Andy “The Magic Man” Segal: Trick-Shot Pool World Champion

Andy "The Magic Man" Segal is 4-time Artistic Pool World Champion, a 7-time ESPN Trick Shot Magic Champion, a 6-time Masters Champion, and a 2-time US Open Champion. He began playing professional nine-ball in the 1990’s, and was a regular on the Camel Pro Billiard Tour before switching over to trick-shot competitions in 2002. He became a full-time pro competitor in 2007 and hold 4 world records in artistic billiards. He's also a member of the Screen Actors Guild, appearing in films such as Spider Man 2 and The Dictator, and TV shows such as Person of Interest and Boardwalk Empire.

Episode Highlights

Get ready for an episode that's as enlightening as it is entertaining! Join us as we catch up with world champion pool player and trick shot artist, Andy "The Magic Man" Segal. Listen as Andy divulges the secrets of his success, from his thrilling win at the US Open championship to the role his supportive wife plays in his journey. He candidly discusses the trials and triumphs of juggling a demanding career while maintaining razor-sharp pool skills, and even delves into the impact of aging within the sport.

But Andy's accomplishments and experiences don't stop at the pool table. He's also graced the glitz and glamour of Hollywood sets and he's here to share those stories too! From hilarious encounters with stars like Jake Gyllenhaal, to insightful comparisons between billiards and golf, martial arts, and even mathematics. Be prepared to question all you know about pool as we debunk the myth that this sport is solely about geometry - there's a lot more instinct involved here than you may realize!

In the latter part of our episode, we explore the art and joy of teaching. Andy divulges how his passion for sharing knowledge stems from his family values, and shares his exciting decision to become a math teacher. As we wrap up, we discuss the intricate world of trick shots, the rigorous journey to maintain a professional ranking, and even the business aspects of professional pool playing.  This episode is a must-listen for all pool enthusiasts and fans of compelling life stories.

In this episode, we cover a lot of ground including:

• The importance of a supportive family when quitting a Wall Street career to pursue a passion

• Performing, Showmanship and his background in magic

• How trick shots help in standard pool competition

• Parlaying billiard success into Hollywood success

• What makes a great trick shot, and how Andy comes up with new ideas

• Using trick shot pool for corporate conventions and sales

• Using billiards as a fun way to teach math

• The ethics of hustling other players

• The evolution of trick shots over the years, and where it’s headed, and SO much more!

Listen

Read the Complete Transcript

Shane

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the official Live2cre8 podcast, coming to you from Nashville, Tennessee. I am your host, Shane Almgren, and I am joined today from Huntington, New York, by world champion pool player and trick shot artist Andy “the Magic Man” Segal. Andy is a four-time artistic pool world champion, a seven-time ESPN trick shot magic champion, a six-time masters champion, and a two-time and currently reigning US Open champion. He's also a member of the Screen Actors Guild, appearing in films such as Spider-Man 2 and The Dictator and TV shows such as Person of Interest and Boardwalk Empire.

Andy, thanks for coming on the show today and joining me. It’s a pleasure to have you.

Andy Segal

Oh, my pleasure, my pleasure.

Shane

So you’re fresh off a second US Open championship.

Andy Segal

Yes.

Shane

How long do you plan to keep doing this?

Andy Segal

Well, you know that's up in the air. I mean, I'm going to keep doing it as long as, you know, I guess—I don't know if I'm going to lose the ability, but I'm going to keep doing it until it just doesn't become feasible anymore.

Shane

That's interesting. You know, in a lot of sports, somebody's prime is, you know, late mid-20sish. Is there a billiards prime? Is that something where you can lose the ability? I always assumed it was kind of like poker, where you just keep getting better the longer you do it.

Andy Segal

Well, it's kind of, like, a mix between the two, because, I mean, you're not really hampered by being a little—you know, getting older, with the exception of maybe if your eyesight goes, or maybe there are a couple of shots where you need to be a little flexible. But it's—you know, you can make—you can kind of make it work. So, I'm not—it's not really like when you get to a certain age, you're kind of like, “Well, that's about it.” I mean, once you get to a certain point—I guess once you get to a certain age, maybe mentally you would say to yourself, “You know what? I think it's enough. I'm not really interested in doing this or doing that, and, you know, putting in the time and the effort to learn all these brand-new shots that are coming out of the newer players coming up,” and then you can just kind of step aside. That's what happened, like in the last generation.

Shane

How old were you when you started playing pool?

Andy Segal

Well, I started when I was young, but it was few and far between. I would go with my parents every once in a while—you know, maybe once every other month. But then, once I was in high school, I started going pretty regularly. You know, maybe once or twice a week, I would go with friends.

Shane

I know that when you got out of college, you were doing IT work on Wall Street, and then, I believe, something with Sony Music, and then maybe back to Wall Street before you made the move to full-time pool player.

Andy Segal

Yeah.

Shane

How does one find the time to hone their pool skills to a professional level while working a demanding job like that?

Andy Segal

I had an agreeable wife. [Laughs]. That's how. My wife also played pool. She was in college as soon as I got out of school. So, while I was working, basically what I did is I would go to work, and then after work, I would go home, and then there was a pool room in Queens, and I would just go there, sometimes, you know, during the week, at least one day on the weekend. Then I found—once my wife got out of college, there was a pool room in the city. So, after work—once I moved to Sony Music—after work, I would walk to the pool room, which was, you know, about a 20-minute walk, and she would meet me at the pool room. We would stay there. We'd go there four days a week during the week and stay there, probably from, you know, what 5.30, 6:00 o'clock until about 9:00? And then, you know, take a cab or a bus home back to Queens, and then, once on the weekend, we would go and spend maybe 7–8 hours there playing pool.

Shane

I mean, are you practicing? Do you have a teacher at this time? Are you guys just playing games?

Andy Segal

At that point?

Shane

Mm-hmm.

Andy Segal

No. No, we didn't have a teacher. Basically, what would happen is we would go, and we would start by playing each other, and then what would happen is, you know, if people came in that day, we would split up, and she would play someone at her level. I would play someone at my level, and it just worked out like that. You know, we were just there together, but we weren't playing together all the time, and then we both got—you know, I mean, if you're playing five days a week, you know you're playing 20–25 hours a week. I don't think anybody would not get better from that. And you know, my game shot up, especially once I started playing in more serious competitions. Your game shoots up very quickly because you get used to the pressure, and the atmosphere, and all that. And her game shot up just tremendously, and she played in a few competitions as well.

Shane

This is probably back in 2003 or 2004. At the time, I had a fantastic job. I was a health insurance rep, and then I met my future wife, and she signed me to a music publishing deal, and I immediately quit the insurance business. I had a couple of family members that thought I was insane to give up a great gig to, you know, go chase a dream, even though that's why I moved to Nashville in the first place, and I never heard the end of it from some of them. How did your friends and family react to you quitting a great day job to pursue what—in a lot of people's minds—is essentially a bar or frat game? Did they question you, or were they supportive?

Andy Segal

Well, I was working in Wall Street in IT for 20 years, and it was not until, I mean, you're talking, you know, a good 17—16, 17, 18 years. I was still working. So, I was playing pool on the side. I mean, it wasn't a full-time job. It was more of a part-time job, slash hobby, okay? And in 2007, that's when the opportunity presented itself for me to quit and go full-time, and what happened was that I purchased an amateur pool league with the APA, which is the American Pool Players Association. So then what I did was I did that full-time, but that gave me a lot of free time. I kind of incorporated that with my playing, and my playing just shot up.

