Pickleball, Hollywood, and Dream Co-Stars(Hour 1)

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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 always reads between the lines until he sees a car coming, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

It's Wednesday night in the state of Wisconsin.

What could be better?

Life is good, folks.

Hope you had a great day.

Great to have you here tonight as we talk about the things that help us escape.

And we all need that sometimes, even though, even an optimist, even someone who sees the glass as half full like myself.

we all need a chance to escape.

And that's what we do here every night between six and eight.

We talk movies and TV, comedy, music, fun Wisconsin stuff, what's happening in the hood, all kinds of good stuff.

So great to have you with me on Wednesday.

Great show tonight.

Conrad, are you excited about this show tonight?

I am very excited.

I can tell.

What excites you most about the show tonight?

other than this basic chit chat that we have every day.

Learning more about Dumb and Dumber, I think.

But no, also just seeing some other roles that Mike has played, I think it's

gonna be

really fun to hear his experience doing these roles.

Very well said.

Mike is Mike Starr, that is who Conrad is referring to.

He is our guest at 6.35 tonight, an actor.

Very accomplished actor with a resume with about 300 film credits and that's not even counting his TV credits.

Mike was in Miller's Crossing, Goodfellas, Hudsucker Proxy, Dumb and Dumber.

His credits go on and on.

He's worked with some of the best directors and fellow actors that there are.

So I'm excited to talk to Mike tonight.

He'll be here at 6.35 and we will get to know him.

a little better.

You know, he, I don't know if you guys remember this, but during Goodfellas, he was the one who masterminded, or was the main connection to the Lufthansa heist.

You ever see Goodfellas?

Never seen it.

Oh my God.

And they're like, how do we get past the guard?

How do we get past the guard?

De Niro says that, and Mike says, you're looking at him.

It's me.

He's great.

So I'm excited to have Mike on the show.

And then our pal Matt Miller stops by at 720 to talk about the Wisconsin, I'm sorry, not the Wisconsin Film Festival.

It is a film festival in Wisconsin.

the very well-regarded Milwaukee Film Festival, which I've had the pleasure of showing a movie there years and years ago, and I went as a guest a few years ago.

It is just a magical film festival with some great venues, the Oriental Theater.

I think they're using the Downer again this year.

Great film festival.

Matt is tied in.

He's gonna talk to us about that, and we'll discuss what we're watching when it comes to movies and color television.

That's with Matt at 720.

Matt's a regular you guys know Matt.

He's one of our pals and I think you know what we've been talking about Like on Monday, we talked about rom-coms.

No, it was chick flicks last night.

It was who's your favorite sitcom actress So I wanted to do something that didn't leave the guys out.

Let's try to do this But that leads us ladies and gentlemen 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.

Questions.

Oh, yeah.

If you were the lead in a romantic comedy, who would you want to play your co-star?

Men can choose a woman, women can choose a man.

Women can choose women, men can choose men.

However you want to do this, who would you want to play opposite you?

And this is a good question because there are so many great actors and actresses.

And I'm going back and forth as to whether or not I want to play someone who I think is pretty, or if I want to play opposite someone I have kind of a crush on, or who's a really great actor, ideally both.

Initially,

I might say Scarlett Johansson or like maybe Rebecca Ferguson.

She was in one of the most recent Mission Impossible films.

I'm gonna noodle this though.

I'm not gonna commit just yet.

Do you have someone in mind?

Yeah,

yeah, I got it.

So the movie would be, it would be a, you know, a romcom.

Yeah.

And my love interest would be Kate Upton.

You know who I thought you were going to say when you said Kate McKinnon?

Kate

McKinnon.

Actually, though, I think if I did start in any movie, it'd be a sports movie.

OK, a sports rom-com kind of like first pitch or fever pitch or whatever that was.

No, more like, have you ever seen it?

No, you probably haven't because you don't like Adam Sandler.

I've seen some of this.

I don't dislike Adam Sandler.

I just don't go nuts over him like some people.

It would be kind of be like

more like a

studio.

Documentary but like a comedy like kind of kind of like sports movie.

Okay,

and I would Love to have my co-star be Vince Vaughan.

I think I

I think I'd laugh the whole time

That's fair enough and the question is romantic comedy so he could be you could be like his buddy in the movie.

Oh, it's alright.

Yeah, okay.

Maybe I

If just to reiterate, if you were the lead in a romantic comedy, who would you want to play your co-star?

So I am gonna noodle this.

Let us know what you guys think.

Conrad's still struggling over there.

