Prompt Engineering is Dying

All right, so let's talk about the songs and who said yes and who said no It's really cool. I saw the Jimmy Page of the fan, but said no Why would they say well? I mean, yes I know what you're referring to because at one point I wanted to do a Ledge Eppel and Polka medley and and they weren't into it What have I'm fine? but I will say we did a our Kelly parody called a trapped in the drive-through and part of that is the band just randomly launches into a black dog and Obviously we'd have to get that cleared and apparently Ledge Eppel and just never clears anything They just forget it never mind and and they said yes go ahead. So that was that was the nice one That's pretty cool. That's a bit but it must be satisfying to have all Nirvana They were I understand and we know Dave a bit they were happy that you asked yeah, we're like that you like we've made it But we're now is gonna do our song. Yeah, yeah No really Our guest of someone who accomplished something almost mathematically impossible He became one of the most beloved and enduring figures in music history by making fun of music history Weird al Yankovic has spent more than four decades turning hit songs into time capsules that often outlive the originals In a career that includes Grammy Awards platinum records best selling tours and a number one album decades After picking up an accordion out and just power to the culture. Oh, I don't just blow by the accordion did all that Within accordion I am and that's a really really It became part of the culture and what's fascinating is how he did it with comedy that is never cruel never mean No, and what makes it work is that in addition to the wall here in Laudahuaian Church There's an insane level of craftsmanship meticulous musical arrangements pitch perfect mimicry of genres plus he doesn't curse He doesn't drink he doesn't do drugs or eat anything with a face on it And he's also known as one of the nicest people in the entertainment business Which is kind of like being a healthy stoid and a gas station but nevertheless and what makes weird out the perfect guess for really No, really is that his entire career is built on a premise that sounds fake until he realized it's true a shy accordion playing kid Turn parody songs into an American institution Please welcome the legendary and very fresh smelling weird al Yankovic How did you memorize all that that's amazing? That's incredible. That's the kind of mind I get to work with Wow You by the way, it's a good place to start you're a shy kid You skip kindergarten and another grade so you're a younger kid. Thanks mom and dad Well, you skipped kindergarten and yeah, they started me a She was supposed to start when you're five and they did got me in it for and then I skipped one I was in second grade they said oh you're too smart for a second granny is pop me right in the third grade They didn't give you what they now call the gift of time. That's correct. Yeah, I was I was a 12 year old high school student Can you mad wow? Wow hi dad. Hi mom. Thank you for that really appreciate it Yeah, and and but you became the valedictorian. Yeah, a shy introverted kid. How do you how do you do and you went not the Bay Club? You're in something weird or something was basically that was called the forensic league so speech team Yeah, but if you're shy and introverted, how do you get up in front of people and do do well? I worked on it. I mean, you know, I found that I could perform like in social gatherings. I was always a little you know Not auntie social, but I just I did it was not easy for me to to socialize with people But I could found that I could get in front of people and perform if I had like a memorized speech or whatever Thing I could perform. I mean, I'm probably overplaying it I mean I can get along with people and have have pleasant conversations But I'm especially in high school I was definitely a wall flower and I was kind of person that would like eat lunch my myself or shrink away from larger crowds Were the siblings? No, no, not yet. No, I'm still an only child. You are in only yeah, see I Similar although I have a half brother and half sister, but they were 14 and 20 years older than me So I grew up as an only child. Okay, and nobody believes I could I could say the same thing you just said I was a kind of a shy scared introverted Kid nobody believes it because my whole career is playing loudmouth right right, you know But yeah, you're right it for me. I can go I can do that I probably get it for my parents because my my mother was really shine with drawn and my dad was really Grigurious and outgoing would like say hi to everybody on the street So I'm a little bit of both. I mean, I've definitely got you know I can I can perform I can be that guy, but also you know in my off time my you know I'm not the life of the party One of the really no reason that we can throw out there is Adored to door sale when comes to the house and I don't know which part is true so I need your driver and it's a coin toss He says if you neither give guitar lessons or accordion lessons and what it said is there is a coin toss Which I'm not sure if that's true at number one, but it's it's kind of a coin toss and then the other thing is The line that your parents thought the accordion could revolutionize rock and roll that's also in a bio And I don't mean to laugh that if that's true. Was there an actual coin toss? I think that's murder. I'm metaphorical. So I'm not sure you know, it was that was a while ago So I'm not exactly sure how I went down I'm told that that I was sort of like leaning towards guitar lessons and my mom made the decision that I should a Cardian lessons because obviously she wanted me to be really popular in high school So that was that was a thinking there Who's doing door to door? That's not true. No, I was no, yeah So that sounds like third grade when I was in third grade you had to take an instrument Mm-hmm, but they had the instruments Yeah, yes This guy how it's work. This is like death of a sale. Yeah, I'm like Oh, hi Come back. Yeah, Judy Teneuta started the same way she was a door-to-door, you know accordion person came around and was like would your daughter like to take lessons? Oh my god, that was a thing. That was a seven-year-old and accordions on I mean was it a little student model like little 12-based Oh, and then once they chose some attitude. I love you. Yeah, yeah, sure Yeah, are they up there? They were in my door to door sale so in the sixties there was nothing delivered There's bread being delivered eggs being delivered in accordion Yeah, you would let people in your house come on in what you got back him cleaner guys Yeah, like my my my parents. I think body bought a Polaroid camera from a Georgia door salesman was I think wait now. Where did you go up? Linwood? It's part of LA. Wow like straight out of lima hello Because that sounds like the Ozarks the Appalachia. I mean a guy shows up at your door within accordion Today, I know other choice today if a guy shows every cordon His pictures on a milk cart and direct like shortly Shortly after and and accordion stuff. So you took a three years of lessons And do you say accordion sucks? What do you know? I said what did I say no? I said accordion's tough. Oh Yeah, so you took three years of lessons that you play by ear you play by your so you did it all by yourself, right? Yeah, I mean, I listen to like my Elton John albums or whatever try to learn the chord changes and things like that I mean I saw the three years. I learned how to write and read music and I learned the basics. Okay But after that it like they weren't they weren't teaching you led Zeppelin and accordion school They're teaching you like lady Spain and then Polka's and some classical pieces and I wanted to play rock music So I would just learn by ear and play the songs on the right. I gotta delve into this Yeah, you're sure because I've held it and I you know I've gone we while you know But we've all gone to we wide I got I know the keyboard That's a little small piano keyboard right is the is are the buttons are they Full chords is that what we're doing? So