July 30, 2025 ā¢ 41 mins
Tori and Easton self proclaimed Foodsters and hot dog lovers sit down with James Webb, Australia’s top-ranked competitive eater and currently ranked 4th in the world. He placed third at Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest — but his journey started with a spontaneous food challenge that changed everything. James shares what it takes to break world records, how he trains, and how he stays at the top of his game.
He also opens up about surviving a rare illness, building his brand, and his new documentary JAMES CAN EAT, which will be available on Amazon Prime Video and VOD on Friday, August 22.
And in true Tori fashion, she doesn’t hold back — Questions ya probably wouldn’t think to ask about competitive eating šTMI or bust baby!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Misspelling with Tori Spelling and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hi James, how are you guys?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Nice to meet you great, how's it going good?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thank you?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
How are you doing great? We're such big fans. We're
really excited about this. We we love your work and
I have so many questions.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, and we love hot dogs, but we love food.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
In general, so we can be friends.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It's looking like it.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Well, first of all, congratulations third place at the Nathan's
Hot Dog Championship. I mean that's that's the thing an
amateur eater like me dreams of. So congratulations that is massive.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Really, yes, like you want to do professional eating?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yes, that is living the dream. Yes, I want to
do this so badly.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
How did you get into this? How did it all start?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's kind of my wife's fault, to be honest with you.
So I'm not a drinker, personal choice. But my wife
wanted to go visit a winery, a famous vineyard and winery,
like three hours from where we live in Australia. So
to bribe me to go, because she knows I'm not
going to sit in a car for three hours to
go like do some bougie wine tasting thing, she planned
(01:22):
like your day trip of beating. Anyway, So fudge factory,
cheese factory, you know, pub for lunch. Whatever. Turns out
the pub had a food challenge, and I had no
idea about food challenges. I didn't know the caliber of
food challenge or the levels. But the owner of the
pub was a little bit maybe one too many beers
for morning brunch and you know, a bit mouthy. When
(01:45):
I went to order my lunch and he was bragging
about this burger challenge, I'm like, I'll try it, okay, whatever,
Like what's the worst that can happen? You know. He's like, well,
it's going to cost you eighty bucks. I'm like, okay, anyway,
So did this burger challenge unbeknownst to me, Like every
time someone fails, the owner puts like ten bucks in
the piggybank. Fifty five people had failed, so the piggybank
(02:08):
was aut five hundred and fifty bucks, right, going to
what do you give this a go? Pretty much it's
five kilos, so that's like ten pounds a big burger
and I ate it in twenty three minutes, and not
understanding what I had just kind of done, I'm like, yeah,
I won five hundred bucks. Like cool, let's get on
with our day, you know. But the video that the
(02:30):
owner made kind of went crazy, like mainstream media, the
biggest news outlets in Australia, and like within twenty four hours,
I had all these messages from like competitive eaters messaging
me saying you're really good at this. I'm like, what
the hell is this? And honestly, like they invited me
to like a contest, and I went to the contest
(02:51):
like three days later. I won the contest and it
kind of just started this competitive eating thing.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
What was the first contest? Would you have to eat?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It was a cheeseburger and fries, so like two pounds.
I did it in like one minute twenty and I
beat like all the competitive eaters in Australia without even
realizing who these people were. Like these guys were like
big time like four years ago, like half a million
followers doing exactly what I'm doing now, but like in Australia,
(03:21):
and I beat them all without knowing who these people are.
I wasn't on social media. I just kind of did it.
Never seen a tripody in my life or a microphone,
and I kind of did it. And to be honest
to this day, the record still stands, and it just
it just kicked off everything.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So you went into it with no strategy, nothing.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Honestly, for the contest, I actually left work early and
stopped at subway on the way to get some lunch.
And yeah, because I didn't I didn't know, Like I
kind of just like I love burgers, like I'll go
down and do it, meet these people like whatever. At
the time I was, I was pretty introverted, believe it
or so, like I'm like, oh, yeah, these guys wan like, oh,
(04:00):
go down whatever. So like I got somewhere on the way,
I had some lunch, went to this burgs test and like, honestly,
like that like three or four day period, it really
changed everything for me.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Wow, the burger and fries. Did you eat the fries
first or the burger first?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
The burger first? Okay, it just choice because the burger
was like a tower, so I had to hold it.
So I'm like, eh, if I get the burger out
of the way, I'm pretty clumsy, so I'm like, knowing me,
it's going to drop everywhere and make a mess. So
I just didn't want to be embarrassing.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, I'm so curious, Like, so, I mean speed is
like that first one, the very first one you did
that like ten pound burger, that that was just a
can you finish it?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Right?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
That wasn't like a you weren't you were timed, but
like you didn't have to do an underserard amount of time.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Right, Yeah, so you get thirty minutes.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Thirty minutes okay, and then after that's just like how
fast can you do it? Are you doing like are
you trying to shove the entire thing in your mouth?
That I'm curious what's the strategy there?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
To be honest, right, So I really had no idea
what I had signed up for, like, to be honest,
all they did they make you sign this waiver, so
if you like choke, you know, it's not on them
that they make you sit at this table like in
the courtyard, like in the middle of the courtyard, so
like you can't get up off the table. The whole
place is watching you say you know, you can't cheat
or whatever, So I'm like, okay, whatever. Cool. I literally
(05:22):
like got my knife and fork and started cutting it
up because it was too big to hold. Actually, during
that challenge, my mom actually called and I'm like, hey, mom,
like my hands are actually full like putty back soon.
I didn't really understand what I was doing. I just
kind of ate it, like you know the video. It's
funny now watching back that video because from time to
time it still circulates. I was like getting all the
(05:44):
like the rest of the vegetables and stuff, like with
my knife and fork and like shoveling it in and stuff.
I honestly didn't know what I was doing. I just
ate it like as neatly as possible. And I did
it in twenty three minutes without even understanding any strategy,
any technique. You know. I've been back since then to
redo it. I've done it in twelve minutes, so like
(06:04):
almost half the time, and now I know what I know. Right.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
This is why it's so it's so interesting. Okay, this
may sound like a damn question, but like does it
does it even taste good when you're when you're like
doing it competitively, Like are you like, oh wow, this
this is good? Or is it just like I need
to get this inside of me as fast as possible.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's a bit of both, to be honest. Take it forward.
It is in a lot of contests the food isn't great, yeah,
because you know, like like, for for example, I have
a rib contest this weekend. There's going to be twelve competitors.
I'm going to try and eat ten pounds of ribs,
so they're probably cooking like one hundred pounds of ribs.
So inherently it's not going to be great, you know.
But like when it comes to like a food challenge
(06:44):
or when I do my social media content, you know
by the second bite if it's going to be a
good or bad time. And honestly, for the most part,
like it's it's a blessing because like if it's good,
you get to you get to the best part faster,
but if it's bad, you kind of get her of
and done with, Like.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, interesting, get across the board.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah. What is your favorite food to eat in a competition?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
The easiest way to answer that is it's all dependent
on what you like. So I love pizza. I love sweets,
so I have two doughnut World records. I love chicken wings,
so I've got two chicken wing World records as well. Honestly,
like contest food, it's always about like you always do
better in the contest where you enjoy the food, you
know what I mean? So for me, I'll always opt
(07:32):
for the chicken wings, donut or pizza contests.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So on the chicken wing, what defines how much you're eating?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Like do you have to eat the gristle to so
you start with everyone starts with a twenty pound bowl
and it's weighed, and basically like, look, you're not so
you can't eat the bones obviously because you're freaking you know,
you'll end you But like, honestly, you pick up a wing,
you get as much of the meat and gristle whatever
you can get your mouth on at the time, and
(07:58):
you put it back in the bowl. Because the end
of the contest, they weigh the bowl so as bowl wins.
So if you just take one chunk out of a
wing and chuck it back in, you can do that.
But at the end of the contest, obviously whoever's eating
the most meat wins, you know, So it's all that
technique actually, like how quick you can strip the meat
off the bone and get onto your next wing, like
as soon as possible.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, when you said you had a rib contest, I
was wondering if it was like like when you watch
like Heath Cliff eat a fish like you just like
putt and pull off the bone.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah. So it's a lot of technique, right yeah, because
again it's all weighed, right, so the lightest bowl will win. Right.
You start with like a tray. I think they do
trays of ten pounds, So you start with like a
tray and basically, like the quicker, you can strip the
meat off the bone and get the bone back in.
You know. That's obviously the more meat you eat. Sorry
that didn't mean to didn't mean to rhyme, but the
more meat you can get in a lot of time.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Like you're gonna you're gonna win, right, Yeah, yeah, Well
do you still like like going out for dinner?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
To be honest, I love food. I've always loved food.
If anything, I enjoy food a lot more now because, like,
for example, like my wife super indecisive, So when we
go out to eat, she can't decide do I want beef,
do I want chicken? Do I want pasta? I'm like, yeah,
get it all and we'll just share everything. Right, So
going out actually is super fun because like I just
create like a buffet on the table and like you
(09:18):
can choose whatever.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Do you have to pace yourself when you're at dinner,
are you like wo wait, wait.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Slow noodnest The funniest part, honestly, the funniest part is Okay.
