Ballerina and Beyond: Stunts, Stories, and Star Wars(Hour 2)

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Chwaba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

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

Pete Chwaba.

Welcome to Night Light.

Hope everybody's having a great Wednesday.

It's another rainy day, at least in northeast Wisconsin.

I hope it's nicer where you are, but this is probably the fifth or sixth day of the last 10 I've been rained on walking to the studio from the parking garage.

And you know what?

It's not so bad.

Little rain never hurt anybody, but it would be nice to see some sunshine.

Welcome to Night Light.

We have a great show tonight, folks.

David Patterson, the film producer and writer of The Bridge to Terabithia will be here tonight.

His mother, Catherine Patterson, wrote the book, the award-winning, Newberry-winning book, The Bridge to Terabithia, which is an outstanding work of art.

We'll talk to David about what he's up to and what films he's working on.

He is one of the busiest guys I know, and I'm very excited to have him back on the show.

And we have to, Conrad, we got some bad news.

Our DeLorean Walls was supposed to be here in hour number two.

And he had a family situation, is that correct?

Yeah.

Well, I hope everything's okay.

We'll book, we'll get DeLorean rescheduled.

June is Men's Mental Health Month.

and DeLorean was going to come on to talk about his organization, Brothers Helping Brothers.

He was on Minor in the Mayor last week, and he's a very interesting guy.

So we will book DeLorean back, but more importantly, we hope everything is okay with whatever family situation arose today.

And we'll have a secret surprise guest who's going to talk about the movie Ballerina in hour number two.

Have you, you haven't seen Ballerina, have you?

I have

not.

Okay.

Any desire?

My go-to movie that I need to go to right now is How to Train Your Dragon.

So

I won't be seeing any other movies before that one.

All right, fair enough.

I'll probably see that at some point.

I'm excited, but that's our show for tonight.

David Patterson is up at 6.35 and our secret guest who will give us a review at 7.35 of the movie, Ballerina.

I still haven't seen it.

And you know what?

The reason I wanted to talk about it is because I don't think I'm going to... I'm not going to rush to see that movie.

I'm certainly not going to go see it in the theaters.

I am curious, and I hear Andy the Armistice is great, but I also have heard it's like the least exciting or entertaining of the John Wick films.

So I'm not really in any hurry.

Why does downtown Green Bay smell like fish, Conrad?

Because we're right by the water there.

Is that it?

Yeah.

That is so pungent that the water that's a hundred yards away is permeating the whole everything downtown smells like fish

Remember in those quizzes I make remember what they used to call the city.

I don't

the city of stinkers

And that's heard of the Bay of stinkers regarding fish.

That's what they're talking about or

just the green LG.

That's why

they named it

green Bay It's

a pungent objectionable smell.

Yes, I mean

I mean, it's like anytime rain happens, you know, it's gonna smell a little bit like fish.

I guess so.

I don't understand that.

This is a question probably for Brittany Merleau.

Well, I think it's because, you know, the water that is going up to the sky, you know, coming down on us is a little bit efficient.

I really

want to believe what you're saying, but

I don't know what I'm saying.

You know, so today.

Another instance happened to me.

Oh, what now again

more old women that don't like you actually was a guy.

It was a guy probably I don't know 30 ish

Younger guy too.

I hold the door open for a guy and he goes through the other door

He didn't even want your charity like what God, what are you?

What are you doing wrong?

I don't know your door holding technique.

Well, I open it.

I hold it

And I'm like waiting for him.

Do you like head fake that you're gonna close

it on him or something or freak him out?

No, but that was I was like, okay I must be doing something wrong is it must be like my attire my face maybe were you wearing a tube top again?

No, okay, that's only for Saturdays.

See here's what I would do I would next time you do this you got to secretly record it so we can

play it because I would love to know

well the radio can't you know see it well we could put it

on the stream you're kind of a big guy I mean but I don't think and I mean this in a good way I don't think you you probably could look intimidating but you don't you have a friendly face you're jovial but you are kind of stacked man you're maybe people are a little a little intimidated

well I was flexing the whole time well there you go there's sir dominance you're

doing the old Dwight to Dwight shrewd which are the Tommy boy which way is the beach

Boy, that's a run.

That's like a Joe DiMaggio 56 game hitting streak with you holding doors open for people.

If something happens tomorrow, there's got to be something wrong.

Something's wrong.

And that was all in Green Bay.

It's just a demographic.

I would have said it's a demographic, but 30, that's close to your age.

And that's, uh,

yeah, it was at the gym.

So I was like, I thought, you know,

wow, man, that's crazy.

I had a guy follow me around the gym the other night.

I went Monday night after the show and he kept trying to work in with me, but I don't do sets.

I do like this resistance thing where you put as much weight as you can and then you let it, like if you're doing curls, you bring it up and then you let it down really slowly while you count to 25.

Then

up.

Well, I've done that, but in sets.

This is not a set.

This is the hardest thing I've ever done.

You go down for 25 seconds as slow as you can.

up for 25 seconds as slow as you can and back down.

So it's like a minute and a half for that machine.

And it's fantastic.

You're in and out of there.

I'm in and out in 30 minutes.

But this guy said, work in with you.

No, I do.

I don't really do that, you know, but if you need a spotter, let me know.

Five minutes later, work in with you.

No.

First of all, this is like a Nautilus machine and there's another one just like it right there.

You know what?

This guy could be that was his first day at the gym.

All right.

He just

wanted to know what to do.

He

went to the

buffest guy he saw at the gym.

