World of Weird Al Yankovic

I don't think it's necessarily fair to compare Al to other acts that DO tour every summer. Despite the high opinions we as fans may have of him and his work, Al is ultimately a novelty act, whose appeal, particularly when it comes to live shows, is limited, at least when it comes to mainstream audiences. He has no trouble selling out 700 seat theaters every 3 or 4 years, and both the hardcore and casual fans will continually buy tickets for the shows because he doesn't come around all that often.

However if instead of every 3 or 4 years, Al came around every year or year and a half, I don't think he would be able to sustain long term repeat business. His shows have more or less been the same for the last decade and a half or so, plus or minus three or four tracks from whatever the most recent album is. He hits all the big songs, mixes in the new stuff, and occasionally mixes in a catalog title or two, but it's not like you're going to go to an Al show and all of a sudden hear him belt out UHF or Living in the Fridge or something. At least with most retro acts these days (and I'm not necessarily saying Al is a retro act) they constantly mix up their shows with their extensive back catalog, and often rotate a lot of obscure fan favorites. Al's back catalog is not quite as extensive as a lot of other artists, and he generally doesn't mix up the set list with anything TOO obscure. Sure, I'd love to hear Al play more of his 80's era material, but for whatever reasons he has, he generally shies away from that stuff, and sticks with the standards.

So my point is that the casual fans aren't going to come out to see Al any more frequently than the currently do, and the hardcore fans probably wouldn't either unless they were promised a significantly different show than the one we've been seeing since the RWS tour. As it currently stands, one tour every three or four years where Al hits most of the major cities in the country works, any more would be overkill.

spmahn wrote:I don't think it's necessarily fair to compare Al to other acts that DO tour every summer. Despite the high opinions we as fans may have of him and his work, Al is ultimately a novelty act, whose appeal, particularly when it comes to live shows, is limited, at least when it comes to mainstream audiences. He has no trouble selling out 700 seat theaters every 3 or 4 years, and both the hardcore and casual fans will continually buy tickets for the shows because he doesn't come around all that often.

However if instead of every 3 or 4 years, Al came around every year or year and a half, I don't think he would be able to sustain long term repeat business. His shows have more or less been the same for the last decade and a half or so, plus or minus three or four tracks from whatever the most recent album is. He hits all the big songs, mixes in the new stuff, and occasionally mixes in a catalog title or two, but it's not like you're going to go to an Al show and all of a sudden hear him belt out UHF or Living in the Fridge or something. At least with most retro acts these days (and I'm not necessarily saying Al is a retro act) they constantly mix up their shows with their extensive back catalog, and often rotate a lot of obscure fan favorites. Al's back catalog is not quite as extensive as a lot of other artists, and he generally doesn't mix up the set list with anything TOO obscure. Sure, I'd love to hear Al play more of his 80's era material, but for whatever reasons he has, he generally shies away from that stuff, and sticks with the standards.

So my point is that the casual fans aren't going to come out to see Al any more frequently than the currently do, and the hardcore fans probably wouldn't either unless they were promised a significantly different show than the one we've been seeing since the RWS tour. As it currently stands, one tour every three or four years where Al hits most of the major cities in the country works, any more would be overkill.

Post of the topic. Basically you hit the nail on the head. Everyone basically has said this, but you have summed it up well.

As it currently stands, one tour every three or four years where Al hits most of the major cities in the country works, any more would be overkill.

Every three or four years? Hmmm....

He toured in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010 and likely 2011. Am I missing something in your calculations?

scottidog wrote:

As it currently stands, one tour every three or four years where Al hits most of the major cities in the country works, any more would be overkill.

Every three or four years? Hmmm....

He toured in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010 and likely 2011. Am I missing something in your calculations?

Wasn't 2002 just an OC fair--if so you can't really call that a tour... So lets see 2003, and 2004 were for PH. Then there's a three year gap. Then Al tours in '07 and '08 for SOL. Then a 2 year gap--and he begins touring again in 2010 and 2011.

Al toured in '99 and '00 for RWS then a 3 year gap before he toured for PH.

So between albums it averages to about 2 years of non touring.

Let me check my math, admittedly not my best subject.... every two years is NOT the same as every three to four years. AND he's been touring for two years in a row during those times he has been touring.

I'll give you the 2002 dates. In the last eleven years he has toured '99, '00, '03, '04, '07, '08, '10... so seven of the last eleven years. Make that eight of the last twelve years if he tours in 2011.

scottidog wrote:Let me check my math, admittedly not my best subject.... every two years is NOT the same as every three to four years. AND he's been touring for two years in a row during those times he has been touring.

I'll give you the 2002 dates. In the last eleven years he has toured '99, '00, '03, '04, '07, '08, '10... so seven of the last eleven years. Make that eight of the last twelve years if he tours in 2011.

Yeah I think when spmahn said 3-4 years he was just coming up with a number that sounded about right.

Still, I think 2 years off (between albums) is enough to still make spmahn's point of Al not being able to tour every year. Al tours when there's an album to promote (2010 being the exception, but even then there was the internet leaks). There ARE bands out there that tour every. single. summer. regardless of a new album or not. I'm not sure if Al could do that, or would even want to.

I don't agree that Al takes the time off because he couldn't sell tickets. I think he does it so that he can work on new material.

Also, consider this. Al himself once said that if Atlantic Records didn't intervene with "You're Pitiful" and it was indeed released as the lead single on SOL, then Al would've actually started that tour in August of 2006 (running into the middle of November I'm assuming) and most likely wouldn't have toured in 2008 at all. That could've also changed the way that the "Leaks" were released (I mean he could've released them a year earlier and went on a 2009/2010 tour that would've been over by now with a full album possibly also released by this point) but I'm sure Al still wanted to experiment with digital distribution. Anyway, I only bought that up because it was my best approximation of Al's original plan over the last four years that surely would change our perception of how frequently he tours.

I don't think a guy who makes his living looking at the pop culture, waiting for the next big thing, has hard and fast plans that far into the future. Part of Al's success has been being able to be flexible.

scottidog wrote:I don't agree that Al takes the time off because he couldn't sell tickets. I think he does it so that he can work on new material.

Okay, I'm not saying he wouldn't sell tickets. But if he did tour every year then his "brand" would become stale. While we'd love to see Al every year, most people see Al once or twice and that's enough for them.

For example, when Al was in Chehalis it was a BIG thing. There were signs saying Al is here. People were talking there was a buzz in the air because they hadn't seen Al before and he hadn't been in Chehalis before either.

Once the non-hardcore fans have seen his show the novelty wears off pretty quickly.

This isn't a dig at Al or anything. He puts on a GREAT show and the non hardcore fans appreciate and acknowledge that, but at the same time it IS a novelty act. He plays basically the same setlist each night so there isn't much of a reason for the non hardcore fans to see his show twice.