SPEAKER_04
0:00

It was like $8,000 for the worst seat in the house. It was people paying $157,000 for a courtside seat. And you realize like if you could reprice it and resell those tickets, people would have paid more than it was kind of wild. I would, you know, text Carmelo or text Amari or text Jeremy. John Starks is on the bus and LJ's there. And Timothy Chalamet was on the bus with me.

SPEAKER_03
0:20

Kind of looking around like, you know, this is a wild scene.

SPEAKER_04
0:24

I get to my house, my boy texts me, like, hey, congrats on your new team. I put my name in Twitter. Can't even figure out which team I'm going to yet. 7 o'clock a.m. the next morning. There was a PJ waiting for us.

SPEAKER_00
0:36

Is there a Dwayne moment where you're like, oh, this dude's different?

SPEAKER_04
0:40

When I was a sophomore in high school, Coach Crean had started recruiting me.

SPEAKER_00
0:47

Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee on Cut. We've got a Knicks slash Marquette legend in the building today. Steve Novak dropped by, and it was co-hosted by Anthony Molochek from Annex Wealth Management. We talked about the Knicks finals run and the parade, which Steve was all part of. And we got some great stories that I'd never heard before. I don't even know if these are out there. They were about his former teammates Dwayne Wade, Jeremy Lynn, Enos Cantor, who's been in the news quite a bit recently, and Russell Westbrook. He's played with all those guys and many more. We also got to talk some Bucks and Marquette Hoops, and he lists the greatest Brown Deer High School athletes of all time. Did our guy, SimGod, make the list? You will have to listen through to find out. Just a great episode with Steve Novak. Before diving in, I just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee on Cup possible. We'll kick things off with our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management, which includes our co-host Anthony and their CEO, Dave Spano, who we just put out a very nice wedding budgeting skit with on social media. You'll have to check that out. Anyway, Annex is a holistic wealth management firm with offices in and all around Milwaukee that helps you with everything: retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. Annex, know the difference. You can just visit annexwealth.com. Nicola, injured. Get Nicola and Russ, and the team will take great care of you. We got to hang out with the man himself last Friday. He threw the first pitch at the brewer game. He was even warming up with our dog Oakley, who kept taking the ball from him and Cody in our backyard beforehand after we shot a skit at our house on Friday. And he got to the game, went right up to the mountain, safely got it right in the catcher's mit. Well done, Russ. And again, if you are injured, call Nicola. And last but not least, drink Wisconsin Blee Beverage Company, Best Vodka, Brandy, and Canned Cocktails in the game, available at bars and liquor stores across the state and at the corner bar in right field the damn fam. So get yourself an old-fashioned next time you're watching a Brewers game and hopefully a deep playoff run ahead for the crew. All right, let's dive in with Steve Novak. Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. Absolute legend in the building today over his 11-year NBA career. Attempted over 1,336 three-pointers and 27 shots from the paint in 467 games. Meaning you'd shoot from the paint once every 17.3 games.

SPEAKER_04
3:33

Wow. Yeah, I thought you were going to give like a one every half.

SPEAKER_00
3:36

I needed a calculator for that one. Um 17 games.

SPEAKER_01
3:42

Mix one in there, right? I like it.

SPEAKER_00
3:45

That's fantastic. I also did some research. I think 95% of your made attempts were assisted.

SPEAKER_04
3:53

Yes. I needed guys pass me the ball. Or are you saying that I couldn't create my own shot?

SPEAKER_01
3:58

Is that what are you saying? I think that's what he's saying. I think that's what he said.

SPEAKER_04
4:00

Was that a passion?

SPEAKER_00
4:02

Such an elite catch-and-shoot player, you didn't need to create your own shot. Does that sound better? Okay.

SPEAKER_01
4:07

Also, uh keep moving while without the basketball.

SPEAKER_00
4:10

I like how we're just working back up. Absolutely. Um 2002 Gatorade Wisconsin High School Player of the Year. I I do have to I I did see you did not win a state championship. You fell to my Edgewood Crusaders.

SPEAKER_04
4:23

Look, he had to bring it up. You see how we're starting out. I didn't talk about Madison High School.

SPEAKER_00
4:27

Was that that game in eighth grade, I think? Yeah. The Hansbrough Twins. I don't know if you remember. Oh, yeah. No, good play. Alva and Adriel, I believe. They played corner at uh um Northern Northern Illinois.

SPEAKER_04
4:38

Yeah, they played a little triangle in two on me. I didn't appreciate that. They put both of them on me. It helps to have a twin brother, both athletic.

SPEAKER_00
4:45

You were like a foot taller than the foot taller. You were dealing with you were so you were you were against two football D1 football cornerbacks trying to play basketball basically. I was.

SPEAKER_04
4:54

They won. They were a good squad.

SPEAKER_00
4:57

Okay, well, back on a better note, he may not have won the state title, but did make it to the final four with with Dwayne Wade and Travis Diener and the crew in 2003 Conference USA, sixth man of the year as well, and then led the NBA in three-point percentage. 11, 12, just a magical year in New York. Um in current Knicks TV analyst for MSG Networks, formerly with the Bucs in that role, did an amazing job. And two-time NBA champion analyst.

SPEAKER_04
5:28

That's true. Yeah, I had I'd never actually heard it said that way, but I'll take it. Add it to your resume. I would include it. I think so. Probably put that on the resume. Probably.

SPEAKER_00
5:40

Well, if you get anything out of today, that's that's a new thing you can say to people to flex on them.

SPEAKER_04
5:45

You're a good hype man. You know, you started out with the Madison Edgewood, but he brought it back to my head.

SPEAKER_00
5:49

I didn't start with that. I started high, then you know, they tried to take you on a little roller coaster through the intro. Also um joined by Anthony Molatchek. Again, back for the second time in three or four episodes recently. Um, over at Annex Wealth Management, also founder of 24 and Up, was was a very good basketball player in his own right, has done a lot of skills training over the year, coaches his kids now as well. So thanks for coming back for this one, too. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01
6:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_00
6:18

Steve, should we start with the Knicks finals run? Yeah. What a ride.

SPEAKER_04
6:22

Yeah. It was a ride. It was a ride. I think every year you just know that there's, you know, come the end of the year, there's four to six teams that have a chance to win it all. And it's not always a team you expect. And I think the Knicks were in that group, and so you thought, like, wow, what a what a fun year it's been so far. 50 plus wins, you know, some great personalities. It's New York City, it was great. But uh, I think then what happened in the playoffs was was beyond I think what a lot of people expected. I think if you were close, closely watching the team, you felt like it was a a group that could win it, but there were there were stretches during during the year, like most teams, where you're like, I don't know if this team has it, they're they've lost the last three games, they're not playing well, and we'll see what happens. But then they won 13 in a row and won what was it? They lost you know two to Atlanta, but then they only lost one more playoff game against San Antonio the rest of that stretch before they won it. So uh it was a special run, and obviously 53 years is a long time to go without winning a championship. I know Bucks fans can relate to that with their last championship taking a while as well, and so you know, New York is just uh it's got a little different energy to it when there's a long time waiting and you know, some serious basketball fans. So it was it was fun to be a part of and some special uh performances, some comeback wins to to make it happen.

SPEAKER_00
7:38

Were you in the building for game four?

SPEAKER_04
7:41

Good question. So I was doing pregame, postgame, four games, three and game. Well, for all the playoff games, but for the two home games, the first two are in San Antonio, the Knicks won both. It comes back games three and game four. And game four, like you're alluding to, is the OG Ananobi tipping at the end off of Jalen Brunson's miss. I'm doing pregame, postgame across the street in our studio. And so we're in the building to watch the game, and I'm sitting next to Jeremy Lynn and Eddie Curry and some of the other former guys, and with seven minutes left in the game, I gotta get back to the studio. I gotta get back and get ready. We get to compare our notes and start talking about what we're gonna talk about in the show, get a rundown together. And it's like they had finally chipped back, they were down 29, down 27 and a half, they're getting closer and closer. When I left the building, I think they were down like 17 with seven minutes. With about seven minutes. And I got back across the street after getting through the barricades and everything and crossing the street like five minutes later. And it was like an eight-point game. And I'm thinking, this is crazy. Like they're within reach after thinking it was a 29-point deficit and 27 and a half, it's never gonna happen. And my wife was in the building, and when it happened, it was like I texted her, Do you know where you are right now? I am so mad that I just had to run across the street and be in the in the studio for this, because it turned into like this basketball gala where it was like they put on Frank Sinatra, celebrity row is on the court at Madison Square Garden, and it was like everybody was just hanging out, having a good time, and you just you knew you experienced like one of the most magical, memorable, historic moments in sports history, much less New York or Garden or Nick's history. And so uh it was it was really cool. But I was almost in the building, I was right across the street, and it was well, what a moment. It was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01
9:28

You could almost feel it too, like you know, playing basketball, like once you're playing kind of behind, and you're like, okay, there's really nothing to lose. You get down 17, then you get to eight, you're like, okay, like and it was, I mean, watching that, or uh how late was it East Coast time at that point?

SPEAKER_04
9:48

I was probably my body clock was already reset when I had been there, but it was pretty it was late. It's late night here for sure.

SPEAKER_01
9:53

It's like glued into that. We were sitting there just like with my kids, and like we jumped up and we're celebrating, and not even a New York fan, but kind of like got on the bandwagon just because I've never I've never seen New York, you know, win before. And that was my Bucks fan that I was like, all right, I'm going on in the Knicks here.

SPEAKER_04
10:13

Yeah, and and and to your point, it's like you could so I it was down, they're down 29 at the most, and then at halftime it's 27. And with about five minutes left in the first half, I'm sitting next to Jeremy, Lynn, and I said to him, jokingly but kind of serious, do you just want to go into the back where we kind of have a little player's lounge? Do you want to go in the back into the lounge and just get some sushi? Like this is brutal right now. I'm serious because in the first half, when you're down by the. Antonio couldn't miss. I felt like the calls were all going their way. It was the first game back in New York, the first final. People had just that was the game where they were putting up all the prices that people were paying. Oh, and they were astronomical. It was like $8,000 for the worst seat in the house. It was people paying $157,000 for a courtside seat, and they were posting them. And you know, people on Twitter are legit are saying, like, this is a real transaction, this really happened. And so you're thinking, like, this is you know, game three is crazy. Game four, obviously, you fast forward, and the the numbers were pretty much the same. They were selling for that much. And it's like you look back at the moment that it happened and you realize like if you could reprice it and resell those tickets, people would have paid more than they actually probably for that game, for that comeback.

SPEAKER_00
11:25

For that comeback.

SPEAKER_04
11:26

And and I'm and I'm like, Do you want to go back and just get some sushi or whatever? And he's like, Do you want to go back? Do you want to show it? I was like, No, no, we can't like we can't leave a seat. We're back at halftime. And he says to me, because he's doing some ESPN pre-game, post-game stuff, he says to me, Do you know that there's never been uh road, never been a finals where the road team has won the first four games. And obviously the Knicks had won the first two on the road in San Antonio, and then San Antonio came in and won game three. So if San Antonio won game four, would have been the first time in finals history the road team won each of the first four games. And I said, We're down 27. You're giving me a little hope, but are you serious? And he's like, I'm just telling you, like, that's what one of the stats I found interesting. And then lo and behold, it's like it takes that miracle tip into to make it happen. So it was it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00
12:14

Yeah, I I was indifferent on the team. I was kind of pissed because we do our Pottawatomy parlay of the week, and I remember I needed that one. I just put like I had Spurs money line. I was like, they they could win this one, and you know, would have been a decent amount of money, and uh went to sleep and woke up and was just like, what the fuck happened? That was um yeah, happy for you to get to experience.

SPEAKER_04
12:35

That's what gambling does, it takes the joy.

SPEAKER_00
12:36

Anyway, you did get to participate in the parade, though. Yeah, you had a nice tweet. I think you said something like it transcended the way you view humanity.

SPEAKER_04
12:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
12:45

It was that looked crazy.

SPEAKER_04
12:46

What was the parade day like for you? Yeah, it was uh it was it was kind of wild because you started to get like assignments where it was like I would you know text Carmelo or text Amari or text Jeremy.

SPEAKER_00
12:59

Were you working during it, or did you get to just enjoy it or a combination?

SPEAKER_04
13:03

It was a little combo where we were doing some interviews on the float bus with some of the guys that were there. So it was like John Starks is on the bus and LJ's there, and Mello is on there, and Timothy Chalamet was on the bus with me, and you're kind of looking around, like, you know, this is a wild scene, you know, where it's like this is just one bus. It's like Jalen Brunson has his own bus, Carl Anthony Towns. It's like Chris Rock is over here, right? Mike Breen is over on his bus. It's just like Ben Stiller, right? I don't know whose bus he was on. And it's just a wild scene. But you basically got assignments like you're gonna be on the alumni bus, you're gonna be on you know, Jalen's bus. People started figuring out where they were gonna be, and and then it was like, hey, you got to be, you know, over at MSG at about uh 7.15. We're gonna take the buses over to City Hall, you're gonna get on the buses, then we're gonna do the loop and come back to to City Hall. So it was just this like really cool environment to start the day where it was like everybody was at City Hall. And then we loaded up on the buses, and then you go down the canyon of heroes, which was just I mean, that that tweet I had sent out about like it just like changing my view of humanity because I've never seen so many people, and it was millions of people so excited about a common thing. And and not just like on board with something or like we all aligned with that view. It was like people, you know, reaching their hands out for these guys and getting to see them for the first time, you know. Not everybody that's at the parade gets to go to games. And so it was this like really cool spectacle of I think it it meant so much to the city, you know, it was such a special moment. I think it was like this wild playoff underdog story that so many people, you know, got to be a part of. And the parade, it just went on and on. And some of the like you know, photos and videos I think that a lot of us put out, you couldn't even capture just how far the people went and how excited and how loud they were. And then you'd have those moments where you just would turn and look and you'd be like, that's Chalamet on the back of the bus as the hype guy. You know, he's like, New York City, like let's go. And you're like, what is going on? We're out of right now. And it was when it ended, you were like, that's a bummer. We should do, I want to do that again. Yeah, right. So it was yeah, it was a it was a cool, cool scene to be a part of, and uh something that feels like only New York City could put together. So it was uh it was special.

SPEAKER_01
15:24

Yeah, it takes me back kind of to to the bucks, you know, like a totally different level. But yeah, when they won that game six, as much as it was about the basketball, like the city, like you just walk around and it did not matter, you know, and high-fiving talking to different people that probably would never talk to, you know, it was it was such a good moment for the city and for kind of bringing people together. But that's what sports can do, too. It definitely brought New York together, you know.

SPEAKER_04
15:55

Like no, it did. And it was funny too, because you'd see some wild stuff on Twitter, you know, like people acting crazy and doing crazy stuff. But it was like all I knew was being there. I was like, this is the most loving, peaceful time I've to your point. Yep. About you know, when when the Bucks won the championship too, it was it was like everyone you you saw at lunch or if you're out at dinner, you knew you had a common topic and a common something to celebrate. And so it felt like that in New York too, where it was like, oh, there's this violence or there's something bad going on. I'm like, whatever's going on, it's the lowest percentage of something bad or violence going on ever in the history because everybody was so happy. And uh, like you said, I think it's you know, sports can be magical. And you know, when it's those kind of comeback stories like that, where it's like they were the Knicks were down in every one of those San Antonio games. When you saw those stats where it was like they trailed 72% of the series, yeah, you're like, I've seen teams win championships, I've seen you know the better team win. But at the end of that series, you were like, I don't know if we saw like quote unquote the better team. You heard Kenny Atkinson with Cleveland saying stuff like, well, analytically, I saw that. You know, and you were like, Well, if you're watching the series, you were like, I hear what you're saying, that's not how it works. Kenny's a friend of mine. But everyone was like, that's not how it works. But you were like, Yeah, they keep coming back.

SPEAKER_02
17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
17:20

So I think that just I think it adhered a lot of people to kind of what was happening. Made it uh a little different, more religious experience because you're like, I can't believe it happened.

SPEAKER_00
17:31

Yeah, analytics doesn't always win games, it's just kind of pulling it out and hitting shots when it when it counts. And they squeezed a lot of those out. They did. They did. And I think I think whenever you know better than me, but um whenever a team wins, even looking at the Bucks winning, like there was a bunch of luck that was involved in that. Yeah. Maybe the years before when they arguably looked better and did not win, like there was some stuff that happened in those. But you know, if KD's foot's not on that line, none of that happens. Exactly. At all. So it's yeah, sometimes you need some breaks too, not saying the Knicks got a ton of them, but they like, you know, you miss a shot, you make a shot, you get a tip ball, or you get a cow, like a little tip in bio. Like the one thing Lendy did at the end of that one game, and I think Jalen stole it and went to the line. Yeah. Yeah, it's I think if you ask, you know, there's a small margin for error at that high of a level. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
18:24

And it's, you know, like you're saying, the the it's not guaranteed when you're the best team. No. It's just not. And I think I've heard so many like Hall of Fame high-level coaches say, look, of course it's about preparation and it's about personnel and it's about adjustments, and it's about all these things, but it's also, like you're saying, always a little bit about luck.

SPEAKER_00
18:42

And I think the Knicks just seemed a little looser too, like everyone thought the Spurs were gonna win. They had just gone through a grueling series with the Thunder where the Knicks kind of cruised and were arguably, I mean, fresher. They had a long break before that.

SPEAKER_04
18:56

But yeah. Yeah. Stars aligned. They did. Yeah. And when you start sweeping teams, like the Knicks swept Philly, swept Cleveland. It's like they're playing some good hoops, and then you're watching, like you said, San Antonio and Oklahoma City go at it into a beating each other up. Yeah, game seven was wild. Game one might have been one of the best basketball games I've ever seen in that in that series. And so you just you don't know how it ends up, but yeah, it was a magical year. And I think good for the NBA, good for basketball, too. You know, it's like for the Knicks to win in New York City and all that. It's like it's a unique champion. Yeah, it was good. It was good.

SPEAKER_00
19:33

Um, let's jump to this. I don't want to spend a ton of time on this because we got some ground to cover, but you you've you have quite the lineup of teammates you played with in the NBA. Yeah. Yao Ming, yeah, team Mac. You went to the conference finals with Westbrook and Durant. Yeah. Giannis, obviously, when you came back to the Bucks, Melo and Amari on the Knicks. I mean, Wayne, Wade, Deaner, Mike Kinsella, when you were with Mike. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04
20:00

A little shout out to Mike Kinsella.

SPEAKER_00
20:01

I swear to friend of the program. Apparently had a higher three-point percentage than you there. Yeah, I don't know. We're gonna have to look at minimum five attempts. Three for five careers.

SPEAKER_01
20:14

Casa Microsoft. Casa Micos.

SPEAKER_04
20:17

Um time goes on, we allowed stats to be the threshold to be even lower.

SPEAKER_00
20:22

You were involved in that. Um anyway, uh we don't have time to go through all of them, but if there was like one thing that surprised you most about one of those guys, yeah, what what would it be? Who would you choose and what would that be that like people like us would not be aware of?

SPEAKER_04
20:41

Yeah, like you said, I think you know the Hall of Fame guys are I I was fortunate to to play with a lot of guys. Unfortunat I got traded a bunch like five times and played on nine teams in 11 years. But you know, playing with those guys is is such a cool thing, I think, when your your dream is to be an NBA basketball player because those were guys, all those guys you listed were guys I looked up to. And so I think it's like, you know, when I first played against Kobe, when I first matched up with, you know, Tim Thomas. Those were both guys I had like Tim Thomas from the Bucs? Oh, I had posters of them on my so did I, you know, and and T Mac was one of them too. I had a poster of T Mac in my college dorm room. And so, you know, that list that you ran off, I think it it really is one of those, like when you playing those guys, you have to just take a step back and go, like, all right, we have to I have to compete.

SPEAKER_00
21:30

I gotta realize this. I have to somehow compete with Kobe Bryant.

SPEAKER_04
21:34

Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I mean, I would say honestly, playing against those each for each one of those guys, and especially with the ones you list that were my teammates, those were all just like dreams dreams come true. You know, for me, as I got older in my career, they weren't all idols to me. But when I first got in the league, they were. Um But I would say, you know, like of my basketball stories, the the kind of the story that happened in my career that Was that stands out the most was like Lin Sanity. It was the lockout shortened year where we we unlocked basically to start Christmas. And that Knicks team ended up being with Jeremy Lynn and the year of Lin Sanity. And uh, you know, when when I look back at that year and playing hoops with Jeremy and kind of what that ended up becoming and the impact that you know being in the Knicks organization for me has meant, Jeremy and I were actually in the in the D-League. It was not the G League, it was a D-League at the time with the Reno Bighorns the year before that. I had gotten released by the Dallas Mavericks and I signed with the Reno Bighorns. I think he had been released by the Golden State Warriors, and he ended up on the Reno Bighorns. We were teammates and basically both not good enough or not enough room for us in the league. You know, and so I think seeing who he became and the phenomena that Linsanity was, I think might have been like the coolest basketball experience, most unexpected that you know I I definitely had, and is a story that I just continue to share with people because it was like I was with him the year before in the D-League where he wasn't, I wasn't, we weren't good enough to be at the playing in front of like 97 people in arena. Yeah, and then a year later it's like he is putting up whatever the 20, you know, 25, 8, and 7 on Kobe. Rest in peace on a you know, on a Friday night or up, was it a Saturday night at the garden, and he's in game winners against Toronto and putting up numbers on Darren Williams and going against John Wall. And so I think it's one of those stories that it's just like everyone can relate to where you're like, wow, he could do it, and you were with them. You didn't even realize. I'm like, he didn't realize he couldn't.

SPEAKER_00
23:42

You said on a show, he was like a day away from getting cut before that happened.

SPEAKER_03
23:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
23:47

Yeah, his 10 day was up. And Kenny Atkinson was our uh our player development coach, so it was like myself, Jeremy, a few other guys in the mornings getting our like we call our vitamin in, our pre pre-practice workout in. Dan Dantoni, coach Mike Dantoni's brother, was in the gym with us getting workouts in as well. And you know, there's the coaches are seeing, you know, who Jeremy is and they want to give him a shot and they like him, but there's just not room for him. And then we have enough injuries, and that it's coming close to the end of his 10 day that Dan Dantoni, Kenny Atkinson are like going to bat with our head coach Mike Dantoni, and saying, like, give him a shot, put him out there. Like, he's gonna get cut tomorrow. What do we have to lose? You know, I mean, it really, if you look at the it was actually the next day. So it's like fine, you know, go start against I think it was, I think it was Darren Williams. Yeah. And he put up a monster game, and it was obviously what ended up being the start of Linsanity, but it was like, all right, well, re-sign this guy. I think he's gonna be all right, and then played good enough through that stretch to get that that poison pill contract offered by the Houston Rockets, where they I think they they front loaded or backloaded, I think they backloaded the contract and put like 80% of the money in the third year because they knew the Knicks were in a bad spot salary cap-wise in that third year. And so it got a little messy and Jeremy had to go to the Houston Rockets, but it was uh just an incredible story of what you know the the human spirit can do, the belief in yourself, you know, even when people are telling you, like, ah, you went to Harvard, nobody really comes out of Harvard and doesn't, ah, you're Asian. We've not seen a lot of Asian guys do like this. And to hear Jeremy talk about it, he's like, Yeah, that's that's what I heard. And he was like, I just believed in myself, kept pushing, and then made some magic happen. So it's cool now.

SPEAKER_01
25:31

We get to be confident, yeah. Right? You probably saw that the year prior. Like he put the work in, he was confident. Yeah, so when that moment came, he cut he probably just kind of blacked out in a way, like he was just hooping, but he was a confident person.

SPEAKER_04
25:45

Yeah, he he was. He always did believe in, and he always said, like, you know, he believed in what he could do. No, when people ask him like that, but you know, did you think you would you do what you did? And he's like, Oh, no, no, no. No, I never you know, I never thought that, and it's and that I think it's is being just candid and honest, you know. It's like you don't think you can do it at that level against a Kobe Bryant against a Darren Williams, but but he did. And he's he's finally retired. Now Jeremy's retired from from hooping, he's doing analyst work. We'll see where he ends up, but it's uh it's wild just to see, you know, everybody I played with retiring. Yes, that makes me old.

SPEAKER_00
26:22

Hey everyone, the season is changing. We've got football. I I just saw some pumpkin beer on tap last weekend. Bree would love to go apple picking and and hopefully a nice deep Brewers playoff run. With all this change, it may be, it probably is, a great time to take a hard look at your finances. And that's where Annex Wealth Management comes into play. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm with offices in and all around Milwaukee that helps you with everything retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies, all under one roof. That's our friends at annexwealth management, annexwealth.com. And let's get back to the episode with Steve Novak and our co-host, Annex's own, Anthony Milochnik. Steve, you put nine different teams in 11 years. What's the side of that that people don't really see that you have to go through? Because the NBA is so glamorized. Like we just see what's on TV essentially.

SPEAKER_04
27:25

No, it is. And rightfully so. You know, it's like the but but to your point, there is definitely another side of it. You know, it's like you could probably do a whole show with NBA wives. You know, it's saying like, tell us what you just said the Brewer's Wives on this week.

SPEAKER_00
27:38

Oh, did you? It was a great episode, but it was it was cool like hearing their perspectives and uh what they go through. And I remember one of them talking. Um, Erica hosted it, but I I listened through it, and um, yeah, like guy gets a call up at midnight. He has to be on the next flight at 5 a.m. going to a different city that they don't have a house or an apartment in, and then the the wife is like getting a U-Haul and moving the dogs and the kids all the way across country. And yeah, it's that was just one example.

SPEAKER_04
28:06

Well, and it sounds like, you know, I feel like when I used to hear that kind of thing, I'd go like, I bet it's not like that. Like, I bet they're saying that they got a U-Haul, but someone else did it and whatever. And after being traded five times, and you know, there was one example that comes to mind, and I know our guy is a little bit controversial right now, but NS Cantor, NS Freedom Cantor. He we were in Utah.

SPEAKER_00
28:26

Do you mean the number one WNBA prospect?

SPEAKER_04
28:29

This that would be what he'd be considered at this point right now. I think we'll see how that ends up. We should probably leave that alone. Um we can leave it alone, but you can still tell a cantor story. No, but so we were teammates in Utah, and he in in only uh an Ennis Cantor Freedom way, he actually, on the last game before All-Star Break, slipped a reporter a note and it said basically, I'm gonna demand a trade. I want out, more or less, of Utah. And we were all like, well, we didn't know at the time we did it. We get on the bus after the game, we're in Dallas, and the reporter was supposed to, he had done a little verbal, like, you gotta wait until we, you know, take off or we land back, or it's all start break until you release that I'm gonna demand a trade and whatever. The reporter put it out before we got on the bus. Phones, guys, phones are going off. They're like, Yenis, this guy's saying that you just gave him a note in the locker room, and he's like, you know, pretty much like, yeah, I did. And you know, some of us kind of knew that he wanted to be traded anyway. We I go to Hawaii for All-Star Break, don't think anything of it. It's a great time. Come back. First practice back, practice is at one. Practice gets postponed for an hour. We're like, oh boy, here we go. Like stuff's going down. And you don't move practice an hour right after all-star break unless there's some action. Two o'clock, we go and we practice. Ennis is sitting out of practice. At the end of practice, I leave, I see the assistant GM in the parking lot. Hey, I'm always getting traded. I know there's movement on Ennis. Would you just tell me I'm going home? Or am I gonna be traded again? Am I in any of this? He says, No, you're not in it. You're good. I get to my house, my boy texts me, like, hey, congrats on your new team. I put my name in Twitter. I it's a three-team deal. I can't even figure out which team I'm going to yet. And this because he put that note in that reporter's pocket, because that news broke and he demanded a trade. We got traded that afternoon, 7 o'clock a.m. the next morning. There was a PJ waiting for us, and I had to pack my stuff to go to Oklahoma City with basically three to four months of of my belongings. And it was like goodbye to my wife and my children, like, figure it out. Come visit me on the weekend. I hope that uh you guys can come see me. But in season, I mean that is what it looks like. It's like it's a business, you got a game the next day, you better hurry up and get there, get your physical done, and and make it happen. Off seasons a little more calm. You can go get your stuff, you can move your stuff, you can get established. But that side of it is is real and I think entertaining if you're not a part of it. So if you are, it's pretty brutal though.

SPEAKER_00
31:03

Any any good Westbrook Durant stories?

SPEAKER_04
31:08

Yeah, those guys were were both such competitors, and no question, it's I mean it's well documented. I think it's they were both running kind of in the same lanes, a little bit literally, but more figuratively, where it's like they both wanted the shots, and rightfully so. They both wanted the ball. They both were kind of like attack mid-range and to the rim players. KD could obviously stretch it out a little more, but there was almost, it seemed like when I was teammates with them, just a little too much overlap. And it was like you never faulted either one because you saw Russell when he was downhill, it's like he was averaging a triple double. And KD could score from everywhere, in the mid-post, in the mid-range, you know, like from three. So you almost never faulted either of them for wanting the ball every time and wanting to go to work, but there just was this not enough, you know, room for both of them, it seemed like. And so, you know, I think they they got along, but not as well as they needed to to, I think ultimately win the whole thing. Like everybody thinks that they were talented enough in the primes of their careers to to get it done. So, you know, both guys that I would say this, as far as you know, what I saw guys get on the inside get to see it's like Russell Westbrook after the game was a completely different human being than he was in the game. He was a guy who had a light switch, or he was a monster, an animal. He was crazy to the reporters, he was crazy on the court, he was going act out right, and we've all seen it. For sure. And after the game in Oklahoma City, the court is like is lined off, and only the players' families and kids get to go on the court after the game. And it's kind of a cool tradition. And Russell, when he would come out, he went right to the kids, not even just his kids. He would go play with you know my son and all the kids, and he was the most gentle, loving. He's my son's favorite player to this day. When he retired recently, he was devastated. And so I think that's one side that's uh you know, was he like that in the community too? Yeah, big time. And so I think that's one thing, you know, on the inside you get to see is you're like, he's crazy on the basketball court, talking trash, doing crazy stuff, but just one of those.

SPEAKER_00
33:18

And to the reporters, maybe he felt like he needed to project that because it's kind of like the kind of player he was out there and didn't want to show the the soft side to anyone.

SPEAKER_04
33:27

Yeah. No, but I I always appreciated that you know that I think it's it's hard to have like that I'm this sometimes and I'm this other times. You know, it's almost I feel like it it fights against you being yourself. But I found it very cool that he was kind of the epitome of that, where he had to be that ultimate competitor and was always with like no apologies. And then immediately after the game, it was like no matter he might have just cussed a reporter out and had a bad game, whatever, and he was like out there on one knee, yeah, you know, like rebounding and and hanging with the kids and so I just always thought I just always thought it was a cool thing to see.

SPEAKER_00
34:07

Should we go to Marquette? Let's do it. How are you feeling about the squad this year? Any anyone or anything you're excited about?

SPEAKER_04
34:14

Yeah, I am excited. I think, you know, coming off a year last year that was obviously down and disappointing because I think the you know, the four years, especially before that, the team played so well. And there's gonna be down years when you've got that many NBA draft picks, and you know, Shaka just did such a good job with with those guys, especially in in this NIL era where there was so little turnover. You know, you got the the Tyler Colex and the Cam Jones and the uh and all those guys who were the starters, you know, it seemed like for all four years almost. Um and then last year was a little bit down, but you know, I do think, you know, having having a lot of the experience like this group has, where it's you know, Adrian Stevens coming back, who I know the Shock is excited about, and Nigel James is obviously someone that's on a lot of people's radar as you know, one of the top players, you know, in college. Obviously, Sonanda Fru, the big transfer um coming through. I saw there was also a guy from Liberty that just signed today, a little backup, a little 5'10 5'10 uh guard who's coming in. Um so you know, I just think the development of guys like like Josh Clark, even, you know, it's like I just think this is gonna be a very different year from last year. And the NIL environment and you know, going and getting different guys at turnover is a little different, you know, than we've seen at Marquette over the last few years, but obviously with the with the down years, I think a lot to be excited about.

SPEAKER_00
35:38

Shaka does a great job at retaining people in this environment. He does. Like even Nigel James. There there was never he, I'm sure he could go get a ton more money somewhere else, but then it seemed like there was never a question he was gonna leave. Yeah. And that was after the year they had that year. So I just when you talk to the guys, they all speak so highly of him. I think it just speaks volumes of what he's doing. And I think it's good he's finally going in and getting some guys from the portal. You kind of have to now.

SPEAKER_04
36:02

But yeah, I agree. And and I think that retention, it like to your to your point, I think it just really speaks to the development that these guys are they personally feel they're experiencing. They want to play at the highest level. There's money to be made in college. But if your dream is to play in the NBA, it's like and you're being put around good guys and you're in a good place and you believe in your coach, it's like, you know, there's a reason. You know, guys like Cam Jones stayed. There's a reason guys like Tyler Kolek, you know, played his three years after he came in as a sophomore and stayed, you know. And so I think it's it was unique for sure over the last few years. And and now going to the portal, I don't think it's a bad thing.

SPEAKER_01
36:39

Yeah, it seems like NCAA is getting older, NBA is getting younger. For sure. So if you figure it figure that balance out, like Shaka seems to be figuring out, you know, you can be competitive it's kind of like even like the Knicks, right? Talent-wise, they were probably not the most talented team in the NBA last year, but they found their culture and they they had that defensive mentality. And they had a couple of guys that could go hit buckets in big moments. And it seems like to me that's the route that NCAA is going. And you take a Marquette, you could really build around that. Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna lose, you're not gonna get a top, you know, five guy, top ten guy, right? But you could you could keep one and build structure around that person or two, and that that is a winning approach, I think.

SPEAKER_04
37:28

Yeah, and it's challenging, you know, to your point. It's like it's just not what it used to be. I think about, you know, like you mentioned earlier, you know, the Final Four team, where it's like, you know, Travis Deaner and Dwayne Wade and myself. And you know, I think about if was there any chance that Duane would have still been at Marquette after his first season? It's like he showed the the talent that he was, he would have got a bag and he would have ended up, you know, getting all these offers. It was hard to play at Marquette. It was a uh you worked hard, Coach Korean was pushing us. It was like they were not friendly days. You know, like Dwayne talked about leaving, Travis talked about leaving, I talked about leaving, but I think about we all stayed and went through like how difficult that was and the adversity and me thinking I'm not good enough. I'm going against Rob Jackson, this big guy who's a senior and I'm a freshman, and Dwayne, I'm coming in and he's looking like some NBA All-Star. And Travis is one of the toughest dudes you ever played with. And I'm like, I don't know, man. Like, this isn't the right thing. Right. And it would have been easy to be like, ah, they're gonna give you a million and a half, or I don't know, maybe seven million now. I don't know. You know, to go over to here. You might want to.

SPEAKER_01
38:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_04
38:36

And so, you know, I think those stories and those kind of teams, I think, are gonna be I'm not sure there'll be any, you know. But but to your point about Shaka's job, you know, retaining guys and keeping guys in the program, it speaks to the environment he's creating, which is in I think still very, very important.

