Transcript
Popcorn Pick of the Week w/ Mike Toomey (Hour 1)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Thu Mar 20, 2025
Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.
Hey, hey, Wisconsin.
What are you guys doing?
How are you?
Great to have you Beautiful day here in the state of Wisconsin and a beautiful evening here in downtown Green Bay after we got pummeled with snow It's basically gone And I always love that because it's very pretty last night, but it's nice that it's That's you know mostly gone.
It should be gone
Conrad, what's your prediction?
When can we say spring will be back?
You want to be ready for the game.
Yeah.
But it was, it was like so fast.
All of a sudden, all the roads were clear and I love that.
I can handle that.
slip.
Fred is the girl you're trying to impress left her apartment.
morning.
Was that bad?
Wisconsin.
Simultaneous statewide slips.
What do you bench in these days?
Okay.
How many reps?
If this is a personal question,
what, because I don't want to, you know,
plates.
Okay.
food on those plates or are you just lifting the plates?
How does that work?
So you got two plates on each side.
That's 90, 90.
That's 180.
The bar is 45.
you're pushing up 225.
Oh,
10.
the knobs that go on the end?
You can tell I'm a serious weight lifter.
I just called them knobs.
Try to increase your bench.
That's like a college.
Nobody cares how much they can bench
leave college.
It's like kind of a thing with, with dudes.
I don't know if it is with girls, like, you know, but I remember that everybody's like, what do you bench?
What do you bench?
Now I don't even know, you know.
I
lift more than me?
It seems like kind of because it seems like kind of a personal question like you're kind of laying the groundwork for a fight.
really?
Okay.
Well, I benched this.
That cracks me up.
I hate my younger self.
I do this thing where I look kind of ridiculous like I
It's this thing where you you put on as much weight as you can handle and you do a really slow resistance like you You you'll pull it up.
You'll let it down slowly while
count to 25 back up while you count to 25 and back down where you come to 25 And it's great.
It's it's like 30 minutes a week That's all you need and I've stuck with it for about almost 10 years now.
I'm not always consistent But 30 minutes a week I can handle so the problem is when you're doing it at the gym.
It does not look like that much weight so you look like you're
kind of, I don't know what the right word is, special, I don't know.
But you look like you're really struggling with a low amount of weight and people don't realize, no, this is very hard because I'm letting it down very slowly.
I'm not just doing, you know.
I think it is slow.
And keep your form.
I mean, you just got to get rid of like, gym anxiety, where you care what people actually think of what you're lifting.
Like they're doing their own thing, you're doing your own thing.
I keep to my own self and that's why I got like noise cancelling headphones.
It's like I'm just there by myself, you know, nice
No, that's what you got to do
that's why I go at night I go late at night and there's like four people in the gym But I typically go in in the clothes I wear when I've been on the radio So I look like an extra nerd because it looks like I'm spazzing out over low weight with like a shirt with a collar and
and tennis shoes.
So it's like what's this good?
I just don't see the point of spending 200 bucks on a workout outfit when I go to the gym once a week to do my weights.
right.
Maybe I should do that.
I don't know.
But I'm not really there to impress anyone.
I'm just really trying to do the bare minimum.
point that out.
It's 30 minutes of resistance training.
If
handle that, I'm pathetic.
Hey, all right.
This has been weightlifting talk with Pete and Conrad.
We're coming right back.
We'll answer your questions about barbells and dumbbells and blasting your quads and everything we can think of.
Great to have you with me tonight, folks.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwab, but we are broadcasting from downtown Green Bay, and we have so much fun on a Thursday night.
What is Thursday night, Conrad?
It is the Christmas Eve of weekdays.
It sure is, buddy.
And it was a white Christmas, almost
Christmas Eve.
But fun show tonight.
Mike Toomey is coming by, my pal Mike Toomey at 6.35 to make the popcorn pick of the week.
Mike is a comedian who does a Christmas show every year here in Wisconsin.
He's a well traveled throughout our state and his day job is the WGN morning show.
where he is one of the hosts and he's just great at what he does and phenomenal comedian.
