
Transcript
Thursday Night Thrills(Hour 1)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Thu Oct 23, 2025
Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.
This is Night Light with Pete Chawba.
Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.
And now, a guy who likes pina coladas but hates getting caught in the rain, Pete Chawba.
Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.
Conrad, what night is it?
It's Thursday, which means it's a Christmas Eve of weekdays.
Damn
right,
sister.
It's a great night.
It's a Thursday, ladies and gentlemen.
You're almost there.
The weekend is right around the corner.
All you have left in front of you is Friday.
It's fantastic.
And in the meantime, to segue from Thursday to Friday.
You got nightlight.
We're going to talk about some really fun stuff tonight.
Great to have you here.
Wherever you're joining us from around the beautiful state of Wisconsin, it is absolutely great to have you because it is a beautiful night.
You've got lots of cool stuff happening this weekend, which is right around the corner.
Did I mention that?
And we've got a fun show.
Fun guests.
Fun discussion.
Fun topics.
Phone lines are always open.
You can always let us know what's on your mind, folks, throughout the course of the show.
Love to hear from you guys and it makes the show that much more fun.
How you doing today con?
I'm doing good.
Yeah You know, it's it's it's a little chilly.
So I I Did something that made me a little sad today.
Oh, no, what's that?
I turned on the heat First time first time is that right?
Yeah, I've been you know waiting cuz my electric bill has been
pretty low since I haven't had to use AC or heat.
That is a sweet spot, isn't
it?
It's
perfect.
Yeah.
It's like, the only thing that's going on is lights, you know, the fridge and
right
my TV.
I'm totally with you.
What do you know what your bills are for like electricity when you're when you use your heat, let's say, you know, one bedroom apartment, that's not crushing.
No, but it goes up, I would say by like 20 bucks or somewhere on there.
Okay.
But it was nice.
I was only paying like 45 bucks this past month.
So you pay 45 bucks even when you don't use heat or AC?
Yeah.
Oh, you don't have AC, right?
You have a wall unit?
I
have a wall
unit.
But that heats
up.
I would say when you have it off and then you turn it on and you're just trying to catch up, that's when it goes bonkers.
We have like a gas fireplace and I've been using that but it's so like cozy I almost look for excuses to turn it on like some nights I'll leave the sliding doors open so I get a breeze and get chilly and then I'll turn on the horribly not energy efficient at all but it's all about the ambiance and I love getting home at night and especially like tonight there's a game on I'll probably turn the game on if it's close turn on my fireplace that's not too bad
And then I'll probably throw on a movie or something, but what's the game is was it Pittsburgh tonight and no, it's Vikings
and Chargers tonight.
Oh,
that's a good one.
Yeah, Aaron Jones is back from injury
for the Vikings.
Yeah.
Okay.
How do we feel about Thursday night football?
I love Thursday night football.
Yeah, me too.
It's it's a sweet spot because you get like two days off and then it goes back.
It's like
two more days off.
I'm ready for the weekend now, you know, after Thursday night football.
It's like, it's like, that's, if Thursday is the Christmas Eve of weeknights, NFL football on a Thursday is like Santa on his way.
Yeah, exactly.
And I know the players don't like it.
A lot of the commentators say Thursday night football sucks because these guys are sore.
They've had two or three days off whatever it is.
I get that, but selfishly as a fan.
A lot of times I won't even turn it off.
It's two dogs.
I'm not going to watch that, but like this is a pretty good game tonight.
I always like watching NFC North teams, too.
I'd say Thursday night football is one of my favorite days of football.
And then Sunday.
OK.
Not Monday?
Monday is the least favorite, I'd say.
Yeah.
That's usually the worst game, too.
Like, NBC puts the good games on Sunday night.
And Thursday night, you're not going to mess with Jeff Bezos.
You're going
to put a good
game on.
You know,
this past Monday, the game started at 9 PM.
Oh, yeah, there's two of them, right?
Yeah, there was
two last week.
So people like, you know, on the East Coast, that starts at 10 for them.
Right.
I bet employers love that.
So yeah, so that'll be interesting.
Hey, folks, if you are, we're going to pivot and go from the gridiron to Book Fest.
It starts today, folks.
The Wisconsin Book Festival is happening in Madison tonight through the 26th.
bringing together authors and readers of all ages and all interests.
Are you a reader, Conn?
I would say I'm more of a listener, but I do like some books, too.
I'm
trying to get back in and be in a reader.
It's tough.
I think I like an audio book.
Yeah.
A lot of people do.
If I live in Madison, I would go to this hoping it would motivate me to read more because I
was
a reader.
And I, at some point, that fell off.
But don't miss out on New York Times' best sellers, Jane Hamilton or Mary Roach.
They will be in Madison, alongside dozens of others, as they gather for readings and conversations around their writing.
And it's all happening right now.
If you want more information, if you need motivation, a kick in the butt to go start reading again like I do, go to CivicMedia.com.
There's more information there about BookFest, a really cool thing happening.
Do we have a BookFest in Green Bay?
No, I don't
think so.
Who do you talk to about this, Jim Schmidt?
Maybe we make our own Nightlight Book Fest.
Oh, I like that.
And we, and you are sitting reading to everyone.
And we keep all the profits.
I'm thinking a covered charge, a hundred bucks a person, as Steve Martin used to say, one show.
Goodbye.
So that's happening.
And we've got a great show tonight, folks, two really fun guests.
It's Thursday.
That means we make the popcorn pick of the week tonight.
And we give you, heading into the weekend, a great movie suggestion from our guest.
And making the popcorn pick of the week tonight will be Jason Mansmith of the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake.
Jason's been on the show before.
He's part of the Civic Media family.
And if you haven't been to the Thrasher, you got to check it out.
But we'll talk more about that with Jason.
He's going to make the pick tonight.
He's a theater guy.
Opera House Guy, but he watches some colored television, goes to the movies.
We'll get the pick from Jason and you can do what you want with that pick.
But typically we've been batting, our batting average the last few weeks has been outstanding.
with the popcorn picks.
So I have no doubt Jason will make a good pick tonight.
And then at 735, I am happy to welcome from Chicken or the Egg Photography, Chris Rogalski will be here.
We're gonna talk about comedies.
Chris is also a musician.
We're gonna talk about upcoming dates he's got.
It's gonna be a lot of fun.
That's at 735.
Lots of fun here tonight on Nightlight.
We got a great question.
I have to get this.
This drove me crazy.
I do these Hollywood beats here at Civic Media.
They play at the bottom of the hour, typically.
And, you know, I'm coming through entertainment stuff.
There's a lot of stuff in entertainment I like reading about.
I love reading about the art part of entertainment.
Movies, TV shows, I'm a big binge watcher.
I love movies.
I love comedy, music.
It's this nonsense that comes out, like from these gossip rags that drives me crazy.
You see headlines like today on from eNews.
This was on Yahoo Entertainment.
The headline was Chloe Kardashian shares a surprising update on her sex life.
I think when we have headlines like that, that's when America really started to go downhill.
I find that like so dumb.
Now, my job here at Civic Media is to write Hollywood beats.
So I try to make.
funny stuff sometimes.
And that's why I read it and I wrote a beat about it.
So that cracked me up.
But then they use phrases like, she spilled major tea.
And all it was was like the season premiere of the Kardashians.
And she's telling one of the other people on camera that she hasn't had sex in three years, which I doubt, but okay.
And then it just so happens, her sister has a libido gummy line.
They are shameless product talkers.
So it's do it that way you want folks if your libido is lacking Or if you want to be better at sex with or without a partner take a Kardashian gummy apparently that's the That's the rule there.
That's what they were going for.
So this is a national Crockett.
Were you on the phone?
Yeah, sorry.
You're making some long-distance calls over there.
Yeah to London
But this was kind of, it's National Crocs Day.
Yes, you know.
Do you want a pair of those?
I have a pair of crocs.
Sadly, they're, I wore them and now they're all sticky.
So
I
haven't worn them since then.
I should probably.
I don't have a garden hose.
I
think it's sticky.
So.
Popsicles in them or something or what?
I honestly kind of forgot why they got sticky, but maybe.
I don't know.
I should probably wash them
off, but
yeah,
I love my crocs.
I never, this is kind of, it's not embarrassing.
Like I never thought I'd be a croc guy.
When I saw him the first time, I thought they were the stupidest thing ever.
I'm like, who would ever wear those?
And I was not on the croc train until about four years ago and I backed into it.
Like I didn't, it still was something I would never wear, but I took the garbage out one night.
