Film Festivals, Holiday Spirits, and Buddy Flicks (Hour 2)

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anywhere.

And now, a guy who writes checks his mouth can't cash.

Pete Schwabba,

welcome back.

Welcome back to Act 2 of Nightlight, folks, on a Friday night at gorgeous Winter's Eve here in Wisconsin with Christmas fast approaching.

It is snowing in Green Bay.

I hope it's beautiful wherever you're listening from, whether it's snow or just a chill in the air or whatever.

Hope you're having a great night and glad you're with me.

Conrad.

is on the other side of the glass, working the board, and making his Weisenheimer remarks as he often does.

He thinks the Packers are gonna win Sunday, and I would imagine most people in Wisconsin probably agree

with you.

I would probably say most

of them.

We're not gonna get an unbiased.

They are favored by almost a touchdown.

Yeah.

So the pundits are with you.

I'm surprised, you know, I thought it'd be a little closer, but, you

know,

I just,

I just hope for a shoot-up, you know, a fun game that both sides, even no matter what happens, you're like, it was a good game.

Dude,

I remember when I was a kid, there were games like six to three, and it was just like...

Run in the ball and defense and you know, you didn't know any better There was no I think then the run-and-shoot offense came and then the West Coast offense then football got a little more fun to watch But yeah, be nice if they put up some points folks if you missed the first hour we had a great chat with Susan Kaya slusser who is from the Wisconsin historical's Wisconsin Historical Society's villa the we they're having a great event this weekend check it out We talked a little bit about our event last night at the Atwood music hall in the Atwood neighborhood of

Madison and the screening of the Godfather of Green Bay.

It was so great to see people out there and meet so many of you.

Appreciate you guys braving the cold and coming out and supporting a good cause, because they wrote a nice check today to the Dane County Humane Society, which was fun.

People came in, we got to hear some Baudin's music while people were being seated.

And they, of course, Kurt Newman and the Baudin's did the music for the movie.

So it was a lot of fun.

It was just a great night.

A lot of civic media people out there, a lot of listeners, a lot of old friends.

It was magical.

It was beautiful.

And are there pictures anywhere people can go check out?

I assume Amanda will post

them.

I don't think they're posting yet, but they

will

be.

All right.

So if you have pictures, folks, send them in.

We'll post them and we'll share them.

And we'd love to know what it looked like to you guys through the lens of your own cameras.

We got a text last night from our buddy John in Madison, who I don't think lives far from the venue.

And he said, hi, Peter.

And Conrad.

Question for you, how cool do you think it would be if whenever you took your favorite gal or guy out on a cold Thursday to see the newest screening of a hilarious cult classic Wisconsin based movie and walk into immediately be greeted by the star and director of the movie only to be interrupted by John?

the man who was key to making it all happen.

He's talking about John Hofer in Marinette, a hospital executive at the time who housed a casting crew and helped us get the film made.

John continues saying, and then laugh your ass off until your face is tired and your gut is sore.

Damn, what do you think of this model?

Really works for me and Mama.

Mama is...

Melissa from Willy Street.

Correct.

Yeah.

And John, this is John Murray, who sent this text to John and Gordy earlier.

John, it was great to meet you in person.

And Melissa, you guys were a blast.

And I cannot thank you enough for coming out.

A great hour coming up here to hour number two has officially begun.

And it's going to be fun.

In just a couple of minutes, I'm going to bring on the founder of the Milwaukee Independent Film Awards, Ezekiel Drewes.

He's going to tell us about their festival, which is taking place now.

It just started today and it's happening all through the weekend.

They've got some great films.

And then WGBW afternoon host Eric Westfall is here because he is also an actor.

And he is, I was talking in the first hour about how I think live theater and live shows are so fun around this time of year and they really kind of enrich your Christmas spirit.

And Eric is going to tell us about a show he's in.

That's at 6.35.

Later in the show, Frank Clemens... Frank Clemens.

I've got Frank Hermans on my brain.

Mike Clemens and Terry Barr for Barbeque and Friday Night are a question of the night.

Let's reset, Con.

What do you say?

Let's play the fun music.

It's the nightlight 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.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

Here we go.

What is your favorite buddy movie?

This is a good one.

We got a ton of responses.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC.

Let me know.

Favorite buddy movie.

There's so many good ones.

I know my wife loves Thelma and Louise.

Great buddy movie.

Mine is Midnight Run.

