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Episode 277: Surviving Johnny Modica

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·38m 38s·analyzed·Sep 1, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Johnny Modica discusses tournament play, COVID-19 experience, and pinball community stories.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews Johnny Modica, a prolific pinball tournament player known for high event participation and competitive skill. The conversation covers Johnny's tournament experiences, his early April 2020 COVID-19 infection with mild symptoms, his girlfriend Emanuela's experience quarantining in Italy, and memorable stories from the pinball circuit including meeting Keith Elwin and his relationship with fellow player Carl D'Angelo. Running jokes emerge around Johnny's frequent lateness and the 'Modica Plague' card created after he infected multiple people with the flu at Papa 19.

Key Claims

  • Johnny Modica was ranked #88 on IFPA at the time of this interview (recorded around April-May 2020)

    high confidence · Jeff Teolis states 'You're number 88' when discussing Modica's WPPR ranking

  • Johnny Modica contracted COVID-19 in April 2020 with mild symptoms (cold-like, taste changes, no fever) lasting about a week and a half

    high confidence · Modica describes: 'we started feeling a little bit like we had a cold...sneezing, coughing. And the biggest thing was that it changed our taste.' Tested positive, retested negative after two weeks.

  • Modica's girlfriend Emanuela was required to download a contact-tracing app and face quarantine with €500 fines or 2 years imprisonment if caught breaking quarantine in Italy

    high confidence · Modica: 'she was forced to download an app on her phone that follows where she goes...If you leave the house and you were supposed to be in the quarantine, you get fined $500. If you're found outside the house with COVID and you were breaking quarantine, it's two years in jail.'

  • Johnny Modica played 11 IFPA events in 2020 before mid-March (prior to COVID lockdowns)

    high confidence · Jeff Teolis: 'I noticed on ifpa that you did get 11 events in in 2020 which is all really before mid-march'

  • Modica won the PAPA B Division Championship in 2012 and previously won C Division before being forced to advance

    high confidence · Teolis: 'I look back in 2012. You were the B Division Championship' and Modica confirms winning C, then B, then forced to A

  • Modica missed City Champ finals registration (9:30 AM deadline) by arriving at 9:45 AM, causing him to forfeit playoff play despite qualifying

    high confidence · Modica: 'I qualified for the finals, and the next day the registration...was at 9.30...I got there, I think, at 9.45, and they basically said, sorry, you're not in the finals.'

  • Modica infected multiple people including Carl D'Angelo's family with influenza at PAPA 19 (2016), leading to the creation of the 'Modica Plague' card in Carl's Critical Hit series

    high confidence · Modica: 'I took off, and I felt like I had a little bit of a cold, but it ended up being a pretty bad flu...I got sick. I got him sick. I got a bunch of people at Papa sick.' Carl created 'the legendary card, the Monica Plague card'

Notable Quotes

  • “I'd rather play pinball and be below the top 100 than actually being high rank.”

    Johnny Modica @ ~0:02:00 — Encapsulates Modica's philosophy that volume of play and tournament experience matter more than ranking, establishing his identity as the 'play guy'

  • “When pinball becomes painful, then it's not fun. And it really depends on the night before. If you have a good sleep the night before, you can probably make it through.”

    Johnny Modica @ ~0:05:00 — Reflects on the physical and mental demands of 24-hour marathon tournaments and the importance of preparation

  • “I think PAPA is kind of like the pinball university. You have to be consistent on all your games. You can't just have one lucky game and go through the playoffs.”

    Johnny Modica @ ~0:18:00 — Describes PAPA's tournament format as a test of comprehensive pinball mastery across multiple machines

  • “When you're playing relaxed, man, you stop missing all the shots that you miss when you're actually playing all nervous.”

    Johnny Modica @ ~0:20:00 — Core principle about tournament psychology and the importance of composure under pressure

  • “I got three pinball machines. But you mentioned your girlfriend...Was it easy to quarantine for the 14 days? Oh, yeah. I got three pinball machines.”

    Johnny Modica @ ~0:13:00 — Humorous response showing how home pinball machines helped him endure COVID-19 quarantine

  • “You're like Gwyneth Paltrow on Contagion...Fortunately, I didn't die.”

    Johnny Modica @ ~0:31:00 — Self-aware dark humor about becoming a vector for disease transmission (referencing the Modica Plague)

  • “I would always tell him, hey, dude, there's an episode one. You want to play for five bucks? ...That's the one game where I'm typically pretty even with him.”

    Johnny Modica @ ~0:24:00 — Illustrates his relationship with Keith Elwin, showing competitive rivalry on Star Wars Episode I

Entities

Johnny ModicapersonJeff TeolispersonKeith ElwinpersonCarl D'AngelopersonEmanuelapersonPAPA (Pennsylvania Pinball Association)organizationIFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association)organization

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Johnny Modica infected multiple people with influenza at PAPA 19 (2016), including Carl D'Angelo's family and Damien Charlatan; event lasted months and became running joke in community (Modica Plague card)

    high · Modica: 'I took off, and I felt like I had a little bit of a cold, but it ended up being a pretty bad flu...I got sick. I got him sick. I got a bunch of people at Papa sick...His son got sick. His birthday. I mean, they skipped his birthday.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Young generation of pinball players (Escher Lefkoff, Colin Urban) learning through Twitch streams and YouTube tutorials rather than direct arcade experience, representing shift in skill acquisition methods

    medium · Teolis: 'That's why so many young players are fantastic...they absorb all that kind of information. They're used to it.' Modica notes kids watch gaming streams more than play.

