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Jeff Teolis of Pinball Profile - Episode 13

JBS Show·podcast_episode·48m 43s·analyzed·Jan 18, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Jeff Teolis discusses pinball's growth, tournament structures, and passion-driven content creation.

Summary

Jeff Teolis of Pinball Profile discusses his podcast journey starting in 2016, the explosive growth of the pinball community enabled by manufacturers like Jersey Jack and Spooky, Canadian tournament qualification processes, and personal anecdotes about music, sports fandom, and the passion-driven nature of pinball media. He reflects on how competitive pinball has become a sport and the collaborative rather than competitive spirit among content creators.

Key Claims

  • Jeff Teolis started Pinball Profile with Steve Ritchie interview in November 2016

    high confidence · Jeff states explicitly: 'The very first pinball profile interview I ever did was Steve Ritchie, right? Yeah. And so that was November of 2016.'

  • Stern kept pinball alive during the 'dark ages' when other arcade/pinball companies failed

    high confidence · Jeff: 'Stern was obviously keeping pinball alive in, you know, the dark ages, if you will, when arcades died, all the other arcade companies or pinball companies kind of went by the wayside.'

  • Jersey Jack's Wizard of Oz (with display and features) forced Stern to increase game complexity

    high confidence · Jeff: 'Jersey Jack came in and gave us Wizard of Oz and said, here's what else pinball can be... And so Stern probably had to step up the game a little bit, and it took a few years... really wasn't until Batman 66 when Stern went, okay, yeah, you know, we've got to add this screen.'

  • Spooky Pinball's business model (selling hundreds rather than thousands per game) changed industry economics

    high confidence · Jeff: 'Spooky was the one that kind of really, I think, changed things in a way that we don't have to sell thousands of games. We're going to sell whatever, how many hundred for America's Most Haunted...'

  • IFPA 19 World Championships will be held at Jim Velsito's facility near San Diego/Anaheim, California on June 7-9

    high confidence · Jeff: 'Jim Velsito... built a facility on his home location... for the world championships... that's coming up june 7th and 9th... somewhere kind of in between san diego and anaheim'

  • Jeff qualified for IFPA 19 Worlds as top Canadian for the second consecutive year

    high confidence · Jeff: 'at the end of last year, for the second year in a row, I was the top Canadian, so I got a country exemption.'

  • Ontario's qualification system mirrors Texas state system with top 24 to super state and top 8 getting bye

    high confidence · Jeff explains detailed Ontario qualification process matching Texas structure with dollar pool distribution

Notable Quotes

  • “The very first pinball profile interview I ever did was Steve Ritchie, right? Yeah. And so that was November of 2016.”

    Jeff Teolis @ early in conversation — Establishes founding of Pinball Profile podcast and its longevity in the community

  • “Stern was obviously keeping pinball alive in, you know, the dark ages, if you will, when arcades died, all the other arcade companies or pinball companies kind of went by the wayside.”

    Jeff Teolis @ mid-conversation — Key historical assessment of Stern's role in pinball industry survival

  • “Spooky was the one that kind of really, I think, changed things in a way that we don't have to sell thousands of games. We're going to sell whatever, how many hundred for America's Most Haunted and then Rob Zombie, and then they just keep going.”

    Jeff Teolis @ mid-conversation — Explains shift in manufacturing business model and industry economics

  • “I think competitive pinball, without question, is a sport. And it's hard. Pinball itself is a game, but the competitions are the sport.”

    Jamie Virchel (echoed/agreed by Jeff) @ mid-conversation — Definitional positioning of pinball's competitive nature

  • “too many lead singers... we don't control all the songs, the family. So we've had too many lead singers and we can't get all the rights. It's impossible. It'll never happen.”

    Wolfgang Van Halen (reported by Jeff) @ late conversation — Explains licensing complexity preventing Van Halen pinball machine

  • “I think people on the outside think there's competition. There isn't. I have never cared one iota about being the best, being the most listened to, blah, blah. I don't care.”

    Jeff Teolis @ mid-conversation — Describes collaborative rather than competitive ethos among pinball media creators

  • “this tickles my little thing that I did. Part of me that said, boy, you always wanted to do this, man.”

    Jeff Teolis @ mid-conversation — Personal reflection on how podcasting fulfills unfulfilled broadcasting aspirations

Entities

Jeff TeolispersonJamie VirchelpersonPinball ProfilepodcastWormhole PinballvenueSteve RitchiepersonJersey Jack PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanySpooky Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball industry health dependent on manufacturer diversity; failure of any manufacturer perceived as negative for entire ecosystem

    medium · if any of those pinball companies I mentioned earlier, fail, it's kind of a failure for everyone else... that also makes pinball companies have to do better

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival expanding to multiple cities (Dallas, Austin, Houston, San Antonio) with venue rotation; large-scale streaming component

    medium · Texas is massive... Dallas, Austin, Houston... San Antonio is going to get into the mix... they've got What's Brewing

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Jeff Teolis emphasizes lack of competitive tension among pinball media creators, collaborative spirit, and focus on craft/passion over metrics or awards

    high · I have never cared one iota about being the best, being the most listened to, blah, blah. I don't care... it's about doing the best I can do and doing something that I'm proud of

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Jeff plays competitive pinball across multiple tournaments (Canadian provincials, Pinburgh, InDisc, Texas Pinball Festival), qualified for IFPA 19 Worlds as country exemption

    high · Jeff discussing qualification for IFPA 19 Worlds as top Canadian player, attending InDisc, planning Pinburgh participation

  • $

    market_signal: Narrative of pinball community maturation: from Stern monopoly → Jersey Jack disruption → multiple viable business models (Spooky boutique model, Haggis remakes, niche makers) creating healthy ecosystem

