Hello and welcome to another episode of the Pinball Studio Podcast. Today I got my friend Mr. Don Garrison of Don's Pinball Podcast. Everyone give him a hand. And a couple of them air horns. Anyway, welcome Don. How's it going, my friend? What's up, buddy? This is great, man. I was sitting back just thinking, oh, I got another Sterling episode to listen to, and then I forgot that this one I got to be interactive with. Hell yeah. So we're going to do a little thing of basically your journey into pinball and figure out how you got into this crazy hobby. You told me it was two truths and a lie. That's good, because all I had was lies. oh well that works too all right well i'll bring it let's bring the heat okay so uh yeah basically we just kind of start off with uh did you play pinball as a kid or was this something that you found later on in life or yeah what do you think i was some kind of nerd of course i played pinball damn it yeah like i was a kid of the the 80s and 90s so it was like all about arcades family fun centers mini golf uh i remember mortal combat and street fighter came out like it's all everybody was talking about but my like family fun center had that big wall of bally williams games and i'm sure most of the good places did right and so like i'd have a handful of tokens left over and i'd be walking the line just like indiana jones terminator 2 fishtails whirlwind twilight's only what's going to get my money um and then i was looking for the ones that were like you know five plays for two bucks because then i get more bang and then i learned that if i do good i could win a free game so then it was like it's on like what game can i dominate and like um dude like one of the coolest things like eight or nine years old and i was like at the laundromat in my my northern california town and there was a michael jackson's moonwalker but right next to that was a diner and like i'd never played diner anywhere else and so it was just like that's what i would do when the clothes were drying and it was just like stupid nonsense like i didn't even know what a frankfurter was um but yeah like i remember playing the hell out of some diner and so to this day that's like on my get list just because of those days in the damn laundromat oh man have you never owned a diner never owned a diner i had an opportunity a couple of times but you know i'm leveling up my collection and getting to the point where like now that would maybe make sense absolutely yeah i had a diner and i really regret getting rid of that game about a year ago but now it's at my local arcade so at least i can still go over there and play that i've got it on my list for some point but like i don't want just a diner i want like a diner damn it like somebody's gonna cost like seven thousand dollars you know something's been like a diamond plate play field or something you know because it's got to be a good diner mine's an interesting story so a guy like drove me mine like overnight and he sold it to me for like this crazy price it was like 2500 bucks and he's like i'll do you a good deal i'll deliver it to you for 100 bucks i was like fucking sold and uh yeah i think he was a crackhead man that's a lot better than my crackhead advanced story i had growing up geez man all i got was a rash that's cool man yeah but um so after your childhood uh did you take a break with the whole pinball arcade thing and then just kind of discovered it later on in life again and i mean my dad and i used to talk and he would be like we should find a place we could rent one of these things like have it our house for a month like how cool would that be because he kind of like pinball too okay my earliest pinball memories He was like, we're down in some place in Long Beach. I think it was called Popeye's, not the chicken place, but I can't find a record of this place. But they had a fireball with a spinning disc on the play field. Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. So I remember playing that with him. He's like, now don't just flip it. Wait until the ball's near the end of the flipper. You'll go and hit something. Check out the spinning disc. He's explaining mechs to me, and I'm like six years old or something. So I could tell my dad would super be into this. Oh, man, that's cool. That's a way better experience than I had. I pretty much played as a kid, and then fast forward many years later, about 2016 is probably when I jumped back into it. I mean, I'm in my early 20s. I'm going to the junior college. I'm playing Cruising USA and the big sit-down or whatever, and then I'm working at this pizza place, and there's a diner in the parking lot that didn't have a diner, but it did have Elvira and the Party Monsters. And so Monica and I would go over there on our lunch breaks just to get out of the pizza restaurant and play some Elvira. So we started playing it together in our 20s. Oh, super cool. Okay. Right? When did you kind of start getting the itch to, like, maybe I want to buy one of these? Well, after college, I finally got out, got my first job, started paying off some credit card debt. And then the pandemic was just beginning, and I had just