No Tartar Sauce Before Noon (Hour 3)

Broadcasting live statewide from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba, your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who wanted to be in porn but didn't have the acting chops, Pete Schwabba.

That's me,

baby.

Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

So great to have you here tonight.

Happy Friday.

It's not Friday, is it, Aaron?

It's not.

It's Thursday.

Just keeping it on your toes, that is the voice of Aaron Zomers.

He is producing tonight's show.

It feels like a Friday, but it is not a Friday.

But I'm glad you're here anyway, folks.

We're gonna have a great show tonight.

A lot of fun talking about the things in life that make us happy, like movies and TV and cigars.

Do you smoke cigars?

I have.

I don't regularly.

It's like a, you know, a wedding thing.

You know, it's interesting because, like, I'm not a huge cigar smoker, but I've become one more so since I've been hosting this show because one of our sponsors is Appleton Cigar.

Norm Kepesky will be here tonight.

He is one of the owners of Appleton Cigar, and he brings these, like, great cigars.

I think the quality really matters.

It's like driving a Mercedes for the first time or not being able to go back to other cars or something to that effect, but I like a good cigar.

That's where I'm going with this.

Yeah, I gotta say the super cheap ones that I've tried.

Yeah, not very good.

Not very good.

So we got a lot of fun, folks.

We've got more than just cigar talk.

We're gonna talk some college theater tonight.

We're gonna talk cigars, as I mentioned.

It is Thursday night, which means we are doing the popcorn pick of the week.

And tonight's contestant will be named momentarily, but he's one of my favorite guests.

And then we'll talk to a great podcaster and comedian in hour three.

But right now, you know,

Here's I'm gonna Kind of play rah rah here a little bit somers with the city of Madison our state's capital You are coming to us from Madison right now.

Yes sitting smack dab in the middle of Madison on beautiful State Street and First of all tell us what you are wearing.

Mr. Sommers.

Oh,

yeah, so yesterday It's it's not quite as warm out today as it was yesterday yesterday.

It was a nice like 60 degrees So I told Pete I was thinking about wearing like a beach get up

And I figured I can't mention that on the radio and then not bring it in.

So today I am wearing it.

For those of you on the stream, you can see I'm wearing a matching shirt and shorts with like a diamond floral pattern green and white.

It's, you know, it's it's comfy.

It looks comfy.

It looks kind of retro.

A little bit.

Yeah.

I have a kind of a small viewer, but I really I like to get up, man.

Are you you consider yourself you have kind of a unique style?

come across as one of those guys who's like pretty chill.

You have like a chill vibe when it comes to wardrobe?

I would say so.

I mean, I, until pretty recently, I just wore whatever I had, just T-shirt and jeans.

And then I thought, you know what?

I can actually like wear other clothes and that's okay.

There you go.

That looks good.

I appreciate you going the extra mile.

This has been fun.

The two of us working together.

Um, I really enjoyed this time.

So.

You, sir, live in Madison.

And that's where I'm going with this.

You have a very Madison outfit on right now.

Recently, they did a study of state capitals.

And Madison made the list of some of the top state capitals.

And I love Madison.

And I'm gonna tell you a little bit if I could just go on a little bit of a tangent here about our state's capitol.

As many listeners know, I grew up, the first part of my childhood was in Chicago.

Then I moved to Marinette.

Never even I didn't really know much about Wisconsin I knew a lot about Milwaukee because my grandparents lived there and my parents both went to Marquette So I spent a lot of time in Milwaukee as a kid didn't know much about Madison by the time I had chosen a college I don't think I had been to Madison but since then Aaron I have fallen in love with your fair city and It is such a great town.

My brother went to school there at my son graduated from there about a year ago and

I go down there once a month to host PBS stuff on PBS Wisconsin, and it has become like kind of an adopted favorite city.

I love Madison.

So.

And I don't know if you know this, every so often they come out with these lists like Forbes or Travel City, USA or whatever it is.

And Madison is like the best place to live in America.

It makes you.

Have you seen those where it's made number one?

I have, which is pretty cool.

OK.

You know, and I never, I didn't know much about Madison either, despite being.

in Wisconsin my whole life.

But then after college some of my friends were going to move here and I thought well I have nothing specific lined up I'll come with and I really like it.

And here's why it's even more spectacular that Madison oftentimes is ranked the number one city to live in because weather is a factor in these poles and Madison's weather like most Midwest weather typically sucks.

You can't you can't compete with Georgia or Arizona or wherever so you got to take that out right away So the win number one and still and not have that have weather factor in is really remarkable.

That's a

good play Yeah, so it came out this these studies.

I think I saw this on others wallet hub The best and worst state capitals to live in

An annual study ranked all 50 state capitals on 48 different factors, including things like affordability, income, job growth, education, healthcare, nightlife and culture, crime and weather.

So, all right, take Madison out of there because weather, Madison, it can compete with some of these other ones, but here are the best 10 state capitals to live in, according to Wallet Hub.

Austin, Texas, not a huge surprise there.

Raleigh, North Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, Madison, Wisconsin is listed as number four.

And again,

Those first three cities all have great weather.

So Madison would probably be number one every year, were it not for weather.

After that, it's Boise, Idaho, St.

Paul, Minnesota, also Sucky Weather, Lincoln, Nebraska, okay.

Bismarck, North Dakota, Denver, Colorado, and Salt Lake City.

I'm not surprised to see Madison there.

So how long have you been there now?

I've been here for maybe three and a half, four

years, right around there.

Okay.

All right, you live in a good hood.

Yeah, you know, it's surprisingly close to the lake for what I'm paying, which of course, you know, Madison rent is the is horrific.

