Transcript
Ben Giles on Laughable Productions (Hour 2)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Mon May 4, 2026
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Welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.
Thank you so much for joining us this evening.
We'd love it to be part of the conversation.
Call or text the number is the same 855-752-484-2855-757.
Leave a comment on that live stream.
We're currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.
We still call Twitter.
Love to have you be part of that conversation.
And we have a great second hour ahead.
We are going to be talking to Ben Giles.
He's the owner and founder of Laughable Productions.
They are putting on Oshkosh's funniest comedian as well as putting on other shows around the area.
So please be part of that discussion.
Love to have you with us this evening in Marinette, Wisconsin, up the coast, AKA Christmas City.
Are you the mayor of Christmas City, USA Pete?
Like, like there's, there's, there's Marinette and you have a mayor.
the maronette, but Christmas City USA is like a, it's not a place, it's a feeling.
Are you a mayor of that feeling?
They wish, Greg.
Oh wow.
I was expecting something a little more inspirational there, a little bit more like, you know, when you wish upon a star, not so much like they don't deserve me.
You know, I don't, I don't leave my house much.
I have to be honest.
My kids are grown.
I live here.
And I have great neighbors, and I like everybody here, but I'm not out in the town much, if that makes sense.
It's very Christmas spirit of you, buddy.
All right, cool.
So in
Madison, on the ones and twos, we have Mr. Dom Lee.
This is the Yadurhe Triangle.
I'm completing that triangle here in Radio Park in Racine, and we are...
We are the crew.
And if you missed our interview with the legendary David Zucker, simply go to civicmedia.us slash shows, look for nightlight.
You can download programs every single day, two podcasts a day, catching you up with all the things we were talking about here.
And we're getting ready for hour number two.
And guys, I feel like to get prepared for this, we need to do some meditation.
We need to go to a temple to do some meditation because it's May the fourth, Star Wars day.
And that's what Jedi's do when they want to meditate, they go to a temple, they go find their space.
And I think while we're doing that, let's restate the question of the night.
Let's talk about the question.
Okay, question.
Question.
Question.
Domanda.
Question.
All right.
May the fourth be with you.
What is your favorite character from Star Wars 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic leave a comment on that live stream on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.
We still call Twitter.
What is your favorite Star Wars?
Character we'd love to hear for you on this one really quick before we get into that though.
Mr. JB Thompson on the live stream says zucker a living legend That's right.
We talked to a living legend and he insulted me a lot and I loved it.
So He called me quote unfunny Perfect,
he insulted all of our states of dress as well.
Yes, and he's an old school He had a nice coat on and you know, he looked very presentable.
That's how I knew my rocks
Last time he just had a tank top on and clogs, but actually
was wearing underwear that said poppy on it.
So he would.
I'm not, I'm not
doing that, but I threw them all out.
I was going to say, before we get into the question of the night, I always like Pete, tell me if you feel the same way, but I, that's how I knew my rock stars were aging when they would show up to concerts and play like
in sport coats, like seeing David Gilmore from Pink Floyd playing comfortably numb, the solo about like, you know, like isolation, drug use.
And he's just like, oh, it's a spectacular Brooks Brothers you're wearing
as
well.
You know,
I just
was
like, oh, they're old now because they're
exactly, exactly.
I just got off of work.
So I got to go play a concert.
So that is weird.
I
agree.
Or even worse almost, they still wear the really tight jeans.
And it's
like,
yeah, that's
working for you
either.
I'm not, I'm not saying anyone.
specifically, but the name rhymes with me even Smiler, but, um, or, or
the other name I'm thinking of rhymes with may vid me moth.
Oh yeah.
But okay.
Here's the thing.
At least he can pull that off though.
You know what I mean?
Like there are rock stars out there.
You're like, Hey man, you don't have to wear the super tight, tight chains.
He's still in good shape.
That's what
I'm
saying.
I don't want to body shame.
And that sounds like what I'm doing.
I guess like, you know, way I am, but I'm fine.
I'll, I'll, I'll, um, I'll find my pen somewhere else.
But
yeah, I'm
not body
shaming.
I'm just saying put on a pair of Pappies under those jeans because we don't need to see every, that's all.
It says nothing to do with weight or
anything.
Let me get this straight.
You throw away six pair because you just can't deal with it.
Now you're advertising it.
Like you're like, Hey guys, Pete Schwabber for poppies.
