All right.
Well, welcome back everyone to the All Things Croatia podcast.
I'm here with Jay Webb, known as Jay Webby.
He's an Australian competitive eater with Croatian roots.
He's ranked number one in Australia and number five in the world.
As you can see his food challenges on social media with almost 2 million TikTok followers
and almost 100,000 Instagram followers.
Really awesome to have him here with us today.
James, thanks for coming on the podcast.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Of course.
Yeah.
Super excited.
And I know I was just talking to you before we started recording.
You just did another challenge today and definitely want to get in to the competitive eating stuff
and how that came about and what that consists of.
But first of all, if you can sort of introduce yourself, where you're from and then talk
a little bit about your Croatian heritage.
Okay.
So I'm James.
Online people know me as Jay Webby or Jay Webby Can Eat.
I do some crazy, pretty ridiculous food challenges.
I'm from Australia.
My mother is Croatian.
My dad, my father's actually from England, but my dad never really had family.
So I grew up only knowing my Croatian side of the family, my baba, my daughter, you know,
cousins, things like this.
So actually my, my, my baba is still alive.
She speaks very broken English.
So to communicate with her, you have to at least understand Croatian for the most part.
You know, she's a look, she's getting on.
She's almost 90.
So like it's half English, half Croatian at the best of times, you know.
So I've always grown up, you know what, around my Croatian side of my family, my mom, my
uncle, they're fluent.
It's kind of like funny story.
Like when my mom doesn't want my dad to know something or whatever, she kind of speaks
Croatian, you know, like just kind of like family jokes and stuff like that.
But yeah, I'm from Sydney, Australia and I have a Croatian mom and she's master chef,
man.
I was very blessed growing up.
I had a baba and a mom that man, they can cook a house fire.
So like that's where it all started for me.
I believe it, man.
Yeah.
Same for me as well.
And that's awesome that your baba is still alive and you're still able to, you know,
speak with her.
You mentioned, you know, understanding Croatian.
Is that sort of what your Croatian is at that you're a little bit better at understanding
than speaking or what?
Yeah, look, so when I was younger, I think from the ages when I was small until I was
about five or six, we actually kind of all lived together as a family.
So I was fluent.
When my mother, I've got a little brother, not so little anymore, but like my younger
brother is three years younger than me.
When he was being born, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and I'll go visit my
mom in the hospital and I'll be speaking Croatian to her.
I think as I got older, I lost confidence.
Obviously English being my first language, I have like an Aussie accent or a Twain, however
you want to call it.
So like, you know, my family wouldn't make fun of me, but you know, they'll kind of pick
holes in like the accent.
And I think as I got older, I just spoke it less.
Maybe it was a confidence thing.
Obviously where I'm from in Sydney, predominantly like I went to like a white boy school.
So there was no other Croatians or many other ethnics anyway.
So like, I suppose I kind of just lost practice, but it's funny.
Like when I've got to do it, I can do it.
Like, you know, my, my Bubba is, she's in a nursing home.
She's not well, she's pretty old.
She's, you know, basically paralyzed.
So when we go speak to her and you know, I guess when they get to that age, that can
be a bit, you know, they get hysterical and you know, to calm her down, you've got to
understand what she wants.
And you know, one minute she's speaking English, next minute it's like the fastest Croatian
you could understand.
So I guess when it's like life is of the light, I could do it.
But I suppose my brain just opts for English every single time.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Well, yeah, that makes sense.
I mean, I've seen a lot of like Croatian diaspora and a lot of other countries abroad, you know,
Australia, Canada, U.S. for the English speaking countries, at least just because that's what
I know.
It's sort of the same way, you know, that it's and everyone else speaks English and
you want to fit in and you know, you're speaking English.
So it's, it's different.
You know, I've like, I always was the same way.
Like I grew up, you know, Croatian, Croatian family and you know, being proud of that,
but like never grew up speaking the language and it only was like the last maybe five,
six years that I really like wanted to make a conscious effort to like learn it.
