Any way you want it, that's the way you need it. Any way you want it. She loves to laugh. She loves to sing. She does everything. She loves to move. She loves to groove. She loves to love and dance. It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teels. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We have a Facebook group. We're on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. And if you'd like to show your support, that would be wonderful. You can do that on patreon.com slash pinballprofile. Don't worry, the shows will always be free, but it's a nice way to show your support. And again, greatly appreciated. Today, I'm with a longtime friend and someone that I've done some traveling with too, because pinball takes you in all different parts of maybe the world or certainly North America on this side of the pond. And this is Donna Way. And Donna has been coming with me and some other friends to some of my pinball profile, Played in America tours. And I thought this would be a good introduction to people who don't know Donna. But because I see Donna interact with all these people, a lot of people know who she is. Hi, Donna. How are you? I'm fine, thanks. How are you doing, Jeff? We are right now sitting outside of the Louisville Arcade Expo. You just had a bit of a week, would you say, a little bit of traveling? Is this the most pinball traveling you've done in a while? It's the most pinball traveling I've done at all, for sure. So we started off in South Carolina. And this is a drive from basically near Toronto to head, oh, I don't know, 18 hours down to Bang Back Pinball Lounge. Had a great time in Columbia, South Carolina. Did an event there. The next day, we were at the Game Terminal in Nashville, Tennessee. And because it's on the way home, Louisville Arcade Expo. I pitched this to Donna, to Shane Jackson, to Angela Fisher, that this would be a great trip. And you bought it. Oh, for sure. I've had a great time. It's been an absolute blast. And I've seen you make a few friends in each stop because I think that's what it is for you, for pinball. Yeah, there's competitions and it's a chance to see different machines. But, Donna, and the reason people will know you is because you like the social side of it. And you've really met some new people and had a lot of fun. Is that what it is for you, for pinball? It is definitely the social aspect of it. You know, people try to teach me more to be better at pinball, doing pass, whatever, flips or whatever. I have no interest, none at all, because I like the social aspect. I've gone to tournaments and the number of people I've met, I love the people. The community is what does it for me. You know, I met a couple while we were in South Carolina. I met another couple in Tennessee. I met a whole bunch of people here in, where are we again? Louisville. It's been amazing. I've had a great time. And, you know, sometimes I pull one out of my hat, you know, get a great game. But that's not what does it for me. It's the people. It's the fun. Like, I get a big laugh. I have a great time. And that is so much more important to me. So Donna is very modest. She won't say it. So I have to say it for her. When she says she pulls things out of her hat, she is an outstanding player. And in Ontario, Canada, Donna is someone that will always make the provincial finals. and, in fact, her first ever provincial final. She won her first round in seven games playing a game she didn't know. But the Donna strategy is just keep flipping, keep the ball alive. That usually works in pinball. Yeah, you might say that. I do have the once in a blue moon, these amazing games. Don't ask me how I do it because I have no idea. Some of the guys give me a hard time because it's usually if I beat them out and pull one out of my hat, as I so say, they look at me afterwards and go, do you know what you just did? And it's like, no, not a clue. I just hit the flippers. Well, here's another example. So we're at the Louisville Arcade Expo, a great tournament run by Wayne Rouse. It's a card format, very difficult format. And there were quite a few plays, let's say over 200 plays on each game. And Donna plays a game for the first time. Not only just plays a game, plays it for the first time. The game is Break Shot. And Break Shot is an interesting pool game. And there are some multi-balls that are involved. to some interesting shots, three flippers. Donna, again, the Donna strategy, keep the ball alive, good things happened. She got the wizard mode and the grand champion for the whole weekend. That had to feel pretty good. Oh, it felt awesome. Like, you know, it's funny because I played one card and was in the top 24 up until about 6 o'clock on the last qualifying day. So it was kind of funny because it's like, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm playing this game. And you only played one card. That's the thing. Like, you weren't going back. You just played the one card and then went shopping. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I went shopping because that's a big thing when you travel. You have to go shopping. You have to get all the goodies, right? That's amazing that you got that high score. And I know you took pictures and stuff. And you knocked off a local legend here in Elizabeth Elizabeth Gieske, who is a great player. Won, in fact, the tournament at Rec Bar the night before. So here's how much Donna's into pinball and the social thing. I might have conned Donna. I mean, I might have convinced Donna and others to say, you know what? We're here. They've got this tournament Friday night at 10 o'clock at night. It might go till 3, 4. It was done at 5.30. And we have just been traveling in the road in this Winnebago for, I don't know, 30 hours. Ah, we can do another one. We're here. Might as well. And you had fun. Oh, I had a blast. I had an absolute blast. It was an interesting tournament where they're sitting there and there's heckling is allowed and coaching. And it was just, like I said, it was fun socially. Oh, my God. I had so many laughs. Some of the people were played, and there was one game we played. It was two guys, two girls, and the girls took it. And it was pretty funny because both myself and the other girl didn't know the game. And we ended up first and second, so it was pretty funny. I don't think the guys were too happy, but that's pinball for you. The funniest thing about that tournament was you were allowed to pick a game. You entered the tournament, and you could pick any game that was there, and they would add it to the tournament, and maybe you'd be lucky enough to play that game. Donna said, I don't care, pick anything. And the organizer said, all right, we'll give you Orbiter 1, which is not a great pinball game. And sure enough, Donna has to play it against me. Yes, I did. And I was having a great time. It is an interesting game for sure. I've never played a pinball game like that ever before. I had fun. I liked it I know the pinball players out there probably don But I love playing a new game that I never seen because for me that fun It all new experience right It like meeting the new people at every tournament I go to. I'm always meeting somebody new and that's what does it for me. I love the people. I love the community. I love the different games. There's so many out there. You guys always talk about this game, that game, who does this or who did the artwork. I know zero. I barely remember the game I played yesterday. And I don't care about the rules. I don't care about the, you know, oh, you've got to do this strategy, that strategy. It's like, no, I just want to play, meet people and talk and have a good time. See, now, when I asked Donna to come on Pinball Profiles, she said, well, why me? Why do this? And I said, people know you because of your social aspect and because you do travel a lot. And, oh, by the way, you're an amazing player. I mentioned that you got this grand champ on Breakpoint. You're making the provincial finals all the time. The first and only time you were ever at Pinberg, you played in the incredible whipped tournament. And there were 128 women, if I recall, in that tournament. And Donna finished sixth. So whether it's rules knowledge or not, you've got the flipper skills of keeping the ball alive and good things happen. And looking back now, Donna, think about this. You were at Pinberg. You loved it. And you had other great experiences we're going to talk about. we didn't know that was the last one and maybe could be the last one you look back now and you go boy that was special i do i was very fortunate because everyone knows how hard it is to get into pinberg and i just started playing pinball competitively i didn't even know pinball still existed i played it when i was in high school and one of my co-workers told me he was in a pinball tournament i looked at him like like he had three eyes because i didn't even know there was such a thing and then he tells me there's leagues and there's tournaments i'm like wow are you kidding me so I just started playing in March and then some of the guys that I met this is they were talking about Pemburg and they kind of took me under their arm and helped me out and got to play my first Pemburg and it was an amazing experience like I was blown away by the size of it like the competition area was like one-third of the convention center and it was massive but you look at the other end and there's a ferris wheel inside the convention center I'm like are you kidding me like this is massive and the number of people and we're talking like my first round i played raymond davidson and everyone's going oh my god you got raymond davidson you got and i'm going who's raymond davidson like i have no clue back then yeah right well i don't right because i don't follow this and i'm like who is he like like now i'm getting scared and they go oh he's the number one guy in the world i'm like oh my god how do i how does this happen but the nicest guy but that's the great thing about pinball you get to play all these legends and it's pretty exciting i always say if you're a great golfer you'll never get to play with tiger woods unless you're on the pro tour whereas in pinball yeah you get to play ram and davidson or astro lefkoff or uh carrie wing or anybody of these great players that's the neat thing about pinball well it is i played daniel pack i met people from italy from like all over the world like it was amazing and uh you know so It was funny because my first year was probably the most amazing. I got to play all three banks on the stage. This is at Pimberg. At Pimberg. I did a perfect round, so I got a medal. Generally, people have played Pimberg several times and never even come close to getting 12-0. Well, and that's what I was told. But again, I played games I'd never played before, and that's when I seem to play the best. It's like, just go and have fun and just play, and who cares? I think the more I know a game, the worse I play. So sometimes I'd rather play something I've never seen before. Keep the ball alive is the lesson here. But what a great Pinburger experience. And we talked about this Winnebago and you're going to a bunch of different places. You know, the nice thing is as we wind down our careers, we get to maybe travel a little bit more. And that's kind of the goal for you. I know you've got some big events coming up this summer. You've got definitely Yagpin, which will be a nice road trip. And then the Beast a couple of weeks later in Buffalo. That's