My son had a pair because he's like your age and
you guys
don't care.
You don't have that.
Hey, these are silly.
You guys are all more about comfort,
which I
admire about your generation.
But I put the crocs on and I took the garbage out and I was like, wow, this is like a vacation for my feet right
now.
This is pretty impressive.
And then my son wanted nothing to do, he's like, yeah, whatever.
So I took him.
Now I own a pair of crocs.
I have come 360.
I own my own crocs.
And I don't even know how I feel about that.
Whenever I see someone, I always make the joke.
I say, hey, do me a favor.
Don't tell anybody you saw me wearing crocs.
which just calls more attention to it.
But do you put them in a four wheel?
Sport mode.
That's four wheel, I think.
Sport.
Who is it?
That's when you put the hook, the strap on the back of your ankles, correct?
What's
what's the one that's in, you know, in the front position?
Isn't that sport?
I don't know.
Like maybe a weekend at Bernie's mode or something.
You're kind of chilling.
I don't know.
That's a good question.
You know,
I used to work at a shoe store at Champs.
Yeah.
You don't realize how many crocs we would sell there.
So what's the deal?
I get why people wear them.
You slip them on.
That, to me, is the most appealing thing.
Yeah.
I mean, some kids liked it for the giblets.
Those little things you could put in the crocs.
Oh, decorate them?
Those are called giblets.
This keeps
getting worse and worse.
Yeah.
So kids like it with that, they can decorate their shoe how they like it, but also comfort.
And one of the major crocs that we sold was because it's cold here, you know, yeah, we had fur line crocs.
And we have a pair
of those.
And those things, let's just say, are heaven on feet.
See, I do.
I do moccasins.
I got some big furry moccasins at home.
Yeah.
So and those are a little more home friendly, I think, than crocs with the fur.
But my wife loves her furry crocs.
There's, yeah, I had a pair and, you know, they kinda got wrecked, but I haven't bought a new pair yet.
We're gonna talk more about this, but right now we need to get to our night light question of the night.
Let's talk about the question.
Okay, question.
Question.
Question.
Question.
Question.
Okay, I have a question.
Questions.
This question.
Question.
Questions.
What is something you wish?
You were better at.
It's all about self-improvement.
That's what we do here nightly on Nightlight, folks.
What is something you wish you were better at?
Let us know on the text line at 855-752-4842-855-75 Civic, or you can text us on the app, Civic Media app, download it today.
It's very easy to use.
There is no, it is free, right Conrad?
That is correct.
All right.
Very unlike our book fest that we will throw here.
Green Bay.
That's going to cost major dollars.
But yeah, download the civic media app.
Or if you're listening on the stream, or watching the radio, drop us a stream comment and let us know what is something you wish you were better at.
I'm going to say right now.
And we you know what?
I'm going to do a tease count.
Oh, hold on now for I'm going to tell you after this break.
See, that's what I created that, you know, in radio.
You created the tease.
I can't even say that one straight.
I've been doing radio two years.
Okay, so we're coming back and I want to know the answer to your questions, folks.
What is something you wish you were better at?
Two great guests tonight.
Fun question.
Lots more coming up.
Crock talk throughout the show.
You do not want to turn that dial or that app or whatever.
Stay with us.
It's Pete Schwabba at Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
This is Nightlight.
I am Peach Mava.
Our question of the night, ladies and gentlemen, is what is something you wish you were better at?
Let us know 855-752-4842, 855-75 Civic.
You can text us on the app or drop us a stream comment if you're watching the radio on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter X. And give us a like or a follow if you're so inclined.
You know, there's all the big stuff.
Like, obviously, I wish I was more handy.
But...
I realize I never clean out my email box or my voice messages.
I probably have a thousand voice messages on my phone.
Thank God, if they limited it to like 50, I would clean it out.
But maybe the problem is they don't put limits on it.
It's like a memory thing or something.
But yeah, I need to be better at that.
I've got so much junk mail, though I can't bring myself to go through it.
All I get basically in my email now, my main email, is junk.
Or ads, that's probably 80% of it.
What about
you?
I would say I wish I was better at, you know, being creative in the kitchen kind of, like cooking.
Yeah.
I'd say like, I can make food, but it's not the best.
So I wish I was better at cooking.
Well, you got
time.
I mean, who's the great chef in your age?
I mean, give me a break, right?
Gordon Ramsay, probably.
Doubt it.
That's a good one.
Cook at home more and be better at that.
Yeah, I wish I was and the obvious one for me is I wish I was more handy because my dad can rewire stuff fix plumbing He fixed up our whole house wherever we've gone He's changed every room put drywall up all this stuff a guy can do everything guess how much he taught me Conrad Nothing
yeah,
I was the hold the flashlight guy basically no I wish I was more handy and I could have been more proactive about that But I'm gonna say just on a day-to-day basis.
I wish my
email box was cleaner.
And my messages,
you know, I will say all that to mine as well and just say, I wish that I could, you know, kind of control my binge eating habits sometimes, like, or, you know, portion out stuff.
Like, I feel like I'll eat like, like the classic thing we always say like you can't just have two cookies or whatever or
one piece of pizza.
Exactly.
Which is
probably all
you need.
You take one bite and you're like, I could eat.
Yeah, I can eat a lot of these right now.
So I wish I could just be like, All right.
Just to you know, I'm
done But like are there people out there that I'm gonna have one piece of pizza a salad a glass of water and one cookie for no I These people don't exist as far as I'm concerned.
I eat pizza till I can't move anymore.
Yeah, I feel like you know It's just all about portion control.
Yeah, and sometimes like all of some chips and then you overeat the chips and then you
feel bad.
Chips are the worst too.
Yes.
Chips and cookies.
There's like no nutrition.
That Kardashian article I was talking about before.
Yeah.
It said, I love at the top of the articles they'll say, three minute read, two minute read, like to let you know ahead of time how much time you're going to spend.
This was supposed to be an eight minute read.
And I'm not kidding.
It was four paragraphs.
I think they're just pointing to their audience.
Maybe or themselves.
They had to go back and reread some sentences.
It would take the dunce,
Kardashian's son, eight minutes to read this.
That was just so crazy.
I don't know, how do people feel?
The Crocs is almost like a sub question tonight, because that could have been a question too.
Yes.
I do like talking about Crocs because I don't get them, but I own them and I like them.
I'm very conflicted about the Crocs.
But it is Thursday, folks.
The popcorn pick of the week is happening in about 10 minutes.
Jason Mansmith from the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake will be here.
He is also part of the Civic Media family, which will be exciting to have him here on the show.
He's been here before.
And then Chris Rogowski, local musician and photographer and from chicken or the egg photography is also a sponsor of the show, coincidentally enough.
And Chris will be here at 735.
So lots of good stuff happening.
I don't know where to go here because.
I had so much stuff, I needed to get off my chest.
I'm getting a new roof today.
Okay.
You probably haven't lived through this yet, but it's the first time I've ever had a new roof.
And I'm like, well, I turned on the fireplace this morning and I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna sit here and read it.
A friend of mine sent me a script.
I'm gonna read the script.
It's like World War II is happening on your roof.
It's very nerve-wracking, because we have skylights.
I'm like, one of these guys is gonna fall through the skylights on me or...
It's terrifying, like the noise.
So I'm a little on edge tonight.
I think you should be fine.
If I get jumpy, just, you know.
Well, there's no
skylights in here, Pete.
All right.
So you don't have to worry here.
It's a ripoff, man.
We should have skylights.
We got the big window right here, though.
A
skylight would go through like seven.
Seven floors.
Are you surprised we haven't seen more craziness in this window?
I mean, I've been flashed twice.
Yes.
And then, frankly, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more if people are listening.
I welcome that sort of thing.
No, I am surprised like more great, like people puking or whatever, because there's bars here, right?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Maybe I'll walk by, you know, once.
Why don't you just go outside
and vomit?
Would it kill you?
What is your, what is something you wish you were better at on social media?
Dan Davies, our pal Dan says, semi-nude kitten juggling.
Is this Dan the semi-nude or the kitten?
Please clarify, Dan.
Only the kittens, oh, see, I'd get ahead of myself.
People oftentimes answer.
He says only the kittens are semi-nude, I'm wearing lime green Speedos, no kittens, or Speedos for that matter, are hurt in this stunt.
I've hurt to read that dance, so I don't know if I believe that.
Mike on social media, Mike Dessertel says answering your questions.
That's uh, it's very fun.
Did Mike put the Laffy emoji under that comment?
Can you check that out or?
