# Ep 123: Macho TWIPYs with Will Oetting, Imoto Harney, and Lucas Pepke **Source:** LoserKid Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2023-11-15 **Duration:** 79m 36s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://zencastr.com/z/eG5nfiXm --- ## Analysis The Loser Kid Pinball Podcast hosts Will Oetting (This Week in Pinball), Imoto Harney (Skill Shot Baby), and Lucas Pepke (the anonymous voice behind Macho Pinball and Puppet Pals) announce major changes to the 2024 Twippies Awards. This Week in Pinball is now operating under the Kineticist media umbrella with Colin Patterson as lead content creator. The 2024 Twippies will feature a musical format with Lucas and Imoto as co-hosts at Texas Pinball Festival in March, with voting starting December 18th and featuring 16 eligible games—the largest pool in seven years. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] This Week in Pinball is now rolled under Kineticist with Colin Patterson leading content creation — _Will Oetting, official announcement made Monday before recording_ - [HIGH] 2024 Twippies voting starts December 18th and covers Dec 1, 2022 to Dec 1, 2023 period — _Will Oetting, discussing new Twippies structure and eligibility windows_ - [HIGH] 16 eligible games are in the 2024 Twippies—the largest pool in seven years of awards — _Will Oetting, running through complete eligible games list_ - [HIGH] Lucas Pepke created the Macho Pinball character and generated 40,000-50,000 listens in a short period — _Lucas Pepke, revealing his anonymous persona and comparing viewership metrics between Macho and Puppet Pals_ - [HIGH] Pre-voting for content creator categories (streamer, podcaster) is eliminated in 2024; single voting period replaces it — _Will Oetting, explaining structural changes to Twippies voting process_ - [MEDIUM] Pulp Fiction by Jersey Jack and Labyrinth by Barrels of Fun are still being verified for shipping eligibility — _Will Oetting, noting uncertainty about whether these games have officially shipped within eligibility window_ - [HIGH] Lucas Pepke has 20+ years of liturgical/Gregorian chant vocal training and sang in a televised Catholic mass in Birmingham, Alabama for 16 years — _Lucas Pepke, personal background disclosure during emotional reflection on his place in the pinball community_ - [HIGH] Macho Pinball was created partly as market research to explore the boundaries of what the pinball community would accept — _Lucas Pepke, explaining creative motivation behind the character and its anonymous nature_ - [HIGH] Josh Sharp (American Pinball) sits on the Twippies Committee as the 'ears on the Pulp Fiction side' — _Will Oetting, noting Sharp's role in monitoring manufacturer shipping status_ - [HIGH] Games must have shipped within the eligibility period to qualify for Twippies—not just announced or revealed — _Will Oetting, clarifying Twippies eligibility requirements for games_ ### Notable Quotes > "This Week in Pinball is now rolled under Kineticist... If we can team up and pool our resources, I think we might have a little bit bigger shot at stuff." > — **Will Oetting**, Early in episode > _Official announcement of TWIP's shift to Kineticist umbrella and strategic reasoning_ > "I will cry so hard in front of that audience." > — **Lucas Pepke**, Mid-episode, discussing emotion around Twippies co-hosting role > _Emotional honesty about his nervousness and investment in the role_ > "Macho had, I don't know, maybe 40,000, 50,000 listens in a really short period of time. And Puppet Pals had only like 400 total." > — **Lucas Pepke**, Discussing anonymous character metrics > _Quantifies relative success of different anonymous projects and market interest_ > "Where else would you find like the main singer of Barenaked Ladies Genghis Khan having fun together with a voice actor that does Star Wars Episode One?" > — **Lucas Pepke**, Mid-episode, discussing pinball community diversity > _Articulates the eclectic, welcoming nature of the pinball community_ > "Pinball is the great equalizer... it's like the island of misfit toys." > — **Lucas Pepke and Josh Roop**, Late episode, community reflection > _Captures the community sentiment about what makes pinball special as a unifying force_ > "We're going four hours. We're going big. We know that everyone wants to be in that room with no deodorant and farting and smelling like cheese for four hours." > — **Will Oetting / Josh Roop**, Discussing 2024 Twippies format and runtime > _Humorous but realistic description of the Twippies experience; signals extended production with musical elements_ > "I needed to learn how to make a podcast... I was listening to pinball podcasts and they'll listen to anything. So which is true, which is anybody who's listening to this definitely has low standards." > — **Lucas Pepke**, Explaining origins of Macho character > _Candid reflection on creative motivation and the pinball community's appetite for content_ > "This is a musical. Let's not get this wrong, people. This is a musical." > — **Will Oetting**, Mid-episode, clarifying Twippies 2024 format > _Confirms musical format for 2024 Twippies Awards with Lucas handling singing_ > "I'm just me, right? Like, I'm trying to do all these different things. But... I know this community better than most." > — **Lucas Pepke**, Late episode, emotional moment > _Reveals anxiety about public identity reveal but confidence in community knowledge_ > "It's really cool to actually spend time with you guys because I know we have talked and so again I'm sorry I got us off track, but like this podcast is making it feel really real for Lucas now." > — **Lucas Pepke**, Late episode > _Signals emotional impact of public reveal and real-time processing of his new public role_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Will Oetting | person | Co-founder/operator of This Week in Pinball; now serving as advisor under Kineticist. Announces major structural changes to Twippies Awards and oversees game eligibility requirements. | | Colin Patterson | person | New lead content creator for This Week in Pinball under Kineticist umbrella; has been writing weekly TWIP posts since mid-2023. | | Lucas Pepke | person | Voice actor and musician who created the anonymous Macho Pinball character and Puppet Pals project. Recently publicly revealed identity. Co-host of 2024 Twippies Awards. Has 20+ years of liturgical vocal training and sang in televised Catholic mass for 16 years. | | Imoto Harney | person | Content creator behind Skill Shot Baby and technical/live event coverage. Regular presence at Marco booth at conferences and expos. Co-host of 2024 Twippies Awards. | | Josh Roop | person | Co-host of Loser Kid Pinball Podcast alongside Matt Scott Larson. Engaged in pinball media and community discussion. | | Matt Scott Larson | person | Co-host of Loser Kid Pinball Podcast; described as 'captain' by Josh Roop. | | Jeff Patterson | person | Previous operator/organizer of Twippies Awards before transition to Will Oetting and now Colin Patterson under Kineticist. Referenced in Macho character's comedic bit. | | Zach Sharpe | person | Owner of Flip N Out Pinball (with Nicole). Promoted as pinball distributor/retailer with current inventory deals. Mentioned as Meny family variant spelling in KB. | | Nicole Minney | person | Co-operator of Flip N Out Pinball with Zach Sharpe. Pinball distributor and retailer. | | Jeff Teolis | person | Referenced as having superior vocal cords (jokingly) compared to Lucas. Canadian pinball personality with media involvement. | | Christopher Franchi | person | Accused of being Macho Pinball; noted for superior Macho impressions. Artist/voice actor in pinball community. | | Josh Sharp | person | Sits on Twippies Committee; serves as American Pinball liaison monitoring Pulp Fiction shipping status for eligibility. | | This Week in Pinball | organization | Pinball industry newsletter and media outlet; now operating under Kineticist umbrella. Organizes annual Twippies Awards. Founded around 2016-2017; now transitioning to Colin Patterson's leadership. | | Kineticist | company | Media company acquiring/integrating This Week in Pinball. Described as having existing media operations that are pooling resources with TWIP. | | Flip N Out Pinball | company | Pinball distributor and retailer; sponsor of Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. Owned by Zach Sharpe and Nicole Minney. | | Loser Kid Pinball Podcast | organization | Long-running pinball podcast sponsored by Flip N Out Pinball. Hosted by Josh Roop and Matt Scott Larson; Episode 123 is subject of this analysis. | | Texas Pinball Festival | event | Venue for 2024 Twippies Awards in March; location where Lucas and Imoto will co-host the ceremony. | | Twippies Awards | event | Annual pinball industry awards organized by This Week in Pinball. 2024 edition will feature musical format, expanded game eligibility (16 games), new voting structure, and Lucas/Imoto as co-hosts. | | Macho Pinball | organization | Anonymous podcast character/project created by Lucas Pepke for market research and creative exploration. Generated 40,000-50,000 listens. Now publicly revealed. | | Puppet Pals | organization | Creative project by Lucas Pepke; generated significantly lower viewership (~400 total listens) than Macho Pinball. | | Skill Shot Baby | organization | Media/content project associated with Imoto Harney; involves technical and live event coverage. | | Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Pulp Fiction pinball machine; eligibility status pending verification of shipping by Twippies Committee. | | Barrels of Fun | company | Manufacturer of Labyrinth pinball machine; eligibility status pending verification of shipping by Twippies Committee. | | American Pinball | company | Manufacturer represented on Twippies Committee by Josh Sharp. Galactic Tank Force is eligible game for 2024 awards. | | Spooky Pinball | company | Manufacturer; Scooby-Doo is eligible game for 2024 Twippies. | | Multimorphic | company | Manufacturer of P3 modular platform; multiple eligible games (Drained, Final Resistance, Defender module). | ### Topics - **Primary:** This Week in Pinball merger with Kineticist, 2024 Twippies Awards structure and eligibility changes, Lucas Pepke's public identity reveal and Macho Pinball character, Musical format for 2024 Twippies Awards, 16 eligible games in 2024 Twippies—largest pool in seven years - **Secondary:** Pinball