How the weather impacts the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest | Across the Sky podcast

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.

In celebration of the big event that happens each year on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, we have special guest George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating and the energetic public address announcer for the contest. 

Since this is a program about weather, climate and meteorology, the hosts discuss how weather comes into play for the competitors such as Joey Chestnut, who has won 15 of the last 16 competitions, and defending women's champion Miki Sudo. Shea also talks about how he prepares for the big event as well as how the weather plays into his wardrobe decisions. 

We want to hear from you!

Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net.

About the Across the Sky podcast

The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team:

Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

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.

He is the chairman of Major League Eating. He is the host of the contest. We have him on to talk all things hot dogs. Sean Sublette, who is the meteorologist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He balked at this interview. I don't think the hot dogs agreed with him there. Kirsten Lang is on maternity leave, so she has a little say.

What do we think, Matt? A more valid reason for not being on the podcast? Because I knew I knew we were in trouble when when this all started, when we were talking about our sports betting episode, how weather impacts sports and you brought up, you know, hey, what about the hot dog eating contest? What about major league eating?

And as soon as you the hot dog eating contest, the look on Shawn's face over Zoom is a record. This over Zoom is priceless or a look of horror you describe. It just crossed his face. And I was like, I don't think he's going to do that episode. Right. So only the strong survive here. Matt and I, we're here and we'll just get into it.

Let's talk to George Shea about the Nathan's hot dog eating contest.

All right. And we are here. A 4th of July is coming up on Tuesday. And when I think 4th of July, the first thing I think of is the Nathan's hot dog eating contest. So who better to have on than the chairman of Major League eating and the host of the Nathan's hot dog eating contest, George Shea? George, it is great to be here with you.

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.

You're up and down. You have different things to deal with. But we are ready to rock and roll. And I think it's going to be a great event, always a great event. On the corner of Surf and Stillwell in Coney Island. I was there in 2011 when Sonya Thomas won the women's event. Joey Chestnut was doing his thing.

There. It was. It wasn't too hot that day, but it was humid. I remember we had about a mix of sun and clouds with some haze. You did a great job, George, as always. You know, I I'll say this in the intro, too, but kind of a personal hero of mine. No one hypes up a crowd quite like you, George.

So it's truly an honor to have you here today on the Across the Sky podcast. I want to get into why I'm having you here, because last year and the year before, I was hearing on the Twitter verse, you know, the weather is perfect. Well, Joey beat the record. Couple of our sports betting friends were wondering about this, too, just with the conditions being so perfect.

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?

Is there a correlation? Well, there absolutely is. So there are a couple of factors, but weather is certainly very high among them. So ideally, you want it nice and cool and not too humid and certainly not sort of oppressively hot in 2020 because of COVID. We did it inside with a temperature controlled environment. It was not particularly cool, it was not hot, but we had to we had to air conditioned a big warehouse in the top of Nathan's at Coney Island and know a big space.

So it was okay, but it wasn't great. But everybody said, you know, you need an asterisk because it's indoors and in, you know, an environment that's controlled. In 2021, we just happened to have perhaps the most beautiful 4th of July ever. I've been doing this since 1988. And, you know, we've had all variety of weather circumstances, but it was about 74 degrees.

It was a little breezy, which just kind of cool and lovely, an early June day kind of situation. And the audience was just like, this is perfect. But the eaters obviously were in really good shape as well and performed as you might expect, However, last year, hotter, less comfortable. But there's another issue that affects all of this, and that is how long have the hotdogs been prepared and how long have they been waiting for the eaters?

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.

You know, I often see people watching these dunking those buns and the soda and the water. So if they're already a little bit damp from some rain, would that be a good thing or is there a threshold? Is there a perfect amount of rain? Is there too much rain or too little rain or is no rain really bad?

