I sometimes provide written documents for TV shows and documentary films, and it is amazing how many hours they film, to include B rolls, just to get 13 minutes, as in this case, of video. I would venture to guess the "60 Minutes" crew filmed several hours and thereafter edited it to this brief 13-minute segment.
I thought the segment was brilliant. Jon Wertheim wrote a book about pool, "Running the Table," featuring Kid Delicious, which was supposed to be turned into a movie by Lions Gate, though Lions Gate dropped it land did not proceed with the movie. I met Wertheim in 2004 at the Glass City Open in Toledo where he was following Danny Basavich around and interviewing others about pool in general. He was working for "Sports Illustrated" at that time.
It was fun to see people we know on the "60 Minutes" segment "The South Dakota Kid," even though it was so brief. I saw Jay Helfert whispering to Alex Pagulayan on the rail, sweating a match, quite a few Filipino pool stars, Fedor, Joshua, Jayson, Karl Boyes, one of the Ko brothers, Van-Van, and many others at Derby City Classic. The tall guy gambling in the photo, that's Jean-Robert Bellande, a well-known poker player who goes to the DCC and gambles high as the Georgia pine and pays off in bitcoin, so I was told. That's LilJon behind him on the rail.
A little tidbit about the life of a professional pool player: "Shane Van Boening spends 300 days a year on the road playing professional pool." This should put the rumor to rest that so-and-so makes $100,000 in pool and it's doable because if the best player in the world says after taxes, it is less than six figures, that tells the story. Expenses and taxes are brutal in professional pool.
Finally, the truth comes out about how much money one can make in pool.
WERTHEIM: What can a top player make?
SHANE: A top player in pool can make only six figures. After expenses, maybe five figures.
WERTHEIM: No one is making a million bucks—
SHANE: No.
WERTHEIM: —as a pool player?
SHANE: That's never happened.
Who is the jerk-off in Tennessee that threw a cueball into young Shane's chest when he was on the road with his uncle? That's when Shane said no more gambling on the road. I get it. I had a gun pulled on me in Dalton, Georgia, when my counterpart was gambling on a bar box. It's legal to carry guns in Georgia—well, at least it was back in the '80s.
I thought he segment was great. Shane was perfect! Best line of the show. SHANE: "Jayson who?" Hahahahaha!
A few screenshots which need no labels. Y'all know who's who.
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