Transcript
Packer Passion from Tokyo to Wisconsin (Hour 1)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Wed Oct 22, 2025
You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime,
Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.
Happy Wednesday, everybody.
A rainy overcast day here in Wisconsin, particularly in northeast Wisconsin, but it is a glorious night altogether.
It just feels like fall.
Hope you're having a great day.
Wherever you're joining us from here tonight for Night Light, welcome.
Whether you're on the radio, the app, or watching the radio on the stream, it is great to have you here.
We've got, man, I have a great show here for you guys tonight.
We have two outstanding directors on the show tonight.
This might be a first on Night Light.
We do a lot of firsts here.
But we've got at 635, it will be my pleasure to welcome Mr. Craig Benzine.
He is the director of No Packers, No Life, which you can currently see in Marcus Theaters here in Wisconsin all over the state.
I believe, I believe it's still out there.
And the distributor is none other than another friend of ours, Sean Hannish.
So the two of them, two swell guys teamed up to bring you a great movie, a great documentary about Japanese Packer fans.
Craig will join me at 635 and we'll discuss how that's going and you can learn a little bit more about the film if you're not familiar already with this what seems to be a treasure I have not seen it yet Conrad have you seen this movie yet?
Yeah, it's supposedly it's got a lot of charm It's got great music that Craig also wrote for the film and we feature that on bar band Friday just a few nights ago here with our pal Terry Barr.
She brought us
Just this great song called man of action and it is in the film and Craig also has a band Man, it's exhausting.
He's got a band.
He's making movies.
He's also on YouTube as wheezy waiter with over a million viewers or subscribers I guess it would be So Craig will be here.
He's a lot of fun to talk to he's been on the show before I've interviewed him on PBS Wisconsin as well great guy joins me at 635 and then at 735 director number two for the evening
Phil Johnston will be here at Northeast Wisconsin Native who is a comedy writer and also a brilliant filmmaker.
He's made a lot of animated films like Wreck-It Ralph, Zootopia.
He has a movie called The Twits that is now in theaters and I believe on Netflix or will go to Netflix right after a brief theatrical run.
Either way, he's got some big credits.
He also wrote the film Cedar Rapids with kind of a...
That movie has like, it's like a who's who of comedy.
Tom Lennon is in it.
Ed Helms.
Steven Root.
Got this great cast and he's written a lot of live action stuff too.
Very successful guy and he is a native Wisconsinite, I think from Appleton.
So we'll talk to Phil at 735.
That was our pal Danny Wills made that connection con.
I don't know if you know that.
Shut out Danny wheels.
Yeah, I think they went to high school or something maybe but anyway great stuff and two really fun guys joining me here tonight on night like got a great question We'll get to in just a moment Working the board on the other side of the glass from me is Conrad Krieger
how you doing?
I love when you complain about the weather and you grew up in Wisconsin.
Do you like expect it not to be so?
it's coming.
Yeah, you should move.
You could move south like to like Racine.
do enjoy that southern.
no.
Yeah.
Well,
I did something today before we get to our question of the night.
This, this is what kind of inspired it yesterday and today.
My wife made this great soup and I had it and I have a new term or phrase, I guess I should say.
I took a bite.
It was too hot.
And when you do that subsequent, like you do anything not to burn your tongue because that messes up your eating for like five days.
You don't feel anything.
It's probably a great way to keep the weight off, but like you can't taste anything.
So.
And I like, you know, I like food.
I want to taste it.
I hate when I burn my tongue.
So I do what I call this like food ballet in my mouth.
I'm like moving it up here, then there.
I'm not letting any of the food touch my mouth in a particular area for too long.
Sort of.
If it's soup, yes.
This was like a thick, this was almost like a stew.
So I like had, it was like a chicken thing.
So I had like chicken going this side, then I'm moving it over to this.
It was like an aerobic workout.
And it worked.
I do not have, I can enjoy food the next few days.
Well, you can, but if you charge into it head first, like I do.
I guess.
Cause I got, cause I got game.
Um, yeah, I don't know.
I never over.
Typically anyway, I never over microwave something so I don't have that problem, but I don't know yesterday I guess I did so that's my phrase food ballet move it around folks do not burn your mouth your mouth is like one of the I don't know It affects you for days Can turn into like a canker sore, you know?
terrible.
So it's just a little tip here from nightlight.
That's the nightlight
That's the nightlight food tip of the night.
And without further ado, let's get to our question of the night.
about the question.
