Once upon a time, there lived a dude named Mister. And that dude got it in his head that seeing Weird Al Yankovic in concert would be a treat. Well – Mister was the kind of guy who, once he set his mind to something, he was a-gonna see it through. And that’s how we ended up at L.A.’s Greek Theatre over the weekend, at the last domestic date of Weird Al’s “Mandatory Fun Tour.” (The tour is now headed to Europe.)
We were there with our friend, Would-Be Sue, and y’all – I was not prepared for how awesome that show would be. Sure – Weird Al took us down memory lane, to revisit the parody songs of our childhood, like “Fat”…
But then there were new-to-me parodies, as well as amazing medleys.
And serious costume changes.
At one point Weird Al began singing “Wanna B Ur Lovr.” And it was hilarious.
And then he climbed down from the stage…
And he started making his way up the aisle…
And then he was across the aisle, singing to a chick and rubbing his butt in the face of the dude beside her…
And then Weird Al went all the way up the aisle, as far as he could go, thrilling the people in the back.
He then started making his way back down the aisle, and I thought he’d just be all business and get to the stage. But I was wrong. Because when he reached our row, Weird Al leaned in and – I swear to beans – looked me in the eye and sang, “You must have fallen from heaven. That would explain how you messed up your face!” Now before any hyper-sensitive person find offence in this, let me assure you I did not. I nearly fell off my seat from laughter, and I’m pretty sure I pulled a muscle from contorting my body in joyous hilarity, but offence was nowhere to be found. A short time later, Weird Al was back on the stage and launching into the next song.
By the time the encore rolled around, my face was about to crack. After he closed the show with “Yoda,” I was downright elated.
As we made our way out of the theatre and then home, Mister, Would-Be Sue and I talked about the experience. We were overcome with the astounding creativity involved in the night’s performance. And the band – which I understand has been with Weird Al since the 1980s – was incredibly tight. The professionalism displayed that night blew my mind. And honestly, I was ridiculously inspired by the whole experience. I think the show ran about 2 hours, and I can honestly say there was no lull. 18 songs and various video interstitials kept the energy levels high and revving.
Once upon a time, there lived a dude named Mister. And that dude got it in his head that seeing Weird Al Yankovic in concert would be a treat. And he was right. It truly was.
