# Matt and Don of Bash Pinball - Episode 32 **Source:** JBS Show **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2024-06-20 **Duration:** 58m 54s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** Buzzsprout-15281891 --- ## Analysis Matt and Don of Bash Pinball Podcast appear on the JBS Show (Wormhole Pinball Presents) to discuss their journey into pinball, their audio engineering background, their growing podcast, their personal pinball collections, and efforts to engage more with competitive pinball. The hosts emphasize community, production quality, and the challenge of balancing high production standards with consistent weekly release schedules. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Bash Pinball has released 11 episodes since starting in April, aiming for weekly releases — _Matt and Don state they've been going 'since April' and 'just posted 11 today' and 'trying to do one a week'_ - [HIGH] This Week in Pinball recommended Bash Pinball as 'podcast of the week' — _Matt and Don confirm seeing an article on This Week in Pinball recommending their podcast after learning Ian Jacobi from Nudge heard about them through Kineticist_ - [HIGH] Matt and Don collectively own approximately 8 pinball machines — _Matt states: 'There's about, I think between the two of us, we have like eight games, something like that'_ - [MEDIUM] Electric Bat Arcade (Rachel and Kale) has a league night with approximately 120 players — _Jamie mentions hearing 'they have a pretty killer league over there' and states 'I hear they get like 120 people on a league night'_ - [HIGH] Matt spends 8-10 hours editing per Bash Pinball episode on average — _Matt states: 'I'm putting in at least somewhere around an average of 8 to 10 hours per episode, which seems excessive'_ - [MEDIUM] Hook is ranked in Pinside's Top 25, possibly top 10 — _Don says: 'I mean, it's like Pinside Top 25, right? I think it's number one. It might be up to the top ten right now'_ - [HIGH] Both Matt and Don have audio engineering backgrounds and have run recording studios — _Don states: 'we both of us have run recording studios um so we have kind of an almost excessively high standard'_ ### Notable Quotes > "We don't do media appearances. I mean, we're kind of audio guys for a reason... I don't know what to do with my hands." > — **Matt or Don (Bash Pinball)**, Early in episode > _Reflects the hosts' discomfort with video/visual media, explaining their focus on audio podcasting_ > "I'm putting in at least somewhere around an average of 8 to 10 hours per episode, which seems excessive." > — **Matt**, Mid-episode during production discussion > _Reveals the significant time investment in maintaining high audio production standards for their podcast_ > "Your audio on the Bash Pinball Podcast is second to none... You can hear your professionalism." > — **Jamie (JBS Show host)**, Mid-episode > _External validation of their production quality from an established podcaster_ > "I think pinball brings people together, you know?... It's a thing that we can find a common ground and connect and have fun, right?" > — **Don**, Discussion of Don's father story > _Articulates the core mission and philosophy behind Bash Pinball Podcast_ > "He's an operator now, and he has 24 machines out." > — **Jamie**, Discussion of John Spates > _Indicates community member's transition to pinball operator status with significant route_ > "Don is a really good player, and he'd probably be in the top few players in our local league." > — **Matt**, Discussion of competitive play > _Matt advocating for Don's competitive potential despite Don's self-doubt_ > "We can't not do it. It's just we have, you know, we're always going to keep doing that no matter what." > — **Don**, Discussion of production quality standards > _Demonstrates commitment to quality regardless of time investment challenges_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Bash Pinball Podcast | media | Newly launched pinball podcast by Matt and Don, 11 episodes since April, featuring audio engineering professionals with high production standards | | Matt | person | Co-host of Bash Pinball Podcast from Chapel Hill, North Carolina; audio engineer; musician; pinball enthusiast; invested in high production quality | | Don | person | Co-host of Bash Pinball Podcast from Chapel Hill, North Carolina; audio engineer; musician; stronger competitive pinball player; close relationship with father through pinball | | Electric Bat Arcade | organization | Pinball arcade venue operated by Rachel and Kale; runs league with approximately 120 players on league nights; located in Phoenix area | | Kineticist | media | Pinball media outlet that recommended Bash Pinball Podcast; runs 'This Week in Pinball' which featured Bash as podcast of the week | | Ian Jacobi | person | Editor of Nudge Magazine; mentioned as having heard about Bash Pinball through Kineticist; connected with the podcast hosts | | Triangle Pinball Players | organization | Local pinball league in Chapel Hill/North Carolina area where Matt and Don are located | | John Spates | person | Operator based in Phoenix area; recently became operator with 24 machines; organized John Wick Pro launch party at Eureka Heights Brewery; referred to as 'wormholder' | | Jamie Virchel | person | Host of JBS Show (Wormhole Pinball Presents); recruiter by profession; interested in people's stories; involved with Wormhole community | | Cloud Conquer City | product | Band that Matt was in; pop rock alternative rock band from late 2000s-early 2010s; toured east coast through Hot Topic mall performances | | Hook | game | First pinball machine that sparked Don's interest; placed in office break room by Matt; ranked in Pinside Top 25; remains in their collection | | Johnny Mnemonic | game | Don's father's machine in Phoenix; only machine at his house initially; Don spent significant time playing it; Giant Mnemonic obtained by Matt and Don with three others collectively | | Bram Stoker's Dracula | game | Matt's first machine; played approximately 1,000 games before selling; currently borrowed and on display at Wormhole; Matt intends to get another copy | | This Week in Pinball (TWIP) | media | Pinball media outlet that featured Bash Pinball as 'podcast of the week' recommendation | | Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer referenced; games mentioned include Ultraman and Halloween; hosts acknowledge aesthetic appreciation and some controversy | | John Wick Pro | game | Recently released Stern game; difficult difficulty setting; operator John Spates has it; launch party at Eureka Heights Brewery; praised for not getting boring | ### Topics - **Primary:** Podcast Production and Technical Standards, Personal Pinball Collection and Acquisition, Community Building and Engagement, Competitive Pinball League Participation - **Secondary:** Audio Engineering and Music Background, Spooky Pinball Game Design and Aesthetics, Local Pinball Culture in Chapel Hill/North Carolina - **Mentioned:** Podcast Industry Growth and Recommendations ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.82) — Generally enthusiastic and supportive tone throughout. Matt and Don express genuine passion for pinball and community building. Jamie is encouraging and complimentary. Light self-deprecating humor about nervousness and skill levels. Some minor reservation about Spooky games' reliability, but framed diplomatically. No negative sentiment toward individuals or major conflicts. ### Signals - **[community_signal]** Bash Pinball Podcast receiving recognition and recommendation from established media outlets (This Week in Pinball, Kineticist) within weeks of launch (confidence: high) — This Week in Pinball featured Bash as 'podcast of the week'; Kineticist mentioned them; Ian Jacobi reached out through these connections - **[sentiment_shift]** Strong emphasis on pinball's role in bringing people together and fostering inclusive community, with competitive league culture described as non-jerks with true 'no-jerk policies' (confidence: high) — Don's