Okay, question.
Question.
Question.
Domanda.
Question.
Oh, this is a good one.
I have a feeling people are gonna have fun with this one tonight.
It's a food related question because it's national tavern style pizza day.
So our question of the night here at nightlight is what is your favorite kind of Zah pizza?
What do you like so many different kinds?
Thick crust hand-toss thin crust Detroit style Chicago style New York style Or tavern style How do you like your pizza folks you give us toppings you could give us the way you like it cut what kind of manufacturer if you like tombstone or DiGiorno or whatever
Let us know how you like your pizza.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC.
You can also text us on the app, or if you're watching the radio on YouTube, Facebook, or X, drop us a stream comment.
And if you're there, if you're so inclined, give us a like or a follow.
Always fun to be noticed.
So I'm gonna start off and say that my favorite, and I put this on social media as well, as I've gotten older, I like thin crust better.
I like thin crust with sausage, onion.
fresh garlic, possibly jalapenos, and also light sauce.
I don't like a ton of red sauce.
When I was younger, and especially where I grew up, we had this place in Chicago called Nancy's Stuffed Pizza, and the pizza was like, it was like a piece of ice cream cake.
It was like six inches tall, just cheese and meat.
I don't think I could eat that.
I don't think I could eat that now.
Even like a Giordano's or Lou Malnati's from Chicago, I don't think I could do.
I think tavern style is actually my choice because that's typically more thin crust.
So there you go.
Sausage, onion, fresh garlic, light sauce, maybe some jalapenos.
What about you, Con?
so
much now and I'll tell you there's I used to work at a pizza place, you know in my hometown and We used to like when we like make pizzas for ourselves, you know Yeah, we do it a special way.
Oh, yeah and the best way that was one of my favorite pizzas I used to make it all the time my boss showed me this then it was When you put the sauce on the you put the layer of sauce on
And then you throw pepper on it.
Just coarse ground pepper
Yeah.
So what do you call that?
So the crust is thicker?
No vegetables, though, really.
Mushroom.
Mushroom, I guess.
I guess it's a fun guy.
That's a fun guy.
But that sounds good.
Nothing wrong with a meat lover's pizza.
So let us know what you think, folks.
What is your favorite kind of pizza?
Very open-ended question.
Just let us know what you think, and we will read your text on the radio.
I had this... I liked the show Task so much.
I went back and watched the finale again.
This show is so great.
The lead character Mark Ruffalo is an FBI agent.
He doesn't look buff.
Apparently he was eating Philly cheesesteaks to get ready for the role.
He's got a little punch.
He looks like a regular dude.
And he's a former priest on the show who keeps taking in foster kids.
And there's a minor spoiler here, but you find this out in the first episode.
One of the foster kids,
ends up being responsible for the death of his wife.
And that foster child has a sister who lives there too.
So there's all this in-family drama.
And the way the show navigates through that is so great.
It's thoughtful, it's about forgiveness.
And the last episode is great and Ruffalo's so good and the writing is so good, I cannot recommend this show enough.
So check out task.
I also meant to watch the chair company the second episode last night, but I didn't I just was working in Yeah, did not get to it, but that is on my list.
oh Yeah, is that uh, is that Tim Robinson?
that.
Detroiters and then yeah.
last year.
He was on Nightlight.
Brody.
Who's still talking?
He's still talking.
Yeah, I was like, you were like Adam Brody.
No, not at Brody.
It was Adam.
He's on that show.
Yeah, that's Adam Brody.
Oh, that's great.
So, yeah, I need to check out the chair company.
All right.
And then the big news this weekend, the Springsteen movie opens.
I'm excited.
It's reviewing fairly well.
And just because Springsteen's a legend doesn't mean the movie is gonna be legendary, but I hope it's good It looks like it's getting about 65 70% right now on rotten tomatoes.
So I'm really hoping It's a good film.
So we'll see that but I'll be at the theater checking that out and I do want to see One battle after another this weekend too other than that.
When does the World Series start?
you gave up on baseball for
I get that
Lots of color television to watch this weekend, though.
So that's good.
Also, Rich Tellerico says he likes his pizza free.
Okay.
I do too.
He's not fussy.
I do too.
I'm not saying I won't eat like a Detroit style or a thick crust, but if it's free, that's a game changer.
Rich Luccasio, our pal from WRJN says white pizza with ricotta and arugula.
