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Episode 121: Ryan Wanger, Comet Pinball

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·36m 56s·analyzed·Apr 7, 2018
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Ryan Wanger on becoming a pinball operator, running Comet Pinball, and the current game market.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews Ryan Wanger, owner of Comet Pinball and co-host of Little King's Podcast. Ryan discusses his journey from casual arcade enthusiast to pinball operator and business owner, his three locations in Colorado (Press Play, UMC, Gun Barrel Brewing), the thriving new game landscape, and his accidental entrepreneurship leading to acquiring Comet Pinball. The conversation also covers pinball operations, themed merchandise, and an upcoming Pinball Profile Road Trip Championship in Denver.

Key Claims

  • Ryan operates 21 games across three locations in Colorado (Press Play, UMC, Gun Barrel Brewing)

    high confidence · Ryan states directly: 'Yeah, I have 21 games across three different locations'

  • Stern produces three games a year in three different variations

    high confidence · Ryan: 'Stern produces three games a year and three different variations'

  • Comet Pinball was acquired from Art, the previous owner, with the business being larger than Ryan initially expected

    high confidence · Ryan describes reaching out to Art, who was retiring, and discovering it was 'a bigger business for him than I would have guessed'

  • Comet Pinball receives international orders, with Canada being the largest, followed by Australia, UK, and Europe

    high confidence · Ryan: 'Canada's the biggest international place for us, of course... Australia is probably next, and then UK and the rest of Europe'

  • High Speed was Ryan's first pinball machine purchase after realizing pinball was skill-based, not luck-based

    high confidence · Ryan watched skilled players and 'realized that it was mostly skill and not luck' which changed his perspective on pinball

Notable Quotes

  • “It's cool that pinball is such a small community that I feel like a lot these days, it's like I know somebody even before I have met them in person.”

    Ryan Wanger @ early — Illustrates the tight-knit nature of the pinball community

  • “When you're not good at pinball, it sucks because the ball just goes down the middle every 10 seconds, and you're like, what am I supposed to do about that?”

    Ryan Wanger @ mid — Describes the frustration of new pinball players, explaining his initial reluctance to play

  • “I realized that maybe I was missing something, and I went and started playing at a barcade... and then I'm not sure what happened next, but I guess I finally saw people who were good at pinball and that's what really changed it for me.”

    Ryan Wanger @ mid — Pivotal moment in Ryan's conversion to pinball enthusiasm

  • “Pirates doesn't feel like any other game... this one does feel fresh. And so it's great that there's new designers out there.”

    Ryan Wanger @ mid — Praise for Jersey Jack's Pirates pinball as innovative design

  • “I don't care about Iron Maiden, but I'm going to get that game. And Keith knows what he's doing. The rules look awesome.”

    Ryan Wanger @ mid — Indicates theme-agnostic appreciation for quality game design (Iron Maiden by Keith Elwin/Jersey Jack)

  • “I'm amazed every day about how many orders come in and where those orders are coming from... We got one a day or two ago from South Africa.”

    Ryan Wanger @ mid — Demonstrates global reach and demand for Comet Pinball's LED products

  • “Most of this I guess the theme here is like I just kept accidentally falling deeper into pinball”

    Ryan Wanger @ late-mid — Self-aware summary of his unintended journey into pinball business and community

  • “I'm a web developer. That's what my job was at the time. And she does digital marketing. And so it was a good fit for us.”

Entities

Ryan WangerpersonJeff TeolispersonJanet WangerpersonArtpersonJohn HansonpersonKevinpersonBarry ElslerpersonJosh SharppersonComet PinballcompanyPress PlaycompanyLittle King's Podcastproduct

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Comet Pinball undergoing website and operational optimization two years post-acquisition; maintaining growth while managing infrastructure demands

    medium · Ryan: 'we had a lot of plans... it's been almost two years now and some of that stuff still hasn't happened because we're just trying to get everything running smoothly'

  • ?

    business_signal: Comet Pinball experiencing strong growth with international orders from 5+ countries including South Africa, Canada, Australia, UK, and Europe

    high · Ryan: 'I'm amazed every day about how many orders come in and where those orders are coming from' and lists specific international markets with Canada as largest

  • ?

    community_signal: Significant negative sentiment toward Josh Sharp and IFPA leadership regarding retroactive circuit finals rule changes perceived as arbitrary executive power

    high · Jeff: 'IFPA, not president, dictator' and 'What a bunch of crap... I don't know why anybody likes that guy' regarding Sharp's retroactive rule implementation

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Profile Road Trip Championship launching in Denver with modest $10 entry fee, backlit trophy, and max TGP structure

    high · Jeff and Ryan organized tournament at 1UP Colfax for Sunday at 5pm, four-player match play format, trophy visible on Facebook

