Transcript
Dive Bars, Film Incentives, and Superman Rewinds (Hour 2)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Thu Jul 10, 2025
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Welcome back.
Great to have you with me here tonight at Nightlight, folks.
On a Thursday, we are running a rerun tomorrow.
It's been kind of a crazy week here at Civic Media this week, but we'll have a rerun on tomorrow, and then we will be back live Monday night for your regularly scheduled program all next week, and then I will be in Madison the following week for part of the week.
Right now, all right, so Johnny Beiner is my guest at the moment.
He made the popcorn pick of the week.
We're going to get back to Johnny in just a second here.
Coming up at 735, Kurt Krause will be here.
He's a local actor and producer.
We'll talk about the new legislation that has passed and is official.
Wisconsin will have a film office and filmmaking incentives for filmmakers, which I think is just great.
Our question of the night is you walk into a dive bar.
What song is on the jukebox?
And what else do we talk about that people might have missed Conrad?
Your Madison story?
Conrad Dine and Dash, he didn't even know breakfast wasn't free at the concourse.
I don't know
off and they got chased down and played.
They didn't press charges though, so that's
reluctantly.
So you're caught up, folks.
We're starting act two with our pal, Johnny Beiner, who is here.
His popcorn pick of the week was Superman from 1978, a great pick, and probably worth a rewatch.
Christopher Reeve, what a great, did you ever see a movie called Mousetrap, John?
I did not see that.
He was in that with Michael Cain.
And it was like, it was based on a play.
The movie's very small.
It's like on one or two locations, but he really was a great actor.
In addition to doing a very good Superman, he was just a solid actor too.
Was that before or after Superman?
That was after, I think that was a year or two after Superman, early 80s.
And he holds his own with Michael Cain and he's just really good.
It's a tragedy what happened to him.
He passed
away,
right?
Oh yeah, yep.
Quite a while ago.
They did, like, a documentary of him called, like, Superman.
It's all about him.
Yeah.
Over the break I looked at, I saw on social media there was a rotten tomato scores of all the Superman movies.
Oh, nice.
And Superman 2 had the highest with 88%.
Superman 1, 86%.
OK.
And this one, I don't know how they have a score already, because it's not out, but it has 85% for this new Superman.
Not only that, but for the new one, they have an audience score of 96%, which I guess they've screened it, but it's got over 2,500 people have already rated it.
So I don't know how that happens or if the fix is in or what, but I do remember really liking Superman 2 as well.
The bad guys were really good in that.
They were
pretty freaky.
Nobody likes Superman 3.
I loved Superman 3 with Richard Pryor.
That one was great.
And the computer.
They're like, the guy that builds a supercomputer, makes Richard Pryor build it.
I thought that was fun.
I
mean, I probably, I probably like it because I saw it when I was, you know, six.
But it's a, it's, and that's actually a hilarious movie.
It's very funny.
You kind of lost me when you said, nobody likes Superman three.
I really liked it.
Richard Pryor was in it.
Wait a minute.
What?
Even though I love Richard Pryor.
Um, so what are you, before we let you go, John, are you binge watching anything at home?
Are you in you and your wife for just you, uh, late
night?
I'm watching, you know what I'm watching?
Uh, as she falls asleep, I'm putting in my earbuds and watching squid games.
How is that?
I've never seen any of those.
Uh, I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know that I would record.
I don't want my name on it as a recommendation, but I started watching it during, I think.
COVID the first season came out or I had I had Carmen Morales as a comedian She was staying at my place when she was working here and she was watching it So I got hooked on to it season one is really good and then season two three is kind of like the same story You know sometimes they split a story arc in
the middle
and call it two seasons So I'm one episode away from finishing the whole thing season three and it's you know, it's good.
It's fun
I
didn't know what to make of it.
I thought it was a game show when it first came out.
You know what?
I think they made a game show of it.
I
have to watch it just to see what all the fuss is about.
It's a
very dark dystopian thing.
You don't want your name on it, but would you recommend it if you were
like... If me and you were at that bar with the hamburgers, I would recommend it to just you.
a mediocre hamburger with a mediocre TV show.
All right, great stuff.
So check out the podcast, Cavalry.
