Welcome.
Welcome.
Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm your host, Pete Schwabba.
I will be manning the mic here for the next couple hours, hoping to make you feel better on a Tuesday, a winter Tuesday in Wisconsin.
Or as we like to say, since we light it up here every night, Conrad, fuse day.
See what I did there?
You look like you're like embarrassed to laugh at that.
And you know what?
I've had about enough of your crap already.
We're only 30 seconds into the show.
How you doing tonight, buddy?
is
Yeah.
it.
It sure does.
At least it was sunny today, but it's freezing.
It's eight degrees outside here in Green Bay.
I hope it's a little warmer down south if you guys are Madison, Beloit, whatever.
But man, it is, yeah, it's cold.
And it's not too bad because I run out to my car, I warm it up.
I let it get warmed up for about 10 minutes before I leave.
So when I get in the car, it's nice and toasty.
But they're still just chill in the air.
It is really depressing.
However, having said that, we're going to light it up here tonight, folks.
It's great to have you with us.
Hopefully we can warm your hearts with some comedy, some music.
Got a great show for you tonight.
My guests tonight are comedian Jim Flanagan.
He will be here at 6.35.
Very funny guy.
Just a classic, really solid, good, kind of out of that Chicago mold.
Irish-looking comedian, very funny.
And I'm very excited to have Jim on the show.
I've been trying to get him for a while, and we finally were able to figure out something so Jim could be here, and he will be here on the stream at 6.35.
So very excited to meet Jim and talk to him a little bit about comedy and his career and what he's got coming up.
And then at 7.20,
The guy behind the guy, JB Thompson, introduced us to a guy named Jason Moon.
Jason is a musician.
He is a veteran of the Iraq War.
And he founded a project called Warrior Songs.
And I think his other foundation is called Warrior, Arizona Warriors.
But he teaches and encourages healing for veterans through music.
And I'm very excited to talk to Jason.
He's got a really interesting story.
He himself, as I mentioned, was a veteran, was hurt in combat, I believe.
And we're going to share some of his music, too.
It's outstanding.
And he's going to tell us a little bit about what they do with Warrior Songs.
So that's going to be fun.
That's at 7.20.
And we've got... This is kind of fun, too.
I'm very excited about tonight's question.
We got a lot of activity last night with our Saturday Night Live question.
But tonight...
I noticed when I was just kind of putting the show together today that John Hughes passed away, well, it's his birthday this week.
He passed away in, was it 2009 already?
I gotta, this is gonna bother me if I don't find this.
He was only 59 years old and he is just such a prolific writer-director and he, yeah, 2009, he was only 51, sorry, 59 years old when he died.
And he is...
blessed our lives with his great films.
I grew up on John Hughes movies and that leads us to our question of the night.
Let's talk about the question.
Okay, question.
Question.
Question.
Pregunta.
Question.
Question.
Okay, I have a question.
Questions.
This question.
Domanda.
Question.
Questions.
What is your favorite John Hughes movie?
You know the films, we grew up with them.
16 candles.
She's having a baby.
Mr. Mom, vacation.
We can even throw a home alone in there because I think he wrote home alone, but did not direct it.
Yeah.
Oh.
The guy has done everything.
The great outdoors.
Uncle Buck, home alone too, lost in New York.
Okay, whatever.
Weird science.
Come
I love that movie.
16 candles as I mentioned.
What else do we got here?
Vacation might be my favorite.
He also wrote Christmas Vacation.
Home Alone 2.
Planes, trains, and automobiles.
Automobiles.
There we go.
Planes, trains, and automobiles.
Pretty and pink.
It's interesting.
I would have to say, did I say the breakfast club?
I would have to say Planes, trains, and automobiles, in my opinion, is probably his best movie.
from a perfection standpoint.
But personally, I don't know, I might have to say Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Vacation.
Yeah.
Well, he sometimes you get like written by credit if you created the initial okay, okay like Greg Lanna when we've had him on he still gets credit for meet the parents even though he hasn't worked on the script because he created the whole thing So that's probably what's happening there with John Hughes.
So really be
Yeah, I there are some that are forgettable.
I didn't
I thought Pretty in Pink was just okay.
Some kind of wonderful I saw once.
I thought it was kind of forgettable, but even his forgettable or decent movies, two and a half star movies are better than some of the stuff they put out now.