here's the way is there different accordions and different layouts But basically for a full-size accordion the top two rows are all bass buttons So single low notes uh-huh and then there's rows Like the next row would be major chords and the next row would be minor chords and then seventh and then diminished So there's a logic to it. Wow, but yeah, wow. Okay. I learned music on flute. Oh, so I learned to read you know a treble clef Melody line and that is a floutus. I would well because I had horrible orthodontia We didn't have a piano my parents said no to drums and it had to be an orchestral instrument in third grade Oh, right. I didn't have the uh soundly is the school where all you bet Oh, you bet and I couldn't put anything in my mouth like a read instrument uh-huh And I couldn't I what was that because of the dental Oh, right of course and then uh if I if I had like a trumpet that pushed and needed an armbassure That was gonna rip up my lips too. So T-t-t was was about all I had left that a revile in and I went both are gonna get me killed So Take the light and play a little bit. Oh, yeah, sure, but I learned you know music theory by teaching myself a little bit of Keyboard but the the reason I was curious about the accordion is here you are learning You know a treble a treble on one side, but you have to understand chord structure to hit those buttons and know what the hell you're doing So I that's a lot piano and then like the whole chord structure thing and then like you have to remember to keep moving the bells and out and then you know If you if you sing along with that that's yet another thing about I guess when you're a kid is easy to learn that because your synapses are like very liquid Because I had to give Daniel Radcliffe a accordion lessons because he played me in the biopic. Oh, we'll get to that and uh and uh And he was a very quick steady, but he just reminded me like how tough it is to learn anything as an adult because it's it's not It sucks. It's because the other thing is you forget when you're doing this it'll also make a sound and if you don't want it to make a sound Because there's a pause and is it like the harmonica that it's a different sound on the on the pull apart than it is on the There there are recordings like that. I don't play those accordion As things are concertinus or there's a special kind of accordion and I don't even have a But if you're doing a song that's a rock song with emphasis you got a really really oh, yeah, do the thing So it's like it's like - It's very slow, it's a cluster you know what it's all. hard instrument to play. So we'll cut through the early part just because it's interesting. It's interesting, but I want to get to some other stuff. You ended up, it's funny, Laurie, our producer. I go, "Waiting to meet Al." He is genuine and a nice guy. She said, "I knew Al when he was at the mail room at Westwood One and I was at Westwood One, so you would recognize Laurie." Yeah. And I didn't know you're Westwood One. Is it true? You're working at Westwood One. You would already recorded in the men's room at the, at the, the Radar State College, Radar State. Yeah. And you're picking up the mail and you looked at a billboard magazine and no one had told you this, you're still doing the mail. Right. You're on the charts. Yeah. Yeah. No, because I had a record deal, but it was, you know, especially in my case where I'm just like a geeky accordion player, they're not going to like say, "Here's your pile of money. Go live in a nice place." Right. Your day job was just sort of like, "Okay, we'll send you a royalty statement if you send any records." But and I saw I was still working in the mail room for close to minimum wage, I guess. And I picked up the mail and billboard magazine was there and I just leafed through and like, "Oh, I'm on the hot 100 chart." And then that was the day that I decided to give notice at work. Yeah. What, what, what, what tune was that? It was, it's called Ricky. It was a parody of Mickey by Tony Bousel about, I love Lucy Ricky and Lucy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was huge. And then Dyke, I did Dyke fire from the NAC. Is he the one who got your record contract basically? Well, my very first deal was deal in quotes was with a capital records. What happened was my balloon was a big hit on the dark to the men's show. And this was the bathroom recording. I literally recorded it in the bathroom. But it was, you know, the, the, the, the mentor was playing it and it was a hit on the show. And I was still in college at the time. And then that came to to Cal Poly where I was attending. And I, I don't know how he did it by somehow scammed him away my way backstage after the show. So I could meet the band. And I introduced myself to Doug Bygurth, the lead singer. And he said, Oh, Al Yank, you're the my Belona guy. And he turns to the guy immediately next to him and says, this is the guy that in my balloon, he should put this out. And he was talking to the vice president of the capital records who just happened to be there. And the guy said, okay. Was the mentor syndicated time Barry? Was he everywhere? Was it national? He started out local in LA on KMT. And, and then Westwood one picked him up. And then he was on, I don't know how many radio stations. A lot, a lot. And what a great guy. And a great guy, a different kind of guy, but really interesting. Yeah. And sweet. He would get me all kinds of stuff that was obscure. The credibility gap, I can't say, Hey, do you have, and he said, I'll send it to you. And he said, I'm gonna be real real with the thing. Yeah. And he has super smart. And you guys helped each other basically because as you got bigger kind of took him up with you, right? A little bit. Yeah, it was, you know, very symbiotic. It's, you know, because one, my, I think it was another one rides the bus when that hit. It wasn't on a record. So if you wanted to play that on a radio station, you had to have the Demento show. So it kind of lifted him up a little bit and certainly lifted me up quite a bit. Cause, you know, if he never existed, I don't, I don't know what I'd be doing today. I've got a degree in architecture, which I was hoping never to use. Like regional accordionist at a wedding. Right. Wow. I played my, my cousin's eighth grade wedding when I was eight years old. So I got that my resume. And did they call out songs? No, I had a set, I had a set list on I followed it exactly. That's like being a courtiers magician. Of course, I'll do these tricks. I'll do your request. So how did you make the leap to parody songs? Where you were, I mean, when I was a kid, Alan Sherman was a shurring and I wrote a time was writing original stuff. Yeah. Was that in your record collection as well? I bought a Alan Sherman albums for a quarter pick and save and a Demento, of course, played Alan Sherman. Yeah, he was a big influence. I, you know, and, and, you know, I think most eight-year-olds listen to the radio and they just change their words around to amuse their friends. So it wasn't like Alan invented that or anything like that. That's sort of like in your DNA when you're a young kid. And that was just something I never grew out of. I just kept doing that and setting in tapes. But it's hard. What people don't realize and this is, I don't know if you get down on it or if you get frustrated with it because you know it as the comedy music guy. Yeah. They don't know. I mean, I seen you live a bunch of times. You're an amazing musician and wrote it out because I want to get it right. A parody has to criticize culture while at the same time loving it enough to understand it intimately. You have to hit those notes. You have to sound like a song or it's not going to work. And my banders, you know, is comprised of some of the best musicians on the planet. I mean, they're all amazing multi-instrumentalists. You know, people sometimes generate comedy music if they think, oh, you know, what a hack. There doesn't have any talent. But you have to have a real appreciation and understanding of music. I mean, the people like Spike Jones in the 40s and 50s, like, you know, he was doing comedy