So when you're in a contest, right, your only tool
is your drink, So you're programmed never let go of
your cup, right, because that's your only thing if you're
choking or you need to get it down faster. You
got this cup of drink. You got to get it
down right. But obviously when you're eating fast, you make
mess whatever. Your hands get greasy, so if you drop
(09:46):
the cup and you have to pick it up again,
like it's hard. So you're programmed to grip your cup
and never let go of it right. I go to
a restaurant with my wife and I don't even know
what's going on. My hand's on my cup, like on
the table, and she's like, idiot, it's not a competition.
You can like let go of your cup, and I
look down my forearm is like pulsating, like gripping the cup. Right.
So that's one of the worst habits that I've had
(10:08):
to like be conscious about in like a social setting
because I'm just programmed to hold onto my Cup for
dear life.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Wow. Competitive eating is so interesting because it's like most
of the competitions, like if you're playing baseball, you're playing again.
But everyone has to eat ideally multiple times a day,
and so like having to compartment analize that part of
your brain is so fascinating, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It is a lot like anything, right, if you want
to be good at something, you have to train, you've
got to practice, and you've got to like you know,
I guess, like like you said, eat multiple times a day,
I'm programmed now to eat once a day. Eat wants
to me like a maniac, and like leave it at that.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Wow, So that's when you're in training.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yes, so like normally, yeah, but the contest season is
so long.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So like are you eating ribs right now? Leaving up
to the competition.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So I'm actually got my See I want to win,
so I've got to practice, right, So I've actually got
my first practice run tomorrow. So yeah, tomorrow, well I'm
going to eat his ribs. But honestly, depending on the
contest and like, look, we all have things we're better
at and whatever else, but we have to practice. So like,
for example, to the chicken wing contest in September. I'll
be eating nothing but chicken wings for the week leading
(11:20):
into it contest, all of us. But like the last
four or five weeks, all you're doing is eating hot
dogs every second day, right, because you want to practice,
like you got to perform on the day, so you've
got to get your speed and technique.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Like ready, well we're talking to James Web. James can
eat the competitive eater from down Under. Have you seen
a food competition that doesn't work? Like I'm trying to think,
like is there a fing that you can't compete with?
Like saltine crackers? Like isn't there scientifically you can only
eat like six of them at a time? Or yeah,
that's like a whole Have you done a saltine challenge?
(11:52):
Have you done that before?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I am not, But to be honest, right, like whatever
whatever is out there as information recommendations, when it comes
to competitive eating, that goes out the window. I mean
you've seen we've chugged lemonade. You know, we've done McDonald's,
We've done foods you probably should not eat in abundance,
Like my world record is thirteen point five pounds of
fudge in eight minutes like that. That's a little crazy, right,
(12:16):
like that, that's a lot of fudge, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I'm so jealous of you that you have these stats,
like you know exactly how much fudge you can eat
in a certain amount of time. I'm so jealous of
that information. I want to know that about me.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Honestly, Like you Americans, you find a way to turn
everything into a sport. It's honest, it's so cool. That's
why I'm here, right Like you guys found eating a
normal day to day thing and you weaponize it and
turns it into a sport. And I'm like, and I'm
just here to be the best man. I just want
to compete USA.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Seriously, Yes, we're very proud of our eating here.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Have you ever done food?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I did food competition?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I did, and actually, James, I'm curious what you think
of this. I did a a competition at a restaurant
in my hometown and it was like it was a
chocolate thing. It was like six chocolate pancakes, four flowerless
chocolate cookies, like six groups of chocolate ice cream, and
then chocolate milk that you had to finish. And I
was like, oh easy, Oh my god. I got. I
(13:17):
did not finish it. I got like halfway through it
almost threw up. It was so bad, And I had
such a newfound respect for people of your discipline.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, for sure, chocolate's hard, man, that's rough, like the dessert.
I don't know if I could do that. I did.
I did one in Texas where it was like eat
the biggest steak. It was like a giant steak, but you.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Had to have the second fastest time, the one in Amarilla, right.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, yeah, and you have to eat like the side
salad and like the baked potato, like you have to
eat all the.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Like yeah yeah, with all the second fastest time ever.
I did it in I think it was just over
five minutes, but I know not.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Wow, wait what does that mean? Like use your hand?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah? So like okay, so I look, we could like
to be fair. Molly who has the record, she literally
picked up the stake like a slice of pizza and
just smashed it. Right. But actually, when I went to
go do the challenge, it was on a Friday, and
I'd never been to Amarilla before. I didn't realize that
the big text is so iconic. Right. I went down
on a Friday night and it was so busy and
(14:22):
a bunch of people recognized me. There was like kids, families,
like grandparents, and I'm like, this is not the scene
to like go ham and do some crazy stuff. So
I tried to be as sensible as I could. But
it actually worked out because I didn't realize I got
the second fastest time ever. But I made the news
for like eating it with a knife quickly. It was
just funny. It actually made the bullst video ever because
(14:45):
you watch videos of the big text and everyone's picking
it up like a slice and trying to fold it
like a sandwich, and I'm here like doing this. It
actually worked out. It was just a bunch of fun.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
So let's get to methodology. So we're before we hopped on,
we were talking about it's it's fairly standard in a
hot dog contest, like would dunk it in the glass
of water right to like soften up the buns so
you can swallow it like a fish. Is that so?
Is that how you do it too?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah? So obviously dunking is not a good time, but
in some contests it's absolutely necessary if you want to
be competitive. Yeah, in contests, you're allowed to most contests
you're allowed to select whatever drink you want as long
as it's non alcoholic. So I'm a cranberry juice fan.
I don't really like water plus chalky buns and waters
and it doesn't do it for me, So I dunked
(15:42):
my bunny in cranberry juice.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
What a flavor profile that must.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Be, like doctor Pepper like coke that would be good though, Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You don't have so you can't. Like if you use
carbonated drinks, you risk burping, So burping you waste time.
Like I've lost the contest by like a small burp,
Like thinking when you lose by like a mouthful of food,
like a quarter sized chunk of food, it's because you
took too much breath, like you burped or had a
hard swallow, Like it all kind of comes into account,
(16:13):
like at the top end for the most part, it's
super competitive, and like you've got to really like we
trained to not burp or to swallow and burp at
the same time, Like you have to practice all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Are you just like sitting in your house, like eating
hot dogs, steering at a picture of Joey chest and
I just going home.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
One day To be honest, I line up a bunch
of hot dogs in the backyard, and I play the
last test of the TV super loud, and yeah, you know,
the Joey chest night. It gets your roof up when
you just go right. It's truthfully what we all do.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
I love it. It's like pumping iron. It's great, all that
competitive energy.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
It's exactly like that.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
What happens following a contest?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
In as much details you can just so like like
getting rid of it all, like breaking down for us,
what is your pup like after a composition.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Like a volcanic eruption?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Really, it.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Can be rough, like to be honest, usually like maybe
thirty or forty minutes after the contest, your body is
like what the hell have you done? And like you
break out in like a wicked sweat, and when you
go to the bathroom, it's a combination of like hot sweats,
cold sweats, water pouring out of you know, everywhere, and yeah,
(17:38):
it's it gets violent, man. Like, Honestly, I never live
baby wipes because like you just never know smart.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Have you ever pooped yourself? I do? I mean you
said yes?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Was that a kind of when you say poop yourself?
Like I've never rushed out of my barm if that's
what you mean. But like you know, sometimes there's a
small like you know, skid mark left behind by accident.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Hey, it's the angels of the trade. You know, we
all know what we signed up for it.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Pretty much.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Have you ever been in a pickle eating contest? We
like pickles.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I've never done a pickle eating contest, but I've done
food challenges where like you get those like big ass
pickles and it's a part of the challenge and there's
like ten of them on the plate along with the
burger or whatever it may be. Yeah, pickles are rough. Man.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Is there a food item that when you see it
as part of the challenge you go, oh, man, I'm
in for it this time, Like a spicy pepper or
something like that.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, the spicy ones, they are like they're never a
good time, Like especially now, like all the whippers and
all these different kind of concoctions they put on like
they call it like reaper chili or whatever on like
a burger or also you always know like the ramens.
The spicy ramens are probably the worst. They're the roughest
(19:03):
because it just hurts the whole time. Right, I've done
a few, like super spicy chicken wings and it just
tastes like you're eating battery acid.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Oh god, yeah I am. I didn't do the contest,
but there was a place in San Jose, California where
I tried. I just got the the wings that they
do like for the contest, just so like I did
like a dry run and I took a bite and
inhaling hurt after that, like it burned when I took
a breath, and I was like, oh god, I can't
do this. This is this is terrible. This is for
(19:33):
guys like James Webb.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, what about sour candy?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
No, no, So I've got a sweet tooth. I've got
a massive sweet tooth. So I've done. I've done pounds
of candy. Like I love candy. It's hard, but it's
I enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
But like the sour candy, if you ate too much,
it starts to like your tongue starts to go now
like burn.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yes, Oh, I've done. Like I've done. Like I'm trying
to think the craziest one I've probably done. So. In Australia,
we have like we call them warheads. Yeah, and you
have something similar, yes, but yeah, right, so I did.
