(upbeat music) - Will you consider this?

You're back in Peoria.

Meanwhile, back in Peoria, I was here, left, and came back.

And Marty, you grew up here, Marty Wombacher.

And you came back.

But we wanna know your story first.

So you grew up here.

Where'd you go to school?

What's all your schooling?

- Well, I went to, we grew up here, but when I was five, we moved to Louisville, Kentucky.

- [Christine] That's Louisville.

- Louisville.

See, I wasn't there long enough to say.

When I was a kid, I did get teased there about my accent.

They said, "Well, where are you from?

Where's that accent?"

And Peoria.

So we lived there from 1963 to '69, then moved back here and I went to St. Vincent's.

- [Christine] Okay.

- Then I went to Bergan before Notre Dame was- - [Christine] Before they joined the schools.

- Right, and Bergan was actually named after my great uncle.

- [Christine] Okay.

- Archbishop Gerald T. Bergan, which the teachers would never believe 'cause I was such a horrible kid.

(laughs) I'd say, "You know, the school's named after my great uncle," they're like, "Yeah, right."

- So how did you prove it to 'em?

How did you make good on that?

- Okay, this sounds like kind of a morbid way to get into that, but he died.

(laughs) And he would laugh that we're laughing about it.

He had a really good sense of humor.

And my parents would too.

He died, so we're at the funeral in Omaha and of course my dad's uncle, my great uncle, and he was a great guy.

So we're in the front row and me and my brother, Jim, who wasn't the best actor either back in the day, we look up in the rafters and there's all the people from Bergan and they're looking at us like.

- [Christine] Oh, it is true.

- It's true.

- Well, good for you.

- [Marty] Thank you.

- Yeah, you got to prove it to 'em, all right.

But then you went away to college or did you?

- I went for one year and I flunked out.

- All right.

- And my dad's- - You majored in fun?

- Kind of, yeah.

And my dad had a little talk with me and my brother, Jim, always called it the worker bee speech.

He said, "You know, some kids were meant for college, others were meant to go to work.

I think you were meant to go to work and you better find a job like now 'cause you got about six months and you gotta move out on your own."

- [Christine] Oh boy.

- Back in the days when parents kind of booted you out.

- [Christine] That was an ultimatum.

- Well it was a good, you know, I thanked him many times for that years later.

I'm like, he really forced me to grow up.

I moved in with two of my friends, got a job at Murray's.

Remember Murray's Department?

- [Christine] I do, yeah, right downtown.

- I worked there, and then my dad, after I proved myself by working at Murray's, he worked at Fleming Potter.

Do you remember that?

- [Christine] I do remember that.

- He was in sales and he got me a job as a film stripper in their art department.

I could draw and you needed, film stripping is a lost art.

Nobody out there knows what it is and you don't need to know.

Technology killed it like so many other things in the '90s.

But no, film stripping back in his day was a really good trade to learn.

And that's what I did for 13 years.

- So each little part of the film strip, you had to add a little something to?

So it was like Disney, kind of a Disney thing?

- Well, not really.

You say film stripping, but like, one of our accounts was Hiram Walker.

We did a lot of liquor labels and it was the color separation of the labels 'cause you'd have to separate it into four colors.

And it's too technical to get into, but it was a really good trade to get into until computers came on the scene and killed it.

- [Christine] Took over, yeah, exactly.

- Yeah, so it's just one of those things that- - [Christine] So really nobody does that anymore?

- Oh no, it's a lost trade.

- [Christine] Wow.

- Yeah, the printing industry, that's kind of what I was in my whole life.

There was always, I always have had, when we get to talk about this stuff in a minute, but I've always had a night job to pay for what I really wanna do.

'Cause it never, what I really wanted do never paid the bills.

- [Christine] Okay, go figure.

- Yeah.

- All right then, so you worked there.

- [Marty] Right.

- And then you published this magazine locally?

- No, what happened was, my life is so weird.

I mean, we can't get, I said Steve, before we started filming this, we can't get into everything.

