I was forever trying to find what this movie is trying to say. It's a quirky movie, and a lot of the reviewers on this site were indeed puzzled by it. I read a lot of "I liked it, but I don't understand why they made this movie.." About halfway through the movie, during one of his finale's (when he has the audience hide his money and then finds it), I had an epiphany about what this movie was trying to say.
You see, throughout the movie, Buck Howard really does "love this town". In fact, when Troy flat out calls him facetious, Buck backs up that famous one liner with the hard truth. That he really does love the small towns, the small town shows and the small town people that attend them. He was out of place in Vegas. And that's why he couldn't find the money during that scene.
Perhaps I'm stepping ahead of myself, the moral of the story is this. Do what you love, and the money will come. And funny enough, I just read a book on this topic by the editor of Wired magazine called "Free", which basically explains third party revenue streams and all of the various ways of making money out of our relatively new free-to-use business model. So it's as true today as it ever was.
Do what you love, and the money will find you. So when he was in Vegas, receiving advice from people on how to change his show, to cut out what the focus groups didn't like, etc, he kind of lost the thrill of the show, the fun of it all. And so he was unable to find his money.
At the end of the movie, it centers around Troy being slightly bothered by how Buck is able to perform this trick over 5000 times successfully, but has this one show in Vegas where he is unable to do it, and leaves Vegas for good. It just drills the point home even more. In fact, I believe at some point in the movie, Buck Howard says exactly the advice that I realized he was giving all along - do what you love and the money will find you! I hope someone found this review to be insightful in a way that other reviews weren't. Most reviews broke down the movie by explaining who is in it and for how many scenes they made a cameo but in general missed this entire message Ryan
You see, throughout the movie, Buck Howard really does "love this town". In fact, when Troy flat out calls him facetious, Buck backs up that famous one liner with the hard truth. That he really does love the small towns, the small town shows and the small town people that attend them. He was out of place in Vegas. And that's why he couldn't find the money during that scene.
Perhaps I'm stepping ahead of myself, the moral of the story is this. Do what you love, and the money will come. And funny enough, I just read a book on this topic by the editor of Wired magazine called "Free", which basically explains third party revenue streams and all of the various ways of making money out of our relatively new free-to-use business model. So it's as true today as it ever was.
Do what you love, and the money will find you. So when he was in Vegas, receiving advice from people on how to change his show, to cut out what the focus groups didn't like, etc, he kind of lost the thrill of the show, the fun of it all. And so he was unable to find his money.
At the end of the movie, it centers around Troy being slightly bothered by how Buck is able to perform this trick over 5000 times successfully, but has this one show in Vegas where he is unable to do it, and leaves Vegas for good. It just drills the point home even more. In fact, I believe at some point in the movie, Buck Howard says exactly the advice that I realized he was giving all along - do what you love and the money will find you! I hope someone found this review to be insightful in a way that other reviews weren't. Most reviews broke down the movie by explaining who is in it and for how many scenes they made a cameo but in general missed this entire message Ryan