Wild West Comedy Show

Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland (Vince Vaughan, Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, Justin Long, Sabastian Maniscalco, Peter Billingsley) – A road film without Bing and Bob.  This is just a documentary about a bunch of comedians who pile in a couple of John Madden-type sleeping buses and ride around the country doing 30 stand-up performances in 30 cities.   Vince Vaughan, who started in stand-up, and his friend, director Peter Billingsley had this idea of taking some relatively obscure stand-up comedians and chronicling the road show.  It’s a little raw, occasionally funny, a little gross, and mostly boring.  You do get to see the life of a stand-up comic, who “puts it out there” in front of a crowd, often with mixed results.  You learn a bit about each one of them and meet some of their families, which is marginally interesting.  You get to experience these guys when their timing puts them near Katrina’s path (yes, this tour took place 2½ years ago).  At first, they are reluctant to visit some of the victims but they eventually realize that, in their small way, they can provide them some needed diversion from their plight.  Vaughan is an enigma to many movie-goers.  On the one hand, he’s a clown.  On the other, he is a likable, easy-as-you-go comedic actor.  And on your third hand, he’s a fine actor – catch him in the remake of Psycho or in the recent Into the Wild.  There is no doubt he is talented, but this movie that he produced himself in 2006 just wasn’t a very good idea.