But I would have to say his best film, Plain Strings and Automobiles.
My personal favorite, it's a tie between Ferris Bueller and Vacation.
Yeah, a lot of people do.
It's a good film.
But what would you say your favorite is, Uncle Buck?
Christmas Vacation, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's tough.
I mean, there's so many to choose from.
I mean, the guy has just had this incredible career.
And in the beats tomorrow, coming out, 16 candles turned 40 this weekend.
Over last weekend, I should say.
well.
And yeah, and it was supposed to be shot as a million dollar film in Chicago independently in 1982.
And then it gains some traction.
He sold a couple other films.
And before you know it, they were, I'm sorry, I think it was The Breakfast Club.
I'm talking about.
Yes.
The Breakfast Club turned 40.
And the next thing you know, he's John Hughes and he's putting all these movies into production.
He became a legend.
And most of them, I would say, if not all, were shot in and around Chicago, right here in the Midwest.
Vacation, obviously, they went on the road, planes, trains, and automobiles, but such a prolific talent, writing and directing.
That is our question of the night, folks.
What is your favorite John Hughes film?
Could be something he wrote, directed.
There's no right answers.
There are only your answers, and we will read them on the radio happily.
Let's have fun with this one, because it's a great...
you got a lot to choose from.
As I mentioned, some kind of wonderful planes trains and automobiles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, vacation, Christmas vacation, both of the first homelones and Conrad said the fourth?
fifth, actually.
The fifth, okay.
It has
not.
I would be surprised anyway.
All the homelones.
He created it.
Yeah.
The breakfast club, pretty in pink, some kind of wonderful.
It's 16 candles.
Is that true?
I don't got to put that on my favorites Uncle Buck.
Yeah, he was still making movies.
I mean weird science even I forgot about weird science flubber Flubber He made that one too.
I didn't know that I've got a list here of like his top 15.
Here's the great outdoors Yes, yes,
mr. Mom
could be one of, I would say Mr. Mom is one of his better films.
Maybe not the funniest, although it's very funny.
Michael Keaton's hilarious in it.
Martin Mull, Terry Gar.
But that's a really solid movie.
She's having a baby is a good movie about people, Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Montgomery, about to be a McGovern, I should say, about to be parents for the first time.
Alec Baldwin did a great cameo on that.
So let us know what your favorite John Hughes movie is, folks.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic.
You can text us on the app.
So easy to use.
The Civic Media app is a piece of cake.
Click on any one of the stations because we are on statewide and just click the little text icon and fire away and let us know what you think.
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yes.
And let us know.
Also, the phone lines are open, folks.
You're welcome to give us a call.
Tell us what you think.
It's always more fun when you guys participate.
So that is our show for tonight.
We got a lot of stuff going on.
There's, this is so creepy.
I saw this and I wrote a beat about this for tomorrow in the Hollywood Beats.
Guy Pierce, one of my favorite actors, he's nominated this year for Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the Brutalist.
says Kevin Spacey harassed him on the set of LA Confidential, one of my all-time favorite movies.
Guy Pearce is brilliant in it.
Kevin Spacey's good in it.
It was really hard to read this stuff about Kevin Spacey when it first came out.
But now Guy Pearce is saying Spacey was aggressive with him and harassed him on the set.
Didn't assault him but was very aggressive and he was in a position of power and Pearce downplayed it.
But Guy Pierce also said when all these accusations came out, like in 2017, he heard all these people coming forward and he sobbed, thinking about all these other people going through what he went through.
Guy Pierce also told his wife that he liked going to the set on days when Simon Baker was there because Kevin Bacon, or Kevin Spacey, I'm sorry, would turn his attentions to Simon Baker.
How sad is that?
I mean,
You're part of one of the greatest films in my opinion ever made.
Just all aspects of movie making there.
Script, direction, acting, sets, a period piece, just a great soundtrack.
And you're trying to avoid this creep.
The experience is not even great for you because of Kevin Spacey.
It's so horrible.
And that was part of the Me Too movement, I guess, is when all that came out too.
But I just read that last night and it kind of just made me sad because I'm like, what a cool film to be a part of and then you don't even get to enjoy it.
What do you think about the no shows at the Saturday Night Live thing that came out?
no, I'm good.
It is weird.