performances. But I mean, his band was top notch. Right. There were some best players in town. So it doesn't actually work if you're not like really nailing it musically. But you always nail over and above. And I'll give you a great example. So I subscribe to those American greetings. So you pay for American greetings or whatever that fee is for the year. And then you have a million videos you can send out with cards and the celebrity bunch of Shatner, which is funny and Martin Short. And Donnie, Donnie, I was not a part of that. You're sitting at yours is mind blower because you feel like saying you didn't have to work that hard. Kevin Neill and Dan Warwick, you know, Alston did a desk. And he's talking to you. And then the set opens up behind. And he's flailing and doing and the band is kicking it. And then you still have to do happy birthday Aaron. Happy birthday, Abel. Happy birthday Anthony. Have a long day. Thank you. Well, for out a couple of weeks probably. But the thing that bugs me is like, you know, people love it. But they say, Oh, it's amazing what AI can do. Isn't it? Like, right. I was like, No, I was in a room for like days going, Happy birthday dear Althea. Happy birthday to your Aaron. But I bet today, you know what? I think please tell me that you get 90% I can't imagine the fee that would make me go. I can see. Well, but remember one thing. And I'm talking on a school here, but watch his eyes because it'll betray. You get a decent down. And then you get once you've done the three days, yeah, it's there forever. Yeah. And if 20,000 people next week ordered the thing, you get a mailbox. Check that you go, Oh, wow. Look, that's kind of nice. But that's what I'm saying. Right. Hopefully he's getting 90% of everything. I will tell you, money, I like money, but it wasn't a factor at all. I just wanted to freak out my friends. Right. Because Donnie Osmond did it to me on my birthday. He sent me his his thing. And I was like, I was watching going, I can't believe he did this just for me. I know. So and then when I feel realized, Oh, it's a whole service like that. Well, I have to do this. This is great. It is great. I mean, what was your birthday present? It was better than that. His friends because he's the biggest Star Trek fan. He did his audition in college, right? Is the shatner? Well, I don't know. His friends bought him for his birthday. Shatner. Nice. Does he can be bought? He's living now. He's still living down. Still living. I bet it can mention that. Yeah. I don't think he'd do that. By the way, they had to went to the aroma cafe over in, was that studio of Vista Village. And there's a thing on my plate that says you're about to go where a few men, a few men have gotten before. And Bill comes in and he goes, hi, I'm Bill on your birthday present. And he sits and I, it took me a solid 10 minutes to not think I was, you know, being punked. Did he agree to it? About Jason, his biggest he is and everybody knows who he is. When we did a TV show, Bob Patterson, where he played a fake motivational, a motivational guy who was brought that the pitch was his motivational guy who can't motivate his own family. I mean, he didn't have a sense of shatner. So he had to act with him all the time. Had to kiss him on the mountain. And he had to kiss him on the mountain. But you could still see Jason. It's not intimidated. Oh, no, it wasn't. Yeah, it's cute. It was adorable to watch. All right. So let's talk about the songs and who said yes and who said no. It's really cool. I saw the Jimmy Page of the fan but said no. Why would they say? Well, I mean, yes, I know what you're referring to because at one point I wanted to do a Led Zeppelin Polka medley and they weren't into it. What a fun. But I will say we did a arch heli parody called a trap in the drive-through and part of that is the band just randomly launches into a black dog. And obviously, we'd have to get that cleared and apparently Led Zeppelin just never clears anything. They just forget it never mind. And they said, yeah, go ahead. So that was that was a nice one. That's pretty cool. That's a bit, but it must be satisfying to have Nirvana. I understand and we know Dave a bit. They were happy that you asked. We were like that you like we've made it. We're now is going to do our song. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Which is pretty amazing. And you hit. Did MTV was that the thing? The timing of MTV because that's I mean, we knew you, but you were in rotation. That's unbelievable because you spent a time like, bad and all that stuff. I mean, that must have caused some coin at that time. Well, you know, they the videos got you know, price or in price or as time went on. And you know, certainly it was it was worth it because back then in the 80s, you had the monoculture because if it was hot hot rotation and MTV, everybody knew it. Every time it really drove sales. So like everything was geared toward that one single and that one video and hopefully this moves the units. Right. Right. Right. Right. If they were you would, I mean, close my eyes and I can think of the 10 videos that remember and that was like every minute that was that. And there were a couple of what were what other ones that you put out that time in the 80s? Yeah. Like we'll be on MTV. Oh, it was so like it was eat it and like a surgeon and and fashion. Amish when we get 90s. Played on. Yeah. Although they played that. It was still a T. L. An because I remember seeing that a lot. Yeah. By the way, Amish people like that or don't know what it exists. They're not big MTV viewers apparently. Obviously. But you do ever have an Amish person at your show when they went. Yes. It's hard to say because a lot of people cosplay as Amish people show up in the audience. So it's hard to see who's really. Oh, I forgot. Probably in room spring. Yeah, yeah, what percentage of your audience is dressed for the event is something? Yeah, you get you must get the color. Yeah, people with dressed up as Jedi and I dressed up like as me from the 80s or the most action the glasses, whatever. You know, it's great about that and to get a little serious for a moment. Okay, let's get serious. No, in today's world, it's pretty divided and there's a lot of anger and there's a lot of hatred. Comedy and music are the two things that kind of bridge to divide. And what sweet is you go to your show and it doesn't matter what's what what's side of the hour, who it is. Well, I'm trying to save the world. I'm giving a shot. We'll see what happens. No, it's the fact that you're doing music and it resonates. Is it do you think that people laugh at the stuff? It's they're laughing at the lyricals or they laughing at the era or the combo? You know what I mean? At the callback because it's so it's so iconic. Yeah, that era music's touchstones. Your music is touchstones for certain points. I mean, you know, I I be lying to myself that I didn't say there was like a nostalgia involved. I mean, there's comedy and all that. But I think a lot of people come to the shows so they can, you know, relive the experiences they had, listen to the music when they first heard of it. Whatever decade that happened to be in. And now when it started on the 80s, a large percentage of my audience was like 12-year-old boys. It was like it appealed to them specifically. And that's the age that I got in the Mad Magazine. Right. So they had a brain at that age. But those 12-year-old boys grew up and they started bringing their families. And now it's like their grandkids are coming to the show. So it's amazing. There is, I'm sure, the nostalgia thing is true. But I remember every time one of your new pieces would break. And I would and you you get to the point of it. Like Yoda. I remember Yoda being the one where I went. That's brilliant. That's brilliant. Of course. Nobody else, it's like we were talking about Sci-Fi before. He just sees the thing that's sitting there that nobody else sees. And you go, of course, Yoda, of course. That's Yoda is the biggest thing in pop culture at the moment. That song is just sitting there. Somebody marry them. And you go, uh-huh. And that's hard to do. You're