Tim Baker says nun chucks You wish you could stop doing
you know that that'd be pretty cool to be better at you know
it would be my kids learn those when they were younger when they did all this martial arts stuff I Be curious know if they remember anything about I
just I saw who liked it and it was the guy behind the guy
behind the
guy.
Oh, JB.
He's dead to me.
Amanda Nimmer from WGBW, our social media guru says, understanding finances, mortgages, escrows, taxes, et cetera.
It's like a whole other language I can't grasp.
That's another great one.
I suspect we'll hear more of that throughout the course of the show.
Let us know, folks, what do you want to get better at?
Text, call.
Just get ahold of us one way or the other.
When we come back after the news, Jason Mansmith from the Thrasher Opera House will be here to make the popcorn pick of the week.
This is Night Light with Pete Schwabble.
We're coming right
back.
It's time for the Nightlight Popcorn Pick of the Week, where we recommend a movie that you'll either enjoy or won't.
Here's your host, Pete Schwabba.
All right, welcome back.
It is the Christmas Eve of weeknights, and there is a Conrad, there is a Meatloaf tribute concert.
Oh, that's fun.
Yeah, that's where I just saw a bunch of teachers out there, and they said we're going to Meatloaf, and I thought it was a bunch of teachers getting together to go have Meatloaf.
Hot look?
Yeah, exactly.
Cass rolls some sort, but they're going to a tribute concert, so that will be our nightlight window of fun.
We'll be a bunch of teachers who are pretty wound up about making a tribute to Meatloaf, which I can totally understand.
Right now, folks, this is exciting.
It's Thursday.
One of my favorite nights of the week.
easily top five.
And we make our popcorn pick of the week.
Every Thursday here with a special guest and joining us here tonight on Nightlight to make the popcorn pick of the week is our pal Jason Mansmith.
He is the director of marketing at the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake.
If you have not been, I highly recommend it.
It is a quaint, intimate, really cool venue.
And Jason does an amazing job and he joins us now over the stream.
Hey, buddy.
Hey,
bud.
How you doing?
Thanks so much for having me on
this highlight of the week.
Pleasure is all mine.
How are things going for you?
Are you still part of the civic media family?
You bet.
I love
that.
Just wrapped up a show a couple of about an hour and a half or so ago.
So
oh, that's fantastic
on time.
Yeah.
Do you want to tell people about it before we jump into some movie talk?
Well, sure.
I mean, I always got to promote that, right?
So join me each and every weekday afternoon on 93.1 the wave in ripping and
AM 1600 and got all kinds of great music for you from 3pm until 5pm.
So happy to be in bed on that station coming up on 30 years next month.
You can believe it.
Yeah.
That is fantastic.
Yeah.
Pretty special.
You have quite the life there running a very cool venue and and now you got a show.
It's just that that's a good life, bud.
Yeah, I better clarify.
I do not run the venue by any means.
I didn't mean to insist.
If Jason's boss is listening, that's not what he told me.
Our
executive director, Rachel, is an absolute rock star and we've got a wonderful team out there in Thrasher.
We're just really, really excited.
And we got a lot of really, really exciting things to talk about with you tonight.
Yeah, we'll do all that.
And I did say you're a director of marketing when I brought you on.
So hopefully that doesn't get you in trouble.
No.
All right.
Fantastic.
So let's talk movies.
Yes.
do you uh how do you like to watch movies jason are you a theater guy are you a stream at home guy a little bit of both um you know there's been
some area upgrades um in theaters around the area here mainly in fondlack and things like that down in the southern part of the valley uh but where i'm at in rippon is actually the first marcus theater amongst the entire company
was
here
Yeah, so we have that in our downtown.
So I've been able to dip into a lot of different spots.
But I also do like grabbing something from the streaming service or whatever and checking it on that way too because it's super comfortable and stacks are close, right?
Absolutely.
That's a great answer.
I always prefer going to the theater to whenever possible, but you're right.
It's I watch a lot more movies.
It's just easier to watch them at home because they're right.
Your fingertips and I can jam through, you know, five or 10 movies a week and I'm not going to the theater that often, but I do prefer the theater.
What are your favorite kind of movies?
Do you have a genre you prefer?
You know, I'm kind of the comedy guy more than anything, but then I do like some of those suspenseful dramas.
or even kind of borderline, not horror, but just, you know, kind of in that where you're constantly thinking, like something's going to be, you know, what's coming up next or what's going to look like.
So yeah, those are kind of my favorite ones in there.
And, you know, I'm a sucker for a good musical and a really good documentary too.
Oh, wow.
Oh, good.
Nice, very taste there.
That's impressive.
I like that.
I like the caper stuff too and a good mystery as opposed to horror, but you said horror.
And this is kind of the horror season.
Do you have, and if it's your popcorn pick of the week, don't give it to us yet.
But if there's another horror film you like or something, we could talk about that a little bit too.
Do you like the slasher films or more of like just the jump scares?
Probably more of the jump
scares than anything in my popcorn pick of the week is going to be a horror film.
But I'll give you
another one that I do really, really like.
And it's a remake.
And it's 20 years old and and you think about the guy that's in it who's going on to star in way bigger films, but Ryan Reynolds was in the Amityville horror from 2005.
They
did that one.
Yeah.
It was so good.
Really?
So good.
Yeah.
I enjoyed the heck out of it.
So that's a that's one of my favorite ones, to be
honest.
Okay.
What about the shining?
Did you see the shining?
Yeah.
always.
Yeah, it's kind of a silly question.
But I guess one that just to this day, there are scenes in that movie that scare me to my core.
It's and not even the parts like where he's chasing Shelley DeVall or his son or whatever.
It's just those like that one that's seen where he's in the men's room.
And the ball is happening outside and the men's room attendant is like a ghost or whatever and talking to him and that haunting music.
It's so creepy and so well done.
Yeah, another Stephen King one that I really, really like these pet cemetery.
I don't know if you ever saw that.
I have not seen pet cemetery.
No,
it's got Fred Gwin in it who played Herman Munster for the month.
Yeah, that's awesome.
It's really good.
Really good.
Kind of suspenseful thing too.
All right.
That's fantastic.
So what do you have a favorite movie snack, Jase?
Oh, well, how do you say no to popcorn?
Right?
I mean, that's, you know, the classic the classic, but
gummy worms or gummy bears are also another a good one you know when you drop those they don't make as many sounds as the Skittles
very strategic not
rolling down
the hill yeah exactly I was at the movies about I don't know 15 years ago with my son and he goes to get a snack and he bought he bought some nerd ropes and that cracked me I'd never heard of those before I'm like
What are those?
And he like blushed.
They're delicious.
I have to say it's a funny thing.
So do you does your snack choice Jason change from theater to home like let's say you're at home.
You got a great movie on your on your mind.
You're going to kick your feet up.
Do you make something special or a pizza or so you changed up a little bit?
Not too often.
It's usually popcorn everywhere actually when when the movies go down.
So
a frequent popcorn eater.
I do like it.
So that's awesome.
It's an easy snack and always
around the house.
So
absolutely.
Jason Mansmith is my guest.
He is the marketing director at the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake.
Absolutely.
Check it out.
We'll give you an idea of what's coming up there shortly after we make our popcorn pick of the week.
Do you have a Jason?
Do you have a movie cocktail?
Do you like to make a cocktail at home?
Not really.
So, you know, I
Not much of a drinker, so I'm going to probably err on the side of like a sparkling water, maybe a
bubbler or something like that.
OK, that's good.
What about drugs?
Do you have a drug you like to take when you're watching movies?
Not really, but I mean.
I guess I'm open to try if we can do it.
Right.
You give us a movie tonight.
I'll recommend a good drug for you to just kind of sit.
That was good.
What a deal.
Right.
Who knew I was going to be a part of the show tonight.
So have you ever brought booze into the theater?
Was there a time like when you're a teen where you do that?
Not not booze into the
theater.
But did we smuggle in some snacks and some other things?
You know.
Jolt soda back in the day.
You bet, man.
That was for sure.
We did smuggle some of that in sure.
I think that's
part of the ritual, right?
That's just part of growing up.
Got to smuggle a little
bit.
Absolutely.
I forgot about Jolt.
Jolt soda.
But you're almost expected to sneak candy or snacks.
And I think when you're a kid, you know, even though you're not financially conscious, just as a frugal way to be.
How do you feel about previews, Jason?
You like the previews or you do like the previews?
I've actually
found a couple of movies that I wanted to.
to really, really see based upon the previews.
And I think the one that pops to my mind the most is when that Dylan one came on a complete unknown, like, I
think it was
part of last year, right?