community culture and inclusivity, Lucas Pepke's background in theater and liturgical music - **Mentioned:** Flip N Out Pinball distribution and inventory deals ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.82) — Generally celebratory tone about Twippies expansion and Lucas's public reveal. Some nervousness from Lucas about stepping into public role, but warmly supported by community. Will's announcement of Kineticist partnership is presented as growth opportunity. Humor and joking throughout creates upbeat atmosphere despite Lucas's anxiety moments. ### Signals - **[business_signal]** This Week in Pinball integrated under Kineticist media umbrella with Colin Patterson assuming primary content leadership role while Will Oetting transitions to advisory capacity (confidence: high) — Will Oetting: 'This Week in Pinball is now rolled under Kineticist. So Colin is kind of taking the lead... I'm still there helping him as an advocate and advisor' - **[event_signal]** 2024 Twippies Awards to feature musical format with 4-hour runtime, Lucas and Imoto as co-hosts at Texas Pinball Festival in March, significantly expanded eligible games pool (16 games, highest in 7 years) (confidence: high) — Will Oetting discusses musical format with Lucas performing; confirms 16 eligible games; cites this as largest pool in seven years of awards - **[community_signal]** Lucas Pepke publicly revealed as the anonymous creator of Macho Pinball character and Puppet Pals projects after maintaining anonymity for extended period; character generated 40,000-50,000 listens (confidence: high) — Lucas Pepke: 'I revealed myself like six months ago on Special When Lit'; Josh Roop notes Lucas 'You know him by voice'; Lucas provides viewership metrics comparing Macho (~40-50K) to Puppet Pals (~400) - **[content_signal]** Macho Pinball emerged as significant anonymous podcast character that spawned community mystery-solving efforts, inspired other podcasters to create Macho impressions, and generated speculation across multiple shows before reveal (confidence: high) — Lucas Pepke: 'it rippled through the community, and all of a sudden all the podcasters had to prove that they weren't Macho'; Christopher Franchi gained recognition for Macho impressions during mystery phase - **[market_signal]** Pinball machine market characterized as 'buyer's market' with significant inventory deals available, including rare/grail machines; Flip N Out Pinball positioned as broker with negotiating leverage (confidence: medium) — Josh Roop: 'it is a buyer's market... there are some deals out there that you have not seen before, especially if you have a grail pin'; promotion of Zach Sharpe's ability to 'work some magic' - **[product_launch]** Pulp Fiction (Jersey Jack) and Labyrinth (Barrels of Fun) shipping status still under verification for 2024 Twippies eligibility; Josh Sharp monitoring Pulp Fiction on behalf of Twippies Committee (confidence: medium) — Will Oetting: 'there's a couple we have on our list that are kind of we're waiting and seeing'; 'Josh Sharp is actually on the Twippies Committee, so he's kind of our ears on the Pulp Fiction side' - **[personnel_signal]** This Week in Pinball leadership transition from Will Oetting to Colin Patterson; Will recruited Colin mid-2023 for content creation, observed his passion, and facilitated merger with Kineticist to enable Colin's fuller engagement (confidence: high) — Will Oetting: 'I asked Colin to come on and help do content for This Week in Pinball, probably mid this year [2023]... I saw his passion for it... I felt like it was a good merger' - **[industry_signal]** 2024 Twippies eligible games demonstrate diverse manufacturer representation including established players (Stern, Jersey Jack, Spooky, Multimorphic) and emerging/boutique manufacturers (Pinball Brothers, Barrels of Fun, Pinball Adventures, Prodretti) (confidence: high) — Will Oetting's comprehensive eligible games list includes: 'Punny Factory from Pinball Adventures... Queen by Pinball Brothers... Labyrinth by Barrels of Fun... Whirlwind Total Chaos by Prodretti' - **[design_innovation]** Classic game remakes gaining eligibility in Twippies categories; Whirlwind Total Chaos eligible for Art and Rules categories (not full game); Alien Ripley version of established game eligible for art-only category (confidence: medium) — Will Oetting: 'Whirlwind Total Chaos by Prodretti, and that's only in several categories like Art, Rules because it's not a full game. It's the remake of Whirlwind' - **[community_signal]** Pinball community characterized as uniquely welcoming to creative collaboration across diverse professional backgrounds (vocalists, voice actors, artists, engineers, HVAC technicians); described as 'island of misfit toys' and 'great equalizer' (confidence: high) — Lucas Pepke: 'Where else would you find like the main singer of Barenaked Ladies... having fun together with a voice actor'; consensus characterization of community as 'island of misfit toys' that 'unite[s] very different people' - **[content_signal]** Loser Kid Pinball Podcast at Episode 123 milestone; continues active sponsorship by Flip N Out Pinball; hosts maintain strong relationships with industry figures and media personalities (confidence: medium) — Opening of episode references podcast longevity ('episode 123') and Flip N Out Pinball sponsorship; hosts casually arrange guest appearances through Facebook connections --- ## Transcript Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. We're on episode 123. I am Josh Roop with me, my co-host slash captain as always, Scott Larson. And Scott, it's kind of slow on the pinball news, but I think we've got something big tonight. Well, we do. But before that, if you want to get a great deal on a pinball machine, go ahead and check out Zach and Nicole Minney at Flip N Out Pinball. they have a lot of screaming deals right now. And pinball price, it is a buyer's market. So if you are looking for something even new in box, there are some deals out there that you have not seen before, especially if you have a grail pin that you're really looking forward to and haven't been able to find it, go ahead and contact Zach, and he can usually work some magic there. So flip it up, pinball. Zach and Nicole are definitely the best. Speaking of the best, we've got some amazing guests on tonight, starting with moto harney she's done skill shot baby she does a lot of tech live stuff and honestly she's just kind of all over the place whenever you're looking at like conferences and expos she's the person to go to in the marco booth we got lucas pepke if you don't know him by name you know him by voice i promise you do between moppy and steve and macho and all those names he revealed himself like six months ago on special when lit it was an office office awesome episode if you haven't checked it out go check it out and finally the grand master of all this will outing and he's here to talk to us about the exciting news with this week in pinball how are you all you doing tonight awesome thank you for having us great fantastic still living in houston arcade Expo land. How much longer is this going on? The actual show's over, but I'm just still relishing and basking in the energy that they left at this hotel. If you're on YouTube with us, as the party you can see behind Emoto in her room, it is a non-stop party. She has a fog machine somewhere too. It's charging. Will, you've asked to come on and discuss some news that you've got going on. What's happening, my dude? Well, yeah. One of the big things that came out today, that would be Monday, is that Twip is now rolled under Kineticist. So Colin Alzheimer is kind of taking the lead. He will be doing the content and helping us out. And I'm still there helping him as an advocate and advisor for whatever he needs. So now this is this is a pretty big move, considering that Twippy stands for This Week in Pinball. So what prompted the merger? So a lot of it is that. So I asked Colin to come on and help do content for for This Week in Pinball, probably mid this year, mid 2023. So he's been doing the weekly posts. I mean, it's really his content out there every week. so you know after him coming on and doing that content I kind of saw his passion for it it's something that he you know was able to really jump into and and and just give more time to than I can so it's really been helping out this week in pinball so I felt like it was a good merger you know Kineticis has been doing some great stuff over there and if we can team up and you know, pool our resources, I think we might have, you know, a little bit bigger shot at stuff. So that's awesome. Okay. So we'll along with you, you have two people who are celebrities in the pinball, um, influencer talking about whatever we are, the pinball media. Uh, we all know Emoto and why don't you tell us why Emoto and Lucas, by the way, Lucas is the secret star of pinball. And by the way, if you haven't heard him sing, pretty amazing. Kind of hate him for it, really. I hope he strains the vocal cord because he's just so much better than everybody else. How dare you? Don't wish him on it. It's not fair. It's not fair. No, no, no, no, no. No, he has like vocal cords from the gods. He stole half of whatever Jeff Teal has left. It's very kind. Do it, do it. Yeah, that's true. So, okay, can we have Jeff Theolis and Lucas sing Endless Love at the next pinball convention? I will. Can we work that into what we discussed? We should. Great. Thank you. Only if I can be Diana Ross, though. That's right. I am not going to be no Lionel Richie. No Lionel Richie. Yeah, that's true. I have recorded Endless Love. Okay, wait, wait. That was a joke. He's already ready for it. Where's the popcorn? I have recorded Endless Love as Steve and Moppy before. I have hidden banks of content that I've never put out in the world, and that's one of those where I'm like, you know what? Maybe I crossed the line here. Maybe I went too far. Did you publish that? No. I shared it with Emoto I was like I remember it Emoto gets Emoto got so much extra content that no one ever got because I was like this is too weird and too far and too stupid no I will thank god I'm doing this anonymously because what are people going to think of this person what are they going to think now it's time for them to start thinking putting you on stage, baby. Okay, so yes, Will, introduce why we have Lucas and Emoto on. Yes, yes. So