I mean, if like half the people said no, thanks, I get it.
But almost everybody went that was invited except Acroyd, Bill Hader and Dana Carvey.
And Colin Quinn.
10 years or something, right?
Yeah, that was a surprise.
And they're not giving excuses.
They're just saying, no, I didn't want to go.
OK.
We might argue with that.
All right.
When we come back, we're going to hear some of Jim Flanagan's comedy.
And we'll read your text.
This is Peach Waba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
That is tonight's question of the night.
It is John Hughes birthday today.
I Said I think his best movie is planes trains and automobiles.
I think it's almost a perfect film My favorites however Well, that probably is my favorite, but if I had to go a tide for a second I go Ferris Bueller in vacation Conrad says Uncle Buck and Christmas vacation.
So we've got some variety going here.
Let us know what your favorite John Hughes film is though Dan Schaefer that
That is such a great ad.
I love that music he uses.
I always think it's going to be the cranberries.
And then it kind of diverges and goes this way.
But remember, when he was on the show, his favorite show is The Wire.
And Dan and I were going to do a breakdown of The Wire, so let's not forget to do that.
We got to have him on.
We could do like 45 minutes just on The Wire, because I know he's as big a fan as I am, maybe even bigger.
Our text lines and phone lines are open, ladies and gentlemen.
Jim Flanagan, comedian from Chicago, will be here at 6.35.
We'll be talking about Jim's career a little bit, and we'll hear some of his comedy in just a few minutes.
We've got text line, phone lines open.
Sherry from Horecon says, good evening, Pete.
And Conrad, good evening, Sherry.
We haven't heard from Sherry in a while.
I was thinking that.
What did you do?
Did you piss her off or something?
I don't think so.
No?
OK.
She's very temperamental.
I'm
sorry Sherry if I did anything to
offend you.
I'm sorry if Conrad did anything.
Tom from Los Angeles says, Sully and Lambo.
Am I missing something there?
Favorite John Hughes films?
I don't know what that is, Tom.
Maybe I got, he says, and this is Lombardi.
Am I reading the wrong text again?
I've done that before.
I think he was showing his
dog if you go one below.
Oh.
Gorgeous doggy, Tom.
I love it.
That's a great name.
Sully and Lambo.
He's just sharing his dogs.
That's great.
Folks, you can share with us whatever is going on.
I just want to make sure I was getting the context of the text right, and I wasn't reading that like it was a John Hughes film.
Thank you, Tom, for the text.
Sherry says, Mr. Mom, yeah, great film.
really solid film.
She says, there are way too many.
I agree, Sherry.
Annie from Watertown says, Plains, Trains, and Automobiles.
Excellent choice, Annie.
Anna from Madison.
Hi, Pete and Conrad.
My favorite John Hughes movie is Plains, Trains, and Automobiles.
I love that movie.
She even threw in the little emojis, the plane and the train and the automobile.
She must have had to dig for those because like, when I want to use a different emoji like that, I have to scroll.
It takes me like eight minutes.
So I appreciate the effort, Anna.
Thank you.
From the 608.
This could be the toughest question so far.
Plains, trains, and automobiles is mine.
Yeah, it's tough to disagree with that 608.
Monica from Mount Horrib says, I think I like them all, but Christmas vacation and vacation.
Still laugh at the squirrel in the Christmas tree and dead grandma.
You know, the first time I saw the dead grandma on the station wagon, I didn't even laugh that hard when I was a kid because I thought, I just didn't really buy it.
I'm like, come on.
But as I got older, she is so annoying.
And it makes sense that they wouldn't want a dead person in the car with the kids.
I totally buy that now.
Is that weird?
It somehow has become more plausible to me over the years.
Great text, Monica.
Thank you.
Eric from Lodeye says, I've got to say National Lampoon's Vacation because my family was both the Griswolds and Cousin Eddie's family at various times growing up.
Everyone's favorite line from cousin Eddie and my family was let's go find your sister Pretty creepy Eric also says but planes trains and automobiles is a masterclass in buddy road movies.
I agree planes trains and automobiles my wife and I just called PTA and Midnight Run two of my favorite road movies Anna from Madison says Pete.
I didn't see Joe Piscopo at the SNL 50th show either.
He did a great Sinatra impression That's right.
He did.