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.146

0:00
Hello and welcome to our podcast called Wormhole Pinball Presents. My name is Jamie Virchel and today I am joined by Pinball Profile's own Jeff Teolis. Hey Jeff, how are you? Thank you so much for joining me here. Jamie, nice to see you once again. The place looks awesome. Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Well, welcome to Wormhole Virtually. I appreciate it so much. First time I met you, I doubt you remember this, but it was 2022 TPF. I remember. And we were commentating together. This was my second stream I ever did. Second major tournament I ever did. A little nervous. And in walks a guy named Steve Ritchie.
0:40
And you were kind enough, because you had already interviewed Steve, but you were kind enough to let me kind of run that interview, and I really appreciate that. That was a really great moment for me. Thank you, sir. Well, Steve, you know, it's actually on my wall here. I'm going to pull it off here. The very first pinball profile interview I ever did was Steve Ritchie, right? Yeah. And so that was November of 2016. Wow. And I've always been a Steve Ritchie fan. And so luckily through podcasting and everything else, I've been able to talk to Steve many, many times. He's a wonderful friend and I love his work.
1:16
Yeah. So when he walked in with Ed Van Der Veen, you know, I said, hi, hi. But I thought that'd be pretty cool to get him on the stream. And I realized that everybody sitting there, I can't remember if Sunshine Bond was there. too or sunshine was there was me you and sunshine and i thought i'm gonna give up my seat because that would be a big thrill for for you jamie here on your second broadcast for sunshine and just to talk to the king and and yeah that was cool oh man i i never told you that it meant a lot and it really did so thank you sir very welcome um speaking of tpf are you going this year uh right now i'm not i've got it's a busy busy year for me calendar wise um i'm spending an extended vacation in california in june with my family for the ifpa 19 world championships um pinberg is now this year yeah spending a couple times in chicago it's just you know you look at how many vacation days you have uh you know i still have a job in radio 30 years in fact this year and uh i just thought okay that something's got to go and it's not that i don't love tpf because they absolutely do and in fact uh the work that ed and kim had done over the years just better and better part of it was how are you gonna top last year there were seven new games and it had nothing to do with that. It was just really calendar-wise. I don't know if I can squeeze it in and I still might come. I say that, but right now... Well, you've got a seat next to me, at least in the semifinals at the Classics and Wizards. I have a few people I've already promised the finals to and they're going to hold me to it, but I will get you on the mic if you do come down and we always have good banner together. I really appreciate it. Yeah, you do a great job. Well, thanks. We are streaming. Yeah, we're going to stream the Classics, Wizards, and Women's at TPF. And then this weekend, we've got our Texas State Championship, which we're going to do here at the Wormhole. Where are you going? So in Ontario, Canada, it's being held at Adam Becker's Press Start Arcade. Adam is the Ontario rep, and he's got a wonderful location there, all mix of old, mid, new games. dedicated pinball area in fact the ifpa 15 uh that's what it was ifpa 15 four years ago including the coveted years the world championships were held there so certainly top-notch games and and he's hosted i'd say seven of the last eight years maybe six and it's you know it's it's not central for everyone i mean it's not as big as texas texas is massive so you know it'd be nice if maybe we could rotate a little bit but you can't argue that the collection isn't wonderful, but you probably rotate in Texas too, don't you? You've got Dallas, you've got Austin and Houston, right? Yeah, Dallas, Austin, Houston, and I think San Antonio is going to get into the mix because they've got a really great place called What's Brewing that they might try to host there. But walk me through, you know, I have other things I want to talk to you about today, of course, but walk me through the Canadian qualification process because I'm pretty familiar with the U.S. qualification from a state and then to district 82 yeah exactly the same thing as far as um you know the top 24 were considered a super state or super province here in canada so top 24 get in uh based on your best 20 results over the last calendar year in events in ontario and top eight would get a buy you know a dollar comes out of every uh tournament in ontario and goes to that nacs pool And I think the states and provincials get 70%, 25% go to the nationals, which will be at District 82, as you mentioned, and then lives at MN. So if you're wondering where your dollars go, it basically goes back to the players in this format. So exact same as Texas and every other state and province. So the winner of the Ontario's will get an invite to go to District 82 for the nationals in March. Awesome. And where's the Worlds this year? Do you know? Yeah, so that's my extended vacation in California. Jim Velsito, who just ran a wonderful tournament along with Jay Collins and Carl D'Angelo at InDisc. Jim has, much like Adam, built Press Start Arcade, built a facility on his home location. Jim is one of the biggest operators in probably the United States, but certainly in California. He has hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of games. so he's got you know for the world championships you don't need hundreds and hundreds you probably need about 60 reliable games maybe even a little less and and he's built a facility to to to host that and so that's in i can't remember the name of the city starts with an m uh in california but somewhere kind of in between san diego and anaheim a little more to the east is where jim's going to be hosting it so that's coming up june 7th and 9th oh wow yeah so top 80 players in the world So two, I guess it's the top two country exemptions, and then the top women's player in the world, the European champion goes in, and probably the national champion too. So that makes up three of the 80 spots. Country exemptions get two per country, and then they filled out based on where you were ranked. Okay. Luckily enough, at the end of last year, for the second year in a row, I was the top Canadian, so I got a country exemption. Good. That's fantastic. Yeah. So you started, as you said, Pinball Profile back in 2016 with Steve Ritchie. Yeah. Do you ever think the community would grow as large as it has in just, what, six years, seven years?

  • Jeff has worked in radio for 30 years and has been involved in sales rather than on-air talent for 25 years

    high confidence · Jeff: 'I still have a job in radio 30 years in fact this year... doing the sales aspect in radio, which I've done for 25 years, has afforded me to be able to get some games, go to tournaments'

  • InDisc tournament drew 14,000 viewers per event

    medium confidence · Jeff mentions '14,000 people' watching InDisc in context of discussing growth and Pluto as a new fan converted by the experience

  • Van Halen pinball machine never happened due to multiple lead singers and licensing impossibility

    high confidence · Jeff reports direct quote from Wolfgang Van Halen: 'too many lead singers... we don't control all the songs, the family. So we've had too many lead singers and we can't get all the rights. It's impossible. It'll never happen.'

