"WEIRD" AL YANKOVICH and RICK HUBBARD "THE KING OF KAZOO" by Lucy May / The Cincinnati Enquirer

Never let anyone tell you Cincinnati City Council doesn't know how to party. By unanimous vote, council suspended the city's noise ordinance so Weird Al Yankovich and Rick Hubbard, "the King of Kazoos," can lead the "world's largest chicken dance and kazoo band" at 6 p.m. Saturday as part of Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati. "It shows that everyone in the city is behind the world's largest chicken dance and kazoo band," said Raymond "Buz" Buse, publicity guru for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Yankovich is the grand marshal of this weekend's Oktoberfest, and Mr. Hubbard plans to give away 30,000 kazoos to help celebrate. The emergency ordinance has all the typical whereases an be-it-ordaineds. "Whereas Weird Al Yankovich is bent on leading hundreds of thousands of Cincinnatians in the World's Largest Chicken Dance and Kazoo Band on Fountain Square on Saturday Sept 18th; and... "Whereas this council does not wish to see Weird Al Yankovich, or any other citizen incarcerated, for taking part in the world's largest chicken dance and Kazoo Band;..." You get the idea. Council members, uncharacteristically, offered no comment before the vote to let the kazooing commence.

30,000 KAZOOS by Randy McNutt / The Cincinnati Enquirer

When it was over, somebody in the crowd asked politely, "Did it happen yet ?" For the record, good Zinzinnatians did do the Chicken Dance again but, depending on where you stood around crowded Fifth and Vine streets about 6 p.m. Saturday, you could have missed it. After all, 30,000 kazoos have a way of distorting reality and the best of chicken dances, even at the 24th annual Oktoberfest. The free neon-colored kazoos, accordion licks by Weird Al Yankovic and the dulcet blows of Rick Hubbard, King of Kazoo, momentarily mesmerized thousands of people who jammed into downtown around Fountain Square. When Mr. Hubbard, dressed in something like lederhosen and an alpine hat, stood on the skywalk bandstand and yelled, "Let's tune up !", the air filled with the humming of a billion bumble bees. "Kazoo power!" he screamed. "Chicken power !" Then came the slim Weird Al, pop-music parodist and self-described King of the Accordion. As he played "Beer Barrel Polka," the city danced or just stood around. "Weird Al !" they chanted. "Weird Al !" Hawaiian shirt and tight black jeans and turquoise sneakers. Weird Al. As he leaped and contorted above them, thousands of people blew kazoos, danced, drank beer, walked around with dazed looks on their faces and chicken hats on their heads and sensed that something big had happened. Billed as the World's Largest Chicken Dance and Kazoo Band, the event was sponsored by the Downtown Council, organizer of Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati, and played over loudspeakers to a five-block area downtown.

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