OK, I know you'll just scoff because you see the word Italy in this blog, but last night as I was watching the first installment of "Mal'Aria," a two-part Italian TV movie based on the novel by my long-distance friend Eraldo Baldini, I saw Milwaukee's Mike Schank in a commercial!
The ad is for Golia, a brand of Italian mints and candies made by Perfetti Van Melle, and in it, Schank -- who you remember from "American Movie," of course -- is standing on the lawn in front of a house (there's an AMC Pacer behind him in the driveway), dressed in a tie-dyed shirt that is short enough to show his midridff.
"Marco," as he's called in the commercial, eats a candy, smiles wide and then, at the end of the ad, we see him jiggling said mid-section.
"I just saw the ad myself for the first time on You Tube," Mike told me by e-mail last night. "It was fun, we shot it in L.A. last summer. They called me out of the blue. I was in an NFL commercial a ways back. My best TV appearances include the ch. G4 Halloween shoot and the "Greg the Bunny Show," among others.
"Not long after the Golia ad I went with my wife to Italy on our way to Albania."
The spot was directed by Norway's Henrik Sundgren and you can see it here...
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