Ooh, I'm intrigued.
that wouldn't necessarily work with tavern style, but it would certainly work with New York style.
Absolutely.
And you don't have to pick tavern style pizza.
Although there's a great frozen pizza called Home Run-In that's tavern style.
You can get it at Walmart, Aldi.
It originated from Chicago, which is known for deep dish, but this is a great tavern style pizza.
The crust is outstanding, even in the frozen version.
Mike Desertel says, I've never met a pizza I didn't like.
It's good to keep an open mind, Mike.
All right, we're going to read more of your texts when we come back.
Craig Benzine is here at 635.
The director of No Packers, No Life.
Excited to talk to Craig.
And director Phil Johnston of The Twits is here in hour number two.
Fun night here.
Glad you're with me.
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.
Our question of the night, in honor of National Tavern Pizza Day, do
right?
Yeah.
Yeah, they just cut it.
I think it's typically more thin crust, but they cut it a certain way as well.
Yeah.
And I like that.
I like the thinner crust.
So let us know what is your favorite kind of pizza, folks.
That is our question of the night.
We've got some good social media responses and we will keep you posted and keep those texts coming.
I'm gonna, I feel like I'm gonna, every once in a while I get like celebrity exhaustion and I just can't, it's hard to, it's almost like the celebrities that say negative things are easier to follow.
And JLo said some stuff, that's Jennifer Lopez, Jen Jen, as I call her.
She said some stuff that is just, she's really annoying.
She's Mark Wahlberg or Ryan
I'm not kidding.
No, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell people how.
Nobody cares,
because I got a microphone in front of me.
You got a phone call?
Yes, we do.
Ollie from the north.
Oh, awesome.
Oh, I can't wait to hear what kind of pizza Ollie likes.
Hello, Ollie.
How are you?
I'm good.
It's a food one.
You know Ollie's calling in.
Yes, absolutely.
That's what I love when you call us about the food stuff.
Well, I actually, my favorite, I think, because I don't get to get out and eat anymore health issues wise.
that's a bummer.
So I do get...
The lots of matta.
and then I like the one with the four meats And then of course that's not good enough quite good enough.
You have to tweak it So I put some sliced green olives on there and some sliced mushrooms um fresher canned whichever you've got
and then a bunch more extra cheese and some
Italian seasonings, a little bit of garlic.
My
goodness.
Do
you
eat that after five, Ollie?
I eat it whenever I can get somebody to get me one.
I just have two words for you.
I have two words for you.
Sleep on your stomach.
Oh my gosh, that is a lot of food.
It's impressive.
Well, I don't eat it all at once.
I do cook it.
And then...
of snack on it.
And then bag it up and then have it for a couple of other meals.
I admire people like you.
I cannot eat one piece of pizza.
It's like I can't eat two cookies.
But that's great.
Yeah.
Very
well done.
Of course you've got to have... I would love to be able to be someplace where I could get one of those dessert pizzas, too.
Oh, those are good too.
Those like, you know, Domino's has like a lava cake that's really good.
It's chocolate lava.
Yeah.
If you eat enough pizza and then that it might kill you, but it's going to taste pretty darn good.
It's not a bad way
to
go.
Yeah, exactly.
Thanks so much, Aldi.
Have a great night.
That's awesome.
God, that's a lot.
What did she say?
Pepperoni sausage.
What else?
Hamburger?
Like a rack of lamb, something.
Some ribs.
That's insane.
That is serious.
But again, if you eat one piece, it's like eating a piece of lasagna almost or casserole.
I just can't do that.
I can't make a frozen pizza without half of it at least being gone.
And when I was younger, the whole thing's gone.
says, or Lil' Irv, he's Lil' Irv tonight.
He has two different personas, kind of.
I don't know what to do about that.
Could be witness protection.
Let's not let's not out him a tombstone garlic crust pepperoni.
I've never heard I didn't
across that lots of mods though that Ali says so
That's got they've got like a ton of cheese I could go lighter sauce on that but other than that that is that was made for taverns.
That's a great tavern pizza Tim Baker on social media says sausage pepperoni and mushrooms
Extra sauce, well done, but not burned.
Well, he's a difficult customer.
That's a tough order.
Are you spitting in that guy's?
Our pal Amanda Nimmer from here at WGBW says, depends on the mood, but I would destroy.
a chicken cordon bleu pizza from Glass Nickel.
I've never heard of that either.
Have
I have had it once or twice, yeah.
It is good.
