Transcript
Animated Characters and Franks Christmas (Hour 1)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Tue Nov 18, 2025
Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.
This is Night Light with Pete Chwaba.
Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.
And now, a guy who writes checks his mouth can't cash.
Pete Chwaba.
Hey, hey!
Welcome to Nightlight Wisconsin.
How are we doing today?
Oh, it is great to have you.
It is a Tuesday night.
We are broadcasting as you just heard from downtown Green Bay.
It is a gorgeous, if not a bit chilly night here.
I'm still getting used to this coming on an hour early.
And it does not feel, it feels like I should still be making coffee, Conrad.
I'm not sure I'm supposed to be on the air yet, but I'm supposed to be.
Yeah.
What do you make of that?
You're just where you need to be.
This is all you're doing.
You begged them to put us on an hour early and they caved.
That's
the kind of negotiating skills you have.
That is the voice of Nightlight producer, Conrad Krieger.
Great show tonight, folks.
Glad you're here.
As I mentioned, we are here at our new start time of five o'clock.
And it's kind of like happy hour because it's like a bonus hour.
And you know that old phrase, it's five o'clock somewhere.
If it's five o'clock somewhere, it's definitely five o'clock in Wisconsin.
So it's kind of happy hour.
Are you a happy hour guy, Conn?
Do you go to happy hour?
I mean, on the weekends, I guess.
Is it a happy hour, just a weekday thing?
No, I went to, was it two weeks ago, I went to Anduzzi's.
Oh, yeah.
And on Sunday, they have a happy hour that lasts all day, pretty much.
And it's buy one, get one, buy one, get one, you know, domestic beers.
And I enjoyed myself there.
Did you?
Did you have a couple of those domestic beers?
I had a couple brews.
Nothing wrong with that.
I used to go all the time.
It used to be a big deal, like happy hour.
It started typically at four o'clock and you could go in there and it's pretty much like when you're in college anyway, that's your whole night.
I mean, you start drinking at four o'clock as a 20 year old kid and it's over, you
know.
the next day, you don't even feel that bad.
That's true.
Are you guys ready to do it again today?
You have better recovery, exactly.
Yeah, now I don't, I don't feel like doing that.
Yeah, I don't really either.
Even, this is so funny.
It's like, now when I party in my life, it's non-alcoholic beer in a movie at home.
Like, it is so, like 21 year old Pete would be so, so upset with me.
It's terrible.
You know, I'm only 26, so I still, you know.
Like to have yeah have fun with my friends out on a on a bar night.
Yeah And that's okay to admit.
This is happy hour.
Do you how often do you get loaded?
Actually not that much.
Okay.
I definitely I realized how much Weight is easily gained when you drink that much right college So I definitely tone down on
it.
It's I think I got to a point probably in my early 30s where I'm like
Why am I doing shots?
Like, I like to have a drink, but when you're doing shots, you're just like on a mission.
It's like, I want to get drunk fast and I don't want to remember anything.
Like, where is the, and there are like, you know, some shots that are worse than others.
I know they're like Yeager Meisters and they're like, what's the, oh, there was a really kind of a lightweight one that sort of tasted good.
It was like a lemon lime shot.
I can't, kamikaze maybe?
I
know it, it's,
A lemon drop?
No, I've heard of that.
I've heard of lemon drop martinis.
Well, I'm talking about just a shot, and the lemon drops, it just tastes like juice, and that's not good
with a shot.
I love it.
When you go to Marinette to a bar to have a Bloody Mary on a Saturday or Sunday morning, or whenever, any day of the week, it's five o'clock in Marinette.
They give you a Bloody Mary, and the Bloody Marys are usually really good, and then they give you a chaser.
You heard of this?
Oh yeah, definitely.
But the chaser is like the size of a real beer.
It's like eight ounces of a chaser.
That's the best part.
What do you need a chaser for Bloody Mary for?
I mean, for me, I don't like Bloody Mary's at all,
because I
don't like tomato juice.
I like them.
I mean, I
will have that.
I'll drink the chaser.
One
of
my friends will have a Bloody Mary, and then I'll take the chaser.
It's a big chaser.
It's not like two ounces.
Because
it always has to be a spotted cow chaser.
Well, that's a pretty lofty chaser.
But it's like, do the buddy, Mary.
Shot gonna be her.
There's your chaser.
You might as well.
Shot gonna
be her, okay.
It's a fun night here, folks.
It is a Tuesday here at Nightlight.
We have a great show.
Lots of great guests tonight.
We got a really fun question.
We're going to talk about just a couple of issues that are happening here in Wisconsin that I thought were interesting that I saw in the news today.
So we'll discuss that.
And Conrad's going to give us a little pack or update in a few minutes.
But yeah, fun show.
Frank Hermans is here at 535.
The legendary Wisconsin performer.
from Let Me Be Frank Productions, Frank Hermans.
He's gonna be here to tell us all about his new Christmas show, which opens at the beautiful Meyer Theater, November 28th.
And he will be here in studio always fun when Frank comes by.
Then Ellie Bordeaux from Up North News will be here at 6.35.
We will get introduced to Ellie.
It's her first time on Nightlight.
And she writes some really cool articles.
Did you know who created Up North News?
Pat
Cradleau.
It's our buddy, Pat Cradleau.
Yeah?
Yeah.
Great news source.
Really is.
I love the way they present the news.
It's like true and it's great.
And the stories somehow they put on like, I don't know, it's just a different field.
There's nothing toxic about it.
It's just great.
So we'll talk to Elliot 635 and get to know her a little bit.
And then our pal Rob Thomas, really outstanding Madison film critic and city cast Madison newsletter editor will be here at 720 to talk movies.
Rob has seen a lot of stuff I haven't seen as usual.
He gets these, you know, he's a critic.
He gets these inside scoops and gets these early viewing.
So he's already seen Wicked, the new Wicked, which opens Friday.
I forgot to ask him if he saw Relay, that movie I saw this past weekend at home.
And I think he's seen The Running Man.
He's seen Pluribus.
We're going to talk about all these new great, all
this
new great content that's out there.
So we'll do all of that.
What did you think about?
What did you okay?
I shared that article with you about the moveover law.
Yes, I mean I'm totally It's you should definitely well first
common
sense right first you should explain it Well,
the moveover law is there's already a law in place as I understand it for emergency vehicles like if there are emergency vehicles pullover you have to go into the other lane police Ambulances whatever but now they're trying to amend that and say that if a car is pulled over
you should get out of the way and I agree with that too because somebody
could
be changing attire whatever but to me it's yeah if you're gonna pass a law pass a law sure but that's common sense I get over anyway I would never want to risk hitting someone I it seems strange that we need a law for that but I mean whenever I'm
driving on the highway and I see someone on the side yeah I see people in front of me going over too so I feel like it's a lot of people do the same thing
Well, on this video, I think it was on the WBAY news site, they had a video of this big dump truck that didn't pull over.
Or tried to pull over in the car next to the dump truck, wouldn't let it in, was something like that, but it's horribly dangerous.
And I thought this struck a nerve with me because I drive an hour each way to get here, here and back every day.
To me, it's just a no-brainer and a lot of people listening right now are probably in their cars So slow down folks and if you can't get over it takes nothing to move over and you could I mean people die like a lot of people die every year from that.
You know
what really?
Nice car reference
Thank you.
Thank you when you're merging into you know when you're merging onto the highway Yeah, and that car in that lane is not Going to you know going to the left lane when they're in the right one,
right and
you're trying to
merge onto the highway.
Like, all right, now I have to slow down.
And I just got up to speed.
And there's like, nope, I'm just doing my thing over here.
That grinds my gears.
However, it you are the one merging, you have to go around them.
I mean, common courtesy says yes, they should move over.
If I see someone entering, I typically move over if I can.
Yeah.
But otherwise, yeah, the guy merging or the girl merging, you have to slow down and adjust to traffic.
Okay, so the last time it did happen, the highway was wide open.
That was the only car.
And I was just messing with you.
He had to be.
He is probably not a proponent of the moveover law.
That's all I'm
saying.
I see your point, though.
I mean, if there's someone in the left lane and they're in the right and they can't even get over, I'm like, yeah, that's fine.
Totally.
You know, it just grinds my gear sometimes.
Just be nice.
Don't be that guy.
Um, the other thing I saw that I thought was interesting here in Wisconsin anyway, sports gambling online is not, and we talk about sports on the show periodically.
So you, I'm not a gambler.
Are you?
Uh,
that's
a yes.
I used to like sports betting.
Yes.
I used
to, I stopped because I, and I was, I was on a low on a streak of not winning.
Really?
So I stopped and funny story.
I followed these really funny comedian duo on Twitter, Instagram, and all that, and they had the site, and it said, free $25 when you signed up.
So I signed up and got a free $25.
No deposit necessary.
And I won $500.
Really?
I deleted the app.
I said, all right, I'm done.
So you walked away 500 ahead?
Yep, and I didn't even deposit.
And you never went back?
Nope.
Oh, see, dude, that's...
People, bookies would be out of business or these companies if everybody knew when to walk away, but they don't, right?
I know friends that have gotten in a lot of trouble, but I don't understand like in Wisconsin, they're getting pushback on online sports betting from conservatives and FanDuel and DraftKings.
How do you place a bet if you don't go online?
Like why wouldn't DraftKings, and I'm a bet, obviously I'm very ignorant about this stuff.
Why would they want it not to be legal?
So, I guess the only reason, this is the only reason I see, and I don't see any other reasons besides this, is that all casinos, you know, in Wisconsin, they have their own sports, like sports book, you know, there, and they, it draws people in, because they're one of the only places you can actually bet on sports in Wisconsin.
Yeah.
So that's the only way I see it is like affecting casinos now.
So we'll cut into their business.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's
the
only reason I see
it doesn't affect me.
Anyway, like it's something I don't have I Mean, I understand why my friends some friends bet on sports.
I get it But I just something I never wanted to I feel like I'd want to watch every game then like in fantasy football or something I just don't want to do that.
Yes Yeah, I already have too much money in fantasy football so
Well,
that's gambling, kind of, but it's fun.
You know, you get to be a general manager.
Exactly.
All right, so I think it's time, Conrad, that we get to our nightlight question of the night.
Let's
talk about
the question.
OK, question.
Question.
Question.
Pregunta.
Question.
Question.
OK, I have a question.
Questions.
This question.
Domanda.
Question.
Question.
Here we go.
It's Mickey Mouse's birthday.
So our question of the night is who is your favorite animated or Pixar character?
Let me be easy to say Mickey Mouse because Mickey Mouse is sort of like the granddaddy Thanks to steamboat Willie animated character.
Thanks to Walt Disney, but There's so much animation now there shows on TV movies kids films.
You've got all the Pixar stuff so
You have a lot to choose from here tonight, folks.
Who is your favorite animated or Pixar character?
855-752-4842-855-75Civic.
Text us on the text line or drop us a comment on the app.
Or if you're watching the radio, let us know and drop us a stream comment.
We will read it.
On the radio, always more fun when you guys participate.
And we we've got a lot of good entertainment talk coming up in hour number two as well So we can delve into that.
I don't know.
I would say I'm just gonna say right away.
I'll start us off Homer.
Oh,
yeah Homer Simpson is one of my heroes And then it's a tie when it comes to Pixar it's a tie between was and buddy buddy was and Woody
and Buzz
I'm
so drunk.
I'm sorry.
What about you?
How about after the break?
Oh, that's a great tease.
Conrad's going to give us his favorite animated or Pixar character after this very short break.
So great to have you with me tonight on Night Light, folks.
It's Night Light with Peach Waba on the Civic Media radio
network.
keep on the sunny side always on the sunny side keep on the sunny side of life it will help us every day
It's
only the third time I've ever sang on this show, God.
And I'm trying to get my pipes ready because Frank Hermes is coming in at 5.35.
Are you
gonna sleep some backup?
I do.
I practice at home whenever I know Frank is coming in, but he's got a...
booming voice, man.
That guy's
like.
So Frank will be here at 535, Ellie Bordeaux from Up North News at 635, and our pal Rob Thomas, Madison Film Critic at 720.
Our question of the night is, it's Mickey Mouse's birthday.
Who is your favorite animated or Pixar character?
Let's have some fun.
I say Homer.
I know I always do this.
I can't, because I go Homer for out and out comedy, but I go Buzz and Woody.
for just sort of sweet feel-good movies.
So I had trouble kind of figuring out which direction to go in.
All right, Khan, you've kept us
in
suspenders here through the break.
Yeah, I'd say it's a tie for my favorite animated, Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny.
That's the tie for me because I can still watch those right now and enjoy them still.
When I was a kid, I loved them.
Tom and
Jerry, they were the inspiration for itchy and scratchy on The Simpsons.
And I loved Tom and Jerry, but Bugs Bunny is, I grew up watching Bugs
Bunny.
He was
like Groucho Marx with a
carrot instead of a cigar.
So
good.
So good.
All right, that's a good choice.
Pixar, I'd say, I really like the seven dwarfs growing up.
Seven Dwarfs?
Or no, that's Disney.
Yeah, but well that's what I meant.
There were the Pixar and Disney or this, you know, whatever.
Yeah.
But yeah, the Seven Dwarfs.
Was that animated?
Yeah.
Yeah,
okay.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?
I don't think I ever saw that whole movie, even when
I was a kid.
I just like the Seven Dwarfs.
Are you saying Dwarfs or Dwarfs?
Yes.
Because Dwarf is like the Tim Conway character, Dwarf on golf, and he would put his legs through the stage so it looked like he was really short.
As
a golf fan, you
should Google that.
It's very funny.
Tim Conway was hilarious, but he was he was dwarf.
I thought you were getting confused.
No.
Before we bring Frank in and we'll answer a few texts in just a moment.
