July 5, 2023 • 28 mins
Ben Maller & Danny G. have a fun, holiday week bonus broadcast! This is an extended holiday for a lot of people, Danny booked the Nathan's 4th of July American hero Joey Chestnut to sit down with Ben again this year! This time, Joey literally walks through a storm to win his 16th Mustard Belt! Ben checks in with the World's #1 Competitive Eater, with a rare after-the-super-event interview!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kabbooms.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
of the old republic, a sol fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The Clearinghouse of Hot takes break free for something special.
The Fifth Hour with Ben Mahller starts right now in
the air.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Everywhere. The Fifth Hour with Ben Mahler and Danny g
Radio is underway. We are off to the races, and
this a super special edition of the Fifth Hour podcast.
Now why is this podcast different than most other podcasts
that we do here. Well, the reason is We're gonna
(00:53):
be chatting in a few minutes with the greatest professional
athlete in the entire world. Now that is not hyperbole.
I'm not embellishing this. In the entire globe, the whole
planet that we have here, there is one man that
stands above all the rest, and that man is going
(01:16):
to join us in a few His name is Joey Chestnut.
Now I would assume the position based on the radio
show and the fact that I have talked about this
guy quite a bit that you are aware of who
Joey Chestnut is. But if you buy off chance are not,
you're not that educated, bad job by you. So we're
(01:38):
going to talk to him, but I want to kind
of set this up, give you the full retrospective before
we bring Joey in here. Joey Chestnut is by far,
he's like Secretariat, what many lengths ahead of the field
when it comes to competitive eating. So that's the first thing.
He does twenty to twenty five events each year. Currently
(01:59):
Joey chest Nut holds not one, not two, not three,
not four, not five. How about fifty five world records.
Fifty five world records in the domain of major league eating.
Now the biggest of them all, the gold standard, is
(02:23):
the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, which just took place
the other day on July fourth in Coney Island out
there in Brooklyn, and the Nathan's Hot Dog Contest the record.
Joey Chestnut did not set a new record this year,
but he had seventy six hot dogs and buns a
few years back in ten minutes. Seventy six dogs and
(02:45):
buns in ten minutes. That is the global record. But
that is just one of many records, that's the one
that's the sexiest record, that gets all the attention and
all that. But did you know, let me give you
some of these other glazed donuts. Now, back in my
big eating days, I could get through a dozen glazed
(03:06):
donuts in no time at all. But after that, I
don't know if you've tried eating glazed donuts, but after
about a dozen, even when I was at my fattest,
when I was porking the pig okaya back in those days,
even at that point, about a dozen was my limit. Well,
Joey Chestnut has the all time record fifty five glazed
(03:30):
donuts in eight minutes. Here's something I have not eaten on.
My mom tried to get me to eat one when
I was a kid. I said, no, Mom, I don't
want that, And now as an adult, I'm never gonna
eat it. Hard boiled eggs not a fan. Not a fan.
And Joey Chestnut, he has the record one hundred and
forty one, one hundred and forty one in eight minutes
(03:54):
that Joey Chestnut ate back in the day. I can
go on and on. How about pulled pork sandwiches? Not
my thing? I'm not sure how big these sandwiches were,
but Joey ate forty five of them in ten minutes.
He did an eating contest with Taco Bell. You know
those soft shell beef tacos. He ate fifty three of
(04:16):
those in ten minutes. I'm pretty sure back in the
day I could have done something similar. They're not that big.
You can squish them. I think I could have competed
in that domain. But what else? Twinkies? Now, I love twinkies.
I was all about the twinkies back in the day,
and those are pretty easy to eat. They're light and
(04:37):
fluffy and there's the cream filling in there. Joey Chestnut
ate one hundred and twenty one one hundred and twenty
one twinkies in six minutes. How crazy is that? But wait,
there's more. We're not done. I don't know if you've
ever had those crystal hamburgers. They're not that big, right,
crystal hamburgers. So Joey Chestnut a couple years ago ate
(05:01):
one hundred and three of those in eight minutes. He's
also the King of the Chicken wing. I'm not sure
if this is at the old radio promotion the Wing
Bowl in Philadelphia, which they did for years with a
guy we've had on the podcast, Angelo Cataldior Dot. But
either way, Joey Chestnut in the span of twelve hours, yeah,
(05:23):
not minutes, twelve hours, Hey, four hundred and thirteen chicken wings,
which is the world record. Is any of this impressing you?
How about Big Max? We've all had Big Max, right,
even if you're a vegan, you've eaten a Big Mac,
the Big Mac for McDonald's, the Classic Sandwich for Mickey
D's in thirty eight minutes, Joey Chestnut eight thirty two
(05:47):
Big Max sandwiches, which is also the world record. The
ice cream sandwich. I love an ice cream sandwich. To me,
the perfect dessert is a big giant glob of vanilla
ice cream and two properly baked, soft but not too soft,
chocolate chip cookies, and you slap that ice cream in
(06:11):
between those two chocolate chip cookies, and you make the
perfect ice cream sandwich. I don't need all the other
bells and whistles. I don't need that. I love the
ice cream sandwich. Now. I can eat a couple of
those things.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I know.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
If you go to Trader Joe's, they've got like a
four pack. They're really small. There's another place here in
Los Angeles. There's a bakery in the South Bay that
makes a Supreme Supreme ice cream sandwich. It's a little
bigger and it's more expensive, but either way, I love them.
And Joey Chestnut in six minutes, six minutes. Back in
(06:42):
the day, he ate twenty five and a half ice
cream sandwiches twenty five and a half. Now that's the
good news, right, the good news. The bad news is
that all of these titles, all of these accomplies. It's
not like the NBA, where you can sit on the bench,
(07:04):
get hemorrhoids and you're still going to make a gazillion dollars.
