Bearded Villains and One-Hit Wonders (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.

A guy who once tore his ACL playing chess, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back to Nightlight, ladies and gentlemen.

Oh, we are having a time tonight.

This is so much fun.

It's great to have you here on this Thursday night.

A fun show.

Two great guests.

And a fun question, some great topics.

We're having a blast here.

For those of you just joining us in the first hour, we did the Popcorn Pick of the Week with our pal Ben Chan, Jeopardy Champ Ben Chan, who picked the movie The Red Shoes and Tampopo.

So two films I have not seen.

I'm very excited and two classics.

So those are great choices as usual.

We usually get pretty good responses on the popcorn pick of the week are great choices.

Norm Kepesky will be here.

We'll be back to Ben in just a few minutes.

Norm Kepesky will be here at 7.35.

The owner of Appleton Cigar.

who also joins us frequently on the show.

And he's going to tell us all about this really cool contest they have going down there.

And it's this weekend.

So you won't want to miss that.

And as I mentioned, we'll be right back to Ben shortly.

What else did we miss Conrad?

What are we talking about in the first?

You're standing right next to me.

You can just tell

me.

Conrad

is trying to, we're having an issue with the screen and we're trying to hone in and figure out what it is.

So if we have some technical difficulties, stay with us, folks.

You can tune in on the app as well, though, if that's easier or the, you know, or just the old fashioned radio.

What's up, Ben?

You seem concerned.

Your browser can't access your devices.

Try restarting your browser.

Con, have you tried that?

We've got a Jeopardy!

champ in here giving us technological support.

I'm reading from the screen.

So, folks, this is exciting.

As all of you or most of you probably know, all week we've been talking about our civic media go for the green and gold text to win contest.

It is our multi-state contest where we give you a keyword during the hour and you have to text in that keyword on the app, on the civic media app.

That is the only contingency.

You have to have the app to play.

And then I'm gonna give you the keyword in about 10 minutes.

You text that in and you are eligible to win 200 bucks in cash and gold jewelry.

Do you do jewelry, Ben?

Are you?

I

think watches are my jewelry.

Yeah.

That's the

jewelry I have.

Okay.

I don't know.

I have a Fitbit.

I don't think.

It doesn't count as jewelry.

But if you enter the keyword, you're eligible for the daily prize of the cash and jewelry.

And you're also automatically entered in the grand prize drawing.

And the grand prize is pretty cool.

It's two club level indoor seats to Green Bay versus Minnesota.

That's professional football.

And it's a Green Bay home game on November 25th at 12 p.m.

The green and gold squares off against, as Conrad would call them, the purple people eaters.

We're even throwing in a gas card that will get you to the game so it really there's nothing coming out of your pocket there I'm too mature to make a joke.

I

was just

about to make but all right So I'm gonna give you the keyword folks in just a few minutes text that in and once you get a response from us Click on the link and if you sign up for the civic media newsletter or civic media today or our social media Follow us on social media your

Extra eligible you have more of a chance to win.

I'm not articulating that very well, but trust me That's what you want to do because you will give yourself the best chance to to win.

Good luck everybody keyword coming up in about 10 minutes We have some more time here with our pal Ben Chan so Conrad is our question of the night also by the way folks is You got to get in this we we have so many texts.

This is

a

great question What is the saddest song ever written?

And this is not based on, there's no inspiration for this really, except I probably heard, you know, an Eric Carmon tune yesterday, and I thought I got to get this out there.

So we've gotten a lot of text responses.

We'll read some of those after I give the keyword as well.

So keep the texts coming.

What is the saddest song you've ever heard?

And now we are back to our guest, Ben Chan.

Thanks for sticking around,

bud.

Oh, I heard that on the way over.

I've got to pick for that.

I cover the waterfront.

sung by Billie Holiday.

I cover the waterfront.

It's an old...

I love Billie Holiday.

She's got one of the coolest voices.

I don't know that song though.

I don't think.

I'm not gonna try to sing it.

It's a bad color.

