Burgers, Cheese Curds, and Ghosts: Wisconsin’s Hidden Gems (Hour 2) (Hour 2)

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

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who loves to watch true crime, but only if it's shoplifting, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back.

Missed you guys.

Thanks for being here for Act 2.

Great show here tonight, folks.

Lots of fun on Night Light.

My guest currently is Paul Vandenplatz.

He is the founder of Wonderfully Wisconsin, which you can follow on TikTok.

Instagram, Facebook, it will make you love our state even more than you already do because he loves our state.

And we will get back to Paul in just a minute.

We have at 735, Jason Mansmith will be here.

He's the marketing director of the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake.

They have some great shows coming up.

Jason also hosts a show here on Civic Media.

We'll talk about that.

And our question of the night is, what is your least favorite movie genre?

And I thought about this last night because

What's the movie called again, Heads of State, right?

Yeah, Head of State.

John Cena and Idris Alba love Idris Alba, tolerate John Cena.

I think he's a little overexposed at the moment, but the movie looks so stupid and you know what you're getting.

The comedy and action comedy is never that funny and the action is lame because nobody's ever really in any danger.

It's kind of a waste.

It's a waste of time.

So you're talking earlier saying, well, they never get shot.

Yeah.

the big twist at the end, guess what?

Please tell me one of them dies.

No, but he does get shot with an arrow through the shoulder.

Okay, so what?

You know what I mean?

Like, I love Reacher, I love the Reacher TV show, but the end of season two, was it Reacher?

Yeah, there was this ridiculous shootout where, like, I know the guy's big, but if he's 20 feet away and a thousand bullets are being fired at him, he's gonna get shot.

I can't, I...

I have no tolerance for stuff like that.

Conrad's genre that he could do without is horror.

And our guest, Paul Vandenplatz, it says Seth Rogen.

It's his least favorite movie genre.

That's maybe my favorite answer of the whole week.

So there you go.

Let us know what your least favorite movie genre is.

Well, read your text on the radio.

That sounds like a great deal.

It's free.

And who knows, maybe you could become, maybe your text will make you an influencer like our current guest, Paul.

who I don't even know what that's like.

I have no idea what it's like to have 70,000 people hanging on your every word.

That must be cool.

It's weird.

It's very weird.

Do you ever do that?

You ever go, why are they listening to me?

Yeah.

Yeah, sure.

And it's weird too, working with brands, you know.

So it's like, they actually know who I am.

That is so great.

I'm so happy for you.

That's so great.

So tell us about, all right, wonderfully Wisconsin.

I've told you where you can follow it.

You're doing some really cool stuff too.

You've got a burger tour.

Tell us about that.

Well, I'm determined.

I've been seeing over the last couple of years.

I think it's the Wisconsin Beef Council does a competition every year where it's like...

They just have everybody vote on it.

And then it's like the top 10 vote getters, then they go and taste them and then they award a best burger.

And you know, I saw that I'm like, that's kind of a really lame way to award a best burger.

Like you need to get out and try places.

So

I

determined if it takes me a year and a half or two years, I'm gonna try at least 100 burger places around the state of Wisconsin.

And I'll just crown a winner.

It doesn't matter.

That's

doable in two years, right?

Yeah, I think so.

That's like a burger every, what, two weeks or?

Yeah, roughly.

Okay.

Oh, you can do that.

You're sleep.

Absolutely.

So what about Appleton?

Like you live in Appleton.

What's a good burger place that we might not have heard about or the place you like?

A home burger bar on College Avenue is a fantastic spot for a burger.

One of my favorite, like, real hidden gem ones is Northland Pub.

Fantastic burgers

and tater

tots there.

Unbelievable.

I don't know what they do to them.

They're very

good.

The Tater Tot is kind of a lost art, right?

Yeah.

Why don't more places have Tater Tots?

I don't know.

They should.

Give me a Tater Tot over potato salad any day of the week as a side.

Come on.

Absolutely.

Do you ever get, do you hope you get to the point where like when you walk into a place, people are like, oh God, that guy's here.

Shape up!

I've got to do a couple of places where they know me and it's still odd.

That's so cool.

All right, let's talk about the burger.

I'm back and forth on this.

You know, I used to like like gourmet buns.

Now, give me a butternut or a wonder bread bun that's small and doesn't take the taste away from what's between the bread.

Does that make any sense?

Do you have

a certain bun you like on your hamburger?

