Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.184 | feat. Ryan Zlomek from Skill Shot Arcade

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

Inside Skillshot Arcade: Syracuse Pinball, Community Events, and Balls of Steel Improv Night On Good News York, host Noah Chrysler interviews Ryan of Skillshot Arcade, a Syracuse pinball arcade and event space opened in 2021 offering $15 all-you-can-play nights (Wednesdays and Fridays) and private rentals for events. Ryan describes Skillshot’s curated, rotating lineup of about 25 pinball machines spanning 1978 to 2026 plus arcade games, highlights favorites like Flash (1979), Swords of Fury, and a Star Trek machine, and discusses pinball’s French origins, Chicago-based manufacturing, and design/repair mechanics. They promote “Syracuse Improv presents Balls of Steel” on Saturday, June 6 at 7 PM ($20, includes an hour of pinball and multiple acts). Ryan emphasizes Skillshot as a welcoming “third space” and previews upcoming events including Pride Night (June 19), an SPCA fundraiser (June 26), Kids Play Free days (July 1 and 3), food truck nights, and themed evenings. Noah closes with a Clickstream Studios promo offering free marketing plans and thanks sponsor Ads on the Go. 00:00 Pinball Made in Chicago 00:37 Welcome to Good News York 00:47 Skillshot Arcade Overview 01:30 Improv Night Promo 02:42 Curated Machine Lineup 03:38 Favorite Machines Picks 05:30 Ryan’s Pinball Journey 07:42 Hidden Gem Location 10:19 Maintaining the Machines 11:32 First Time Pinball Tips 13:36 Pinball Origins and Design 16:10 Engineering Magic Tricks 18:08 Design Quirks Teaser 18:35 Pinball Mechanism Magic 19:42 Pinball as Third Space 20:29 How People Use Skillshot 24:26 Planning the Improv Night 25:59 Mission and Syracuse Energy 30:41 Building Community Through Classes 32:57 Upcoming Events and Theme Nights 36:17 Visit Skillshot and Support Local 37:15 Show Wrap and Studio Plug

I think one of the things that's interesting about it is that it's this sort of French invention that makes its way to America and Chicago, Illinois, becomes the sort of main manufacturing hub. Like even to today where if you want to go see the main pinball manufacturers, Jersey Jack Pinball and Stern Pinball, who, you know, we have their equipment, are all based in Chicago. So it's got this very sort of like, you know, it's one of the few products where every single one that's manufactured has a Made in America sticker. And it truly is the sort of, of like American engineering pastime, which I think is kind of neat. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Good News York.

My name is Noah Chrysler. Today I'm sitting with Ryan. Ryan, welcome to the show. Thanks so much, Noah. So Ryan runs Skill Shot. Introduce yourself to the people. Happily. So the Skill Shot Arcade is a pinball arcade and event space that we opened in 2021 because

opening businesses in the middle of COVID is what everybody should do. And it's a space where people can come on Wednesdays and Fridays and just pay $15, play as many games as they want and just sort of enjoy the environment. Or it's also a space where you can rent the entire arcade to yourself and just have events and just have the space for you and your family and your friends and whatever. So if you want to have birthday parties or bar mitzvahs, we might even do an improv comedy show at some point. Yeah, it'd be pretty cool, wouldn't it? Maybe this Saturday, June 6th at 7 p.m.

On June 6th that we might have Syracuse improv performing there, which is a great use of an arcade. Exactly, yeah. So, I mean, real quick, before we get more into SkillShall. Yeah, we're doing, we're doing, Syracuse Improv presents Balls of Steel this Saturday on June 6th at 7 p.m. So you get an hour of open pinball from 7 to 8 p.m. And then at 8 p.m., the show starts, and there's going to be two different comedy acts. There's going to be Syracuse Improv. And then the headliner is in Bad Taste, which is a local Syracuse Improv comedy team.

And then we're also having the Sean Seals musical experiment coming. And they are going to do a jazz set halfway through the show. show. It's going to be a lot of fun. Tickets are $20, but to get into Skillshare anyway, it's $15. So, you know, for 20 bucks, you're getting 3x and you're getting an hour pinball, and it's also, it's more than an hour of pinball, too, because we're probably going to play pinball at the end as well. But I don't know, it should be a really good value, and you can get it by going to Syracuseimprov.com, and the real URL is Syracuse improv.com forward slash balls, but I feel bad saying that on Good News York, because it's inappropriate.

