The year is 2011. “Weird Al” Yankovic has just released his long-awaited, brand-new album, Alpocalypse. Its lead single, Perform this Way — a parody of the Lady Gaga hit Born this Way — starts the album off with an hilarious bang. The rest of the album is superb from beginning to end, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I sat down at my laptop today to search for some missing trading cards in my collection. These weren’t baseball cards, Pokemon, or Magic the Gathering cards. No — the cards I seek are the official “Weird Al” Yankovic trading cards. You see, during the Alpocalypse tour, fans could obtain a starter deck and booster packs in addition to the standard concert merch.
I attended the Colorado Springs date on that tour. It was my birthday that day, so I managed to obtain two copies of the album, two tour T-shirts and a starter deck of my own. I kept meaning to buy the booster packs online, but never quite managed to do so. I even said “hello” to Steve Jay, Al’s bass player, who was having a smoke break outside the parking garage. Anyhow, I am still a long way from the full 133 cards, but if I ever complete the set, it’ll be an Al-ccomplishment.
You may think it’s “weird” that “Weird Al” Yankovic had trading cards, but they featured trivia, tidbits, stories, album artwork and a few promo art pieces and are surprisingly fun to collect. If you’re a “Weird Al” fan, they’re worth looking into. My collection is meager, but I have a few of the good ones like Peter & the Wolf and the original UHF poster art. As for the concert I attended? It was my 12th Al show and the show itself was great. The tour was recorded for posterity and released on both Blu-ray and DVD under the title of “Weird Al” Yankovic Live! The Alpocalypse Tour. The Blu-ray is a close approximation of the show I went to and you can read more about it here.