No, it's just more or less like you have to have a bun.

A bun is almost as important as the burger patty itself

that

it's like it really needs to fit with.

what you're doing

with that burger.

And what kind of burger, what are you going for?

Do you like the bison burger?

Like right down the street here at Hagermeister, they have an elk burger I've had that's pretty good.

God, I gotta get to Hagermeister.

So like, yeah, they have good food.

It's great bar food.

Do you have a, or is it like, do you like the ground chunk, ground sirloin?

You like it rare?

How do you go for your burger?

I like my stuff.

You have to have a pretty fatty burger to do it properly.

And especially in Wisconsin, we do like smash burgers where they're

pretty

thin so you have to have a high fat content for that But I like my stuff like rare or medium rare.

I don't mean to put you on the spot here You're kind of an everyman so I know you didn't like go to culinary school or maybe you did but what is a smash burger?

What I've that word is all over the place now and I kind of just not and pretend I know what it is when I'm talking to the waitress But what is technically a smash burger?

Typically they do those on a griddle

And so, because a regular hamburger patty, you know, will be pretty sizable sometimes.

So all they're doing is they're taking like a spatula or a tool designed, I don't know what it would be, and they'll smash it down and usually that gets a really good sear on

it and

locks in some of the fat and juiciness.

And you said it's thin.

Yeah, they're typically pretty

thin.

Oh, that's interesting.

Okay, you did another post today.

I love this on Facebook, regarding cheese curds.

Fried or fresh?

Where are you cuz yeah, I think you were about 50% last time it was

pretty close.

Yeah Where are you

at?

So I'm a fresh guy.

I like calling them raw.

You gotta have the raw Kurds

You're not a I love fresh Kurds more than fried.

Yeah When I get that squeak, I love it.

I trust people like you guys

because

you can get you can get fried Kurds almost anywhere But you can only get fresh Kurds in Wisconsin

Is this what the poll is at?

Is it literally at 50-50?

Oh my God, it is.

On the nose.

So 50% chose correctly and 50% are wrong.

And you don't

mind to take a stance on that either.

No, no, it's all in

fun.

I just voted for fresh, so now it's 52.

I'm gonna vote for fried.

Here you go.

Fried, what do you think about that?

50-50, okay.

You know what I think, and I'm not an expert, but if I could just give you some advice on your social media platforms, you know what I think you should do?

Get political.

No, thank you.

Who doesn't love burgers?

Both sides of the aisle.

That could be very... All right, let's talk about Kringle, Paul, because you did something recently about Kringle.

Sure.

You posted that you maybe your favorite Kringle.

That's what was constant food.

We got burgers, which was... The hamburger was created here, right?

Yes.

In Chano.

And Seymour.

Seymour, right, that's it.

And then we just talked cheese curds.

So now, Kringle.

Tell us about Kringle.

Well, Kringle is the state pastry of Wisconsin.

And if you've never had one, just get one.

You can get them, I think Festival Carries Racine Kringle Company.

So

that's a good, you know, the first taste is free kid.

You're gonna,

you're gonna, you're gonna, it's a spurious slippery

slope.

Do you have, have you ever had Uncle Mike's?

Uncle Mike's

is fantastic, but I always like to say when I do Kringle content, people are like, Uncle Mike's is the best.

And I always say,

There's two different categories.

You have traditional and non-traditional.

Uncle Mike's

is by far and away the best non-traditional Kringle.

They're

insane.

But sometimes they're a little sweet, they're a little much, you know, where it's like a traditional Kringle.

Like in my house, we grew up and that was like a breakfast item.

Like, oh, here's a

fresh Kringle and you have that for breakfast.

Yeah, I'm with you.

I kind of think like Kringle, like Uncle Mike's compared to more traditional is like a Chicago deep dish compared to a regular

pizza.

That is a great.

And

I can eat like three bites of Uncle Mike's.

And then I'm either got to plan my day around if I eat more of that, I may have to be laid up in a sugar coma.

Because my parents sometimes will bring the, it's got like pecans, frosting, there's cinnamon in there.

It's insane, but it does taste good.

You just can't eat a ton of it.

So how

So Kringle and Racine, is that where it started?

Yeah, I believe so.

It's a Scandinavian pastry.

And that area of the state, Racine specifically, is heavily Scandinavian.

So that's where it comes from.

All right.

What's the Wisconsin food you haven't really kind of done a deep dive on that you'd like to, if there is one?