It would be three hours.

And people would be like, "We gotta go."

- [Christine] We might have to tune back in.

- I'd love to.

- All right, so you were doing the film stripping, and then what?

- Okay, I started Fleming Potter in 1980.

In 1985, a guy that I worked with, Greg Owens.

We used to draw cartoons for each other.

We were the two youngest guys in the department.

I was like 21, he was like 23.

So we would draw cartoons about these older guys we worked with making fun of them.

One of them used to play the Trivial Pursuit every day at lunch.

And I hated it 'cause I just wanted to eat, but he's spitting out these questions, and if you know the answer, you're automatically tempted to throw it out.

- [Christine] Right, and you did.

- Yeah, and I drew a cartoon of him, Russ was his last name.

But Russ and above it, I put Trivial Trivia, The Idiot Edition.

Then it was him asking these idiotic questions, who's buried in Grant's tomb?

How many members were in the original Jackson 5, stuff.

And I gave it to Greg and Greg kind of laughed.

And then after a while he came over to me.

We all had our own little light table we worked at.

He came to my light table with the cartoon.

He's like, "Could you think of any more of these questions?"

And I'm like, "Yeah, why?"

And I have to give it to Greg.

Without him, I never would've thought of this and I wouldn't be sitting here today because I had never written or done anything in my life.

He's like, "You know, I've always wanted to do something like the Pet Rock."

He's like, "If you could think of a bunch of questions, we could make a little game out of it and call it Trivial Trivia, The Idiot Edition like on your cartoon."

So that's what we did.

And that's how this was born.

Greg did the logo.

Where do I point this at?

- [Christine] Right, that camera's good, yeah.

- Greg did the logo.

He designed it, kind of handled the business end of it.

And it was basically just a deck of cards that had these crazy questions like, here, I'll let you read.

- All right, let's see.

The question is, okay, what type of videos are shown on music television, MTV?

- Musical ones.

- Imagine that.

Yeah, okay.

- Well I cheated 'cause I wrote it.

- Okay, yeah, yeah, but- - So the whole game was like that.

And then I learned a really good life lesson through doing this.

So we did it, you know, we're yucking it up and our friends think it's funny.

They say so.

But then we went to, Greg lives in Chillicothe, still does, I lived here in Peoria.

So I'm like, why don't we each take a day off from work?

You go to all the stores in Chillicothe, you know, I'll go to all the ones in Peoria, see how many we can get 'em in.

One after another, well, I can say the name of this business.

They're not in business, Bogard Drugs, remember them?

- [Christine] I remember that.

- I was a regular customer there.

So I started there and I thought, well, they all know me in there, so they'll... And we were just asking stores to do it on consignment.

They didn't have to buy 'em from.

We're like, if you sell one, then we'll get half.

Well, Bogard's was the first one and it went this way through the whole day.

I went in, there was this older guy who was the manager and I said, "Oh, you know, I've seen you.

You probably seen," "Oh yeah, I've seen you.

What can I do for you?"

I said, "Well, I've got this game that my friend and I invented."

He's like, "Invented, what do you mean?"

Well, this is before all the DIY stuff, you know?

This is '85.

And, "What do you mean you invented a game?"

And I showed it to him and he says, everyone said this.

He's like, "Well these questions are so easy, anyone can answer 'em."

- [Christine] That's why it's for idiots.

- I know, and I'm like, "No, it's a joke."

And I'll never forget this.

He threw the game at me and said, "I don't think it's funny.

Get out of here."

- Oh wow.

- I mean, not only did it not make him laugh, it got him like angry.

- Wow.

- And then I went like to Fogler's, I can see all these businesses are gone.

Fogler's threw me out, one after another.

Then do you remember Vic Burnett?

- [Christine] I do.

- You probably knew Vic.

- [Christine] He was at the WEEK.

- The weatherman.

- Yeah, he was, yeah.

- Well, I'm glad years later I got to have lunch with Vic and tell him, 'cause he really loved this story.

So my last stop was the Pere Marquette gift shop.

