BOONE LIFE: A night out with Dr. Pong

Andrew Thomas, left, and Jay Gentry play a doubles game of pingpong April 24 at Mojo's Doctor Pong night. The next Doctor Pong night will be May 14.   ¦  SAIT SERKAN GURBUZ

"I love the sound of pingpong in the background,” Erik Morse said. “It was a welcome to find a pingpong table outside at the bar.” April 24's Doctor Pong night at Mojo’s in downtown Columbia offered Morse and a couple dozen others the opportunity to play pingpong inside or on the patio while enjoying the electronic music played by disk jockeys Nick Newlin and Chris Bahn. Each introduces himself as half of Dr. Pong.

Although Dr. Pong is the DJ name Newlin goes by, it is also the name of the concept. Newlin got the idea from Dr. Pong, a bar in Berlin. As a pingpong enthusiast, he was excited about playing the sport at a bar. Newlin was surprised to see only one table at the Berlin bar and fascinated to see people rotating every single hit at that one table. He describes it as “a round robin style pingpong game.” He took that idea of “communal pingpong” and merged it into the American bar context. On Doctor Pong nights, people get together at Mojo’s to play at plenty of tables, all built by Newlin. Mojo’s will host Doctor Pong again on Wednesday.