There's no really sugarcoating that, but it's less than you would think for living within a couple of blocks of one of the lakes.

I always forget which one.

I do too.

And we should come clean and say that Zommer says 24 roommates and it's a two bedroom, but it's affordable.

It makes us.

It makes it work.

You know, the budget works that way.

Here are the 10 worst capitals.

Jackson, Mississippi, Augusta, Maine, never been, Trenton, New Jersey, can only imagine, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Little Rock, Arkansas, Dover, Delaware, Montgomery, Alabama, Hartford, Connecticut, Frankfurt, Kentucky, and Carson City, Nevada.

So there you go.

Now, some of those have weather going for them and still are on the sucky list, but I just wanted to.

Talk about Madison.

I've never lived there.

It's never been my town.

The only city I've lived in in Wisconsin is Marinette, Wisconsin.

So again, very familiar with Milwaukee having done stand-up comedy and spent a lot of time there as a kid.

But I have grown a huge affection for Madison and I applaud you for your choice of dwelling and your city you choose to live in.

I like it a lot.

You're doing all right.

All right without further ado folks.

I think it's time to get to our night like question of the night

Let's talk about the question.

Okay question question question question Question question.

Okay.

I have a question questions this question.

Domanda question questions

Tomorrow is a national tater sauce tartar sauce day

That's tater sauce potato sauce.

That's not a thing.

I don't know but I'd try it It kind of sounds that's too bad Tomorrow is national a tartar sauce day folks and tonight's question is what is your favorite sauce?

Let's have fun with this because there are so many to choose from 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic

Let us know what your favorite sauce is.

You can also text us on the app or on the stream if you're watching the radio at YouTube, X or Facebook.

Be part of Nightlight.

Love it when you guys play the game.

This is kind of embarrassing because I thought of this question last night and I still can't, I can't pick one.

I want to say some type of barbecue sauce, but I can't.

I can't zero in on what my favorite sauce is.

I like good, you know, hot sauce, a good salsa verde.

But I don't know.

Yeah, picking one sauce is very difficult because it is sauces can make or break a food very easily.

Well, you just added a lot more pressure, even just the amount of sauce, you know, even if it's a great sauce and you have too much or not enough, you know, it's a it's a delicate balance you got to get.

It is you don't want to drown something in sauce.

But I will say, like I'm trying to think of the avocado sauces, you know, or the guacamole, those are more dips than sauces, but I'm just gonna go with a really good homemade hickory barbecue sauce, maybe with some brown sugar in it or something like that.

Something that's so good, I don't even care what the food is that it goes with because last weekend when I was in Door County, I had ribs and the barbecue sauce was so unbelievable.

So I guess by default I'll say barbecue sauce What about you buddy?

I think I got to go with something that's homemade But as for what it's difficult.

I think I Don't know

That's very very hard.

You could think about it dude.

There's no I don't mean to put that much pressure on you

But let us know folks, what is your favorite sauce?

I like a good tartar sauce, frankly.

If you have decent fish with some lemon on there, some tartar sauce, I would put maybe tartar sauce up there with the hickory barbecue.

Great guests tonight, folks, on the show.

Very excited to welcome tonight's round of visitors.

Mr. Greg Pregel will be here after news sports and weather, which rolls up in about 14 minutes.

Greg is a professor of acting at UW-Stevens Point and a very fine actor himself.

He will be here at 535 to tell us about a really cool production that you can check out if you're in Central Wisconsin or don't mind a road trip.

It's the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point's spring show.

We talked about this last year with department head Mark Hansen and Greg will be here to talk about it tonight.

Very excited.

We continue our week of

College acting a thespian talk as we had Alan Kepesky on last night from UWG B Greg will be here at 535 and he's gonna tell you all about she kills monsters So that will be fun.

Pardon me.

It's 610 my pal norm Kepesky swings by he's one of the owners of Appleton cigar They have some events coming up.

We'll talk to Greg about the outstanding sticks that they sell summers Have you ever heard of cigars referred to as sticks?

I

guess maybe not specifically

But, you know, it makes sense.

I don't think I have until I met Norm Kiepeski.

And then he had guys come on the show who he works with.

These two guys, it was a while ago.

I can't remember the names, but they kept referring to cigars as sticks.

And I thought that was so cool.

It made me want to be cooler.

Anyway, Norm will be here at 610.

Popcorn Pick of the Week happens at 635.

Daniel Wheeler will be here, a local artist and actor.

and a very fine human being, Danny Wills will make the popcorn pick of the week and tell us where you can see a short film he is in that just got accepted into a really cool film festival.

So we'll talk about that.

And then, very excited, my pal, Mike Schmidt will be here at 720, telling stories the only the way Mike Schmidt can tell them.

He is a brilliant storyteller and we are gonna talk about bad guys we love in movies.

So that will be fun, that's in act three.

Before that, it is just great to have you here, folks.

I started to watch Secret Agent last night, The Secret Agent, which is nominated for Best Picture.

It's a foreign film with subtitles and I was too tired for subtitles.

You ever been there?

Yeah.

Although, you know, just starting to watch a movie, that is also just an unfortunate place to be.

Tired.

When you can't finish

it.

But I, and I rented it and I didn't realize how tired I was until like 15 minutes into the movie.

And it's an almost three, it's almost a three hour movie.

And I paid 15 bucks for it on Prime.

So now I've got tonight and tomorrow morning to finish it.

And I've got over two hours of it still left.

So at least you have a couple of days and it's not just 24 hours.

Sometimes those are just 24 hours.

We'll see.

All right.

When we come back, folks, after this very short break, I'm going to tell you about something that is being reopened.

There's new evidence in a very famous assassination and a very sad assassination.

We'll talk about that.

Maybe read some texts.

