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Kaneda's Pinball Podcast Saturday Morning Spectacular Jan 24

Kaneda Pinball Podcasts YouTube Lives·video·1h 19m·analyzed·Jan 24, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Kaneda critiques Stern's remaster strategy, pricing model, and marketing while discussing Pokemon delays and industry consolidation.

Summary

Kaneda hosts a Saturday morning livestream discussing pinball industry news, market dynamics, and Stern Pinball's recent missteps. He criticizes Stern's failure to survey the community before remastering The Walking Dead, expresses skepticism about Pokemon Pinball's quality relative to Transformers, and suggests the LE/Premium/Pro three-tier pricing model needs better art differentiation to justify cost. He also discusses American Pinball's recent acquisition, market consolidation, and reflects on community dynamics and interpersonal relationships within the pinball ecosystem.

Key Claims

  • Pokemon Pinball will release on January 30th in two versions: Pikachu and Charizard

    medium confidence · Kaneda mentions hearing about this from unknown sources; not officially confirmed

  • Stern's The Walking Dead Remastered is a colossal failure with only five Pinside pages of discussion

    high confidence · Kaneda directly observes Pinside thread activity and expresses strong opinion on poor game selection

  • King Kong LE is struggling to sell, with one collector unable to get a single offer at $9,800

    medium confidence · Kaneda cites anecdotal evidence from 'a friend of a friend'

  • Transformers will be a significantly better game than Pokemon according to people who have seen both

    medium confidence · Kaneda cites unnamed sources who have played both games

  • Beetlejuice will dominate Pinball at the Beach show

    medium confidence · Kaneda's prediction based on aesthetic quality and show games availability

  • There is a cryptic email reporting a major mechanical design flaw in Beetlejuice from an anonymous source

    low confidence · Kaneda received anonymous email; refuses to provide details; same person previously sent Ryan McQuade chat leak

  • Stern should only put premium art packages on LE versions, with minimal art on Pro and different art on Premium

    high confidence · Kaneda's direct marketing/product strategy criticism based on Harry Potter CE outselling Arcade Edition

  • Harry Potter CE (Arcade Edition) outsells the $10,000 Premium version almost 10 to 1 despite being 50% more expensive

    medium confidence · Kaneda cites this as example of art differentiation success; specific ratio not independently verified

Notable Quotes

  • “Stern just can't get Pokemon out. What's going on with the Pokemon?”

    Kaneda @ early — Highlights persistent delays and community frustration with Pokemon Pinball release

  • “The fact that Stern got that so wrong is really indicative, in my honest opinion, of a company that is missing the mark big time. There is no way Stern Pinball with all of their knowledge of this community should ever create such a failure of a remastered.”

    Kaneda @ mid — Core criticism of Stern's decision-making on The Walking Dead Remastered selection without community input

  • “Think about how stupid they've become by insulating themselves in such an arrogant way that they know what we want more than we know what we want.”

    Kaneda @ mid — Accuses Stern of arrogance and insularity in product decisions

  • “You don't hear Stern talk like that. Brett could buy Stern Pinball tomorrow, and he would be like, 'Uh, he wouldn't even like feel it like in his account.'”

    Kaneda @ mid — Contrasts Spooky Pinball's (Brett Abbis) commitment to quality with Stern's apparent resource limitations or lack of drive

  • “The good people with the good hearts and the good intentions, you know, they're still around. They're still around. Like Jerry Stellenberg is a good guy. He's still around. Chris Turner is a great guy. He's still around. You know, the good people last.”

    Kaneda @ mid — Suggests karma in pinball industry: bad actors fail, good people endure

  • “I think we have the most entertaining conversation about pinball on a weekly basis. I do.”

    Kaneda @ mid — Self-assessment of his podcast's value and community role

  • “The fact that I give it away for $5 a month, like $5 a month to get the amount of content you get, the amount of time it takes... I'm never raising that amount. It's the principle.”

    Kaneda @ late — Explains his pricing philosophy and community commitment despite economic opportunity

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyKanedapersonPokemon PinballgameThe Walking Dead RemasteredgameKing KonggameTransformers PinballgameBeetlejuice

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball making 'more of all the games nobody wants' (Legends of Valhalla); Kaneda reconsidering interview; post-acquisition strategy unclear

    medium · they're making Legends of Valhalla again, I'm kind of like, what? More of all the games nobody wants

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinside threads about Kaneda created and likely to be moderated/locked; debate over whether community criticism belongs on forum

    high · Canada threads have taken over Pinside... They won't last... We'll see how long they last

  • ?

    community_signal: Kaneda's peer network (Ralph, Kale, Jamie, Carrie Hardy) maintains collaborative relationships and mutual respect despite community tension around his persona

    high · Ralph, Don, Kale, Jamie, like we're all chilling. Like we're all having hanging out... everyone gets along

  • ?

    design_philosophy: King Kong criticized for art direction oversaturation and repeated use across tier models; Jeremy Packer characterized as overextended

    high · Jeremy, you are talented, but you oversaturated yourself... the colors have been a little oversaturated as well

  • $

    market_signal: Consolidation of pinball manufacturing with good companies enduring and bad actors failing; karma narrative around industry personalities and business ethics

    medium · The bad people have all failed... The good people with the good hearts and the good intentions, you know, they're still around

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:17
Settling in. I need some coffee. I'll be right back. I'm going to go get some coffee. I'll be right back. Moderation makes people feel safe. Screw that. Screw moderation. I don't want people to feel safe. Close
0:43
Who needs moderation? No. I want to be right back. Let me get my coffee. Enter.
1:53
What is up? WHERE'S SAD BOY, BABY? SAD BOY WITH THE 50 BUCKS. DID HE HIT YET? Did I hit Canada?
2:04
Ah, what's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? We're talking pinball, baby. We're talking pinball in the house. We got my coffee. We're ready to rock. We're ready to roll. I need a better setup. But like, until then, until all are one. Here we go. I don't know why I'm so far. Does that sound good?
2:32
All right. How we Oh, I'm sounding great. Looking great, feeling great. Life is great. Life is short. Very short. Enjoy every moment of it, gents, cuz you're not going to get another go on this rock. Okay. How's everybody doing? I'm at my arcade. K says, "Where my people at? Where my people at? It's freezing out. We're going to get the snowfall, but no Pokemon. We continue to wait for Pokemon. Everybody's waiting for Pokemon. Stern just can't get Pokemon out. What's going on with the Pokemon? Wait. Give me something. Give me something. I need to just clean this. Hold on.

“Everyone who plays pinball is having a good time. Everyone who's collecting is always complaining every day.”

Orbital Albert @ late — Contrasts player satisfaction vs. collector satisfaction, cited approvingly by Kaneda

  • “Because what what started happening was these guys, like, it didn't even take like calculus to figure out like, wait a minute, we're telling everybody we do this because we love it. We don't do it for the money. Yeah, but he's looking like he's having a good time, bro.”

    Kaneda @ late — Explains why other content creators criticized his paywall move; defends the legitimacy of monetization

    • game
    Harry Potter Pinballgame
    American Pinballcompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    George Gomezperson
    Jeremy Packerperson
    Brett Abbisperson
    Iceman44person
    Neil McCraeperson
    Pinball at the Beachevent
    Pinsideorganization
    Ralphperson
    Kaleperson
    Jamieperson
    Carrie Hardyperson
    Legends of Valhallagame
    Silverball Swagcompany
    Doug Mo Jr.person
    $

    market_signal: King Kong LE secondary market failure; unsold at $9,800 despite premium positioning

    medium · I have a friend of a friend who's trying to sell a King Kong LE for $9,800. Not He said, 'I didn't get a single offer. Not a single offer.'

  • $

    market_signal: Kaneda criticizes Stern's CMO hire as having 'not had a single good idea yet'; contrasts with lack of transparency about marketing strategy

    high · we hired a CMO that hasn't had a single good idea yet? How dare you? How dare you make such sense of it all?

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jeremy Packer is art director at Stern Pinball; appears to be overextended and potential source of frustration with George Gomez over resource allocation

    high · Jeremy, you are the art director at Stern Pinball right now... why are you slaving away for three models of the game?