And so I actually ended up going to Croatia and living there a couple of years in Zagreb
and trying to learn the language and stuff, which was cool.
But yeah, definitely it takes effort.
I mean, it's a tough language to learn.
Yeah.
And they speak so fast.
Yeah.
What part were your, so is your Baba that moved over?
Yeah.
So my Baba did have moved.
They escaped during the war a long, long time ago, but they lived in Zagreb.
And they made their way across a few refugee camps, literally arriving to Australia on
the boat.
So they were pretty well traveled, but yeah, they were from Zagreb.
Have you ever been back there?
I never have.
So I actually, I was, had a trip planned and that's when COVID kind of, and I always planned
to go back, but during COVID is when this competitive eating thing started and took
a massive side track.
Well yeah, I know Australia was real strict too.
You guys were basically, you couldn't leave the country for a couple of years.
Yeah.
We were locked inside for a long, long time and you kind of just did what you had to do
to kind of keep yourself occupied and insane, I guess.
Yeah.
Well, you mentioned that's how it started.
I didn't realize it started only that recently.
How did you like, how did you get into competitive eating?
Yeah.
My first ever food challenge was actually the 3rd of May, 2021 and that was about probably
a month before the whole COVID craziness.
But my wife, so I don't drink alcohol.
That's a personal preference.
Just I never found alcohol enjoyable.
My wife wanted to go to a winery about three hours from where we live in Sydney.
So to bribe me to go, she planned like a day trip of eating.
So we went to this pub and then the fudge factory, then the cheese factory, and then
we'll go to the winery.
So I get what I want and then she gets what she wants.
But we got to the pub and it was a very white Australian pub in a small country town and
they had a big burger.
And I was kind of making jokes like, oh, that's cool, whatever.
And the owner was like, no, that's Australia's biggest burger.
No one's ever going to eat it.
And I'm the kind of guy, don't tell me I can't do something like, I'm going to at least try.
Right.
My wife just looks at me and she's just like, no.
By the way, I'm the only ethnic, my wife, my wife is Australian.
I'm the only ethnic in this white Australian little town.
It's like one street long.
And then I'm like, yo, I'm going to eat this burger.
My wife's just like, oh no.
Anyway, I ate the burger.
Australia's biggest burger.
I won the prize money.
So every time someone failed, the owner would chuck 10 bucks in the piggy bank.
60 people failed.
60, 600 bucks prize money.
I'm like, sweet.
So I took the prize money.
I took a photo with the owner.
I went and spent like 300 of that money on fudge.
I went to the fudge factory.
Then we went to the whiterie and I paid for the white tour and whatever else.
Went home.
Thought nothing of it.
But in the meantime, the news that circulated of man from Western city conquered Australia's
biggest burger and whatnot.
By the next day I was all over the news.
And funnily enough, my bubba, who doesn't really understand much English, saw me on
the morning news and she rang my mum.
And she's like, what's Jamie done?
Is he in trouble?
Like he's on the news.
My mum's ringing me.
It's like 730 in the morning on a Sunday.
I'm like, mum, what's wrong?
She's like, bubba said you're on the news.
What have you done?
I'm like, man, I'm in bed.
Like, what do you mean?
Anyway, turn the TV on.
Lo and behold, man from Western city has conquered Australia's biggest burger.
I'm like, that's friggin awesome.
So much cool.
My friends were texting me.
I'm like, this is awesome.
Right.
Again, but I thought nothing of it.
I'm like, yeah, cool.
Five minutes of fame.
That's cool.
The next day, my phone was blowing up radio, newspaper.
I didn't know newspaper still existed.
Magazines, you know, podcasts, all this stuff.
And I was getting messages from other competitive eaters and they're like, hey man, like you're
really good at this.
We want to meet you.
And I wrote right back.
What the hell is this and who the hell is we?