Do you have underwear that makes you go, oh, can I wear this poppies in your local TJ Max Isle?
They're the worst underwear ever I
am here with my poppies underwear
All right.
So back to the question.
Who is your favorite Star Wars character?
Pete, you, okay.
So you said earlier before that you're not a huge, you're not like a die hard fan.
You're a fan.
You saw it.
But with your experience of what you've seen, who is the, what's the, the character that sticks
out for you?
I would have to say, because I saw the original when it first came out, it was Han Solo.
However, I will also say that I liked a young Obi-Wan a lot.
You and McGregor.
I thought that was kind of a cool character too.
I have this discussion with my son a lot, like he's a big Star Wars guy, and I've
watched
like Mandalorian with him and some of those other TV shows, but I can't keep straight the one-offs of Star Wars.
I know there was Rogue One and those are good movies, but I can't remember the characters.
They all kind of blend together for me.
So I would say Han Solo and Young Obi-Wan.
They always give them very interesting, like the Mandalorian, his name is Jindarin.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jen Darren.
Like they always have very interesting names that sound like what rock stars name their kids.
Right.
This is my son, Jack Porkins.
That's my son, Jack Porkins.
What
you, Dom?
Well, first of all, let's start here.
Are you a Star Wars fan?
that something that's in your, you know, or is it something you've never heard of before because, you know, you're of the youth?
regret being in charge of the question tonight.
Seriously,
You're
sentence there is I watched Star Wars when I was a little kid and then I grew up.
grew up and they got really into Jimmy John's.
Wars Dom?
I heard that the, see, like there are cartoons from, like that's the thing is I said this earlier is that when I was a kid, back at my day before 1997, there were three Star Wars movies.
That was it.
And, and some, and some.
cartoons here and there, but they all failed.
They weren't good.
They didn't show, like the cartoons didn't have like Han Solo in it.
Like it was always this thing of, Oh, these are the adventures of the Wookiee people.
Here's the adventure of C3PO and R2-D2, but they didn't have Darth Vader
or any of this.
So they didn't go anywhere, but there was really just three movies.
And now you have all this variety.
And it's, it, I will say it.
Star Wars has hit and miss with its newer properties in the past few years, like Andor.
is phenomenal.
And you've heard that.
Okay.
And you put, oh, Pete, Pete.
And the thing is, I don't think you have to be a Star Wars fan at all to like and watch Andor.
I mean, it really does not require a deep knowledge of the Star Wars lore.
And you put Rogue One as a button on there as like, it's almost like it's finale film.
It's perfection.
It's amazing.
It's so good.
It's darker.
It's violent.
It's not like anything else in the Star Wars canon.
So as just watching something, I always suggest Andor and then watching Rogue One immediately afterwards.
Oh, because Rogue, or Andor leads into Rogue One, right?
Directly, like, directly.
Yeah, it's basically, and it's basically like its own little saga there, so it's really, really, really good.
Dom, is there anything that sticks out for you specifically?
I
Chewy is my favorite character.
I like Chewy.
Chewbacca, you know, he's simple.
I also like C-3PO, but I think Chewy is just more iconic.
And when I went to Disney, oh man, there was a big Chewy that I took a picture with, and he was so cool, and I think he takes the cake.
That's
cool.
You're like, I wanna go home and watch Star Wars now.
Here's what I love about Star Wars fans.
And I don't put myself in the upper echelon like you would be Greg, but like they embrace their reputation as nerds.
They, a Star Wars nerd, that's like a badge of honor almost.
And I know, here's how I know this.
I want to say it was 2014, 2012, something like that.
We went to a theater here in Marinette.
It was my son, me, my brothers, and a couple of friends.
And the theater is packed.
And people were dressing up.
And they were having a blast with it.
And there was like this, this, you know, the, I think it was previews or whatever.
And I looked to my friends and I said, wow, look at all the nerds.
Right as the film sound died down, everybody in the theater heard me say that and they cracked up.
They all laughed like, and I thought, this is such a cool community.
Like I was dragged to this.
Like I wanted to see it, but I'm not,
it was awesome.
I.
Well, honestly, like it's it's it's a very fractured community in my opinion because you have folks I would consider myself in that in that camp I love Star Wars.
I have fun with it.
I have a very open mind about like like Growing up with the first three movies that was it and then we got the prequels and people of my age and older all they wanted to do complain about the prequels but what really was the crux of that whole thing was the fact that
Those movies weren't made for you.