I don't know how popular he was though
Anna, and I don't have any inside knowledge.
I just remember rumblings that he was difficult to work with, so maybe they didn't invite him.
But I don't know.
Eric from Lodeye says, my wife and I took a trip to South Dakota a couple of years ago, and an homage to vacation stopped at every tourist trap we could find on the way out there.
That's part of the fun.
Oh, is that him?
Has he sent a picture?
Is that Eric?
Yeah.
Oh, that's awesome.
It's a corn cob with
a
face on it.
Yeah, that's definitely a tourist trap.
That's awesome.
Thank you, Eric, for the photo too.
Brian from Milwaukee says John Hughes wrote the National Lampoon Films, class reunion, vacation, European vacation, Christmas vacation.
That's right.
I forgot about class reunion.
Great text everybody.
These are fantastic.
All right, so our guest in just a few minutes I want to get this clip in before we bring Jim on because it's great stand-up He's a very talented stand-up comedian and here is a sample of his comedy this was shot at Zany's I believe fairly recently, but let's hear some Jim Flanagan Conrad
One of my hobbies last year is the real thing that happened to me.
I was riding a bike I went out for my first bike ride on a brand new bike and I got hit by a car Okay, I'm fine now unless any of you work for state farm insurance
And if you do, I'm still under continuing doctor supervision.
We're working through a few things on the back end.
The person who hit me, she was so nice.
She waited for help to arrive, but just kept saying the same thing over and over and kept just going, ah, I just, I just didn't see you there.
I just didn't see you there.
And eventually I wanted to help.
So I was like, hey, listen, you don't need to say that part.
I know you didn't see me there.
That's implied.
You not seeing me there is the basis of our whole conversation.
I can't even imagine a scenario where you saw me, hit me with your car, and then came over to talk about it.
I just don't even know what that would look like, you know?
You're just kicking around the debris and you're like, oh hey, you made it.
All right, I should probably explain a few things I saw you there.
I did and I got mad, you know So I was just like we got to get rid of him so so I drove as fast as I could And if I see again, I'm gonna keep trying.
I really I really want to finish the job
Great stuff.
That's Jim Flanagan.
He'll be here after the news at 6 35 Our question of the night is what is your favorite John Hughes film?
It's his birthday today.
He passed away in 2009 I cannot believe he died that long ago
It does not seem like, I remember getting that news and being kind of shocked.
Jim from Kenosha says, I'm with Conrad, Uncle Buck, but they are all great.
Thank you, Jim.
Brian from Milwaukee, oh, he added something else to his previous text.
He said, we watch the Christmas one as a family every Christmas.
Same.
Same here, Brian.
What's the, oh, on the stream we got Jim Denny checking in, says Ferris Bueller's day off.
though they all are great, hilarious movies.
He's brought a lot of joy to our life, folks.
We're gonna bring a little more joy to your life.
After the news with comedian Jim Flanagan that's coming up, Jason Moon, Warrior Songs, we're gonna talk about veterans healing through music at 720, and we'll be reading your texts all night.
Chyman, let us know how you're feeling, Wisconsin.
It is great to have you with me on this Tuesday.
Fuseday, as we call it, because we're lighting it up.
I'm Pete Chihuahua.
This is Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Hi, this is Danny Slate and you are listening to Nightlight with Geet
Swabba.
And from Milwaukee says, Varys Bueller's Day Off is a classic when they try rewinding the speedometer.
I seriously love every movie or every scene in that film.
Keep those texts coming, folks.
What is your favorite John Hughes movie?
It's his birthday today.
It's also Molly Ringwald's birthday.
And she's another one of my exes who rarely calls, can't seem to get her on the show.
I
didn't know that.
I think she was cheating on me.
Oh,
I don't know.
Sorry
about that, man.
I don't blame her, I'm just saying.
Jason Moon coming up at 720.
He's going to talk about a great project that he founded called Warrior Songs.
He is a veteran and a musician, and he's going to talk about healing veterans through music.
That's at 720.
Very excited to talk to Jason and meet him.
Also very excited to bring on this next guest.
I've never had the pleasure of meeting Jim in person, but I'm so thrilled he's on the show.
I've tried to have him on now for a while.
He's a very busy guy, but he's taking time out to join us tonight over the stream.
Chicago based comedian Jim.