I saw the preview for that.
I'm like, Oh, I kind of want to see that one.
Sure.
So have I
seen it yet?
No, I have not, but I will.
He would have crushed a thrash or opera house.
That's a great venue for Bobby D. Do you have a favorite actor?
Speaking of Dylan, like Timothy Chalamet played Bob Dylan.
I thought he did a really good job.
Do you have an actor that, like that actor that is enough to get you to go to a movie?
Samuel
Jackson, for sure.
That is my God.
I'm a huge Pulp Fiction fan.
I love that movie a lot in it, but a lot of the other things that he does too.
are just so good.
So, yeah, that's one of my favorite ones for sure is Samuel L. Jackson.
Great choice.
Are you a Tarantino fan by nature in addition to Pulp Fiction?
I think, you know, yeah, reservoir dogs I got into, right?
And then a few of the other ones, Django Unchained, right?
I liked that one that
was
good too.
So I wouldn't say a big Tarantino
fan, but yeah, some of the ones I do enjoy.
Oh, some of the stuff he's done.
Yeah, you can't deny.
It's just a great watch.
What do you do in theaters, Jason, when people are too loud?
Do you say something?
You call the cops?
No, I don't.
Usually I just do with it.
I'm a pacifist.
I don't like to make too much.
Not even a look.
Not even that.
Not even a
look.
Okay.
You know, comments in my head, but that's about it.
You never know what you're dealing with.
Anyway, you're probably better up.
What, uh, so what, what about like, who do you like to go to movies with?
Like, do you have a, you know, a spouse, a partner, a group?
Yeah.
I think
the last couple of months have been with my significant other and then, uh, you know, some families and friends.
So yeah, that's always a good thing to do.
We don't, you don't get on as much as often as we'd like to, but
sure
it's good.
That's great.
Okay.
I think my
nephew is huge into movies.
So he's five.
So, you know, we watch
a little bit
different movies then.
you know, than others.
But yeah, so those are
good.
Do you have a favorite kids movie?
Because some of them are great.
Like some of them, when my kids were young, I'll still watch them if they're on.
You
know, I think I really my first real good kid movie that I liked a lot was Aladdin.
Remember when that came out
in the
90s?
Robin Williams in it and all the other things.
And that was really good.
But like up is good.
You know, some of
those other
animated ones, too.
So yeah, I dig them for sure.
I love it.
All right.
Jason Mansmith, director of marketing at the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake.
I think it is time for to get Jason's popcorn pick of the week.
So Conrad, if you please.
What do you got, buddy?
My pick of the week, Tucker and Dale versus Evil
is a
great horror movie from 2010.
It's a comedy horror.
Oh, I love those.
know right and it's it's kind of spoofing off every other horror movie that's out there and kind of including the same thing so you know there's this group of college girls and then you know things happen and then they're always hiding out in the open you know where anybody can find you kind of thing but it's written differently this group of kind of like hillbillies were mistaken for killers by a group of the college girls and it just it's hilariously
funny and
it's a great kind of
spoof off of the horror movie.
So yeah, Tucker and Dale versus evil from 2010.
I would highly recommend that one.
There is a little bit of slasher in it.
I'll
be
honest with you.
But you can get through it.
It's it's humorous.
If I could say that.
Yeah, humorous slasher.
So it's sometimes it's not as bad when when there's slasher elements if it is funny, especially if they're trying to be funny with slashing, you know, yeah, for sure on that.
Well, I
highly recommend it.
Get it on and check it out.
I got it right here, and I'm pulling it up on IMDb, and I can see that, oh, not a big marquee name cast.
No.
I like that, too.
I find, for me, it's easier to lose myself in a movie when there aren't huge movie stars in it.
You know, you can kind of get into it more.
That's a great pick.
Jason Mansmith just chose Tucker and Dale vs. Evil from 2010.
It has rated our comedy horror.
Have you ever seen Fright Night?
Yes.
That's a fun one, too.
and April Fool's Day.
I don't know if you ever saw that one.
I think Biff from Back to the Future is in that.
And he's really funny.
And it's just a good mix of comedy and scary stuff.
So great pick, Jason.
I think Jason is going to tell us what's coming up the thrasher after a very short break here.
And our question of the night, folks, is name something you wish you were better at?
I say cleaning out my emails and phone messages.
Conrad says cooking.
There are people that have said finance stuff.
The sky is the limit.
Give us your answer.
I will read your text on the radio.
And maybe we'll find out what it is for Jason, too, when we come back on the Civic Media Radio Network.
But
I
don't see
it all I gotta get away, gotta get away I don't know where to go It's hopeless so I guess I'll leave it alone
I'm Pete Schwab.
This is Nightlight.
Great to have you with us, folks.
It is Thursday night.
You are almost there.
The weekend is literally right around the corner.
Coming up at 7.35, our pal, Chris Rogowski, will be here from Chicken or the Egg Photography.
Chris is also a musician.
I think we're going to play one of his songs.
That
sounds cool.
Yeah, very cool.
So we'll do that.
Our question of the night is, what is something you wish you were better at?
It could be anything from juggling to cooking to finances.
We've heard some great, or like Dan Davies, cat juggling, semi-nude cat juggling.
Right now, our pal Jason Mansmith is with us on the stream.
He is the marketing director at the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake.
So, Jason, for people who haven't been there, tell us, give us a little background about the Thrasher.
Yeah, absolutely.
So our historic opera house was built in 1910 by Charlie Thrasher.
That's where the name comes in.
It's not a skateboarding magazine, which a lot of people maybe think that it might be.
But yeah, so Charlie has this great idea of providing a gathering point for the community to show silent movies at the time or just to get people together.
So he had that vision to build that and he did so.
And then it was
Well, it kind of went away for a little bit.
And thankfully, the community rallied in the late 1990s to purchase it and to renovate it and to open it back up in 1997.
And they've been hosting shows and it's a historic thrash wrapper house since then.
That first year in 1997, they did three events.
This past year in 2024, we did 89 events.
So we have grown tremendously.
over that amount of time.
And we are excited about some new things that are going to be coming to the Crasher Opera House, not exactly to the opera house specifically, but to our offices and to the space directly next to the facility.
That's cool.
And I think you told me last time you were here, the capacity, it's a very intimate venue, right?
Yeah, 200 seats is what we have for you.
If we do a standing show, it's no more than 300.
25, I think.
Wow.
And then we do some cocktail sitting as well.
So we do shows with just, you know, 80 seats are a little bit less.
So we really have the flexibility and the versatility to kind of set the show how we like it.
And, you know, if we have some newcomers to the area, maybe we're not going to, you know, see 200 tickets out of that, because not a lot of people made me know them, we're able to set that room for a little bit smaller, still make it feel comfortable for everything.
But we can open it up to if we need to.
That's fantastic.
Did you have Mary Mack there recently?
We had Mary here about a
year and a half ago, I believe.
Was it that long
ago?
Yeah, she was in on that.
Maybe last summer too, I think it might have been.
Yeah, about a year ago last summer.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
September.
She was on the show and I remember she was talking about
a day
She had I can't remember if it was the first time she was on or or afterwards but Did you tell me this last time you were here?
I'm only asking because Halloween is coming up and I'm trying to keep people away from the theater But is there a haunted element to the thrasher?
Yeah, there is I think so I did some ghost hunting with a fellow civic media colleague and Lisa Hale as well.
So really Yeah, she's been down there to do some investigating with us as well on it.
So
There's some elements of it for sure, like most theaters haunted is always.
Can you give us like an example or something?
I personally have not experienced anything in there.
But when we were there, we just had some things they call paranormal for a reason, right?
Because it's not some things that did occur, you know, just some things that we maybe heard, things like that.
But yeah, for the most part, there.
Charlie is no doubt around there.
We love.
I love walking into the opera house and just greeting him and saying, Hey, Charlie, how's it going?
So you have a ghost named Charlie.
Well, that's what we named him.
We figured it was a, you know, Charlie Thrasher back there at the opera house after he built it.
He's got a good, good tie to it.
Right.
I love that.
My guest is Jason Mansmith.
He is the marketing director at the Thrasher Opera House.
That's what we're talking about right now.
We're going to talk about some upcoming events in just a minute.
His popcorn pick of the week, folks.
Jason made the popcorn pick this week is Tucker and Dale, speaking of Halloween, which is right around the corner.
It's Tucker and Dale versus Evil.
It's rated R. There's some slasher, but there's also some good comedy.
And Jason highly recommends it.