Booyah.

What is that?

What's Booyah?

So Booyah is actually more specifically a Green Bay thing So it is like a chicken noodle soup, but it's prepared slightly different

like Booyah base.

Is that is that where it comes from like this?

Well, it actually comes in I think the Presquizet here in town a recent immigrant from Belgium went to put an ad for Booyah and

then

said mispronounced it or misspelled it Booyah

And so then the name has stuck.

So it is a Belgian specific chicken noodle soup, if you will.

Wow.

OK.

Well, you've got, you know, when you leave here tonight, you've got, you just mentioned Hagermeister.

You go a little further down.

It's the Heights.

I had a burger there the other night.

It was delicious.

Oh, I hear Heights is great.

It's like a bourbon burger with blue cheese and grilled onions, dynamite stuff.

You took a trip recently.

I want to bring it back to movies for a minute, to the Pacific Northwest.

And I think I remember you posted from there, correct?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So tell us about your trip and what did you discover about that area that I thought was kind of cool?

Well, it was absolutely beautiful, but I did a self-guided Goonies tour in Astoria, Oregon, which is right on the coast.

So if you're...

You know, about my age group, a millennial, you grew up with that movie, and it's pretty iconic.

So I got to drive around and see different scenes from the movie.

And a story itself, if you're a history buff, is the oldest established city west of the Mississippi.

Is that right?

Yes.

It's a beautiful area.

I mean, it's incredible.

How does the self-tour work, though?

Do they give you headphones or something?

No, no, it's kind of what I do here.

It's just

like I just looked up the locations and then...

put everything down and then just went and visited the different locations on my own.

Were you by yourself or did you?

No, I went

with my parents.

Oh, okay.

So

it was cool for them too because, you know, I grew up watching a lot of Goonies in my house.

And so they also watched a lot of Goonies.

So it was neat for them to see it as well.

That's great fun with the parents.

So, all right.

So you post about Wisconsin, where are you off to next?

What can people look forward to if they follow you on Facebook tonight or TikTok or Instagram?

What do you have coming up?

I'm going to be getting back down to the Milwaukee area, knocking out some content down there, maybe some more La Crosse, Eau Claire, Driftless region.

Next week, I'm going to be doing some more out of state stuff.

So I'm actually going to be going to the Black Hills and doing some really neat stuff out in the Black Hills, because that's another area that's not really, people know Rushmore, and that's it.

And it's like,

there's a lot of history, and it's just really cool.

We got to think of a name for South Dakota.

You got wonderfully Wisconsin sort of.

Yeah.

Snuggly South Dakota.

That's terrible.

I'm not the guy to talk to.

So are you would you want to do this full time?

You said you have a full time gig.

Do you see a point where you could get to do this where you're like, I'm just going to focus on this now.

I would love to.

I think that's the plan.

You know, I luckily work for a pretty large company and they actually just had a social media manager position open.

But.

they're looking for business experience, a degree.

Okay, I don't have either one of those.

Not a guy who

wants to go out and eat hamburgers

over the next two years.

It's one of those that's like, well, I do have, you know, I work with large brands, so it's like I have that in my corner, but I think eventually I would like to do it.

That's fantastic.

Well, you're on your way for sure.

Can we keep you for a few more minutes?

Of course.

All right.

Now, Paul's going to stick around for one more segment.

It's a short segment, but we're going to give him a quiz.

It's Conrad's Curd or Turd quiz.

I know that sounds appetizing, but we'll do that with Paul next time.

We'll read some of your texts.

This is Pete Schwabba.

You've got the Civic Media Radio Network.

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It is Thursday night in the state of Wisconsin.

We heard any weather stuff, Conrad.

We heard any tornado issues or anything like that.

Not that I'm aware

of.

Okay.

But it looks nice outside, so.

Okay.

Conrad is our resident meteorologist.

Our question of the night, folks, is what is your least favorite movie genre?

Dave, on the stream, I think he was giving his popcorn pick, but he said punch drunk love.

Unless that's its own genre, that could work too.

That's an Adam Sandler movie.

That's an Adam Sandler movie.

Yeah.

Thank you, Dave.

As always, CJ from Stoughton says, once again, oh no, that's not for us.

Bridget from the 818 says, horror films, too stressful.

I hate to be scared.

Agree.

No doubt about that from Bridget.

Thank you, Bridget.

