My wife recently
won, with about ~50 others, the “Weird Al” Yankovic Mandatory World Tour Contest, so we got to experience the May 16 show, in Las Vegas!
CONTEST PACKAGE DETAILS
* Two round-trip air tickets to Las Vegas, Nevada (for us, on Southwest ~$600)
* Two-Night Complimentary Stay at
Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino (~$600)
* Two Complimentary Tickets to
Weird Al’s performance on Saturday, May 16th, 2015 at 8:00 p.m., in the
Showroom at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino (~$300)
* Upgraded tickets (slightly modified, as noted), to "
The Mandatory Czar Experience" (+~$400):
**** Premium reserved ticket in the first five rows (note: we sat in Row 'R', close to center, with other contest winners, most likely to accommodate seating of customers paying for the experience...this seemed to represent the only modification)
**** Complete Set of 133 Weird Al Trading Cards (including brand new cards from Mandatory Fun)
**** Mandatory VIP badge
**** Mandatory Czar blue event sticker
**** One Exclusive, Limited Edition Poster 18"x24" personally signed by Weird Al (note: it reads, "Hi Dawn!", followed by his signature)
**** Additional exclusive Weird Al merchandise gift (note: in our case, we received a military-themed tee shirt: "
a t-shirt that sort of looks like the dictator jacket which Al is wearing on the cover of Mandatory Fun. Sort of like those tuxedo print t-shirts.")
**** VIP pre-show party, held in the
re-purposed Gallery Night Club at Planet Hollywood, starting at 5:30 p.m.
**** VIP after-party, held in the same space as the pre-show
**** $100 Food and Beverage Credit to Planet Hollywood
**** Two Complimentary Tickets to the
High Roller at The LINQ (~$75)
**** Ground transportation from and back to
McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas (~$50)
Many thanks to Weird Al,
CID Entertainment staff (event logistics), and
Frosch Entertainment staff (transportation logistics). This easily penciled out to thousands of dollars, per winner and guest! We had a great time and have nothing but love for all the hard work everyone did to pull this off.
NOTES - CONCERT
* Celebrities in attendance at the performance we attended:
Andy Richter,
two of Neil Diamonds' keyboard players,
Tom Lennon (of
Reno 911! fame), (?)
* As noted, Las Vegas Magazine had a
cover article on Weird Al, in their May 10, 2015 issue
* Highlight, for me:
Dare to Be Stupid, live in concert (first time since
2011?)
* First concert, for us, since
mid-2013 at the California State Fair
* I felt really salted-out and thirsty from the hot dogs and hamburgers
* The acoustic set reminded me of...a lounge act...in a good way (is that possible? I think so!)
* Confetti streamer cannon during Canadian Idiot
* No drum solo (retired?)
* Music (30 songs, total):
**** Fun Zone
**** Tacky
**** Lame Claim to Fame
**** Now That's What I Call Polka!
**** Perform This Way
**** Dare to Be Stupid
**** Fat
**** First World Problems
**** Foil
**** Smells Like Nirvana
**** Party in the CIA / It's All About the Pentiums / Handy / Bedrock Anthem / Another One Rides the Bus / Ode to a Superhero / Gump / Inactive / eBay / Canadian Idiot
**** Wanna B Ur Lovr
**** Acoustic medley: Eat It / I Lost on Jeopardy / I Love Rocky Road / Like a Surgeon
**** White & Nerdy
**** Word Crimes
**** Amish Paradise
**** Encore:
******** The Saga Begins
******** Yoda
* Albums represented:
**** "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983): 2
**** "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D (1984): 2
**** Dare To Be Stupid (1985): 3
**** Even Worse (1988): 1
**** UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff (1989): 1
**** Off The Deep End (1992): 1
**** Alapalooza (1993): 1
**** Bad Hair Day (1996): 2
**** Running With Scissors (1999): 2
**** Poodle Hat (2003): 3
**** Straight Outta Lynwood (2006): 2
**** Alpocalypse (2011): 2
**** Mandatory Fun (2014): 8
* Albums NOT formally represented (note: excluding EPs):
**** Polka Party! (1986): 0
NOTES - PRE-SHOW PARTY
* Event staff wore red berets and military uniforms, in keeping with the
propaganda-themed imagery of the album
* Brief, unannounced appearances:
**** Suzanne Krajewski, Al's spouse, and their daughter
**** Andy Richter
****
Jim West, guitarist
* Easels displayed 3'x2' prints of
propaganda-themed imagery, from the album art, as we walked to the night club
* Medium-sized lectern with faux-microphones--lots of attendees taking pictures with this as a prop, when not in use by the emcee
* Energy ebbed and flowed, but mostly upbeat and excited
* Spinnable
Wheel of Fish with medium-sized blinking red light, at center (initially obscured by black banner with words "Top Secret")
* "Mandatory Cocktail" ($8, I forget the ingredients, but it had grapefruit juice, alcohol, and was served over ice in what looked like a
highball glass)
* Four multimedia and poster displays showing a timeline of Weird Al from childhood to present
* Giant (~15'x10'?) Mandatory World Tour banner
* Large (~3' diameter) Mandatory World Tour circular promotional poster of some of the album art
* Photo booth for taking/sharing pictures, in front of a green screen--note: ours may not have gotten posted to Facebook, even after the initial technical glitch (?)...always take a backup photo!