You're referring to the ball bearings that flow around the machine. You're just very, very technically minded, Noah. That's exactly right. I really appreciate good pinball architecture. Absolutely. Keep them shiny, it will be the name of the next event. Beautiful.

Cool. Ryan, tell me about skill shot. Tell me about the machines. How many machines you got? It fluctuates, but we typically have about 25 pinball machines and five to seven arcade games at any time.

One thing people don't really know about pinball. You're used to kind of going and seeing them different spaces is that there's all sorts There's all sorts of, you know, just like ways to appreciate them. So like the thing about our space that's a little bit different than most arcades is that we like to have what we call curated collection. So when you're coming in, you're playing games from as early as 1978 and as new as 2026. So as you sort of meander around the space, you get to just sort of enjoy all these different eras of games. And the way in which my business partners and I operate is that

we're constantly rotating things. So, you know, if you come into our space once a month, probably going to see, you know, different things to sort of add to that sort of curated, dare I say, artisanal pinball experience. I love that. Yeah, no, tell me, okay, tell me about some of your favorite machines, maybe from, like, throughout the eras and stuff. Oh, dangerous. It's going on forever, Noah. We'll keep it to just, we'll do three. So, you know, one of the things that I really like is, I love sort of seeing how things evolve. There's a game called Flash that was designed by, a designer by the name is Steve Ritchie. He was a voice in Mortal Kombat, because he was in just the place designing and would offer his voice other places.

But it was the sort of first game where people really noticed flow in pinball machines, ways in which one shot could flow to the next or whatever. And it became his highest selling game in 1979. I think they made something like 20,000 of them. So we have that at the space. You know, if we want to go up to the 80s, there's a game called Swords of Fury. One of my favorite things is seeing like how cheesy and machismo something can be for a time period. And in that game, you're supposed to be playing as though you're like in some sort of like

sword and sorcery experience and the game will just randomly yell out lion man at you. And it's got like as you hit the flipper button, the sort of like 80s like Castlevania sword sounds that kind of come at you, which is just really fun. Like you play that game and you instantly are transported to like just way bigger hair and flashier garments. Like you just feel like you're in the 80s. And then I'd say, you know, the other thing is we also get new equipment.

You know, the newest, hottest thing right now is the Pokemon pinball machine. It's really cool. We have Transformers is coming in. Nice. It's the sort of next one. But in regards to new stuff, there's a Star Trek machine that I just think is so cool. I don't particularly care about Star Trek, but when you play a game that immerses you so much that you really just want to know more about the intellectual property, I'd say that's sort of successful. So that's my, those would be the three that I would throw out there.

Yeah. Wonderful. I've got, I took B-Role of the space as well, and I've of the different machines, so I probably have shots of these machines. But I feel bad making Danny match those up. So maybe I'll help you with that if we have time. But I don't know. Cool, wonderful. So how long you've been working with Skillshare?

Sure. So we opened in 2021. Got it. My, you know, if you want me to dig into my past a little bit, I'll just say that in 2016, I kind of opened up my own world of pinball vending. I opened up a company called Syracuse Pinheads, where we operated in the now dormant to shopping town mall. And in Cloud City Comics and Toys, I built a collection there of about 13 machines and just

tried to grow the pinball tournament experiences in Syracuse because we didn't have any places to have tournaments that were larger. And now I realize I have to fill in that void, which is, for anybody who's interested, there's a group called the International IFPA, International Flipper Pinball Association. And they curate tournaments all over the world and you get certain points, you get your ranking. Anybody who plays in our tournaments gets to become an internationally ranked pinball player. Wow. Which is pretty cool, quite the accolade for your LinkedIn profile. So anyway, I would curate these tournaments and had this collection that kind of grew to me putting more pinwall machines in different bars and restaurants, kind of all around upstate New York. I had clients in Rochester and Cortland.

And that on top of a full-time teaching career was a bit much. So I ran that for about four years and then kind of closed it down and then teamed up with John and Alyssa, my two business partners who own a company called United Vending Service. And they're the, I'll say, the legit version of what I was doing. You know, they have 150 clients, you know, all like within, I don't know, at least a two-hour diameter of Syracuse. And they put in ATMs and jukeboxes and any sort of coin-operated, you know, additions to different spaces. You know, you go to Colonia laundromat and you play pinball and a crane machine while you're doing your laundry. That's them providing that service. And I teamed up with them in 2021 and I had this idea about an event space and all of our sort of talent.

matched. Alyssa came from a hospitality background. John has this sort of like amusements and coin-out background. I like to keep myself in the inner workings of Syracuse culture, and sort of the three of us were able to get together and kick this business off. Wonderful. Yeah, no, it's really cool. It's right on East Malloy, and, you know, I don't know, do you find that people are surprised that it's there? Because, like, I don't know, when I look at the building from the outside, my dad was saying that he thought like the Ford company was there before, something? Like, what was in the space before? Do you know? I don't remember what the building was.

