The home page for ESPN Radio has interviews with Tim Janus and Pete Davekos about competing against Mike Golic on the “Mike & Mike” show tomorrow morning. There is also a message board about the contest.

Erik Denmark has a blog entry about his participation in last Saturday’s asparagus eating contest in Stockton, California which contains what he believes are more accurate totals for the top four finishers:

1 - Joey Jaws Chestnut (1) - 8.25 lbs. (reported as 8.8), $1500
2 - Pat Deep Dish Bertoletti (2) - 8.125 lbs. (reported as 7.14) , $750
3 - Erik the Red Denmark (12) - 4.875 lbs. (reported as 4.75), $500
4 - Juris Dr Big Time Shibayama (17) - 4.625 lbs. (reported as 4.5)

(As noted in a previous post, Pat’s counter displayed 8 when the contest was over)

Erik also has a photo gallery of the contest.

Kobayashi reports in his blog that he had a tooth extracted at the Tanaka Dental Clinic to improve the condition of his jaw.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that Joey Chestnut is expected to compete in the Nathan’s qualifier to be held at the New York, New York Casino in Las Vegas on May 8. Previous defending champions did not need to qualify. Other expected entrants are Rich LeFevre and Ron Koch.

The press release for tomorrow’s wing eating contest between Mike Golic of ESPN radio and Tim Janus, Crazy Legs Conti and Pete Davekos follows after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

A press release about the upcoming G4 network series “Hurl” is available. The show will have begin with an eating contest and then participants will do a physical challenge like mechanical bull riding. Another round of the eating contest and physical challenge will then take place if necessary. The last person to throw up will be declared the winner.

BroadcastingCable.com calls “Hurl” “the worst TV show in the world”.

Some captures from the segment about Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub on the Travel Channel’s “All You Can Eat Paradise” have been attached. The program will be televised tomorrow at 8pm and the following times:

TRAV Wed 4/30 8:00 PM
TRAV Thu 5/1 12:00 AM
TRAV Sun 5/4 9:00 PM
TRAV Mon 5/5 1:00 AM

The new poll asks what you think the largest winning total will be in a 2008 Nathan’s qualifier. Joey Chestnut is exempt from qualifying as he is the defending champion.

As the Hangman noted, registration for the second batch of Nathan’s qualifiers opens today at noon eastern on either IFOCE.com or nathansfamous.com:

May 17 Chicago
May 17 New Orleans
May 24 Pittsburgh
May 31 Kansas City
June 21 Dallas

Ryan Spoon of berecruited.com attended Saturday’s asparagus eating contest in Stockton, CA and recorded three videos of the contest from the crowd.

update Deadspin has a blog entry about the video of Ryan Nerz’s pre-contest request to have competitive eating become an Olympic sport.

HungryTravels.com reports that they recorded an interview and mock hot dog eating contest with Eric “Badlands” Booker in which Booker ate 11 HDB in 3 minutes for history.com. History.com is the website for the History Channel. The blog entry does not say if Booker’s material will be televised or appear only on the web.

SonyaTheBlackWidow.com has today’s results from the the Sweet Corn Festival in West Palm Beach, Florida:

1. Sonya Thomas: 32 1/2 ears
2. Joe Larue: 31 (or 31 1/2)
3. Crazy Legs Conti: 30
4. Hall Hunt: 28
? Justin Mih
? Billy Perry Jr

update PalmBeachPost.com has an article about the contest.

update #2 Sun Sentinel also has an article

update #3 Hall Hunt has a blog entry about the contest with pictures of his finished ears of corn and of the ears of another top 3 eater and UPI has an article

SupersizedMeals.com announces that a 19 pound “Bigger Mac Daddy Burger” eating contest will take place at the Burger Joint in Bethesda, Maryland on May 17. Prizes and other details are not listed. The restaurant has a burger listed at 15.4 pounds on its regular menu which is free if completed.

A segment about Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub was televised on the Travel Channel’s “All You Can Eat Paradise” this evening. Denny says that $500 will be awarded to a diner who can finish the 15 pound “Belly Buster” burger in under 4 hours and that 357 customers have finished the 2 pound burger and 111 people have completed the 3 pound burger challenge. There are still only two finishers (who are not mentioned by name) of the 6 pound 96er burger. The program will be rerun 2 times this week.

Today’s results from the Stockton Asparagus Festival from erikdenmark.blogspot.com:

1 - Joey Chestnut 8.8 lb.
2 - Pat Bertoletti 7.14 lb.
3 - Erik Denmark 4.75 lb.
4 - Juris Shibayama 4.5 lb.
5 - Jason Erb
6 - Nate Biller
? - Eric Louie

update The top 4 have been updated with amounts from IFOCE.com

update #2 The Sacramento Bee and Record Net have articles about the contest. Record Net has a gallery (eating contest pictures begin at #59)

update #3 Video of KCRA’s coverage of the contest can be seen on youtube. Pat’s counter has 8 pounds when the contest ends (see above)

• OC Mex Food has a blog entry about the screening of the Levi Oliver documentary at the Newport Beach Film Festival
• A list of the winners in Mastiff’s MLE game gift certificate giveaway
• The Phillips crabcake contest returns to Maryland next weekend at the Maryland Maritime Heritage Festival in Annapolis.
• A video of Ian Hickman doing a banana spilt challenge
• Shirota’s restaurant opens

The Indepedent of London has an article about the oyster eating challenge at Wintzell’s Oyster House in Mobile Alabama:

The genuine smile is harder to find in the US than anywhere else on earth. On the East and West coasts, people smile because they’re feeling smug. But in Alabama, people smile because they want you to be happy. It’s evident in the 1920s canteen-style interior of Wintzell’s, where the walls are covered with ancient, handwritten signs of folksy, homespun wisdom (”Unfortunately, there is a widespread view that the proper lubricant for a political machine is palm oil rather than elbow grease” is one example).

