From Punk Nights, Rick James, and Wisconsin Indie Films(Hour 2)

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anywhere.

And now, a guy who still likes to build a fort, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back.

Kicking off act two here on a Monday night.

Great to have you with me, folks.

Great show here tonight.

My current guest is Mike Schmidt.

We will be back to Mike in just a moment.

Coming up at 720, Danny Wills and Jason Busse will be here.

They are the creative force behind the voice and the vessel.

A film you can check out.

This week at the Why We Got International Film Festival, which starts on Wednesday.

They'll be here to talk about their film.

Our question of the night is, who is your favorite Sesame Street character?

Muppet or human?

Have fun with it.

Jack from Merrimack in the 414 says Kermit, of course.

And then he has a subtext, or he has a...

Let's call it a PS, if you will.

He says, I still use Pandora.

There are now quite a few ads, but it's still really good.

By the way, I do both Be in Green and Rainbow Connection in my show, Jack from Merrimack.

Thank you, buddy.

Good to hear from you again, Jack.

And Tony the trucker, this is in regard to my conversation with my current guest, Mike Schmidt says, Pete, I was also a bouncer and your guests and I would have been great together in all caps.

Tag team.

I think that's exactly what Mike wanted to hear.

Let's bring back in Mr. Mike Schmidt.

He is the host of the 40 year old boy podcast.

Amanda, you can just say it.

Yes.

Okay.

Also, don't forget Pete's camera is broken right now.

You can't

see him.

You can hear him.

I'm

having a great hair night.

It really sucks.

I can

take a picture and put it up if you want.

We also talked about the Godfather of Green Bay Screening, Madison, December 4th at the brand new beautiful Atwood Music Hall.

And that will be a charity event too for the Dane County Humane Society.

More details on that to come later this hour as well.

But right now, our pal, Mike Schmidt, check out the 40-year-old boy podcast.

Very funny.

Mike is also a really talented stand-up comic and a great guest on this show.

I love having him here.

We were talking bouncing, Mike.

You've got...

You've got way too many bouncing stories.

It's

awesome.

Well, I mean, again, it's the kind of occupation that lends itself to things you'll remember.

You know what I mean?

You

know,

office stories are like, I was at the water cooler and this guy was a jerk.

You can tell that story a thousand times.

So

I

wailed around.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You got an oboe in the chops.

I mean, look at that.

You worked there a minute and you got an oboe in the mouth.

I was at the Ginger Man for a cup of coffee.

Done.

And a cup of coffee side of elbow.

Perfect.

Um, by the way, I got to throw out the count and Oscar the grouch who are not getting enough support.

Oh,

yes.

The

count is amazing.

He is outstanding.

He's like the mo from the Simpsons of Sesame Street.

Kind of that edgy.

I thought I thought you went mo from the three students and I'm like, who is he mean to?

I don't remember being mean to anybody.

I don't have the monocle because I'm an error in history.

Oh, there you go.

I see it.

Um, yeah, yeah.

So I mean, I worked at a bunch of different places, man.

Like I worked the first job, like when I first moved here, I got a job at the Trubidor, which is, you know, that's, which is a famous club

and all

that same deal.

And I, and again, 775 an hour and you

But I was there like I saw Creed there before they became Creed like all these bands Wow, but I showed up one Friday because I never knew who was there like I would just you just showed up for work because again You're just punching the clock and whatever so I show up and the guy around the place is like all right.

You're on the stage tonight now the troubadour stage was Maybe two feet off the ground two or three nice.

It was low.

Okay, so I'm reiterating it was low

Yeah, because two seems low.

I mean, it's probably four feet, whatever.

But it was, you know, I'm gonna say it was five feet.

It was probably five feet off this.

What if I

did that one?

All

right, so it was so huge.

It was the enormous dome.

So I show up, he's like, hey, man, I need you on the stage tonight.

You'll be stage right.

I said, okay, well, what's on the stage?

He goes, yeah.

He goes either on or just like right in front, but right now it's light, so be on.

And he goes, it's punk night.

And I said, okay.

And so I went over there and there was like six bands.

Now we used to have rock and espanol nights and those were rough when you were bouncing because it would be these really kind of thrash Hispanic bands and they would sing in Spanish and get a big Hispanic Latino crowd.