  • “You work to live, so to speak, right? You work to be able to provide for your family and do the things you want to do.”

    Jeff Teolis @ mid-conversation — Philosophy on work-life balance and why pinball media is passion-driven rather than profit-driven

    • Jim Velsito
    person
    IFPA 19 World Championshipsevent
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    InDiscevent
    American Pinballcompany
    Chicago Gamingcompany
    Multimorphiccompany
    Haggiscompany
    IE Pinballperson/brand
    Carl D'Angeloperson
    Marty Robbinsperson
    Wolfgang Van Halenperson

    high · Jersey Jack came in and said here's what else pinball can be... Spooky changed things... now you've got companies that can make games. You've got companies that have good business models

  • ?

    event_signal: IFPA 19 World Championships confirmed for June 7-9 at Jim Velsito's Press Start Arcade facility in California (between San Diego/Anaheim area)

    high · Jim Velsito... built a facility... he's hosting [worlds]... that's coming up june 7th and 9th... somewhere kind of in between san diego and anaheim

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Van Halen pinball machine licensing impossibility due to multiple lead singers across band history; family doesn't control all song rights collectively

    high · Wolfgang Van Halen explanation: too many lead singers... we don't control all the songs, the family... It's impossible. It'll never happen.

  • $

    market_signal: Rock/band pinball machines skew toward older, affluent fans (40s-60s with disposable income) due to $10,000+ price points; younger bands unlikely viable (fans lack purchasing power)

    high · problems with doing younger bands is the fans of the band probably don't have the income to spend $10,000 on a pinball machine. So that's why we keep seeing classic rock... these fans are in their 40s, 50s, 60s

  • ?

    community_signal: Jeff Teolis does live post-game interviews at tournaments without teleprompter/preparation, high-stakes on-air personality work with minimal safety net

    high · those interviews afterwards are live. They're done. And you get one take and hopefully you don't screw it up... I'm doing it off the seat of my pants

  • ?

    product_strategy: Haggis Pinball manufacturing Bally remakes (Centaur, Fathom, Kelts) with modern code updates and manufacturer warranty support as differentiation vs vintage machines

    medium · Instead of buying a 40-year-old machine, I thought, I'm going to buy a brand-new machine with the company to back up the parts... Now I get new code from my good friend Marty Robbins