For example, the minimum so I go to baseball, the
minimum salary in baseball is seven hundred thousand dollars a year.
Now where I live, if you make seven hundred thousand
dollars a year, you are rich. You are loaded. Oh
my god, are you loaded? If you've got that kind
(07:27):
of scratch, And that's the that's the major league minimum.
I'm so old. I remember when I was a kid,
the announcers used to kid around about the fact that,
you know, these guys have to get other jobs of
the offseason. They're making the major league minimum. They can
they can't afford to do anything. Well, if you're making
seven hundred thousand dollars plus on top of that you
(07:47):
get all the bells and whistles, all the perks of
being a baseball player, you're doing very well well. The
reason I bring all this up, Joey chestnut does not
make ridiculous money. He's a man who is amongst the regulars.
He's not a higher level in terms of financial income.
In fact, most of these eating events pay one thousand
(08:10):
bucks here, a couple thousand there. I think the most
is the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest, which was ten
thousand dollars. So you get ten grand at the Nathan's contest.
But there's other factors involved in that. And so Joey
chestnutt has made a good amount of money as a
product endorser, as a pitchman for Pepto bismol. He did
(08:36):
a promotion with Raising Canes last year. Might beloved Raising Canes,
and so he's doing okay. He has own line of
hot sauces that he does there. He does a lot
of paid appearances. In fact, from what I've heard, and
Joey did not tell me this, but from what I've heard,
a number of big corporations I'm talking about Wall Street
(08:57):
corporations have requested that Joey Chestnut come hang out and
talk to the masses and all that and have a
grand old time. And he gets paid a good amount
of money. So he's he's found different revenue streams over
the years, and he's doing okay. I mean, you think
(09:17):
he'd be doing better based on all of the dominance
he's had in competitive eating. Now, as for the event
that took place this week in New York, the fourth
of July, what a spectacle, What a spectacle this thing
has become. And it's really a great credit to the
people behind the professional eating outfit. And then it's also
(09:40):
a discredit to Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball, the
fourth of July was always the day, that's the biggest day.
There's no NBA, there's no NFL. Training camps don't start
in the NFL for a fair amount of time, and
so you had baseball on an island by themselves. It's
a very hard to screw up an island when you're
(10:02):
on an island. Now, I realized that the NBA Summer
League is a thing. I don't quite get the neurosis
around the NBA Summer League. I don't. I used to
go to the Summer League when it was in Southern California.
It was in Long Beach for a while, and in
Irvine they had the NBA Summer Pro League, and no
one gave a rats ass. There was hardly anyone there.
(10:23):
When I say there was hardly anyone there. I would
go out to the NBA Summer Pro League and some nights,
depending on which teams were playing, you would see crowds
of maybe a couple hundred, maybe a couple hundred. I
flip on the Summer League in Vegas. These games are
on TV, and I'm looking at thousands of people. The
(10:44):
fact that the games are on TV is insane to me. Right,
So that's going on, but that's not that big a draw.
And then you've got Major League eating and this has
become the event that everyone talks about. You know, back
in the day, I had a program director PD and
(11:04):
this program director he said, you know, Ben, you gotta
be on the pulse what people are talking about at
the water cooler, because that was always the argument. These
radio consultants said, you know, what are people talking about
at the water cooler. I don't know if people still
talk about these things at the water cooler. I don't
work in a cubicle setup, and from the feedback I've
(11:26):
gotten from you guys that listen to the show, most
of you do not work in a cubicle situation. Now
we are a podcast, this is the fifth hour podcast,
and so it's a little different to the people that
are podcast listeners, but those that are listening live to
the overnight show, the terrestrial radio show. When we're doing
it live overnight, it's fair to say that you're not
(11:47):
in a cubicle, that you're driving a truck, you're rolling
around in bed because you have sleep apnea or some
kind of sleep condition where you can't sleep, or you're
doing some kind of physical labor job. That's most of
the people that work the third shift, and that's kind
of been the way that it's happened. So I don't
(12:08):
work in a cubic situation. So I don't know if
that they're still hanging around people still hang around the
water cooler? Is it the vending machine? Maybe you sit
there and look at the snickers, should I get the Snickers,
the Nestley crunch bar and all that, but get to
the point, please. So the point is that the hot
dog eating Contest is the thing people talk. It's you
(12:29):
want to strike up a conversation with a family member
or someone that you're hanging out with friends over the
fourth of July. Hey, did you see how many hot dogs?
Joey chest Nune eight? Did you see the hot dog?
And no, I didn't see it. Oh well you wait
till you hear about this. And they go on and
on and it's it's amazing thing. So the hot dog
(12:49):
contest is on the fourth isly as we say, and
the build up for this thing is next level. Now
there's a guy. We had him on the podcast. I
think it was two years ago or three years ago.
It might have been three years ago. Now this guy
named George Shay. Now, if you've watched the Eating Contest
on television, George Shay is the playing the role of
(13:11):
the Coney Island Carnival Barker. He's got the straw hat on,
he's got the full outfit, and he's the one that
is the hype man. And there is no better hype man,
no better hype man in the entire world than George
Shay and the guy he's fascinating because he's obviously a
(13:34):
big shot at major league eating that's his gig, but
he's also got another job which he does not act
anywhere near the character that he is. He really puts
on the bells and whistles. And this is the event,
the Hot Dog Eating Contest, and he introduces all of
the combatants and it's like a wrestling match or a
(13:56):
boxing match if you haven't watched it, but to give
you an eye if you missed it this year, if
you've never seen this before and you're like, what the
hell are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Malard?