the guest right. What's going to be the cultural thing, the wave. Where you have to wait because you wait too long. You miss it? It's over. You miss it. So timing was always a big part of what I did. It was a real hat trick when an album came up because I had to have 12 songs. Some of which at least were topical or timely. Right, right. But that was always a bit of a juggling act. Because you just kind of never knew what was coming down the pipeline. Did you miss what's one that you met like where you go? Oh, man, just it came out too late. You know, sometimes the cycles don't work. I think I think I missed the whole banelle ice train with a guy. No, where else in the world is someone saying that exact line. I don't know. I'm just a banelle ice train. So there's a fine line between tribute and critique. Do you ever cross it? Because you're not me. The cool thing is the respect that you have for the music. You probably know more about the mathematical way to make a hit song. Because you've dissected them so many times that you sit back and go, I see what they're doing here with popular songs. Do you get that? Do you sometimes feel like, oh, like you got the human algorithm for this thing? You know, I've been studying it for a long time. So I do kind of have a formula in my head. And it's a lot of trial error. Trial and error. Because like for every line in an apparel song, I have 12 alternate lines. Just phrased a little differently. It flows a little differently. Maybe it's a different joke entirely. But I obsess, even though it's ostensibly just silly material, it's a lot of hardware for me. Because I'm not going to say it comes easy, but I've been doing it long enough that I kind of know how to do it. And it's just a lot of. Well, it's funny. Okay, to that point, I understand that you wanted to do chicken pot pie from a carton. Right? Based on what's on? Livinglet die. Okay, livinglet die. This got me. He didn't want you to do it because he's a vegan or vegetarian. Right. Vegetarian. And you wouldn't change chicken. You could have changed it to instead of chicken pot pie to something else. Yeah, but it didn't work for you. Which is because words are the key. So you can it. You can it rather than do a parody of livinglet die. Because I hate to come from a. Because chicken pot pie sounds more like livinglet die than broccoli pot pie or. Right, right, right. And besides the whole chorus of the song was. And vegetables don't make any noise. Did you do? No, it was a lady Gaga. So you lady Gaga turned you down, but you found out. Okay, this is a really interesting one. It's a convoluted. And to this day, I probably will. I probably never know what the actual story was. But I was dealing with her manager at the time, who since been fired, I guess. But it was a whole. It's a whole Gaga saga, whereas I wanted to get permission. Usually I give them the idea of the song. And they say yes or no. And in this case, it's like the manager was saying, "Well, we really need to see lyrics." I'm like, "Well, you know, it's not going to be offensive. It's just going to be in my stuff as light-hearted." And you know, here's. I've done this for 30 years. Here's my other stuff. It's going to be like that. And they know we really need to see the lyrics. Like, okay. So I'm on vacation at the time. So I'm taking time away from my family and writing the lyrics. And okay, this is good. And they send it back and they say, "We really need to hear it." Like, "Oh my God." It's my lyrics and her song put them together in your head. That's how it's going to be. And you also don't have to get permission because it's parody. But you do it. But you do it. It's a gray area. It's a gray area. But so I literally went to the studio, paid the money to actually record the finished song, which is something I've never done. It was like, "If that's what she needs, great." Wow. And send in and we later like, "No." But you did something really classic. So basically I said, "Well, I put in all this time and effort and I'm not going to have it on the album apparently, but if you want it for a free download, here it is." And then people were like stopping Lady Gaga on the street saying, "What's going on without?" Wow. And it turns out her manager never approached her at all. Her manager just, you know, allowed to leave the files. Oh, she wouldn't be interested in this. And the meantime, Lady Gaga's like, "I love Al. This is gray. Of course you can have it on the album." Yeah. And you donated the money. Yeah. So all the proceeds went to the human rights camp. That's what all those. Yeah. So I, I don't, you know, we were talking about, a second ago, we were talking about how we're not all, we're not all watching the same stuff. We're not all listening to the same stuff. So how do you determine, this is how out of the music world I am, how do you determine that a song has got enough audience saturation that it's worth parodying? Well, that's, you know, you'll notice I haven't done a full-on parody in the last 12 years. Like my last album came on 2014. Yeah. Right. Number one album, but that was the end of my contract. And, and, and song producers are just really hard to do now to keep them fresh and to keep them unique. Because number one, like you said, like not everybody was listening to the same thing. Right. So it's harder to determine what even is a big hit song. And so there certainly still hit songs, but it's hard to really nail those down. And even so, like anytime there is a hit song, there's a thousand parodies immediately on YouTube. So it's, you know, it's hard to, you know, come up with something that 20 other people have an already thought of. Right. Yeah. Well, it'd be totally different. And you went from MTV to what, what, what came next? I mean, it's like Napster and then tick to, I mean, VHS, all in on and on. And you bridged them. Was there ever a point where you got really nervous because one of the, one of the next generation things was like daunting to you and you didn't figure it out? I probably, there's a period in the early 2000s where MTV was basically not playing music video as anymore. And YouTube didn't exist. So there was a period of several years there that it kind of didn't make sense to do music videos. And music videos were sort of like how I was used to pretty as I mean, presenting myself to the world. Because like, you know, radio stations in general, I didn't play me, certainly not in rotation, made some wacky morning DJs would like throw me on for a few seconds. But the music videos were really, you know, how they were the commercial for the album. And for several years, that really wasn't available. And then YouTube showed up and all of a sudden that became the new on demand and TV, which was even better. Right. The other thing is when you put your album out, you released eight videos one a day for eight days. Was that based on the algorithm or is that based on just making noise? Well, that was just me thinking like, what's the, I really wanted to like have like my best first week sales numbers ever. And I thought, what's the best way to get yourself out there? And I noticed that whenever I posted anything on social media, it was viral for about 24 hours. It like made a big splash. And I thought, well, how about if I like take over the new cycle every day for a full week and like every day at 11 a.m. Eastern time, new weird al video. And people are looking forward to it and it becomes a whole thing. And people in that entire work. And it worked entire week. I was like all over social media and it, yeah, it seemed to work. It seemed to work because that was your album that went number one. That's 40 years after you started this business. Correct. Right. Yeah. Which is amazing. So what do you say to kids today? Maybe don't say anything to them, but who are influencers who are trying to make a noise. And everybody wants to cut through. Did you ever go that route? Well, you go, I got to become more chaotic. I got to become edge here because I'm going to lose it. I'm not going to cut through and panic a little bit about how do I now navigate this world? No, I don't panic about that