true. I'm looking forward to those and also Chicago. like this weekend was my first expo i guess the arcade expo yeah yeah like i've never done something where it was like a pinball show like everything has always just been a tournament right this was the first time i guess aside from pinbird but i never actually saw the other side because pinbird is just playing and playing and playing you don't really have time to do a lot of other stuff so this was the first time i actually got to go walk around and seeing some of the other stuff like seeing new games come out and and experience and i enjoy watching I don't care if I get knocked out. I'll watch the other players and socialize with the people who are also watching or supporting people playing. And like I said, it's so much fun and the people are so nice. When you look at all the different sports communities, associations, you know, pinball has a unique group of people. They're probably the more friendly of all the groups if you think about it. Like I belong to a lot of different things and I love pinball. I love the people so much in pinball. Well, what's neat about that? You've just described something like you and I never would have met if it wasn't for pinball. And I consider you a great friend. And all these other friends that I've met all around the world that we have this common bond of pinball. And we come from all different walks of life, different social circles, different geography areas. It doesn't matter. Pinball brings us together and we get to know these people. And they become not only casual friends, maybe even lifelong friends. And the nice thing, the more you get in this, is I can travel almost anywhere. And I've been doing this a little bit longer than you, but I can travel almost anywhere, and I know somebody probably in that city or several people. That's the nice kind of comfort zone, and it's pinball that kind of brought us all together. And I know that's what you love the most about this. I do. Like, we were in Nashville on Thursday and come to, you know, Louisville here in Kentucky, and I met a couple that played the tournament in Nashville. Justin and Amanda. Yeah, and I'm telling you, I feel like I've known them for a year or two or three. Like, I just felt like, you know, I probably talked to them for hours while we were here, like passing and going at the rec bar and then here at the arcade. And it's like, I felt like I'd known them forever and super, super nice people. Like, it's just, it's an amazing thing. And you don't get that always. Like how many places can you go meet somebody one day and feel like you know spend the next day in another city altogether and talk to them for hours and feel like you known them for years It is special for sure Your background as far as kind of hobbies and things much like mine baseball And you still to this day are playing some form of baseball and travel all over In fact, I think that's how you and I connected. You were talking about playing in, if it wasn't the North American Championships, it was the World Championships in Utah. And I said, well, my aunt in Calgary is a massive baseball player, and she goes to that event too. So we knew exactly what you were talking about. and it was great to have that kind of bond. Okay, we know each other from pinball, but now we've got this baseball bond. And I'm going to bring this up to you now. I don't think we've ever talked about this. Why I think you excel at pinball and why I might is because baseball and pinball have a lot of common skill sets, the hand-eye coordination. I think of the flippers as baseball bats, the timing. Do I want to pull the ball? Do I want to go the other way with the ball? And you probably have that same kind of feeling when you go up to a machine. It's a little bit like baseball. Very much so. Like, you know, think about baseball. It's the bat hitting the ball, right? And depending on where it hits and when it hits will determine where it goes. I'll go to the batting cages and I'll pick an area, say, and I will take, you know, I can take 100 swings. And it's like, I'm going to hit that spot and hit that spot. And pinball is very much the same. Like, you know, if you want to get that ramp, you got to figure out where on the flipper, at what point do you actually flip? How fast is the ball coming down on the flipper? Is it cradled? Are you getting a chance to – so in baseball, are you self-pitching yourself? You're throwing it up and hitting it to wherever field you want. But when it's a pitch ball, okay, fastball, do I have to turn on this a little bit more? That's pinball. Yeah, but I think for me, I'm like – I think you probably think it through more, whereas mine is more reflex. Because you've seen me play. I'm very much a flow player. I just try to keep the balls going. So there is a difference. But I do think playing baseball has helped because of the eye-hand coordination for sure. and let me give you another little personal story i've played in a lot of tournaments you know i've played in over 400 different events it's a lot and there's a couple things that i've never been able to do never ever and i've been in several like a stern launch party for example and they had one for deadpool this is a while back and i'm doing pretty good i'm all right i'm making the finals i almost won and i couldn't do it i couldn't beat this person they were so good and that person was done away, and it was your first ever tournament win. It was my first win. And more surprising, I shouldn't have been in it, because I actually got knocked out, and the person who knocked me out had to leave. So I ended up back in for the final four, and yeah, I took you down. Well, I'm going to protest this now. I didn't realize that aspect