I did something like one hundred and fifty of the
little warheads. I think it was like two pounds or
three pounds of warheads, and the enamel off my teeth
(20:20):
came off, and I couldn't brush my teeth for a
week because it hurts so much. And like the skin on,
like the inside of my mouth was like I could
take like chunks of skin, Like my mouth was just
finished for like a week.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I mean, you truly suffer for this. You have such
a passion for it. Is do you want to be
the best in the world? Is that what we're going
for here? I mean, weather option is there of course?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah. Look, competitive eating. Competitive eating changed my life, right like,
it changed the trajectory of my life, my family's life.
It's given us this unbelievable opportunity, this crazy platform. And yeah,
like I'm super competitive. I want to be the best.
That's no disrespect to the other competitives, competitors. Joey's the goat.
We all know that I've beating Joey before in contests.
He's better me, you know, But that's what we do.
(21:06):
We want to compete to be the best, and we
all kind of have this mutual respect, but we all
know it's like all bets are off in that like
ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Wow, do you guys hang out with each other like socially?
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, a bunch of us do. Like any kind of community,
let's call it, there's always like little quicks, right, people
don't like each other. Some people really do. A few
of us are super closed and we hang out. A
few of us keep our distance, and then a few
people just kind of keep to themselves, kind of just
roll with it.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Interesting. Yeah, So I'm seeing here that you ate nearly
sixty donuts while recovering from a near paralyzing illness. I mean,
that's more than I can do at a peak health.
Tell us more about that. What was the story there?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
So Gian Barre syndrome. I was diagnosed in October twenty seventeen.
Basically I went to sleep, pro soccer player, I work
up paralyzed. That's the long I'm short of it. I
spent the next two years in hospital. They obviously Gainbarr
syndromes are super rare autoimmune disease. Basically, my body, my
immune system attacked my body and I went through I
(22:20):
went through it. I was paralyzed. I was on a ventilator.
I was like crazy crazy, But actually I went through
a stage where I was paralyzed. I only had one arm,
Like I literally had one arm from my elbow down
on my left side. That's all I could move. So
I could only eat things, and being fed is so demoralizing, right,
So I could only eat things that required one hand.
(22:43):
So all my friends and everyone bought me boxes of
like Krispy Kreme donuts, so like that was just there
all the time. I could just get a donut bang
and eat it, and like, you know, there is that
you're you know, serg in pain or going through whatever
you don't actually eat. But I hate wasting food, so like,
you know, there was a time where the boxes of
donuts just kind of built up, and I'm like, it's
(23:06):
going to eat them, you know. It's I could have moved.
I was suck in bed, so I was just like
eating donuts with like my one workable arm.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Wow, it's I mean, again, what an incredible story. And
you have this documentary that's come in in August, James
can he What can people expect to see in that film?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
And I just want to say it is a. It
is a true honor to be a part of the
whole Generation Iron organization, like to be involved with them.
I've been watching Generation I since I was a teenager. Crazy,
but I'm obviously Amazon Amazon Prime August twenty second, so
equally excited and nervous. I'm not sure what to expect,
to be.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Honest, Well, you've seen it obviously.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, But when you watch it back, each time, you
notice something different, you know, because it's me, I'm paying
super attention. I'm like, I really said that or did that? Really?
Like you when you when you look at the whole story,
it's actually kind of crazy. I'm living it. So sometimes
like when you look back, you're like, oh, yeah, that
really happened. That's me up there, you know what i mean,
(24:09):
Like it's super shocking, Like you know, I know for you,
like you kind of had this crazy you know, you've
done some crazy cool stuff. You know, I'll watch you
on TV as a kid, you know what I mean,
Like nothing else you've done. Now as a regular dude
that's done all this crazy stuff. Now I'm like, whoa,
Like that's actually me up there. And it's like you
notice you fixate on certain things and to be honest,
(24:31):
Like my friends are, like, I haven't let anyone watch
it yet, friends or family, because I just want everyone
to watch it when it comes out, and I don't
know be inundated with the crazy feedback. I guess I
don't even know what to expect.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Well, we're excited to see it, So what is next
for you? Like what's on your bucket list?
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Look? Well, firstly, what's next is I've got to get
through the next two and a half months. It's a
contest season starting up again. We have a small break
after the fourth of July contest. I've got a few
titles to defend in September, so I'm super excited. I
got my RIB title to defend this weekend in Minnesota.
So the next two and a half months is going
to be I'll be in a different city every week, traveling, competing,
(25:20):
doing my thing. But in terms of competitive eating obviously,
besides the Nathan's Contest, like that's massive, right always, I
got to qualify for that. That's like the Grail. But
there's also a kind of cool event in Singapore at
Comic Con. I want to I want to try to
get it get an invite to that, so I've got
to get some cool performances and some cool videos ready
to send it off to them, so hopefully get a
(25:42):
spot at the Comic Coon contest. This this Decembi in Singapore.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
I mean, what, yeah, what's the food there?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So every year, every year it changes, but it's so
Asia is massive for competitive eating. Like they're crazy. They
do like forty five minute contests. Now I'm about a
ten hot dog contest. They're eating for like forty five
minutes to an hour, right, so bang right, but they
turned muck bang into like competition, right, So I just
want to go and experience that and just see how
(26:11):
I kind of match up against the Asian eaters because
you watch on YouTube they're wild, man. So I just
want to go and compete. So that's definitely a bucket
list for me because like not many, not many Westerners
have had the opportunity to be a part of that contest.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Is like summertime. The I know you have different seasons
down under, but like it is like summertime like the
peak season for these competitions.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yes, so yeah, so definitely the warmer months. So usually
normally we have one so we have one or two
contests at either end. So for example Vegas in January
it's freezing, but there's a very popular contest there and
usually descend by in Indiana again freezing, but there's usually
a contest either end, but the core contest is from
May all the way through to July fourth. Then we
(27:00):
get a small break and then usually it's the end
of July through to like mid October, so we get breakes.
But definitely the hotter months is the more popular months.
And especially like back home in Australia, right it's actually
winter right now in Australia, so freezing cold. The contest
in Australia start like end of August when it does
start getting a little warmer in Australia, I think as well,
(27:23):
like when it's good weather, people are going to turn
out to watch. Where it's raining and cold, no one's
really gonna watch a bunch of maniacs on stage smashing
a bunch of food, right.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
You never know, it's a hell of a draw. Sorry,
And when you're like if you go out of town
on like a vacation or something, and you go into
a restaurant and you just just by a chance you
see on the menu like oh, finish the finish the
burger and you'll get your picture on the wall. Do
you ever just do like I mean, that's gotta be
child's played for someone like you. Is your picture on
(27:54):
the wall and like a million restaurants across the world.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, it's pretty crazy how many challenges I've done, how
many records I've got. To be honest, it really depends
on how I feel or what i'm doing, Like when
I'm so for example, I've been with my family for
the past three weeks. After that, they came over for
Nathan's and we kind of stayed together, went to Disney World,
had the family downtime vacation. So I consciously made the
decision to not do any stupid stuff. I just want
(28:17):
to spend time with my wife and little one and
catch up because I haven't seen them in five months. Right,
So for the last three weeks, I've been taking it
super easy. But like, for example, I'm in Minnesota now.
So if I go if I'm going out for dinner
tonight and there's a burger challenge on the menu, hell yeah,
I'm going to smash it.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
That is awesome. Wait, do you get trophies?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah? To be honest a lot of a good contest.
They have the wrestling belts. So I've got a bunch
of I've got a bunch of belts. I've got a
bunch of trophies. It's actually super cool. You're Americans clause,
you guys take it seriously, like you guys love memorabilia
and stuff, right, So I've got some super cool wrestling belts.
I've got some massive trophies. Honestly, competing winning stuff in
this country is awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
O Hey, where do you put it all? Do you
have a room for it?
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah? Yeah, So I've got at home in Australia, I've
got like this big shelf, but it's now gone to
three shelves and it's taken up like a big chunk
of our living room wall. So I've just recently, because
I've launched my clothing line, I've built a gym and
a warehouse and for the clothing I'm going to make
like a section for all my memorabilia because my wife's
(29:24):
got some. I've got some super sentimental stuff. My wife
got it all framed up and stuff. So I'm going
to on the wall of the gym in the warehouse,
I'm going to chuck it all on the wall, and
I'm going to have a corner for my trophies and
my belts and stuff because it's taken up so much
of our apartment.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
So cool. Wait, tell us about your clothing line.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Oh yeah, so the can syndicate basically. Obviously, my handle
on social media is Jweb you can eat, But I
guess the backstory along and the short of it. When
I started doing this, everyone's like, you're a maniac, Like,
don't do this, Like you can't make a living from
eating and blah blah blah or social media. I'm like, no,
I can and I will, right, So you can do
anything right. I dress a certain way, I have a
(30:06):
certain style about me, and everyone's like, you shouldn't wear that.
I'm like, I can wear it. I can do what
I want, right. So the whole image of the brand
is you could do what you want, right, And so
I made this brand. Can for example, like I like
oversized T shirts, so I made oversized T shirts. I
like mid length shorts and crew socks. So I kind
of just made clothes that I like to wear. But
(30:27):
it kind of it started off as just I want
clothes for me. That's it. Then it started, it escalated.
