Comedy, AI, and the Oshkosh Arena(Hour 1)

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

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who wants planted evidence so he can make a citizen's arrest.

Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back to Nightlight, folks.

Happy Tuesday, everybody.

I am back on the air, back on the home court here in Green Bay.

Had the night off last night.

Had a lovely evening.

Hope you did too.

It's nice to take a day off once in a while.

Boy, it's weird.

It was, it was, Conrad, how you doing?

I'm doing great.

Conrad is back.

Conrad was the reason I had to go to Madison.

Yes.

Last week.

All expenses paid trip

to

Madison.

You're welcome.

Listen, I prefer my own bed, but no.

Tip of my hat and a shout out to everybody in Madison.

Corey, Aaron, Sage, Zomers, Dom, Todd Alba, everybody there was just fantastic and they're always so accommodating.

So it was great.

John and Gordy had me on their show.

Always fun to hang out with those guys.

I got to talk to Shaly Pittman, our news director.

Yeah.

A couple times.

Shaly, we decided we should switch last names because Shaly Schwabba and Pete Pittman, that's kind of a cool thing.

That's a little alliteration, never hurt anybody.

Well, now you got nicknames for each other now.

That's

right.

We don't even know each other that well, but she's amazing.

Everybody in Madison was great last night.

So an official shout out.

Thank you very much, you guys.

And it was great.

Oh, and Luke Mathers, of course, who handled everything, as always, so brilliantly.

So it was fun.

It was a good week.

Conrad, you produced two of the nights from here.

I produced three, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

You did do three, but I was not.

Where was I Monday?

I was in Madison.

You were in Madison as well.

It was a crazy week.

All right.

Yeah, that was fun.

I got to hang out with Todd Alba.

It was an all civic media party one night.

Todd Alba, Aaron Zommer's, Pat Crichtlow.

We went to Paul's for a couple drinks.

And this is kind of weird.

I saw the guy who, I think I already talked about this last week, but the guy who served me drinks at Paul's, I

saw

him the next day at Chipotle.

And he was not that impressed that we ran into each other 20 minutes from Paul's.

You know, it's

kind of a weird

thing.

Yeah, you got to keep work at work, you know.

I guess so.

He isn't like to be bothered, pestered by the commoners, apparently.

But a lot of fun.

Great week in Madison.

My son Joe came down on Friday, popped onto the show for a couple minutes, and we talked about, what do we talk about?

Oh, F1, he saw.

You know what, I should have, one of these days I'll have both of you guys on, because you, I would say have pretty similar tastes.

in movies, but he was not as big of a fan of Fantastic Four as you were.

We'll talk about that

in

just

a

minute too.

But back in the home court, Conrad behind the board.

Great to be with you guys tonight.

Hope you're having a great day.

Another muggy day here in northeast Wisconsin, but a beautiful summer day nonetheless.

So we got great guests tonight.

At 6.35, I'm excited to have this guy back on.

He's a comedian and the founder of Laughable Productions.

Yes, he does comedy.

He books comedy.

And he also started a contest called the funniest person in Oshkosh.

I'm paraphrasing that.

I meant to look that up and I didn't.

But Ben Giles will be here at 635.

Great guy.

We've had him on the show before and he'll be here to talk about.

He's going to give us an update on how the contest is going because it's a pretty involved contest.

I think it goes through September and I think they're in round.

It's called Oshkosh's funniest comedian.

And it goes, I think the final round is in September.

So we'll get an update from Paul.

You'll get to introduce, you'll get to, he'll get to introduce himself to the audience again and we'll have a discussion.

That'll be fun.

Paul's a good guy and always fun to have him on the show.

And then at 720, my pal Mike Siegel, who is the host of If Walls Could Talk,

What you get for the money movie break.

He also hosts his own podcast called travel tales fun to talk about.

I'm not a big traveler I Did you go you went to Italy last year?

Mm-hmm, but would you consider yourself kind of a world traveler?

I've been to Italy and I've been to Australia.

Yeah,

it's

pretty good.

I've been to Canada Yeah, I've been to Canada as well.

I've been to the Dominican Republic

That's really

technically the US, isn't it?

It sounds exotic though.

That's okay.

Yeah.

I am not.

I have not been too many places and I never was that curious to do that.

