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Ep 84: Rushing for Whoppers
60 Plays3 years ago
In this double feature episode, we start off talking with Stern's newest Artist Michael Barnard and his work with Rush. Then afterwards we talk to Greg Poverelli and Levi Nayman about the up coming show Allentown
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor Highlights
00:00:06
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:08
Speaker
We are on episode 84.
00:00:10
Speaker
This is Josh Roop with me, my co-captain as always.
00:00:13
Speaker
Scott Larson.
00:00:14
Speaker
And Scott, let's talk about that sweet, sweet sponsor of ours.
00:00:17
Speaker
All right.
00:00:18
Speaker
Well, flipping out pinball.
00:00:19
Speaker
If you have that desire to outfit your game room, contact Zach and Nicole.
00:00:25
Speaker
I actually looked and they seem to have some stuff in stock now.
00:00:29
Speaker
So that's actually pretty good.
00:00:31
Speaker
And if you want to really blingify your game, they have art blades.
00:00:35
Speaker
They have shooter rods.
00:00:37
Speaker
I saw they had some toppers.
00:00:39
Speaker
So, and you know how much I like toppers, but there are different ways that you can do it.
00:00:44
Speaker
And I know I just have some banners coming.
00:00:47
Speaker
So if you want to have that cool way of, of decorating your, your game room, I actually just picked up a rush banner.
00:00:58
Speaker
So that's going in my game room.
00:00:59
Speaker
So nice.
00:01:01
Speaker
Well, and honestly, they have a couple mandos in stock.
00:01:03
Speaker
It looks like they have a GNR or two.
00:01:06
Speaker
if they might be gone by time we're talking about this, but you know what?
00:01:10
Speaker
Hit up Zach.
00:01:10
Speaker
He's got some stock, uh, and he's willing to work with you.
00:01:14
Speaker
So like I said, I've, I, he's always taking care of me.
00:01:17
Speaker
I've had a couple of warranty issues, but you know what?
00:01:20
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He calls me, we get taken care of and my machines backing up, up and running within seconds.
00:01:27
Speaker
It feels like, you know, as soon as possible.
00:01:29
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:01:30
Speaker
So I, luckily it's just been like a loose screw or something like that.
00:01:33
Speaker
So,
00:01:34
Speaker
Mechagodzilla lost his belly button.
00:01:37
Speaker
Oh, the tummy grab.
00:01:38
Speaker
The tummy grab.
00:01:39
Speaker
All right.
00:01:40
Speaker
Well, let's not be rude.
Meet Michael Barnard: Artist Journey and Career
00:01:42
Speaker
Let's get to our guest for today, Scott.
00:01:45
Speaker
And I know that you love Rush.
00:01:48
Speaker
I do.
00:01:49
Speaker
And so, and everybody has said, you know, we've taken too long of a break from talking about Rush.
00:01:53
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So we are going to dive back into the deep end.
00:01:57
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And this time we are talking with the artist of Rush,
00:02:01
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Michael Barnard and of Sunburn Designs.
00:02:05
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So this is his first pinball machine.
00:02:07
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So we want to welcome him to the show and then really talk about the process because this is, I guess, pinball art is way different than typical commercial art.
00:02:17
Speaker
So welcome to the show, Michael.
00:02:19
Speaker
Hey, thanks you guys.
00:02:21
Speaker
So you are based out of Southern California.
00:02:24
Speaker
Is that correct?
00:02:24
Speaker
Yes.
00:02:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:26
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Moved out here about a year and a half ago.
00:02:28
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I was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio.
00:02:30
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I spent about 17 years in Florida, and then we moved out west.
00:02:34
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Okay.
00:02:34
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Okay.
00:02:35
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What prompted the move?
00:02:38
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You know, after... Besides the weather and the sunshine and the...
00:02:43
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I've always wanted to live out here.
00:02:45
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You know, we had one final season of hurricanes and we had lightning strike a palm tree in our backyard and went straight into the house.
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And like, we were just kind of like, you know what, we're done with this.
00:02:56
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Let's just move out West.
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And, you know, I kind of grew up, you know, curious about what it was like out here.
00:03:03
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I always wanted to come out and we took a trip out here a few years prior and fell in love with it.
00:03:07
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And my wife had lived in San Diego for a while and had always wanted to come back.
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So,
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We just decided to make the move.
00:03:14
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And yeah, I love it out here.
00:03:16
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Awesome.
00:03:17
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Yeah.
00:03:19
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So when did you start getting into art?
00:03:21
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Like what made you decide, hey, this is my full-time gig.
00:03:24
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And if you want to go look online, so I'm going to plug you really quick here, Michael.
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You can go on Facebook and he has like a super group of fans.
00:03:32
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You can go check out all of his artwork there.
00:03:34
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And what I'm impressed with, like I said, I want to know what got you into art, but also...
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it seems like you've diversified too.
00:03:41
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You've got a lot of cartoony stuff, but it's also like you've got some realism stuff there as well.
00:03:46
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Yeah.
00:03:47
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I've worked on a lot of stuff.
00:03:48
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Uh, so, you know, as far as when I got into it, I mean, I, I always loved to draw, uh, when I was a kid, my parents were really good about kind of nurturing that.
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I remember them putting me in art classes and stuff when I was six, seven, eight years old.
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Um, and it just kind of became my thing.
00:04:04
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That was what I always kind of fell back on, uh,
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You know, I always enjoyed sitting at the table, drawing stuff.
00:04:12
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You know, when I wasn't the greatest student in high school.
00:04:16
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So, you know, when I got towards my senior year and it was time to start figuring out what I wanted to do with my life, that was really the only, you know, the only path that I ever really saw.
00:04:26
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So I ended up applying for, you know, the Columbus College of Art and Design, which was about an hour away from where I lived.
00:04:35
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And I got a scholarship there.
00:04:37
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So I just kind of took that path.
00:04:39
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And yeah, it worked out great.
00:04:40
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So I just kind of always knew that's what I wanted to do.
00:04:44
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So if I wasn't doing that, I had no idea what I'd be doing with my life.
00:04:50
Speaker
Now, you went there with another famous artist, correct?
00:04:53
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I did.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, I it's funny.
00:04:56
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I had no idea.
00:04:58
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And, you know, once the Rush game came out and I was kind of allowed to kind of come out from the shadows and like introduce myself to everyone, you know, because you're not really supposed to say anything.
00:05:08
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You got to kind of keep quiet while you're working on that stuff.
00:05:12
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When the game came out, I started reaching out to some of the other artists for Stern, you know, Randy Martinez and some of those guys just to kind of say hi and introduce myself.
00:05:20
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And I went over to
00:05:22
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Jeremy Packer, which is, you know, zombie Eddie.
00:05:25
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And I was on his Facebook page and I was looking at it and I noticed he went to the same school I did.
00:05:31
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And not only that, he went the same year that I did.
00:05:34
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And, uh, I was like, Oh my God, I couldn't believe it.
00:05:36
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And I shot him a message and we ended up chatting, you know, quite a bit.
00:05:40
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And we had a lot of the same friends in common.
00:05:42
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Just somehow we just, we never
Designing the Rush Pinball Machine
00:05:44
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crossed paths.
00:05:44
Speaker
I've never met him before.
00:05:46
Speaker
If I did, I, you know, I didn't remember him, but yeah, we went to the same school together and everything.
00:05:51
Speaker
It was, it
00:05:51
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What are the odds?
00:05:53
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So yeah, he's, he's a really, he's a really cool guy too.
00:05:57
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We chat quite a bit on there.
00:05:58
Speaker
He's, he's really awesome.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:01
Speaker
Jeremy's great.
00:06:01
Speaker
We we've had him on the show too, but that that's, it's, it sounds like a very specialized art school though, right?
00:06:09
Speaker
I mean, you go to the school because that's what you want to do.
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:12
Speaker
It's, it's a very traditional art school.
00:06:14
Speaker
At least it was when I went there, it was a lot of the, you know,
00:06:17
Speaker
figure drawing classes and portraits and, you know, perspectives and, you know, everything's geared towards art, you know, even the history classes or art history, everything's, you know, geared towards either, you know, advertising or, you know, illustration majors and that kind of stuff.
00:06:32
Speaker
So yeah, it was a great school.
00:06:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:36
Speaker
So you've, you finished that off and then like,
00:06:39
Speaker
You've been graduated for a few years.
00:06:41
Speaker
So what did you do between then and now?
00:06:43
Speaker
So right out of school, I ended up with an internship at the Iams Pet Food Company, which was like a big company in Dayton, Ohio.
00:06:52
Speaker
Nothing great.
00:06:53
Speaker
I was there for a couple months.
00:06:54
Speaker
And then I ended up getting a job for a place that did ads for the Yellow Pages, which is like torturous.
00:07:00
Speaker
It was awful.
00:07:02
Speaker
But it taught me to use...
00:07:05
Speaker
Photoshop and Illustrator and kind of start doing the digital stuff, which was really just kind of coming around when I graduated art school in 98.
00:07:14
Speaker
So it kind of gave me the chance to use those programs every day.
00:07:18
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I made it about a year.
00:07:19
Speaker
And then at that point I was like, I was done with Ohio and I just decided to move to Florida.
00:07:25
Speaker
And I went down there and I interviewed with the t-shirt company down there and I got on board with those guys.
00:07:31
Speaker
And that was, you know, probably one of the best moves I ever made.
00:07:35
Speaker
It was certainly very lucky.
00:07:36
Speaker
You know, there's a million t-shirt companies out there that do all kinds of stuff.
00:07:40
Speaker
But this place in particular,
00:07:42
Speaker
had a real emphasis on really detailed digital artwork.
00:07:47
Speaker
And I got on with those guys and I learned from the artists that had been there for years and kind of picked up on their styles and how they did stuff.
00:07:54
Speaker
And that just opened all the doors in the world.
00:07:57
Speaker
So I ended up becoming art director there.
00:08:00
Speaker
I was there for 17 years.
00:08:03
Speaker
At some point, I started kind of venturing out looking for freelance work.
00:08:07
Speaker
realizing I could make more money at home, you know, just in the evenings watching TV while I was working than I was making all day at, you know, at work.
00:08:14
Speaker
So my wife went back to school and got her master's degree.
00:08:18
Speaker
And as soon as she got a job, I left there and launched my own company.
00:08:21
Speaker
And that was, I want to say 2016.
00:08:24
Speaker
And it's been going strong ever since.
00:08:29
Speaker
I was going to say, looking at your portfolio, it looks like you're a man of the 80s.
00:08:34
Speaker
I'm seeing a lot of Garbage Pal kids, Goonies 2, The Muppets are in here.
00:08:40
Speaker
We have Christmas Story.
00:08:43
Speaker
Is that what you specialize in?
00:08:45
Speaker
What draws you to the 80s?
00:08:47
Speaker
it is, I'm just a pretty nostalgic guy.
00:08:50
Speaker
I mean, I obviously grew up in the eighties and I had a great childhood and, you know, I just, I'm very fond of that kind of stuff.
00:08:56
Speaker
So whenever I have a chance to kind of go out and do my own artwork or, you know, create something just for fun, that's kind of what I fall back on.
00:09:03
Speaker
And, uh,
00:09:05
Speaker
I've found that there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of other people that are into that obviously too.
00:09:09
Speaker
So I just kind of created a little niche for myself with that.
00:09:12
Speaker
And I got on board with tops and worked on, you know, the garbage pail kids and that kind of stuff.
00:09:17
Speaker
And I do a lot of stuff for some eighties rock bands and that kind of stuff.