  • ?

    event_signal: Johnny Modica participated in 11 IFPA-sanctioned events in early 2020 (pre-March) during the pandemic onset, establishing himself as high-volume tournament participant

    high · Jeff Teolis: 'I noticed on ifpa that you did get 11 events in in 2020 which is all really before mid-march which is pretty good'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Johnny Modica is respected in pinball community as high-skill, high-volume tournament player despite being known for lateness; community has created humorous cultural artifacts (Modica Plague card) celebrating his personality

    high · Carl D'Angelo created 'Modica Plague' card in Critical Hit series; City Champ installed memorial clock; multiple stories celebrate his tournament participation and personality quirks

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.116

0:00
And now, ladies and gentlemen, here's Johnny! It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teels. You can find our group on Facebook. Go to pinballprofile.com for everything. Past episodes, all your subscriptions. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram, at pinballprofile. And email us, pinballprofile, at gmail.com. It's been a long time since I've seen this person. It's been a long time since I've seen anyone. But it was recently, this year, in January, at InDisc. and he's one of the many pinball players I miss because he's always a lot of fun and good to talk to so let's talk to Johnny Modica hey Johnny how are you hey how's it going John it's good for you and I we play a lot of pinball and we like to fill our weekends and any available time getting out there we have not been able to do that in a while are you going nuts too it sucks man it really sucks because I mean on the weekends when you're like okay what can I do now what tournament is going out no there are no tournaments this weekend that's why because everything is closed so it sucks i mean good thing i have like three machines at the house if not you're right i'll probably be going a little bit crazy i noticed on ifpa that you did get 11 events in in 2020 which is all really before mid-march which is pretty good i mean if this goes on and on johnny you could be the number one player in the world at some point in early 2023.
1:24
Yeah, it's funny you say that because I keep seeing my rank. I'm like, I must have dropped out of the top 100. I'm like, wait, did I just go up? And I just went up. I'm like, great.
1:34
This is working out on the ranking side, but it's not working out on my sanity because, man, I'd rather play pinball and be below the top 100 than actually being high rank. Well, you're number 88, and yeah, we'd like to play, but let's give three cheers for volume of play. Hip, hip, hooray.
InDisc
event
City Champevent
Boardwalklocation
Critical Hitproduct
Escher Lefkoffperson
Raymondperson
Colin Urbanperson
Damien Charlatanperson
Star Wars Episode Igame
Medieval Madnessgame
King of the Realmgame
Free World Watchlocation
Sicilylocation
Californialocation
Miami, Floridalocation

community_signal: International pinball players (Modica's girlfriend Emanuela) experienced severe COVID-19 quarantine restrictions with legal enforcement (fines/imprisonment) significantly harsher than US measures

high · Modica: Italy quarantine required app monitoring, €500 fines, 2 years imprisonment for violations; Sicily subsequently imposed club closures and outdoor mask requirements after detecting 60 cases

  • ?

    competitive_signal: PAPA tournament format ('ticket format') emphasizes consistency across multiple games rather than single-game optimization; contrasts with 2017 PAPA 20 Herb-style scoring that allowed best-score advancement

    high · Modica: 'You have to be consistent on all your games. You can't just have one lucky game.' Teolis notes PAPA 20 2017 changed to Herb-style but 'ticket format...still see at InDisc'

  • $

    market_signal: PAPA tournament continues to attract high-level players and serve as pinnacle competitive event; tournament advancement (C→B→A divisions) viewed as 'university of pinball' progression system

    medium · Modica: 'I think PAPA is kind of like the pinball university...You have to be consistent on all your games.' Teolis anticipates PAPA 21 in 2021 contingent on COVID recovery.

  • ?

    community_signal: Johnny Modica's chronic lateness is well-documented within pinball community, resulting in missed tournament opportunities (City Champ finals forfeiture) and becoming source of affectionate community humor

    high · Modica missed 9:30 AM City Champ finals check-in, arriving 9:45 AM; forfeited playoff play despite qualifying. City Champ installed alarm clock. Carl D'Angelo left him at airport for failing to arrive on time.

  • ?

    community_signal: Keith Elwin's presence in San Diego arcade scene circa 1999-2000, mentoring emerging players like Johnny Modica and recommending game progression strategies

    high · Modica describes meeting Elwin at Boardwalk arcade where Elwin was servicing machines; Elwin recommended playing Medieval Madness beyond Star Wars Episode I

