The Crappiest Places (Hour 1)

Transcript

The Crappiest Places (Hour 1)

Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Tue Dec 2, 2025

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.

Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay, this is Night Light with Peach Wabba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

a guy who loves to watch true crime, but only if it's shoplifting.

Pete Schwabba.

Pete Schwaba

Welcome back.

I said back.

That's right.

It is Tuesday.

This is our second night on the air this week.

And I love Tuesday almost as much as I love Wednesday.

Hope you're all having a great day.

Wherever you're joining us from all over our beautiful state, if not a bit cold.

It's great to have you here at Nightlight Tonight, because we've got so much fun planned and so much to talk about.

Lots of fun events, cool civic media stuff, text-to-win contests.

It's giving Tuesday, it's also Travel Tuesday.

We're gonna talk about a big screening we have coming up on Thursday, some great guests tonight.

And we are sort of celebrating our second year anniversary tonight.

Sort of a soft celebrate, if you will, tonight and tomorrow night.

So we'll get into all that as well.

And of course, we will talk maybe a little Bear's Packers.

That's a big game coming up.

And just so much to get to.

So it's good we have this extra hour.

We are on now from five to eight if you didn't know, or if you did not listen much last week because of the holiday.

It's great to have you.

And very exciting news.

Mr. Conrad Krieger is back on the other side of the glass.

Hey,

Con.

Hello.

How was your trip?

Oh, it was great.

You know, I was warm.

Pete Schwaba

Yeah.

You know, there's a couple days where it was a little windy.

I love that.

It was 80, but it was a little windy.

Yeah, it was

Pete Schwaba

disconcerting.

You know, they kind of did a cruel trick.

Like when boarding our flight back to Wisconsin, we had to go outside to get into it.

You know, it's not like the tunnel.

Oh, yeah, right.

We had to go outside and it was like 80 something and it was just, and I was like, come on.

This is mean.

Pete Schwaba

And you knew what you were coming back

to?

Exactly, yeah.

Because

Pete Schwaba

you heard about all the snow.

When did you get back?

Monday?

Yeah, no, no, I got back Sunday, Sunday, yeah.

Pete Schwaba

Okay.

And, well, it was a smooth flight though, but I got, you know, I don't like to be hot on an airplane, so I wore shorts and a t-shirt, you know, obviously.

And I could feel that cold as soon as I got out of that plane.

Well done.

Well, I'm gonna go to the bathroom and change into some joggers and a sweatshirt now.

Pete Schwaba

That's awesome.

Well, it's good to have you back.

And the trip was fun.

You golfed.

You get to see your

folks a little bit.

I actually gulfed the best score I've ever had.

Yeah, Saturday or no, Friday.

Find whatever day it was.

The

Pete Schwaba

windmill hole.

That's awesome.

I got a 91.

A 91.

Yeah, which is really real.

That's the best score I've ever had.

Pete Schwaba

I don't think I've ever gotten a 91 on nine holes, even when I cheated.

So.

It was, you know, I was just one, that's great.

I was feeling good that day.

Pete Schwaba

How was the course?

Was it like kind of a tough course or was

it a good one?

It wasn't easy because there was a lot of bunkers, but like it was pretty open.

Okay.

So if you kind of, you know, you slice to there, you know, left or right, you know, it was pretty easy to get back on the fairway.

But the day before, I probably stopped keeping score of because of how bad I did because we played at this course that

You know, it's good.

Once you go into the woods, like it's really hard to get back out.

Yeah.

I probably hit a branch every single hole.

Any

Pete Schwaba

alligators on the

course?

No, no alligators.

Okay.

But I did.

I did it.

I was like kind of a little angry because I was doing so bad.

And I hit it.

One of the best shots I've had all day was straight was the distance, you know, I wanted and it hit a tree and came back 40 yards.

Oh, that's like a

Pete Schwaba

Rodney Dangerfield and Caddy Shaggers.

Have you ever seen an alligator on the course?

No, no.

I mean, I don't golf much besides Wisconsin, so.

Pete Schwaba

Right.

I was in Florida a couple years ago.

And I did see an alligator at the place we were staying.

There was a golf course.

And they said that rarely happens.

You see it in movies and stuff like that.