Well, at that hour, I might be.

There's like four people in there.

I'm rarely the buffest guy, but I'll take it.

That's funny.

I gotta write that down.

So here's the thing.

You're a big Aaron Rodgers fan, and I heard this in the way, and I did not catch this when it first came out.

I was an Aaron Rodgers fan, and he was in

the package.

When he was here,

correct.

Now it's like, I don't really care what he does.

He was on Joe Rogan like three weeks ago and he talked about if you get the vaccine you get nanobots in your body that help the government track you.

Like when did this happen with this guy?

I've actually heard that before Aaron Rodgers said that.

I'm sure it's a theory that's out there that he just regurgitated but even Rogan went whoa dude.

Like that's that's you know, there's a problem one Rogan said he's not above spewing

a

conspiracy theory, but that one was God he had a whole bunch of stuff too I read about it on a pro football talk.

Those guys don't like each other Micah Florio and Aaron Rodgers.

So it's fun It's fun to read but he thought he thought it was like oh my god, I don't know I don't get it.

And who was he playing for Pittsburgh?

Yeah, he's playing for

Pittsburgh

He even supposedly bought in a little bit to the Sandy Hook thing, and that's when I was really, like, you can spot whatever you want about vaccines.

I don't think it's right to say stuff that's irresponsible, but the Sandy Hook stuff, like, even if you really thought that, don't make parents listen to that, or people with kids have to, it's just horrible.

You know, he got married.

I

heard that.

Apparently, he signed his contract with Pittsburgh with, is he,

Yeah,

he had his ring

on.

His hand was right in the shot.

Yeah, right.

And

then they asked him in the presser.

He said, yeah, I got married.

Who did he get married to?

He's probably keeping it a secret because of last time he had a girlfriend.

Yeah.

Yeah, he said it.

The guy is definitely interesting.

I'll give him that.

He's fun to read about.

I read about this over the weekend, too.

They had the No Kings March, and then there were the military parade on Trump's birthday, and they played fortunate son.

at this military parade.

And it reminded me of in the 80s in Marinette, they did this thing called celebrate.

It was a hundred year anniversary or it might have been a couple of years after it.

And they, during the fireworks display, they played born in the USA.

I don't think people listen to the lyrics of songs.

Those are kind of protest songs.

And both of them are kind of like, why do poor people only go fight in wars?

That's the gist of the songs.

And I don't understand.

And then there was like,

you know, a theory that maybe they played it because it was in, you know, defiance of the president or something like that.

But born in the USA, you hear that all the time too.

I don't think people have ever really listened to the lyrics.

There are plenty of stuff, plenty of things you can play if you want to celebrate America without any, you know, metaphors or a message about how you're anti-war.

I don't understand.

Those two songs, though, get played a lot.

You know, the other thing I saw today, Khan, was a...

I was talking to this older guy at the store.

He just, he knew my folks and he kind of pulled me aside when we were talking.

He had, I swear to God, this nose hair was like a foot, not a foot, an inch and a half long coming out of his nose.

Were you staring at the whole time?

I could

not stare.

It was, and it was the only one like, and I get it.

Like he's a well groomed guy.

He takes care of himself.

He's probably in his eighties, but I think it's the eyesight.

I think they just can't see.

Cause that thing, man.

It was terrible and I wanted to tell him I Wasn't gonna reach up and pluck it out myself Or do one of those like look over there and then yank it out, but I felt bad for the guy Because if he goes back to the old folks home And he's got his sights set on you know Dolores or Gloria or someone He's not doing himself any favors.

You should have bought him a nose nose air trimmer for him.

What do you think I made of money?

There's ones for like two bucks two bucks.

Yeah They're like one uses or whatever.

Yeah, they're good.

They're good for one nose trimming I would have helped them out if I'd I would have spent the two bucks because he's a nice guy But it made me think I always have to wear your glasses as you get older when you groom yourself and cut your nose hair and your ear hair and all that kind of stuff I Don't know.

Where am I going with this?

I think it's

time.

It's time

Yeah, go ahead, do it.

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, it's a good one tonight, folks.

It's National Splurge Day.

What is in your shopping cart?

National Splurge Day.

So our question of the night is, what is in your shopping cart?

You can let us know at 855-752-4842, 855-75 Civic.

You can also text us on the app or if you're watching on the stream on YouTube, Facebook or Twix, Twitter, Twix, Twixster, let us know.

And if you're there, give us a like or a follow.

We always like getting those, but what is in your shopping cart?

What would you do if you could splurge money with no object?

What are you buying?

Well, I mean, there is something in my shopping cart.

It's a new golf watch.

Oh, golf stuff.

Yep.

Nice.

But if I, I mean, that's, I actually want to get that.

But if it's something that didn't matter, I'm getting back her season tickets, even though you can't buy those.

What's a good answer?

Look, the world is your oyster, folks.

Have fun with it.

I'm probably, you know, I'm probably just buying, this sounds so nerdy, but like in cartridges and all those things that you

don't like to have to buy, but you have to buy them.

Maybe some electronics equipment, a new soundbar or something like that for when I watch movies.

An 87 inch TV?

87 inch TV.

I don't have the wall space for that actually.

And I got a pretty big TV and I got a couple big ones and I have good soundbars, but probably electronic stuff.

Like I've never done the thing where I've wired my old, my whole house with like music so you could just go.

Oh

yeah.

Yeah, that'd be cool.

Probably do something like that.

But, and then I would probably do

some really good Asian takeout of some sort.

I'm an easy guy.

Let us know what you think, folks.