I mean, I was, you know, at that point—and all my family—to answer your question—all my family was supportive of that. You know, I spoke at length with, obviously, my wife. My daughter was a little too young to just have the discussion with, but I spoke with my parents, and they were very supportive of doing that. You know, I wasn't quitting to become a professional pool player. I was quitting to become a professional, to go into the field of billiards, which meant running a league, which provided income, playing in trick shot competitions, which provided income, and doing shows and exhibitions, which provided income. So, you add it all together, and, I mean, it was—it added up to one big, you know, regular full-time job.

Shane

Gotcha. So, you had quite a bit of success as just a competitive pool player before you transitioned over to trick shots. What sparked that change?

Andy Segal

When I was first getting out of school and when I was in the later years of college, I was playing in a lot of competitions—nine-ball. Ten-ball was also there as well. It’s the same thing. I would say I was probably middle of the road. I mean, I would go to a competition, and maybe I'd lose the first two rounds. Maybe I'd win two, or three, or four matches and then lose. So, I would always be finishing somewhere in, you know, either the bottom half or the middle. Sometimes I broke into the top half of the field, but it was the lower half of the top half of the field. But I always used to mess around with trick shots in college with a friend of mine, and I also performed magic. So, I like to perform in front of people. I like to entertain and make people smile, all that stuff.

So, once I started playing on the professional nine-ball tour, some of the people that were in charge—they had asked me to perform during, like, halftime—it's not like halftime, it's like between rounds. There would be maybe a lull of about, maybe, 10–15 minutes. They wanted to keep the crowd. So, I would get up there. I'd start performing a couple of trick shots, do a couple of magic tricks, and then I met a guy named Mike Massey, who was a big-time trick shot artist. He was also a nine-ball player, but he was a big-time trick-shot artist—one of the most famous ones—and he told me about some competitions that they have where you just run through a book. It's like a golf tournament. Shot number one: everybody shoots it. Shot number two: everybody shoots it. And you just get points. If you make it, it's just like in golf. It's just—in golf, you want a low score, and if you want a high score…

So, I tried it. In my first competition, I came in fourth, and it was the North American Trick Shot Championship. They call it artistic pool. So, the North American Artistic Pool Championship. I came in fourth. It qualified me to go to the World Championships in St. Petersburg. I'm sorry, in Kiev, Ukraine, and there I came in fifth. And this was the first two events I ever played in, and I just shot up. You know, I felt that that was my place because I was competing, which I liked. I was making people smile and entertaining them, which I loved. And I was playing pool, which I loved. So that was it.

Shane

I saw a match—this was probably 10 years ago, and I don't remember if it was a tournament or not—and it was Mike Massey playing eight-ball, and I knew who he was. I knew how prolific he was with trick shots, and I thought this was going to be like the kung fu sensei toying with the students, but I remember he actually struggled a little bit in competitive play, and I was wondering, in your experience, does trick shot pool help you out in regular matches, or does it have an adverse effect?

Andy Segal

Trick shot helps you with regular matches in that you can see—you see things a little differently. You know, there are certain skills that don't come up in a regular game of pool, but only under certain exceptions, and those are very refined, and we're very good at those skills. And when they do come up, whereas a regular player may say, “Wow, that's a low percentage shot. I'm going to go with something a little more high percentage.” We may try that shot because it's a high percentage for us. You know, maybe for a professional player who's—a guy could be, you know, twice as good as me, but a certain shot comes up, and he could be 20% on it. I could be 95% on it, just because that's related to a trick shot. So, yes, I would say it does help in that respect. But, that being said, for me, it didn't help playing trick shots at all, because what I did is I turned all my attention to that. So, I wasn't practicing regular nine-ball, eight-ball, ten-ball, whatever, and I got rusty at it.

So now, when I go and I play a standard game of pool, look, I can hold my own. I mean, if I play a professional, maybe not one of the top, top professionals. But if I play someone who can play, I can hold my own. I mean, I'm not going to, like, just totally fold up, but I'm probably not going to win. There's a lot of people that are better than me in that discipline because I just haven't been playing. So, you know, when you haven't been playing, you can still play very well, but there are certain things that go, like—you know, like just a feel of the table. You know, you just lose a little bit of the feel. It’s like when you don't play poker for a while. You're not losing your mental ability. You just lose the feel of the card. You have to get back into it.

Shane

I know you've been featured on a number of different TV programs for your pool-playing prowess, but you've got about as many non-pool-related film and TV roles as you do for pool-related appearances. How'd you get hooked up with Hollywood in a non-billiards capacity?

Andy Segal

Well, I started promoting myself. After I was on TV for a few years, you know, playing pool, I said, “You know, maybe let me see.” And I got a couple of jobs in Hollywood as well. I mean, I was technical advisor on a Woody Allen film. You know, I was asked to do this. I was asked to do that, some commercials here and there. And then we did, like, a feature on National Geographic, you know, just fun stuff.

So, I decided—you know, my wife and I talked about it, and we said, “You know, why don't you send—why don't you put like a little press kit together and send it out to a bunch of casting agents?” So, you know, I got a list of, you know, maybe 30, 40 of them in New York City. I sent them all out, and one of them got back to me and invited me to, like, do a commercial read. So, I went and did a commercial read, and she said, “You know what? It was okay. It wasn't good enough to really send you out because you're”—she used the word green. I mean, I'm sure you recognize that word.

I was very inexperienced at it. You know, I did okay. So, she told me about a workshop. She hooked me up with a photographer. We did, you know, a photo shoot. I did a workshop on commercial reads, and then she hooked me up with a couple of websites. I didn't realize it at the time, but they were all for, like, extra stuff. So, you know, I did that for a little while. I ended up joining the SAG-AFTRA Union. And then, slowly but surely, as I was submitting on those websites, I got a couple of auditions for principal parts, but they were small. It wasn't big stuff, and I went, and I got two of them. You know, I did those, but it was mostly—honestly, it was mostly just extra stuff, with the exception of those two.

Shane

Do you have any great memories or stories from being on set that stand out to you? Where you were like, “Oh, this is cool. I'm on a movie set. I'm working with stars” or whatever.

Andy Segal

Yeah, you know, I mean, I'll be honest with you. Working with a star never really was like—I never really was like, “Oh, that's cool.” You know what I mean. I was just there, and I was doing—I saw it as, like, a job, really. You know, I was just going there because I've worked—like, in pool, I've worked with, you know, some famous people, and it just, you know, it's just—I don't know. You just have to kind of get past that. So, but I had a few times.

It was funny because there was one time when I was on the set of a movie, and I forget the name of the movie. It just came out recently. It was with Jake Gyllenhaal, about a wolf. He was, like, a banker, and he goes into, like, a midlife crisis or something. It's, like, literally just came out, like, maybe a year ago or less than a year ago.

So, I was on the set, and I was, you know, just an extra. I get there, and one of the security guys—one of the local security officers—recognized me. So, he started—I didn't know it, but you know, we talked for, like, five minutes, and then all of a sudden, I get to, like, where we're just kind of hanging around where the food is and we're all waiting—all the directors are—the director and the producer and all that, and everyone starts coming up to me. And it was just funny because we were in the dining hall where we were eating, and Jake Gyllenhaal was there, and I think there was another one, like the co-star was there. And everyone was coming up to me. I just felt that—I thought that that was really funny because here's this, like, big star, and I'm in the extra, and they're all coming up to me going, “Oh, hey!” And I'm doing pictures, and, you know, it was just—it was kind of funny.

