Laughs, Legends, and Local Films (Hour 2)

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

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy whose house has an actual wiggle room, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

We are jamming through a Monday night here.

A great night here at Night Light.

We got a great question.

We will get to your texts very soon.

Keep those texts coming.

Our question of the night is, your life is at stake.

What action star do you hope is coming to save you?

We will catch up on texts in just a few minutes.

It's a good question tonight, Conrad.

I agree.

All right.

Right now, let's get right back to it, because we've got a few more minutes with comedy legend David Zucker.

He is here over the stream, joining us from, I assume, Los Angeles.

David, are you in

LA?

Yes, I'm in Los Angeles in Brentwood, but I'm soon going to be in Wisconsin.

I was just

going to ask you, do you get back here very often?

All the time, because while my kids were in

at UW Madison for six years, overlapped for two years.

And

so I would get there

twice a year and then visit my high school friends who now live in Madison and Milwaukee.

And so I'm coming in Wednesday night and Thursday night, we're gonna meet.

in, I think, Delafield.

Some restaurant in halfway between Milwaukee and Madison, so that'll be

fine.

That's fantastic.

Before, I really want to talk about Airplane with you, because that was your first big, huge success for you and your brother Jerry and Jim Abraham's.

How did you guys write this?

You obviously all were on the same page from your sketch days at Kentucky Fried Theatre, but can you take us into the writing room a little bit and how you guys collaborated to come up with this script?

Yeah, it was the same way that we did really most of our movies.

We would play serious scenes from Zero Hour.

I'm assuming everybody knows that's where we got airplane from.

It was a 1957 Black and White movie and in an exact same plot.

with food poisoning on an airliner.

And so we just took that, played it seriously.

We would use a transcript of the scene and then we would add our jokes.

So that's very much how we roll

it.

Was there a scene in zero hour where pandemonium breaks out on the plane and all of a sudden two boobs are on the screen for a split second and then move off?

Yeah, in black and white and in the 1950s, it's incredible.

Yeah.

Very few people see that copy, but we like that.

That's one of my favorite gags.

It's so funny.

And I remember as a kid going, that is so funny that it just is out of nowhere.

It's so over the top gratuitous and hilarious.

It was probably my favorite.

Well, as a 12 year old, it was my favorite scene for a lot of reasons, but it was so funny comedically too.

Such a varied cast in airplane.

You've got Karima Abdul-Jabbar, Julie Hagerty, who's great, lost in America and airplane alone.

She should be in the Hall of Fame.

But what was it like for Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, these three serious actors?

Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like getting those guys involved?

Did you have to convince them?

Well, they were actually somewhat brave.

to do this with three untested first-time directors.

And, I mean, nobody had ever triple-directed a movie.

Peter Graves read the script, evidently, we found out later.

He passed.

And we found out he threw the script across the room and said, this is the worst piece of trash I've ever read.

And, you know, later, I learned that, you know, actors don't read the whole script.

They just read their own parts.

to Peter may have seemed that he was playing a funny pedophile so.

Our producer got him to come in and meet with us and like the feral he's you know.

He thought he's going to read again meet these drug craze maniacs.

And we were just these you know very innocent guys from Wisconsin who happen to think pedophilia was fun.

He and we convinced him to do it and he and he did and Robert that kept saying.

Who else are coming to the party?

Leslie Nielsen, you know, told his agent, I don't, don't tell those guys this, but I would pay them to do this.

So he was in, you know, right from the get go.

And Lloyd Bridges, you know, I think he thought it was funny, but he tried to make sense of his lines and kept suggesting changes to his lines.

And finally,

You know, I think Robert Stack in one of the rehearsals just said, Lloyd, just keep talking.

They're not looking at us.

They're not listening to us.

You know, the spears going to the wall, watermelons dropping down.

Just keep

talking.

Oh, that's so funny.

My guess is David Zucker, the creative force behind airplane, naked gun, baseball, ruthless people, and top secret.

We're talking about airplane, which has been preserved in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

That's pretty cool.

I know, and who knows why, but you know, and you know, my brother still has the original automatic pilot.

Oh, no way.

Yeah.

And we, we heard that.

uh the the the sled from Citizen Kane you know rose but that went for 14 million so you know maybe maybe i maybe i could retire on this you know on on you know i mean more than i'm already retired

you know oh that's of all the of all the actors you've worked with david like in terms of leading men or leading women robert haze leslie nielsen priscilla pressley val kilmer who is the most enjoyable

And if you want to say, who is the most difficult?