I can't imagine a chicken cordon bleu,
And that sauce.
good
Swiss.
Yeah.
I've eaten pizza though, like if it's a red sauce.
That I know, I've destroyed a regular pizza where it looks like a crime scene has occurred.
And it's just
Chicken Alfredo, yeah?
the white creamy sauce,
Yeah, I can't do that.
I can't do that.
I like a garlic sauce, though.
Nice garlic sauce.
Oh, yeah.
I have a pretty sophisticated palate.
I think that's my problem when it comes to frozen pizza.
Frozen pizzas.
That's what we're talking about, folks.
It is National Tavern Pizza Day today.
Let us know what your favorite kind of pizza is.
And great movies opening this weekend.
And I'm trying to find the right moment to talk about J.Lo because it's this mentality in this country right now.
It's another billionaire that can't catch a break.
Poor JLo.
She can't find love.
All these guys give her houses and rings and everything, but she doesn't feel like they ever truly loved her.
She could be a jerk.
Maybe it's her.
Maybe you need to take a good long swim in Lake U, Jen Jen.
I'll read part of the excerpts later though.
It's driving me crazy.
And she is on Ryan Reynolds.
you know.
But she can't find love.
So, you know,
Yeah.
Hey, listen, if you can make it, if you can make that happen, I will buy you free pizza for a year.
If you can get Jay, come on,
talk to
me face to face.
But
she's going to run from me, Conn.
She knows I ask the tough questions.
All right.
When we come back, folks, no Packers, no life director.
Craig Benzine is here.
Can't wait.
It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Welcome and welcome to nightlight folks.
We're broadcasting statewide from beautiful downtown Green Bay tonight on a Wednesday night in the fall Halloween writer on the corner a chill in the air What could be better?
We're talking about movies and TV and comedy and music and all the great stuff in life that makes us happy
And joining us now to make us even happier is one of my favorite guests.
This guy is a multi-talented individual.
He goes by the title Weezy Waiter on YouTube, where he has over a million subscribers.
He is a musician and part of a really cool band.
And he also made the film No Packers, No Life, which is in theaters right now.
And he joins us now over the stream.
Mr. Craig Benzene.
Hey, buddy.
Hello.
Hello.
Good to be back.
Great to have you
back.
How are you?
I'm doing good.
I'm Just had a probably ate too much dinner and I'm feeling good.
Do you have a favorite pizza Craig?
I know you're you've been in Chicago for years, but you're a Wisconsin guy Yeah,
a
rivalry in pizza there, too.
Or do you have a
favorite pizza?
Well, so in Madison my favorite you said you talked about glass nickel earlier Yeah, I think just they have lots of good ones, but they're just their standard pepperoni Sausage is really good
or pepperoni.
But I would say, I hate to say it, but maybe my actual favorite is at a place called Pequod's in Chicago, it's Deep Dish.
I've never had Pequod's.
I've heard nothing but amazing stuff about it, though.
You're in the pizza haven of the world, basically.
It's hard not to like some form of Chicago pizza.
I know, and a lot of people tell me they don't like Deep Dish, but you got to try Pequod's because it's something special.
It's hard for me to do deep dish now, but I would make an exception just because of all the stuff I've heard about Pequons.
Do you live near a Pequons?
No, there's only two.
I'm in Madison now.
When I lived in Chicago, I would go there all the time.
Oh, I thought you were still in Chicago.
Okay, so you live in Madison now?
Yes, I do.
Well, welcome home, buddy.
Thanks.
I mean, I've been here for a little while, but yeah, thank you.
It's about time you welcome me.
I
don't get your updates anymore, Craig.
Damn it.
Well, it's great.
I didn't know that.
So that's terrific.
And Glass Nickel, I've got to try because my buddy Steve Burroughs did commercials for Glass Nickel years ago, and they are hilarious.
I don't know if you've ever seen them, but you can see them on the Google or the YouTube.
And it's just him being this snazzy salesman.
Very funny stuff.
I don't watch YouTube.
I don't have anything to do
with YouTube.
You do whether you want to or not, it sounds like.
So, all right, let's talk, Craig, because this is like, you're on a roll, man.
You made this great film about Japanese Packer fans.
For those who might not be familiar with it, even though you guys are all over social media and the news and everything, tell us a little bit about No Packers, No Life.
No Packers, No Life is...
about Japanese Green Bay Packer fans.
I have a friend who goes to Japan a lot and just happened to come across this group of Japanese Packer fans.
