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To my knowledge, a vampire comedian is somewhere on the line of being humorous or utterly nonsensical. As I have stated in numerous reviews that I have done, comedy is very subjective. Fortunately, I found it oddly interesting and amusing, and rather charming too given that the primary character gets deliberately portrayed as a moron.
The show opens with the Pioneer Saloon’s compere, a small town bar, who is welcoming Pete (Jamie Kennedy), his main attraction for the night. He is approached by a man who derogates him by addressing him as a funny man (which made me immediately think of a Bill Hicks story). Ethan (Matt Rife), the supporting act, tries to break the ruckus by placing himself in front of the two fighters. The man who injected Twilight roughly steps out of the way, and without any regard for Ethan, shoots him. He shoots with no intention of hitting him and when the man claims to have missed, Ethan stands up, claiming to have missed as well only to receive more shots. As he stands, his eyes glow, and so do his fangs.
Two weeks ago, Pete arrived at the regular slot for his performance at the ‘Comedy Cellar’. He’s booked in at the casino and his arrival has gone viral (a receptionist posted it). She was telling him to be funny so he asked her “What is the difference between a c*nt and a vagina?” He doesn’t care about the video. There are behind-the-stage jokes he “stormed the capitol” jokes at his look, I suppose. And he is being told to watch the kid from the stage he bombs badly each time, he is being told.
The kid’s name is Ethan and he pretends to be a vampire as his act. The audience doesn’t understand it and he is not very funny. He is trying to talk to Pete backstage and is excited. He asks for a tip which is not smooth at all. Pete is drawn as a douche; acerbic all the time, he is endlessly nasty toward his girlfriend Steph (Ellen Hollman) and is none too pleased when he finds out that Ethan is having a party and that Steph is invited. (Ethan does not realize that he is also invited and that she and Pete are in a relationship.) For some reason, she still loves him, although she later tells him that he visits every six weeks and breezes into town.
Ethan is extremely wealthy but highly ineffective at comedy (as it turns out he spent 200 years perfecting the harpsichord then it went out of style). He has the same agent as Pete and wants to open a range of small gigs. Although Pete is not keen on the idea, he ends up accepting it when Ethan offers to fund everything. Unsurprisingly, Ethan fails spectacularly, and Pete incorporates his disastrous attempt into his act. They get closer instead and eventually, Pete suggests that he just be himself and do the finger and flame trick that he showed him. This ends in a groundbreaking performance.
Ethan is bombing once again and so does the trick, revealing his fanged mouth and vampiric eyes. But what truly captivates the audience is his transformation into a bat. The audience believes it to be a trick, but Pete knows he is the real deal (he had said it all along). We eventually return to the Pioneer Saloon where the disgruntled man remains (Pete had dealt with the man who heckled a hen night by cursing out his manhood, and he had been thrown out). Ethan does kill him, but then, in an intriguing twist to the lore, he uses his hand to turn the victim into dust.
The film can also be described as a buddy film, especially since the two main characters aren’t what you’d call ordinary they make an intriguing pair. In addition to being a buddy film, it is Pete, the character who needs to undergo some development (as he himself sort of comments in dialogue when he asks to be turned which happens in this if the vampire wants the person he bites to turn but Ethan contends that as a vampire you are forever stuck, implying that he is the same young man he was centuries before, which suggests to us that Pete needs to evolve) who offers a way out. There are some interesting takes on Pete’s character, like the medical expenses he brings up towards the start, which are actually for his deceased eight-year-old son who suffered from the debt that has forced him to take on the most dreadful jobs available for an income and it certainly explains his attitude. In a way, more accurately, he doesn’t grow that much, the more the character grows on the viewer.
In a sunlit world, vampires like Ethan can roam freely as long as it’s not directly shining down on them. There’s a legend about Ethan that he comes from the famed Erzsébet Báthory and that he does reflect. Ethan encounters a vampire influencer, Scarlett (Lauren Compton), who tries to be out there online. Initially not recognizing her, Ethan is shocked to find out that he might have turned her. But the film has no flirting with the idea of a larger vampire society, nor is there any punishment in store for him. There is one point where it does come full circle it appears he gets more and more like Pete towards the end. Which, personally is something I really adored. These two prime characters were amazing, made me laugh, and seemed inseparable, plus I stand correct in saying that Pete is much sweeter than you expect 7 out of 10.
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