SPEAKER_00
38:53

Is there a Dwayne moment where you're like, oh, this dude's different?

unknown
38:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
38:58

When I was a sophomore in high school, Coach Crean had started recruiting me. And Brian Wardle was the captain of the team, guys like Cordell Henry, Luminomica was there, John Harris, and uh Brian Wardle would text me. I think I just had my first cell phone or call, and he would say, like, hey, you want to come down and get some runs in over at the old gym at Marquette? And I'm like, oh god, like I guess, but these are grown men, like that's so intimidating. But coaches, Coach Crane was like, you know, go play with them, have a good time, get to know these guys. And there'd be some recruits that would, you know, come and play or whatever sometimes too. And one time there was some guy named Odarte Blankston, who was like this prized recruit out of Chicago, and he was gonna bring another guy who was from Chicago, Dwayne Wade. And Odarte was the the guy, and he was a legitimate, you know, high-level recruit, and he ended up going to Marquette, was a very good player. He ended up transferring to UNLV, but he brought some guy named Dwayne Wade with him. And I was in that run when Dwayne first came and played. And I didn't kind of know the story of like O'Darte's the guy at the time, and Dwayne's being brought along. I just was like, these are two recruits from Chicago, you guys can mix in and figure it out. And I went home to my house in Brown Deer that night, and I'll I'll never forget, I told my parents, like, I just played with, and it sounds silly, but I was a sophomore in high school. I was like, I just played with an NBA guy. A guy that's gonna be you know, I'd play with NBA guys, I don't know what that feels like. Of course, now I'm on the other side, and it's like a silly thing to say, but like I just saw a guy who's gonna be in the NBA, and he was so good. And he was still not like a highly recruited.

SPEAKER_01
40:37

He was was a senior at that point, too, right? Yeah, probably he was two years, yeah.

SPEAKER_04
40:42

He didn't have many other options, did he? No. No. I think DePaul was on the radar, I think Bradley was on the radar, but neither. He was Dwight was a partial qualifier, so he sat his first year, academic only his first year, and then played his second. So I think it you know scared some schools off that if I think if he had to do it all over again, I think he might have had some more offers and some more people willing to say, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
41:01

We'll invest in you a little bit and and get it right. Um spe speaking of him, can you can you play this clip and and react to it and give your answer? Oh, geez. All right, let's see here. You would have added to that roster if you could take one from all of the years. We could go after you all play.

SPEAKER_03
41:17

It's easy for me. For me, it's easy too. I wonder if we're gonna say, Tyler. I don't know if another point. No, I definitely wouldn't go out with that one.

SPEAKER_02
41:26

I'd like to play with you.

unknown
41:29

Jake Rober for me. I mean, Tyler could have given us some. Yeah, we didn't have a backup point.

SPEAKER_04
41:36

I love it.

SPEAKER_00
41:37

Who is one market?

SPEAKER_04
41:39

Who would you take added to that roster if you've got to be able to do that? Boy, one any any market player in the in the history of the program?

SPEAKER_00
41:46

We could go history. Yeah, with them, I think we did it after after they played to make it more current. But you could go history. We could open it up.

SPEAKER_04
41:54

No, no, yeah. It's a I I love that question because I do you want a different point guard as well? Yeah, no, I'm sticking with Deaner. I would never talk that kind of trash. You he lives close to him. He lives close to him. That's right. I gotta watch it. He knows where I live. Oh, that's a great question. You know, I do think about how well-rounded we were, which I think is what makes the the question tough. It's like that final four-year, I was I came off the bench. You know, we had guys like Todd Townsend and Rob Jackson and Scott Merritt, and Duane was obviously playing all the positions, and Deaner at the one. So I'm trying to think, other than talking trash and saying we need a new point guard or a new backup point guard, it's hard to replace the two guard because he was pretty good. The five man was Rob Jackson. He had a pretty big game against Kentucky, and Scott Merritt was all the things, the Swiss Army knife. So, you know, I would say I think if I had to pick a guy just based on who I am and who I would have thought would have especially been like a hybrid guy during that time, and Anthony Pieper put another guy in the corner. Anthony Pieper. Spot up in the corner. What year was he, Steve? He was before he was before us. I'm going back to those Kevin O'Neill sweet 16 days.

SPEAKER_00
43:01

You're taking him over Jimmy Buckett's, etc.

SPEAKER_04
43:03

I yeah, I mean, I'm thinking, right, if if we're going with Tyler. I like the pick. I don't even know the guy.

SPEAKER_00
43:10

I think about You know who this is, Anthony? Okay. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01
43:13

Yeah, he's legendary. All-time scorer in Wisconsin history, I believe.

SPEAKER_04
43:17

Yeah. Big time. Sweet 16. What year? Play with McIvane, okay, Kevin O'Neill, maybe with Mike Dean as well. I'm not sure what total years he was, but mid-90s, if I had to guess.

SPEAKER_01
43:28

See, look, you know your stuff.

SPEAKER_04
43:30

I like that. I I gotta go with the shooter. And uh and I just gotta think, you know, in that Missouri game when Rob Jackson fouled out and we were in our our final four run, I was banging down some threes, and I just think if we had another guy in the corner, space the floor, me in the other corner, we probably wouldn't have even been in overtime. So I'm gonna keep it real. I'll go with I'll go with Peeper shooting shooting the three ball.

SPEAKER_00
43:51

I want I want to go to a few uh uh list questions with basketball players and stuff. But before that, and would like both of you to answer, what what advice would you give? to younger hoopers looking to make it but also as as basketball parents yourself maybe to some parents too for it.

SPEAKER_01
44:08

Yeah I mean I think surrounding yourself with with good people um is key and so getting good direction like anything it's not practice makes perfect it's perfect practice makes perfect so if you're learning a technique or doing something the wrong way you're probably gonna build bad habits so it's really important early on the younger you are is to have a really healthy foundation because once you have that foundation and it sounds boring and it's repetition and all these things but once you have that you can really expand upon your skill set too.

SPEAKER_04
44:40

I love that and I would honestly echo a lot of what you said because you know you talked about the foundation the fundamentals and the skills. I think when I think back to you know how I was raised and the reason that I love basketball it comes from the environment that was created you know around basketball for me. And I think like not to bash any parents or talk trash but I I think that what what I often see now is the is it the uh what is the the King Richard documentary? What is the the the the Williams sisters where it's the it's the dad just forcing it into the girls saying like you're gonna be a dead the Tiger Woods story where it's like here's the club the reason I didn't make it I didn't get enough reps I didn't have enough muscle memory we're just gonna pound it into you and you're gonna become that I think is the opposite of my story and I think is what I believe is so powerful and impactful is creating positive environments and calling them basketball. Because for me it was like my dad was a high school coach he was at Brown Deer High School I was with him at all the practices from kindergarten on my mom would pick me up from school bring me over I'd go to the vending machine get some candy and I would think I was at the gym playing basketball. And maybe I was you know dribbling around or shooting or whatever. Yeah. And obviously as the kids get more get older and I take it more serious yeah there's real development that has to take place but I think creating that love of the environment wanting to be in the gym wanting to be with these coaches wanting to be with those players in this program I think is important. So finding the right program, the right environment and uh you know not not turn it into something that's like if you don't do a million reps, the truth is if the kid doesn't choose to do a million reps it's it's never going to work out anyway.

SPEAKER_00
46:24

Yeah you you get those outlier stories like a like a tiger but that is also a recipe for burnout and anxiety for probably the majority of people and just putting so much pressure where which it's harder to perform under that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
46:39

I like going back real quick your your D Wade story is similar to mine and I was lucky enough to come work out with Marquette going into my freshman year at Chicago State because Bo Ellis was was my coach there and didn't really know who Dwayne was in an open gym all of a sudden he makes a move and just takes off a foot inside the free throw line and dunked on some freshman I don't know who it was like Travis I remember like started running around the gym and jumped on somebody's back and I was just like went home I'm like who is this guy? What was that I just like he is an NBA player for sure and then sure enough that was I think that your freshman year right is really where he took off yep and what year was that was that like the year he was sitting that was the year that uh he must have played as a sophomore what when did he leave to go to the league? Junior so he played two years two years but he wasn't as good the first year I think that he played like the notoriety he really like his stock rose quick his Steve's year freshman year. Right the triple double against Kentucky helped too but I I just remember walking out of the gym like man that guy that was impressive I've never seen anything like that in my life.

SPEAKER_04
47:57

Yeah he would he was there was some you know as the years went on and you would see him match up with when he was at Marquette some of the Bucks guys would come over and I remember Desmond Mason who was a cowboy yeah he was a D-Wade esque type player a long wing who could do so many things he could dunk over guys could dunk it was a it was a spectacle for sure those two guarding each other and neither could stop each other and it was just like the things they were doing the finishes the dunks the stuff on the break and you're like so hold on so if he's on the bucks and he's a however many million dollar a year guy and you're like then who is that Ryan Wade like who is he about to be and you know that was his the year he sat out and I think the year his first year playing where everyone was like in-house was like we know we know how good he is we've seen him go against NBA guys.

SPEAKER_00
48:43

So for sure well it's cool you guys ran with the Bucks a little bit back then. Yeah in the summer those guys would come over and um you know especially when guys were getting back in shape and remember it was like TJ Ford who I think is back on the Buc staff cool to see that yeah yeah with the shorts down here back then exactly I hope he still has a photo he should he should yeah those yeah some of the is Darvin Ham still on the staff yeah yeah Darvin still he could dunk oh yeah I liked watching him back then yeah the ham slamwich the ham slamwich come on now back in the lighted up days I believe oh yeah yeah he was nasty nasty remember some of the he was the fact that the stanchions yeah couldn't even stay up he was trying to rip the rim off yeah when you see him now you're like he's the biggest dude you'll ever see still I was a huge Bucks fan in the 90s and early 2000s I made my dad drive me like from Madison even before the the you know Ray Allen Glenn Robinson Cassell days that little period before where like Terrell Brandon and Ellie were the point guards and and those guys and you know I'd buy some stuff off eBay back then and I have an autographed Darwin Hamm Sports Illustrated. I think he was at like was he at Arizona or Texas Tech or something and yeah shattered the backboard I might still have it somewhere in the basement where um I think all that stuff still is it loves it I'd bet she does I want an autographed Ricky Weeks jersey in a golf outing this week. How excited are you for that? It's gonna go in the basement is that where that's gonna go it's probably stashed away in in there um if anyone would like one. Anyway um let's get to some of those list questions. Steve, you'll be back in New York um soon. Yeah where would you recommend people go if they fly out there?

SPEAKER_04
50:30

Any any insider spots if people are looking to get food or drinks or anything in New York City Yeah I'll give some pics I'm I'm I usually stay close to Madison Square Garden, which is in Midtown. The area that I stay is usually uh it's like the Hudson Yards area beautiful Pendry Hotel would be my my first stay there. Stay there really nice would be my first recommendation uh Hudson Yards has some great restaurants there's a carbone that's right in there walking distance uh that's really become a nice part of New York especially post-pandemic I mean they they've done a great job in that area they have they have it's like the little Peloton studio in there people getting their workouts in there's the Highline park you can walk to right there Whole Foods is right next to the next to the Pendry Hotel in the Hudson Yard so I check out that so travel to New York to go to Whole Foods yeah I mean Whole Foods why go to North Ave when you can go to New York City it's just one flight exactly one quick flight direct in Milwaukee airport too I'm telling you that that commute Milwaukee Airport's like a private terminal right LaGuardia if you fly Delta it's the easiest brand new terminal you fly in it's like driving to Green Bay flying to New York driving to Green Bay it's like same commute but that would be my first pick Pendry Hudson Yards uh Avra is a really good Mediterranean uh restaurant that's right there a couple blocks from the garden right by Hudson Yards as well one of my other favorite spots in uh West Village would be Cafe Clooney C-L-U-N-Y-U just a good relaxing spot West Village you walk around a bunch of young people in neighborhoods and you kind of just feel like you're hanging in the third ward a little bit and got some New York vibes so yeah those would be my my neighborhood picks. And you gotta check out the garden obviously go walk around see what see what kind of action's over there.

SPEAKER_00
52:26

Next one do you have any top brown deer high school athletes of all time oh yeah I got a I probably have a wild list.

SPEAKER_04
52:36

But no one's gonna know who these people are they're all right we might we might let's hear it all right let's hear it and I have a few I would have some inklings for who you might know so I might I might add a few in. So obviously there's the Zach Bonds okay right legend T Palmer legendary female stud athlete football player Justin Austin stud athlete. Those are more recent which I'm saying because I know that those maybe maybe are who the people know but if I go back to who my my heroes were when I my dad was coaching Brown beer high school when I was born and he's coaching football and basketball like these were my people always say like who are your NBA heroes who are the guys you looked up to and I didn't watch that much NBA. I didn't watch much college I was with my dad every Tuesday and Friday night watching all of his games and these guys are like grown men right his high school players and they're my heroes. So guys like Brian Lamy really from Lamy Sports Marketing he's not gonna want to well maybe he would want to hear this. But it's like those were the guys that it's like my dad had me up in the bleachers filming the games and he's shooting the three and he's running the wing and Brian Lamy could ball. He could ball I think if you ask him he'd probably tell you he can still ball I don't know that for sure he would he would he would yeah he's not that big he'd he can shoot yeah okay there's a guy Chad Fisher who was his who was his teammate could shoot it. He lives in Whitefish Bay now. Regular guy super nice he was for sure one of my hooper heroes because he was shooting the three guy named Chris Kite he was running with him he played football for my dad and basketball there's also a couple football guys that I remember uh Mike Shepherd there we're looking for Mike Shepherd if you'd if you'd have worked out a little more I probably would have been higher on the list I'm not sure he had I'm joking because it's a guy in high school who had no neck he was just the most jacked high school guy you ever seen. Stimmer or Michael Shepard Shepard Shepherd of course guy named Andre Renault legendary football player running back but yeah there were some other guys.

SPEAKER_00
54:42

I think uh Michael Shepherd I think was cook coaching university school like five years ago in his early 40s or late 30s apparently he'd still put the pads on and run high schoolers over. Yeah you don't you don't want to see that because I bet he's still got I mean he's still got some power I went to his um Cinco de Drinco party a couple years ago at his house and he won he wanted me to invited the closet I didn't get invited yeah yeah once you guys are on my level you get invited to these kind of things you can talk all you want about these nice spots in New York but when you get invited to Michael Shepherd's Cinco de Drinco that's when you know you have a rack you've made it there we'll get there. But but anyway he wanted me to spin the pinata so I'm like a buck ninety five uh he picked me up like I was a feather you know threw me around and yeah then I uh you know hit the hit the pinata it opened and um there was candy Jack Daniels mini shots came out of the pinata Cinco de Drinco this is how brown deer people parted this is how brown people if you do you know Joe Vilmo the Muffin man I know the muffin man he ran track at brown deer he didn't make your top athlete I wasn't done Joe was on there muffin man has to he um cracked an egg over my head and said it's good luck in Mexican or in Spanish yeah even though he was do you think he just totally made that up or do you think that's a real thing? I think I asked one of my friends who's actually Mexican and they said it was pretty made up or there was a much different variation of of that stuff. Was this at the Cinco de Drinco? Oh it all was and then Bree and I retreated where I remember we retreated and Cheesecake Factory was still open and I had never been that happy and relieved to be in a cheesecake factory or a chain restaurant overall in my I feel like don't you think this is its own episode the Cinco de Drinco's bring bring back Cinco de Drinco get these guys on the exclusive invite list and um we'll watch our emails for that I think I think sugar Shane Blackman was probably there. Yes you know that I have a good Shane Blackman store. I mean that guy's phenomenal who who else can attend 203 Christmas parties every year wow is that a thing is that a real number I think so he's he's he's just he just he just hits hits them all I mean the guys in 203?

SPEAKER_04
57:04

I I don't know it's a big number he stole a meatball from me at Mo's one time.

SPEAKER_00
57:08

Did he what'd you do did you crack an egg over his head?

SPEAKER_04
57:11

I didn't crack an egg but I I did turn and I was at the bar and I said I was you know we were socializing with someone and then Shane was there and my meatball one meatball was left on my plate and he helped himself to it and I turned and I said I said Shane where did my meatball go?

SPEAKER_00
57:29

And he just looked at me like I said you ate my meatball and he said he only he might have had a little Tito's before then potentially thank you for listening to this episode of Milwaukee on Cut a huge thank you to Steve Novak for coming on and Anthony Milochnik for co hosting and just want to thank our partners before signing off annex Wealth Management Know the Difference Nikola the Midwest law firm and drink Wisconsin Bleed Beverage Company best vodka brandy and canned cocktails in the game

SPEAKER_04
0:00

I think for it being a small market team, people always look to the big market teams. People really sleep on Milwaukee. We really get a packed house at a 110 game. And I think I've really experienced it over the last three years, specifically last season. You could just feel the energy shift. So I I think that is the high biggest highlight about Milwaukee is that it's like sneaky cool here.

SPEAKER_02
0:18

I love here that the fans, like they love the team. Very die hard here. I feel like that's just all of the Wisconsin sports. They all love them. So true.

SPEAKER_01
0:26

He's had ups and downs in the 13 years that he's been playing professional baseball and have to go through that with them, plus you know, handle the mental load of everything, plus the dog, plus the babies, like everything.

SPEAKER_04
0:37

Some people like glamorize and want to like be married to a professional athlete, not really understanding what you're giving up. And a lot of that looks like putting your career second or being the full-time parent.

SPEAKER_03
0:50

What's up everyone? Welcome back to another episode of Milwaukee Uncut. Bree and Richie were out of town during this episode. So it's Erica. I'm the one that's gonna be introducing this entire episode. And it is a very exciting one. It's Milwaukee Uncut, the Brewers' Wives Edition. So we had Lauren Bowers, Natalie Zestrisney, and Lexi Vaughan here on the podcast. So all of these women are from completely different parts of the United States. But what's bringing them together is Milwaukee and all of their husbands playing for the Milwaukee Brewers. So you'll get to hear some of their stories, what they love about the Creative City. And also it's just a really interesting perspective that I was really excited to chat with them about. You're gonna love them. Before we dive in, let's make sure to thank our partners for making Milwaukee Uncut possible. We're gonna kick it off with Nicolay Law, the Midwest Law Firm Injured. Nicolay and Russ, and the team will take great care of you. Up next, we got Annex Wealth Management. If you're looking to get your finances together and have a goal that deals with money, your earnings, your investments. Make sure you go talk with the experts at Annex. They have an amazing team ready to listen and help you with your personal goals. Drink Wisconsin Believe Beverage Company, the best vodka brandy, canned cocktails in the game, available at bars, liquor stores, all across the state. And also now available at Anna Fam Field. And make sure you check out their corner bar in Right Field. Also, quick shout out to Vendetta Coffee, a friend of the show, for helping us set this one up. And of course, if you want an amazing cup of coffee and some food, make sure you head over there to Tosa or Walker's Point or even Bayview. Alright, let's dive in.

SPEAKER_04
2:33

I'm Lauren Bowers, Jake Bowers' wife. I'm Natalisa Stresney, Rob Zestrisney's wife. I'm Lexi Vaughn, Andrew Vaughn's wife.

SPEAKER_03
2:40

Amazing. Well, you guys, thank you so much for coming. I'm really excited to be able to chat with you. But um I don't know. I think it's it's gotta be kind of a unique life that you guys live, to say the least, right? Yeah, it is definitely insane.

SPEAKER_04
2:52

We've been doing it for a long time too, so it feels like um it gets harder but also easier because you're just kind of accustomed to everything at a certain point where you kind of just put your blinders on and like keep going, track it along.

SPEAKER_01
3:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
3:04

You're just used to it at some point, right?

SPEAKER_01
3:06

I mean, constantly moving, just it's part of it's part of it.

SPEAKER_02
3:10

Yeah, it's I'm so used to packing up everything twice a year and bringing everything to a new house that I've never been to. Right. Yes.

SPEAKER_03
3:16

And especially now, I mean, if you haven't been doing it for a while, then already we're already in the thick of the season. We just dealt with even a major blowout last night against the Mariners. So, like, were you guys there? Yes, we were there. It was a lot, a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04
3:29

We did not see it going that way. We were just like vibing, and then Gary Sanchez came in, and I was like, oh, this is this is legit. This is so fun.

SPEAKER_01
3:37

Gary and William hugging to end was the best.

SPEAKER_04
3:40

We were all chanting Gary in the stands, like we all get very invested into the games.

SPEAKER_01
3:44

Uh it never fails. I walked away as soon as my husband hit a home run. Like, I've seen probably a less than a quarter of his home runs this year, but you know, we love it nonetheless. I think he walked away for his other hit too. Yes, all of it.

SPEAKER_03
3:57

All of it. No, you're literally just as it's getting good. Yeah, man, what am I doing? I just have to sit here. Like you can't pee, you can't go fix your hair, you can't get drink, you can't get food, you have to sit there and watch. You're gonna miss something. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01
4:08

Yeah, I got to watch it with the kids, so it was fun.

SPEAKER_03
4:11

And I mean, that's the cool part about it is that you do get to keep going, you do get to keep supporting. Exactly. Um, so I guess that was kind of a fast forward, but like just tell me about you guys because obviously, you guys individually, you know, you you get to do awesome things, but you guys are also awesome people, as is. And I've got I've obviously only gotten to chat with you guys for a couple minutes, but you guys are so fun, bubbly. So tell me more about yourselves. Where are you fine from?

SPEAKER_01
4:31

Um, Jake and I are from Southern California. Um, we both actually grew up and went to high school together, so high school sweethearts. Um, and I it's been kind of weird because this is once we got to Milwaukee, this is like the first time I've actually lived with him before that. It was like college, and I got to be a teacher for a little bit, and then we decided to have kids. So now full-time mom for the moment and baseball wife, but yeah, it was got to live a little bit of a life before just full-time baseball.

SPEAKER_03
4:59

That's wild. Literally, just the first time you lived together was finally professionally wild. There's no transition there right away.

SPEAKER_04
5:06

Yeah. What about you, Natalie? Yeah, we're from South Texas, Corpus Christi, and we went to high school together. We're not high school sweethearts, but we did meet in high school, and then we rekindled later when I was in college. And Rob's originally from Canada, so our story is just like really interesting. But yeah, I've been doing this. He got drafted in 2013 and we started dating in 2015. So it definitely feels like a decade of my life was just like blink of eye, full of by probably a lot of fun at least. A lot of craziness, wildness, a lot of wildness. He's been on like 10 different organizations, and I mean Milwaukee and the Cubs have been like the two that we really had like our most bearings. Like we were there with them for like three to four years. So we're just happy to be here. It's been, I honestly didn't think he'd still be playing. I think him and I both are like, oh, we didn't, I didn't think you'd still be actively playing in this moment of time. Like 34, 35 years old. It's insane. But yeah, I love it. It's fun.

SPEAKER_03
6:01

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02
6:02

So, Laxie, what about you? We are completely opposite. I'm from South Mississippi. Andrew's from Northern California. Um, we met in college through mutual friends. I went to Ole Miss, he went to Berkeley. Um, yeah, it was very crazy how we met, but we started dating. We did long distance for like a year and a half, two years. COVID hit, and I was out there when COVID for a college spring break, and then that's kind of how we moved in together.

SPEAKER_03
6:29

Oh wow, COVID relationship going straight in there.

SPEAKER_02
6:32

That was the year after he got drafted. And so then we went straight to Chicago that year for he was on the taxi squad when they had it. Um, and then yeah, baseball started. He got he made debuted 2021, April 3rd, I think it was his birthday. Yeah, or April 2nd, something like that. That was the first day of the season. Um, and so he debuted then, and we've kind of been doing baseball since going back and forth.

SPEAKER_03
6:55

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02
6:56

Yeah, very different than everyone else.

SPEAKER_03
6:58

It has to be super glamorized, though, right? Like the life of you guys get to play at this time. Obviously, yeah, like there, you only see the really cool, the highlight reel of it too. Like even me working in media, it's like everybody's like, whoa, that's so cool, but nobody sees the hours of rehearsals that we have to do, you know, the crazy stuff. Like, I look like shit before I actually like get on TV. It's like they don't see all of like the rough, they don't see the challenges, they don't see the rough around the edges. So, kind of where does that come in for you guys, too?

SPEAKER_01
7:23

Yeah, I mean, well, also, I mean, it is a little more glamorized in the big leagues, but like the minor leagues going through that. I went through that because I we're high school sweethearts, so I've been through it all with him. And like there were some places I he wouldn't even let me come stay at his apartment because it was so bad. He was like, You're not even stepping foot here, like you're staying in a hotel. Um, you know, and just like I think it also depends on the relationship. Like if you're long distance, that makes it harder too. It's not this, like, you're not just floating around with them, traveling, like everyone says, like, you've been to every baseball stadium, right? And it's like, no, that's a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of, you know, and there's other things in your life that's going on. So it's not just this follow them around, you know, do what you want, everything's taken care of for you. Like, no private jet. No, no private private jet.

SPEAKER_02
8:08

Like to not pay for not writing commercial. And you know what? We're paying for our own tickets to games.

SPEAKER_04
8:13

Yes, yeah. I think a lot of people don't know that too. Yeah, we pay for our own tickets and we pay for everyone's tickets when they ask for them. Yeah, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
8:20

So is that like a big um misnomer, I guess? Would you say that's discounted, but like we're still paying for it.

SPEAKER_04
8:27

We get like we pay the taxes on tickets, and it just gets more expensive uh depending on who we're playing, if it's playoffs. Yeah, but Coves versus Brewers is probably like insane. Yeah, it's definitely insane. Yeah. To Lauren's point, like uh when Rob was drafted and I would come visit him, it was baseball's very different now. The minor leagues looks a little bit different, and it's I'm not saying it's any easier, it's just they do get living paid for, expense other expenses are paid for. When I would go visit Rob, it was like a one-bedroom apartment with one bathroom, and then the guys would alternate when the girlfriends would come to town. Yeah. So like there would be a blow. Yeah, we love a little privacy. It would be like a blow-up mattress in the the living room, a blow-up mattress in the kitchen, a blow-up mattress in the dining room, and then like we would alternate rooms, and then they would wash sheets and like do the bathroom. Oh my god. So it was definitely like it's just changed so much, and him and I really love to like laugh and look back at just some of the places we lived, or like some of the minor league places you've gone, you're like, Oh, I was I was in Syracuse, or like I was like, What the heck am I doing all the way over there? Like, who lives there, right? No, yeah, and there's not there's literally just them all, like that's all there is to do there. So it's there's you have to find, and I think that's probably the the best part about baseball is you have to become comfortable being by yourself because you're by yourself a lot. Um, and I think a lot of people don't realize that it's like if you're not putting yourself out there to be friends with other girls on the team, it can feel really lonely and isolating. If you have kids, that's another like added factor because then you're a mom, and then that kind of just makes things a little bit like further isolating, yeah, probably. Yeah, because it's just like if you want to make plans, you gotta have the nanny, you gotta or babysitter. So just things like become different in every chapter and stage of baseball. But it's it's definitely something that people glamorize. And I think people just it's like social media, people just see like a minute of your life and they're like, they have it all. And we do get to do some really cool things, but it's it comes with a lot of sacrifices too.

SPEAKER_03
10:15

Yeah, obviously, it sounds like monetarily, obviously, as well as like travel, and that takes a lot of time and energy, and you have to constantly meet so many people as much as it is also isolating in itself. I can only imagine. So, what are some of those challenges that you've experienced too, Lexi?

SPEAKER_02
10:28

I think that it's really hard going to a city where you know no one, you have no family, your friends probably aren't close to you, and then the guys leave every other week. Because, like you said, we're not gonna go to every series. Like, I'm not gonna go to Detroit four times a year. Yeah, like I'm not doing that paying for my plate to go. Like, that's just a lot. Yeah. Um, so that's really hard. I think that, yeah, it being expensive, you're paying for bills wherever you live at, and then during the season two, you have to pay to move. The guys aren't helping you move. So, like when Andrew got traded last year, like I had to pick up, he wasn't even there, he left. Yeah, I had to pack up our whole house, and then we had to pay to get everything moved, and like we don't know where we're gonna be at first. So it's just like a lot different than what everyone thinks.

SPEAKER_01
11:08

Yeah, no one like remembers like some if you own a house, you pay that mortgage, you're paying rent, you're paying double mortgage. Yeah, you're paying the bills everywhere.

SPEAKER_04
11:16

Yeah, one of my fondest and like most hilarious moments is when we were traded back to the brewers last year and I was like six months postpartum.

SPEAKER_03
11:23

And oh no.

SPEAKER_04
11:25

Uh Dan, which is like our team liaison, he like works with the guys to do travel planning and all that stuff, was like, Rob, you're on the next flight out out of Philly tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. And it was like midnight when we got the call. And I was like, what am I gonna do? Like how and then I in my brain, I was like, Well, I don't really have time to think about it, I just gotta figure it out. And I had to get a U-Haul attach it to my wagoneer, and I had two dogs, and I was like driving cross country and yeah, from Milwaukee to uh all the way to or from uh where were we? Where is the triple A team for uh the Yankees? Uh oh Scranton Play. Oh, yeah, Scranton, Pennsylvania. So we're in Scranton, Pennsylvania, driving all the way to Milwaukee, stopped in Pittsburgh because the boys happened to be there playing a series. Yep. And Rob's like, well, I'll see you, he's like hopping on the team flag. He's like, I'll see you in Milwaukee. And in my brain, I'm like, you don't even understand a little of what I've got. Don't even take anything to I've just had a really long travel there. Oh, I can't. I can't believe that. And you're matching sweatsh, get out of here.

SPEAKER_02
12:23

Get out of my face.

SPEAKER_03
12:24

I've just packed up and moved this entire house.

SPEAKER_02
12:27

Um my favorite thing is all season when we're on flights together, and Andrew's like, oh my gosh, I'm so stressed. What do I do? And I'm like, go sit down somewhere. I'm doing this all year, like every other week.

SPEAKER_04
12:36

Because they're just they're on their like team-tarted flight, so they just don't know how to act regularly anymore. They stress out.

SPEAKER_02
12:41

Or I mean, I'm sure I get to the gate four times, make sure it's there.

SPEAKER_04
12:45

No problem with our kids. I don't know if Jake's like this, but like with Sunny, well, I'm like, you just let him run around. He's like, but he's crawling on the floor and he's putting his hands in his mouth. I'm like, you just gotta let him do it. It's fine. Yeah, it's really okay, but he like panics about Sunny. He's like, I don't know how you do this with a stroller and a car seat. And how do you get all in here this bother the way?

SPEAKER_03
13:01

You've already been doing that kids have been doing it to the same extent, I guess. Right.

SPEAKER_04
13:06

They got clubbies that can do things like that.

SPEAKER_03
13:08

I know. I know. They can they can pay anybody to go long.

SPEAKER_01
13:12

It takes them a week or two in the offseason to like acclimate to real life.

SPEAKER_03
13:14

Like I can only like to actually be a real human, like a normal human that's not on a crazy schedule. So from that ex from that perspective of you guys obviously being the wives, like what is that perspective life of like of seeing them struggle in a different type of way to a really, really demanding career?

SPEAKER_01
13:28

Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, it's it's crazy, especially with having the kids. Like Jake wants to be at home and like hang out with them, but obviously he's gotta go to the field early, take care of his body, you know, get himself right. And so it's like he's gone from before noon to probably almost midnight every day, depending on like the time of the game. Um, so it's it's definitely a lot. Like we joke about like how much mental load we carry, but like I have to try and remember, like, he is carrying this family too, you know what I mean? Like he works so hard, and it's it's definitely been crazy to see like the struggles and the ups. Like he's had ups and downs in the 13 years that he's been playing professional baseball, and like I've been through it all, so it's it's kind of crazy to like have to go through that with them, plus you know, handle the mental load of everything, plus the dog, plus the babies, like everything. Um so I don't know, it's just you have to like make sure you find that person that can be a good team.

SPEAKER_04
14:23

Yeah, exactly. I've always said it takes a really good woman to be um next to a professional athlete. You know, some people like glamorize and want to like be married to a professional athlete, not really understanding what you're giving up, and a lot of that looks like putting your career second or being a full-time parent when the dad can't come home and do bedtime routine or see the first steps and things like that. So um to your point of just like when they've been doing this for so long, you see the ups and downs, and when they're already like a one percenter of a lot of athletes, a lot of people don't make it professionally, a lot of people don't make it to the big leagues, and then a lot of people don't stay in the big leagues, and like having to have that to adjust to the game because it's always changing, and then always having to know that you have to ride the wave, like you can't be too high, too low, which I'm the too high, too low. Like the guys are so good at just being level headed, even when things aren't going their way, and and I think they I don't know how their husbands are, but Rob never tells me how he's actually feeling until the end of the season. And I'm like, Well, why don't you tell me that? He's like, Because then you would be anxious and worried and stressed out, and I'm like, Well, yeah, you're probably right, and that would make it worse. And I but it's just that a lot of people, it's 162 regular games, so it's a it's a lot, whereas like football and basketball and hockey, and you know, they're not playing every single day. These guys change so fast too.

SPEAKER_03
15:40

Like you could be doing really well, and then you could suck, and then you could be doing really well.

SPEAKER_02
15:43

Yeah, with there being so many games, I feel like there are a lot of high moments, and then there's like lows, and most people that aren't your spouse, like they don't really see the lows. Like they everyone knows how your career's going when it's going great. Yeah, so when it's low, it's like really hard. I mean, Andrew doesn't like bring it home, yeah, but you still know the vibes, like you're there and you're watching, so like you still know. So it's like trying to keep them happy, but also not talk about it. Yeah, you figure it out on your own.

SPEAKER_04
16:07

Yeah, we also giggle about like how I'm a pitcher's wife and their position pillows. So they're like, it's just our struggles are look a little different sometimes because she'll be like, Sometimes I think Rob had a shitty outing, and I'm like, Well, that wasn't your best. And he's like, I actually felt great. And I'm like, Never mind, I don't know what I was saying. And then when he does, like when he does have a rough outing, I'm like, Oh, I thought you did great. And he's like, I gave up a solo homeowner. So I was like thinking about it. That was so horrible. And I'm like, oh, okay, sorry. So it's just like having to understand where they're at mentally and like having to be there and to support them and also like help them take their mind off baseball. They don't get very many off days, and sometimes you they don't want to do anything on the off days, they just want to relax, but probably just spend time with you guys as well. Yeah, for sure. I think that a lot of that a lot of that comes on to the relationship too, because we're just at home and are like living the life. We're like, hey, we just really want to go in a date night. But then it's like you it's like this this bargain back and forth of like, okay, well, they just also played like the guys last night played a long game and they had scored 22 runs, and it's just like insane constant ebb and flow, ebb and flow. But like my favorite recent like tweet from JB was uh or not tweet, sorry, interview that he did recently. And was like, I need everyone to just chill, everyone just needs to chill the F out. And then I guess and I just love it because I just feel like that's just how they are. They're like, okay, it may not be going our way right now, like they got swept by the Padres, and then they went and won three out of the four. It's like baseball's changes by an inning, by a pitch, by a a hit. And that I think that that's I think that speaks a lot to what they're able to do for you know on the field 162 regular games.

