Morning Brew Daily - How The Man Behind Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest Built an Empire

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

Episode 354: Neal and Toby chat with George Shea, the CEO of Major League Eating which is the organization behind the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. They address what happened with the contest’s biggest star, Joey Chestnut, and how George can compete with Netflix. George Shea shares the secret behind making virtually any event entertaining and how to pull off a good stunt. They also talk about the history of competitive eating and what the future holds for the sport.  Expand your world with Meta AI. Now on Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger. Get your Morning Brew Daily Mug HERE: https://shop.morningbrew.com/products/morning-brew-daily-mug?utm_medium=youtube&utm_source=mbd&utm_campaign=mug Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here: https://link.chtbl.com/MBD Watch Morning Brew Daily Here: https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow Time code : 00:00 - Intro 2:20 - What happened with Joey Chestnut? 7:20 - Netflix puts up its own eating contest 9:50 - Eating records that won’t be broken 10:30 - The art of spectacle 15:15 - Origins of Major League Eating 18:00 - How to pull off a good stunt 19:15 - Growth opportunities for competitive eating 25:15 - Which celebrities would George put up? 29:15 - Neal’s epic intro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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pwc.com slash U.S. slash brew AI. That's pwc.com slash us slash brewaI. Good morning brew daily show. I'm Neil Fryman. And I'm Toby Howl. Today, a special Independence Day episode coming your way, an interview with the CEO

of Major League Eating George Shea. If you turn on ESPN today, George is the man in the cool hat hosting the annual Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest. We talked competitive eating strategies, the anatomy of a great stunt, and got the scoop on Joey Chestnut's stunning absence from this year's competition.

It's Thursday, July 4th. Let's ride. Today we burn bright. Today we blind the earth with our desire. And while it is still ours, we will bend history to witness this moment, to witness this man. Just listen to that man go. George Shea is an absolute ball of energy. This episode not only made me reconsider my relationship with food, but also what it means

to be an entertainer. That was my favorite part. Picking the brain of a showman like George, who many of us have grown up watching every 4th of July, I learned a lot about how to be a better speaker and host. Outside of that, we of course dug into the Joey Chestnut situation, and it sounds like George is just as sad as we are, that the world record holder won't be up there this year. Yeah, no Joey just feels wrong. but George also gave us a few eaters to keep an eye on this year

in the most wide open contest in 16 years. My favorite part of the show comes at the end, though. I asked George to introduce Neil as if he was a competitive eater, and it was pretty dang epic, so stick around for that. But before we jump in a word from our sponsor, Meta-I-I, there is something so fundamentally human about our search for answers. Resources like Village, Elders, books, and even search engines have always been around, but now we have the added advantage of being able to ask AI for help.

And that's what makes meta-AI so special. First, it's embedded in the apps we all use daily, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger. But it also goes beyond just answers. It can summarize your notes, turn your words into images, while also weighing in on any question or how-toes you can toss its way. Plus, you can always have meta-a-I respond like a village elder if that's how you want your answers package. I might just try that.

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of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavah Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win? Must be 21 to enter. George, welcome to the show. It's so great to have you on.

Thank you very much for having me. It's a very exciting week. It is an exciting week. So in an interview with Morning Brew last year, you said of the hot dog eating contest, what you really want is a controversy about a week out that focuses everybody on the event. While you certainly got it with Joey Chesnut this year,

given how central he's been to the competition, how are you making the most of your first joyless competition in the last 16 years? years, really. Well, look, without question, the focus a couple of weeks out, a week out, has been amazing for visibility. But throughout the process, I hope that everything would be resolved and that he would be there, in which case you couldn't beat it, right? Sadly, we were not able to get there. We basically conceded on all points, you know what I'm saying, but he made, you know, it's always been his choice, and he made a choice to be with the troops in Fort Bliss in Texas,

which I think is a great tribute to the troops and armed forces. So we support that 100%. But not having Joey there is going to change the contest dramatically. It really has become almost a tradition to watch him just dominate. And it's really like just watching him put that belt up in the air is part of the whole thing. With that said, it's going to be an amazing contest. So now we have four eaters, maybe five, who are all going to be vying for the top spot.

It will not be in the 70s. It will be in the 50s. But they're going to be really, really close. And what we're going to see is Patrick Bertoletti, James Webb, Jeffrey Esper, Nick Werry, and maybe King Yamamoto of Japan, really in the hunt for that win. So it won't be like how many is Joey going to eat.