Did you know he owned that?

- [Christine] I do.

I know he ran it.

- Well, I knew Vic from TV.

I mean, like, you too.

I mean, if I would've seen you, I would've been all shellshocked.

I walked into this store and it's Vic Burnett.

And I look at him and it's just me and him.

And I'm like, "You're Vic Burnett."

And I'm sure you get that a lot.

I'm like- - [Christine] Well, nobody's ever called me Vic Burnett.

No, okay, got it.

(Marty laughs) - I'm like, "You're Vic Burnett."

And he's like, "Yeah."

I said, "What are you doing here?"

He's like, "This is my gift shop."

I'm like, "But you're the weather guy."

And he laughed.

He's like, "I can do two things, you know?"

- Exactly.

- And he said, "What can I do for you?"

So I showed him the game.

He's the only guy that got it.

He's laughing.

"This is hilarious.

You did this yourselves?"

Really, you know, Vic was so nice.

- [Christine] He was, yeah.

- So I'm thinking, finally there's a store we're gonna get 'em in.

I'm like, "Well, do you want to stock some of 'em for your gift store?"

And he's like, this is in like October.

"I blew my Christmas budget already.

Maybe after the new year."

And then this, I did a blog on this called "The Weatherman Who Changed My Life."

This was a point in time where my whole life changed.

'Cause he stood there with it and he said, "Hey, do you mind if I keep this?

I'd like to show it to a friend of mine."

Now in my mind I'm thinking, you cheap so-and-so, you're not even gonna offer to pay for it?

And I'm so glad I got to tell him that.

He really laughed when I told him that.

I'm like, and I just said, "You know what, I don't care.

Keep it, I'm gonna go home."

So I went home, called Greg.

I'm like, "Man, everybody hates this."

I'm like, "Guess who I met?"

And Greg's like, "Who?"

I said, "Vic Burnett."

"The weather guy?"

I'm like, "Yeah."

"Where'd you meet him at?"

I'm like, "He's got a gift shop in the Pere Marquette."

And Greg's like, he really couldn't believe that.

He's like, "What?"

I said, "Yeah, and get this, he's the only guy that got it."

And Greg's like, "Great, is he gonna stock it?"

I said, "No, he said he blew his budget.

But get this, he wanted to know if he could keep it, but he didn't even offer to pay for it."

I ain't nothing against Vic.

He just probably wasn't even thinking.

And Greg's like, "You didn't give it to him, did you?"

I'm like, yeah, we printed 300 of these.

I'm like, "Yeah, we got 299 left that nobody wants."

So now I promptly forget about it, go to work the next day at Fleming Potter, talking to Greg saying, "That was really something stupid."

If that wouldn't have gone, I never would've done any of this other stuff 'cause we felt really funny.

I'm like, "You know, I bet all our friends are just saying-" - A little awkward.

- Exactly.

I said, "They're probably just saying this.

People are probably laughing behind our backs."

Well, all of a sudden a coworker comes running in, "They're playing your game on WIRL on the 'Gene Konrad Show.'"

- Fun.

- And I'm like, "What?"

I'm like, "It can't be ours."

I forgot that I gave it to Vic.

- Right.

- I said, "It can't be ours 'cause nobody has it."

"I'm telling you, they said it was made in Peoria, Trivial Trivia."

He said, "I'd call and if I were you."

So I waited for the show to be over, called WIRL, do you know Gene?

- [Christine] I do.

- Nice guy.

And I thanked him too.

Him and Vic were the two people that changed my life.

- [Christine] Awesome.

- It really is.

And I called WIRL and get, "Can I speak to Gene Konrad?"

Now I'm kind of like nervous calling a radio disc jockey.

- [Christine] Right, but you're not on the air, so that was good.

- Right.

We were though eventually.

- [Christine] Eventually, yeah, but not for that first phone call.

- No, so I call and Gene Konrad, I'm like, "Hi, this is Marty Wombacher."

I said, "Were you playing some trivia game today on your show?"

