Hello, my name is Jamie Burchill, and you are listening to and or watching our podcast called Wormhole Pinball Presents. Wormhole Pinball Presents. Wormhole Pinball Presents. Today, I'm very, very excited to be joined by two great individuals. Today, I'm really excited to be joined by a very special guest. And today, I'm very excited to be joined by two awesome guests all the way from Arizona. Hello, and welcome to the Wormhole and our podcast we call Wormhole Pinball Presents. interview series we started to highlight those in pinball and arcades and today i'm excited to finally meet someone that i've heard so many great things about erica of erica's pinball journey welcome to the wormhole virtually erica thank you so much i'm really excited to be here i'm also joined by my co-host donovan wade how are you donovan good just sitting in tonight uh you know hanging out yeah he's you know it's tech night at the wormhole and on wednesday night we have tech night and sometimes i come and interrupt the text and film yeah he does they're chiming in and they're chiming in and uh that's okay uh i decided to start moving these podcasts to tuesday to give the guys a break but i was here already on wednesdays and that's why i wanted this yeah i come do videos so that's why i'm here so i've heard so many great things about you uh and how authentic you are and you can see that on your videos on youtube of course i'm talking about eric's pinball journey channel on youtube i've tried to get you on this podcast what three months now or how many yeah it's been a been a hot minute um yeah i've just been uh busy with just trying to catch up it's so much uh because i outside of making content like my personal life and like getting those things in order like i have a job that i need to to keep you know so i can keep doing this stuff so uh apparently i don't work so i just keep spitting out pocket feels like it feels like i'm on vacation so i got an excuse yeah no no i just i just take a long time to edit i i'm looking to outsource and get an editor i'm gonna ask you some editing questions later because i'm fascinated with creative types that do the editing themselves and yeah you need to get an intern like you do i have an intern yeah we do we actually have an intern we uh tim's niece's uh boyfriend is study videography at the university of texas and he does all our editing now for the podcast oh that's awesome yeah actually congratulations thank you it's great when you can find an editor yeah thank you ryan greg he does a really good job final yeah that's the intern uh our mutual friend eric uh erin winnick anthony is the one that introduced us yeah yeah i actually haven't i haven't met erin yet actually oh no no i haven't but just like chatted with her virtually but yeah no she's great she's fantastic she's become a good friend her and her husband and alex and uh so follow erin on all the socials she puts out amazing content both stem and pinball related yeah i love that yeah i love that that mix yeah she's fantastic. Shameful plug, she was also an early guest on this podcast and she's done a lot on our Twitch channel and YouTube. We wanted her here tonight, but she's a very busy woman. Yeah, she is. Very busy. Okay, so did you post or you are about to post your Stern Media Tour YouTube clip? I'm about to post it. I didn't post it yet. I made a last minute change, so it will be out soon. Yeah, that one is a that was a it's been a struggle for me to get that one out and uh it's not what i wanted but um i'm doing what i can with what i got and how i can so can we talk about the tour for a little bit yeah totally be happy to how did you find out you were selected if you will right to be a part of a really small group of pinball content creators that got a behind the scenes view of the Stern factory and Stern itself? I just got a cold email from Zach Sharp. He just emailed me and Retro Ralph pretty much, he posted in his video the email, and I think I got something very along the same lines. And it was super random because I had just listened to the Loser Kid podcast and talking to George. And they're like, oh, yeah, you guys are going to come to the factory. I'm like, oh, that's so cool that they're doing that. And then like I was at work and then I see this email. I have an email for Erica Spinball Journey. It's Erica Spinball Journey at Gmail dot com. And I was at work and then I got this notification and it was like Stern visit. And I was like. What? And then I'm at work and I'm like, holy shit. And I'm like, oh, my God, I need to ask the PTO right now. I just need. Yeah. That'll make your day. That was. They chose a lot of great people to go. Right. I mean, yeah. And a bunch of people have become very, very friendly with. I don't want to forget anyone that I know. But, you know, I've gotten to know Jason that he's super nice. Ian Jacoby. We love Ian. Rachel and Kale of Electric Batting and Colin Alshimer. And all of them were guests. And then I've gotten to know very well, you know, out. Yeah. Outside of the stupid thing we have in common. so oh yeah no it's really cool get it like i'm like a fan of literally everybody that came so for me i felt like i got to be the the one fan that got invited along with like the other people because i just haven't really been in this that long yet like my youtube channel had not even hit a year yet when i was at the stern factory which kind of like blew my mind a little bit so that was really cool. Well, I think they picked I'm sorry. I think they picked great people who are real. Right. And they who they are within their content is who they are in real life. And that's always a really nice trait. And I think they I think that they're really great. And I kind of think it goes to show, you know, how respected you are already in the stuff that you're putting out. Yeah, I just I feel so like honored and grateful for the opportunity. And so That's why I also feel bad my video is not out yet because now it's getting to be a little over a month. You got any more of those emails asking what's going on? No, actually. No. I did put out two videos, though, from that tour. Like, I did put out one video, which was totally, like, what they told us in the room when they brought us to show us the game. like after we did the tour and after we got like the licensing class, they took us to that game room where they stream pinball now. And that was really cool because that's where we actually finally got to play the game. Like we went through all of those phases and then we're like, okay, here now we can play John wick. And yeah, that video was just pure the thing that they shared with us. And I was just like running, turning my camera back on and trying to grab what they were saying. And yeah, it was totally in the moment type of thing. Um, and then Mike's interview that I got was also just, I've seen Mike now a handful of times at shows. Uh, he knows a few people that I've kind of been in contact with. So I kind of felt comfortable. So you're name dropping Mike, who? Mike Vinikour. Okay. Sorry. Yeah, you just name dropping and we didn't get to go. So, I mean, it's just not like. It's all good. Was the factory bigger than you expected? Well, I actually had been to the tour at Expo last year. Oh, okay. So I had already seen the factory and seen the line, but they showed us a few places that they didn't show on the tour, which was really cool. And then, oh, my gosh, this was like one of the coolest things. So when I went on the tour last year, there was this guy that like gave his resume to George Gomez. Like I'm at the end of the tour. George Gomez is like shaking people's hands, taking pictures. There's