It's National Splurge Day.

What is in your shopping cart?

Dave Patterson is here at 635.

We've got some funny clips too we gotta use.

I got a great clip of Bill Burr who makes a point about how, this is kind of morbid, but men are always the ones that drop dead immediately when you get to be like in your fifties.

It's never women.

And the way he tells the story is very funny.

We'll play that.

And a lot of other stuff.

We've got a fun night here.

It's great that you're here.

It's raining outside.

Sit inside.

Listen to the radio, folks.

Be part of the show.

It's Pete Chihuahua at Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

You're just too good to be true Can't take my eyes off you

This is a rainy Thursday night edition of Nightlight Folks.

It is great to have you with me.

Our question of the night is, it's actually, it's National Splurge Day.

So I'm asking the question, what is in your shopping cart?

Monica Hale says, a trip to the British Isles.

I didn't think of that.

Like traveling, you could put tickets in there.

Really anything.

Where are you going to go?

I'd probably go to like New Zealand.

That's, I mean, that's a very interesting place to go to.

It is.

I'd like to go there.

I'd like to go to Italy and France.

And I know you've been to Australia.

I have.

When I was like 10 though.

So I have some memories, but you know,

I can't fade.

You do to go back.

I, I'm tempted just to put like.

Hit Costco and put chips in guacamole or something in my card too.

That's so simplistic though.

Mike on social media also says, I took my $1,000 gift card to the dollar store.

That's a thousand items.

Well, not necessarily.

They're kind of throwing a curveball at you lately.

How much is this?

$3?

That used to be the joke.

A lot of comics do that.

How much is this?

Just go in there and pester the heck out of the employees.

How much is this?

So I want to play this clip.

I thought this was so funny.

Bill Burr is, I like him overall.

I had the opportunity to work with Bill about 25 years ago.

We did a college together in Colorado, and he was funny.

He had not developed his act to where it is now, but he was a funny guy and engaging and kind of fun.

We had a couple beers after the show, nice guy, but I do see his stuff pop up a lot on social media, and I don't love all of it, but I thought this was funny and I thought it was true.

So let's hear that now, Conrad.

Currently I am getting along with my wife better than I ever have in the 20 years that I've known her

Yeah, I figured something out I figured something out basically what happened was a friend of mine died, right?

I'm of that age, you know it's starting to happen.

I'm 56

Right?

Which, granted, this is too young to die of natural causes, but it's not too young to drop dead, right?

Like, as a man, I am in my drop dead years, which is basically ages 49 to about 61.

You know, anything past that, you're just looking at like a prolonged illness, you know?

With these three years, the men drop dead.

And dropping dead is, is a uniquely male experience, right?

Women don't drop dead.

Most of the last time you were out to brunch, there was some woman, hey, I got my mouth done, just grabs her chest and face down into some tapas.

Oh my God, Kathy, right?

They don't.

Men drop dead all the time.

You're out there on the golf course, some guy, the son, just.

Into the shrubs another guy driving at you in a cart his buddy just falls out the side.

What happened?

You know what happened?

He never cried.

That's what happened Put his pants on and he just rolled back on the bed.

He never got back up again.

It can happen Like I'll give you a scenario.

Let's say, you know

I'm upstairs in the bathroom, my wife's downstairs making me breakfast, right?

It's a fantasy, you know?

Let's pretend women still cook for their men.

She's post-mating something and she's heating it up in the microwave.

That's my love language, right?

And I'm upstairs in the bathroom and all of a sudden she just hears a big thud in the floor.

And it's just like, honey?

Honey, was that you?

This isn't funny, honey!

All right?

The next thing you know, you're at my funeral.

It happens just like that, and somebody's trying to put a positive spin on it.

You know, he died doing what he loved.

Trimming his pubes in the upstairs bathroom while listening to ACDC.

Ah, that's funny.

You're not laughing, Conor.

You told me you have a love-hate thing with Bill Burr.

You don't like Bill Burr?

He's all right.

He's all right?

Okay.

What is it?

Is it a political thing or just you don't think he's funny or you think he's abrasive?

I just don't like him.

Wow.

Did something

happen?

You held the door open for him and you didn't thank you?

Today at the gym.

Bill Burr was working out the YMCA.

Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids, he's the 608 says, the previous driver's shopping list.

previous drivers shopping list.

Is previous shopping?

I don't know.

I don't want that.

Give us some explanation there, Tyler.

We need to know.

And Tyler's not being cheeky.

Oftentimes Tyler is cheeky when he's on the text line or he'll put some innuendo up there and they're always funny.

You know what I did last night?

I was craving, you know, oftentimes when I get back to Marinette at like nine o'clock, I told you yesterday I went to Taco Bell.

And I wasn't gonna do that.

I won't do that.

I'm good for a year now, we'll talk about maybe six months.

But I wanted something kind of healthy, but not fast food, but I was starving.

So I drove from here to Swamigal, which is kind of on the way home, but you have to take a roundabout way to get there just because I wanted a Jersey Mike's BLT with jalapenos.

Okay.

And I'm eating it on the way home and I'm like, and it cost me about 25 minutes of my drive.

But it was good, but I'm like, is this worth 25 minutes?

Yeah, I don't know.

You could have just stopped at like a sub shop in Marinette, probably.

Well, they all close at nine, right?

And I get there at like nine.

So I don't know.

Well, you can be that guy.

Yeah, walk in at like two minutes, nine.

Hey.

You guys still open.

You're going to have to break all that stuff out.

I know you just got to put away.