Shane

Jake's giving you the eye across the room, going, “Who is this guy?”

Andy Segal

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I really—well, I didn't know him. I mean, I did. I did say “hello” to him at one point, you know, but it wasn't—like, we didn't chat. It was just like, “Hey,” like that, you know. But I don't know if he was looking, or—I mean, honestly, if it was me, I would have been just into what I was doing, like working with the director, figuring out what the next scene is, whatever. I'm sure he was just doing that, but whatever. It was just—it was fun. I just felt that I was like—when I was driving home, I didn't even realize it until then, and I started laughing to myself in the car. I said, “Jesus, it was like I was the main guy. He was, like, nobody. He was, like, the extra there.” It was just—I don’t know. It was just funny.

Shane

I've had a pool table in my house for a long time, and I’ve played thousands of games of pool with hundreds of people, ranging from god-awful to really freaking good, but I haven't ever come across anyone who did trick shots at any level of competency. Rather, they were, you know, just starting out practicing. Where are they hiding? How big is the trick-shot community, and where might someone go in their city to find someone who does that?

Andy Segal

Trick shots is a small world. You know, there are a lot of pool players who get hired out to do shows, who do trick shots. Okay? I don't consider them trick-shot artists. I would consider them people who do trick shots. I mean, there's a lot of top pool players who can do 10, 15 trick shots, and I've certainly had a few over at my house, and I taught them so they can go and do a show. If they had to do a trick-shot show for two hours, they can't.

If you want to find a trick shot player, you know there are some web—you know, there are a couple of websites you can search—artistic pool trick shot tournaments, or you can just type in someone's name if you happen to see someone on TV. Usually, that'll do it. That's another nice thing about pool. They're spread out across the United States. You know, I mean, there's a lot concentrated in the Northeast. In Mid-Atlantic, there's a few, and then, once you start getting—once you start going west, there’s, you know, maybe two or three. And on the West Coast—Vegas area, San Diego, LA. And then, come a little inland, and you have some, you know, in Michigan. There’s a couple in Michigan. You know, they're, like, just spread out.

Shane

Sort of a side topic, but, Andy, I need you to settle this eternal bar argument for everyone, once and for all.

Andy Segal

All right. Let's do it.

Shane

This is for all the listeners out there. If you're playing eight-ball and you scratch on the break, do you automatically lose, or is it ball behind the line? What's the official rule there?

Andy Segal

Okay, so here's the deal. You ready? All right. The first thing I want to say is everyone has different rules. Okay. The nice thing—the amateur pool leagues have standardized the rules, but that doesn't stop you from having, you know, a local bar have their own rules. So, if you walk into a bar and you scratch on the break—I'm sorry, you said make the eight and scratch on the break?

Shane

No, no, just scratch, just scratch.

Andy Segal

Okay, you scratch on the break. So, you're asking whether you lose or whether you take ball and hand behind the line?

Shane

Right.

Andy Segal

Okay, every place is going to have their own rule. So, if you walk in and they will swear that that's the rule, okay, fine. That's their rule, but that's not, like, the nationally accepted rule, like if you go into the amateur league or whatever. The nationally accepted rule and the way we play on the pro tour is: If you scratch on the break, it's ball and hand behind the line. Okay? Any other time you scratch, it's ball and hand anywhere on the table, not behind the line. I mean, it could be behind the line, but it could be anywhere. Okay?

Shane

I'm going to be so cocky in bars from now on about knowing the definitive answer to that question.

Andy Segal

You know what I want to do is I have to see if I have any extra—because when I sold my amateur league, uh, in 2013, so about three years ago. If I have any extra rule books, I'm going to send you one of those rule books, and you could take a look at what their rules are. And this is the biggest league in the world. There's, I think, probably between 250,000 and 300,000 players between the United States, Canada, and Japan, so this is the most nationally recognized rule book out there. I'll send that to you.

Shane

Awesome, I would appreciate that very much. Have you ever hustled anyone?

Andy Segal

Oh, yeah. I have to admit. [Laughs].

Shane

Which hustle did you use on them?

Andy Segal

Really, the only one has been—you know, you just play so-so, and then you play a little better. But, I mean, look, when I was in college is really when I did that a few times, and after I got out of college, I didn't really do it, maybe once I did it. You know, I think there was one time when I was in Queens. I’d just gotten out of college, and it was a friend of mine, but he was a local.

So, you know, I came back from school, from Pittsburgh, and we're now in New York or Queens. I’m playing my friend, and he said there's a guy who comes here. So, I'm playing with him, and he's beating me, and then he quits. And this guy who walked in, you know, like two hours later he asked me to play, and I ended up just playing him and winning. So, I really didn't play badly against him. I played badly against my friend while he was watching, which is really what I did. Um, that was probably one of the last times I ever did that. Yeah, you know, what do you win? You win $70-80, um, but then, you know, the problem with hustling is, you know, look, if somebody loses, they lose, but if you feel like you got taken, you're mad, and I don't like to make people mad, so I just kind of got out of that.

Shane

One of the recurring themes that's popping up in these interviews I'm doing is the diversity of skill sets that most of the people I'm interviewing seem to have. So there seems to be something about creative types where their creativity is not relegated to a singular outlet. So, I know, aside from the pool and acting, you do the close-up magic. I think your bio said that you train in MMA. You're a golfer. Are you intentionally trying to be a Renaissance man and live a really balanced life, or what's going on there?

Andy Segal

Well, the MMA I got into. Yeah, I mean, I like to do a lot of things, and you know what? I like to do a lot of things well, so I don't—when I started taking—like, for example, when I started taking up golf, I was afraid to because I knew that if I took up golf I would just go 150 percent, and I wouldn't stop until I was shooting par. And, obviously, I'm not shooting par because I would be playing golf on the pro tour, but, you know, the first summer that I took up golf, I probably played—you know, because I had the league—the amateur league—my days were free, um, so I played golf like four days a week, you know, and I got better. I mean, I was shooting 130, and I was down to like 95 in, like, one summer, my first summer, you know.

And then the martial arts is really just to get in shape. My daughter decided she wanted to do it, and then they kind of roped me in, and I did that when I was a kid. So, I got back into it. The only problem is, like, you know, your back, your neck. So now I'm just—I don't really do the martial arts anymore. I belong to a gym, so I just do that.

But something else that you may not know is I was a math student when I was in college, and what I decided to do—now that I've sold my pool league—I've decided to go back to school to become a math teacher. So, I'm in the middle of that right now, so I do have that like a side skill, I guess, of math and teaching. And the teaching comes from billiards because I've played billiards all my life, and I love working with people and performing. Trust me, it helps a great deal when you're trying to stand up in front of a class of 20–30 people. So that's what I'm in the middle of doing now.

Shane

I know that billiards is all geometry. Is there any thinking about the actual math of it, or is it all just sort of visualizing when you're at a table?

