The Realism Of Southland with Lenny Schmidt (Hour 2)

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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.

a guy who gives edible undies as gifts just because they taste good.

Peach Wabba.

Welcome

back.

This is Night Light with Peach Wabba folks.

Great to have you here on this Tuesday night.

Aaron Zommer's riding shotgun.

We're having a blast, as we always do, but it wouldn't be the same without you.

So thanks for tuning in, whether you're joining us over the radio.

The app or the stream, if you're watching the show on YouTube, Facebook, or X, either way, it's great to have you here tonight.

And we had a great first hour.

I will say, Zomers, what was your favorite topic in our first hour tonight so far?

You know, there were a lot of good ones, but I think I have to say, for better or for worse, it's the cheese sandwiches.

There's something about it.

There's something about a stupid sandwich.

I knew you were going to say that.

And that was great.

It was great to talk about Nicholson not liking cheese sandwiches and Stanley Kubrick making him eat them on the set of The Shining to keep Jack Nicholson crabby like his character.

Apparently, it's enough to make you want to stick an ax through Scatman Crothers chest like we saw Nicholson do in The Shining.

But it was fun to talk about cheese sandwiches.

If you missed that, folks, you got to get up to speed because Zommer's found a great clip about Tom Green.

Making cheese sandwiches.

I might have to hear that again, Zommer.

So keep that at the ready, please.

We talked to, well, we did not talk to Norm.

We didn't get Norm.

We got to talk cigars.

What do you think happened to Norm?

I don't know.

Maybe he had one too many.

Hopefully

not.

One too many cigars?

That doesn't happen.

You can't overdo it on cigars.

I think you, I don't know.

You could get a stomachache or something.

Norm is not the guy.

You take one look at Norm Kepesky, and you don't think stomach ache.

This guy can handle a mountain of cigars.

He is a, he's all dude, and he's a big burly dude.

He's the kind of guy you think would smoke cigars.

So we'll see if we can get Norm.

Maybe we can still do a quick hit with him at some point, but we also talked a little bit about AI.

We reminded people that this is dump to hell.

Some people call it dump Tuesday.

It's also known as red Tuesday.

This is the most popular day of the year to break up with someone and as we discussed I Told Aaron Zomers.

He still has time to find a date for Valentine's Day Six hours in counting now Zomers and break up with them just to keep consistent with this very special day is also National invention or I'm sorry inventors day folks

Which led us to our question of the night, which I think we should reintroduce that now, Mr. Zomers.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

What is your, in your opinion, what is the greatest invention ever?

In honor of National Inventors Day.

What is, in your opinion, the greatest invention ever?

Tell me again what yours was, Zomers.

The microphone.

The microphone, of course.

Spoken like a true radio artist.

I said the back scratcher.

I was half kidding.

It's a beautiful invention.

We've heard microwave.

We've heard Taco Bell.

We've heard penicillin.

We've heard all kinds of great stuff.

The wheel, of course.

Nobody said the smartphone.

Does that surprise you?

Not really.

I think maybe a few years ago people would have said that, but I think that people are starting to sour on the smartphone after they're realizing just how much time they spend on them and how kids' attention spans are worse and like, ugh, I just can't get off my phone.

Those are my thoughts exactly.

I swear.

That's exactly what I was thinking I think people have a love or hate relationship with their smartphones We also talked in our number one folks about a guy I saw at the gym today who didn't know that he had a sock Apparently, I think was a sock sticking to his workout clothes because everywhere he walked in the gym.

You could see the outline of a sock

His butt the other option could be some extremely expensive designer sweatpants

What would the benefit of that be?

Unless you're like a sock

mobile.

I appreciate the effort.

So that put me in a great mood today folks.

I was laughing hysterically.

And this poor guy had no idea that people could see this sock.

I assume that's what it was, unless he had perfect crease work or needed an iron and his pants were wrinkly, exactly in the shape of a sock.

I doubt that.

But it gave me a good laugh today at the gym.

We talked about AI.

We talked about, what else do we... Hey, did you know I found this today?

Zomers, the coffee.

You ever meet someone that's... Where do you stand on coffee first?

I like coffee.

