Just forget the words and sing along

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Weird Al on the Tonight Show

Ah, another hockey season, more Oilers games, and more late evenings of broadcasting said Oilers games. Lots of time to blog!

Anyway, I gotta pass on the litte reminder that, tomorrow night, "Weird Al" Yankovic will be the musical guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Weird Al will be doing his first live performance of White and Nerdy, his new hit single. This is Weird Al's first time on The Tonight Show in 21 years, and his first appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show.

Ah, fond memories. I haven't seen Weird Al on a talk show in...ages. The second time I saw "Weird Al" Yankovic on a late-night talk show was 1992. Batman Returns was in theatres, Nirvana was introducing us to grunge, and the late-night talk show people fought to be on was The Arsenio Hall Show.

Like any kid of the era, I was glued to Arsenio Hall. And, when I heard Weird Al was going to be on, I just had to tune in. And, imagine my surprise when Arsenio dedicated not one, not two, but three segments of his show to Weird Al! Arsenio cut his opening monologue short so he could bring out Weird Al to sing Smells Like Nirvana. Weird Al then came out as the second interview guest of the nigth. And then, when it was the usual segment for the musical guest, Weird Al sang the second single off his album Off The Deep End, which was You Don't Love Me Anymore.

That was a great night in television.

In case you're curious, the first time I saw Weird Al on a talk show was, again, on The Arsenio Hall Show. It was 1989. Weird Al wasn't a musical guest that night...he was there as a movie star, plugging UHF. I'll never forget one exchange between Aresnio and Weird Al...

Arsenio>> So, we're gonna play a clip from you movie. Would you like to set it up?

Weird Al>> Sure! (Al looks directly into camera, and speaks very excitedly) HERE'S A CLIP FROM MY MOVIE!!

So, don't forget to set your VCR's for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno tomorrow night, and let's see if magic will happen again.

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