Transcript
Popcorn Pick of the Week W/ WheezyWaiter (Hour 1)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Thu Aug 7, 2025
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Welcome to Nightlight, ladies and gentlemen.
Great to have you.
It is Thursday night, the Christmas Eve of weeknights and a muggy night here in northeast Wisconsin, at least, where we broadcast from.
Hope you're having a great day and hope you can leave the stresses of your day behind.
and join us for a couple hours of Ask Jackery and fun, some laughs, some good guests.
We do it all here at Nightlight every night from six to eight, and it is great to have you part of the show.
Got a good question tonight.
Lots of chances for you guys to weigh in with your thoughts on our question and some other content we will be discussing tonight.
Really fun show.
Craig Benzine is here tonight, folks.
He also goes by the name Weezy Waiter.
on YouTube.
He's got over 1 million subscribers.
Those aren't just people who watch Conrad.
Those are subscribers.
You have to give your information.
A million people have done that.
That's
Oh, see, there you go.
Listen, I don't know why you're downplaying Craig's subscribers, but I think it's pretty impressive.
No.
He doesn't need me he doesn't have just like a million and three either.
He's got like 1.2 million or something like that Really talented guy an actual influencer like I could say I'm an influencer with my 300 Twitter followers But you know of those let's say 200 or bots 40 are want to be escorts or cam girls 20 are you know people I don't really know
My point is I'm not influencing anybody.
Craig, on the other hand, is an actual influencer, and he's a filmmaker, and he made a film called No Packers, No Life, and I've seen a chunk of it.
It's really good, and it's really fun.
It's about Japanese packer fans, and he did this great documentary.
These fans are so into the packers, and they watch games that have been recorded.
They've already happened like years ago, and they will just sit and socially watch a pack.
Now, I love my teams.
I'm not watching a Bears game, even from when they were good.
I'm not sitting down and watching that.
I do that, but I'm not going to watch the whole game.
Would you do that with a Packer game?
Start to finish?
You need to get out more, dude.
Anyway, it's impressive.
It's a really fun film.
Craig is the director, so he is an influencer, a director.
He's also got quite an acting history, too.
So he will be here tonight to make the popcorn pick of the week at 6.35.
Can't think of a better guy to do that.
And then at 7.35, we welcome Savannah Schindler.
She is from VisitBeloid, and she's talking about this really cool tournament they have there.
Remember what it's called, Conrad?
Cube.
Sounds like kind of...
It's not kind of elitist when you say it.
Sounds like a club.
We were calling it KUB.
The KUB club.
Right.
The KUB club.
The KUB open.
KUB open.
Sorry.
It's not even KUB.
It's not KUB.
It's not KUB.
It's KUB.
KUB.
Those crazy Norwegians.
Yeah.
That's how they talk.
And it's
a Norwegian game.
Yeah.
So there's a tournament in Beloit this Saturday night.
Savannah will join us to talk about that.
That'll be fun.
And God, what else is going on?
There's a lot.
It is really sweltering outside.
Yeah.
You know what the
you
was?
What's that?
You wore full pads.
Yeah.
You should not have done that.
get in there.
You played football, you know, you're kind of a, you're a, not sturdy, what's the name?
You're built, you're sound.
I
Of course they would.
But how long do you think you could hold your own?
Like let's say you're squaring off against, what's the center's name?
Or the nose tackle.
If you're sitting there or
Let's do this.
Let's say What position if you had to go in for like let's say five plays Are you least likely to get the crap kicked out of you or to be conscious when you leave?
you got to go like you got to go
Receiver running back line And you got to play offense.
Um, you can't just sit back there in defense and hope nothing comes your way
all right.
You're obviously dodging the question.
I'm gonna say I Think I would have a better chance as alignment No,
listen if I get a hand off
They would just push me aside.
toast.
OK, but if I get a handoff, I'm probably going to die.
OK.
Or catch a pass over the middle.
Are you kidding me?
I think I'd rather take my chances on the line.
Bad it away.