this guy gives his resume to George saying, I'm finishing school soon. I'd love to work for you guys. And I'm just like, wow, this guy's shooting his shot right here. Right. And I was like, I'll probably never see him again. Like, that was cool. But then I'm on the tour and this guy is in the factory and he just got hired. Like he was just like four days from when we went to the factory, he got hired and he's like in the metal shop room doing, I don't know what he's doing. Bunch of cool stuff. Did you say hello to him? I did. And I was like, bro. And I didn't even really say hi to him when he gave his resume. But Colin and a few other I think Jason and Colin knew him. And so they were like, oh, hey, yeah, he just got hired. I was like, bro, I saw him shoot a shot. Like, that was so cool. That's awesome. Always be closing, Donovan. ABC. Always be closing. How many NDAs did you sign before you went in there? zero really because i thought you know you were used to signing ndas in the entertainment industry so i oh yeah doomed yeah i totally would have signed one too if they gave me one like i'm yeah ndas are like part of your business right part of my part of what i do yeah i can't say like shit i'm signing i've signed but i mean i thought that was really cool to do i mean i did sign in to say that I was at the factory. I think there was something that was like a liability like, hey, I'm here. I'm a guest and if something happens, I don't know. It's something that everybody has to sign when they enter. Do you mind if I ask you a quick question about, so you guys were kind of like the second wave. I just kind of wanted to get your opinion on how you felt about their marketing of John Wick, where they went with the big influencer types, you know, to start out with their marketing on that game. Do you have any feelings about the way they did that? I mean, I kind of think about it and, you know, I know a lot of content creators were kind of a little upset. You know, this is what we do. You know, why aren't you coming to us first? But I can also see their point where they're like, you know, we need to expand our market. I mean, this is it's kind of a small market thing. If we can get other people involved, then, you know, they built this big factory. They got all these people. They need, you know, places to put these machines. Totally. Yeah. I mean, I was super happy about it. That's actually something I didn't feel the same as some other content creators. But again, like I said, I'm also pretty new to the hobbies. I wasn't like insulted because I was like, oh, I didn't get to go. I've been doing this for years. Like not to not to rap on anybody about that, because, yeah, I mean, you should maybe feel some sort of way like that. But for me, I felt like this is awesome. They're reaching out to other people. They're trying to get like more people into pinball because that's something with all of the companies we have now. Like I don't I mean, I'm a buyer and a seller right in the pinball market. Like I have machines and like, I don't got, if you bought every machine that came out last year, like that's like over a hundred thousand dollars. So I don't think the average pinball collector is spending like a hundred K like collecting machines. I mean, maybe, I don't know, but like, I wouldn't think that the average pinball. So like, I feel like the market is just so big. Right. And so people are waiting for the game now that they want rather than just like buying whatever is there, because maybe there was only like four games released that year, at least from total outsider looking in. That's like what I'm assuming is just like, oh, wow, there's more choices now. There's more companies. If there's more companies, that means you need to get your game out to more people than just the regular group. So, yeah, I actually really appreciated that Stern did that, thought it was super cool. And then other people get to see that pinball still exists. Something that I hope to do with like my channel too, is to be like, Hey, like pinball is still a thing, you know, like pinball isn't just like old machines that are collecting dust or don't work. There's so many coworkers of mine that are like, wait, like pinball, like you're into pinball. Exactly. We've all heard it. Everyone listening to this right now has heard that. Yeah. Pinball? Everybody thinks I'm talking about pinball. Yeah. go pinball? I'm like, no, pinball. You don't have a New York cage? You guys got a Ms. Pac-Man over there? No, we don't have a Ms. Pac-Man at the wormhole. We have pinball machines. But yeah, you're right. We're a subculture of a subculture of a subculture. Right. And so, you know, I think anything they can do to market themselves, God bless them. I always think of the back office because that's what I do for a living, you know, recruiter. So, I mean, do they have a big back office there is it pretty lean or nobody cares but me um they're their front their front room last year at the tour had like a bunch of desks and stuff and now they're clearing it out and it looks like they want to have games there in their lobby so that people can come in and play them it seems like maybe i'm not entirely sure but at least maybe when expo comes along maybe all those games will still kind of be set up there and people while they wait to go on the tour they can play their games so did they take you through any of the spike 3 technology that they're planning to implement did you get any behind the scenes on spike 3 no i did ask Mike Vinikour about spike 3 on the interview i did with him uh you know they can't disclose much about it but from what it seems like is like it's just gonna have more power to do more things i i highly doubt that the the cabinet itself will change in like shape because they talked about how they buy the same cabinet for every game so this way it makes it super easy to just pop each game into each thing rather than making a wide body and then a small like you know varying in sizes like they keep that same size so i could see in order to keep production as smooth as it's been that they might keep the cabinet the same but maybe change what's in the back glass backbox that's like what i could only assume maybe everything will have expression lights um available to them in the future yeah it kind of seems to me like it's just like you said just more powerful because they're including more things in games with like those expression lighting and you know there's only so much you can put in some of these systems i know so i think it's just more outputs more more power like you said yeah maybe boot up faster. I don't know if you've ever started a Spike 2 before, but that thing can take a hot minute. And then Insider Connected is so new. Insider Connected, you have kits for that for the older games that didn't come out. What, 2019 was when Insider Connected hit? So then every game that was Spike 2 that came out, you have to put it in a kit. So I could only imagine maybe the way Insider Connected works for the next game might be different. Did they discuss Insider Connect with you a lot? They talked about Insider Connected a bit during the like we did like a master class. Maybe you heard about it from other people like we were sat down in a room by George. I'm fascinated with it. So I think it's it's the future of pinball. It's so good. I think. Yeah, I love Insider Connected. I think that other companies should like really look at that because it creates launch parties. People collect badges. You got the contracts now with John Wick that are really fun. those damn contracts so how exciting yeah you know and like i'm sure operators are incredibly