Transcribed by "Lisa Shininger"

Hey, I hope it's okay to post this here. I don't have access to a website
right now. If someone wants to put it up, go right ahead!!  I edited and
grammar checked as well as I could, but it's late and I'd like to sleep
before work tomorrow. So, please excuse any glaring mistakes....

AL on the Motley Fool Radio Show, August 10, 1999 (it's a show about finance
and investing for non-professional investors)
--------------------


MF: We'll give a little background here, for those of you listening. You may
not, really, know the numbers on Weird Al's career. He's sold ten million
albums, he's won two Grammies, he's had eight nominations. He is a singer,
songwriter, director, producer, comedian, musician.... We grew up with Weird
Al, Tom. Let's cut to the chase here: "Eat It"!  I know that's not on the
press tour this time, 'cause Weird Al has a new album out, called "Running
With Scissors". 
Al, can you take us back to the early days of your life? Where did your
interest in music come from? When did you decide "This is gonna be my
thing"?

AL: Well, I grew up listening to the Dr. Demento radio show. I'm not sure if
you're familiar with him, but he's syndicated in hundreds of markets across
North America .... But he played all sorts of comedy and novelty recordings,
things like Spike Jones and Alan Sherman and Stan Freberg and Tom Lehrer
(?). And it was through listening to his show that I was inspired to do what
I do today.

MF: That's great. Now, for those of you who did not see the VH1 Behind the
Music special on you, on Weird Al, this past week: there was kind of an
interesting little tidbit about your childhood. Your mom *spied* on you, is
that what was happening there?

AL: (laughing) Oh I could tell many stories about my childhood! The one I
told on the VH1 special was about how during PE class ... I lived across the
street from the high school, so during PE class, my mom would watch me
through binoculars in her kitchen window to make sure the other  boys
weren't playing too roughly with me. (more laughter) My friends would be
going, "Is that your mom across the street?" "no! That's a burglar that
broke into our house. It's not my mom!"

MF: And it was that sort of careful attention that then set you up to really
take control of your own career and not be pushed around.

AL: Oh yes indeed.

(more radio host laughter and banter and then question from a caller)

Abram: They took my question and I didn't get to hear it because I was on
the phone. I wanted to ask you, how did you end up on this show? (okay,
that's basically what he asked but he really babbled for a little while)

MF: (laughing) Why would Weird Al spend any of his weekend with the Motley
Fools?

AL: ...sychronicity happening. I think the planets are aligned correctly
today.


MF: Now, Weird Al, I know you're going out on tour. I'm wondering, what is
the road show world look like from your perspective. Are you getting mobbed
by people? How many autographs are you signing in a given day? Are you
traveling on a Greyhound bus from city to city? What's it look like?

AL: Well, we're actually hitting the big time this year. We used to travel
in a single bus and this is our first *two* bus tour. So we have the band
and the crew is separate buses. We're very happy about that. It's a lot of
touring, we're doing about six cities a week, so it's pretty grueling just
as far as the traveling goes. But the fans are great, the audiences are
really enthusiastic.
**I try to sign autographs after each show if I can, sometimes we're in a
situation where the security won't allow it, but whenever possible I try to
go out and I'll sign autographs for hours after the show. I like to hang out
with fans. **

MF: Okay, now because radio is an audio medium, I think a lot of people like
a picture painted for them. I know in my mind, I'm wondering what you look
like today. Because, when I tap into the www.weirdal.com  website, I'm
reminded of your old look, for all I know you're wearing it now. For those
who don't remember, it's sort of the Lionel Ritchie (!) look. I mean, sorta
the long, kinky hair, the short 'stache. But then I also see on your
website, there's Weird Al and he's got a Beatles mop and he's clean cut. And
then there are various things in between. What do you look like right now,
Weird Al?

AL: well, it's not the old school AL. I'm trying .. Let me check .. No, no
facial hair today, maybe a little bit of stubble at the very moment. And not
wearing glasses, I had the laser surgery last year, so I don't need to wear
glasses anymore. I look quite a bit different.

MF: So you're sporting a cleaner cut, here as we move into the new
millenium.

AL: It's Al2K.

(much laughter)


MF: Now, Weird Al, I want to know, in the music industry, we've had some
recording artists on the show in the last year. And we've also investigated
it because as you know, investors, we like to look at each different market
and see if there're  possibilities there [blah blah stuff about celeb
bankruptcies] How come we haven't seen Weird Al's one bankruptcy? Doesn't
every musician who;s on VH1 have to go bankrupt at least once?