Now I've got half a warehouse full of clothes that
people seemingly want to buy. It's pretty wild. It's a
cool story. But yeah, it honestly started because like I
just want to stick it to the man, and you
can do what you want. And I'm moving through for
if you try hard enough, you can make it happen.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
I love that so much. That's awesome, that's so inspiring.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Well do you have to worry like medically about like
cholesterol and yeah, things like that.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
So obviously health, I've been through it with my health.
Health is everything I understand. With health, you've literally got nothing.
So I get checked up every time I go back
to Australia. The routine. My wife picked up from the airport.
So I'm my mama's boy. I have to go home
for coffee and cake with my mama. But first things first,
I have to go to the doctor, get my bloods done.
Then I can go see my mom. So I always
every time I come back to Australia, I get my
(31:17):
blood work done, calcium score, cholesterol, blood sugar, all that
kind of stuff. To be honest, last blood test, I
actually was fine, Like everything was in mid range. Everything
was okay for the most part. Like I had a few,
like you know, you know, a few like deficiencies, but
not crazy crazy, you know, taking a month off when
(31:39):
I go home. It kind of fixed everything. But my
dentist hates me. My dentist absolutely hates me because I'm
a left hander, so I chew across my mouth, so
I always chew on my right side. I'm starting to
get a receding gum on one of my teeth and
my dentist is like, chew on the other side. I'm like, no, no,
I can't because I need to win. And she's like,
(32:00):
you know, she's trying to explain it to me, like
you know, habits, if you have to have a gum
graft and whatever. I'm like, yeah, I'll just go to
Turkey and get some veneers. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Wait, when you're like in the height of competition, what
is your libido? Like does it affect Like after competition,
do you want sexy time? Or now.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
You need to ask my wife. But to be honest,
it does you get affected? Like you're so lethargic, And
to be honest, even preparing for a contest because you're
depleting your body, trying to like make maximum space in
your body. You know, Like, let's be honest, for the
month of June, every second day I was eating hot dogs.
That is not nutritious at all, Right, So, like, yeah,
you go through like periods of like lethargy and like
(32:45):
you don't want to like you know, you're just existing,
like oh, you think you're so and that's I guess
that's the weird part with what we do. You obsess
over things like your technique or whatever, right, and it's
all you think about. So yeah, honestly, I do know
that like libido goes down, anything goes down. That's why
my wife is such a geek. She's just my supporter.
She just knows, like I need to help. Like, for example,
(33:05):
when they came over in June, we've got to go
to Walmart, We've got to get to hot dogs, we've
got to cut the hot dogs, we've got to plate
up the plates. And she just knows, like for this month,
it's game time, right, So she helps me thing. And honestly,
without my wife, I'll be so screwed. Man. I'm just boy,
I'm a man, Like I can only do so much, right,
my wife is the brains of the operation.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Ain't that the truth?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Man?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
That's how it is. Yeah. What, And I know you
probably have an allegiance to Nathan's a little bit, but like,
is there a brand of hot dog that you that
you like that you prefer when you're training?
Speaker 2 (33:40):
To be honest, I'm not sorry if I should say this,
but I actually don't like hot dogs. Wow. But for
the life of me, I don't know how you Americans
spend money on hot dogs. Like, I get it. It's
it's an American It's a delicacy. It's a thing. Right.
In Australia we do meat pies. Again, not the greatest food,
but it's kind of iconic, right. I'm the biggest fan
of hot dogs, so, to be honest, I think I've
only ever eaten Nathan's hot dogs because of the event.
(34:03):
Like I've never actually bought the other brands, because I
actually don't want to eat hot dogs in my spare time.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
I get it. I completely understand. Really, yeah, I mean,
if you're doing it that hard and that competitively, I mean,
I probably the other thing is we don't have.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Hot dogs in Australia, like what you guys call a
hot dog, we don't really have in Australia, So I no,
So like I didn't grow up eating the hot dogs
that you guys call a hot dog, right, Like, so
we we do like a thing called a sausage sizzle.
It's like a beef sausage in a bread like a
slice of bread, right, or our hot dogs. If you
go to Australia and buy a hot dog from like
a restaurant or whatever, it's like a Frankfurt. But like
(34:41):
what you guys physically call a hot dog, we don't
have that in Australia. We have a beef sausage or
like a Frankfurt, right. But this hot dog thing you
guys have is like a hybrid of both.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Cocktail winnies like pigs in a blanket.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
So we don't really so pigs in a blanket aren't
really a thing in Australia. We have like cocktail frankfurts,
and again you put it in like a bread roll.
But like I was trending in Australia, I think, yeah, yeah, yeah,
like I know what a hot dog is. I got
here and I had no idea what I was doing.
I had no idea what I was looking at like, honestly,
what you guys call hot dog is is not what
(35:16):
we call a hot dog, and I it sounds really crazy,
but it's different. Wow.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
I mean that makes what you do is all the
more impressive.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
I think.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Do you eat sushi?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I love sushi.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
You've been in a sushi competition?
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Yeah, Australian record is one hundred and two pieces of
sushi in two minutes and twenty three secs.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
One hundred pieces and two minutes. Oh my god, Oh
I just got.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Not Yeah, that's Australia and hopefully never be beat in.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
That doesn't even sound okay for your body, like your
mercury level.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Look, the best way I can describe what I do
or what we do, it's kind of like a boxer, right,
or any kind of combat sport. They put their body
through hell in preparation for the fight or the game day. Right,
for game day, you're going to get punch in the face.
Now we all know face is not necessarily good for you, right,
(36:14):
and they recover and go again. Competitive eating is the same.
You put your body through hell in preparation or game
day to be punched in the face by a bunch
of hot dogs or a massive tray of sushi and
then you recover and then you go again like a
week later.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
I mean it's a sport, it's an athletic athletic feet wow,
and it hurts. Yeah, yeah, I mean you're yeah, you're
putting your body through hell. James, this is so fascinating.
We have enjoyed talking to you so much. Again. J
Webb Kenny on Instagram. The documentary James Kenney that is
(36:51):
on Prime Video August twenty second.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I am sake to watch it.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
We're so pumped.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Last question for you, when I excited after we talked
to you that we would do a little competition between
the two of us eating hot dogs, do you have
any tips for us?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
If it's just one hot dog, I would not recommend
dunking it. I would just try eating it.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
The dunking. I can't do the dunking, but.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Drink in one hand, hot dog in another. Drink Bye
bye drink.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Okay, bite bite drink. That's a good rhythm.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Bite whoa yeah, bite.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Two small bites a sports of drink to like soften
it up right and then swallow it and then bye
bite drink, bite, bite drink. Hopefully you can do the
hot dog in like six bites, right, so like one
to drink one to drink one to seelander the champions.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
What if I throw up?
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Then you're just qualified? Any best?
Speaker 3 (37:57):
What interesting?
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Nothing can leave, nothing can leave your body. So I've
got a random story for you. I got to qualify
for my first contest last year in a Tamali's contest.
I managed to eat ninety seven Tomali's in ten minutes,
and I had so much Tamali in my body it
actually came through my nose. But but like chunks of tamali.
(38:21):
It looked like porn shot out of my nose. And
I got to qualify.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Do you say porn or corn?
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Corn? Corn? That is insane? Oh my god, the visuals
are like horrifying. I can't believe you experienced that in
real life. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Wait, you give food porn a whole new name.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Wait, I think there should be I think there.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Should be a channel called only food instead of only
fans any people Like I don't know if.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
I should say this or not say this or not,
but there's people out there that ask for bloat of
belly pictures and burd.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Videos and they are and what videos?
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah, they offer cash and.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Oh, I can make a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah, like you know when you drink some soda and
you but right, so I'm not joking. There's I know
some people that have been paid to do this kind
of crazy stuff. So it's kind of like it's kind
of like only food but like marketplace style.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Hey, we don't want to yuck anyone'sym. We're not here
to kink sheen. But that's uh. You know there's something.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
We bloated videos. I would do really well with one
of those right now, really bloated. I don't know how
I'm gonna eat these hot dogs. Deep breaths.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
To be honest, you hold your breath a lot in
a contest, so you breathe when you drink.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Interesting hold your breath bye bite drinks so.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
You says bye bite, take a small breath, drink, swallow,
breathe out, bye bye.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
I'm not that coordinated to that rhythm.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
That's what we that's what but see that that's what
we practice, honestly, Like, that's what goes into preparation of
a contest. Right, you got to pick your time because
you feel they're just the guy next to you is
going to be eating more food. Than you, right, so
you've got to kind of coordinate your breathing that doesn't
affect the rhythm.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Is there one food sorry before we go? Is there
one food you absolutely hate but you will have to
eat it one day to go through all these competitions?
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah? So I think the hardest contest for me is baloney.
So it is a very very pat and big baloney contest.
I did thirteen pounds in eight minutes. Joey beat me
by just one. I think it was one and a
half or two pounds, and I don't but bony is
(40:53):
next level harsh, like it's it's just like smoked baloney.
It's not even like bread or nothing. Right. I understand
a bloonney sandwich is a quite popular just autumn here
in America, But this is just juice and I was
just trying to get as fat as I could and
it's just the flight and all.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Super Oh god, well some hot talk. Yeah, Well, we
are such big fans of you, James again, James Webb
James can Eat. Watch the documentary foll him on Instagram.