But hey, folks, I got to tell you about something here right out of the gate.

This is exciting because I mentioned today is Giving Tuesday.

Such a great day.

all through all over the state.

We are celebrating this here at Civic Media.

So it's a national day of giving.

This is nationwide and you can help, you can donate to one of many nonprofits.

Just go to your local Civic Media radio station and click on the station's website slash give and click on the Giving Tuesday banner to help local nonprofits in your area.

And whether it's WMDX, WXCO, WAUK, WFHR, WRCE, WISS, WGBW, WBZH, WLCX, or the tap in Eau Claire, just go to your local website, slash give, and click on the Giving Tuesday banner.

And your contributions are so...

appreciated and they're going to such great causes.

Lots of these nonprofits, it's just great stuff.

So it's happening all today and you can give all week too.

We will be reminding you of this all week but thank you for your kindness.

Please give what you can.

It is very, very much appreciated by everyone here at Civic Media as well as those who will actually receive and there are a lot of those people out there.

So your kindness is much appreciated.

So we've got, what else do we have?

Oh, we got text to win.

This is exciting.

Conn, we already started yesterday.

You missed the first day of text to win, but it's going through December 12th.

Yes.

And I will be giving details in just a few minutes, as well as the keyword before the end of this first break.

So stick around, folks, for the next few minutes.

We'll stick around for the whole show, if you would, please.

I'm gonna tell you about our really cool screening tomorrow night.

And what else do we have?

Great guests tonight.

Two years ago, we started this show Night Light.

You know everyone who pitched in and got the show off the ground.

I'm very grateful for And they know who they are.

It's a long

It's a long line of people to list here at Civic Media, but Civic Media took a chance with this show.

I don't think there's any other entertainment radio show on anywhere that I know of, and we focus on entertainment here, and I cannot thank everyone at Civic Media enough, starting with Sage Weil, from the top on down, Corey, Aaron, Catherine, even people who are no longer at the company.

It was a group effort and that we've been on for two years now, and I'm so thankful I love doing this show and I love the listeners I love the texts we get every night It's fun working with Khan it's fun working with Amanda and Zomers and all the other people that have pitched in to produce the show or filled in his host like John and Gordy and Aaron So I just want to say thank you to everybody for keeping us on the air two years the show is growing we're getting more listeners by the day presumably and

It's very exciting.

So thank you everybody for supporting Nightlight, and I hope we'll be on for the foreseeable future.

But either way, it has been an absolutely great run here two years.

What do you think, Con?

What are your thoughts?

You know, you said there wasn't another entertainment show.

Well, you forgot there's Daylight in Chicago.

What's that?

On the radio?

I was just trying to do a stupid joke, sorry.

What is it?

Now you got to explain it.

You know, because it's Nightlight, so I was Daylight.

Oh, God.

And it was in Chicago.

Pete Schwaba

There's another show about entertainment.

But it's on early in the morning, first thing.

Exactly.

In the

Pete Schwaba

town I was born in.

OK, well, that's good.

That's the price you pay, though, Con, when you stick your neck out.

It's not all gold.

Sometimes they land, and sometimes they

don't.

Pete Schwaba

But speaking of our two-year anniversary, our first guest ever was Bill Leff, who is a very funny and very talented comedian.

And Bill is, and he's just a phenomenon.

He's an even better guy than he is.

comedian or funny or show host, whatever you want to say.

But he hosts the show, the nationally syndicated morning show on, uh, me TV called a tune in with me where they play, he's the cartoon curator where they play old bits and cartoons.

And it's just a great show kind of geared at, you know, parents and children that they can enjoy together.

That show has been on probably three years now, I'm guessing, but Bill was our first guest.

So he's going to join us here tonight.

He was also our first anniversary guest, so we have Bill on once a year.

I think he's been on other times too, but he's gonna join us tonight at 635.

It'll be great to get caught up with Bill.

He and Conrad have a running gag going.

During Bill's first appearance on Nightlight, he told me on the air that off the air, Conrad threatened to kill him.

What do you mean gag?

So we can follow up on that.

It hasn't happened yet.

So Con, I tend to side with you on that.

I believe you.

I believe you're not trying to cause Bill any harm.

We'll see you think I went to Florida.