You know, Leslie probably was the most enjoyable.

Charlie Sheen was great.

You know, in between setups, you know, we go out outside the studio and we always brought, you know, our baseball gloves and we would toss a baseball around.

And he was good.

I mean, he could throw it fast.

And so I had to struggle to catch some of this stuff.

uh, he on a ferris was a joy to work with and Priscilla Presley They were just all so nice every week.

Everybody I really couldn't complain about anybody, you know, I was threatened with Michael Madsen came out of the set, you know, and he's he said people said oh my god, he's gonna give you trouble He's he's gonna eat you for lunch, you know, and you know, so he comes on for the first rehearsal and he seems a little humorless, but I

I started insulting him right from the start, just telling him what a terrible actor he was and he's lucky even to be directed by me.

And he never stopped laughing.

So we just, every actor, you get to actors, everyone's a different way.

Tell us about, you have a couple of personal appearances coming up.

These sound like a lot of fun.

These events

are

airplane, unreleased, the director's cut screenings.

You'll be there doing a Q&A with Robert Hayes.

How cool is that?

Yeah, Robert Hayes.

I've kept in touch with him.

We're great friends.

I visited him in Hawaii, and he comes to visit me here in LA.

And then we've done a million.

you know screenings of airplane and then we do a Q&A.

So we have a lot of fun.

The last one was at San Francisco Sketchfest, but these dates are coming up in Seattle and Denver.

You've got October 3rd in Seattle, November 2nd in Denver.

Anything a little close to home here in the Dairy State?

I hope

so.

Well, you know, because these events, these dates have been selling out so well, they're going to

you know, take us further away because I demand a first class seat.

You've earned it.

What can people, the Paramount might not pay for it, but you've earned it.

What can people expect in the director's cut that they haven't seen before?

Oh,

you know, it's probably hyped up more than it really deserves because

our ZAZ director's cut is three minutes shorter than the original.

Yeah,

we actually cut things out because we never give up.

We keep editing and trying to make the movie better.

We also do the same thing with Top Secret.

We just trimmed a lot of stuff, so the new Top Secret cut is a little bit shorter, but there's, in comedies,

you know they have special features that like deleted scenes they're never any good in comedies because if they were funny they would have been in the original right release so it's you know whereas in a drama I'm sure there's you know there's great deleted scenes from the godfather or right or other movies but not not in comedies

I just I feel like I haven't

paid homage enough to Leslie Nielsen.

This guy was truly an absolute treasure.

And his whole performance, maybe my favorite moment of his is in Naked Gun when there's a car on fire going down the street.

It's his car.

It caught on fire and then it makes the turn.

I was just thinking of that because then you see on Leslie's face that he's slowly.

Realizes that he shot his own car and it's brilliant.

He just he's

like anybody get a look at the driver.

I've got

to get

inside

Of course somebody had to tell him to do it that way

I

was on the set Pete.

Okay.

Well, I give all the credit to you.

I was directing it

What is more fulfilling to you as a writer director of comedy getting good reviews

or hearing a packed theater laugh uncontrollably?

You know, I love getting good reviews.

I like having a hit movie more.

Yeah.

And, you know, Baseball got great reviews and so did Top Secret.

But, you know, they didn't perform as well at the box office as, you know, airplane and the naked guns and the scary movies.

So...

There's nothing I like better than a hit.

Yeah.

Well, a hit keeps you working too, which is always

nice.

It keeps me working,

yeah.

Let me ask you this, David.

What is your favorite project you've done with ZAZ, your brother in Jim Abrams or Pat Proff or whomever?

And what is your favorite project you did away from those guys?

Well, my favorite project that I did with them, it has to be airplane because the whole thing of airplane was

You know, it took so long to get it financed and done by a studio.

And the other basic thing about the ZAZ experience with airplane is that you can only come from nowhere once.

And that being the first, it was incredible.

In fact, before it was released, the week before it was released, Jim and Jerry and I flew to Milwaukee.

And my parents and Jim's parents had

rented out the Fox Bay Theater on Silver Spring, and that was the theater where we went to as kids, and we saw the Three Stooges and, you know, Saturday all cartoons.

It was a great experience having everyone we ever knew from Milwaukee there in the audience and seeing that movie for the first time, and then we did a Q&A.

I wish somebody had recorded the Q&A, but...

Actually, it didn't differ too much from the ones we do today.

We get the same questions.

David Zucker, thank you so much.