Cavalry Cavalry not Calvary right and then were you able to think like I like when I have comics on I love hearing great road stories because I've had so many of them and they're just so surreal sometimes Have you had something like
that happen?
I did I thought of one I promise I didn't make this up over the break Okay, and this is old like I don't have I don't have a lot of you know I don't have just I couldn't go on for hours with weird road stories But this one I was very new this is probably 20 years ago.
I was
featuring for I was in Omaha and I was featuring for a comic that has since turned into a Booker anyway, but
he was a
drinker and we are walking he's drunk and we're walking to the condo from the club and For some reason there's these kids just hanging out on the street downtown Omaha and he starts
talking trash to them and they start talking trash to him.
And I'm like, what are we doing here?
He takes like, he takes their phone, hits their phone out of their hand.
They start yelling at him.
He grabs a beer bottle and smashes it on like a railing and grabs one of the kids and I'm like freaking out.
I'm like, oh, I'm getting out of here.
And then he, you know, he pushes the kid away, grabs me, he throws his jacket on my head.
He's like, here.
Let's switch jackets and we'll meet at the condo.
And he like throws his jacket on my head like that's our cover.
I was like, because they know what we look like.
And so like, so if anything, I'm going to get in trouble because I'm wearing his jacket.
It was the scariest.
I was like, you know, it was a new comic.
I was like, is this what it's?
Is this what it's like?
What the
hell?
That's a great story.
and scary
too.
I
hated it when I didn't know where I was in a bigger city.
Omaha probably has some dicey area.
I always liked Omaha a lot.
I think it's kind of a really cool city, but I do remember, I don't know if it was the comedian Steve Seagrin that told me this or Vince Moranto, but these two guys got the key to the condo and they went to the wrong spot and they were trying to use the key to get in and it wasn't working and some guy opens the door and the other guy starts to go in.
Like, this guy is there to greet them or something, and
the guy goes, the hell do
you think you're doing?
And he goes, it's okay.
We're the comedians.
This guy's like, well, I don't know anything about any comedians.
Oh my god, that's hilarious.
This
is so great.
Hey, this was fun, dude.
Thank you so much.
It's great to great to talk to you, and I hope we get to have another burger soon somewhere.
Yeah, sounds good Thank you so much for
having me on it's been fun anytime buddy Johnny beaner check out his work.
He's all over the internet You can see his Drybar comedy special you can follow him on Twitter at Johnny comic and check
out his
letterman set From like well, it's probably 2015 very funny stuff and a very funny guy You got a road story conran you kind of had one with Madison a little bit
I don't walking away.
Yeah If you work, you know, if you're on the road, I mean, that's a road story But comics just have them because they're on the road so much like the odds are better that something is gonna happen and I
Okay,
work
There you go.
That was that was great.
That's not like he's gonna get into a rumble
All right, let's get to the text line here.
We've got our question of the night is you walk into a dive bar.
We're piggybacking this on our Tuesday question, which was what are some elements that make up a great dive bar?
And our question tonight is you walk into a dive bar.
What is playing on the jukebox?
So Conrad, you're getting some love here tonight, bud.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is fantastic.
Tom from New Berlin says poison ivy.
Every rose has its thorn.
That is a great one, Tom.
And I admit, I actually kind of like that song.
It was like this weird, like I didn't know they were a hair band when I first heard that song.
I thought it was like an older tune.
night.
The other thing I want to do is I thought of this like a week ago, favorite rock ballad.
Like, because some of them are so cheesy.
Like, some of the songs are just bad, but I heard this one last week, like, loving every minute of it, loving every minute of it.
It's just like a cliche that they say over and over, like the worst song ever.
Meredith from Madison, she's in the 608.
She says, thin Lizzie's the boys are back in town.
This is so fun.
This is a great question.
Awesome.
Thank you, Meredith.
Our pal, Chris Casper checks in and says, if it's near bar time, paradise by the dashboard lights.
P.S.
I can't stand.
Meatloaf, the song should be banned from all jukeboxes.
I kind of disagree with Chris a little bit.
You know that song?
Paradise by the dashboard lights.
Is that closing time?
Let me sleep on it baby baby let me sleep on it.
It's a great song.
It's by Meatloaf and he's a clown but it's just a,
know.
that song
You know what?