grateful because like when there was that whole month of jaws i was going to play jaws and i just i don't know i probably spent 50 bucks trying to get all those jaws things on like different places or the same two or whatever so i could see like operators that you know buy the coin and maybe even buy a free play because then you got people still coming in and and playing the game and looking to achieve something. So I think it's super great. And, um, I mean, not that I don't like other companies games. Like I love Elton John. Like if I could afford it, I would totally buy an Elton John right now, but it was cool. It'd be cool. If Elton John had something else I was like working towards you know like some sort of scores and do you guys know about Scorbit Yeah I don think they going to make it I don see Scorbit making it I mean, I think unless they lock up everybody else. But, you know, I just see Jersey. This is the opinion of Jamie Virgil, not that of the wormhole. But that's my little. Or I think Jersey Jack's going to invent their own system and get you. Yeah, I think, you know, and then it's just a matter of time before the rest follow. My gut tells me and this is just, again, Jamie, and maybe you could settle a bet for me. You want to settle a bet? How long? How long until Stern charges us a dollar ninety nine a month for Stern Insider Connect? Oh, do you think that's going to happen? I think they did talk about the potential of charges and I'm not sure. I think I mean, they didn't disclose anything to us, but from what they talked about, it seems like they might not even really know or they're trying to gauge like, would you pay a subscription for the year for the month? Do you want to buy like like a pro package or a premium or elite? I don't know. I could see different features, but I know people want home leaderboards. That's a big thing that I keep hearing. It's like, oh, I want my own leaderboard. I want to be able to challenge my friend and be like, look, I got this on my Deadpool. I need you to get this on your Deadpool. Who hits it first? Yeah, like a Pindigo in within Stern. Don't rip off Pindigo. Don't do that. That's what I think. I still use Pindigo. I just put up $9 million on heavy metal. Not bad tonight. Yeah, you know what? They could do stuff like, you know, maybe data analysis, like, you know, what ball you're best on or if you're playing Godzilla, who are you most successful with? Yeah. With Gigan or Megalodon? I think that it's limitless there, especially as an operator. You know, John and Taylor, we have Wormholer John and his friend Taylor are now operators, and they have about 20-something machines out. Stern Insider Connect, as an operator, is invaluable for them. They can find out information. they get alerts if this ramp hasn't been hit in two days. I mean, it's just unbelievable the technology that they're going to do. So, all right. You didn't really answer my question if you think it's going to be charged or not, but I'll get you off the hook. I'm going to let you off. Yeah, I think that we will see something, but I don't know whether if it's like a month per month per year. Like, do you – I don't – I hope it's not something like, oh, pay $2 for this and $4 for this. Like, I'd rather just give a bulk thing, like you get all the things. Yeah. Maybe there's like levels to it, like pay the smaller price for this. But when I think that might happen, I don't know, maybe next year, like sometime mid next year. There's $5 once that happens. All right, you asked this question. Go ahead, Donovan. So you've got to meet a lot of the designers and coders and artists there. You know, how cool is that? I saw you guys hanging out at Logan. I mean were there was there any like pinball people you were like kind of starstruck by like yeah gosh I got to like I got to meet so-and-so um yeah I mean I own two of George's games and I guess I felt like a fly on the wall a little bit more because I just loved seeing the other like content creators like talk to these people and interact with them and um I met Jack Danger last year briefly at Expo and got to talk to him a bit um so that was cool and yeah I don't know it was just it felt really great just to be there like the fact that I could witness like I I was like witnessing everyone else kind of like having their moments and their time and um played some played some John Wick and got to be at Stern after dark for a bit too and we did like Dawn's podcast afterwards and yeah it was just i i don't know um i i was more just grateful i guess because i yeah i haven't been in it for that long but it's cool to get to like hang out with gary and and see these people and i was like pinball fantasy camp it is yeah i hope they do it again it was fun or at least you know if um the content the people that went you don't get to go twice that's not right yeah but like if they do something where they invite people to like colin had that um that thing last year the media thing and i thought that was pretty cool getting everybody so there's there's on the media i had him on the yeah on the podcast i asked him if he if he'll ever do a mixer again maybe we'll me and tim and john will organize the mixer this time Yeah. I didn't even write it to the American pinball. You know, I'll never get that. Can we talk a little bit about your working in the entertainment industry a little bit before we talk about your journey to pinball? Right. Like what can you tell me about type of work that you've done in the entertainment industry? uh so i've done a lot of work um in like i've worked on like movies and tv shows um and now i'm more like in the corporate scene so i'm not like traveling around going to different places uh to film stuff um but yeah i worked a lot um i've been in the industry for about 10 years now and my first like five six years i'd say i'd worked as like a production assistant which is someone that basically does like anything that you, that the team needs you to do. So like you go out and you, you move the potted plant from the thing. You, you make sure that this thing shows up at this time, or you help people with parking. You stop people from walking into the shot. Like I've worked on a movie, like I worked on like a VFX day for a movie and I was trying to stop this woman from walking onto our set. Cause we had like these fast cars running around with the cameras. And she had her headphones in. And I remember I was like, excuse me, ma'am, I need you to stop. And I was like, kind of shy kid just like, oh, excuse me, ma'am, I need you to stop. And then she's like, oh, I don't have time for this. Like some San Francisco people walk in. They don't sometimes they don't care. but I remember there was a the assistant director that was on the floor with us he came and he ran up in front of me and he grabbed her shoulder and then the car like sped around the corner and she like looked up and you could tell like she was like she still was kind of angry but man I was just like that was a crazy moment because I'm like man this everybody's job is important on set and it's been really cool I've got to talk to a lot of different people and work in different positions too like I've been um something called like a base camp PA which is like a production assistant that works like at the trailers and I made sure that like actors were in the chair that they went to hair and makeup that they saw costumes I like communicated with costumes and makeup and made sure that and then you talk to someone who's called like a first team PA and they're on set and they take care of the actors on set so I've also done that job and yeah I just um I worked a bit trying to get my