Bad it away.
Play defense.
You guys can weigh in on this if you want.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
Where do you think, where would you go where you're least likely to get your butt kicked?
a beating no matter
But what I like about the line is they don't have much room to charge you.
One step, and that's all they need.
They're getting right past me.
No question about that.
But they can't wind up.
They can't get a ten-yard head start and just annihilate me.
all physics, buddy.
Right, unless they just pick me up and launch me somewhere.
All right, believe it or not, folks, this isn't all the show we have tonight.
I mentioned our guests, and let's go to, I think without further ado, we should get to our 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.
Questions.
Well, it's National Sea Creatures Serpent Day.
So our question is, and this, I'm gonna preface this by saying, water in deep dark water freaks me out more than anything in the world.
I don't like knowing what's under me, even if I could kick its ass.
Even a trout, who I like my chances against, even though they're kind of the jerks of the fish world.
Now, what is below the surface of the water?
It's the unknown.
It's always freaked me out.
So it's National Sea Serpent Day.
What's the creepiest underwater creature, mythical or real, to you?
What freaks you out the most let us know eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five civic What is the creepiest underwater creature mythical or real you can text us on our text line that I just gave you or the app?
Very popular the civic media app if you don't have it.
I highly recommend downloading it.
It's very easy to use You can take you all your favorite civic media shows and hosts with you wherever you go and now
Conrad if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, you can listen to oldies if you oh, yeah If you click on wgbw or wiss in the app you'll get oldies throughout the day
local news
or just Green Bay?
Yeah, okay, so you get an option there, you know, I like my talker colleagues But you know once in a while you got to cleanse the palette and go some oldies that they are fun to listen to so Download the app if you haven't or you can drop us a comment on the stream
And that's today's question.
What is the creepiest underwater creature mythical or real in honor of National Sea Serpent Day?
I did some, I did some research here.
First of all, I know what mine is.
It's a Megalodon.
Megalodons, there you go.
If you're watching on the stream, that is those things could get up to 75 feet.
I've heard, I don't know if this is urban legend or not, but that on occasion they would get up to a hundred feet, almost as big as a blue whale.
but they're man-eaters, they're sharks, and they pieced one together.
In San Diego, there's a museum, I think just natural history, and they pieced together a megalodon, and it is impressive to look at.
It was just huge, thick and long, and it was crazy, but they've always freaked me out.
I don't like sharks to begin with, but a megalodon would definitely be mine.
And I feel like they're extinct, and the science community,
Seems pretty confident that they're extinct and I tend to believe the science community most of the time But I feel like there could be still be one down there.
How do they know?
That's my point like the ocean is so vast How do you not know?
How do you know there's there could be a megalodon down
it's hard to fish.
Yeah, it scared
yeah,
on they are
and that's deceiving because they get fairly big.
Yeah Yeah, this is that looks like a guppy, but they can get pretty good size
but and here's what it's not even just like saltwater ocean or sea Even lake water.
I don't like knowing what's under me in a lake because oh and I'll even in Wisconsin a lot of these lakes are like You don't know what a glacier dropped into those lakes, you know
They are I don't think they can bite you.
I mean, I suppose they could but they are creepy-looking.
Yeah, you
Thank you for derailing the whole show Conrad because of your wanton lust for a bluegill I Was just thinking about fish in Wisconsin you're gonna say a fish a fish fry even freaks me out.
They're fresh water No, no, but because jaws is based on a story where
A 25-foot great white went in through a seaway and got into fresh water in New Jersey and ate people.
And it lived in fresh water for quite a while.
So water just freaks me out.
I'm not a boatsman.
I'm not a swimmer per se.
But ladies and gentlemen, let us know.
Let's have some fun with this tonight.
What sea creature?
What is the creepiest underwater creature, mythical or real, to you?
It's National Sea Serpent Day.
Let us know we'll read your text on the radio.
I have to say I do I Have a video poker app and also on any sports app.
I used I'm seeing all these ads for guys shaving their chests Check out this life hack and it's these guys with this new tool that shaved their chest.
