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| This photo of Al and Paul has been around for years and we never know what video they were making -- we now know! |
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| Video Stills from "Al's Brain" |
I love learning about Lost Media. Pieces of video, audio, or video games that were seen or heard a few times and then have disappeared into time. And I love learning about the hunt to find that lost media and how it became rediscovered. I regularly watch a YouTube channel called "blameitonjorge" to learn about what is going on in the world of lost media. I was listening to his 2024 list of lost media that had been found when I discovered that a piece of lost Paul McCartney media was on the list!
Lost media is around in The Beatles' world. So many TV performances the Beatles were on were recorded over (I'm thinking about John and Paul's 1968 Tonight Show for example or 1966 Top of the Pops) and from time to time a little snippet that someone recorded with a home movie camera comes to light. This piece of lost media isn't as old as those, but I thought it was pretty cool. What was found in February of 2024 was a cameo Paul McCartney had in a Weird Al Yankovic short called "Al's Brian" from 2009.
"Al's Brian" is a 3-D educational short film written and directed by Al Yankovic, who is also the star of the 10-minute feature. The purpose of the film was to educate the viewer on how the brain works and he used a variety of live action and computer animation. For Paul's part, he is a "man on the street" and asks Al "How does the Brain work?" He is seen holding his guitar and he strums a chord before he talks, but he doesn't play or sing anything. At the end of the short, Al sings a song, "The Brain Song," but Paul does not appear again.
"Al's Brain" premiered at the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, California. It played there on a rotating basis from July 15 - August 5, 2009. From what I can tell, it did not cost extra to watch. Visitors would get a pair of 3-D glasses and sit in theater-style seats for the show. Merchandise was available to purchase. It was a popular attraction with 250,000 people coming through to see it during the time it was there. It then moved to the Puyallup Fair in Puyallup, Washington from September 11-27, 2009. It could have been shown in 2010 at an Expo in China because it was listed on a program, but there isn't any documentation that it was actually seen.
So basically after those two Fairs during the summer of 2009, "Al's Brain" disappeared. It is very strange to me that I never even heard about Paul's cameo during this on any of the Beatles' sites or publications at that time. Usually whenever Paul has a cameo in something we hear all about it.
In 2020 someone uploaded a copy of the film but it was from someone recording it live in the theater. Since it is a 3-D film, the copy was all blurry and almost impossible to watch. And then this past February the entire thing in perfect condition was shared online and is now living at the Internet Archives for all to enjoy. Check it out!
Does anyone have any idea what date Paul recorded this?
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