Date: Friday July 31st 2026
Venue: Giant Center
City / State - Hershey, PA
Subjects: Weird Al Yankovich w/ Puddles Pity Party

‍ ‍I can honestly say I never thought I’d get the chance to see Weird Al in Concert. I’ve heard about how great he is live so many times. What’s rather funny is I made a playlist of his set list to prep for the show as I always do and couldn’t get through it. Not that I don’t enjoy his music but it’s just not driving tunes for me. I had zero doubt that I would love his live show though. Onto that now…
The show opened with a clown named PUDDLES PITY PARTY. He was decked out in his white clown suit and white face paint along with his signature little crown. His deal is he sings cover songs for the most part in sad ways and uses a lot of audience participation. I walked in during his second song called “Come Cry with Me”, a Glyn Styler cover. He was prancing along the people in the crowd encouraging cries and generally having a great time as audience members would cry then laugh. At one point he called up a crowd member and had him wear a Tequila suit as he played a Los Lobos cover. He walked the majority of the front section singing Tom Wait’s “Come on up to the house”. One of the cleverer songs was his mash up of “Gilligan’s Island” Lyrics with “Stairway to heaven’s” music. Meanwhile he had a running joke of Kevin Costner on the screen behind him throughout the night. He also would use a crowd cam for the entirety of the show as well. Another fan came up for the closing number, another mash up: this one being David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” and Queens “Let it go”. This time he fed the fan Little Debbie Cakes throughout the song. After his set he spent a good ten minutes taking photo’s with fans in the front row which I found to be pretty neat.

Weird Al Yankovich performing “Smells like Nirvana” at Giant Center in Hershey

Al returned to the stage with cut up jeans and a Kurt Cobain styled sweater to perform “Smells like Nirvana” his big Teen spirit parody. Complete with the backup dancers dressing up as the cheerleaders just like the video and yes even including the pom poms. The irony of Weird Al being such a jokester is the man can really sing, and he proves it throughout each and every song. Another video played and he would come back out in his yellow suit to play “Dare to be stupid” complete with his keyboard. Then he went into a medley that would be a test for anyone to pull off with the number of words to remember and endurance to continue with no break, let alone a 66-year-old man. This one included a portion of some of his greats like “Party in the Cia”, “My bologna”, “Eat it”, “Like a surgeon” and closed it with “Canadian Idiot”. Just because he didn’t go backstage don’t think there wasn’t costume changes for each song. The vintage red jacket for Eat it, a hospital cap for like a surgeon and a Canadian jacket for the final rendition of the bunch. Then he did go back and do another costume change. Most of these videos included Al with his fake interviews, him in cartoons like the Simpsons or just regular comedy skits he made along the way. This particular video package ended with the opening of the “Fat” video which led into him coming out in full fat costume to perform the track. He leaned into the suit to, shaking his ass and jiggling around the stage throughout the song while the entire crowd sang along to every word. One thing he does do is go all out in his performance with every track and try to match his video’s as best he can. I don’t know if these outfits are all vintage and video worn but if they aren’t they are as close to them as can be as they look identical.

Weird Al Yankovich performs “White and nerdy” at the Giant Center.

Eventually a cloaked man would come out on stage and lead the crowd to scream one side to the other, up and down and then everyone and this would go on for a few minutes until he would sit down behind the keys and out would walk Mr. Yankovich wearing his custom Star Wars attire. He would take us through a quick version of “We all have cell phones” before playing another mega hit “the saga begins”. I believe 99% of the crowd sang nearly every word of this one. The mind of this man should be studied as he just comes up with some of the greatest stuff and this song proves it with his take on the Phantom Menace. Keeping with that theme they would close out the night with his song “Yoda”. The song is a parody of the Kinks classic “Lola”. I made my way to my car during this song and was able to hear it up until the end as I exited the arena. As everyone told me the man puts on an absolutely incredible show that is both unique and somewhat expected in a sense. It’s a two-hour trip through his greatest hits, his career and a little bit in between. Being able to put on a show of that magnitude every night is so impressive for anyone honestly but for a 66-year-old man that’s been at this for over 40 years is remarkable. It’s bigger and it’s weirder just as advertised….