It's Peach Waba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Mm-hmm.

I don't know, man.

Not too much.

Maybe.

That's too... Welcome back.

This is Nightlight with Peach Wabba.

That is Aaron Zahmer's working spin in the tunes tonight, playing DJ.

That is Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to President John F. Kennedy.

And the lead in is...

Due to the fact that supposedly, according to Yahoo quote news, there is new evidence to suggest that there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll the day that Kennedy was assassinated.

And I don't even know what to make of this, Zomers.

Like, I've been hearing about this my whole life.

As a kid or as a teenager I remember watching footage of the Zapruder film or whatever And then I've had it explained to me that well his head went this way because this this this and nothing makes sense about it.

I feel like I Don't think a guy like Oswald can get that lucky and I'm not this is not you know, I'm not I Don't even know what I'm trying to say.

I'm trying to say there's no way there could not have been a second person involved

right it's

You know, the way I feel about this and many other topics that draw conspiracy theorists is that regardless of what actually happened, what Americans have been told by the government has a lot of holes that have never been addressed.

And something's fishy.

Don't know what it is.

I have not yet looked at this supposed second video or anything.

So I don't know what to think.

I just know, I know that I don't know what to think.

that I'm kind of just like, whatever, it happened.

We know what we know, allegedly.

I don't know, it's all a mess.

It's a mess and it reminds me a little bit what we've been told about this.

And I try so hard not to be a conspiracy theorist.

I'm not that guy.

I know sometimes things happen and you can't really explain it and it seems weird, but it happened.

That's the case with the Kennedy, the Zapruder film, where you see him grab his neck and then his head goes back completely in the other direction and I've had that.

That's been, well, they've tried to explain that as a way of, well, no, his head could go back that way if this, that, and this.

I feel like we are being fed something from 50 years ago, or longer maybe, 60 years ago, I guess, that, you know, it's like the Epstein list.

It's like they don't want to release it because of something.

Is somebody else named in this?

Like, is there something we're not supposed to, I think as Americans, we can handle the truth.

Especially with this one where it's so long ago.

I mean, come on.

And the Warren commission, okay, fine.

I just feel like we deserve the truth here.

And maybe they don't know the truth.

There's always that possibility too.

But I feel like it's something very similar.

Like they don't want something to get out.

But I think, like you said, it's been that long.

It's been 60 years, whatever.

Tell us the damn truth.

Yeah, I don't know about that music, dude.

Well, you know, Marilyn Monroe, she was doing

her best.

It was for the president.

It was celebrating him.

I have a, so tomorrow's weird.

Tomorrow night folks, we have some original content on a show and then some highlights and then we've got some news we'll announce tomorrow on the show as well.

So tune in for that, that'll be exciting.

And tomorrow I had stuff planned and then all of a sudden I've got, I just found out I'm gonna be around, I've got a delivery coming.

So it's between nine and five.

They've really narrowed it down.

So I can enjoy what's supposed to be a pretty nice day.

Nine to five, are you kidding me?

That's a whole job, waiting for that package.

That's a day, I'm getting Dr. Day's pay basically, waiting for a delivery guy.

You

got the Storks coming by with another kid or something?

Oh jeez, I don't know, maybe.

It's kind of a, no, it's a new fridge.

Our fridge went out a while back and I just didn't want, it's only 12 years old.

This drives me crazy too.

My parents have had two refrigerators.

They became the second refrigerator like in the garage at the basement or whatever.

30 years old.

And I've got this fancy fridge that lasted 12 years with the drink stuff and the ice.

They're just crap.

People don't make, it looks nice.

It's like a stainless steel refrigerator.

And our dishwasher went a year ago too.

That was about the same age again.

Top of the line, supposed to be nice.

We decided to replace both of

them.

Probably warrantied for 11 years and 11 months.

Right.

It went out the day after.

Yep.

That's

just documented truth.

You know, it's a term I can't say on the radio.

I'll say in crappification, where they just make everything worse and charge you more.

So that you have to keep

buying it.

Right.

So.

We did that and we bit the bullet because our fridge kept going off and then you got to throw everything out So it's like we've probably wasted 300 bucks worth of food.

We might as well just get a new fridge Whatever man, but I'm not happy about him in a hostage situation tomorrow Stream comments folks.

We've got Daniel bear his sports highlights And I think he just sent those are two mugs right somers like a clink so cheers.

Okay.

Cheers Daniel Nice to hear from you again.

He texted last night as well.

And then we've got Dave on the stream

Dave Kunish says, tzatziki sauce.

That's a good sauce.

Oh, I forgot.

I love Middle Eastern food.

How did I forget about tzatziki sauce?

Again, especially homemade.

Make your own.

I've never done that.

I mean, it's pretty easy to make.

You just get, I don't remember all the eager idiots, but you get some dill, some cucumbers, some yogurt, and some

other

stuff.

It's really good.

Okay.

I need to make.

You just, I just had a revelation on there.

I need to make more sauces.

Yes, you do.

Making your own sauces

will change your life.

It'll make me a better person.

We've got some more text too.

Let's get to the text line.

Tom from Hartford says, great with any meat, burgers, chicken, pork, fish, also dipping vegetables.

Fantastic with anything, potatoes, any food that you might use salt and pepper on.

I think I'm reading these out of order.

What was Tom's sauce?

He didn't really say the sauce, did he?

I don't think so.

Tom, we need clarification.

I don't want to leave you hanging.

Oh, no, he did earlier.

He

said high quality homemade peppercorn ranch.

Peppercorn ranch is a great sauce.

Well done, Tom.

There it is.

High quality.

Yeah, great stuff.

I'll say this too.

A nice Heinz 57 sauce with some chicken can be good over the counter stuff.

