Posters, Punk, and Punchlines: A Wisconsin Extravaganza (Hour 2)(Hour 2)

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Broadcasting live statewide from the Civic Media studios in Green Bay.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba, your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

Now, a guy who gives edible undies as gifts just because they taste good, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back, folks.

I've only done that a couple of times.

If you can say edible undies, you can say pandas.

We're no unsatisfied customers.

They're delicious.

We're going to talk about a snack Ben just shared with me.

But first, I'm going to give you a quick recap, folks.

Our question of the night is, what poster was on your bedroom wall when you were growing up?

We've got to catch up on some text.

We'll do that in a bit.

Kristen Lighty will be here at 720 talking about GB UFO this really funky cool festival they have in Green Bay and Conrad and I were doing the show last year at this time and we saw all these people in alien dressed as aliens Walking by the studio and it was pretty insane, but it's a music festival They do some comedy and Kristen is very involved in this year's festivities.

So we'll talk to Kristen at 720 and

What else Conrad what am I missing?

Does that cover everything?

Well, we did have some good posters, you know

We did have some good posters.

I got a play catch up on some of those techs.

She would bang couple those out.

You know

it Let's uh, all right, Ben.

What did you say your poster was Rocky?

All right.

Oh, yeah, Rocky.

I

also had I don't know if you guys are hip to Peter Gabriel Well, yeah,

you know, he had that

third album that had like the melty.

Yeah, I had I had a

poster of that for some reason.

Oh, that's a cool poster.

You know, I had a poster when I was in college of the Baudin's.

Yeah, and they're melty-faced.

No, but it was like a kind of a blurry poster and they were on a breakwater in Lake Michigan.

It was overcast and the wind was blowing and they were playing it.

It was one of the coolest posters I've ever seen.

So I guess I did have some posters in college, but I've graduated.

Conrad has a sports museum.

in his bedroom as an adult, which I think is is fun.

You know, it's

all that stuff's going to the man cave when I get a house.

So

you got it stuck to way just

exactly.

Everett and son Prairie says Led Zeppelin houses of the Holy Album cover Blacklight poster mid 90s still up and did I read that text already?

I don't think so.

I don't think so.

But then we had it seems like eight people have mentioned Black Lights tonight.

So maybe that's why I'm

I'm confused.

He says, mid 90s, still up in my basement.

Fantastic cover.

Thank you, buddy.

We missed a call from Ali.

I see Khan.

That's terrible.

Love Ali.

MT from Manona the Grove.

She's in this, or he or they are in the 608 wall posters.

When I was a kid, included Metallica's black album, two pack and Terminator two movie poster.

Well, that's some serious poster firepower.

Were you a fan of Metallica, Ben?

Not really.

No.

Yeah.

You know what?

I've kind of

Become more of a fan as I've gotten older and as they've gotten older.

They just seem like cool guys They do seem like I never really listened to them though back back in the day.

I know that Pete we actually got

Ali on the phone right now.

Oh, we do.

Yes.

Okay, put put Ali through Say

hi

to Ben riser.

Hey Ali.

I'm Ben.

How are you?

Good.

Thanks.

What's going

on?

I Didn't have we weren't allowed to have posters

of uh rock stars or anybody on our thing

we

had to have pendants of all the tourist traps and states my parents took us to

oh nice well that's kind of cool

that's

something

different and we enjoyed them but i wanted to say also um you talked about richard farnsworth he played in ann of green gables and

he

was the um

The older gentleman, brother of the lady that took them, took Anne in.

It

was wonderful in that movie.

He's got like so much soul or heart in every line he says.

He's fantastic.

Thanks so much for the call, Ollie.

Much appreciated.

Have a great night.

Okay, guys,

have a good night.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

So I could not agree more.

Steve from Florida Conrad's Dance is my poster on the wall growing up was...

and B from the Andy Griffith Show.

That's great.

He's joking.

He says, just joking.

Posters on my bedroom wall were the now famous Farrah Fawcett poster.

I'm with you, Steve.

And the 1966 Green Bay Packers Super Bowl one team poster.

All right.

That's some pretty good poster firepower.

We'll continue with your texts.

Let us know.

Be part of the fun folks.

You can text us on the stream or the app or the text line.

Ben Reiser is here.

We have a few more minutes with Ben.

We were talking about Superman.

So we're both kind of, it was fine.

I thought it was fine.

I thought it did the job.

I'm a big James Gunn fan.