um I did something called like DGA days like to get into the union which the DGA is like the Directors Guild of America and so for a while I was thinking maybe I wanted to do that um I also thought I wanted to be like a DP and hold a camera and do cool stuff and then and then I did a little bit of it and I was like no I don't enjoy this not for you okay yeah you you go to school for that I did yeah so I have an AA in film production but like I haven't gotten anything else since and I've just been working in it which has been I've been super grateful because I know a lot of other people that aren't exactly like that I have went to school with that got a bachelor's and aren't doing what I'm doing now so I just feel like super grateful that I've had the opportunities that I've had and just had some really great experiences being on sets and I got to travel to New York and I think there was one I did I did some movies in Connecticut so yeah that was crazy and then yeah I was in Germany for a movie so that was pretty cool did you pull a pin map when you go to those locations I didn't I wasn't into pinball yet oh no so that kind of where my pinball journey started was when I stopped working on movies and TV shows. So we'll get to that in a second, but you don't use your last name in your content and it's obviously on purpose, right? We don't talk about why, but my question is it's people can be weird, right? I mean, my, my real question is how much harder it is for a female in the entertainment industry and being a female in the pinball content creation space. um i would say i've had more trouble in the film industry because maybe because i had more years in it but the pinball community it's been very light of what i've felt at least i feel like i'm in this very good bubble in the bay area like so i don't know i feel like people have been overall pretty respectful and you know i've had a few weird dms you just hit that block button real easy. But in the film industry, yeah, I've had some really terrible experiences. We know from Erin and some of her videos. I mean, some of these people with their comments. My question, trying to make a little light of it, is have you gotten any marriage proposals? Oh, no. No marriage proposals. Because Erin's got marriage proposals. Yeah. I think they think it's funny, right? To ask someone to marry you, but it's not funny. It's creeping, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think there's like always those comments that are that it just depends, I think how you do it and how you write it, I guess. And how you say it. Like you see those videos sometimes where someone does something funny and then in the comments, someone says weird way to propose, but okay. Like, I think, but just like straight out asking people. Yeah. It can get weird. I definitely have experienced weird. Thankfully, not too much. It's been there, but not super crazy. All right. I want to do a public service announcement real quick, okay? We'll do it quick. I wrote a slogan down for us. I think we're going to like this slogan. All right. Go for it. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, think before you creep. That's it. Think before you creep. Yeah, well. You like that? I think that still think it's a good idea. I wanted to do a public service announcement in like a dumb Jamie type of way. Okay. Yeah. Let's just be respectful. The more, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Well, only three of us are going to know that. I love people behind the content. We're real people. People. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm trying to say. I mean, I love when people reach out to us and 95 to 98% are very, very positive. Right. And I love engaging because I'm the same person on Mike as I am off Mike. So I love sharing this hobby with passionate people. Except that guy from Montreal. Yeah, we had a block of dudes from Montreal early on. What was his name? I don't remember. I remember it. I have that guy. Yeah, that guy didn't like us. Good segue here, all right? Let's talk about utilizing your media skills as a pinball content creator. All right, walk me through this. Were you already consuming pinball media content before you got into the hobby, or you just said, I'm starting to get in this hobby and I want to document my journey? I was already consuming it. I had been in pinball since February 2022 is kind of where I say I started because that's when I bought my Lord of the Rings. Okay. I don't get you going. That's a good machine. Yeah, I feel very lucky that that was my first machine. And I love it. I don't think it's going to leave my collection. But yeah, I was consuming content and that's why I wanted to make content was because I kind of felt there was some things that were missing or some things that I wanted to see more of. And like some I'm like a YouTube kind of person, like I'm like going on YouTube a lot to look up. How do you do this? How do you do that? Like YouTube? I'm surprised they don't have university yet. Like I'm surprised they don't have watch these like 20 videos. and here's their degree it's google they're thinking about it they've done the analysis okay yeah so like um and i just felt like when i was searching up pinball stuff that there was like not all the type of content that i wanted to see and also not a lot of females like i saw a moto she was the first right that i saw doing anything in pinball on youtube and i was like wow oh, this is really cool. Like, where are the other women? Like, aren't women into pinball? And if there are, like, way more that were on YouTube, I feel really bad, but I have yet, the algorithm has yet to feed me you. So, and Pinball Jen was on Instagram. That's how I found out about her. And TikTok, I think. She was on, like, TikTok and Instagram. Yeah, right. And I saw her, TikTok is, like, not my jam entirely. Like, I'm on Instagram. Yeah, I'm off of TikTok too. We're not getting any views on TikTok, do we? I don't post on TikTok. Yeah, we're all on Instagram now, Instagram and YouTube. Yeah, Instagram and YouTube, that's kind of like where I live. I'll still post on the other socials because you never know. I had a video blow up on my TikTok, and that's kind of like where that goes. But, yeah, so I saw Pinball Jen, and I was like, whoa, this is so cool. She's making, like, stuff that I want to see. She's, like, commentating, and she's saying funny things. And just like someone I feel like I could relate to, like as another female, I guess, because not to say that I didn't relate to other things that male content creators are making, but it always it just didn't always click, I guess, with me with sometimes the jokes or what they'd say. And I like watching a lot of it, though. So you mentioned, you know, you didn't really see what the kind of stuff you were looking for, like trying to describe more, you know, what was the kind of videos you were looking for? like how to play in a tournament you know like what is what are the formats and i know i have not yet made that video but like i did my like here's the five piece of pinball because people will walk up to a machine and they won't know how to press start or they don't understand how you add players and so i started off with that and i'm hoping to like some more other videos out that talk about like this is how you run a tournament or this is the types of tournament formats so um yeah i just wanted to see that kind of stuff and um yeah i don't know some more funny things maybe and some different types of perspectives and interviews and yeah it's kind of a little all over the place i guess for me now do you still play competitively not really