So I think on balance, for the eaters, rain would be good if it was a light rain. So and then how long are the dogs out there, etc.. So if there's a torrential downpour, that's going to be a problem. But I think you're right. If it's not super dry and super hot and if there were almost like a light drizzle, that would make the buns easier to meet if it was really, really raining cats and dogs, you're going to have a situation where the buttons are just mush and then you have to manage those that would actually slow you down and I one of my favorite contests ever, I think we only did it once

was the hard boiled egg eating contest in Kentucky. And it was absolutely torrential downpour. And the eggs, the hard boiled eggs were served in a tin. It would be like a cake tin about two and a half inches tall around the side, you know, the straight one. And there was so much rain that it was literally going over the sides of the of the tin.

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.

I don't think I've ever a morning like six hardboiled eggs in one setting. So I mean 140 is I'll keep dreaming about it. How what's with that. Why George are you talking to any meteorologist before the hot dog eating contest. What is your weather diet going into an on the 4th of July itself? Well, as you can imagine, I am never not nervous about rain and rain.

Look, this is this is what I say to everybody, including myself. And it's a lot I don't care if the weather's good or bad. We're just going to hold this event and it's all good, right? We're going to get the media. We're going to have an audience. They come in the rain. It is they in fact, a lot of people just sort of say, well, what are we going to do today?

We can't go to the beach. Let's go to the outdoor concerts. We get a very big crowd. But it matters to me a lot. I worry constantly. I always tell myself not to do it. But I started looking at the long term forecast and I read over it. So it is always bothers me. And and the reason for that, to be honest.

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.

I cannot sing. I often sing a song like Hold On by Wilson Phillips with a backup band, thinking of doing Fernando this Year by Abba with a backup. And I cannot sing. But can you hear the drums, Fernando? I mean, how can you? It's so emotional, but so the event itself for me is really fun and it is much more fun if it's sunny and everybody is into it.

So, you know, the event will go on, the event will not be affected by the weather ultimately. But for me, the show would be because it's not quite as fun, it's not beautiful. So so that's my own personal take on it. On balance, again, I don't think the the eaters much care unless it's super, super hot, which is very difficult.

So I'm guessing the hot dog eating contest has never been delayed because of weather and would there ever be a situation where you would delay it? So here's the thing. We had lightning sweeping in over the New York Harbor one year and ESPN is there. And there was a great deal of concern that we would not be able to do it.

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.

Like where everybody's running, it rained, but we got the contest event. And I've been in Buffalo one time and we do the chicken wing contest in on, on Labor Day and that's a great amount. You get about ten 20,000 people. It's a great festival and really fun. And then we saw and everybody could see it. We were at the baseball stadium up there.

These storm clouds that looked like out of a movie, right. Like Thor was coming and, you know, like and I said, the garlic bread and all, but we got our event. And then and once again, everybody ran and it just opened up. But we we would have to postpone if there were any threat from like yeah I think you're, you're pretty blessed to be in Coney Island for this because you know you don't always you will get some hot day but being by the water you know water taps usually in the sixties and Coney Island 4th of July never gets super high.

Can get humid, though. I'm wondering what you know, what was your worst weather experience of what year that was? Was it what you were just saying in 2007, 2010 timeframe? And then the best one that you had as well, you mentioned it, the best one was 2021. That was just a gorgeous day. That was like a day. Do you know what's funny?

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.

It's kind of like one of those days where you go, you got to enjoy this day. So that's very rare on the 4th of July to have perfect weather like that. I would say the worst days and I think most of them probably came in the 2000 teens where had super, super hot 90 plus. Right. As you said, you usually get a a certain amount of movement and breeze off of the ocean.

It makes it a little bit better. But you can get these hot days and those are very difficult for the eaters and for the audience and for me, for that matter. But but I'm paid to be there. So it's just put on the hat and go. But, you know, these people are out there in this brutal weather for hours and hours because the show, they start lining up at about 730 or eight and then the show starts at 1030 and the men's contest is at 1140.