    • 1:52
    Yes, yes. Well, you know, before I was called the play guy, I was called the sandbagger because I just played in every single tiny little tournament, you know, and that's what I enjoy doing. It's experience. You can look at it that way. And you know what? You're only allowed your top 20 events to count on your IFPA card or for your state or provincial championships. So, you know, the play is more practice. And a lot of times, as I've noticed now, it's even for things like social the points don't even matter it's really just a chance to maybe play a different game maybe play different people all that kind of experience different tournament formats yeah and that's the part that i enjoy the most is actually when you go to a tournament and especially if you go to a tournament that nobody knows who you are and it's just kind of like a local tournament and you start playing and you play on machines that you know they're not perfect they're not in tournament shape or anything like that but you just adapt to it and and it just makes it so much more fun because then you have that extra challenge that is like, oh, man, that thing is not working on that. OK, then I guess I'm going to have to change my strategy. But the best part is also when you start seeing the people around you and they're like, oh, man, you're good. How'd you do that? And all that stuff. And then you get all that all that excitement and everybody's just excited and in it. And it's just that's that's to me is the fun part. When you start talking about that, everybody's high fine each other when you do a shot. I mean, I remember I was at a pinball tournament in north of downtown L.A., and it was just like a local tournament that nobody knew about. It was not IFP sanctioned or anything. There were no points. And they were giving out this old machine and God of Mars. That's what it was. No, Mars God of War. That's what it was. And I remember at the same time, they had a tournament at Ace Goge where Carl was telling me, you know, Carl and Shane, they were all telling me, dude, come to this one. I was like, dude, I only have a couple of hours. I can't because I'm not going to be able to make it to the finals. So I was there with my girlfriend and we're like, you know what? Why don't we just check out this place real quick? I mean, they have a quick little tournament. I went over there. Nobody famous in the pinball world, if you want to think about it, was there. And I just entered the tournament and they even, you know, they didn't even know my last name. They misspelled it. They called him Manduco, I think they call me. Johnny Manduco or something like that. And I was like, cool. Yeah, that's fine. Go ahead. I'm Johnny Manduco. So every time he'll be the next round, he'll be then Johnny Maduko versus some other guy. And we would just play, and nobody knew who I was, and it was just fun. It was fun. I didn't even want to say that I played in tournaments. It was like, ah, let's just play a game. Did you win? I actually got third place. So, yeah, we got to the finals. So I was that close to winning a pinball machine. But, yeah, the local guy actually played a really good – The two local guys actually played really good balls on Mars Got a War. Who was the local guy, Jim Belsito? No, not Jim Belsito.
    4:43
    A fake name. Not famous people. Well, I mean, Manduco is not exactly famous either. So, I mean, you could have Carl DeAngelis. You could have had Jim Belsito. Or Sposito, you're right.
    4:59
    Oh, my gosh, that was fun. But see, and then you have the difference of when you show up to, I remember once we showed up to City Champ in San Francisco, and there were like two people talking in front of City Champ right when it just opened, and we got there early. And it was me, Jim, and Carl that got out of the cab. And when we got out of the cab, these two guys, they kind of looked, and they kind of were like quiet for a second. They're like, and they're like talking to each other. Hey, check it out, check it out. I was like, oh, my gosh, really? They actually know who we are? Like, we're that infamous?
    5:31
    So I love that part. That's kind of cool. So you get both sides of the coin. You realize after Pinball Profile, for the couple of people that don't know you, the thousands of people listening to this show, everyone's going to know who Johnny Manduco is. Oh, my gosh. I think maybe I should change my profile on someone like on Pinside or something. I'm going to call myself Johnny Manduco from now on. That's a good name. Yeah. We'll see. We'll test it. City Champ, one of the many tournaments you've been to. That's a lot of fun there at Free Gold Watch, but certainly a lot of people see you at Ace Goge, as you mentioned. California Extreme has always been good to you, and of course, Indisc as well. A lot of good tournaments out there. Oh, yeah, a lot of fun, and that's why I just enjoy doing that. And I try to do at least maybe three or four trips just outside of California. I mean, I actually went to Italy when they had the championship that one time, but definitely Pemburg. I mean, if they revive Pop, I'll definitely do that. One of the toughest one I did was the 24-hour sanctum one over there in the East Coast. And, man, that was a marathon. That was awesome. I've done that one twice. The first time, I was physically fine. The second time, I said, okay, I'm glad I've done it because I don't know if I can go through that again. I just hit a wall with maybe five, six hours left, and I was just like, I want this done. And I normally don't want pinball to be done. When pinball becomes painful, then it's not fun. And it really depends on the night before. If you have a good sleep the night before, you can probably make it through. If you don't, you're screwed. Oh, I agree. And I was drinking a bunch of Red Bulls and it got me and actually was kind of productive to me because I started feeling jittery. But let me tell you, the best thing of that tournament was watching people that are usually cool and collected, like, you know, maybe Bowden or, you know, some of the other famous guys. And, you know, and they start cracking. and you see it, 5 o'clock in the morning, you know, they're like, I can't do it. And they start trembling. And then when you kind of like, you know, say, because I'm kind of like a touchy-feely person that I kind of like pat you on the shoulder. And, you know, I will pat them on the shoulder and they'll be like jerky, like, what was that? Well, there's no touching right now. You realize that, obviously, with COVID-19. And you especially should know this more than anyone else because, sadly, Johnny, I mean, you joke about critical hit and the plague, and we'll get to that in a second. Johnny, you had COVID-19 in April, didn't you? Probably I was one of the first ones, I think, especially in the pinball community, where people are like, oh, do you know anybody that got it? Guess what? I got it. Yes. That's so funny because when I was talking to Carl a little while ago, and we were talking about COVID, I go, hey, you're good? Your family's good? Good, good? Anybody you know got it? And he goes, guess who? And I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, well, who do you think?
