Mike Siegel on Comedy, Stand-Up & Life on the Road (Hour 1)

Transcript

Mike Siegel on Comedy, Stand-Up & Life on the Road (Hour 1)

Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Fri May 1, 2026

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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

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

From Washington to Hollywood and right back to Wisconsin.

It's Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Connecting the dots on the stories shaping our world with smart takes, sharp humor, and plenty of personality.

You know, I really expected more professional behavior from you.

It's news and culture without the noise.

Yeah, come on!

Here's Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Dude!

Pete Schwaba

Welcome to nightlight ladies and gentlemen It is Friday.

You made it.

We all made it.

We're still here and We've got a lot to talk about tonight.

This is nightlight with peach wabba and Greg block on the civic media network Dom Lee is working the board in Madison and It's good to see you guys on this Friday.

How we doing

doing pretty good doing pretty good I mean, I I'm going to a Mexican restaurant after this and I am so excited.

I'm gonna have

I'm gonna have real food.

I'm just very excited.

It's gonna be it's a nice.

It's a nice Friday.

Greg Bach

It's a way you said that I'm going

to a

Greg Bach

Mexican restaurant.

I'm going to a Mexican,

Greg Bach

you know

Pete Schwaba

Your first time or you'd never even like you're venturing into uncharted

waters, you know, I haven't gone in so long So I haven't gone to

really

not many restaurants like a sit-down restaurant I haven't really gone to many sit-down restaurants.

So this is gonna be this is gonna be new for me

Pete Schwaba

The nice thing is you don't need reservations or a title challenge.

You can just walk right in and

Greg Bach

that's exciting.

I'm good for you.

Yeah.

Can we like, uh, how do you say big arch in Spanish?

Pete Schwaba

Greg, you were a little cranky before the show and I don't

Greg Bach

air my dirty laundry to the world.

I'm

Pete Schwaba

fine.

Speaking of laundry.

I'll tell, actually, I'll

Greg Bach

tell you, I'm going to, I'm going to talk more about that.

Why am I, I'm a touch cranky.

in our big stories.

Cause one of the stories has to do with me being cranky.

So, but yeah, it's just, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's a day and it's not a bad day.

It's not a great day.

It's just the day, but at the end of it, I got to sit back and take note, take stock and be grateful

for what I

Greg Bach

do have.

It's true.

And that's not a grading card type of thing to say, or people are like, it is what it is, whatever.

I don't like that saying at all.

But I have a lot to be grateful for, a lot to be thankful for.

So when I go home tonight after the show, and honestly, and I'm not kidding you, I can be very, very moody sometimes.

And when I come here and do the show with the two of you and listen to everything that people have to say to us, I always walk away happier.

There

Pete Schwaba

you go.

That is not lip service.

Greg Bach

You know what, Tom?

Serious.

Pete Schwaba

Our little domers.

I'm sorry.

It was good.

It was good.

It was.

Well, time.

But I agree with what you're saying.

There were times when I, whether it was this iteration of the show or the previous one, when I go on the air, honestly, I don't know if it's what we're talking about or the listeners or techs,

but

Pete Schwaba

we're just hanging out with you guys.

It can really bully your spirits.

So to speak.

I hear what you're saying.

Boat talk.

Wow.

Pete Schwaba

Someone lives on a lake.

I'm wearing my top side.

I am not a boatsman.

I want to make that very clear.

I don't the water does not do it for me.

I'm not an outdoorsy guy.

I'm not a hunter.

I'm not a fisher.

I'm not a boater and I live in the capital of all those things.

It's very bizarre.

Greg Bach

I know I'm actually none of those things either.

Although I would love to be a boatman.

I would love to have a pontoon boat, but that's for another discussion someday.

Pete Schwaba

I

Greg Bach

would love to have a pontoon.

It's the only boat worth having in my opinion.

Pete Schwaba

I'm making out of that Christmas grab that on

Greg Bach

the can you put that in the budget for next year like when we're you know when we're Syndicated to 38 cities and I'll have pontoon money

Even if I okay, but here's how I am as a human being I don't know about the two of you But let's say in an alternate universe or just let's say in a year's time.

Oh my gosh nightlight with Pete and Greg is just it's just it's a it's a smash fire sensation It's across the country.

We are you know, and they're just like hey, how much how much do we make the check for cash out to?

If I had disposable income enough for a pontoon boat, I would probably not still not buy it

Well, you just said you want to one why

Pete Schwaba

why

Greg Bach

why there's a lot of things I

want

Greg Bach

and even though I have a mind I have the money to have a mind I still sit there and go That's I should should save my money Yeah, put it away invest it pay off bills pay down this do this just make sure you know it's I'm not I'm I am awful ask my wife I am awful with spending money on myself if I want to buy something it takes me a solid One to six weeks to do it to bring myself into a place like all right.

I can do this.

I'm fine

And I still then go through a little bit of, of remorse.

Pete Schwaba

Dude, that, that is really crazy because I'm like that too.

