Funny business -- onstage and on the road
Its full title may be unwieldy and its humor a tad colorful for a family audience, but “Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland” is surprisingly endearing and chock-full of a genuine appreciation of the moment. The documentary, directed by Ari Sandel, chronicles the monthlong odyssey of Vaughn and four stand-up comedians he recruited from L.A.’s Comedy Store as they zigzag across the nation’s flyover zone in a tour bus.
Vaughn, the perpetually “on” comic actor and star of “Swingers” and “Wedding Crashers,” whose hangdog features and pleading eyes inject even his coarsest roles with a sense of melancholy, acts as emcee and a sort of big brother to the comics. He cuts up with buddies Jon Favreau, Justin Long, Dwight Yoakam, Keir O’Donnell and executive producer Peter Billingsley (Ralphie from “A Christmas Story” all grown up) in skits but mostly steps aside to focus the attention on the work of the four stand-ups.
The comics are at varying stages in their careers and from disparate backgrounds, but all are somewhat awed by playing venues five or 10 times larger than the clubs they’re accustomed to. Beginning at the Music Box @ Fonda in Hollywood on Sept. 12, 2005, the tour winds its way east and includes a stop at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium.
Vaughn points out that the factor that unites the comedians is that their humor is largely derived from their own lives. There’s a sincere, self-effacing quality to the comedy that makes it succeed with a wide range of audiences, from Bakersfield to Atlanta and Lubbock to Detroit -- even when the performers are asked to strip their acts of profanity.
The crudest (and funniest) of the four performers, Ohioan John Caparulo mines his doughy couch potato appearance and relationship-challenged existence for laughs. Bret Ernst, a physically adept East Coast-reared comic, draws on his childhood growing up with a single mom.
Sebastian Maniscalco, who not long before had left a job waiting tables and, like Vaughn, is from Chicago, seems most appreciative of the opportunity to be part of the tour. Ahmed Ahmed, Egypt-born, but raised in Riverside, is a onetime roommate of Vaughn’s who turned to stand-up when his acting career stalled at being typecast as a “terrorist or sleazy Arab prince.”
Though the tour’s geographical journey gives the film a natural structure, director Sandel, who won an Oscar for his uproarious short musical satire “West Bank Story,” does a nice job of starting with the familiar -- Vaughn and his famous friends -- and then gradually adding different elements. The comics’ routines are peppered throughout, but it’s the behind-the-scenes footage on the bus and interviews that are most revealing.
As the tour reaches Texas several weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck, the producers are forced to alter their schedule and end up doing a benefit matinee in Dallas. The troupe also visits an evacuee camp, and there’s an honesty to the awkwardness and initial reluctance of the young comedians to deal with the situation.
By establishing the comics’ onstage personas and then introducing their back stories and families, the film evolves emotionally as the tour transpires. When the 30 days draw to a close, we share the performers’ sense that something beyond shared laughter has come to an end.
Much like Steve Martin’s recent memoir on his stand-up career, “Wild West Comedy Show” does more than merely show the proverbial sad clown behind the comic. It entertainingly illuminates some of the more sublime aspects of performing, balancing those joys with the more rigorous aspects of being on the road. It also articulates an honest yearning to entertain and demonstrates the hard work that’s often necessary to achieve it.
As Martin put it, “Who wouldn’t want to be in show business?”
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“Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland.” MPAA rating: R for pervasive language and some sex-related humor. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes. In general release.
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