
Transcript
BARR BAND FRIDAY LIVE FROM MADISON (Hour 2)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Fri Apr 4, 2025
Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.
This is Night Light with Peach Wabba.
Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.
And now a guy who doesn't have 20-20 vision, even in hindsight, Peach Wabba.
Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.
Good Friday, everybody.
Hope you're having a great day.
Fridays are typically happy.
Conrad, you having a good Friday?
Yeah, I think so.
I think it's pretty good.
We're coming to you live from Madison tonight, folks, so it's great to have you with me wherever you're joining us from.
There's a lot going on in Madison this weekend, but it's the weekend and it's Wisconsin, so there's a lot going on everywhere.
Hope you have great plans this weekend and hope you had a good week.
If you had a tough day,
Sit back and chill and let us sort of make you feel happy.
We've got a great guest tonight, some good conversation, some funny clips, some good music, a perfect way to send you into the weekend.
I have to say...
This is strange.
If you're watching on the stream, I feel like I'm a McDonald's drive-through attendee right now with this microphone or I'm playing, you know, Minecraft or something.
I can't get used to this microphone.
I'm in Madison and they're redoing the studio here and it's going to look amazing.
It looks amazing now, but I'm used to having a microphone.
And I mean, I still do, but a different kind.
I'll take a big Mac.
Yeah.
Drive around, please.
Drive around to the second window or I'm a time life operator.
I can order you some encyclopedias.
You probably don't even understand that reference.
I do.
I watch friends.
Do you?
Is that the only way you know what an encyclopedia is?
No, I know what it was before.
I went to school when it was still, you know, like a thing.
OK.
They still had the hard copies.
In elementary school, yeah.
I just saw this funny onion headline.
I'm assuming it's in regard to the tariffs.
America defeats America.
The onion, they don't bat a thousand, but God, they just crush it.
And when they are on, they are on.
And ladies and gentlemen, I am coming to you from the hometown of the onion.
This is where it was created.
This is where it was all started.
Madison, a great comedy town.
We're going to be talking about a great comedy tonight.
Greg Liana and Jim Vincent.
The filmmakers behind the original Meet the Parents will be here in studio because they are in town for a screening tomorrow of the original Meet the Parents at the Barrymore Theater at 1.30, which I will be introducing and interviewing them afterwards at a Q&A.
We'll discuss all the great things about this, just this little gem of a movie that went on to create one of the biggest live action franchises.
in the history of movies.
And it's a great little film.
If you're in the Madison area or don't mind a road trip, come on out.
It should be a great day.
The Barrymore Theater, for those of you who are not in Madison, just a beautiful old theater.
It's got the stars on the ceiling.
There's a balcony, great lobby.
You smell popcorn when you walk in and they've got a great, I think you can get actual booze there too.
Those of you who are alcoholic should definitely swing by tomorrow at the Barrymore.
But it's going to be a fun day.
Greg and Jim will be there.
They're going to be here tonight to talk a little bit about the screening in person because they're in Madison.
They'll be along at 6.35.
And then it is a Friday night.
Nightlight, once again, folks, is making radio history.
We don't do it often.
But when we do it, we do it right.
Terry Barr is here for Bar Band Friday night.
And since she lives in the greater Madison area.
She will be here in studio as well.
So we've got wall-to-wall studio guests our friend Terry who is one of the hosts of max Inc radio will be here tonight.
She's got two great bands She'll be here in person.
It's gonna be a lot of fun.
So, you know, I we just thought of this last night con about inviting Terry Yeah, I thought for some reason she lived like halfway between Madison and Milwaukee.
I didn't realize she was so close.
Yeah, this worked out so
So you wanted a signing bonus.
I said no she countered we worked it out.
Okay.
She'll be here.
Good.
Yeah So were you serious about your a six minute 40-yard dash time?
You just said
yeah Yeah, because I tore my ACL when I I took one step
with Jess
Like that guy in the lit on Faceplanned it but I finished the race there you go six minutes
to
go
I did, I drove down here last night after the show in Green Bay.
I got in my car.
I came down to Madison.
I pulled over to get gas.
I don't know, what is it?
Nine o'clock at night.
I'm somewhere around Fond du Lac.
And, you know, I keep putting my card in the thing and it says, please see attendant.
I'm like, okay.
It's a new debit card.
I thought maybe there was something wrong.
I tried again.
I hit pay at the pump again and I tried again.
It says, please see attendant.
I look at the guy in the window.
I give him one of these, you know, hey, what's up?
And he says over the microphone, he says, you have to pay inside.
Do you want to pay at the pump?
I go, yeah, I want to pay at the pump.
That's the thing goes, OK, you have to you have to do it inside.
I was just like the weirdest conversation I've ever had.
And then he came out and fixed it.
And I went on my merry way, but it was really just kind of a. You know.
If I was at a gas station all night working, I'd probably smoke weed.
You'd probably see three people a night.
It's got to be like the most, it's got to be hard to stay awake.
And my friend, Mike Schmidt, remember he was on the show and told
a
story about how he went in the back and took a nap and somebody came in and cleaned the place out and they had it all on camera.
That would be so tempting.
But very nice guy.
We figured it out, but there was definitely, we were having trouble communicating there, but I.
I worked it out.
You know what else I saw?
Sometimes I like to take the road less traveled, so to speak, to quote Robert Frost.
I went through this little road and there was this house on a small highway and it had that thing where the sheriff is like leaning against the house.
It's like a silhouette and it looks like a marshal kind of leaning.
You know what I'm talking about?
I mean, I kind of got the picture, but I'm not really.
They're like silhouettes, they're like cutouts, and you lean it against your house, and it looks like there is a sheriff leaning against your house with a cowboy hat, like he just stepped off a dude ranch or something.
And I just, I don't know what the point of those is.
I'm not
really- Decorations?
But they're not decorative, they're just kind of strange.
Is it like to scare off prowlers?
I don't think I've ever used the word prowlers before, but- Yeah.
Is it to scare people away or is it just like, hey, we think this is cool?
I
think it's I think this is cool.
I'm going to see if I can find a picture of this.
We'll put it up on the stream and see if people can help me out because you see that they're not that rare.
Like a lot of people have them.
I just don't get it.
So as I mentioned, I'm in Madison, folks, the Wisconsin Film Festival is here.
I was looking through the guide today.
Great films.
And I saw one, a scary movie that I'm supposed to introduce.
And it got me thinking.
And it also led me to tonight's 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.
Question.
Questions.
What is the scariest movie you've ever seen?
It's Friday night, folks.
It's not the 13th, but we can have some fun with this.
What is the scariest movie you've ever seen?
Let me know at 855-752-4842-855-75CIVIC.
You can also text us on the app, very easy to use.
And guess what else you can do with the app, folks?
And you're going to want to hear this, because this is big stuff.
It's our break into spring text-to-win contest.
Your daily chance to win a Chula Vista getaway, Milwaukee Brewers club level seats, or $100 in cash, plus every entry.
Put you into our grand prize drawing of a brand new Queen mattress set from Verlo that includes a mattress, sheet set, mattress protector, and pillows.
Times for texts to win are 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m.
You do have to download the app to play.
You need the app because that's how you can enter.
Just click the little icon right next to the station and send in the word of the day and you are entered.
You will be entered for the daily prize and the grand prize all at once.
Good luck, folks.
I'm sure you all have the app anyway.
But that's another way to reach us here at Nightlight.
You can comment on anything we're talking about, whether it's the question of the night or something that comes up.
If you have questions for our guests, that's always fun.
And you can watch in the stream, too.
Conrad, how can people watch the radio?
Yeah, so on Facebook, we're WSS, WGBW, or Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.
On YouTube, it's Civic Media or WGBW.
And on Twitter, WGBW or Civic Media.
There you go.
Get ahold of us.
Anyway, you can, folks.
It's great when you guys participate.
Terry already checking in on the stream.
That's Terry Barmedia, ladies and gentlemen, our Bar Band Friday night guest every Friday here.
She says, you soon.
Yes, you will, Terry.
We'll be here.
I will let you in if the doors are locked.
PJ also checks in on the stream and says, the hills have eyes.
All right, I have to make a disclaimer here, folks.
A lot of the suggestions you send to me, I'm not going to know.
I don't really watch.
Scary movies that much.
It's not that I don't like them.
I don't like the grossness I'm not a whore like I remember going to my high school friend when we lived in LA lived in San Clemente.
We went down there for Thanksgiving He and his wife said oh You got to see saw you have to see this movie.
It's great.
So we eat this huge Thanksgiving dinner our kids are playing all day It's a great day and then they end it with saw the worst movie
I mean, some people, if you like horror, you probably love Saw.
I was repulsed.
And not really that scared, just really grossed out.
So I don't know if The Hills Have Eyes, PJ, is kind of a gore movie or a scare movie or whatever.
But I just want to say in advance, I don't know a ton of scary movies.
But I'm putting this out there to you guys because I know a lot of people do love scary movies.
So please share them.
And we have a caller.
Can I do that?
Yes, we do.
Holly from the Northwoods.
Hey Ali, how are you?
Well, I'm I'm good when I'm tempted to say the scariest movie is the one we're living in right now.
I
Knew I knew someone was gonna say that.
Well, I have to be the first, you know, I I have two scary movies that I Remember being truly frightened in one was Alfred Hitchhaw the birds
Oh,
yeah.
And the other was Pujo.
Oh, the dog.
Do you have a dog?
Yep.
You bet.
Did that freak you out about your own dog?
No, it just was not a good
deal.
It was terrible.
It was terrifying.
All those Stephen King movies are terrifying, I think.
It was definitely frightening.
Yeah.
Right.
All right, well, thank you for the call, Ollie.
Hopefully, we're currently living in this movie.
The ending has not been determined yet, so I hope this movie ends.
Not too scary for you, but I really appreciate it.
Well, I hope it ends
a happy
ending.
Me too, my friend.
Thank you so much for the call.
That's Ollie from the Northwoods.
Dave says, Fleet Farm.
That's a scary movie.
Yeah.
I've been to Fleet Farm.
Yeah,
it's not often.
Minards is butter, so.
Is it
yeah,
I think all the same don't they carry the same stuff, you know Menards is a
Wisconsin product.
I believe so you gotta love it,
but they're everywhere now, right?
Yeah, it's like quick trip quick trip started in Wisconsin's everywhere You
and your quick trip.
That's your you
know, I saw something yesterday two days ago quick the Royals They have QK on it with it is the other quick trip.
Don't like that.
Okay
We'll pick it up there after the break.
We'll indulge you more Conrad after the break and read some more text.
This is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
My
own
beliefs are in my song.
The picture, the figure, the drama, and then makes
no difference.
in Green Bay.
And I was like, wait, why is that not?
We're good now, though.
You just missed me.
I do.
That's all it is.
But there's a kegger,
remember, so.
Yeah, that's all right.
Have fun.
Thank you.
Our question tonight, ladies and gentlemen, is what is the scariest movie you've ever seen?
And the texts are pouring in.
This is going to be one of those nights I think where it'll be tough to keep up.
PJ says, the hills have eyes is not gory or it's not as gory as saw.
So I have heard that's a great movie.
PJ also says a family gets stranded in the desert on vacation and while looking for help, they stumble across a deserted and nuclear testing site.
That's interesting.
He says it gets scarier.
That reminds me of the Gorge a little bit.
I wonder if they take things in the same direction.
We've got Tom from New Berlin says, Pete, with you on horror, there have been good ones.
I liked Silence of the Lambs.
Scared me.
What's yours, Con?
Human centipede
probably that's
a
movie.
I watched like The I didn't watch the whole movie I watched the part where it was bad and my one of my friends said hey take a look at this and I came in and I was like um no and left
That's did they tease you?
I hate I they already know I hate horror movies.
I absolutely cannot watch them.
I hate them So they just kind of tease me about it
Saying okay, anytime we would have a movie night.
They'd be like we're gonna watch horror.
Are you gonna go in your room?
I'm like, yes.
Yeah
Yeah, they just don't want you cool.
