
Transcript
From Packers to Pastries: A Wisconsin Whirlwind (Hour 2)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Mon Jan 12, 2026
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 appreciates a nice hot meal at a fair price.
Pete Chwaba.
Welcome to nightlight ladies and gentlemen.
It is finally Monday Pardon me, and I am so excited to be back on the air.
We've got so much to talk about tonight So much happened over the weekend, especially here in Wisconsin Those of you who are Packer fans and there are many we will
try to bring a smile to your face tonight, try to cheer you up as the results from this weekend.
Four Packer fans, Conrad included, were not great, and it was not a very good way to end the season.
Now, I've made it very clear on the show that I'm a Bears fan, and yes, I'm happy about the win, and all I can tell you, you listening, Con?
I'm listening.
All right.
This is what it's been like for the last 30 years as a bear fan.
So as much as I feel bad for you guys, I actually do because I've been on that side of it and it was no fun.
How are you doing, Conn?
I'm doing all right.
Hanging in there.
I got the wordle in two today, so that's
good.
I've not done the wordle yet.
You know, the one time the wordle, I used to, I usually do a do for my first word.
And in the past, audio is another one with four vowels.
So I would do that.
So I would switch back and forth and about
Probably two years ago a year and a half ago.
I switched to a do and the word was audio So
if I
had guessed audio, I would have had it one.
I'm
sure that's been done before But I've got a handful of twos this year or in the last couple months I should say but
I keep it the same every time just in case that
that's
smart
I will never change it.
Now I do a do all the time because I feel like they're gonna make that.
It's gonna do it.
Yeah, but when I do it like my wife and my daughter and if my son's around we'll do it together and we always pick a word and go from there and I know that will be a do that time too when I pick the word like brick or something, you know, so.
But two is good.
I start with
dream.
That's my go-to word.
Oh, that's a good one.
Because I dreamed to get it in one.
Very well done.
And you also keep the S and the T. Like, those are good go-to letters.
But you also keep your S, keep your T. And, uh, yeah, there you go.
I'm excited.
Now knowing that you got it in two, I usually do it with my wife when I get home at night.
And I'll have to figure out.
Don't, don't, don't do a dream.
You can't, you
can't switch up now.
That's true.
Although I think you'd be a pal and tell me if it was a do, if that was the word.
Well, I'm not going to tell you what the word is.
All right, whatever.
That is Conrad Kreeker, folks, producing the show tonight.
I am Pete Schwab.
It is great to have you with us.
We have a really good show tonight.
Some outstanding guests.
A fun question.
We will break down the events of the weekend.
We'll talk a little Bears Packers.
We'll talk a little Golden Globe Awards maybe next hour.
We'll get to that.
Some fun stuff happening.
I didn't know that there was an ARP Awards, AARP.
They give movie awards out.
They already announced them over the weekend.
We talk about that a little bit too, but the celebration or the event, I should say, will be airing in late February.
And it's kind of cool because they chose different, like I would say a lot of the films that have been chosen in the award show so far are kind of repetitive.
It's a lot of the same films.
And the ARP Awards were not that.
They had some different winners.
Some that were nominated.
For the Golden Globes or Critics Choice or whatever, but different winners, which is kind of fun and I didn't even know that Anybody can have film awards con you could give out Conrad's film awards Yes, I could might take you a while to get some traction
everything would be going to Marty supreme
We my son Joe who?
Periodically will do movie reviews.
He'll come out and give like a quick five-minute movie review saw a primate
So
that movie actually looks kind of scary to be honest like because the plot is that the the ape gets
Yeah, it's like a family pet Yeah, and it gets rabies and I thought I read where the whole family had to stay in the pool or something to protect themselves I don't
know.
Well, I saw that in the you know in the three-minute commercial where I pretty much saw the whole movie,
right?
Yeah, but he liked it.
He thought it was an amazing premise.
He went with a group.
That's a kind of fun movie, too, to see with a group like Anaconda or something like that.
But we'll probably have Joe on Tuesday or Wednesday, because I do want to hear about that movie.
I said, save it for the air.
I don't want to hear about it too much, because I think it'll be fun to talk about.
So at some point, we'll talk about Primate.
But Avatar number one again at the box office.
I still haven't seen it.
Really?
I don't know.
Well, this weekend, I'll probably go because there's no...
Packer football
no packer football.
So let's jump into that.
Let's get the elephant Out of the room so we can proceed well, and you know what Connie Felman is gonna be here at 535 great reporters
something about
it, too She'll have Packer thoughts.
Mike Clemens is here at 610 Sherry Stoker nutritionists is here at 635.
She is from Wisconsin.
I believe still lives here She might have thoughts and then at least in the last hour
One of our favorites, Rob Brackenridge, will be here with his good pal, Mike Merrifield.
Both of them phenomenal stand-up comedians and Wisconsinites.
So maybe we can go out on a laugh and put everybody at ease tonight, but there will be some packer talk over the course of the show.
It was such a... It was crazy that that was only the third time in over a hundred years they met in the playoffs.
Yeah, and the Bears are two and one against us in the playoffs.
Is that true?
Yeah.
How far are you going back for that other victory because the Packers beat the Bears and was it 2010 or 2012 2010
when we won the Super Bowl?
I think that's the year.
Lovey Smith kind of rested his starters And not maybe the Packers would have won anyway, but the Packers won and I think that got them into the playoffs Is that true or is that 2012 I'm thinking of I don't know if it was the Super Bowl year or not, but anyway that that one hurt a lot so We're two in one against the Packers in the playoffs.
That's crazy
and you know it was a tough one definitely for sure I mean but it's like kind of how it went till a year basically
yeah
and the second half the floor plays down to his competition and Ben Johnson has a crazy comeback one like just how we've been seeing all year it's
just
yeah it happens
it has been an insane I don't think it's been exciting if for Bears fans with those comebacks I don't think that's
any way to live permanently in the NFL like and I do think Ben Johnson is a little crazy going for it.
I know I
mean those were crazy to go for it but insane but
I know you don't trust your defense but you're sending them a terrible message too because they're a bunch of gritty guys I know they're not a good defense they have no pass rush they can't stop the run but
to go for it then at least punt it maybe the special teams guy fumbles it or you get a takeaway or I mean that is he's got to be a little crazy and I don't understand Conrad this fight he's kind of picked with the floor
yeah I mean I think it's just he wants to you know the rivalry to continue because it's like I don't know it's like that handshake at the end of the game was
oh my gosh it made me laugh a lot
He looked a little crazy when he went in for the handshake, dude, because he just took a header.
One of his players knocked him over, and then he went and shook LaFleur's hand.
And I'm sure LaFleur is still dealing with what just happened.
But I don't know if they're going for a Mike or if Johnson, I should say.
And a lot of Bears fans are saying, oh, the Packers are trash talking all week.
I don't know if that's true or not.
Is that where the Packers kind of
did?
This is the thing is they said, oh, yeah, because last week it was like, we're either going to play the Eagles or the Bears.
You know and then the right the Packers players like well, we want the Bears.
Oh Right, okay.
I wouldn't call that track.
Well, I mean it's Confrontative.
I don't know if I call it trash talk
Honestly, I would have played the Eagles after watching what they did last night
Yeah, that was weird too.
Hi.
Tell me is are the Chargers a bad team is Justin Herbert a good quarterback?
He has no time in the pocket ever like it's like he gets the ball and then there's already a guy right there
I
feel
like there's no line for him.
Like I saw the stat yesterday that three of his offensive linemen are rated last for offensive linemen.
Okay.
I
know he was getting rushed, but I this guy just seems like he's never want to play off game.
Yeah,
he's got all the tools.
He looks like a quarterback.
He's tall.
I just don't know if he's a good good or not.
You know what I mean?
Like everybody needs a line.
I
mean, I think this could be like a Drew Breese kind of thing.
He will
trade him
Harba, you know, he'll go to another team and he'll
be great.
Oh speaking of crazy Harba's type that would do something like that, too Here's what I do on okay.
This is alright.
So here's what happened Saturday.
We went to Chicago.
I took my wife and my two kids We met a couple family members down there and watch the game and the game would have cost me us I should say 25 hundred bucks minimum And I go if I'm not like I was kind of expect I didn't think
The Packers were slightly favored.
I'm like, I'm not going to go pay.
And then if they lose, I'll be furious.
Had I known they were going to, the Bears were going to win, I would have paid.
But who knows that?
But so we just went to a bar.
We got a great deal on a hotel.
We went to a bar.
Here's what, and I told you this before the show.
I don't like fans that yell and try to emasculate NFL players while they're sitting on their fat butts in a sports bar.
And I saw this in Chicago.
And I saw this online with Packer fans and all NFL fans do it.
They try to They use the word bitch like they're yelling like sit down you like What are you doing?
Like you're not in the game.
You're a fan So to sort of denigrate a professional athlete I mean I get cheering but I get uncomfortable with that I get uncomfortable with the Ben Johnson Lafleur thing these two guys are both like these clean cut
good guys in front of the, I don't, it seems manufactured to me.
And Johnson's doing, I will admit.
Yeah, I mean, so there's this thing called, I don't have it anymore, I wish I still did, but it's called a Packer Brick, all right?
And it's, it's just, you know, it has like, it's like a pillow pretty much, but it's
in
the shape of a brick and has a Packers logo on it.
And every time you get a little angry, you just chuck that thing at the TV, instead of saying words.
And
it works, you know?
It just gets your hostility out or whatever you see these terrible like there was a montage of reels of both sides of fans and people breaking TVs I mean get a grip and I've been mad I've been but at the end of the day and then I see kids like I felt a little bit worse about the wind when I saw this Packer fan this kid just started balling
And I want to say to the parents.
Yeah, tell them it doesn't matter.
It's not that important But also your kid you it was horrible to see that you know,
I mean I definitely Would when I was younger I'd cry over team my team's losing
really
that's just cuz I love sports so much.
I Did do it.
I think it's gotten more Important in our culture.
I don't ever remember crying over something like it would hurt, you know if my team didn't win but I
Yeah, I seen a bunch of posts like on
TikTok or Twitter.
I was
like, it's probably like these kids that have TikTok accounts.
They're like, yeah, I cried all night.
Yeah.
Like, oh,
okay.
Oh my
God.
You know what I did after the game?
I was at my brother's and I was, I was planning just to stay at his house because it got, it was like, I was like, I want to go home.
I sat in silence for a 30 minute ride home, just thought about it.
That is so funny because that's what we, in this bar we were at.
You know, I hadn't been around other Bears fans in so long.
We just sat there like we couldn't believe what we had just seen.
Especially after what happened.
That's why I was thinking there's no way they're gonna come back again.
Because of what happened three weeks ago.
It was shocking.
I mean it was a, I truly feel for Packer fans because I've been on that side of it.
many, many times against Aaron Rodgers who tore our hearts out many times.
But condolences to Packer fans.
Congratulations to Bear.
The rivalry is officially back.
That's one thing is for sure.
So we know that.
And
I'll say this, the one thing I saw yesterday that really made me happy was Matthew Golden finally getting a touchdown.
Oh yeah.
He looked great.
And this was like, I'm finally happy that he
kind of took a jump just in the playoffs, too, out of all things.
Well, maybe that's something we can mention to Mike Clemens, too, who will be here to break down the game for us at 6'10".
Connie Feldman coming up after new sports and weather, which is just 10 minutes away, folks.
Sit tight.
We are coming right back with the question of the night.
It's Pichuaba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
I'm Pete Schwab.
This is Nightlight.
Happy Monday, everybody.
Great to have you here.
We've got a really fun week of guests coming your way this week and a really fun night tonight.
As I mentioned, Connie Thelman will be here after the news, which is coming up in just about eight minutes.
We've got news, sports, and weather.
We'll talk to Connie about some of the things going on around here locally.
Have a nice discussion with our friend.
She's been on the show before and we love when she joins us.
And then after the top of the hour, Mike Clemens will be here at about 6'10", breaking down the Packer Bear Game.
And then Sheri Stoka, nutritionist and Wayless MD founder here in Wisconsin.
She will join us at 6'35".
And we're going to ask Sheri, how to shed those extra few pounds you might have put on during the holidays?
Did you put weight on Con during the holidays?
I mean, yeah, I didn't work out for like two weeks.
So I probably, and I ate a bunch of good food.
So.
I did read something not too far back where people say you'd be surprised how much weight you don't like everybody kind of does that.
I think they stop working out for two weeks.
They eat a lot and they go, Oh my God, I gained 20 pounds.
It's really only like a pound or two that you can work off pretty quickly if you're if you're like serious about it.
So we will ask Sherry about that.
I actually did put on 20 pounds So I have lots to lots to ask our friend Sherry and then in hour number three Rob Brackenridge Appleton based a very funny stand-up comedian and another I believe This other gentleman is also from Appleton.
I know he has a Wisconsin comedian Mike Merrifield will be here They're gonna be here together because they're doing a football fundraiser for me and Marinette that I do every year January 31st these two outstanding comedians
The people of Marinette do not know what they're in for on January 31st.
They're both going to be in the studio, so we'll get some laughs before we get out of here tonight.
It'll be fun to have Rob, who we have on regularly, and Mike.
It will be his first time on the show, so I'm excited to meet Mike.
But that's a fun show.
