It's time now for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teelish. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. It's a pleasure to be talking to this man once again. I've got to know Mike for the last couple of years, whether it's through ReplayFX, through some other wonderful streams. He's done a lot for Papa, but he does more for Path of Play, and he joins us right now. Hi, Mike Primo. Hi, Jeff. How you doing, buddy? You've got a big event coming up this weekend. Tell us what you're doing with Papa Pinball. Well, I tell you, I don't get nervous very often, but I have to admit I'm a little bit nervous because it's a tremendous opportunity, representing the Path of Play project and Doug Polka and the gang allowing us to stream a new show on their channel called The Playroom Experiment. This is going to be a pilot episode. We really have no idea what to expect, but the premise is, can we take a couple of people who either haven't played pinball for a really long time or have never touched a pinball machine and make them better in a two to three hour time span? And the idea came from, you know, seeing all of the amazing content creators we have, whether they're streaming or they're teaching pinball like Bo and Karen's. I've always felt that there's sort of been this gap to tailor to the true novice because a lot of the streamers today, there's that pressure to tailor to the audience they already have. I don't have an audience in that aspect. So I thought, well, why don't we give this a shot? And I ran the idea by Doug, and graciously they're affording us an opportunity to broadcast live from Toronto, and I can't wait to do it. I know you're trying to teach these new players how to be better in pinball, but one thing that will happen for sure is if they've never seen the game before, they'll be excited by pinball. It just seems to happen that way. You know, a lot of us pinball players, we see people, they're just getting behind a pinball machine for the first time, and there's that aimless wandering, shall we call it, where it's just about keeping the ball alive and hitting things with lights. And just a few rudimentary lessons on how the pinball machine works, I think, creates a better level of engagement. And it's why we enjoy pinball so much, because we understand what we're supposed to shoot for and why. And so I really want this show to serve the purpose of helping them better understand it. I see it happen in the board game hobby all the time, And when there's just a little bit of rules explanation and you can help them see past all the physical stuff, they transcend. And I would love this to take on a life of its own and, again, try and make that contribution to seeing pinball not be so much of a niche hobby, but something more mainstream. And this is something board games have accomplished in the last 10 years. I think pinball can do the same thing. Since you started this Path of Play project, you are now supporting over 300 people. You've had 20 different activities, raised well over $25,000 Canadian, and hoping to raise more with some events too. I'm very proud of what you've done, Mike, in such a short period of time. I'll tell you, it means a lot hearing that from you and other friends and family members and people that I've gotten to know through the pinball, board game, video game hobbies over the last couple of years because I compare this quite often to songwriting. You have an idea for something you want to create, and you always indulge your friends and family first, and they will give you some time. They'll tell you it's nice, and some might go as far to say, wow, what a great idea, but you don't really know if it has any legs until you throw it out there into the wild. And last year, to wake up in the morning and see Facebook posts from people like Josh Noble, John Aaron, the Triangle League down in North Carolina. These were people that I had never had the pleasure of meeting. And it was very heartwarming to see that kind of response. It said to me, now this is something that I definitely have to see through. I think that last year was about asking everybody for support to ensure we got to the second year. I see the second year as being the thing we need to get through so that we can see this last for my lifetime and then some. Some of the recent events that you've done, I remember in December you went crazy and said, I'm going to do this for 24 hours, but that was a lot of fun. I had a great time. There were just so many good things about that day, including the technical aspect of the stream. And it was really nice to only have to deal with one small problem later on into the night But I woke up that morning at 1 I think I had a quick shower some breakfast I had my snacks ready to go I had a schedule for my food to make sure I didn't eat badly. I had four great friends, Joe Cherovino, Kevin Chow, Nathan Cookett, and John Perennis came over to see me through the end of the night. And a funny story was that by the time we got to the end of the night, we had raised, I think, just under $700 or $800. And at the time, I was doing a side project filming a gentleman's home. And he's very well off. He has a multimillion-dollar home, and he saw my work that I've been doing for the last five years with the Credit Valley Golf Club, and he wanted me to film his house because he's going to sell it. And he heard about the Path of Play project, and then he saw the video regarding that push-up marathon, and he wanted to make a donation but didn't know how to get through the links of the sort. So after the event was done, he reached out to me and said, I saw that your fundraising goal was $2,000. It was actually only $1,000. And when I told him that, he said, well, it's $2,000 now because I'm going to donate $1,300. And it was just, it really pulled at my heartstrings because, you know, we all have busy lives. And when you're so focused getting things done, you don't have time to feel the emotion. But after that was done, you know, it's the holiday season. You're getting ready to take a little time off. I really reflected back on how much this project's meant to me and a lot of it much in part due to the support that it's received. I mean, you have to have a tribal community for something like this to be successful. I only have the message, but it's the community that