He wants his co-star to be Vince Vaughn, with good reason.

I'll go back to Kate Upton.

Kate Upton, okay.

Not to get after you, dude, but like, she's not even really an actress.

She's active before you know.

Yeah, she was in the three stooges.

We just talked about that.

Yeah, she played a nun She did a great job in that she was good.

She was a good nun Unlike any of the nuns I remember at Catholic school, but yeah, okay, that's good.

So Conrad says Kate Upton What do you say 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic Let us know who you would want to play opposite

yourself in a romantic comedy.

Who do you want to be your co-star?

I think my wife would pick Brad Pitt, but I don't want to speak for her.

Maybe she'll text me during the show and I'll share that as well.

I would say Scarlett Johansson is a safe bet because she's such a good actor.

But yeah, I don't know.

There's a lot of good...

You can really choose, you have so much to choose from.

That's a tough question.

I'll say right now my working list is Scarlett Johansson or Rebecca Ferguson.

Okay, McKinnon.

Not as the lead opposite me.

I like Kate McKinnon.

She could be in the movie.

She could be in it.

Sure she could, yeah.

And I'll tell you what, I wouldn't even use a prosthetic if I was kidding.

I know I'm not watching that movie

now.

Yeah.

Keep the kids away from that one.

Hey, this is some exciting news here at Civic Media, folks.

We have a new news talk line up here that started yesterday.

We shuffled things around a little bit.

And here's a quick rundown of what you can hear on Civic Media on a daily basis.

From 5 to 6 a.m., the Midwest Farm Report with Pam Yankee, 6 to 9.

You got mornings with Pat Krightlow.

powered by Up North News, which we love.

We had Christina Lorion, and that was really fun.

Pat does a great job, and he's a great guy.

He's been on the show.

We should get Pat on the show.

He'll be on the network, but I think in Madison, John and Gordy will continue to host the Madison show from WMDX, the morning show, and then here on WGBW and WISS, you can still get Mino in the mayor.

That doesn't change.

And then Matt Nara Nara takes over.

Greg and Jane will be on from 9 to 11, from 11 to 2.

It'll be the Tom Hartman program.

Tom is coming back to Daylight Hours at Civic Media, which is exciting.

Two to four, you got Todd Alba, our pal Todd, from four to six, the Maggie Dawn show.

Everybody just bumping up an hour or two.

And six to eight, no changes here at Nightlight with Peach Wabba.

So it'll be, I'm glad we get to, they can't really put us any earlier.

Or we can't use nightlight.

Yeah, exactly.

It'll just be light.

Daylight.

Daylight with Peach Wawa, yeah.

Noon light.

That will be the lineup, I should say, effective Wednesday the 23rd.

So you'll still have kind of the same shows leading up to that.

But that takes effect one week from today.

All right, so at the, in Marinette last weekend, there was a big pickleball tournament.

And our pal Emerson Layman, who will be on the show this Friday,

took part.

He loves to go up to Marinette and play pickleball.

I had a chance to talk to some of the pickleball players and a chance to talk to Emerson.

And here is my interview now with our buddy Emerson from last week in Marinette, Wisconsin at the Community Rec Center.

Emerson Layman, WBAY Morning Show anchor.

Pickleball player extraordinaire.

We're in Marinette, Wisconsin.

You're hometown.

My hometown.

You just dominated from what I saw.

I hope so.

We're

warming up right now.

We're getting ready for our bracket and there's some really good teams here.

So hopefully we can dominate like we did and it's double.

So where are things at?

What are your chances for bringing home all the marbles?

I'm playing with my partner that we won a big tournament in Green Bay a couple weeks ago.

So excited about that, got some momentum.

Zach Gonring's here.

He's a pro.

He's very hard to beat.

A lot of really strong players are here.

Now, what makes him, I mean, he's a young athletic guy.

It looks like, but why is he such a good football player?

He's

just so consistent.

He does not make stupid mistakes.

Like a lot of us amateur wannabes do every day.

And he gets to every ball.

You think you hit a winner, points over, ball comes back, and then you put the next one in the net or something.

So it's kind of making up a... He's agile.

He's very agile, and he just keeps points alive.

He's a handsome guy too, that's gotta...

I mean, you're a handsome guy too, but

it's...

It's distracting.

He's got

some great

facial hair.

He's actually not even that good.

It's just he's distracting.

He lures you into a... Is this a good place to meet girls?

I mean, it hasn't worked for me yet, but I'm trying.

So, yeah, we're working on it.

But, I mean, there's... It's a good place to meet anybody.