Robert De Niro, Charles Groden, and I put Dumb and Dumber, a close second.

Oh, yeah.

Conrad says the Kevin Hart Rock classic.

I didn't say my actual

one.

It's

Whiting Crashers.

Oh, that's a good one.

It's one of my favorite movies.

Just when I was growing up, I just I can't remember how many times I've actually seen that movie.

Yeah, just it still gets funnier every time

that made me think of a swingers.

Have you seen swingers?

Yeah, I did after actually I didn't know that was a thing until this the show.

What do you mean?

Well, I didn't know about the movie until oh

until this night.

Yeah, that's a great buddy want to all right Yeah, wedding crashes is great.

So let us know what yours is eight five five seven five two four eight four two You can text us on the app or if you're watching the radio on the stream over YouTube Facebook or X you can drop us a stream comment to like little Irv did we met little Irv last night con Dave he has many different aliases probably because he's trying to lay low and Keep his life on the QT.

He says stir crazy awesome

It's Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.

I'm so delirious, I can't think.

He also says it's still fall until December 22, silly.

I've never been called silly by another man.

I don't know how I feel about that.

Kind of weird feeling there.

Apparently, Al Roker here on the stream is correcting, but that is true.

Technically, the winter solstice kicks off the official winter season.

All right, so we are gonna, all right, this is exciting, folks.

I love talking about film festivals.

I love film festivals.

The movies are great and they're movies oftentimes people are not gonna see.

And then oftentimes people will go watch movies at a film festival and go, those were awesome.

How come I never will see these on prime or whatever?

And sometimes you do, sometimes they get distribution, but sometimes they're just great films.

And film festivals are the only way to see them.

So God bless everybody.

who starts a film festival, and I'm about to welcome one of them right now.

He's the founder of the Milwaukee Independent Film Awards.

He's also a very talented actor, and he joins us tonight.

Wow.

In what looks to be an outstanding costume, he's outdone himself again, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Ezekiel Drews.

Hey, buddy.

Hey, Pete, how you doing?

Doing well.

Now, please explain this outfit.

I love it.

All right, so...

So I'm the man in a pink suit, but this year I wanted to shake things up.

So since we're founding fathers of a film festival, we have the colonial pink suits.

That's fantastic.

Where did you get that?

Amazon

of all places.

No way.

That's so

fun.

And what about the hat?

You got like a little George Washington vibe working there.

Yeah, there was also on Amazon.

Actually, it's amazing when you can get on Amazon.

I also have a wig, except for the fact that my head's too big for it, apparently, to wear the hat with it.

So it is what it is.

That's right.

You don't have an ego.

You're just confident.

And I like that.

I've always liked that about you, Ezekiel.

OK, so boy, you're in it right now, right?

I think you told me when we booked you on here that you were kicking off the festival tonight.

This is your second annual one.

Tell us what just happened before you came on.

Yeah, so we actually just started the second annual festival tonight.

about 10 minutes ago, I gave the opening remarks and I told a story about a filmmaker that unfortunately couldn't make it.

But one of the things about running an independent film festival is one of the great things is that you get to meet a lot of different filmmakers.

And this guy, he reached out to me and said, Hey, I can't make it.

I'm so sorry.

And so I, in his email, it had his phone number.

So I called him up.

I said, Hey, Dale, what's going on?

I can't make it, huh?

And he goes, yeah, I'm so sorry.

I've got a big object that's coming up now that landed in my lap and I've got to do all these script rewrites and everything.

But it wasn't until after I clicked cancel my Airbnb that I just like kind of broke inside a little bit.

And he told me, I just want to let you know that your festival is quite literally the reason that I am still making film.

And I said, what do you mean, Dale?

And he says, your festival, you wrote a review for me, your vote of confidence in my film, which is his film is called Lights.

It won best short film last year.

And apparently he had submitted this film to many different festivals, over 30 festivals.

And he'd gotten rejected from 90 to 95% of those festivals.

And he was this close to just being like, you know what, maybe I just can't make film.

And it was, you know, he's newer at making films, but he told me that our support for his film is quite literally the reason why he continued to make film.

We've got

another one of his films that's screening tomorrow called Tomorrow Undead.

And so I'm really excited for people to see that.

I'm sorry you can't make it, but I just wanted to let him know I'm so thankful that stories like that are the reason that all the work that gets put into a festival like this, I'm happy to keep doing it so that way we can keep supporting indie filmmakers.