no i stopped uh i stopped playing in tournaments really because well two things uh editing takes time and if I'm at a tournament for 10 hours then that whole day for me to want to edit later is gone and the other thing is I actually am dealing with an injury on my foot my left foot I tore a tendon and today I got like my first thing to go towards maybe not needing surgery so um I don't know if it needs to be included but I got this thing called like a PRP injection and i don't know if either of you have heard of that or dealt with it it's like my son's in physical therapy i i could text him now but i don't know it's like a plasma rich oh yeah injection or something and so they like really help yeah so my wife gets him on her ankle well yeah oh okay it's like a stem cell almost yeah yeah so they like took my blood and then they put it in a thing and then they they put it back in me just in a the good stuff i guess so i hoping that it works because i had this tear for a while and I didn know I had the tear until October of last year but I been injured since November of 2022 Another person that I asked if they play competitively that gave me a doctor's note. Oh yeah. Jordan from flip chronic gave me a doctor's note. You don't need to give me a doctor's note. I was just curious. She's right though. I mean, some of these tournaments, They take too long. No, they take a long time. That's why I liked our max match play because it's two and a half hours or so. What are these 4Xs you could be? I quit playing competitively. I sign up for the tournament. I'm just not competitive. You're with somebody else. Because you have a media background, this is a fascinating question for me. How long does it take you to edit each video? From edit to post, how long? Let people know how long it takes you. um probably over i don't know some videos i spend over 40 hours editing them oh my gosh but it's just time it's just because i'm like maybe i've filmed myself let's say i for my first video um like my five piece of pinball um i filmed myself and it took me an hour then i started editing it and then I realized I don't like this then I went back filmed myself again then again once I got to editing I was like I don't like this again and then I went back the third time and the third time is when I was like okay I just have to live with this because this is going to drive me I'm never going to get a YouTube video out I made a trailer and then two months later there's another video out and everyone's like yeah you made this trailer like where's our video really great the minute you pull up your there's a beautiful trailer yeah Yeah. So I spend a lot of time and most of my weekends now and I for work, I sit at a computer. And so then I'm at my computer all day for work. And then I have to like push myself to like sit at my laptop again and like start editing and going through footage. And the thing is, too, I pull up a lot of pictures. I try to get screen grabs. I look for sounds and music. And I think, too, I compare myself a bit to some of my colleagues in film. And I just want to make sure like maybe there's a subconscious part of me is like, don't embarrass yourself to these people because they know that like what you've created in the past and what you're capable of. And like, I don't know, maybe I think I'm too hard on myself and I need to. Yeah, it sounds like it. You can send your fifty dollars to therapist Jamie. I ask this because every creator that we've had on this podcast that comes from a media or a music, especially the music guys, they're perfectionists just like you. And they don't want to put out the content that was perfect. Do you know how long, like, Bash Pinball is the guys that I'm listening to a lot now. Yeah. I could just imagine how long that takes them to edit. Yeah. They're super fun. Yeah. they like showed up on my feed and they started following me one day and I was like yo this this logo looks sick and then um I look well he looks like an Adonis Don looks so good looking he's scary so can I get a little inside baseball because I do all the editing for the tournaments and stuff do what what software do you do you prefer to use or do you have other things I use Adobe Premiere. So I use the Adobe suite. But I also use CapCut. And CapCut will be for more of the videos you see on like Instagram. Those are like quick, easy edits I can do for my phone. A handful of the YouTube videos I've released, I've done a little bit of CapCut editing, like maybe I exported it already from Adobe, and then I had to change something. And I went in and just put it in on CapCut and then just finished editing some of it. I love what CapCut can do. What do you do? On most of our... Because Donovan does most of our editing, not the podcast. The tournament stuff, I use Wondershare, Filmora. The shorter ones, Erin told me to use InShot. She uses that for a lot of her stuff. Because I use iMovie when you're out of town and it's darn garbage. Oh no. like really if you if you learn CapCut you're gonna love what you can create like I I promise you okay it's it's worth like to learn and just even on your phone like CapCut changed my life like I I wish when I was making yeah I totally I wish you know like they if I was starting out filmmaking again, CapCut would have saved like all of a bunch of my videos. There's so many, like you can instantly do green screen, the type of edits, like tracking that it has is just wild. It's just so good. And like moving things in motion, it's so much easier as like a beginner. And so I always recommend CapCut to anybody that's like getting, that wants to start editing. I'm like, just start with CapCut because it's going so far and auto does your captions. I used to have to do captions like i would sit and when i used to edit my videos for like doing stuff in the past when i had my own little film business for a little bit like doing weddings and events and talking heads with execs and stuff and so i'd go in and i'd like listen to the person write the few words go to the next thing and then write another thank you ai yes it's so good go back and correct all that stuff yeah it's getting better it's getting so good so before we move on can you can you tell me a little bit about this 360 cam that you've been using oh yeah so i bought this um insta 360 x4 and i saw it yeah because i was yeah okay no it's it's so cool so like you can um like either export stuff in 360 or like another reason i bought it was because like wow now i can just like kind of hold the camera around a few things and not worry about like what angle really that I'm getting because I can like always kind of go back and like shift it so um and I also thought that I could use it maybe for streaming pinball like set it up and then you don't need two cameras like you could use one camera to get the back glass and one camera to get the player but the x4 doesn't have get the maybe try the x3 the older version because the x4 doesn't yet have the webcam feature so when I tried to like do that I couldn't get the the cameras to work but I've seen other people in videos like split it. It has been very complicated, though. I'm not going to lie. It requires, for a 360 video export, it requires a lot of gigabytes, and it takes a really long time. Like this last video I uploaded was like 90 gigabytes or something like that. Ooh, that's so big. Yeah, I tell you. I tell these guys, like exporting this stuff, like, why is this video taking so long? I'm like, it takes hours to get it. They're like, what's wrong with your internet? No, no, no, no. It takes hours. Give him hours that he's on dial-up. Yeah, it's got a process. And I have that video 5K, but