From the 920, John from Oshkosh says, romance is the worst unrealistic expectations for all involved.

That's true.

Rarely do people have romance movie sex.

Can I get an amen from somebody in the studio here?

You'd never put your knee on someone's hair, accidentally.

Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids, he's in the 608 says, unnecessary blood and gore.

For example, the Saw movies.

I hate them.

I am so with you, Tyler.

I cannot watch those movies.

The Saw, it just.

They're awful movies.

They're just terrible.

John from Oshkosh also says peanut butter falcon.

One of my faves.

Look at you, dude.

Paul Vanderpust.

Good taste.

Yeah, he's got it.

Wonderfully, Wisconsin's Paul Vanderpust.

He's going to take our... I'm not even going to take...

Any ownership in this is Conrad's turd or curd quiz.

So we're going to give that to to Paul.

Tom from New Berlin says, Pete, the fourth of July scene in Sandlot.

Yes, it shows our upbringing.

And that's why we all find a love of movies.

Could not agree more time.

Thank you, buddy.

As always, great text.

OK, so Paul Vandenplatz is here.

He's the founder of Wonderfully Wisconsin, which you can follow on Facebook, TikTok or Instagram.

This thing has taken off one year.

You got 70,000 followers.

Is that right?

Yep.

That's incredible.

I'm envious and I will try.

I'm going to try to siphon off a lot of your followers.

I'm not going to lie to you.

He's like, bring it.

So we have a quiz here that Conrad put together.

We thought this would be a fun theme quiz for Paul before we let him get out of here.

This is Conrad's curd, which means true or turd, which means false quiz.

And then we're going to retire the bathroom stuff forever on nightlight.

So here you go.

You ready, Paul?

Absolutely.

All

right.

Wonderfully, Wisconsin is taking our wonderful curd or turd quiz.

Wisconsin produces more cheese than any other state in the US, curd or turd.

Turd.

Way to go, Conrad.

That's curd.

I don't think that's right either.

I thought that California.

It's true.

Really?

Yeah.

OK.

What was your source on that?

I discovered Wisconsin, actually.

Oh, all right.

I believe those guys.

Is that Logan and Rogi?

It might be.

All right.

Let's get him on here for a voucher.

All right.

Number two, the bratwurst was invented in Wisconsin.

Curd or turd?

Turd.

Turd is correct.

It was invented in Germany.

Yeah, very well done.

OK.

All right, Paul is one for two.

That's a pretty good betting average for you, Brewer fans.

There are currently 99 craft breweries in Wisconsin.

Kurt or Turd?

Turd.

That one's not getting by you, is it?

No, there's 99 in Green Bay.

All right, he's two for three.

Fish fries are only popular in Wisconsin during the summer.

Oh, Turd.

Oh, I misread that.

I thought you meant of other states, but you mean in our state only in the summer.

Gotcha.

All right.

Well done.

Three for four, buddy.

Let's keep it going.

Cranberries are one of Wisconsin's top agricultural crops.

Curd or turd.

Curd.

Very well done.

Paul is on a roll.

Butterburgers originated in Madison, Wisconsin.

Curd or turd.

Turd.

Correct.

And then Conrad added a bonus points.

Where did they originate?

God it's kind of a tough one.

I would not have guessed this and I thought I

knew that's why it's bonus.

I can't it starts with a

W No, sorry, okay, it's Sally's Grill near Milwaukee.

Oh, yeah,

Sally's.

I thought it was that other All right Approximately no wait what it what is but that doesn't count against him.

He's still five for six.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was just bonus.

All right

Paul Vandenplatz, five for six, wonderfully Wisconsin, representing in the Hizzy.

Approximately three tons of cheese curds are eaten during the cheese curd festival each year, curd or turd.

We'll go with curd.

Curd is correct.

Dude, you are crushing it.

All right, two final questions.

Here we go.

Wisconsin, is the top producer of maple syrup in the United States?

Is it curd or turd?

Turd.

How about a bonus here?

Do you know where it is the most?

Vermont?

Yeah.

Well done.

All right.

Now

you're back to perfect.

The nine for nine with the bonus with the extra credit.

Okay.

Last question.

Colby cheese was invented in Wisconsin.

Curd or turd?

Curd.

Extra bonus points.

You could be 11 for 10 if you get this right.

Do you know what city it was invented in?

Would it be in Colby?

Oh, that was embarrassing.

Conrad.