Check out Master Crash, folks, mastercrash.com, a crash course in spoof comedy, and you will have actual interaction with our guest, David Zucker, the brains behind a lot of, well, so much comedy that has affected and influenced my life, as well as millions of other people.

I can't even, after I saw Airplane, David, I couldn't fly anymore, not because I was scared, just because.

The passengers weren't

as funny as

in

your movies.

Yeah, or just don't eat the

food.

Right.

Thank you so much.

This has been a treat.

I really appreciate your time and continued success, my friend.

Sure.

Thanks a lot.

You got it.

All right.

That's David Zooker.

Check out all of his movies.

I'm sure you've seen most of them, but and check out Master Conrad.

Don't rule out Master Crash.

I'm not

saying you're not funny.

I'm just saying you could use a little

bump

up.

Yeah.

It

never, it can't hurt, right?

Exactly.

And check out David's book as well.

Surely you can't be serious, The True Story of Airplane, which dropped in 2023.

When we come back, we'll catch up on your texts.

And then Nick Watier is here from the Green Bay Film Festival at 735.

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.

Welcome

back.

Great to have you with me on this Monday night a rainy Monday night here in Green Bay I hope it is sunny and 70 wherever you are in other parts of the state Nick what here is coming up in just a few minutes.

He's actually here.

No, you could say hi.

Yeah, hi He's gonna let he came in because he wants to be part of reading your texts folks.

That's what a great guy

absolutely

and You set a funny line too when you came in just

yeah, you did not tell me I was gonna have to follow the naked gun guy

Nick, what's here is following a comedy legend.

No problem.

I mean, I'm here to talk about comedy films, but I'm not a

comedian.

I

am not a funny

person.

We'll get it done.

It's great to have you here.

And Conrad, you know, being the huge baseball fan, you're almost as big a baseball fan as David seemed to be.

Yeah, I think he's a little bit bigger because he made it.

He kept mentioning it though, and then I'm like, I think he wants me to talk about things.

Because,

I mean, there is Wisconsin ties to it.

It's

the Milwaukee Beards.

The Milwaukee Beards, sir.

That's perfect.

All right, our question of the night, folks, is your life is at stake.

What action hero do you hope is coming to rescue you?

Do you have one, Nick?

Oh my goodness.

Well, I don't know if this really counts because it's kind of crossing into sci-fi, but I was a huge Terminator 2 fan.

Yeah.

So if Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-1000 could come for me.

That would be amazing.

Even though the T2000 is the one making

your life in parallel.

Well, right, sure.

I mean, it's all about programming, right?

Exactly.

It's funny you say that because my wife said that.

She said the Terminator.

She said the Terminator is a killer.

She

goes down in

the second one.

And I was like, oh, yeah, that's right.

Oh, actually, I think I got that wrong.

Arnold might have been the T800.

Oh, I

thought he was the T1000 and then Robert Patrick's character was the T, you know, I haven't seen it in so long.

I

still say

that's my favorite movie between the room and Terminator 2.

Wow.

Those are two polar opposites,

right?

If you're stuck in the room,

you honor Arnold

Schwarzenegger coming to save you.

That's great.

Steve from Florida, he's, well, that's Conrad's dad.

And your dad has a very misleading area code, Conrad.

It's 920, but he is nowhere near.

Yep.

He's never changed his phone number.

Our hood.

Yeah, I haven't either.

I still have the eight one.

It's tough, but you can't change your phone number because people, it's like a social security number now.

That's how people find you, right?

I'm not going to change my phone number every time I jump carriers, you know?

So I'm saying I have a lot of respect for your dad.

He says, Happy Monday.

For your information, Paula and I watched all the episodes of Bad Monkey this week and starring Vince Vaughn.

I highly recommend watching this.

I love when listeners do this and recommend stuff.

And I can see where Steve and Paula get their taste from because Conrad or vice versa, because Conrad loved Bad Monkey.

So that's a good one.

I have to scroll back here.

Where are we here in our text?

We've got a lot to get to here.

So let's...

Jameson from Pennsylvania.

He's in the 814 says Indiana Jones always pulls through so does any Steve McQueen character But I had to take bow Bandit Darville from Smokey and the bandages for fun.

Wow, that's a pull.

Yeah, nice one Jameson John Murray in the 608 he says Rambo is pissed off as I know I would be at

Time of rescue, watching Rambo mow every single bad guy involved while dodging bullets.

Coming in like rain would be a pretty gratifying resolution.

Yeah, Rambo.

Thank you, John.