It might be for the first time in many years. Who is going to win? 100%. And look, I have my... own suspicions. I cannot bet. There's lots of betting on this contest. It's going to be, in my view, between James Webb and Jeffrey Esper. That's my guess. But it's really hard to handicap King Yamamoto. And Patrick Bertoletti, remember, Patrick Bertoletti of Chicago, he's ranked number nine in the world. Previously, he was ranked number two. He took a hiatus. During that time, he ate 55

hot dogs and buns. So he can do that. James Webb has never used. eaten 55. Jeffrey Esper's never eaten 55. So Patrick has that path behind him, he might be able to do it. Is the 4th of July the best conditions for eating hot dogs, the best venue in terms of the, and it's very hot, it's

outside, is that the best venue for it or is, you know, could the record be broken elsewhere, indoor AC? Well, it's a very interesting question. So it is the best conditions given that it is the granddaddy of the mall in the heat, in the water, in the

humidity, no matter what, that is the standard. However, you are entirely correct. If you go indoors, right, temperature controlled, Joey's going to really get up there in the mid-70s and everybody else will be elevated. All ships will rise. But it is very difficult in the heat and in many ways it is among the most intense contest, the pressure from the media, the pressure, you know, on the timing, and then the actual heat of the event, like the physical heat of the event, all make it very difficult. Does this whole episode make you think,

like, we need to get another Joey Chestnut. We have to get an heir to the throne. Are there any prospects out there that could possibly fill his shoes like any glissy Mozart, so you're seeing? Yeah. Well, this is what you're always looking for that Mozart, that unknown, the child out there,

the future, the one eater. But I personally don't see anybody who can get in the mid-70s. I just don't. And you'd really need someone of very significant physical stature. Joey's quite broad. He's about 6-1, but he's very big. Like not heavy. He's just big his frame. And then on top of that, he has trained. And training doesn't mean just quantity, although he certainly does do that, I understand. I've never seen that. But it's how do I eat the hot dogs? How do I get them in my mouth in the most efficient way? So while he's dunking, he's chewing, and while he's doing that, he's breathing in between.

So I don't know the exact rhythm, but the rhythm is amazing because if you think of eating 70-something hot dogs, or for that matter, 50 hot dogs in 10 minutes, you are really talking about a process that you can't just do casually. You just simply can't. It's truly staghan. I've never thought about eating 50 hot dogs. You see LeBron dunk a basketball, but in the same vein is someone who's eating 50, 70 hot dogs. It truly is amazing. Let's shift gears to the media side of a little bit. After the Joey Chestnut thing spilled over, Netflix swooped in and announced this big Labor Day hot dog eating contest,

pitting Joey against his longtime rival Kobayashi. Are you worried about Netflix or another streamer coming in and maybe taking the spotlight away from your Tony Island event? Well, yeah, I mean, no. The issue there is, Joey came to us during. negotiations came to us late and said, I've already signed with Netflix. He didn't say Netflix. He said a streaming platform. We guessed Netflix because that was out in the ether. I've signed with Netflix and I've signed with Impossible. He didn't mention the Impossible brand. So those two things happened before we ever had a conversation. Netflix was not responding and saying,

we'll save you, Joey, right? Like we'll do a contest. That was already planned. We didn't, you know, I think I speak for a lot of people and I say, you know, Netflix is going to do this. Imitation is certainly the greatest form of flattery. You know, what are they going to do? They're going to try to do the intros like I do them. Is someone going to be up in a straw hat? They better not do that. But, you know, like to me, I think it's great.

It's great for the fans. It's great for Joey. I assume they're making some money. So I'm all for that. That's fine. The conflict really came from the other issue, the rival brand. The Impossible Foods thing. Rewinding a bit.

Why was the 1990 hot dog eating contest such a formative experience for you? Well, look, when I started in 88, Jay Green ate 13 hot dogs and buns. And even I was, I hate to say this, he was great American. I was not impressed. I was not blown away. And those were the dark days of the contest, you know, it was not a great era. Then in the early 90s, Mike DeVito and Frank Hollywood, De La Rosa came, pushed it up into the early 20s, right?