You meet so many

cool

people, young and old.

I mean, the age range in this tournament is like...

I think the youngest kid was eight years old, and the oldest people are probably in their 70s.

That just shows the range of pickleball and how many people are playing in different divisions and whatnot.

It's a lot of fun.

But they break you down based on ages.

You're not playing 90-year-olds.

Not ages.

It's a skill level.

So obviously the older people are playing probably a little bit of a lower skill level.

I'm playing in the highest skill level, so we've got some younger competitors.

But yeah, they break you down by the skill.

You kind of self-rate yourself.

you go from there nice so this is your what third time in Marinette oh I've been to Marinette quite a few times work aside I mean

like

yeah I come I come they have two tournaments every year they have one

of all one of

the spring and I try and play in all of them so they do a really good job of Brian and Kim Swenson they run the tournament they do a fantastic job this is their seventh year doing it I've been coming since I was working in Milwaukee so I think it's probably my fifth time

Fourth or fifth time up here.

It's okay.

I come every chance I get to do a great job.

What is your impression of our fair city?

I love Marinette.

It's so

much

fun to come up here.

It's cool.

You guys got the the lake right there.

Yeah, so much Industry going on

and I

just to have this type of facility this rec center in such a small town

Yeah, I

think is you guys are just we're very

fortunate

spoiled the unbelief.

Yeah,

so it's I love coming

up.

I I donated this is the wall of all the donors right here

You're on you're

somewhere.

No, I gave him three bucks and they said that wasn't enough.

So I said, you know

what you can do, you can go to hell, give me my three bucks back.

I

think we should put her like a little sticker.

I don't want to get you in trouble for vandalism

or something.

Listen, I think that's a great idea.

You're coming on the show Friday, right?

Friday, I can't wait.

It's gonna be fun.

We're gonna recap this whole thing.

I hope I have good news to share.

I hope you do too.

It would be great to have a little celebration on the air for your good luck.

Don't pull a hammy, don't get a concussion, and no more fights on the court, okay buddy?

I'm gonna

try my best.

Sometimes the old folks, they get a little mouthy, so I gotta keep them in their place.

You get them in a headlock, that'll get the

message across.

Thanks

for coming.

Thank you, buddy.

That's Emerson Layman.

He'll be on the show this Friday night in studio.

And when we come back, I'll have more highlights from Pickleball in Marinette.

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

Mike Star coming up at

6.35.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get

started.

beautiful.

It's beautiful in Northeast Wisconsin.

It's a little cold, but I think it's pretty sunny around the state for the most part.

So I hope you're having a great night.

Whatever you're doing, great to have you with me.

Conrad is riding shotgun ready to roll.

Always.

Always.

We've got our question of the night is if you were the lead

If you were the lead in a romantic comedy, who would you want to play your co-star?

So I said Scarlett Johansson or Rebecca Ferguson Conrad said Kate Upton Fine actress.

Yeah, and Chris from Jamesville says it's in the 608 he says the lumberjack from hundreds of beavers And then he said another text he said strictly platonic lol.

Yeah, there's no judgment here.

Anyway, you can play opposite anyone you want.

I was thinking love interest

But it doesn't have to be.

So, huh?

I believe Chris is a she.

Oh, she, I'm sorry.

That's one of those names.

I get in trouble like that.

Terry, Chris.

Conrad.

Conrad.

But wait, but Chris is saying the lumberjack.

So I thought that meant when she said strictly platonic, I assume that meant Chris was a guy.

Well, now we're both confused.

Yeah.

Well, it doesn't matter anyway.

Chris wants to be in a movie with Rylan Brickson-Tues, who's a very talented guy.

No, I'm a he, I thought so.

Otherwise, the

platonic thing.

I think there's another texture that had Chris and got me all confuzzled

over.

We do our

best, folks.

It's just great to hear from you.

All right, so we've got some more highlights here from my weekend in Marinette, which

is my weekend every weekend, because I live there.

I went over to the Community Rec Center and talked to some pickleball players.

And we've got that.

It's kind of a long clip.

It's a little over three minutes, but got a sense of some boots on the ground at this pickleball tournament and a sense that they were all having a lot of fun.

Here are those conversations.

Gidish, how are you doing so far at the tournament?

We won all the games.

You won all the games?

You're undefeated?

Yeah.

So far, three games left.

Three games left and then you're the champ?

Not yet, if we win all three.

If you win all three, okay.

Have you ever gotten in a fight playing pickleball?

Actually this morning, other than that, never.

Like punches?

Not punches, no.