    • 7:05
    Well – Or do you think it does? I mean, what do you think? I know how I was hooked immediately by, you know, when I see a lineup like you've got there at Wormhole And when I went to my first ever league and I saw a collection, a home collection that was rather big, I was in awe. And then my world was opened up that, oh, this is happening everywhere. I went to the Canadian, I guess it was the Canadian Pinball Championships. It was the first ever tournament I went to. And they had a classics in the main and I was successful enough to make the playoffs in both. So I thought, maybe I'm kind of good at this. First of all, I have fun. Whether I'm good or not doesn't matter. As long as you have fun, it matters. I just was having fun and having success. And then people would tell me about other things like Pinberg. So I think Pinberg was my second ever tournament. Wow. And, you know, I qualified in A to the second day of A. And I was like, okay, you know, maybe I've got something here. And then you just found out more and more about it. So I think, you know, as the games got better, as, you know, one of the biggest game changers in pinball, Stern was obviously keeping pinball alive in, you know, the dark ages, if you will, when arcades died,
    8:16
    all the other arcade companies or pinball companies kind of went by the wayside. They kept it alive. And then Jersey Jack came in and gave us Wizard of Oz and said, here's what else pinball can be. And you've got this big display and you've got all the stuff under the glass and just a crazy build. That's wonderful. And then I think that in turn went to Stern. You know, when they were the only cat in town, you know, you put out what you put out. You put out games like Iron Man. Great game, but, you know, not exactly a lot there to see, but still a great game. And then Jersey Jack goes, well, here's all this. And so Stern probably had to step up the game a little bit, and it took a few years. It really wasn't until, I'd say, Batman 66 when Stern went, okay, yeah, you know, we've got to add this screen. We've got to add more toys and mechs. And so now you've got Stern, you've got that, you've got Spooky, you've got American, you've got Haggis, You've got Chicago Gaming, Multimorphic, and so many more. Turner there is also one. Yeah, Barrels of Fun. You know what? There's my David Van Ness Barrels of Fun card right there. David's a wonderful guy. Absolutely. We'll see you there. What a great game. So you've got companies that can make games. You've got companies that have good business models that, you know, we all can't be stern, you know. Pinball is kind of like as stern as Coca-Cola, if you will. And I say that being a Pepsi loyal fan. Anyway, they're in a scope of law. But there is no other Pepsi until Jersey Jack came in and went, okay, you can kind of cut in. Everybody else was Mr. Pibbs. I don't know if you like that. No, we have it here. But I'm just saying everyone had a business model where like, okay, like Spooky was the one that kind of really, I think, changed things in a way that we don't have to sell thousands of games. We're going to sell whatever, how many hundred for America's Most Haunted and then Rob Zombie, and then they just keep going. And now they're doing double watches with Halloween Ultraman. They're doing Scooby-Doo and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And they've figured it out. Haggis is doing it with their Bally remakes. And you're getting a Centaur, aren't you? I'm getting a Centaur. Yeah, that's right. You've been listening. I'm looking forward to that. And I'm in no hurry. I realize it's a slow build for Haggis, but I'd rather them take their time, get it right as they have with Fathom, which is gorgeous. Kelts is a fun game too. So I've always liked Centaur. I've always wanted a Centaur. Instead of buying a 40-year-old machine, I thought, I'm going to buy a brand-new machine with the company to back up the parts and any kind of issues that you have that you want when you're investing that much money. And now I get new code from my good friend Marty Robbins, who I do final round with. I'm in. So I'm looking forward to it. No, but it's interesting. I mean, you think about this past weekend at InDesk, and you did a great job, of course, not only commentating, but I love you on the post-game interviews, if you will. Thanks. You know, sideline reporter post-game. I love that. Can I just jump in? I get a kick out of doing those, too, and I do it with Emoto Harney, who's wonderful. You know, Emoto from, obviously, Marco Pinball and what she does in Alabama at her own arcade. But, you know, we kind of, those interviews afterwards are live. They're done. And you get one take and hopefully you don't screw it up. So when we get done, you know, I turn off the mic and she's like, thanks. I'm like, thank you. And I say, you realize most TV people have teleprompters. And, you know, you can see their eyes kind of going back and forth to read the teleprompter. Right. I'm doing it off the seat of my pants and hopefully not trying to screw things up. But you do screw up. I don know if you caught it or not but Anna Neal who I known for years and I watched her stream on Hot Nudge I said coming up next the high stakes with Steve Bowden and I think Yasmin was in there And I said and Anna Neal from Hot Fudge And it Hot Nudge And I didn even think about it till afterwards And someone told me I like oh I go off live And I was listening to disco before. And I was listening to probably hot fudge. So screw ups happen. That's sure.
    12:24
    But I mean, 14,000 people. Yeah, that's there's a guy named Pluto who's a partner manager. And he is really passionate into pinball. kind of caught the bug last year. You talk about the growth of pinball. It's people like this. Like, oh, wow, I didn't know this existed. And, oh, my gosh, it's not video games and patterns and downloadable characters and this and that. It's physical. It's different every game.
    12:53
    It's skill-based. There is a luck factor, but it's certainly not the primary thing. And I think he just fell in love with it. So, yeah, plus it's IE pinball, right? you know. Come on, he's the GOAT. When we talk about Stern being the Coca-Cola of pinball, i.e. pinball is the Coca-Cola. And I'm interviewing him next week. Once he gets better, I'm interviewing him. I'm going to pick his brain as much as humanly possible. And I just think it's so fantastic for someone like him and what Fox City does and JDL Pinball and these great streamers because I can't come into the stream game and stream these things down in Texas and not do try to do as good a job as they're doing, right? It's not even a contest, Jamie. Oh, I don't look at it that way. I look at it as they're setting the bar. And you know what? They're giving you a template of, oh, wow, this works. This is successful. And then you add your own brand and personality to it. But yeah, it's great to have, like you say, JDL and what Jack Danger did and IE Pinball, Fox Cities. They all do a great competition thing. So here you are, a relatively new guy, And now only in your third year of doing this, you know, seeing, okay, I guess that's how it's going to be done. So, yeah, it's funny because you're in the media, I'm in the media as far as, you know, this pinball world. And I think people on the outside think there's competition. There isn't.
    14:20