I started doing stand-up when I was like 20 and started getting work pretty quick and I was excited to see America and I just never, when I was younger anyway, never had a desire to travel.

But now I travel vicariously through my pal, Mike Siegel, who has been almost everywhere in the world.

He has a map in his office at home with a pin every place he's been, and it's ridiculous.

So Mike will be here at 7.20 to give us a few travel tales.

And we're going to talk about he just finished Righteous Gemstones, which I have not seen yet.

And we'll probably get into a little vacation talk with Mike as this is the day.

Like four, I think it dropped in 83, 42 years ago.

And dropped in, yeah, 83.

42 years ago, vacation hit the big screen.

The Chevy Chase, the original, we'll talk about that a little bit too.

And I'm sure Mike will have some lines he'll run by us and some boat stories, cause he does cruise ships now.

So that'll be fun with Mike.

And I think without further ado, before we get into our stories, let's go to the nightlight question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

I didn't put it on the sheet.

Our question tonight though is, is it okay for people to use AI in their dating pictures or social media pictures?

This is a big deal now.

A lot of people are doing this.

And I feel a little bit like it's like false advertising.

It's not really that big a deal.

I think on dating apps, it's a bigger deal because you're kind of misrepresenting yourself on social media.

Who cares?

You can look as good as you want.

But that's our question tonight.

Is it okay for people to use AI to make themselves look better on dating apps or social media?

And I don't, I mean, let's be honest, there are probably like,

seven really attractive people in the world.

The rest of us are just all kind of in the middle.

I'm one of them.

We'll be right back after this.

Would you ever do that?

First of

all, are you on any dating apps?

I got to know where... I didn't ask you before, bro.

Why did you pick this?

Was there something that

sparked this?

Yeah, I just saw an article that it's kind of on the rise and people are doing it.

It's not really that controversial, but it is kind

of in the dating app world.

So is it like they're using AI to enhance their photos?

Yes, to give themselves, let's say, more of a chin or cheekbones or a better hue, if you will.

I feel like these people just want to have communication on the phone then, because

what

happens when you meet them in real

life?

Exactly.

And it's like, wait a second.

And I feel like it's been done before.

It's like, it's been, you know, Kim Kardashian, it's probably have people on Photoshop making her butt look bigger.

But.

Totally.

Well, although either that or she did the real thing.

I've heard she said ribs removed to make her waist smaller.

Probably.

I mean, what on earth?

And, you know, I think you could use AI to maybe help have the AI help you.

Make a dating profile like with like sure stuff behind it like prompts or something like that But the pictures I think it's going too far.

I agree and like you said, I mean if someone does want to meet you there's that awkward moment I don't I don't think you'd wait to see them and See that look of horror on their face like wow.

Okay, this is not the I think you'd got to prepare them ahead of time So it's not too weird

It almost turns into like a blind date

when you meet that person

at that

point.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm a married guy.

I'm thinking maybe I should set up a dating account just to do some research here and make myself look like Brad Pitt or something.

Is it okay for people to use AI to enhance their social media or dating site photos?

Let us know 855-752-4842-855-75 civic.

You can text us on the app.

Always fun to get texts on the app or the stream if you're watching on YouTube, X or Facebook.

However you're joining us tonight, folks, it's great to have you be part of the show.

It's always so much more fun when you guys participate.

So we did get a couple texts the other night.

Friday, I was in Madison.

I cut out at like 7.35 because we had pre-recorded content with Terry Barr.

And I did miss a couple texts, which I don't like to do.

Here is, we got one from Bud.

Bud sent a couple.

I think Daniel, I saw one from Daniel.

He sent one right after I left.

And our question was, what is your favorite Wisconsin lake or body of water?

And we were also talking about the movie Caddyshack, which dropped, I believe, on Friday, like 50 years ago, or 45 years ago.

Daniel says, loved watching Caddyshack growing up.

Ted Knight played a great snob, but Caddyshack too, I left the theater stunned by how bad it was.

Man, I wish I had the stones to leave the theater early.

I just have never really done that.

I pay the money and I just sit there like a fool hoping it gets better.

And it never really does.

But thank you for the text, Daniel Sarwe missed you Friday night.

Bud from Jamesville texted us early this morning, I believe, right Conrad?

416, 8am.

416, that's crazy.

Dom was producing the show that Bud was listening to this morning because I was off last night.