Like even when I need something, I researched the living daylights out of this.

Then I, then I pause, then

I

Pete Schwaba

wait like a week to make sure I, it's really weird.

And I, that's really interesting.

You say that I'm the exact same way.

I'm going to share something with you guys here now.

If you'll allow me to pivot.

I threw away six pairs of underpants today.

Can we get that

Greg Bach

on again?

Can we get that off?

Pete Schwaba

It's not an awe or cute moment in any way though.

Are you curious why I threw them away?

Greg Bach

No,

Pete Schwaba

we're moving

Greg Bach

on to the question.

You're already

Pete Schwaba

feeling better,

Greg Bach

buddy.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, go

Pete Schwaba

ahead.

Tell us.

These were new underpants, okay?

Here's my issue.

I don't do boxers.

I don't do boxer briefs.

I had to get something new.

And I bought this underwear.

It was on sale at TJ Maxx.

I always go discount underwear because it used to be name brand.

It was called Pappy.

P-A-P-I, which means father or dad in Spanish.

Pappy.

It's not Pappy.

It's Pappy.

It's Pappy.

That's how you pronounce it?

Greg Bach

Oh, Pappy.

Pete Schwaba

But it means the same thing, right?

Yeah.

It means father.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that was on the box.

I said, okay, I can work with this.

I'll throw the box out.

It kind of grossed me out.

Every pair of underwear had poppy on the front elastic.

I'm like,

I can't wear

Greg Bach

these.

So what?

Who cares?

Why?

Why?

Where are you going out in the world where someone goes, like, hey, what is your underwear?

I say, nobody knows.

You

just threw

Greg Bach

away underwear that was perfectly fine because of people assuming you had a Spanish word on it.

I

Pete Schwaba

don't know.

I have nothing to do with if it said, you know, Casa on it.

That'd be great.

But the daddy thing, the father thing, I don't like that.

I didn't like it on my underwear.

And I thought if I take a header off my bike or something and somebody finds me, oh, he was a weirdo.

So I got, I just had to chuck them.

I can't do it.

I don't like the word daddy.

And it

Greg Bach

just

Pete Schwaba

grossed me

Greg Bach

out.

We're going deeper into this and I thought we were going to.

First

Greg Bach

of all, you're bringing out the old, you know, wear some clean underwear before you go out a gambit there.

Why didn't you just donate them?

Like underwear?

I mean if it's clean and

I like my fruit of why it would have been my fruit of the loom I really like it's sturdy.

I mean

Greg Bach

I

mean I

Greg Bach

mean like the thing is is if that same thing happened to me they'd like to be like hey this guy likes to you know rope steer because mine say wrangle around them but I don't have a problem but Craig that's better that's not

Pete Schwaba

like a

It's suggestive word in any way.

Like here comes daddy with my poppy underwear.

It was just weird.

I can't I can't wear those

Greg Bach

I Gotta look this up now Because like it's only weird because you're making it weird

And it would only be

weird

Greg Bach

for real, yes, it would only be weird for real if you walked around the world with your underwear on.

And then if people said, why does it say poppy?

And then you were like, why are you looking at my underwear?

Like no one would know.

And you just threw away six good pieces of clothing.

If you're

Pete Schwaba

a

Greg Bach

saggy,

you know.

Pete Schwaba

It cost ten bucks.

So I was sort of

They're trying to sample different underwear and I do that at Ross or TJ

Greg Bach

Maxx.

Oh boy.

I just looked I made a mistake and Google that.

Holy God.

Bad idea.

What?

Well, no, it's I put in poppy PAPI underwear and I thought that would be the name brand instead other images showed up.

So I'm just saying that right now.

So if they ever look and see why my search history looks like this, they know it was for professional reasons, but

Yeah, still, I don't know, man.

It's a joke.

Hey, that's a stand-up joke right there.

Write that down.

Pete Schwaba

Write that down.

I

Greg Bach

love my wife

Pete Schwaba

or... Honestly, if it said I

Greg Bach

love my wife, I'd actually be more weirded out because it's like those when you see those bumper stickers that say, I love my wife.

I'm like, what did you do?

Instead of flowers, you just put a bumper sticker because you screwed up real hard there

Pete Schwaba

Ralph.

That's great.

Oh my goodness.

I just had to get that off my chest because I did feel bad throwing away perfectly good underpants.

But I just, I don't know.

That was weird.

And you've seen what they look like now, Greg.

So you're with me.

No, I don't

Greg Bach

think, actually, I don't know what they look like because what showed up on my search was not what I think you would be wearing.

Not

Greg Bach

at all.

My descriptions are barely FCC compliant.

So we'll just go ahead.

Greg Bach

Yeah.

Yeah, there you go.

Hey, just go on Amazon.

That's what I do.

I do the same thing.

I do the same thing.

Yeah.

I found

Pete Schwaba

a

Greg Bach

winner.

Pete Schwaba

I'm happy now.

Greg Bach

Dana in La Crosse listening in says 15 minutes of underwear talk.

Great show guys.