    8:23
    That's right. And the funny thing is, when I got it was about the time that I was discussing with Carl of maybe lending him my Star Trek so that he could get to the five-year mission and podcast it. And he's like, oh, you still want it? He's like, you don't even get within 50 miles of my house.
    8:42
    But, okay, let's go through the process. How did you get it? What were the symptoms? How did you get out of it? And tell us where you're at today. Well, so basically I went mountain biking with a buddy of mine and he didn't know that he had it. So when we finished mountain biking, we came back to the house and invited him in for an energy drink. He just stayed in for about an hour. He left. Then about three to four days later, we started feeling a little bit like we had a cold. It wasn't bad. It was just like we were sneezing, coughing. And the biggest thing was that it changed our taste. So we started tasting things that was kind of weird. So we're like, you know what? Why don't we just go test it? I mean, they do free testing, so why don't we just do it? And hopefully we get it because I figure if we get it and we got it with such light symptoms, you know, then we'll get antibodies and we're home free. And sure enough I mean we tested it and two days later we started getting phone calls Oh you positive You understand that you positive It like oh good cool And they were all surprised when I told them oh yeah good I have it I surprised when you said that Yeah, because I figured, hey, it hit us easy. I mean, I didn't have any fever. My girlfriend, she had a little bit of fever, but, I mean, it wasn't a big deal. And it was just like a light cold that just lasted about a week and a half. So my kids, they had no symptoms.
    10:01
    And my parents don't even live here. I mean, they live in Miami. So, I mean, that's really my biggest fear to be around like elderly, you know, elder people. So we were like, great, let's just get through it. And then we retested after like two weeks. We were negative and they were like, OK, now we go on with our lives. We still wear a mask, of course, because even back then, because I mean, there were a lot of news out there about, you know, maybe you can get reinfected or not. But for the most part, I think it was just to make people feel better. You don't want to be the guy that doesn't wear a mask in the supermarket, and everybody's like, look, he's not wearing a mask. Is it not mandatory there in California? Back then, it wasn't. Oh, okay. In April, yeah. This was in April. In April, it was not mandatory. So now, of course, it is. So now it doesn't matter. California with over 600,000 cases, population, mind you, of almost 40 million people in that state, but certainly the most, both for population and most cases in the United States. But you said your parents are in Miami. Florida is another hot spot, too. Are they okay? They're number two, yeah. Yeah, they're good. I mean, my parents, they're very careful about it. Basically, I don't go to the news. I go to my parents because my parents have all the up-to-date news about what's going on in the world on COVID. So routers, AP news, nothing. Just go to my parents.
    11:20
    We all don't have access to your parents. If they create a website, then maybe I would. But for now, I have to use different news sources. But is there any concern about some of the after effects of having this? Or do you feel that you had such a mild case of it that you should be fine? I mean, there's just so many great unknowns with COVID-19 right now. I mean, when we got it, I mean, we started doing a little bit of research, especially on some of the older cases of the same type of virus, like, I don't know, the Spanish flu and some of the other flus, the other strains. and even though everybody's saying everything today about anything can happen you can get reinfected and all that stuff but i mean in the past it looks like you know once you get it you typically get antibodies now that the antibodies last two three months or two to three years uh even the doctor themselves because by the way doctors were calling us every day from when we got it because it was such a novelty that they were basically calling everybody i mean we were one of the eight people in my city that had it back then And so they were calling us every day and telling us. But the doctor was always reassuring us, telling us, listen, even if you get it again, it's going to be even milder than the first time that you got it. So just by her saying that, that was already reassuring. And it kind of followed the kind of like the historical evidence of the past flu. Was it easy to quarantine for the 14 days? Oh, yeah. I got three pinball machines.
    12:46
    But you mentioned your girlfriend. She also had it. And Emanuela has since gone back to Italy in July. What was it like for her going back to Italy having had COVID-19? Okay, for her, it was actually worse because Italy is, they're very locked down on that. And when she went over there, first of all, she was forced to download an app on her phone that follows where she goes. So she could not leave the house. For contact tracing and things? Yes, for contact tracing. And if you leave the house and you were supposed to be in the quarantine, you get fined $500. If you're found outside the house with COVID and you were breaking quarantine, it's two years in jail. Two years in jail. But that's how they stopped the spread of it, I guess, right? It seems harsh. It seems almost martial law-like, but we've seen this in other states, other countries, other places around the world. And it's a no-nonsense measure to hopefully tackle this until we have a vaccine. Oh, yeah. I mean, she was just telling me, I just talked to her earlier today, and she was saying that there's a new ordinance because they found 60 cases of new, 60 new COVID cases in Sicily. Mind this, Sicily, there's millions of people in Sicily, and they found 60 cases. Because of those 60 cases, they