I...

you know I I used to work at a Starbucks so I kind of developed a taste for it then and not saying that Starbucks is top tier coffee but they do have like to give you instructional tastings like here's how to you know properly get all the different notes of a coffee and tell whether or not it's any good

for sure I'm totally with you I have met people over the course of my life my father-in-law Tom was like this he would brag about the fact that he never had a cup of coffee in his life like it was a good thing

was he

more than I've always

Pardon me?

Was he a Mormon?

He was not a Mormon.

He was agnostic to the best of my knowledge, raised Catholic.

But he, yeah, and I was like, you know, coffee's good for you.

It's, I know the caffeine can be an issue, but they're beans of the earth.

They have antioxidants, like they're very good for you.

And today, I saw a couple articles actually that said it can stave off dementia.

So there you go, another win for coffee.

So drink that coffee, Zommerz.

Don't be sad.

We

also

got another text on an invention.

Dave in Madison says that the greatest invention is sliced bread.

Oh, look at Dave.

Well done, Dave.

That's another great one.

Seriously, do you know how hard it would be to eat a sandwich if we couldn't slice bread?

It's giant sandwich.

Nobody could fit their mouth around that.

Or

would we make small breads?

Because

that would also be labor-intensive.

You could do that too, but either way, sliced bread, it's up there.

I would equate it to the back scratcher.

I'd put it above back scratcher and Taco Bell, but maybe below the wheel.

That's just me, though.

So anyway, folks, the first hour is in the books.

You can download it or you can go listen to it at civicmedia.us.

Every hour of nightlight is catalogued in podcast form at civicmedia.us.

Coming up this hour, actor Lenny Schmidt will be here at 6.35.

Very talented actor.

He's done some great work in a lot of things.

Everything I've seen Lenny, and he's great.

He's also a very funny stand-up comic who has worked at Wisconsin several times throughout the course of his career.

He will be here at 6.35 afternoons, sports, and weather.

And then early in the third hour of the show, Act III, as I like to call it, Matt Miller will be here.

Very fine Milwaukee film critic talking movies will always have a good time with Matt, and he will be along shortly into Act III.

So there you go.

I think, I don't know what, I think the sock in the butt is my favorite part of the show.

I hate to say that, but I keep thinking about it and it's making me laugh.

And I'm trying to imagine it and, you know, it is a fun, like how big of a sock was it?

It was good size.

It was like a tube sock.

Well, halfway between a footy and a tube sock, I would say.

A foob sock, if you will.

A

foob sock does seem like the appropriate size to fit on a butt.

Exactly.

So there you go, folks.

Be part of the show.

Text us, let us know what your thoughts are on the question of the night.

I found this, Zomers, and I sent this to you earlier.

I don't know where you're at on the 90s.

My kids love the 90s.

They love 90s music, they love 90s TV shows, and 80s, for that matter.

They're big fans of the two most defining decades in my life.

They seem to have this fondness.

for the 80s and 90s like I did with the 50s and 60s.

But I saw this and this is interesting.

We kind of look back on things nostalgically like music and TV shows and all that kind of stuff or fashion.

Here are some things that according to Buzzfeed anyway, these are the worst parts of the 90s.

Just to show that nothing was ever perfect.

And I'm going to share this with my kids later.

Getting locked out of your house after school and having no way to contact your parents.

So you just sat on your porch for three hours until they got home.

I love that one.

Number two, the insanely high prices for technology that's basic now, like small TVs, like you can get a TV.

I remember during COVID when everybody was in the house and you know, we're all bored out of our minds.

I went out and bought two TVs, two like 40 inch TVs that were like 100, no, they're like 250 total.

Like TVs are so cheap right now.

So that's a good one.

They really are especially like Black Friday.

You can get tiny TVs for like a hundred bucks.

Yeah, or less.

No,

if you want a

bigger one, it's not that much more.

If you want a good TV, obviously it costs more, but you can get a functional TV extremely cheap.

Yeah.

And some of them, I don't know if we like the O and N or high sense.

That's what I bought during.

during COVID in the high sense, like sometimes it just won't open Netflix.

So there are drawbacks.

I don't get it.

Number four, late fees at Blockbuster and rewinding VHS tapes.

They could fine you if you didn't rewind your tapes.

And oftentimes you'd be running out the door and think, oh, I got to rewind me or I got to return these tapes, but you don't have time to rewind them.

So you pay the dollar fee or whatever.

But that's one I totally had forgotten about.