I really love those Guardian of the Galaxies movie, Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

I really liked that HBO show he did.

What's it called with John Cena?

What is it?

The Peacemaker?

Yeah, Peacemaker.

Love that show.

I even liked the movie that he did for...

I guess it's DC, right?

Suicide, his version of the Suicide Squad,

which

is a total bomb.

Everyone hated it.

I like it.

So good for him.

Good for James.

I think it's weird, though, when you bring those crazy elements to Superman that I don't know if they need it.

And here's another thing.

I love Wendell Pierce and the sports reporter for the Daily Planet and the girl with the blonde hair.

I don't think you needed any.

Wendell Pierce had like five lines.

I do feel like there's

a whole

other movie that was probably shot with those three.

Like when the Blu-ray comes out there probably like two an hour and a half of footage of them because it really feels like Wendell Pierce like wound up mostly on the cutting

room probably that makes sense Otherwise why even it still feels it's

very overstuffed.

It's chaotic, but I still would take it over those Zack Snyder Superman movies Yeah, which are just so solemn and boring and

just so serious all that

Justice League crap come on man.

Yeah, give me give me ask crypto the dog

and chaotic stuff with Nathan Fillian and all that other stuff.

I'll take that over that Zack Snyder

stuff.

That's the voice of Ben Riser, folks.

He is one of the programmers of UW Cinematheque and the Wisconsin Film Festival.

But I've

loved almost every summer blockbuster I've seen this year.

I don't

know, I'm

really in sync with this year's offerings.

F1, I thought was a lot of fun.

Okay.

You didn't like

that one either.

No, I kind of feel the same about F1 and Jurassic Park.

As I do about Superman, there's a lot that like Jurassic Park, for example, CGI is great.

I really, there was some jumps in there that I

was,

but give me a character that is somewhat interesting.

Like you've got Scarlett Johansson, not interesting, but Maharshala Ali.

And I said, I think I said this to Rob Thomas.

I wanted like a guy from Jaws.

the grizzled guy who had been fighting the dinosaurs for 30 years.

Something interesting, not these characters with these lame backstories, because the dinosaurs are great.

And I felt that way about Formula One.

I'm kind of the same on all these movies.

Like, there were really cool moments.

The racing scenes were cool, but it was basically a video.

It didn't, I don't know.

Yeah, I get that.

You have valid points there.

I didn't care.

I

didn't go to any of

those movies thinking they're really characters I'd enjoy.

And I was happy that I had a dog I liked.

In Jurassic World, I liked that little girl.

I thought she was funny and she named her dinosaur Dolores, which cracked me up.

Speaking of Jaws, I did with my kids when they were home.

I watched that again.

And Ben, I probably haven't watched that in 25 years.

How is that not an every year experience?

I know it should be.

And I was surprised.

it was different than I remembered it.

Like, I forgot how quickly they got into the story.

I mean, obviously with the girl at first, but then right away, it's a pandemonium and it was just a...

Yeah, it's really excellent movie.

Forget

everything.

Forget all the Jaws stuff in Jaws.

That first, after the first sequence, all that stuff that takes place in Amity, all the stuff of Roy Shider running around, grabbing the paints and the posters, taking

that

ferry out to the thing.

All that stuff paints such an amazing, it's such a great world-building thing.

All those

All those supporting characters, the old guys, everyone yelling at Roy Shatter for one thing or another, his wife, his kids.

It's so great.

I mean, forget the whole thriller part.

It's just kind of a wonderful like,

hey, this

is life in a small town.

And you know, I was amazed too that they didn't overdo it with the shark.

Like there was just enough of a shark.

But they couldn't get it to work.

They couldn't get it to work.

But even when they like it still looks great.

You know 50 years later.

It's like, okay.

I believe that even give me that over CGI give me a rubber shark over definitely Let's get to a couple of I have to ask you I saw this James Ronde was on recently and he told me he said you're kind of into the film noir and I said Yeah, I'm gonna I was on a film noir a kick at the time.

Yeah, he told me about a movie called detour, which I'd never see.

Oh, yeah What a great movie.

Yeah, I It was so good in the end the way everything came together.

Mm-hmm.

Why don't more people watch film noir's?

Don't know.

I mean, there's a there's a lot of them out there and there is there's a devoted following I have the criterion channel because you know, I'm one of those

oh,

yeah I've been catching up.

There's a bunch of all I do on the criterion channels find out what's leaving at the end of the month and just try to

watch as many

of those thing And this month at the end of the month all these Argentinian film noir's are leaving There's like five or ten of these movies that were made in Argentina in the 50s.

