'Wild West' showoffs

Vince Vaughn gathers some stand-up pals and hits the great open road intent on roping in a lot of laughs.

By Michael Ordoña, Special to The Times
Photo by Wally Skalij
The Los Angeles Times

HAVE you heard the one about the movie star who suddenly decided to put together a cross-country comedy tour? The stand-up comics would be seasoned but not nationally known, playing 2,000-seat venues when they were used to 30-seat houses. They'd go to Southern and Midwestern cities off the beaten (laugh) track. From conception to launch would be only six weeks. And they'd play 30 cities in 30 nights.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," says a smiling Vince Vaughn in a poolside room at the Casa del Mar hotel in Santa Monica. He admits the tour, captured for the big screen in the upcoming road documentary "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland," due to open Friday, was both impulsive and a labor of love. "I wasn't thinking past the fact that this is going to be different and exciting and fun," Vaughn offers. "The hard technical work fell on other people; they were the ones making the calls and doing stuff. But it was really a story of all of us pulling together and doing our parts."

For years, Vaughn had been putting together one-off stand-up nights as benefits in cities where he was shooting movies. But packing four comics, production staff and a film crew into three buses and winding from Hollywood through Texas and Tennessee to Illinois was no laughing matter. So he surrounded himself with close associates, including his sister, Victoria, and best friend, Peter Billingsley, as producers, and longtime friend Ahmed Ahmed, who was instrumental in assembling the cast.

Ahmed says, "We were all having dinner at this steakhouse in Chicago when [Vince] was finishing 'The Break-Up,' and we were getting ready to do this benefit, and he said, 'Why don't we take this show on the road? What are you guys doing next month?' "

John Caparulo adds, "When Ahmed asked me, 'Do you want to do a tour with Vince Vaughn across the country, 30 shows in 30 days?' it's like, 'Hey, do you want to go to the Super Bowl?' 'Uh, yeah, all right.' A month later, we're on a bus. It was an insanely good opportunity."

"The one thing I like about these guys who I saw through watching Ahmed is that they're kind of telling true stories," says Vaughn of Caparulo, Bret Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco. "Somehow these guys being able to laugh at real stuff from their experience, maybe there was healing for the audience."

With the whole cast crammed together for 30 days, though, first-time feature director Ari Sandel said he'd occasionally hear raised voices.

"Sometimes you'd walk on the bus and they'd be in a huge debate," he said by phone from Los Angeles, "about who the best linebacker was . . . for like seven days. I've never seen people yell so much . . . it was insane."

"We had high-class problems," admits Egypt-born, America-raised comic Ahmed. "We were on a nice bus."

"Ours was like a prison bus," grumbles Billingsley.

"It was like a Bangkok prison," agrees Ahmed.

Billingsley laughs and says, "You guys would run out of food and you'd send [Ahmed] out there at, like, 3 o'clock in the morning to try to get food from our bus."

Ernst, whose comedy is the most physical of the group, says, "It was like some 'Lord of the Flies'-type [stuff] because they would guard their things: 'What are you doing here?' 'We don't have any Yoo-Hoo.' 'You can't have any Yoo-Hoo!' "

The film took shape around what Sandel called "the five minutes before and the five minutes after" the comics took the stage, revealing some of their techniques and insecurities. Sandel, Vaughn, Billingsley and the production team chiseled down 600 hours of footage.

"I've known Ahmed for eight years; I've seen his act a million times," said Sandel. "But it wasn't until I actually was on tour with him and interviewed him and saw him prepare -- for the first time, I really understood what it was he'd been doing the last eight years."

"I was surprised every night," adds Ahmed, whose material often concerns his experiences as an Arab American, including blatant racial profiling. "I try to make it self-deprecating so I'm not attacking the audience; it's more making fun of myself. [Afterward] the guys would say, 'You killed; you had a really good set!' "

Perhaps not surprisingly for a group of guys with such dynamic energy, chaos was always part of the plan.

"We'd change it up every night," says Billingsley of a slate that would occasionally include guests such as Jon Favreau, Justin Long and "Wedding Crashers" costar Keir O'Donnell. "We'd have the four comics, and like, two acts in between. Vince would sing karaoke sometimes; he'd do a scene from 'Swingers' with an audience member."

In one of the film's more poignant sequences, the comics complain about their accommodations -- then come face-to-face with dozens of people displaced after Hurricane Katrina. But Vaughn shrugs off talk of traveling difficulties. Meeting people who had lost everything put the travails of a seat-of-the-pants comedy adventure in perspective.

"Both of my parents worked for a living, so I know what it's like to have real pressure and real problems," he scoffs. "Real pressure is having to feed my kids, 'How am I going to make the mortgage?' I benefited from having grandparents who were farmers and immigrants. So I was never like, 'Oh, this is so hard.' You're on a bus going to make people laugh."

On the Road With Vince Vaughn, Not Just for Laughs

By DAVE ITZKOFF
Photo by Stephanie Diani for The New York Times
The New York Times

WHEN you buy a ticket for a Vince Vaughn movie, you know pretty much what you’re going to get. The story of a sarcastic if affable guy, with a self-satisfied grin and immaculate sideburns, who wins over the guys and gals with his smart-aleck comebacks and learns a few life lessons along the way, possibly after finding true love or being barraged with dodgeballs. The kind of guy he inhabits so completely, in movies like “Wedding Crashers,” “Swingers” and “The Break-Up,” that he couldn’t possibly be anything but a nonchalant cynic in real life.

So it came as a surprise on a recent Sunday morning to find Mr. Vaughn, 37, sitting in the lounge of a Hollywood theater, choking back tears. The catalyst for his Hillary Clinton moment? He was recounting a trip he took in 2005, when he packed a tour bus full of young comedians on an ad hoc cross-country journey that would lead, among other places, to a trailer park for Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Alabama and benefit concerts for Hurricane Rita victims in Texas.

“It was very hard for me,” Mr. Vaughn said, struggling to maintain his composure as he recalled the trip, “because it’s one of those situations where there’s no answer of how to solve it, but these lives are destroyed.”

“I’m not a politician,” he added. “I don’t have the answer to anything, but I do like to make people laugh. Can’t we all be on the same side with the stuff, versus having comedy that’s so acidic and meanspirited and dividing? That’s just not my nature.”

While it is only natural to be skeptical of any celebrity who supports a cause, Mr. Vaughn’s latest film, opening Friday, a documentary about his 2005 expedition titled “Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights — Hollywood to the Heartland,” engenders a different kind of disbelief. It suggests that behind the acerbic satires and skirt-chasing farces, the show’s M.C. might have an earnest side too.

With little fanfare Mr. Vaughn has in recent years made occasional visits to American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and organized comedy shows to benefit the Army Emergency Relief Fund. (Mr. Vaughn’s older sister Victoria was in the Army Reserve.)

In September 2005, following the release of “Wedding Crashers,” he decided on a more ambitious project: a tour that would travel from Los Angeles to Chicago, featuring stand-up comics he had discovered through the comedian Ahmed Ahmed, a friend he met on a 1990 after-school special.

“He was like, ‘What are you doing for the next month?’ ” Mr. Ahmed said, recalling his invitation to join the tour. “And I said: ‘Nothing. You’re the one with a career, remember?’ ”

Through visits to Los Angeles clubs like the Comedy Store, Mr. Vaughn rounded out the group with John Caparulo, Bret Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco. Their monologues mine personal material about decidedly middle-class experiences — fixing cars under the guidance of a stern father, shopping at Ross department stores — which plays to the widest variety of audiences.

Mr. Vaughn was capable of organizing the trip, but that doesn’t completely account for why he chose to take a colossal pay cut to spend a month introducing his “Wild West” ensemble, re-enacting the occasional scene from “Swingers” onstage and sleeping in the back of a tour bus.

Certainly, Mr. Vaughn acknowledged, the decision stemmed partly from the boredom he felt with his career at the time. “I could keep trying to do these same kind of comedies,” he said. “You know how it’s going to go, and you can get an audience with it, but then I feel like a hamster on a wheel.” (Sometimes, however, the audiences don’t flock to the theater, as this past holiday’s “Fred Claus” proved.)

Friends of Mr. Vaughn said the trip — with an itinerary that included stops in Oklahoma City; Nashville; Little Rock, Ark.; and Birmingham, Ala. — was also inspired by his desire to bring entertainment to places too often dismissed as flyover territory.

“He thought it was very important to take this on the old blue highways, before the interstate system passed all the towns by,” said Dwight Yoakam, the country musician and actor (who described his camaraderie with Mr. Vaughn as “probably one of the more disparate pairings” in the entertainment industry). “Vince really has an understanding of what goes on between Nevada and New Jersey, and he’s cognizant of the real world, versus the one we exist in, in our vacuum on either coast.”

It can be easy to forget that Mr. Vaughn was born in Minnesota and raised in the Chicago suburbs of Buffalo Grove and Oak Park. The son of a manufacturer’s representative for toys and video games and the grandson of a dairy farmer, he enjoyed an adolescence informed equally by the hip-hop of NWA and the country of Buck Owens.

Mr. Vaughn said his career and extracurricular choices were not reflections of a political stance. “I am truly more of an independent that anything,” he said. “I don’t agree 100 percent with either side on everything.”

If people feel strongly enough about an issue to act on it, he added, “I respect that, but that’s not my journey. My journey is to try to do stuff to make people laugh.”

It is that showman’s compulsion, friends say, that may explain the origins of Mr. Vaughn’s comedy tour. “He’s not an artist who sits alone with a typewriter; he’s a guy who works the room,” said the filmmaker and actor Jon Favreau, a “Swingers” co-star and longtime confidant, who appears in the documentary. “It’s all about being a carnival barker, and he loves the challenge of going into a new environment.”

The environment itself provided a substantial challenge over the course of the tour: Katrina touched down days before the inaugural performance, on Sept. 12, 2005, and several planned appearances along the Gulf Coast were canceled.