Number five, calling someone you wanted to date, but their parents pick up.

Cause you gotta go through the home phone, the landline.

It's brutal.

I didn't have to do that.

I definitely, I had to call home phones of friends when I was younger and it'd be like, hello, Benjamin's mom.

Can he play or whatever?

But I never had to do that.

By the time I was older, we all had cell phones.

Yeah.

I don't do people.

I know my parents still have a landline and I'm glad they do.

Because the number has become nostalgic over the years, but I don't know really anybody that has a home phone anymore

Yeah, I think my parents do as well, but do they I don't know anybody my age who does

Yeah Cigarette smoke everywhere not to mention cigarette butts.

That's a great one too Yeah, especially when I was doing stand-up in the 90s you would stand on stage and it would be like just smoke It looked kind of cool actually just smoke through the lights.

It was great, but

very unhealthy.

Yeah I was born in 1998 and so growing but I have an older sister who was you know an actual 90s kid so I got to see the tail end of a lot of these things like the smoking room in our our town's Perkins being phased out and you know it was it was good good to see those

things.

Yeah

and

some people fought it even especially in bars they'd be like it's a bar but you're still infecting other people.

So here we go sexism homophobia and transphobia ableism racism lots of things were completely accepted and casual Okay, that's true, too.

I always tell my kids that like there's a lot of hope I think for the younger generation.

I think they're gonna like, you know this Chapel Roan, are you a fan of hers?

Yeah, I don't listen a lot, but good music.

I don't either and I don't know anything about her music But I like she left her music representation her agent today because she found out that the CEO

of her agency had cozied up to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

And she's like, no, sorry.

And she left.

Do you have standards?

Yeah, exactly.

Why don't I see older people doing this, or politicians?

So I have a lot of hope and faith in the other generation.

Your generation, if you will, so much.

Here are some more.

If your friend moved away, there weren't many ways to keep up with them besides a telephone call or writing them a letter.

And I remember that too.

That's crazy.

And then hearing a great song and knowing you might never find it again.

I didn't realize how hard we had it back then.

And I've got a couple more.

We'll do those after the break and we'll read some more of your tech sets coming up.

Lenny Schmidt will be here at 635, very talented comedian and actor after the news.

We are coming right back, ladies and gentlemen.

This is Night Light with Peach Waba on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

How was your trip?

They didn't speak.

I said I want to plead my case.

But my father just shoved me in the car by my face.

That was a hard ride home.

I don't know how I survived it.

They took turns.

One would beat me while the other one was driving.

I can't believe it.

I just made a mistake.

Well, parents are the same.

I'm at a time and a place.

So do you other kids all across the land?

Take it from me.

Parents just don't

understand.

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

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

That's it.

I do like 90s music.

No question.

Yeah, it's Nightlight with Beachwaba.

Welcome back, folks.

Great to have you here on this Tuesday night.

I was working my way through a list of things that weren't so great about the 90s.

So this will contradict good music from the 90s, but CD players skipping when going over bumps in the car.

Oh, yeah, I remember that that sucked.

I totally forgot about that Taking a full day to download anything And then this is in there at snack well devils food cookie cakes I don't know what what Buzzfeed was going for for that, but it is true like when you moved to where remember we left Chicago when I was 12 years old and I would have to ask my parents if I could call

my buddy, Billy Yamato, who still lived in Chicago.

We talked for 30 minutes on the phone, and it was like an $18 bill or something like that.

It's crazy.

And the one with the music too, where you hear a great song on the radio, you might not know.

If the DJ didn't tell you what it is, you're out of luck.

You had no idea.

Like now in your car, it tells you what the song is and who the artist is.

So I love

that.

I remember having that problem when I was younger and be like, oh crap, I don't know who this is.

Luckily for me, I got older and the artist turned out to be the Beatles, so it was very easy to find.

I'm never going to hear them again.

But it's true.

What I love about technology is I love the show Cheers growing up.

I love Seinfeld, all those great, the Gary Shanley show or Larry Sanders.

uh, curb, although that show came out later.

But now you can watch any of these shows whenever you want.

You had the, sometimes they would go into syndication and you could watch reruns, but you couldn't watch the one you wanted to watch when you wanted to watch it.

Now it's all on demand.

And I love that about technology because as you know, Zomers, I'm a huge fan of colored television.

Oh, me too.