Speaker 1 (14:05):
All right, fun, So I have a little audio clip
we're going to play. This is from the Entertainment and
Sports Network from the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Take
a listen to George Shay. This is the introduction for
Joey Chestnut. And there's a thousands of people. The crowd
was thirty thousand in a lightning and rainstorm on Cony Isla,
(14:30):
So there were tons and tons of people. I mean,
here's a big crowd here, bigger than the NBA or
the NHL. Get and bigger than most baseball attendances during
the week. So thousands of people hanging out Fourth of July.
Everyone's having a good time. The booze is a flowing.
George Shay is at the microphone from Major League Eating.
(14:51):
He's the one making the introduction. And here is what
it sounded like when Joey Chestnut, the gold standard, the
man we're going to talk up to here in a
few minutes, When Joey Chestnut got up and he stood
up there and George Shay introduced him. Take a listen
to the word magic. One of the great speeches of
(15:16):
our time in the world of sports. And I don't
think I'm blowing smoke on this. Here is George Shay
introducing Joey Chestnut for the event of events in Major
League Eating. Take a listen.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Fifteen thousand generations of humanity, yet we have evolved, not
at all, found like animals to the laws of physics,
shamed before the universe, and in all of history, only
one man has stood to say that he will dictate
(15:51):
what is and is not possible in this world.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I speak of this man.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
He has broken reality and all the time burst out
around us now and once simultaneous and endless eraising cars
and effect and opening all posibilities before us. And the
ancient flowers are subordinated to their own creations, and they
smile at his achievement, and.
Speaker 6 (16:21):
They say he needs shot with forever, for he does
not do it for money, He does not do it
for glory. He does it for his peopels, He does
it for his country.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
He does it for freedom.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
I give you the number one ranked eater in the world.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Joy just.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
And the introduction from George Shay, what a scene that was,
and the audio it's just tremendous, the right he is
that completely memorized. He told me a couple of years
you go back into the archive of the Fifth Hour
podcast that George Shay, who was doing the introductions, we
had him on, and he says, he writes all that
stuff down and then he has to memorize it. And
(17:07):
what a great memory. That is very impressive from George Chesh.
So that was the introduction, and then the event took
place Joey Chestnut. It started late. There was a weather delay.
There was lightning on Coney Island, so the whole event
got delayed. In fact, at one point it was canceled,
and people were freaking out. You can't cancel the Nathan's
(17:29):
Hot Dog Union Contest. What's wrong with here?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (17:31):
After a two hour weather delay, the event was back
on and spoiler alert spoiler alert, my man, Joey Chestnut.
He did win again. Otherwise we would not be having
him on the podcast. But Chestnut went out and in
ten minutes a sixty two hot dogs and buns, So
he did not break his previous record, but in ten
(17:55):
minutes of time. A couple of fun facts. A that's
eighteen thousand, four hundred and fourteen calories in ten minutes.
The carbohydrates, it's almost fifteen hundred carbohydrates. Proteen was I
six't eighty two was the number that I saw on
that total fat one thousand, one hundred and twenty nine.
(18:17):
Any dietitian, any dietitian, will say, what are we doing here?
My god? But Chestnut one. And so that means now
that he has won out of the last seventeen years,
Joey Chestnut has won sixteen out of the last seventeen
Mustard Belts, the Great Mustard Belt, and so he's the
(18:40):
all time king at this and he's added another notch
to his belt. Now full disclosure, one of the reasons
I have been going through all of this on the
podcast is we've been trying to track down Joey Chestnut
as he is at this time we are recording this podcast,
he is leaving New York, so the phone communication has
(19:02):
not been that particularly great as we've tried to track
down Joy, but we do have them online now. So
we welcome in to the fifth hour podcast, The Man,
the Myth, the legend, the greatest eater of all time.
Let's start with this. How would you grade your performance
(19:23):
in the hot dog eating contest that took place with
all of the variables, everything that went on, Joey, how
would you grade your performance in this year's contest?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I didn't break a record, but I got the win
and conditions were weird. Oh everything was delayed. But yeah,
I'm happy with it, but it gives me I'm a
little bit hungry. They come back and and proof.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
What was going on behind the scenes, because it was crazy.
At one point they announced the thing was going to
be canceled. There was a lightning delay and kind of
walked me through that what was going on behind the
scenes there.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
It was a really really big storm and lighting. There
was lightning strikes, I guess on the beach. So the
city wanted to clear out the crowd, so they Yeah,
they announced it was canceled for a while, and then
eventually it cleared up and the stayed. So, uh, we
had the contest.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Now, there was a viral clip of you. I'm sure
you're aware of it now where you were you were
storming out there. You had this this look on your
face like you were not going to allow this thing
to be be canceled. What was what was going on there?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
How?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
How how was the communication to you and and how
big a role did you play and making sure this
thing did not get canceled?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I don't think it was me that much. Try. I
went out there because the crowd was still chanting, and
if they're out there, they were stayed in the rain.
So I went out there and say hi people, and uh,
the crowd stayed. I think that that really it was
really the crowd that did it. Uh if they had left,
they would probably rescheduled it somewhere else. But uh, like
(20:50):
they like, the crowd might have revolted if if if
the city full one canceled it.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, what was it like, I mean, I saw the
clip of them channing Joey, Joey Joey. Maybe that happens
all the time to you. It's never happened to me.
What's that like when you're walking out there and you
get a you know, thousands of people chanting your name
like that.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Oh it's uh, it's insane, and that's awesome. It makes me.
Uh yeah, I'll do whatever it takes to mega record
or get the wind. So I'm really happy that have
all worked out.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So they had to boil. I saw they had to
boil a thousand more hot dogs use of the delay
and all that you eat so fast. Does the quality
of the hot dog actually mattered?