He is he is the goat. If you ask me,
this guy is a hero. J Webby can Eat on
Instagram thank you so much for joining us today and
(41:34):
thank you for all the tips man, thanks for sharing
your secrets with us.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Thank you guys for having me. I honestly I really
appreciate the opportunity. Thank you so much, and good luck
with Thos.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Thank you, thank you, James. Bye.
Misspelling with Tori Spelling and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hi James, how are you guys?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Nice to meet you great, how's it going good?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thank you?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
How are you doing great? We're such big fans. We're
really excited about this. We we love your work and
I have so many questions.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, and we love hot dogs, but we love food.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
In general, so we can be friends.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It's looking like it.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Well, first of all, congratulations third place at the Nathan's
Hot Dog Championship. I mean that's that's the thing an
amateur eater like me dreams of. So congratulations that is massive.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Really, yes, like you want to do professional eating?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yes, that is living the dream. Yes, I want to
do this so badly.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
How did you get into this? How did it all start?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's kind of my wife's fault, to be honest with you.
So I'm not a drinker, personal choice. But my wife
wanted to go visit a winery, a famous vineyard and winery,
like three hours from where we live in Australia. So
to bribe me to go, because she knows I'm not
going to sit in a car for three hours to
go like do some bougie wine tasting thing, she planned
(01:22):
like your day trip of beating. Anyway, So fudge factory,
cheese factory, you know, pub for lunch. Whatever. Turns out
the pub had a food challenge, and I had no
idea about food challenges. I didn't know the caliber of
food challenge or the levels. But the owner of the
pub was a little bit maybe one too many beers
for morning brunch and you know, a bit mouthy. When
(01:45):
I went to order my lunch and he was bragging
about this burger challenge, I'm like, I'll try it, okay, whatever,
Like what's the worst that can happen? You know. He's like, well,
it's going to cost you eighty bucks. I'm like, okay, anyway,
So did this burger challenge unbeknownst to me, Like every
time someone fails, the owner puts like ten bucks in
the piggybank. Fifty five people had failed, so the piggybank
(02:08):
was aut five hundred and fifty bucks, right, going to
what do you give this a go? Pretty much it's
five kilos, so that's like ten pounds a big burger
and I ate it in twenty three minutes, and not
understanding what I had just kind of done, I'm like, yeah,
I won five hundred bucks. Like cool, let's get on
with our day, you know. But the video that the
(02:30):
owner made kind of went crazy, like mainstream media, the
biggest news outlets in Australia, and like within twenty four hours,
I had all these messages from like competitive eaters messaging
me saying you're really good at this. I'm like, what
the hell is this? And honestly, like they invited me
to like a contest, and I went to the contest
(02:51):
like three days later. I won the contest and it
kind of just started this competitive eating thing.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
What was the first contest? Would you have to eat?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It was a cheeseburger and fries, so like two pounds.
I did it in like one minute twenty and I
beat like all the competitive eaters in Australia without even
realizing who these people were. Like these guys were like
big time like four years ago, like half a million
followers doing exactly what I'm doing now, but like in Australia,
(03:21):
and I beat them all without knowing who these people are.
I wasn't on social media. I just kind of did it.
Never seen a tripody in my life or a microphone,
and I kind of did it. And to be honest
to this day, the record still stands, and it just
it just kicked off everything.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So you went into it with no strategy, nothing.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Honestly, for the contest, I actually left work early and
stopped at subway on the way to get some lunch.
And yeah, because I didn't I didn't know, Like I
kind of just like I love burgers, like I'll go
down and do it, meet these people like whatever. At
the time I was, I was pretty introverted, believe it
or so, like I'm like, oh, yeah, these guys wan like, oh,
(04:00):
go down whatever. So like I got somewhere on the way,
I had some lunch, went to this burgs test and like, honestly,
like that like three or four day period, it really
changed everything for me.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Wow, the burger and fries. Did you eat the fries
first or the burger first?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
The burger first? Okay, it just choice because the burger
was like a tower, so I had to hold it.
So I'm like, eh, if I get the burger out
of the way, I'm pretty clumsy, so I'm like, knowing me,
it's going to drop everywhere and make a mess. So
I just didn't want to be embarrassing.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, I'm so curious, Like, so, I mean speed is
like that first one, the very first one you did
that like ten pound burger, that that was just a
can you finish it?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Right?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
That wasn't like a you weren't you were timed, but
like you didn't have to do an underserard amount of time.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Right, Yeah, so you get thirty minutes.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Thirty minutes okay, and then after that's just like how
fast can you do it? Are you doing like are
you trying to shove the entire thing in your mouth?
That I'm curious what's the strategy there?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
To be honest, right, So I really had no idea
what I had signed up for, like, to be honest,
all they did they make you sign this waiver, so
if you like choke, you know, it's not on them
that they make you sit at this table like in
the courtyard, like in the middle of the courtyard, so
like you can't get up off the table. The whole
place is watching you say you know, you can't cheat
or whatever, So I'm like, okay, whatever. Cool. I literally
(05:22):
like got my knife and fork and started cutting it
up because it was too big to hold. Actually, during
that challenge, my mom actually called and I'm like, hey, mom,
like my hands are actually full like putty back soon.
I didn't really understand what I was doing. I just
kind of ate it, like you know the video. It's
funny now watching back that video because from time to
time it still circulates. I was like getting all the
(05:44):
like the rest of the vegetables and stuff, like with
my knife and fork and like shoveling it in and stuff.
I honestly didn't know what I was doing. I just
ate it like as neatly as possible. And I did
it in twenty three minutes without even understanding any strategy,
any technique. You know. I've been back since then to
redo it. I've done it in twelve minutes, so like
(06:04):
almost half the time, and now I know what I know. Right.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
This is why it's so it's so interesting. Okay, this
may sound like a damn question, but like does it
does it even taste good when you're when you're like
doing it competitively, Like are you like, oh wow, this
this is good? Or is it just like I need
to get this inside of me as fast as possible.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's a bit of both, to be honest. Take it forward.
It is in a lot of contests the food isn't great, yeah,
because you know, like like, for for example, I have
a rib contest this weekend. There's going to be twelve competitors.
I'm going to try and eat ten pounds of ribs,
so they're probably cooking like one hundred pounds of ribs.
So inherently it's not going to be great, you know.
But like when it comes to like a food challenge
(06:44):
or when I do my social media content, you know
by the second bite if it's going to be a
good or bad time. And honestly, for the most part,
like it's it's a blessing because like if it's good,
you get to you get to the best part faster,
but if it's bad, you kind of get her of
and done with, Like.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, interesting, get across the board.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah. What is your favorite food to eat in a competition?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
The easiest way to answer that is it's all dependent
on what you like. So I love pizza. I love sweets,
so I have two doughnut World records. I love chicken wings,
so I've got two chicken wing World records as well. Honestly,
like contest food, it's always about like you always do
better in the contest where you enjoy the food, you
know what I mean? So for me, I'll always opt
(07:32):
for the chicken wings, donut or pizza contests.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So on the chicken wing, what defines how much you're eating?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Like do you have to eat the gristle to so
you start with everyone starts with a twenty pound bowl
and it's weighed, and basically like, look, you're not so
you can't eat the bones obviously because you're freaking you know,
you'll end you But like, honestly, you pick up a wing,
you get as much of the meat and gristle whatever
you can get your mouth on at the time, and
(07:58):
you put it back in the bowl. Because the end
of the contest, they weigh the bowl so as bowl wins.
So if you just take one chunk out of a
wing and chuck it back in, you can do that.
But at the end of the contest, obviously whoever's eating
the most meat wins, you know, So it's all that
technique actually, like how quick you can strip the meat
off the bone and get onto your next wing, like
as soon as possible.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, when you said you had a rib contest, I
was wondering if it was like like when you watch
like Heath Cliff eat a fish like you just like
putt and pull off the bone.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah. So it's a lot of technique, right yeah, because
again it's all weighed, right, so the lightest bowl will win. Right.
You start with like a tray. I think they do
trays of ten pounds, So you start with like a
tray and basically, like the quicker, you can strip the
meat off the bone and get the bone back in.
You know. That's obviously the more meat you eat. Sorry
that didn't mean to didn't mean to rhyme, but the
more meat you can get in a lot of time.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Like you're gonna you're gonna win, right, Yeah, yeah, Well
do you still like like going out for dinner?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
To be honest, I love food. I've always loved food.
If anything, I enjoy food a lot more now because, like,
for example, like my wife super indecisive, So when we
go out to eat, she can't decide do I want beef,
do I want chicken? Do I want pasta? I'm like, yeah,
get it all and we'll just share everything. Right, So
going out actually is super fun because like I just
create like a buffet on the table and like you
(09:18):
can choose whatever.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Do you have to pace yourself when you're at dinner,
are you like wo wait, wait.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Slow noodnest The funniest part, honestly, the funniest part is Okay.
So when you're in a contest, right, your only tool
is your drink, So you're programmed never let go of
your cup, right, because that's your only thing if you're
choking or you need to get it down faster. You
got this cup of drink. You got to get it
down right. But obviously when you're eating fast, you make
mess whatever. Your hands get greasy, so if you drop
(09:46):
the cup and you have to pick it up again,
like it's hard. So you're programmed to grip your cup
and never let go of it right. I go to
a restaurant with my wife and I don't even know
what's going on. My hand's on my cup, like on
the table, and she's like, idiot, it's not a competition.
