Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland

Vince Vaughn please (with my sincere apologies to Ray Charles): "Hit the road jack, and do please come back for more for more, hit the road jack and do please come back for more". Why? Because "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show" was a comedic trip a la crop from the Hollywood to the Heartland. In this delightful documentary, Vince recruits four extremely talented but inexperienced comedians in his comedic posse for a Comedy Tour: the Arab jokester Ahmed Ahmed, the chunky foul-mouthed John Caparulo, the Italian man's man storyteller Sebastian Maniscalco, and the charismatic charmer Bret Ernst. The Vaughn Gang also includes best friend and producer partner Peter Billingsley, and the always fluid Justin Long. However, the comedic shows in the tour primarily feature the comedic performances of the aforementioned Funny Fearsome Foursome. This gang of laugh providers hit the road on a tour bus for 30 days and implausibly enough did 30 shows within that time span; even overcoming hurricane warnings in a few cities. Being an obsessed fan of the cult classic film "Swingers", the most money part of the "Vaughnumentary" for me is when Vaughn reunites with Swingers pal Jon Favreau and they both have Justin Long take a swing on reciting Vaughn's infamous money lines in the film. Not to say I did not enjoy the laugh-out-loud comedic routines from Ahmed, Caparulo, Maniscalco, and Ernst; the capping edge going to Caparulo's hilarious ruthless sets. These are four genuine (or in second thought maybe not too genuine) comedians; but whatever they case, I do stand up for them and vouch that they will have bright stand-up comedic futures ahead of them. Nevertheless, the charismatic laugh ringmaster of the "Wild West Comedy Show" is Vince Vaughn himself who is the V-Great King that orchestrated this dandy documentary that had all our funny juices flowing! You are still money, Mr. Vaughn! ***** Excellent

In Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights—Hollywood to the Heartland, if the four relatively unknown comics (a "Guido," an Ohio rube, an Arab, and a non-descript guy) accompanying Vaughn on a 30 day tour of 30 cities had been better, the documentary would have been better as well. Sadly this tepid montage of the trip is rarely funny, rarely imaginative, although the infectious good will of Vaughn saves it from total banality.

Jerry Seinfeld's Comedian (2002) and the arch Aristocrats (2005) have far more humorous moments while also revealing the humanity of the performers. Vaughn tries with limited success to show the heart of the comics between acts, but, alas, not one is interesting enough to have more than a beer with.

As with most of these documentaries, there are only snippets of the acts and then cutting to another performer or a personal note. Thus, we can never understand fully why a comedian will or will not make the big time. One thing I do know, this January graveyard toss off will not make it big time. I'll ask you in December if you think it should be nominated for best documentary; you'll haveto research it on IMDb to remember.

It seems as though a lot of people were expecting a comedy show, as opposed to a documentary on a comedy show. Its a shame they have to pan the film for not dazzling them with humor, when it has so much more to offer. I find the filmmaker's choices and the honesty of those on camera riveting (i.e. insecurity, heckling, bad jokes, good jokes, grateful to ungracious and back again) Maybe I wouldn't have enjoyed the show in person (on an off night), but I truly enjoyed the evolution of the show from Vince's eyes. I want to make love to him. A similar film is THE COMEDIAN, being in show business I find the material incredibly compelling, those of you who like sports or Larry the Cable Guy obviously, it wouldn't be for you. Interestingly there were no women on the crew or in the show . . . hmmmmm

This movie should be a stand-up concert film, but for some reason its a road movie instead. The comedians are funny when you do get to see them on stage, but most of the movie is spent looking at a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" map trace the trip across America, cut with footage of the tour bus and then an audience laughing. Insert a cliché song about the city we're about to visit. They pad the movie out with a last minute Katrina benefit show, which seemed kind of melodramatic (especially for a comedy). Vince Vaughn even shows up on occasion throughout the film to show us his range of talent (see wedding crashers...NOT!). The money shot is definitely Vince and his friend Peter Bilingsley acting out their parts from a steroids after-school special.

Although I tried to forget it, I remember actually paying to see this when it was first released. I also remember thinking to myself..."Maybe Vince actually got his hands on some pretty funny talent. THis looks like it could be fun!" Absolutely not. Worst assumption I could've possibly made was thinking this was actually going to be a "funny" experience for me. I hardly remembered the dragged out jokes that were in this film until i tried viewing it again the other night. I figured that maybe, just maybe i missed something the first time and since i was in the comfort of home it'd be a little better the next go around, but yet again...with another bad assumption I was WRONG. Save your time...save your money...because this film represents and is all that is wrong with the words: NOT FUNNY.