The, the one thing that I lament that I had

I did get to experience as a kid that we don't have now and used to be bigger before my time is communal experiences where, alright, this new show, the episode is coming out at this time on this day.

Everyone's watching it then.

You go to school or you go to work the next day and you can talk about it.

And now, like, I was looking at Billboard Top 100 songs from the last year.

I don't even know half of them because I don't listen to music radio.

How would I hear that?

Isn't that crazy?

It's just wild.

I know.

So there you go.

Those are some not so great things about the 90s.

And you know what?

I think I left one off that was horrible.

Oh, scary stuff in the news.

The violent crime rates of the early 90s, the AIDS crisis, Columbine, Waco, the Oklahoma City bombings, the crack epidemic, and the Rwandan genocide.

Like the 90s had its share of horrible tragedies.

you kind of don't remember, and you know, it's all a blur.

When you get older, it's like, was that the 90s?

Was that the 80s?

Whatever.

But that's good stuff from Buzzfeed.

Michael Gagher on the social media says, the internet, oh wait, he's responding to our Question of the Night in honor of National Inventors Day.

What is your favorite invention?

Michael says oh wait, you didn't say the worst invention ever.

You were looking for the best my apologies I'm going with Mike Decitel on the plumbing thing I mean I like the plumbing thing.

I don't know if I put that over the internet though

I'd say both have been very revolutionary to

modern

society

Best case scenario you take your laptop out to the outhouse and you get some work done while you're out there Mike Preston says the remote car starter

Those of us in the Midwest can certainly appreciate that.

That's a great one.

Chuck Gennaro, our Civic Media colleague says, the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie.

You just said it and forget it.

Do you know what that is?

I do not.

When I think Ronco, I think of all those records that came out.

But apparently there was a chicken cooker that I was not familiar with.

The Chuck is.

Thank you, Chuck.

My pal Scott Thompson says, fire, then the wheel, then the zipper.

Scott from the 608 had a hand in securing this photo for publication in 1996 and it's the onion.

It says the Amish give up.

And you have to just go Google that on the onion.

It always crushes it.

Thank you, Tom.

Scott, I should say.

Pat Francis says egg carton.

I know Pat.

He's a funny guy.

I don't get that.

I mean, sure, that's fine.

But wouldn't there be other

ways to transport eggs?

Well, I mean, we don't know because we're not in that timeline.

I'm sure we'd figure out something, but they're also useful for.

For other things like sound dampening can tap

them to

the wall.

It's

kind of weird,

but you could.

Well said.

Matt Harper, Green Bay rock, rap artist, love Matt.

He says turntable.

That's a great one, too.

Because what was there before that?

It's just live music.

Then it went right to the turntable.

There was some stuff in between.

You could record on wax cylinders, but it wasn't exactly the most.

accessible technology.

It's not like everybody just had a little wax cylinder gramophone in their house.

Okay.

Was that like a Victrola?

And a Victrola was like a turntable,

right?

It

was like the precursor to it, where basically, yeah, it looked the same as an old gramophone where it's got the big horn opening, but it's it doesn't last as long as a vinyl record does because it's, you know, it's wax.

And in the old days, I missed this too, because even when I was a kid, we used to do this.

My grandparents played the piano and everybody would just sing.

It was a blast.

And that stopped

by the

time I hit.

No, when I was like in seventh grade, that was done.

I was like, oh, that was kind of fun, even though I probably complained about it while I did it.

Nick Wallander from Comedy City in Depeer says stuffed crust pizza.

That's up there, Nick.

I'll take that one.

Well done.

Jenny Jean says, aside from the obvious, wheel and indoor plumbing, I'd say air conditioning, another fantastic answer.

First time we've heard air conditioning.

All right, we will keep up with your texts Please continue to be part of this Tuesday night edition of nightlight folks after new sports and weather Lenny Schmidt the great comedian and actor will be here It's peach wabba and nightlight Aaron Zommer's riding shotgun on the civic media radio network

in the jar.

I asked for a 90 song from our next guest and this is what we got.

Lenny's dig it.

Oh, I love it.

All right.

We do take requests, so I got no problem with that, especially when it's a pal.

Welcome back to Nightlight, folks.

I am Pete Schwab.

It is great to have you here on this Tuesday.

