Weird Al Yankovic: Live on VH1 (1999)

Good tap-your-feet-fun for the whole family

I liked it. That's because I'm a Weird Al fan. If you are not a Weird Al fan, you might not like this DVD because you will find it too silly February 22, 2008

Weird Al Yankovic Live--It's Really Your Only Choice

This is a fun DVD, mainly for the Weird Al fan, from around 2000, the Running with Scissors tour. It is a hometown concert, with a very sweet introduction by his parents(these are the sort of things that I think make Al not just a good performer, but a great guy). The first five songs are just him performing in front of a microphone. I love Al, but an artist as strongly visual as Al needs to maintain that through the whole concert. Not to fear, they are still good songs, and well done. However the fun really starts with "Dare to Be Stupid" and sustains all the way through "Yoda".
Additionally there are two videos ('The Saga Begins' and 'It's All About the Pentiums') and two...er...educational films ('Crimes of Carelessness' and 'Germs and You')that are very funny.
Newcomers would be better served by one of his CDs(preferably "Off the Deep End" or earlier) or his Ultimate Video Collection. Fans, though will enjoy this, and is a solid investment that accents all of Weird Al's great diversity in performing and entertaining. But what's with that audience? Get off your butts and on your feet folks. August 28, 2005

"Weird Al" Yankovic in concert from the "Running With Scissors" tour

What would "Weird Al" Yankovic be like "live"? I mean, when you are known for doing musical parodies and your music videos often have you dressed up like somebody else, how does this translate into a concert? What little I had seen of Weird Al on stage on MTV and such really gave me no indication of what a full assault on stage would be like. That is why "'Weird Al' Yankovic: Live!" exists. So that those of us who live so far off the beaten path that very few "BIG NAMES" actually make it to a local venue can confirm that they have been missing fun.

His 90-minute concert is from a 2000 tour, which followed the release the previous year of "Running With Scissors." Seven of the dozen songs from that album make it into the show, and they are mostly from the great "first side" of the CD and not from the downhill slide that follows "It's All About the Pentiums" on the "second side" as the last three tracks go down the drain. The first part of the concert is fairly straightforward. Mom and Dad Yankovic introduce their boy he jumps right into "Gump." Then he puts on the old accordion and launches into "Polka Power," "Jerry Springer," and "My Baby is in Love With Eddie Vedder." But then it starts to "snow," so Al has an excuse to pull "The Night Santa Went Crazy" out of the vault.

This sets up the next part of the evening's festivities as Al and the band don costumes to do "Dare to Be Stupid," "It's All About the Pentiums," "Germs," and "One More Minute." Then we get an updated parody of "Like a Surgeon," where the music is suddenly played with a decidedly Middle Eastern flavor and the infamous Madonna conical breast costume makes a return. But with the music I wonder if Weird Al is somehow working in a takeoff on Robert Plant and Jimmy Page's "Un-Led-ed" MTV special. There are layers here people, lots of layers. Plus Al sings hoping around on one leg with the other tucked behind his head. You think Madonna can do that?

If you are worried that Yankovic is not going to do your favorite song he tries to solve that in the Medley section, which works in "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi," "Another One Rides the Bus," "Rocky Road," "That Achy-Breaky Song," "Jurassic Park," "Grapefruit Diet" (darn, he worked it in), "I Lost on Jeopardy," and "Eat It." Then we are back to a big finish with more tunes in costume, namely "Smells Like Nirvana" (wow, he does it like nothing happened), "Bedrock Anthem," "Amish Paradise," and then after the intro from the video to allow the ultimate costume change, "Fat." If you know the "Running With Scissors" album then you know what the encore is going to be, namely "The Saga Begins," but then as a treat he tacks on "Yoda," which makes perfect sense.

