Pizza, Movies, and the Art of Fart Humor (Hour 2)

Broadcasting live statewide from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba, your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who binge watches TV for a living but doesn't get paid, Pete Schwabba.

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 a... 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 Nightlight.

We do a lot of firsts here.

But we've got at 6.35, 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?

I have not, but I'm looking forward to seeing it.

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 6.35.

And then at 7.35, 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 it 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.

Shout out Danny Wills.

Yeah, I think they went to high school or something maybe.

But anyway, great stuff.

And two really fun guys joining me here tonight.

I 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.

Hey.

How you doing?

I'm doing good for it being 45 degrees and rainy and

gross.

I love when you complain about the weather.

And you grew up in Wisconsin.

I know

what I got myself into.

Do you expect it not to be so?

You know, I was just hoping for one more week of warm weather, but then I would have said it next week too.

Yeah?

I just wish for Florida weather right now.

It's coming.

Yeah, you should move.

You could move south like to like Racine.

I'll do enjoy that southern.

I don't know if it much changes, but

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.

So you're like, then it works.

You're like mouth washing the soup.

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 in the next few days.

You know, with soup and stew, you can just blow on it?

Well, you can, but if you charge into it head first like I do, because I got game, I don't know.

I never over, typically anyway, I never over microwave something, so I don't have that problem.

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.

You can turn into like a canker sore, you know?

Oh, those are the worst.

Terrible.

So 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.

Let's talk about

the question.

OK, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

OK, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

Well, this is a good one.

I have a feeling people are going to 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?

I would say my favorite is pepperoni sausage and mushroom.

And it used to be chicken bacon ranch, but since I enjoy mushrooms

so much

now And I'll tell you there's I used to work at a pizza place 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 or red pepper okay

and then pepper flakes as well and then you do the rest of the pizza you how you like it it adds so much flavor to it actually under it

yeah

that's my favorite way if i can make my own pizza i'm putting that on there

so what what do you call that is it like so that the crust is thicker we did

no no it was a thin crust

okay

just that just that like that flavor just added to it you know huh okay

I could dig it.

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 the 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

I started while I watched it last year when it came out, but nobody wants this, you know,

oh Yeah, is that uh, is that Tim Robinson?

That's Adam.

No, that was His other show Don't leave or something like

that.

Detroiters and then yeah.

Yeah,

this one was with Adam Brody Or not at him Brody um

Adam.

Yeah, Adam.

Adam.

Adam.

I can't think.

Anyways, it's a great show and season two comes out tonight.

And what's the show called?

Nobody wants this.

It's with Kristen Bell.

Oh, yeah.

No, that is Adam Brody.

That is OK.

Yes.

He was on our show last year.

He was on Nightlight.

Yes.

I kept when I pictured Adam Brody for some reason, I went to Adrian Brody.

Who's still talking?

He's still talking.

Yeah, I was like, you were like Adam Brody.

No, not on Brody.

It was Adam.

He's on that show.

Yeah, that's Adam Brody.

It's that one show with that one actor named Adam, you know.

Oh, that's great.

So yeah, I need to check out the chair company.

Definitely.

Definitely check out episode two.

It gets better.

Is

it funnier

than the first one?

Yeah, it's

OK.

It's hilarious.

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?

Actually, I don't even know

I think it's

Friday the burgers aren't it so I'm kind of you know

gave up on baseball for the

yeah, you know basketball just started yesterday.

So

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.

Our question of the night, in honor of National Tavern Pizza Day, do

you know what a tavern pizza is, Con?

Well, that's like at the, um, the places, like the bars and stuff,

right?

Yeah.

Yeah, they just cut it.

I think it's typically more thin crust, but they cut it a certain way as well.

I feel like it's more, um, crispy too, you know what

I mean?

Yeah.

Uh, 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, uh, we will, uh, we will keep you posted and keep those texts coming.

Um, I'm going to, I feel like I'm going to, every once in a while I get like celebrity exhaustion and I just can't, it's hard to, it's, 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 Reynolds.

I'm not kidding.

Wow, you don't like her, do you?

No, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell people how I feel.

Nobody cares, but I'm gonna say it anyway, because I got a microphone in front of me.

You got a phone call?

Yes, we do, Ollie from the North Coast.

Oh, awesome.

Oh, I cannot 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.

Oh, that's a bummer.

So I do get the lots of matzo.

Oh, yeah.

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.

Sure.

And then, um,

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.

Well, I don't need it all at once.

I do cook it and then

kind

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, very

well done.

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 didn't have 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?