That song is another so cliche.
And part of the reason I hate that song is they say, you'll go to the places, you can't stay here.
You have to go home to the places you will be from.
What the?
It's just such a bad song.
But here's another song that's kind of about a bar closing and our pal James Runde wrote it.
And it was called, sooner or later, the night has to end.
And it was, I loved that song.
He played it when we were, he was on the show on the radio.
Great tune.
And I think it's everything closing time wanted to be.
Tom from New Brilin says, George Therogood and the destroyers, I drink alone or one bourbon, one Scotch and one beer.
Tom's crushing it tonight.
Thank you, buddy.
Great one.
Susan from McFarlane says, hi, guys.
Conrad, it's nice to have you back.
I think
Yeah.
She says, I think Age has a lot to do with what would be on the jukebox for you if you walked into this dive bar.
I think universally, Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett, great tune, would probably be one of them.
Take care, guys.
Love the show.
We love that you listen, Susan.
That's a great text.
Margaritaville, another great one.
And Journey, who said Journey?
That Johnny yeah, that
a great journey's on every jukebox Anna for Madison.
She's in the 608 says hi Pete.
Welcome back Conrad.
Thank you My favorite song on a dive bar jukebox would be brown sugar.
Yeah Another one I like by the Stones for jukebox songs is honky-tonk.
Is it a honky-tonk woman?
Honky-tonk blues, I don't even know what it's called, but you know the song I'm talking about.
It's just great and it's a great stones tune love it
Susan sent a nice emoji with, what is that, a bunny rabbit with hearts?
Is that for you?
Cause you're back, Conrad?
Well, thank you if
Either
it's nice to get the love.
Thank you, Susan.
Barb from Waukesha, she's in the 262 says, born to be wild, Steppenwolf.
Yes.
That's a great dive bar jukebox song.
Even maybe born to run, Springsteen.
That's a great one.
Tom from New Berlin, again, Bob Seeger.
Was the lyrics you question?
But Bob Seeger lyrics?
Yeah.
We'll figure it out, Tom.
Thank you, buddy.
We've got some more text, too.
We'll get to those after a very short break.
And a fun clip.
Should we do the Seinfeld clip?
That was
one.
Yeah.
I like that one a lot.
And then our pal Kurt Kraus will be here at 7.35 talking film incentives.
Be great to catch up with Kurt.
He's an actor and producer based here in northeast Wisconsin, and he is a very good friend of the show.
That's all coming up soon.
We'll be right back after a very short break.
It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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.
That is a band I wanted to see at Summerfest.
Did you go to that?
My son and a bunch of my friends went to that and said it was just absolutely amazing.
And I've never seen the Killers live.
I'm not a big concert guy, but they are definitely a band I would love to see live.
Let's stick with the text.
We got these are I love the suggestions people are making our question of the night folks You can still get in on the fun is you walk into a dive bar.
What song is on the jukebox?
It could be a song you're used to hearing maybe a song you want to hear It doesn't matter, but let us know what you think you'd hear on the jukebox
I'm having trouble here finding.
Oh, there we go.
Steve Conrad's dad checking in.
It's about time.
Where's Steve been all week?
All right, Steve, you're always welcome.
If you want to do a pop in.
We'll put you on the air and we'll have a couple minute interview and find out what kind of child count it was.
Steve says, back in the day, when the jukebox ruled the world, temptation eyes by the grass roots.
I don't think I know that song.
I probably did.
I'd probably hear it or know it if I heard it.
Thank you, Steve.
Great one.
Christine from Slinger says, there is a tear in my beer.
Stupid countries.
That is
tune.
That's a great text.
Look.
Stupid country songs can't hide behind the music.
Like, they sound more stupid than stupid rock songs, because rock you at least have that beat and the music to gloss over horrible lyrics.
You don't really have that with country tunes, so I think they stand out a little more.
Let's just maybe think of that when Christine said that.
Jack from Maramax says, going along with yesterday's comment that you can tell a dive bar by the chopped harleys in front, the song, of course, would be born to be wild.
Awesome, Jack.
Fantastic, thank you.
Terry from Wausau says the song, I'm proud to be an American, the Lee Greenwood tune.
Yeah, that's not a lot of jukeboxes too.