He says, hey, Pete and Dominic, I hope you're okay, Pete.

And he weren't given the hand signal to shut up and leave the building.

Oh, that's like Steve Cochran told us he did.

Dominic, great choice in replaying the Kaelin Cole interview.

Love the show, Bud from Jamesville.

Oh, that's right.

We put together highlights from Madison for last night.

That's what Bud is referring to.

And Bud says, Kaelin Cole just Googled her.

Correct, Bud.

Way to do your homework.

Chris Casper in the 608 says, the Dominican Republic is not part of the US.

I was thinking Puerto Rico.

Yes, I was as well.

So there you go, Mr. Smarty Pants.

Chris Casper thinking you're so big.

I think a fist fight's coming.

I would hit him low and I would hit him fast.

He would never see me coming, although I have to say, okay, this weekend, I played this game called soccer golf.

I've talked about it before in the air.

It's just to show you what an idiot I am.

We have this rule where once your soccer ball hits the tree, you're out.

But if the ball caroms off the tree and hits something, if the ball hits anything throughout the course of the game that is not nature, you get a penalty stroke.

Somebody's house, we have this clubhouse near where we live where it's a community shared building.

So I hit the tree, the ball is rolling towards the clubhouse.

I break into an all out sprint, something I haven't done since the late 80s.

And I immediately go down, and my brother says he just saw me disappear behind a building airborne.

Parallel to the ground.

I landed on my rib cage, miraculously did not break my ribs and my shoulder, and I've got serious bruising, and I'm in pain.

But nothing's broken, so I'm fine with that.

Well, did you save it?

I did not.

I got a penalty stroke.

So I didn't

even save it and I lost by one stroke.

So there you go.

And I got a big, this big raspberry on my shoulder.

I felt like there were like kid injuries.

And if you don't sprint, you kind of forget how to do it and you lose your coordination a little bit.

Honestly, I don't think, I probably haven't sprinted.

I played a lot of Frisbee Ultimate like in 2019 and the summer of COVID.

Cause it was sort of COVID friendly.

And I sprinted, but I haven't probably sprinted in four years.

So I don't know what I was doing.

Don't sprint, folks.

That's the message.

That's the message of the whole show.

There's

no

need.

If you're a grown man or woman, you don't need to be sprinting unless you are being chased.

So a lot happened over the weekend.

I started watching the show Dexter.

Have you seen?

I

haven't, but my dad has been a big fan.

It's a good show.

I'm into it.

We could talk about that a little bit.

You saw Fantastic Four.

You also saw

twice happy Gilmore to

happy Gilmore to you thought that was the instruction They thought you should watch it twice and that's why they so Conrad sat through that movie which I've heard is bad But gets laughs it's like if you're an Adam Sandler fan, you're going to laugh But everyone I everyone I know is acknowledged.

It's a bad

movie He plays tribute to all the actors that were in happy Gilmore one.

Yeah, how about just making a good movie?

That would be my advice.

All right.

It's Pete Schwab in Nightlight.

When we come back, I'm going to talk about the diggers hotline 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.

Welcome back.

This is Nightlight with Peachwabba.

I am Peachwabba Conrad Krieger working the board producing the big show So I saw this number for diggers hotline You know what that is?

I have no idea.

I Should have known this I I've only been I'm a one-time homeowner and I didn't buy a house to later in life because I just I'm not really a home guy But it seemed to make sense when we live in a small town in Wisconsin not to rent anymore

a house or an apartment.

So we bought this great little, not little, but chalet house kind of close to the water.

It's a beautiful house.

We love it.

And I should know this, but I saw this number for Diggers Hotline.

I'm like,

what a weird thing.

They have a hotline for Lake.

I just like pictured it's like a party line or something from the 90s.

Like a bunch of dudes get on the phone and go, yeah, I like to dig too, man.

It's pretty fun.

What do you like about digging?

It's the pinpoint where the dangerous lines underground are when you do yard work

or

fix up your house.

And I know I've heard that before, but it just wasn't registering.

So I thought it was, you know, it's nothing I would ever do, but maybe these are nice guys.

I'd just like to talk about digging.

So, all right, so your overall opinion, Khan.

of Fantastic Four.

My son said it was lacking sauce, which he deemed that it just didn't have a lot of flavor.

But it got good reviews, but these movies all get good reviews now.

So what's going on?

Did you like it?