* Props for the photo booth: glittery mustaches on thin dowels, plastic
bandolier, wigs,
aloha shirt, metal eyewear frames (basically, you can appear as Weird Al, from the 1980's, or go with a more
propaganda-themed album art imagery)
* I wore a wig and a floral shirt (over my floral shirt) and eyewear and bandolier and moustache
* Food and drink:
**** Buffalo wings
**** Mini hot dogs
**** Hamburger sliders
**** Carrots, celery, condiments
**** Cash bar
* Music: variety of Weird Al songs played from all decades
* Party events
**** Costume Contest
******** Six contestants (* asterisk = finalist; ** = winner):
************ ** Smells Like Nirvana
************ * Lasagna chef
************ * Tinfoil hat
************ Tacky shirt
************ Tuxedo suit
************ Corporal (?) Spatula
******** A crowd cheer eliminated three contestants, followed-by a dance-off to determine the winners
******** Winner received a Weird Al Mandatory Tour circular patch, I believe
**** Raffle #1 - Lip Sync battle
******** Smells Like Nirvana contestant called up to stage to go first (did not get raffle ticket called)
******** Lasagna chef contestant from costume contest selected as raffle winner and returned to stage
******** Not sure who won!
**** Raffle #2 - Wheel of Fish
******** Raffle winner (tin foil hat girl?) got up on stage
******** Emcee revealed...the Wheel of Fish!
******** Winner spun the Wheel, with marker landing on "trout"
******** Emcee offered her a choice of the fish or the box
******** Crowd and winner chose the box, which contained...nothing!
******** Everyone got to take their picture with the Wheel of Fish, after this
**** Prior to leaving the pre-show party, the emcee invited everyone to sing, "
Harvey the Wonder Hamster"
NOTES - AFTER-PARTY AND POSTER SIGNING
* Food and drink:
**** Orange, black, and yellow tortilla chips
**** Salt and pepper rippled potato chips
****
Chex mix
**** Guacamole
**** Salsa verde
**** Cash bar
* Subdued energy; people mostly talking in small circles
* Music: same as at pre-show party, a mix of Weird Al songs from across the decades
* Weird Al arrived in a brown tunic shirt and blue jeans after 45-60 minutes (he had other commitments, with other fans, first)
* Al signed 18"x24" tour posters for everyone (one per group)
* One cell phone photo, per group, with random requests considered (for example, Al posed with one woman in a
dip dance move; another, he stood and posed, looking off to the distance, as did the fans)
*
Jay Levey, Weird Al's manager, quietly observed the signing from the side
* Event staff members took the cell phone photos
OVERALL PRE-/AFTER-PARTY IMPRESSIONS
* Bad news first:
**** Cash bar prices--welcome to Las Vegas!
**** Photo-booth malfunctions (note: per emcee, resolved after he called the photo-booth company president)
**** Emcee seemed overheated in military uniform and overstretched, which seemed to distract him from connecting with the audience, a bit
**** I sensed some awkward energy in the room during two of the unannounced pre-show party events...I think contestants and event staff handled things relatively gracefully but I wonder if event staff might consider discussing a more inclusive way to determine winners (?) Maybe it was just me and everyone had a great time (?) : o )
**** At the after-party, one or two overly intoxicated individuals seemed fired up and edging toward belligerence...overheard the person relate to someone else, in a somewhat defensive tone, how someone earlier had commented on his drinking and/or behavior...he then proceeded to start going off on, "I won a trip to Las Vegas to have fun!", "Don't tell me what to do...", and so forth, and so forth...it set a more edgy tone to things than I preferred, for sure
**** Thinking of things from a family-friendly angle, the night club represented a relatively subdued environment, compared to the Pleasure Pit gogo dancers visible below, on the casino floor, but the night club's back hallway--used as an exit after poster signing--did have a few larger-than-life racy pics...again, welcome to Las Vegas, parents ; o )
* Good news!
**** Emcee--that voice! Great job
**** Technology (other than noted above) had everything on point--multimedia displays, lights, audio, music
**** Props seemed right on point--banners, costumes, accessories for photo-booth, lectern, Wheel of Fish, and so forth
**** Food seemed well done, to me--especially the hamburger sliders
**** Resolved the photo-booth technical glitch
**** After-party went off without a hitch, including food and handing out poster sleeves
**** Al obviously exhausted, his hand seemed clenched like a claw as he signed our poster, but soldiered on (please excuse the pun)
**** Jay Levey appearance!
**** Overall, a smashing success and it speaks very well to the entire team, moving forward!
Note: I regret the weird formatting of this article...I suck and cannot get bbcode to work for lists! I have a formatted version as a
blog post.