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Negative? Doesn't boil? I thought they grill them? Maybe they
they're delicious. Yeah, they do a pretty good job. Unfortunately,
some of the dogs they that I got, they had
been sitting out for a little while just because did
they get the delay? And then some other ones were
like super fresh and amazing, So it was it kind
of messed up my rhythm a little bit, going from
old fresh dogs. But uh, yeah, they do a pretty
(21:55):
good job. I'll make sure the quality is.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Good, but you actually can you actually tell the different
you're eating so fast. It's it's fascinating to me that
you can actually tell what's good and bad because.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Absolutely it's like it's like a race car driver driving
on a bad road versus a new a good road.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
If there's a bomb for something, uh, they hit it
really hard and fast. If there's a flavor or at
sure that's a little bit difficult, I'm going to hit
and run into it a lot again and again.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Now we talked to you last year. I know you've
got your routine Joey and all that. Is there something
specifically that you listen to to kind of get you
fired up before this is the super Bowl of competitive eating?
So is there something you tune in music or something
you tune in to kind of get yourself fired up
for this thing?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Uh? Some a little bit, a little bit of hard rock,
a little bit of Static X or maybe some rub Zombie.
But yeah, but it really that's one for practice. The
contest day, it's the audience gets me fired up. It's
hard to get fired up for practice, but the contest
(22:57):
day it's Uh, it's it's still a trick.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
How how early do you get up before the hot
dog contest, like you get up there.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, I make sure I get up early early day out,
because when you sleep, that's when all your muscles work
together to digest everything. That's when your stomachs at the smallest.
So I made sure I wake up super early so
I can make sure everything stretched and loves by the
time I eat.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I was trying to explain to somebody, Joey, that the
preparation that goes into this, like you're I compare you
to like a boxer, Like how walk us through that?
How long does it take to get and you do
a bunch of these events during the year, But how
long is it a couple of weeks? Is it a month?
How long do you prepare for these events?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
And I'm a little bit Barras's almost two months, seven
or eight weeks, depending on how I'm feeling. But this year,
this year is full seven weeks and and then once
a week I'm doing practice, and and there's a before
we practice, and a recovery period after and right right
like right now, I'm still recovering. I won'll be back
to my normal wait for a couple more days. And uh,
(24:01):
it's you try to peek around close to the post
July and it's sometime I love.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, I read that you do. I think you said
you did like a liquid cleanse type thing in preparation.
Is that? Is that accurate? You have like a liquid
diet before the contest.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Cleanse beforehand, lemon juice, water, couple a little oil to
make sure that everything's out in my system and it's easy,
clean highway for it for me to digest.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah, and you've done so many of these things over
the years. Now do you have the what happens to
your body after? Are you you have that down pass?
It different every year when you eat this many hot
tugs or some years easier than other years.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
How did that's the delay? It made it a little
bit harder of the body. I tried to time out
everything pretty perfectly, how much the liquid I'm drinking, and
then how much they little bit of caffeine right beforehand.
So uh, I kind of it ended up taking a
little bit more caffeine than I usually just take. So
(25:05):
it's a little bit harder and get Yeah, I love
hydrated after the contest this year, so I'm not getting
the best today, but I'm getting it.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
And I also saw that you you you said you
take like a long nap when you're done with all
your media stuff after the kind of how long a
nap do you take? What's your what's your sleep time
after this thing?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Well? I think that I passed out for about four
hours and had some crazy dreams and it alon'st feel
like a different day when I wake up.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Wow. And then how long does it take And you've
been asked this so much of touch and how long
does it take for your body to kind of feel
normal after you eat that much food?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Different degrees and normal? Like, I'm not feeling great now.
It'll it'll take two more days to feel really normal normal.
But it's something I know, and it's not I'm not
gonna be right for a while.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Do you eat the day after the next couple days
or do you fast after that to kind of let
your body?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
A rua salad earlier today? Uh, I actually it wasn't
that good, but I was. I ate it. Uh And
I had a post too.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
When people see you eating a salad, do they say
what are you doing, Joey?
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Why are you Why are you eating a I have
to eat high fiber otherwise otherwise I'm trying to keep
things moving bro, it's not it's not. Yeah, And if
I IF I, if I needy carbs, really that's when
the weight really stays on me. So the high fiber
will help me get everything to get through the systems.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
So what do you do with all these trophies? You
won a bunch of awards. The hot dog one is
the big one, but you do a bunch of these
other things. You've You've won just about all of them,
it seems here. So do you have like the coolest
man cave in the world. Where do all these things go?
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I don't know. I have an office and then there
are a couple of places. There's some friends who own
restaurants who they have a couple of my trophies and
I get to go there. Well, yeah, we trade drinks
for trophies.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Oh, there you go, there you go. You should you
ought to open your own restaurant show that'd be perfect, man,
you could have your error.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Restaurants are a lot of work, and that becomes your life.
Maybe maybe, uh yeah, I don't know, that'd be a no.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
You you know, people, Joey, I could I could see
you could get hooked up with some restaurants something and
then you could have like you know, Joey chestnuts buffet
or something like that. You could that's that could be
big money for you.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I think we thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
We'll say you told me last time we talked about
you you came from a family of prolific eaters and
all that is it is your talent, you think genetic
or is it a product of environment and how you
kind of worked yourself into what you've become.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I'm a natural eater, but like any like anybody, have
to practice and phone in your skilled. Uh. There's there's nature,
but there's all the nurture. I remember the first time
I did a dot contest, I did twenty dogs, and
now now I feel the same way when I actually
I feel better kind of a three yesterday then I
(28:01):
did they did twenty.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Do you think you could actually teach like a master class,
one of those type classes if somebody came to you
said I want to be the next Joey Chess.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
I don't know. It's something. Yeah, maybe it's possible. If
somebody really wants to do it, they can learn and
they get if they want to push themselves, they can
get better.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Thanks for doing this, Joe, I know you're busy and
you got stuff going
Speaker 3 (28:20):
On, and thank you so much of the bell I'll
put you take care
Kabbooms.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
of the old republic, a sol fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The Clearinghouse of Hot takes break free for something special.