Dude, it's great work.

And I've, I've sang the praises of film festivals.

I just love them.

And I applaud you for, and I remember talking to you last year, you know, in the inaugural, uh, do you call it Maifa or Mifa?

Mifa,

Maifa.

And it's just, I just love it.

So, and you got a great venue there.

It's fantastic.

So do you have an opening night movie?

Uh, I mean, we got a lot of movies.

I mean, like a film that kicks off the festival or how do you

structure

one?

Yeah, so the starting block is the student films because we have a co-sponsorship with UWM, the Union Cinema.

So we have their student block that's kicking us off.

From there, we've got a couple of different films, some former UW students as well as we have a film called Visions of Her, which is, it's got somebody that's out in LA in Hollywood and stuff that worked with a bunch of local people down in I believe the Delavan area.

And so that's a nice Wisconsin film that's got a lot of great things going for it.

So those are gonna be like the highlights of tonight.

And then tomorrow we do have his name, Sasani, his film called Take Out Girl, which he made during the pandemic.

That's a feature film that we'll be showing tomorrow at the Union Cinema as well.

And then just a bunch of really great shorts.

We have a very solid amount of films.

We have 42 different films, two features, 39 shorts, I'm sorry, 40 shorts, because two features, 40 shorts.

31 of them are either made in Wisconsin or have somebody on the crew that was tied to the making of the film.

And then, of course, just to kind of cap things off on Sunday, we'll also be showing a limited sneak preview of my film that's coming up called The Deep State, which is that prequel sequel to Happy Birthday.

So we'll cap off the festival on Sunday with that.

That's so great.

You'll have to keep us posted when that film gets done.

I'd love to talk to you more about that and hear more about that You also have just a spoiler alert a film by a young filmmaker named Joe Schwabba and My brother Andrew worked on something a short film that I saw a couple weeks ago in Y-Weagan You're showcasing it there, too.

So that's exciting and I'm hoping to get down there.

I'm hoping to get down there tomorrow I think it's a fun little film and your festival is just I don't know.

How do you all right think about this?

We're gonna do a really quick break.

Can we get

like two more minutes for me on the other side of this break.

Okay.

I want you to think about how the fact that you're a filmmaker, how do you decide if your own material should be in the festival?

I love that.

So maybe that's one of the perks and you've earned it.

We're coming right back with Ezekiel Druze, the founder of the Milwaukee Independent Film Awards.

This is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media radio

network.

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.

Our question of the night, folks, is what is your favorite buddy movie?

And we, uh, you know, it's so funny, I, you just never know what questions are gonna take off.

I had five guests tonight, so I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm not gonna pick a dud question, but I'm gonna pick something where maybe, and we get keywords with the contest.

So I picked a question I thought people would have fun with, but we are flooded with responses.

It's always a good thing.

It's

exciting.

I just have to read fast.

That's all.

We'll make it work.

It's a fun night here at Nightlight, closing the week out here.

And my current guest folks is the founding father.

And if you're watching on the stream right now, I highly recommend it just for his costume alone.

He could certainly, he's directed movies and acted in movies.

He could also do wardrobe.

Mr. Ezekiel Drews.

Wow.

Those are some killer, some killer getaway sticks you have there, buddy.

I got some fancy shoe buckles too.

Those have to be so uncomfortable like those costume shoes.

Actually, they're just my dress shoes.

I just got some slide over buckles.

So it's perfectly comfortable for me.

Whatever happened to the slide over buckle?

It's a lost novelty.

Uh, Craig, Anthony, Kenneth, watching on the stream says easy Ezekiel rocks, looking forward to being at Maifa tomorrow.

Craig is at everything.

He is it.

He is a film guy.

He is at every, uh, opportunity to go to a film festival.

He takes it.

And then a little herb says three amigos, which I could see that.

That's

pretty good.

That's an older film at this point.

Absolutely.

All right.

So Ezekiel, you've got this great.

community in Milwaukee.

You're also, you hang out with these guys, the Northeast Wisconsin film community.

Would you say there's a good brotherhood of filmmakers in Wisconsin overall?

Yeah, overall, I think part of it is, and this is part of what we're kind of talking about tomorrow.

We have a couple of networking.

deals going on.

We've got one where we have a mission, one billion that's coming in to talk about their nonprofit and then also the importance of networking.

And then we have a informal networking get together at the Milwaukee Broad House tomorrow night as well, just that way people can enjoy, they can get a beer, they can think some cheese curds or whatever, just shoot the breeze and stuff.