“I said, ‘I don’t care if there’s 50 people down there,’ ” Mr. Vaughn recalled with a sardonic laugh. “They’re like, ‘They’re evacuating the city.’ Oh, O.K.”

An additional show planned for Beaumont, Tex., had to be canceled when Hurricane Rita hit there. It was rescheduled in Dallas as a benefit matinee.

Meanwhile the comedians who joined Mr. Vaughn on the road discovered that the documentary form demanded a greater level of personal confession than their stand-up routines. Mr. Ernst talked about his gay brother, a frequent subject of his jokes, and his death from AIDS in 2001. During a stop in Las Vegas, Mr. Ahmed, a Muslim of Egyptian descent, revisited a jail where he was held on vague charges for 12 hours in 2004.

“We didn’t really know how much the documentary would focus on these guys’ personal lives until we went on tour,” said the film’s director, Ari Sandel, an Oscar winner for the short “West Bank Story” and a friend of Mr. Vaughn’s.

“It’s one thing to be friends with somebody and to ask them questions,” he added. “It’s a totally different thing to have a camera in front of them. After a while, you run out of a lot of typical questions after the first three or four days. Then the questions start to become a lot deeper.”

When the tour came to an end on Oct. 11, 2005, the comedians came home to the modest crowds and two-drink-minimum clubs they were accustomed to playing, returning with newfound confidence but also with uncertainty about how involved Mr. Vaughn would remain in their careers. “I don’t even know how to get hold of him,” Mr. Maniscalco said. “Talk to Vince? How? If I wanted to call him, he doesn’t even have a number.”

Mr. Vaughn had his own battles to fight: first with the Weinstein Company, which was to distribute the documentary until Mr. Vaughn became dissatisfied with a proposed advertising campaign and reclaimed the film.

“We all know when we see the posters that a studio can put up, like, ‘Get ready to laugh!’ ” Mr. Vaughn said, smirking while resting his chin on his fist. “Or ‘Here comes the funny!’ That makes me go, ‘Oh, God.’ ”

(In an e-mail message, the Weinstein Company’s Harvey Weinstein wrote, “The parting on ‘Wild West’ was very amicable and we wish the project the very best.” The movie is now being distributed by Picturehouse, the specialty division of New Line Cinema and HBO.)

Since Mr. Vaughn has finished the tour and the movie, there remains the question of how he should satisfy the restlessness that both projects were supposed to stave off. “The biggest challenge, when you’re at the point Vince is at, is finding something that piques your curiosity enough to engage you, because you could try your hand at anything,” Mr. Favreau said. “If he wanted to record an album as a singer, I’m sure he could figure out a way to do it. It’s just a matter of what he wants to do.”

For the time being Mr. Vaughn is talking about bringing his comedy tour to the Northeast and Northwest. And he is currently shooting another holiday-theme comedy, “Four Christmases,” in which he and Reese Witherspoon play a couple attempting to visit all four of their divorced parents and their spouses in a single holiday, and for which Mr. Vaughn will receive a producing credit.

While he may not be ready to swear off the disingenuous characters he so easily embodies, Mr. Vaughn is hopeful that the “Wild West Comedy” film will help reconnect him to his earlier sincerity and drive. Reflecting on his formative days as a professional actor, he said: “I was so excited if I got anything. I was 18 years old. I thought, ‘Man, I’m on “China Beach” for five lines.’ I thought that was awesome.”

As he looks at the field of younger talent coming up behind him, Mr. Vaughn said, he often encounters performers more interested in image than authenticity. “It seems like if you say you take an acting class, that’s not cool,” he said. He slipped into the whispery, dispassionate voice of the stereotypical pretty boy he says he never was: “I’m just a natural. I never studied.”

The documentary, he said, “is a counter to all of that. Who’s hot and who’s not? Who cares? Otherwise, we’d all be models remaking ‘Gone With the Wind.’ ”

Vince Vaughn & Cast Interview, Wild West Comedy Show

Posted By: Sheila Roberts
Movies Online

MoviesOnline sat down with Vince Vaughn and stand-up comedians Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, and Sebastian Maniscalco at the Los Angeles press day to promote their new movie, “Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland.”

In the spirit of the old west variety shows, Vince Vaughn (star of “The Break-Up,” “Wedding Crashers,” “Swingers,” “Fred Claus”) took the stage at the Music Box Theater in Hollywood on September 12, 2005 and began an unprecedented comedy tour featuring stand-up comedians Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, and Sebastian Maniscalco. Vaughn played host to the ensemble of comedians and performed improvisational sketches with surprise celebrity guests that included Jon Favreau, Justin Long, and Keir O’Donnell.

“Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland” chronicles Vaughn and the comedians’ journey as they travel more than 6,000 miles and perform 30 shows in 30 consecutive nights in cities across the U.S. The documentary gives audiences a rare opportunity to experience Vaughn and his team as they bring their unique styles and perspectives to regional audiences throughout Western, Southern and Midwestern states.

With rousing onstage performances and behind-the-scenes interviews, the engaging grass roots documentary breaks down the true essence of each comedian’s life-altering experiences, and the personal and professional challenges that will unite four comics, one movie star and legions of fans from Hollywood to the Heartland.

Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland Tour” is the first documentary film release from Wild West Picture Show Productions. It’s directed by Ari Sandel and produced by Vince Vaughn. Executive producers on the project are Peter Billingsley, Victoria Vaughn and John Isbell. John Pisani and Sandra Smith serve as associate producers. Dan Lebenthal edited the project.

The genesis of the movie came in the summer of 2001 in New Orleans when Vaughn decided to host a live comedy show at the French Quarter bar One-Eyed Jacks. That night would eventually lead to similar shows in Dewey Beach, Maryland during the production of “Wedding Crashers” and in Chicago during the production of “The Break-Up.” It was during the preparation for the Chicago show – a benefit for the Army Emergency Relief Fund – that Vaughn first entertained the idea of taking the show on a full-blown tour across the country.

“I really wanted to take a high quality show to places that normally didn’t get live variety shows,” explains Vaughn. “Growing up in Illinois, you usually had to go to New York, Los Angeles or Las Vegas to see a show. I thought it would be fun to bring the show to smaller towns like Little Rock, Lubbock, El Paso and Tucson. Also, selfishly for me, I love driving through America and seeing different landscapes and cities that I have never been to before.”

“The type of show we are doing just isn’t done anymore,” says Vaughn. “It’s a different skill set and a different feeling to perform live on stage. I really enjoy interacting with and relating to a live audience. Performing improv and sketch comedy every night would provide me that opportunity.” With comedians Bret Ernst, Sebastian Maniscalco and Ahmed Ahmed having all performed in the Chicago and Maryland comedy shows, Vaugn tapped the trio along with John Caparulo to join him on his Wild West Comedy Tour.

Although the four comedians Vaughn selected for his tour were all close friends and regulars at the Comedy Store on the Sunset Strip, the foursome’s comedic style and material is as diverse as their backgrounds: Egyptian-born Ahmed Ahmed’s material focuses on his lifelong struggle with racial stereotypes; Sebastian Maniscalco’s insightful observations on the absurdity of the modern man are influenced by Midwestern values; acerbic wit is the calling card of small-town Ohio boy John Caparulo; and Italian alpha male Bret Ernst specializes in high energy, physical comedy.

Vaughn, Ahmed, Caparulo, Ernst and Maniscalco are five very funny guys and we really appreciated their time. Here’s what they had to tell us about their recent adventure:

Q: Can you talk about the experience of doing this movie and then seeing the final product?

AHMED AHMED: Vince came up with the idea. It was kind of last minute. It was like this idea came up and he said, ‘You guys want to go on a tour?’ and like maybe a month later we were on this bus. The experience was great being able to perform in front of really large crowds. We weren’t expecting it to be a movie to be honest with you. We were just going show by show. We really weren’t looking at the outcome of the tour. We were just like ‘Let’s try to be funny every night.’ And then we finished the tour and we were like ‘Okay. That was great. I would do it again.’ And they had cameras on the bus and they shot the whole thing and then it was cut into this film and they showed it to us and the next thing I know it’s a movie. It was really just a blessing to be part of the whole experience.

JOHN CAPARULO: The surprising thing for me really was I remember when we were out on the tour. We were just out there living our daily lives on the bus, you know, which is pretty boring. I’d get up at 2pm and I had breakfast and did the show. I remember thinking when we were on the tour ‘Are they going to have enough footage to make anything with this?’ And I remember they told me when they were getting into the editing process, they were like ‘Oh, the first cut of the movie was 4 hours long’ and I’m like ‘Okay! I guess we had enough footage.’ So, yeah, that was the surprise to me. We made a movie. [Laughs]

Q: When did you guys bathe?

SEBASTIAN MANISCALCO: Bathe? I was constantly washing myself throughout the tour.

BRET ERNST: Everyday. We had a shower on the bus and we also had a hotel room when we would go to the city that we would shower in.

AHMED AHMED: The venues had showers too so we would go to them.

Q: Ahmed, you just finished The Axis of Evil comedy tour. Which was harder, your audience in the Middle East or the audience in America?

AHMED AHMED: One wasn’t harder than the other because the material translated. I did my act in English in the Middle East and I did it in English here. It translated pretty similarly to both audiences.

Q: Vince, how did these guys end up on your radar so that you recruited them in particular for this tour?

VINCE VAUGHN: Well I had known Ahmed. In fact, Ahmed and I became friends at the same time that I became friends with Peter Billingsley which was that Steroid After School Special. Looking back on it, it’s kind of like looking at “The Outsiders.” Who would have thought that all these guys would have come from one particular special. And then Ahmed, there weren’t a lot of parts for him so he sort of turned to stand-up comedy as an avenue for expression because there weren’t a lot of parts for Egyptian kids. I’d have to go watch him like a friend in need is a pest. Every month it’d be like ‘Oh I gotta go watch him tell that joke again.’ But as I went down, he started to get better because he started to talk about himself and his families and these kinds of things that Ahmed really became excellent at what he does. In going to watch him, I watched these guys as well and my favorite comedians and the one thing they all had was they were talking about real life experiences and sometimes stuff is not that flattering whether it was relationships or family situations but they had a sense of humor about themselves. There was kind of a connection in the film with all kind of old country western songs and their comedy in that.