moved to Wisconsin. And I'm like, all right, I got a house now. I got a, like, big boy job. I can finally get a pinball machine. Does anybody rent them? and Eau Claire Games and Arcade in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They have a free-to-play arcade, but they also sell all their machines. And for some reason, Facebook was eavesdropping on me and started dropping advertisements. So I'm like, hey, we just moved to Wisconsin. Let's go up to Eau Claire, check this place out, and then we can go in and see this pinball arcade. We'll just go look. We'll just look at these things. I don't know really what they cost or anything at that time. And we came home with a Black Knight, not Sword of Rage, Dark Knight. It's turned Dark Knight. Oh, okay. George Gomez layout. Yeah. I still have never played that game. Oh, dude, it's a weird game. It's not, like, forget Flow, because it ain't there. But there's some plastic ramps. There's, like, bits of Lord of the Rings in it, like with that upper playfield Path of the Souls, but it's on the other side, and you're gaining gadgets and stuff. And then, like, every third shot up there, a diverter kicks over. The ball races around the back of the playfield to this, like, teeter-totter mech with a Hot Wheels car in it of a Batmobile. It's got a crane, too, right? Like, Batman 06 or something? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, and it works. It's exactly the same place, works exactly the same way. And that's probably why I don't like Batman 66 so much because I had this Dark Knight and I played the hell out of that. And this is kind of like a refreshing of that. That's so odd that they didn't kind of switch up more on the 66 version. Well, this is Stern we're talking about. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. But, yeah, it was kind of weird to just throw that in there. But I guess they were just throwing whatever could fit and let's make a Batman game. Here's a Batman game we made. Let's revisit it. I've had some good games on Batman, though. The turntable mech is definitely better than just a little turntable reveal of the Joker action figure. But it was a fun game to have. I learned how to solder on that game. I learned how to lift a playfield up. I learned how to move a game in and out of a house. So it was a lot of experience points gathering with that game. Oh, man. The first time pulling the glass off and lifting the playfield, I was so damn nervous. I didn't know what I was doing and watching YouTube videos and everything else to make sure I don't break something. dude my my there's one uh drop target in the game and it broke and i was like what do i do who do i call well get the phone book who's gonna come out here and fix this thing and so like you know i had some pinball friends i just met they're like dude marco especially what are you dealing with and so like i ordered you know the drop target mech and then i looked at it i'm like here we go i'm unscrewing something from the back of the play field i hope i don't strip everything you know but i mean it's just a matter of just switching it out put the spring on back in there and then it worked and i was like hell yes hell yes i am pinball god incarnate so how long did that game last that's that that was my problem so i bought one and it wasn't long before i wanted two or a newer game or you know just something to just just switch up the lineup or something yeah so the guy is like the ultimate salesman right makes me feel super comfortable walks me through shows me everything and then he like when you done with this game just trade it back in i give 80 of the cost towards something else So I like okay perfect I know I going to get bored of something at some point so at least I can get some gameplay out of it get it back to this guy get something else, you know? And, like, that same day he showed me, he took me into a back room, and there was a Stranger Things for $9,000 in box. And this was in, like, 2020. Oh, yeah. This game was about to just take off. Right. And I'm like, ooh, $9,000. I don't know if I could do that. It had to be a premium. I remember the pros were going for 9K. It was crazy. It might have been a pro. It probably was. Dude, I could have flipped that before Pinside banned flipping, man, if I would have known. Yeah, don't flip a game on Pinside. You can only lose money on bids. You can't make any money, damn it. I'm kidding with Robin. So this guy calls me randomly, and he's like, hey, I got a Guns N' Roses Standard Edition. What do you think? and I was like, I haven't even heard of that game yet. It had just come out, or it just came out four or five months prior. I wasn't on Pinside or anything yet. And so I'm looking at YouTube videos of this thing, and I'm watching the reveal. Somebody did a reveal of this game with Eric Meneur as a livestream, and this guy, nobody knew anything about this game, so he got to unbox it, see it for the first time, and have Eric tell him all the stuff that's in it as he's seeing it in real time, which was super cool, and I wish they'd do that again. But I was looking at this, and I'm like, yeah, go look it up. I don't