Right. So that's you know, they're there in that sun. And it can be very difficult for, you know, I'm wondering for you, before I toss the break, you are in the suit and the hat. You must get a little hot in there on 4th of July. So I have learned I generally and this is this is sad as I get older, I'm a little bit more affected by the heat.

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.

So I learned in like 2002 or something, three just always wear a white shirt because you'll never notice it. And you I don't ever remember using anything other than shirt. Yes. But that's why I. That's right. Because I've gone for for two decades with a white shirt. I learned I'm slow, but I learned. And then also don't go for red Gatorade or blue Gatorade because your tongue is going to look like very weird and also like the gray Gatorade that that's pleasant enough on the front.

You don't get this anywhere else, folks. This is in on, you know, 4th of July. You only hear this on the Across the Sky podcast. We are going to take a brief break. And the other side, we're going to talk with George some more about the hot dog eating contest happening on July 4th in coffee. And we are back with the Across the Sky podcast.

You can check out new episodes every Monday, Every Monday evening. We have new episodes for you, spanning across the wide range of weather, climate and beyond, including hot dogs. And it is 4th of July. So we have the chairman of Major League eating, George Shea here with us, maybe America's best. HEITMAN As we're getting into the 4th of July and the event here, George, I have to ask you because and the reason why I said you're kind of a personal hero of mine is because you are so, like precise with your hyping of all of the contestants.

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.

I'd be up until three or 4 a.m. trying to memorize stuff once again. Slowly I get there slowly, but eventually I got towards it. I'm going to do it, so why not do it before? And so that's what I've been doing lately. And so I always work on the Joey intro and the other big intros and and then I memorized them, right.

And but it's, it's one of my favorite things to do. It's not, it's not easy for me. Sometimes I think of things and they just it's just there and and then sometimes you just have to do the work and really get there and then see what works. But for me, you know what? You went to the event, but most people don't know that there's an event for two and a half hours and we have an opera singer and I introduce him.

I do a rap out with Badlands Booker. We do all kinds of things. You know, I sing these songs. I cannot literally sing, but I sing with a backup band and and all this kind of stuff. Very silly, but it takes a lot of work to prep. So I have a very long script that begins with, you know, ladies and gentlemen, are Coney Island citizens of the world, you know, bah bah bah.

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.

So I know those things and, you know, but but most of the intros are all new and require memorization. So that is, that is always I start about three weeks before and I'm never comfortable until it's done. And then even then I sort of like like groan inside if I think I could have done, you know, something better or more poetic or more funny.

And George, I know you're most well known for the hot dog eating contest, but how many others do you do throughout the year? And do you have a favorite? Is the hot dog eating contest your favorite or is there another one that people may not know as much about that you enjoy a little bit more? Well, the hot dog contest is by far and away my favorite because there's so much pressure and so much focus, there's so many media, so many fans that it just amps it up into a whole nother level.

However, I do do a lot of other events, and I did just a little while back the maintenance mania, which is a maintenance tech contest where they do all these things like fixing a sink and all these things that you can do it the fastest. It's actually enormously fun. It's at it's at the National Apartment Association Conference. And so I do 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 know, you introduce the board or you introduce the executive suite, you know, ending the CEO or chairman gets a Joey style intro and you find someone who who's finally who can be teased. But it brings up another thing which is interesting, perhaps only to me, but when you're doing 15 intros, you have to have a balance in the mix, right?

So you need some that are just straight like so and so from Aurora, Colorado, you know, and you need some that are sort of grand like that, you know, the crucible, you know, our humanity is put through the crucible of competitive eating or something like that or once in every ten generations IQ rises. And so he stands before you now.

So and so, you know, a couple of grand ones like that. You need funny ones very hard for me because it either comes to me or it doesn't. I have trouble writing jokes. I do write these jokes, but I always where it'll be a joke or people are, you know, like and not a real funny joke. But sometimes you really do want a funny one.