of it. We're going to go back, and I hope you can polish the trophy when you hand it over. No, it was exciting, you know, And I was excited for you, like obviously trying to win. But, you know, when you said this is my first win, I remember that first win. It is a big deal. And it gives you the confidence like I can do this. Maybe not all the time, but I've got it in me. And that's what I say to anybody playing pinball. First of all, have fun. Donna's example of having fun playing pinball. The social thing is the bonus. But know yourself that on any given day, you can beat absolutely anyone. You can be better. Maybe they're having a bad game. maybe you're having a great game. Maybe it's a combination of both. And that's what's so unique about pinball. It's always different. That is so true. Like this weekend, like that game I'd never seen before, never heard of it before. And I had a blast playing it. And how I got that score, I was stunned. And then seeing the second score, like I scored 25 million and the second score, highest score was 14 million. I'm like, wow, that's a huge discrepancy. and it made me feel good, not even knowing what I was supposed to be doing, but I could hear people behind me. Going nuts. Well, yeah, because I remember there was something, I had to pick a shot, and I'm like, I don't know, I'll pick this one, and literally got it, and I heard them in the background going, oh, wow. And you hit it. So in break shot, you get to pick whatever lane you want when you have this option, and you get one crack at it. You hit any other switch, it doesn't count, and you did it. Again, that hand-eye coordination, that baseball bat, your reaction, and you did it, and the place went nuts. So it's amazing to see you do this stuff. I want to bring up one other point. Because you've been to, you actually went to, I didn't realize this, you've been to four Pinball Profile Played in America Tour events. You were in Buffalo at Pocketeer Billiards, Home of the Beast, August 4th to 6th. I've got to plug that every time I mention it. Great place. You also joined us at the Rochester Pinball Collective and a lot of other fine people were there at Bruce Nightingale and Zach Fry's. Wonderful place. And, of course, there are other owners there. Check out the RPC if you can. but recently this time in South Carolina at Bang Back and also Game Terminal in Nashville. And this is your nature. I've seen you do this everywhere, not just at my events. You always say, how can I help? And let me just tell you, as someone who organizes events, that is the biggest thing you can do. And it means the most to whoever is running an event. It might be like, can I get you a coffee? Can I help score a keep? Do you need a break? Do you need me to move a machine? Whatever the case may be, Donna is always, always there. So when I run these events, I've got a lot of merchandise and stuff that everyone who plays in it gets a shirt and stuff. And Donna's always there to help me out. And the reason I'm bringing all this up is because they see that you've come with me and some other friends. And because my wife doesn't play pinball, they always say, Donna, are you Jeff's wife? And you get that a lot, don't you? I have. I've been asked if I was your wife. And I say, no. Oh, just a girlfriend? I kind of laugh at it. Like, no, we actually, you know, have played against each other and in tournaments and I got to know him and we've become really good friends. But it's really funny because I guess because I'm just helping out, I don't even think about it now having done so many with you. I know the, you know, shirts have to be organized by size because you have to figure out who's going to get them. And, you know, it's, you know, it helps speed up the registration if I can help you organize. And then I like laying out the prizes, too, because it's always amazing. like people when they look at it holy cow all of that yeah like you know i sit there and it's like you know i'm going i want to win all this even though i don't know what to do with half of it it's like the prizes are amazing so i like to make sure they're all laid out so people can say hey look at look at that translate oh my god there a back glass what there a playing field like and people are are blown then they asked oh how does it work And I said oh it randomly So anybody can win So you can finish dead last in the tournament, and that happened in Pocketeer. The guy who finished dead last won the playing field. Isn't that cool? It was so cool, because I was talking to him afterwards, and he was excited, because he wasn't happy about where he finished. It doesn't matter. And then he wins this playing field. It makes up for finishing dead last, right? That's what I liked about doing the tournaments was the randomness. You're going to get your Whopper points. You're going to get the great trophy from Mulek's store for winning. But all these prizes, you paid the same amount as everyone else. Let's just do PickerWheel.com, throw all the names in there and win. And I'm glad, and it was random because everyone can see it, you were able to win a Project Pinball raffle ticket. So even though you didn't win the pinball machine, you knew that that money was going to support a great cause, and that was kind of nice. And then just recently this weekend, you won a weekend pass to Chicago Expo. So you'll be able to go to that for the first time in October. Pretty exciting. It is exciting. So if you think about it, I've done four. So the first one was Pocketeer. I won nothing. Oh, and you came back anyway. That's right. So then Rochester, I won the raffle ticket. I didn't win the pinball machine, but again, the money went to a good cause. The third one, I won the Hobbit back class. Oh, that's