Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last Thursday October 13TH 2022 dual music concerts were occurring simultaneously 17 miles apart in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area (Broward County). At The Parker – “Weird Al” Yankovic was LIVE on tour – with comedian Emo Philips opening for him. Over at The Center – Newsboys were headlining – with Cochren & Co. and Adam Agee (Stellar Kart) opening for them. So of course – you know me – you’ve been reading my blog for years now – of course – I saw – the legendary – “Weird Al” Yankovic and Emo Philips !
I actually bought my ticket for the “Weird Al” show 7 months earlier in March 2022. He was doing back-to-back completely different shows on Wednesday and Thursday (October 12TH and 13TH), and I randomly picked the second show since it was closer to the weekend. If I had picked the first show (on Wednesday) then I could have gone to the Newsboys concert (on Thursday). The Newsboys concert wasn’t even announced until a couple of months ago in August 2022.
So I’ve been a “Weird Al” fan (OK – nerd) for almost 40 years now – ever since I first heard of him and his music in 1983 on WJOK-AM (All Comedy Radio in Gaithersburg Maryland). I bought all of his cassettes back in the ’80s. I kind of “outgrew” him into the ’90s, but I still have that place in my heart for his weirdness. I saw him LIVE in concert for the first time in August 2015, and then I saw him again in June 2019. All 3 shows were in Fort Lauderdale. He always puts on a good fun nostalgic show. I kind of wish I had gotten tickets to both of his shows – since they were both completely different (aside from the encores). For his tour this time around – he performed some of his “extremely unpopular songs”, so not the hits, but even so I knew a lot of the songs that he did. For this show that I attended – one of his encores was a note-for-note cover version of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” – one of my favorite songs of all time !
“Weird Al” Yankovic is a born-again Christian who doesn’t cuss, smoke, drink, or use drugs. Privately (off-performance) he’s shy and polite to everyone.
Emo Philips opened for “Weird Al” with a 34-minute stand-up comedy set that had the entire concert hall laughing in hysterics. I was never a fan of his weird comedy, but he definitely delivered for this show. He exceeded my expectations of him. His comedy routine was funny and relevant.
This was my second show at The Parker (former Parker Playhouse) – at least since 2000. It’s been there near downtown Fort Lauderdale (off U.S. 1) since 1966 – with the first show presented in February 1967. It recently completed a 2½-year / $30-million-dollar renovation. It definitely had that “new-car-smell” to it last week. It’s a very nice venue. I think I may have seen a concert or two there in the late-1980s into the 1990s. Back then the Sunrise Musical Theatre was the place for concerts over in the western part of Broward County.
Next #TravelThursday I’ll tell you all about the Miami Military Museum. Let’s keep traveling together.
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