I think for me, it's the shining.
Yeah, really that's a movie that just like Not particularly gory either just creepy as all get out Really creepy movie Christine from slinger says the exorcist by far the book was actually worse.
I read the book Christine as a kid.
I agree with you
Don from Wanaki says, it's alive.
I think that is a movie, but I don't remember that one.
Thank you, Don.
715 says, Salem's lot.
I had the most nightmares from it.
Okay.
I don't remember that one either, but that's another one I saw when I was a kid.
Annie from Watertown says, I agree on blood and gore.
Thumbs down.
Lots of scary movies are good, but still absolutely creeped out by the monkeys in the Wizard of Oz.
I'm with you Annie, but how tame does that seem now compared to what you see?
Unbelievable Brian call we got a call.
Yeah, it's Brian from walkie.
Yeah, let's talk to Brian.
Hey Brian.
How's it going?
Hey good.
How you guys doing?
This is gonna be probably one of the craziest answers you've ever heard I am 39 years old, but ever since I was kid I cannot watch this movie I've only seen it once and I will never watch it again.
It's easy the extraterrestrial
and my scene that freaked me out was when the mom finds a little girl in the closet or bathroom or whatever with ETL shriveled up.
She picks up the girl, tries to escape the house, and they got these guys in those space suits that come just like breaking in through the front door and through the windows.
That scene- That is
scary.
Has petrified me over because I was a kid.
I thought you were
joking at first, Brian.
I thought you were kidding.
I thought you were going like Phil Dunphy
and
Ghostbusters scared, but that was scary.
I remember that.
That was kind of a trippy.
And the whole rest of that movie was just like, oh my god, these guys in Heads, Bats, Toots, and everything else just scared the hell
out of me.
I don't
think you'd like saw Brian.
Stay away
from
that one.
I can't
watch any of those.
Can't watch our own movies.
Thank you for the call, buddy.
Appreciate
it.
Yeah, take care.
All right, Laurie from Hayward says heard on the news.
Oh, we're not gonna keep those texts coming folks Dave says makes you pay inside.
Oh, he's referring to the gas
Yeah,
makes you pay inside cheaper gas.
I would do that.
I'd walk a few extra feet To save a few pennies.
Yeah, close to a little exercise.
Yeah, why not
this picture on the stream
I used to love the Madison camera.
I feel like I have a huge trunk right now.
Honestly, I could feed a small country.
So weird.
Feeling a little bloated right now.
Let's see if they can fix this.
Sage, if you're listening.
So I thought this was really cool.
And I know you like the movie McGroober a lot.
Will Forte said he really misses Val Kilmer.
They were good friends and they became good friends.
I think even before McGroober, he had
Val Kilmer staying with him because Val Kilmer got into some argument with his landlord in Malibu, moved in with Will Forte, and Will Forte says he got Kilmer into reality TV and they loved the amazing race.
And the two of them were going to go on the show together.
They wanted to do it, but their agents totally shut them down and said it would be terrible.
And I thought this was funny because it shows you how much Val Kilmer evolved.
He met...
his wife I can't remember on what movie but she was like this serious actor acting on the west end in Great Britain or whatever that theater district is it's so famous and he was embarrassed that he was doing a real genius and he was brilliant and real genius and real genius is a good movie but he's probably this young idealistic actor and then he wants to go on an amazing race I'm like that's a huge
But he obviously got over that hang up about not doing stuff that was like really high-end or very artsy because there's nothing artsy about reality TV So I think that's actually kind of cool though Will Forte says to this day he regrets not doing that with his friend Val Kilmer There's also folks at the Wisconsin Film Festival Greg Liana and Jim Vince will be here in just a couple minutes talking about their meet the parents screening tomorrow at the Barrymore
There's a movie playing tomorrow night at the Barrymore.
I can't even say the title.
It's got like an R rated word in the title, maybe an NC 17 word.
Yeah.
And Ben Reiser was on the other day and he talked about that.
Remember, he said, I can't say the name of the movie.
Well, I looked it up in the guide today when I got to my hotel and I'm like, I'm definitely going to see this because I'm so curious about the Rolling Stones.
And all you have to do is Google Rolling Stones Movie Wisconsin Film Festival and you'll see the title.
So I'm gonna check that out because I'm curious but lots going on in Madison this weekend if you're around Check out the film festival Milwaukee Film Festival coming up in a couple weeks, too.
So that's exciting Terry Barr is here.
It's a bar ban Friday night Terry will be in studio tonight We'll be making more radio history here on nightlight as Terry Barr joins us in person.
I don't think she's convinced I really exist I think she thinks I'm AI we will prove all of that wrong tonight
When she shows up, Greg, Leanna and Jim Vincent are here too to talk about their screening tomorrow that's coming up after the Civic Media News team tells you what's up.
This is Pete Schwabba and Night Light.
Great to have you with me on this Friday night on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Great to have you with me on this Saturday night.
People on the text line are actually saying the name of the movie tomorrow.
So I can't say it on the air.
Oh, there we go.
I can't say it on the air, but it is about the Rolling Stones.
And it's supposed to be, this text says, it's a great decadent concert tour flick.
The
horse was flowing through their veins.
I'm not a drug user, but I know what that means.
I
don't, horse.
Heroine.
Oh, yeah smack
H. I only know this because I watch film noir as kids today these hopheads And then Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids says the climb.
I don't like heights.
No that movie either Ladies and gentlemen, it is great to have you with me on this Friday night as I mentioned earlier the Wisconsin Film Festival is currently underway here in Madison.
It kicked off last night Tomorrow at the Barrymore at 1 30 there will be a screening of the original meet the parents.
That doesn't mean the first one
in the big studio world.
That means an original film that we've talked about before on this show that was made by Chicago comedian Greg Liana and produced by Jim Vincent.
They are here with me in the studio right now.
Hey guys.
Are we at 130 or one?
I thought it was
one.
Is it 130?
Is it one?
I think it's 130.
Excuse me.
I
thought I
could sleep in.
Let's Google that.
Yeah.
You might be right about that, but get your tickets.
It's going to be a great day.
Are you guys are you excited about this?
I always love seeing it with an audience because it gets still gets big laughs and that I don't watch the movie.
I watch the audience.
Yeah.
You know, so
how are you guys?
First of all, let's load on because
I got a lot of
questions.
How did you?
Is it good to be a Madison?
Have you been here before?
I love Madison.
Yeah.
Great
city.
The movie Logan's run.
Why?
Because everyone's 23 and I feel like they execute the people over 30.
Is that a good thing or bad thing?
No, it's nice.
We're over 30.
I like it.
I like it.
OK.
I always liked Madison.
Yeah, it was a good comedy town.
We
talked
about you and I are both stand-up comedians from Chicago.
We both worked at it used to be called Funny Business down the road.
And Jim, have you been here before?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Well, we actually 30 years ago, before the film was purchased by Universal to remake it.
OK.
We showed it.
at the Madison Film Festival.
Oh, really?
So this is sort of like a coming back 30 years later.
So yeah, I have no memory of that.
Well, maybe you weren't invited.
You weren't really.
That's probably what it was.
I think you were.
Well, maybe you were in LA.
I don't know.
But so it's sort of it's, you know, it's fun because we when we were here 30 years ago, people really liked the film.
And yeah, we got such a great response from it.
I'm
excited because I haven't seen
I haven't seen it with an audience.
When you and I started writing together, the film had been done for 10 years, and I never got to see it in Chicago at a theater.
So I'm probably as excited as anybody to sit with a real audience tomorrow in a great, really cool, old theater and watch this film.
Tell us about the theater.
I haven't been in the theater.
What is the theater?
It's it's like one of those old time theaters with the stars on the ceiling
and a
balcony and an old lobby where you go in and you can get a cocktail.
You can get, you know, all the other stuff they have, too.
But it's just it's got all the steps down to the restrooms and
like
those winding staircase.
It's
beautiful.
It's a great venue.
The sound is terrible.
No, I'm just kidding.
Is that the word?
I had a film screen over here at the Orpheum years ago and it was like jam packed.
And it's like a 1400 foot,
you know,
big, but the sound was like two seconds behind.
I thought I was going to lose my mind.
It was awful, but the Barrymore is great.
You guys are going to love it.
Have to ask you guys too, since you're here and our question of the night is scary movies.
What's the scariest
movie you've ever seen?
It depends when you ask me, if I was a kid, I would say Night of the Living Dead or, you know, Frankenstein or something.
But I think now.
I don't really get scared at movies.
I love the movie 1408 with John Cusack.
You ever see it?
No.
It's this evil hotel room, basically, but I think that's it's not scary, but it's kind of like makes you like, you know.
Yeah.
That's fine.
What about you, Jim?
You like scary movies?
I think the sequel to meet the parents was pretty scary.
But yeah, there's a film with Josh.
I can't think of his last name now.
Um, yeah.
30 days, 30 of nine or something.
Yeah.
30 days of great vampire film.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
It's, it's a, it's a, you know, I can always see it over and over again.
You know what I like about that?
They make vampires scary again.
Yeah.
Lately vampires are like these romantic figures.
They're really just humans that are misunderstood.
I would say I'm old enough to remember when clowns were funny and vampires were scary.
Um, I don't,
uh, if you guys, what do you guys, Val Kilmer died this week.
What do you think about Val Kilmer?
Great
actor.
Yeah.
Well, he was he was classically trained.
I mean, he is a really good actor.
He was classically trained as an actor.
And if you look at his series of movies, he's done quite a few movies.
What was the comedy he did in the 80s that with the real genius
or top secret?
Top
secret.
Yeah, that was his first big.
Yeah,
big film, phenomenal movie.
He says to the girl.
She says what's your name?
He says Nick my father thought of it while he was shaving But that was written by the Zucker Brothers Abrams all Wisconsin guys, so that was a fun not
all I remember were
cows,
right?
There was something with cows they inappropriate cow scenes.
Yeah, but anyways he I There was a documentary he did about his life toward loved it toward the end.
It was fantastic
That scene I talked about this the other night at the beginning of that documentary.
He's in a trailer with Rick Rossovich, the actor
and
another guy who was in Top Gun who I think ended up marrying Kelly McGillis.
I don't know his name, but and Val Kilmer is just being silly and he's imitating Tom Cruise and making fun of him a little bit.
And there's this great Chris Isaac song.
That was the best part of the whole film.
It just had this great energy, but it was really cool to learn more about Val Kilmer and what he's been going through the last however many years.
Didn't you write a horror film?
Yes.
After we were writing something, you said, I want to write a horror film.
We're still trying to get it made.
We have Tara Reid is going to star in it, and the actress who plays the nun, Bonnie Arons, is going to star in it.
The actress who plays the nun.
You know the iconic nun scary face?
Oh,
OK.
I sat on a backpack when I was walking through a store in Chicago.
But yeah, she's the nun, the evil scary nun.
You told me years ago, you thought,
And I think this is funny.
When we would write late at night, you said, comedy's got to be a nightmare.
You always used to say, I love comedies that are nightmares.
And it's funny that you wrote or you took an interest for a while in horror films because they're like the nightmare without the funny.
Is that a similarity, you see?
It's not dissimilar.
Horror, I think, has a, comedy is a little bit of a connection with horror.
They don't be relatable and things that scare you or make you laugh.
But this was a I just wanted to see if I could do it.
I'm trying to stretch my My writing chops little abilities
All right, let's talk Jim I never really I've talked to you quite a bit Greg over the years when we were right together about meet the parents or when you've been on this show What are your thoughts?
You know you put a lot of blood sweat and tears into this Original film gem.
What do you think of what the studio did?
Were you happy with
it?
Well?
You know, I mean, I guess ultimately people found out about the movie because Universal made it.
Yeah.
Now, we had another offer for the film, actually, to go direct to video.
I know people don't know what that term is anymore, but, you know, for National Lampoon, and they were launching a new video line or something, but it fell through.
That
was the biggest disappointment.
of all for the
sound like a natural fit.
Oh, they put
ads in their magazines, come national impunes, meet the parents.