They're
made for
little kids.
Like those
movies
were, and you see it now, kids who are Dom's age and a little bit older, they love Darth Maul.
They love Qui-Gon Jinn.
They love those characters.
Those three movies are to them what the first three movies are to us.
And I keep that mind open all the time as to never be like, well, really when it comes to, no, I never do that.
No, it's not fun.
Yeah, I'm kind of the same way I had someone point out to me after I saw the one that came out in 97 and I he said you see Star Wars this guy was older than me and I was probably in my early 30s at the time and I said I Said yeah, it was okay And he said don't you realize what you're seeing on screen like what they were able to do back with CGI and all that Yeah, and I didn't have that appreciation for it necessarily until he said that I'm like yeah, it was kind of cool like
I didn't like it as first as well as the original three like you, but there was something to be said for the production all that.
Hey, we got some Facebook messages here on the text.
We actually have a phone call right now.
Oh, we do?
Oh,
let's take a phone call.
Yeah, Annie
from
Watertown.
We have about a minute.
Annie, what's up?
I hate to break away from Star Wars, but just last week I found on YouTube
The original airplane movie and I wondered if you ever touched base with zucker on that zero hour 1957.
I mean, some of the lines are even.
Oh,
yeah.
Oh, we quitting smoking and Dana Andrews.
Elroy crazy legs.
Hersh is in it.
That's
right.
And Gary Parrish, Paris.
It's on YouTube now.
I just thought, boy,
that's a great.
Yeah, thank you so much for that.
I really appreciate that.
I did ask him about that the last time he was on, it's in the podcast somewhere if you want to find it, but I completely forgot about that.
That's a great phone call.
Thank you so
much.
Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue.
Seriously.
I wish we would have had David for one more segment.
Could we just talk more about that?
Cause I had so many other questions regarding spoof films as a genre, but really quick.
What do we got?
Facebook.
You got a couple of seconds, Pete.
What do we got?
We got a few.
We got Ross who says Han, meaning Han Solo.
Sean who says, Lieutenant, you hurrah.
You hurrah.
That's a Star Trek joke.
Job of the hut because he's enjoyed life's pleasures.
Okay.
Stacy Seuss is Darth Vader and and also with you and then we've got a few more we can get to a little later
All right, cool.
We come back.
We talked to Ben Giles He is he he's our next guest our second guest for night owner and founder of laughable productions talking about the funniest comic in Oshkosh all that coming up and just a little bit don't go anywhere You are listening and or watching nightly with Pete and Greg here on the Civic Media Network
You're listening to Civic Media.
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Welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.
You can always get in touch, give a call, give a text.
The number is the same 855-752-484-2855-755.
Civic, leave a comment on our live stream.
We're currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform.
We still call Twitter still ahead.
We're going to be doing the nightcap where we round things up with your thoughts on tonight's question, which is...
What is your favorite character from Star Wars in recognition of May the 4th?
May the 4th be with you and also with you.
We want to know from you as we're reading those text messages, those Facebook messages, but feel free to drop a line.
Let us know your thoughts on your favorite character from Star Wars.
But right now it's time to welcome our second guest of the evening.
He's the owner and founder of laughable productions.
Mr. Ben Giles is here this evening.
Good evening, Ben.
How are you doing?
What's going on, my friend?
And if you could, who is your favorite Star Wars character?
Well, hello.
Thank you for having me.
I am not prepared to answer the Star Wars question, but I'm a big Star Wars fan.
So I shall, I shall do it.
If I say Jar Jar Binks, is that going to piss a lot of
people off?
I mean, hey man, we're in a world, we're in a world now, especially when it comes to comedy of pushing the envelope and, you know, being, you know, ooh.
So yeah, go for it.
Yeah, no, I think Jar Jar Brinks brought some comedic relief.
I grew up on the prequel, so I'm not a prequel hater like a lot of people that are older, maybe.
So I do like Jar Jar, but actually Qui-Gon Jinn is probably one of my favorite characters.
I always really relate to him and kind of the father figure that he was becoming before he passed away in episode one.
Yeah.
Spoilers.
Spoilers.
Wow.
It's been long enough.
But, uh, yeah, Mesa thinks that's a good
answer.
Also, as a side note, I do believe in the dark, dark Lord, Sith, Jar Jar theory.
That's just my belief, but whatever.
Uh, Ben is our guest this evening.
And let's get to the reason why you are here.