Got it. For some reason, my brain's thinking pressure washers, but I don't know. Something like that. Yeah, it was some sort of industrial thing. I mean, I think that's one of the, I, you know, in the world of just pinball or arcade culture in general, there's like, there's probably people here under the age of 30 that's like, what's an arcade? You know, and there's just generations that didn't have that because the, the culture really dipped in the early 90s. That's when, you know, the sort of PC revolution came over and people were just playing games in their houses and that sort of like traditional arcade

stopped being a communal place. So pinball since then has become this thing you kind of hunt for. There's literally a website called Pinball Map where you can go and find places where machines are located. So it's got this sort of subcultural thing. But tying into your question about East Malloy, like we are in an industrial area and every year for the, you know, the Syracuse Awards or whatever, we're always nominated for like hidden gem. And I think that's something. something that like we take very seriously because to your point as you drive by and you look at this, you know, you drive by the military base and then there's this business that says skill shots. Some people think we're a paintball place.

Right. People think we're an archery range. You know, no one's quite sure. And then you see a party flag and you're like, what's, you know, what's going on with this space? I think it sort of helps lower your expectations. So when you step into our space, you truly are transported. So a lot of people kind of maybe misunderstand what we are, you know, for a variety of reasons, but as soon as you step through the threshold of our space, you're transported back to a time

that has not existed for 30 years. And I think the location kind of plays into that goal. No, and you instantly get it too, right? It's like, oh, cool. There's like a there's a jukebox in the corner, right? And it works, and it works really well, right? And it's like free because once you pay your entry fee. And the CDs have not been updated since 2002. Right. But that's what you want, right? Absolutely. I don't want to listen to, you know, Sabrina Carpenter. on my jukebox. I want like, you know, like cool. Meatloaf and Big Willie style.

Right. I'm like popping on that all the time. Exactly, you know. And I don't know. It's just a really cool experience. And I realized as I was sitting there, like playing pinball, I was realizing it's like, wait a minute. I don't think I've like, I mean, I've done this.

I've done it in the past, but I don't think that I've ever really played a machine this old that like works as well as these do because they're really well maintained and stuff. Do you maintain the pinball machines yourself? Oh, yeah. So between me and my business partners, Debbie is the technician from United Vendio Service. Shout out to Debbie, amazing technician.

And then I fix up all sort of my own equipment. And then we have these little, what I want to call it. I like to think there's like an underground subculture of repair people that we all sort of like reach out to when we have specific needs. So it's truly like it takes a village to maintain a pinball machine approach. But we take a lot of pride in making sure that our machines run and that when you get there, everything's functional and you get to have that sort of full experience. So if you ever come in there

And it's just when we're about to open or close You may see me having a game open And just soldering stuff Or changing flipper rubbers Or just sort of diagnosing a quirky thing That somebody just noticed Yeah, we try to make sure that The experience is transparent

And people know that like Human hands have kept these things running for so long Right, no, yeah, that's really cool It's, I don't know My closest reference point is like a video game, right? You know? And so like playing with something that's a mechanical game. It's just a very interesting tactile experience where you know you click the thing and the flipper goes and it's like, I don't know, it's very cool. Do you find, I don't know, what are people's

experiences like when they come in and play for the first time? Well, here, I'll do like an direct address. You, viewer, it is okay to shake a pinball machine. I give you permission. You're allowed. You know, so to your question, like people come in and some people have never played a pinball machine before, right? Like, you get, you have a seven-year-old birthday party and, you know, it's the place where the parents wanted to just like hang out with their friends and the kids are going to have fun no matter where they are. And they go up and they just start hitting buttons and see what happens. And there's just sort of that like kind of science museum excitement of like, I'm going to press a button and see what the result is, which I think is always really fun. And then

once people start to kind of get into it more and you learn some like basic approaches to, you know, figure out how to play the game more effectively. It is fun to see people ask those questions. Like, the ball's stuck. What do I do? I'm like, you should shake the machine. They're like, what if I hurt something? I'm like, there's literally a mechanism in there that will tell you you're doing it too hard.