One of those guys I looked up to when I started doing comedy and learned so much watching him.
I still quit after seven years, but it was not Mike's fault.
So Mike will be here shortly at 635.
We'll talk popcorn.
We'll talk movies.
He's got a new thing.
I know he wants to talk about a segment he will do.
I know we have listeners in Chicago so they can maybe check out Mike on WGN TV.
And then this is exciting.
Northeast Wisconsin's own Lou LePore will be here.
Lou is a magician.
I was introduced to Lou by my friend, Mike DeSatell, who used to work in the news racket here in Green Bay, who lives in Marinette now.
And Mike, what am I looking at here?
Oh, that's funny.
Mike.
connected me with Lou and they're both part of this brotherhood of magicians.
So I'm excited to talk about that.
We've talked a little magic on the show before, but not really done a deep dive, I would say.
Yeah.
So we'll talk to Lou about a big event they have coming up and a big celebration of Harry Houdini.
And that's what I was getting at, folks.
I kind of buried the lead.
I'm excited to talk about Harry Houdini with another magician who is pretty well.
well-schooled in Harry Houdini's life and in Magic in Northeast Wisconsin.
So that'll be fun.
I have Lou here in the studio and great fun.
Today, I'm telling you, I don't know, this, the game today, I don't know how I feel about it.
Like, it was a good win for the Badgers, but talk about a lackluster, neither team looked like they wanted to be there.
Like, usually when I sit down to watch something and work,
It never works out.
Like, I'll sit down to do some work and I'm like, I'm gonna watch this game.
And the game is crazy exciting and I get nothing done.
This game today, I was like, huh, the Badgers are up 10.
Oh, they cut it to six.
Oh, the Badgers are back up by 15.
It was like an easy game to kind of follow and work through.
challenge.
Did BYU win by a landslide or how was that game?
That's, that's the thing that worried about me.
Like that's the thing that worried me was that the Badgers, you know, I feel like when you're in the tournament and you have a little bit of momentum, and I know they lost to Michigan, but they still had momentum, I feel like.
And.
You know the two guys I was watching the game with or the second half at least they were like They got a throttle these guys like they should be sending a message it and the Badgers weren't it's kind of like I felt like they played like they have three championships out of the last five years and they're just getting through this but no the Badgers every time they're in the tournament there should be some franticness or some Urgency there.
I
see any of that
The one thing I will say about
This is a definitely different look badgers.
The badgers that we've seen before don't score 80 points.
They score 60.
That's true.
You know, and it's just mainly about defense back then, but now I think we get some good offensive pieces.
I mean, today, Tanje didn't even do much, but Blackwell, Amos, who's off the bench, they played really well.
So it's just about ball movement.
Who can do it that day?
It sounded like he said ball
Whoever
movements out there today.
And
was very active and agile.
Hey, we got to get to our question of the night.
And it's based on, before you do that, Conrad, today is national, what is it, ravioli day?
I think it's national ravioli day.
And that got me thinking, we've done so well.
People love responding to food questions.
So our question of the night is happening now.
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's your favorite Italian dish?
This got my brain, I was racking my brain trying to figure out because I like, I love Italian food.
I don't eat it as much as I used to because it's so heavy, but it is so good and I have to say...
I think I'm just gonna say, straight up, garlic and oil.
Linguine
garlic and oil, some extra garlic maybe, and give me some garlic bread, and I am set.
I don't need the red sauce, maybe a meatball on the side or something, but I just love pasta.
Garlic and oil, baby.
That is my favorite Italian meal.
That is our question of the night.
What is your favorite Italian meal?
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic?
You can text us on the app or on the stream.
I was just about to ask Conrad his favorite, oh, we got a phone call.
So your favorite Italian meal, folks.
And if you're watching on the stream, you're gonna see, we have an in-studio guest tonight, which is exciting.
At 720, Lou LaPore will be here.
