STAND-UP GUY
Vince Vaughn talks to Gary Thom pson; his new movie shows how the 'West' was fun
TURNS OUT that Vince Vaughn, reigning king of the buddy movie, is happily typecast: he has a ton of buddies.
It's one of the things we learn in "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show," a concert movie showcasing four comics that Vaughn hauled around last year on a hastily assembled tour of 30 cities - something that looks like it might have been conceived during happy hour, and probably was.
"Nowadays it can be a dry market for stand-ups," said Vaughn. "It's not like it was back in the '90s, when comedians were going to L.A. and they were handing out sitcoms at the airport. I wanted to show that there are guys around who are really good, and deserve exposure."
There are cameos by a posse of Vaughn's pals, and some you know - like Jon Favreau, his "Swingers" alum and now a big-shot director.
But "Wild West" takes us a little deeper into Vaughn's posse of pals, past Dwight Yoakam and Justin Long, past the actor who played Ralphie in "Christmas Story."
Yes, it's true. One of Vaughn's best friends is Peter Billingsley, former child star, and a highlight of "Wild West" is a piece of improvisation covering the origin of their friendship.
They met on the set of an after-school TV special called "The Fourth Man," about the evils of steroids. In "Wild West," the grown up Vaughn and Billingsley re-enact their big scene: They come to blows as Vaughn tries to persuade Billingsley that it's wrong - wrong! - to take steroids in order to be a faster sprinter just to impress a girlfriend.
I asked Vaughn if it bothers him that "The Fourth Man" failed to turn a generation of pro athletes away from performance-enhancing drugs.
"Yes!" he said, laughing. "Maybe had Peter and I made that fight scene a little more convincing, we wouldn't have all the problems we're facing today."
"The Fourth Man" also had a small role for another Vaughn pal, Ahmed Ahmed, now a comic and one of the performers featured in "Wild West." Back then he was a struggling actor who'd signed on as an extra. Vaughn remembers trying to arrange seating for them near the catering truck.
"Peter was like, 'Vince, no, you can't sit with the extras,' " Vaughn recalled. "I hope that doesn't make him sound really bad, because he wasn't. But he was a child star who'd grown up on movie sets, and he was following protocol."
Protocol was never Vaughn's thing. His fans know the story of "Swingers" - how he and Favreau made their break instead of waiting for it. The same kind of just-do-it enterprise sparked "Wild West" - Vaughn had the idea for a benefit concert, and that became an idea for a tour. The tour became an idea for a documentary, to be paid for by some of the gate receipts.
When distributors told Vaughn it couldn't or shouldn't be done (he's split with his original studio partner), he did it anyway.
"The thing we learned from 'Swingers' was to make your own movie and have control of it," Vaughn said. "Everybody wanted to change it - they would read the script about guys swing-dancing and saying, 'You're so money,' and say, 'People don't say that.' And I'd say 'Yes, I know, but we say that, and that's the whole point.'
"The same sort of concept applied to this movie. These are funny, genuine guys. They draw from personal experience, some of it is pretty painful, and they put that in their act. I think audiences feel that, and I think audiences like that."
The movie shows an earnest side of Vaughn - booster, buddy, sponsor, fundraiser, brother (his sister is the movie's producer) - and ends with him consoling weeping, grateful comics.
Vaughn, though, won't stray too far from his more acerbic "Wedding Crashers" and "Old School" brand. He's just finished a comedy in that vein, "Four Christmases." He and Reese Witherspoon play newlyweds who spend the holidays visiting four bitterly estranged parents.
It's the latest in a string of comedies for Vaughn, who did some dramatic work in indie films after "Swingers." Comedy, though, pays the bills. "Fred Claus" was a flop, but not for Vaughn's bank account - he went from $3 million on "Wedding Crashers" to $20 million.
That gives him a huge incentive to stay in comedy.
"I'm not the kind of guy who says, 'I've done too much of this, so I'd better do that.' I like to pick the best script, and the best scripts I'm getting are comedies. Plus, things are kind of heavy right now, and so it's been fun making people laugh." *