I liked it because I used to watch the Fantastic Four like cartoon TV show a while ago.

And it plays really heavy on to the fact that of the cartoon.

The comics like the the thing in this movie looks so close to actual in like the cartoon That's why I really liked it, but other than that I think I can see where he's saying it lacks flavor sauce because It takes well to get to the huge fight scene at the end against Galactus, but when that scene comes on I think it's awesome

Oh, really

and Sue Storm in that is pregnant the whole time with which could be the The biggest part of the next steps is that kid.

Oh really?

And, uh, yeah, I just really enjoyed it.

And my movie experience was fun because I had, there was one other person in the theater.

Oh, wow.

Just you went by yourself.

Cause I, I

was

looking all day.

I woke up at like nine.

I was like, all right, I want to see this movie today.

I went through every time slot to see, I was like, which one can I get in there?

There's no one there.

Found one at 230.

There's just one guy and I, he was in the front.

I was in the way back.

And it was just really, I put, you know how there's a couple there between the two seaters?

I put it up and put both seats inclined.

Stretched out a little bit.

Yeah, stretched out, laid down a little bit.

Was this

here in Green Bay?

Yeah, no,

it was,

and then, you know, I think the guy accidentally let one rip during it.

I think he was alone probably.

I think he thought it was going to be a silent one because he went, oh.

Oh, that is anti-social behavior at its best.

And I did have a full regular popcorn and felt sick to my stomach the rest of the

day.

Dude, there's, yeah, you can't eat that much of that stuff.

I didn't, it got good reviews.

Over 345 critic reviews gave it an 86% cumulative, 92% of audiences liked it.

So I've heard a few people who are pretty jaded say they did not like it.

The big movie I want to see is Together.

this like horror film with Dave Franco and Brie Larson.

Did it go down at all?

The reviews.

The RT score?

On which movie?

Together, because it was at 100% last week.

Well, it did go down technically.

It's at 99%.

Which, after 84 reviews, that is incredible.

So that's on my list.

Conrad saw Happy Gilmore 2, by all accounts, everything I've heard.

It is not a good movie, but if you like Adam Sandler, if you like the first movie,

You'll get some

laughs.

Is that a fair assessment?

Yeah.

It laid heavy on the cameos, to be honest.

Oh, I heard that too.

Yeah.

I mean, the cameos, there's some that were like, did you really?

The Travis Kelsey one was kind of funny.

Oh, that's right.

He's in that too.

The golfers that they added to the movie, like the actual PGA and live golfers.

So good.

So funny.

Like you never see that side of them because they had to be super professional, obviously in the sport.

Yeah.

So, Xander Shoff laying it, if you know who that is.

I don't.

Hilarious.

I'm

curious.

Hilarious in it.

His only lines are, that's what she said.

Five times.

Oh, what

does a ripoff of Steve Carell?

It makes no sense.

Like, you got to see it to

see

what he says.

I

will check it out.

It got 63% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The same score that the first happy Gilmore got, what, 25, 30 years ago.

So that's great.

I mean, I Just don't get it.

I you can you can give a movie a better view and still know it's gonna do well.

It's on Netflix Critics are have just turned into wooses.

I think you know, we talked about that before

I think It's I saw the runs made of scores and I thought I was a little too high as well and you're a fan like I am a huge

fan Yeah, I just think it'd be a red flag

the end of it could have been so much better the beginning of the movie hilarious.

Yeah,

and that they have this huge

I don't even know how to explain it, it's just... But the one thing I think that kind of screwed, like, they had to rewrite the scripts after

the

original... Oh, he did that a lot, yeah.

Carl Weathers,

yeah.

He passed away, which sucks.

So I saw an interview where he said he had to rewrite half of the movie because of that.

Our question of the night is, is it okay for people to use AI to enhance their social media or dating site photos?

We've got some social media responses.

If you text rollin' in, we'll get to those as the show goes on.

Coming up after the news, Ben Giles.

He is behind the funniest comedian in Oshkosh Contest and the founder of Laughable Productions.

We're gonna see where his contest is, because it's a month-long, months-long dealio, and they're about to enter round four.

We'll talk about that with Ben, and Mike Segal's coming up later.

Be part of the show, folks.

Love it when you guys join up.

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

Network.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba, a Tuesday night version as we broadcast live from downtown Green Bay all over our beautiful state of Wisconsin.

