Michigan's Big Show

Michigan's Big Show is built around Michael Patrick Shiels, known on air as MPS. Producer and creative director Tony Cuthbert reads an introduction that places him in the shadow of the Capitol Dome in Lansing and bills the program as both radio and television. The welcome is effusive. Shiels is hailed as a legendary broadcast host, called velvet-voiced and congratulated on being broadcaster of the year, and one guest says the introduction felt like an audience with the Pope. Then comes 'Good morning, world,' and the news. The headlines range well past Michigan. One rundown promises good news, reports that China will not send air defense systems to Iran, and answers the president's forecast of a big fat hug from President Xi with 'we'll see about that.' The same rundown carries grim material too, including Iran preparing to execute a female protester. Another monologue picks up a spat between the pope and the president, then a Pentagon prayer service where the defense secretary read the Ezekiel passage Samuel L. Jackson recites in Pulp Fiction. The guest chair is where the mix gets wide. Episode titles carry names such as Tim Golding, State Director of Americans for Prosperity Michigan, and Heather Zak, Psychologist. Jim Wise, vice president of marketing at FireKeepers Casino, is brought on with Shiels reciting the stars from his casino years: Frank Sinatra, Tim Allen, Larry the Cable Guy, and Drew Carey, whom Wise hired before Carey was a household name. Shiels adds that Wise worked as a stadium announcer at 76ers games and credits that for the voice. Terry Moore, a Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member and contributing editor at The A Position, returns after Shiels owns up that their previous talk buried the lead. The lead was an honor at Augusta National for his 40th Masters as media, which Moore had been too modest to spell out. Then the show leaves town. In the Reno Tahoe territory, Shiels and Cuthbert see Jerry Seinfeld at the Tahoe Blue Event Center, where the comedian needed no introduction and simply walked out and started being funny. At Fox and Hound Smokehouse Grill and Bar, high above Heavenly Ski Resort, they face off against the Menu Burger: a personal pepperoni pizza, pulled pork, fried eggs, a bacon cheeseburger and chili cheese garlic fries, with a pound of hot wings and a side salad alongside. It is free if finished inside 60 minutes, and someone named Molly is credited with doing it in 3 minutes, 22 seconds. Sponsor language is part of the texture, from the AT&T microphones to FireKeepers Casino Friday, and the plugs reach as far as Andrew Abood's A-List Hour podcast. For a first listen, the Menu Burger episode shows the lighter side, while the Terry Moore conversation shows Shiels circling back for a story he missed.