You are the owner and founder of laughable productions.
Tell us, Ben, what is laughable productions, what you do in your community and your region with regard to comedy, stand up comedy and the events you put on.
Yes, sir.
So Laughful Productions is a comedy events production business.
We started 2019 back in Fond du Lac.
And we produce all sorts of comedy stand-up comedy improv comedy dinner theaters We do a lot of murder mystery dinner theaters.
We've done trivia shows.
We've done virtual stuff during COVID We really just aim to please and we've also done a lot of like nonprofit fundraisers for folks So we we kind of run the gambit.
We don't have a home base.
We are kind of Fox Valley centered
Currently kind of our headquarters, which is my lovely home that you're seeing right now.
It's in Oshkosh, but we typically partner with venues like we're doing with the Oshkosh arena for the Oshkosh funniest comedian.
And so ever since 2019 when we first started, just trying to make more people laugh and bring some more unique ventures to the Fox Valley that maybe weren't here before.
Ben, I love the name of your company, Laughable Production.
Even if you have a real clunker of a show and people say that was laughable, you say thank you very much.
That's what we're going for.
That's why
my company, every show is amazing productions shut down so
very
quickly.
Let's talk about a really cool event you have coming up, Oshkosh's funniest comedian competition.
This is your second annual and I know that's not a ton of years, but it's impressive that you're doing it again because I know you were on the show last year.
I remember how hard you worked and you're doing it again, which must mean it was a success enough and you are back at it.
So that is pretty cool.
But you have a, it's about to start up again.
Tell us about it.
Yeah, we have a round one of Oshkosh's funniest comedian is this Friday.
May 8th, 7pm at the Oshkosh Arena.
Year one was a success.
I mean, we definitely, there were some hurdles and some things that we had kind of learning curve that we had overcome.
And I think we've done a really good job of kind of taking all of that in stride and, you know, trying to improve the experience this year.
Last year's winner was Sadi Bhatt and he's coming back to perform at the finale and be a judge at the finale as
well.
So we're
very excited that the year one winner will be coming
coming back to us.
We have about 45 comedians that are going to be competing this year.
Most of those are local guys.
Not all are from Oshkosh, but most of them are from around Oshkosh.
Wisconsin area.
And basically there are four rounds.
Each comedian gets a shot at one round if you're accepted into the competition.
And then whoever wins each round based on an audience vote and a judge's vote advances to the finale.
And then we have one wildcard winner as well that we add to the finale.
So there'll be five total comedians in the finale performing.
Same thing.
There'll be an audience vote and judges vote for the finale.
And then we crown September 26th.
Wow.
Well, that was going to be my next question as far as like the timeline.
So this, this, this, this takes some time.
There is going to be, you know, it's not like a, I know Madison just finished up their, their funniest comedian competition.
That's like week after week after week takes about five or six weeks in total, but you let this, you let this breathe.
So I mean, is that,
was
that the point of it all?
Like, so you can maximize just like getting people in and whatnot.
Yeah.
So round one is in May, round two, June, round three, July, round four, August, and then the finale, September.
Part of the reason that we did space it out so much has to do a lot with scheduling.
The Oscars Arena, you know, is not a comedy club.
They have been very gracious to kind of convert it into kind of a more intimate venue, you know, for these Oscars is funniest rounds.
So part of that scheduling, because they have a ton going on.
And we also produce a lot of other events that
Archist, Oshkosh is funniest.
But another part of it too is, yeah, trying to get more people involved, having a little bit more availability and, you know, longer time period allows for more comics to get involved as well, which we love.
And, you know, last year went really well.
I mean, I think the lowest number attended show that we had was 90 people.
So, you know, we were getting pretty good crowds, even
though
it was sometimes a month later where the next round was.
And the finale, we had
There are almost 500 people there.
And we had a headliner, Josh Blue, who won.
He won.
I always, last comic standing.
I always want to say America's funniest comedian.
No, last comic standing in the early 2000s.
And he got second on America's Got Talent.
Well, we're going to keep this conversation going with Ben Giles.
He is the founder of Laughable Productions.
He's also putting on Oshkosh Funnies Comedian.
We'll talk more about that as well as other work that you do with your company and outside in the community yourself.
So stick around.
We're going to take a very short, well actually no, we're at the news break right now.
So stick around for the news when we come back talking more with Ben Giles here on Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.
Stay tuned, stay close.
Welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.
You can always get in touch.
