The Flip Side

CANOGA PARK — If everything goes right, just before noon Sunday, Mandi Martin will own the record for consecutive hours of playing pinball--or at least the most numb flipper fingers around.

Martin, a Canoga Park singer and songwriter, is attempting to log 555 hours, 55 minutes and 55 seconds at a pinball machine in her home and earn a listing in the Guinness Book of Records. She began March 5, battling aliens with silver steel balls on an “Independence Day”--themed machine.

“When I finally leave my house, I’ll be eligible to go to the movies on a senior citizens discount,” Martin said Wednesday, three days after her 55th birthday, which she spent at the pinball machine.

The endeavor, which Martin says aims to raise awareness of various charitable organizations, has been equal parts physical and metaphysical.

After 20 straight hours or so of staying alert--with no caffeine, she says--Martin hypnotizes herself, hangs from ankle straps attached to a gurney-like contraption so she can continue to play with her eyes closed. She fires the flippers at the command of friends who monitor the game. She says the self-hypnosis puts her in a semiconscious state that allows her body and mind to relax.

“Tone of voice is very important,” she said, adding that she recognizes only a narrow list of commands from trusted friends. For example, Martin acts on the prompt of her friend, Nadiyah Davis, whose bootheel-thick Texas accent makes it sound as if she’s telling Martin to go “far away” when she tells her to “fire away.”

Davis is one of dozens of friends helping Martin by massaging her feet, rubbing her neck, combing her hair--and even feeding her. Friends from the music industry perform on the patio and in the living room to keep her awake. Guitarist Slash from Guns N’ Roses donated the pinball machine for the marathon.

Dulcimer players, guitarists and singers are one thing, but Martin provides her own comic relief.

“One of the better things is I’m 20 years older,” she says, referring to a stint of playing pinball that, she says, lasted 505 hours in 1979. “I don’t have to worry about PMS.”

And if no one laughs, Martin presses a button on a small console sitting on a tray alongside a bottle of water, glass of juice, cup of tea, a TV remote control and headset phone. Either a cartoon sound effect, laughter or an old-time car horn--that goes ah-ooh-gahr--will answer.

To ensure legitimacy, two witnesses who sign notarized daily logs watch her constantly. A number of her friends have volunteered to take shifts. Martin can accrue five minutes of sleep for every hour she plays. So she has trained herself to stay awake 24 hours at a time and nap for 1 1/2 hours.

The sounds of the game lost their attention-grabbing power days ago. When the voice of Will Smith shouts, “Look at you now!” onlookers turn to the scoreboard. Martin does not flinch.

Aside from setting a record and raising money for charity, the undertaking is helping Martin “get her groove back.”

“My husband passed away suddenly, and this is helping me get back to the old Mandi,” she said. “He was very proud of my [ability to play pinball].”

The old Mandi began writing songs for Sam Cooke as a teenager. Since then she has recorded her own albums and worked with other artists, including Al Jarreau and Eddie Money, and she has sat on the Los Angeles Chapter of the Recording Academy’s Board of Governors.

She is not accepting donations, but she provides links on her Web site at www.pinballchamp.com to organizations that she wants to draw attention to, including Haven Hills, a support agency for victims of domestic violence, and Little Heroes/The Chad Aitken Foundation, which supports families after a child’s death.