But what is going on with the Packers?
They've got.
Well,
I mean, I mean, so last week we had a the injury bug hit us.
Yeah.
Well, the game
was happening.
I guess that's where I was going to run.
Yeah.
Josh Jacobs.
So it's definitely less serious.
Okay, then people thought you know it's met life.
So people got scared Because a lot of people have torn their ACL there.
It's so unforgivable.
So that's how
soldier feel was
to get
these multi-million dollar athletes Put some put some good turf down, you know or sod whatever is it it
it happened this year to the Giants like their star receiver It happened to him
League neighbors.
Oh, right,
right.
So I don't understand why they'd be like, you know, we should probably take it.
It happened to Cam Scataboo as well.
He heard his ankle really bad.
Yeah.
And just I'm just like, okay, is it time to like be like, maybe it's us.
He spent a little money.
But that I think that, you know, next week is against the Vikings.
Right.
So we just got to stop their offense.
And obviously, Justin Jefferson.
I do have to say, I know this is not a popular stance here.
I know sometimes Packer fans seems like they don't, it seems like they dislike the Vikings even more than the Bears sometimes, but that Viking stadium is beautiful.
It's
one of the best.
That's
my favorite.
I'm not a huge fan of the Dallas one.
Sofi is a little ostentatious.
It's got kind of a cool design, but it almost looks too futuristic.
Minneapolis has that.
That's like the perfect.
Indoor stadium because it looks like you're outdoors with that huge window.
Love that.
That's one of these times I want to go out there Yeah, and go to that stadium.
All right.
Give us an update too if you would on Yanis.
I know Yanis is struggling a
bit.
Yeah, I mean Yeah, he strained his groin last night.
I believe so He is out for you know, it's one to two weeks, but without Yanis, it's like the bucks
They're in trouble.
They just got the signing of Miles Turner, who was supposed to help him out a lot, but he hasn't done much this year.
I mean, he's paid a lot of money, too, and averaging probably around 12 points.
That's kind of like affect your viewership, too.
If Yanis is not playing, people are like, I'll turn on this Golden Girls.
Reunion show.
I don't know.
I mean, you still watch them if you're a diehard.
But yeah.
All right.
Let's go to the text line here or social media responses for our question of the night in honor of Mickey Mouse's birthday.
Who's your favorite animated or Pixar character?
Matt Harper, Green Bay rock rap artist.
Love Matt says Eric Cartman from South Park.
I forgot about Cartman.
He's awesome.
That's a great one, Matt.
Paula Krieger, Conrad's mom, Lilo and Stitch.
Great choice, Paula, outstanding.
Jenny Brand on the social media on our Facebook feed says animated equals Sailor Moon.
Disney animated equals Gus Gus, the fat mouse in Cinderella.
And Pixar equals Edna Mode, the incredible
all
Edna's great.
I love Edna.
I don't, I have to tell you though Jenny, I don't know Sailor Moon and I don't know Gus Gus.
But I'm sure I've seen Gus-Gus, but Sailor Moon is a new one to me.
I don't know who that is.
Con, do you know who Sailor Moon is?
I
think that's an anime, maybe.
Yeah, maybe.
I don't
know that.
I'm not totally sure.
Thank you, Jenny.
Con Red says Tom and Jerry.
Daniel Wheeler.
Daniel Wheeler says lumpy space princess from the animated series Adventure Time.
I remember Adventure Time.
Great one, Daniel.
Thank you, buddy.
Rich Lucaccio, our favorite wrestling announcer, and one of our favorite WRJN personalities says, Mr. Mezix from Rick and Morty.
Rick and Morty is a great show.
You ever watch that show?
You know, I never really got into it, actually.
It's a good show.
Very good.
Dave, watching the radio on the stream, our pal Dave from Marinette.
Originally, he hails from Marinette.
I believe Dave is in Madison now.
It says Johnny Quest.
Remember that one?
No.
I have to look it up.
I might remember it after I looked it up.
Yeah, my son watched.
There's so many great ones out there.
Dave also says, Bugs Bunny, ESQ.
I don't remember when Bugs got his law degree.
Those are great answers.
Thank you, everybody.
All right, keep those questions coming.
We'll read them as they roll in.
Frank Hermans is coming up next.
Lots of fun here tonight on a Tuesday on Nightlight.
So great to have you with me, folks.
I'm Pete Schwabba, and this is Nightlight.
Welcome back.
This is Nightlight.
I am Pete Schwabba.
It is great to have you with me tonight, folks.
It is a Tuesday night in the state of Wisconsin, broadcasting statewide from beautiful downtown Green Bay.
Ellie Bordeaux will be here at 6.35 from Up North News.
We're gonna talk about where you can get Thanksgiving dinner for the needy.
That's gonna be really cool.
Up North News does some great stuff.
Madison Film Critic Rob Thomas will be here at 7.20.
Our question of the night is, in honor of Mickey Mouse's birthday, who is your favorite animated or Pixar character?
I said Homer and Buzz and Woody.
Well, I said was and buddy.
What did I say?
Was and buddy.
I just polished off a bottle of whiskey on my way down from Marinette.
And Conrad says, Tom and Jerry.
So let's ask our next guest, though, what he thinks.
He is one of my favorite guests to have here in the studio.
And I don't like him personally, but I love when he's on the show.
And we just seem to make it work, Mr. Frank Hermans of Wisconsin.
Entertainment legend is here.
Hey, buddy, how are you?
We are statewide.
Yeah, that's
awesome.
So they can listen to me in Ashland, Wisconsin.
Crap.
We're on all the big markets.
I don't know if we're on in Onalaska.
Onalaska.
It's a beautiful little
town.
I'm fantastic and thanks for having me.
Holy cat is it getting cold out.
So I got to do the holiday parade this weekend.
My wife and I, we sing from nine to 10 and then we MC.
And it's
shown on
NBC 26.
Anyway, I'm looking at the weather today.
30 degrees, cloudy.
I've done the parade where it was 15 degrees before, because we've done it for like 20 years.
And it is hard to sing in that cold weather.
I bet it
is.
Although, I will say this, I know I sound like a total Wisconsinite, but I was...
I think I got home the other night.
It stopped at my parents and they said, how is it outside?
I go, well it's about 32, but there's no wind.
It's pretty nice.
You know when there's no wind?
It makes a big difference.
It makes
a huge difference.
I'm a 50 degree guy.
When it's 50 degrees, I'll do
it.
I'll swim.
Same.
I'll go swimming.
I've done that.
Here's how stupid I was when I was younger.
I had this great apartment in Chicago when I was like 22.
I just started doing stand-up.
All my high school buddies from Marinette came down.
And it was on the 18th floor, I had two roommates, it was a blast.
And I said, we're gonna go out till four in the morning, cause the bars are open all day.
We're gonna come back and we're gonna go swim and it was like mid-October.
So I was the only one that went Frank because I was mad at them because they all bailed.
And I crossed Lake Shore Drive like a moron and I went in the lake for about a five minutes.
And I'm like, and then your imagination starts going like, what if I die?
My friends are like, we tried to tell them not to go.
Such an idiot.
You know, we've all done that.
You would have swam with me
though.
You have that street.
I would do, when I was younger, I'd do anything.
You know, I was all into that rock climbing crap and jumping off cliffs and crazy
stuff.
Okay, tell me about that.
I can't do the height thing.
Yeah, I was into repelling.
I had this buddy, I worked in Columbia, Missouri at a nightclub called Doc and Eddie's.
I ran it and had all these college friends and one was in the,
whatever we call it in college when he going to be in the Army, ROTC.
Oh yeah.
And so he wanted to teach me what an Army Swiss knot was.
And you're supposed to use half inch rope, but we couldn't find half inch.
So we got three eighth inch.
So I tied an Army Swiss seat and went repelling off 135 foot clip with that thing.
And it was my first time ever.
Now that's dumb.
Whoa.
Army Swiss seat is called.
And yeah, it was burnt.
Did
he kind of was guiding you?
Well,
he
was,
what was he,
19?
I don't know.
I was 21, 22 years old.
Oh
man.
I got into that rock climbing, caving, spelunking stuff for a while.
That was a lot of fun.
Spelunking does sound interesting.
The word, not
the
actual act
of it.
It's a very cool word.
Spelunking.
It's a very cool word.
It is.
Dude, it's a major spelunking last weekend.
When you say you rock climbed.
Yeah.
I'm kind of fascinated by it.
Yeah, how does that work?
You have nothing
tied to you?
But in Missouri, you know, the Ozarks, there's a lot of steep cliffs, but they weren't like the stuff you see like out in Montana and Wyoming where you're climbing on cracks, okay?
Yeah.
These were rocks and it was straight up, but it was just fun.
And I had no fear of heights back then.
Now I get on a bridge.
You know, I'm like, wow.
I know.
I can't do roller coasters.
I can't do anything anymore.
I
can't do roller-crosses because you hear of the stuff people getting stuck upside down.
Well, lately, lots of stuff.
And who's putting them together?
We
just died last week.
Yeah.
It's terrible.
No thanks.
Let's talk about singing and stuff.
That's safer.
It's more fun.
Yeah.
It's good to have you here, but do you have a favorite cartoon character or Pixar?
Pixar?
Well, I have to say, you know, I'm trying to think of Pixar the anger in, what is that show where it's the emotions?
It's
Pixar.
The kids I cried
in and out
in and out.
Yeah, that's a great movie.
What a
sequel was even
better
better
Yeah, I agree
and the angry guy played by what's his next a lot the comedian I love his voice guy.
My brain is fried
right
now.
Oh No, he's the anger guy.
He's always mad.
Oh And what he doesn't come
But I love the whole, that's my favorite character.
You gotta look that up
now, don't you?
Yes, I do.
I love that
movie.
He's always mad.
Gilbert Godfrey?
No, Godfrey's the duck.
Afflack.
Wait, was it in and out?
Like all I'm getting is like the Kevin Klein movie.
Inside out.
Inside out!
Did you have the Google
open camera?
I
had it out too, man.
I thought it was in and out too until I just left it out.
I still got young kids, so I go to all these movies yet.
So
I
love it.
Just saw Predator the other night.
Predator
Badlands.
Yeah, loved it.
Really good movie.
Absolutely loved it.
And I brought my 10-year-old and my 12-year-old and they just were fixated.
Did it take you a while?
Like, I was watching this and I'm like, there's no humans.
I mean, they're humans and acting as robots, but that was kind of weird.
It was weird.
But it was kind of cool to have the Predator be the good guy for a different person.
It was so odd.
Yeah.
Because the other Predator movies, hey, it's kind of a jerk.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
Lewis Black.
Lewis Black, that's the guy.
Love that character.
That's my favorite Pixar character.
I had a really weird moment with Lewis Black.
And you know, this is a former comedy clowner.
I worked The Funny Bone in Pittsburgh with Lewis.
Lewis was the headliner.
I was the middle act.
And my buddy Keith, God rest his soul, was the MC.
And Keith would say anything to anybody.
And Lewis is confrontational.
Oh, I know.
And Lewis started ripping on Dennis Miller's special.
And Keith, that was his island, he goes, well, I totally disagree with you.
And it was like, I was just sliding down in the chair.
The two of them were like, it was the most uncomfortable.
But I kind of respected both of them for not backing off, you know, like to sort of.
It's good debate.
It's good debate.
Good debate.
Anyway, all right.
So that's a great choice, Frank.
And I want to ask you, how did...
Don't squeeze the Charmin go.
Well, fantastic.
It was a great show, great run, like a great turnout.
And, you know, we've taken our show as we used to do four-week runs.
Now we do three-week runs.
So there were bigger houses.
And we actually, Procter & Gamble bought two shows for their company.
It was pretty cool.
Bought it out, sold it out.
Well, it was sold out, but they bought it out.
But it was great.
And you know what's funny?
Now that I did a show with Proctor and Gamble, so I thought of a show.
Let me tell you which thing.
Quick trip the musical, right?
Oh.
So I texted the marketing department, hey, thinking about doing a show in 2027 called Quick Trip the Musical.
What do you think?
Guess what I got?
A big no.
Come on.
I'm sorry, Frank.
It was, you know, it was classic somebody else, somebody's assistant wrote it.
Well, we get lots of requests for things like this.
We won't be interested in that at this time.
Okay, but do you know what
I do?
Yeah, I spelled it out.
So I'm doing a show called Quack Trip.
No cease and desist on that.
I messed with the
wrong guy.
With the same
logo.
Quacktrip the musical to watch for it in 2027
will you have like songs that are relatable to I will see you next time or
whatever
Well, the whole
thing is they always say would you like a bag with that?
Yeah, would you like to receive with that?
They say the same things.
It's like it's like rehearsed and which is fantastic.
It's a great organization I got to meet the owner a couple times when we did some fundraising, but Paul trip
Paul trip.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Met him and they handed me a big check for cerebral palsy.
That was fantastic.
So you
can't.
Yeah, that's
I get it.
You know, that's a great that's ripe for not not parody of the business itself, but a story that takes place around a quick trip could be kind of fun.
That's all
it's going to be.
Yeah, I would not.
And I put that I and I've gotten I haven't gotten permission from a lot of people.
I've only got three cease and desist in my life.
And one was from Paul McCartney's.
I did a show called Beer and Wings and we used a wing songs and I got a cease and desist.
They wanted to see the script and it said that he ate chicken wings and they wanted me to take that out of the script.
Isn't that crazy?
But I
got
correspondence from the management
company.
Yeah, that's kind of cool.
Paul McCartney, and one was He-Ha.
I called He-Ha Ho-Down.
I couldn't use the name He-Ha, so
I just called
it Ho-Down.
And the third was, I did a show called Grease Trap, and the logo kind of looked like the logo from Grease.
They said, uh-uh.