SPEAKER_01
17:38

For sure. And like, but it's been crazy too to be with Jake for however we've been together, 16 years, I think. And like he hasn't always been that everybody just needs to chill the F out guy. Like he has gone through, you know, I like most players, I'm sure, have gone through their mental struggles. And so like I think it's a lot been on him, like his personal, like mental work, but like to actually grow with him too, and to see him become like more of a leader than a veteran has been awesome too.

SPEAKER_03
18:05

And you have to, I feel like, especially in very high-intensive jobs, it doesn't matter what it is, but obviously in this case it applies, like you have to adapt your mindset or you're gonna fall behind. 1000%.

SPEAKER_01
18:15

Yeah, and I feel like I've felt that as a mother too, like becoming like we got here uh with our first baby, like she was born before in the off season, and then we got here, it's a new place, like everything. And I struggled at first because I'm like, we're in a new place and everything, and you just kind of you have to pick yourself up and like you know, get the right mindset to to survive.

SPEAKER_04
18:35

I'm like, I don't mean it that way, but like no, but it is it is I mean, my husband's been injured this entire season and yeah, in and out of Arizona, and I've been solo parenting since February 1st. Yeah, the breakdowns are real, and it's like it's but it's like to my point earlier of like it's nice having friends, like you be you have to put yourself out there and like make friends with girls that just get it and and not be afraid to be like, yeah, I'm struggling, or like, yeah, this totally sucks, or because they're the gonna be the first ones to pick us up. Like just how the guys pick each other up, like they're they're the first to get it over anyone.

SPEAKER_02
19:05

Only people who understand are each other.

SPEAKER_04
19:07

I get so frustrated when you know any family member calls and they're like, What's going on with Rob? I'm like, when he knows, I'll know. And when I know, he'll know. Don't even ask me.

SPEAKER_03
19:15

Yeah, like you can't Google it, don't ask me. We don't have that Arnold on speed dial.

SPEAKER_02
19:19

I don't know what is going on, guys. Honestly, the media will know before I know.

SPEAKER_03
19:24

You're like, oh wow, this is new to me. Yeah, you can't Google it, don't ask me.

unknown
19:29

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03
19:29

But at the same time, how do you, especially the amount of times that you guys have had to move? That has to be, of course, like we already talked about that being an isolating feeling. Like that's really difficult. And having to move, like, no matter if you've moved once or twice or 10 or 12 times. How does finding a new community, how does that work for you? How do you go about doing that?

SPEAKER_04
19:47

I mean, I feel like this is my first. Well, I would say last year, towards the end of play, like when we got into playoffs, I really started putting myself out there, like reaching out to people in the community. We wanted to do playoff parties, and I was like, I think we as wives and girlfriends, we should, you know, people should know who we are and like we should do things, and like or if we do events, like we do it somewhere where like it's local and it's not a chain place. Yeah, um, it supports small businesses. So I think like I started doing that towards the end of playoffs last year and like this year, especially. Anytime we have our nanny and I get free time to myself, I'm like, I'm gonna go check out this place, like Hens Deli next door. Like absolutely insane.

SPEAKER_03
20:23

Insane. Bro, the pickle. If you have you tried the, I don't know if you guys like Dell Pickels, but if you try a lot, pickle bagel, yes, just unreal. So freaking good.

SPEAKER_04
20:33

But I think if you just start doing things, and then I think when you have kids, you almost get yourself out there a little bit more because you have to get out of the house. You gotta go to the zoo and you gotta go to the play places and all these things. And I think I do think it's harder making friends outside of the lifestyle. I don't know if you guys could agree, but like I just feel like it's hard to like level with people or they're they just see like to our point earlier, like, oh, you're a baseball wife. Like, yeah, tell me about that. I'm like, I just want to talk about anything.

SPEAKER_01
21:00

I'm a person too, do you?

SPEAKER_04
21:02

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01
21:03

And like to that question, like we have to find sometimes our own housing. Like, this team has been great. Like, there's been when we first got traded, a couple people who had been here like texted me saying, like, ask this person, they have you know connections, but like not every team's like that. And you like people just think that you're handed a house or an apartment or whatever it may be.

SPEAKER_04
21:23

So you're you're moving into it. Yeah, you don't know the location, you don't know what the like is it gonna work for the dogs? Is it gonna work for the dogs? Also, you don't know the area too.

SPEAKER_03
21:30

Like, I'm learning about Milwaukee and I've been here two years. I'm like, oh, that's a shitty area. You know, but like you start learning those things, or like maybe this area isn't very suited for what I like to do or like where I like to go. And you kind of learn that as you go, but you don't really have that luxury. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of moving on a whim, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02
21:45

And Milwaukee is like kind of hard to find housing. Yes. Yeah. But like it's hard. Really? Yes.

SPEAKER_04
21:50

Rent rental properties. If you're not, yeah, rental properties are hard so much easier. Yeah. But if you want a house, you have dogs, you want the space. It's just it becomes really, really like Cutthroat of what you can find.

SPEAKER_02
22:02

And a lot of people the first six months is also hard. That's six months.

SPEAKER_04
22:05

Yeah, having to make that charge a lot, which is insane to me. But I get it. It's just definitely hard because you're like, oh, we're already limited on pickings here. And like you usually sign a lease like at the end of season, or you like try to start right looking in January to sign something. So it's like you really only get a couple months of like not paying a double double rent mortgage. Yeah. So tough.

SPEAKER_03
22:24

Yeah. Yeah, that's not ideal. I don't think anybody would really want to do that or sign up for that.

SPEAKER_04
22:28

No, absolutely not. I also like I also giggle because we have a storage unit in Austin because we lived in Austin for a few years. We have a storage unit in Boston because we live in Boston now. And we have stuff stored at my parents' house in Corpus Christi. I'm like, we have stuff all over everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah. Haven't seen my couch in five years, but she's in there somewhere in Austin.

SPEAKER_01
22:48

That's not a cheek. We just moved all our furniture here, and then he's like, I don't know what we're gonna do. We're gonna just sell it all, I guess. Yeah. So that's what we did. Start over here.

SPEAKER_02
22:54

Start over here.

SPEAKER_03
22:54

Blank canvas here.

SPEAKER_02
22:56

We're doing it. So we were in Chicago for five years, and so we bought furniture. We were in a different place every different year. Um, but we bought furniture and then we got traded in the middle of the year last year, so we put it all into a storage, and then I was like, so what do we do with all this? It's across the country. We live in Mississippi. So we just sold it. Yeah. We just sold it, storage wars, take over. Anyone want to do the marketplace? One of my friends actually bought a house and I was like, hey, do you want my storage unit? It's three bedrooms.

SPEAKER_03
23:24

We have literally the storage wars, that's hilarious. Yes, that's right. Storage queens. So then what have been your guys' first impressions of Milwaukee? Obviously, having to travel to a new place in the middle of the season, maybe sometimes, beginning of the season, paying the double rent, that's really tough. But what was your guys' first impressions of Milwaukee?

SPEAKER_01
23:40

Um, I mean, first impression, I apparently dishwashers aren't the most popular. So that was like literally my first impression. Or fenced in washer. Our house had no fenced in yard and no dishwasher. Yeah, no fenced in yard. Like, okay, this Southern California girl is way out of relevant. Um what's going on? No. But past that, after the first day. Yeah. Um, no, I love it. Like being able to just like walk in the neighborhoods and you see different animals. Like, aren't we were in New Berlin? Everyone makes fun of me the way I say it. I don't know. Um Berlin. Okay, thank you. Yeah, you're it was like we were it was deers, bunnies, turkeys, like everything all day, every day. And it was the most fun. I guess it was so fun. Um, and just like everyone is so friendly, like all our neighbors in that neighborhood were so friendly coming to the stadium. Um Bob Kozlowski at the guest services, my favorite human being in the world. Like, shout out, shout out to the show. Shout out.

SPEAKER_04
24:33

I know, like we become really close with like the people that we see every day at the stadium, and like one of our like a section guys is leaving, like moving the water. And we're like, we're like Juan, you can't leave. You can't just leave. You literally attach to everything, but it's like your family, yeah. The stadium, of course. Yeah, to your question of like uh my first impressions on Milwaukee. We came here in 2023 when we were with the pirates, and I feel like what makes or breaks when you go on a road trip with your spouse, or it's like, what can you do in that city? And it's like if it's easier to get to like shopping, bars, all these things. And I remember coming here, I was like, I'm not staying at the Fister or Pfeister.

SPEAKER_05
25:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_04
25:09

Oh we got an Airbnb, and Rob's like, okay, you're crazy. I'm like, I'm Mexican and I believe in that stuff. So we're talking about the haunted fist yeah, right? Okay, allegedly. That away from you. Allegedly. He was like, You're making me pay when the guy they pay for our hotels. I'm like, I don't care. So I was like, I'm not staying there. And then do you? Yes. I was like, absolutely not. And so we I was like uh gorgeous hotel, by the way. Yeah, phenomenal. But you're into like the Titanic vibes. Like, I'm not kidding. It's really nice in there. I just won't stay in there. The vibes are not for me. No, I believe in that spooky stuff a little bit too much.

SPEAKER_03
25:41

Um other time, but that's yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04
25:44

And then I remember being like, Where do what do you go do? Like, again, you have to have a car to get to do things around here, like to get to the mall. And I was like, Oh, like it was like okay. And then we were we signed here as free agents in 2024, and we came here, and I was like, Oh my god, this is like a like I call it, you know, it's a little bit smaller than a version of Chicago, but it's it's better because you can get around easier. The dining here is unreal, and like to her point, the people here are actually really nice. Like you don't have like you know, when you go to Boston and Fenway or Philly, like the those are two of my favorite away series. There's so much to do by the team hotel, but it's like you know the fans are gonna come hot at your home intense and Wrigley, and I I mean my husband was with the Cubs, and I've experienced both sides. And during playoffs last year, I was like, oh my god, I used to say I love you guys so much, but like you guys are so mean.

SPEAKER_03
26:30

It's only I feel like it's only the Cubs brewers, and I grew up in Chicago and area, so like I kind of like both teams. I'm a little controversial like that, but like I feel like they can like each other, but no, those fans are like no nah dude, no, we're not getting along here, no, not at all.

SPEAKER_04
26:44

But it's like you when you've been like and she was with the White Sox, like you go to Chicago here, and you there's just so much to do in Chicago, right? Like it is a great place. Like, we're not all gonna sit here and be like, Chicago sucks. Like, it is really in a phenomenal city, and you can't be uh I've actually never been to the White Sox Stadium, but I've had a lot of time at the Wrigley Field, and it's just you're not gonna, you know, it's an historic stadium, but you don't get what you get here with American Family Field, and it's truly a charming stadium, a charming fan base, like very loyal, even when you're not doing great, like they there's still like a team that's gonna support you and the fan base. I really do love their guys here.

SPEAKER_03
27:19

Yeah, but that is really unique, too, for you both that were living in Chicago previously and then came to Milwaukee because yeah, those are two very similar cities. So, like, what was that like, especially more so being on the south side of the city? Um, at uh oh my gosh, guaranteed rate field. Was it called that then when he broke it?

SPEAKER_02
27:34

Okay, guaranteed rate. Um, I loved Chicago, I loved the city. Like she said, there's so much to do there. I like here that I can drive to the grocery store and just put my groceries in my car and drive to a workout class and like there's a parking lot that I can park in. I love here that the fans like they love the team. They love sports here in general, but like they really love the guys, they love the team. Very die hard here. I feel like that's just all of the Wisconsin sports. They all love them. So true. Yeah, um, I love that so much, but I do miss the shopping in Chicago, but it's only an hour and a half. So I just take a little drive.

SPEAKER_03
28:06

Yeah, just take the Amtrak, yeah.

SPEAKER_02
28:07

You're right, like drive down. Drive down for the day, and that's enough.

SPEAKER_04
28:10

Yeah, yeah. I think for it being a small market team, people like always look to the big market teams, right? You got the Dodgers, the Padres, the Cubs, they're they have loyal diehard fans, and it'll be a one o'clock game and it'll be sold out. But like people really sleep on Milwaukee. We really get a packed house at a 110 game. Yeah, and I think I've really experienced it over the last three years, specifically last season. I could just feel the energy shifting every every time I got closer to playoffs, everyone was really invested. Um, so I I think that is the high biggest highlight about Milwaukee is that it's like sneaky cool here. Yeah, you know, sneaky cool. It is really cool. It's sneaky cool. We live in we live in Bayview this year. We lived downtown last year and that was fun. But living in Bayview, there's just like so many fun restaurants, bars, little cute little wine spots. And so I just think people, if you had a vehicle, you could get around. So I just we actually have the Braves are coming in town this week, and one of the wives like messaged me on Instagram asking for recommendations. I was like, But you do need you do need a do need to be here. Yeah, coming in as an away team.

SPEAKER_02
29:10

Like when we used to come here, I would just drive and I just really didn't know what to do. We were we would stay down here, and I was like, Where what do I go do? It doesn't seem like there's much around. Yeah, but now that we're living here, I'm like, there's so many different neighborhoods, there's so many good restaurants. Like it's a really cool city.

SPEAKER_01
29:24

Well, that's what I love too. Like it's like a town, like you know, I feel like it's not like it is different than Southern California where I grew up, but like it feels like I'm just you know in a neighborhood or whatever, where like we were at the Yankees, and I mean, granted, it was only a year, and we were, you know, you're never sure if you're staying somewhere or whatever. So we were, and I was also pregnant, so I was back and forth, but I was like in and out of a hotel. We were living in and out of a hotel, and then we were in New Jersey, like I have to Uber everywhere. I swear I became an asshole living there. Like an asshole. We're like here, I'm like, everyone's so friendly, I get to just like feel like I'm part of a community. Lauren's one with her surroundings. Oh, yeah, I'm just I'm yelling at taxi cabs in New York, like it's not good. You don't want me there. Here I'm gonna waving at everybody like or hug my grocery legs. Yes.

SPEAKER_04
30:08

It's like the hot, it's like the hot the best parts and the worst parts of being on each team. You're like, ooh, but the Yankees, I would have like a lot of them live in Greenwich, Connecticut. So you're commuting. Yes. Like by train, and you're like, I've got kids. You're not driving. I'm not doing it.

SPEAKER_03
30:19

Oh, that sounds like a nightmare. Somebody doesn't meltdown and you're like, I just want to fucking go.

SPEAKER_04
30:22

And like here, you can literally just pull right up into Amfield and our in our lot, like no traffic. They switch the lights for us to green, red. You're like, oh, they just take good care. Like it's it's truly so and it's a really good family-based organization. They really do a good job of you know making us feel like a priority with the guys, which is great.

SPEAKER_03
30:38

They're wonderful too. And like, as somebody who's previously worked in news and like now works in sports, also, too. Like, they're such a fun organization to work with. They're so like friendly, they're wonderful. Like, there was one time I was working with a photographer, and like one of the people in one of the golf carts was like, Y'all want to ride to the other side of the stadium? So we're like, hell yeah, let's go. But like, they are truly wonderful. Everybody, yeah.

SPEAKER_04
30:59

But that being you can just tell that they want like everyone to feel like like warm and welcome, like and you know, Murph having his kids in every postgame interview. I think that just speaks to how he is. He's the leader of the team, and and we all feel that way when we're around each other. Like we always say, like, their kids are our kids. Like, you know, Chris Anderson, Grant Anderson's wife, she'll call and she's like, How are my kids doing? Like, we consider all of each other's kids, you know, our kids. We just all love each other so much. So it's it's definitely really, really cool. We love it here.

SPEAKER_03
31:28

So then what we're I know that you guys were talking about, you know, obviously living in Bayview, living downtown, even checking out the city when you were just visiting. Um, so that being said, what are some of the favorite spots that you guys have gone to, whether it's bars, restaurants, um, even activities like festivals? Because obviously, Milwaukee, the city of festivals.

SPEAKER_00
31:45

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SPEAKER_01
32:26

I'm looking for a rock with my two children.

SPEAKER_03
32:28

Um you go to New Berlin and you see all the animals. Let's do the wild turkey. Different phases of life sometimes.

SPEAKER_04
32:39

And that's totally fine. We love that too. Yeah. She does venture out sometimes. Yes. I would be vegan. I would think that'll go. Like she texts me one day, she was like, I'm at Blue Hour. If I lived here closer, if I didn't have to like wrangle the kids all the time, I would come here all the time. But I I think for me, coffee, it's like Blue Hour, Vendetta are like my two favorite spots. Um, and Blue Hour is like relatively new. Um, but they just the coffee's unreal. Same with vendetta, like you can taste the actual espresso, and I love it. Um, if we're talking like other like dining spots, um we just went to room service the other night. Unreal. It was so good. So, so good. Uh we went to So were you wearing your talking shin on me? Yep. That was pretty. Were your ears pretty? Um Tenudas in Baby was really good. Cerella's or that's a phenomenal spot. That's really good. Um, we're all diehard carnivore fans. Yes.

SPEAKER_02
33:32

Usually that's where everyone is at the off the page. You go in, you see the whole table.

SPEAKER_04
33:38

I've seen people doing like carnivore. Yeah, great steak. Um, and then I love Hens Deli's phenomenal. Like we just talked about that. Great sandwich. I'm a sandwich fiend. Um I should have just told you, like, hey, the studio is right by the screen. I would have known it exactly. Um I know. I was recently telling them about this Italian supermarket that's um, I can't remember what side, but it's like going Brady. Street area. Um Gloriosos. Gloriosos, yeah. You live right over there.

SPEAKER_01
34:05

Wait, isn't that the lady who did the pasta class a couple years ago? I don't know. Maybe I think so.

SPEAKER_04
34:09

But it's like on real. Like you can get a sandwich in there, you get gelato, you can get coffee. The gelatos and fresh made pasta, pasta sauces, fresh made like on real. Um, but uh I love to eat. I'm a big back. I just love every day.

SPEAKER_02
34:21

We're in Wawatosa and we love Bartellotta. It's like the Italian place that changes their menu. We go there all the time. It is so good.

SPEAKER_03
34:29

I just heard about that for the first time.

SPEAKER_02
34:31

And the patio is so cute. We love it there. And then Lef's is like a sports bar. Yes. We love Andrew literally orders from there daily when Uber Eats. Every single day, that's what he orders. After games, we'll go there. And we've had people come up and be like, You're in, weren't you just playing a game? And he's just like, Yeah. It just ended an hour ago. We're like, we're already sitting there eating. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
34:54

Meanwhile, Jake and I were in Oak Creek this year, and we just like go to Chick-fil-A with the kids, and kids are like, wait a minute, are you Jake Bowers?

SPEAKER_05
35:01

Yeah, yep, yeah. Can't go wrong.

SPEAKER_04
35:04

Can't go wrong though. Um, Drafton Cove is a new burger spot, though. We went today. It was so good. Unreal. I I like posted a TikTok about everyone's like, no, you need to go to Archie's flat top. I'm like, okay, guys, this was I just said this was my first burger spot in Milwaukee, and it was like, it honestly tasted like in and out to me. I'm an in-and-out fiend.

SPEAKER_01
35:21

Like me so when I was like nearly get yourself when I was pregnant, I was housing double double every day.

SPEAKER_04
35:29

And that's that should have been my first second. It was for the baby, dude. Yes, it was for the baby. Yeah, but like I felt that way when I went into Draft and Co. I was like, wait, this is unreal. So cute. So cute in there. Good drinks. They all make they make them like fresh and then have them on draft. Oh, fun.

SPEAKER_03
35:43

Yeah, really fun spot. It's such a small spot, too. Like you look at it, I'm pretty sure they were talking about it being a Starbucks like years ago, like a few years ago. Yeah, they just opened it. It's naked for so long. It's new.

SPEAKER_04
35:54

They just opened it in January. So good. Yeah. What's another one? Calderon Club.

SPEAKER_02
35:58

Oh, Calderon Club. Yeah, we like it.

SPEAKER_04
35:59

Everyone talks about that one. Harbor House. Everyone loves Harbor House. Can't go wrong. Wiggle room. Oh yeah, wiggle room. Oh, for bars everything? Wiggle room. We all love the Journeyman rooftop, the outsider. Yeah. That's a great one. Always a good spot. I actually still have not yet to experience Tiki Bar. Yes, same. Same. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
36:19

When I tell you, me and my friends basically live at Tiki. Oh. It's always if you're ever there, you might see me. It's like a five-minute walk from my apartment. We're like, just hit me up. Like, all right, let's get it.

SPEAKER_04
36:29

Her and I were just saying for playoffs, it would be really fun, like day two of playoffs, if we rented a couple party buses and we tailgated all of the dive bars. Yeah. Because like none of us have experienced dive bars because a lot of our days look like you know getting ready to go to a game, and then we're just at the stadium and we're like, okay, we'll wait. We have to do it right in this year. Like, we need to go party with the fans.

SPEAKER_02
36:48

Yeah, and I like how they have the buses that take everyone to the field. That's so fun. I love that.

SPEAKER_03
36:53

Yeah, Zad's is very specific. Zad's is actually over by here. Have you guys heard of it? Dude, it is like a like a bike or dive bar. Open at what is it, 6 or 5 a.m.? Yeah. And they have a sticker. So obviously, like there's the the dive bar. Um, what's the one? It's like I close what was it? Wolski's. Wolskis. I close Wolski's if you guys have seen that sticker. That one is like you close it down, you close the pa place down, and then you get a sticker. Oh, okay. But this one is the opposite. It's like you open up Open it and you get a sticker. Yeah. So bad. Yeah, we were talking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
37:20

Someone said McGoose or Oh, yeah, McGoose.

SPEAKER_03
37:22

Magoose on the Mound is really good. My parents always go to we actually went to a brewer's game a couple weekends ago. Yeah. A lot of fun. Um, whatever one went extra innings. I don't even remember who we were playing. When we did the walk-off? Yes. Yeah? Yep. Yep. It was a great game. Love it.

SPEAKER_04
37:35

Um, yeah, we went to the dive bars. That's what we we said. We like we obviously like have our spots, but I'm like, we really need to like do it right this year.

SPEAKER_03
37:42

Like, Wisconsin is a dive bar. You may as well call Wisconsin the die bar capital. This is your guys' coming to Jesus moment to say we're gonna do it all day. They love to drink here, and I'm not I'm a huge fan. Is that an adjustment? Is that like a cultural adjustment you guys had to come to? Is like, oh yeah, this state drinks. No, being from the south, yeah, no, we're probably in the south every day.

SPEAKER_04
38:02

Um I feel like yeah, in Texas, like I could my family, they love, they love their beer, um Mexican beers. Uh, so I feel like I grew up around it. Um so I feel like no, I'm not, I'm not I've seen it my whole life, whether it was like in high school, college, yeah, college was a big one.

SPEAKER_02
38:17

At allness, I mean game days, everyone's up at 8 a.m. Yeah, I'm already in the grove.

SPEAKER_04
38:22

Going to AM. I didn't go to AM, but I used to go, a lot of my friends went to AM and we would go to college station on the weekends, and it was like, yeah, it I feel like it's not some. I feel like maybe Callie might be a little bit more. Yeah, no, but I'm maybe a little crunchy gal, so like a crunchy mom over here. That might be more for like the you know the the grass, okay. You know, it's different. Different over there. But we love it.

SPEAKER_01
38:43

We love it. It's all different. She's always down.

SPEAKER_04
38:46

I'm always down for things.

unknown
38:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_04
38:48

We actually took shots yesterday after our interview. What's the go-to shot then? Ooh, for me. Peanut butter one. Peanut butter woman. Screw all the stadiums. Like a chocolate cup. Yeah. Yes. It was a dessert cart. That goes around the cart that floats around it. Stop. If we're talking about the stadium, that if we're talking about outside of the stadium, probably like a green tea shot with tequila. I'm a tequila drinker. So Mexican candy shot. I don't know if y'all have ever heard of those. Those are really she loves. We love tahine. Yeah. It's basically a spicy watermelon shot with tequila, and then they they put the rim with tahine. It's so good. That sounds amazing. Any spicy jerk. Anytime you're in Texas, you can make them at anywhere.

SPEAKER_03
39:28

Yeah. Amazing. You guys have to go to Tiki then. Like, I mean, that is one of the strongest margaritas. Like, margarita, you're on your ass or like one paloma. No, Sal Felix bar.

SPEAKER_04
39:37

Sal Freelix girlfriend and I were actually, she was like, we still haven't done Tiki Bar.

SPEAKER_03
39:40

I'm like, no, we have to do it before the season's. It's the best. It's the best. Um, as far as that goes, um, I know that you guys were talking a little bit about community involvement as well. And I know Natalie, like, we were just talking before this. You even provided one of the auction items for Sweat for Strays that um I helped put on. I was one of the organizers for, and um, along with Milwaukee Uncut, and we had a lot of awesome auction items that we were able to auction off and raise, I believe it was more than $3,000 altogether for Matic. So um Milwaukee area domestic care and control. So awesome. Um yeah, so it was a really great event, but like obviously you guys were a huge part of it, even if you didn't know it, you know, and like that was really awesome. So, in what ways you talked about it a little bit before we got on the mics, but um you know how why do you feel like it's so important also to have, you know, use the platform that you guys do have because you guys that does matter giving back to the community.

SPEAKER_04
40:29

I think within the the Brewers organization, we do um they set up things for us that we're able to do to get back to the communities um at the beginning of the year. We were working with uh spouses of um veterans or like uh people that are also deployed, um, and that was really, really cool. I felt like you know, we're not doing the same struggles as them, but we we live a life where you're not with your spouse all the time, and so it was just nice to like get to sit with them. Actually, we were out here, the but the nail bar right here. Yeah. We sat with him, got pedicures, and just talked about that. So that was cool. They we do a lot with like the Humane Society. We have our auction, baseball auction coming up this Saturday. Um shout out, play it. Yeah, I did a TV interview yesterday and did absolutely awful you guys. Um but we we the guys are signing over like it signed over 900 baseballs. Yeah, and they're a mystery bag. In a mystery bag. Essentially, you come and you donate $50. You actually get a free baseball. And you get it, you get a free baseball. Um and they open it in front of you, and it's actually really fun. Like the fans get so excited. They sell they last year it sold out in 10 minutes. 10 minutes. It was insane.

SPEAKER_01
41:32

Like you, if you weren't there pre-game, you weren't getting it.

SPEAKER_04
41:34

And all that goes back to the brewer's nonprofit organization. Um, Lexi and her husband do a lot of great stuff on their own to give back to the community. I'll let her speak on that. But please they do stuff on.

SPEAKER_02
41:44

We have a player program that we actually started in Chicago called Going Going Vaughn, and it's mostly with children, mostly with we did a lot of domestic violence stuff, and then we mostly like to do things with kids in foster care. Um, so we usually do something like once a month, and we like to do like interactive things or he gets to meet them, we'll host them at the field, they'll go to batting practice. We just went to a camp where they reunite siblings and we had like a carnival night with them. So we do a lot of that, and then whatever the brewers put on for us, we always want to do too. Of course.

SPEAKER_01
42:14

Yeah, what was the one we did um with the rooms? Oh, um I can't. Not the special spaces. We've done that a few times. Like so.

SPEAKER_02
42:21

You get to redo a room for a kid that has cancer. Um, we've done a few things with Diggs with Dignity in Chicago too. We love them. So it's fun.

SPEAKER_03
42:30

Yeah, how did you guys come to come up with Going Going Vaughn?

SPEAKER_02
42:34

So we had always said we wanted to use that, and then when we were getting married, people started using that as like a wedding thing for us on Twitter. Oh, hashtag. At that point, we had already had it in a like that's what we were gonna do our player player program as. I love it. And then everyone started using it, and we were like, whatever, we still will.

SPEAKER_03
42:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02
42:51

So I love the story.

SPEAKER_03
42:53

That's awesome. Is there any particular um, you know, why did you decide that specific? There's so many different causes that you can decide to help out with. Um, how did you?

SPEAKER_02
43:02

I feel like we both feel like there are so many great nonprofits, so many great charities. Uh, we just both felt like there's not as many people that are advocating for kids in foster care, and like they really have nobody advocating for them. They don't have families usually, or you know, things like that. So we just wanted to do more with it.

SPEAKER_03
43:22

An area like a blind spot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02
43:25

Just like something that a lot of people don't do.

SPEAKER_03
43:27

Yeah. Well, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02
43:28

And we still do stuff with the teams that are other things, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04
43:32

Within different teams, like organ, you players can choose to uh do like their own charity work too. But yeah, like for the special spaces, like she asked if any of us wanted to help, and all of us will pitch in and 'cause a lot of stuff Andrew can't go to, so we'll I'll just like ask the girls if anybody wants to do it.

SPEAKER_02
43:48

But that's so fun. He loves to get to do it too. So we try to do stuff on off days just to be able to give back.

SPEAKER_03
43:53

That actually is really good too for the communities that are giving you guys so much too. Such a cool opportunity.

SPEAKER_01
43:58

Yeah, and like I think. Jake and I have been so busy with like our own thing, like obviously based on a lot and like the kids, but prior to that I was teaching, so it was like we always wanted to be able to give back, but it was like we couldn't ever find time together to like actually plan things out. And so I think coming here, it's been so awesome that they're so like invested in the community, invested in the community and like want like they give us opportunities to you know without having to do the back end work. Like it's just nice they say, Hey, we're doing this, can you volunteer? And I'm like, Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's been a usually have something coming on, like going on like once a month.

SPEAKER_03
44:33

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01
44:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
44:34

Do you guys all I know that you were just talking about being a teacher too, but obviously, in addition to volunteering and being able to support your family and whatnot, do you still have your own careers as well?

SPEAKER_01
44:42

Uh mine's on a hiatus. Jake hates that I have, you know, half hour garages teacher things, but one of these days I'll get back there.

SPEAKER_03
44:49

It's still important and there's always gonna be an opening for a teacher. Exactly. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01
44:53

One of these days I'll be back.

SPEAKER_03
44:54

What grade were you?

SPEAKER_01
44:55

Uh first and second is my little corner.

SPEAKER_03
44:58

One of my best friends was a first grade and second grade teacher as well. I love it. Yeah. It's so fun. It's such a fun age. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
45:03

Oh yeah. The imagination is crazy there.

SPEAKER_03
45:06

Oh, I can only imagine. Yeah, literally. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04
45:08

Natalie, what about you? Um, not working full-time right now, stay-at-home mom, but I used to do social media marketing for a long time. Um and I kind of just do like fun social stuff every year now and again. I also have like my own goal is to have like my own media company where start like helping people in the baseball world um do PR stuff and things like that. Um I'm like, yeah, I'm trying to be humble, but yeah, that's my goal. I I I would love to, you know, once Rob's done playing, whenever he chooses, have our own little agency where we help guys, you know, whether it's charity stuff or doing any sort of PR things. Like, that's that's the goal. I feel like he's been doing it for so long. I'm like, you're so welcome. And he's just a really good teammate. Like everyone loves him, and he's a good people person. So that's kind of our our goal once he's done playing, but we'll see. We'll see what happens. Yeah, it's so fun.

SPEAKER_02
45:58

I'm not working. I did taxes for a few years, and so busy season was really hard.

SPEAKER_04
46:04

Our smart cookies are.

SPEAKER_02
46:09

That's when we moved to spring training. That's then when we move to the season. So and then when he gets off date, he's like, So can we hang out? And I'm like, I have to work 14 hours. I'm really, really stressed and I want to pull my hair out that we're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_04
46:22

So yeah, so I think sometimes it's hard to have a career sometimes like you get FOMO of like not being with your spouse or like not being at the games, or like oh yeah, or when everyone else is around, I'm like, I want to come hang out. Yeah, when when we were with the Cubs, that's who Rob was drafted by, and when he was in his rookie seasons with them in 16, 17, and 18. I I will I was working, I was right out of college, and I remember like being so upset because I just wasn't there for everything. And I remember talking to the veteran girls about it, and they were like, This is whenever you choose to not work, that's great. But like, know that you're not making a mistake because this is such a small chapter of y'all's lives, and it's gonna end one day. So your career, you can always start a career at 40. You can always start a career. If your career's not done, it's just taking a little break at like a different point, like a little hiatus. And we're never gonna get these moments back. Like time is so fleeting in the baseball world, you it could end, and you just wish that you would have spent more time being there with your spouse. And like, not everyone has that luxury, and we know that. But if you do have that luxury, you're like, why not? Like, let's let's give it all we got.

SPEAKER_03
47:20

The average person, too, I feel like changes their career, changes their trajectory multiple times in the course of their life. Yeah, and you guys are so like that's such an awesome position to be able to be in. Yeah. We also we all have your significant other in those ways, too.

SPEAKER_04
47:33

We also always joke, like, our job title is like being a manager, assistant. We can move you. Uh like we could, we really have like if we had a resume, it would be a legit resume. Yes. Um stacked resume. Absolutely. So I think like, yeah, we we have our our just the strong parts about being a baseball. I think definitely, if we ever chose to go back into working, we would absolutely kill it in whatever we decided. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03
47:59

You guys have like a drive like no other for sure. No, it was like hard for me to quit.

SPEAKER_01
48:03

Like my mom drove into me, like, you need your own career, you need your own identity. And then it was like I was teaching, but and everyone kind of thinks like, oh, teaching and baseball, like you kind of go opposite seasons, so it's perfect for each other, but it was like, no, because then we never saw each other. Like, and I was in the classroom from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. And he's like, yeah, and so I remember we got married, and then he went to spring training after a month, and then I went and visited him for like less than 48 hours, so I could be back in the classroom, and he finally was like, Hey, how about you like quit? Yeah, quit, take a hiatus after this year. It was scary. I was like, I don't want to give up my identity and my career, and then you know, and then he kind of thought it was like a hiatus and maybe figure out how to, you know, dive into fitness because that's my other passion. And then we got pregnant, and now here we are.

SPEAKER_04
48:49

I think that's the one of the other biggest sacrifices is like loss of identity. Yeah. Um I think that ebbs and flows. Like, you there's so many moments where I'm like, I know who I am, and like this is this is you're so confident in that. And then there's times where you're like, what the heck am I doing? And like, I'm just a baseball wife, I'm just doing this, and like, but we you really like have sometimes have to take a step back and be like, I'm more than that. But it's a huge, huge identity loss when you choose to stop working and follow your spouse.

SPEAKER_03
49:15

That has to be so hard. It's like I'm so and so's wife. Like, I feel like that's what people do people ever recognize you and you're like, oh, you're so and so's wife. Yeah. That happens. I mean here and there. Yeah, at the stadium mostly. Yeah, stadium, yeah, mostly.

SPEAKER_04
49:27

I've gotten it at Blue Hour Cat, which is like interesting. Yeah. Also, that's like such a yeah, it's literally such a new cafe, too. I like I think the the people at the front have become like really cool with them. They're like they're awesome. They're like, You posted a TikTok about us, and like we've had like five. I think um Bryce Harper came in and he was like, they didn't know who Bryce Harper was, and everyone was like pounding him for signatures. Oh my gosh. And um, and all of them were like just joking with him, and they were like, I don't know who this guy is. And they were like making jokes like, Oh, are you playing a game today for the brewers? He was like, No, I'm with the Philly. Um, but it's like I feel like I get recognized in those ways because I like post a lot about what I'm doing in the city and like where I'm new places I'm trying out. But I sometimes people will be like, Oh, Rob Z's wife, but it's very rare, like not very often. I feel like when we were with the Cubs, it was a little bit more frequent. You would we would get recognized out and about, especially during the 2016, everyone was just obsessed with the players. Oh, yeah, 2016.