Emoto and Lucas are going to be our co-hosts for the 2023 Twippies. So they'll be at TPF in March. And I think you can obviously see why we went with Lucas and how we expect to have a lot of singing. So it's musical Twippies. It is a full musical. Let's not get this wrong, people. This is a musical. I play with this all the time. Musicals are two and a half hours long. Is that how long the Twibby is? We're going four hours. We're going big. We know that everyone wants to be in that room with no deodorant and farting and smelling like cheese for four hours. And that is your night at Texas Pinball Festival. It's not that bad. I know. I'm joking. It's going to be like, for real, it's going to be a ton of fun. There might be some music. Look, we know this audience. We know this pinball crowd. I have tested the waters with how far you can take a musical in this. So I get it. Like, it's not going to be a full musical. But we might have some fun with it. Will wants to announce the new sponsorship of Axe Body Spray. They're going to have everyone in the Twippies just spraying them swills. You know, yeah. Twippies bought to you by Axe and Fireball. Well, and I don't know if anyone knows this, but Lucas, you talked about at one point in time, before anyone knew you were macho except for maybe Emoto, you were trying to get into the Twippies and do some kind of bit for the Twippies. Is this why you're now co-hosting? They're finally like, well, he did reveal himself, but we'll still do some macho there. Was that a covert audition? Do you want to do a macho bit? Yeah, do it. So wait, what was the question again? I'll try to work in my answer. The question was live. originally you were supposed to do macho at a twippy like you were supposed to do undercover and and no one know who you were at the twippies so like is that how you like became the co-host they want you to do this and you're just like i'm doing it like how about this this will be fun this is unscripted let me see if i can do a live macho episode on that history so it'll be it'll be about three minutes long. Okay. We got time. So you asked what was I planning? What was I going to do? Yeah. Right? Okay. Alright, I got it. Wait, wait, wait. This episode of the Macho Pinball Podcast Pinball Podcast Vlog show is brought to you by the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. All the way out there where the dinosaur bones are in Utah. Those two boys are so beautiful and they're I love their content. I've got to say, Macho Bravo on a great show, 123 episodes strong. That's a big old Macho Bravo. I didn't think you were going to get past four. Okay, here we go. Ladies and gentlemen, Macho Pinball! That's right. I'm back, baby. Working out a little bit of issues on my board because it's my first time doing it. But you didn't know. That's a secret sauce. Don't tell them what you're doing. You got your hand behind your back, but it doesn't matter. Hey, I got some news for you. I'm back. Here's what was happening. I was in a battle. A heated battle with Jeff Patterson. Yeah, you remember him. He was that fool. That fool that used to run to him. No, he's no good. He's no good, people. And I came at him and I said, Jeff, why don't you put a real host on that stage? Why don't you man up? Why don't you get some balls? Get macho on stage because you know that I am taking over the airwaves. I am the cream of the crump, and I'm the tip of the top, and like having your Bluebell ice cream shop. Bluebell homemade ice cream. Wait, what's that? Who came back? All right, so Jeff Pedersen. And I said, no. And then he said, macho, I invented COVID, and I'm going to put COVID all over the world so we're not even going to have a live show so you can't even come to my show. And that just deflated me so much that I stepped out of the podcasting game. answer your question perfectly like 100 percent so you killed macho pinball right you can jeff patterson invented covid so michael so so macho couldn't take the stage that was that was we can cut all that that's fine to cut we'll cut oh it's all staying in every last bit of it you don't have to put any of that into this world That's why I did it anonymously. It's not even that great of a macho man impression. It's just kind of what I envisioned as this guy. You know what's hilarious, though, is you did this macho man impression, and then for some odd reason it rippled through the community, and all of a sudden all the podcasters had to prove that they weren't macho. So we were all doing macho voices on the podcast, and somehow Franchi became macho. Everyone was saying it was like, seriously? him versus me and I'll Christopher Franchi props to you man your your macho man impressions better than mine I guess hands down it's a really good one like go find an episode and unearth it because it's really good it really is accused for being macho pinball several times I can't remember that actually like using a voice synthesizer you know that will show So at Class of 2020 Pinball Podcast, right? Let's rewind here to the classics of classic 2020 Class of Pinball Podcast. It was kind of – there was a lot of back and forth and a lot of just derision and I don't know. The tensions were high and I was like, you know what? somebody needs like a punching bag to come in where it's like a i joked around as like the arbiter of pinball podcast because it's a it was a pinball podcast about pinball podcast and the only reason truthfully that i made it was i needed to learn how to make a podcast i was working on another project with some friends and i was like i don't know but i've been listening to pinball podcasts and they'll listen to anything so which is true which is anybody who's listening to this Definitely has low standards. I'm a marketer by day. Know your market. And I said, okay, I'll get some listens. I'll get some feedback, and I'll start to learn how to make a podcast. And I was like, well, maybe if I make it funny. Anyway, it all came as a dumb idea. And truthfully, like, you know, that was a weird time for me in that point of my life. And so I was kind of vulnerable, and I was like, well, I just need to put it out there anonymously. Were you vulnerable because you were wearing those itty bitty tank tops that they all wear? Yes, that's exactly why. He got into costume before recording every time. You know, I researched costumes because truthfully, Jeff and I were talking about this because it was like it was starting to get traction really fast and be like, oh, like, hey, people are actually listening to this and having fun with the character. and I started to play around with like the mystery of it. And I threw out like I had a whole decoder device, y'all. I made that decoder device and I wanted it to be this kind of like weird journey where it's like if there's somebody that actually wanted to get that decoder device and decode the messages, like it was going to go somewhere. I had a whole like weird arc of a show for it, but I just ran out of steam. And then, you know, the pandemic hit and then I was like, oh, let me make this. What's stupider than what I already made? What like this is seriously my thought process because I don't want people to I know what I've made. Right. And there were reasons. And I think you can see like a progression in the character. Like you listen to the early things and then you see where the character got because it gave me an opportunity to do. Just explore that. And that's why I was like, okay, I'm going to make the Puppet Pals. That's really dumb. Will pinball people listen to a musical? I don't know. It was kind of like a market research thing of like, where as a marketer can I see the segmentation of my market? And what are they interested? Like, where's that Venn diagram of weird that they will accept? And like, what can I learn? How can I iterate on the creative process and say, I want to create something. Like I've had all these ideas for all these years and I used to be in theater and I sang, you know, at the time I was still mid stride. So there's a global Catholic television network in Birmingham, Alabama, where I live. And I sang there for 16 years, like literally every single day of my life was going to a live televised mass and singing. And, you know, before that, I used to work in the theater. So I have this really weird mix of like, I love musicals more than I love pinball. And, you know, then I've got a whole literally like 20 year plus liturgical, like high liturgical Gregorian chant classical training to my voice. So it's really, I don't fit anywhere. And I'm trying to like reconcile through that. And I've found a lot of friendships in pinball. Like it's, it's so crazy. Like Josh, Scott, we know each other because like we chat on Facebook, right? And Will, we chat on Facebook and Emoto, like we chat and like, it's been such a great community. And I'm so happy to celebrate that. Like, truly, like, I'm going to meet friends. I'll get emotional. Like, y'all, I will cry. I've accepted that now in my 40s. And it's like, if Lucas starts crying, it's going to happen because, like, I'll do it with my guy. I have a fantastic boss at work. And, like, sometimes I'll just be like, and it's I don't know. Like, it's I'm trying to just accept. That's me. I might cry because I get really passionate about stuff. So we accept you and we're glad you're part of our community. Thanks for choosing us. I mean, it's like literally pinball has been great. And I like I've played Tommy. I've done that show. And at the time when I was doing it in college, like, I don't know, it was it's a fun show. Like it's a rock opera. It's epic. And I wish I had at the time. Well, yeah, at the time in 2000 something, I wish I would have bought a game because I probably could have bought it for like a thousand bucks. Right. Back then. but I do wish I had a Tommy. I'm tangenting all over the place. So I'm sorry. What was the question? Where are we? So I think what we've all determined is we need to somehow get Lucas to win something at the Twippies so we can get him to cry live on national streaming television on worldwide. I will cry so hard in front of that audience. We can make him cry at the end of the show because it's over. And then he's going to cry his macho. I do have a question for Lucas, though. As a marketer, what were your number comparisons between Macho Pinball and Puppet Pals as far as viewership? Oh, it was