Andy Segal

Uh, you know, it's funny you ask that because that's the most common misconception, I think, out there when it comes to billiards and especially trick shots. You know, really, it's not. I mean, I actually did a show about a month, a month and a half ago for the PGA at a golf event—the Valspar Championship in Florida—and I was in the locker room with all the players. They're just filtering through as they finish up their practice rounds, and I'm playing with them, doing trick shots, and I got a couple of questions like, “Is it all geometry? Is it geometry? Do you think about this?” And, you know, you give different answers to those guys than you do to a corporate crowd.

So, I looked at one of the players. I don't remember—I think it was Graeme McDowell who asked me this. I looked at him, and I said, “Let me ask you this: Is golf all physics? Do you think about the speed of the ball, and the arc, and where it's going to land?” He goes, “No, I just know when I hit this, it's going to land here.” I said, “Well, that's what I do.” I said, “I don't think about any of that geometry. I just go and do it, and I know that if I hit it like this, it's going to react like this. If I hit it like this, it’s going to react like this.” And, yeah, of course, if you break it down into the nitty-gritty, there's probably physics and geometry, but I don't—you know, I don't think about it.

Shane

There's a saying that those who can't do, teach. So, a lot of times when we see people who are teaching a subject—whether it's music or sports or whatever—they're past the point of being able to do it themselves, but they still enjoy the subject, and they just want to be immersed in it so that they pass it on to the next generation. But that isn't the case with you. As far as pool goes, you're still very much in your prime. You know, you're the reigning U.S. Open champion, so the idea of “those who can't do” doesn't really apply to you.

One of the reasons that I wanted to get you on the show and talk to you is because you seem to have a passion for teaching, and this podcast that we're doing is an educational platform. So, I'm curious. You know, there's a lot of people out there who are content to go do their thing and just be awesome at it, and then call it a day and go home, bask in the fame and fortune, or whatever. But you've written a book, you give lessons, you do tutorial videos, and you seem really inclined to pass along your knowledge, and now I learn that you're studying to go back and teach math, even though you're still at the top of the game. I'm just curious where that all comes from.

Andy Segal

You know, I think I really, really enjoy helping people, and I don't know where that comes from.

I mean, my stepdad—I consider him my dad. I haven't called him my stepdad in a long time. My dad—he was a teacher. My mother was—she worked in a hospital, so she helped people, and then she went back to school, did a career change, and then became a teacher. I don't know. I just really like helping people. I like passing on my knowledge. I mean, when I have something that I know, I just really enjoy showing someone else how to do it and helping them do it.

And, you know, teaching billiards—it was a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. I mean, I do an annual clinic down at the University of Delaware. You know, when I decided, “What can I do? What else can I do?” You know, because I want to have another—I want to have a job that takes up time. You know, I don't like sitting at home all day and also want to, you know, help out my family. Plus, my daughter is going to be going to college soon. Going back into teaching—it was like a no-brainer. It was like, “Oh, of course. It just makes sense.” It makes sense that I belong there. And math—I mean, math is really the only subject that I have a chance at teaching. I'm lucky if I could spell cat if you gave me the “k” and the “t.” So, you know, I'm looking at math.

Shane

There are two “t's,” Andy.

Andy Segal

Oh, there are two “t's.” You see, that's the problem. See? But anyway. So, like, math was the natural thing. Honestly, I was studying to be a broker. And then I said, “Ah, you know, I'm not a salesman,” and then maybe an actuary. I'm like, “Well, I don't want to sit in an office for 12 hours a day.” And then, once teaching came up, I started tutoring at a center for, like, the SAT, and all of a sudden, it clicked. I was like, “Oh, teacher. That's where I belong, and that's it.” And I'm doing it, and I talked to my wife, obviously, but the decision came up and it was like, “Of course,” and that's what I'm doing. So, I'm halfway through.

Shane

Besides Mike Massey, who are some other guys that helped you and that you learned from?

Andy Segal

Well, there's a guy, Tom Rossman, and I did—I forgot to mention him. He was another one that got me involved in trick shots. I'll do a funny story about Mike Massey that I'll tell you. So Tom Rossman really got me into the tournaments, but Mike Massey was more of my—I don't want to say mentor. He was more of a role model for me. I was striving to become him, to reach him, and, you know, so that was really my driving force—that I was trying to get to that point. I don't really think—I mean, when I was first starting out, there was nobody else, but back—I would say—in 2009, 2010, like, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, at that time, there were a lot of—I had a couple of close friends who were very, very good trick shot artists.

One of them was named Bruce Barthelette, from Massachusetts. He was—I mean, you know, I don't want to compare levels. I mean, I was doing a little better than he was. He was still a great player. He was on ESPN a number of times as teammates and competitors. This guy named Jamey Gray, who, again—he shot out very quickly, a very, very good player. We had a number of very, very close and good matches, some on TV, couple of the finals on ESPN. They really pushed me to become better because they were coming up so fast. If I didn't become better, I was going to become third instead of first, and I knew it, so they pushed me to become better.

And, you know, because we were such good friends, we'd practice together, and we shared information, and it's always good to share information because then you don't get lazy. You know, if I didn't share information, I'd get lazy. And then you get content with the shots you have. Unfortunately, that's what I believe happened with Mike Massey. Of course, he was getting older to put the time in, but he kind of got content with his set of shots, and everyone started getting better and better at his set of shots. So, he wasn't, you know, getting us on those shots, you know, getting points on those shots, because he would make them, we would make them, but then the new shots we would make him, he would miss them. And that's really what happened with him and a couple other players from that era, and I'm trying not to let that happen to me.

Shane

You said you had an interesting Mike Massey story.

Andy Segal

Yeah, yeah. This is when I first met Mike Massey. I didn't know him. I was at a tournament called the Akron Open at Starchers in Akron, Ohio. I was in college—about, maybe, two, three hours from my college. So, we went down there, and all the top professionals were there from that era. Just a couple of names—Earl Strickland, Jose Parica, Mike Massey—you know, all those guys. Nick Varner. Anyway, all the idols of nine-ball players. So, I went there, and I played.

So, I saw Mike Massey there, and I knew he did trick shots. So, I went up to him, and I said, “Hey, Mike, my name is Andy. How are you doing? Can you do a trick shot for me?” And, you know, he was free. He goes, “Oh, you know, I'm a little busy right now. There’s no tables available, but let me do a card trick for you.” So, he pulls out this deck of cards, and I immediately recognized that deck of cards as, like, a trick deck. I knew what trick he was going to do, and it just so happened that I had the same deck in my pocket.

So, I pulled out my deck and go, “Oh, do you mean this deck of cards?” And we started laughing, and after that, we just became friends. I mean, not like we saw each other every day, but, you know, we saw each other at tournaments. We chatted about magic. We did magic. Then we started exchanging trick shots because I was experimenting and I came up with some ideas, and then he showed me some, and it just went from there. It was just a very funny story that we just happened to have the same deck of cards on us.

Shane

How is trick-shot pool a useful sales pitch, a training, or a teaching thing for corporate events?

Andy Segal

Oh, holy cow! I've done so many of those, and, I mean, the response you get because it's such a unique act when you go to these corporate events and you walk around these trade shows. All right, let's see. Oh, there's a juggler. Oh, wait, there's seven more back there. Oh, there's a magician. Oh, there's 25 more back there. There's a face painter. Okay, yep, yep, there's a face painter there. There's like a million of everything.