Tonight's question, folks.

It is National Splurge Day.

What is in your shopping cart?

And Monica expanded this a little bit.

She bought travel packages.

A trip to the British Isles.

You can put that in your shopping cart.

Mike says $1,000 gift card to the dollar store.

and Tyler says the previous driver shopping list.

I'm probably going to do that too.

I'm going to put traveling stuff in there and a lot of electronic equipment.

So when we come back, folks, Bridge to Tarabithia writer and producer David Patterson will be here.

I'm very excited to have Dave back on the show.

He's got new projects in the works.

We'll talk about that with him.

And his career is a stuntman too, which is kind of cool.

And then we're talking John Wick, Ballerina, and hour number two.

It's Peach Wabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media radio network.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwab.

Great to have you with us on this rainy Wednesday night.

I'm starting to think I'm like on candid camera or something.

Every time I get here, it starts raining.

I'll get out of my car in the parking garage.

I will walk the block and a half.

It'll rain.

I get into the studio and it stops.

I think Todd's doing it to you.

He is.

He's got that paranormal stuff happening.

He controls the weather.

DeLorean Walls will not be on the show folks tonight in the second hour He had to cancel DeLorean founded a group called brothers helping brothers and June is men's mental health month So we will reschedule DeLorean next week and hope everything is okay On on the home front right now.

I'm very excited to welcome my next guest.

He's been on the show before we've been pals for a long time Pardon me.

He's a very talented filmmaker

And a heck of a nice guy.

He wrote the Bridge to Terabithia and produced films like Love Ludlow and The Great Guilty Hopkins.

And he joins us now on the stream and his name is Dave Patterson.

Hey, buddy.

How are we doing, Pete?

Doing very well.

It's great to see you.

And I always love that Castleblank poster you have.

If you're watching on the stream, you know what I'm talking about, folks.

He's got this awesome bogey poster.

Right behind

them.

Yeah, all these things behind my movies.

I made except Casablanca because, uh, you know, I was not around.

I thought about it, um, pre pre womb, uh, but just had nothing to do with it.

Maybe time for a reboot.

You know, you got a big, you got a big credit under your belt.

Come on.

You can make it happen.

And yeah, the remaking everything now.

So

yeah, Casablanca too.

Electric Boogaloo.

There you go.

How you been?

Good, good.

You mentioned rain.

It's been raining around New York, I think, for the last three and a half years.

So we're getting a little

tired of it.

I bet you are.

So I have to get this off my chest because we're friends.

But I noticed you cast something recently.

I was not on the cast list A and B, I never even got an audition.

And I am getting a little tired of the fact that when these movies are being cast, apparently nobody wants a guy.

with developing man boobs in a one and a half pack.

What is going on?

Why can't I get in these doors, Dave?

Well, so in my defense, if you looked a little closer at the casting, it was my son's first movie.

I did not even get a chance to audition.

There was a role perfect for me, and I was not allowed to audition.

So it was not my film, it was my son's film.

His first son, his first film, I think you're familiar with that, right?

Having a son's...

first film.

I have a son.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Wow.

I didn't notice that.

I saw you posted it.

But now that I look down, it says Carter Lord Patterson.

No kidding.

That's right.

That's his first film.

And it's called show and tell

show and tell.

And he's got he's

got

his cast coming together.

Look at that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Listen, it's all on him.

It's all on him.

I I'm Scottish so I even didn't give him any money because I said you have to learn the hard way, you know and so, you know, you got to go beg and and and and Threaten and steal to make your own film.

Well, you must be helping him out

Other than posting on Facebook, you

know, I've told him I've given a list of things not to do okay to make a movie because You and I do have a couple years on us.

So I think we've

made a couple of choices, which some people would call mistakes, but others would say, you know, reckless challenges towards the gods above.

And so, you know, we've done okay.

Yeah, we're doing okay.

Pardon me.

I wish him luck.

This is really exciting.

And I'm excited for you because I'll be honest, as much as I have apprehensions about my kids entering in this crazy racket, it is nice because we have a lot to talk about.

But I'm scared for them.

I don't want them.

Sometimes I just wish they would go be plumbers or write code or something.

I know nothing about.

So I could just assume they have it handled.

You know what I mean?

Does

that make

sense?

Look, I was devastated when my first son said he wanted to be a writer.

But then he said he wanted to get a real job.

So I breathed a little more about that.

My second son got a scholarship actually go to college to be an actor.

So again, I wept openly.

But then he changed his mind.

And he said, I actually want to go in the music business.

I want to be an agent.

I'm like, that's great, because that means you're just stealing money from everyone, all the struggling artists.

But he goes, but I know you're concerned about that scholarship, so I'm going to continue to minor.

in theater so I can keep the scholarship and I'm like that's my boy brilliant yeah how to take money and steal money at the same time in school so

you got a regular William Macy Felicity Huffman thing going there scamming the universities like that good for you

actually that was the same school by the way but you didn't hear that from me so

that's great

Um, well, that's exciting.

I wish him luck.

You are Scottish and you, you mentioned that you sound, you seem very proud to be Scottish because oftentimes when I have you on the show, Dave, you mentioned that you're Scottish, which to me, as I get older, like I'm primarily Irish.

I'm somewhat proud of that.

I'm somewhat proud of my other ethnicities, but it matters less and less to me as I get older.

I just don't care what people's ethnicities are, but tell me why are you proud to be Scottish?

Well, because, you know, as you get older, you get even cheaper, right?

So you really don't want to spend money or anything like that.

