Comedy in Madison(Hour 2)

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Chwaba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who still likes to build a fort.

Pete Chwaba.

Welcome back.

Ladies and gentlemen, great to have you with me on this beautiful Tuesday night coming to you live from downtown Madison, broadcasting statewide here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Our phone lines are open, 855-752-4842.

We are a little behind on texts, but we'll get to them.

Our question tonight is, if you had to be on a reality show, what reality show would you want to be on?

We've had some good, and some people are chiming in with game shows, that's fine too.

Our own Todd Michaels says match game, match game.

Conrad, is Todd just doing that or does he love match game?

I think

he

just loves it.

Or

he wants to be.

He said

match game 75, like in 1975, or is that like the number of

iterations?

I have no idea what it is, to be honest.

And then we did get a text about, I think it was at Anna from Madison who wanted to know if Steve Martin and Martin Short were coming back to the Overture Center again.

I don't know, but I did put in the text, the calendar at the Overture Center.

You can check out.

I don't always see the texts when I'm talking to guests.

Sorry about that, Anna, but we will let you know or we'll, Conrad, maybe you could take a memo and

find

out for Anna.

We're nothing if not information givers.

So anyway, keep those texts coming.

We'll get to them.

Right now, I'm very excited to welcome my next guest.

I don't know this guy personally, but I've heard nothing but great things about him.

He is a comedian.

And he joins us now on the stream, Frank Roach.

Frank, hey.

Thank you for having me, Pete.

It's great to have you.

Listen, is it Roach?

I made an assumption there.

Oh, no, you're absolutely right.

Okay, fantastic.

Well,

it's

good to have you.

How are you tonight?

Oh, doing great, man.

Doing great in Chippewa Falls tonight, also Wisconsin.

Okay, so let's talk about that because my buddy Mike Mercury put me in touch with you.

He said, Pete.

You got to talk to Frank.

You got to have him on the show.

I don't like him personally, but he's very funny.

He didn't say that, Frank.

So he highly recommended you.

And I had a slot.

I'm like, let's get to know a new comedian.

So this is great.

But he mentioned Chippewa Falls, but also that you were from Detroit.

So can you explain that?

Yeah.

So I'm from Detroit.

I've been in Wisconsin for probably 12 years now.

And I came because of a girl who I'm no longer with, you know?

OK.

Oh, while I was here, I went to nursing school and finished my RN, which was great because it was right before COVID hit.

And like so many comedian friends were like, oh man, you know, I don't know what I'm going to do because everyone's comedy dates dried up.

Everything.

Yeah.

Wow.

Good timing.

Yeah, it was crazy.

Um,

yeah, we, my best, one of my best friends is a nurse.

He and his wife are both nurses and I was getting all my COVID information through him.

Like, what should I be doing with?

So you were probably a good guy to know during COVID and Chippewa Falls.

So you stayed, you stayed.

That, is it tough, Frank, being a comedian based in Chippewa Falls?

I imagine you do a lot of driving.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

And, uh, and I'm going to, since, since we can walk with this a little.

I'm going to show you, like, if you can see behind me.

Frank is

giving me a tour of his home.

I love this.

No, no, no.

This is actually in my driveway.

And that green son of a gun is with the license plate, funny one.

That is the road roller.

Oh, that's

great.

So I don't think this has ever happened before, Frank, on the history of nightlight, which has only been on a little over a year that I've gotten a tour like that and to see a comedian's car, which I'm guessing

you have a

lot of miles on, I would imagine.

You're funny.

But it's funny you bring up Mike Mercury, because he's somebody that I really am glad I met in the last year, because normally in comedy,

At my age, I figure I know everybody that I'm going to know.

And then this guy came out of nowhere and he's already become a good friend.

Great guy.

Totally

agree.

But did he tell you about a show, a TV series that I'm producing now?

He did not.

He just kind of gave me your info and I reached out to you.

But I know I've done some research.

I know you have this cool show coming out called Big Star Comedy Small Town.

So I'm glad we started with the Detroit Chippewa Falls thing.

I would imagine it's tied somehow to your experiences.

Well, it's kind of wild because people kept saying they were creators of content and stuff, like online creators.

And I'm like, well, what is that?