Like, it's okay. Shake the game. See what happens. And just sort of people, we're not used to that sort of tactile thing. Like, you might be playing a game on your phone where you have to kind of twist things. Or if you're me playing Mario Kart, you like, shift to the other side of the, like, couches you're playing and you know it has no impact. But when you're actually playing something where at the end of the day, there is a physical item that's flying around and hitting physical

switches. I think it rewires our brains in sort of a different way and it gets us to, you know, if we're really into it, sort of hit an element of flow state that we don't get when we're looking at a screen or we're, you know, playing on a controller in, you know, in our living rooms. Yeah. That's wonderful. I don't know. Speak more to that, right? So when it comes to like designing these games, it seems like you're a pinball machine expert, I would assume. I know the most out of the three people in this room. Which, exactly. So to both of us, you are like incredibly. I don't know, what are some of the nuances of pinball machine design that the average

player might not know about or something like that? Do you know any of those things? I can pretend to. You know, I'll answer the question sideways a little bit. I think that like what a lot of people don't realize is that pinball has a long and varied history. It started off as a billiard game called Bagotel in France. And then once sort of bar culture in the early 1900 started to kick off, people were looking for other ways to make money in these spaces. If people are going to be hanging out, we want them to use their coins in different places. And that sort of evolved into little tabletop games. The way I think about

it is if you ever go to like the dollar store and you find the little machine with like a ball and a little plunger and you pull it back and you try to hit it in, you know, whatever has the highest score listed or something. Those types of games are the sort of like beginning of pinball. And they had little pins in them, which would direct where the ball went, which is why it's called pinball, like because the pins were actually the part that were directing. Interesting. Yeah.

Like a Plinko type of a vibe. Absolutely. And then eventually, you know, they started manufacturing sort of full-size machines like we're used to today, but they didn't have flippers in them. They were games when I make the joke about like, go nudge the games, I dare you. Those were the original games, like where you would play. you would plunge a ball and shaking the machine was the only way to manipulate it. And there was a game called Humpty Dumpty.

It was the first game that the flipper was invented, where you had an ability to actually, like, hit something and sort of manipulate the ball that way. But this is a very long-witted way of saying that, like, I think one of the things that's interesting about it is that it's this sort of French invention that makes its way to America and Chicago, Illinois, becomes the sort of main manufacturing hub. Like even to today, where if you want to get... go see the main pinball manufacturers,

Jersey Jack Pinball, and Stern Pinball, who we have their equipment, are all based in Chicago. So it's got this very sort of like, you know, it's one of the few products where every single one that's manufactured has a Made in America sticker, and it truly is the sort of like American engineering pastime, which I think is kind of neat. To your question about actually thinking about like design practices,

I think there's a couple different components, but the things that I find really most interesting, are that at the end of the day, pinball is a weird game of geometry. So, you know, I always, when I was teaching at the Manley's Pubble Hill School, I would occasionally do collaborations with my, you know, math teachers or my physics teachers to say, like, yo, I got a pinball machine. You want me to put it in your room? You can figure something out.

And the students would figure out angles in geometry and how these things were designed for these sort of different games. But when you're looking at a machine, all these different shots are just basic angles, all coming from these different points, which I think is really cool. But the part I get more excited about when it comes to pinball design is the engineering aspect, where you look at all the mechanisms on a playfield, and it's like a funky magic trick, where there's, you know, the ball goes in this place, and then it kicks out on the other side, and this other thing rumbles, and there's all these like little, it's like watching a vaudeville show

as like all these little variety acts take place. And then as, you know, a repair person, or just somebody who's inevitably curious, and can't help but deconstruct things, you lift up these play fields, and all of a sudden you have this aha moment of like, oh, that's really interesting. You know, a ball goes in here and spits out over here. There's actually two balls.

It's like watching the prestige or something. You know, like, yeah. Or here's a way in which they're utilizing magnets in a manner that I haven't seen before. Or this thing that seems really complicated is actually, you know, a keep-it-simple, stupid kind of approach. And I get really excited to see how all these designers

throughout the history of pinball, whether it was the 1960s or it was yesterday, either are using the same technology. Like, True Story in the 1940s is when the first flippers invented. That mechanism, like if you just look underneath, there's a solenoid and a little plunger, that technology has not really evolved at all since the 1940s. Like in 2016 or 2026, if you're buying a brand new Transformers machine, it's the same mechanism, which is really interesting. And then you look at things like coin doors and all that stuff.