All right.

We are going to break for new sports and weather folks.

When we come back at University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point acting professor Greg Pragel will be here to tell us all about a really cool show coming up in Central Wisconsin.

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

It is Thursday night, a Thursday night edition of Night Light here folks and it is great to have you with me as we broadcast statewide throughout our beautiful state of Wisconsin and parts beyond over the app and stream.

Welcome back to Night Light.

Our question of the night is what is your favorite sauce?

Tomorrow is National Tartar Sauce Day.

I don't know how long that particular sauce has had its own day.

But I think it's a, it's a fine sauce.

But what is your favorite sauce?

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic?

Let us know.

Or you can text us on the app.

Or if you're watching the radio at YouTube, Facebook, or X, you can send us a stream comment.

Be part of the show.

Let's have some fun.

All right.

It is my pleasure to welcome to Nightlight for the first time, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point Professor of Acting and a Fine Actor Himself, Mr. Greg Pregle joins us now.

Hi, Greg.

Hi, Pete.

Thank you so

much for that introduction.

Well, it's great to have you here and this is sort of shaping up to be our college week here because we're talking to different various professors from around the state and their acting departments.

So we had someone from UWGB on last night and now Steven's point tonight.

So I feel like, yeah, I feel like you guys, your stories need to get out there because you're doing great work.

But first, first things first, Greg, do you have a favorite sauce?

Yeah, I mean like well I grew up in Buffalo So I guess a buffalo sauce on things has to be one of my favorites But I also lived in Memphis, Tennessee for about two and a half years So a good barbecue sauce like like a tangy or a little barbecue sauce like

Chef's kiss to that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm with you.

I think a good hickory or something sweet with some honey or something barbecue sauce.

And it's so funny with the buffalo.

I remember hearing about buffalo sauce for the first time and I thought, oh, it sounds really disgusting.

And then you realize, oh, it's the city.

That's where it started.

It has nothing to do with a bison, right?

Right.

That's exactly it.

Yeah.

Where we call wings, just wings or chicken wings.

Yeah.

Not buffalo chicken wings.

It's

like, yeah.

Right.

Exactly.

Last night, Greg, this seems to fit in with our theme here for this interview.

Our question was, what was your favorite Robert DeVall movie?

Because he had just passed away.

If a movie doesn't come to mind right away, given your field, do you have an opinion on Robert DeVall?

I assume you were a fan, but what did you think of his career?

yeah phenomenal phenomenal phenomenal actor um yeah there's two there's too many to mention oh i should have one at the tip of my tongue um

you could think about it too if you want that's fine

yeah yeah let me sit with it let

me sit with

that that's that's a really good one that's a real yeah he's he's one of the greats he yeah absolutely yeah

definitely it was fun because that was our question last night and the text that came in

you forget about some of the films he's done.

These people are like, oh yeah, Secondhand Lions.

Oh yeah, he was Boo Radley and Harper Lee's Tequila Mockingbird.

Yeah.

Yeah, with no lines.

So he had tons of roles like that that we had just kind of forgotten about, at least I did.

Yeah.

So it's great to have you here.

Tell us, before we jump into one of the reasons you're here, tell us you've had a great journey.

You just mentioned you grew up in Buffalo.

Yeah.

You went to New York.

To the Stella Adler studios to study that must have been a kick and now you're in Steven's point.

That's quite a trajectory Tell us a little bit about your journey Greg.

Yeah Well, since I'm in an undergrad program I came out of my undergrad program, which was Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York So Niagara Falls is not a new thing to me We used to go there on a you know weekend or weekly basis type thing And then I went out on tour with a couple different tours including Sesame

street live and all fun.

Yeah, like some fun, fun ones that took me overseas.

And and then some US based ones like Smoke on the Mountain and Diary of Anne Frank was like a really, really good turning point.

And then Fiddler on the Roof as well, where I met my wife.

And she's from Depeer from Green Bay, all her family's

there.

Okay.

And that's where we're also kind of based.

So but after a bunch

of tours and regional theater all across the states.

I ended up going to New York to the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and studied for three years.

And then I was working, I graduated in 2016.

I was working all the way up until the pandemic, directing, fight directing, acting, and then pandemic hit.

And we decided to move closer to where her family was just for a small time.

And a small time has been about almost four years now.

So yeah, but it's been a great journey.

and going with the flow, and we started a family.

I have two kids, and so it's magic.

Yeah, it's been magic.

So, Greg, if I may.

Yeah, please.

You kind of have to say that.

Seriously, how are you digging Wisconsin?

I'm just kidding.

Do you like it here?

Like, is there enough culture in the Green Bay area for a guy like you?

Because coming from New York City to what is a pretty small town, even though it's vibrant and it's all white, how has that transition been?

It's hard when a restaurant is not open past 10 p.m.

or something, right?

It's like, um, and getting like a new food, but, but here is the good thing is that, um, uh, you know, having a home base in the suburbs as opposed to being on the subway, like my wife and I learned from leaving that we were not.

city living people, but

we

love the arts and the food and the culture of that.

So, so then we pop in when we can to New York, Chicago, and we get those and Milwaukee and, you know, the area is Madison when we can and get a little taste of it.

So, yeah.

But the people, the people are still like, they're amazing in Green Bay.

You're in Stevens Point and Madison, Milwaukee, like I said, in Door County.

And so, yeah, so it's still good.

It's still good, Pete, truly.

So are you,

I do believe you.

I was just giving you a hard time.

Do you commute daily from Green Bay to Stevens Point?

That's got to be a bit of a grind.

Monday through Thursday.

What I tell people is that it's still less than hopping two trains and getting down to Brooklyn to teach at 7 AM to a bunch of fifth graders, which is what I was doing for Tuesdays and Thursdays.