I don't know how you're going to sleep tonight.

I don't know.

You know, it's a good thing you don't have a girlfriend because she might not let you in the house.

And

I don't know

that he might have a girlfriend.

I don't know.

Conrad and I don't get personal.

So what do you think?

Did he did OK?

He did great.

Did he do OK?

All right.

Paul, this is so much fun.

Thank you, buddy.

Keep it going.

Yeah.

When you come back here, let's try to get you up to like 100,000.

You think we could do that?

Oh, sure.

We've got.

nine people listening right now.

I think we're on our way.

No, there's a lot more people.

Follow Paul on wonderfully Wisconsin folks, Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram.

He does great work.

He makes living in Wisconsin, he makes you feel, you're already proud, but prouder and realize how

fun it is

here, right?

Absolutely.

All right.

Give him a follow.

Great to have you here, buddy.

We'll do it again soon.

Awesome.

Thank you.

All right.

When we come back, Jason Mansmith, the marketing director of the Thrasher Opera House, will be here.

We're going to talk about some upcoming events and his show here on Civic Media.

That'll be fun.

And we'll read Jamison's text and Monica's.

That's coming up next.

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

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and I am Pete Schwabba.

It is great to have you here with us on this Tuesday night as we talk about all the things we love about life.

Movies, parts.

It's not Tuesday, you know, it's the...

Did I say

Tuesday?

Christmas Eve of weekdays.

That's like not even an advent.

I say Tuesday.

You're talking about December 4th right now.

God, I'm having a really long week.

This is insane.

Either way, I'm glad you're here, folks.

It's great to have you.

Our question of the night is, what is your least favorite movie genre?

You still have some time to get in on the fun, and I will read your text on the radio.

How cool is that?

Monica Hale posted on social media.

We post our question on Facebook every day.

She says, romance, it's all lies.

By the way, I guess I'm in the minority, but I thought 28 years later was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Really, Monica?

She says, I wondered why Ray Fiennes was in the crap fest.

Had I not been on vacation 100 degrees out and some of my plans that day didn't work out, I would have walked out.

I absolutely loved the ending if only the rest of the movie was like that.

That is great.

That is pure hatred for a movie if you loved the ending.

Wow, I'm fascinated by that text.

That's outstanding Monica.

Thank you We'll get to some more of your texts in just a minute, but I don't want to keep our guest waiting because I'm very excited to have this guy back on the show He hosts a new show here on civic media.

So that's kind of fun.

We'll talk about that It's on WRPN from 3 to 5 p.m.

On

on weekday afternoons called Great Day.

He is also the marketing director of the Thrasher Opera House, the very cool Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake, Wisconsin, Mr. Jason Mansmith.

Hey,

buddy.

Hey, man, how you doing?

Good, how are you?

Thanks so much for having me.

I'm doing good, man.

Thanks so much for having me.

Hello to Conrad as well, man.

Certainly do appreciate the time today.

Pleasure is all ours.

First of all, I have to ask you, Jason, I know you run a theater and all that kind of stuff, but do you have a least favorite movie genre?

Well, I was thinking about this as I was kind of listening.

I'm not a big fan of rom-coms.

I'm not a big fan of those or any movie where a dog dies.

Do they still do

that?

I can't remember the last time I saw something.

You can kill people by the thousands, but if you kill an animal in a movie, you're in big trouble.

Yeah, you know, Marley and me, not good for me.

Fox and the Hound, not good for me.

Odieller, not good for me.

That's a great answer.

All right, fantastic.

Difficult.

I

think the pet killing is a new genre

that nobody's a fan of.

Hey,

before we find out what's coming up,

at Thrasher.

Tell us about your show.

I think it's so cool that you're part of Civic Media now.

Tell us all about Great Day.

Yeah, well, we became a part of the Civic Media team here, you know, a couple of months back and so glad to be along with it.

But I've been in the radio business for

coming up on 30 years and kind of been with that station for almost 30 years as well.

So I got the opportunity to host a great show music show each and every weekday afternoon from three until five we call it great day only positive stories only uplifting stuff right we only have a good time so that's why we call it great day because you know even when the day isn't so great we try to make it great.

That's the attitude you got to have, right?

I

mean, that's kind of

what I try to do here, like you figure people talk about politics all day or deal with work or traffic or arguments, whatever.

You got to have an escape.

And if you haven't, folks, check out Great Day on WRPN three to five every weekday.

