TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Well, see, we're in a quandary. AL. We don't know
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whether to call you weird AL or AL because your
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book is by Al.
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It is a quandary, isn't it?
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It is huge? Are you confused?
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Yes?
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Where do we Where do we go?
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Oh? You know you can just just what However, the
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spirit moves You're really when I when I'm writing, it's
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it's Al. And when I'm in front of a microphone,
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it's weird Alt. So I got a microphone in front
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of me, So I guess we're it all today we'd out, we're.
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Welcome back to the program where until you know where
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we're fans of you. You're You've always been a great
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guide to us. Now this is a children's book? Uh,
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where to come from?
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What?
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What made you want to do this?
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Well? Uh, I always thought it'd be fairly adept at
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writing children's books. And uh and uh, you know, I
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figured if I spent thirty years writing parody music, that
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would be a good transition into children's literature. Sure, so
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I just want to slowly, slowly break into it.
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Right, And where did the genesis of the of the
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story come from?
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I think uh, I think the story was sort of
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inspired by my dad because my my dad always used
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to tell me that the only true sign of success
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was figuring out which what made you happy and then
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just figure out a way to make a living at that.
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So I think that that's sort of the subtext, as
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it were, of this book, because it's a story of
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an eight year old boy named Billy who amazes the
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kids in his Show and Tell with stories about all
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the crazy imagine they the things he wants to be
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when he grows up, like gorillam of Seuss, snail trainer,
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giraffe milk or stuff like that. So Perry doctor Seuss like,
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but also in power.
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Were you a fan of Doctor Seuss as a kid,
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I think I don't know how old you. I think
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we're around the same age. But I had the whole
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collection and I loved him.
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Oh yeah, I would.
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I would go to the local public library and I would.
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I would just memorize the book. So and shel Silverstein
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as well, a great children's writer that really influenced me,
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So you could probably I tried to to not not
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really copy their style, but they were definitely big influences.
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Well weird now, I was walking around the Orange County
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Fair This is years ago with my family, just doing
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the fair thing, and we stumbled across the weird Al
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Yankovic Museum.
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Oh and the Weird All Experience.
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Yes, And in we went where I got to see,
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among all the many things that were in there, I
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got to see the fat suit you wore in the
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fat video.
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Oh, yes, on display.
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It should be in the Smithsonian, but no, it was
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at the Orange County Fair.
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And I have to tell you, I was listening to
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Elvis Radio the other day. I'm a big fan of Elvis,
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and I'm listening and you cracked me up. Because periodically
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they'll have a celebrity. Hi, this is so, and so
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I'm here at Grace London's. You cracked me up with
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your h It's such an honor to be here. I
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can't tell you how much the music of Elvis Costello
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means to me. I laughed.
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I laughed out loud in the car. When you're doing
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a song parodies al you.
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I think we read something a couple of months ago
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that sometimes the person you're doing the parody honor the
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person's music. They don't, they don't agree, they they don't
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give you the green light for that?
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Is that true. Well, it's pretty rare.
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I mean, you know most artists real life that they
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really haven't made it until they've gotten their weird al parodies. Yeah,
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I forget how many Grammys and gold albums.
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You've got, Like, where's your red authorady? No, it's pretty
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rare these days.
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And maybe when I first started out, it was harder
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to get phone calls returned from people like, oh, I'm
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not really sure about this weird al guy, but nowadays
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not so much.
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Yeah, I guess that would be. I think maybe today
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it's considered a rite of passage, an honor to be
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parodied by you.
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That's what I tell him. Yeah, well, there it is.
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It got to tell.
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Oh.
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By the way, the illustrations in here are really so
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well done.
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Oh thank you. That's by Wes Harges. He's an illustrator
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from Arizona. I hadn't worked with them before this book,
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but he's amazing. I mean, his illustrations are really detailed
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and very whimsical.
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It's kind of stuff that a kid would.
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Look at for like an hour and just pick out
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little little funny details.
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Well, go meet him, go say hi, and get his book.
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There's some signings February twelve Barnes and Noble two pm
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at the Grove, February thirteen Costco in Van Eyesen one pm,
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and February fifteenth Whale of a Tail in Irvine four pm.
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All those dates are.
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Going to be on.
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Mark and Brian weird Au.
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Always enjoy talking to you.
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Thanks so much, the best to you You Ta