They're so great

So amazingly directed, wonderfully acted, brilliant plots.

There's one called The Beast Must Die.

There's one called If I Should Die Before I Wake.

So great.

But yeah, Detour, Edgar Omer.

Edgar Omer, who also directed this crazy movie with Bars Karloff and Bella Lagosi called The Black Cat.

He was a great B-movie director who...

Unfortunately, he didn't make as many movies or have as big a budget as he probably should have, but he made the most with the least detours.

Like every shot in that movie is like, wow, this is a really cool shot.

Yeah.

That diner, the first couple of minutes of the movie, I love them.

I'm such a sucker for a movie with a great diner at night.

Even in a small town, it's open and weird characters come in there.

It's just like a place you could lose yourself in.

And the aesthetics almost a hundred years later on, some of these are.

Fantastic, you know, um and the killing I just watched too and that night

diner.

Yeah.

With, uh, uh, I just pulled it up sterling.

He was, I don't hate him from Captain McCloskey.

Yes.

The Godfather.

Yep.

Like, what could be, uh, let's get a couple of TV things in here before you leave to Ben.

Uh, white lotus season three thoughts.

Terrible.

Really?

I hated it.

I didn't like season two either.

I'm a, I'm

a season one and done for

white

lotus.

I

love season one.

It's still my favorite, easily, but I like all, I just like Mike White, you know,

I love Mike White.

This is my least favorite thing of his as, as it progresses.

But, you know, Walton Goggins, I'll watch him in anything.

So it's not like it didn't have its pleasurable moments, but for the most part I was like, why am I watching these people?

I don't care.

Right.

They're all just rich jerks and most of the time.

Um, what about department Q?

We both watched that.

I did not.

Oh, I thought you saw a

department.

I can't wait.

That's on my list of

things I

have to get to.

We'll have to talk about that next time you're here.

Did we talk about the diplomat?

Yeah.

I watched the first season,

and I liked it.

And I

said, you have to watch

the

second season.

Because there's two seasons.

Yeah, it's even better.

All right, I'll go back to that.

I did like it.

I don't know why.

There's a season three coming up.

I started a show on HBO called Love and Death with Jesse Plemmons and Ashley Olson.

Oh, I don't even know that.

It's about...

There's two church going couples in the 70s that have an affair.

Oh,

yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the music is playing like they're giving each other eyes and like the Bee Gees are playing like it's a really cool.

And I'll go back to that, too.

I'm great at watching one episode of something just to see if it resonates.

Well, I'm really enjoying speaking of shows where you don't have to watch the whole thing.

It's poker face.

Oh, yeah.

Peacock.

Those are great.

And they're all like standalone.

It's like the old Colombo episodes.

But does it bother you at all?

Like I do like the show.

Yeah.

But she just happens to end up in a caper every week, wherever she goes.

I have trouble with that a little bit.

I hear you.

I think season two, there's like, season two to me feels more like, did you ever watch that show High Maintenance on HBO?

No.

About the guy who sells drugs in Brooklyn?

Uh-uh.

Oh, you gotta check that out.

Every episode's like a short story.

You know and the guy just sort of drifts in and out of those stories and that's kind of what happens on poker face, too It's like you get like a nice standalone story with characters you're never gonna see again And then she kind of wanders in solves the mystery which is the least interesting part of it

right

wanders off But

it is cool.

It has like a better call Saul.

I like the way they kind of

start each episode is really cool.

Ben, thank you, buddy.

Thanks for filling in short notice.

You're the lefty out of the bullpen, man.

This is huge.

Hey, I can walk

to this studio.

Let's

do

it here all the time.

Must be nice.

Yeah.

Ben Reiser, ladies and gentlemen, check out Cinematheque and look for more news coming from the Wisconsin Film Festival, which is right around the corner.

Oh, yeah.

Thanks, Pete.

Thanks, Conrad.

You got it.

Kristen Lighty's coming up next.

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.

From beautiful downtown Madison, overlooking State Street on a gorgeous summer night.

Here in our state's capital, Conrad holding down the fort back in Green Bay.

Conrad's dad had a poster of Aunt B up in his bedroom.

I found that very humorous, Conrad.

That finds something new about my dad every time he takes it.

Something you don't need to know, really do.

Monica from Mount Horrib, she's in the 608 says, Cincinnati chili.

