Planet Hollywood
Las Vegas, NV
May 16, 2015
None of the shows were sold out, but I don't know that I would say they were small audiences either. For Las Vegas, they were good sized audiences. I've certainly been to Vegas shows with smaller audiences. And there were a lot of people I talked to coming out to Vegas this week, just to see "Weird Al" Yankovic. Tonight's show was packed actually, the biggest, and loudest audience so far.
Very good show again tonight. A few celebrities in the house. For example, I saw Andy Richter in the lobby and after the show. Also, we were sitting right in front of two of Neil Diamonds' keyboard players. And Tom Lennon came up on stage and sang "Yoda" with Al. And Suzanne and her parents were there too. Suzanne got sang to during "Wanna B Ur Lovr" and also had her forehead licked.
Before the show we met up with Vikki DeVries, Cid Strickler, and Julie Jenkins. Vikki and Cid had VIP lounge tickets so Julie, Jackie and I wandered around the casino and mall while they partook in that. We had pizza at Pin Up Pizza which was surprisingly good for not being New York pizza. And Vikki was kind enough to give me her poster.
I saw Jerry again in the lobby. He was out of uniform as he had a plane to catch right after the show, and Bob Groder was there too. I also briefly said hi to Ethan Ullman, who was one of the contest winners. I saw Andy Richter and Tom Lennon in the lobby as well. They were with their families so I wasn't sure of the etiquette and decided to play it safe and not to ask for a photo.
Like I said the concert was good and the audience was really into it. I heard a lot of loud laughter so I think there were a lot of first-timers there. During "Another One Rides The Bus" the accordion sound was off and it looked as if Al's accordion bellows got stuck and he had to bang on the bottom of the accordion to free them up.
There was little snafu during "Wanna B Ur Lovr". At the part where Al usually leaves the stage to go into the audience, he stopped, did a few more woo woo woos, and went back to motion something to the band then they got back in sync and he went into the audience like usual, except he crawled over the railing to get to Suzanne. Also, the video that usually follows him around the audience wasn't working.
"Word Crimes" probably got the biggest reaction of the night. Also, for "The Saga Begins", everyone was singing along, and at time I think the audience was louder than Al. For "Yoda", Al asked the audience to sing, then Tom Lennon walked on stage and Al said "Now just Tom Lennon" and then Tom sang. Nice surprise!
I had passes for after the show, and wow it was a mad house. There were so many people there that they split the pass holders into three groups, the contest winners, the VIP package people, and the rest/CPFOA. Jackie and I were in the latter group and I actually felt a little out of place. This wasn't the typical waiting by the bus crew. Jackie and I were easily the least famous people there. Andy Richter was there, and two keyboardists for Neil Diamond.
But we did get some time to talk to Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz for several minutes as well as exchange some Al stuff we collected for each other. And I'm really excited for some upcoming as-of-yet unannounced concert dates! I also got to talk to Jim West, and Steve Jay came over to say hello and chat with us for a little while too. Everyone is in good spirits and excited for the tour.
We only had about a minute of Al's time. Now keep in mind, there were 100 contest winners and each one brought a guest, plus maybe about 45 VIP package people, not including his CPFOA, so that's over 250 people Al had to meet tonight, so I totally understand, was fine with the short time we had, and I'm thankful for time he was able to give us. But in that minute Jackie was able to show Al some pictures she had of an Al-related project she had made, and I was able to present Al a book (on behalf of Weird Al Star Fund) by Tom Richmond (MAD magazine artist) in which Tom hand drew a picture of Al in congratulation for his #1 album. This was done last July 2014, so it was before all the MAD magazine guest editor stuff. And we even got a really nifty picture!
Afterwards, I met up with Vikki, Cid, and Julie in Paris, and we took a long walk to see the volcano at Mirage, and then a late night snack at Chipolte. Totally fun times in Vegas!! I wish I could do it all again!