Just walking on the waterfront, being real sad.

Alone?

Okay.

Looking at the

water.

It's kind of like sitting by Dr. Bay, but very sad.

That's not sad though.

Yeah, that's kind of like... It's Billie

Holiday, being real sad.

I said Danny Boy.

Conrad said a song from this show he loves.

It's called Cat Funeral.

I'm Marshall Ayrton.

Oh, yeah.

Ben, do not bond with Conrad over this.

I

had no, you know, when you're writing your dissertation, it's real.

You're just like in a cave, 10

hours

a day writing your dissertation.

I had my roommate who was nice.

And then I had the good folks of Howie and my mother, they were my friends.

Oh, there you go, Con.

Yeah, they're definitely my friends, too.

See, now you should be on, what if this was like a situation where Michael Scott on the office became obsessed with Jim and you just became obsessed with Ben and you started doing everything and trying

to get out of Jeopardy.

Everybody's obsessed with Conrad.

Hey, you're on a mural here in downtown Green Bay.

They took

it down for the draft.

Oh, are they gonna put it back up?

No.

The draft is one year, buddy, but your accomplishments last a lifetime.

I'm trying to...

trying to get some sort of gigs as being generic local celebrity.

How's that work?

You should easily.

I mean, that's like, you've done something that's kind of different and unique.

No,

that's fine.

It's cool.

I mean, the cool thing, I think, you know, I've met a lot of people who've had similar success, but I don't think anybody had as much community support.

There's nothing like it.

You can't.

Green Bay is special in that way, right?

Listen,

I had hoped that you know, that's why I talked a lot about Green Bay because I want you know, I was one of my motivations for Doing well was like hype Green Bay and I did that the best I could and it was really cool that you know a lot of people here appreciated it

I remember the woman that used to manage this property Christie Barlamint told me it introduced me to you and she was telling me about these you know

watch parties you would have.

The support you got was incredible.

That must have made you feel like, yeah, Green Bay's home.

Yeah, I think that's the thing.

That's the thing I joke about is when I first moved here, somebody who's multi-generational Wisconsinite was like, you know, and he knew I loved Wisconsin.

It's like, ah, the problem is you'll never be a Wisconsin native.

And that's going to be different.

And I think I kind of got to skip the line.

And now I think, yeah, I get the.

the perks of being a Wisconsin native.

So that's cool.

Through your fame.

Yeah, that's so cool.

All right, so Ben is here.

We're going to, before we do this quiz, Conrad is getting his steps in today.

What, what, do you want to talk about Lawrence University?

You got a new position.

How's that going?

Yeah, Lawrence is great.

I thought that's actually why I'm in Wisconsin is that was what first moved me there.

Then I made to stay in Norbert.

So now I'm going back and

It's cool.

I'm glad it was 12 years ago, I think, when I was last there.

It still feels like another home for me.

So I was glad to see, I still knew a lot of people there.

The culture is very strong there.

It's a great school.

So

it's been great so far.

We're just finishing off week two right now.

Can I give you advice?

I'm not a Jeopardy winner.

I know I'm not as smart as you.

I'm fine with that, but we're friends.

I would like to give you a piece of advice.

Will you take it?

Yeah.

Okay.

Pace yourself on the Diet Pepsi.

That's

like your third one.

You're going to be up all night.

You can laugh.

That's okay.

It's like stifling himself.

No, I

was going to cough.

Oh,

okay.

Where's the cough button?

We don't have a cough button.

I know, right?

All right, we're working on it.

So, all right, so can we do a quick quiz here?

I think this will be our question tomorrow night because we've gotten such incredible response on this, but let's have fun with the quiz with Ben.

So this is the one hit wonder quiz I made.

And you can either say I'll take the artist or the name of the song,

either or.

So both of us are, should we alternate?

Because we don't have buzzers or anything.

This isn't like Jeopardy, Ben.

I mean, you know.

I'll

just whoever says it first.

Whoever says it first.

Oh, I like that.

Yeah, let's make it adversarial.

Absolutely.

