{grate 1.5} Maybe we should call Vince Vaughn a philanthropist, doling
out fame to comic friends a few rungs down the success ladder. His new
docu-comedy, “Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights — Hollywood to the
Heartland,” hopes to be a journey to stardom for the “Wedding Crashers”’s
up-and-coming comedian pals, disguised as blue-collar stand up. But like the
title and the endless, empty road that the tour bus navigates, the film drags
on painfully. Sharing the bus with Vaughn for the solid month of shows in 2005
was midwestern fast-food employee John Caparulo, dancing Guido Bret Ernst,
nondescript macho Sebastian Maniscalco and the token Arab, Ahmed Ahmed.

Modeling the tour after Buffalo Bill’s travelling variety
show, Vaughn’s goal, which he states within the first five minutes, is to
demonstrate how the inspiration behind a standup comedian’s material stems
directly from his or her own personal life and experiences.

After the first hour you start to wonder how on earth the
filmmakers will be able to stretch out the severe lack of substance into the
full 100 minutes. Then you quickly realize that they will indeed fail
miserably, despite tossing in some geographically relevant rock songs like
“Georgia” and “Streets of Bakersfield,” which only distract between the comedic
segments.

Surprisingly, the film’s meat can be found in the patriotic
filler footage of historical landmarks in all 30 tour stops, combined with an
in-depth look at each of the comedians’ humble beginnings, rather than the
performances themselves.

While backstage interviews about life in the unpredictable
industry and ma-and-pa introductions attempt to tug at the heartstrings, “Wild
West” can’t maintain a comfortable balance between the funny and serious — like
the rocky transitions from toilet jokes to anxiety-induced, borderline-suicidal
comments. At one point, the film jumps from wisecracks about racial
stereotyping to footage of the four comedians handing out free benefit show
tickets to Hurricane Katrina evacuees in a trailer park.

All good intentions aside, the sporadic shifts are awkwardly
abrupt and possibly too heavy for the purposes of the film. The few clips of
the tour we do get to see, however, are dominated with cameos by Vaughn’s
“Swingers” co-star John Favreau and Dwight Yoakam, among others, making it
difficult to tell whether the four headliners actually have what it takes to
make it to the big time, or if they are just a backdrop for already established
talent.

The film’s irony lies in the fact that all 30 packed houses
embraced the four comedians with open arms and wall-crumbling laughter,
indicating there was either a gigantic “applause” sign held off-screen, or the
filmmakers did a poor job in selecting which bits to showcase in theaters. For
director Ari Sendel, the amount of space between laughs is about equal to the
space between this film and any paycheck, big break or Oscar.