Have you ever shaved your chest?
I Feel like that's a new thing and I don't consider myself an old-school guy necessarily parts of me probably are but like mostly I'm contemporary if I see a trend I like
I'll go with it.
But these guys, everybody's shaving their chest.
And I'm sick of watching, and you gotta watch it for like 15 seconds before you can click out of it.
I feel like it's messing with me.
is
No, but I have to.
It's online.
The game is on.
Why don't you just stick the bluegill hacks, OK?
It's the Popcorn Pick of the Week.
Tonight, folks, Craig Benzine will be here shortly to make the Popcorn Pick of the Week.
And then Savannah Schindler joins us a little later.
When we come back, we're going to read your texts.
And I'm going to tell you about that show I've been teasing all week that I've been watching.
And I'm kind of addicted to.
That's coming up next on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're
listening to Civic Media.
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This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.
So great to have you.
It is a Thursday, folks.
You're almost home.
The weekend is right around the corner where you get to watch new movies and binge watch different TV than you've been watching.
The weekend just presents so many opportunities when it comes to being a couch potato.
I want to give a shout out to our next door neighbors before we proceed any further rise and grind.
First of all, this has stuck with me for a while.
I love the name.
That is a great name for a coffee shop.
Rise and grind because that's what we do every day.
We all grind You grind it today over at the Packer practice field.
yeah So a shout out to Jocelyn because I was in a hurry and she brought my coffee over here and gave me Dubai chocolate Which is the greatest flavor of anything that might be the that scoop of gelato might be the best meal I've ever had It looked pretty good.
It was delicious and then the coffee she brought me
It did give her a Civic Media shirt.
Nice.
That didn't cost me anything though.
No, but the coffee she brought me, she put cinnamon in it.
Yeah, that's dynamite.
From going forward, that's all I'm gonna put in my coffee is cinnamon.
It tastes so good and she was nice enough to tell me what, cause I thought it was some weird flavor and she goes, no, I just put cinnamon in it.
Her husband said, I guess when she did that, like she needs to serve coffee cause she has that kind of a palette, I guess, for a...
coffee creativity.
It's dynamite though.
Thank you, Jocelyn.
Thank you, Ryzen Grind.
Love the name.
And the other night I stopped, I was going to get a gelato on my way home.
There's like a line out the door.
So I thought, well, you know, it'll be dark by the time I get out of here.
So I didn't get it, but really good stuff.
All right.
So our question of the night, folks, you know, first of all, I want to talk about this show because I've been kind of teasing it all week.
And I might have mentioned it, but Dexter,
really good show.
The first two seasons are, the writing is, it's outstanding.
And it's one of those shows that like when you watch it, like I love the first season.
It's about a guy for those of you who don't know, he's a serial killer, but he controls his urges and he works for a police department analyzing blood splatter at crime scenes.
So he knows this stuff and he only kills people that like get away with horrible crimes.
So,
He kind of channels his urges.
And that's the story.
So most of the people he kills, you're kind of rooting for him.
It's a bit more of it, but the writing is really good.
And in the second season, I had so much faith in the writing of the show based on the first show, I thought, I trust them.
I know this is gonna be awesome.
I don't know where this is going.
And it really delivered.
And I'm in season three right now and Jimmy Smith is, I think they're gonna make him the bad guy.
He's not yet.
But I don't know, but if any of you are watching Dexter or have watched Dexter, I'm very late to the party.
I know that.
Feel free to share your thoughts.
And I know Lisa Hale has watched the show.
We're gonna have her on to discuss the show.
I think she's said she's watched it all the way through more than once.
So we'll have that discussion with Lisa at some point, but she's on vacation this week.
So let me know if you're watching Dexter, if you shave your chest.
What you can also win and whether or not what position if you had to play offense in the national football league And this kind of goes hand-in-hand with our first guest Craig benzene because we'll talk about his movie no packers in life, but What position would you pick where you think you're at least likely to take a butt kicking I say the line You don't really say he's a kicker you kind of evaded the question punter Okay, long snapper he can't be touched
Well, he can be touched after he snaps up.