I don't know.

Dana, is that sarcasm or are you really riveted by our underpants discussions?

But, you know, Hey, this is our show and we do what we want to do.

Pete Schwaba

All right.

We're not afraid to tackle.

We're not afraid to tackle the tough subject.

Greg Bach

Dana, I'm sorry if that offends you.

Yeah, exactly.

We're living our lives.

Journey, journeying our journey.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Pete Schwaba

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

Pete Schwaba

All right, we got a good one tonight, folks.

What is one of your favorite lyrics from a song?

Like, I'm one of those people, I like great voice, great instrument or musicians, all that kind of stuff, but I love...

song writing.

I love great lyrics and a voice with soul.

You don't have to be Pavarotti.

I mean,

my

Pete Schwaba

favorite is Bruce Springsteen.

He doesn't have a technically beautiful voice or anything, but it's got soul.

I love passion.

Passion.

Exactly.

So what is one of your favorite lyrics from a song?

Yeah, I think that's a lot of fun to that

Greg Bach

one.

Absolutely.

Got a lot of comment.

I got a lot of comments on my own Facebook page here.

So we're going to have a lot of great stuff.

So folks, yeah, if you're out there right now.

Drop your favorite lyrics right now on the live stream, on the texta to us.

Let us know.

You can email it in, Pete.

They can email us.

Do it.

How do they do that, Greg?

They'd email us, N-I-T-E-L-I-T, nightlight at civicmedia.us.

You can do that right now.

You can also, here's the thing too, folks, you can send us your thoughts on four, like a movie club.

You know,

our

Greg Bach

suggestions on the movie club, which we do every Thursday.

And Pete, do we have an announcement regarding that as well?

That's called

Pete Schwaba

a segment that

Greg Bach

I did not get out very well.

Pete Schwaba

No, it was

Greg Bach

great.

Pete Schwaba

We have our senior producer, Tucker, who we're all really starting to like.

I think we have to admit Tucker's a pretty good guy.

Yeah.

Pete's really starting to like him.

So it's Tucker's turn to pick.

He went Ghostbusters.

I think that's a fantastic choice.

We're doing

Greg Bach

what's really funny too is like.

Two weeks ago, I gave blood and at the blood center, they're always playing like classic movies and they were playing Ghostbusters and I

was done.

Greg Bach

My wife was still going, but I was done.

And I'm like, I'm just going to sit here and watch the movie for a while.

That's

Pete Schwaba

awesome.

Oh, that's great.

See, I never

Greg Bach

get that lucky when I'm waiting for

Pete Schwaba

something.

Hey, let's get to what we've got a couple of a few news stories here.

Like we always do three of them would be exact.

Let's get the first one out of here because I'm very excited about this one.

Yeah.

The

Pete Schwaba

first big story.

Well, as many of you know, I am from Christmas City, USA.

I live in Marinette, Wisconsin.

And one of my native brethren, sisters, siblings, whatever you want to call her, Kaylee Francois, I hope I'm saying that right, or Francis, is set for a prominent Kentucky Derby role.

This was on NBC 26 in Green Bay.

I had no idea there was a Marinette resident who used to be a jockey.

But now she does content and she does hosting and all kinds of stuff.

Um, and she's working with twins fires to bring exclusive Kentucky Derby content with trainers, jockeys owners.

I cannot wait to see what she does.

I can't wait to try to get her on the show.

I think it's cool.

I never

Greg Bach

talked to a jockey, Greg.

Neither have I.

Pete Schwaba

I mean,

Greg Bach

I, I, I own jockey underwear, but I don't talk to it.

So it doesn't really count.

See, I just, that's a callback under our callback.

Pete Schwaba

I had some, I threw them away.

That's, that's,

Greg Bach

that's, that's the, that's the mind of a great comedian.

No one to get rid of material.

Pete Schwaba

Hey, it's cotton.

It's, it's material nonetheless.

Um, so anyway, I thought that was really cool.

Kayleigh, I hope you crush it at the Kentucky Derby, whether it's content or whatever you're doing and please come on nightlight.

I will reach out.

She was in the local four H club for God's sakes and her father knows

Greg Bach

horses.

Pete Schwaba

She knows horses, and she's crushing it.

So go get them, Kaylee, the most exciting two minutes in sports.

Hey, folks, we got a couple more things we got to get to, and we'll do that after this very short break.

This is Nightlight

Kathryn Lake

with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

Pete Schwaba

Welcome back.

This is Nightlight with Peach Wabba and Greg Bach.

We have some great texts.

Maybe we'll wait till Mike is here and we'll read a few of these texts.

I don't know what I started here.

But anyway, I am Peach Wabba, sitting or joining you from Northeast Wisconsin.

Just down the coast for me is Greg Bach, the human thumb.

The human.

We'll just

Greg Bach

leave it at the human.

Pete Schwaba

The what?

What'd you call me?

And he got lots of words.

Um, the human dictionary.

I've

Greg Bach

got the biggest brain.

Yeah.