And it was like people doing like TikToks and little clips and that.

And I'm like, I want to make a show.

And I want it to be a show that would be something that would be for people who love history.

who love travel and who love stand-up comedy.

And I gotta tell you, the first episode has already won awards on three continents and it was filmed in Neilsville, Wisconsin.

And you filmed

this?

Yeah.

Nice.

So

what is

it, Frank?

Like, what's the form?

Is it like sitcom-ish or

sketch?

You were talking earlier like reality.

This is more so kind of like that.

So the show is set up where we find a small town and with a historic theater and a lot of history around it.

And then we set up a show and we focus on all the historical sites to show people.

And then we end with a show.

But the way the sitcom or the way the series goes, if you're watching an episode, the first thing you see is a stand-up comedy line that pounds from the headliner.

And then each segment we go from there.

And every segment has a stand-up comedy line from the star, from the headliner.

And for Wisconsin, we hit the Veterans Memorial, the high ground.

near Neilsville.

We hit the 1897 jail, which is crazy because it had 24 cells connected to a beautiful Victorian mansion.

And the sheriff's wife cooked for all the 24 people, all the 24 inmates.

And during the tour, the lady was like, and she didn't get paid, and we're all really upset about that still.

And the star of that episode, Rocky LaPorte said, was her cooking that bed?

I love Rocky.

Oh, that's great.

She did not like that.

And yeah, so we just did episode two.

In Butte Montana, episode three is going to be with Greg Morton from America's Got Talent.

And that's going to be in Deadwood and feature like Mount Rushmore and surrounding.

And then episode four, Adam Corolla.

Wow.

Nice lineup.

So how do you, is it hard to produce this from Chippewa Falls, Frank?

Or is it all about just guys you've worked with and reaching out to them?

Luckily, it's the latter.

It's guys I've worked with and reaching out to them.

And because when they're like, well, who's funding this?

And I'm like, well, my nursing job.

But so like

Frank is funding this.

So in comedy shows that I'm obviously doing.

So but yeah, it's it's kind of exciting because it seems that people are so willing to be helpful in these small towns to set up the tours and

And what not and I now I've got that episode from Wisconsin episode one So I'm able to actually show people that and then because of that episode.

That's how I got Adam Corolla and everybody else Wow, and no one's ever heard of Nielsville none of these people and I never did either before you know to Wisconsin but Not that that's a tourist destination because it certainly isn't but it's got a lot of history, you know, yeah

No, I think it's interesting you say that, Frank, because I think all these towns, like I live in Marinette right now, which is probably smaller than where you are.

And I commute every day to Green Bay, typically to do the show.

But even in that little town, there's this guy that went out to Hollywood and produced shows.

There's this guy that got arrested in the CIA.

There's this guy, like there's great history in all these towns.

I would think you would have a wealth of material there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's fantastic.

And if you're into history and travel and stand-up comedy, you would dig the show.

And it's like a 45-minute episode, which if it ends up on History Channel with commercials, it'd be an hour.

So where can people see this, Frank?

They can't yet, because we have to film so many episodes before we've got an agent to help us sell it.

And she works with History Channel and Netflix and everything in between.

So we're not really sure where we're going to land.

OK.

Let's talk about you have do you have shows coming up this week somewhere in Wisconsin?

Oh,

yeah

I'm at bootleggers and Amherst Junction on Thursday and then on Friday for Mike Mercury our friend.

I'm doing more Lake Casino

Where I know you're gonna say it's in more like but where what vicinity is that in

so I had to look it up too because I um it looks like it's in a Crandon

Oh, nice.

Okay.

That's a beautiful

little

town.

Do you,

do you like doing casinos?

That's a tricky question, man, because like, um, this particular one I already know is good because I heard it.

The shows went really well.

I've got a friend who was there a couple of weeks ago.

Or at least for the last show, I don't know if it's monthly or how often, but he was there recently and he said, oh man, you're going to love that place.

But I've also done casinos like in the UP where it's snowing so bad.

The manager comes up to me and he's like, you know, hey, the opener called.

He can't make it because of the snowy stock.

Can you do 95 minutes?

I'm like, what?

Oh, yeah.

And not only that, Pete, 95 minutes in front of a transient crowd.