The Fifth Hour with Ben Mahller starts right now in
the air.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Everywhere. The Fifth Hour with Ben Mahler and Danny g
Radio is underway. We are off to the races, and
this a super special edition of the Fifth Hour podcast.
Now why is this podcast different than most other podcasts
that we do here. Well, the reason is We're gonna
(00:53):
be chatting in a few minutes with the greatest professional
athlete in the entire world. Now that is not hyperbole.
I'm not embellishing this. In the entire globe, the whole
planet that we have here, there is one man that
stands above all the rest, and that man is going
(01:16):
to join us in a few His name is Joey Chestnut.
Now I would assume the position based on the radio
show and the fact that I have talked about this
guy quite a bit that you are aware of who
Joey Chestnut is. But if you buy off chance are not,
you're not that educated, bad job by you. So we're
(01:38):
going to talk to him, but I want to kind
of set this up, give you the full retrospective before
we bring Joey in here. Joey Chestnut is by far,
he's like Secretariat, what many lengths ahead of the field
when it comes to competitive eating. So that's the first thing.
He does twenty to twenty five events each year. Currently
(01:59):
Joey chest Nut holds not one, not two, not three,
not four, not five. How about fifty five world records.
Fifty five world records in the domain of major league eating.
Now the biggest of them all, the gold standard, is
(02:23):
the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, which just took place
the other day on July fourth in Coney Island out
there in Brooklyn, and the Nathan's Hot Dog Contest the record.
Joey Chestnut did not set a new record this year,
but he had seventy six hot dogs and buns a
few years back in ten minutes. Seventy six dogs and
(02:45):
buns in ten minutes. That is the global record. But
that is just one of many records, that's the one
that's the sexiest record, that gets all the attention and
all that. But did you know, let me give you
some of these other glazed donuts. Now, back in my
big eating days, I could get through a dozen glazed
(03:06):
donuts in no time at all. But after that, I
don't know if you've tried eating glazed donuts, but after
about a dozen, even when I was at my fattest,
when I was porking the pig okaya back in those days,
even at that point, about a dozen was my limit. Well,
Joey Chestnut has the all time record fifty five glazed
(03:30):
donuts in eight minutes. Here's something I have not eaten on.
My mom tried to get me to eat one when
I was a kid. I said, no, Mom, I don't
want that, And now as an adult, I'm never gonna
eat it. Hard boiled eggs not a fan. Not a fan.
And Joey Chestnut, he has the record one hundred and
forty one, one hundred and forty one in eight minutes
(03:54):
that Joey Chestnut ate back in the day. I can
go on and on. How about pulled pork sandwiches? Not
my thing? I'm not sure how big these sandwiches were,
but Joey ate forty five of them in ten minutes.
He did an eating contest with Taco Bell. You know
those soft shell beef tacos. He ate fifty three of
(04:16):
those in ten minutes. I'm pretty sure back in the
day I could have done something similar. They're not that big.
You can squish them. I think I could have competed
in that domain. But what else? Twinkies? Now, I love twinkies.
I was all about the twinkies back in the day,
and those are pretty easy to eat. They're light and
(04:37):
fluffy and there's the cream filling in there. Joey Chestnut
ate one hundred and twenty one one hundred and twenty
one twinkies in six minutes. How crazy is that? But wait,
there's more. We're not done. I don't know if you've
ever had those crystal hamburgers. They're not that big, right,
crystal hamburgers. So Joey Chestnut a couple years ago ate
(05:01):
one hundred and three of those in eight minutes. He's
also the King of the Chicken wing. I'm not sure
if this is at the old radio promotion the Wing
Bowl in Philadelphia, which they did for years with a
guy we've had on the podcast, Angelo Cataldior Dot. But
either way, Joey Chestnut in the span of twelve hours, yeah,
(05:23):
not minutes, twelve hours, Hey, four hundred and thirteen chicken wings,
which is the world record. Is any of this impressing you?
How about Big Max? We've all had Big Max, right,
even if you're a vegan, you've eaten a Big Mac,
the Big Mac for McDonald's, the Classic Sandwich for Mickey
D's in thirty eight minutes, Joey Chestnut eight thirty two
(05:47):
Big Max sandwiches, which is also the world record. The
ice cream sandwich. I love an ice cream sandwich. To me,
the perfect dessert is a big giant glob of vanilla
ice cream and two properly baked, soft but not too soft,
chocolate chip cookies, and you slap that ice cream in
(06:11):
between those two chocolate chip cookies, and you make the
perfect ice cream sandwich. I don't need all the other
bells and whistles. I don't need that. I love the
ice cream sandwich. Now. I can eat a couple of
those things.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I know.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
If you go to Trader Joe's, they've got like a
four pack. They're really small. There's another place here in
Los Angeles. There's a bakery in the South Bay that
makes a Supreme Supreme ice cream sandwich. It's a little
bigger and it's more expensive, but either way, I love them.
And Joey Chestnut in six minutes, six minutes. Back in
(06:42):
the day, he ate twenty five and a half ice
cream sandwiches twenty five and a half. Now that's the
good news, right, the good news. The bad news is
that all of these titles, all of these accomplies. It's
not like the NBA, where you can sit on the bench,
(07:04):
get hemorrhoids and you're still going to make a gazillion dollars.
For example, the minimum so I go to baseball, the
minimum salary in baseball is seven hundred thousand dollars a year.