00:09:21
Speaker
So it's, it's just something I, you know, I know a lot about, so it's kind of a good fit for me.
00:09:27
Speaker
So, okay.
00:09:28
Speaker
So doing all these projects, however,
00:09:30
Speaker
were you into pinball?
00:09:32
Speaker
So, so I want to go through the process of how you got to pinball art, because we're talking, it's a couple niche areas down from just being a commercial artist.
00:09:44
Speaker
Sure.
00:09:45
Speaker
Yeah, no, I've, you know, again, growing up in the eighties, I was of course all into arcades and that kind of stuff.
00:09:51
Speaker
And, you know, I didn't really know much about pinball.
00:09:55
Speaker
Um,
00:09:57
Speaker
But I knew who Stern was, and it's just something I always thought would be really cool, especially, you know, we moved out west.
00:10:03
Speaker
There's a lot of casinos and stuff out here.
00:10:05
Speaker
So, you know, you're walking around looking at all these games with these bright backlit digital art and stuff.
00:10:10
Speaker
And I just remember thinking, God, I could do that.
00:10:12
Speaker
That would be really cool.
00:10:14
Speaker
And I think my style would fit really well with that kind of thing.
00:10:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:18
Speaker
I believe I had tried to get a hold of Stern a number of times.
00:10:23
Speaker
It's one of those places they probably get hit up all the time by people and didn't hear anything back.
00:10:29
Speaker
In the end, it's really all about timing.
00:10:31
Speaker
I must have reached out to them at just the right time.
00:10:34
Speaker
They got back to me and they liked my work.
00:10:38
Speaker
I just started having conversations with them.
00:10:41
Speaker
Then that was right around the time that they were looking for someone to
00:10:45
Speaker
to start on the Rush game and I kind of got my foot in the door.
00:10:48
Speaker
So yeah, it just kind of came together.
00:10:50
Speaker
It worked out really well.
00:10:52
Speaker
So I mean, Rush is, they had their heyday in the late 70s, early 80s.
00:10:58
Speaker
I mean, really their big coming of age is moving pictures, right?
00:11:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:03
Speaker
And so I would say that most people are familiar with them through that album.
00:11:08
Speaker
How familiar with Rush were you before you got invited to try out for the project?
00:11:13
Speaker
Honestly, not super familiar.
00:11:15
Speaker
I mean, I knew who they were.
00:11:16
Speaker
I knew four or five of the songs.
00:11:19
Speaker
I knew they had a pretty fanatical base.
00:11:22
Speaker
You know, I can remember in high school, kids wearing Rush shirts and stuff.
00:11:25
Speaker
And it was, you know, I knew of them.
00:11:29
Speaker
I knew some of their stuff.
00:11:30
Speaker
I could definitely recognize their sound.
00:11:31
Speaker
But honestly, if you had asked me about their albums and stuff, I wouldn't have known them.
00:11:36
Speaker
Wouldn't have known that much.
00:11:37
Speaker
It wasn't until I got on board with the project that, you know, I had to kind of dive into the, you know, watching the documentaries and reading over lyrics and studying the album covers and that kind of stuff.
00:11:50
Speaker
You know, it was definitely new to me, I would say, but, but I liked it.
00:11:55
Speaker
You know, I feel like Rush is, you know, it's no secret that they're kind of divisive.
00:12:00
Speaker
A lot of people love them or hate them.
00:12:02
Speaker
I'm kind of,
00:12:03
Speaker
not really either.
00:12:04
Speaker
Like I, I like them more than I, I wouldn't say I don't like them.
00:12:07
Speaker
I do like them.
00:12:08
Speaker
I just, I didn't know that much about them.
00:12:10
Speaker
And, you know, after listening to all the stuff that I listened to, to, to get ready for the project, you know, I really started liking them.
00:12:16
Speaker
So yeah.
00:12:19
Speaker
I would say most people, if they don't like rush, they at least have a respect for rush.
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:25
Speaker
And I totally understand that is that they do have a unique sound.
00:12:30
Speaker
And some people really like it and some people don't, but, uh, um, that that's certainly part of it, but rush is an interesting band and that they've actually been with Hugh Syme, who was their art director for pretty much their entire career.
00:12:45
Speaker
I think, except for their first album, um, the, the standard rush, uh, logo that people think about that's now on the back glass.
00:12:54
Speaker
Um,
00:12:54
Speaker
But each album was totally different.
00:12:58
Speaker
And so when you're making a pinball machine, you're trying to incorporate all those albums.
00:13:03
Speaker
And I would say most bands tend to have a theme or a vibe that they're consistent with.
00:13:11
Speaker
And if you look at the Metallica brand, you could probably pick out a style that they stick with.
00:13:20
Speaker
Same with Iron Maiden.
00:13:21
Speaker
Iron Maiden was stuck with Derek Riggs, not stuck, but they were tied to a Derek Riggs-esque vibe for a while.
00:13:28
Speaker
And that's what people identify that bandwidth rush is different in that, even though they had the same art director, each album was completely different from either photo realism to, you know, to, I guess, surrealist landscapes and everything was so different.
00:13:46
Speaker
But when you're tying that into one machine, how in the world do you incorporate 19 different studio albums into one pin?
00:13:56
Speaker
It's definitely tricky,
Art Packages and Creative Process
00:13:58
Speaker
especially when one of the emphasis on the game is the time machine element, which is playing up all of those things from across their entire catalog.
00:14:06
Speaker
So basically, I think what we did on this one was we just kind of went with my style and just tried to pull in as many things as we could.
00:14:15
Speaker
Obviously, there are three designs for the back glass, which is where we started.
00:14:19
Speaker
We tried to kind of play up the time machine element in each of those.
00:14:25
Speaker
you know, and then just pull in different things from each one.
00:14:28
Speaker
It was tricky for sure to pull in different things.
00:14:31
Speaker
I studied those album covers over and over and over.
00:14:34
Speaker
And, you know, sometimes there's just not a whole lot there to pull from, you know, there's rabbits coming out of hats on Presto and, you know, there's just different things that really didn't have anything to do with
00:14:46
Speaker
the other ones.
00:14:47
Speaker
So it was tricky and, you know, you don't want to end up with just a design where you just have a bunch of random stuff scattered across it.
00:14:54
Speaker
So it was tricky, but, you know, I feel like we did a pretty good job pulling that together and just trying to keep,
00:15:02
Speaker
Keep in mind that the fans are going to look at this.
00:15:04
Speaker
Rush fans are going to look at it and they're going to be studying it.
00:15:07
Speaker
They're going to be looking for little things hidden in there and kind of critiquing it.
00:15:13
Speaker
So we took it very serious, but I think we did a pretty good job pulling all the elements in there.
00:15:19
Speaker
So when they pulled you onto the project, did they give you kind of free reign or did Rush have a direction they wanted to go with and said, hey, this is what we're looking for?
00:15:28
Speaker
How did you go about that?
00:15:31
Speaker
So, yeah, it was really more free reign than I think I realized at first because I'm used to working on a lot of t-shirt designs where things are very specific.
00:15:39
Speaker
You know, car shows where, you know, the client says, I want these three cars in a sunset.
00:15:45
Speaker
You know, you kind of know up front.
00:15:47
Speaker
With this one,
00:15:48
Speaker
when I first started the project, I feel like looking back on it, I was kind of, uh, kind of just doing a little bit and then waiting on feedback and doing a little bit more until finally they were like, you know, they kind of were like, Hey, just go with it.
00:16:01
Speaker
Like throw anything out there that you can think of.
00:16:03
Speaker
And they were very, very open to, uh, letting me kind of run with stuff.
00:16:08
Speaker
So they had a little bit of an idea of some of the things, you know, they, they knew that they wanted to play up that first album color cover with the, uh,
00:16:16
Speaker
you know, kind of the light speed, you know, graphics coming off of it.
00:16:19
Speaker
Uh, they knew they wanted to do something with the cartoon characters from the comic books.
00:16:24
Speaker
Uh, so they had a little bit of direction on that kind of stuff, but as far as the layouts and everything, they kind of left it up to me.
00:16:30
Speaker
Uh,
00:16:31
Speaker
which was nice.
00:16:32
Speaker
I mean, it's like anything, you know, I would work up some rough sketches and send it to them and they would send it back and say, you know, go with, go with this or maybe less of that or more of this.
00:16:42
Speaker
And, you know, they kind of, kind of walk you through it, but yeah, they, they gave me a little bit more freedom than, than I would have, than I would have thought, which was, which is nice.
00:16:51
Speaker
So did you also kind of have, because you talked about you had a little bit of arcade background and whatnot.
00:16:57
Speaker
Did you also start to kind of have to say, hey, we need some artwork specific to the rules and stuff right here and whatnot.
00:17:07
Speaker
How does that come into play as well?
00:17:08
Speaker
Because obviously you need inserts and stuff in there as well.
00:17:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:12
Speaker
They definitely will kind of give you a template, you know, where the inserts would go.
00:17:16
Speaker
And they would say, you know, down here in the bottom center, we're going to feature these five or six songs.
00:17:21
Speaker
So, you know, maybe put this here and that there.
00:17:23
Speaker
And, you know, that kind of stuff kind of changes as you go.
00:17:27
Speaker
You just have to kind of be ready to modify things.
00:17:30
Speaker
But, yeah, they do kind of give you a little bit of, you know, direction as far as what kind of stuff to put in certain areas.
00:17:38
Speaker
And then it's up to you how you want to pull that off.
00:17:42
Speaker
Now you did bring up the comic series, which I would say even most Rush fans had no idea that there was a comic series.
00:17:52
Speaker
I have the 2112 release and it actually has the album that went through comic book style.
00:18:00
Speaker
And so I would say that the average Rush fan who hasn't been keeping up with them would have no idea that that exists really.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:11
Speaker
one of the more dividing points of it, and we've talked about it before offline, but the, the characters, the rushed characters that are in the center of the play field.
00:18:21
Speaker
So I tell me more about that because I'll tell you the, the criticism that I heard, and then you can give the counterpoint, but one, they,
00:18:31
Speaker
They thought that Neil, they, they thought that looked, yeah, they didn't like the way Neil was portrayed.
00:18:36
Speaker
They also said Getty is the nineties version of it.
00:18:40
Speaker
Getty with the soul patch and the, and the round glasses.
00:18:44
Speaker
When, if you're looking at the 21, 12, you know, back cover, it's, it's different.
00:18:52
Speaker
So it's, you're basically blending in about three different styles.
00:18:55
Speaker
However,
00:18:58
Speaker
this is what the band wanted, right?
00:19:01
Speaker
Yes.
00:19:01
Speaker
So tell me more about that incorporation.
00:19:04
Speaker
So, you know, the decision was made, I think, early on that, yeah, we're going to have to show these guys on the play field.
00:19:11
Speaker
How do we do that?
00:19:12
Speaker
Especially when, like you said, we're covering such a big era of work with different styles, different looks and that kind of thing.
00:19:18
Speaker
So I think fairly early on the decision was made to go with the cartoon style from the comic books.
00:19:24
Speaker
And I don't know if maybe they were just kind of counting on people remembering that and going, oh, okay, that's just another part of their, their catalog.
00:19:33
Speaker
So yeah,
00:19:35
Speaker
which of course when it came out, I don't think anybody hardly remembered those, those comics.
00:19:40
Speaker
So they thought that these were made from scratch, which they kind of were, but they were modeled after the comic book.
00:19:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:47
Speaker
I saw the comments like the day this came out, we were actually in Hawaii and I remember waking up and jumping on my phone.
