[ Classical music plays ]
-Oh, Milverine's Milwaukee-famous.
-He's somebody that -- You know,
most people have never met him, but they've seen him.
-There's actually, like, Milverine sightings,
you know, where people will post it online, like,
"Here's a picture. Walking down the street."
-I don't know really anything about him, you know,
what he does, where he lives.
-He's this big guy who resembles Wolverine.
He has that real manly walk.
-Does not drive. I don't even think he has a bike.
-He's just famous for walking around Milwaukee
with his shirt off, looking super-ripped.
-He's glistening with sweat. [ Laughs ]
And just the hair and the beard. It's sort of like, "Oh, it's...
No, that's not Hugh Jackman. That's some other guy."
-He's definitely reaching legendary status,
I think, doing all these interviews.
-I think I'm better than Jackman, you know.
-And these "Milverine for President" pages
started popping up and all sorts of really goofy stuff.
-He has branded himself without even trying.
He's just unashamedly Milverine.
-He's that Milwaukee legend that everybody knows about.
-But if you're in Milwaukee and you don't know The Milverine,
there might be something wrong with you.
-Here he comes.
♪♪
-"After adversity, a local legend,
Milverine, is hitting his stride.
He walks, or, rather, he struts, around Milwaukee in summer.
He doesn't wear a shirt.
He's the most famous person in Milwaukee
and probably the world."
You actually believe any of this? [ Chuckles ]
So, a professional photographer, a woman named Jamie Robarge,
took these pictures.
She's famous in Milwaukee.
Now, when you see on YouTube I got 81,000 views,
this woman here is the one that did it.
There's some of her equipment here. Like...
Do you recognize some of that stuff?
A lot of the older people recognize me
'cause a lot of the older people read the paper now.
And then all the younger people
are the ones who use that social-media stuff.
So a lot of my fans are, like, teenagers or college age.
I never even had a laptop until about 4 months ago,
so I had no idea how many,
like, you know, views and all that stuff.
I'm not calling, like, a TV station, saying,
"Would you do a story, please?"
I got people chasing me down.
Kathy Mykleby, Channel 12 --
She's been on the news here for 38 years.
She chased me down by the Public Market.
She's in her late 60s, you know?
-Catching up with him is not an easy task.
-I mean, literally, we were driving past,
and I was like, "It's Milverine."
-I would recognize him before I recognized,
like, any athlete. -I mean, yeah.
-Like, literally. -Or, like, our mayor.
-I'm not in the best of shape now.
-That's okay. -I weigh about 190 now.
At best about 175.
-Okay.
-One, two...
-Yes, I love that face. -[ Laughs ]
-I was born in Milwaukee in 1962. Grew up in Milwaukee.
I worked construction and everything.
I've never been outside of Milwaukee
because there's really nothing better than Milwaukee, you know?
Here's the Milwaukee Art Museum.
You can tell by the architecture in Milwaukee
that it was done by geniuses, you know?
Milwaukee is known as, like, the garden capital, too.
Milwaukee Film Festival --
far better than the Cannes Film Festival.
German Fest, Mexican Fest, Festa Italiana.
Milwaukee County Zoo, one of the best zoos.
The City of Festivals.
It's where all the intelligent people are, you know?
Better than Los Angeles and New York.
Every park here in Milwaukee makes Central Park
look like a backwoods park.
Same thing in Hawaii. All you people think
Waikiki Beach is so good.
Bradford Beach in Milwaukee is far better.
In Milwaukee. Milwaukee. Milwaukee.
This is, like, the height of civilization
right here in Milwaukee, you know?
Man, this guy looks like he's nuts.
[ Laughs ]
Oh, yeah.
This is a beer that was named for me called Moo-waukee.
It's from MobCraft, a place on 5th and Virginia.
-So, this is Milverine riding a cow
and carrying a half-barrel of beer.
-Across the Hoan Bridge. -Across the Hoan Bridge.
-A lot of people want to do stories about me, but [Laughs]
sometimes I don't answer the phone during the summer,
so there's no way for people get in contact with me.
It could be that Bobblehead Hall of Fame place.
I walk past every day just about.
