Wease Family Circus

Doug Flutie hadn't had a bowl of his own cereal in 30 years. Then a smushed box showed up in a case from the manufacturer and he cracked it open. The old formula. He said he dropped the spoon. That's the energy of this one. Wease and Doug go back further than most people know, and Wease did his homework before this conversation. The Heisman. The Hail Mary. The statue outside Boston College. Three...

Wease read a book in March and spent months tracking down the author. That's how Juliet ended up on the podcast. The Encore is Juliet Izon's debut novel, and Wease finished it in days, cried at least twice, and immediately handed it to Doreen. Juliet is a journalist who covers food, travel, and interior design for places like Food and Wine and Architectural Digest, and she breaks down how a first-...

Wease heads into surgery Friday with two straight poker bad beats still burning a hole in his chest. Pocket aces, river straight, same hand two days in a row. He's convinced he's in a bad luck tank. Doreen's convinced the poker table is just clearing the way for the operating room. Before that, the three of them dig into Bills football, Josh Allen's shovel pass, and whether CJ Gardner-Johnson has...

Two Buffalo guys who moved to LA made a five-episode Bills Mafia documentary called "Just One Before I Die" and they came on to talk about it. Kevin Polowy and Addison Henderson followed the fan base across two seasons, filmed on the Seneca Nation reservation for a curse-breaking ceremony, tracked a father of five with late-stage cancer hoping to see one more season, and documented a woman who rec...

Andrew Dice Clay was supposed to be on this episode. The promoter called, Wease said yes, and then Dice found out who he was doing the interview with and passed. That's how EP 35 starts, and it only gets more interesting from there. Wease pulls the full story behind the two lawsuits that still follow him around on Wikipedia, including a phone call he got at a cold rink in Fairport during one of Ja...

Two days after the Wease Show Reunion, the two people who flew the farthest to be there sit down at Captivate Studios to unpack it. Cindy Pierce in from Toledo. B.J. Shea in from Seattle. And Wease, who couldn't hear a word of his own reunion, finally gets to find out what happened. Start there. Wease admits he was terrified his kids would watch him stink up the joint because he's deaf, and he tel...

Recorded live at Comedy at the Carlson: the Wease Show Reunion. One night, one stage, and just about everybody who ever sat behind a microphone with Brother Wease. B.J. Shea flew in to host, and he opens with the truth: this is the send-off that should have happened on the radio and never did. A National Radio Hall of Famer, same wall as Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and Orson Welles, got walked out the d...

Wease has known Jimmy Flynn for 75 years. They grew up a block apart on Park Avenue, Jimmy the Irish Catholic kid from a family of 11 with one bathroom, Wease the Jewish kid down the street. This week Jimmy finally sits down at Captivate Media Studios, and Wease admits he's never actually heard most of these stories until now. Start with the basics: Jimmy was born in the vestibule of the family ho...

Sports edition. Wease and Jake bring in Dan Borrello, sports columnist for the Times of Wayne County (Wease's favorite newspaper), to break down the Buffalo Bills before a single snap of the season. New head coach, new defense, new stadium, new grass, and a franchise quarterback who Dan says just ran out of excuses. Josh Allen signed off on the coach, the GM, and the field. Now it's on him. Dan wa...

Before he built Black and Blue, Charlie Fitzsimmons was parking cars and interning on the Wease Show. This week he's back at Captivate Media Studios, and Wease, Doreen and Jake get the whole story from a guy who went from producing morning radio bits to running one of the biggest restaurant operations in Rochester. Charlie walks through how he and his brother built Tonic with their own hands in 19...

Wease finally takes the political filter off. Comedian Beth Donahue-Weedman pulls up to Captivate Studios, visiting from Nashville, and the show that's dodged politics for as long as it's existed lets it all out. Beth has been doing stand-up for 25 years, got sober before she ever hit a stage, and has the stories to prove it, from the paper AA directories she used to find a meeting in every city s...

Rochester radio royalty pulls up to the Captivate Media Podcast Studios. Dave Kane, the Beatle expert who spent 42 years on the air in this town, sits down with Wease and Jake for a loose, funny, and surprisingly deep hang about the band that changed everything, the radio era that's never coming back, and how to bake the perfect batch of weed cookies. Dave breaks down the Beatles like only a guy w...

The Wease Family Circus goes mobile for the first time. Wease and Jake and Doreen set up shop live at Electric Car Corner out in Farmington and spend the day with owner John, a guy Wease has known damn near 40 years, breaking down why used EVs and hybrids might be the best-kept secret in the car game. John makes the case everybody's sleeping on: an $80,000 electric car with 20,000 miles going out...