It hasn't changed that much. And then you look on the actual play field, you can see like, oh, now we're using microswitches here. And now we're using optos in this approach. It's just fun to kind of like see all that stuff. And if you're someone who's nuts like me who's constantly working on them, you always find new tricks that you can then apply to other places of life. Like I help somebody fix their Christmas tree this season because of skills I had picked up fixing pinball machines. That's awesome. Okay, maybe this is too inside baseball, but the most, I mean, that was all fascinating.

Thank you so much for sharing all of that. That's wonderful information. The most fascinating part to me was this idea of these, like, tricks that these engineers and designers use to, like, you know, a ball goes in one thing and then a second ball comes out somewhere else, right, to give the illusion that the ball traveled somewhere else, right? Is there any more of those, like, specific, like, design quirks that you can think of that, like, were interesting to discover the first time? Yeah, like, so some people think that, uh, Two of the greatest pinnball machines ever designed were attack from Mars or medieval madness,

both of which we have at the arcade. And there's these little mechanisms in it. In attack from Mars, there's a spaceship that jiggles when you destroy it. And medieval madness is sort of their generic way of doing Monty Python the Holy Grail. And there's a castle that like comically kind of falls apart. And when you're looking at that castle, I'm like, what is going on with this? And there's basically a magnet that's pulling in a mechanism under that. And it's kind of attached.

I'm trying to think of the best way to describe it. All I can think of is like everything's dollar store related today. But like those sort of characters where, you know, it's like a character that's kind of standing up in T-Pose. And when you push on the bottom of it, it like completely like loses its form. And you look at it and it's just strings that are pulled through every joint. So when you loosen it, that's how they were doing it. Oh, cool.

You know, this is firing. and all of a sudden it's kind of going limp and that's making this castle sort of fall over. And it's just really fun to sort of discover that. I do, to your point about us getting inside baseball, I think the other thing that's really important though as we kind of like talk about the business is the idea that like, you know,

to this narrative, like pinball can be this sort of like isolating thing. It is me with the machine. But the thing I think is really interesting about it that we focus on at skill shots specifically is that we are all about bringing people together. Like that is our goal. Like we want to make sure that like anybody who's in the community that's like looking for a third space to feel comfortable that is looking for a community to be a part of where your niche

interests are welcomed as opposed to, you know, just look down upon. I think that aspect of pinball is really, really interesting. So if it's cool with you, I think we should maybe shift in that direction. I love that. Yeah, yeah. So what are some ways that people can come in to Skill Shot and I don't know, experience the experience things. Yeah, absolutely.

So, like, you know, on an isolated, independent basis, I think that there's one of the fun things about pinball is, like, finding games to play just for the first time. I remember being at a, like, I was in the arcade once, and this guy came up to me, is like, I've played all the system 11s, which to anybody at home means nothing. And to me, that's a very specific era of game that was designed in the 1980s, and we happened to be one of the last locations he needed to play one of them.

Oh, cool. You know, like, that was, like, a thing for him. But equally, like, you know, the way our business is set up is that, you know, people can rent the space for whatever they want it for, a Syracuse improv show, or, you know, we'll do corporate events or, you know, baby showers or birthday parties, more birthday parties, more birthday parties, you know. Lots of birthday parties. Absolutely. Family reunions, what have you. But equally, our Wednesdays and Friday nights have also become this sort of, it's evolved. into this thing where groups of people will just say, you know what, let's take everybody there

and that will be our outing. There's a group called Sleep and Heavenly Peace that makes beds for families who can't afford them, specifically for kids, and they, you know, get together and meet a local church and just like get gritty and just like cut boards and like work as a team. And they typically get out somewhere around 7.30 and then would come and hang out, you know, at our place. And once we sort of found that out, we were so excited that, like, this was a way for them to sort of, like, celebrate those achievements and just sort of get on our radar, like, oh, that's an amazing charity that we could, you know, work with in the future. On a very sort of, like, niche level, there's a bunch of people in the furry community that, you know, like, will