A quick reminder, our question of the night is, in honor of National Inventors Day, what

is your favorite invention over there.

Now we've heard the wheel, we've heard the microwaves, plumbing, all kinds of stuff.

I said the back scratcher, Zommer said the microphone.

We'll give our current guest time to think about it because I'm gonna ask him too, very excited to welcome this next gentleman.

He's a very extremely talented stand-up comedian and a really good actor and he's here tonight on Nightlight for the first time.

Mr. Lenny Schmidt joins me over the stream.

are you?

I'm good.

I'm going to need time to think of the invention.

There's so many great inventions.

It's going to take me a long

time.

No rush.

It's great to have you here.

I'm well.

Thanks.

How are you?

I'm good, man.

How's the weather in the great state it was?

Oh, dude.

Well, today was fine.

It was like 40s, so I'll take it.

But this is the time of the year I always regret leaving LA, as you can imagine why.

And where are you now?

Because you live in LA, but you're all over the place, too.

I'm in LA right now.

I'm leaving for the airport in a couple hours.

So I'll be heading back to Mexico and a cruise ship at midnight tonight.

But for now, I was home for almost the last week.

I like to take Super Bowl week off, so I'm home for the weekend.

Uh-oh.

Oh, no, we froze.

How did we froze?

It seems like

we seem to have lost Pete.

Hopefully he'll be back shortly.

Oh, I thought it was me.

No, I'm still getting it.

All right.

I like the look on his face though.

It is a funny screen grab right there.

Still good.

Everybody should save that for the screensaver.

Maybe we should So you said you're traveling out from LA coming up soon to get on the

road.

I thought this was I'm leaving.

Yeah, I fly out tonight and I'll be on the next two weeks is cruise ships, Florida.

It's cold everywhere, man.

I just did a couple of cruise ships out of I forget when I get on a ship.

I'm like, Hey, I'm going on a cruise ship.

But the last two were out of Norfolk.

Oh, it

looks like we are also losing Lenny's connection.

So I'll tell you what we're going to do for now.

Oh,

no.

Oh, no, we got you back.

I'm back.

I got my ticker below.

What's going on?

Yeah, I was on a but last week is on a whole bunch of flights last week.

So it was it was a lot of traveling.

I got stuck in those storms.

Yeah.

Pete said that you

and when I

work on this.

What's that?

Oh, no, when I work on the when I work on the ships, I only pack for the beaches.

I forget when they're coming in and out of cold ports like you forget New Orleans is still pretty is cold.

You know, it was 34 degrees there a couple weeks ago when I was there.

Yeah, I bet in the morning.

That's a little much.

Pete also mentioned that you are in a show that he's been excited to hear about.

Yeah, he's been binge-watching Southland, I guess it's a great show.

I Was on I was in the beginning of the second season of that show

And what how did you get

there were cops all over the set and I worked with cops on shooting and weapons and it was

Even though my character is an idiot, I had to know how to shoot a gun with a blank in it.

So it was very, uh, very detailed.

They didn't mess around with their security and stuff.

So.

Had you shot guns before or is that something that was new to you?

It was, it was the very first time I had ever shot a gun.

And then, and, uh, it was like, I had a blank and I shoot the back of a car and almost hit this kid and start a riot in the show.

So I had a time to shoot with the blast in the car.

It was a pretty intense shoot.

There was a lot going on when we shot it.

We shot it in a place called, they call it the jungle where they shoot a lot of street scenes here in Los Angeles.

And they used a lot of locals and a lot of gang members as extras in the show.

So it was pretty active.

Oh, he's coming back.

He's back.

What the hell was that?

I don't know, man, what's going on with your technology?

It's only like the second time whenever I've done the show from home that's happened.

I'm sorry, Len, but I'm glad to be back.

What did I miss,

guys?

Fill me in.

We covered everything.

We talked all about Southland, my career, and I mentioned where I was born.

Well, it was great having you.

Thanks for stopping by, Lenny.

Come here, babe.

It's good to see you, man.

It's been a while.

All right, I have to re-ask you because I love that show.

Let's just jump into that, even though you probably already touched on it.

So this great show, Lenny, I talk to crime sometimes on this show, and I've had a couple of enforcement people that have told me that Southland is the most realistic cop show.

So I'm like, I gotta check this out.

I've had a couple of friends that have been on it, and now obviously you as well.

would look for it, but it was always pay per episode.