Caller text the numbers the same 855-752.
four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civically to comment on our live stream.
We're currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.
We still call Twitter.
Our question of the night is in, in recognition of May the fourth Star Wars day.
What is your favorite Star Wars character?
Craig on the live stream says, I'm, I'm sure others have said this, but Spock was a great Star Wars guy.
That joke has been said a lot, but Craig, we love you for it.
Anyways, either him or the Mandalorian Mandalorian is pretty cool.
I mean, it's
pretty good creation for
actually in Star Wars as
opposed to actually in Star Wars.
It's funny how they created the Mandalorian and then it's managed to ruin Boba Fett, but that's for an internet chat room somewhere else in the world.
right now, but we are talking to Ben Giles.
He is the founder and owner of Laughable Reductions.
They are embarking on the second annual Oshkosh's Funniest Comic going on now throughout the rest of the summer into September.
And Ben, really quick question.
Are you a stand-up performer?
Are you someone who does comedy or theater or things like that?
Or are you just all around a performer?
Yeah, I would say all around performers probably a better Descriptor for me than just to stand up comedian.
I do stand up comedian.
I do stand up comedy And I also talk well sometimes I I got my start doing theater growing up
And then in college, it was like, oh, you can't really do theater unless you're a theater major at my college.
And my friend was on an improv comedy team.
And so he's like, come, come try out.
See if you like it.
So then I started doing improv comedy.
And when Laughville Productions first started, we had an improv comedy team and we would regularly perform.
And then we started dipping our toes into stand up.
We hosted Fondie's funniest comedian back in 2021.
And I
wasn't really dipping my toes into stand-up too much back then.
But now, the last two years, I've completely immersed myself.
I've got probably about a half hour of content.
But I usually host shows.
I mean, I've been on a few shows and I've
been booked.
But typically, I'll host the shows that we produce.
And I'll do about seven to 10 minutes in the beginning.
And then I'll host the rest of the show.
That's what trips my trigger, I think.
as really quick as a stand-up comedian or for whatever I am right now, who knows?
But thank you for that point as far as being a host because I think we've all been through that show where you get to the venue and the person says, I'm going to host this show.
I'm going to do like 25, 30 minutes up top.
Then I'll bring you up.
I'm like, why am I here then?
You're the headliner.
You are the headliner at this point and you're opening with a half an hour.
So thank you for understanding what the host is supposed to be doing in a show.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah, there's nothing worse than having a host go up there and do it like a headlining set to open the crowd and
everyone
else is doing 10 to 15 minutes
and
you're like, something about this doesn't seem right.
Hey, I just want to say you're following a comedy legend tonight on the show, Ben, and you're crushing it.
So thank you for doing that.
David Zucker was on hour number one.
I think you're
doing open for you.
That's right.
Did you give him more than seven to ten minutes?
We did.
Yeah.
It
was in
his rider.
We would have loved to have kept him.
Hey, tell us about, I've never been to one of these murder mystery dinner theater shows myself, but I love murder mystery as a genre when it comes to movies or plays or whatever.
How does that work?
And walk us through what like one of those performances is like.
Absolutely.
So get this.
Someone dies in the beginning of the show.
A fake death, of course.
Oh, never
mind.
We can see on the airwaves.
Yeah.
So someone, someone dies in the beginning of the show.
And then really, there's two detectives that are kind of like your, your lead investigators.
And it's their job and the audience job together to try to solve that crime.
There's clues.
There's interrogations.
There's usually always a really good dinner.
That's
with it as well.
And it's very interactive.
Everyone assumes an alias.
So when you come in, you put a name tag on with a fake character, so you're not your real self anymore.
We don't want you to go home and, you know, be on CCAP with your real name if you get arrested for the murder at the end.
So
we got to make sure
we get an alias on you.
And then, yeah, at the end, sometimes, depending on the show, there is also a second murder.
And then the audience has to try to put the pieces together of all the interrogations and the clues they got throughout the night to try to solve the murder.
And whoever most
accurately solves the murder or murderers wins a prize.
And it's usually really fun.
It's, you know, drinks, dinner, usually try to book it a fancy venue.
So usually the ambiance is really great.
And we have a really, really fun time.
It's very interactive.
A lot of improv comedy interspersed with, you know, like kind of a true crime detective feel.
Nice.
That's so cool.
That's very cool.
I've, yeah, I've heard a lot of great, I've never had a chance to go to one of them.