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Steve Ritchie (High Speed, Black Knight) credited as pivotal influence on Ryan's pinball conversion through gameplay observation of skilled players

    high · Ryan cites playing High Speed as child, then realizing skill-based nature after watching skilled players, crediting Ritchie-designed games as gateway

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.111

0:00
it's time now for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teols you can find our group on facebook we're also on twitter at pinball profile email us pinball profile at gmail.com and please subscribe on either itunes stitcher or google play let's head out to colorado why not i'm going to be doing it so let's talk to somebody you know very well from there ryan wanger joins us Hey, Ryan, how are you? Great. How are you doing, Jeff? Very, very good. You and I met first time, I think, face-to-face. Certainly had extended talks at InDisc, a fantastic tournament there. And it was good to finally meet you. Yeah, you too. It's cool that pinball is such a small community that I feel like a lot these days, it's like I kind of know somebody even before I have met them in person. And what was your perception of myself before you met me? Big, loud-mouthed Canadian. Well, I guess I must have seen pictures, but you know how people don't ever look like what they sound like? Yeah, the camera adds 10 pounds, and I've eaten three cameras. I get it.
1:03
No, I mean, you've got such a good radio voice. I mean, everybody tells you that, and then you say that you're not even on radio, but it's just you sound like a DJ, and you ask the right questions, and so I don't know. We haven't done the interview yet. You have no idea what I'm going to ask. It could be a terrible interview for all you know. But I can tell the people listening that he does do the intro live, the whole thing about Facebook and all that stuff. He does it smooth. That's the only thing about the podcast that's smooth. But thank you very much, Ryan. I didn't believe it when I heard that it wasn't a recording, but it's not. I do some slight variations here and there. Sometimes that Josh Sharp guy will get on and blah, blah, blah. Yes, it's done live. Now, you're originally from Wisconsin, too, correct? That is correct. What got you to Colorado? Mountains and sun. and I mean I guess a slightly longer answer is that I got married in 2008 and my wife Janet wanted to go to business school and so we were living in Boston at the time and we just used that as an excuse to go someplace with Mountains and Sun, someplace that would have a good MBA program for her and it turned out to be Boulder. The home of Mork and Mindy in fact, correct? That's right. I mean the house that they used is definitely here And I don't know. It's a cool-looking house. So this isn't a joke. When I come out to Colorado this week, I'm going to be looking for something that I assume would be in the Boulder area or maybe hopefully in Denver. And it's the suspenders that Mork used to wear, those rainbow suspenders. If I could find those, I would be in heaven. Have you seen any? Oh, I mean, there's a shop on Pearl Street. All they sell is rainbow suspenders.

Ryan Wanger @ late-mid — Explains how his professional skills positioned him to acquire and run Comet Pinball

High Speedgame
Break Shotgame
Iron Maidengame
Piratesgame
Total Nuclear Annihilationgame
Texas Pinball Festivalevent
1UP Colfaxcompany
Pinball Profile Road Trip Championshipevent
IFPAorganization
Boulderlocation
Steve Ritchieperson
  • ?

    licensing_signal: Licensed themes remain critical for location operator revenue despite design priority differences; Ryan acknowledges theme importance for casual first-play quarters despite personal gameplay focus

    high · Ryan: 'I'm pretty confident that license is a big part of what helps games make money on location. Even though personally, you know, I care more about the gameplay'

  • $

    market_signal: Operator profitability concerns emerging as game production accelerates; operators struggling to keep pace with new releases financially

    high · Ryan: 'I'm going to get to the point where as an operator for me, I'm not going to be able to keep up with all the new games coming out' and notes need to sell older machines to afford new stock

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jersey Jack Pinball (Pirates, Iron Maiden) positioning as design innovator with fresh mechanics differentiating from existing games

    medium · Ryan: 'Pirates doesn't feel like any other game... this one does feel fresh' and praised Iron Maiden layout as 'amazing' despite theme indifference