You’re talking about what you know. It comes from a genuine life experience and audiences I think, the question you asked Ahmed, if you’re being authentic and truthful, especially stuff that happens everywhere – relationships or parents stuff or brother/sister stuff, those kind of things – it’s relatable, that’s universal, that’s translatable anywhere. And so I thought, ‘Oh let’s do a show. It’ll be kind of fun. I’ll improvise. I haven’t done that in awhile.’ I did originally for a friend of mine in New Orleans just to help him out with his venue and it went tremendous so I started doing more shows as sort of benefit shows. I did some for the Army Emergency Relief Fund and the response was always good so I thought this would be fun to kind of go on the road. I’d like to play a bunch of different places, take a variety comedy show which you haven’t seen in awhile and go to some folks’ backyards that don’t get shows like this usually. Give them something fun to see where you don’t have to go to Los Angeles or New York or even Chicago to some degree or Vegas and I kind of thought of the idea and I thought let’s film it.

I knew it would be a movie obviously and we thought let’s shoot some venue special and then we’ll have cameras. But I didn’t know what the story would be. I knew it would be funny as it is but you didn’t know quite what it would be. You didn’t know what would happen as far as when we ran into the hurricane stuff that happened down there and meeting their families. What is that going to be like exactly? You don’t know and so the editing process for something like this becomes like screenwriting when I’ve done that because you have all this footage but you really have to kind of say ‘What is the story within this that’s the most compelling?’ And for me, kind of the underdog story of these guys and sort of their journey in realizing that their comedy came from real life experiences sort of became the most interesting thing as well as the special guest stars and all the stuff that’s fun. It really turned into kind of an event movie where it’s like a road trip. It’s a capsule of sort of what was going on at that time. It’s an insight into stand-ups that I don’t think you’ve quite seen before, sort of what they go through. It’s sort of became a lot of components of different things. But the idea originally when I thought of it was just to say, ‘This is a fun thing. Let’s go as many places as we can.’ And what came out of it was sort of the result of what happened. But I had the easy job of thinking of it. I only thought of it six weeks out so my sister Victoria and John Isbell and Sandra (Smith), they had to really in six week’s time find these buses, book 30 venues, convince people I was really coming, you know, what the Wild West Show was. Is Vince going to come and rope horses? What’s happening here? So they really had, as far as the logistics were concerned, a much more challenging job to put it all together.

Q: Was the autographing of boobs a nightly thing?

VINCE VAUGHN: I think that was John.

JOHN CAPARULO: I envisioned the breasts.

VINCE VAUGHN: Sometimes you get asked stranger things than that to autograph. It’s kind of a dealer’s choice I think.

JOHN CAPARULO: You know the weirdest one for me was some dude. First of all, it was a dude, but second of all, it was a guy… You know we would autograph people’s T-shirts because we would sell Wild West T-shirts outside. It was like ‘Hey, here you go!’ And some guy just had me autograph his shirt like you’re wearing. It was a nice shirt. He could probably wear it to a job interview or something. [Laughter] It’s not going to look good with my autograph on it but alright. It just felt weird.

Q: What was the most memorable venue you performed at?

BRET ERNST: The Ryman.

JOHN CAPARULO: Yeah, the Ryman.

BRET ERNST: The Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville because, you know, just all the old history there. And I’m a big Elvis fan and I know he was on that stage. So it was just awesome.

JOHN CAPARULO: I’m telling toilet jokes with people sitting in church pews so you know that’s pretty cool. [Laughs]

Q: Vince, you’ve done a lot to bring attention to the whole of America from this tour to shooting films in Chicago, what has that done to improve this sort of bi-coastal mentality?

VINCE VAUGHN: Oh I don’t know. You know I think that there are more similarities between people than there are differences. I’ve always seen myself as an American. I’m proud of where I’ve come but I believe I was given an opportunity in California that I wouldn’t have had back home so I’m very thankful. California has always been kind of a Gold Rush state where you could come out and individuals are kind of respected and allowed to be that here so there’s great things about this as well. I’m not saying you don’t have that back home but it’s definitely a place where you come to for opportunities. In a way California becomes symbolic of America at its best. It’s a place where you can come and pursue whatever your particular dreams are. I was definitely shaped from being from middle America. My grandfather was a farmer. Dad was the first one off the farm.

My other side of the family were immigrants and worked hard. But I think that’s the same in Boston as it is in Tennessee. I think that’s kind of why we have one constitution. We’re all from the same place. You might have different specific things in different places but we’re all on the same side and I think for me that was really the point of the movie on some level. I’ve always tried to be sort of including with comedy and it felt to me that some of these things that came up – be it Katrina or the war or other things – was dividing people and it felt like some of the comedy would be almost acidic or sort of against a certain side one way or the other. And I’ve come to find in my life that people shut down when you approach them that way. They feel defensive and they don’t listen. They’re less open and obviously they feel like they’re being attacked. For me personally, I don’t think I have any friends that we agree on everything but we respect each other, we listen to each other, and I’ve always learned from listening to people with different approaches so the one thing I wanted to do with the movie and what I thought that these guys had in their comedy was unify and bring people together – whether it’s the stuff Bret talks about with his family or Ahmed talks about. People from different backgrounds were laughing and enjoying and sharing because they could relate I think to the human connection of what they were talking about. So hopefully I think the film at its best is a unifying thing that makes people kind of laugh and feel closer to each other. The feeling that we would have after the show I think is very similar to what we felt like after …the feeling you have in the movie is you do kind of feel closer to the people in the group. It’s kind of a feel good feeling where you feel warm I think and open. It’s not something that makes a division.

Q: What’s been the impact on the comics from doing this movie now that they have greater visibility? Has it changed anything?

SEBASTIAN MANISCALCO: For myself, I did a Comedy Central special. I filmed an hour-long DVD. It’s opened up a lot of doors for me and the last 2-1/2 years I just keep pinching myself because for myself it’s been kind of like a dream come true to just perform in front of these large audiences and have a major motion picture coming out with VINCE VAUGHN: and my parents in the movie also. Not too many people can say ‘My parents are in my first movie.’ They’re loving every minute of it. For myself, it’s opened a lot of doors and I just pray every day that this [continues]. It’s been a great ride.

BRET ERNST: A lot of things have happened to me because you had the heat of the tour and then you have the heat of the movie. It’s almost like that Advent calendar and now it’s Christmas Eve. And now you’re like, ‘Alright, now Christmas morning is happening. I can’t wait to see it and see what happens.’ As comedians, it’s not based on how talented you are. It’s pretty much based on how many tickets you’re going to sell as a comic. Visibility is the best thing you can get as a stand-up comedian. And I always said the only reason why I would want any type of notoriety was so I can get a lot of stage time. You know what I mean? It seems like once this happened, then people are like ‘Okay, well now we can put you in the club.’ And what’s great is all the hard work that you put in for the 11 years I’ve been doing stand-up now that you have the visibility because of the movie, you’re in the club. That’s when your talent meets the hard work and the opportunity and then boom! That’s all you can ask for as an artist and this movie has provided that.

AHMED AHMED: Johnny Carson used to put comics on his stage and they would get recognized the next morning. They’d get a TV deal or whatever so, not to compare Vince to Johnny Carson, but his endorsement speaks for itself if people like you because Vincent says, ‘Hey, I think this guy’s funny or this girl’s funny.’

VINCE VAUGHN: I don’t know if that’s true. I think that people respond to you guys because they like your stuff and for me, I got as much out of this as I gave. It was a great opportunity to travel and go play live and all those kind of things but I think the work was done by these guys. I just saw them perform but they had… Bret’s been doing it for 11 years. They were always doing well wherever they performed.

BRET ERNST: But nothing like this has ever been done in stand-up comedy.

JOHN CAPARULO: Especially in this era.

BRET ERNST: In this day and age.

JOHN CAPARULO: Yeah, I mean how many comics really get to do stand-up on the big screen? It doesn’t happen anymore so I mean the four of us were really lucky.

BRET ERNST: It’s like if you look at the 80s, to do the Tonight Show was so rare and then as comedy progressed, you have the Comedy Network now. You have five, six talk shows. You have the internet where everybody’s things are on there. Now the big screen has become the Tonight Show. I mean nobody has done this.

VINCE VAUGHN: There’s been others like “The Kings of Comedy” and stuff like that, films and stuff. I think there’s similarities. I think it has its own thing. It’s a different look at it and it’s different stuff too. But there’s been stuff I think that touches on it in different ways.

Q: Do you guys have any plans to get back on the big screen after this film?

VINCE VAUGHN: To be honest, I don’t care if these guys live or die. [Laughter] It wore me out. [Laughs] No, I’m kidding. I’d like to do stuff again. I’d like to do a tour that starts in Boston and kind of goes down through the East Coast down to Florida. I’d like to do one in the Pacific Northwest and go to Toronto and maybe go other places with it. It’s fun. It’s a lot of fun. There’s a different energy that comes off of it. But I have to wait and see what our schedule is and sort of how things translate but in and of itself, it’s a very magical special thing. The big thing is that you don’t go and try to recreate something that you couldn’t predict. You have to, I think, try to start from another place that felt authentic, if that meant getting different comics. After doing it and looking at it I’d like to maybe bring different kind of comics out as these guys did and I think there’s a tour to be done perhaps with these guys again and that could be interesting and it’s also nice to give some other opportunities to some other people. It’d be interesting. I think it would be interesting to see a female comic go on the journey.

Q: How about acting together?

VINCE VAUGHN: Acting? Yeah, absolutely. These guys are talented guys so it could happen. I’m sure they’ll have their own things going on from this and stuff that they’re doing. I like to act with people like (Jon) Favreau and that again so it’s possible.

Q: For Ahmed and Vince, you guys have known each other for a long time and then Peter and later John, can you talk about how you stay bonded through the ebb and flow of your careers?