And in the pit, they would wrap their belts around their hands.

And as they came by you by the stage, they'd whip the buckle at you and try to hit you when you were guarding the stage.

Oh my gosh.

Because as you know, if you go to a concert security, you might as well be the cops, you know what I mean?

People, they hate you.

So I go to punk night, I get up on the stage and the first band comes out and they're, you know, they look like the damned, you know, they're just like stinging and the crowd comes up and there's only, there's probably only like 50 people in the room at this point, 45, you know, there's 40, whatever.

So they all come over.

Five feet off the ground.

And they start spitting at the band.

Oh my

gosh.

Yeah, and and I you know it and I figure like I knew you know the sex pistols all those like it was called gobbling It was a thing from the 70s,

but this

is 1998 That's 28 years late for your spitting the

old biological warfare.

It's actually a battery quite frankly, which I

found out

right I'll tell you that story later, but They start spitting at the guy

And he I because I expect the band to like just shut down and leave like all right enough.

We're done with this But no the dude goes into like the crucifix Christ pose and leans forward into it and they're gobbling like all over it like him in his face and I I just I walked off the stage around the crowd and I walked to the front door where my boss was I go they're spitting on the band And he goes oh, yeah, they probably gonna do that.

It's like a thing that they do and I go yeah, I'm not working the stage

And he goes, well, I need you up there.

You got to be up there.

You're a big guy.

I go, listen to me.

I'm telling you, I'm not spitting.

Nobody's spitting on me.

He goes, just go up on the stage.

I go, all right, I'll tell you what, I'll work the stage.

But if anybody spits on me, I am going into the crowd and I am going to hit people until I die.

He goes, what?

And I go, either they will die, I will die.

I will be a nonstop punching machine until I collapse and waste away.

And I'm just staring him in his face and he just goes, all right, we'll have you up front here.

And I'm like, yeah, you're God, you're, you're, you're damn right.

You'll have me up here.

It was, it was, cause man, no way, no way, but I,

that's where you draw the

line.

That's very unswayzy esk of you, Mike.

If this were a roadhouse, uh, be nice, get spit on.

Yeah.

Oh no, that's

not,

absolutely

not.

Yeah.

And I mean, I've had, you know, I'm.

Spitting it's battery.

I mean, it's just literally somebody to jail because it's happened at other like at other gigs and stuff like that, you know, and I you know at the troubadour once I had I Almost had to fight Chad Smith from the chili peppers.

You know, yeah.

Oh, yeah

Yeah, oh

you

could

have

totally taken him.

He's a big dude.

Is he really

he's actually yeah Yeah, he was he was a I think he's probably six three cuz I'm six two and I remember him being taller than me

Okay,

but he tried he just because he get this thing where celebrities they don't

You know, they think they can do whatever they want.

And I'm also not, but I'm not like a jerk bouncer.

I recognize it was Chad from the chili pepper.

So I'm like, dude, I need you to just give me a minute.

Just let me get somebody over here who can take care of this.

And he's just like, I got to go and he tries to shove past me and I put my hand, it's my own fault.

I put my hand in his chest and held him like it's like a little stiff arm.

Like, hey, wait, I'll take care of it.

And he tried to get big on me.

And then of course it turns into like a schmaz and people pull us apart.

But you know, he just, he just.

You know, it's just the thing where you try to be as nice as you can.

Again, Swayze, be nice until there's a time not to be nice.

And you try to be cool, because again, people pay to come to these shows.

They want to have a good time.

I'm not trying to be some jerk.

So what happened, Mike?

Like you guys are face to face.

You're both big dudes.

I mean, did he just do one of you

de-escalate?

He tried to push past me and I held him back and then like his friends grabbed him.

And then I had another security guy and he like stood behind me in case anything happened.

And then other guys came over like with

so they just gave him a pass and he goes upstairs and you just and then of course he's you know he mouths off at me oh yeah big tough guy blah blah blah you think you're a cop and it's like i don't chad but you think you're important and you can just do what you want i mean i'm just literally unfortunately everyone has rules even here dany california it happens

you gotta respect the venue okay like no matter how big you are you gotta respect

the stage you're

on

And the people, like what irritates me more about that story is he's in the red hot chili peppers.

You're making seven bucks an hour.