So one of the first things I explained to people is my name is Patterson with one T. People always give me an extra T. And I try to explain to them, I'm like, two T's is English, one T is Scottish for Patterson.

We refuse to pay for the extra T. Therefore, you should remember, Patterson with one T is Scottish.

Hatterson with two Ts is English.

So what was that?

What do they what do they say to you when you say that?

Is there what kind of look do they

give you?

Actually some people say I know some Scottish people with two Ts in their last name and I say right the traders and they're like what I said well back when Scotland was trying to separate from England and everything like that the lords who actually you know killed the Braveheart dude whose state were Scottish

When they said, okay, let's make a deal with the British.

The British said, okay, we're going to give you land.

We're going to give you money, but you can't keep the one T, uh, Scottish Patterson because people get confused.

So we're going to give you an extra T and, uh, you still stay Patterson, but it's two T's.

So

that's, that's why when people get very proud that they're Scottish with two T's, I'm like, well, you're great, great granddad did some pretty bad stuff.

The William Wallace, I just want you to know.

So

have you seen the movie so I married an axe murderer?

Yes way back when you know when he's just yelling at the kid with the big head yes that scene or

that scene is great and then you know just He'd pens now like he's making the kid get his pants all the time that yeah Ford me and you don't see a lot of movies with Scottish people Featured like that.

I know that's a caricature, but I enjoyed it

Oh, yeah, it's not Scottish, it's Crop.

I think that's what was the big line in that.

Exactly.

Well, I've got a lot I want to ask you about.

I always love hearing your Bridgette Terabithia stories, but let's talk about how you got your start, Dave.

I find this fascinating because in my life, I've done a few things backwards.

And I remember when I was in my late teens and I was, you know, studying, I was working out and studying martial arts and stuff like that.

And I thought, I'm going to be a stuntman.

That'll be my way into acting.

And then, you know,

A year goes by and someone just basically hits you over the hand and goes, why don't you just be an actor idiot?

If you want to act, act.

You don't have to be a stuntman.

But here I am talking to one of my pals, Dave Patterson.

You are still a stuntman and you've managed to act a little bit and write and do a lot of different things.

So it's led to good things for you.

Right, right.

So I actually was forced into the acting stunt world at a very, very young age.

Really?

I grew up in a very tough neighborhood in Washington, DC.

And I was always picked on.

I was a small kid.

Bullies just, I was a magnet for bullies.

They'd walk around.

I'd be behind them and they knew to turn around and beat up that kid.

So what I learned at a very young age is that bullies don't punch nearly as hard when they're laughing.

So I realized that if I'm doing, you know, a shuck and jive kind of dance thing or being funny, they actually didn't want to hit me.

They'd rather sit back and be amused.

And the stump part came in because if I had to take a punch, I knew how to go down and not get hurt.

So really my whole performing career was just to stay alive.

And then as I got a little older, I said, hey, maybe I can make some money out of this deal as opposed to just taking a big punch from Brandon Foy or his brother.

So, you know, that was the objective.

That's how I started out.

And then even in school, I became a class comedian, big difference.

I was not a class clown because teachers hate class clowns because you're just all over the place and you're not respecting them.

A comedian knows how to respect the audience, how to read the audience, and also amuse the entire audience.

So I knew when to tell the jokes that would make the teacher laugh, the kids laugh, and I realized that maybe down the road I could turn this into some money.

Really well said.

And you're right.

The class comedian reads the room.

The class clown is just an idiot, like a dunce, almost.

Yeah.

That's very well said.

What's the worst?

I saw a mission impossible a couple of weeks ago.

I'm in awe of Tom Cruise.

Sean Penn recently said, Tom Cruise might be the best stuntman in Hollywood too.

What's your take on that?

And what have you done that's been a really dangerous day?

Did you ever do anything that was where you were kind of worried about your life?

You know the thing about when you're doing stunts, you're not concerned about yourself your your your safety or something like that You're afraid of screwing up in front of your boss and your boss is the stunt coordinator that hired you Because you're like if I screwed this up, then he's not gonna want to hire me again, right?

That's the biggest fear is actually embarrassing yourself in front of your boss you lose a leg

Okay, big deal.

But if you embarrass yourself losing your leg in front of your boss, that's a horrible thing.

So as I tell people when they ask me about stunts ago, I've been shot, stabbed, drowned.

I had my throat slit and electrocuted.

And that's actually just in the last five years of marriage.

That's not actually involving with stunts.

Now, I'm hoping you giggled a little bit.

I didn't hear it, but my wife hates that joke.

She hates that joke, but it usually gets a smile at least for all you radio listeners.

Because I hope you're smiling out there, but probably the most dangerous stunt I ever did was I was Robin Williams stunt double and I had to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge and then drown in the East River What before you go did you jump off the Brooklyn Bridge?

This was after 9 11 so actually I just got up on the bridge and then I had to do a 40-foot free fall in a studio, but then

I had to drown in the East River for about four hours while we shot it and people were not familiar with the East River in New York.

It's called Hell's Gate for a reason.

It's because there's only a very short period of time where the tide is not coming in or going out because it's a river going out and you have the ocean tides coming in because it's the ocean.

It's a very short period of time where they're just kind of ruffling against each other and that's where you drown and

Just to be safe, they had a line around my ankle, basically a fishing line.

If I disappeared, they could reel me in and keep tracking me.

But they also had me holding on to an anchor to try to stay in place, because even at the quietest, you were still moving around.

