TACOMA, Wash. — We're following Kenneth Guinup, decked out in a jacket with the word "Weird" written on its back, as he takes us downstairs into a room with a wall-to-wall collection of "Weird Al" Yankovic memorabilia.
"Growing up I was pretty well alone," Guinup said. "And when I first heard Al something just kind of clicked. 'I like this!' 'This is fun!' Here's somebody that is making great comedy music, has a great personality, seems down to earth, yet is flying in space."
From age 15 on, Guinup has been one of "Weird Al" Yankovic's biggest fans. The year was 1984 and the song-parody superstar had scored a Top 20 hit with "Eat It." Guinup and a friend wound up meeting Yankovic backstage.
"They say you should never meet your heroes," Guinup said. "If you haven't met Al and he's your hero, you need to meet him because he's a pretty swell guy."
So swell Guinuop's spent nearly four decades collecting "Weird Al" artifacts.
"This is probably the smallest Weird Al Museum out there," Guinup said. "And yet the most comfortable."
The museum doubles as a guest bedroom. There are thousands of objects. Records, posters, photographs, videos, books and even props from music videos and movies. More than a thousand objects in all.
"In the video 'Dare to Be Stupid' Al says 'Time to let the bed bugs bite,'" Guinup said. "Well here's a bed bug autographed by Al."
It's a collection so impressive Lisa Welchel of "Facts of Life" fame showed up with a camera crew to shoot an entire half hour episode of ME-TV's "Collector's Call," which included a special message from the man himself.
"You remember me," Yankovic said in a video message. "You've got a lot of my stuff."
"It was incredible," Welchel told us in an interview over Zoom. "I'm a huge 'Weird Al' fan myself and I've always really admired him personally so Ken's collection really deepened my appreciation."
"Is 'weird' a word to embrace?" we asked Guinup.
"Yeah I think 'weird' is a word to embrace," he said. "There are a lot of people out there who have had a tough time."
That includes Guinup who has been dealing with serious health issues for decades. His wife says collecting is one of the things that keeps Guinup going.
"I also love 'Weird Al's' message of belonging and that you can be yourself," Erin Guinup said. "I think that's such a wonderful message and for Ken to be able to celebrate something so positive, I think it's a good thing."
Kenneth's episode of Collector's Call airs April 21 at 6:30 PM on METV.
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