kind of stuff. I mean, my sense of humor is what it is. I'm not going to try to like, suppose what other people are going to like or respond to. I don't focus test my stuff. I don't, you know, if people aren't responding to something on stage, I'll probably not, not play it anymore. But, but it's not like I'm changing my whole sensibility to try to fit in with some kind of new algorithm that people have about comedy. Is there a young guy that you're mentored that came to you and showed up? And he wants to be the next you? I don't know that anybody wants to be the next me, but there are certainly people, you know, younger than myself who are doing quite well in, you know, using comedy, Bo Burnham took advantage of the pandemic quite well with his best, I thought we're brilliant. And you know, I'm, you know, friends with the, you know, the lonely island and, and the tenacious D and, and fly to the Concorde. They don't love you because they, they, they get what you did. And you got a huge impact on, I love the McCartney. You directed McCartney. Yeah, I did a little a fair attraction called Weird Al's Brain in 3D. So I said 3D movie about the workings of the brain, very educational. And, and Paul was nice enough to, uh, to let me record him for, for half a minute when he was playing Coachella. Isn't that daunting? Yeah. I remember at Coachella, when we were waiting for Paul to get off stage so we could do it. There was a guy from the BBC ahead of me just, he seemed very stuffy and very, you know, very serious. And right before Paul shows up, he goes, I can't believe it. Paul McCartney is going to be weird. Like freaking out like a little girl. Okay, I don't feel so bad now. Did he impact you? Did he get, did the Beatles hit you or was it Myron Florent? Myron Florent from the Myron's Rock Show. Yes. Yes. Oh my God. I remember it was 1964. Yeah. It was a solid mixture of Myron Florent came on. Yeah. Well, Myron Florent was my first autograph. Was it really? Yes. Yes. There's a picture of me like beaming like standing next to Myron Florent. I'm like eight years old or something. But I wouldn't say the Beatles probably had a slightly more impact on me. Did you have a lot of personal dealings with Michael Jackson as well? Because you covered so much. I met him. I also, I met him twice. Yeah. So the first time, gosh, where was it? The first, well, I, the last time I met him, I gave him a gold album for even worse, which was my album that had bat on the bad parody. And he was very gracious. He took it and he smiled and looked at it. And I'm sure he threw it on the pile when he got home. No, I'm sure he knew he knew he made your career. But he was the one who kind of got the ball rolling because I was absolutely. Yes. But was that tricky? I mean, we talked about Gaga, but was was that a, a Nord deal? Well, the usual cases like my people talked to their people kind of thing. And so it, this was like whatever, 1983, 1984. And you know, I had an album out and it did okay, but I certainly wasn't a household name. I think nobody knew who I was. And the fact that, you know, we put out the request and Michael Jackson got back to us and gave it a stamp of approval. That was huge. He was like the biggest thing in the universe. He took the ball rolling. And yeah. So in fact, the fact that he said, okay, really kind of grease the wheels for everybody else because a lot of people on the fence going, I don't know about those weird outgye, like, well, Michael Jackson didn't seem to have a problem with it. Yeah. Can I ask you because I don't know the date. I know your parents died tragically, but did they get to see you? Because you played Carnegie Hall. Did they get to see much of your sick? How much of your success did they get to see? They saw enough. They passed April 9th, 2004. So they saw, they saw quite a bit of it. They never saw Carnegie Hall or Madison Square Garden or something like that. But they saw enough to know that I was doing okay. And they were very happy. Well, it's so sad. And they were so sad. And you played the night after they did the same thing. The same thing. To get through it. But it must have taken you along. If still, I mean, I don't know how you ever get through it. Yeah. You never get over it. It's just something you just learn to live with. Yeah. But I mean, both my parents never got to see me do much. You know, never radio or they had no idea. Yeah. What career I ended up with. They got to meet my daughter, which is more important. That was me. That was sweet. Wow. We put Madison Square. When you played Madison Square Garden, that must have been where you freaked out. Oh, yeah. That's that's I'd never even been inside Madison Square Garden. Wow. Before. So it was one of those kind of, I'll tell you, it's one of those things I used to joke about. In fact, there's a in the 80s, I used to have a tour t-shirt with just bogus states on the back. Like it would say, I played Madison Square Garden on. Because it was a joke. Like who who in the right mind would think that I would play Madison Square Garden? Oh, yeah. But you played big venues. When you came through early, so I should mention the tour bigger and weirder. Yeah. Same musicians except out at Horn. There's horns again, right? There's that in Horn. So you got a keyboard. So you get freed up a little bit. Right. But it's the same guys. And they are, I've seen three times and as far back as when you opened for the monkeys, what we talked about before we went on, you kill it. You just kill it. And I don't know how the energy still, the energy to do the kind of show you expect you to do. I still kick above my head. You know, I still do all the, oh, yeah. You kick above your head. No, don't out. Wow. Like Molly Shen. I'm kidding. I'm singing. Are you singing and doing custom changes? Yeah. Are you shfitz? Are you soap and wet when you're done? Are you losing weight? If I do it, right? Yeah. But the audience you kill, you kill every song. And I watch the audience reaction. It's not just big. They erupt when you come out. Like when you do bad, they go out of their mind and the band. Does the band enjoy it as much as they always did? I mean, we've done over 2000 live shows and there's some songs we've literally played over a thousand, fifteen hundred times. But it never gets old because the audience is still loving it. So recently, after going through the palisades fires, I had to get rid of a lot of clothing. So I've heard about clints and they became my go-to because everything feels like an upgrade. For example, Quince has a full line of lightweight, 100% European linen shorts and shirts insanely soft, 100% Pima contenties and comfortable, relaxed pants and everything. Everything is probably 50 to 80% less than what you'd find as similar brands. Because clints works directly with ethical factories and they cut out the middleman by buy. So you get premium materials without the markup. For instance, I'd never had any encourage me before because it's so expensive. 