Right now, before we go any further...
And before the news, let's get to 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.
Questions.
Yesterday was national Sunday dinner day.
What is your favorite tradition that involves food?
What is your favorite tradition that involves food?
I used to love Sunday dinners.
We used to have them in my family a lot.
We'd go out to my grandparents in the suburbs and have Sunday dinner every week.
And that was a lot of fun.
So I would say that would be mine, but I have a couple others.
But let us know what your favorite tradition is that involves food.
It could be a holiday dinner, hot dog eating contest, Joey Chestnut, whatever.
Whatever floats your boat when it comes to food.
855-752-4842-8555, 75 Civic.
If you want to text us on the text line, you can also use the app, very easy to use.
And if you're watching the radio tonight on YouTube, Facebook, or X, drop us a stream comment and let us know what your favorite tradition is that involves food.
I'm just gonna say, I'm gonna come right out and say it, foreplay.
Really?
Thanks, Point.
I like eating a casserole.
awful woman's butt.
No, I just, you know, I was just trying to be silly, but I have a lot of, I love, I don't think people really eat dinner as much together as they used to.
I know it was tough to do in my family with my kids because they were so busy and I think that's a challenge of a lot of families, but so I will just say a basic dinner, but I also love ordering food, specifically bad food during what I like to call a sports contest.
That's a good one cuz you know I've had my fair share of bad food and watching football games wings pizza That stuff, but I'd say my favorite thing is a is a nice hot dog at the ballpark.
Oh, that's a good one Yeah, yeah,
you know when I was younger washing it down with a Pepsi, but now washing it down with a summer shanny.
There you go That's a great one.
Yeah ballpark food or any you know the other night
this bar we were at we just the food wasn't great so I kind of felt cheated I'm in Chicago a good food city so we went to Portillo's got a couple beef sandwiches way too late at night so I would say watching my favorite is probably and I'll throw a movie in there too like if you go to Flix Brewhouse in Madison love getting a decent meal while you're watching a movie or during a game whether you're watching it at home or like you said con eating a hot dog at the ballpark you cannot beat that those are great
How about a pancake breakfast?
I mean that's great, too.
Yeah.
Yeah, I also say taco Tuesday.
Oh, I saw you said that
yeah taco Tuesday I
don't do it much often anymore, but like when you know and like In high school they do taco Tuesday just for the lunches, you know
Absolutely
or just after that.
It's just taco Tuesday is great going out to get a taco from a place.
Yeah on
Tuesday
Could you leave your campus when you were in high school
during
lunch?
We, a senior year we could, if we got, like, I forget what it was called, but yeah, we could.
A B average.
Yeah, this is open campus.
You could go out to eat for lunch or whatever, but there wasn't many options in Qosco.
That's kind of cool.
Subway, Dairy Queen or McDonald's.
Those are your options in Qosco?
Those
are the options.
Man,
and isn't it funny?
Like it was the same way in Marinette.
I remember being at a bar and a woman saying, oh, we're getting an Arby's.
I hope we get an Arby's.
She was so excited.
Like when you're in these tiny towns, unless you get, you know, a nice restaurant, that's what you hope for is fast food, but that is different, you know?
So let us know what your favorite way or what your favorite tradition is that involves food.
Folks, that is our question of the night.
We've got Connie Feldman coming up in the news, coming up in just a couple minutes.
Um, I do have to say, Con, this was kind of funny.
I do... I know we've only got a few seconds here, but these guys in the train, these Packer fans sat right in front of us.
There were these young guys having fun.
They had energy drinks, shots, beer, and my son said they were doing zins, like nicotine patch?
Mm-hmm.
What is your goal there?
Well, you don't remember the game I want energy drink.
I don't even think I It's insane sounds like a great night.
That's celebrating with food though.
That's a food tradition We're coming right back new sports and weather is next Connie Feldman is coming up at 535 I am so glad you're here folks.
It is Monday.
Let's party It's nightlight with peach wabba on the civic media radio network
I'm Pete Schwabba.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.
It is so great to have you with me tonight, folks.
Lots of fun stuff happening on the show.
Connie Feldman, WGBW reporter, will be here in just a couple minutes.
Mike Clemens after the top of the hour, and then we've got nutritionist Sheri Stoka at 635, and then two really outstanding comedians join me at 720 in the studio.
Local Fellows, Rob Brackenridge and Mike Merrifield.
So there's your guest lineup.
Our question of the night is, and I've thought about this too much.
Yesterday was National Sunday Dinner Day.
What is your favorite tradition that involves food?
I said foreplay.
Conrad said something much more wholesome.
Taco Tuesday.
Well, and a nice hot dog.
At
the ballpark a nice hot dog at the ballpark.
That's a good one, too We will ask Connie Feldman what she thinks too when she joins the show.
I saw this this was Kind of funny 10 things we want to stop caring about in 2026.
Yeah,
where's the Packers is that and number one?
So how long will it take you I will say when I was younger like when I was your age It took me longer to get over something but like I said
As bear fans, we've had our hearts ripped out.
And part of it was just, maybe this hurts more, you tell me what you think, but Aaron Rodgers was just a better player than anybody we had.
So even though it looked like we had the game in the bag, Rodgers would come down and win and throw a touchdown and he would trash talk and say his stuff, but he was a better player.
These two teams are pretty even, they've had a lot of injuries, certainly the Packers as of late, but I don't know.
I think
Micah Parsons is the best player on that field, you know, when he's healthy at all times, but.
Right.
That's just how it goes.
And now I'm just, you know, I didn't have too much expectations going to this game, just because how many injuries and just lost four in a row.
Yeah, but you guys got a lot of players back, which had to, I mean, Jordan Love looked really sharp.
He did look, he looked great.
He looked great during the game.
So he's obviously all healed up.
Yes, and I forgot okay top ten things to stop caring about
the backers is your number one So We got a text on the stream to from my pal Alan Martin who says glad to hear you're still a Bears fan Pete that game could have gone to either team Yeah, that's a diplomatic way of looking at it.
I
It was just one of those games you can't you know what con it to it's you can't believe it happened after what happened three weeks ago That's what's so crazy.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Yeah Also on the stream Stacy sue answering our question of the night She says I have fond memories of my Swedish grandmother and her Swedish Christmas cookies.
They were delicious So every Christmas I make her cookies.
Oh, that's nice Stacy sue.
What are Swedish?
Christmas cookies
I don't know.
Stacey Sue, you should maybe send
us a recipe if you
want.
Send us the samples.
Well, let's figure that out.
But thank you for the text either way, Stacey Sue.
And we've got Connie Feldman coming up in just a moment.
She will be here live and in person.
And she's very demanding.
She said she'd like to be flown in for her appearance.
And she wants a per diem and we gave that to her and now she's here.
So we will talk to her in just a moment.
But yeah, I want to get to this kind because there are things that you people don't, they don't want to stress about in 2026.
And the first one, I'll just tease you with this, responding to texts as soon as possible.
One person said they intentionally wait now because they don't want to establish an expectation.
And that makes sense to me.
I'm, you know,
Because my kids were like that for a long time.
They would have to be, respond right away.
And I hate that expectation.
I couldn't do it.
You respond right away, do you give a cushion
there?
Depends on the person.
Like, you know, if it's you, I'll probably wait two days or something.
Yeah.
I've noticed.
If it's my parents, I'll text them back.
Do you get
right back to them?
Well, of course.
Yeah.
Paula and Steve, always nice to get a text back from Conrad.
All right, here's number 10 things you can't control There's no use stressing over stuff.
You can't do about anything, but it's a tough one everyone does it That is the one thing I try to teach my kids is like if you can't control it take it off your plate Yeah, yeah, you know if it's something like you're late.
That's on you whatever But if you if it's out of your control it is wasted worry Number nine buying a house it's gotten so hard a lot of people would rather stop stressing and just be happy where they are I always thought I was gonna be a renter
Honestly, I never had any I didn't desire it wasn't even a cost thing as much as it was.
I didn't want to do the upkeep I didn't want to garden cut grass.
It's just not my thing
Yeah, I mean I like I like renting.
It's pretty nice the last Two place no three places.
I've lived that I haven't had a shovel the place
before that they made a
shovel though
So that's cool.
They made you shovel.
He was a part of
the
leaves.
Oh, wow really?
Yeah, we had to split duties with like our upstairs neighbors
That's a
house in Milwaukee,
you know, so then you argue like over whose turn it is Well,
pretty much we did it all the time because the people upstairs did we're like well, I thought it was your turn I'm sorry.
I'm just gonna get it done.
Just so no arguing That
would be a that would be a deal breaker for me.
I don't think I would One of my
supposed to do it.
I was like, yeah, well this place is open and it's cheap enough that two college kids
And you bench
to probably back then even more.
So you can hit the shovel.
No, I benched less then because I didn't work out all the time.
That's because you didn't shovel.
In college, I never wanted to go to the gym.
Steve, Conrad's dad checks in.
This is good.
I'd love to hear from Packer fans, guys.
Tell me what you're thinking.
Steve says there's no doubt about it.
The pack will be back.
Hopefully, we will hire a new kicker.
That's probably a consensus,
right?
Yeah, I want the substitute teacher back.
That's terrible.
But the LaFleur, I think, is safe.
Let's ask a true pro about what she thinks, whether she has inside information or not.
I don't know, but Connie Feldman is here now in the studio.
She does great work here at WGBW and throughout civic media on the network.
She's one of our pals.
She's been here before and she joins us now in studio to talk about all things Connie.
How are you?
I'm great.
It's good to have you here.
Did you have to come back?
Because you're here all day, right?
I am, I am.
And you have to come back to be on the show.
See, I was thinking you'd like hang around and it wouldn't be heavy lifting for you to do this.
Well, I thought about it, but then I actually took off early because I'm like, ah, I'm coming back tonight.
We are on the air.
So if you took off early, I don't want you to get in trouble.
I don't want you to
just put.
I think I'm OK.
OK.
You could say you're recovering a story or something.
I spend
plenty of hours here.
I think I'm just fine.
How are you tonight?
How are you doing?
I'm doing great.
I'm over it, you know, I kind of over the Packers loss this morning was a little rough for me Dan was talking about it, and I'm like, I don't think I'm ready to talk yet,
but really you kind of have to be though, right with what you do Where did you watch the game on Saturday night
at home
at home?
Okay,
which was unusual
with your husband or a
whole family nice, which was really unusual
You know I part of me is like I told Conrad earlier as a bear fan.
I I've had my heart literally ripped out of my chest so many times over the last 25 years like You know you guys and this is like usually though was easy for me to stomach because you guys had better players Aaron Rodgers is better but far we've never had a quarterback You do now.
Yeah, he's definitely a playmaker.
I wish he didn't have to wait
He kind of drives me a little crazy.
I don't think I can live like this much longer, but what do you do after a loss like that?
What would you tell other Packer fans?
I know for me, I would just watch a movie.
I would try to put sports out of my head when my team lost, but how do you deal with it?
I don't know.
That's a good question, because I don't very well.
I kind of obsess about it.
Talk about things that
you can't control.
Yeah.
You can't
control it.
You can't control it.
Exactly.
It's a great point.
you gotta move on.
Right.
But yeah, you know, and especially games like just even this last one up until 10 seconds to go, there was still a chance.
Right.
You know, and I always believe they can do it.
And I'll tell you this, the trauma I have as a Bears fan was always, Rogers always did it.
He did, he got, he got it done.
And they had all those plays and you know, loves had a great game.
His numbers were incredible.
I thought, there's no way we're going to hold them for four plays.
just because of what had happened in the past.
It's trauma.
It's sports trauma.
It's not even important and it bothers me that I care, but that's what happens, right?
Did you hear about, Terry Barr did a story today about the rehash of Packers, Bears, Games kind of turns into sports therapy?
You know?
Because you kind of got to talk it out.
You got to talk it
out.
Well, that's what we're doing right here tonight.
It's great to have you here.
What do you have yesterday was national...
I can't think of the word food traditions.
Yes, Sunday dinner Sunday dinner day.
Oh, what is your favorite tradition that involves food and it could be a sporting event I said That's one of my favorite things to do is just order pizza or wings or nachos or something to watch sports
You know, well, it's it's a food tradition.
I guess we I host Thanksgiving dinner every year at
our
cabins.
Oh, nice.
So which sounds really quaint and comfy cozy But there is the issue
Like, last year, this past year, the power went out.
I had
two
15-pound birds.
I had to keep cold, but I didn't want to put them outside because there's bears.
You know, there's... I mean, just the fiascos have gone through to do this cozy, quaint tradition.
It's hysterical.
Oh, that's funny.
But
it is.
I mean, it's a
great place.
That's a great one.
Then everybody
can come to me.
There's not all that driving around on Thanksgiving.
I'll be at the cabin with the bird in the oven.
Come if you're able
and and you seem like one of those people that likes to feed other people that you just enjoy in Providing that's so cool.
That's fun.
All right.
So what is happening Connie Felman is here by the way, folks She is a reporter here at WGBW you hear her work here or in the southern part of the state.
She does outstanding Work here just covering the news
What is going on?
What do we need to know about?
Anything happening locally?
Well, you know, there is, but I'm trying to think of some more lighthearted stuff because
what's
happening right now are a lot of ice protests.