And then I would teach in Harlem on Wednesdays while I was doing a show at night.

So I'd leave at five.

5.30 and not make it home until 11.30 midnight someday.

Oh my

gosh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it's different in my car.

Yeah, you get to listen to what you want to listen to.

We are thrilled to have you here in Wisconsin, Greg.

So I'm glad that worked out.

And tell us a little bit about, you know, you've got this state school, Stevens Point, which, and my daughter goes there, she's a musical theater major.

I believe Stevens Point is the only school that offers that as a major state school anyway.

Talk a little bit about the program at Stevens Point because it seems like it's thriving.

fantastic.

Like I came here as kind of like a quick fire like oh we need somebody can you step in and kind of be here for a little while.

And then I put in for the position and still wasn't guaranteed and I didn't think I was guaranteed it at all.

But I believe in this program because of those aspects and those facets that you were just saying Pete of like the musical theater program is top notch.

I think the acting department is top notch.

I think the dance department is

is incredible.

I think the music department is fantastic.

I think the arts and graphic design.

I think the communications and media department.

And I love within these three years of me being here, three and a half years, is that there is such a collaborative process between the faculty and between all of these departments that we do want to work with each other and

do want

to open up the doors to everybody in Wisconsin and beyond.

and make the best stuff, create the best stuff that we can, tell the best stories that we can through all of these mediums and platforms.

And when you get a bunch of people that are that passionate and hungry to do it, the students are going to be the ones that thrive out of it.

Like they're going to learn the most, I think.

Very well said.

My guest is Greg Pragel.

He is a

Teacher of acting at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point a fine institution here in our beautiful state and he is also a pretty darn good actor himself Let's talk about you've got this big spring show coming up Greg She kills monsters and I only know a little bit about the story because I helped my daughter audition for it It is nuts.

Tell us about this one show.

Yeah

it is crazy um so this show she kills monsters is based off of a familial relationship between two sisters um it is not a spoiler within page number two of the play um one of the younger sister um dies and and passes away and she leaves behind a manual that is uh it's a module for a game of dungeons and dragons so if you know nothing about dungeons and dragons you it's fine

You don't need to come to the show and the show actually sets you up to learn about the game as you're watching this adventure and this story unravel.

If you do know Dungeons & Dragons, whether you have players manuals and handbooks or not.

Then you're gonna love all the Easter eggs that we put in here We put a ton in there, but it's crazy.

There's like 10 big battles in this show and that does not happen with modern theater It happens with like Shakespeare and three musketeers and stuff like that.

So So it took like I think was we did all the fights Which is gonna be insane for people who come and see the show come and see it is like in five or six days We did all the big lights and and only in four-hour, you know rehearsals

or so something like that so these students like along with student life and all the homework and everything like that really put a lot of work and passion and drive into this thing it's it's quite unreal the feat and then I'll also just lift our department and say everyone has been so supportive because it's a huge lift there's 20 plus monsters in this show that include costumes and puppetry and they have been working

like to the tee since I can remember on this performance on this project and we're about to open it in like a week and a half or so which is

crazy.

So exciting and I you know and I reminded her too that you know me dragging her and her brother to martial arts every day when they were kids so they could get their black belts finally paid off because she knew a little bit about what was going on in the audition.

Greg, I mentioned earlier I had a professor from UWGB on.

And I asked him, and I'm going to ask you the same question.

Here in Wisconsin, particularly northern Wisconsin, where there might not be as much original theater or even licensed works or whatever, do you feel the community of Stevens Point, Plover, Wisconsin Rapids, wherever, takes advantage

of this great entertainment they could see.

Or is it something that's so arbitrary?

Like, it's on a campus, but anyone's welcome, right?

Anyone.

Do you feel like you have enough access to the general public where they could come to?

Yes

and at times I think we probably all get in our way of and you know like I know we all you know know this but I'll just say it out loud that the pandemic made it easy for us to go we can sit at home and watch everything on our couches.

Give yourself the opportunity of a theatrical experience a life experience and go out and see any theater any concert anything but also

Of course we want you to come in the doors.

Come experience the show, it's a lot of fun.

It's a big part of this show is like, it's gotta be fun.

So we put a lot of play into this for you, the audience.

So please come.

I feel too like if people see the great work our universities are doing and what the kids are learning.

That can only help to build more support in the community.

And I could not agree more with you.

Go have that shared experience.

We just have about a minute.

We're going to do a quick break and we'll be back with more with Greg.

But I want to ask you very quickly, Greg, if you could, you've taught fight directing.

Is it fun to teach fighting to these kids in theater?

It's really a dance, right?

It's a dance.

It's, you know, fight club and fight choreography is the same thing.

First rule, you know, you don't tell anyone, but I tell people safety.

Second rule,

safety.

And then after that, it's a dance.

And we're going to have a lot of fun, but they look really good.

Like all these students and on stage, it looks really, really cool.

So yeah, the whole show is about, I'm going to say it, Pete.

It's about kicking ass.

So come and watch us kick some ass on stage.

I am so excited to see that.

Greg Pragel is my guest.

He is a professor of acting at University of Wisconsin-Steven's Point.

They do outstanding work there.

Their Big Spring show is coming up.

We'll tell you more about that in just a moment and where you can get tickets and where you can see it.

And we'll have a few more minutes with Greg after this very short break.

Don't go anywhere, folks.

We're doing Night Light tonight.

It's Pete Chihuahua on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome to Radio Dirge.

I'm Pete Schwab, and this is Nightlight.

What was that, Zomers?

That's the main theme for the hit video game Baldur's Gate 3, which

all is based on D&D.