    • 2:39
    Okay, Ryan, you got something to pick up before we meet each other on Sunday? I'll pay for it. No problem. I have to have those.
    2:48
    It's totally not a thing, but I mean, maybe. Maybe I'm not cultured. So before we get into Comet Pinball and Little Kings podcast, let's talk about your pinball origins. And for you, getting the game High Speed was where it really all began. High Speed, such a great game. Steve Ritchie is actually what got me into pinball, just playing, not necessarily owning, but it was playing Black Knight, and I remember High Speed too. and so much fun, and that got you hooked, didn't it? Not exactly. I don't know. This is a weird story. I went to arcades all the time growing up, but I would mostly play like Frogger and Pac-Man and Tron and video games, and I would only play pinball occasionally, and when you're not good at pinball, it sucks because the ball just goes down the middle every 10 seconds, and you're like, what am I supposed to do about that? And then you paid 50 cents, and you move on to the next game, and then the next game sucks also because the ball keeps going straight down the middle. So in 2013, my mom bought an arcade game for my brother. It was a Double Dragon, and it was $200 at some consignment shop in Wisconsin. And I'd never really thought about it before, but I assumed that those games were thousands of dollars. And then I thought, hey, wait a minute, I'm an adult now, and I have a basement, and I could put some games in there. So I bought a couple arcade games and learned how to fix them up. And I kept telling people, I've got these arcade games, it's really cool. and no one ever knew anyone else with arcade games, but every once in a while, they would know someone else with pinball machines, and they would say, do you have any pinball machines? My friend down the street has a pinball machine in his basement, or my uncle had four machines in the living room, and it was always pinball. And so eventually I realized that maybe I was missing something, and I went and started playing at a barcade that had opened recently in Boulder.
    4:34
    They actually had a free play night, and so I would go there and just play a ton. and then I'm not sure what happened next, but I guess I finally saw people who were good at pinball and that's what really changed it for me. Like I realized that it was mostly skill and not luck as I had thought. And, you know, I saw people like aggressively moving machines and they would end up playing for a long time. And so that's what got me into it. And it just, my first game happened to be high speed because I wanted to try and get an inexpensive game and I just was watching Craigslist for weeks. I don't know how long it was. It felt like months probably, But finally, I just gave up and I said, all right, this is the right price. And I got a high speed. And the first time I got multiball on the high speed in my basement, I realized that I had played that before as a kid, you know, like 20 years ago. I can remember because it's kind of an iconic when you start multiballing, like all the lights go out and it puts a ball in the shooter lane and you're not sure what's happening. And then you have to plunge, you know, plunge your balls in for multiball. And so that's the story. It's interesting that you said you saw people shaking the machines. If I really think about it, I think the first games I played didn't have a tilt bob or it was very, very loose. And I remember even as a kid being aggressive, shaking it, trying to not nudge, just really cheat, really, as the ball is about to go center drain and you move it a foot to the left and save it on your right flipper. I loved that aspect of it. And I think that actually got me more into pinball, that you could kind of move it a little bit. If I played a game with a super tight tilt, I might not have been a pinball fan. It would have drove me nuts. You know, I so I operate some games and not to jump ahead here, but I do keep the tilts pretty loose. So like about as loose as they can go where the with the where the weight will still be inside the ring. But people do not understand about tilting. I mean, I would say us in the pinball world, people who are listening to this podcast, they get it. But everybody else, they either don't know that you can move the machine at all or they think that moving the machine is illegal. And so explaining to people that how the tilt works and how it's OK and just like it sort of adds this extra dimension of there's not just a thing. It's not just the flippers that you can control. Right. You can move the whole world around the ball. And that's a I think that's a thing that really speaks to some people as this like extra layer that they didn't make some even more interested in pinball. That is neat that you do that as an operator, too, because you have a few locations. I think there are three. Correct. Yeah, I have 21 games across three different locations, and it was just kind of a thing that happened accidentally. I got this high speed, and then the next weekend after I bought this high speed, the guy who I bought it from, his name is John Hanson, and hey, John, if you're listening, and he had a party the next weekend and invited me. So I came back and played because he had like 12 or so great games, which I didn't get to play when I was picking up the high speed. You know, I just kind of looked at him and I was at the stranger's house and I got out of there. And so then I went back to a party the next week and really got into Break Shot. Break Shot? Yeah, Break Shot. Because I was still, I think a lot of people start this way. You know, some people don't, but I think some people, you know, they want to get a game and they don't want to get like an EM, you know, for their first game. I know in pinball, you know, I want something with some rules. So I want to get like the cheapest DMD possible. You know, not everybody has a budget for a brand new machine. And