They should respect that.

You know what I'm saying?

And you're the last line of defense in some cases.

But he thinks I'm trying to be a hard ass for seven bucks an hour.

And I'm not,

you know what

I mean?

I'm just, I literally, I'm like, cause again, the tributaries are small.

So upstairs is super small and he's bringing like five people with him.

So it's that thing where we're just, and again, I don't care about fire hazards.

I don't even, I don't care, but burn this place to the.

Ground, I don't care, but just I'm the one who's going to have to hear it later.

You

know what I mean?

So I just it was that thing.

I got to use I'm going to tell you this story.

All right.

How much time do you have?

We've got about three minutes, Amanda.

All right.

Three and a half.

Three and a half.

We'll do three and a

half.

When I worked at the House of Blues, Rick James was a notorious jackoff.

He would show up and he acted like he ran the place in the House of Blues is a very difficult place to work as a bouncer.

Because they wanted you to bounce and keep the peace and make sure everything was OK.

Yeah.

But you were also supposed to kiss the ass of anybody who was important and let them do whatever they want.

So it created and again, seven, seventy five an hour.

It created a weird thing where you're like, all right, I don't know.

Because then I also don't.

I don't know who's important enough.

Right.

Who's important enough for me to kiss their ass.

You

know what I mean?

How much research do I have to do here?

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

Because I got into an argument with like the fourth horn player from the DAS band.

I mean, like I do I have to.

Do I have to prostrate myself for this guy?

I mean, they got let it whip and that's it.

But, but, but Rick James, I love, I love his music.

I love, I love everything about him.

I think he's, and he's awesome, but he's a dick.

I mean, he just was that guy.

He would show up at like 15 people and go wherever he wanted and do whatever he wanted to do.

And it would be this thing where you'd, among the monsters, you'd even be like,

Man, Rick is here, you know, like that kind of because there was a foundation room and you literally would just just let them go upstairs You would just you wouldn't even say anything, but they would still talk Yang to you as they walked by Okay, almost like yeah, you better let us go and these aren't Rick James like Rick James.

You can talk Yang to me all day I mean, I don't you're right James.

We wrote Mary Jane was not the fourth

player from the

dance No, these other dudes are all with you Rick James satellite friends.

No, thanks, man.

No, I got no interest in that

Uh, what, what did you, you played timpani on, on, you know, on something get bent.

Hey, Mr.

Periphery, calm

down.

Right.

Oh, what are you, this finger snapping guy in the studio and says, great job, Rick.

So now you get free drinks here and you get to walk past me and give me the eye back off.

So I'm, at one point I'm in the back.

Now the house of blues had a million entrances, a front entrance, a porch entrance, a downstairs entrance and going up to the foundation, there were stairs.

So one time I'm I'm blocking the stairs and this is me.

This is probably me at 470 pounds This is peak Schmidt not really.

I got the 525 but I must I'm just a planet.

I mean, I'm blocking the stairs and I see them come up and it's Rick and his friends and Rick won't even talk to me It's the other friends in front.

There's like he's got he goes three deep and he's in the third row There's three.

There's like two rows of five.

They go to walk past me.

Oh, I go, Mr. James.

You got to hold on Let me get Lewis on the thing

And it's his boys who start with the blah, blah, blah, you got to let us up.

Don't you know who this is?

But they start yelling and screaming.

And I'm like, fellas, and I won't let them pass.

And I'm big enough to where I can kind of just move just a little bit to block them, kind of.

So I'm in their way and I'm blocking them.

And then finally, Rick James is tired of it.

And Rick James looks at me and he just goes, Emma, don't you know who I am?

Oh, no.

And I go, I know who you used to be.

And dude, Rick James just came flying at me and like, and all of his boys are there, Louis is there, all the security and it's a big mass of people just moving in a circle and I'm on one end of it and Rick's on the other and everybody's in the between fighting and he won't stop looking at me and he's screaming at me and yelling and I'm just, I'm smiling

in his face the whole

time as we're going in a circle just like that.

And yeah, I got in trouble.

Dude.

Um, but I, so I've, I've had to use that line twice the other time with the guy from the DAS

band.

I use that.

That is gorgeous, Mike.

And you should use it.

I'm still ascending as a bouncer.

I hated saying it because he's a genius.