I mean, there are people that were right by the door.

So they said, for a couple of them, they're gone.

It's like, after a while, you can reuse some of the same jokes.

Oh, that's nice.

I host a football fundraiser every year in Marinette that the local coach asked me to put together.

I've been doing it for like 10 years since I moved to Wisconsin.

And my biggest fear, and I host it, but I haven't done stand-up.

regularly since like the late 90s.

So I can muscle through 10 minutes to open the show.

But my biggest fear is two of the comics you're going to call goes a snowstorm.

We can't get there.

And then it's just me up there going, Hey, see if you guys know this song, you know, whatever.

You

remember here in somebody say, Pete, can you stretch?

Oh for sure Frank I know you're an impressionist we have about a minute and a half left is there and who's your who do you do the best would you say

well you know what man I do Christopher Walken and Liam Neeson pretty pretty good oh would you

be willing to share one of those with

us yeah yeah um all right I wish we had a

a little more time.

I would have done a little bit for you with, with even more, but, um, well, we'll do that next.

Now that, now that we're friends, Frank,

Oh, I can go

back.

You're just a hop, skipping a jump away there.

You're in the suburbs of Marinette over there in Chippewa Falls.

I'd love to get back.

Yeah.

We got

about 30 seconds.

So here

we

go.

We're

going

to do Christopher walking the one everybody likes from Saturday night lives.

Guys, guys, I gotta tell you, I got a fever.

And only prescription is my cow back Gene expand the space.

I gotta have it.

I gotta have that cow back And before we close what I have is a particular skill set Pete

All right, we're gonna do this again, you're coming back Frank I hope you had fun.

It was great to meet you

and

we'll talk soon knock him dead this weekend, buddy

Thank you friend.

All right, Frank Roach coming back with

some clips, and I'm gonna read your texts, and then we'll bring in Jeff Blankenship, the talk-independent film.

Peach Wildman Nightlight, Civic Media Radio Network.

I like that guy.

Frank seemed like a really good guy.

We'll have to have him back a weekend.

I got excited when I heard he did impressions, but then we kind of ran out of time.

So next time we'll book him back for a little more time.

We'll have him elaborate.

Yeah, it was fun.

So we got to catch up on some text here.

Anna from Madison says, Conrad, I think you were thinking about the movie 27 Dresses.

Yes, I was.

Was that true?

Yep.

But what was that?

Did I?

Because I was saying there was a yes to the dress movie.

Oh, yes 27 dresses.

Oh, yeah with Catherine Heigl.

Yep, right Catherine Heigl was in a movie shot here in Madison years ago called Something about side effects I Remember meeting the filmmaker here in Madison and Catherine Heigl was in the film and was very good I was like boy.

She's you can kind of tell she was going places actually the filmmakers name was Kathleen Moscow and she

I think booked Catherine Hale in the film.

And during that time, she maybe was on Grace.

I don't know, there was something, but she was already kind of on her way.

But Anna from Madison, I read that.

Chris Casper says, the real lives of radio engineers.

Will the phones work today?

Did the internet go down?

Did a tower fall over?

And then, parenthetically, really happened, says Chris Casper.

I'm always amazed when I come to Madison and Chris is actually here and not out on the road somewhere fixing like a cow ran over a transmitter or something.

Very hardworking guy, Chris Casper.

Somers was here too tonight.

Did you say hi, Aaron?

Yep.

Hey, Aaron.

Hey, Aaron.

It's always good to see those guys.

And Sage was here.

Sage was working.

It's always nice when you're the CEO and you're like the last one to leave or one of the last guys to leave.

Not that anybody's, you know.

Gonna give Sage a hard time about leaving early.

That does what he wants.

Kid me, we'll snap your neck like a twig.

He's the CEO, Conrad.

Conrad doesn't know what to say.

I don't wanna jump in here because I don't want him to snap my neck.

Sage is a great guy.

That was fun at the party when everyone from Madison came up to Northeast Wisconsin and we all got to hang out at our Christmas party in March.

Jameson from Pennsylvania.

Now he's laughing.

From the 814 says, I won't kill anyone, but might not know what to do with chicken liver mousse, fennel pollen, and baby octopus all at once.

Crazy stuff.

