Send In The Clowns! Bands Making Funny Money On The Road

For all the talk of comedy’s rapid growth as a live art form, for many successful musicians making people laugh has always been part of the act.

“The greatest thing about heavy metal is knowing that it’s ridiculous,” says Brendon Small, creator of the “Metalocalypse” Adult Swim animated series and leader of animated metal band Dethklok, the most popular — and brutal — band in the world . The content can only be described as both very funny and very seriously, extremely metal, landing somewhere between Opeth and “Beavis and Butt-Head.”

“It’s very theatrical, which can be very ridiculous, it’s very brutal and self-serious. It’s great to straddle that line, how seriously do I take this?” said Small. “Every single person that goes to a metal show, I think, deep down knows that. That’s part of the love. In order to make any kind of joke, you have to love it a great deal.”

Although the Adult Swim show was canceled in 2013, Dethklok was revived for successful touring in 2023, a live, animated co-headline run with Babymetal followed by its own headline run with Dragonforce in support. Highlights included two sold-out nights at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles.

“What’s fun about having a show that has comedy in it is that, any band that we play with, we can always be funnier than them, even if just ever so slightly,” Small said. Current plans include working out the possibility of a European tour, said Small, who is represented by Independent Artist Group.

While Dethklok is an example of an established brand with an existing fanbase not solely dependent on touring, others have taken comedic music on the road as mostly stand-alone offering.

“The only thing that makes sense for this band is live,” says Mike Odd, manager of Mac Sabbath, a parody band that mashes up Black Sabbath riffs with a certain ubiquitous fast food restaurant chain, led by singer Ronald Osbourne, guitarist Slayer MacCheeze, bassist Grimalice and drummer Catburglar, playing favorites such as “Frying Pan,” “More Ribs” and “Para-buns.”

The band is currently on a 10-year anniversary club tour, which, due to demand, added dates and even upgraded room sizes for its Denver stop.

“It sounds like I’m giving a line — ‘Oh, you gotta experience it live’ — but I swear to you, every single promoter, every single fan, every single club owner, they all say the exact same thing to me. ‘I had no idea it was gonna be like this,’” said Odd.

Mac Sabbath has become a full-time gig, meaning lots of fast-food paraphernalia being trucked from state to state via bus to small clubs across the country, making a living selling hard tickets and analog merch. That’s in line with the band’s ethos, as frontman Ronald Osbourne — a time traveler from the 1970s who does not understand modern technology such as music streaming — only appears in the present day as a member of Mac Sabbath, dedicated to bringing the world back to a more organic state of both music and fast food. The lyrics offer clever play on words touching on animal cruelty, big agriculture and GMOs, for instance.

“You can compare it to Weird Al or GWAR or whatever, but there’s such a different, thematic, weird thing that happens during the whole thing that incorporates comedy and, as cheesy as it sounds, magic,” Odd says. “Then it has all this social message behind it. You wouldn’t think you could do that much with fast food, you know? It’s really hard to explain.”

Billed as possibly the “beginning of the end” of Mac Sabbath, the current 10-year anniversary tour will stretch into 2025, Odd says. Admitting he never thought he’d be involved in the project for 10 years — and reached while on the road between gigs in Oklahoma City and Tennessee — he lets out a hearty laugh when asked if he’s ready for another decade of Mac Sabbath.

“Oh God, no,” he said.