Yeah, that was a big.
But but you know, I would say, you know, you know, happy with it is an interesting way to put it.
I think there was a lot of frustration, obviously, on Greg's side and my side of kind of how it all kind of came together.
But
You know,
I would be totally happy with their deal if I could release mine.
Yeah,
then otherwise I'd be fine with whatever they did is fine, you know, but that's the only thing about
they've tied up the original film
show and accepted film festivals.
So they're
OK with this.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And having it on YouTube because it's on you don't know the universal police will be here in five minutes.
No,
but I get a copyright infringement thing.
You
didn't post it though.
Somebody else posted
it.
I posted it
initially.
You're just incriminating yourself.
I know.
The police don't even have to come.
I was trying to come.
They don't.
You know, I was trying to walk that fast.
Half the people at the University of Hawaii aren't even aware there's an Indian meet the parents.
Well, but they, you know, they definitely tied, you know, our hands with it because we had deals to distribute it afterwards on DVD and everybody said we can't touch it because the University will
will, you know, shut us down in 10 seconds because they're legal department.
Now
they're making another sequel, apparently.
Right.
So
that's going to tie it up even more.
But even before that, they just 30 years later, they were just like, no, can't show it, can't release it.
But it's, for some reason, it goes along with this whole adventure, this whole 10 year, 15 year adventure.
I mean, has anything really, you know, I don't know.
I had a universal, when we had the premiere of the new film in LA, Greg and I were there.
By the way, it was in a shopping mall.
And one of the universal executives came up to me and we were talking and she said, look, your film has taken a long time to get to where it's at, which is opening with the new film I'm talking about.
And she said,
a lot of, you know, great films take a long time to happen.
And now, you know, she was talking about like, shouldn't they had just, I think we're releasing Schindler's List or whatever.
But she was saying that film took 10, 15 years to come to the screen.
And
it's not as funny as Meet the Parents.
No, no,
no.
But, but, you know, her point was that, you know, it takes time to to let it
kind of become what it is.
But again,
I don't care if it took five years or so.
As long as they let me release mine.
Right.
I don't who cares.
But
it
was a joke with friends of mine.
When does that meet the parents?
Because it just took all these years.
It was like, yes.
My guess are Greg Gleana.
He is the writer, director of the original Meet the Parents.
Thank you, Casper.
And Jim Vincent, who produced the original film that's screening tomorrow with the Barrymore Theater.
Did we figure out if it's one or one thirty?
We get some
I say one, but I could be I say one two, but
One two one
two one.
Just show up on every one
test But it's gonna be a great time.
There's gonna be Q&A Greg and Jim will be part of the Q&A I'll be hosting it.
It's gonna be a really fun event.
Hope you guys can be just like this can check it out It'll be just like this only with a lot of people and stars stars in the sea
a lot of
comedy a lot of happening Yeah,
after the film before the film during the film.
It's just gonna
be a day of comedy Jim you were in the movie
Hmm.
Yeah.
Did you have to
beg to be
on screen or did you get
dragged on screen?
Well, you know, Craig is tough with casting, but you played a gas station attendant.
I did.
I did.
Well, the day the day we did that, it was a tough day.
I had I had the flu.
So I was running really high.
I was really out of it.
So, you know, but, you know, you come and you do your job and you do what the director needed to be done.
And but
I think afterwards, I was like, okay, you know, it worked the way the direction Greg had given me.
But again, a tough, it was a hard day because I think we had, yeah, that's true.
But this one, you know, for having the flu, for me, it was a harder day.
That's actually a horror scene.
If you look at
it,
his scene, it's like a horror movie.
Because the guy comes in, he's going to meet the parents, and Jim's characters just go back.
Don't do it.
Yeah, I'm going to do a vampire film based on that.
But you know, but it was it was it was a great it was a fun day.
But but
again, what are you talking about?
Well, he was
just
acting.
You were directing.
That was like a whole you had a lot on your mind.
Daily a truck would drive up with problems.
Yeah, we had a phone number on the truck.
The scene we were shooting in the background was a truck and it had a huge phone number that it was prominent in the scene.
And we're like.
You know, so we called them and they're like, you can't show our phone number.
I'm like, okay.
So we had to work around that.
It was a long day.
That's just the kind of stuff that happens.
It's just movies.
Well, I think at the same time you were doing your movie or you did your movie after.
No, I didn't know Greg.
You didn't know Greg.
I
did mine in early like 2003, 2004.
Oh, okay.
So it was well
after.
I was envious.
Like I saw all these Chicago comics.
in this great movie happening.
I was like, oh, I should have started two years ago, assuming I would have got a role, of course.
Greg Glana and Jim Vincent are here.
They are the brains behind the original Meet the Parents, which will be screening.
Trust me, folks, it's hilarious.
I'm going to tell you something that's going to shock you when we come back about Greg's version and how it's better than the studio version.
That's coming up next on Nightlight with Peach Waba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I've not seen that film.
I remember the song by Was it to know what all boyfriends know it was what was their name?
It's a Butch Vig band.
They were a Wisconsin band.
They had a song called Kill Dozer.
74.
I think it
was a band, actually.
Was it a movie or a band?
Well, it was a
movie.
Oh, it was a movie.
But there's a
song, too.
They sing a song called Lupus.
Conrad, if you could find Lupus, you'd be my hero.
OK.
Because, like, Lupus is a disease.
It's a disease.
Yeah.
But this song is like... The album was 12-point buck.
Butch Vig before Garbage, and before he produced Nirvana, right down here on East Washington, ahead this band, and that Lupus is a great song.
All right, Greg Beliana is here, folks, and Jim Vincent.
They are the brains behind the original Meet the Parents, which you can see tomorrow at the Barrymore Theater at either one or 1.30.
I'm sure there are still tickets available because it's a huge theater, although I understand they have a pretty good crowd coming out.
Come at 1.30, you'll miss Jim's scene.
Jim had the flu though if
you come at 2
30 you'll miss all of Greg
Greg you play the lead in the film What was was that scary or were you like I can't wait to do this or were you nervous about that?
No, that was That was the easiest part of it.
I think the
acting yeah, yeah
Okay, I just had to keep a straight face
and you did you were
a
great straight man And I will say Ben Stiller.
I thought he was good
And he's just a good actor.
He
was great in the studio version.
I will say this, and this could strike controversy.
Dick Galloway, better than Robert De Niro.
Well, different.
He was more every man where De Niro was the CIA paranoid guy.
De Niro's great, but he was over the top kind of.
I thought, and I think you're right, Dick Galloway is real.
And he's just like that guy that you and he's funny.
He's funny too.
Yeah, but but he doesn't try to be funny,
right?
He's just so
he
was a
salesman.
That's what he did his whole life.
Okay, and he lived in Park Ridge and I
just said a salesman is better than Robert De Niro I realized
that's a
ridiculous that sounds but in that role I liked it better.
Well, he was he I think he had
a really just human touch to who he was and
and every now and then there was something that was just too big that I have to Like once who's ready for roast beef you go And you know I tried to get him to stop but we did a couple takes final the cameraman's like just don't worry But he and there's one scene that gets a big laugh from the audience and I used it Dick was waiting for me to say action
on one take of something.
So he's just sitting there with a straight face and I use that as a reaction.
It's a big
laugh.
There's a scene in the movie.
If you guys go to see the movie tomorrow where you're sitting with him in a boat and all
this
stuff has gone wrong and he just looks at you.
We've already seen it happen and he just looks at you and he says, you break my Victrola.
Oh yeah.
What do you
say?
I was turning the handle and it broke off.
I threw it under the car.
No, they said, what'd you do with it?
I threw it under the car.
That's so great.
It's just, oh my God.
But that scene, I wanted a shot of the boat in the middle of the lake, a long shot.
And somebody forgot the battery or didn't charge the batteries.
Where were we filming?
That was out by... Wakanda.
Wakanda.
We had to drive into Chicago, get a battery.
So we started shooting at like three o'clock, racing the setting sun, and we couldn't get that shot.
I didn't I mean I'm sure
I'm sure it bothers you, but like didn't bother anybody else You know exactly what talk about our emo Phillips around the time this film was made He was still a pretty big name on Letterman a lot or the Tonight Show outstanding comedian and you guys are friends What was it like working with him like you were friends, but he also kind of financed part of the film or the whole thing I don't know all the whole story, but and then he was in the film too,
but he had nothing
When we were filming it he was off on the road.
I mean he was the best kind of investor.
He didn't okay, you know But yeah, we did hit the scene he's in But we had to raise another like 10,000 or what it was and I had to show him some you know I was worried because he hadn't seen any of it
Okay,
but I showed him the long take where Mary Ruth sings that song, you know And he was like doubled over laughing so we got the extra 10,000 all
right I should give a shout out to Mary Ruth Clark to who you wrote the film with who is hilarious
in the film and blamed you for
murder.
I did an interview earlier today and the host was like, I thought that song was beautiful.
I was like, you're the only person in the history of the world to ever say that.
It was beautiful in its own way.
Yeah, she's like, at the end it was very.
And then you said, what was your response?
She sings for like five minutes and then you just say,
is
there a bus?
Were you guys surprised at how easy this seemed?
Like we just said, emo.
Finance the film you got to do pretty much whatever you want, right?
And I remember when we were going to meetings in LA that would frustrate you because you're dealing with studios who are saying completely inane things and I I had to realize after a while.
I'm like, oh, yeah, Greg's used to just a Guy giving you a check and saying go do this.
That's got to
be frustrating.
It's never happened since
It might never happen So what about you Jim was it like this is your first movie
We read is that something you aspire to or did you just want to help your friend?
Well, we had we had made a couple short films before that so You know, but you know growing up, I mean Greg Greg it was very into movies and and I was in the movies we actually liked horror movies early on the universal monster series movies we watched as kids but I you know, I think you know the fact that we
had known each other you know it was it was it just you know seemed to fit but I mean you know on the set it was it was me trying to move things along as the producer and you know Greg was trying to get the scenes that he needed
but basically I went to Imo for the money and then I called Jim and I said what's the least amount of money that we can do this film for
and look so he put the budget together like thirty thousand that's what i asked
let's pick it up there will have a few more minutes with these guys after the news uh... this is nightlight with peach wabba so great to have you with me on this beautiful night in madison uh... nightlight with peach wabba on the civic media radio
network
Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay, this is Night Light with Peach Wabba.
Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.
And now a guy who doesn't believe in sex after marriage, Peach Wabba.
Welcome back to Night Light ladies and gentlemen.
As we kick off our number two here, coming to you live from Madison, broadcasting statewide, wherever you're joining us from, welcome to Nightlight.
Riding shotgun, as always, is Conrad holding down the fort up in Green Bay.
Are those chocolate bars still there?
Yeah, they're still there.
Don't you give those
to
your guests?
Yeah, do we get a goodie bag or something?
I don't know.
I don't know the lay
of the land here.
I know.
Greg asks for a sign.
Like an iPod or
something.
Yeah, you guys, do you didn't get your per diem for coming in?
We have Greg Liana and Jim Vincent in the studio, folks.
They are the original Meet the Parents filmmakers, and they're screening their film tomorrow at the Barrymore Theater.
I'm gonna host a Q&A afterwards.
It's gonna be a great time.
Come on out.
The Barrymore is a beautiful venue.
It's a hilarious film.
Very excited to see it with an audience.
We've got our question of the night is, what is the scariest movie you've ever seen?
I have to introduce a scary movie tomorrow night, and it got me thinking about, I don't really see a ton of them, but I know they're very popular.
So let us know what your favorite scary movie is.
And if you haven't yet, check out our break into spring text to win statewide contest.
It's your daily chance to win a Chula Vista getaway in the Wisconsin Dells, Milwaukee Brewers, club level tickets, or $100 in cash.
Plus, every entry puts you into our grand prize drawing.
of a brand new Queen mattress set from Verlo that includes a mattress sheet set, mattress protector, and pillows.
Times for text to win are 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m.
All you have to do to play is download the app.