    I have never cared one iota about being the best, being the most listened to, blah, blah. I don't care. And most of my friends don't care either that are doing this like yourself. it's about doing the best I can do and doing something that I'm proud of and I have to have fun doing it and I do have fun doing it but you know people on the outside like oh it's important for things like twippies and awards I could care less about stuff like that it means nothing yeah it's nice to be recognized you know it can be you know um I'll I'll spend $50 on a copay with my therapist jeff talking about that with her but uh you know i it is it what i love about this place and i love about this community you know the joke uh how do you know someone's in a crossfit no in their mouth they talk to you right you know so you know how it's the same as pinball right i think it's the same as pinball i think we're like vegans like within three minutes of talking to me, I'm going to tell you how much I love pinball. Yeah. And you're going to see the passion in my face. And I think that's what's so great about people like you and, you know, our other content creators is there's a passion for this hobby, sport, and, you know, the competitiveness of the sport. Because I think it's a sport. I really do. I think competitive pinball, without question, is a sport. And it's hard. Pinball itself is a game, but the competitions are the sport. Absolutely. So you're right. But yeah, I mean, we do this for fun. I mean, we, you know, we all want everyone to succeed. And I say that, like, if any of those pinball companies I mentioned earlier, fail, it's kind of a failure for everyone else. I mean, but but that being said, it also makes pinball companies have to do better. And and okay, we missed the mark on this, we have to improve on. Sure.
    16:14
    But it's the same for streamers, the same for video content makers and podcasts. You know, we do it because we have our own take on it, whether it's, you know, it's all subjective, right? It's like art and we have fun doing it. But we're all buds here. You know, like I was wearing this earlier, my good friends at Loser Kid, you know. Yeah, they're good podcasts. I enjoy them. podcasters and you you just mentioned all the streamers and stuff and i absorb it all so when you say again back to your original question do you think this would ever grow well look at the passion of people whether it's and these content creators look at how you've just kind of exploded in the last few years with you know doing these competitive streams like this weekend for states or texas pinball festival your regular monday night wormhole fun it's just it's we do it because it's fun yeah well we're certainly not making any money uh doing this part of it uh well some of us are but not me uh i just do it because it's just a passion of mine and you know i've told this story multiple times but uh i wanted to be a broadcaster like you are okay i want i went to school for broadcasting i this is what i wanted to do and i my the stupid school canceled the damn program And so it was either leave this girl, right, okay, or go into business and do HR. And that's what I've done. So this just tickles my little thing that I did. Part of me that said, boy, you always wanted to do this, man. Somebody's going to cut that out because you are on Wormhole and say, this tickles my little thing. I know. That'll be the clip. I'm just telling you right now. Yeah, that's true. but okay you know um i have been in radio for yeah 30 years 30 years and when i first got into it like you wanting to take that course i wanted to be the long-haired led zeppelin playing rock jock and stuff and and crack jokes and and you know make entertain people all that stuff that didn't last long because once i got into it i was like uh you know that there's a lineup of people behind me that are probably a better than me and b that will do it for less money so everybody wants to be that whatever on-air person i think when they first get into it but i realized quickly uh if i can share a quick story oh please to come up with these ideas and i would say them to the sales people and i'd say you know you should sell this here's what we can do on air a contest let's say and the sales people would like their eyes come out their head and they would go, oh my God, let me make some phone calls or fax machines back in the day. And within an hour, they'd come back and say, hey, Jeff, thanks. I just sold a $10,000 deal. Come on, I'm taking you to lunch. I was like, oh, good for me. I got a free lunch. I remember it very well.
    19:11
    My friend Barb sold this package. She took me to lunch, and then after lunch, she said, thanks again for coming up with that idea. My client's really happy, made some money. I'm just going to bugger off and go to the cottage for the weekend and I said okay well thanks again for lunch she drove off in her nice sports car to her cottage I got my crappy K car to my rental apartment and I went wait a second that was my idea if I can come up with that stuff why am I not in sales and that's when the light went off I was 29 years old and I went this on air thing is it's cool to get concerts and t-shirts it doesn't pay the bills And doing the sales aspect in radio, which I've done for 25 years, has afforded me to be able to get some games, go to tournaments like Texas, and do what I want to do. You work to live, so to speak, right? You work to be able to provide for your family and do the things you want to do. So I made that switch and that epiphany really almost 25 years ago on radio. and podcasting gives me the urge in my 20s when I still kind of want to be on air, but I want to do my thing, and I get to do my thing. I get to talk to people like yourself and travel and go do these events like Indisc and other things.
    20:31
    I'm filling that need, and it's not about financial. It's about just the fun part that you and I have. Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. I still wanted to do it. I still have $50 with my therapist. But there's just no regrets. I was on a podcast, a soccer podcast. And then prior to that, I've always been my kids' announcers. So I've always done these stupid things. And my kids played lacrosse.
    21:03
    And I'm sure you guys played box lacrosse up there. Believe it or not, hockey and lacrosse are the two national sports. No, I know that. I know that very, very well. I played neither. ever my kids played lacrosse and i played soccer and golf i was a golfer whatever uh so you're a sport nut though right so because i'm a sport nut and very few of us in this community are sport nuts so every time i talk sports uh i could hear the people leaving uh our stream but that's okay we can do this for a little bit uh you travel you travel throughout the united states to some stadiums, first of all, what team do you support?
    21:45
    Okay, if I have to pick one team, being Taylor, I'm going to pick the Blue Jays, right? Okay. But that being said, and I'll go to different events, and I'm at Pintastic, and I'll be wearing my Boston hat. I'll go to Pinnberg, and I'll be wearing my Pittsburgh hat. I have all the hats. Okay, you're never going to see me wearing a Boston hat. I can guarantee you that. As a Yankee fan, I can't do it. The only reason I wore it last year at Pintastic is because they were behind the Blue Jays. If they were ahead of the Blue Jays, I don't wear that.
    22:14