Pete Schwaba

Bill doesn't

show up tonight.

Pete Schwaba

We'll see what happens.

And then joining us in about 20 minutes will be author Jim Nipfel.

He wrote a great book and that book has been turned into an independent film that is going to have a screening here at the Tarleton in downtown Green Bay.

That is December 6th, I believe.

We'll talk to Jim.

He's here in the studio.

That will be fun.

My pal Mike Siegel might join us at 610.

He's traveling, but we hope Mike can be here because he made a fantastic behind the scenes video of the Godfather of Green Bay.

If you just go to YouTube and click on Godfather of Green Bay behind the scenes, there are interviews with Tony Goldwyn, Lauren Holly, Tom Lennon, Lance Barber, Steve Siegren, me.

Mike did a great job.

It's about 20 minutes long, but there's all kinds of funny stuff on there with some of the funniest.

people I've ever met and all these famous great comedians who are much funnier than me.

We'll talk to Mike about that.

If he can make it, he is a world traveler.

So he's hoping he can join us then.

And then another author joins the show tonight, around 7.20, Brett Kissinger will be here.

Brett has been on the show before and he is a very prolific writer as well.

So it'll be good to see Brett.

He'll be here in the studio as well.

So there you go, a big lineup tonight.

And I think what we'll do, Con,

is talk about the text to win, and then we'll do the question of the night when we come back after break and try to differentiate those texts a little bit, because last night, I think I was reading keywords as they were actual texts, and that

was

Pete Schwaba

confusing.

But we'll do that, and let me make sure I have all my information here.

Folks, it is our civic media multi-state grown-up gift list text to win contest.

This is one of our awesome

text-to-win contest we do here.

There's so much fun.

It started yesterday and it's going through December 12th.

And it's on all our stations except the ones in Michigan.

So if you're listening in Michigan, you cannot participate.

The only other thing you need is the app, the Civic Media app, folks.

It's very easy to use.

Very user-friendly.

You can take all your favorite civic media shows with you wherever you go.

Please download the app if you want to play our grown-up gift list, text to win.

And I will give you a keyword when I am done reading this announcement and you just text the keyword in, and you are eligible for a daily prize of 200 bucks in cash.

That's like 20 SawBucks, Conn.

Yeah.

Pete Schwaba

You know what a SawBuck is?

You ever hear that phrase?

It's a

$10 bill.

I've heard it, but I didn't know what I wanted.

Well, now you do.

There you

Pete Schwaba

go.

That's a lot of saw bucks.

$200 daily cash prize.

And you are automatically enrolled for our three grand prizes, which are a brand new snowblower or a stainless steel cookware set or a portable air conditioner.

What would you take on?

You know, I live in an apartment right now, but the snowblower would be nice for the future.

Pete Schwaba

You could sell it on the black market.

I wouldn't advise

that.

I

Pete Schwaba

wouldn't either.

Don't tell the bosses.

You're not eligible.

You can't win anyway.

So great grand prizes.

It's our grown-up gift list, multi-state text-to-win contest.

And the giveaway times are 7 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m.

And right now, I'm gonna give you the text, the keyword.

And we'll do it again at seven o'clock.

But our five o'clock, our keyword in our text-to-win contest is ELF, E-L-F.

Piece of cake, folks.

Three letters, baby.

Text it in on the app, and you could be looking at 200 bucks, burning a hole in your pocket, and possibly even bigger prizes.

But text in on the app, the word ELF.

ELF, that is this hour's keyword.

There we go.

We're off to a...

Roaring started.

Did you worry when you came back that you were gonna forget how to produce the show?

No, you know, we've been doing it for two years.

So it's

Pete Schwaba

two years interesting you say that because it's our anniversary I don't know if you're trying to work that in

well, you know

It feels longer, you know.

Pete Schwaba

Tom Lennon did a great bit when he was here last week.

He said, Godfather of Green Bay, which coincidentally is playing December 4th at the Atwood Music Hall.

I'm going to tell you about our screening at the Atwood Music Hall.

On Thursday when we come back, we'll do our Question of the Night.

And boy, it is great to have you here, folks.

I'm excited to talk about all kinds of stuff.

And that's all coming up next.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get

started.

Pete Schwaba

Happy Tuesday, everybody.