00:19:54
Speaker
Like, I can't wait to see what people think about this.
00:19:56
Speaker
And of course that's when the trolls, you know, they're out in full force.
00:19:59
Speaker
And that, that was definitely the thing that everyone jumped on.
00:20:04
Speaker
And it was kind of like, you know, it was what the band wanted.
00:20:09
Speaker
At the same time, it was kind of like, you know, we had to kind of make a decision when we were doing this.
00:20:14
Speaker
The comment I saw the most was that, you know, Neil looked like some magician or somebody from the 70s.
00:20:20
Speaker
But, you know, I, you know, I had looked like the guy from, oh, oh, crap.
00:20:26
Speaker
Now it's going to Ace of Spades band.
00:20:28
Speaker
Oh, let me.
00:20:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:30
Speaker
He looked like Lemmy is what I thought.
00:20:31
Speaker
He did kind of look like Lemmy.
00:20:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:34
Speaker
But that actually, it does look like an early Neil.
00:20:37
Speaker
It really does.
00:20:37
Speaker
There are pictures of Neil that you're like, yeah, if you didn't know Neil back in the mid 70s, that's pretty much what he looked like.
00:20:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:43
Speaker
I mean, we, you know, I used photo references to get those.
00:20:47
Speaker
You know, it looked just like him, but.
00:20:50
Speaker
when it was all said and done, you know, Getty didn't look like anything spectacular.
00:20:54
Speaker
He just looked like a, you know, the thing that makes Getty stand out, you know, is those rounds of sunglasses.
00:21:00
Speaker
It is the goatee, you know, or the little soul patch there.
00:21:04
Speaker
So we just kind of decided last minute, we'll go ahead and put that on there.
00:21:07
Speaker
And I actually thought that would be the thing that people would, would point out the most and say, well, this is the wrong era.
00:21:12
Speaker
If the other guys are looking like this, then he wouldn't have had this.
00:21:15
Speaker
And,
00:21:16
Speaker
It's a time machine, right?
00:21:18
Speaker
You're from all areas.
00:21:19
Speaker
So in the end, it was just kind of like, you know, this is what we're going to put here.
00:21:24
Speaker
You know, everybody at Stern seemed to love it and it was fine.
00:21:27
Speaker
And then, of course, when it came out, that was there's always going to be something that people kind of go after.
00:21:33
Speaker
And it turns out that that was pretty much the thing on this one.
00:21:36
Speaker
So, you know, it was kind of like, well, you know, it's like, yeah.
00:21:40
Speaker
It's what they wanted.
00:21:41
Speaker
It's, you know, we were happy with it.
00:21:43
Speaker
I think it flows with the design pretty well.
00:21:46
Speaker
I don't hear as much about it anymore, you know, in the beginning.
00:21:49
Speaker
That's all I heard.
00:21:50
Speaker
I think people are used to it.
00:21:51
Speaker
I think it really is totally fine.
00:21:53
Speaker
And really, if you look at Aerosmith, like the cartoon Aerosmith band back there, I would say it's a fairly common reference that you would say, yeah, that's just a cartoon version of the band.
00:22:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:08
Speaker
You know what, though?
00:22:08
Speaker
Looking at this artwork, though, it's just I love the LE back glass, your play with the contrast of the hot and the colds.
00:22:16
Speaker
Like the hots feel very warm.
00:22:18
Speaker
It's just like it's it looks so good with the snow and everything.
00:22:22
Speaker
And it just it really I mean, this is a really good quality art.
00:22:27
Speaker
And it's in my opinion.
00:22:29
Speaker
it pushes pinball forward.
00:22:31
Speaker
I mean, we've had some interesting art designs.
00:22:34
Speaker
I mean, it's gotten better, especially over these last five years.
00:22:36
Speaker
But for people to complain about something that a licensor wants, and it's their game.
00:22:43
Speaker
They should have every right to do whatever they want with it.
00:22:45
Speaker
And,
Challenges and Collaboration in Pinball Design
00:22:46
Speaker
you know, you look at this and it's like, this is a heck of a lot better than the Photoshop cut and paste of the 2000s.
00:22:54
Speaker
Like, this is just astounding.
00:22:57
Speaker
I don't know.
00:22:58
Speaker
I kind of thought, you know, when I was working on it, I kind of thought the back glasses, you know, would be the things that everyone would kind of focus on.
00:23:05
Speaker
And that's the kind of stuff you would see shared online and that kind of stuff.
00:23:08
Speaker
And then it was like, when it came out, like everyone just, they dialed right in on the center of the play field.
00:23:13
Speaker
And I was like, oh, but you know, I did, I will say, you know, the trolls came out for sure, but.
00:23:20
Speaker
Trolls wake up early, just in case you wonder, like trolls are the first people up in the morning.
00:23:25
Speaker
And I was warned about them and everything.
00:23:27
Speaker
But I got to be honest with you, though, I got a ton of messages from people, just direct messages telling me how much they liked it.
00:23:35
Speaker
And, you know, that was kind of nice.
00:23:36
Speaker
Like a lot of people took time to kind of message me and say, hey, I saw saw some comments and people are coming down on this.
00:23:43
Speaker
You know, I think it's awesome.
00:23:44
Speaker
I think it's cool.
00:23:45
Speaker
You know, so there was way more love than hate for it.
00:23:48
Speaker
So, you know.
00:23:50
Speaker
in the end, I just wanted Stern to be happy.
00:23:52
Speaker
And I think they were.
00:23:53
Speaker
So that's really what mattered the most.
00:23:57
Speaker
So tell me about the three different art packages.
00:23:59
Speaker
I mean, when you're doing this project, if you're unfamiliar with pinball, this may be the first time you realize that there's actually three different versions of this game and you're going to be developing an art package that will go to all three.
00:24:12
Speaker
So what was your approach for each one of them?
00:24:15
Speaker
Did you
00:24:16
Speaker
do three art packages and then just decide which fit best with which one?
00:24:21
Speaker
Or did you have a goal for each of the art packages?
00:24:24
Speaker
More or less, that's kind of what we did.
00:24:25
Speaker
We just kind of came up with what we thought would look cool.
00:24:29
Speaker
Again, the idea was to kind of bring that time machine and different elements across the different back classes.
00:24:37
Speaker
You know, we just kind of worked on them.
00:24:39
Speaker
I kind of bounced back and forth between the three of them.
00:24:43
Speaker
when we got the idea to kind of do something based on Neil's drum kit and kind of go with the steampunk, like everyone loved that right out of the gate.
00:24:50
Speaker
So that I think pretty early on, they knew that they were going to use that for the LE, which came out really awesome.
00:24:57
Speaker
And then, you know, of course there's the,
00:25:00
Speaker
The comic book style one, you know, that was a direction to take to put the band on the side of the cabinets.
00:25:05
Speaker
So that kind of became its own package.
00:25:07
Speaker
And then, of course, the other one with the start, you know, the burst logo for the other one.
00:25:12
Speaker
So, you know, I just kind of worked on them as I went.
00:25:15
Speaker
And, you know, as I would turn them in, I would kind of get feedback and they'd say, you know what, I think we're going to use this for the premium.
00:25:22
Speaker
Let's use this for the pro.
00:25:23
Speaker
Let's go this, you know.
00:25:24
Speaker
So I kind of just fed them art as I did it.
00:25:26
Speaker
And they, I think they have such a good eye for that kind of stuff.
00:25:29
Speaker
They just kind of knew, you know, what they wanted to use each one for.
00:25:33
Speaker
So, so obviously you've been up to Stern, right?
00:25:37
Speaker
Yes.
00:25:38
Speaker
I went there last summer.
00:25:39
Speaker
Awesome.
00:25:40
Speaker
So what game has you, you are, I assume you got to play some of the games up there.
00:25:45
Speaker
Which one stands out to you so far?
00:25:47
Speaker
Um, honestly, I didn't really get to play many while I was there.
00:25:51
Speaker
It was kind of odd.
00:25:51
Speaker
I mean, I worked on this game during COVID.
00:25:55
Speaker
So, you know, yeah, they were basically, they just reopened.
00:26:00
Speaker
I don't know if they ever completely shut down or not.
00:26:02
Speaker
I know when I was there, they had all the, you know, the plastic up between all the employees and stuff.
00:26:06
Speaker
It was kind of, a lot of the guys were working from home and that kind of thing.
00:26:10
Speaker
But, um, Greg walked me around and showed me everything.
00:26:13
Speaker
It is, uh,
00:26:14
Speaker
Have you guys been to that factory?
00:26:17
Speaker
It is impressive.
00:26:20
Speaker
We haven't been able to tour yet.
00:26:22
Speaker
Yeah, we went last October, but they weren't allowing anyone to go tour yet.
00:26:27
Speaker
Yeah, it is impressive in there how they do it.
00:26:31
Speaker
They did have a section with some of the games there.
00:26:33
Speaker
I don't think I even played anything while I was there, honestly.
00:26:37
Speaker
I was just kind of in awe looking around.
00:26:40
Speaker
I did get to go to...
00:26:42
Speaker
an arcade in Los Angeles not too long ago that had a whole bunch of the Stern games there kind of just lined up.
00:26:49
Speaker
It was one of those free play.
00:26:50
Speaker
You know, you pay like 20 bucks to get in and they just turn you loose in there.
00:26:53
Speaker
And they had the Rush game there, so that's where I got to play that.
00:26:56
Speaker
But yeah, I played Godzilla and ACDC and Jurassic Park, all those games there.
00:27:03
Speaker
They're Stranger Things.
00:27:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's just awesome.
00:27:07
Speaker
So how does one go about...
00:27:10
Speaker
designing a play field because it's not like you have a blank canvas.
00:27:14
Speaker
You're actually designing around mechanisms, around ball paths.
00:27:18
Speaker
And so how did you approach that?
00:27:22
Speaker
And did you get any advice from other artists?
00:27:25
Speaker
Well, no advice from other artists just because, you know, this is these jobs are like super top secret when you're working on them.
00:27:32
Speaker
So like I couldn't really reach out to anybody or anything.
00:27:35
Speaker
But but the guys at Stern were, you know, they were great.
00:27:38
Speaker
They knew this was my first one.
00:27:41
Speaker
So they kind of walked me through it.
00:27:43
Speaker
I would get directions sometimes.
00:27:44
Speaker
I wouldn't even understand.
00:27:46
Speaker
They would say, put this down here and this return lane and this over here.
00:27:49
Speaker
They would use terminology and stuff and I'd have to be like, well, hold on a second.
00:27:53
Speaker
I don't know what you're talking about or where you're talking about.
00:27:56
Speaker
So they would go in there with like a red marker and kind of mock it up and say, this is what I'm talking about over here.
00:28:03
Speaker
As far as designing the play field, you know, by the time it comes to me, it's already kind of figured out where all the inserts are going, where the plastics are going.
00:28:11
Speaker
You know, the engineers and those guys have been playing around with that stuff already for quite a while by the time it gets to me.
00:28:17
Speaker
So, you know, I just kind of took it in the...
00:28:20
Speaker
you know, they marked up like we were talking about earlier, they said, you know, down here, we're going to have, you know, five or six of the songs.
00:28:27
Speaker
So we want some graphics that go with, you know, these particular songs, whatever imagery you can think of.
00:28:33
Speaker
Um, we definitely, you know, we want to have the portraits of the guys.
00:28:36
Speaker
We'll put those here.
00:28:38
Speaker
Um, we were going heavy with the, uh, steampunk stuff.
00:28:42
Speaker
So we're going to do that on all the plastics.