So really just trying to make this a more camaraderie thing.

One of the things that I think that I've learned

the best about is just when you're running a film festival, you get to know and meet so many different filmmakers that I wouldn't have known otherwise.

So it's really a good thing.

And especially like you mentioned, you know, Wisconsin camaraderie, I think that Wisconsin just has more of that camaraderie than other states just because of just kind of like how chill Wisconsinites are in general.

Yeah, and every filmmaker I've met in this state just loves, not that they don't in other states either, but it's, they just have to, they have to be making movies, whether it's a two minute experimental short, a short feature, whatever, it's so great.

So did you have to get your own film passed the committee or how did that work?

Did you just say, I'm making an executive decision, I'm the founder, look at my outfit, it's in.

So for that teaser limit sneak peek, you know, that was I discovered that we had some extra time on Sunday and I said, I'm just going to put it in there.

That's that's what I'm going to do.

I would say, you know, my my priority isn't about promoting myself first.

It just kind of happened.

It worked out this time to just kind of sneak that the preview in there.

But other than that, I'm not about self promotion.

I'm about

How can we best support indie filmmakers overall and especially in Wisconsin?

So, uh, you asked me before, like, uh, is it, is it, uh, is it the me show?

Some people do.

And I'm not going to, I'm not bashing that because I didn't put all the effort in.

I

never would accuse you of making the, I was making a joke.

Believe me, you've given a

lot

here and it's great.

No, but there's, I mean, there's definitely other, other, uh,

other film festivals where they promote their own projects and that's totally fine.

And I think that that's a good cause because sometimes you might not get your stuff seen otherwise.

And if you're like, let me get that out in front of people.

If you use your festival to help promote yourself and others, then I see no problem with it.

Absolutely.

And you know, look, you could throw yourself a little bone.

Here's a movie I'm working on.

I founded this whole festival and it helps everybody.

You're right.

It's just a great, it's a great thing to do for the entire community.

Ezekiel, thank you as always.

Where can people very quickly get tickets?

You can either go to our website MilwaukeeIndependentFilmAlwards.com and there's some quick links on there.

Otherwise, the longer link is filmfreeway.com slash the MAFA M-I-F-A slash tickets.

So it's easier.

I think if you just remember Milwaukee Independent Film Awards, click the buttons says get tickets, they'll take you there.

Dude, it's outstanding.

I wish you luck.

Break a leg.

It's an incredible undertaking and congratulations on your two.

Keep it going and have a

great

festival.

Thanks, Pete.

You're welcome.

That's the founder.

Thanks for your time, buddy.

Check

out

the Milwaukee Independent Film Awards.

It's just a lot of fun and a great little festival.

I'm hoping to make it down there tomorrow, so we'll see what happens.

But we've got some stream comments coming in.

Scott on the stream says,

Oh, I know, Scott, I met Scott last night.

Scott says, Scott from Madison, first time view, second day listener, longtime fan of Wisconsin's film man, Pete Schwab.

Well, thank you, Scott.

There's a lot of film people in Wisconsin.

I'm happy to be one of them.

And thank you for the text.

And it was great to meet you last night in person, Scott, although I think I met Scott before.

Did you meet Scott last night?

He was the guy he had the hunting vest on he drew some people dressed in character was so funny There

was one guy

was awesome Russell had the beaver patrol

t-shirt

on

and

it was so much fun And then Sydney politics who I met last night in person.

It was there with his Significant other that was funny.

It's his great meeting you yesterday Pete Rachel and I had a great time Likewise Sydney and I can't remember Sydney if you took a picture of the three of us, please send it to us

I don't think that was with my phone.

So please share the photo and thank you for coming out and braving the elements last night.

Sidney says rush hour for favorite buddy comedy.

Rush hour is Jackie Chan.

Is it Will Smith?

No.

Martin Lawrence.

No.

Chris Tucker.

Chris

Tucker.

Chris Tucker's

awesome Sydney great text he also says sorry I missed meeting you Dave Dave we looked for you last night I said I told Sydney you were there all right we're coming right back with Eric Westfall afternoon host here at WGBW and we're gonna talk some local theater it's Pete Schwabba and nightlight on the civic media radio

network

in the state of Wisconsin.

Nightlight is on the air, folks.

I'm Pete Schwabba.

Great to have you with me on this.

It's festive.