And then Melissa says, from the 6-0-8 says, John McClain, die hard, baby.

I

get a lot of John McClain's tonight.

And that's a great one.

No argument there.

John says Michael Madsen would probably

probably be the all-time best rescuer with some revenge fanfare built in.

He's my guy.

That's funny because David Zucker was talking about Michael Madsen too.

And oh, he was, oh, he thought he might be intimidated, but then he kind of turned the tables.

From the 414, hey Pete, great Milwaukee historian, John Gertit did a whole documentary on the Kashubes.

They inhabited Jones Island in Milwaukee.

Yes, thank you 414.

I did mention, John's been on the show and I did mention that to him and I should have him back.

Should I have John back just to delve into my own family tree with it?

I think you should.

I think you should.

And I'll just take John to coffee and see what we can work out.

Barb from Walk of Shaw, she's in the 262, says Liam Neeson, not the naked gun version.

Very well done.

Which I need to see yet, by the

way.

Yeah, I saw it.

I am very excited about that.

I was excited about it, and there's some good laughs, but it's not...

Well, you can't

recreate the original.

You can't.

Right?

You can't.

Leslie Nielsen's too much of a treasure.

Right.

you know, but you just can't do it.

Well, it's like your last guest just

said in the last segment, like you can't be unknown twice.

Correct.

And I was trying not to like suck up too much, but I just don't feel like, and I'm biased, but that first airplane was just like the first time I had seen that

kind of comedy.

I mean, still to this day, you know, when I'm going to work sites for shows and we have our turnover nights, we'll be making references to airplanes or in the bay and our interns, you know, in their 20s, they don't get it.

So we indoctrinate them after the load-in.

We go, come on, guys, let's go watch the movie so you understand what we're talking about.

Jim from Appleton, he's in the 920, says, Bruce Willis, the asteroid movie Armageddon.

That man can rescue you anywhere.

Very well done.

414 says, a quick Google research will find you the documentary they had their own village.

Oh, this is the Kashubes.

I'm going to read this.

We'll have John Gerda on.

Thank you very much, 414.

That's great.

And then Jim from Brookfield says, hey, Pete, if my life was in grave danger, I would be greatly relieved if I saw any of the James Bond's at the rescue.

Another great one.

We haven't heard that one yet.

He says they have the smarts and the latest gadgets.

Jim from Brookfield Bridget says, Wonder Woman.

She's in the 818.

I love her strength, compassion, and dedication to justice.

Women, women need representation as rescuers and heroes.

Agreed, do we have a phone call, Conrad?

Yeah, Ollie from the Northwoods.

Oh, Ollie's on.

Ollie, how are you?

I'm doing good.

I got, Mighty Mouse is my hero because he saves people by land, air, and sea.

And not only does he save the people, he saves the day.

I love, that is about the cutest action hero I've heard all night, Ollie.

That's fantastic.

And I've got a little, little something, um, you know, I'm all about food and, um, pairing foods and wines, et cetera.

And I say, uh, couch potato would go very well with ketchup sausage.

Oh man.

Conrad, we got our promo.

That's beautiful.

We're going to use that, Ollie.

Thank

you very

much.

You have a great night.

All right.

All right, bye, Ollie.

Anna from Madison says, Pete, I just heard David say that Leave It to Beaver was a big influence on him.

Now I know why Barbara Billingsley, Mrs. Cleaver was an airplane.

Yes, her scene in airplane was hilarious.

Great catch, Anna.

I can't believe I didn't think of that when it happened.

All right, keep those texts coming, folks.

When we come back, we're gonna do a quick news dealio here, and then when we come back, Nick Wattier, you'll officially be here after

the news.

You're sort of

here now, but you're like a

Seattle guy.

That's all

right, it's all good.

All right, we're

coming back.

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

Network.

Welcome back.

We're grooving.

Great to have you with me, folks.

On this Monday night, this is how we start the week off.

We had a great conversation with writer, director, and native Wisconsin son, David Zucker.

And then we have a great question tonight.

You can still get in on the fun.

If you want, if your life is at stake, what action star would you hope is coming to save you?

So we are almost caught up with text, but right now we're going to turn our attention to a really cool event that's happening here locally.

It's right around the corner.

And a guy who joins me in the studio now, who is no stranger tonight, lady's been here several times and he does a great job running the Green Bay Film Festival.

Nick, what's here?

Hey, buddy.

Pete, it's great to be back.

Great to have you here.

And I love that you come into the studio.