So if you wanna see on the stream, I think Lou is gonna try to do some tricks too.
magic tricks on the radio are tough, but if Lou is here in person, you should definitely check it out on the stream.
I put on deodorant for nothing.
No
So you got to answer, what is your favorite Italian meal came
Well, that must be a hell of a meal.
It is.
OK, all right, we're going to do that.
You find out what.
What find out Conrad's favorite Italian dish coming up.
We're going to talk about Ferris Bueller.
That dropped today, years and years ago.
It's Peachwalla at Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
It is national ravioli day.
Everything has a day.
Everything has a day, whether they deserve it or not.
It's kind of insane.
But today is national ravioli day, so our question of the night is, what is your favorite Italian dish?
I went straight up old school, not even old school, just very kind of plain Janish linguine with garlic and oil.
Extra garlic.
And when I'm in a restaurant, there's a restaurant up in Pestico I go to sometimes called Luigi's.
And I'll say double the garlic and then double that.
No one likes me in their house afterwards, but it is a delish.
So what is your favorite Italian dish?
That's our question tonight.
Conrad, you kind of teased us before the break, but what would say you?
It was this little shop right outside the hotel.
And I got,
a pint of Peroni, which is their beer over there.
And I had this ham, well, pastrami, I don't know.
I can't remember.
I think so, yeah.
It was that on some amazing crust, with just a basic butter garlic sauce.
There
favorite thing there.
But it's kind of like a designer pizza, almost.
I don't see, I don't even need the red sauce anymore.
I love the garlic.
Scott from the 608 says, in my 50s, it's how long do you plank?
Yes.
I'll tell you what, Scott, I love, you know, I go through bouts where I'll do sit-ups, but I just hate it so much.
I really hate the pain of sit-ups.
And I can't do 20 sit-ups.
I have to do it until it kind of hurts.
And then I keep pushing myself and I just quit and I don't do it for like a year.
But I know how important that is, how important your core is as you get older.
Who called Conrad?
Cindy called?
Yeah, that was Cindy.
Cindy, we had to reset our phones, so we'd love to hear from you if you want to call back.
Steve from the 920 says, after watching the Badgers today, I have a strong feeling they will make it to at least the sweet 16.
That is my prediction.
I hope they make it at least that far.
I hope.
I mean, with a three seed, you should be in that conversation somewhere.
Yeah, definitely.
Uh, from the 920, Cindy.
Oh, phone not working.
We figured that out.
All right.
A.J.
from the 608 says, hi, Pete and Conrad.
Do you even lift?
What does that mean, bruh?
Is A.J.
taking a shot at us, Conrad?
Because A.J.
is spelling bruhs, B-R-A-H-S, like bros, bruh.
Bruh.
So, A.J.
is like, do you even lift bruhs?
I think that's a challenge.
Yep.
Listen, I will bench 100 pounds.
There you go.
I don't even need a spotter for that, and I'll do it on the stream, AJ.
AJ says, I love piccata, chicken or seafood.
Make it simple and delicious.
Butter, lemon, and capers.
Oh, man, that's good.
Yeah, you can't go wrong.
Lemon's the other thing.
Garlic and lemon, put as much of it on as you want.
I'm still eating it.
From the 608, Anna from Madison says, my favorite Italian food is manicotti with a glass of precesco.
Perseco.
I thought so.
Is that spelled right?
I thought it was like a derivation of Perseco.
And tiramisu for dessert.
Very nice.
Anna doing it upright.
Steady Eddie.
A little early for Steady Eddie.
Just to set his alarm.
But I love it steady Eddie as you know or may not know is in the 608.
He says Pete.
I'm impressed by Conrad.
well What are you bench pressing these days Pete lately?
I'm focusing on 12 ounce curls at the gym So that's not beer.
That's the joke, but steady Eddie is just curling actual 12 ounces of weight He says a bar that's around the corner just down the street.
I get it.
The bar is called the gym.
Did you get that?
It's a pretty sweet name.
I feel like I've either heard of that or, well, it'd be in the 608.
So maybe Madison, I don't know.