With pool, there’s one, okay? So, I did a show, and you also have to be able to draw the people in, and, you know, I perform. I mean, I used to do magic, and you get better at it, so I can really rope people into a booth. And when—you know, I did one for this company called Lincoln Financial Group. They're a big financial company, and it was at the Raymond James convention in Las Vegas. And, you know, I'm doing my pool shows, and I have like 70, 80, 90 people standing around this booth. It's like four- or five-deep watching. And as soon as the show kind of breaks up, I look around at the floor, and it's just—there's nobody at any other booth. There's just walk-arounds, you know. So, like, we were the only ones that had a crowd, and it was—you know, it’s nice, and, like I said, it's because it's a unique talent that you just don't see it every day.

Shane

Are there sort of universal principles that you can teach people using pool as a medium?

Andy Segal

You know, yeah, I think you can, but you have to be careful because pool is such a specialized talent. There's not a lot of people that have the skills necessary to do that, but, you know, there is math that you can teach with that, believe it or not. And the people at the college that I'm going to—they have this conference every year, a conference for potential math teachers. You know, there's one for high school kids and one for college kids, and they actually asked me to speak at it for an hour for each conference, where I'm going to go and do maybe like a 10-minute demo of some trick shots and then do a PowerPoint lecture on where's the math involved in each of those trick shots.

This is at Queens College, near where I live. I'm going to be doing this in, like, October or November, and, you know, it's very interesting because there are shots that involve heavy math, like you said geometry or physics or something. We can relate all of that to pool, and you could teach the math by demoing the pool and getting the students engaged and enjoying themselves, and them saying, “Oh, yeah.”

Shane

And making the math come alive.

Andy Segal

Yeah, exactly. You just hit the nail on the head. You want to make the math fun for them, so they're going to see something that they've seen on TV or something that's really cool, and then say, “Oh, yeah. There is math in that.” I mean, there’s math in everything, you know. It’s very interesting. So, I'm going to be doing that, and hopefully, we'll get someone to take a little video of it. We'll see.

Shane

How much time do you personally spend practicing every day?

Andy Segal

Oh, not as much as I should. I think, before a tournament, I'll spend a lot of time practicing, kind of like cramming for an exam. You know, I know I can—like, I have the world championship coming up in October. That's going to be in Montreal. I'll be practicing for that.

I'll probably start practicing now because it's really hard to come up with brand-new shots at the last minute. So, you know, that has to be an ongoing thing. That's actually how I won the US Open. I started practicing early, like maybe four months early, came up with a couple of new shots, and then—there were only, like, maybe two that I came up with, but over four months, I got really, really good at them. So, in the tournament, I was able to use them well.

When you come up with something at the last minute, it's like, you know, you shoot in a tournament, maybe you'll make it, maybe you won't, you know. But I would say before a tournament, I'll probably try and do an average of about 20 hours per week. It's not really per day, you know. One day I could do eight; one day I won’t do any. But probably about 20 hours a week, and that's usually consisting of, you know, coming home during the week, at night, on the weekends, maybe in the morning, and the nice thing is that—you know, what I try and do is I try and practice at different times—practice when I'm tired, practice when I'm hungry. If I don't feel well or have a headache, you know what? Let's go practice because maybe I'll have a headache during the day of the tournament. You know, just stuff like that.

Shane

How long does it take you, once you come up with a new shot, until you feel comfortable with breaking it out in a competition?

Andy Segal

I would say usually a brand-new shot will take about—maybe between 5 and 10 hours of solid practice to get good at it. Now, that doesn't seem like a lot, but if you think about doing it straight, that's a lot. Doing 5 or 10—let's say 10 hours of one shot—figure, it takes you a minute to set up and perform. You're talking about 60 attempts in an hour. That's 600 attempts at the shot. That's a lot, and you're not going to do that. So, I'm going to be practicing all the shots. So, if you think about it, really, maybe I'll spend 20 minutes on the shot, but that's only a third of an hour. So, you're talking about 30 practice sessions now. So that could be spread out over two, three months—30 practice sessions. So, it does take a while to get good at a shot. It takes a while, and it depends on the shot.

You know, most shots that I come up with tend to use the same skill set that I have. I'm just rearranging it in a different way. So, I'm already good at it, and now I just have to coordinate it and choreograph it—stuff like that. The shots that are really groundbreaking are ones that come up with new skills, and I've certainly had my share of those. I'm actually on the wrong end of a couple of those now because someone else is coming up with a few brand-new skills. When I was coming up and the current era of players like the Mike Masseys and the Tom Rossmans were at the top of their game, I was coming up with new shots like, for example, I came up with—we jump a cue ball. I was the first one to come up with a shot where you jump two cue balls at the same time, holding two cue sticks. Nobody can make that shot.

So, for like one or two tournaments, I had something in a bag that I could pull out and be guaranteed to gain a point on somebody, whereas now that skill—you know, there's no point because everyone can do it. So, I've had a few times where I've come up with new skills like that, and it really does wonders. When you go to a tournament, it's like, “Oh, this is easy.” I just pull out the shot, and boom, I win the match, you know. But now there's another guy who—now I haven't seen anybody else come up with new shots until this one guy—this guy named Florian Kohler—great, great player. He's also played on TV. His nickname is Venom.

He's done a lot of stuff on the internet, and he's very popular on YouTube. He’s been coming up with some new concepts where—I don't feel familiar with a massé shot. That's when you shoot down the ball, and the cue ball goes out for a while and then curves. He's been doing shots with multiple cues. So, he's masséing two, three cue balls at a time, holding three cues. That's a difficult shot because it's new. So, I'm just getting up to speed now with the two cues, but now he's come up with a three-cue one, so I'm a little behind. So, I have to come up to speed with that. I don't think he's going to come up with four, because I think he's going to run out of fingers. But the point is that he's coming up with new shots, new concepts, which makes it difficult to beat him.

Shane

You actually preempted my next question here, and, I mean, that was exactly it. I know there's a ton of tricks where it seems like the technique required to pull off the shot is basically the same, rather you use a ton of draw or you hit a certain jump, and then what happens after the initial contact is just a matter of what props are lying around or how things are configured on the table.

Andy Segal

Yeah, and the combination. The sequencing of the shot is really important. You know, there's one shot where I have a rack swinging back and forth. I call it the pendulum shot. I mean, it's been on TV, and I've had it on videos on my website. I make a big teepee, and then I have a rack hanging from a string, and then I swing it. It swings like a pendulum back and forth, and every time it passes, I have to jump a ball through it. I jump six balls, eight balls, whatever it is, probably six.

When I first came out with that shot, nobody could make it, and still people are having trouble making it. It's not because they can't jump; it's because they can't time it right. So, it's the sequencing of the shot. It's the jump in connection with a rack that's moving from right to left at very high speed. You have to get it through, so you have to know the timing of it.

And then I came up with another shot where—similar shots where—you know, there’s a jump, and then you have to swipe a ball left, and then you have to walk over here. It’s the sequencing where sometimes people get messed up on that. And that's where, you know, okay, yes, the shot is very easy if you put in, say, an hour of practice on it. But at a tournament, they don't have an hour, so it'll work. But then for the next tournament, it'll work for most people, except the ones that are dedicated enough to remember and say, “Oh, I better practice this because Andy's going to pull this out against me.” So, you have to pick and choose, but that's really what it is. It's the sequencing of a shot that sometimes will fool a player.