He's an absolute unequivocal genius.

But in that moment, he was just a guy being a stroke.

And so I, a dude, and I just dropped it on him.

And, and even my heart fell and my

stomach's

like, what did you do?

What did, because of.

it all started because lose again.

It was just a hundred people yelling and then he said it and

I don't

know.

I just know who you used to be.

Wow.

That is gorgeous.

All right.

To be continued, Mike, thanks so much for your time tonight, buddy.

You're always a blast.

Pete.

Thanks for having me, Amanda.

Congratulations again.

Thank you.

Mike Schmidt.

He'll be back.

We'll hear more bouncer stories.

We're coming right back to talk.

Why we can film festivals, peach wabba and nightlife.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get

started.

It's

a

Monday night edition of nightlife folks so great to have you with me always fun Nobody tells the story like Mike Schmidt.

It's just an absolute blast talking to Mike Anna from Madison in the 608 says hi Pete and Amanda my favorite Muppet is beaker.

He is so nerdy Looking it makes me laugh.

Yeah beaker's Beaker's kind of a he's probably the nerdiest Muppet

I don't know about Nerdius, but he's definitely one of a kind.

Who's nerdier than Beaker?

I don't know.

I just feel like maybe Baby Bear is.

Fuzzy Bear?

Baby Bear?

Well, for Sesame Street, Baby Bear.

Is it Fuzzy Bear?

All right.

There's so many of these characters came back.

They keep adding.

Yeah.

They

keep adding.

They gotta

have

turnover.

Yeah.

It's just, it's boring.

JB on the stream says, spitting at the band, that's more severe than a handshake.

Am I right, Pete?

I don't know, JB.

depends who's doing the spitting.

Yeah, probably.

Craig Kennett says Grover is great, excited to hear from Daniel and Jason.

That's a great segue because my next guests, ladies and gentlemen, are two of the creative forces behind the film, The Voice and the Vessel.

And you can see this film at the YWG International Film Festival this week, as well as another film Daniel is in.

He's kind of owning the whole festival.

But we'll get there and we'll let him explain.

It is my pleasure to welcome director Daniel Wheeler and actor Jason Bus.

Hey guys.

Hey.

Hello.

Hello.

How we doing?

Good.

Excellent.

Is it weird that you guys can't see me or is it helping?

Daniel, I'll

defer to you on that.

Well, now there's only two of us having to share the real estate, so that's

kind of

cool.

There you go.

I'll say okay with that.

I'll say that EGLE is the actor.

No real estate for me.

All right.

There you go.

Jason, welcome.

This is your first visit tonight, Light.

Daniel is sort of a regular here.

We love our time to spend with Danny Wills talking about his various projects.

You guys have a favorite Sesame Street character before we really dig into some indie film talk.

Were you thinking about that already, Jason?

Not.

I spent enough time watching Sesame Street growing up.

I always loved Big Bird,

Grover.

I think

Grover.

Grover's great.

I was thinking Grover too, man.

He's kind of that lovable loser that when he's super Grover.

He's got all the confidence.

Oh, I

forgot about Super Grover.

Yeah.

He was like Elmo before Elmo happened.

That was kind of Grover's show.

You know, he's

doing

the stud.

Grover was on Jeopardy tonight.

Yes, he was calling out one entire category of clues actually for Grover Cleveland.

So he was great.

He was great.

That's awesome.

All right, guys, let's jump in because there's two of you here.

I've got questions for both of you.

You've got a big week coming up here.

Daniel, you have two films, am I right, in the Why We Get International?

Yeah, so I'm in Craig Canitz.

Daniel needs to leave acting in that.

And then we have The Voice in the Vessel with...

Yeah, there's a nice poster Yeah voice in the vessel where Jason is stars as Aaron grieving father whose son is in the hospital and He is up in the attic of his grandmother's and finds a old automaton That he puts a nickel in starts spitting out cards and the third card really throws him for a loop

That's a great setup without any spoilers.

I think you share this with me Daniel a while ago and it's such a It's such a beautiful looking movie And I you don't see a lot of short films that have like this really high-class cinematography out there They're out there, but but I would say you hit a home run there and then Jason's performance was great, too But how much went in this little indie film?

How much went into the actual shooting of it in terms of cinematography and lighting and all that stuff?