And then you start saying, well, that's actually quite a bit. And then when Hirafumi Nakajima came in the mid-90s, 95-94, he ate 24 and a half. Ed Crotchy at the time, ate 24 and a half. I thought we were at, I thought we were at the upper limits of performance at that time. We were not, because then Kobayashi came in 2001, 50, 50, 50. Hot Dogs blew everybody away. And an interesting point, you earlier asked, could anyone ever beat Joey? I can't even imagine it.

And yet at the time, I could not imagine anyone beating Kobayashi, but Joey did. Well, we did have a question. What is the competitive eating record that will never be broken? Do you think it's this 71 from chestnut? So chestnut has done, he did 74 on July 4 in 2020. 20 and 76 after that. I cannot imagine 76 being broken. And this is why, right now, as best I know,

it would have to be done by Joey. And doing it on the 4th of July in those circumstances very hard. Let's set up a little exhibition match for them. I want to talk about the idea of spectacle. You clearly saw the potential for spectacle early on in Mason's hot dog eating contests. Is there anything you look at today, be it sport or something else, and say, man, this should be getting more attention if they just knew how to market it properly. Where do you see an opportunity space right now?

Well, you know, it's an interesting thing. How do you match what I like to do with the contest with other sports? So you have something like Cornhole, which frankly, I have to say, just even the name, the whole thing just seems so awkward to me. But I understand a lot of passion about that. A sport like that could use some more personality, in my view. Okay, they're doing a great job, but in my view, they could use some more energy. Because is anyone ever going to look at Cornhole and say, like, I got to watch that. You know what I'm saying?

And it's like curling in Canada. There's a real art there, right? But have you ever heard someone say, well, I would love to, but I'm going to be watching the curling match? No, because you need to bring energy. on top of it. If you're watching basketball with a live audience, football, it is right there for you, the physicality of it, the energy of it, the drama of it. There are many sports where that is not the case, eating included. If there was just an eating contest with 15 guys or gals, just eating with no host, you'd walk away, right? So that is what I would like to bring to a lot of things. Do you know

what sport I once saw it? Pillow fighting. The pillow fighting started a league about 15 years ago. And I was like, how did we not think about this? This is perfect, but it wasn't, because it was just too cute, right? And they got up sponsorship from Budweiser, as I recall, and we were just going, what are we doing? We should have done that too. But it didn't work. There is something about competitive eating that maybe it's like, if mom doesn't like it, it's got to be fun, something about it. Or we are all obsessed with food, taking pictures of our of our lunch for Instagram, something about competitive eating matched with the energy of the hosting really worked.

What did you see in eating? I saw personally back in the day absurdity, and I saw public relations possibilities. So when I was doing this, my boss, who's still alive at that time, he was my boss. Morty Matt's turns 100 in July, great press agent with Max Rosie back in the day doing the contest. And when I was first there, one of the guys cheated. And there was a cop there. And Matt goes, get the cop to arrest him. Get the cop to arrest him.

And I was going, well, you'll ruin the contest. That would be so embarrassed. He goes, what are you talking about? There'll be controversy, right? So you really learned about what the contest could be in those moments. And, you know, as you've seen, there's lots and lots of ways to expand it through stunts, etc. And your wife is a writer for WWE and a former soap opera producer. What have you learned from her about creating spectacle?

You know, it's so funny. So she was a soap opera executive producer and director for many, many years. And then coincidentally, when all the soaps went out in New York, she was out, right? Like as everybody was. And she got a job with WWE. Now, I had been doing this for 25 years at the time, and she knew all about it. But it's actually, there are real parallels between what they, call their promos or whatever they call them. And what we're doing, I had never watched WWE. I'm not

lying. I had never watched. I knew Chief Jay Strongbo. I knew all the stars and I knew what the platform it was, but I never watched it. So I began watching it a little with her, and she's a great promo writer. She's now head of content for AEW, which is a rival league. And, you know, what I realized is theatricality, which we were already doing, is even more critical. Because if you look at what they're doing, people know it's scripted. It doesn't matter, right? Because we are all hardwired for narrative. And even if we know it's scripted, we're going to feel those emotions.

And that's what I'm doing on stage. What I'm doing is both silly and dramatic. And the line I'm walking is, is he joking? or is this real? Because this is funny, but I'm also sort of getting goosebumps, right? Like, that's the walk that I'm doing. All right, George, we'll be right back.

