AL! The Weird Tribute (and How Daniel Radcliffe Got Mixed Up in This Nonsense) makes the bold claim to be the nerdiest, most technically complex show at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In a month where both John Robertson and Tom Crosbie are also performing, it’s incredibly brave to promote yourself in this way.
However, Steve Goodie, the one-man whose show this is, may be onto something. It’s certainly the show with the longest PowerPoint presentation we’ve seen so far (and we’ve seen two. Which isn’t a lot – but it’s the first day of the Fringe).
This is the story of Al Yankovic, Daniel Radcliffe, and Steve. Whilst, thanks to the 2022 biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story you’d expect the Venn Diagram referencing Yankovic and Radcliffe to overlap, you’d probably not expect Steve to overlap with both of them – and over a period of several decades.
It’s possibly a remarkable coincidence that Daniel Radcliffe, the screen personification of one of Goodie’s favourite fictional characters, later played Al, Goodie’s childhood obsession. Steve thinks it was fate!
Yankovic began his career by taking popular tunes of the day, and putting other lyrics to them, often referencing contemporary politics, or pop culture moments. Goodie, in his enthusiasm for all things Al, trod a similar path. He’s still doing so, opening the show with a version of Taylor Swift’s “Shake it off” that references the continual failure of the ice cream machines at McDonald’s restaurants. It’s very funny, and sets the tone for an hour of warmth, and considerable nerdiness.
The aforementioned PowerPoint allows ‘Al’ and ‘Daniel’ to form a core part of the narrative, in which Goodie attempts to explain why he loves Al, and Daniel, and just how much all three of them have in common.
This leads, naturally, to several renditions of The Elements Song by Tom Lehrer. It’s a sort of “Chekhov’s Gun” situation, as this comes back around at the end, in a carefully curated climax to the show.
Before then, we get deep dives into grammatical pedantry, and brief highlights of Yankovic’s and Radcliffe’s careers. We’d have liked to have seen more mention of Radcliffe’s stage career, but Goodie only has an hour, and this production’s use of technology to show moments from those career histories obviously struggles in the face of theatrical content that is, generally, not readily available in a legal recording.
There is a danger that Goodie’s obsession could be regarded as parasocial – an increasing problem in the internet age. However, it becomes apparent that Yankovic knows who Goodie is, and has even gone so far as to send Steve a congratulatory video message on his birthday in 2023 – the anniversary of the release of the ‘Weird Al’ movie.
This is a heartfelt and earnest piece, which carries the audience along with Steve’s enthusiasm. You’ll have a much better time here if you just go with it, and encourage Steve as he moves through his performance.
Is this the nerdiest, most technically complex show at this year’s Fringe? We can’t be sure, but it’s certainly a contender for the most unexpected use of an accordion.
AL! The Weird Tribute (and How Daniel Radcliffe Got Mixed Up in This Nonsense) continues at the Stephenson Theatre at The Space @ Surgeons’ Hall (venue 53) until August 24th (not 11th) at 9pm (21:00)