  • $

    market_signal: Three-tier pricing model showing sustainability issues; LE versions struggle to differentiate from Premium/Pro; Kaneda argues art should only appear on LE

    high · There should be a drastic difference between the $13,000 LE and the $9,500 Premium. Drastic difference.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Pokemon Pinball faces ongoing production delays; community waiting extended period; Kaneda mentions it multiple times as missing deadline expectations

    high · Everybody's waiting for Pokemon. Stern just can't get Pokemon out. What's going on with the Pokemon?

  • ?

    product_strategy: Harry Potter CE/Arcade Edition significantly outsells Premium version despite higher price; suggests strong consumer preference for unique art packages

    medium · Why is the CE out selling the $10,000 version? It's 50% more money and it's out selling it like almost 10 to 1

  • ?

    product_concern: Anonymous source reports major mechanical design flaw in Beetlejuice; Kaneda received cryptic email but declines to specify issue

    low · I did get a cryptic email that there is a major mechanical design flaw in Beetlejuice from an email that won't reveal themselves to me

    • 3:24
    There we go. There we go. Even better. Pinball is alive when Canada arrives. We know it. We know it. Oh man. Minus 20, gang. It's hot in here, baby. It's hot in here.
    3:42
    All the milk and bread. I mean, will we survive the blizzard, the storm of 2026? I'm going to talk about all the stuff happening in pinball, which right now when you think about it is it's all the stuff not not happening in pinball right now. This is a uh this is a calm before the storm. I think we're going to get on the 30th of January, which is a nice day to release the 30th anniversary Pokemon Pinball. I'm hearing there might be twole versions, a Pikachu and a Charizard. Is it Charizard? Is that how you SAY IT? HERE'S SAD Boy Baby. I was waiting for this guy to get in the door every Saturday morning. Spectacular. Sad boy rocks in. Pays for the bottle of sake that I enjoy with my beautiful wife Brenda. And we still can't turn this damn camera around. Facebook still does not allow you to mirror the image. It's so annoying. I don't know why. Like what what's the point? Why did they decide to do that? It absolutely makes no sense. I never should have upgraded. Anyone else just not excited for whatever comes out of Stern anymore? The honeymoon period is over. Um, here's the thing. I will never count Stern out. I keep hearing Transformers is the game. I keep hearing Pokemon is going to be mediocre. So, I'm not expecting a banger in Pokemon. I'm expecting Transformers to have a lot more in it. This is coming from people that have seen both games.
    5:14
    [snorts] Do I think it will make it to Pinball at Do I think it will make it to Pinball at the Beach? Um, no. [snorts] No. I think Beetlejuice is going to own that show. I uh, man, I wish I could go. I really do. I just I can't make it this year. I just can't. Brenda is I could try to get a babysitter. I just can't make it. I can't make it. It's also Super Bowl weekend. H I just I just can't make it. I wish it was any other weekend other than Super Bowl weekend. I also, you guys know this, I've been talking about this recently. Uh you know, since our company got acquired, they significantly reduced the amount of vacation days people can take. Luckily, I'm on the better side of that curve, but I mean, it went from unlimited to very limited. So there is a lot of unhappy people in the organization. I look at it all now. My kind of attitude on life as I approach 50 years of age is karas. I just don't know. I don't know what benefit there is to complain about things that you can't change. And I don't think there's any benefit to complaining to people in the company online. Like people go on the company chat and complain about the company. And I'm like why would you do this? They just bought us. Like you don't know who knows who. I I learned this lesson long ago. Anybody can screen grab anything. And Ryan McQuade knows this, right? Anyone can screen grab anything and send it up the ladder to the new holding company. And do you want your name on something that is disparaging them? They just bought us. So I I go into the whole thing with an open mind. Yeah, the benefits aren't as good, but I still have a job. So, I'm happy to still have a job. The day will come when I when I don't have a job anymore in this industry. It they Nobody retires in my industry. They they send you out to pasture way before you want to be out to pasture. The problem I see in all the marketing is that like companies forget that there are people 40 to 60 years old that have most of the money in the world. And so you would think as I get to 40 to 60 that I would be the most in demand in the marketing world because those people have the most money, have the most purchasing power with a brand. Problem is these companies all think to futureroof their business, they need to target like Gen Z, then it'll be Gen Alpha and like just because I don't know what 67 means, you're no longer valuable. But it's silly because I can connect to the largest buying demographic they have and yet for some reason when you get 40 to 60 in my industry, you're started to be looked at as old and out of touch. It's weird. It's weird. I don't feel that way. I I may maybe because just in my head I I don't really feel like I've matured past the age of like 20.
    8:26
    Wait in Chamber of Commerce. That's funny. Um, so there's going to be 10 show games of Beetlejuice at Pinball at the Beach. Super excited to see that game make its way out there. They just did another video of like a row of them. Where's the row of Winchesterers? There's a row of them and they look amazing. I I think it's one of the most stunning pinball machines of all time and I'm so happy that this game is going to start making its way out there. for those of you who have one coming. It's a very special game. It looks like a very special game. Um, I did get a cryptic email. I got a very cryptic email that there is a major mechanical design flaw in Beetlejuice
    9:13
    from a an email that won't reveal themselves to me. But I was like, ah, I was like, I don't know. I don't know, [laughter] man. This is the same uh yeah the same uh same guy that sent me the Ryan McQuade chat. So I'm like all right well I mean I'm I'm happy to report anything someone just sent me there some uh I don't know there there stuff I get sent stuff all the time gang and I I just like if you want to tell me and prove something to me I'll you know me I'll discuss anything on my show. I don't I don't think anything is out of bounds.
    9:52
    Look, and and then I'll move on. I I know exactly what young people want. It's the same thing you and I wanted when we were young. Human nature does not change. And and this is what's so funny to me about generations and labeling people Gen Z, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, millennials, boomers, Gen X. Everybody wants the same thing in life. And human nature has never changed and will never change. and the triggers of how to get people's attention and how to create uh excitement and hype around a brand and how to make a brand contagious and how to make products uh fly off the shelves. Like the formulas to do that have never changed. And so it's funny to me that we we we try to put people in boxes and then you know then marketing is always like we got to break the mold. We got to break the box, we got to swim against the current and we got to you know and that's the funny thing about everything in life right now is the is like all the analytics, all the AI, all the formulas will never get you in a million years to dillydilly. And I say this to this day, that was probably the greatest Budlight campaign of all time. What in a million years would ever lead you to dillydilly?
    11:11
    And yet it was amazing. And when they let go of dilly dilly and then they tried to be all things to all people, this is my client. This is my brand, you know, like look what happened. And now they're going back to more of like what they are about, which is easy to drink beer for dudes that love beer, that want to sit down and watch football or UFC at a barbecue or and and just drink Bud Lights all day long because it's enjoyable. 100% it is. You know, and again, I'm disclosing that I work for Bud Light, but when I go to the bar now, and you know, look, you could have, for me, I could have two kinds of nights. Like, I could do my vodka soda on the rocks with a splat vodka on the rocks, Titos on the rocks, splash of soda and lime. I could have that kind of night. That's usually like when I'm like, "Oh man, I don't want to be hung over. I don't want to like, you know, I don't want a belly. I could have that kind of night." Well, Michelobra is my client, too. I love Ultra. I love all I love all the AB and Bev product. I love beer. I just I love beer, you know. I love beer. Um I could have that kind of night. I could have my oldfashioned Manhattan kind of night. I could have a beer beer night. Now, for me, beer is usually like my day drink of choice because if I start drinking Titos and Oldfashions at lunch, like I'm on the bed. I'm on the bed by like three o'clock useless all day.
    12:49
    What's up 83 guys? How you guys doing? Sad boy, what's up baby? How much money can we raise on this show? How about this? How about this? How about this?
    13:05
    No, I can't do it. Want to tell you a little something about Sonic.
    13:11