Yeah.
Oh, in Green Bay here?
Yeah,
well, all
around.
But yeah,
in Green Bay, the interesting thing about Green Bay is they've doubled in size in just the past week.
Really?
There are a couple dozen folks out, I think, the night of the shooting in Light Park and then the last one this last weekend on Sunday.
There are hundreds of people there.
And now there's, there's a notice going out from the Oneida business people that, for tribal members to make sure you keep your ID, your tribal ID
handy.
So
that's not late-hearted.
That's not late-hearted, but that's what's happening.
And I'm proud of myself because I didn't make a joke about people liking warm drinks when you said ice protests.
So I'm a fan.
But you know what?
I've grown up, Connie.
I don't think that's appropriate.
So I don't say that kind of stuff anymore.
It reminds me of Europe.
Europe?
Yeah, you've been to Europe.
I have not been to Europe.
Oh, okay
Well, they serve your beer warm and if you order order soda or water, you know, it's
warm
room temperature
Okay,
give you a lot of ice.
What do you make of that?
I think it's conspiracies what I
think I Want to ask you and maybe we'll do this after the break because I know we don't have too much time with you So I want to maximize it but you have recently and we'll do this after after a very short break folks, but Connie
shared this great story with me recently when I had Steve March Torme on the show and Steve came in and he's Mel Torme's son he's this famous you know he's a nepo baby basically and he grew up in Manhattan and then in Beverly Hills and now he lives in Appleton We had such a fun time and you share this outstanding story with me
about your interaction with him, and I put it down right where I wouldn't see it.
Totally blew it off.
I did, but it wasn't intentional.
It must not have been that fantastic.
I finished my other questions and put them down on top of the story, and then after the show, I'm like, oh, God, you're such a numbskull, Pete.
So we will talk to Connie about that.
She can share that story with us.
Let us know, folks.
If you want to vent about the Packers, that's OK.
If you want to answer tonight's question, which is, what is your favorite tradition that involves food?
That's fine as well.
Brett from Brown Deer says, growing up every Sunday, my mom had two iron skillets and she would fry chicken for dinner.
That's my favorite tradition.
That's a great tradition.
It can be anything, folks.
Cher, be part of the fun.
We are coming right back with Connie Feldman and her Steve March Tornay story.
That's coming up next.
It's Nightlight with Peach Wamba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back.
This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba.
Our question of the night is yesterday was National Sunday Dinner Day.
What is your favorite tradition that involves food?
Barb from Waukesha says Valentine's Day because I can always count on a delicious steak at Bartoladas.
That's a Milwaukee, I think.
That's a Milwaukee steakhouse.
I've heard it.
I've heard it's fantastic.
Great text, Barb.
Thank you.
Keep those texts coming.
Folks, we will read them on the radio.
Right now, we've got a few more minutes with our pal reporter here at WGBW and Pacific Media, Connie Filman.
I say that, but you've done kind of everything in media, haven't you?
I
have.
I used to, well, I started out years, and I've been at every station in Green Bay, except for
Channel
2.
Started at 26 before 26 had news.
Really?
And
before they were, what are they?
NBC.
They were Fox
back
then.
But I wrote commercials.
I wrote and produced commercials.
So, and then I went to news from there.
And then funny thing about the Steve March tourmate story has to do with,
well, I
don't want to give it away.
Well,
let's jump into it.
We know that you're qualified for what you do.
We don't have to rehash that.
We've talked about that before.
But yeah, tell us, Steve March-Tormey, for those of you just joining us, is the son of Mel Tormey and the stepson of Hal March.
So two famous father figures.
I'm not sure what his mom did.
We didn't really cover that.
So he's had a really interesting life.
Born in Manhattan, raised in Beverly Hills.
He's been in Appleton now for 20 years maybe, something like that.
Married a girl from Appleton, lives here.
Great guy.
He was so much fun.
I had him in the studio.
He sang the Christmas song.
I know his dad made famous and you had a story that I alluded to Right before the break the and I just dropped the ball.
He's faced out and did not share it with him I but I would love it if you told it.
It's such a fun story
It was funny because I was such a huge fan geek over him I didn't because being I'm a musician.
Yeah, if
you're a musician
You know the son of Mel Torme and I love big band music.
I love and as a result I go to this Music camp.
Yep.
It's a band camp up in the Northwoods But they bring in these musicians from LA and New York Long story about that the guy's married to a woman whose family owns this resort anyway, so Steve March Torme was our guest artist one night and I was so starstruck to be
playing behind him and then to be standing next to him at the bar we were ordering and the bartender comes up and I'm trying to be all cool, you know, because I'm standing next to Steve Marshall, right?
And she says, wait, I know you from somewhere.
And I look over at Steve, you know, because and waiting for him to answer.
And she says, you're that gallon TV.
Oh, and he looks at me and I'm thinking, well, I've been on the news for, you know,
about 15 years, I was a broadcaster, probably from that.
Then she comes back and she says, you're that girl that does the shoe commercials.
And he looks and I'm trying to be funny and self deprecating.
And I'm like, yeah, I'm kind of a big deal up in these parts.
And look at him and he's like, yeah, apparently so.
I was so embarrassed.
But you thought at first they were talking to him.
Of course.
Yeah.
And she still has no idea who he is.
Who he
is, yeah.
She
thinks I'm a big shot because I do shoe commercials.
I
just score the shoe
commercials.
And that's a funny story.
Okay.
Because I took a break from TV to raise our daughter.
I was at Fox 11 for about 10 years.
My husband was there.
He still works there.
He's been there 48 years.
Oh,
wow.
I
was visiting him.
I walked through the studio where they were shooting.
Rogan's shoe commercial because they used to produce them there.
I used to write them actually back at 26 anyway After I left apparently they went to my husband and said oh, you know what?
We've been looking for a spokesperson for Rogan's with Connie be interested Ask her
and I got outstanding feet.
We gotta
have her I had a foot double because I
don't have
outstanding feet and they did some sandals anyway
I had been out of news because that to me there's a big conflict of interest had I wanted any future in news as a journalist
You
don't want to be a paid spokesperson But anyway, I did those commercials for about 12 years and when they ran They ran on every station back to back all the time and more people to this day recognize me from broken shoe commercials
no kidding
From, however, 15 years as a journalist on television, Green Bay.
You out-celebrityed Steve March Torme, it sounds like.
Well, in the North Woods, maybe I did, yeah.
What was it like when you said, okay, I'll do this?
And then they saw your feet and they said, ooh.
They didn't ever see my
feet.
Oh, they just knew who they wanted for
them.
They said, are you comfortable in sandals?
We're going to shoot a thing.
And I said, actually, nope.
I'm not.
I got an
early fee.
I was a dancer.
All right, okay,
so the grip at the time who was also I think she's the promotion manager
With them often showed her dogs.
Oh, no, she she yeah, she's like I'll do it
Wow.
Oh, that's so
funny and she had beautiful feet.
Thank you Donna.
Thank you.
Thank you Donna What how long goes that now?
Oh that had to be to Mid 2012 maybe
okay,
I did him from 2008 till
Tell they went back into television great run But I had so many different sets of kids during that time they used to give me like a different set of kids for each commercial I'm like you guys are really making me look a little bit like the Rogan Schumann that kind of
I don't think anybody thought that.
I don't think anybody.
You have a very newsworthy, a trustworthy face, as they say in news.
And I think we hear that in your voice now on radio.
I really want you to tell me about Song Song Blue.
We've got about a minute before we have to bail for the news.
Mike Clemens is coming up.
Stay for a few minutes after the news?
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, and you're welcome to stay and hang with Mike.
He's, we're gonna, Mike Clemens is the guy for Packer fans, I think, to have and listen to him.
Yeah.
Because, you know, he's so great.
So, we'll do this.
We'll talk to Connie when we come back.
We'll hear your, um, your thumbnail sketch review of Song Song Blue.
And real quick, in about 30 seconds, the accent, did they get that or?
I thought they nailed it.
Okay.
I thought Kate Hudson sounded exactly like my stepmother.
Wow.
That's funny.
Did she burr duck your step mom and try to copy the.
All right, Connie Feldman is here folks.
We love her work here at WGBW and Civic Media.
We're coming right back after news, sports and weather and Mike Clemens will be here as well.
We'll keep talking Packers Bears, Sherry Stoka, nutritionist and founder of Wayless MD is going to tell us how we can shed those couple holiday pounds we might have put on.
That's at 635 and two really funny guys, Rob Brackenridge and Mike Merrifield will be here in hour number three.
It's Peach Wamba and Nightlight on the Civic.
media radio network.
Broadcasting live statewide from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba, your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.
And now a guy who binge watches TV for a living but doesn't get paid.
Pete Schwabba.
Sad but true, I am so underpaid when it comes to watching color television.
Ah,
folks.
You got the big bucks, man.
You think I make the big bucks?
Yes!
You're famous.
You don't see my bank
account.
See, I was never a shoe model or a spokesman
for
a major shoe store, so like Connie Filman.
That's the voice of Connie Filman.
Second Bear, half off.
Yeah, she's decided to, not decided, I invited her to stick around for a few minutes and hear my Clemens break down on the Bears and Packers, which will be coming up momentarily.
If you miss the first hour of the show,
You missed Connie Feldman telling her Steve March Torme story and her story about how she has bad feet because she was a dancer.
That's right.
I wish I had that excuse.
And we talked about a lot of fun stuff.
We broke down the Bears Packers game a little bit and Conrad got to vent a bit, but go to civicmedia.us folks.
If you want to hear the first hour of the show, it is catalog there in podcast form.
And it's a fun night.
It's a great night here, a great Monday to be here with us at Night Light.
Our question of the night is,
What is your favorite food tradition, I'm sorry, what is your favorite tradition that involves food?
And this is an honor of yesterday because it was national Sunday dinner date.
Did you ever have Sunday dinners?
We did when I was growing up.
Okay.
Yeah.
But what about now with your daughter and your husband?
You guys, is it hard to connect?
When my daughter was home,
she's in college now.
When she was home, yeah, I made dinner at home with a family of priority every night.
Yeah, really?
Yeah.
God, I wish, you know, we did that sometimes, but...
Because when I was a kid, it was the same thing, too.
We sat and had dinner together.
It was like
a sacred time.
That's
when you connect.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I would, you know, I would come home and, you know, even if we had, I was in theater and sports and all that kind of stuff, my mom would have a plate put in the fridge for me.
And now I'm just like, go to Taco Bell.
I'm not really the parent, my parents were, but I'm just kidding.
But let us know, folks, what is your favorite tradition that involves food?
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic.
You can also text us on the app.
Or if you're watching the radio on YouTube, Facebook, or... What's the other one, Con?
X?
Y?
Yeah,
X.
Drop us a stream comment and we'll read that on the radio as well.
Great night here.
Great guests.
Mike Clemens is about to join us and break down the game from Saturday night.
We've got Sherry Stoka, the founder and chief health strategist at Wayless MD.
She's an excellent nutritionist.
She's going to join us at 6.35.
We'll talk some dietary stuff and nutrition.
Two very funny Wisconsinites will be here.
Mike Merrifield and Rob Brackenridge will join me at 720 in Act 3.
They're doing a stand-up comedy show up in Marinette on the 31st and they're coming in to talk about it.
It's going to be a blast.
They're both nationally touring headliners, been on TV, had their own specials.
They will be here at 720 tonight in the studio and I cannot wait to have them here.
So lots of all Wisconsin based guests tonight.
Have you guys realized that?
I wanted to ask about your nutritionist.
Yeah.
Is she the one?
You had a nutritionist on a while back, and I was listening, and I felt like there was nothing I could eat.
I can't eat anything.
Can you ask her what can you eat?
Yeah, I know what you're saying, because I go back and forth, too.
I was a vegan for a while.
I didn't do meat for a while.
And I had a lot of energy.
And then people said, oh, no, no, no, you got to cut the carbs.
And then you and I did the protein.
And they change things all the time, it seems like.
Well, and everything was so processed.
And I get, I don't know.
She's excellent, though.
Sherry does a
great job.
And
she's helped people lose
weight.
I'm going to text in and see what I can eat if it's the same person.
It might be someone different.
I think it's probably her and we're gonna talk about Ozempic is available
in
pill form now So I don't know if you knew that
I did not
okay.
Well, it's it's pretty big and it's it tastes like a pizza.
So yeah, I'm into that
Let's go.
I dropped that joke last week.
I thought I was pulling gold out here and I got nothing
well Conrad said they're silently zombers.
I was in
Madison.
They're just looking at me like whatever so Conn how we doing we have Mike?
Not Mike yet?
Okay, we don't have Mike.
So you can tell us about Song Song Blue.
This great movie set in Wisconsin.
It's based
on a true story
about two, a couple in Milwaukee that formed a Neil Diamond tribute band called Lightning and Thunder,
correct?
Tell us
about what you thought of the movie.
I'm ashamed I haven't seen it
yet.
Well, I had a preconceived notion, I'll admit, going in because I thought it was going to be a real cheeseball thing.
You know, they're personators and it, to me, it was
Outstanding
it was
just the perspective of someone who's a performer and has such a passion and the way I mean Hugh Jackman's voice
sound
like Neil Diamond can't be a hard voice to duplicate and Speaking of voice Kate Hudson.
