There are rock stars, there are pop stars, and then there’s “Weird Al” Yankovic—a 66-year-old accordion player who has spent more than four decades turning other people’s hits into punchlines, and who can still fill an arena on a Saturday night.
On September 19, he brought his Bigger & Weirder 2026 Tour to a packed Honda Center in Anaheim, California. If you grew up wearing out a cassette of Dare to Be Stupid or a burned CD of Running with Scissors, this was the kind of night that makes you feel about twelve years old again—in the best possible way.
Opening the night was Puddles Pity Party, the seven-foot sad clown with a voice that has no business coming out of a clown. Puddles opened things up with a fun set of covers and original music, and for three of the songs, he had fans come up and join him on stage—which, if you’ve ever seen his act, is half the fun.
He played “Let’s Give ’Em Pumpkin to Talk About,” “Stairway to Gilligan’s Island,” and a cover of “Under Pressure.” The whole set was amazing. His lounge-act style of recreating songs—part crooner, part performance art, all deadpan—makes it fun for the whole crowd, and by the time he walked off, the arena was warmed up and ready.
Next up was “Weird Al” Yankovic, and he wasted no time reminding everyone why he’s lasted this long. He kicked off his set with “Tacky” and “Mission Statement” before tearing into “Polkamania!” Then, he worked through songs we’ve all been singing for years, including “Everything You Know Is Wrong,” “One More Minute,” “Smells Like Nirvana,” and “Dare to Be Stupid.”
Then came a rapid-fire medley that crammed a career’s worth of hits into one breathless stretch: “Party in the CIA,” “It’s All About the Pentiums,” “Bedrock Anthem,” “My Bologna,” “Ricky,” “Ode to a Superhero,” “I Love Rocky Road,” “Eat It,” “Like a Surgeon,” “Word Crimes,” and “Canadian Idiot.” It felt like flipping through forty years of MTV and radio in about ten minutes, and the crowd sang along to every one of them.
The hits kept coming with “Fat,” “White & Nerdy,” and “Amish Paradise,” which doubled as Al’s chance to introduce his longtime band. Along the way, he tossed in some deeper cuts for the die-hards, including “It’s My World (and We’re All Living in It),” the “Captain Underpants Theme Song,” “Skipper Dan,” “eBay,” “Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me,” and even a cover of David Bowie’s “Suffragette City.” With costume changes for seemingly every song, it was an amazing set, with every minute keeping the crowd engaged and singing along.
For the encore, Al played “We All Have Cell Phones” before closing with a galaxy-far-far-away double shot of “The Saga Begins” and “Yoda”—the perfect way to send a packed arena home still humming.
It was an amazing night of laughs and music with one of the most amazing artists around. More than forty years in, “Weird Al” isn’t just still doing it—he’s doing it bigger and, yes, weirder. If the Bigger & Weirder tour comes anywhere near you, go. Bring the kids. Bring your parents. Everybody will know the words.
PUDDLES PITY PARTY
