Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show - 9 pm - Ryerson Theatre - 9/8

This was another movie that I was desperately looking to get out of and find another one to see. I'm glad I didn't. Most of the films that I see at the festival are "downers", it was nice to find one and simply laugh. The film is similiar in structure to "The Original Kings of Comedy" and "Blue Collar Comedy Tour." Vince picked four comics and some friends to travel around with him on buses and hit 30 cities in 30 days, playing in various types of venues (mostly smaller). It also tells backstories on each of the comics, how they got started, what they felt after performing, etc. It was a very funny film. Vince Vaughn and the comics were all in attendance and did a Q & A afterwords

• Before the screening, Vaugn introduced the film. "I've decided we are not going to show the film tonight. Instead, I'm going to see you a song from the bottom of my heart, and I'm going to need your help in this number so we can reach the heavens with song."
• He had been here before with "Clay Pigeons." "And this is really the best festival in that you guys get to come to the shows. I really wish the other festivals would take a cue from that. It's really supposed to be a celebration of film, it means a lot to me that you took the time to come see the film."
• They decided to do the "trip" 21 days before they actually began. So they had three weeks to get the equipment, buses, book the venues, etc.
• Vaughn met Peter Billingsly and comic Ahmed Ahmed while working on the "Steroid" afterschool special. "I was never that big a fan of stand up comic. I had always found situations to be funnier. The one thing that moved me about all four comics was that they were talking about their lives, experiences that they were having. I found something very appealing in that and that audiences would be able to relate to them. There not just doing gimic jokes.
• Someone asked his advice on how to get into the business. "To me, when I started off in the biz, no one said 'Hey, let's go to Hollywood and hit it big.' We went because we weren't very good at doing anything else. Acting was the one thing that I really loved. The focus today is on being "famous", it's about being successful. They're not going to be 'actors, musicians, because they love the craft. They are picking an occupation that will make them 'famous.' You have to really love it. You have to be able to take what's inside you and really express it in an authentic way. And success may come or it may not come, but the important thing is that you are doing something you love and that you HAVE to do it.
• There were a couple of shows that they performed that had to be CLEAN. Comic Joe Caparulo said that he did curse once at the show at Notre Dame and then had sweat it out to see if they would get paid. He did say that overall performing "clean" routines in not especially hard, "it just means my sets are shorter."
• They would like to tour again, but they would never attempt 30 nights in 30 days again.