Well, we you know Jason has he his friends with Nate Haven and Nate's a great cinematographer and he Suggested, you know, maybe we can bring Nate in on this project You know, I wanted to keep it real simple like a Saturday after you know Saturday full day, maybe another half day in there

And Nate is great.

He was interested in doing something kind of real creative.

He liked the idea.

He was being told about the automaton as it was being built and shared photos by Jason.

But yeah, Jason, you know, he's really wanted to work with Nate.

So I'll kind of turn it over to you, Jason.

Oh, yeah, we were blessed by

by his talent, his insight, his years doing this at a professional level, and great equipment as well.

So he came in and brought everything that he knew, and he was definitely part of the location scouting process.

And it definitely didn't hurt that the location that we filmed at actually happened to be

very, very close to where, where it lifts.

So that.

Across the park, maybe.

Literally.

Yes.

Yeah.

Walking distance away, but that definitely added to it.

So so many things came together.

Yeah.

That's so huge when you're making an indie film, but you guys, is it the same?

Like you say you had to convince a cinematographer.

Is it the same as like convincing an actor?

Like an actor sometimes will do something for less money if it's great material.

How do you convince a cinematographer, Daniel?

Well, you know, I think it's just you're kind of artist to artist talking, you know, and you need their help.

I'm, you know, looking to help Nate whenever he needs it.

You know, it's a trade for a trade needed to make sure it worked with his schedule.

I mean, he's a freelance businessman.

So I wanted to make sure that the weekend we picked

It wasn't coinciding with something, a big paid gig, so.

Sure.

But yeah, he's a, you know, he's an artist at heart.

Hey, let's

pick up right there.

We got to do the news here, guys.

Then we'll come back and dig deeper into the voice in the vessel.

We'll tell you when you can see it and we'll talk.

Daniel needs to leave.

Daniel Wheeler and Jason Boss are here.

It's great to have you guys here.

We're coming right back on Nightlight with Peach Wava.

Powered by U.S.

Aging.

I'm Pete Schwab, and this is Nightlight.

Great to have you with me.

A reminder, folks, I mentioned this earlier in the show.

If you're in the Madison area...

This was just announced today with the sponsorship of WMDX, our affiliate here at Civic Media in Madison.

John and Gordy, the morning hosts, and all of our friends at WMDX, Catherine Lake, and producer Dom and downtrends Distilling, they're the sponsor for the Godfather of Green Bay Screening on December 4th at the Atwood Music Hall, the beautiful new Atwood Music Hall.

It's 10 bucks a ticket, a dollar from every ticket goes to the Dane County Humane Society.

And it's going to be a really fun night.

John and Gordy will introduce the film and introduce me.

I'll be there answering questions afterwards.

It should be a really fun night.

The doors open at six.

The film starts at seven.

It's about an hour and a half, if that.

And it should be a really fun night.

So if you're in the Madison area, go to the Atwood Music website and get some tickets and come out and say hello.

It should be a really fun night.

Green Bay Llama says Oscar the Grouch is

his favorite Sesame Street character, and not only is his favorite, he says it's my idol.

Thank you, Green Bay Llama.

Mike Desitel on the stream put two characters.

I don't even recognize them.

I don't even know who these guys are, but they're definitely Muppets.

Thank you, Mike.

Jason Jerry says animal, but specifically baby animal from Muppet Babies.

Great choice, Jerry.

Thank you, sir.

And Dan Davies, our pal from here in Northeast Wisconsin, says Bert and Ernie because of their bachelor living arrangements and also because they were inspired by Ernie and Bert from the 1945 classic, It's a Wonderful Life.

I'm familiar with the movie.

Thank you, Dan.

We also got a new one on the stream that I'm not

sure

what has been said, but the snuffle up against.

Oh, the snuffle up against, yeah, from Sydney.

Hey, buddy.

Good to have you with us tonight, Sid.

and JB Thompson stuck in a rift.

Amanda Lynn, large live.

I don't know what that means, do you?

Nope.

I think JB Thompson is sending you guys messages.

My guests right now are Daniel Wheeler and Jason Bus, two of the creative forces behind The Voice in the Vessel, which plays this week at the YWiga Film Festival.

Daniel, when is your screening?