And I had four songs that were called, they call them, what do they call, grand rights.
Grand rights are like Disney songs and songs in Broadway musicals that you can't use without written permission from the author.
So I had to take night off.
I had to take out four songs.
Come on.
Kid, you're not.
What if you had done them?
Well,
do they have a guy there?
You don't get, you don't get a, oh, sorry.
Next time, it's $50,000.
So no, I
didn't
do that.
And they bring spotters.
I've had spotters in the audience.
They hire a law firm and send somebody.
So I am parody.
So I get away with a lot of stuff.
I get away with a lot of stuff.
But we have ASCAP and BMI that we can do songs from that.
But there's certain companies and certain songs that have grand rights you can't do.
That's crazy.
You would think a show like He-Haw, that has not been on in decades, would like a little nostalgic reminder, because you could probably watch this somewhere.
You would think that.
That's crazy.
But yeah, Paul McCartney's cool, but how about the reach, man?
Yeah,
that's awesome.
It's all Warren Gertz fault.
He put a review out, and then the bots.
They
look for
things online, and that's how they find out things.
That's why you can't advertise, Frank.
I can't.
I don't think we should talk about your Christmas show
today.
We should.
We should talk about it.
There's no right standing in the song.
All right, so tell us.
I just want to say, first of all, folks, Frank Hermans, this guy is an institution.
He puts out, I mean, how prolific are you?
Put out all these new shows.
And I want to say, last year, your Christmas show, I took my wife and two kids to it.
We saw it.
And I was, I don't know.
I'm just gonna say this, I was not in the Christmas spirit last year.
I don't know what the deal was, it's just one of those years.
Probably the first year the kids were out of the house, whatever, but I thought, let's meet there.
So my son drove up, my daughter came over from Steven's point, and we met at the Meyer Theater.
All four of us together for the first time.
And we watched that show, and I was in the mood, man.
The Christmas cheer?
You filled our souls.
I filled your heart with Christmas cheer.
It
was magical.
It was three sizes that dear.
You had the, but the Meyer theater is so beautiful.
You got this great story.
I mean, it was, it was a marvelous way to kick off the holidays.
Thank you.
And we've written, isn't it crazy?
This will be my 26th different Christmas show this
year.
I
come up with a different theme every year and I think about it all year long.
I don't know what I'm doing next year.
But this year is kind of a Dr. Seuss thing.
It's the who's versus the what's.
Oh, I love that.
Got it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Little Dr. Seuss.
Grinch makes an appearance.
He's actually my wife's brother, Tom Grinch.
Tom.
Tommy G. Tommy's good, Tommy G. And he should hashtag Jim Carrey, kind of, you know.
Oh, nice.
Talk like that, like you're from, you know, almost James Cagney.
Yeah, or Jimmy Stewart.
Jerry,
Jerry, Mary!
You need a rope?
I'll throw
a
rope for ya!
All right, let's let's pick up there.
We got to do a very short break.
Frank Herman's is here.
Can you sing for us too?
I brought my guitar.
I love it.
We'll do a little song.
I will do some window photos.
Let's do it.
I love window photos.
How about you and I?
I'll play air guitar.
Okay.
And you play air.
I'll be backing you up.
Sounds good.
Alright, perfect.
Frank Herman is here, folks.
Always fun when Frank is here.
Our question of the night is, who is your favorite animated or Pixar character in honor of Mickey Mouse's birthday?
We'll come back, and Frank is going to tell you all about this year's Christmas show, which you absolutely have to check out, and we'll talk about a lot of other shows he's got coming up around the state.
Always fun.
Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Folks, I'm Pete Schwabba.
Just a little lighthearted
Epstein talk.
Yeah, lighthearted Epstein.
We should have a podcast with everything, man.
That was pretty interesting.
Frank said, if you
listen to a book on tape about Epstein, I automatically thought you meant one Epstein from Welcome
Back Potter, but I gotta get my hands on this book on tape.
One
wrote a book?
It's not very long.
It's about
a nine minute.
Mr. Cuttier.
He just talked about the overalls.
Frank Hermans is here.
Folks, we're talking to Frank about many of his upcoming shows.
First and foremost, though...
is his Christmas show.
And it's just called Frank's Christmas,
right?
We call it a Frank's Christmas, but it's a different show every year.
It's just kind of become like a, it's kind of an institution.
I tell you what, people have been coming for 26 years.
They bring the kids, you know, it grows and grows.
And as I was telling you off camera, can I say that?
Third of my income was made in the month of December.
It is a huge show, 23.
performances of Christmas and you know it seats you know over a thousand people in there and there's some nights we'll sell out.
It's just wonderful the attendance and we make it we make the thing normally our shows are PG-13 this one is PG.
I mean I say heck.
That's as far as we know there's no innuendos.
Wow, that's like cheese, isn't it?
Yeah, what?
In fact, I talked like an elf, so what the heck?
Sorry for my profanity, Cindy Lou.
Don't be saying that.
Heck, what the heck?
Watch your
language.
Yeah.
Have you ever done an NC17 show?
I think the Brady Bunch was a little NC17.
Really?
Because, in fact, we got little comments because...
There was a lot of stuff happening in that show with Greg and mom and Cindy and some other things.
And they, somebody said that it was incestual, but those were actors.
They're actors.
That was not a real family.
Right.
So we hit on some of those things that were.
And they're like,
that's the Brady Bunch aren't real people.
They're not real.
Relax.
And they're step siblings.
We've all messed around with step siblings.
Come on.
Come on.
I had a first cousin.
Did I just say that?
Hope you're not listening.
I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
I was
kidding, Frank.
That was a trap.
I didn't know I could believe you went there.
Oh, you got me.
I'm easily, easily
swanked.
So we're, OK, so.
So who's in the show this year?
Obviously you and Amy, your wife,
I
assume.
And then any of the kids in the show
this year?
No, we have the kids.
We have our 10-year-old and 12-year-old singing before the show.
And they're doing a funny version of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
Remember that with an all of the other?
Who's all of?
You know, they make little comments on it.
So it's funny.
So on Fridays and Saturdays, they're going to perform before the show with that song.
So it's always wonderful.
Is that your favorite holiday?
It's gotta be.
Christmas?
Of course.
Yeah, I mean.
I have eight kids.
So Christmas at our house is.
Speaking of the Brady Bunch.
Yeah, no kidding.
Is phenomenal.
And, you know, just the gifts and the food and the, you know, the Packers are playing that day too this year.
No, they're playing Thanksgiving.
I'll be watching that one too.
Yeah.
But, you know, it's always a great time.
Christmas.
And plus it's like having a day off.
I'm not doing a show.
On
Christmas Day.
On Christmas Day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But this is great, your show runs from November 28th through December 27th, Frank's Christmas.
Does it have a title, like a subtitle under Frank's Christmas?
A Frank's Who
Christmas.
Oh, nice.
Okay.
Were you a big fan of Dr. Seuss?
I love Dr. Seuss.
In fact, when, when I was writing the show, I said, kids, give me all your Dr. Seuss books.
Cause I wanted to put in lines.
Like if you let's come to the show, you'll hear Cindy a little bit.
Well, I want to get the mayor present.
I'll give him one fish, two fish, maybe a blue fish and a red fish.
the moose makes it, the cat in the hat, you know, the once-ler makes it, not in appears, but in the verbiage, I use a lot of Dr. Seuss lines.
That's so great.
Yeah, it's fun.
How fun,
yeah.
So when did you have this show done and
ready?
I had this show written, probably would have been a month ago.
Okay.
Yeah, because we're getting Christmas music.
First, I get the music, okay?
And this one is a little bit more modern.
We have some C in there, we got some George Michael, we got some, you know, secular and non-secular music in there, but there's some...
Songs that maybe haven't heard no, I'll remember a step into Christmas by Elton John is in the show step into Christmas.
Let's join the anyway and Christmas is a time to say I love you Billy Squire So
that's awesome.
Yeah, so little Kelly Clarkson in the show Who is
your favorite like of the pop the pop singers that
sing
Christmas songs like Mariah Carey or careless with
George Michael
I've been a huge fan of...
Last Christmas, my whole life, and I've never sang it in a show.
So this is my first time singing this song in a show.
And I sing it all the time when we do the Christmas parade or we got private parties and stuff.
And I've always wanted to do that song.
And it is, it's one of the songs that's been recorded by hundreds of artists too.
But I wanted to stay true and do the original kind of sound, the Wham sound and, you know, the Casio keyboard sound in the back.
And the drum machine, it sounds great.
That's
a
great song.
It is.
Frank Herman says, my guest, he is the founder of Let Me Be Frank Productions.
They travel all over the state, and he is an absolute institution here in northeast Wisconsin.
Check out his Christmas show at the Meyer Theater.
I just realized you've been here almost a half hour.
You haven't even played anything yet, but we'll do that after the
news.
Sounds good.
Yeah, okay.
Tell us quickly.
We got about a minute and a half till break till the news, but what's, you got a show tomorrow at
a school.
I love that.
Jill at high school.
We do a fundraiser for the FFA.
They're sending some guys over.
some kids over to Ireland.
So it's a fundraiser.
It's at Gillette High School.
It's our tribute show, Elvis, Reba, Neil Diamond, George Jones, Karen Carpenter, Adele.
And we do our Christmas show.
And there are tickets available at the door.
It's dinner and a show.
It's at 6.30, Gillette High School.
And then Saturday we're up at venue 906 in Iron Mountain.
Doing our Christmas tribute show up there also.
So we're doing that show, I think seven times.
on or off days of the Christmas show in the next month and a half.
That's so
great.
So can
people book you guys?
How would they find out?
Give me a call, 920-371-4070.
Let me be Franks.com.
I just gave his phone number to the radio.
I put my cell phone everywhere because I want to know if you can't get tickets, if I can help you out.
If you're spam, I'm going to answer and not order your roofing or your windows, but I'll talk to you.
And I'll tell
you tickets.
I love this guy.
That's so great.
A great sweatshirt, too.
People watching on the stream.
Oh, yeah.
Is it like a retro?
Where'd you get
that?
It's a retro, uh, Lambeau Field.
I got this, uh, I do also do Curly Lambeau in impersonation.
In fact, I'm doing it Friday for a group from Germany that's coming in.
So I'm playing Curly Lambeau.
Oh.
Curly
Lambeau!
Sucks to be Frank Hermans.
We're coming back folks for act two after the news don't go anywhere Frank's gonna perform in the studio We got movie talk coming up and up north news talk coming up too in hour number two.
This is Pete Schwab in nightlight We'll be right back on the civic media radio network
Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.
This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba.
Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.
And now, a guy whose house has an actual wiggle room, Pete Schwabba.
Every house should have an actual wiggle room.
What is a wiggle room?
It's a great way to relieve stress.
You go in there, you wiggle around for a few minutes, and you go back out.
Boom, you're ready to face the day.
Like Tai Chi?
Oh, yeah.
Kind of like Tai Chi.
I do Tai Chi.
It's a little more erotic for me.
I don't think you want to... No, there's a lot in the wiggle room.
Hey, welcome back to Nightlight, folks.
I am Pete Schwabba, Conrad Krieger.
Our producer is running the board tonight.
How you doing?
You hanging in there, Conrad?
I'm hanging in there.
Second night of hour three.
Yes.
This is a thing.
It's a marathon.
It is.
We got to pace ourselves.
We got to fit three hours
in.
So you grab another guest?
Is that what you
guys do?
Well, it's tough, because we only have about 15 minutes of material.
So
stretching that is... So it's funny you say that.
I do, frankly, Green Bay, which was a weekly TV
show, and
interview people.
And today, I had Chef Andy on.
He's a buddy of mine, opened a new restaurant.
And the guy doesn't shut up, right?
Open any questions?
I can see my camera guy going...
because they're four minute segments.
And I go, how long was that?
He goes, eight minutes.
And he goes, I'll stop talking so much.
You were nice enough to have me on that show a couple of years ago.
We're friends.
Yeah, right.
I'm just gonna ask I was going through a little bit of a I'm not the best-looking guy in the world Frank.
I admit that but I was in a fat phase then.
Oh, yeah
Let's do it again.
I was in the sauna all night the night before I think I could have been better.
That's all I'm saying if you're ever desperate for a
guest Yeah, look at you.
I'd love to have you on cuz we
you know this show
is blowing up.
We got to talk more.
I bet
it has.
Your show is
blowing
up.
Oh
my show is growing.
Three hours
now.
Come on.
Three hours.
We gotta tell everybody
Well, we're trying right we got the Conrad was outside with a sandwich board on for like see
was he flipping
around those balloons?
Hey coming up at 635 folks Ellie Bordeaux from Up North News will be here Rob Thomas drops by at 720 to talk movies our question of the night is in honor of Mickey Mouse's birthday Who is your favorite animated character or Pixar character?
I said Homer
as my favorite animated character, and then Buzz and Woody for Pixar.
Conrad said Tom and Jerry.
And Bugs Bunny.
And Bugs Bunny.
Satay.
Bugs Bunny's a great one.
That's, I kind of forgot about Bugs Bunny.
What about you, Frank?
Anger.
Anger.
That's right.
Inside out.
Not in and out, which is a burger joint.
It doesn't matter.
That movie made me, I was watching it with my daughter, who I think I was at the first one with.
And now she was much older.
I think there was like 12 years between movies or
something like that.
It's
a
billion dollar movie.
Oh, God.
It did a billion dollars.
Some of them, you lose it because I was really, it just hit me in that moment that I was there with her and she was about to go to college when we saw it.
And then same thing with Toy Story 3.
That was,
Toy Story
1 and 2 were our family movies with the kids.
So
when we went to the theater to see Toy Story 3, the opening credits come on and I'm like,
I'm already falling because Andy's getting ready to go to college.
And I just, I dread the time I live in now.