SPEAKER_02
50:19

I feel like here in Milwaukee, everyone loves a team. So a lot of times, we'll if we're out, the guys will get recognized. Yeah, the guys definitely get recognized.

SPEAKER_04
50:27

Like at Summerfest, they all went to the conference. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03
50:29

Oh wait, that's so fun. Yeah, it was fun. Oh, yeah. Dude, Summerfest is the best. I know. Yeah, it's my favorite. Yeah, it's who'd you see? Uh Ed Sherry. Yeah, we saw amazing Tuesday. Cody Johnson.

SPEAKER_04
50:40

Oh, Cody Johnson. Cody Johnson and what's that other country? Um, it's like we were just there for the vibe. Not we didn't really attend. Yeah, it was just we're girls for Garth, but we don't know a song.

SPEAKER_03
50:52

So, did you ever go to Um Guillapalooza when you were in Chicago? Yes. I did not.

SPEAKER_04
50:56

Different vibe. Very different vibe.

SPEAKER_03
50:59

Yeah, completely different.

SPEAKER_02
51:00

Very, but I wanted to go this year.

SPEAKER_04
51:01

We like really.

SPEAKER_03
51:09

It'll always be there.

SPEAKER_04
51:10

It'll always be the same.

SPEAKER_03
51:12

Yeah, that is true. Summerfest is also like similar, but it's also more family friendly. Like Lollapalooza, you're kind of like, yeah, oh, you're gonna follow the crowd. You're gonna like the full big festival. Yeah, it's you're gonna get lost at Paris. You're if you're crazy up in there, but yeah, yeah. Um, so then as far as it goes for game days, what is your guys' game day routine?

SPEAKER_01
51:33

Or is there one me as a mom of two? It's get there before like the third inning if I can. Like we're try not to miss the homers.

SPEAKER_04
51:41

Yeah. Uh for us, like when my husband used to be a starting pitcher, uh, you could just tell the nerves were there. I think when you're a starting pitcher, you have more time to think about your next outing, versus now him being a bullpen pitcher, you have to be ready the next day almost always. So when he was a starting pitcher, it was like he didn't, he wouldn't eat breakfast because he was so sick. And I'm like, well, we gotta eat, I'm hungry. Um, but it was always he always had to get his coffee right before the field. And then after that, I had so much free time on my hands to do whatever I wanted. That was before kids. Now game day routines kind of just look like, yeah, the kids, you get up in. You usually, you usually like they're sleeping until about like 11 a.m. So the kids' routine, my my son gets up at 7 a.m. on the dot. So like I'm I've already lived a whole life by the time my husband's like barely getting out of bed. Um and then we usually like go get lunch or something really quick, and then he's off to the field, and then we're like scrambling those last few hours before we gotta get to the game. I have a full-time nanny, so my I have a little bit more like um time to myself, which which is really, really nice. We found a nanny here. So we usually are at the games like every other day. If he was like normal and healthy this year, like we're there every other day, but he's not healthy this year, so I'm still there supporting being there with the girls and all that stuff, which has been really fun. But and they also provide child care at the at the stadium. Yeah, so that's so we have our daycare teachers downstairs, and that's also nice to like we can drop the kids off even if I don't have my nanny. I'm like, and I am running late those days, usually when I don't have my nanny teachers, like running with struggling to be struggling to get ready to circus, um, especially when you have toddlers, but you are able to drop them off and like you know that they're like safe and good and you can go let loose up a little bit in this dance. It's nice.

SPEAKER_02
53:18

See, Andrew like can't sleep in, so he's up every morning before nine. That's so nice, has his coffee, watching fishing videos on YouTube. We he does not eat. Lex he sleeps in, actually. Yeah, it's like opposite. If it is a day game, I sleep in because our dog, he'll get up with the dogs. And then if it's a night game, then I get up with the dog at 7:30 and he gets up at nine. So we'll be like, no, he's not sleeping in that much later, but um, he just sits on the couch. He doesn't eat at our house. I don't buy groceries for him. There's literally no point because he won't eat breakfast. He's gonna eat, he's gonna get to the field. And eat at the field. Probably one of the first people there, so he's gonna eat at the field. Yeah. I don't know what he does, all kinds of stuff when he's there. I usually go and work out and kind of vibe for the rest of the day until I need to get ready to go to the game. Until she's kissing one of us, like, what is everyone doing? I'm like, what are y'all doing? I'm so doing something.

SPEAKER_04
54:08

Yeah, just sitting here. She was like, It's so long to the game. What are you doing? I'm gonna go get a blowout. She was like, fun. I think I'm gonna take a nap. Okay. Our kids are gonna nap, and I'm like, yeah, I'll sit here. A lot of a lot of us do have kids on this team, which is all of us similar in age, which is really nice. Yeah. Um, but I would say every day is pretty. We we're working around the guys, like, how tired are they? Was it a late game? Do they have a day game? Is it day game into a night game? Like I think a lot of it's just a lot of that, but yeah, I love that Andrew gets up really roughly a lot of mom.

SPEAKER_02
54:39

Andrew has to have at least an hour and a half sitting on the couch watching fishing videos and drinking his coffee before you're even allowed to speak to him.

SPEAKER_04
54:45

What a peaceful man.

SPEAKER_02
54:46

Yeah. It's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_04
54:51

Okay. No, Rob gets up and he's like cockatoo hair, and he's like, Where are my clothes?

SPEAKER_02
54:56

Oh yeah. We also live next to the river. Toby's not watching a fishing video. He just takes his pole and goes and fishes.

SPEAKER_03
55:02

He's like a cat, just like watching out the window. He's with nature.

SPEAKER_02
55:05

Yeah, he doesn't need much at all.

SPEAKER_04
55:08

I laugh, we always laugh that he's from Southern California because like when we met them, I was like, he's a Mississippi. Southern California, but yeah, he is not acting like away from Cali. Like he really's fully picked up my words. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
55:19

Y'all, calling it a buggy, like everything he says. Great word. I pick up y'all. Yeah. I'm just I'm from the Midwest, but I just think it's Geneva accent.

SPEAKER_02
55:27

And I'm like, okay, well. You've been here for like a year and a half.

SPEAKER_03
55:32

Like you want to be me, I get it. Yeah. What have been some of your most fun, or like I some of the most funny or crazy player, or not player? What would have been some of the craziest interactions you guys have had with fans, or maybe even not just fans, but actually at the stadium itself.

SPEAKER_04
55:48

Rob and I were actually just laughing about this one interaction we had last year when we went to Philly. One of my favorite road trips is Philly. And I was so nauseous before a game. My son was like probably eight months old at the time, and he was like, I'll have the trainers bring me some medicine. Like it was like anti acids or something to the dugout, or like to the bullpen, just meet me out there before the game. And I'm like walking, you see the Philly fans just like yelling at him, like, you fucking suck. I hope you guys get your shit kicked in. And I walk up and they're like, Oh, is this your wife and kid? And Rob's like, yeah. And he was like, I didn't mean it. I didn't mean what I said. Actually, he's like, actually, I'll grab that medicine for you. Like, don't even, don't even stress yourself out. And I was like, Fake that's great. But like they're so I love going to places where fans are like so die hard, like in it, Fenway. Uh um Dodger, okay, like love, hate Dodger Stadium. Yeah. The fans there are aggressive. Like, oh yeah, really. Um, I feel like you get probably the worst interactions at Dodger Stadium. Philly's pretty bad too. I feel like I've had great interactions at Philly. I've never had any that's that one anywhere. I've apologized. Um, I've I've gotten into it a couple I got into it with Cubs fans last year.

SPEAKER_03
56:53

The tables have turned. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
56:55

They were like yelling at me, and I was like, oh. And I like turn around and sort of cuss. I don't know, I will be the wife to say something. I'm not afraid. I'm like, you're sitting in the family section, have some class.

SPEAKER_05
57:03

Like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04
57:04

But I definitely and Dodger Stadium, I was like cussing at some. I just don't, I don't put up with it. I'm like, okay, we're home. Give me margaritas. I'm like, okay, I know we're gonna back there. And she was sitting next to me and she was just facing forward, like sending me in her stadium.

SPEAKER_02
57:19

I'm like, I'm like, Angel get on to me at all.

SPEAKER_04
57:22

But I think that's I think I have a a problem where I just don't shut up. Like I will say something. So like I think my my funniest interactions is that I don't, I will turn around and say something. Or like I love being with the people that are like yelling and getting into it. We were actually just talking about doing a bleacher day when we play when we play baseball here in like a couple weeks. I'm like, we have to do bleachers, and they're like, Well, we're gonna be getting into a fight. I said, Right, absolutely. Right.

SPEAKER_03
57:44

That's just like people will talk more shit in the end. And they're like, but we can't wear we can't wear Bruce Girl, like we're gonna be rooting for the Bruce.

SPEAKER_04
57:51

It's like September baseball, which is like the best time of the year.

SPEAKER_03
57:54

Like super neutral. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
57:56

I feel like other than that, I thought other than that, it's very positive interactions. Like people are just happy to be there.

SPEAKER_01
58:00

I don't know if you've had any bad interactions, like crazy, weird, funny interactions with fans. No, I remember our first year, Jake. We were playoffs, and Jake hit like the go-ahead home run, and some guys recognized me as his wife, and they were like all over Snapchat, like sending, they're like, Can we take a picture together? Like sending videos to all their friends. I'm like, all right, sure. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02
58:21

I've had people like see me with his name and they're like, oh my god, I love him, like things like that. Just him wearing it.

SPEAKER_04
58:26

But yeah, nothing crazy happened. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
58:29

I'm just a certified attracting them, attracting the crazy. Yeah, I love the crazy. Oh, that's awesome. Do you guys have any um, I guess, fighting words for the rest of the season or any words of wisdom?

SPEAKER_02
58:42

I'm manifesting. I've just been telling everyone we're going to the World Series. Yes, we're going. It's not even a question. We're just gonna go.

SPEAKER_04
58:49

They all we when Rob was with the Cubs in 2016, it was like when when the boys are vibing and the girls are vibing, the fans are vibing. We are destined for great things. And last year was just like we were on the cusp of it of greatness. Yeah. And they're already an amazing team, but this year you you can just feel a little bit like okay, we gotta do it this year.

SPEAKER_01
59:08

If anybody can do it.

SPEAKER_04
59:09

If anybody can do it, we can. There's no reason we're not the best team in baseball every year. Yeah. And we're still the number one baseball team right now. So it's like I also tell people baseball's a long season, so you know, give us some grace. Yeah, give the guys some grace. Like, we're not gonna have our best. Everybody needs a minute, yeah. Just let us clinch. And then from there we'll coast and like have a good, well, not coast, but like we'll just enjoy and have a good time. But I'm I'm really excited for what's too. We've always said we're just ready for playoffs. We're just like, can we fast forward clench and be in playoffs already? We're just ready for those vibes and atmospheres. We're already talking about playoff parties. Oh yeah. Playoff playoff games too. Like, I can't eat all day. I feel sick. I'm not even playing. I'm like so stressed. I'm like, dude, I can't eat anything. You honestly can probably see where the family section is. When we were facing the Cubs last year, we had like my Bluetooth microphones and we were like, Yes, we're like, I'm jumping! We're like enjoy I 94 losers. And the guy came up, he's like, uh are these wives? And they're like, Yes, those are the wives. But like, we just we're really we're as invested as the fans are, and I think some people think that we're not, maybe not here in Milwaukee, but just a lot of in sports, they're like, Oh, it's just another day for them. No, but like we are so invested as much as you guys are, and we want this team to win it for Milwaukee as much as you guys do, if not a little bit more. Our husband's our husband's careers, yeah, they're all there, you know, they're out there grinding. It's a huge deal. And when you have the city behind you, I think that's all that matters.

SPEAKER_02
1:00:29

So we have a really good group. Everyone has so much fun together, the guys, the girls, so it's like we have a really good group to win it.

SPEAKER_04
1:00:36

Nobody has ego here. Yeah, yeah. That's the cool thing. You don't have like guys that are, you know, we obviously have big names on our team, but there are some teams you go to, and it's like it you can feel like, oh, those are those are real famous baseball players. Um, and there's just a there's like the ego is there, the attitude is there. Yeah, here it's just like we're all right.

SPEAKER_02
1:00:55

Everyone just wants to have fun together and win baseball games.

SPEAKER_03
1:00:58

Yep. So simple, but that's awesome. You guys are wonderful. Seriously, thank you guys for coming on Milwaukee on Cutting Things. Such a pleasure to have you, and thank you truly for like pulling the curtain behind it a little bit, like and just like allowing us into your guys' life that is so unique and has to be really difficult. But you guys have you know great heads on your shoulders and a great representation for Milwaukee and for our team. Thank you so much for the biggest. Thank you. It was so much fun.

SPEAKER_00
1:01:23

Before signing off, just want to thank our partners for making Milwaukee on cut possible. Annex wealth management. Know the difference Nicolay Law, the Midwest Law Firm, and Rink Wisconsin and Bleed Beverage Company.

SPEAKER_03
0:00

With this event, I threw everything to the wind. I threw the budget out the window. I maxed out my Amex. It can't look like a rinse and repeat. It has to be fresh, new, modern, different. You can't walk through that gate and think you're walking in a summer fest butt with food and wine.

SPEAKER_01
0:16

Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. There's a new event coming this September that you're not gonna want to miss. And we've got a few of our good friends behind it, so we wanted to have them in today and take you behind the scenes of the first ever Fresh Coast Food and Wine Festival coming to Summerfest Grounds on September 19th to 20th. I'm joined by Chef Adam West Shaver and Anthony Malachik. Before diving in, I want to thank our partners that make Milwaukee Uncut possible. We'll kick it off with Nikola, the Middle West law firm injured. Get Nikolay and Russ, and the team will take great care. Next, we've got Annex Wealth Management. If you're looking to get your finances together and have a goal that deals with your money, your earnings, your investments, go talk to the experts at Annex. They have an amazing team ready to listen and help you with your personal goals. That's Annex Wealth Management, annexwealth.com. And last but not least, drink Wisconsinably Beverage Company, best vodka brandy and canned cocktails in the game, available at bars and liquor stores across the state, including the corner bar in Wright Field over at Amfam. So next time you're at a brewer game, make sure to check them out there as well. All right, let's dive in with the chef Wes and Anthony. Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. We've got a major event coming to the city for the first time ever, Freshwater Food and Wine Festival on September 19th and 20th, right down at Summerfest Grounds. And we've got the guys behind it. Here today, we have Chef Adam Pollock, just an absolute hell's kitchen legend, the owner of Egg and Flour cooking for kids. He's also a philanthropic guy here in the community, and he's been on the show several times. It's just good to see him. And a future Milwaukee VIP tour guide. This guy took us around Summerfest, rolled into a couple restaurants before it was like rolling in somewhere with with with royalty. You know, the mayor's just VIP tour guides coming your way. I mean the the escalade. Do you you have an escalate road? No, it's not. What is it? It's it's the escalade. You hop in, get a nice little whiff of a dart, and get driven around the city. It's just absolutely fantastic.

SPEAKER_03
2:43

So that's because he uber blacks on the side.

SPEAKER_02
2:46

Gotta make that money. Wes also has an escalate as well, just a couple years older.

SPEAKER_03
2:53

I do, but mine's the OG Escalade chef.

SPEAKER_01
2:57

What is it? You got some 24s on there, too?

SPEAKER_03
3:00

26s.

SPEAKER_01
3:02

Really?

SPEAKER_03
3:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
3:03

Tell him what date. You have the Latrell Sprewell spinners to honor Milwaukee. I was at dinner the other night, and Cody did not know who Latrell Sprewell was. So I had to look it up and I showed him the shoes, and I was like, Milwaukee cultural icon, who's still at Joe Cats most nights a week, from from what I hear. I haven't been upstairs in a little while. But um anyway, the other proud escalade owner of this bunch. Um you don't have one, do you, Anthony? I don't have an escalate owner. Someday we can work our way up to that level. But yeah, but for now, we've we've got West Shaver in the building. First appearance on here. We finally got big enough for him to show up. So it was really nice of him to drop in. He's the CEO of Milwaukee Pride, um, put on Pride Fest, which we had a great time of going to for the first time this year.

SPEAKER_03
4:00

And it drew over 40,000 people. Yeah, just under 42,000. It was great.

SPEAKER_01
4:04

Which is the largest Pride Fest on festival grounds in the world.

SPEAKER_03
4:10

That's correct. We are the largest uh Pride Festival on a uh permanent site in the entire world, right here in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_01
4:18

Which is absolutely amazing. And you're the owner of Revolve Experience Marketing, and you put on a number of other events, including this one. Yeah. And yeah, um, I saw you back in the day, you produced a comedy show at Mikey's, which had the best bomb night of all time on the Wednesday.

SPEAKER_03
4:38

Launched that bomb night.

SPEAKER_01
4:39

What?

SPEAKER_03
4:40

I was yeah, I that was uh fucking royalty in the in the building. We we did that um in 2009. We were the originators of uh bomb night. They were dollar bombs, and uh it was it was hilarious. We actually um the staff would wear military uniform and helmets, and we would play the song uh dropped a bomb on me, and when the song played, they were even more discounted. I'm gonna send you the flyer. 50 cents 50 cent bombs? Yep, it was yeah, so anyway, yeah, bomb night, Mikey's.

SPEAKER_01
5:15

Did you cross paths with uh Matt Mahalik? Who? Oh, he used to just buy trays, he was probably your number one customer.

SPEAKER_03
5:22

Probably. It was it was that was a blurry era in the hospitality industry.

SPEAKER_01
5:26

Okay, he might have well actually he was still doing that in like 2015, 16, so maybe you missed the blurry. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, that was his strategy. He'd buy a tray of bombs and just go up to groups of girls. Now you know, now you know the balls to the blocking.

SPEAKER_03
5:42

No, no, no, it's in the Rolodex. I guess, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01
5:47

And the uh other non-escalade owner, Anthony Malachek, senior wealth advisor over at Annex Wealth Management, former basketball star over there. He could play now. 2024 and up has a whole start. Did you you start that organization? Co-founded that organization. Co-founded that organization and has helped a lot of youth basketball players develop and get through that, and now has some kids that are looking good on the on the AU circuit. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and you're coaching too, right?

SPEAKER_05
6:18

I coach, I kind of do it all. Yeah, train, coach. Um, fortunate enough to work with guys that have come up in this area that you know are now playing professional basketball, both boys and girls. So kind of fun to see the full circle.

SPEAKER_00
6:33

Yeah, so you're speaking on WNBA. I was eventually as well.

SPEAKER_05
6:39

And uh brand currency. So, you know, like with social media and everything, we gotta be able to teach athletes how to optimize and monetize their brand. And a lot of it was around NIL, specifically to women.

SPEAKER_01
6:54

Very cool. And Annex coming in as one of the partners on this event, too. So uh before we get into a number of topics, do you all want to just tell the listeners how this event came to be and what they can expect?

SPEAKER_03
7:06

Yeah, totally. I'll start with that. Um so how it started is uh Milwaukee Rail Festivals put out a major master use plan. They wanted people to be a part of you know, curating events throughout the park throughout the throughout the year, other than just the weekend ethnic festivals, which are great, part of our city of festivals. And uh I had these, I had a whole bunch of ideas, and my buddy Adam and I have been working together for over a decade. And so I had this idea we both shared an idea to do something with food and wine, and we came together and I said, Hey, you know, Milwaukee Road Festivals put out this master use plan. Now's the time to do it. And I have the time, and with my decade of doing Pride Fest and my 20-year history in food and beverage, I go, let's do it. I I go, I think I could put the deck together and do the proposal. And we set it egg and flour in Bayview, and I I pissed it.

SPEAKER_02
8:08

You're not being very truthful. He went and did it and then called me and said, I did, I did something bad. Yeah, it's happening. We're happy about that though.

SPEAKER_01
8:19

You didn't even have to do any of the legs.

SPEAKER_02
8:20

I was ecstatic, yeah. And like I was gonna say, is I wouldn't have got jumped into a project like this if it wasn't with someone, if it wasn't with someone like Wes who does Pride Fest and events and all that, makes it, you know, a little bit more manageable and be able to focus on it more and know that all the really tough, hard things that you have to do to put on an event or a festival of this magnitude is taken care of.

SPEAKER_03
8:46

Yeah, and we it it events of this size are massive. Like people don't understand that these are seven-figure economic impacts just with festival expenses. Um, but when I was thinking about how to curate this festival, you know, Adam and I, when we worked together when I owned Black Sheep, we were super creative in how we brought people in. He was doing tasting menus before tasting menus were a thing. So this was the natural fit for us to work together on a high level and bring creativity to uh a lakefront festival. And yeah, I mean you're right. I you know, I did kind of went and did it without anyone knowing I was doing it, but but but he he was integral in the ideation of it, in the conversation, and I shared with him the plan and how I was gonna go about it, but I I I didn't tell him the date I was doing it, or you know, because I truthfully, you know, you might swing and miss, it may not work. And I didn't want to, you know, I didn't want to overcommit this idea if it wasn't gonna work out. And so um, but yeah, that's how it started, and it was it's been a lot of fun ever since.

SPEAKER_02
10:02

It's been over a year of planning, so it's not this is not so like we want people to understand like a lot goes into it, a lot of mindful ideas and a lot of ideas that will never come to life because you know you gotta work through it. You can't take the first idea and say, hey, that's what we're gonna do. You just kind of kind of come up with things and figure out what's gonna work, and we want it to be a fun experience for everyone from the talent to the actual guest of the festival and the vendors and all that that we'll we'll talk about. But a lot goes into it more than what people think, and we're excited to show what we've been working on.

SPEAKER_03
10:35

Yeah, so today is uh uh August 12th, I think, or 13th. I met with Milwaukee Road Festivals on August 4th to pitch it. So the whole festival's come together in less than a year, and it's and it's done. Like now, now is the point where we actually have to do details and and figure out how we execute it with all the the finer points, but this whole festival came together in where it's at today in just under seven months.

SPEAKER_01
11:05

And uh what what can people expect when they go there?

SPEAKER_03
11:09

Well, what makes this festival unique is that it's not like a traditional food and wine festival. Food and wine festivals across the country have a high ticket price. They're they're they're very um, they're not accessible to people. They start at $300, $500, $700, and they can go up to $10,000 for experiences. No shit. It's wild. But what I did was uh I took my experience of being in this business in the hospitality piece in the festivals, and we created a smoke break. Probably. Um the aftermath of a cigarette. Um and what we did was we created a food and wine festival that is actually in the spirit of a Milwaukee festival. So it's all all a cart. You've got a you know, a modest ticket price to get in, and then people get to pick and choose where they want to go, what they want to eat, what they want to drink, but they have access to three stages of live entertainment, a marketplace, all the vendors, and over 80 plus global wines that they may not be able to experience in a restaurant. So the model was let's create something that's super accessible, affordable, and meets people where they are in our city. That's that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_01
12:29

How much are the tickets?

SPEAKER_03
12:30

Tickets are 35 bucks, but they come with an acrylic, uh really nice stemless wine glass.

SPEAKER_04
12:39

Really?

SPEAKER_03
12:40

Because I've learned in my experience of doing festivals, you can go through 40,000 plastic cups. And the idea was let's let's start thinking about our global footprint and let's start reducing waste. So the idea is you get your ticket and you walk in Henry Mayer Festival Park and you're given this stemless wine glass. All of the uh bars and wine regions have rinsing stations built in. So it's easy for to get your glass rinsed, and then you can go from you know a big California cab to a sparkling, and it allows us to reduce our our our uh footprint with waste.

SPEAKER_01
13:18

We did uh we did some stuff with with Lowland's group for Belgian Beer Fest earlier. That was a couple months ago this summer. They they did the same thing. You got a glass and they had some rinsing stations in. Yeah. Is that nice? I think it was a good way to go. It was. Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_03
13:34

Yeah, people love uh commemorative, they love to take something away, and this is the easy way to do that.

SPEAKER_01
13:41

Chef, what are you most excited about?

SPEAKER_02
13:44

What I'm most excited about, honestly, is to see well, there's two things that are pretty even. One is that the restaurants that are participating in this and actually serving food there are very high-end restaurants that people would consider, you know, top of the game for Milwaukee. And they're coming down there to provide, you know, really awesome, unique menus and their time and their weekend to show off what we have going on in this city because obviously it's not all local guests and people buying tickets. There'll be people from all over the place coming. So I'm excited for them and those restaurants to get outside the box of their fine dining or their upscale restaurant and to put on some uh food for the festival. And then my second most uh exciting thing would be the five-course chef dinner that we're doing on Saturday night. That tickets are on sale now. Um it's myself and four chef friends that are doing uh a big dinner in the middle of the festival with wine pairings with Anthony Garcia, our psalm, for the festival. And uh it's myself, Kyle Nall from Birch, Justin from Sanford, Joe Sastow from Food Network. He's up from Chicago, and he's been all over Food Network. He has a couple food brands, he's an author of a cookbook, and then Luke Zom, the host from uh Wisconsin Foodie. So we're putting together this awesome menu, large, long table running down, um, and amazing wines that will pair. So we're really selling those, but there's only 50 tickets, and those are going really fast. And uh excited to just see that come to life while the whole other festival is happening at the same time.

SPEAKER_01
15:24

Very cool. And Anthony, you guys, you guys are involved now. Why did you get involved in in something like this?

SPEAKER_05
15:30

Yeah, you said it well, Adam. Um at the end of the day, I think connecting good good people with good people is part of an approach that we try to take, specifically in the group that I lead up at Annex. Um, and that that is tends to be a little bit higher net worth. And you think about all the different things we do in the community with Annex, and it's it's mostly sports related, right? It's the brewers, we do a lot there, we do a lot with the the Bucks, we do a lot with the Packers, and looking at looking at being a chef and you know, thinking through those lenses and knowing Adam and seeing what he was working on, and then meeting Wes. I just think a lot of people also respect that as an artist just as much as you spec respect an athlete as an artist. And so when we were thinking about pairing that up and really uh trying to jump in on the first year of doing this, it really felt like a natural fit. And then some of the people, some of the headliners that they're getting access to is a really cool experience that some of our clients wouldn't be able to get access to if they weren't working with us.

SPEAKER_02
16:37

It's a good entertaining festival for Annex to have be a wealth management and have them come down and be able to entertain for a weekend. For sure. We'll take care of them really well.

SPEAKER_03
16:47

Did you know? Can I add something with this? So I I think people don't understand that having partners with folks like Annex is that their contributions to us allow us to keep accessibility high. And I and I I don't I don't think people truly understand what a sponsor and a partner means. Um to outside folks, they think, oh, they're just throwing a logo on a banner. But really having committed partners that are part of this process, those commitments help us keep entry levels low.

SPEAKER_01
17:21

Hey everyone, just wanted to take a minute and let you know that fall, which believe it or not, is approaching, is an amazing time to get your act together. And that includes with your finances. And that's why I want to introduce our good friends, including Anthony, who is on this episode over at Annex Wealth Management. Annex Wealth Management is a holistic wealth management firm with offices all around Milwaukee that helps you with everything retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. They'll help you declutter old accounts, dust off your investment strategy, organize your estate documents, and build a plan focused on your goals. That's our friends at AnnexWealth Management. annexwealth.com know the difference. All right, let's get back to this episode with the chef, Wes and Anthony.

SPEAKER_05
18:19

Take yourself back to 10 years ago when you're because this is the inaugural, right? Yeah. So first year of doing it, usually anytime you there's kinks that you have to work through. Are there any any roadblocks that you're bumping into right now?

SPEAKER_03
18:34

Um, yeah, a lot.

SPEAKER_01
18:38

Yes, there is we put we put on some events that are for like always under 100 people. They're usually in like the 50, 60. You guys do that as well, and like still. It's wild. And that you this is obviously a completely different scale than most.

SPEAKER_03
18:58

Yeah, what's wild is that even after a decade of doing these large-scale events, no matter how much planning you go into it, you always find new obstacles. Um, but the one thing I'll share with you she was the uh she just retired, her name was uh Gay Lattel for the Malachi Row Festivals. Her biggest piece of advice was always plan for way more time. And uh she she bestowed that wisdom on me years ago, just talking about things, and um that has been huge with this endeavor. Um you know, we're we're working with global wine companies, and what we're you wouldn't expect is that with all the people that have to import wines from you know all these different countries, is that there's a huge lag in how they get here. So we created a menu with seven global wine regions, and we picked out our selections, but we had to order those wines months ago only to find out that some of them aren't able to actually get here. So now Anthony Garcia, our Psalm and our beverage director are saying, Hey Wes, we we're gonna have to pivot on a few of these, um, and it it's fine, but just let you know they can't get here. And to that same point, because of the way the industry is and how they allocate you know bottles and varietals to the regions and states, we're able to actually offer some really cool things, even domestic, uh, through cali from California, um, that you may not be able to get in any restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, um, or in Chicago or Wisconsin. And so it's um it's it's a unique thing to have these these obstacles but also opportunities because they don't they're not relevant to other events, they're not relevant to the food and beverage industry, they're not relative to a music festival, they're specific to this type of event, and that's been uh that's been a huge learning curve.

SPEAKER_01
20:59

How many people are you expecting at this one?

SPEAKER_03
21:01

So that's a great question.

SPEAKER_01
21:03

That's a great question.

SPEAKER_02
21:05

You probably have a ballpark ring, but you don't ever know the party when you're like, yeah, what it what are we doing?

SPEAKER_03
21:09

So we you know, we when I built the business model, you know, you're always conservative with your numbers because you don't want to uh think that you're gonna get you know 50,000 people your first year. So but this year, I think a healthy number is in that 15 to 16,000 range. If that's you know 8,000 a day or or 10 and 6, 9 and 7, whatever. Um but we're we're using data from other events that are down there, other festivals, and with the uh the uh reaction and the response so far, we're pretty confident to hit that 16, 15, 16,000 people.

SPEAKER_02
21:49

Yeah, people are really excited, and people, like I said, from out of the state and out of the city. But we want that support from the city as well, too. We want people to come down and enjoy and see something new. It's the first year. And it's going to be really exciting. And there's no shortage of entertainment or food or chefs or experiences. There's so much, especially for year one. And we can definitely talk about those special experiences too. So people know when they do go on the website, it's easy to navigate. Beautiful website that's easy to find what's going on and to track and buy tickets to the to the extra things that we have going on. Fire fire a wisp. What are some of those highlights? So the chef dinner that I talked about earlier is definitely a VIP experience. Um we have an experience going on on the lake, uh, the lake deck, which is um discourse coffee, is doing like a coffee-tasting uh Hill Valley Cheese right down the street. Your neighbor, they're doing uh cheese and cocktail pairing that you can buy, uh additional experience upgrade for that. And then Jason Morimoto from the brand new uh restaurant just opened, Nakama, right there on Cass and Pleasant. They're gonna be doing a very intimate uh omakase type two two seating dinner there as well that you can upgrade your ticket for. Um and I'll let Wes tell you about some of the other cool things that you can upgrade your ticket, and it's not hundreds of dollars, you know, for all these things, and it makes it accessible and fun.

SPEAKER_03
23:19

Yeah, so we I mean, it's a festival, and we wanted I wanted to create something that had music and and and just a fun atmosphere for people to enjoy. So we have the main stage with all these awesome chefs from all over the country: Hell's Kitchen, Top Chef Chopped, all that, which is Hamburger America, George Moats. But we also have two live music stages, and we're bringing in local live musicians to uh you know to to create a vibe. We have Pearl and Pop, which is with Maxie's a full raw bar experience, so oysters and and and seafood, but then it's all champagne and bubbles, uh champagne meaning you know, French champagne, but also Italian and some domestic, but uh it's all live jazz music. So you're in this pearl and pop experience, being able to being able to enjoy that live music and the bubbles and the seafood. But when you go north and you go to um Fox Meadow stage, you've got BD Greer and Joe Ray, people doing just great live acoustic music and an open, you know, mini amphitheater stage. So we want people to be able to spend the day. You don't have to commit to seeing every single thing, but you can pop around the grounds, you can enjoy the music, the chefs, the food, the wine, and it's a true destination in that in that idea that it this isn't just one thing for one person, just something for everybody.

SPEAKER_02
24:44

Yeah, the experience. You can tell them about the experience with Saz's and Champagne Room. That's the one that I'm really excited about. Okay, so everyone beer drinkers out there.

SPEAKER_03
24:53

Yeah, do you even know about this one yet? Yeah, I don't know. Okay, so so you know, when you're answering highlights in there, highlights. Oh, you'll see.

SPEAKER_02
25:00

This is a great deal.

SPEAKER_01
25:01

I'm pushing it.

SPEAKER_02
25:03

I'm pushing it.

SPEAKER_03
25:04

So it's um, so you know, when you're when you're truly a part of the City of Festivals and Henry Mayer Festival Park, you know, Miller brands was were the founding partners of that. They they invested so much money to create the those grounds and the stages. And I'm a legacy guy. I love knowing where we our roots and where we came from, where we're going. So in developing this food and wine festival and our footprint, we have the Miller stage, and that's where the flavor yard is with the food truck park, and we've got the pearl and pop thing. But uh included in that is the deck, the Miller Oasis deck that overlooks it. And I thought, oh gosh, what can I do with that deck that's fun? And I thought, well, every chef I know loves a high life after their shift. And high life has been a part of the restaurant and bar business forever. And so I thought, what if we did a play on the champagne room, you know, and we tipped our hat to the legacy of high life, and that's what we're doing up there, and it's gonna be really fun. Um, the Saz's team celebrating 50 years in business, I met with them and we created a fun, a fine dining menu, all inspired and infused with high life.

SPEAKER_02
26:19

Really? So, yeah, so never before seen food items from Saz's.

SPEAKER_03
26:24

Yeah, this is so they're the they they are the festival legacy food partner, right? And when I met with them, their team is so fun, and they're so like just do you know those guys over there? They're just gonna know them well. Oh, they're all right. They've got a good team over there.

SPEAKER_02
26:40

Yeah, they can finally go outside the box of what everyone expects them to do. Like, hey, we don't just do fries and mozzarella sticks.

SPEAKER_03
26:47

Yeah, and we had this great collaborative session. I met with their executive chefs and I said, if you're gonna be a part of this event, I want you to flex your creative muscle. And so they are, and so this high life, this uh the champagne room, the celebration of high life, they create an entire tasting menu up there if you buy the if you buy the ticket to get up there of all new creative items from their executive chef team. And even uh, I will I'll spoil this one. Um, they are doing a fine dining sampler platter, so everyone knows the chai fries, mozzarella sticks, and cheese curds. They're doing a version of that with um beef fat fries, they're doing uh Ellsworth High Life beer battered cheese curds, and then the uh the wonton is actually a Caprezier skewer with mozzarella, tomato, basil, and prosciutto wrapped in a wonton and fried. So they're doing a fine dining sampler platter for fresh water. They're the coolest people to work with. They completely embody the spirit of Milwaukee festivals, fun, great food, and um they're they're bringing the champagne room to life with that.