I knew it had some significance.

It had to be a fantasy type something.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, Zomers, that could have been the iron lung score as well.

It could have been.

It had a very similar feel to it.

All right, welcome back to Nightlight, folks.

I am Pete Schwab, and my guest is Greg Pragel.

He is a professor of acting at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and a very good actor himself.

Greg, I first became familiar with you.

I didn't even know my daughter had class with you because...

Until after I mentioned this film that I had seen you in at the Y-Week of Film Festival called Benefits, a short film where you bring a baby to work.

That

was kind of a fun film to do.

Yeah, absolutely.

The director and writer of it, Kevin Obsetz, wrote it.

He's with the communications media department here.

And we started collectively working together in class for acting technique on film and him working with his filming directors.

And we started collaborating.

And then he was like, hey, I have a project.

Do you want to do it and want to read it?

And I was like, yeah, so I read it.

And then we filmed it in two days.

and it is awesome and it's the best fun my daughter is the age one or so right it's great yeah so yeah so it's great

Oh, that's fun.

Yeah.

Does it have any more showings at festivals that you know of?

Is it

still kind of on that circle?

I think it's going around, but I don't, yes, there is one.

Oh, and I can't think of where it is, but it's in somewhere in Minneapolis or Minnesota is the next one.

Yeah.

But it is going around the film festivals right now.

And then I have another one, a new one that's going to start going around next month called Mort.

And it's all about this actuary who is visited by death and gets one more day to live before he passes.

And it's kind of like it's a wonderful life.

Comedy is kind of yeah dark comedy.

So yeah, yeah, love it.

Yeah,

that's awesome Alright, let's talk about some bigger projects.

You've done as well You were also you had a great role on Chicago fire a great credit as an actor I'm sure everybody wants to be on that one Chicago or a lawn order any Dick Wolf show is outstanding But you had a great spot with or a great scene with Christian Stalte His character who's a really good actor too.

What was that experience like

and

Incredible so so I get this co-star and sometimes co-stars can be no lines or one or two lines and you're gone I get two scenes.

There's a little bit of meat to it and flavor and I remember getting on on set with Christian and I'm just like my heart's racing I'm so excited my first co-star and we run the scene a couple times and we're just like bouncing off each other playing and Then we were sitting next to each other in the chairs while they readjusted the cameras and lights and I just took a deep breath and I said all right You're gonna break the ice

like just be be brave and just break the ice.

I said, Christian, you know, I know you've worked at Steppenwolf and Chicago.

It's one of the theaters that's a dream for me.

And I just want to say I love your work.

And we started talking.

And at the end of our scene in the end of the day, he was like, it was a pleasure working with you.

And you were actually listening to me.

You weren't just like spouting lines with some he was like, you know, no shade, but he was just like, some actors sometimes just say the words on the page.

And yeah, you really were like, we were

acting that scene together.

It was, and it was so much fun, Pete.

It was, yeah, I'll always remember that experience with him.

He's a great actor, great guy.

That is Greg Pragel who teaches acting at Stevens Point and is also an actor.

We're talking about his spot that he did recently on Chicago Fire.

It's so funny.

What I love about actors, Greg, is that Christian Stoltte looks like a total badass.

He's got that mustache.

He looks like a real hard ass.

I don't know him well at all.

I don't, I maybe met him once years ago, but.

just as kind of a nice gentle sort of guy,

right?

That's a

sign of a great actor.

Yes, totally.

He was so personable.

And, you know, I will say that, like, we forget this sometimes that our community is just trying to lift each other up and, like, nobody's looking to be, you know, cold or jerky, like, closed off.

So, um, yeah, it was a really warm, uh, inviting moment and, uh, reminded me that we're all in this together no matter what level we're at.

That's great.

Now you just have to do Chicago Med and PD, then you'll be all set.

I'll get my trifecta.

Exactly.

So, okay, the-

The play is called She Kills Monsters.

It opens next weekend in Stevens Point.

I know opening night is sold out.

If people wanted to hop in their car and go see this really fun show or if they live in the area, where can they find out more information and where can they get tickets, Greg?

Yeah, right at our website.

It's got all the information.

I'm looking at it right now at uwsp.edu.

And then you look in the theater department or the events calendar and right in the studio theater, February 27th through Saturday, March 7th.

We have one day where there's a double and it's Saturday, March 7th, 2 p.m.

And 7 30 and then also Sunday, March 1st is a 2 p.m.

Other than that, it's 7 30 each night.

Tickets are right there.

You can check them out $28, which is not a lot for what you're going to get.

Trust me, it's it's running about 130 135 with no intermission.

There's a lot of combat, a lot of heart to this story.

as well and a lot of comedy.

I promise you will laugh as well.

So come on out.

I love that.

Greg, before I let you go and break a leg, I hope the show crushes.

I'm sure it will.

Thanks.

What are you binge watching that you could share?

Are you and your wife or just you, are you guys binge watching anything that you've responded to?

We've got about 30 or 40

seconds.

Yeah.

With, you know, D&D being at the head of it, of course, we finish Stranger Things.

Yeah.

It's amazing and I won't spoil.

So it's fantastic.

And I know people have, you know, opinions on it.

But then we went back into an old one, which is alone.

We're back into like season 11 or something of Alone right now.

And what a wild show, Pete.

Like, oh my God, things I would ever do.

I gotta check that out.

I've heard it's very binge worthy.

It's

very binge worthy and and you root you root for the underdogs you root for everybody actually because it's just all about being human and surviving out there.

So yeah, it's great.

It's so funny.

You mentioned stranger things because I'm not I watched the first season with my son when he was in high school and now it's like he and Kate were home and we watched it over the holidays the way they dropped it was weird and I didn't know what the hell was going on.