just be like, yo, let's get our costumes and go play at Skill Shot. That's hysterical. It's great. And, like, you know, you kind of bring you're weird and you bring yourself and you just, sort of have a good time and you know it's a safe space for you. So, you know, we'll have those types of things happen. You know, I know there's different Alcoholics Anonymous groups that, like, have come and enjoyed the space or just something as simple as, you know, I have a friend who works at a dental office and they get out of work at, you know, X amount of time and they all come over and they order pizzas and they eat them in the back. And they just sort of like have that space to themselves. And I think that, like, one of the nice things about owning a business specifically

that you hope is a resource for people and that you hope is a safe space, is that people find ways to utilize it in a manner you never expected. Like, in every previous interview I've ever done, I've never said the word furry. You know, and here's like a group that has sort of, you know, decided like, hey, twice a year, like, let's just show up and see what happens. And people are really welcoming and excited, and there's something really cool about the idea that you're never sure who you're going to meet there. You know, Joe Driscoll came in one day, and, you know, I've known him in passing for a long time.

And, like, he brought his kids and they were playing pinball. And then he and I just got to have, like, a nice conversation about, you know, beats for a while. And it's like, it's cool that this has become sort of a magnet for people that are looking for something to do and looking for a narrative to be a part of. Yeah. No, for sure. I think that that's wonderful. And I think that, I don't know, I just love the idea of having. that, you know, third space, right?

You know, where you get to hang out and do something fun and be with people and, like, I don't know. I think that it's great what you're doing. And I think that, yeah, I don't know. It's wonderful. Again, when I walked into the space, I was shocked. I was like, this is really cool that this exists here in Syracuse, you know, and I'm super glad that it's here.

And that's what made me excited to do a show there. So, I don't know. Awesome. Do you mind if we talk a little bit about, like, some of the planning and things that went into this show? like, I don't know, like, for the, for Saturday. So absolutely. Beautiful. So, because I also think that this is like, this is an event that is open to the public, right?

That, like, it is a ticketed event that it costs $20 to get in. But it should be a very good experience for people to, to come in and check out the space for the first time. And then also, you know, see a show and everything. But yeah, it's going to be really cool, right? I wanted to do comedy. I wanted to, I wanted to make sure that, like, it's a really cool event where people are really excited. and they get a lot of value for showing up, right? And so, like, they get the value of, you know,

trying out all these different machines, right? And, like, playing with something that they probably have not done ever before, right? And then they get some, like, really good, like, live local comedy acts, right? And we've been practicing all month, you know, and it's been really cool to kind of, every time we do a show, it's great to see how the teams kind of come together, right? Originally, we were going to feature a team from out of town, but instead, Johnny, my co-founder and I,

we put together a team of local Syracuse improvisers. that have just been studying in our workshops, right? They come to our workshops every two weeks or so. And we took all of the people that come the most regularly, and we put them on a team together, and they're doing great, and so they're going to perform, they're going to be our opening act.

And then we've got the Sean Seals musical experiment, and that's been awesome. He seems really cool, and they seem great. And so, I don't know, it's all happening on Saturday at 7 p.m. And thank you so much for letting us do it, too, because I know that, like, I don't know,

it's a weird, it's a weird, janky thing to facilitate it. Well, it's like anything else. Like, I try to, you know, as a business owner, I think, like, the worst thing you can do for yourself is complicate your mission and complicate the, you know, what your operations are. And at the end of the day, our operation is twofold. One is that we have the direct public customer experience, you know, Wednesdays from 5 to 9 to 9, come play pinball. Wednesdays, or Fridays from 530 to 9.30, come play pinball. If you're there, if you want to pick up Taco Bell and bring it there and eat it, great. Awesome. And then the second facet of our business is we are a that people rent for events. It doesn't matter whether you're renting a conference room at a hotel, you know, at a hotel, or you're renting a lecture hall at a college, or you're coming to a pinball arcade on Malloy Road. You know, we are a space that is designed to cater to your needs, and we have that sort of added value. But the sort of secondary benefit of that is when a unique experience comes to us, like Syracuse Improv,

we can then feel a little bit more empowered to be like, so this could be a video game thing, you know, video game-themed thing. We can help arm you with the tools you need to reference the arcade in the space, to like reference the way in which we can utilize the space, and we can morph a disorder whatever that is. So I was really excited about it. I know you and I have talked about, like I had done a podcast called Meditations with the Ryan's Lomac, and one of the first things I wanted to do when I started that

show was have somebody from Whose Land Is It Anyway? And I ended up having Laura Hall, the music director on the show and then was able to meet her when they tour it and whatever. So I am a huge proponent of improv comedy. And I think the other just important thing is that I'm a huge proponent of Syracuse. And I think that like, you know, I believe that in Syracuse, the beautiful thing about the canvas that is our city is that anybody with any interest can make it happen here. There are, we are, we are welcoming. We are, you know, full of underutilized resources. And we have a bunch of people that are hungry, for cool stuff to do.

