Just for laughs

>>Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show
is an entertaining if slight road trip with
the star and a handful of comics

by MALCOLM FRASER

Stand-up comedy, as one of the performers in Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show remarks, ain’t what it used to be in the ’80s, when performers like Andrew “Dice” Clay and Louie Anderson were household names. Comedy’s still a huge business, for sure, but those lone entertainers, who must be the bravest or most neurotic people in show business, aren’t the centre of attention the way they used to be. While Dane Cook and Sarah Silverman command respectable audiences, they’re not at the rock-star level of say, Eddie Murphy in his Delirious or Raw heyday.

Vaughn’s film (actually directed by Ari Sandel) may not change that, but it’s an entertaining, if slight, look at a handful of performers who exist in that nebulous almost-famous world of comedy stardom. The movie’s subtitle is 30 Days and 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland, and that’s what you get: a month-long comedy tour hosted by Vaughn, and featuring four Hollywood-based stand-up comics.

The comedians are Egyptian-born Ahmed Ahmed, foul-mouthed John Caparulo, former waiter Sebastian Maniscalco (who was still working tables at the time of the tour) and jokey Jersey guy Bret Ernst. All were hand-picked by Vaughn, who says in the film that he dug their experience-based comedy—meaning basically that they joke around about their own lives, and don’t get too off-the-wall, as it were.

The shows themselves are ostensibly based on the sort of variety shows that I guess were popular in the old West, although they don’t feature any musical acts. Vaughn introduces the comedians, and takes part in semi-improvised skits with guest stars like Jon Favreau and Justin Long. It excited this Christmas Story fan to see that Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie in that holiday classic, is one of the special guests, and in fact is one of the producers on the film. Go Ralphie!

So I guess the question is, is it funny? Well, sort of. Each comedian has some decent bits, as well as some so-so material: nothing that will blow your mind, although the audiences seem to enjoy it. These things are a matter of taste and if you’re really into the guys’ style of humour, maybe you’d dig it. I definitely chuckled a few times, but nobody made me fall off my chair.

On the whole, as a movie, it’s amusing enough, and the characters are fairly interesting; the scene where Ahmed Ahmed shows the jail in Las Vegas where he was incarcerated before the 2004 elections, for basically being an Arab, definitely adds something to his comedy, which is a lot about living in the U.S. as a man of Middle Eastern origin. (We get a little poignant peek into each performer’s life.)

All told, though, it’d make more sense as a cable special, and it may leave you wondering why it’s showing on the big screen at all.

Vince Vaughan’s Wild West Comedy
Show opens this Friday, Feb. 8

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