a lot of them you can find around on location. But so people, you know, that's a common like thread post. It's like, what's the cheapest, the best, cheapest DMD? And so I guess BreakShot, yeah, for sure. BreakShot is there. You can get a BreakShot for like, I don't know what it is today, but a year, two or three ago, maybe 1500 bucks. And it's a game that they didn't make a ton of, but they turn over pretty quickly, it seems like. Because people, they are kind of simple. And this guy actually, John, has, I think, bought the game four separate times now and ended up selling it every time. So anyway, I got a break shot and then knew some friends who wanted a machine for their office. And they knew I was into pinball, and they said, it's too expensive. And I thought, hey, maybe I could buy a machine and rent it to you guys. And so that's how it started. And then a month later, they wanted a second machine. and then they referred me to another office and I put a machine in there. And then just kind of like dumb luck that I ended up getting Press Play, which is a barcade in Boulder. And I kind of started sharing operator duties at the beginning and then took over fully. But it's been, I don't know, it's really rewarding. I recommend it. It's not like you can live off of it, but it's really rewarding to see people play your games and just be enjoying pinball and you can take away from that is that they wouldn be having this experience if it weren for me operating these games here And I kind of cheap as a person in general so it helps to like you know I would probably only own, like, three or four games if I wasn't operating. And, you know, I'd have a couple of thousand or $2,000 games in my basement, but this is kind of a good excuse for me to get some fancier games and have other people help subsidize them. What are the other two locations? Yeah, so Press Play, I have games at, it's a barcade in downtown Boulder. Then I have games at the UMC, which is like the student center on the campus at Boulder here, University of Colorado. And then my newest location is a brewery called Gun Barrel Brewing. So I imagine as an operator, seeing all these games that are coming out, I mean, being an operator probably 10 years ago might not have been the greatest thing. but now Stern produces three games a year and three different variations. Spooky has done some amazing things. Jersey Jack and Americans come out with a game, and everybody keeps coming out with these games in boutique shops. It's a good time for new pinball machines, and I would assume a good time to be an operator. It is. I definitely feel torn, for sure. And this is one of these things where I probably wouldn't buy new in-box games if I wasn't operating, just because I'm cheap and I'd wait a little bit and save a couple hundred bucks. But as an operator, it makes a lot of sense to get those games out right away because especially in the first month or two, tons of people will come to play the game, check it out for the first time. And I think we're going to get to the point where as an operator for me, I'm not going to be able to keep up with all the new games coming out and have to be a little choosy as to what I buy just because I won't have the money. Ryan, a lot of people have heard you and your partner Kevin on Little King's podcast, and you've had several guests on there, most recently Barry Elsler, who is with Deep Root. Even in the interview, Barry said on Little King's podcast that he's already got two games in the works for next year, 2019. So another company with possible games that will be out soon. So it is a good time, and I'm wondering what you think of some of these new games that we've seen in a little while. I mean, whether it's Iron Maiden, TNA, Alice Cooper, with Jersey Jacks down with Pirates. There are just so many great games. Houdini. What are some of the ones that are really catching your eye? Yeah, I've been blown away. And this is, I actually, when new games come out, I kind of don't want to like them because... That's right, because you've got to buy them. That means I've got to buy them, yeah. And I need to get, since I've kind of been slowly, I've just sort of been this accidental operator and I've been expanding kind of slowly over time. I haven't been really selling games. So I think I'm going to need to step up my game, my selling games. that I can afford these new games. But man, I went to TPF and I had played Total Nuclear Annihilation before and it's a great game. I really want one. I'm only a little wary of it because it's an unlicensed theme and I'm pretty confident that license is a big part of what helps games make money on location. Even though personally, you know, I care more about the gameplay and the rules and all that stuff. But, you know, to get people to put in those first quarters, you know, they want something that's sort of recognizable. I got to play Pirates for the first time at TPF and sadly to say, really loved that game and want one for sure. So I'm going to have to sell to afford that. But that it's just that's a game that it doesn't feel like any other game, I guess, sort of, you know, doesn't feel like a wide body either. Well, yeah, I mean, just with some games, you know, you say like, oh, this game is just like that game, but or a combination of these two games. And and this one does feel fresh. And so it's great that there's new designer out there. And I think this will do well on location because of the theme. I think the rules are difficult and will really provide like a good challenge for good players in the long run. but I also think that there's enough gadgets and toys and cool stuff that will happen the first couple times you play, even if you don't know what you're doing. So I think that's a really good sign for that game. And man, I watched a little bit of the Iron Maiden theme, and that game looks amazing.
    13:35
