Director Ari Sandel wants you to cry. Whether you cry from laughing so hard that your abs feel like they've just been through Billy Blanks' Tae-Bo Boot Camp, or you're crying from the raw emotive power of each of the comedians' stories, there's no question that you'll find a little glisten on your cheeks after watching this film.
Vince Vaughn's comedy tour took four amateur comedians and three professional ones on the road for a month in 2005 across the U.S. Sandel shot the film on a camcorder, following Vaughn's excursion. He's a documentary filmmaker by trade, but wanted to avoid the arrogance that tends to underlie his peers' films. "We wanted to give the sense that anyone could have documented the tour," he says.
The comedians performed 30 shows in 30 different cities in 30 nights. And they were utterly hilarious. Professional comics have a longer stage life than ever before, making it nearly impossible for up-and-comers to break through. But that in no way makes amateur comedians less funny - their humor runs the gamut from lowbrow humor to terrorist jokes (delivered by an Egyptian named Ahmed Ahmed, no less). For some, comedy is therapy: One comic's older brother died from AIDS four years before the tour. For others, comedy is their way of being truest to themselves and to the people around them.
Soon enough, viewers feel like they are truly a part of the experience that was the Wild West Comedy Tour. Sandel exhibits the tremendous growth of each of the four men over only a month, showing just how difficult it can be to "make it"