That's when people like, if you're liking a country bar and that song is on and people have had a few drinks, they're tearing up when that song comes on.
Yeah, for sure.
Ronnie from Horrican says, I walk into the dive bar and ZZ Top is playing on the jukebox, outstanding.
Excellent, Ronnie.
Alright, that's great.
I think we're caught
Oh, yeah back in black.
Mm-hmm, or you shook me all night long as a those are all great so
All right, so Kurt Krauss will be here in just a few minutes folks.
It's gonna be fun.
There are film incentives in Wisconsin.
I'm so excited about that We'll bring Kurt on after the news and we will have a discussion about filmmaking in Wisconsin if you have a script This is the time to make it folks.
We did not get to our movie talk.
I've seen Jurassic World Rebirth and I told you during the break Yeah, it's not a great movie, but it's I liked it enough like yeah, the CGI is so good
Now, it's in a different place than it was in 1993 when the first one came out.
And the script is a little cheesy.
I wouldn't say that.
Like, David Cap wrote it.
He's a UW-Madison grad.
And he's like the hottest writer in Hollywood.
And he's a great writer.
But there were a couple scenes I didn't think they needed.
I thought they should have just stuck to the dinosaurs.
way because the dinosaur like I said the CGI Looks so good and the dinosaurs.
There's some really good jump scares and My wife is drink whenever a movie is on something will happen like She knows it's coming and she'll still say out loud.
Oh, no
Oh, yeah.
Oh nice.
It was it was a good movie
Absolutely.
So I recommend Jurassic World Rebirth
And I wanted to share with you because we talked about this on the air white lotus season three.
Yeah You said there's a very disturbing scene between brothers.
didn't mean to downplay Like look, it's a disturbing scene I I'm glad you told me that because I was expecting much worse knowing where the show white lotus can go from time to time It was disturbing but it the aftermath was kind of funny because the brothers like oh dude, you know, it was like Joey and Chandler's
horrifying thing, like if they were going to have a threesome with a woman, it's sort of the same thing happened to white lotus.
So I don't know.
But again, I just think, I know a lot of people were kind of saying white lotus season three isn't as good as the first two.
I loved it.
I like all their seasons.
funny you say that because John and I swapped emails today Oh nice, and he he I'm trying to get him back on the show to come back and discuss his role on white lotus season three He's the only cast member.
I think who's been on all three seasons.
Yeah, so Hopefully we'll get a date nailed down with John.
He was on the show last fall.
I believe before they did a Our Napoleon.
Yes
at the Barrymore and John was in town for that with John Heider So hopefully we'll get that figured out, but he's good.
I
What I like so much about his character on White Lotus Season 3 is I couldn't tell if he was behind Jennifer Coolidge's death in Season 2 or just a lucky dude that inherited all this money.
Was he plotting to kill her?
I think he
insinuate he was.
Yeah.
Oh, right.
She wanted to do it with him in front of, you know, he, John Grice's character, Gary, wanted her to do it with Patrick Schwarzenegger's character in front of John Grice.
And he was, as pervy as Patrick Schwarzenegger was in the show, he was like really creeped out by that.
I thought that was very funny.
We got to talk about Old Guard 2 at some point and Jaws the 50th anniversaries this summer I watched that with my wife and kids over the weekend And I don't remember the movie being as good as I thought it was it was really they jump right into it and it's so good and I just
I love Jaws, so we'll get to that at some point.
The whole summer is the 50th anniversary.
Alright folks, our pal Kurt Krause will be here next talking about film incentives.
This is going to put Wisconsin even more on the map than we already are with great movies being shot here in Wisconsin.
That's coming up after this news break on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back.
This is Nightlight with Peach Bobba folks.
Great to have you with me on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We are jamming through a Thursday night show.
Ronnie from Horecon says LaGrange.
Is that a song?
Sorry, Ronnie.
I don't know that one.
I think that might be
A band.
It sounds more like a band name.
It's a city in Illinois that I always thought sounded like the most.
It's like a Chicago server.
It was like LaGrange.
It always sounded like a place I didn't want to live.
I don't think anyone's listening from the Grange.
And if you are, you know what?
I've had it with your nonsense.
Rhonda from Madison says, bad to the bone.