"Yeah, it's called Trivial Trivia, The Idiot Edition.

We got people calling in wanting to know where they can get it.

Do you know who did it?"

And I'm like, "Yeah, I did it with a friend of mine.

You're kidding me."

He said, "Where can people get this?"

I'm like, "Nowhere, nobody wants to stock it.

Everyone thinks it's stupid."

"I'm telling you, people love this."

He said, "You wanna come on my show?"

And again, I'm like, "Well I've never done the radio."

And I've done so much radio.

Well I co-hosted a show the other week.

And I said, "Well I've never been on the radio."

And he's like, "It's just like what we're doing now."

He said, "How about you come on in?"

Again, this was Gene's idea, not mine.

After you talk to me long enough, you'll see I'm not a genius.

(laughs) I feed off other people's ideas.

- [Christine] Good for you.

- Yeah, and he said, "You know what you can do," he said, "You want to come on next Wednesday?"

And I said, "Well yeah, okay."

He said, "Bring your friend with you and in the meantime go back to these stores."

His show was really popular back then.

Big morning show, pre-internet.

And he said, "Tell them all that you will be on my show.

We'll plug their store for free if they stock your game."

I'm like, "Really?"

So begrudgingly, again, this is a life lesson you learn.

Begrudgingly, they all said- - [Christine] You went to Bogard.

- Oh yeah, no, I talked to him.

"Okay, are you sure you're gonna be on this show and if it doesn't sell, you're gonna take 'em back, right?"

- [Christine] Absolutely.

- Right.

So stock 'em, do Gene's show, went great.

All the stores sold out that afternoon.

- See?

- Yeah.

Well then all of a sudden now people are calling me a genius and, "We told you this was gonna be huge."

Like "No, you called me a moron."

- Basically.

All right, so that was your start, which is good.

And then you did the "People of Peoria" magazine.

- This got national attention.

We're on the "Today Show" with it.

Jane Pauley interviewed us.

So then we did a couple other games, Greg and I did.

They didn't go as big as that one, but it got me into doing writing.

I really found out I like to write and people seem to enjoy my writing.

So I thought, you know what, Peoria doesn't have a local entertainment magazine, a quality one.

I thought maybe I'll do it.

I had never done a magazine, anything.

But I took the money that I made from that idiot trivia game.

We ended up selling over 100,000 games.

- [Christine] Really?

- Yeah.

Kmart and Osco after we were on the "Today Show."

- Exactly, yeah.

- Kmart and Osco stocked it.

I mean, it only lasted like two months.

But in that time, that's all you need.

So with that money, I thought, you know what, I'll start my own magazine.

And this is called "People of Peoria."

This is the very first one.

You probably know a lot of those guys.

- [Christine] I do, yeah.

- John Williams.

- Well, John Williams, he's up in Chicago now.

- He interviewed me once in Chicago at WGN.

- Really?

Wow.

And the late Gary Olsen, the late Marc Truelove.

Let's see.

Yeah, I know them for sure.

- Well my idea and it did prove good, I thought.

I knew a lot of these guys from doing this stuff before.

So I thought I'll put the morning, back when there was a lot of morning radio guys.

- [Christine] Yeah, now there's one.

- Greg and Dan.

- Greg and Dan.

- Yeah, basically.

- Two.

But I thought I'll put all of them on the cover, that way I'll get on all their shows.

People will enjoy reading about these guys.

- [Christine] And there you go.

- It was a win-win.

You get tons of free publicity, which I did.

We got written up in the paper.

So this one sold out right out of the gate.

Well I did it for three years.

Here's some other ones we did.

We did our own winter swimsuit issue.

- [Christine] Okay baby.

- [Marty] A play on the old National Lampoon.

If you don't buy this magazine, we'll shoot this dog.

Do you remember that?

- I do remember.

That was terrible.

- Well that's what we did when we had hair dryers.

Oh, do you know Dave Stovall by any chance?

- I remember, yeah, the Elvis impersonator.

- Yeah, we took him to Graceland.