I got scolded.

You got scolded?

For

what?

My wife was playing and she, I think they took up a out and then she called out, she looked at me.

By accident, I said, but outside of people, they started saying, you should not suppose to admit.

Okay.

But they made a call already, but I was just...

It's a natural instinct, I must say.

Of course, it's

your

wife.

Yeah.

And then I have to go home.

Can I suggest a nickname for you?

Mad Dog.

No, you should.

I can't go with that one.

My last name is Madhupattala.

People used to remember me as a mad.

So, it's a lie.

Well,

I wish you luck.

Good luck in the tournament today.

Bring up Mad Dog.

Bring it home.

Thank you.

Now the word in the street is Zach.

You're kind of the guy to beat here and I would never say that in front of Emerson though.

Yeah

I guess.

Dude that

was begrudgingly you admitted you're a very good pickleball player.

Do you have a nickname for yourself?

Uh ZG.

Just my initials.

You need like a kind of a badass nickname though right?

Like uh.

Yeah some people um some people have gave me the nickname sauce.

Oh that's kind of cool.

I wouldn't say it strikes fear in people, though.

What about Cobra?

Oh, I

like Cobra.

Yeah, Cobra sounds good.

Okay, okay.

Is pickleball harder to learn than ping pong?

I would say no.

I think if you really want to, you can go pick up a paddle and just start hitting around and playing pickleball and you're gonna have a great time.

Do chicks dig pickleball players?

Yeah, I'd say

so.

Wait, do they

like pickleball players or are they just like you because you're a good looking guy?

I don't know.

I want to do some research on that.

Lori Keller, is that a good pickleball name?

It sure is.

Is it one of those names where when you were born, your parents are like, she's going to rock it on the pickleball court one of these days?

Oh, sure.

Are concussions an issue?

Never.

Never.

We're nice on the court.

That's great.

So you've never gotten in a fight over a line issue or anything?

Never.

Nope.

Have you ever wanted to like really tear into your opponent?

Once or twice.

What's the worst?

How heated has it gotten during a pickleball match?

I don't think it gets heated with women as much as it does men.

Why do you guys do that?

It's pickleball.

Testosterone.

I know, but come on.

Look at these guys.

They're old.

They're on the verge of pulling every muscle in their body.

Stop with the headlocks and the leg wrestling, right?

Testosterone never goes away, though.

Settle things with a thumb war.

Nobody gets hurt.

Everybody walks away.

Rock, paper,

scissors.

Yeah.

My name's Carolyn.

How is Emerson?

Is he a good player?

He is great.

He is my partner last night.

And yeah, we do pretty well together.

He's a great player.

He's very supportive and he'll kind of hype you up.

What do you need

him?

Does he have a nickname?

Um, I call him Emerson, but

uh...

Yeah, I don't know.

He knows that.

Does he like

that?

He never told me not to call him that, so I'll say it's neutral.

Have you ever gotten in a fight on the court?

No.

not a fight I'd say there are occasional like line discrepancies but I guess that's kind of any sport you just got to kind of be honest

and

yeah do

you ever swear during the game do you have you sworn in an opponent

I would say I'm more so swear to myself like I'll you know I'll be like oh

You know, kind of to myself if I miss or make an error, but no, I don't think I've ever done it directly to an opponent.

Do you have a nickname?

A pickleball nickname?

Oh gosh.

I go by my first name or the flick wizard.

I don't know.

I do a lot of scorpions.

How

about the golden girl?

The golden girl, all right.

It doesn't really strike fear in opponents though,

does it?

Yeah, I don't know.

It's not really scary, but... How

about the big softy?

The big softy.

I don't know.

I'm kind of quicker at the net though.

I'm more of a... I'm not really a soft player, so... I don't know.

Great fun at the Community Rec Center in Marinette last weekend, and I cannot believe how crowded it was.

Like, I got there and I'm like, I might not find Emerson here.

And he's the one who told me about it.

And I go over there and I barely picked him out and I watched him play for a couple minutes, but...

Wow, it was packed our question tonight ladies and gentlemen is if you were the lead in a romantic comedy Who would you want to play your co-star?

Now we've been posting the question on social media earlier in the day, too So you're welcome to answer there Eric Rathsack from ask your mother our pal Eric says Kristen Wiig But I'd never get a scene done laughing the entire time.

Yeah, that's true She's great She had bridesmaids and like I thought that would catapult her to like serious movie star fame and when she works, but she's not

You know,

like Heather and I were talking about last night, the Palm Royale that she's on.