VINCE VAUGHN: Well I heard your breath so I pulled back. That was like a tennis match where the ball went down the middle and we both looked at the other person like ‘What an idiot!’ Some doubles partners. [Laughter]

AHMED AHMED: We just always had this great friendship and just always supported each other. I think we all were cut from the same cloth. We all have not similar upbringings but our parents instilled in us respect and they worked hard and Vince is really close to his family as am I and so is Peter (Billingsley). So I think the family values has a lot to do with it and us being supportive of each other. I think we also have certain visions we were going for that we also supported. You know Peter has become a really successful producer aside from his acting and stuff. Obviously Vince has done extremely well for himself. For me, as a comedian, that was always a dream of mine to achieve a certain level of success as a comedian. So there’s that support, going back to what Vince said, and coming down to the comedy clubs and stuff, watching me night after night try to work out a joke or whatever, and a year later turn a corner and find a new angle or story and just having him there in the trenches with me was always really a great feeling to have a friend like that, that comes down and supports you. We always just had this mutual respect and support for each other in our art and our friendship.

Q: Have any of your families gotten any deals from any of this?

BF: My father thinks he should get an agent. My stepfather. He’s delusional. [Laughter]

Q: Do people recognize and approach you on the street because of this film?

VINCE VAUGHN: It hasn’t come out yet.

JOHN CAPARULO: My sister called me last night because one of her friends called her and saw her on HBO because the HBO First Look came on so my sister called to say ‘Hey, I’m a star.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay! Good for you!’

Q: Can you talk about the interaction with Ari (Sandel) and how he came to shoot everything?

VINCE VAUGHN: Yeah. What happened was…I guess talking about that and also about our friendship with Ahmed…for me is I was not a good student. I had learning disabilities. I was bright but I learned in different ways and some things came easier. I wasn’t a great athlete but acting was always something that I really loved. But it took a lot of hard work. In fact, because I did have some learning disabilities, it seemed like a lot of things were hard work. So the one thing I really responded to with Ahmed was here’s this guy who’s Egyptian and wants to be an actor. There’s no parts for him but it’s just his tenaciousness that I really responded to. I knew what it felt like to feel like ‘Boy, there’s not an easy way in but you really want to try to work at something.’ The same for Peter. A lot of child stars when they get to a certain age it’s very difficult because no one wants to see you anymore because you’re so recognizable for what you did [when you were] younger and you don’t have a normal kind of maturation process where you have a normal social [life] like playground stuff. Everybody kind of treats you really well and then all of a sudden people don’t want to be around you. And Peter’s work ethic to become a producer and get involved behind the camera was like nothing I ever saw. I’d say ‘Let’s go to the race track’ or ‘Let’s go do something’ and he’d say ‘I have to work from 10 to 6.’

I’d say, ‘Peter, you got nothing to work on’ and he’d say, ‘Well I’m gonna write a screenplay. I’m gonna try and put something together’ for years with no results. So, for me, I found it easy to root for. And then as I was able with Favreau, what we accomplished with Swingers was to try to provide opportunities if someone was kind of trying hard and working in that way. There’s something about that that is motivating and inspiring to me. Ari Sandel was a guy that Peter gave an early opportunity to and worked with Peter on a TV show that they did when Ari was starting off. When we first initiated the tour, Ari was just a hired cameraman the first day on the bus. He was not the director of the film. He was a guy with a camera. And as we went out and got…as I said we put together in 6 weeks…originally I said to Peter because Peter had run so much different stuff, he produced “Made” with me, “Dinner for Five,” “The Break-Up,” he produced “Zathura,” and now he’s done “Iron Man.” He’s producing “Four Christmases” with me. But he also produced this TV show and sort of was a mentor to Ari about how to get field segments and stuff. As we were there, so much of Peter’s day became about putting together the technical show and making sure stuff was running that I came to Ari who I really liked his short film obviously that everyone knows of now which won the Academy Award. And I said to him, ‘Will you direct this movie?’ He was thrilled of course and I said, ‘We’ll talk to you at the end of the day and sort of talk about what’s going on and go get footage.’ And he worked really hard and did a good job. My style, where I come from in the creative process, is the best idea wins. I don’t need to be right. I don’t need anybody else to be right. I need whatever is right for the movie and I really like a collaboration where if you have an idea, we’ll through it up there. I don’t want to debate it for 45 minutes. Let’s see, let’s go, let’s watch it, let’s watch. I feel like when people feel included, they feel like they have a voice, they feel incentified, they’re excited. You’re getting the best ideas. So Ari was a huge component and very much a part of the idea, but so was Peter Billingsley and so was my sister and so was the editor, Dan Lebental, who cut “American Pimp” which was a great documentary. He cut “The Break-Up,” he cut “Elf.” So really what you see as a final result I think is better than what any one of us could have done. It really became a true collaboration with all of us.

Q: How did you feel about doing the Swingers routine 10 years later?

VINCE VAUGHN: What I kind of liked about it was it was that kind of simple comedy set up where I’m kind of tough on Justin and kind of not giving him an out and then the fun is at the end he gets to humiliate me. I always knew Justin did a really good imitation of me that was not flattering, that was kind of funny at my expense. I knew that like okay, we could be tough on him at the beginning because he’ll do a good job of making fun of me and that’ll make everyone happy.

Q: Thank you.

VINCE VAUGHN: Thank you guys very much. I appreciate it.

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights—Hollywood to the Heartland opens in theaters on February 8th.

Spotlight: Vince Vaughn

By Shirley Halperin
February 1st issue of Entertainment Weekly

At 6 feet 5 inches, Vince Vaughn barely clears the ceiling of his tour bus— glitzy, leathery behemoth befitting a band like the Rolling Stones. But back in the fall of 2005, the 45-footer served as temporary home to Vaughn and the posse of comedians he handpicked for a monthlong cross-country stand-up tour. Vaughn's resulting documentary about the trek, Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show proves he may have had the rocker trappings down, but the actor had to learn a thing or two about the lifestyle: "When we decided to book the tour, I had no experience with any of this," Vaughn laughs. "I originally thought 30 days and 30 nights because it had a nice ring to it. I didn't realize you need a day off once in a awhile. It's like you're being Federal Expressed from stage to stage."

Today, Vaughn is back on the bus to promote West (in theaters Feb. 8) and parked outside of one of his favorite stops—the Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, Calif., a shrine to the late Buck Owens. A Chicago-area native, Vaughn is quick to defend his country cred by dropping the fact that his grandfather was a dairy farmer and his family hails from Ohio. As a result, he says, he feels perfectly at home here. "A lot of these guys, like Buck and Johnny Cash, had these extreme existences, picking up, moving, and looking for work," the 37-year-old explains with a hint of Hee Haw awe. "The songs were just expressing that." It was his deep admiration for those musicians and their struggle that inspired West. "The emotion, the experience came first, which is a correlation I made when I saw these comics… It's a hard lifestyle to get up every night and [perform] to just 20 people. The movie is about learning who they are, and how their comedy comes from a real place."

Though Vaughn was never officially a stand-up, he's been a regular in L.A. comedy clubs since the early '90s, when he met Ahmed Ahmed, one of the comics who'd tour with West. In fact, almost everyone involved in the film is family (sister Victoria serves as an exec producer) or a longtime friend, including Jon Favreau, who drops in at the Hollywood show to compare Vaughn's acting style to that of "a windup monkey."

So when it came to releasing Wild West, Vaughn didn't want to see his passion project degenerate into Guys Gone Wild. "When we took it to Toronto, it played phenomenally," says Vaughn of the film's first major screening in 2006. It earned the attention of Harvey Weinstein, who agreed to buy distribution rights—until the two clashed over their visions. "how they were going to market the movie was very different from how I saw it," Vaughn explains. "It was presented as more of a screwball comedy. I just felt that it wasn't in sync, and Harvey was nice enough to let me have the movie back." Back on Vaughn's terms, the film will debut on more than 700 screens. "It's a small release, but at least we have a chance to make some noise. What mattered to me most was that it got the right shot."

Of course, not every job can be a labor of love; luckily, Vaughn's brand of motormouth comedy remains in demand. These days, he's the poster boy for Christmas; he'll follow up recent hit, Fred Claus with Four Christmases, costarring Reese Witherspoon (slated for November). While Claus was for the kids, Vaughn likens Christmases, in tone, to Favreau's agonizing phone call in Swingers. "It's really funny and relatable, but also, like, hide your eyes," he says. As for reports that he and Witherspoon have been clashing on the set, Vaughn has nothing but raves for Reese: "She's one of my favorite actresses."

Vaughn may be working on mainstream fare, but he keeps a memento of West nearby: He bought the tour bus, which he's now using as his trailer on Christmases. It reminds him what you can accomplish in Hollywood. "It's not encouraged to put yourself in a documentary," he says. "But I didn't do it to be different. I'm just looking for what keeps me inspired."

'I Had a Blast'

Vince Vaughn lets us in on the making of his Wild West Comedy Show. Plus, putting the Reese rumors to rest, his take on Owen Wilson and more

By Jeanne Wolf
Parade Magazine
Published: January 9, 2007

Last year, Vince Vaughn made us laugh as Santa's problem-prone brother in Fred Claus. And he offered up a poignant cameo as a wheat farmer in the critically praised Into the Wild.

Now you can catch another side of Vince in the upcoming Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights--Hollywood to the Heartland. It chronicles Vaughn's tour of the U.S. with four stand-up comedians--6,000 miles of traveling in a cramped bus to perform 30 comedy variety shows in 30 nights, from coast to coast.

"I really had no idea how draining doing it would be," Vince told me for PARADE's January 13 issue. "None of us had ever been on tour before, and after ten performances, I started to feel like 'What did I get everyone into?' But, I wanted to take a high quality live variety show to smaller towns that normally didn't get them. And, after every performance, I'd get to meet fans and talk to them. I had a blast."

Since you're an actor and not a comedian, did you have any doubts about putting yourself in to the show?