I thought she nailed the Wisconsin accent.
It wasn't too heavy, but it was there and it's just it's a beautiful touching
Touching story.
I was ballin.
I was really at the
end.
Yes.
I've heard there are some really heartfelt moments.
There are some funny moments, but Yeah, I haven't seen it.
I'm ashamed because I love Neil Diamond's music and I really like I will say I was kind of
I like Hugh Jackman enough.
I'm not really a Wolverine guy.
I don't go see those movies, typically.
Kate Hudson, I like.
I loved her and almost famous.
She is, speaking of Steve March-Tormey, she's a nepo baby
to like
the 10th degree with Kurt Russell and Carrie or Goldie Haun as her folks, but she doesn't just take any gig to do it.
She's really selective and maybe that's where being a nepo baby helps.
You just don't have to work all the time and you're a little more selective in your roles, but I've heard she's great and might get an Oscar
nod.
Did she do all her own vocals?
Because if she did, you know, that's, I heard recently that she's, she's launching more of a musical career.
Really?
She was, she was outstanding.
Huh.
You know, and she was imitating Patsy Klein, which is not easy to do, but the vocals were phenomenal.
I
need to launch more of a music career.
I think you do.
You think it's too late for me?
I'll back you up.
Me and Steve March Tormé will hit the road.
Because you
can sing.
Tell us about your, you know, before you were in broadcasting, you were, like you said, very musical.
I was, yeah, I still am.
I just, uh, I don't have time for it as much as I used to.
But yeah, I had a, you know, I had a band.
I had, uh... You had a band?
We had a chick band.
Chick trip.
Wow.
Chick trip?
That's what it was called?
It was a take-off of Cheap Trick.
I love that.
Yeah.
Um, all female band.
Um, more than that, I'm a trumpet player.
Um, played, you know, locally in a lot of different community bands, jazz bands, things like that.
How come trumpet players aren't... don't get the l... Like Chuck Mangione.
Was there only room for one trumpet player in the whole?
Like, the guy was a star.
I couldn't name another trumpet player.
Well, Dizzy Gillespie.
I mean, some of the famous, but who's touring that's like, hey, come see this trumpet player at the Resh Sound?
His
body.
But I don't know him, but you know that world
better.
And here's, well, trumpet players will hate me for saying this, but if you know trumpet players, they don't, because they don't have it.
get enough credit because they give it all to themselves.
Yeah.
Trumpet players are kind of known for being, you know.
Self-righteous or
arrogant.
Yeah, I mean, it's a loud, high instrument.
You gotta have some fortitude to stand up and play it.
Absolutely.
Are you a Kenny G fan?
No.
No?
How come?
You draw the line of trumpet, you don't?
That's, no, that's more of a smooth jazz thing, which I might.
You like the smooth?
No.
You like that, that jarring
kind of.
I like big band.
I like jazz.
I like, but not my elevator
music.
It's hard to go.
Okay.
I'm with you.
I don't, I was not a huge, I had friends going to see Kenny G. And I was like, listen, I am accepting, I'm, I accept everybody.
I don't judge.
I never like look down on friends that, but I had a group of guys that were kind of guys, guys are going to see Kenny G at the Park West.
I'm like,
are you?
I thought they were kidding.
I'm like,
why would
you go see him?
Like, even if it's on your car, like, he had a couple of songs.
I'm like, yeah, I'd listen to this in the car.
But they went, maybe they thought it was a good place to meet girls.
I don't know.
Women loved him, right?
He was like the Michael Bolton of saxophone playing.
But, you know, the other music thing recently, Bob Weir died over the weekend.
Yeah, I saw that.
I was a big deadhead.
So I can like Neil Diamond.
Yeah.
It's still like the Grateful Dead.
And,
you
know.
You're a deadhead you don't seem old enough to be a deadhead
I was a late blooming deadhead and I was you know I was in a college sorority trying to be a hippie and it didn't work but you know
Alright, so your Connie Feldman is here.
She does covers news here at WGBW.
And for Civic Media, she's here in the studio with us.
We talked a little bit about what's happening in the community.
A little, we dipped our toe in the packer talk, and we heard your great Steve March tourmate story.
What is the mood, would you say, if you know this of the community?
You know the Packers usually at least play a couple weeks into January.
Yeah, it ended a little soon this year What does that do like and I told Conrad even though I they're not my first team?
It's fun to talk about
like
I'm part of this community even though I'm a Bears fan.
I like talking about this stuff What is the mood of the community right now?
The mood is hushed a little bit Okay, but I think the great thing about Packer fans as opposed to let's just say some other teams I think yeah, they are Packer fans do or die
I
think
there's a lot of frustration now, because it's not the first time we got to the playoffs and stopped there.
So they're looking to see, OK, what's going to happen with Coach LaFleur, what's going to happen with.
But I think they're standing behind their team.
There's some talk about some people not as nuts about Jordan Love as they were a little while ago, which I think is unfounded.
And he's following up Aaron Rodgers.
Two Hall of Famers,
yeah.
I can't figure that out either, like if you look at Love's numbers, maybe he doesn't have the quite, or I don't know that Aaron Rodgers had it immediately, but the clutch gene, like Rodgers developed it, certainly against the Bears.
And Love the other night at least proved that he doesn't, he's not quite there yet, but man, his numbers are as good as any quarterback in the league.
Well, and he wasn't, I mean, he doesn't have Michael Parsons protecting them either, you know?
That's true.
Or not protecting him.
But,
you
know, protecting the
offense through defense.
Yes, you know what I mean.
Absolutely, I do.
And what about LeFleur, like, and, Con, we talked about this a little bit before, but, like, there are coaches that every year, Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh, and I think that's a big reason, like, people saw that Harbaugh got fired.
They thought, is LeFleur on the hot seat if he doesn't, if he didn't win?
But, I mean, I think he's a good coach.
What do you think?
I think so, too.
I think he's a good coach.
I think he's a good guy.
Yeah.
And I think we've got the cutest coach in the league.
So that's important.
Have you seen those t-shirts?
Our coach is hotter than your coach.
What do you, you don't think Jim Harbaugh's a looker?
No?
What about Mike Vrable?
Got that guy's guy that iron jaw?
I have no idea.
You don't care.
You're just a Homer.
Yeah.
Packer fan, man.
Are you, are you a sports fan in general?
Outside of the Packers or Wisconsin Sports?
Not really.
Not outside of the Packers and Wisconsin Sports, like you said.
That's what I love about Green Bay.
Or in Wisconsin too, a lesser degree, but mostly Green Bay because the team is here.
It is a community event.
It's a culture.
It's a sport, but it's also people that don't give two craps about football.
care about the Packers
and they
want to watch the game.
It's an event.
Yeah,
right?
It is an event.
It's just, you know, it's got such a beautiful, storied history.
Yeah.
That's what makes the Packers story so cool.
Aside from Song Song Blue Packers games, what are you watching?
You watching anything you could recommend?
A binge?
You binge watch anything?
Well, right now, actually, I'm binging.
It was recommended to me.
Monarch of the Glen because I've heard of
that.
Because my daughter's going to Scotland and we're going to go visit her.
So I was, you know, looking all this and it's really.
It's it's got a bit of a cheese to it.
I don't think anybody beyond Gen X should be watching it.
OK, but what I have been in the past, which I've what is it made?
Made mask.
No, no, me.
That was awesome.
Breaking bad.
Oh, sure.
24 back in the day.
Love 24.
I don't think I can sit through it now because of the commercials and the It doesn't quite hold up, but I'm with you.
I love that was like a streamer
show
before streaming,
you
know Connie, thank you so much.
Thank you for having me.
You're always fun to have on.
So let's do this again.
Thank you so much for having
me.
Come back and tell another celebrity.
I
will.
Okay, I mean someone that you're more of a celebrity then.
All right, Connie
Feldman, listen to her here at WGVW.
She is great.
We are coming back to read your texts, peach wava and nightlight.
on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome
back.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and it is great to have you here on this Monday, folks, wherever you're joining us from around our beautiful state.
It is outstanding to come together and talk about the things we love movies TV comedy music We've got it all and tonight coming up an hour three Rob Brackenridge very talented Appleton based comedian will be here with his pal Mike Merrifield who is also a very talented Outstanding comedian who I know is from Wisconsin, but we'll learn more about Mike This will be his first time on the show very excited to have these two guys coming up and act three
After news at the bottom of the hour, my pal Sherry Stoko will be here.
Sherry is an excellent nutritionist and dietitian, and she is the founder of Wayless MD just outside of Milwaukee.
They do great work there, helping people get their weight under control and eat more consciously and that kind of stuff.
And what, you know, it's funny.
Conn, I, what did you eat when you watched the game?
Cause we're talking about food.
A pizza.
Well, so Tanners in a in Appleton and Kimberly they do this thing called 12 12 beers of Christmas It's a little punch card and you drink love it you drink 12 beers on the list and you get a free pizza and a t-shirt That's
kind of cool.
So get some swag.
Yeah, I used that one for for the pizza at the packer game
I don't you know remember what time?
Her last time Sherry was here, do you remember I asked him, what is a food people should avoid at all costs?
She said pizza.
So we can follow up with that when she is here at 635 because at this time of year, when you've got sports, it's nachos, wings, pizza.
That's just what people eat.
Monica in the 608, responding to our question of the night, which is yesterday was national Sunday dinner day.
What is your favorite tradition that involves food?
Monica.
says, not sure if it's my favorite, but it's the first thing I thought of, king cake, and I don't even know how to pronounce this word, and I'm ashamed because I'm part Polish.
Packies?
I think it's packies.
From Mardi Gras, I'm not religious, so I don't do it for Lent.
It's just about the food.
It's surprising I have a weight problem.
And then parenthetically, sarcasm.
On the way to the gym now, though, but currently waiting in line for a car wash.
All right, well, Monica.
Monica's texts.
She is honing her text.
They're outstanding.
She's crushing it.
All right.
We've got our guest.
Oh, Mike Clemens is on the phone.
We've only got a few minutes, but let's break down as much of the game as we can and get Mike's thoughts.
He does great work here at Civic Media.
He is our sports authority, and he joins us now over the phone.
Mr. Mike Clemens, hey, buddy.
I think that's Poochkes.
Poochkes, okay.
I knew it was something.
I knew I was getting it wrong.
Are they good?
Yeah, they're the those, you know, like, fried donuts, the folks from Poland make, you know, going into Lent and, you know, during, you know, Ash Wednesday,
that kind of
thing, right?
Yeah, that
sounds right.
Fat Tuesday.
That's a treat on Fat Tuesday.
Before Ash Wednesday, there was this comedian, John Knight, who used to do a joke.
He's like, where do they get all the ashes?
And he goes, I think before Ash Wednesday, all the priests get together and play poker.
It's called Poker Tuesday, and they smoke cigars.
Mike, we just have a few minutes, but overall thoughts in the game, it's great.
Thank you so much for joining us.
I'm sure you're busy as all get out since this
weekend.
The Matlow first coaching staff has got to figure out in-game adjustments better.
Yeah.
And because Dennis Allen, a former head coach, a longtime defensive coordinator down there, Sean Payton during their run with Drew Brees and the Saints, came up with some different ways to blitz Jordan Love.
And it screwed up the offensive tack where the Packers were up 21 to three in the second half and then came out and three and out and three and out.
You know struggle they got one touchdown back.
It's funny one of our senior writers that covers a team every day when Brandon McManus missed that point after in the second half after the Packers only touched on the second half He turned it said they're gonna lose this game and I thought well, you know that that'd be a quite a sensational story.
Wasn't it?
Yeah, right?
And that's exactly what happened.
I mean Caleb Williams is just crazy
You know in the fourth quarter.
Yeah,
it's just he's he's a unique talent and You combine him with Ben Johnson who for me in the last three or four years if you See a coordinator either offense or defense and he say wow that guy's hot that guy should probably be a head coach That's the best candidate.
I've seen in five years and it's working out so far
Mike is he a little crazy?
I mean, the first half, he's going for it deep in his own territory.
He's kind of picked a fight with LaFleur.
I'm sure there's a method to his madness, but I got to say it makes me uncomfortable.
As a guy who lives around a lot of Packer fans, I just don't know that you need that.
No, I know.
I think it's brilliant.
I think he's a pretty much straightforward, buckle down, button collar shirt kind of a guy, but he knows his market.
He's been coming to Chicago for weekend trips and stuff, going to Cubs games and all that two years before he took the job.
And he's playing to the fan base.
He's trying to infuse that kind of a thing.
And, you know, actually the floor was doing that a couple of years ago when he was, you know, looking at the crowd and wave, you know, get the headset on and waving with the manual plays to sort of get, that was, I kind of noticed that I brought up in a press conference and then all the TV stations started taping, you know, what the head coach was doing, kind of doing cheerleading stuff.
No, I think Ben Johnson is playing this perfectly so far.
Well, the rivalry is definitely back.
It does remind me a little bit of Ditka, Greg, back in the 80s, but
Mike, it was short but sweet.
I really appreciate your time and it must have been a blast down there in Chicago.
Let's catch up another time and would love to get your thoughts on the whole season if you're game.
We got to talk to Micah Parsons and Tye and Tucker Kraft today, both coming back from ACLs.
