Skip to main content

Weird Al Yankovic's Mandatory World Tour extends into 2016

weird al yankovic mandatory world tour new dates flickr
Evan Courtney/Flickr
“Weird Al” Yankovic set out on his massive Mandatory World Tour in 2015, and the comedian-slash-musician has apparently decided that the show must go on: Yankovic announced Wednesday that he has added a number of 2016 dates, meaning that there will be plenty of additional opportunities for fans to see the master of parody in action.

“I’ve decided to do the Mandatory World Tour for one more year, after learning that some people didn’t make it out to the show this last time around,” he announced in a statement, as reported by Pitchfork. “Apparently, they don’t know the meaning of the word ‘mandatory!!'”

The comedian tweeted out the additional dates Wednesday, which span the months of June through September.

Yankovic has committed to over 70 more shows, which will bring him to seemingly the entire U.S., plus parts of Canada. He’ll stop everywhere from Florida to Washington state and California to New Hampshire.

The extended tour comes after the comedian was announced as the new bandleader and co-host of IFC’s Comedy Bang! Bang! season 5, which premieres this spring. On top of that, Yankovic is set to lend his voice to the upcoming Disney XD series Milo Murphy’s Law and is developing a TV series based on his children’s books. He even has action figures that will be released this spring. All in all, Yankovic has a big year ahead of him.

Presale tickets for many of the tour stops are available now, along with VIP packages that include items like a pre-show party and signed tour merchandise. The first 2016 show will take place on June 3 at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the final date announced so far is scheduled for September 24 at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall.

Editors' Recommendations

Hollywood is abandoning movie theaters at the wrong time
Tom Cruise flys a plane in Top Gun: Maverick.

After a rough two years in which the COVID pandemic and the rise of streaming services contributed to a record decline in audiences going to movie theaters, Hollywood is seemingly coming back. Franchise tentpoles like Jurassic Park Dominion and Minions: The Rise of Gru posted healthy opening weekends, while Marvel recovered from the pandemic low of Eternals and is once again posting worldwide grosses for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder that flirt with $1 billion (or soon will be). And above all else, Top Gun: Maverick continues to make money week after week, becoming Paramount's biggest hit since Titanic.

All that progress, however, is increasingly likely to stop in August, when a dearth of product will threaten the recovery of the theatrical experience -- and the sustainability of Hollywood's traditional business model. The already dire situation got even worse, with Warner Bros. recently pushing back the Stephen King adaptation Salem's Lot and MGM opting to release the Sylvester Stallone-led genre film Samaritan on Prime Video. While both films are not guaranteed blockbusters, their absence is all the more pronounced with what's left on the theatrical calendar for August, September, and even October: cheap horror films, indie movies with little hope of crossover appeal, and re-releases of past hits like Avatar, Jaws, and E.T.

Read more
Apple Music to livestream concerts starting this Friday
amazon tickets

Apple is about to begin livestreaming select concerts as part of its new Apple Music Live feature. It kicks off with Harry Styles’ gig at the UBS Arena in New York later this week. Anyone around the world with an Apple Music subscription will be able to access the content.

Apple said the livestreams will “give the biggest stars in music the biggest possible platform to flaunt how they connect with audiences and how their songs translate to live performance.”

Read more
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story gets its first teaser trailer
Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al.

In January, The Roku Channel announced that former Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe will portray Weird Al Yankovic in the upcoming biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Since then, it's been one of The Roku Channel's buzziest projects. While the film is still several months away, The Roku Channel has released the first teaser trailer. And the trailer kind of lulls you in with the suggestion that it might be a serious movie.

All of Weird Al's accomplishments listed in the trailer are true. If we were going by the film's description alone, we could almost believe that it would have some real dramatic moments. Yet the moment that Weird Al asks for an accordion, it turns into a Naked Gun-level farce and embraces the surreal humor of Yankovic's film, UHF.

Read more