Most of you probably have it anyway.
It's so easy to use.
You just click the little icon and text in the word of the day right after you hear it, and you are entered for the daily and grand prize.
So good luck, everybody.
Going to the text line, did you give me a scary movie, Greg?
I said 1408 what you know,
right?
Okay in Jim 30 days of night.
That's right.
Have you ever seen hereditary?
I just saw I heard that is like a lot of people say that's the scariest I'm kind of scared to watch it to be honest
It's an interesting movie.
Yeah, because it really does touch up about like religion, which is strange horror film to really get into the religious thing, but not real
What do you mean not really
how many
they've done the set of the sign the second son, you know, they'd always
do well the
exorcist the first power It's
like,
you know,
they're more they're Mormon.
How many horror films do you have Mormons?
Look, I haven't even been a
confession in years, but
I gotta check it
out
Check it out Eric from Tosa.
Oh, I can't read that one again.
We already read I almost got
I almost read that on the air.
And that's the Stones film tomorrow night.
What would happen if you did?
Would someone bleep you or just come and just go out and you could find?
You seen the size of Chris Casper?
He'd probably just get me in a headlock and start wailing on me.
Mike in Cottage Grove says, I think the first jaws was really scary.
Sure.
It was, yeah.
I still, to this day, I don't like deep water or water where I can't see the bottom, even if it's a lake.
Because in the back of my head, I'm like, there could be something we haven't discovered
yet.
I saw that with my family and we were two weeks away from going to a vacation in Florida.
You imagine, like I got, I went to my ankles in the water and was like, okay.
You ever hear Rich Jenny's joke about Jaws?
He says he went back to his hotel room one night and he was going to have a shark fest and watch all four Jaws films.
And he said by the third one, they're not even trying.
The family tries to get away from the shark.
They moved to Florida.
Shark is there right
follows them
the shark has beat the jet.
It's waiting for him Great joke Steve from Florida says scariest movie still the shining.
That's mine Steve.
I agree with you that movie creeps me out beyond belief Bridget from the 818 says Halloween movies ruin my jobs as a babysitter in high school Scary that music too.
Yeah, that music is very iconic and Tyler in Wisconsin Rapids says
Jabberwocky.
I don't like potatoes.
Jabberwocky.
Was
that a movie or Jabberwocky is a movie?
It's a
Star Wars
character.
It's a character.
Yeah.
Conrad, we need to go to the Google.
OK.
I'm just glad you're still here.
OK.
Yeah.
We tease
him
like one of these days, he's just going to take a powder.
Wasn't it a Monty Python thing or something?
Yeah, I don't know.
Like
a
Jabberwocky.
Yeah.
Star Wars thing.
All right, so let's get back to Meet the Parents.
We've got a few more minutes with you guys.
Greg, you cast a lot of your friends in the film.
A lot of them were Chicago comedians.
What did you guys think about the people that cast in the movie?
Were you surprised that any of our friends or your friends
were really good actors?
Well, a lot of times that's all we could get.
We needed a crowd at the bar.
Sure, I'd love to hear that.
I mean, it's hard to get 30 people to show up.
Yeah.
And not paying them.
They made nothing?
It was not.
I think
we bought a
bottom of beer.
Yeah.
Wow.
In our leads where we had like gas money or something, but
okay,
but they're doing I
mean at that point, they're immortal.
They're doing it for the fun, right?
Yeah, they exist on film.
Did you shoot on film?
Yeah.
16.
Yeah, that's the camera we shot on during the filming was probably
If you went to buy it, it was $40,000.
Today, you can get it on eBay for about $500.
No kidding.
Nobody wants anything to do
with it.
I still like the way that looks better than the stuff.
I love film.
Yeah, I did that movie, The Road Dog on Red Cam.
Yeah.
The film looks better.
So tell us about that, Greg.
I want to talk about the book about Meet the Parents.
We've had Laura Enright on the show who wrote the book about your ordeal and the making Meet the Parents.
But first, tell us about The Road Dog.
Disclaimer, I'm in it.
I play a comedy club owner.
It was a lot of fun to do a scene with Doug Stanhope.
What's going on with that film right now?
Where can people see
that?
It is for free on Tubi.
Oh, nice.
But it's also available on Amazon Prime and all these other platforms.
Okay.
Tubi, for some reason, it's not for free.
Are you
happy with the way that film turned out?
Okay, awkward silence.
The fact that anybody likes that film is amazing to me that was so much trouble that it was such a problem filming it.
But
Doug Stanhope is a great actor.
Yeah.
And he really pulls it
together.
So when you told me that he was playing the lead, I was kind of like, oh, that's interesting.
I had no idea if he could act.
And I got there.
I was like, oh, this guy really
prepared.
I saw him on Louis and he did a part he should have wanted me for.
Played a suicidal comedian who's he was great.
That's why that's why we cast him Oh, but he's a great actor and he doesn't really want to be an actor doesn't have any interest in trying to get gigs.
I hate people like that
He does his stand-up.
That's where his heart is, I guess.
Jim, what's the independent film scene like these days in Chicago?
Are you still tied into it, or
did you take
a step
back?
Probably more of a step back.
It's there.
Greg goes to a gathering they do, I think, every week, Greg, or every month.
I don't know.
Indie filmmakers in Chicago
put
together.
But still, you know, always tough because it's...
It's Chicago.
I mean, you're not in LA, you're not in New York.
But
there's a problem with indie films in general now is they don't get the release, they go on to streaming, and you don't make a lot of money in streaming.
A producer told me 5% of indie films actually make their money back.
No kidding.
But
they're
still so important.
The three of us are sitting here because of independent film.
And I'm glad the festival...
Is here and doing what they do because I just saw independent the documentary and I talked to the filmmaker and you know, these you know, it's kind of like You know, you want to see a piece of real filmmaking, right?
You know
independence still has that superhero franchise
on the Oscars this year.
Yeah, that's like they were swept by indie films.
It was like what's the competition, you know
Captain America 4.
No, it's not and you know, you know, yes indie film was very popular as we were all going through the process of meet the parents and But you know, it's it's I just think it's very important that the indie filmmakers that are out there that are gonna make the next Bigger indie films they have to keep trying you can't give up.
You know the
problem though is DVDs went away
And that has ruined them film business streaming.
Yeah, because they used to rely in the DVD sales so they would take risks and make risky movies or more human stories.
But once that went away and you don't make the same money streaming, now all they don't want to take chances.
So the parents four is coming out and you know, Spider-Man eight.
Well, most of the small smaller divisions of the big studios had indie divisions.
now they don't have they're going yeah they they don't even want to mess with them really i mean so i don't know i mean i think still overseas uh out of england and london they're still doing indie films and very good indie films but i i don't know i i would think it's so hard today to get the money um it's hard to any day to get the money to make a movie but um again i i think what madison is doing here and what the other fast greg wanna
indie film fest thing in California, an award, but you know, this is, you know, you can't stop, you know, and yes, it's hard.
And yes, it takes time, but look at the reward.
How can we get rid of streaming and have to go back to
DVDs?
I think
you just have to find that beneficiary or that person who wants to make great movies
isn't concerned about because I remember raising money
and I'm talking to a guy who invests in parking garages.
That's a tough sell.
He's going to make that my go look you could keep doing that and play it safe or you could do something really fun and come to the set and have
your
name on something that exists for
every way you can
sell
it.
A parking garage isn't going to be fun to watch.
But what I'm
saying,
Greg Leanna
and Jim Vincent are here.
They are the makers of the original Meet the Parents, which you can check out tomorrow at the Barrymore Theater here at the Wisconsin Film Festival, which is in full.
Swing are you guys going to the party later or tomorrow?
Sure.
There's a party.
Yeah, there's free
food No, yes, I think we are yeah as long as there's free food, but if there wasn't free food not to think about it
Okay, just bring your checkbook Greg when you and I okay Tell me guys before we wrap up here.
What is your favorite memory?
Cuz I know overall it was positive There was a book that came out that Laura and Wright wrote.
She's been on the show about some of the struggles you had
And you got screwed over to a degree.
But it was also a pretty favorable experience, you say, making the film, getting it on the screen, to put some money in your pocket, probably got you some... I know when we would go into meetings, you and I, people, I'd say something really funny, and I'd be like this, and they're just looking at you because they see dollar signs.
But what was your best memory of that, like, of the whole process?
Caching the checks.
No, I wasn't involved in the remake.
No, and I just mean from like when you started, even from writing the script of your version of Meet the Parents, what was the best part of the whole experience for you?
Oh, that's a tough question.
Um, because it was also horrible.
Well, you got about 20 seconds left.
Yeah.
Uh, when National Impoon was going to come out, that was probably the best period.
Jim, favorite moment?
Um, favorite moment, I think, was, uh, finally, um, getting to see a preview of the
of the new film.
Awesome.
Sorry, we gotta wrap up,
guys.
The computer's gonna take over.
We'll
be right
back with Bar Band Friday Night and Terry Barr.
Thank you to Jim Vincent and Greg Leannock.
We'll see you meet the parents tomorrow with the Barrymore.
Show them the book.
Show them the book.
Thanks, Pete.
This is Pete Schwabba.
Yeah, I'll see you guys later.
Hey, ladies and gentlemen, a big round of applause.
We don't have a studio audience, but Jim Vincent and Greg Lanna.
There's Greg waving.
Yeah, I'll see you guys.
I'll see you later.
I'll text you, Greg.
Leaving the Civic Media Studios as we speak.
It is a bar band Friday night, ladies and gentlemen.
Terry Barr will be along shortly.
And it's just a fun night here.
It's always fun to do the show from Madison.
Chris Casper is here, cast of thousands.
Conrad, I think Chris is mad at me.
What?
Can you intervene?
I don't know.
What'd you do?
I don't know.
I gave him credit, you know, Chris's favorite saying, when I would be here, I'd say, I gotta get in there.
He goes, you got 30 seconds.
That's an eternity in radio.
So, you know, he's very, he's a lot more experienced than I am.
I've only been doing radio a short time, but, you know, I gave him credit for that.
And Corey Hartman actually said, another civic media buddy said, that's actually my line, Chris Gold.
So I think the drama, I think the drama is actually between Corey and Chris.
But I think I don't know maybe I said something and now Chris is mad at me Chris please your thoughts
Well, I kind of missed what you were saying there.
I said I think you might be mad at me Pete I don't get mad I get even bud
That's what Greg and Jim said they said what happens if you make a mistake I said well you saw Casper he comes in here and he gets me in a headlock and he just starts whaling on me
Never in a million years, Pete.
You're my boy.
I just wanted to clear that up because I thought, you know, Conrad kind of planted that seed in my head.
And what I'm doing is disinformation.
You just start saying stuff and people can't keep up.
Well, I think Conrad's a real bad guy
here.
Yeah.
That's the spirit.
Chris, are you a scary movie fan?
Oh, yeah.
Who isn't?
What's your favorite?
What's the scariest?
I remember night of the living dead that my older brother, who was six years older, made me watch and I had nightmares.
That's a scary movie,
especially if you're a kid.
Absolutely.
It
was like the remake, not the original Black and White, but then, you know, it all ended in nuclear war and everything was fine after that.
Have you seen The Gorge on Netflix?
No, Apple TV, sorry.
I have not, but aren't we normally just talking about white lotus in the specific scene with you and Conrad?
Oh, obsessed.
We know when you're talking about that.
I hate
to ruin this for you, Conrad, but I'm not a fan.
Like, it kind of lost me after about six episodes.
Just this season?
Or the whole, the whole deal?
Just sort of the concept.
And not a fan of severance.
Either.
Boy, dude, I am trying to get there.
I've been...
I've been trying to like, it's like this legendary show that people flip out over.
And I'm like going, and maybe I didn't need to hear that when I started watching it, because I'm trying to get into it.
And I'm like five episodes in.
So I'm going to stick with it just because of the hype, but I'm kind of with you
so far.
I think they're like, I would like to see the edit.
where they edit out all of the staring for like seven minutes out of the show.