Very polarized on the side of the glass.

Ten seconds of the song.

Okay,

okay.

All

right, you ready, Ben?

Yep.

Nightlight, one hit wonder quiz, Conrad go.

And a one, and a two, and

a three.

Boom, boom, boom, baby.

I know a baby on

board, Simpsons.

I could send it like

you at first.

I

thought it was Conrad.

It's

the B-sharps.

Maybe we should just end it right there.

I'm not

one to nothing.

That one was for you, because

I know it's like a fictional one hit.

It

was in the

Simpsons universe.

It

was a fictional Barbershop Quartet from the Simpsons.

I know

them, but I was like, oh, they were hit in the universe of the Simpsons.

All right, here we go.

Con.

I

ran flock of seagulls.

Boom.

Would you have gotten that one done?

This is rigged.

No, I wouldn't We

weren't even gonna have it Conrad was just gonna quiz me so good.

You're killing it.

I thought that would be oh, that would be fun to have you do this.

Okay number three.

Here we go Sounds like a porno I watched about

30

years ago Wow, this is the last time I've seen a porno.

What I don't know.

Do you know Ben?

Nope

Play it one more time.

That's okay What is that song black Betty

by Ram Jam

I I don't know the song and I don't know the band really I like the name of the band Ram Jam.

That's a great name All

right,

so I am beating Ben

I kind of feel bad about this.

Whenever we have someone take a quiz in the show, it's pretty easy.

Like, we like to guess to

feel... You knew it was coming.

This was just sprung on me at the last minute.

Listen, Jeopardy, don't make excuses.

You're doing great.

Okay, here we go.

What is love?

Hadaway.

That's good.

Would you have gotten that

one?

Eventually.

I mean, I would

have gotten the title pretty quick.

Hadaway, I kind of know,

yeah.

Okay.

Alright, let's do, uh, let's do one more.

Tainted Love.

Tainted Love.

Soft Cell.

Soft Cell.

Yeah, that's a good song.

Are they One Hit Wonder?

I thought they had other things.

Yeah, I, you know, they, this song had like a billion.

Oh, right.

And the other

songs that they have were like 12.

It was pretty different.

All right, cool.

All right, three to one.

I'm not proud because he's a guest.

They're great.

And let's, all

right,

here we go.

Oh, man.

Ah-ha.

Ah-ha.

Yeah, I know the music video.

Go ahead and say the song, because I do know it

now.

The music video with that is great.

It's sketchy.

And then the acoustic version of that is phenomenal.

The lead singer of Ah-ha is singing, you take on me.

And the lyrics are very beautiful.

It's great.

They're almost wasted with that techno stuff, you know.

That's a great

song.

Yeah.

All

right.

Yeah.

Should we do one more?

Yeah, we can do one more.

I can't see the

plot.

If he ties it up, then we have to do it.

No.

Just do one.

I think it's a... All right, off-click 401.

Yeah, it's

like, ready?

Yeah.

It's embarrassing.

I know

this.

I knew this one time.

I don't know it.

I can't think of it.

I mean, I know the song, but what is it?

I put the lyrics in there on purpose because she's so high.

Alright,

this has been fun.

Ben, thank you so much.

I did beat you, but I've won no money.

You're hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead of me in the game show.

So, Ben-Chan, thank you very much.

Don't be a stranger.

We'll do this again soon.

Alright, fantastic.

Norm Kopeski coming up in about 10 minutes.

The keyword.

Do I have time to give the keyword or should I wait, Conrad?

Alright,

we'll do it

on

the other side of the break.

Just to tease you a little more.

It's Beachwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

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Tonight's keyword is chill.

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C-H-I-L-L.

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Good luck, everybody.

We'll give you the keyword again later in the show just to refresh your memories.

We got to get through some text, Conn.

I would say so.

It's high time.

Our question of the night, what is the saddest song ever written?

I have no idea this is going to strike such a chord with people.

But John from the 608 says, bye-bye, American Pie.

Interesting.

