Something like this may work too:
conn.execute "insert into customer (custID, column1, column2) (select MAX(custID) + 1, 'value1', 'value2' from customer)"
Where I have 'value1' and 'value2' you can put any text you want, just make sure its properly formatted for sql insertion. So for example you could have two variables storing the data you want to put into column1 and column2, and your insert statement would look like this:
conn.execute "insert into customer (custID, column1, column2) (select MAX(custID) + 1, '" & replace(var1, "'", "''") & "', '" & replace(var2, "'", "''") & "' from customer)"
of course, this methood will only work upon insertion, not when updating.