Twelve years after "Swingers," Vince Vaughn is still "money."

He can have people throw together a stand-up comedy concert tour, put four little-known to unknown stand-up comics in it, slap his name on the marquee and have it sell out all across the country.

He can get the guy who made the Oscar-winning short film "West Bank Story" to film the tour, onstage and off, make a movie out of it and a studio will put it in theaters.

Maybe Vaughn's "Wild West Comedy Show" started as an act of altruism -- Vince rounding up and anointing four stand-ups worthy of stardom by taking them on the road with him. Perhaps it was a personal test of endurance -- 30 cities and 30 shows in 30 days. Or it could have been just a vanity project.

But "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland," the over-titled comedy concert film built around Vaughn and friends' fall 2005 romp from Hollywood to Chicago, became a revealing and often hilarious look at the stand-up's life.

The four comedians, with Vince and assorted Vince pals, pile into an RV for a cross-country trip -- kind of staged, no? But like Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedian," "Wild West" is a documentary that strips away the artifice to reveal the angry, insecure obsessives who try to "kill" for a living.

The movie gives these comics -- Bret Ernst, an Italian-American not above the odd "Guido" joke; John Caparulo, a dumpy cross between Larry the Cable Guy and Dom Irrera; Ahmed Ahmed, the world's only Egyptian-American comic; and Sebastian Maniscalco, who quit his waiter job to do the tour -- plenty of stage time. It lets them gripe about the bus, the audiences, the hecklers.

And then we meet their parents, get to know how life offstage maybe hasn't worked out. This one can't get a date, that one can't get a break -- tragedies, hard childhoods, the works. And don't get Ahmed started about what it's like for an Egyptian-American traveler to fly the friendly skies these days.

"You guys take, an hour, two hours, to get on the plane? Takes me six weeks."

They did this tour, rolling from Bakersfield to Nashville, Lubbock to Little Rock, right in the middle of the worst hurricane season in memory. Hurricane Rita caused cancellations. And the showbiz lads (excluding Vince) reluctantly visit a Katrina camp to give out tickets to a show. It's also a reality check -- people who really have it rough -- punctuated by the most hilarious punch-line in the movie. Turns out that people from everywhere recognize that gay artist brother (Keir O'Donnell) from "Wedding Crashers."

The concept -- re-introducing stand-up to a country that grew indifferent to it in the 1990s -- is a winner.

And the material? A lot of physical shtick, a few too many "Didya ever notices" and a whole lot of "bits" not printable in a newspaper. But the laughs come, often fast and furious. And when they don't, Vaughn is there to pick up the pieces with a ditsy "Hollywood" sketch and a backstage pat on the back, the reassurance that "You'll get 'em next time."

B+

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights -- From Hollywood to the Heartland

Director: Ari Sandel

Cast: Vince Vaughn, Ahmed Ahmed, Bret Ernst, John Caparulo

Running time: 1 hr., 40 min.

Rating: R for pervasive language and some sex-related humor

Location: Opens Friday in select cities