Fifty years after debuting on The Dr. Demento Radio Show, comedy music icon “Weird Al” Yankovic is bringing his legacy of laughs and beloved parody songs to the Coachella Valley.
Thanks to a knack for transforming chart-topping jams into joke-filled gems, “Weird Al” Yankovic has been crowned “The King of Parody,” and his twists on hits by artists including Michael Jackson (“Eat It” and “Fat”), Madonna (“Like a Surgeon”), Coolio (“Amish Paradise”) and Chamillionaire (“White & Nerdy”) have garnered him five Grammy Awards and near-universal acclaim. Equipped with an accordion, a golden voice and a serious ear for music composition, Yankovic has released 14 studio albums filled with playful parodies, outstanding original tunes—and plenty of polka!
You can catch “Weird Al” Yankovic at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 13, at Acrisure Arena, as part of his impressive 90-date “Bigger & Weirder” tour.
“We love touring,” Yankovic said during a recent Zoom interview, “It’s the one way that most recording artists make their money these days, because album sales are down—unless your name is Taylor Swift—and streaming is not what I’d call lucrative in most cases, in terms of payouts. Touring and merch is generally the way that working musicians make their money, and it just so happens I love touring, so that works out very well for us.
“We go out on the road for long stretches mostly because we can. The promoters say, ‘You can tour, basically, for as long as you like,’ so I weigh that with the fact that I would like to spend some time with my family every now and then.”
Most “Weird Al” shows feature his humorous hits, select originals, polka jams and plenty of big productions, including costume changes and video segments.
“I do like the idea of doing a different set every night, which is what we did exactly when we did our ‘Ill-Advised Vanity Tour,’” he said. “That was a very intimate setting every night, and we literally had a different set list every single night, which was also very fun. It’s just not possible to do when we’re doing the big show, because that’s got a lot of production and costume changes and a lot of moving parts. The film clips that I edit together for the costume changes last just long enough to do the costume changes, so there aren’t many options for us to move things around from night to night. The one (changing) slot is the cover song, and we do a different cover song every night, so that keeps it a little fresh for us. I wish we had more opportunities to be improvisational or spontaneous, but given the nature of the show, that’s not really possible.”
Yankovic has not released a proper studio album since Mandatory Fun in 2014, but he’s remained busy. In addition to touring, he contributes songs to other artists and movies, co-wrote and produced the comedy-biography 2022 film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (starring Daniel Radcliffe), and is working on the upcoming Broadway project Dare to Be Stupid: The Weird Al Musical.
“Ever since the last album came out, I haven’t been super-proactive in terms of new material, but if somebody comes up to me with a project, and it makes sense, then I’ll do it,” Yankovic said. “I wrote the theme song for the Captain Underpants movie, and when Lin-Manuel Miranda approached me to contribute to his Hamildrops series, I did ‘The Hamilton Polka.’ I’ve done a few one-offs like that over the last decade or so, and those are fun to do. Right now, my big project is the ‘Weird Al’ jukebox musical, so that’s taken up a lot of my time, other than obviously the tour. Even though there probably aren’t going to be any more traditional ‘Weird Al’ albums, per se, I’m still very involved in music and in other projects and obviously touring, so I don’t feel like I’ve retired in any sense of the word. If opportunities come up, if somebody wants me to write music for one of their TV shows or movies or projects, I’m very open to that. I think Mandatory Fun was, in fact, my last traditional album in that sense.”
Almost as impressive as Yankovic’s lengthy tour schedule is his commitment to meet-and-greets. Every show features a VIP package that includes an exclusive merch item, a personal autograph, and a meet-and-greet after the show, where some fans wait until midnight or later to chat and get a photo with Yankovic.
“The meet-and-greets often take longer than the actual show itself, and I do it after the show, so I don’t get worn out for the show,” Yankovic said. “I want to be fresh and give the show everything I’ve got. I don’t want to be exhausted from meeting people for two hours and then do a full-on rock show.”
After meeting thousands of fans, Yankovic said he’s still touched every time someone tells him that his music has made their life better.
“Every meet-and-greet is different, and every person is different, and it blows me away the connection that some of these people have with my music,” he said. “I’ve met so many people over the years who have ‘Weird Al’ tattoos, or they ask me to sign their arm or their leg, and then they’ll just make that permanent on their bodies. They do art for me; they do poems for me; and they want to show how much my music has touched them, which is always so inspiring and makes me feel so grateful that there are people out there like that. In return, I want to give them an experience. Even though I see 150 people every night after the show, and I can’t spend a lot of time with them, I try to make even the minute that I have with them as special as possible, because in many cases, that’s the only time they’ll ever meet me in their lives, and I want it to be a good experience for them.”
My personal connection with “Weird Al” dates back to my second-grade class. Mrs. Wilson played his hits and had our class in fits of laughter, proving that Yankovic’s Star Wars references and food jokes are relatable to children. In some cases these days, younger people are more familiar with the “Weird Al” parodies than the originals.
“I don’t write anything with an audience or a demographic in mind. I do what I think is funny and hope that other people think it’s funny as well,” he said. “My stuff, even though it isn’t squeaky-clean, does fall under the umbrella of family-friendly. When you look out in the audience, it’s everybody from young kids to, like, parents and grandparents and every demographic imagined. That’s nothing that was calculated; it is just something that is a nice byproduct of the fact that apparently my stuff appeals to a lot of people without necessarily targeting anyone. Certainly, when I do a song like the ‘Captain Underpants Theme Song’ or a song for a children’s movie, that’s obviously more geared for kids, but even for that, I don’t think, ‘Well, I have to write for kids.’ I just do what I think is fun and hope the kids will like it.”
I was curious whether Yankovic ever felt pressure trying to be funny. He said most of the pressure he feels occurs during interviews.
“I kind of thought, ‘Oh, I’m “Weird Al,” so every interview, I’ve got to have a gag answer, and I’ve got to be wacky all the time, and never really be straight or serious to somebody,’” he said. “That was exhausting, and I think that really annoyed a lot of people, so I calmed down. As you saw in this interview, I’m not bouncing off the walls. I’m trying to be amusing and informative, but I’m not this crazy person just giving you oddball answers. I try to be a human and work with that part.”
After being “weird” for multiple decades, Yankovic said that things others see as weird have become normal to him.
“Up until ‘Eat It’ came out, I was used to walking around anonymously and not having people point at me or staring at me in public—and now that’s just sort of, like, my life,” he said. “It’s a nice level of fame. I don’t have people going through my garbage at night or really stalking me, and it’s really pleasant when people recognize me, for the most part. I enjoy it. I don’t think I’d want to be a whole lot more famous, so I like where I am.”
“Weird Al” Yankovic will perform at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 13, at Acrisure Arena, at 75702 Varner Road, in Palm Desert. Puddles Pity Party is slated to open the show. Tickets start at $40. For tickets and more information, visit acrisurearena.com.