"When we first started I was a little desperate to add something because the stand-up comics each had their own act. I suddenly decided to do karaoke. So they got me a karaoke machine and I did a pretty good Yul Brynner. I'm not a great singer, but it was fun doing it with an audience because I'd get everybody singing."

And let's not forget your moment belting out a song from 'Grease' with Justin Long in a blonde wig. We won't get to see that 'til the DVD comes out.

"Usually we'd have a moment with somebody throwing balls at Justin, which was having fun with his movie Dodgeball. But, one night I had the idea to do something from Grease. I said to Justin, 'You can play Sandy.' And, he was like, 'What?' Fortunately, he's a good sport. So we put him in a wig, which we got from a costume shop because it was close to Halloween. We added a nightgown and we got girls from the audience to be background singers and we did a duet and I was Danny Zuko. The whole place went crazy."

You weren't afraid to make yourself the target of some of the jokes, were you?

"I've always been a fan of a Johnny Carson because he was so great with an audience and not afraid of self-deprecating humor. I loved it when Justin did a take-off on me in Swingers and somebody else did a scene from Wedding Crashers. I don't mind being made fun of."

You also seemed to have some fun just taking questions from the audience.

"It went well, but it reminded how tough it is to be a stand-up comic. It's grueling never knowing if the audience is going to think you're funny. It's soul-destroying when they don't laugh."

Now you're doing a film with Reese Witherspoon, and there's been a lot of tabloid gossip that you guys have been mad at each other.

"I think there were stories that we were clashing on the set. That couldn't be further from the truth. I adore her. She's not only a great actress, she's very funny. We've been having a really good time. You predicted that the press would say that we were dating, but they went the other way and said we're fighting. The two of us get along great."

There was an avalanche of stories about the tough time that Owen Wilson went through recently. What's your take on what happened?

"Owen Wilson is still a very close friend. Honestly, he's the nicest, smartest, greatest guy in the world. I don't really know what happened to him, truthfully, and I don't really care. I don't think anyone knows. Everyone has stuff to go through. We all do in life."

You talked to me about not having a cell phone. In car-crazy L.A., I've heard that a set of wheels hasn't been number one on your list either.

"I've never been big on cars. When I first got to Hollywood, I bought a used car from Avis. I drove that until I almost had to pay someone to tow it away. Then, after Swingers, the producers bought me a used Ford Bronco."

"Meanwhile, once I made some money, I had been buying brand new cars for members of my family. So they finally all pitched in and bought me a new car that I still drive -- a Pontiac Firebird convertible. But, it's only the third car I've had since I've been here."

Is it more than a coincidence that you and your sisters all have names that begin with "v"?

"My dad's name is Vernon and my mom liked the initials, VV. My sisters and I got named Victoria, Valerie and Vincent so we'd be VV's, too. But, then when you start getting pets' names that start with a 'v,' it's a little embarrassing. When you are Vince Vaughn, and you go out to scream for 'Viking' the dog to come home, that's a little much. Then, Mom started looking in a dictionary for names and we ended up with a female Chihuahua, named Vanadis after some mythological goddess. So Victoria, Valerie and Vince were out playing with Vanadis. When I finally got a dog, I named him Rowdy. I had to break the chain."

You've said that you don't need a family of your own since you have your sisters' kids. Are you still having fun being Uncle Vince?

"I just got a cold from being around them. Every time I'm with them I get sick. So I'm all congested, but I love them to pieces."

Read more about Vince Vaughn in the January 13 issue of PARADE.

Video: Q&A From the CMJ Film Festival, October 19

Is it true, Vince?

I've never worked with him before, but I always thought Vince was the modest, unassuming type. Liz Smith of the NY Post and Variety says otherwise. What do you think?

HEY, IT'S A DIFFICULT BUSINESS

An informal panel of publishers, editors and public relations pawns voted recently on who the most impossible persons are in show business. This probably won't be printed anywhere but here, as these pros all have to stay in business.

But Numero Uno, at the top of the list, is the rather newish star Vince Vaughn, he of the current "Fred Claus." (This so-called comedy is about as funny as a lump of coal in one's stocking.) Insiders call the guy who emerged triumphant from "Wedding Crashers" and from a failed romance with Jennifer Aniston "the most egotistical, the most difficult, the kind of person who calls at 3 a.m. to demand different things."

And who, asked I, is his female equivalent? I was a tiny bit surprised when in unison came this reply - "Sharon Stone." As Sharon Stone raises so much money for the AIDS fight, I am reluctant to add her here, but I will - just in case her detractors have a point.

Here's a GREAT interview on Rove Live from Australia

Thanks, R!

Fred Claus Unscripted - Complete Interview

Here is the interview where fans got to ask Vince and Paul questions. (original post)

Claus and effect

Vince Vaughn delivers offbeat Christmas message

By JIM SLOTEK, TORONTO SUN
Found Here

LOS ANGELES -- It flies in the face of Vince Vaughn's reputation of being single-and-darned-well-going-to-stay-that-way, but he says one of his favourite TV shows is the reality series Supernanny.

"The kids on the show are, like hopped up on Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola and they're uncontrollable," Vaughn says. "And the Supernanny comes in and sets boundaries and says, 'Use your words' and they start listening.

"I got a nephew and nieces, and my sister says, 'Don't talk to me about that damn Supernanny!' But sometimes I'm left alone with them and I don't want to be the uncle that disciplines them. I'm the one they have fun with. But they start hitting each other and you have to have some kind of law."

Supernanny dovetails nicely with Fred Claus, the offbeat take on the Santa Claus story in which Vaughn stars as Santa Claus' resentful "naughty" brother. It's a movie that takes on the naughty-or-nice legend with its message that "there are no naughty kids -- just misunderstood ones." Like that little Hussein kid Saddam, he just needed a hug. But I digress.

Fred Claus, the latest addition to the Santa Claus movie pantheon, begins in the 12th century with the sibling rivalry of a pudgy Nicholas Claus, who gives away his Christmas presents to the less fortunate, and brother Fred, who, unable to compete as a good kid, goes the other way.

Nine centuries later, Fred (Vaughn) is a repo man with dubious debts to pay. And Nick (Paul Giamatti)? He's got this job up at the North Pole, overseeing a bunch of toy-making elves. Happenstance finds Fred getting a job at his brother's factory, just as an efficiency expert from "The Corporation" (Kevin Spacey) arrives to write a damning report on the whole operation.

The idead for the film began as a bedtime story writer Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam) told to her daughter, Molly. "My daughter one night asked me if Santa Claus had a family, and I thought, 'Of course he did!' And then, 'What would it be like to be Santa Claus' brother and live in the shadow of that, and how hard would it be to be Santa as a kid, to be the perfect kid, pudgy and jolly all the time.

"And a few nights later, I was watching The Godfather and I thought, 'Oh, he's got to be called Fred, as a tribute to (Michael Corleone's brother) Fredo.'"

The project landed in the lap of director David Dobkin, who had directed Vaughn in Wedding Crashers and the lesser-known 1998 dark comedy, Clay Pigeons. And it was a short hop from there for him to cast his favourite child-man Vaughn.

That the star of Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up and Swingers could convincingly play an immature "bad boy" wasn't exactly a shock. What did surprise some was the knack he had with children.

"My daughter was on the set with us the whole time," Nelson says. "And Vince used to crack me up because they'd shoot a scene and he'd turn to the 10-year-old on the set and say, 'How was that, Molly? Did you believe that line?' "

"He talks to kids like adults," director Dobkin says. "We really felt he could bring heart to the story of a naughty kids' Christmas, and the message that there are no naughty kids."

Okay, maybe just a little naughty. Like when Vaughn is asked a generic question about what he'd consider the perfect Christmas gift, he answers, "A hot tub, a couple of girls from Brazil and a 'Do Not Disturb' sign ... And oh yeah, peace on Earth."

It turns out Vaughn isn't finished with Christmas yet. As soon as this year's holiday break is over, ironically enough, he begins shooting Four Christmases opposite Reese Witherspooon. "It's about people that come from divorced families, so you're forced to go to four Christmases. And it's about the kind of stress that comes from being forced to be with people you don't get along with.

Movies Online: Cast Interview, Fred Claus

Movies Online

MoviesOnline sat down with Vince Vaughn, Kevin Spacey, Paul Giamatti, director David Dobkin, and writer Jessie Nelson at the Los Angeles press day for their hilarious new movie, "Fred Claus.”

Fred Claus (Vaughn) has lived almost his entire life in his little brother's very large shadow. Fred tried, but he could never live up to the example set by the younger Nicholas (Giamatti), who was just a perfect...well...Saint. True to form, Nicholas grew up to be the model of giving, while Fred became the polar opposite: a repo man who steals what he repossesses and has run out of luck and money. Now Fred's dirty dealings have landed him in jail. Over Mrs. Claus's (Miranda Richardson) objections, Nicholas agrees to bail his big brother out on one condition: that he come to the North Pole and work off his debt by making toys in Santa’s workshop.

The trouble is that Fred isn't exactly elf material. With Christmas fast approaching, this one bad seed could jeopardize the jolliest holiday of the year. When a mischievous elf (Chris "Ludacris” Bridges) drives Fred over the edge by playing the same Christmas song over and over just as efficiency expert Clyde Northcutt (Spacey) arrives at the North Pole to size up Santa’s toy making operation determined to shut it down, it may take more than Rudolph to set things right.

Here’s what the director, writer and cast had to tell us:

Q: What was your best or worst Christmas?

VINCE VAUGHN: Best or worst? Well, they were all good. When you’re a kid you get toys and stuff and your family, your extended family comes in from out of town. When I was a kid and you’d feel the package and you knew it was socks, that was no fun. I don’t want socks. The next thing was like jeans. Jeans? Ugh. I was so painfully skinny it just reminded me how awkward I was shaped at the time. So then you would open toys and that was great, but then you get to a certain age and all you get is clothes so the fun is over, but now that I have a nephew and some nieces the fun is back in it. There’s nothing like kids at Christmastime. The joy that they get opening the gift they’ve been asking for. I’m not really that good at helping set stuff up, but setting up and playing with it that day, that’s really a time to connect and have fun. It’s a lot of fun.