That was some great content that we'll probably share later in the week, but those guys hope to be back by September.
Outstanding.
Thank you, sir.
Much appreciated.
You
gotta
follow Mike Clemens at Mike Clemens NFL.
He does such great work here at Civic Media.
We are coming back to talk nutrition and how we can burn a few of those holiday pounds that we all have with our pal Sherry Stoker.
She will be here after news, sports and weather.
It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
you
Welcome back.
I'm Pete Schwabber.
This is Nightlight.
So great to have you with me, folks, on this outstanding Monday in our beautiful state of Wisconsin as we talk about some of the really cool stuff in life.
And you know what, not to be out, we talk movies, TV, comedy, a lot of that kind of stuff.
We talked about the Packers and the Bears a little bit tonight, but right now we are turning our attention to your health and something we all need to take more seriously in our life.
My next guest is a nutritionist and dietitian and the founder and chief health strategist of Wayless MD.
It is my pleasure to welcome back tonight, Ms.
Sherry Stoka.
Hi, Sherry.
Hi.
How are you?
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
Um, it's funny you say that because as part of the reason I wanted, I mean, I always like to hear what you have to say about nutrition and, uh, diets and all that kind of stuff.
But, uh, I think everybody, you know, puts on a couple pounds around the holidays.
So we'll jump into all that if you have any tips on how to, uh, to kick those holiday pounds.
But speaking of food, I have to ask you before we start, um, in honor of yesterday being national Sunday dinner day.
What is your favorite custom or tradition that involves food?
Do you have one?
Oh
Could be a holiday or you know,
I mean, I guess I mean it would have to be Thanksgiving.
Yeah, okay Same here.
I mean, that's one of mine.
I said some some crap.
I didn't even know that was a special day yesterday Listen to know
Everything is a special day.
And I put much more crass, sarcastic answers on our social media page, but I agree with you.
Thanksgiving, you cannot beat it.
The other thing I want to ask you before we jump into nutrition is, have you kicked any field goals lately?
Oh my gosh.
Well, guess what?
You're not going to believe it.
I tore my hamstring.
I've been on crutches for like the last five weeks.
That's a long recuperation, isn't
it?
It's been torture.
Oh, no.
I mean, it's been absolute torture.
So I will definitely get back out there and start kicking again.
But it's going to be another like two to three months.
Oh, my gosh.
On the stinks.
Did you do it kicking a field goal or was it something else?
No, I mean, I've done them both.
I've ripped them both years of soccer, you know, and then.
It's been partially torn for a while, and I went running with a front, and we were getting kind of like nutty on hills, and I felt the pop, and I pulled it, so.
What is that?
I've heard, like, I've seen friends rip their Achilles' tendons.
When you pop your hamstring, can you limp, or are you totally immobile?
Like, you just go down and need the paramedics, or what's that like?
Yeah, well, it depends where you tear it.
I tore it right in below the butt bone where it attaches and it didn't completely rip off the bone.
There was some still attached so it didn't curl, but it's kind of the same as in Achilles.
Like if it's entirely severed, it will curl and mine did not curl.
Thank God.
So they were able to kind of just like
reattach
it.
Is that the worst injury you've ever had?
I know last time you were here, we talked about your college soccer days and you're obviously still kicking field goals because I saw your social media posts and I thought that was so cool.
What's the worst sports injury you've had?
I mean, I think it was my first hamstring where I was actually, it was during a game and I went to slide and it was really a loud pop.
And that's the one that I completely ripped.
So I crawled off the field on that one.
Yeah.
All right, let's talk about the holidays and everybody.
I read something not too long ago that said, you really don't put on as many pounds as you think over the holidays.
But I always feel like I'm 20 pounds heavier after the holidays, even though I sometimes even work out through the holidays.
But for people that have put on a few pounds, what's the best advice you could give them for getting back in shape?
Kind of stop the cycle at some point.
The cycle is what keeps people stuck, you know?
And until we kind of awaken to that, we will continue to be in that constant cycle.
So it's estimated that approximately 90% of American adults are metabolically compromised, which that's not a surprise.
But what that means is that weight loss strategies don't really work because your body isn't using like fat stores as it should.
And so we keep trying all these same ways of losing weight by calorie restricting.
And now every single person now knows that that doesn't work.
You have to make a life change, don't you?
I mean, it can't just be a temporary.
My biggest thing is, I'll go crazy over the holidays with, I'll be so good, very few carbs.
feeling energetic, healthy, and then the holidays come and you just fall into this like, oh, I'm just eating salty, sweet stuff.
And my big thing is I'll go, well, I'll give myself two extra days.
Like I'm on vacation from my health.
How do you snap that?
Is there a tactic or something for people to go to break the cycle and do it easier because it's hard to do?
Yeah, you have to be.
In order to have those days, you have to be metabolically resilient and metabolically healthy.
And so like the best kind of marker for that is your insulin levels.
And nobody's checking their insulin levels when it's like such a part of medicine that's so neglected because it's such a proactive way
of looking at your insulin levels because if your insulin levels are elevated you will never ever be able to access fat and so if you keep going into these holidays like metabolically compromised it's just again it kind of keeps you in the cycle so you have to kind of know where you are metabolically and like it's it really has to do with you know you're like
Insulin is one thing, but it's your visceral fat like your waistline because visceral fat is the driver of inflammation and insulin resistance and then you have to have adequate muscle if you're like muscle is depleted again your your metabolic health is going to be destroyed so you kind of have to be pretty metabolically sound in order to get away with going through the holidays like look at young younger adults that are healthy like they eat like crazy and they're fine when they come out of the holidays so like that's kind of where you have to
get to.
So when you say metabolically compromise, I understand you're talking about metabolism, but is it, can you elaborate on that a little bit for those of us who really don't understand maybe exactly what you're saying?
I know, because it is, it means so much.
But when you're metabolically unhealthy, typically what's going on with you is you have
a lot of astral fat.
So your waistline is, you have a big belly, you know, you have, you have the fat that is like is, you know, lining your, your abdominal area, right?
Your vital organs.
So that is the, that is the insulin kind of resistant fat cells.
So if you have a big waistline, if you have high blood pressure, if you have high cholesterol, if you have high triglycerides,
your body is not metabolically functioning the way it should.
So what that means is that your body is not using its fat reserves as it should.
So to take it a step further, if you're metabolically healthy and you eat bad and then you kind of go back, you go on like a calorie restricted diet, your body will go to fat stores when it needs it.
If you are metabolically healthy, it will use your fat stores.
If you're metabolically unhealthy, your body doesn't even recognize the fat stores because it's resistant.
It's inflammatory.
Your body doesn't even recognize it.
So that's why the cycle just keeps going on and on.
It's like a snowball effect.
That's very well said.
Sheri Stoka is my guest.
She is the founder, I should say, and chief health strategist of Wayless MD.
Check it out, folks.
She really helps people get their nutrition goals in line.
She is also a nutritionist and a dietitian, and she joins us here periodically on Nightlight.
Are carbs bad?
Not all carbs, I understand, but for the longevity of brain health?
And brain fog, what's the best way as we get older to combat brain fog?
I mean, we need like, did you see the new food guide pyramid that's been turned upside down?
Like I've been saying that forever.
We don't need carbs.
We're told it all the time that we do.
I mean, we can get carbs from like vegetables and fruit and nuts and seeds and a little bit of dairy.
We don't need
pizza and pasta and bagels like we don't need that so that I mean it is that is that's what's killing us yeah it is causing blood sugar dysregulation insulin resistance your body is no longer functioning as it as it should you can eat carbs but we just are eating way too much of the starchy poison you know i mean it's poison because it's all genetically modified processed and all of that
What is the best food to eat, in your opinion, for brain health?
I assume proteins, but like, is there one specific food, like sometimes you hear fish oils, to stay sharp mentally as you get older?
Yeah, I mean, you know, a diet that is, you know, yes, adequate animal protein.
You need animal protein.
I mean, I know there's a lot of people out there, you know, like, but you need animal protein, has all the amino acids.
You need healthy fats.
That's the anti-inflammatory.
Our brain is
the majority of our brain is fat.
So if you're not getting like DHA and EPA, like that's our brain.
So you have to be able, you have to eat your fish and or take fish oil supplements.
So that's really important.
And or like the healthy oils, you know, olive oil is has, you know, so many different healthy fatty acids.
And then, you know, nuts and seeds are also such an important part of the diet.
So it's really, it's really kind of just cleaning that up and not being afraid of fat, because okay, so when you look at the macros, you have carbs, protein and fat.
What starts metabolic dysfunction is any kind of any type of food that raises your blood sugar, because if you have a, if you increase your blood sugar, insulin follows.
And whenever you have high insulin, you go, it tells your body to store
to store calories.
So carbs, skyrocket your blood sugar.
Protein, very minimal.
Fats, zero.
Doesn't do anything to your blood sugar.
So we're kind of just really flawed in how we look at the diet.
Here's what, I don't know if maybe some of the listeners can relate to this.
I have this issue where I'll fast, then I'll come off it and eat proteins, and within a day or two, I have no cravings, and I have energy, and my brain feels sharp, and I work out, and then a holiday comes up, and I sink back into the old ways.
How do you keep, and maybe you do this with your clients at Wayless MD, but how do you...
keep people in that zone where they don't binge or don't go off a program they're on.
And we've got about a minute to break and then maybe we can, if this is a longer answer, we can cover it after the break.
But what are your thoughts on that?
Well, it's a little, a little more convoluted and very individualistic with everybody.
I mean, I'm even, I even have my boys who are like super high elite athletes, like I have them going in and out of like low carb, high carb because they notice
Such an extreme difference of endurance when they're off of carbs, but I do think we're human We're absolutely gonna go in and out of you know different diets and things like that.
So I do think it's somewhat Inadaptable like you have to kind of adapt to certain Editions and restrictions where your body starts to get used to it because if you just go keto and then all of a sudden go
All out, you know super high carb.
You're gonna feel terrible So you have to kind of get your body and adapt to the to the changes that that you feel comfortable with
All right, Sherry Stoka is here.
We'll have her for a few more minutes on the other side of the break.
Check out Wayless MD, folks.
They do great work there.
It's just outside of Milwaukee.
We'll have a few more.
I'm going to ask Sherry, too, if breakfast is still the most important meal of the day.
We'll cover all that with Sherry Stoka when we come back.
This is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back.
Con, I love when you discover a song that I share with you to use in the bumpers and I can tell when you like really good music.
I just want to say I'm very proud of you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hey, we're back here.
It's Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.
I am Pete Schwabba.
Sherry Stoka is my guest.
At the moment, she is the founder and an outstanding health strategist at Wayless MD.
Definitely check it out.
Sherry, why don't you just tell us exactly what, if people go to Wayless MD or want more information and go to your website, what kind of people go there?
Are they looking to lose weight, just be more healthy in general, or is it a combination of the two?
Yeah, it's a combination.
I mean, my passion is getting the body into a healthier state and really getting people to a place where we lost the sustainable kind of like how I was explaining.
We have to get into a state in order for it to be sustainable.
Otherwise, it's just going to continue.
you know yeah and so we're all about whole body healing but you know we offer many different things we offer holistic we offer many you know the glp medications so it really we try to just you know meet people where they're at
is breakfast the most important meal of the day
oh i love that question
i thought so
well
Okay, so if you're, again, it all comes back to your metabolic health and it all comes back to like what you're eating, right?
Like nobody on the planet should be having a bagel in the morning.
So, okay, so the most important thing in the human body is regulating blood sugars because if they're too high for long periods of time, you die.
If they're too low for long periods of time, you die.
So the body's like really, really good at managing blood sugars.
So if you think about it, when you wake up in the morning,
you eat right away.
When you don't eat, you're in a fasted state.
So your body actually has to use its own fat and its own energy for calories.
So I will answer the question, but I do want people to kind of understand this.
I just said that approximately 90% of people have metabolic dysfunction.
So that means there's higher insulin levels.
Just by
Normal physiology when you wake up in the morning because of cortisol and it's called like this dawn phenomenon We all kind of wake up with high insulin.
It's just normal So, um, you know after like an hour or so the insulin will drop to normal levels assuming that you're not, you know, you know Not completely like diabetic and things like that, right?
So if you wake up and you eat a bagel at you already have high insulin levels you eat a bagel you just destroyed
your body's ability to ever be able to burn fat.
So, yeah, I mean, like, so breakfast is so important, meaning either don't have it, because I do believe that there are people that do really well without eating breakfast, or don't ever eat carbs in the morning.
Have something like eggs or an omelet or, you know, some type of protein.
you know, yogurt with nuts or something like that.
Like don't spike your blood sugars in the morning because not only does that tell your body to store calories, it also is going to set the stage for the rest of the day.
I mean, breakfast is the reason why people are tired all day.
If you change your breakfast, you will notice the rest of your day
change.
Really?
That is fascinating.
Let me ask you this, sometimes you see people who are kind of lean and they can eat whatever they want.
And then you see people that are a little heavier, but they eat very health consciously.
Is it better to keep weight off even though you eat crappy or vice versa?
Well, I don't believe that people that eat crappy, just because they're not overweight, they're probably incredibly unhealthy.
You can only get away with that for so long because you can't...
continue to poison your body and think that it's in a healthy state.