My kids are gone.
It's funny you say that my, my 12 year old son and I picked on from the school yesterday and I don't pick him up normally.
My wife does, but I said, when I get there, I want you to run from the door all the way to me like you used to do and jump in my arms.
Oh, that's knocked me over.
He's 120 pounds and he knocked my earbuds out.
We laughed so hard
because I get
down on a football stance when I see the kids and they start running at me.
And I said, we got to do this one more time.
I get some memory.
So are you like the fun?
You got to be the fun dad.
I mean, I like to think so.
I
mean, you know, you got to teach him right and wrong, but.
it's a funny house.
My kids all have personalities and they're hilarious.
I get a hug from my daughter maybe once a week
now,
where she used to be the cuddle bug.
It's called the daddy pocket and my lazy boy where I'd hold them and we'd fall both falls.
And I miss those days and
they're
getting older and changing.
And my son is 14, my oldest son.
I mean, my oldest oldest is 34 living in Milwaukee, but yeah.
It's tough.
It is tough.
Honey, one more?
No way.
My wife's pregnant right now.
I'm sorry, I'm looking at you and I'm laughing because you weren't in on this, but during the break, Frank told me what his brother used to do.
I
can't say the word,
but he used to
draw.
things on
books everywhere they were male genitalia and i laughed so hard everywhere because you used the
word yeah and it
was like
well you got my mom and dad got called to the office for it oh your son keeps drawing these phallic figures
on
animals and humans
I remember the guys that used to do that, and the fact that they would do it would make me laugh.
Like, I can't
believe you're
doing, like, drawing that there.
Anyway,
Frank Hermans is here, folks.
He is the founder of Let Me Be Frank Productions.
He is kicking off his 26th Christmas show, November 28th at the Meyer Theater.
It runs through December 27th, as I mentioned in hour one.
Pardon me, I went to the show last year and it was a spectacular way to kick off the holidays.
I met my wife and kids there and we then we all drove back to Marinette.
We had
all this gaiety in our lungs driving back.
We're singing Christmas songs from your show as outstanding.
My whole thing about doing a show is to take you away for two hours.
So you don't
think about anything else.
You can be sad, you can be happy, you can be whatever.
But all of a sudden you see the show and you hear these voices.
First of all, everybody can sing like a bird.
Yes.
And funny story, all the lights, color, the action.
And we take you away for two hours and then you go back to your normal life.
You know, that's interesting
you say that because
the show, it doesn't, you don't
all of you don't have to be good singers, because you're entertaining enough, it's funny, the acting's good, the writing's great, but when you sing, it's like, oh my
God,
like they're outstanding singers, and that's probably what keeps people coming back to see, you know, it's just how talented you
guys are.
And it's the same cast, I mean, our newest person, Sarah, who joined the cast seven years ago.
I
mean,
we have cast, my wife has been 26 years, Pat 23 years, Tom 20 years, Paul 20 years, Lisa 16 years, and you know, I didn't,
audition these people, I actually recruited them.
And whenever I need somebody, which I haven't in seven years, I'll try and recruit instead of auditioning.
I hate auditions.
They're
the worst.
But what's better, to recruit, you already know how talented they are.
I know how good they
are.
I gotta hear their voice.
Gotta be able to sing.
That's the first thing.
I can teach you to be funny.
It's just writing and delivery.
You
know, really, that's all
it is.
Auditioning is kind of an art form in and of itself, too.
Some people aren't great auditioners, but they might be great during the show, so.
Totally, totally.
Yeah.
Are you gonna play something for us?
Yeah, are you ready for some?
Frank Herman's is in the studio,
folks.
Here we go.
Blue
Christmas.
about you decorations of red on a green Christmas tree won't be the same deal if you're not here with me how in those blue snowflakes stuff falling
Oh, that's when those blue memories start calling.
Hey, you'll have me doing all right with your breeze, well, so white.
But I'll have a blue, a blue, blue, blue Christmas.
I'll have a blue Christmas.
That's certain, and when those blue heartaches start hurting You'll have me a-doin' alright With your Christmas away But I'll have a blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas
Frank Herman's ladies and gentlemen in the studio in the flesh.
I love you, man.
I love when you you're here.
It's so much fun.
I appreciate you getting
me on man.
Whenever I call
you like
when you want to come on.
I mean, I love it.
You know, it's funny because you're one of the I don't I never lived in Green Bay.
So I don't I can't say I know a ton of people that grew up here, but yeah, I probably know you Just because you own the comedy club longer than anybody.
Yeah, that was 95 30 years ago.
It was 94 95 nuts.
I
comedy club, I miss it.
And I sent you a picture of the old,
I found a
match book docs comedy club.
That was fantastic.
All right, tell us what else is coming up.
You got Round Lake Farms and Brilliant, Kingsford, Michigan this weekend.
If you're in the Kingsford area.
Check out, it's 9-0, Club 9-0-6.
Venue 9-0-6 is called, yeah, it's
a pretty cool place.
Right by the old Kingsford plant that made all the, it's in Kingsford, Michigan, I should say, not Iron Mountain, it's close to
there.
But they're the same, it's
like a, yeah.
They're right next to each other, and it's by the old Ford plant that made all the wooden cabooses for the Model A's,
and it's
still
there, a lot of the ruins.
I just love that town, lots
of it.
That is so cool.
Kingsford charcoal, baby.
I love that.
Yeah, that's where it started.
In Kingsford, Michigan?
Kingsford, Michigan.
Yeah, because they used all that wood and they had to do something with the wood.
And it became charcoal.
That's what it was.
And that's why they call it Kingsford charcoal.
Come on, you know this.
How did I not know that?
I look like an hour or an hour and 15 from that.
That's not that far.
There's
a lot of great history.
And some of those old buildings are still there.
where they built, they got the old water tower still up there.
That was a Ford facility.
They would make the wood, because there was wood up there, right?
They
would make the chassis for the Model A's and stuff, and then they'd send them on rail down to Detroit.
That's so cool.
And you got a date, you're coming back to Marinette, which I love, I told you.
And by the way, folks, Frank shows, if you're looking for a Christmas gift for someone, we got our, I got my parents.
Tickets to the show in Marinette, because that's where we live.
You were
at the beautiful theater on the Bay.
They went.
I couldn't because I had a previous engagement.
I will be there this year and my folks had an absolute blast hearing all those great old tunes.
We'll be there Saturday, January 29th.
We'll be there.
I'll be there.
They'll be there.
We have a phone call for Frank.
Yes.
Can we take that?
One of our favorites.
Yeah, Ollie from the Northwoods.
Hey.
Hey, Ollie.
Hi.
I had just a quick question from Frank.
To find out if he is ever up in the Hayward Spooner area doing a show.
You know what?
I've done a show in Ashland and I've done a show up in Minasuing.
I've never been up to your area yet, but we would love to.
Do you have an opera house up there or a theater?
Well, it's not a big opera house, but they have the old theater.
It's called Park Theater.
I
know that they do.
Lots of shows because they've had Louis Anderson there at one time.
So I know they do a lot of different shows.
That's what I was kind of wondering.
Let's get on that Frank.
You know what?
I'm going to give him a call because you know what?
I know that theater.
I've been, I've driven by it.
I also got a thing I do.
Movie time guys.
We do, we do little bits about old theaters.
And I
tell you what up in
there's so many old theaters up in that area.
And you know what?
I'll put that on my list to give a call, but
thank
you.
Great area.
Appreciate that.
Thank you, Ollie.
And I'm impressed that you called us without a food question.
Actually, I just will answer the question to Woody Woodpecker and Jimny Cricket.
Speaking of Disney.
I have four old real to real movies, cartoon movies from like the 1950s when we were kids.
And there's Jiminy Cricket, Woody Woodpecker, Felix.
It
doesn't say Felix.
It just says Felix on it.
And then Mickey Mouse one.
Outstanding.
Ollie, thank you as always.
Have a wonderful night.
And hopefully you'll get to see Frank live up there.
That'd be awesome.
Thank you very much.
You're very welcome.
Have a great night.
Can we keep you for a couple more minutes?
Please do.
I'm not going anywhere.
You've got to be out here.
I don't have to be anywhere until seven.
All right.
So we'll keep Frank for five more minutes.
I like that.
We'll take a breather and then maybe you can play your way out of the studio or something.
I got another one lined up.
I can do something.
I got lots of songs.
It's good to have
you here.
Frank Kermit, we're
coming right back.
We'll read some of your texts and we'll say goodbye to our pal Frank until next time.
It's Pete Chihuahua and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
We're gonna talk a few things to talk about with Rob Thomas.
I'm gonna bring up pluribus Because have you seen pluribus Frank?
I've heard of it.
All right.
I heard it's fantastic There's
only three episodes out right now three episodes pilot is one of the best pilots I've ever
seen I thought I heard
I gotta
watch
it.
It's unbelievable and it's on
Apple, right?
Yes,
I
don't want to scare you away, but the next two episodes can't follow the pilot still good.
Yeah
Really cool story kind of dystopian, but man that pilot it's it's worth
it
usually
the pilot is introducing all the characters and it sucks You know opening I want to watch this not this they're establishing characters and yeah, and I get it you got to do that and then the second
episodes usually better, but it's the opposite.
It's the
opposite
because
this pilot is fantastic.
But anyway, Ellie Bordeaux will be here in just a few minutes.
Folks from Up North News, we'll talk to Ellie and Rob Thomas at 720.
Our question of the night is who is your favorite animated or Pixar character?
Frank Hermans is in the studio founder of Let Me Be Frank Productions, an outstanding entity that keeps us entertained and makes us want to sing and move our feet.
Just a great guest here in the studio.
Frank has been bringing it here in Green Bay.
26th Christmas show?
26th
Christmas
show.
Unbelievable.
I haven't had a job in 26 years, dude.
I actually love it when you love what you do.
I do, you know, and everybody, you know, I don't do it for the money.
Again, we do okay.
I have 13 employees to take care of, you know.
That's unbelievable.
But it's something, I'll be doing this till the day I die.
I'll never retire.
Would it kill you to hire your old pal, Petey, or offer me a job?
Petey, you wanna get some walking around money you can throw in my way?
Would you need a boy for the week?
What's going
on?
Well, I can sweep up, I can do odd jobs.
Frank, also, folks, this is a great, and we talked about this a little bit in the last segment.
Last year, I bought my parents' tickets to one of Frank's shows when he came up to Marinette, and they loved it.
They had the time of their lives, you guys played like Ricky Nelson, or all those
old, great, ribbon-backed attire.
They liked my share?
Did they like the share?
I'm a six foot three, 240 pound share, and I look good.
You
look
better than Cher.
If I
could turn back Cher.
Yeah, you did a good job.
My dad was conflicted when
he came home.
I get it, I get
it.
Frank Hermes really fills out this.
With the sock lines.
As Cher.
Do you where can people get tickets to just a one-stop shop the Christmas show shows in brilliant or Marinette or Kingsford?
Where can they buy season tickets because you guys have a great season ticket?
Yeah, for the most information you're gonna get is on my website Let me be Frank's calm when you're buying ticket and that'll have all the information of the different outlets for different shows We do but our main shows our ticket star ticket star online or Meyer theater org
or call me.
My cell phone is everywhere.
Call me and I'll direct you to get tickets.
Because we do a lot of these off-site shows and tickets go right through those places.
And I can get you that information if you want a show that's off-site.
But usually it's ticketstaronline.com or Myertheater.org.
Have you gotten calls on your phone?
Like people just call you.
All the
time.
Frank, this is Bill.
I want to come see.
That's what I love about you.
I
got to call some guy.
St.
Naysian, he owns Meets Opera House.
So I went there.
Nice.
I'm doing a show there now in March, Elvis and Reba.
He's got this cool old hall.
It was built in the like 1920s for polka bands.
And it's right in the heart of, remember JFK Prep, did you ever hear that place?
It was a place.
Anyway, Marty Kroll played there, basketball, all time leading states.
Oh yeah, he's coached in Marinette.
Yeah, yeah.
We're gonna do a show down there.
So I get calls for gigs.
I get calls for tickets I get calls just hey tell me about yourself, you know stuff Every
day Frank I need a physical
That's pretty cool.
And you already can't even go to the bathroom in Green Bay without being mobbed, right?
And I think I've said this before, outside the Packers, you're probably the most recognizable
guy in town.
I appreciate that.
And I love when people approach me.
I try and make eye contact because people try and say hi to you.
And sometimes I don't want to come across like I didn't look at you.
It's awesome.
I love it.
That means we're doing something right.
And you know, we're all about the community too.
I mean, that's where we help the community.
Community helps us, man.
That's a cool thing.
This is our 20th year on the telethon.
I'll be hosting a telethon with Bill Jartz this year on WBAYtv again in March.
And we're the entertainment for it.
I mean, it's just awesome to give back and to get back.
Get back!
You've been doing it for years.
So keep up the great
work.
And you're in the parade this weekend.
Yeah, we're thinking about it.
9 a.m.
Amy and I are gonna be singing Christmas songs.
I don't know what we're wearing yet, but we're gonna wear layers.
And then we're the MCs for the actual parade.
That's so fun.
That's gotta be a good
time.
It's a great time.
They give you a script that you never read before and you can pronounce names you don't know.
Yeah, I love it.
Jarts is easy.
Oh, it's easy.
I was going to do that.
I was going to be in the parade, but we have too much going on
with
family stuff, with families coming to town and an airport run, that kind of stuff.
But I'm kind of secretly glad now that you told me it started at 9 a.m.
because for me to commute from Marinette, that's not going to happen.
We only have a couple of minutes left.
Do you want to play us out or do you want to just sing something?
Can I talk about our season
next year?
Absolutely.
Yeah, our brand new season just came out, 2026.