That's another great dive bar jukebox tune.
Awesome stuff.
All right, you can still get in on the fun, folks.
If you want to let us know, you walk into a...
Dive Bar, what is playing on the jukebox?
Right now, I'm excited to pivot here and talk to my friend Kurt Krause, who joins me in the studio here.
This worked out nicely.
Kurt is a local actor and producer, very busy guy.
He works in commercials.
He does films.
He's all over the place.
But tonight, he's in the Nightlight Studio.
Great to have you, buddy.
Yeah, thank you for having me.
All right, so we've talked on this show, Kurt.
I just want to jump right in.
So much about the incentives and action Wisconsin.
Are you actually part of action Wisconsin or were your efforts separate but coinciding with theirs?
I was actually a very late ad action Wisconsin, so Everything we're enjoying right now.
And again, this is this is big news.
Yeah, and this has been just years and years of this coalition working and
because of our mutual friend, Nathan Deming, talked about some of the efforts we were doing in Door County and introduced us to Jeffrey Kurz and brought us in on the coalition.
And then we testified this spring before the state assembly, all together.
And it was just, it was magical.
It was, it felt like a brave heart, like uniting the plans because we, you know, we knew of each other's names or we'd seen the work of one another.
But to all of a sudden all come together in the rotunda of the Capitol building and then
going together and talk about local impacts and tourist impacts and the human impact of all of this.
It was just, it was a very special day in the assembly.
I really, without knowing too many details, I'm friends with all of you guys.
Jeff's been on the show, Nathan's been on the show, you've been on the show.
They were on the show together about two weeks ago, right before this went to an actual vote.
And I
had a
good feeling about it just because I feel like who doesn't want...
their state showcased in movies.
Whether it's a big studio film or independent, or if they shoot TV here, it helps the state, right?
Absolutely.
And it was beautiful.
It was a bipartisan support.
It was in the governor's budget.
It was also this bill that Representative Armstrong was...
was backing as they were moving it through the assembly.
And it was bipartisan then too.
So it was like people really got this.
And I think everybody saw the impact.
So it is possible for us to work together.
For people to work together,
yeah.
Well, congratulations and thank you for your efforts.
I was talking at the beginning of the show about how I've had a project forever.
I don't know if it'll ever go or not, but you keep these things moving forward.
And now that Wisconsin is an option to actually shoot something, it really makes life good as a filmmaker.
So what does this mean for filmmakers?
How can they, how will this help them financially?
So as early as 2026, so just in this next year, it's going to be.
to my understanding, five million that's out there annually that if the project's being done in state and they're using services that are within the state, the goal is to keep the money in the state and to be producing outcome within the state of Wisconsin.
And so they can get up to a 30% return.
Is it a return?
Is it cashback?
Is it that kind of rebate?
because
some
states offer that and some states offer incentives for taxes and stuff like that.
Do we know yet or is that still being worked out?
Let me get back to you.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a very good question as to how that's how that's back.
I was initially thinking that it would be on on the the tax.
We've got some fans outside the window
outside wondering what's going on in here.
Two dudes with microphones talking.
Yeah.
Well, that's exciting.
And I is it a 30%
I think it's 30%.
That's good.
That's kind of aggressive, too.
If it's a rebate, I think that rivals Illinois and Minnesota, at least out in the lower part of Minnesota.
it makes Wisconsin really competitive.
So I think that I can't thank you enough for your efforts and and those of Nathan and Jeff as well.
I was gonna say if our friends and film are listening tonight and if they have any additional details they want to throw out there have them call in because yeah these guys have been have been working tirelessly and like I said they've they've been doing the legwork for so long.
And we've got JB Thompson speaking of filmmakers he's who I call the guy behind the guy.
behind the guy.
He says, he's talking not about film incentives, but he says, and it got a divita, probably the best way to celebrate the dive bar.
Yeah, because the song goes on forever, JB.
So that's even worse.
Thank you, buddy.
And he's a guy who will benefit.
Dan Davies has been on the show and Craig Kinit and Ezekiel Drew is like, does this make you are you close enough to going right into production on something where you can really capitalize on this because 2026.
five months away at this point.
You know, we've been putting together a budget and a number of different avenues that we want to raise money for our feature film Amphibious.