know who the guy is he's probably like pinball famous and i've probably met him by now but i can't remember like who it was but um i saw this game and then i saw the the bass guitar wire form and i'm like that i i need to have that that's the coolest thing i've ever seen but it was only on like the premium or the limited edition one okay so i talked to my guy i'm like i wouldn't mind it but i think i want that limited and of course he's like 10 minutes later guess what i found one in the box so i'm like all right let's do the deal so you know traded in a dark night for that so my first new in box game was a freaking Jersey Jack limited edition Guns and Roses with me a fledgling pinball owner you poor bastard that game like blew me away for months and months man how was it when you went to go sell it though uh wasn't too bad what the hell what did I do with that game I sold it to oh I sold it to a friend of mine who was also just getting into pinball and this was like a you know 14 months later or something so like I had played this game and then I started getting other stuff got my Godzilla and crap so just it was hard to go back to guns and roses with a soft plunge but he was just getting into it of course he was as blown away as i was so i got him i sold it to him for whatever it was going for on pin side like six thousand or something um took it to his house set it up for him he took me a hundred bucks and i think he still has it no no i bought it back and sold it to someone else for some like three-way trade or something it's out there you sound like me you know how it goes though right oh hell yeah and i'm sure it just went down a rabbit hole after that you buying game after game oh yeah like i'm hunting i'm hunting around trying to find out like where to get these things and at the time stuff is you know the ellies of sterns are selling out before they're even released like you can't get your hands on one um ken cromwell did that video about like how to secure your collector's edition um game from jersey jack when they were getting ready to launch toy story and he's like you gotta like eat a good breakfast the night before make sure you're up on time and then start power dialing this phone number so you can get one of these CEs, like, how to get your CE. And, like, looking back at it now, it's completely ridiculous. It was a moment, you know? And I was on a year-long waiting list for Godzilla with, like, just about all the big names, you know, flip it out and whoever else I could find, people back east. And then Mad Pinball enters the chat, never heard of them before, and they're like, I have a Godzilla new in box premium spot coming up if anybody wants it. And I'm like, this has to be a scam, because I've been doing nothing but, like, half of my people have been reaching out to me have been scams you know and like fortunately i didn't fall for any but i'm like this has to be a scam this game's trading for over msrp um people are year long waiting lists and this guy's just like i have one for 8400 the brand new price and i was like you know i i did i put this guy through the ringer um you know i asked him what his physical location was i went on google street view and verified it i asked around i emailed stern he was on the distributor list on the website and i'm like all right i'll give this guy a deposit but let's see how it goes and like dude jeff is awesome came through and it's been it's been great since then that's awesome man yeah i kind of miss those days of where everything was hard to get because it kind of felt like more of an adventure it's like oh i want a dead bull and you can't find one for like in you know a year before they make them again but now it's just you know get whatever you want call the dealer buy whatever you want i mean get whatever you want if it's not beetle Yeah, yeah, yeah. Winchester. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, now I get it. Well, hopefully those times are coming back now. We'll see. Oh, yeah. I'm excited with Spooky and then Barrels of Fun's games lately having them selling out day one sellouts and all this. I'm digging it. Forget the game. I'm glad people came to the midnight release party. That was awesome. I had no idea if anybody would be into that. Thank you so much for doing that again, man. You did an amazing job. I figure, like, I don't know. It's just like a matter of time before they figure out, like, I'm just some nobody who's getting in and they're letting into their factories. So I'm like, I got to take advantage now. Like, I don't want to miss any opportunities. So I'll just pretend like I'm supposed to be here and just suggest this stuff, and maybe they'll go for it. Man, so far, I'm failing upwards, man. Oh, I think as soon as they saw what it turned into, they want to do it again, or at least that's what I gathered from Luke and Bug. They seemed to have a good time as well. I think everybody had a good time. Everybody had a bunch of Chipotle. I know that. So that's always a good time. I bet you still have a freezer full of that. Honestly, I think we had more Chipotle than Chipotle does when you walk in. If you looked at the spread versus what it looks like is your typical Chipotle, we were stocked, man. I was happy just to make the portions I wanted. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and I was like, I want to make everything a quesadilla. So I was back there cooking up quesadillas with Chipotle toppings. That was great. I want to do that again just for that. You guys go play the game. I just want to sit back and make quesadillas. You got to do some kind of summer get-together or something. I can't wait a year. Yeah, I mean, there has to be a yearly release party, and there's got to be some kind of summer. Because nothing's going on in the summer. There's Southern Fright Gaming Expo in Georgia, but otherwise there's kind of a dearth of new releases, right? Everybody's out, you know, enjoying life and everything. But we got warm Carl Weathers, long days. I got a bonfire pit. Like, we should do something. Hell, yeah. Yeah, I'm down. Let me know. All right. Sorry, I usurped your questions. Oh, you're good, man. So how did you get into the whole podcast thing? At what point in this hobby were you like, you know, I'm going to take it to the next level and make a podcast out of this? So I changed probation officers for my work release program. And so I was like homebound and had to find something to do. No, I'm kidding. So I've been wanting to get back into doing, you know, some YouTube content and stuff. You know, back in the days in the roller coaster hobby, I was doing on-ride videos, editing park videos with music. I used to put them on DVDs and physically mail them out like I'm old school Netflix. Hell yeah. And then like YouTube was starting right as I was like losing all my free time by going to school. So that kind of dropped off and I wanted to get back into it. And so some of my coaster friends were like, let's do a coaster podcast. like it'll be fun and i'm like yeah let's get that the timing never was quite working out with them um so i'm like well in the meantime let me just see like how to make a podcast and of course like i'd caught the podcast train you know because from youtube i found out about you know straight down the middle and flip it out and then they had podcasts and the pinball network and then i'm into listening to everybody's pinball podcast trying to get on like what's hype what's new what's coming out i'm seeing a lot of similarities because we do the same conversations in the coaster theme park community. What's this company bringing out with next? What's their new ride? They debuted this ride Which park is going to get it first It like which arcade is going to have it We already traveling nationally and internationally just to go ride a new kiddie coaster we never seen before And so you know now with pinball it was like I heard that JJP Pirates of the Caribbean is amazing. It's hard to find one. There's one in Milwaukee. Get in the car. We're driving two hours. I'm going to go play it and get my pinball credit. So, like, there was a lot of the same type of discussion, same kind of passion, same kind of arguments. and I'm like, you know, I want to do something, you know, but who am I? Is anybody going to listen? Does anybody get a care? So I'm like, you know what? I'll just, I'll get the equipment. I'll make t-shirts. We're going to launch it. And then if three people listen, that's fantastic. Otherwise it's me shouting into the void. And like, that's how it started. You know, so episode one was right when the 007 cornerstone dropped. So I like talked about it, you know, like, what do I know? But here, here's what I'm seeing. I actually listened to your first episode, like right when you dropped it, I was like, who's this guy? And then I listened to it and I was like, damn, he's pretty good, man. So I enjoyed it. Yeah. And then, I mean, being on Facebook, like, you know, Canada finds you, you know, if you're into pinball and you're scrolling Facebook, like eventually a live will pop up somehow. It's like a rule of Facebook. And so, you know, I would just like casually start listening to that and like hearing information, but seeing this guy, like, I remember the first time I saw him and I'm like, who is this guy just like, you know, blogging from his apartment or whatever, like with this kind of weird energy. And he reminds me of like people I've known in the coaster hobby, people I've known in the paramotor hobby. Like there's a Kaneda in every hobby that's like this, just like real strident, right? A real strident guy. And so I was in his, I would be in his like live stream chats or whatever. And then, you know, I created new Facebook accounts for the podcast and whatever. I was trying to do everything, everything that YouTube said you could do to promote it if you're launching a podcast. And I remember being in there and like he just saw my screen name. He's like, Don's Pinball Podcast. What the hell is this guy? And I was like, oh, shit, I'm out now. Damn it. Here it comes. You're a celebrity now. It's all that ball-busting New York friendliness, you know? But I'm like, all right, I guess let's keep going with it. And so, you know, I've been waiting to, I don't know, get