closed every single, they say that basically no more clubs. clubs are going to be all closed. And after 6 p.m., you have to wear a mask, even if you're outdoors. And the reason for that is because they want to stop because they basically saw that the reason is that young people, you know, younger people, they want to get together and basically mingle. And they were like, OK, you guys want to mingle after 6 p.m.? You have to wear a mask, period, no matter what. So they're locking it down again over there. That's the one demographic I've really felt real empathy for during this pandemic is because I think of when I was that age. And yeah, I wanted to see my friends. And I wanted to, social was everything for me. And even school was important. And these things are being taken away, albeit a short period of time in the grand scheme of things. But it has to be tough. You have two young kids. How do you explain it to them? Yeah, I mean, for them, I mean, I got to tell you, though, Ford, they're lucky. They're very, very lucky in that we're very connected with a lot of digital devices that basically they can get a hold of their friends because, I mean, basically they just do a lot of Zoom meetings with their friends. They do a lot of chatting. They basically, all they do, I mean, for the most part, what they do is they basically chat together about watching people playing video games on YouTube. It's funny how things change. You used to play video games. Now you just watch people play video games. We do it in a way too. We watch a lot of Twitch streams and we watch a lot of tutorials and things, just maybe not to the extent that the kids do, but even as we're older, We do a little bit of that as well. That's how we learn games. I mean, that's why so many young players are fantastic. Colin Urban, Escher Lefkoff, all these great young players, they absorb all that kind of information. They're used to it. That's true. But, man, I just like to play them more than watch them. It seems that they like to watch them more than play them.
    15:57
    But playing, we will get back to that. And let's just hypothetically say everything's fine in 2021. Yay, we're back. We've all got vaccinated. We're fantastic. COVID's going away. We're fine. They said Papa 21 is going to be back next year. Again, assuming everything is fine. That's a big tournament I know you love. You've actually had some great success there. I look back in 2012. You were the B Division Championship, and that is a big, big deal because I remember thinking, I wonder if I can try A, and I was certainly not as experienced as I am now, and I had a lot of people say to me, are you crazy? don't play A until you have to play A. If you can play B, go for that. It's still hard, but Johnny, you did very well winning it all. Well, let me tell you, I think Papa is kind of like the pinball university. And I actually played in C division and I decided I'm not going to go up a level until I win it. And that's what happened. I won C division, then I won B division. And at that point, yeah, I was forced to go to A. And I won a win A because I would probably be one of the few people that actually won C and B and probably A. I don't know if anybody else actually won all three divisions. So yeah, I would love to do that. But yeah, I really see that as a university of pinball because you have to be consistent on all your games. You can't just have one lucky game and go through the playoffs. You have to be good at the whole ticket. Depending on their format, because as we saw with Papa 20 back in 2017 when Escher won it all, They did change it to a Herb-style score, which means put up your best score. But what you're talking about, that ticket format, which we still see at InDisc, it really requires, I believe, you to be obviously a very good pinball player. But the key is being consistent. And, you know, you have games at home. I have games at home. I do this thing where I will not practice on a game, meaning go up to a game, even though I'm familiar with it, and try to pretend to have a good ticket of five games and have some score in mind. And even at my own house, with games I've played hundreds and thousands of times, it's tough to do when you have that pressure of I have to have a good game or the ticket is destroyed. And that's where it comes down to. A lot of doing good at tournaments is basically just having a lot of experience in it where you've done so much of it that you actually don't freak out and you don't feel that pressure. Because when you're playing relaxed, man, you stop missing all the shots that you miss when you're actually playing all nervous. Not to mention, I think when you're nervous, you forget. At least that's in my case. If I get nervous, I forget my original strategy and I start maybe shooting shots that I'm not supposed to shoot. And then because of that, you create chaos on the play field and you increase your chances of bringing the ball. It's like, why did I go for that shot? I never go for that shot. But for some reason, I decided to go for that shot. Why? And that's the pressure of being in a tournament. and that's the difference that you see when when you see people like Keith or Raymond or now especially start seeing Carl. Carl especially he's really good at basically being methodical when he plays I mean he like he has a plan and he follows that plan and if something goes wrong when he playing you be like okay back to the plan Keith I mean he one of those guys that you know again, you watch him play, and of course, all these guys have great skills. But it's not about just the skills. It's about having the composure and the ability to recognize what you have to do to reduce the risk of draining and being able to do that under pressure. And I think that's what I admire Keith the most is that within a couple of minutes of playing a pinball machine, he's like, boom, I found the exploit. I found what shot I can hit over and over, and it's not going to drain my ball, or it's very low chance of draining the ball. And I was just concentrating on that. Well, let's talk about Keith and Carl, a couple of California natives and neighbors of yours at one time. Keith is a guy you first met years ago playing Star Wars Episode I. What was that like? Well, basically, I was working in San Diego, And I was close to an arcade where instead of me having lunch, I'd rather go over there and play pinball because, I mean, I just love playing pinball. It started when I was 14 back in Italy. And I figured, hey, when I come back, when I was over here and I saw more pinball machines, like, great, I can play more pinball. Forget lunch. But that was the same arcade where Keith at that time was servicing pinball machines. It was a boardwalk. That's what it was called, the boardwalk. And there were a bunch of machines there. And I would just go there for lunch and play it. Once in a while, I'll see him and I'll tell him, hey, dude, this machine ate my corn cannon. Can you give me a quarter back? He's like, sure. Isn't that awesome? It's like you go to Keith and you tell him, hey, dude, this thing ate my quarter. Give me a quarter. He's like, oh, yeah, sorry about that.