And I remember someone asked me once, you're like, you want to do this?
You want to be part of this?
I'm like,
No, I would not be good at that.
You guys are good at this.
I would not be good at this at all.
Can I be the dead body?
I'll be the dead person.
I'll die immediately.
And then I'll go to the bar and have drinks.
We're good.
That's how I can contribute.
Uh, if you're just joining us right now, we're speaking with Ben Giles.
He's the owner and founder of laughable productions.
They're putting on the second annual Oshkosh, as funny as comic going on this month.
Uh, tell us again when that date is.
It's May, what?
Friday, May 8th.
This Friday at the afternoon.
There you go.
There you go.
And as you told us before, it's, it's, it's very, very popular.
People are coming out.
So get your tickets right now.
Now we're looking at this profile we saw on Facebook and you don't just do comedy, you don't just do performance, but you're also a person of the community too.
You served on the city council for four years and how, like, what brought you to that place and how did that influence both your, your heart for working within the community, but also how did it inform your performance in comedy?
Great question.
Yeah, back in 2018.
I was elected to final like city council Back when I lived in final act.
I live in Oshkosh now And I served for four years and there was a really really fun And then not so fun experience but my passion is always really bad in politics when growing up I always wanted to get into politics.
I went to school for political science You know performing and the theater was always
a passion of mine, but like my biggest passion was definitely like making a difference in the community and trying to use your voice to make change, make positive change.
And so yeah, I went to college, I started working in politics on some campaigns and doing some advocacy.
And then I moved back to my hometown in 2017, ran for city council in 2018.
Little break.
I was the youngest ever elected to find like city council in
city
history in 2018 and then something really fun happened where
a bunch of young people decided to run the year after.
So my record was actually beat in 2019.
So I'm not the current record holder.
But no, it was great.
We had six people running for city council in 2019 and five of those were under the age of 35.
So I like to think that I maybe motivated some young people to really feel empowered to get involved.
But I'd say the biggest thing
in how you know politics and serving the community can transfer to comedy and vice versa is one thing I learned in politics is you always got to stay in your feet and it's very much like an improv comedy show you know where you got things being hurled at you and you're trying to be funny and you got to roll with it right and you got to rely on people around you to tee up or to tee them up and I think that's kind of the same thing with politics is trying to
roll with it and make the best of the situation you're in and trying to empower those around you to make positive and meaningful change is something that is really great for communities.
And I applaud any young person or anyone that wants to get involved and put themselves out there because it can be a very vulnerable thing to put yourself in front of all those people to try to get elected to office.
But if you do and you're passionate about it, you're doing it for the right reasons, it can be very, very powerful and can have a
huge fail.
I applaud you and I wish there were more people don't want to kill you to run for office.
it.
might in Madison, it may kill you.
I don't know.
I can't
imagine.
Madison.
Uh, Ben, just make sure you don't ever mix up a city council meeting with the murder mystery dinner theater that could be that could wreak havoc on your election plans.
Who killed the
alderman of the third district?
who are some people like you're tied into especially in the Fox Valley comedy who are some comedians to look for if people are listening right now who do we want to see perform give us a few names and what are some other good venues
yeah definitely um
I'll shout out some some guys that I'm right after this.
I'm gonna go on their podcast cash money Carl and Dean Berg Both are pretty good comedians that do a lot of work in the Fox Valley They also produce some shows from time to time love working with those guys love being on their podcast So I'll give them a shout out another one that has been doing our murder mysteries lately and will be judging in Round three of the competition
Chris Calogero.
He's actually from New York City, but he just moved to Wisconsin with his wife.
And he
immediately got involved with Laughable Productions.
He's been he's been the writer and producer on numerous TV shows.
Same with his wife.
They both have kind of Hollywood background.
And he's producing a movie now.
And that's what he's focusing now when he's back in Wisconsin.
But he's been making the circuit.
He also hosts a show in Madison called Train Car Comedy.
I think it's one Thursday a month.
Another one that I really like.
that I go to up north from time to time is the Firehouse Comedy Club in Dork County.
Asher Brooks hosts
that
show.
Yeah, and he's, I don't know if he's been on your show, but that was actually, he invited me, that was the first paid gig that I did stand up at was his comedy club that I wasn't producing myself.
So
I
really, really liked that.
We collaborated on some shows and we brought in Jamie Campbell from Kansas City.
Super fun.
Yes.
He's
hilarious.