carries that message. And the funny part of it was he says, I'm only giving you the donation if I get the push-ups. So I went from having to do 230 push-ups to now I have 750 I have to do after Path of Play Day is done. But that's a good point about this raising the awareness. And that's why I have no problem, and I hope others do, talk about this here on Pinball Profile and other podcasts and other formats. Obviously, Papa Pinball is doing a big thing with what they're helping you out with this weekend. Just letting people know about the message about what you're trying to do. Because there is a lot of connection that, I mean, for you personally, obviously, with your son Lucas. and others that are indirectly or directly affected by some of the difficulties that families are dealing with. When you talk about that man that gave that wonderful donation, I don't think it was because of the personal connection with you. I think it was just the awareness of, wow, I can help out. I like the cause. I get it. And that's the whole thing about Path of Play. Again, it's this initiative. It's a bunch of different programs that extend to families living with autism and other special needs, and you've done a great job. And again, Path of Play Day is coming up very, very soon, and everybody can be a part of it. I know I'm going to be a part of it in Edmonton. Oh, you're going to be in Edmonton at that time. What are you doing over there? I'll be at Yegpin, and that's a big, big event that Derek Thompson puts on, but I see it's the same time as Path of Play. I'm like, I'm finding a way to somehow connect with Path of Play Day. I'll be wearing my Path of Play shirt that day, and I know there'll be a stream as well, so we'll be connecting. Well, let me try and do this in order of some of the things that you've mentioned here. When you talk about why people gravitate to the project, I've spent a lot of time in the last six months or so really thinking about how to engage the community. And I respect the fact that often is the case we feel more compelled to be involved if we're impacted by something directly. But I got to thinking about things like marathons for breast cancer and why those are so successful. And I really do believe, Jeff, that it's because they put the common interest first, which in many cases is actually before the charity. If there's something that we all have in common, it's that we love to play, no matter what it is. It could be music, pinball, board games, I don't care, whatever it is. I try to let the discussion of autism come second because, you know, if you buy a candy bar, nobody's reading the facts on the wrapper. They want the chocolate bar. And there's a time and a place to talk about things like 79% of all autistic people are shown to have depression because they struggle to find a social setting where they feel accepted. That's an important thing to talk about. But it's not really the thing that's going to say, wow, I really, really want to be a part of this. I think that and that doesn't make people bad. It's just I think that any initiative like this is always going to be more successful when you find the thing that has the the largest common ground in place. And we all love to play It just it makes this project a lot more engaging And it gives people who aren living with autism a sense of ownership That because they understand the hobby And that why what going to be happening this summer at replay is so important, because amidst all the competition and the fun we're having, we're going to see a lot of families who are living with autism at a convention-based event like this, maybe for the first time. And I'm hoping that my fellow players will simply find a moment to come into that room and just go to these families and say, welcome to the convention. We're glad you're here. And that's all it really takes. So I'm very, very excited about the months ahead. That's not a big ask at all. I'm very excited to see what ReplayFX has done to assist with Path of Play. And what a perfect showroom, game room, if you will, to bring all these families together. And boy, could you imagine this happened a couple of years ago? This has been a faster track than I expected. And yet my mindset, I don't feel that I'm in a rush. You know, our fundraising goal for this year, we really only increased it by about $3,000. We're not looking to break the bank. We needed to have a goal in mind where we knew we could do something meaningful with the funds that we're trying to raise at this time of year. And I don't think it's a good thing to go out and raise tens of thousands of dollars if you're not going to go and use it right away. So I think that we're moving at the right pace. We have some really important goals in mind. One of them is becoming a registered charity. Right now we have a non-for-profit status. But I think moving into that registered charity status will be important so that we can start to build relationships with the corporate world. and nothing would make me happier than being able to show them how this community has been nose to the grind since day one. That will impress upon the corporate world. And if you tell a great story like that, I really think that the level of support from that realm will be hopefully magnificent. Not to get into great details, Mike, but how difficult is it to get that charity status? It's paperwork. I don't know exactly how difficult the process is in terms of having to prove yourself as a viable charity, but I know that what's involved is, you know, it's crossing T's and dotting I's. It's submitting your meeting notes, which we do have. So whenever we have a board meeting, we take our notes and we document those. You have to define your objectives even further. And that's kind of why I'm waiting, because I've really enjoyed the how can I put it? I've enjoyed being a scientist in the non-for-profit world. And what I mean by that is I don't feel like we have a board that locks itself to the safe zone. We're eager to explore and see what's possible. I think that's how we ended up with the opportunity now to be present at an event like ReplayFX. And if you're watching the Path of Play Facebook page, I talk a lot about family game days because of these magnificent people that want to take on that mantra and start having family game days in cities like where Neil