And what are you talking about?
Anyway, there's like a secret society.
I wear it on my shirt.
Competitive Eating Australia in Australia, you know, food influences, competitive eaters.
There's a whole league.
They have a secret Facebook group.
I've been invited to this secret Facebook group and they're talking about me because
a newspaper article got released and whatever.
And I was not really on social media.
My Instagram, I probably had 10 followers, two photos, my sneaker collection and a half
naked gym selfie.
Like that would have been it.
And I didn't know this, but one of the guys from my gym, you know, you see people at the
gym, you kind of give them the nod, like, you know, you know each other, but you don't
know each other.
Turns out he was the second best competitive eater in the country and one of Australia's
biggest food influences with like half a million followers.
Because I wasn't in social media, I had no idea.
Right?
I knew him as the guy from the gym that wore the, he wore hamburger socks, like novelty
hamburger socks.
That's all I knew him by.
Right?
We'd give each other the nod.
Anyway, so they're like talking about this article.
There's like 150 comments on this article.
I'm like, well, it's me.
It's kind of cool.
And this guy, Jesse, he's like, I know this guy.
He goes to my gym.
Anyway, comes up to me at the gym.
He's like, dude, like you're a wet bed.
Like we want to meet you.
We want to come and like do challenges with you and whatever else.
I'm like, I've got no idea what you're talking about.
So this was on a Tuesday.
He said, listen, on Thursday, there's a burger contest.
We're all going to be there.
I'm like, who the hell's we?
Anyway, I'm like, I'll come.
I love burgers.
Turned up to this burger contest.
It was about 30 minutes from my work, my day job.
Went to this burger contest.
And by the way, I had never filmed content before, never seen a tripod, let alone a microphone
or a ring light or whatever.
Right?
Anyway, so this like, I walked into the restaurant.
I was a little bit early.
This entourage of people came in, cameras, phones, tripods, you name it.
And I'm just kind of sitting there.
They're like, Hey, James, nice to meet you.
And I'm like, how the hell do you know who I am?
Anyway, the 10 of us burger contest, we all kind of lined up.
The food comes out.
I'm like, sweet.
I'm hungry.
They're like, no, no, don't touch anything.
We've got to take photos and do introductions.
And like, do you mind if you jump in my intro and all this stuff?
I'm like, what?
I'm like, all right, whatever.
Anyway, contest starts.
I wiped the floor.
To this day, my record still stands a minute 59 for a one kilo burger, one kilo fries.
The close guide to me finished in six minutes.
Right?
And these were all rag pro eaters in Australia.
Right?
So after this contest, we kind of hung around at the restaurant.
Again, I've got my prize money.
I was like, this is kind of cool.
They kind of sat me down like interrogation style.
I like wanted me and they're like, listen, dude, you're really good at this.
You need to start making videos and do challenges.
I'm like, what?
I'm like, okay, sure.
They wrote me a list.
And at the time I went home and I'm like, they're having a laugh.
Like this is bullshit.
Anyway.
So every day for two weeks, I went and did a food challenge on the list and I just knocked
them off one by one.
Right?
And like I said to you, I wasn't really on social media.
So I never posted anything or anything.
Right?
Anyway, about two weeks later, I commented on a Facebook group.
I'm like, Hey guys, like that was pretty far.
Like I've done all the challenges.
Like, is there any more?
And one of the guys pipes up and goes, you're a liar.
I'm like, wait, what?
I didn't know, but in the YouTube world, people like edit and cut and shot videos and cheat.
Right?
So it looked like they eat massive food, but they don't actually eat it.
Right?
So I'm like, what are you talking about?
So it turns out I ate this pizza challenge.
It's very famous in Sydney where we live.
It's 27 inches by 27 inches square.
Three people, 30 minutes to eat it.
I did it by myself with like five seconds to spare.
Right?
And everyone's like, that's bullshit.
You didn't do it.