Wow, that's impressive.

I like to call it the afternoon soundtrack you'll love.

All right, I love

it.

All right, let's get to some stuff you have coming up at Thrasher.

First of all, for those listening, Jason, that might not have been to Thrasher before, tell us about it.

And this is a really cool venue.

Yeah, so we were built in 1910 Thrasher Opera House was built by Charlie Thrasher Great historic opera house that showed silent movies back in the day it hosted vaudeville shows and then after a while We got some talking movies in here, too And then it went dormant for a bunch of years and it was

Boat storage facility.

It was a sewing factory those kind of things and then I went dormant again And then some people had the great idea to kind of purchase the building and revive it and redo it and restore it and we opened back up in 1997 and we did three shows in 1997 and as of last year we did 89 events here in 2024 so it's been so great.

It's a wonderfully sounding room.

It's a comfort

room and we you know we really love the the experience people get when they get in this space and it's intimate too right is it like

200 seats or something like that

yeah small cap if we sit you down it's 200 if we stand you up we can get 325 in there but 200 is where we like to be and it's the acoustics in the facility unbelievable I don't know how they made a building back in 1910 sound this amazing I've been in a lot of places in and seen a lot of

of different theaters, but the acoustic sounds here are something that new organizations and new theaters pay millions of dollars to figure out and study what we have here.

Well, that is something.

Have you been,

you

haven't been there since 97, have you?

No, I've joined the team here in 2022.

Okay, perfect.

All right.

So let's talk about some shows coming up.

I love the shows you book in there because first of all, I gotta start with Elvis.

Uh, it says in person.

How are you, how are you swinging that Jason?

Actually, you know, I think it's a guy that looks pretty close to Elvis and sings a lot like Elvis too.

Right.

So, uh, I think a little bit of, uh, I think the fit Elvis actually, right?

So, uh, Matt Stone actually coming in this Saturday, I'd like to be able to get you to take it, but it is sold out.

It's been sold out for a couple of, a couple of weeks here now.

So we're looking forward to that.

Uh, you know, great band that's with him as well.

And.

We're looking forward to having people in on that coming up on Saturday.

But yeah, unfortunately, that show was sold out.

We we can't get you yet.

What about on the 18th?

You've got Tom Rush.

That's tomorrow.

Tell us about Tom Rush.

Well, well, Tom is kind of like the the inspiring and the impact of the American music scene that that dealt with folk music back in this.

And then the rock movement in the 70s and the Renaissance of the 80s and 90s So he played with a bunch of great players.

He opened doors for so many other great musicians musicians like you've probably heard of James Taylor or Jackson Brown or Joni Mitchell, right?

So,

you know Tom I should say yeah

Tom Rush has been, you know, kind of shepherding those folks along the way when they got into their

careers.

But he's left the he's left the stamp on all kinds of generations of artists, including Emmy Lou Harris and Tom Petty and Garth Brooks have all cited Thomas a major influence.

And we're gonna have him in Green Lake, Wisconsin.

That's coming up tomorrow night.

Take this 45 bucks.

You got less, you know, 200 seats.

tops in there.

It's going to be an amazing show and we're looking forward to it for sure.

And there's still tickets for that one available?

Yeah, you can get online to our website thrashyourhopperhouse.com or you can simply pick them up, grab them at the door too tomorrow.

We'll have them available for

you.

So do most of your acts, I would certainly come from everywhere, but do you have most of your acts come from the Midwest or?

You know, we actually go to a bunch of booking conferences each year and we deal with agents across America.

So wherever the route is able to go, we are able to bring them in not only just in America, but globally as well.

We bring a lot of bands in from the Scotland area, from the Irish Ireland area.

You know, so we have really good relationships and people love, our artists love coming here.

Oh,

I bet.

They, you know, have the

Good time here.

We treat them super well and treat them super nice and they love coming back to us,

too.

My guest is Jason Mansmith.

You can check out his show here on the Civic Media Radio Network on WRPN from 3 to 5 p.m.

every weekday.

It's called Great Day.

Check it out.

He is also the marketing director of the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake.

A little gem of a venue.

that you should go see if you haven't.

I will admit, I have not been there.

I'm excited.

I know one of these days I'll get down there, but I

love

theaters, Jason, where it's intimate like that,

where

there's

only

200 seats.

You can't beat that.

No, it's a fantastic experience.

