Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here. Less a straight stand-up concert film and more a documentary about the often-grueling stand-up circuit, VINCE VAUGHN'S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW follows the adventures Vaughn experienced while taking a group of four rising comics and a handful of his actor buddies on a road trip through the heartland—30 shows in 30 days. Said to be in the spirit of the Old West variety shows of days gone by, the tour offered up a unique experience for the travelers in each city, and the resulting film is a truly fascinating and gut-busting good time. The heart of the film is the short sets by each of the four comics. There isn't a weak performer in the bunch. Wisely, director Ari Sandel (WEST BANK STORY) doles out the stand-up in small but satisfying bites. Probably the best known of the bunch, the Egyptian-born Ahmed Ahmed tells true stories of racial profiling, his troubles in airports and of his good luck with women on the road who all want to date him because it would really piss off their parents. John Caparulo has the most natural approach, even seeming to crack himself up when he's particularly funny, which is quite often. New Jersey's Bret Ernst has a great gift for noticing behavior. His routine on how men and women act when going to a club in a group will have you weeping with laughter. My personal favorite is the least experienced of the bunch, Sebastian Maniscalco, whose main source of income was from waiting tables when Vaughn selected him. He uses the stage, no matter the size, to full advantage. Always dressed in black with perfectly coifed hair, Maniscalco prowls around the stage with a passion for his work you rarely see. I particularly loved his priceless description of his pre-show cleansing ritual. But the onstage stand-up is only a part of this film. Sandel wants to show us how punishing and unforgiving road life can be. The team crowds onto a bus, which, by the end of the tour, looks like a frat house on Sunday morning. We follow the group as they in the local attractions in each city. A stop to visit Buck Owens in Bakersfield, California, is particularly thrilling, especially when Dwight Yoakam drops by on stage to sing with Vaughn. Oh, yes. There are guest stars who join Vaughn between the comics to do rehearsed and improvised routines. John Favreau, Justin Long and Vaughn's best friend Peter Billingsley (one of the film's producers) all show up onstage at various points to engage in some light banter with the host. The sequences with Billingsley are particularly ridiculous as Vaughn presents CHRISTMAS STORY clips along with sequences from an after-school special that the two men did as youngsters about steroid abuse. The two then proceed to re-enact the special's classic confrontation scene live. Justin Long's dead-on impersonation of Vaughn in SWINGERS is also a keeper. Much like the live show, the film VINCE VAUGHN'S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW is about keeping the audience laughing. In fact, the laughs per minute on this movie might by higher than anything I've seen in quite a while. The few occasions when the film gets serious—for example, when the troupe visits a campground where displaced victims of Hurricane Rita are living—it slows things down. But I didn't really mind that much since my facial muscles welcomed the relief. The film also profiles each comic by giving us a little history on each one's career, showing them with their parents and other family members, and getting comments from everyone in the group on each other's strengths and type of humor. The funny thing is, if you'd told me that these mini-profiles were part of this film before I saw it, I would have groaned in disapproval. But it made me more interested in where their humor was coming from, especially in the case of Ahmed Ahmed, who has transformed some truly ugly behavior against him into prime material. If you've always wanted a little insight into the down-and-dirty side of the entertainment lifestyle, or if you just want to laugh your balls off, the WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW should help you fulfill both needs. Capone capone@aintitcoolmail.com