I'm like, what?
Anyway, me being me, don't call me a liar.
So the next day I went back to that pizza shop, ordered the same pizza and I got my
phone.
I had a, I had one of those Samsung flip phones and I flipped it like halfway up and lent
it against the napkin holder on selfie mode.
Right?
I had no idea.
Anyway, I ate the pizza this time in like 27 minutes.
And then me being the fool, not knowing anything, I tried to upload this 27 minute video to
Facebook.
It took three days.
But I did it to prove a point to these guys in the group.
And they're like, Oh my God, like what the hell?
Anyway, by this time I kind of got in chatting to a couple of the lads in Sydney and we kind
of became friends and whatever.
And Scotty, who's actually my best friend now, one of my closest buddies, right?
He's like, dude, you got to learn how to edit.
Like you don't post a 27 minute long video.
I'm like, man, I literally had to Google how to upload it.
I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
Anyway, so he's like, dude, just keep making videos, man.
Like shit's going to happen for you.
I'm like, dude, I got work to do.
Like I've got a day job, right?
Kind of left it at that.
And then COVID happened.
So you know, it was actually a Saturday.
Funnily enough, I got invited to another burger contest and it was a Saturday afternoon.
But in Australia, what happened was there was like a news bulletin and it was across
like like we're just driving in the car and the radio like cuts out.
It's the government saying it's locked down like COVID, you know, the apocalypse is coming.
Everyone go home, right?
So we kind of turned the car around and just went home and we literally couldn't leave
our houses like from that news bulletin, right?
So I was working from home like on Zoom and then I was bored as hell.
And you know, it was, it was a crap time for everyone, right?
So my wife is like, you want to make some TikTok videos?
Like as a joke?
I'm like, okay.
And because at the time, so I used to be into bodybuilding, so I was jacked as hell, right?
I was ripped.
I was in good shape and it was summertime.
So I was, I love to cook.
I was cooking dinner at home.
And as a joke, I had an apron on with no shirt on, right?
So my wife's like filming me with this apron or whatever else.
And the videos kind of started picking up and I started doing cooking videos.
I started doing eating videos like home, like living room challenges and just dumb stuff
like that, right?
Before you know it, TikTok is like skyrocketing.
I'm getting messages from like random restaurants saying, can we send you food and you give
us a shout out and all this stuff.
I'm like, okay.
And I'm throughout lockdown, I just made friends with a few other competitive videos.
We started doing like live streams, you know, we'd get through the eats McDonald's and like
smash a Big Mac as fast as we can, like against each other.
Me and Scotty did some dumb shit.
Like we got like a box of like sour warheads and see how many we could eat in half an hour.
Just like stupid stuff, right?
Just to pass the time.
And then I never forget this.
So in Australia, it was like the 1st of June, right?
And the government announced on the 10th of June, it's freedom day.
Everyone go back to work.
Everyone go back to life.
And it was freedom day.
Like everything was suddenly normal, right?
I'm like mad back to work, right?
I had, I'll promise you every restaurant in Sydney messaging me, trying to book me in
for a food challenge at their restaurant.
Wow.
And I'm like, is this real life?
Anyway, so I kind of went along with a few of them and I went to, there was a local Lebanese
restaurant called Two Brothers.
Obviously it's owned by Two Brothers, right?
And they invited me down.
It was a Friday night.
They're like, bring your wife.
We've got belly dancing.
We've got this, we've got that.
We'll give you a banquet.
I'm like, okay, cool.
Friday night, first week back at work.
Went and got a banquet, had a mad time.
Anyway, me being me, like we ate, like obviously we ordered a banquet for two.
They definitely didn't give us a banquet for two.
They gave us the whole farm.
It was huge.
And I went to pay the bill.
My wife had a glass of wine.
I went to go pay the bill, as you do.
And the two brothers were at the counter and I'm giving my card, my debit card, and they're
kind of looking at each other like, what the?