SPEAKER_02
27:57

Yeah, which is $60 add-on to your ticket. You can go up there and it, what is it, unlimited high life.

SPEAKER_03
28:03

Yeah, you can do high life.

SPEAKER_02
28:05

As much high life as you want for 60 bucks, and then there's certain time zones throughout the day that Sazes will be up there featuring some of this food during that. If you're on the high life deck, what a what a steal.

SPEAKER_01
28:17

I think so. I they are cool. I got to uh interview Steve Steve Susama for their 50th. What a legend! Dude, what a legend! He's so cool, he's gotta be in his 80s at this point, but yeah, he uh I walked in there, it was it was in the spring or like early spring, down to the state house, and he's he's just man in the bar. Yeah, just playing bar dice. Still, and I I thought we were just gonna do a quick video. I ended up turning it into a full episode of sat down, had uh had some beers and old fashioned.

SPEAKER_03
28:48

Yeah, I mean that's in those are the people that have really curated and helped form this culture we have with these festivals and the food, the beverage, the way we come together. You know, Milwaukee's uh is uh everyone's there's a seat for everyone at the table, and it's people like him that have helped create that. And with these any ethnic festival or any of the wonderful festivals throughout the city, they all lean into that same hospitality, and and that's what makes us super special.

SPEAKER_01
29:21

It was a Milwaukee-based show. Why why you all choose to live in Milwaukee are your favorite things about? I know you're you're from Ohio initially, right? And then came here, and Anthony, you were down in Chicago for quite a bit. And if you've been all traveling the world over there, jet setting, but choose to make this place your home. That's right.

SPEAKER_03
29:41

That's because nobody else wants them.

SPEAKER_01
29:43

Yeah, I'm stuck here.

SPEAKER_02
29:44

I just want home base. Uh you can always go and travel. I always tell people you can always go travel, you can always go uh for a month at a time or a few weeks or whatever, but it's nice to be here. It's nice to be where my family is, a lot of the community that I know, a network of people that uh make my life and job and business easier by supporting. So I just have a lot of support here. So it's good to be here, and it feels feels good when I come back, even if I am in Richie's words, jet setting around the world. You should keep that uh that voice memo going that way. You should be able to just hit that on a keyboard. Brie, record that, just put that in there.

SPEAKER_05
30:28

Yeah, I mean, spending time a long time outside of Wisconsin, I I think you don't realize all the things that we have here. And so when you take a step back and you're bet and you see the lake and you understand the the food culture and the sports culture and all the different things that go into the state in Milwaukee. Um, one of the things that I really think that's cool about this is you go to New York, you go to LA, you're in Chicago, you're at these different things, and you often see different chefs doing different, maybe not festivals, but different experiences and things. And so I just think this is really forward-thinking from Milwaukee. We're not just brats, beers, cheese all the time, right? We can do other things. We can compete with the Chicago's and New York in our own way. Um, because once people are here, like friends come in from California and they fly in and they come through the fifth ward or third ward, or in there like, I did not know Milwaukee was this cool, right? And so that's I think this is a step, another step in a good direction.

SPEAKER_03
31:32

Yeah, so I, you know, I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. I came here for college and I just stayed. Um, I love Milwaukee. I I love the Midwest. I love Cleveland, I love Detroit, you know, I love I just love the whole idea of the Midwest culture. Um, and to my friends here, their their points, I don't want to reiterate them directly, but they're 100% accurate. Like Adam said, if you live here, you can travel and go anywhere. You have access from Milwaukee and Chicago to travel and experience the world easily. And you know, Anthony said, you know, it's like we are a global city. And you when you're here, the athletics. I'm a big sports guy. You know, I um I I think sports are huge to a city's uh community and cultural and social fabric. And if you're in Milwaukee, you can go to the Bucks, the Brewers, you're two hours away from the Green Bay Packers. Likewise, you've got a world-class ballet, an orchestra, you've got skylight music theater. You if you're bored in Milwaukee, art museum, the art museum, the regular museum, yeah. You've got all these things, you have those, and then you've got the restaurants and the bars and the social things you do before, during, and after. It's just a great place to live. You can live so well here, and you can experience the world by hopping on a quick flight or a even if you just try to find it. Or a train. And so that's why I stayed here. I mean, I I stayed because um I think Midwest cities are special, I think they they need talented people to help them continue to be special. And Milwaukee, it's funny, Cleveland's the same way. So this is this is a little bit of a rib on Milwaukee, but um, everyone's everyone's very loyal to Milwaukee and's in Wisconsin, just like Cleveland is to Ohio's and Clevelanders. Being an outsider, coming here all alone, this city has really embraced me. I've done well here as a business owner, an entrepreneur. Um, I've met such wonderful people, and I couldn't imagine a better place to live. And I and I and I hope other people feel that way. Um, because it's it's it's really authentic here. And so I I I couldn't I couldn't imagine you know a better place. You know, sure, some other great cities, you know they have the views of Palm Springs, you got the beautiful views, you have all these places that you have. Friends come from out of out of town and think it's the ocean off of breath.

SPEAKER_01
34:04

Like you show them to a rooftop bar that overlooks like the city. Oh my god, it's a close.

SPEAKER_03
34:10

So it's it's just a it's a great place to live, and uh it's it shouldn't be understated.

SPEAKER_02
34:14

Yeah, that's what's good about this. So great about the festival is that we're gonna show off everything we got all in one weekend. Honestly, we're not missing you guys are going all out for year one, too. I know we need you people to come down and experience that.

SPEAKER_01
34:31

Is that scary at all? Because it's not like you're you know phasing into this. You you're just oh yeah, I know it's scary every day. All in.

SPEAKER_02
34:38

Oh, he doesn't even know. I mean, oh I know what he goes through. But I'm saying, you know, even from what I'm doing, no, he knows what you go through. It is crazy, it is crazy to see what goes into it, and like everything has the stars have to align.

SPEAKER_03
34:53

Yeah, it's I mean, it's it's wild. You know, we when I had this idea, it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and um I just started like thinking about what will make people want to come.

SPEAKER_02
35:06

And which isn't a bad thing when it grows.

SPEAKER_03
35:10

Yeah, and and my my my fear was uh the truth is, and I'm okay being transparent about this, is you know, Henry Mayer Festival Park is the gem of the Midwest. It is the best venue for any live event, and I'll I'll take that to the grave. And everyone there is amazing. But the but the challenge is you they have the cultural festivals all summer. I'm a part of that with Pride Fest. I've been you know you can't it can't look like a rinse and repeat. It has to be fresh, new, modern, different. You can't walk through that gate and think you're walking in a summer fest, but with food and wine, or with Italian food, or with Polish food, or I agree, it has to be different, and so with this event, I to your question, I threw everything to the wind. I threw the budget out the window, I maxed out my Amex. Like the idea is this event it's the heart of Henry Mayo Festival Park, but it's new.

SPEAKER_01
36:15

Back in 2036.

SPEAKER_03
36:17

Oh me too.

SPEAKER_01
36:19

We'll be right here on this couch, Richie. Well, thank you guys so much for coming in and get your tickets for September 19th and 20th. Hey everyone, a big thank you to the chef Wes and Anthony for joining us. Make sure to get your tickets for Fresh Coast Food and Wine Festival on September 20th and 21st. Linked in the show notes. Website is linked in the show notes. And before signing off, just want to thank our partners one more time who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. Nicola, Annex World Management, and Drink Wisconsin, we beverage company.

SPEAKER_00
0:00

And I went, and all of a sudden everybody wanted to adopt him, and I was like, that's my dog, and you better get out of my way. Definitely the one where a woman called and said that her baby daddy had a whole nother family in the same apartment complex. I was just, we were all starstruck. We couldn't stop staring at her. There was just something, I don't know if it was the charisma, I don't know if it's just the history of the Jackson family, but that one, amazing.

SPEAKER_01
0:26

Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee on Co. We've got a Milwaukee Entertainment legend and dog mom in today. We've got Ali Faith from 1037 Kiss FM. You probably know her. And she brought Doug, her adorable new tripod pup that she recently rescued from Winston's Wishes, an organization that does some amazing things. So she was in here. We talked about her adoption of Doug, how she got into radio. She's got a really interesting backstory. Milwaukee in the 2000s, when she came here, we also went over best bars, dead or alive. We we reminisced on Milwaukee in the 2000s, 2010s. And she's also had a chance to interview Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, many more. So it was it was awesome talking to her about all of that. Before diving in, I want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee on Cup possible. We'll kick it off with Nicolay Law, the Midwest law firm injured. Get Nicolay and Russ, and the team will take great care of you. Drink Wisconsin Ablee Beverage Company, Best Vodka, Brandy, and Canned Cocktails in the game, available at bars and liquor stores across the state, and also available at Ampham Field. Make sure to check out their corner bar over in Wright Field. And last but not least, our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management. If you're looking to get your finances together and have a goal that deals with your money, your earnings, your investments, go talk to the experts at Annex. They have an amazing team ready to listen and help you with your personal goals. That is Annex Wealth Management. Know the difference. All right, let's dive in with Ali Faith. Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee on Coat. We've got an iconic Milwaukee media personality in the building, Ali Faith and Dougie, her tripod rescue dog from Winston's wishes, who spent a stint at Maddox. We love supporting Maddox. So very happy to have them both in. We'll we'll talk about Doug. We'll get to know Ali because you you've got a lot of stories in Milwaukee. I mean, you've you've been here for two decades. Yeah, over 20 years. So really excited to have you in. You're down 150 pounds.

SPEAKER_00
2:39

And I've kept it off for eight years. Yeah. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01
2:44

That that is amazing. And as we said, we got Dougie in in the building. Um should we should we start with him?

SPEAKER_00
2:52

I would love to.

SPEAKER_01
2:52

How did you get the guy? What made you adopt him?

SPEAKER_00
2:55

Well, I had lost my black lab, Bella, which I got at the Wisconsin Humane Society. She was 14 in 2023. I had always had dogs growing up, and I went three years without a dog because I went, oh, you know, finally my kids are older. I have no dog. I'm dating. And then it was like the void never got filled.

SPEAKER_01
3:15

And so I said The Milwaukee dating scene did not fill that void.

SPEAKER_00
3:18

There was this was the man for me the whole time. Who knew? So I told them I was interested in um getting a dog. And they said, we have this dog we've been thinking about who is great for you. His name is Doug. And I knew they only had about six dogs. So I had been looking at their website and I had seen him and I knew he was a tripod and I knew he was perfect. But nobody had reached out and said, Hey, we think this dog is great for you. And I went, Oh, it's a sign. So they said, if you want to come meet him, he's gonna be at Oat Brewery on Saturday at a, you know, St. Patrick's Day event. And I went, and all of a sudden, everybody wanted to adopt him. And I was like, that's my dog. And you better get out of my way. So he was the best. Um, he was in a couple fosters, and then he was supposed to come hang out with me. And it turned into me saying, No, I'm gonna pay the adoption fee today. He's mine, leave him. And he never left, and that was March 13th. Right, right at Ope. Yeah. Well, no, at Ope is where I met him. Okay. And then a week later, they brought I put in my application, obviously. And then they brought him over a week later and said, Okay, you know, your application's been approved. I'm like, Of course you know me. But they approved it and they brought him over and said he can stay for a little bit or forever. So when they dropped him off, I said, he's staying forever.

SPEAKER_01
4:38

Yeah. And you got your other dog from the Humane Society a little while ago. Um, why do you think it's important to adopt dogs here here in Milwaukee?

SPEAKER_00
4:48

Well, I think we all know how many dogs come in every day to the shelters. And when I learned those numbers, it's hundreds. It's unbelievable how many dogs come in needing a home. And the thing is, Doug is amazing. He was a Lockkey dog, meaning he came in, he was potty trained, he was crate trained, he was sweet, he didn't bark, he was just a lover. And I thought, I'm never gonna get that with a puppy. Bella was a puppy and I loved her, but that's hard. That's like having another kid. And so he just kind of came into our lives and brought me and my kids closer together and was just perfect. So I there's all these dogs that need homes, you know. Why would why wouldn't I give back and adopt one to me? And now I'm convincing people to adopt too, I hope.

SPEAKER_01
5:36

So yes, yeah, there's so many good dogs that um cycle in and out of there that come from not very good situations in in the city. So yeah, I'd I'd encourage anyone to do the same. And those places are always looking for more volunteers, too. We've been uh involved with Matic probably about two years now, maybe a little longer. And it's just good. I just walk dogs. It's good to go out and give give them a break for from their kennels. A lot are in there. They're lucky to be in there 23 and a half hours a day.

SPEAKER_00
6:05

Like it's it's it's uh sad life.

SPEAKER_01
6:08

They're cooped up, but yeah, that's nice that you do that. Good to give them a breather, and you can take them on field trips too. Volunteers can, so you can like go over there, grab one, take them out for the day, get them exposed to the community. Uh people a few hours. They should.

SPEAKER_00
6:22

How fun.

SPEAKER_01
6:23

It's tough bringing them back, but you need to realize they were better going going on that and meeting people and getting some fresh air and decompressing for a little while.

SPEAKER_00
6:31

So yeah, I bet it's harder to give them back. I didn't even think about that when you're just following the city. It's the difficult part.

SPEAKER_01
6:36

I mean, it's hard enough when you walk them around the block for 15 minutes. It is a little more difficult when you're with them for for three or four or five hours out there. Um, so anyway, what where did you grow up? Where are you from?

SPEAKER_00
6:48

How'd you end up in Milwaukee? Great question. Um, I grew up in Southern Illinois, Carbondale, um, because my dad worked at the university. So that's how we ended up there. But when I was in high school, I found out there was a radio job opening. So I went in. I left school early and I went down to the local radio station. They said, we want to put you on the air on the weekends. And I went, um, I'm sorry. I just, what? Were you in high school? I was 17. I was a senior in high school. Yeah, I couldn't believe they were gonna like put me on the radio. I'm like, are you kidding me? Everybody thought I was so cool, of course. And when I went back to school and told them. Um, but it was great. And I started working there. I did Friday and Saturday overnights, like through college. And then I got kind of jealous because my college boyfriend moved to LA and I was mad that he was going to do things and be ambitious. It kind of motivated me. So I just started sending out my tape. It was a tape. It was not even a CD yet, I don't think.

SPEAKER_01
7:48

And I did bring up you've been in Milwaukee for two decades. So I think I think people can do the math. So yeah, they do not look it.

SPEAKER_00
7:56

You can tell me it's fine if I look it. No. Um, but then I ended up in Wausau. I got a job in Wausau, Wisconsin. Had never been there, went for the interview, moved up, and that's how I kind of got connected with everybody in Milwaukee, was just networking with radio people, you know, during that time. Wassau's a beautiful town. Yeah, it is. It is. It's just so small. After a while, it was I got bored. So I went to Albuquerque and did mornings on a station. I went to Vegas, and then they called me back and said, Hey, we have a morning show opening in Milwaukee. Do you want to come? And I said, Okay.

SPEAKER_01
8:30

Was it the same network that owned all the stations, or were these just different places? No, they were all different.

SPEAKER_00
8:35

One was iHeart. Yeah. One Milwaukee was a totally different company. Yeah. I just knew the man running it who had kicked it off, and he said, I want you to come do mornings. I was like, All right.

SPEAKER_01
8:47

Yeah. So I did. How'd you what was that transition like? And how did you enjoy Milwaukee in the in the 2000s?

SPEAKER_00
8:54

That's a great question. Milwaukee has always been one of my favorites, and I think that's why I stayed because there it's like one of the best kept secrets. This city, you come here, it's not that hard to get anywhere. I can drive downtown or to the suburbs in less than 15 minutes if I really want to. I loved the lake, living downtown, and it's just turned out to be one of the best place and a great place to, you know, have a dog and a family.

SPEAKER_01
9:22

Absolutely. Um, I do want to get into your your career. You've uh I was stalking your Instagram earlier doing some homework. I saw one of the carousels you posted. You had pictures with Justin Timberlake, Pink, the Pussycat dolls, Mary J. Black. You had a great picture with Brody Jenner and Spencer Pratt that's a good one. Was that during like the Laguna Beach days?

SPEAKER_00
9:44

Oh, no, no, no. It was before. This is this is the best story ever. I'm so glad you asked me about that. I saw that that photo is amazing. It's insane because I don't think anybody even knew who Spencer was yet.

SPEAKER_01
9:58

He looks like he's 12. They're babies.

SPEAKER_00
10:00

Yeah. I had gotten sent out the first year I was in Milwaukee, that was 2005. They sent me to LA to broadcast live from American Idol, which was huge. It was the Carrie Underwood Bo Bice year. She won that year. So they flew me out. I did the radio junket all week. And then at night, because the show was on Fox, Fox would put us in a bus and drive us places to promote their shows. And coming out at the time was The Princess of Malibu with David Foster, Brody Jenner, and Spencer, because he was Brodie Jenner's stepdad. So I got taken to their $74 million mansion in Malibu, driven on a bus with about 20 other radio friends. And we spent the night drinking and having hors d'oeuvres, going into David Foster's studio where Whitney Houston, I mean, the icons have recorded in this guy's studio. And we were supposed to ask Brody and Spencer questions. And I didn't know. I was like, I don't even know who these guys are. But I'd had a few drinks, I was liquored up, I was about 23. And the next thing you know, we're on the couch taking pictures, and they were just really sweet and fun. And then when you know the hills and everything blew up, people were like, You've met them. I'm like, yeah, nobody knew who they were. I've been in their house. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_01
11:20

So yeah, it was that's a really fun like memory of mine. That's like peak American Idol, too.

SPEAKER_00
11:26

Peak, peak, and we got to go to the finale. I got to go see Carrie Underwood win. It was insane. It was really cool. Yeah, that was when everyone watched it. And you watched it live.

SPEAKER_01
11:38

Yes. I I remember that. I remember that. It is crazy to think about that now. Yeah. It just like couldn't be replicated. Yeah. I don't think. No. Um what obviously you weren't starstruck in that moment because you had no clue who they were. No clue. When when's what's the most starstruck you have been? You've interviewed a lot of amazing people.

SPEAKER_00
12:00

You know who really threw me for a loop was Janet Jackson.

SPEAKER_01
12:05

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_00
12:06

Yes, that was probably one of the most famous people I'll ever interview in my life, obviously. But we got invited to a hotel in Chicago. She was promoting probably an album in the early 2000s when she was still doing a lot. And we I walk into this room, and Jermaine Dupree is just hanging out, spinning. I'm like, what is going on? How is this my life?

SPEAKER_01
12:29

Were you just towering over him?

unknown
12:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_00
12:32

Yes, absolutely, absolutely. He was there and they took us up to this hotel room where we were going to interview Janet. And it was me and the two guys I worked with at the time back in the day, Wes and Ronnie. I'll say their names, fine. The very first show I was ever on.

SPEAKER_01
12:45

Your heart just pounding in the elevator up?

SPEAKER_00
12:47

I mean, not yet. No. Okay. I we got up there, we walked in, she was sitting in a chair, and we kind of just stood there and stared at her. And she looked up at us and she goes, Hi. She was so I was just, we were all starstruck. We couldn't stop, we couldn't stop staring at her the whole time. We were just like, and I was like, snap out of it. Ask her a question, something, but there was just something. I don't know if it was the charisma. I don't know if it was just the history of the Jackson family, but that one, amazing. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01
13:20

Then any any other just moments where you think I can't believe this.

SPEAKER_00
13:26

Well, I think that I loved meeting Mary J. Blige at Summerfest. That was a big one for me, and baby Justin Bieber.

SPEAKER_01
13:34

How old was he? As old as Spencer Pratt when you met him.

SPEAKER_00
13:38

Probably 15. Yeah, he was probably 15 at Summerfest. Did you interview him or just briefly? No, I was on maternity leave when we interviewed him, so I missed it, if you can believe that. But I will tell you this one's cool. I didn't meet her in person, but we interviewed her on interviewed her on the phone, Taylor Swift. And this is what's crazy about the Taylor Swift interview. We had that planned so she could promote whatever she was doing at the time. It was the Monday after the VMAs when Kanye took the mic out of her hand. So I have chills thinking about it. So we had an interview with her that Monday morning, and they called us and they said, have fun, talk about anything you want but what happened this weekend. Isn't that how it goes though? I was so sad. So I've always had regrets about that because I love Taylor, and it would have been probably rude to bring up her trauma from the weekend, but man, I feel like we dropped the ball on that by agreeing to that. But that's the business, you know.

SPEAKER_01
14:40

You probably wouldn't have been able to interview her every though.

SPEAKER_00
14:43

No. Or ever again.

SPEAKER_01
14:44

Yeah. Yeah, I guess you could have just threw it out there when she was on the line.

SPEAKER_00
14:48

You don't want to burn those bridges.

SPEAKER_01
14:49

Oh no. No. You don't. Um any any favorite interview you've ever done.

SPEAKER_00
14:56

My favorite interview? That's a really good interview.

SPEAKER_01
14:58

The one that surprised you.

SPEAKER_00
15:00

Hmm. Do you know who Enrique Iglesias is? Oh yeah. He came right up to me and started talking to me and was like, Have I met you before? And I was like, uh, yeah. Why? And that was really cool. So I got to interview him backstage somewhere. Um, I'm trying to think who I've interviewed that it's so hard when because you interview so many people, and after a while you get desensitized, which is good and bad because it's good because you can ask them real questions and talk to them, but it's also bad because you want to ask the fan questions because that's what people, you know, that's what anybody, let's say you love, I don't know, Taylor Swift, you know, you want to know those things. So I don't I can't think of who's been the absolute best, honestly. If you want me to be honest, I can't. I wish I could name somebody.

SPEAKER_01
15:50

Do you have any um any favorite concerts you've been to?

SPEAKER_00
15:53

Ah, so many. Where do I start? Okay, Bruno Mars at Summerfest, phenomenal. Um, Lady Gaga at Summerfest, which I saw her topless because she takes off her shirt. I just happened to be so far up when she turned. I was like, I'm looking at Lady Gaga's boobs. Like everybody in Milwaukee's looking at Lady Gaga's boobs. So that those were really great shows. Um, I loved Post Malone at Alpine, which I've seen him at Pfizer, Summerfest, Alpine. That was just a vibe. Did you go to him this year? Yeah, I just I went, yeah, and I went to Ed Sheeran too. They were both Ed Sheeran was good. Yeah, but Post was better, in my opinion. So yeah, they were awesome.

SPEAKER_01
16:34

Any uh you get you get a bunch of callins. By the way, am I rolling my eyes? We actually love them. And they're live. They're always live. They're always live. Didn't used to be. Oh, really? When did that change?

SPEAKER_00
16:49

Uh probably a- Were they just tape delayed? Always tape delayed and always taped, and we'd play a lot of music in order to tape them. And I always hated taping everything. I want to, I feel like it's more authentic if we're on the air to take these people live. Nobody knows you're playing back something recorded, right? But it changed when podcasting started getting big and people were listening more for their favorite personalities. And so we started talking more and more, and then we didn't have time to record anything anymore. And so we just started randomly taking people live, and we're like, this is crazy, but we're gonna do it. So we do it all the time, and we've gotten this crew of regulars, and they're really funny, and they call in and listeners know them, and they're like, Oh, I love Saucy Sandra, and you know, it's just they're just characters in this city, and they're all funny, you know.

SPEAKER_01
17:42

Any, any, um, any unbelievable phone calls stand out and just caught you off guard or any big eye rollers.

SPEAKER_00
17:50

This morning I had someone scream the F-word on the air.

SPEAKER_01
17:54

What context was that in?

SPEAKER_00
17:56

She was just worked up about the advice segment. We were doing what would DZ do, and she got riled up about somebody who was letting their 20-year-old live at home and didn't know how to get them out of the house. And she just said the F-bomb, and because they get so comfortable they forget they're on the air. So, luckily, we have a dump button and it drops eight seconds of audio. So you don't hear it on the radio. Okay, but I have a small panic attack. Because if you do, we could get fined like $10,000. Yeah, something crazy like that. Oh, yeah. The fine for saying a naughty word during the day is pretty bad. I had no idea. If the FCC, and this is actually a great question because this speaking, we talked about Janet Jackson. So you remember when they did the Super Bowl, and at the time the FCC went after Janet Jackson. Now, they would not have done that if there hadn't been people reporting it. So if somebody cusses on the radio or on wherever, where they're not supposed to, according to the FCC rules, if somebody reports it and they investigate it, then you can get fined. So I'm sure people have cussed and nobody's reported it, thank goodness. But when they didn't have a delay button or a dump, but they'll find you if somebody so it's the reporting. Yeah. You know, it's all those old people that were like Janet Jackson showed her bob, you know, and had a heart attack. And so they they tried to make an example of her. Uh-huh. Which sucked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
19:27

And he just and he just stories that cough you uh caught you off guard. Hey guys, Summer is here. Time to get outside, enjoy the weather, have a nice cold drink on a patio, and maybe take a hard look at your financial life too. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm right here in Milwaukee that helps you with everything: retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. They'll help you declutter your old accounts, dust off your investment strategy, organize your estate documents, and build a plan focused on your goals. That's our good friends at AnnexWealth Management, annexwealth.com. Know the difference. All right, let's get back.

SPEAKER_00
20:11

Definitely the one where a woman called and said that her um baby daddy had a whole nother family in the same apartment complex. True story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
20:23

Had a what?

SPEAKER_00
20:24

A whole nother family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
20:26

In the same apartment complex.

SPEAKER_00
20:28

In the same apartment company.

SPEAKER_01
20:29

He didn't even go to a different zip code or anything.

SPEAKER_00
20:31

Nope. One day the girl came up and said, Hey, these are his kids, and she had no idea.

SPEAKER_01
20:38

So he must have pissed her off, and then she just walked the family right over.

SPEAKER_00
20:42

Mm-hmm. Exactly. Exactly. Wow. Isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_01
20:46

How was she doing?

SPEAKER_00
20:47

Um she was okay. I mean, she was well spirited. She was telling the story. Yeah. So yeah, we get stuff like that, which is why.

SPEAKER_01
20:56

Any others, or does that take the cake? That's one of the best ones. Have you had any on-air bloopers or things you did or said that you were just like I wish I could take that back. Do any standards?

SPEAKER_00
21:08

All the time. No, because I blocked them out out of embarrassment. But are you really are you really good at that?

SPEAKER_01
21:14

Just like not dwelling moving forward. And were you always that way, or was it something you had to adjust to?

SPEAKER_00
21:20

I think it's a great question. I don't know where I'd say my thick skin came from, but early years in radio doing mornings, I remember my boss saying, like, any other female in your position would cry. And I was like, forget these dudes, you know, like you needed somebody to wrangle them a little. But um, I also think some of my ADHD helps because I just keep it moving if I'm being completely honest. But yeah, I just, you have to just dust it off because otherwise you sit in it, you obsess about it, and you your affects your confidence and your self esteem, and that affects your product on the air. So I obviously get embarrassed, but I have to act like I'm not.

SPEAKER_01
22:00

No incident you can bounce back from. I'm guessing you're harder on yourself than other people are too.

SPEAKER_00
22:05

It's usually misinformation. Maybe I said something wrong about a celebrity, and then later I'm like, oh man, you know, you suck at your job. And I'm like, no, you don't. You're okay. You know, everybody makes it's human error though, you know? It's humans running stuff.

SPEAKER_01
22:19

So yeah. I I wanted to uh I wanted to get your favorite Milwaukee spots, dead dead or alive. Like if you had any back in back when you moved here. And I I came to Milwaukee in 2008, so I was kind of similar era. Yeah. When you when you came, when did you come here to I came here 04? Okay, so yeah, 2000s.

SPEAKER_00
22:40

Lived downtown. I lived on the east side until I basically had kids with my ex-husband and then moved, you know, out in the burbs in 2013. But I just want to be in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_01
22:50

I was on the east side for like seven years, probably.

SPEAKER_00
22:52

Okay, we might have been neighbors. Potentially. So favorite Milwaukee spots back in the day. Do you remember Louisa's? Yes. Cathedral Square.

SPEAKER_01
23:01

I was gonna bring that up. Obsessed. Their bread was so good.

SPEAKER_00
23:05

So good, and the sauce you dipped it in. And then I would go there when I used to eat carbs, and I'd get the Popper Dell or Paperdelli, however you say it. That dish when Louisa's was gone, I was so upset. I loved that dish. I loved Louisa's. That was one of my spots for sure in Cathedral Square. Mm-hmm. Um, Bryant's, which I've seen people mention on your podcast before. Bryant's is one of those places I feel like you have to take everybody. It's just a cool vibe. It's different. You get different drinks there. Um, JoeCats, I spent a ton of time. Everybody go, Alley. You know, I love my Joe Cats. I would go back now. I don't care how old I am. I don't care if they think I'm an old head. I'm going in Joe Cats.

SPEAKER_01
23:45

Really, the second floor has changed a lot. Really? What's different? I haven't been up there in a good couple years. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00
23:52

Um, I don't know how if I ever got past the bar.

SPEAKER_01
23:55

Because it was always jam-packed. I did that on what, maybe five or six years ago. Okay. Okay. Yeah. No, when I was living off Brady, too, it was just the one floor mostly.

SPEAKER_00
24:05

Yeah. Brady Street has always been fun. Same thing with water. I mean, I remember going to McGillicuddy's and Bar Louie, like in 07. It was right on Water Street in the huge patio.

SPEAKER_01
24:17

What about were you at Sullivan's at all?

SPEAKER_00
24:20

Of course. I was everywhere. Richie, I've been out everywhere in this city. I have been everywhere.

SPEAKER_01
24:26

Did you ever go to the corner, which was in the bomber's spot before Bombers?

SPEAKER_00
24:33

Definitely been to Bombers. Surely I was at the corner.

SPEAKER_01
24:37

It was a college bar, probably about 2007. So I'm sure. I mean, it was they had all you can drink, you fill it Wednesdays. So one time my roommate and I brought a drawer from our dorm. They filled it with beer for three dollars. The whole drawer? The whole drawer. Three three dollars Wednesday at the corner. And then my black friend got in with one of our white friends' IDs, and um they didn't stay around. You're joking. Yeah, but my buddy Tiger got in with um That's a real story. Yes. Might have been P Bear's ID, but yeah, yeah, he got he got he got he marched right on through with that thing. So the corner was just absolutely electric.

SPEAKER_00
25:18

That was where you went. Yeah. We love that place. I'm Dukes, you know, been to Dukes a thousand times. Yep, Dukes is still around. Um I love to eat. Dan Dan, you know, I remember going there after the Christmas tree lighting and the third war.

SPEAKER_01
25:33

Dan Dan, very comparable to Dukes right there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
25:36

It just shows you I'm well rounded. Okay.

SPEAKER_01
25:38

Very versatile.

SPEAKER_00
25:40

Yeah, I mean, I there's so many good ones. Louise's.

SPEAKER_01
25:43

Um I gotta give a shout out to um the old Milwaukee Brewing Company Tour that was in this area. Yeah. It was five dollars. It wasn't really a tour, it was just like a warehouse where you could go walk next to one of the tanks. Or you could just stay at the bar and you got to drink craft beer for an entire hour for five bucks. Dude, isn't that funny that like all of our memories deal in the history of Milwaukee, to be honest with you? I don't know what would top that.

SPEAKER_00
26:11

Do you know this is so Milwaukee that we're talking about the best deals in the city? Like Milwaukee, I heard one time is the biggest couponing city in the country. Is it really? Supposedly. So if that's true, we are very Milwaukee right now because I'm with you. You know, we want to know where the deals are, the cheapest beer. I remember the dollar pints at Dukes, they still do that.

SPEAKER_01
26:30

I don't know. I haven't. Oh, you know what we did. You know what on Fridays? You could ride the rail, which I think you could have like 20 pints of beers. I think you got a I don't know. I think you had to do it in a specific amount of time, but not all in one night. Um and then I think you got a free beer or a t-shirt or something.

SPEAKER_00
26:47

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01
26:47

I don't know if they're still doing it. My buddy The Handler was uh the handler. The handler. He was oh he was great at that.

SPEAKER_00
26:53

I know where I spent many a nights. My very first bar ever in Milwaukee was at 7 a.m. on St. Patrick's Day. Was remember um oh, I just uh the ha Have a Night Stay Cafe?

SPEAKER_01
27:03

Remember how that was right before my time, I think.

SPEAKER_00
27:07

Was that is that where the fishbowls they had the fishbowls now it's 90s uh 2K, 90s by 2K, and they've changed it a couple of times. Yeah, yeah. My friend Jake has owned it. That was because he's a great guy. I love Jake. He's amazing. They're awesome. They're amazing. Yeah, I love Jake. So yeah. I um, but yeah, I definitely love that.

SPEAKER_01
27:33

What a nice walk down memory lane.

SPEAKER_00
27:34

I'm trying to think if I can I'm sad that you didn't remember having Ice Day Cafe.

SPEAKER_01
27:38

I never, I never got to go there.

SPEAKER_00
27:40

That's some real old school-ish right there. We also used to go to Taylor's. I mean, I can tell you the bars. Taylor's is still there. Taylor's still there. We lived on Milwaukee Street. You had uh what was it? Um Oh my gosh. Wait, oh Kennedy's. Do you remember Kennedy's at all?

SPEAKER_01
27:57

No, I never made it to Kennedy's. Is that where um Lucid Night Lucid Lounge was?

SPEAKER_00
28:03

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe. Oh, I just thought of another great Milwaukee story for you. So guess who I had dinner with at Carnivore one time? Lance Bass from InSync. No shit. You had dinner with Lance? How'd you pull that off? Uh great question. I don't know to this day. No, we were hosting the AIDS walk that year, and he had come in to be, you know, the honorary chair. And so he flew in. And at the time, Dan, who was running the AIDS walk, called me and my partner on the air and said, Hey, you know, Lance is coming. Do you guys want to come to dinner with us at Carnivore? And I was like, excuse me. So we go to Carnivore. It's only me, Riggs, the guy I was on the air with at the time, Dan from, you know, the AIDS walk, his wife, and then Lance Bass and his husband. And I was sitting across from Lance Bass and his husband, and it was wild for the entire dinner. And I was asking him, I was like, I can't believe I'm sitting across from somebody in InSync, and I'm like having dinner with you. This is crazy. And his husband is right next to him, and he goes, How do you think I feel? And I thought that was the cutest line ever. Yeah, his husband was like, How do you think I'm married to a guy in InSync? Like, you think I'm not freaking out over here? That's funny. Isn't that a great story? He was so good. So sweet. Yeah, such a sweetheart. Yeah. And I got to ask him a ton of questions about Vanderpump rules at the time. Yeah. Because it was at its height and he's good friends with Lisa Vanderpump. So those were like the two conversations I remember from the dinner. But he was great.

SPEAKER_01
29:38

Any um and any closing thoughts or favorite places you left out?

