‘Weird Al’ Yankovic kicks off 100-city tour with five nights in Las Vegas

Southern Californians might best know “Weird Al” Yankovic for his frequent appearances on the Dr. Demento radio show from the 1970s on KPPC-FM. If a 16-year-old Weird Al hadn’t handed Dr. Demento a tape of his parody songs, he might have a real job now.

Instead, Yankovic went on to become one of the biggest-selling comedy recording artists.

On Tuesday he announced plans for a massive 100-city 2015 Mandatory World Tour. Yankovic, 55, will kick off the tour May 12-16 with five shows at the Showroom at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

The tour comes on the heels of his latest release, “Mandatory Fun,” which marked the first time one of his 14 albums hit No. 1 on Billboard charts.

On the album, Yankovic parodies the likes of Pharrell Williams with a song “Tacky,” Robin Thicke with “Word Crimes” and Lorde with “Foil.”

He rolled out his album with eight days of videos for each of his songs, earning him 46 million YouTube page views in the first week. Yankovic landed in the top four spots on Spotify’s viral top 10 with that stunt.

He joins the ranks of Madonna and Michael Jackson for having a Top 40 single in each of the last four decades.

His first hit, “My Bologna,” parodied the Knack’s “My Sharona,” and was recorded in a bathroom with Yankovic playing the accordion. Doug Fieger of The Knack liked the song so much that he sent it to Capitol Records, which released it as a B-side single.

While his newest works will make up a bulk of the show, songs such as “Eat It,” (a takeoff on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”), “I Love Rocky Road” and “Ricky” that propelled him to fame surely will be part of the lineup.

Tickets cost $59 and $89, and go on sale starting Jan. 28. Call: (800) 745-3000