Game of Thrones Actress Says Acting is Like Ping Pong

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Game of Thrones is pretty much the hottest TV show right now, and at least one of the shows actresses, Sibel Kekilli who plays Shae, attributes the show’s great acting to ping pong in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

THR: As an actress, is it hard to have Shae hold her own with Tyrion, who is such strong character?
Kekilli: Acting for me is like a ping-pong game. That’s the secret of acting. When you have a really good actor, I always want to be as good as he is or she is. Peter gives me the ball and I just want to return it to him.

Marty Reisman once explained the connection between playwriting and table tennis and now we’re learning why so many TV shows and movie sets have ping pong tables on set: it’s not just for the brainstorming or the relaxation, but ping pong is actually a metaphor for good acting.

Via Medium


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Cleveland Cavaliers Win Ping Pong Lottery of the Year

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Last night the Cleveland Cavaliers won what may have won the most important ping pong ball event of the year: the NBA Draft lottery.

Each year the NBA figures out who gets the first pick in the draft based on a complicated series of ping pong balls and lottery numbers. From our post 2 years ago:

The short version of the lottery is ping pong balls are randomly drawn through an awesome machine and some team wins the lottery and everyone else has to pick later (which works out sometimes).

The long version of the lottery is that ping pong balls are numbered and drawn in a specific order. Each team has a list of sequences that vary in length, with worse teams receiving more sequences, and when your sequence comes up, you win. The lottery is conducted behind closed doors for sequestered representatives of teams, the media, and NBA Officials as well as an accounting firm (usually) to verify the results. These people can watch the lottery but are completely cut off from the outside world until the official announcement is made on TV.

Last night the Cleveland Cavaliers, who basically have lived in the lottery since LeBron left, won the lottery and are still deciding what to do, but congrats to the city of Cleveland (and probably Nerlens Noel of Kentucky who Cleveland will probably pick or trade the rights of).

This only spells great things for the ping pong prospects of Cleveland and the Cavs owner Dan Gilbert who is already helping revitalize Detroit through table tennis.

One quick ping pong tangent about the lottery last night, the Orlando Magic came in second in the ping pong ball lottery last night, but their good luck charm Pat Williams had a “pixie dust encrusted ping pong ball” as a good luck charm: Continue reading »


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PaddleYou Featured on Fox’s Good Day New York

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Earlier this morning Good Day New York’s Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelly faced off in ping pong and even used some PaddleYou paddles. You can see the whole segment here, but check out the most important part when Rosanna Scotto turns to her “special paddle” which featured Greg Kelly’s face. You can get 10% of PaddleYou.com using code GOODDAYNY1.


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Just for Men Makes Ping Pong Foolproof in New Commercial

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It’s official: 2013 is the year of the ping pong commercial. We may have inadvertently started the trend by creating such serious competition last year during the Olympics and the end the year, but we have to give credit to the advertisers who have stepped their table tennis ping pong game up.

Today, Just for Men joins the party.

Just for Men helps men from getting grey hair, and the new product they’re pushing is Autostop a beard/hair product that stops changing color at the right time. Just for Men may not be the first men’s hair product to use ping pong in their commercial, or the first men’s hygiene product to incorporate table tennis, but something about those Warren Buffet-esque paddles (or Chanel) makes us happy.

Let us know what you guys think on facebook, twitter, and google plus?


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Taiwan Defeats China at World Table Tennis Championships

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The Taiwanese team of Chuang Chih-yuan and Chen Chien-an defeated the Chinese team of Ma Lin and Hao Shuai at the World Table Tennis Championships in Paris.

The win was a huge upset and was Taiwan’s first gold medal in the World Championships EVER (the country started competing in 1985).

Via the Taipei Times:

“This is an important milestone in our table tennis history,” Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association secretary-general Chen Ching-yen said.
Chuang and Chen Chien-an toppled their formidable Chinese opponents, Ma Lin and Hao Shuai, 4-2 (9-11, 12-10, 11-6, 13-11, 9-11 and 11-8) to secure the title.
Taiwan’s previous best result at the event had been a silver medal won by Chen Jing in the women’s singles 20 years ago.
“This is the first time in our history, so this is a good result,” said 32-year-old Chuang, a veteran player who ranks sixth in the world. “We played well and did very well tactically, both serving and receiving.”
Chuang was full of praise for his 21-year-old partner, Chen Chien-an.
“I think [he] is a very tactical player, he’s powerful and I play well with him,” the right-hander said.

Ma Lin is now quitting the Chinese National team as a result, “I think [I] will quit the national team of China because at my age I have to rethink my career and my life, but for now I don’t have any exact information. I don’t have the exact plans.” Ma Lin is only 34.

The loss prevented China from getting its eleventh consecutive doubles title at the World Championships.

Don’t feel too bad for China though, they won everything else at the World Championships (sound familiar?).

You can check out some of the (not-so-exciting) “highlights” below.


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Weekly Recap (Friday May 17)

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What are your weekend plans? Ours are to win Powerball. We’re pretty sure we’ve got this one in the bag, but either way we’ll be here next week with more from the world of table tennis. In the meantime? WEEKLY RECAP.

Thanks for your support of Table Tennis Nation and PaddleYou. Have a great weekend.


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Powerful Yogurt May Have Redefined the Ping Pong Commercial Game

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We love ping pong commercials. Since everyone likes ping pong, the sport seems like the perfect way to sell products and a lot of marketers (who also love ping pong) are taking notice–just this year we’ve seen ads from Apple, Microsoft, Optimum, Degree, IZOD, and more. Never, have we seen an ad with the absurdities, ridiculousness, and what-the-ping-pong-ness? of Powerful Yogurt’s new ad called “Ping Pong Man.”

Powerful Yogurt “Ping Pong Man” by TDL Soundtracks from TDL Soundtracks on Vimeo.

The ad by New York agency The Vidal Partnership encourages you to find your abs using Powerful Yogurt–a yogurt with extra protein. This is basically the Orange Caramel “Lipstick” of ping pong ads. We’re speechless.

If nothing else, look at all the awesome GIFs that come out of 30 seconds…

Powerful yogurt

These are hilarious. Right? It’s not just us?

Would you rather play ping pong with your abs like Powerful Yogurt thinks you should, or with your butt the way Microsoft encouraged it?

Via Vimeo


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