nowhere near close. Macho had, I don't know, maybe 40,000, 50,000 listens in a really short period of time. and Puppet Pals got only like 400 total. That was all me. Zach and Dennis would have those numbers, but I don't. Gotcha. Let's pivot back. Back to the Twippies. So we got our two new awesome co-hosts. We got our new hosts for the Twippies. Is there any changes going into this next year with the Twippies? Yes, there definitely is. The big change is we are not doing pre-voting this year. So in the past, we had a period where we had write-ins essentially for multiple content creator categories like streamer and podcaster. That is gone. So now we are only doing one voting period. It's actually going to start December 18th. So it's going to start earlier than the previous years. And it'll cover everything. It will still have streamer, podcaster, YouTube channel, all those in there, but they'll all be prefilled from our TWIP databases that we've got, the promoters and the mods and the toppers. Okay. So will there also be different requirements as well with you not doing pre-voting? I know that like – I know this is pretty far stretch, but Colin talked about like a positivity implementation. I know something talking about that. How are you going to decide who you're going to put in the voting bracket? I guess. So, yeah, so we did talk through with the committee. We did talk through like having a good standing requirement. The committee voted that down. We're actually allowing people to, you know, we'll, we'll have everybody that's eligible in the dropdown and be available. So part of the reason for that is that we felt like it was disrespectful to our voters. if we took somebody out that they wanted to vote for, that they felt they wanted to show appreciation to So everybody in There are some eligibility requirements You can go to twippies and see what the eligibility requirements are for each category But it's really more about how many shows or podcasts you have in that period of time from 12-1 of the previous year to 12-1 of 2023. So that's really the eligibility. And this is one thing we were talking about Expo. but there is a misconception that these shows have to all be public, right? Because I think, if I remember correctly, it's like seven shows in a calendar year or something like that. Yeah, it's five. That's at least for podcast. Well, that's for the media stuff. Yeah. So, yeah, five shows within that period, and that's all there is. There's no if it's behind a paywall, if it's public viewable. It's just they have to have five pieces of content out there for that period of time. Okay. Okay, so let's run down some of the categories and let's talk about the different things. So first off, we want to know about the big categories. So let's talk about what makes something eligible for a machine. Does it have to be manufactured? Does it have to be announced? Does it have to come from a company that is not getting investigated by the SEC? Yeah, so the game categories, it has to be shipping within that period of time. So 12-1 to 12-1. So if it's been announced. 12-1 or 12-31? It's 12-1 of 2022. So it's December to November, basically. Correct. Yeah, December to November. Yeah, because you can say last year we started our voting, you know, in November for the pre-vote stuff and then on the 1st of January for the final vote. So we give that month lag so that we can prepare for the voting period. So 12-1 of 2022 to 12-1 of 2023, and it has to have shipped. So not just announcement, not just reveal, it has to have shipped. Okay, so can you – I'm not anticipating a game being announced in the next two weeks, but we'll leave that out there. What are the games – Sorry, it brings up an interesting question because I don't know if Pulp Fiction has shipped yet. I mean they've had a couple – I mean they've had a handful out there, but I don't know if they've officially shipped. I don't think Labyrinth counts. Yeah, and Labyrinth has – I mean they've made 10 or 12 of them. They haven't officially started shipping them. Yeah, there's a couple we have on our list that are kind of we're waiting and seeing. Yeah, you're kind of watching them, and we'll have to reach out to the manufacturer as we get closer. So Josh Sharpe is actually on the Twippy Committee, so he's kind of our ears on the Pulp Fiction side, but some of the others we are in discussion on. Nice. So it is – it's actually pretty amazing. As of right now, I think we have like 16 possible eligible games, which is the biggest we've ever seen in the seven years we've been doing it at least. And how many of them are from first-time manufacturers? I mean, that is probably an amazing thing right there. Yeah, because we have Punny Factory from Pinball Adventures. I'm really assuming Labyrinth will be in the next game. I think it will. I think it will as well. Yeah. this is well that's not first time but this is spinal tap will be this year yeah um but that's a pinball machine for non-pinball people hey don't try to influence the votes josh okay but let me i can just run through the rest yeah yeah go ahead give us the list because i'm curious to see what's on there right now yeah So Queen by Pinball Brothers, Drained by For Amusement Only Games. That's the P3 module, and actually it's full game for full artwork and animation, so that's full game. Scooby-Doo by Spooky, James Bond 007 60th Anniversary Edition, Foo Fighters by Stern, Final Resistance by Multimorphic, The Godfather by JJP. like we talked about Pulp Fiction is kind of still impending but it's there Galactic Tank Force by American Pinball Whirlwind Total Chaos by Prodretti and that's only in several categories like Art Rules because it's not a full game it's the remake of Whirlwind Punny Factory as we talked about last time Venom by Stern Jurassic Park 30th by Stern and that is only in art Dungeon Door Defender that was a game Michael Ocean made for P3 for the heist module so that's in audio, animation and rules Labyrinth by Barrels of Fun we do have the alien the Ellen Ripley version is kind of still on the edge I don't know if that's shipping yet or not but we'll have to talk about it. Um, Elvira's house of horror, the blood breath kiss edition. That'll be in for art. And then Elton John is the other one that is still pending, but I'm assuming it'll make it out by the first as well. That is a lot of insane lists. Like the one year where we had Godzilla and you looked at the list, it was kind of like, you know, it was hard to not assume that, but now with that list, It's just like every award is anyone's game. I don't know. Yeah, we talked about this the other night. We had a little team call, and it really was. I think we read out to us, Will, and Emoto, you and I had the same exact reaction. It's like, that's a really strong list of variety and artistry. It's a great year to celebrate. I think that's my point there. is it's not just one game that kind of came out and crushed it all at a really weird time, right? Like this past year for pinball has been gangbusters. So that's really neat to see. I guess the other question, too, is, I mean, how are you going to do intros then? Because I know usually last year it was like you kind of did all the games, and then per category you kind of just showed like a blip. Is that what you're going to do for this one? Because 16 games, that's a lot of games. Yeah, I'm sure. Last year we did do all games in the very beginning. We just showed them and then only showed the top three for each of the game categories. I assume that's what we're going to do again. It's going to be a musical format, though, for the intro of all the 16. So Lucas is going to sing everything for it. Oh, my God. No. I'll bring your cough drops. I don't want that for my audience, okay? We're going to create something that's fun and celebrates pinball, and that's it. Oh, wait. Hold on. Can we run by the committee, Will, to add another voting thing saying, do you want the Twippies to be a musical this year, yes or no? I already asked for the market to be a hard no. Hard no. Okay, if you're listening, I know after – we'll talk about numbers a little bit or a little later. But if there is anyone that listens to the show that is like into making puppets, Lucas, if they make you a Steve and Moppy puppet, would you do a full musical intro for the Twippies? Look, y'all, I know I came across manic earlier because I'm just – honestly, I'm really nervous because I know this community. I know the underbelly of this community better than most. And I just, I know that meek, you know, it was the fear that I already always had was who is like, I'm, I'm just me, right? Like, I'm trying to do all these different things. But no, I was, I was nervous before. and now like seriously like i'm so nervous y'all like it's a it's really cool and i have to acknowledge that like it's really cool to actually spend time with you guys because i know we've talked and so again i'm sorry i got us off track but like this podcast is making it feel really real for lucas now yeah yeah i was thinking in i said yes like months ago but all of a sudden It's sinking in. Crap, this is happening. We're recording now. Okay, I'm going to give you a hint, Lucas. The reason why you don't have to worry about it is because pinball is such an eclectic community that we really are come as you are. We don't, like, this is not, okay, I'm sorry, this isn't the cool kids club in high school, okay? We have left the high school cafeteria long ago. We are a collection of jocks, comedians, show choir people, people who work singing mass every day on TV, people who sell pinball apparel and stuff. Electrical engineers. Yeah. And we have people who keep us warm and cold, and then I just put people to sleep. So seriously, it is absolutely a collection. I say this lovingly but I feel a little bit like the pinball community is the island of misfit toys yes which is 100% awesome it's like it's like inside out with all those strange characters and that's what makes pinball beautiful is because it is a uniting force of very different people who can find something that they can bond over and so bring what you have and add to it well seriously like let's let's just write it down for a split second like where else would you find like the main singer bare naked ladies hanging out with a voice actor that does star wars episode one and it was done bob the builder yeah and