Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show - DVD Review

VINCE VAUGHN'S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW: 30 DAYS & 30 NIGHTS - HOLLYWOOD TO THE HEARTLAND (**1/2) - Starring Vince Vaughn, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, Ahmed Ahmed, Sebastian Maniscalco, Peter Billingsley, Dwight Yoakam, Jon Favreau and Justin Long.
Directed by Ari Sandel.

This feels like a semi-decent backstage 90-minute behind-the-scenes featurette that would be on the DVD of an actual concert movie.

In 2005, Vince Vaughn decided he wanted to do a traveling comedy show, with him hosting and little improv skits with himself and friends like Jon Favreau and Justin Long, in between stand-up routines from John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, Ahmed Ahmed and Sebatian Maniscalco. He wanted to take this type of show to cities that might not normally get them, places like El Paso, TX, and Indianapolis, IN.

Not really sure what he hoped to accomplish beyond giving four stand-up comedians extra exposure, which is good of him. We don't get to see any of the routines for more than 30 seconds at a time. I became a fan of Caparulo after seeing him on Last Comic Standing in 2007, so I would have liked to see a solid three- or four-minute set from him. I think the other comedians might be funny too, but it was hard to tell from this.

The movie does take an unexpected touching turn when they have to cancel some shows due to Hurricane Katrina. Before Pres. Bush thanked Brownie for doing a heck of a job, these guys were visiting shelters for displaced victims and tasting some humble pie for ever complaining about the conditions of their bus.

So as a behind-the-scenes featurette, it's pretty good, but it suffers the same problem Jerry Seinfeld did during Comedian. If you're going to be about stand-up, let us see more of the stand-up.

P.S. Worst title of the year.

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