And of course, with movies, you know how it is, it was supposed to start at like 301.

and it was it was 355 and my stunt coordinator is going the the tides are changing telling the director the tides are changing so that's why they had to put an anchor in for me to hold underwater while i'm face down in the river and the director's like why is he moving why is he moving and my stunt coordinator says because the tide is going about 15 miles an hour and so we're actually have him holding on to an anchor underwater but even that is dragging because of the uh of how

quick the tide was going.

And but again, I wasn't concerned about drowning.

I was concerned about not getting the shot correct.

That's

crazy.

So you.

All right.

So you're 40 feet.

You had to do that the fall was like,

yes, in a studio.

All right.

They didn't tell me about it, by the way.

They had me do some CGI where I just stepped off and sang and showed Robin Williams how to step off and fall.

And then they started pulling everything away.

And the director goes, OK, now for the high fall.

And my stunt coordinator looked at me and I looked at him on highball because I actually, he'd taken a break from stunt work to raise my boys.

You knew that.

And this is one of my first gigs, getting back from the business.

Let's

pick up right there.

Dave,

let's pick up right there when we come back.

We're coming right back.

Dave Patterson's here.

It's Pete Schwabba, the nightlight on the Civic Media radio network.

This is a Wednesday edition of Nightlight with Peach Wobble.

Great to have you with me.

our question of the night.

It's National Splurge Day, folks.

So what is in your shopping cart?

We will catch up on texts in just a little while.

Right now, we have some more time with our pal, Dave Patterson, who is here.

Dave wrote and produced the film, The Bridge to Terabithia.

Dave, The is not in the title.

I found that out.

No, The.

No,

The.

That

would have cost extra

in the posters.

It's like the extra T. Yeah, you can't have that kind of stuff.

Exactly.

So we were talking before the break about you finding out you have to make this long jump and teaching Robin Williams how to do it or coaching him somehow.

How was that?

Basically I was coaching him on how to step off the bridge facsimile and he had to do I think like a four foot drop onto a nice soft bag.

Then they pulled everything away and put me up in the

Way up in the in the rafters and I had to a 40-foot version of that for the green screen and then they would match it later with me in in the East River and It was unexpected for me and my stunt coordinator and he walks up to me and basically looks at me We didn't even speak.

It's like you're gonna do it, right?

Even though we both can expect this you're gonna do it, right?

Not say a thing or complain or anything.

I'm like, yes, so I Went ahead and did it

And it was, I hadn't done a large free follow-up since I was much younger.

I told you I'd left the business to raise my boys

and I just

went back to business.

But I made it and I didn't get hurt.

But I had to lay mostly on my stomach, chest, and face because of the way the fall was.

And it was just on those gym mats that were about 18 inches thick.

Because there wasn't enough room for anything more comfortable.

And so, but one of the great things was Robin insisted on watching the falls, and the first person that got me off the mat was him.

He was like, how's it, how's it chief?

How you doing?

That looked like it hurt.

I go, what didn't tickle?

But I'm doing okay.

Wait,

you had to land on your stomach.

From 40, how does it work?

Do you have a cord where it kind of softens the blow a little bit?

No, there was no cord.

That was the

thing.

It

was a free fall, no cord or anything like that.

It was just, uh, just don't hurt yourself, basically.

It was, uh, make sure as you fall, don't hurt yourself.

And, and so, and luckily I just did it in two takes.

Um, and I made it.

I made it.

And he went and yelled at one of the producers and got me an additional 500 bucks for it because

Robin Williams.

Yes.

That's pretty cool.

Boy, I don't use the word hero very often, Dave, but you're mine after hearing that story.

I need to record that and share that with my wife a little later on, if I could.

What's the movie?

It's called The Angriest Man in Brooklyn.

And then the other most dangerous stunt was we had to me and Mila Kunis is stunt double not me and Mila Kunis We had to race a van down Dipmars Boulevard about 80 miles an hour blowing all these different lights The issue was they had only stopped six different intersections and the director was yelling us go we went through another four intersections without

protection or the light stopped.

We got pulled over by cops.

They were going to cuff us when the director showed up with everyone.

And because they saw us roll through some red lights and they're like, you could have killed someone.

And

we're like,

sorry.

And so we didn't get arrested, but the cop did chew out everyone on the set because they should have.

taken another three or four lights and protected those so

no kid

I guess that was even more dangerous because we could have just plowed into it you know

yeah

bag lady or something like that but um

uh David Patterson is my guest he is the writer producer of The Bridge to Terabithia love Ludlow the great gilly hopkins uh and he is uh a good pal um I have to tell you I think cops are hilarious on movie sets like you know I

I love how they sort of, we were shooting, you've seen my film, The Godfather of Green Bay, Lance Barber and I were shooting.

We're just going gorilla style on the strip, driving this little geo.

The camera man's in front of us in a pickup truck with the camera sandbag down and he's filming us and we get pulled over.

And I make up some story about how we're sorry officer, we don't have the permits, we just needed to grab this one shot.

I got to get Lance back to LA.

He's on yes, dear.

tomorrow, which was a sitcom back.

Have you seen the show and the cop is looking at us like, he knows I'm full of it.

And he goes, yeah, I like that show.

So he just let us go.

He was like the coolest guy in the world, but like they seem to want to help.

Am I wrong about that?

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

In New York

City, the New York film office, basically

New

York film office, they assign you cops.

if you're shooting and depending on the size of the crew, they assign many different cops.

You don't even have to pay for it.

That's the beauty of it.

It

does not rent a cop, it's just give a cop.