    But that being said, because of the radio aspect of my job, one of my favorite parts of the radio job is that I actually get to cover Major League Baseball. And even though you think, this guy's pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball is like my girlfriend. I'm married to baseball. I love, love, love baseball. and so so i have a massive passion for baseball uh my father is a nut baseball player he was a good ball player and they were long islanders so they were he was a brooklyn dodger fan and then obviously they move and he would still listen to lynn at night and he'd go to bed listening at night and uh so then it met so most of long islanders are met fans mitch jets islanders would be the three that you would follow next, right? Yeah. So I, being the pain in the ass kid, was a Yankee fan because my parents, my mother's Puerto Rican and lived in the Bronx. And so I would go once a month to Yankee Stadium. And I just fell in love with the cathedral that was Yankee. Old Yankee Stadium. Old Yankee. I don't mind New Yankee, but it's not Old Yankee Stadium. It's one of my least, the new one is one of my least favorite ballparks. And I've been to Oakland. really over Oakland has terrible seating yeah doesn't matter to me I'm in the media booth so I don't really care it's got crazy foul lines it was a football stadium they tried to do they don't ever do that anymore it's baseball the only one that's still like that is actually the Rogers Sky Dome the Sky Dome the Rogers Center was used as a multi-purpose thing but baseball only stadiums are great New York The Yankee Stadium is just too corporate. It's too stuffy. Oh, I know. It's not. And, again, I'm comparing it to the old house that we were in, and that place was just spectacular. And it doesn't capture the same feel. It's the exact same area across the street from where the old one was. It just doesn do it for us Maybe that why they only won one Well they keep signing guys like Jacob Ellsbury to stupid contracts That was a good one. That Jambi was a good one. There's a lot of them. It's funny. They got a lot of guys who were juicers and stuff, and when the juice ran out, their bodies seemed to break down, didn't they?
    24:42
    Jambi couldn't see, remember? but again you know it's not a they can afford to do it they've got the yes network that sorry sports network that's got the money to back them up so if they just cut the check and they get a lot of uh bad three four year back ends of the deals and you know they're going to suffer with for another four years and you know that judge deal yeah he was the mvp when he did it you're going to hate the last four or five years of that deal no but i mean i've been through this before You're in Houston for God's sakes They've had such a great team They do I'm not going to leave a lifelong Yankee Because of Houston The trash cans and all the crap That they did to my team Still a great team They proved it People aren't going to shake that rap But they proved it by winning it With Dusty a few years ago And have been there all the time And keep replenishing that team Great sports town Houston If you're winning Yeah I don't know when this airs but the Texans have a big game They're going to be up against the Ravens I'm going to put this up tomorrow actually Okay so The Ravens are tough to beat but We'll see Alright no more sports because we're losing Who cares no one was watching me anyway That's true Someone told me you're a big rock and roll guy
    26:06
    So that's I think that's why I wanted to get into radios because I just absolutely love, love music. Yeah. You can see the Zap Machine. No, I mean. There's Rush, there's ACDC over there, and down over my left shoulder, there's a nice Foo Fighters poster from when they played in Toronto.
    26:31
    I like the rock games a lot, but I can. It's funny, we were just talking about this on Final Round with Marty. They're hit and miss As far as I think Rush is a spectacular game But I know when it comes to the band Rush People love Rush Or absolutely hate Rush There's not a lot of middle ground Not on Rush Because of Getty's voice It's like Neil Young, Bob Dylan So if you can't get past that You probably don't want to play the game No, because he's just blaring in your ear Every ball When Iron Maiden came out That game was like, oh, my God, look at this game. But a lot of people weren't big Maiden fans. Neil McRae of the U.K. changed his game to Disco Maiden, which is fun as hell to play, by the way.
    27:18
    I know a lot of people like, or even Metallica, which is a little more mainstream. But people changed all the music because they didn't want to hear it. But the game is great. Yeah. I mean, is there an off-the-wall band that you think deserves a pin, maybe?
    27:33
    Band? An off-the-wall one that deserves one? Or that you'd like to see? Well, sadly, it just got made last year, and sadly, it's not well-received. Spinal Tap. Yeah. So Spinal Tap is my all-time favorite movie. In fact, when you go to CPF, you would see the remade Flash Gordon that the person did with Spinal Tap, and it was fun as heck to play. but the home pin version is just kind of it doesn't seem to grab me a little bit but yeah I don't know I think it's time for maybe some sort of female icon to have a pinball machine I can't believe somebody like Madonna or Lady Gaga maybe not Lady Gaga, still too new but I mean lots of fans the problem with doing younger bands is the fans of the band probably don't have the income to spend $10,000 on a pinball machine. So that's why we keep seeing classic rock. Yeah. Because these fans are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and probably have a little more disposable income, right? Yeah.
    28:44
    They're past the rental apartment and K-Card. That's exactly why, right? I mean, that's exactly why. I mean, you're not going to see a Beyonce pin, which would be really cool.
    28:53
    All the single ladies, multi-ball, it could be really funny and fun. You're in H-Town there. They love her. Listen, Beyonce, you ask my wife, Ann. I hate using this term. I'm not trying to be sexist by any mean. It's a joke when I say this. The freebie is B. B is like my all-time favorite.
    29:17
    And my wife goes, she's playing in Toronto this summer. Do you want to go to the concert? I go, I don't want to listen to her. I want to. Oh, gosh. I love that. I love the audience. She's fantastic. But, I mean, I don't know. I told this story once before, and so every time I tell a story more than once, I get a bunch of IMs telling me to stop telling it, but I'm going to tell one more. So Wolfgang Van Halen's birthday party here at the Wormhole, I grabbed. Oh, wow.
    29:48
    So they walk in with Mark Tremonti. Mark Tremonti is the one that set that up. Nice. And your boy, Mark. And Wolfie walks in with his mom, Valerie, and they're blown away. And Valerie only wanted to play the old-time games. So we had a Beatles here at the time, and she was dying. Her first pinball machine that she owned was a Captain Fantastic. And she bought it very early in her career. And her manager told her, what are you, crazy? You can't own a pinball machine. She's like, I can do whatever I want. And she bought a Captain Fantastic. But anyway, I said to Wolfie, I said, hey, why is there not a Van Halen pinball machine, man? What's going on over here? And he said, too many lead singers. That's it. What do you mean? That's it. How do you, you know. Because I can't. He goes, we don't control all the songs, the family. So we've had too many lead singers and we can't get all the rights. It's impossible. It'll never happen. So that's sad. It is tough. You know, I don't even know how you would do that because is it going to be a Sammy one? Is it going to be a David one? I think you could have like the rotating singer, right? You could even put the guy from Extreme. He was on there for a little bit. Gary Sharon. Yeah.
    31:08