So the fact that we can intermingle the niche interest of pinball and for what I would argue the vital need of laughter to like come and hang out for one Saturday event and see how it goes and then maybe do this twice a year

or something. That to me is the part that makes it really exciting. So you're so welcome for us to host it, but I also want to just throw it back to you that thanks for thinking of us. Of course.

Because I think that you know, we, you know, maybe people sit there inside of themselves like, I don't know, do I really, is this the space for it? We don't know until we have that conversation. Yeah. No, yeah, we're doing it. And I think it's going to be a blast.

I'm really excited. I'm looking forward to it. And I, uh, but yeah, I, I, I, that's wonderful. And I totally agree with you about so much of what you just had, right? Like underutilized resources completely, right? And, and I think that, um, I don't know, when I first started doing Syracuse improv stuff, right? I put out some feelers of like, hey, you know, is there a space to practice? Like, you know, and like, you know, it starts slow, right?

There's like tepid, hey, maybe you can go to the library. And so we did the library for a long time, right? And then like, but, you know, now that like we've got some momentum and people are becoming more aware of us and things, like there are a ton of, there's, there are a ton of venues for shows, right? There are a ton of spaces to practice, right? And it really is just, you know, going out and doing the work to find the things and utilize the resources and connect with the right people and try to get all of that stuff going.

So I completely agree with you. And I think that, yeah, I totally agree. too. I think it's really cool how if there is a will here in this city, right? And you have a vision that is reasonable of like, hey, I want to provide this cool experience to people in this city. It's very possible here, which I think is wonderful. Yeah. I think there's also something to be said about just like also being willing to take your interest and being able to verbalize it to other people and say, I've got this idea, you know, what do I do with it? You know, like, so at Skill Shot, you know, I pulled up my notes here just to make, but like it's cool because we've got, you know,

like, all right, we've got Pinball, whatever. We don't have an open kitchen. We've got a soda machine. You can bring in your own food. But, like, we really get excited about teaming up with food trucks. Like, Hermit's Food Truck is going to be doing a once-a-month thing there. You know, we're currently putting together a, the new machine that's coming out of restaurants a few times is Transformers from Stern Pinball. We should have that in the next month.

And we always do, like, a big sort of tournament event for that. And I think we're going to do something a little bit different this time where there's events that there's elements that people can just sort of pop in and out of and we're going to try to connect with fat cat baking to make sure that they can do catering for us and you know and these are all people that I've picked up along the way just being like I own a pinball arcade and people like I own a catering company how can we work together yeah uh you know which I think is really neat one other thing I just want to just point out too about your group specifically uh is that um you know you guys I think I've done a really good job of making it so it's not just we are performers we put on shows

I mean, right before this, we were even talking about your, you know, opening it up for classes for people. And I think that, you know, we do the same thing at the arcade. Somebody comes in. They want to learn how to play. Like, we put somebody with you and we, you know, we'll happily kind of give you a little two-minute overview so you can do your thing. But I think that part of the fabric of Syracuse, that willingness to say, I don't know how to do this. Will you help me? And everyone being like, we built infrastructure for that is the reason these things are successful.

So, you know, kudos to you for focusing on the education element. Thank you, man. Yeah, no, that's, I mean, yeah, my, my vision is to build something that lasts for a decade, right? Like, that lasts for a long time. And I think that, like, one of the biggest things that contributes to that is accessibility, right? So I really think that, like, there should be an option where you can go and you can be a part of something bigger than yourself for free, right? That meets it a regular cadence that you can predict, right? Because that's when you start to, like, one of our big values is community, right?