Chili with spaghetti is a thing there.

Skyline is known for quantity over quality, I think, but we were there last year and ate at Camp Washington Chili.

It's a diner that's been there over 75 years and it was cheesy and delicious.

Just went to North Dakota two weeks ago.

Your comment is spot on, but you could say Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

We saw a whole herd of bison there.

I would think more people would think of Fargo for the woodchipper incident in the movie.

Yes, that is what they should have said for North Dakota.

Fargo, the movie.

but they went with nothing.

It makes them think of nothing when they think of North Dakota.

David from Richland Center says he had Charlie's Angels on his bedroom wall, a poster.

David's in the 608, thank you buddy.

Tom from New Berlin says, if vinyl album covers count, I had Led Zeppelin, I had Zeppelin, Floyd, et cetera, mid to late 70s groups, faucet rocked, dads loved it.

Oh, what does that mean?

Your dad's coming in and pervin' on your posters?

Great stuff, Tom, as always.

All right, this is exciting, folks.

We were supposed to have my next guest in studio, but we did a little switcheroo at the last minute here.

Pardon me, and I ended up doing the show for Madison this week, so we still wanted to have her on.

She was still gracious enough to share her talents with us tonight and her time.

She's a very funny comedian based out of Green Bay.

We've had her on the show many times before, and she's one of our faves.

Kristen Lighty joins me now over the stream.

Hey, Kristen.

Hello.

Welcome to my house.

Hi.

Do you have any posters on your wall?

You know, I have a framed photograph of the old Fort Howard Mill and a bunch of comedy posters.

Oh, okay.

No Hasselhoff or Sean Cassidy or anything like that.

No, I'm not big on the hearthrobs, I guess.

Unless your hearthrob is Heritage Hill or whatever you just said there.

That's a good.

Who are your comedy posters, Kristen?

They're mainly shows I've been in and festivals I've participated in and places, shows where I had a really good time.

So I'll save the poster and kind of frame it for sentimental reasons.

That's excellent.

Let's start there because you just opened for someone

You know, a comedy legend at a local club there in the Fox Valley.

Tell us about Bobcat Gold.

Wait, how was that week?

It was amazing.

Bobcat is one of the nicest, most down-to-earth, thoughtful people I've ever met in comedy.

So I always really try to make a priority to get to work with him.

But, you know, I know a lot of people want to, so.

Yeah.

But it's so amazing to get to work with people that you want to sit and watch every night.

And you'll notice all the differences, all the nuance, the way he'll interact with the crowd a little differently each night.

It feels really lucky to be there.

How, how is he doing these days?

Like he's, he's still working, which is great.

He's so funny.

He's such a talented guy.

He's made movies.

He's done walk on roles.

Where is he at?

I don't know if you're friends with him or not, or if you get to talk to him or what is your sense at least of, does he seem happy at this point in his career?

Cause I have a lot of respect for him.

Yeah.

He seems really happy.

He's got a great relationship with his daughter who has done amazing things as well.

She does a lot of costuming.

Um, she did the costuming on Bridget Everett show and that would be my old ass.

And then Bobcat's working on a few different projects in turn.

I think he mentioned like a new film and, uh, you know, he reunited with a former love and got married and moved to Ireland.

So he's very happy, I'd say.

So he lives in Ireland.

And he's coming to Northeast Wisconsin to do a club.

I thought he would be still at theater stage.

You know what I mean?

1,000 seats, 500 seats or whatever.

It's kind of cool that he's still working clubs.

I bet he has a blast with it.

He does.

And I just feel really lucky that people do come to Appleton.

And we can see their acts.

Yeah.

I think he comes for a month or two at a time and does shows and then heads back home.

Okay.

I tried to get him.

I host a show on PBS, Wisconsin called Director's Cut.

And I tried to get Bobcat and Joel Murray on years ago, because Bobcat made a film called God Bless America about gun violence.

And it's so great.

And I was like, I really, we just couldn't work it out.

Like the company that owned the rights to the movie weren't really willing to play ball.

But I was literally salivating at the idea of getting to interview Bobcat.

Cause I thought he would have made such a great cast cause he's.

He's

so

funny and genuine.

I think my takeaway from the weekend was I found it hilarious the way my father pushed me out of the way to get a photo with Bobcat.

Did he want you in the photo too?

Not at first

and

then one of my relatives said we could all be in it and my dad was like oh yeah yeah yeah okay.

I guess if you insist yeah.