There's some Italian seasoning as well and she'd like

four meats on there some garlic 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

if it's like like

a

tombstone or something those things are too small

Dave

on the stream 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 out him.

Tombstone, garlic, crust, pepperoni.

I've never heard.

I

didn't know they made

different type of crust.

That lots of mods, though, that Oli says good.

So good.

They've got like a ton of cheese.

I could go lighter sauce on that, but other than that, 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.

Oh, he's a difficult customer.

That's a tough

order.

As a person who worked in a pizza place.

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 Glassnickel.

I've never heard of that either.

Have you a Glassnickel pizza?

I have had it once or twice, yeah.

It's so good.

It is good.

I can't imagine a chicken cordon bleu, much less wanting to destroy it.

I haven't had

that one.

So it's gotta have some ham on there.

And that sauce.

And then that sauce.

It's not too good with white sauces.

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

like, I could, you know, chicken Alfredo pizza is really good too.

Chicken Alfredo.

Yeah.

Alfredo is the white creamy sauce, right?

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.

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 J.Lo.

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.

Sounds like a her problem.

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.

Yeah, maybe I should give her a call.

See if you can get her.

Yeah,

you know.

But she can't find love, so, you know.

Well, I can't get her a house or a ring or anything, so it just has to be for the love, you know.

Yeah.

Hey Matt, 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 you a look, come on.

Suck 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 at 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.

Um, 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 okay.

It's something something special

I can't I can't 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 Pequod's it do you live near a Pequod's?

No, there's only there's only two they're inch.

I'm in Madison now, so oh Yeah, so 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 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 Glassnickel, I've got to try because my buddy Steve Burroughs did commercials for Glassnickel 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.

All right, let's talk, Craig, because 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.

Yeah.

Or they'll go meet and rewatch.

Games 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 to be

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 or I don't know what you were thinking But you know every filmmaker when they set out there 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 I we just tried to send it to film festivals

uh i mean i obviously i thought it was good but but i didn't know it's always hard to you know i'm being in a being in a band for so long i've been making creative stuff for uh i don't know 25 years and uh i'm used to making things that no one's gonna see and no one's gonna care gonna care about and that's and that's always that's always in the back of my mind as a possibility and uh

And I always 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, but 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 got to be the same film.

Come on, Mark.

Come on, give me an email.

Well, it's probably just an oversight.

I don't think he's trying

to pull a fast one on you, Craig, or

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

Network.

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 OK 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 we did.

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 we thought that was that was the only band name that none of us hated.

So we 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 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 you know, I tried a lot of different music But that just seemed to work really well with the part 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.

It's got 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.

I wasn't.

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'll have 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?

Do you actively play bars in

Wisconsin?

We used to.

Now we all live in... We've been a band 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 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, you listen to music, but I think there's all, let's check the status of DriftlessPonyClub.com.

Yeah, it's, yeah, it's, 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.

That'd be awesome.

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.

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 Portabella.

Oh,

have you read in Portabella, 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 went in college.

So like 20 years ago.

Yeah,

I always walk past there 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, but

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 before 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 Nightlight with Peach Waba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Chwaba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who believes a penny saved is in Jack.

Pete Chwaba.

Welcome back to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

It is time for act two.

Great to have you with me on this cold blustery day here in the state of Wisconsin, wherever you are in our beautiful state.

I hope you're having a great night and hope you can let us help you make it even a little more.

even greater than it is if we can.

We'll give you some laughs, some great guests here.

We've got Craig Benzine is with me right now.

He is the director of No Packers, No Life.

I will be back with Craig in just a moment.

Coming up at 7.35, Phil Johnston, another Wisconsin-based director.

He is the director of the movie The Twits, which is currently in theaters, I believe, and available on Netflix.

Phil also...

wrote Wreck-It Ralph and Zootopia and Cedar Rapids.

So anxious to talk to Phil about some of his experience as well and his experience on the Twits.

I haven't seen it, Conrad, have you seen it?

I haven't, but I saw a trailer for it and it looks interesting.

I can't, this is terrible because I got two really talented guys on tonight.

I haven't seen any other movie.

I'm limited though.

I live in the sticks.

The Twits is not there.

I would have gone and saw it.

last gone and seated last weekend, but wasn't playing there.

And neither is no packers, no life.

But Phil Johnson will be here.

That's the next best thing, folks.

He's going to join me at 735.

My question of the night is it is national tavern?

Is it tavern pizza day Conrad?

Correct.

Yeah, national tavern style pizza day.

So our question is, what is your favorite kind of zah?

I say thin crust, sausage, onion, fresh garlic, maybe some jalapenos, depending on my mood.