    Every penny we raise will go to Brenda. I will hand it to her and say thank you. My community loves you. More evil deads being sold. Kelly Daniel says, man. Um, I want to start. We We'll talk about Stern Pokemon. Like I, you know, I put up The Walking Dead. No one bought the game. The Walking Dead remastered is probably got Seth fuming over there. The fact that Stern got that so wrong is really indicative in my honest opinion of a company that's missing the mark big time. There is no way Stern Pinball with all of their knowledge of this community should ever create such a failure of a remastered. You know, if you can't pick the right game to remaster, you are so out of touch with with the pinball community. And I think you can't bury this reality around this game. This is Stern Pinball's marketing at its worst. They don't talk to the community. They didn't do They easily could have done a poll. What would be the secret? Like, we know they're doing remasters. Think about how stupid they've become by insulating themselves in such an arrogant way that they know what we want more than we know what we want. And I say this and I mean this because I love George and I love the company. I do. I'm saying this candidly because I'm just if I was just talking to them like as bros in a room. Seth, Gary, George, George, Seth, Gary, what are you doing? Everybody knows we're doing remasters. So why is it a secret which is the next one? Who cares? Like whoever whatever we remaster it's not going to make anyone who exist like who owns the game currently happy. So forget about that. Like you're like just the whole essence of remastering you're always going to piss those people off. Okay? We can't win there. But what we can't do is spend a year remastering a game and then it fails. Like the only reason we should ever remake a game is we know that that's gonna put this many units back into the world and this many millions of dollars in our pockets. And if we're not even going to ask the community out of our portfolio of games, which ones would you like to return for one final run? Have you noticed too that they don't even talk in those kinds of finalities? They don't even tell you this is it. Like it should be. This should be like we're when we remaster a game, we do one run of it and whatever orders we get. They're not going to do that. Okay, so they keep it open. Fine. But why didn't they at least survey the community? Would you like to see KISS AC/DC? Would you like to see Tron? And look, just put the stuff that's doable. I they are never remastering Lord of the Rings. And I wish George would just say so. Like this company is so cheap. They wouldn't even license a Jeep to put in Jurassic Park. They wouldn't even license the Empire State Building to go into King Kong. They're not going to go renegotiate a contract with all of those celebrities for that trilogy. Never again will we get like the game, the code as it is is kind of perfect. It doesn't really need clips to be honest. Like I would just reanimate the Lord of the Rings clips and put it on. I don't even think they can do that. I don't think they can get the license again. But here's the thing. They didn't do this. They didn't survey anybody. They went down a road and it is a colossal failure. There's only five total pinside pages right now. If can someone start a pinside thread right now? And I guarantee you by this time next week it'll have way more than five pages. The thing is they'll shut it down. We'll probably get more more than five pages before it's even shut down. If you just put up a thread that said, "What do you think of Canada?" Right? Someone do that right now. Just put it up. Let's see if it gets locked even by the time the show's over. who has the goals to say, "Hey, Canada just wants to test to see, you know, how he Canada Canada just wants to do a survey of like what people think about him because he wants to know where to improve uh with the pinball community to make content that makes everybody, you know, happy." Okay. A survey about me. What do you think about Canada? Love him, hate him, enjoy him, entertained by him, I don't care. I could take any of the feedback that would have more than five pages within a day. It would, you know, it would we I' I'd get the obligatory insults from Iceman saying what a terrible person I am. Neil McRay would call me a clown. Um I, you know, my my my uh fans would would would tiptoe in but probably not say anything. You know how it is. It's it's it's you can't publicly say you listen to Canada. I'm like McDonald's. Nobody eats there. Yep. The numbers are amazing, right? That this is Canada's pinball podcast. So, they didn't ask anybody and then this game comes out and it's a flop and it's been, you know, King Kong was a flop. You know what? I I have a friend of a friend who's trying to sell a King Kong LE for 9800. Not He said, "I didn't get a single offer. Not a single offer." You know, I was thinking about Zombie the other day. I got an idea for Mr. Jeremy Packer, who I do love Jeremy. I don't know why he uh he got mad at me. I don't know why he accused me of ruining his life, his family. I have an idea, Jeremy. Here's an idea for you because Jeremy, you are talented, but you over you you oversaturated yourself. You've been on too much and you've been giving your talents too frequently. And that's why as an artist, it just becomes oversaturation. It's just and you know, not to mention the colors have been a little oversaturated as well. But here's here's my suggestion, Jeremy. I think you should be looking at you're the art director at Stern Pinball right now, Jeremy. Here's a here's an idea. Why is Harry Potter doing so well? Why is the CE out selling the $10,000 version? It's 50% more money and it's out selling it like almost 10 to one, the arcade edition. Why is that, Jeremy? Because there's a unique art package on the CE, right? And it comes with the topper, which is ugly. It's this. It's more about the art package, right? I think that what Jeremy should suggest is that his art only goes on the Ellie version of the game. Okay, that seems smart. There should be a drastic difference between the $13,000 LE and the 10,ou $9,500 premium. Drastic difference. And there should be a colossal difference between a $6,500 Pro and a $13,000 LE. So Jeremy Packer, the reason why I like this for you too, brother, is why are you slaving away for three models of the game? And look, he clearly got rushed on King Kong, couldn't finish it. So then his artwork got put on the Pro and the LE. the same exact artwork. And this is the problem. So, Jeremy, do yourself a favor. You should be sandbagging the pro edition of the game's art. A pro edition should have like just the logo on it. It should be as it should have nowhere near like anything closely as nice as the Ellie art. Then you should do something different with the premium. Maybe get a different artist. Do something right. Commission it out. And then you take the LE only. This way you only have to do one.
    21:24
    Seems like a good idea, doesn't it? Sounds like an idea from a guy that works at a marketing company that bills out at a ridiculous amount every hour. How dare you, Canada? How dare you give me a good idea that would free up my time, that would add value to the LE, which we desperately need. How dare you give us free ideas when we sent you walking and hired a CMO that hasn't had a single good idea yet? How dare you? How dare you make such sense of it all? How dare you know this hobby so damn well because you've been studying it intimately for 13 years. Not just the hobby, the people. How dare you bring your public relations skills and ideas to our company as we flounder making the same stupid mistakes time and time again? How dare you, Canada? You are a toxic member of the community with all of this bright thinking. How dare you bring your boarding school education to this niche little hobby of ours?
    22:33
    They're not going to make the premium less desirable. Yeah, they should. It doesn't have to be ugly, man. But yeah, you you that's like saying, "Oh, Porsche only sells this many turbo S's, so they're not going to make it like, you know, the 911." Like, yeah, the more expensive version of something should be more desirable. The middle of the middle of the road version should be less desirable.
    23:07
    Did I do a drunken F Stern rant because they snubbed you? No, I didn't do any drunken rants. I don't Stern did not. First of all, let let me just be clear. If Stern offered me the job as the CMO of Stern, I guarantee you it pays less money than I make. I I I could I could almost guarantee that. Okay, maybe look also like to be honest seeing what Stern had in the in the mix, it's a terrible job to have right now. I wouldn't want to be the CMO whose job is to sell that Star Wars or that King Kong. I wouldn't. Now, look, I do think this new year with the titles coming out, I think this CMO needs to, you know, I think we need to see some real real ideas come to fruition. I do I I just I, you know, because I I have no interest anymore in the George Gomez sort of um what do we always call them? The damage control tour he goes on every time there's a new game out, right? It's always the same thing like, "Oh, we couldn't do this. We couldn't do this." You hear Spooky Pinball being like, "We couldn't. We couldn't. We couldn't." No, it's like, "We did. We did. We did, we did, we innovated, we innovated, we put this, we did this. Wait, do you see Sonic the Hedgehog? He's be what we did, what we got. You know, you know, when I talked to Brett Abbis, he's like, Chris, let me tell you, like I needed this in the game. Like, I'm not stopping till we get it. I'm like, bro, if only you were a billionaire and you you you know what I'm saying? Like I I love when I hear Brett talk cuz he's like, "Bro, like we're like if we're going to do it, we're going to do it right. And I'm not going to stop until I need this thing in Sonic the