WORDS BY oliver gerharz and julia o’hagan, PHOTOS BY oliver gerharz

LIVE REVIEW: “Weird Al” Yankovic @ Fiserv Forum
By: Oliver Gerharz and Julia O’Hagan

Legendary satirist Alfred Matthew Yankovic is best known by his stage name Weird Al. But he told the crowd that a man had walked up to him on the street that day asking what they could call him. This was his introduction to the only song of the night that wasn't a parody — Al’s beautifully-performed cover of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al.”

With that sole exception, Al delivered an impressive series of spoofs on the evening of Oct. 17 at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum. It was the last of the 165 stops of his “Bigger and Weirder Tour” that has run since 2025. After walking out to “Tacky,” he promised his fans that “tonight is gonna be a special night, because it’s gonna be like every other show on the tour!”

Going into “Mission Statement,” Al changed out of the eclectic suit he wore for “Tacky,” the first of at least eleven costume changes (we lost count). Though these songs didn’t excite the crowd the way many of Al’s classics did later, the crowd applauded him like royalty for the spectacle of his performance as he dove into highlights like “Polkamania!” and a two-note “drum solo.” Closing out the first part of his set, Al apologized to the men in the crowd for seducing the ladies with “One More Minute,” crawling into women’s laps and handing out his heart-patterned underwear as a gift.

The first head-to-toe costume change came with “Smells Like Nirvana” when Al came out dressed like the late Kurt Cobain, sloppily spitting water out onto the crowd as dramatically as possible. More costume changes came during the rapid-fire medley of his most popular songs, which he masterfully jumped between vocally and physically. For being 66 years old, he still had incredible knee strength and hip flexibility, kicking his legs significantly higher than his backup dancers.

During every costume change, the lights dimmed and a highlight reel of Al’s best moments played on a projector behind the stage. The videos came from countless sources — it’s impossible to overstate Al’s impact on pop culture. Our favorite clip was of Al screaming on a zoom call.

These clips would often lead into songs, but it was impossible to be certain they would, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats for a creative transition as Al’s crew set up on the dark stage below. The best costume change of the night was of course “Fat,” where Al brought out his famous fat suit, rubber neck and chubby cheeks. He ran, jumped around and even punched the gut of a surprise Santa that ran on stage.

Weird Al dressed up for “Fat” | Oliver Gerharz

After “Fat,” Al performed the theme songs for “Captain Underpants” and “Milo Murphy’s Law,” appealing more to the younger fans in the crowd. However, the Gen X fans closest to the stage were unmoved. The same differences played out in reverse during opener Puddles the Clown’s song about Kevin Costner in the 1995 film “Waterworld.”

While we knew a lot of them, there were others that we had never heard (original or parody) while the older crowd was passionately singing along.

The opener, Puddles Pity Party, also had great engagement with the older audience, soliciting roaring applause and cheers with his song about “Waterworld” featuring Kevin Costner that went way over our heads. Puddles, a Pagliacci clown who has toured with Al for most of the stops on this tour, is 6 feet 8 inches tall — something hard to notice from a distance, but intimidating from photographing him right up on stage.

Though theme songs and office culture parodies like “Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me” didn’t appeal to the full crowd, the spectacle of his classic songs was right on the mark every time.

One highlight started when, between songs, the projector showed a clip from “Jeopardy!” where the host listed out categories named after Weird Al songs. When one of the categories – White and Nerdy — was selected by a contestant, the lights came back on to reveal Al in a track suit and durag, rolling out on a segway. It was awesome.

Al’s final costume change saw him donning full Star Wars garb for “The Saga Begins,” followed by “Yoda.” The repeated “yo-yo-yo-yo-yodaaaaa” was shaping up to be a disappointing ending as fans refused to follow Al’s lead and sing along. Suddenly everyone on stage stopped and turned forward, performing a medley of acapella chants ranging from “Hooked on a Feeling” to “Walk the Dinosaur.” This gag lasted so long that we started debating who it was even for, so the final snap back to the outro of “Yoda” blew us away.

For Al to perform at the level on display after 164 other shows for the “Bigger and Weirder” tour is an unbelievable feat. His mastery over the parody genre and incredible on-stage gags (like an old man who held Al’s harmonica to his mouth so he could play it at the same time as his accordion) made his presence on the massive stage at Fiserv Forum unrivaled. The spectacle of the show was a monument to the incredible cultural icon that is “Weird Al.”

LIVE REVIEW: Weird Al @ Fiserv Forum

WORDS BY oliver gerharz and julia o’hagan, PHOTOS BY oliver gerharz