Growing Up To Be A Competitive Eater
Who inspired you to be a competitive eater?
Whenever I started competitive eating, there was always the people I looked up to. Whenever I took notice to it there was Cookie Jarvis. There was Badlands Booker. There was Don Irman, Crazy Kevin Lipchitz as a competitive eating. Some of these guys that you don't hear to much of now, but at the time I saw Badlands Booker as having a great personality. Fun, easy-going guy that could eat a lot. I always wanted to, instead of playing the bad guy role that some of these guys try to do, I wanted to be like him. Be like the nice guy that had his life and also ate too. Thats why I've always tried to keep as my place in competitive eating.
When did you start developing your competitive eating skills?
I really feel like I started developing my competitive eating skills when I ate that steak. The sixty-four ounce steak, which I would have had to pay for if I didn't eat the whole thing, that's when I realized that maybe I wanted to cut bigger bites instead of smaller ones, swallow harder instead of the comfortable swallow [and ask myself,] “Could I have eaten two of those steaks?” It was basically the beginning of me questioning what I can do, and I think that is how a lot of sports evolve—because you go from being the guy who can hit it so far (the ball) to the guy who can hit it over the fence, because that's what you're aiming for. Because you want to get better—so you're going to try to do techniques, and train, to become better. It's a sport. You have got to get better at it.
Did you have any support in your quest to become a competitive eater?
Well I can honestly say that, I don't bring it up on dates. I can also say that I haven't had to many family members that were interested in it. When I say too many, I really say, none that I can think of. My moms afraid I'm going to choke at every contest. My dad, you know hopes that it doesn't catch up to me weight wise. And my brother thinks it's gross. But he still comes. So it it really, it depends on whether you're a fan of it, or if you're not. I think that maybe they have a different outlook because it's closer to home.