I've got the website open here and for some reason I'm clicking on it and it's not coming

up.

It's Friday night.

during the PsychoFest, so I believe that's seven to nine p.m.

It's a list of a bunch of shorts during PsychoFest.

That's

awesome.

Yes, sir.

What's that, Jason?

I was just telling Dan that, yes, absolutely, he is correct, seven o'clock.

Fantastic.

All right, so check that out.

You can find more information at the, if you just Google why we got international film festival, it'll take you right to the site.

I bought tickets last night.

I'm going to be there Thursday, Thursday night, and it should be a lot of fun.

Daniel, you were in the middle of telling us how you convinced this great cinematographer.

to do your short film when you might not have the money he's used to making or, you know, how do you get people like that to take a gig?

And you said artist to artist, but you were about to elaborate.

Yeah, no, that's pretty much it.

Yeah, artist artist.

He I think when you see something and you get invested in it, you want to help it, you know, come to life and

I wasn't sure about the cinematography for this, but Jason said, you know what, I got somebody in mind would love to work with him.

He's been a prize of the automaton build all along and he seems quite interested.

And so, yeah, I mean, Nate's an artist at heart.

So, yeah, he wanted to help bring this to life.

Can you explain to people what an automaton is?

Yeah, it's a, um, so it's one of those old vintage kind of robots, but it is, um, if you're familiar with the movie big with Tom Hanks, it's the Zoltar.

Um, it's all really run with, um, kind of like a clock.

So lots of gears and whatnot.

So it's meant to look like a old.

cast iron relic from maybe a boardwalk from the 50s or 60s you put five cents in it and it kind of spits out cards.

Now normally you would kind of get real generic cards like a fortune cookie but this one seems to be typing very specific questions for Jason's character.

Jason, let's talk about that.

First of all, tell me how you got involved with the project.

And then what were your challenges as an actor?

You're the only actor in the film.

Did that add pressure to you to kind of carry the movie?

I mean, there's all kinds of other facets here with lighting and shooting and all that stuff.

But as an actor and the only one on the screen, that had to be kind of interesting.

Yes, that would be the short answer.

Yes, interesting all the way.

Daniel, I guess, refreshed my memory, but I think the story came up.

We were introduced in a friend's backyard.

And it didn't take very long from there after meeting me.

And Daniel brought up the suggestion of the story.

And we went out, grabbed a beverage,

told me more about it, some story points, and I was I was definitely intrigued.

Okay, this is this is definitely unusual.

And so it didn't it didn't take long from there for me to to kind of say say yes, spending any time and honestly with with Daniel, I was just I was just

kind of hooked.

I'm like his and it didn't take me very long after that to realize just his head is screwed on uniquely straight.

Very, very level headed.

I thought this this guy is is doing something.

It's going to be really intriguing.

And I want to be part of it.

My

guests are

Jason Bus and Daniel Wheeler, the creative force, the director and the actor of The Voice of the Vessel, which you can see at the Why We Get International Film Festival.

So I think I cut you off there, Jason.

I apologize.

Please continue.

I just just his energy, the story, and I definitely wanted to be part of it.

Been an actor in the commercial world for

many years, more than I'd like to admit, but actually I'll rewind the clock for many people, at least a few people listening.

I was one of the co-founders of the Wildwood Film Festival in Appleton many years ago.

And so that was cut.

That was my entrance into the film.

But back to this, and as soon as Daniel kind of said,

Hey, I think you have the look that I would like my guy to have.

Just started talking story and then I asked him if I can share this with somebody.

I shared it with Nate.

It didn't take long for him to say that he was on board and fast forward.

Here we are, but it was definitely a longer

somehow faster, but also longer journey than I think either one of us expected it to be.

That's great.

Daniel, you have such a chill energy, but you have the energy.

It's like, for someone as soft-spoken as you, you know, people could misconstrue that as, oh, he's a very quiet guy.

I wouldn't say that about you.

I would say that's just, you're very observant.

You know, you're an artist.

Jason, what, it, directorially,

How does Daniel style compare to other directors you've worked with?

Um,

I think, um, careful.

Yes.

Yeah.

Oh boy.

I want to work with Daniel.

Do you want to work with me again?

The movie's done, man.

Just

unload.

Let him

have it.

Oh boy.