And now that this has happened, you know, we I think we are going to look at how this could impact us and and what routes we would go to, even if it means increasing the budget right right now, where it's a lofty goal of 300,000.
OK,
I
know when you did Godfather Green Bay that I mean, you guys were over a mill on that.
We were not.
In fact, we started around three and then we raised more money as we went on.
And you know, it's funny like that extra money you raised, it allowed us to shoot on super 16 millimeter film because we were going to have to do it digitally and at the time.
digital was not there yet.
It looked like, I think it was called DV or something like that.
And I was like, Oh, man.
So when we found some extra investors, we got closer to a half a mill, half a mill.
And that really helped.
So I wish you luck with amphibious 300, you should be able to do some some good work for 300,000 bucks.
I think on an indie in Northeast Wisconsin, right?
Absolutely.
And that's still that still qualifies as micro budget.
Yeah, on the SAG level.
Now, again, with
all of this out there, and again, not knowing what the future holds, you could really swing for the fences and go on a bigger budget as well, knowing now that we have some of these things that could really play to our favor.
So I think we'll be looking at some numbers moving forward, because again, the ink has not dried on this thing.
This is just days ago.
So
when you say five million.
has been allocated.
First of all, that's nothing.
For a state budget, I mean, whatever, states have bills to pay and all that kind of stuff.
But for what you get back, and I've always heard that when you spend a dollar in a community,
of a film budget $6 gets pumped into the local economy and I don't know how accurate that is that was a statistic I remember from years ago but if this can help the economy if this if you guys can generate or we as a state can generate more projects that really is going to help the economy and hopefully keep the incentives here longer what happens when that five million
Bucks is gone.
They could one production come in from LA or New York and take the whole thing like didn't that isn't that kind of what happened with the public enemies?
So public enemies definitely got the the bad rap for that Yeah, and I believe they've learned from that and I have have things in place that that doesn't happen The specifics of that I'd have to get back to you on
sure and
any any of the folks who've been working with you know with the assembly with the our lobbyist who's just been amazing You know, I know that they
learned from a lot of those things from 2008.
And again, public enemies, and going back to that local impact, to this day, we see what it does in the community of Oshkosh, one of my, you know...
good friends like Kevin McHugh.
We just wrapped a film called Black Rose that was filmed at venue 404 in Oshkosh, which is this amazing events venue for weddings, conferences, what have you.
But that was the national bank that was robbed in the film public.
In
public enemies.
Oh, that's so
great.
Way back in 2008 and to this day, they've kept that 1930s, 1940s vibe.
Yeah.
And you go in there and they've got the tin roof and you've got almost
floor to ceiling professional photographs from that production.
You've still got the vault in the basement.
And they
have a full bar down there.
And they've they've really, you know, capitalized on this and the you know, the return continues, you know, and we're, let's see what we're, you know, come 2028 years out.
Yeah.
So I mean, wow, it's just incredible.
And
In other places, downtown too.
I mean, to this day, they will still talk about when Hollywood came to Oshkosh.
And I shared with you earlier, it was actually a career launch for myself because the very second film I got involved in as an actor and worked on second team was in public enemies.
And so like literally, to have your second film be a universal picture.
never having left the Midwest at that point was just, it was just wild.
You were
probably like, like, and for those of you listening, Kurt Krause is my guest.
He's a local Northeast Wisconsin based actor and producer and a very busy guy.
Let's tell people you were, when you were 18, you were an extra on my film, The Godfather of Green Bay.
So you're getting chummy with Lauren Holly and Tony Goldman and Thomas Lennon.
And then you go right to public enemies.
You must have thought, oh my God, like Hollywood has come to the Midwest.
It was just, it was.
18 year old kid.
Yeah, so and I see I was probably 20 21 or 22 when when public enemies had to come to Oshkosh and yeah, so I mean to go to go right into my second film and be working with Johnny Depp and Michael Mann, you know and then a lot, you know Spencer Garrett was the
actor I was standing in for.
And all of them were just incredibly gracious.
That's so great.
I love your stories like
that.
All right, so this also means that we have a film office in Wisconsin.
We were only one of like a dozen or 13 states that did not have a film office.
I think we were down to like three.
I think we were in the last three.