I'm like, man, if I export it at like 4, I think. I think you can watch it on 4K on my channel. But like if I export it at 5, and I think it even goes up to 8. I just know like the moment I do an 8K video, it's a three-minute video max probably because that's like probably 100 gigabytes per minute or something like that. Yeah, to get that up on YouTube is a day. I just got the Osmo Pocket 3. Oh, nice. I've been thinking about that one. I love it. Yeah, that's your favorite. I am geeking on it. I put it on a cam. I put it as a pocket cam. I could walk around the room. I could live stream with it. I could do everything. yeah do you have the dji mic then that goes with it too right i think yeah so good it's so easy it's stupid proof for jamie and it works so well i love it all right i asked our discord channel for some help asking you questions telling everyone that you were coming on and uh this is the wise-ass question i got are you ready who's this from this is from go bills which makes total sense if you are on our discord channel and he's worth coming on our discord channel just to read what go bills writes once or twice a week he wants to know how did you come up with the name for your channel erica's pinball journey oh um yeah it's ridiculous ridiculous question but this is what i get from discord so i give it to you um well yeah i guess i felt like i was going on a journey and I wanted to tip some. I'm sorry. It was kind of like the first thing I could really think of. Oh, it's a cool name. I like it. And you know, that's how I think you and Erin are so similar because she's just been documenting her first win or her first tournament or her first time playing this. It's kind of yours. My first time visiting this place or seeing this machine or this person who I just met. you know yeah and I feel like journey is kind of like a big thing a lot of people like I'll hear it now all the time like people like oh yeah what's your journey like like and I I'm like oh maybe subconsciously I was like oh yeah I'm going on it I'm going on a journey like if you want to learn about pinball come with me and I'm going to experience some things for the first time and sometimes now I have to take a take a step back and be like what was it like when I first started because I'll have someone tell me like, oh, I didn't know that word you said in your video. Like I didn't know what an LE was. Like what's an LE? I'm like, oh, an LE is a limited edition. So sometimes I now have to like take a step back. But I know like Erica from like months ago would have been like saying that. So sometimes I always go to my family and I'll be like, hey, when I say this word, what do you think? Or like, do you understand this? They're like, they're my testers, I guess. They'll either give me a link there or they'll be like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. I just get 20 emails. I am telling me how wrong I am. So it's really not a big, it's just a whole different. All right. They'll tell you you're wrong. I'll let the Internet do that for me. So I don't put it aside. I can't do it. Last question before our famous hurry up segment that we, you invented. Okay. Can you please out a celebrity that you may or may not have worked with, but that they secretly love pinball. Hmm. I don't know if I could name a celebrity. No, I didn't because I haven't really – I didn't get into pinball when I was working on movies and TV shows. So there was – I don't know. I mean, I would love to meet Jason Sudeikis. Yeah. That's the only reason he asked this question. Yeah. I want to meet Jason Sudeikis. I want to interview Jason Sudeikis, but I have a good friend that also wants to interview Jason Sudeikis, so I'm letting him. He is closer. Donovan thought he had an in to Jason Sudeikis. I have a friend who knows his sisters. I mean, how is he going to help me? Apparently, it's not close enough. I'm probably like a one degree of separation somewhere. I need to just interview him. Hold the trigger on that. How great would that interview be? Yeah. I think you should just post a video on YouTube and or like Instagram just being like day one of asking Jason Sudeikis to come on my podcast. And then every day just post and then you'll get to, you know, day five. And then all of a sudden Jason Sudeikis is there. It's actually something I thought of doing. No, no, no. I think you should. You should do it. I think that's really, really funny, and it would be really awesome coming from you, and your video editing is much better. I would go, day 55, we're getting triple digits for Jamie, right? I think you have a better chance than I do. Well, yeah, maybe I'll start doing it. If he does reply, you know who I'm going to be hitting up. Okay, please. And it's a good bragger email to me. It's totally fine. You can totally, I got him. It's awesome. All right. Yeah. And maybe you could zoom me in and I can ask him one question. Yeah. If you ask him. Let's try. I'm sure he would be down. He brought for, I love Ted Lasso. He's such a great, great series. Yeah. It's so great. That Wizard of Oz apparently was his. It is. That's the rumor, right? And my favorite part, this is what I would ask him, is because there's a part in Ted lasso where they're playing and he comes back and uh one of his buddies goes how did he do and he goes he's a little closer to multiple but i'm okay and it's a great do you remember that scene yes i do it's such a great scene for us for us yeah this that are in pinball yeah watch the show oh it's a good one to watch back now now i'm re-watching um solar up solar opposites and they have a bunch of pinball machines just like peppered throughout their show really that's been really fun yeah they had a congo show up on like season i just started season two episode one a congo like showed up and i was like yeah yeah season one had like two or three pinball machines in the background just there so and i just i love seeing pinball references in places like i watched the despicable me movie recently the new one and at during the credits there was a minion on top of a pinball machine like they were playing with it or something i was like oh that's so cool like and then i'm like are we gonna see a minions pinball machine i hope not god help me i just don't get that i feel like uh you know i mean maybe jersey jack there'd be a bunch of colors and lights and i mean it would sell you know you put it out there kids are gonna put quarters in it right Yeah. It's like they're going to put quarters in supposedly Pokemon. Did Toy Story sell? Toy Story 4. That's the rub. That's where they blew that. All right. Are you ready for our very famous, not famous, but our exciting wormhole pinball segment we call the Hurry Up, our rapid fire question and answer game. There's no timer, so you can take as long as you want. All right. This one comes from Ko from Quarter Drop Arcade. Favorite movie that features the pinball machine. The Who's Tommy or The Man Who Saved Pinball? You know, I haven't watched either of them. Me either. You haven't? No. And I want to watch The Man Who Saved Pinball so bad. It's pretty good. I want to do like a blind react video. Oh, that's good to do that. That's why I haven't watched it yet because I want to get some other pinballers. When you see his mustache, tell me how fake or real do you think that is? Or if the prop person should be fired. I'm surprised they didn't have more backups. I wish I had known them because maybe I could have connected them with somebody with a good mustache. But, yeah. Not like the actor, but I know hair and makeup people that saw, they've seen the movie, and they're like, oh, Erica, I wish I had done