He's getting touched one way or the other
All right.
I Feel like after you hike it the guy could just push your head right into the ground.
There's rules All right our question is what is your Well, what's the creepiest underwater creature mythical or real it's national sea serpent day.
Let us know your thoughts folks.
We'll go to some of our
Social media texts here, we got Conrad Krieger, Angler Fish, very creepy.
Daniel Wheeler, creature from the black lagoon.
That is a creepy creature.
He said, pretty much ruined swimming in lakes for me.
After seeing that, a simple brush of some underwater algae against my leg, I started crying.
But it gave him a morbid sense of humor, and he is an artist and makes really cool, creepy stuff.
So I would say it paid dividends for you, Daniel, down the road.
As scared as you might have been as a kid.
I do remember that I was scared of that too.
I say Megalodon.
They could still exist.
Why not?
We don't know what's down there Our pal Mike Dessertel says without a doubt at least in my book the creepiest has to be the blob fish Oh, those are creepy and he posted a picture on the internet.
There you go That looks like a guy looks like a guy who like works at an auto parts store That's
Really
I just realized what I said could be construed as me ripping on people who work in auto parts stores But if I go in to ask for a car part or I need a new wiper or whatever I Want the guy working at the auto store to look like a blob.
I don't want to go in there and have a guy that looks like Brad Pitt I'll think that guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
He's too handsome
But if it looks like that blob fish you just had up there, I think this guy probably knows auto parts
that kind of knows he knows his stuff Yeah, all right And then Mike gave all these soft body flabby skin weak bones and few muscles lack of buoyancy No swim bladder.
So they float with the ocean's currents passive behavior They sit on the ocean floor and wait for prey to drift into their mouths really gross
I take it back, they're the jerks of the sea.
But they know they're auto parts.
Yeah.
Dan Davies says, one of my uncles saw a creepy looking mermaid off the coast of Key West in the early 1980s.
It was either that or a floating marijuana bale.
I think it was probably the marijuana bale.
Just guessing.
There could be a mermaid though.
I'm going to the text line here.
Let's get Conrad's dad's text and Steve from Florida says the creature from the black lagoon.
There you go, Daniel.
Epic movie from 1954.
The cool thing is that the movie was filmed not too far from where we live now in Ocala Silver Springs, Florida.
Happy swimming, Steve.
All right, we're coming right back with the popcorn pick of the week and filmmaker and influencer Craig Benzine.
It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
All right, welcome, folks.
Welcome back.
This is the Popcorn Pick of the Week.
That must mean it's Thursday at 6.35 here at Nightlight.
Great to have you with me, and I'm very excited to welcome my next guest who I wanted to have on the show, with or without the Popcorn Pick of the Week, because he's got a lot going on.
He is a YouTube influencer who goes by the name wheezy waiter and he has over a million subscribers Conrad not just people who tune in and listen occasionally subscribe They go the extra mile and he is now a director and and goes by the name of Craig benzene and he just made a film called no Packers no life.
We'll talk about that too We'll talk about all of it after we make the popcorn pick of the week Craig welcome.
Hey, thank you for having me
My pleasure, and if I can say this to another man in the most heterosexual way possible, that beard is looking really handsome, buddy.
It looks much better than last time, and it looked dynamite last time.
Hey, well, thank you.
I actually, I put a little beard oil in it before this.
Oh, is that the secret?
I like it.
Well, I also showered as well.
Oh,
there you go.
I knew it was something.
It all helps.
How are you, buddy?
I'm doing good.
I heard earlier you were talking about shaving your chest.
That's
the thing,
their ads are all over the place.
I
don't know if you've seen them, but yeah, what do you make of that?
Well, I have shaved my chest in the past for charity.
Oh, okay.
And so, friends of mine who are also YouTubers of the Vlogbrothers, they do a thing every year called Project For Awesome, and I shaved P4A into my chest, Project For Awesome.
