George Shea, the energetic public address announcer for the event, talks about how weather factors into the annual July 4 competition.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS Feed | Omny Studio | All Of Our Podcasts This week we're celebrating Independence Day, which means it's time for cookouts, fireworks and, of course, Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest.
Happy 4th of July, everyone from our Across the Sky podcast team. I’m meteorologist Joe Martucci. Join me from Chicago is Matt Holiner. We have a maybe our most unique episode of the Across the Sky podcast. We managed to snag an interview with George Shea. You may not know the name, but you definitely know his suit in the hat at the Nathan's 4th of July eating contest.
Happy early 4th of July to you. How you feeling? And as we get into the event here, that will be coming up on Tuesday. Well, thank you very much for having me, both of you. I appreciate that. We're very excited. Obviously, the tension high, the 4th of July is on us, but we're you know, every year it's crazy.
He had 70 I believe he had the record in 2021 with 76 hot dogs and buns. Did he do it in 2022? But I said, hey, you know what? Maybe there is something to this when it comes to weather in the hot dog eating contest. So my question to you is, what are the athletes saying? Is there a something to this?
Last year I noticed that the hotdogs came up early. That allows the buns to dry out a little and it allows the hotdogs to tighten up. It is equal across all competitors at fair, but it does slow the eaters down. So there are a bunch of different factors that are at play. Okay, George, so since you mentioned the buns being dry, not being a good thing, I'm wondering if rain might actually be a good thing.
But that was not an issue because an egg is not going to absorb a hard boiled egg. It's not going to absorb any water. So it was just a very dramatic event. And Miki Sudo eight 104 hard boiled eggs. Joey Chestnut eight 144 But really all eyes will be on the weather on the fourth and it does matter. Right. I'm sharing this is a safe place. And it is a safe place. Yes, absolutely. We've done this many times on the podcast. I can be vulnerable here. I hope so. The reason is because it's my favorite day of the year, because I love doing the event that is about a two and a half hour show. I do all these silly things, you know, Rap with Badlands Booker.
And what happened is we were able to get the contest and this would have been, oh, boy, it's somewhere around 2000, eight, nine, ten, 11. So somewhere in there, that sort of earlier, you know, a good 15 years ago, we were able to get the contest in. And then as soon as we finished it, it, it crashed, right.
I just you know, over Memorial Day, we had absolutely stupendous weather in the New York region. It was just lovely beyond any any major. And it stayed that way for days on end. Please forget the siren if you can hear it. Where I mean, I'm in New York City and the so it was like that on the 4th of July.
I hate to say it in my eyes, by the way, are hot, but generally heat does not bother me. It really doesn't like some people just really are uncomfortable in the heat sweat a lot, but they're just generally you get malaise and everything. Generally. That has not been the case for me. So I can endure it. But I learned never wear a blue shirt if you're in an environment like that, because if you perspire a lot, it will look atrocious.
It's just so well performed. How long do you spend working on that script? I'm imagining it's a script. If you do it ad lib, you got to become a meteorologist because, you know, you're just standing at the screen talking about the weather without any script. But I'm curious. I know I do write a script and in fact, it years ago I would sort of start putting thoughts together the night before, I mean, just insane and try to memorize them.
All the way to we have had a wild rumpus, but now our rebels are ended. I will see you next year. Right. And so it's a very, very long script. A lot of those components are set pieces that I do all the time, like it's go time. It's got to it's going to go lock and load 11. And we've, you know, on and on that.
It's not an eating thing. I've introduced a ton of or a lot of NASCAR events. You'd introduce the top drivers. So that is very exciting. You know, there are good 40,000 people. There can be very, very fun. And so so I would Nathan's is, without question, my favorite. But there are a lot of other events. You know, corporate events.
You want one that's really fantastic and outrageous and and like, you know, just just more poetic. You want one that's like about, you know, some like, the evil, pure evil, you know what I mean? And we, you know, George Chigurh, who will not be competing this year, I described him as the red horse of death. And I spoke in the language of hell.
You know, I don't rip anybody off, but I definitely appropriate like, for instance, look, on his work she might be in despair for he has surpassed the kings of Egypt. That first part is a believe Percy Bysshe Shelley you know, from Ozzy is and you know what I'm saying like so so if I find something that I think is just, you know, wow, that's great, I will think.
Joey's at 70 call 76 in that range above 70. Kobayashi is not going to 76. It is never happening. Right. And Kobayashi Best was like 68 or 69 or 66 in that range, depending on because he did some contest beyond us. And people said the numbers weren't right, but call it high sixties. That was in 12 minutes. Joey he's doing this in ten, he's doing 76 in ten, you know, So so those kind of records are not going anywhere any time soon.
Got it. Okay. So what can we expect with this year's event? Do we have how many new in terms of new contests dance? Do we have any new wrinkles in the programing that we'll see. If you're watching it on TV, what do you expect? Well, what can people expect? Me? Yeah, let me skip the obvious and get right to sort of the inside track, if I can.
But as I look at this, I look at Nick Fury, okay, ranked number four in the world, married to Miki Sudo, your son Max, are the two greatest eaters around. They marry and have a child. Their son Max, was ranked number 42 while still in the womb. Okay, that's. That's how good his parents are. And it's now the mashed banana eating champion of Tampa Bay, Florida, right as it is.
Top, top. I don't think that anyone's getting to 76 and I don't think that Mickey is going to be beaten. But but those what I'm looking at are the folks I just mentioned. I love the inside baseball. There's that. It's some great insight. I want to quickly touch on the history here a little bit. I don't know why.
They were just looking for that photo. So that is, you know, if you ask why hot dogs, it's because always it was this promo version of Hot Dogs for Nathan's, which is the original hot dog. And it's in Coney Island in New York City on the 4th of July. Right. Immigrants at dogs, baseball, apple pie, America. That's really and seen through the lens of marketing.
But I realized you just go big, just go big. And with competitive eating, it's start big, go bigger. Right? So so there is never a time on July three, the night of July three, the morning of July 4th, that I'm not extremely anxious and nervous. But the issue is when you get on the stage and your people are there because these people come, they love it, right?
But that energy, it's it's just it's electric and it's really like a drug. Yeah, I kind of can relate with you because I've I've always been anxious and talking in social settings growing up but I found a way to like channeled that anxiety energy into positive energy, you know, when doing a weather forecast or something like that. So I can emphasize with you it's it's a very important thing, really.
I'm a liar. I'm a liar all the time. So I'm being honest. I usually sit there and look at social media and I look at what happens on social media and I search Joey, I search Emily, I search Badlands Booker, Mickey, Nick. I search myself and I see. What are people saying? Like one time last last year, who's the guy who used to be or he's connected somehow to wrestling?
All right. So you're being a businessman after the event and trying to see how how you did so obsessed and a businessman. Yes. That that that's quite all right. You know, you got to keep thing going. So George Will, thank you so much for the time. Let everybody know where they could check out the hot dog eating contest on the food check.
But what did you take, Matt? I just loved his honesty with us. You know, he said multiple times like this, I feel like this is a safe space. I'm going to I'm going to be honest with you. And how he said, it's like I just get on social media. I want to see what people are saying after then I think that's something that you think about.
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