Oh boy.

I think on, on this, on this set, um, very often I pushed.

I might have requested one or two additional takes just to have some insurance, get a couple extra.

That way you can polish something in post.

But he was very much, I know what I want.

Okay, I think we got it.

I'm like, can we do another one?

I think the most that we did of any one take might have been four.

Definitely five tops, but probably four and on the average, like two or three.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was great, very, very chill.

We did a lot of pre-work as far as the character and the level of performance and stuff like that.

So once we kind of got to set,

that what our expectations were pretty much on the same page with each other.

You know, I just realized we haven't even covered this.

Daniel, tell people a little bit about what the voice in the vessel is about if you want to dig a little deeper and then where the idea came from.

So the idea that came from what really wanting to make this sculpture and usually with any project like The Last Witch of Wisconsin

It was the idea of making the cement death mask of a witch that kind of shot the idea.

So with this one, I wanted to make an automaton.

I wanted to have moving parts.

And I know I wanted to do another supernatural kind of creepy storyline.

So that kind of

Runs the show until and then I'll let the idea start to kind of pour in as I'm working on this sculpture and so a creepy When you see the attic it's amazing.

I mean Jason found this attic a location and It is perfect.

It's got these huge Vaulted ceiling, but it's all very kind of run down as an attic should be

And then it added bonus of an amazing basement.

And there wasn't a reason to go into the basement until we saw the basement.

And so, yeah, a couple of things that you really need to see to believe, you know, it was, what were you saying, Jason?

Like something like that would cost.

to try and set that in

Hollywood.

Way too much, you would spend thousands of dollars to get something that still wouldn't look as good as that.

And I remember scouting the location and Daniel and one of the other producers were actually across the state repping the last witch at a different festival.

And I connected with Nate and we went and walked the house, took pictures upstairs, took pictures downstairs, and then begged Daniel, like, here's pictures of the workshop.

Please tell me we need to find a way to go down there.

And to his credit, he reworked the script.

And I think it fit in beautifully, yeah.

That's great.

We have about a minute to go till the break.

So Jason, my question for you.

You worked on the film Deep Woods, I see, with Jeffrey Kerr.

What was that experience like, a fun little thriller?

I was an extra.

I was a sheriff's deputy for that day.

There was a helicopter on location the day that I was there, probably one of the scenes near the end of the film.

It was an interesting day.

met some great people and the director and the whole deal.

But yeah.

That's awesome.

All right, we're going to have a couple more minutes with these guys after another short break here.

And I'm going to tell you about another film that Daniel is in that's also playing at the Why We Get Film Festival.

This one's more of a comedy that I really enjoyed as well.

Bridget in the 818 says, Lewis and Maria, I remember them.

Bridget, they worked at Mr. Hooper Store.

or live next door or something like that.

Bridget says they were really nice, made an impression, looking forward to your movie in Madison.

Well, thank you, Bridget.

I have seen it.

It is so funny and heartwarming.

Wow, thank you.

Bridget, please text more often.

She says, can't wait to see it on the big screen again.

Thank you.

All right, we're coming back.

We'll have a couple more minutes with our guests, Daniel Wheeler and Jason Bus.

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

Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,

civicmedia.us.

Right?

Yeah.

No craziness happening like the last time you were

here.

Don't jinx it.

We got seven minutes

left.

Seven minutes to go.

With

the way today started, let's not.

Let's see what happens.

Tomorrow night, folks, on Night Lights, actress Katie LeClerc will be here.

She is the lead, the female lead in the film Cherry Pie Christmas, which was filmed in Door County.

That film is available to see now and it will be available to stream November 15th.

So we'll tell you all about that tomorrow.

It'll be good to have Katie here.

I don't think she has a connection to Wisconsin, but she was here to make the movie.

So it'll be interesting to get an outsider's perspective on Dork County.

And then Green Bay based director Craig Kinnett will be here as well tomorrow.

So our old pal Craig will be here.

Not old pal.

Youngish.

Daniel, thoughts?

Yeah.

He's a young guy at heart.

He's a young guy at heart and he teaches kids very well too at the Boise Girls Club.

So that's great.

Craig will be here tomorrow night.

Daniel, let's talk for a couple of minutes because Craig will cover this tomorrow, but Daniel needs to leave.