    Just there's a new lead singer. You hit the spinner. It's got a lead singer spinner. No, I mean, I don't know how you would do it. No, for rock games. It never happened. Zeppelin was the one I was always hoping they would make And I love the code of the game And stuff It's not the most fun game But it's actually a great competition game So Tim owns a Zeppelin And He lets me house one of his He's got 173 machines I mean Jiminy Christmas So he can let me house one or two Occasionally And he does, he's very kind with his Collection to me So I was just housing Mandalorian because I suck at it and I wanted work on Mandalorian. And now I GC'd the thing because I'm 2,000 in the world, not 43rd like you are. So there's a difference there. But I need work on Stern machines. So you've got a good point there. And Carlos de la Serta gave me great advice because we were talking about games. I gave him a list of games I don't really like playing. And he said when he goes to an event and he sees them in the lab, those are the first games he plays just okay now i know the shots at least and you know it's i i he kind of deflate that negative feeling a little bit and and you know maybe have some success on like okay i'm okay to play such and such games so well do you ever walk up to a machine competitively and you're playing other partners and maybe you see them and they're not doing the things they should be doing right and you're going okay not that i'm going to beat them or but they just don't know and what's really wild about this community is at the end of the night they're going to come up to you and they're going to go hey dude do you see these uh drop targets these these targets at the end for mandalorian that's everything about this game you've got to get your multipliers up then start a mode and then do your multi-ball and you're going to print points right and i know that I had no idea. So I'm done with Mandalorian, and now I'm switching, and I'm putting in Led Zeppelin in my house because that's a game that I want more time on. And when I see it at a tournament, I just panic. I'm like, I'm never going to get $20 million. I stink at it. Is it a pro or a premium? It's an LE. It's an LE, so that's what that is. Yeah. I actually prefer the pro to the LE and the premium. Because you don't like the thing that comes up? The electric magic. I've had mine disabled for two and a half years, so I basically make it like a pro. Why do you do that? The reason why is because to be successful at Led Zeppelin, it is all about hitting combos.
    33:50
    It's not about hitting drop targets or starting multibarling. It's all about how many combos can you make. Hard to hit combos with magic. When that comes up, it kills it because it will, depending on what flipper you're in, it'll shoot maybe either a drop target or the Icarus stand-up. And the Icarus stand-up starts your playfield multiplier. You don't want to start that until you're in a multi-ball. Okay. You can do a song. And until you've built up enough combos. My record on that thing is I've had a playfield multiplier of 130.9 times playfield. So think of how much every jackpot was worth. So you can't do that if you're always hitting the Icarus target. So you never want to hit Icarus. You just want to hit combos until you're ready to, okay, let's cash it in now. And then just every shot is like doubling your score or whatever. You know, it's increasing certainly exponentially.
    34:47
    It's just a pin I want more time on. And he's very generous in letting me do it. And I geek out. Plus, I love the music, right? I'm such a nut. that I just want to listen to it all day, every day. Well, Tim Hood's a good guy there, and obviously what he's doing at Wormhole. That's interesting you say that, because the games I have bought in the recent years, I purchased because I thought, I'm never going to learn them unless I own them. Right. You have to house them until you can really delve into that code, right? Yep. So Rush would be a perfect example. If you are just going up to rush once in a while in an arcade or in a competition, you're probably going to lose, even if you're great. Because if you don't know what to do in that game, you're in trouble. I mean, yeah. And that is a compliment and a concern. A compliment because the code is deep and it has all this stuff. But the concern is the game isn't very intuitive in games like that. If you have to own the game to figure it out, Zeppelin would be like that. It doesn't really tell you what to do and how to do it. I mean, we were just talking about Zeppelin and the combos. You're like, oh, okay, I guess that's it. That is it. But if you don't own it, you don't know it. And, you know, the one, two, three combos and the weapon button and everything else, it really, I would never be able to play Rush if I didn't own it first or had a lot of time. So there are a lot of games like that. You know, I think Foo Fighters took me a while, and I don't own it. Foo Fighters still takes me a while. I played a lot on Friday night, so now I, you know, I certainly don't own it, but now I've had enough time that, okay, I get it. I'm sure it'll be like that with Jaws. There are some games like Teenage Turtles I don really get yet I have to get more time on it Star Wars would be another one I need more time I need more time on Star Wars I need more time on Batman 66.
    36:41
    I played the hell out of it last night. You know Batman 66. You're fourth or third in the world. I was fooling around with the bookworm freeze thing last night.
    36:57
    Yep. You know, people like it, and they like that move instead of going right away to the double multi, you know, the two-ball multi-ball guy, whatever his name is. So games like Batman 66, you know, if you pick Shame, you get the two-ball multiplier, but you're not getting a lot of points. Bookworm kind of, okay, well, this kind of carries over, so it's a good ball one strat. It's kind of like Guardians of the Galaxy. You know, in a competition, people might pick Quill's Quest first, which is an instant two ball multi-ball. That's what I always do because I don't know how I'm doing. You're making shots and maybe you're getting shot multipliers, but you're making zero progress on Groot or Orb multi-ball. So that's fine to do that to get a feel of shots, but when that ends, you've got to get back in the scoop, start another mode, and basically you're starting over. So I like Quills Quest maybe ball two or ball three. once I've got some multiballs and shot multipliers and things like that. So, yeah, I mean, again, that's another game. Until I owned it, I didn't really, you know, you could go, oh, I'm just going to group multiball, but those are just crap. Group orb, orb, orb, whatever. That's it. You know, jumping to N-Disc again real quick. I interviewed Dalton the other day. Oh, nice. What a sweetheart of a human being. Yeah, yeah. he shared with me the pinball monk story are you familiar with this? well I wasn't until Indisc and for those that don't know when he won the $15,000 high stakes tournament to end Indisc on Sunday night there's been great media coverage for it and well deserved for what he does in Georgia he mentioned that it was his first Indisc and he gave a big thanks to pin monk for making it possible for him to be at it is because it's expensive uh and and pin monk was a big reason that don't was even able to be there so yeah shout out to pin monk for sure i mean paid his way into the high stakes came up to him and said i have a feeling that you're gonna do something and and just it gave me chills and uh is he as sweet as he is in person. I haven't met him. Yeah, he's a... I get such a kick out of his cartoons. He posted one today. Yeah, he does. Talking about his F-14 and Batman Forever. Really, he legitimately got screwed on. He could have actually been in the finals of the Open, but Batman Forever, he hit the side super jackpot and it didn't register and he's playing. He's like, come on!
    39:41
    Unfortunately, that screwed a lot of people, but it was the worst possible time for Dalton. And, you know, he's an excitable young guy for sure.
    39:52