right. So Marco Pinball, because we're in South Carolina, they said, you know, these are hard to ship because you're here. Here's a Hobbit back glass. And we gave away one again also at Game Terminal and Picker Wheel. You won that as well. I did. And then, of course, Nashville, I ended up winning the Chicago. And it was funny because the Picker Wheel was going around. I'm going, Donaway, Donaway, Donaway. And you can't even see the wheel. I can't see the wheel. Yeah, that's funny. side right so it was kind of funny because you had everyone else was behind you but because i was helping you hand out prizes i was on the other side so i thought you were joking when you said oh my god it's your name right it was like no i thought you were pulling my leg just to give me a hard time like you always do right but it was like wow i can't believe i won it and it's great because i will be retired so i get to go and travel even more than i was doing before and like i said i don't really care about winning tournaments i know a lot of people think that That's why I go out. But I go and I think, I just don't want to end up dead last. And it has happened. Oh, me too. But I don't go with the thought, oh, I'm going to go win. Because I know, yes, sometimes I'll have that great game. I'm not consistent. And I'm okay with that. I think that's the difference. I'm happy whether I win, whether I lose. It's great if I can have a personal best. It may not be the best on the machine or even close. But if I'm having a good time, there's times, like you say, you win a tournament. That was amazing because there's no way with the group, yourself included, that I thought I have a shot of winning a tournament. Anybody on any given day. But the main thing is you're having fun and you're meeting people. And I'm sure people listening to the show, I know Donna. And now they know where you're going to be at. They know you're going to be at Yagpin. They know you're going to be at the Beast. They know you're going to be at Expo. They'll probably say, hey, I heard you on Pinball Profile. Yeah, they might say, oh, you sounded so silly. But like I said, I love the people. I've met people. So Pinberg, Holly, who won it. Oh, yeah, Koskinen. Yeah, we played my perfect round. She was actually in that perfect round with me. Wow. So that was like, you know, those are the little things. I didn't win the tournament, but I had some personal bests. Like I said, I got to play all three banks. That doesn't happen. Like a lot of people didn't get to play on the stage at all, right? Yeah, people like to focus on the negative stuff. Remember the positive things. First of all, the people you meet and the good experiences. You had a great game. You had fun. You got to play Raymond Davidson. You got to play Holly Koskinen, the winner of Whipped. And those are the things you should remember, too. Shane Jackson, when he came with me to District 82, and he's on this road trip, too, that we're on right now, he's the guy who runs Maple Pinball, and he was on a previous Pinball Profile episode. His first round, he gets Escher Lefkoff in his round. And he's like, oh, boy, look at this round. and he won the round. I said, no one can ever take that away from you. And I'll say this because I know he's listening. The first time I ever played Keith Elwin and even Bowen Kerins was at the Stern Pro Circuit Finals. And I'm like, I'm going to get killed. I'm playing Trent Ogensee too. What a foursome. I don't belong here. Well, I beat that rat, Keith Elwin and Bowen Kerins. They've got nothing on me, or at least for that game. Oh, by the way, I've never won since. But I've got that. I can remember. And you've got that. You can remember too, Donna. It's fun. It is fun. Like, it's so funny because, you know, there's certain people that you kind of go i'm never going to beat that person and when you do have a good game like i remember there was one game i don't remember who i played and pemberg and we were talking like that's the nice thing right when you're not playing you're talking to people and socializing and one of the guys where we're walking off he said to me he goes did i hear you correctly did you just start playing in march like yeah you know i'm going yeah i know he goes man he goes you're going to be someone to be reckoned with he goes you really because i can hold my own sometimes and it was really nice to get a compliment from somebody you don't know who is up there because I like I was not like definitely I was like the bottom of the pack in this group and and I don't care like I go and I was like if I cannot finish last on all the games we're playing that's my goal because I know that a lot of these people know the games they know what they're doing they've been playing a lot longer but I go out do my best have fun and I'm always laughing, always smiling, and the people around me are doing the same, and that's what it's about. Like, it really is. I'm big on sarcasm, too, so like when I say the rat Keith Elwin, you know I obviously care a lot about Keith, and when we talk about you, Donna, when people say, Donna, I'm like, oh, the meanest woman alive. So you know it must be the polar opposite, and I do mean that. You're a wonderful person. Great to do this road trip with you, and I know other people listening will be glad that you've come on Pinball Profile and look forward to seeing you very soon. Donna, thanks very much. Thank you, Jeff, for having me here. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Facebook. We're on Instagram and Twitter at pinballprofile. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. We are also on Patreon. So if you'd like to show your support, I can't thank you enough. Patreon.com slash pinballprofile. I'm Jeff Teolas. you