Oh,
wow.
just to help raise money.
And then after that, I shaved it all off.
And it was terrible.
It was so itchy.
It was almost painful, yeah, as it was growing back.
Is it just
itchy when it's growing back in, or is it just a different thing?
I think it didn't take very long, probably a day before it started to get really itchy and a little painful.
Yeah, so I do not recommend it.
I absolutely do not recommend
it.
I hope whatever charity it was appreciated your efforts and your discomfort.
Before we get to popcorn, Craig, do you have a sea creature that creeps you out?
I also heard you talking about that and I thought about it and I guess, well, I have two answers.
One, if you're in the water,
Anything brushing up against your leg is going to be very creepy.
I don't think it does not matter what it is
true
and to I just got it I Just got to go shark I got to go classic because that I feel like I'm more likely to encounter a shark than like an angler fish or something Under under the water, you know, and it will also murder me so
It's it's true like even when you're in a pool and someone
does a goof and grabs your leg with our hand.
You immediately think fish or killer, even
though
you're in a chlorinated public pool or something.
It's just
a
terrible feeling.
What you
can't see is most terrifying.
Yeah, exactly.
And that's a great choice.
I think Shark is a safe bet.
All right, so let's talk about movies and movie snacks.
Craig, you're a movie maker now too.
And you may have made movies before that I can't remember.
I know you've acted.
You've been around the business a long time.
How do you like to watch movies?
Are you a theater guide?
You like to watch them at home?
I mean, I will watch them any way I can.
I'll watch them on the phone if I have to.
But theater is the preferred, for sure.
Absolutely.
Theater with a full crowd.
Like, I love the hype.
I love...
when it's when it's when everyone's like really excited about a movie if it's an opening night that to me is the best scenario for a movie
I totally agree with you and it's that shared experience it's that like when you're all you know because everybody in there regardless of their background or whatever
is there and typically excited to see this film together.
That's what's so fun about it.
And even I got, I thought it was really cool.
Even like Top Gun Maverick, I wasn't a huge Top Gun fan, but that first time everybody went back into the theaters and Tom Cruise gave that little message.
I was
like,
all right, here we go.
Let's
watch a movie, you know?
Yeah, and I thought that was a good movie.
Yeah, I enjoyed it.
And it was a packed crowd.
And maybe that's why I liked it because it was a packed crowd.
I don't know.
Yeah, that can help for sure.
All right, so.
Do you have a typical, like if a genre, you favor Craig?
Well, I mean, I feel like there's great examples of every genre, but if I have to, if I have to choose, I'm probably gonna go with either sci-fi or action comedy.
Like, you ever seen The Nice Guys?
Yeah, I've seen that, yeah.
Like, or like, you know,
What's another good example like Beverly Hills cop or something like that like an action comedy to me is the easiest thing in the world to watch I will always enjoy that at any I'll always be in the mood for it.
I agree, but
I think they're hard to pull off I think they're hard to do properly.
Oh, yeah, cuz they
really bad, you know, but the ones that are done well are Are really good and I'll give you an example like lethal weapon.
I think when that came out I think that was trying to be funny at times, but
I don't know if you've seen it recently or ever seen it, but it doesn't, to me, didn't really hold up.
I was watching it with my son about a year ago, and there's a scene where, you know, Mel Gibson is under cover.
It's towards the end of the movie.
They're going after the bad guys.
They're in Hollywood Boulevard, tons of people around, and he has his shirt open and like khaki pants on, and he's carrying like an AR something or other, and he's like, excuse me, excuse me, and the cup.
cops were like, let him through.
They don't even know he's a cop.
And it's like, we know he is, but
it's
just the guy walking through the crowd with a semi-automatic.
So sometimes I laugh for the
wrong reasons.
I did actually watch that recently as well.
And I don't think it held up because at the end, also at the end, the bad guy and Mel Gibson.
encounter each other.
They don't really know each other, but they for some reason have to have a fist fight.
And the cops, Danny Glover is like holding back the cops.
