Earlier this week, we saw a sneak preview of the new movie
Dan in Real Life with Steve Carell. I'm an
Office fan, but I didn't have high expectations for the movie. It was funny, but I was glad that we got in for free. At the screening, we received tickets for a private screening of
Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show, a documentary about a cross-country comedy tour that Vince and
Peter Billingsley put together to showcase some new comics.
We had fun. First they gave everyone a wristband which entitled you to a free bag of popcorn and a drink at the concessions stand. Once inside the theater, Vince gave a brief introduction and then sat in the crowd and watched the movie with us. The movie is funny although it's always more fun to see movies like that with a large crowd. Laughing is contagious, and it's more comfortable to laugh out loud when hundreds of others are doing the same. Afterward, Vince introduced a surprise guest... Peter Billingsley! The Christmas Story is one of my favorite holiday movies and one of the only movies I've ever liked enough to actually purchase and watch repeatedly. It was fun to see Ralphie all grown up. The two did a short Q&A before Vince did a quick exit out the back.
One of the funniest scenes of the night had to be the moment when Vince first got in front of the crowd. Everyone had their camera phones out trying to take pictures, and he said he felt like an ape at the zoo. It reminded me of the last time I visited Cades Cove, and we were stuck behind a guy trying to take pictures from a moving truck (with his phone) of a deer that was about 30 feet away in a dark forest. His deer pictures probably looked very similar to the pictures that everyone took of Vince in the dark theater tonight. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of Vince, but here are some photos I took of a "celebrity" who visited Knoxville about 5 years ago.