McRae lives, Pittsburgh, of course, Lafayette, Indiana, where Tommy Skinner lives from this flipping podcast, Josh Noble and John Miller, who you know. They're working hard to get something happening in St. Louis. And now these last few weeks, I've been thinking about what other conventions can we build this relationship with and maybe do more of that stuff as well. So I think in the next year or two, we're going to learn a lot more about that calling and it continues to evolve. And staying as a nonprofit affords us that. When you become a charity, you're more locked in. And so I'm trying to time that so that I feel really comfortable with our vision where I have that sense that it's really tight and we don't need to change it a lot. Well, between now and then, this nonprofit status and going to charity someday, there's still things we can do. And let's talk about Path of Play Day coming up on April 27th. It's very easy to participate and to register. You go to pathofplay.com. Mike, tell us the easiest way that you can participate. I think the easiest way is to simply go to our Path of Play website. The page specifically is pathofplay.com backslash popday2019. You can also just go to pathofplay.com and you'll see the link at the top. But the reason why I encourage people to go there is because there's a registration button on that page, but if you want more information about Path of Plane, maybe you've never heard of the project yet and stumbled on the website, you can read about what these objectives are and if we accomplish our fundraising goal, what that will achieve and I think people really value that information Once you click on the register button we doing things a little bit different this year It a flat registration which essentially represents your donation. Last year, we had reward levels with all sorts of trinkets and things. We've changed that. And that registration button will take you to the RallyUp site who we work with so that everybody knows the donations are managed properly. And this is, I don't know if this is a bold move or not, but we've decided to do away with all of the physical tokens and rewards of saying thank you. What we want to do to show our appreciation this year, and I think this is a good thing because we're still small enough to manage this, every single person who registers for Path of Play Day will know exactly what happened to their contribution. With all of our board game distribution projects, we're going to be getting it back into subsidy programs so that Kids can take things like yoga classes, anything that's universal we're going to be exploring, and, of course, our family game days. We will tell every registrant of this event where their contribution went. On top of that, the recipient of that support will have an opportunity to write a letter of thanks through our channels back to the donors. And I think if our community knows exactly what their contribution is doing, They value that more than me spending my time trying to get shirts and shoelaces and stickers and all that stuff. So I'm hoping I'm right about that. But by doing this, we keep our fundraising campaigns happening. It's all centered around this one event. We don't do any other kind of fundraising. It's foreseeable. It's reasonably affordable. And it's a lot easier for us to manage. I think that strategy will have a much greater impact than what we had done last year. To put things into perspective, as you gave that answer, I just registered and just made my donation. So it was, no, I'm just saying it's that quickly and that easy. I started it as soon as you gave the answer and it was done. Oh, that's great. I'm so glad you weren't on Netflix browsing shows. No, no, no, no, no. I don't know if you could hear me clicking in the background, but that was. I could, I could. I just registered. You'll see. Anyway, it's that easy. Again, go to pathofplay.com. You'll see the link to Pop Day 2019. So that was easy. Mike, what was that post you had about the 125 people? The last couple of days, I've been thinking about this magic number, which is 125. And I don't know if I'm oversimplifying it. Sometimes I have a tendency to do that. But my thinking is this. If there were 125 people that, you know, no matter where they're living in the world, they can take part in this event. If they were to invite three people to their house that were also willing to register for this event, we would reach our goal of $10,000. And I feel like that's attainable because we have 600 people in our Facebook community. We had just under 200 donors last year for Path of Play Day. And we're going to be broadcasting, as you said, on Papa this week. That should get a pretty high number of viewers. And people like yourself who are gracious enough to have us on their show really affords us that chance to make people aware that this is happening. You've just demonstrated how easy it is to get signed up. In my head, it sounds like a very attainable goal. And when Path of Play Day happens, I should also mention that when you're playing games with people, you should post with the hashtag Path of Play because I'm spending the entire day streaming your social media posts. That's all I'm doing. There'll be no other stuff that we had going on. It was just too busy of a day for us last year. All I want to keep my focus on is sharing those posts so that if some guy in Idaho is playing with his friends and there's another person playing with their friends in Australia, they will see each other's messages. And to me, that's the best way to make this a day of unity and letting these families know that we stand behind them. Sounds like you're going to be busy this weekend and certainly next month with Path of Play Day. Again, go to pathofplay.com for all the information. Mike, you know I wish you the best, and I know it'll be a great success. Yeah, you're a great friend, and I really appreciate everything that you've done to support this project. Thank you, Jeff. And I might even have three listeners, so there's my contribution. So I might have reached three people, maybe a couple more. Well, you got 1,300 people on your Facebook page. You better hope that three people are listening, right? Who knows? Hey, thanks, Mike. We'll talk to you soon. All right, pal. Take care. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. I'm Jeff Teolas.