You could have easily, we just talked about this last night.

You could have

phoned

it in literally.

But you're here in person.

It's great to see you.

It's easier to

conversate when you can

see who you're speaking with.

Totally agree.

So

you're just you're on the road all over the place.

Nice to be

home.

Yeah.

Well, I just got back from a few days.

Well, a couple of weeks, actually, in Ohio.

So professionally, my my work is in producing concert events.

Yeah, I work for a company in town called Lighthouse Productions.

We do all the parking lot concerts out at Lambeau Field for game days.

And, you know, we had flow ride a couple years back.

And so I'm usually the video guy.

I show up at the screens or in a corporate event setting projectors.

I show up at the cameras and direct the live show.

So for me, the film festival is just a little side-hobby project.

Yeah.

It's just a nice way for me to give back to that filmmaker community.

Whereas in my day-to-day life, I'm spending a lot more time figuring out, you know, if I hang this much video while will the roof collapse?

So that's your day job, but it's still in the biz.

So it's big.

Yeah.

I mean, and it's interesting because it's in the biz, but I don't get to do post.

Everything I do is live.

Okay, so that's why like I don't mind coming in and doing broadcast like this Yeah, this is comfortable to me because at least I don't have to stare at my audience kind of nice when you don't have to edit something to oh my gosh

be tedious

it could be

yeah exhilarating but also kind of tedious

well I imagined with with your film I mean you you probably shot for a week or two and edited for what three

months

If you're talking about the Godfather of Green Bay, which is the only project I've ever been a part of, where I was, all the other stuff was writing and it's like, thanks for the script, go away.

Yeah, it was, I wouldn't, I want to say even longer.

We shot for a month and it was like six weeks of editing.

And I had to commute from where I lived in Santa Monica, which was a headache.

But I will say when you do something in editing that you really dig, that's very exciting.

But let's keep the focus on...

the Green Bay Film Festival, because it's just a treasure you have here locally.

You guys have kind of a different format where you have events throughout the year, which I love, and you have a few coming up, so let's jump in.

Well, September 13th, we'll be at the Tarleton Theater right downtown Green Bay, the old historic West Theater, and we're going to actually be running a comedy series.

So it was fantastic that you paired us with the guests that you did, because, I mean, if you like comedy, this is the place to be.

Absolutely,

so we'll be we'll be showing I want to say it's nine or ten films all comedy some of them shorts some of them what we lovingly refer to as long shorts 20 to 60 minutes Okay, and then we'll have one feature film called the anxiety club, which is absolutely phenomenal.

I literally watched the people coming here today Just hilarious it's it's a documentary about anxiety and how it

shows itself in different people, but it's told through the eyes of stand-up comedians.

So it's clips cut in from their stand-up shows.

One of the people in the film takes the cameras to therapy with her and is going through exposure therapy where, okay, you have a helicopter parenting issue.

Tomorrow, I want you to leave the kids alone downstairs while you go up and read a book for 20 minutes.

Oh my gosh.

And you got to see her experience this and go through it and process it.

and then see a bit of that comedic process on how they spin that.

Like how she writes a joke.

Right.

Oh, that's so great.

Because so much material, and I'm sure you've been exposed to this, so much of the best material is the truest material.

Yeah.

Right.

And those comedians that go up there and speak, they're not joking when they say they have issues.

I mean, it's to the point, they address it in the film, Hollywood's laugh factory actually now has a psychologist in residence to work with their comedians that come and work for them.

That's

so great.

So it's it's a great piece.

And what I think is so special and has us so excited is we've got special guests coming in addition to the film.

The director and producer Wendy Lobel is going to be there.

OK.

We're going to have guests from the ATT Center, which is a local private outpatient therapy center.

Love it.

They do so much work in counseling therapy.

They're even a licensed safe ketamine assisted therapy center.

I'm not sure how many they're sending, but they're like, well, we've got a dozen or so therapists that might come.

We're going to get you a panel.

Wow.

And then surprise for your listeners, you're going to be there.

I'm going to be there.

I can't wait.

You're

going to have me MC some stuff.

Yeah, we'll have you part of that talk.

Maybe I'll be funny.

Yeah.

Maybe you'll get to tell some of your material.

And yeah, I

mean, it's going to be a fun night.

It sounds like a blast.

And I'm very honored that you even asked because I don't get asked to do a lot of this stuff.

And I, you know, it was a stand up full time in the 90s and toured all over and was on TV.

And it was the best time of my life for a guy in his 20s.