that. It would have like give me this budget and I would have I would have made it happen. Like I've I've seen some pretty scrappy filmmakers and yeah. Yeah. Don't save on the thing. That's the guy's like this signature. Sure. All right. In a way, it makes it comedic, right? Then we talking about it because then now we like Oh did you see the movie So yeah mustache All right You want to add Sure OK Do you have a cult movie classic that you think deserves a pinball machine like you know rocky horror picture show the fifth element fight club something like that yeah i would love to see a fifth element pinball machine that would be sick yeah there was a fight club one at um the northwest show and that one was really cool I loved that one. Like a homebrew? Like a homebrew, yeah. Someone had made it. So cool. Bike Club would be my old, you know. You like that one? Okay. I guess when it comes to like, I guess maybe they're not cold classics. I love like the Studio Ghibli films. So I'd love to see a Princess Mononoke pin. But I know that would probably have to come from either my own hands or another. Yeah, you're going to be building that in your garage. Instead of asking what your dream theme is, because that's like a typical pinball question. I like to call it the oh shit, they just released this pinball thing. There goes $10,000, right? For example, if they ever get the rights to the 1980s G.I. Joe cartoon and make a pinball machine out of it, I will sell everything I own and get that machine. That's a done deal. Cobra Commander, Destro, Zartan, done. Okay? What's your oh shit machine? Oh, man. And I love my Lord of the Rings, and I feel like if they didn't have a Lord of the Rings pinball machine, I probably would have bought it. So you bought your own shit machine. That's good. Yeah, I kind of did. Yeah, you kind of did. Yeah. But like I said, I guess any Studio Ghibli film, like if they made a Studio Ghibli film, or I'm like super into like Demon Slayer right now. It's an anime. Like if any sort of anime pinball machine dropped, actually, maybe not any because I'm not into all anime, but like there was a Demon Slayer pin right now. I'd probably probably drop some money on that. All right. So my brother used to live in San Francisco, but I never played pinball there. I didn't know the places. I don't know pin map. I guess. Right. Do you have like go to places there for you? Oh, yeah. There's so many great spots. Um, my place, I really started playing pinball was at Lynn's arcade down in Seaside. Um, and I love those guys at Lynn's arcade. They're so good. And, um, yeah, so I started playing there and then now I play a bit at free gold watch. Cause I joined the, the San Francisco pinball department. I waited like over a year and a half to get into that league. Like you have to like, wow. Wait for people to leave that list. Um, and then, yeah, uh, the flipper room is really, really great um the rewind arcade and sebastopol's new like they've just been open for a year and they've been really fun uh game on pinball is also new you got miniboss um outer orbit is like a nice little spot um that their food is just so good and so when you can go to a place and play pinball and eat food at the alameda theater there's some breweries that are great oh i love them state of find pizzeria just because I love the pizza. Yeah, pizza, like food and pinball for me is a really big plus because it's like, cool, that means I can be here for a while. You want to serve wings, though? I mean, that's no bueno. I don't want some guy serving wings. Pizza, greasy. Oh, yeah, I guess I wipe. Heavy metal, that's no bueno. Just wipe it yourself. Just bring it. I used to have a Linz towel, like Linz had those towels, right? So you can wipe down machines and so you can bring one. Then you know that person's a pro when you go somewhere, right? Right. Or they're wearing gloves. Or they're wearing gloves. Or they're wearing gloves. Do they have pin shades? Yeah, pin shades. And a headlamp. Yeah. The headlamp one really gets me. We have a couple of headlampers, but I haven't seen them in a while. I need to wait. I miss them. It's just the way you play. I mean, the gloves one, actually, now I'm eating my own words. I remember when I first saw someone wearing gloves, I was like, all right, dude, you're like doing too much. But now I'm like, no, like gloves would be so helpful. I think I'm going gloves. I think I'm going to be a glover. Yeah. What the hell is the difference on twenty eight hundred in the world? I can't I can't hurt. I mean, let's get some gloves on these things. Are you and Wesley going to go shopping for those together? No. You know, somebody else show me where to get them online. Yeah. Yeah. Because like if you're really hitting machines and and stuff like i my hands are needed for my work and if i like mess my machine my hand up on a machine because i like slapped save too hard then that's not going to be good so yeah i know i'm just uh would love to keep my hands we went down a club world i'm sorry yeah all right couple more best movie and pinball combo out there out of these four okay so it's the movie and The Machine. I didn't put Lord of the Rings. So let's do... It's just a single movie, not a trilogy. Don't do that one. Just do your four. All right. Jurassic Park and Stern's Jurassic Park. Jaws and Stern's Jaws. Indiana Jones and Williams' Indiana Jones. Not Stern's. Indiana Jones. And The Big Lebowski and Dutch Pinball's Big Lebowski. Ooh. I'm going to have to go with Indiana Jones I think that's a good one that's a really good one like I've been playing the other ones more like I've definitely played Jurassic Park and Jaws more but I definitely know that the way that Indiana Jones feels just really fun I love the video modes and oh I love everything about that All right. Is there a burger better than an In-N-Out burger? Fast food burger. Are they the best fast food cheeseburger? She might be vegan. You don't know. Well, I I'm like slightly vegetarian. So but they have an impossible meat burger. No, I don't think that In-N-Out has the best burger. Oh, OK. Most Californians say In-N-Out. I took a chance on that one. Even Canadians like to say that. I like an In-N-Out burger. I'm a big fan of an In-N-Out burger. I think their fries are garbage. Okay. They're spongy and they're not good enough for the burger. Yeah. You have to get them at the right time. They're always a hit or miss, their fries. But yeah, I like their burgers, but I would say that it's not a must for me for a burger place. I don't know. I can't think of like where maybe I wouldn't say the habit either is great. It's like good, but not always amazing. I don't know. Texans love this place called Waterburger. So when you come here, if you ever come for the Texas Pinball Festival, go get yourself a Waterburger and go, I don't get it. I don't get it. For sure. I'm sitting on your stomach. The thing is like this big. It is bigger than your head. Wow. That's Texas. Everything's bigger than your head. All right. I was going to ask this. Favorite fantasy franchise out of these three, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, or Lord of the Rings? oh but you put game of thrones in there too dead uh you can even throw house of dragon in that oh man oh no maybe some Jon Snow later on yeah oh i actually when i yeah that's not not a fast answer but i actually met him in person um you met Jon Snow yeah yeah yeah i was in ireland trying to get a job on Game of Thrones. It didn't work out, but I was in Ireland for like a week and I went into their production office because I knew how to figure out certain information and then somebody showed me a list and