    Seeing the Archer prototype from the gameplay videos from a year or two ago, I watched a minute of that and was like, this is an amazing layout, I have to get this game. And so I don't care about Iron Maiden, but I'm going to get that game. And Keith knows what he's doing. The rules look awesome, and it's going to be a good one. A great time for pinball, for sure. We were talking a little bit about Little King's podcast. It's a show you've done with Kevin for a little while. I've always admired the two-person podcast, whether it's yourself, whether it's Jeff and Jessica for pinball podcast, whether it's Martin and Ryan for head-to-head or Bruce and Ron for slam tilt, Tommy and Taylor for this flipping podcast. It's harder to do a two-person podcast. And I say that as somebody who doesn't do it because I'm imagining it's tough to figure out the direction you want to go. Who talks? Scheduling. All those things make it harder as a two-person team. It does seem like that. I haven't done a one-person podcast. That may be something that I try in the future. but I my guess is that maybe Ryan and Martin on uh head to head maybe they maybe they would say it's easy I don't know what they say those guys have really good chemistry and they they laugh a lot and they tease each other and that works really well for them um that's part of what I like about Tommy and Taylor also is is like the relationship they have with each other but it can be really difficult to schedule and you know Kevin and I have kind of like opposite schedules so So it's weird because we both have a lot of free time, but it just doesn't overlap with each other. And it can be difficult to be focused on particular topics. My favorite podcast ever has been Coast to Coast. And I think Nate's had a couple of episodes recently, so that's been nice. But back in the day, he did such a good job with the one-person show. And he would have these different segments, and there's kind of something for everybody. But, you know, I can imagine that this is a long way of saying, I don't know. I bet some people who do it by themselves say it's difficult, and some people who do it in teams say it's difficult. I think it's one of those things that's hard to, I don't know, like always have the, like you've got to get momentum and keep that momentum going, you know. And if it slips a little bit, it makes it tough. I agree with you what you say about Nate. Absolutely, the bar was set when Nate did it with Coast to Coast, and I enjoy listening. I'm glad he is doing more of these. That Iron Maiden one he did with Keith was bravo. It was spectacular and so well done. And he was the perfect person to do it too. I guess if it was just me talking and not having a guest, I couldn't do it. There's no way. Even though I guess I'm the only host here on Pinball Profile, I feel like I always have a co-host and it's whomever I'm talking to. And so I guess with a two-person podcast, with one person you've got a blank canvas and you've got to fill that. But with two people, and I right now consider you my co-host on this episode, I'm hearing what you're saying, reacting to what you're saying, and you're being fed information from me. You're being led by questions from me, and it just kind of, for me, seems to work. I couldn't do what Nate did if I tried in a million years. Well, you do a great job. That really resonates with me, what you just said about making the person you're interviewing sort of feel like a co-host. And if I think back to the episodes of your show that I've listened to, it does kind of feel like that. So kudos to you for being able to pull that off because not everybody can. Well, some shows are tough. I mean, with Josh, you really have to. I mean, he's not the quickest guy, so you've got to kind of pick him up a little bit. Anyone playing the Josh Sharp drinking game is now, what, is it two or three shots you're up to? I like that. Every time I take a shot at Josh, you have to take a shot? That's great. Oh, you're going to be hammered by the end of this episode then. You might run out of bottles when I talk about what Josh has recently done. I'm sure you saw it on IFPA where he decided to make the circuit finals, which he coincidentally just won, and the points just shot up for sharp. What a bunch of crap. What a dictator. I don't know why anybody likes that guy. It drives me nuts. IFPA, not president, dictator. I said it. Have another shot. What do you think of that? retroactively huh it's quite a guy quite a guy what a creep he can just do whatever he wants i mean his father saved pinball and now he thinks he owns this this hobby it's kind of like a star wars movie where the father is a hero and the kid becomes bad you know wasn't that kind of han solo and kylo ren spoiler alert he's the kylo yeah he's the kylo ren of pinball although i wish you wear a mask Okay enough of him So you an owner You got some games at home You got a podcast How did this all lead into Comet Pinball Well that was I mean most of this I guess the theme here is like I just kept accidentally falling deeper into pinball, you know, got some arcade games and then realized arcade games are stupid. I should be playing pinball and then accidentally operated one to friends and then accidentally got into a, into a bar. And then, uh, you know, Kevin approached me about wanting to do the podcast. So that wasn't even my idea. And then with Comet Pinball, I was just, you know, I was on pin side a lot. And one day there was a post about Art, who's the old owner of Comet, that it was time for him to retire and move on from the business. And I kind of just reached out to him because I was curious about, you know, maybe if I could get some hints about the numbers, you know, because I wasn't really sure if it was like if that was a full time gig or not, or just something they could do on this on the side. You know, I wasn't really sure about like the size of the industry, I guess. And so reached out to him and it was, you know, it was a bigger business for him than I would have guessed. And so I just, I