Now it's on Netflix.

So I just kind of rediscovered it.

And I watched, I blew through like five seasons.

I'm not kidding.

And probably two weeks.

It's very easy to watch.

It's a great show.

You play, and I love this because you're a comedian and your role was kind of comedic.

You played a new partner for the character Chicky.

And, you know, just tell us about your character.

If you remember it, I can refresh your memory too.

I know it was a while ago.

No, I remember it on say it's funny you bring up the how most cops will say it's the most it's the most realistic they did that on purpose They

put a lot of

work into making that show They give us the when they gave us the scripts it was in I was in the beginning of the second season We shot three episodes at once and I think I'm most of my stuff is only in that first episode, but They would give you the script and they would say

the camera man, the DP would run around with you while stuff happened.

And they would say, just go ahead and swear and don't worry about it.

We'll just bleep it out and don't worry about the dialogue.

Just do your thing.

So in the action sequences, it would be a lot of stuff would happen and they would say cut and all the principles, the main actors would be standing there afterwards, like, just breathing and just floating up dog from what was going on.

And my guy was.

I was the guy they called the slug.

I was the worst partner anyone had.

So Chicky gets stuck with me for a couple of days.

And my kids hated it.

This was one of many parts I did where I was lazy and not a good person.

And my daughters were like, can't you just once be like a hero or a good cop?

And I'm like, no, I'm pretty sure fat and lazy is where daddy's making his money on TV.

Go ahead, Len.

Sorry.

And I played the slug.

It was Ferguson.

They called me the slug.

And I just basically, I moped my way through.

And then I worked with Kudlitz, who was, I mean, there's a lot of stories with this show.

I worked with Kudlitz, who went on and had done a bunch of other things besides walking dead.

He was in that, of course, and got killed.

But I worked with him.

He's

the guy that

saved me from the riot that I caused, or that my character caused.

But when we shot that in the jungle,

you know there were real cops in the scenes that are real we had mentioned to Aaron we used extras that were locals and extras there were gang members that were in the chute so there was we shot a right in the city and we were shooting in the jungle on the second day and someone rushed the set with a gun said he wanted to kill all the cops and it was just a guy and before you

Before you know it, there's choppers everywhere, there's squad cars everywhere and the real cops are dragging me and the other principals into a basement because we're dressed like cops and some guy wants to kill the cops.

So we're hiding in the basement for a good 45 minutes while they find the guy, they get his gun, they disarm him, they get him out of there.

But I mean, there was so much stuff going on while we shoot and they just let stuff happen and shot it and then edited it afterwards and added, it was so real and powerful.

And the one shot that, there's a great shot that this guy, Mike, does the DP, Mike Murrow, I think, or J. Michael Murrow.

There's just, where Cuddless saves me from the riot, he's backing out of the riot, and there's a shot in the rearview mirror of him driving backwards.

And I'm in the

back

of the car crying as he's looking out.

But the DP came up with an idea for the shoot right on the scene, and literally gets on the car with the red camera and leans over.

And as the cars pulled away, he's on the back of the car holding on and getting the shot.

It was just intense, man.

He had cameras all over the cars and stuff.

The whole thing was, they wanted so much action, a lot of things going on, and they just put it together afterwards.

It was always intense to shoot.

It was hard to sleep when you went home at night, because you're pretty jacked up from shooting.

Oh, I can imagine.

My guest is Lenny Schmidt, very talented actor and comedian and a longtime friend of mine.

He's joining us tonight to talk about a few things, but one of which is his time on Southland.

So if these gangbangers showed up Lenny and said they were looking to kill actors, would you guys have pulled the cops out of the way to keep them to safety?

Is

that what

a two-way

street?

I don't know man, they always walk around dressed as a cop and I deterred to the real cops like as much as possible.

Like there was one guy I worked with all day and anytime something happened I would look at him and go, what should I do?

What do I do?

He would be like, you're all right, just stand right there.

I'm like, okay, are you telling me what I should do?

I mean, you know, there's Ryan happens, I'm surrounded by a lot of people.

There's a lot going on, so.

It's

the first.

It was fun, man.

Yeah, it's the first episode, folks.

Those of you listening, first episode in season two, I want to say the episode is called phase two or phase three, but Lenny is in it and he does a great job.

