23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Funnyman Weird Al Yankovic enjoys rock-star moment at sold-out Madison Square Garden debut
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Weird Al Yankovic performing during his show at New York's Madison Square Garden on July 12. The comedy musician has sold more than 12 million albums.
NEW YORK – When Weird Al Yankovic, America's foremost song parodist for the past 40 years, took the stage for his first Madison Square Garden show on July 12, his accordion got its own ovation.
'Are you ready to polka ? ' he shouted, and the sold-out crowd cheered as he dived into an altered medley of hits.
With videos and elaborate costumes, the Bigger & Weirder 2025 Tour showcased the comedy musician's enduringly singular, lampoonery-filled pop-culture stardom.
Along with his signature instrument, he played the keyboard, melodica and harmonica. And with a tight backing band – many of the members have been with him for decades – he performed some of his biggest numbers: his first single My Bologna from 1979 (to the tune of The Knack's My Sharona); Like A Surgeon (a la Madonna's Like A Virgin, but in scrubs) and Smells Like Nirvana, in full Kurt Cobain grunge regalia.
At 65, Yankovic still commands the stage like a natural-born rocker, with high kicks and the panache to pull off what few other artistes can (including a fat suit).
During Eat It, a riff on Michael Jackson's Beat It, audience members – many in Hawaiian shirts and sporting curly locks – were on their feet. Even a seen-it-all security guard danced.
For White & Nerdy, Yankovic arrived via scooter, to the thump of Chamillionaire's Ridin'. Father-son pairs, arm-in-arm, knew every lyric.
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He has sold more than 12 million albums and won five Grammy s. He had a No. 1 album in 2014 with Mandatory Fun. His career has, surprisingly, continued to surge.
Amid the jokes during his Madison Square Garden show, he took time to savour his achievements.
'Oftentimes , b ig moments in your life come and go so quickly that you can't really enjoy them while you're in them,' he said, pausing as the arena's house lights rose.
The tour, with a Star Wars-themed finale involving storm troopers and R2-D2, is his biggest production ever. But it is not all pastiche: He did some original (and funny) numbers, and a cover of Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al that showed off Yankovic's tenor and rhythm.
His 2014 song Word Crimes – a parody of Blurred Lines that criticises bad grammar ('I don't want your drama/If you really wanna/Leave out that Oxford comma') – is like an ethos: Get the words right. That's joy. NYTIMES