Steady Eddie, little early for you buddy, but I like it.
You still brought it.
Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids says, Sophia Loren on the beach.
Yeah, scrap my order of garlic and pasta.
I'll take Sophia Loren on the beach as well.
They didn't mean that the way it sounded, but that's a lovely image.
Thank you.
Tyler, for the text.
So let us know, what is your favorite Italian dish?
It is National Ravioli Day, ladies and gentlemen.
And that's what we are trying to find out.
Badger's won today, that's exciting.
I've been watching, I started Severance last night.
Have you
Okay.
I didn't, I like it.
I watched one episode and the show is so popular, like on paper when I read about it, it didn't do anything for me.
But it's so popular, people are flipping over this show to the point where when you go to Roku and you put S in search, Severance comes up.
Just S. You go to Google, SE, Severance.
Like that's how popular this Apple TV show is.
So I watched the first episode last night, episode one, season one, and I was...
confused borderline board for the first 40 minutes and then it came around and knowing what the premise is I thought it was kind of cool so I'll stick with it but it must be something it must go places because people rave about it so so I don't know so we don't have time for a Ferris Bueller clip do we?
Did I
it.
You think we can squeeze that in?
All right, Ferris Bueller dropped today in 1987.
Here's a little clip from Ferris Bueller at Wrigley Field.
I think I broke my thumb.
You know, I mean, that's a nice clip, but there you go folks, 12 seconds of Ferris Bueller on the anniversary of one of the greatest comedies from the 80s.
Brought to you by Nightlight.
That's fantastic.
What is your favorite Italian dish?
It's a national ravioli day.
Jim from Appleton says, Italian food, yummy.
My favorite is stuffed cannoli filled with hot cannelloni.
I am not even close to being bilingual.
Filled with hot sausage and spinach covered with marinara and Parmesan cheese, yeah, nice.
Conrad's mom checks in and says, I love mushroom ravioli with a light wine sauce and garlic with a glass of Italian red wine.
Love the mushrooms.
You Creegers know the drill when you go to Italy.
All right, Mike Toomey is coming up.
It's our popcorn pick of the week.
Coming up right after Civic Media's award-winning news team tells you what's up.
It's Pete Schwab.
And Night Light, great to have you with me on the Civic Media Radio Network.
It's time for the Nightlight Popcorn Pick of the Week, where we recommend a movie that you'll either enjoy or won't.
Here's your host, Pete Schwabba.
All right, welcome back.
This is fun.
Every week, one of my favorite segments, we get to talk about movie snacks, what we like to watch, and then we get to get an actual pick from our guest of a movie that we should see.
That's being recommended to us so always fun to do the popcorn pick of the week and joining me now to make this week's pick You might know him from his Christmas show.
He does every year in southeast, Wisconsin He's a comedian and TV host from WGN TV on the morning show in Chicago Mike to me joins me now Mike.
How are you?
Oh
Pete?
I'm just fine.
How are you today doing very well?
Thank you tonight tonight
It's nightlight, Mike.
Yes.
It is the nightlight.
And I hope you're burning.
I hope you're keeping the nightlight on.
Oh, we're doing it.
We're keeping our heartlight on, Mike.
Hey, you know what?
Because home's the most excellent place to be.
And that's where I am right now.
But listen, I heard your review or your mention of the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs movie.
Oh, yeah.
Did you know that according to a survey, only one in seven dwarfs is happy?
Is it too late to change who we do the popcorn pick?
Boy, Mike, I'll tell you what, you have to, I'm assuming that's not your pick, we'll get your pick in a minute, but to mess up a Disney movie, like that is not reviewing well.
You've got one of the most popular brands ever in movie history from one of the oldest studios and you mess it up and you're getting better views.
How does that
happen?
Yeah, I don't know.
It's almost like maybe you wonder if they're not running out of ideas, you know?
How many times can we reboot something when it's really good?
It's awful.
It's just 46 percent.
It's getting a rotten tomato.
So thank you for I assume that's not your pick.
And we will get we'll get to your pick.