Hedgehog." He's like, "I'm going to get it." It's amazing. You don't hear Stern talk like that. Brett could buy Stern pinball tomorrow and he would be like, "Uh, he wouldn't even like feel it like in his account. He'd be like, "Did we What happened here? Did Did we go out to dinner last night or did we buy Stern?" You know what I'm saying? That's why I love Brett. I love hanging with the dude. It's just so fun. Like his dad's amazing. Like, it's good. They're good people. They're good people. You look, George is great people, too. They they really like I you know look I none of the people I bring up here are bad people like you know what I'm saying the bad people have all failed okay and you know who they are I won't name his name American Pinball Damian I'll name Marty um Jpop right Mueller like these are the real bad people like the people that knowingly Kevin Kulick like all the bad people have failed And and it's it's like it's weird how life works out like that. Like karma just has a way about it, right? The good people the good people with the good hearts and the good intentions, you know, they're still around. They're still around. Like Jerry Stellenberg is a good guy. He's still around. Chris Turner is a great guy. He's still around. You know, the good people last Canad threads have taken over Pinsside. Is that is it true? Hold on. Let me see. It's amazing. I love that we've just like thread bombed pinside. Oh my god. Let me see. Canada. What do you think about Grenada? It's amazing.
    26:24
    We got two threads up. Yeah, they won't last. [laughter]
    26:30
    Yeah. Thank you guys for putting them up. We'll see how long they last. I love You know what? But you know what I love the most is like the hate. I love when I love how much how much some people hate me. It it's it's mindboggling. I I think we have the most entertaining conversation about pinball on a weekly basis. I do. And you know you know like like Ralph, Don, Kale, Jamie, like we're all chilling. Like we're all having Jenga. We're all just chilling like having fun like chatting behind the scenes. Carrie Hardy, you know, like everyone's gets along. There's there's nobody there's nobody that does this like weekly that that like hates Canada because we all have a mutual respect for each other. We literally make this niche hobby that never has news exciting on a weekly basis for so many people. The fact that I give it away for $5 a month, like $5 a month to get the amount of content you get, the amount of time it takes, and this is why like I couldn't do a show yesterday because I just so busy at work to get in the gym and a podcast and the kids to to daycare and do all my work and get some sleep and keep Brenda happy and put food on the table for $5 a month. It's crazy, right? And I don't and I said I'm never raising that amount like I I should. There are people out there, Hector, my good friend Hector, is like, "Dude, just raise it to 10, even if you lose like 200 people like, you know, you'll make more money." I know. I know. But it's the principle. It's the principle. So, I think each and every one of you who is a subscriber, um, it's it's it's been great doing it. I I still love the fact and when that when the show went behind the payw wall, everybody who made content insulted that move. how everybody does it. It's like, wait, what? You know what? Cuz what h what started happening was these guys like it didn't even take like like calculus to figure out like, wait a minute, wait a minute, we're telling everybody we do this because we love it. We don't do it for the money. Yeah, but he's looking like he's having a good time, bro. And he's making enough to buy a couple pinball machines a year. Like, maybe we should think about this. Ah, what a cadator. that boarding school Ah, what a cadator. that boarding school bastard. How dare his parents ship him away to school for the finest education money could buy? And how dare he drop out of Eco 101 at Lehigh University and study communications because it was all chicks in the classes and it was easier and he underachieved and then he started working in PR and he should have stayed in finance. We wouldn't be having this conversation right now. He'd be like a business owner and not a worker be. How dare he self-deprecate himself like this? because I'm supposed to hate him. He sounds like he hates himself at times. He sounds like he's so honestly brutal about his own upbringing. What is wrong with this guy? What's he going to say next? Does he even play pinball? [laughter] That's my favorite. Uh Cliff Albert, friend of the show, hit me up. He's like, "Dude, man." He's like, "I just play now. I don't even care about collecting. It's so much more fun. Everyone who plays pinball is having a good time. everyone who's collecting is always complaining every day. So, I'm like, "All right, well, you know, it's I don't know. I think it's the I I I feel like I'm in the middle, the best of both worlds. I I I love talking to the collectors and I love hearing from people that play on on location and waste their life away to win 40 bucks in a trans light." You know what I'm saying? It's like, I get it. I get it. You're bored. So, you want to take four hours out of your evening and go win 40 bucks or a translite. You ever see like the pictures of people after like a league night how sad it is? You know what I'm saying? Like no, everyone looks like um you know and they're all they got the worst clothes on imaginable. They they're wearing shorts in the winter time and they're holding up $40 like they achieved something. You know what I'm saying? Like that that's like that's what I'm tipping on the old fashions for the night, gents. Cargo shorts, baby.
    30:42
    Thank you for being $10 a month. I appreciate that. All right, so gang, let me talk about American Pinball right now. Shall Shall I share with you my latest thoughts on American Pinball? I wear my B Canada t-shirt to League night every time. Thank you, brother. And if you guys um the B Canada t-shirts are available at Silverball Swag. I was supposed to get some money from them. They said that they they had some money for me based on the sales of the shirt. So, uh, if someone can put in the chat both on Facebook and YouTube, I'd appreciate that. A link to buy the Ban Canada t-shirts. Let's go buy some t-shirts. Let's see how the pinite thread is going real quick. Is it Is it down already? Robin's like, you know, Robin's like, like, let's let everybody be racist, sexist, and deplorable, but if we ask about Canada, we should really take it down immediately. Canada. This is funny. Eric Hayden's amazing. He's like, "I hear a lot about this Canada guy. Some people love him, some people hate him. What say you? It's like I feel like right now there's like alarm bells going off in Iceman's home like Canada thread swoop in and explain how much more money you have than him." Yeah. I actually like Doug Mo Jr. I do. I like Doug. He's a good guy. You know what's funny is like Doug is like really good friends with like Bill Brand is one of my good like everyone who Doug gets along with I get along with. And for some reason I just I don't understand why he's holding on to the anger. Like I don't get it. He's a good guy. Neil McRay is a good guy. These guys are good guys. Like we you know it's the jabbing. You got to be able to jab. And I will say this. I have friends. I think it's a lot of the finance bros. I know Doug works in finance. There's something about like they can't take the jabs, you know? Maybe it's because I'm I'm a twin and all we did was pick on each other. All we do is make fun of each other. But, you know, I've made some new friends locally here and I've noticed that, too. It's like the finance guys are so thin skinned. Like, the moment you make fun of them, just a they go crazy. Like crazy. It's like all they want is everybody kissing their ass or they go nuclear on you. And I don't get it. I really don't get it. It's like, bro, like, and they're rich. Like, they're rich. Like, they got way more money than me, live in way bigger houses. And I'm like, yo, but they seem like they seem so uptight. Like, like it's like their happiness is so fragile.
    33:17
    It's like, bro, just chill. Chill. No forgiveness from Neil. What do you mean? Neil Neil and I always get along great at the shows. All right, let's talk about American Pinball. Um, here's the thing. I am I I reached out to Ronald to do an interview. I I see he's been doing interviews, which which I'm happy to see. I I can check out his interviews. He's been talking to people, but I'm almost on the fence now of whether or not I even want to interview American Pinball right now. And let me give you my rationale because I was thinking about it over the week and I'm like, you know what? Like, cuz you know, as I started to learn more about what they're we're doing right now, like they're making Legends of Valhalla again, I'm kind of like, what? More more more of all the games nobody wants. And so here's here's my feeling. Kelly Daniel, thank you for the 20 bucks, Kelly. I I really appreciate it. Let's make a goal. I think we can get to $200 on this one. Can we do that, gang?
    34:43