I mean, just because, you know, just because you're not like technically overweight.
So I mean, I feel like, I feel like there's so many ways to define like health, but when it comes down to like the foundation, it truly has to be, it has to, it has to be like your body composition.
You know, it can't, we can't continue to go on
weight loss diets and lose weight and not even know what we're losing.
You know, I mean, cause so many people now they'll drop 20 pounds and like eight pounds of it is muscle.
Like you've now destroyed yourself.
So now you will gain more weight back the second you start eating normally then.
We have about a minute left.
What the flu is horrible this season.
Are there any tips you could give people for ways that they could boost their immune system through natural foods?
Just eat clean, eat clean, eat whole foods.
And I do think taking extra vitamin C, zinc, and vitamin D, oh my gosh, are crucial.
We get everybody on those supplements because they're such the fighters of all the stuff going around.
So I do think we do need a little added supplement because we can't get it in our food.
as far as like to go back to you, because I know it's just like not really a great answer, but it really is giving people off the processed foods and just eating, trying to eat as real as possible.
That's the lesson of your visit here tonight, I think, is just eat whole foods and get off processed foods.
And it sounds so easy, but...
It's not as easily done, so check out WaylessMD and Sherry's work.
Outstanding.
Always fun to have you on the show, my friend.
And next time you come back, let's talk.
I know Ozempic is available in pill form now, and I made the joke last week that it's a huge pill and it tastes like a pizza, and it didn't go over that well.
So we'll jump into that next time, I hope.
I
would love to.
Yeah, do rest at that bad gam there, too.
I hope you feel better soon.
Thank you so much.
You got it.
All right.
That's a Sherry Stilke check out whaless MD.
She does great work there and can get you on the right path We are gonna break for new sports and weather and when we come back a Mike Merrifield and Rob Brackenridge will be here at 720 We're gonna read your texts next and maybe you bring out a funny clip or some comedy kill us to play a funny clip bring
some well
smiles to people's face Let's make an entry all about comedy.
I know we're all wondering what Nick Cannon is doing.
So oh
He's probably running out of names to give his kids crazy names It's one thing to have a lot of kids, but the name he can't remember his kids names, right?
He can't remember all of them all I think 12 you break all the big stories here We're coming right back.
It's nightlight with peach wabba on the civic media radio
network
Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.
This is Night Light with P. Chwaba.
Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.
And now a guy who loves the sin but hates the sinner, P. Chwaba.
Welcome back to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.
It is so much fun to be on the radio on this gorgeous Monday night in our beautiful state of Wisconsin.
We've already had way too much fun for a Monday, although I love Mondays.
Can I always say this?
I can't wait for Monday.
I don't know what to do with myself in the weekends.
I think I'm probably on an island there for the most part, but...
Yeah.
I like what I do.
I like being able to binge all my TV in one sitting.
In the weekend?
Yeah.
On the weekend?
That's good.
What did you watch?
Besides football, what did you watch?
Did I watch this?
I'm a sucker for just a new movie on Netflix like whatever on Saturday after the game I was like All right, I want to just forget about something.
Yeah, I want to forget about this So I watch this movie is called the people you meet on vacation or something like that But it's based on a book and it's like a rom-com
Okay.
It wasn't for me, but I watched it anyways.
You got my mind off it, but
just take a chance on something sometimes, and sometimes you're pleasantly surprised.
And, you know, I was hearing some theories again about, oh no, so it wasn't, Stranger Things is coming out this week.
Gosh, I know.
No, it's, you know, the documentary that they really seen about the last season, the making it.
People are saying oh at the end of that it's actually gonna turn into an episode Come on
what people need to get a
life
seriously I
guess that that's what happened at like a like a the Friday the 13th documentary or something Okay,
they
released a documentary about it at the end.
It was actually them getting chased by like Jason or something.
Is that true?
Yeah,
I
Think it's I don't know if it's Friday the 13th one of the movie franchises around that though.
Okay, and
No, it's just like, I don't know.
I'm like, it's over.
They're not that good of writers that you thought they were.
Right.
Well, that last season, season five, and I probably mentioned this last week, that audience scores were worse than the critics.
Like, the stranger things faithful just thought it was okay.
I mean,
the last season was just kind of... Yeah.
I didn't in the first two seasons.
I mean even the third there were dynamite there.
I was
like it kept me locked in I was like I can't wait for the next you know Or whatever it was, but
this
awesome.
I'd watch an episode.
I'm like I can wait
Yeah, I'm in no hurry.
It's not a cliffhanger
We've had a lot of fun here tonight, folks.
In hour number one, we had Connie Feldman, our wonderful WGBW reporter.
She's always fun when she comes on the air.
She's had such a great career.
We discussed that in hour number one and a little bit into hour number two.
We had a quick update from Mike Clemens about the state of the Packers.
I didn't ask him about Lafleur, did I?
We have just a few minutes.
I mean
he kind of did say it at the beginning.
It's like he didn't he didn't make adjustments
Okay, no, but I mean like in terms of his job security.
It seems like he's okay Despite what national pundits were surmising
what would it be the worst thing if Packers kind of got a new face a new identity Are
you calling for it as a reporter on now make the call
the Packers have been doing the same things for the past like five years now just yeah
just doesn't seem like, at the end of the year, we're always like, we need a new kicker.
We're special
teams.
Special teams needs a new coach, and then just doesn't happen, and we just do the same things that we did the year before.
Well, it's interesting because I made the comparison to Mike Tomlin and Harbott.
Now, both those guys have won Super Bowls, but since then, it's pretty much just been a winning record.
They make the playoffs, maybe a playoff win, but typically out.
And it's kind of been the same thing with LeFleur.
His two predecessors both have Super Bowl rings.
But like, at some point you get, and Packer fans are, and this is a testament to the organization, are spoiled.
It's a good organization.
They have two Super Bowls.
You guys don't really have that much to complain about.
But once you have a taste for it, it's not good enough to make the playoffs.
Like, Bears fans were like, oh my God, we're in the playoffs.
What do we even do?
So I don't know.
It's interesting.
You seem safe, though.
Don't think I don't think he'll get fired.
I know I think he'll get extended You know what here's something funny though.
So
last
night 20 or not last night Saturday 21 to 3.
Okay.
Yeah, you know what other comeback met the floor was a part of
No,
he was on the Falcon the Falcon sideline when Tom Brady came back 28 to 3
he was Yeah, what was he like a quarterbacks coach or something like that?
Yeah, he was I don't
think
See that's the thing about Brady's legacy and it's it's you can't fault the guy was he seven and three six and four or whatever like he's lost a few Super Bowls, but he's won that Like that was a choke that was the Falcons just and what was the Packers?
That was the total joke do you mean the other night?
Yeah, that was a total choke as well.
That was a choke But that's also Caleb Williams for as much as he drives me crazy the guy's a gamer.
I mean at the end of the game, you know
Don't know but yeah, obviously the Packers contributed the thing is like with all the turnover like they weren't even turnovers the Packers fumble like four times The Bears couldn't get it.
I don't think they sacked.
Maybe they sacked him once but I don't know it's hard to say
it was just Like I told you before I had the three note that we had in the first drive for the second half.
I was like we're gonna lose
I
Knew because I've seen that against the Browns the Panthers just any
any time that teams came back this year, we look like that on the first drive in the second half.
I missed a text last week from when I think we said what national holiday would you like to see.
There's pretty much a national day for everything, but this is a great one.
Jimmy Cusco put National Peach Waba Day.
Yeah, that's a great one.
We got to get Jimmy back on.
The problem is, he's like the busiest guy in the world.
I mean, he
calls like 800 games.
I know.
No, listen, and he's got the voice for it, too.
Our question of the night, if you're just joining us, is what is your favorite tradition that involves food?
And this is an honor of National Sunday Dinner Day, which was yesterday.
Jim from Appleton says there is no more of a... Oh, this is nice.
I'm sorry, we just saw this.
although I think she was already gone.
I told her, I told her before.
Did you say it?
Okay.
Jim says there's no more of a celebrity than Connie Feldman in the Fox Valley.
That's awesome.
Yeah, we're big fans.
I've just, I've only known Connie a short time and she doesn't like me, but I like her a lot.
She's a very fun guest.
I think she likes me.
I help her with all the technical stuff.
Oh, there you go.
That's a good way to get on anybody's good side.
Steady Eddie in the 608 says Thanksgiving.
Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, served with a nice merlot, and later on pumpkin pie with ice cream and a good cup of coffee for dessert, my favorite.
Eddie continues, Pete, earlier today I had a lightball moment I had to share with you and Conrad.
On the opening weekend of deer hunting season, the Green vape hackers play their game in blaze orange jerseys and pants with gold and green trim, helmets to match.
Wish Mike Clemens could have heard my bright idea.
Genius, am I right?
And then steady Eddie says, good luck to the bears.
No hard feelings because I know the bears don't mean to cause no trouble.
They just want to do the Super Bowl shuffle.
It's been a while.
It certainly has Eddie.
And thank you for the bears love.
You're a big man to extend the well wishes to the bears.
And I, you know, look, I don't know, what do you think about the Packer uniforms?
I will say this.
I loved their uniforms when they were all white.
And have the trim of green and gold.
I think those look really slick.
I'm just happy with the basic unis that this the classic green gold Packers uniforms that it just it's so much history.
Yeah, that's why I think Lambo will never it will always be the Packers team as well.
Okay
Fair enough, 920 says, warm loving smells.
That's my favorite tradition around food that I forgot to tell you about when my daughter is coming home from college or anyone coming home who's been away a while.
I'll throw a batch of cookies in the oven or bake a loaf of bread or something.
So when they walk in the house, they are greeted by warm loving smells that remind them of home.
Oh my gosh, this is great.
Do we know who sent this?
Uh, no.
I almost want to say that's Connie, because she's referring.
That is so great.
The text continues from 920 saying, reminds me of being a kid coming home from school on a cold day when my stay at home mom would have a batch of my favorite cookies just coming out of the oven.
That is a great text.
Thank you 920.
Tony the trucker in the 608 says, Pete, we began hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas at our home after it became too much for our parents.
Very chaotic with 30 plus friends and family, but memories we are creating are priceless.
It is weird, like there's times in my life I don't want everything to be about food so I can stay in shape, but food does bring people together.
It is a tradition.
And those are great texts.
Conrad's mom.
Paula on the stream says the tradition our family has done for the holidays is not have the usual turkey and ham we like to mix it up every year taco pizzas Phillies of Philly cheesesteaks.
Oh, wow So we can all spend time together instead of being in the kitchen.
See that's what I'm talking about like my wife will say that sometimes Let's not make it all about food.
Let's all take a walk together But like we're just so ingrained.
It's just a food culture.
Yeah, you know, I I'm not the
biggest fan of turkey anyways.
I always, I don't know, sometimes too dry for me.
And I like when you do this because it's like different every year.
You never, you know, it's like,
yeah, you can mow some tacos.
There's nothing wrong with that.
I
mean, tacos are great for any occasion.
I agree.
100% Robert from McFarland in the 608 says tailgating is my favorite tradition for food, beer, Brotsburgers.
I cannot believe we haven't heard tailgating yet.
That is outstanding, Robert.
Thank you, sir.
We've got, coming up at some point, Rob might be running a few minutes late, but Rob Brackenridge and Mike Merrifield will be here at 7.20 around their abouts.
They've got a big comedy event.
They've actually got two big comedy shows coming up, one in Marinette that we'll discuss and then another one in the Wisconsin Dells, but they're both outstanding, outstanding, funny men, great stand-ups, well-seasoned, great joke writers and excellent performers.
They will be here in the studio whenever they get here and it'll be great to have them.
We've also, we talked to Mike and then Sherry Stoka.
I love having Sherry on because sometimes you just need the motivation to get in shape.
The holidays were just a couple of weeks ago, not even, and we're all sort of recovering.
And I just think when you talk to someone with her kind of knowledge about nutrition, it really is motivating.
So I thank you also to Sherry for being on the show last hour.
All of the hours of nightlight folks are catalogued in podcast form at civicmedia.us.
And you can listen to them there if you missed earlier interviews or nightlight fun.
So, oh, we got a phone call.
Who's on the phone, Ken?
Olly from the Northwoods.
Olly from the North.
You know what?
I knew Olly was going to call when I was thinking of this question because it's food related and Olly has great phone calls, well about anything, but specifically about food.
Hi, Olly.
Hi, how are you?
Doing
well.
How are you tonight?
I'm doing good.
My favorite thing was baking cookies with Christmas cookies with my children and then taking them and passing them around to the elderly people in our neighborhood.
And then also doing the same thing with my grandkids.
Baking Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses and things with
my grandkids.
That is so great, Ollie.
Do you still do these things?
Do your kids and grandkids come to you for the holidays, or do you go there?
No.
I go there for the holidays, but the kids are all out of the house gone, and so we don't make cookies together much anymore, but we do all try to celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving at my daughter and son-in-law, and I have a
Son-in-law, who is a wonderful cook, and so he places us all with his wonderful cooking every holiday.
Well, it sounds like he had a great mentor.
Thank you so much, Ali.
As always, love your thoughts on food or any topic for the question of the night.
Thanks so much.
Have a great night.
All right.
All
right.