Shane

I know in the NBA, if you shoot 90% from the free throw line, you're considered one of the best free throw shooters. If you practice one of your new shots 600 times, like you said, what is a successful make percentage for that shot?

Andy Segal

I would say probably a successful make percentage for a shot, in my opinion, is probably in the 76—maybe, I'd say, maybe 60%, maybe that, maybe 60, 70%. Because if you think about it, you know on TV you get two tries, and in a competition, you get three tries. So, if you think about it like a 50% shot with two tries, you're going to make 75% of the time. So there, I'm putting a little math into it. If you have a 60% shot and you try it three times, the chances that you're going to make it are, like, just about 80%, because the miss is 21%, so the make is 79%. So, you know, if you have a shot that you're going to make 80% of the time, I think that's a good—that's good odds for you. So, I'd say probably 60% with three tries. I'd say probably 60%—with two tries, it's a little tricky because it's a little harder. I mean, I would say you need a little bit more percentage. I'd say you probably need, yeah, probably like 70% with two tries, because with 70%, that's like a 90% make percentage with two tries, I think.

Shane

How do you come up with new trick shots? Do you ever have brainstorming sessions, or do you sketch stuff up on a napkin if you're out at the restaurant? Do you dedicate any time to it?

Andy Segal

Well, when I come up with new trick shots, well, there's the joke answer, and there's a real answer. Okay, but believe it or not, they're related. The joke answer is, you know, I hear voices, and I need a translator because they speak to me in Russian. You know, like that, that's what I usually tell people, okay, but the real answer is, really, it's really not far from that. I mean, I don't hear voices, obviously, right?

But what happens is I kind of—you know, I usually have, like, a pad around with me. When I'm in school, I'll have, you know, a blank pad. Or, you know, if I'm lying in bed, there's a pad on the nightstand, or, you know, sometimes in my car, and if I just think of an idea, any idea, I'll just jot it down. And if I don't have a pad, I'll just write an email on my phone and send it to myself for later. And, you know, I was at a show—a magic show—in the city. A friend of mine performs something, and one of the magicians just did a magic trick, and I just got an idea. I got an idea for a joke, okay, and that joke led to a shot.

And so, I just texted myself the joke and an idea, and when I got home, I worked on it, and I came up with it. And, you know, it works great, and it's not a shot for a competition. It's a shot for a show because it's more of a comedy thing. But, you know, that's really how I do it. I just jot down an idea, and I'll be honest with you, usually when I get an idea and I email it to myself, I'll go down to the basement. I'll play around with it for a while. I'd say less than 25% of the time I'll come out with a shot that's like that. Sometimes, I'll just get into it, and I'll start messing around with other things, and then I'll come up with a different shot. But the idea that I had, I'd say less than 25% of the time it actually works because you're thinking about it and then something goes wrong at the end, you know.

Shane

What are a couple shots you've come up with that you're the most proud of?

Andy Segal

I think one of the shots that I've come up with that I'm most proud of is—there's a shot called the easy button shot. I use a Staples Easy Button. On my website, it's called the Easy Button Shot. It's a shot where I have a line of balls down the center of the table, and I'm shooting the cue ball around three cushions, and I keep going around, and then as it comes back around, I shoot it again, and as it comes back around, I shoot it again.

So, I'm kind of keeping it in continuous motion and kind of in a circular form going around the table, and every time I hit the cue ball, I have to go and shoot a few balls into a pocket. So, I hit the cue ball, then shoot a few balls into a pocket that's crossing the path of the cue ball, and then I hit the cue ball again, then I shoot some more balls into a pocket, and eventually all the balls—all 15 balls that are lined up down the center of the table—have been sunk, and then the cue ball comes around and ends up going into a pocket as well. So that one I usually close all my shows with because it gets the crowd going. They're clapping, you know. There’s a rhythm. So that's one, and I would say there's another shot that I'm kind of known for. That's the one where the rack swings back and forth, and I'm shooting through the moving rack.

Shane

What's a shot that you've seen that you wish you would have thought of?

Andy Segal

That's a good question. Yeah, you know, it's hard to say. It's really hard to say because, you know, we use all of our other shots. It's not like with a songwriter. I think that, you know, you write a song, and I really—I can sing it if I want to, but I can't sing it for profit until, I think, the copyright runs out, I believe. Isn’t that the way it works? Something like that.

Shane

Yeah, or you license it.

Andy Segal

Yeah, but in trick shots, it's really not like that. If I come up with a shot and then I see someone else doing it the next—okay, so here. I may go to a tournament with a brand-new shot, and so I shoot it in, say, one of my rounds, and then someone else sees the shot, and then I see them shooting the shot in a later match because they practiced it on the side and they got a little good at it, so they tried it. I feel good about that. I love that because it's just—you know, it's flattering.

I see these videos online all the time of people doing trick shots, and, I mean, they're not trick shot artists. They're just people who play pool, and they probably have a camera running for, like, a year, and they compile, you know. “Oh, look. I made the shot once out of, like, you know, 8500 times,” but they put it all in their video. They look great, but I see those, and sometimes you see them, and half the shots are my shots, and you get flattered by that. So, I don't really—in trick shots, it's weird. It doesn't matter who invents a shot. I think it matters who makes the shot known, really. That’s who gets remembered for that shot. I think that's really the way it works. So, honestly, I don't really have an answer for that, because there really isn't any, because every shot that someone else comes up with, if I like it, if it's my style, I'll use it, or maybe I'll modify it to make it my style and use it, and nobody really cares.

Shane

Well, I mean, that actually is a good answer. It's the answer to the next question. One of my good college buddies—he's a professional magician. And we were talking about how, in music, if you write a song and somebody covers it, it's a big compliment. However, in comedy, it's the opposite. If you do a joke and somebody else copies it, they're a joke stealer, and it's the worst thing that you can be. And we were talking about how tricks, or effects, or illusions—you know, what do you feel if somebody takes your thing? And, I mean, he likes it because he's got a set of instructional DVDs. Yeah, so that's interesting that you guys all freely borrow from each other, and it's—I mean, I guess that's the evolution: Someone comes up with something, and then everyone sort of adopts it, and that's how the sport moves forward.

Andy Segal

Yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly how the sport moves forward because once everyone starts doing it and it's out there, once people start getting good—you know, the game is like Horse, like in basketball. Once someone starts getting good at a shot, there's no point in using it against him. And that's actually part of the strategy, and that's what people always compliment me on. And I hear, like, when I watch myself on TV, the announcers say the same thing: that my strength is being able to select shots against players and leave shots to use against other players.

Because on TV, you can’t—if you use a shot in a semi-final, you can't use it again in the final. In a regular tournament that's not televised, like the US Open we just had in March, I can pick eight shots in the semi-final and pick the exact same eight in the final. It doesn't matter. But on TV, the producer doesn't want repeated shots. So not only do you have to—like, if my semi-final opponent is you and my final opponent is somebody else—not only do I have to plan what shots I'm going to pick against you, but I have to plan that if I win, what shots am I going to leave for this guy, and what shots am I going to leave for his opponent, just in case he wins?