And some of these people, like Mark Marin, I remember, you know, working with him back in the 90s.

Now he's a legend.

Well, and he's in the film.

He's in the film that

you mentioned.

Yeah.

How funny, Nick, is the movie?

Like it's about anxiety.

But is it?

Really funny movie or is it more about their process and how they channel their anxiety?

So the

thing to me that makes it so funny is how relatable all the moments are

okay,

you know with with Tiffany Jenkins talking about her you know Helicopter parenting and how I'm always like I can picture in my head my child on the trampoline is gonna break their neck like as a parent I can completely identify with that me too and then you can hear the comedy that comes from it

and

and it's almost the the relief the release of

Yes, this is concerning and hurtful, but is it that big

right

and hearing the way the therapist adjusts that so I would say like this film in particular is a solid mix of you know truth and and seriousness and drama But still really funny because you get to hear those stand-ups doing their material and and then you know, it's not so much about writing

It's more about the anxiety and the performance.

The writing it comes into it, but it's more subtle.

That is the voice of Nick Whittier.

He is joining us in studio here tonight.

We're talking about the Green Bay Film Festival, a great film festival right here in downtown Green Bay that takes place typically at the Tarleton Theater.

They have events throughout the year.

We're discussing September 13th, which is gonna focus on comedy.

I will be there in some capacity, I'm seeing to a degree.

And we're talking about the Film Anxiety Club, which I've heard about this movie.

So

is it hard to get a

movie like this?

The

process that we use, there's a website out there that's very commonly used for film festivals called Film Freeway.

And people can go online, submit their films, they upload copies of the film, and they'll send them to us saying that they would like to be considered.

And normally our threshold is that you need to be made within the last year or two to be able to submit.

And sometimes things get through that are a little older, but typically it's newer material.

And then we just start...

watching everything.

We've got a team of about 15 reviewers, which is a volunteer team.

If anyone's interested, you can reach out to us, join the team.

But basically, we rate these films and try to bring the best here to Green Bay to really create that cultural experience for the city.

Yeah.

Bring the good stuff here.

And also, you know, celebrate the local artists.

It's so great, too, because if you haven't been to a film festival, folks, you have to experience it.

To me, like, you're going to see good movies, but it's these Q&As that really make the experience worthwhile and put them over the top as opposed to just going to a movie when you can see how a director's process works and they answer your questions.

That, to me, is worth the price of admission alone.

All right, so what else do you have you got comedy September 13th?

Where can people get tickets if they?

Oh, yeah, so the the comedy tickets just went on sale about a week ago And we have a vanity URL for this.

It's GBFF Green Bay Film Festival.

Okay GBFF dot fun slash comedy

That puts a lot of pressure on you guys, right?

You gotta bring the fun now.

Our board member, Elliot Christianson, says we need to be 100% fun in all of our decisions.

We want to be fun.

So even if it's a romance or a drama series, we're trying to find the fun and bring that to you.

You said on October 11th is your next event after the comedy night or the comedy events on the 13th is sci-fi.

Yes.

I would imagine that.

sci-fi would be jam-packed no

matter what is packed and what I like to see in sci-fi And I actually have a little differing opinion than some of the other board members I like to see what people can do on the shoestring budget Okay,

I

like to see those people who were really struggling like it not this year, but next year we have a film in in the process that I just screened Made by a bunch of college students.

They clearly didn't have any money.

It was probably a student project.

They have some

Decent but elementary special effects to make glasses look silly If you can imagine like the old 1980s music videos kind of you know money-for-nothing style right the

Ray Vans

Yeah, so they've got that kind of thing going But as you watch the film and you see the story that the students are telling and you see The way that they work with what they have available to them.

They've got a essentially a dolly shot

that they're tracking somebody running down the road and it had to be, I don't know, car mounted or Dolly to cross the street.

They didn't have any cars cross the shot.

Like, did they shut it down?

Did they just pick something?

Like, the fact that they were able to tell the story the way that Hollywood would have without Hollywood money

is

what blows my mind.

And I love celebrating that at the festival.

And I can't wait to see what our sci-fi...

Filmmakers have done because that's that's a genre that's usually built on special effects and

built

on costuming and built on location and when I see a project that was clearly, you know Not a hundred thousand dollar budget.

I would say most of the films we player under a fifteen thousand dollar budget.

No kidding Wow, that's so great

and to see those people

able to create their art and put it out there is what really speaks to my heart.