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.

And you know, this like, say, Good George, ten day West Yorkshire joy, you know, like all this kind of crazy talk, talk or whatever. And I had a lot of fun with that. So I'm sad he's not coming back. But then obviously, Leigh, you end with the Joey Chestnut intro, which is more epic than anything could ever be epic.

Talking about freedom itself, Joey Chestnut is freedom itself. You know, the rock on which he stands. It's not Iraq, it's the United States of America. And, you know, on and on and on. And now really where I am is it has been for the last couple of years is more like universal. But whoever is the champion is going to get an intro like that because they are the champion of the 4th of July, you know, So so that's for me, developing that mix is actually a task, you know, and then delivering it by that time of memorize it.

It's fun, but but it definitely doesn't it's not right off the top of my head. Do you ever wake up in the middle of night and jot something down? Has that happened before? CUTTER Percent. And so I used to I used to carry a book and then I would email myself, I'm dating myself here, and now I just have a Google doc and I just put stuff in all the time, you know, like all these just things that strike me as funny, you know, and, and or interesting and epic and, and I have certainly appropriate a lot of stuff.

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.

What would be your version of that? How do you start from there and go somewhere else and stuff like that? And George, you bring up Joey Chestnut and I just want to get your take on him. Do you think he's the best there's ever going to be or is there going to be somebody that's going to come along and one day supplant where is he ever going to reach his his his threshold?

What is your take on on Joey Chestnut? Well, look, I think I think it's obvious that that Joey is not going to be here forever kind of thing. So so, you know, there will be a post Joey World and he will his number will be surpassed. It's just that simple. No one thought Kobayashi was ever going to be beaten.

And and he was and he was beaten badly and again and again and again. And he quit. Right. So, you know, no one thought 55 zero could be achieved. Kobayashi did that. It blew up the whole thing. It was amazing. He's an amazing competitor. But Joey could beat him repeatedly and and Kobayashi would never be able to beat Joey.

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.

But every record. What the why did we change from 12 to 10? What was the reasoning behind that? I forget we filed some documentation and there was a big time story on this new York Times that the contest early in the twenties was 10 minutes long. So we switched to that kind of a dramatic thing to do. But we were honoring that.

And I don't know when it went to 12, when I started in 88, it was 12. Not only that, this is bizarre, Max, Rosie now dead. All right, great guy ran the contest at 6 minutes. Halfway through, you say, okay, time out and take a break. And then for 5 seconds, then you go, okay, we're back at it.

I don't know what that a cop with you because they didn't clear their mouth. We didn't take a ten minute break. Right. What was he even thinking? But wasn't perhaps his specialty. But, you know, so. But it's been 10 minutes for a long time. And all of the records now are perceived as being 10 minutes. But remember, prior to, you know, in the Kobayashi era and before it was 12, it got it.

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.

Let's do it. So I'm I'm sharing the year because it will give people who are considering betting and and looking at this some insight Look for Jeffrey Esper because this guy is a monster, okay? He's ranked number two in the world and he is just absolutely relentless and he is spectacular. All right. So, Jeffrey Esper, keep an eye on him.

It is the prospects for him going forward are amazing. Also, we have to see what happens with two Japanese seaters. Okay. We have Max Suzuki has always come from Japan, but we have two new competitors, which I can't pronounce the name for, which I won't try. But we have a male professional coming and I've seen his YouTube stuff and I've seen his web stuff and social stuff and the quantity of food is astounding and a female eater will be taking on Miki Sudo Likewise the quantity of food, it's like it's just enormous.

It's like Max. Matt Stoney level buckets of food, but the question is duration. So 10 minutes is not really what they try to focus on. They're more like 20 minutes or 30 minutes, right? And they do these quantities of food that are just astounding, but not for speed. So it's always a wild card of what they will do.

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.