Yeah.

Great.

If you

have a chance to watch that on Apple TV, do

it.

Daniel Wheeler says, Julie Louis-Dreyfus, we'd have competing chili recipes in a small town cookoff and be surprised to learn our shared secret ingredient is love.

I love Daniel's texts.

Ezekiel Drew is checks in on Facebook and says, Scarlett Johansson.

That's my girl.

And he says, or my wife, whoever would be most available to film, probably your wife.

But we'll have an arm wrestler or something at Z-Kiel.

But do I want an arm wrestler with a guy who played Ed Gein?

I

don't think so.

All right, actor, the legendary Mike Starr will be here after the news.

We're going to talk about his career and find out what he's got going on.

Matt Miller here at 720.

So great to have you with me here on this Wednesday night on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm Pete Schwabba.

Our question of the night, ladies and gentlemen, is if you were the lead in a romantic comedy, who would you want to play your co-star?

We've had some great answers so far.

Dave checks in on the stream and says Phoebe Cates.

Phoebe Cates, of course.

I mean, she's been in other movies, but I know exactly how old Dave is now just by his choice, because I'm assuming he watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High, like me.

thousands of times.

Not just for Phoebe Cates, who was great in the film, but that's a great answer.

And we've got Scarlett Johansson, I would say is number one so far.

Right,

Con?

I don't know.

What is this Pringles thing?

You sent me food and wine, Pringles Miller.

Summer, is this a joke though, like hot

dog water?

That's completely real.

This is real.

Pringles releases two new summer flavors.

beer can chicken You know that actually sounds kind of good.

What's this other one?

grilled beer brought I Want you to have a beer brought and they need a plain Pringle don't you get the same effect?

You know I sometimes just gotta just gotta go for I

knew you'd

take their side It's cool that

Miller Light has a prankle, I guess.

Conrad's mom checks in with the question of the night and says, Pierce Brosnan.

Yeah, Pierce Brosnan.

He was a heartthrob.

How old is your mom?

Like 40s, 50s?

Early 30s.

Yeah, of course.

I didn't ask how old your sister was.

Paula, that's a great choice.

And you can watch him in Mobland now.

He's in Mobland with Tom Hardy.

Helen Mirren, and they're great, it's good.

Guy Ritchie directs it, it's really a good, the pace is great, really good show.

Barb from Waukesha says, I've been a Brad Pitt fan ever since I saw him in Thelma and Louise.

I knew we had to hear Brad Pitt at some point tonight.

Great choice, Barb.

I mean, I like Brad Pitt too, as an actor.

Steve, kind of writes the ad checks in.

and says, Kirstie Alley would have been a great female star.

Didn't your dad say something about Kirstie Alley last night?

Maybe.

Because, oh, it was the sitcom.

Are we calling Mike or is he doing StreamYard?

I think Mike, let's call him.

I'm gonna send you his number.

Okay.

So yeah.

I

think it was

in regard with Cheers, maybe.

Something about Cheers with Kirstie Alley.

Oh, no problem.

All right.

Mike is waiting.

I'm going to send you Mike's.

Let's call him because I think he's having an issue with the Streamer link.

So I will send you his number.

That's right.

But he's obviously a fan of Kirstie Alley.

And then, you know, if during the break, if we want to try to get Mike back on Streamer, we can do that.

But let's just get him on the show because I'm excited to talk to him.

All right Conrad is gonna give our 635 guest Mike a call and we will we'll be off to the races here I There was a funny story my wife.

I think I've told this actually before on the show.

My wife was such a fan of Brad Pitt She bought when he was in interview He did an interview with Vanity Fair and my wife he was on the cover when he did interview

with a vampire.

There's an interview in Vanity Fair.

So my wife picks one up on the way home.

I had just flown back from somewhere doing comedy stand-up.

And I'm at O'Hare and I grab the same copy for her.

So I get home.

Basically she has two copies of a Brad Pitt Vanity Fair.

So I was like, okay, so my sister comes over a few days later and I give her one of the copies.

She's like, oh, is this the Brad Pitt interview?

I go, yeah, I said, take it.

We got two of them.

So my sister Molly takes one of the Vanity Fairs.

And my wife gets home and she's like, where's the other Vanity Fair?

She was mad that I gave it to my sister.

So I'm like, we had two copies of the magazine.

But Brad Pitt is on the cover.

My wife obviously was working towards wallpapering our bedroom with Brad Pitt on the cover of Vanity Fair.

So that is how Brad Pitt affects.

Well women in my family my wife and my sister she got mad at me.