Edward from the 414 says, tub thumping by Chamba Wamba.

That was a total one hit.

No, that's a one hit wonder.

Yeah, that one.

See, I knew this was gonna happen tonight.

When I was looking up, you know, one hit wonders, that one was like, at least every single time was in the top

five.

Edward says, James are most certainly not a one hit wonder.

Really?

Alright, I stay corrected Edward.

I do remember the song Laid which was great and I liked other songs on that album I didn't think any of them were hits though, but you're obviously probably referring to other albums.

So thank you for the clarification Mothers of the disappeared by you two from the Joshua Tree Edward says is his most sad song.

That's a great choice.

That's a horribly depressing song, but a great song Sometimes they're just depressing and sometimes they're great songs and depressing

John from Madison in the 608 says, careless whisper.

Great choice, John.

Mike from Cottage Grove says, how about the way we were?

Yeah, that's a sad one too.

All those songs about like Old Lang Syne is kind of the same way or Operator by Croci, someone said earlier.

The way we were is another one too.

And there's a song by Jim Croci called These Dreams.

And one of the lyrics is, and sometimes at night, I think I hear you calling my name.

These dreams keep me going these days very sad song, but a very beautiful song too Patrick in the 608 says all by myself Eric Carmen I knew it was a matter of time before we heard that one.

Thank you Patrick John Murray from Madison also says relationship destroyed not cool I don't know John is probably referencing something I said earlier.

I've killed quite a few Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids says one hit wonder Olka polka

Gold is badass weed, according to Chih-Chung.

Okay.

I had to refresh my memory on that one.

I still don't quite recall that, but thank you, Tyler.

Melissa from Willy Street says, ooh, I got this one, Joni Mitchell Blue.

Yeah, that's a sad song.

My next one is another Joni song, River, but I only feel real, but I only really feel it around X-Mad.

Christmas and Madison?

Yeah, I think that's what she means.

Thank you, Melissa Chris from the 773 says if you're a dog lover like me Chris Stapleton Maggie's song gets me every time I Don't know that song do you I do not yeah, it's anything about pets.

Yeah, you know those are tearjerkers terrible John John says got the giggles anyone

And then Melissa from Willie Street says, Christmas.

Geez, I thought so, Melissa.

I knew.

Jim from Appleton, the 920 says, the saddest song ever is Without a Doubt, Alone Again Naturally by Gilbert O'Sullivan.

O'Sullivan, Alone Again Naturally.

I feel like I know that song, but I can't, I can't place it.

Jameson from Pennsylvania.

He's in the 814 says only because we know the context it must be tears in heaven by Eric Clapton I cannot imagine the overwhelming grief of feeling responsible for your young son's death And then Jameson says kudos on Danny boy.

Thank you Jameson.

Yeah, and

you're

right tears in heaven.

It's a really sad song John from Madison says Clapton is an irresponsible Jack He's judging him

for his son falling out the window.

Oh, dear.

Edward from the 414 says, the fields of Athenary, now that you mentioned Danny Boy.

Oh, I don't know that song.

Thank you, Edward.

Olly from the Northwood.

Oh, that was a phone call.

Tyler says, saddest song, My Funny Valentine, sang by Ricky Lee Jones.

Yep, that's a sad one, too.

I think other people covered that, too.

John in Madison says, he is not great, more of an a-hole, really, truth.

All right.

I've already covered that.

I'm in kind of in cahoots with you, John, but I already talked about that.

DaddyO from Windsor, his area code is six.

Oh, eight says, long, long time by Linda Ronstead.

Yeah, but that, you know what?

DaddyO, that's one of those songs that is sad, but a great song.

You got the violin in there.

They played that on The Last of Us on the HBO show.

That's a great song, great choice.

John, not gonna read John's last text.

Jameson from the 814 says, toss in two more, just like Suicide by Soundgarden.

Got a lot of Soundgarden stuff, it's depressing.

And nothing compares to you, Prince Sinead O'Connor, best cover ever, also Chris Cornell.

Well done, Jameson.