Q: Do you think this movie is too adult for kids?

VINCE VAUGHN: I tell you the great thing about it is that the movie has played phenomenal with all audiences. I think Fred in a lot of ways is a big kid. He is a kid. I think he’s one of them so I think when you watch the film as a child you are really connected to this great role David created. All these great actors are playing their parts. It’s almost like those great claymation films we grew up with right? Where you walk on this live action sort of reality? The writer who writes a lot of the Pixar films, this is similar. It’s got a lot of funny and emotion in it and the stuff that works for adults; not to give scenes away, but the siblings scenes and stuff, is really just smart and clever. It’s not just that it’s grotesque or shocking or risqué. It’s a real compliment to David and the tone of the movie that we never had a need to go there to be enjoyable for adult audiences and I think the kids love the great theme that there’s no naughty kids and Jessie Nelson really was the one that came up with the story of Fred Claus and I think she found a really different kind of way of looking at the genre of Christmas films in a fresh, new way. That’s what was most inspiring for me. My best friend Peter Billingsley did A Christmas Story, which is one of the best. "You’ll shoot your eye out kid.” (Laughter) Of course, It’s A Wonderful Life, but both of those movies have some real drama in them as well.

Q: And darkness.

VINCE VAUGHN: And darkness. This does in a way that’s not dark as in inappropriate, but as in serious and consequences which is a sort of testament to the character that Kevin (Spacey) plays, but Jessie I guess I’ll leave to you to sort of- I guess the true essence as to why it works so well is because Fred Claus was originally as simple as a bedtime story from a mother to her daughter.

JESSIE NELSON: Yeah, my daughter asked me one night if Santa Claus had a family. I thought, "Oh my god, of course he did.” And "What would it have been like to be Santa Claus’s brother?” There’s a shadow of that and how hard it would have been to be Santa as a kid; having to be the perfect kid, and giving your birthday presents away, and being a little pudgy, and jolly all the time. Slowly the story evolved and I thought, "Wow that would make a great movie” and two nights later I was watching The Godfather I thought "Oh, he’s got to be called Fred as an homage to the character in The Godfather.” We always slightly had Vince in our mind as we were working on the script because we always felt he could bring so much heart to the sort of naughty kid story of Christmas. You know, that there’s no naughty kids just misunderstood kids.

DAVID DOBKIN: You say that now to be funny, but pretty much you saw Freddy and you said "Let’s get Vince.” (Laughter)

JESSIE NELSON: Yeah. That’s true. The one thing I was gonna say is that my daughter was on the set with us the whole time and Vince and David used to crack me up when we were making the movie because they would do a scene and then they would turn to Molly. You know all these great actors would do a scene and then they would turn to this ten-year-old and say "How was that Molly? Did you believe that line?”

VINCE VAUGHN: She was our secret weapon. She’s so great.

JESSIE NELSON: So from the very beginning we sort of had a kid’s sanction on the movie.

DAVID DOBKIN: By the way, another interesting thing is that when we first started testing the movie and you’d ask; the kids all think the movie is for them. The kids think the movie is for them. The adults think the movie is for them. There’s this really interesting thing that happens where you realize; I mean that’s what you hope for when you are making a family film that everyone thinks the movie is actually directed to them.

KEVIN SPACEY: We do a thing at the Old Vic that they call panto and it’s a tradition in England and it’s a family entertainment and what makes it work and I think, if I can use this as a comparison, for the kids you create the traditional family story. This year we are doing "Cinderella.” We did "Aladdin” a few years ago. So the kids follow the traditional story. It’s exactly what they know it to be from their childhood and from books, but what makes it fun for adults is that there are all kinds of double entendre and innuendos and songs and dances. So the adults have a really good time while they are watching a sort of traditional, certainly Christmas panto which is oddly the biggest money-making theatrical in England and yet it’s for everybody so you see kids as young as three. At times some entendre goes flying by and you think, "Did they get that? I hope not.” and they don’t. It goes right over their heads and the adults are falling all over themselves so it becomes a real family oriented experience and I think that this movie achieved that same goal.

Q: Was your character a kid at heart too?

KEVIN SPACEY: Oh, I think yeah. You know, when anyone says "Oh you’re playing this really bad, villainous character” hasn’t seen the whole movie. Stay to the end of the movie and then you’ll see who he really is because it’s the kind of character that goes through a journey that starts out in one way and obviously in the same way there’s resentment that this character feels and this (other) character feels toward each other. He actually ends up being a catalyst for that happening and by the end of the film he’s definitely got them a little more efficient. They’re using spreadsheets now.

VINCE VAUGHN: Oddly, you know, I think that Fred and Clyde are bedfellows in that they can relate to the similar brother circumstance and they each handle it a little differently although in the same ball park, in a similar fashion, but I think that somehow through both of their ways of handling it they come to the best answer with Nicholas being involved as well the three of us play out something that needed to be played out because there’s lessons in all of it.

PAUL GIAMATTI: Yeah, yeah, I learned all that stuff about you, but also the thing I find interesting in that scene that I love, it’s timeless. The most I am like Santa Claus should be is in that scene.

KEVIN SPACEY: It’s about forgiveness.

PAUL GIAMATTI: Yeah, and he sort of takes possession of being Santa Claus again because he’s sort of lost it.

KEVIN SPACEY: He’s so overworked.

PAUL GIAMATTI: He’s so overworked. (Laughter)

DAVID DOBKIN: There’s a real ownership about how he does it in that scene where he goes "Clyde Northcutt” because he’s just thought that this is the way to approach kids now.

PAUL GIAMATTI: Right. He’s figured it out and he can sort of do it again.

DAVID DOBKIN: (to Kevin) The bit at the end, by the way, with the cape under the sweater and you don’t really want to draw attention to it. The way you play it is perfect. You emotionally aren’t comfortable with knowing it, but it’s there!

KEVIN SPACEY: I shouldn’t really admit this, but I’m still wearing it (laughter) Just my hope for a sequel.

Q: It is very heartwarming and it sort of flies against the idea we have of kids being sort of cynical. Chris (Bridges) already talked about his daughter giving him raised eyebrows and the story not making sense with Santa Claus. My own kids, probably by seven were rejecting it, but going along with it for the presents. (Laughter) What do you perceive in the audience that has changed? In fact, are kids tougher customers?

KEVIN SPACEY: My feeling is that I don’t even really care if kids even believe that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. I still think there’s a desire to believe in something because it’s not about a person. We have certain images in film and now we have a new one in Paul. Images of what Santa Claus is like, but it’s more. It’s a feeling, an idea. I hear people say all the time "Oh, kids are too cynical these days. They grow up too fast. They’ve got too much access to this, to that, and the other thing” and I just go "Yeah, but you’re not six years old.” (To Vince Vaughn) What did that kid say to you at the World Series thing?

VINCE VAUGHN: Oh yeah, it’s a great the more things change the more they stay the same. The thing that I never lost- as actors and stuff too there’s that make believe child like thing that you have to have. Also, for me is what kind of always got me through things is that faith in that kind of goodness and hopefulness. I think Kevin says it really well when it’s really not what this person is in it’s human form, but it is what it represents and I think that the thing Jessie found with "No naughty kids” and the story David put together and how he hits those themes so beautifully when he sets stuff up so simple and then brings it back around in a way- for me the third act of the movie has such a huge emotional impact, but it’s all those great feelings that you want to feel at Christmas. (It’s) the kind of impact that makes you feel afterwards kind of optimistic, almost freed of some stuff. I think that’s Santa Claus.

KEVIN SPACEY: Tell them what the kid said to you.

VINCE VAUGHN: Yes. We did this short for the World Series that aired last night where I played a little league pitcher. I have a little league team.

KEVIN SPACEY: Coaching them.

VINCE VAUGHN: Yeah coaching them. So we shot the whole thing; all the posters have been up and what not for Fred Claus and when it was over this young boy that had to be about nine or ten years old came up to me and said "Hey Fred”. I felt a little bit like Mean Joe Green. (laughter) He looks at me and he goes, "Tell your brother to get me something this year.” And I said "Oh yeah, yeah we got you. We got you.” Then I kind of thought to myself, "Oh, I hope his parents do get him something.” I made a promise I’m now on the books for. It just was a reminder going to the theme that we are saying that there is that feeling. And by the way, you know what, even when you get to that age for us that can remember; where you go "Yeah, yeah, I don’t believe it” or you don’t want to be embarrassed, there’s a side of you laying quiet that says, "I hope he is there. I want to believe it.” You still want to believe it. I believe all of us in our own way, as adults, find that way to still have that faith.

Q: How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa?

VINCE VAUGHN: I don’t know what you’re talking about. (Laughter)

Q: What would be your ideal gift?

KEVIN SPACEY: Sequel. I think sequel. (Laughter)

PAUL GIAMATTI: God, I would go with that. Gee, I don’t know. There’s not a whole heck that I want anymore. You know what I mean?

Q: I mean "Peace on Earth” anything-

PAUL GIAMATTI: Oh sure.

VINCE VAUGHN: I think that makes sense. Peace on Earth is something good to say too. Here’s where I would go: a hot tub, a couple girls from Brazil, and a "Do Not Disturb” sign. (Laughter)

Q: That’s what I wanted to hear.

VINCE VAUGHN: There you go.

Q: -and Peace on Earth.

VINCE VAUGHN: -and Peace on Earth. That is Peace on Earth. Good will to men!

Q: Kevin, as the guy who wants his cape, what is something you wanted, but never got as a kid?

KEVIN SPACEY: I just don’t covet things. I just never did. I was not raised to, you know, if I didn’t get something my life would be over. I was grateful to get what I got. I had great parents who believed in me and gave us a lot of love.

Q: Were you Amish? (Laughter)

KEVIN SPACEY: No.

Q: What was the best thing about working with Vince?