So be honest with you, sometimes when you get to a show, you go through the process of purchasing your ticket, which is not necessarily easy.

There's all these fees that are added on top.

Then you got to download this.

You got to try to find your QR code when you get through the door, all that kind of stuff.

You got to pay for parking, those things.

Don't

get that here.

Easy purchase price online.

5.5%.

That's it on the top of the ticket.

So if you buy a $30 ticket, you're paying less than 32 bucks, right?

Free parking in and around the facility, no issues there whatsoever.

And when you walk in the door, you don't have to worry about having your ticket with you or scanning this code or whatsoever.

We look at the list, you give us your name, we check you off, you walk on in and have a good time.

That's

fantastic.

It's a super, you know, a personal experience.

We love to get, we love to know our guests so much.

And, you know, we try to keep it really personal here too.

So, all right, I don't know if you know this, Jason.

I would say about 95% of my listeners are big time Swifties.

So I'm sure they have, they'll want to hear who you have coming in.

Well,

we really don't

have anybody coming in, but we're going to be playing that.

We're doing a great event coming up on the 14th of August starting at 6pm.

We get a lot of requests from people at other shows who just want to come to thrash or opera house to dance one time.

They just want to have a dance club night.

And you know, we're all about bringing the community together to celebrate the arts.

And we thought, why not?

Let's do it.

Let's, you know, flip the script a little bit on what Thrasher Opera House is.

We'll set up the room like a club.

And we'll play a lot of Taylor Swift music that night because, you know, that's generational, right?

We can bring the kids along.

We can bring mom and dad along.

We can bring grandma and grandpa along.

Great grandma and grandpa or whatever.

It's going to be a good environment.

No cost to get in.

Yeah, absolutely.

What?

Yeah, absolutely free.

And we're going to have a great time.

Music playing all night, cool lighting, all those kind of things.

And people can come on and you check it out on our website.

We ask that you RSVP.

But if you don't, that's fine, too.

Just get through the door.

We want to make this place as opening as opening available to anybody in the community to come on in here and do that.

That's one of the things we also take a real pride in is outreach that we do here.

Yeah, we oftentimes

we realize that some people maybe can't make it to our facility, right?

But they still should get that really important arts enriched kind of experience.

So we like to take it out to them too.

We'll visit various facilities or maybe assisted living facilities or people who have some barriers, right?

We'll go visit their workplaces and kind of bring this stuff to them because music can change lives.

Music can put a smile on someone's face who hasn't smiled for a long time.

That's fantastic.

And we love doing that and we love getting kids on in this place too to learn about music.

We had a group earlier this year, they played bluegrass music and we brought a bunch of third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders in from Creen Lake.

They had the best time.

They didn't know what bluegrass was before they got on in pretty much, right?

But they had a great time learning how bluegrass music was played and it was such a fun experience and we loved doing outreach here.

I love that you're so part of the community there and your mission.

It's so great.

I want to ask you about two shows in particular.

One, sadly, the first death from COVID that I had heard of was John Prine.

It was a horrible tragedy.

He had some medical complications before that.

He was somewhat compromised, but still touring.

One of my favorite songwriters, John Prine, you have a tribute coming up.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, we are looking forward to this show.

It is called Morning Train, a tribute to John Prine.

It's coming up on August 23rd, 7.30 p.m.

And this particular tribute features a lot of musicians in and around the Milwaukee area, right?

So people that are in Chicken Wire Empire and Funk Club Wagon, another one, Midnight Hound, they all get together and they come on out and do this great crime experience show.

It's

So I've got all those songs filled with the wit and the warmth and the wisdom

of

crying, right?

And you know, and not necessarily the hits always to the deep cuts that go in there too.

And we just know that the storyteller that he was in those songs.

So we're really looking forward to it.

It's been really well received.

And tickets are going quick on that one.

So I would encourage you to, you know, check that out because it's awesome night for sure.

Let's let's pick up there.

We're gonna do a really short break and we'll have a

couple more

minutes with Jason.

When we come back, this is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media radio network.

You're

listening to Civic Media.

Tomorrow night on nightlight Hank Scott from 12 tribes cigars will be here at 6 35 He's a friend of one of our sponsors our pal Norm Kepesky They work together.

We'll have a little cigar talk at 6 35 and then it's a bar band Friday night Terry Barr Our Wisconsin music expert will be here to celebrate Wisconsin music artists and talk a little bit about her show Maxink radio That's tomorrow night at 7 35 a bar band Friday night

Going to the text line here, we got a couple texts.