SPEAKER_00
29:43

I got to interview Lizzo at the Roof of the Journeyman, and nobody else was allowed to come. It was like 10 people.

SPEAKER_01
29:51

How long ago? A few years ago. She was definitely somewhat recent.

SPEAKER_00
29:55

So she was brand new coming to play the side stage at Summerfest in 2019. Truth hurts had just come out. She was rising quickly. And Summerfest was one of her first, I think, big shows.

SPEAKER_01
30:09

It was probably like I was at Wiz Khalifa Summerfest. It was probably a decade less ago, but like they booked them on a side stage, and I forget what hit. It might have been say yeah, or one of his big hits. Yep. Um came out in the meantime, and that was just absolutely mayhem.

SPEAKER_00
30:24

That was the way Lizzo was. She was so famous by the time Summerfest rolled around that that show, I'll never forget being at that stage at Summerfest and being past the food. I mean, you couldn't even, you couldn't even walk because the crowd was so big, you know. So that was really cool. Um, so I got to interview her. She was a little standoffish though, because she was brand new, a little green, I think, as far as interviews with radio. And um, yeah, and then I interviewed her again years later, and she was super cool, like on Zoom during COVID, you know, when that was all they would do. So yeah, so that was a cool experience. Um, I got to interview Backstreet Boys up at like the roof of the Hyatt. This is a wild story.

SPEAKER_01
31:04

What year was that?

SPEAKER_00
31:06

2006, maybe?

SPEAKER_01
31:08

The rotating roof of the Hyatt?

SPEAKER_00
31:10

No, it was actually well, that is the right building, but we were in their hotel room. Again, I don't know why I've been in so many random hotel rooms, but no kidding. I guess they do them, they hold interviews there a lot of times because it's private and they can just bring us in. So we went up and we went up in the elevator and sat down with all the guys in Backstreet Boys. I can't even remember what they were playing. They might have been doing the Bradley Center, they might have been doing Summerfest. I don't remember now, but they were doing a show and we got to talk about it.

SPEAKER_01
31:35

Is that surreal for you? Because I'm um were you a big Backstreet Boys fan growing up in the 90s?

SPEAKER_00
31:39

Yeah, I graduated from high school in '97. Backstreet Boys was everything, you know? Them Stoop and Dre and you know, in sync, pop and rap. So yeah, it was chronic. It was on repeat, still this day. Such a great one. Um, yeah, no, those moments I don't even think still to this day have I've processed probably because it would just blow my mind.

SPEAKER_01
32:04

You were more starstruck for Janet Jackson than going up to the entire Backstreet Boys. That is kind of funny.

SPEAKER_00
32:09

It is funny, but I think it had something to do with her charisma. I really think sometimes you meet these celebrities and you're just shocked. You know, you just you're like, I didn't get it till I met you. There's something about you, they have it, you know. She just had, I don't know, just couldn't stop staring at her.

SPEAKER_01
32:24

Oh, Allie, the one uh the one thing I want I was gonna ask you about that we just blew over was I mean, the fact you lost 150 pounds. That's extremely inspirational. Like, you how did that come about? And do you have advice for for people who are looking to do the same?

SPEAKER_00
32:40

Sure. Um, uh, you know, it's still that's surreal to me still that I lost 150 pounds because I kind of yo-yo'd throughout my life with my weight, and I had been, you know, thinner in high school and college, gained a little, then I had kids, gained a little. And I was probably my biggest in 2018. And somebody came to me and said, Would you are you interested in doing keto? And at the time, keto was super big in pop culture. But Jersey Short, everything.

SPEAKER_01
33:06

I tried doing some keto.

SPEAKER_00
33:07

Everybody did, everybody lost weight and then gained it back.

SPEAKER_01
33:10

Yeah, I thought I could eat like five burger patties and no bread and be fine. That is not how keto works. So if anyone was wondering, it technically is keto, but that that strategy is not effective.

SPEAKER_00
33:19

Um yeah, and I just ended up eating, you know, cutting out carbs, and after a year, I had lost 150 pounds, and then it just stuck. Like it just became my lifestyle. And I was so everyone's like, Do you ever change? How fast did you lose a year? No shit. July of 2018 to July of 2019. One year. Yeah. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, and then I it was done. Yeah. Why your face? That's a lot in one in one year. Yeah, but that's see, that's why I had skin removal, which is another part of my story. Like, I never thought when I lost that weight, it was like a foreign thought. And when it became possible when I actually went for a consult, I was like, oh my gosh, like I could do this. This is like stuff people do on TV. You know, that's surreal for me. You know, that was crazy. So yeah, and it just kept and then I thought, well, if I'm gonna do skin removal, you don't want to gain it back, you know. So I waited about three years and did my arms and my tummy and all that. And then yeah, it's been quite a journey. So now it's been eight years.

SPEAKER_01
34:28

It's wild.

SPEAKER_00
34:29

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01
34:30

And it's just um are you still on keto?

SPEAKER_00
34:32

Yeah, and my yeah, for the most part, and my I mean here and now I'll play a little, but my honest advice is I always tell people, I'm like, if you do whatever's for you. GLP ones, I support. They're great, they're doing a lot for people. You wanna cut carbs, even better. Sugar's awful. Do whatever. You want to do weight wash? I don't care. You know, you want to count calories, workout, do whatever works for you, you know, like no judgment whatsoever. And I just think keto just you really have to stick to it, you know, or it doesn't work. If you start cheating, it throws everything off. And, you know, and once I learned how much better I felt without the sugar, it was like night and day. Because I've never been like this health nut. I was active and stuff, but now I just feel like knowledge of food and sugar has helped a lot.

SPEAKER_01
35:15

It's a good point though, because there are so many different methods and diets that that can be effective or even activities to stay active.

SPEAKER_00
35:23

Yeah, just exercising.

SPEAKER_01
35:24

Something you like, yeah. Move around. Um yeah, I think the problem is if you just kind of like go all in on something maybe too fast and then you burn out. It's hard to stick to a little bit.

SPEAKER_00
35:36

Yes, because I had done other stuff in the past that just either were too was too strict, a lot of it was too strict. I felt, I think I learned this time that you can make all these foods, you know, and their meals with key, you just have to get creative and they're easy recipes, you know.

SPEAKER_01
35:50

Well, then thank you and Doug for coming in today. It was so good meeting you and I appreciate all you do and yeah, those are.

SPEAKER_00
35:57

Yeah, likewise, thank you so much for having me. Oh no, see, now he wants to go to sleep.

SPEAKER_01
36:01

Now, Doug Dougie, this is what we were looking for right when the show ends.

SPEAKER_00
36:05

You were supposed to do this the whole time.

SPEAKER_01
36:08

Big thank you to Allie and Doug for coming in today. And before signing off, just want to thank our partners for making Milwaukee on Cup possible. Annex Wealth Management know the difference. Nicolay Law, the Midwest Law Firm, and Drink Wisconsin Able Beverage Company.

SPEAKER_00
0:00

You know, when somebody knocks you down, you got to get back up. You know, you got to stand your ground. And, you know, it right now I don't necessarily think I need to fight back because if you're attacking me, that lets me know that we're doing something good, right? That we are building some momentum. And so my my goal, my focus is on the people of Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_01
0:18

Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee on Co. We've got our county executive David Crowley back on the show for the second time. He is responsible for overseeing 19 municipalities in the area that consist of about a million people, and he manages a budget of well over a billion dollars a year. And you have probably noticed he is in the home stretch of the Wisconsin Democratic primary, which we got into a bit. This was recorded a week ago, and obviously things changed fast in that world, but we got to talk about his story, his upbringing, how he got into politics, including his semi-pro football stint, which I was unaware of. Talked about him meeting his wife, that was a good story, being a girl dad, favorite sponsor on Milwaukee, getting back in the race, and more. Before diving in, I'd like to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncle possible. We'll kick it off with Nicola, the Midwest law firm injured. Get Nicolay and Russ, and the team will take great care of you. Annex Wealth Management, if you're looking to get your finances in order, talk to our good friends at AnnexannexWealth.com. Know the difference. That's annexwealth.com. And last but not least, Drink Wisconsin We Beverage Company, best brandy vodka and canned cocktails in the game. Their cherry lime vodka canned cocktails, just absolutely phenomenal summer drink, and I I love their canned old fashioned year-round tab. I'm a big fan of those. Anyway, let's dive in with Milwaukee County exec, David Crowley. Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut, making his second appearance on the show. First in a while, we got David Crowley, the youngest and first African-American Milwaukee County executive, been in the role for about six years now, responsible for nearly a million people across 19 different municipalities. He is a Milwaukee native, Milwaukee born and raised semi-pro football player in a past life. Just found that one out. We got to touch on that a little bit. And of course, he is a candidate for Wisconsin governor recently backed by Tony Evers, which was all over the news about a week ago. David, thanks for stopping in.

SPEAKER_00
2:32

Always, always a pleasure. Thank you for having me on Marking Young Cut again.

SPEAKER_01
2:35

Good seeing you. What was it like for you growing up in this city?

SPEAKER_00
2:40

Man, it was uh it was like a tale of two cities. You know, um I know that we've had I had access to a lot of great things. My father was a master electrician, did everything that he could to provide for us. My mother was a Jane of all trades, so I'm lucky to have their love. And they taught me the value of hard work. But I also had a lot of struggles, right? My parents, they suffered from drug addiction, suffered from mental health. You know, we were evicted three times before I even graduated high school. And so while I was in high school, though, I found this youth development organization. It was called Urban Underground. And it taught me how to love myself, how to love my community, and it just changed my life. And that's how I got involved in community organizing. And, you know, growing up, I just wanted to have fun, right? I wanted to give back to my community and just make a name for myself because I think, you know, it's about the legacy that you leave on earth. And so for me, it was it was great growing up in the city of Milwaukee. I would not take back anything that happened in my past life.

SPEAKER_01
3:39

Urban Underground, obviously, so your parents were addicts, you got evicted three times. Um were you on a bad path before? And then did Urban Underground kind of save you, or did you see what was going on and somehow be like, I don't want to end up this way?

SPEAKER_00
3:57

Great question. So, yes and no, right? And you know, when I was a kid, I was you know, I was very insecure. So I was f I was a follower versus a leader until I found that program. And when I think about, you know, growing up, particularly, you know, started my first couple of years, first 10 years on 23rd in Burlot, then we moved off of 22nd in Brown. And, you know, I grew up there, and many of my kids, the kids that I grew up with, we used to do stupid stuff. You know, I remember my the very first eviction I look at as a blessing. Because two months after that eviction, you know, a bunch of my friends actually went to prison. And they went to prison because they ended up beating a man to death. Um the youngest person was about 10 years old, and the oldest was 17. Um and um the oldest, Marlon, uh, he was recently released back in actually 2020. Uh he spent a good chunk of his uh youth in prison. Um matter of fact, one of the ladies who was involved in that case, prosecuting those young people, still stood by his side the entire time he was in prison. And even when he was released, we were able to do some panels about, you know, how one particular decision can take you down a different path. And so, you know, he's had an incredible life, hard life. Um, but you know, we all had hard lives. And I'm just glad that Urban Underground literally pulled me up from my, you know, from the collar of my neck in a sense, and and put me on this path. But yeah, I was I used to do stupid stuff. I was hanging around the wrong crowds, and when I found Urban Underground as a junior in high school, that changed my entire life.

SPEAKER_01
5:31

What did you do in that program?

SPEAKER_00
5:33

So that program, it it it was a youth development organization program. And what I loved about it is that it wasn't like an adult-led program, it was a youth-led program, youth in partnership type of program. The first thing that I started learning about was teen domestic violence. It was the first thing we started organizing around because a uh young woman who went to tech high school while I was at Bayview High School was murdered by her boyfriend because she wouldn't wear her promise, uh, his promise ring. And so getting involved in there and understanding there was a lot more happening outside my neighborhood. A lot more happening outside the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County. And, you know, because of Urban Underground, I traveled across the country for the first time. I seen what success looked like outside of, you know, my father being a master electrician. Uh and so what I what I learned at an early age is that it's hard to uh aspire to be something that you have never seen before. And so I have lived my life and understanding that I want to give back to this community and show what the possibilities really are.

SPEAKER_01
6:37

And then you ended up going to college very briefly. Yeah. And then did you become an electrician after that or go straight into politics? And you were playing some semi-pro football. Semi-pro football, even though you did not play in high school.

SPEAKER_00
6:51

I did not play in high school. So there's a whole story on that. So I didn't play in high school, right? Because I had a I have I've always had a summer job since I was in eighth grade. Right? My dad told me you got to get a job. I did lawn maintenance and I worked that job starting the summer of my eighth grade year until I graduated high school. And they wanted me to play football. I was a fast runner, I was very strong, I could jump really high. And I wasn't ready to give up my summer job, you know, because that was how I was buying my clothes, buying my shoes in order for me to go to school. Because my, you know, when I got my first job, my dad said, This is all on you. And so he taught me responsibility at a very early age. Um, I mean, we still joke about it right now about, you know, the fact that he made me pay rent. Um, he gave me the money back uh once I graduated high school, but it taught me to take care of my responsibilities and things of that nature. Um but graduated high school, I had three, three options. I thought I was gonna go to Alcorn State, right? Wanted to leave the state, go to college. Um interesting enough, during that time, my mother did not want to fill out my FACSA forms. And that's because she was afraid for me to leave home. Because for her, having her boys at home was the most important thing because that's what her identity was, especially during some of the roughest times of her life. So I didn't go to Arcorn. So I decided, okay, let me go into the police cadet program. And I was going through the police cadet program while I was in Urban Underground. I started a community justice program. And we were teaching people their rights and responsibilities when encountering police, whether they were in their homes, you know, on the streets or within their car. And I got to the third interview for the police cadet program and decided I didn't want to do that. And so that's when I joined AmeriCorps, became a public ally. My first job was working at Project Return, helping ex-offenders find employment and housing. And I started playing football. Um, a good friend of mine, uh, Ricky, Ricky Rodriguez, uh, he lives now in North Carolina, but he recruited me to come play football because we used to play basketball together. He was like, man, you stocky, you short, you strong, and you could jump real high. Man, you should come play with us. And I'm, you know, I'm thinking, all right, let's do it. So I played running back, I played wide receiver, and I played cornerback. And I played corner more than anything because everybody thought that they could throw the ball over me, but I jumped so high that it, you know, I was a good defender. Um, but I did that for three years, played for the Markey uh Rough Riders, played for uh the Milwaukee Predators and the Menominee Fall uh Panthers and had a great time. And the reason why I stopped playing, even though I love the sport, didn't have health insurance. And I remember one time going to talk to our kicker at the time, who happened to be a doctor, because I was asking him about my knee problem, about some knee problems, and he said, Oh man, you just got a little bit of tendinitis. You should go see your provider. Who's your insurance? What insurance do you have? And I remember talking to him and I said, Well, I don't have insurance. And he looked at me other say and said, Uh, you probably shouldn't be playing this sport without insurance. And no lie, a week later, two of my friends who played on two different teams, towards ACL, one towards MCL, and that's when I decided that I was not going to play football moving forward.

SPEAKER_01
10:06

Yeah, you would have had to take his job as the kicker. Oh, man. Maybe. Maybe.

SPEAKER_00
10:11

Hey, man, but that's still a dangerous uh position, too.

SPEAKER_01
10:14

Yeah, it couldn't be. Not as much as running back and corner. You're getting you're guaranteed a lot of hits. Oh, absolutely. As running back. Did you hoop in high school at all?

SPEAKER_00
10:22

I played, I played basketball. I did play basketball in at Bayview High School.

SPEAKER_01
10:25

You can't really do lawn maintenance in the winter in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_00
10:28

No, no. I mean, we did a lot of uh fall cleanup, but basketball is my that's my number one sport. Played a lot of soccer in high school, a lot of, I mean, excuse me, in middle school, baseball and middle school, but when it comes down to basketball, that that was my first love. Are you still out there? Every once in a while. Every once, you know, every once in a while. I haven't been I haven't been at the Milwaukee Athletic Club in a while, especially since I've been on the campaign trail. Uh, but I have to get back out there. That's that's that's not just for my physical uh refuge, but my mental refuge. And so when you're out there connecting with the people you're you're playing ball with, you know, it just does this just does something to me. And so um I can't wait to get back out there. But but everybody's trying to get me either to the Mac or on Sunday nights out in uh in Glendale.

SPEAKER_01
11:11

So good for you. I I stopped playing in my mid to late 20s. I think it was mid-to-screen.

SPEAKER_00
11:16

Why is that?

SPEAKER_01
11:17

Because my my numbers were dwindling. I'd go like three for nine in a league game, put up seven points and be sore for the next three days. And at some point I just had to say, is it really worth it? And I missed the competition and the guys out there, but uh yeah, I wasn't providing too much value to the team anymore, and my soreness was just skyrocketing. I think it hit me early though.

SPEAKER_00
11:39

Hey, man, we should be.

SPEAKER_01
11:40

It seemed like a better athlete.

SPEAKER_00
11:42

Right now, I'm I'm probably good for just the first two games, and then I'm just out there to take up space.

SPEAKER_01
11:47

So, um, how how did you get into politics?

SPEAKER_00
11:51

Wow, that's uh that's a great question. So I never thought about politics before. So being a part a part of AmeriCorps Urban Underground, I just did community organizing. And I had bounced around from job to job. So after I was done with AmeriCorps, I worked for Children's Outing Association, COA on Bur Live, a teen coordinator there uh for almost a year. And I got recruited to be a community organizer for the Northside YMCA, and then from there was recruited to do some more community organizing for uh community um partners, safe and sound. And I randomly got a call from former alderman Joe Davis, and he was talking to me about there was an opportunity to work for former United States Senator Russ Feingold. And so, first thing I did is I started calling my family about this opportunity. Like, what do you think about this job? Uh, because I like to, you know, go test the waters, talk to the folks around me. And what was ironic is about this entire story, even with me running for governor, is that, you know, my mother and my aunt started calling me Governor Crowley when I was six years old. And it wasn't because they thought I would be involved in politics, but it was because every time we had a family gathering, every time we had a family picnic, I was always taking care of the family. I was, you know, making up plates, taking out the garbage, or trying to do dishes at a really early age. So I was always trying to serve. And it wasn't governor because they thought that like I was going to be elected, it was because of some old show that they seen a butler that used to be like governor. And so that's what they called me. And so when I remember calling my younger cousin to get his thoughts, um, and uh, you actually may know him, uh, Joe Brown, who used to be the uh in-game host for the Milwaukee Bucks, and I remember giving him a call and he said, Well, how else are you gonna become governor? And I was like, Well, that's a good question. So I got involved in politics and so started working for Russ, and I quickly learned that I was really good at the job and fell in love with the work and met a lot of elected officials to where a politician, once those uh those campaigns ended, called me out the blue and said, Hey, I want you to come work for me. And when I started working for, you know, Nakia Hairs Dodd as a county board supervisor, as well as a state senator, Richie, I want to be honest. That's when I said to myself, I would never run for office. You know, I actually see how this works. Uh, but I got bit by that bug. And and for me, it was about, you know, understanding where I come from. You know, it's a blessing. It's a great opportunity to be in a position to run for office and and and lend your voice to the solutions and knowing that you represent a particular population that doesn't always have a seat at the table, there's no reason why I shouldn't do this. And so um, I was compelled um to actually run for office because I felt that I had one of the best voices to represent a community that has seen so much disinvestments in Milwaukee County.

SPEAKER_01
14:51

And you got health insurance, I'm guessing. I I got health insurance. You did not get back on the field.

SPEAKER_00
14:56

I did not get no, man. I mean, this it when you once you're involved in in community work and politics, I mean, this it's not a job. Yeah, right? This is like a lifestyle. And this is, you know, everything that I do, I gotta ask for permission for for my wife and kids to do because they're serving along with me.

SPEAKER_01
15:12

So um, county executive, you came out of nowhere to win that election, essentially. What was what was that like? Do you want to speak at all on that? Was it did Abley kind of decide not to rerun?

SPEAKER_00
15:26

Yeah, so it was his 20 2019. This is 2019, right? And so I'm serving in the state legislature, and I want to say maybe May of June. He was already gearing up for his campaign. He announced his campaign, he built his campaign team out. Matter of fact, I actually endorsed him earlier that summer. And, you know, so I'm just going through the motions of doing what I have to do as a state rep, supporting candidates that I want to win, you know, the next election around. And so around October, I want to say October, September, he makes the decision to not run anymore. And that caught everybody by surprise. And so I started receiving all these calls from folks all across Milwaukee County.

SPEAKER_01
16:09

When's the election?

SPEAKER_00
16:11

So he's he's he stepped out about September, October, the election, the primary is in February. Oh, this is like turnaround. This is like four to six month sprint to this election. And people are asking me to get in this race, and I'm second guessing, like, okay, I don't know if I have the infrastructure. I'm not sure if we have, you know, the network to do this. But I'm getting a lot of these phone calls. So I remember actually heading out to Philadelphia. I was there for a a state conference representing the state of Wisconsin, and I probably spent the entire time um going back and forth between the conference and all these calls about me getting into this race. And that's when I decided, all right, I'm gonna leap before I look. I'm just gonna get into this race. And I remember on November November 4th, um, announcing me running for this seat, and November 5th, my youngest daughter was born the next day. And so when I tell you, it was a whirlwind of events for me and my wife. Um, it absolutely was, but you know, the amount of support that we received, and then we win the the February primary, and as you can imagine, I remember doing our debate uh for the county executive race, going into the general, and the the night of our debate is when uh COVID shut everything down. It was the night of our debate. We did our debate, and every after that, it was stay home. And so that changed the entire paradigm when it came down to this election. But we had to continue to focus on winning this race. You know, we didn't stop working. Instead of knocking on doors, we made phone calls to voters. Um, we continued to raise the dollars, and we won the election by just over 1%. And I still remember the fact that during that time, we had five polling locations open in the city of Milwaukee. People literally stood in line two to three hours at a time to make sure that they were able to cast their ballot, make their voice be heard. And I truly appreciate all of you uh who came out during that time because it was a very critical moment.

SPEAKER_01
18:17

How surprised were you or were you not?

SPEAKER_00
18:20

Um I I I absolutely was surprised. You know, I mean, I mean, anytime you're you're running for a major seat, whether it's county executive or running for governor, like you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know, you know, the polls say one thing. You don't necessarily know what you what you need to do moving forward. Um and so I was very surprised, you know, especially with the fact that we had we had never elected, you know, someone as young as me. We had never elected a person of color in this seat. Um, but I'm glad that I earned the trust, I earned the support of so many Milwaukeeans, Milwaukee County folks, uh, that we were able to not only win this election, but do great work since then.

SPEAKER_01
19:00

What was your biggest surprise when you actually got the job and got into it?

SPEAKER_00
19:06

The biggest surprise, honestly, a global pandemic. I mean, we haven't had one of these in over 100 years. And so when you're in office and you're up against a global pandemic, you're just wondering, damn, um what are we supposed to do?

SPEAKER_01
19:24

And the When did you take office exactly?

SPEAKER_00
19:27

May 4th.

SPEAKER_01
19:29

So the pandemic happened in March. March, everything should have been.

SPEAKER_00
19:32

And honestly, I shouldn't say I shouldn't say that because I was sworn in May 4th, right? So the state Supreme Court ordered, even though the election was on April 7, 2020, the or they ordered every clerk uh the clerk of Milwaukee County that they couldn't open up the ballots because they needed to allow absentee ballots to come in because the the mail was delayed so bad. So we didn't know who won the election until April 13th. And so if you think election day, the day itself, is stressful, imagine election day lasting an entire week. And so April 13th, we find out that I'm the winner. Uh Chris Abeley, the current county executive at the time, calls me up that night and says, I need you to come in tomorrow. And I'm like, but I don't get sworn in until May 4th. I don't start getting paid until, you know, I need to figure out how we're going to transition. And I remember him saying on that phone, he said, David, I'm not making any decisions that's going to affect you in the middle of this pandemic. You need to come in tomorrow. So I actually started working April 14th, 414 day of 2020. Started doing everything that we could, start getting things in place so we can make the best decisions in the middle of a pandemic, even though I wasn't sworn in probably 25 days or something days later.

SPEAKER_01
20:47

Was that a seems like a good thing of him? I know you had to work for free for a little bit, but you probably learned a lot from him that few weeks.

SPEAKER_00
20:55

I mean, I absolutely did. I mean, and not just it wasn't necessarily learning from him per se, because I did, but it was learning from the staff that was dealing with everything, right? Because those are your frontline workers. They're seeing everything. You're at now, you're connecting with all of your essential workers. And during that time, I made it a point to actually come in every single day starting on April 14th. And for me, it was, you know, I'm the executive, right? I set the tone for Milwaukee County. I can't ask our essential workers to come in and then I'm not showing up to work. And so I wanted them to see my face and literally see me in the place doing the work itself to let them know that I had their back and I was willing to support them in any capacity.

SPEAKER_01
21:38

And a lot of people don't know exactly what the county executive does and is responsible for and what they're not responsible for. Do you want do you want to clarify that for the for the audience?

SPEAKER_00
21:49

Yeah, so so we only have about 14 county executives across the entire state. And so you have county boards, which is the legislative body. And as the executive, I am the executive branch of the county board. And so here in Milwaukee County, as the county executive, I am in charge of a $1.4 billion budget. We own and operate the Milwaukee County Zoo, the Mitchell International Airport, all of the Milwaukee County parks, the parks all across Milwaukee County, as well as about 13 municipal-owned golf courses. We have hundreds of miles of trail space across Milwaukee County. When you think about South Shore, uh South Shore Beach, Bradford Beach, that's all under the county's purview. But health and human services. When you think about mental health and health and human service needs with the Marsha Peacock Center, that's under our purview. The King Center on the north side, the Casiesco Center on the South Side is under our purview. Everybody likes to call it a city bus, but it's actually the county bus, and that's also under our purview, as well as paratransit. We're the only county in the state of Wisconsin that's actually responsible for a prison, which is the community reintegration center. We also set the budget for the sheriff's office, and we're responsible for the support systems within the Milwaukee County Courthouse. And so there's a lot that we do that people don't know. But, you know, folks will say, well, you need to fix the roads. Well, there's only certain roads that the county is actually responsible for. Majority of the roads are actually city roads, municipal roads, but we also have certain highways, state highways within Milwaukee County, right? And so when you think about Fond du Lac, that's technically a state highway. When you think about Capitol Drive or I believe Mitchell and uh Mitchell Street, right? Those are state highways, and those are actually the state's responsibility. But counties are extensions of the state. And so when you think about programs that the state actually uh sir uh provides, it's actually us as the at the county level that actually implement those services.

SPEAKER_01
23:57

We're wondering what are some of the weirdest updates or complaints that you that you have received as the Milwaukee County executive over the last six years? Oh man. I mean, I'm sure I'm sure they happen on you know a weekly, if not a daily basis, but have there been a few that were just way out there or caught you off guard.

SPEAKER_00
24:18

Oh man, well, I won't always want to, you know, one thing is everybody always asks me about all of the the bump outs um and and and some of the traffic calming measures, which many of them I support, but we're not responsible for that as the county. Um there are folks who come to me and say, well, we need to make all the the all the buses free. And I always respond, well, how do we do that when if we don't have the money? Uh because we need the revenue to continue, you know, because the state isn't providing, you know, the necessary resources for us to provide uh the support that we need. Um or uh or that I need to do something about the sheriff's office. And many people, and this is this is a you know, one myth that I want folks to understand is that, you know, people say that, well, we need to get control of the sheriff's budget. And I absolutely agree, but what many folks don't know is that the constitutional officers outside of the county executive's office has a blank check. And what that means is that no matter how much money the sheriff spends, uh county clerk spends, the election clerk spends, I have no choice but to pay the bill. And so if we budget hypothetically $10 million to be spent on a particular budget, let's say the sheriff's department, and they spend $15 million, I have to find the other five million to put towards that.

SPEAKER_01
25:41

And so we have to actually budget why do they have an a blank check in like I'm assuming the parks do not?

SPEAKER_00
25:47

The parks do not, right? And the reason that is is because that's written within the state constitution that no matter what, if a constitutional officer goes over budget, it's a county executive or a county board in other places that don't have a county executive, they still have to pay the bill and find a way to do it.

SPEAKER_01
26:05

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00
26:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
26:07

There has been, you know, a bunch has been said about the park's budget being and resources going down over the years. Is there anything that um you're trying to do to combat that at all or some of these other budgets?

SPEAKER_00
26:18

Well, we we've been doing a lot. The earned media, I mean, excuse me, the uh earned revenue that we have been able to generate through our parks has been phenomenal. So every time you, you know, you come to one of our golf courses, that money goes right back into our parks. Uh but it's not just our golf courses, our beer gardens, right? We know that's a huge attraction. A lot of people like to go to South Shore or go to Juneau Park or go to one of go to the traveling beer garden, which we have a great partnership with Sprecker Brewing with. And that helps to go right back into the parks. Um, but we we are facing, you know, major deficits right now because we have not been able to keep up with uh the pace of inflation. You know, we know that there has been past administrations that have made very dumb decisions that we are paying the price for now. Like, for example, many people don't know that, you know, our former uh county executive Scott Walker ran up a $400 million uh credit card and actually put that on people's property tax bills in order to save, you know, county dollars towards the pension. And that's why we needed to pass Act 12 to save more money and actually provide that property tax relief, which will be paid off uh within the next two years or three years, uh if I'm not mistaken. And so we have to one continue to develop the partnership with the state level. The state is almost dead last when it comes down to investments in public spaces, in parks, in recreation, and not just here in Milwaukee County, but for all communities. And so if you like to, you know, if you like outdoor activities, it's extremely important to lobby your state representative or your state senator or the next governor to make sure that we're making those incredible investments. But we're taking a holistic view to make sure that we can bring in more revenue, but we want to be creative. We want to be as innovative as possible to make sure that we're not creating any undue burden on Milwaukee County residents.

SPEAKER_01
28:10

And uh, what are what are you most proud of that you accomplished as county executives so far? And and what are some of your biggest hurdles that you haven't been able to get over?

SPEAKER_00
28:20

Uh so we haven't we haven't felt the effects yet, but you know, getting Act 12 done for Milwaukee County was extremely huge. And this is gonna get a little wonky, but getting that done allowed us to not only uh create shared revenue reform, it brought in more revenue to where our pension, which is you know, which didn't get fixed until 25 years later after the scandal happened, our pension now will be fully funded in the next 15 years. So in 15 years, you're gonna see a huge drop-off as far as what we're paying into the pension, right? And we did a soft freeze moving new hires into a much stronger pension system with WRS. And because and you couple that with even the brewer's deal that we got done, that's gonna provide even more financial flexibility in the upcoming years. And so we may not feel it right now, but people are gonna say, wow, how do we how do we save so much money? Why do we have more money than we ever had before? Um, the other thing is that we've changed the perception of leadership here in Milwaukee County across the entire state, to where we've been able to build relationships with Democrats, with independents, with Republicans, and people who don't care about politics, quite frankly, and now believe that we're rolling in the right direction. And the other thing that I would say is that, you know, we've done great work around housing, we've done great work around mental health. But what I want to continue, what I want to tackle right now is the immediate assistance that we need. But that's going to require, right, not just having a good governor, but making sure that we got state representatives, state senators that understands that municipalities across the state has not been getting its fair share and it's been getting the short end of the stick. And so we have to provide relief right now because we know that there are residents desperate. And with the many holes that we're going to see in our budget because of the decisions that have been made in Washington, D.C., it's going to be very difficult to make sure that none of our vulnerable residents fall through the cracks. And so we need to strengthen that partnership because we have a responsibility to our entire community.

SPEAKER_01
30:25

And what are a few of the things that you've really been proud of?

SPEAKER_00
30:28

Proud of, man, um, you know, having the lowest unsheltered homeless count, right, per capita in any community in the entire country. You know, we we ranked number one in 2024 and we ranked number two just last year. And I think that's extremely important for us. Um, the other things that I'm I'm really proud of is that we created the first strategic plan. And so we're not just flying, you know, from the seat of our parents anymore. We're being very intentional. And when I say being intentional, we're measuring our success so we can hold ourselves accountable and making it public-facing with all the different dashboards that we've created. Uh, we've been leading in the community violence interruption space to where we have helped reduce violent crimes here in the city of Milwaukee and across Milwaukee County. And we've been able to work with, you know, uh community-based organizations and provide opportunities for folks. We've created thousands of jobs for community members, you know, because of affordable housing. And right now we're on a trajectory of making the largest capital investment in Milwaukee County history if we're able to rebuild this courthouse in the same footprint so we can deliver justice on time and take care of our residents.

SPEAKER_01
31:38

Um, I want to get into a few Milwaukee questions, but I got to ask you about the race right now. Has this been the craziest last couple weeks of your life?

SPEAKER_00
31:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01
31:48

How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00
31:52

You couldn't write this. You know, it's this has been a whirlwind uh uh for me. I mean, it was a difficult decision to get out of this race, and it was a difficult decision to get back into this race.

SPEAKER_01
32:04

Let's start there. What was it like to get out of it? You put you invest almost a year of time in in into this every day, essentially, just pounding the pavement. There's ups and downs, and then yeah, you get you pull the plug on something.

SPEAKER_00
32:19

Yeah, I mean And then you don't. You plug it back in. And uh, you know, so my my thought process during that time was like based off of the data and the facts that we had, it looked, you know, it was like, okay, there's there that this path doesn't seem like it's viable for me. And so, you know, for me, it was like, okay, I'm putting my ego aside, and I feel like I need to get out and and suspend this campaign and support the best candidate that was out there. But as you can imagine, we got so much more information every single day to where we learned that the information, the data that we had was actually false. And so, and even though we learned that it we learned that it was false, we didn't learn it was false until the lieutenant governor actually dropped out. And I had conversations with her twice before she dropped out, the Sunday before she dropped out and that Thursday, right?

SPEAKER_01
33:06

Which was the night before.

SPEAKER_00
33:07

Which is the night before. And I had no indication that she was gonna drop out of this race. So I find it hilarious when people say, Oh, y'all been, y'all been cooking this up. And I'm like, if we was cooking this up, I would have gotten an endorsement a long time ago. And I wouldn't, this wouldn't have actually happened, you know. But me and my wife, you know, we were an absolute no. You know, uh, we booked a vacation to Jamaica, we did all these different things, but we just kept getting these calls. And, you know, my me and my wife were big believers, and so we we we decided to pray. And when we prayed, you know, we were given, we were, we were given a vision, and then and and and and and God pretty much answered us, and that's when we felt that we needed to answer the call and get back into this race. But Richie, one thing I will tell you and tell all of the listeners, though, there's one thing that I learned in the past two weeks, which is extremely important. Buy travel insurance. So I'm supposed to be leaving on the 30th of July, no longer leaving because we didn't buy travel insurance.

SPEAKER_01
34:06

So uh Are you happy to be back then?