then you've also got like christopher franchi that's an artist that's kind of like off the deep end and then me that does heating and air conditioning for a living, like technical work. It's just, it's really, I think Marc Silk put it the best, is like pinball is the great equalizer for some odd reason. Like it's like, well, sneak peek, we have a special guest coming up that's been on TV and coming up here in the next couple of weeks. Where else would I be like, I message a dude and I'm like, hey, by the way, we want to talk to this guy. Do you know how to get ahold of him? He's like, yeah, here's his number. And it's like, oh, cool. like you you kind of have the same like you you wanted to make skillshot baby and you got rupert from survivor helping out and you've got todd tucky that's got one of the best most successful arcade youtubes with like millions of views you know what i'm saying like yeah people together for sure i i guess that was you know where i where i said i was kind of in a rough spot of just like not you know not believing in myself and so it was easier to put it out there anonymously and I'm trying to start to believe in myself as dumb as that sounds. But it's got to get back to your original question, because I have circled back and I do do this often. So this is just me coming as me, just maybe a little more manic because I am nervous, but we're going to have fun. Would I let someone help me build puppets? Yeah, and I guess that's that's part of one of the reasons that I'm excited about this and I'm excited about some of the other projects that I'm working on, is that I just want to collaborate and create cool stuff with people. And you limit yourself in that creative scope when you don't tell people what you do. If you tell people what you do, you start to open those doors and those opportunities to just say, let me try. I may not be the best, and that's okay, but I'm going to try because I'm passionate about it. and you know I just that's that's kind of my theme of 2024 that I want to go into is just like look I've got a great job by day but like this is kind of my passion by night and I'm rediscovering it and music and and singing and characters are fun again and trying to not be scary like I've spent a lot of time in a little like three foot by five foot closet over the past year trying to just get better and learn and be comfortable with me again, because I lost a lot of that. And so, you know, I truthfully like, I really do appreciate anyone that listened to the stuff that I did put out there. It had moments of cringe. It had maybe moments of brilliance. I don't know. That's up to whoever listens, but like it truly is. It's an honor to be considered amongst those creative people that I look up to. Definitely. I think we picked a good co-host, Will. Oh, yeah. This is dry. I think so, too. But then, like, anyway, you can cut all this, but it's like, I just, am I being, like, way over the top and, like, just breathe. It's okay. These people aren't going to hurt you, Lucas. Well, and not to shortchange Will either, because he's created Silver Ball Swag. Like, shout out to Silver Ball Swag. I don't know any other community that has a store that is collaborative with the whole community. And if you have an idea, you kick it over to him. He is the easiest person to work with. I will 1,000% attest to that. So I don't want to keep talking about myself because, again, it feels cringy. But like when I when I started Macho, I reached out to Will because I was like, oh, it'd be cool to have some apparel. And, you know, like so I just sent him or I think, well, you may have even reached out to me. I don't I don't remember. Yeah, I think you actually you were like, hey, I'm starting this up. Do you want like your logo on something? And I was like, yeah, dude, that's freaking cool. Well, hey, I don't want to make any money off of it because I'm trying to just do this on the side. And so, I mean, it wasn't like it was not a ton of money. We sold some Macho merch early on and you can still go buy it, right? Well, it's still up. Yeah, we sold some at Expo. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to put myself up against that loser kid, which is very nice. It's pretty sweet. It's legendary. But Macho's got that sweet logo. Not to brag, we ended up bringing over 50 hats to Expo. Oh. Holy crap. To Scott and Josh, thank you. You did offer me like a beanie at one point, and I turned it down because I didn't want to. No, I'm not cool. I'm not cool. That's what you said. You're like, no, I'm way too cool to rep Loser Kids. No. I was like, if I tell them where to ship it, then they'll know who I am. I've already talked to you. Yeah. But, Will, what? We donated all the macho, and you can continue to do so. This is a way that I was like, I can't give anything really at this point in my life, but any of the proceeds from the sales of Macho Swag continues to go to Project Pinball. So it's not been a lot of money, but just know that any time that you do support Will, support any kind of macho merch, it goes straight to the kids. Nice. Nice. Wait, I can get pink macho joggers. Yeah, isn't that dope? And blue. I want pink. It's fair. So, yeah, go buy some stuff from Will, and it'll go support Project Pinball right away. Nice. So, Will, how are we going to be seeing a change going forward with Twip and Kinesis? I know we keep bouncing back and forth. This is a wonderful conversation, and it really doesn't bother me at all. But yes, I mean, so TWIP and Kinetisys, so I think early on, you're not going to see a whole lot change. I know Colin has some ideas that he is bouncing around and working on. I think his focus is probably going to be TWIP is going to be like the newsletter feature for Kinetisys. And it'll have that weekly content continuing on just like it is today. And hopefully, and I'm pretty sure if you ask Colin, that the focus will still be promoting content creators, promoting you guys, promoting those who are doing all this amazing work to spread the hobby. So I think it's going to be great because he's going to push it to – he's a marketing guru as well. So he'll definitely push it so that more and more people get to see it. I've enjoyed his stuff, and his branding is really on point. So I've not met or talked to Colin before, but I've admired his work. Was it killing you not to tell us at Expo? Well, we actually hadn't started talking about it until Expo. Oh, wow. Okay. That's when the baby was made. That's when it happened. That's when the magic happened. With his baby there. Yeah, that's when I knew Colin was the real deal. Okay, here's a question for you. now I'm putting you guys in the voter category which games are you most intrigued to see how they're received I'm most intrigued to see like how Godfather does just because out of all the themes that came out this year we kind of have a lot of like campy and fun themes and then Godfather is just this like serious mafia theme that is just so different than what we've seen before in a while um that's a good point and that what do they call the super gilded like gaudy it's it's horrible and beautiful at the same time like it's it's straight from 1975 yeah the gold light like that thing is pimped it is so in style but like best pinball legs category that's a beautiful gaudy it looks like someone dragged it out of the Venetian or something yeah it definitely seems like a place it comes from a place that is so decorated that you don't want to put anything down because you're going to displace like the plants and the cats and the whatever just everything around that house it's like martha stewart went crazy yeah the Casey Butler has to come by and be like toast coast is okay you know those like hippie eclectic like i don't know it's like it's like a hallmark movie where you go in and you buy all these little tchotchkes and it's like you can barely move because there's so much stuff in the store. It's like a thrift store in Europe. That's kind of what it feels like. There's everything possible on that collector's edition. It's amazing. It like yeah when you go to one of the nicer casinos and you get the phone and the know like the toilet separated and you have a phone still landline for whatever reason Everything is over the top. Sometimes you have to order room service while you're sitting down. I joke that the people at those casinos are so old that you might have to like you break a hip on the toilet and they're going to call 911 right from the toilet. Oh, that's what it's for. Totally. Yeah, 100%. 100%. Okay. I'll go next. I'm actually very curious to see how Labyrinth has received. Because Labyrinth is a – it's not fair to say it's their first experiment in pinball because they actually have a lot of people who have worked in pinball. But this is the first iteration of that. and it's it's a theme that i'm on record saying that it doesn't connect with me however it looks really well executed it doesn't look like it was halfway done and they even got david bowie which is shocking to me that they were able to get that so the fact that they were able to do kind of a a thematically authentic version of the game and from what i've heard people who played it said yeah it feels very solid it doesn't feel like a glorified homebrew so i'm really curious to see how that's going to stack up against the people who have been making machines for years yep and that game looks super cool like i'm just glad that to see the henson properties seep in because like as a child of the 80s and like all the wonderful movie musicals that made me probably weirdly who I am with like little shop of horrors and you know, the Muppet movies, like all of them follow that bird. If y'all watch follow that bird lately from Sesame street. Okay. Lately. No. When I was five. Yes. Okay. Well, Scott, you clearly have your priorities out of sync, but oh my gosh. Yes. Henson properties in pinball. I, I just hope that it paves the road for more of like Fraggle Rock's, a lower one, but I'm hoping Marc Silk, I do look up to Mark so much and like we've talked a lot and he's helped me a lot. Just kind of like talk about voices. I've taken workshops with him. Super cool guy. But I, uh, I hope that with his involvement too, because I feel like he's kind of spurred, I don't know, it probably didn't hurt having him have worked on properties like that to get the ball rolling with licensors and