Pete Schwaba

Yeah.

Greg Bach

Totally.

Pete Schwaba

So

Greg Bach

marketable.

So marketable.

Uh, Pete, we forgot to mention

Pete Schwaba

something

Greg Bach

before.

Go ahead,

Pete Schwaba

Greg.

You mentioned it.

Greg Bach

Uh, it is Friday and that can only mean one thing.

And that means we are in casual Friday.

Dom hit it.

Pete Schwaba

That is outstanding.

Thank you guys.

So

Greg Bach

relaxing.

Pete Schwaba

It is.

I can't believe we have an hour and a half more of radio to do because I just want to crawl into bed in my final sheets.

Tonight's question, folks, is what is one of your favorite lyrics from a song?

Or you could share a couple.

I shared a couple on Facebook.

Let's celebrate some good songwriting tonight.

But first, let's get to a couple more.

Oh, we have a guest too.

Mike Siegel will be here in just a few minutes, folks.

He is the

He was was the host of movie break on TBS.

He's been in the movie traffic He's hosted if walls could talk what you get for the money and he was on Byron Allen's comics unleashed last week So we'll talk to him about that.

He will be here after the news Very excited to talk to my pal Mike, but right now we've got a couple more news stories to get to on this casual Friday

Greg Bach

This one coming out of people.com I love this story because it just kind of one it The setting is a place where we've all been if you've flown where you are sitting on a plane You are delayed and you're frustrated.

You know that you can't go anywhere Well one man sitting in Chicago waiting to get to his destination decided he couldn't take it anymore He got up and wanted to open the door

And the folks were very much on board with these.

He had a lot of, he had a lot of supporters.

They were basically, they were flying from Atlanta.

They don't even actually say where they were flying to, it says.

I thought they were, they were in Atlanta, but it's irrelevant.

Pete Schwaba

I mean,

Greg Bach

the

Pete Schwaba

guy is just,

Greg Bach

they, so they were, they, they, they were flying from Atlanta, but then they had to be grounded in Chicago for weather problems.

And so they were, they were delayed.

This guy didn't want to take it anymore.

So he decided he was going to open up the door and leave.

Well, and there's a video that goes along with this.

And what I love is the back and forth.

So he said loudly, how long have we been delayed already?

Three, four hours.

And now you're talking in an hour.

Get me to the gate.

I want off or I will take myself off.

Well, he decided he was going to do that.

And this is what I love is the, the attendant says,

Oh my god, who are you?

And the entire, not the people on the plane goes, doesn't matter.

And the guy goes, doesn't matter exactly.

Do you know who matters?

Me.

I told you idiots.

And then-

Pete Schwaba

Whoa.

Greg Bach

The captain gets involved, but not coming into the room, not coming into the cabin.

He just gets on his air phone and goes, sir, sir, this is the captain.

Hey, sir, sir, this is the captain speaking.

We are going back to the gate right now.

And he just responds with, yeah, good idea.

Here's my favorite part of the story.

We don't know where they were flying.

And they don't even say what happened to the guy.

They just left it as like, no one wanted to mess with this dude.

And he was, he was over it.

Pete Schwaba

Wow.

Greg Bach

Yeah.

We've all been there.

You're like, just go back.

Let us sit in the terminal.

Pete Schwaba

You sympathize with the guy.

Absolutely.

I agree with you, and I sympathize with this guy, but yeah, delays suck.

We get it.

I've been stuck.

Same thing.

Probably four hours is my

record,

and it's awful, and you're claustrophobic, and it's terrible, and you still haven't even done the flight yet.

It's awful, but he just made it worse for everybody else,

Greg Bach

it seems like.

They got, they, they, they said the plane was carrying 168 passengers was taxi back to the gate and the man was moved by security.

They didn't save whether he was arrested, charged or anything.

It was investigated by, it was investigated by maintenance.

They left later that evening, but he, him not, him doing it honestly doesn't really dictate whether or not they, I mean, four hours.

And actually he said they

Pete Schwaba

were going on

Greg Bach

five.

Pete Schwaba

Thank God for my man.

I just love

Greg Bach

it.

Who are you?

Doesn't

Pete Schwaba

matter.

It could really find out too.

Let's get to

our third big story.

Okay, Greg, this is from talker.

One word can pretty much describe how Americans feel.

It's almost a consensus here in 2026.

We're only four months in, about to enter, just entered our fifth month.

Stressful.

Really?

Why would that be the word?

Just because of an unnecessary war, crazy high gas prices or inflation, pedophiles running amok at our highest levels of government in corporate America?

I don't know.

Why don't you

Greg Bach

just relax, America?

God, as the kids say, take a chill pill.