We're going to get into GB UFO after the news, but tell us first before we go to break.

What do you have?

What else do you have coming up, Kristen?

You're a very busy comedian.

Where are you performing next or where can people see you?

Yeah, so besides the Fest in August, I'm going to be doing a few shows with Brian Posein in Minneapolis and Eau Claire, which I'm very excited about.

And then I'll be featuring for him here in September at the Skyline Comedy Club.

Very nice.

Yeah, and then, you know, a few other local shows around town.

Oh, and I'll be at the Blue Whale Comedy Fest in August in Tulsa, opening for Hannibal Burris, which I'm very excited

about.

Oh, he's so funny.

Oh, wow, that's a great show.

Yeah, so that's

a great show.

They're lucky to have you on the show, too.

You're so funny, and I love having you on the show.

So when we come back after the news, we're going to talk to Kristen about this great festival in Green Bay that I still fully don't understand.

So Kristen is going to fill us in, talk about what she's doing there, and tell us where you can find more information because it looks like an absolute blast.

We'll do that, and we'll read your texts when we come back.

Stick around, folks.

It's live, nightlight, live from Madison.

I'm Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Because nothing will be the same.

Just another time.

It's all that.

on this Tuesday night as we broadcast live from downtown Madison, Conrad Holden.

Holden on the fort back in Green Bay.

Our current guest, Kristen Lighty, was supposed to be in the studio, but I'm not there tonight.

So I appreciate your flexibility.

Kristen, thank you for joining us anyway over the stream.

Great to have you here.

Yeah,

thanks for having

me.

Yeah, anytime.

Always fun.

Tell us about GBUFO.

because I think I said earlier last year we saw everybody walking by the window dressed like aliens and I thought it was like an alien fest or something and then or maybe that was a different festival but this really has nothing to do with aliens.

It's a music festival, right?

Yes,

so

it's named for our local record shop which is the Green Bay UFO Museum and gift shop which

You know, we have bands play there, comedy shows there, and you can get all your local music on vinyl there.

So it's a festival that Tom Smith and Pierre Jacques and I put together.

Wow.

OK.

So I don't

do they do the bulk of the work.

But you said you're curating a show there.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, so this will be the second year that I'm bringing comedians from my record label from all over the country in We got folks from Austin Chicago Phoenix Bloomington, Indiana And they'll be doing like probably a half hour 45 minutes of comedy each day and then so they'll get a taste of these comedians and then Saturday night I'm doing a standalone show at the Mad World artists collective, which is on Mason

and all the comedians in the festival will be able to do a longer set there.

So if you like what you see, you can come to the longer show Saturday night.

Yeah.

Oh, that sounds like so much fun.

So are there not people dressing like aliens that I have my

festival?

No.

I'm thinking of Fringe Fest, I think.

Does that make sense?

Fringe Fest is like a collection of different acts from all over the country.

I think there might have been a Comic-Con happening at the rest.

Yeah.

I just see aliens everywhere I look.

Okay.

How did this festival start?

It sounds like so much fun.

I was looking at the Facebook page before and it just seems like great vibes.

It

is.

It's just a celebration of all the bands in Wisconsin and the Midwest that make our scene so fun and exciting.

We're going to have Holly and the Nice Lions playing Saturday night.

boris the sprinkler is reuniting friday night and they're doing saucer to satyr in the full album giant's chair is reuniting um and the statics are flying in from seattle so you know some some bigger names

wow nice so how did this start how did the festival start

yeah well i think that is tom's creation tom smith time bomb tom he's been running shows in green bay since

I believe the 80s I want to say like he started the concert cafe shows and that was like an institution for me as a teenager.

I shudder to think who I'd be without punk rock in my life.

And

yeah, it was just kind of the scene grew and everyone's kind of stayed in touch and this is sort of a statement on that.

That's so cool.

Why isn't there a comedy club in Green Bay, a full-time comedy club?

I don't know.

I would like one as well.

You know, we have Comedy City and The Peer.

They do a lot of improv and some stand-up sometimes.

And The Meyer has been booking more stand-up, which has really excited me.

I don't know.

I run pop-up shows called Don't Tell.

And those are kind of like based on the premise like the location is a surprise.

And you can BYOB, which I think people love more than the comedy, but you know.

But those always sell out so I feel like there is a market for comedy here

Yeah, I it's never like I know Frank Herman's he and his brother when I was a stand-up in the 90s I worked their club.