I might be about that, but like
I'm not
into the production staring into nothing forever.
Yeah, it's
kind
of weird.
I'm with you.
We got a steady Eddie text here.
Let's get to this count because the other night we ran out of time and I felt kind of bad.
So let's read steady Eddie.
Steady Eddie is chiming in.
He says, oh man, this is a great one.
No scary movie is going to scare old steady Eddie.
Not no way, not no how.
I ain't afraid of no ghost.
But when I see a tiny mouse in my house, I'm not going to yell, but he just has all these crazy emojis and says, ah, save me, sweet Jesus.
The original, the blob, starring Steve McQueen, did scare me when I was eight.
And so for that reason, the blob is my milk dud's movie.
That milk dud thing is like, it's like the saying is the turd in the punch bowl.
Nobody gets excited about it.
Eddie, I know what you're trying to do.
The Milk Duds pick of the week.
Here's the worst movie ever.
He says, it's the Milk Duds movie pick of the week.
I gave it a four.
Chocolatey, chewy, scary, Milk Duds.
And then he put, I think those are Milk Duds.
Steadfast Edward.
He's Steadfast Edward tonight.
He says, movies don't scare me much, but like Up North Ollie, the real world sure does.
Well done, Eddie.
Good to have you back, buddy.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know what to...
Hey, can we bring would this be crazy if we just brought in Terry Bar because she's here I'm down.
It's a bar band Friday night.
I mean, what are we doing here?
Right?
That's what we're doing I've put in many a bar band You have hey, did you ever we had Katie's gone on the show a couple times back?
Did you reach out to her?
I have yeah, I think I think we're probably gonna get something going.
Oh, that's fantastic She's she's so talented and another person that Terry Bar introduced me to which is is always fun.
She's
She's got all the sweet musical hookups.
All right, we've established Chris Casper is not mad at me.
We've had some great scary movies.
I'll ask Terry Barr what her favorite scary movie is.
We've talked movies here at the film festival in Madison.
Chris, do you know that have you ever seen people at their house?
They have those like silhouettes of sheriffs where they're kind of leaning against the wall and they have a cowboy hat on?
It's like a cut out.
You know what I'm talking about?
Yeah, I've seen that.
Old Westie kind of stuff.
Yeah.
What is the deal with those things?
They keep burglars away or what?
I'm not sure.
Maybe I mean my grandfather gun smoke was his favorite show of all time.
Okay So maybe something some old-timey Western stuff that they're into I don't really know
something along the lines of guns smoke.
I can all right I can deal with that Conrad you found that band too It's killed those are is killed those are the the album.
Maybe Terry would know this Elm is called 12 point buck.
Okay, the band
Is the band Killdozer?
I thought the band was, um, 12-point buck.
No, no, no.
The album is called 12-point buck.
Okay, so then it is Killdozer.
The band is called Killdozer.
Yeah.
Okay, and the song is Lupus.
I would love to add that to our intro on outro music, because it's such a fun... It's like this grating... In fact, I'm gonna ask Terri Bar about that when she comes out.
We've got a lot to discuss.
Yeah.
Look at the stream.
I think I found a picture.
Is that
what you're talking about?
Yeah, that's
the
one.
That's
the
one.
So when people drive by, they're thinking is, I'm going to rob that house.
I can't do it.
Marshall Pickens is leaning against the wall.
Like, I don't get that.
What makes you think that's like an officer of the law?
That could be one of the bad guys.
Yeah.
He's keeping watch.
He's the wheel man while these guys are in robbing the house.
It is a bar band.
Friday night, ladies and gentlemen, Terry Barr is on the premises.
We are making radio.
history tonight with the first bar band in person meeting between Terry and myself.
This is a fun segment we do every Friday.
She brings new music and she's so much fun to talk to.
She's coming up next.
Conrad, have we caught up on texts?
Yes, I do believe so.
Do I hear music or am I hearing things?
No, you're hearing music.
Okay, so it's time for me to shut up, get to the news.
We'll do that.
Civic Media's news team is going to tell you what's up and we will bring Terry Barr in for bar band Friday night.
That is coming up next.
I'm live from Madison.
It's so much fun to be here.
Hope you're having a great night.
Great to have you with me on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Time to check out original music with Bar Band Friday on Nightlight.
Now your host Pete Schwabba and special guest Terry Barr.
Welcome back ladies and gentlemen.
Hi Terry in person.
This
is awesome.
I
know what you look like now for
real.
You didn't think I really existed?
No, I had a figment of my imagination.
Absolutely.
Radio history, ladies and
gentlemen, Terry Barr is in the studio live.
This has never happened before.
It's nightlight radio history, but
it's still radio history.
It's really fun.
Thanks for inviting me.
Thank you for... Rather last minute, but whatever.
Well, I know,
and I didn't... I don't know if it was you or Conrad said, hey, why don't you have Terry tomorrow night?
I'm like...
Yeah.
Like, I just don't think of these things.
That's so funny.
I don't.
I'm not a good gift-getter.
I forget birthdays.
That's good to know.
Now I know.
Here.
Here's a piece of paper,
Charlie.
Thanks for coming.
Well, I brought my own place.
Terry Barr is here.
She's the host, one of the hosts of Maxing Radio,
which you can
hear every Saturday night from 6 to midnight here on the network.
It's a great show, and she is gracious enough to.
share her music with us every Friday night here on Barband Friday.
It's so good to have you here.
I enjoy it so much.
Thank you.
I'm kind of so excited that I really don't know where to start, and this segment has become so second nature to me, but now that you're here.
Ah!
Am I throwing you off your game a little bit?
Yeah, I'm like, what do we do?
We talk about music.
Okay, that's what we do.
Well, I think the first thing we can do is maybe ask Conrad if he has our extra guest.
Yeah, he is on the phone right now.
All right, well, let me introduce you, Pete.
OK.
To the fabulous one and only Dennis Graham.
Dennis is the head of Rock, Unson.
This is one of the coolest competitions, and it is for basically middle school, high schoolers.
They call it, you know, Dennis, you call it a garage band competition, but schools, students, garage bands from around the state enter this thing.
Dennis, pick it up there.
What happened?
when they enter?
Well, hi, Terry and Pat.
And thanks so much.
I appreciate being on that live with WDMX-927, the Civic Media Group.
Yes, Rock Anson.
Thank you, Dennis.
R-O-C-K-O-N-S-I-N is the only statewide garage band competition.
This is our 21st season in the nation for 7th to 12th grade bands of any musical genre.
It's free.
We're in our band application period right now until April 30th.
where we want these and they're very very talented these young talented bands that want to shine in the spotlight at some of the world's biggest festival to send in one song cover or original again it can be any genre music as a matter of fact the first bands are becoming this year it's kind of both molds and sacrament one it's
our first metal band in 2022 out of Waterford high school.
We're starting to get some metal bands.
So it's real
cool.
So metal is back, baby.
Rock and roll is not dead.
That's pretty cool.
Uh,
what, what is the age cut off, Dennis?
It's, it's a 13 to 18 seventh grade through 12th grade only from Wisconsin because believe it or not, Harry and Pete, they try to sneak in from Iowa.
from Illinois, from Northern Michigan.
And that's why you have to have, if you are one of the top 10 bands, you don't have to do this for your original, the original video that you sent in, just fill out that application again at rockoncent.org.
It's free.
But then if you are one of the top 10 bands, you have to send a photo ID of the school you're attending.
And we've caught more than one.
Just to prove it and to prove you're in Wisconsin.
Yeah, I've seen the list in the past These kids apply from I'm not kidding you all over the state Dennis you get a great representation from across the state.
Don't you?
Yes, I do.
From throughout the state,
you know, from Eau
Claire to Green Bay down to Platteville to Racine and to the mid part of the state, Wisconsin Rapids, you know,
Madtown,
you know, the Fox River Valley.
And yes, they're representative and of all musical genres.
And so yes, we're in our 21st season right here.
What are they hoping to do?
They're hoping to be one of the top 10 bands.
And after the applications period closes on April 30th,
We have three music industry judges with more than 30 years experience each.
Folks like Kathy Deppners, who ran the High Noon Saloon in Madison.
And
they'll be looking at and scoring them out for Vocal Blend Synergy Master of Instrument.
And we will then announce on rockonson.org and also Rockonson of all of our social platforms, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, the top 10 bands.
that will then be performing at Summerfest on June 26th by bands, and June 27th by bands at the Aurora Pavilion playing 20-minute showcase sets.
Can you imagine being a kid that age and being able to play Summerfest?
First of all, I'm impressed, Dennis, with the name, with the word, Rock Hansen.
Isn't that
cool?
It just works.
I have
tried with this show.
Pete Wisconsin.
Schwab concert.
It
just doesn't work.
But
you crushed it,
man.
It's brilliant.
It's brilliant.
And our logo of the rock-on sign with the cow face.
It's brilliant.
Jared Gibson, a very talented graphic artist, came up with that graphic of the cow and the rock-on hand sign.
And a good friend of mine, Andy Wallman's sister, came up with rock-on.
And since then, I've had
radio stations, other people say like, geez, man, where, where did you get that?
And I said, well, you know, I had some, I was pretty lucky with it and you can't have
it.
And then look at, you've got like the little cheese that looks like an album.
Milk bottle with eggs.
Oh, it's so good, Dennis.
Oh my gosh.
Okay, so just for a flavor of this, what do you think?
You want to go to the first song?
Yeah, let's do that.
You've got the band is called No Limit.
Okay.
Tell us about that.
Last year's winner was 2024 New Normal.
They were out in Nassida, Queen of the Holy Rosary, and Wisconsin Dells High School.
And then the runner-up was No Limit from the Minona Grove High School, Columbus Middle and High School.
And this is part of their package.
If you're a winner or the runner up, you will get a second 45 minute summer fest showcase set on July 3rd.
Again, on the Royal Pavilion stage as well.
Now all of the 10 top finalist bands automatically receive two share mics, one vocal, one instrument.
I mean, this is free.
You have to pay for gas to get to Milwaukee.
But then the winner and runner up.
will then win that additional 45 minutes sets each July 3rd.
But then the winner and runner up, the winner gets 12 hours of recording time at Madison's Blast House Studios.
The runner up gets eight hours of Blast House Studios recording time.
And that's where they came up with these songs.
And then the winning band as well.
gets a additional sure wireless vocal mic system and rock-ons and awards.
And before I go any further, I have to give a shout out to the Madison Area Music Association, which has been a partner with me for 21 years,
as
well as to Lynn Nicholas and the Nicholas Family Foundation.
Without their support, there would be no rock-ons tonight.
I very much appreciate their support.
But yes, no limit.
Very talented band, and they sent through some really cool original songs.
Okay, we've got that first song.
Conrad, you ready?
You wanna jam it?
Everything remains.
Okay, here we go!
All right, let's hear it.
good tune from kids.
That was I'm not anymore.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
And then when you think about that, Dennis said to us, they're middle school, basically.
Right.
And high school and two different areas, but coming together to make a band that sounds like this.
Dennis, thank you
so
much.
Continued success with Rock Hansen.
And I really appreciate your time tonight.
Great stuff, man.
Well, I appreciate you know youth garage rockin Wisconsin, baby, and I appreciate the time to do and Terry on the Unite might show on civic media, buddy.
I love it.
Let's
do it again.
I'd love to hear more about rock concert sometime when
we have more time.
It's just sounds fantastic.
Thank you so much.
Invite.
So that's awesome.
All
right.
Thanks so much.
Yes, you got
it.
Thanks, Dennis.
So I need to let, you know, Dennis will also be on Maxink Radio tomorrow night.
Oh, nice, okay.
Yeah, he's going to be playing totally different music than we're hearing tonight.
Gotcha.
But, um, yeah, he's really into this, really wants kids to get this opportunity.
I want that
too, because I want more of a culture of that kind of stuff here in our state.
We have, you can start them early.
Yeah.
That's how you get film incentives passed and better venues and more becomes more conducive to artists.
And it's
great.
It's great
stuff.
I
agree.