Totally that was part like you know I said you you mentioned it earlier one of the reasons why I was just kind of in a cruddy mood is like I passed the gas station today and there's two stations in Kenosha it's 449 now I know that for some people out like whether it's New York or California other states they're like oh big deal well it is a big deal 449 is a lot and in Wisconsin we are way above the national average and it just really stressed me out plus I also and this sounds like just such a whatever problem but

like our dog groomer really raised their prices and now it's like nearly a hundred bucks just to get her a bath and a cut like I'm like I guess I'm gonna learn how to do this

stuff myself

Greg Bach

because I just I'm I cannot like it it released because because those are just two examples of other things that are going up in price and they're becoming more and more expensive and we're just trying to live a regular life that's so that's why I came in kind of hot this afternoon before the show because I'm like

How

Pete Schwaba

often do you, does your dog, do you do that?

Do you pay for her to have a bath or him?

Greg Bach

I mean, her, her name is Maybell.

Um, you know, I don't know, like in, in a few times a quarter, we do the bathing

ourselves, but yeah, we do

the bathing ourselves, but like for, for the, for the, the

Pete Schwaba

grooming.

Yeah.

It's

Greg Bach

just, it's just frustrating.

Pete Schwaba

The news is coming up next, folks.

Then Mike Siegel joins us.

I am Pete Schwabbe.

He's Greg Bach.

And this is Nightlight on the Civic Media Network.

Welcome back.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabbe and Greg Bach coming to you live on the Civic Media Network.

Mike Siegel joins us in just a moment.

We have some texts here.

I just have to read these because of my underpants discussion.

You're right.

John Murray.

Came in hot Greg.

He said, uh, first of all, he said, get the boat and live your life.

I should clarify.

I don't want a boat.

I don't like he may been

Greg Bach

talking to me about it too,

Pete Schwaba

but a

Greg Bach

use pontoon boat runs about 20 to 35 grand.

Pete Schwaba

Wow.

Yeah.

No, thank you.

Um, John also says, don't wait.

It's stupid.

Getting old happens really fast.

Okay.

Then he says you will have a whole new set of geezer excuses, not two.

And he says, like Peter's excuses.

Oh boy.

All right, John.

And then Brett says, Oh my God, P to M with you.

That's weird to have on your underwear.

And yes, throw it out because who the heck is buying used underwear?

So there you go.

You

Greg Bach

weren't buying.

Pete Schwaba

No, I bought it new, but I threw it away because

Greg Bach

there might be folks out there who need something.

Pete Schwaba

But join the fun folks.

Let us know what your favorite song lyric is.

We're celebrating songwriting tonight here on Nightlight.

And with that in mind, we will bring in, and this is Casual Friday.

I have to read

it.

We're all, I have a shirt with a collar on, but I panicked at the last moment and put that on, but it's still Casual Friday.

Let's welcome our first and only guest of the night on Casual Friday.

He is an actor, a TV host and a comedian.

He is the former host of if walls could talk what you get for the money.

And probably every other HGTV show he joins us now over the stream.

He also hosts a great podcast called travel tales, Mike Siegel.

Hey buddy, how are you?

Hey, Pete.

How are this is the most, uh, Wisconsin discussion that I've walked into underpants and pontoon boats.

That's what I walk into right here.

This is a very casual Friday.

Greg Bach

Right now in a tavern in Wisconsin somewhere over a fish fry.

That having the exact same discussion.

That's

Greg Bach

what's happening.

Pete Schwaba

Why is the underwear?

I don't know.

They love their

underwear.

Pete Schwaba

They said I bought underwear that said Pappy on the box.

And I think that's weird, but I thought I'll throw the box away.

But then I get each individual pair said

Pappy or poppy right on the elastic.

I can't I can't walk around like that

First of all, where are you walking around that people are gonna see your underwear?

Pete Schwaba

I'm one of the guys you know the guys at the Y. I don't want to embarrass We

Greg Bach

can just take we can just take a marker and just mark out the eye and just put E E Y E and be like Popeye

Yeah, it's not weird at all.

No.

Pete Schwaba

Oh, but

Greg Bach

throwing away underwear because you're self-conscious is totally weird.

Are the pappies comfortable at least?

Are

they?

No, they weren't

Pete Schwaba

particularly.

I might have

Pete Schwaba

chucked them anyway, even

if it said.

We talking a boxer brief or is it a boxer?

Yeah, what

Pete Schwaba

was it?

It was a low-rise bikini.

Low-rise bikini.

Pete Schwaba

They weren't good old-fashioned briefs, you know, which I hadn't worn in 30 years, but you know.

Greg Bach

Oh, no,

Pete Schwaba

Greg.

They were tidy.

Uh, one was yellow.

One was a hot pink.

One was blue.

One was black.

One was gray.

And then yeah, I'm really upset.

You threw all of these out.

It could have been Christmas tree ornaments or something in Christmas

Greg Bach

city.

USA in

Pete Schwaba

Christmas city.

USA.

Exactly.

Mike, how the heck are you?

Welcome to the show, buddy.

I'm doing good.

Pete.

Thanks for, uh, thanks for having me.

It's always a pleasure and congrats on the new show here.

Pete Schwaba

Yeah, thanks.

And this is your first time on our new version.

So it's great that we get that out of the way.

But I wanted to ask you, you had this great spot.