It was right down on Washington Street down the street from WGBW but

For whatever reason, and I think a funny bone came to town briefly, but that didn't make it, it just seems like there should be a club there.

And I know that's easier, easy for me to say that, but it seems like it could certainly sustain itself, I would think.

Yeah, because I feel like people from Green Bay don't go to Appleton, you know, so

I don't

think, I don't think it would infringe on Skyline and Appleton.

Yeah.

Well, we could put our heads together.

I'm sure we'll think of something there.

Somebody pay me to open a club.

That's the voice of Kristen Lighty, a very funny comedian based in Green Bay.

She joins us periodically here on Nightlight, and we're talking to her about Green Bay, the GB UFO Fest.

Tell us about the venues.

I was reading about the venues.

They sound really cool.

Yeah, so Friday we're gonna be at Badger State Brewery Which is amazing phenomenal space and they're always doing cool community events there so it's awesome to partner with them and then Saturday we're gonna be at Riverside Ballroom, which is Such an honor to be on that stage like so many huge names have performed there You know I saw Fugazi there when I was 16 that absolutely blew my mind So my punk rock teenage self is very excited about that

And then the later show I'm doing is sort of, it's a new venue.

It's called the Mad World Artist Collaborative, and it's across the street from Happy Joe's on Mason, and it's so cool.

They have local artists with all their work and wares on the wall, and they do a weekly open mic for folks.

They do music shows.

You know, the uncanny bazaar does a lot of the artwork there.

So it's very like horror centric and fun.

It's really unique.

And it's I hope it really takes off.

It's a great place.

That's so cool.

Here I see to the key feature Boris the sprinkler, as you mentioned, performing Saucer to Saturn.

That's another thing.

Like, I'm like, there has to be a UFO motif here.

I don't think I was that far off like with some of this.

I just got confused.

It's

like, we just don't talk about it.

All

right.

GB Green Bay UFO takes place this coming weekend, folks, July 25th and 26th.

Kristen Lighty's fingerprints are all over it.

So check it out.

And what do people need to do?

Where can they go to find out more information?

Is there a cover charge?

How do they take the next step?

Yeah.

So you can get a two day pass to the GB UFO Fest.

And you can it's kind of fun because you're buying tickets in real life.

There's no internet.

purchase for this.

You

can get them

at GBUF Bowen Green Bay, Irving Place Records in Milwaukee, Mad City Music in Madison, and Eroding Winds in Appleton in Oshkosh.

And if you want tickets to the late show on Saturday, 8 p.m.

at the Mad World Artist Collective, you can just type in on Eventbrite Mad World Artist Collective and the tickets will come up.

That's so great.

Kristen Lighty, we have a clip of your stand-up.

Can we play this just a little?

Oh, sure, yeah.

People might experience if they go see you at GBUFO.

Here's Kristen Lighty doing comedy.

So, yeah, sober dating.

Wow.

Ooh, I'm glad I got a boyfriend, because that was rough.

Yeah, I joined soberandsingle.com up in Green Bay, and it was just

me.

Con that's all we have.

Yes, it's like seven seconds of comedy

That's

all right, we left him wanting more that's so funny and now you talk about that in your act.

How long have you been sober?

Over seven years now.

It was seven years in January

Good for you.

It's two and a half years for me, and I don't know if I like it.

I'm gonna be honest I don't I just kind of quit on a whim

And I'm loving it.

So, uh, you know, kudos to you though.

That's impressive.

Congrats to you too.

I would

say

not making a comeover is pretty great.

That was the big thing.

Like I never would drive really like, but I would have a couple of glasses of whiskey and play video poker at night and wake up and just be like, I can't do this every night.

And then I just kind of tried it and I liked it.

Now I'm here.

I don't know if I'll quit forever, but, uh, that's impressive though.

Seven and a half years.

Have you gotten funnier since you've been sober?

Or is it easier or harder to write jokes?

I think it's easier because you're more present and you feel more confident.

And the reason I quit drinking is because it was just taking too much time out of my life.

I was wasting too much time either getting drunk or being hungover.

And I love my day job.

I love doing comedy.

And so trying to maintain two full-time careers, there was just no room for being hungover.

Right.

Right.

You still have things you want to do in your life.

It's

like,

you know, if I'm 80 and want to kick back and have a couple drinks, I'm not really missing out on the scene, but, you know, it's different when you're, when you're our age, you know.

Um, I hate, you just mentioned your day job and we talked about this a little bit last time.

Can I ask you about that again?

Are there any new developments?

