Music comedy legend and pop culture icon “Weird Al” Yankovic has titled his latest adventure the “Mandatory World Tour.” It’s a joke, of course, on the cyclical nature of the entertainment industry, which he finally found himself free from after 32 years under a major label recording contract. His latest LP, 2014’s Mandatory Fun, was his first to ever debut at Number One on the Billboard Charts, and solidified his status as the biggest-selling comedy recording artist in history. REVUE had the rare chance to pick Al’s one-of-a-kind brain last month, and found out why he reluctantly embraced social media, why he turns to his teenage daughter for tips on new targets to spoof, and more.

Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements is as much a dissection of the music industry as it is the compelling narrative of an era’s media darlings.

Memphis-based author Bob Mehr is a no-frills communicator, crafting a moving chronicle that kept the interest of a reader who doesn’t even dig the alt-Americana that put the book’s subjects on the pop culture map. 

The only thing more surreal than the work of outsider artist/musician/comedian David Liebe Hart is the man himself.

Known to his cult fanbase for appearances on the late-night Adult Swim show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Liebe Hart, 61, worked as a street performer for nearly 40 years before receiving any widespread exposure. 

Grand Rapids Feminist Film Festival organizers are gearing up for the 2016 event and accepting submissions until July 15; The Midnight Movies Series returns to Celebration Cinema with your favorite cult classics. 

This month's featured items are from Sweaty Wisdom and The Amiga Shop, both women-owned businesses based in Grand Rapids.

West Michigan author Micheala Lynn seems to be on a mission to prove that opposites do, in fact, attract.

In her latest novel, Joie de Vivre, Lynn focuses on the budding love story between a workaholic forensic anthropologist, who spends the majority of her days peering at the dead, and a former basketball star turned kindergarten teacher whose partner of a decade recently died, leaving her 100 things to do in an “anti-bucket list.”

Cycling followed by a beer may not be a new combination, but a May 26 event in Grand Rapids will bring the two even closer together.

The Local Trades Alley Cat bike race, a free event designed for riders of all experience levels, will take attendees to venues all over the city, from bars and restaurants to construction company headquarters.
At each stop, riders will receive a hole punch in their card, and at the conclusion of the race, riders with the most punches have the most opportunities for prizes through a raffle.

Comedian Kyle Dunnigan is the first to admit he’s a lucky guy. And he’s not talking about when he semi-famously dated Sarah Silverman from 2011 to 2013. 

For him, timing has been his saving grace — being in the right place at the right time.

“When I look back, so many things could have gone a different way for me where I’d be sitting in an office somewhere now. And they didn’t,” Dunnigan told REVUE. “I know a lot of talented people who didn’t really get a break. So I’ve got to attribute that to luck.”

Revue is happy to announce our first-ever “best of” readers poll — the Best of the West contest. This online survey asks our West Michigan readers to nominate and vote for their most-loved local businesses, people and things to do. 

The way this year’s presidential primary season has gone so far, comedian Lewis Black wishes he could’ve written it as a novel.

“I think it reads better as fiction than it does as reality,” Black said about the drama surrounding the campaign trail this spring. 

Black, 67, is no stranger to the literary life. The funnyman first started out as a playwright in New York City in the 1980s after graduating with an MFA from Yale. It was only later that he ventured into the world of standup, where he’s since been acclaimed as one of the top comics of all time, and become known for his rage-fueled rants and scathing sarcasm. Friday, May 20, he brings that venom to the Kalamazoo State Theatre.