You're the lead actor in this film.

It's a very funny movie.

Craig was very innovative the way he shot it.

And again, he can elaborate more on that tomorrow.

But what was that experience like?

Did you like being in front of the camera?

I did.

Yeah, it was fun to just show up and not have to worry about anything.

Just, you know, Craig, where do you want me to be?

Okay.

How many takes are we going to do?

Sounds great.

Um, so yeah, that was kind of fun to just put on only the actor hat.

Um, and yeah, Craig kept it real loose.

He wanted to, um, most of the lines be improved, but, you know, a general idea of

where we're doing with the outline of the movie was enough to get this kind of fun, comical Wisconsin goodbye, which most people in Wisconsin understand.

It's kind of funny.

Mandy, can you put that picture back up where it's Daniel?

The other one.

The other one?

Outside, yeah.

I thought this was a really fun picture because the film is about you trying to leave a party, your character trying to leave a party.

in this picture it looks like they're trying to get you to leave for some reason like you're that guy and I don't know I thought and look the film works it's really a fun film and that I think is playing on Thursday at why we get correct

I believe that's true yeah okay

so you'll be there right

uh yeah I'm gonna try and make both Thursday and Friday of course Friday yeah

dude we can pal around it's gonna be fun

Before I let you guys get out of here, I want to ask you what you're watching.

Jason, binge-watching anything you could recommend?

I've been watching entirely reality TV, so I cannot recommend that at all.

I cannot recommend that at all.

But

which one?

You can't just not name it.

Thank you for your honesty.

Oh, my gosh.

Selling sunset.

Oh, dear.

Yeah, yeah selling I'm so glad I

didn't know that before we invited you on

the show Your opinion of me should just go down as I can tell

it did

Okay, because my

partner

and I are currently binging Love Island and we

just

like to judge

people sure

that's it

I Appreciate your honesty.

Thank you.

Jason.

What about you Daniel?

I love is blind.

Oh

What is that again?

That's

Netflix

shows.

No, that is in my peripheral.

OK, it is.

Yeah.

But no, my wife, Grace, she likes those shows and where I work in my computer, it's kind of in the.

So I get a lot of periphery.

I'm like, so every now and then I'll be working.

Oh, you know, big old drop happen.

But no, something we've been enjoying watching is the the chair company.

Oh, so funny.

That one's so funny.

And Murderbot.

I really loved Murderbot.

I think it's on HBO, but maybe it's on Apple.

But it's a really good one.

Great sci-fi.

I'm not a big sci-fi guy, but this one is good.

Interesting.

Those are great to recommend.

And you know what?

I'm sorry, Jason.

I was making a joke.

We all have our guilty pleasures.

No reason to feel bad about it at all.

Gentlemen, thank you so much.

Good luck with the screening this week.

Have a blast in Waiwega.

Daniel, I will see you there on Thursday.

And thanks again, guys.

It was great having you

on.

Thank you.

Good to finally chat with you, sir.

You too, Jason.

Great to meet you.

All right, so check out we'll keep you guys posted too if these films come out to a streaming platform or something or we'll give you other Places you can check them out as that becomes information becomes available, but go to why we got Check out this festival Amanda there's like a thousand people in why we get you know that but it's an international film festival If you want a hotel you got to go to like Appleton or Wapaka And I find that so charming and it's in this little opera house.

It's awesome.

You gotta wonder how it

It got there, though, like out of all the towns.

Ian Teal, he was on the show last week.

He lived in New York City for years, came back home to Wisconsin.

I don't know that he was from why we got trying to remember this, but he found they found he and his wife found this opera house.

They're like, we got to do something with this.

It's great.

Very inspirational story.

So anyway, my thanks to Jason Bus and Daniel Wheeler to the always hilarious Mike Schmidt.

Thank you, ma'am, for sitting in for Conrad.

This is always fun.

Absolutely.

And thank you to Chris Casper again for working diligently and Dan Marcus, our fearless leader here at WGBW.

So have a great night, everybody.

We'll be back tomorrow with Katie Leclerc and Craig Knitt.

Thank you for all of you.

Thank you to all of you for answering the question.

It's so much fun when you guys participate.

So we're going to get out of here on behalf of Amanda.

Good night, Wisconsin.

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