How do you follow up an Oscar-winning musical short about competing falafel stands on Israel’s West Bank?
With more levity, of course. Ari Sandel, the director of 2005’s “West Bank Story,” decided to continue in the comedy vein by filming a documentary about touring stand-up comedians from L.A.
The results are on display in “Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show,” which opens in area theaters today. The movie follows a quartet of comedians on a hasty 30-day, 30-night bus tour from “Hollywood to the heartland” hosted by Vince Vaughn.
“Vince really wanted to bring comedy and live shows to places that don’t get it, so we literally picked towns on purpose that are off the beaten path, like Little Rock, Lubbock, El Paso, and some big towns, too,” Sandel said recently from a screening in Atlanta.
The four comics — Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco — all hail from L.A.’s renowned Comedy Store, and each has known Vaughn for several years. Their frat boy camaraderie seeps from the film almost instantly. Less apparent is how likable and, often, delightfully weird they are.
But did Sandel’s friendship with the comics soften his documentary instincts?
“We decided at the beginning that we weren’t out to make reality TV here, or something that was going to cut the guys down and exploit their moments of weakness,” Sandel said. “We wanted to show what they are capable of, but we didn’t know what the story was going to be at first.”
The summer 2005 tour produced 600 hours of footage, including multiple cameras shooting all 30 sets, and two interviews with each comedian every day. Sandel estimated his crew worked a not unusual but still exhausting 18 hours a day.
As he began combing through the footage Sandel realized the narrative hewed closer to the classic American story — chasing one’s dreams — than a simple document of each nightly set.
“What the movie ends up becoming is about who these four guys are,” Sandel said. “As you start to interview them, even though I knew them for years, I would learn new things about them.”
A touring comedy-variety show seems a little unusual these days for good reason: Many people see no reason to haul themselves off the couch. But the Wild West Comedy Show sold out nearly all of its dates at its 1,000-to-2,000-seat theaters from Los Angeles to Chicago, thanks in large part to Vaughn’s wattage.
“We did auditoriums, giant ballrooms, a ton of theaters, and even the Grand Old Opry — places with history,” Sandel said. “One of Vince’s things was to resurrect the feel of those old-time variety shows.”
To that end, the tour visits Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, Calif., and peppers its shows throughout with guest stars large (Dwight Yoakam, Jon Favreau) and small (Peter Billingsly, Justin Long).
But the heart of the film is the four stand-ups’ on-and-off-stage personalities. Watching them night after night gave Sandel a new appreciation for what it takes to do stand-up.
“I think that stand-up comedy is the hardest thing you can do,” he said. “Anything you do creatively is difficult and scary. You’re vulnerable, and you’re saying, ‘This is what I think is good.’ But as a stand-up you don’t have a band to back you up or hide behind. It’s just you and a mic and the stage, and you’re naked.”