found out this whole time that, like, you know, this guy, what is this guy even doing? But, like, people have been listening and, like, emailing and, like, we like what you do. Keep doing it. I love your show. and and just like the weird experience is like i'm 70 shows in and some guy emails me and he's like i just found you last weekend and went through and power listened to every one of your episodes and i'm like god that's like 48 straight hours of me talking what the hell that's a dedicated fan i hope you send him a t-shirt yeah so of course i'm like we got to do live streams now so i started doing that and like my wife got some uh blue tinted sunglasses from target very much ladies glasses very much really kind of you know uh high-end fashion i guess and so i'm wearing them just trying to be different online and like this dude reaches out and he's like i want to buy those and i'm like what the hell are you talking about so you know next thing i know charles thomas has been mowing me like 25 bucks and i'm shipping him my wife's sunglasses she bought me um they're bought like co-opted what the hell's even going on my kids dude there's so much of that there's so much i haven't even gotten to like the oasis arcade stuff oh my god dude but you got serious what episode are you on now you're over 200 right yeah i think uh 217 or 221 just went good lord when do you sleep uh at work usually if i can pull it off um 217 just went up yeah it was about a very spooky episode oh god that's i think i've listened to like two of my episodes so far oh so you never listen to your episodes to even check the quality or make sure the whole episode's there no print it launch it let's move on ship it see i'm too worried like half of my episodes missing or like you know uh volumes way off or something so always listen through to make sure i guess that's somewhat okay i guess i would but i get so busy that i'm like all right that's uploaded i'm gonna go crash for 10 minutes or i need to go print something and then i turn around there's 400 listens and i'm like well if it's somebody would let me know by now so So I'm probably the worst at this. I probably should be checking my numbers. What's my penetration? How do I increase my reach? Where could I do targeted ads? But, like, I don't do any of that. I think you're doing just fine so far. So after the podcast, I guess now you're working at Spooky, or you've moved to Benton, Wisconsin, or working on moving there? Yeah, we're in, like, phase five of this plan that I never had. So I don't know. The first time I heard about Spooky Pinball, of course, it was back in those early days. I was trying to learn all I can, and I found out there was a Rick and Morty pinball machine. And I'm like, oh, man, maybe I could trade this in for one of those. How much do they cost? And I found out Spooky was a company in Wisconsin. I'm looking at the pictures. I'm like, are they building these in a garage? There's a dirt floor there. What's going on? And then I find out these sold out immediately. and then you had to be a Fang Club member to get a week's early access to purchasing them. And I'm like, I'm not getting a paid subscription just for the privilege of buying a pinball machine. I'm trying to stand on some kind of principle. And then Halloween just dropped, and I was like, oh, man, I'll get one of those. And a week later, those were gone. I ended up getting one at a show later, so shout out. But I knew about these guys and what they were doing. That was back when Cactus Canyon launched too. and then Halloween came, sold out, went on the resale market, and people still hadn't got Cactus Canyons. Remember that? Oh, yeah. This was fun, man. I was like, all right, I'm a podcaster now. The very first pinball show to come up after I started the show was the Louisville Arcade Expo, which I don't even know if they have that anymore. It's down in Kentucky. I saw it was coming up, and I'm like, you know what? I'm a podcaster. I've got T-shirts. I'm going to do a giveaway, and what I'll do is I'll just carry around little prize packs of shirts and stuff, And then I'll announce on the podcast like the phrase that pays or whatever. It was whitewater or whirlwind. And if people come up to me at the show, they'll get themselves a free T-shirt and a selfie. And I did that strictly to like gyrate my own ego. I just wanted to be like a YouTube person where people come up to me and they're like, I've seen you online. Oh, my God, I can't believe you're here. And so I forced it with giveaways. And I went with four of these things, and I gave away three of them. I met Kaz. I met the Flip N Out Pinball guys. And I hung out at the spooky table pretty much the whole time. Scooby-Doo was just launching. They had it there with butter. Was this at Texas? This was at Louisville, Kentucky. Okay, my bad. A show that like 10 people go to. It was fun though, man. I had a great time there. But it was just fun being there and it's like three people recognize me. This is completely amazing. It was totally worth it. But I met them there and then just every show I was like, hey, it's these guys again. What's up? And then they'd