Joe Brehm has been manager of This Is It bar for almost his entire life. The bar was opened by his mother June Brehm in 1968 as a gay bar, and she has owned it ever since, letting her son control things. Joe has kept the bar exciting, and has maintained a loyal following of old-timers as well as new blood. The bar continues to be busy on evenings when other bars' business lags, in part because it is the only gay bar in the immediate downtown area (and thus easy for visitors staying in downtown hotels to get to) but also because of Joe's presence and warmth with all his customers.

Joe is also very community aware and an activist. He was close friends with Terry Boughner and Jerry Johnson when they produced the Wisconsin Light newspaper, helping them computerize and use new technnology for typesetting, layout, email, etc. Joe is also often the first in line to support community causes, hosting fundraising events for the Cream City Foundation, AIDS, and other worthy causes.