KEVIN SPACEY: Oh, I think the process that Vince goes through to discover what is going on in a scene. Often he uses improv. What’s great about it is that it’s not always about trying to be funny or trying to be slick or trying to be this. It’s about what improv does and where it leads you to. Maybe a solution or maybe it might even lead to "Oh that’s a good idea. Let’s expand on that.” A lot of that kind of process is really, really fun and when I saw the movie and saw what they chose and how the film had evolved, I thought "Whoa, what an incredible thing to see that come to life and to see how much that character came through.” A lot of that, and (to Vince) you’d know more than me the amount of stuff that came through those sessions where you’re kind of just riffing and you don’t necessarily know how it’s gonna go. You sort of set up a situation and say "What would I do if I stop doing the lines in the script and I just try to find where this character is emotionally and what the relationships are like and so for me that’s very much rooted in the kind of work I am used to doing in theater. I was also very grateful that he came and did our 24-hour plays at the Old Vic. That was a blast. It was a lot of fun.

VINCE VAUGHN: That was a great experience for me as well and also I think there is, in any sort of live theater or this process or whatever, a starting point and I think that’s the right place to work from. There could be different ways to the waterfall. There could be different ways to do it, but I think there’s just one good place to start from. It’s a compliment to David too in that there is a lot of material that comes out there, but you feel safe with him in that you know he’s gonna go through that stuff in the editing room and kind of get what you are saying and find a better way of saying it; what’s efficient, what’s not efficient, but we’re all so much a part of the process of how we go through it that there’s almost like an old improv group. There becomes a group mind. The shorthand that’s shared, that’s sort of unspoken. He sort of translates all of it to the ultimate form that you see which is not always the easiest job. It’s like sifting through all the dirt to find the golden (sounds like) ham.

Q: Did the British actors go along like Miranda or Rachel?

DAVID DOBKIN: Yeah. Oh Yeah.

VINCE VAUGHN: They are all such great actors. I think that’s the thing. I was talking to Kevin about this when I did the thing in England, which was such an honor and so much fun. Sometimes I’ve always found all of it to be very child-like. It’s make-believe. That’s where it comes from for me so there shouldn’t be such a religious approach sometimes to the arts where it’s sacred in this way. You should be respectful, but it’s also very including and child-like so whether it comes from the stage- These beautiful stage actors that come from the stage and are just terrific in films and film actors that can go be terrific in plays or people that can work with lines who can improvise, it’s just having a door open and having that opportunity. You’ll find that most people that have a great work ethic and take their work seriously will adapt because they’ll try hard enough to find a way. (to Paul) Do you feel similar to that?

PAUL GIAMATTI: Absolutely. I had never done as much improvisation as I did in this thing.

Q: That’s what Joel said. He said at the beginning you were a little horrified.

PAUL GIAMATTI: I didn’t know what the hell was going on. (Laughter) But once I got on the train-

VINCE VAUGHN:-seriously though. That’s like trying to teach a lion to hunt. Even the trailer we did was right off the bat.

PAUL GIAMATTI: It was a lot of fun. Like you said, I just had to open a door I’d never really opened before.

Q: What was it like to shoot in Chicago?

VINCE VAUGHN: It was fun. It’s my hometown. I’m from there so I love Chicago. I think everyone loves where their home is so it’s great to go back to Chicago always.

Q: Your rant towards the young girl about "get a motorcycle, be a lady,” did that come from you?

VINCE VAUGHN: Yeah, we wrote that that day. Sometimes I write stuff. Sometimes it’s improv and some of it I’ll write prior to the session. This movie was particularly tough because we did have a normal prep time that we had to write on something like (Wedding) Crashers. That being said, the writer did do a good job; Jessie’s story, the superman cape scene, there was some good stuff that was already in the story, but it was just our process to sort of go through it and, you know, do material. That was something that came out of the repo situation and again that’s a great situation where I did improvise and got to push the limit feeling safe knowing David would go and make sense of the thing. Any of those, by the way, rants left in and of themselves might not work, but all put together-

DAVID DOBKIN: -you’re really not giving yourself enough credit. He really wrote that one and it was interesting because Fred was always like a difficult character to find and especially the way you work you create these characters that are really- The way Vince flushes it out is he wanted him to be a guy that is trying to share something positive with this girl, but he was so off-base and he was completely unaware so you are sort of forgiving of the character in a way and entertained by the concept that he’s trying to connect with her and you always have an incredible way of talking to kids. He talks to them like they are adults and it’s so funny, but umm you had written down so many ideas on that scene. Once he starts going sometimes it’s hard to stop.

VINCE VAUGHN: Yeah. "Vince that’s enough. We got it.” (Laughter)

DAVID DOBKIN: But in that scene in reticular, Fred’s point of view was never really totally grounded all the way and Vince came in and wrote that into the script. The thing where the DJ’s got a problem? That was a huge breakthrough. When you had that moment. We didn’t know how to get out of that moment like "Okay, what is this argument gonna be now?” Obviously he’s got all these elves dancing. And he did this whole thing.

VINCE VAUGHN: That’s the whole part that is tough. There is some stuff that wasn’t in the movie that’s out that thankfully David took out because they work probably as individual scenes, but as a whole it becomes that dynamic where you are at the North Pole and you become a bit of a cat in the hat causing problems. So far Santa is still on your side and wants to be there for you and the believability; it’s a real balancing act.

KEVIN SPACEY: So that must have been hard too because Chris (Bridges) wasn’t even there.

VINCE VAUGHN: Yeah Chris wasn’t there.

KEVIN SPACEY: You’re improving with yourself.

VINCE VAUGHN: With that one, I liked that show "Super Nanny” because I have a nephew and some nieces. Have you guys ever seen that show "Super Nanny”? That woman is unbelievable. These kids are hopped up on Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola. They won’t listen to anybody and then the Super Nanny comes and sets boundaries and "Use your words” and all of a sudden they start listening. So I’d watch that with my sister and I’d say "Come here” and she’d be like "My kid’s too, Vince.” I’d go "No, no, but the Super Nanny” and she’d say "Don’t talk to me about the damn Super Nanny.” ‘Cause sometimes I’m left alone with both of them and I don’t want to be the uncle that disciplines them. You don’t want that. You just want to have fun with them, but the problem is they start hitting each other and you have to put down some kind of law. We tried to Super Nanny it. So then when we tried the thing with Ludacris I thought "This is crazy” and I’d start saying stuff like Super Nanny. You know like "Use your words” and whatever and I think it’s like David is saying. It’s that his point of view is that he’s being positive or respectful and the fact that it’s a little off and it’s not completely that way is forgiven because he’s not malice in intent.

Q: Has the paparazzi attention died down? Can you go out without billions of them following and trying to take shots of you?

VINCE VAUGHN: You know I’m left alone a lot of times. Sometimes I have moments where I’m followed. It’s something that just sort of comes with it. It’s a drag. It’s not the kind of thing you can empathize with folks though. There are just bigger problems obviously and most times you realize they are just trying to do their job to make a buck.

Q: Whenever you’re on a date, do they come out?

VINCE VAUGHN: No. Not always. If you are dating someone who is sort of famous, then it sort of happens. Yeah. It’s more of a phenomenon to a ridiculous point nowadays. The pendulum swings so far one way and not the other way and you know it’s not that big of a deal.

Q: Are Fred and Santa in this movie when we see them 800 years old?

VINCE VAUGHN: There was a scene that we shot that was inspired by the (Sir Laurence) Olivier/Tony Curtis scene in the bathtub that was cut out of this movie where he was like "Do you like oysters?”

PAUL GIAMATTI: -and there was a sponge-

VINCE VAUGHN: (laughter throughout) Yeah, and David for whatever reason took that out. Giamatti came to the set and said, "I have the perfect idea.” I’m like "We’ve seen this scene. It’s a classic scene.” And Giamatti was like "I’ve seen that movie. That’s not what this scene is. This is different.” I said, "This is almost the same. Can we just shoot?” I asked for the scene and they were like "Fine, we’ll shoot it.” Right, Paul?

PAUL GIAMATTI: Yeah, oh yeah. It worked, but they had to take it out.

VINCE VAUGHN: It’s on the DVD though.

DAVID DOBKIN: It’s on the DVD! (Laughs)

Q: Did you seek out a family movie?

DAVID DOBKIN: No, and by the way, I never would have sought out a Christmas film in particular. (to Vince) You love Christmas films. When it came, I actually read it because I know how much Vince loves Christmas movies. I never have an idea of what’s gonna happen. It’s just whatever drops in front that finally clicks with me and I read it and something bit. We actually went around the block twice with this one. We almost did it once earlier, but our schedules weren’t open and our schedules opened later on, but the naughty kid thing really got me. I really was like "Okay, I have never seen this.” The concept of moving the Holiday from Grimm’s fairy tale to what it really is about which is family and forgiveness and sharing, you know, safety and security. The concept of creating that in a theater as an emotion and letting people leave on that was something that I’d never really done in any other work and I just thought it’d be amazing. The role just seemed like something that would just stretch with us. You never think about the rating really.

VINCE VAUGHN: For me, I do work with themes. Like I am about to turn Labor Day on its ass next year. (Laughter) That’s kind of my starting catalyst point. I got to a calendar and go like this (points) and I’m like "President’s day, get ready. You’re about to be kicked.”

Q: Do you think that you’d make a good dad since you’re such a great uncle?

VINCE VAUGHN: Here’s the thing that I’ve found is advantageous about being an uncle. I get to play with them. I get to say they’re great and then I get to go home. I think I would be a good dad once they got to be about six or seven and I could communicate with them. I love kids. I have always loved kids, but being around them in those early stages- and by the way, David is just a dad recently and I’m sure he’s going through it in a real way. The thing is that you know they’re crying and there’s only a few things they could possibly want, but it’s figuring which one of those three or four that seems like an eternity.

DAVID DOBKIN: Like Three-Card Monty.

VINCE VAUGHN: His son, by the way, is awesome. Jacob, and he looks like a dockworker.