I had about five different ways to get on and none of them worked. But I did meet him and some of the other cast members on my way back to my hotel. So that was a really cool day because though I didn't work on the show, I still got to meet him and a few other cast members. So that was cool. I wanted to ask you one more question have you ever been starstruck by anybody? oh yeah definitely there are some actors I can Tom Hanks oh my gosh and yeah that was a really cool day because I had to work with him for a bit that day it was just one day on a movie is he lovely is he pretty lovely in real life he's he's lovely and i met his wife and his son and then i had to like hang out with his son while his while he was doing a scene and his son was like into film cameras and i was like we were geeking out about taking pictures with film and yeah it was cool um but yeah tom hanks was pretty good starstruck moment that's a pretty good i mean i think he's three or two i don't know uh last one california tex california mexican food or Tex-Mex. Which do you like better? I guess California Mexican food. I'm going to say you were wrong on that. Tex-Mex is so much better. I went to San Diego a couple of months ago or a couple of years ago and my best friend from high school takes me to this San Diego Tex-Mex place. She's like, you're going to love this San Diego Mexican food. San Diego Tex-Mex? No, I'm wrong. San Diego Mexican food. Sorry, I'm telling the story wrong. And so I go and the line was at the door and we go and we sit down. It wouldn't even been top 30 in Houston. Really? Yeah. So I'm going to say Tex-Mex. Sorry, Erica. There's a place called Akeez that I really like that's out here. I'm pretty sure that's Cali-Mex. And if not, then I'm totally wrong. Someone could say it in the comments. The food questions didn't work with you. I tried them on the hurry up. It didn't work. Not every hurry up is going to work. Okay. I got to go through them. Neither of them have poutine, so I'm out. Yeah. There it is. All right, Erica, this was awesome. Where can people find your content? You can find me on YouTube as Erica's Pinball Journey and Erica with a K, I guess, maybe, if it helps. And I'm also on Instagram and Facebook and TikTok. But I'm super active, I'd say, on Instagram. If you're trying to see me on the daily, that's kind of where I'm at most days. And YouTube, I'm trying to be better at uploading more than once every three months. Well, you've got an assignment that you should probably finish tonight, right? Yeah, I actually am tonight. After this, I will be. Click on subscribe. Get that bell notification after her 50 to 80 hours of editing. That's that bell. And you'll be able to see. Are you going to Expo in Chicago? I will be going to Expo. Yeah. And this weekend is California Extreme. I don't know when this video comes out, but this weekend's California Extreme. Today's Wednesday. We'll normally get them out by Friday. Depends on how the editor, Ryan. Yeah, what's California Extreme? California Extreme is this weekend. It's like arcade and pinball machines. And some of the Marco Specialties team will be there and some Stern representatives, like Mike's going to be there, Mike Vinikour. And, yeah, it's just – He travels a lot. really it's just a really great event and it's cool because it's even if you're friends that you like i bring friends that aren't super into pinball there's like video game stuff there too for them so they're not just like just pinball it's not like yeah than state um that we had earlier this year in california um so yeah california extremes happening um july 27 28 i I guess the weekend is. Well, they can Google. Yeah, they can figure it out. Saturday and Sunday. They can Google. And then I'll see you in Expo. I don't know if we're going to throw a mixer, but I'll definitely buy you a drink. I drink Diet Coke, so it's not going to be very expensive for me. Sounds good. I mean, I mean, Diet Coke. We go way back. Yeah, I have a problem. All right. Thank you so much, Erica. This was really great. I appreciate you so much. You take it easy. Thank you, Donovan, for stepping in. No problem. Thanks, Donovan. Yeah, it was really a pleasure getting to meet you both. Thanks so much. Oh, thanks again. That was really good. Thanks, Donovan, for stepping in. I didn't even know you were going to step in today. This is great. Absolutely. Thanks again, Erin, for hooking this up. She's just lovely, and we love her. So keep the ideas coming in. We've got a lot of great IMs and e-mails at wormholepinball at gmail.com. and let us know who you would like to be on the podcast. On a side note, we don't really talk current events here, young man, but I really am bummed for all the distros and all the customers that lost money with Haggis. What a shit show, and I'm sorry that this happened to you. It sucks. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know how many people put in for Centaur, but, I mean, it's a popular game. You know, we had one here for a little while, the original. Yeah. I did get a cool IM the other day asking about the wormhole. Okay. And when we're open, and are we really sponsored by breweries? And the answer is the first and third Monday of every month is when we're open, and the first Saturday. And, yes, we are sponsored by local breweries. July has been equal parts brewery. Great beer. Yeah. Are you drinking one now? I've been imbibing tonight. And did it have, like, an orange peel to it? I can smell the orange next to you. It had a summer feel. Yeah. Okay, cool. They've been a great partner to the Wormhole, and we appreciate their support. But thanks for all the nice comments and all the positive reviews we've been getting, because the downloads have really been pretty good, dude. Yeah. So I really appreciate it. Speaking of appreciation, I got to spend the afternoon in San Antonio when you were gone up in Canada. Tim and I drove to San Antonio and we went to watch brewing. No way. I did. Really? Yeah. And Tony and Kim weren't even there, and they drove in to see me and Tim. They gave us a behind-the-scenes tour. So if you visit San Antonio, please make this a destination, okay, during your trip. I mean, what they built there is amazing, not only the pens and the coffee, but the community that they're helping build as well. And, you know, we love our San Antonio. Love coffee. Well, I bought a bunch. You did? Yeah, I bought a bunch for Janine. Oh, okay. Speaking of coffee, do you know who gave us a gift for being on the podcast? They sent four pounds of coffee. Have you had any Colombians on? No. I have had Don and Matt of Don's Pinball. Really? Yeah. Matt is a huge coffee collector. Yeah, I've noticed that on their Instagram. They've got a lot of coffee talk. A lot of coffee talk. Yeah. Well, they sent us a shit ton, like, dude, five giant bags. So we split them up all in the wormhole and the beans. And so that was super sweet of them. Okay. And next week I have not only a pinball player, she's also a poker player and a recent contestant on the hit reality game show on Netflix called The Mole Season 2. Nashville's own Melissa Lumos will be on the podcast. Who's played here with us? Yeah, she's been on the stream with Aaron, and she's completely lovely. I love the tournament. Yeah. She's just wonderful. So that's going to be fun. Another friend in pinball that I can't wait to interview and share her story with you. That's it. I have nothing else. Do you have anything else? No, I'm good, people. All right. That's enough for Wormhole Pinball Presents. I'm Jamie Burchill. You are? Donovan Wade. And remember, please, don't be an asshole. Don't do it. Don't be an asshole. Bye.