In order to build community, you need to see, I think it's something like you need, you need like 60 hours. I don't know what the exact statistic is, but like, it's like, you need 60 hours with the right, with the same people at a regular cadence in order to actually like develop good, solid friendships with another person, right? And it's like, that's, that's crazy. Like, that's a long time, right? And so it's like, you know, look, one, one two hour workshop every two weeks is probably not going to make your best friend, right? But like, when you do that and then you get involved with a show, or you get on a team or you take a class as well, right? Because we're launching classes in July too, right? I really think that that's how you build a strong community. And the other nice

thing, too, is that, like, that community is filled with people who are drawn to improv classes, right? These are creative people who know other creative people in this city, right? So if you've ever wanted to get involved in, you know, things like a cool pinball arcade or, you know, hey, I want to get into filmmaking or, hey, I want to make online content, hey, I want to get into stand-up comedy, right? Going to these things and being a part of this community makes those things more accessible for people. So that was really a part of my vision when I put it together and I'm sorry to plug my stuff while I'm talking about SkillShop. But yeah, I think that's a part of the vision. I'm glad that you appreciate it and you see what we're doing. So that's awesome. What other things are happening at

Skill Shot coming up in the future aside from the improv show on Saturday? Sure. I'm going to apologize for sort of, you know, looking at my notes a little bit. But, you know, happy Pride Month, everyone. We have on June 19th, we have our Pride night where we team up with the group Syracuse gamers, and you just come and know it's a safe space and just get to play games and enjoy yourself, and that's just a really cool event we got going on. On June 26, we're doing flipping for a cause. We're teaming up with the C&Y SPCA. The Hermit's food truck will be there, and I think 15% of all of our sales are going to be donated back to the SPCA, which has been a really good collaborator for us. The one that's probably most important for anybody with kids is that on

July 1st and July 3rd, we're celebrating the fact that summer is here. Believe it or not, like, you know, the school year will come to an end. And we're doing our annual Kids Play Free Event, which is, you know, you get one free kid entry for every paid adult. So if you want to come and spend $15 for you and high-five your kid for free, and then just enjoy some time in the arcade that's, you know, our sort of, you know, gift back to the community. And then July 24th, August 14th, we have our other food truck nights. And we're doing our best to sort of fill that in. So if there are, you know, I guess if you're watching this or listening to this and you're thinking to yourself like, oh, it'd be a really cool team building exercise for us to, you know,

to go to Skillshare or this might be a space that's willing to host my super niche event, you know, like if you want to come and bring your basket weaving community and do something for basket weaving night, great, you know, we support you. But, you know, we're always, open to those conversations. So, you know, our sort of goal this summer is to have as many sort of themed evenings as possible. You know, I just finished up the Doctor Who pinball machine, for example. So we're going to have a Doctor Who night at some point. I've got another, this one hasn't quite come together yet, but another sort of themed pinball night that we might be doing. And then sort of what other, you know, whatever people are interested in. I think that like, you know, sometimes

there's a sticker shock component when you're looking at putting events. together, you know, and some people will look at, you know, the price to rent the space and will say, like, oh, you know, that's completely reasonable for, you know, a kid's party. And I will, you know, very, say with pride that, like, we have, we've not raised our main entry prices since we opened. And we've only ever so slightly changed our rental prices. But, you know, if you're, if you're somebody who's looking at numbers and you're like, you know, I'd really love to do something for this group, but, like, I'm not sure I have enough people to justify a three-hour rental for the space. That's where our Wednesdays and Fridays are

more flexible where people can just come in and pay their own entry and still have that sort of communal experience. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking to yourself like, oh, it'd be really neat, like just give us a call or feel free and bring a bunch of people on a Wednesday or Friday and there's a little alcove in the back where we can set it up for you if you want to just, you know, bring pizzas and have your little group there and make it. so that your community is represented within the arcade. Cool. Wonderful. Ryan, thank you so much.

Is there anything that we didn't touch on that you really want to touch on? Very briefly. You know, if you're interested in the arcade, skillshot arcade.com, you can find us SkillShod Arcade on Instagram, skill shot pinball arcade event space on Facebook. But please don't hesitate to send us an email info at skillshodercade.com if you're interested. And I guess I just want to end by saying that, like, we're a very proud independent business from Syracuse.

And I know there's some people who kind of view this as like, oh, this is our stepping stone to, you know, sort of take something out. But, you know, our business is put together with the blood, sweat, and tears of me and Alyssa Simuluka and John Gamblecordo, my two business partners. And we want to say thank you for all your support. And also, we are just happy to be here. And we hope you come to our kids sometime. Nice. Beautiful. Ryan, thank you so much for coming on, seriously.

Anytime, Noah. And make me laugh. It sounds good. I'll try it. No, I don't laugh, you don't laugh. I'm going to do my thing, baby. Cool. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for watching, Good News York.

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thank you guys so much for watching thank you as well to our sponsor ads on the go get ads on the go.com thank you Zach for all that you do for us guys have a great day see you next time bye bye