Thanks for being with me tonight, folks.

We've got a great show tonight.

Ben Giles will join us in just a minute.

He is the founder of Laughable Productions, a fine Oshkosh resident and the creator of the funniest comedian in Oshkosh competition.

So we'll talk to Ben in just a minute.

Mike Siegel is here at 720.

He is the host of the TravelTales podcast, and he has also hosted such shows as What You Get For The Money, If Walls Could Talk, and Movie Break, and we'll talk to Mike at 7.20.

Our question of the night is, is it okay for people to use AI to enhance their dating profile photos?

and social media photos.

I think you could argue that one is better than the other or more acceptable than the other.

But let us know what you think at 855-752-4842.

We will get to your texts soon.

And right now, I'm excited to welcome, this gentleman has been on the show before.

He's a great guest.

He's a funny guy and he is the facilitator of all things funny through his laughable productions.

He joins us now on the stream, Mr. Ben Giles.

Hey, buddy.

Hey T, how are you doing?

Doing very well.

How's it going?

It's going great.

I've been looking forward to this all day.

I even unbuttoned one of my buttons, you know, ready to let loose and have some fun.

I really appreciate you having me.

Oh, it's our pleasure, buddy.

We've got a lot to talk about because you have this great contest.

You're also a comedian.

And before we get to the competition, which...

I love that you stretched it out over months, but we'll get to that in a second.

First, tell, if people haven't heard you on the show before, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background, Ben.

Absolutely.

Yeah, so I'm Ben Giles.

I am the...

founder and president of Laughable Productions.

We are a comedic production company that was founded in 2019 with the goal of bringing more unique and funny experiences to the Fox Valley area and now beyond.

I mean, we've been doing shows all over the state now.

And we are so excited.

I am so excited.

I have done improv comedy, stand-up comedy, acted in a lot of shows, whether that be musical theater, plays.

And it has been just a passion of mine to make people laugh and make people feel good and comfortable.

And so that was really the goal of bringing laughable productions together.

In my personal life, I have a family, a new family, wife and a new baby, eight month old.

little guy.

Is he

funny?

He's always laughing, smiling, and blah, blah, blah, in a way.

I think he's going to be a comedian.

He's got his eyes set on the stage for sure.

Love it.

That's great.

Well, that's exciting.

And what made you, with the new family, Ben, also being a comedian and someone who's done improv, what made you want to get on the business side of things?

I'm kind of, I know a lot of comics do that.

I was always just like, wanted to write jokes and perform.

I don't think I ever had it in me to wrangle or manage comics or bring shows to people.

Is that stressful and what's that like?

Yeah, it's definitely stressful.

You know, I recently brought a producer on board.

Shout out to Cody Krupp, former sports reporter at Fox 11.

Cody and I grew up together and he started producing some of our shows to kind of take some of that stress off of me because for the last six years, you know, I've been the one producing all of our shows.

Yeah.

But yeah, it is it is a really stressful process.

But really, the reason I want to do it is, you know, when I moved back after college, I went to UW Madison.

I graduated, I did comedy there.

I was in a dinner theater, I was on an improv team.

And I moved to Fond du Lac and I was like, where is all the comedy?

I mean, we didn't

have a

comedy club.

We didn't have any dinner theaters.

We had good community theater presence, but that was, you know, standard, you know, plays and musicals, right?

Not necessarily producing comedy shows or improv.

And so I had them.

great fortune of meeting some really funny people when I first came back to Fond du Lac.

And I was like, you know, if we truly want to see more comedy and more fun in the Fox Valley area, then we got to be the ones to do it.

So that's exactly why we started it up.

It was great when we first started.

We started doing dinner theaters and then we made an improv team and we started doing a lot of improv shows.

We had a standing show at the arts center downtown in Fond du Lac on the first Friday of every month.

And that really opened a lot of doors for us to really start entertaining and making people laugh.

So when you say dinner theater, are they watching improv or do you guys actually put on comedic plays?

What's the entertainment like?

Yeah, so the dinner theaters are murder mystery dinner theaters.

So

basically like audience members will come and they'll they'll assume an alias and a character and then someone ends up.

you know, there's a victim, they die.

Yeah, a fake, fake death.

Ideally.

And

then it's the it's the job of the audience to then solve the crime.