No, they have to fist fight.
We can't arrest him now.
Let's let them have their fight.
That was really dumb.
I totally agree with you.
And I remember when it came out in 87, and I was working the door at this club in Chicago, and the head door guy went and saw it and he said, dude, you.
God, I see this.
Like it was his religion.
And I went and saw it and I liked it.
I didn't even notice that stuff.
And now I'm like, what the hell was the matter with 19 year old me?
You know what I mean?
I think at the time it was pretty new and novel kind of idea to have like a violent, funny movie like that.
Good point.
Yeah.
A
suicidal cop who's kind of on the edge, you know.
Yeah, exactly.
All right, so you like theaters, you like, what is your, Craig, you have a favorite snack when you watch movies, either in the theater or at home, and do they differ depending on where you watch movies?
Well, it's definitely, at theater, it's Nestle's Bunch of Crunch.
I always go for Nestle's Bunch of Crunch.
Conrad,
who gave
you Bunch of Crunch earlier this week as a gift?
delightful.
Yeah,
I'm with you.
Great choice.
Sometimes I'm like, I don't need all that sugar.
I'll just have half of it.
I always eat the whole box because I can't stop.
I love Nestle's Bunch of Crunch.
At home, I don't have Nestle's Bunch of Crunch around.
So probably, I don't know.
It's just whatever is convenient.
You don't keep a candy counter at your home, Craig.
No, but that's a
great idea.
Why
not?
Yeah, I think we eat a little healthier at home, typically, or you could actually make dinner and watch something at home, which is nice, too.
So, all right, you're a director now.
You made this great film.
When did movies become kind of magical to you, Craig, or when did you decide you were in awe of movies?
Oh, very young.
I've loved them.
I don't even know if I remember.
I mean, I think my earliest memory of truly loving movies is probably watching Indiana Jones on TV with my dad.
Oh, nice.
Like, that was probably, like, I remember multiple times, because my dad's a real rewatcher.
So whenever it was on, like, we'd watch India, and I'd always try to stay up late enough to see the whole movie.
Yeah,
nice.
That's probably one of my earliest memories of watching.
And ever since, I mean, I've always loved movies.
And when I was in grade school and high school, I would
make little home movies and edit them using two VCRs because that was the only way to do it back then.
Right.
And yeah, I mean, so yeah, pretty much my whole life, I've loved movies.
Wasn't it great too when like, when there was only like four channels or maybe a couple of UHF channels too, it was always a thrill when a movie that you saw in the theater was on TV.
It's like.
I get to watch it again, like we're so spoiled now.
I can watch anything I've ever seen in my life a couple clicks, you know what I
mean?
And I still, I feel like back then every movie was precious and now I see this array of movies and I'm like, oh, none of these look good.
You know, like so spoiled.
It's another Gerard Butler movie.
Okay, sure, let's go with that.
Do you have a favorite, do you have a movie cocktail that you prefer?
A
drink?
Yeah.
Well at home it'll just be the the traditional old-fashioned not the Wisconsin old-fashioned just the like the the whiskey like the That's a fit.
That's a that's something I've lived in Chicago for a while I grew up in Wisconsin But I when I moved to Chicago I discovered that in old-fashioned everywhere else in the world is different than it is in Wisconsin
Wow,
okay.
Yeah There's no soda in it.
There's no it's just whiskey bitters and orange and
That
sounds delicious too, but what you sound like you prefer the Chicago one.
Do you have a preference?
Yeah, I definitely prefer that because then I feel like the Wisconsin one's too sweet.
It's too sweet for me.
Interesting.
Okay.
But I'll have it once in a while.
Yeah, it's interesting.
Chicago is my hometown and I spent years and years there as an adult and I don't think I've ever had that.
I've only
I think I've only had the Wisconsin old-fashioned, and now I probably wouldn't like
anything else,
you know?
I
think when Wisconsin people go order an old-fashioned somewhere else, they're like, what?
You forgot to make it all.
What are you doing?