We are coming right back with two of certainly the funniest people in the studio, but I would go statewide or even nationwide.
Rob Brackenridge and Mike Merrifield will be here two very funny stand-up comedians in the studio.
We're talking comedy coming up next.
It's Night Light with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Nightlight with Peach Waba and Packer fans.
I will tell you this is the perfect way to end your Monday night because we've got two really funny guys helping us close down the show tonight they're here in the studio two great Wisconsin guys great comics Rob Brackenridge is Just an excellent comic.
He's been here several times before and he's brought his pal
A guy I've been anxious to have on the show forever, too, the very funny, Mike Merrifield.
So it's great to have both of you in studio.
Thank you for making the drive.
Good to be
here.
Do I have to slide over so
Rob can fit in?
I
want to see my shirt.
What does it say?
Open bar.
That's my special.
We're going to talk about that.
Is that the antithesis to dry bar?
Dry bar, yes.
100%.
Yep.
Which is funny because we were just talking during the break, Mike, you were talking about a comic who...
You just tell the end of that story again.
I thought that was so funny.
Which story?
I already forgot the story I was telling.
It was about the headliner who drank, and I always thought, I remember doing stand-up, the headliners I would work with were either recovering alcoholics or party crazy.
Right, right.
Like they hadn't been to rehab yet.
But this guy was drinking wine in his hotel room.
Well, he was
actually the opener.
He was flipping the switch.
He was the opener.
I was the sober one.
Oh my gosh.
But yeah, I went to his room.
It's his terrible gig.
in Nagani, Michigan.
And the gig's actually fun, but they put you at the Triangle Motel, which there's just no way with the name Triangle Motel, it can be good.
And I woke up the next morning.
I told him we had to be ready to go at 9 a.m.
And I went to his room and he was getting yelled at by the maid.
She was like, you got to get your life together, man.
You're drinking at nine o'clock in the morning.
I forgot to add he had a bottle of wine.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed, just listening to it.
He's just
taking swings out of the bottle while she yelled at him.
Wow.
When
you got to get advice from a maid.
Yeah, yeah.
When she's working at the Triangle Motel in Neganian, she's telling you you screwed your life
up.
Not even a
good gig for maids necessarily.
Yeah,
there's a
day that happened right across the street.
Why not just go to the days
in and clean?
Doesn't make any sense.
Nothing good is ever gonna happen.
I know I tried.
Yeah, tell your story.
Back in the day, I used to actually get laid after a show.
I know it's weird.
By the way, this is not the way you told the story.
First, you're embellishing a
little.
I brought a girl back after the show because I was hilarious and she said, what can I do, you know, to show you my appreciation?
I brought her back to the Triangle motel and she took one look and it went, no way.
We're going
back.
You're not that funny.
It makes, you know, like a Red Roof fan, you know, look like a five star hotel.
It's terrible.
Alright, you guys are here.
Mike, we kind of, I feel like most of the listeners have heard Rob.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Get him out of here.
He doesn't need to be on this.
Get out of here,
Rob.
The bar is
closed apparently.
Get out, Rob.
Get out.
Get out.
Get out.
Come on, Rob.
He could be in the frame.
Well, what do you want to know?
I mean a similar story.
I did comedy forever and Rob talked me into it.
He told me that
Really
this is a hundred percent true because I was telling him, you know I had a job at the time and but I was thinking I need to just lean into comedy Make it my soul income.
So I try harder, you know and Rob was like man, it's great You know you go out on the road and you go to all these small towns and women think you're
you know famous so they sleep with you you know and they throw themselves at you and some of the clubs even pay in drugs that you know they'll offer you you want cash or drugs you know back in the day.
Green or white.
Yeah he can tell me all these amazing stories and I've been a comic for 30 years none of it's ever happened.
Not one thing he ever promised ever happened.
Well you gotta be
good looking.
And funny.
Look at this picture.
Look at Mike your clean shit.
and you've got no hair, and you look like a badass.
That's a great photo.
You think so?
We're also rocking the beard tonight, and it must be nice.
Yeah, he looks like Ayatollah
Khomeini right now, doesn't he?
Well, when
you don't
have hair on the top, you have a lovely head of hair.
You have to do what you can, so you grow your beard out to compensate.
And it doesn't matter anyway when you're a comic.
Well, it especially doesn't matter when you're 53.
I'm invisible to women.
We've given
up.
So where are you based, Mike?
I know you're from Wisconsin.
Yeah, well, I still live in Appleton, actually.
Nice.
So you guys get to pal around?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was in Nashville for a while.
I did five years there.
I would go back and forth every couple of weeks.
I was working down there.
Nice.
He works for a 800-pound groove.
Yeah, it's on a
sweatshirt.
Oh,
fantastic.
Yeah,
we're
plugging.
So
we're plugging the 800 pound gorilla and the open bar comedy festival.
Yeah, our special.
So tell us about that, Rob.
You've got you've done a dry bar where you have to be totally clean.
You're great at that.
I didn't even know you worked dirty at all.
I don't.
I don't really.
All I did.
I did.
I did the exact same
set with the F word in between each word.
So yeah.
No, it was fun.
It was in Sarasota, Florida, you know, in a great club, McCurdy's Comedy Theater.
Have you heard of that place?
Maybe heard of it.
Never been
there.
It's really good.
And they treat you really good in a packed place, and I had an awesome set.
Wow,
that goes without saying.
I know.
I felt you needed to go ahead and say it.
I'm one of those guys that never
has a bad set,
you know?
It's like, even if you hit
bomb, boy, did I kill him.
No, I'm not that
guy.
You mentioned the old days, though.
It's not like it was in the old days.
It's like stand-up is not like it was when I started.
Like you said, everybody was an addict.
Everybody was either
a
drunk or a pod head.
And now these young comics, they have no vices.
I guess the
only vice they would have would be social media.
You sit in a green room and everyone's staring at their phones.
No one's talking anymore.
And get this, they changed open mic to mic.
They just call them mics now.
Hey guys, wanna go do a couple of mics on Friday?
Because they don't have the kind of time to add open.
Oh, yeah.
Their time is valuable.
That's the excuse they gave me.
Because the first time I heard it, I was like, it's open mic.
You can't just change it.
It's been open
mic
since the teens.
You know what I mean?
Like, there have been open mics.
And I realized they dropped the open because it makes them seem more legitimate.
Because if it's an open mic, that means anyone can do it.
Now they
call them
mikes and they say they're booked, so it's different than an open mic.
My thought is you're just dropping the open to make yourself feel more legitimate.
Like street crowd or
something.
Yeah, like
you're doing something bigger than what you are.
All right, we got two hilarious guys.
I'm so thrilled these guys are here.
Rob Brackenridge and Mike Merrifield.
We're going to do the news.
We're going to come back.
I'm going to tell you where you can see these two guys coming up in the next couple of weeks.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
And that's what we're doing here to close out.
Are you guys Packer fans?
We'll get into that, too.
All right, we'll talk about that.
It's Peach Wabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Hey, this is Lance Barber, and you're listening to Nightlight with Pete Schwaballs.
Isn't that what, did Lauren Holly say that too?
She said in the intro we had her do when she was on the show a couple weeks ago, she called me Schwaballs, just like.
Lance Barber does.
That's great.
I guess it's great.
That's kind of how I want to be known.
Hey, welcome back to Nightlight.
I am Pete Schwab.
We have two outstanding guests in the studio here tonight, Mike Merrifield and Rob Brackenridge.
Two Appleton-based comics, but they tour all over and they've been around a long time and they're
Have so many like accolades Rob was just telling us about his new open bar special that is the opposite of a dry bar where you have to be clean How dirty do you get on that and where can people see I
actually do get kind of dirty and you can get it on YouTube It's absolutely free.
Just
go to
open bar.
They have their own site, you know their own YouTube channel and then just Just find Rob
break.
Oh my specials can read it's called be
or no.
I that's I was just gonna say I love that
And Mike, you've been touring all over too.
I love that you're still Appleton-based.
You opened for Rob Schneider, I know quite a bit.
His HBO Young Comedian Special was so funny.
And then he, of course, did Saturday and didn't live it all that.
What are those gigs like?
With him now.
Yeah, I mean he sells out theaters like this coming
weekend
We're gonna be at the MGM in Copperfields theater on Friday and Saturday and he'll sell it out both nights.
Yeah, he's uh, you know, he started out as a comic He was a comic from like 21 to 23.
I worked with him
30 years
and
Rob
worked with him
back in the in the 20s on the megaphone, right?
Oh, yes, yes, still your
offer
Yeah, what are we talking about?
I forgot.
I'm getting
old.
Vegas.
You're
talking
about how.
Oh, he was a stand up.
But I thought he still was.
But is he not?
Well, he once he got huge, he took 10 years off of doing stand up.
And then Chris Rock told him, like, why aren't you doing stand up?
Like, you're a funny guy.
You're a funny stand up.
You should do it.
And you can make a lot of money doing it.
So he started doing it.
And he was he's good.
He's amazing now.
But I remember his one then one that
used to be on Netflix as a comedy dynamic special of his.
I think it's called Hot Sauce and the Holocaust or something like
that.
Something like that.
Some weird name, but I remember I was in LA with a bunch of comics and I was like, guys, let's watch Rob Schneider's special.
You know, I'm sure this will be hilarious.
Like we're all ready to goof on it and act like we're better than him.
And five minutes in, we're all looking at each other like this stuff's great.
Like I
can't
even, he's good.
And he's sort of, he's a Trump.
guy or whatever.
And
so he had a lot of political stuff that he wrote the last few years that he really cares about.
And I really feel like it took him to like another level.
He's really killing it.
That's my neighbor.
That is really
weird.
I live in Marinette.
I live an hour away and my neighbors are walking by the window.
No idea what's going on.
Maybe restraining orders in order.
Yeah, he is a Trump or he's kind of a lot of money.
And I believe he really probably really is and isn't just trying to cash in.
But man, would you
do that as a comic.
Well, you're costing yourself money too, right?
Well,
he already was sort of blacklisted by Hollywood about 15
years ago.
Because of his
movies.
Well,
that's a good one.
No, yeah.
For non-political
reasons.
No, he spoke out against vaccines around the time that Jenny McCarthy spoke out or whatever.
He spoke out then.
And apparently, I didn't know this.
A lot of your big corporations that sponsored
television shows and things in Hollywood are all pharmaceutical companies.
Right.
So
he
basically got blacklisted for being outspoken.
Luckily, he's got Sandler.
Sandler puts him in all his stuff.
Right.
And then he had done all those movies.
And then, like I said, he got back into doing stand up.
And he, you know, I look at older stuff and compared to what he's doing now and what he's doing now is amazing.
And actually, right now we're touring with a band.
Do
you know
what Kill Tony is
on YouTube?
Is that what you sent me before
Rob?
No,
I didn't send you any Kill Tony.
Kill Tony is Tony Hinchcliffe's YouTube show.
It's actually on Netflix.
In
fact, there's, I think, a new episode dropped last night and Rob is on it.
Schneider's on
it.
Oh,
nice.
But yeah, he just, he's sort of had like a rebirth, man.
And he's firing on all eight cylinders.
And like I said, we're touring with a band and we have Tony's band.
We have the Kill Tony band.
tours with us now.
That's cool.
And
he's done a bunch of different band iterations.
We had Tony Bennett's band for a while.
What?
And so he did more of like a jazz type style thing.
And now he's doing it's rock and roll.
Basically, it's a lot of Elvis.
He sounds a lot like Elvis, but he can really sing, man.
Wow.
He's an
incredible singer.
He used to be an Elvis impersonator.
That's true.
That's when I worked with him.
He had just stopped being an Elvis impersonator in Japan.
You know, he finally
told me that full story.
I thought he had done it for a while.
He only did it for like four months.
And when he got there, he didn't realize he had to do three shows a day, seven days a week.
And after the first show, he lost his voice because he...
you know, he was singing.
He wasn't used
to singing.
It was kind of one of those things where the, the booking agent was like, I need a guy.
You know, can you sing Elvis?
And he's like, yeah, I can sing Elvis.
And he probably been singing it in his shower and in his car, but it's a whole different thing when you have to sing it in front of people.
Use your diaphragm.
Yeah.
You got to sing.
You got to know what you're doing.
But yeah, he did that for a while.
But I was thinking about it.
It's cool hanging out with him because he got famous at 23 years old.
Yeah.
And back when
You know if you were on Saturday Night Live everybody in the world knew who the cast of Saturday Night Live was.
I can only tell you Colin Joest and Michael Che.
I don't know anybody else that's on.
Keenan Thompson.
He's been on there forever.
Is he funny?
He makes me.
Do you ever see the sketch or the sketch what's up with that?
That floors me.
And he was funny in the Beavis and Butthead.
I don't watch the show.
I only see with the quips online.
I'll give you a
thousand dollars if you can show me something funny that he's done.
$1,000 cash
that
I'm gonna borrow for some.
After we do your gig.
You give it to me.
I'm gonna owe you 800 bucks
after
we
do your
gig.
That's a great segue.
Let's talk about that.
Mike Merrifield is here.
Rob Brackenridge, two Appleton-based stand-up comics, really
great comics that have carved out a niche in the industry, outstanding stuff.
What, what, you got, I can't believe, Mike, like I see, I don't, are we Facebook?