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So if you enjoy the thrill of unnecessary spending good for you keep your plan but if you want to save every single month big time mint mobile is for you. Shop plans at mintmobile.com/really that's shop plans at mintmobile.com/really. Offer up payment of $45 or three months five gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 a month. New customer offer for first three months only then full price plan options available taxes and fees extra see mint mobile for details. Who did you what rock bands did you open for because that must have been a little daunting also. Not many not many I open for the Monk you for an entire tour. I think maybe in the 80s for a couple shows I open for night ranger. I think one is for survivor maybe? I don't know but I learned early on because I had a really really bad experience one of my first live shows I opened for missing persons in 1982 and I loved the band and I thought they were great but their audience did not want an accordion player on stage so we were literally pelted for 45 minutes. That's like Brad Garrett opening for Sinatra. Yeah you tell what you tell it because there's a great a great great I'm gonna mess it up Brad should really tell it but early in his career Brad was opening for Sinatra in Vegas never met Sinatra didn't you know Sinatra had all his guys on stage right and Brad had to go out and do 20 minutes and he said they didn't even lower the lights nobody is there for Brad Garrett you know and he's throwing the jokes into the void and unlike the third night he goes well that's it for me stick around for Frank go isn't it dressing room and he says jilly rhythm what does that mean stick around for Frank what does that mean you know and Brad is not sweating well it's a joke mr. of course of course nobody's here for me everyone's here everyone's here for mr. Sinatra so it's just great - Right, right. - But it's ironic. It's ironic. And he's like, "I don't know. I don't get it. I don't understand it." But all right, if you said right. And Brad's like, "Oh my God, please let this conversation end "and I still have a pulse." Julie Rizzo leaves. Brad is now trying to get out of the place for the night. And he hears over the announcement, Mr. Garrett, please report to Mr. Sinatra in his dressing room. - Oh no. - And he's like, "That was it?" (laughing) Well, he's never met Sinatra, right? And as Brad told it to me, he said, he goes and he knocks on the door, come in. And he opens the door and Sinatra is doing his bow tie up. And the mirror never turns them. Just went, "Yeah, what is this stick it to Frank?" - Oh no. (laughing) - And Brad goes, "I think Frank gets this much out." He goes, "Well, no, Mr. Sinatra." And Frank turns around and with the gun finger goes, (clicks tongue) "Never again." And I was at, and Brad left town. (laughing) He still had another week to go. - He's like, "What's that facial surgery, "but he need to go all the way home." - I'm out, I'm out, I can't, I can't do it. - Just stick it to Frank. - So he never breaks this stuff. So Frank still thinks he said stick it to Frank. - Stick it to Frank. - But he said, "This Frank's gone." So he's out of hiding. He was in the witness's particular. Have you ever done Vegas? Did you ever play residency there? - We were playing Vegas at some point this summer. And yeah, we've done many residency. He was like a planet Hollywood and a place like that. So, the sphere. - Yeah, I love the sphere. I don't know if my spirit is wrong. - Oh my god, ow, ow. - It writes itself. (laughing) Are you kidding me? If there's anybody who could get you into the psychedelia, I mean, the dead are gone. - I'm gonna push back on that and I'll tell you why. And I'm being very serious. The sphere for me is the sonic experience with visuals. - Right. - He's the visual. - But I don't wanna not be looking at him. - I know, but the visual could be him being projected in space. - Yes. - I don't know. I think there's something. Honestly, you have to remember, it's a hybrid show. It's great music, but it's also a comedy show. You don't wanna disperse the audience attention on comedy. You want them looking at it. He's got to control the funny. - Think out the box. - All right, good for you. - I think they asked the artist to be like, it's like a million dollars for the video show. There's like a huge upfront. - Oh, that's amazing. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, you two said, how much? - Yeah. - 'Cause then they were told how much they can make. - I am too dumb to go away. - They're doing a lot. - We make that back within 20 minutes of the first show. - Yeah, they're doing the you two a concert, but without you two there, they just had to do it. - Yeah, right, right. Well, they're gonna be doing that a lot as people ate. (laughing) I think the start of the month. - The monkey, you'll open for the monkeys again at this video. - Is there a monkey? Oh, it's what's his name's like. - Mickey, Mickey, yeah. - We're the great ones. - We're a good one. - I have two stupid questions for you. You probably answered a thousand times, but I know the answer. - Well, it's two. - How did the weird get attached? Did you create it? Did it get, and did you like it or did you go? - I was being called weird, a weird owl during my freshman year in the dorms. I'm not exactly sure why. I seem like a totally normal person. But people were like, see me in the hallway. And I, there's where it all. And I don't know why. But I'm sure it wasn't, it was more, probably more derogatory than friendly. - Yeah, but my sophomore year, I got a shift on my college campus radio station, and we needed a wacky air name. Weird owl already got the neck name, no problem. So that was where I was officially weird owl. Just kind of stuck with it. - And then the other one is, and I love this guy. I don't know him well, but I love him. But if somebody said, I'm gonna give you a hundred Hollywood names to play weird alleyhacker. - In a film. I think, I don't think the first hundred I would have gotten to Daniel Radcliffe. How did that love match go? - Well, we weren't looking for an exact physical doppelganger. I was looking for somebody that was sort of embody my personality. And I was a big fan of all of Daniel's work. I loved Harry Potter as well. But the stuff that he did post Harry Potter, I was really impressed with. Because there's just really interesting and totally weird stuff. And I thought, well, maybe he'd be a mental bull to this. And the thing that really put him on my radar was he did the Graham Norton Show in 2010. And he performed the element song by Tom Lehrer. - Oh. - Do you remember that song? - I sure am. - Yeah, so every single element in the periodic table wrapped, you know. - Wow. - And there's like Rihanna and Colin Farrell are there on the panel just staring at him. Like, what are you doing in Nerd? And I thought, oh, this, I love this guy. He's gonna be my friend. - And are you friends? You staying touch? - Yeah, absolutely. - I just saw him on Broadway. - Is it really interesting? - Sort of. - I loved him in that show. - So great. - Yeah. - That show is performed all around the world. We were talking about it the other day. But he is so uniquely suited to that material. - Yeah. - He's also working for me. - He's gonna show a crazy Morgan, which is kind of a 30 rock type thing. And he kills it. - Yeah. - He's a frustrated, - The fucking man. - He is a consummate actor. - Look at what he did from his career. Look where he's gone. And the risk he's taken. He was naked on stage in equest, right? I mean, the guy I know. - He's 100% the person you want to work with because he's the sweetest guy in the world. He's the most professional guy you'll ever want to work with. He's just, everything about him is just, I can't be more of a glowing review. It's just such a. - Did you have Final Say in Casting and everything with that movie? Was that your whole deal? - Yeah, I mean, Eric Appell was the director and he and I wrote the script together. And we both were, I mean, we had a casting director obviously, but we had Final Say in there. - I loved it. By the way, you HF, so you HF, everything was with Bond when it came out. We'll talk about that in a second. But it's cult-wise, it's huge. But it bombed when it came out because what was the movies that were open? I looked and I thought, in what world did some executive go? This is when we. - When we count our progress. - This is when we got, what's the one we got to go out? It was like Indiana Jones. - Yeah. - Batman, a Batman one of the. - One of the Batman's. - One of the Batman's? - Honey, I was running the kids, do the right thing when Harry met Sally. It was like, you know, it was like the middle of one of the biggest blockbuster summers ever. And it's because it tested really well. Like we played it a big, we were in New Jersey and like five teenagers thought, oh, I love this. So, it's a summer blockbuster. - Yeah, but it's a little. - But did that tomorrow, was it bad thing for you personally that it didn't perform the way you wanted? - It wasn't a great thing. (laughing) - But do you, I know you a long time. And again, you are, I don't just say to nicest, you are a sweet man, and a lovely man, and a caring man. But I've never seen you down down, 