SPEAKER_00
34:09

I am happy to be back in. I and and it has been, I've been re-energized. Um, there's been a lot of excitement, a lot of momentum that's been growing in this campaign. And I'm not just happy to be back in. What was important is my wife being happy because I can't decide to run for office if my wife isn't in, if my daughters isn't in this, because you don't run by yourself. There, you know, my wife, I call her my better three-quarters because when she's now on a campaign trail with me, she's at work, she's at home, she's making sure that the girls are taken care of. And so, you know, I called her my better three-quarters because that's exactly who she is. And um, you know, it's it's it's been great. It has literally been great. Don't get me wrong, it's it doesn't take away the stress of running for governor. Um, but uh I have a whole different level of energy for the next couple of weeks and looking forward to not just getting through this primary, but ultimately winning in November.

SPEAKER_01
35:05

You guys have uh two daughters together, one stepdaughter. How did you guys meet?

SPEAKER_00
35:12

So I have a friend uh named Abra, and she used to, she was, she lived in a neighborhood I used to do community organizing in. And I remember back in 2014, is the year I met my wife, um, and she said she wanted to hook me up with someone. And my wife used to volunteer for a magazine. So Abra decides that she's going to nominate me to be interviewed in this magazine. And um the the nomination was for my style, and I was just like, I don't know if that's necessarily, you know, the nomination. I was, I mean, I'm you know, I've you know, I got my bad bunnies on, and you know, and so so we ended, so I remember calling her up and said, you know what, let's let's meet to do this interview. And that took her back because she's like, I've never met anybody in person to do this interview. So on April 16th, 2014, we met at the Starbucks at Midtown. And and I still remember, you know, I was sitting there waiting for her, and when she walked in, it was like she was just gliding in, right? Like she was just floating in, just this beautiful young woman in her heels, very put together. And I'm just so she got dolled up for the interview. She got dolled up for the interview. This was interesting. The interview lasted 45 minutes, but she stayed an extra two hours. Oh, wow. And um, so that's when I knew I was like, all right, this this is this is working a little bit. And so we we chatted, and when and I remember, so we became we became friends first. And like the first four months we were hanging out just with all of our friends together, and I'm talking to her and said, hey, we should start dating. And my wife said, dating? She said, You're gonna have to court me first. And I'm like, oh. I didn't do that the whole time. I didn't do this the entire time. So maybe like, so maybe like eight months into it, maybe we're we're now dating. And you know, and so uh I I uh ended up proposing to her, it was in 2014, we started dating early 2015, and we spent a lot of time together. And I proposed to her actually the day before Thanksgiving in 2015. And I remember, you know, when I first I first the first office I ran for was actually city council and I lost that race. And I had proposed to her before then, but I knew that was the one for me because I had to take a leave of absence, and even though we didn't live together, my wife paid all of my bills as my girlfriend. And that's when I knew that she was the one. And when I lost that race, we ended up having a secret wedding. We got married two years to the date that we met. So we got married April 16th, 2016. And we actually we had a secret wedding, only our siblings and parents knew about it. We thought we were gonna have our wedding a year after, because you know, we're just we're just in entry-level workers. We weren't making a lot of money to actually invest in a in a wedding. So we're gonna have our wedding, you know, in 2017. In the midst of 2016, running for a state representative, uh my wife found out that she was pregnant. And my wife was adamant, I am not going to be a pregnant bride. And I was like, okay. So now we gotta make that dreadful phone call and start telling everybody that we got married. And I remembered that, but we had a plan. I told my wife, we gotta be strategic about this. And she said, What do you mean? I said, people are gonna be upset when they find out that we're married. But we have to tell them that we have a baby right away after that, and they'll forget about everything else before then. And I remember calling folks, and when we called my family and started telling them we were married, oh, absolutely everybody was upset, you know. But we always waited a minute to let them, you know, vent and tell us how we, you know, how upset they were, and then we said, well, we're having a baby.

SPEAKER_01
39:00

On the same phone call.

SPEAKER_00
39:01

On the same phone call. And we say, We're having a baby. And then us being married did not matter anymore. And so everybody is and so like just not shut it, right? Yeah. And so we've been together ever since, celebrated 10 years of marriage uh back in April. Um, and uh we've been doing great. We've been doing great. And when I say that, like, you know, there's no way I could do this work, I'm you know, every decision when it when I know that I'm going to be taking my time, more time away from my home, if my wife is not okay with it, I'm not doing it.

SPEAKER_01
39:32

And you got you got two, two, less than two weeks left. I think 13 days. I think you're hitting the trail with Evers soon.

SPEAKER_00
39:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
39:41

You got that endorsement. How how how are you feeling right now?

SPEAKER_00
39:44

I'm feeling good, man. I'm feeling really good. I mean, to, you know, when I think about Governor Evers, I mean, for the past eight years, he has been not just the best damn goalie that we've needed, you know, in the in the in the state capitol, but you know, seeing how he is governed, right? He's run statewide. And to have his endorsement lets me know he has confidence in my leadership, confidence in my judgment, confidence that we can reach people across the political spectrum, no matter where you lay to build the necessary coalition, not just to win, but to make sure that we're pushing policies that benefit everybody in the state of Wisconsin. So, you know, to have the governor's support means a lot. Uh, but it that doesn't mean it's going to be a cakewalk, right? You can get all the endorsements that you want. You can get all the labor unions that you want. You can get, you know, elected officials and community members, but you still have to put in the hard work to earn every single vote. And that's what I plan to do.

SPEAKER_01
40:36

Um you've had to deal with a lot the last couple weeks. There have been attacks, things that came out, you know, down a bit in the polls. How do you mentally is that difficult? Do you block it out? Do you get rattled by it? Do you keep pushing forward? Like I give a lot of credit to you and anyone who takes on running for a public office. It's it's brutal.

SPEAKER_00
40:57

It is a full contact, it's like similar pro football.

SPEAKER_01
41:00

You got some experience without insurance.

SPEAKER_00
41:02

You know, um, and and and I mean it's a full contact sport. And and I always tell people, even if you want to sit on the sideline, doesn't mean you won't get hit. Right. And so, like, it it's it's difficult, you know, and you gotta be headstrong. You know, I don't have a huge ego, but you have to have some level of an ego in order to run for these seats. Um, but you know, I was taught the value of not just hard work and resilience, but I was taught, you know, when somebody knocks you down, you got to get back up. You know, you got to stand your ground. And, you know, it right now I don't necessarily think I need to fight back because if you're attacking me, that lets me know that we're doing something good, right? That we are building some momentum or taking away support from others. And so my my goal, my focus is on the people of Wisconsin. I'm not in this race focused on these other candidates because I'm not running against any of them. I'm running for the voters. I'm running for each individual vote that is out there. And so there may be candidates, there may be outside groups who are going to attack me, but also understand they're attacking me because they want to bring me down, because they rather focus on the candidates that they want to win. I mean, right now we have the Republicans Governors Association spending more money than all of us combined have raised in this primary, right? To prop a particular candidate of their choice. But I'm focused on the policies that that allows the tide to rise and all the boats to rise. I'm focused on the policies that cuts across, you know, geographical and political lines. I am focusing on, you know, young people and making sure they get access, you know, to opportunities to succeed and thrive themselves and making sure that our older adults can age and live with dignity. And so, you know, for me, I let it roll off my chest. Sometimes it may you may get to me, but that's when I go home and I have a little nightcap with some good whiskey or bourbon or tequila.

SPEAKER_01
42:53

So speaking of uh Milwaukee show, where are your favorite spots to around the city to uh either have dinner or get some whiskey or bourbon or tequila? Where where are you going?

SPEAKER_00
43:08

So it's two spots for tequila that I like to go to. Um you have a place called La Pina?

SPEAKER_01
43:16

Right down the road. Right down the road. That's a great spot. Have you ever had their tequila old-fashioned there?

SPEAKER_00
43:21

Absolutely. That thing is good. Absolutely. Actually, I've been ordering tequila old-fashioned so people look at me crazy and go, really? You're in Wisconsin. But I always say it's like summer in the glass. So I would always recommend.

SPEAKER_01
43:32

Do you know Michael Shepard? Yeah, no Shepherd. We call him we call him SimGod because he um installed a expensive simulator in his house and was talking shit to us all winter and still can't really perform on a real course. So we started calling him SimGod or SimGadder. Sim E G, but Sim Sim Sim Simmer. Well, he was the first guy I saw ordering to be able old fashioned. And I mean, he he's good, he's got some good qualities to him. So I'd uh let me tell. A couple sips of it and then I love those things.

SPEAKER_00
44:03

Yeah. Yeah. I mean Central Standard Distillery, good spot to go to.

SPEAKER_01
44:08

Where else other than La Pina are you going for?

SPEAKER_00
44:10

For tequila, uh Blue Bat. Bluebat, that's another good spot.

SPEAKER_01
44:16

Their chips are really good too.

SPEAKER_00
44:17

Yeah, oh, they got some good food. They got good food. They got some good food. Now, if I want a good steak, um, good steak, I always go to Carnivore. That is my my wife's favorite restaurant.

SPEAKER_01
44:29

Omar gets too much love on this show.

SPEAKER_00
44:32

Or if we're going to get some Italian food, then we're heading to uh Gino Spot. Um uh Wama Blake on the name Calderon Club. Calderon Club. And so my wife is a big pasta, she loves pasta, so we go down there a lot. Um but I am open. But I will also encourage everybody to go down uh to the the new spirits spot that we just opened up, MKE uh spirits. And so this is actually inside the airport. And so we are now showcasing uh local spirits all across the state of Wisconsin so people can actually bring these spirits back at home whenever they're uh local uh utilizing our local hometown.

SPEAKER_01
45:09

Well, I went in there, I was at the airport the other day. Yeah, you got the local brands. Yeah, the drink Wisconsinably branded in there, which is that's some good stuff too.

SPEAKER_00
45:18

Oh yeah. And the crazy thing is that, you know, if people want to bring more to take with them, they can buy their luggage there and actually, you know, go to baggage claim right there. Um, and so we want to continue to promote that. But you know, Wisconsin, we got a lot to offer. And I think that there's there's a lot of hidden gems, right? And there's a lot of people say, Oh, there's not enough to do. And if you when you say there's not enough to do, that means you have not gone to search out anything in Milwaukee County because there's so much, so many other things.

SPEAKER_01
45:46

Are there any other hit hidden spots you love? It doesn't need to be food or drink related, but it could be.

SPEAKER_00
45:51

Oh. Well, you know, I I love a good golf course, you know, and I would tell people, you know, if if you like golf golfing, definitely head down to Dretzka. It's the first golf course that I I got an opportunity to to learn. Um, another good spot that I like to go to is South Shore, uh South Shore Beach.

SPEAKER_01
46:11

The uh I jumped in the lake there today.

SPEAKER_00
46:13

Oh, did you?

SPEAKER_01
46:15

I do that. I like cold, but uh the water's not too cold now, but yeah, it's 10 minutes. It's um it's it's healthier than having one of those energy drinks that wakes me right up. So I hope so. That beer garden's phenomenal too. And that's what I like to do. I did not get one of those this morning. Well, I hope I hope you're not doing that and jumping in the lake. Speaking of proposal, that's where I propose debris. Right for a park. Yeah. There you go. A year and a half ago, we need to start wedding planning. Now we're a little behind on that. But yeah, that's a fantastic. You guys do a great job with the the parks and the beer gardens and the golf courses.

SPEAKER_00
46:46

Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_01
46:47

Milwaukee County, the great county courses.

SPEAKER_00
46:50

And then, you know, the other thing, I'm a big sports guy. So if I can get to a brewer's game or a Bucks game, like that's my highlight. You know, I love this, I love to watch sports all day, every day.

SPEAKER_01
47:00

Did you get to meet Giannis at all or spend any time with him as the county exec? And do you have any good story with those guys?

SPEAKER_00
47:06

Um, I mean, the first time that I met him, we were uh we were recognizing the work that him and Mariah was doing. You're all across the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County, uh, because they were great partners. They were just great citizens because they gave back to this community. And I think that was at his restaurant, Avley, uh Avily. Uh and uh the funniest thing is I remember taking a picture with him, right? And I was standing on a platform, and so I was just above his eyes, and everybody looked and said, You're not that tall. Um, and so that was the first time that we met. And then the second time, or we met a few different times, but the last time was when we were actually honoring uh Peter Fagan. Um, when he was uh, you know, he was stepping down as the president, and I got a time to I got a chance to see Giannis again, and you know, like, yeah, I've met Giannis before, and like I'm like, he doesn't know who I am. And I remember him after taking pictures and talking briefly to him, he doubled back as I was getting uh ready to leave, and he came up to me and said, Hey man, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you and what you're doing for the county. I was like, oh, oh, you do know me. But I've had, I mean, I've had great opportunities, right? And I remember when when Dame Lillard got traded, and I got a chance to actually be the first one to greet Dame Lillard when he first came to Milwaukee and meeting him and his family, and you know, that was that was great. And you know, and I've been a seasoned ticket holder with the for the Bucks for you know six years. And so for me, you know, it's not just it's not just enjoying the sport, but it's it's an investment in our own community because this is how we increase the level of economic activity as well.

SPEAKER_01
48:44

Well, then thanks for coming in today. I won't keep you any longer, but yeah, always good seeing you.

SPEAKER_00
48:49

Man, always a pleasure. You man, you make this easy, so I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01
48:52

Hey everyone, thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of Milwaukee Uncut. Thank you to David for dropping in. And before signing off, just want to thank our partners for making this possible Nicola, Drink Wisconsin Weed Beverage Company, and Annex Wealth Management.

SPEAKER_03
0:00

But all these other New York City clubs, nobody gave me an opportunity. So I just said to myself, you know what? This industry. Everything now is about building your own platform. And I just went all in. I'm meeting 300 people to 500 people city. I'm handing out flyers out the wazoo. I'm having ra il real conversations with people.

SPEAKER_01
0:21

Hey guys, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. It's your host, Richie Burke, and today I'm co-hosting with Mayor Tommy. We've got comedian Tony Dabas hailing from the beautiful area of Staten Island on today's episode. He'll be performing at Vivarium, a great new venue over on the East Side. We were just there for Three Sheeps Battle of the Bands a few weeks ago. It's an awesome venue. He's performing at Vivarium this Saturday, so make sure to get your tickets for that. Tony D will be putting on a good show. We also put out a video, New Yorker hijacked some Milwaukee history tour on social media last week with Tony. Um, just a one-man wrecking crew. It was fun roaming around the city of Milwaukee with him. He's very talented. He's got, I believe, over a million followers. He's gotten over a billion views on his videos. He's got some of the best skit videos on the internet, and he's doing shows all the time. Just an absolute grinder. In this episode, we go over his backstory, which bounces back and forth between comedy and running an ice cream truck. His biggest break, bouncing back from a heart attack, getting inspired creatively, and more. Before diving in, I just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee on Cup possible. We'll kick it off with Nicola, the Middle West law firm injured. Get Nicolay and Russ and the team will take good care of you. Drink Wisconsin Lee Beverage Company, best vodka, brandy, and canned cocktails in the game, available at bars and liquor stores across the state. And now at Amfam Field at their corner bar in Wright Field. And last but not least, our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management. If you're looking to get your finances together and have a goal that deals with your money, your earnings, your investments, go talk to the experts at Annex. They have an amazing team ready to listen and help you with your personal goals. Annex Wealth Management, know the difference. All right, let's dive in with Tony D. Alright, we've got a comedian straight from Staten Island experience experiencing Milwaukee for the first time? Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03
2:22

First time I've been to Madison before. That doesn't count, Tony D.

SPEAKER_01
2:26

That doesn't count.

SPEAKER_03
2:27

I realize, yeah, yeah. I realize how many college kids were there. Let me get out of here before I catch a case in this file.

SPEAKER_01
2:32

He's been to W.

SPEAKER_03
2:34

Am I allowed to curse on this thing? Yeah. Okay, good. I'm just making sure.

SPEAKER_01
2:37

Yeah. You want to redo it? B you. B U. All right, beautiful. Or did you want to drop four F bombs in the in the opening sentence? We need to restart this. Okay. Um he's got a million followers. Has some of the best skit videos on social media. God, man, you're absolutely phenomenal. I mean, the the the white guy who just found out he's 8% black. That was that was the banger.

SPEAKER_03
3:01

My co-stars were helping on that too. They were good. Yeah, they were good. They were good. The key thing is to just get good, like no matter how popular someone is, it doesn't matter. Like you guys get good chemistry. You know, like friends, you ever see friends, the show? That that show, no one was famous before the show happened. So I try to make my skits. I grab the best people and I put them together.

SPEAKER_01
3:22

The New York dads on 4th of July. Oh, that was that was a bang or two. Which one though?

SPEAKER_03
3:26

There's two the one that was under investigative. Because the first one was sanitation guys. I I went to the sanitation place and I'm like, these guys are great. They just walk around like they look like they're in the mob. I'm like, what do you guys do? Sanitation. I'm like, all right, can you want to be in a skit?

SPEAKER_01
3:42

I liked the cops one when you were like, what's your number? 1-800 jerkoff? Yeah, that was that was that was good. That was I liked that one. That was my I like that was my favorite one of the of the two.

SPEAKER_03
3:51

Staten Island is like a lot of mob. I mean, I heard there's a lot of mob shit out here too, though, no? Like Chicago, Milwaukee, because it's close to the border of Canada.

SPEAKER_01
4:00

I don't know how much mob shit is still. I think there was some back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Not New York. You're Italian?

SPEAKER_00
4:08

No. No.

SPEAKER_01
4:10

He's Jewish. No. Austrian. From from Ohio, actually. Get out of here.

SPEAKER_03
4:15

Ohio's nice, dude.

SPEAKER_01
4:16

Yeah, you were just there. You had a nice small town encounter over there.

SPEAKER_03
4:20

Oh no, that was Fort Wayne.

SPEAKER_01
4:21

Indiana. Fort Wayne. Fort Wayne, Indiana. We passed through there at all, Tom.

SPEAKER_00
4:25

Oh yeah, crossroads.

SPEAKER_01
4:26

Oh, we got we got the mayor co-hosting the episode as well.

SPEAKER_03
4:29

Let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01
4:31

Tommy Violet in the building. How are we doing?

SPEAKER_03
4:33

Tom Tommy, how do you say your last name? It's Violet. Violet. Tommy Violet. Pleasure to officially meet you. Pleasure, brother.

SPEAKER_01
4:40

Yeah, Fort Wayne.

SPEAKER_03
4:41

Fort Wayne, yeah, it's a lot of characters out there, bro. A lot of characters. It's uh everywhere you go, like you just gotta kind of like I personally do a lot of uh self-deprecating humor, like stand-up, but also observational. So like I just let people, if you just let people speak, they'll make themselves they'll the funny will come out. Like, you know, you just gotta let them speak. You know, that's what I realized.

SPEAKER_01
5:02

Yeah, and anyway, if if you do want to see this guy live, he's gonna be back in town at Vivarium August 1st.

SPEAKER_03
5:08

August 1st.

SPEAKER_01
5:09

August 1st.

SPEAKER_03
5:09

Is it Vivarium?

SPEAKER_01
5:11

Yeah. What did you think it was?

SPEAKER_03
5:12

Vivarium. I was calling it the wrong thing. I was telling people like, where is that? I'm like, no, no, no. It's right, it's it's nice. So there is there another Pabst Theater or is that the first only one there?

SPEAKER_01
5:22

The Pabst group owns about five venues in the Tom.

SPEAKER_00
5:26

I I couldn't name all of them, but yeah, it's it's like five or six.

SPEAKER_03
5:28

Oh, that's why when I tell people, I'm like, I'm at the Pabst Theater, they're like, oh, wow, you're at the PAPS. Just tell them that.

SPEAKER_01
5:34

They'll think you're more important.

SPEAKER_03
5:36

I'm like, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, yeah, I'm at the PAPS. You know, the the big one down a block. You gotta look it. That's the one I'm at. I'm at this decide location.

SPEAKER_01
5:45

Because they got the PAPS, they got the high life theater, and then it's got Bavarium.

SPEAKER_00
5:50

There's a couple more that like you wouldn't even know. Like they don't even leave.

SPEAKER_01
5:54

Bavarium's the newest, though. Really? So that is special right there. Means there's gonna be. So don't give it too much shit. It's it's they did a nice job.

SPEAKER_03
6:02

Oh, I'm kidding around. They actually I heard really good things about it, and honestly, the way they manage their accounts and how they run ads immediately, they you can tell they're very like on point.

SPEAKER_01
6:11

Yeah, they got they do a good job. The independent independent group. Uh no, I don't think they're Italian.

SPEAKER_03
6:18

They're Austrian, like Tommy.

SPEAKER_01
6:19

Gary Witt. Wit Wit Wit is the owner's last name. Really? Yeah. Okay, I never thought he's white. I don't know what nationality he is. He's he's white.

SPEAKER_03
6:29

He's a white man, bro. Hold on. So you guys, I'm looking at these cameras and they got solid state hard drives plugged right into them, huh? Wow.

SPEAKER_01
6:38

I can't speak to any of that. Richie's terrible with technology. Yeah, yeah. Who sets that up? Nod tech guy. Bree's pre Bree's good with it.

SPEAKER_03
6:45

Bree, you do all that? Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_01
6:47

I'm Bree does a lot here.

SPEAKER_03
6:49

They let women do a lot more in here than New York. No. I'm just kidding, Bree. I'm talking about. My brother, you know.

SPEAKER_01
6:58

We're all about women in power. Our team is mostly women. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
7:02

Yeah. Listen, my mother still folds my laundry. No.

SPEAKER_01
7:07

Some other woman. No, no, no. We're gonna take you around a little bit after this. You've been here for uh not quite 24 hours, but you were moving around a little bit. What do you think of Milwaukee so far? You were down at Festa Italiana?

SPEAKER_03
7:20

It's very yeah, very cultured. Like a lot of different culture, a lot of uh Italian, a lot of Arabs, a lot of uh just ethnic, the food's great, a lot of Greek culture in here. Super, super cool town, and then the beachfront and the lakefront was gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01
7:34

Are you just saying Greek culture because you went to Oakland Euros in the Giannis mural yesterday?

SPEAKER_03
7:39

You know, a lot of Greek when I say Greek, I mean like there's very few, but uh it it's powerful.

SPEAKER_01
7:45

But they make their presence felt.

SPEAKER_03
7:47

Yeah. Well, there's not a lot of Greeks. I I I because I read that ChatGPT told me, I mean, I guess it's telling me the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_01
7:53

I'll be asking ChatGPT. Hey, we're asking for your actual opinion, not what ChatGPT told you before you got. Did you really get here last night? You fucked me over there.

SPEAKER_00
8:02

Chat, help me right now.

SPEAKER_01
8:04

So you got you guys all grew up here. Tom grew up in Ohio. I mean, I grew up I grew up in Madison, where you were. Oh, wow. So you did a show in Madison.

SPEAKER_03
8:12

So Madison's like known as a college town.

SPEAKER_01
8:15

Yep. Madison's a big college town. That's where University of Wisconsin is. That's a great town, right? Right between two lakes. They got the isthmus, the capital.

SPEAKER_03
8:22

The isthmus. Oh, yeah, the capital.

SPEAKER_01
8:23

It's an isthmus. An isthmus is a town between two lakes. Not quite a peninsula like Florida, because that has an end to it. Like if Florida had another piece of land on the end of it, it would also be an isthmus.

SPEAKER_03
8:37

You gotta love the way he speaks, right? He speaks like he puts so much thought into every sentence before he speaks it. Yeah, it's very like they should make he should do audiobooks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
8:46

Yeah. I think that that's that's a nice compliment. Great voice. Absolutely, great voice. Thank you. Most people just think I'm stoned, but I don't smoke at all.

SPEAKER_03
8:56

It's fine. It's better than saying rushing to speak and saying the wrong thing like I do most of the time.

SPEAKER_01
9:01

I need to when we do social media videos though, I need to really like kick it into a different gear that I'm not used to because you can't be that slow on those.

SPEAKER_03
9:09

But um Yeah, yeah. No, it's good though, man. I feel like for podcasting, it sucks you in and like almost like uh in a good way, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00
9:18

When you're like doing skits, do you have to like do you like get in your own head when you're doing them? Or like how does that be?

SPEAKER_03
9:23

No, no, no. I've always been around I've been in the film business for years. Like I started I have my own sketch comedy show when I was in 2015. Yeah, uh, with this dude, Reggie Green. We had a show on online, it was you know on TV, public access. It wasn't successful, and I just didn't have my heart into it. And then I quit, I quit doing the videos there, and then I kind of just got back in the stand-up like six years ago, and then three years ago, I was like, I've always been around the film business. My brother's a director, so like once it's really just like locking into it. So I I I don't know if you paid attention to the number of posts I have over the last three years. I put up 2600 videos, so it's like you know, it just becomes like second nature, like you don't realize it, but when you do something over and over, it just gets at first my first video Are you editing a lot of those? I edit every video. Jesus. I edit every video, I could even edit my stand-up, I just don't have time. So I have a couple of editors now. Uh I film like people always like, oh, who's filming your videos? I film on a Sony camera, like an FX3, but I'll just get like if I don't have my film guy with me and I'm at right, I'll just be like, hey buddy, like this homeless guy here holds your $10. Can you film this? And I yo, you love the the camera movement. It's like a little raw and shaky. It's the crackhead down the block that was filming by Lake Superior.

SPEAKER_01
10:44

So, you know Lake Michigan tone. Lake Michigan, yeah. Lake Superior's uh north.

SPEAKER_03
10:50

No, I filmed one over there. Okay. When I was in Canada, I was in uh London and uh I wasn't special ed though. I was I hadn't were you guys in special ed by HS? No.

SPEAKER_01
11:00

I was in the uh LDC. Geniuses. Geniuses were were were were they called it the Learning Disability Center, but I know the D student Learning Development Center, but but everyone called it the Learning Disability Center in high school. I I was I was up in there.

SPEAKER_03
11:15

Me too. You know, this is the thing. I feel like creatives are always labeled as like, oh, special ed or uh needs like a learn like um extended uh time and and test because we're focused on a million different things. They're like, oh, this guy, we can't figure him out. Like, no, he's creative, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01
11:32

But you can lock in when you're interested in something.

SPEAKER_03
11:35

So when I when I do these videos, like I get so into the character that sometimes I'm like, this sit this like the scene is over, but I'm still going. Like I'm like we were doing a car scene the other day with getting chased, and I fucking tick off on the guys, and I'm like going 110. The guys like, yo, it's over. The scene's over. But I'm like about to go over the bridge, and I'm like, motherfucker. It's just you put the glasses on, and it's just it turns on. Who the fuck are you guys? How the hell did you get here? Were they sitting there the whole time? Who's she? Why is she pressing buttons? Where do those wires go? Is that the FBI? No, kidding.

SPEAKER_01
12:10

Have you ever like got in trouble or got called on by the police while filming a skit?

SPEAKER_03
12:15

So this is the thing. I'm very connected on Staten Island, New York, uh, even Connecticut, like the whole East Coast, everywhere I've ever gotten.

SPEAKER_01
12:21

So if you're going 120, they'll just be like, it's Tony D and he's got a skit to do.

SPEAKER_03
12:25

So like if I was doing 120 and I got pulled over on Staten Island, I mean, listen, off the record, you know, I'm saying, like, off the record, I just call Trump. I'm like, yo, homie, what up? Yo, Trump, pardon me, real quick. No, kid. No, no. I uh I you know what it is. I have a lot of friends that are law enforcement. I also used to be the ice cream man on Staten Island. So certain areas, I feel a little bit more invincible. Like it, like, let's just put it this way in New York or the whole tri-state area, I'm the like the guy out there. So like if they were to pull me over, 99% of the time they'd know me. I I think it's all about like this too. Um, it's all about what do they call that, law of attraction. And when you believe something, I I believe that I like I know that I have multiple PBA cards of very high levels of law enforcement, deputy inspectors, and all this. So because I have that, I know that they're not like if I did get pulled over, I most likely will talk myself out of it. By by doing that over and over, it's convinced me that I am not gonna get in trouble. Which which the belief of that is attracting less police in my way. Because when I'm speeding, they're just never around.

SPEAKER_01
13:39

You know, so I think it's like a part of This is great advice for the listeners out there. So just go go 110 and you just if you pretend you're in a skit.

SPEAKER_03
13:47

Yeah, if you no, no, not even that. If you just like you believe you're not gonna get pulled over, most like but it like a for instance.

SPEAKER_01
13:52

It's the whole key visualizing something before it happens, right? What athletes do, you're just kind of doing that with the police.

SPEAKER_03
13:58

So a hundred so like a law of attraction, you guys believe in that? Yeah. So I gotta be honest with you, I've always been a very firm believer in believing in the thing, and then it becomes true. Now, with that being said, you can't just say, okay, I'm gonna have a Ferrari one day and do nothing and sit on your ass because you're you might say, Oh, I'm gonna get a Ferrari, I'm gonna be rich one day, but you don't truly believe that. But now, if you're like, okay, I'm gonna get a Ferrari one day, I'm gonna be so set up, and now you got a podcast, and now you're meeting with people, and now you're doing steps every day to achieve that goal that you want to have, that becomes more realistic in your mind, which brings the universe, attracts that thing to you more. It's really like the law of attraction is real, but action needs to be taken into making that a reality. And the more you think it and do it, the more it becomes believable inside. Because you if you say it, but you don't really believe it, it'll never happen. So you have to believe in that and that's like all the stuff I do is that's how it, you know. I knew I was gonna be I knew I'm gonna sell out the garden. I didn't do it yet, but I knew that I I'm capable of doing something big when I was 22. Then I quit comedy, left, worked on the ice cream truck again, got back into comedy. Actually, I worked in the film business with my brother. Uh my bro, I've been working in the film business in this type of stuff. You know, I was a grip, I was a lighting guy. Uh if you look on on IMDB, I have like 10 credits, you know, for being a dolly grip, uh assistant camera, I was a focus puller. Um, I've always known that I was gonna be doing something big, but I never applied myself. The more you apply yourself, the more you see that thing possible.

SPEAKER_01
15:40

Yeah. So I I listened to a podcast you were on. It seemed like you were making some good money at a young age, being the ice cream guy.

SPEAKER_03
15:49

Yeah, I was making some good money. I mean, uh, it's uh, you know, I'd rather you know, technically, some people would say they were you know skimming off the top, some of these guys. Me, I never took part in that, you know what I'm saying? Allegedly, that's what some of these guys used to do. Uh, but me, I always, you know what I'm saying, I'm a Christian.

SPEAKER_01
16:08

So I'm in the ice cream business.

SPEAKER_03
16:10

The ice cream business is kind of interesting because like, you know, uh people I used to overcharge people too. I mean, listen off the record. But nope, listen, people get overcharged all the time. It's about how you how do you feel about the transaction, right? Now, if I sell you something and you love my product and you think that it's you had a great deal, like I'm like, ah, it's a thing. Like, when somebody comes up to me with the with the ice cream, maybe you don't put this in there, I'm just telling this for you guys.

SPEAKER_01
16:38

Maybe yeah, I think this is riveting. Keep going.

SPEAKER_03
16:42

I hope I don't get in trouble for this one. Uh wait, isn't it's past the statute of limitations? Um, so listen.

SPEAKER_01
16:48

Yeah, this was decade a decade and a half ago, baby. Exactly. Yeah, you're you're you let it rip.

SPEAKER_03
16:53

So, oh damn. This is what happens when the production. What happened here? Bray, come on. Nah, she's a good kid. She's been yeah. Oh, this is what happened? Short circuited?

SPEAKER_02
17:06

That's what happens.

SPEAKER_03
17:08

But what I was gonna say is um so like when somebody I know this is bad, but I was raised by criminals. Okay, let's just be honest. I was raised by criminals, I was very big into the mob stuff. Uh but your parents were criminals? No.

SPEAKER_01
17:20

Or you were just around criminals. My neighborhood's neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03
17:23

My neighborhood was a lot of criminal. Like in Staten Island.

SPEAKER_01
17:26

It's Staten Island.

SPEAKER_03
17:27

So there's a lot of like mafia guys, like the vibe was very mafia. So I kind of like took that. Um, it's all good. It's a sign from God. They don't like this. They don't need to talk about this anymore. I'm random myself. It's all good. Oh, is it the plug? It's all good. So um you know, it it's funny because like someone could be I'm very aware. Let's put it that way. And I'm not saying I take advantage of people. Everything I've ever done wrong in life has been taken from me. Let's put it this way. All right, before I say with this being said, I lost probably close to half a million dollars in the stock market over the last couple years. Um like a lot of money. All the money I ever stole or took or did the wrong way, like, you know, things with, it didn't work. Life didn't it life adjusted it, you know, because I'm a man of God, I believe in believe in it, I believe in God. I for the last six years I've haven't touched a single thing, I've been doing the right thing, uh, and that's why I'm winning now. I'm finally winning, I'm building a uh a name and money and everything off of my own name, and I'm building a career. In the past, though, when somebody comes up to the truck, I'm studying them. I mean, I study people from a young age. I can see this guy comes up, hey, what's going on? Like, I'll give you a people used to let's just say somebody used to come up to me, I'm sorry, they used to come up to me like this, they'd be like, What's going on? Then I come to the truck, yeah. It's on me, whatever you guys want. It's on me. How much, buddy? And the guy's like this. He's got like he's got like money. He's buying three cones, but he's handing me this. He's handing me this. Yeah, it's just whatever they want, don't worry about it. And I'm like, uh, it's uh let me see that. I'm like, uh, it's uh it's 40, but just give me 30. Meanwhile, it's 25. So technically, was I stealing or was I creating opportunity for myself? And then the guy's like, don't worry about it, take 40. And I rip them off, and he's giving me a tip. So if anything, I think I think I'm pretty smart, you know? That's how I look at it. But uh listen, not only that, like I built up my ice cream business like when the when when the like I used to be, first of all, I consider it hazard pay. All right. I'm gonna make I'm making a movie about this one day. I'm already started writing it. But like I used to drive these ice cream trucks. These ice cream trucks are all illegally rigged up, none of them have the proper, like they're not brand new. These are like from 1967. They smell like diesel, you're breathing in fumes, they got no air conditioning, you're working 13 hours a day. I was the top, I was one of the top earners, you know what I'm saying? So I used to make you know uh 25% of whatever I sold. But I was still I was bringing in two, three thousand dollars a week uh uh a day off the ice cream truck, and these other people were only selling a thousand. So if I hand if everyone was selling a thousand and I'm handing in, you know, uh two thousand, meanwhile there's twenty five hundred, you know, I mean, who's gonna know? You know, maybe cut that part. But I'm just you know, uh just for you guys to understand that the scale of what I did. But yeah, I mean, listen, for for what it's worth, I don't think that stuff is good. I'm very ashamed of myself. Everything I ever stole got taken from me. But you know, and in all fairness, the people that hired me before they owned the business, they used to do the same thing. It was like a known thing. Like everybody's like, yeah, when it was standard that we all stole 300 a day, and then all the drivers they spoke to. Long story short, I'm not proud of it, but yeah, I moved on. Yeah, but yeah, that's that's the truth, you know.