So you must be happy for the long term prospects. The major I'm quoting him now. I'm recruiting him now. I don't know if it's appropriate. We should probably let him get out of grad school. But but, you know, they are an amazing couple and Nick is absolutely fantastic. And he knocked down in in the qualifier in Orlando, Florida.

He knocked down 44 on a bad day. All right. So he was having trouble. The hot dogs have been there for a while. It were tough. He was off and he knocked down 44. And I said, oh, my God, Nick, that's a great grade number. He is very disappointed. So keep an eye on Nick. Keep an eye on Jeffrey Esper.

Keep an eye on the new Japanese folks, because Max Suzuki is going to be in that 40 range. It's not likely to go about 40, but and Mickey, I would never bet against Mickey win. And then, you know, like but, you know, you have to make your own choice. You know, can anybody beat the guys at the top?

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.

Hot dog, why were hot dogs chosen over another popular fast food hamburgers, for example? Is there a reason why it is the hot dog eating contest versus something else we have done hamburger eating contest, Right. So when the the original as you mention, we did crystal hamburgers, we've done other hamburgers. I do think this boils down to this.

All right. And and it's it's they they talk about live golf and the PGA and they say money is always going to win. All this talk about about, you know, our principle and all that is garbage. Money is going to up is going to corrupt everything. And and commerce is going to is going to rule the day. The reason that this was done is because Max Rosi and Mortimer Matz, the two Coney Island press agents who ran the contest, you know, from 1972 until I took it over.

And you want first was 88, but I took it over. And what they represented Nathan's, and they were looking for something to get on TV or in the paper on the 4th of July. And they originally started it on, you know, a couple of years, rather did it on Memorial Day, but it was always a 4th of July contest.

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.

Okay. So that's you know and promotion that's that's why in this case, hot dogs. But as I said, we have gotten the increase and do events chicken wings, hamburgers, pizza, everything but somehow hot dogs on the 4th of July is different and better. I think also two hot dogs are very relatable to eating fast like anyone can like Scarpa log in 2 seconds, you know?

But doing 76 of those is a whole nother story. George, I got two more questions for you and we're going to wrap on up. And this one I'm genuinely curious about and we kind of touched on it. How do you get that excited for the intros and during the contest? Because we're talking right now, you're pretty calm, cool and collected, but it's like you turn it to like a love it when it comes time for the contest.

So what's the secret formula there in the morning on it's go time, right? It's just go time And I got to do it. One thing, you flip the switch, you know, I tell my kids, you know, I was always had this may not seem like this would be the case. I had a lot of social anxiety and still do.

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?

The brothers are down front. They've been there since eight In the old days, they had been drinking since eight. Now you can't bring beer in. Not my okay, not my city in New York, but. And that energy that you put out comes back and becomes It's a feedback loop that just builds and builds and builds. And so by the time I get to the interest, I am so amped up and my hands shake.

Anyway, I have a genetic tremor, so my hands shake anyway. And when I'm amped up, I can hardly hold the mike. Right? People say on online just Georgia Park. And it's like, I don't. I checked it, but my hands go crazy. I'm so amped up and when I get to deliver something that I like and then the audience likes it, right?

They you feel it when you deliver one of these big intros. There is just nothing like that. It is met many times. Made me say, you imagine what it would be like to be Mick Jagger or for that matter, Taylor Swift and have 70,000 people like it would be a drug like none other because I'm an you know, this is a, you know, ridiculous hot dog eating contest and crowd is much, much smaller.

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.

And it took me far too long to learn. If you go into a room and you're you just feel like, oh, my God, I'm going to stand against the back. If you just go and go, hey, suddenly everybody ignores you because you're the guy who doesn't care. You're the guy who's comfortable and then suddenly it takes away everything.

So that is true of public speaking and it is true of dating. I told my son you the the the if you don't ask, that's the embarrassing. Getting rejected is not an embarrassment. And, you know and it's it's very true. It's like go forward go big and it the rewards are huge and that but it very much so when you're doing a presentation if you have that energy, everybody quiets down.