'cause I'm not around you. I don't know what drives you down, but this is a hard career to do, and you get a lot of nose, okay? And you're doing something really unusual, or maybe because you had that path and there is no competition, and you always did well, or you own your own song, whatever, you didn't have to take a lot of crap from people. But did you ever hit, was it a rock bottom to the Weird Out career? - There was no rock bottom. I didn't really spiral into depression, but I had a couple of years while I was kind of like, thinking like, "Muh, maybe my career's over," 'cause I just like, "I gave a shot of this movie," and that didn't happen. And I didn't know. And I wish I would have learned something at that point that I learned later on. My wife and I have a saying that we learned from Neil deGrasse Tyson, be the climate, not the weather, 'cause you wanna keep an even keel and not be all up and down like the weather is, 'cause you don't wanna get too full of yourself when you're at the top, or to down on yourself and you're at the bottom, because things tend to oscillate. - But it's really hard. My dad told me he never got to see me in show business, but he saw me in filly doing some stuff, and he said to me, "I don't know what, just know, 'cause it's amazing, you're gonna have the highest highs, but no, you're also gonna have to low as low." So be prepared, be ready for that, be prepared for that. And he's right, because it's, they're judging you. They're judging your work, they're judging your creativity. They're not judging the, like, their architecture, no, we need a beam here, oh, fine. It's you, you stuck. The movie stuck. The song stuck. Yeah, I mean, it's that. Have you ever worked on a parody song that you could, like we, I tell you off the, about the Seinfeld Sport Track, or the thing about Frank's, now we told her off the year, or I think we told the joke the other day. But it was a song that you never broke, that you went, "I just can't finish this song." Nothing, I never, a song that I've, you know, already said, "Okay, I'm gonna do this song, we got the permission, and I've never gotten halfway through it going, "I don't know how to finish this, 'cause I always can." And I've become a pretty good judge of what concepts will work in a pop song form. Like, if I come up with an idea, all I wanna do is party this song, call this, and here's the hook. If I believe in that concept, then I know I can do it. But there's plenty of songs that I think, this would be a good song to parody, and I can't think of a clever idea. - Food is a big go-to. Is it really good? - Well, only good. - 'Cause it's massive, well, with the early days, how did you know that would work, or was it because it worked, I'll try it again, or it just made you laugh. Like we were talking about the McCartney chicken pop pie. It's funny to take a song that's so dynamic, it's live, live and let die, and make it so diminished that it's chicken pop pie. I mean, that's just the fact that you went for it. Already you get a laugh, but then it's got to deliver. - I gotta tell you, somebody put out a list of all the songs that if you really look at the lyric, he'll go, "What a weed, what a weed, timeout." You know, young one get out of my mind. - Yeah, well, I beat him, he goes, "You're just 17." - You know what I mean? - I don't think I know what he's saying. - I hope I don't know what you mean. Really, is that what, is that what you mean? - Yeah, the deposition, please stay with your men. - Is that what you mean? - Is there jailfire? - Yeah, you know, look too hard at last. - Oh my God, right? And I love when you get to, to nail it, like I've met people written songs, and you go, "Did it mean that?" And they go, "No, what are you, an idiot?" No, but never meant that. - It never meant that. And McQuarnie gets out a lot. - Oh yeah, man. - To disong me that, I mean, all the psychedelic years and all of that, you know, good morning, good morning. Lennon was pressed to write a song. And he heard the Cheerio song or whatever the good morning's Cheerio song and wrote it because he was pissing off. McCartney was writing someone. - I'm getting the quote wrong, but I think at a third point, they just decided to give up. Like the reporter saying, "Is this something about witchcraft and lesbian?" - Right. - Well, yeah, we just wanted to write something like that. - He said, yeah, he said, he just, I just saw that clip the other day. - He was a little bit happy. - Yeah. - But he said it like, "We think it's about witchcraft and lesbian." What was it about, he goes, "Witchcraft and lesbian." (laughing) - So I gotta ask you about your opening act, 'cause I wanted to see who's opening for you. - Have you seen who's opening actors? - No. - It's Puddles Pitty Party. - Oh, Puddles. - Oh, you know who this is? - I know Puddles. - How do you know Puddles? - Everybody knows Puddles. - First of all, he was on America's Got Talent. He's had some national exposure, but he's a big figure up at the Magic Castle. - Oh. - Because he does magic? - No. (laughing) - The Magic Castle also does variety artists. - Oh, okay. - And what does he, oh, he sings. - So he sings. - So he's, "What's Puddles real man?" I can't remember. - Mike, Mike. - Mike, Michael Gryer. - Very big guy. - He looks like a beautiful, operatic voice. - I'm sure I wanted to be a legit operatic singer and just went, "I have an idea. I put a little tiny hat on my bald head and paint it white." - So you think just because he's a clown, he's not legit, is that what you're saying? That just takes it all away from him. - See, God, I remember. - I came up with it was on a television thing or something. The first thing I ever saw him do was see his, (singing) and it was surreal because you're seeing this kind of sad during the "Delo Clown." - It scares the living day. He scares the, I love him and he scares the living day like so out of me. - Have you had a thing about clowns? - I think so. And I went to Ringling Clown School. They made me up as a clown under the center ring and I stayed friendly with the guy who made me up, Jason Metterme. He ended up as a clown married to a showgirl and then got promoted years later to getting shot out of the canter. - Oh, wow. - That's big. - Oh, wow. - So I was around Ringling a lot. They made one of the clowns which was weird because it's not that I'm scared of him but there's a discomfort level and with him he's off putting a little bit because he's 6'8" and the little hat kind of goes, is this guy mental? Like you don't know what's going on and then he opens his mouth and it's great. But how did you decide he was an opener? - Well, you know, I've always been afraid of clowns and I thought this was my way of getting past it. Like for real, my first romantic experience was on my second birthday because everybody in my family thought it'd be fun to show up, dress this clown. And that's like the scariest thing for a young kid to have that be good. - Oh yeah, oh my God. - Things that are familiar to you change. - Right. - And- - It's a horror movie. - Yeah, so there are some home movies of that and it's all just me screaming my head off the whole time. - So when you see, you know him, you know it looks like without them. When he has them, it's like Gene Simmons. I know Gene Simmons. When he walks out in the kiss makeup and he's four feet taller, I'm like, oh okay, I gotta get out of here. - It's uncomfortable. - I still scream in his face a lot and he goes, oh no, it's okay, it's okay. Just your opening hand. - But guy when he hangs out? - He's great, he's great. - And what's your day? When do you get up? What do you eat to do workout? What's weird hours day? - I, the only workout I do is walking 'cause I'm not a gym guy. But I'm getting ready for the tour. I late at night I go for like long walks down Santa Monica Boulevard and get my 12,000 steps in just to get my cardiovascular working for the tour. - By yourself or with the dog? - Usually by myself sometimes my wife will join me. - Oh, how did you learn vocal health? 