I'll give you some of the, and what's funny, the first show, which is in February, is called Manawa Rodeo.
I've already had the Midwest Rodeo Association call me, and they're bringing two buses.
And in Manawa, they're having a little meeting about the show.
And so it's all country music.
We haven't done a country show in a long time.
But it's all about the Manawa Rodeo Queen, becoming the Manawa Rodeo Queen.
And I play a kind of, I sell concoctions, yes.
And I can give you a concoction that will make you beautiful and win the talk.
that our April show is called Shopco.
Say hello to goodbye.
Remember that was her tagline?
Say hello to a goodbye.
I knew the Shopco lady back in the day, Karen McDermott.
So it's all about Shopco and these employees in a small town, they wondering what they're gonna do.
Well, guess what?
It turns into a dollar general, like they all did.
Score.
Score.
And then my summer show, Dingaling Brothers Circus.
Remember the Ringling Brothers?
Yeah, yeah, sure.
From Baraboo, Wisconsin.
I've always had a fixation about them.
Well, there's the Dingaling Brothers Circus who are trying to run on their coattails.
Like, they have the Siamese Twins.
We have the Tri-These Twins.
You know, stuff like that.
And then my fall show, Hocus Pocus Focus Group.
Yeah, the girls from Hocus Pocus are gonna be their therapists, and they help ghouls and goblins who can't deal with pre-
Death of pause or for whatever it's called.
I can't remember it when it says and then a Christmas show next year that
season tickets What a great Christmas present.
Yes
one more time the website then we got to go.
Yeah, let me be Franks.com Meyer theater.org and Tickets are online.com Frank Herman's ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you, brother.
She
was fun.
All right.
We're coming back.
It's nightlight with peach wapa
Welcome
back.
I'm Pete Schwab.
This is Night Light.
Hope you're having a great night, folks.
It's great to have you with me here on this gorgeous night in downtown Green Bay, as I'm sure it is all over the state of Wisconsin, wherever you're...
Wherever you're joining us from welcome.
It was always fun to have Frank Herman's here such a fun guy and He he filled our studio with song check out his Christmas show.
He just does such a great job All right, so we're gonna bring our next guest on in just a moment here from up north news Ellie Bordo will be here.
She's gonna tell us about some really cool things going on here in Wisconsin that we we probably don't talk about often enough but for right now we are gonna read
a couple texts and then we'll bring Elion.
Our question of the night, if you have been following the show, is in honor of Mickey Mouse's birthday, who is your favorite animated or Pixar character?
So, I can't, I can't go, I can't, I have to start from the beginning, Conn.
I can't read the questions because then I miss, like a lot of times people will sound like a three parter.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, that makes sense.
Thanks.
I thought you took a powder there.
I didn't know what happened.
You're like,
Distracted Megan from Sun Prairie and the six are well her area code is 630 even though she lives in Sun Prairie.
I don't know what Megan's up to there, but She says hi from your WGBW traffic manager.
Can I say the entire Belcher family from Bob's Burgers?
Oh, that's a great one If I have to pick one member Jean is the best.
Hey, we had Dave or John Schrader on the show a writer for Bob.
Yeah, John back on the show.
He was a fun interview
Megan says, favorite Disney character is Mulan, and Pixar would be Princess Merida from Brave.
Boy, I'm really out of it on the new, some of the new characters.
I don't know either.
That's awesome, Megan.
Thank you very much for the text.
Steve from Florida, that's Conrad's dad, says, favorite Disney animated character is Donald Duck, and favorite Pixar is combination of Buzz Lightyear and Woody.
Once again, your dad and I are on the same page.
Bulls and buddy.
We would be total pals.
If only he didn't think I was a jerk.
Jim from Kenosha in the 262 says, the robot from Futurama.
What is that robot's name?
He's got kind of a, very kind of an exotic name.
I need to look it up.
Go to the Google.
We had Mike Rowe on the show too, who wrote for Futurama.
And I know that show and I can't think of it.
Jim from Appleton in the 920 says, favorite cartoon character is Goofy's son, Max.
Whoa, Jim is going to the
well.
The name for the robot is Bender.
Bender, that's it.
That's fantastic.
Great text.
Thank you.
Ross from Crawford County says, and what's up, Doc?
Bugs Bunny.
I can't believe, like Bugs Bunny was my favorite growing up.
Totally forgot about Bugs Bunny when I was thinking about this question.
Carrie from Tosa in the 414 says, Ren from Ren and Stimpy.
Got another awesome one I forgot about.
Thank you, Kerry.
All right, keep those texts coming, folks.
We'll get caught up even further as the show goes on, but this is Night Light.
We are in the throes of hour number two, act two as I like to call it, and joining us now over the stream is a reporter.
She's the editor of the Up North newsletter, and she does great work up there for our pal, Pat Crichtlow.
Her name is... Do you know her name, Conrad?
I want you to introduce her.
Ellie Bordo.
Ellie Bordo.
We got the name right, see?
Ellie, welcome!
How are you?
Hi, I'm great.
How are you guys?
We're doing very well.
Thank you for being here.
It's great to meet you.
We are big fans of, I love Up North News.
I've been a big fan for a long time and I know they have a new editor now, so I'm very excited to meet you and thank you for being here.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
It's great meeting you as well.
I'm so glad that you're a fan of Up North News and the work that we do.
It's
excellent.
So we'll have to do this again sometime.
Thanks so much for being on the show.
No.
All right, do you have a favorite animated character?
Let's start there,
Ellie.
When you were listing them off, I was trying to rack my brain of what my favorite would be.
I would have to say...
Animated character would have to be the Simpsons.
I love the Simpsons.
I can't lie.
I grew
up, my dad would always watch them later at night, and I would come down and sit with him and be like, you need to go upstairs.
You can't be watching this.
And then I got older, and then I was watching it on my own.
It was fine.
So the Simpsons was too edgy for the Bordeaux household?
I mean, I think when I was a kid, maybe a little, yeah.
But once we got older, then we could enjoy it together.
It was all good.
That Bart Simpson was a bad influence.
I could totally see that.
Yeah, they were like, oh, maybe we don't want that to influence you as you're in your crucial transformative years.
Development years, yeah.
Did you have a favorite Simpsons character?
Honestly, my instinct is to go with Maggie.
I love just the little baby.
She doesn't say anything.
Right.
I just think she's great.
That's so great.
Now, did you go back and watch like, because I watched The Simpsons for like the first five or six years.
And then I kind of, you know, I'll check it out occasionally, but you can't stick with the TV show for 38 years.
You know what I mean?
So what, what years of the show are you were most instrumental for you?
I'm trying to think.
Um, I think the older ones for sure was like, that's the ones.
Those are the ones that I watch now.
Like
I feel like
with any kind of TV show that's kind of still going from when it was older, the older ones are the better ones, you
know?
Right.
So I go back and watch those more.
So I'll
still watch it
if it's on like the newer ones, but I would say the older ones are better.
Good for you.
And I will say I see it periodically and it's still funny.
Like it's an outstanding show.
It is a classic.
I feel like you can never, you can never go wrong.
If it's on, I'm going to watch it.
Great answer.
All right.
So tell us a little bit about yourself, Ellie.
Give us some background and then let us, how did you end up with this up north news gig?
Yeah.
So I am born and raised in O'Connor, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, um, grew up here my whole life.
And then I, um, went to UW Madison and I graduated with degrees in journalism in Spanish.
And while I was there, so.
Before getting into Madison, I was kind of like, I don't really know what I want to do, what I want to major in.
I was actually going to go to school for physical therapy.
So I
was going to do
science and math and all that stuff.
And then I took a journalism class my freshman year and I just absolutely fell in love with it.
And then I joined the Daily Cardinal, which is the independent student newspaper on campus.
And I was with them for three years.
I was an editor there for two.
And I loved it.
And I
and I've gotten to the J school there too, so I learned everything I know about journalism from UW-Madison.
I credit everything to them.
So fell in love with it there, and then I started out.
My first job out of college was with Adam's Publishing Group.
They were so great.
I loved working for them.
And then I had another job between then and now, and
Now I'm here at Up North News and I just could not be happier here.
It is such a great spot.
I love the people I work with.
I love the work that I do.
And yeah, it's so great.
So are you stationed up north or do you live south or where, where are you?
Do you have a home base?
I am in O'Connor Walk.
So we,
our
team has kind of scattered all over Wisconsin, but I'm in O'Connor Walk.
Okay.
What's it like working for a champion like Pat Crite low?
It.
is wonderful.
I love Pat.
Um,
he
was one of the people that interviewed me during my job interview and I was like, I want to work with this guy.
He
seems so cool.
And it's been such a pleasure working with him.
He's been such a great leader and role model.
He's taught me a lot already.
Just I've only been here for a little over two months, but he's already taught me so much of like, Hey, these are things that maybe you could try out here.
Some
ways to go about this, you know, navigating different situations.
So he's just the greatest.
That's great to hear.
And I'm not surprised you said that.
And I just gave you an opportunity to compliment your boss on the radio.
That's pretty good.
So very well
done.
Thank
you.
So I was looking at your articles today, and I see that you, you wrote this great piece about where people can get Thanksgiving meals for free.
Very well done.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Thank you.
Yeah, so I actually wrote this today and it's pretty timely We've got Thanksgiving coming up next week, which I don't know how it's already Thanksgiving is next week.
That's crazy to me But a
lot of people are
still food pantries are still in super high demand after the government's shutdown and snap benefits and everything and there was a huge surge in need for from food pantries, so there is a lot of
all over the state, different places that are offering free meals for Thanksgiving.
And this is not everything that's available.
There's plenty more, but we've got Iron River, we've got Eagle River, Fitchburg, Delta Beer
Lab is hosting
their seventh annual community Thanksgiving meal at their tap room.
I think we've got 13 on this list here.
But yeah, there's all over the state, you can get free meals, anyone in need, anyone that doesn't have a place to go for Thanksgiving.
Go check it out.
It's super great.
So it's awesome what these communities are doing and putting together for their residents.
Well, it's great that you're reporting that too, which I think is outstanding.
And that's one of the things I love about Up North News.
My guest is Ellie Bordeaux.
She is the newsletter editor for Up North News, and she joins us tonight on Nightlight for a little bit here as we get to know Ellie.
Conrad, we got a text from Corey Hartman who...
Here's my thing, Ellie, you don't know me very well.
I always say it's a beautiful night in Wisconsin because we're here, we're alive, we're talking about the things that make us happy, like movies and TV, some sports.
But Corey Hartman took me literally, our pal Corey said, drizzly and cold in Madison, LOL.
So I think he took exception with my pseudo weather report there, Khan.
He should hear one of your weather reports, Conrad.
He's really knocking socks up.
It's cold.
Yeah.
Uh, is it nice in a kind of a walk tonight?
You're getting that Madison weather.
We're getting, it's definitely cooling down, which I am ready for personally.
I love
the winter.
I'm a big
skier.
So once it's snowed, I don't love the like in between like where it's kind of cold, but like still kind of.
weird.
I like when it's
cold and snowing and then we can go to the ski home and I'm good.
But yeah, it's cooling down for sure, which I don't mind.
It's like you take a jacket and you're sweating within five minutes or you don't take a jacket and you get hypothermia.
I hear you on the in-between stuff there.
Right.
Yeah, there's no winning in that situation.
That's for sure.
All right, so also gun deer season is coming up.
I'm not a hunter.
So you're the perfect person for me to talk to because I know we have a lot of listeners that are hunters.
What can you tell us a little bit about hunting season?
Yeah, so hunting season is coming up.
I have to check the date
next week.
Yes,
next
week.
That's right.
And my dad actually is a big hunter.
So I never got into hunting.
He never really was like,
Tried to get us to get into hunting me or my brother, but my dad goes hunting every he's going this weekend.
So But yeah, there are some different regulations that have been put in place So if this article kind of goes in depth of like do you need to have a deer hunting license?
Everyone needs to have it all deer hunters need to have a license How much deer hunting license costs those kinds of things?
the different effects of deer hunting, why it's important, why it's beneficial to go deer hunting, and different things to know about deer and CWD, those different things and getting your deer tested.
So this article goes in depth on all those different things of everything you need to know for deer hunting season.
That's great.
And it's never too late to start.
If you wanted to start hunting, that's something we could go, you and Conrad and I could go take a safety course or something and get started.
Definitely.
I will maybe not take you up on that, but I'll let you know.
I'll come on your show and talk about my articles.
I'm not going hunting.
Also, I don't think this was your article, but if you know anything about this, nine great winter festivals, are you a winter festival person?
You like winter?
I
do like winter and I do like winter festivals.
I did not write this article, but yeah, this includes all sorts of different festivals throughout the state.
Personally, in O'Connell Walk, we have our German Christmas Market that is next week that
I
love.
It's so fun.
We've got different vendors and stuff that come out and we have a big beer tent and they have beer and live music and polka and it's just
the best.
But yeah, this article goes in depth of a bunch of different winter holidays, festivities, those kinds of things.
I feel like in Wisconsin during the winter, there's no shortage of things to do even though it's the winter.
You can always find something.
There are so many festivals, so much going on, so it's
great.
That's a great point.
And check out Up North News, folks.
It is very informative.
It's upbeat.
It's a great... You guys just look at the news through kind of a different lens.
I really enjoy reading everything about it.
Ellie Bordeaux is here.
We'll have a couple more minutes with Ellie when we come back after this very short break.
It's Night Light with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Hi, I'm Pete Schwabba.
Great to have you with me, folks, on this Tuesday night.
Such a wonderful, wonderful night to talk about all the things we love.
We did get a text con earlier from somebody texted about your Packer comments.
Yes.
Who's Jim from Appleton?
Yeah, you said, what's going on with the Packers?
It's the offensive line.
They're not opening holes for the wrong game.