And so

they give you cops and they're there just to make sure if some homeless guy comes up and starts throwing trash cans, you got a cop there to make sure that he goes away.

But the cops, yes, they are funny.

They always make sure that there's enough donuts at the craft services.

Otherwise, there's going to be a complaint.

But yeah, they are fine.

Another interesting thing about civil servants is there's a lot of firemen that are stuntmen in New York City.

Oh, that makes

sense.

Because it's one of the few jobs, civil servant jobs, where you can have another job.

because firemen work for four days and they're off for three days.

They work for three days or off

for four

days.

So they're allowed another job.

So I've worked with a lot of New York City firemen who are also stuntmen.

And they're just as crazy, if not more so than regular

stuntmen.

David Patterson is my guest.

All right, here's what I want to do, Dave.

I want to, when we do, we're going to do the news quick as we call it intermission.

I want to ask you about Robin Williams, what you thought of him.

And I want you to explain a little bit.

I love when I meet people who have different backgrounds.

You didn't just go to film school and you're making movies.

You've done it all.

You're also a volunteer fire department.

You're the commissioner of the parks department.

You've been a stuntman, a playwright.

You just have a fascinating story.

So we'll get into that when we come back.

And obviously I'll ask you about Bridge to Terabithia.

And you need to tell us how your most recent film, The Girl Who War Freedom did too.

We'll do all of that after the news.

Dave Patterson is here, ladies and gentlemen, on a Wednesday, a school night.

Do you believe that?

It's Peach Wamba, a nightlight.

We're coming right back on the Civic Media.

radio network.

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay, this is Night Light with Pete Chwaba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who does his own stunts, Pete Chwaba.

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.

It is time for Act 2 here at Nightlight Tonight.

Great to have you with me.

We've got a secret, DeLorean Walls had to cancel tonight so we have a secret review of the film Ballerina coming up at 7.35 and our question of the night is in honor of National Splurge Day, what is in your shopping cart?

We'll catch up on texts in just a few minutes and we talked a little bit in the first hour about how...

God, Red, holds the doors open for people, and no one seems to thank him.

Regardless of demographic or age, it just doesn't happen.

I'm sure he would love to hear or get some advice from all of you.

And I had a guy bird-dogging me at the gym the other night who wanted to work in, and I didn't know what to do with that.

So we had a lot of great conversation.

But right now, I'm very excited.

We've got my pal Dave Patterson is here.

Dave is a movie producer and a writer and a playwright and a stuntman and a firefighter.

And he does all kinds of things.

He probably, you do foot massages, Dave.

Is that on your dossier?

Only for the wife, on her birthday and anniversary.

Only, okay, just those two times.

Is that because...

You don't want to do them at other times or is she just like you're not touching my dogs unless it's a special occasion

Um, you know, we have an agreement.

I don't want to go into it.

She's an attorney there, you know, and there's an NDA that's been signed So let's just say, you know, we've agreed to disagree on how many foot massages happen and those the two guaranteed once I like

it.

I like how you guys make things work and I

always love to hear the word ergo or me a culpa when it comes to a foot massage.

So

there you

go.

All right, so we were talking about all your various careers.

And it's interesting, I always feel like, you know, especially as a writer,

You have to bring stuff and life experiences to whatever it is you're writing.

And you've got a stuntman background, and it sounds like you've done some really cool stunts, and you worked with Robin Williams.

How was he, by the way?

Was he pretty cool?

He was the most generous and incredible person I've ever worked with.

He's a star, but he insisted on coming out of his trailer to watch me do his stunts to make sure I was okay.

Wow.

So the first person to help me off the mat from my high fall was Robin Williams, him helping me off the mat.

He said, how are we doing, Chief?

And then drowning in the East River, the first hand to reach out to me was Robin Williams.

Someone else was holding his other hand because it was on a jetty

and

he was helping me out of the water.

He goes, how are we doing?

Water looked chilly.

How about that, Chief?

And I'm like, yeah, it was a little chilly.

I mean,

For that, I had never experienced that on any other film set when I was doing stunt work that the actors were concerned about the safety of their stunt people.

What

do you think about Tom Cruise, Dave?

When he does these stunts, how protected?

I don't know if you saw the most recent Mission Impossible or the one where in Ghost Protocol, he jumped to the other building

and

broke his leg or broke his foot.

How protected is he?

Like, is it a miracle he's still alive or do they take such precaution?

And I know that there are insurance issues when you make movies.

You have to really protect people.

But what's your take on that?

Well, I'd have to say Tom Cruise, who I really respect as both an actor and a stuntman, he does have a level of crazy, which you have to give him street cred for.

I've never met a stuntman who's worked with him that has not given him the exact same.

Wow,

there are safety elements to protect you in certain stunts But if you've seen I'm not ruining this because you've seen in all the trailers he jumps out of an airplane with a flaming parachute and Yes, there is another parachute to help him as he's going down.

However Sometimes backup shoots don't open either and so when you talk about pure

I guess craziness in a lot of ways, or faith in yourself, or maybe he's best friends with Jesus, I don't know.

But I think the most dangerous job on a Tom Cruise movie is the producer that okays those stunts, because they may be out of a job if that shoot doesn't open.

So, you know, I recently heard that he's getting an Oscar, he's getting Oscar, the next Oscars for his, you know, overall contribution to the film business.

I think he deserves it, to be perfectly honest.

I think he's a good actor, and I think he got kind of shortchanged in a couple things earlier in his career.

But what he's done for the film industry overall, and especially for stuntmen, he's done a lot of things.

They still need an Oscar for stunts, but we're working that way.

