As he approaches the latest leg of his “BIGGER & WEIRDER Tour,” the great “Weird Al” Yankovic returned to a venue he hasn’t played in over a decade and a half: NPR’s Tiny Desk. The parodist last played a TDC in 2010, bringing his classic band in an acoustic formation for a three-song set. This time, however, he shoved his full, plugged in band into the office space and played a mix of parodies, pastiches, and originals.
For the takeoffs, he brought out his online shopping ode “eBay” (Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way”) and the classic Star Wars – Episode 1 recap “The Saga Beings” (Don McLean’s “American Pie”). Deep cut Weezer-esque “Skipper Dan” from 2011’s Alpocalypse opened the four-song performance, and the Emmy-nominated “Now You Know” recounted the hard, 100% completely true facts of the 2022 biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
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But the true highlight just might be someone behind Yankovic. Keep your eyes on guitarist Payton Rose Velligan on the left side of your screen, seemingly the youngest member of the band and someone who is clearly thrilled to be playing for a legend like “Weird Al.” (A quick look into her bio reveals she’s also a 5th gup in Korean martial art Tang Soo Do and got her start in a RUSH tribute band, so she’s probably the coolest person ever.)
Watch “Weird Al’s” Tiny Desk Concert below, and then catch him on tour at the dates below by getting tickets via Vivid Seats, where fans can save $20 on their first order of $200 or more with promo code CONSEQUENCE20 at checkout.
Yankovic may be big enough to turn down offers “if it makes me feel icky” (such as rejecting $1 million to perform at last year’s Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia and “a nice pile of money” for an AI software ad), but he’s still getting even bigger (and weirder) in 2026. He’s bringing his 1989 movie UHF to the big screen for a live orchestra performance in LA, releasing the movie’s score soundtrack for the first time ever, and working on a Broadway jukebox musical called Dare to Be Stupid.
