Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland (2006)

In 2005, Vince Vaughn organizes a traveling road show starting from Hollywood. They would do 30 shows in 30 cities traveling across the country. He is joined by friends Jon Favreau, Justin Long and several standup comics. Along the way, there are special guests like Dwight Yoakam and Peter Billingsley.The comedians aren't that funny. They've got a few lines but they aren't that funny. It would help for their personal stories if I like their sets more. It's nice to see Yoakam play and Peter Billingsley talk about his early friendship during the filming an anti-steroid abuse PSA. The behind the scenes stuff is more compelling. The self-doubt is interesting. Vince comes off as a nice friendly guy. There isn't enough on the humorous side but it does come with a side of humanity.

Greetings again from the darkness. Not a bad idea from producers and best buds Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley. A documentary road trip with four comedians doing 30 shows in 30 cities over 30 days sets the stage for a wide range of emotions and activity. The first misstep was going with four mostly unknown comedians. Because of this, the movie really needs to help us get to know them ... which we just barely do.The second misstep was that the actual stand-up was sparse and frankly, just not that funny. The back-stage stuff proved much better. I was actually kind of let down when the acts were performing.Because there were so many cities, we really never get a flavor of any one particular town, although Buck Owens in Bakersfield was kind of cool. Sadly we get more shots of Billingsley sleeping than we do much interaction offstage between the comics. The side trip during Hurricane Katrina could have been much better.Vince Vaughn is a very charismatic and talented guy so that gives the film a slight edge over what it probably deserves. The reality is that most of these guys just aren't very funny onstage and come across here as a bit sad off-stage.

Wildly entertaining, Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Tour 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland, a documentary that tears through the stand up circuit with 4 comedians who perform 30 shows in 30 consecutive nights in cities across the US.The "Stand-up Comic" hasn't been in our consciousness for awhile. They have become a dying breed, a career that starves the mind and body. This film goes beyond itself, allowing the fatigue and exhilaration of comedy, seep through the screen. Through off stage interviews with each of these comics, you feel their emotional intensity and yearning for inspiration from their lives.This is a Vince Vaughn movie that just entertains it has all the right factors. There is Vince center stage doing his usual fast talking persona that I dare say has plagued most of his recent films. He is the name and the host of every show. He invites guest Justin Long, who hams it up as a waiter to him and Jon Favreau, but Justin goes on to do an unforgettable impression of Vince Vaughn in a scene from Swingers. He does same type of act with Keir O'Donnell ("the gay dude from Wedding Crashers" as an audience member and survivor of a hurricane Katrina calls him) draws pictures based on title recommendations from the audience. "Our First Date" is particularly hilarious; as it features Keir in a tree holding grapes out to a bobble headed Vince Vaughn. Still Vince reveals himself to be more that just a movie star, a thoughtful reflective and supporter of stand up. He gives the spotlight to the 4 comics, Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco who he pulled from the Comedy Store in Los Angeles.Ahmed Ahmed shows perhaps the most natural on-stage presence, his comedy is a pure reflection of his life - he was arrested at a Las Vegas airport for being middle-eastern. John Caparulo is a standout, with his fowl mouth, Bob Goldthwaitesque voice and his yappy dog presence, he is the most accessible to audience. When the tour stops in a particular town where they are required to do a clean show, John has to restrain himself on stage and is forced to change his brand of comedy in an altogether negative way. There is also something to be said about Sebastian Maniscalco, he is by far quirkiest of the group, he takes long, full cleansing showers and dry cleans his socks and underwear, but his genius is he embraces himself and uses it in his routines. It is his reflections after his performances and his life as a stand up that really pull at the heart strings and outlines the heart of what this film really is truly about, the often heart stopping truth of comedy. In the end it was the always hard working Sebastian that seemed the most altered by the tour. The final sequence of the film, a wrap party that has him caught up in a tearful goodbye, as he come to terms with the tour experience. It is clear he is altered forever.

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.