It's snowing out here in downtown Green Bay.

Conrad, do you have a weather forecast for one of your five days?

It's cold.

For Madison?

It's

gonna be

cold.

It's not all about Green Bay, you know?

It's cold.

We're on statewide.

It's cold.

He's not the best color man in the business for nothing, folks.

I guess I'm about to introduce folks, and I'm gonna introduce him now, because maybe you can help me read text here.

He got those pipes,

those radio, oh,

fantastic.

He is the afternoon host here at WGBW from two to six every day.

You're on from two to six in Green Bay we established.

I said that to you before, and I'm like, wait, where else would I be?

So either way, it's just good that you're on and it's great that you brave the elements that came out here, Eric Westfall.

It's great to have you here, buddy.

Yeah, thanks.

I always like coming out here.

It's nice to be over here because, you know, when I'm over there, it's a music and that does all the heavy lifting.

Oh, on the side.

Yeah, I'm just more, you know, filling in with some informative things now and then.

Yeah.

And then so here you actually get to dig into stuff.

You know,

what's funny is it's a little confusing because when we go to break here, we hear you.

because we're on at five now, so we go to break, and in Green Bay, we hear oldies, and the rest of the state hears a commercial,

so

I don't think we've figured that out yet, but like, and sometimes we'll come back to my show and I'm like,

oh, I like that song, The Beach

Boys.

Can we

just wait till Eric's done, yeah.

But anyway, we've got our question of the night, Eric, and I'd love to hear what you have to say about this, is what's your favorite buddy

film?

Yeah, I heard you talking about that out there, and I was thinking about that.

And I kept coming up with examples where they're not really buddies at first.

So I have to think, I was thinking planes, trains, and automobiles, but they're not buddies.

At the end they become, you know, but that's not a buddy.

Same thing with Midnight Run though.

They're sort of adversaries and then

they figure it

out.

And that's the fun of the movie, I guess.

I have to think

a little bit about.

All right, you think about it.

I definitely have an answer.

I know I

do.

All right, Jim from Appleton.

And the 920, that's Eric's area code too.

He says, my favorite buddy film is Throw Mama from the Train.

Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal work perfectly together.

And that one, I forgot all about that one, Jim.

Thank you.

Nick from Marshall in the 608 says, cool runnings and Senka.

The funny guy sporting the dreadlocks is my favorite character.

I do not even, did you see that movie?

Which one the yeah, it's cool running.

It was the Bob Jamaican

Bob.

Yeah, I have I actually have not seen it I mean I'm familiar with it, but I

actually seen the movie it's been years I don't

even

remember saying but thank you Nick Kerry from Tosa says Ted Conrad that's one of your faves, right?

I love that film.

That is

a good movie

That's the last film.

I think I liked Mark Wahlberg in It's

crazy.

I

just at least it was different.

He does the same movie every time.

Yeah, he

with the comedies well actually he no he does two movies his comedy he's got one and then the action he's he's a little different

so he does have

two

years all right fair enough and I'll

Tip my hat, he can do comedy.

Michael in the 608 says, yeah, hey guys, my favorite buddy film is The Big Lebowski.

It has it all.

Suspense, action, comedy, and a little romance.

The rug really tied the room together.

However, the most priceless tapestry in life is friendship.

But that's just like my opinion, man.

That's a great text.

Thank you, Michael.

Chris from Sun Prairie says, step brothers, did we just become best friends?

And we have so much space for activities.

Those are some of my favorite lines.

Thank you, Chris.

That was on that in my hotel last night.

And it's actually pretty good.

That would definitely be in my top five for, for buddy

movies.

Can't regularly step brothers.

I love step brothers.

You like the drum scene?

Of course.

A lot of scenes of that in that film are just like run my childhood pretty much.

Just like quote it every time.

Yeah, that probably

came out.

You're probably like five years older or

whatever.

Well, I watched it later than that.

Your parents let you watch it movie.

Well,

When I was testicle on the drum set thing they were okay with that.

You know, yeah, they let me watch it when I was five They said just just close your eyes on this scene.

That's it.

Okay cover your eyes

Eric Westfall is here Eric.

Do you have a are you big-time Packer fan?

Oh,

yeah.

Yeah, you got a prediction about the game

You know it's funny.

I was And first off I gotta say Conrad here I gotta tip my hat to him because I kind of filled in for him He does you know some of his other duties here He does recording different to weekend shows and that and he gave me kind of a crash course because I had to fill in for him and I had to call him three times.

