My first encounter with competitive eating was when I attended Philadelphia's infamous Wing Bowl a few years back. I still have trouble shaking the memory from my brain but will get up the courage to post the frightening details on the site one of these days.
Since then I've caught an event or two, usually the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest which airs each year on ESPN.
But last night, I settled in for the first round of the IFOCE (that's International Federation of Competitive Eating) US Open being held at the ESPN Zone in Las Vegas.
I've got to hand it to them. The actual competitive eating part was edited down to just a few minutes of the hour-long telecast while the bulk of the show was devoted to getting to know the characters who populate the competition. Faves included "Eater X", a guy who paints his face like the old WWF wrestler The Ultimate Warrior and Sonya Thomas aka "The Black Widow" who conducted part of her intro segment while wearing a black robe purchased from a costume shop and a spider medallion. Did I mention the faux spider webs and black & white photography? Frankly, it bordered on brilliant. The NHL should immediately hire whomever was responsible for this show, because it delivered everything that Vince McMahon's brutally boring XFL promised.
Coverage continues tonight on ESPN. Check your local listings since TV Guide got it wrong last night. They listed the show as airing at 9 PM when it actually aired at 8 PM.
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