Flanagan.
Jim, how are you?
I'm doing great, Pete.
Man, I just got back to Chicago.
I'm pretty excited to be back in this eight-degree weather to spend 10 days in Phoenix and Vegas.
And why do we live here?
What's going on?
Why are we in the Midwest?
Hey, okay, so my folks in 1979 decided Chicago wasn't cold enough.
We're going to move to northern Wisconsin.
And I like the trend in the country was going warm places.
I don't understand now it worked out well I met my wife here, and I live there now I have no idea how that happened, but I'm thankful for it But it is an odd choice when you can pick wherever you want to go and you pick a very cold place How old were you when you moved?
12 So
you do remember it here.
Oh, yeah, I lived on the northwest side just off the Kennedy about two and a half miles west of Wrigley
Um, where are you?
I'm in the western verbs now, but what a crazy feeling that has to be to long, warm weather of Chicago winters.
I know it's
like getting further and further north.
What's so kind of
not available to them?
What's so crazy Jim is like people when I went back to Chicago to go to college They're like oh man, you're way up there.
That's freezing up there.
I'm like it's five degrees different some days were even warmer somehow I don't even know how that happens, but if you want to convince yourself you live in the tropics.
That's fine with me
Absolutely, I love it up there though.
It's beautiful country man.
Oh
love northern
It is it's a very easy place to live the people are great no complaints at all, but Chicago's a great town too, and it's a great town
to do stand-up and I started my stand-up career there years and years ago it was such a fun place is it still is it a great is it a good town to start in jim
absolutely I mean nowadays it's even better than when I started you can get up you know three four times a night in Chicago
I mean
it's just
Yeah, there's so many clubs now.
There's, you know, Zany's downtown, Laugh Factory, Comedy Bar, plus like all the independent bar shows and things like that going on.
I'm forgetting some.
There's, you know, three clubs in the suburbs alone now.
So there's just so much you can do.
Great comics.
People come through before New York or LA.
I mean, not to, you know, drop the city I live in, but I mean, it is like, you're getting, I think it's the best combination of talent and stage time that you get at any point in your career.
Compared to a New York or LA like there's such great comics there, but the competition's so big It's very hard to get stage time in those right.
Yeah,
so Chicago kind of offers a nice little blend of both worlds.
I love it.
I highly recommend it.
That's fantastic How are you how did you get started Jim?
How long have you been doing it and how did you get started?
Yeah, so kind of the same as as most of us Pete.
I
to an old mic one night, figured I'd check it out, see how it went.
And you have to do well.
It's kind of like gambling, how you have to like win once to get hooked.
You know what I mean?
Like, no one loses all the time and then becomes a gambling addict.
And I think it's the same with stand up.
I had like I had a great set my first time out and I was like this is easy and then the next time I went back without all my friends in the audience and I was like oh, this is terrible You know and then and then you kind of but from there like once you have that feeling I mean you know better than it once you have that feeling it's like okay now I want to figure out how to recreate that more consistently and But that was about 20 years ago.
I kind of took a long road.
I mean I I did stand up on and off for a long
time and it probably wasn't I took about five years off from like 2010 to 2015 and I was just doing sales and I was kind of happy in my life I actually was dating woman from Wisconsin who had moved down here we were living together and I was traveling for work and it didn't make sense to also be gone on the weekends so I kind of took some time away and then one day I was like you know what I want to figure out how good at this I can be and for the first time in my life I really made a push at it and about three years ago at 40 years
I went full-time at it for the first time in my life.
No
kidding.
Yeah, really backwards timeline of how you're supposed to do this, you know?
Right, but there's no right or wrong.
I mean, you found it.
And are you still together with the girlfriend?
No,
no.
There's only wrong.
Let me say that.
There are wrong ways to do same stuff.
But you're right.
Maybe there is no blueprint of how to do it most successfully.
But if there's a wrong way, I've found it.
I've made a
mistake.
Well, you eventually got there.
That's great.
Let me ask you something, Jim.
I like to ask comedians this.
When was the moment, and it's different with you, because you said you took all these little detours, but when was the moment in your life where you thought, I think I can do that, and I'm going to give it a shot?
Did something click?
Did a light bulb go off?
How did you find that time?
