Al at "UHF" showing in Austin, TX

[FredHuggins]

Hooray!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoWuT-SJVWs

[Vargas Chick]

We really enjoyed our afternoon at the Paramount Theater in Austin. They were showing videos and some of the Al TV interviews when we arrived, 30 minutes before the show started. At 3 p.m., the two hosts from the Alamo Draft House came out on stage dressed in Hawaiian shirts, fake moustaches and big hair. One of the hosts explained that he was "Weird Al circa 1980's" and the other host, said that he was "Weird Al circa 1990's". They joked with the audience and handed out real spatulas and the spatulas were nice and big. Next, they told the audience to sing along with some of Al's videos since the words would be on the screen. The hosts tried to get a contest going between the audience on the lower level and the audience in the upper levels or as they called it "the people with money and the poor people in the balcony". So, we all had to yell and get loud before the sing-a-long started. We sang to "Eat It", "Fat", "Amish Paradise" and "White and Nerdy". After that, we were admonished not to repeat lines during the movie, even if we knew them by heart, but it would be o.k. to cheer and clap, and wave our spatulas at the appropriate times.

It was a lot of fun watching the movie with everyone else in the theater. We all really got into it. When the movie ended, the hosts came back out on stage (minus their costumes from earlier) and introduced Al and Jay Levey. All of us gave Al a standing ovation and with much cheering. Some of the Q & A were about what his plans are (touring this summer), how he invented the twinkie-wiener sandwich (catering truck on location while he was making changes to the script), does he mind people making their own videos to his songs (no, he's always looking for sheer genius at cheap costs, and the trend will continue to have videos with his music and that he's currently recording), how did he end up with Michael Richards in UHF (and he discussed Michael's health issues, at the time, Michael thought he had Bell's Palsy and Michael kept wanting to quit the movie or have Al write him out of scenes), and was the costume he wore for the Rambo scenes uncomfortable and hot (no, the scenes were shot during cold weather and he was actually warm and comfortable with it on). There was also a guy, two rows back from me, who asked if he could go to the stage and give Al a "high-five" because he was from Oklahoma and he really wanted a "high-five" from Al. Al let him go to the foot of the stage and get a "high-five" from him. One of the hosts remarked that it was "amazing that the guy was from Oklahoma, because they normally don't let anyone from Oklahoma into Austin" (there's a big rivalry between UT Austin and Oklahoma University).

Additionally, Jay was asked what it was like directing UHF. Jay answered that it was very stressful. Al elaborated that they were on a strict time deadline and that a bonding company had been breathing down Jay's neck to finish filming on time. Also, Jay went into further details about how stressful it was to direct the film because of it's low budget. Next, someone asked Al if Jay mentored him as a director, since Al has gone on to direct numerous videos, etc. Al's answer was "no" that he had learned from watching Jay direct UHF and his videos in the 1980's. It was also mentioned that the movie received a PG-13 rating because the poodle throwing scene and Emo Phillips having his thumb cut off weren't removed, so Orion wasn't too happy about that. Orion wanted the scenes removed in order for the movie to receive a PG rating and "twelve more people would have see it then".

Not everyone's questions were answered since they ran out of time. The hosts gave Al a "token of appreciation" which was a very large doll type thing dressed up like Al, but the doll's face looked, as Al put it "as if Jay Leno and Billy Barty had a child together". One of the hosts told Al that he needed to take it home and put it on his mantle, and Al turned to the audience and asked Suzanne if he could put it on their mantle, then Al waited a moment and told the host that his wife had indicated "no". It was pretty funny. And, that was the end of the 3:00 p.m. show. It was all really good and I hope they do it again.

I still have pictures to post from the Q & A. I've been having a lot of problems with the camera.

[FredHuggins]

AWESOME! Thanks for the recap and upload!

[Nvts]

At the 7pm show, I was way up in the back upstairs and I half heard someone down below say something like I'm a huge Victoria Jackson fan - something something something - did you [bleep] her?

I forget what all he said, but he did end with For the record, no.

Another one was some doofus near me that asked if Al could parody some Alan Parsons Project tune. And Al said, sure, as soon as it becomes POPULAR.

[FredHuggins]

WOW.

That, my friends, is EXACTLY the sort of probing, informative interview question you can expect from Texan VJ fans. Anything harder than that is "Gotcha Journalism" apparently...

[Vargas Chick]

Wow that's a shame about the 7 p.m. show. Maybe they should have stuck to letting people near the stage, as opposed to the balcony, ask the questions? The theater was also serving liquor in the lobby, and it could have been that someone couldn't handle theirs? You know, Austin is a college town and it was Saturday night, not far from the college and 6th Street, which is party central. When we left, a little before 6 p.m., there was a group of people dancing to a boom box on the next corner, looking like they were feeling no pain. And, you need to remember that some people are just callous and insensitive jerks who feel if they themselves can't be famous, they can try and be infamous by being an ass. At least the 3:00 p.m. group was a more civilized bunch.

[FredHuggins]

you need to remember that some people are just callous and insensitive jerks who feel if they themselves can't be famous, they can try and be infamous by being an ass.

I couldn't forget that if I tried. As George Carlin said, "When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front-row seat."

[OneWAY]

Yeah, the only "off-color" (if this even counts...) question at the 3:00 PM show was "Haven't you been wearing that shirt since 1990?" He ultimately responded with "All of my shirts look like this, so it may seem like the same one, but it's really different." Stupid question, stupid answer!

[Vargas Chick]

I had forgotten about the question regarding Al's shirts. I was more bothered with the one where he was asked why he wrote "Everything You Know Is Wrong". The first thing that came to my mind was "Is that guy out of HIS mind?!", but then Al answered (jokingly) how his music comes to him in a dream, but then said that all his music is just a process of putting things together. (I'm kind of foggy on that answer. Sorry.)

It's kind of funny that Fred would mention George Carlin. I've been thinking of George the last few days too. I've read that some celebrities won't take questions cold from an audience. The questions have to be submitted ahead of time and then the best ones are answered. Kind of helps prevent the knuckle-draggers from having their moment when a more appropriate and relevant question could be answered. "When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front-row seat." How true. Thanks Fred.

[Vargas Chick]

I've remembered more from the 3:00 p.m. Q & A: Al was asked how he and Jay got together, but he turned the question over to Jay to answer. Jay said that he had heard Al through the Dr. Demento Show, and had gone out to see a performance the show was doing in Tulsa or something like that (his own words). He said that Al didn't have a band then, but that Al went out on stage for 20 minutes and just knocked everyone out just playing his accordion. After the show, Jay asked Al if he wanted to do "this" full-time for a living and of course, Al said "yes".

It was a really nice moment in the show.