Actor Vince Vaughn strikes me as a smooth talker who can probably convince anyone that one of his ideas is worth a shot. So it comes as no surprise that he not only managed to coerce several of his close friends and family members to pitch in and help him mount a delirious 30-day trek across America to do thirty one-night stands in various venues, but also talked four struggling comics into participating in this sort-of renegade comedy tour experiment. To take the whole experience one step further, he also got friend and fellow producer Peter Billingsley to help him document the whole thing for a feature film. Thus was born the movie version of Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show.

While the premise is certainly enticing, I suspect any one of the actual live performances was probably more entertaining and delivered a better flavor for what the whole tour was about than this 100-minute condensed documentary. Director Ari Sandel, who recently won an Oscar for his live action short West Bank Story, makes a valiant effort to intermingle both prime bits from each of the four comic’s standup routines with more revealing behind-the-scenes footage of Vaughn and his traveling band of entertainers aboard their tour bus. But the cutting back and forth only serves to break the well-timed rhythm of the comedian’s sets and actually leaves you wanting more of a straight presentation of the show itself.

Serving as the Master of Ceremonies, Vaughn introduces each of the four comedians he hand-selected for the tour from among some of the lesser-known comics still working the club circuit and who haven’t gotten any major exposure before. To this end, Vaughn is to be commended for actually attempting to give these four talents a well-deserved break and a unique opportunity to play to wider audiences. The four stars of the show include: Ahmed Ahmed, a comic of Middle Eastern descent who does a lot of riffing on his ethnic heritage and the fact that he resembles a terrorist; John Caparulo, a self-deprecating everyman who seems easily annoyed by everyone; Bret Ernst, a very good physical comedian who does some clever visual gags; and, Sebastian Maniscalco, a fresh and innovative observational comedian who was still working as a waiter to make ends meet when he embarked on the tour.

Although all four comics have since gone on to bigger and better things as a result of their exposure on the tour and through the documentary, at the time they remained relative unknowns. So Vaughn’s presence as the pseudo ringmaster was essential to introducing them to audiences at the thirty venues and now via a nationally-released theatrical film and DVD. Vaughn also gives certain shows and the resultant documentary an additional bit of star power by tapping friends like Jon Favreau, Peter Billingsley, Justin Long, and Dwight Yoakum to make onstage and onscreen appearances with him. Most of these are done as bookend skits to introduce and close each show, and they run the gamut from mildly amusing (a bit where Justin Long mimics Vaughn’s lines from Swingers with Favreau) to flatly disappointing (an unfunny improv where he drags out his co-star from Wedding Crashers, Keir O’Donnell, to draw suggestions from the audience).

As for the comics themselves, I was most impressed with the roly-poly John Caparulo, whose voice was initially grating to me, but the more I heard his act the more I liked his delivery and devil-may-care attitude. And I also liked the quick and clever Sebastian Maniscalco, who obsesses over the annoying minutia of life in the vein of Jerry Seinfeld. While I laughed at some of the bits from the other two comics, I found it easier to identify with both Caparulo and Maniscalco. Again, one of the key drawbacks of the documentary, I think, is we never get a complete sense for any one of the comedian’s full sets, which would probably be a better way to gauge their level of success in getting across to an audience. While I understand and appreciate the intent of documenting the things that happened behind-the scenes while on tour and getting to know a bit about each comic and their family life, it takes more time away from the actual standup routines which should have been the film’s main focus.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s 1.85:1 aspect ratio is presented in a mediocre anamorphic transfer that suffers from the documentary being shot wholly on digital video and using a range of cameras and equipment that obviously varied greatly in quality. While there are some good, professional-looking camera angles shot from just offstage during the live shows, much of the material photographed on the tour bus and some angles taken from the audience look very grainy and underexposed. The image quality didn’t improve much in the video-to-film transfer and the resulting DVD transfer seems to retain a lot of the source flaws. Flesh tones tend to skew a bit yellow and color balance would often shift to warmer and reddish hues as is typical of low-light indoor scenes shot on digital video.

