Weird Al Yankovic has been on his "Bigger and Weirder" Tour for over the past year hitting every major and minor US city on the map. This past weekend, he made his way to the outskirts of San Bernardino county in Thousand Palms playing the town's Acrisure Arena. An oasis of a town just before Coachella Valley. Joining the famed funny man, is sad clown crooner, Puddles Pity Party. Much like Weird Al, Puddles has built a career off taking popular songs and making them funny, all while performed in a full clown getup and face paint. He invites audience members on stage to partake in the fun during his "Who Would Like to Help the Clown" segments that involve him putting a bottle costume on the fan as he sings to them.
Just before 8:30, the lights dimmed and an intro video for Weird Al began which presented Al as a giant King Kong like figure destroying a city. As the reel finished, Al's parody of Pharrell Williams' "Happy" known as "Tacky" started and a live stream of Yankovic making his way through the arena corridors singing rolled on the screen. Along his way, he crosses paths with Puddles that results with a pie in the clown's face. Before long, he was on the stage finishing out the tune to loud cheers.
He continued with a number of originals like"Everything You Know is Wrong" from 1996's Bad Hair Day and "One More Minute" from Dare to Be Stupid that has the jokester meandering through the crowd singing to people, giving them sashes, and even a pair of heart patterned boxers thrown into a guest's face.
Following a short clip from Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, where he comes up with "Another One Rides the Bus," the show jumped up a notch. Longtime fans would start to notice cheerleaders taking the stage, the band in grungy outfits, and a janitor with mop in hand. Suddenly, the opening riff to "Smells Like Nirvana" began and there stood Weird Al fully clad in the late Kurt Cobain's iconic outfit from the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video. The costumes would be a mainstay for the rest of the night. From Devo's notable yellow jumpsuits for "Dare to Be Stupid" to Michael Jackson's red "Beat It" jacket for Al's classic parody, "Eat It." Even went so far as to put on the entire fat suit for "Fat" while maintaining the videos choreography. During a medley that carried us through classics like "All About the Pentiums," "Ricky," "Canadian Idiot," and "Like a Surgeon," he went through a series of swift costume changes while on stage.
As the night continued, he would switch between parodies and originals, like his theme song for the Captain Underpants movie and even his end credits song that makes little sense without having just seen his biopic. Towards the end of the set, he donned a full hip hop outfit for "White & Nerdy" that kicked off with Al rolling out from backstage on a segue. He finished out the set with fan favorite "Amish Paradise," with the entire band decked out in plain wear and bonnets.
When the time came for the encore, the band had changed into stormtrooper and Jedi outfits, and the dark lord of the Sith, Darth Vader was standing on stage. Weird Al came back out in his Jedi robes, and after a rendition of a joke song written with Michael Stipe entitled "We All Have Cell Phones," he kicked off his hit parody "The Saga Begins." The arena turned into one big sing-a-long. Weird Al kept the Star Wars theme going and ended the night with "Yoda" -- a hit parody of The Kinks' "Lola."
Weird Al is one of the best performers I've ever seen and his "Bigger and Weirder" Tour is about as extravagant as an artist that parodies songs could get. Not a single person in the audience wasn't smiling. So much thought went into the production of this show and it'd be shame to miss it. There are still many dates left, but the tour is on the back-end of the schedule. There's no telling how much longer Al will keep doing this type of production, so do yourself a favor and catch it if he comes through your town.
