Lin-Manuel Miranda joins Weird Al for surprise performance

Tony winner Lin-Manuel Miranda lived out a lifelong dream by joining funnyman ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic for a surprise performance at his concert on Saturday night (24Sep16).
The Hamilton creator and self-professed Weird Al devotee was one of the stars at the comedian’s sold-out concert at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, and during his encore performance of Yoda, a Star Wars-inspired parody of The Kinks’ Lola, Weird Al invited Lin-Manuel to the stage to help out on the chorus.
In fan-shot footage posted online, Weird Al is seen pointing his mic at the audience to sing along, before saying, “Okay, now just Lin-Manuel!”, and the star ran out to meet Weird Al to belt out a line from the song and ran back off stage as the thousands cheered on the Broadway star.
Lin-Manuel later took to Twitter to share the video, and explained just how much the moment meant to him, writing, “In 9th grade I sat in an upper box of the Beacon (Theater) with (friends) Alex Sarlin & Emily Pinkowitz & we screamed ‘Yoda!!’ It was Weird Al’s encore.”
He also shared a selfie with his idol, adding the caption, “We truly believed our screams made Yoda happen. It was, at that point, the best moment of my life. Today was a VERY close second.”
Weird Al later posted a photo of all the celebrities who came out to see his show in a backstage shot featuring Lin-Manuel, actor Michael Ian Black, former Saturday Night Live star Taran Killam, and Tina Fey, who attended with husband Jeff Richmond and their daughter Penelope.
This isn’t the first time Lin-Manuel has collaborated with the comedian – in February (16), he invited Weird Al to join him in a new version of Hamilton song Right Hand Man renamed Right Hand Yankovic, as part of their ongoing Ham4Ham video series.
Weird Al provided instrumentals on his accordion as Lin-Manuel rapped the song, and they were joined by his co-star Renee Elise Goldsberry and the comedian’s wife and daughter, who provided backing vocals.