He's super
nice.
Such a nice
boy.
Such a nice boy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's he's a great.
He's a great dude.
I like him a lot.
And then in terms of like places that are doing comedy around here.
I know Appleton beer factory just started an open mic night and they've been getting a lot of good comedians coming through.
They've actually been doing gift cards for the top comedian of the night.
So it's bringing some good talent that you would
Maybe not necessarily expected open mic.
You're like, Oh, I don't know if I want to go to an open mic.
Well, you throw a $50 gift card as the top prize and you start getting some good comedians coming through.
Um, and then, yeah, skyline's great and comedy and state's great.
I mean, I, I love, I love going to the clubs, you know, that's, that's actual, you know, a club feel to a comedy show.
Um, we like to try to
Replicate clubs when we do shows and all that but you know, we don't have a home home base So definitely support your clubs and support local comedy and definitely because they also bring out bigger names like I I produce shows all the time, but you know, I'm not dropping
tons and tons of money to bring out a guy that's got a Netflix special.
Although Jamie Campbell does have a Drybar comedy special.
So I'm very excited to bring him in.
But that's why I think it's so important to support your local clubs because they are making the investment to bring those comedians that are doing the rounds and going on national tours.
And then also shout out to Jeffrey Osmos.
I don't know if you've seen him or heard of him.
We
used to party together in college.
He was, um, he was in the comedy scene when I was in the comedy scene in Madison.
Um, and ever since, I mean, he
Either one or got second in Madison's funniest back in 2014.
And ever since then, I always thought he was just the coolest guy.
And now he's just blowing up all over social media, selling out on his tour.
So shout out to him too.
If you ever get a chance to see him, go see him.
He's an absolute, he's another one of those sweet boys who's just absolutely funny.
You can say anything on stage and no one is like, no one's offended because everyone gets the joke.
Cause his, his, uh,
Persona is so stated that you're like, oh, I get you're making fun of it.
You're not you don't agree with it You're making fun of things that are terrible.
So Ben, thank you so much for being here this evening We appreciate your time and good luck on the competition and good luck on everything that you are up to Where can people find you real quick?
Yeah, go to laffle productions comm if you want to learn more about us and our murder mysteries, please visit
Oshkosh Arena and Ticketmaster to get tickets for Friday's show.
And then we're on Facebook and Instagram.
So please check us out.
Laughful Productions.
Ben.
Ben Giles is the founder of Laughful Productions.
Go ahead and check that.
We'll put all that in our show notes as well.
But thank you so much for being here.
We appreciate you.
When we come back, very, very quick break.
We'll be doing the nightcap, wrapping up everything and figuring out what we learned right here on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome back to Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.
Get in touch with us, call or text the numbers, the same 855-752-4842-8557.
on that live stream.
We're currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform.
We still call Twitter.
Tomorrow is going to be a very exciting show.
In the first hour, we are talking to our friend, our colleague, host of Amicus Law Review, Mr. Jim Santel, about all things happening in the world of law, specifically Supreme Court decisions that are going to completely rework the way we do voting in this country.
Just ask Louisiana right now.
But that's going to be in the first hour.
And in the second hour, Sam Bushman, the Wisconsin cheese queen, will be here to talk.
All things cheese and about her company.
So come on back.
We'll be here five to seven Monday through Friday, as we always hear up in Marinette, Wisconsin.
We got Mr. Peach Waba over in medicine.
We have Mr. Tom Lee.
I am.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
And then I am in radio park here and we're seeing we are the Yatterhey Triangle and we are officially in the nightcap where we wrap things up.
and talk about what we learned.
But before we do that, let's talk about, you know, our fans.
We have fans, guys, and they talk to us via social media, the text messages.
And tonight's question is, what is your favorite Star Wars character in recognition of May the fourth may be with you and always with you forever.
Pete, what are people saying on the nightlight official Facebook page regarding their favorite
Star Wars
characters?
Getting back, yeah, to Facebook comments, Scott Tom says Luke and Ray.
Okay, I like the Ray character.
Ray was great.
Rich Brown, one of my favorite, one of my buddies and funniest guys ever says Dopey.
Dopey, okay.
Tiff Burry says, always Han Solo, my first celebrity crush.
Han Solo
or Harrison Ford?
Well Han Solo I would have because Tiff would have been too young like what was he in before that American graffiti maybe?
Yeah Derek Derek Fister from Milwaukee says Chewbacca and put a picture of Chewie up there.