Now where I live, if you make seven hundred thousand
dollars a year, you are rich. You are loaded. Oh
my god, are you loaded? If you've got that kind
(07:27):
of scratch, And that's the that's the major league minimum.
I'm so old. I remember when I was a kid,
the announcers used to kid around about the fact that,
you know, these guys have to get other jobs of
the offseason. They're making the major league minimum. They can
they can't afford to do anything. Well, if you're making
seven hundred thousand dollars plus on top of that you
(07:47):
get all the bells and whistles, all the perks of
being a baseball player, you're doing very well well. The
reason I bring all this up, Joey chestnut does not
make ridiculous money. He's a man who is amongst the regulars.
He's not a higher level in terms of financial income.
In fact, most of these eating events pay one thousand
(08:10):
bucks here, a couple thousand there. I think the most
is the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest, which was ten
thousand dollars. So you get ten grand at the Nathan's contest.
But there's other factors involved in that. And so Joey
chestnutt has made a good amount of money as a
product endorser, as a pitchman for Pepto bismol. He did
(08:36):
a promotion with Raising Canes last year. Might beloved Raising Canes,
and so he's doing okay. He has own line of
hot sauces that he does there. He does a lot
of paid appearances. In fact, from what I've heard, and
Joey did not tell me this, but from what I've heard,
a number of big corporations I'm talking about Wall Street
(08:57):
corporations have requested that Joey Chestnut come hang out and
talk to the masses and all that and have a
grand old time. And he gets paid a good amount
of money. So he's he's found different revenue streams over
the years, and he's doing okay. I mean, you think
(09:17):
he'd be doing better based on all of the dominance
he's had in competitive eating. Now, as for the event
that took place this week in New York, the fourth
of July, what a spectacle, What a spectacle this thing
has become. And it's really a great credit to the
people behind the professional eating outfit. And then it's also
(09:40):
a discredit to Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball, the
fourth of July was always the day, that's the biggest day.
There's no NBA, there's no NFL. Training camps don't start
in the NFL for a fair amount of time, and
so you had baseball on an island by themselves. It's
a very hard to screw up an island when you're
(10:02):
on an island. Now, I realized that the NBA Summer
League is a thing. I don't quite get the neurosis
around the NBA Summer League. I don't. I used to
go to the Summer League when it was in Southern California.
It was in Long Beach for a while, and in
Irvine they had the NBA Summer Pro League, and no
one gave a rats ass. There was hardly anyone there.
(10:23):
When I say there was hardly anyone there. I would
go out to the NBA Summer Pro League and some nights,
depending on which teams were playing, you would see crowds
of maybe a couple hundred, maybe a couple hundred. I
flip on the Summer League in Vegas. These games are
on TV, and I'm looking at thousands of people. The
(10:44):
fact that the games are on TV is insane to me. Right,
So that's going on, but that's not that big a draw.
And then you've got Major League eating and this has
become the event that everyone talks about. You know, back
in the day, I had a program director PD and
(11:04):
this program director he said, you know, Ben, you gotta
be on the pulse what people are talking about at
the water cooler, because that was always the argument. These
radio consultants said, you know, what are people talking about
at the water cooler. I don't know if people still
talk about these things at the water cooler. I don't
work in a cubicle setup, and from the feedback I've
(11:26):
gotten from you guys that listen to the show, most
of you do not work in a cubicle situation. Now
we are a podcast, this is the fifth hour podcast,
and so it's a little different to the people that
are podcast listeners, but those that are listening live to
the overnight show, the terrestrial radio show. When we're doing
it live overnight, it's fair to say that you're not
(11:47):
in a cubicle, that you're driving a truck, you're rolling
around in bed because you have sleep apnea or some
kind of sleep condition where you can't sleep, or you're
doing some kind of physical labor job. That's most of
the people that work the third shift, and that's kind
of been the way that it's happened. So I don't
(12:08):
work in a cubic situation. So I don't know if
that they're still hanging around people still hang around the
water cooler? Is it the vending machine? Maybe you sit
there and look at the snickers, should I get the Snickers,
the Nestley crunch bar and all that, but get to
the point, please. So the point is that the hot
dog eating Contest is the thing people talk. It's you
(12:29):
want to strike up a conversation with a family member
or someone that you're hanging out with friends over the
fourth of July. Hey, did you see how many hot dogs?
Joey chest Nune eight? Did you see the hot dog?
And no, I didn't see it. Oh well you wait
till you hear about this. And they go on and
on and it's it's amazing thing. So the hot dog
(12:49):
contest is on the fourth isly as we say, and
the build up for this thing is next level. Now
there's a guy. We had him on the podcast. I
think it was two years ago or three years ago.
It might have been three years ago. Now this guy
named George Shay. Now, if you've watched the Eating Contest
on television, George Shay is the playing the role of
(13:11):
the Coney Island Carnival Barker. He's got the straw hat on,
he's got the full outfit, and he's the one that
is the hype man. And there is no better hype man,
no better hype man in the entire world than George
Shay and the guy he's fascinating because he's obviously a
(13:34):
big shot at major league eating that's his gig, but
he's also got another job which he does not act
anywhere near the character that he is. He really puts
on the bells and whistles. And this is the event,
the Hot Dog Eating Contest, and he introduces all of
the combatants and it's like a wrestling match or a
(13:56):
boxing match if you haven't watched it, but to give
you an eye if you missed it this year, if
you've never seen this before and you're like, what the
hell are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Malard?
Speaker 1 (14:05):
All right, fun, So I have a little audio clip
we're going to play. This is from the Entertainment and
Sports Network from the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Take
a listen to George Shay. This is the introduction for
Joey Chestnut. And there's a thousands of people. The crowd
was thirty thousand in a lightning and rainstorm on Cony Isla,
(14:30):
So there were tons and tons of people. I mean,
here's a big crowd here, bigger than the NBA or
the NHL. Get and bigger than most baseball attendances during
the week. So thousands of people hanging out Fourth of July.