I know Tuesday is typically not a day people get excited about.

I think it was Newman on Seinfeld who famously said Tuesday has no feel.

And Kramer countered with, I feel Tuesday and Wednesday.

But today's a big one.

We got Giving Tuesday.

I just give you the details.

We'll do more of that later.

But also, it's Travel Tuesday.

And that's supposed to be like you get discounts or something, I think, Con.

If you book stuff on Tuesday, it's supposed to save you some money.

Okay.

But it did get me thinking and it inspired tonight's question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Pete Schwaba

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Pete Schwaba

In honor of Travel Tuesday.

What's the crappiest state you've been to or city?

In honor of Travel Tuesday, what's the crappiest city or state you've been to?

You can let us know at 855-752-4842, 855-75 Civic.

You can also text us on the app I just spoke about, which is very easy to use.

And if you are watching the radio on YouTube, Facebook, or X, you can drop us a stream comment.

I've been, you know, when I was a stand-up comic,

I'm gonna think outside the box here.

I'm gonna go first con.

Okay.

You ready?

Yeah.

North Dakota State.

Wow.

I drove, and you know, you'd think like when you get to the northern part of America, it can be so beautiful.

Upstate New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, it stops at Minnesota, and North Dakota does not have those woods.

There are times when you drive through North Dakota, it has its beauty.

And the people are wonderful, but it just kind of can look like a wasteland.

And it's very cold, even colder than Wisconsin, I believe.

I went on an Amtrak through North Dakota once.

I mean, it was a snoozer.

Pete Schwaba

Yeah, there's not much to look at.

Now, when you get West, like to, not Minot, but what is the Bismarck?

It starts to get a little hilly, and then you get into Montana and Idaho, and it's very beautiful.

But yeah, North Dakota is just not much to look at.

And then my city is basically almost part of North Dakota, Winnipeg, Canada.

I was there during the winter and doing stand-up comedy.

And I just had such a miserable experience that it was a tie actually between Winnipeg and Grand Blank, Michigan.

And Grand Blank means great white, I think.

And it's like a sister city to Flint.

And you know what?

I say Grand Blank because I didn't like the way people in Grand Blank were talking about people in Flint.

Flint is a city very down on its luck.

They'd rub me the wrong way, but I would say overall city is probably Winnipeg and state is North Dakota.

What about you, buddy?

You know, I'm gonna say South Dakota for my state because, you know, we did this trip when I was younger.

We went out to South Dakota and, you know, it was cool, I guess, but like this...

Mount Rushmore is kind of just it's a kind of a letdown.

It's

Pete Schwaba

Mount Rushmore is a let first of all That's the best thing about South Dakota

and that was a letdown.

You just go there and you like all right.

That's cool.

All right look at those big dumb heads

Pete Schwaba

All right, we saw it.

I mean, but you appreciate what went into making Mount Rushmore in

that yeah, I guess but

Pete Schwaba

Mammoth

all right, so that's not easily impressed

You know, honestly, I think I gave that too much hate.

You know, I retract.

All right.

Well, I will say this stuff.

The city is Athens that I think is the crappiest.

Greece or Georgia?

I've never been to Athens, Georgia, but I was half kidding.

Pete Schwaba

You've been to Athens, Greece,

but

Pete Schwaba

Georgia.

Okay.

Yeah.

I should say, you know, you see all the cool parts about it on TV, you know, all that stuff.

But like outside of that, it just looks terrible.

No kidding.

It's like we took a bus from the the port all the way to like downtown Athens where all like the Mythology and stuff is yeah, but when you're going through it.

Yeah, it's there's garbage everywhere, you know, there's graffiti So much so much traffic.

It was like it wasn't even fun looking at

Pete Schwaba

did you get now the city is also known for its salads and yogurt

I

didn't get any of that.

I didn't get any of that.

I had some wine there, though.

You should have really capitalized on getting a Greek salad

Pete Schwaba

in the morning.

Yeah, right.

Or the yogurt.

It's good for gut health.

All right, so let us know, folks, what is the crappiest?

We're not really celebrating travel today or big, big savings on travel.

I'm saying if you've traveled, what is the crappiest city or state you've been to?