And there's clues.

There's a lot of audience interaction.

But it's a lot of improv too.

Like our we have two detectives that kind of guide everyone through the night.

And they're interrogating people.

They're looking through clues.

They're bringing people up from the audience.

So it is it is very interactive.

But it is a lot of improv.

It's a lot of

comedy, but it's also, you know, it gives people an opportunity to kind of get out of their shell.

And if you're, you know, afraid of coming to the dinner theater because you don't want to get called on, we know who to call on, you know, we know the people in the audience to pull up, that'll be good entertainment value.

So we definitely don't want to put anyone in a situation where they're like, no, don't call on me, don't call on me.

No, we're good at that.

You can literally read the room, which is important for comedians and people performing like that.

I've always wanted to try one of those.

I've heard those dinner theater shows or the murder mystery shows are a lot of fun.

Is there a comedy club in Oshkosh, Ben?

There used to be, not anymore.

The Oshkosh Arena has kind of been our pseudo comedy club for the last nine months.

with all these Oscar's Funnest comedian shows that we produce in there.

And then bringing in Josh Blue, a national headliner, winner of...

Last comic standing and runner-up for America's Got Talent.

They've been known to bring in big acts in the past.

They brought in Burt Kreischer and everybody saw the video of Burt at Pete's Garage after with a shirt off behind the bar.

And so we're trying to make some magic comedy moments here.

And who knows, maybe there is a comedy club in the future under the Laughable Productions tag.

I can never...

Never say never.

But as of right now, we love partnering with places, we love going into venues, and we love making unique experiences for people at places they may not have experienced before.

That's so cool.

So all right, let's talk a little bit about the contest.

Tell us, give us the broad strokes or what it entails, how many rounds, where you, Oshkosh Arena is the venue, but how many rounds, how many comics have you had?

This is a lot to get through because the last time you were here, I think you were just launching it.

And

now

the finals aren't until September.

So you're dragging it out, which is kind of cool, I think.

Yeah, honestly, I think dragging it out, it has been a monthly series.

It's been a really good thing for us.

But there are four preliminary rounds for the Oscars Funnest Comedian.

We had round one in May.

Round two in June, round three in July, then round four is coming up on Friday, August 15th at the Oshkosh Arena.

And then the finale is September 13th.

And basically how those first four rounds have gone is we've had anywhere from, you know, eight to 12 comedians each round that

They get an eight-minute set to perform, and then there's a panel of judges and an audience vote.

And then every night we crown one winner of the preliminary round, and then that winner gets to go to the finale to open for Josh Blue.

And then Josh Blue is gonna join our judging panel, help us judge, and then he's also gonna do a set as well.

He's gonna perform about 45 to 60 minutes of some stand-up comedy for the audience.

And it's been it's been really great reception.

I mean, we've had crowds of over a hundred almost every single round

so far.

I mean, the comedians are really thrilled because, you know, it's it's it's tough to get people to come and fill seats for comedy show sometimes, you know, especially when we're we're doing it in a big venue, right?

Like a comedy club that seats 70.

Sure.

You know, you can fill it up with 30 to 50 people and feels like a.

You know, really full show.

But then when you have an arena that has so so much space and, you know, it's really impressive that we've been able to garner so much attention and get so many people in there.

And the first three rounds that we've done, you know, we have three winners so far.

The audience and our panel of judges have both agreed on who they thought the top comedian was each time.

So that

was that was also a plus for sure.

That's got to be a relief, too.

My guest is Ben Giles.

He's the founder of Laugh

and the funniest comedian in Oshkosh competition, which they are about to do round four.

Is it three or four on August 15th?

Or.

Okay, round four.

Round four.

It starts at 7 p.m.

at the Oshkosh arena.

It sounds like a great time.

Ben, how many local, how local are the comics?

And do you allow them to come in from out of state or is it just Wisconsin?

Is it just the Fox Valley?

How does that work?

Yeah, so the first year that we did this, we really wanted to make sure that we had a lot of comedians competing and that we had a really well-rounded competition.

So we did open it up.

We have some folks.

that have traveled from the Chicago area.

There are a lot of local comedians that are in it.

I think every round we've had at least one, two, three comedians from Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Appleton, Green Bay area.

But as it evolves, we do want this to be an annual event.

And I do think that we're going to be a little more strict next year now that we have some notoriety and the competition has kind of got some wheels on it.