But how are you?
Did Mike freeze?
look at Mike's frozen.
I think we had issued.
Did Mike do we have this problem last time?
I don't believe so.
No, he looks very handsome.
Look, he's just kind of smiling in this.
faces in one position if you're watching on the street, or he's just doing that.
That's something Mike would do.
Let's see if we can reconnect Mike Conrad, see what we can do there.
So while we are trying to get Mike to me back on the line, we'll go to our text line here.
Steve from Florida checks back in from the 920 he says after our family trip to Italy this past year Taking a private lesson on making a fresh made cheese ravioli in tiramisu was amazing But my favorite Italian dish is still a good homemade lasagna.
Yeah, it's hard to go out.
That's our Christmas Eve Dish every year Steve my mom would make Lasagna on Christmas Eve then we'd have kind of the big turkey and stuffing on Christmas Day, but I love
Love lasagna.
And I like in lasagna, it's like you don't have humongous chunks of sausage.
It's more subtle.
So I love a good lasagna.
That's a great text.
That's our question of the night is what is your favorite Italian dish?
It is a national ravioli day here in America.
So all you patriots have some Italian food tonight.
So are we, do we have Mike back?
He's not back yet.
Oh, he's not back yet.
Should we just call him?
You got his number?
How'd you get Mike Toomey's number?
He has a big star.
Look at you.
Conrad's got everybody's number.
Um, I'll tell you another movie that's not reviewing well.
Mike and I were talking about Snow White.
Robert DeNiro, uh, The Alt Nights is out and it's Alto Nights.
I'm sorry.
Do we have Mike?
I don't speak sign language, so if you could just tell me what sign language.
I was saying your chat.
Yeah, my chat, okay.
You can just ask me on the air for his number.
I like looking at phone numbers on the air.
You know what, what if something horrible happened to me?
I hope that's not the case.
He's one of my best friends, but can you imagine like we're making jokes and someone like invaded Mike's house and said, get off the radio?
You're
radio to be on radio.
Hey that bit I wanted from him with the marijuana PSA He says he can't use that anymore.
There's some sort of I know all right I'm texting you the number and then I will and then we'll get Mike on the phone and see if we can get on with our popcorn pick of the week I'll here's a pic I oh I was talking about the Alto Knights the new Robert De Niro film This is so sad because it's a Barry Levinson movie.
It is not reviewing well
And it's the story of Frank Costello and Vito Genovese in New York.
De Niro plays both roles.
He plays the head of two families.
And I don't, I don't know why they did that.
Rob Thomas was on last night and he said, couldn't they get Joe Pesci or something like that?
But it's just like a gimmicky thing that I don't think you need.
Like those are two interesting enough guys.
They led two of the five New York families in the mob.
You don't need to.
Do a gimmick like that and you got Barry Levinson directing.
I don't understand why they were doing that You had to reset the phone again How do you do that?
It's okay, we've got we'll get Mike on the phone we're resetting our phone and then we are going to reset our hard drives Because someone someone got I'm concerned about Mike.
That's all I'm saying and I will drive to Chicago tonight
to defend my friend.
Mike's going to make the popcorn pick of the week as soon as we get him back here once our phones are reset.
But I was talking about the Alto Knights and it's Robert De Niro.
Barry Levinson is the director.
Why do you have to have De Niro play to the two leads?
I think that would be very distracting.
And it's totally unnecessary.
And I think.
When you do that when you have a big-time director and a big-time actor with a studio behind it I don't think that's gonna help you with critics So the good thing is if you like De Niro and Barry Levinson, maybe this film is not as bad as critics are saying maybe they don't like kind of the smugness of this gimmick of De Niro playing two roles So it'll be interesting to see what happens with that.
I'm anxious to see the audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes after this weekend, which is opening weekend
You know what my theory is?
So here's my response to that.
Go out and get an actor who's not as well known.
You still got Robert De Niro on your
Yeah.
You were going to talk the other night too.
We haven't gotten to this yet because we keep getting distracted.
But the electric state.