story about father and pinball; Jamie's pitch about league inclusivity; discussion of 'great people' at Space City Pinball and Triangle Pinball Players - **[design_philosophy]** Some audience skepticism about Spooky games' mechanical reliability and code stability, despite appreciation for aesthetic design (confidence: medium) — Matt: 'I want something that I can play, you know, without having to necessarily worry about servicing'; discussion of Ultraman code not being 'there yet' and getting 'boring' - **[market_signal]** Bash Pinball Podcast representing a new wave of high-production-value pinball content from audio professionals entering the space (confidence: medium) — Recognition by TWIP as podcast of the week; Jamie's praise of audio quality as 'second to none'; contrast with typical podcast production standards - **[market_signal]** Electric Bat Arcade league demonstrating significant scale with approximately 120 players on league nights in Phoenix area (confidence: medium) — Jamie: 'they get like 120 people on a league night insane that's that's bananas'; described as 'pretty killer league' - **[community_signal]** Audio engineering professionals applying studio production standards to podcast format, treating 30-minute podcast episodes with same meticulous standards as 3-5 minute music tracks (confidence: high) — Matt: '8 to 10 hours per episode'; Don: 'standard that would get applied to a song on the radio is what we're applying to our podcast'; discussion of cutting corners relative to music production - **[personnel_signal]** John Spates transitioned from community member/listener to pinball operator with 24 machines on route (confidence: medium) — Jamie mentions 'He's an operator now, and he has 24 machines out' and organized John Wick Pro launch party - **[announcement]** John Wick Pro (Stern) generating operator investment and launch events; described as difficult and engaging but not boring (confidence: high) — John Spates purchased Pro model; organized launch party; Jamie: 'It's hard as shit, man' but 'The car is awesome. It's a neat game. I don't think it'll get boring' --- ## Transcript Hello and welcome to the Wormhole and our podcast called Wormhole Pinball Presents. I'm your host, Jamie Burchell, and today I am really excited to be joined by two new podcasters. They're taking the pinball world a little by storm. Of course, I'm talking about Matt and Don of Dash Pinball Podcast. Welcome to the Wormhole virtually, Matt and Don. Well, thank you. Welcome to us. Thanks so much. How are you guys? You're nervous. They're a little nervous. Yeah, we don't do media appearances. I mean, we're kind of audio guys for a reason. Yeah, we don't appear on film. I don't know what to do with my hands. Yeah, you don't know what to do with your hands. That's okay. I got something for Don. Hold on, okay? Are you ready? Yeah. Don, I'm a Spanish historian. My mother is Puerto Rican. And we didn't speak Spanish when we were kids. pero estoy estudiando usar mi teléfono y Duolingo y mi amigo John Spates. Wow! Hablas español muy bien. Excelente. No, no, bastante bien. I understood all of it. Which is pretty good because I don't really speak very good Spanish at all. So Duolingo's kicking some ass. There you go. Well, I think I got the $12.99 version, so that's real. This is episode 32 of our podcasts. I'm shocked that I've recorded 31 of these, gentlemen. What number are you guys on already? We just posted 11 today, actually. We've only been going since April. We've been trying to do one a week, try to keep the pace. It's challenging. It's tough. I've been listening to your podcast, Dash Pinball. Oh, Bash Pinball. God damn it. Hold on. I've been listening to your podcast, The Minute Con from The Kineticist. Okay, cool. And This Week in Pinball recommended your podcast, Bash Pinball. Did you guys know that he recommended it? Not really. No, we saw – I think after the fact we saw that they had posted an article on This Week in Pinball, like a podcast of the week thing, which we were just like super stoked about because, yeah, we had heard about – Ian had talked about it a little bit, and I think he said he heard about it from Kineticist. Yeah, Ian's the best I don't want to party with Ian, right? Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of Because he hit us up and he was like I heard about you guys through Kineticist I don't know anyone in the scene I've been playing for a while I don't know anyone though I don't know anything or anyone I've been playing for fun for a long time It was cool to Matt, he's been following And it was cool to, on my end, to talk to some of these people And I'm like, hey, I was talking to this guy named Ian from Nudge And Matt's like, wait, I know those guys I read the articles, so it's kind of interesting to have the dynamic. But he was the one that said – Oh, shameful plug. You can go back and listen and watch Nudge, he and Jacoby on the Wormhole Pinball Podcast. Yeah, I listened to that episode, by the way. He's great. That was easy. I love that guy. Where do you guys live? We live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Okay. So I heard on the first podcast Matt mentioned Myrtle Beach. Oh, yeah, yeah. We used to vacation when I was a kid in Myrtle Beach. So I did too as a New Yorker. I would go from like 16 to 30, we would go to Myrtle Beach. We actually went to Litchfield, which is like South Myrtle. Yeah, so my parents are golfers. My family is all golfers. I was a golfer until pinball ruined me. Yeah, my grandparents had a house down there, and he was also a golfer. Yeah, what's the golf capital of the United States? I mean, Myrtle Beach. but they had that arcade that you were talking about, and I've been to that arcade. Oh, yeah, yeah, nice. I don't know the name of it. I think it was called Arcade. Yeah, I do, too. I do, too. I was, like, the oldest of my cousins, and I was the only one that could drive. Nice. And so I would drive us all to the arcade. Yeah, it was a fun, I mean, that road, that strip in Myrtle Beach, it gets pretty wild at night. Yeah, and it had go-karts. Yeah. The place had go-karts, right? there was a uh i don't remember the goparks but sorry it doesn't matter no one cares there's half a dozen like similar places down that right but i almost got into a fight in there that was you know it's this yankee hat i just this yankee hat gets me in trouble and that was like the first time i noticed that there was a real difference between southerners and yankees you know i'm 16 years old, I go to Myrtle Beach and I almost got my ass kicked for wearing a Yankee hat. It was like, what's going on here? Yeah, I never had any, you know, run-ins or anything in my arcade experiences there. No, usually we're good. It was just the hat. I don't know what happened there. That's funny. Keep going south, man. You know, the Yankees are beloved in Panama for Mariano. Well, I was going to ask you that later. So save for Mariano. We're going to talk about Mariano later. Okay. because I was going to ask you a question about your favorite Panamanian baseball player. There's only two answers, and we'll get to it later. All right, I'm going to tease you because there's only two answers for the Panama. I've got this research, boys. Wait till you see. All right, gents? I'm excited. So these interviews are very, very informal, as you can tell. I'm a recruiter by trade. That's what I do. Oh, okay. And so learning about people is really kind of what I like to do for a living. Cool. And so I know we discussed, I know you discussed this on your podcast. Let's get going. How did you guys meet? Do you want to? Sure. So, yeah, we, correct me if I'm wrong. It's been more than 10 years, right? It's been a long time, yeah. But, yeah, we initially met, I think, at like an audio engineer get-together sort of thing through like a Facebook group or something. Is that right? That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And then I don't remember. I think we just started working together on some projects. I