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I do want to go back to the origins of Major League Eating. After seeing this contest play out before you, what made you stop and say, I want to turn this into a league? I want to create a governing body of it. Take me through the process of forming Major League Eating. So everything with Major League Eating, no business plan, no plan at all, no strategy.

and look, you know, if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. That's what my father says, and that's where we are. But what happened was we were getting some real traction on the eating contest. But then I thought to myself, you know, we should do a league. And I said, what would be the most absurd league there is? The International Federation of Competitive Eating. And so I created a seal with this great designer Rod from Philadelphia. And it had like two griffins with mustard and ketchup.

a Latin inscription in Voroviritas, which means in consumption or overconsumption, there is truth. A little nod to Harvard there. And, you know, so we did that just as a lark, and we created a website. I literally did it on like Dreamweaver or something like that. This is 1998, 1999, whenever it was. Just for fun. And then we began calling media on Nathan's behalf, not from a PR firm, but from the

International Federation of Competitive Eating. And you'd get on there and say, I'm George Shea, I'm calling from the International Federation of Competitive Eating. We have an event, and they go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, the what? And then they're going, bang, you're in. We want to do an interview. Stories about it. Because of the, just the fun and the lighthearted nature of it.

And reporters are a very specific group. Like, they're very sophisticated, and they have a very sophisticated and cynical sense of humor, and they really liked it. And that's the origin of it. But the interesting thing is it was all a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Once we did that, we started getting calls from people saying, I know you're the league, would you run some contests for us? And we said, yes, we will.

You know what I'm saying? And it all became that. One other thing, I won't, I know I talk on and on, so I won't distract too long, but you were talking earlier and we were talking about stunts. One time when we were getting going in 93, cynics would say that my buddy Kevin on the floor of his apartment created the mustard belt out of a weight belt and some jewels.

Okay? I, of course, said it was created by the descendants of Faberger himself. But whatever you believe, the belt came back, right? So we got a big story in the post. The belt is back from Japan. It's been lost for 20 years in Japan. But we won a certain contest, and so they sent the belt back. Big huge story in the post.

Went national on AP, went global. The Japanese heard about it and sent three eaters to get the belt back. They got the belt back and the belt went to Japan. So everything we've done is a self-fulfilling prophecy. What are the ingredients of a good stunt? Well, you know, the issue is a good stunt has to tease and slightly mislead while being known for the stunt it is, right? Two good stunts that I did not do. Morty Matt's way back in the 60s

represented 10-10 wins and so he set up a stunt where a historian an archaeologist lost a hieroglyphic slab right like a priceless hieroglyphic

slab in a taxi cap and that there was I've read the stories stories all over the New York Times slab lost and then they got the slab, right? And they brought it to the Brooklyn Museum for one of their archaeologists to read it. And he read it and it said, everybody's mummy listens to 10-10 wins, right? I mean, so you can't get down on him. First of all, on Coney Island, you can say anything you want. You can't get down on him for that because it's just fun.

It's not a lie. It's fun. So getting back to competitive eating, what are the areas of growth that you're most excited about? For me, you know, if you take a look at this year, we have six eaters from countries around the world. We have Thailand. We have Australia. We have the UK. We have Canada. You know, Japan on and on. Right.

So, and we, you know, Brazil. So that is very exciting to me because what you're seeing here is there are a lot of people doing food challenges globally. That all came from competitive eating because they really didn't used to exist. Also, the internet didn't exist. So maybe both of those forces created that. But you've got great guys coming in, and women, Mayoi Abihara, on the female side. And to me, seeing it become global is really fun. Now, we do events globally.

England, we just did an event in Thailand and Bangkok last year, and the winner's going to be here. The difficulty is a critical component, as we've discussed, in my view, is the prison. So you can't go to Thailand. I can't go to Thailand or Spain and do what I do, right? You'd have to have a co-host. So that's a tricky thing. But it's gotten to the point where they're just okay with just the eating, not the, not the show. Why doesn't pizza have a marquee eating contest? Seems like in terms of American foods, 1A, 1B, hot dog pizza. Is there something inherent to eating pizza that makes it less compelling than eating hot dogs? Yes. So this is a big thing that we go through all the time. I talk to new clients all the time. We want to do a contest. We're thinking pizza, we're thinking this, that, and the other. Well, those are boring. No one's going to get behind it. We've done pizza contests. We've done great ones, but they're never going to connect. What you want to do is lobster in Maine in August, right? You want to do chicken wings in Buffalo on Labor Day, which we do at the National Buffalo Wing Fest. You want to do something that has some magic, right? Baked beans. even kimchi. Do you see what I'm saying? They're 10 pounds of baked beans in a minute 45, okay?

