This week, Ira spoke with “Weird Al” Yankovic.
“Weird Al” Yankovic, a shy, accordion-playing teenager got his start sending in homemade tapes to the Dr. Demento Radio Show, and would go on to become the biggest-selling comedy recording artist in history with more than 12 million album sales. He will be headlining at the Cannery Casino August 4.
He has won three Grammys (with 14 nominations) and won countless awards and accolades for Weird Al classics like “Eat It,” “Like a Surgeon,” “Fat,” “Smells Like Nirvana,” “Amish Paradise,” and “The Saga Begins.” Yankovic is also well-known for his cult-hit feature film “UHF” (1989), his late ‘90s CBS Saturday morning series “The Weird Al Show” and the numerous AL-TV specials that he’s made for MTV and VH1 over the years. His previous album Straight Outta Lynwood (2006) spawned the Billboard Top 10 single “White & Nerdy,” the video for which spent two months at #1 on iTunes and garnered over 100 million hits on the Internet.
Alpocalypse, his first full-length studio album in nearly five years (released on June 21, 2011), features the Lady Gaga parody “Perform This Way.” It also features parodies of Miley Cyrus (“Party In The CIA”), Taylor Swift (“TMZ”), B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars (“Another Tattoo”) and T.I. (“Whatever You Like”). The album’s requisite polka medley – “Polka Face” – features accordion-driven versions of songs by artists including Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, Britney Spears, P!nk, Lady Antebellum, Katy Perry and, as mentioned, Lady Gaga.