So all right, let's talk about Slow Pulp Terry.
Yeah, if Dennis is still listening, he's going to laugh because Slow Pulp is a couple of bands that did Rock Onsen from Madison from several different high schools.
And what happened, they competed against each other in Rock Onsen.
Now you kind of know the setup.
But this was like back in 2016, they met, they all became friends.
one formed one band, one formed the other, then they decided, you know what?
We had great success at Rock Onsen.
Yeah.
Let's get together and make this happen.
Oh,
that's so cool.
This band is now blowing up.
They are blowing up.
You
said that email.
I was like, people say that, but you said, no, really.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
This is incredible.
This is going to be our next claim to fame from Wisconsin.
Oh, that's
kind
of cool.
I
remember these guys.
We talked about them and I heard them before.
So
we'll
talk more about Slopulp.
Good.
After a very short break, folks.
Don't go anywhere.
Terry Barr is here.
We're making radio history.
It's a Barbie on Friday night.
She's in the studio.
We'll be right back.
It's Night Light with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
A bunch of airdrops playing.
Chris Casper's on airdrops.
I'm trying to keep up.
Terry's laughing at us.
Conrad's giving us the thumbs up, but it looked like a drum.
Oh my gosh.
It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight.
Great to have you with me.
We are about to close this thing down and head into the weekend.
Yes.
Coming to you live from Madison tonight.
You have a busy weekend.
Yeah, it'll be fun though.
It's going to be fun.
Filling festivals.
We'll be back here on Monday.
Johnny Beiner will be here.
Madison comedian, very funny.
Good.
And Victoria Davis, local journalist who is just outstanding.
So we'll have more live guests on Monday.
But right now, folks, we are making history here.
on night night late history.
It's not a long history, so it's easy to make history.
Oh, Terry Barr is here.
She's here live for Bar Band Friday night.
And this is really fun.
It is fun.
Thank you.
All right.
So we got a few minutes left.
Tell
us about slow, slow pulp.
OK, so we were talking about Rock Gonson with Dennis Graham.
Yeah.
This is such a great opportunity for bands, middle school, high school.
Sometimes you don't have enough kids that want to be in a garage type band.
So
you recruit from other schools.
Slow pulp.
is one of those.
They are made up of Madison East, Madison West kids.
They had their own bands and competed against each other in Rock-onson.
Man, this is almost 10 years ago
now.
I
know.
And then they realized, well, some of the guys playing with us, they don't necessarily want to keep going.
So two of the people in one band, two of the people in the other band said, let's get together.
That's cool.
So they started writing.
And of course, now it's pandemic time 2020.
So they all wrote long distance, put their music together like everybody was trying to do back then and ended up with some incredible song.
that were heard by some industry types.
They have since, and I am not kidding when I say this, they have been on a world tour.
They have been opening for people like Death Cab for Cutie.
I saw that.
The
Pixies.
Wow.
But I think they're about to embark on their headlining tour.
They've been on the morning shows, the national morning shows.
They haven't made it on like a Jimmy Fallon or anything like that, but that's coming.
Yeah.
Oh, you know
what?
And they're
Madison based?
They are all from Madison,
all of
their family.
families are still here, but they moved to Chicago to
kind of
immerse themselves in the scene there.
And
they like it because they felt like their music, which they describe as sort of aloof and dreamy.
That makes sense.
I would agree with that.
They
found a community of aloof dreamers that they kind of hang and fit with.
So that's pretty cool,
but they're
all from here.
I love it.
That's awesome.
All right, let's hear.
This is Slow Pulp, and the song is Slugs.
I'm singing.
Yeah,
that was slugs from Slow Pope.
Oh, and
again, they competed in Rockonson
in
Wisconsin.
This great thing, rockonson.org.
If you got a band and you're young, go and.
do this and look
what happens
sometimes.
It's incredible.
And they actually are blowing up.
They are blowing up.
They are blowing up.
Yes, they've played the entire world at this
point.
Terry, this is so much fun.
You came all the way down here and we made history.
We made history.
Terry Barr, ladies and gentlemen, Barbed Friday night.
Also, thank you to Greg Leigh Ann and Jim Vincent.
We got one more text here.
Tyler says, that's a great idea for a scary movie, The Silhouettes.
You better copyright that.
We'll write it together, Tyler.
All right.
Thank you also to Chris Casper.
Big shout out to Chris, as always, when I'm in Madison.
So much fun.
On behalf of the lovable producer Conrad, good night, Wisconsin.
You're too young
Welcome back. I'm Pete Schwab. This is Night Light. Great to have you with me on this Monday night. Our question tonight is, what celebrity would you take to prom? It is National Prom Day. Tom said earlier, where can I find a prom date? And he says, do I need social media?
I probably wouldn't hurt, Tom. You ever made a date off social media, Conrad? No. No? No. Okay. Me either. But I've been married since before social media. That makes sense then, yeah. Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids says, Sissy Spacek might be fun. Which is funny because Mike Dessertel, when we asked a question on Facebook, Mike said, anyone but Carrie.
One guy wants nothing to do with Carrie, the other guy wants to take her to prom. I don't know what that says about you guys, but Monica from Mount Horrib says, Andy Garcia, he's got a sexy voice, has aged well, and I'm stereotyping here, but I'm assuming he can dance well. Okay, that's a good answer. I personally am not attracted to Andy Garcia, but he's a fine actor. Thank you, Monica. Gordy from Oregon, Wisconsin says, it's been 54 years since my last prom. If my 18-year-old self could take an 18-year-old Demi Moore,
Oh my God, heaven. Well, you can wish, Gordy, that's what we're doing here. We're just having fun. Conrad's mom checks in and says, Hugh Jackman, not only handsome, but he can dance and sing. Paul, you would be the envy of the prom, but I'm not sure how Conrad's dad would feel about that. But keep those answers coming, folks. Also, Christy Barlamint said on our Facebook, you can always weigh in on social media too. She says, Ed the Diver, for sure. Well, that wasn't a stretch. We knew she'd pick it, right?
Kathleen on Facebook says, Pee-wee, he would be a blast. Pee-wee, Pee-wee? Yeah, unless there's another Pee-wee. I'm kind of a weird nickname. Eric Rathsack from Ask Your Mother says, Pete, he's fun. Thank you, Eric. I'd be honored to go to prom with you. You'd be the tallest guy there, and I would totally make you my wingman, buddy.
I would love to go to Brown with you. Sherry says Sam Elliott, of course. Sherry has said that twice, so we obviously know she has a crush on Sam Elliott. All right, we are gonna turn our attention now to some fun. Packer talk? Packer bear talk?
We'll even work in a car, some new cars somehow. It's gonna be a fun segment, folks. It's my pleasure now to welcome to Nightlight for the first time ever in the studio. Sam Venese and Cliff Wall are here. And Sam, I'll give background on you guys. Sam is the brother of Jack Venese, who is the Packers, was he the VP of, what was your brother's title there, Sam? Well, he started as a scout and then he ended up being the personal director. Personal director.
And business manager also in a sense, when Vince was there. When Vince Lombardi was there, and Paul Horning had great things to say about your brother. It was really fun to read about him. He's in the Packer Hall of Fame, but you guys are hoping to get him into the NFL Hall of Fame. Correct. All right, so Cliff Wall is here too. Speaking of wingmen, he's being a good friend here with Sam. Great to have you guys here. And you were a car dealer owner, Cliff, right? Family-owned dealership since 1929.
Wow. Got out in 2020. Oh. March of 2020, which if you know that history of COVID. Yeah. Good time to get, good time to sell. Good for you. Did you ever sell a pack or a car? Oh yeah, yeah, sure. Well, I have a nice photo of my father delivering a car to Bart Starr. Oh, no kidding. And also, also one with Bob Skaronsky. And of course, when I merged with the Cadillac dealer, Dave DeNeal.
We sold a lot of Packers, Al Harris. And using, selling to a Packer was a little different. You were selling to an agent and then the player came and picked it up. But I mean, yeah. What kind of card did Bart star buy? He bought a, it would have been a 67, Oldsville 98. Okay. And this, I can tell you a little story. I don't want to get too far off Jack Vinici. No, that's okay. Anyway, so.
The Oldenbeil rep at the time found out about it and he said, well, we got to get a picture in the, at least in the Oldenbeil publication. I'd like to get it in the General Motors publication for the employees. So Bart, if you knew Bart, he was very kind, very nice person. And Bart said, sure, I'll pose for a picture and no problem. You can put it in the thing, into the GM Oldenbeil publications for the employees.
About two months later, he called up my father and said, Cliff, I'm sorry, but I just became a partner in a Lincoln Mercury dealership down in Birmingham, Alabama. And it probably is not a good idea to have a picture in the GM publication knowing that. Oh, man. So he did get more. I don't think it ever got in the publication, I think they.
Nixed it. It sounds like he did okay. But anyway, do have a nice photo with my father, you know, LeRan Carter. Yeah. And I think he also kind of, he was a good friends, of course, with Bob Skransky. And I think he kind of pushed Bob that to say, you better go buy a car from Cliff Wall. So we appreciate that. That's pretty modest car though, right? For Bart Starr. I mean, an Oldsmobile. That's not like he's driving around in a big Cadillac or anything. Well, yeah, but remember when you sell Oldsmobiles.
That was the smart man's Cadillac. Okay. That's a great sales pitch. Bart was that type of a guy. It seems like it. He didn't want to show off. That's great. All right. So it's great to have you guys here. Sam, let's jump into, so Jack is part of the Packer Hall of Fame and you guys are making a push to try to get him into the NFL Hall of Fame. As a contributor. As a contributor. Okay. So what does that entail? How difficult is that? Extremely difficult.
especially since you have so many owners that are being admitted into the hall now as they contributors. And they usually pick, I think, about 50 that are considered to be picked by the sports writers, and so they pick three out of those 50, and that's not easy. Wow. So we're hopeful that Jack's been nominated, Pete already nominated Jack about 10, 12 years ago.
Not this past year, but the year before Jack was selected in that group of 50 to be considered and he didn't make the cut This year he didn't make it in the fifth day. I'm hoping next year he does get in the fifth day Is it like I think what do they take five players a year that are eligible after five years? When someone is trying to get in posthumously is it is that more of an uphill climb because you're picking from all the people who haven't gotten in right? I mean it seems like it's a real uphill extremely difficult
Do you need people, like, does it help if you get more sports writers to go to Bath for him or former players? Absolutely. And we're hoping that, you know, all these sports writers are going to be at this raft. And with Clip's support, you know, with her did show, we're going to have a program. And I'm going to be sitting next to Jack's monument there in a little tent showing his wall of fame that I have in my clinic.
And hopefully we'll get enough signatures that will make an impression. Yeah, I hope so. So look for those petitions around town coming up to the draft because we figure if we get 250,000 for the draft, maybe more. Yeah. We get them all to sign that petition. I mean, that's our goal is to get as many signatures as you can, right? So they can't say no. They can't say no. Jerry Kramer, that's how they got Jerry Kramer in. They got petitions.
and support for him. So that's really the, that's the goal. And look for Jack on the corner of Ridge Road and Lombardi. Look for his little tent and find out more about it. And he'll definitely tell you a lot tonight, I hope. So yeah, that's so cool. And you can't go wrong when players are saying stuff like this is a quote from Paul Horning. I loved Jack Venesi. All the players did. He was a football man. That's what he was pure and simple. He brought so much talent to Green Bay, but it took Lombardi to make us champions like
that doesn't happen without great moves and bringing the players. You get the coach, you get the players. Sam, let's say, okay, let's say you're the NFL Hall of Fame, and I want to hear why Jack should be in. Say some nice things about your brother. What did he do other than what I just read? Well, think of Titletown, and think of the reason we call it Titletown.