You had one moment where you and Chicky are driving in the car and you said, oh, pull over here, pull over here.

And you think it's because you see something that needs to be addressed by police.

But then you go in and grab your dry cleaning and come out

and you're eating wings and stuff.

It's just a great road to the state.

I got some greatos with me on that, yeah.

right.

It was blue.

We played it off.

And then it was my idea to just throw the, I handed her the plate.

I get out of the car.

I'm like hurry up.

Let's go on here.

It's chasing all around.

We pulled this lot and I just get out.

I don't even look and give her the burrito.

I walked in.

I come out.

She's so pissed.

She throws the burrito up in the dashboard and I just grabbed the food from the macaroni and blank.

All right, go ahead.

Go again.

Oh, it's such a great scene.

She was great.

She was not up on the screen.

Yeah, that show does a very good job of going back and forth between and having a little bit of a comedic outlet that you brought.

And then also, like you just said, you described that scene where all hell breaks loose, and you're panicking, and the other cop comes in to save you.

Had you worked with Michael Kudlitz before, who plays Officer John Cooper?

He's such a good actor.

Yeah, no, I met him for the first time on that set.

He was an amazing actor and a great guy.

I spent a lot of time actually with him on the set talking about his.

He had a couple of kids.

He was homeschooling.

He was really committed.

He was a great actor to work with, man.

He was 100% focused for every scene.

And it was easy to explain to him because he just saves my ass everywhere.

When he comes in during that riot scene, and he just saves the day.

And I throw a cheeky up the thing.

That's the worst part, I think, is I jump in the back of the car and lock it while she's standing outside.

It's so great.

There's this over where you pull to the hospital gets out of the car just look

What was that?

It was like this big baby.

It was pretty intense.

Lenny Schmidt is my guest.

He is a comedian and actor who does great work and did great work.

We're talking about his guest starring role on Southland, a really good show that I just binged right through for the first time.

It's kind of an older title, came out in 2010 or 2009.

Definitely worth a look and Lenny's great in it.

So we're going to do,

I want to

ask you, when we come back Lenny, I'm going to ask you about one night

gig a one-night or they used to call them in standard.

You and I did together.

I don't know if you remember it or not, but I'm going to refresh your memory.

And I think it's interesting.

We tend to remember the things other people said as opposed to what we said.

So I want to remind you of something.

And I think we'll have some fun with it.

But we'll talk to Lenny

about it.

He's pretty horrible.

My memory is not real good,

Pete.

No, it's going to be great.

You're going to be great.

And we're going to talk to Lenny about some of his other TV roles, too, and find out where you can see him performing, whether it's online or live.

We'll be right back after this very short commercial break.

Don't go anywhere, folks.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

Lenny Schmitz here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

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

There are some more great 90s tunes.

Welcome back to Nightlight.

I'm Pete Schwabba.

We've got news, sports, and weather coming up in just about seven or so minutes, folks.

Great to have you here on this Tuesday as we broadcast live over the state of Wisconsin and parts beyond over the app and stream.

We are talking to Lenny Schmidt, a very funny comedian and a very talented actor.

We covered his time on the show, Southland, which is just great.

Episode one of season two, check it out.

It's available on Netflix.

Have you had time, Len, to think about your invention?

Oh, yeah.

Honestly, there's a lot of them out there, but I'm going to go with one I use a lot because I like to cook a food processor.

Oh, nice.

That's first food processor.

It does everything.

It shreds, it chops, it does everything.

It's pretty amazing.

it's one of those things I'm totally with you by the way it's one of those things where if it wasn't for the invention of that I might not ever make my own food like it's kind of like screenwriting if final draft wasn't like if I had to use a typewriter I don't think I'd be a writer it just isn't worth the trouble you

know yeah um there's no way you would sit those talents like only that kind of

time exactly

It's great to have you here, man.

We're talking with Lenny about some of his TV credits, and I want to ask him about a short film he did years ago that was so great.

But first, as I said before the break, Len, you and I did a one nighter.

I don't even remember where it was.

I think you were the headliner, and I was probably the middle act, and your wife at the time was with you, and I think it was somewhere in Indiana.

something happened and the show was either pushed back an hour and there was bad weather coming or you know we got our money cut I don't remember what it was but man right as I was about to speak up you dude you lost it and you were like mad and you pounded the table and you were like your wife at the time was like Lenny Lenny Lenny

All right, whatever I was gonna say, Lenny's gonna cover it here.