It's a well-oiled machine.

Next year, we'll definitely limit it a little bit more to try

to try to get more of that nailed down to maybe just the Wisconsin area.

But I was really impressed.

I mean, we had over 50 comedians submit to

be

in the competition.

And basically our biggest thing when we were evaluating, we wanted to make sure that they had stage time.

so that they, you know, they had performed at a club or at an event and that they had a recorded set and that they could do at least 10 minutes.

I mean, those were the two things that we're really looking for.

And we didn't really turn many people away.

We wanted to give comedians an opportunity to really showcase themselves and let the audience choose.

And I will say we've had some really funny people, especially the last two rounds

The last two rounds were tough because there was some good competition and the audience had a great reaction to a lot of the comedians.

And it's perfect for laughable productions too because we produce shows all over the place.

We have a new video series that we're working on.

It's Feel Good Friday.

It's a monthly series.

And we've been pulling talent from all of these comedians to help with a lot of our other content too You know, so it's been a good door opener to get to know more comedians and get them involved And you know, we typically you know, at laughing productions We try to make everyone whole in every production we do, you know, we're we're definitely not uh It's it's not like I'm some money hoard here and you know,

right

trying to take advantage of comedians, you know all of our productions

our paid productions.

And so that's one thing that I pride myself on.

And we've actually pulled probably 10 to 12 comedians from this pool of people that have already performed to help with dinner theaters, to help with video series, which is awesome because we're building a community really is what it comes down to.

Yeah, and it's great exposure for all the comics.

And I love that you put in the...

the parameters with the, like 10 minutes, you have to be a real comic.

If you can do 10 minutes, that shows you at least are no stranger to comedy clubs because I'm sure you didn't want people just signing up thinking they were funny at family parties and they get up there and it's an absolute train wreck.

So is this a contest?

We've got to do a break in about 30 seconds here, Ben, but are you

in the contest or are you just running it?

Conflict of interest.

I'm

not in the contest.

I am I'm one of the judges.

OK.

And I am also the host.

I host all

the

rounds and I will be hosting the finale as well.

So you will hear me sling some jokes.

I mean,

I

do open and I prime the crowd.

I do about.

five to seven minutes and a lot of crowd work too in the beginning, you know, getting to know the crowd, getting the crowd

ready

for what they're about to experience.

So I love that.

Honestly, I sometimes like hosting more than I, than I like actually to stand out.

All

right.

That's great.

All right.

Ben Giles is my guest.

We're going to do a very short break and he's going to come back and we're going to actually name some names who are in this next round.

You won't want to miss that, folks.

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

Sing aloud,

because we want to make a crowd.

Helping you get through the end of your day and leave the stresses behind as we talk about the things we love folks movies TV comedy music Theater you name it.

How cool was that Todd Halba interview with Joe Thomas?

So I mean that one of the cool or one of the cool stories and NFL I mean,

yeah,

how much weight he lost just since he retired is crazy a

little scary Some of those guys like

well it tells you how much they have to keep on weight during that

time.

Yeah, exactly

So our question of the night, folks, is, is it okay when people use AI to enhance their dating profile photos or social media photos?

We'll read your texts in just a few minutes.

Mike Siegel is coming up at 7.20.

Mike is the host of the TravelTales podcast, hosted shows like If Walls Could Talk, What You Get for the Money, and TBS's movie break, and he's a very funny comedian.

He is not in our current...

guests contest though, Ben Giles is here from Laughable Productions in Oshkosh and bringing Oshkosh more comedy, which I think is fantastic.

So Ben, let's talk about, you've got all these comics.

How much time do these guys do?

They all do 10 and girls too.

Yeah, they do, so they get eight minutes.

uh, for, for each set.

So

essentially like we, we've been stacking the lineups with, you know, 12 people into roughly a two hour show.

So, um,

They should be prepared to have 10 minutes though because at the finale they will be given a little more time But yeah, they get eight minutes we we flash them a light at seven You know so they have their one-minute warning and then we cut the mic at eight

Let's be honest too if you're not getting any laughs eight minutes can go by a little quickly You might want to have a couple extra minutes just in case So here are the comics names for this next round.

I assume your website is up to date Bob Coakley Brady

Gregorich, Brandon Sanders, Chris Butler, Chris Riley, Deanberg, Hector Avilis, Nate Lee, Owen Barr, Phoenix Lampkin, and Scott Holt.