Q: Would you ever put them in the naughty chair?

VINCE VAUGHN: No. I never put them in a naughty chair. I just separate them. I say, "Uncle Vince says you can’t be hitting her.”

KEVIN SPACEY: -and they watch hours and hours of "Super Nanny.” Watch this! (Laughter)

VINCE VAUGHN: What happens is they’ll come over and I’ll hit the power button and go, "How did that Swingers DVD get on? Oh yeah, that’s your uncle’s.” No, I’ll tell you one thing about my nephew. He was at the Grove here with my sister and he’s four and he saw the poster of Fred Claus and he said "That’s Uncle Vince and that’s Santa Claus” and my sister was mortified because she doesn’t want the concept of Christmas to be wrecked obviously and Dexter’s big thing wasn’t so much that. The big thing he was upset about was "Uncle Vince knows Santa Claus. How come he hasn’t introduced me?”

Q: What about at the end when you play "Silent Night” and you take out the line "Christ Our Savior is born”? Are you saying that isn’t a part of Christmas?

VINCE VAUGHN: No way. That’s a part of what Christmas is I think. It’s where it comes from. It’s an individual’s way into it, isn’t it really? I love Christmas. I grew up with Christmas, grew up Christian and to me I really loved the holiday. For different people in different cultures it’s how you were born. That’s your way in. That’s what you find. The thing with this movie and for Christmas and what it means is that we all found that common denominator coming together. To me, that’s what that gesture was about with the Hassidics was to say "We have more in common. There’s a faith and a connection irregardless that trumps everything.” That’s really what’s being said. It’s more on the higher "everyone together” connection level.

Q: Aren’t you doing another Christmas movie?

VINCE VAUGHN: I am. It’s called Four Christmases, yeah.

Q: Have you started doing it?

VINCE VAUGHN: We did, and in this one we are gonna have Christmas and Ramadan kind of come together.

Q: Is it a comedy?

VINCE VAUGHN: It’s a comedy, yeah

Q: About four families?

VINCE VAUGHN: It’s about people that come from divorced families so you are forced to go to four Christmases. It takes the point of view of the kind of stress that can come if your parents marry people that you don’t sort of get along with.

Q: Kevin, I keep thinking of Swimming With Sharks a little bit with your character here. Did you think of that at all and was the Superman reference the reason you wanted to do this?

KEVIN SPACEY: No. I thought the Superman reference was very funny and I thought it was inspired that David asked me to do it. No. I think I answered the question; it’s the caliber of talent, the caliber of material, and the fact that it was shooting in England and that it was very easy for me to get to work.

Q: Paul, when you put on that suit, did you feel a bit of a sense of responsibility to the kids of the world?

PAUL GIAMATTI: I sure don’t want to shatter any illusions, any kids’ illusions, but having me play Santa Claus in the first place is probably gonna shatter some illusions, but yeah, you know I felt a certain sense of responsibility to it, but ultimately it’s a character that supposed to be a regular guy. I wanted to be able to do the "Ho ho ho” thing right so I worked on that.

Q: Could you tell me what your favorite Christmas movie is and why?

VINCE VAUGHN: I have to say A Christmas Story because Peter Billingsley is my best friend so I love watching that one, but there’s a lot of good ones. I won’t name them ‘cause I don’t want to take the answers away from my colleagues here.

KEVIN SPACEY: It’s a Wonderful Life.

Q: Because?

KEVIN SPACEY: Well part of it is now being in the film industry and learning about the history of that movie and it was a "failure” and I just love the fact that when it started showing on television in the 70s it became a classic. It became a film that not only people watched every Christmas, but they have tapes of it and DVDs of it and they enjoy watching it because it’s not only a Christmas story. It’s set in that time, but it’s one of the best movies ever and the fact that it just makes me laugh when a movie doesn’t make money you know and it’s judged as a failure and it all depends on how you judge success. If you judge success on only money than 90% of films that come out are a failure, but the truth is that sometimes movies that don’t make money can still have a life and do what I think movies should do and stand the test of time.

PAUL GIAMATTI: Oh there’s a great movie that Albert Finney did called Scrooge.

DAVID DOBKIN: I like the original Christmas Carol from 1934. It’s scary and it’s emotional and that performance when he turns at the end is probably one of the most unbelievable moments. It’s Incredible.

JESSIE NELSON: I’m with Kevin It’s a Wonderful Life.

Q: Has anyone talked to you about the next Superman?

KEVIN SPACEY: Yes, but not anyone involved with the film. My point is yes, I’m supposed to do a second one. That’s already been decided. I can’t give you anything other than it’s scheduled to be done, but I don’t know when.

Q: Vince, you have another movie coming out?

VINCE VAUGHN: Yes, I have another movie out on February 8th called Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show where I took these four stand-up comedians and (John) Favreaux and Justin Long, Dwight Yoakum, and we did a live, variety comedy show. The movie turned out really funny and really heartwarming so that’ll come out and, of course, I am waiting for David to give me a call about the next one. Labor Day here we come.

Q: So Four Christmases is for next Christmas?

VINCE VAUGHN: Four Christmases is for next Christmas, yeah. I’m really excited to work with Reese (Witherspoon) I think she is a terrific actor.

Q: What about the scene with the therapy group?

VINCE VAUGHN: We try not to talk about that too much because it’s such a great surprise, but I think that’s a great testament to the adults in the audience getting it and the kids appreciating it on a different level.

DAVID DOBKIN: Which is so weird. I’m sorry. During the test screenings, that is a purely adult scene, and the kids are laughing as hard as the adults and we don’t know why that is.

"Fred Claus” opens in theaters on November 9th.

Vaughn supremacy: The rise of Vince

Vince Vaughn has gone from class joker and cruising bit-parter, to ex-Aniston man and $20m-a-movie star. Gill Pringle talks to Hollywood's rebel with a Claus

The Independent

Vince Vaughn talks so incredibly fast that an hour in his company is equivalent to four hours with anyone else. Known for his speedy screen spiel, his wry motor-mouth monologues are more evident than ever in his latest movies, Into the Wild, Sean Penn's film in which he plays a good-natured, talkative farmer and Fred Claus, family fare laced with Vaughn's trademark wickedly adult humour.

When Vaughn captured Jennifer Aniston's attention in the aftermath of her 2005 split from Hollywood golden boy Brad Pitt, the public perceived him as an unworthy contender for the A-list actress' affections.

It was almost as if she'd taken a step down into the B-list when she fell for her party-loving Break-Up co-star. But the movie industry is fickle and Vaughn suddenly found himself in public favour following the huge success of Wedding Crashers that same year.

Paid $3m for his hilarious role as Owen Wilson's dissolute partner-in-crashing, the film became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in US movie history, taking $178m (£85m) at the box office and propelling him into the elite $20m-a-movie league, alongside his old pal – and Aniston's ex – Pitt.

But the hollow seal of tabloid approval was meaningless to Vaughn, who'd thus far flown beneath the Hollywood radar and had rather hoped to keep it that way. The home-loving, Chicago-born actor's discomfort with life in Aniston's ever-present spotlight was painfully evident as he embarked on a rocky 18-month romance which ended late last year. Not that he has any regrets.

"For me it's more, if you like someone, you like someone," he says, proffering a disarming smile. "I think when we're younger we all say that, don't we? We say: 'I won't date anyone like this or that...' And then you always end up dating someone like that. Because that's what love is. You can't really pick from a logical place. For me, the people I've dated for any period of time, there's always been a friendship there. Life is made up of all those little moments, so it's nice if you have someone who you enjoy doing things with."

One can only speculate but you get the impression that Aniston must have had a hell of a lot more laughs with Vaughn than she did with Pitt. He scrubs up rather well, too.

He is considered a leader of the media-invented "Frat Pack" along with fellow comedy icons Ben Stiller, Wilson, Will Ferrell and Jack Black – his co-stars in Zoolander, Old School, Anchorman, Dodgeball and Starsky and Hutch. It emerges that he and Wilson are discussing a possible Wedding Crashers sequel: "I've never done a sequel. I always have to know: is it a movie that can stand on its own? Or are they just trying to be a sequel and there's no real story there? Crashers was so much fun so we started kicking around ideas of what it could be and we came up with some really funny stuff for what that next transition would be."

Reluctant to discuss the recent suicide drama surrounding his old pal, he says: "Owen's great. He's doing good. I think he's funny and he's a nominated writer and he's just a terrific actor. He's one of the most genuine, kind people I've ever worked with. "

Vaughn claims that laughter has helped him survive many personal trials. "When I was younger I did dramatic stuff and small movies, and then I started doing a lot of comedies," he says, referring to his early roles as drifter Clay Hewitt in The Locusts, A Cool, Dry Place's single dad, Domestic Disturbance's sinister step-dad opposite John Travolta, plus an improbable turn as Norman Bates in the 1998 remake of Psycho.

"But I felt like things in the world got really tense. Things have been so heavy lately. I really like comedy that brings people together. There's a lot of comedies lately that have been at people's expense or been kind of acidic or mean-spirited. And some folks like that, and I think there's room for that, but that's not my style. I like something that makes us all feel closer. Comedy, at its best, can be healing."

Having watched Vaughn deadpan similar corny sentiments in countless comedies, it's hard not to respond to his seemingly heartfelt speech with a pinch of scepticism. My suspicions are confirmed when, following an overly sincere discussion of the tragedy surrounding the recent California fires, he adds: "I will also say, nothing screams Christmas more than California brush fire..."

Even Penn – who lost two trailers in the Malibu fires – would recognise the humour in Vaughn's off-the-cuff remarks. The two men bonded after Penn cast him in a pivotal role – as a farmer who employs Emile Hirsch's character Christopher McCandless, a spoilt rich kid who abandons everything he owns and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness – in his drama adapted from a true story, Into The Wild.

In person, Vaughn comes across as the guy-next-door, a regular bloke who doesn't quite understand what all the fuss is about. This despite the fact that he's been an unofficial babe-magnet for 11 years since Swi