Leading Up to a Trainwreck

It seems like something producers might have done to promote one of the first talkies: send stars to do vaudeville routines in front of live audiences. That’s what Universal did in late June to promote its big summer comedy. For Trainwreck—directed by Judd Apatow, written by and starring Amy Schumer, and co-starring Tilda Swinton and LeBron James—five actors and the director went to seven cities, doing a joint standup show to sold-out crowds. The Trainwreck Comedy Tour was both the most innovative and obvious way in history to market a movie. It reminded fans that the film was coming (on July 17), and “got more buzz about how funny Amy is,” Apatow says.

While in college, he organized comedy shows, eventually producing HBO’s Comic Relief. So Apatow figured that while Universal was sending them out for a press tour, he’d get the comics to perform. The studio pays for the trip anyway, so it wasn’t a hard sell.