- Oh.

- And did a whole cover story on that.

That was a hoot.

I mean, doing this magazine was so much fun 'cause it basically allowed me to do stuff like this.

- [Christine] Which you got a big kick out of as well.

- Yeah, and in regular life, you couldn't just say, "Hey Dave, you wanna go to Memphis and we'll try and get you through Graceland."

And so it was a lot of fun.

We spent a night with a biker gang, the Untamed Brothers.

- [Christine] Man.

On the wild side.

- Yeah, they had what they called a clubhouse on the south side.

Jane Roschneider, she wrote the cover story and they took us to a bar and they were wearing their colors, bar in the south side, pretty rough joint.

But as soon as they walked in, I mean, people literally ran out of there.

- [Christine] Whoa, really?

- So it was three years and three of the most fun years.

But it was tough to get advertising because of what we were doing.

It was the best selling magazine in Peoria.

Do you remember the Illinois News Service?

- [Christine] I do, yeah.

- They did the distribution of it.

We were the number one selling magazine.

People loved it, but businesses weren't too happy with.

I heard a lot, "We don't really like the way you're portraying Peoria."

And I'm like, "I'm not portraying it, this is going on."

- [Christine] Yeah, exactly.

- And people love to read about it.

- Well, okay, so I guess we only have 10 minutes left.

I'm gonna have to have you back for another, you know- - See, this is what I was afraid would happen.

We'll cut right to my blog.

- Yeah, let's get to your blog.

Meanwhile, Back In Peoria, because you moved to New York for a while, then- - All this stuff took me to New York.

I did a bunch of stuff there that we can't get into, and moved back here.

- [Christine] Well, no, you did that blog.

You have to talk really quick about the 365- - Real quick, I did a blog in New York in 2010, can't believe in January, it would be 15 years ago.

Did a blog where I went to 365 bars in 365 days.

And every day I blogged about it.

I'd put up a new blog.

And it got a huge following, the New York Daily News wrote about it, the You Power Wire Service picked it up, put it on an international wire.

I was on the "Today Show" in Australia.

It was insane.

So it went huge, but I ended it here in Peoria.

Do you know Mike's Tavern?

- [Christine] I do.

- West Peoria, that was my grandpa's bar.

- [Christine] Little old garage.

- Yeah.

- Was your grandpa, was he Mike?

- No, no, no, my grandpa was a regular then.

- Oh, okay, got it.

- He always went to Mike's.

So I ended, and I knew the owner, Tony, I'm blanking on his last name, but Tony was the owner at the time.

So we ended it there and it was a big deal.

It was the biggest day I think Mike's has ever had.

It was packed with people, I was still living in New York, but still had a lot of friends here.

- [Christine] Okay.

- So we ended it there, and then in 2012, I lost my job in New York.

- [Christine] Which was your job?

- I worked for a graphics company.

I worked nights at a graphics company, kind of still in the printing thing.

Use my film stripping talents to get on the computer side of things.

So I worked nights there, but I lost my job.

I kind of did everything I wanted to do in New York.

I mean, I've written for the New York Daily News, I did a lot of freelance writing.

Did a magazine in New York.

There's a whole nother story.

But I thought, you know what, I've done everything.

To live in New York, it kills you.

I had to work 60 to 80 hours a week just to make- - [Christine] Just to pay the rent probably.

- Oh yeah 'cause I lived in the city.

- All right, yeah, wow.

- And I thought, you know what?

And I thought, maybe nobody's doing a fun blog in Peoria.

And I thought I could go back to what I did with my, kind of be a big fish in a little pond.

I went online, I saw nobody, there were people doing blogs, but they were all trying to do the news.

And I thought nobody is having fun.

So I moved back here, started the blog up, got a night job, and the blog now, last week it entered its 13th year, which shocks me.

I did it and I thought, if it goes and goes good for a year, I'll be happy.

- [Christine] Mm-hmm, and now it's 13 years.

- 13 years.

- And you got a proclamation from the mayor.