It's a very detailed tree of what to pick when because I'm saving shots for them, but I may be in a situation against you where you know what? I have to win the match, so I may have to pull the shot from them and throw it into your match in order to do that, which I certainly had to do a number of times. And then you do, but then maybe you run a little short on them. So, planning that and when you're coming up with shots to submit to the tournament because we can only submit, I think it's like 20 or 25 shots for the tournament because you only have two matches, so you only need, you know, 18, 20 shots. Coming up with those shots, you really have to plan because you're sending in these shots, and it's like, “Well, okay, if I play this guy first on my cover, if I play this guy second on my cover, if I play this guy first and then this guy second on my cover.” It's very complicated.

Shane

How many shots do you have in your arsenal?

Andy Segal

I would say I’ve probably forgotten more shots than I have in my arsenal right now. I have so many shots. I mean, when I wrote the book, that kind of took care of that problem. But, you know, with technology now, you know, I used to carry around these huge binders—two or three binders—and my back was hurting, and my shoulder was hurting, and you’d have to flip pages. But now with the iPads, it's like, I mean, I have, you know, thousands of shots sitting in my iPad. If someone pulls out a shot against me and I haven't seen it and I was like, “Oh, I remember that shot was done in 2007 in this tournament,” I just go to that tournament in the iPad.

As far as how many shots I have that I actively use, I would probably say that when I go to a tournament, I'm going to a tournament with probably a collection of between 30 and 40 shots, and that's it, okay? Some of them are old. Some of them are new. I just go with my best shots at the time. But as far as—now, that's active—but then the next tournament, I'll come up with a different set of 30, probably like 15 or 20 would be the same. But current shots—I mean, the last ESPN event I went to the tournament with, you know, 25 shots plus, maybe, like 10 of my opponent’s. So I figure 30 or 35. At the US Open, I had about 30-something active shots. You know, I’d say probably, like, between 1 and 200 that I feel comfortable picking from at any one point.

Shane

On a daily basis now, what is the biggest challenge to you in maintaining a top ranking as a professional?

Andy Segal

I would say the motivation to get down and practice. I think that's really what it is, because right now, you know, with school, with the schooling that I'm doing, you know, I'm busy. So, you know, while I do have the time to go down and practice, I'm tired. You know, I get home from class at, say, five o'clock. It's like I want to sit on the couch. I don't want to go practice. I'm tired. I think that's probably the biggest thing, but, you know, as I get closer to a tournament, that motivation starts kicking in, and then I start making the time. You know, I'll get up at seven o'clock and practice for an hour, and then go to the school or whatever, and then I'll come home, and I'll practice for a few hours. I think that's really what it is: the motivation to get down and practice.

Shane

What advice do you have for people who tell you they want to pursue a career in billiards?

Andy Segal

Well, okay, there's not a whole lot of money in billiards, okay? Where you make the money—you make the money doing exhibitions. Tournaments are very risky because there's not that much money in tournaments. First place, second place, third place—you're making money. Fourth place—you may not be making money, you know, unless you're local, and then you'll make a little money. But then, fifth place—you probably won't. You know, because once you add the hotel and the entry fee and the flight and the food and all that, you're really not. The tournament is really a way for you to just get the competitive juices flowing. And where I'm at, I can safely say that I'm going to make money at almost every event because I'm going to finish in the top, but it's really the exhibition, and there's not that much money.

So I would say to anybody, “Just be careful because if you're considering doing pool as a full-time job, maybe consider it as a part-time job and do something else.” And that's what I did. I never had that as my full-time only job. I did it while I was working on Wall Street. I did it while I had a pool league. So I was running the pool league, and I had money coming in. Now I'm doing it, and I have a trophy business. Once I sold my league, I started up a little trophy business. I'm not really advertising it that much. I have a few friends that are still in the pool league business—pool league world—and I'm servicing them. I got a couple of other clients—not much. So I have more money coming in. You’re not going to make a living playing pool. You'll make a living in the billiard world, and you can be playing pool on the side and supplement, but I would say it's not going to be a full-time job to anybody.

Shane

So you’ve got to have business savvy to go along with your skills on the table.

Andy Segal

You have to do something else. I mean, even if it's not in the billiard world, even if you're just working and you do this on the side, I mean, you can get very good at billiards—at pool—and have a full-time job. That’s what I did. I worked, and then I played four hours at night. And then on the weekend, I went, and I played for 10 hours one of the days. So that's what I did. I did that for eight years. When you do that for eight years, you're going to get very good. I mean, there's also mental things in there as well. You have to be driven. You have to be motivated, but you're probably going to get better. That's really what it is. You're not going to make a living just playing pool.

There's another guy that I know. This guy, Tony Robles, from the city, and he tried to make a living just playing pool. He was getting by, but he wasn't—I don't know if he was making a really—I mean, I can't say for sure, but what else was he doing? But he was giving lessons. So giving lessons—I don't consider that playing pool. I consider that doing something else. He's teaching.

Yes, it's in the billiard world, but he's not making money playing pool at that point. He's making money teaching. So he was making money, so he was getting by, and he was doing well, and that's great. And now he's running a pool league. He started up his own pool league, which is great, which is very hard to do. So he did a great job. Him and his wife, Gail—they're great people. They started up a pool league in the city. I believe it's an independent league. I don't think it's affiliated with any national organization, but I could be mistaken, and so that's bringing in money. So, yes, he's playing pool, and I would say that, you know, what do you do for a living? I'm a professional pool player. That's a perfect answer. But he runs a billiard league. He gives lessons, so there's money coming in like that. Does that make sense?

Shane

Yep, gotcha. That is the end—well, I’ve still got my final 14 questions here for you, but that's the end of all the other scripted questions. And I was just wondering—I know you do a lot of teaching stuff and coaching stuff. Do you have any final parting thoughts? Anything that you typically pass on to an audience?

Andy Segal

You mean when I'm performing?

Shane

Mm-hmm.

Andy Segal

When I'm performing, I like to pass on—I like to give them my energy. You know, I come in with a lot of positive energy. I'm smiling, and my wife always says that I'm two completely different people because when I'm performing and when I'm at home, I’m 100% different, 180 degrees. But I'm sure a lot of people have that story. But I like to give them my energy. You know, I want them to walk away in a good mood. I want them to walk away feeling like they want more, and I think that's important for any performer to do. You don't want to overstay your welcome, if you know what I mean. Don't do one too many tricks. That kind of thing.

You know, I want them to be happy. That's really what I want to do. I want them to know that I love the game, and I want them to love what they just saw as much as they think I love the game. And I'm bringing that skill to my teaching as well. And it's funny because I was just in a meeting with a professor of mine last week, and she said the exact same thing about math. She said when you teach math, you need to love the kids and love the math. And as soon as I heard her say that, I'm thinking to myself, “That's exactly how I feel with pool.” I love the audience, and I love billiards, and that's what I want them to walk away with.

Shane

So this brings us to our final round of questions. We’ll go through these pretty quickly. If your job only paid the bills and not a penny more, would you still continue to do it?

Andy Segal

Pool playing?

Shane

Pool playing. Yeah.

Andy Segal

If my job only paid the bills and nothing more, the answer is yes.

Shane

Just for love of the game.

Andy Segal

The love of the game, yeah. I mean, like I said, the performing will help pay the bills. It won't do it 100 percent. Tournaments will not pay the bills. So the tournaments I'm doing because I love to. You know, it's like a drug. Competition, to me, is like a drug. I need it, you know, so that's why I do it.

Shane

What talent or skill do you not have that you wish you did?