You can like let go of your cup, and I
look down my forearm is like pulsating, like gripping the cup. Right.
So that's one of the worst habits that I've had
(10:08):
to like be conscious about in like a social setting
because I'm just programmed to hold onto my Cup for
dear life.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Wow. Competitive eating is so interesting because it's like most
of the competitions, like if you're playing baseball, you're playing again.
But everyone has to eat ideally multiple times a day,
and so like having to compartment analize that part of
your brain is so fascinating, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It is a lot like anything, right, if you want
to be good at something, you have to train, you've
got to practice, and you've got to like you know,
I guess, like like you said, eat multiple times a day,
I'm programmed now to eat once a day. Eat wants
to me like a maniac, and like leave it at that.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Wow, So that's when you're in training.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yes, so like normally, yeah, but the contest season is
so long.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So like are you eating ribs right now? Leaving up
to the competition.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So I'm actually got my See I want to win,
so I've got to practice, right, So I've actually got
my first practice run tomorrow. So yeah, tomorrow, well I'm
going to eat his ribs. But honestly, depending on the
contest and like, look, we all have things we're better
at and whatever else, but we have to practice. So like,
for example, to the chicken wing contest in September. I'll
be eating nothing but chicken wings for the week leading
(11:20):
into it contest, all of us. But like the last
four or five weeks, all you're doing is eating hot
dogs every second day, right, because you want to practice,
like you got to perform on the day, so you've
got to get your speed and technique.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Like ready, well we're talking to James Web. James can
eat the competitive eater from down Under. Have you seen
a food competition that doesn't work? Like I'm trying to think,
like is there a fing that you can't compete with?
Like saltine crackers? Like isn't there scientifically you can only
eat like six of them at a time? Or yeah,
that's like a whole Have you done a saltine challenge?
(11:52):
Have you done that before?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I am not, But to be honest, right, like whatever
whatever is out there as information recommendations, when it comes
to competitive eating, that goes out the window. I mean
you've seen we've chugged lemonade. You know, we've done McDonald's,
We've done foods you probably should not eat in abundance,
Like my world record is thirteen point five pounds of
fudge in eight minutes like that. That's a little crazy, right,
(12:16):
like that, that's a lot of fudge, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I'm so jealous of you that you have these stats,
like you know exactly how much fudge you can eat
in a certain amount of time. I'm so jealous of
that information. I want to know that about me.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Honestly, Like you Americans, you find a way to turn
everything into a sport. It's honest, it's so cool. That's
why I'm here, right Like you guys found eating a
normal day to day thing and you weaponize it and
turns it into a sport. And I'm like, and I'm
just here to be the best man. I just want
to compete USA.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Seriously, Yes, we're very proud of our eating here.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Have you ever done food?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I did food competition?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I did, and actually, James, I'm curious what you think
of this. I did a a competition at a restaurant
in my hometown and it was like it was a
chocolate thing. It was like six chocolate pancakes, four flowerless
chocolate cookies, like six groups of chocolate ice cream, and
then chocolate milk that you had to finish. And I
was like, oh easy, Oh my god. I got. I
(13:17):
did not finish it. I got like halfway through it
almost threw up. It was so bad, And I had
such a newfound respect for people of your discipline.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, for sure, chocolate's hard, man, that's rough, like the dessert.
I don't know if I could do that. I did.
I did one in Texas where it was like eat
the biggest steak. It was like a giant steak, but you.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Had to have the second fastest time, the one in Amarilla, right.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, yeah, and you have to eat like the side
salad and like the baked potato, like you have to
eat all the.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Like yeah yeah, with all the second fastest time ever.
I did it in I think it was just over
five minutes, but I know not.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Wow, wait what does that mean? Like use your hand?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah? So like okay, so I look, we could like
to be fair. Molly who has the record, she literally
picked up the stake like a slice of pizza and
just smashed it. Right. But actually, when I went to
go do the challenge, it was on a Friday, and
I'd never been to Amarilla before. I didn't realize that
the big text is so iconic. Right. I went down
on a Friday night and it was so busy and
(14:22):
a bunch of people recognized me. There was like kids, families,
like grandparents, and I'm like, this is not the scene
to like go ham and do some crazy stuff. So
I tried to be as sensible as I could. But
it actually worked out because I didn't realize I got
the second fastest time ever. But I made the news
for like eating it with a knife quickly. It was
just funny. It actually made the bullst video ever because
(14:45):
you watch videos of the big text and everyone's picking
it up like a slice and trying to fold it
like a sandwich, and I'm here like doing this. It
actually worked out. It was just a bunch of fun.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
So let's get to methodology. So we're before we hopped on,
we were talking about it's it's fairly standard in a
hot dog contest, like would dunk it in the glass
of water right to like soften up the buns so
you can swallow it like a fish. Is that so?
Is that how you do it too?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah? So obviously dunking is not a good time, but
in some contests it's absolutely necessary if you want to
be competitive. Yeah, in contests, you're allowed to most contests
you're allowed to select whatever drink you want as long
as it's non alcoholic. So I'm a cranberry juice fan.
I don't really like water plus chalky buns and waters
and it doesn't do it for me, So I dunked
(15:42):
my bunny in cranberry juice.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
What a flavor profile that must.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Be, like doctor Pepper like coke that would be good though, Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You don't have so you can't. Like if you use
carbonated drinks, you risk burping, So burping you waste time.
Like I've lost the contest by like a small burp,
Like thinking when you lose by like a mouthful of food,
like a quarter sized chunk of food, it's because you
took too much breath, like you burped or had a
hard swallow, Like it all kind of comes into account,
(16:13):
like at the top end for the most part, it's
super competitive, and like you've got to really like we
trained to not burp or to swallow and burp at
the same time, Like you have to practice all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Are you just like sitting in your house, like eating
hot dogs, steering at a picture of Joey chest and
I just going home.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
One day To be honest, I line up a bunch
of hot dogs in the backyard, and I play the
last test of the TV super loud, and yeah, you know,
the Joey chest night. It gets your roof up when
you just go right. It's truthfully what we all do.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
I love it. It's like pumping iron. It's great, all that
competitive energy.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
It's exactly like that.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
What happens following a contest?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
In as much details you can just so like like
getting rid of it all, like breaking down for us,
what is your pup like after a composition.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Like a volcanic eruption?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Really, it.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Can be rough, like to be honest, usually like maybe
thirty or forty minutes after the contest, your body is
like what the hell have you done? And like you
break out in like a wicked sweat, and when you
go to the bathroom, it's a combination of like hot sweats,
cold sweats, water pouring out of you know, everywhere, and yeah,
(17:38):
it's it gets violent, man. Like, Honestly, I never live
baby wipes because like you just never know smart.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Have you ever pooped yourself? I do? I mean you
said yes?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Was that a kind of when you say poop yourself?
Like I've never rushed out of my barm if that's
what you mean. But like you know, sometimes there's a
small like you know, skid mark left behind by accident.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Hey, it's the angels of the trade. You know, we
all know what we signed up for it.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Pretty much.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Have you ever been in a pickle eating contest? We
like pickles.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I've never done a pickle eating contest, but I've done
food challenges where like you get those like big ass
pickles and it's a part of the challenge and there's
like ten of them on the plate along with the
burger or whatever it may be. Yeah, pickles are rough. Man.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Is there a food item that when you see it
as part of the challenge you go, oh, man, I'm
in for it this time, Like a spicy pepper or
something like that.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, the spicy ones, they are like they're never a
good time, Like especially now, like all the whippers and
all these different kind of concoctions they put on like
they call it like reaper chili or whatever on like
a burger or also you always know like the ramens.
The spicy ramens are probably the worst. They're the roughest
(19:03):
because it just hurts the whole time. Right, I've done
a few, like super spicy chicken wings and it just
tastes like you're eating battery acid.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Oh god, yeah I am. I didn't do the contest,
but there was a place in San Jose, California where
I tried. I just got the the wings that they
do like for the contest, just so like I did
like a dry run and I took a bite and
inhaling hurt after that, like it burned when I took
a breath, and I was like, oh god, I can't
do this. This is this is terrible. This is for
(19:33):
guys like James Webb.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, what about sour candy?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
No, no, So I've got a sweet tooth. I've got
a massive sweet tooth. So I've done. I've done pounds
of candy. Like I love candy. It's hard, but it's
I enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
But like the sour candy, if you ate too much,
it starts to like your tongue starts to go now
like burn.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yes, Oh, I've done. Like I've done. Like I'm trying
to think the craziest one I've probably done. So. In Australia,
we have like we call them warheads. Yeah, and you
have something similar, yes, but yeah, right, so I did.
I did something like one hundred and fifty of the
little warheads. I think it was like two pounds or
three pounds of warheads, and the enamel off my teeth
(20:20):
came off, and I couldn't brush my teeth for a
week because it hurts so much. And like the skin on,
like the inside of my mouth was like I could
take like chunks of skin, Like my mouth was just
finished for like a week.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I mean, you truly suffer for this. You have such
a passion for it. Is do you want to be
the best in the world? Is that what we're going
for here? I mean, weather option is there of course?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah. Look, competitive eating. Competitive eating changed my life, right like,
it changed the trajectory of my life, my family's life.