Everyone's having a good time. The booze is a flowing.
George Shay is at the microphone from Major League Eating.
(14:51):
He's the one making the introduction. And here is what
it sounded like when Joey Chestnut, the gold standard, the
man we're going to talk up to here in a
few minutes, When Joey Chestnut got up and he stood
up there and George Shay introduced him. Take a listen
to the word magic. One of the great speeches of
(15:16):
our time in the world of sports. And I don't
think I'm blowing smoke on this. Here is George Shay
introducing Joey Chestnut for the event of events in Major
League Eating. Take a listen.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Fifteen thousand generations of humanity, yet we have evolved, not
at all, found like animals to the laws of physics,
shamed before the universe, and in all of history, only
one man has stood to say that he will dictate
(15:51):
what is and is not possible in this world.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I speak of this man.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
He has broken reality and all the time burst out
around us now and once simultaneous and endless eraising cars
and effect and opening all posibilities before us. And the
ancient flowers are subordinated to their own creations, and they
smile at his achievement, and.
Speaker 6 (16:21):
They say he needs shot with forever, for he does
not do it for money, He does not do it
for glory. He does it for his peopels, He does
it for his country.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
He does it for freedom.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
I give you the number one ranked eater in the world.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Joy just.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
And the introduction from George Shay, what a scene that was,
and the audio it's just tremendous, the right he is
that completely memorized. He told me a couple of years
you go back into the archive of the Fifth Hour
podcast that George Shay, who was doing the introductions, we
had him on, and he says, he writes all that
stuff down and then he has to memorize it. And
(17:07):
what a great memory. That is very impressive from George Chesh.
So that was the introduction, and then the event took
place Joey Chestnut. It started late. There was a weather delay.
There was lightning on Coney Island, so the whole event
got delayed. In fact, at one point it was canceled,
and people were freaking out. You can't cancel the Nathan's
(17:29):
Hot Dog Union Contest. What's wrong with here?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (17:31):
After a two hour weather delay, the event was back
on and spoiler alert spoiler alert, my man, Joey Chestnut.
He did win again. Otherwise we would not be having
him on the podcast. But Chestnut went out and in
ten minutes a sixty two hot dogs and buns, So
he did not break his previous record, but in ten
(17:55):
minutes of time. A couple of fun facts. A that's
eighteen thousand, four hundred and fourteen calories in ten minutes.
The carbohydrates, it's almost fifteen hundred carbohydrates. Proteen was I
six't eighty two was the number that I saw on
that total fat one thousand, one hundred and twenty nine.
(18:17):
Any dietitian, any dietitian, will say, what are we doing here?
My god? But Chestnut one. And so that means now
that he has won out of the last seventeen years,
Joey Chestnut has won sixteen out of the last seventeen
Mustard Belts, the Great Mustard Belt, and so he's the
(18:40):
all time king at this and he's added another notch
to his belt. Now full disclosure, one of the reasons
I have been going through all of this on the
podcast is we've been trying to track down Joey Chestnut
as he is at this time we are recording this podcast,
he is leaving New York, so the phone communication has
(19:02):
not been that particularly great as we've tried to track
down Joy, but we do have them online now. So
we welcome in to the fifth hour podcast, The Man,
the Myth, the legend, the greatest eater of all time.
Let's start with this. How would you grade your performance
(19:23):
in the hot dog eating contest that took place with
all of the variables, everything that went on, Joey, how
would you grade your performance in this year's contest?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I didn't break a record, but I got the win
and conditions were weird. Oh everything was delayed. But yeah,
I'm happy with it, but it gives me I'm a
little bit hungry. They come back and and proof.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
What was going on behind the scenes, because it was crazy.
At one point they announced the thing was going to
be canceled. There was a lightning delay and kind of
walked me through that what was going on behind the
scenes there.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
It was a really really big storm and lighting. There
was lightning strikes, I guess on the beach. So the
city wanted to clear out the crowd, so they Yeah,
they announced it was canceled for a while, and then
eventually it cleared up and the stayed. So, uh, we
had the contest.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Now, there was a viral clip of you. I'm sure
you're aware of it now where you were you were
storming out there. You had this this look on your
face like you were not going to allow this thing
to be be canceled. What was what was going on there?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
How?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
How how was the communication to you and and how
big a role did you play and making sure this
thing did not get canceled?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I don't think it was me that much. Try. I
went out there because the crowd was still chanting, and
if they're out there, they were stayed in the rain.
So I went out there and say hi people, and uh,
the crowd stayed. I think that that really it was
really the crowd that did it. Uh if they had left,
they would probably rescheduled it somewhere else. But uh, like
(20:50):
they like, the crowd might have revolted if if if
the city full one canceled it.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, what was it like, I mean, I saw the
clip of them channing Joey, Joey Joey. Maybe that happens
all the time to you. It's never happened to me.
What's that like when you're walking out there and you
get a you know, thousands of people chanting your name
like that.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Oh it's uh, it's insane, and that's awesome. It makes me.
Uh yeah, I'll do whatever it takes to mega record
or get the wind. So I'm really happy that have
all worked out.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So they had to boil. I saw they had to
boil a thousand more hot dogs use of the delay
and all that you eat so fast. Does the quality
of the hot dog actually mattered?