I was purely there just to hang with the kids.

You can relate to this.

I'm sure and I'm like we had this shared experience.

I still needed to explain to me.

Greg, thank you so much, my friend.

It was great to meet you, and

good

luck with She Kills Monsters.

It's going to be fantastic.

Thank you.

I'll see you at the show.

All right, you got it.

That's

great,

Greg.

Well, folks, check out She Kills Monsters at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

We are coming right back after news, sports, and weather.

It's a great night here at Nightlight.

Glad you're here.

Broadcasting

live statewide from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba, your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who binge watches TV for a living but doesn't get paid, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back.

Welcome welcome welcome.

It is great to have you here with me at night light as we kick off our number two also known as act two We are jamming through a Thursday night a popcorn pick of the week Thursday night folks Daniel Wheeler is here tonight to make the popcorn pick of the week that is coming up in just about 30 minutes Afternoon sports and weather at the bottom of the hour He will be here to give us a movie pick and he's a guy who knows movies so you won't want to miss that

That's exciting.

That's coming up this hour.

We're going to talk cigars in just a few minutes with my next guest, too, who is the owner, one of the owners of Appleton Cigar, Norm Kepesky.

He's got some cool stuff coming up and always fun stuff happening at Appleton Cigar.

We'll talk about that with Norm.

Lots of fun.

You know, Zomers, that was great with Greg Pragel.

I

love that interview.

Oh, me too.

You know, I've always been into Dungeons & Dragons and the way that he talked about it, the more I learned about that production, the more excited I am.

You know,

it's

got cool costumes, it has choreographed fight scenes, it has puppetry and the kind of stuff that I love about, you know, learning about filmmaking is all the effects and the, you know, the puppets like

Star

Wars, reading about watching stuff about the...

the props, the costumes, the puppets and everything, watching somebody with their hand up salacious crime gull and make it laugh.

And it's just iconic.

So, yeah, I

I definitely want to see that.

I don't.

I'm excited to see it for obvious reasons.

I have a separate interest as well because my daughter is in the show, but I love talking about that stuff.

And I wish people or I hope people take advantage when they have access to great theater, even if it's on a college campus, if it's still in your community, absolutely pounce on it, folks.

So lots of good stuff.

We've got great guests tonight, folks.

At this time, I think we should reintroduce, Erin, if you would, our question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

OK, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Here, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

Oh, yeah.

Tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, is National Tartar Sauce Day.

Not Tater Sauce, like I accidentally said in the first hour.

National Tartar Sauce Day.

So our question of the night is, what is your favorite sauce?

And we've got some good ones.

We'll get to your texts in just a few moments.

But share with us, please, your favorite sauce at 855-752-4842-855-75 Civic.

And be part of the show.

It's always more fun when you guys jump in and hang with us and, you know, we discuss like people.

What did you say again, Zomers?

I didn't.

I'm really good at doing that.

Oh, you put it

off.

I gave you time to think of it.

I think I'm going to go with sweet chili sauce, like a Thai sweet chili sauce.

Very good.

Oh, wow.

Yes.

I just had those with, I think it was just fast food, too.

It was like, I got poppers or something.

Oh, yeah.

That's the sauce they gave you to dip it, and it was dynamite.

I said a hickory barbecue sauce.

Is up there as well tzatziki sauce Dave said that on the stream.

There's all kinds of great sauces We'll delve more into that as the show goes on coming up in just a couple minutes folks norm Kepesky from Appleton cigar will be here We're gonna talk to norm about some of the cool stuff happening at Appleton cigar and And then an act or I'm sorry at 635 will make the popcorn pick of the week with local actor and artist Daniel Wheeler

He is gonna come by and give us his, he's gonna tell us about this really cool movie he's in, a short film.

We've discussed it on the show before.

It just got accepted in a pretty big film festival.

So we'll tell you about that.

Daniel is also gonna give us a really cool movie pick that we can take into the weekend with us.

And then in act three, Mike Schmidt, host of the 40 year old boy podcast and a very funny comedian will be here as well.

I'm gonna see if I can get him to tell the story that he told.

a couple years ago on this show about playing basketball against girls, and it's really funny.

But we'll talk about bad guys we love as well when it comes to movies.

So all kinds of fun stuff here tonight.

The question of the night, please be part of the show, answer the question, and we will be off to the races, folks.

Yeah, right

now we have a phone call on the question.

What do we have?

We

have

Ollie in the Northwoods.

Oh, Ollie.

How are you tonight, Ollie?

It was a food question, so I had a feeling we might hear from you.

Well, I think somebody else already stole my answer, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

Um, first off, I'm not much into...

Oh.

...sauce.

Sorry, I'll cut it out for a second.

Yeah.

What was the sauce?

I said, I said I'm not much into cigars, but I do like me a smoking hot wing sauce.

Ooh, that's a good one.

It is, it is.

Do you have a favorite or do you make it homemade,

Ali?

I kind of jazzed up Frank's wing sauce, but I really like it a lot and I like it hot.

That is, wow, that's great.

That's great stuff.

I like the Frank's.

I like a good, what's the sauce?

I can't think of it.

It was all the rage at all the Thai places just a couple of years ago.

Not Tzatziki.

Anyway, that's a great answer, Ollie.

Thank you so

much for the call.

It's wonderful on hamburgers too.

I love to just put it on a...

like a hamburger with some kind of white cheese, provolone or a white cheddar.

That's really delicious.

That's what I love about Ali.

She does a deep dive and does her homework.

That is awesome.

Thank you very much, my friend.

Have a great night, Ali.

You guys have a good night.

Bye-bye.

All right, you too.

Why can't I think of that?

