200 episodes tracked since 2020 about →
Episode 277: Surviving Johnny Modica
PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago39 min listen
Plague, Covid-19...bring on your worst. Johnny has had it all and lived to tell about it. Plus he's managed to play pretty good pinball over the years.
Highlights
- Johnny Modica was ranked #88 on IFPA at the time of this interview (recorded around April-May 2020)
- Johnny Modica contracted COVID-19 in April 2020 with mild symptoms (cold-like, taste changes, no fever) lasting about a week and a half
- Modica's girlfriend Emanuela was required to download a contact-tracing app and face quarantine with €500 fines or 2 years imprisonment if caught breaking quarantine in Italy
- Johnny Modica played 11 IFPA events in 2020 before mid-March (prior to COVID lockdowns)
- Modica won the PAPA B Division Championship in 2012 and previously won C Division before being forced to advance
- Modica missed City Champ finals registration (9:30 AM deadline) by arriving at 9:45 AM, causing him to forfeit playoff play despite qualifying
- Modica infected multiple people including Carl D'Angelo's family with influenza at PAPA 19 (2016), leading to the creation of the 'Modica Plague' card in Carl's Critical Hit series
Notable quotes
“I'd rather play pinball and be below the top 100 than actually being high rank.”
“When pinball becomes painful, then it's not fun. And it really depends on the night before. If you have a good sleep the night before, you can probably make it through.”
“I think PAPA is kind of like the pinball university. You have to be consistent on all your games. You can't just have one lucky game and go through the playoffs.”
“When you're playing relaxed, man, you stop missing all the shots that you miss when you're actually playing all nervous.”
“I got three pinball machines. But you mentioned your girlfriend...Was it easy to quarantine for the 14 days? Oh, yeah. I got three pinball machines.”
“You're like Gwyneth Paltrow on Contagion...Fortunately, I didn't die.”
“I would always tell him, hey, dude, there's an episode one. You want to play for five bucks? ...That's the one game where I'm typically pretty even with him.”
Entities
- City Champ· event
- InDisc· event
- King of the Realm· game
- Medieval Madness· game
- Star Wars Episode I· game
- Boardwalk· location
- California· location
- Free World Watch· location
- Miami, Florida· location
- Sicily· location
- IFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association)· organization
- PAPA (Pennsylvania Pinball Association)· organization
- Carl D'Angelo· person
- Colin Urban· person
- Damien Charlatan· person
- Emanuela· person
- Escher Lefkoff· person
- Jeff Teolis· person
- Johnny Modica· person
- Keith Elwin· person
- Raymond· person
- Critical Hit· product
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