And the youngest sister kind of pushed them out of the way and hands me this envelope.
And I'm like, the fuck?
And she goes, this is for you.
I'm like, seriously?
They're like, yeah, man.
I'm like, okay.
So out of pure reflex, I took the envelope and said thank you.
I turned around, bolted.
I walked straight past my wife.
I leapt at the table and women sat outside of the restaurant on a bench.
And she's like, what are you doing, you idiot?
What's wrong with you?
And I feel like shaking.
This envelope has money in it, like cash money.
And I'm like, babe, I don't know what just happened, but I went to go pay the bill and
they gave me this.
She's like, you got to call Scott.
So Scott is the guy I'm close with and we kind of got talking.
And he pretty much said to me like months ago, your life's going to change, right?
I'm like, Scott, explain to me the whole story.
He started laughing.
I said, what are you laughing at?
I need help.
Like what the hell?
He's like, I told you, your life is going to change.
He's like, listen to me now.
He's like, this is what you're going to do.
He's like, tomorrow you're going to open up a business bank account.
You're going to buy a good camera.
You're going to make up a logo and get some t-shirts printed.
I'm like, okay.
He's like, no, no, this time you're going to listen to me.
Right?
So my wife went home that night and designed my logo.
She's pretty creative.
She got some t-shirts printed for me.
I went and made a business and did all this.
Started making videos.
My wife learned how to edit, like legitimately learned how to edit.
She's very clever.
And within four weeks, I was making more money from food challenges, like skipping out on
my lunch break, doing food challenges and dinners and whatever than my full-time wages.
Right?
Wow.
And then I did a contest in Australia, like a competitive eating Australia, like a sanctioned
contest with like all around, like from eaters from all around Australia.
Right?
And I won and I broke the Australian record.
And then the Americans, the major league eating contacted me.
Right?
And, you know, Americans being Americans, they're kind of like, no Australian has ever
had the courage to compete with us.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
My wife's like, oh shit.
Right?
I'm like, we're going to America.
Right?
Anyway, booked flights, got accepted into the contest, everything.
Went to work the next day to my boss.
I'm like, hey boss, I need a week off.
I'm going to America.
He's like, why?
I'm going to go compete.
He's like, no, I'm like, no.
He's like, I'm not giving you time off.
I walked out of the office.
I called my wife and my babe, like, we can't go.
She's like, what do you mean we can't go?
I'm like, I'm not getting any holidays.
She goes, just quit.
Like, what do you mean just quit?
She's like, well, just quit.
Because she's like, you're good at what you do, as if you can't get another job.
She's like, what's the worst that can happen?
You come back from America and you've got to go find another job.
I'm like, okay.
I walked back into his office.
I'm like, I quit.
In the meantime, she typed up my resignation letter.
I'm like, why?
He's like, you'll be back.
All right.
We ended up staying in America for four weeks because we had nothing else to do.
Right?
I left America with the equivalent of a month's wages.
Wow.
I left Australia, I left with a professional eating contract with the MLE.
I came second and I came fifth in two contests.
And I'm the first Australian to ever sign an MLE contract.
And from the moment I touched down back into Australia, my life changed forever.
Wow.
That is nuts, man.
That's a crazy.
So you went from- I went from working, I worked for UFC.
You know the brand, like the Fight brand?
We opened up like 23 franchises in Australia.
I was in corporate.
I have an economics degree.
Like there's a brain in here somewhere.
But now I eat food in front of a camera and three years later, this is my third year now,
about to renew my contract with the MLE.
I'm ranked number five in the world.
I've got six world records.
I've got almost 2 million followers.
It's crazy, man.
Yeah.
That must feel surreal, man.
I feel like that's such a quick turnaround too, all within three years.
Yeah.
So look, it's crazy.
Number one, mental.
If you told me ever that I'm going to be making food videos or editing videos or social media
for a living, I would have laughed in your face.
