From Callbacks to Kickbacks: An Interview with Comedian Matt O'Brien

Matt O'Brien is a Los Angeles-based comedian with a strong social media game and a growing obsession with pinball. Hilarious, heartfelt, and brimming with the enthusiasm of the newly converted, O'Brien's paeans to pinball – and the locations that keep the game flourishing in the wild – have struck a chord with pinheads, generating fan engagement and, notably, support from Stern Pinball.

A few of O'Brien's pinball videos:

I've Decided to Get Good at Pinball

I Entered a Pinball Tournament

Why I Love Addams Family Pinball

Stern Sent a Pinball Machine to my House

I met up with the London, Ontario, native at Walt's Bar in LA to flip some pins, discuss the intersection of comedy and pinball, and review his progress on the path to "getting good" and achieving "pinfluencer" greatness.

Benjamin Plotkin: So how did you get started in comedy?

Matt O'Brien: I originally started in Toronto in 2007; I just kind of trudged around and got my teeth sharpened up there. There's only so much you can do in Canada as a comedian, entertainment-wise, there's such a low ceiling: "Oh, I hope I work for Yuk Yuk's someday." I was also a commercial actor up there, so that's how I generated enough money to get my green card and to move down here. I moved to LA about ten years ago with my wife [Julia Hladkowicz], who's also a comedian. It was tough because I had to restart my career again. I'm a touring headliner in Canada, and everyone down here [said], "We don't care. We don't know who you are." I had to go to open mics, go from the bottom back up again.

Benjamin: You started creating pinball-related social media content in March of 2026. When did you realize that you were infected with the pinbug?

Matt: I used to play it on my computer, when I was a kid. Do you remember Space Cadet? I grew up on a farm, and we had dial-up internet for a bit, and then my parents just didn't feel like paying for it anymore. So, I would just play that. And I remember seeing pinball machines in the wild and I've just always been attracted. They're attractive, you can't help but look at them and want to try them out. And I think throughout my whole life I've always loved them. I remember we were hanging out here [at Walt's] and [I realized], "I fucking love pinball. I'm really going to lean in and show that I love this and explore it some more." And luckily, it's kind of everywhere.

Benjamin: In your first pinball-related video, you cite a tournament where you unexpectedly took second place as inspiring you to "get good." Tell me about that experience.

Matt: That was Barcade in Highland Park [a northeast LA neighborhood] – that actually might have been the origin. I went for my friend's birthday. I do have bad social anxiety, and there was a bunch of people hanging out there, and then they announced a free pinball tournament.

Benjamin: An escape route!

Matt: "Happy birthday. I'm going to be over here doing this beautiful tournament. It's free." [laughs] And so I just kind of got caught up in it, and I just kept winning – "I'm still in this, by the way. Happy birthday!" – and then just unknowingly got second place in it. It's not like I had been playing a lot of pinball before that. I just kind of did it.

I knew that people were good at pinball, but witnessing some of those guys playing...the guy who got first was super-nice and showed me some things. That kind of sparked it, too. That was my first experience. I think being around a guy that's truly, really good at pinball – I always knew those guys existed, but watching them in person, you're like, "The hell's going on here? How do you get to that?"

Benjamin: Stern recently sent you a new-in-box Star Wars: Fall of the Empire; congratulations! What's the story behind that?

Matt: It's a loan, until October or November, they said. Julia worked that out with them. The day of my birthday, she said, "I've got a surprise for you," and she showed me the email and the correspondence going back and forth. I never would think to do something like that. I didn't know they did something like that. I'm secretly hoping that if I do a good enough job on the videos, they'll say, "You can have it!" [laughs]

Benjamin: You set it up yourself. What was that like?

Matt: Oh my God, it was so heavy. My wife helped me a little bit, but I didn't have the right tools. I didn't have help. It was in my driveway for a whole afternoon. I was just staring at it through the window.

Benjamin: Like the dog that caught the car. [laughs]

Matt: Basically. I just remember by the end of the day, I was gushing sweat. I was so tired. And I finally got to play it.

Benjamin: Is Julia into pinball, too?

Matt: She's dabbling. She's starting to get into it. We were in Highland Park having dinner yesterday and then she brought it up: "I wonder if there's any pinball machines around?" And so, we ended up walking by The Goldfish and we stopped in. They had a cute little arcade there. I made a little video of it and [thought], "Wow, this was her idea." I never want to be that annoying "content husband." She's insanely supportive of it.

Benjamin: How has your relationship to pinball changed, now that you have one in your house? Do you have a regimen?

Matt: Well, luckily, I don't have a real job, which is cool. I'll literally wake up in the morning, have a coffee next to the machine and play a couple rounds. The other day I was trying to make videos of how to do different moves, like cradling, passing, stuff like that, so I took the glass off. It definitely made me appreciate the machines more, seeing the insides of it.

I'm just playing it constantly [for Insider Connected achievements] – I'm really into that stuff. It's my first time experiencing pinball that's just free play constantly, and no one's around, no one's telling you to stop. It's kind of scary in a way. I can see it from my bed, which is scary. [laughs]

Do you know Chris Hadfield? He's a Canadian astronaut. I'm friends with him and his son. And during the pandemic, he would let my wife and I stay at his house in Toronto because during Covid, I had auditions in Toronto. I was booking commercials and stuff like that. So, he'd let me stay at his house, and he had a Space Shuttle pinball machine. That was my first experience [playing] a pinball machine in a home.