You have to thank Vince Lombardi. Who brought Vince Lombardi to Green Bay? It was Jack. There you go. They were personal friends. If you remember, they really tried hard to get Forrest Foschewski. That was Dominic Olnichek, who was the president at that time. That was his choice, and they tried very hard. I always tell people, they offered him the city of Green Bay, the key of the city.
and they even included a Northland hotel on the offer. I'm just joking, of course, but they really tried hard to get him. And Jack was so relieved when they didn't get him because they needed a disciplinarian. If you remember that last year where they have one in 10, the record, and Scooter was a wonderful guy, but he was part of the team, you might say. They just needed somebody, a good disciplinarian. Jack knew.
Vince Lombardi. He knew he was a disciplinarian. The coach environment, I'm trying to think of his name right now, Blake, Colonel Blake. Vince worked with him and then of course went with the Giants and had a very good reputation there. But Jack had just known him personally and he felt this is the guy that can turn things around. But he had to convince...
the president and the board that this is the man and He finally when they turned down Vince Lombardi Jack called George House. It was a personal friend. We grew up together and Paul Brown who loved Jack and tried a couple of times the Wu Jack the Cleveland from from Green Bay and the commissioner The name escapes me for a second and he'll think of it Bert Bell Bert Bell
Nice. So Jack talked to all three of them, and they all called and talked to the Olenichek. And they said, if you can get Vince Lombardi, grab him. And so he was willing to talk to Vince Lombardi. Vince came up, and that was history. My guests are Dr. Sam Vinisee, who is Jack Vinisee's brother, who is in the Packer Hall of Fame, and Cliff Wall, former auto dealer to the stars, I would say, here in Northeast Wisconsin, right?
Fairly accurate. Fairly accurate, yeah. Big evidences unfairly. You're modest, just like your clients in Bard Star there. So, okay, and I would think like bringing Lombardi here, you know, as an administrator, as an executive, that's a huge get too. He had no ties to Green Bay, right? When they hired him, he lived on the East Coast, right? Absolutely. His wife said, where is Green Bay? I never heard of the place.
So to get him to come here, too, might have taken some convincing. Well, I think he was ready. And I think he was looking for a coaching, had coaching job. And this was an opportunity. And he knew that Jack had some good players. And that was one of the decisions, I think, that helped him was he knew that there were a lot of good ball players that were just sitting idle. So just as a sidelight.
Sam was a little modest here about his brother, but he has Jack has 14 people in the pro football Hall of Fame 13 13 people excuse me 13 appreciate your honesty Sam 13 people that he's associated with there in the pro football Hall of Fame more than anybody else way more kidding and I think if Vince Lombardi was would not have been in Green Bay
Green Bay would not have a big stadium named Lombardi right now. I really believe that. Is there a special section in the Hall of Fame for executives or a different label or are they just lumped in with players and coaches and everybody? I think they're a lumped in. This past year they had three sports announcers that were into the Hall of Fame. Normally it would think sports announcers would be in the Sports Hall of Fame rather than the NFL Hall of Fame.
So it's, it's pretty broad. Okay. That's interesting. Um, so you kind of, we'll, we'll get into this next, but, um, let me actually, let me, before we move on, Cliff, how are you like, you're not related to Jack. How do you play in here? I know you're, you're involved and you want this to happen, but what do you do as Sam's friend and Jack's friend? And what's your role in this? Um, well, I got introduced to Sam by his son, Sam. Okay. And, uh,
I said, well, that sounds like a project. That sounds like someone that should be in there. Let's pick up there. We're going to do a very quick break, and then we'll jump into more of this. And then Sam has a great history. His brother was an executive.
also a hotshot executive for the Chicago Bears. So I can't even imagine the conflict and turmoil that went on in your house. But it sounds like you've figured out where your alliances are. We'll get into all this and more. Matt Miller is here at 720 to talk movies. Right now, after this very short break, we'll have more with Sam Vinici and Cliff Wall. This is Peach Waba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back. This is Nightlight. I am Pete Schwab. Great to have you with me on this Monday night. It's a little early for NFL talk, but not really because the draft is here in Green Bay in just a few weeks. Joining me here in the studio right now are Sam Venesey and Cliff Wall.
Sam, I know we're here talking about your your star studded executive family But I do want to touch on some of the work you did too because you did some pretty cool stuff in your field Which what you were a veterinarian very well known you're actually Dr. Sam Vinisi, but you're here as a fan. So I hope Sam is okay All right, so so Sam's brother Jack is there Cliff
Wall and Sam and many others are trying to get him into the NFL Hall of Fame. He's already a member of the Packer Hall of Fame. He was a rock star executive for the organization, brought Vince Lombardi to Green Bay.
very exciting background, but you have the reason I say you might be a little conflicted is because you kind of grew up. We grew up very close in the same neighborhood, not the same neighborhood, but you weren't too far away. I grew up in the Jefferson Park area of Chicago and you were at California in Peterson, you said? Peterson Woods is right. Wow.
Okay, so we were practically neighbors. You were probably gone by the time I was born, but you and your brothers grew up in that area and you have a great story about how your brother Jack got so interested in the NFL. Please share that story. Well, my father had a grocery store, actually a grocery store, a delicatessen.
Wilson Avenue, and that was very close to Wrigley Field. And right across the street from the store was the Sheridan Plaza Hotel. And that's where the majority of players that didn't have their home bases in the area would stay. And so after the Bears had had their practice, the number of them would come down into my dad's store, which was just usually about eight o'clock at night. And
They would, dad would make them a sub. Well, a sub in those days was a big loaf of Vienna bread, piled with ham and salami and cheese and tomatoes and lettuce. Probably cost a buck and a half at that time. But each player would order one of those and have a cook. We didn't, dad didn't sell beverages that were any more than sodas. And so we got to know quite a few of them. And of course my mother,
got to know them all. And being that she had a son that was very interested in football, she would invite dad and both of them. They would actually invite several players to come over for Thanksgiving if they had no place to go. They'd share a Thanksgiving dinner with us. And then my dad decided to have an Italian night dinner so he could invite six or seven. And he'd invite them over. And of course, Jack was just late.
late high school, I mean late grammar school, maybe early high school, and I would just, and of course I was four years younger, so I was really small and young, and I would sit on their laps when Jack would sit on the floor and the football players, and they were giants. I mean, you go back to Bronco Nagorski, Bulldog Journal, Jordan Russo, Danny Fortman, Joe Steidehardt, they would all be there, and...
and they would tell stories. And I was, of course, to sit on their lap, and they'd be jiggling me around on their knee, but they'd be telling Jack stories, and he was just mesmerized, and he just fell in love with football. And that had a big, big part of what he wanted to do. Wow, obvious. And he turned it into a phenomenal career.
as an executive. All right, now, you have another brother, Jerry, who went on to do very similar work for the Bears and helped build the 85 Bears. So what was that? I mean, where does he fall in line in that? Well, Jerry, of course, was quite a bit younger. He was actually 10 years younger than me, so he'd be 14 years younger than Jack. And Jerry was an accountant. He had worked for Arthur.
Arthur Anderson. And then he decided to finish up. He wanted to be a lawyer also, so he went to law school, got his degree in that, passed the bar. And then he was still close friends with Muggsy, who was a boy of... Muggsy Hallis. Muggsy Hallis, because we grew up together and played together. Wow. And then they asked Jack, you know, they asked Jerry,
if he would have considered coming in to be in the controller and their attorney for the Bears. And which, of course, Jerry jumped at. He just loved it because he just felt a football. Jerry couldn't play football. He had asthma. And so sports were a difficult endurance for him. But he came in. And then when Muggsy Hell has passed away, unfortunately, a number of years,
I'm trying to think exactly what I'm not sure. It's like E3 maybe or something. Right in that range. It was right after a game here in Green Bay. I sat with Mugsy and Jerry in the box at the back as we were beating the Bears. And Mugsy said, Sam, aren't we ever going to make you a bear fan again? And I said, I'm sorry. And then poor Mugsy died that next day. Wow. And so then Jack...
Our jury kind of became a surrogate son for George Ellis. Oh, no kidding cuz he didn't that was the only son that he had and so they're very close and then come in the early 80s George asked Jerry said I'm gonna make you general manager I'm bringing in my ticket and I want you guys to win a championship and They did they did in a couple of years. They made a few they have already had a good team, but they made a huge a few couple of changes
And, of course, they won that Super Bowl. And I was a kid. I said, Jerry's my younger brother's the only general manager with a Super Bowl ring.
All right, this is great. And I want to add, I have got a few more questions about that. So we'll do that after the news, Civic Media's reporters are waiting to tell you what's up. Sam Venese is here, brother of Jack Venese, who is a candidate for the pro football Hall of Fame already in the Packers Hall of Fame. Cliff Wall is here riding shotgun, also part of that mission. And we'll talk more about this after the news. It's Peach Waba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Alright, we have clarification. It's Chizu is the name, so we'll have to remember that Conrad. Thank you for clarifying that.
Chizu on the stream. So wherever you're joining us from tonight, folks, it's great to have you. Whether you're listening on the radio across the state or on the Civic Media app on the stream, Facebook, YouTube. What else is there, Conrad? Twitter. Twitter. X. Friendster. However you're joining us, it's great to have you. We have a fun show tonight. Luke Mathers is gonna be here in hour number two. And in honor of election day, we're gonna give Luke one of our quizzes. It's gonna be a fictional character.
And Luke did very well the last time we gave him a quiz. We'll see how he does. I have a feeling he's going to do pretty well. He's kind of an informed guy regarding politics. So I feel like Luke is going to make a good showing. I hope he does. We're not out to embarrass anyone, especially not the kid. Oh, you know what? That's a great nickname. I almost called him the kid Luke Mathers. The kid. He knows a lot more than I do though. Like, I can't fix a computer or radio station. So I can't really call him the kid. You can call me the kid.
Yeah, you're the kid. You know about as much as I do. That makes me feel good. All right. Hey, we're going to keep the show moving, folks. I'm excited to welcome my next guest, his film No Packers, No Life, screens at this year's Wisconsin Film Festival, this coming weekend. Joining me now is my pleasure to welcome to Nightlight for the first time, actor and influencer and filmmaker, Craig Benzine. Hey, Craig. Hello, how are you? I'm doing very well. It's great to have you. Nice to see you. How are you doing tonight? I'm doing good.
I had a spotted cow. I'm feeling good. That's not going to make you slur your words. I have every confidence we'll get through this. Of course. Where are you joining us from? Do you live in Madison? Yeah. Nice. Born and raised in the area. Boy, I got to say, my whole life.
living in wherever I lived, whether it was in Chicago or the second part of my childhood in Wisconsin, everyone said, you got to go out and do stuff and go to big cities and to get things done. And I'm looking at your IMDB page today. You're like one of the busiest people I've ever seen and you're doing it all for Madison. That's pretty impressive. Well, I did live in Chicago for 12 years. Okay, full disclosure. But yeah, I moved back here when we had our daughter and been here for like five years now.
So that's excellent. Well, it's good to see you. Thanks for being on the show. You and I met a couple of weeks ago on the set of Director's Cut on PBS Wisconsin. It was good to get to meet you in person and hear about your film.
Let's before we jump into no packers no life Can you tell us a little bit about how you you have such a unique career like you have acting credits? You're an influencer. You just made this documentary How did you find this path? What brought you to this? Did you go to film school or were you in a theater company or how did you do it? Well, I did I did go to I was a communication arts radio television film major at UW Madison, okay, and I'd always I
I guess I kind of always wanted to get into film, but I never moved to LA, never did the things you're supposed to do to do it. So I moved to Chicago with my band and was just trying to play shows with my band and see where we could take things. My band called Driflus Pony Club. And I just eventually was like, well, hey, I'm not using my degree. I'm not using my skills that I have. So I just started putting videos on the internet.
like right around the time when YouTube started. And it took a while of after, it was about three years of making videos before it, it became like my full-time job, making videos. Wow, on YouTube, yeah. I gotta tell you, and I feel really stupid, this isn't me a couple, but I remember like in 2006,
I just made a movie and my friend's like, you got to get it out there on YouTube. It's this new thing. And I'm like, yeah, okay, whatever. No one's going to watch this. Like people putting home movies up. And now it's bigger than network TV or streaming or anything. So tip of my hat, way to crush it. You have over a million followers on YouTube that baffles me. I do. I didn't hit over a million until about 2018. It took about, it took like 13 years. That's amazing.
