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Episode 263: Marc Silk

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·59m 19s·held·Jun 12, 2020
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Marc Silk discusses his voice acting career and passion for pinball audio design.

Summary

Pinball Profile 263 features an interview with Marc Silk, a professional voice actor from Birmingham, England, conducted in March 2019 but delayed due to technical issues during recording and reconstruction. The episode covers Silk's extensive voice acting career across animation and film (Bob the Builder, Johnny Bravo, Star Wars Episode I, Thunderbirds reboot), his rediscovery of pinball through UK venues like Tilt, his perspectives on game audio design and sound quality in pinball machines, and his involvement with pinball voice work including the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles machine.

Key Claims

  • Marc Silk provided voice work for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine from Stern

    high confidence · Jeff Lee introduction: 'especially now, in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine from Stern, he does several characters'

  • Marc Silk voiced the narrator for the Twippies

    high confidence · Host introduction: 'especially now, in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine from Stern, he does several characters. So, what I'm about to present you right now is that interview from March of 2019, and we will follow it up afterwards with a current conversation with Marc Silk. Let's go across the pond, one of my favorite places, the lovely land of Great Britain. We are going to Birmingham, Robert Englunds to talk to Marc Silk'

  • Marc Silk recorded voice work with George Lucas at Abbey Road Studios for Star Wars Episode I

    high confidence · Silk: 'i got a phone call out the blue when they were casting near the end of that movie and basically the call was are you free next tuesday to work with george lucas on a brand new star wars movie... we worked at abbey road studios... and we were in the penthouse studio there it was myself and george lucas in the same room'

  • Thunderbirds pinball machine has significant audio quality and consistency issues

    high confidence · Silk: 'the actual technical sound quality of it kept changing throughout it. So you'd hear these crunchy, low bit rate recordings that were taken from the actual series. And then you'd hear a really high quality thing of the original theme. Then it would change to this bespoke recorded jangly guitars thing that wasn't in any way keeping with the theme'

  • Attack from Mars LE from Chicago Gaming has exceptional audio quality equivalent to or better than The Beatles

    medium confidence · Silk: 'I've got the LE of Attack from Mars from Chicago Gaming. And, God, what they have packed into even just the speaker system and the amp in that, that is as good as I've ever heard a pinball machine. I think probably that and Beatles are in terms of the audio quality that I've heard is the best that I've heard yet.'

  • Heighway Pinball (Pinball Brothers) reportedly holds the license for a Queen pinball machine

Notable Quotes

  • “It's a tactile experience. It's theater. And so anyway, going back to rediscovering pinball, I just fell in love again.”

    Marc Silk @ ~17:30 — Articulates what drew him back to pinball and highlights the sensory/theatrical appeal that differentiates it from other gaming

  • “Sound is 50% of the experience to me. It's like with a movie. Without the music, the sound, it drives the experience.”

    Marc Silk @ ~39:00 — Reveals Silk's professional perspective on audio in pinball and sets context for his criticism of Thunderbirds machine sound design

  • “You look forward to all the call outs. You look forward to the music. And again, as you're going through the game, the music changes and it drives the action and anticipation and excitement.”

    Marc Silk @ ~43:00 — Describes how effective sound design creates player engagement and anticipation in pinball machines

  • “It's the first time he had ever played a pinball machine. And out of the bunch that were in here, that was his favorite because it was like being at a rock gig.”

    Marc Silk @ ~45:00 — Demonstrates how Aerosmith's audio/theme integration appeals to new players and underscores the importance of sound-theme synergy

  • “It was such a shame. You know, these you hear people talking about their grail pin there. You know, if they could have any machine and one of them for me was Thunderbirds.”

    Marc Silk @ ~37:30 — Shows personal disappointment with Thunderbirds machine despite being a fan of the show and contributing to the new series

  • “Can you imagine if only someone had the license and all the assets? I'm sure it'll happen. But I was playing another treat in the collection. Here is Aerosmith, pinball like we say.”

    Marc Silk @ ~42:00 — Subtle reference to a potential unannounced Thunderbirds-related licensing deal or his wish for better use of Thunderbirds IP in pinball

Entities

Marc SilkpersonJeff LeepersonStern PinballcompanyGeorge GomezpersonPat LawlorpersonTodd TuckeypersonChicago GamingcompanyPinball Heavencompany[name withheld pending review]person

Signals

  • ?

    content_signal: Delayed episode release (March 2019 recording, release timing not specified but clearly much later) due to technical/audio production issues; host reconstructed interview from guest's backup recording after accidental deletion of host's track

    high · Host intro: 'The interview you're about to hear was recorded in March of 2019. What the heck took me so long? I am more than embarrassed to say the problem was me... When I accidentally mixed the two voices, they were out of sync. I accidentally deleted one of my parts... Thankfully, my guest recorded his part. So in the many months since then, and to be quite honest, not that COVID-19 is a good thing, it's a horrible thing, but it gave me a little more time to actually reconstruct my voice and my part'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Marc Silk established as professional pinball voice work contributor across multiple manufacturers and games; represents emerging specialization in pinball audio production

    high · Stern TMNT, Twippies narrator work; host references 'you've heard several voices' and 'one of the world's greatest voice actors' with pinball-specific credits

  • ?

    product_concern: Thunderbirds pinball machine exhibits multiple audio design failures: inconsistent bit rate quality, disjointed theme integration, audio stuttering, lack of audio consistency throughout gameplay

    high · Silk: 'crunchy, low bit rate recordings... then you'd hear a really high quality thing... Then it would change to this bespoke recorded jangly guitars thing that wasn't in any way keeping with the theme of Thunderbirds. No consistency... stuttering audio of Thunderbirds 3 to Thunderbirds 5, 5, 5, 3 to 5'

  • ?

    product_concern: Thunderbirds pinball criticized for poor artwork representation of characters and lack of overall theme authenticity despite IP licensing

    high · Silk: 'when you watch this ball flop over the back of this odd ramp and things weren't right, the art doesn't represent the characters properly'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.171

0:00
it's time now for another pinball profile you can find everything on pinballprofile.com past shows your favorite podcatcher and more check us out on instagram and twitter at pinball profile email us pinballprofile at gmail.com and check us out on facebook a true confession right now. The interview you're about to hear was recorded in March of 2019. What the heck took me so long? I am more than embarrassed to say the problem was me. I started to record A New Way From Home back then, and there were actually five pinball profile shows that were recorded this way, and each one of them actually had technical problems. All my fault, all in setup. But what makes this one worse is because it was the second time we did the full interview. Can I tell you how embarrassing that is when you're talking to an audio master and that's the interview you screw up? Some of those other interviews I actually had to air because they were time sensitive. I'm not proud to say it, but if you listen back to some of those episodes, not the greatest audio quality. Let's just put it that way. But they needed to go out some way, shape, or form because of events that were happening immediately. Another example, I had a great interview with Phil Grimaldi, who I really respect in Houston at Space City Pinball. We did this great talk about streaming. It wasn't originally going to be a pinball profile. He was just asking me for tips about streaming and competitions and commentating, some do's and don'ts. It never aired, again, because of an audio screw-up that I did. A lot of times I'll record, I'll see the WAV file recording, I'm like, oh, everything's fine, when really you should probably check and make sure it's okay, play it back, and then do the full interview. Lesson learned. I've never claimed to be a radio producer or audio producer. I barely know how to turn on the mic. So this interview, recorded in March of 2019, never aired. I was lucky though. I recorded on my end and my guest recorded on their end, just their voice. When I accidentally mixed the two voices, they were out of sync. I accidentally deleted one of my parts, which threw everything off. So when you listen to the mixed file, which was now the only source I had of my voice, it basically was two people talking over each other. It'd be like me asking a question and the person giving you the answer before I've asked the question. Doesn't make for a great podcast. Thankfully, my guest recorded his part. So in the many months since then, and to be quite honest, not that COVID-19 is a good thing, it's a horrible thing, but it gave me a little more time to actually reconstruct my voice and my part to bring you this interview. When I saw our special guest at Expo in 2019, six months after we recorded, I profusely apologized for the delay and promised this will come out. I just made a mistake and have a lot of producing to do. A lot of producing requires a lot of time. So it is a pleasure to present to you this pinball profile with one of the world's greatest voice actors and somebody you know, because if you watch the Twippies, you heard him as the narrator. I can name several cartoons and other shows, and you'll hear some of those in the program, you've heard his voice before. And especially now, in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine from Stern, he does several characters. So, what I'm about to present you right now is that interview from March of 2019, and we will follow it up afterwards with a current conversation with Mark Silk. Let's go across the pond, one of my favorite places, the lovely land of Great Britain. We are going to Birmingham, England to talk to Mark Silk. Hello, Mark. How are you? Hi, Jeff. I'm really good, and it's a beautiful day here in lovely land. Well, I am excited to be talking to you once again. We first met at Expo. In fact, you came up to me. I think I was playing in a tournament or maybe volunteering. You saw my computer, and you saw I think I was even editing a pinball profile, and said that you heard me talk to Rob Burke, and it got you excited about Expo. And within less than a week, you said, I'm going to Chicago. I've got to check this out. It's all your fault, Jeff. You've got a lot to be responsible for. It was great to meet you there. I went back down the pinball rabbit hole sort of middle summerish last year, and I started following a whole bunch of pinball podcasts like you do and got hooked on Pinside. And then thanks to your ideas, I ended up going, do you know what, let's do this properly. Let's go and book a cab to Chicago and spend a lot of time around a stack of pinball machines. And it was so much fun. I had a blast. So thank you for the recommendation. What was your favorite thing about going to Expo? I really enjoyed just sucking up the vibe of the place, but also sitting down and a whole bunch of seminars to actually hear some of the pinball designing legends talk about what they do, to hear Pat Lawler talk about the geometry of machines and talk about what matters to him in terms of making a game matter to a player, to hear George Gomez talk about the making of Deadpool. And I love the fact that they really enjoyed sharing the nature of the team as well. The fact that it's a collaboration, everyone from Jerry Thompson to the artist to the coders to what matters, again, in terms of making a license work and just being around the place, just bumping into people like Todd Tuckey and Zach and Greg from Straight Down the Middle and other podcasters. It was just a nice place to hang out for three days. In fact, I think I just saw you on a video that Expo just put out. I don't know if you've seen it. It's like 60 minutes long, but you're in the video with Todd Tuckey. Oh, well, yeah. That was on the first day, I think. I was just mooching around one of the rooms there, and Todd came up and said hi, and I thanked him for inspiring me to get Aerosmith Pinball.

medium confidence · Silk: 'Barry Oursler had said that he was working on another machine for Highway. The strong rumor is that it was for Queen. So apparently Highway still, whatever, the pinball brothers, they have the license for that.'

  • Marc Silk attended Expo 2019 where he met Jeff Lee and was inspired to purchase Aerosmith

    high confidence · Silk: 'I went back down the pinball rabbit hole sort of middle summerish last year... I ended up going, do you know what, let's do this properly. Let's go and book a cab to Chicago and spend a lot of time around a stack of pinball machines... I was just mooching around one of the rooms there, and Todd came up and said hi, and I thanked him for inspiring me to get Aerosmith.'

  • Marc Silk attended Queen's final live performance with Freddie Mercury at Knebworth in August 1986

    high confidence · Silk: 'I got to see the last ever live show with Freddie Mercury... I think I was 14... And you can see, it's just a load of ants. And I was one of the ants about two-thirds of the way back... And you know what? 120,000 people in the audience at Nebworth Park and Freddie Mercury had every single one of them in the palm of his hand.'

    • David Grahamperson
    Rosamund Pikeperson
    Heighway Pinballcompany
    Barry Ourslerperson
    Stephen Fryperson
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesgame
    Attack from Marsgame
    Aerosmithgame
    Thunderbirdsgame
    The Beatlesgame
    Tiltcompany
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Marc Silk articulates professional perspective that audio/sound design is 50% or more of pinball experience, comparable to film scoring; effective sound design drives player anticipation and engagement

    high · Silk: 'Sound is 50% of the experience to me... Without the music, the sound, it drives the experience' and 'You look forward to all the call outs. You look forward to the music. And again, as you're going through the game, the music changes and it drives the action and anticipation and excitement'

  • $

    market_signal: UK pinball location availability remains limited relative to North America; arcade machine availability was historically higher than pinball in UK; recent barcade trend improving access in UK cities

    medium · Silk: 'arcades closed down in the UK and like anywhere else in the world... there's more and more people were playing consoles. The arcades machines go and of course, pinball machines go... for probably since I was at school to now, the only time that you'd really see a pinball machine would be this dirty wreck of lights in the corner of a pub'

  • ?

    community_signal: Growth of UK barcade venues (craft beer + pinball) improving player access and community engagement in urban areas

    medium · Silk: 'what I'm really enjoying are these... barcades. So if you want great craft beers, but also great coffees, there tends to be this mix of the two. And that's what I'm really enjoying.'

  • ?

    event_signal: Expo 2019 demonstrated significant draw for international participants (UK-based Silk traveled to Chicago); seminar content on design philosophy by legendary designers notable community event

    high · Silk on Expo: 'hearing some of the pinball designing legends talk about what they do, to hear Pat Lawler talk about the geometry of machines... to hear George Gomez talk about the making of Deadpool... just bumping into people like Todd Tuckey and Zach and Greg from Straight Down the Middle and other podcasters. It was just a nice place to hang out for three days'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Thunderbirds pinball exhibits mechanical playfield issues: ball ramp design flaws causing improper ball physics ('ball flop over the back of this odd ramp')

    medium · Silk: 'when you watch this ball flop over the back of this odd ramp and things weren't right'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Unconfirmed report that Highway Pinball (Pinball Brothers) holds license for Queen pinball machine; Barry Ousler rumored to be working on it; timing speculation tied to Bohemian Rhapsody film (2018)

    low · Silk: 'Barry Ousler had said that he was working on another machine for Highway. The strong rumor is that it was for Queen. So apparently Highway still, whatever, the pinball brothers, they have the license for that'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Attack from Mars LE (Chicago Gaming) and The Beatles (manufacturer unclear) cited as exemplary audio design in modern pinball; Attack from Mars specifically praised for B-movie theme audio encapsulation without excessive callouts

    high · Silk: 'Attack from Mars... the audio on the remake of that thing is incredible... God, what they have packed into even just the speaker system and the amp in that, that is as good as I've ever heard a pinball machine... how they've created the soundscape of that, the sound design, it totally encapsulates the B-movie feel'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Star Wars Episode I voice work (1999) with George Lucas represents significant IP licensing presence in pinball industry history; Queen pinball considered high-value licensing opportunity post-Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

    medium · Silk worked on Star Wars with Lucas at Abbey Road; discussion of Queen as 'dream' and high-potential licensing tied to cultural moment of film release

    • 5:40
    Oh, wow. Yeah, there were a couple of videos, but his was one of them where basically he played the game, and his take on it was, even with no other code updates, this is good to go. And that's kind of how it should be. You know, for so long as a fan of pinball, you can stick around going, well, will it get a bit better? Will we get some more call-outs? Will it get any deeper? And it was such a great game out of the box. And now, with all the extra bits and pieces and code updates, it's a really exciting game. But it was, yeah, I haven't seen that video. I need to see that. But it was cool to meet him and Frank, and we spent a good bit of time hanging out. In fact, I've invited him over to come into my studio over here whenever they visit the UK. So we'll try and get Todd Tuckey live in the UK. Now, we're going to get into your games in a little bit. You talked about going down that rabbit hole. You've gotten back into pinball like a lot of us have after a few years of absence. And, yeah, you've gone pretty deep. I've seen some photos of you at Pinball Heaven, the great distributor there, and they have a great lineup. So you've been able to play some of the newest games. In fact, I think you were the first person I knew who played not only Monsters Pro, but even the LE as well. Isn't that nuts? Yeah, with yourself, and I've got friends who are in Chicago who are 30 minutes from Stern, and I ended up playing Monsters and Beatles way earlier than they did. Yeah, there's a place in Birmingham here in the UK called Tilt, and they're basically the showroom for Pinball Heaven, which is a pinball dealership. and they have a collection upstairs of classic retro pinball games, beautifully looked after, and downstairs, it's all the new stuff. It's the stuff that you could travel miles to just try and get your hands on and watch, but they had Beatles first, Monsters first, Deadpool. They were the first people in the UK to get these things. But, yeah, that was the hangout for me. I'm a big bean head. I love coffee. And so anytime there's a new coffee place opening in the city, I'll go and hang out there with friends. And this place, Tilt, opened up and went in there just to catch up with friends. And then you see the place is stuffed full of pinball machines. And this light kind of lit my brain up on fire again. And I completely remembered the love that I had for pinball back when I was a kid. My first ever experience with pinball was the Tomy Atomic pinball machine, which was awesome. But that was my first ever pinball machine, this tiny little atomic pinball machine by Tomy. And then mom and dad would take us to the seaside for holidays, and I would get lost in pinball machines. And something that I loved about pinball more than, I'm a big arcade fan too, but one thing that pinball has above any other kind of game, really, arcade game, is it's real. It's a tactile experience. It's theater. And so anyway, going back to rediscovering pinball, I just fell in love again. And it was such a treat to discover what were, for me, brand new games. But these brand new games were things like Monster Bash. You know, to me, Monster Bash is brand new. I'd never seen that in the UK. Oh, wow. Yeah. If you think I'd never seen Monster Bash, I had never seen Adam's Family. It's a whole new world, you know. Is that because there weren't that many games in the UK? I've talked to Neil McRae before, and I've been there myself, and it was hard to find games on location. I'm sure now it's better than it was, but is that really what the problem was? It might have been. I mean, back in the day, I think it was more geared towards arcade machines, which I fell in love with games like Ghosts and Goblins and Paperboy and obvious games like Pac-Man and then things like Dragon's Lair, which are unplayable but beautiful. But there weren't as many pinball machines that you would see here. And as arcades closed down in the UK and like anywhere else in the world, there's more and more people were playing consoles. The arcades machines go and of course, pinball machines go. And so then for probably since probably I was at school to now, the only time that you'd really see a pinball machine would be this dirty wreck of lights in the corner of a pub or somewhere really uncared for that that needed some real love and care. And now, almost like with vinyl, people want that tactile connection with an entertainment experience. And the resurgence of pinball is exactly that. You are finally connected with this thing that's real. And it makes you get off your phone, get off your games console, be sociable with friends, and have something that's truly interactive. It's really exciting to be back in the game. Well, when you go to pubs and things, you're saying you're now seeing the odd game there. Is it a bad stereotype to assume that there are darts and things like that? No, I'm being serious. No, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know how huge eSports is, and it's crazy to watch the people win millions of dollars playing Fortnite or whatever the case may be. Even in Madden football, it's something that's big here in North America. All these great eSports. But the one thing that always blows me away is when I watch, and it's usually a British broadcast, these huge dart competitions where people are, first of all, loaded. It's a big party. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it really tends well to that bar scene. But, I mean, these dart players are rock stars, and they're filling these huge arenas, and it's a circuit. So I wonder, is that still big in the UK? Yeah, I'm sure it is. I've never been a pub guy. I've never been a big drinker. So I've missed out on that side of the world. Well, catch up, Mark.
    11:19
    You're introducing me to brand new hobbies, Jeff, and I thank you for your kindness. But, yeah, maybe I should go and buy a dartboard as well and put that next to pinball machines. No, too close. You don't want to – no, no. You don't want to be bouncing off the dartboard. Yeah, that's a part of the world that I think I've missed out on. So I've always been more of a coffee guy to just sit with friends and talk and laugh all night. I'm sure you can do that at bars too. probably a bit more than with coffee. But I'm sure that if you want to come to the UK and play darts, I'll be able to find some way for you to do that. But for me now, the thing that I'm finding more and more of are these, well, you just said it, barcades. So if you want great craft beers, but also great coffees, there tends to be this mix of the two. And that's what I'm really enjoying. Listen, I certainly don't want to shame you for not drinking. I think that's a noble thing to do. And I don't want to center you out there in England. then that'd be like me admitting the truth that I'm Canadian and I don't skate. I don't play hockey. What? Here's the irony. I flew to Toronto to go and see ice hockey. Wow. Okay. It was to go and see ice hockey and to go and see Barenaked Ladies live. And, of course, you've got the Ed Robertson connection with that as well. So, oh, the irony. Perfect. That is really good. You got it all in. That's awesome. If you had some back bacon there and some maple syrup, you got it all in. Now, we've heard you talk now for about 10 minutes here on Pinball Profile, and people might be going, I know I've heard that voice before. Well, you've not only heard that voice, but you've heard several voices. Mark Silk is one of the world's greatest voice actors. In fact, when you came up to me at Expo and introduced yourself, I said to you, I know exactly who you are because I've known about your career. And let's just talk about some of the highlights too. Now, I have children that are teenagers, but we used to watch things like Bob the Builder. Well, hello. Hi, Bob the Builder here. How you doing? Can we fix it? Yes, we can. Come on, Wendy, let's go play anything regarding pinball. I think that's pretty cool. And especially, I wonder if Bob the Builder came out at all, because I know you built a little separate part to your home there to actually house pinball machines. So I didn't know if you did any of those Yes We Cans or anything. But Bob the Builder. And then the one that I always liked, too, was, because I think it geared a little more towards adults. I mean, kids liked it, too, but there was something there for the adults, too. Johnny Bravo. Oh, yeah, I was Johnny Bravo over in the UK here. So when we were cast for that, I was basically told Elvis sounds a bit like Elvis, big male himbo. And it was Johnny Bravo. Oh, mama. Yeah, that's right, man. Go for it, Jeff. Loved Johnny Bravo. Very, very funny. Loved him. I did. But then also, too, there are people listening that have younger kids, so they know things like Rory the race car. Do you get that over there? That's pretty cool. Oh, man. That's great. Yeah, it was a really big, it was a stop motion animation show. and there a big uk comedian over here called peter k and it was peter and myself and i did about half a dozen character voices for that but yeah that was awesome There another great animation called Danger Mouse that I grew up with as a kid that they rebooted about three years ago. And I do 31, I think it's 31 character voices in the first season of that. And it's Stephen Fry's in it, Alexander Armstrong's in it, I'm in it. It's a pleasure just to be part of stuff like that. And one of the characters I play is a guy called Nero, who's basically this rancid little caterpillar that makes loads of squeaky farty noises. So I'll go into a recording session. You spend an hour going, and you go, that's my day at the office today. There's another show called Go Jettas, which is massive over here, and that's gone globally as well. It's got its own magazine, and it's on Universal Kids in the States, and I'm the voice of the evil Grandmaster Glitch. i'll get you no jetties by the way for anybody that isn't five years old or based in the uk i can only apologize if you haven't heard any of these and then there's um i'm a massive star wars fan and i got to work on star wars episode one with with george lucas i got a you know i got a i got a phone call out the blue when they were casting near the end of that movie and basically the call was are you free next tuesday to work with george lucas on a brand new star wars movie i basically said let me check the diary yes and we worked at abbey road studios which is it's a legendary place to be and so yeah absolutely yeah anyone that's into recording tech music movies it's the place and we were in the penthouse studio there it was myself and george lucas in the same room and it was an absolute dream come true and to be part of something like that it's just golden and opens up so many doors of of interest from other people but there was uh so i got to work on star wars i played a character called axmo so if you've seen episode one in the parliamentary scene of episode one when them in the senate scene when there's a whole bunch of speeches being made and there's this pivotal speech made by the ambassador of malastare and you hear axmo say the congress of malastare concur with the right honorable delegate from the trade federation a commission must be appointed now give me a cake or something along those lines I mean, you know, look, there are other bits and pieces throughout the movie as well. My role in Star Wars is very small, you know, relatively. But you're part of the universe now. You get to go to these comic cons and they're like, there he is or whatever. And not only to be the voice, but that was so nice that George Lucas used your likeness for the character as well, too.
    16:47
    Yeah, the actual character. If you've ever seen the character Reyes from Star Wars, it's a very similar looking head to that. Oh, we'll put it on Facebook. Yeah. So it's like the head of a goat with three eyes and a desperate need for moisturizer. This guy needs to sort out his dry skin. I couldn't recognize which was which. I have to put that. It's really hard to tell, I think. It's like looking in a mirror, Jeff. Yeah, exactly. But that's very cool. And there was another big voice that you did that is definitely big in the UK, Thunderbirds. Oh, yeah. Well, there's a conversation that we have to have. Yeah. Yeah, five, four, three, two, twelve. Thunderbirds are gold. That's how the pinball machine goes. No, no, no. God, only if it was that good. It was, yeah. I'm a massive fan of the original Thunderbirds that I watched as a kid in reruns. And Thunderbirds was a huge show in the UK and a few other places around the world. And a few years ago, they have rebooted Thunderbirds. It's a hell of a production. They've got the guys from Weta, Peter Jackson's studio, doing all the backgrounds and models. And then there's CGI characters on top of that. And it's this incredible cast. Yes, it is an incredible cast. My future girlfriend, even my wife knows about it, my future girlfriend is part of that cast. You're talking about Rosamund Pike, aren't you? Yes. Loved her for years. She's great. Well, yeah, I saw her a couple of weeks ago. And she was very upset that you weren't there, Jeff. We had the same birthday. Did you? Yes. January 27th. I will pass on the message. I'm sure she's going to be thrilled to bits. Send her my number, would you please? Thank you. Sure will. But yeah, so Thunderbirds, I'll go. We had this great experience a couple of weeks ago. It was the cast and crew showing of the very final episode of this season. And for us all to be together watching this thing, this final kind of double length episode, they'd even taken the time and care to do this special cinematic audio mix. The guy, Nigel Heath, at his studio, Hackenbacher, he's kind of a bit of a legendary sound designer. I mean, you know, he's one of the people that encourage him to do what he does is a guy called Paul McCartney. And so to have people like that on board is really quite incredible. It was astonishing. The orchestrations are being done by these guys, Ben Foster and Nick Foster, and they are involved in major movies. They're working on the new Elton John movie. And to just experience that together was golden. And even little things like, you know yourself, if you've grown up watching a show or a movie, it means a great deal to you. One of my heroes growing up was a guy called David Graham and he's a voice actor and he was the voice of Parker and Brains in the original Thunderbirds. David Graham is now in his mid-90s and he's still doing it. That's awesome. and he's still playing Parker, the aloof butler. Yes, milady. That's kind of how he sounds normally now. And to be in the room with that guy, just to be in the room. You know, sometimes forget work. You just want to be in the room. And I adore that. And to be there and watch this guy work, I've got such respect for the cast and crew of this thing. It's a real, it's treasure to be part of that. So, yeah, Thunderbirds. I play the incredibly handsome Captain Rigby. international rescue should go back to what they do best rescuing kittens from trees that would make a better pinball machine if there was a rescuing kitty in a tree mode i think that would be way better than shooting the ramp to spell international rescue so many times i i know you've played the game i've played you know what i'll be honest i played it it was at pinberg i played it and then when alice cooper was free right beside it i think i ended my game just to go alice cooper yeah it was just a little clunky and it wasn't enough there for me and i know you feel the same it just let's roll our sleeves up jeff and discuss this one hey mike i played it at a pinball festival over here and i played it with a sound up did you play it with a sound up again because of the uh loud noises all around it was all i was hearing more than one machine i wasn't isolated and i hear i'm glad that was the case you were saved jeff you were saved It was such a shame. You know, these you hear people talking about their grail pin there. You know, if they could have any machine and one of them for me was Thunderbirds. And when I heard that this was being done, I was so excited. And I tried I tried to find any reason why why I should buy this thing. My love of the show and also being in the new show. And first of all, what you said about playing the thing, when you watch this ball flop over the back of this odd ramp and things weren't right, the art doesn't represent the characters properly. But then the sound, sound is 50% of the experience to me. It's like with a movie. Without the music, the sound, it drives the experience. This thing, even just technically, before you even get into what they were playing out of this machine, the actual technical sound quality of it kept changing throughout it. So you'd hear these crunchy, low bit rate recordings that were taken from the actual series. And then you'd hear a really high quality thing of the original theme. Then it would change to this bespoke recorded jangly guitars thing that wasn't in any way keeping with the theme of Thunderbirds. No consistency. No, exactly. But then you'd hear the stuttering audio of Thunderbirds 3 to Thunderbirds 5, 5, 5, 3 to 5, 5 to 3 to 5. If anything, it was worth buying for the comedy value.
    22:23
    I don't think they were going for a comedy. It was. Oh, boy. and there were other things without getting into the hole, without digging deep into the PR and the guy behind it too. Some of the responses when people even did the most mild critiques of the game didn't help the company or the game at all. And it's a real shame because I'd have loved to have seen a terrific Thunderbirds game. But if nothing else, it gave us some good cabaret. Well, you mentioned you like hearing the sounds. And for you, that's 50%. I can understand why. It's obviously your bread and butter. It's something that's very important to me, too. And we've heard some great sounds, especially in some of the newer games, too. But when we think of some of the classics, I know you and I have a favorite, too, in Medieval Madness. Yeah, that's exciting. And the one that really got me back into this was Attack from Mars. You know, the audio on the remake of that thing is incredible. I've got the LE of Attack from Mars from Chicago Gaming. And, God, what they have packed into even just the speaker system and the amp in that, that is as good as I've ever heard a pinball machine. I think probably that and Beatles are in terms of the audio quality that I've heard is the best that I've heard yet. But Attack from Mars, there's a machine that it makes you laugh. You know, there's not a stack of call outs in that thing. But how they've created, how they, the soundscape of that, the sound design, it totally encapsulates the B-movie feel of that theme. You look forward to all the call outs. You look forward to the music. And again, as you're going through the game, the music changes and it drives the action and anticipation and excitement. It's a really important factor within a game, a movie. Imagine Jaws without that soundtrack. As an example of what a great soundtrack will do to turn something around, with Jaws, just as a movie, just to move into an example of what great sound design will do. They had a movie. Spielberg had a movie about a shark with a rubber shark that never worked. So he got a stack of shots of no shark. So John Williams' cellos became the shark. And every time you heard that music, you know something terrifying is about to happen. Building that excitement and anticipation, that's exactly what you can do with great audio in any game and especially pinball. Can you imagine if only someone had the license and all the assets? I'm sure it'll happen. But I was playing another treat in the collection. Here is Aerosmith, pinball like we say. And a friend came over yesterday and I just cranked it up and it blew his mind. It's the first time he had ever played a pinball machine. And out of the bunch that were in here, that was his favorite because it was like being at a rock gig. You know, to think of how important the theme is and how you represent that with the shots and the artwork and the cabinet and the light show and the sound. The sound was so good. The way the sound the pop bumpers made, the call outs, everything. Are you going to start scoring points now? All of this, this character it built. It was really exciting. That's interesting because I think the Rock pinball machines, they are more than 50% sound because it's great theme integration. And Aerosmith is a perfect example of that. I know ACDC is one of my favorites, too. And speaking of Birmingham, where you're from, some of the boys from there, in fact. Wow, if I think of Birmingham, you know, there's a lot of good music there. ELO. Yeah, Jeff Lynne. And Ozzy Osbourne, Duran Duran. Hmm, you could make a Birmingham pinball machine, I think. That's what we need. A Duran Duran pinball machine. You can put on all your old 80s clothes. You look terrific, Jeff. I think the Bee Gees might even be originally from there, too. I could be wrong, but... Well, think of music pins. I mean, they are some of my favorites. I assume, you know, you've got Aerosmith. Are there some other ones that you'd jump to? I would love, well, a dream one would be a Queen pinball machine. I'm a massive fan of Queen. We were so close to that, too, with Highway. I know. The only thing that I saw of a Queen pinball machine was some artwork for... there was like a virtual pinball machine. Are we talking the same thing, or was there another one that might have come out? Barry Ousler had said that he was working on another machine for Highway. The strong rumor is that it was for Queen. So apparently Highway still, whatever, the pinball brothers, they have the license for that. But I would like to see somebody else get their chance at that. Yes, me too. I mean, you want to talk about how hot that would be right now, coming out within the next year or two, especially off the back end of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody? Hello. I really thought that that might have happened with the timing of the movie. It would be a perfect rock pin. Can you imagine plunging that thing and you hear, Don't Stop Me Now, you've got another one, Bites of Dust, We Are the Champions, We Will Rock You, all of this. Queen, I grew up, Queen were my favorite band growing up, full disclosure. So, and through pure fluke, I got to see the last ever live show with Freddie Mercury. Oh. Yeah, in Nebworth, August 86. And it was phenomenal. And if you've ever seen the live Magic album, that's got some clips from that last show. On the front cover is a helicopter with Queen written on the front of it. And that shot was taken at Nebworth, the gig that I was at. I think I was 14. And you can see, it's just a load of ants. And I was one of the ants about two-thirds of the way back. And even the screen at the front of the stage looked small from that far back. And you know what? 120,000 people in the audience at Nebworth Park and Freddie Mercury had every single one of them in the palm of his hand. Yes, he did. And that's what I thought the movie captured really well, too, is that there were all these acts at Live Aid. Queen blew everyone away. And I remember watching that live and even thinking about it at the time. I was bummed out, too, because Queen hadn't played North America since the early 80s. And when the Innuendo album came out in the early 90s, they said they were going to tour North America. I was so pumped. And, of course, sadly, it never happened with the passing of Freddie Mercury. But, ah, darn it. The dream lives on. We could still have that Queen pinball. Yes Another pinball machine rumor that is out there is Scooby and you have some connection to that as well too I think of some of the great voices in the past that are now gone like Casey Kasem but you are involved with Scooby Do you want to explain that About 10 years ago I got brought into a studio to start performing the voice of Scooby and Shaggy for anything recorded in the UK and Europe And people heard that I could do it. And basically, I was continuing what I guess Dom Messick, the original character voice, would have wanted to do with it. So I got to meet Dom Messick, the original voice of Scooby-Doo, at an animation art event in London back in the 90s. I'm sat in a studio in the heart of London with a script going, Zikes, like this is really creepy, Scoob, old pal. Right, Scoob? Yeah, creepy. Scooby-Dooby-Doo.
    29:03
    That's amazing. Like, that's right, Jeff. This is really freaking me out, Scoob. And I've been lucky enough to voice, there's been stacks of Scooby-Doo toys and radio commercials and TV bits. and stuff at Cartoon Network. And it's a tiny little portion of what I get brought in to do, but it's that spice that you just think, this is just really cool now. Just forget whatever the work is. This is just nice to be doing this. It's one of those characters you grew up loving, and now you're that guy. You talk about some of the legends, and I've been in admiration of so many of them, yourself included, too. And I've been fortunate enough to talk to some of them, too, in, to me, the greatest show that will ever be that ever was, especially in the first 10 years, is The Simpsons. Oh, sure, yeah, yeah. The comedy that they packed in in 22 minutes was just phenomenal. The things they could do, the characters they could have, the cast they could have, because they could just draw it in anywhere. You want to go somewhere, you draw it in. So they just had endless opportunities to do all these great comedy bits of genius. And I was fortunate enough a few times to talk to Nancy Cartwright, who's the voice of Bart Simpson, and some of the other kids. also harry shearer who i love from spinal tap but also he's mr burns he's smithers he's kent brockman he's ned flanders he's all these great characters and you just did something that reminded me of those characters okay when you did your shaggy to scooby and back to shaggy without taking a breath that is something that amazes me when i hear of people that do multiple characters you talked about doing danger most that's 30 40 different characters i didn't know that the greats like yourself can turn on a dime like that or i thought maybe you might need to get into character a little bit but you just switched two completely different characters like that and then you probably do several more with some of the other work you do i find that incredible we just get in the room and rock it jeff no messing around we haven't got time to screw around with this stuff come on let's hustle exactly oh it's it's kind of what we do a lot of the time it depends on how they need to work with some animation we'll record it as a cast so we'll each have a microphone, a music stand with the script on, and then through the glass in the studio, there's a whole crew of people from the engineer, the voice director, and the animation director, and writers and producers. And if it's a full cast, well, kind of act it out, scene by scene, like you would a radio play. You know, it's everything. You're hearing it come to life right in front of you. And if you're performing multiple characters, you'll go from being one nasty little gangster to a weasel little bloke like this. I haven't got time for you. what you got you gotta make some for me mate you'll find ways of just you you make the thing happen live other times if it's say a game you'll often record um each character one at a time and each phrase at a time there's different ways of doing it but yeah it's one of those where it can help enormously if you're doing this kind of work to switch from character to character it's great to see talented people like yourself mark and some celebrities that are really getting into pinball and you've really as we've said just gone crazy over the last year your collection alone has grown you talked about aerosmith but i know there's more than that my name is mark and i love pinball please jeff help me hi mark hi jeff yeah i uh yeah the first one i got was aerosmith i wanted attack from mars and i couldn't find one that was in good enough condition and then i realized that Chicago Gaming existed. And so, yeah, the first game I got was Aerosmith Pro. I was considering Aerosmith LE or Aerosmith Premium, but I ended up going with the Pro because that's what I could get my hands on. Well, I actually prefer the Pro. Oh, yep. You have great taste. I do too. I played the LE, I played the Premium rather, in Logan Arcade in Chicago when I was out there having the time of my life. And it was cool. The upper play field was cool. But for me, it didn't really add that much to it. And I really like just the clean layout and the flow of the game on the Pro without the upper play field. So I have Aerosmith Pro. I've got Attack from Mars LE with its beautiful green legs and its fabulous LEDs. Oh, I love it. It's the greatest topper, I think, of all. Yeah, yeah. It scared my dog. The first time I plugged that thing in, my little lovely pup, Honey the Cheagle, half Chihuahua, half Beagle, 100% adorable. She started barking back at it. She wouldn't take it. When the Martian starts going, I will get you, Earthling, or whatever the phrase was, she basically gave him as good as he gets. So there's Attack from Mars LE with possibly the best audio system I have ever heard on a pinball machine. Well, they are pushing out of Chicago Gaming is truly the best that seems to be available right now. I wanted an animation-based pinball machine, and the one I could get my hands on over here was Family Guy. and I know that it's Family Guy and Shrek all in one basically, but it's Family Guy, pinball. I love Family Guy. Don't knock Family Guy. It's a great game. It plays really well. It's crass as hell. It's funny. The shout outs are incredible. You know, it's original cast voice actors doing the shout outs and it's pat all the design, you know, pat all the geometry. So it's a really good shooter and a stack of fun. And then we have Monster Bash Ellie. It's my favorite of the three that they've done. And I think they've, I mean, each one is great. This terrific high contrast art, the play field looks incredible. And even little extra touches that they've done with adding RGB, you know, multicolor lighting on it and the little plasma disc at the back. And again, that sound, it just sounded incredible. We talked about the LEs and the premiums versus the pros. You have the pro of Aerosmith. It's funny because some games, the LEs and the premiums are way better. And other ones, I don't know if they slow the game down or take things away, or it's just not enough. I know Game of Thrones, I much prefer the Pro. We talked about Aerosmith, I prefer the Pro. Yep. What about Munsters? The lore playfield is much better than the Stewie Pinball one, which is neat and unique. The idea of the four flippers is certainly different. So you're getting great value in getting the LE or the Premium. There's no question about that. It's just a matter of choice, and you've played both. So what is your choice? My choice would be, if I was going to buy one, my choice would be the Pro. And similar reason for Aerosmith. The Premium, the LE, they look terrific. And the way it plays on the lower playfield, it's a stack of fun. And to have something like multi-ball on the lower playfield with a smaller ball, it's great. It's great fun. But again, after so long, I just wanted to get back to the regular flow and gameplay on the main playfield. and it was just what i was saying well i just if i was playing it on location i might be tempted to actually go and play the premium just because i'm getting extra value out of the thing but if i was going to buy it and have it at home i don't think i would need to go there day to day and i think i would go with the pro the other reason as well i really do love christopher franche's art and so the pro to me is the favorite art package of each of those machines as pack full as the premium and the early years of monsters to see the artwork on that monsters pro it's possibly my favorite artwork on any pinball machine wow i've told christopher that too i said out of the four i think that's my favorite as well too i yeah batman was always my favorite and i certainly love batman from the old adam west show but i think as far as artwork is concerned i think monsters is spectacular i mean i like all four of his games but that monsters just really popped and You're right about the pro. I like the art on all three. I even like the black and white, but you certainly get a little more art when you go on the pro. But that's, again, interesting because you talked about the flow, and Game of Thrones, that upper play field on the premium in the LE, to me, stops the flow a little bit. So I think that's why I prefer the pro versus the premium in the LEs. You've been at some other competitions and some other events, too. I know they're starting to grow more and more there in England. Neil McRae's done some great work there. The Shine Charity Pinball Competition was just recently in Birmingham. How was that? It was good. They filled the place. That was at Tilt Coffee again, like I was saying before, the place that's a showroom for pinball heaven. And they filled the place. They had a tournament, and they raised a stack of money for a great cancer charity. It was nice, too, because there were a whole load of old – there were about three extra EM machines that they brought in. It was just good to hear some bells and chimes going off. You didn't hear it too much. So one of them was Blackjack. Another one was Lucky 7. But it was, again, it was great to see there was a big family presence there. So to see a load of kids just rocking up and playing pinball for the first time, and you saw the excitement because, again, it's something physical that they could get a real kick out of. It was a really cool event. Not surprised you were fascinated by the bells and chimes of the EM games. You have a real fascination for the history of pinball. That's why when you go to Chicago Expo, you always check out the Stern Factory. I love going around the Stern Factory. And one thing that I thought was beautiful was to see the piece of history, which was basically the press that they used to press out, basically punch the holes out in the playfield. From Gottlieb, yeah. From Gottlieb. It was that original press. There are two in the world, and they have one in every single playfield at Stern goes through that press. I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, you're right. I remember that as well. That was fascinating to see that. But it's one of those moments where you go, that's clearly a very exciting piece of history within pinball. But is it time for it to be done another way? You look at the underside of a pinball machine, and I don't want to be techie and have to start messing around with wires. Is it time for something that's much more easily replaceable, that doesn't involve this huge loom? That, again, it's an incredible feat of engineering, what they're doing there. This big box of spaghetti underneath your playfield. If you know how to fix that, if you need to tweak anything, that's great. But I do wonder, is it time, you know, is it going to be more modular? Is there a more straightforward way of engineering a pinball machine? And is that the kind of thing that when you hear about, you know, new companies coming along that they're going to look to do to really kick the game up? You know, I wonder what Deeproot will be doing. Now, that's the mystery that we're all waiting to hear about. I like the designers there. I like Stephen Bowden, who's gone there, certainly a great pinball competitor who knows what works in pinball. And I know he'll want to have a nice balance of something where the new player can go up and enjoy it and something like the competitor can go deep into a game. So that kind of balance will be neat. But what you're talking about, too, is can we make games more affordable so that they can go on the masses? Not the way they're currently being made. Can we make them more simple so that they don't break down for operators? and then that's lost revenue when a machine is out of order. That would be wonderful, but will it still remain pinball with less moving parts? How many moving parts are there in a pinball machine? Thousands and thousands. So that's the difficulty. Well, that would be the success, wouldn't it? To make sure that you have as many moving parts as you want, even more moving parts if you want. But the way that they're connected to the play field, is there a more efficient way of doing that? It might be. The answer is no. But you look at innovations in cars or any other mechanical process, and bit by bit things change and get more efficient. But it'll be, as long as it still feels like pinball, if it has to still feel like pinball, otherwise keep the loom, keep the spaghetti. I'm a big fan of what P3 has done. Certainly the P-Rock system has made a lot of homebrew games come out, but I think there's some great innovation there too. Some of the competitors feel that it's just not quite pinball. You know what? It feels like pinball to me, and I'm not saying I'm right and they're wrong or vice versa. So I just think it's a great innovation, and maybe we'll see more of that. Tough to say. By the way, I'm going on a pinball adventure tomorrow. We're traveling about three hours. There's a man in a van, and he's driving us to Wales. So it's about a three-hour drive from here to pick up a really beautiful-looking Flintstones. A very underrated game, by the way. Yeah, and it seems it's only over the past few years that people are kind of turning on to this, to seeing it's actually just a stack of fun. But he's done the thing that I would want to do, which is basically change it from the movie version of the Flintstones theme to the original animation version of the Flintstones theme. So there's the Playfield little sticker decal thing on the front where it's actually the animation version of Fred Wilmer and Barney and Betty. And then there's the Translight at the back, which is the... It's not the version that I wanted of the Translight at the back. It's the Benny Hill version of the Flintstones. Yes, yes, yes. No.
    41:41
    Somebody can do a proper one. Yeah, that one. I saw that at Expo and I went, whoa, family show. Hey. Yeah, if you haven't seen this, yeah, take a look. It's rude. Yeah, you've got Fred and Barney in the Flintstones mobile, in the Flintmobile, and then you just see, well, you just see Betty and Wilma's legs, and it's really wrong. It's not good. Do you know what I can get? The not saucy version. I don't, but I'm sure Pinside will be glad to find one for you. But I think Flintstones is going to have a bit of resurgence, too, because I saw that Lego is coming out with a Flintstones set. So that might get the kids more into that. And Seth MacFarlane years ago signed a deal to do a new Flintstones cartoon for Prime Time. So there's the guy to do it. So we'll have to see. You're saying about Lego. I work on Lego mini movies. So in between the actual films I currently the voice of all the male characters in Lego mini If you go on YouTube and type in It be I trying to think of the best search word Lego City But there I voice direct and perform on those and cast the other character voices for it as well for the female parts. But they're awesome. The last time I checked on some of those, I think it had like 11 million views. The animation for the thing is just stunning. It's a great little thing. About two minutes worth of animation. It's a great bit of action. Lego would be a great pinball theme. I think you're on to something for sure. Possibilities are endless. I don't know. And the movies have been very successful as well. Yeah, Lego could be a good... Would you play or do you think you would play and enjoy a Lego-themed pinball? I will like any theme as long as it plays well, it shoots well. Conversely, I could love a theme. They could come out with Queen, and if it played like crap, I wouldn't play it at all. Well, yeah. I think it's all to me about are the shots good and is the code decent enough? The shots are the most important thing to me. The theme is nice because it certainly, how many people bought Iron Maiden that were not Iron Maiden fans? Exactly. Several. I mean, you and I both love that game, but a lot of people don't like maybe the band. Other people love the band. So I'm not a huge Iron Maiden fan. So I wouldn't want that here, but I love the game. And who doesn't love playing it? A lot of homeowners are pushing that aside because, you know, they've had it for a while. It plays well, but it just doesn't fit the motif of their home. And again, the importance of the theme. To me, the theme really is important. But again, the most important thing is that the theme makes a connection with the player. So it might be that you've never heard of that theme. It might be an original theme. But if it looks great and the play field's great, the backlight's great, it sounds like it's a title that you'd connect with. Look at Attack from Mars. Look at Monster Bash. And you experience medieval madness. when I first went to the barcade here to play pinball in Birmingham, people were lining up and having a blast on these games from Chicago Gaming, all the originals, and there were more people playing on that than some of the licensed games, which I just thought was interesting. In the end, what mattered was, does it play well, and do you find it attractive as a game to walk up to and go for, you know? It is definitely obvious that, Mark, you have got the pinball bug in such a short time, and we see you at Tilton Pinball Heaven there. I think the next thing you're going to have to do is get in touch with Rich Mallett and Peter Blakemore, some great UK players, and start getting into competitions. That's your next thing. I've got to buy me some jigsaws. I've got to find other hobbies.
    45:07
    Mark, I know you and I will talk again. I know everybody listening to Pinball Profile will hear you in some way, shape, or form. It's a pleasure to talk to you again, and we'll be in touch. Thanks, Jeff. It's been really nice to chat. Scooby-Doo, do you want to take us out? Like, man, see you next time, Scoob. Right, Scoob? Yeah, Jeff.
    45:25
    So that was then. This is now June 2020. And joining us, Mark Silk. Hello, Mark. How are you? I'm fine. I'm here locked down in the studio. I've been here for three months. I went shopping for the first time today and bought way too much. But yeah, I'm okay. I'm still here. It sounds like you're still standing. Sitting, standing, yes. Staying at home, being safe, and it's really, I guess, my responsibility for those I care about to do that until we certainly have a vaccine or some sort of safer measure. But, you know, we each do our own thing, and so does everyone else. It's good to talk to you again. You too, Jeff. Like I said at the start of the show, I apologized to you when I saw you at Expo in October. I would imagine in your 20 to 30 years, since you're a child, of course. Of course. In your voice talent, in your production days, you have had a snafu or two where that's great. Everything's recorded. And then the talent's gone. And whoops, it didn't happen as you thought it may have. Oh, it's fine. Have you had that happen? I think I've been fortunate. I don't think that's... Yeah, I don't think that's happened. How do you know I actually decided I never want to work with the company again because the voiceover studio was full of hairballs? Oh. That wasn't nice. But I can't have been okay with that. By the way, of course, so we've got multiple apologies. I now need the full written apology.
    46:52
    All right, fine. Go to pinballprofile.com. I'll send it to Buckingham Palace. No one needs to know. No one cares. It's fine. Well, I care because... I care too. It meant a lot to me to record with you, to talk to you way back in October of 2018 when we first met. Wow. And then to do the recording not once but twice, and then for me to make the mix error. You know what it reminds me of? I don't know if you ever saw that Simpsons episode. Lisa is recording new lines for Malibu Stacy the doll. Yes. But she gets bumped aside because Krusty has to come in, voice a few lines, and leave to go to his golf game. And he really flies in, flies out, says his line, and basically one, two takes, does it, and looks to Lisa and goes, learn from a pro, kid, and walks out. And then the producer on his reel-to-reel machine goes, okay, Krusty, we're ready. Krusty?
    47:47
    That's about right. Yeah, it's fine. That all aside, let's talk pinball. I am very impressed with what I've heard with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and you have to be thrilled with your work with Stern Pinball and Jerry Thompson. I'm over the moon, Jeff. I'm a massive animation fan, and I'm a huge pinball fan, and to be asked to be part of this is a real thrill. You know, it goes, takes me right back to when I first loved playing arcade games, when mom and dad would take us to the seaside. To be part of that now is a dream come true. But what they've done with this, it's incredible. It's a really exciting game. Jerry Thompson, the audio, the sound design that he's done on it is astonishing. There's a stack of character voices in it. I'm lucky enough to be a handful of them. The sound is so important in the game. I'm sure we touched on this in the earlier chat that people heard. But when you hear what Jerry's done, every single game that Jerry does, he's having to create a whole new sound palette of effects and music and character voices from scratch. So, you know, one game, one theme is completely different to another. And this sits so perfectly in that late 80s original Turtle style. and we've taken the voices into a direction that's right for the game, but still true to the original series. Jerry is a master, no question about it, and a happy belated birthday to him earlier this month. You were several voices on this game, and they include Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter, Baxter Fly, and Casey Jones. How familiar were you with those characters and other voices that had been maybe heard in the past on the cartoons? it had been a while since i'd watched turtles i loved at the time and um hadn't watched them for quite a while so i went back and watched every episode of the first series that this was kind of based on and it's interesting because pretty much every series of turtles the voice is changed and the take on it changed the animation style changed and when you watch a show that you love the characters often your idea of what it looked like and sounded like isn't always what it actually looked like and sounded like. And to go back and watch the original shows of Turtles, you see that the animation was actually quite rough and ready. If that animation had been in the machine, I think I'd have been disappointed. Because you look at, say, a game like Batman, where you've got great 35mm restored footage from the original show that looks like it was shot yesterday. That really pops. whereas there is no restored version of the footage from the original cartoon show and what they've done with the animation for the game it looks better it is is of higher standard than the animation of that original series that's quite a claim they've done such a good job with that and the same with the the voices we've taken them in a direction that overall feels right for those characters so originally i'm the voice of splinter in turtles the game and originally it was slightly japanese and we've taken that out of it because as turtles the shows progressed that's exactly what happened with those shows so splinter now is just more mystical you know you are chosen you know jeff shoot the left ramp it's all this kind of thing you know and it works well so it It doesn't get in the way too much, and it's still authentic to the show. And same with all the other characters. We've made sure that when you hear those, you're hearing that character. It's not a guy doing a voice. You're hearing that character. In the same way that from... Because one of the things... When anyone does a new version of a show, whether it's a cartoon or a game, one of the things that you'll hear as a criticism is,
    51:41
    it's not the original voices. It's not the original characters. And you go, well, actually, do you know what? Even on the second series of Turtles, it wasn't the original voices. It wasn't the original characters. On the new series, it's not. People even were recast as different characters. So the thing that matters is you go, what should these characters sound like? And what should they sound like in the context of a really exciting pinball game? And that is hopefully what we've done. And I haven't played it yet, obviously because of the lockdown situation. I was hoping to be in Chicago by now. I only went outside shopping for the first time today in three months. So going to Stern, that's not going to happen for a little while. But everything that I've seen, plus all the chats I've had with them working on it, I'm so proud to be part of this game. And the attention to detail that's been made in terms of getting this right, we spent a lot of time doing this. And also everything had to be approved by Nickelodeon to make sure that it's up to spec. We're doing this as good as anyone could have done it because in the end you're guided by the people who have to say, yeah, that's what we want. But I've listened back to the streams that you'll have watched as well plus the inside involvement on it, and it's in really good shape. I know when it comes to doing voices, it's probably one of the last things that they put in there. Wouldn't that be safe to say? I don't actually know because I don't know how far on they were with the game. It's quite possible, but you'd have to speak to Dwight and John Borg.
    53:17
    I know that the care and attention they put into it was terrific, because I was on the recording session with Dwight, and he cares, he gives a damn, and he knows exactly what he wants and what he needs to make this thing work in the bigger picture, to give you a real show, to make these moments exciting, and to give it a sense of drama and comedy and be true to those characters. But we were recording earlier on this year. So you're recording with Dwight. I assume you're there in England and he's in Chicago and you're doing some sort of Zoom session? Yeah, I'm with Jerry Thompson as well. I mean, all these things are always a collaboration. I'll have what I think is right. We've got to make sure that Nickelodeon are happy. Jerry knows technically what he needs and Dwight knows what he needs for telling the story, for making the game exciting as hell. so yeah we all need to be together and work together because you know everyone has their own vision of what they think will work but you need the person who has the final say because they understand the bigger context of the game we are all looking forward to seeing that game and yes it will be added to your lineup since we've last talked your lineup has changed a little bit no more aerosmith no more family guy you still have attack from mars and monster bash but what else have you added uh we got yeah attack from mars le that plays so beautifully uh monster blaster le beatles uh beatles gold god god that's a good game i remember when that first came out there was sort of people were uncertain as to how good a game that's going to be that is one of my favorite games in my whole collection it's as close to perfect as i think they could have got with that i know we all have our own takes on what we want out of a machine but it's so different to Anything else that I have. There's no ramps. There's no big mechs or no big toys. It is a stack of drop targets. Incredible artwork. What they've done with animation works so well for it. But the sound on that thing. What Jerry Thompson did with the sound for Beatles is so true to what had to be done. It's like the machine that they never made back in 1964.
    55:25
    And to use Cousin Brucey for the call-outs. Oh, I loved it. I love it too. Bruce Morrow was the guy in New York on the radio that was the big voice at that point in time. And he's the guy that introduced the Beatles at Shea Stadium. To have him as the guy doing the call-outs while you're playing and these tunes are blasting out. It is so immersive and so tight and punchy and exciting. The light show is good. And I love that machine. But I've got this Beatles gold and another Stern game that I adore, which is Batman 66. And again, just a great show. You know, there's so much packed into that thing, where the music's terrific. Did you know that the music in Batman, it's not the original music? It is a brand new version of the Batman theme. Yeah, and I don't know why they did that. I've noticed that on things like Spotify and other things, too, when you try to find the Batman theme and you hear the newer version. But for the game... But it's also, yeah, it's not the easiest original theme to find. I don't know what the case is for that. I don't know. Do you know? Well, one of the reasons will be consistency. I mean, licensing might come into it, but really, consistency. Because when you're playing something, you don't want it to sound like that's old, that's new, that's a low bitrate, that's high quality. Like Thunderbirds, which we talked about.
    56:45
    So, by the way, for the record, I still love Thunderbirds the show. I grew up loving Thunderbirds the original one. I'm into.