- Yeah, you wanna see it?

- I do.

- I was really thrilled with this.

And Mayor Ali, I'm sure you know her, she was so nice.

So it's a proclamation talking about how, you know, I have publicized Peoria and in a positive way.

- [Christine] All positive fun stuff, yeah.

- Yeah, and so that was really nice of her and the city, Stacy Peterson, to acknowledge what I've done.

I really, really made me feel good.

So I wanna thank mayor and Stacy for doing that.

- All right, so what's been the most interesting in 13 years?

I mean, you have a lot to choose from.

What's been the most interesting that you think?

Or what is the weirdest one for people who haven't followed you?

And it's Meanwhile, comma, Back In Peoria.

- Right.

Actually for the internet, it's just meanwhilebackinpeoria.com.

- [Christine] Okay.

- The most fun thing, which I haven't done for a while, I kind of hung it up when COVID happened.

I did a series for a while, which people loved, but it was the most uncomfortable thing you could do.

I would pick up lunch and go to a business.

Like I did it at Jay Janssen's office.

Go to the business, and it was called, Can I Eat My Luncheon Here?

I'd go to the business and people couldn't get it.

And the receptionist I usually would deal with.

I'd have my lunch, give them my card.

I've got a card that I always take with me.

My official, Meanwhile, Back In Peoria.

There, you can have that.

- [Christine] All right, Meanwhile, Back In Peoria card.

Okay, there it is.

- Yeah, and I'd say, "My name's Marty, I do this blog.

And one of the things I do is I go to businesses around town and see if I can eat lunch in their lunchroom."

And the receptionist always kind of looks at me and they're like, after I explain that to 'em, it's always this response.

They go, "I'm not sure I know exactly what you wanna do."

And I'm like- - [Christine] What's this all about?

- I just want to eat my lunch in here.

I've done it probably- - [Christine] You're just casing the joint.

- Right.

I've probably done it 10 or 15 times, it's like 50-50.

- [Christine] Okay.

- I did it at the police department and- - [Christine] And they were good with it or not?

- No, the woman, no, the woman there didn't like me too well.

I got literally thrown out.

- Oh no.

- Which actually though, when you think about it, the police department is probably the best place to be- - To be thrown out.

- thrown out rather than thrown in.

(both laugh) - You're right about that.

Okay, so that's one that you've had some fun with.

What else?

what other kind of things have you done that- - People really like, I've done food tours.

People love those.

In fact, right now I'm doing a donut tour.

I've done seven months of steak, I did a year of pizza, I did 20 weeks of tenderloins.

I take specific foods and then, you know, once a week we'll go somewhere and get that food.

- [Christine] In the area.

- Yeah, a Peoria and in the areas around here surrounding.

- And then do you come up with what's the best?

Do you let people vote what's the best, or?

- Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

It just depends on what my, I don't think this thing, I usually plan it about a week in advance.

- [Christine] Okay, so- - I don't think too far down the road.

I never have.

- You're not one of those.

Well, it seems like maybe you're enjoying life with everything that you do is just a lot of fun.

- It really does, and I always say it's kind of like improv.

Do an improv.

You go somewhere, you don't know what's gonna happen.

Sometimes it's a lot of fun, sometimes you fall on your face, but it's kind of fun.

It's a fun way to write and to, I mean, I've met, since I did that bars blog, I did three other blogs in New York.

- [Christine] All right, like what?

- One was called Tripping with Marty which I take a little day trip.

It's not what you're thinking.

Get your mind out of the '70s.

- [Christine] Oh, well you know what?

- That's why the title was that.

- It didn't sound good.

Yeah, I like that, okay.

- There was another one called Marty After Dark, which is, again, I'm in New York, so everything's open all night long.

And I always worked nights.

So I would go out and do late night stuff in New York.

- So late night stuff, so you would work nights like the three to 11 shift or even overnight?

- It was weird.

I worked all the overtime I could 'cause I had to.

- Just to pay the bills.

- Yeah.

I would always have to go in around two in the afternoon.

