Almost four years after his first foray into unfamiliar concert territory with his highly acclaimed Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, “Weird Al” Yankovic will be pressing his luck again, this time with The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour. The University of California, Davis, appearance at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts is Sept. 24. Tickets go on sale Dec. 10.

The tour will launch on April 23, 2022, and run through North America for six months, coming to Mondavi before it hits New York City’s Carnegie Hall.  

The tour marks Weird Al’s long-anticipated return to the concert stage after his hugely successful Strings Attached Tour in 2019 where he performed each night alongside a full symphony orchestra at world-renowned venues such as New York’s Forest Hills Stadium, Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Washington D.C.’s Wolf Trap. 

Show features non-parody material

Once again drawing from his back catalogue of 14 studio albums, Weird Al promises to deliver a different set list every night, with no two shows the same. As before, rather than focusing on the hits from his career, the show will feature Yankovic’s non-parody material — the somewhat more obscure pastiches and original songs that have largely escaped the pop culture radar but are adored by his longtime fans. And like the last Vanity Tour, he will be playing smaller, more intimate venues, leaving behind the high-octane theatrics that he’s known for and going bare-bones — no costumes, no props, no video screens — just Al and his band of almost four decades hanging out on stage, playing music. 

Reflecting on his decision to bring back the stripped-down concerts, Al said, “I’ve loved doing every single incarnation of my live show, but honestly the Vanity Tour is the most fun I’ve ever had on stage … so I’ve been dying to get back out there and torture everybody with it once again!” 

Opening the show each night will be returning fan favorite and Al’s longtime friend (and UHF cast member), the legendary comedian Emo Philips. 

Weird Al Yankovic is the biggest-selling comedy recording artist of all time. A five-time Grammy winner, his 2014 release Mandatory Fun was the first comedy album in history to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200. He is one of only five artists to have had Top-40 singles in each of the last four decades, the other four being Michael Jackson, Madonna, U2 and Kenny G. On Aug. 27, 2018, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce awarded Weird Al with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour goes on sale next Friday at 10 a.m. at mondaviarts.org.