I say state North Dakota, city Winnipeg, Conrad says Athens, Greece.

I almost said Iowa, but that wouldn't have been fair because I like the people of Iowa and Iowa has its beauty.

But to me, it's always been a state you just have to drive through to get somewhere.

It's not like, destination Iowa has never been in my vocabulary.

All right, so I'll take back South Dakota and I'll put Illinois out there.

Pete Schwaba

Oh, that's gonna lead us into some bear pack talk.

We'll get into that a little bit later too.

But first, before we go to a break, folks, and Jim Nipfel here is here.

He's an author and his book, New Geese Time to Shine, has been turned into a movie and it's gonna be released soon.

And more specifically, we're having a screening here in Green Bay, December 6th, which is this Saturday.

Jim will be here in the studio talking about his book and...

He's had some incredible life experiences too.

We'll talk to Jim about that.

Bill F is here to help us celebrate year number two on Night Light as we do a soft celebrate tonight and tomorrow night.

Brett Kissinger, hopefully Mike Siegel joins us around 6'10".

And it's a full show, but before we go to the break, I have to tell you, we are running out of days, Con, where I have to talk about my

Kathryn Lake

own movie

Pete Schwaba

screening, but it's happening Thursday at the Atwood Music Hall in Madison.

Doors open at six, the show starts at seven.

It's sponsored by Doundren's Distilling, Civic Media, and WMDX.

It's going to be a really fun night.

John and Gordy from the John and Gordy show are going to introduce the film.

We're going to do a Q&A with those guys afterwards.

Part of the proceeds go to the Dane County Humane Society.

Music by the Baudin's.

It should be a really fun night.

So if you can stop by, say hello, ask good questions, or just enjoy the movie.

It's kind of a feel-good film.

and there's some big laughs and a great cast.

Tony Goldman, Lauren Holly, Tom Lennon, Lance Barber, you've heard them all on this show before, and Tracy Thorpe and all kinds of great actors.

So it should be a fun night.

Hope you can make it.

We're gonna give two tickets away either tonight or tomorrow night as well, Conn.

Did you know that?

Sounds good to me.

Not missing a beat in Florida for like a month and he comes back and he's ready to go.

All right, we're coming right back.

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

Kathryn Lake

Network.

Pete Schwaba

Welcome back.

It's so funny.

I just saw Dave on the stream.

He's a regular nightlight texture here.

I'm Pete Chihuahua, by the way.

Welcome back to Nightlight.

Dave says, date in Ohio.

And you know what, Con?

That was up there with me.

I knew people from there.

I had family there, but I did stand up there and just did not have a great...

Experience.

I didn't think the crowds were that great, but Dave says my daughter lives there now.

But before she moved there, I stayed at a Red Roof Inn.

Well, that could be part of the problem, Dave.

He says we were heading to Carolina and it's the halfway point.

Anyway, we got to town after 9 p.m.

So not a lot going on a date.

And after 9, apparently, he said both times I made the trip.

I ended up in some place, same place.

Disgusting.

You need a new travel agent, Dave.

We'll figure that out.

We can help you.

We have a travel agency branch here at Nightly, don't we, Con?

Do people up sure.

Oh, just you're just supposed to play along.

Yeah, I could I could I can help you out any travel needs

Pete Schwaba

He's got a

guy.

Pete Schwaba

He'll hook it.

All right.

So all right.

This is exciting folks.

I I am absolutely thrilled to introduce my first guest.

He has never been here before I mean he's been

here, but not tonight like before.

And we are excited to welcome him here into the studio.

His most recent book, New Geese Time to Shine, has just been made into a movie.

And we're going to tell you all about a screening and where you can catch New Geese Time to Shine.

But right now, it is my pleasure to welcome Mr. Jim Nipfel.

Hi, Jim.

Oh, well, hello there, Pete.

So happy to be here.

And also, congratulations on the 20th anniversary.

20th

Pete Schwaba

anniversary.

How about

that?

Yeah.

Yep, Godfather of Green Bay.

Yeah,

Pete Schwaba

well, thank you, sir.

I appreciate

that.

Kudos to you for

Pete Schwaba

that.

Yeah, and congratulations to you on getting your book made into a movie.

Before we get into that, I have something very important to ask you, though.