00:28:45
Speaker
Um,
00:28:46
Speaker
You know, I just kind of, you know, immediately when I looked at it, I just saw the owl at the bottom center and that worked out good with the eyes, you know.
00:28:56
Speaker
So, yeah, they kind of turned me loose on that one.
00:28:59
Speaker
It was pretty wide open.
00:29:00
Speaker
I just kind of threw some stuff down and tried to make it look cool and have it kind of fade into, you know, outer space a little bit towards the top and kind of pull in some elements from all three cabinets.
00:29:11
Speaker
And it just kind of came together.
00:29:14
Speaker
I think it worked out pretty good.
00:29:16
Speaker
So what surprised you most about this whole process?
00:29:21
Speaker
Honestly, the amount of detail and parts and pieces involved in something like this.
00:29:26
Speaker
I've never worked on anything that had this many elements to it, from the side blades to the back panels and all the little plastics and the targets and all that kind of stuff.
00:29:41
Speaker
when I tell people I worked on a pinball machine, I don't know that, you know, unless you've been around a modern pinball machine, you probably don't really have any idea just how involved they are, like how many, how many, how many parts and pieces are on there.
00:29:53
Speaker
I mean, I worked on this project for almost a year and, uh, you know, there's, there's a lot of files, a lot of stuff involved with it.
00:30:01
Speaker
So yeah, that was kind of, that surprised me, like how much was involved.
00:30:05
Speaker
Um,
00:30:06
Speaker
Stern sends your own external hard drive.
00:30:08
Speaker
You're going to fill this up soon.
00:30:09
Speaker
And I could have for sure.
00:30:13
Speaker
I'm assuming you did even all the small stuff like the drop targets on the on the left and the stand up targets on the right.
00:30:20
Speaker
Yeah, everything.
00:30:21
Speaker
Every ounce of it.
00:30:22
Speaker
Yep.
00:30:23
Speaker
Where did the cork flying into the black hole come from?
00:30:29
Speaker
That was on, again, I'm not a huge Rush guy.
00:30:32
Speaker
Like I didn't know that much at the time.
00:30:34
Speaker
That was on something that we had looked up.
00:30:36
Speaker
I don't know if it was from a tour poster or a greatest hits.
00:30:41
Speaker
I can't remember where that came from.
00:30:42
Speaker
It definitely came from something Rush related that we found, you know, looking through things, but it just kind of fit, you know, it just kind of worked there.
00:30:51
Speaker
So I put it in there and, you know, there's some definitely some
00:30:55
Speaker
goofy stuff on there.
00:30:56
Speaker
Some, you know, what they kind of refer to as just Canadian humor, you know, with the hoot again and, you know, some of that kind of stuff in there.
00:31:03
Speaker
So yeah, the Korg is, it is odd.
00:31:07
Speaker
It's the first time I've been asked about it.
00:31:08
Speaker
I just kind of saw it somewhere and put it in there and I don't know, it just kind of fit.
Current Work and Personal Interests
00:31:13
Speaker
Well, it, it does fit a little bit for people who are unfamiliar with Cygnus X1.
00:31:19
Speaker
That's going to be one of the end songs, right?
00:31:22
Speaker
So there's Cygnus X1 and Cygnus X2.
00:31:24
Speaker
Cygnus is the first identified or at least suspected black holes.
00:31:30
Speaker
And so that's why, like when I saw that and I saw the court going into the black hole, I thought that was, that sounded very rush humor-esque.
00:31:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:41
Speaker
It just kind of fit.
00:31:42
Speaker
I don't, I don't know.
00:31:43
Speaker
It just worked.
00:31:46
Speaker
So now that you're out in the public and whatever, and people know that you work with Stern and whatnot, are you going to be going to any of these pinball events?
00:31:53
Speaker
May you come and hang it out with some of these people that love your artwork?
00:31:57
Speaker
Yeah, I would love to go.
00:31:58
Speaker
I didn't really realize how big the Texas festival was until I started seeing all the pictures online.
00:32:05
Speaker
And I knew about it.
00:32:06
Speaker
I didn't really know about it in time.
00:32:10
Speaker
and I honestly, I felt kind of weird.
00:32:12
Speaker
Like I've only worked on one.
00:32:15
Speaker
Like, I don't know yet if I'm sort of a one-off, you know, or if there's more, I just felt kind of weird trying to go there and set up like a space or something there.
00:32:24
Speaker
Um, but next year I would definitely go.
00:32:27
Speaker
And, uh,
00:32:28
Speaker
You know, I know there's one in Chicago, I think in the fall, unfortunately falls right on my wife's birthday.
00:32:34
Speaker
So that, that one's going to be a little tough to make it to as well.
00:32:37
Speaker
But, um, I would definitely like to go to the, to the Texas one next year though.
00:32:42
Speaker
Who doesn't want deep dish pizza on their birthday?
00:32:45
Speaker
That's true.
00:32:46
Speaker
Yeah, you have to convince your wife, come on, we'll eat deep disc pizza.
00:32:49
Speaker
And the nice part is your 80s repertoire fits right in with the demographic of pinball owners.
00:32:56
Speaker
So even with just having the rush, I guarantee if you brought the Garbage Pal Kid stuff and whatnot, which, by the way, I've got to ask, did you do the art for that beer or whatever it was that came out with the Garbage Pal Kids that were the pinball ones?
00:33:10
Speaker
It's funny, I didn't do that.
00:33:12
Speaker
I saw that online and I was like,
00:33:14
Speaker
Stern is sharing this and it's, I don't know.
00:33:16
Speaker
It was kind of weird.
00:33:17
Speaker
It was like, that's my thing.
00:33:18
Speaker
And there's Stern sharing.
00:33:20
Speaker
No, I didn't do that art.
00:33:21
Speaker
I don't know.
00:33:22
Speaker
I don't know who did that.
00:33:23
Speaker
I don't know if they, if they thought it was you.
00:33:25
Speaker
I, cause I sent you a link.
00:33:26
Speaker
I sent you the picture and I basically was thinking that was you.
00:33:29
Speaker
That's why I sent it to you.
00:33:31
Speaker
No, that wasn't me.
00:33:32
Speaker
I don't know where that was from.
00:33:33
Speaker
I, I don't know if that was like legit licensed stuff or if that was just somebody homebrew doing their thing.
00:33:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:40
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:33:41
Speaker
That wasn't me.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:44
Speaker
nice nice so what's on the horizon for you um honestly right now it is a game of ketchup i have got more work on my plate than you can imagine i just took a trip to ohio to see family and uh i was gone for about two weeks and i just came home i've got jobs stacked up a mile high so nothing too exciting a lot of uh
00:34:08
Speaker
you know, t-shirt designs.
00:34:09
Speaker
I've got some stuff for some rock bands.
00:34:11
Speaker
I've got some car show designs.
00:34:13
Speaker
Uh, I do a lot of disc golf stuff.
00:34:16
Speaker
I don't know how familiar you guys are with the disc golf.
00:34:19
Speaker
Um, that's kind of become my big thing as well.
00:34:21
Speaker
So I do a lot of that.
00:34:23
Speaker
I've got a lot of, uh, custom jobs for that.
00:34:25
Speaker
I've got my own line of discs.
00:34:27
Speaker
I try and put one out, you know, once a month or so, I'm a little behind on that.
00:34:31
Speaker
So yeah, it's, it's really just a lot of, uh, stacked up work to get caught up on, you know,
00:34:38
Speaker
What was your favorite part of this project?
00:34:43
Speaker
My favorite part of it?
00:34:45
Speaker
Let's see.
00:34:46
Speaker
Hmm.
00:34:47
Speaker
It's a good question.
00:34:50
Speaker
I don't know.
00:34:50
Speaker
I think just working with, uh, with the guys at Stern and like talking to some of these engineers and these guys are just unbelievable.
00:34:58
Speaker
Anything you can think of, they can do.
00:35:00
Speaker
And it's, it's really kind of amazing, you know, the whole process.
00:35:04
Speaker
I think actually once it came out and actually being able to go see one and play one, it's pretty incredible.
00:35:11
Speaker
You know, all that time and work that you spent on this, you know, stuck back here and pulling all nighters and that kind of stuff.
00:35:16
Speaker
And then to be able to like actually stand there and play it and,
00:35:21
Speaker
I'd say the positive feedback that I've seen online.
00:35:23
Speaker
I know there's a couple of rush pinball fanatic groups and watching those guys discuss it and show pictures of it in their living rooms and their man caves and that kind of stuff.
00:35:34
Speaker
And, you know, seeing how there are, you know, rush launch parties that arcades are having and bowling alleys and all these different places and all that kind of stuff, all centered around this one project that I got to be a part of.
00:35:47
Speaker
That's, you know,
00:35:49
Speaker
I don't know that there's one specific thing that was my favorite part about it, but just the whole experience was just awesome.
00:35:55
Speaker
It was really cool.
00:35:56
Speaker
So I, you know, I loved it.
00:35:58
Speaker
I had a great time.
00:35:59
Speaker
Everybody's been really cool about it and I'm hoping it'll lead to, to more stuff.
00:36:06
Speaker
Well, with your repertoire, I bet we'll definitely see you sometime in the future because we're, they're making more pins.
00:36:12
Speaker
So yep.
00:36:13
Speaker
There's no, no shortage of pins at this point.
00:36:17
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:18
Speaker
If you had to pick one back glass to hang on your wall, which one would it be?
00:36:23
Speaker
One back glass of the three rush designs.
00:36:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:26
Speaker
Oh, uh, the Ellie.
00:36:28
Speaker
Yeah, definitely the Ellie.
00:36:30
Speaker
That was Ellie is nice.
00:36:33
Speaker
It looks really good.
00:36:34
Speaker
And actually, so I have an Ellie and, uh, when people come over and I'll say, you know, say what's the difference between Ellie and a premium.
00:36:41
Speaker
And I start going through things and I say,
00:36:44
Speaker
Well, one thing an LE has is a mirrored back glass, which most of the time you can't tell is there unless you're looking closely.
00:36:52
Speaker
If you look at the rush one, you can definitely see the mirroring on the back glass and it shows you it enhances the package a lot better.
00:37:00
Speaker
So yeah, that's what she said.
00:37:03
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:37:04
Speaker
Josh, sorry.
00:37:06
Speaker
I have to cut that out.
00:37:10
Speaker
Nice.
00:37:10
Speaker
No, I, I do like the, uh, the back glass and I will say the owl, like I also, I want, I have to get all three of them.
00:37:17
Speaker
So I'm going to order the other two.
00:37:19
Speaker
I, I love the owl just because of the symmetry.
00:37:22
Speaker
It looks so great, but the amalgam of the, uh, of, of the premium one where, you know, it has the guy running is it feels very moving pictures esque where he's running, he's running into the museum and you have the owl flying out and you have,
00:37:38
Speaker
I know that Ed Robertson called that little totem dude something.
00:37:43
Speaker
I can't remember what it's called, but it's some specific guidepost in Canada or something.
00:37:51
Speaker
But yeah, it's that stacked statue dude.
00:37:56
Speaker
Yeah, you're talking about the Echo, whatever it is.
00:37:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's the test for Echo one.
00:38:01
Speaker
Yeah, the test for Echo rocks, yeah.
00:38:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:04
Speaker
Yeah, that was a little odd.
00:38:07
Speaker
I don't think that was my idea.
00:38:08
Speaker
I remember them saying that they wanted to bring that in as sort of a character somehow running out of there.
00:38:14
Speaker
And I was like, oh, okay.
00:38:16
Speaker
It worked.
00:38:17
Speaker
It's cool.