    20:55
    So it feels good now. So at one point, I remember I was playing and then he's like, hey, you mind if I play with you? And I thought I was pretty good. And then, of course, when we played, he just kicked my butt. I mean, he just slaughtered me. And I was like, man, you're good. and he's like well yeah I'm the world champion there's no such thing what are you talking about it's pinball there's no world champion he's like no yeah really I'm a world champion so here he is trying to convince me about being a world champion I'm like whatever there's no such thing as world champion so then I actually looked it up on the internet hey this is 1999 okay 1999 beginning of 2000 so and then I looked it up and it's like yeah he was a world champion so then the next day at lunch I went over there and it's like hey dude yeah I looked you up you're the world champion but for some reason I saw that you actually won like a B division in something and then he's like oh yeah no they made a mistake they put me in B division when I was supposed to be in A but whatever and I think at that time Boeing Cairns or something went in but it was funny but the fact that I met him there and I knew that he was a world champion now I'm like okay now I really want to play pinball and we started playing I like to play a lot of Star Wars Episode 1 and he kept telling me, dude, why don't you play some of the other machines? He's like, no, but Star Wars Episode I, come on, you got Queen Amidala. She's cute and all that.
    22:13
    That's what he was telling me. So then I was like, okay, fine. So I went ahead and played Medieval Madness. I always play one game of Medieval Madness, but then I'll go back and play Star Wars Episode I, and then I started liking Medieval Madness until I played it more until I finally actually got to King of the Realm. And then I remember I got to King of the Realm. I was like, dude, I got to King of the Realm. I called Keith, dude, check it out. I got to King of the Realm. And he was like, oh, okay, cool. That was it. I was there. I'm like, yeah.
    22:40
    But from then on, I remember that I always told Keith, every time there's an episode one, I would always tell him, hey, dude, there's an episode one. You want to play for five bucks? So that's the one game where I'm typically pretty even with him, and I can sometimes win him five bucks in that game. Well, it'll be good to see that on the Pinberg stage next year. I don't think that's happening. No, I don't think so. It would just basically be like a bunch of ramp fest because that's all we did. We just ramped left and right, left and right, left and right. I said we would also talk about Carl because I talked to Carl before talking to you, Johnny, and I said, all right, I know you've got a lot of good stories on Johnny. And he said, this is the guy that you were praising about his methodical ways of doing well in tournaments and how good he is. No question about that. We're seeing it on his streams when he gets to these wizard modes. and just by his year after year incredible ranking in IFPA. But he's also got something else that he is one of the best at, and it's Johnny Monica stories. And he said, you know, why don't you ask Johnny about that time we were going to meet at a parking spot to, you know, all kind of carpool together, and he was late and we left him, and he went to the meeting place and Ubered to the place and wound up paying probably just as much as parking the car. and just one of many examples of Johnny perhaps being late more than once. Do you know that they actually have a clock, an alarm clock, I think, at City Champ? Because exactly something like that. I qualified for the finals, and the next day the registration, the checking for the finals was at 9.30. That was the deadline, and I got there, I think, at 9.45, and they basically said, sorry, you're not in the finals. Oh. Yeah. So I made the playoffs for City Champ, and I did not play in the playoffs because I wasn't there on time. And from then on, they put a clock. Because there were some discrepancies in the webpage about, you know, was it a check-in at that time, or was it at or between that time and the other time? So from then on, they corrected the website, and they put an alarm and dedicated it for me. I'm like, sure, put it up there. Hey, look, I've been late too, but when it comes to things like a pinball tournament, if I were late, it would happen once and once only. Is that the case, Johnny, or is this, well, there might have been other times? I think I partied too much in college, and I think it's like I got some permanent damage in there. Maybe that's what happened.
    25:06
    Oh, that's funny. Yeah, I've done a lot of stuff like that. And the thing is that I like to, sometimes I push it a little bit. Like, yeah, like when I was supposed to show up, and basically we were, that time with Carl was basically we needed to go to the airport. at Carl he is very very safe when it comes to time and he's like dude I want to be there an hour and a half early I was like but dude why it's a small airport let's just be there half an hour before it's like no now and a half like fine if you're not here at that time I'm gonna leave you and that's exactly what he did so I parked the car in here and I had to get to the airport the best thing that Carl ever did was immortalize you in his critical hit series He created the legendary card, the Monica Plague card. And that is because of what happened with you at Papa back in 2016. So it would have been Papa 19. What happened, Johnny? How did this all get created, the Monica Plague? I mean, I don't think it was my fault. Okay, it was my fault, I guess. But I didn't know it was that bad. But anyways, what happened was that, I mean, we took off, and I felt like I had a little bit of a cold, but I thought it was just a cold. It ended up being a pretty bad flu. And of course, we were all in the same room. And even Damien was there too. I remember Damien Charlatan. And I got sick. I got him sick. I got a bunch of people at Papa sick. I got his family sick. His son got sick. His birthday. I mean, they skipped his birthday. And I think he was sick for like two months. It wasn't just like a two-week thing. Oh, boy. So, oh, yeah. It was really bad. And then he started saying, you know, he put it on Facebook that, oh, Johnny got me sick. And he's like, wait, I got the same thing. So he started having other people. And I was like, oh, crap, did I really get everybody? And so, yeah, I think that's what happened. I'm basically getting sick. You're like Gwyneth Paltrow on Contagion.