It was very funny on Byron Allen Comics Unleashed.

Here's my thing with Byron Allen.

I know a lot of people that are co-bearer fans probably aren't thrilled that he's going to be the new host.

He's buying the time.

It's kind of a weird thing.

I actually have a lot of admiration for Byron Allen.

The guy went around with a microphone and a video thing and he's worth a billion dollars now just putting all of his things he's recorded on TV.

It's pretty cool.

So my first run in with Byron, it was not run in, but I mean, so he basically got started.

Well, he knew I'll back it up.

So it was about 20 years ago when I'm hosting my show, TBS Movie Extra on TBS.

And I did a lot of

film junkets, a lot of movie junkets.

So we would go and this one happened to be in Miami.

So I'm flying back from Miami and we are sat together.

And at this point, he only had a syndicated show that was basically, I think it was called like celebrities with Byron Allen or kicking it with Byron Allen.

It was

basically

any and I

On the on the flight back, he kind of gave me his whole spiel.

You know, we kind of met and talk.

He found out I was a comic, you know, he started out as a comic.

And but he kept bringing up things like, yeah, I was on this.

He said, yeah, I was in the 70s.

I was on the show real people.

I go, yeah, I know who you are.

I know who you are.

And then he'd bring it up and then I did this.

Yeah, I know who you are, Byron.

OK.

But then.

But basically his I don't know what his connection was.

Maybe he knew some.

Uh, publicists or something, but he got into these junkets, which were all free to press, you know, they're all in a hotel.

So whenever anybody out there sees an interview with a celebrity and the poster for the movie that they're plugging is behind them, that's usually that it's a free press junket.

So, uh, you're led into a room, they have two cameras set up, three, sometimes if they have a two shot and one on me, one on him.

And you go in there, you get five minutes into the room.

And you ask your, you know, whatever.

So tell me what it was like working with Tom Hanks and you get your answers and blah, blah, blah.

They give you a press kit with clips of the movie and they send you home to your affiliate and Tulsa or wherever you're from.

And that was it.

So he would get into all these and just get all the footage, which is all free and cobbled the show together and went and sold it as an independent producer.

And his deal back then he told me I think he would go to what there's a convention called natby, which is basically television producers Have these conventions and people from affiliates all over the country syndicators and everything they If you run the we'll go back to Tulsa again if you run the you know channel 8 in Tulsa and you're the program director You need stuff to put on the air so they go and buy shows they'll buy you know old sitcom reruns or whatever

And his deal was he would go and just give, he says, I'll give you the show for free.

And we just split the advertising.

So that's how we did it.

And so he got, and people were just like, well, we'll take free programming and we need some stuff to show it to in the morning.

And we can sell it's either him or Infomercials.

Infomercial, yeah.

Which with infomercials, you would get all your money up front, the station, but nobody really watched them.

But you would get all your money up front, but it makes your kind of station look like

you're showing

infomercials So this was a way for them to put programming on that was free to them And you could go to the local pizza joint and say hey you want to buy time

or

whatever So he did this all around the country and that's where he first got He built up his empire and now it truly is an empire.

I mean it

is yeah amazing But this model that he's doing like he's buying two hours of

This was a deal that like a small, maybe cable network would do late at night, not CBS.

So that should tell you where the television industry is

going.

But, you know, people make fun of Byron, but the guy's a billionaire, man.

He's a genius.

He's, he's the one and I'm in LA still.

And there's a lot of people out of work and not making money.

And he's one of the people that are working.

So that are working.

That's it is working.

Yeah.

Greg Bach

I

speak.

I

Greg Bach

speak.

He's

Greg Bach

so big.

He's so big.

He's so successful.

He's plural human beings.

He's yeah.

He are working.

He are.

He's Byron's Alan.

He's by

the weather channel.

He bought the weather channel for Chrome.

Oh my God.

Pete Schwaba

Right.

I don't know.

Business wise, I'm in awe of him.

I just sad to see him replacing Stephen Colbert.

But

you know, the running gag amongst the comics is like, you know, it's basically

It's a very cheap show

to

produce the comic.

They don't have to hire writers.

They just have producers and they bring you on and there's four, but I mean, they can crank out six shows a day taping like a game show.

And it's a long day, but they were doing four the day I was there.

So each taping takes about two hours and they woulddle it down to

24 minutes or whatever it is.

So it is a machine, man.

And it's crazy.

It's a lot.

But, you know, we would make fun of them in terms of, like, amongst comics, just because there's no segue.

It's not even pretending to be a conversation.

It's like, so, Mike, you like roller coasters, right?

And then just like, I love roller coaster bit.

Pete Schwaba

Your buddy Gary Brightwell posted something below you.

It's like, Byron Allen is the king of segues.

Mike, you've changed an outlet, right?

Or whatever

it was you said.

It's like, what?

You know, I have Byron and here's my two minute pit run.

Mike, you have a joke about buses.

Go.

All right.

Yeah.

Literally that way.

