Fans of Vince Vaughn may be surprised to learn that the star of Wedding Crashers and Dodgeball is now premiering as a stand-up comedian.
Vaughn took four fairly unknown comedians on a tour across the country to promote their craft. Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland is molded after Buffalo Bill’s famous Wild West Show. The five travel from Hollywood to Chicago and perform 30 shows for various audiences.
This film is more of a documentary, different from Vaughn’s previous work. Its focus is on the life of a comedian, and portrays the work and pain of the struggling artist. Vaughn is seen as more of a father figure to the four guys. He advises them on segments of their acts, comforts them when their performances don’t go so well and tells tales of legendary performers, such as Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam.
The basis of the tour is to get these practicing comedians a break in to the comedy world. He brings the four aspiring artists under his headline in order to get their names out. The movie documents each show and gives an inside look into the lives of each man.
Sebastian Maniscalco was a waiter moonlighting as a comedian before Vaughn brought him on tour. John Caparulo tells anecdotes of how he got his lewd vocabulary from his father. Ahmed Ahmed details what it is like to be an Egyptian national in today’s comedic society. Bret Ernst highlights what is was like growing up as a latch-key kid.
The tour may have been to help these men perfect their craft, but the film had more of a real-life nature; it’s purpose is to show how comedy and reality blur together. Each comedian’s life story reveals how the worlds blend.
"Comedy and reality always cross over," Ahmed said while explaining how he used something extreme that happened to him as the structure for one of his acts.
Overall, the film had slow moments that were punctuated by loud outbursts. In taking the film on the basis of its title – a comedy show – one will be disappointed to discover that the performances have more unexciting episodes than drawing raucous laughter. Normally witty Vaughn was substandard during his sketch-comedy performances, his best lines being off stage.
The film’s purpose, is to simply reveal to the audience how comedy and reality intermix and blend by delving into the lives of these four performers. In this sense, the movie achieves what it set out to do. It has a rise and fall of emotion as the viewer gets swept into the reality of it, and ends in retrospective of the 30 days.
So, if you’re looking for a solid 90 minutes of laughter, you’re not going to get it from this film. What you will take away from it is appreciation for comedy as an art form as well as a general understanding of the artist. In that sense, this reviewer gives it a thumbs up.