Oh, God, that's terrible.
So we're gonna have a film office, which is great.
Where will it be?
Do we know Madison, Milwaukee?
Where do you think the film office will be?
This is just a projection.
I would I would project it would be Madison.
Okay, because it will be a state Film office and so my my thought is it would be tied into the legislature, right?
What do you think the climate is here Kurt first for Wisconsin in general for independent film and then northeast Wisconsin think you just mentioned black Rose You also have this other ambitious project amphibious Tell us about that because I remember the synopsis was so cool
Yeah, Amphibious, it's meant to be this inspirational film and target audience being high schoolers, but it really applies to everyone.
And in Amphibious, you have a character who is transferred to a new school because when his secret comes out again and again, he gets bullied.
Well, his secret is that he was born a syndectily.
He has webbed toes and webbed fingers.
And he sees this thing as a curse and this thing that always isolates him.
when he comes into a caring school with support staff that steps in to help him see this thing as a gift.
And he gets involved with the swim team and he starts making better and better time.
And pretty soon he becomes the pseudo celebrity.
And it's that very thing that he was hiding away for so long that was making him feel isolated.
That's now being celebrated.
So he uses this whole pseudo celebrity status to lift up people around him because he knows what it's like being that other guy.
Is it based on?
a book or a true story or someone you know?
It's a story I wrote.
It was inspired by a number of things, but a story I wrote originally.
And it went to a writing competition.
It was a finalist and I'm like, okay, people like the story.
Let's write it as a feature film.
And we've got a really just amazing team coming together to work on it.
That's fantastic.
All right, we'll have a couple more minutes with Kurt Krause after this very short break.
We have, I want to ask you about film festivals coming up.
and what you're watching.
You always have a good binge watch suggestion, right?
Or am I
thinking of someone else?
Hopefully I do.
Kirk Cross is here.
We're coming right back on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome back.
This is Nightlight with Peach Waba.
I am Peach Waba.
happy to be broadcasting from a beautiful downtown Green Bay statewide on this gorgeous summer evening.
My guest is Kurt Krauss.
We have a few more minutes with Kurt.
He is a local filmmaker and actor.
What do you tell people?
Like, I get this a lot.
You must get it too, because you've been in a lot of independent films in Wisconsin.
You're tied into the community.
Someone comes to you and says, hey, I've got this great idea for a short.
It's 10 minutes long.
What do I do?
What's the first thing you say to them?
Well, short films are great because you can get a lot of momentum and turn out the project fairly quick.
Typically, I'd say pass the script around to people you trust and get feedback.
And if it's your first film, it might be tough to get feedback.
Constructive criticism can still hurt.
I know that as well as anyone.
Yeah.
And I think over the years, you kind of just build layers of skin for sure.
Usually shopping it out and just kind of getting, getting a feel if, if the story sounds interesting enough and they want me to consider producing it, you know, and again, if I really like the story, then I start to read through it and see, okay, um, logistically, what does this look like location wise?
Um, can you do budgets?
I, you know, I can, but there's a lot.
Yeah.
there's a lot better people than myself.
Yeah, it's intimidating.
Yeah, I can.
It's, you know, that's a lot of a lot of heartburn for this guy, but other people just like thrive in that realm.
That's great.
Yeah, and it all starts with a script, right?
I mean, you got to have a good script.
Otherwise, I mean, I've always said like, you can't even if you're a great director, if you have a bunch of crap on paper.
you don't really have anything to direct.
And actors too, they need some, they need good material.
So it all starts with the script.
What are some festivals?
Let's talk about film festivals locally that you could refer people to.
If people haven't had the film festival experience, where would you tell them to go?
Or right off the bat, I gotta say the Dork County Film Festival.
And disclaimer, you're involved in that and that's great.
Yeah.
Just, it's a festival near and dear to my heart.
You know, we've been, we're approaching the big 20.
and that's big for a festival to get to the 20 years.
What do you mean, the
big 20 years?
Film Festival has been here for 20 years?
Well, we're getting there.
I think this is the 17th.
You're coming up.
Wow, I didn't know that, okay.
17th or 18th.
Chris Opera would know, obviously.
Yeah, he's been
on the show.
Chris is great.
Chris
is amazing.