And the bartender's
just scratching his head like,
OK.
Have you ever snuck booze or food into a movie theater, Craig?
Well, are there cops listening?
I think the statute of
limitations is long gone for what it's worth.
I mean, yes, absolutely.
I have yes
Anything in particular?
probably Probably something like vodka because it was easy to hide.
Yeah, is this
is this young Craig color how far back you going again?
Are there cops?
Yeah, yeah younger younger than I'd like to admit probably okay.
That's fair.
I Listen, I still sneak candy and sometimes like the movie theater
If I'm at a hometown movie theater, a local Joe with his theater, I spend the money there.
But some of these mega chains that are just trying to bleed, you forget it.
You know, they're shaking
money.
Oh,
yeah.
Oh, yeah, I will.
Yeah, I'll definitely sneak in sometimes.
All right.
Especially for our, go ahead.
Oh, no, no, no, please finish.
Especially for our daughter who might want some.
Oh,
there you
go.
How old is your daughter?
She's seven.
Oh, so you've seen your share of kid stuff too.
That's great.
Yeah.
It's a fun age.
Fun age for movie watching when you get.
get down on their level and watch their films, too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, sometimes she has a hard time sitting there the whole time, but we're working on it.
All right.
I
think Conrad, what do you think?
Are we ready?
We have enough information from Craig.
We think we can get an accurate.
All right.
Ladies and gentlemen, Craig Menzine is here, aka Wheezy Waiter on YouTube.
And he is a filmmaker and the director of No Packers, No Life.
He has dropped by tonight to give us his popcorn pick of the week.
And I think we are ready for that pick Conrad, if you please.
Mr. Benzene, shoot.
Logan
Lucky.
Logan Lucky?
Yes.
And I picked that, do you know this movie?
I don't think, I'm going to the IMDb right now.
I'm picking it specifically because it should be known more than it is.
Oh, Logan
Lucky, yes, this is the Logan Run
remake, right?
No,
no, not a Logan Run remake.
It's a Heist movie by Steven Soderbergh.
Yes.
starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane's in
it.
Oh my gosh.
Daniel Craig.
Daniel Craig plays like an American with a Southern accent.
Wow.
I
am watching this tonight.
I don't know how
this
slipped under my
radar.
It is.
So Stephen Soderbergh, the director of... Hey
Craig, hold that
thought.
We'll pick up.
We
have to really short break.
We'll come back and get your thoughts.
The popcorn pick of the week, ladies and gentlemen, thanks to Craig Benzine.
Logan Lucky, we're going to talk about it right after this quick break on Nightlight with Peach
Wava.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome
back.
This is Nightlight IMP Chihuahua coming up in hour number two, folks, at 7.35.
Savannah Schindler will be here.
She is from Visit Beloit, and she is their PR person.
And we're going to talk about a yard game, a lawn game, if you will, that they're having a big tournament down there.
It's called Kube, Conrad.
Kube, not cube.
Kube.
Kube.
And it's a fun lawn game.
We'll talk about that if you're up for a road trip.
And a lawn game that requires absolutely no athleticism.
We'll do that.
Our question of the night is...
What is your most feared underwater sea serpent or sea creature?
It could be real or mythical.
You got to get your texts in because at 7.35 we have pre-recorded content.
We already interviewed Savannah.
So we'll have to finish reading texts by the bottom of next hour.
So get those in and we'll read those right now.
Joining me over the stream is influencer, director Craig Benzine.
Craig just made his popcorn pick of the week.
It's Logan Lucky.
And it's a comedy crime drama Craig sticking with what you said was your favorite genre pretty much
Yeah, yeah pretty much is it's like I would call it kind of an action comedy more on the it's more like a heist Yeah film But also pretty heavy heavy on the comedy it's Steven Soderbergh who directed One of the classic heist movies Oceans 11.
Yeah, and he black bag
Yeah, Black Bay is his newest movie, which I liked.
Great.
But this is another Heist movie that he did, but this one takes place in Virginia.