We got to finish up here before we get out of here.

Jameson, I am sorry I missed this text earlier.

Jameson texted us when, I think when Paul was still on, and he said, don't wuss out, do the burger in a year.

Jameson wants Paul Vandenplatz to eat 100 burgers in a year.

And he said, and write a blog on each.

Jameson's kind of bossy.

That's a

lot of burgers in one year.

That's a lot of burgers.

Especially I got with a wife and kids.

who has more to his life than just eating burgers.

Jameson says also no tater tots, cheese fries only, or disco, which is cheese and beef gravy.

I've never heard of that.

That's interesting.

Disco fries, that just seems immoral.

Thank you, Jameson.

Sorry, we didn't see that earlier.

Brian from Green Bay says, silent movies, worse genre messes with my volume.

All right, fair enough.

Luckily, you're modern day.

You don't have to watch silent movies.

Thank you, Brian.

Jameson also says, for you, no need... I don't know if I should read that or not.

Conrad, I need approval on that text from Jameson.

From the 414, Christine from Slinger says, gory movies, but I love suspense.

Christine, I am with you.

I love to be scared.

I love a good jump scare, but I don't need the gore.

I can do horror movies if we're just scared, but I don't need the gore either.

Janet from social media says, graphic horror, but I should clarify, I'm fascinated by horror films and how they're made.

So I watch YouTubes, for instance, Suspiria, but I can't sit through a whole movie.

Oh, that's a really interesting text.

She's fascinated by how they're made.

but doesn't want to watch them.

Thank you, Janet.

That's great.

We have a few more minutes here with our guest from the Thrasher Opera House.

He's the marketing director there.

Jason Mansmith is with us over the stream.

He has his own show here on Civic Media.

You can check out every weekday from 3 to 5 p.m.

on WRPN.

It's called Great Day, so give it a listen and let Jason knock your socks off.

Buddy, I have to ask you... Yeah.

Where was I gonna go?

Oh, Pat McCurdy.

Pat McCurdy, you put me in touch with Pat.

I remember seeing Pat when I was a standup in Chicago in the 90s.

A bunch of us would go watch Pat McCurdy.

I think at the Roxy, but I might have the venue wrong, but he was so much fun.

And I was so surprised and happy that he's still touring three decades later, 25 years later, whatever it is.

Tell us about Pat McCurdy.

Yeah, so we're super excited to have him coming in on Friday, September the 5th for a show.

It's going to be an outdoor show.

And we're doing it right on the shores of Green Lake.

It's going to be a good time.

And obviously, you know, Pat brings a certain type of song and humor to his show.

The Pat heads are real.

They follow around greatly.

And we're excited to have him come back.

He was actually one of our, I was looking through our archives.

He was one of our COVID shows too.

Like when we had like audiences of 20 people or so, he came in and

show here too for us.

So, um, it's nice to have him back.

We'll have a full, you know, audience for him outside.

Plus, you're going to be on the shores of Green Lake watching a great show.

Sunsets in the west as you're looking into it.

It's going to be such a good time.

And it's so easy.

What are you like 15 miles west of Fond du Lac or something like that?

Piece of cake, right?

It doesn't take long.

Yeah, it doesn't take long.

30 minutes from Oshkosh, 25 from Fond du Lac.

You know, we're about an hour from Green Bay, Milwaukee and Madison, right in the, you know, the heart of it all.

And it's absolutely beautiful.

I was there years and years ago and I will make it down there one of these times, but that sounds like

a

great show.

Check out Pat McCurdy folks.

Check out, you've got a John Prine show.

You've got a Taylor Swift dance party and Elvis and a couple

nights and Tom, Tom rush tomorrow.

That sounds fun too.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's going to be a good one.

We'd love to have you come on in here and check it out now thrash or opera house.com for tickets and information.

But we've got a whole bunch of other shows already kicking into 2026 that we've got on our site too.

So if you're looking for for anything holiday shows, we already got those in the mix too.

So, you know, it's never too early to start.

You know, thinking about Christmas, I heard you talking about it earlier.

That must be fun, like a Christmas show at this cool little theater in Green Lake.

Let me ask you this, Jason.

I love, love, love old theaters.

Do you ever have moments where you're alone in the theater and no one else is there and it's dark and you could see the stage and it's silent?

That is kind of a magic,

isn't it?