'Cause when I do eight a week in Broadway. - Yeah. - And I'm trained and I know all the tricks and it's still rough. - It's tough. I had a voice coach named Eric B. Trogue, he gave me a lesson and which is something that I used to follow a lot. And most of his vocal rest, I just, when I'm not on stage, I just try not to talk at all. I mean, doing eight shows a week, I can't even imagine what that's like. - It's a monastic existence. - Yeah, yeah, I would imagine so. 'Cause if you lose your voice, I think there's just no getting, 'cause I've done that before where you just get laryngeitis on stage. - What do you do? - Well, I mean, I'm a, the show must go on kind of person. So I probably should have canceled some shows. But it's sort of like I just croaked through it. And like that doesn't make your voice get better. - How many guys say Broadway musical performer I know wakes up every day and goes, so what is it? How do you, how do you medicate? Do you have a past deal or something? - Oh, I've found so many things. There's a Chinese cough syrup. I'm not gonna say it wrong. Na, Jiom, Pad, Pa, Kao, something like that. - A cough syrup. - You can get it. If you go on Amazon, you put in Chinese cough syrup. There's nothing, there's no medicine in it. It's got some menthol and it's got plum syrup. And it's Audra McDonald, the great Broadway actress. She turned me on to that stuff years ago. And that's great. You put it in your mouth, you let it sit in your mouth for a minute, it mixes with saliva and you take little swallows of it. Very coating, very soothing, opens the mouth. But everybody's got the nebulizer, the nettie pot, the entertainer's secret spraying. - Does that, use that for years? Does that work? - Absolutely. - You also know you shoot it up your nose as well. - I didn't know that. - Yes, it actually says that on the bottle. So you can shoot it in throat. And then you can kind of, and it burns like a, it stings for a second. But it's tricky because if you use too much mentholated product, you dry out the cords. It's crazy. The best thing is, as you said, hydration and rest. So, you know, if you go out after a Broadway show and you see Broadway stars, they're not musicals. Or they're incredibly young. - The other thing that you gotta listen to, I don't know if I can play this or if I'm gonna have to pay for it. But one of my favorite things that you did, the fact that you've friends with Lynn Manila Miranda and did, Polka Helm. - Oh yeah. - Did you see it? - Yeah, of course. If you're listening to this and haven't looked at it yet, there are two things. One thing I'll mention in an interview that I immediately googled, that you should Google, which is Weird Al Back tattoo and see what comes up. 'Cause that's a raref to photos. You'll never forget. - Oh yeah. - How many people have your head on their arm leg or back? - I don't know. I hundreds at this point. 'Cause I signed a lot of them. - Yeah. - Oh, George Costanza. - I've come across a dozen. On a calf or an arm. And yeah, it's-- - But these are great. These are great. And they're good. - Yeah. - Some of them. - I mean, I don't know about their choices, but the art is good. - The art is good. And I wanna see his day age. (laughing) - Yeah. - He's like, what depending on where it is, it's like an old man's arm. - He's like, "Label, it's. " (laughing) - Who you become, Weird Al turns into. Thanks for coming in, man. And go see the tour. It's bigger and weirder. - I'm gonna see it for sure. - You're for sure. You always stay for the-- - I've got the best yeast in the house. - What do you look out in the audience when you're doing? - I always have stays in that too. 'Cause McHarnie always said, "If I redesign, I'm screwed." - Yeah. - Because I'll go up on lyrics and whatever. - Yeah. - So I try not to look at-- - Don't read anything. I actually try not to focus on people. I just kinda look through the thousand yard stair or whatever it is. 'Cause just, 'cause even if you hear people laughing, if you look at them like 80% of them are not laughing, and you focus on a, "Why aren't you laughing?" Or somebody will be exiting like, "Where are you going?" - Yeah, back. - You're back. - Why, you couldn't hold it really? You're a man, but have you ever had a heart attack on your show where somebody go down like something happened? - Yeah, I think we had to stop once and we had a medical team come in at some point, yeah. - Did you ever have, we had just the other night in Palm Springs. A woman went down. She had some sort of, some episode. - Hot, so what do you do? They cart them off and then you go, "All right, let's go." How do you get back to the energy? - You, well, in that case, we stopped the show for about 10 minutes. Made sure she was okay. And then you come back out and go, "So, first thing you should know is she's okay." Second, she feels terrible. (laughing) 'Cause she's, - No, if they died, - Just killed over while trying to get out of the theater because she didn't want to make it. - She didn't want to interrupt her. - If they died, you said, "First thing you should know." She's okay, you still do that because if you go, "I never had a death." - She's dead, but it was quick. - But it was quick and never had a death. - And her daughter said, "This is the way she wanted." - The only people that dies in my shows are me. (laughing) - I've died in my show. - That's my favorite phrase is, "This is how we would have wanted to go." - Yeah. - Yeah. - I wanna be on a bus with the sweeps. - I can think of 20 things at the end of the day. - No, oh no, oh no. I should write down how I wanna go to make sure I wanna go. - We did have a Fireal-Arman Las Vegas that would not go off for half an hour like, "Wooop, wooop, wooop, wooop, wooop." - What did you do? - After about 10 minutes, we're like, "We're gonna continue with the show." - I knew he said, "You played around with this." - We started, yeah, we kept playing and like, "Woop, wooop, wooop, wooop." - Let's just ignore that. - Just ignore that. - What? (laughing) - We're having nothing, but something happened in Vegas or no, you had a drunk woman on stage, besides that the Reheaveney real, Vegas is a weird place. - Yeah, yeah. - Very weird place to play and live. Like, I can see going there for like a day and a half, but the people with the residency, I think I'd lose my mind. - Yeah, 'cause-- - You can't look, you can't look. You gotta just do your thing and let that happen. - And get it and get out. - I mean, I like residency just fine, but for some reason, just being in a different city every day kind of feels right to me, 'cause I think, oh, this is a different audience. 'Cause when I'm doing a resident, I'm like, oh, I wonder if these are the same exact people that just saw the show two hours ago. - But also with the residency you go, so these are the people who couldn't get into the other show. - Right. - Yeah, you always hear if your neck goes first and you go, "No, if I'm here for one night, these people want to be here." - Circus sold out, I guess, though. - Oh, great to see you. - You too, you look great. - Why you too? - Unbelievable. - I mean, true. - You can't believe it? - And quit. - I'm not quite in preparation for this, I watch another podcast. And you've mentioned a lot of times, yeah, I'm getting older, things are sagging, so I don't really see you shut up, but I'm wondering what you're seeing. It's moving, so, 'cause you look good. You look really good. - Yeah, well, it's just for the longest time people are like, oh, we never ages, he never ages. And like in the last six months, people are like, oh yeah, I'm seeing it now. (laughing) Recently, after going through the Palisade's fires, I had to get rid of a lot of clothing. So I've heard about Clint's and they became my go-to because everything feels like an upgrade. For example, Clint says a full line of lightweight, 100% European linen shorts and shirts, insanely soft, 100% Pima contenties, and comfortable, relaxed pants, and everything. Everything is probably 50% to 80% less than what you'd find at similar brands. Because Clint's works directly with ethical factories and they cut out the middleman by buy, so you get premium materials without the markup. 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