We had an extra copy All right, we have we have Mike Conrad awesome.

All right is my pleasure ladies and gentlemen to welcome my next guest He's got about 300 or so movie credits.

He's been on TV all this stuff some of the biggest movies of our time films like Miller's crossing good fellas and dumb and dumber the Extremely prolific Mike star joins us here on nightlight.

Hey Mike.

Hey buddy.

Sorry.

I'm

the old excuse, I feel like a progressive commercial here though, but I'm trying to get, I'm trying to get on camera here, but I think we'll fix that during the break.

So I apologize.

No, not at all.

Listen, it's just, it's great to have you.

So I have to, I'm going to start not with a showbiz question, Mike, but just

ethnicity comparison I don't hear like I grew up in my neighborhood in Chicago everybody was Irish Italian Italian Polish on your Wikipedia page it says Irish Polish and I'm like oh my god finally another guy out there that has the same description as me so I'm thrilled to talk to you just for that alone

well I grew up in a wonderful city housing project in Queens and we had all sorts of people and

My grandparents on my dad's side were from Poland.

They came in and I didn't speak it only because my dad grew up in a small town in Massachusetts But I do have Italian relatives people Boston from from my dad my uncle Ray Panatti So that was an influence on me But I came from a very mixed neighborhood that was one of the best places ideal places to grow up in Queens

And my mom's side was the Irish Catholic side.

So I know you get a lot of people out in Chicago who are Polish background, but there wasn't.

There were very few other people, except we had a great neighbor, my friend's mom, who was a survivor from and she was from Poland.

And my dad used to speak Polish to her, but I didn't hear it spoken unless we went to Massachusetts.

And I regret that I didn't learn it.

I've tried to learn a few times, but I did study Italian.

And I had my friends that was like a godfather to me.

And he would give me all sorts of Sicilian culture.

I mean, I had all sorts of different

ethnic

groups in my neighborhood

of

every kind.

And eventually even there was the United Nations area where I went to grammar school.

And then a few years after we were married, friends of mine got me into that neighborhood.

So I've liked that kind of mix event.

of influence.

And then when we, we had 11 years after we married and had three kids, we had to move to the Bronx.

My friend Jack McGee helped us get up there.

If you know him, be active, right?

There was an employment at that time.

And that was a, it was interesting.

It was an Irish and Italian neighborhood, but Irish American, Italian American, a lot of old school, but also Ireland, Irish people from the other side, from all over Ireland.

And a lot of people from Southern Italy, some from Rome.

So

As far as blood, yeah, and I've been doing those ancestry.

And what is it?

23 and me.

Yeah.

I even have a slight percentage of Northern Russians, Scandinavian.

Oh my gosh.

Wow, look at you.

All over the place in Europe and Eastern Europe.

So yeah, I guess sometimes they cast we were people remember things.

It's funny, like in

Goodfellas, someone would say you played a mafia guy.

I said, no, I didn't know some place said it's security.

I said, no, that was an ad lib.

That was an improv.

Talking about the security in the area when Robert De Niro said that softball, which was so great.

He said, what's security?

And just came to me, say security.

You're looking at it.

He was an air cargo supervisor.

And he was authority to the one security guard that was a wannabe military guy.

If you read the book, it's great.

Nick Pallegi's book, Wise Guy.

So he was

A symbol of that, but Frenchy was half Irish American and half French American.

So

people, you know, a lot of times that you play, yeah, sometimes it'll be, hopefully I'm convincing in a few other ethnic groups.

You know, sometimes it would be really funny because I could not, I remember I've been fortunate to work in the theater in New York, but I remember first going out

And the public theater, oh, this part for a post.

Oh, no, no, you can't play politics.

No.

Then someone will tell you totally Irish and someone say, oh, you're, oh, you're so Italian.

You know, you know, you know, you know, and then some, you know, people would say it's actually translated.

Yes, though, which means star in the sky.

If I'm pronouncing it correctly with my limited knowledge of it, but, uh, I guess my dad added an R to the star.

Yeah.

Uh, and then.

Aside from that, yeah, I've had people, I remember I've had in an airport, Israeli, a fellow started speaking Hebrew to me thinking I was Israeli.

You know,

we were talking,

he was telling me about his toothache.

So I studied a few different backgrounds and I guess it's the East European thing and I don't know, sometimes they allow me, I play Irish too.

Well,

it's funny because my sister Julie connected me with you and you used to see Julie at the smoke house in Burbank one of my favorite places when I lived in LA and I thought one day I want to have a production company and I want to call it smoke house films because I love that place.

