The Summer of Weird Al

I probably first heard “Weird Al” Yankovic in 1983, probably on the Dr. Demento Show, doing “Another One Rides the Bus.” I don’t even remember how I heard Dr. Demento back then, but I do remember that “Weird Al” (I have always thought it funny that he stylizes “Weird Al” in quotes) stood out among whoever it was that was doing novelty songs like “Shaving Cream” and “Fish Heads” as much funnier and with much more replay value (this, before “replay” was much of an option). In any case, I have found him pretty hilarious ever since but somehow never got around to seeing his live show until last year. This year I’ve seen it twice.

Having been impressed with the show last year, I was pleased to see that Weird Al was coming back to the region, this time to Tanglewood in Massachusetts, about 45 minutes from where I live. My wife agreed to get tickets for this summer.

Much later, some old friends contacted me about seeing Weird Al in Erie, Pennsylvania. Since I was already going to be in Chautauqua, which is very close to Erie, I agreed to go with them. These are the same friends I was listening to Dr. Demento with in 1983. I’ve known them for more than 50 years, so it was a lot of fun seeing the show together.

The show was not only funny, but funny in a way that still appeals to late middle-aged men who thought it was hilarious as little boys. Afterward, we got to meet Weird Al, which is where the above picture comes from.

So now my wife and I have seen him at Tanglewood, which raises the obvious question: Is Weird Al still funny after seeing him three times?

The answer is yes. The caveat is that the shows are not very different from one another. The biggest difference at Tanglewood, he and his band performed a cover of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” essentially straight. Yes, he had a funny lead-up about people not knowing what to call him when they meet him on the street, and there was some visual humor during the performance, but I think the real purpose of the song was to show that the band’s musical talent is not at all a joke. They’ve been doing some straight covers on this tour, and I even featured one— “Suffragette City” as a recent “David Bowie Cover of the Week.”

In any case, this cover replaced a gag I saw in Saratoga and Erie where Weird Al pretends to survey the audience for requests and then claims the vote was unanimous in favor of “I Am Woman.” He proceeds to perform the song essentially straight, with the joke simply being that it’s Weird Al singing “I Am Woman.” Unlike most of the original comedic songs, this would have been less funny upon a third viewing— the joke is conceptual, not lyrical.

A related reason Weird Al’s original songs remain funny after repeat viewings is that much of his humor is packed into incredibly fast-paced lyrics that aren’t easy to catch the first time. Listening to something like “White & Nerdy” for the third time, I was still picking up jokes I’d missed before.

That’s interesting because “White & Nerdy” is itself a parody of a song I’d never heard before, “Ridin’.” There are several songs where the only reason I know the originals is because of Weird Al’s parodies. The best example is probably “Amish Paradise,” which introduced me to “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which I probably never would have encountered otherwise.

That leads to a question that occurred to me during his parody of Toni Basil’s “Mickey” (1981), which becomes a spoof of I Love Lucy. Who are these songs for? How many people in the audience even remember “Mickey”? There were certainly plenty of gray-haired fans like me, so part of the answer is that they’re for us. But even my generation mostly knows I Love Lucy through reruns.

I got the jokes, but there must have been plenty of people in the audience who didn’t know either the original song or the television show. If they’re longtime Weird Al fans, they may actually have learned about both through his parodies, which is a funny thought. Come to think of it, Weird Al himself isn’t that much older than I am, so he also would have known I Love Lucy primarily through reruns. It’s quite a trick to create a parody of something that many people only know because you introduced it to them.

When I met Weird Al, one of my friends asked how many stops remained on the tour. He answered, “Sixty.” That’s remarkable. He’s been all over the country, including Alaska, performing every couple of nights. It has to be exhausting.

He certainly looked tired by the end of the show, but he never let up on the energy. Just as impressive is the fact that he has mastered these incredibly dense lyrics, some of which are extraordinarily intricate. The final song with the band is a medley of rapid-fire nonsense words and strange phrases drawn from many other songs. It could not have been easy for him — and his band, singing backup— to memorize it.

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There were actually two Bowie connections at the concert. The first was the same as last year. During his frequent costume changes, Weird Al projected video clips from various television and film appearances over the past 45 years. One was a sequence from Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, in which Daniel Radcliffe plays Weird Al at a 1980s pool party populated by actors portraying celebrities of the era. One of them is clearly meant to be David Bowie.

The more significant Bowie connection came from Puddles Pity Party, who opened the show. I’d been a fan of Puddles before seeing him live because he has recorded several Bowie covers. Dressed as a Pierrot-style clown, his humor is much subtler than Weird Al’s. He often performs songs almost completely straight, relying on visual comedy rather than inherently funny lyrics.

That’s not always the case. One of his funniest routines is singing the lyrics to the Gilligan’s Island theme song to the music of “Stairway to Heaven.” But he also performs “Under Pressure,” and musically it’s essentially a straightforward solo vocal cover. He has an excellent voice. The comedy comes from an extended visual routine in which he pulls an audience member onstage and repeatedly feeds him Ding Dongs. At one point he even slips the words “ding dong” into Freddie Mercury’s scat lyrics while continuing to feed the unsuspecting volunteer.

So that’s the Bowie connection.

Will I see Weird Al again next year? I don’t know, but I’d certainly like to. Even if you don’t particularly enjoy his comedy, it’s still an excellent rock concert. The band is outstanding, and Weird Al remains a remarkably energetic and engaging performer. I’m glad I finally got around to seeing him last year.

It would be nice if he varied the set list a bit more. He has a deep catalog, and there are plenty of songs that either didn’t make the show or only appear briefly as part of medleys. Still, it’s a terrific concert, and I hope to see him again.