This is a one hour concert featuring Weird Al Yankovic that coincided with his 'Alpocalypse' tour and it aired a few minutes ago on Comedy Central. The first portion features Al's newest songs from the "Alpocalyse" album--such as "Perform This Way", "CNR", "Party in the CIA", "Polkaface", "TMZ" and "Skipper Dan". Following this, you see and hear a few of his classic songs such as "Amish Paradise", "White and Nerdy", "Fat" and "Canadian Idiot" (my favorite song of the ones in this film).

As Yankovic and his band perform, you see a variety of videos appearing on a large screen behind them. This was nice, but I really liked seeing all of Al's costume changes. I assume this concert video was pieced together from several concerts, as there is no way he could change THAT fast. Still, I'm going to his concert this Thursday--and I am anxious to see if he indeed changes this often. I also am hoping he'll perform some of my favorites such as "Christmas at Ground Zero", "Trigger Happy" and "Albuquerque". And therein is part of the problem. At about 50 minutes, this is way too short and has you wanting more....and perhaps THAT is why it's as short as it is. A lotta fun.

UPDATE: I went to the concert and, yes, he DID make a lot of costume changes. During these brief intermissions, various videos played--most of which were pretty funny. The concert itself had about half or less of the songs you'd see in this video--which was nice. He seemed to do more oldies in the live concert. Both were great--but at 128 minutes, the live one was much longer and even more fun.

"Weird Al" Yankovic has become a cultural icon not only for hisparodies, but his sense of style and wackiness. Many are surprised withhow many songs he's made and how successful he's become, when frankly,I'm pretty sure he is surprised himself. Parody musicians tend to dieout over the years, but the fact Al is open to pretty much any genre ofmusic to poke fun at makes him one of the quin-essentials to the musicworld and the art of comedy.

Al recently released his first album in six years, cleverly titledAlpocalypse. It was a twelve track CD, and his thirteenth album overall. After six years of Al's music coming out in little spurts, it wasnice to have a full CD chock full of mostly new material. The onedownside, is many of the songs - I believe five - were already releasedin 2009 under an EP called Internet Leaks. So, only seven of the songscould be officially dubbed "new." Regardless, the CD was great, and itshows now that Al is older his parodies are more about wittiness ratherthan just pure goofiness. Not to mention, about a third of the album,give or take, is mainly composed of style parodies of popular bandslike Hanson, Queen, and The White Stripes.

"Weird Al Yankovic Live! The Alpocalypse Tour is a short, but sweet,concert special showcasing Al's craziness and on-screen antics forthose who couldn't experience the actual summer tour live. I had thepleasure of attending his Straight Outta Lynwood tour in the summer of2008 in Merrillville, Indiana. The concert was my first, and it lastedfor about two hours with a twenty-five minute encore.

It seems the concert routine hasn't changed much since I went. Al willperform a song, dressed in an outfit relating to the song, perform it,and then repeat. When I saw him live, it only took him between four andeight minutes to change, if that. While him and his bandmates werechanging, a clip would appear on the jumbo-tron from AL TV or aninterview he had conducted with a celebrity earlier in his career. Itwas unique, but it also prevented emptiness and boredom.

Seeing the concert on TV, of course, isn't the same. But the feeling isstill there. Al performs songs from his new album like "CNR," "Party inthe CIA," "Perform This Way," "Skipper Dan," and "TMZ," but alsoreminds us of parodies like "Amish Paradise" and "Fat" that made himfamous. Al gets into explicit character, showing he truly puts thoughtand effort behind his tours making sure fans have the best experiencepossible.

Bless this be a TV special, and not some gimmicky, godforsaken 3D filmspat out into theaters nationwide. There is no reason for this to go totheaters for two reasons. For one, there's no significance. This isn'tthe final time we'll ever see Al on a stage, and two, because it's fartoo short. Obviously, this is pieced together using editing (thank Godit's not intrusive), so we don't see the pre-song videos. Everythinghappens so fast, there's rarely any silence between songs.

The Apocalypse Tour is successful, but it's not enough. Though it runsfor less than an hour, it still gets the job done giving the viewer ataste of what Al's concerts are all about. Fans of the singer willalmost feel obligated to pick this up, especially since it's the firstmainstream Al DVD release in sometime, and they'll likely not bedisappointed. For a big fan like myself - it did the job, just not longenough.

All songs performed by Alfred "Weird Al" Yankovic, Steve Jay, Jim"Kimo" West, Rubén Valtierra, and Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz.