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The Super Awesome Pinball Show - Ep. 35 Tom Drummond of Better Than Ezra

The Super Awesome Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 42m·analyzed·Aug 21, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Super Awesome Pinball Show covers personal updates, Pin Mania tournament, and Stern leak speculation.

Summary

Episode 35 of The Super Awesome Pinball Show features hosts Christopher Franchi, Christian Lyne, and Jeff Parsons discussing recent pinball activities, with guest appearances from Mrs. Pin (Sarah) and Schmeff Teolis. The episode covers personal machine maintenance (Franchi's Captain Fantastic struggles), tournament results (Pin Mania 14 with 84 players), visits from pinball celebrities including Colin McAlpine, and speculation about an unannounced Stern pinball machine based on a blurry leaked image.

Key Claims

  • Pin Mania 14 had 84 players, the largest crowd they've ever had for the tournament

    high confidence · Christian Lyne discussing Pin Mania 14 results and tournament history

  • Colin McAlpine scored approximately 900 million points on Medieval Madness in a single game, beating Christian's previous high score of around 300 million

    high confidence · Christian Lyne describing Colin's gameplay visit to their home

  • The Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas is having a new hotel built next to it on the property line

    medium confidence · Jeff Parsons describing his Vegas visit to the Pinball Hall of Fame

  • Toy Story 4 pinball machine is generating significant child interest at locations like Dave & Buster's and arcades

    high confidence · Christian and Jeff discussing Toy Story 4 location testing at Cointaker and Malvern

  • A blurry image of an unannounced Stern pinball machine playfield has emerged on Pinside, with speculation about the next title

    medium confidence · Hosts discussing Jason Knapp's blurry photo from a Stern video that players are analyzing

Notable Quotes

  • “pinball-wise, man, is it dead. It's sad when you get notifications from Nap Arcade or wherever, and it's like Stern releases a new T-shirt. There's nothing going on.”

    Christopher Franchi @ early segment — Expresses frustration with slow new game announcements and feels industry stagnation

  • “Because he loves it. He loves it. It's like watching a horror movie... The Exorcist to this day still scares the shit out of me, but I watch it.”

    Christian Lyne @ Captain Fantastic discussion — Explains emotional attachment to problematic machines as love/challenge dynamic

  • “Do whatever the fuck you want. And I am not joking. Before I even had the words out of my mouth, he was on the phone with Coin Taker being like, she bought it. She bought it. She got it. We're good.”

    Sarah (Mrs. Pin) @ machine acquisition story — Humorous account of persuasion tactics in hobby acquisition within marriage

  • “He went over to People Madness... And then Colin came down... he played one game. One game. Tripled Christian's score.”

    Christian Lyne @ Colin McAlpine visit — Illustrates skill gap between elite players and casual/semi-serious players

  • “There's like three machines in the entire, like, archipelago of Hawaii. God damn it!”

    Christian Lyne @ Hawaii trip discussion — Commentary on geographic pinball desert and operator coverage gaps

Entities

Christopher FranchipersonChristian LynepersonJeff ParsonspersonSarah/Mrs. Pin/Lady PinpersonTom DrummondpersonColin McAlpinepersonJeff Teolisperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pin household leveraging celebrity player visits for broadcast content; Marty Robbins and Damien from Haggis trade show called in during live conversation, indicating embedded media access to industry figures

    high · Christian: 'And we just called them in the middle of it. And they took 15 minutes of their business hours to shoot the show with us'

  • ?

    event_signal: Elite competitive players (Colin McAlpine) visiting home collectors and providing real-time rules/strategy coaching, significantly improving casual players' game comprehension and scores

    high · Christian: 'Colin came down, and I was like, Colin, I've been trying to beat this high score for like ever... he played one game. One game. Tripled Christian's score... close to a billion'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Toy Story 4 machine demonstrating strong thematic appeal to children and casual players at location venues, suggesting character-driven IP licensing may drive location revenue over competitive rule depth

    high · Christian: 'All of the kids in the entire place were like circling around this game... I feel like this is, of any game that I've ever seen, Toy Story could make some boku bucks if you put it on location'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pin Mania 14 achieved record attendance of 84 players, largest crowd in tournament history, with additional novelty of burlesque show in adjacent space during finals

    high · Christian Lyne: 'We had the largest crowd we've ever had for it. I think it was 84 players.' and description of finals logistics conflicting with burlesque show setup

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.308

0:00
My name is Rod, and I like to party. Rico, you're up. Uh, hello. I'm Rico, and I like to party. Yeah. I like to party. I'm Rod. No, you're Kevin. Right. Kevin. I party. No, I'm the only one who parties. I'm pretty sure I've partied before. No, Kevin, I know for a fact you don't party, okay? You do not party. You're right. There's the party guy. Sweet. Oh my god, shut up. Okay.
0:28
Let's party. It's showtime The following feature has been rated R. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. And now for our feature presentation.
0:53
Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Christopher Franchi Christian Lyne and Jeff Parsons of The Greatest Pinball Podcast in the Entire World The Super Awesome Pinball Show
1:21
Hello everybody and welcome to episode number 35 of the critically acclaimed Super Awesome Pinball Show. Today we've got Better Than Ezra bassist Tom Drummond, who is hitting the pavement getting pinball machines into bars and pubs in a mostly pinball-starved New Orleans. We also have a very special guest host, so stick around or I'll rub my butt on your flipper buttons.
1:46
It's been a few weeks, but we're back, and I'm ridiculously excited about this show. There are some amazingly interesting personalities in pinball, but it's rare to find a big name who hasn't been interviewed before, and who's a celebrity, and who's part of one of your favorite bands of all time. Today we're interviewing Tom Drummond from Better Than Ezra, and holy crap, I mean, you guys might have to cut me off if I start geeking out too hard, and I'm embarrassing myself. With me, of course, are my highly attractive co-hosts, Jeff Parsons and pinball artist extraordinaire Christopher Franchi, and a special co-host today. my beautiful wife, Mrs. Pimp. Hey!
Joe Lemaire
person
Damienperson
Marty Robbinsperson
Jack Dangerperson
Keithperson
Ryan Cperson
The Super Awesome Pinball Showorganization
Pin Mania 14event
Pinball Hall of Famevenue
Cointakercompany
Haggis Pinballcompany
Multimorphiccompany
Stern Pinballcompany
Captain Fantasticgame
Medieval Madnessgame
Toy Story 4game
Star Warsgame
Godzilla Premiumgame

leak_detection: Unannounced Stern pinball machine leaked via blurry image from Stern video, posted by Jason Knapp to Pinside; playfield design unfamiliar to community, generating speculation about next title

medium · Hosts discussing 'blurry photo of a stern video' showing unknown playfield: 'they're assuming it's their next title... this is like our two children like... it's going to be some kind of –'

  • $

    market_signal: Cointaker actively acquiring used machines (Willy Wonka, Star Wars) and reselling newer titles (Godzilla Premium, Cactus Canyon) as part of secondary market trades

    high · Sarah negotiating trade: 'give it to them and we add like, you know, just like, like five, $6,000' for Godzilla Premium acquisition

  • ?

    community_signal: Franchi's T-shirt design credited inconsistently by Stern (credited as 'Chris' rather than 'Christopher' in social media), raising concerns about professional attribution in IP licensing workflows

    medium · Franchi: 'they called me Chris, which I don't like... my name's in print. It should be Christopher because that affects Google searches'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Sarah's recorded Toy Story 4 episode mentioned as 'nearly edited' and potentially never being posted, suggesting production/publication delays in podcast content creation

    medium · Sarah: 'She has just recorded a pretty good episode about Toy Story 4 and hasn't posted it yet... it might be like the Lost Chronicles of Mrs. Finn, but it is really like right here on my phone'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Hosts expressing frustration with industry announcement drought, noting Stern's recent output limited to merchandise (T-shirts) rather than game announcements

    high · Franchi: 'pinball-wise, man, is it dead. It's sad when you get notifications from Nap Arcade or wherever, and it's like Stern releases a new T-shirt. There's nothing going on.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Aftermarket LED installation on EM machines (Captain Fantastic) creating mechanical compatibility issues with vintage electronics; EM interiors compared to 'spaceship hoods'

    medium · Franchi describing LED installation: 'I popped it up, fell in... Captain Fantastic's an EM. so, you know, the inside of the cabinet looks like you popped the hood on a spaceship... I looked for that little stupid LED for an hour'

    • 2:25
    Here's the highly attractive one. Yes. I'm sitting here in a t-shirt, no makeup, and a messy bun. It's Friday night right here. Thanks for getting crazy. Sarah, usually I get these little notifications that you have a show, you know, that's come out. I didn't get a notification for a long time, and I thought, like, is this not working right anymore? And so I went to your website, nothing for, like, eight months. So let me throw this out there. She has just recorded a pretty good episode about Toy Story 4 and hasn't posted it yet. No, I mean, I'm just going to put it out there that it might not ever get posted. It might be like the Lost Chronicles of Mrs. Finn, but it is really like right here on my phone. And we recorded it and I edited it, you know, like almost as good as Parsons. Not quite. Like meaning I didn't even touch it. I mean, Parsons and Franchi are the two best editors in the podcast game. So it's tough to compete. Yeah, so that's why I don't even try. Oh, good. so as Parsons can invent at this show. No. That's just bloody rude. Yeah. I was trying to sneak one in. Damn it. So how have you guys been? Welcome back to the show, guys. It's going to be a good one. And welcome Lady Pin. I always call her Lady Pin, not Mrs. Pin, because it sounds more regal and fancy. It does. I might as well have a crown on my head, Franchie. Just maybe a big old crown. Yeah. I see a crown, so. Mm-hmm. Anyway, yeah. What have you guys been up to? Well, I mean, pinball-wise, man, is it dead.
    3:50
    It's sad when you get notifications from Nap Arcade or wherever, and it's like Stern releases a new T-shirt. There's nothing going on. By the way, that T-shirt is amazing, and you didn't get any credit for that. I mean, Stern put the Facebook post up with your T-shirt design, and it didn't have your name listed. I don't know which one you're talking about, but it says my name if you go to buy it. You know, it says T-shirt design. Gotcha. Yeah. Chicago, the capital pinball, the postcard one, or the... Yes. Oh, the 80s one. They just released one that's real 80s looking. It's got like checkerboard. It looks like MTV kind of a thing. A lime green t-shirt. So anyway, yeah, they gave me credit. Of course, they called me Chris, which I don't like. I mean, you can call me Chris if you're talking to me, but like, well, my name's in print. It should be Christopher because that affects Google searches and stuff. And you got to think about that kind of stuff because I don't have an agent. I should have an agent, but I don't. But anyway, I mean, as far as pinball goes, other than work, which I can't talk about, the only pinball thing that I've been up to is working on my stupid Captain Fantastic.
    4:53
    Yeah, you've been working on it. Now, when you say working on it, are you, like, actually doing tech stuff? Trying to get it to work proper. No, he's dousing it in lighter fluid and then trying to burn it up. Yeah. Yes.
    5:05
    That's a fire! Yeah, do you know what it's like trying to fuck with rollovers, star rollovers? No, I don't, Frank. When somebody clear-coats your game, clear-coat will get stuck in those grooves. And then when you've got the little star roll over on there and it pushes down, it gets stuck if you don't file it out real well. So you've got to pull the star out. You've got to pull the whole mechanism out. You've got to get in there and clean it out. Because if you don't, you experience what I have today. I was in my office working. That was the only game that I had on because that's the only one I've been playing for the past three weeks trying to get better at it. And out of nowhere, I hear ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And it just decided to get stuck. There's no ball rolling over it. There's nothing going on. Just fucking ghost game. Burn it. And then I'm so embarrassed.
    5:49
    So our good friends, our sponsors, Chris and Melissa over at CoinTaker, sent me some LEDs to put in it. And I was trying to install one of those, and you've got to push in and turn. And when I pushed it in and turned, I wasn't in far enough or whatever. It popped up, fell in. You know, Captain Fantastic's an EM. so, you know, the inside of the cabinet looks like you popped the hood on a spaceship. It's like, what is all this shit? I'm not kidding. I swear I'm not kidding. I looked for that little stupid LED for an hour. Wow, fuck this game. And never found it. I'm gone. There's like pieces of wood with crap, you know, electronics and junk on it. And I got an Allen wrench and I'm sliding it under there and, you know, kind of pulling it towards the edge. And nothing's coming out from underneath the wood. I looked in between all the junk for an hour. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! If you keep this game, which I honestly don't know why you still have this game, because you hate it so much. But if you keep this game, like five years down the road, you'll pop that thing up and all of a sudden, clink, it's going to fall down to the bottom. Oh, there's the thing that I lost five years ago. Yeah, all I need to do is tip it up, but I'm going to tip it out the fucking back door and right into the fire pit. You hate it so much. Why do you still have it? Get rid of it. Because he loves it. He loves it. It's like watching a horror movie. It's like watching a drama. The Exorcist to this day still scares the shit out of me, but I watch it. And then I walk into my bedroom at night before I turn the light on. I'm like trying to get to the light switch real quick because I'm getting freaked out. There's something about it being so evil and all of it. I'm trying to conquer it. I'm trying to see is it my skills or the way. So every time I play the game, I try to play it differently. I'm not using the upper flipper. Or instead of shooting that orbit, I'm going to shoot it up into the pops and trying different things to see if there's something about this game that's just me and my shitty playing. Plus it's the artwork. I love the artwork. In a year, you're going to have a couple of games that you have worked on that you're going to want to add to your collection. So at that point, you should probably sell this thing. It's the first one to go. It is the first one to go. Because I've only got five games. I've only got space for five games, but I've got a couple other of those arcade one-ups. But as far as pins go, if I got a new pin, I'd have to either get rid of a pin or get rid of like three of those arcade one-ups. So Captain Fantastic's going to go out the back door. Chill for it, man. Probably for the better. It's the stress, you know. Like I'm probably killing myself from the stress of playing that game. But anyway, enough about me. Mr. Carson, how was your past two weeks in pinball? It was pretty good. I went out to Las Vegas with Michelle a couple weeks ago. Vegas! Vegas, baby! Vegas! and went to the Pinball Hall of Fame, which I had been to. It's an old place, and not the new one that has the giant pinball sign. You remember hearing the whole issue that they had with where it was built, and it was on the property line of where a hotel was? Well, that hotel is now being built right next to it. So just getting started. But went in there, and I forget the guy that owns it, but I know kind of how it normally was before. He's got a lot of great games. He's got basically everything and a lot of rare games. But a lot of the rare games I wanted to play were not working.
    9:01
    No. And I get it. You've got a ton of games. It's tough to keep up. But a couple of them that weren't working and I wanted to play was the Q-Bert game. I forget the actual name of it, but it's got the weird flippers that go sideways. I played it before last time I was there. It was great. I did play Pinball Circus again. That was so hard, though, to get that ball all the way up to the top. I couldn't do it. I think one of the flippers wasn't quite strong enough to get up to the next level, but played that. They had, remember we had George Gomez on, and we had a question for him about the arcade cabinet that he designed, that they said he designed, but apparently he didn't. They had the weird marquee that was sideways. He had one of those. It was a Wacko, I think is what it was called. Yeah.
    9:42
    It wasn't working, unfortunately, but it was cool to see it. I mean, it was a great design. And what else did I play there? Oh, Going Nuts. That's like one of three, right? Going Nuts. Going Nuts, you have to say? It wasn't working. God damn it! God damn it, not again!
    9:57
    A lot of the really good ones that were the rare ones weren't working. But there were some old games that I hadn't played in a long time. And it was just so fun. Everything's still... For the most part, it was like 50 cents for the older games and maybe a dollar for the newer ones. But one of the funniest things I found is he had a Transformers, the pin, the home version of the Transformers game. I think it was the first one they did. And, of course, there's no coin box. so he had scrapped onto it like one of those old coin boxes you find in those old merry-go-rounds at the supermarket.
    10:31
    That thing is sitting on the front of it. You can actually play it. That was also off, but I saw what he did there and I'm like, well, that's pretty ingenious. But it was very cool. Also, we had, prior to me going out to Vegas, we had Pin Mania 14 that Joe Lemaire won at the Arcadia Ball. What's up, Joe? Really great day. We played all day long. Now, here's where it gets crazy, okay? So we play all day long. Pin Mania is basically like Pinburg, but instead of four games in a group, you play three games in a group, and we play six rounds. And after three rounds, you divide into an A and B division. So when it got down to the finals, we had to get moved to a certain section in Arcadia because we ran a little late, and the burlesque show had started.
    11:23
    There was a stripper pole. The premier sent me a photo of this. Oh, that's it. This was insane. There was a stripper pole. They weren't naked, but man, they were damn close. And my son Jake is there with me because he played in the tournament and he had to stay because I was running the tournament. And as we walk out, I say, look, don't look, okay? Listen, quickly. He was going to walk right by the pole. And they're swinging around and I almost got kicked in the head by a leg. as I was going by. I was like, just keep moving, Jake. Let's just keep going. And I talked to him today, and I said, don't tell your mother. I took it here. Don't tell your mother this. I said, you know, I told mom about that. I'm like, what did you do that for? She was fine with that.
    12:03
    I said, you don't have to worry about it. I've seen women before. You know what's hilarious, though? Joe Lemire sent me a picture, and he was playing a game right next to someone who was playing a game in literally almost no clothes. And this was part of the tournament. And I was like, Joe, dude, how did you focus on pinball during this moment? And he's got nerves of steel, I guess. I don't know how, but he's got a better ass. Oh, that is definitely the reason. Frankie got a better ass. He wasn't even distracted. He was like, mm-mm, got way better at home. That's what Christian's thinking all the time. Harold, yes. Should we ask him if we can post that? I don't think we should post that. It's a little ridiculous.
    12:48
    Ask Joe. If you're listening and you want to know, just call up Joe. His number is 7-9- No. Sarah just saw it.
    12:59
    I showed her a picture of someone playing pinball with the pole there. And there's, you know, someone dancing on the pole right next to the machine. That must have been truly surreal. I don't know how you play pinball. It was a little kind of crazy. And I don't know how we managed to get through it all without a lot going on, but it happened. And other than that, it was – that wasn't exactly terrible, but it was just like – I'm sure many pinball guys really liked it. Yeah. Well, you know. People that were there for that were just going crazy, but, you know, we're just like – we're just trying to play pinball. And, you know, you got it done. If anybody ever yells at me for another pintastic artwork design, I'm going to say, F you. Why don't you go to your stripper pole pinball tournament? It was a great tournament, and we had the largest crowd we've ever had for it. I think it was 84 players. Wow, cool. Fantastic time. That's cool. What did you win? You got a plaque for first place. I think it was $700-something. I think that's what first place was. And one free left hand from Simone. That's pretty nice. Thank you, Shabby. Remember, if this is coming up, you can get me a nice gift.
    14:04
    That's basically all I got going on. Don't your own personal games piss you off or anything? Come on. I have some personal games. The only thing I've got is the guy's NASCAR here, and I haven't played it for a couple weeks because he's been too busy. What about your Mrs. and Mr. Pac-Man game? Don't have it anymore. Chuck Webster took that back because he offered to sell it to me, but he hit me right at a time when I had to pay a whole big amount for some housework that we had to have done. Oh, Ben. I think you dodged a bullet there. Yeah, I might have. But, I mean, I really do like that game. I would have loved to have had it. And, you know, I may still be able to get it if somebody else doesn't buy it, But right now, the financial situation is not in that. It's funny how people's favorite games are a lot of times games that other people don't appreciate. Like, one of my favorites is Embryon. And every time I tell somebody that, they're like, really? It's a fantastic game. I love that. It's a cool purchase game. And it's fun. Yeah. I'm in love with that outlane clipper. You get the one shot. And if you fuck it up, if your timing is blown, the ball drains. But you got that one chance to knock it back in. I love the great things about that game. It's a classic. Well, I'm glad you're on board. Thank you very much, Jeff. Oh, yeah. All right. So we're moving over to the royal couple of pinball, Dr. and Lady Pin. How was your past two weeks? We had a really fun two weeks, right? I mean, we've done quite a bit. We had visits from some pinball superstars. The McAlpines came over for a couple of days. And, you know, Colin McAlpine, he's well-known. He's a Pinberg winner. He's the coder at Multimorphic. He wrote the literal guide to high scores on any game. And his family came in, and we had a few days of riding coasters at Hershey Park with them, playing pinball. What's awesome about having him in your house is that he can guide you through any issue that you're having with your pinball machine in terms of rules and codes. So I've never gotten to the visitor center in Jurassic Park, and I was able to get there because he was sitting right next to me, and he was telling me exactly what to shoot and the right strategy to do it. I'm not sure I could do it now. but with him there helping me and guiding me through it, I did it. And it was very cool. We should have more players. We should have more players on the show because remember when we had Keith on, I'm like, dude, man, this Captain Fantastic is pissing me off. He goes, don't use the upper plumber. And I'm telling you, I've drained like half as much just from that little nugget. So if we have these guys on, we can actually improve our game. Well, I'm sure people are interested in finding out about this, but hey, I want to ask you this. Yeah.
    16:30
    What does Jack say? I mean, he knows the rules really well. Every time I talk to Jack, it's always like, dude, you've got to give me nudge lessons. Dude, what are you doing? I never like, hey, how's the family? It's always like, goddammit, this monster's pissing me off. Well, I don't know what to do. Because he knows all that shit. Unfortunately, he explains it like you know it, like the back of your hand. Oh, well, you hit that. And then when that rolls over, you loosen it. All right, thanks, Jack. I didn't absorb any of that. No, he's got a PhD in that stuff, man. He plays nonstop. He's got to have a special mind. He's definitely got a unique noggin for pinball. He does it. But anyway. The downside of having Colin at your house is that he blows up all of your games. So he went over to People Madness. I had a, what was my score? It was a decent score. It was like 300 million, I think. I don't know what it was, but I know that I came close, and by close, like I maybe had half of your score. Yeah. And then Colin came down, and I was like, Colin, I've been trying to beat this high score for like ever. and he played one game. One game. Tripled Christian's score. Not only did he beat my score, but he got to the castle, he destroyed it. He beat the wizard mode and then he did it all over again. He did it again. Twice. The guy got through the entire game twice on three balls. No tilt, Bob. With no tilt, Bob. That could be an issue. I probably should have set the tilt a little tighter. Oh, that wouldn't be any fun. Yeah. Did he GC anyone? Oh my God. Probably. Yeah. I think it was a 900 million game or something insane. It was like close to a billion. On Medieval Mountain. No, I'm not joking. It's not easy to do. I'm not exaggerating. I usually exaggerate, but that was no exaggeration. It was nuts. So once the McAlpines left, we had another visitor. Yeah. So the same day that the McAlpines left, Shmash Miolas rolled into town. Rolled in. Jeff Fiolas. How's it going, eh? His wife does exist. She's the most lovely human being ever. She's so nice. and we left a little fireball, those little shot bottles on their pillows, and we set it all up for them, and we stocked the little mini-fridge area with fireballs and then a couple waters just in case he had a little too much fireball, and then some little snackies, and it was just awesome. And Schmeff came into town, and we played some pinball. We shot the shit. We had a great time. It was really fun. We decided to call some mutual friends, so we called. Franchi, I think we called you that night. Yes, we did. We also called Ryan C. Riza. Ryan C. And we called Marty Robbins. Yeah, he was at Haggis. No, he was at a trade show with Haggis. So he and Damien were both at the show presenting their fathom game. And we just called them in the middle of it. And they took 15 minutes of their business hours to shoot the show with us. So that was pretty cool. I mean, they took 15 minutes to shoot the show with Schmack. We're not going to kid ourselves here. That's fair. But it really was. It was pretty awesome. It was cool. So it was cool to see them. It was cool to have them here. We had a really good time. I don't remember like half of the night with Teolis. So after I took a fireball shot or two, like it all is just hazy. You sounded drunk or something on the radio. But I'm assuming it was fun, and I'm assuming that Teolis probably roofied me. It was ugly. Yeah, it was. So then we went to Hawaii for two weeks, and there's not much to talk about pinball-wise there because it was... There is no pinball in Hawaii. There's no pinball. Like, we pulled a pinball map. Not that we would have played because when you're on vacation, you should enjoy where you are, but... Well, we might have swung by. Like, why not? Right. I looked on the pinball map. There's, like, three machines in the entire, like, archipelago of Hawaii. God damn it! Oh! Oh, God damn it! Yeah. Yeah, the pinball rule on vacation is only when your wife is not in the pinball. Right. You know, where you got to stay or if you vacation where the Pinball Hall of Fame is. Yeah, yeah, that's legit. it. That is true. And then we went up to Cointaker. I went up to Cointaker to hang out with the crew out there. I played some Toy Story 4, which I thought was a really fun game. I GC'd it after about 25 attempts, and I love it. It's a really fun game. I don't think I'd own it just because it's kind of out of my price range, but it was a one more game kind of machine. I felt like I wanted to play it. As soon as I drained out, I wanted to try again. So I think they've got a great game, and we played it twice an hour, right? Yeah, yeah. We played it at Malvern, the Mug Gallery and at Cointaker. All of the kids in the entire place were like circling around this game. It was the one machine that they actually were interested in. And that's saying something. I feel like this is, of any game that I've ever seen, Toy Story could make some buku bucks if you put it on location someplace where kids are going to be in an arcade, like in a Dave & Buster's. This thing, I just feel like the kids were flocking to it. Yeah. I mean, it's just the most amazing theme for kids. But for at-home play, too pricey for me. As a former child, I have the pleasure of being. I can safely say the best place for a pinball machine would be at women's clothing stores because my mom would drag me to so many of those when I was a kid. And all I would do is make a fort out of a clothing rack, you know, those circular ones. I'd just get down underneath in the middle and be like, I need a fort. How do my kids do that? I got nothing to do. You know, you're sitting in that chair. You know, when I was married, I'd sit in that chair by the dressing room, you know, wait, wait, wait, put some pinball in there. No, man, that's true. I mean, anywhere where you're bored. I mean, how many kids said that they learned how to play pinball at a bowling alley, right, when their parents were bowling or whatever, like they went and they played. We should have told Tom this when we interviewed him. I just got a great idea for a reality show, a pinball reality show. Set up a pinball game in a place you shouldn't set one up, like in a bookstore, where they're sitting there drinking their coffee and trying to read books. and they're all like crank the volume up just to be an asshole a library yeah put one in a church you know let's go over real well oh we'll wait for the Aussie gang to come out and we'll bring that one in nice anyway um so how was your trip to Hawaii it doesn't have to be pinball related I've never been there it was fun no it was great it was really great so but I need to move on I need to fast forward this just a little bit because I have a really good story so my parents live in upstate New York and so I went with the girls to go visit them because Christian had like a really bad call schedule or something and every time I go to New York something huge happens. Huge. Huge. So this time Christian calls me and he's like hey I'm at coin taker I've got a proposition for you. Okay this is how it usually starts. Now the last time he got me drunk on a little teeny like I'm talking a dixie cup that you put next to your bathroom sink of moonshine and I was bombed okay I don't drink very often so he talked me into getting Guns and Roses when that happened so he calls me he's like so um here's what I'm thinking we won this Star Wars pin and it's sitting in our garage in the box and Cointaker was like oh yeah absolutely well we can sell that for you no problem like great awesome she's like well um if we give Cointaker our Willy Wonka which I have admittedly been trying to get out the door for months. We give it to them and we add like, you know, just like, like five, $6,000.
    23:43
    Okay. Just like five or six. Yeah. Let me do. Then, um, yeah, then maybe we could get like a Cactus Canyon and a Godzilla. Premium. Godzilla premium. Let's specify. Okay. Godzilla premium. Whatever. So I'm like, okay. Ha ha. Funny. No, absolutely not. So somehow Christian manages to, like, then I come home, we have a conversation, he's like, man, this is like really, this is the best, this is the best idea I've ever had. And he's trying to talk me to, in so many words, he basically was like, here, why don't you have this drink? Here, this works last time, here you go, have a couple drinks, and we need to have a conversation about this. I was like, listen, listen, Godzilla premiums right now are selling for this much, right? So if we get rid of Monka and we sell the other new in-box game, it's not going to be much more and we'll have two pinball machines. I mean, this sell, I worked on this approach for a while. It was solid. And I don't think you bought it. No. I was like, fuck you. No. I was like, we have 10 pinball machines in our basement. We don't need any more pinball machines. I was like, no. So then I don't even know what happened, but at some point I was so annoyed by having this conversation over and over. I was like, do whatever the fuck you want. And I am not joking. Before I even had the words out of my mouth, he was on the phone with Coin Taker being like, she bought it. She bought it. She got it. We're good. The deal is done. So that I couldn't take it back. And that's exactly what happened with Guns N' Roses. You get to work to wear your wife down over time. Christian, absolutely. I was married once. I can tell you, you never act on a do whatever the fuck you want. Listen French you gotta take the opening when it opens But that not really an opening That just a I don want to hear you anymore But if you don detect in my tone that I don want this and you do it anyway when it shows up you going to get hell I might. You're going to get hell. I might. I just might. I am the God of Hellfire, and I bring you fire.
    25:56
    But it could be a chance. Why, I don't want to take it. It could be a chance. Oh, man. So, yeah. Anyway, that's the pinball story from the pin household. Just seriously, I have been talked into more pinball machines, and I don't even – it's like almost embarrassing. I'm like, they're like, do you still play pinball? I'm like, well, yeah, yeah, we do. We still play pinball. And they're like, oh, do you have like three or four new bracelets? And I'm like, mm-hmm. That's it. Yep, mm-hmm.
    26:20
    It's all in how you look at things because if your husband came to you and he said, look, I want to go out and buy some makeup and bras for myself, he'd question things. Makeup and bras? I'd say go for it. They're on sale at Target from 1999. Have fun.
    26:37
    I'd be like, buy yourself some matching panties too, okay? I'll give you $100. Here you go. Go wild. Kristen, don't send Frenchie any funny pictures.
    26:48
    Oh, no. Oh, my gosh. Chris Rios set up a Photoshop, so let's... No, you've got to be real careful. Never send pictures to Frenchie. That's right. Wait a minute. That was... Unless you want them Photoshopped professionally. I'm just saying don't be sending nudes to you. But if I Photoshop them, I only send them back to you. I don't share them with the world. We do. I didn't do anything wrong, did I? I'm trying to figure it out. No, you didn't. Nope. I don't always have to. That was on me. I let you down this past. Okay. Nope. All right. Fair enough. So, yeah, that's been the last few, I don't know, few weeks in pinball. I don't know. It's been fun. Yeah, it's been fun. We've had a fun few weeks. Right on. All right. Then we're going to have to get into pinball in the news. And let's pull out our old intro for this one.
    27:33
    And now, Jimbo in the News with your super awesome eyewitness news crew. Don't fucking just read news up here, you fat piece of shit. All right, folks, we've got the exclusive for you. This is not exclusive. No, no, no, this is the exclusive, okay? It's just been put in front of my face. That's how exclusive it is. I just found out about it. And let me tell you that there is a new Stern pinball machine coming out sometime in the next five years. And it is going to be amazing.
    28:06
    It is going to be an ultrasound picture. That's what it looks like, folks. It is going to be some kind of – Stern's having a baby. so jason knapp posted this blurry photo of a stern video that you know people on pin side picked up and they looked at it and they said whoa what is this play field the underside of this play field we've never seen any game that looks like this so they're assuming it's their next title now i can't make out on this image this is like our two children like no it's like our two children in utero that's what it looks like guys i know what i'm inside actually yeah What is it? I know what it is. I can tell by the picture. It's a music pin for the band Blur. Thank you. Oh, thank you. That was like a dad joke, dude. Somehow somebody looked at this image and could appreciate it, that there were two subways and there were five stand-up targets. They could theoretically spell Venom. No, dude, that's not a stand-up target. That's your small intestine. It looks like it's going on to be that. It really does. It might be a polyp on that. I'm sorry. Pinside, you keep smoking crack. This is just not, it is not, no. People are so desperate to know something that they see like a smudge on a lens, and they think, ooh, that's the new Stern pinball machine. It must be. I got to say the Rush one takes the cake, though. When somebody just saw the top arch of the R, just the smallest of slivers, and then they lined it up with the logo, and they slid the logo up, and they go, look how it matches up. That blew my mind. And it did. I know. There's some super sleuths out there, man. There's some Sherlock Holmes of pinball. Super sleuth? No. These are people who need to get lives. Oh, I can't. Why can't they do this when they're passionate? Until it comes out. Just wait and see when they show you a real picture. Yep. They're going to show it. And the thing is, there's lots of rumors floating around. So maybe if Rush had been a rumor, then maybe... Well, all right. Fair. I mean, it was. At that point, people thought Rush was next, so they jumped on him. All right. Well, then that's fair. that's like that's like you don't have to go get a life anymore but but really like you could just wait for the pictures because this little thing right here it's it's like this could be a frog i don't know like a frog it looks like a an x-ray could be just like a frog getting ready to hop and that's good that's the enhanced photo pachinko machine yeah it's crazy i don't know anybody can even try to make out anything from that because how much time do they wait just trying to figure all that stuff out yeah i don't know i mean listen i'm looking at it in literally every direction. I'm looking at it right side up, upside down, sideways. There is nothing. Like, this is just like a weird shadow. It's a blob. It is. It looks very well to be the underside of a play field. Yeah. It's like radiating. So how is that the underside? How is that not the top side? I think I can tell it's the underside. It's very bright. Another leak is that HomePen is waiting to reveal this Final Tap game that is the follow-up to their critically acclaimed Thunderbirds.
    31:13
    And they have released a schematic through an online manual of sorts, which shows the play field, but no one has actually seen the game before, but you can now see where all the inserts are, where the pop-up bumpers are, where the flippers are. You don't really see any ramps there, but you can get a feel for what the game is going to look like before they reveal it. It looks like a clown face. I don't mean to be a dick, but I will call us out before anyone else does. We just talked about people trying to figure out what games are and they need to get a life. And what are the first two things we led the news with? It's a blurry image. What is it? Hey, it's a schematic, Ricky. Listen, we're just giving the people what they want, Franchi. That's true. Disseminating information. Exactly.
    31:55
    That's why we bring Mrs. Pin on board, because she's giving the people what they want. What they want. I don't know, guys. What do you think about the titles Venom and Spinal Tap? Are you interested in either of those? If anybody but the company that made pinball machines with cake decorations was making it, I'd be interested. And I mean anybody. When you say cake decorations, you're meaning Thunderbirds. The Paul Dries Thunderbirds, yeah. You've got from Stern all the way down to like Pinball Brothers, Dutch Pinball, Spooky. Any of those companies would have made Spinal Tap. I would have been interested in it. But Home Pin, I don't even want to see it. In fact, I've already seen it. I've seen pictures of the play field, and it's like, they might as well call that game Ghost Town. Bro, send me those pictures. Where have you seen them? I can't. Wink, wink, wink, wink.
    32:45
    We'll talk about that. Okay. Ding. Yeah. All right. So here's the next thing, and I'm really excited about this. Jeff Parsons, I feel like you are radiating excitement right now.
    32:56
    I just want to say, you are, absolutely. I just want to say, are we finally going to get our fucking Cactus Canyon? I think it's coming. I think it might be happening. Like, this has been, we've been waiting for this for how many years? I know, a long time. Like, eight. Yeah, so Ryan White was recently on a stream, and he said that the LEs should be shipping. The SEs have been out for a while without the topper. So I have played it. It's a great game. But the LEs with the Art Blades and the topper and all the bells and whistles should be coming out within the next six weeks, according to him. And I also talked to Melissa at Cointaker, and she verified that that sounds like it's probably correct. So the question is, is the Lyman and Josh Sharp code coming with it? Not yet, man. Not yet. But the base package is actually an updated code set. So they put in a lot of the stuff that they wanted to put in to the original game that didn't make it in, like Bionic Bard and that sort of thing. I mean, that's in the game now. But they have not done the Josh Sharp and Lyman code yet. It's not out officially. Yeah, well, I played it and I noticed immediately as I'm making shots that it's doing things that it didn't do before with the original. So, yeah, they've definitely beat this up to what it should be, but it's not quite there yet. I can't wait. I can't wait to hit that guy, the mineshaft guy, the burglar guy, with that freaking pinball. I am just so freaking excited. What is he? He's like a burglar.
    34:18
    He's like a bank robber. Yeah, he's like an outlaw. What do you think? What is a burglar? Fair enough. It's somebody who steals something. What's a bank robber? Somebody who steals something. It's a burglar.
    34:28
    You didn't even say you can't wait to see your family represented on an arc blade. It's true. I'm pretty excited about that part, too, but I'm really, really excited about the burglar.
    34:38
    Wow. Well, Christian makes up for your lack of enthusiasm. It is. Christian's enthusiasm is, like, ridiculous. It's off the charts, man. It's off the charts. He's got an enough enthusiasm for all of us. Yes. But I am actually really excited. And we showed that to family, and they were, like, wicked impressed. So thanks, Frenchie, seriously, because that's pretty awesome. You know I love you. Seriously. We love him, man. Okay. Thank you so much. So you wanted me to, I see in the notes here, have Frenchie remind us of what he did on that game. Yeah, it's been a while, right? Well, see, the thing is that I did the Art Blades in the style of the art that was already created. So it's not really my contribution to anything. It's just they needed somebody. I could mimic the style. So, you know, I did it. Yeah, but I feel like that's hard to find. That's like a gift. It is. Did a couple of plastics, a couple of things that were added. Like if you look on the, you know, maybe three, two-thirds of the way up the right side of the play field and you look down in front of the train station, you'll see like a dude sitting in a tub, like on the porch of the train station, taking a bath with a bottle of beer and all that. I drew that and I added that in, you know, just cool. There's something needed to be there. And I did, and I'm not sure they used it or not because I can't remember what I did. I'll have to look it up. But I originally did the background for the topper. But when I saw the picture of the topper, it didn't spark anything. So I don't know if they replaced it because I can't remember. Because it's done in a very realistic style, which I can do. But I might have done it the same way I did the arc blades just so it all matched. And then they were looking at it with all this cool hand-painted stuff and said, well, that doesn't really go. We need something more realistic. So maybe they redid it. I haven't had a ton of communication with those guys in probably a year. So I don't know if they swapped it out. But it might be my work. It might not be. But that's about it. I just helped them out a little bit. It's neat, though, that you're part of that game because that's, you know, it's one of the most popular games out there and one of the most sought after. So the fact that you have your mark on that is amazing. Yeah. Oh, she eats. See, I couldn't even sign anything. So you have your mark on that game more than I do.
    36:43
    I do. Yeah, yeah. I do. Moving on, the Roger Sharpe's biopic premiere has got a date set. Has anyone seen the teaser for this yet that came out a couple weeks ago? It was more of a clip than a trailer. Yeah. It was just the title. But it was something. I got to tell you, I'm excited about this. I'm thinking. Tell us about it. I haven't seen the clip. I just know. I can tell you what it was. It was him playing pinball and sort of talking to himself about, if I remember correctly, it was about how the game is. He's like convincing himself that the game is a skill and not luck by telling himself, I want to shoot this. I want to shoot that. So the whole clip was just the shot of his face and the shot of him playing pinball, and they had a lot of cool kind of like in-the-play field, you know, camera shots and stuff like that. So that's what the clip is. I haven't seen it. I've just seen the poster artwork and stuff like that, and I've seen the guy who was playing Roger Sharp, and I think he kind of nailed the look pretty well. Not so much from what I saw. I don't think who's playing Josh Sharp really looks like the guy at all.
    37:51
    Far more than I ever know. we're in a podcast chat and when we first got some pictures of the characters playing him and Zach I mean Josh is funny at baseline but he was writing some really funny zingers when he was talking about the movie it's just cool to get his thoughts on it I'm excited to see this because I mean it's a pivotal moment in pinball history and it's actually going to get out there for even non-pinball people to see maybe it might spark some people to get interested in it I guess it's premiering at some film festival I'm not sure which one it is but it's coming up soon. Is there a date set for when everybody gets to see it? I don't think so yet. It says the 30th Annual Hampton International Film Festival, which is from October 7th through the 16th of this year, but that's when it's going to be released at the film festival, so who the heck knows when we're going to get to see it. That sounds East Coast, Hampton Film Festival. Yeah. Yeah, it does. There's been a lot of pinball movies out there, but they haven't all done pinball, and that's just injustice per se, but I feel like talking to Roger and talking to Josh and Zach, They feel pretty positive about this, so I think it's going to do the story of Roger Sharp justice. So I'm excited to check it out. I think it's a super cool story, too. I mean, just from the perspective of complete non-pinballer, I think it's interesting. I don't know. We watch all of these crazy documentaries all the time on totally random shit, so why not pinball? I think it has some serious potential. I may be wrong, but I think Roger Sharp actually gets a producer credit for this. Cool. Yeah, he's heavily involved in it. You negotiate that stuff up front so you get some cash. I'm hoping that Roger or one of the boys had to talk with the producers and say, please, please don't put Pinball Wizard on the soundtrack.
    39:32
    Or we're just trying to get away from that. So that's cool. There's a couple of pinball movies being made. There's a documentary right now that's focusing on Doc Mack, who is a guy who has a really amazing arcade in Chicago that Sarah and I have been to. And he's really heavily into the arcade scene. and he's also into pinball. He's got a small pinball arcade next to his major video game arcade. But everybody knows his life. Yeah, the Alpen Ghost Arcades. So they're doing a movie on him and then Emoto Harney is raising money and casting for a new movie called Skillshare, baby. And I'm not 100% sure about what the story is behind that, but Emoto is involved. I'm really excited to see what she's going to do because I know that she can put together one hell of a video and a movie is just the next step, right? They asked me to be the main character in that, and I just, you know, I just didn't want to let my people down. Too much of a time commitment. Yeah, and like, you know, you know. If he passes the audition, do you know who the main character is going to be? No. Because I saw his audition. Todd Tucker.
    40:36
    How have you seen this? It's Frenchy. He sees it all. Yeah. No, no. If you go to Todd's channel, he shows it. He's doing a video, and he's like walking around. You know how his videos are. Like, oh, we're working on this game. where he goes and sits down and says, okay, now I got to audition for a moto. And poop, there she is on his computer. And he does the audition right there live. That's cool. Top pop. That's cool. Yeah, so I watched it. Oh my God, that would be epic. So I think it's probably still on. I don't know what, it was one of them within the past two weeks. So you don't have to dig back too far. And it might say something in the title, but it's probably still there for people to view. For a small hobby, I'm just impressed at how many documentaries and videos have been made about pinball. You know, and people love Special Unlit because it brought pinball to the masses, but it may not have showed people in the hobby in the best light. You know, it presented some people in ways that weren't flattering. So I'm trying to be PC here. You are. You're being really happy. Amoto and James, you know, we're rooting for you guys because we can't wait to see what you come up with. If anyone's going to do pinball justice, it's someone who is really heavily invested in the hobby. Yeah. Well, that's the great thing about having software and be able to, like, people can record albums in their home. They can make movies in their home. You know, people are making films with an iPhone, you know. I mean, just look at Jeff Parsons' at-home setup right now. It is so showy. We haven't talked about this on the show, Jeff, but it's impressive. It's like this hut of soundproof PVC pipe and, like, the most impressive microphone I think I've ever seen. It looks like it's going to launch off into space. it's just the same one we use in the radio stations that's all it was all paid for with the nice check that we all got for you know the pandemic the relief check I'm like oh well here we go I'm just going to build myself a little PVC spoof so I can work at home it went to a good cause man I didn't get it you didn't apply for it man you had to apply is that why I didn't get one alright folks that's going to do it that's all the news We got Better Than Ezra, Tom Drummond coming up next. But first, here's a nice little commercial break for y'all. The Super Awesome Pinball Show.
    42:53
    Now available in an easy-to-use microwavable bag. Brought to you by Coin Taker in lovely Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Saturday, Saturday, Saturday.
    43:04
    The Super Awesome Pinball Show tailgate party. Saturday, September 24th at 10 a.m. Free admission, free play all day, food and drinks, and special guests.
    43:18
    Plus a special new pinball sneak preview from American Pinball. On the coin ticket rounds at 1437 State Route 51, Stumber and Pennsylvania. The Super Awesome Pinball Show Tailgate Party. Saturday, September 24th at 10 a.m. Don't miss it.
    43:37
    So that is your first chance in America to play Pinball Brothers Queen Pinball Machine. Free air conditioning and free parking. Must have reservations to get in.
    43:46
    Hey, this is Push Patrick. That's right, Edward Wolfgang Munster. And you know what you're listening to. What you said. And it's a super awesome pinball show.
    43:57
    Now, back to our program. Better Than Ezra is an American alternative rock band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The band has released eight studio albums and are probably best known for their 1993 multi-platinum album, Deluxe, and the 1995 single, Good, which reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks. The band includes Kevin Griffin on vocals and guitar, Michael Jerome on drums, James Arthur Payne Jr. guitar and keyboards, and a guy who we're lucky to have on our show today, Tom Drummond on bass guitar. Tom and Kevin are the only two original band members, and when they're not touring, Tom was involved in a lot of other cool stuff. Photography, location scouting, recording and producing bands in his home studio. And recently, he's gotten heavily into pinball. We're excited to talk to him about his love for the game and some plans he has to bring pinball to New Orleans. And here's just a few examples of some of Better Than Ezra's great music from over the years.
    45:04
    I remember running the wet grass for him every time No one was there to tell me, they didn't really want him I remember letting him run, letting him fall Turning clothes and looking up at him God saved me, I'm in love with you That's the reason that I'm not here Yeah, yeah, yeah And that's the reason that I want to know Yeah, yeah, yeah Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Welcome to the show, Tom. Thanks, guys. That was quite the intro. Really pretty fancy. We're all big fans. I told Chris when we were thinking about who to have on the show next, I said, you know, Chris Marquette from Cointaker told us that you had bought some games from him. And I said, dude, this is one of my favorite bands of all time. And Chris said, oh, yeah, I've got a ton of their stuff, too. And we had to have you on to talk pinball with you, man. Yeah, I met Chris and Melissa when we were on tour with the Barenaked Ladies three summers ago, I guess. They came to, we played Red Rocks. I don't know if you've ever been there or not, but it's awesome, isn't it? And that's where I first met them. I've always liked pinball, but I wasn't into it like I am now then. So, you know, I know Ed is big into it and has been for a long time and has quite the collection and is well-known among you guys. Oh, yeah. Pinball advocates. You know, Ed obviously is a huge fan. He just had a guitar made with the Quicksilver from Stern. It's amazing. It's so cool. And you guys have toured together, obviously, and he just made the Rush Pinball Machine with the band. I mean, so how much of an influence was he on you, getting you into the hobby? Definitely a piece of it. But when the Rush game came out, when we were on tour, we used to always joke about Canadians and Rush and, you know, mutual admiration for the band. No, really. I mean, my first album was Rush Moving Pictures. That's the album that I was like, oh, man, I've got to get into the music business. This is my calling. I mean, that's how big a fan I was of the album. So then I saw the, I didn't know that the pinball was being developed until I saw a Stern app for it. Then I immediately hit Ed and I was like, dude. He's like, yeah, I helped work on it. And I was like, oh my God. That's kind of what, you know, lit the flame. However, a few years earlier, I was doing some location scouting. I worked for NCIS New Orleans here in New Orleans. And this was in 19, 2019. And I saw an ad somewhere in the trade magazine that the Stranger Things machine was coming out. And that's really what kind of, you know, I said, ooh, that's something I'm actually really interested in. Because that show was like my life growing up. I mean, Tootsie, but not in McGorgon.
    48:03
    That's really what sort of sparked my re-interest was that machine. And then the Rush machine came out, and I was like, okay, I got to get back in. Nice. You say re-interest. Were you into pinball, like, back in the day? Yeah, I mean, as a kid, my mom was a single mom, so she'd have to go to work in the summers or whatever. We had a bowling alley a couple blocks away from my house, so I spent a lot of time there. Brought a pin box, Gorgon Art, you know. There's a lot of arcades, too. You know, Centipede and Tempest and Dragon Slayer. I mean, it's literally like an episode of Stranger Things. That's cool. Big Doug. Mad Max. Yeah. You know, so, yeah. But then I had a little hiatus as life happened, you know. Joined a band and I've been focused on music for 30-something years. And so, as life happens, you know, children come along and you don't tour as often. So you find other interests and other hobbies. And, you know, that's how I jumped into the photography thing and found out that I'm pretty good at it. And because of all the people I know, I can do the location scouting pretty easily here in New Orleans. And the film business here, it's second, basically, to tourism right now. Interesting. Yeah. Let's talk about how deep you are into the hobby right now. So tell us what games you currently have in your personal collection. My personal collection, I have a Mandalorian premium. I have a Stranger Things premium. For the pin star, I have a Godzilla premium, a Jurassic premium, a Deadpool premium, a Star Wars on the way, and a Rush premium. And then I'm holding out for whatever this new steering title is going to be, which is rumored to be a couple different things I've heard. But that's my initial foray into pinball. Christian and Jeff, have you noticed anything missing in that lineup that he just spewed out? Yeah, a Francie title. Not one. Not one! No! You rotten bastard. Come on. And we got a, so, well, here's the first quiz. We have a quiz coming up for you later, Tom, to ask you to see how into the hobby you currently are and your knowledge. And we know that you're a noob, so don't feel like you need to do super well at this, but do you know any titles that Chris has worked on? Yeah, he's worked on Guardians of the Galaxy.
    50:12
    Okay. Jack the Scanty. Nice. Anyway, I know some others. Need an answer He's furiously googling right now No no I'm not Give me credit for two No I can see you man you're not Oh ah There's a monster title in there Another one right No Alright so we got Batman 66 Oh Batman 66 The monsters and the Beatles Yeah, that's right. I knew all those, actually.
    50:51
    Melissa sent us a little tip to ask you about something because she thought it was a funny story. She says, ask Tom about Stranger Things and who told him about it. Apparently, Ed wanted something, and he kind of threw you off the scent. So, really, I had been looking for the Stranger Things machine, you know, like since 2020, I guess, during the pandemic. You know, you can't find them anywhere. The premiums, at least, they're all gone. And I told Ed when the Rush advertisements came out I told him man the one I really want is the Stranger Things He goes oh you don want that one man Get the Rush or get the Godzilla
    51:25
    Well, about three weeks later, he sends me a text with a video of him playing Stranger Things. And I'm like, dude, where'd you get that? And he goes, oh, my friends Chris and Melissa, you met them. They had two and I got one. So I was like, dude, hook me up. and I called Melissa right away, and I was like, oh my God, I want this. That machine, I know it's kind of been mixed reviews on it, but man, it's got some cool innovations on it. You know, the user ticket, the screen, all that stuff, it's pretty cool. Yeah, I think the comparisons to Goat's Hypermarch is what kind of killed it. I mean, there's some similarities, but not to deserve as much maligning as it had gotten. Yeah, I mean, the sound on it is incredible. The sounds and the music alone for me are like boom. And then you add the UV stuff. It's just a unique machine. Especially for a guy who loves Stranger Things. I mean, it's a perfect game for you. It's a home run, home run. So we saw a picture of your Stranger Things set up at a new gallery and studio. It looks incredible. You've got that great topper. You've got the D&D dice shooter rod and this crazy cool under cabinet lighting. It's just amazing. You are going all out on this. Did you mod the game yourself or are Chris and Melissa getting all that stuff together? before us and sending it your way. Nope, I did all the modding myself. My Mandalorian that's at home is like over-modded. Like when a package arrives at home and the kids are like, oh no, it's another mod.
    52:54
    That's awesome. That machine's got like it's kind of my beta tester, honestly. Like I just try, like, you know, pinball machines are kind of like working on old cars. You got to get under the hood and tweak it here and do that and you know, make it how you want it. And literally, like I have every mod possible for the Mandalorian, and even stuff that's not made for it. Imagine your kids are there. It's cool. They are now. When I first brought it home, they're like, what the hell is this? There used to be it on PlayStation, or Nintendo Switch, or whatever, and they're like, oh my god, this is awesome!
    53:29
    There's a tactile sense to it, there's the sound, the lights, all of it. It's just a different experience. It's sad that most kids haven't played it no I think there's resurgence coming though oh definitely yeah for sure we're in it yeah most kids get tired of what they've been spoon fed you know so video games being like the only thing that's going for as long as it has been they eventually get bored with that and they go oh old school stuff especially kids it's interesting kids even though they don't have any sense of nostalgia really you know for the most part 12 year old kid he doesn't know what like oh I remember back when I walked to school uphill both ways you know they don't have in that shit, but nostalgia is hip now, especially for even little kids. If they find out that pinball was around in the 70s, they think it's cool. I think that's one of the reasons, I know we keep talking about stranger things, but I think that's one of the reasons the show is such a big hit. For people that are my age, it was how they grew up, but then kids loved the show. It's the new generation. It's kind of like when we go on tour, now we're at an age where parents are bringing their kids to the show. There's a whole new set of fans that are starting to happen, you know, and it's very similar to what's happening in pinball. It's kind of crazy, too, with the other things that come from that. I work at a Top 40 radio station, and we are playing Kate Bush now because it was such a hit on Stranger Things. I started playing it, like, what are we doing playing a song from 1985? Yep. Kate Bush.
    54:58
    My daughter loves that song, and there's a remix that, like, works in Stranger Things sounds into that. It's so good, and she loves it, so she plays it all the time. There's also a rumor going around that a Foo Fighters pin might be coming from Stern Pinball in the future. Would that be an instant buy for you? Yeah. Yeah, we saw the poster next to your game. That's why we brought it up, because it's a really cool poster, and we figured you're probably a fan. That's a signed Voltron from when they played here two years ago. I guess it was right before the pandemic. So, yeah, I saw the poster. Actually, they sold out of it at the show, so I had to go find it on eBay. Oh, I paid that eBay markup. Yeah. The Vulture price. worth it. It's super cool. I have a Pixies one, too. You can't see right behind me over here. Oh, cool. It's also from the last time they played here. We were talking about Chris and Melissa Coinshaker before, but we just keep bringing them up. Did you know that they're the sponsor of our show?
    55:51
    Anyway, we are saying that you're thinking about bringing pinball to New Orleans. Can you tell us about what your plans are? Yeah, I'm not thinking about it. It's already happening. So, my kids' birthdays are this weekend. So I've set up three of the games here in my recording studios while I kind of get them as I need them before I put them on location. I have a Godzilla that's already at Port Orleans Brewery. So Port Orleans Brewery, good friends of mine, a couple of the saints own it, along with a friend of mine, the general manager. And they've sort of made a deal with me that I can bring the pins in and do my thing. And they like the idea because it keeps people there drinking their beer. so a couple things just fell into place here and just too good an opportunity for something that's so much fun and i'm into and it hits all it just hits all the buttons for me and uh the hardest part is the business part you know getting all all the things in line you know the bank accounts and how are you going to accept credit card aren't you going to accept credit card are you going to do tokens are you just going to do bill acceptors are you you know what so there's all those things that go along with the joy of just playing pinball. So you wear the business hat for a while so that you can then go drink beers and play pinball with your friends in a cool room that's five minutes from here. I love it, man. Are you going to take it a step further and start doing tournaments and stuff like that? Yeah.
    57:18
    I mean, why wouldn't I? I'm going to have six or seven games in a room. I've already got my Yodex set up for a monitor and all that stuff, so why not? I mean, I will say there seems to be a glut of pinball down here in about a three or four state region. There's just not a lot. You know, Tom, I was going to bring that up because I liked pinball as a kid, but I hadn't really discovered pinball again, like rediscovered it in New Orleans when I was there for college. But I remember there was nothing when I was down there, and I went to all the bars and all the spots. And when I went back with my kids, like, I don't know, five years ago, I pulled up the pinball map to see if there was any locations that had any pins. and it was still pretty sparse, man. I mean, there was Mr. Crew, Pinball Parlor, Zany, Mash, Beer. They were theater heaven. Okay. They have an Iron Maiden pro. They're all pros, though. I got all the creamy of the show. Yeah, buddy. Nice.
    58:08
    Pro stuff. It was called Trayvon Cajun Meats. It was originally from Louisiana, and they had a ton of games, but they were all older games. Yeah. Well, assuming this business model makes sense, we're already talking about two or three other locations in other parts of the city. so uh yeah nobody can stop me nobody i mean there's gonna be a little bit of education uh for the public who maybe hasn't maybe some of these people have never even seen one what's this and then you know for the people who have probably haven't played one for 20 years or something these are not your father's pinballs hell yeah that's true to the internet and all You know what I mean? This is a whole new deal. I'm super excited about it. When I moved into my new house recently, I had all my pinballs finally all together in one row, and I had my parents over, and they were playing, and you could just tell they were just like, what the hell's going on? Because I'm sure the last time my dad played pinball was when, like, TikTok was brand new, you know? It's like three pop bumpers and, like, maybe a saucer, and that was it. So they got all these ramps and crazy crap. They didn't know what to do. I just sit there and go, now hit that, hit that, listen to what they say, and then they're going to tell you where to shoot. Look for the flashing lights. So, yeah, I would imagine there's going to be a lot of education that goes on in an area where there's not a lot of pinball. Yeah, for sure. It's fun because when the kids play, I don't know if you guys have noticed this, but they like to say, oh, that's so satisfying. That's one of their, like, things they say, you know, no matter whether it's pinball or whatever. It's hilarious. Like a rant, they're like, oh, what a satisfying shot. And I'm like, yes. That's one of my pet peeves. The reason we're laughing is because Franchi went into like a rant a couple of, maybe a year ago, about some of the things he hates when people say about pinball. And one of them is, oh, that was so satisfying.
    59:59
    We used to close our show with Jason, right? Yeah, it was very satisfying. It's a problem with Slap Save. Oh, God. Oh, dude, pinball. You're new enough to pinball that you probably don't know this, but pinball is the most ridiculously drama-filled hobby you could ever imagine.
    60:16
    It's crazy. You would think it would be so dumb, you know, that a game of pinball would bring so much drama. But there's been there's been crooks who took people's money. There's been designers who've been jailed. There have been it's just all sorts of crazy stuff. We were on earlier testing and I told him the story about the girl who had a hard time with my Pintastic artwork and how they were all piling on about all that crap. I'm tired of you. If you have a take on something, you know, your game comes out and you say you like it and somebody thinks it sucks, they start emailing you and saying you're a shill and you're just trying to sell product. You know, it's just such a bunch of bullshit. It's like anything online. You've got your assholes, you know, who are just sitting around waiting to start a foot is the beverage. No, it's just a brewery. Port Orleans, huh? It's Port Orleans. This beer is called Kinebra. Oh, nice. Kinebra. They call Schultz. Yeah, Kinebra is a thing. It doesn't sound very French. It's delicious, actually. I'll tell you what, the only brewery that I really experienced out there in my time was Abita. I drink Abita all the time, even to this day. So I got to try Port Orleans. Abita sponsored us for quite a while. They would send us stuff on the road and whatever. But like I said, my good friends run Port Orleans. We were just tight with them, and they do really good stuff over there. Everybody's very excited about this process of getting pinballs into their place. A lot of borders are kind of sterile, like just clean white and silver. This is not the case with Port Orleans. It's going to be more of a living room vibe, with leather couches and big armchairs and crusty brick walls. Yeah, I was looking online because I had heard from Chris and Melissa that you were opening this place or that you were involved at this place. And it looks amazing, Port Orleans. There's like a big outdoor space. There's New Orleans-themed paintings. There's cornhole and darts. And they said that you were thinking about bringing pinball machines into the outdoor space, but doing it in almost like a shipping container so that it was covered up. We fixed that idea. When we got down to it, it just didn't feel like there was going to be enough room. And New Orleans, you know, is so hot that you're going to have to have the door open all the time. So to try and air condition it and have the door, it just didn't make sense. So the building that's on the side over there, on the other side of the beer garden, we're just making that like a pinball hall. And it's got, like, 20-foot ceilings, and it's going to have rugs, and it's going to be cool. We've got a vintage vinyl player in there. That's going to be the music. So you come in and put whatever vinyl you want on, you know. Just cool. That's very neat. So pitball machines on location are a pretty nice side hustle, but you also have to deal with the maintenance and the repairs and that sort of thing. Do you have a tech person on staff? Are you learning the ropes on how to do that yourself? How's that working out for you? He's right here. We're looking at the tech.
    63:06
    Tech hat. Someone else is here now. So, yeah, it's a legit question. It's why I'm going on all new games. That explains why there's no EMs in the works. And all sterns that are basically bulletproof. And so I think it makes sense for this first go-round, and get like a GNR, you know, maybe a Willy Wonka, Big Lebowski. I mean, I actually, an Alien, you know. I mean, I do want some of these other games, but I think for the moment, especially because I'm about to go on tour, I need reliability as an early piece of this endeavor. And I have been doing like the modding of these machines. I mean, the Godzilla that's in the other room didn't want to start up when I first got it. And so I had to figure it out. I just had to figure it out. and figured it out. Basically, it was a loose cat six cable, you know, down by the building. It'd come loose in shipping. So I had to figure it out. You know, that's how you learn. That's how you learn anything. Get in there and do it. Don't rely on anybody else. These modern games practically tell you what's wrong, too. You just do troubleshooting, and it goes through all the things, and then you find out what's wrong. So that makes it easier. But speaking of touring, now that you're invested in pinball, when you're touring, are you going to be tracking down pinball locations? You know, if any of the cities that you're traveling to, If they've got anything pinball related that you're interested in checking out? Definitely. If nothing else, I want to go see maybe what their setup's like. Are they using coins? Are they using a different system? I actually have a pilot program that's going to send me a method of payment that apparently nobody else has yet. They sent me five units. I don't have them yet, but they're going to attach to each machine individually, and we'll accept all forms of payment. So you can walk up to the game and hit your Apple Pay, and boom, there you go. That's cool. You can swipe or you can tap Apple Pay or Google Pay or you can use their app. They also have that. Having to sign into an app and all that stuff is not great for a transient player. Like, you want somebody just to walk up and go, oh, I can use Apple Pay? Boom. Here's my credit. Oh, I'm ready to play. That's what I want. And so that's why this unit hasn't been developed. It's literally in production right now. They're going to ship it to me as soon as they have it. I want to know. I'll let y'all know. We can visit it and I'll let you know. I'm hoping it works because, man, it sure would put my business back on.
    65:32
    If it's robust, it sure will make things a lot smoother than having to deal with tokens or changing the bill acceptor or using an app. I have my fingers crossed that it's really going to be kind of revolutionary. I also understand because pinball is the only thing I still use cash for. The only thing. Yeah, that's a good point. But then your operators have to have a bill acceptor, and they have to go deal with that bill once a week at least because they fill up. But you still got to go do it. This process is going to allow me to sit right here and go, Godzilla number two is not getting much play and maybe it's in the wrong spot.
    66:09
    I actually wonder if Stern isn't already on top of this. Tell me you've probably used them since I was connected. That's what I mean. Why wouldn't they go ahead and get into online banking? They already got your info. I have a feeling they have a plan for that. Now, does this muck things up? As far as, you know, because if you're routing a game, you've got to pay, like, I don't know, whatever, 10% or whatever to the bar. How does that work as far as, like, you have to, like, open up your books and show them, like, here, this is how much I took in at Apple Pay. Because cash is easy. You just pull it all out, count it, and go, okay, you get this. Yeah. I have a unique situation where I don't have to do that because I'm also not asking to see their books either. Yeah. You don't have an increase in beer. Yeah, I'll give you 10% of the games, you give me 10% of the beer.
    66:57
    Exactly. Gotcha. So far, it's not really an issue. Yeah. You know, that might change down the road. Yeah. But to get going, because they love this idea, they're all like, hurry up, man, hurry up, man. We want to do the second one. I'm like, dude, calm down.
    67:14
    These games cost a lot. They do cost a lot, actually. It's not like putting a PlayStation game in there or something. Well, it doesn't hurt also that, you know, people are going to know that these games are your games. And so when pinheads hear this podcast or they read about it on Pinside or whatever, you know, I think this Port Orleans will become a destination for people who like pinball. And you're benefiting from the fact that there are so few locations in New Orleans that have a good amount of newer games. So you're going to be the only game in town. Yeah, we've got our show as a far reach into the pinhead hobby. It's interesting. Apparently, there are a couple of pinball clubs here in town that I'm not aware of. They already know. Cool. They already found out. They only have one machine over there right now. We've got the other one over there. We're going to move the Deadpool over there next. Cool. That game is hilarious. Oh, it's amazing. It's awesome. So, have you or Ed Robertson converted any of your bandmates into pinball? So, I know that you guys are big fans, and Ed has been preaching this forever, far and wide. Are you guys spreading the word to the crew of Better Than Ezra and Barenaked Ladies? So before I actually jumped into this, and I didn't want to steal his thunder, Kevin bought a Captain Fantastic.
    68:32
    Captain, what a piece of shit. That's cool. I think he might be getting a rush, though. We were just talking about that. Very cool. So he's into it. He owns the game. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. He's not into it like I'm into it. Yeah. That's because he's got a Captain Fantastic.
    68:48
    I like the game. Franchi has some issues. I like to get a lot of hang-up personal issues. I've been playing nothing but Captain Fantastic for the past three weeks. Oh, I'm so pissed. But that's why Kevin's like, you know, I'm not into it as much as you is because he's playing that piece of shit. You should possibly seek therapy. I bought it for the same reason, because of the nostalgia. But the game itself is brutal. Yeah, he's a busy dude as well. I mean, both of us do a lot of other things other than music. So we're just busy. It's probably crazy that I'm doing this, actually. I love it. I'm so into it. Just really, I'm the guy that likes to tweak in the studio. I'm the guy that likes trying this and trying that. So it just rings all the bells for me. Unintended. Yeah. Every time we have a celebrity on the show, we like to ask if they know of any other celebrities who are really into pinball. We've talked about Ed Robertson. We also found out that Jason Sudeikis, Sarah McLachlan, Todd McCulloch are all a few other people that love pinball. Do you know anyone else that's a big deal? that is really into the hobby?
    69:49
    Oh, I don't know if I do, actually. Nothing's coming to my brain. It's a small crowd of celebrities that are into pinball, so... Turn your hat around and ask the tech guy if he knows anything.
    70:03
    You know, Jack went to school with us at LSU. We were at LSU at the end of the year. I mean, how cool is it to have your own frickin' game? Yeah. I do remember there might be a 90s band game kind of... Holy shit, Tom. So, listen, And I've been talking to Chris and Melissa about this, and they told me your idea. And I said, this is one of the coolest ideas I've ever heard of. I am sending this idea immediately to Zach Sharp, Etzer, and Pinball because he needs to know about it. So I sent him a text, and I said, listen, Tom Drummond from Better Than Ezra has got some really fucking great ideas about a pinball machine. So do you want to tell people what you're thinking? Well, I mean, so the reality is the pinball, they're going to have to reinvent themselves a little bit to keep this resurgence going, right? I mean, Rush might be the last band, let's say, from the 70s, 80s. I mean, there are a lot of big bands that they could do. On the one hand, are people still in the music curtains? Oh, yeah. I guess so. Oh, yeah. But, man, think about all the big bands. I mean, you've got U2, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters. I mean, there's some gigantic acts that deserve a pinball, right? Anyway, I was saying, you know, the 90s are kind of coming back right now. You know, BTE and Barenaked Ladies, Jim Lawson's. That's what's coming out. It could be a cool theme. If you could take a pinball machine and make a 90s pin festival out of it, right? So every band throws a song or two in and you have, you know, five, six, seven bands that you would see maybe on like a 90s nostalgia tour. And then they had mentioned you had the idea of if you have a favorite band within that machine, you have them featured on the back glass. So you have maybe eight variations of a back glass, and then you can choose the one you want if you want to select. Sounds like a licensing nightmare. Oh, it does. And that's what I said to Zach. I said, Zach, listen, man, Tom's got a great idea, but it may be a licensing nightmare. But if Tom and Ed can reach out, then we might be in a better situation because they can bring the bands in. Also, there aren't that many bands from the 90s still playing, so some of them might really welcome it. Right, right. Tom, my wife has a pinball podcast, and she... No, she doesn't. Well, she has put out one a very long time. She hasn't had a show in eight months. But her name is Mrs. Pin, and she had a show that was devoted entirely to people who were new to pinball who basically didn't know anything about it because she didn't know anything about it. So she would present information on pinball and people in pinball and do it in a way that explained it to people who were new. So she's hilarious. I'm going to see if I can get her down here because we've created a pinball new quiz for you. Oh, I love it. And I'm hoping she'll at least ask you one question because she's awesome. She's a really good swearer.
    72:52
    That's always my favorite part about her show. Who's the best player? I think probably me, but she can play. She's very good. Chauvinist. Well, she'd agree with that. Who makes better toppers? Definitely her. So, Tom, I know you said you wanted a Wonka LE. I'm going to disconnect my headset. I'm going to go over to my Wonka LE, which I'm giving to Chris and Melissa at Cointaker as trade-in for a Godzilla. So you've got to see this because she makes toppers, and this thing is insane. So hold on a second. I'm just going to unplug and bring it over. I'll narrate. Here's Christian walking through his fancy basement. Oh, wow. Look at that.
    73:30
    That's quite the topper. I want on every machine. She's made all these. Is this like her side business, the side muscle? No, she's not doing it for money yet. But you talked about it when we had American Pinball on, and they said, show us some ideas, and if we like them, we'll manufacture them. So, Christian, I was telling Tom that American Pinball said that they would bring her on as a topper designer. What do you think, Tom? Do you like it? Yeah, those are impressive. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. That's cool. You guys want to jump into the quiz? We have two quizzes for him. Why don't we start with yours? Well, no, because yours is pinball related. Mine is not. I'm going to let you pick, Tom. We're either going to do name the band that these bass players are from or name the bass player for these bands. You get to take your pick. We're going to see how well you know your own instrument as well. But let's do the noob quiz first. Number one on the pinball noob quiz. Should I make a fancy intro for this with, like, game show music and shit? Sure, man.
    74:27
    Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the pinball noob quiz with your host, The Super Awesome Pinball Show. Today's contestant is from Louisiana. Anyway. All right. Question number one. Can you name five pinball companies? Older companies count, but you get extra credit if they're still around producing games. Okay. Williams, Valley, American, Chicago, Stern, Dutch Brothers.
    74:53
    Close. You can find it too. Dutch Pinball. Pinball Brothers. That's, yeah. That's past five. You got it. You crushed it, man. You crushed that.
    75:04
    All right, Carson. Wait, wait. Sega, Data East. Whoa. Check out the big brain on Brad. Oh, here comes the wife. All right. There she is. Oh, you can't hear that. Hold on. I got to tell her. Okay, here she is. Here she is. So we already asked question one, babe. Turn this sucker down. How? Say hi to Tom. Better than Ezra. Hi, Tom from Better Than Ezra. How are you? Nice to meet you. I'm good. It's nice to meet you as well. So not only did he pass the first question, but he destroyed it. We asked him for five pinball companies. He said, like, 15. Shut the front door.
    75:41
    Oh, come on. I bragged about your swearing. You're going to cop out? What else you got? Well, I'm on, like, fourth grade mode. You know what I mean? So, like, today I, like, dropped something on my foot, and I had to be like, oh, mother of Jesus. It's really bad to drop something like that on your foot. Yeah.
    76:02
    Cheez-It. Crushing it out. All right, take number two. Here you go. What company made the games America's Most Haunted and Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle?
    76:12
    That's certain, right? That's one company he didn't mention in it. Yeah, you're right. He didn't mention that. So, spooky. Spooky. I was going to give him a musical hit. Oh, okay. He's crazy with the... That wasn't... Are you familiar with Spooky at all? Yeah. I mean, I know it now that you say it. I know it, but yeah. Frickin' Morty. All right. Okay. What do you call the thing that makes a noise when you win a free game? Oh, the knocker? Yeah.
    76:43
    All right. Decent. So you're two for three so far. All right. Let's go question four. I just want to interject that I'm really proud of you, and that's a really good job so far. You doing really really really well I feel like we need some positive reinforcement here And I coming from fourth grade so I feel like you know like it really important to be true to yourself and really feel confident And I just giving you the pep talk because this next one is really hard. Did you know she was a teacher? You know, I think for everyone she gets right, he should get a president head sticker, you know, like when you're glazing a star, right? Or like a way to go with like full star. Yeah, like I got like little sticker badges, you know, like they're gold. There you go. So we'll send those in the mail for everyone you get right. So good. All right. We know that you love Godzilla. Actually, I didn't know that. Well, we do. Now you do. Okay. Well, you have very good taste, Tom. But we know you love Godzilla, which was designed by the one and only Keith Elwin. Can you name two of his other three games? Let's see. I feel bad because these are tough questions. This is pretty tough. But if you think about the last few games that Stern has made, every single really good one has been made by Keith. Fair enough. Is that rude? Yes. That's one. That's one gold star. I have one behind me. I showed you the topper that Mrs. Penn made just a moment ago. Have I mentioned?
    78:16
    Yes. Nice work. That's two of the three. You might as well tell him a third one since he's right. The last one. You just got to think about the gauntlet. The fist. The fist of fury. Avengers? Yeah!
    78:32
    Oh, man. I'm sorry. We keep hitting the boom. Nice work, man. Nice work. That's three for three. What's interesting to me, though, is that those games play very differently. They do. But I feel like all of Keith's games are really amazing because the ramps, to me, are so unexpected. Like, they swirl or they go up and then they go down. And I just feel like that they do have in common, that every single one of them has a really unique ramp system. They're not, like, in the spot where you would normally feel like you would hit a ramp. No, no. Would you even go so far as to say they're satisfying? Extremely. Shut up, Jeff. All right. Here's one last question. All right, hit it. This was truly my question. It was. It's a multiple choice. I'll have you know. I like to vary the format just in case, you know, I'm reaching out to all learners here, Tom. What do you call it when a ball is draining and you move the game really hard to the left or the right to knock the ball into the play area? Multiple choice. Okay, the first one is called the Sarah Shimmy. That's it. Number two, is it called a Shatz? Number three, is it called a live catch? Number four, is it called a death save? Or number five, is it called a critical hit? Don't say the Sarah Shimmie. The death save is when it goes down the middle and you pull it back out, right? Yes.
    79:57
    Dude, he knew it. And not only did he not guess, but he actually knew it. Wow, with authority too. Yeah, it was good. I got that one wrong, which is why I put in the Sarah Shimmie, because I felt like we needed to pad it just a little bit.
    80:12
    Can I do it that same? No. Yeah, no, I can't either. No, me neither. I've even watched YouTube videos, Tom. I still have no idea. We all need Jack Danger to show us that one. No, man, he's really good at that. We're not done yet because Sarah's got one more, the extra credit. Oh, this is an extra credit question, and this one is tough. All right, this says extra credit, and in parentheses it says extra hard. So you've been warned. That's how my girlfriend lands it. Oh! Hey! Oh, Franchie loves this. Mm-hmm. All right. What is it called when the ball drops down to your flipper, and instead of flipping, you allow the ball to bounce off of that flipper so it goes to the opposite flipper?
    80:55
    I don't know. Yes, I know. There are two acceptable answers here. Start with the word dead. it rhymes with head flounce I'm trying so hard here's some I really am the answer is head bounce or dead flip which is where Jack Danger got his name that's true I thought it said dead flip on his birth certificate well done applause My 12-year-old son is like an ace at doing that. I'm okay at it. I think it's a thing with youth. I really do. And obviously practice and experience. But kids, just their reflexes are so fast. And, man, there's nothing that makes you feel older than watching, like, a 14-year-old play. And then you're like, oh, my gosh, that's how you're supposed to do it. Yeah, it's all true. Yeah. I still have all the high scores in the house, but they're getting close. Oh, yeah. I'm going to keep paying $4 billion on Mandalorian. You're going to pay $4 billion? Damn. For a minute, it was like the number three on Stern, but I haven't been able to repeat it since. Damn. Was the glass off, Tom?
    82:07
    Did you pull a Christian? So Christian occasionally removes the tilt bob from the machine. None of mine are set up. I don't know. I play a lot better without the tilt bob. Just takes it right on out. He doesn't even think about it. No mercy. No conscience. it's gone it was an older code and I wonder if it was a piece of the older code that allowed something to happen that isn't in the current code okay don't tell anybody that that's your little secret oh yeah I just wonder I'm not sure if I may be so bold even though our quiz is over it's been so long since we've heard Mrs. Pin on the air maybe she should stick around for the rest of the show if she would like I'm sure I'd love to yeah that's awesome alright nice All right, we want to move on to the next quiz? We have another quiz? Okay, so first of all, we're going to give you the choice. Do you want to name the band, the bass player? Name the band? Name the band. Number one, Nerf Toss, just to get you going. Geddy Lee. Rush. You know this, right? No. Right or not, eh? All right, so Sarah and everyone else, I'm giving him bass players. He's telling us what band they play for. Kim Deal.
    83:24
    he's chugging beer over there trying to get ready he's gonna bust out an album cover or something no he's gonna go get like a guitar that i bet you you're right it's gonna be like something ridiculous oh oh there you go that is gorgeous this is so cool too oh my god that is cool so for all those who aren't seeing this uh he just brought over a pixies poster that is really really cool. It's got like a New Orleans voodoo vibe. Yeah. Scullop. Scull. Pop hat. Who's the artist on that? Because we need him to get on some pinball machines. Hey! Never mind. Oh, Voltron. He knows Jeremy Packer. I think he's worked. I think Jeremy has talked to him a few times. Zombie Eddie about doing some pinball stuff. So, maybe. Alright, number three.
    84:14
    Nervous. He's like, whatever, dude. Yeah. Exactly. Back to the bass players. John Entwistle. Ooh, that's a great name.
    84:26
    Okay, now no offense. No offense, but number four is my favorite of all time. I don't think he gets any better than this guy. Graham, maybe.
    84:36
    Actually, I don't know. Do you know? No, but I'm just wondering if these are the names on their actual birth certificates. Yes. And Twizzle, and maybe just seemed very... I would not name myself Entwistle. I mean, I don't know. I can't believe he didn't change it. John Entwistle. All right, what's the answer? So you're passing on, Graham, maybe the Joe Jackson band. Is he really going out with him? I'm the man. He's amazing. Yeah. Amazing. All right. Shit, we brought this guy up earlier. Hope you don't remember. Brown Mark.
    85:15
    Don't know. Don't know? All right, well, he replaced Andre Simone. I don't know. Jeff, you're a radio guy. Do you know these? Oh, no friggin' clue. Prince. Prince and the Revolution. All right. Prince played all that stuff, honestly. Well, he did in the studio, but not live. That's what I mean. Those guys just come around for the live stuff. Well, that's not true, though. Wendy Molden did play some studio guitar. Anyway, all right. Where are we? Another one of my favorites. How many more of these do you have? 47. I don't know. Eight? Eight more or something? Jamie Stewart. Don't embarrass me. Jamie Stewart.
    85:53
    Jamie Stewart? Sounds like a golfer. I don't know. Yeah. He's wearing a polo. Definitely. The Cult. Pop color. Oh, The Cult. He was the bass player for The Cult. I love The Cult, actually. I did not. Is he the original bass player? He was. Well, the very original, I forget his name, but he came in for the Love album, and then he was on Electric, and then I think maybe one more, and then he quit, and now he does, like, real estate or something. Anyway, moving on. Bruce Fox. I do love that band, though. I do love them. Yeah, one of my favorites. Don't know Bruce.
    86:30
    The Jam. Okay, yeah. All right. Trevor Boulder. Man, I should have asked for a different quiz. You should know this one. These are really hard. You should know this one because of your shirt, mister. Yeah, but how many bass players did he have? He had a bunch. But not through the spiders from Mars era. He also had one called Tim Drummond, by the way.
    86:52
    Did he really? Is he your twin? Actually, that's Neil's band. Never mind. Neil's Klein? What? Neil's Klein? No, no, no. Neil! Crosby, Neil, and Nash? Okay, okay. Any of them? All right, moving on so Christian doesn't complain. Andy Rourke, another one of my favorites. The Smiths. There you go. Does it get any better than the bass line for This Charming Man? Great bass player, yeah.
    87:19
    The whole Queen is Dead album is an amazing bass and drum thing. Yeah, this charming man, that's right up there with the bass line from Rio, which I'll say, I got to give John Taylor credit. I thought he was just like this pretty pin-up boy and all that. That dude can fucking play bass, man. He can play. And my other favorite player is Simon Gallop. Oh, from The Cure, yeah. Somebody thought I was him once. I was backstage at a Cure concert, and they asked me to sign their tour book. Of course, I had to pick hair like that back then, and I was a lot younger and thinner. Frenchie had a pretty big goth face. He should send you his photo of him in high school where he has piercings and the eyeliner and all sorts of crazy awesome stuff. Anyway, moving on. Okay, Pete Farnham. Nope, don't know.
    88:07
    The Pretenders. Oh, God, I love them, too. All right, now this one I'm throwing you for a fucking loop, but you've got to look this guy up. Like you weren't already. Yeah, exactly. No, this guy. He's a pinball. It might surprise me. I don't know. But I'll tell you the name of the song. You have to look up the video and watch this guy's footwork. Bobby Raymond. I don't know. Nothing. When you say footwork, it sounds like Earth, Wind, and Fire. It's not.
    88:33
    Spiral Staircase. Now, look up the video for I Love You More Today Than Yesterday. day. Remember that song?
    88:44
    We're just laughing at Jeff because this is so painful for all of us. Hi, you wore today, then yesterday. Come on, man. Let's bring it back. Let's bring it back, man. This quiz was good, but it's time to move on. All right, so we'll end it on that. Thank you. Jesus. One more question, Prince, you wanted to know. He said, name your favorite pinball artist. I did not ask this because I'm the only one who said it. Not me. zombie yeti is the right answer i would not be offended no matter who you said i am kind of i do like zombie yeti stuff but um i you know i don't know that um there's a lot to learn guys um yeah man i like it all you know like until i have more experience with all the different machines i think that's a hard question yeah for sure for sure good answer good answer all right So, Tom, better than this, we're just kicking off your 2022 Legends of the Fall Tour in October. And the first show I couldn't help but notice was in Chicago, Illinois. Do you know that Chicago is like the home of pinball? Yeah, there was a convention there that day, too. Oh. Oh, did you time this to go to Pinball Expo? No. It wasn't timed with that, but I just happened to note that like the 19th through the 22nd, there's an expo going on in Chicago. So I am going there. I'm going to be there. Oh, cool. Oh, that's awesome. Just so happen, what a coincidence.
    90:06
    Chicago is one of our biggest markets and always has been. And I don't know if y'all have been to that House of Blues there in Chicago. The House of Blues in New Orleans? It's sweaty.
    90:18
    Oh, yeah. The Chicago one is not that at all. It's a really cool opera house. I mean, really, it's a great place to see a band. That's cool. I mean, I loved going to the one in New Orleans because you could be right there with the band. I mean, you're basically, every seat was front row in House of Blues New Orleans. It still is, but, you know, New Orleans is funky. It's got some funk to it, for sure. Oh, yeah. That doesn't always work, you know. Yeah. Are you going to try and tour any of the companies out there? I mean, you've got Stern, you've got JJP, American Pinball. They're all right there in Chicago. I would like to. Yeah, I'd like to. I just got to see what the schedule will allow. how much time do I need versus what do I actually have while I'm there. Because, man, once we get going, like, it's like overnight on the next night. Well, the next night, yeah. Overnight. Indianapolis the next night, right? He's literally looking at your schedule right now. I don't know. I don't have this memorized. It's right in front of us. Yeah. The 20th is Chicago, and then the 21st here in Indianapolis. And that's, like, not ridiculously far, though. Yeah. But, like, I mean, overnight, it's, you know, a little bit far. I will definitely be at your show in Wilmington, Delaware. I'm trying to get my wife to come with me so we can see you guys. Because you've never been to a Better Than Us concert, have you? No, never. I'm sorry, Tom. Sorry to let you down. No Michigan dates? You bastard. So this is a good little, like, you kind of go all over the place. No, no, no. This is just the first set of dates. I mean, the reality is the album's not going to come out until next year, but we probably will have a single out for the fall. So this is just the tip of the iceberg. We'll be having many more dates coming up. Well, listen, Tom, if you ever decide that you want to come to Hershey, Pennsylvania, we have a sweet guest room and a lot of pinball machines and a lot of whiskey, and you guys are more than welcome to come over and hang. I know, and I didn't get to play in it a few times. I know. The one time you guys came through, I was on call that night, so I couldn't go, and it killed me. So the next time you guys come through, I'm definitely going to see you, but I'll see you in Delaware. If there's no Pennsylvania date, I'll be there. Yeah, I highly recommend the guest room. That's quite choice. And I believe he's changed his teeth since I was there, so you're good.
    92:28
    Definitely. We burn those sheets, Frenchies. Oh! Come on. The sock got most of it. Oh! Now we are going to burn those sheets. God, I need to go to work. I need to burn my socks.
    92:51
    All right. Is this how all of these go? Just curious. Oh, yeah. Because of me. Just me. It's all Franchi. That's why Sarah's not a regular co-host on this show.
    93:03
    Can we schedule, like, in a year from now, another one and see if I've sold all the machines? Because I was like, fuck this. Absolutely, man. We'd love to have you on. Or if I'm, like, full steam ahead. Still into it. In a year from now. Yeah. Well, that's that artist question again. Yeah. Well, now that I've had a year to digest it, I'm going to say Zombietti. Thanks for getting my hopes up, you asshole.
    93:29
    So bands like Barenaked Ladies, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, and others bring games with them when they're on tour to play backstage. Do you have any plans to bring a game or two with you when you're on the road for this tour? Man, I sure would like to. I don't see it happening, but I'm going to have them making money. Yeah, fair enough. You're putting them to work for you. And the Stranger Things isn't leaving this corner. It's staying right there. Nice. Oh, yeah, you don't want to break one. What would you break? Godzilla. Yeah. Good answer. I mean, it's a fun game. It's just fun. It is a super amazing game. Bring Kevin's cat to Fantastica. Then you guys get a pyro on stage. It'll last one show. Then you have a nice pyro show. You set it on fire. Fucking game. Don't do it. Don't do it, Tom. All right, man. You have been more than generous with us. I have to ask you one more question, and I know you probably get this a ton, but I know you guys have never told anyone the origin of the band's name, So, Better Than Ezra. I did some research. There's some really crazy guesses out there. So, I want to go through some of the guesses because they're amazing.
    94:31
    The guess one is that it comes from Ernest Hemingway's memoir where he describes an annoying sound as certainly better than Ezra learning to play the bassoon. Okay. Guess two is when you guys started out, you didn't have a name yet, and you were in a battle of a band, and there was a group who played named Ezra. And so, you just decided to be better than Ezra. That's my favorite. My all-time favorite comes from the Urban Dictionary website of all places. And they said that before the band formed, one of the band members worked for Ezra Fitch's Abercrombie & Fitch as a male model. Was that you? When he decided to quit the company, he said he wanted to be better than Ezra. That had to be you, Tom, right? I mean, you were that guy. He had the bangs. Okay, it's funny. I've never heard that one.
    95:14
    So I'm guessing that one's not right. So, you know, there's a book called The Origin of Band Names. and most bands like Aerosmith or whoever, they have like one page. We have an entire chapter devoted to us.
    95:27
    What's your favorite? The reality is they're all better than the actual reading. You still don't tell because it's so bad. Oh, really? All these other guesses, which are completely false, are way better than the actual meaning. There's a line in a Hemingway book, and that's not it. That blows my mind. What are the odds? There's another good one that Ezra Cornell and the competing, I guess, Vanderbilt University, that there was a rivalry there or something.
    95:58
    That's one of the better ones, but that's not it. Tom, it's been amazing getting a chance to talk to you after being a huge fan for so long, man. And thank you for making the soundtrack to my college experience. And also for your work with the Better Than Ezra Foundation, which we haven't really talked about. It's not really pinball related, but you've done a ton of good with that. You raised over $2 million for some great charities around New Orleans. So thank you for doing that. And I can't wait to see you guys in October in Delaware. Hopefully get back to New Orleans for Jazz Fest. If I can get out there, I'll definitely be playing some games at the Port Orleans Brewery or anywhere else that you are. We're already making some plans with the Marquette's. Yeah. In fact, I talked to them about that. Yeah. So this has been fun. I hope I wasn't too much of a noob.
    96:39
    No, I loved it. It made me feel so knowledgeable. except fans and music. Yeah. And bass players. And bass players because I know none of them. Now you do. I know. I mean, the pinball community in general, Tom, is awesome and I'm really glad you're part of it now. Yeah, me too, man. I'm really excited about it. I think this is going to be a lot of fun. A great new adventure. Look at this, guys. Came to say hi to Tom before you left. Oh, yeah. This is Barlow. There he is. Barlow. Hey, Barlow. Hi, Tom. Blue Barlow. No, I need them after the vampire in Salem's Lot. Stephen King story slash movie. Of course you did. Anyway, yeah, thanks, Tom. I had a lot of fun. You're welcome back anytime you want to come on and pimp your setup once you got everything going. We'll have you on. We'll talk about it. Anyway, good luck to you and all you listeners out there. Support Tom's pinball efforts, damn it. And you're going to have tournaments going soon, so look out for that. All right, brother. Have a good night. Thank you, guys. Thank you for meeting you. Thank you, you too. Thank you so much, man. See you guys. Bye-bye. All right, see you, man. Okay, so that was Tom Drummond on Better Than Ezra. Thanks, Tom, for taking part in the show. That was fun. And we also had our guest host, Mrs. Penn, Sarah Lyon. Thank you for joining us, Sarah. It was fun having you. Thanks for having me, guys. It's always a pleasure. We're hoping that you get that show on and it's not going to end up in the trash can because it's been a long time and I need my fix of swearing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm sorry. I really tried hard. I've gotten into this mode of not swearing, So I'm going to really try hard to get the potty mouth back for you, Frankie. If you can't do it or it's too much trouble, just grab your phone and go, shit, piss, damn, God, fucking, blah, whatever, and then just tack that onto the end. And then I'll be like, all right, I'm good. All right. Fair enough. That was a fun episode. Thank you guys for going along with my plan to get one of my favorite bands on and talk pinball. That was a geek out moment for me, so I appreciate it. Absolutely. I'll give you Tom's number after we hang up from the show. Oh, yeah.
    98:42
    Sorry, Tom. Who is this? Tom didn't seem to have a problem talking about all of that stuff, so I'm sure he'd enjoy it. I didn't tell you this, but we had been talking over the past week, and I told him, I said, dude, like back in the day, nobody rocked bangs like you did. And you know what he called it? Do you remember how he said his hair was clung to one side and his bangs were really long? Absolutely. He called it the wall of hair.
    99:06
    Oh, nice. Nice. That's awesome. So, yeah, those were the days. Anyway, yeah, good show. And coming up next, Jeff, who do we have coming up on our next show? It's a very special show. You don't know? The next show is our super awesome pinball show, Tailgate Party Show. And we are going to have not only just a little bit of Chris and Melissa from Coin Takearound, but we are also going to have the guys from Pinball Brothers on, talking about Queen, of which the pinball tailgate party is the first place in America you will have a chance to play that game. Kids! I should pay more attention to your text, I think. How super awesome is that? Yeah. We're also going to tell you all the stuff that you're going to see when you go to the tailgate party, all the exclusives, all the people who are going to be there. It's going to be a great time, and I cannot wait to go. Honey, I'm going to need my autograph book. Yeah, I think we're going to. Yes. There are going to be some superstars there. Yeah, and I want pictures to picture-proof. If you're something else you guys don't know, I did a special art print in conjunction with Cointaker that we're only making 25 of. That will be available at that show. Only 25. And once they're gone, they're gone. And they're going to have the little tailgate logo in the corner. You better make three extra. I'll give you guys a coupon for a dollar off. We can share one, Frenchie. Like, we live together, so we can share. Yeah. It's okay. I don't know. Christian might want his own because, you know, if I'm going to leak a little bit here. I'll leak a little bit. It's a very tall, narrow print, a head-to-toe of Catwoman from the 66th Batman show. Julie Newmar, who recently celebrated her birthday. Happy birthday, Julie. We need that. I thought you were going to say it was going to be a head-to-toe Christian. And I was going to be like, hmm. Well, I have that, too, but I photoshopped it in a special way, and it's all for me. Oh. But I am just going to say, he's huge.
    101:02
    This whole thing took a turn for the worse. As it usually does at this hour of the night. Kristen, use your lovely drunken DJ voice and sign us off on the show. Thank you everyone for coming on the show. Thank you for Tom Drummond for coming on and letting us speak out with him about all things pinball. To my two beautiful co-hosts, Chris Franchi and Jeff Parsons, and my wonderful wife, Sarah, Mrs. Penn. Thank you to everyone who's listening, and we will see you next time. See you guys. See ya. Bye-bye.
    101:35
    If you'd like to email Super Awesome Pinball Show or any of the hosts, you can do so at superawesomepinball at gmail.com. You can also pick up Super Awesome Pinball Show swag at our profit-free online store at silverballswag.com. Just look for the Super Awesome Pinball logo and clicky-clicky. And, of course, special thanks to our sponsors, Cointaker.com.
    102:06
    We're all big fans. I told Chris when we were thinking about who to have on the show next, I said, you know, Chris Marquette from Cointoker. Chris Marquette from Cointoken.
    102:17
    Cointoken. You've got to get that in the blooper reel. coin hanker. What is that? Hey, your fucking chalupa sucks, dude!
    102:28
    All of the original content on the Super Awesome Pinball Show is copyright 2022 As Hat Radio Productions. Shh, Barlow, we're on the air.