What a
great setting for a film festival to Dore County.
It's fantastic.
Beautiful.
Over at the Gold Theater.
And it's always Valentine's Day weekend.
We're actually still accepting submissions through Halloween, so October 31st.
You can still get your film in and the judging panel will review and make the decisions.
And share that website again, because I forgot about that website where you can go and get all kinds of information on local film festivals and national film festivals.
So filmfreeway.
So filmfreeway.com is really, when you're looking to submit a project, you can, you know,
you can, in your search engine, you can look at locations, you can look at themes of a festival, and, you know, they can be here in the US, they can be global, and, yeah, it's a wealth of info right there, just for, you know, there for the
time being.
Bear with me.
I'm gonna get through the rest of our texts here that I want to ask you what you're what you can recommend binge-watching and it can't be something you're in Our question of the night folks.
I'll read these final few texts here is you walk into a dive bar.
What song is on the jukebox?
Ronnie from Horikin says ZZ top Did I read that or was he clarifying?
a song.
Yep.
Okay.
Thank you, Ronnie for clarifying that TJ
from Oshkosh, Instability Props Fund.
I need you to go over that text.
under the video.
On the text
okay.
want, I can read it.
Hey, Pete and Connor, go ahead.
You read that one, because I haven't...
I've been meaning to share with y'all a local queer-led independent production that some of my Oshkosh area friends are working on, a TV show called...
instability.
The script has already won multiple awards and episode one will be premiering at the Time Theater on November 16.
Get out of
here.
That's fantastic.
So it's not done or is it it's done the first episode will premiere.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Send us your contact info, TJ.
Let's see if we can talk to TJ about that.
That sounds like a really
Cool project.
I was just overwhelmed because I saw the picture and then I saw all these
words and I'm like, oh my
God, I can't.
Thank you, TJ, for the text and let's talk.
Anna from Madison says, Pete Lagrange is a song by ZZ Top.
See, the nightlight, the couch
potatoes are
on it, man.
Tony, the trucker says, Pete, Jerry Jeff Walker is why don't we get drunk and screw?
After all, isn't that the reason people are there anyway?
Yes, Tony, the trucker.
And as a trucker,
I'm just guessing he's been in the share of dive bars.
Thank you, buddy.
Steady Eddie and the 608 says, Pete, looking for love in all the wrong places, sung by Johnny Lee in 1980.
I think that that was the last year I was in a dive bar.
Oh, that's a shame, Steady Eddie.
He says, I must admit, I do miss that dirty bar.
Why don't we get Drunk It Screw?
That's a great song.
I forgot all about that.
Thank you, Steady Eddie.
Folks, on Monday, we've got a great show.
We have a rerun tomorrow night.
We'll be back live all week live next week.
And we'll have on Monday night.
On stage for cancer, we'll be here in the studio.
The peats and one of their children will be here singing.
It's going to be amazing.
Kim can't be here, but they are so much fun to have in the studio.
And then our pal, Rob Thomas, will be on to talk about the summer blockbusters and all kinds of fun stuff.
Rob is a Madison based film and TV critic, so that'll be Monday night and Kurt so What are you watching?
What can you recommend?
We got about a minute left?
So this is gonna be old news for everyone else, but I have it's okay I have to finish the final season a better call saw
There's so much content out there.
Don't ever feel, you know, like, you can't watch everything.
I just finished White Lotus season three.
I started a show called Lion of Duty that came out in 2012.
So that's how it is, right?
Did you like it?
I feel better now.
Yeah.
Love Better Call Saul.
Okay.
And I was, I was so into it, like a lot of other folks that when you were waiting on the next season, you would rewatch the season to just get.
as much of the stories you could get.
And after that, the wire has been recommended to me.
Oh,
fantastic.
I've watched that whole series twice.
You really have to pay attention, but it is maybe the best TV show ever.
A lot of critics.
say that
my brother was talking it up today so I'm like okay well that's gonna be the next yeah
check it out Kirk Kraus ladies and gentlemen thank you buddy thanks for being on the show tonight and congrats again on the film incentives that's excellent and my thanks to Johnny Beiner and all your texts and calls have a great weekend everybody we'll see you Monday on behalf of the lovable producer Conrad goodnight Wisconsin
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