A lot has happened since Alfred Matthew Yankovic made his Tampa Bay debut 38 years ago, as an opening act for The Monkees’ first reunion tour.
Even before then, he had a stamp of approval from Beatles, Grammy nominations (now up to 16, with five wins), and a youthful exuberance that felt—and still feels—eternal. Though comedy tends to fizzle out with time, the 65-year-old has spent most of his life regarded as a national treasure with a rare, vastly multi-generational fanbase that you see more often with film and book franchises rather than musicians.
But since the release of 2014’s Mandatory Fun (the final album he was contractually obligated to release), Yankovic has been on a new kind of roll. His most recent tour, which mostly happened in 2022, was a long and winding victory lap for his no-frills, deep cut-centered “Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour,” which originated in 2018. And it was as intimate as you could get: Smaller settings, no cameras allowed, and comedian Emo Philips opened every single night.
One biopic and a new polka medley later, the “Bigger and Weirder” tour brought back Yankovic’s trademark eccentric shindigs, and finally gave new casual fans and longtime die-hards alike a chance to see the king of parody in his true element.
Following an opening set from cover-singing pierrot Puddles Pity Party (whose use of visually unsatisfying videos during a “Crazy Train” tribute to Ozzy Osbourne was just uncool), Yankovic’s “UHF” instrumental “Fun Zone” warned fans to get to their seats just after 8 p.m.
The first of many clip shows to come led into a version of “Tacky,” which we saw Yankovic perform on a screen as he made his way towards the BayCare Sound stage. He emerged from the gates leading to backstage on the stage-left side, and soon acknowledged the end of the tour. “To celebrate, we’re gonna start with a brief PowerPoint presentation,” he declared, jumping into his 2014 Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young style-parody “Mission Statement,” which intertwines elements of “Carry On” and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.”
He threw on a red coat and headed into the crowd for some sexy-sexy time on the doo-wop inspired “One More Minute,” and a few minutes after, the guy who’d rather clean all the bathrooms in Grand Central Station with his tongue than spend another minute with his girlfriend, went for the first of many costume changes.
“Smells Like Nirvana” still sees Yankovic drink water to gargle the melody of Kurt Cobain’s original “Smells Like Teen Spirit” guitar solo, and he even flubbed the last verse about how it pays to rehearse. Whether it was intentional or not, it still proved his point. He still rocks a yellow Devo suit on the title track to 1985’s “Dare to be Stupid.” And as for his second Michael Jackson parody? Much to fans’ pleasure, the “Fat” suit—with all of its chins—was back, baby (the song wasn’t performed on 2019’s exuberant “Strings Attached” tour, following the at-the-time recent release of “Leaving Neverland.”)
And it wasn’t just him taking part in these wardrobe changes, either.
Yankovic has held onto the same core band for the vast majority of his career (guitarist Jim Kimo West came along in 1984, and keyboardist Ruben Valtierra in 1992), and makes sure not to hog all of the glory onstage. During “Amish Paradise,” bassist Steve Jay—who was able to have a solo album for sale at the merch table—easily had the best fake beard and Amish getup, while drummer Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz was given two drum solos throughout the night, which consisted of him banging a can three single times altogether.
A few new additions have come into play in recent years, too. Starting with the “Strings Attached” tour (which kicked off 20 minutes away at Ruth Eckerd Hall), Yankovic has enlisted female backup singers to enhance his sound, and during a kitchen sink medley on Thursday night, Monique Donnelly—who has been associated with him since 2006—dressed up as Lucille Ball for a “Ricky” duet, which before this year, hadn’t been performed live since 1984. Also joining the band for the first time is longtime Brian Wilson multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory, who must not have hemmed and hawed for Yankovic to dust off “Pancreas,” a style parody of Brian Wilson presents SMiLE, in honor of the Beach Boy, who passed away in June.
Speaking of new additions, he also threw in some songs that had never been played live period. His They Might Be Giants style parody “Everything You Know Is Wrong” (which Giants’ John Linnell once told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay he “automatically liked”) got an actual sax solo from Scheila Gonzalez, and a transposed version of 2011 epic “Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me” has probably taken on a new meaning in the era of AI-generated Facebook posts.
But the show ending we all know and love came about almost two hours in. Backed by the local 501st Legion in Stormtrooper armor (except Darth Vader, because he’s…well, Vader), Yankovic sent us home with a “Star Wars” themed double feature. “American Pie” parody “The Saga Begins” (which Don McLean has admitted to accidentally breaking into onstage a few times) reminded fans of how unnecessary the decades of “Phantom Menace” hate was. And a transposed, somehow more emotional-sounding “Yoda” still features the stunningly-orchestrated, ever-evolving “Yoda Chant.”
Basically, those second-gen Monkeemaniacs from 1987 were a lucky bunch, and it wouldn’t be a shock if some of them were interspersed in the very sold-out, Thursday night crowd.
This article appears in Sept. 25 – Oct. 1, 2025.