An Indepedent reporter took a tour with Famous Fat Dave in New York City.

(Thanks Super Paul Barlow) Dateline Carolina, the student newspaper for the University of South Carolina, has a mini-documentary about last Saturday’s eating contest at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach. The documentary includes footage of Beautiful Brian and Badlands Booker performing.

(from Hangman comment) MajorLeagueEating.com announces that five additional contests have been added to the Nathan’s qualifying circuit:

May 17 Chicago
May 17 New Orleans
May 24 Pittsburgh
May 31 Kansas City
June 21 Dallas

Four of the new qualifiers will take place in the Central time zone, which has generally been underrepresented in previous quailfying circuits. Registration for the new contests will open on April 29 at noon eastern. NathansFamous.com announces that registration is closed for the original contests.

A non-qualifier hot dog contest will take place at Boston’s Hot Dog Safari on June 1.

update Skinnyboy has made a map of the qualifier locations

• Juliet Lee has updated her WriteNow page with information about her last two contests
• Hall Hunt says the press release for the sweet corn eating contest announces that Sonya Thomas, Crazy Legs Conti and Joe LaRue will compete
• Wing Tut wants the next UEPa meeting to take place in the Pittsburgh Pirates AYCE section
• Steakbellie has thoughts about the new rankings, the MLE video game and Nathan’s
• Wing Kong also has thoughts on Nathan’s
• Charlotte Nascar track to offer AYCE seats (from the Hangman)
• Dan Rubenstein, who is traveling around the country producing videos for Sports Illustrated, competes in the qualifier for the Collegiate Nationals

A web page about the upcoming eating contest on the Mike & Mike show has been set up on espn.com. The page announces that the third IFOCE eater will be Pete Davekos. (from email)

A an audio and video podcast are also available. Richard Shea, who will provide commentary for the contest, appears on the audio podcast and announces that the contest will be three minutes long. The competitive eating segment of the podcast begins at the 9 minute mark with a parody of “Wing Beneath my Wings”. (Mike-Greenberg.com has the lyrics) Richard Shea says that Mike Greenberg will receive an MLE poncho to wear during the contest which will be available for sale this summer.

The video podcast consists of reading and answering emails about the contest.

On the webpage, Mike Golic describes his interest in competitive eating:

Back in the day, when Golic was playing for the Eagles, he was an avid fan of the Wing Bowl, an annual eating contest in Philadelphia. “I’m no stranger to mass quantities of food,” says Golic, “but I am a stranger to the speed I would have to eat [in the contest.]”

According to his Wikipedia page, Golic’s stint with the Philadelphia Eagles ended in 1992. The inaugural Wing Bowl took place in 1993.

(from Hangman comment) An IFOCE gyro eating contest sponsored by Niko Niko’s Greek American Restaurant will take place at the Festival of Greece in Houston, TX on May 17. The purse is $4000 and registration opens on Monday April 28 at noon eastern.

Results from Broadway at the Beach have yet to be posted on IFOCE.com. Beautiful Brian speculates that the lack of coverage could be due to dissatisfaction with Badlands Booker’s comeback.

RecordNet.com has an article about Saturday’s eating contest at the Stockton Asparagus Festival.

Erik Denmark announces in a blog entry that he will be competing in the contest. This makes the known field:

Joey Chestnut
Pat Bertoletti
Erik Denmark
Juris Shibayama
Nathan Biller (from comment)
Eric Louie (reporter)

Other possible entrants:
Rich LeFevre
Kevin Ross
Jason Erb
Shawn Kirby
El Toro

Deadspin has a post about Joey & Pat’s new blog.

“Footlong”, a documentary about the impact of hot dogs on American culture, can be viewed on revver.com. There are two segments about the 1998 Nathan’s hot dog contest in which Hirofumi Nakajima defended his title by beating Ed Krachie: Segment #1, Segment #2 The second segment ends with a prediction that one day the 30 HDB mark will be broken.

Joey Chestnut has posted a video to his yardbarker blog of him preparing for Saturday’s asparagus eating contest by eating 3 pounds of asparagus in 3 minutes. The video is also available on youtube. Joey makes the following prediction for the contest:

Pat is a great eater and whenever I get lazy he pulls off an upset. The chances of Pat walking away with a win in this contest are slim to none. I will let you all know how the contest goes down.

CommercialAppeal.com reports that Jeremy Payne finished a Sasquatch burger from the Big Foot Lodge in Memphis in 53 minutes earlier this month, becoming the second person to complete the burger in under an hour. Pat Bertoletti completed the sandwich in 11 minutes in January 2007. The listed total weight of the burger is 7.5 pounds.

update Joey Chestnut became the third person to complete the challenge on March 23 and is the current record holder with a time of 7 minutes and 36 seconds.