stuff. So, and this sounds really good when, when you, When you know Mark's voice, you can listen to it. It's like, oh, yeah, now I pick it out. But he sounds – it's a really great David Bowie impression. Oh, yeah. Okay, here's a fun fact. Hallmark released a Sorting Hat ornament that you hit the button and the Sorting Hat talks. That's Marc Silk. Oh. Yeah. So I actually just ordered it. It's going to be delivered tomorrow. That's awesome. With Labyrinth, though, if they get in for this year's voting, it will be extra interesting because not a whole lot of people got to play it yet or will be able to play it when voting starts. Right. You know, Expo Houston Arcade Expo this past weekend and a few places on location where they were testing the games. But if it didn't make it into this year and they carried over to next year, then I think all the other OEMs would really have a run for their money for awards, too, because they would have a full year of people playing it on location and everything like that. And it really is a spectacular game. I was very impressed with the time I got to spend with it. And we definitely know release time makes a big difference in voting. because James Bond 007 was last year, and now it's starting to get some really good respect. So it's – it almost – anything coming out that late, like that December or that November timeframe does hurt you a little. Makes it harder, yeah. I'll go ahead, Josh. I was going to say a question I hear brought up a lot – or not a question, a statement. and i want you guys to to weigh on it weigh in on it is that stern wins a lot because it has more like it's out in the wild more you can find it more in operation whatnot i want to see where your guys's thoughts are but i want to preface it with i'm looking back at like previous years and yeah like 2022 2021 it is a lot of stern like granted 2021 godzilla was a monster like literally just destroyed everything. But if you look at the 2020 results, just 2020, it was pretty much guns and roses and Rick and Morty. So I feel like this is kind of, I don't, I don't feel like there's a truth to it, but I wanted to see what your guys' thoughts are that Stern wins because there is a lot more readily available versus like Jersey Jack and spooky and stuff like that. Well, well, who wants to go first? I'll go. I, I actually do give bonus points. I give bonus points for them to be able to make a game and to get it out in the wild on location. So if there's a tie, then we're going for game of the year. Now, this is not my game of the year, like which one I like the most. What I'm thinking is which one brought the biggest impact to the game. now I actually did vote for I believe that year I voted for Guns N' Roses because it was such an immersive experience in pinball I've always said that that is the best connection of any of any license that a pinball machine has been able to do now it certainly helps when you have one of the band members who wants to make sure you have everything and so that helps but there are questions sometimes when you have a game that's an excellent game and then a niche game out there that makes a hundred then i am going to wonder about that now that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to win every time but it certainly can have the biggest impact but you could argue that wizard of oz had the biggest impact in the last 15 years because it was a pivot point in the industry and there's Not a lot of those in the wild. Most of them are in home collections. So that's my take. Next. I'm interested to see what the response on Venom is. I'm just really interested, you know, just because it kind of in the converse way, just because it's the biggest of the big, you know, is the reception going to be good for a game? I'm just interested. I have played it. I haven't played it in a quiet setting, but I've played it at Southern Fried Games, both the Pro and the Premium. And where else did I play it? At Emoto's Arcade. Ooh. Yes, which is awesome. If y'all look, I'm going to – Emoto, you're going to plug yourself, but I'm going to plug you. Only if it's in Macho's voice, please. I don't want to do it. I would love to. Just send me an invoice. Right. Here, I'll do it this way. You ready? You ready? and just cut this if it's too much because that's for a moto this episode of the macho pinball podcast pinball podcast vlog show is brought to you by the beautiful shiny spanking new arcade down in Foley Alabama that's right you said Foley Alabama they got pinball in Foley Alabama let me tell you about the beautiful emerald coast the gulf coast of Alabama beautiful scenes, beautiful everything, and now a brand new arcade, Captain Crazy's Paradise. That's right, let's go where all the kiddies go in the summertime, but not just the summertime, we could go in the wintertime too, because it's enclosed indoors, both heated and cooled. Not only that, at Captain Crazy's Pinball Paradise Extravaganza, you also have a beautiful row of both old and new pinball games. That's right. You've got old stuff, like the belly stuff for all your old farts. And then you've got the new shiny toys. And when I was there, whoa, they even brought the kitties out and supported Project Pinball. It was a beautiful event. I've got to tell you, what else they got in Captain Crazy's super cool Pinball Paradise podcast? They got a golf simulator. That's right. So when you get done with your dance dance revolution, or you're shooting your aliens, or you're blasting your blastoises, you can go over and you can play simulated golf. It looked like a lot of fun. I didn't have time because I was back in the back. Because, you see, wait, hold on. I've got to start that track over. See, you've got to see when I was in the back, they had a punching bag. And I said, oh, this is for all those pinball trolls. All those trolls coming out in droves to take me down. All those followers of Canada. That's right. I'm still watching you, boy. I'm still the arbiter. But listen, they had this punching. So I get back on topic here. They have at Macho's, Emoto's, Arcade Paradise, at Foley, beautiful Foley, Alabama. They got this punching bag in the back, and I said, patrols, I'm taking you down. And I won that trophy. I walked out with my head held high. Not really a loss. There's this big black guy who clobbered it. And I said, much more of on you. You destroyed it, sir. And then I left, and I went and got Taco Bell, and I went back to the bay. And it was a beautiful time in Foley, Alabama. And now, Emoto, I'll let you talk about your own arcade, okay? Awesome. Thank you. It's a free play arcade. We got 16 pinball machines, 65 vids, some Japanese imported games, and then the classics. You have four golf-based simulators, a bar in the back where we serve beer and wine and some snackies. Come on and play. Okay, y'all, seriously, as me, like my brother, I have a family, I am from Alabama, and my family has a history in that part of the region, like the Alabama Gulf Coast. Look, Greg Bone goes there on vacations, like Saxon down there. Sleeper. It is a beautiful hidden gem, and this podcast, y'all can go back to the state of Alabama Tourism Bureau and now promote this because you've got some chops behind you. But all that to say, fantastic arcade, and it was much needed in that area because there were a lot of family entertainment centers and water parks. So now year-round in that area, there's a pocket of pinball support. And Emoto, you can talk about it, but I've been there. I've seen it. It's awesome. And I think it's an Emoto experience. You go and like from the moment you walk in the doors, it's got all this beautiful Japanese inspired art. I mean, it's not just it's an art experience. And I think, Emoto, you and I talked about this because we have mad respect for Meow Wolf. If you haven't been to Meow Wolf, any Meow Wolf art installation across the country, go. The one in Las Vegas is fantastic. But like you want it to kind of be that. Right. Like it's a total experience. And then tell them I don't want to dictate this, but like I'm invoking this out of you. Tell them about your bride of of pinball. I think that's a fantastic is awesome. Yeah, we do have the one and only life size bride of pinball pinball, but the bride of pinball installation. awesome pinball enthusiast neil cox made it and it's like that mannequin that i used to take around the shows and put stern store merch on and put at the booth well he saw it and he's like hey can i take that home for a little bit and uh he brought it back and it's like just this fully decked out bride of pinball like she lights up and everything it's absolutely gorgeous so it's gonna be a new historical marker. Nice. Wow. There's pictures on it online, but beautiful. Is it on your website? Because I'm on your website. You know it's on our Facebook. Okay. All right. I have another question for you, Emoto. Yeah. This is going to be your fifth year hosting Twippies. Is it really? Yeah. You had Carrie Hardy. Five years? you've had Jack Danger twice. Todd Tucky is co-host. Now you got Lucas. What have you learned over the last, because I don't think you're just the host. You do some of the slideshows and stuff too, right? Like this is not just you standing up there. You put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. What have you learned from the beginning to this point? That I've learned that I really am passionate about pinball and that everyone in this week of pinball that has worked on the Twippies are also very passionate for pinball. We love it so much that it's a lot of work, but everyone just pulls it all together, you know, and it's all just out of the kindness of our hearts and passion because no one's getting paid for this. It takes up a lot of time, but we just want to celebrate pinball with everyone and celebrate people that are working really hard and creating stuff for us to enjoy and make memories around. But now that you said it's been five years, I wonder, like, after this year, I should probably retire as a host, right? No, no, no. You're going to walk away. No, no, no. Like too long, like half a decade? No, and I say this every year, but, you know, without Emoto, I don't know how this gets done. It just doesn't happen without her. So you can't. There's no – you're not allowed. Okay, fair. It's so much fun, though, y'all. And like, literally, we just spend the time like, with the