Thank you Jason Jerry says Lando Calorissian.
Oh, we haven't heard about Lando.
We haven't heard of Lando yet.
So that's a good one He says smoothest operator in the galaxy plus capes
Capes, exactly.
And then John posted a picture of John Candy as the Mawg from, uh, the Mel Burst movie, space
barf.
What's your name barf?
What's that short barf?
Follow me all.
Oh, and then our pal rocker from our civic media brethren says, I'm going to read this fast cause he wrote a book.
I'll get the highlights.
He's a huge Star Wars fan.
Greg, you guys would probably have a great talk, but he said,
Darth Bane without him there is no revenge of the Sith as he revived the rule of two so the Sith could continue
to secretly
build power and strength to overtake the Jedi at some point in the future and rule the galaxy Bane is about a thousand years before the events of revenge of the Sith that revenges Bane's Darth Sidious Palpatine the Emperor ultimately lost that ultimate rule by not following the rule of two correct and there's a lot of other stuff too but I think
we get the Darth Bane
So actually, we're not gonna, we're gonna actually do another half an hour.
We're gonna talk about this really quick.
The Darth Bane storyline is the fact that it's a story of patients a thousand years to take over the galaxy that Palpatine just totally messed up.
Thanks, Sidious.
Ya moron.
On my Facebook page here, let's see, uh, uh, John Adler, my buddy, he is a radio legend in Milwaukee, uh, lumpy.
And that's not a joke.
There was a character named lumpy in the Star Wars holiday special from 1982.
It all revolves around, it revolves around wookie life.
It's, it's a, it's a whole thing, but lumpy is an actual character.
Uh, Bill says unknown storm trooper number seven, uh,
My friend Victoria says, I miss you space mom.
And that's a picture of Leia Skywalker or Leia Organa.
That was her adopted last name, Organa.
Mary says salacious B crumb.
That's the little creature that was on top of the shoulder of a job of the huts.
Yeah.
I'm pretending he's not a Star Wars fan, but he knew that Greg.
I Know things she also said Cassian and or who is the stop one of the stars of the and or TV series as well as Rogue one and then Joseph McClure just says Gandalf because everyone's a comedian on this place, so
I
can talk more about Darth Bane, but I really want to talk about Darth Plague is because his quest for immortality is something that really is what led to the downfall because it influenced Sidious to really just seek immortality and just you know mess up the whole thing whole thing thoughts anything, okay, all right
Hey Greg, who do you think the most popular Star Wars character was according to wise brother media?
I mean, I know the answer
And
I know the answer without
the, I know the answer without
the
article.
It's Darth Vader.
Yeah.
It's always Darth
Vader.
He's the coolest guy in the galaxy.
Princess Leia figure of placed ahead of Luke.
Yeah.
Cause she's cooler.
He's a whiny
blonde.
She is cooler.
Yeah.
She's, and then Han was second.
That's kind of cool.
Jar Jar Binks did not make the list.
No, he did not.
And it's again, look up, look up Darth and look up Jar Jar Binks, Darth, dark Sith theory and it will blow your mind.
It changes.
The entire first movie is constructed, the entire prequel is constructed because of some dumb decisions on George Lucas's part, but that's for another conversation next May the 4th.
Pete, really quick, what did you learn tonight?
Yeah,
I learned that David Zucker has still got it.
Yes, he came out guns a blazing and that was fun.
Yeah, but he's still a very funny guy.
Great
guy.
He's not a bitter man in my opinion.
He's just a guy with opinion.
So
So
you go.
All right.
There we go.
What did I learn?
Thanks for asking.
That Star Wars is great.
And it's even better when you have an open mind and you're not being like a, a gatekeeping jerk face because it's for
everybody.
You
already knew that Greg.
Didn't you?
No, it's just, it's, it, it reminds me that I'm not that cynical Star Wars fan ever when we were talking about this stuff and
what
Ben said as far as like hit prequels were his and he loves, he loves, um,
I love that kind of stuff.
So that's a great conversation to
have
right there.
So thank you so much to Ben Giles and the legendary David Zucker for being our guest tonight.
We really appreciate you.
Thank you so much to Dominic, to Tucker, engineering, traffic for making everything work.
Thank you to everyone who reached out.
Don't forget tomorrow we're talking to Jim Santel and Sam Bushman here on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.
Pete, take him on out.
Good night, Wisconsin.
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