Two of Rochester's finest scoundrels, Tommy Brunett of Iron Smoke and Sean McCarthy of McCarthy Tents and Events, pull up to Captivate Studios to break down Hoochenanny, the music and whiskey festival blowing up in its new Penfield home August 14 to 16. This is not your average field-and-a-stage festival. These two built a monster: a 15,000 square foot air-conditioned World of Whiskey, a two-story...

Radio is dying and Billy Moran isn't pretending otherwise. He started at 19 doing overnights in Poughkeepsie, spent 30 years on the air, and right now he's getting cut loose because the company that had him on 80 classic rock stations is going broke. This week he sits down with Wease and Jake at Captivate Studios, and it turns into two hours of the kind of stories only these two could tell. They g...

Bruce Pilato has been in the room for damn near every moment that matters in rock and roll, and he did it all without ever leaving upstate New York. Three of the four Beatles on tape. 400 photos he owns outright. 1,100 celebrity interviews. This week Wease and Jake sit down at Captivate Studios with the legendary music journalist, ELP manager, and Rochester Music Hall of Fame producer for two hour...

The whole family broadcasting from inside the weed shop on Clifford Ave, right next to Savoia's Bakery, for the one-year block party. Wease, Doreen, Lucy, and Jake. Fifty grand in production gear sitting next to Grateful Dead bongs and glow-in-the-dark ashtrays. Jake brought 38 and a half cables when he needed 39 and a half. Couldn't go live at first. Then built a full studio inside a dispensary a...

Marshall Fine walks into the Circus. The guy who wrote the book. Film critic, author, the man who spent two years pulling stories out of Wease and his old friends and turned it into Addie's with Wease. Wease was mad about how Marshall wrote it. Until he wasn't. Until he got that Marshall had to write it in Wease's voice, because it's Wease's story, told the way Wease tells it. All the detours, all...

Wease buried a Burger King bag in the backyard and called it a funeral. Lucy's hamster died while the family was in Florida, so Wease threw the whole cage in the garbage. Lucy wanted a real burial. So they stuffed a Burger King bag in the ground, held a full ceremony, and mourned a Whopper wrapper. Nibbles the hamster got fast food last rites. Full house this week. Wease, Doreen, Lucy, and Jake al...

The Wease Family Circus is full house this episode. Wease, Doreen, Lucy, and Jake all in the room. We start with the show. July 17. Comedy at the Carlson. Wease Show Reunion. All the people you loved from the radio, live and in person, finishing what should have been on the air. Q&A. Surprise guests. The whole circus. Come be part of it. Tickets at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35843/production/127682...

This episode is brought to you by the Contractor Store. https://thecontractorstore.com/ Elvio Fernandes walks into the Circus. 14 years in Daughtry. One of Rochester's most famous musicians, even if he won't say it himself. Wease has known him since the very beginning, when Elvio was a 28-year-old real estate agent with two kids, a mortgage, and a phone that randomly buzzed mid-showing. Chris Daug...

Mark Ippolito walks into the Circus. The man behind every major comedy show in Rochester. The guy who turned a dinky pool hall into a 190-seat club in Webster, then convinced Shresh Gowell to break into an abandoned warehouse and build Comedy at the Carlson, one of the best clubs in America. This is the origin story of Rochester comedy Mark started at Comics Cafe in the box office. Then security....

Salvatore Fantauzzo walks into the Circus. Soccer Sam. Started with one pizza shop on Main Street in 1978. Turned it into 32 locations across New York. Financed his employees. Turned box makers into franchise owners. Built an empire on loyalty, hard work, and a high school home ec project. This episode is the origin story. A senior year assignment turned into a 48 year legacy. Fred's meat market a...

There's a study. Parents who let their older kids swear in front of them end up with more honest relationships with their kids. Strict parents? Their kids hide everything, sneak out, lie. Lucy brings it up. That sets the tone for the whole episode. This week: The peewee football game that almost made Lucy cry. The kid she babysits is about to turn 8. Simeon stayed with the family this week. He bro...

Clark Peshkin is the presenting sponsor of Wease Family Circus. Clark hosts free estate planning workshops that break down what actually works for New York families, especially if you own a home and want to keep things private and simple for the people you love. Register at https://clarkpeshkin.com/wease Wheels Maxwell from Wednesdays with Wheels rolls into the Circus and the whole thing goes side...