And light sauce.

Conrad went

with

the meat lovers.

Thin, thin crust sausage pepperoni mushroom with pepper and pepper flakes in the sauce.

It's a lot of pizza.

That's like, and of course, Ali from the North had, she had

duck meat on there and bacon and

everything.

I

think it's called a kitchen

sink pizza.

Kitchen sink pizza.

I love that kitchen sink pizza.

That's great.

We are going to talk about JLo.

I'm going to unload on you.

Oh, I'm winding up.

I'm gonna go after her like I did Ryan Reynolds.

I'm kidding.

But it is kind of funny.

She's had some really weird stuff.

That's it.

Let's get back to our guest, Craig Benzine, who has stuck around.

He is on the stream from Madison, not Chicago, as I initially thought.

Wherever you are, Craig, it's good to have you on the show, though, buddy.

Thank you.

I kind of want to talk more about Ryan Reynolds, but we don't have to do that.

Do you have an opinion?

I kind of like the guy.

Well, have you seen Welcome to Rexham?

No.

That's him and John Mikkelhennie buying a soccer team.

Oh, yeah, of course.

And it's really good.

It's really good.

You might change your opinion a little bit.

Listen, my opinion on him is not acting related.

He's a fine talent.

But there are guys, I just don't know that I need to see their work anymore, because it tends to be the same.

And

with him, it's not that.

Mark Wahlberg would be an example of that.

But Ryan Reynolds is sort of like, are you hawking products?

Or are you, you know, I like artists.

I like people who, and I'm not saying you can't have a side hustle, but enough with the mint, enough with the vodka or whatever you're like, just pick a lane.

You know what I mean?

That's true.

Yeah, I get it.

I get it.

He's a talented

actor.

But I totally get it.

Totally get it.

I

also I also have to have to go off topic again.

Yeah.

Phil Johnson.

Yeah.

I I've seen Cedar Rapids, his movie Cedar Rapids.

I saw it at the Sundance Film Festival.

How sweet.

So I saw.

So we were both in the same room at one time before.

And now we're on the same radio show.

Look at that.

Serendipity, baby.

I saw Cedar Rapids.

in a hotel room.

So I was watching a movie about guys in a hotel room.

They were like a holodome or something like that.

And

also it's a great movie.

I liked it a lot.

Yeah, I enjoyed it too.

Yeah, he's very talented guys.

So it'll be good to talk to him.

I've never had him on the show before and I don't know him personally, but I'm definitely

a

fan.

So we covered No Packers No Life, Craig.

We covered the Driftless Pony Club, your band with a great name and at least one great song.

I'm sure I'd love to hear more.

I'll probably check that out.

But

we have a

We have a lot of songs.

We have like five albums.

Oh, man.

That's so cool.

Do you need a rhythm guitar player who's really not that good?

We already have two guitar players who are not that good.

So I don't know that we need a third.

You know what?

Listen, you don't have to shoot me down so quickly, Craig.

I'm just asking you to noodle it.

Put it in the roll it up.

It's just practical.

It's

just

practical.

We already have two.

I get it.

All right.

Hey, so let's talk about Wheezy Waiter.

Last time you were here, I'm fascinated that you're a guy that posts videos and you do cool stuff.

We talked about fasting last time you were here.

What's new on your YouTube channel that you're kind of doing and putting the word out about?

Well, not a lot new.

I'm working on new stuff right now because I've been a little busy with the movie.

I have several

Videos coming up.

I have several videos I have to get done coming up before the end of the year Not 100% sure what they're all gonna be one the next video I think which is gonna come out pretty soon It's gonna be it's gonna be more of just a talky video or I'm kind of talking about stuff and being silly but but the idea is As I get older I realize A question comes up in my mind all the time is is this real or is this just me being an old man yelling at a cloud?

You know like Like me being like disliking a lot how much content there is out there and and how much my daughter watches YouTube and I like am I like just am I just afraid of new technology or is this gonna damage her in any way or is it just fine because I think back to how much how many video games I played as a kid and How much how much TV I watched was that good for me?

I don't know

You

know that's interesting because I think I'm probably a little older than you and I don't remember I played some video games But we were outside all the time and I'm not one of those guys that said get outside when I was a kid Frankly if when I was a kid you had all the stuff we have now.

That's what I would have been doing We're not special.

It was just what was available to us at the time having said that I'm as addicted to my phone

at my age now that as my kids are maybe more because I'm so fascinated by it you know so yeah that's a great thing to explore

yeah I don't know yeah are my just afraid it's hard to tell if any of my opinions are just me being an old man or not that's basically the worry

it's