There was a, there was

Greg Bach

a show back in the early nineties when, when Ha and the comedy channel were slowly becoming comedy central.

Yeah, I know.

Older than dumb.

And there was a show, a talk show called stand up, sit down with Paul for Paul Provenza.

It

Greg Bach

was the same idea.

And remember as a kid, not understanding.

the format, like not understanding what this was about and being like, why do they just keep doing their, like have a conversation?

I didn't realize until later, I'm like, oh, this is all just to make them do their bits.

But I was just like,

Greg Bach

every time he says something, they just go, they just talk for like two and a half minutes.

I'm like, but, but.

growing up with that now, like that, that framework for Byron L makes, makes sense.

Hey, hey, Mike, you, uh, you enjoy, uh, you enjoy, uh, uh, uh, broiled chicken, right?

Yeah.

Talk about it.

Let me tell you about broiled chicken.

And you go up into your, you know, your time-tested chicken bit, you

know,

that's my

closer.

Yeah.

But we had to look at it and go, you know, as, as, as much as, as, um, flacky takes for it.

But.

There's not many places on network TV now where a standups can perform.

Like tonight show puts on some comics every once in a while.

Kimmel, not really.

No, Colbert wasn't putting guys on.

And so it's like, you're not doing other person's bits.

You're doing your own bits on national TV.

Colbert

Greg Bach

was Colbert was for a moment.

Colbert was for a moment.

And then that really dropped off at a friend

of mine.

Greg Bach

A friend of mine said that.

you know, he's not even at the desk when you're doing it.

He doesn't like stand up.

So

he just

Greg Bach

like, you do your

bit and that's

Greg Bach

like, it was really disappointing.

I wish they never told me that I'm, I'm not expecting Colbert to come in and like, you know, put them on their shoulder.

Like this is the next big thing.

But when the host doesn't even want to be there cause they don't want to listen to any stand.

I'm like, then why are you even doing this in the

first place?

Greg Bach

Because,

and I'm

Greg Bach

in the, both of you can attest to this, you know,

It's not like the, I mean, the old days, I wasn't going to stand up back in the eighties, but like, you know, I remember I was opening up for Sean, Shane, Shane Moss, and I asked him, what do you want for your credits?

And he said, I've been on Conan five times.

And I was like, and you're playing here.

Like

it's

Greg Bach

just not like the old days where like you're on you're on late night once and here comes Hollywood and knock and here's

your

Greg Bach

TV deal.

Here's your commercials.

And you know, it's it's just harder and harder.

And nowadays, like getting a late night set, I think the only place still that does it consistently is still the tonight show.

Yeah.

And it does it.

What it does is impresses your family.

Yes.

You know, it's still it gives you that your family cares about and your parents love.

But in terms of moving, moving the needle in your career, it really doesn't do any.

Thing anymore, so I mean you still have to have your you know five different things You got to have your podcast

your

YouTube channel you're you

got to be all over your

social oh my god and doing everything so it That's gonna fill seats being on the tonight show or any of these shows really that's not the thing that's gonna fill you seats I mean you use it as for promotion.

It's a great piece of tape that you can you know give out but and

but no, it's not changing anybody's life anymore.

It's nice and it's great to say you're on TV, but you know, it's not what it was.

Like most things, it's not what it was.

Greg Bach

I used to produce a lot of comedy shows and one thing that happened after the pandemic, like 2021, 2022, the outreach emails were no longer, Hey, these are the places I've done.

This is a TV.

It's like, I have 150,000 followers.

Yeah.

And that's how meetings, that's how meetings in Hollywood go.

Pete Schwaba

That's what you said.

Yeah, they want

to know how many they want to know what your social media imprint is, your footprint, how many Instagram followers are now TikTok or any YouTube and that kind of thing.

So.

Let's pick it

Pete Schwaba

up there.

Mike, we got to do a really short break, and then we'll come back with Mike Siegel.

We'll have a few more minutes.

And when we come back, Tom, let's hear some of his performance on Byron Allen Comics on Leash.

Mike Siegel's here, folks.

This is a casual Friday on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach, and we will be right back.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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

Pete Schwaba

Good night.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

You've got the Civic Media Network, Dom Lee in Madison, working the board, producing the show.

Great to have you with us on this casual Friday.

Our question of the night is what is one of your favorite song lyrics?

So let us know and we will read your texts after the news at the top of the hour and be part of the show.

It's always more fun when you guys

Participate so our guest is Mike Siegel folks.

We've only got a few more minutes left with Mike But let's let's hear a little bit of his comedy his his spot He did on Byron Allen comics unleashed just a few days ago.

Here's part of Mike's comedy

Yeah.

Greg Bach

Yeah, he Byron does not waste time.

Not at all.

I love his treatment.

Yeah.

But he laughs.

Yeah.

He's laughing.

And, you know, he, you know, he's got to, uh, you know, add a few of his own stuff in there.

And he doesn't, the guy's got no time to do all this stuff.

So it's actually, we started an hour late on, we were on the set ready to go.