From the 608, Steve says, the song is A Daisy A Day by Judd Strunk, who may himself be a one hit wonder.

Come out early 7th.

It came out early 70s.

Thanks.

Thank you, Steve.

Appreciate that.

Scott from Green Bay says, Puff the Magic Dragon.

Yeah, that's a sad one.

I

had to sing that.

Did you really?

In elementary school.

Yeah, we had to sing that in music class.

There's a song called Day is Done, which is very sad by Peter, Paul, and Mary, and also by John Prine.

Two different songs, but the same title.

They're both sad.

Ronnie from Horekin says, Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues.

All right.

We will keep at these texts.

We're going to get through them.

Norm Kapaskey is coming up next to tell us about his awesome contest at Appleton Cigars, Peach Wabbit and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

We are jamming through a Thursday night here, the Christmas Eve of weeknights, folks.

It is great to have you with me.

Just to finish up those last texts from our question of the night, what is the saddest song ever written?

Mike from Cottage Grove says, Bob Dylan, Tangled Up in Blue.

Let's go back and listen to the lyrics for that.

I'm not sure what to thank you, Mike.

Jameson again from Pennsylvania.

He is owning the text line tonight.

Sorry, one more.

That's how I got to Memphis, Tom T. Hall, following love to be end and never getting her back.

Yeah, it's always losing someone.

These are all great.

Thank you, Jameson.

Christine from Slinger says, the prayer sung by Andrea Bicelli.

Beautiful song.

Great one, Christine.

Lori from Hayward says, Pete, there's an Irish song called The Parting Glass that is really sad.

It's sung at a lot of Irish funerals.

There's also a wonderful song by Mike Manuel that's called If There's a Phone in Heaven, Put My Mama On when he wants to talk to his mama.

That's great, Lori.

Thank you.

All right.

We are going to ask this question to my next guest.

He comes to us bearing cigars and a bad-ass beard and a really cool hotel.

tattoo.

My next guest, folks, is the owner of Appleton Cigar, and he is a frequent guest on the show, and we love having him here, especially when he comes into the studio.

Norm Kepesky, hey, buddy.

Hey, thanks for having me on again.

Always fun.

I appreciate you coming in.

I appreciate your sponsorship for the show.

I love reading your ad every night.

If you have not been to Appleton Cigar, folks, check it out, especially if you like to play poker.

or if you like contests because they have a really cool one happening this weekend.

Should we jump right in and talk about it?

Let's do that.

Yeah, absolutely.

And then we'll ask your saddest.

Sounds good.

I made notes.

All right, cool.

So Norm is here.

They have a great event at Appleton Cigar this weekend involving Beards.

Tell me all about it, Norm.

Yeah, so Appleton Cigar is kind of the home base for Northeast Wisconsin Bearded Villains.

Bearded Villains was a

kind of an online social media, uh, beard club.

Okay.

They started throwing up chapters across the U S and now it's worldwide.

And, um, one of the, one of the key principles that we have is, uh, is this organization is that we do charity work.

Yeah.

And so we're a nonprofit and we, we do fundraising to support other nonprofits, which would be courage incorporated is who this year's beneficiary is and courage incorporated.

If you kind of follow all the different.

companies here.

Courage Incorporated helps veterans and citizens, civilians, who've either gone through something traumatic, like a PTSD type event or catastrophic physical injuries, whatever like that, who just don't quite get to enjoy the outdoors again, the way they would before this before their injuries.

So Courage Incorporated, it's all volunteers, they go out and they take these people kayaking or

uh, white water rafting, fishing, camping.

Some people want to stack stones on the North Shore of Lake Superior.

And so

they go

up there and they just, just help these people touch grass again and just kind of regain some inner peace.

Courage incorporated.

That's where the proceeds will go from this year's bearded villains.

That's your

second annual

or four.

No, wait, this is

our first beard competition.

Oh, okay.

This is our first year with the beard competition.

And so, um, this is kind of all

kind of coming together for us.

And yeah.

So all right.

Now let's talk about that.