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Negative? Doesn't boil? I thought they grill them? Maybe they
they're delicious. Yeah, they do a pretty good job. Unfortunately,
some of the dogs they that I got, they had
been sitting out for a little while just because did
they get the delay? And then some other ones were
like super fresh and amazing, So it was it kind
of messed up my rhythm a little bit, going from
old fresh dogs. But uh, yeah, they do a pretty
(21:55):
good job. I'll make sure the quality is.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Good, but you actually can you actually tell the different
you're eating so fast. It's it's fascinating to me that
you can actually tell what's good and bad because.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Absolutely it's like it's like a race car driver driving
on a bad road versus a new a good road.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
If there's a bomb for something, uh, they hit it
really hard and fast. If there's a flavor or at
sure that's a little bit difficult, I'm going to hit
and run into it a lot again and again.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Now we talked to you last year. I know you've
got your routine Joey and all that. Is there something
specifically that you listen to to kind of get you
fired up before this is the super Bowl of competitive eating?
So is there something you tune in music or something
you tune in to kind of get yourself fired up
for this thing?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Uh? Some a little bit, a little bit of hard rock,
a little bit of Static X or maybe some rub Zombie.
But yeah, but it really that's one for practice. The
contest day, it's the audience gets me fired up. It's
hard to get fired up for practice, but the contest
(22:57):
day it's Uh, it's it's still a trick.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
How how early do you get up before the hot
dog contest, like you get up there.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, I make sure I get up early early day out,
because when you sleep, that's when all your muscles work
together to digest everything. That's when your stomachs at the smallest.
So I made sure I wake up super early so
I can make sure everything stretched and loves by the
time I eat.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I was trying to explain to somebody, Joey, that the
preparation that goes into this, like you're I compare you
to like a boxer, Like how walk us through that?
How long does it take to get and you do
a bunch of these events during the year, But how
long is it a couple of weeks? Is it a month?
How long do you prepare for these events?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
And I'm a little bit Barras's almost two months, seven
or eight weeks, depending on how I'm feeling. But this year,
this year is full seven weeks and and then once
a week I'm doing practice, and and there's a before
we practice, and a recovery period after and right right
like right now, I'm still recovering. I won'll be back
to my normal wait for a couple more days. And uh,
(24:01):
it's you try to peek around close to the post
July and it's sometime I love.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, I read that you do. I think you said
you did like a liquid cleanse type thing in preparation.
Is that? Is that accurate? You have like a liquid
diet before the contest.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Cleanse beforehand, lemon juice, water, couple a little oil to
make sure that everything's out in my system and it's easy,
clean highway for it for me to digest.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah, and you've done so many of these things over
the years. Now do you have the what happens to
your body after? Are you you have that down pass?
It different every year when you eat this many hot
tugs or some years easier than other years.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
How did that's the delay? It made it a little
bit harder of the body. I tried to time out
everything pretty perfectly, how much the liquid I'm drinking, and
then how much they little bit of caffeine right beforehand.
So uh, I kind of it ended up taking a
little bit more caffeine than I usually just take. So
(25:05):
it's a little bit harder and get Yeah, I love
hydrated after the contest this year, so I'm not getting
the best today, but I'm getting it.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
And I also saw that you you you said you
take like a long nap when you're done with all
your media stuff after the kind of how long a
nap do you take? What's your what's your sleep time
after this thing?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Well? I think that I passed out for about four
hours and had some crazy dreams and it alon'st feel
like a different day when I wake up.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Wow. And then how long does it take And you've
been asked this so much of touch and how long
does it take for your body to kind of feel
normal after you eat that much food?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Different degrees and normal? Like, I'm not feeling great now.
It'll it'll take two more days to feel really normal normal.
But it's something I know, and it's not I'm not
gonna be right for a while.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Do you eat the day after the next couple days
or do you fast after that to kind of let
your body?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
A rua salad earlier today? Uh, I actually it wasn't
that good, but I was. I ate it. Uh And
I had a post too.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
When people see you eating a salad, do they say
what are you doing, Joey?
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Why are you Why are you eating a I have
to eat high fiber otherwise otherwise I'm trying to keep
things moving bro, it's not it's not. Yeah, And if
I IF I, if I needy carbs, really that's when
the weight really stays on me. So the high fiber
will help me get everything to get through the systems.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
So what do you do with all these trophies? You
won a bunch of awards. The hot dog one is
the big one, but you do a bunch of these
other things. You've You've won just about all of them,
it seems here. So do you have like the coolest
man cave in the world. Where do all these things go?
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I don't know. I have an office and then there
are a couple of places. There's some friends who own
restaurants who they have a couple of my trophies and
I get to go there. Well, yeah, we trade drinks
for trophies.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Oh, there you go, there you go. You should you
ought to open your own restaurant show that'd be perfect, man,
you could have your error.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Restaurants are a lot of work, and that becomes your life.
Maybe maybe, uh yeah, I don't know, that'd be a no.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
You you know, people, Joey, I could I could see
you could get hooked up with some restaurants something and
then you could have like you know, Joey chestnuts buffet
or something like that. You could that's that could be
big money for you.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I think we thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
We'll say you told me last time we talked about
you you came from a family of prolific eaters and
all that is it is your talent, you think genetic
or is it a product of environment and how you
kind of worked yourself into what you've become.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I'm a natural eater, but like any like anybody, have
to practice and phone in your skilled. Uh. There's there's nature,
but there's all the nurture. I remember the first time
I did a dot contest, I did twenty dogs, and
now now I feel the same way when I actually
I feel better kind of a three yesterday then I
(28:01):
did they did twenty.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Do you think you could actually teach like a master class,
one of those type classes if somebody came to you
said I want to be the next Joey Chess.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
I don't know. It's something. Yeah, maybe it's possible. If
somebody really wants to do it, they can learn and
they get if they want to push themselves, they can
get better.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Thanks for doing this, Joe, I know you're busy and
you got stuff going
Speaker 3 (28:20):
On, and thank you so much of the bell I'll
put you take care
Host
Ben Maller
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