Uh, you are the director of the Wisconsin education association council.

Which gig is more work stand up or that?

I would say definitely being an organizing director is a bit more work.

Comedy is my creative outlet.

And I've done union work for nearly 20 years now.

And my go-to line is no one ever calls us when they're having a great day.

So to bear witness to every bad thing that's happening to people and learning not to marinate in it took some time.

But it is.

It's challenging in a good way.

Like I love that my work is something different every day.

I'm always working with new, cool people.

Yeah, I really love it.

And I'm asking this for purely personal reasons, because my wife is a kindergarten teacher, but our teachers responding to the unions again, because I was surprised back in, and I don't really get into these topics too often, but because it's close to home, I couldn't believe how many teachers were in favor of what happened 15 years ago.

Like this affects you.

You know, it's crazy.

That must have made someone like you crazy.

Yeah, I was just kind of starting, I was living in Chicago when Act 10 kind

of crashed

into the political scene here.

And it is disappointing how many people voted against their own self interests and values.

But I think now we're seeing the uptick in response to that, like new educators coming in are pumped about their union, even though

there are some

restrictions with the law, there's still a lot we can do in terms of collective action and turning out to meet the demand.

that are what students need and educators want.

So I feel like it's an exciting time, but I couldn't learn out about that all day.

So.

Well, my wife still pays her dues every month and I'm proud of her for that.

But I, I also, it is crazy when I remember people say, well, we've got to do our part.

Like you're being swindled.

Hey, here's some money that, you know, I mean, you only value yourself as much as you value yourself, you know?

Well, and essentially like with the savings they created that last surplus we had on the budget was like seven billion and Then they gave it back to citizens and it turned out to be like 125 bucks a month which Take that from me fun schools, you know Yeah,

right exact, but that's how I am too.

I'm always like I like knowing you know, nobody likes to pay high taxes, but I'm

I'm happy to know that teachers or firefighters or whatever, this is doing good.

Parks, libraries, I know people have a mentality that it's just like, you know, it's crazy.

Yeah, we need to lift each other up, not tear each other down.

And just because someone else has good benefits doesn't mean we should all not have good benefits,

you

know.

Well, keep doing the great work you're doing both in your day job and your nightclub job They're both outstanding and you're great obviously at both of them.

So thank you for being on the show and next time you're coming in to the studio We'll do that again.

That was always more fun when you're there in person

Thanks for having me.

You got it anytime check out GB UFO and check out Kristen Leidy

Follow her on her socials and go see her do stand up, folks.

She's very funny.

All right.

We're coming back.

We're going to read your texts and wrap this thing up.

And I will tell you who is on the show tomorrow.

You don't want to miss that either.

Because I'll also be in Madison.

Where are you going to be tomorrow night,

Conrad?

In the same seat.

OK.

We're in that same hat.

At the bourgeois one tonight.

Fair weather

otherwise.

I haven't been wearing at their streak.

So if I if they lose tonight, I'm throwing it away.

Oh, you're one of those Yeah, I get it.

All right, this is peach wabba and nightlight.

We're coming right back and we're gonna finish up with your text Don't miss that folks.

It's nightlight with peach wabba 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.

When people think of Wisconsin, they think of cheese.

according to Midwest versus everyone's Twitter account.

This is Pete Schwab at Nightlight.

Welcome back.

That was interesting because I do think non-as unexciting as North Dakota is.

And I've been there several times back when I used to do stand-up.

As I said, the people are really nice.

And I always had a good time going there.

There is nothing like in the topography or anything that just makes it stand out, but I am surprised Fargo because of the movie that seems like It should replace nothing for North Dakota.

I don't know

I would say maybe also their their college football teams feel like a lot of people will go crazy for them North Dakota Yeah

But I mean don't you think they do that anywhere like well, I mean that's all you have going for you cuz they know what I mean like

they don't have a you know

They don't have any pro any pro anything

They don't even have high school sports.

That would that's what makes college such a No, they're the bison, right?

Yeah, the bison.

Yeah, they don't have any professional teams

No, I know they're probably all like Minnesota fans or something but Kansas got a nothing Illinois got Chicago, Michigan got Detroit, Indiana got race cars Iowa got Caitlyn Clark, Wisconsin got cheese, Minnesota got cold

South Dakota got Mount Rushmore.

Nebraska got corn.

Kansas got nothing.

Missouri got nothing.

That's harsh.

Yeah.

What do you think of the arch?