WEIRD AL YANKOVICH’s SET LIST:
01. “Tacky”
02. “Mission Statement”
03. “Polkamania”
Drum Solo
04. “Everything You Know is Wrong”
05. “One More Minute”
Another one Rides the Bus (video clip)
06. “Smells Like Nirvana”
07. “Dare to Be Stupid”
08. MEDLEY:
“Party in the Cia”, “It’s All about the Pentiums”
“Bedrock Anthem”, “My Bologna”, “Ode to a Superhero”
“I Love Rocky Road”, “Eat it”, “Like a Surgeon”, “Word Crimes”
“Canadian Idiot”
09. “Fat”
10. “It’s My World (And We’re All Living in it)”
11. “Caption Under Pants Theme”
12. “Now You Know”
13. “Suffragette City” (David Bowie Cover)
14. “Skipper Dan”
Drum Solo Reprise
15. “eBay”
16. “Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me”
17. “White and Nerdy”
18. “Amish Paradise”
ENCORE:
19. “Toccata and Fugue in D-Minor BWV 565”
20. “We all Have Cell Phones”
21. “The Saga Begins”
22. “Yoda”

Puddles Pity Party opening up for Weird Al Yankovich at Giant Center in Hershey.

After about 15 minutes the lights dimmed, and a video package played on the screen highlighting some of Weird Al’s career and band members began walking on stage. The screen then switched to the back of Giant center where Mr. Yankovich was standing with a microphone as he walked the back halls of the venue while singing the opening number “Tacky”. It was pretty cool seeing him interact with security guards and others, high fiving and such on his way out. Puddles made a cameo as he was standing by with a Pie for Al to smash in his face. He would follow al in the background blinded by the pie and walking into walls. He eventually made his way out to the arena from the back area and walked straight through the audience and onstage perfectly timed for the ending of the song. He followed that up with “Mission Statement” and then he was given the famous Accordion as he asked the crowd “are you ready to Polka”? We were ready to polka, and he delivered a great rendition of “Polkamania”. Cheap pops were a thing as he would then say “We’re about 11 minutes in and we know what you came to see. DRUM SOLO”. That led to his drummer hitting the drums one time for the shortest drum solo ever. He would come out into the crowd to sing “One more minute” getting in folks faces to sing, sitting on laps and awarding prizes to some members including his underpants. Yes Weird Al can do love songs. Just a little different than most. One thing that would become very prevalent in the set was intermittent videos to give him time to change as he goes full force into his performance. The first video was the scene in his biopic starring Daniel Radcliffe. It was the scene in which he comes up with “another one rides the bus” on the spot at a pool party. The end of the scene features a member of Queen asking him to play live aid the following week with the star smiling then saying “Hard Pass” and laughing in their face.

Weird Al dons the Fat suit to sing “Fat” at Giant Center.

Naturally he’d need another wardrobe change after that, so we got another fun video. These videos did not slow down or hinder the performance in any way either, they actually added to the fun. “Its my world (and we’re all just living in it”, “Captain underpants theme” would follow and he then played the credit song to his movie called “Now you know” which he added would make zero sense in this context, but they were going to play it anyway. He was right, it was made for the credit scene and made no sense live which made it that much more hysterical. He then turned it over to his guitarist for a song selection to which he chose “Suffragette City” by David Bowie. Did I mention Al can really wail out a vocal? Not only that but his band is extremely tight. The night then entered into the finale portion with some real bangers including “Skipper dan”, “eBay” which is a parody of the backstreet boys song “I want it that way” made into a story about selling and buying crap on eBay. Another highly underrated track in his arsenal is an original called “Stop forwarding that crap to me”. The song is about the nonstop junk people forward through emails and text messages. He followed that up with the one two punches of “Amish Paradise” and “White and nerdy”. Donned in his du rag and baggy sweatshirt he busted through white and nerdy easily which again for a 66-year-old man to be up there rapping like that is impressive in and of itself. He closed this portion of the show all dressed up in Amish gear and led the crowd on adventure through the Amish paradise parody. At this point the band would exit the stage, and he would thank the crowd and continued to say, “I just can’t do anymore”. He’d walk halfway off and come back, this continued. Then he was gone.

Weird Al performing “The Saga Begins” to close out his performance at Giant Center.

PUDDLES PITY PARTY SET LIST:
01. “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” (Harry Carroll Cover)
02. “Come Cry with Me” (Glyn Styler Cover)
03. “Crazy Train” (Ozzy Osbourne Cover)
04. “America Today”
05. “Estoy Sentado Aqui” (Los Lobos Cover)
06. “Come on Up to The House” (Tom Waits Cover)
07. “In The End”
08. “Stairway to Gilligan’s Island” (Little Roger and The Goosebumps Cover)
09. “Under Pressure / Let it Go” (David Bowie / Queen Cover)