They are so intensely excited about the Packers.
They meet on a regular basis to watch either live games as they happen at like two in the morning in Tokyo, or they'll go meet and re-watch
Games that that they liked in the previous season
and I was
there with them To shoot the documentary watching rewatching a game and they were as excited as if they didn't know what was gonna happen And then So my friend Tide decided to fly them to a packer game So about around 30 of them ended up going to Green Bay and staying with in people ties friends in their houses
and experiencing Wisconsin and Green Bay and then a Packer game.
And there's some very emotional moments along the way that are, it's all happy stuff.
This might be the most positive documentary ever made.
But... Nothing wrong with that.
That's okay.
Yeah.
But yeah, that's, and it's about connections.
It's about people from different walks of life.
coming together, building a community around a thing they love.
I'm fascinated that they watch games that already happen.
Like, I'm a big sports fan.
I would never do that.
Like, you know, my teams win huge games.
I don't do that.
And they have less of a connection, at least growing up maybe to American sports teams than we do.
That's serious fandom.
Yeah, I think it's also it's also coming together and building a community just over there in Japan because
In their culture, they don't get to, it's a little more, it's a formal culture.
So they don't get a chance to express themselves as much as I understand it.
And so the Packers, it's just all these people who let it all out by watching Packer games.
Wow.
How was the trip?
When they came over here, I assume you guys had a lot of fun filming that, but what was it like for them over here?
Totally embrace it that they love it.
Did they were they curious were they just euphoric like what was that like?
Okay.
Well, first of all, I wasn't actually there for that part of okay, so but I but I did edit it.
So I've watched all the footage but they were They were very it was all positive.
They were very excited They were blown away by a lot of them live in Tokyo and just to see the big houses of the wide roads the open space
And how everyone was so open and friendly It was all it was nothing but positive things to say and and they felt as if it was like It was a say like one of them says it was a sacred place to them going to Lambo is like almost a religious experience
It
must have been
surreal.
Yeah
Yeah, I mean they they liked it.
They liked it a lot
How you know, it's even more impressive is that you found Packer fans in a place
that is not known for their cheese intake on any level, and here they are embracing Wisconsin.
That's a big hurdle in world
relations.
One of them had a cheese charm on their glasses, and one of them was wearing a big cheese head that they've had for 20 years, apparently.
So
I'm guessing you didn't think when you set out to do this.
I don't know what you were thinking but you know every filmmaker when they set out they're like well the sky is the limit maybe this will be big factory quitting or maybe it'll strike a chord and go worldwide the fact that you're in Marcus theaters right now before you get out on streaming platforms I assume maybe you didn't see that coming that's kind of a nice twist
absolutely not I uh I we just tried to send it to film festivals uh I mean I obviously I thought it was good
But I didn't know.
It's always hard to... Being in a band for so long, I've been making creative stuff for, I don't know, 25 years.
And I'm used to making things that no one's gonna see and no one's gonna care about.
And that's always in the back of my mind as a possibility.
And I thought basically this, we would show to friends, it might show at a few film festivals and that was it.
But then we got into the Wisconsin Film Festival, and the response was incredible.
And through that, we met Cannonball Productions, who helped us, because they did the documentary just a bit outside the Brewer documentary.
And they helped us do all of this, get in contact with Marcus Theaters and show it all across Wisconsin.
That's Sean Hanna.
She's a real slave driver.
I'm sure he really put you to work.
He did.
We had to do a lot of media.
If every guy in the business was like Sean, nobody would ever complain.
I don't know what it's like working with him.
He's been on the show several times and I love the guy.
He's so much
fun.
He's the nicest guy in the world, yeah.
Absolutely.
You're in the theaters this week.
Do you have any idea how long the run will be?
I don't know.
It depends on if people go see it.
So more people have to go see it.
If it could go another week, it could go 20, I don't know, optimistically, but it's in there right now.
And we have a special screening this Friday in Green Bay.
Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that.
Sorry, I took your question.
No, no, no,
that's okay, please.
That was my next question at Bay Park Square.
So please tell us.
Yeah, I unfortunately can't be at the Q&A, but...
producer and star ty will be there and mark murphy will be there yeah uh former president ceo of the packers
how did that happen is he i assume he's seen the film or will that be his first time watching it
i i don't know again probably the power of shan hannish or mark cast who's been doing a lot of press work for us
so
Sure.
It
was funny.