So that's a great movie leading into the weekend.
I saw that you just had to cancel
to cancel a show.
How much does
that
suck as a marketing director having to cancel a show?
It's for us, it's fine.
We can handle it right.
I feel bad for the artists given the situation.
Our blues guy, Matt Schofield, had gone overseas to play in Poland and was in Barcelona and got his backpack stolen in Barcelona, which included his passport
and
his USA visa.
So he was able to play the shows in the UK, but he has no way to get over Back to the United States man in the due time.
He has a meeting with the embassy I think next week and hopefully he's gonna get that stamp
so we can get back over here.
But yeah, that's why we had to cancel.
Geez, oh my gosh,
that's crazy.
Stop, right?
It's just not like, hey, they're not feeling good or something like this was a real life altering
experience.
It's usually COVID, but this is like a real thing.
Can we keep you through the news just for a few
minutes, Jason, and talk about some
upcoming events?
Because you've got some great Christmas stuff coming up, some kids events.
We'll talk all about that.
And real quick, do you have something you wish you were better at?
I was
thinking about that during the break a little bit.
I wish I would have make more time to reach out to old friends, right?
Friends I've known forever, right?
Just to reconnect with them and see what's going on.
Maybe even just a five or 10 minute conversation.
I love that.
Hey, what's up?
That's a great one.
All right, Jason is going to stick with us through intermission.
We'll be back for act two.
But first, let's bang out a couple of these texture con we've got on the stream.
Lil Irv says any all of the trades.
I think that means being handy, which has got to be a big one.
I think a lot of
people
wish they could, you know, were better at that.
Certainly I do too.
Edward from the 414 says, I wish I was better at not getting frustrated when CJ from Stoughton calls in to all the other media shows.
He's took a shot at another listener.
I don't know what to tell you, Edward.
But thank you for the text Ross from Crawford County.
That's in the 608.
He says I wish I was better at playing guitar Took lessons as a young kid and stopped then started again as a late teenager and then stopped Boy, that's another one.
I wish I had never quit the piano.
That's one of mine, too People are just reminding me throughout the show of all the things I wish I was better at and there are a ton of them Alright, we are gonna do intermission and we'll come back for act two And when I say intermission folks, I mean the civic media
Media crack news team is gonna keep you informed tell you everything you need to know and we are coming right back Don't go anywhere.
It's beach wabba and nightlight on the civic media radio networks
Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.
This is Night Light with Peach Wabba.
Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.
And now a guy who prefers to travel by catapult, Peach Wabba.
Welcome back to
Night Light, folks.
It is time for Act 2.
Great to have you with me on this Thursday night.
The Christmas Eve of weeknights.
The Nip is in the air.
It's Halloween season, folks.
Very exciting.
And it's kind of a Halloweeny night here.
I just said Halloweeny, Conrad.
Yeah, that's, that almost made me laugh.
I don't want to accuse someone of having a Halloweeny.
That joke has to have been done at some point.
Yeah,
I
would say.
I kind of backed into it.
That's not good.
No, I just did it again.
I want to back in a while.
Wow, EC2 is off to a roaring start.
This is exciting, folks.
Jason Mansmith is here.
He is the director of marketing at the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake, Wisconsin.
They do some great stuff there.
We're going to talk to Jason in just a minute about some upcoming events for Christmas and some kids' events.
It's a great space.
We'll discuss in just a minute.
Coming up at 7.35, Chris Rogowski will be here from Chicken or the Egg Photography.
Chris is also a very busy musician and a sponsor of Nightlight.
So we're going to talk to Chris in just a bit.
Our question of the night.
Conrad, do you remember it?
What do you wish you were better at?
Exactly.
I say deleting emails and voice messages.
Conrad said he wished he was better in the kitchen.
I assume he meant cooking, not just like welcome.
Yeah, dishes maybe too.
Oh, yeah, you know sometimes I just
let them sit there for a while
just like throw them in there like alright
Just throw them out get new dishes every time
throw the ceramic plates out every time
So let us know folks.
What is something you wish you could be better at you can send if you're watching the radio on the stream you can send us a stream comment
or the old-fashioned text line is 855-752-4842-855-75CIVIC.
And you can also drop us a comment on the app, which is very easy to use.
Just a reminder, too, before we get back to Jason, that BookFest is happening right now.
The Wisconsin Book Festival is happening in Madison starting today through the 26th.
There will be New York Times authors there such as Jane Hamilton and Mary Roach alongside many others and people will be gathering for readings and conversations.
around their writing this fall.
So that's exciting, especially if you want to get back into reading or you want to write a book.
These are great people and it's a great event just to kind of immerse yourself into the beauty of words.
And you can find out more information about that at civicmedia.us.
It is also National Crock Day.
Jason, do you have a pair of crocs?
I refuse to own them.
Have you tried them?
Nope.
Okay.
Yeah, you said
hey dudes.
I'm not getting neither one of them.
What's what's that?
What's hey dudes?
It's kind of like the slip-on loafery kind of deck shoes kind of thing So I think they're made by Crocs too.
So Conrad you have a pair of those?
I do not have a pair of hey dudes I have friends and family that own hey dudes Huh,
are they nerdy or than Crocs?
Yeah, I say they look better than Crocs.
Okay
I appreciate your steadfastness, Jason.
You seem very, you're definitely taking a stand and you're not being shot.
Yeah, for sure.
I am anti-crocs all day long, no
doubt about that.
Safe to say you did not celebrate National Croc Day, or maybe you did by not wearing them and not even considering
it.
Didn't even acknowledge
it.
All right, very cool.
It's great to have you here.
Jason's popcorn pick of the week, which we did just before the news, was Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.
A great recommendation a week before Halloween.
I think that's terrific.
It's a rated R slasher film with some comedy, so check that out this weekend if you're looking for something scary to watch, leading up to The Big Fright Night, which is just a little over a week away.
As I mentioned, Jason is also the marketing director at the Thrasher in Green Lake.
It's so cool.
I love that opera is in the title of the space, the Thrasher Opera House.
It's not just the Thrasher Theater.
That's a fine title too, but Opera House.
Back in the day, did they have many opera singers coming through there?
I don't think so.
I think it was just kind of the term for the...
for the buildings at the time, right?
There are a lot of historic opera houses, not only throughout Wisconsin, but throughout the nation.
Very few of them remain, unfortunately.
Yeah, we're lucky to have one of them right in in rural Green Lake, which is amazing.
That's excellent.
So all right, tell us a little bit about what you have coming up.
I know I saw you have some children's shows coming up.
Not
so
much some children's shows as much as we got a little bit of a dance party the night before.
You're hunting weekend right that Friday right before that.
Sometimes ladies like to go out and club it up a little bit.
So we're going to do a thrash or opera house club night and this is going to be a 90s night.
So we're going to spend some songs in there that everybody loved to dance to in the 90s from TLC and
Britney Spears and
probably the Backstreet Boys and all those great hits.
So we're going to welcome people in on that.
That's a free event.
So
all
ages it is open for everybody.
But you can come on in and have a good time.
It's it's really fun We kind of flip the script on the opera house where you where you think you're just gonna Be in there watching a show, but no
one will
tell the chairs out making the dance floor Have all the loud music all the cool lights and it's always a fun thing.
I love it And you know what if I'm Conrad, you know what I'm hearing right now great way to meet girls Because everybody else will be out in their dear blind.
You're gonna have ready for it Yeah, right is do a lot of guys show up kind of you know with bad intentions
Well, I'm
just going to be a first
one.
So
we'll have to monitor that situation.
So see how it,
I would at
least
have that.
All right.
I'm not trying to put ideas in anybody's head, but just see what happens.
What else you got?
Jayce, you got some holiday stuff coming up that looks great.
Yeah, absolutely.
Just want to go back a little bit.
Ronnie, baby Brooks coming up in middle of November.
Great blues guitarist.
We're going to have him on in Dave Siminay, who you might recognize as the lead singer trampled by Turtles.
a great wristband is going to be doing a solo show for us on December 4th.
And then we kind of get into the holiday swing a little bit.
Davina on the vagabonds, a vagabond holiday.
Take all your Christmas or holiday favorites and put them to like swing tunes.
And that is
what Davina on the vagabonds is all about.
So we're going to welcome them in on December 6th.
And then we're going to do kind of like a traditional Christmas, but kind of in the Celtic flair as we're welcoming and switchback.
They have two shows scheduled on December 13th, and their excellent musicians have a lot of that Celtic background, but they have some wonderful holiday songs that we'll be able to share that evening too.
And then we have a free show coming up.