They do like that.

Do they really?

He says, getting screamed at by Gordon on TV would be a lifetime highlight reel.

Do you know what you're doing?

You made this octopus into octopoop, but he uses the bad word.

I gotta start watching more of these food shows.

I had no idea there was this kind of drama.

Had a nightly basis.

No kidding.

Thanks for the text, Jameson.

Sherry from Horikon says, I never saw it.

She says, ghost hunters, I binge every night.

All right, Sherry, you'll like to know this.

Todd Michaels is gonna be on the show next week and we're gonna talk about someone who's out there claiming proof of aliens.

So you might wanna, not that those are ghosts, but you know, Todd,

kind of has a hobby of, uh, as a paranormal investigator.

So we're going to have a fun discussion.

That'll be one night next week.

So you won't want to miss that sherry.

Uh, sherry also says, Oh, I'm sorry.

I already read that brand from Milwaukee says the amazing race.

Oh, I forgot about that one.

Been a big fan since the start.

You can learn so much about cultures, customs and traditions as you travel all over the world.

Yeah, that's a good one too.

It's not like a running race.

Like, you don't get winded, right?

I don't I don't think I've actually ever seen the amazing race.

You need to start watching more TV

Conrad.

I'm only watching milk matter and that's it, right?

And hopefully the many spin-offs That happen, okay, so Mike Myers folks He kind of you forget about Mike Myers, but he's made some classics Wayne's world.

So I married an axe murderer He's made some really great films.

He's a really funny guy

And he was on Saturday Night Live two weeks in a row.

And last week, he played Elon Musk in this skit where the president is berating Marco Rubio.

And Musk walks in as Mike Myers and he morphs into the Dr. Evil voice.

So let's hear that now, God.

It's me, Texaport.

Oh, just kidding.

Elon, I want to thank you for at least wearing a suit this time.

Doesn't look great, right?

Billionaire, but he shops at Joseph A. Bank.

It's giving groomsmen.

Good one, Donald.

Good one.

Glitch.

Buffering.

I'm back, I'm back, I'm back.

Never gonna get used to that.

Now look, I can't have you two at each other's throats, okay?

After all, I have a perfect record.

Everyone who's ever worked for me has left on good terms and then gone on to write a book called The Man Who Ruined Everything.

So you two need to start acting like mature adults, okay?

So let's begin with Marco.

Polo.

No, Elon, I'm trying to talk to Marco.

What is that?

What's this?

What's this?

He keeps doing this.

What's this?

Nobody knows, okay?

It's his little dance.

We let him do it.

It's his least unsettling trick.

I can't believe this is the guy you've given access to the entire government.

He's not an elected official.

I know you all, but what am

I?

That's enough.

If you're going to insult each other, at least make them good, OK?

Something like, uh, Elon, how do you have 20 kids, but I've never seen you with a chick?

Just dude's name, Donkey-Dong, and b----king, you know?

And, uh, here, watch this.

Marco.

Short and gay.

Classic.

But, Elon, you got to listen to me, OK?

Marco is a very important part of the team.

And...

We all need to...

Phase one of my plan is complete.

Ingratiate yourself to the president and take over the media.

But was taking this job a bad idea?

A lot of people seem to really hate me.

My Tesla stock is crashing and my personal net worth just dropped by $100 billion.

All right?

So headlines from the meeting.

One, America's doing bad guy now.

Two, Marco, get your budget under control.

And three, Elon, stay in your lane.

You're not the boss.

But I paid you $300 million.

And that's why you're the boss.

So we'll get out of your office right after we say this.

Live from New York, it's

Saturday night.

Like, the Dr. Evil thing is kind of a visual thing too, but I love when...

Mike Myers as Musk says glitch He's not even a real person and does the restart computer sound

Google it.

It's very funny, folks.

All right.

Coming up next, we're going to talk some independent film and about a film festival that focuses on mental health.

Really cool stuff with the festival founder and a filmmaker himself, Jeff Blankenship.

That's coming up after Civic Media's news team tells you what's up.

Thanks for being with me, folks.

Great to have you.

It's Pete Schwabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Hey, this is John Gries, also Uncle Rico, and you're listening to Nightlight with Peach

Chihuahua.

All right.