make fun of me and then I'd sulk away. and then just kept going, putting up with the abuse. And eventually they welcomed me into their wolf tribe. Yeah, they delivered your – what games did they deliver to your house and do the unboxing with you? TCM and Looney Tunes? Yeah, by the time we got to TCM and Looney Tunes, they were doing this reach-out thing to podcasters and stuff, like Kerry Hardy and whoever. I remember for TCM and Looney Tunes, that was when they sent out prototype parts to random people, and I got one of them. That was fun. This is sweet. that was fun. We all speculated like what it was. I got that little upper play field ball lock thing in the back of TCM and Looney Tunes. I still have it here somewhere. Um, but they, they invited me down like shortly after the launch and they're like, do you want to come down and like play it? And I'm like, yep. So we were there the next day. I think I called off work or something. And then, um, yeah, that was like my first time getting, getting down into the factory, you know? And they were like, we're, we're building a new factory. Could you come down and shoot a video? I'm like, yep. You know, so I went and did that. And then, um, then when we got closer to Evil Dead they actually were like it was down there when I was filming that video and we were having pizza in the break room of the old building with Charlie and all them and Bug looks at me just as a break in the conversation and he like Don you to come play the new game and like i knew something was coming and i was like yup thinking they were just joking with me but no they walked me right up there and i walked right inside evil dead for the first time oh that's so cool like imagine that like walking into this tiny little office where uh it was like bug's office and where they do like the coding and stuff right and all of a sudden like there it is cheryl topper is sitting there um this wide body game is right there and i and I just opened the door and it's like no prompting. It's just, oh, here's this now. And I hated it because I was with the rumors and everything. I was expecting Beetlejuice or like that's what I was hoping for. So I opened the door and I'm like, oh, it's not Beetlejuice. So Beetlejuice is real. It's going to be like another year. But like this game's cool though. But then like I spent the rest of the time there just like shooting the shotgun shells, man. That was the most fun mechanism I've played with, you know, where you shoot one, then shoot the other, and it's like both at once. then you get a multiball and i'm like this is awesome man and of course now like a hell of a game i i've got to get another one i'm sad i've yeah and like i was playing like like pre pre release code like every time the game was over you had to reset it you know because it was that early yeah um so you know like now playing the game now it's like my god there's so much in this thing like there's so much to do and like i understand it like i'd had never seen the movies but i was aware of them like i've seen them now so like i'm here for it and i've got another one on my list to find at some point and you got to see beetlejuice early too right uh let's go around hell yes i did hell yes i did so yeah like so like my level one was spooky was like our game just launched come on down and see it and then it was like you want to see our new one and then it was like do you want to just come into the vault into the chocolate factory into the money bin out back scrooge mcduck and see like the treasures um yes sierra madre oh yeah what do you yeah what are going to say like i love to be surprised but you you offer me that i'm jumping in right away like of course um i don't want to have any kind of like fear that i missed out anymore so any ever to every opportunity i'm just going to jump for it um so i mean we've been hanging out and getting along well and like you know our wives have fun together and stuff so it just seemed like a natural thing and they were just like you know you should just hang out here and and help us with these things and i'm like yeah you know i should man can you imagine but like i live far away and like jobs up there um and then like at the same time because life has a um life finds a way right uh i got another job offer out of town um somebody's house in benton came up available and like we just i sold a couple of games we made some things happen and then i got like a new job a new life a new identity um all at the same time and all of a sudden like now i'm screwing things into whitewoods like what's happening man that's so exciting and now you're gonna be right there so I mean, well, soon enough at least. So, yeah, and this is something that not that many people, I guess, have experienced. But, like, you know, you want them to do your theme and then you want to wait and see what they do with it. But you don't do any of the work that's involved in that whole process. And so, like, actually screwing things to a white wooden and just coming up with the layout from nothing, you're just like in your head, like, I hope I don't screw this up. You know, any little any little change I make right now, people are going to criticize immediately and forever. Like, do we want to do a scoop or 180 ramp here? Like like it's like sliding doors, man, like your whole life could splinter into different realities based on that little mechanism choice. I try not to let it get in my head and I'm like, just make I'm just going to make something that I would like, because so far, if I like it, other people do, too. And we'll just do it that way. And that just sounds so amazing. I can't wait I want to do that yeah right yeah it's a cool environment there because it doesn't seem like anybody with a bad idea or a good idea is not listened to and if the bad idea is dangerous they're definitely going to do it then you got Luke and Bug right there to help you out if you need help help me out man they're outfitting me for hunting season now so we're going to start blasting woodland creatures soon. I'm going to start investing in trail cams. My whole life's going to change. I'm going to be like a walking Cabela's billboard pretty soon. You're going to be shooting deer out the backyard. I'm shooting something. I'll shoot corn. I don't care. Stuff explodes when you hit it. I love it. This is Benton, Wisconsin. He's just sitting on the back porch hunting. That corn's coming right for us. Blast. get him dad get him coming right for us i can just picture you now i do love explosions um yeah it's fun having some land uh backs to corn i love it oh man well is there any so i don't know i'm making this up as i go along um i'm just here for the fun i'm sure at some point someone's going to realize and take it away but i'm just going to keep going with it hell yeah man well that's awesome and uh i'm looking forward to getting back uh over to the spooky factory eventually and hanging out with everybody um yes sir yeah but uh is there any more you want to talk about on your your journey into pinball or is that about it i mean you know it's like anything and you know i most people fear death more than they fear public speaking um i did as well but in high school i started competing in speech and debate tournaments i I have no idea why I hated public speaking. And then I did it in college and everything and just ripped the bandaid off. And Steve Martin actually had some inspirational words. He was talking about comedy and like participating and how the fact that it seems like everybody that's doing it has way more talent than you. But like he just looked at the camera. He's like, there's room for you. If you want to just come do it. Grab a microphone. Step into the world. Just go. There's there's plenty of room for you. It's like he's spoken to my soul. Freaking Steve Martin. And I'm like, damn it. It's got to be because it seems like a crowded space now more than ever of like podcasters and streamers and everything. And, you know, I'm from California. I've done auditions a bit. I've been on studio backlots and stuff. And I've like seen a peek into that world. And there's always somebody that's more talented than you. There's always somebody that's more qualified than you. And there's always somebody that got a spot with less talent than you just because of circumstance. So just put yourself out there and go for it. You know, man, you do a phenomenal job, though. Even since your first episode, I was like, man, this guy's got like the radio voice. It's all an act. Oh, my God. You start and you get imposter syndrome. You're like, nobody wants to listen to that. I have to put on the mantle and play the role of somebody who is competent and knows what they're doing and everything's going to plan. And, you know, it's the same thing that you do, you know, in your job or something. Walking into a meeting and you're like, I've got nothing to show these guys. There's no way they're going to pick us or whatever. But you don't go with that energy. You just pause at the door, take a breath, walk in, you're on stage, and you're like, I'm the guy that's going to close this deal, everybody. Here's why, and you just go with it. And then I think the passion and enthusiasm just comes through when you do that. Maybe that's like a little acting trick or something, you know, because we tell each other, like, fake it until you make it. But really, like, if you're doing it, you're doing it. Like, that's you, right? Well, you're doing an amazing job, sir. Well, shucks. Thanks. Well, I think that about wraps it up, but thanks for coming on the show and telling us your story, man. Heck yes, dude. Like and subscribe. Appreciate it. Yeah, yeah. Tell them how to find you, Don. Very easy. If you just want to comment by email, donspinballpodcast.gmail.com is where you can find me. I've got an accompanying Facebook page that's pretty active, a Discord page that's even more active, and a YouTube page where all the live streams go every Sunday. Shout out to the Pinball Studio for those awesome intro videos. I appreciate it. No problem, man. Patreon.com backslash Don's Pinball Podcast for even more nonsense and giveaways and stuff. We're doing fun stuff all the time, man. Come on. Oh, yeah. Definitely go check out Don. And until next time, man, I'll see you soon.