think you contacted another buddy of mine and myself to help you work on some stuff. And then we kind of started working together to some capacity and then started hanging out. And then we're like, oh, yeah, it's a cool guy, nice guy. We kind of get along. And then, you know, fast forward years later, we kind of kept in touch at different capacities. and yeah i didn't even know you were into pinball for like the first eight years that i knew you or something probably yeah maybe maybe you had a t-shirt or something on but otherwise i didn't know we weren't really that close yet yeah it's been pretty recent that we've kind of bonded a little bit more we see each other more often now and we kind of um i think that was kind of the catalyst for this whole project and what we have going on right now yeah uh so talk to talk to me about music for a little bit if you if you don't mind how long have you both been musicians uh i mean pretty much since 2009 uh i used to be in a band in orlando florida and we you know nothing nothing huge or you know nothing big time but i love orlando toward uh the hot topics yeah yeah correct yeah we did we did a cool uh we did a small self-booked tour right like to the east coast went up to up from orlando up to new york came down across uh went to like ohio came down across Chicago and then through Atlanta came back south. All the Hot Topic places? So here's the thing, right? At that time, you could – so it was kind of – it's actually kind of brilliant because we found, right, that if you hit up Hot Topics, this was 2008, 2009. Okay. And you said, hey, we're on tour. Can we come play an acoustic set at your store, right? They were all about it, man. And what was cool was you could come set up at the mall, set up your merch, play a free show, right? They didn't pay you, but you could sell your merch. You kept 100% of the profits, and you could get people to come to the show later that night. Pretty good move. Yeah, yeah. So we were playing like in a little acoustic set, selling some merch, CDs and shirts and stuff. And then later in the evening, we'd actually play the real rock show. And it was kind of a cool way to supplement some of the, you know, I think we played in Philly for like two people. So, yeah, man, it was – Are you still in the band? Oh, no, no. We – What was the name of that band? The name of the band was Cloud Conquer City, and it was like a pop rock alternative kind of, you know, rock band, you know, early 2000 – or like 2000 – late 2000s, 2010s rock band. Well, I love Orlando, my second kind of home. I'm a New Yorker that lived in Orlando. I finished high school and college in Orlando. Oh, nice. what part i lived in windermere where no one knows where the hell it is uh that's like that was like pretty nice over there man yeah it wasn't bad i don't want to be it was nice it was really nice and uh but i i lived in like the wannabe really nice place oh i see so like the gated gated communities they wouldn't they shun down upon i just say windermere and then they're like oh tiger woods you know all those guys and i'd be like no i lived in the other place down the street But it was still beautiful. I mean, it was still nice, but it was winter beer. Yeah. I got in a lot of trouble in Orlando. Yeah, me too. Me too. I went to Full Sail, too, so that's kind of like the – that's the reason for me going there. Oh, okay. The engineering. Yeah, great school. Yeah. I went to Florida Southern in Lakeland. No one knows where the hell it is, guys. That's where I met my wife, and God bless us all. What instruments do you guys play? Guitar, mostly. You play guitar too, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'll play kind of whatever stringed instrument I can find. I started being a musician in second grade playing violin with the school orchestra. And I kind of dropped that off around like teenage years and fully switched over to guitar. But yeah, mostly guitar, I would say. You want to hear it? I'll play some bass if I get a chance. Good. I actually picked up a beautiful acoustic guitar right before COVID. And my timing was good because then once COVID started, I can just, you know, play with my teacher like this on Zoom, you know. But I got really frustrated. I'm a righty. My right hand is better than my left, if that makes sense. All right. So my – well, to you guys it makes sense. To anyone else, probably not. My strumming is good. And my picking was pretty good. But my left hand, I can't do the bars, boys. And once the bar chords came, the beautiful Taylor went under the bed. You got to switch to classical style. There's less bar chords. Yeah. Gentlemen, motivate me to get that guitar back into my hands, please. All right. All right. You said you got a nice Taylor? I do. It's a 240C. A nice one, right? Like, I wasn't messing around. Like, I really got into it. and it didn't work out. I don't know. I've got to get it out. I'm doing too much pinball, man. I'm definitely playing more pinball than guitar lately. Yeah. Kind of makes me sad on some level, but I still try to play guitar. I have guitars kind of scattered throughout the house to remind me to play. Yeah, I got one right there. The minute I put it in the closet and then under the bed, I knew I was screwed. I wasn't going to go back to it. Yeah, you got to get yourself like a nice wall hanger and just hang on to it. You know what? You have to stare at it all the time. I'm doing it. It works. You're motivating me, Vince. See? There you go. On your first podcast, I think you both did a really good job of kind of going into how you both fell into pinball, right? So I'm going to tease people and say, go to Bash Pinball. Listen to the first episode because I think they really do a good job of their origin story, if you will, right? But I really love, Don, your story about your dad and pinball. Yeah, yeah, thank you. I didn't cry or anything, but I really was – it really was a way that pinball brings people together, you know? Yeah, yeah, it was a real story, man, which I was kind of hesitant, you know, to share, but then it just felt right, you know, and I think it was true. And it's one of those things that, you know, I think it aligns with what we want, and it's to kind of, you know, bring people together and kind of just let's play pinball. This is like a thing that we can find a common ground and connect and have fun, right? And that's exactly what it was, yeah. That's really cool. What was your favorite game at your dad's house? Well, at the time, he only had Johnny Mnemonic. So we pretty much just like binged that game forever, man. So did he change his collection or was it just Johnny Mnemonic and you were warping or whatever? It's warped, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, at the time, that was pretty much it. And then he actually went a couple years without a machine. And then I want to say maybe like, I don't know, maybe like six years ago, he ended up getting a checkpoint. Cool. Because, you know, I'd go over there. You know, I see him. I wish I could see him more often. I see him maybe like every other year or something like that. I'm actually trying to plan a trip now. But, yeah, he's in Arizona. He's in Arizona. He's in Phoenix. so you know it's actually yeah there's a reason why you should go to phoenix man i know i know i know i know it's it's see i didn't know all this stuff man this is all new to me so now those people are the nicest people and i'm talking about rachel and kale of electric back hat an electric back arcade they will man you got to go and you should go on a tuesday on a league night i'm so we'll talk about league later because i know you're not playing it and we'll get into it later and all that stuff so i'm really excited man i hear they have a pretty killer league over there oh they get like 120 people on a league night insane that's that's bananas so uh so matt don obviously got you in a pinball by bringing hook to your office is that how it happened yeah yeah it's kind of funny um i we have like a break