The Eating Contest

What do you love about the competitive eating contest?

I love the fact that you challenge yourself no matter what. There is sort of an accounting that occurs between you and yourself and how you did, unlike other sports. If I'm playing basketball with somebody, they make a move, I make a move. There is some kind of interactive aspect to it. Competitive eating, for the most part, is about you and that food in front of you. It's about not letting yourself down. For that part of competitive eating, the responsibility is with you. When I was in high school, I was a track guy. I did cross-country, indoor track. I played in the basketball church league. I think there is a commonality, strangely enough between something like marathon running and competitive eating. Although you could be, for example, on a cross-country team, how another person performs could impact you on some level. But there really is a kind of a personal accountability that you have to make with yourself in terms of successfully doing whatever it is you want to do, whether it is eating three pounds of pickles or finishing under 18 minutes on a five-keg.

What is your favorite competitive eating contest?

My favorite eating contest would be a contest , whether I'm involved in it or not, that two guys, or three guys or gals, are coming down to the end and they're battling bite for bite, and the crowd's really getting into it, and maybe a couple guys that are eating, they're not even in the contest anymore, but maybe they get up and do something silly. Some guy pulls his shirt up and hits his stomach, somebody pours water on top of their head. So to me, if you ask me, what's the best competitive eating event, it's not just some guy sitting around eating 40 pounds of elephant s**t, it's also the fun they're having, how they're interfacing with each other, the sportsmanship is an important part of it. Whether you have a good day or a bad day, there's a fellowship here so you have to respect the other eater for what they're doing. I'll say it again, the best competitive eating event is when you have all those elements coming in at the same time.

What is going through your mind during a competitive eating contest?

How much the chicks must really dig me. No, no, what is going through my mind in a competitive eating contest really is keeping my rhythm and going through the food in a methodical way and focusing on the task at hand. However, I do love to do silly things. Even though I am keeping my rhythm I am keeping my approach going, I do want to stimulate the crowd. I do this thing called “The Chowhound Chomp” or I sometimes go into a dance, a little bit of rhythm and dance as I'm eating, and that also helps me get through it too. Like if I am eating and it gets a little bit tough I can do something a little bit silly to get the people laughing, jump up and stuff like that, I mean that is great. And so even when I'm sitting there and focusing on my food, I am still kind of trying to feel for the crowd vibe as well. Again as an entertainer or as a person, I see the competitive eating event as something more than the fact that someone is eating a lot of food. I want to feel the crowd and I really want people to enjoy what they are doing, and it's important that we do enjoy what we're doing also.

What do you do when not participating in competitive eating?

Trying to get out of yard work, no, I've already used that one before. When I'm not doing competitive eating I am, well you know , for you married guys having a honey to-do list. That keeps me busy, between my job as a professional counseler, spending sometime with my sons, especially my youngest son right now, he play soccer, he does a bunch of other activities, he does cub scouts. With family stuff and with work and with taking care of the house, I don't have much opportunity to do anything else. So that's what makes competitive eating so enjoyable for me, because it really is kind of break from that stuff.