I just want to make sure, Pete, are you talking about once you've already kind of
a little stand up but like to say I think I could really do this like for a living
no I'm saying like when you were let's say 20 or 15 or 25 or whatever was where you go I'm doing that I'm gonna try this because I think I can do it
yeah I think it was more naivety you know what I mean like I think it was just kind of like this thought of like let's just see what that's about I enjoy it I love watching it and it was like it looks so easy until you do it
You know, we talk well every day who are like, yeah, I'm pretty funny around my friends and yeah We all think that that just translates easily to being funny to strangers for money Which it doesn't it's a completely different, you know, it's like I played football in the backyard I could probably be in the NFL.
It's just it's such a different world, right?
But then I don't know I just I got up there one night and it was just like I think I'd written for about three months before I tried it
And it was all garbage.
I mean, it was all so bad.
But I think everyone's so bad at the beginning, especially
at open
mics.
And it was a contest.
And actually, it was myself and a guy named Vince Carone.
And we're both still doing it.
We tied to win the contest our first night
out.
And then the next week, we had to go back and headline the contest.
And it was one of the worst experiences of my life.
But I think you need that, right?
I think bombing is more helpful to you in this game than doing well.
Right.
Do you ever meet those comics, Jim, where you're like, they're always, in most of it's because they're not professionals yet.
But you'll say, oh, I really bombed at that room.
And they'll go, oh, really?
God, I killed.
Like, it's like, OK, is that what we're doing here?
100%.
They don't know that there's so many differences between when you go up and what you're following.
And just, I mean, the audience, what you're saying, what you're working on.
Like, there's the guys who say, I never bombed.
It's like, OK, then you've never tried.
You've never gone out there and really put yourself on a limb.
You're just doing stuff that you know they'll react to versus like really putting yourself out there.
That's a great that's a great way to say that so let me ask you this Jim you did I when I googled you today I was looking for something to to play to kind of tease your appearance and I saw part of a recent comedy special called Nate Land Presents and it's Nate Barcazzi who was like the biggest name right now in comedy the guy has completely blown up he's unbelievable and that was a
It was that sort of a special he put together.
And I love Nate Land, like he's got his own country now or something, like he's that big.
You know what
I'm saying?
He's taken over.
He's
taken over.
100%.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're not just worried about annexing Greenland at this point, but now Nate Land is on the radar.
It's the Gulf of Nate Land, yeah.
Nate Land is his
podcast.
Exactly.
Nate Landis' podcast and then kind of his way of kind of taking and building that brand and then introducing the world to some comedians who can work clean.
I say that because I don't usually work clean, but I think I have the ability to do so.
And he wanted to kind of be able to showcase some people who, you know, maybe hadn't seen the spotlight yet.
And it's an honor to be on
one of the first episodes of that.
I mean, it was just a really cool experience.
He couldn't have been nicer, he couldn't have been more gracious.
He took us on his tour, kind of gave us a little tour of what his life
is
like now.
He was there, he produced the whole thing, he was really involved.
The cool thing was, and I think you know from all your time doing stand up, those big shows, like you add so much extra pressure to yourself sometimes, and just the moment of self pressure, he did everything he could just to make it feel like
We were just doing stand up at a club.
He had
as few extra people, as few cameras as possible.
He's like, I just want you to do and the thing you do without feeling like this is a big deal.
And, uh, it went a long way just to make it feel comfortable and just make it a experience and he's down in Nashville.
You had a great set.
Yeah.
That was, that must have been a kick.
Um, I can't figure out Nate Bargott's like the guy does not tell jokes.
But he gets huge, like his style is so, it must have taken years to perfect, I would assume.
I don't know how long he's been doing it, but you kind of have a similar way.
You have jokes, Jim, but you also tell stories.
What do you prefer?
I think everything you do has to be based in jokes, right?
I love telling stories, but I want to explain it in a funny way along the way.
To me, there's nothing worse than a long set up to get to a punchline at the end of a story, because if it doesn't pay off, you just lose time.
And I don't like that air.
I want consistent punchlines throughout a set, right?
And through jokes of storytelling, because I think it's something that's more relatable to people than just kind of...
one liners, just for me personally.
And just who I am.
But I think they have to be like punchline packed throughout the way.
That's a, that's very interesting.
Yeah, there's nothing worse.
Like when you're on stage and there's complete silence, that's like, wow.