And I remember playing softball with you.

You had kind of a temper.

Has that helped you?

First of all, I'm sure you're older and wiser, but has that helped you in stand-up comedy or in acting in any

way?

Yeah, I think it did.

Well, I learned to manage it, first of all.

When I got divorced, I went to therapy and I kind of...

I calm down a lot and kind of got into a different path.

But when I did do that, I learned how much anger played into my comedy.

Most of, I think, best comedy comes from pain, anger, and suffering.

Things that you make funny about yourself and frustrate you.

So there were a lot of things that used to make me really mad that I used to joke about.

But then when I kind of went to therapy and calmed down, I didn't get really mad about stuff anymore.

So I would, you know, a lot of things will make, ah, whatever.

But then it would take me, so I'd have to work harder to find humor in it and think about what used to make me mad and then joke about that.

So it was almost a different way of writing comedy.

I used to write before, because I got so ticked off about something.

Now afterwards, I analyze the situation.

I can see how it would be ticked off.

Or even better, I see somebody lose their mind and lose their temper.

And I'm like, oh, I used to be that guy.

And I'll just write down everything he's doing, like somebody in airport.

I'm like, oh, that's the guy.

That's me.

I was that guy slamming his small stoop.

You know, I was that guy 100%.

So I think it helped me focus on how important anger in comedy is.

that's a great answer very well and you know we all kind of mellow out as we get older but I also remember a time I was not there I did not see this I don't know if anybody witnessed this but you guys as the story goes correct me if I'm wrong you got hit by an SUV trying to cross Ventura Boulevard maybe and oh I get hit by yeah yeah and you just got

up and yelled

the F word or something you were fine it was

crazy.

Oh no, that's a tweak on that story.

I was pretty messed up when I got hit by those cars.

I hit by two cars.

I was walking across Ventura and a sports car hit me and I shot up in the air and then an SUV hit me and I went through the windshield and my left arm went through the windshield and then when they hit their brakes I shot back up into the air and I remember flying through the air.

I remember at the time my wife had told me

She watched all those medical shows, those emergency medical shows.

She said, she always told me 80% of head trauma comes from the second hit, not the initial contact, but when you hit the ground after being hit.

So when I was flying through the air, I remember thinking, I'm flying through the air.

I got to cover my head.

So

I

covered my head up.

and then I hit the ground, and I laid there, and I laid there for a second, the people walked up and looked at me and stuff, and I was fine.

It took me to hospital, but it definitely, I got hit by two cars and flew through the air and didn't break a bone.

So I guess I got that going for me.

That was a

lot.

Just to give you a pat on the back here, Urban Legend went around and you handled it like a champ and no SUV could take out Lenny Schmidt.

That was generally the consensus.

So your reputation

preceded you for a while.

Well, that's great.

That's great, then.

I like that one.

Yeah,

exactly.

All right, so we've got Lenny Schmidt here, folks, a very funny comedian and actor.

He's going to stick with us for a few minutes before the news, or after the news, I'm sorry.

One of the things I want to talk about, Lenny, so think about this, is the movie you did, a short film you did called Some Kind of Joke, which was so great, and I love that I can direct people to it, because it's on YouTube, and it was really well done.

So we'll ask Lenny about that.

I'm going to ask him about one of his best experiences on one of the many shows he's done, and of course, what he's binge watching.

So we'll get to all of that after the news with our

our guest, Lenny Schmidt.

Our question of the night, you still have time to get in on this, folks, is what is the best invention?

Barb from Waukesha says, what would we do without Velcro?

That's a good, that's a good, well, David Letterman would have one less gag, I guess, for sure.

So we've got, that would have been a sad thing to see go.

Craig on the stream, he's watching the radio.

He says, the old printing press, love it.

and he also says, or straight up, language and writing.

Okay, that's a good one too.

Lenny Schmidt is here.

We are gonna break for the news, folks, and then we will come back, recap.

We'll have a few more minutes with Lenny, and then Matt Miller is here in hour number three, Milwaukee Film Critic.

We're gonna talk about what is coming up, what Matt's seen, and compare notes on some of the things we've watched, and we'll get Lenny's view on what he's watched as well after the news.

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

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