With his catchy songs and trademark searing wit, Oscar award-winning singer-songwriter Randy Newman entertained at Centrepointe Theatre March 28.

The pop and comedy musician kept the crowd engaged, linking his songs with brief autobiographical stories and jokes.

Newman came off as a humorous, slightly crude yet likeable man.

“I’m going to play all the hits tonight,” he said after his first two songs. “That’s half of them right there.”

Newman began his career at age 17 and garnered recognition in the ‘70s for songs such as “Sail Away” and “Short People.”

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, he composed music for many popular films, most notably the Toy Story films, Monsters Inc., Cars and Seabiscuit.

Newman sang “I’m Dead,” joking about his old age and how no artists seem to retire these days. “No one tells you when you’ve gone old,” he said.

Newman had the audience laughing by including them during this piece, having them respond with the lyrics “he’s dead, he’s dead” after each time he sang the line “I’m dead but I don’t know it.”

However, Newman is far from being a musician of the past, considering his recent Oscar for best original song for “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3.

Many of Newman’s lyrics are packed with sarcasm and irony and often touch on socio-political issues.

Mentioning Canada’s upcoming federal election, he suggested the audience should “look to America” before his song “Political Science,” an American man’s satirical outlook on American foreign policies.

However, Newman emphasized “these songs aren’t all autobiographical or I’d be in an institution.”

In the middle of his infamous hit “Short People,” which includes the line “short people got no reason to live,” Newman commented, “Sounds especially vicious tonight,” gaining another laugh from his audience.

Newman also managed to show his sensitive side through more moving songs such as “Living Without You,” which he said was about the death of his mother, “Losing You” and “Feels Like Home.”

Newman also played “I Miss You,” before which he said, “This is a song I wrote for my first wife when I was married to my second.”

He shook his head and added light-heartedly, “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

After what would have been his final song, Newman returned to the stage to play “Lonely at the Top” and “Feels like Home,” after which he quickly shook hands with a few audience members while receiving a standing ovation from his enthused audience.