We've done this now for the last three or four years.
The Fox City Swing Band comes on down on a Sunday afternoon.
Does a matinee show for us in about an hour or so of wonderful music that they'll be performing on December 14th.
Doesn't cost you anything to get on in.
something that we like to do for outreach for the community is kind of like a gift to the community.
So come on in and check that out.
Full details always available.
Grasheropperhouse.com.
I love it.
And you know, I'm looking at your prices.
I mean, talk about very reasonable prices.
Like you said, Ronnie Baker books, but Ronnie Baker Brooks, the ticket started 25 bucks.
the other show 40, 25, 30.
I mean, you can't even go to the movies almost with concessions and stuff for less than that.
So that's really impressive.
And then you do have some kids stuff coming out after the first of the year.
I think that's what I was looking at.
Yeah,
correct.
Missoula Children's Theater Returning, which is an amazing program if your kids are in the grades first through 12th and they want to maybe learn about theater or have an experience of performing on a stage.
They're able to come in the audition on Monday.
They rehearse the rest of the week and perform two shows on Saturday.
Oh, all within a
week.
And it is
a
wonderful experience.
60 to 65 kids.
Usually we get in there on that.
The cool thing about this beat.
No charge for them to participate.
They come in for this.
Do this absolutely for free.
That is really exciting.
Well,
You do great work there, Jason.
Keep it up.
And thank you again for being here tonight.
Before we let you go, can I ask you, are you binge watching anything in addition to Tucker and Dale versus evil?
Are you into a show right now that you could recommend?
I got into that Netflix monsters.
The Ed Gein story.
Oh, yeah.
What do you think
that a little bit?
So I'm about four episodes in a little disturbing at times.
But overall, it's done.
I was a big fan of Charlie Hewnam, who was in sons of Anarchy before.
and is where I got to know him like giving a lot of people did.
So yeah, that was an interesting transition to watch him come into that role here too.
So
that's excellent.
Well, we'll have to check that one out too.
I haven't seen I
would be remiss
if I
didn't mention the fact that we're we're undertaking a $3 million renovation to our offices.
Whoa, directly next to the Thrasher Opera House.
This space is going to be a game changer not only for the Opera House but for downtown Green Lake.
And and creating a space right now when you walk by you look at it like that's a real estate office Well, you're right.
That's what it used to be.
It doesn't say arts whatsoever and not only were you performing arts and music We also feature local artists in there.
We have a lot of different things that are taking place on the creative side in the space and we want to create a space that is going to be more welcoming and more available to anybody So we're not only transforming the the building side of
it.
Yeah, help out with our lounge and our bar and
our art gallery and our gallery store.
We're also taking the front of it and the outside in the parking lot and making a creative space as well for people to come and relax and have some coffee or to sit around.
We're gonna have some outdoor music instruments that people
can
play that are available for them there.
So we're in the midst of fundraising for that.
That's a $3 million project.
The neat thing is, we already have $2 million of it raised.
Oh my
gosh.
Yes.
So we are in a very, very sweet position.
And we're just looking to make a difference in the community.
And, you know, we realized how important the arts are to quality of life and to what it can do for a community.
And we're just happy to be on this journey right
now.
I was going to give you a hundred bucks tonight, but all I've got on me are thousands.
So that's fine.
We'll make a word
change.
We'll make it work
for you.
Listen, buddy, that's a great, great mission and love what you do for the community there in this gem of an opera house slash theater.
Check it out, folks, right there in Green Lake.
Tons of charm and great shows coming up too.
Jason Mansmith, thanks so much as always for your time, buddy.
It was great catching up.
Yeah, as always, thanks for the invite.
You guys have yourself a wonderful weekend.
You too, buddy.
All right, that's Jason Mansmith.
Check out the Thrasher Opera House.
Conn, I think we got to add that to our list of road trips.
I think so too.
Have you seen that game show yet?
No, I do not want to watch it.
Well, because you're scared or because you've
heard
bad things.
Yeah, I don't want to watch something like that.
It just
freaks me
out.
I got to tell you.
I've talked to like two people that like it.
Other than that, the reviews aren't great.
I guess they're taking liberties with the story, but Jason likes it and my friend Kurt likes it a lot.
And I don't know much about Ed Gein other than I know Frank Anderson when he's on the show talks a little bit about Ed Gein, but yeah, I don't know.
I don't know if I'm gonna add that to my list or not, but I do trust Jason's opinion.
He certainly sees his fair amount of shows and the opera house is haunted.
Yeah.
Why is every theater and every hotel haunted?
I think my house is haunted.
I think your house is haunted too.
You know what's good?
No, here's the, when I was watching a movie with Barbara Hershey, the deliver, not deliverance, but maybe the delivery, supposedly if you're ever alone in your house or apartment and you smell a horrible smell, that's the smell of the devil.
What if you created the bad smell?
Well, I think, I like to think you,
Look, you know the smell of your own brand.
I would assume that you would be able to disseminate.
You know,
days are different sometimes, you know?
Yeah, I guess.
I don't need to go into this any further.
But
seriously,
how freaked out would you be like the smell of the devil?
Just think about that when you go home tonight.
Okay.
All right We are gonna come back and read some of your texts I got a great Norm McDonald clip to right around the corner and then Chris Rogowski is here at 735 folks owner of chicken or the egg photography and A very an excellent musician.
We're coming right back.
This is nightlight with peach waba on the civic media radio
network
Welcome back.
And of course, the legendary, Weird Al Yankovic.
I just said that was a good one.
I didn't know if you had a favorite con.
You were the one that suggested we play some Weird Al.
I wouldn't.
I would say that probably is the best one.
I just think it's hilarious.
Do you have one of our hallmark things ready to go?
Yeah, I definitely do.
Which one?
Which one's better?
The bloody turtleneck.
OK, so here's what we're going to do.
We were going to bring Chris Rogowski on at 735, but he's here.
And we've got, I forgot that he said this earlier.
So why don't we bring him on right now?
Ladies and gentlemen, the owner of Chicken or the Egg Photography, a very accomplished photographer and musician locally here in Northeast Wisconsin, Chris Rogowski joins us now.
Hey, buddy.
How's it going?
Good.
And I wanted to bring you on because we want to play this.
This is kind of an honor of you.
You told me very bravely, I might add.
that you, I said, you know, because we're leading up to Halloween.
And you said, I'm not really a horror guy.
I'm a comedy's my thing.
I said, okay.
And then you said the occasional Hallmark movie.
So what's, which is brave, you
know,
you're kind of a strapping guy to admit you like a good Hallmark movie.
So what we did last year, leading up to Christmas, and we'll probably do it again this year is make these Hallmark.
movie trailers, so I figured we should probably run this by a guy like you.
The holidays are right around the corner.
Let's see what Chris thinks of this holiday.
What do we call it?
Lifemark, right?
Yeah, Lifemark.
Lifetime Hallmark.
Okay, so this is our Lifemark Bloody Turtleneck.
Lifemark's very melancholy Christmas continues with this week's film, My Husband's Turtleneck.
Penelope was still grieving her husband Barry, who went missing last Christmas when she fell into his best friend Dave's arms.
and his bed.
He helped her heal, but now, one year later, he's ready to pop the question.
Even though Barry was the love of her life, Penelope was ready to accept his proposal until she noticed something in Dave's closet.
Penny,
honey, you've made me the happiest man in the world.
Will you marry me?
Oh, Dave, you've been my rock since Barry disappeared last Christmas.
What is that?
What is it, babe?
Is that... Barry's turtleneck?
Penelope.
I can explain.
You can explain Barry's Christmas turtleneck covered in blood and hanging in your closet, you sick freak.
That's what he was wearing the day he went missing.
You killed him!
It was an accident.
You
bastard!
Uh-huh!
Uh-huh!
Wait.
Uh-huh!
Uh-huh!
Listen, we- Uh-huh!
Will you just be quiet and let me explain?
I told him I loved you and he... He couldn't handle his best friend being so madly in love with his wife.
It wasn't my fault.
It's like he went crazy.
I had to punch him a couple times just to settle him down.
Next thing I know we got into a fight and it just... Happened.
All because I love you so much.
Really?
I've wanted to marry you since the day I met you.
You're so sweet, but I'm gonna need some time with this.
Take all the time you need.
I love you.
This Christmas, don't miss my husband's turtleneck.
A story of true love at any cost.
Playing all month long on Life Mark.
Yes.
I would watch
that.
Boy, I forgot Nikki's urge of, she really brought the acting chops.
Yeah, I liked her cry.