Tomorrow night on the

show, ladies and gentlemen, comedian Mary Mack will be here.

Mary is going to make the popcorn pick.

of the week.

We had Marianne a few months ago.

She lives up in Northern Wisconsin and somehow writes for all these animated TV shows.

She's an incredible talent, very funny, and she'll be here Thursday night.

Did I say tomorrow night, Conrad?

You did, yeah.

Tomorrow's a little

different.

Whoa.

Big time faux pas.

We'll get to that.

But that's Thursday night, folks, for the popcorn pick of the week.

And then comedian, Appleton-based comedian Rob Brackenridge will be in the studio.

So we got a lot.

Thursday night.

is going to be a lot of laughs.

Conrad, have you ever laughed so hard you cried?

Definitely, I have.

Okay.

Did you want an example or something?

No, no, no.

Just have some Kleenex ready.

We're going to laugh a lot on Thursday.

And then tomorrow night, we have a special episode.

It's only going to be an hour long.

We're coming on after political coverage.

It's a shortened show, so we've chosen to celebrate the day of the dude, which is in honor of Jeffrey Lebowski, the movie The Big Lebowski, which happened a few days ago, but

We're finally getting to our celebration.

Greg Leanna will be on the show tomorrow night to discuss that.

He is the founder of the Meet the Parents franchise.

And we've already talked to Greg, so I can say this.

We thought he was going to bring Tara Reid, Bunny Lobowski, but she couldn't make it, unfortunately.

So, but Greg is a lot of fun to talk to and loves that movie.

And it'll be a lot of fun.

That's tomorrow night from seven to eight, just an hour of night like tomorrow.

Right now, I'm excited to welcome my next guest.

He is a filmmaker himself and a film festival founder.

And we'll talk to him about that too, because his film festival has a really cool theme.

He joins me now in the studio.

Jeff Blankenship.

Jeff, how are you?

I'm

fine.

Thanks.

How are you?

Thank you for making the drive into Madison from the Burbs.

Yeah.

Right?

But I work on the I work on the West Side, so it wasn't so bad.

So you do this drive every day?

Yep.

You already drove home and then you came back?

No, I stayed.

You stayed?

You get a nice hot meal?

Yeah, I was fine.

Okay.

Helped a friend with a computer problem.

Oh, I had plenty to do.

All right.

Yeah,

there you go.

Well, it's great to have you here.

It's nice to meet you.

Do you have a I assume since you're a filmmaker, you're not into reality TV, but do you have a reality TV show that if you had to be on it, you would be on it?

If someone said, Jeff, you have to be on a reality show.

Which one would you pick?

Not that any of them are great.

I am not.

Yeah, let me help.

Let me think about I

said the bachelor.

I think you could double up in that one if you want it just because you'd have 20 or 30 women wanting to learn more about you.

Yeah, my wife

might have a few things to say about

that.

But my wife is responsible for this question tonight.

So it's her fault.

Maybe the maybe in my younger days, the 90 day fiance.

Oh, I don't remember that

one.

Oh, that's a good one.

Wait, Conrad, is that the one you were talking about?

Yeah, that's the TLC show.

Yeah, the learning channel.

You learn

a lot

from

that.

It's

very educational.

What was the other show that was on the learning channel that was that milk manner?

Yeah.

Oh, what happened to the learning channel?

That's not that you don't learn stuff, but let's get you could take some time to think about that.

If you want that to be a final answer, though, that's fine.

But tell us a little bit about this really cool film festival you created or co-created Jeff.

I just think it's great.

The mental health warrior film festival.

Yeah.

So let me clarify a couple of things about it.

The festival itself was the idea and brainchild of Max Blaska that you've met before.

We've had him

on the show, yeah.

So Max's idea came out of his desire, and it's called mental health warrior, his desire to bring awareness and outreach to mental health issues, to de-stigmatize these issues that people have and try to do it through the use of art and film and music and other things.

So one of his vehicles was to get the rights to a Stephen King film to produce.

And he asked me to direct the film.

So I was part of the film, the direction of the film.

And then he wanted to use this mental health warrior film festival to launch this film and others in the same area of concern.

Very interesting.

OK, I didn't know those two were necessarily related.