Was it terrible?
I still can't bring myself to watch it given the reviews.
right
and I do I mean, okay, I can see probably because They did have such a big budget for what the movie was.
I think What I think the story is really nice, you know, oh, but it's kind of funny how her brother is like the Albert Einstein and he goes to college and like
ninth grade or something like that.
And they go into battle with robots because the robots are sick of working for humans, like that do like, you know, like haircutting or stuff like that.
So they were, it's like a huge war between USA versus the robots.
The robots are winning.
And then this guy makes a software where the humans control robots, but are in it.
You know what I mean?
They put headsets
on
all that software.
Wow.
So if that review is any indication.
Conrad just explained the movie, The Electric State.
The movie is getting a 15% on Rotten Meadows.
I would give your review a 30%, so your review is more exciting than the movie.
However, 72% of audiences like the film.
I think people just like to hang out at home or whatever, but audiences seem to like it more than critics.
But I feel like there's a stigma.
You know when Chris Pratt makes a movie or Ryan Reynolds you kind of know what you're gonna get I feel like that's the same type of deal I Also watched a film called Where is it?
Elevation okay a couple weeks ago.
I talked about the Gorge and I thought that was a good I said it's not a great movie, but it's a great streaming movie And I feel kind of the same way about elevation Anthony Mackie is the lead.
It's about a bunch of people left to live in the mountains above 8,000 feet
So that these creatures who wiped out 95% of the population can't reach them.
They cannot go above 8,000 feet.
So throughout the course of the movie, Anthony Mackie has to save his son.
They live in this little community.
He has to go below 8,000 feet to find an old hospital to get some asthma medicine for his son.
And these creatures, obviously he has to avoid them and he goes down with two other people.
It was good.
I mean, I enjoyed it.
They explained how the creatures came to be.
and how they've been living in the middle of the earth for centuries, waiting to hatch and come up and take over the world.
And I thought it was actually really enjoyable, especially for a streaming movie, a platform, a streaming platform movie.
I thought it was really good.
So there's a recommendation for you.
I also watched Long Bright River, a new show on Peacock starring Amanda Seyfried.
And I'll tell you about that one soon too, because I really enjoyed that one as well.
I'm crushing it on streaming.
I haven't seen Electric State, though, yet.
Do we have, oh, Mike's back?
Yes, he is.
Okay, do we have him on phone?
Okay.
I prefer phone.
It's old school.
I'm an old school guy.
Mike, how are you?
I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm gonna apologize
for that.
Oh, that's okay.
Your face was kind of stuck in the stream.
You had kind of a funny expression, and I didn't know if you were just doing that to be funny.
because I wouldn't put that past you to do something like that.
People say that to me a lot.
Are you making that face to be funny?
And then when you don't answer after two minutes, they're like, oh, OK, I
guess not.
You're like, what?
What face?
This is my face.
This is my face.
So all right, Mike, we'll get into more of the popcorn.
We're coming up.
We got a couple of minutes before a break.
So let's get your popcorn pick after the short break.
But I want to ask you, what is your favorite Italian dish?
You're half Italian.
Yes, sir.
So it's kind of fortuitous that you're on the show tonight on National Ravioli Day.
And I don't mean that in any kind of derogatory way.
I love Italians.
I kind of wish I was Italian.
What is your favorite Italian dish?
Well, I'm a big fan of ravioli on ravioli day.
But late, it kind of goes in phases.
But for the last several years, I've really enjoyed a good eggplant parmesan.
Oh, wow.
Do you find that the eggplant kind of messes up the consistency of the pasta?
No, okay, I do not find that and I mean if they do it right if it's done, right?
It's it's hard to beat
is that the kind of dish you would get down at Sinise's winery in the 80s
Here's
my favorite story regard is a comedy club in the south side of Chicago that
A lot of Chicago comics would work and these two brothers owned it and they were, they were good guys, you know, and Mike thought he would take it upon himself to say to one of them, are they still in business, Mike?
Is that place still there?
I know.
Okay.
All right.