Oh really?

Yeah, it's all right.

It's all right.

I just have 20

years in the business But it feels good to be the go-to guy right Con?

Yeah, I mean Eric's 20 years in and he's calling you that's got to make you feel good.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes

It helped my driver or my drive feel a little shorter when you call it.

So thank you for that.

Excellent.

Well, so and we worked

Recording the show with a former mayor Jim Schmidt.

So of course, we talked a little bit about the the Packers because that will air on Sunday and he asked me the same thing You know what my prediction was and I said,

oh,

you know, I I don't think the bears are truly legit I think that this is gonna be a huge game and I think the Packers are gonna go out and then he reminded me about them beating the Eagles, which of course

Packers did not so now I'm a little less sure now I still think it's gonna be a Packer victory and I still don't think the Bears are as good as their record indicates

Well as a bear fan, I agree with you and every every week this has been coming up and they keep winning But I know because I'm a bear fan and I live in Packer country it will end this weekend in the Packers I do think the Bears might sneak one victory out of the two games, but I find it

I think it's gonna be tough for them to win.

I mean, it's exciting.

Yeah, this time of year look at all these division games Yeah, a lot of things can happen between

and at least

they're competitive.

I mean, that's

yeah

make some more fun for everybody

John Murray from the 608 says bears by 17.

Whoa, okay You think about that con Keep reading what he says.

Oh, is he messing with me?

He says I meant it for a big change.

I mean it for I mean it for a big change

He says, can't stop the run Conrad.

Oh my God, John's like, turned into Pat Summerall here.

War my bare sweatshirt last night, never took off my jacket.

Dangerous crowd.

I appreciate

the

guts, John.

Way to go.

Anna from Madison says, hi, Pete and Conrad.

My favorite buddy movie is Wayne's World.

Awesome choice, Anna.

She says, love that movie.

Monica from Mountain Horror Band, the 608 says, going with buddy movies involving dogs, Arthur the King, despite not liking Mark Wahlberg or...

Hachiko, a dog story with Richard Gere.

Wow, I don't know that one.

Both are true stories and a third that isn't a true story, but is excellent.

A dog's purpose with Dennis Quaid, the last two will make you cry.

That was a lot of dog movies.

I usually try to avoid dog movies.

Simply because of that last statement there, they will make you cry.

You know, I haven't watched a dog movie since Marley and me.

Did you cry?

I don't know.

I can't remember if I cried or not, but it was so sad.

I was like, why did I do this to myself?

Yeah.

Thank you, Monica.

That's great.

Eric Westfall is here, folks.

He's the afternoon host here at WGBW.

He does a great job from two to six.

He does a great job from two to five, five to six.

Pretty fatigued by that.

No, it's great to have you here, buddy.

All right.

So I brought you in here because you told me about these awesome productions.

You're part of coming up and I love back me up in this live theater.

or a performance of some type, music, play whatever around the holidays really gets you in the mood.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

I enjoy doing holiday productions and I've done a number of them.

And it's usually, the cast is usually blended between adults and kids, which you don't necessarily always see at other times.

So it really...

Yeah, it gets you into the holiday spirit much more

thoroughly.

And here's a play specifically that gets you into the holiday spirit.

It's a classic, A Christmas Carol, that you were a part of.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, so this particular, you know, there are different adaptations of A Christmas Carol.

Dickens wrote a book, he didn't write a play.

And this particular one was adapted by the gentleman who is directing it as well, Michael Palabicki.

And this particular adaptation was the very first play Evergreen Theater did 40 years ago to the season when they first decided, hey, we want to come together, start a new theater group, maybe something that helps get kids involved.

They formed, and this was the

exact show they did.

And they've done it a few times since then.

Kind of a fun fact, our Scrooge played Bob Cratchit for a number of years.

And his son.

Wait, what do you mean Scrooge played Bob Cratchit?

The actor currently playing Scrooge played Bob Cratchit.

A number of years ago, several different times, played Bob Cratchit.

So now he's older, so.

Sure.

Very cool.

So how did you have you done other productions with this group?

Do you have to

audition or are they like this is perfect for Eric?

What's the process

there?

You generally yeah, we audition I mean most of the theaters so well, you know, you'll they'll have you audition unless it's you know some sort of small operation They've already kind of got people they want to do stuff.

Yeah, but I like doing as I mentioned doing the holiday shows and I've done

It's a wonderful life.