    my my mom had um surgery yesterday just uh on her heart a little stint put in. Uh [sighs] they said there's an issue like just a little text popped up. Tried to go down today and my dad was like she's resting. She you know they're like a half hour away. Let me tell you something everybody like you know we all know life is short and you know I'm very happy and very blessed to still have both of my parents here. I I love them so much and I just Yeah. It's just hard seeing your parents get older. really hard and they slow down and they you know my what what's what I love about my parents like even though like their bodies are physically slowing down and obviously they're aged they've aged their minds are still so sharp though my mom is still working she's still working at 83 or 84 she still works she has an art gallery she's still framing every day like five days a week and she's like very much like me she has nobody helping her cuz she is a creative that doesn't want to hear anybody's opinion about what to do. I'm so my mother's son. It's scary. And um yeah, so if you wonder where I got it from, it's not my dad. My dad is much more like even keel much more like my dad is not loud. He's not he's not ostentatious. He's not flashy. He's you you my dad would walk down the street and you wouldn't think anything like there goes like someone who has anything more than just like you know an average lifestyle. I mean he kind of does have an average lifest I mean does drive a Porsche but but you know you would never get any any like arrogance from him or like ego or anything but the stories he could tell are insane. Anyway, this just kind of I after this I just want to check in with her. But everybody say um say a good prayer for my mama. Uh I think she's fine. I think you know just there's usually post post, you know, there's always a few issues that pop up, you know, post a procedure like this. You know, I will say in in the years I've been doing this podcast, I I've had a lot of you talk about more of your personal things happening and and and and I always appreciate that connection because I think sometimes in this hobby we can we can get to the surface level of only talking about pinball, but I think what what always makes this community and especially my community is is people are are deeper connected than just the pinball. The pinball is just like I always say this, it's just like your hand stamped. you can now get back into the club and and you can now talk with people that are like-minded like you that are into the same thing as you are. But from there, that's not where the really interesting and the indelible uh bonds are formed between people. It's not because the games are not nearly as exciting enough to create that. It's the people. It's the people because we a lot of us grew up during the same period. I think we all have a longing to reconnect to the 80s and 90s. A lot of us, some of you maybe it's the ' 70s, some of you might be the 60s and 70s, but I think everybody in in our circles has a longing to just stay connected with people that knew the world when it was much better. And and and I think, you know, where there typically were generations that would oh those kids, but it's true, you know, it's not even subjective anymore. You look at young young kids now, they they are longing to have analog good times. They are longing. The thought of like going into like a record store for a few hours and just flipping through records. Remember going into like Tower Records and they had the listening rooms. Remember that? those days like a new album came out and you could go into those booths and press the button and hear hear it like one track, two track and then you bought the CD physically had the the the media. You know what I'm saying? You physically had the content, you had the DVD, you had the CD. You remember the Case Logic books we had in our cars? The fact that we're all here and didn't crash our cars flipping through case logics trying to find the next CD.
    39:15
    somebody sent me um let's celebrate. Can we do this? Um what's this like flipping out takedown video someone just launched? Someone chatted it to me like right now. I I think some dude in Hawaii like had an incident with flipping out and made a like a 30 minute video about it. [laughter] It's like, oh man, I I stay far away from from uh you know that drama I don't really like. But this is this is the world though. I mean, look, everyone has the freedom to make whatever they want to make.
    39:55
    Oh man, Jay Cummings with the 50 bucks. have a drink on me. Thank you, brother. See, we're going to get the 200. You guys are awesome. We got Kelly.
    40:09
    Thank you guys. Um, yeah, the case logics, bro. I mean, I just remember like use your illusion one. Like, if you wanted to go from Civil War to November Rain, you had to switch CDs.
    40:22
    You're literally becoming a distributor. Literally. Nah, man. I might deal on some pins, but I'll never be a distributor. And there's a big difference between There's a big difference between um being a dro and a dealer, too. I saw there was like a new Stern dealer. It's like a nice looking family guy. I think he's down in North Carolina. I saw it on Pinball Enthusiast. He put up a picture of his fam. Um and he's like, "We're now a Stern dealer." I'm like, "Oh, I is that how does that work?" Like, you know, like, do you even need to have a like a showroom? I don't even think so. Look at you guys with the drinks. You're going to get me drunk. See, the last time we did this was the night of the Machine Gun Kelly concert, and then Brenda got too drunk and we missed the concert. We went to it. I had to leave after two songs. You guys are the best, man. See, I like See, it feels good to give, right? It feels good to give to Canada, especially when you know where the money's going.
    41:28
    You said you didn't want that drama, but you're going to get it if you're going to sell games. I don't know, man. I think I could sell you guys some games and not have drama. Why would there be drama? I'm never going to be a shill, man. You You'll see the way it is. It's just going to be like, "Look, if you want it, I'll get it for you." But it doesn't mean I like the game. You know what I'm saying? K. Can you get a radical or party zone pin to sell me? I can look into it. So, look, let's go back to American Pinball. I um here's my thing. I don't and and tell me and and and I I want to be very like I want to be very uh I want I want to be careful how I say this because I'm I'm absolutely happy. I always I want to start with the positive. I'm absolutely happy. And I just got sandbagged by my like someone I work with and it you like if you want to give me a performance review or talk about my work like start at least give me some positive like it just it it it literally made me laugh. so hard like how certain people try to motivate me like I don't respond well to people telling me like I'm not doing the job of my title. I I'll tell you why. Because I am doing the job of my title. Just might not be the way you would do it, but this is how I do it and I know how to bake in this industry and I know how to make some hits and it takes a while some years. Some years we're hitting on all cylinders, but I've been doing this for 25 years. So like I'm not at a stage now and I'm learning new things every day, but I'm not at a stage where like I need somebody training me to do what we do. What we need is more support down low executing. Okay? It's not the idea. It's the we need to get executions out the door more. So don't come at me. Let me bake. Don't tell me don't tell me I don't know how to do what we do because no one does it better than me. No one walks into a room and can sell an idea to a client better than me. Nobody. Oh, maybe my old boss, Gary Vaynerchuk. He's amazing. That's where I learned his style from. Just talks like a human being. It's amazing. I love Gary Vee. Um, okay. Here's the thing. I love the fact that it's under new ownership. I love that we're going to get new games and it's not going to be it's not going to be Yeah, Gary Vee is the wine guy. Um, wine library was what he started with. I'm not going to um miss the old American Pinball leadership team. I'm not going to miss them one bit. And I I hold no prior grudges. Like I don't think Ronald and team need to call me up and apologize that their old regime tried to get me fired. Right. I don't need you know what I'm saying? Like that was a very personal thing that happened between somebody, you know, and me and I've forgiven him for that. cost me a lot of money to settle that whole thing. Okay, [sighs] I won't even tell you how much money it cost me. Okay. And it it it really rocked my family hard and and I I've never had anybody actually try to hurt my life the way he did. And yeah, really weird to do it, too. Right. But again, like these are wounded tigers that came at me because they had products nobody wanted and they were afraid that I could I could destroy their company's sales if I was honest about their products. And they're right. But I'm allowed to give a negative review about a product.
    45:07
    Um, there were lawyers involved. Yes. Okay. Because there were threats being made to me. The unfortunate thing is it's like it's hard for it's hard for like organizations they don't want to get in it. They don't want to get in it. And I get it. I don't want to get them in it. Like I you know I made look the one mistake I made and and this is this is why I'll never do it again. I will never make content from my company using company equipment or at the company because once you do that they can they can pull they can pull the company in and saying like oh he's making disparaging remarks about my organization you know using your organizations so okay cool so I'll sit here in Connecticut and say you make the biggest crappiest est games ever and I'm fine. So anyway, I'm happy all those people are gone. I'm happy Ronald's got new management. I know they're talking to some people. Cheers, Chris Davis, baby. Thank you for the 20 bucks. Love you guys. You guys are the best. I love this. Right now they're like, "Oh, the haters like a damn it. Damn it. He's making money." And he lives in Rhodeen. It's not cheap. Drives a Dodge Demon and they're putting gas in the tank. They're putting sake inside Brenda's beautiful body. I'm happy they've taken over. Okay, I look forward to what they have coming out. But here's my thing. Oh man, Brenda, we're getting all this money. I feel like we get to a thousand. Brenda should just come in here, you know, with something sexy on now. I'm not going to only fans my wife to you guys, but I maybe I should. Yeah, I I will say we jokingly in this household there are times when like you know money's stressful at times and you know we're worried about jobs at times and and you know I was like you know when you're looking at a really attractive woman you're and she's like I don't know how to make more money you're like I know something that's out there I would never let my wife go on only fans but that being said you know I I actually tell Brenda I think you can make money on only fans without even taking any clothes off. I think you could just seductively sing happy birthday and with your Irish accent and make money. I think people would pay to hear that.
