've seen people who've done it and I think they're very talented. Maybe one day, but our focus is on something different at this time."

Aiken and his nine-piece band are currently a month into his so-called Jukebox tour -- an overview of pop covers spanning the 1950s to today.

Aiken is working with Canadian producer Jaymes Foster Levy -- sister of David Foster -- on his sophomore effort, which he hopes to have out by next spring.

"She's excellent," says Aiken. "It's really great to have somebody, we see eye to eye, ear to ear, I guess, on a lot of the stuff that we both like. She helps me figure out how to slow down and that we make sure that this next album is as good as it can be."

Aiken knows the pressure is on for him to follow up on the commercial success of Measure Of A Man.

"There's natural pressure with it being the second album. I think that's considered to be the most crucial one. There's pressure, not necessarily just from everybody else, but from myself too. The last one did well. I don't want to come out of the box with something crap, right?"

UNICEF post humbles Aiken

Clay Aiken, who was an elementary school teacher for autistic children before his success on American Idol, has beome a UNICEF Ambassador for education.

He has travelled to Indonesia after the tsunami tragedy, and to war-torn northern Uganda to bring attention to the plight of children abducted by rebels.

"It really makes you take a look at what you are, and who you are and how small you are in this world," he told the Sun. "You go to another country and you realize there are definitely people who have never heard of you and they don't care, because all they want to do is rebuild their houses or stay safe from these rebels.

"It really puts things in perspective and makes me stop complaining about traffic in L.A., you know?"