So the film festival is called the mental health.

or your film festival.

Have you had one?

Yes.

Okay, so you had your kind of inaugural festival.

The first one

was last spring.

Okay, and you have one this year

too?

All

right, so tell us about what's on the agenda this year.

Yeah, it's grown.

Again, this is Max and Kurt primarily, kind of on the periphery of the details of it.

But I think he's got 30 films.

Wow.

And quite a few online submissions he's going to have.

So it'll be

I think easily twice as large as it was last year plus a streaming option as well.

Yeah.

Is it on and is it at Flix Brewhouse at

Flix Brewhouse venue.

It's a great venue.

The films that were there last year all top quality top notch films.

So you are not one of the founders.

I am not.

Oh, I was not of the festival itself.

Max's creative touch.

But he used the film that I directed as an anchor film for the project.

So to me, you founded.

Fair enough.

We'll go with

that.

It's either got

to be that, because that's the research I did, Jeff, for it's going to be me going, what was middle school for you?

We've got nothing else to talk about.

Well, we've got stuff to talk about because you've made a lot of films.

I did want to ask you, OK, so the film is The Last Rung and the Ladder.

Correct.

Tell us how that happened, because I've talked about it with Kurt before, but not from the standpoint of the director.

the we're actually already talking about pre production for the making of the last rung in the ladder because the experience was simply phenomenal.

Kurt or I'm sorry, Max called me one day and said, you were recommended as a director to me.

I knew Max Max and I were friends.

We had worked on one small project in the past, the 48 hour project.

And he said, I'm doing this project.

Stephen King dollar baby program.

And I'm rewriting the script.

Would you want to direct it?

I said, sure.

And the first thing I said to him, I said, Max, this sounds like a great project.

I read the script that he had.

I said, the first thing you need is a producer.

I said, I'm

not

a producer.

I said, I know the producer role.

Yeah, I can guide you.

But we need a boots on the ground producer.

Nice.

And he was looking and I was kind of looking and we weren't finding a producer and I Tried to start to produce it just to get things off the ground And that wasn't going great.

I mean again, I know what to do but getting

sure

there are two different things and We were just on the edge of because there's a time limit.

You got to create the film within a window.

Okay, you

don't have unlimited time

And he had spent a fair amount of time writing and rewriting the script.

So the clock had been ticking for a long time.

So I called him and I said, Max, I think we're starting to run into a little problem.

We're running out of time.

I said, I've got one last thing for you to try.

I said, well, we've got a mutual filmmaker friend.

Her name is Melanie.

I said, call Melanie.

I said, Melanie knows everybody.

I said, she may be able to produce it or she may know somebody who can produce it.

I said, that's the last thing I can think of.

So she did.

She called Melanie.

Melanie happened to be driving in her car at that moment with Kurt Krause, who you know.

She talked up the film.

She had talked to Max about the film previously.

She talked it up to Kurt and convinced Kurt to do it.

And within weeks, we were shooting.

Wow, nice.

Just like that.

It all just fell together.

It

all came together.

It all came together.

So it's and what it was.

OK, so you as a director, you've got material from Stephen King.

Yeah, that's got to be kind of a pressure like Kurt has been around.

He's a very talented guy as an actor.

Did he have experience producing?

Did you feel comfortable directing this material?

I mean, that had to come with some some.

responsibility, right?

It

did.

I was very comfortable with Kurt.

I mean, yeah, this thing was off the ground in two seconds.

He's like, we're shooting or we're shooting these two days.

Here's your crew.

Here's your cat.

I mean, well, we had picked the cast together.

I had picked the location.

I had a lot of these things kind of lined up.

But he toppled the dominoes and off we went.

But yeah, I read the original story that Stephen King wrote is from 1978 night shift series called The Last Ring of the Ladder.

I read I read the original

And then I read Kurt and Carla S. Bryant's adaptation of the film, their script, their screenplay version of it.

And I really liked it and I started thinking about it.

There were a couple of things in the story that I was rethinking as I do.

And that's a whole story in itself in terms of what I did on set with the story.

The storyline for me was a little bit too linear.

It didn't feel as Stephen King-esque as I wanted it to be.

And so I did change up a sequence of events that happened from this original story to what I did in the film.