AL: I don't have the same manager as Billy Joel, that's the first thing I
made sure of. And I make sure to pay my taxes on occasion so I don't have
the problems that Willie Nelson does.

MF:  When we hear the phrase Elton John, it's
almost synonymous with "Weird Al" Yankovic. And so, I wonder. IF Elton's out
there asking for $40 million, so are yougoing to turn around here and ask us
for forty million bucks?

AL: I don't think I'm going to have any kind of fire sale or garage sale
anytime soon. It's pretty amazing though, I actually have started giving
away stuff to charity. And the  prices I've been getting for them are pretty
amazing.
**They had an Al Convention , oddly enough. I know that's the first sign of
the apocolypse .... It was in Evanston, Illinois, last summer, at a HOliday
Inn. And people came from all over the world. Actually there were some
people who flew in from Japan, which is pretty mind-boggling. Somebody paid
like 500 bucks for one of my old wisdom teeth. And an old pair of glasses
went for several hundred dollars. A few shirts went for over 700 bucks a
piece. .... It's the same kind of price Eric Clapton or Elton John would get
for some of their stuff.


MF: Actualy, Al, you really don't know that 'cause Eric Clapton didn't sell
one of his wisdom teeth! I mean, he might only get 300 bucks for that. Now
we have another question from one of our listeners: Steven Friedle (?) in
LA, Are there any artists who have been very unimpressed ...  and angered?

(the usual Coolio story, the Fools offer to have Coolio on and patch things
up and Al jokingly begs them to tell him he's sorry, oh yeah he also uses
"peeps")

(commercial break, comes back with a snippet of "Saga")

MF: (plugs album, and talks about some "Weird Al" lyrics contest) I've got a
good question from Rick in LA: Weird Al, i was watching a local news program
a couple of years ago where I saw you having laser eye surgery. Based on
what I saw, and your glowing testimonial on how you now have 20/20 vision, I
went out and had me the same surgery at the same doctor you did. I noticed
that the laser machine was made by a company called 'Visix'(sp?). I bought
the stock and it's gone up 500% in a year. My question is, Al, is there any
surgery coming up in your future that I might be able to profit from?

AL: Well, let's see, I like being a MAN so I'm not going to have that
surgery. You'll be the first people I'll tell if I do.

MF: Now, we've put you on the spot about your personal health and hygiene,
and now we'd like to step aside and put you on the spot on financial terms.
Now, Weird Al, can you think back and does something stand out as the
dumbest investment of money or time that you've made in your life?

AL: My dumbest investment.... It would probably have to be that time I
bought that lifetime supply of wax lips. It seemed like a good idea at the
time. I don't know.


MF: .... smartest investment?

AL: I can look at music videos as investments because I actually spend my
own money and it's basically a gamble. They're commercials and you hope that
the dividends will be in terms of record sales. Looking back, the "Eat It"
video was probably the best investment, because it was relatively
inexpensive, in today's terms. It's paid itself back many times over.


MF: So each of the videos you do, you're putting up your own money to
produce them.

AL: It's actually half my money. The record company fronts all the money but
half of it actually comes out of my royalties. So in essence, half the money
is my own.

MF: So how much did the "Eat It' video cost?

AL: My manager would kill me if I told you. He actually gets .

MF: Actually your manager told us to ask you that so that he could kill you.
 You got a new video coming out, right?

AL: In relative terms, teh video we're working on is about 7 times as
expensive as the "Eat it" video.

MF: So, about 7 million dollars then. And now,you're manager has enough to
kill you. You've also won a video music award, for "Smells like Nirvana".
That was an MTV video music awardwinner. How many videos in total ....

AL: Actually, it was nominated but if you want to tell them I won, fine. Woo
Hoo!

MF: Now, how many videos have you made in total in your career?

AL: Gee, I don't know. 20, 21, something like that. <...> About 2 per album,
two is about all we can handle financially. Again, the videos get extremely
expensive. I usually spend four or five times as much doing the videos as I
do recording the actual album.

MF: Now, does anyone do a parody of Weird Al? Does anyone imitate you?

AL: Wow, that would be like wearing mirrored sunglasses and looking into a
mirror and seeing infinity. That's so mind-boggling, I can't even ....

MF: So what you're saying is that you would have gone insane.

AL: Well you know I'd be more than willing to let somebody do a parody if
they wanted to, by all means.

MF: How about parodying yourself? I don't think anybody could do it better.

AL: (laughs)

MF: (thanks to Al, plug album again, plug Bermuda's spectacular website, and
it's over!)