felt kind of crazy asking my wife, Janet, if this was something that we should do. And she was super into it. And so I'm a web developer. That's what my job was at the time. And she does digital marketing. And so it was a good fit for us. And it just ended up working out, and we took over the business from art and flew down to Florida twice. And the second time, we rented a U-Haul and put all of the bulbs in the back and drove it to Colorado and set up shop here. So now my life is kind of just pinball all the time. It's crazy. But what a great business to have as collectors are so passionate about their games and modding up. And I can only imagine the business is doing amazing. Yeah, it's been great. It's, you know, we had a lot of plans for things that we would do right when we took over, like, well, we're going to change the website and we're going to do this other stuff. And, you know, it's been almost two years now. And some of that stuff still hasn't happened because we're just trying to get everything running smoothly and get, you know, we have a full time employee. And so being able to offload some stuff so that we have more times to update the website and write new copy and do that kind of stuff. So I'm amazed every day about how many orders come in and where those orders are coming from and people who are buying LEDs for the first time and especially international orders. You know, like we got one a day or two ago from South Africa. Wow. It's crazy. Yeah. South Africa? South Africa. I think that's the strangest place. We get Canada's the biggest international place for us, of course. So thank you to all your Canuck friends. And then Australia is probably next, and then UK and the rest of Europe. But there's a couple. We get a couple from Brazil once in a while, a couple from South Africa. It's cold up in Canada, so we like the heat that comes off the ball. I know they're LEDs, but we'll take whatever we can get.
    21:33
    If anyone's played pinball in South Africa, you should email Pinball Profile and tell them what game you played and where it was. I'm just curious about going there to maybe qualify for a country status so I can make one of these IFPA. Yeah, top two in South Africa will get you to the circuit or the finals or whatever. Have another drink. That idiot Josh will change the rules on me, so forget about it. I'll tell you one thing. My favorite thing I've seen, and it was at a tournament in Rochester, New York, at Bruce's Silver Ball Saloon, and Megan from Ottawa was putting in her quarters, and she pulled out this. It looked like a quarter roll, whereas I've got a bunch of quarters in my pocket, you know, banging against my leg. She's got this nice little roll that the quarters are popping out on, and it said Comet Pinball on it. I think that's the greatest thing I've ever seen. All right.
    22:21
    Our marketing officer will be very excited to hear that story. Go to the Facebook page. I'll post a picture of it. Okay, yeah. It was a shameless plug to get one, by the way, just pointing that out. Oh, yeah.
    22:35
    I'll try and remember to… Not in the suspenders. To give you one when I see you in person. But I brought some to InDisc when we sponsored there and put them out on a table. And I don't know when he brought like 50, and they were gone in like 20 minutes. And so we do have them on our site now. They cost a couple bucks. And so that's what you got to do to get one now. Or you have to host me on your podcast. I'll add the $2 to the suspenders. I think it's a great idea.
    23:01
    Yeah. Well, I have a question, actually. uh so for me as an operator canadian quarters are the worst do you know about this sure yes bruce whenever i go to the super bowl hey i gotta sell you some canadian quarters these stupid things they wreck the mechs and everything yeah they're they're terrible what so do you guys have different mechs or something so yes yes listening doesn't know there's a little piece of metal inside the the coin mechs inside u.s coin mechs and so when you put in a canadian coin it magnetizes to the metal, and then it blocks quarters from going. It lets maybe eight more coins pile in, but nothing gets through, and then the whole thing is jammed, and then you've got to go open it up and fish out the Canadian quarter. So I've thrown away. I just throw them in the trash. What? Tons of Canadian money has just gone straight in the trash, because I'm so upset about it. I'm like, stupid magnetized quarter. Forget the suspenders and the Comet coin collector. Bring those quarters. No, anyway, the truth is most games are loonies, so we don't have dollar bills. So we have dollar coins and $2 coins. So a Canadian quarter won't get you a game of pinball. On EMs and some of the older games, like where I play Adam's Family on location, it still takes quarters. And it's funny you should talk about the different mechs. I own a Flight 2000. It's not on free play, and I have to feed it with American quarters because I bought it in Detroit.
    24:21
    Nice. So I feel your pain, but not really because they're just sitting in the coin door. It's easy for me to do. Well, I'll put some American quarters in my Comet coin holder when I give it to you so you can play your own games at home. Thank you. So that's what we're talking about. I'm going to be seeing Ryan this weekend coming to Colorado. And stupid me, Colorado's got all this action on. It's always the first weekend or the third weekend. This guy is coming on the second weekend. So Ryan emails me on Facebook and says, oh, that's too bad. There's nothing going on. I'm like, what? Like I can't read a calendar. I assumed something was happening. It's a good assumption. There are events all over Colorado all the time. Tons of leagues, tons of tournaments. But the big ones in Denver, yeah, are first and third Sundays. Not this week. Not a chance. Slotting right in between. The biggest event in Colorado. I don't care about Dory Hill or anything