"Weird Al" Yankovic, Enmore Theatre, March 12

[KiwiCoromandel]

TO PERHAPS pre-empt your first thoughts: yes, it's that same goofball who became famous in the '80s for parodying Michael Jackson and Madonna; yes, he is somehow still going; and - although this beggars belief - no, this wasn't nearly 2½ hours of hell.

The "Weird Al" Yankovic show wasn't always funny or relevant, either, but it was consistently engaging and sometimes bafflingly clever. I'm still scratching my head in awe at the Dylan rip-off, Bob, which consisted solely of rhyming palindromes ("Lisa Bonet ate no basil/Warsaw was raw/Was it a car, or a cat I saw?") perfectly fit to a Subterranean Homesick Blues pastiche.

Projected footage helped the audience get the joke and reference there (Yankovic doing the classic black-and-white film clip, tossing cue cards bearing the palindromes as he went) and throughout the gig.

Indeed, before he even got to the lyrical reworkings, snippets of the original acts' videos accompanied an accordion- and banjo-fuelled medley of cover versions in a polka style - from Franz Ferdinand to Gorillaz via 50 Cent.

The projections also helped time fly when Yankovic was offstage changing costume, even if their gags could be kind of obvious. But much of the footage underlined a key truth: Yankovic has had a profound effect on American pop culture over the past 20 years, having appeared or been referenced in hip films and mainstream shows galore.

The parodies that made his reputation, of course, got the warmest reception, and justifiably so. So some of the R&B efforts fell flat - the lyrics of Usher and R. Kelly are hilarious enough without such treatment - but you could not fault the sharply observed detail in the costumes and musical execution of everything; Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana (complete with cheerleaders and a gargling solo), Eminem … even the Michael Jackson retread that started it all, Eat It, got a guilty smile. And the Kinks' Lola, rejigged to pay tribute to a certain ancient diminutive Jedi master, was comedy gold.

Yankovic's Green Day rip-off, Canadian Idiot, told only part of the story. He may be a wacky ass who deserved every childhood beating he surely received, but the man's a hell of an entertainer.

source:George Palathingal/smh.com.au

image:static.flickr.com/"Weird Al" Yankovic..