Some clips from his videos work their way in (Don Pardo's "You're a complete loser!" speech and that wonderful moment when the T-Rex decapitates Barney). The music videos for "The Saga Begins" and "It's All About the Pentiums" are included in the special features, which makes sense since they both are from the "Running with Scissors" album, but if you already have "'Weird Al' Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection" (hand raised). There are some photographs to look at and credits, but then for a final taste of insanity there are a pair of "Educational Films." You know as soon as you click on this you are in trouble and it turns out to be double-trouble with the shorts "Crimes of Carelessness" and "Germs and You." "Hemo the Magnificent" and "Duck and Cover" were never like this.

Yes, it would be nice if there were more polka numbers, but you can really only do one of those in a concert the same way you can only have one on a "Weird Al" album. Yankovic puts a lot of energey into his concert, and once again I am struck by how good of a singer he is, not only in terms of his ability to imitate the vocal styles of such diverse performers as Kurt Cobain and Don McLean, but just how strong of a voice he has. For that matter, the boys in the band are not just going through the motions, which certainly indicates how far Yankovic has gotten from the early days when it was him on accordion and John "Bermuda" Schwartz banging away on anything but a real drum set. The best thing is that you know going in whether you are going to love "'Weird Al' Yankovic: Live!" or not, so you probably did not even bother reading this far and are already up to the third chapter of the concert. August 27, 2005

A must have for all Weird Al fans!

I love this show! The music is great. The performance is fun, energetic, and very entertaining. And Al is introduced by his parents (who actually seem proud of him). This concert has almost all of Al's greatest hits: The live version of Fat with the blowup costume is very cool. Dare to be Stupid is amazing. And Amish Paradise is the best I've seen it done. I really love this version of The Night Santa Went Crazy. It is much better than the original.

In addition to the concert there are two "bonus" music videos, All About the Pentiums which is okay and The Saga Begins which is much better. Wish that Jurassic Park had been included as I like that one much better but it is on his music video album and thus available. There are a couple of Al TV shorts too. The only real shortcoming of this live concert is in the medley section where he plays snippets of some of my favorite songs such as Pretty Fly for A Rabbi, I Love Rocky Road, and Jurassic Park. I would much rather have seen the entirety of each song. The other odd thing is that the audience isn't as into the concert as I would have thought. Perhaps they just chose odd times for the crowd cutaways. Most of the action is on the performers anyway so it's not all that distracting.
November 29, 2004

Al live is a must see!!

Weird Al Yankovic live, comes off just as fun as one of his movies or songs would. This DVD is a live recording of one of his concerts that he had after the release of his Running with Scissors album.

The best part is that the concert isn't just of the songs that were on that latest album, but full of many of his old favorites that many Weird Al fans have been hooked on for years. Dare to Be Stupid, Amish Paradise, Like a Surgeon as well as newer hits like The Saga Begins and All about the Pentiums.

A few of the songs are interesting to note .. like Yoda for instance which is a song about Luke Skywalkers experiences with Yoda, is sung like you would usualy hear it but it suddenly will go into a weird chant that he has done at various times during his concerts. Just out of nowhere he starts to go into it and it's pretty impressive if not wacky to watch the whole band suddenly go into a trance like that. And also a good thing to note is the song the Night Santa Went Crazy has an alternate line that you won't hear in the song recorded on tape (won't give it away but any true Al fan should know already). I also enjoyed his compilation song which was a mixture of a lot of his old songs all in one huge melody. Some of the song would be sung and Al would whip on a new costume to fit the song he is about to sing and go right into it without pausing.

I really can't say enough how great this concert really is. There is even subtitles you can turn on if you want to sing along with it and its just a thril to see all the people having a great time and all the effort and thought that Al seems to put into putting on the show. I'm surprised they took this long to put his concert onto tape or DVD. It really is one of the best and most fun I have ever watched.

Bonus materials include the two music videos from Running with Scissors which are great in itself. And some funny 50'esque black and white shorts that he did for his AlTV specials some time back.

Bottom line, if you think you have heard and seen Al , you aint seen nothing yet until you have seen him live! You are definitely missing out if you don't have this already. You won't be sorry getting this. Its a great laugh and a lot of fun all the way through. June 12, 2004

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