It's a red sauce.

It's very hot.

It was all the rage.

I'm totally blanking.

It's on every table now.

Sriracha?

Sriracha.

That's right.

It's weird because I liked sriracha.

When I discovered sriracha, it kind of changed my life.

And then it just, like, after a year, I'm kind of like, eh, I don't need it anymore.

I'm kind of eh on it.

Like, it's a good option to have, but I think there are other hot sauces I like more.

Like, I like chulula.

That one's pretty good.

Yeah, exactly.

Chulula's great.

So, all right.

Well, let us know, folks.

Share your texts with us, if you would.

We've got Casey James on the stream.

He's watching on YouTube.

He says, Frank's red hot sauce.

I put that SH blank blank on everything.

A lot of people do, Casey.

That's a great text.

Thank you, sir.

We've got this is a new guy.

I don't I don't know what what can I say of this of this screen names?

Let's say Richard fan.

Let's call him Rick, Rick, Rick fan.

All right.

Rick stuck in a ceiling fan.

Richard stuck in a ceiling fan.

You can kind of disseminate like what the screen name might be, but we can't really say it on the air.

So he says, yum yum sauce and pink sauce outstanding.

Love that on egg rolls.

Awesome stuff.

Richard stuck in a ceiling fan.

Also says, Pete, astral projected into your car the other day and dinged it.

Very rude.

What does that mean?

That's a whole deep dive thing.

Basically, astral projection is like meditating and teleporting in your mind.

I don't know.

It's a whole thing.

I don't get it.

I need clarification, Richard, stuck in ceiling fan, if that is your real name.

He also says cannot believe the Godfather of Green Bay is advertised on here, but you still refuse to mention the solid gold in At the room is

what the movie the room.

Oh Okay, I you know you're welcome to share that Richard stuck in ceiling fan noted All right, we are waiting to get our guest Norm Kepesky into the show.

Do we have him?

Is he coming on the stream Aaron?

Do we know?

That's what he said.

I do not see him yet

Okay, we'll keep you posted we like Jones in for some cigar talk, but we've got the popcorn pick of the week coming up in about 20 minutes with our pal Daniel Wheeler as well I want to share this because this is historic today Zomers, and I share this with you as well.

You know what the 21st anniversary is today?

The I do

because you told me the first video

on YouTube

This blows my mind how did that even happen?

Like I know YouTube is a thing, but how did this guy who posted this video about elephants?

He's at a zoo He posted the first video to YouTube Somebody had to be first I get that But how is it this dude and he's not I

don't know.

He's not like an influencer or anything.

Do you want to hear the video?

Yeah, let's play it

Just a guy at the zoo in front of the elephants.

Just a guy with

the elephant.

Was he trying to make a joke there about the trunks or something?

I don't know.

I don't know.

It's not it's not any great video to look at.

Like it's very bizarre.

I think if I had to guess, I think it just exists out for the purpose of making a video because he knew he was going to be able to upload it to the website as a test.

So he's just like, all right, I'm at the zoo.

I'll take a video.

Yeah.

But he must have I almost feel like he's a guy that maybe knew Something was going on or like a friend of a YouTube creator.

I think so.

I think so.

Yeah.

All right, we've got this is exciting folks I love love love talking about cigars and it only started recently with one of our great sponsors here and he is a solid dude in many ways and he is one of the owners of Appleton cigar and he has become one of my favorite guests over the last couple years Mr. Norm Kepesky joins us now over the stream.

Hey, buddy

Hey, good evening, Pete.

How's it going?

I think we have a little bit of a delay.

You guys hear me?

There we go.

It's going great.

It's going great.

Perfect.

How about

yourself?

Doing very well.

Hey, I have to ask you, I know we have a lot to talk about regarding Appleton Cigar, but do you have a favorite sauce norm?

I'm kind of a fan of the Taco Bell hot sauce.

Oh, nice.

Easily accessible.

I love it.

Norm, it's great to have you here.

It's interesting.

I went to your website today because I was looking at the upcoming events and it said I had to click that I was 21.

Now, I get that you got to follow rules

and

their regulations and all that kind of stuff.

Shouldn't people be able to smoke a cigar when they're 18?

I'm in favor of that.

If you can go to war for our country and 18, you should be able to smoke a cigar or drink a beer at 18.

Totally agree.

I could not agree more.

Let me see what I can do.

I'll make a few phone calls, Norm.

We've got Norm.

Do we have a bit of a delay, Aaron?

Should we call Norm?

Yeah, it seems

like it.

Yeah.

Let's see if we can.

I will

shortly.

We'll figure that out.

OK, perfect.

Sounds good.

All right.

So should I just keep going in the meantime, Aaron?

Or do you want to give him a call?

Yeah, we got about a minute.

a minute.

Oh, that's not enough time.

Okay.

So we're going to tell you guys all about, we're going to get Norm on the phone, but in the meantime, we're going to tell you, or when Norm comes back, we're going to tell you about some really cool events coming up at Appleton Cigar.

If you are someone who likes cribbage or Texas Hold'em tournaments, you got to hear what we're about to talk about because it's going to be a lot of fun and there's a big event coming up.

and including something on March 11th.

I think sounds really fun.

Cigars and guitars.

All kinds of fun stuff happening with our pal Norm Kepesky at Appleton Cigar and we're going to get into all of it after this very short break.

This is Nightlight with Peach Waba.

I'm glad you're here folks.

We're coming right back.

Welcome back.

I'm Pete Schwab.

This is Nightlight.

We are making the popcorn pick of the week that is coming up just after new sports and weather.

Our pal Daniel Wheeler will make the pick right now.

We've got precious few minutes here with our pal Norm Kepesky after some technical issues.