She kind of trailed off at the end there like, I need some time.
She got bored.
She got bored.
So we'll be resurrecting those again, Chris.
We'll bring some, and that just, you know, I know it's Halloween is here, but that will get us in the mood for the holidays.
So what do you do?
You just like put them on and just have them on in the background?
Are you like really get into it and watch, make some popcorn and stuff?
Yeah, well, what usually happens is Melanie goes to the YouTube like ripping channels and you can find all the Hallmark movies for free
on
YouTube.
You
just
have to be OK with like random things that pop up in the middle and
like
really bad resolutions sometimes.
But like, man, it's amazing.
You can you can watch a lot of movies for free on YouTube if you're OK with like this audio being off and stuff.
It's
when you
say audio being off, like the mouth
is like you're watching a foreign film.
But are there ads?
Not usually, no.
That's not too
bad.
No.
But it's got like the.
ripped by
whatever
software
on
here and like stuff like that.
So they're pirated.
Oh, somebody takes them and puts them on you.
Yeah, the
Russians don't care about our nuclear codes.
They want Hallmark movies.
Apparently not.
Do you ever do that with NFL games?
No, no.
I funny fact or funny story, whatever.
I haven't watched a football game at all this year and
Sunday was the first game I watched.
I was photographing an event and it was so boring.
All I thought was, how can people sit here and watch this?
It's
boring.
So
if you think a football game is boring, where do you come in on baseball?
Which is faster now because they have to pitch the clock, which helps immeasurably.
Pitch clock helps.
Baseball is fun because there's things you get to do like...
During it.
Yeah, you know where it's like I've been to football games.
They're fun, but it's you know, we watch the
Oftentimes with my folks will watch, you know, we're Bears fans because we came from Chicago But like we don't have the NFL package so we
got a pirated
them and hook the computer up to the TV It's like major surgery just to get this team wasn't a good 30 years on but what happens is like that the feed will stall and a bunch of porn ads will come up
And I can't believe my parents are in their 80s.
And I'm like, you know, sorry.
But they're used to it now, too.
It's just like, oh, she looks cute.
You know, it's like they're kind of so anyway.
All right, Chris Rogowski is here, folks, from chicken or the egg photography.
You can find out more at chickenortheegphotography.com.
When we come back, I'm going to tell you, or Chris is going to tell us, where the name comes from.
And then we're going to talk about some of his music, too, because he's a very accomplished musician.
We're going to do the news.
Then we're coming back.
We've got a lot more nightlight ahead of us.
Our question of the night is, what is something you wish you were better at?
And we'll ask Chris that question, too, when we come back.
It's Peach Wabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media radio network.
And you know I can't remember a damn thing I think it's one of those days I blew a face Or a trainer's trying to tell me something
All right, welcome back.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.
Ladies and gentlemen, so great to have you with me wherever you're joining us from in this beautiful state.
It is a beautiful Thursday night, and I'm glad you're here.
We've got tomorrow night on the show.
We have Chris Mays from Clearly Confused Productions.
He puts on dinner theater shows.
I think that'll be a blast.
You know who else is in those con?
Who's that?
Fresh kind.
Right down the street.
Kayla, who was our
model that night.
So she's part of that outfit too.
I don't know if Chris is planning a performance, but I could ask him.
That could be kind of fun.
And then it's a bar ban Friday night.
Tomorrow night, Terry Barr will not be here.
She's probably out seeing an actual bar band tomorrow.
But Rocker, her co-host on Max Inc Radio, the award-winning Max Inc Radio, will be filling in.
And Rocker is always fun to talk music with too.
Speaking of music, my guest here in the studio right now is Chris Rogowski from Chicken or the Egg Photography.
He is an accomplished photographer here in the Green Bay area and a musician as well.
And Chris, it's great to have you here.
What are you, I mean...
I think photography is how you pay your mortgage, so to speak.
Yes.
But what are you, what are you more passionate about?
You kind of do both and you seem to be very good at both.
So what do you, what do you like to do better?
I like to do whatever I want whenever I want.
No, I'm just kidding.
Actually, I really enjoy photography a lot in not more than music, but when you have the right group of people, yeah, the music is that much more fun and
I just wish it paid better because we write original music and I played in cover bands for long enough where it's like, I don't want to do that anymore.
So I like it.
I just wish we got more money to do it.
Yeah.
When you're playing cover tunes like Green Bay has some great cover bands.
We had asked
the
guys from Ask Your Mother in here the other night, so much fun.
Do they do you get sick of playing cover tunes or is that why you do the original or you just like to write original music better?
Don't mind playing covers.
I think the covers for me were always They were always fun, you know, but then I got to this point where I was like if I'm gonna spend the time to learn a cover Yeah, I've got the energy to write a song too
But you know, there's bet there's pros and cons to it when you learn how to play someone else's song you learn how to do something differently, right?
You might learn a new technique or something when all you're doing is writing something for yourself like Hey, you know there you start sounding the same after a while Right.
Is it harder to
get people to come out to shows when you write original music until you have a following or with cover bands?
I think honestly, it's difficult on both sides of the game
That's interesting.
Yeah, we have We have a song of Chris's we're gonna play in just a few minutes But first I want to ask you about chicken or the egg photography.
Yeah, first of all tell us where
the name comes from The name comes from me sitting at a Pizza Hut trying to come up with very serious names And I couldn't come up with anything to save my life And then I would walked out of the the Pizza Hut night.
It hit me square in the face.
I was chicken or the egg
Oh, man, that's funny.
And then what came first, right?
And then I kind of like A, B market tested it with some friends to see if they would like it.
And they were like, man, that's great.
We love it.
And it just kind of stuck.
All right.
That's awesome.
So you said this cracked me up.
I was, you know, you were on the show before.
Yeah.
And we probably touched on this, but I
I was doing some research on you earlier, trying to find something new to bring up with you, and I saw another interview that said, when you got into photography, you did not want to photograph humans.
Which I found fascinating, but then you also said now that's most of your
work.
I never wanted to shoot humans, and that sounds bad, but everyone knows what I mean.
It just wasn't my thing.
I was like, I'm going to be a nature photographer forever, and that's all I'm going to do.
And then, like I had told you, I started photographing bands in the scene.
And that kind of introduced me to, hey, this is pretty fun.
humans are animals too and they do weird things when the lights are on them and it just kind of like it worked out because my biggest inspiration to to shoot people was the 80s and 90s music magazines where it was like that you know pop flash look and all that stuff and it I just found I was doing that without maybe without the flash at the time but like it was fun
And then and then I got hooked and I haven't shot Nature photo Intentionally in a very long time Wow,
so when you're shooting bands or just people What is it?
You know you always hear the term someone is really photogenic Yeah, you know I always feel like I look worse in pictures my wife looks great in pictures like some people just have that when you're a photographer
What is it about people that makes them photogenic?
Is it some kind of inner peace or energy or just physical features?
What is it?
I would say it's a genuine honest connection.
Interesting.
Anyone can look beautiful.
Anyone can look happy.
Anyone can look anything.
It's all about the lighting.
I saw this video recently and I know we're on radio so you can't see my hand moving.
People watch it on this camera.
Yeah, that's true.
But like, you know, imagine a light going around your face, right?
And you could do this at home.
you can make anything look a certain way with the right lighting.
You know, out in the wild world, it's totally different.
But like, I think honestly, anyone can look really nice.
They just have to feel like they want to look nice.
I do that.
I've done that over at the bar when I was working there with people who were like, I don't look good.
I'm like, well, that's not a me problem.
That's a you problem.
I'm sure
they love
hearing that from their photographer.
Chris Rogowski is here, folks.
He is the owner and the artist behind it, chicken or the egg photography.
So go to chicken or the egg photography dot com and check out Chris's work.
It must be fun to shoot bands because they probably always give you something.
They're either going to do something crazy.
or they just look passionate about what they're doing.
You capture a moment.
That to me is like, when I'm looking at art or photographs or whatever, I like the human element.
I
like a
moment in someone where you can almost read their thoughts or something.
You get shots like that.
And are you thrilled when you get that?
How do you know you
have a great shot?
You just feel it.
You click the shutter and you see it and you're like, that's it, man.
That's the shot.
Yeah.
And then usually I walk away and then I'm like, I should try to get it again.
And then I spend five minutes trying to duplicate it and it never worked.
You just can't.
Wow.
Um, does being a photographer make you want to branch out?
Like you're, you're telling stories with pictures and I've been part of movies at time, moving pictures and you're right.
It's all.