So you saw a mouse and you went up and told one of the owners and you say, I just want to let you know, I saw a mouse by the kitchen.
And what did he say to you?
He said like, oh yeah, where?
I thought you said he just said, thanks, Mike.
It was not even.
That could have been it.
I don't remember.
I just remember I was expecting to go, oh my God, we got to get somebody on this right now.
Cole working, you know,
but it was
very like a shrug.
That's so funny.
Do you have a team, Mike?
Did you watch any basketball today?
Who do you have?
Did you make a prediction or did you fill out a bracket this year for the NCAA?
Uh, I have not yet, but, uh, generally my go-to is always Barbizon school of beauty.
Oh, they got it.
They
got a train.
Co.
Train toe is very strong this year.
We're looking for them to be the dark horse.
Have a great back court.
What?
How about it?
I need the clown colleges making an appearance this year.
They've been quiet
the last years.
They all kind of beat up on each other all year.
None of them really, you know, emerged with a good record.
But you know, it's nice when they would travel to go.
to visit another school, they would do it one car.
And then their gear would ride in another Volkswagen, Volkswagen bug.
Oh, that is great.
How do you like, are you an Illinois fan, though?
I mean, you live kind of south of Chicago.
You're kind of right in the thick of it.
I know your son went to U of I. Are you an Illinois fan?
I would say, I mean, not entirely.
I mean, I like basketball.
I like the tournament, but I'm one of those people who doesn't really get.
too interested until a couple rounds in when there's a Cinderella team has been established and some of that.
But if Illinois is in, I certainly want them to win.
Yeah.
That is some serious diehard fandom.
I'm just the opposite, Mike.
I like the first weekend with all the games and the craziness and the upsets.
Um, and then obviously I'm with you.
If there's like a Cinderella team, I'll get behind that too.
Uh, Mike Toomey is here.
He is one of the, uh, hosts of the WGN morning show in Chicago and a comedian who does a Christmas show here in Wisconsin every year.
We'll talk about that too.
But first, technical issues behind us.
We're going to get Mike's popcorn pick of the week that's coming up next on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
It's time for the Nightlight Popcorn Pick of the Week, where we recommend a movie that you'll either enjoy or won't.
Here's your host, Pete Schwabba.
That is right, ladies and gentlemen.
It's the Popcorn Pick of the Week.
Great to have you with me on this Thursday night.
My guest of giving said pick is Mike Toomey.
He is one of the morning hosts of the WGN Morning Show.
and a hilariously funny stand-up comedian who is well-traveled through our state and does a Christmas show here every year in southeast Wisconsin.
We'll talk a little bit about that.
But Mike, let's talk popcorn, let's talk movies.
Do you have a favorite movie snack?
Well, we used to do the thing where you go to Walgreens first and get the box of raisinets, the snow caps, and then stuff them in here.
you know your clothes and they rattle when you walk in like you're really getting away with something and they know that you're what you're doing but uh nothing in particular but yeah the big box the big reason that's the snow caps and uh what is another thing that uh there's a name you can't pronounce but it goes with those goober's ah there it is i have the worst time the worst time pronouncing who word goober
It's an absolute horrible name for a
snack.
Yeah, it's a terrible name for a snack.
But I have word of them.
My wife gets raisinets.
I get the goobers.
I don't think they make either one of them anymore.
Maybe they still make raisinets, but I'm pretty sure you can still score some raisinets.
You think so?
You got a guy?
I got a guy.
All right.
I think that's the way to do it, too, is to go to the store first, and I haven't done that in so long.
But I used to love going on the road with comics, because they would, like, Rich Brown would sneak a beer in, and you'd be watching, like, you'd have the opening credits, it's three o'clock in the afternoon, and you'd hear, psh, like, everybody.
How do you like to watch movies, Mike?
Do you like to go to the theater, or do you have a game plan at home?
Do you like to stream?
What's your tactic?
We have really become quite the streamers of late.
You know, I mean we would go occasionally to the movie theaters, but then once COVID hit We don't wear those people who haven't really made it back.