We're working towards that.

Right.

That's a great answer.

So as we've discussed in the past on this show, you wrote and produced Bridge to Terabithia, the movie version.

Your mom, Catherine Patterson, wrote that absolutely brilliant book.

And I just want to tell you all what kind of guy Dave is.

My daughter was reading it in fifth grade.

I decided to read it with her.

because I knew you and because I wanted to see what she was reading.

So we had that experience together.

I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever read.

And there were a couple of times I just couldn't stop crying.

I teared up and it was just beautiful.

Some very, very beautiful passages in the book.

Dave.

agreed to meet with my daughter's class over, I don't even know if it was Zoom or Zoom even existed then, it was pre-COVID, but you talked to her whole class and I cannot say enough nice things about you, I still appreciate that to this day and they got such a kick out of it.

But how do you feel when this masterpiece your mom wrote is banned at various libraries throughout the country?

I wanna fight people when I hear that, I get so angry.

Yeah, you just kind of shake your head you shake your head because you know There's so many worse things in the world on the planet and for them because You know one of the big things is the young girl questions the existence of God What kid doesn't question the existence of anything in today's world authority, you know rules regulations and and and she doesn't say there is no God she just questions it

And yet the book has been banned because of that.

Some of the most ridiculous things is that the book suggests incest because the boy lives in the same or sleeps in the same bedroom with his sister because the house is like this big.

Yeah.

And they're like, well, that's definitely incest that, you know, you have an older boy sleeping in the same room with his younger sister.

And it's like, well...

Have you ever met a poor person?

Right.

Literally, you have four or five kids sleeping in the same room.

I don't think that's an orgy.

I think it's just four kids having to live in the same room because that's all the space they have.

Wow.

And ludicrous things.

Part of it's based on me as a child and my mother knew that we used to create forts down by this creek and we would

play and imagine.

And so she wrote about that in the book and people are like, oh, well, this is about witchcraft.

And, you know, Santa Maria and all this because the kids are making their own worlds.

You know, I mean, it's it's it's crazy.

And, you know, we have discussed this, my mother and I and other folks over the years.

We don't think it's that it's that they don't want a very tragic thing happens.

I don't know if we want to ruin it for all the audiences.

But that really, really bad thing that happens in the book.

adults don't want children to be exposed to that.

So they find a myriad of excuses to ban the book so children do not have to face that horrible thing that happens to all of us at some point in our lives.

Right, which your mom handled so beautifully in the book and explains it like if anything, that's how you want kids to learn how to deal with loss or see an example of it, you know, to me.

I just thought it was amazing.

It's based on your childhood and a friendship

you

had.

So you're right.

You don't want to ruin it for people, but I do encourage everybody to read The Bridge to Therapithia.

It's about a young boy's friendship found and friendship lost.

And then you have to read the book to see how that

happened.

So great.

David Patterson is my guest.

He is a movie producer and writer of movies and plays.

So tell us a little bit about, you had a unique experience as a volunteer firefighter, Dave.

You live in the suburbs of New York.

How have you been able to bring any of those experiences to your writing or acting or stunt

work?

Interesting question.

I was a rescue worker at 9-11.

I had a construction background, one of my thousands of jobs, and I specialized in demolition.

And so I walked into Ground Zero after the attacks and worked there for a couple days.

And when I came back out of it, I told my wife that there was two things that affected me.

First of all, working alongside

all the firemen.

I wanted to become one, but I was already too old for New York City.

They had

a 30

year old cut off and I was already 35.

So I said, well, I think I could do it in town.

And I want to become a fireman in town.

And I've been now almost 25 years next year would be 25 years in the fire department.

Nice.

And then I also said, and I may not, I may get on a plane tomorrow may not land.

So as a writer, I want to try to make a movie of my plays.

I'd already had several plays done, some in New York City, but my career wasn't going anywhere.

So I said, I'm going to take one of my plays and I'm going to make it to a movie.

I'm going to send it to this film festival in California called Sundance.

This is how ignorant I was.

Sundance is in Utah, but I just knew Robert Redford was in charge of it.

I assumed it was in California, Hollywood.

And it got in.

And literally my career as a writer-producer took off in film, and that's primarily what I've been doing for all these years.

But if you want to talk about finding characters in a fire department, let me tell you, that's a place to find characters and stories and steal them.

A good writer always steals from people that they're unaware of, and then you just kind of change it around to make it your own.

The funny thing is when I got into Sundance, the New York Times called my captain at the firehouse and they said, we would like to talk to you about David Patterson.

He said, is it New York Times?

Like, yeah, you want to talk about Dave Patterson?

Like, yeah, what do you do?

And they said, well, he has a movie that's going to going to the Sundance Film Festival.

My captain's like, well, what is the Sundance Film Festival?

She goes, well, it's a film festival.

It's like, Patty, he's like, no, he's a stay at home mom.

He's probably vacuuming right now.

He does not write.

None of them knew I was a writer.

None of them knew that I was an actor or stuntman.

I just joined as a local guy and they had no idea of my entertainment background.

And so then they actually called me in and really grilled me about what I do in my life because they knew me as a stay-at-home dad.

They just figured I'd been unemployed for years and given up on looking for a job.

And that's why I was home raising two boys.

That's so great.

Have you seen the manhunt, the search for Osama bin Laden?

And I'm asking you this because as someone who is so close to ground zero, just as a dad who had a one year old son when 9-11 happened and I was scared to death because we were living in LA, I thought LA was next.

I didn't know what was going on.