And you have license to do, like when you get this project for a dollar, you can do whatever you want

with it.

Pretty much.

Oh, that's nice.

That's creative freedom.

It is.

Now, Max wanted to stay pretty true to the Stephen King version, but

It was not a literal, it was not a literal interpretation.

Okay.

But the story is the same.

It's a story about two siblings who become estranged.

We have, I just don't mean to interrupt you.

We have the poster.

I love this poster.

If you're watching

it on

the stream, it's called the last rung on the ladder.

We've put the poster in the stream.

That is a great poster, Jeff.

Yeah,

that does Stephen King justice,

I

think.

That's like better than a movie or big studio poster,

you know, that poster design goes, credit goes to Dave Burke.

Nice.

She's a photographer.

He did a lot of our behind the scenes photography on the film.

So that's a picture.

That is a that's actually an AI generated image.

Okay.

Now I couldn't generate like that.

Yeah.

He knew some magic that I didn't know.

But based on how I discussed it with him, I'd mock some things up and he said, here, try this.

I'm like, Oh, there it is.

Yeah.

That's beautiful.

That's great.

So I'm sorry.

I wanted people

to see that

though.

Help get the movie out

there.

So, yeah, so interpreting the story, I kind of have my own process.

I've got to feel it.

I've got to understand the story.

And so that was the major change that I made.

There was another part of it.

Part of it was the length of the film, of the screenplay.

So there's two main characters, Larry Gatlin and Kitty Gatlin, their siblings.

The characters span...

three phases of their life when their children when their teenagers and then when their adults.

There was a little bit of a missing part of the story because we didn't have a lot of backstory on kitty.

Okay.

There's just some presumption about what happened to her but there's not enough there wasn't enough for me to justify what she does.

So kind of on the fly when we are shooting in Land of Lakes.

We established some new scenes for her as a backstory.

Oh,

nice.

And those were great.

We did them kind of shot Land of Lakes.

We did.

Nice.

I used to live in that area lived in Green Bay.

Okay.

And it just so happens that I was friends with the owners of a hotel in Land of Lakes who had a balcony that we thought we were going to need for the shoot.

And so I said, can we shoot at your hotel and use the hotel as this as a scene?

And they said yes.

So then at that point,

We then shot three, we shot four different scenes, five different scenes in Land O'Lakes at the hotel in a local diner that we just took over and created a scene on the fly.

In the Gateway Lodge, we did a bar scene and a scene in the hallway, all kind of improv.

That is really cool.

I didn't know you shot in Land of Lakes.

Curtis told me about this and

he was so

enthusiastic about the project.

He said it was great.

He talked about how great it was working with you.

When you, like I see the budget on IMDbPro, I don't ever know if that's accurate or not because I think people guesstimate, regardless whether or not it is, you have to raise money for an independent film.

Did you, was it easier to do that?

I don't know if you had anything to do with that, but you have material from Stephen King.

Did that make it easier to find some funds?

What did help was certainly the name of the writer of the project and Max's goal and vision really helped because people wanted to support his cause.

Right.

So that absolutely did help.

I would say that I've talked to other filmmakers, LA based filmmakers, tell them about the project or they've seen it.

and they would estimate that our budget was 10 times what it was.

That's so great.

Based on what they saw.

When you can put it

on the screen like that,

that's

fantastic.

My guest is Jeff Blankenship.

He's the director of The Last Rung on the Ladder.

a short film that was made with our friend Kirk Krause, too, and Max Blaska, who has been a previous guest on the show.

We're talking about that, and we'll have a few more minutes with Jeff when we come back.

After this very short break, do not go anywhere, folks.

Help us close this down.

This is Pete Schwabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome

back.

We are doing the Madison thing tonight, folks.

It's great to be in Madison tonight.

I know we have a lot of great listeners here.

Sherry from Hurrican says, love Todd Michaels.

Who doesn't Sherry?

You won't want to miss that Todd is so much fun to talk to about paranormal stuff It's just great and we'll let you know what what night that is Chris Casper also says saw her in mineral point and she was amazing Conrad help The the girl from 27 dresses Catherine Heigl is that who Chris was talking about?

I'll don't

look it up.

I'll to go to the Google.