And love is running for his life.
In the passing game.
I mean, it is true.
I mean, we just lost Elton Jenkins.
So that's like one of the biggest blows that we could have had this year.
Hang in
there, Jim.
I
love getting texts like that, though.
I love hearing what other people think
is wrong
with the team.
It's fun.
Hey, Ellie Bordo is here, folks, from Up North News.
She is the newsletter editor.
And this is her first time on Nightlight.
We're talking about some of the articles she's written and Winter.
And Ellie, how do you feel about the Kardashians?
I don't have any strong opinions, to be honest.
That was a great reaction you just
did.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't feel very strongly about any sort of Kardashian, to be honest.
You know what I don't like about them?
They're not Wisconsin enough.
What makes you say that?
I guess they're not from Wisconsin.
What?
No, they certainly are not.
What are your favorite places in the state?
Obviously, I'm sure you're in a great spot.
I mean, kind of a walk halfway between Madison and Milwaukee, more or less.
It's just a great location in the state.
But, you know, you work for Up North News.
I'm sure you've been other places.
You went to Madison.
Where are some of your favorite places in the state?
This is a very good question.
I mean, I think Madison, obviously, is very high on my list, which
Makes sense.
I love Madison.
Madison's so great.
Camp Randall is the best.
I love Door County.
One of my favorite spots in Door County is Newport State Park.
I've been there twice.
And during like in the dark sky area, that was super cool.
Door County is just so great.
So cute.
Green Bay.
I love Green Bay.
I love Lambeau.
It's so fun there.
I went to...
A Packer game earlier this season to the Commander's game, and that was really fun.
Love Green Bay.
I'm trying to think of where else.
I love Minakwa and Townsend.
Those are two spots that I go up north every summer.
And those are the two spots I go to.
Okuma is great up north too.
I don't know.
All over.
You really know you're Wisconsin.
Would it?
All right.
I'm just I'm not trying to like
it persuade you or anything, but would it kill you to do a piece on a little town I like to call Marinette, Wisconsin?
It would not kill me, not at all.
What do you want to know?
What story should I tell?
There are so many stories.
There are a plethora of stories surrounding Marinette.
One of these days, I'll tell you about all the cool people that come from there.
It's a beautiful little town right in the water.
I have to commute from there every day to get to Green Bay.
I don't like that part of it, but it's a wonderful town.
Okay, good to know.
Yeah, I've definitely heard of it.
I don't know if I've ever been there, but I will look more into it.
We are
right across from Door County.
If I were a boatsman, which I'm not, I could take a boat across and be there in half hour.
As it is, I have to drive, and it's a lot longer, and I'm half kidding.
But yeah, Marinette's a great town.
Okay, that's good to know.
I will definitely keep that in mind in the future.
Send the stories my way.
Are you regretting coming on the show at this point?
Are you like,
I cannot
believe he had me on to write an article about Marinette.
Not
at all.
I'm actually loving
it.
Conrad is from, um, Wasaki.
How do you for?
Wachismo.
Kenawaska.
What is it called again?
Kiwaskum.
There you go.
It took
you four
guesses.
That's just
another... You got there.
We are stacking your plate with great stories tonight, Ellie.
This is like... There's like two stories from Kiwaskum all year.
Well, second of my way, there can be three this year.
This is like, I used to be a stand-up comic and people go, I got a joke for you.
This is kind of what we're doing here to you, which I'm sure is torture.
So you're a good sport.
No, not torture at all.
I
love it.
Ellie Bordeaux is my guest.
She is the newsletter editor for Up North News, our pal Pat Critello.
So do you have a favorite story?
Ellie, a favorite type of story to cover?
I, okay.
So this is a little bit.
interesting of a story that I did.
So I, it was when I was in college, I was the features editor at the Daily Cardinal.
And I think to date, this is still my favorite story I've done.
I did a story, I was going around the Dane County Farmers Market and there's, if you go to the Dane County Farmers Market, you know what I'm talking about?
There
is a man
there and he has a beehive hat
that he
wears and he's there every, every Saturday.
And I was very interested in him.
I was like, I want to know this guy's story.
So
I reached out to him and I was like, hey, I'm a reporter.
I'm a student journalist.
I would love to get to know a little bit more about you, know about your business, know about how you got here.
And it was the best interview I've ever done.
He
was the
coolest man.
That man had lived.
he has lived like nine lives I swear and so much to know about him and he was just the coolest and the nicest dude and so I loved being able to tell his story and share it to people and it was just so great so those are the kinds of stories that I really like to do is where you get to feature someone or a business or tell someone's story and
get to do that for them and give them a platform to share their story.
That's one of the most rewarding parts of this job for me.
And you can find those stories.
I remember I just mentioned I was a comedian and I remember dealing with hecklers occasionally and one guy came up to me after the show.
I couldn't stand him during the show.
He was heckling.
He was kind of a jerk.
Then I found out he saved his buddy's life in Vietnam.
He does all this charity work.
You never know who you're talking to.
Not everybody, but some people just have outstanding stories that are worth telling.
And good for you for doing that, Ellie.
That's outstanding.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll have to do this again.
Yeah.
It's been great to meet you and keep up the great work.
And yeah, have a great weekend.
Yeah, thank you so much.
Thanks for having me on.
You're very welcome.
Ellie Bordeaux, folks.
Check out her work at Up North News.
Our friend, Pat Crichtlow's operation.
They do such a great job there.
And Ellie was great.
Do you
read Up North News?
I get the stuff in my inbox, and it's so easy.
I just, like, in the morning, it's like, sometimes it's the first news I see, and it's, like, not depressing.
It's, like, just interesting.
Yes, it is.
I
love it.
All right, we are coming back for Act 3.
Rob Thomas is here at 720.
We're going to reset everything and catch you up after the news, folks.
It is great to have you with me, and we're going to tell you about a movie that was released on this day when we come back.
It's Nightlight with Pete Chihuahua on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.
This is Night Light with Peach Waba.
Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.
And now a man barely six feet tall, but a mountain of muscle, Peach Waba.
Welcome
back.
Tonight light folks it is great to have you with me and a great night to be alive doing some some fun talking here tonight about really fun topics We are kicking off act three here on a Tuesday night Conrad Krieger the producer is working the board And taking care of all the things behind the scenes.
How you doing buddy hanging in there?
I'm doing good So last night was our first three-hour show.
Yeah,
you got home.
Are you kind of exhausted or was it?
You know, I was a little bit and then I ate
Some dinner.
Oh, that's fine then.
A little something in your tummy.
I think I need someone to announce me like that when I'm at the gym.
Like when you walk into the gym, have an announcer.
A guy barely six feet tall,
but I'm out.
Ladies and gentlemen, I was at the gym last night.
Empty.
Empty.
Yeah, I go at night.
When I get back, I go like two nights a week.
You know, whatever, it's great.
There's like a nice little community of people there, chill people.
It's planet, planet fitness, right?
Planet fitness, yeah.
P.F.
is we like to call
it.
See, I wish that the planet fitness that I went to, you used to, you know, used to go to almost a year ago now.
What happened?
Your bad experience?
I would go there after the show.
Oh.
And it would be the busiest time of the day.
Really?
I had to wait, like, you know, we'd get done at eight, you know, around there.
I'd get there eight, four year on there.
I get home at like 10, 20.
Whoa.
Because I'd have to wait so long for every machine.
It is literally the exact opposite.
I go there, and I don't like to, if I go home, I'm staying at home.
I'm not going back out.
So
I literally, I pull in a Marinette.
I go there, if I need anything, I go to the grocery store, whatever.
But I try to get it all done, so when I go home, I'm home.
But that's way too long.
I wouldn't do it.
I don't think I'd work out.
If I couldn't blast my quads within minutes,
I'm not waiting.
You're
leaving.
You're out of the plan of it.
You need to do my dips and get the hell out of there.
Great to have you with us, folks.
If you missed the show earlier, it's available in podcast form at civicmedia.us, and we had a lot of fun tonight.
In hour number one, which is the five o'clock hour now, we had a nice discussion about the moveover law that is, you know, maybe it'll pass, I don't know, but there is already a law.
You're supposed to change lanes when there's a first responder or a police vehicle.
pulled someone over, but now they want to improve the law so that if someone has just pulled over, get out of the way.
I think it's common sense, but we had a discussion about that, and I drive every day, so that hit close to home.
And Conrad got his gears grinded by a law that, I don't think you had a full understanding of that.
Well, I'm not, okay, so I like the law.
You move over for someone that's on the side of the road.
My gears were grinded.
So weird
you were just coming in the on ramp and you thought everybody should move over for yes, don't you see the Dodge Dart?
Don't you see the dart the 89 dart pulling out now what year is that probably it's a 2000 Close
okay, it's a 2014.
It's
a handsome car.
You know what I so I really love I love the car I haven't had one I have one problem with it when I first got it like you know in the first
Two months or something like that with the brake pads as a bad.
It's really and your body used yes, okay, so all right, so Since then I bought it or 2018
around
there Maybe earlier than that actually but haven't had one problem with it since
That's good car
almost at a hundred thousand now
Not all see you got to trade it in or just drive it into the ground.
That's what I'm doing.
I love
I
haven't a problem.
It's so I would I
Don't get rid of it So we talked about that we talked a little about a little bit of sports betting.
That's the thing in Wisconsin here, too Some people are against online betting
because
probably casinos draft Kings fan duel none of them like it can't do any of it in Wisconsin anyway, so
And then we had Frank Herman's here in our number one He came by he is like a tornado man.
He comes in he is so fun to talk to we talked about his Christmas performance Coming up at the Meyer theater, and then we talked to Ellie Bordeaux and our number two She is the editor for up north news, and it was fun to get to know Ellie Rob Thomas is coming up in about 10 minutes to talk movies and TV and some really cool stuff Happening in Madison.
I just talked about
the Up North News, which I love, because I get it right in my inbox.
So I wake up and it's like the first thing I see in my email.
And the stories don't bum me out.
And this is another publication, CityCast Madison, that Rob is the editor for.
Another one, great stuff.
If you're in the Madison area, like they had this great article about the best Madison 51st dates, the best Madison strip mall bar.
Like they break it down into these cool categories.
And recently they did a great
I think Rob wrote this one about four-star video on Madison, an old video store that still has VHS tape, all the cool stuff and nothing toxic, nothing informative stuff and news, but not the heavy stuff.
Not like the Epstein.
You're not gonna read about the Epstein.
Who is the dude that voted no?
427 House members voted to release the files today.
One guy voted no.
All right, so if you saw SNL,
last week.
Yeah, I did not.
They did a McGroober skit.
Okay, where Glenn Paul was the was the guest.
Right.
And whoever was playing McGroober, he's like, All right, guys, we got to diffuse this bomb.
And he goes, Well, they locked us in because I got the Epstein files.
He brings it to McGroober.
He goes like, Oh, yeah, we got to keep these.
He looks and he sees his name.
And he says, well, actually, we should probably let the bum go.
We should shred these papers.
So I think it was McGroober.
It could be McGroober.
It's so funny.
I don't watch Saturday Night Live anymore.
But if there's something earth-shatteringly funny, I'll watch a clip
later
in the week.
But I read about Saturday Night
Live.
And
it's a sketch show.
And I just read about it to see what I missed.
I check out the Glimpull episode.
It was actually, it was a really good sketches in it.
Dave on the stream says the Flintstones.
Oh, that's a thing I should tell you guys.
Be part of the show.
Respond to our question of the night.
We've had some great responses.
It's Mickey Mouse's birthday.
Who is your favorite animated or Pixar character?
Dave says the Flintstones.
We've heard all kinds of different answers tonight.
Conrad said Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny.
I say, who did I say?
Buzz and Woody and Homer Simpson.
We have a phone call.
Cindy from Appleton.
Oh, Cindy from Appleton.
Good evening, Cindy.
How are you?
Good.
I'll tell you who my characters are, but first I just want to say the guy who voted no was probably the one whose name didn't get extra stuff.
Yeah, he cut the worst deal ever.
That is
a very funny.
Yeah, my two favorites are Wiley E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
Oh, those are great too.
And you're the first person that has said either one of those characters.
That's awesome.
And I sense an animated movie coming out about this congressman who voted no.
That could be a movie down
the
road, you never
know.
Cindy, thank you so much.
Have a great
night.
That's Cindy from Appleton.
Love when Cindy calls.
Chris Casper on the text line said Conrad.
Breakpads are part of
it.
You know, I was thinking about them like, I don't think it was breakpads.
I think it was something wrong with my breaks, actually.
Not just
breakpads.
Not just breakpads, right.
Our texts are all over the place.
I got Jim from Appleton.
Brett from Brown Deer says, my favorite animated characters were Homer and Ned's Vegas Y is because... Can I say that word?
Did you read Brett's text?
I'm trying to find it right
now, so I can...
I don't know if I can say the word.
I think I can.
It's not a swear, but it's derogatory word.
Oh, okay.
No, I wouldn't say it.
You're my conduit to the FCC.
So I'm going to lay off that one.
But Brett, thank you for the text anyway.
Thank you for thinking of us.
He says, my favorite animated characters were Homer and Ned's Vegas wives because I love, and then not a very nice word.
Blank.
I love beep.
Monica from Mount Horriban, the 608 says Scooby-Doo and Snoopy.
Oh.
Ah, Scooby-Doo's great.
Awesome.
Chris Casper, our civic media hero, says Wally was amazing.
Well said.
Another movie that was ahead of its time.
Wally, yeah, for sure.
Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids says, the dog with the translator talking collar on the movie Up.
Oh, I forgot about that.
I haven't seen that movie in so long.
I saw it once.
I love the first half hour when they were telling the story about the old couple.
It was so sweet and the music was so great.
And I just kind of thought it was okay.