Benjamin: You're upfront in your social media posts about being a pinball newbie...at this point, how much of that is reality and how much of it is kayfabe?

Matt: [laughs] I'm new, I'm new.

Benjamin: Sure, but you've got a pinball in your house now. [laughs]

Matt: I've got a pinball in my house. And I have played pinball my whole life, casually. But in comparison to some of these guys who are in tournaments, I'm not even close to what those guys are doing. The problem I'm running into now is that the more I make these videos, the more people assume I'm amazing at it. No, I just like to play it a lot. I'm okay at it. But I'm getting there.

Benjamin: I suspect that being a working comedian makes it difficult to commit to being in a pinball league.

Matt: A little bit. LA Pinball League reached out and told me to come by and join up. But I'm on the road a lot, and because of that, I [can] go to pinball bars around the country. I would like to be in one place. I'd love to be in LA more, but my moneymaker is on the road, unfortunately. Luckily, there's tons of pinball on the road, too.

Benjamin: What resources are you using to learn more about pinball and improve your skills?

Matt: I watch this guy, Abe Flips. There's something about his voice. "I trust this guy; I trust this German accent." [laughs] And I'm looking at Pinball Map all the time. Everywhere I go, I'm looking for machines. And literally asking guys who I'm playing with in tournaments [for advice] because that's kind of how I got started in comedy. I'm treating these tournaments kind of like an open mic. And everyone's been so friendly. It's pretty welcoming.

Benjamin: Do you think pinball will be an evergreen topic for your social media?

Matt: I kind of go through phases of stuff. I used to obsess about Costco, and I kind of feel like I drained that a bit. I'm going to keep doing [pinball content] until I get sick of it. I don't think it's ever going to go away, but I don't know how much longer I can keep up trying to "get good."

Benjamin: Is pinball too niche for standup comedy?

Matt: It's pretty niche. I haven't found a way to talk about it on stage yet. If I ever got hired to perform at a pinball convention or something, of course I would do jokes there, but for the average person, to do jokes like that, I don't think it would hit: "You know when you're plungin' and then the ball does this, and then you're cradling?" People would be like, "This guy's cradlin' balls up there?!" [laughs]

Benjamin: What's your process for producing content?

Matt: It's pretty casual, to be honest with you. I have Meta glasses I use, and I literally only wear them when I'm playing pinball because they freak me out. I would never just walk around wearing them. But it's the easiest way to film pinball. Yesterday, with The Goldfish, we just walked by. I filmed some quick clips, my wife filmed me, and then I edited it together this morning. It took me – I don't know, 30 minutes, an hour – I wrote a script, did a voiceover, and it'll probably be out tomorrow.

Benjamin: Your pinball videos seem to be generating good engagement.

Matt: I'm getting amazing responses. I've gotten messages from friends [saying], "I love pinball. I didn't know how much I love pinball until you started posting about it." People constantly DM me machines that they find in the wild. I think it's sparked something in people, just a small amount of joy, when they're out there and they see these things: "Oh yeah, this is the thing Matt's talking about. Oh, I think this is really neat." The response has been positive. I've gotten one shitty message, actually, yesterday. I was talking about how I'm obsessed with pinball [and someone responded], "Yeah, obsessed with pinball. Only been posting about it since March." And I'm like, "Okay." [laughs]

Erika's Pinball Journey started following me. [Ed Robertson] from the Barenaked Ladies [a notable pinball collector], we follow each other. He's been commenting on my stuff, which is really nice. It's also translated to stand up gigs, too; the Punch Line in Sacramento reached out: "Hey, there's a pinball festival in August. We saw you like pinball, do you want to do the club?" So, I actually booked it for next year. They were nice enough to do that, to see that I love pinball, and I also do stand-up: "Come up here, do some sets and then do the show."

Benjamin: What are your favorite places to play pinball?

Matt: There's a place in Toronto I used to go to all the time called Tilt, which I loved, one of the first places I played in Toronto. [In] LA, Walt's is like my all-time favorite place. The look of it, the vibe, the aesthetic. It's just such a nice place to play.

Benjamin: What are your favorite pinball machines?

Matt: I think about Twilight Zone all the time...[and] The Addams Family. Those two. I remember when I started reading about pinball. Those were two that kept coming up. And then when I finally started playing them, I [understood] why people love these ones. I was at AYCE Gogi in Van Nuys. I played Banzai Run. That was good. So stupid. So weird.

Benjamin: So, we've established you're a Pat Lawlor fan. [laughs]

Matt: There's a couple I really want to go through, [based on] the movies I loved in the 90s: Batman Forever; Stargate. I played a Waterworld in Vegas. I think there's a Congo machine.

Benjamin: Congo is a really good machine for an apparently terrible movie.

Matt: Terrible. It's a terrible movie, but somebody put all their heart and soul into a pinball machine from this terrible movie. Those are the ones I've got my eye on, for sure.

Benjamin: Is there anything else you wanted to mention?

Matt: I'm just going to keep making these little videos and see what happens...keep traveling around going to different pinball bars. What I like about it is I get to go to different venues and they always appreciate somebody [saying], "Hey, this place fucking rocks!" and advertising these little places. It's a community I hope is always around. It seems like it's growing and I would like to assist that. I want to do it really well, because these places mean a lot to me.