I've probably been to maybe three or four movies since COVID at the actual theater So, you know, we look forward to our Fridays here and we'll just stream stuff
Do you find this is what happens to me when I like to stream stuff too?
I mean, it's just so easy.
Obviously I can watch
two or three things in a night, but I find myself getting up a lot.
And I don't know if it's like, cause I'm semi OCD, but I'll go, oh, wait a minute.
I should go turn that light off or I should get this dish done so I don't have to do it later.
Maybe I should pee.
I don't really have to go, but I'm bored and I want to not have to go in a half hour.
You know what I mean?
Like you kind of find excuses to do things.
No, I find it pretty easy to just stay on my back the whole time.
Yeah, thanks for the assist.
So what do you eat at home mode?
Do you have a different snack?
Because you can make anything if you're at home.
And usually Friday, I mean, you know, when we get old, you become sort of ritualized a little bit.
We tend to order a pizza and just try to whip through stuff on a Friday night.
What kind of pizza?
Well, we get several options around here, Pete.
There's a lovely dessert pizza at the place down the road, but You know any kind is good.
Okay.
All right All right, I think we're Conrad you got you ready.
I think we're ready to get our guest Mike Toomey's popcorn pick of the week Conrad if you please Ladies and gentlemen, it's the nightlight popcorn pick of the week giving this week's pick is comedian Mike Toomey
All right
I'm going to go way back.
I don't know how many people give you like really old movies or lesser remembered movies, but I'm going to go all the way back to 1939.
There was a movie I watched when I was up really late and I just stumbled upon it and it just hit me at the right time.
And it was the coolest movie.
It's called on borrowed time with Lionel Barrymore.
Have you heard of this movie?
I have not.
Okay.
It's kind of got like a Twilight Zone element to it.
And in 1939, so that's eight years before he was Mr. Potter, and it's a wonderful life.
But he still played the old man character.
And he cheats death is essentially what he does in this movie.
And all the stuff that happened in the course of it is really pretty clever, pretty cool, very, very Twilight Zone before the Twilight Zone.
I was not expecting that, Mike.
That's a great pick.
When's the last time you watched that movie?
It sounds like it's one you've gone back to over the years.
I actually watched it less than a year ago when I was sitting up late.
I tried, I found it on one of the streaming services and watched it at like two in the morning, which is how I discovered it in the first place.
You know, I wasn't expecting it and came across this movie.
And for whatever reason, like, you know, some movies, you just remember them vividly, line for line, scene for scene.
That's, that's mine.
That's fantastic.
Are you a fan of film noir's?
Yes.
Me too.
I've been so into those lately and so many of the streaming services, you know how it is, you watch one, the algorithm takes off and then all of a sudden you've got like 50.
This is one of those times I actually like that because I've seen so many great ones and I've learned to sort of teleport myself back and watch a movie through different eyes almost or in a different era.
Like 20 years ago, I probably would not have enjoyed film noir as much, but now I can't get enough of them.
Right.
And depending on what the theme of it is or what they're talking about, sometimes it loosely holds up today, and you can assimilate it with something that's going on now, or the same types of arguments that people have.
Do you have a favorite actor from that era?
Well, going way back, I actually loved him.
I thought the Lionel Barrymore was a standout, of course.
That whole, it's a wonderful life.
We'll be got to love Jimmy Stewart.
You got to, you know, love all those guys.
But yeah, I'm going to go, I'm going to go Lionel Barrymore.
I love it.
That's great.
Mike, can we keep you for a few more minutes after the news?
Of course.
I felt like our time was cheated a little bit, but I have a few more questions for you that won't let you get on.
I know you have to get up at like three in the morning, right?
Four.
Okay.
All right, Mike Toomey is my guest.
He's one of the hosts of the WGN Morning Show and a very funny comedian.
We'll talk a little bit about a Christmas show he does here every year, because I want to wet people's appetite, Mike, as the year goes on.
We'll do all of that after the news.
This is Pete Schwabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
