“Weird Al” Yankovic Mandatory World Tour - Las Vegas

Dawn recently won, with about ~50 others, the “Weird Al” Yankovic Mandatory World Tour Contest, which included the following:

• Two round-trip air tickets to Las Vegas, Nevada (for us, on Southwest ~$600)
• Two-Night Complimentary Stay at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino (~$600)
• Two Complimentary Tickets to Weird Al’s performance on Saturday, May 16th, 2015 at 8:00 p.m., in the Showroom at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino (~$300)
• Upgraded tickets (slightly modified, as noted), to "The Mandatory Czar Experience" (+~$400):
• Premium reserved ticket in the first five rows (note: we sat in Row 'R', close to center, with other contest winners, most likely to accommodate seating of customers paying for the experience...this seemed to represent the only modification)
• Complete Set of 133 Weird Al Trading Cards (including brand new cards from Mandatory Fun) 
• Mandatory VIP badge
• Mandatory Czar blue event sticker
• One Exclusive, Limited Edition Poster 18"x24" personally signed by Weird Al (note: it reads, "Hi Dawn!", followed by his signature)
• Additional exclusive Weird Al merchandise gift (note: in our case, we received a military-themed tee shirt: "a t-shirt that sort of looks like the dictator jacket which Al is wearing on the cover of Mandatory Fun. Sort of like those tuxedo print t-shirts.")
• VIP pre-show party, held in the re-purposed Gallery Night Club at Planet Hollywood, starting at 5:30 p.m.
• VIP after-party, held in the same space as the pre-show
• $100 Food and Beverage Credit to Planet Hollywood
• Two Complimentary Tickets to the High Roller at The LINQ (~$75)
• Ground transportation from and back to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas (~$50)

Many thanks to Weird Al, CID Entertainment staff (event logistics), and Frosch Entertainment staff (transportation logistics). This easily penciled out to thousands of dollars, per winner and guest! We had a great time and have nothing but love for all the hard work everyone did to pull this off.

NOTES - CONCERT

• Celebrities in attendance at the performance we attended: Andy Richter, two of Neil Diamonds' keyboard players, Tom Lennon (of Reno 911! fame), (?)
• As noted, Las Vegas Magazine had a cover article on Weird Al, in their May 10, 2015 issue
• Highlight, for me: Dare to Be Stupid, live in concert (first time since 2011?)
• First concert, for us, since mid-2013 at the California State Fair
• I felt really salted-out and thirsty from the hot dogs and hamburgers
• The acoustic set reminded me of...a lounge act...in a good way (is that possible? I think so!)
• Confetti streamer cannon during Canadian Idiot
• No drum solo (retired?)
• Music (30 songs, total):
• Fun Zone
• Tacky
• Lame Claim to Fame
• Now That's What I Call Polka!
• Perform This Way
• Dare to Be Stupid
• Fat
• First World Problems
• Foil
• Smells Like Nirvana
• Party in the CIA / It's All About the Pentiums / Handy / Bedrock Anthem / Another One Rides the Bus / Ode to a Superhero / Gump / Inactive / eBay / Canadian Idiot
• Wanna B Ur Lovr
• Acoustic medley: Eat It / I Lost on Jeopardy / I Love Rocky Road / Like a Surgeon
• White & Nerdy
• Word Crimes
• Amish Paradise
• Encore:
• The Saga Begins
• Yoda
• Albums represented:
• "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983): 2
• "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D (1984): 2
• Dare To Be Stupid (1985): 3
• Even Worse (1988): 1
• UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff (1989): 1
• Off The Deep End (1992): 1
• Alapalooza (1993): 1
• Bad Hair Day (1996): 2
• Running With Scissors (1999): 2
• Poodle Hat (2003): 3
• Straight Outta Lynwood (2006): 2
• Alpocalypse (2011): 2
• Mandatory Fun (2014): 8
• Albums NOT formally represented (note: excluding EPs):
• Polka Party! (1986): 0

