Mild West show

Vince Vaughn -- comedy's fleshy white everyman, object of admiration for dudes and bros the world over and eager heir to Will Farrell's throne -- should not be considered a sage giver of advice. \nBut sage advice about America, showbiz and even life is exactly what you get in the first minutes of Vince Vaughn's documentary about a comedy tour he organized, the heinously titled "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & Nights -- From Hollywood to Heartland." \nVince's earnest voice-over about "knowing yourself" to make good comedy is the first indicator that the next 90 minutes of pure boredom known as "Comedy Show" will be the least challenging, most rigidly formulaic of documentaries.\nYou'd expect something a little zany or irreverent from a movie about a group of rowdy male comedians. \nWhat you get instead is a half-hearted portrait of the challenges of stand-up comedy. \nWeaving predictably between biography and performance, "Comedy Show" focuses on four comedians hand-picked by Vince to go on the tour in hopes of finding fame and renown. They are Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Sebastian Maniscalco and Bret Ernst. \nThe documentary treads lightly when it comes to getting personal. Instead of the backstage drama that TV culture has come to embrace, we get Sebastian feeling mildly upset after a California audience boos his joke about flip-flops. Instead of a study in male camaraderie, we get the guys' distant, modest endorsements of each other as friends and comedians.\nBlandness aside, the film is at its worst when Vince is schmoozing with the crowd, disingenuousness oozing from the pores under his baggy eyes. But at its best, "Comedy Show" introduces audiences to one comedian who deserves to replace Vaughn in the pantheon of average white guys, and that guy is John Caparulo. \nA scratchy-voiced Clevelander, Caparulo is the only comedian on tour to have developed a distinct persona as a crabby, blue-collar guy who's perpetually out of luck. \nThe film aims for our hearts by way of laughter; instead, it just reminds us that Vaughn needs to make room for better comedians.