else. The biggest event in Colorado is happening this weekend, which, by the way, would have been PAPA weekend. So what is the next closest thing to PAPA weekend? It's this weekend in Denver at 1UP Colfax on Sunday. It is the Pinball Profile Road Trip Championship, Denver edition, because Ryan and I have set this up, and I already know a bunch of people coming in. It's open to anyone 21 or older, 5 o'clock on Sunday. It's at the 1UP Colfax, which is this venue. Maybe you've heard of, I don't know, they expanded a year or two ago. Don't the locals call it 2UP? Yeah, it was called, there's one, 1UP Lodo, which is now called, was just called 1UP, is right by the, it's like less than a block from Coors Field, where you'll be seeing a game. And then they had the two up, and then for some reason they just renamed them to one up Loto, one up Colfax. But anyway, Colfax has 40-ish games right now, so it's a huge, and it's kind of in a room that's separate from all the arcade games and other stuff. So there's not a lot of riffraff going on in there, just people who are there to play pinball. And so there's more machines than you would need for a tournament, and it's a great place to play. Well, my wife's there for a convention with her company, and she said, do you want to come to Denver? I'm like, hmm, free hotel room, never been to Denver before. The Rockies are playing. I love baseball. I've always wanted to see Coors Field. Done and done. So I had to kind of fill the void with some pinball, and I'm glad you and I kind of hooked up on Facebook to talk about what we can do. So here's what's happening. I'll tell you right now, max TGP. If you're a tournament player, I mean, this isn't the opportunities that the Lefkoffs ran a few years ago, but it's going to be pretty good for a Sunday night. in Denver starting at 5 p.m. Four-player match play, so four-player groups, and we'll figure out the math to make sure, and we'll tell people before it happens, okay, we've got this many people, this many games, this is how the playoffs will run, everything will be transparent, and we'll max out, and we'll have a lot of fun. And I've already got, it's beautiful, this from the Ulix store, this backlit trophy, this pinball profile logo, a pinball machine. Again, you can see it on our Facebook page, and that's a nice keepsake for someone. The whole cost for this thing? A whopping $10. to enter. All money, minus the expense of the stupid dollar for you to have a drink that Josh put in, the trophy, all money goes back to the players, too. I think we'll even have some fun bounties, too, just to sprinkle some of that cash around. It doesn't even matter how you play. There might be some lucky draws. Who knows I record a pinball profile when I there too just to kind of get a sense of this Colorado scene because I watched a lot on Colorado Pinball Collective I talked to Snow quite a few times In fact, you were on last week playing your Tron game, too, with Snow. Yeah, they've been here a couple times, and yeah, it's fun playing with them, and it's fun being on stream.
    28:02
    I haven't gone back to watch myself. I don't know. Have you watched yourself play on stream much? I did watch the circuit finals because it was neat to see me actually playing Bowen, Keith, and Trent. But no, I usually don't because I remember how I play. It's usually terrible when I'm on TV. I'll give you an example. I was at Buffalo Billiards at Bat City Open last year. I think I got a first-round bye and then got to play Robert Byers and some other players there, Brian O'Neill. I know how badly I did. There's no way I want to watch that again. Yeah, that's true. I guess you've got to catch it at the right moment. But, you know, if you stream for two or three hours, you'll definitely get some sort of moments of pinball wizardry in there. I mean, I told this story on The Little Kings, but at InDisc I was in the semifinals for B, and they had this great streaming set up there. And you were not on the mic at the time, but there was like a little lull in the A group, and they came over to B. and we were in this situation where like, so a player had on ball, like I needed to win this, it was between me and another guy. I had to beat him, his name was David and the other two players were not in, one was through and one was definitely not going through and this guy who was definitely not going through pressed the start button when he walked up on ball two after I had a huge lead and reset the game and so then the stream. You lost it I assume, You just snapped and you popped and it's on camera, correct? Man, no. So I wasn't on camera at that point, but the camera picked up, and now we were on ball two of the restarted game, and now I was in a big hole, and this was on taxi. And it was a cool moment that I got to share this clip on Facebook and some people who didn't know pinball because I had to wait for the tilt bob to settle and so the commentators could talk about the game and the rules and draw things, and then I would step up and play. and it was clear what score I needed to beat and all that stuff, and I ended up pulling it out. It was just one game and one good ball, but it was a cool thing to have. You just go back and watch. It felt very professional. You had the commentators and being able to draw on the screen and all that. I don't know. I hope that streaming, I don't know that it can ever be like a well-received pinball on ESPN, but the quality of the streams and the commentary and all that stuff has grown so much in the last couple years, and it's a good thing for pinball. It's a way to get more people interested, for sure. Yeah, I guess Carl's done pretty good with that IE pinball. I guess his streams are okay.
    30:45
    What a whiz. Did you see him destroy Reactor 9? I did, and I had to laugh when that Bo and Karen screen came up when he finally did it. That was pretty funny and good on Scott Denise for the quick fix to make that happen. Because I think, if I recall, wasn't Carl on beta code, so he was getting automatically the updates? I think so, yeah. I mean, when he beat the game, it said, is that you, Bo and Karen? So I wonder if Carl would have won, would he have been hired by Spooky? Who knows?