00:38:18
Speaker
I think it came out pretty cool.
00:38:19
Speaker
It's very Canadian.
00:38:21
Speaker
Yes.
00:38:22
Speaker
Well, and honestly, my favorite part of all this artwork is that owl.
00:38:25
Speaker
I mean, that thing just looks amazing.
00:38:29
Speaker
It stands out on every art package that you see it on.
00:38:33
Speaker
The LE, the beautiful part about it is it does definitely play into the time machine and it definitely feels like they have these, you know, I think most bands do it now, but they have small, small videos that they have recorded and it feels like it's straight out of one of their videos.
00:38:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:54
Speaker
So, you know, trying to draw it all together.
00:38:56
Speaker
So I do love that.
00:38:57
Speaker
And I'm glad that I got the LE specifically because I think the art package on that one,
00:39:02
Speaker
ties into the theme, into the theme, the best for me.
00:39:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:06
Speaker
I haven't actually seen an Ellie in person.
00:39:08
Speaker
I really want to see that armor, the guitar armor on the sides and that kind of stuff that, that thought that was really cool looking.
00:39:15
Speaker
Well, I'll, I'll shoot you some pictures so you can see it up close.
00:39:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:39:18
Speaker
Or just come to Utah.
00:39:19
Speaker
I mean, California, it's not too far away.
00:39:22
Speaker
It's an 11 hour drive.
00:39:23
Speaker
Come on.
00:39:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:25
Speaker
I'm coming over.
00:39:28
Speaker
You can make that back and back there in a day.
00:39:30
Speaker
You can make it back in no time.
00:39:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:32
Speaker
I just drove to Ohio and back.
00:39:33
Speaker
That was, that was a drive.
00:39:35
Speaker
Oh, geez.
00:39:36
Speaker
No, that's brutal.
00:39:38
Speaker
Woof.
00:39:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:41
Speaker
Well, Michael, if they want to get ahold of you, how do they get ahold of you?
00:39:44
Speaker
You can email me at Mike at sunburndesigns.com for those who are still on Facebook, which seems like less and less people every day, but yeah,
00:39:54
Speaker
You know, the art group that you mentioned on there earlier, which
Reflections on the Rush Project
00:39:58
Speaker
is Mike Barnard, underscore art, and then community.
00:40:04
Speaker
That's probably where I'm at most of the time.
00:40:06
Speaker
That's where people message me at.
00:40:07
Speaker
And, you know, a lot of the guys that collect the discs and that kind of stuff are, you know, doing a lot of selling and trading on there.
00:40:15
Speaker
That's pretty much my go-to spot, you know, when I list up artwork and stuff.
00:40:19
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:20
Speaker
Is that the best place to buy art from you too?
00:40:23
Speaker
Well, I have an Etsy page, which is Michael Barnard art.
00:40:27
Speaker
Yeah, I've got prints on there.
00:40:29
Speaker
A lot of the stuff that you were talking about earlier, a lot of 80s themed prints.
00:40:33
Speaker
I've made a lot of my own kind of 80s movie posters for stuff that I feel like didn't really get enough.
00:40:41
Speaker
I've got like a Last Starfighter and Spaceballs and a Christmas Story, stuff you don't see a lot of art for.
00:40:46
Speaker
I kind of have made my own stuff and I keep all that on there.
00:40:51
Speaker
Spaceballs the pinball machine confirmed.
00:40:55
Speaker
Actually, I want a Christmas story pinball machine.
00:40:57
Speaker
It would be very specific to one month of the year, but that month of the year would be epic.
00:41:02
Speaker
I think that would be a hit, for sure.
00:41:05
Speaker
You get ho, ho, ho, multi-ball.
00:41:10
Speaker
Or when you drain the ball, you just stand to put his foot on your face and pushing it down the floor.
00:41:15
Speaker
So many great things.
00:41:16
Speaker
Oh my goodness.
00:41:19
Speaker
Well, we certainly, we are going to get you one of our hats too.
00:41:22
Speaker
It's the Loser Kid version two.
00:41:25
Speaker
So we just released them at Texas Pinball Festival and they are great.
00:41:30
Speaker
And I really think they look better than the original if that's possible.
00:41:34
Speaker
So we'll definitely get that out to you.
00:41:36
Speaker
And we'd like to thank you so much for coming on.
00:41:38
Speaker
It's been great talking to you.
00:41:39
Speaker
And even behind the scenes, I think I talked to you when it first came out and I was probably geeking out a little too much on the rush.
00:41:46
Speaker
But either way, you probably thought it was a crazy stalker.
00:41:49
Speaker
But it's been so great having you on.
00:41:52
Speaker
Well, I appreciate you guys having me.
00:41:53
Speaker
I haven't really had that much of a chance to talk about it much since it came out.
00:41:57
Speaker
I've just been kind of
00:41:59
Speaker
hanging out in the shadows and reading comments and learning my lesson, not to interact with the trolls and just kind of, just kind of taking it in from the outside.
00:42:08
Speaker
So it's nice to actually come on here and chat a little bit about it.
00:42:10
Speaker
So, so I appreciate that.
00:42:11
Speaker
Thank you.
00:42:13
Speaker
Definitely.
00:42:14
Speaker
Well, thanks again for coming on.
00:42:16
Speaker
So Scott, we just wrapped up with Michael.
00:42:19
Speaker
I always, every time I hear the end of an interview, I think of head to head and it's like, what did we learn?
00:42:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:23
Speaker
What did we learn?
00:42:24
Speaker
Hmm.
00:42:25
Speaker
Well, crikey.
00:42:28
Speaker
I can't do an Australian accent, so it doesn't matter.
00:42:30
Speaker
Crikey.
00:42:31
Speaker
Yeah, just gator wrestling.
00:42:33
Speaker
So, okay, so this is a two-parter.
00:42:36
Speaker
So now, so we did talk about Rush and the art, and now we are actually moving into the tournament scene.
00:42:43
Speaker
Well, we are pushing the Allentown Certified Stern Pro Circuit Tournament, and currently on the interview right now,
00:42:51
Speaker
We have Greg Waparelli-Pavarelli and Crazy Levy Naiman.
00:42:56
Speaker
Welcome.
00:42:57
Speaker
Thanks.
00:42:57
Speaker
What's up, guys?
00:42:58
Speaker
Thanks, Josh.
00:42:58
Speaker
Thanks, Scott.
00:42:59
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:00
Speaker
So we have a tournament coming up, and you guys are tournament bros.
00:43:04
Speaker
So let's talk about the tournament and what we have to offer.
00:43:10
Speaker
We're getting back into the tournament scene, the serious tournament scene, since we've been in Harbor Nation for a couple of years.
00:43:17
Speaker
But it seems like we've come back with a force.
00:43:19
Speaker
So I want you to tell me about
00:43:21
Speaker
what you're planning on this tournament, what people can expect, how to find things, and again, what the dates are and how they can participate.
00:43:31
Speaker
So let's start with the first one.
00:43:33
Speaker
So Allentown, tell me about it.
00:43:35
Speaker
I'll field this one.
00:43:36
Speaker
I've been going to the Allentown show for about 20 years.
00:43:39
Speaker
It's one of my favorites.
00:43:41
Speaker
Everybody who's been there, it's in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is kind of a little Northwest of Philly, a couple hours, um, West of New York city.
00:43:52
Speaker
Um, it's a cool tournament that, uh,
00:43:56
Speaker
features a large agricultural plex hall filled with pinball machines.
00:44:00
Speaker
There's a great farmer's market across the street with chicken wings, ribs, Vietnamese, diner, pretty much anything you can think of eating, barbecue, chips.
00:44:10
Speaker
And it's just it's kind of a tradition pinball.
00:44:14
Speaker
And there's always been a tournament there.
00:44:16
Speaker
And it's been big some years.
00:44:18
Speaker
It's been small some years.
00:44:19
Speaker
And this year it just kind of we stumbled upon it and needed it was it was on the ground and needed somebody to pick it up and bring it to the to the woodshed.
00:44:29
Speaker
And that's what Greg and I have done.
00:44:30
Speaker
Now, Greg is really, you know, his nickname is Whopper Alley because he's famous for his love and understanding of all things Whopper.
00:44:37
Speaker
And I think Greg is probably the best one to fill us in and kind of what this tournament is about from a nuts, bolts and Whoppers standpoint.
00:44:45
Speaker
And also, since you guys were talking about Rush, I think Greg will have an interesting announcement related to a member of the Rush team and this forthcoming tournament.
00:44:53
Speaker
OK, I say I see May 6th and 7th, 2022.
00:44:58
Speaker
Yep, that's it.
00:44:59
Speaker
The show is Friday and Saturday.
00:45:01
Speaker
The tournament is all day qualifying on Friday.
00:45:03
Speaker
Get there early.
00:45:04
Speaker
Get there at noon.
00:45:06
Speaker
Qualifying is 12 to 9 p.m.
00:45:08
Speaker
And you don't have to pre-register.
00:45:10
Speaker
You just show up with cash, $100 cash, and you'll get into this tournament.
00:45:14
Speaker
Don't sweat.
00:45:14
Speaker
We've had a lot of people texting and emailing us about pre-registering and sending us money.
00:45:19
Speaker
And, you know, we just want it to be a big yard sale cash up front deal.
00:45:25
Speaker
So show up with your money and your time.
00:45:27
Speaker
And then finals, should you make them, will be on Saturday.
00:45:31
Speaker
And Greg's going to fill us in on how this all works.
00:45:33
Speaker
Okay, go ahead, Greg.
00:45:34
Speaker
We'll end our co-assistant tournament, co-undersupervisor, who we've just signed up.
00:45:39
Speaker
Very exciting.
00:45:41
Speaker
So thank you, Levy, and thank you, guys.
00:45:43
Speaker
I am the expert on all things Whoppers here, and we're super excited for this opportunity, as Levy said.
00:45:50
Speaker
Kind of fell into our laps.
00:45:51
Speaker
This tournament has always been large in nature because of the multiple states that kind of feed the
00:45:57
Speaker
Pennsylvania area for Allentown and a lot of great players have always come over the years.
00:46:02
Speaker
It was a Stern Pro Circuit the last time that it was eligible while the IFPA was still open pre-pandemic and we're super excited to be back in the swing of things.
00:46:12
Speaker
You know it's a boom or beef world that we live in and when we knew there was no opportunity for a Stern Pro Circuit we could not let it go to waste because it was on the calendar and
00:46:21
Speaker
If nobody ran this tournament, we would have lost a Stern Pro Circuit this year.
00:46:25
Speaker
And what is the Stern Pro Circuit, Greg?
00:46:28
Speaker
Why do people want to come to this tournament and get those Stern Pro Circuit points?
00:46:32
Speaker
Why should people care about Stern Pro Circuit?
00:46:34
Speaker
So as you all know, the Whoppers are always the greatest part of a win.
00:46:39
Speaker
But when you can escalate that to a whole new level.
00:46:42
Speaker
How could you make a Whopper better, Greg?
00:46:44
Speaker
I don't understand how you could make a Whopper better than it already is.
00:46:47
Speaker
The very wise Josh Sharp has...
00:46:49
Speaker
bestowed upon us the unique ability to multitask the Whopper ranking points, as well as these Stern Pro Circuit points, and even better yet, certified this year with the uncanny boost of 120%.
00:47:00
Speaker
Whoppers of the kind that you've never seen before, and our format is aligned with that.
00:47:07
Speaker
So that means our Whoppers are going to be worth more than other people's Whoppers?
00:47:11
Speaker
Correct.