Somehow I see our posts.
I think I made a request a long time ago, but we've, aside from Pasquale, we don't really know each other that well, but you're, you're stuff, you're all over the place.
And I couldn't believe when I reached out to Rob to do this football fundraiser in Marinette, he's like, I'll bring Mike Merrifield.
I'm like, the nationally touring headliner is going to open for you in Marinette, Wisconsin at the country.
Score so thank you for doing it and thank you Rob because you guys are gonna be a really fun
show really Thank Rob when he first gave me the offer he put an extra zero on the end No
zeros when I
first
1350 that's what it was
So you guys are coming up to Marinette it's January 31st the rooms
Are comped let me just say that nice, but it's a country club in Marinette use fundraiser It's a good crowd and thank you for doing that, but tell us also about you got a show coming up in the in the Dells right
do you
I don't I don't
I have no shows
hold on a
second you're looking at my The website that hasn't been updated.
I'll bet you that thing hasn't been updated in five years.
Oh man.
I was
talking about
that the stand-up journey man new
Well, it's new-ish.
It's a comedy series that I produced called The Stand-Up Journeyman, and we filmed it at the Meyer Theater.
I love
it.
And what was it, North Coast Productions?
Those guys were cool enough to come out and film everything.
I put out a clip.
I got million views.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, okay.
So this is a great lineup.
Johnny Bainer, Mike Stanley, and you guys.
Yep.
And
we had filmed it before the pandemic, and then during the pandemic with all the free time is when I put it all together.
So it's four episodes.
And I think it's on Amazon still.
It's on Amazon.
You have to pay for it on Amazon, but
okay.
Oh, it's worth though.
It's worth 99 cents.
All right, we talked about Rob's dry bar and open bar specials.
You can see both of them on YouTube.
You've done the the Wisconsin Francisco comedy competition.
Yeah, the premier comedy competition.
You know, that's another thing Rob told me.
Speaking of Rob misleading me, I'm the whipping boy.
He was like, dude, if you make it to the finals in that competition, you got management.
Like you'll, you know, and then he reads off the list of second place winners, you know, Robin Williams, all
these
people that didn't win, but they became famous.
And the last week he said, you go to all the shows that are like in San Francisco or whatever, it's going to be all these industry people, nobody there.
They were like, they couldn't get people to be judges.
That's the other thing you should never judge comedy.
So I
didn't feel good about the whole thing, but I ended up getting second place.
Second place is amazing because there's
Robin
Williams and I both
got second place.
It's amazing anyway.
It's been 30 years and every second place winner has gone on to great things except one.
That would be me.
That would
be me.
I like to break
a good streak.
I went to the Montreal Comedy Festival.
I was a new face in 97.
That's huge.
It was.
Nothing like that happens anymore except being on Joe Rogan.
Yeah,
well, I never got I never killed Tony
That's like the modern version of that.
Yeah, but it was the same thing It was like oh you remember getting picked up the airport and there was a manager there and he's like oh you're gonna come away with this Representation I was just a Chicago comic and all these guys get deals and this and that I left I like got like one business card.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was like is this a bad sign Make a mistake.
Yeah, and I knew that he said that that's not gonna happen for me because that's just kind of how things happen sometimes,
you know, well
Well, it is what it is.
You
know,
you mentioned that I'm doing well, but am I?
I mean, I didn't start out to be Rob Schneider's opening comic.
You know what I mean?
I started out doing this.
to
be Rob
Schneider.
It's a good
gig.
And you got all this other stuff too, Mike.
You got to, and I know you don't need a pep talk from the guy doing radio, but like two comedy specials on Sirius Example.
Yeah, I've done some stuff.
I used
to have a bunch of records and
stuff.
You've done, you have seven albums out.
Okay, fine guys.
Mike, you're a funny guy.
Come on.
I want to hand myself.
I mean, seven albums and that's all different material.
This new set brought us just for decoration.
I wasn't going to use it.
And you know how he got that gig?
I mean, you got to be pretty good to get that gig with.
Rob Schneider.
Tell
him how
you got it.
Oh, thanks to Rob Brackenridge.
I got it, because Brackenridge is a moron.
No,
he's not a moron.
It's true.
The
quick story is Rob Brackenridge was opening for Rob Schneider at the Epic Events Center, and he just messaged me and said, hey, you want to go up?
I'm opening for him, and you'll get to meet him.
It'll be cool.
So yeah, that's cool.
We go, we kind of watch the show.
We don't really watch the show.
We're sitting in the green room, most of the show.
And then we hung out with Schneider for like three hours afterwards.
And he asked Rob Brackenridge if he was open the next two nights, because he needed someone to open for him in Springfield, Illinois, and then one other place.
Milwaukee, in Milwaukee in Springfield.
At the Pottawatomie.
And Brackenridge says, no, I can't because I'm working at the skyline the next two nights.
But my buddy Mike can do it for you.
And he can record your show because he works for 800 pound gorilla.
So that's
right.
Yeah.
He could record
your show
for you.
And then right then I felt my stomach drop.
I saw the words come down and then I saw all this money go away.
What am I giving this gig away for?
And now I'm like best friends with Rob Schneider.
And he
looks at me every once.
Oh yeah, you're that guy.
Yeah.
Do you get a taste of that?
He had 10% like no.
No,
he does
my reels, he makes my reels.
All those tic-tac reels, how many 147?
147, how much do I
owe you?
The minimum would be a hundred bucks a reel for the production work.
Do you want a man?
You owe me a lot of money.
But it's not like he got you booked in Marinette.
That's true.
At the end of January.
That's true.
See?
And let's not forget I'm going to owe you money after that
gig.
That's how little it pays.
If you have.
I thank you to do the gig.
Oh, that's so funny.
All right.
Mike Merrifield and Rob Bracken-Ridge are here in the studio.
They are doing, you know what it was?
It was the January 20th.
I don't know where you saw this.
One of your websites that said January 20th.
Cheeseball show with Rob Bracken-Ridge.
Bob Brackenridge, Wisconsin Delta.
Yeah, that must have been on your website.
Man,
that was like two years
ago.
Two years ago, yeah.
You haven't
touched your website in
two years.
No, I don't update it.
You're doing his reels.
Yeah, I know, and I did some for myself, but then when I didn't become famous after two months of doing it, I was like, I'm not doing this anymore.
It's a lot of work, man.
I
will say that about the young comic, okay?
Because when we were young comics,
All we had to concentrate on was being funny.
They have to concentrate on being funny.
They have to know how
to use all of the platforms.
They got to be able to film their shows, edit their shows.
I mean, you got to do so, they have to, everyone has to have a podcast.
There's just so many more, so many more requirements.
When we come back, we'll have a few minutes left with these two hilarious guys.
And I'm going to ask you about the Comedy Cafe if you're part of that whole thing going on.
We'll do that after a very short break.
It's Peach Wabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
All right, welcome back.
This is Night Light with Beach Wabba, a Monday night version.
Con, we got another good show tomorrow night.
Daniel Rico, producer, will be here.
Comedian Olivia Witt, Jason Jerry, the Green Bay Llama.
Do you guys know, or heard of this guy?
No, no.
He's like a local community guy.
He's kind of all over Facebook, but... Is he
like wearing a llama costume?
I don't understand
a llama costume.
I gotta get to
the
bottom of it.
Spits
when he
talks.
That is the voice of Mike Merrifield and the laugh of Rob Brackenridge, two comedy titans who are in the studio here tonight.
You can check out Rob's new special open bar.
To be or no, on YouTube, and Mike Merrifield's got seven comedy albums.
I also have one too.
I have an open bar as
well.
What was mine called?
Your big break.
The big break.
Oh, the big break.
Or my big break.
My big break.
There's like 19 people in the audience.
That's exactly how you want to film a special.
Oh my
god.
Did you ever do, were you guys doing stand-up when the Evening of the Improv was still on?
I
got passed for it.
It went out of business.
The producer saw Rob's name on the list and they're like, we don't want to do this anymore.
Isn't he from
Wisconsin?
We
have not gotten as low as that.
We're not getting
it.
This is going to sound weird.
That was a goal of mine was to get on that show because I remember sitting in Marinette.
watching when I was in high school, and Robin Williams hanging out.
They used to do these little vignettes where they're hanging out outside the club, and it looked like the greatest life ever.
So when I did it, I was thrilled, but I did it at the Santa Monica Club.
Same thing.
It was like...
seven people it was like the last legs of Evening at the Improv was terrible, but it was I mean I could say I did it, but it wasn't really a great experience Well, you
could cut up the clips now and Michael juice it and it looked like you killed
I'm actually wondering because I work for 800 pound gorilla records and one of our our other record labels is What are the crown jewels and we do all these legacy
Media things and one of them we did is I took all of the evening at the Improv's chopped them up into tracks You know clean them by today's standards took out a lot of a lot of gay bashing back in the day, but I took it not your set but I Packaged them as albums and they play on serious XM and stuff and
all
that but yeah, I don't I don't I would remember seeing your name It's possible.
I did see it though.
Well, like I said, I'm not even if you juiced the laugh track people go
It sounds
like there's eight
people now you didn't do much
and Mike actually does he edits old Those things from the 50s, you know where they were really.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah Well,
I
guess the roast yeah, I did a bunch of the roasts
Like in the fifties turn those into records checky green because we're all used to the Friars Club roasts But there was the craft roasts as well like craft that make mac and cheese Yeah, yeah, they sponsored their own series of roasts as well And then I also did a bunch of them turn a bunch into records that were never heard before they were private Friars Club recordings that they didn't have cameras that and things
but they just
like feel
but they would Oh,
it's terrible worse than you didn't want you didn't want to be a woman
You didn't want to be a woman at the Friars Club back
in the day.
Anyone other than a rich white guy,
you
know?
It's kind of like today.
No, I think they were always accepting stuff.
But they didn't feel guilty about it.
No.
It wasn't as well
or anything.
No,
it was a boys club.
But he
had to take out all the racial stuff.
And even with Martin, what was the Martin Luther King thing?
Oh, my God.
Mike Wallace had this interview show in the 50s, and they used to use the old N-word.
I don't even know if we can say the old one anymore, but... Oh, right.
That
was accepted by everyone back in the day, so they say it a lot.
You know, so Mike will be interviewing an actress that happens to be a black actress, and he'll be using the, you know, the friendlier... The accepted term.
Right, the accepted term.
And some 23-year-old at SiriusXM objected to it and had me take all of those out.
All of that particular... Really?
Which ruins the conversation.
You know, he's trying to get insight into it.
I would just take it out.
So instead of saying, what's it like being a bleep entertainer?
He would say, what's it like being an entertainer?
Which takes everything away from that question.
And then he had Martin Luther King, Jr.
on and they asked me to take him saying it out of there.
And I go,
He's the guy.
He can't say it.
He's the
guy.
I'm not going to take
that out.
He's the guy.
Like,
my gosh, what are
we doing?
I understand, you know, wanting to be sensitive, but yeah, everyone was cool with that one back then.
You know what I'm
saying?
Like,
yeah, it was
unbelievable.
Um, do you guys have, uh, all right, you can see these guys if you're in the Marinette area.
Contact me.
I'll try to get you tickets through the head football coach.
It's sold out, is it?
Did you say it will be?
I don't know if it has yet, but and then you cannot see them unfortunately at the Wisconsin Dells for the cheese
ball.
Oh, you could see me at the comedy cabin in Jamesville.
Okay with Brad Upton
I didn't I didn't tell him
I looked at the people they're booking they're booking some pretty big name comics opening
I'm opening for Brad Upton
yeah well there's exceptions to
every rule
it's not always great
comic
he opens for Johnny Mathis
Brad Upton does, or used to when he used to.
Yeah, I think he still does.
He watched the Super Bowl at my apartment in like 1993.
Yeah.
And then, because we were working together at the Improv, and then I think Paul Gilmartin, another very good friend of mine, at the time invited him over to his house.
I think Brad kind of wishes he wouldn't have said yes to me so quick because Paul was just higher
on the bank.
Yeah,
yeah, yeah.
Can I bring my friend
Pete with?
Brad was the first headliner I worked with back in 88.
Back in
New Orleans.
I know,
early.
Did your mom approve of your open bar?
Yes, she's
very supportive and I'm taking her her
95th birthday is next week and I'm taking her to Florida.
Isn't that a good
son?
That's a great son, you're fint.
They're gonna go parasailing.
No, we're going kayaking.
She's
95 years old and swear to God, we're going kayaking.
With the alligators and the manatees.
She's so sharp, too.
I
take her to baseball games, we do all kinds of stuff.
She's like the son I never had.
Really?
Mike Merrifield and Rob Brackenridge, follow them on all the socials, check out their specials on YouTube.
Bridget from the 818 says, we would go to a restaurant for breakfast on snow days when my kids were in school.
That's a good food tradition.
Thank you, Bridget.
Thank you for all your calls and texts tonight, folks.
Thank you to Sherry Stoka.
Thank you to Connie Feldman, Mike Clemens, and these two hilarious guys.
You guys are awesome.
Thanks for coming in.
Thanks for having us.
All right, we'll be back tomorrow night on behalf of the lovable producer Conrad.
I'm Pete Schwabba saying good night, Wisconsin.