Is there a favorite in there, or can it go either way?

It's going to be close.

There's a couple in there that I think are really good.

There's a couple in there that I have not.

scene besides their three minute promo.

I

also need to give a shout out to, to Hayden Fredericksson, whatever website you're reading off of does not have his name.

He is also competing that night, a Green Bay local.

But no, I need to stay non-biased, Pete.

I can't tell you who the favorite is.

But I do think there's a couple that I have high hopes for.

And then I just hope no one bombs.

Because regardless of who wins for the night, we're just trying to put out a fun night.

People

get

a couple

laughs.

This is great too.

It says $100 cash prize for the winner.

So one of these comedians I just mentioned will be the fourth comic in the grand finale in September, correct?

So you'll have four comics and then the headliner.

Yes.

the $100 cash price has actually increased.

We've increased.

So if you win $100, if you win the preliminary round, and then if you win the whole thing, you're gonna win $1,000.

So we have upped the ante.

We've really beefed it up by bringing Josh Blue in.

And then also a really cool thing as well, if any of those comedians are people that you know, you can buy a ticket.

with their code and the each comedian gets paid a commission for every ticket they sell.

So if they bring, you know, 40 people to the show, you know, not only do they have an advantage in the audience voting portion of the judging, but they also get a little commission from ticket sales as well for people that they bring to the show.

Are you worried that people are going to like stack the audience or try to Ben or do you not care?

Because it just means you have more people in the audience.

Yeah, that's a really good question, Pete.

At first we were a little worried about that.

The first three rounds that has not been a factor at all.

structure it so that it's 55% judge panel, 45% audience vote, so that if someone does stack the audience, they're not going to automatically win.

There's still that judges panel that has a majority of control just by a little bit.

But I will say in the past couple of rounds, the people that have brought the most

folks in for the show have not been the winners.

So that's another, yeah, that's another interesting facet.

I think, you know, if you're a diehard fan and you're there for them, yeah, you're gonna vote for them no matter what.

But

I think there are some people who have a following who attract people to the show.

But then, you know, it's undeniable who I think the last two shows have been pretty straightforward on who should win.

And I think most of the audience has shown that they are also voting that way.

That's fantastic.

My guest is Ben Giles.

He's the founder of Laughable Productions and the creator, or at least one of them, of the funniest comedian in Oshkosh competition, which takes place this new round.

Round four takes place August 15th.

the Oshkosh Arena at 7 p.m.

Where can people get tickets, Ben?

You can get tickets at Oshkosh Arena dot com through Ticketmaster or you can buy them at the door.

Save a little money on those Ticketmaster fees if you buy

them at the

door or anytime the Oshkosh Arena box office is open.

They have normal open hours Monday through Friday.

Pop on in there, grab your tickets and have a great

time.

The Oshkosh Arena, one of the few arenas that still has the name of the city.

You couldn't find a sponsor for that arena, like a Leon's Custard Oshkosh Arena

or something.

Yeah, you'll have to take that one up with the

Oshkosh Arena.

Oshkosh Bagash, overalls arena, something.

Come on, Oshkosh has got a lot of cool stuff.

Hey, you know, a couple of years from now, maybe Laughful Productions being so well, we'll sponsor

you.

Oh man, that would be fantastic.

Hey, we have to do the news, Ben.

Can I keep you for a few more minutes?

I would love to just get into some comedy talk with you and find out what comedians

like and that kind of stuff.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

All right.

We'll do that.

Mike Siegel is here at 720.

We have a couple of social media texts here.

We'll get to before the break.

Our question tonight, folks, is, is it okay for people to use AI to spruce up their dating site profile photos or social media photos?

Daniel Wheeler says, I asked my AI girlfriend about your profile question.

She said I was handsome and then asked if I wanted to switch to a yearly subscription.

No, Daniel, he says, so things are getting pretty serious.

And then our pal Dan Davies says, my AI date kept asking me in an Austrian accent.

If I was Sarah Connor, I had to terminate that date post haste.

We'll get to the rest of your text throughout the course of the show, folks, but be part of the fun here at nightlight.

We're coming back for act two after intermission here with the very funny, very talented, very busy, Vengeiles speech, Wabba and nightlight on the city.

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