Do you have a worst city or state you've ever been to?

Oh, Jeepers, Creepers.

I'll take that as a yes.

I've been to many.

The question now is narrowing it down.

Pete Schwaba

Yeah, you've lived a lot of cool places.

I was looking at your bio before.

You could

Pete Schwaba

think about it,

too.

In a way, it's both the worst and the best would have been Philly in the mid-80s.

Oh, wow.

Because it was a terrifying town.

But when I was in my early 20s,

punk rock, and we'll just say a little disillute.

It was the perfect place to be.

Yeah, people were just, Philly back then, people were just murdered on the street while the sun was shining.

Geez.

God, I love that place.

It no longer exists.

Pete Schwaba

I'm just happier here right now than after hearing that.

That's all right, Philadelphia.

I wasn't expecting to hear Philly, but that's a great answer.

All right.

Let's discuss your book first, then we'll segue into the movie.

So tell us about Newge's Time to Shine.

Tell us about the story and where you found the idea to write it.

Well, the story is that, well, Newge is a schlub living in Jersey City, working as an ATM maintenance man, restocking ATMs in bodegas.

Drugstores what have you delis round Manhattan?

And he's also an obsessive even insufferable movie geek specifically the crime films from the 30s and 40s Steve McQueen pictures But one day while making his appointed rounds He discovers that he can siphon off at 20 here 20 there from the machines.

He's filling without anybody

being the wiser.

But, well, as these things happen, the accounts at the company he works for do finally get wise.

Nuggy panics and takes it on the land with his cat Dillinger and three laundry bags stuffed with over $3 million in loose 20s.

And at that moment, he achieves for

For him anyway, what is the American dream and that he turns his entire shlubby life into a movie in which he's the he's the Star is the criminal mastermind, of course, of course things after that They don't go well for for no gain so many different

Pete Schwaba

ways.

Is part of it because his name is Noogie?

Well, that may have been part of StarVet.

He was doomed since childhood.

Yeah, if you're if you're being haunted by a childhood nickname when you're in your 30s, it's

Kathryn Lake

never

a good sign.

But Noogie was actually based and think of this in terms of the movie.

the movie version.

I mean, the tagline has been around for 50 years.

I think it started with Legend of Bogey Creek in 1972.

But this is one of the rare examples where the book and the movie really are based on true stories.

It was something, I was a newspaper man in New York for 30 years.

And this was a little story, way under the radar.

that I came across in early 2002 about a guy named Michael Schwartz, who was an ATM maintenance man who did just that.

And when I finished reading the story, I thought, my God, this is a pulp novel in real life.

So then I took real life and turned it into a pulp novel.

And that's how that's how nookie came

Pete Schwaba

up nicely done That is the voice of Jim Nipfel.

He is the author of a new keys time to shine The book which has been turned into a movie So tell us Jim what how did the movie come to be?

Somebody

see it in the option it or how did that work?

Well, that's kind of a story now.

I am not

I'm not bragging when I say that I was approached by a couple studio people early on about other books.

You know, I was young, I was eager, I was penniless.

So I thought, hey, here's my ticket, right?

These studio people.

And then I met with them and they were some of the most abominable human beings I've ever met in my life.

Not only were they smug and arrogant, they weren't smart.

They didn't know anything about movies, and worst of all, they didn't get the jokes, which is a cardinal sin.

So I decided early on that the only people I would sell movie rights to would be kids, young filmmakers, fresh out of film school with no money looking to make their first feature.

So because I mean a couple of reasons is because those kids would have something to prove Right and and they would throw everything they had into it And also my I mean my books are essentially pulp novels and I have a real affinity for low-budget B movies So I thought that's the way any of my books need to be made

So that's what happened.

And sure enough, not long after Noogie came out, that was 2007.

I was contacted by a young filmmaker.

I shot a film school with no money.

He was looking to make his first feature.

So we cut a deal.

And it's been, well, it's been an insanity, but an awful lot of fun.

Pete Schwaba

You've got Eric Horn and Bradley Parrot, I assume those are the filmmakers you're talking about there, the directors of the film, which you can see December 6th, 7 p.m.

here in Green Bay, it's the premiere of in Northeast Wisconsin anyway, of this, what's being called an indie caper comedy.