It's so old school and it doesn't surprise me at all that you hang out there because you're like an old school guy.

I

go to see one of my best friends and we're a lot of friends.

Uh, Julie's great friend, Gary McMillan, who is one of the mighty costs and art players

that

he's that he's got that celebrity bartender, uh, technically he's got a following.

He's done so much TV theater and film, but he's been, uh, he's been at the smokehouse quite a while behind the bar and it's a show, you know, but I think someone else beat you to the smokehouse films.

You know that during ER, uh, George Clooney, among other people, and George recently came back.

to, to, uh, I think he and Matt Damon through a party there.

I said, it's a real classic picture to smokehouse.

I'm not, I don't drink.

So I felt like I'm a bar hanger out.

I go see him, bring a bunch of friends.

And then they have, it's, it goes back to, I believe 1946 and 1947.

And if you look at sometimes George Clooney, you'll see, you know, on credit smokehouse productions.

Cause George Clooney used to, uh,

Evituate the place quite a lot and bring a lot of people there and there's been I think recently Gary said some film wrapped and I think a hundred people can walking in at like 930 at night.

So it's right across the street from Warner Brothers,

but I

I like to go see Gary there and it's great place and it's a Central meeting place a lot of times friends of mine in the business or just in the area.

We all hook up saying well, let's go to the smokehouse and you'd be surprised who's there.

A lot of times.

It's a great place.

You mentioned your time at Goodfellas, Mike.

And I love the enthusiasm with what you just said was an ad-lib to DeNiro.

He's like, security, and you're like, you're looking at him.

It's me.

It's like, I tried to imitate you earlier, and I don't think I did.

I didn't do it nearly as well as you would.

That whole scene was improvised.

Wow.

And the wonderful actor and brilliant musician and singer, he said, make sure you don't call it ad-libbing.

And I said, I called it an ad, and he said, it's improvisation.

And that was really worked out, that scene.

And whatever research I had from Frank Silvero, play Frankie Capone, and on the character, and reading Nick's book.

And there was a detective who helped me with things.

And it was quite a process that Martin Scorsese did put us through over a few days in a great process.

that it would come out like that.

It wasn't just like, Hey, how you doing?

Hey, you know, people walk in and saying, Hey, you go.

And I was actually fortunate enough to be on the set when Joe Pesci did funny like a clown.

Yeah, I think I came for wardrobe or something or maybe to rehearse or something I had to do.

And, uh, but yeah, it was, uh, it all just kind of came certain things kind of came and it was, uh, due to the

I mean, everyone put their, I guess their work in research, but it's also the preparation that it looks so off the cuff because at first Martin Scorsese, they just had us work together and even brought me in a day before it.

And he said, I want to get to talk to Bob.

I said, really?

And I went in and because De Niro was super gracious and cool.

discuss things, you know, and he would do and ask questions.

He was, he's not a very controlling person that way.

He lets people flower.

Hopefully they have the goods.

As Cossais does, and I had a humor relationship, not only with Bob, but with Martin Scorsese.

My best relationships in film or theater, whatever, I've been based on, I don't know, upset comedy.

Not like, hey, he is a one-liner.

But, uh... Hey, Mike, can we pick

up right there?

We gotta do a really quick break.

I would love to hear the rest of that, though.

Let's pick up with that.

We're

gonna try to get on camera now?

Yeah, let's try to do that, too.

Why not?

What are we doing here, right?

All right.

Mike Starr is here, folks.

We're coming right back with Nightlight with Pete Schwabba

on the Civic Media radio network.

Hey, this is John Legend and you're listening to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back to Nightlight.

Ladies and gentlemen, great to have you.

with me on this Wednesday night.

Here, I am Pete Schwab, your host.

Our question of the night is if you were the lead in a romantic comedy, who would you want to play your co-star?

Jim from Appleton says, the person I would want as my co-star would have to be Jennifer Lawrence.

Excellent choice, Jim.

Great

one.

Great one.

I didn't even think of her earlier.

All right.

This is exciting, folks.

Mike Starr is here.

Legendary Mike Starr with so many credits.

He's been part of such great movies.

I think we got him on the stream now.

So if you're watching on the stream, you can see Mike.

Wow.

A lean, mean fight machine, Mike, if I do say so myself.

He's working at it.

Wow.

That's impressive, dude.

Back trail here.

Yeah.

Reinventing myself.

I love

it.

It's great to have you here tonight.

And I'm glad we got the stream figured out, but stream phone, it doesn't matter.