committee and then with Will and you know, working with Jeff a lot too when he was around. It's, that's all I can say. It's celebrating everything that's happening in pinball that year. So it's just always a feel good time from our pre production to the voting period and creating the content and slides and marketing. promotions that go out with it all the way up to being on the stage. And there's all those nerves like build up every year to that moment. But then like as soon as it happens and we're all in there together and there's 300 plus people smashed into this room for two hours and we all feel exactly the same way, you know, about pinball. It's just it's really a magical experience and I'm so happy to be a part of it. Now, for those who don't know what your full-time job is, Emoto, can you tell us? Oh, yeah, sure. So I am Marco Specialties, Marco Pinball's Director of Marketing. And I've been working with them for about five years now, too, just near the end of 2018 to now and forever. I love working with them. Their whole mission in life is to help keep pinball out of the landfills. So as long as that's a thing, I'm committed to be with them on that journey. And I do a lot of other work with Stern Pinball. They're, you know, very close partners with Marco and it's fun doing side things with them as well. And kind of the main part of my position as director of marketing is like 80% of our marketing budget goes to exhibiting at pinball shows all across the country so really we have a giant booth i mean it's right we have a giant booth that we partner with stern and the local dealers to bring as many stern pinball machines and new ones for people to play and my focus is you know creating that display the booth display the environment that everyone will interact with in all weekend long and uh it's great it's fun it's an experience and again i go back to like it's an emoto experience and when you go to one of these shows like i finally got to see one of your booths in person with venom and like i don't know i don't even know who you who you got to build this giant venom but it is epic it's an experience like walking into that marco booth and as a like previous arcade hobbyist like it's no fun being in a hobby where you can't get parts whether it's old cars or old anything so it's it is comforting to know that we're going to have a partner as we all get old and nickrabbit with our pinball machines and then emoto just we call emoto hey emoto you got one of them uh transistor number five here on western uh oh thank you yes paypal still around i can pay you that way okay well the team at marco is amazing everyone is just dedicated especially like our npi and procurements department to find all these parts and source them if they can't they don't exist anymore find ways to re fabricate them or rebuild them you know just to keep these games running so that's awesome okay sorry lucas was talking right there and now i'm like he's gotta do an adam sandler pinball machine with that voice okay but okay but the voice he did was like it was like macho calling from assisted living that's what it sounded like i thought it sounded more like him trying to be Billy Madison like the oh I don't know yeah I'm I don't know what came out so again feel free to uh I feel very bad for Josh and me in this episode and it's probably the hell that I never wanted to face by having a real podcast Josh is just gonna send it to you to edit yeah exactly Josh doesn't have to edit this one you see what are you talking about I've only got two edit marks and that's the format and the 14 minute and so we're gonna just all right we're gonna slide and then you know what's funny though it's funny okay so we just i just did that huge interview with larry demar right and it was two hours long and i just let him go like i just like you asked like five questions yeah yeah i i really just let him go and it's funny because like i turn off the mic and he's like no one wants to hear half that crap i just said i'm like guarantee you are it has to be the biggest response we've ever had to an interview. It's been insane. And people are still messaging to this. I mean, it's been not even a month. I get messages daily about that interview of just how people love it It funny because like people love all just the little bits And so I just leave it all in because if people don want to hear it they can always skip it You know lose lose listeners No but I going to get turned down on the pinball shows I can get it this week. OK, so, Will, I do want to know the timeline. So walk us through the timeline for the Twippies. How do we vote? When does voting start? When does voting close? how many categories are there and when is the reward show good good yeah um voting starts december 18th it'll be the full voting period so every category both the game categories and the non-game categories will be involved in that and that will go through january 15th i believe So it'll be one full month of voting for all of those categories. And then after that, I take all that stats. I tabulate it. The committee then goes through it. We get rid of duplicates. We get rid of all the bad stuff. And then we will have our live show. It'll be streamed live at Texas TPF again on the Saturday night. And that's when you can enjoy and hear all the winners. Nice. The other thing I haven't mentioned is we actually are adding a couple new or three new categories. We're looking at doing favorite new pinball streamer, favorite new pinball podcast, and favorite new YouTube channel. So the difference in that will be if they started within that year. Key of the year, yeah. Nice. Wait, four categories, right? Because this year was the year we were going to add favorite pinball dog. Yes. Oh man They've come down between Franchi's dog that loves the cheeseburgers Barlow I thought it was Jesse Yeah Jesse The inclusive With all the animals Can we do pinball cats Because I did lose my dog this summer He's a very good boy But I'm down to cats So I wouldn't want to be excluded What about the pinball pig I'd consider him a dog yeah he feels dog like but my favorite pinball podcast or not just let me cut that my favorite are we starting now to do cuts no let's get real my favorite pinball content is cats on pinballs my favorite can't top it okay definitely my cats know when I actually have a great game because that's when they come and hop on my game and show me their butt. That's what they do. They want to look at the pretty lights and try to look at things. What are you doing? I'm trying to trap up without gently moving them across. Cats have no pinball respect. I don't care. She'll just lay down at the top and then she goes... Just lying down. love me yeah it's one way to clean it but that is awesome about the new categories i know a couple of new guys that will be excited to hear that and uh that's gonna be great to hear those so yeah is is there anything else twippy wise that we haven't covered or this week in pinball with kinetesis that we haven't covered i mean that's that's some pretty huge news i feel like I gotta tell you I know that we've talked about this in the past but I still didn't feel legit until the time that this week in pinball I think it was episode 8 in their news article like go check out loser kid I can't remember if it's because we had L1 on Eric was our first celebrity that was probably one that I I guess we gotta put him in they're covering JJP. So, but I didn't feel legit till, till this week in pinballs. Like, you know what? Go check out loser kid. I still feel amateurish, but that's okay. And the pinball promoters database is such an amazing resource. Yes. For everyone. It is promote all of our content just by existing, you know? Yeah. Great. That's cool. I appreciate you guys here saying that that's, you know, that's, that was definitely from the beginning, you know, Jeff's kind of focus was get out those pinball content creators because they are, you know, they're not in the regular news and on the regular news websites. And they're definitely promoting what we love about pinball. So it's good to hear. Well, before we shut this down, I'm going to ask one favor of all of you. I know we've heard Lucas all night do his macho, but I want to hear everyone else do their own macho. I want to hear the machos because this was obviously the mystery when we all got our decoder rings out and we were trying to figure out who Macho was. So, Will, will you do the honors and give us your best Macho first? Can you tell us what to say at least, though? Give us a line of dialogue. Ooh, let's do Welcome to the Twippies 2023. How about that? I am your host, Macho. There, how about that? I think we need to get Lucas to give a little sound. Okay, no, Lucas has to be last because he's going to make us look bad. What are we saying? So welcome to the 2023 Twippies. I am your host, Macho. I didn't even watch Macho as a kid. You can even throw a little dialogue, like the little macho-isms in there if you want, like the cream of the crop or, you know. Will's like, I've never even listened to this podcast. Who is Macho? Oh my goodness This is going to be awful It's going to make for great content though I don't know about that I don't even remember what you told me to say Freestyle it Oh goodness You got this I believe in you There's no way I'm going to coach you through this This is a one-on-one voice lesson. You've got to reach down. Reach into your inner core. Do you feel it? You feel that inner core? You've got it in your hand. I want you to feel it pulsating. Yeah, I saw that. I saw that mighty arm. That's right. You straighten up your shoulders. You look them square in the eye. You get that mighty core in your hand. Let it pulse through your veins. Let it rise up through your neck. And then you've got to go. ladies and gentlemen welcome you take it from there okay I'm not going to spoil it yet you go get the core alright ladies and gentlemen this is Macho Pinball that's right there you go oh my god that was so good see this is why this is why we have how did Macho turn into Kermit the Frog yes Wow. You make fun, Scott, but you're up next, man. It's your turn. Let's hear this, Scott. You ready? It's my turn? It's your turn. Oh, yeah. This is Macho Pinball. We are not welcoming to the Twippy. We are welcoming to the jungle because we got labyrinth. We got all the games here. And, yes, you are going down that