Lighting, lighting to me is, even in my living room when I get home at night, I like it lit a certain way.
I like, you know, some people I see, they leave a closet light on and they have a fluorescent light.
I'm like, what the hell does it matter with you?
Look at
yourself.
But seriously, it's, would you ever branch out to other art forms or storytelling forms?
Yeah, I mean, I write too, so I'm a.
I'm a photographer, a journalist, a photojournalist, and a musician.
Those are my four real... Well, that's how I make my money these days, right?
But I love being able to use my left brain and my right brain in totally different ways.
I mean, if you're into that kind of thing, some people don't believe it's real, whatever.
The earth isn't flat either, but who cares?
I appreciate being able to use both sides of my...
Mind to create differently, right?
So like being able to take a photo and tell the story there and then being able to do an interview with someone and Write a story about that and make them see their story it come to life.
It just makes me happy It's a connection to humanity that you wouldn't get in any other job that Well, you would but
Hardly
yeah, what when you do when when you went into business for yourself
when you
started chicken or the egg What were you doing before that and talk about that moment where you're like I'm doing this I'm gonna be self-employed not only are you gonna be self-employed?
You're not opening a restaurant or you're not you know You're taking pictures
you're
in the arts and that's you know I can't see anything else in my life that I'd rather do but it can be difficult like like anything and I'm
not
saying other professions aren't but Talk about that moment where you where you took that plunge
Yeah, I was working for my dad before this, and he knows the story all too well, and I won't go into everything, but I remember telling him, we used to have these morning meetings, and I wrote on the door, we need to talk, and he's like, all right, so when is it?
When are you leaving?
He just knew, he knew, and I was like...
I was really worried about it and, you know, understandably so.
But I just did it.
We had the conversation.
It was very nice.
And I think I was looking to my parents for approval because I worked for them, right?
And no one wants to upset their parents or make them feel like you're letting them down or whatever it is, right?
But he was very supportive and so was my mother.
And, you know, the moment when...
I officially left was my 35th birthday.
And that was my last day, at least on the books, working for them.
And it was a weird feeling.
I went to Lake Michigan afterwards and I was like, so this is it.
What do I do?
I knew what I was gonna do, because I got a job doing school portraits and stuff.
Never doing that again.
Gotta pay the bills though.
Yeah, pretty much.
But then I just like...
I just had that OS moment and went, well, I gotta do it or I gotta find a job and I wasn't gonna find another job.
I wasn't gonna fall into that trap.
I love that you just said OS moment, because those, to me, I always say to my kids, you wanna avoid those in your life.
I walked down a dark alley when I was 20, when I was living in Chicago, and I got robbed, and there's that OS moment where you see people coming at you, you're like, why?
But it's the same thing when you're doing something like what
you
did, but that's a more invigorating, it's scary, but it's also like, I gotta do this.
Okay, we're gonna hear one of Chris's songs, this is called,
guillotine and con I think we'll let it take us right
after the break
and then we'll come back and we'll tell you where you can see Chris live and we'll finish up some texts and We will get out of here on this Thursday night But right now that is this a band or is this just you this is the full band the full band Tell us the band's name again age of fable age of fable guillotine.
Here we go
Cutting and killing sweet things.
Crust is an amazement, as your ventured hand is brazen.
The moment's silence, chopper vines.
is game
Welcome back.
We are on the home stretch here on a Thursday night edition of Nightlight.
I would like to thank all your texts, all of you textures tonight.
Thank you so much and our guest in the first hour, Jason Mansmith.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for your crocs advice.
Conrad, I cannot thank you enough for that.
Of course.
Chris, have you?
Chris Rogowski is here from Chicken to the Egg Photography and a local musician as well.
We just heard the song Guillotine.
Great song.
I love the way that the piano is like kind of like not subtle, but it's like just accentuates the song beautifully.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Melanie's good at it.
Yeah.
And that's your your significant other.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How's that?
What's that like being in a band with someone you're madly in
love?
It's beautiful.
If you're listening, Melanie, it's beautiful.
Turn the radio off.
It's terrible.
I'm just... Who writes the... Did she write the songs
with you or...?
Yeah, we go back and forth.
She writes some.
I write some.
We write some together.
Nice.
I think it's a lot of fun.
You know, some couples connect over coffee.
We connect over music.
But we're both musicians.
That helps.
Yeah.
It's a fun song.
I like it.
Thank you for for bringing that in tonight.
You you got live dates coming up, too Let's get those out of the way so we make sure people know where they can see you live if you just like the song you heard Chris has some live gigs coming up November 6th.
What's going on
there?
Which one is that?
That's the mad mad
Mad World Collective in Green Bay here on Mason, I think.
That'll be a solo show.
All original stuff from me, probably like, I don't know, 45, 50 minutes worth of songs.
Oh, sweet.
Yeah, I've really been trying to get the original solo stuff kind of going back to what it was.
I like playing it, but... Does
Melanie know about
this?
She does but no the guy actually is coming in from Minneapolis He's starting his tour I think starting his tour here, and then just going around the country to do his thing so it's me him Zach Baker and Sick Kitty sit another local band some good friends of mine, so that'll
be
11 6
7 to 10
And then you've got one on November 8th as well.
Yeah, yeah at the Adelere in Wapaka And that's what the full band and that's gonna be a lot of fun except we go on it like 1245 in the morning or something like that Or like a telethon or something or some kind of it's a telethon for drunk people.
That's a party area too
a
lot of vacation
Yeah,
yeah, it's it's a Halloween show of all things.
I don't know why it's a week after but apparently the the show promoter
has put on a show like that every year, and he liked us and brought us on.
Oh, that's so cool.
Not only you gotta get down to the brass tacks here.
Oh boy.
We've covered your photography, we've covered your music.
Where do you stand on crocs?
Or where do you stand in crocs?
Well, my brother loves them.
His kids love them, and I know you're listening, Josh, and you love them.
I...
Don't know because I've never worn them and they just feel slippery and gross to me.
I mean, when you put them on, do they slip?
They feel slippery.
So I would much rather either not wear them or wear shoes because crocs are weird.
You
gotta admit sometimes lacing up a shoe seems like a lot of work.
Yeah We can all be a listen.
I was where you were at with a croc, but then I told Conrad earlier I put my sons on to take the garbage out and I was like this really is not bad Listen Conrad's got a new line.
He'd like to sell you some crocs on your way out the doors.
Oh Do you have something you wish you were better at
I'm perfect at everything
I know it's hard being perfect.
No, let's see something.
I wish I was better at Breathing before reacting like taking it just taking a beat take your breath
and
that's how I feel or whatever right before you get in someone's face
Yeah, in fact, I was
just talking to that talking to someone about that today I was like I need to be more re or proactive not reactive or preventive or
yeah,
whatever
no, I know you
mean and then he's like are you actually Italian I'm like
I could be.
Rogowski, sure.
Yeah, Polish-Italian.
People used to think Schwabba was Italian because of the engine in A. I'm like, it's not just a vowel.
That doesn't make you.
That was our question of the night.
Chris is perfect at everything, so he doesn't need to answer that.
Easy stuff.
Steady Eddie, our final text of the night from the 608 says, Pete, I wish I was better at the high jump.
I can't seem to get higher than seven feet, two inches.
That's nothing to sneeze at, Steady Eddie.
He says,
I'm considering changing my jumping technique from the phosphory flop to the technique you made famous, Pete, the Schwab-a-Sache.
Any advice?
How does Steady Eddie know so much about me?
I don't know.
He's got his ear to the ground.
He knows about the Schwab-a-Sache.
He must be doing some really deep, you know.
I don't even know what the Schwab-a-Sache is.
You made it up?
It is your radio
show.
No, it is but I mean is that like the food ballet in the mouth?
I've done that like at a college party when you're trying not to spill your drink.
Is that the Schwabasache?
I don't still go to college parties.
Right now.
All right.
Thank you for coming in, buddy.
It's been great to see you.
Check out chicken or the egg photography dot com.
Chris will take care of you and check out his live dates 11 six.
Where is that again?
I thought this was the name.
Yeah, Mad World Collective.
Okay.
But they can find out more about these shows on Facebook.
Facebook.
Perfect.
All right.
Outstanding.
We are coming back tomorrow night.
Rocker will be here filling in for Terry Barr for a bar band Friday night.
And Chris Mays will be here from clearly confused productions.
And we're going to talk some dinner theater mystery.
A perfect thing for leading up the Halloween on behalf of the lovable producer.
I'm Pete Schwabba saying good night
Wisconsin.
I just move your scent and you're blind like a servant.