But you want to do something where people are going, hard-boiled eggs, as basic as they sound, is actually great because you have Cool Hand Luke setting this, I think it was, 50 hard-boiled eggs in an hour. Mickey Sudo can eat 104 hard-boiled eggs in eight minutes. That has some panache. And pizza just doesn't have that. I mean, you could do a pizza contest in New Haven.

Well, you know, I'm not saying pizza doesn't have it. We've done pizza contests with great success. Also, the good thing about pizza is everyone knows the benchmark, right? Like, I can eat, if I get a regular size, full-sized pizza, I can eat four slices. If I eat five, I've really gone too far. But so if someone eats 27 slices, everybody knows that's a lot of pizza. But what you're talking about is there are food with magic. And I would say the one that's closest to hot dogs is chicken rice.

wings. Yeah. It's so approachable because we've all had a chicken wing. We've all had a hot dog or two and we've all had a slice of pizza. And the unit is correct. Right. Right. You're talking the 50s, 70s, like we can all comprehend that. A pizza slice can be small. It can be big. It's a little harder to comprehend. But the unit volume of a hot dog is just universal. And I think that is one thing that lends hot dog to be the supreme competitive eating food. That's quite true. Hamburgers are not universal, right? And hard-boiled. boiled eggs essentially are, depending on you can get different sizes. Halapeno peppers. So perfect, right? Patrick Bertoletti, 275 jalapeno peppers.

I was there. It was a moment in history. That one connects, right? And you say 275 jalapeno peppers. You don't even have to say in 10 minutes. You don't have to say anything. People are with you. We were talking before the show.

Would you ever consider a contest not based on volume? So maybe it's how efficiently someone eats something? Is there any non-volume-based contest that you've played around with? We have done contests, so there's volume or duration, right? So we've done how much you can eat of this in 10 minutes, but we've done, here's a bowl, a 20-pound bowl, how much do you get done? You know, and what happens is the first one who finishes, all right, now you've got two and three.

And when you've had your third-place finisher, then the clock stops. Because you could have someone who takes three hours. You're not going to keep it going. But yes, we've done duration contests. But the interesting thing is we have found that basically the sweet spot for eating contests, 10 minutes, because you're going to get the volume without doing a 30-minute contest, and then what are you even doing? And then stay away from one minute, two minutes,

because you might prompt people to eat too quickly and try to, you know, just in an unsafe manner. So if it's sweets, you really want to be in that six to eight minutes. You're not going to do ice cream for 10 or 12 minutes because literally it begins to cool down your core, right? Like literally. So you have to think, what are the foods? Too much sugar? You know what I'm saying? So we keep a bunch of our contests very short.

Is there a food you would never sanction a contest for? It's a very interesting question. I had once heard that too much garlic creates a chemical reaction in your body that's unhealthy. I would not do nettles. I would not do something like that. You know, like in England, they have a nettle-eating contest. And for those who don't know, it's like a scraggly bush. And to me, that's just, you know, going to choky kind of like, that's not a good contest.

We've heard you say peanut butter, too, is not so great. Peanut butter. Yeah, I would stay away from pure peanut butter. If you think of a peanut butter sandwich, that to me just doesn't sound great. And you'd really rely, obviously, on the liquid there, but I don't think we'd do that. All right, we're coming down to our last couple of questions. If you could pick two celebrities right now, pluck them from the public eye and say, you guys are doing a hot dog eating competition, who would you choose and why?

It would be Joe Biden and Donald Trump. It would just settle the election right here. Smart answer right there. That would draw some. Now, the issue there is, I think the Republicans would be applauding. I see Donald Trump winning that because I don't see Joe as a gamer at the table. Well, you said bigger frame, too, right? And he's big.

He's six, whatever. So, you know, yeah, who would be good celebrities? You know, it's funny. We've had, like, Richard the Refrigerator Perry back in the day, horrible performance. Big Cat from Barstool did it. Did really well. I think he ate 14 hot dogs, and he's not an eater at all. And he didn't get up there and just go, like, I'm just dialing this in.