    27:01
    Yeah, sort of. Fortunately, I didn't die. So at least I get that. I don't want to die like her. That was a pretty bad death, I remember. It was pretty bad. Yeah. But then the funny thing is that after that, sometimes I will try to help Carl at broadcasting or something, and I will touch something, and if I break it, I was like, oh, there he goes. He plagued it. Or maybe we'd be playing, and a machine would break, and I'll be like, oh, great. So I don't know what to say. I did get COVID, one of the first ones to get it.
    27:31
    But again, I survive all this stuff. I'm just thinking we're 3,000 miles apart right now, and I'm just wondering if I'm safe even though we're doing this on a Skype call. Well, you never know because maybe when you hang up, you might have a virus on your cell phone or on your computer. Oh, God. It's happening. Exactly. How's your northern antivirus? Is it working? Shoot, I should have upped it. Oh, well. That's not funny. Hey, we're joking because what the hell else are we going to do? But we certainly take it seriously. I assume that's now that you have had this. You said your girlfriend, she has to have that app. Do you have to have any kind of contact tracing or any kind of follow-ups? No, because after your 14-day quarantine, I mean, they test you. I mean, then if you're negative, you're back to normal. Okay. Nothing else. And it was the same thing for her. I mean, once she did the 14 days, I mean, you're done. Well, I'm glad you're healthy. And you said you've been keeping yourself busy with games at home. I know you've got Lord of the Rings. That is a game you can be busy on for a long time because of how deep it is, but you've had some success. You made it to Valinor. I did. Yeah, fortunately, I'm glad I made it to that one. I only did it a couple of times. I mean, it's really, really hard. I mean, when Carl told me that he once did it without the extra balls, I'm like, are you serious? But then again, that's Carl. But yeah when you get to Valinor it a 45 game and you spent And when you get to it you like ah But then it funny because you get that adrenaline when you have to do that last shot that last ring shot and all your muscles are completely tense, and you're like, I'm going to get it. And you're not tired. But then the moment that ball goes through the hole and you start hearing the little Valinor music that starts playing, at first there's a moment of ecstasy, and you're like, ah, you know, like that. And then after that, you start feeling the tiredness. So he's like, oh, my gosh, I've been playing for 45 minutes. And then you start hitting shots and you're like, whatever, I got a jackpot. Okay, I don't care. Whatever, I got a jackpot. I don't care. But I want to listen to the music. Yes. Sometimes you don't even look at your flippers. You start looking at just the screen because you want to see the animation. You're like, yes, that's the animation of Valorant.
    29:44
    It is a big deal. Yeah, it is. And that's the same thing that happened to me when I did Star Trek because I have Star Trek, you know, the Stern Star Trek. And when you get to the five-year mission, again, it's the same feeling. I mean, there's nothing like the screen just going dark, and then suddenly you start hearing the music, and you start seeing the little shit that slowly goes up, and you're just enjoying it. You're like, ah. It just feels good. Oh, for sure. Oh, my gosh. And it feels even better if something like that happens when you're with people. I mean, let me tell you, I know we always talk about, you know, oh, you won this, or you got to that place, You got fourth place or first place or you won that championship or you won that tournament. But let me tell you, some of the moments of glory that I remember the most is actually not during tournament time, but it's actually when, heck, the last one was at the Northwest tournament, where I think we were playing dollar zombies on Walking Dead with Eshel Efkoff and his buddy. And so we're basically, Walker Zombies is basically where you pay like a dollar for each. I think you and I did that in Toronto at IFPA 15. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, Walker Dollars, exactly. We were playing that, but then suddenly, I mean, I started getting into the groove and started, like, making shots. And it's like, okay, 60, 70, 80. Oh, big bucks. And then it wasn't the big bucks at that point. I'm like, dude, I'm going to get to last man standing. Oh, okay. You know, and I actually did. I got to last man standing. And I was like, I got to last man standing. And then, you know, you're actually, like, saying, dude, you got it. Come on. And then you start seeing people that started, like, coming around and starting to look at the game. And everybody's starting to get into it. He's like, dude, come on, hit that shot, hit that one over there. And at that point, once I got to the last minute stand, I didn't care about the dollar or the Walker dollars. I mean, the poor kid. It wasn't extra. It was actually his buddy. He's like, dude, why? So I told him, don't worry about the money. I was playing a game. I can't remember what game it was. It was at my house and similar thing, right? Dollar games. And we have a rule. If you get an extra ball, you drain it. Or just one flip kind of thing. Well, I was close to my GC. And I'm like, you can keep the dollar. I really want to, it's not about that, like you say. So I know exactly what that's like. And it's not often that happens, but when it does, yeah, it does feel good. Yeah. And it works the other way too. I mean, I remember Jim Belcedo. I mean, I know we talked about Carl and Keith, but man, Jim Belcedo. I mean, you know, he's also a good friend of mine. These are the guys that, you know, that I grew up in pinball basically. And I remember I played with him in California Extreme and it was a tiebreaker. So it wasn't a finals or anything, but it was a tiebreaker, I think, for the quarterfinals, and we were playing at the, what do you call it, the swamp game. What is it called? The movies. Creature? Creature