While the images remain crisp and clear for the bulk of the documentary — especially the live performances and during some of the staged interviews — a lot of the handheld stuff looks a bit amateurish and rushed. Granted, this was meant to document the experience as it happens, but it does get a bit distracting. On the plus side, I didn’t detect and signs of edge halos, mosquito noise, or other compression artifacts. Overall, a fair but flawed video presentation.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Offering both a discrete Dolby Digital 5.1 track and a straight Dolby stereo option, the audio on this disc is even less dynamic than its video counterpart. Despite boasting a full 5.1 soundtrack, the movie remains essentially a front- and center-channel experience, with virtually no information delivered through the surround channels or, for that matter, the subwoofer. Granted, the shows themselves are essentially extended standup routines where there isn’t much more going on other than one or two people onstage talking with the occasional music cue thrown in to segue from one set to another, but it would have been nice to get even a little ambient surround activity. It’s even more telling when switching from 5.1 to stereo and you can barely detect a difference in the audio presentations. Dialogue remains clear and concise through the center channel, but I would have liked a bit more bottom and surround action.

The optional subtitles are in English SDH, English, and Spanish.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Although it was a drawback in delivering an optimal video presentation, the use of digital video for shooting the documentary did provide ample opportunity to garner a great deal of footage — some 600 hours according to the director — which has made for a choice collection of bonus material.

The supplements begin with two feature-length audio commentary tracks, the first by producer/host Vince Vaughn and producer Peter Billingsley, and a second by director Ari Sandel and comedians Bret Ernst, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Ahmed Ahmed. Of the two, the more interesting is the Vaugh/Billingsley track in which the two longtime friends and collaborators discuss the genesis of the project and how they went about capturing it for the documentary. Never at a loss for words, Vaughn chatters on about his concept for the show as based on Buffalo Bill’s original “Wild West” show, which traveled from town to town. He was also adamant that the tour be thirty shows in thirty days and travel from Hollywood to the Heartland of America. The second track featuring director Sandel and the comedians is less focused on the film itself and tends to be more about the recollections of select shows by the individual comics with Sandel occasionally chiming in about how he attempted to videotape every show — before, during and after. It’s also a bit disappointing that John Caparulo didn’t participate in the commentary track.

Next is a generous collection of deleted scenes beginning with extended bits from each comedian’s standup routine. Some are funnier than the material that made the final cut. These include: Sebastian Maniscalco (6:50); Ahmed Ahmed (6:08); Bret Ernst (6:05); John Caparulo (7:11); Dinner for Two (5:05); Vince, Dwight and Buck (4:38); Grease (5:42); I’m Not a Painter (5:55); Six Degrees of Wild West (3:25); and, Sweet Caroline (3:50). Two of these latter deleted scenes — Grease and Sweet Caroline — are actually closing segments of the show when Vaughn would come out and sing karaoke songs. The former is him singing John Travolta’s part of “Summer Nights” from Grease, with Justin Long in drag singing Olivia Newton-John’s part. The latter features his solo rendition of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” with the audience singing the rousing chorus.

The first of several featurettes is titled The Tour (5:45) and it essentially gives some of the same details about the genesis of the tour and resultant documentary that Vaughn and Billingsley offer on their commentary track, but it adds input from other members of the cast and crew into the mix.

The Making of Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show (6:00) includes more one-on-one interviews with Vaughn and pals but delves a bit deeper into why Vaughn, in particular, wanted to do shows in certain cities and towns and why he wanted to embark on the tour and documentary in the first place. Director Ari Sandel also discusses how he had meetings with all the comics each night to get a sense for how to shoot their individual sets and how difficult it was to sift through some 600 hours of footage shot for the film.

The more comprehensive Wild West Comedy Show Behind-the-Scenes (9:44) strictly focuses on the four comedians and their entourage traveling cross-country on the tour bus and includes some of the funnier bits that didn’t make it into the documentary. There are some great, revealing bits here, like when Caparulo goes ballistic when one of the other comics inadvertently eats his Subway sandwich and he’s left with nothing to eat.

The disc also includes the original theatrical trailer for Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show (2:30) along with trailers for Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D (2:30), Run Fat Boy Run (2:30), Semi-Pro (0:30), and Mama’s Boy (2:30).

The 100-minute film is organized into sixteen chapters.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What Happens When You Pop The Disc Into Your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM Features on this disc.

Final Thoughts

Light and breezy but a little lean on actual standup routines, Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show tries to showcase the best of both worlds by offering a document of the 2005 month-long thirty city tour and all the behind-the-scenes efforts that went into it. While I realize this wasn’t intended to be a straight concert film, I would have liked to see more of the individual comedian’s acts and less of the day-to-day shenanigans that went on. But what is here is both entertaining and memorable. Despite a mediocre transfer and a similarly limited audio presentation, the generous collection of bonus material and the overall film itself warrant a strong rental recommendation.