    47:29
    Saw a demon get smoked by a Tesla. Yeah, of course. A a demon will get smoked by a Tesla. The demon will not hook up on the street. A Tesla is all-wheel drive. But I'll tell you who's having more fun. The guy and the demon getting destroyed by the Tesla. I tell you what's not fun. A Tesla.
    47:50
    You should you shouldn't have settled. Let your company fire you doing the legal stuff. No. Okay. So, here's the deal, Anthony. When you have a mortgage payment and $6,000 daycare payment and two little kids that you want to put money away for for their future and a lifestyle that isn't cheap, you don't want to be fired. Okay? It's like it's like very simple. Um, the demon is not a manual transmission. They don't make the demon in a manual transmission. They make they make the Hellcat in a manual train. The demon only came in auto. Okay, so here's my thing. We're getting back to American Pinball because we're getting like sidetracked a lot, but that's because you guys are giving all this money and I love it. Uh, here's the thing. I almost have this new mindset where I would not have done what AP is doing. Here's what I mean by that. I just wouldn't have I wouldn't be doing interviews right now. I wouldn't be talking about the old products. I wouldn't be doing any of that. Here's what I would have done if I were them and Ronald and everybody. Again, guys, I'm just giving you this advice because I I I really am rooting for you guys to hit it out of the park. I would have built the game first. I would have built whatever their new game is, whatever the IP is. I would not have I would have kept everything mysterious until I was ready to reveal the game. I would have done what Ford did. They built the new Ford GT in the basement of the Ford Motor Company. No one knew what was happening in the room they were in. There was only like eight or 12 engineers built the entire car in secrecy. We know that it is easy to develop a game in secrecy. Look at Winchester. If I was American Pinball, I never would have done what they're doing right now. I never would be out there talking. I wouldn't be talking about the old product. like you're getting interviewed already and you haven't done anything yet. All you did was write checks so far. So, if I'm them, stop talking. Let the game do the talking because all this talking means nothing unless they execute at a level that's good. And this is the thing. They wouldn't be able to hire anyone with your No. What are you talking about, JC? They wouldn't be able to hire anybody. What are you talking about? JC 100% wrong. What do you mean they can't hire? You You're telling me if Ronald and his multi-million dollar investor, right, sat down with Jack Danger and said, "What are they paying you at Stern? We're going to double it. You're you're a head designer. It's but we're building something in secret and we need you to resign in two weeks and that's it." And Jack Danger goes dark. They couldn't do that.
    50:52
    You don't think Jack Danger would take double the pay because he's probably not making what he deserves and go over there.
    51:05
    They need low-level employees. Yeah, but you can hire people.
    51:19
    My point is I think they I think now, you know, I don't know like so that like it's nothing wrong like I don't know what their new game is. Stern employees have a non-compete clause. How long does it last? Carrie,
    51:41
    No, gang. I don't like they could absolutely have the job listings public, but like but you know what I'm saying? You could look that there's still mystery there. American Pinball's back. They're hiring people. But don't say anything. Don't say anything until the game is ready.
    52:10
    I can tell you right now with 1,000% certainty that working at Stern is nobody's dream job. Killian, you want to say hi? Yeah. Yeah. Can you help me find the other animals Can you help me find the other animals of these ones? Come here. Come here. Can find ones of these. Can find ones of these. Say hi. Say hi. These looking for the other ones of These looking for the other ones of these ones. Ask them for help. Okay. Don't Don't Okay. Don't Don't Can you help me find the other ones of Can you help me find the other ones of these of these? of these? What is it? Downstairs? No. No. Where are they? Where are they? They're missing. They're missing. They're missing. Can you tell everybody They're missing. Can you tell everybody to give daddy 50 bucks? I'll give you 50. Here you go. I'll give you 50. Here you go. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. No. Can you help me find them No. Can you help me find them after my show? I I'll help you look. I after my show? I I'll help you look. I But they're in my bedroom. But they're in my bedroom. They're in your bedroom? They're in your bedroom? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. They might be up on the shelf. Can you They might be up on the shelf. Can you close the door, buddy?
    53:02
    [sighs and gasps] Um, yeah, it's almost impossible to enforce any non-competes. Like they're they're just not enforceable. Like no judge is going to be like h.
    53:19
    So that that's my that was my only thing. My suggestion was I think AP should let the the new game do the talking. Um, the pinside post are still up. Wow. know Robin's he's like what's the tide like? Let's here. Let's go read him. Let's do this. This will be fun. Let's share screen.
    53:44
    Uh are they still up? I think they're Oh, there's the Canada one.
    53:50
    Yeah. What do you think about Canada? We go for Let's Let's read people's responses about me. [laughter] You guys are funny because it's like all you guys posting. It's I love it. You guys are the best. Like let's This is funny. Hold on. What is this? Okay.
    54:11
    I don't know why they always ask for that. Okay. All right. On Facebook, we're reading the thread. Do you listen to Pinball there? Do you listen to Can Pinball podcast? Are there any suggestions you have for him to improve his product? Do you generally agree or disagree? Should Pinsside allow him back? What remake do you want Stern to do? None is also an answer. Cause writes, "Whippy award-winning Canada." Wow. Did Colin man, if Colin has only succeeded at one thing in his pinball tenure, and it's destroying the Twippies. Congratulations, Colin. You deserve He deserves a Twippy for favorite clown to destroy his very own award show. Colin, great job, buddy. G should pinside allow him back? I think so. You know, I don't really care about getting back on pinside. Uh, here's some. He hates pins in front of Windows. Why was he banned? You know, it's an interesting question. No one will ever really be honest about why I was banned from pinside because the truth is I didn't do anything really wrong. I was just hyperactive on there. And they banned me when I showed the broken ramp on The Hobbit. And that's what got me banned because Robin would rather silence the truth when I exposed a design fault of the game, which they subsequently went and fixed and rewelded that part after I showed the, you know, the world it was breaking. But he kicked me off the site. Now look, the reason I'm not back on there is because I did tell Robin back in my, you know, younger drunken days to f off. And I I did send the guy some really nasty like drunken rants, right? Because I because I actually think it's deplorable that he banned me for life from a pinball website, right? And and still to this day is But again, it's his site. It's the same thing when I block people. Like I've got certain people blocked for a long time um because it's my house. It's Robin's house and I respect his rules and it is what it is. My life has not been worse because I've been off pin side. I I can still read it. Um yeah, not after he threatened people on the staff. Oh man, Canada's going to get to Isn't Robin like all the way over in Europe. I'm going to kick your ass from Connecticut, baby. Now all he does is dream about this place. Dude is jealous. Brenda, I'm jealous of Pinside. Not like you know what? I'm leaving you. Not for another woman, Brenda. I'm leaving you for pins. I heard he threw a drink and and someone's face on someone's face. Yeah, I threw a drink at Tim Ston. I mean, Timmy Timmy knows he was a little out of hand and so was I. It was two wrongs in that situation. He was not in the right and I was not. I did not do the right thing. I love the Canada sucks stickers are amazing. Canada,
    57:18
    bring him back. He's entertaining if nothing else. I think his being Oh, let's see. Oh, I think is being banned from Yeah. Well, look, me me being banned has actually has actually helped. Is there a Canad Sucks t-shirts? Let's see. Yeah, there's stickers.
    57:51
    Okay, we're back. Um, well, the banning of Canada on Pinite is what led to the podcast.