Some of my favorite films have been movies and maybe, you know, subconsciously you're thinking, I can't believe they did this for this amount of budget.

You know, the original Meet the Parents that my writing partner did with Clerks or like some of these

clerks

where it's like they're just so, the story has to be so creative because they don't have the money.

Right.

Yeah.

Right.

And, and, you know, Clerks in specific, most of that movie is a two shot.

Yeah,

no

kidding.

They didn't do a lot of inserts.

They didn't do a lot of close-ups.

They didn't take the minute per page that Hollywood says you have to.

Right.

Wow, well said.

All right, so you got sci-fi coming up October 11th as yet to be determined what the films will be.

They are decided I'm just not educated.

Okay.

That's fair enough.

We'll let you off the hook.

We know you're traveling all over the place.

And then environmental, an environmental theme on November 15th.

Yes.

And in that one, we'll have a big documentary.

Boy, I can't think of a name off the top of my head.

I'm sorry about that, but it's about clean waters.

Okay.

And we also have a panel planned for that, where we're going to bring some people in from the United Nation to speak about the clean water efforts in the Bay.

I believe we have some people from the DNR on the hook.

I don't know if they've confirmed yet.

How do you, Nick, do this with, like you just said, the capacity of the Tarleton is 120.

How many people do you have?

Like, I could, I feel like half the people listening want to go for the guests you have

almost

just as interested as they would be in the movie.

Is there usually a breakdown?

Well, and what we try to do, right, is we try to pace out the day.

and space it out, right?

So we really wanna show as much material as we can while still respecting everybody's time.

So we'll do an early session.

where we'll typically have a collection of shorts and then a later session, which will intentionally have a little short on material, but then have room for that talk back and give designated time for each filmmaker that's there to speak.

I love your format.

I love what you guys do there.

And I can't wait to be a part of it on the 13th.

We'll talk more about that with our guest, Nick Watier from the Green Bay Film Festival.

And I want to ask you about a couple of films you screened recently that are really good too.

We're going to do that and finish up your text when we close things down here after this very short break.

Don't go away, folks.

It's Peach Wabba.

Nightlight 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 to Nightlight.

I am very excited about tomorrow night's show.

Conrad, I don't know.

Do you keep a tidy apartment?

I would say kind of tidy.

What about you, Nicky?

Well, both of you would be well-served to tune in tomorrow night because we are going to have the merry maids in here in person.

They're going to give us cleaning tips.

And like shortcuts, and maybe they'll even spruce the place up a little bit.

I mean, it's

pretty clean.

I mean, it looks pretty

alright in

here.

Yeah, it's not too bad.

This is

like immaculate as far as I'm concerned.

But we'll have the Mary Mades here in studio tomorrow night at 6.35.

And then, this is exciting too.

I mentioned this earlier on the show.

Sean Hannish, one half of the creative force behind Just A Bit Outside, the story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers will be here at 7.20.

His producing partner on the film, Kelly Call.

I finally tracked down Kelly's email.

He gave me a business card at the Wisconsin Film Festival, and it's probably buried in my suitcase somewhere.

But anyway, we're going to have Kelly on at some point.

Sean is going to be on tomorrow night to discuss the Brewer's hot streak.

And is there a score yet in the second game?

Actually, it got rescheduled

for

tomorrow.

So it's 1.40 tomorrow, and then I believe 7.30.

It's brutal because I'm a Cub fan.

The second I decided to start following the Cubs this year, they had the best record in baseball, and then the Brewers won 15 game.

Like that's so Schwabba.

So Sean is gonna come out tomorrow night, because I mentioned to him, hey, I wonder if your documentary, you know, is kind of motivated the Brewers.

It's such a great film.

So we'll talk about that with Sean tomorrow.

I'm not the first person that mentioned it to him, but I might be the first Cub fan that mentioned it to him.

So it'll be good to talk to Sean tomorrow as well.

Let's see, how are we doing on text counter?

Are we caught up for the most part?

Oh, we got a couple more

texts.

Steve, oh, your dad also says, with my life on the line and my life at stake, I would hope the original Charlie's Angels would save me.

Well, at least if they fail, Steve, you'll enjoy the scenery.

There you

go.

So you could do well.

You could do worse than that.

John from Madison says, Michael could do it well out of character as just Michael rest his soul.

I think I missed part of that.

Was he not Michael Myers Michael Michael Madsen Michael Madsen John said Michael Madsen Love Michael Madsen God rest his soul.