    He's, I think with, I've noticed this with great players and stuff, and he is one of the best, is some of the locals, anybody, this is not Dalton, this is anybody, there's some little bit of resentment, like, oh, Dalton's going to win, or oh, you know, what's going to win in Colorado or name whoever, right? Jack there in Houston, who's another wonderful young guy. I had a great time. Did you get a chance to meet him? Well, Jack I met, I think the first time was at Houston Space City Open in 2019. And I think he was there with his dad. And I actually got a picture of the two of them holding up a sign saying Jeff Peebles for IFPA president. It was really funny. But I saw Jack who was at his first Indisc And he's a young guy and he's traveling to Indisc On his own and stuff We had a great chat And Yeah we played a dollar game afterwards And I'm proud to say he's one dollar poorer Thanks to Stargazer But Jack's such a good The sky's the roof for him And again back to Dalton Great young guy And the sky's the limit They're just getting started They've got 30 years of great pinball ahead of them. You know, I love the fact that we have all these young kids playing this sport. Do you? Because I used to, and then I thought, well, they're the ones beating me. I'm no good, so it doesn't matter to me. Get them out of here. Beat it. I'm good at this. I'll commentate all day. I don't have to. As long as I know the game and know what you guys are doing, I'm in good shape. I just can't. I'm the exact same with you. I love seeing the, again, back to your original question, the explosion of pinball. So I love seeing the expansion with young people probably the most, and also with women too, because pinball really is for everyone, and they're becoming more accessible and stuff.
    41:51
    More arcades are popping up again. Home collection certainly is the dominant part of the pinball scene, but when you've got places like Wormhole and all the places across North America and the world, it's coming back, and it's not just nostalgia. You know, I think they're still a long ways away from competing with video game consoles and e-sports. And it'll never be that because it's just too expensive. But it's a little more fun in a sense. It's just, you know, if someone were going to spend $10,000 on a pinball machine or $10,000 on every possible video game, they're probably going to pick the video games, right? Yeah, sure. But there's something cool about Valerie Bertinelli or anybody owning a pinball machine. It's like, yeah, you can do it. And the great thing about it versus video games, when you buy a video game and you buy the brand new MLB 24, the show, that's great. You spend your $90 or whatever it is to buy the thing. In six months, that thing might be worth $20 if it's even transferable because it's probably a downloadable thing. That's right. Play a pinball machine, you don't lose money on it. In fact, it probably makes money. So that's the one thing pinball has over video games.
    43:08
    Well, so let's real quick get you on the traveling. You said you were traveling tremendously for pinball. What is on tap for you this year, 2024, for traveling? It's on a different computer. I could go find out. But I do know I've got – I'm debating. I think I have a conflict, but I really want to go back to Pintastic in the Boston area.
    43:32
    I actually look at where baseball teams are playing. Awesome. I would do the same thing. If baseball teams are playing and there's a tournament going on, I might find a way there. So that one, the Red Sox are there in mid-April. I missed Pinball at the Zoo in Michigan last year. I'm going to do that in April.
    43:51
    May, I just talked to Levy about when is Allentown because that was fun. in the Philly area. June is crazy big because of Yagpin in Alberta, Canada's biggest tournament. It's kind of a match play Pinberg-like tournament. And then, of course, Pinberg itself is coming back. Right, which was a great interview. I loved it. Well, yeah. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe get in? Maybe some Pinberg excitement right there at Wormhole. Who knows? I roll my eyes. Who knows? Anyway, so that's late July I run a massive tournament called The Beast in Buffalo, New York at Parketeer Billiards and we had great success, in fact after next year it'll be a regular part of the Stern Pro circuit if that remains at 20 Oh that's awesome, congratulations So there's that and then I've got Chicago a couple of times I missed pre-play Florida last year if it goes back to Orlando I'd like to hit that and again that World Championships thing in June so So busy schedule. That's a very, very busy schedule. And I'm going to add something on your 2025 list, okay? Okay. We're shutting this down. We are building a museum here in downtown Houston about, as the crow flies, maybe 15 miles from here. Wow. We're going to be using Tim's collection. They bought a building, about 13,000, 14,000 square feet. It's going to fit about 125 beautiful pins, some that no one has ever played. and he just bought 60 pins from Europe. So they're an IOMOON. I'll throw out some other crazy things that no one has heard about.
    45:34
    And so I think that we're pushing for 2025, October of 2025. That's going to be our big Bayou Bash. And I would love for you to be there if ever possible. Oh, for sure. I've only been to Houston a couple times I've been there about three or four times but most of those times are just at the airport to transfer on to wherever I was but I did spend extended time there at the Space City Open in 2019 and I had a great time and I just wish beg oh my god have an event sometime between April and October so I can come and see one of the only four parks I haven't seen in the Enron Field or Minutemate. I'll take you there. I've been there. I go all the time. And I love the park. You'll actually really like the park. It's nice. Very open.
    46:32
    I drove by it, but nothing was happening. I got rid of the stupid hill, Jeff, that was in center. In center field? As a former center fielder, and that's why I think I like baseball is because I played for up until I was 44 years old and then went into pinball. I can't imagine. You're tracking a flagpole, and all of a sudden you hit this thing. That's damage to your niche. You're probably going to wipe out. It was stupid. How's Hill? I think he was a former GM or whatever. Dumb. It was dumb. It was absolutely dumb. Jeff, thank you so much. For those that want to get in touch with Jeff, obviously, you can download Pinball Profile. Yeah, pinballprofile.com on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. at pinballprofile, pinballprofile at gmail.com.
    47:23
    We've got lots of good things coming up. This airs tomorrow. You're going to be seeing my top 10 most intriguing people of 2023. I do it every year. When is that going up? This week.
    47:37
    That is awesome. I love that show. That's a really good show of yours. Thank you so much. It's a real tip of the cap to people who have done some extraordinary things and eye-opening things, if you will. So some are obvious, some are not obvious. And the ones that aren't obvious, hopefully, you know, you go, oh, let me find out more about that person. No, it's great. I'm glad that you do that. It's really awesome. Of course, you can contact Wormhole at WormholePinball at gmail.com. You can follow us on Twitch and YouTube and all the social media platforms. Real quick, my boy Donovan really busts his butt on those little videos and shorts that he does. And we're getting a really tremendous amount of views on it. We're just not getting any thumbs up. Give the guy, throw him a phone, ladies and gentlemen. Donovan. Just give it a like. Help out Donovan. Sure. Well, that's good. Keep up the good work. Thanks, man. I really appreciate you. Thanks for doing this, Jeff. I really appreciate your time. It was a great conversation, man. I appreciate it. All the best, Jamie, and everyone there in Houston. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.