And it's a smaller kind of Heist.
I mean, it's a big Heist, but it's a smaller feeling film than Ocean's Eleven.
Yeah.
But it's really good.
I don't know how anyone would dislike this movie.
It's just funny and just fun.
This is every once in a while, I get a popcorn pick of the week where I go, I'm watching that tonight because it kind of flew under my radar.
I do remember this movie, but I don't know why I never saw it.
It got outstanding reviews, 92% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes with 288 reviews and an audience score a little less 75%, but still very respectable, which.
Probably tells me the ending is kind of cool that not everybody like totally approved of it.
So the audience wasn't quite there with the critics, but that makes me
want to
watch it even more.
That's a great choice.
Yeah.
I mean, I feel like it didn't get the attention it deserved.
Yeah.
I'm bringing it up.
Steven
Soderbergh, great director.
And it's a great choice, Craig Benzien.
Thank you very much.
So let's, so all right.
If you can stick with us after the news, I'd love to get into, do a deep dive on No Packers, No Life.
But right now, I'm so amazed at what you've been able to do on the internet.
You know, you're Weezy Waiter persona on YouTube.
You have a million plus subscribers.
And as I mentioned earlier in the show, not just like a million three, you're like at 1.2 million, like you're handsomely past one million.
That's very impressive.
Um, well, thank you.
You're very welcome.
How do you And I'm you do such different videos like you have your parents Incorporated and some that's a very funny video your wife.
I saw you singing a song about bananas like That
was many years ago, but yeah, how did you
think of the
persona and what got you into that?
So I was I was waiting tables in Chicago back in 2000
2005 through 2007 issue and I went to school at UW Madison for communication arts radio television film and I I knew how to edit I as I said I grew up like making movies and stuff and and I I just always I felt like I wasn't Using my skills.
I was waiting tables.
I was in a band I was kind of pursuing the band thing and I thought and then the back of my mind I always thought
What if I just Video on the internet was very early.
Yeah, and I was I wasn't even thinking about YouTube I was thinking about just putting video on the internet somehow and And I thought like what if I made a movie every day or something.
I just that was just an idea I threw around and So I eventually just started I just started like making ridiculous things very very early and
Didn't stop for many years just making ridiculous videos and kind of slowly grew an audience through I mean there were several opportunities Lucky breaks and things that happened along the way, but I slowly grew an audience.
I never really went viral early on I just sort of continued making ridiculous things over and over and over again for a long time.
Do you still do
that?
Well nowadays so like in 2018 there was kind of a shift in my content because the ridiculous things weren't
They weren't paying the bills anymore really Like the internet changed internet video changed the expectation of what it should be changed and But and then I just had this idea in the back of my mind so around 2018 I had up around 500,000 subscribers so after like many years of just grinding you know and
I decided I had this idea in the back of my mind that I was going to do like a longer thing that was like a month long experience that I could like document like round like fill myself periodically throughout the month doing something and then document it, whatever it is.
And I tried the idea that I think it was the second attempt.
Of a longer video I did my wife and I quit added sugar for a month.
Oh, I remember I watched that one.
That was great
And that video is by far my most successful video it has right now it has 12 million views gosh and That that changed everything so after that I I started I did more long-form things like that ever since and Then my channel which was kind of
stuck at around 500,000 for a long time.
That's when it started to grow more and got up to where we are today.
That's so cool that you like changed everything and it doubled your, I mean, cause it probably could have gone the other way.
So, I mean, tip of my hat to you.
That's
incredible.
So all right, we have to do the news.
When we come back, we're going to talk about Craig's film, No Packers, No Life.
I got to interview Craig about the film on PBS Wisconsin before the Wisconsin Film Festival.
It's such a fun movie.
There's Packers.
There are Japanese Packer fans.
There's Roller Coasters, all kinds of stuff.
We're going to talk about that after the news.
And I might have one more question for you about Weezy Waiter, too.
So we'll get into all that in act two.
Intermission is up next.
It's Peach Wabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media.
All right.
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