My guest is Craig Benzine.
He is the director of No Packers, No Life, which you can see in Marcus Theaters currently.
And as he just mentioned, there's a big event here in Green Bay at the Bay Park Square, Marcus.
And Mark Murphy will be there.
And there's a Q&A after it.
Sounds like a really fun event.
Mark Cass reached out and he's like, I've got this documentary about
Japanese Packer fans that come over and I'm like, oh, that sounds an awful lot like Craig's movie.
Your name was not in the email and out of a sense of loyalty, I'm like, I don't know about this.
I did a little more digging and Sean's name was in there.
I'm like, does Sean have the same idea?
No, it's gotta be the same film.
Come
on, Mark.
Come on, put me in the email.
Well, it's probably just an oversight.
I don't think he's trying
to pull a fast
one
anything.
What have any other packers seen the film?
Has anybody approached you from the organization?
Like, have you gotten any feedback from current or former packers?
Well, the VIP premiere we had in Waukesha last week, Wednesday, there were three packers there.
There was George Kuntz, Amon Green, and Antonia Freeman were at the screenings.
Oh, nice.
Amon Green spoke at the end and had a lot of nice things to say and loved it.
I would imagine they would love that.
When packers stick around that aren't from here and they continue living here, you know they fell in love with the community and love being ex-packers, right?
Yeah.
All right, so how else... Let me see here.
All right, so what is your next how do you follow this up Craig?
Like I know you kind of you just mentioned you're you know You got a band you're this YouTube influencer.
What do you follow up a film like this?
Well, I got to keep making YouTube videos, but but also I have plans I've been working on ideas for movies for a long time.
I have a couple of screenplay I've started writing screenplays and stopped but
Now that this movie is behind me, I think I can really go in earnest and I have a couple of ideas.
I don't know how much I want to reveal yet, but I would say one of them involves a heist.
So I've been really interested in the latest heist in the news.
I kind of want to make a heist movie set in Wisconsin.
Oh, I love that.
Those are my favorite kind of films, caper films, heist films.
Yeah.
How much of a departure, like...
That's so different than what you just did.
I have no doubt you can
pull
that off because you're a musician and you got all kinds of stuff going on.
But how did you find it hard to write that after working on this?
Or did you breeze?
Well, I haven't I haven't written it yet.
That's so yes, I am finding it hard.
I mean, I've done I've done a lot of I went to UW Madison ComArts.
I wrote a lot of screenplays then that was a while ago, but
I've done narrative things before.
I've just never done them on this scale.
Same thing with this documentary.
I've done, like I would say many of my YouTube videos are like miniature documentaries, but I've never done a full length one.
But I did it, and I think I did it a good job.
So I think I could do the same with a full movie.
Yeah, I have no doubt.
I meant to ask you this before we move on.
We've got about a minute to a break, but how was it watching No Packers No Life with an audience in Madison?
Or if that was your first time or the first time you did watch it with an audience?
The first time was in Waukesha and it was... Well, the first time I watched it was... No, I guess the first time for the market screenings was in Waukesha.
The first time with an audience was in Madison at the film festival and it was...
one of the best nights of my life.
It was incredible.
People loved it so much, and it felt so good to feel like I did my job.
Outstanding.
Well, I still haven't seen it yet, but we're going to come back and talk more with our guest Craig Benzine, the director of No Packers, No Life.
I got a lot of questions for Craig, and it's great to have him on the show.
We're coming right back.
It's Night Light with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio
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.
He's man of action and my guest right now is Craig Menzine.
Are you the lead singer, Craig?
I am the lead singer.
That is a
great song.
Well, thank you.
That's my band Driftless Pony Club and I believe the song was written by my friend Matt.
I can't take all the credit for it.
Well, you don't
have
enough hours in the day to do
everything you do anyway, so it's
okay to
pass.
I'm sure I had input on the writing of the song.
I don't remember.
It was a while ago.
Great name.
I love the... Does that come from, by any chance, the Driftless area of Wisconsin?
The band name?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, it was...
So a friend of a former member of the band bought a shirt at Goodwill that said Driftless Pony Club on it.
And we thought that was the only band name that none of us hated.
So that's the one we went with.
And then we learned later that that was a pony club in the Driftless area of Wisconsin.
And they changed their name to the Black Rock.
They emailed me.
They found our band.
They emailed me.
They changed their name to the Black Hawk Pony Club or the Black Rock Pony Club.