I was George Bailey.

I knew you were going to say that.

You have

the total Jimmy Stewart thing going.

And I've got the greatest, what is it, meet cute story, Mary.

We've been together since the show ended.

And that was in 2019.

So the actress playing Mary Hatch.

George and Mary, you've got together.

You've been together, meaning in real life.

Yeah.

Oh, so you married.

So we started dating after the show.

We

wanted to get

that.

And then

some

kind of.

Was

it hard to recapture that romantic feeling off the stage?

Or were there sparks you couldn't

deny?

No, I think.

I mean, we're both very professional.

So we weren't really.

You know, I hope.

She says that there was nothing.

I maybe thought a little bit solid at that.

So we'll see.

Did you ever say to her when

you start, Mary, Mary,

I can't do a good Jimmy Stewart.

I don't know.

Your money's not here.

Mr. Potter.

And then I was also in a Christmas story to the stage version.

I was the narrator, adult.

Oh, cool.

Ralph, so.

Of course you're the narrator.

You

get the

radio

voice.

It was so much fun.

So many lines.

Have you

ever done a live radio broadcast of any of these shows you've

and part of something like

that?

Well, we, not on the actual radio, but I've done some of the, we did a Christmas story with Comedy City.

They do a radio show every year.

In fact,

I'm involved in theirs this year.

We'll talk about that later.

But so never like a full like on the radio type.

I wish somebody would do that again.

I think that would be fun.

Those are great broadcasts.

I love those.

Foley artists and all that stuff.

Absolutely.

You have, okay, so you're Bob Cratchit, but tell us about, tell us who else is in the play.

Another part of our civic media family here, specifically WGBW, has a family member in the play that you're acting with.

I

think that's kind of fun.

Yes, so Mark Becker, who hosts, excuse me, I should know the name of the... Rational Revolution, thank you.

He's a former Republican Assemblyman, I think.

A former of the Brown County...

Party ahead of the Republican party.

Okay,

right.

And now we saw he's doing he's got rational revolution here.

Great guy.

When he was a kid him and both of his brothers or two of his brothers all played tiny Tim.

Oh, in in this version of it when it was done years ago and now their dad is Mark's dad.

Yeah, is Ebenezer Scrooge.

So he he was Bob Cratchit when Mark was tiny Tim.

when he was obviously much younger.

So yeah, coming full circle.

So

what happened with Mark?

He doesn't have the acting chops anymore or what?

Did he just lose interest in theater?

Well, he's kind of big for Ty

and

Tim.

He could pull it off.

He's all about the, well, he's in politics, but that's kind of theater, right?

Those two.

So is his dad, what kind of actor

is Mark's dad?

Lyle is back here.

Lyle, he's very good.

Lyle's a pro.

He's been at this a long time.

In fact,

I don't know how many productions I've been in with him, but this is the very first show I ever did at Evergreen Theater in the winter of 2015.

He was in that as well,

so I've been acting with

the guy for 10 years.

And yeah, he's very good, very genuine for this.

See, I can't grow the...

You can see here, I'm trying to kind of get a little bit because you don't want the mutton chops.

Yeah, he's got those perfect his hairs.

I mean, he's really looking the part.

I unfortunately, I'm follically challenged on my my cheeks.

So that's what your makeup is for.

Well, yeah.

Come

on.

But it's nicer if

you can have the real thing.

Yeah.

Conrad, can you grow a mutton chops?

No, I actually, I probably could now, actually.

I can

grow, I can grow like a like sideburns, but that's it.

All right, we're gonna talk more about all of this with Eric, who is here.

He's gonna stick around for a few more minutes.

Eric Westfall, afternoon host here at WGBW from Two to Six, does great work.

Matt from Middleton says, I enjoyed grumpy old men.

How?

How are we doing on time?

I'm so disoriented.

Conrad Wags his finger like that.

All right, we're coming right back.

It's Nightlight with Beach

Wabba.

You're listening to Civic Media.

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

civicmedia.us.

Our question of the night is, what is your favorite buddy movie?

Melissa from Willy Street says, the Goonies is my go-to buddy movie.

That was also on in my hotel last night.

Did you see that kind?

Were you flipping around on the channels last night?

I was actually watching

on my laptop.

The Goonies?

No, no.

That would be funny.

That would be a reference.

I was

just watching stuff on my laptop.

I did actually watch that last weekend.