He saw her in mineral point

She could have been there on a shopping spree, you know, those stores in LA with all the variety that gets old.

Yeah.

Mineral Point, they'll send you cab fare to shop there, right?

Mineral Point is a beautiful town.

Have you been there?

The little opera house?

Yep.

Oh, man.

We've done film festivals there.

Yeah, I was in a movie

years ago called Aquarians and they had a showing there and the filmmaker invited me to go there and I was like...

When I did stand up, I used to drive through Mineral Point from Madison, like to Iowa.

And I was like, this is such a gorgeous town.

And then when I was there for the film festival, that opera house is like the most

charming,

beautiful little building.

So love Mineral Point.

That's awesome.

Jeff Blankenship is my guest.

We're talking about his film, The Last Rung on the Ladder that he directed produced by Kurt Krause, a mutual friend of ours and a guy who's been on the show several times.

Jeff.

Is there, I assume there's a mental health aspect to the last rung on the ladder.

I still have not seen it.

Oh,

well, you have to see it.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, it's incredible.

Where can I see it?

It'll be down here in Madison at the, at the, well, I shouldn't say that.

I don't know.

I hope that Max will show it again at the festival.

Mental health.

Okay.

It's going to be in Green Bay this weekend.

Oh, right at the Green Bay Film

Festival?

Yeah.

That is a neat little film

festival.

I have not been there yet, but I've talked to the festival director and some people who've had films there.

And it sounds like just a really great little festival.

So we'll be showing on Saturday.

Will you be there?

I will be there.

Oh, nice.

OK.

I think, do you like Q&As after

films?

They're fun, aren't they?

I love

them.

Yeah.

That's kind of what I'm doing right now to you.

Right.

And you seem like you really love talking

about your stuff.

And that's so great.

I do.

Yeah.

When people ask questions, that means they're paying attention and it's touching them at some level and they're really interested.

So I know I really enjoy that.

We've got some comments on the stream.

Craig Anthony Kinnit, who I assume you know, I know Craig.

Well,

very tight knit film community here in Wisconsin.

And I love that you guys all know each other.

I'm curious which of Jeff's films is his favorite?

Well, this one pretty much.

There's so many.

parts of this film, all the films I've done, I really enjoyed.

This one has a real special meaning, not only for the cause that Max is promoting, but the way the cast and crew came together.

It was a flawless shoot we shot in seven, five cities, seven days, cast and crew, we had children on set, we had safety issues, everything went off without a hitch.

Nice.

We it was just an incredible experience what we

accomplished, overcame and delivered.

It was just an incredible experience.

That's so great.

Jeremy Thompson, also known as JB, I call him the

guy behind the guy.

He says a nice work.

Jeff, great explanation.

I agree.

Thank you, JB.

And then Craig also says also is last rung on the ladder playing in Green Bay.

He's leading you there.

He knows Craig knows

me.

He wants he wants you.

He's helping

you, right?

Craig and I go way back.

Actually, I met

Kurt Krause through the Wildwood Festival that he, Craig, and Jason used to run.

That's excellent.

And Craig is the cousin of a guy he went to high school with.

Wow.

I know.

I've met more people since I've been doing this show that have some connection to Craig.

Yeah.

Terry Barr, who works here at

Civic

Media and all these people that he's like the most popular guy

in the world.

He's out there.

Yeah.

I was looking at your IMDB page, Jeff.

You've done a ton of shorts.

Like you're

a very

prolific filmmaker.

Yeah.

Have you done a feature?

No,

we are talking about possibly doing this as a feature.

Okay, we're investigating if those rights seems like it's perfect for that.

So let me ask you this as a filmmaker, why do you always go for?

Have you had a desire to do a feature or is it just easier to shoot shorts?

Both both.

Okay.

The the scale scaling up from a short to a feature is significant.

Sure.

It's not linear.

So if

Last round the letters, 25 minutes, making it 50 minutes or 65 minutes is not twice the effort, it's probably 10 times the effort.

I'm not that, wow.

The budget alone, every day, every shooting day, you're feeding people, the expenses become challenging, and then how many shooting days can you fit if people are working other jobs?

Yeah.

It becomes a challenge.

Have you ever had that where people just go, I can't, I have to work?

I