He got up there, knocked out 14 hot dogs. So he would be a good celebrity put against anyone, not the refrigerator Perry, who I think ate four. Besides a big frame, what are the characteristics that make an elite competitive eater? Like what do they all have in common? You know, it's funny, when we started a lot of big bluto types saying I can eat a lot. And then it has moved to more like bodybuilders, extreme athletes types, who are willing to put in that time and commitment. Right. So really it's like I'm not joking.

This is not a lark. I'm going to figure out how to do this and I'm going to do it. So that sort of commitment is truly the key. But I would say it's not being big, it's not eating a lot, it's understanding that things require work. And that's really the distinguishing element of it because anyone who's really good could get up and do 14 hot dogs, 12 hot dogs on their first try if they really try and if they're really good. But no one is getting to 32 without really thinking about it. And for those of you who are not clued into competitive eating, how do you make the jump from 14 to 32? What's the training like?

Well, I think you have to get used to the flavor of any food in volume, which actually becomes an issue. Everything that's good about a food, you know, the flavor can be overwhelming after a certain amount. And that's why you see a lot of the eaters using colored flavored juices. But really the issue is you need to have the capacity. You need to be able to work on the capacity, which obviously is best done at an event where we have a paramedic or whatever. You know, always we have a paramedic,

and it's a controlled environment. But you need to figure out the science. When people started doing chicken wings, they really looked into it. How do you get the flat? It's very different from the drum. And when you do chicken wings, it's both. So the flat, if you know the flat wing,

you can pop it open and then strip it from the other side. So they pop it with their thumb, grab the other side and then strip it. That's how it's done. With the drum, obviously, you just put it in your mouth and pull and off it comes. The meat umbrella, as they call it. But, like, those things sound silly. But if you want to win the contest, you have to figure it out.

How has leading Major League eating changed your relationship with food? I would say not at all. Do you know, one thing I've said is, like, some people find it unpalatable. To me, it's like the dance. It's like the Bolshoi. the, you know, the, I love it. I find it beautiful. Some do not. But if you're a parent and you have kids and everything is always a mess, you're changing

diapers, there's food on the floor, whatever it is, you just kind of get past it. So I have gotten past that element of it and I just look at the beauty and the drama. But, you know, it has not changed my relationship to food at all. I remain a huge fan of hot dogs and I get to taste a lot of great foods and regional foods. There's a slopper sandwich. You know, there's all these different, you know, regional foods. And you sort of get to engage with those. But really it has done nothing.

I'm always like trying to like, you know, maintain my weight, which the eaters certainly do. They're in great shape. So it hasn't really changed for me. We could sit here and talk competitive eating strategy all day. But for our final question of the day, we're going to put you on the spot here. I want you to introduce Neil as if he was a rising star in the MLE space.

specialty is desserts, he's a twinkie guy, but he's making the jump over to hot dogs. You think he could be a contender. How would you introduce Neil Fryman? I have to stand up. You can stand up for this. Stand up for this. Stand up. You're going to hear me. We'll hear you. We'll hear you. You got me? Yeah. Because the volume's going to go up. The volume's going to go up. Oh, God. He's about to be the highlight in my life. I need to be able to move. I'm going to put the hat on if I can. Sure. Do what you got to do. Get into character. That comes on. Oh, I can't do it with the, with the speaker. You can take your headphones off. In a world of nothing, of barren hills and cracked earth and once proud oceans drained to sand,

there will still be a monument to our existence, bleached by the sun perhaps, and blunted by time, but everlasting. For this man represents all that is eternal in the human spirit, the courage to go on when others fail or turn away the strength, to recognize the value of freedom, and to accept the cost no matter how great. The curtain of the Aurora Acomit blazes to herald his arrival and his victories shall be transcribed into every language known to history, including Klingon. Ladies and gentlemen, the Twinkie eating champion of the world. Neil Pryman! Let's go. Yes, I could certainly eat 310 minutes after that.

Thank you, George. That was actually incredibly. We should have you on the show to introduce our normal stories every day. man, this was super fun. Thank you so much for joining us, George. I am all fired up my jaws, Lucy. I'm going to go eat some hot dogs right now, but thank you so much for hopping on.

And happy Fourth of July. Happy Fourth of July to both of you and to everybody. Best holiday of the year, and thank you so much for having me on. Truly. Spring just slid into your DMs. Grab that boho look for that rooftop dinner, those sandals that can keep up with you,

and hang some string lights to give your patio a glow up. Spring's calling. Ross, work your magic.