If you don't have the energy, they get anxious. Now, your last question here. What does George Shea do on the evening of July 4th? All right. So this is first of all, I'm going to add that I told you I this is a very honest I'm being very honest. So we love it. I have to tell you, I'm never honest.

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?

He has a big podcast. What's his name? Joe Rogan. No, I'm Spaceman. Anyway, he's got a very, very big podcast. And then he goes, I thought George's interest there were okay, but they weren't quite as good. I was like, devastated, right? Like, and if someone is like, does a it did George missed the line like, like other people are are going over my lines or something like that.

But I just sit there like anybody looking at social media and if everybody's happy on that, you know what I'm saying? And if they're not, I'm not. But, you know, last year they were had the protester and the protester jumped on stage and Joey got him. And then I grabbed him and it was like it went crazy on social media.

So it just exploded the contest on social media. And that's that's really what I want to do. I say, how are we playing out there? You know what I'm saying? And then you get the media reports later of traditional media. But I just want to see, you know, typically trends and stuff like that. So that's that's generally what I.

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.

ESPN is going to be on multiple times. You can go to, you know, the best thing to do, go to if0ce dot com or major league eating dot com and we will have everything right there. You want to go to the event. We have the trains to get there if you want to watch it on TV. We have all of the airings and what will happen is this.

It will air a bunch of times on ESPN, you know, throughout the afternoon. And it's awesome. All right, George, thanks so much for joining the Across the Sky podcast. Have a great event on the fourth. I'll be watching and hopefully we'll talk to you soon. Thank you. Thank you very much for having And we are back Matt I have to say I really enjoyed George Great Guy Very nice, very articulate.

Yeah. If you only watch him during a hot dog eating contest, you wouldn't know it's him. He's like almost there. But people calm, cool and collected. But I loved it. I love George. I've been following him for years. The hot dog eating contest. I always enjoyed the event and I he has a large part to do with it, so I it's definitely a personal honor for me to have him on.

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.

You know, again, you know, people get on social media and they tweet about people, but it's like, remember that those people and see your tweets if they want to. And there's there's your proof. You tweeted sports say he's going he's going to see it. And the other thing that that stood out to me, I you know, I think I like the end of the interview the best because again, with his honesty, he talked about how he gets nervous before these I mean, you wouldn't know it watching him.

It gets so hyped. It seems like he's the most confident guy in the world. But he actually there's a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of fear. And I, I can relate to that, too. When I'm doing my workouts, there's always that little, you know, those butterflies in your stomach that you get. You know, when I was on TV and I'm even when I'm recording things that aren't going out live, I'm not livestreaming there is that since I'm nervous because, you know, there's an audience and you want to give it your best.

And so there is a little bit of nervousness that comes with it. But I liked how he talked about how he channels into actually improving is in form It's actually a little bit of nerves is is good. It makes you a little bit more loose, not too stiff and certainly works for me. It puts on quite the show, amazing show.

I also like to Miki Sudo and Nick really have a child. That child is going to be quite the competitive eater. So if you want to start placing your future sports bets for the year, I don't know, maybe 2043 he might be your guy. The child there. So that was actually that was actually pretty funny. But it was great interview.

I hope you guys watch the hot dog eating contest on the 4th of July on ESPN. If you're in New York City area or want to go to New York City for the fourth, I have been to the contest. Definitely get there by about 10:00. It starts get pretty crowded after that. But it's just a fun time. I mean, it's it's 4th of July ads.

America, keep it loose. Have fun. You can go to the boardwalk afterwards. There you go. The Nathan's place and need a hot dog. I did that, too. And the line isn't ridiculously long. You can get a hotdog. You just got to wait maybe 5 minutes or so. But it's a really cool time. So happy 4th of July. Everybody will be back with you next Monday with a new episode.