Thank you, John And then John also says Peter a great movie suggestion from back in 1984 or 85 Brian De Palma's body double I saw body double.

I love it so much.

I still keep the VHS tape Melanie Griffith is amazing Melanie Griffith is amazing and Craig Wesson and Greg Henry are fantastic and the

Brian De Palma direction style is iconic.

I must see.

I think I'm going to rewatch that.

I have not, I saw that like years and years ago and I don't even remember what my opinion is on it.

So obviously I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.

But maybe now I would get more enjoyment out

of it.

Thank you, John.

We use the word content now.

Yeah, but just how much content is released?

How do you keep up with all of it?

That's what I and I say that to people like I'll ask guests what they're watching and they'll say, oh, I'm really behind.

I just got to Breaking Bad.

Well, there's thousands of shows now and a lot of them are great.

How do you keep up?

I have a bunch of friends who are Trekkies.

OK.

And they hate that I can't talk Star Trek with them.

But I don't know where to start.

Right.

How many seasons of how many different shows and how many movies are there?

There's something like 13 movies, I think?

Yeah, I don't

know.

For me, it's like, Nick, Star Wars runs together.

I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, and I'll talk about it with my son and go, Dad, how could you not know?

That was from the one-off, and I'm like, they're all good.

I like them, but I can't keep track

of them.

There's nine Star Wars movies, and then there's...

The solo movie and or Rex and like yeah, I love the Mandalorian series.

That was fantastic and now apparently there's three more series.

I haven't started

Right you'll get you'll get to him in a few years Paula Conrad's mom checks in and says hiccup and how to train your dragon I don't know that character.

Oh, he's the main character.

Is he really?

Yeah, I've he's he's the one that trains the dragon first

His name is Hiccup?

Hiccup,

yeah.

I saw that film like when it came out in theaters.

Yeah, that's his name, yep.

Okay.

I'm not doubting your mom.

Last person I want to get into it with is Paula Krieger, because I know better.

And are these stream comments meant for us, Conn?

I don't know.

Don, I don't understand the first word and the second one is freedom with an exclamation point.

Freedom.

So he feels strongly about that.

Thank you, Don.

We've got a couple more minutes here with our guest, Nick Whittier, who is here.

Nick and I were just talking about September 13th, we're doing a comedy event at the Green Bay Film Festival at the Tarleton Theater.

I'll be there sort of hosting and that kind of thing.

Come by, the movie is Anxiety Club, and I've heard it's great.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

Absolutely fantastic.

Just getting to see, you know, stand-up comedians processing their lives and navigating comedy.

while also dealing with anxiety, which I think is probably the most relatable story in the world right now.

Who doesn't suffer from some degree of anxiety?

Oh my gosh.

And it's

like a lot of us just, like they say kids today have so much anxiety.

We probably had it too, but it just wasn't addressed or whatever.

It came out in various ways, you know.

I wanted to ask you, no packers, no life.

Have you guys

shown that?

Oh my gosh.

Fantastic film.

Craig Benzine's so

great.

Yes, we showed that earlier this year and actually that was

My daughter, who is now nine, as of yesterday, happy birthday, Avila.

Happy birthday.

She was actually named after a film that we screened, The Incredible Adventures of JoJo, and is an annoying little sister, Avila.

But anyways, she turned nine, and she was at the screening with No Packers, No Life, and if you haven't seen it, it's a documentary of the Green Bay Packers fan club from Japan.

and how somebody local to Green Bay got them all tickets to a game and flew them out and gave them the authentic Green Bay experience with tailgating.

They went to a summer game, they went to a winter game.

It is an unbelievable.

And they went on the zip and pippin', right?

They went on the zip and pippin'.

So it's not terribly old, right?

Cause that's only like seven years old.

I love it because Craig's been on the show a couple of times and I interviewed him on PBS Wisconsin too.

These Packer fans are so passionate they watch old VHS tapes

of

Green Bay Packers games.

So that's just a sampling of the kind of stuff you'll see at the Green Bay Film Festival, folks.

Check it out.

Go to the website.

They do so much great stuff.

Nick Whittier, thanks for coming in.

Hey, thanks for having

me.

You follow David Zucker just fine.

Well, thank you.

Not many

people.

That's strong praise.

I don't think I deserve it, but thank you.

You do, buddy.

All right, we're coming back tomorrow night.

We're going to do it all over again.

On behalf of the lovable producer Conrad, I'm Pete Schwabba saying good night, Wisconsin.

I'll sing it to your best friend's house and I'll believe we're making

out.

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