NOTES - PRE/POST-PERFORMANCE PARTY

• Pre-show details:
• Event staff wore red berets and military uniforms, in keeping with the propaganda-themed imagery of the album
• Brief, unannounced appearances:
• Suzanne Krajewski, Al's spouse, and their daughter
• Andy Richter
• Jim West, guitarist
• Easels displayed 3'x2' prints of propaganda-themed imagery, from the album art, as we walked to the night club
• Medium-sized lectern with faux-microphones--lots of attendees taking pictures with this as a prop, when not in use by the emcee
• Energy ebbed and flowed, but mostly upbeat and excited
• Spinnable Wheel of Fish with medium-sized blinking red light, at center (initially obscured by black banner with words "Top Secret")
• "Mandatory Cocktail" ($8, I forget the ingredients, but it had grapefruit juice, alcohol, and was served over ice in what looked like a highball glass)
• Four multimedia and poster displays showing a timeline of Weird Al from childhood to present
• Giant (~15'x10'?) Mandatory World Tour banner
• Large (~3' diameter) Mandatory World Tour circular promotional poster of some of the album art 
• Photo booth for taking/sharing pictures, in front of a green screen--note: ours may not have gotten posted to Facebook, even after the initial technical glitch (?)...always take a backup photo!
• Props for the photo booth: glittery mustaches on thin dowels, plastic bandolier, wigs, aloha shirt, metal eyewear frames (basically, you can appear as Weird Al, from the 1980's, or go with a more propaganda-themed album art imagery)
• I wore a wig and a floral shirt (over my floral shirt) and eyewear and bandolier and moustache
• Food and drink:
• Buffalo wings
• Mini hot dogs
• Hamburger sliders
• Carrots, celery, condiments
• Cash bar
• Music: variety of Weird Al songs played from all decades
• Party events
• Costume Contest
• Six contestants (* asterisk = finalist; ** = winner):
1. ** Smells Like Nirvana
2. * Lasagna chef
3. * Tinfoil hat
4. Tacky shirt
5. Tuxedo suit
6. Corporal (?) Spatula
• A crowd cheer eliminated three contestants, followed-by a dance-off to determine the winners
• Winner got a Weird Al Mandatory Tour circular patch
• Raffle #1 - Lip Sync battle
• Smells Like Nirvana contestant called up to stage to go first (did not get raffle ticket called)
• Lasagna selected as raffle winner and returned to stage
• Not sure who won!
• Raffle #2 - Wheel of Fish
• Raffle winner (tin foil hat girl?) got up on stage 
• Emcee revealed...the Wheel of Fish!
• Winner spun the Wheel, with marker landing on "trout"
• Emcee offered her a choice of the fish or the box
• Crowd and winner chose the box, which contained...nothing!
• Everyone got to take their picture with the Wheel of Fish, after this
• Prior to leaving the party, the emcee invited everyone to sing, "Harvey the Wonder Hamster"
• After-party details:
• Food and drink:
• Orange, black, and yellow tortilla chips
• Salt and pepper rippled potato chips
• Chex mix
• Guacamole
• Salsa verde
• Cash bar
• Subdued energy; people mostly talking in small circles
• Music: same as at pre-show party, a mix of Weird Al songs from across the decades
• Weird Al arrived in a brown tunic shirt and blue jeans after 45-60 minutes (he had other commitments, with other fans, first)
• Al signed 18"x24" tour posters for everyone (one per group)
• One cell phone photo, per group, with random requests considered (for example, Al posed with one woman in a dip dance move; another, he stood and posed, looking off to the distance, as did the fans)
• Jay Levey, Weird Al's manager, quietly observed the signing from the side
• Event staff members took the cell phone photos
• Overall party impressions -- ups and downs
• Bad news first:
• Cash bar prices--welcome to Las Vegas!
• Photo-booth malfunctions (note: per emcee, resolved after he called the photo-booth company president)
• Emcee seemed overheated in military uniform and overstretched, which seemed to distract him from connecting with the audience, a bit
• I sensed some awkward energy in the room during two of the unannounced pre-show party events...I think contestants and event staff handled things relatively gracefully but I wonder if event staff might consider discussing a more inclusive way to determine winners (?) Maybe it was just me and everyone had a great time (?) : o )
• At the after-party, one or two overly intoxicated individuals seemed fired up and edging toward belligerence...overheard the person relate to someone else, in a somewhat defensive tone, how someone earlier had commented on his drinking and/or behavior...he then proceeded to start going off on, "I won a trip to Las Vegas to have fun!", "Don't tell me what to do...", and so forth, and so forth...it set a more edgy tone to things than I preferred, for sure
• Thinking of things from a family-friendly angle, the night club represented a relatively subdued environment, compared to the Pleasure Pit gogo dancers visible below, on the casino floor, but the night club's back hallway--used as an exit after poster signing--did have a few larger-than-life racy pics...again, welcome to Las Vegas, parents ; o )
• Good news:
• Emcee--that voice!
• Technology (other than noted above) had everything on point--multimedia displays, lights, audio, music
• Props seemed right on point--banners, costumes, accessories for photo-booth, lectern, Wheel of Fish, and so forth
• Food seemed well done, to me--especially the hamburger sliders
• Resolved the photo-booth technical glitch
• After-party went off without a hitch, including food and handing out poster sleeves
• Al obviously exhausted, hand was a claw when he signed our poster, but soldiered on (please excuse the pun)
• Jay Levey appearance!
• Overall, a smashing success and it speaks very well to the entire team, moving forward!!