"Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show"
(Credit: Picturehouse)
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That may sound like the premise of a new Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson flick, but it's the reality captured on film in Vaughn's cross country documentary, "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland."
Modeled after Buffalo Bill's historic Wild West variety shows, Vaughn and a posse of up-and-coming comedians crisscrossed the country in 2005 to perform 30 shows in 30 cities in 30 days. The eclectic crew included slacker savant John Caparulo, Jersey boy Bret Ernst, waiter Sebastian Maniscalco and Egyptian American Ahmed Ahmed. Now their antics hit movie screens nationwide on Feb. 8.
Metromix got the skinny on the project from Vaughn, Caparulo, Ernst and Maniscalco plus producer Peter Billingsley (perhaps better known as Ralphie from "A Christmas Story") and Vaughn's longtime buddy and frequent co-star Jon Favreau.
Vince, how did you come up with the idea to do this insane cross-country road show?
Vince Vaughn: I thought this would be kind of fun, to go on the road. [I thought] "I'd like to go to a bunch of different places and take them a variety comedy show," which you haven't seen in a while, and [I wanted to] go to some folks’ backyards that don't usually get shows like this. The hardest part was trying to convince people that I was really coming and what the Wild West show really was. People were wondering, "Is Vince coming here to rope horses? What's happening here?"
Jon Favreau: I don't know if you get a sense of it from the movie, but these guys would do a show, then go to sleep on the bus, wake up in another city and Vince would do all his press. He'd do those phone-in morning zoo radio shows, which are very challenging to do, even when you're well rested. Especially when you're Vince and they're asking you all these questions you don't want to answer and they're honking horns and shit. Then they would do the show that night.
Vince, you had actually worked with Ahmed before this movie, right?
VV: Well, the way I met Ahmed was the same way I met Peter [Billingsley], which was through a steroids after school special. Looking back on it, it was kind of like "The Outsiders." Who'd have thought that all these guys would have come from one particular special?
One of the best parts of the film is the clip from that after school special and the re-enactment of it onstage. Peter, since you were the star, can you describe the fascinating plot?
Peter Billingsley: I played a boy who takes more after his mother than his father, who was an athlete, and Vince [played] my best friend. To impress my dad and get his love, and to win over Nicole Eggert, who was formerly on "Charles and Charge," I take steroids. For those of you who remember [the original] "American Gladiators," Malibu was the one who sold me the steroids. So I buy them and become the fourth man on the track team after getting really fast overnight. I win my dad's approval, I get the girl, and then I have a heart attack right before the big race.
What was the most memorable venue you visited?
John Carpurulo: The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. I was telling toilet jokes to people sitting in church pews, it was pretty cool.
Was autographing boobs, as we see in the movie, a nightly thing?
JC: I got a good number of breasts.
VV: Sometimes you get asked stranger things than that to autograph, it's like dealer’s choice, I'd say.
JC: Yeah, I had this dude come up to me, which was weird ‘cause, you know, he was a dude. And he wanted me to autograph his shirt, but it was a nice shirt, like one you'd wear to a job interview or something. I was like, "this is not going to look good with my autograph on it, but alright!"
Has the movie already helped raise your visibility as a comic?
Sebastian Maniscalco: It's great to say you're in a major motion picture with Vince Vaughn, and my parents were in it. Not many people get to say that.
Have any of your parents gone on to get any deals from their appearances in the movie?
JC: My sister called me last night and said that one of her friends saw her on HBO. So she said, "Look at me, I'm a star!" And I was like, "OK, good for you."
Bret Ernst: My step-father thinks he should get an agent. He's totally delusional.
Vince, are there any plans to get these guys all back on the big screen again?
VV: Listen, I'll be honest with you. I don't care if these guys live or die. They've just worn me out.
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