Jim from Brookfield says, good evening, Pete.
You can't go wrong with Sugar Bear.
He is the coolest mascot and always came out ahead of Blob who tried to steal the post sugar crisps.
Too cool, Jim from Brookfield.
Jim, you are too cool.
I love that he pulled Sugar Bear out of there.
I totally had forgotten about Sugar Bear.
Carla, Conrad's Aunt Carla got the whole family texted.
That's awesome.
She says, hi Pete and Conrad.
Actually, she said, hi Conrad and Pete
because
family first.
Grandma and I are finally able to listen to the show.
We are enjoying happy hour listening to you too.
Thank you.
Oh, that was from five o'clock in the five o'clock hour.
That was our happy hour.
Carla, great to have you back and Grandma Krieger.
Great to hear from you guys.
So, all right, so we've got more texts.
I'm having trouble.
Here's Jack from Merrimack.
He's in the 414.
He says, unfortunately, I won't be able to hear this on the radio in real time because the jam session I'm in just started, but my favorite cartoon character is Wiley Coyote.
I always had sympathy for him because he just never could win against the Roadrunner.
My least favorite off-screen characters are the Acme Supplies Management.
Their quality control needs to be fired because their products are constantly sabotaging the Coyote.
Very well said, Jack.
And have fun at the jam session.
All right, am I caught up?
Oh, Tyler's got another one here.
Tyler from Wisconsin Rabbits.
Do you think women's breasts are involved in this text
from Tyler?
It was like a
DiMaggio hitting streak with this guy
in the boobs.
Another great cartoon is the one with that funny orange guy with the yellow bird on his head.
It swings the golf club a lot.
Can't think of his name.
Who is that?
Well, there were boobs in that text, but one boob.
Thank you, Tyler.
Yeah, I think we know who that is.
He doesn't need any more publicity, though.
Anna from Madison in the 608 says, Pete, please ask Rob Thomas if he has seen J. Kelly, the new George Clooney movie.
I
will do that.
I will absolutely do that.
Also, Adam Salmon
movie.
Is that the same movie?
Yeah.
Oh, he is.
He pleases Asian or something, right?
And well, let's just say, Adam Sandler's going to be the star.
Conrad's got a total man crush on Adam and the rock and Kevin James.
Chris Casper from Madison, our pal, our civic media pal, once again says the Dane County Farmers Market is the largest one in the country.
That was in response to our guest, Ellie Bordeaux, who told a great story about meeting a character at the, this is all available on the podcast folks.
Go to civicmedia.us and check out anything you might have missed on tonight's show.
I will do that, Anna, though.
Thank you.
I will ask Rob about that.
John Murray says, obviously, Harvey Weinstein, senior production, original, and he was referring to what?
Oh, Despicable Me.
No, that's Nick.
Got my text mixed up.
In the 608, Nick says, my favorite animated characters are... Oh, yeah.
How do you say that name again for Minions?
Is it Rue?
It's Gru.
And it's Minions from the Despicable Me Minion movies.
And you know who voices Gru, right?
I will have to tell me.
Steve Carell.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.
Oh my God, I can't keep up.
Folks, this is so awesome.
I love the response to tonight's question.
We'll have to finish these later, because I got to tell you about a really cool screening coming up in Madison.
And it involves a movie I made.
It's called The Godfather of Green Bay, and it is sponsored by John and Gordy of The Morning Show at WMDX in Madison, here at Civic Media.
Sponsored by Doundrens Distilling, a great company.
It's gonna be a really fun night.
This movie I made stars Tony Goldman, Lauren Holly, Tom Lennon, Lance Barber, a who's who of comedy, some great Milwaukee and Chicago actors, as well as outstanding actors from Northeast Wisconsin that we cast and got so lucky with.
The cast is outstanding.
There's big laughs in the film.
It's kind of a feel-good movie.
And we shot it in Wisconsin in fall.
Tony Goldwyn wore a mullet around the Pine Tree Mall in Marinette for six days.
And he is Hollywood royalty.
It was a blast to watch that.
So come on out.
The Baudin's did the music for the film.
Kurt Newman wrote a great score.
This is all December 4th at the Atwood Music Hall.
Doors open at 6.
Show starts at seven.
John and Gordy will be there.
I'll be there.
Please come on out.
It's going to be a really fun night.
And proceeds go, some of the proceeds, go to the Dane County Humane Society.
Hey, we're coming right back with Rob Thomas, Madison Film Critic.
Peach Wabba Night Light.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on a Tuesday night.
We are jamming through this show tonight, folks.
Going way too fast, guys.
This is a three-hour show, but it's like humming along.
It's going fast.
I feel like I'm in the express lanes here.
Kind of a traffic theme tonight, if you noticed.
John Murray in the 608 says, evening gents, I just love some Mr. Magoo.
Foghorn Leghorn had a way with words and Captain Caveman.
Another one I forgot about.
pulled an effing Cody bus out of his fur.
He was badass.
John said, city bus.
Okay, there we go.
Cody bus.
I didn't know what, all right.
Thank you, John.
He said so hard between Beavis and Butthead.
Toss up, I guess.
That's a great one.
Leon from Oshkosh in the 920 says, Pam Poovie from Archer.
What was Archer?
That was like the J. Moore show?
Is that the Archie comics?
Maybe he means Archie.
I don't know who Pam Poovie is.
Either way, thank you though, Leon.
Appreciate that.
All right.
It's one of my favorite times on the show.
We get to talk movies with our pal.
He is a Madison based film critic and the Citycast Madison newsletter editor.
I was just talking about Citycast Madison in the last segment and just a great publication.
If you're in the Madison area, check it out.
They have all kinds of really fun articles about Madison and what's happening there and great deals and fun places to go, all kinds of stuff.
And my next guest is the man behind all of it.
And his name is Rob Thomas and he joins us now.
of the stream.
Hey, buddy.
Hey, Pete, I'm behind some of it.
Well, you're the editor, right?
Don't you get to
boss
people around?
I do not.
Trust me, I do not.
We have a podcast as well, and I'm definitely subordinate to that.
But
thanks.
I really appreciate the kind words.
I love it.
It's a really fun read.
You guys always have great stuff in your offerings.
Let's start there as a matter of fact you have a great article for people who like live entertainment the wildest and weirdest holiday shows in Madison and You're running the gamut here.
There's burlesque.
There's a metal show cranks giving there's John Waters Christmas all kinds of fun stuff What do you recommend for people that want to do something different?
This was this was such a fun article to write and it was my editor or my
executive producers idea because often like I said we have a daily newsletter and a daily podcast and sometimes we try and make them go hand in hand and we had a. Actually friend of mine Lynn Pildsch who has a holiday burlesque show which is hilarious.
I saw it last year hilarious and sexy and fun and if you ever want to see.
The movie Die Hard, done as a burlesque act, this is the place to go.
I'm not kidding.
And so we were like, let's do, let's just do all the weird holiday stuff that's coming.
Not like it's a wonderful life or Handel's Messiah, but like the weird stuff.
There's not a lot of weird stuff in Madison.
you know, the burlesque I would recommend.
The other one is there's this annual show by a band called Wayland St.
Palin and his Magic Elves.
I think they've been doing it for like 20 years.
It's Nate Palin, who I think moved away from Madison to like New York, but he comes back every year.
Sort of this sleazy lounge singer alter ego sings lots of songs about Christmas and drinking and more drinking and more Christmas.
And it's so much fun.
But yeah, I mean, there's like a
a Thanksgiving slaughter metal show, which really made me laugh.
You know, I mean, there's a lot of carnage at the table.
Might as
well
celebrate it.
There's there's Steel Panther, who's like a glam rock band who plays like Christmas songs of like Poison and Motley Crue wrote Christmas songs.
Yes, it was really very fun article to put together.
That's a great angle that the metal bands or the hair bands that do Christmas tunes, like you kind of forget about them, but you get them all together.
That can be a really fun show.
Yeah.
I can't repeat what they put in their 12 days of Christmas.
I'll just leave it at
that.
Okay.
It's funny too that you say it with the Berlesque Christmas show that it was sexy.
Like Christmas to me is like the least sexy holiday.
I don't want to, I don't want to equate Christmas with sex in any way.
Like there's Halloween.
kind of a sexy holiday,
maybe
Valentine's Day, sweetest day, but like, I don't know, Christmas, like even Arbor Day is sexier than Christmas, I think.
Interesting,
interesting.
I don't, remind me not to spend Arbor Day with you.
I get a little
frisky, Rob.
But there is that, you know, Santa baby, baby is cold outside.
There is that sort of like, you know, the kids have gone to bed and you've got a old fashioned or some, some mold wine.
There is sort of a
a horny element to Christmas,
I think.
There's people out there fantasizing about the three wise men and whatever.
I don't want to know what happens.
I tell mommy, you think Santa Claus and all that, right?
I guess so.
Maybe I need to loosen up.
So, all right.
Well, that was a fun article.
And then you also had 13 places to get Thanksgiving.
in Madison was just fun because we just had Ellie on from Up North News that gave us places where people, you know, the needy could go for a free Thanksgiving meal.
This is not that, but it's for people who don't want to cook and do stuff.
Right.
And I think it's become a really popular thing where, like you said, some years people are just not into making a feast and, you know, usually a Chinese restaurant will be open or something like that.
But there's also these restaurants that will either be open on Thanksgiving and have like a big.
Buffet or like they'll sort of pre-make the meal and you pick it up the day before and warm it up and go watch the football game and and it's already when it's done and We've done that a couple of years And it's great.
So yeah, I
mean there's
all kinds of like like some of Mattis is nicest restaurants do it So these are you know, it's the gamut.
Yeah.
No, you guys always have interesting articles So we'll have more with Rob.
We're gonna do the news and then we're gonna come back
Rob you and I Might butt heads a little bit over Pluribus I'm kind of in the minority because it's got like a hundred percent of rotten tomatoes and I don't dislike it But I have an issue and I'm really excited to run it by you So we'll talk about that and then you've seen all these great movies.
You've seen the new wicked So I want to get your take on that too.
We'll do that with Rob after the news
And then our question folks, if you still want to get in, who is your favorite animated character or Pixar character?
Well, let's grab that too when we come back.
This is Pete Schwabba at Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
I'm gonna show you love that it won't take long, my love.
Hey, this is Jamie McChain, and you're listening to Night Light with Pete Schwabba.
Welcome back.
I'm Pete Schwabba.
This is Night Light, Conrad Krieger, working the board, celebrating everything good about life on a Tuesday here at Night Light, talking movies with our pal Rob Thomas, a Madison-based film critic.
He is also the editor.
of the city cast at Madison Newsletter.
So Rob, okay, let's get back into this because I, first of all, I don't know where to start.
Let's start with Pluribus because here's my, I thought it was one of the coolest pilots I've ever seen.
I just thought it was creepy and I love Ray of Seahorn and the way Vince Gilligan's great obviously, his track record is Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
I was so jazzed to see this and I loved the first episode.
I don't think it can follow itself.
I've seen the next two episodes and I'm just like, it's fine.
And I know there's building to something, but...
It just couldn't follow that first episode, which was so amazing thought
the first episode is one of the best first episode I've seen in a long time.
I think we've kind of forgotten Because there's so much streaming now like you drop a whole season.
So like the first episode doesn't have to be strong I think the way the days are like net for network or cable where you really got to grab people right away And it's incredible because it you know, it is like
A riff on invasion of the body snatchers and it's so funny and scary at the same time.
Yes
So I think it is not hitting those heights.
I don't know.
I mean, I don't know if any show could I'm totally invested though.
I thought the second episode was really strong where Just you know real quick.
It's you know, it's Basically the same alien virus has turned humanity to one big organism basically all connected to each other
except for like a dozen people, including this very cranky romance author played by Ray Seahorn.
Carol Sturka, yeah.
Carol Sturka, yeah.
And, you know, she's sort of basically alone trying to like save humanity.
And he's like,
no,
we're great.
This is really, we're all happy and there's no war.
There's no crime.
There's no poverty.
And the second episode, you meet a few of the other people who are
are immune and they're all like, this is great.
And one guy's like, you know, fly around in the Air Force One and he's got a harem.
Yeah.
The last episode, the third episode that came out last week, I would agree kind of plateaued a little bit.
But I think it could set up things that are really potential.
I mean, it could go in so many different directions at
this
point that I'm just really interested to see where it goes.
And it's created by Vince Gilligan who made Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, which are two of the best shows of the last 15 years.
20
years?
Yeah,
absolutely.
Yeah, so I've got faith that wherever it goes, it'll be really interesting.
But it is like,
you
know, he's not afraid to slow things down.
No, he's not.
Sometimes.
And to me, that pacing is really interesting, but it can be if you're really hoping.
for more of a slam-bang science fiction horror show.
It can be a little confusing and frustrating, but I think there's eight episodes in the first season, so I'm really interested to see where it goes.
Yeah, I agree, and I don't, I don't, you know, I trust him.
You know what I mean?
Like, I think it'll ultimately end up being a really good show, but it is interesting, and I did the same thing here at Civic Media.
I do these Hollywood beats, and I do a Pete's Pick, and I had Pluribus, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I love the pilot, and everybody kind of
all the critics kind of went all in on the pilot.
It's weird.
It's not like a movie where you can judge the whole entity.
It's like, this is, maybe it can't follow itself or maybe it ends up being a good show, but the pilot was great.
It's kind of a different thing.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
And that's one reason I have a hard time running about TV as opposed to movies is you don't know how it ends.
Right.
So you recommend something and then you go back a month later and you're like, oh, actually never mind.
That thing totally flamed out.
Totally.
All right, let's talk about Wicked.
The second installment or the sequel, I guess, Wicked for Good is out.
I loved Wicked.
I thought it was really fun and had great energy.