I love those words put together like that, New Geese Time to Shine.

At the Tarleton Theater this Saturday, you can see Jim's words come to life with a movie, which is...

Very exciting, Jim.

And I want to ask you, we talked about this before.

You suffer from a condition called retinitis pigmentation.

Pigmentosa, yeah.

Pigmentosa, I'm sorry.

So I'm curious, as a writer myself, how do you write?

How do you use voice

or what is your... Well, as you can tell, I mean, people ask me about voice to text, but as you can tell, I don't talk real good.

So, uh,

Pete Schwaba

no, Mike, I think you're doing fine.

Well,

thank you.

Um, uh, I mean, thank God, I tend to be a little bit by nature, but, uh, thank God for technology.

So all my, all my machines talk to me.

Nice.

So every, uh, uh, keystroke on the computer is read aloud to me.

So, oh, that's cool.

Yeah.

So, so that's how it

Pete Schwaba

works.

Does.

I mean, as writers, we get ideas from different places.

Do you feel like you're locked in more to either the human condition or an activity or something due to the fact that you don't see things like other people do?

Do you have to rely on other senses to write characters or situations?

No.

Oh, and by the way, just as far as terminology goes, if I may, not to be persnickety here.

But I tend to prefer visually unpleasant.

Kathryn Lake

Okay.

As

they, as the proper noted refer to blindness.

But I don't think so because I could see for about, you know, until my mid thirties.

Okay.

So, well, not well, but I could see enough.

Sure.

And so, you know, you store up plenty of, plenty of images.

I mean, writing is all in the imagination anyway.

So I have the stockpile of visuals to work with.

Pete Schwaba

I

can't remember.

I just make up.

Pete Schwaba

So let me ask you this.

Have you, in terms of the movie, what are your thoughts on it with your experience?

Were you on the set?

Do you like the way it turned out in terms of

audience reaction?

Well, here's the funny thing.

When I first made this deal with these guys, with Eric and...

And Brad and Brandon Potter, by the way, the star of the film is now the star of the TV series The Chosen.

Nice.

He plays the chief villain, Quintus there.

But so people have gone on to bigger things after Noogie.

But when we first made the deal, I told them that writing books and making movies are two completely different animals.

and that I wanted nothing to do with it.

They were free

to

go out and make whatever movie they wanted because I trusted them.

They insisted on keeping me in the loop the whole time to the point of which the four basic crew members were gonna take a road trip from Miami up to New York.

to get some second unit shots.

And they insisted that I come with them on this madcap, absolutely insane road trip.

And I was like, okay, you have four kids in their 20s climbing into a van.

And they insist that a 50 year old broken down, blind, angry drunk.

I was like, what?

This is not going to end well.

But yeah, and they,

They flew me down to Austin for principle photography.

That was in 2015.

And

Kathryn Lake

so yeah,

they've kept me in the loop of the whole time.

I mean, I never, I didn't have anything to do with the script or anything like that.

Though I do have a cameo in the

Pete Schwaba

movie

that nobody has spotted.

Pete Schwaba

Let's, let's pick up there.

We're going to do a short break here.

Jim Kniffel is here.

He's the author behind New Geese Time to Shine, a very good book that has been turned into a movie and it's screening at the Tarleton Saturday night here in downtown Green Bay.

We'll have more with Jim and hear about his, his work in front of the camera when we come back.

This is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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

Pete Schwaba

civicmedia.us.

And our question of the night is, what is the crappiest state or city you've been to?

We've got some good texts.

We'll catch up on those after the news.

Also, in our multi-state text-to-win contest here at Civic Media, our keyword, just a reminder about the keyword, is ELF, E-L-F.

That is the keyword for this hour.

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And this hour's keyword is elf ELF.

Go ahead and text that in on the app.

And good luck, everybody.

Bill Leff will be here at 635.

Mike Siegel will be joining us at about 610.

And we've got two authors here tonight.

Jim, you're part of history.

I don't think we've ever had two authors on the same show.

It's

a good thing you guys aren't

Pete Schwaba

in the studio at the same

time.

It's all part of your second anniversary.

Pete Schwaba

That's right.

We're doing things in twos.

So we've got a few more minutes with our pal Jim Nipfel here.

