• Lamar Reviews - "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" (Airdate 11/11/2022)

  • Nov 11 2022
  • Length: 7 mins
  • Podcast

Lamar Reviews - "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" (Airdate 11/11/2022)

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  • Lamar Reviews - "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" (Airdate 11/11/2022) You start watching a documentary, getting ready to learn the story of how Al Yankovic rose to fame. I’m expecting something along the line of Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie about Queen, or Rocket Man about Elton John. And just like those “based on a true story” movies I expected some exaggeration, a few not quite true story lines to make the story more entertaining. I was a good twenty minutes into the movie when I realized that this was not that kind of documentary movie. I began to realize that I was watching Weird Al do exactly the same thing to the musician documentary, that he did to the songs that he spoofed and satirized. At that point I knew he was a master at what he did, and had cemented himself as one of the Kings of Parody.   Having Daniel Radcliffe play Weird Al was not only a surprise, turns out it was a stroke of genius, he really got into the part and did a great job. Al’s parents Mary and Nick were played by Julianne Nicholson and Toby Huss. I began to wonder about the accuracy of the film when their treatment of Al was so over the top. Such as sitting him down and saying, “We are forced to require you to stop being you, and we need you to forget any dreams or aspirations that you may have.”    To give you some idea of how much this movie differs from the real story, in the movie his parents hate the idea of him playing the accordion. He had to hide in the closet to practice. In real life a door to door salesman came to the door selling musical instruments. There was a choice between guitar and accordion, and his parents picked the accordion. But trust me, the movie version is way, way funnier. The same goes with his first son My Bologna which is a parody of My Sharona. In reality he wrote the song in college and played it around campus. They taped it and sent it to the Dr. Dementor Show. In the movie Dr. Dementor is played by Rain Wilson from The Office. It became an instant hit on his show. When the Knack came to his college, he managed to get back stage and introduced him self to lead singer Doug Feiger as the guy who wrote My Bologna. Feiger introduced him to the president of Capital Records and they signed him. Again, the movie version is hilarious.      The movie is an hour and 48 minutes, Rated TV-14   In the movie it turns out that his parodies are bigger hits than the original songs. Weird Al becomes the biggest selling song artist in the history of the world. Also, the movie explores his years of substance abuse. In fact, Al doesn’t smoke, or drink, and is a strict vegetarian. No wonder they added all of this stuff to his story. His actual story, although amazing as it is, would have made a movie that lasted 18 minutes, and the audience would have slept through the last 7 minutes. The Yankovic bump is real. Most artists saw an increase in sales after Weird Al parodied one of their songs. Madonna actually suggested he parody Like a Virgin with Like a Surgeon.  The movie does get a little Squirrely towards the end with Pablo Escobar, but it is very well written and very very funny! My Score: 4 Budweisers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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