I can't remember.
because it sounded more competitive.
That's so great.
I love the song, and I understand it's in the film, No Packers, No Life.
Terry Barr, who does so much here at Civic Media, and she's our guest on Bar Band Friday night here at Nightlight on Fridays, brought the song, and I couldn't believe it.
I was like, oh, this guy's got a band, too.
You just got your hand in everything, and it's such a fun song.
Did you write it for the movie, or was it just something you guys had that you're like, hey, this would fit perfectly?
Well, so I just had, it's something I had.
So I was editing the movie and I was looking for music and the most readily available and legal music to use was our own music.
And I tried a lot of different music, but that just seemed to work really well in those parts of the, it's like during the really partying parts of the movie.
Yeah, it makes sense.
Yeah.
It's just to feel good.
It's a great song.
I could totally see it in a movie.
So I keep trying to move on from No Packers, No Life, but it's hard because there's so much to talk about it.
You have a swag as well.
You want to tell people where they can get a No Packers, No Life mug
or a
toenail clipper
or something?
Yeah, just nopackersnolife.com.
There's hoodie.
There's a t-shirt.
I don't know what else there is.
That is all.
Oh, there's a hat there.
Poster.
Yeah.
NoPackersNoLife.com.
Very
cool.
And you can also see information on the special screenings and everything.
Do you have streaming info yet, Craig?
No streaming info right now.
You like to
keep us posted on that.
Yeah, love you get the word out about it My guest is Craig Benzine.
He is the director of no packers.
No life currently playing in Marcus theaters here in Wisconsin He's also a musician and where do you guys play Craig?
Are you do you actively do you play bars?
We used to we used to now we all live in said we've been a ban for
20 years.
Wow.
Over 20 years.
Maybe 25 years, actually.
Yeah.
I guess if you count the pandemic.
Sure.
We met in college.
We played a lot around Madison.
Started developing a little bit of a following around Madison, but then we moved to Chicago and struggled for a while until my YouTube channel took off and then it kind of helped the band take off a little bit.
Wow.
Yeah.
But we have, but then we, now we all live in different places.
The bassist Sam still lives in Chicago, but the other two members live in Minnesota.
So
we don't, but we are starting to work on a new album.
But we're doing it slowly as I keep driving up there and we keep working on stuff.
If people want to find like the music you guys have already created, where can they, where can they find that?
Is that online anywhere?
Yeah, it's in all the places you listen to music, but let's check the status of DriftlessPonyClub.com right now.
We have DriftlessPonyClub.com, we have a band camp, we have all the things, we're on all the things.
Yeah, you guys should definitely take advantage of the internet.
Yes.
So that's cool.
I would love it.
If you guys ever are in Green Bay, I would love to have you play that song in the studio sometime or just whatever you want.
It'd be fun to
have you.
Oh man.
That'd be awesome.
Yeah.
If we can get together enough to write an album and maybe have a little tour, that would be great.
That would be outstanding.
Can I keep you for a few minutes past the news?
I want to ask you what's new at Weezy Waiter and talk a little
TV
and Halloween and all that kind of stuff.
All right.
Fantastic.
Craig Benzine is my guest.
He is the director of No Packers, No Life.
And you can follow him on YouTube.
He's a Weezy waiter and he's got over a million subscribers.
I don't know quite how that's possible, but it's true.
And the band is officially getting back together.
So Craig is going to stick with us past intermission into act two for a few minutes before we let him go.
Gary in Madison says his favorite pizza is the Italian carne pizza at Portobello, Madison.
Oh,
have you read at Portobello, Craig?
That's right.
Long time ago, yeah, I think I have.
It's across
from the State Street Brats, right?
Kind of in down the block a little bit.
Yeah, I think I went there once when in college, so like 20 years ago.
I always walk past there and it's like the nicest looking place, but it's never, I didn't know if it was still open or if stuff happened there or not.
I remember liking it, but...
What do I know?
I was a college
kid.
Exactly.
You're not
eating.
You're not fine dining.
Thank you,
Gary, for the text.
Let's see if we can get one more in here for the break.
And 920 says, I can't wait to see that documentary.
There you go.
Check it out.
920.
No packers, no life.
If 920, if you're right here in Green Bay, check out that event Friday night, too, at Bay Park Square.
All right, we've got more with Craig Benzine, more Packer talk, Weezy waiter talk.
It's going to be a blast.
Don't go anywhere.
It's Night Light with Peach Waba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