I think that maybe the author of this is Wisconsin, you know, kind of a Milwaukee Brewer's fan because how much we hate the same Louis Cardinals.

Yeah, that could be because it's like Midwest versus everyone.

Well, those are all Midwestern states.

You should be.

Yeah.

I saw a lot of comments on that

saying that they really don't think those two bottom states are really Midwest.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah.

I mean, Missouri could be the south.

Yeah.

Well, let's finish up some texts here.

Our question tonight was what poster was on your bedroom wall when you were growing up?

We've got some great responses tonight.

Conrad's dad is a big fan of Aunt B covered that.

You're going to keep

going

back to that, aren't you?

I

love that.

Because I bought it and I'm like, oh my God, was there an Aunt B poster?

But why wouldn't there be?

She was a wonderful person.

Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids, he's in the 608, he says, my poster, how's Susan Day grab ya?

Hot Partridge.

If there's gonna be a sexual innuendo tweet or response, it's gonna be from Tyler in Wisconsin Rapids.

From the 920, Elvis and Evil Can Evil.

And oddly enough, my guidance counselor high school was Evil's cousin.

Hey, that's kind of a cool bit of trivia.

Pardon me.

From the 920, Annie says, Bobby Sherman was much bigger than Sean or David Cassidy, especially if you had a friend named Julie.

That's probably like an inside thing that I don't understand.

I'm sure that's like probably one of his songs or a partridge family like Plotline or something.

I'm sorry, Annie.

I would love to run with that text, but I don't think I follow you on the friend named Julie Thing, but Bobby Sherman recently passed away Bobby Sherman.

Thank you as always, Annie.

From the 608, then Mark from Paul R, then Mark from Paul R and the Raiders.

Now Kevin Costner, ND Mark Ruffalo.

Does that make any sense to you, Conn?

Kevin Costner and Mark Ruffalo, maybe forgot the A.

But

it's

capped.

like ND, like North Dakota.

I don't know.

Well, Mark

Riffles, sorry, 608.

No, he's not, but give us some clarification if you would, if you're still listening.

I'm sorry, we just didn't quite get that.

Jim from Appleton says, Charlie's Angels was my poster.

Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Jacqueline Smith, the heavy three.

There you go.

Some heavy hitters from the 70s.

Thank you, Jim.

I knew somebody.

That's the second one, second text we got for the Charlie's Angels posters though.

Ah, Ollie, we talked to Ollie.

Bridget from the 818 says, the outsiders, my mom framed it for me.

See, that's the difference between girls and guys.

My dad never would have framed a Farrah Fawcett poster or Daisy Duke, Catherine Bach.

That would have like encouraged nefarious behavior or something.

He would have thought he was condoning my crushes on TV idols.

Thank you, Bridget.

Ross from the 608 says, Lon Chaney, werewolf and a Yes Songs album cover poster.

Well done, Ross.

Very nice.

Lon Chaney.

I didn't know they had a Lon Chaney poster.

And our buddy Chris Casper in the 608.

Pete, we're in a fight.

How are those Cubs doing?

I'm not fighting Chris Casper.

He's like twice my size.

I think, you know what though?

I think I could take him, Con.

I hit him fast and I hit him low.

Don't underestimate me, dude.

Don't let the collared shirts fool you.

I can throw down

you are a mountain muscle

come back I am a mountain muscle.

That's true.

Uh, Casper says skull.

Yeah, he's a big Viking fan.

We don't have to do that.

So he's with you on the Brewers.

He's giving me a hard time with the Cubs earlier.

Listen, I'm not a brewer hater.

I if they weren't in a neck and neck thing with the Cubs here, I'd probably cheer for them.

But like

And I'm being serious when I say this, for them to sustain what they're doing is going to be very tough.

But the Cubs could have a fall off too.

I mean, I don't know.

It's going to be interesting, but it's fun.

It's fun at this time of year to have a race, you know what I mean?

And this is when I get into it, the baseball season.

Folks, thank you for your text.

Thank you to Ben Reiser for being on the show tonight and the always funny Kristen Lighty too.

Great guest tonight and great text.

Everybody brought it with the poster question.

Tomorrow night,

on the show.

We've got our pal Frank Anderson from Wisconsinology.com.

He is also a writer, producer, director.

He is a showbiz renaissance man, ladies and gentlemen.

Frank will be here tomorrow at 6.35.

We're going to talk about the Daniel, it's a, no, Davey Crockett's connection to Wisconsin.