It's just great to talk to you.

Um,

I just want to say quickly, hello, my family, my kids and great children out in Chicago and Naperville and my friends, your friends, family out in Minnesota, John Breen, my childhood friend of wealth.

We got Wisconsin Todd who trains the Bosa brothers and,

uh, he

may be out there, but his family's out there and, uh,

Who else who else so I got it?

I just wanted to make sure and coley from Galway in Chicago and all my friends I spent the greatest times of my life in Chicago some of the greatest times and and Have a whole world there.

So I just want to make sure I got that to my Brian from BNP the Chicago Oh,

that's a

great place.

Well, thanks for

getting the word out.

That's fantastic.

No, I have to yeah got the world of

When the iconic place Stan Lee's, God rest his soul, Donnie Cruz and Chef Luigi from Francesca's, which still does a stint there every now and then.

We have so many people that, there's a couple of friends that are not around, but Stan Lee's, that's how I met Chris Chellios and Ryan Dempster and all these people.

Yeah, it was a whole great world out in Chicago.

Dennis Farina and Joe Mantania who I'm so in touch Dennis Farina from Chicago and some of the best experiences all but I'm not leaving anyone out so many so many really Great times and great experiences, and I was fortunate enough to work there and my wife also UIC but also University of Chicago the Children's House where she was a pediatric concert and so Wow, oh

my

gosh quite some interesting times and a history for me in a very special place So I wanted to say that

Fantastic.

You might get a kick out of this.

Dennis Farina was my little league coach.

His son, Mike, and I were classmates and he and my dad were the coaches and I ran into him a few times out in LA.

It just had really nice talks with him.

A good guy.

One of the greatest guys

of

the year, God bless, God bless.

So

I wanted to-

I'm sorry.

So I was

talking about the comedy.

Yeah.

That Mon Scorsese, I guess I was lucky every time he did a trivia thing or asked about because I spent time, you know,

old films, we would call old films, but the respect he has for it, but even TV and comedies, and every now and then, he would just quiz me, and I'd be lucky to answer, but a lot of that improv came out of freedom.

You know, we would just work together, and then all of a sudden, you know, Ray would, oh, I have to get this line in, whatever, you know, and...

On top of that, then we went with department heads, you know, the cinematography, et cetera.

And then finally the whole crew and then we did it.

So it wasn't like we just walked on that.

That's why I want to give so much credit.

It was like you felt so free.

And then when you did it, hey, feel free.

So one take, I said, the commandant, I called myself.

And Montes-Cosse said, he said, Mike, the commandant, I said, well, it's 1968.

How did it end up more?

Because the Air France heist was the one at Frenchy.

Right, was the main guy in before Lufthansa ten years later, which I snuck in a lot.

I have a thing about improvising correctly for the period of if I'm lucky and fortunate.

And I just said, well, you know, that that my generation grew up with World War Two films and and like, you know, the Great Escape and Stalak 17.

There was always a commandant in charge of, you know, the prison.

So he says, I love it.

Keep it in.

But we would he.

with that frame, so enough of that.

I'm sorry I'm yapping too much

about myself.

No, this is great stuff.

And we have about two minutes to a break, and I'm hoping we can keep you through the news.

Then we'll have a nice chunk of time.

I think it'll be a one.

All right, fantastic.

I did want to ask you, though, and I'm kind of embarrassed because I've seen good fellas about 20 times.

And after the Lufthansa heist, all these guys, DeNiro or Jimmy Conway, starts bumping people off.

I don't remember.

Did you get whacked after the Lufthansa heist?

Yes, and it kind of insinuates that it was, was De Niro's character, Jimmy Conway, and then Jimmy Burke.

And, you know, I'm not quite sure if he left it open, like, well, was it them or was it the, was it the higher ups with Paul Sobino plays?

Was it Paul Barrio?

Yeah.

So I'm not speaking history because I don't know, but you kind of leave it there.

Is that what's happening?

Is that, it was it, was it that?

I mean,

But I was in the dumpster, remember the Layla?

Rolling over.

Yes.

OK.

And the first three times I was blinking and everything.

We had a fun concerto and I. And we even had my great stunt double skis, Don Picard and Nick Jean-Julio did a climb.

But we did most of our stuff.

But, you know, and then Don looked over me because it was quite a.

And interesting situations, gigantic dumpster.

The stunt coordinator was my crew.

And it was lifting into a hopper, which you don't see.

And the camera was in the hopper.

And he showed me that the blades weren't on.

Oh, man.

That's great.