“Marty Supreme” Helps Ignite Table Tennis Boom in NYC

Table Tennis may always be an underdog sport in the United States, perhaps cemented by “Marty Supreme’s” ultimate fate getting shut out at the recent Academy Awards after landing seven nominations. Still, table tennis denizens across the city say the sport’s future has never looked brighter after the surprising box office success of the film starring Timothée Chalamet triggered new demand at ping pong havens across the city.

And much like Marty Reisman, the real life inspiration for the on-screen Marty Mauser, veteran table tennis players across the city are only too happy to recall the sport’s hustling history. The sport’s hustler past is uniquely intertwined with the city.

The current boom is phenomenon that David Silberman, Co-CEO of Ping Pod, long hoped to see from the time he first created the fully automated table tennis havens with friends in 2019. By 2024, revenue had reached $50 million, according to “Fortune.” This year, Silberman said that new player signups have increased on a weekly basis from 10 percent to 30 percent, which he attributes in large part to the interest generated by the release of “Marty Supreme” in late December.

Even as the theatrical release fades now that awards season has passed, Silberman predicts the film’s subsequent placement on streaming services will fan even more curiosity about the game. He likens it to the growth of interest in chess after the Netflix series, “The Queen’s Gambit.”

The other big ping pong outlet in the city, SPIN was founded in NYC in 2009 and one of its investors and co-founders was the actress Susan Sarandon and has since grown into a national chain. Its flagship in the Flatiron district is billed as a cross between a ping pong hall and a social club with bars, booths and a dance floor. Sarandon fell in love with the sport and would go on to star as former table tennis champ Randi Jammer in the 2014 movie “Ping Pong Summer,” in which the former champ becomes a mentor to a local geek.

To cash in on the “Marty Supreme” craze, Spin hosted an Oscar Watch Party at its Flatiron location. General Manager Cassandra Neals says that the buzz around the movie has brought even more people to the venue, often with questions about Marty Reisman.

Silberman, who was a recreational player growing up, said he created Ping Pod to help make the sport more accessible and felt the pods fill a particular need in urban settings where there are no rec rooms or finished basements as there would be in suburbia. The pods are fully automated featuring several tables, a private bathroom and light snacks and beverages. You book playing time online. They are open 24/7 with six locations across Manhattan and franchises in Boston, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

The Manhattan locations are: 42 Allen St.; 515 E. 86th St.; 321 W. 37th St.; 335 E. 27th St.; 1470 Lexington Ave. (at 95th St.); and 243 W. 99th St. He said he never imagined that one of those entry level players at Ping Pod’s Lower East Side location might be indie darling and Academy Award-nominated director Josh Safdie in 2021.

“[Josh and I] just started chatting, and once he got to know me a little bit, he revealed that he was working on a potential period piece about table tennis,” Silberman said of his early interaction with Safdie. “And I just thought ‘Wow, how great would that be!’”

Silberman and Safdie’s connection at the Lower East Side location was somewhat of a continuation of the neighborhood’s nearly century long relationship to ping pong. In the 1940s and 1950s, parlor clubs like Lawrence’s on the Lower East Side, which closed in the 1970s, became a go-to hot spot for ping pong fanatics to showcase their talents.

Sean O’Neill, a decorated Olympic player and now a commentator for Major League Table Tennis remembers hearing first hand from his father about traveling to New York to see matches in person. Through betting and playing their way through a gritty underground scene, Jewish players like Reisman became cult legends at Lawrence’s.

“It was a gambling kind of underground,” said O’Neill. “I’m not going to say you needed a secret handshake to get in there, but all these players, they weren’t playing Major League baseball.”

Even today, the path to long term success for professional table tennis players in the United States is no easy bet. Mimi Bosika, who relocated from Serbia to the United States when her father began to coach American players, spoke about how many professional players have even had to create GoFundMe pages to get to the Olympics.

“American players still really have to hustle,” said Bosika. “Maybe not like Marty, but hustle in terms of grind to make ends meet so they could keep pursuing their dreams.”

It’s a reality that Yasiris Ortiz, four-time national table tennis champion, had to face head on when she immigrated to New York from the Dominican Republic in 2016. Ortiz remembers during her early training in the Dominican Republic, kids were able to play table tennis for free in schools and aspiring players could receive financial support from the government to travel for tournaments. Now settled in the Bronx, Ortiz had to temporarily stop playing when she moved to New York at 18 years old.

“It wasn’t easy,” said Ortiz of her first years in New York. “But I always kind of believed in myself that I was going to find something greater through my sport.”

Through playing recreationally at clubs like Spin in between classes at City College of New York, people noticed her skills and began to ask her for one-on-one lessons. Ortiz says teaching this way helped her grow in her English and in her game. Then in 2019, she would pitch Spin & Learn, an after school table tennis non-profit program to Public School 1 in the South Bronx.

Now, Spin & Learn is in over 30 schools, reaching over 10,000 students across Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. Ortiz says the program is helping to create more diversity in table tennis, while combining academic support and physical fitness for kids who may not connect with traditional sports.

On top of leading Spin & Learn, Ortiz is also a coach at Ping Pod’s Upper East Side location and is preparing to compete in a few weeks in London for the ITTF World Team Championships. She even made it on screen as a Brazilian player in “Marty Supreme.”

On set, she joked that she and many of the table tennis players were more excited to see German star player Timo Ball than they were to see “Timo-thée”, the heart throb star of “Marty Supreme.” Ortiz agrees the success of the film has sparked more interest from students and in new players across the city.

“People knowing the work I do, which is with love and passion, and how my dream is to bring more table tennis and life skills and values to communities who don’t actually have the resources to pay for these programs and for the sport,” said Ortiz, “It was meant to happen.”