SPEAKER_00
21:20

You know, you spoke about like law of attraction, and like it sounds like you've gone through like you know, a lot of different things, like with the ice cream truck, going back to comedy, coming back to the ice cream truck. And I feel like the law of attraction is a lot about attention. What are you paying attention to? Like, if you're paying attention to you want to get to Madison Square Garden, sell that out. So it's like how what are those signs in your life like where that pulled you back into comedy or like back into where you are now, you know?

SPEAKER_03
21:44

So I I had a heart attack uh six years ago from uh I took a weed out of it. It was laced with like fentanyl, and I woke up in the hospital, and I kind of had like a res like a re like an epiphany in life. I'm like, man, 35, I'm 30 years old. Old at the time, I was like 28, 29, turning 30. And I it was 2020. I sent you the picture of that gut, like that chin on my chin. My chin, I cracked my fucking chin open right here. Woke up in the hotel. My brother thought I was dead, I was on the floor. And uh my brother's like, you know, my brother was disappointed with me because my brother's a DP, straight edge, never stole a thing in his life, never smokes weed, never drinks. My parents are, you know, working class, honest people. So I was like this guy that had a lot of potential that fucked up. So now I'm like, man, I'm gonna live in home with my parents, all the money I ever made in life was gone. That same time I cracked my chin open, I also lost another 150 grand in the market. All the money I ever stole or did any illegal stuff to get was all gone. Now it just made me like drop down to my knees and like say, God, like I need to like get my shit together. So I quit all this fast money bullshit. I started working at the diner for $80 in the morning and did stand-up comedy every single night. But this time I was like really getting good at it. Now I'm doing multiple shows a night, I'm hustling, I'm scraping by. I had a dog at the time, my dog Spike. Yeah, my dog Spike, he was a Boston Terrier, and you know, he got sick, and like two, three years into going back into comedy, he got sick, and I moved out actually three years ago. Uh, three years ago, I moved out in my own apartment, and that really helped me as well develop as a man because uh me and my brother were weren't seeing eye to eye because you know he's a little bit of a dick and he's a hard ass and is like always trying to like boss me around. I'm like, listen, I can't be this somebody who's like a boss, make it yourself guy, and then answering to another man 24-7. Like, I'll cut the grass, do this, do that. I'm like, no, fuck you. But no, so long story short, I uh I really started grinding, and that thing became more of a reality, and and you know, ever since you know, I I just like I know I have it. It was actually what made me really become an animal in terms of like just saying, hey, fuck it, I'm going all in. I seen so many untalented people around me succeeding, and it just like and everybody doubts me. The comedy clubs weren't giving me spots, uh, none of these people were giving me opportunity. I had a couple clubs, St. Mark's Comedy Club in New York City, which is ran by the Carabano brothers, which Alexis Carabagno and Danny Carabano, two really good guys. If you ever go to New York, definitely go to see their club. They had a small club, I was waiting tables of their club uh for the you know last couple years that I was before I popped. And I I was working with them, I was working at governors, but all these other New York City clubs, New York Comedy Club, The Cellar, all these other clubs, nobody gave me an opportunity. Nobody, none of the comedians that were part of the cool cliques wanted to hang out with me, even when I was coming up, even when I was popping on social, even still, still, people are very so. I just said to myself, you know what? Fuck this industry. Everything now is about building your own platforms. I'm gonna hang out with people who show me respect, who have mutual respect for me, and I don't got, you know, and I just went all in. And the more I started doing it, the more I realized the feedback. Like, I'm out here, I speak Arabic fluent, Spanish pretty well, some Russian, some Greek, some Hebrew. I look like Adam Sandler. I used to be 300 pounds, I was in special ed. Like, I I don't even gotta try. My story is good. I just gotta put it together. So, you know, I've been putting it together for the last 13 years, and the last year and a half, I've been headlining and I've been taking like really, really major strides in the business, and it's just like it just becomes more of a reality. You know you can do it, and and it's just like people but for instance, I'll do a show, 150 people will come to the show, 60 people will buy posters. You know, like that's like half the people are staying around buying a poster, so it just becomes more of a reality, you know.

SPEAKER_01
26:05

What what was uh what was the biggest break you got? Was there was there a moment when you got back into it five years ago? Was it a series of smaller breaks? When did so did social media really help you since you weren't getting those opportunities in the in the physical clubs? How how how how did you pop off a little bit?

SPEAKER_03
26:22

So to be honest with you, no there was no specific break. It was really just a continuous for me. It's never been I haven't been pushed by a single entity. Barstools never put me on their thing, World Star never put me on. Uh actually, they put me on their website once. Nobody from like the clicks, like like the the news never wrote nothing about me. I I've just been I'm like the underdog. I'm like the guy that everybody counted out that uh that is like just keeps pushing. I've slowly been building it.

SPEAKER_01
26:56

Uh you didn't have a video like uh like a Matt Reif a few years ago where he just he just shot out of a cannon overnight when a couple TikToks popped off. Hey guys, Summer is here. Time to get outside, enjoy the weather, have a nice cold drink on a patio, and maybe take a hard look at your financial life too. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm right here in Milwaukee that helps you with everything retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. They'll help you declutter your old accounts, dust off your investment strategy, organize your estate documents, and build a plan focused on your goals. That's our good friends at AnnexWealth Management, annexwealth.com. Know the difference. All right, let's get back with Tony D.

SPEAKER_03
27:47

One video I did, I was playing the Adam Sandler thing. I was doing like the I was like, when you get pulled over by the cops, you just put the helmet on. Well, off the thumb full thobby. I was the Adam Sandler thing. And I'm like, that video got like eight million, and that kind of motivated me to keep going. And then I got posted on 50 Cent posted me on his Instagram. Yeah, I did a podcast with Wiz Khalifa, uh, which was pretty cool, uh, where I convinced him that I was a marijuana grower that like grew his own pot with his own uh fertilizer using his shit. And then I'm like, yeah, it was going on. I used to be in the sun-dried tomato business. Like I come into the podcast, and Wiz is like, oh yeah, this is my my stuff. It's called Dingleberries. And I'm like, shout, and they're all like smelling it. Yeah, we smoking that, you know. And I I made a video, I made a video about that. There's a couple of little cool things, but to be honest with you, my story has never gonna been easy. It's always been, I've also turned down a lot of opportunity. I've turned down multiple agencies that try to get me to the next level because the contracts these guys have are very predatory. They're always trying to like own your intellectual property or take a higher percentage than they should. It's okay if somebody caps like like for instance, let's say Richie's like, hey, I got this deal with Corona, and I'm gonna bring you in on it, and I want uh I want you to give me 10% or 15%. Okay, no problem. But now these people will like get a deal from Corona, say, hey Tone, we're gonna we're gonna get you 30 grand. Meanwhile, they're billing 80 and they're giving you, they're taking 15% of the 30. They're screwing you over. So it's like a lot of those things exist. So for me, it's like I'm like I was raised around the mob and it taught me a lot of things. It taught me not to trust people, it taught me how to read people. I could read you guys, you guys are amazing people. You can just tell from the bat how much you've gone the bat for me as it is, how much you've helped me, you've barely known from a hole in the wall. So it means a lot to me. I can tell you guys are good people and you're gonna continue to succeed, but I'm able to just assess, like the same way I used to rip people off, I can judge people in situations, you know. So I think that the most like for instance, I don't run Facebook ads. Maybe that's not the smartest thing, but you want to know what it is? I rather I've been going out, I have all these viral videos, people know me, but I'm still going out every single city. I'm meeting 300 people to 500 people a city. I'm handing out flyers out the wazoo. I'm having real conversations with people. So I know that eventually this will grow and spiral into like an international thing.

SPEAKER_01
30:29

Yeah, so spe speaking of that, too, you're you're at a relatively high level right now. You're just in Milwaukee, you're performing here in a month. You're you're I mean, I know you're doing some videos on the way over that you got. It seems like you're just hitting the country you're posting, hey, I'm gonna be in this area, hit hit me up and people hit me up. And just get getting out of here.

SPEAKER_03
30:49

Yeah, I mean, listen, you know, I just think that even if I'm at a high level, one day I'm gonna be at an even higher level, and I won't be able to do this type of stuff.

SPEAKER_01
30:58

So, like But is anyone else doing this shit at your level, right?

SPEAKER_03
31:02

Nobody's doing this. Nope, there is not a single person at my level who have over a half a million followers, and I'm literally handing out flyers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and my own. I'm not even just handing out I'm not even handing out so I have a whole pitch. Like, it's not like an unauthentic pitch. I'm like, hey, what's going on? I'm actually doing the PAPS theater. I'm like, this is my stuff. I'll say something funny. Like, I'm like, hey, if you don't like my videos, report the account. Like something silly. Just try to actually connect with them, meet somebody and have a genuine conversation. You do that, like let's say you do that 300 times a city. 300 people talk to you and meet you. Maybe they don't come to that show, maybe they come to another show. Now, if you do that every city around the country, 300, let's say 100 of those people put you on their story. 100 times 50. How much is that?

SPEAKER_00
31:53

5,000.

SPEAKER_03
31:53

5,000. 5,000, everyone's got a thousand or 5,000 followers on Instagram. 5,000, let's say a thousand, 5,000 times 1,000. How much is that? 5 million?

SPEAKER_00
32:05

Yeah, roughly.

SPEAKER_03
32:06

5 million people now have exposure to you from physical, like you have met you. You know, and now they're on their they're on their stories. And you know, I've had, I've had like I just I just can feel it in my soul. There's no, you know. Plus, I'm I make very like I'm I'm an I'm an Arab Christian making videos because my father was born in Israel. My mother was born in Lebanon, you know, and uh they moved here, were Christian Arabs. My family's very diverse. My mother was born out of nine, nine brothers and sisters. My father was born out of three, they're still in Israel, living in Israel. One of them passed away, actually. But uh everyone married to different cultures. My mom, one of her brothers, married uh Italian, one of them married Spanish, one of them married French. So it's a it I've been around a lot of cultures, so I make videos including everybody. Like I'm I'm an Arab Christian, Palestinian Christian, hanging on the side of a Jewish police car through Crown Heights. In today's day and age, with what's going on in the Middle East, it's unheard of. But you think that like I'm all I'm like, I'm not doing it in like a way to to invoke a reaction from people. I'm doing it because I always see the beauty like in cultures that the Arab some Arabs and Jews will continue to butt heads and not want to deal with each other just off the rip because they're Arab and Jewish. That's on them. But me personally, I'm doing what I do and what I know is right. Like I'm a New Yorker. My friends are mixed. I have friends that are Israeli, friends that are Italian, friends that are Arab, Christian. Everybody gets along. I know a lot of people in New York, and probably here, Muslim Palestinians have businesses with Israelis. So I make these videos and I'm getting a lot of good feedback. Bro, think about it. How many bad DMs do you think I get a year? About like, oh, you you're a fucking anti-Semite or you're a fucking this or not maybe like not too many. Maybe one bad DM from somebody who's like, stop making Arab content, you Jew. Like they don't even know what I am. Yeah, you know, like they're messaging me things, they don't even know what the fuck I am. They just like I'm like a chameleon, you know. So I just think like if I'm if there's no one else doing what I'm doing, there's a you know, and plus I have control over it. You know, I could produce whatever I want. My movies, everything will be produced by me. I'll call you guys in, and you guys will get in the movies. I'm gonna build something with people that I've worked with. That's my goal.

SPEAKER_00
34:33

Well, it seems like there's something powerful. Like the phone, the phone's competing for our attention. Like everything is just about attention, and there's something powerful about like you're meeting people face to face. You're beating, you're beating the phone. You know what I mean? You're like, hey, I'm a real person, get to know me. And then that word of mouth kind of goes further. And it feels like, I mean, I might be wrong.

SPEAKER_03
34:52

Who else does it? Yeah, exactly. Who else? No, no, think about it. Who else does it besides comedian? Think about somebody who does that, what I'm doing now. Think about in the world.

SPEAKER_01
35:01

Politician.

SPEAKER_03
35:01

Yeah. Politicians. I'm on a fucking campaign out here. I'm not lying to people. That's the difference between me and them. I'm out here just can't. If a politician's gonna go out there and campaign, why can't I? I'm campaigning. I'm on a fucking national campaign. People are like, why don't you fly? I'm like, fly. I get anxiety just thinking about what I'm gonna bring on this trip. I can't decide what I'm gonna fit in the suitcase. So I'm like, you know what? Fuck it. I'm driving.

SPEAKER_01
35:29

Bring the whole fucking pickup right.

SPEAKER_03
35:31

I bring the pickup truck. I got raccoons in the trunk. I gotta I'm selling them on the side. What do you think? I'm out of control, no?

SPEAKER_01
35:40

We love you.

SPEAKER_03
35:41

All right, we love you too. Yeah, you guys are.

SPEAKER_01
35:42

You're a fucking maniac. I love it.

SPEAKER_03
35:45

I mean well, I mean well, and I honestly, I'm just people like, oh, what is this kid on? Adderall? I'm like, no, I'm on nothing.

SPEAKER_01
35:51

I guessed that. We had a conversation before you came in because Wisconsin's a big drinking culture, like huge. And I I was like, I bet he's sober. I think he's just naturally high and energized. I don't think he's on anything.

SPEAKER_03
36:04

Yeah, it's it's it's it's true because like when I when I am on something, it just completely God was giving he gave me a gift, he gave me this gift of like just having this energy and because he knew I was gonna be on like this mission, you know. And you know, I love live performance. I've opened shows with like 3,000 people uh for I used to open for Felipe Sparta. I still open for him here and there. Felipe Esparsa, the Mehangano comedian, he's Mexican, Mexican comedian. He uh he has three specials on Netflix, really, really funny guy. And he let me open for a minute, and I'm like, man, I'm fucking doing these rooms with 3,000 people. It feels like I belong in this world before I started headlining. So I'm like, man, and then I started headlining, I'm like, man, this is where it's at. Like, I gotta be just constantly in front of people. I like being in front of people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
36:53

So did you used to drink a lot or do a lot of edibles or not really?

SPEAKER_03
36:57

I used to smoke a lot of weed, which kind of I didn't like who it made me become. I was like a gym rat. Like I was in sort of you were 300 pounds of weed. Yeah, but then at one point I was like a six-pack. I freaking I looked, I mean, I'm not in terrible shape right now. I'm getting back to it, but when I smoke, I get fat, I get lazy, I'm not motivated. It's just it's not for me.

SPEAKER_01
37:20

Oh, yeah. The gem of the week photo you sent me. So it's not up to date right now.

SPEAKER_03
37:26

I mean, it's not terrible. It's not listen to me. It's not in a f when you meet me, it's gonna be close. All right, you know.

SPEAKER_01
37:33

Well, I mean, I gotta ask questions about that. You know, what kind of woman are you looking for when you're back in town on August 1st?

SPEAKER_03
37:39

I'm looking for one that's grounded. So in case there's a tornado, she sticks. She's planted. We don't want her blowing them in the wind. No, I'm kidding around. Honestly, you know what? Me, I'm like more into like a natural woman. I don't like if if a girl, like if I see girls on the street, they always wear like some of these girls on Stand Island, they wear like so much makeup and they're always dolled up, fake eyelashes, Gucci down. I'm like, listen, it's not for me. You know, I'm more of like, you know, you know, just a nice, wholesome, you know, person.

SPEAKER_01
38:08

What would you say your good qualities are? And what do you what would you say your red flags are?

SPEAKER_03
38:13

Uh actually, to be honest with you, uh, it's a lot of red flags. So no, no, no, no. Honestly, I'm I'm I never cheated on a woman in my life. So like I I'm a very talented cook. You know, to be honest with you, I'm a talented cook. I'm like a mis I'm like a professional masseuse. So uh I've never cheated in my life. I've always been pretty honest.

SPEAKER_01
38:34

Uh I yeah, I never other than the ice cream ice cream truck custom. That's that's a different genre. That was the thing.

SPEAKER_03
38:42

Remember what I said. That was some somebody.

SPEAKER_01
38:43

It was the industry. That was the industry. That's what they did. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03
38:46

You were a part of, yeah, but practices. That was the kind of things they would do. Right. Potentially. Hypothetically. Hold on, that's my lawyer. I got this, I got this uh indictment going on right now. No. Uh so yeah, no, I mean, red flags, I'm kind of like sometimes I'm late. Um I don't like being tied down. Uh, you know, like in terms of like if somebody's trying to control me or like, hey, don't go to this show or don't like my work is priority. If a woman wants to be part of my life, they have to understand that like I have dreams and aspirations that are, you know, it's not easy to get to and it requires a lot of sacrifice. And I'd be more than happy to have them come, you know, I'm more than capable of supporting someone wherever I am, like, because I kind of like I could kind of do whatever I want. Now I travel, I, you know, make enough money to take care of somebody. But at the same time, I don't, you know, actually it's funny you say that because I'm looking for, I'm looking. My mom, my mom said this the other day, she's like, you have to find a wife. I'm like, well, I'm looking now. Like, now I'm actually looking. But it's gotta be the right person. They have to be a good relationship with their parents, right? Uh, you gotta have a good relationship with their parents, have some sort of faith. And uh, in terms of bad quality, I don't think I don't have a lot of bad qualities. I work, I'm trying, I work out, I'm an I'm a very talented cook. Uh, you know, I'm kind of perfect, to be honest. No, I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_01
40:08

Love it.

SPEAKER_03
40:08

No, I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_00
40:10

Would you prefer someone like know what you do or like have no idea who you are?

SPEAKER_03
40:13

I would rather they think I'm Batman.

SPEAKER_01
40:17

I mean, listen, I mean, I definitely have women coming up to you after the shows.

SPEAKER_03
40:21

Sometimes, you know, that you know, otherwise Was there more of that when you had a six-pack?

SPEAKER_01
40:26

You know, you know what, man?

SPEAKER_03
40:27

Or are they liking the listen, it's it's uh, it's it's a little jiggle here, but it's there, it's getting back. I transformed. Welcoming. I transformed very quickly. I actually just got acupuncture done. I got the.

SPEAKER_01
40:38

Oh, you get a little cup there? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
40:40

What happened was uh when I whenever I do the acupuncture, I don't uh I give it a few days before I work out. So the last three, four days I haven't worked out, but I've been I eat really good. I'm very like good at I lost a lot of weight before Ozempic. So me, I just dial it in, you know. Once you dial it in. But the the women thing, you know, it just uh I never actually been in like a full-time relationship, like a real relationship, you know. I've always just been, I dated a couple chicks, I found out. I have no no um tolerance for drugs either. Like if a girl's doing coke and this and that, it's just like I don't, you know.

SPEAKER_01
41:16

Problem over on Staten Island.

SPEAKER_03
41:18

You know, just anywhere. Like, you know, you'll talk to a girl and she's beautiful, and this and then she starts doing coke. I'm like, no, I'm not. And then also you just gotta like, you know, I definitely have some, I'm messy. I'm a little messy. I'm like sometimes I like to leave my house a mess and then I'll come home in two days and clean it. Oh yeah, yeah. Who doesn't have bad quality? What would you say my bad quality would you think? I have any telling what kind of qualities you think they're bad.

SPEAKER_01
41:41

I literally just met you. Yeah, I'm a fan.

SPEAKER_03
41:44

No, I mean, listen, I I wonder if you notice anything. What do you think? Nothing. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Well, listen, you know, everyone's got their thing. Uh you in a relationship too?

SPEAKER_01
41:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
41:57

Nice. No, it's good.

SPEAKER_01
41:58

Tom, Tom's been in a relationship for over a month. Just over a month. Wow. Look at that.

SPEAKER_03
42:03

Listen, it's you know what it is? It's it's also tough for me to find a woman at this stage because I'm women get very jealous, you know, you know, like they're not uh I'm faithful, but like they think I'm some type of fucking porn star. Like, where are you?

SPEAKER_01
42:19

You're giving off porn star vibes to these women.

SPEAKER_03
42:22

No, but like they think like because I'm out here taking pictures with all these women after the show, like it's my job to be welcoming. As a matter of fact, like it is your job. I'll get I'll get DMs from people and I'll be like, they're like throwing me layups of like, hey, come, I want to, you know, blah blah blah, blank, blank, blank. I'm like, no, I'm not going over there, you know. But like, I you know, some men for me personally too, I don't just have sex with someone just because they're throwing it at me. It's I'm serious. If I don't like the person's personality, I just won't do it. So I just rather, you know, because I know that I'm gonna be big one day. So you don't want somebody to have um you don't want somebody to have like uh blackmail on you. Not even blackmail, but you don't want somebody to try to capitalize on you, some like loser who's just trying to hook up with you for clout or some bullshit like that. You know what I mean? I haven't really had to deal with that before, but uh you got the Milwaukee on cut, you know what I'm saying? Sweating over there.

SPEAKER_00
43:22

Do you want like are you looking for like a girl that's like like balances you out?

SPEAKER_03
43:25

You feel like it seems to me like you're an educator and who knows how to spell. Someone's gonna teach the kids.

SPEAKER_01
43:31

Tony, what um what's the craziest fan interaction that you've ever had?

SPEAKER_03
43:38

Uh I was one time when I didn't really like have a huge, I might have had like a hundred thousand followers. I was coming off the Arizona Bridge, and I noticed this car followed me a little bit. I noticed it was behind me, but then I just didn't even pay attention. And then I'm like, this car followed me all the way to my house with a fan. Noticed me on the bridge and like literally followed me home. 30 minutes followed me. I didn't even realize.

SPEAKER_01
44:06

What was the interaction like after you got to do it?

SPEAKER_03
44:09

It was just a young kid who's excited to see me. But it's just like a 16-year-old dude? He was like a 30-year-old man.

SPEAKER_01
44:16

Oh, third question.

SPEAKER_03
44:17

A young kid. Yes. It's a 30-year-old. Uh and then I had this one guy who's like really weird, and he just comes to every show. Like he'll just travel to see me everywhere. And is it? I mean, listen, honestly, most people, I try to be very nice and appreciative. Actually, one woman, ah, maybe we shouldn't say this. But one woman, she's like, I'm disabled, but I got an accessorite coming to pick me up to bring me to the show. I'm like, listen, don't come. Okay. We're not wheelchair accessible over here. No, I'm getting around. But I mean, honestly, everyone's pretty nice. I'm even the weirdest people, I'm very thankful that they're there. They're spending money on the show. So I don't think anyone's weird. I think everyone's got something special. And uh some people should be locked in a closet somewhere. But that's you know, who am I to say that? You know.

SPEAKER_01
45:08

You got any advice for those trying to make it who are coming up right now?

SPEAKER_03
45:12

Do it on your own. Don't don't collab with too many people because if you collab, there's there's two ways of going this. I remember I used to always like look to collab with people or look to do things with people, and that was a part of my laziness that just like didn't really want to do the work myself. If you look at any of the most successful things that are on the internet, it's always them doing if you rely on someone else doing something or getting a group of people together to do something, you'll always be waiting on them, waiting on their schedule. If you want to, and you have to be realistic. Everyone says, Oh, I want to do something, but they don't actually do it. You just gotta do it every single day, and then every day you'll improve and you'll just get better and better at it.

SPEAKER_01
45:57

You know, you just how many stand-up shows do you think you did before that started gaining traction? Seemed like you were just grinding, like open mics and shit like that.

SPEAKER_03
46:06

Oh my god, thousands, brother.

SPEAKER_01
46:08

Thousands, thousands and thousands of mics shows. Yeah, wherever it would take you.

SPEAKER_03
46:12

I was doing shows in 2022. I'm sorry, uh 2013, when I was 22 years old, uh, laughing Buddha. Uh I was doing shows. Um probably like let's just give a ballpark estimate.

SPEAKER_01
46:27

Did you wish you had your act together then and you didn't go back to the ice cream business, or are you kind of glad things trip? Really?

SPEAKER_03
46:33

I was I wasn't doing the right material back then. I was my I was my problem was the first six years of my comedy, first seven years of my comedy, I was smoking a lot of weed, I wasn't focused, I was doing like maybe 10 minutes of material. One day I would crush, one day I would bomb. If the set the key with comedy is you gotta be able to pivot. Like, you'll see my show on in Milwaukee. Hopefully you guys can all make it. But like the key is not to be flawless as a comic. The key is to put a show on together, and when you're on stage, if you're doing material within the hour, if 20 minutes, like let's say you're doing two minutes on Italian stuff and it's not going over well, you gotta be able to pivot immediately. Don't do the full 10 minutes on Italian if it's not working. So back then I didn't know what I was doing, and I thought I was gonna be famous at 25. Then I quit, got humbled, really wanted it, and started learning. Even now, as good as I am on stage, as as much as people are like, oh, you killed it, bro, you're hilarious. I'm like, bro, I just that was that. I fucked that joke up, that tag needs to be this, that thing needs to be this. The second I leave a set, I'm listening to my audio, I'm writing notes. You you need to be in an ever lasting uh state of being like Plato, constantly growing, constantly learning, constantly open to suggestions. Anyone, anything.

SPEAKER_01
48:05

Do you you put out such a high volume of content while doing shows? Do you uh do you take any breaks at all? Does that help you creatively, or do you just get ideas? I mean, does does driving in the pickup for extended periods of time help? Because I I feel like um personally, like I have I haven't taken like a break in a while, but but when I uh you know mentally don't look at my phone for a while or something, I feel like that helps me creatively and just stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03
48:34

Um I definitely feel like I've slowed down a lot. I used to put out like five videos a day sometimes, and that was like too much, hard to keep up with. Uh I feel like taking breaks is great in terms of like right now. I feel like I don't run out of ideas because I constantly see the funny things. And now I'm actually, I feel like being sober helps come up with ideas, to be honest with you. You guys sober too? You don't drink smoke.

unknown
49:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
49:03

I mean, listen, you know, what are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_01
49:05

It's Wisconsin. You can't be perfect. Tom drank a decent amount of tequila a month ago.

SPEAKER_00
49:11

I would say I drink about 10 times a year. So it's like, yeah, it's uh there's always this like he went on and opened for Soldier Boy.

SPEAKER_01
49:18

Get out of here, and it was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00
49:20

You're kidding me. I just do I just do random dancing stuff. That's sick, bro.

SPEAKER_01
49:23

He had he had the crowd going. He had the crowd going. He did he did not uh he he wasn't performing us, he wasn't performing songs, but I mean he got fired up.

SPEAKER_03
49:33

Oh yeah, taco tacos in tequila, yeah. So how'd you meet up with him?

SPEAKER_00
49:37

That's sick. No, we just we got invited, honestly. Richie connected us, and yeah, the the the um the festival just put on the event and they wanted us to just you know come out and perform and sick.

SPEAKER_01
49:48

Big big Frank's a local rapper out of Milwaukee. He had a pretty big hit, and Tom was in the music video dancing, and then Tommy went pretty viral for being the white boy dancing in the music video, and then people started calling him the mayor of Milwaukee, and then uh yeah, people love the guy.

SPEAKER_00
50:04

Yeah, mean that took off. So it's yeah, it's sick, dude.

SPEAKER_01
50:06

That's that's the cliff notes of the story. But anyway, a month ago at Tacos and Tequila, Tom and company just brought the house down before Soldier C.

SPEAKER_03
50:14

I don't mind having a drink once in a while. To be honest with you, like I went on a couple dates recently, like off a hinge, and I was hanging out with this chick where we we had like one or two drinks. I had a good time. I actually liked it better than smoking, you know? And and I have that relationship with alcohol where like if I drink a little bit, it's not gonna like put me on a bender, wake up in the morning drinking. But like weed, it becomes like an all day, everyday thing. You know, but uh what was what were we talking about right before this? You were saying something like completely for what you're saying, something like that.

SPEAKER_01
50:42

No, we were just talking. Uh oh, I was asking you if you took any like breaks and that if that helped you creatively just because you do so much and put out such a high volume of content, like we can really we're always trying to like put stuff out. But sometimes if I I take a step back or don't look at my phone for a while, I get a lot of good ideas and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03
50:58

And just also being more present. I think being present helps noticing things for me. It's situational comedy. Sometimes I'll put out less stuff, I'll put out less stuff, one or two a day. But like I thought of an idea, like I I get inspired to do things, and when I get inspired to do things, I do them. But if I'm not inspired, I don't like to just film just a film. You know, that's my whole thing now. But it becomes like there's neuropathways that build in your mind with sketches because I've done so many of them and the stand-up, I've done so many stand-ups, like for instance, just a rough estimate. Let's say 52 weeks a year times 12 years, 640, let's say I did 10. Probably did around 15,000 shows. 10, 15,000 shows. A rough estimate. But but headlining, like as a as a as an actual what what got me really confident in able to like do a headlining set the last three years, I did three times twelve, thirty-six. Um let's just say I did about probably like a thousand uh a thousand feature sets. So I was doing like road comedy. Yeah. Like I was doing 25, 30 minute sets opening for people. Bigger comics. And that really cemented me in my confidence because if you can handle a room for 25, 30 minutes where no one's there to see you. Where no one's there to see you. It just really like, what am I doing here? Then then, you know, headlining probably last year and this year together, probably like 200 shows already as a headliner. So that's like 200 hours on stage to have that in such a condensed time period, it really helps you develop. Like, you know, you just really like you're really in it, especially when you're in a room and they're not laughing easily. So not all those shows are perfect. Some of those shows I go to like fucking uh like Minnesota. I was doing shows in Minnesota when the shit when the shooting happened with the trans woman. You know that? The shooting? I did five shows in Minneapolis that same exact weekend the shooting happened. Those people did not want to laugh. With the ice stuff? No, the shooting. Remember that the there was a shooting with a trans woman? There was a shooting. Uh she went to a school and she shot up a bunch of people because the school kicked her out or something like that. You don't have to put this in the podcast.

SPEAKER_01
53:37

No, I'm just I don't recall that it's I'm following.

SPEAKER_03
53:40

But long story short, like I literally had to go there and do stand-up that weekend. They didn't cancel the shows.

SPEAKER_02
53:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
53:46

And everybody was so tired, like fucking morale's low. Bro, and nobody wants to laugh. And it's like you have to make them laugh, but we had to do the shows. We had five shows, you know? So you're never gonna be in a perfect state. I'm sure you guys too. You know how many times you're doing something and Brie forgets to plug the mics in. I'm kidding, I'm just kidding. But like, long story short, you know, you're never gonna be in a perfect state. Even me, look, I just broke my laptop. I got twenty thousand dollars in videos next week. I gotta do. What am I gonna mope about it? I gotta figure it out. Yeah. So, you know, we always gotta just figure it out.

SPEAKER_01
54:20

Well, dude, thank thanks for thanks for dropping in. Should we go get you some cheese curds?

SPEAKER_03
54:25

Yeah, dude. I mean, uh, are they fried? How what's a cheese curd exactly? Because I'm confused. I never really had one ever.

SPEAKER_01
54:31

It is a curd of cheese. You batter it, you deep fry it.

SPEAKER_03
54:35

Oh, so it's like a it's like a mozzarella stick.

SPEAKER_01
54:37

Yeah. Kind of.

SPEAKER_00
54:38

So you guys take on mozzarella.

SPEAKER_03
54:40

Huh?

SPEAKER_00
54:40

Our take on it.

SPEAKER_03
54:42

So what what is some things about Milwaukee that I should know? Because I I talked about myself this whole time. What are some things that I should know that the locals would appreciate that I knew? Drawing a blank, they say nothing going on over here.

SPEAKER_01
54:55

We get we got a very nice lake and some nice beaches. A lot of people from out of town don't expect that. The beaches. Yeah, we got beaches here that you could swim in.

SPEAKER_03
55:04

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01
55:04

Really? There's two there's tiki bar on.

SPEAKER_03
55:06

The beachy bars on them doesn't have sharks or nothing.

SPEAKER_01
55:10

No, no sharks.

SPEAKER_03
55:11

We should go swimming in the beach. Can sharks live in fresh water?

SPEAKER_01
55:14

Well, I I did before this actually. Right today? Yeah, in Lake Michigan. I love I love hopping in there. It's refreshing.

SPEAKER_03
55:19

Dude, let's go in there, bro. I'm down to pop in after. I'll fucking jump in the lake.

SPEAKER_01
55:24

We got we got that. There's a nice art museum by the lake. Um, the Bucks area is really nice. That's all new in the last five years. We had some New York money get pumped into here with the owners of the team. Uh, Lazarus in West Eden's were the guys who did it. Um but but yeah. Some good rooftops in the area. Rooftops. The brewers, Milwaukee Brewers, they're not at home today, but brewer games are a lot of fun. Brewer. It's a very diverse city. As you kind of alluded to at the beginning, there's a lot of different pockets and different cool neighborhoods. Is there a lot of crime out here? A lot of crime?

SPEAKER_03
56:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
56:00

Um, crime is down. I would say just like any major city has crime issues, Milwaukee has its fair share of issues.

SPEAKER_03
56:07

Um the Milwaukee Tool stuff that all came originated from here.

SPEAKER_01
56:11

Milwaukee Tool is headquartered in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_03
56:13

But it started here, or is it just like a I believe so?

SPEAKER_01
56:16

Cool. Harley Davidson.

SPEAKER_03
56:18

Yeah. Started in Milwaukee. Yeah. Get out of here.

SPEAKER_01
56:20

Miller Light, Miller Brewing, which is no longer brewed here. That that was or there is a brewery here, but the main main operation I think has moved all over with the acquisition.

SPEAKER_03
56:29

But um you have any relations with Harley or stuff like that? I'm I'm a very uh avid rider of Rusty.

SPEAKER_01
56:35

The Harley Museum's right around the corner. Yeah, actually. You can pop over there. That's true. And they got a restaurant in there. No way. Yeah. It's a good there's a good bar scene, good food scene. Hell yeah, bro. I'm excited to try this. We wanted to take you to the maybe the uh there's a market hall, which just got voted, I think, the third best public market in the country.

SPEAKER_03
56:57

Public market, like uh like a like a bazaar type of thing where they have like uh the Milwaukee public market's good.

SPEAKER_01
57:02

That was voted the best third best food hall in the country, third street market was. But our public market, which that also is rated extremely high.

SPEAKER_03
57:10

And I like I like how convenient it is to park everywhere in Milwaukee. Yeah, it's super convenient.

SPEAKER_01
57:15

It's not it is better than most major cities, and traffic's not bad here compared to most major cities.

SPEAKER_03
57:20

Chicago? I mean, I love Chicago. You guys really come out for me on these shows, but damn, that traffic in Chicago sucks. The second you turn it off and go to Milwaukee, it just opens up.

SPEAKER_01
57:31

It's just terrible. And then you still got some fibs just whizzing by you. Oh my god, dude. That's fucking Illinois bastard, dude.

SPEAKER_03
57:38

The Illino, the Illinois people, they drive like they're in the Fast and Furious movie. They're such bad drivers. It's like it's crazy. I have that same tripod, it's in Monfrodo, right?

unknown
57:50

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01
57:51

But anyway, we'll we'll take you around a bit.

SPEAKER_03
57:53

Let's do it. Let's do it. Beautiful. Very nice to meet you guys. Pleasure. Pleasure. Pleasure. Richie, God bless you.

SPEAKER_01
58:01

Thanks for tuning in. A huge thank you to Tony D for dropping by. And before signing off, I want to thank our partners who make Milaukey uncut possible, Annex Wealth Management, Drink Wisconsin Bleed Beverage Company, and Nikola.