    31:16
    Yeah, I'm excited about that. That was maybe my favorite thing coming out of TPF, actually. Well, maybe playing Pirates. And Alice Cooper was good, too, but very cool that Bowen is working for Spooky now. And, I mean, that guy is a great player. He's great with rules, and he's a great ambassador for pinball. So it's really cool to see these people, like, getting hired by pinball manufacturers and kind of like, you know, sort of they work their way into getting a job kind of accidentally or in some sort of grassroots manner. and it's fresh people, new ideas, and it'll be great for all of us. New people, players, experienced players have seen everything and know some of the strengths and weaknesses. Great hires, all these hires from Stern, from Spooky, everyone. Even the new hires like Eric, like you mentioned, for Pirates of the Caribbean, for Jersey Jack. It's great to see a mix of veterans who have designed games when it comes to rule sets and programming, seeing some new blood and some players. It's a great time for pinball. And I said that last year, and I said it probably the year before that. It just keeps getting better. Would you ever want a job in pinball?
    32:30
    What if it was on ESPN? Okay, I'll tell you this. Let's say we were streaming pinball on ESPN, and they wanted an interviewer, a commentary guy. Would you do that for a job? Sure, but that's not what I would love to do in pinball. I mean, I do it. What would you want to do in pinball? Really? Am I going to say this on Pinball Profile and be laughed at? I'll tell you. So at the start of this episode, you talked about me being a broadcaster, and I do this little classic rock show, and I've done it for several years, and it's such a small, small part of my job. But I do a lot of voice work, and I appreciate the compliments you and others have given me that I'm a nice, friendly-sounding voice, whatever the case may be. I'm flattered when you say that, and honestly surprised because every commercial I voice is never my voice. It's always characters. So that kind of comes from my comedy and acting background and all these other little things I've done in my life. And I get to be someone else every time I'm on a commercial. It's never the voice you're hearing right now. Very, very rarely. I think I do a few funeral home commercials.
    33:33
    Let me give an example. Losing a loved one is always a hard time. But at McLaren's funeral home, blah, blah, blah. You know, those are the commercials they get me to do with the regular voice. Everything else is just goofball stuff, which I love doing. So my number one job I would love to do in pinball would be some sort of character call-out voice. I would lose it to do something like that. There. Anybody listening? Help? There's the request. Somebody's listening to that, and I feel incredibly guilty for laughing at your funeral home voice. But I'd love to hear that. You must know more about voice acting than everyone. But I'm sure you see that people, you know, Stern and others get a lot of flack for voice call-outs. And, you know, they can't use the real actors, and they've got to use somebody else. And it's just never quite, I don't know. It's tough with games. I know they get a lot of flack for, not a lot of flack, but certainly some criticisms for Guardians of the Galaxy. I get that because there are actual actors and call-outs from the movie you could use. And maybe that'll happen with future code. You never know. But they also get great praise for things like Metallica, Aerosmith, and definitely Iron Maiden. So when I heard those call-outs, that's exactly what I'm hearing. It's actually something I really don't care too much about when I'm playing pinball because I'm always focused on score. But when it's that great, like it is on Iron Maiden, you definitely take notice of it. So those kind of things are cool. Oh, don't think I haven't talked to Zach about it. And he laughed when I suggested. I'd love to do that.
    34:57
    I'm not laughing. I think you'd be a great jackpot call-out someday. I'll do a 24-1 like Ron Howlett does. I love when he does that. Jerk! The Chloe character? It's too funny. Anyway, this is going to be a lot of fun. Again, see Ryan, see myself this Sunday. It's the Pinball Profile Road Trip Denver Edition, Sunday night at 5 o'clock at 1-Up Colfax. It's open to everyone to play this four-player match player game, maximum TGP, only $10 to enter. I hope to see you there. You'll be recorded on a pinball profile. It's nice to kind of get to know people from Colorado. I've already heard a bunch that have said they're going to come out. So, Ryan, I'm really looking forward to it. And I appreciate you coming on pinball profile and for all the things you do with Comet and the other things too. Me too. It was a pleasure being here. Thanks for having me. All right. Should I do a character voice for my ending thing as an audition?
    35:52
    You should. I read to Janet every night before she goes to bed, and I've been reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
    36:02
    Each book we get into, I start doing more and more voices because when you're reading a book to someone else, they don't always know when the characters have changed.
    36:11
    Inspire me with a voice that I can use. I noticed there was this guy on Head to Head Pinball that kept calling in, and I think I can do a pretty good impersonation of him. He's a sheriff from Las Vegas. His name is Tech. So let me see if I can imitate that. Obviously, real person that's on head-to-head pinball. Hold on. Let me see. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Yeehaw. That guy is Jeff Teolis.
    36:51
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