People: He finally gets to be an American Idle

Clay Aiken, who rose to fame on “American Idol,” is trying his hand at Broadway.

Aiken is making his Broadway debut in “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” in creator Eric Idle‘s old role.

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

What’s a nice North Carolina boy with scant theater background and a penchant for pop lite doing in a scatological English stage comedy?

“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,’ ” Aiken says, laughing.

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

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,” he says.

Still, it’s new territory for Aiken, who hasn’t really acted much and was even cut from his high school’s production of “Guys and Dolls.”

“Probably more preparation has gone into this than anything I’ve ever done,” he says.

“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 recalls his mother taking him to see the musical “Big River,” starring Martin Moran as Huckleberry Finn, when he was in seventh grade.

“It was the first time ever that I looked on stage and saw people – you know, adults – singing,” he says. “And I thought, ‘Wow, wait a second. You can actually sing for a living?’ “

He started doing just that after finishing as runner-up in the second season of “Idol.” His three CDS so far have sold 6 million copies, with a fourth due as soon as May.

“Spamalot” is based on the 1975 film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” which 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.

Courted by “Spamalot” producers a year ago, Aiken went to see the show and left befuddled.

“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: “You have to go understanding that they even advertise it as being the silliest thing ever. It really is.”

During one of those earlier performances, Aiken glanced down at the playbill and noticed 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.

The birthday bunch

Actor James Cromwell (“Babe”) is 68. Dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov is 60. Actress Bridget Fonda is 44. Actor Alan Cumming is 43. Country singer Tracy Lawrence is 40. Rapper Tricky is 40.