And he was all, he was late because he had an important phone call.

because he was, as he came and explained to the audience later, he was trying to buy more shares of the Starz network.

My God!

He

was

on a higher... Byron Allen, he's just like us.

Oh my God.

Geez.

Sorry, I'm late for this taping.

I was busy buying another network.

Greg Bach

My

God.

It's just one

Greg Bach

paragraph.

How close is Byron Allen to owning TV?

You know what?

If he keeps going like this, they'll let him have it.

You know, let him have it.

I mean, he's, he's one making money and they're all losing.

So I guess I will

Greg Bach

say this though, like I've never met the guy and I hope he was, I hope it's always a good experience.

My friend Jeff Horst, he's from Detroit was on the show.

Well, he's a lives in LA now, but he's from Detroit, but he was also on the, he wasn't on the show.

You were on, of course, but he seems like the fact that you can poke fun at the brand of Byron Allen on his own show is, I think that also says a lot that he's not like, you don't make fun of my team.

Don't make, like, don't make fun of me.

I was a bit like,

He's just like, it's all good.

Just have fun,

do

Greg Bach

your thing.

Let's have a good

time.

I mean, believe me, I just said, you know, look, he knows he's doing well.

He's like, how's your business treating you?

Well, not as good as you, Byron.

It's

Pete Schwaba

not

like

Greg Bach

I'll

read the

Greg Bach

papers.

It's not like I'm buying shares and stars or anything.

I mean, it was a great experience.

So yeah,

Pete Schwaba

that's awesome.

That's the voice of Mike Siegel.

He is a TV host and a comedian and host of the travel tales podcast Mike has been all over the world.

I Greg Mike has a map in his office and his apartment He is a thumbtack of everywhere.

He's been.

Oh, there it is Insanity everywhere trip to Marinette, I think you got to add Too long

Chris haven't been to Marinette buddy, you know I've been there

Multiple times.

Pete Schwaba

Many times, but you do.

So, hey, our question to the night, Mike, is what is your favorite or one of your favorite song lyrics?

You're a music guy.

You and Greg, we're just discussing Michael McDonald.

Give us a good song lyric.

OK, probably my

favorite one is science.

I thought of that all day.

That's right there.

Love it.

Why didn't you decide?

Oh, who is it?

My friend Pat was tell me he's got a buddy who does karaoke.

And then he always puts on blinded me with science and he sings nothing except when

he gets

science.

And that's all he does.

It's like that video of the guy who

Greg Bach

is like that guy.

Like I saw a video of a guy in a Spider-Man costume playing tequila and he just sat there with the microphone in his hand.

The whole crowd was waiting and he just went tequila

and just everyone went nuts.

Um, but seriously, yeah, there's so many great lyrics out there.

Yeah.

One I always think about as the LA and like, uh, Warren Zevon had a great one.

That was from a song called Desperado's Under the Eves.

And he said, um, if California slides into the ocean, like the mystics and statistics say it will, I predict this hotel will be standing until I pay my bill, which I thought was a great line.

Pete Schwaba

That's excellent.

He, somebody else just said a Warren Zivon clip on here.

I think it was John from Columbia.

I had one of my favorite songs.

This is my new workout song too was werewolf alone.

I saw werewolf a trader Vicks drinking a Pina Colada.

His hair was perfect.

His hair was perfect.

Greg Bach

That's the thing is like Steely Dan and people can like knock these bands all they want, but Steely Dan, the Eagles, Warren Zivon, there was so much sarcasm in their music and their lyrics.

And it was always like, there was just always these great

digs and these little, that you didn't like, you know, it sings songs about love and that's great.

But then they'll make jokes like, like Steely Dan was really good at that too.

But I mean, I love that kind of lyricism where they're like, yeah, we're just going to make fun of people through music.

Pete Schwaba

Right.

I love sentimental hygiene.

That's a great song too.

Pete Schwaba

Yes.

Yeah.

Lawyers guns and money.

He had a bunch of them.

Pete Schwaba

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Mike, you're the best.

Thank you, sir.

Congrats on the spot on network television, buddy.

And that's, uh, that's anytime you get on TV, it's, it's a huge, uh, a huge win.

So well done.

Greg Bach

Thanks,

Pete Schwaba

Pete.

Yeah.

Greg Bach

It's great to see you guys.

Pete Schwaba

Yeah.

Nice to meet you, Mike.

Greg Bach

Thank you so much for being here.

Appreciate

Pete Schwaba

you.

Happy

Greg Bach

Friday.

Pete Schwaba

Happy Friday,

Greg Bach

buddy.

Pete Schwaba

We're coming right back and we're going to read your texts and then, uh, Dom's got a game for us.

What's the game called?

It's, it's, it's, um, real or fake.

Oh, okay.

I thought maybe it would have put a little more effort into the title.

Okay, we'll do that in hour number two.

I kid Dom because I love Dom.

We're coming right back to this night light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

Kathryn Lake

The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.

Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.

With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.

Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.

0:00