of the Black Lagoon, yes. See, I told you I partied too much in college. I forget the names and stuff. But, yeah, the Creature of the Black Lagoon. So we were playing the tiebreaker on that, and on ball three, I had like $250 million, and he had nothing. He had, I think, like $20 or $30 million. I remember, so I'm like, dude, I got this. So, you know, I finished ball three. You know, I walk away. I'm like, dude, I got this. So Jimmy walks over there. Not a chance. It's not against Jim. But 250 million ball three, I mean, there's a little bit of pressure. Come on. So he starts playing. He gets the multiball. And by the way, Keith is right next to me. You know, and usually Keith is pretty, like, laid back, a lot of loof and stuff like that, you know, a little bit like, you know, cool. And then you start seeing, like, he starts looking. He's like, hey, dude. Hey, hey. You're seeing little things. I'm like, are you kidding me? And then I start saying, are you kidding me? He got the multiball. He got the jackpot. He even got it up on the swamp. And then he gets the ball into the pops. he enables a super jackpot and he hits the super jackpot and when he hit the super jackpot everybody just went ah he jumped out and keith i think that's the first time that we use the term he did a walk away super and that's what he did he walked away and i was like i can't believe it so i was sad but i was happy because it was such an awesome comeback so if i had to lose i mean That's the way to lose it, and that's the stuff that you remember that you're never going to forget. He hugged them two after one. It was like, oh, my gosh, that was an incredible comeback. I don't even remember what happened in the semifinals or who even won it. But you'll remember that match, yeah. We talk about the Modica Plague. Well, I mean, Belsito is not just a name. It's a verb when you get Belsitoed, and you think you've won it. And he comes back with the craziest ball three, his last-ditch effort, and blows you away. That's a gym specialty. It's almost like playing possum in a way, but never, ever count Jim out. Now, that's why you mentioned him and Carl, because those are the two guys that you've played the most against in tournaments, because of, obviously, your location in California. But the thing about that is, when you play two players that are that amazing, it can only help you become a better player. Absolutely. I mean, what we do, I mean, when we're playing in a league, I mean, after we finish our league, we start playing for fun. I mean, and when we're playing, we're not like basically, oh, it's your turn and you walk away. We actually like stay there and we watch each other play. And from there, we start learning. I mean, and it's not just me learning from them. I mean, they learn sometimes a little bit from me, believe it or not, some of the stuff that we do. And you're like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe you can do that. Oh, I can't believe you can actually like, you know, back shoot it that way or make it bounce just slightly so that it goes to the flipper on that one. And by doing that, I mean, it almost becomes like a continuing education in pinball. So no matter how good you are, there's always going to be something that you're going to learn from anybody. And I think this is something that Massinkoff once said. I mean, no matter what player you're playing against, even if they're not as good as you, they might do something that you never thought of. And you're like, oh, that's cool. And it just increases your repertoire of what you can do when you're playing. and it makes it a lot easier especially to just have fun and experiment instead of just being too methodical about your play style and and just be loose so i think i i probably tend to be a little bit of more of a looser player and that's probably a little bit of my downfall because i may not be so precise with my shots but sometimes i get a game that i just want to have fun and i start like doing crazy little tappy thingies that i'm not supposed to do just because this is all i I can do it. I did it. You know, like back shooting a scoop with the opposite flipper. I mean, you know, that kind of stuff. So it was just fun. And, yeah, the league that we're in where, you know, Jim is in, and hopefully Carl will be in now that he graduated and he was getting his degree too. He'll be back in too. I mean, at the end of the day when it's just me, him, and Carl playing along with some of the other local guys that are really good too, I mean, it's just the highest level that you can think of. I mean, when you go to a tournament, it's like, wow, okay, we play at this level at our league. So it's great. enjoy it yeah let's hope this happens again soon because you miss it i miss it and uh we can learn from each other and certainly have fun it'll happen we just have to stay safe in the meantime and uh johnny if i see you i'll wave from a distance just because god only knows what you what you're picking up you're already on covet 20 are you admit it i'm already i think i might be in covet 21 i'm just going way ahead but it's okay i'm just gonna make you stronger just gonna Increase your immunity. Just stay safe for you and Emanuela. That would be all I ask, okay? Absolutely. Will do. Yeah, and I really hope to see you guys soon. I mean, not just you, but really everybody else. I mean, it sucks that. I mean, that's, I think, one of the best things of pinball is just the community of it. I mean, just seeing you guys. I even talked to Daniele and he's like, man, I'm bored. I'm like, I understand, man. So, yeah. Yeah, hope to see you guys soon. Hopefully they'll, hopefully in disc. I don't know. You thinking this might happen? I don't know for sure. I would have to guess probably not based on my conversation with Carl a few weeks ago on the Final Round Pinball podcast. But I know at the time of this recording, nothing has been finalized. It's just, I mean, hey, nothing's happening for me here in Canada. I can't even get across the border till at the earliest October. So we'll see. Hey, we can't go to your place either. It goes both ways, doesn't it? Anyway, good talking to you, Johnny. And from now on, it's Menduko. That's all I'm calling you. Menduko. There you go. I've been called worse.
    38:09
    Thanks very much, buddy. All right, Jeff. Take care. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. Check out our Facebook group. We're also on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. I'm Jeff Teolas. Johnny.
    38:26
    We're sorry. Won't you come on Go home We're worried Won't you come on Go home