room a little break room and i was just trying to figure out what to put in there so i bought a couple like arcade one-up games and there was a little room left and pretty much all of that room was taken up by hook And yeah like I had just never had an opportunity to play a functional pinball machine that wasn like at some arcade where it was you know or I had to pump a bunch of quarters into it basically And Hook's a pretty cool one to get right off the bat. Yeah, I mean. I mean, it's like Pinside Top 25, right? I think it's number one. It might be up to the top ten right now, but I mean, yeah, I had no idea, you know. I didn't know what Pinside was. I didn't know anything. oh dude you're going down a whole wormhole now yeah just now you're going to be pin celebrities wait till you see content creators dance it's all over now man oh yeah yeah no i i go hard i go pretty hard on stuff like when i get into something like because it felt like i was making up for lost time you know because i i was i was a big arcade guy when i was a kid a big video gamer yeah i was a big gamer pinball was just never on my radar because i know right Aren't you pissed that we missed it? Yeah, yes, I'm catching up Yeah, me too I started in 2019 Tim got me into it Who's the owner of the wormhole Tim and Christine I'm hooked, man Wait, just, you know, so You'll see, you'll get there I have to, like, be careful with my Like, hands and my posture Because, like, my hands were hurting so bad I know I was playing so much when I was first getting into it. So what pins are currently in your collections? There's about, I think between the two of us, we have like eight games, something like that. Spit them out. Let's go. The people want to know. All right, all right, all right. You know, I can start with the obvious hook. Okay, still in there. Still there. Don, you're never, he's never going to get rid of it. It's going to stay there forever, man. That's the one. I was going to make you an offer. You know, Don's a bolter. You know, like he gets a game and he's probably not going to get rid of it. Yeah. I'm more likely to cycle through some games. Do we want to mention the second one or do we want to save that for content? That one. Okay. Well, we're going to leave out one game. Please. No, listen. You got to have your own stuff to bash. I get it. We're working on something. Yeah. So my first game was Bram Stoker's Dracula, which I think we talked about maybe on the first episode. And why the hell did you get rid of Bram Stoker's Dracula? Because I put about 1,000 games on it, and it was my only game that I had, and I just felt like I kind of maxed out my ability to do any better at it. I think I got like a billion or something, and I was like, all right, I can't do better at this. My skills were just maxed out, so I felt like I had to get something else. Don't you miss it? I do, yeah. We got it right here. This isn't even ours. This is a Lent We allow like one or two people If they want to lend us machines Here at the Wormhole and we'll Display it and let us bang the hell out of it And this is our lead text Bram Stoker's Dracula and it's beautiful It's a beautiful copy of it I fully intend to get one back It's just like a space thing Space is a problem For people I have room for like four games kind of um but that's really pushing it and i'm working on like building out a bigger space where i could fit up to like 13 games there it goes but yeah so anyway yeah brand stokers is coming back the one that i had was like you know players condition so i was like i can always get a better one and so that was that's just been the plan after that i had a mando for a while and then I sold that and got No Good Gophers currently still have the Gophers Black Rose currently still have that Avengers Pro the Keith Elwin Avengers and oh we've got a we had to get the Giant Mnemonic oh you had to get Giant Mnemonic one popped up man it was pretty cool We all pulled in, and between four of us got it, which is pretty awesome. Yeah, so we do have the Johnny Monk. That's at Jay's right now, my brother's house. But he's getting ready to move, so I think we're going to get the Johnny back and put that at the workshop. Definitely get Johnny back where it belongs. Absolutely. That's awesome. And what else? We've got a high speed that we're fixing up. Got a new play field for that one that I'm going to put in. And is that it? Oh, Jurassic Park Data East. Jurassic Park, yeah. Cool. I'm trying to fix the rotating dinosaur head right now there may or may not be a new one coming in maybe tomorrow oh yeah yeah actually tomorrow we are adding Terminator 2 breaking news Terminator 2 yeah we're getting that tomorrow we have a T3 but we don't have a T2 and I like T2 T2 is fun T3 is fun too they're both really fun games so So what pin is next? Are you actively looking? What would you get rid of? I'm always looking, by the way. I just don't have the money. It's the thing, right? The problem, too. Do you want to talk about the one that you almost just bought but aren't probably? Yeah. We found a pretty cool Data East Batman, man, which I have a soft spot for those Data East games from the early 90s. But, you know, ultimately, I think I just want a new game. I want something that I can play, you know, without having to necessarily worry about servicing or I just want something a little bit more modern, you know, and kind of. Sure. Is there a game that you've got your eye on? You know, what's funny is I've been trying to get Matt to talk me out of this Halloween, man. I know. I knew I knew I was going to. thank you we had ultraman and i think uh that we had ultraman and the code wasn't there yet and ultraman just kind of got boring you know and i kind of dig ultraman dude i liked ultraman as a kid yeah yeah me too fortunate yeah yeah not to crap on spooky i like i like it it wasn't i think we probably i like the halloween version better yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean i think halloween's cool but like do any of them work i don't know i mean that's that's yeah i have a disclaimer i have to do a disclaimer here you ready okay the opinions of matt and don are those of bash pinball and do not necessarily reflect those of wormhole pinball thank you listen listen i love spooky man like you know it's i don't know i'll take all the hate or whatever in the world man like i just i like the the aesthetic i like the art like the visuals like the way they look I know it's not like – there's some controversy there, but something about the visual aesthetic. But you also said that you want a new game because you want something that's going to work. No comment, no comment, no comment. So Halloween – No comment. I don't know about that. No comment. You know, Texas Chainsaw is pretty cool too. Have you played it? I did get to play that at Pinfest. Yeah. And I thought that game was great. It shot great. It's got cool ramps. It's got a bunch of flippers in weird places. It's fun. We're going to find Don. Yeah, do you have any? We're going to figure it out. We're going to all send them your suggestions to Bash Pinball and let them know what they should be buying next. I mean, definitely John Wick is on the radar big time. John Spates, who's one of the wormholders, we call ourselves that. That's so stupid. But he's an operator now, and he has 24 machines out. And he just got a John Wick Pro, and they have a John Wick launch party, I think, next Friday. There's a little plug for you, John, at Eureka Heights Brewery, and that'll be fun. He has it at a dollar. I put in so much money on that last night. How did you feel about the John Wick, man? We're so excited about it. We haven't been able to play it yet. Oh, you haven't played it? No, no, no, no. It's hard as shit, man. How is it? It's hard. I suck at it. I put up one good score last night after $10, and I was like, okay, I finally figured it out. But we haven't really set – it was set too hard because there was a tournament that ran through there, so you couldn't