So cool that you guys are doing that norm.

And I know you do a lot of that kind of work.

You're a believer in charity and all that

kind of stuff is just

outstanding.

What made you explain the title Bearded Villains?

What

does that mean?

So the original core of the group was kind of these big bearded, husky, dark clothes wearing kind of Johnny Cash personas, some tattoos and right.

And

We often get kind of mistyped as hard people.

Yeah, we're pretty gooey inside.

Right.

And we love our families, our kids and love the brotherhood that we've got going on.

And so we we really work hard to kind of create a just a space for anybody, you know, to come in.

You got

to have

a beard, though.

And so

or be the wife of a bearded

person.

Right.

So all right, so how does this work?

I'm curious because I had a beard years ago Yeah, but how do you Joe like what goes into the judging?

It seems like it's kind of a subjective thing.

You got a really awesome beard You've obviously been working on it for a long time, but does that come into play is how trim it is or Yeah,

so so each judge is gonna kind of have their own criteria But but by and large the three categories that we have competitions for this weekend six inches and shorter

Okay, beard length from

the chin down

six inches and longer and then best styled So guys will come in and their beards will be made into like octopus tentacles or it'll look like a bowl of ramen

You look good on you Conrad

go for the

octopus beard when you can grow a beard So all right, so all those different factors, but like

it seems kind of subjective like there's no definite criteria for judging just

well I mean there kind of is like when when a person looks at a beard you can put seven beards in a room and you can kind of go through like that's a good one that's maybe a little sparse

or

doesn't look like you've trimmed it in six

years taking care of your beard right you know and

so

it may work for them and that's what they're after, but it's kind of up to the judge, like how dense do they want it?

Is it, does it need to be full and thick all the way through?

Does it need to be uncut from the sideburns all the way to the chin?

And it's just six inch hair the whole way through.

I mean, there's different criteria like

that.

How long did it take you to get your beard to where it is today?

Like how long, a time span to get to that length?

It takes me about a year to grow it out this long.

Oh, okay.

So I keep, I'd spend this length for about four years now,

but

I keep it trimmed up every couple months I go in and get it cleaned up and.

Do

you ever not want it?

The armpit heat up August.

Because you just.

It's just so hot.

That's so funny.

And what about your wall like some women like beards and some women don't like your wife is obviously I met your wife.

Yeah.

She's obviously a beard lover.

Yeah, she is.

She's, uh, she's pretty protective of it.

So, yeah, no one gets close to it except for her and my barber.

Are you in the contest?

I won't be.

You can't be.

Okay.

No, we'll, we'll be playing host.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's so cool.

Uh, Norm Kupaski is here folks.

Check out Appleton cigar.

He is one of the owners.

It's a great spot.

And, uh, they have this great event going on this weekend, bearded villains, all the proceeds or.

A substantial amount of the proceeds go to Courage Incorporated, a group that does great things for people suffering from PTSD or physical ailments.

It sounds like just an outstanding event.

The last time you were here, Norm, you had this great, we talked about poker.

I'm a huge poker fan, but due to where I live mostly, it's kind of remote.

I'm playing online and I'm almost intimidated to play with real.

I mean, I'm playing against real people.

You can't read anybody.

It's all avatars and maybe people have the real.

Tell people if they wanted to come and check out a poker night or if they're curious, what is that like?

So Tuesday night at seven o'clock, we start setting up the poker tables and it's a $10 buy-in.

All the winnings go to the players.

The house takes no cut of it.

Wow.

Um, it all goes back to the players.

Same thing with courage and corporate.

All the proceeds from this go 100% goes to

that.

Wow.

That's not taking the cut of

anything.

That's great.

Um, and so it's, we want a friendly game.

We want a nice sociable atmosphere.

Um, so it's, it's very manners driven.

We have house rules that follow, uh, world series poker rules.

Okay.

And so like those are just the standard rules.

I mean, it's, we want a friendly game.

And

do they always turn out that way?

I mean, you seem like you get great clients out.