00:47:12
Speaker
The Allentown Whoppers will be at a higher value.
00:47:14
Speaker
And
00:47:15
Speaker
If you do well in this tournament, it'll help you towards the Stern Pro Circuit and help you qualify for the Stern Pro Circuit final.
00:47:20
Speaker
So we're not just sending our dollars to Josh.
00:47:23
Speaker
We're sending $5 per player to Stern for this high-level elite tournament, which will happen at the end of the circuit.
00:47:30
Speaker
Actually, no, I think it's been reduced from 40 down to 20 top players in the circuit compete for glory and a whole lot of money.
00:47:39
Speaker
Where else can you get this Whopper boost?
00:47:41
Speaker
In disc, right?
00:47:42
Speaker
If you want to fly to California, they had it.
00:47:44
Speaker
There's only been a few others.
00:47:46
Speaker
Indus gets the major boost and IFPA will get the major boost.
00:47:50
Speaker
But I think there was five or six other tournaments that met that qualification.
00:47:54
Speaker
It's not easy to do, guys.
00:47:55
Speaker
You have to either be an open tournament that runs for over a certain time period, which we would not have been able to pull off.
00:48:02
Speaker
But we did limited entry.
00:48:03
Speaker
So for those of you that are interested in coming and we hope to see you there.
00:48:07
Speaker
There'll be 12 games on your ticket and all 12 count.
00:48:11
Speaker
And you have to play 12 unique out of 20 games in the main bank.
00:48:15
Speaker
We are touting 25 machines in the tour in the tournaments.
00:48:19
Speaker
There's going to be a children's and women's tournament, as well as a charity side tournament to raise money for project pinball.
00:48:25
Speaker
And Levy's going to get to that list in a little bit, but we're super stoked about it.
00:48:29
Speaker
All really high end quality machines from local, local friends and players alike.
00:48:36
Speaker
The finals will be PAPA format, so it'll be 4-2-1-0 scoring to advance to the next round, and there's going to be a lot of great stuff to come.
00:48:46
Speaker
You play 12 games in qualifying, and they all count.
00:48:50
Speaker
Correct.
00:48:50
Speaker
You cannot beef, or you could, but you'd hope that your consistency brings you up on your other games.
00:48:56
Speaker
Surely there's no reduce.
00:48:57
Speaker
There's some beef in any kind of a balanced whopper diet.
00:49:00
Speaker
I mean, you don't have to blow up 12 games to qualify, right?
00:49:06
Speaker
I think you want a solid eight or nine.
00:49:09
Speaker
I'm just bringing this up because some people I've heard of, including like players you think would know better, like guys who are ranked maybe one in the world, are saying they think it sounds like a tough format.
00:49:19
Speaker
Like, what do you say about that?
00:49:21
Speaker
What would you say to the number one player in the world if he thought that maybe this format was too tough for him?
00:49:26
Speaker
Whoa, whoa, we're a non-drama podcast.
00:49:30
Speaker
So you're taking shots at Raymond, Ray Day.
00:49:32
Speaker
These aren't shots.
00:49:33
Speaker
I love Ray.
00:49:34
Speaker
Me and Ray are tight.
00:49:35
Speaker
We're bros.
00:49:35
Speaker
But I'm just pointing out that like- Ray is going to play the format.
00:49:39
Speaker
You mark my words.
00:49:40
Speaker
He's going to finish first in qualifying or second to Eric Stone.
00:49:44
Speaker
Eric Stone's coming?
00:49:46
Speaker
The one and only Eric Stone coming out of pseudo-retirement.
00:49:51
Speaker
Wow, his first ever appearance at the Allentown Pinball Tournament.
00:49:55
Speaker
So Scott and Jeff, have you ever played a limited format where you only get a few tries per game that matter?
00:50:01
Speaker
Have you ever played that format?
00:50:03
Speaker
Would that be Expo?
00:50:04
Speaker
Yes.
00:50:04
Speaker
Similar to Expo, yes.
00:50:05
Speaker
Yes, it would be.
00:50:06
Speaker
Although Expo, they don't all count, right?
00:50:08
Speaker
Don't you get like half of them are gimmies or five of them are gimmies?
00:50:11
Speaker
So we first stumbled across this format in Europe.
00:50:14
Speaker
We traveled to the distant land of Copenhagen in Denmark.
00:50:18
Speaker
where they have a really cool setup with the guys at Pin Lab.
00:50:21
Speaker
And trust me, my first time doing it, I was anxious because I'm thinking I'm used to playing all day long, waiting in line, getting my redos.
00:50:28
Speaker
And it seemed like it would be frustrating.
00:50:29
Speaker
But when you walk up with that mentality where you know every game counts, you approach it differently.
00:50:34
Speaker
And, you know, you might shoot a different shot.
00:50:36
Speaker
You just got to put in a solid effort and try not to really screw anything up.
00:50:41
Speaker
And even then, you can screw a couple up because everybody else is going to also, I would think.
00:50:46
Speaker
Right.
00:50:47
Speaker
It's pretty impossible to get the GC on 12 games.
00:50:50
Speaker
Right.
00:50:50
Speaker
Well, we'll see if Stone or Ray Day or any of the other big names can pull that off.
00:50:55
Speaker
But it's tough.
00:50:56
Speaker
And Greg and I have both done the gauntlet in Europe.
00:50:59
Speaker
This is kind of a standard format over there.
00:51:01
Speaker
I was at Finland, I think, in 2018 for that EPC.
00:51:04
Speaker
And it was a lot of fun.
00:51:06
Speaker
And then I was at the one that Greg went to a year later.
00:51:09
Speaker
And we both did really well in that tournament.
00:51:11
Speaker
We were both qualified.
00:51:12
Speaker
The first year in Finland, I think I finished 10th and Greg finished like seventh or eighth in Copenhagen.
00:51:19
Speaker
So we didn't let this format frighten us.
00:51:21
Speaker
And I don't want any of you Americans to be afraid of this.
00:51:23
Speaker
This is how they do it over in Europe.
00:51:25
Speaker
And if you look at the top 25, there's like half of that top 25 is filled with euros.
00:51:29
Speaker
You got like Brits, you got Finns, you got Swedes.
00:51:33
Speaker
What else you got in there, Greg?
00:51:35
Speaker
We got some Danish people in there.
00:51:36
Speaker
Germans, Italians.
00:51:37
Speaker
We got some Germans.
00:51:37
Speaker
We got Italians.
00:51:39
Speaker
So let's – don't be afraid of the format is what I'm saying.
00:51:42
Speaker
We have a lot of juicy updates here, and one of them ties into the rush aspect of this episode.
00:51:48
Speaker
So we're super excited to announce that we have added Stern's own Tim Sexton –
00:51:55
Speaker
Wow.
00:51:56
Speaker
To our director team.
00:51:57
Speaker
He's going to be my assistant tournament director.
00:52:00
Speaker
And we know that he's going to be able to bring us to an even higher level.
00:52:05
Speaker
Great representative from Stern for a Stern Pro Circuit right here on the East Coast.
00:52:09
Speaker
He recently crossed into the top 25 from booming it in District 82 where the Whoppers flow very freely.
00:52:17
Speaker
And it does too.
00:52:18
Speaker
So Timmy's even more whopper obsessed right now than usual, I'd say, and he's on a roll.
00:52:23
Speaker
We have a great support team of local New York City directors that work with me in the league formats.
00:52:30
Speaker
And, you know, we're also super excited about this list of sponsors who have helped bring the tournament prize pool and, you know, extra prizes to a whole nother level.
00:52:40
Speaker
Our platinum sponsor, Comet Pinball.
00:52:42
Speaker
We've got Spooky Pinball, Coin Taker, American Pinball.
00:52:47
Speaker
um, Jack bar pin graphics, the world famous rock fantasy, and are, uh, very excited to be working with Mark from backhand pinball, who's going to be our high level, uh, production for, for the commentary and the live stream.
00:53:04
Speaker
And we're bringing in high speed internet for this.
00:53:07
Speaker
Cause, uh,
00:53:07
Speaker
You just can't trust the fairgrounds internet as they've learned over the years.
00:53:12
Speaker
So like Bucks County Cable or whoever it is in Allentown is going to come out and they're going to lay down some high speed pipe for us.
00:53:22
Speaker
And Backhand Pinball, who I don't know if you guys have seen, is a great East Coast streamer.
00:53:26
Speaker
He did NYCPC.
00:53:27
Speaker
He's done Pintastic for a few years.
00:53:30
Speaker
He's going to be on the rig.
00:53:33
Speaker
And if Greg and I beef out, you might see us in the booth.
00:53:35
Speaker
So that'll be fun too.
00:53:37
Speaker
Although we both plan, of course, to be in the final four.
00:53:40
Speaker
All right.
00:53:40
Speaker
So you're going to have to clue everybody else in on the Northeast slang.
00:53:45
Speaker
So if someone beefs out, what does that mean?
00:53:47
Speaker
It's not good.
00:53:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:50
Speaker
When you, when you missed the shot and drain out the left out lane and you had a trap and you should have won, won the game.
00:53:56
Speaker
That's a total beef.
00:53:58
Speaker
It's both a noun and a verb.
00:54:00
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:54:01
Speaker
It's a combo.
00:54:02
Speaker
It can be, yeah.
00:54:04
Speaker
Unless you nail the combo, which is a boom.
00:54:06
Speaker
I mean, you get like the four-way combo and shadow.
00:54:09
Speaker
It's a total boom.
00:54:11
Speaker
So it's B for boom, right?
00:54:12
Speaker
It's a B for boom world we live in, as Greg said before.
00:54:15
Speaker
And we're just trying to make our way in it, basically.
00:54:19
Speaker
I don't want to say Levy invented boom, but he's probably overused it enough that people can't get it out of their head.
00:54:24
Speaker
I think John Madden invented the boom, but he's done it a different way.
00:54:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:27
Speaker
Also wanted to thank Pin Graphics, another one of our sponsors, and of course Josh Sharp at the IFPA, which reminds me, if head-to-head pinball taught you guys anything, it's certainly not anything of value for tournament pinball, but we still love those guys.
00:54:40
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:54:41
Speaker
Man, they're still dead, and you're kicking the corpse.
00:54:44
Speaker
What's going on there?
00:54:47
Speaker
They're good guys.
00:54:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:49
Speaker
And I'm very excited to play the new and improved game that Marty's put out there.
00:54:55
Speaker
Can't wait until I get to play it.
00:54:57
Speaker
Jack Barr is getting one, and I'm hoping that comes to us too.
00:55:00
Speaker
One more thing to add about this format is a really nice thing about it is you're not chained to the games all day.
00:55:06
Speaker
Allentown, again, it's a fun show, and the farmer's market is awesome.
00:55:09
Speaker
I can't believe people still go to that snack bar and get, like, those disgusting hot dogs in the hall when you can just walk across the street to this glorious, magnificent farmer's market, which you'll have plenty of time to do because 12 games, it's not going to be that tough to put them in.
00:55:25
Speaker
In the past, another reason we chose this format is in the past, lines have been an issue there.
00:55:30
Speaker
Some of you guys have been previously might remember that.
00:55:33
Speaker
It's not going to be a problem with 12 games.
00:55:34
Speaker
Everybody's playing 12 games.
00:55:36
Speaker
That's what you get for your hundred bucks.
00:55:37
Speaker
You don't, there's no upsell.
00:55:39
Speaker
You don't put more money in after.
00:55:41
Speaker
In the past, if you've bought your maximum entries, you might've spent 160 bucks, but here it's going to be a cool Benjamin.
