You may know Vince Van Patten from a lot of everything. I know him as a host/commentator on the World Poker Tour. He is also the son of legendary actor Dick Van Patten. As a child star, Vince rode the final wave of the Hollywood studio system that had him appear in almost every television show in America. Yes, even The Love Boat. Now Vince has donned the hat of writer, producer, and lead in his film 7 Days to Vegas.
Vince plays Duke, a guy who plays a lot of poker, has a lot of fun, and gets involved in a series of proposition (prop) bets. The bets start out harmless enough until he bets everything on whether he can walk from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in seven days.
I spoke with Vince Van Patten the day after the 7 Days to Vegas world premiere at the 2019 Palm Springs International Film Festival.
“People want to get together and hear each other laugh.”
You just had your world premier in palm springs. What was your experience like?
Vince Van Patten: It’s tremendous. It was a big theater. I guess, close to 900 people. Look, they laughed at all the right places and clapped it all the right places. I couldn’t be happier.
Your film is a comedy, and you know, it screens best in that large theater environment with a large crowd.
Absolutely. People want to get together and hear each other laugh. It does help. Yeah. Comedy for sure.
It seems like you have a connection with the city of Palm Springs as well.
Absolutely. We’d be going there since the 70s with tennis and charity tennis events. When I was a professional tennis player, I played the Grand Prix tournaments there back in the day and just always had a good feel with it. Then, of course, the Sonny Bono tournament was years ago where he raised the initial seed money for the Palm Springs Film Festival, which is pretty amazing. It’s a fantastic festival. I’m just amazed at the quality of films they bring in.
Then on top of it, you know, we did shoot some second unit desert scenes in Palm Springs two, three days out. They’re so nice. It’s a beautiful area, and yet it looks like a very beautiful desert.
It’s Patten, I believe. That’s what it says on his IMDB and Wikipedia.
Liked the movie, would have taken it to the next level if he revealed real names instead of keeping them secret. Kinda cool that he now lives in Bellerose, Queens – my neighborhood. Maybe I’ve seen him at the grocery store. Gambling is something I’ve never done nor plan on doing, but I admired the script and the fact that he plays himself in the movie!
Great film for poker players and everyone!
Wonderful story with a surprising twist!