People get what it is, read the room and that kind of stuff.

You had, I checked with you about two guys that have their own cigar company too.

And you deal with these guys, Hank and Herschel.

They were great guests and they were in here and you were like, yeah, we do business with them.

It's fine.

And so it was really fun to have them.

Hank kept referring to cigars as sticks.

And I just love that.

I don't I've never I'd never heard that before.

Is that a new term or is that like a throwback

sticks has been some of the some of the lexicon for as long as I've been smoking cigars for the last 20 years.

Sticks, doggies, cigars.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What do you have a cigar like do you alternate?

Like.

Do you have a favorite and then you'll smoke that for a while and then you kind of find something different or what are you into now?

So I still have my standard cigar, my daily, you would call it.

That's my Romacraft Whiskey Rebellion in the Washington size.

And then in my weekly slash monthly rotation is gonna be lovely cigars.

It'll be 12 tribes, hand commercials.

Yeah.

It'll be...

Crown Heads like Law & Perosa, Tatawahe that I gave you guys tonight.

They make a lot of great cigars.

This is so cool.

I wish the stream was up.

I would hold it for effect, but anyway.

When some you lose some.

But

yeah, there's just a ton of great cigars out there.

Yeah.

And life's too short to just drink one can of Coke, right?

Try it out.

Especially if you, someone who has like a nuanced taste for cigars, I ask you this every time you come on because people might be listening that have not smoked cigars.

But if they want to try it, what should they start with?

I mean, obviously they should go to Appleton Cigar and you'll steer them right.

But what would you have them or what advice would you give them?

So unlike in high school, when your buddies were trying to get you to smoke a cigarette and they were they were looking for you to turn green and get sick.

We

actually don't want that.

We want you to enjoy the experience.

So we're not going to

play some kind of crack at your expense on it.

So we're going to help steer you into a lighter cigar, like a Connecticut rapper, a lighter filler and binder.

So it would be like an Esteban Carreras cashmere or a Perdomo champagne or a Prolo Del Mar shade.

Lovely Mike Guem cigar.

Him and his buddies.

Okay.

Um, it would be their lovely elegante.

It would be something that's on that There's some flavor.

There's some complexity, but it's not so strong that you want to turn green on it

It's kind of is it kind of like the same with alcohol like whiskey you could just make straight-up alcohol whiskey with no flavor really and okay, that's fine, but Is it the same with cigars you want a little hint of something you do?

Yeah,

you do and you can go all the way from

from the Evercleers through the Vodkas.

So you're slowly incorporating more and more flavors into an Irish whiskey.

And then you have bourbons and rye and scotches.

And they all have little subtleties going on

in different ways.

You told me, I think the last time you were here, your choice of beverage with a cigar is coffee.

That's right.

Is it still that way?

Still is coffee.

What if you were going to go for a cocktail?

What would you match with a cigar?

I would do maker's mark original, um, two thirds of the way full of ice and then, and then just cap the ice and bourbon.

See, it's interesting.

I'm not, I don't have near the, it's not, I can't, I'm not even in the same conversation you with cigar knowledge, but whenever I did have a glass of like Irish whiskey or something, I liked it room temp with a cigar.

I don't know.

Is that, am I outside the lines there?

It's to each their own.

Yeah.

It really is.

Okay.

What serves your palate the best and what facilitates your enjoyment?

I think last time you were here, you said you smoke a cigar every day.

And, oh, here we go.

You got some, you're getting some love on the text line.

Oh, very

cool.

Thanks, guys.

Norm, JB Thompson.

I am, I said Neil Diamond.

Norm is a master of cigars.

Well, we certainly know that, JB.

I think did JB introduce us?

Yeah, he did, yeah.

Thank you, JB.

The guy behind the guy, Conrad.

Behind the guy?

Behind the guy.

Thank you, JB.

And I could not agree more.

Neil, you were talking about Johnny Cash.

Neil Diamond has a song called Solitary Man about the guy who broke up a sad song.

Johnny Cash does a version of that with that Johnny Cash voice.