    58:00
    So, that um, absolutely. I turned lemons into lemonade with that whole thing. So, Robin, you did do me a favor. So, thank you. Also, like, you know, not for nothing, if it wasn't for that, I mean, I don't know. We wouldn't have won all those Twippies. Isn't it sad what the Twippies have become? Really is. It's like so sad because like I also think TPF has become like I just I having the Twippies at TPF was always like the Saturday night thing. It was like so much fun. Like the line was around the the line to get into the Twippies was the longest line at all of TPF. What does that tell you?
    58:51
    Franchie, no. We were just talking about um how you can't wait to drop 50 bucks here. I think Franchie gave like $200 when we were going to the Machine Gun Kelly concert and because of that, Franchie got Brenda drunk and we missed the whole show. Um, now we were just talking about Frenchie. I'm curious what your thoughts are. I had an idea for Jeremy Packer because I I want I want to win him back. I I don't want him to be mad at me. I don't want him to tell me I ruined his life and I'm ruining his family. I think he should be only on the Ellie art package of a game. If we look at what's happening with Harry Potter, right, different art package, only on the CE. I think that's what Jeremy should do. His stuff should be special and elevated as the Ellie version of the game. You know, you're in a better spot because every Beetlejuice is in LA. John, you were there, baby. John was at the um John John at Jackbar. How you doing, brother? John, how how the uh how the little How the little ones? I miss you, man. I I need to come over there when the weather is not minus 12 degrees or whatever it is right now. 12 degrees. Um, John John is is a John was there the night the drink was thrown the the the pinball drink the pinball drink thrown around the world moment. Um, man, it's like John, how many years ago was that? Oh man, someone [clears throat] just said that Zombie Yeti should only be on the pro. Damn.
    60:27
    OH, I I I don't think I've seen a bigger D. Damn. Now he's going to be more mad at me cuz he's going to be like, "It's your fan." He hates he hates my trolls. Like, dude, damn. Zombie Yeti only on the pro. You gonna take that, Jeremy? You gonna take that from from Ma Moer Drip? You're gonna take that from most drip on the internet?
    60:54
    All right. Franchie says, "First off, the recent packages he's done were going when he was given the art director roles, so he so they had to be finished. I don't think you'll see much of his work going forward." Okay. Yeah. I mean, as art director, right? I mean, his job now is to like pick the certain artists. So, I know like Hasbro is going to give Transformer artists, Star Wars gives their people. Um, concerts are so much better when you're not wasted. It's weird. You actually remember. Yeah. No. So, concerts are better when you just have a little bit of a buzz. a little bit. It's like the smart thing to drink before a concert's maybe a few beers and then just go enjoy it and like maybe hold, you know, have a few beers there. But no, getting wasted before a show. Yes, I agree. Is the dumbest thing ever. As far as winning him back, forget it. He holds grudges and you will never get him back. Jeez. Never say never. What do you guys think? You think Jeremy Packer and Canada can't can't like can't bury the the hatchet? I mean, we did. Franchie, but I if I'm reading you correctly, is he is he holding a grudge with you, too? Have we we He's too nice of a guy to hold grudges. That's my thing, too, is like nice people that hold grudges, all they do is they create self-inflicted wounds because it's, you know what I'm saying? It's like not making them any happier. And they would just be happier if they would just do the nice thing, which is forgive.
    62:25
    The kids are good, John. The kids are good. We have to get them all together and together we can create a the future pinball dynasty operator, content creator, the Elixises together. Here we go. He won't talk to me. And I didn't even do anything. [laughter]
    62:51
    Uh, you know what you did to him, Franchie? You just went off like an a-hole and made the most beautiful damn pinball machines the world has ever seen. That's what you did to him, bro. Do you need me to say this? That's what you did to him, bro. I almost want to say it in my Scooby-Doo. I can't even do Scooby Scooby. I I don't I can't even do the Scooby voice. I I I You know what? You know what? I'll do it by Christopher Walkin. Uh, you went off and made a made a game better than his. You took what other people did and you made it better and he's illustrating all night and you're simply serving us back what we really want. [laughter] That was terrible. Why does anybody subscribe?
    63:47
    I don't think he's arrogant, man. I don't. I think he's sensitive. I think he's a sensitive artist. We all are. Yeah. No. So, John, it wasn't it it it wasn't 13 years. It was at least it was it was the first year of the New York City Pinball Championship. You know what a year? What a year that was. You walk into this dingy hotel, right? Remember, John, like the hotel it was in, it was like, "Oh, man. Where what? How's this thing even in business in New York City? Right? It's like it's old hotel like carpeting is all stained and and you come out of the elevator and you're like, "How am I here? How did my life get me here? All the things we could be doing in New York City right now, we ended up here.
    64:42
    [laughter] It sounds like you're having a stroke. It sounds like you're having a stroke. Yeah, it wasn't good. Should I do my D?
    65:00
    yeah, Billy Brand is in the house. Why does it say MS3BF after at William Brandice? Who is that? You killing under the bed. kill. Come out. Reveal yourself. I think he's under the bed. He hides under this bed. I, you know, watching Killian do be Killian at this age, he's almost five in February. I I love every minute of it. He's He's me. He's like a mini version of me. He's cheeky. He's sassy. He's sarcastic. He manipulates to get what he wants. He only wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it. Where Where'd he get that? And Bren is the opposite. boundaries, discipline. You lack discipline, Jenis. He's gonna be like, I love the I love the live, man. Thank you for the shout out. I love that you and Don are friends again. I love it. That's Jenis. I love you, Jenis. I love being back in with Don. Donald Garrison. It's good, man. It's like we we're like Voltron now, all of us. Like, no Ralph is in it. Like, we've got chats going. Like nobody can get past us now, man. It's like it it's it's the the pinball content space has never been more united than it is now. And nobody's throwing shade. You see like how lame it gets when everyone like, you know, I think the last time someone tried to throw some shade at Canada, they had to put it behind the payw wall. Oh no, man. Orbiter Albert, what happened, bro? He's g this is going to trigger him again. If you wanna if you want to insult me, just do it for do it where everyone can see. But like, you know what? The hate you give lives inside forever, man. I took I doubled his subscribers. He went from like seven to 14. HE'S MAKING LIKE $37 A MONTH now thanks to me. And we just raised like $200 here. We We raised more than he makes all year on one live. He's like, "Oh, he's talking." And then he's gonna, you know, he's going to say, "Oh, he's talking about me for two hours on his show. Dude can't do math." Like, "Dude, three minutes. We're done with you. Bye. New topic." All they can do is talk about me all show. The whole show he talked about me. That's always what I Nope. Nope. Didn't listen. Didn't even listen to the Takeown show cuz I don't care. 22 subs.
    67:29
    Um, I have seen some of Sonic, but not not anything on the playfield. That's all I'll say. And what I have seen is effing amazing.
    67:44
    I'm getting one. I'm getting one. Sonic's going to make Pokemon look like a $10 game.
    67:54
    Some people say I am arrogant. You guys are not arrogant. I'm arrogant. I'm an arrogant a-hole at times. See, I know I'm not arrogant. Like, if you hang with me, I'm not an arrogant like like I live in a town with some arrogant people. I mean, like really arrogant. Like the first thing they want to know, okay, in these finance towns like New Cananan, West Westport, Rowan, the first thing they ask you is what street do you live on? The only reason they're asking that is they want to know if they're talking to someone with a million half dollar, a $3 million house, a $5 million house, or an $8 million house. That is the only reason they ask that question. Okay, it's a to me it's like a like what? I've never heard people so obsessed with addresses until I moved here, right? Then they want to know what you do for a living, which I I don't really answer. Um because it's like it's weird. It's like they just they they're so like rich people are so insecure. They're so damn insecure. And I'm like I live in a I'm like I just live in a little three-bedroom. Like it's meager. Like I don't you know I don't really care. Like what are you guys do? What are you guys doing tonight? Like what are you up to? Like what are you you know I I don't want to talk to you about first of all this is the reason why finance people are insecure. They they know that nobody wants to talk to them about finance. So then the only thing the only next thing they can talk to you about is what their money buys them trips items. Okay. And then that's not even interesting because they're not really into that stuff. They just are running away from themselves. That's that is like my my my it's a broad generalization