And then there were some nights I'm there till two, three, four in the morning, which is when I was doing my bar thing.

I had then to get to a bar quick where everybody was schnockered except for me.

- [Christine] That was fun.

You got some good stuff that way.

- It was good stuff, but it wasn't always fun.

- [Christine] No, I can imagine.

- Yeah.

- Well, now, so your friends in New York, you were there for 16 years?

- 19.

- 19 years.

And what did they think of you writing about Peoria or even coming back?

- Coming back, I don't know how many times I heard, "Why do you wanna do that?"

And I'm like, "Peoria is a great city.

It's big enough, there's stuff to do."

And I really did have it with New York.

I feel like I got the best out of it I could.

I'm lucky that I moved there in 1993 'cause it was the pre-internet New York.

So I got a see two sides of it.

And journalism changed so much with the internet.

- [Christine] It sure did.

- You know.

- And the same with mobile phones.

You didn't have people walking down the street talking on, or not even talking on their phones, texting.

- The last time I was in New York two years ago, I don't know how many times walking up like Sixth Avenue, like five people are walking into you 'cause they're walking down staring at their phone.

- Right.

- It drives me nuts.

- It does, me too.

It just shows how old we are.

- Exactly.

- Well, okay, we'll have to have you back.

What else do you wanna do while you're- - [Marty] I'm working in a book right now.

- Okay, tell me about that.

- The title is called "Confessions of a Spiteful Writer."

- [Christine] Because you found out you like to write now.

- Oh yeah.

- [Christine] But you're not spiteful.

- No, I am.

- [Christine] Are you?

- Yeah.

- Are you?

- No, a lot of the stuff, my writing was kind of born out of trying to spite people that say you can't do it.

Or you just kind of like with the game.

Oh, the lesson I learned from the game is everybody's always gonna tell you you can't do that.

Or who do you think you are, and- - [Christine] And you're gonna prove them.

- Yeah.

So when I say spite, I guess I don't mean it in a really bad way.

More of a, I'll show you.

- [Christine] I like That.

- Yeah, which is, I think how a lot of, you know, entertainment things are born to where, well one of the things that's inspired me my whole life is the Beatles were turned down by every recording company in London.

- Oh.

I didn't know that.

- Brian Epstein wrote a book, their manager.

And at one of 'em, he said a guy took him.

He said, "I need to talk to you in this back room.

The boys can stay there."

He said, he took him in the back and said, "Listen, these kids are going nowhere.

They're not talented.

They're young enough to learn a trade.

You better tell them right now.

They're never gonna make it in the music world."

- [Christine] Whoa.

Whoa.

- I read that as a young kid and it really did stick with me.

- And so that's why you adopted that philosophy.

- Yeah, and it kind of came true when I did the idiot trivia game.

I feel really lucky some of the stuff that's happened to me, that idiot trivia game especially, and Vic and Gene.

I've thanked them countless times.

Well Vic, he ended up at the old Jumer's.

- Right.

- And he set up a deal where he would have people speak and he had me come and give us talk about the two of us.

- Of how that happened.

- Yeah, which I was really happy to do 'cause I could tell he really liked it.

- Yeah, and we just lost him within the last couple of years.

- Yeah, that was really sad about that.

I know some of his children.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Good, well, but I mean, without him, without him saying, "Can I keep this?"

I wouldn't be sitting here right now.

- And I'm glad that you weren't spiteful about that.

- No, no.

- Being cheap and all.

- I kind of was in my mind, 'cause I remember thinking, are you cheap?

So and so.

I wish I told him later and he really laughed.

- Good, well thanks for being here.

We got lots more to talk about next time.

- I'd love to.

- So we'll do it.

- All right, Christine, thank you for having me on.

- Well, thank you.

I hope you've enjoyed this because I hope you got a good couple of laughs 'cause I know, and there's a lot more where those came from.

Thanks so much Marty Wombacher, thank for being here.

Thank you for joining us and you make sure that you be well.

(upbeat music)