rabbit hole with David Bowie who steals the random child for no apparent reason. and Jennifer Conley, who goes in dancing with giant-sized Muppets. Who's going to win Pinball Machine of the Year? You know what? We're bringing back the Royal Rumble. This is Macho Pinball! Yay. Nice. Nobody's going to cheer. What is up with that storyline, though, for real? Okay, the waveform just, like, went redline the whole time. God, these ears are boned. But it's beautiful. Look, here's the thing. We can all be macho. We're all macho. We're all macho deep down. You just got to find the juicy core and squeeze it. Okay, you ready to reach down and grab that juicy core-o-moto? Yeah, okay. Okay, let's hear this. Welcome to the 2023 Plippies. This is Macho Pinball. we're going to all eat so many Slim Jims in Texas Pinball Festival. Let's go. Where did Lucas go? Oh, there he is. Lucas was like, rage quit. Lucas was like, wow. I'm out. He's like, my trough. My throat hurts. How do you do that? No, my throat still hurts. Literally, all I heard was Slim Jim. I'm so sad. I look forward to hearing. Like, literally. Yeah, I cut out. I'm very sorry. All I heard was Slim Jim. I can't wait to hear it because it can be a little strenuous. Like, you got to pace yourself with it. That's why the episodes were only three minutes long, folks. Yes, definitely. All right, I guess I got to go last. Well, not last. We're going to make Lucas go again, right? So you can all show us up. Welcome to the 2023. Twippies. I don't know. it's to the tip of the top of the rise and the stern's gonna come in and it's gonna come down on the J.J.P. give him the people's elbow that's the rock though so I don't know my WWF very well thank you I gotta get more into it I can do it with my kid like it's just a I don't think you touch your juicy core all the way really engage I'm the cream of the crop we go to the top Alright, are we doing... People are going to be like, okay... No, no, no, Lucas. You do Macho as Moppy. Moppy from Puppet Pals doing Macho. Oh my goodness. Emoto, there's only one person in the world that would ever ask for that, and it's you, so thank you. I really appreciate that. I'm asking for it, too. I want to hear this. Do you want a sponsor? Do you want another? no let's just come into it let's go no sorry wait wait wait I gotta get my audio bank we're not cutting this just like literally integrated this tonight I'm like where was this three years ago okay damn it hold on now we have to ladies and gentlemen Mato Pinball that's right Um, good luck! And here we are, here we are today! It's the trippies! It's the 2023 trippies! Um, I'm really excited. It's kind of hard to go back and forth between the announcer and the announcer. Because I haven't really practiced doing mopping like that. Um, a little bit more rushing every time, because I've been singing a lot lately. But, um, that would be a good mopping day. Oh my goodness. Oh, my cheese. It's not as high as I would want him, but my voice is, I haven't been talking all day. So I see that. Bravo. Oh my goodness. Okay. We're going to, we're going to, we're going to wrap this up. I do. I do appreciate you guys coming on. Will, thanks for, for hitting us up to talk about these, these changes for twippies and the changes for twip also emota it's always i've been meaning to get you on i've been meaning to get loose on this is this is perfect i was so excited when will his weapon was like emota's coming on and it goes guest host and i was like whoa and then when he told me today was lucas i hurry and it's like dude you're coming on and he's like yeah i think i'll be there whatever no i did not say that he's like well what what's gonna be in my dressing room because I have a very specific... M&Ms, but you have to take out all the brown and yellow ones. Yes. And they've got to be presented in a football helmet. Yes. Okay, I don't know if you know this, but I used to book concerts. And when you book a band, they have what's called a rider. And that rider is pretty much a list of demands. And the funny part is I didn't know this until I booked a couple of bands. But some of them forget what's on the list. But it's stuff like a 12-pack of men's crew socks because I joked with them like, I couldn't find you guys socks. And they're like, what? They all took off their shoes. None of them were wearing socks. And they were like, we were depending on those socks. And then they messed with me. They're like, no, we never wear socks. So it just part of, we're like, what can we get into our rider that we can make these people do that? Just be ridiculous. One of them was all green M&Ms and a football helmet. So, okay. Actually, there is a very, there is a very practical reason for those riders. Yes. Because if you show up and you have, If you ask for something very weird, like green M&Ms and a football helmet, and you see that, you know they read the writer. Yep. Yes. But if you go in and you don't see whatever weird – so that's one reason why bands do put those really strange requests in there is so they can know if the venue is ready for them. Well, not only that, but it is also – so like some of these bands that don't make a ton as openers or like the lower spot on the lineup. That's their dinner. Well, not only that, but like, because they were telling me you can actually scratch that off so you don't want to do the green M&Ms with the helmet. You can scratch that off and then offer them a cash payout essentially on that item. So you can go through the whole writer and scratch it out and say, I'll give you 300 bucks to not make me do this list. And so, anywho, there's some making the sausage behind the scenes for when you're booking concerts and stuff like that. I love that. That's fantastic. I've never thought about that. And I just like the inside scoop on little entertainment, things like that. I wanted to talk about just two things, Loser Kid, before we leave. Maybe it's just one thing I can't remember. Oh, yes, two things. So the first thing, the Jersey Jack giveaway for Elton John, that is not this episode. We will do it next episode just because we recorded with Jack and released it on Friday, and today is Monday. And so we've had a massive response. We've already had about 30 entries. And so I just want to give a little bit more time to that. So let's give it another week or two. Second thing is I did post this on Facebook, but we really haven't talked about it on the show yet. I don't know how I wasn't taking in all the marketing numbers. And it's great we have a marketing person on with us, Lucas. Our numbers more than doubled since I figured out that between SoundCloud and Apple and Spotify. And thanks to Neil McRae for pointing out. He's like, are you sure they're not just like the same numbers through another website? No, these numbers are entirely different. Our top tens are different. I have a hard time believing that they're the same. You know what I'm saying? It's just reporting double. And we have a new king in our guest realm that we've got on the ground. And Keith Owen is passing on the crown, but he's going to have to make it into three because Triple Drain, Joel Engelberth, Travis Murray, and Tom Graff are now our kings over our guests. with over 7,500 listens from their episode. Okay, you know that that's Joel just listening nonstop. It is. That's amazing, though. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. So we're really excited. I mean, we've had over half a million listens in the five years we've been here. So it is absolutely insane. Oh, we lost Lucas. Lucas is like... Lucas is phasing in and out. Will you stop touching the time diverter thing? The multiverse? Yeah. But I just want to give a big thank you to those that listen to us. I know they're – This is constipated Lucas apparently. Obviously there's some people that listen to us. And I want to thank – This is so hard to take this seriously here. But I want to thank everyone for reaching out, for listening to us. I'm sorry. If you're not watching the YouTube, come join us for the last – His face. It's not going to be the last five minutes. I think we've all learned that we're grateful that Emoto is going to be in charge. Yes, yes. We're glad that – I can't deal with that. You're like Luke Duke because Bo never let him drive. Did you ever notice that? It was always Bo. See? So it's a moto and you guys are from the South. So you know what I'm talking about with the Dukes of Hazzard? Just some good old boys. Never mean to no harm. Yeah. I always joked if we did do a Patreon, our top tier level would have to be like $1,000. But if you actually paid for it, we would fly you to Salt Lake and do like a weekend with the Loser Kids. And like do pinball and the museum. And we have so many art installations. And we have, I mean, there is so much culture that is in Utah. It's ridiculous. But yeah, if you want to pay us $1,000, we'll fly you to Salt Lake. If you're in the States. Yeah, exactly. If you're in the States, we'll work something out. Lucas is signing up as we speak. He's like, and Sam. All right. I'm shutting this down. This has actually been wonderful. I'm not going to lie. This has been great. So if people want to get a hold of you, Moto, where do they find you? you can find me on Facebook either you know Marco Pinball's Facebook or Emoto Arcade that's where I just drop my everything else pinball content or stop by my arcade in Foley Alabama Captain Crazy's Paradise and Will if they want to get a hold of you and the new shenanigans with This Week in Pinball Yeah, you can get me at Will at ThisWeekInPinball.com, and I'll still be there, and I'll still be helping out as much as I can. Awesome. And if you want to get a hold of us, we are Loser Kid Pinball Podcast at gmail.com. On the socials, we are at Loser Kid Pinball. That is X, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube. If you type in at Loser Kid Pinball, you're going to find us. so I think that does it for us Scott I guess we'll be jamming out another two weeks that's it yeah and definitely go visit Kineticist and go visit This Week in Pinball and get ready to vote for that month of voting we'll try to remind everybody when it comes closer also remind those Canadians the real Thanksgiving is happening next week and we hope you have a happy Thanksgiving Thank you. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 2160c499-3077-4f13-ac0a-a1d66ff4f869*