He wrote a great book.

called New Geese Time to Shine, and now it has been turned into a movie.

You seem happy with it, Jim.

That's great.

It's gonna be playing at the Tarleton Saturday, December 6th at 7 p.m.

Just a few days from now.

You were telling us a story before we went to the break about how you were in the film on

camera.

Oh, well, you know, when I've, I've, I have told people precisely where to look in what scene and nobody spotted me yet.

So it may

be the best cameo in film history.

I'll give you a hint though.

I'm driving.

Pete Schwaba

So your mom and sister are here, they came here with you and they didn't see you in the cameo either?

Nope.

Wow.

Nope.

Boy, that is some serious covert work.

All right, so you lived in, first of all, tell us about this column you've been writing for 37 years.

You spent much of your adult life in New York City.

And I think it started there, but tell us about Slackjaw.

Slackjaw started when I was living in Philly.

There's a little alternative weekly there called The Welcome At.

And I never had any intention of writing.

I was gonna be a vagrant, I think, maybe a hobo.

But one day just on a whim.

I typed up this little story and sent it into this paper.

And then before I knew it, I was writing this column.

And initially it was about various underground activities around the city, arts-wise.

But then they just kind of devolved into this autobiographical column.

And, uh, uh, and it's moved around to a couple of different places, but yeah, it's run weekly for 37 years.

Pete Schwaba

That's impressive.

And these days, uh, it's available weekly on my Patreon site.

So, um, so how do people find that?

They type in Patreon, Jimmy can it full.

And, uh, and, uh, they, they, they can, they can subscribe.

Pete Schwaba

Oh,

fantastic.

If, uh, if they so choose.

Pete Schwaba

I love it.

Um, I love also that you, you know, given your, your issues with your eyesight, you call yourself visually, um, unpleasant.

You brought in other people with vision issues onto the set of the movie, which I thought was really cool.

Um,

Pete Schwaba

Andy Slater, a blind composer.

And, uh, yeah, tell us about that.

Uh, cause Andy and I, uh, we've known each other for about 20 years.

I mean, I honestly don't have that many.

friends and who are blind.

Well, we don't need to get into that.

But Andy and I started talking about 20 years ago.

He was in a band called the Vilker Lewis Band, and Adoshka ago.

And we just started talking and hanging out.

But he's also like an audio engineer and sound designer.

I put him in touch with Eric the director and Eric brought him in to work on this film sound design and he also spearheaded What are called Audio description tracks because I'm you know, I've been up.

I've been an obsessive movie geek my whole life And so you know when I want to blind out I

I had to give it up and it broke my heart.

But within the last decade or so, what are called AD tracks have become more standard.

So every new film that comes out has one.

What those are, and we have one for Noogie as well, is a separate audio track.

It's kind of like closed captioning, but for the blind.

So it's a separate audio track where...

someone describes the action on the screen without interfering with the dialogue or significant sound effects.

And it works really cool.

So recently I went to see One Battle After Another, the Paul Thomas Anderson film.

And I'd been waiting for that one to come around for years.

And now I could finally see it, because I had to pass up so many things in the past, because AD tracks weren't a thing then.

Unfortunately, nobody's gone back and done AD tracks for some of my favorites in the olden days.

Pete Schwaba

That's probably going to

happen, I would imagine.

In time, in time it will happen.

Pete Schwaba

Jim, this has been really fun.

It's been great to get to know you.

Break a leg at the screening this weekend.

It's at the Tarleton.

New Geese, time to shine.

Jim's book, Turning into a Movie.

It's at the Tarleton Theater this Saturday, December 6th, 7 p.m.

and Jim is going to be there and there's going to be a Q&A afterwards.

So check out this, what sounds like a really cool film.

I can't wait to see it either.

Jim, thanks so much for your time.

Well, thank you so much, Peter.

Pete Schwaba

It

was a pleasure.

Pete Schwaba

Very welcome.

All right, we are coming back.

We'll reset everything and Bill Leff is coming up.

Mike Siegel is coming up after the news.

Paul, you're here on a great night, folks.

Let us know what the crappiest city or state you've ever been to, and let's have some fun with negative energy.

It's Peach Wabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media

Kathryn Lake

Radio Network.

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