It was after making, I never really went like quote unquote viral until way later. It was kind of a slow build of an audience. Until 2018, my wife and I did a video where we quit added sugar for a month and that video blew up really big. Wow. Yeah. I was already doing it full time, but that's where I eventually got up to over a million subscribers.
I love, I watched one of your videos earlier today where you lost weight and you were like, I'm not a nutritionist. I'm not a dietitian. This is just what works for me. So I want to ask you about that. And then we could talk about the giving up sugar thing too. That's great. But first, let's get to your film, No Packers, No Life. It shows this Sunday night at 4.30 PM central time at the Barrymore Theater in Madison, right in your backyard there. Tell us about No Packers, No Life.
okay it's a it's about a group of uh i would say intense hardcore packer fans from japan and they uh so i have this friend who who for business goes to japan every few months and he um on one of his trips he encountered they call themselves the japanese packer cheering team and uh
He he saw a guy with a Packers jersey and he followed him and and all of a sudden he said hi to him and wondering what was going on and a bunch of Japanese people with Packers jerseys came out of the woodwork and they were all meeting To they were all doing there. It was at the time. I think it was a weekly meeting Just watching their favorite Packer game from the previous season They just watch they they they would meet in Tokyo and watch a a game a pre-recorded game
And he called up a couple of his friends who live in Green Bay, and he decided we're going to plan to take them to a packer game in Green Bay. And so the documentary is basically that trip. And then also I went to Japan and interviewed several of them. And it's just a really good time. They certainly like to party as well.
Yeah, that's what I hear. And I think it's so funny that they watch games that where the outcome has been decided. Like, that is serious fanfare. Yeah. I mean, I watch clips of my favorite teams if it comes up in reels, but to sit and watch a whole game. But how fun, you know? Yeah. And they, I mean, yeah, I witnessed them watching one and they cheered as if they didn't know it was going to happen. They were just, they were just so into it. That's so great. Are you a Packer fan?
Yeah, I mean I grew up in Wisconsin. Yeah, of course I actually don't watch a lot of sports, but I but I do catch football games occasionally sure So was it how did they react? Was it hard to convince them to come on camera or that you wanted to make a film? What was the reaction? They I think that they were just into it like it wasn't it
I mean, Ty had already told them, my friend Ty, who goes there, already told them what was going to happen. So I wasn't a part of the approaching them to say, hey, come on, come on camera. But they all seemed very on board. Like they totally got it. They knew that it was kind of unique. It was unique that they were so into the Packers. And so it wasn't very difficult to get them to talk about it because they were so passionate about the Packers.
One of the one of the things that I think intrigued a lot of them about Greek about the Packers was that they were from such a small town that the Packers don't have the the stadium is nearly the population of the town and They don't have an owner they don't have a traditional owner and they were intrigued a lot of them were intrigued by that
It's fascinating. I can't even imagine. Do you have in your film their reaction when they first get to Green Bay and when they see the stadium for the first time? It must have been magical to them. Oh, yes. Yeah, there's a They they they the night before that well, they go they spend a whole weekend in Green Bay So they good they do a tour of Green Bay. They they ride the zip and Pippin They They actually met
They got to see a Super Bowl ring. They got to hold a Super Bowl ring. They got a tour of Lambeau before the game, the day before the game. Nice. And yeah, they were.
in awe. I've never seen anyone so excited. My guest is filmmaker, actor, influencer Craig Benzine. He made the film No Packers, No Life, which you can check out at this year's Wisconsin Film Festival Sunday, April 6th at the Barrymore Theater at 4.30 p.m. Craig is joining us over the stream right now here on Nightlight.
I love that they watch old games. That's great. I also think it's hilarious. And we talked about this when I interviewed you on TV a couple of weeks ago about how they love the Zippin Pippin. I mean, I love Bay Beach. The Zippin Pippin is wonderful, but they're from Tokyo. The Zippin Pippin doesn't have any loops. It doesn't have a huge drop. It's just your basic no frills, fun roller coaster, but they flip for it. What's going on there? Well, I wouldn't say all of them.
did. I mean, I think some of them really had a good time with it. I think they appreciated the historical nature of it and that it's in Green Bay. And one of them mentioned how they were kind of, it was old. They weren't used to riding a roller coaster, that old, a wooden old roller coaster. And part of the intensity of it was just how old it was.
But they, yeah, and a few of them didn't ride, a few of them didn't want to ride the roller coaster. Yeah, but they enjoyed it. How did these people from Japan, how did they discover the Packers? Do you go into that or do they tell you like, they're in Tokyo, I'm sure the NFL isn't as accessible as it is here there, although I'm sure they have access to it, but how did they find the Packers and how did they find the NFL?
Well, it was different for different people. Some of them had been to the United States previously. And there was one, kind of the ringleader of the Japanese Packard cheering team, his name's Chepo. He talks about how there was a period of time where he was coming home very late from his job. And I think around the time of the Bears Patriots Super Bowl.
apparently that Super Bowl was worldwide for some reason. I don't know, there was something about that Super Bowl, but maybe it was the- Super Bowl shuffle. The Super Bowl shuffle, yeah, maybe. Yeah, but I think he caught a game. He just caught some games late at night, because that's when it would show. And then from there, I think kind of decided who his favorite team was gonna be.
And I think the general, that's sort of generally how I think like back in the 80s and 90s, they just somehow caught wind of the NFL. There was apparently a manga show or like a, it was either a magazine or it was a TV show that was based on the NFL on American football. And some of them got in,
got into football because of that. And then I think after that learning about how Green Bay is such a small town and the story, the long history that Green Bay has, I think drew them to the Packers. That's so great. What did they think of the film? Have they seen themselves in a screening yet? I have not shown it to them yet. Okay.
I don't know if Ty has shown any of them the film yet, but I plan to. We plan to have a screening. Sure. Will you be at the screening in Madison at the Barrymore? Are you going to do like a Q&A or something?
Yes, I'll be up very more. Oh, nice. Well, that'll be fun. How are tickets selling? Do you know? I mean, people can go to the Wisconsin Film Festival website and get no packers, no life tickets. I think that, and then it'll take you to Eventbrite. But do you know if there are still tickets available? I don't know if there are still available or not, but I'm told it's selling well. It's one of the better selling.
Films at the film festival. It's probably probably has a little to do with the Packers I imagine No, don't say that it has nothing to do. It's your filmmaking. It's your astute knowledge of the film industry. Sure. Sure. Yes My guest is Craig Bensien his films his film No Packers No Life is the Wisconsin Film Festival playing at the Barrymore on Sunday. Check it out folks We'll be right back after a very short break
And I've got some more questions. Craig's got a lot going on, folks. We'll get into that after the break. Luke Mathers is here at 7.35 to take our fictional political character quiz. You don't want to miss that either. A lot's going on here tonight. Great to have you with me. It's Pete Schwab and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Okay, so Al from the 262 gives us clarification. He says, no, not the boxer. He clarifies Dwayne Camacho. Dwayne Camacho, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho is the main antagonist turned supporting character of the 2006 American sci-fi comedy film, Idiocracy, which I've never seen. I've seen it. Have you seen it? It's good, right? Everybody I know laughs hysterically and says it's great.
That's great. Yeah, it's been a long time, but I enjoyed it. Yeah, I'm a little behind there, just 19 years. Welcome back to Nightlight. I'm Pete Schwabba, joining me over the stream is filmmaker Craig Benzing. He's also, he goes by, you tell people about your YouTube channel, Craig. My channel is called Weezy Waiter. These days I do, and it's Weezy with an H. A lot of people will just, will remove the H. They'll spell it like Weezy Jefferson and not with the, okay.
Yeah. And lately it's a lot about kind of about self-improvement. Like some of my main videos are like monthly challenges. Like I did, I did 10,000 steps a day. I did 20,000 steps a day. I did 30,000 steps a day. Different videos. Yeah. And I've done, you know, quitting out of sugar, make quitting the internet, quitting my cell phone. My wife and I quit alcohol for a year.
Just very stuff like that. And then also there's other there's other it's basically whatever I want it to be Yeah, that's pretty cool. And you get to do that full time. You just pick a topic and you just say what you want to I think that's so fun And I saw the one earlier where well first of all you quit the internet How are you posting that you allow yourself to post videos? Well, I talk about that in the video I mean I had I made an exception where I could upload videos on YouTube, but I but I couldn't
I couldn't hang around. And I did make an exception where I could check my email like a tiny window in the day because I needed to, but other than that. Conrad told me just during the break, you were in Amazing Orange, the internet sensation. Oh, Annoying Orange. I'm sorry. What did I say? Yeah. That's a different show. Annoying Orange, yes.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I was on that at least once. That was a long time ago. I think I voiced some pecans. Yeah, so, yeah. I just wanted to say that before I forgot. All right, let's get back to Weezy Waiter, because it's so fun. Like the one I saw was you doing, just giving advice on losing weight and what worked for you. You did, and like you just said, you did 10,000 steps, you tried that, 30,000, that didn't work.
10 wasn't enough, 30 was too many, you settled on 20,000 steps. How many calories do you burn? I was doing 20 for a while, and I'm like, at my age, if I don't eat right, it doesn't matter how much I walk. Really, 20,000 didn't help? I dropped about a pound. Yeah, I mean, so 20,000 for me was the sweet spot, because I mean, I track my calories, and...
At the end of the day, I would have so many extra calories to eat I could still eat quite a bit before I would hit my goal Yeah, and I wasn't that hungry like but 30,000 I was just starving so I was just eating a lot and 10,000 just wasn't quite enough to really do much
It's not hard to get 10. It is tough to get 30. You really have to stay on your feet pretty much all day to get 30. I think I've done that three times in my life and I paid for it the next day. Yeah, I did it every day for a month. I did miss a couple of days because I got sick. But other than that, there were a couple of days where I had to run before midnight to get the step.
Yeah, that was very challenging. That takes many hours to do that. You know, it's funny, because I have a Fitbit, I track my steps, and there have been times where I was at like, you know, if I set my goal at 10,000, I'd be at 9,600, and it's like 11.58 p.m. So, kind of similar to you, but I don't even get out of the chair. I go like this with my arms, like I'm working a heavy bag or something, and my son will be like, what are you doing? Well, I gotta get my steps. He's like, well, you're not getting your steps. I'm like, well, it's movement. It's still, you know.
It is exercise. It is something, at least. Where did you come up with the name Weezy Waiter? I love that. Well, at the time, I was waiting tables in downtown Chicago.
I have asthma. Okay. And I like alliteration, so wheezy waiter. It's a no-brainer. We have a clip. Can we keep you through the news, Craig? Can we keep you for a few more minutes? All right, because I want to talk. You posted a really funny video where you said my wife lists the things that annoy her about you or something like that. So we want to play that. And then I want to ask you about the no sugar challenge because
What I love about your videos is that they're, well, they're fun. You're a really likable guy and they're informative. Even if you're telling people what you're doing and you claim you're not an expert, it gets people thinking and trying to better themselves. So I love your videos because I feel like everybody wins when they watch them. Oh, well, thank you. I mean, I try to make it more about my experience rather than me trying to tell you.
trying to teach you anything. No, I see you as a cult leader in the near future. I think you could really get a big following and lead people in a good way. Well, if times get tough, maybe I'll start a song. Yeah, exactly. All right, Craig Benzine is here. His film is called No Packers, No Life. You can check it out at the Barrymore Theater, beautiful theater in Madison, old style theater with the stars on the ceiling and a balcony and everything. It's going to be great and it plays Sunday, April 6th at 4.30 p.m. No Packers, No Life.
The filmmaker and the driving force behind the film is with us and he's gonna stick with us through the news We'll have a few more minutes with Craig when we get back. This is Pete Schwabba in nightlife so good to have you with me folks on this Tuesday night on the Civic Media radio network