move it. Any one move, you tilted. So I was yelling at him all night about it. But the car is awesome. It's a neat game. I don't think it'll get boring. Yeah. I think it's hard. I mean, we like hard games. Yeah. Like, we tend to gravitate towards harder stuff. I'm not really that good, boys. I'm like, so I get, I'm okay. I play competitive. You don't play competitive pinball? It doesn't matter, man. Yeah, it's, you know. I do some. Don has, I've never, I've never played. Yeah, yeah. But he's better than me. I'm intimidated, you know. It's like, I feel like I'm not that good. let's spend a minute on this, boys, because we've got to get you guys into competitive pinball more. All right? We've got to get Matt in more, and we've got to get Don totally in, right? Yeah. He'll be getting Don in. I'm trying. I invite him every time. There's a league around you, right? Yeah, Triangle Pinball Players, I believe. Okay. And do you ever watch pinball on Twitch or YouTube? Yes. Competitive pinball? Yes. You ever went into www.twitch.tv backslash warmup pinball? Not until. You don't watch that channel? you know until now that was bad uh no look i i fell into the world of competitive pinball from tim hood right he invited me to the league and it was at a bar and i walk in and it's filled with pinball machines and all these you know clowns and geeks playing pinball and i fell in love with these people immediately right uh space city pinball it's just we're really lucky and like so many and that we talk about because they just have great people and so i'm in love with the people and then i fell more in love with playing competitively i wasn't there competitively yet i was just like let's just i'm such a competitive person anyway from being a golfer and soccer my whole life so i was just like yes and okay so that's my pitch that was my elevator pitch, boy. Did any of that sink in or no? You know, I've always struggled with just personal insecurities, right? I think for me, I don't want to say it is intimidating. Sure. They're going to whip your ass, but you can come in and whip their ass. What if you got in there and all of a sudden you get to a place and there's a Johnny Mnemonic and you're warping all over the place? I mean, it could happen. The thing is, Don is a really good player, and he'd probably be in the top few players in our local league. I don't know. But he doesn't believe me, I don't think. But yeah, we'll get it out to one. How about this? Just for you, I'm going to try. I'll try it. And then maybe we'll document it and take some – maybe we'll make it into an episode and say that. That would be really – that's good content, boys. I'm serious. I get some proceeds there. because that'll go good. I'm a little scared, but I'll do it because I think it'll be worth it. It's fun, man. You know, most of these leagues have true no-jerk policies, right? They're not going to let jerks in. They're great people that just love pinball and want to spread the love of this, and that's why you started a podcast. So why not go with a lot of the people that listen to your podcast, which are competitive pinball players. So let's talk about the origin of the Bash Pinball Podcast. what made you sit down together you love playing it there he is he's pointing to matt uh well it's all you yeah no i mean so we i probably i i tend to like get into any any hobby or thing i go pretty hard on it like i said and so i i like podcasts i listen to a lot of podcasts and so you know if i'm doing something a lot there's a good chance i'm gonna like get more involved in it no matter what it is and so it was kind of probably anybody who knows maybe like yeah eventually he's going to make a podcast probably right so uh it was and just with the audio engineering backgrounds that we have it just seemed like a fairly low barrier of entry um it as it turns out it's it is still a ton of work even though we kind of already know what we're doing as far as audio production um so i really respect anybody who gets into podcasting without having an audio background because right just see that's just that's i did not i did not you could listen to the first ones and they were terrible and i'm getting better i'm getting better i bought the road uh castro pro 2 okay okay and i'm like you matt i don't mess around right if i'm gonna do it i gotta do it and i want you know i want my podcast to be representative of how great this place is and if it sounds like shit yeah right you know right yeah yeah i guess just you know we having fairly high standards from like producing music and you know i ran we both of us have run recording studios um so we have kind of an almost excessively high standard like that standard that would get applied to you know a song on the radio is what we're applying to our podcast which is not a good idea it's too high of a standard honestly right but so we're trying to figure out kind of like how to to create what we want to create in a reasonable amount of time consistently and you know you know we want to keep going every week but we also want to keep, you know, kind of that higher level of production value and just fun. Yeah, we can't not do it. It's just we have, you know, we're always going to keep doing that no matter what. So we have to figure out how to just do it more efficiently and faster. I mean just to give you an idea I sorry to cut you off No no no But for me we kind of split duties on the editing and the tedium of the creation It's not even a joke, man. When I say that, I'm putting in at least somewhere around an average of 8 to 10 hours per episode, which seems excessive. Well, your audio on the Bash Pinball Podcast is second to none. Thank you. It's second to none. You can hear your professionalism. Okay. One of my questions I was going to ask you, that was right. The question I was going to ask you, how long did it take you to edit? Right. Because you can hear it. It is outstanding. Audio is absolutely professional. I have no animals screaming in my ear. So it's really outstanding. Congratulations on that. Thank you. Appreciate that. We, I did have to edit some, some chickens clucking out of one episode because my wife has chickens. and you can hear them through the buildings apparently when you have a fairly sensitive mic. But yeah, we're figuring out kind of like, you know, we recorded the first four or five episodes probably in all different locations and now we're kind of settling on, okay, we have more of a permanent setup here at Don's place. okay and um so yeah it we're kind of figuring out how to how to do it efficiently and yeah also just doing a long form content like a 30 minute 20 30 minute thing is a whole other beast compared to like a three to five minute song which is what we're used to working with you know a song might have 30 or 40 tracks on it but it's only three minutes long but you're using the ridiculous the standards of a three minute song and applying that to a 30 minute podcast sort of kind of yeah that's what you're doing yeah i mean i'd say like i'm cutting we're cutting some corners relative to like how we would produce music but also with a song there's usually one vocalist now we've got two vocalists to deal with yeah you know essentially two voices that are that have to be edited and made to sound decent the whole time so yeah there's some extra challenges that i wasn't anticipating just with the longer format of it and can i can i say something real quick sorry i just i wanted to go ahead and say if anyone uh wants help or tips or whatever hit us up like i'm i'm down for that because we you know like i've been doing this since 2009 2010 and i'm more than happy to share tips or tricks or mics or room placement acoustic treatment whatever like and that's awesome that is what this community is about okay i mean you come when we came in there were so many people that lined up to help us and tell us how bad we were. No, I'm kidding. But they really did. They really did help us. So I absolutely love the 80s-type ads you put in your