I didn't see the stage play, but I really did like the movie.
What are we looking at?
How did you like the second one?
I think I was a little more...
sort of mid on the first installment.
This is like the play.
So this will be the second act of the play, I guess.
Let's do more good for good, which I actually isn't coming out until Thursday, I think.
I saw a sneak preview last night, but I like this half better.
I mean, it's really like, and I know that like there are people who are so invested in Wicked and like have seen it over and over again the last 20 years.
And I feel so silly, like just being new to it and being like, oh, really, this is what it's about.
It's like being like, oh, Star Trek, that's about a spaceship, right?
I don't really, I haven't really heard much about it, but it's really like they do a lot.
Like it is both this very sincere, teary-eyed musical about friendship.
And it's really audacious retelling of the Wizard of Oz.
And it's like an anti-totalitarian political allegory.
Like there's just so much going on.
And it's really like, you know, it's really interesting to watch how they pull it all together.
And I mean, undeniably, Cynthia Rivo and Ariana Grande are pretty spectacular.
And the two lead roles is Glinda the Good Witch and Alphaba the Wicked Witch.
Yeah, I'll put that in quotes.
But it's super, I mean, it's super interesting.
It's super colorful.
Like, I just found it more interesting now than when they were at school in the first half, which was sort of like, I don't know, remind me of like a
like a young adult TV show like in this one there's a bit of a time jump forward and you know things that to me are much more interesting.
Oh
that's cool.
I'm excited to see it now because like I said I did like the first one.
I thought they were both great.
I didn't know.
Yeah.
that uh Ariana Grande had comedy chops like that though she's
she's so funny i mean i mean i think we've talked about when she's on saturday night live she destroys like she's so good and you see a lot of that in the wicked movies although this one i think is she's allowed to be a little bit more emotional i think than the first one as well as funny um and then also i think jeff gollum is really great as the wizard like he's so uh like mischievous and like like it's it's it's full gold bloom
Let's put
it that
way.
And
so, yeah.
So, yeah, I think if you, you know, I think if you're a fan of the musical, you will not be disappointed.
I mean, you worry about your tickets if you're a fan of the musical, so.
Right.
Did you like the first, did you, as a reviewer, did you review the first one positively?
I think I was, you know, probably in the two to two and a half star range.
Oh, okay.
And this one, I would say, I probably more two and a half, three, I think.
Like, like, like I, like I didn't really.
Like it didn't really connect with me emotionally, but it was just so interesting to watch like all these all these balls are juggling in the air and So
That's great.
That's kind of where I'm landing.
Yeah, I think I'll review it tomorrow on my sub-stack.
I'm working on it right now.
I was just going to your sub-stack right now to see if you already had reviewed it so I could cheat.
All right, Rob Thomas is here.
He's a Madison-based film critic and the editor of the CityCast Madison newsletter.
Check out his work on his sub-stack, Not That Rob Thomas sub-stack and check out the CityCast Madison newsletter editor or newsletter.
All right, so you also recently saw
in our exchange earlier, I noticed that you saw our favorite soap moguls, a new movie, Christie, starring Sydney Sweeney.
So what, you know, it seemed like the reviews were mostly favorable, not off the charts, but I think it got a fresh rating.
But even the New York Post, which is kind of a political, you know, they lean right.
And I thought they kind of chastised her.
They said, they said, Sydney Sweeney defends her latest bomb.
which seemed like they kind of were going after her.
I'm like, I don't think that's a bomb.
I mean, maybe it didn't make the numbers they thought it would, but what did you think of the movie?
I mean, I liked the movie.
I think she's great in it.
Like it was clearly like an Oscar play for her to be taken more seriously.
Cause it's one of those movies where she plays a real life figure, this really famous professional female boxer, Christy Martin, who was big in the nineties.
but also what people didn't know was she had this she was stuck in this really abusive relationship with her trainer slash husband who's played by Ben Foster if you know him like he just plays so many creeps and so many movies very very good yeah he's really really good in it um and i i like that i thought she was good you know it's a pretty downbeat uh
movie pretty pretty sad.
And so I'm not surprised that like they opened it really wide.
And I'm not surprised that people didn't immediately warm to it.
I think that the Rocks movie the smashing machine kind of had the same problem from like a box office point of view and what people want to see out of the rock.
But but I thought Christie was a good movie and I think I hope people do catch up with it may it may already be out of theaters at this point.
I think it's just like there's some envy like
She's kind of this big sex symbol right now, immensely popular, even if she doesn't tear it up at the box office.
I think people almost like to see the pretty people fail, so to speak, maybe.
Yeah, and she's had some controversies with that Jean's ad this year, and I don't think handled that well.
So there may have been some backlash already brewing.
But like you said, just looking at the movie itself and her performance in it, I'm totally sold.
Yeah.
Do you agree with my assessment about the pretty people?
I mean, you and I, people cheer for, but you know, someone like Sidney Sweeney, it's just, I
don't know.
Well, we're very pretty and people cheer for us.
So maybe we're the exceptions.
I don't know.
I mean, she certainly is like she really bulked up in this role and looks completely different from her jeans ad or her soap.
Yeah, she
threw herself into the role by all accounts.
For sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Tell us about Nuremberg because I haven't seen this yet, Rob.
And I've heard pretty good stuff.
Yeah, it's really good.
It's based on the famous Nuremberg trials after World War II when this international court held the top leaders of the Nazi party and accountable.
And it's interesting because a lot of it is about the lead up to the trial, like Michael Shannon.
plays a supreme court justice who came up with the idea of this war crimes tribunal, which they had never really done before and bringing all the different countries together to put these leaders on trial.
And then it also looks at the psychiatrist played by Rami Malek, who is meeting with these imprisoned Nazi generals and trying to try to learn about trying to learn like what makes them tick and why they
did such evil things.
And he developed a relationship with Herman Goring, who was the number two, the right hand man of Hitler, basically, who's played by Russell Crowe and like one of his best performances in 15, 20 years.
Like he really bulked up and he plays this guy is very charming, almost like a, you know, an uncle type and and the tension between the two of them because they each want something from the other.
and a sort of a dance between the two is they're like, they may see something, recognize something human in each other, but they don't want to, especially Rami Malik.
And then the second half of the movie is more of the trial itself.
It's really interesting.
And it's, the thing I noticed about, especially in the first half was for such a serious subject, it was pretty entertaining.
Like there was humor in it.
It reminded
me a
lot of A Few Good Men, the
Ernie
Sorkin written movie.
They really tried to make a movie that was not just a history lesson, but something that was very entertaining and dramatic So I quite enjoyed it and you know, I definitely recommend it It's a longest movie probably two and a half hour, but I thought it was really well done
That's fantastic.
I noticed you did not see or when I
It's actually due earlier, and I said I had seen a movie called Relay.
You didn't say that you saw it, and I just want to make sure.
Have you seen that film?
I did, yeah.
No, I saw it in theaters a few months ago.
I think it's on streaming now.
It's on streaming now.
I didn't even know it was in theaters.
I don't know how that got past me, but I really liked it.
It's really good, yeah.
What's the guy's name?
I'm blanking on his name.
David McKenzie
is the director, Riz
Ahmed.
That's right.
Let's pick up there.
We're going to do a very
short break.
And then I
want to
ask you about this director, too, because he has another film out called Fuse that is getting really good reviews that I haven't seen either.
So we'll talk to Rob Thomas about the Heller Highwater director, who also did Relay.
He is here talking movies, and we always love when he is.
It's Peach Wabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
But just too good to be true Can't take my eyes off of you You'd be like heaven touch
I'm Pete Schwabba.
Tomorrow night on the show, Paul Trebbian will be here from, he's going to talk about this really cool folk festival that's coming up tomorrow.
Shaly Pittman, the civic media news director will be here to keep us posted on what's going on and we'll just kind of get to know her.
Shaly's so much fun to talk about or to talk, not to talk about.
That's terrible.
I'm not a rumor spreader.
No, you're not.
I'm just a Shawley fan.
She'll be here.
And then Arthur Ersink from Wisconsin Foodie.
And then from NBC26, Door County reporter, Hannah Lopez will be here.
She's a fellow DePaul Blue demon, very excited to have Hannah on the show.
That's tomorrow night on Nightlight.
Right now we have a few more minutes with our pal, Rob Thomas.
And Rob, we were talking about this director, David McKenzie.
I saw Heller Highwater.
I think that's the only film of his I've seen before I saw this, maybe I saw Citadel.
But before I saw this,
this relay, which I really liked.
It was a great thriller.
Yeah.
Very, uh, very felt like a seventies thriller.
Yeah.
Uh, we just lost Robert Redford three days at the condor or, um, I relax with you with another one.
I really like her.
Riz Ahmed plays this guy who's sort of like, he's sort of like a middleman between, uh,
Corporations and whistleblowers who have stolen secrets, but then want to return them like that.
Right.
And he gets involved with this this woman and who's being chased by this these guys from represent this company who wants their secrets back.
And it's one of those movies where like everybody is smart.
You know, I mean like he's smart, but then the guys chasing him are really smart as well.
And it's this cat and mouse game.
uh, as he's trying to keep, uh, you know, his clients safe and work out this deal and, and you try to figure out what's going on.
I, yeah, I also really enjoyed it.
I think it was in theaters like in the summer and just came and went pretty quick.
Um, definitely worth catching up on.
Definitely.
And a great movie to watch at home.
I mean, we rented it at home.
And I was just, I wish there was a movie like that to watch every night.
You know, it was
just
fun.
His other film is Fuse, which came out recently about they find a World War II bomb that has not exploded yet in downtown London or something like that.
And that's getting really good reviews.
And I think you can stream that right now.
I've never heard of that one.
So I want to catch up.
I really like, like I loved Heller Highwater.
That's one of my fantastic movie.
He made this, like he never makes the same movie twice.
Like he made this historical drama called, I think it's the Outlaw King on Netflix a couple of years ago.
So yeah, I'll have to track Fuse down.
Yeah, I'm just looking right here.
I can't see, it's action crime drama, but I can't see where.
to watch it.
So I thought it was in theaters a while back, which means it would be available to stream now, but it doesn't look like it is yet.
Anyway, Rob, before we let you go, this four-star video in Madison had a party recently.
This is an actual video store that still exists.
You can get VHS tapes, DVDs, Blu-rays, all this stuff.
It's been there forever, right?
And I met the owner at the Wisconsin Film Festival, and I've been trying to have him on the show, but I guess they had a big party last week or something.
You wrote about it.
Did you go to that?
I wasn't able to go, but yeah, it's like so like so cool that the four star video has been around for 40 years And you know, it was like when Roger Ebert would come to town He would stop by there and then like it's and they've always had like this great selection and sort of incredibly they've survived they've switched locations a couple of times switch owners, but like I think in the era of streaming where people are like, well, why am I
paying 16 bucks for Netflix and then I can't see the movie I want to see or whatever.
Right.
There are enough people into, you know, the same way people are into vinyl.
Some people are into Blu-rays or 4Ks to keep them going.
And so they had a big party where they had all these former employees and customers come and tell stories about the movie they rented and they had like a big scavenger hunting the store.
So it's really, it's a real gem in Madison.
We're really lucky to have four star.
That's so cool.
And it's great that you wrote about it too and increased others' awareness about it.
So thank you for that as well.
Hey, are we going to see you on December 4th at the Atwood Music Hall for the Godfather?
I'm going to be at it.
I'm going to be at a town.
I'm so upset because I know, man, I know.
Cancel it.
I'm going to Antarctica.
Is that helpful at all?
Yeah.
I'm going on a cruise with my mom, my brother to Antarctica.
So.
Oh my gosh.
If I could be there, I would be because I remember seeing it 20 years ago, sold out Orpheum and it was such a fun experience.
Yeah.
The only problem with the Orpheum 20 years ago was that I think the sound actually caught up with the mouths moving a week ago, Tuesday.
Right.
All
that was frustrating.
But yeah, it was a fun crowd.
And, uh, I think there was like, I don't know, 12 or 14 or whatever.
It was
mind
blowing.
It was fun.
But this, I'm looking forward to this too.
And it's, uh,
It should be a fun night, but that sounds like Antarctica.
Like what made you pick Antarctica?
It's my mom and she's like, she turned 80 and she's like this world traveler.
She's been to this year alone.
She's been to Sicily and Iceland and yeah, she is, she's in Trippett.
So I'm just along for the ride.
That's fantastic.
Well, have a great trip and let's do this when you get back again and we'll talk holiday movies and all kinds of fun stuff you got going on.
Always fun, buddy.
Yeah, good to see you, Pete.
You too, Rob.
Take care.
All right.
That is Rob Thomas.
Check out his work.
His sub-stack is not that Rob Thomas.
He does great movie reviews, folks, and check out CityCast Madison, the newsletter that Rob edits.
Really great work.
All right.
Conrad, so we have all these clips we always mean to show, and then I start running my trap, and we never get to them.
Yes, that's true.
Do I just need to talk less?
I mean, this is talk radio.
Do we just play clips the whole show?
That's not funny either.
I think we got to find a happy medium.
We'll figure it out.
But we'll have all kinds of stuff going on tomorrow too, folks.
We'll catch you up on some sports in the five o'clock hour, maybe a little weather, maybe some fun news going on in Wisconsin.
And then at six o'clock, we will, we're going to light it up again.
with some night light.
That's
true.
But we do it now for three hours from five to eight.
It was great to have you with me.
Thank you for your texts and calls, everybody.
Thank you to Frank Hermans, Ellie Bordeaux, and Rob Thomas.
On behalf of the lovable producer Conrad, I'm Pete Schwabba, saying good night,
Wisconsin.
War is not the answer For all in luck and hunger hate You know we've got to find a way To bring some love and care today Picket lights and picket signs Don't punish me with brutality