The guy said he's gonna, like, jump out
and, like, chase me down or something.
-So, the wall here is which bobblehead
people would like to see made next.
The most requested local bobblehead
that we get is Milverine,
and it has been for quite a while.
We called probably 100 times.
Not exaggerating.
And he was super-simple about it.
"You know, what do you want it to look like?"
He said, like, "Just use a picture from online."
This was sort of the generic initial design.
Pretty simple, you know.
Just Milverine walking down the street.
So, you're among the first people to see it.
He hasn't seen it yet.
We have to adjust the skin tone.
It's a little light.
And they didn't put any chest hair.
Yeah, we'll see if he wants to see it,
which you would think he would,
but, you know, he might not even really care.
So, yeah, this is sort of super fans
and legend-type people sort of in that category of Milverine.
Milverine will probably be prominently displayed here
in the local legends section in the back.
Hugh Jackman doesn't have a bobblehead.
We'll have to tell him that. He'd like that.
-I'm not the one that named myself Milverine.
Some Italian guy that lives in the Third Ward
that works advertising started it.
I only talked to the guy about twice.
I never even heard of Hugh Jackman or Wolverine
until, like, I looked into it, you know?
In the comic book, it looks more like me
than it does like Jackman, you know?
Jackman's more of a pretty boy dancer type.
-I've always loved song and dance.
-If me and Jackman got in a fight, he'd lose, you know?
All those steroids won't help him.
This is K, and this is O, you know?
We're in the basement of my house.
Here's, like, the workout stuff.
Like, a Chuck Norris thing with the pulley.
There's a bench with the weights.
Boxing gloves, punching bag, you know?
Do you know how to turn one of those things on?
-Yeah.
-The thing is, my brother does it for me.
[ Classical music plays ]
This is, like, a recital. Bjorling.
[ Man singing operatically ]
Hey, that's from "The Magic Flute."
This is considered the greatest lyric tenor of all time.
Better than Pavarotti.
♪♪
Well, I don't really think about much
of anything, you know?
Well, I like music and everything.
I never have headphones on,
but you can just hear music in your head, like.
The voices I listen to are universally known
as the greatest voices of all time.
And you mention some clown like this Blake Shelton character.
"Oh, yeah, I know that. That guy's on 'The Voice.'
Boy, is he good."
Blake Shelton's a joke.
Guy's a pansy. He can't sing at all.
♪♪
Hotel Madrid. Feels like you're in Spain.
Well, walking is one of the best exercises, you know?
And I never drove a car. I don't like being in cars.
I can't be in any. Like, I got motion sickness, you know?
I typically walk about 4 or 5 hours a day.
More in the summer when it's nicer weather.
Then more when it's extremely cold.
When it's extremely cold, you can walk all day.
You never get thirsty.
Milwaukee's always been a blue-collar city, like.
Friendly people all over the place.
Seems like a real good family area.
There's the Allen-Bradley clock,
the biggest four-sided clock in the world.
It's famous. They got a postcard of it.
In 2017, during the summer,
I was running down to Mexican Fiesta
to judge a dance contest, and my knee gave out.
I tore a meniscus in my left knee,
and it locked into place, like.
And I could barely walk for, like, 9 months.
I waited too long to have it fixed.
I thought it might have got better by itself, but it didn't.
I had to have surgery on it.
I didn't like that at all.
I mean, I like walking and everything, you know?
♪♪
-♪ There's a guy that we all know ♪
♪ Walking shirtless in the snow ♪
♪ Where is The Milverine? ♪
♪ I see The Milverine ♪
-Yeah, but I'm never going away
'cause I'm never going anywhere, you know?
They should have knew I was gonna be back, you know?
I'll haunt everybody forever. [ Laughs ]
-♪ I see The Milverine, face on a magazine ♪
♪ It's a Milwaukee thing ♪
♪♪
♪ Where is The Milverine? ♪
♪ I see The Milverine ♪
♪ Face looking so serene ♪
♪ Through exploding...♪
♪♪
♪ Where is The Milverine? ♪
♪ I see The Milverine ♪
♪ Face looking so serene ♪