Marty Supreme isn’t in wide release till Christmas Day, but it’s already taking New York by storm. Wednesday night in Nolita, 48 table tennis aficionados faced off in the first ever Marty Supreme Invitational—where the man of the hour, Timothée Chalamet, made a surprise appearance before the final match.
Hosted by Airbnb Experiences, the ping-pong pop-up took over The Aula, a new studio space inside St. Patrick’s Basilica. Guests dined on light bites and sipped cocktails as they watched a hand-selected group of the best amateur ping-pong players in New York face off in elimination- style play across six different tables.
The event was emceed by Giullian Yao Gioiello, co-founder of Bounce, an underground pop-up ping-pong party. “Me, my homey Blu DeTiger and Rex DeTiger, we started hosting ping-pong tournaments like a year ago underground,” he told Vanity Fair. “We take a ping-pong table and bring it to a random club. We throw a tournament, and then we throw a crazy-ass party.”
Around 11 p.m., Marty Supreme star Odessa A’zion and director Josh Safdie rolled in to the event. Soon after, rumors began swirling that Marty Mauser himself would make an appearance. After a few fake outs—there could have been another Timmy lookalike competition at the invitational—Chalamet finally appeared a little after midnight, wearing an orange jacket, of course, and a gray hoodie. Flanked by his orange ping-pong-ball-head entourage, Chalamet addressed his audience from the rafters with A’zion by his side.
“What the fuck is going on, baby! Let’s fucking get it, baby,” said Chalamet before instructing the DJ to cut the music. “All right, let’s get really serious. Who’s left in the Marty Supreme Invitational? What I want to do right now is come downstairs and see this up close and personal. Then we’re gonna rip this—we’re going to see two semifinals matches, and one finals match. And then we’re all going to party on behalf of Airbnb.”
Chalamet would eventually join the masses on the floor for the semifinals. Koto Kawaguchi—who stars in the film as Marty’s Japanese nemesis, Endo, won his match, and then made it all the way to the finals, facing off against Kevin Lewis, a former model and real estate agent with Compass and one of the top amateur ping-pong players in New York. As hundreds watched, Lewis and Kawaguchi went toe to toe, rallying back and forth as Chalamet sipped red wine and watched from the front row.
Before the last match, Chalamet shouted out his director, Josh Safdie, calling him “a genius” and thanking him for unlocking the secret tennis table fan in all of us. Chalamet then instructed the Marty Supreme cast members still in the rafters—specifically Luke Manley, who plays Marty’s best friend, Dion—to watch the final match on the floor. “Let’s root for our boy Koto,” said Chalamet.
Yet Lewis would defeat Kawaguchi, winning the first ever Marty Supreme Invitational. “I don’t know what the fuck just happened,” said Lewis, holding his trophy after his big win. He then hyped up opponent Kawaguchi, whom Lewis said he’d looked up to for a long time. “To face him and somehow win that match, I’m truly humbled.” Dream big, indeed.
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