It was good.

It was leaving Netflix at the end of November and we decided to watch it.

So it still holds up.

Fished in by the reminder.

Oh my god, it's leaving after watching it.

It still holds up.

It's good.

Oh yeah, it's great.

And that was on.

And then the other movie I just said was on.

But you were on your...

This is because you can't get porn on the TV anymore, isn't it?

Well, you made the joke to the lady at that.

I put a bunch of porn on Conrad's room because they had both of us in the same.

They had my room under Conrad's name.

So it was all this rigmarole.

It took me 30 minutes to check into the hotel the other night because Conrad watches too much porn.

Sorry.

Al from the 262 says, Beavis and Butthead do the universe.

Just kidding.

Grumpy old men.

That's a good one, Al.

Linda from Middleton says, the movie last night was so much fun.

Hey, thank you, Linda.

Appreciate you coming out.

Thanks so much.

It was so fun to meet people last night.

Rita from the 608 says planes, trains and automobiles.

Outstanding, Rita.

Our second planes, trains and automobiles of the night.

We will continue with the text right now.

We've got a few more minutes with our pal, Eric Westfall, who you can hear here at WGBW every weekday from two to six.

So tell us more about this Comedy City thing you're doing.

Oh, yeah.

So after this show is done, the Christmas Carol wraps up, and I should probably say, if you are interested, it's just a short drive from, you know, the Fox Cities or the Students Point area or whatever, because Evergreentheater.org.

Where is that?

Where is the Evergreen Theater?

So their facilities in that are located on the northeast side of town.

So that's like

their scene

shop and all that.

But they are going to be moving to the old Helen Keller School on Bond Street.

soon they were able to purchase that.

So 10th to the 14th, then this is going to be a busy week.

So then that wraps up.

On the 17th, I'm involved in Comedy City's radio Christmas show.

We do a live

radio show.

They've got

their Maggie Durnells, the Foley artist there.

She's fantastic.

And Gary Radke is the guy who's developed or adapted Christmas Vacation.

Oh, yeah.

So they're doing that at Comedy City.

So one night only on December 17th.

Okay.

And where can

people get information on that?

And where can they get information on the Evergreen Theater?

Well,

Comedy City thing, you should be able to find them on Facebook.

Okay.

Or I don't know if they're, I don't know if they're at comedycity.com or a dot or, but you know, Google.

And this will be fine.

I'm Clark Griswold.

So I'm looking forward to this.

It should be

great fun.

So that, and that,

That sells out.

Again, it's only one night.

So if that

sounds like

something interested to you to hear this show done, and I've looked through the script already and all your favorite stuff is in there.

All of your favorite jokes are in there.

Oh, that is so awesome.

Yeah.

And then again, the Christmas Carol, that is evergreentheater.org is their website where you could get tickets.

We open on Wednesday, this coming Wednesday, then it's a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, two shows Saturday, and we wrap it up Sunday.

And then to the end that week, you're going to be talking to a friend of mine next week, Martin Prievos.

So he is a fundraiser for his arts organization.

We're doing a Drunk Miss Carol.

I that was on my list of questions to ask you that sounds so please tell

us Yeah, so basically it's a fundraiser and there will be members of the cast we're drinking I'm actually not as I'll be Ebenezer Scrooge.

Are you the designated cast driver?

No, they just figured somebody with a lot of lines should be sober to help kind of at least steer the play so people can you know

Bid certain amounts of money and then that will put shots on the table and then the ones that are drinking You know have to and as more money gets raised they an extra cast member will get unlocked and to the end so all but two of us are Designated to be to the drinking stop when the when the

fight is over.

Oh, well either somebody passes out I suppose or

You know they leave the show ends

How was your show?

You did a show at the Abrams Theater?

Yes.

Last time you were on, how did that go?

It went very well.

That was kind of a, we brought it back again for one last weekend and we had like three sell out shows.

So that went very

well.

Very cool.

Yeah.

Dude, you are the man tied into the whole community.

I love that.

And would you say there's a healthy theater community here in Green Bay, or do you think it could use a boost?

Should more people get involved?

I think it's very healthy.

I mean, you can always use more.

It's always nice to see new people.

A Christmas Carol is a very nice blend of experienced actors, and there's several people who have never been in a show before.

Oh, I'm not kidding.

Yeah.

Everybody bringing their ideas and stuff, and that's neat to see.

But this area really has quite a bit of stuff going on.