Usually get a laugh there.
I don't know what happened there.
It's the worst feeling and it happens every night.
Like there's there's never a set when you're doing a long period of time that you're like, that went exactly how I wanted.
You know, there's always something that doesn't what you want to.
And so I think the more opportunities I have to get laughs, the higher of a percentage I bet.
Maybe that's just illusion in the mind.
Yeah, that's how it works.
My guest is Jim Flanagan.
He's a Chicago-based stand-up comic, very funny guy.
We were talking about, he just appeared on a Nate Bargazzi special, and then you also did your own Drybar special, Jim, and you talk about how you don't work clean all the time, but you obviously had enough material or clean enough set to get a Drybar special.
That's a pretty big deal for a comic these days, isn't it?
I actually have not gotten a dry bar.
But
what we're
doing right now, Pete, is we are willing it into existence.
I am hopeful for a dry bar.
And that's what we're doing here today.
We're
going to start this from under these YouTube videos.
It's a dry bar under where you were.
I don't
know.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I
think anytime you do something clean, people just kind of associate with.
Yeah.
And
I get much.
That's the nicest thing anyone said to assume that I have a clean 45 minutes special.
What I usually get is people thinking they're coming to see Jim Gaffigan and then being sorely disappointed.
You're basically a Christian comedian.
That's what I'm trying to say here, Jim.
I think you've got That's what they
assume for me.
Do you prefer to show here in Chicago?
Go ahead.
Sorry
No, I'm sorry.
I feel like I'm in a little delay I was doing a show here in Chicago about a month ago and someone walked up to me afterwards And she goes you were very funny, but you're not who we thought we were seeing
And I was like, did you think you're seeing Jim Gaffigan?
And she goes, that's it.
That's who we thought it was.
And I was like, OK, you're not seeing him for $10 at a pizza place.
This is on you.
You're not Steve Martin.
To answer your
last question.
Yeah.
Yeah, right.
I think that everything I do, I want to be able to be clean because I want to be able to do it anywhere.
But I think there's
a
lot of times where the audience doesn't want that.
You have to be able to spice it up.
But to me, it's a lot easier to add swear words to a joke
than to
take them out of a joke.
If that makes sense.
Absolutely.
I
can always pepper them in there.
I can make it dirty here.
If someone goes, hey, make your set dirty, done.
But if someone says make your set clean, that's a much harder thing to do.
So I figure if you start from a place to clean, it goes better.
I can give you clean and unfunny or dirty and funny.
All right, so let's...
All right, we got a lot to cover here and we've only got we don't have a gym all night, but he's joining us here on the stream We're gonna do a very short break and we'll come back with our guest comedian Jim Flanagan Joining me here on nightlight.
This is peach waba on the civic media radio network
Hey folks, it's his birthday today.
That's our question of the night here at Nightlight.
My guest right now on the stream is the very funny Jim Flanagan who joins us from Chicago.
Jim, do you have a favorite John Hughes film?
Yeah, it feels cheap to say this because it's so late but home alone.
I
think that
I'm just like...
just too young for the era of his initial early 80s stuff.
I was born in 80.
So I love Ferris Bueller.
I was going to bring up the rolling back of the speedometer because that was like the coolest thing when you're a kid.
You know, I thought that was going to be successful, but I know someone already brought that up.
So, but I think home alone is probably, I mean,
It was just right in the wheelhouse for me, you know, but there's so many I mean I look kind of a list that Unbelievable how much this guy's done?
It's unbelievable and home alone is got it's one of those films where you just kind of want to be in the world You know you want to get out and follow Kevin around the neighborhood check out that really cool house and it's just nothing I feel like the whole movie Like the first hour and 15 minutes is an opening act to that half hour where it's just pandemonium and he
like really sticks it to Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.
But yeah, what a fun movie.
That's a great choice.
Speaking of fun movie.
Can I plug you real quick?
I just for the third time in my life, watch The Godfather of Green Bay.
Third time.
Wow.
Thanks.
At least the third time.
Third time start to finish.
I can say for sure.
It is one of my absolute favorite movies.
You've got so many of my favorite people in it.
Mike Toomey and Jimmy Pardo to Thomas Lennon.
I mean, so this is an honor for me.
Wow.