podcast. Where did that idea come from? Yeah, I guess that was my idea. I mean, after the first episode, I was kind of figuring out the format going forward. The first episode is a little different format, and then everything after that kind of has more of a structure. And part of that was like an 80s TV show, like a sitcom format, like roughly 22 to 30 minutes with like a couple chunks with commercials in between, roughly every seven minutes or so. And so I just kind of wanted it to feel like a show. I really dig it. I really dig it. That's great. I'm glad to hear that. Do you map out what you want? Do you like storyboard your podcast? It depends. For those on the audio side, Don, when I see a C. I see a C. I see a C. Más o menos. Más o menos. Yeah. Usually what we do is we record a session with some topic in mind, maybe multiple topics. It's like a – I would say we have kind of rough – like a rough idea of what we want to cover. For some episodes, I think we have a little bit more fleshed out thoughts like this 25 de Mayo, this last episode that we released today. We kind of had this idea of how can we do something that's maybe appealing to Spanish-speaking people and how – You know, and when we creatively collaborate with those ideas, we kind of, I guess the format or the structure kind of plays itself out as we're having the conversations, you know? Yeah, because I try to map, I script the podcast and I go all over the place because I got ADD and it's hard. But I try to at least script. And so I from script to editing and such, I'm only at about six hours. So I feel better because I was pissed off. so well eight hour eight hours is how long you spent on that one and then i probably spent another eight hours on the same episode so really there were probably somewhere between like eight and twenty hours of work per episode yeah realistically you know it shouldn't take that long per se but i think we're also you know figuring out what works what does and we are getting faster like you know i think we recorded the first session i think was like four hours that it made it into like 30 minutes, you know? So now I think we're doing more of like one or two hour sessions and cutting that into maybe one or two episodes. So I think it's kind of as we practice and, you know, we've never done like this kind of show where we banter and talk and improvise. And so it's, you know, it's kind of like a process. As you get more comfortable, as you get more comfortable with that process, you'll find your voice, if you will, or what kind of content and art you want to put out there. Exactly. It's really cool. It's getting faster for sure. So why the hell did you choose pinball? You know there's no money in this, right? Yeah, I mean, I think largely it's just because we felt – to me, I felt like it was something I missed out on my whole life, like I said. And how many other people are in the same position? And I just kind of want to like spread the pinball around and make sure everybody's like lowering the barrier of entry a little bit to getting into pinball. We call it scratching an itch. Right. Like this to me scratches my itch of the podcast and the streaming because I wanted to be on the radio and on TV as a kid. And I went to college to try to do it and they didn't have my program. And so I went to business. I mean, that was it. So we actually have an intern at the wormhole. Funny story. Him and Christine had family in town and they brought them to the wormhole. and I was showing them around the joint and one day I'll show you all this setup that we have here for the streaming rigs and it's a lot right so to my pleasant surprise this young man comes up he was dating Tim's niece he still is and he's a videography major at the University of Texas and he said he'd like to help out on our streaming podcast so quick shout out to Ryan our intern who sometimes edits our podcast unless he's on family vacation you know which is this week so you'll tell you could always tell which podcast he edited an intro right from the intro his intros are excellent they're much better they're outstanding mine just goes right to talking so you'll get like whatever works whatever works man i think your bonus x episodes are really really great where did that idea come from um do you want do you want to take do you want me to yeah go ahead you take it So, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, man, we, you know, this is kind of like Matt's baby in a way, like it's his idea, but I think it's, I've slowly, as I've adopted the concept, you know, we've kind of made a truly collaborative kind of project. And I think initially the bonus X idea was to take the stuff that didn't necessarily make the cut for the episodes and find a way to still put it out there still, you know, without without having the structure of the format, which does take a lot more time. It takes a little bit more thinking, just, you know, content that we could also maybe put out in the meantime while working on the more creative kind of tedious stuff. But then it's also that week that Matt went to Pinfest, I kind of just did whatever. I just kind of threw that whole John Wick thing together, and I don't know if that was the idea. Yeah, no. But it kind of works. Yeah, I mean like when we do a recording session, especially the earlier ones, but we will record for a couple hours, and then it gets cut down to 20 minutes. And then there's like a lot of extra stuff that is kind of tangential or doesn't – it's kind of off topic or whatever. But it's still just like fun. But it's awesome, yeah. It's just fun stuff. Great conversation. And we just want to have a place to put that stuff and not kind of scrap everything. But it also does give us like an opportunity just to kind of break the format and put something together that's kind of goofier or off the wall or even not necessarily even pinball all the time. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes we have tangents that aren't even pinball related, right? So that's kind of – It's just if it's fun, we just want to use it, you know, and that's a good way to do it. And then, you know, I guess the first bonus X we did was like an arcade – like a random arcade trip. But, yeah, we just got real goofy with the music, and that was the 420 episode. It was a pretty crazy experience, you know. Like it's pretty much exactly like what we described. It's fun. It's fun to listen to. It's fun to listen to. That's very good to hear. thank you yeah thank you man we have no idea you know what we're doing in terms of like storytelling podcasting we're just doing whatever we think is funny for us yeah and if you like if you guys like it you know it seems like you do so we're super grateful and appreciative man that's awesome it's great to hear oh man i love it i really do all right i've kicked your ass enough let's go through this uh my co-host on the stream donovan has a rapid fire question segment that we put towards the end of each podcast okay are you ready for pinball rapid fire. Ready as I'm ever going to be. It's not a good name. We need a new name. It's not clever enough. We need a different name. We'll workshop it. Workshop it. Send us emails at warmupinballatgmail.com. Sorry, painful plug. Okay. Are you ready? Yeah, ready. Ready. I asked this question to Jason, the Pinball Party podcast, and since I'm going to repeat it, but I took out the Panamanian dictator part. keep it in there all right okay you're a deposed panamanian dictator claiming asylum in a catholic church what music does the u.s government blare outside of the church to get you both to surrender metallica saint anger specifically you hate it you're gonna get out of there metallica i'm out that's there in saint anger man i can't i can't deal with that thing i mean yeah the mastering on that album is ear bleedingly bad i don't want to hate on metallica but the snare on Saint Anger, the Saint Anger snare, next time you get a chance, pull up the song Saint Anger and listen to that snare drum. That's that