Andy Segal

You know, when I started doing acting, when I started going on auditions, I think that I would have liked to have had that skill. You know, you look at it from the outside, and it doesn't look that hard, but when you start trying it, it's incredibly hard, and a lot of people don't know that. And when I went on a few auditions, I realized that, and I made a few tapes for auditions, and then I watched them. I'm like, “Oh, my God. What is that?” You know?

I think I would have enjoyed that because—not when I was first coming up, not when I first got out of school. I didn't have the performer gene in me at the time. But now, I find that now that I've been performing for a long time with pool and I've gotten good at it, I think that acting would have been a nice—it would have been a good job for me because I would have been good at it. I just never put in—I never had the education behind it. So I would have liked to have had that.

Shane

Fill in the blank. I'm a success if I _____.

Andy Segal

I'm a success if I think success depends more on family and respect than my achievements. You know, people respect me for that, but I don't think that's what deserves respect. I would say that respect for me is that I have a great family. I love them. They love me. I have a great circle of friends, and that's what I wish on everybody. That's what I want to be respected for.

Shane

And, conversely, I am a failure if I _____.

Andy Segal

I'm a failure if I don't treat people well. I'm a failure if I don't respect people. That's it. I can't even turn the other thing around as far as with respect and say, “I'm a failure if people don't respect me,” because that's out of my control. And why sweat the stuff out of your control? Just change what you can.

Shane

What's the single best piece of advice that you followed to get where you are today?

Andy Segal

The best piece of advice I would say is to love what you do and treat everyone the way you'd want to be treated. And the last thing I would say is don't sweat the small stuff. If it's out of your control, don't worry about it. Just go on. Make it work. And someone actually—I did an interview with CBS Sports. They had a show called Player Style Files, and they had asked me what song do I best identify with personally, not necessarily in the pool world, but personally. And the song I selected was Bobby McFerrin's “Don't Worry, Be Happy,” because who cares? Just don't worry about it. Just enjoy yourself. If something goes wrong, you'll make it work.

Shane

What's a piece of well-intentioned advice you are glad you ignored to get where you are today?

Andy Segal

That's a good one. So well-intentioned advice that I ignored. I've definitely had people tell me that I shouldn't do—you shouldn't do this, you know, stay in the computer world, the IT world. Not my parents, not my close family; obviously, I took their advice. But I've had people say—they were giving me advice like, “Well, if you do this, you're going to make less money. Are you sure you're going to be able to make it work?” I'm really glad that I didn't do that because I think that time is much more valuable than money, and once I started doing pool, I was making less. I was making over a hundred grand on Wall Street. I'm making less, but my time is my own now, and I love it. And going back into teaching—I think time will partly be my own because you get out early. You have summers off. I mean, it's going to be a lot of work, but I think that's probably one of the things that I'm glad I didn't listen to.

Shane

What character trait do you like best about yourself?

Andy Segal

I think I'm very outgoing, and I'm a people person. I think people see that about me. When I'm in a room, if someone talks to me, I'm going to treat them like they've been my friend forever, even though maybe I don't even know them. I think that's a good thing because I want people to walk away—that goes back to the other question—I want people to walk away happy that they came up to talk to me, not: “Oh, yeah. He just said hello and brushed me off.” I don't like that. I think that's probably a really good trait to have: to make people feel like they've been your friend for years.

Shane

What character trait do you like least about yourself?

Andy Segal

This is going to sound weird, but this is completely the opposite of what I just said. When I'm not in a situation where I know a lot of people and I'm not in a billiard situation, so it's just something totally away from billiards, and I'm at, like, say, a party, where I don't really know too many people, I could just sit there for two hours and not say a word, just watch TV or sit with some people, listen to a conversation, and not say a word. I'm very quiet. And that's where my wife always says that I'm completely different. I'm two completely different people when I'm performing or in the billiard world and when I'm in my private life.

Shane

Fill in the blank. I believe every child should have the opportunity to _____.

Andy Segal

Succeed.

Shane

If you could suggest one piece of self-improvement that everyone on earth would adopt, what would it be?

Andy Segal

One piece of self-improvement. I would say to take responsibility for your own actions and don't rely on others to make your way in the world. Do it on your own.

Shane

All right, here's a fun one. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Andy Segal

Oh, you got a minute? Let's see. I'm going to go through this. I’m going through all the superheroes now, okay? Superman, yeah, that's a pretty good one. Aquaman don't have any. Okay, so let's see. I would probably say—I'd say I'd like to fly. How about that?

Shane

I'll take flight. I'm with you on that one. If you could have dinner with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be?

Andy Segal

Anyone, alive or dead. I would probably say my mom. My mom passed away, and I'd like to have another dinner with her, I think. I think that would be nice.

Shane

A hospitable nearby planet has been discovered, and you've been recruited to help colonize it. All your needs will be taken care of. The people you love will be there. You can take any three items with you that you wish. What are they?

Andy Segal

Any three items that I wish. Okay, so no family, because that's all with me. Pool—pool table. I'm assuming all the accessories go with it. Okay, so obviously that. I would bring my computer for games, and I would bring a deck of cards for magic.

Shane

All right, final one: You've just won a lifetime achievement award, and we want to hear your acceptance speech. There's not going to be any music to cue you or rush you off the stage, so you can get to all of the “thank yous” that you need to. And if there's any personal cause to champion, this is your soapbox, so let her rip.

Andy Segal

I'm going to just do it in groups. You know, the first people—obviously, I have to thank a lot of people, and the people that I would thank are professionally. I would thank those people, which would be Mike Massey, Tom Rossman. Obviously, the close people that are very close friends of mine: Bruce Barthelette, Jamey Gray, Dave Nangle, Nick Nikolaidis, Gabi Visoiu, Florian Kholer, Tim Chin, all the—I'm leaving out a ton, and I know it, and I apologize, but, you know, they're—I'm at the yellow light right now, so I have to keep it short, right?

I see these things sometimes. My wife watches them. Anyway, so I would thank all of the professional people that got me involved in and pushed me to get better. I would thank all the people at the American Poolplayers Association and APA League for helping me succeed in that and giving me a really nice six years of my life.

I would thank my parents and my immediate family. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law for supporting me. And obviously, I'm thanking my wife, Kim, and my daughter, Jessica, because they put up with me being away, me being in the basement, me not, you know, emptying the dishwasher, because I'm downstairs practicing and I forgot to do it—all that stuff. And they just put up with all of it, and they deserve the most because, without that support, I wouldn't even be close to where I was.

Shane

Well, Andy, you're officially off the hot seat.

Andy Segal

All right.

Shane

I sure appreciate you taking the time to do this.

Andy Segal

Yeah, thanks. I'm glad it went well. I'll send you that rule book. I'll send you one of my books too, if you want.

Shane

Heck yeah.

Andy Segal

Just shoot me your address.

Shane

Yeah, will do. Thank you very much.

Andy Segal

You're welcome.

Shane

And it was great talking to you. Take care.

Andy Segal

You too. Thanks. Take care, man. Bye-bye.

Shane

Once again, that was Pool and Trick Shot World Champion Andy Segal. For more information on performances and booking, please visit www.andysegal.com. I'd like to thank everyone for joining me today. You are listening to the Live2cre8 podcast, and this is Shane Almgren reminding you to dream big, be inspired, and live creatively.