It's given us this unbelievable opportunity, this crazy platform. And yeah,
like I'm super competitive. I want to be the best.
That's no disrespect to the other competitives, competitors. Joey's the goat.
We all know that I've beating Joey before in contests.
He's better me, you know, But that's what we do.
(21:06):
We want to compete to be the best, and we
all kind of have this mutual respect, but we all
know it's like all bets are off in that like
ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Wow, do you guys hang out with each other like socially?
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, a bunch of us do. Like any kind of community,
let's call it, there's always like little quicks, right, people
don't like each other. Some people really do. A few
of us are super closed and we hang out. A
few of us keep our distance, and then a few
people just kind of keep to themselves, kind of just
roll with it.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Interesting. Yeah, So I'm seeing here that you ate nearly
sixty donuts while recovering from a near paralyzing illness. I mean,
that's more than I can do at a peak health.
Tell us more about that. What was the story there?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
So Gian Barre syndrome. I was diagnosed in October twenty seventeen.
Basically I went to sleep, pro soccer player, I work
up paralyzed. That's the long I'm short of it. I
spent the next two years in hospital. They obviously Gainbarr
syndromes are super rare autoimmune disease. Basically, my body, my
immune system attacked my body and I went through I
(22:20):
went through it. I was paralyzed. I was on a ventilator.
I was like crazy crazy, But actually I went through
a stage where I was paralyzed. I only had one arm,
Like I literally had one arm from my elbow down
on my left side. That's all I could move. So
I could only eat things, and being fed is so demoralizing, right,
So I could only eat things that required one hand.
(22:43):
So all my friends and everyone bought me boxes of
like Krispy Kreme donuts, so like that was just there
all the time. I could just get a donut bang
and eat it, and like, you know, there is that
you're you know, serg in pain or going through whatever
you don't actually eat. But I hate wasting food, so like,
you know, there was a time where the boxes of
donuts just kind of built up, and I'm like, it's
(23:06):
going to eat them, you know. It's I could have moved.
I was suck in bed, so I was just like
eating donuts with like my one workable arm.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Wow, it's I mean, again, what an incredible story. And
you have this documentary that's come in in August, James
can he What can people expect to see in that film?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
And I just want to say it is a. It
is a true honor to be a part of the
whole Generation Iron organization, like to be involved with them.
I've been watching Generation I since I was a teenager. Crazy,
but I'm obviously Amazon Amazon Prime August twenty second, so
equally excited and nervous. I'm not sure what to expect,
to be.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Honest, Well, you've seen it obviously.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, But when you watch it back, each time, you
notice something different, you know, because it's me, I'm paying
super attention. I'm like, I really said that or did that? Really?
Like you when you when you look at the whole story,
it's actually kind of crazy. I'm living it. So sometimes
like when you look back, you're like, oh, yeah, that
really happened. That's me up there, you know what i mean,
(24:09):
Like it's super shocking, Like you know, I know for you,
like you kind of had this crazy you know, you've
done some crazy cool stuff. You know, I'll watch you
on TV as a kid, you know what I mean,
Like nothing else you've done. Now as a regular dude
that's done all this crazy stuff. Now I'm like, whoa,
Like that's actually me up there. And it's like you
notice you fixate on certain things and to be honest,
(24:31):
Like my friends are, like, I haven't let anyone watch
it yet, friends or family, because I just want everyone
to watch it when it comes out, and I don't
know be inundated with the crazy feedback. I guess I
don't even know what to expect.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Well, we're excited to see it, So what is next
for you? Like what's on your bucket list?
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Look? Well, firstly, what's next is I've got to get
through the next two and a half months. It's a
contest season starting up again. We have a small break
after the fourth of July contest. I've got a few
titles to defend in September, so I'm super excited. I
got my RIB title to defend this weekend in Minnesota.
So the next two and a half months is going
to be I'll be in a different city every week, traveling, competing,
(25:20):
doing my thing. But in terms of competitive eating obviously,
besides the Nathan's Contest, like that's massive, right always, I
got to qualify for that. That's like the Grail. But
there's also a kind of cool event in Singapore at
Comic Con. I want to I want to try to
get it get an invite to that, so I've got
to get some cool performances and some cool videos ready
to send it off to them, so hopefully get a
(25:42):
spot at the Comic Coon contest. This this Decembi in Singapore.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
I mean, what, yeah, what's the food there?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So every year, every year it changes, but it's so
Asia is massive for competitive eating. Like they're crazy. They
do like forty five minute contests. Now I'm about a
ten hot dog contest. They're eating for like forty five
minutes to an hour, right, so bang right, but they
turned muck bang into like competition, right, So I just
want to go and experience that and just see how
(26:11):
I kind of match up against the Asian eaters because
you watch on YouTube they're wild, man. So I just
want to go and compete. So that's definitely a bucket
list for me because like not many, not many Westerners
have had the opportunity to be a part of that contest.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Is like summertime. The I know you have different seasons
down under, but like it is like summertime like the
peak season for these competitions.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yes, so yeah, so definitely the warmer months. So usually
normally we have one so we have one or two
contests at either end. So for example Vegas in January
it's freezing, but there's a very popular contest there and
usually descend by in Indiana again freezing, but there's usually
a contest either end, but the core contest is from
May all the way through to July fourth. Then we
(27:00):
get a small break and then usually it's the end
of July through to like mid October, so we get breakes.
But definitely the hotter months is the more popular months.
And especially like back home in Australia, right it's actually
winter right now in Australia, so freezing cold. The contest
in Australia start like end of August when it does
start getting a little warmer in Australia, I think as well,
(27:23):
like when it's good weather, people are going to turn
out to watch. Where it's raining and cold, no one's
really gonna watch a bunch of maniacs on stage smashing
a bunch of food, right.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
You never know, it's a hell of a draw. Sorry,
And when you're like if you go out of town
on like a vacation or something, and you go into
a restaurant and you just just by a chance you
see on the menu like oh, finish the finish the
burger and you'll get your picture on the wall. Do
you ever just do like I mean, that's gotta be
child's played for someone like you. Is your picture on
(27:54):
the wall and like a million restaurants across the world.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, it's pretty crazy how many challenges I've done, how
many records I've got. To be honest, it really depends
on how I feel or what i'm doing, Like when
I'm so for example, I've been with my family for
the past three weeks. After that, they came over for
Nathan's and we kind of stayed together, went to Disney World,
had the family downtime vacation. So I consciously made the
decision to not do any stupid stuff. I just want
(28:17):
to spend time with my wife and little one and
catch up because I haven't seen them in five months. Right,
So for the last three weeks, I've been taking it
super easy. But like, for example, I'm in Minnesota now.
So if I go if I'm going out for dinner
tonight and there's a burger challenge on the menu, hell yeah,
I'm going to smash it.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
That is awesome. Wait, do you get trophies?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah? To be honest a lot of a good contest.
They have the wrestling belts. So I've got a bunch
of I've got a bunch of belts. I've got a
bunch of trophies. It's actually super cool. You're Americans clause,
you guys take it seriously, like you guys love memorabilia
and stuff, right, So I've got some super cool wrestling belts.
I've got some massive trophies. Honestly, competing winning stuff in
this country is awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
O Hey, where do you put it all? Do you
have a room for it?
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah? Yeah, So I've got at home in Australia, I've
got like this big shelf, but it's now gone to
three shelves and it's taken up like a big chunk
of our living room wall. So I've just recently, because
I've launched my clothing line, I've built a gym and
a warehouse and for the clothing I'm going to make
like a section for all my memorabilia because my wife's
(29:24):
got some. I've got some super sentimental stuff. My wife
got it all framed up and stuff. So I'm going
to on the wall of the gym in the warehouse,
I'm going to chuck it all on the wall, and
I'm going to have a corner for my trophies and
my belts and stuff because it's taken up so much
of our apartment.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
So cool. Wait, tell us about your clothing line.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Oh yeah, so the can syndicate basically. Obviously, my handle
on social media is Jweb you can eat, But I
guess the backstory along and the short of it. When
I started doing this, everyone's like, you're a maniac, Like,
don't do this, Like you can't make a living from
eating and blah blah blah or social media. I'm like, no,
I can and I will, right, So you can do
anything right. I dress a certain way, I have a
(30:06):
certain style about me, and everyone's like, you shouldn't wear that.
I'm like, I can wear it. I can do what
I want, right. So the whole image of the brand
is you could do what you want, right, And so
I made this brand. Can for example, like I like
oversized T shirts, so I made oversized T shirts. I
like mid length shorts and crew socks. So I kind
of just made clothes that I like to wear. But
(30:27):
it kind of it started off as just I want
clothes for me. That's it. Then it started, it escalated.
Now I've got half a warehouse full of clothes that
people seemingly want to buy. It's pretty wild. It's a
cool story. But yeah, it honestly started because like I
just want to stick it to the man, and you
can do what you want. And I'm moving through for
if you try hard enough, you can make it happen.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
I love that so much. That's awesome, that's so inspiring.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Well do you have to worry like medically about like
cholesterol and yeah, things like that.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
So obviously health, I've been through it with my health.
Health is everything I understand. With health, you've literally got nothing.