of like the finance world. But I feel and I also do have a little bit of like annoyance like that you can make so much money not really creating anything that puts value into the world. You're just making money off of other people's ideas. And and look, yeah, I'm a little jelly. Of course, I would love to get seven figure bonuses every year and fly business class around the world. I would love it. I'm just not in that industry. But I will say this, when you meet strangers, my dad always said this to me, when you meet strangers, never talk about money, never talk about politics. These are you just don't talk about these things. And I've I and and what I've noticed with rich people is that's exactly what they start talking about. And the thing that I never understand, this is this is like a rich person thing. They talk about personal family issues right away as if you asked. Like I I shouldn't know that you're divorced. Even if you are, they always let you know. Like if you're sitting next to a woman at Row and Seafood, which I love, and you're like middle-aged, I don't I didn't ask, but they they always have to say it out loud. Again, it is just like this. It's like they're worried that you're eventually going to find out and indict them for the choices they made in life. And that's what's funny to me about rich people because like just be cool. Just be cool. Like I don't know why you need to tell me all this personal information. I didn't ask. I'm not your therapist. I'm just at this bar trying to get a drink and a lobster roll and maybe talk about last night's football match. And if we want to talk about something, yeah, we could pick up something happening in the world. But you know, and then I love all these people like F Trump at the bar. Like dude, you live you made all your money probably in finance. like where did you make I I tell me where a liberal made their money and I will I will point you to a conservative organization. You know what I'm saying? It's like these people that don't get it. Like anyone who made a lot of money in America has some conservative ties to some fiscal things happening in the world. It's just all the hypocrisy is what kills me.
    72:04
    Yeah. No, I mean like I I don't really care. All the money will never buy you another hour. You know, 10 years from now, I mean this when I say this, 10 years from now, all of us would give up everything we have to be back here again, to get time back, to be younger, to be youthful, to have energy. It's beautiful. Yeah, I'll be like 60 in 10 years still. Will I still be doing this? I think so. I don't know. I I'm kind of aging. All right. When people meet me, they think I'm 10 years younger. And I tell them killing. I tell You know what I tell them? Because I don't let women stress me out. It is the truth. Stress is what puts the wrinkles. Hey buddy, you find your toys? Why are you hiding? Are you hiding from Why are you hiding? Are you hiding from mommy? But I didn't find my other one. I need But I didn't find my other one. I need help. All right. I'm going to help you in 14 All right. I'm going to help you in 14 minutes. No. Yeah. No. Yeah. 14 minutes. 14 minutes. No, it's too long. No, it's too long. It's not too long. You don't even You It's not too long. You don't even You don't even know what 14 minutes is.
    73:11
    Or I'll lock you in forever. You're going to lock me in here forever. You're going to lock me in here forever. You're never going to get out. You're never going to get out. Uhoh. Killian's locking me in here Uhoh. Killian's locking me in here forever.
    73:23
    Uh, what do we got here? Go Rams. I'll be dead in 10 years. Seattle will destroy LA. Yeah, Seattle's going to crush him.
    73:35
    Yeah. You know, you know, Hans, I I work has been really stressful. Um, and I try my best. What What I don't like about work is the is the billing of eight hours a day. It's And I've been It's been my career for 25 years. It feels like you're clocking into like prison every day. And if you don't put in eight hours, like right now I have to go put in time because they they turn off your email. They they they basically they lock you out of being able to do work. Um I didn't bet on the Indiana game. I would I because I I didn't like the spread. I would have taken the good bet in that game is when Indiana was up 10 nothing. I would have taken um Miami plus like it would have been like Miami plus like 14 and a half. That that was the the smart bet. Retro Jeno. The man loves Predator. Get to the chopper. So apparently Retro Ralph is loving Predator. Like I um I really uh you know I I know I've been like so negative on that game. It's just cuz without Arnold I just I just don't even consider it to be Predator. Like but look if you guys are having fun cool. I just look at it like man
    75:05
    Killian I would I would just not want to lose all the money you're Come here. Come here. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Say hi. Say hi. Come on. Come on. Say hi. Say hi. Okay, I'll do we'll end the show in five Okay, I'll do we'll end the show in five minutes. Come here, K. Say hi to everybody. Yeah, come here. Say hi to everybody. Yeah, come here. Say hi to everybody. No, end the show only. No, end the show only. How many? Give me how many minutes? How many? Give me how many minutes? Okay. No, no. You can you can decide. Zero. Zero. Four or five minutes. Four or five minutes. Get in frame. Get in frame. No, no, no, Get in frame. Get in frame. No, no, no, no, don't, no, no. Don't turn off the when Don't touch the keyboard, Killian. That's why you shouldn't. That's why you shouldn't. No, no, no, no, no. Killian. Killian, No, no, no, no, no. Killian. Killian, stop. Stop. Come on. Come on. I'll be there. I'll stop touching the I'll be there. I'll stop touching the keyboard if you come on. Okay. Give me one minute. I'll get Oh. Okay. Give me one minute. I'll get Oh. Oh.
    75:49
    I'm going to tickle you. Okay. I want to get tickled. [laughter] I don't want I don't want you. Okay. Come here. Okay. Come here. Okay. Okay. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come here. Come here. Help [clears throat] me find it. Help [clears throat] me find it. Say hi, Bill Brandice. Say hi, Bill Brandice. And then you And then you Yeah. Say hi. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Say hi. Yeah. Yeah. Hi, Bill Brandice. Hi, Bill Brandice. Yeah. Tell Okay. One thing. Say Bill. Yeah. Tell Okay. One thing. Say Bill. Billy, Bill, come on. Come on now. Come on now. All right. All right, guys. I'm going to All right. All right, guys. I'm going to go help him find his toy. Um, this was a really fun show. Thank you so much for hanging out every Saturday. Life is really short. Um, say say a prayer for my mama. She's doing she's doing I hope I think she's doing really fine after her procedure, but I don't know. I got to go check that out. Um, life is really short and you know, we should we should be kind to each other and I mean that. And these companies need to make good products. That's it. That's all it comes down to, man. Like these games are like so overpriced. We all know it. We all know it. And every once in a while, one of them is worth it, right? Because it makes you happy. And it's so much fun. That's what you know, Harry Potter is one of those games. Beetlejuice is going to be one of those games. Evil Dead. Oh my god. Look at this little This is Oh my god. Look at this little This is my little This is my financial advisor just came in.
    77:03
    This basically looks like a mini Bill Brandice. This is like what Bill wears when he's like in Paris. I I have the photo. He's like in this very robe. He's in Paris. Eiffel Tower like in the background. And Bill's got the robe on the cappuccino.
    77:28
    Look at this guy. Billy. This is mini Billy B. Cassian. Cassian Brandice has a has a ring to it. Yeah. Cassie. Cassie and Brandice. Oh. Oh. What's that? What's that? The doggy. Doggy. Doggy. Doggy. It's a doggy, right? Can Can you Doggy. It's a doggy, right? Can Can you show them please? Please. Please. Please. Okay. Can you Can you say thank Please. Okay. Can you Can you say thank you? Thank you. Can Can you do please again? Thank you. Can Can you do please again? Please. Please. Can you say please send please sign up Can you say please send please sign up for Canad's Pinball Podcast? Can you say that? Please. Thank you. Thank you. Say please. Say please. Please. Please. Yeah. Do the row. See this is sign. They Yeah. Do the row. See this is sign. They This is one more. Please. and say goodbye. What about salancha? What about salancha? Salancha. Salancha. Salancha. All right, guys. Have a good Saturday. This little man, my my little Billy B.
    78:25
    Billy, is it your birthday? Happy birthday, Bill. Happy. Happy. Happy birthday. Right. Happy birthday. Right. Mommy, he's coming towards the stairs.
    78:40
    That's where one thing is like that he does it like Superman down the stairs. It's Billy's birthday. What are we doing? It's Billy B's birthday. Billy, I know Sabrina's taking good care of you. I You're gonna have an amazing birthday. Bizzy, thanks for the Bucks, buddy. Um, love you guys. Happy Saturday. Good vibes to all. May we all survive the snowstorm if it's in your path. I can't wait. We're gonna have to go live and show you guys like what what happens here. It might be like 16 inches. But everybody have a great Saturday. Canade out. All right.
    79:23
    Yeah. No, she is the best, dude. Billy's in good Billy, you are in good company. We have some great women by our sides. Uh and when you have that, you know what I'm saying? And like all the money in the world will not get you an amazing partner. Like it is everything. Later. Give her my best. Love you too. Bye.