00:55:47
Speaker
And also the games are going to be super playable.
00:55:49
Speaker
We're not taking the ball saves off.
00:55:51
Speaker
We're not putting stupid rules in that you've never played before.
00:55:54
Speaker
They're going to be, it's going to be every game counts, but the game is going to be playable and it's going to be a lot of fun.
00:56:00
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:00
Speaker
So it is a limited entry.
00:56:02
Speaker
You get one entry for your Benjamin and 12 games.
00:56:06
Speaker
Boom.
00:56:06
Speaker
You're done.
00:56:07
Speaker
That's right.
00:56:07
Speaker
Right.
00:56:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:09
Speaker
There's going to be 24 a finalist and then 24 B finalists for those that aren't ranked in the top 100.
00:56:14
Speaker
And there's prize payout for every single finalist in all the tournaments.
00:56:19
Speaker
We're going to have nice trophies, plenty of donated prizes like play fields and additional stuff.
00:56:24
Speaker
That's not monetary in value.
00:56:26
Speaker
The, the,
00:56:28
Speaker
the extras from Stern Pinball for their package.
00:56:31
Speaker
And, you know, we went well out of our way to try to make this the best possible Allentown Pinball tournament that's ever occurred.
00:56:37
Speaker
And we look to keep it that way for years to come.
00:56:39
Speaker
So we did spend a lot of money on making sure we bring everybody high quality collector games of multiple eras and diversity.
00:56:48
Speaker
So really quick before we answer more questions, Levi, why don't you just plug those games?
00:56:51
Speaker
Because I think we got a good list here.
00:56:53
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:54
Speaker
Oh, and point out, it's not just the A and B. There's also a women's tournament, and they'll have their own bank, right, Craig?
00:57:00
Speaker
Yeah, those are separate tournaments.
00:57:01
Speaker
The women's tournament is a separate tournament ranked.
00:57:05
Speaker
I was just referring to A and B for those.
00:57:06
Speaker
And there's a kids' tournament as well, right?
00:57:08
Speaker
Correct.
00:57:09
Speaker
And they're using the same games or a different set of games?
00:57:12
Speaker
The women's is going to be on different games from the main tournament.
00:57:15
Speaker
And the kids are going to play the same ones that everybody else are playing?
00:57:19
Speaker
Correct.
00:57:19
Speaker
All right.
00:57:20
Speaker
Well, let's get to those games.
00:57:23
Speaker
We crowdsourced these games, and we have a lot of generous sponsors and enthusiastic players who are coming to the show.
00:57:34
Speaker
And here's what we got.
00:57:36
Speaker
We've got Dolly Parton.
00:57:38
Speaker
I do know that's going to be in the Women's Bank, but the rest we're going to kind of sort out next week.
00:57:44
Speaker
So we've got Dolly Parton.
00:57:45
Speaker
We've got Whirlwind, Space Station, Shadow, Countdown.
00:57:49
Speaker
The world famous Rock Fantasy is bringing us Star Trek Pro, Walking Dead Pro, X-Men Pro, and Game of Thrones.
00:57:57
Speaker
My friend Stephen Haberman is bringing us Stern's Classic Galaxy from 1979, 1980.
00:58:03
Speaker
Howard from Project Pinball is bringing us Aztec, Royal Rumble, Jungle Princess, Frankenstein, and Gottlieb's 300.
00:58:12
Speaker
And I think the Frankenstein is going to be a Project Pinball charity game, Greg.
00:58:18
Speaker
Yep, and it's H-U-O.
00:58:19
Speaker
It's very nice.
00:58:20
Speaker
It is nice.
00:58:21
Speaker
They got these, you know, like I'm not going to begrudge them because it's a charity, but like he popped up on Facebook a few days ago with like, look who I picked up today.
00:58:28
Speaker
They got donated to them this home use only Frankenstein and a fun house.
00:58:32
Speaker
I'm like, oh, come on, Howard.
00:58:33
Speaker
Like, you know,
00:58:35
Speaker
You know, the kids would have been just as happy with, like, say, my old Harlem Globetrotters that I'd give you for them.
00:58:39
Speaker
But that didn't happen.
00:58:41
Speaker
I'll make you a trade.
00:58:42
Speaker
All right.
00:58:44
Speaker
And then we got Harlem Globetrotters.
00:58:46
Speaker
We got Flash Gordon, classic ballets.
00:58:48
Speaker
We've got Dragon Fist brought to us by Slam Tilts' Bruce Nightingale, famous for his top quality restored pinball machines and his rare Stern collection, bringing us Dragon Fist.
00:58:59
Speaker
We've got Stern Star Wars Pro.
00:59:01
Speaker
We've got the Gottlieb classic wedgehead, Volley.
00:59:04
Speaker
That's a great game.
00:59:06
Speaker
Coin Taker is bringing us an Avengers Pro to play in the tournament.
00:59:09
Speaker
We're really happy about that.
00:59:11
Speaker
And we've got Chris McDonough, I believe, is bringing us a Black Knight Sword of Rage and a Led Zeppelin Pro.
00:59:21
Speaker
And then if that's not enough, we also got a Williams Blackout classic Orbit game from 1981.
00:59:27
Speaker
And we have Valley's Viking.
00:59:29
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:59:30
Speaker
I mean, honestly, our games might be better than the games in free play.
00:59:36
Speaker
So if you have the best games in the tournament, come into this tournament.
00:59:39
Speaker
That's a really impressive collection.
00:59:41
Speaker
So in the past, how many people can they expect to enter into the... I know we're inviting everybody to show up and pop down their $100, but how many people do you expect to get?
00:59:54
Speaker
I'm going to say optimistically, we're going to expect as much as the last time it was a Stern Pro Circuit, close to $200.
01:00:01
Speaker
I think conservatively, $150 would be the minimum I'm expecting there.
01:00:05
Speaker
So a lot of it is just traffic from the show.
01:00:08
Speaker
$100 might sound expensive, but at the end of the day, the previous formats actually racked up more than that because you'd have to pay for additional entries.
01:00:18
Speaker
Yeah, every major tournament I've been to in the last few years has been more than $100.
01:00:22
Speaker
That's for sure.
01:00:22
Speaker
I know pump and dump, I usually spend well over $200.
01:00:25
Speaker
So at the end of the day, the limited format could actually be more cost-effective for everybody.
01:00:30
Speaker
How about an estimated whopper haul, Greg?
01:00:33
Speaker
Just ballpark.
01:00:35
Speaker
The math on that really quick, I'd say the base is definitely maxed at $32.
01:00:39
Speaker
And then based off of attendance, it's going to be like at least $30.
01:00:44
Speaker
Base 32, whatever that means.
01:00:46
Speaker
That's good, right?
01:00:49
Speaker
I think we're breaking 70 Whoppers for first, guys.
01:00:52
Speaker
Dang.
01:00:53
Speaker
That's a lot.
01:00:54
Speaker
With a certified boost, for sure.
01:00:56
Speaker
The question I have is for people like me that don't play in tournaments very often that may want to get into something like this, but they're afraid to bring $100 because they feel like they're just putting into the Raymond Davidson game.
01:01:10
Speaker
fund, what would you want to say to them to convince them, hey, this is something you should come out to and enjoy and you still are going to have a fun time versus don't sit at home?
01:01:22
Speaker
I think that's a great question.
01:01:23
Speaker
I'm sorry.
01:01:24
Speaker
A lot of people who think they're not going to do well are going to end up qualifying in B. A lot of first timers will qualify in B.
01:01:32
Speaker
because you're going to play your games, and if you play loose, you just might get enough points to qualify in A or B.
01:01:40
Speaker
48 people will qualify for the finals, and that's a lot.
01:01:44
Speaker
And you're going to get some valuable experience either way.
01:01:47
Speaker
I started playing in that same mindset of, well, I want to compete and I want to get better at this.
01:01:53
Speaker
I can win locally, but what's the point of driving all the way to Pittsburgh to throw away my money?
01:01:59
Speaker
And I remember one of my first circuit events, I qualified even though I had that fearful mindset.
01:02:05
Speaker
So I would encourage anybody to go out there, get your feet wet.
01:02:09
Speaker
The only way that you're going to improve at tournament pinball is by practicing and playing against players that have more experience than you.
01:02:16
Speaker
It's a lot of fun each and every time.
01:02:18
Speaker
And no matter what, we're paying every single person that qualifies for the finals.
01:02:22
Speaker
The payout is going to be very high.
01:02:24
Speaker
We're expecting, you know, no less than...
01:02:27
Speaker
uh, 30% of, of the payout total to go to B. So it'll be 70, 30 split for the prize pool for a and B, and that'll be a very, very high amount for the winner of B. So you're going to be seeing hundreds of dollars in the B division for those finalists and, uh, minimum of a thousand dollars for a, um, for first place.
01:02:47
Speaker
So at the end of the day, it might seem like, uh,
01:02:51
Speaker
tall glass of water or a big hill to climb, so to say, but you go out there and you play some good games and you can surprise yourself.
01:02:59
Speaker
And it's going to be fun.
01:03:00
Speaker
And it's going to be your only opportunity to play these awesome games that you put together because it's not open to the regular tournament.
01:03:06
Speaker
This lineup is for tournament players only.
01:03:09
Speaker
And it's the tournament will end the same time the show ends on Saturday night around nine o'clock.
01:03:15
Speaker
So, so there's that.
01:03:17
Speaker
And the other thing is we're going to have prizes that are randomly going to be given out to everybody.
01:03:21
Speaker
Some of the swag, some cool, maybe a T-shirt here or there, maybe some koozies, maybe a translator too.
01:03:28
Speaker
So everybody who plays has a chance to win, whether they know it or not.
01:03:34
Speaker
It's true.
01:03:35
Speaker
So it seems like everybody's going to have a great time.
01:03:39
Speaker
One or two guys are going to melt down and not have a good time.
01:03:42
Speaker
It always happens.
01:03:43
Speaker
But I'd say 95% of the people are going to have a fantastic time.
01:03:47
Speaker
But the rest of us will have even more of a good time laughing at that, at those teams.
01:03:51
Speaker
That's true.
01:03:52
Speaker
Do you want to be the entertainer or the entertainee?
01:03:55
Speaker
That's the question.
01:03:56
Speaker
And honestly, if you've never seen some of these guys play, I mean, it's like,
01:04:00
Speaker
You know, like imagine like they were just having an open drafting call and, you know, you can pay $100, you know, you can play with the Mets like one day.
01:04:08
Speaker
Well, maybe I'll pick a good team.
01:04:10
Speaker
Oh, wow.
01:04:11
Speaker
We might be leading the National League in standings over here.
01:04:16
Speaker
Sorry.
01:04:18
Speaker
Just like last year, right, Greg?
01:04:19
Speaker
No, to Levy's point, though, what I would say is one thing that's incredible about this kind of thing is, okay, you came out, you gave it your best, and you learned a lot, and then you get to watch these finalists.
01:04:30
Speaker
And, like, don't get me wrong, Levy and I have done great in plenty of tournaments, but there's nothing like watching, like, Eric Stone battle Raymond Davidson and the other guys of that elitist class.
01:04:40
Speaker
Like, I would predict at any given moment, Stone is capable of, like, breaking one of our flippers from playing so long, so...
01:04:46
Speaker
Yeah, and you have a ringside seat and you're playing with them.
01:04:48
Speaker
You're qualifying next to these guys and you might even get to play against Greg or I in finals.
01:04:54
Speaker
And then maybe you'll really learn something.