Forget about it.

It's fantastic.

It's like I want to look him up.

Oh, it's great.

It's for your ride home norm.

Yeah.

Solitary Man, Johnny Cash.

I've been listening to it at the gym because it's a sad song, but his voice still gets you pumped up because it's Johnny Cash, you know.

All right, so we'll have more, we'll have a few more minutes with our pal at Norm Kopasky when we come back and we'll give you a reminder of the really cool event, Bearded Villains going on at Appleton Cigar this weekend.

Highly recommend it.

Once again, folks, tonight's keyword is chill.

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uh steady eddie chiming in here uh he's in the 608 pdm remembering the sad mysterious and haunting song owed to billy joe he was released in 1967 by singer-songwriter bobby gentry i remember listening to it back then on the radio it was the number one song on the charts for four weeks oh good memory steady eddie jeez it's about uh billy joe mccallister a young man who jumped off the tallahatchee bridge i don't think i'd write a song about something like that it's just like

Really, really tragic, right?

I like that steady gave you the phonetic of that.

Yeah, thank God.

And he says, look for it on YouTube.

Bobby Gentry saying it live and in color.

And on the Andy Williams TV show, 1971.

Steady Eddie, thank you, buddy.

I want to show this to Norm.

Norm Kepesky is my guest from Appleton Cigar.

Look at how Kim Kardashian plays poker.

She wore mirrored sunglasses while playing poker so everybody could see

her cards.

That's usually helpful.

You can tell if she has a poker face, too.

Norm Kepesky is my guest.

Check out bearded villains, folks.

If you love beards, if you have a beard, even if you don't love beards, it's gonna be a fun event at Appleton Cigar this weekend.

The actual beard judging is Saturday at 12.30.

And it's so hey put your beard out there all the proceeds go to a great cause Courage Incorporated it's a it's a really fun event and it's a bunch of great guys that hang out at Appleton cigar and girls I would assume your wife smoke cigars.

Yes, that's right.

I remember.

Yeah Well, you probably smoke out smoke me Conrad when are you gonna smoke your cigar?

I mean, I guess probably tonight.

Okay.

I think I'm gonna say

watching some football.

Yeah, I'm gonna

All right, so Norm, I have to ask you, do you have favorite people to smoke a cigar?

I'm sure you smoke alone sometimes, but are there people in particular you can't wait to see and light up a cigar with?

Because I have those people and I don't smoke cigars that often.

Yeah, so it'd be my dad, my brothers, or the three of my children that are old enough to smoke.

Wow, so your kids are into it too, which makes sense, yeah.

That's so awesome.

All right, so you have another...

incident, event coming up at Appleton Cigar on the 18th of October.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, so LaGloria Cigars is one of the brands that we carry and does really well for us.

Our rep, John Curtis, is coming in and he's going to be putting on a big show that afternoon with some door prizes and buy 10, get two cigar type deals going on.

We do box price, which is 10% off the box.

Box purchase of LaGloria or any

forged product.

How much is a box typically of good cigars like that?

A box of cigars like that could be 180 to 400.

Oh, wow.

But

you're

getting 20 cigars out of it, 20 to 30 cigars.

Right.

Yep.

Yeah.

That's so cool.

All right.

Well, so check out that too, folks, on the 18th at Appleton Cigar, LaGloria, a fun event too.

Especially if you, I think it's a great place to go if you want to learn.

I think I told you one time when you were here on the show before Norm.

The first time I went to a cigar lounge, I didn't know what to expect.

I ended up having the time of my life.

It was just like, if you just like shooting the whatever and hanging out, it's just a great way to kill some time, but still enjoy life.

That's right.

There's some great storytellers in every cigar lounge I've ever been to.

Yeah.

Talking about current events, pop culture.

Right.

I mean,

all kinds of different stuff.

Military stories, career,

you know, their

life is a career, whatever.

Irreviation pilot down the basketball coach, etc.

That's and that's the best place I remember that too because I love being around people We all have our regulars people were with there's no surprises.