reason alone I'm out. Me, Noriega, and I, we're gone. That's all – I mean, I'm with you on that. But because of the mastering on that album, like, it's so crushed. It just is – it makes my ears bleed. Like, I enjoy Metallica, but – Yeah, sorry, sorry, Metallica. That one's painful. favorite music-themed pinball machine, kind of a softball? Rapid fire, rapid fire. Take as much time as you want. I haven't been playing those music themes very much recently. I'm probably going to say Rush, but I haven't played it enough to know for sure. But I think Rush is my answer. My answer right now is going to be Aerosmith. pick one of these machines to keep one of these to trade and one to burn kind of like Mary F. Kilbutt pinball Stern, all Sterns Rolling Stones Stern Led Zeppelin or Stern Elvis we got to keep one, trade one, burn one I'm keeping Zeppelin keep Zeppelin Trade Elvis and Burn Rolling Stones. Same. Okay. I have a series called Shitty Movies, Great Pinball Machines. For example, Congo, Shitty Movies, Great Pinball Machines. Yep, yep, yep. Last Action Hero, no offense, but that's a shitty movie, Great Pinball Machines. Love it, love it. Johnny Mnemonic, okay? These are the examples I've used in previous. Just don't say Bram Stoker's Dracula and we're good. All right. I'm sorry, but it's coming. You have to pick the best pin out of these three shitty movies made into pinball machines. All right, all right. Shadow, Bram Stoker's Dracula, or Flash Gordon. Best pin out of those shitty movies. I mean, that's an easy one, man. BSD all day. BSD. I like Shadow. Yeah. I haven't had enough time with Shadow, man. I love the Shadow, but the movie... Okay, that's what I'm saying. Now, that's the next question. Give me the worst movie out of those three machines. Yeah, no. I haven't played enough Shadow. I'm going to own a Shadow maybe by the end of the year. So ask me again next time we talk. But what's the worst movie out of those three? Oh, the Shadow. Yeah. I'm going to have to say Shadow by Omission. I haven't seen it. Oh, it's terrible. And, you know, Bob went from Massapequa, Long Island, and this guy's from Massapequa, Long Island, so I tend to love everyone from Massapequa, Long Island, him and Jerry Seinfeld, but that movie's terrible. Duke or UNC? Oh, my. UNC. We're going to get crucified if we don't say UNC, man. What about Gamecocks or Tigers for your South Carolina peeps? I going to say Gamecocks just because I have like a very loose affiliation through a second hand friend that you don want to offend by chatting to a pinball random podcast okay no worries this one is of course for Don best Panamanian baseball player of all time Mariano Rivera thank you and a quick shout out to Rod Carew shout out to the Rod Bojangles or Popeyes oh it's it's the bows man unless you're talking about the chicken sandwich unless you're talking about the chicken sandwich because the spicy chicken sandwich popeyes everything else bojangles yeah yeah agreed bojangles fries biscuits cajun filet biscuit combo with the fries and the honey mustard yeah you finish it i'm sorry You made me laugh. The accent made me laugh. All right, Appalachian Trail or Great Smoky Mountains National Park? I'm going to go Appalachian Trail. Appalachian, yeah. Appalachian, if you want to say it the appropriate way. The way we say it here. I know, right? Yeah, yeah. The Yankee, man. I've heard both. I mean, I don't know. All right, we're going to end with this little game that I just made. It's a quick 80s cartoon bracket. I'm going to name two and we're going to continue it on. Okay? Okay. Like a tournament style. It's like tournament style. Okay. 80s cartoons, boys. I heard the podcast. You like them. G.I. Joe or Super Friends? Oh, G.I. Joe. G.I. Joe. Okay. G.I. Joe or He-Man? He-Man. I'm going G.I. Joe. Okay. Can we disagree? You can totally disagree. We'll just remember what you pick because I'm not smart enough. Okay? Okay. So G.I. Joe and he has a He-Man. So He-Man or Voltron, G.I. Joe or Voltron? He-Man. Voltron rocks, by the way. Voltron. I got to go Voltron. Okay. What about you? Yeah. He-Man. He-Man. Are you staying He-Man? Staying. Matt, Voltron or Transformers? Oh, man. That's a tough one. I told you we're not messing around. I'm going to stick with Voltron. I mean, the five things come together and make a whole big... I mean, they're mechanical cats. I mean, how do you not watch them? Okay, He-Man or Transformers for you, Don? This is tough because I had more of the Transformers toys, the little ones. Yeah. I'm going to stick with He-Man. I like how you're talking this out. You are sticking to He-Man. This is... All right. Okay, so let's go back to you. He-Man or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? oh i what do you is this this is don this is tmnt tmnt okay so you wow he man had a good run until he tm2 all right yep okay and what were you on you were on transformers right are you still on i was on voltron a voltron or teenage mutant ninja i think i gotta go for ninja turtles like like 80s ninja turtles 80s yeah yeah all right i should have put in that at the end because now you're both at Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Last one for this mini game. Last one for the whole game. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Thundercats? Oh! Man, this is a tough one. Thundercats is pretty good, dude. I'm still going Turtles because that was just a bigger part of my life, for sure. I had all the Thundercats toys, but I think I had more invested in Turtles. Like I had the turtles comics and stuff. Wow. You know, I'm going to have to go with turtles because I used to have the whole collection, and I went to the beach, and I made a sand castle. Then I went to lunch, and I came back, and they were gone. So forever in my heart, the turtles. I'm sorry. What is that heart coming out? It's my lost Ninja Turtles. But how did – did you see the hearts on the screen come out? Yeah. How are you doing that? We accidentally discovered that when we were setting up. Can I do this? You try it. Yeah. Try it. This is really good for the audio side. Yeah, it's perfect. No. Oh, you guys are. You guys use your AI companion function. We don't. We don't know. It was the default setting. It just was on. We didn't even try. Oh, my God. Wait till you guys see this on the YouTube side. Really good. All right, guys, this is great. Please keep your podcast going. I think what you do is really outstanding. And I think I love the banter that you guys have together. I love the podcast. I wish we could take more time. I've already taken 55 minutes of your time. So where can everyone find you? Where can they find the podcast? All the places you can get podcasts, but also just at BashPinball.com if you're a web browser-y type person. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's on Apple and Spotify and all the places. Yeah. Are you guys going to any pinball festivals or expos anytime soon? I want to go to Chicago. Where should we go? We have to. You tell us. All right. Which one should we go to? Here's the problem. There's a lot of them, right? So we're going to Chicago this year, the Wormhole, me, Tim, and John. When I say the Wormhole, there's five of us, but the three Wormhole guys are going to Expo in October. The problem with that is that's a week after the Houston Arcade Expo. The Houston Arcade Expo, I'm a little biased, is pretty damn great, guys. It's a party. So if you just want to come and play pinball and party with Scott D'Anthony and Arcade Matt, that's a really great place to go. If you want to go and play pinball and go see tours and, you know, more maybe not as partying, I think the Expo is probably for you. Although I've never been to Expo and I've never partied there, so I don't have – I'm going to go this year and hopefully I can party. When is the one in Houston? You said a week before the – A week before the Chicago Expo, so it's like first week of October. Yeah. Okay. Maybe I can plan a trip to see my dad around the same time. No, we should totally