I've seen you see so many people comics who write movies and their first movie has them doing some weird
job that isn't what they did.
I love seeing a comic go, no, I'm a comedian.
This is what I'm going to write about.
And it's so well done.
You nail all of these tropes of the different characters, the Higgins of the world,
the Doug
Dug is the hook.
I mean, what was that like to be able to put all that onto the big screen?
I mean, it was a blur.
Honestly, Jim, it was like, you know, when you direct a film like that, you're kind of, you're so focused on other stuff and you feel bad because I live in the town now where we shot the film.
And I had people come up to me and say, I was an extra or this and you just don't remember because you're so busy.
So it was a blur, but it was, I mean, bringing Tony Goldwyn and Lauren Holly and Tom Lennon to Little Marinette, Wisconsin was a thrill.
And I'll tell you, since you liked Tom Lennon, this was funny.
We had an offer out to another actor.
He passed.
Tom accepted.
He accepted because he thought, I wrote another film called A Guy Thing that I co-wrote with Greg Liana.
And Tom is in that.
And he thought he knew me from that, but he knew the writers that replaced us.
So he agreed to do this film.
Well, he flies into Milwaukee and there's like a three hour car drive north.
He gets there and he realizes, I'm not that guy.
And I'm like, well, you're here now.
Anyway, you might as well do it.
But it was, you know, it was great.
Eric Price, we had so many great comedians.
It was a very funny set.
I have to say that.
And I wish at times I wasn't so focused on directing and acting as well because everybody else
had a blast.
You know, we shot in a bar, they were drinking when we were done at three o'clock in the morning, going out on our day off and everybody had a really good time.
So yeah, it was a kick.
But thank you for the nice words.
I was not three times.
That's impressive.
That's not why you had me on here.
Just to talk about your movie.
No, I'm just kidding.
What other good things do you like about me, Jim?
The fact that you wrote in a make-out scene with Lauren Holly to your own movie, I think that's what a smart thing to do for yourself.
You're like, if I'm directing this, I get the good stuff.
We, you know, it's so terrible.
Like people, there were people in that movie that, you know, there were some attractive men and women and guys in the crew would come up to me and if they liked a girl that was in the scene, they would go, please make this a nude scene.
I'm begging you.
I'm like,
No, I'm not a creep, dude.
I'm not going to write in that.
She's an extra.
I'm not doing that.
But yeah, you'd be surprised.
But no, it was really fun.
We had a great time.
And yeah, it was a lot of fun.
So hoping to do it again one of these days.
But let's talk about that, Jim, with you.
What are your aspirations?
What do you want?
Like your own sitcom?
You want to sell theaters out?
Where would you like to steer your career?
Yeah, I think it really me all stays with stand-up and it feels like a boring answer but I mean it in the movie like paying your dues isn't bad, right?
And this is what I love a lot of people get in to stand up to do something else I just love telling jokes So I'd love to get to a point where in more markets people knew who it was to be able to come see me do that I look at a Brian Regan like the greatest
clear on
earth like it you don't have to be so famous can't
around, right?
You don't have to be Pete Schwabba and Mary Annette, but you can still be famous enough in these markets where people want to come see you when you tour.
I think that's like that perfect sweet spot to me of where I'd love to be.
A thousand people like you enough to come see you in a theater once every year or two, but you can still
live your normal life.
coach bus you can drive around in and be comfortable in.
And it's funny you say that, because that's something I totally forgot about my movie.
The whole point of the movie was the journey.
He didn't realize his dream came true.
He's telling jokes and getting paid to do it.
And he's not making tons of money, but you're right, Jim.
And that's kind of a smell the roses type situation.
So that's a great answer.
I love it.
Who are your, let's do this.
We have to do, can we keep you through the news for a few more minutes?
You got it.
All right, fantastic.
I want to ask you,
Who the toughest guy you've ever had to follow was.
So think about that.
Oh, easy
answer.
I'm ready.
All right.
Fantastic.
And then we'll talk a little bit about working the road and what cities you like to work.
I've got so many questions for you.
We're not going to get to all of them, but I'm thrilled to have you here, buddy.
Jim Flanagan is here hanging out with me on Night Light.
We'll have more with Jim after Civic Media's award-winning news team keeps you informed.
This is Pete Schwabba in Night Light on the Civic Media Radio Network.