01:04:56
Speaker
One thing that I really like about going to these tournaments is because even if I'm not playing a lot or getting deep into the tournament, it's always nice to have the streaming rig.
01:05:07
Speaker
And usually there's a place that you can watch the competition and usually listening to the commentators
01:05:15
Speaker
help me understand more about the game and help me understand what the goals are.
01:05:20
Speaker
And it really is pretty amazing because I would drain in 10 seconds.
01:05:23
Speaker
However, just watching the skillset that they have to keep the ball alive, that's worth the price of admission alone, whether or not I'm playing.
01:05:32
Speaker
And it definitely levels up my game when I see what the elite players are doing.
01:05:36
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:05:37
Speaker
Yep.
01:05:38
Speaker
I'm glad you said that too.
01:05:39
Speaker
To echo what Scott is saying too, we've had people like Bo and Karen's on the show.
01:05:43
Speaker
and Raymond Davidson.
01:05:44
Speaker
And they said that the way they got better is going out to these events, rubbing shoulders with people and learning techniques that you can't really see on screen.
01:05:54
Speaker
You got to be there in person to understand.
01:05:57
Speaker
And don't be afraid to ask questions either.
01:05:59
Speaker
I was playing a tournament locally
01:06:01
Speaker
back in 2019 and I got the big billion hurry up on attack for Mars and I walk away from it I instantly go into first and the guy behind me is like what the heck did you just do it's like I thought everyone knew about the one billion hurry up so there's even stuff you're gonna learn like you do no biggie yeah that's my favorite shot in pinball that's so cool yes
01:06:27
Speaker
And so I'm in at so many brilliant moments, but that that billion point hurry up just makes you feel so happy every time.
01:06:33
Speaker
Oh, yes.
01:06:34
Speaker
So accomplished.
01:06:35
Speaker
And Bowen's an Allentown guy.
01:06:37
Speaker
I wonder if we'll be seeing him.
01:06:38
Speaker
Bowen will be there.
01:06:39
Speaker
I bet.
01:06:41
Speaker
He's been to several.
01:06:41
Speaker
Scott, I'm glad you said that about the watching the stream, too, because one thing that we made sure was in the rules.
01:06:49
Speaker
We have it so that the banks that the finalists will play.
01:06:53
Speaker
are going to be diverse.
01:06:54
Speaker
And then you won't be able to play three Sterns.
01:06:56
Speaker
You'll have to play a Stern, a solid state of Williams, and you won't be able to pick the same bank twice.
01:07:02
Speaker
And the reason that we really feel like that's important is for the people watching at home, you don't want to watch the same game over and over again, just because the guy that's winning can crush it.
01:07:11
Speaker
I know as much as it's cool to watch someone do well, you don't want to see whirlwind every single round because somebody keeps nailing the jackpots.
01:07:18
Speaker
It'll be, it'll be a flowing finals on, on the stream.
01:07:22
Speaker
We care about our viewer to the expense of our player who's going to be forced to pick one of the banks that we select.
01:07:28
Speaker
And they're going to be interesting banks.
01:07:30
Speaker
So you're not going to see somebody just pick, you know, you're not going to see somebody pick like X-Men three times in finals.
01:07:36
Speaker
And that'll keep it more interesting for the players.
01:07:39
Speaker
It'll keep it a little more parity, I think, because you're going to have to pick several games, not just one together.
01:07:48
Speaker
And I think it'll be good for the stream and it'll be good for the commentators too because nothing sucks more than calling the same game four times in a row.
01:07:55
Speaker
Right.
01:07:56
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:57
Speaker
No, I agree.
01:07:57
Speaker
If you haven't been to Allentown, come out, guys.
01:07:59
Speaker
And it's also a great place to buy machines.
01:08:01
Speaker
I bought my first ever pinball machine there.
01:08:04
Speaker
You tend to find people that are trying to get rid of it and they didn't sell it by the end of the show.
01:08:08
Speaker
You get a working, functional EM for a couple hundred bucks that you could – Saturday night special.
01:08:13
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:13
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:16
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see how it is this year.
01:08:17
Speaker
I think that stuff's still going to be there.
01:08:19
Speaker
Allentown's always been a good place to buy older games.
01:08:22
Speaker
Like, you know, if you're showing up and you want to buy a Monster Bash, you might be out of luck.
01:08:26
Speaker
But if you're willing to hang around on Saturday and pick up a Gauntlet Countdown or Sinbad or something like that at a good price, I bet there's going to be stuff like that there because there always is.
01:08:34
Speaker
You can pick up a drunken lonely game.
01:08:38
Speaker
That's right.
PinFest Event Discussion and Investment Talk
01:08:39
Speaker
So now the website, pinfestival.com, P-I-N-F-E-S-T-I-V-A-L.com.
01:08:46
Speaker
And there's a PDF.
01:08:47
Speaker
If you look, it actually talks about the tournament there.
01:08:50
Speaker
That's right.
01:08:50
Speaker
We put all the money into the tournament.
01:08:52
Speaker
We didn't waste it on a fancy schmancy website or even updated to 2022.
01:08:57
Speaker
I believe it might still say 2021.
01:08:59
Speaker
It does if you search for it.
01:09:03
Speaker
Until you click on it and then it says PinFest 2022.
01:09:06
Speaker
Which is exactly what it is, right?
01:09:08
Speaker
If it makes you feel any better, a lot of us are confused when the Twippies are the 2021, even though we had it in the year.
01:09:16
Speaker
2022.
01:09:16
Speaker
So, Hey, you could just go like that, right?
01:09:18
Speaker
I think I'm flying to Florida.
01:09:20
Speaker
I haven't been nominated for anything yet.
01:09:22
Speaker
I say it's not fair.
01:09:23
Speaker
Greg, I think you would know the answer to this.
01:09:25
Speaker
I think I'm flying to Florida in a couple of weeks for like the 2019 IFPA championships.
01:09:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:30
Speaker
Let me qualify for the world championships.
01:09:32
Speaker
He can't remember when it was that he qualified.
01:09:34
Speaker
It was like a pandemic, but we're finally doing it.
01:09:37
Speaker
So I get to play even though I'm going to 120th now.
01:09:41
Speaker
I feel like I'm Jeff Teales right now, but you could also find us on Facebook.
01:09:45
Speaker
If you look up Pinfest, Allentown, something or other, you'll see the page there.
01:09:50
Speaker
And there's even a pin side thread about Pinfest.
01:09:54
Speaker
Wow.
01:09:54
Speaker
Okay.
01:09:55
Speaker
All right.
01:09:55
Speaker
You can go there and you can find a bar sign to buy or some old plastics, or you can read my once a page plugs and updates on the Allentown website.
01:10:07
Speaker
That's true.
01:10:07
Speaker
If anybody listening is coming, please bring me some Harlem Globetrotters plastics for my game in my house.
01:10:13
Speaker
Which one are you looking for?
01:10:14
Speaker
The Eiffel Tower.
01:10:17
Speaker
Oh, the Eiffel Tower, yeah.
01:10:19
Speaker
I picked up an earth shaker and it's 99% earth shaker.
01:10:22
Speaker
1% Adams family.
01:10:29
Speaker
No, it's the left sling is Morticia.
01:10:32
Speaker
That's a cat lawler game, right?
01:10:34
Speaker
You have to mix it up.
01:10:35
Speaker
It's fine.
01:10:37
Speaker
At least it's period, period specific.
01:10:39
Speaker
So if you ever sell it, you can call it a month.
01:10:42
Speaker
That's what I was thinking.
01:10:43
Speaker
Like that raises the value, right?
01:10:45
Speaker
Cause Adams families are just ridiculous right now.
01:10:47
Speaker
So,
01:10:49
Speaker
Well, you know, I told my dad a couple of years ago, hey, can I just put a bunch of games in the basement?
01:10:55
Speaker
They're like a good investment.
01:10:56
Speaker
You should put some money in it.
01:10:57
Speaker
Like now, a couple of years later, I really should have pushed it.
01:11:00
Speaker
It's like better than stocks.
01:11:03
Speaker
Exactly.
01:11:04
Speaker
It's in the market right now, but we're not going to go into that.
01:11:06
Speaker
No.
01:11:07
Speaker
Okay.
01:11:07
Speaker
So if you go to the website and there's a big...
01:11:12
Speaker
A pinball on fire.
01:11:13
Speaker
It says pin fest, IFP, a tournament, click that bad boy.
01:11:16
Speaker
And it goes right to a PDF that tells you everything about it.
01:11:19
Speaker
So that's right.
01:11:19
Speaker
Greg and I are flaming.
01:11:21
Speaker
That ball is on fire.
01:11:22
Speaker
And it's going to be awesome.
01:11:24
Speaker
It's going to be a day old time.
01:11:26
Speaker
We can't wait.
01:11:27
Speaker
We'll see you on the sixth bright and early beyond time.
01:11:29
Speaker
So you can get your games in and, and thanks for having us.
01:11:36
Speaker
You know, we've been holding out all the big podcasts wanted us to plug this show.
01:11:40
Speaker
And Greg said, we're going loser kid.
01:11:42
Speaker
I know these guys.
01:11:43
Speaker
That's the way to go.
01:11:44
Speaker
We'll, we'll get you guys some hats so you can wear them and represent.
01:11:47
Speaker
Awesome.
01:11:48
Speaker
Oh, if you, if you send us hats, we will wear it on the stream as we commentate finals.
01:11:52
Speaker
There you go.
01:11:53
Speaker
Well, and, uh,
01:11:55
Speaker
Oral Albert keeps saying he's the fifth favorite podcast, but isn't that us now?
01:11:58
Speaker
Because we came in fifth on Twippies, right?
01:12:00
Speaker
I think we came in fourth, didn't we?
01:12:03
Speaker
No, we came in fifth because it went Chris.
01:12:08
Speaker
Just remember, Canada doesn't really count, guys.
01:12:11
Speaker
And then it went pinball show and then went Brody, even pinball.
01:12:16
Speaker
Okay, that's four, just in case you're... Wait, Teolas has fallen down?
01:12:22
Speaker
Oh, Chris, Chris, okay.
01:12:24
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:24
Speaker
So Canada, super awesome.
01:12:28
Speaker
Oh, gotcha.
01:12:28
Speaker
Gotcha.
01:12:29
Speaker
Okay.
01:12:29
Speaker
Okay.
01:12:30
Speaker
Cause everyone wants to hear about that right now, you know?
01:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
01:12:33
Speaker
Hey, look, I mean, if you're not Godzilla, it's not your fault.
01:12:38
Speaker
I know.
01:12:38
Speaker
Right.
01:12:38
Speaker
It's all good.
01:12:39
Speaker
It's as, as no fear would say, if you're not first, if you're second place, you're the first loser.
01:12:46
Speaker
All right.
01:12:46
Speaker
Well, thanks again, guys.
01:12:48
Speaker
If you want to get a hold of us, we are LoserKidPinballPodcast at gmail.com.
01:12:52
Speaker
We are on the socials, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Twitch, all at LoserKidPinball.
01:12:59
Speaker
You're going to want to start following us on Twitch.
01:13:01
Speaker
We've got some exciting stuff coming up.
01:13:03
Speaker
It's a little ways out.
01:13:05
Speaker
But I just want to start pushing it now because I am so stoked.
01:13:08
Speaker
We got so many people behind us on it.
01:13:10
Speaker
It's going to be awesome.
01:13:11
Speaker
So anything else for us, Scott, before we sign out?
01:13:15
Speaker
No, I think we're good.
01:13:16
Speaker
Definitely go to PenFest and get those Whoppers.
01:13:18
Speaker
Yeah.