go to Chicago this year for the – I mean, so we can meet. You guys should go to Chicago. Your first one, but Houston Arcade could be really cool. We can hang out at Houston Arcade. I can show you the worm. I'm going to have to clear my schedule, man. I'm going to have to clear the boat. We're going to go on an RV tour of all the places. Well, my problem is I keep having people on the podcast that kind of I vibe with and I want to hang out with, and then they're like, hey, now you're coming. So now I'm going to Germany. I'm going to say, where am I going? I know I'm going to Memphis. I'm definitely going to Arizona and now we're going to Chicago. And so it's awesome. Memphis. What's the, what's in Memphis? That's flip side. Okay. And flip side, a guy named David Yop. And he built a thing called the obstacles. You can check them out. They're really cool. But the Yop, David has like the best, one of the best Twitch streams out there just because he has 30 something machines there at flip side and by a button, He doesn't have the rig system that we have. I've got to move that shit on top of it. Not David Yop. Boop. Little button. He's got all wired up. That's what we're going to do when we build the museum here in Houston. We're going to build this museum. We already have the building, but it's in permitting and there's foundation issues and such. We're going to put about 125 there, guys. Wow. Rare. Really rare. A lot of rare ones. Beautiful. It's going to take a while. Is that going to be open? What kind of hours? Yeah, that's going to be open to the public, to be determined. A lot of TBD on that because we're just starting. Cool. But that will make you come to Houston. We've got to get out there. Yeah. I mean, we've got to hit them all. But, yeah, Expo would be cool to go to this year. Go to Expo. We'll all hang out at Expo. It'll be fun. It'll be fun, and I'd love to meet you guys in person because I really enjoyed this. I hope you guys had a good time. Yeah, man. Yeah, we had a great time. It was great meeting you. Thanks so much for having us on. It's great. The minute I heard you, I said, they're on. I'll get them. Because they're cool and they're fun, and I knew that we would vibe. And stealing from your podcast again, last thing. Gentlemen, last thing. Make a case for pinball in the Olympics. Let's go. This is your subject, Don. Go for it. That's an easy one, man. And it takes a lot of skill, determination, practice, endurance. We can get people from all over the world. There's a long line of – there's a lot of history to it, a long line of – It's an old-ass sport. Yeah. I mean – Yeah, and I don't know how much fun it would be televised, but – I think it would be a lot of fun. Just go to Wormhole Pinball. pretty damn fun don if ping pong can be in the olympics and curling can be in the olympics 100 come on come on i kind of dig watching curling though but the badminton guys sure that's i mean is it because you're standing still the whole time is that the reason why it's not in the olympics i don't i don't know i don't get it either actually Actually, I think it's because there's not an Olympic play field. Like somebody needs to just make the Olympic game. Maybe we'll get Keith Elwin to do it. Right. But just make it look old or something. I don't know. Yeah. And, yeah, have like a standardized play field. Well, let's get this rolling. Obviously, it's too late for Paris, but I don't know what's coming in 2020. Would it be a winner? It would be a summer sport, right? I mean it could be winter sport do we need more winter sports would you play it outside could you play it while you're ice skating that'd be better there's a lot of game planning here we're going to game plan the name of the rapid fire and we're going to game plan this thanks so much man thank you thank you Bash Pinball that was awesome I really really enjoyed it really just a bunch of three guys talking pinball and that's really what I love about this podcast. So thank you, Matt and Don, for taking a minute. And please follow them on all the socials and download their podcast because they really do a phenomenal job. I'm still recovering from last weekend's Golden Ticket to Pembroke tournament, sponsored by Barrels of Fun, here at the Wormhole. I actually took half a day on Monday because I was toast. If you've not watched the stream of this event, it's going to be up on VOD, on YouTube, I think in a few days. we had some of the best players in texas and a few great ones all the way from australia so special shout out to jason lambert lambo and his outstanding play this weekend our winner texas state champ garrett shahan wesley johnson finished second and gilbert herrera finished third so we also debuted the pocket cam and i have to tell you the stream really came out great uh we had the Two Rigs Rocking. If you don't currently watch competitive pinball, please give us a look on YouTube or Twitch because we really have, I think, a really good balance of fun and action. And then, you know, thanks again to everyone that reached out to us and to thank us for putting on the event and the props you received for the stream. You know, it really actually means a lot, and I appreciate it. Speaking of props, let's go through here. Way to go, John Spates. You know, this guy busted his ass and put an amazing tournament. Anyone that organizes a tournament knows how much work goes into a two-day event, let alone a three-day event. And he added a second day at Eureka Heights Brewery on Friday, which didn't end in time. He had to come all the way here to the Wormhole to finish. So way to go, John Spach. Thanks so much to Tim and Christine Hood for supporting pinball as much as they do and all of the hard work. It was really hot in here on Saturday, and it got to about 87 degrees in this building. and with people just coming out in and out of the doors. The next day when people arrived at 9 o'clock in the morning, workers were adding insulation to the windows in the front to make sure that that didn't happen on Sunday. And that's what they do. And they're just amazing. Janine Virchel is amazing. And she was with me for three and a half, four hours on Friday cleaning the hell out of this place. And then she was here with Christine on Saturday and Sunday checking people in. So they're just outstanding hosts. So she constantly brought me food, checked on me throughout the stream. And, guys, she's awesome, and I love her. Barrels of Fun and David David Van Es for the absolute best partner to work with. The tournament, we got the tournament because of their relationship with Pemberg. So thank you so much, Barrels of Fun, for letting us showcase your beautiful machine, Labyrinth, and also for letting us showcase the wormhole. So we were pushing over 180 live viewers, and then OBS crashed. So what's on deck? Wormholes under construction. You can see it. There was a rock came through the window. So we're going to be closed for a few weeks and it's going to get an outdoor paint job. New fence, double pane windows. It's going to look and feel great. And I think those windows are going to be amazing when it gets cold and or hot next week. I'm leaving for New York tonight, tomorrow morning. and uh but then i come back and next week i have scott denisi on the podcast so we're scheduling uh him and then i also have texas state women's champion alice young and those are the two on deck so surprising the hardest part isn't booking a guest uh it's really who should i contact there's just so many stories that i really want to tell and i could use some tips so email us at wormholepinball at gmail.com and let us know a bunch have already come in and i really appreciate it. So follow us on Twitch, YouTube, all the socials. You know, we're really putting up so much content out now. I can't. It's just been awesome. So tell us what you like and dislike. OK, that's a long one. I will see you in a few weeks. Thanks for listening. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 98ad584b-e92b-4abb-a54f-545d163e238b*