So I get checked up every time I go back
to Australia. The routine. My wife picked up from the airport.
So I'm my mama's boy. I have to go home
for coffee and cake with my mama. But first things first,
I have to go to the doctor, get my bloods done.
Then I can go see my mom. So I always
every time I come back to Australia, I get my
(31:17):
blood work done, calcium score, cholesterol, blood sugar, all that
kind of stuff. To be honest, last blood test, I
actually was fine, Like everything was in mid range. Everything
was okay for the most part. Like I had a few,
like you know, you know, a few like deficiencies, but
not crazy crazy, you know, taking a month off when
(31:39):
I go home. It kind of fixed everything. But my
dentist hates me. My dentist absolutely hates me because I'm
a left hander, so I chew across my mouth, so
I always chew on my right side. I'm starting to
get a receding gum on one of my teeth and
my dentist is like, chew on the other side. I'm like, no, no,
I can't because I need to win. And she's like,
(32:00):
you know, she's trying to explain it to me, like
you know, habits, if you have to have a gum
graft and whatever. I'm like, yeah, I'll just go to
Turkey and get some veneers. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Wait, when you're like in the height of competition, what
is your libido? Like does it affect Like after competition,
do you want sexy time? Or now.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
You need to ask my wife. But to be honest,
it does you get affected? Like you're so lethargic, And
to be honest, even preparing for a contest because you're
depleting your body, trying to like make maximum space in
your body. You know, Like, let's be honest, for the
month of June, every second day I was eating hot dogs.
That is not nutritious at all, Right, So, like, yeah,
you go through like periods of like lethargy and like
(32:45):
you don't want to like you know, you're just existing,
like oh, you think you're so and that's I guess
that's the weird part with what we do. You obsess
over things like your technique or whatever, right, and it's
all you think about. So yeah, honestly, I do know
that like libido goes down, anything goes down. That's why
my wife is such a geek. She's just my supporter.
She just knows, like I need to help. Like, for example,
(33:05):
when they came over in June, we've got to go
to Walmart, We've got to get to hot dogs, we've
got to cut the hot dogs, we've got to plate
up the plates. And she just knows, like for this month,
it's game time, right, So she helps me thing. And honestly,
without my wife, I'll be so screwed. Man. I'm just boy,
I'm a man, Like I can only do so much, right,
my wife is the brains of the operation.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Ain't that the truth?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Man?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
That's how it is. Yeah. What, And I know you
probably have an allegiance to Nathan's a little bit, but like,
is there a brand of hot dog that you that
you like that you prefer when you're training?
Speaker 2 (33:40):
To be honest, I'm not sorry if I should say this,
but I actually don't like hot dogs. Wow. But for
the life of me, I don't know how you Americans
spend money on hot dogs. Like, I get it. It's
it's an American It's a delicacy. It's a thing. Right.
In Australia we do meat pies. Again, not the greatest food,
but it's kind of iconic, right. I'm the biggest fan
of hot dogs, so, to be honest, I think I've
only ever eaten Nathan's hot dogs because of the event.
(34:03):
Like I've never actually bought the other brands, because I
actually don't want to eat hot dogs in my spare time.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
I get it. I completely understand. Really, yeah, I mean,
if you're doing it that hard and that competitively, I mean,
I probably the other thing is we don't have.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Hot dogs in Australia, like what you guys call a
hot dog, we don't really have in Australia, So I no,
So like I didn't grow up eating the hot dogs
that you guys call a hot dog, right, Like, so
we we do like a thing called a sausage sizzle.
It's like a beef sausage in a bread like a
slice of bread, right, or our hot dogs. If you
go to Australia and buy a hot dog from like
a restaurant or whatever, it's like a Frankfurt. But like
(34:41):
what you guys physically call a hot dog, we don't
have that in Australia. We have a beef sausage or
like a Frankfurt, right. But this hot dog thing you
guys have is like a hybrid of both.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Cocktail winnies like pigs in a blanket.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
So we don't really so pigs in a blanket aren't
really a thing in Australia. We have like cocktail frankfurts,
and again you put it in like a bread roll.
But like I was trending in Australia, I think, yeah, yeah, yeah,
like I know what a hot dog is. I got
here and I had no idea what I was doing.
I had no idea what I was looking at like, honestly,
what you guys call hot dog is is not what
(35:16):
we call a hot dog, and I it sounds really crazy,
but it's different. Wow.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
I mean that makes what you do is all the
more impressive.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
I think.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Do you eat sushi?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I love sushi.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
You've been in a sushi competition?
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Yeah, Australian record is one hundred and two pieces of
sushi in two minutes and twenty three secs.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
One hundred pieces and two minutes. Oh my god, Oh
I just got.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Not Yeah, that's Australia and hopefully never be beat in.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
That doesn't even sound okay for your body, like your
mercury level.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Look, the best way I can describe what I do
or what we do, it's kind of like a boxer, right,
or any kind of combat sport. They put their body
through hell in preparation for the fight or the game day. Right,
for game day, you're going to get punch in the face.
Now we all know face is not necessarily good for you, right,
(36:14):
and they recover and go again. Competitive eating is the same.
You put your body through hell in preparation or game
day to be punched in the face by a bunch
of hot dogs or a massive tray of sushi and
then you recover and then you go again like a
week later.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
I mean it's a sport, it's an athletic athletic feet wow,
and it hurts. Yeah, yeah, I mean you're yeah, you're
putting your body through hell. James, this is so fascinating.
We have enjoyed talking to you so much. Again. J
Webb Kenny on Instagram. The documentary James Kenney that is
(36:51):
on Prime Video August twenty second.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I am sake to watch it.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
We're so pumped.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Last question for you, when I excited after we talked
to you that we would do a little competition between
the two of us eating hot dogs, do you have
any tips for us?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
If it's just one hot dog, I would not recommend
dunking it. I would just try eating it.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
The dunking. I can't do the dunking, but.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Drink in one hand, hot dog in another. Drink Bye
bye drink.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Okay, bite bite drink. That's a good rhythm.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Bite whoa yeah, bite.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Two small bites a sports of drink to like soften
it up right and then swallow it and then bye
bite drink, bite, bite drink. Hopefully you can do the
hot dog in like six bites, right, so like one
to drink one to drink one to seelander the champions.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
What if I throw up?
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Then you're just qualified? Any best?
Speaker 3 (37:57):
What interesting?
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Nothing can leave, nothing can leave your body. So I've
got a random story for you. I got to qualify
for my first contest last year in a Tamali's contest.
I managed to eat ninety seven Tomali's in ten minutes,
and I had so much Tamali in my body it
actually came through my nose. But but like chunks of tamali.
(38:21):
It looked like porn shot out of my nose. And
I got to qualify.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Do you say porn or corn?
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Corn? Corn? That is insane? Oh my god, the visuals
are like horrifying. I can't believe you experienced that in
real life. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Wait, you give food porn a whole new name.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Wait, I think there should be I think there.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Should be a channel called only food instead of only
fans any people Like I don't know if.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
I should say this or not say this or not,
but there's people out there that ask for bloat of
belly pictures and burd.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Videos and they are and what videos?
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah, they offer cash and.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Oh, I can make a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah, like you know when you drink some soda and
you but right, so I'm not joking. There's I know
some people that have been paid to do this kind
of crazy stuff. So it's kind of like it's kind
of like only food but like marketplace style.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Hey, we don't want to yuck anyone'sym. We're not here
to kink sheen. But that's uh. You know there's something.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
We bloated videos. I would do really well with one
of those right now, really bloated. I don't know how
I'm gonna eat these hot dogs. Deep breaths.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
To be honest, you hold your breath a lot in
a contest, so you breathe when you drink.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Interesting hold your breath bye bite drinks so.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
You says bye bite, take a small breath, drink, swallow,
breathe out, bye bye.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
I'm not that coordinated to that rhythm.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
That's what we that's what but see that that's what
we practice, honestly, Like, that's what goes into preparation of
a contest. Right, you got to pick your time because
you feel they're just the guy next to you is
going to be eating more food. Than you, right, so
you've got to kind of coordinate your breathing that doesn't
affect the rhythm.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Is there one food sorry before we go? Is there
one food you absolutely hate but you will have to
eat it one day to go through all these competitions?
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah? So I think the hardest contest for me is baloney.
So it is a very very pat and big baloney contest.
I did thirteen pounds in eight minutes. Joey beat me
by just one. I think it was one and a
half or two pounds, and I don't but bony is
(40:53):
next level harsh, like it's it's just like smoked baloney.
It's not even like bread or nothing. Right. I understand
a bloonney sandwich is a quite popular just autumn here
in America, But this is just juice and I was
just trying to get as fat as I could and
it's just the flight and all.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Super Oh god, well some hot talk. Yeah, Well, we
are such big fans of you, James again, James Webb
James can Eat. Watch the documentary foll him on Instagram.
He is he is the goat. If you ask me,
this guy is a hero. J Webby can Eat on
Instagram thank you so much for joining us today and
(41:34):
thank you for all the tips man, thanks for sharing
your secrets with us.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Thank you guys for having me. I honestly I really
appreciate the opportunity. Thank you so much, and good luck
with Thos.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Thank you, thank you, James. Bye.
Hosts And Creators
Tori Spelling
Jennie Garth
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