I went to college for seven years.
I'm like, nah.
If you told me I could live a life making food videos and my wife sold her business,
she's a mom now, raises a little one.
Doesn't work.
We travel the world eating food, making videos, doing food contests.
I would have laughed in your face.
Laughed.
And then if you would have told me I'm going to be ranked number five in the world and
have world records, what?
There's world records for eating?
What are you talking about?
But look, I am somehow, I'm really good at this.
And now look, it's like anything.
You go to the gym, you lift weights, you want bigger muscles, you want to get stronger.
Now I'm just learning how to eat, eating pasta, eating better technique, eating more, you
know, things like this.
And it's a sport.
So not only in America and Australia, I'm being flown to Hungary in August.
I'm going to be the first foreigner to compete in the professional Hungarian eating league.
Wow.
So it's everywhere.
In Japan, it's massive.
In the middle East, I went to Turkey.
Man, Turkey and the UAE.
Crazy.
So eating my way around the world.
Yeah.
So how many countries have you counted that you've traveled to eat so far?
So I've smashed Australia.
I've been to Turkey.
I've been to the UAE and America.
At the end of this year, August, I'm going to go to Germany and Hungary.
And then next year I want to go to Japan and the UK.
So it's awesome.
But to be honest, I last year, so 2023, I spent nine months in America, one month in
the UAE, one month in Turkey.
I was only home in Australia for less than one month.
This year I've only been home for like, so in my house, I've been home for three days.
Oh my God.
So like I'm always touring.
I'm always being flown somewhere, eating, doing crazy stuff.
I go home from, I'm in America now.
I get home in August, I'm home for two days.
And that's only to repack my bag because in Germany it's going to be freezing.
So I need to go home and get rid of my singlets and pack some t-shirts and hoodies and stuff.
Right?
I'm only going home literally to see my family, see my mom, my barber and staff, my wife,
obviously, and pack my bag and bounce.
Wow.
So that's a lot of work too then that's got to be draining.
I mean, both mentally and physically as well.
It is a lot, but look, what I get to call work, I'll never complain.
Like the worst thing about my job, I haven't got a pee in an aeroplane toilet.
Like that's the hardest thing about my job.
There's people driving trucks, working in factories on job sites, you know, in there
working in the weather, the rain, the heat, the snow, you know, whatever.
I'm in restaurants, I'm at food trucks.
I get to travel, meet people, eat food.
And I'm like a walking street directory.
You tell me if I've been to that city, I know exactly where to eat.
Like it's crazy.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, definitely life could get a lot worse.
That's for sure.
You're, I mean, you're definitely blessed to be able to do what you're doing.
You mentioned earlier, the training.
I wanted to ask, like, how does that, what does the training look like for competitive
eating and what do you do specifically?
I guess there's a couple of aspects to it.
Um, look, first and foremost, you've got to be fit.
So if you look at the top 10 in the world, we've all come from some kind of sporting
background.
Uh, out of the top 10, there's an ex college basketballer.
There's two pro current pro bodybuilders.
There's an ex pro powerlifter and ex.
So one of the, one of the, one of the ladies, she was a swimmer.
She quit swimming when she just missed out on the Olympics.
So I don't know what that makes you in America, but I'm sure college swimmer, something elite,
right?
Um, the best eater in the world used to run marathon, like just run like marathon style
running.
Crazy.
So we've all got a kind of discipline.
We have to go to the gym, you know, um, look contest are normally in really random places.
So we kind of stay in the same hotels or the similar area.
Right?
So the day before we all see each other at the gym, we're all trying to keep fit.
That's one aspect to it.
You've got to be fit.
Um, the second aspect you've got to, okay, let's take, uh, the food for example.
So technique training is very important.
You know, like a chicken wing contest.
You've only got eight minutes to eat as much chicken as you can.
So you got to learn how to strip the chicken off the bones really quick.
Or, you know, for example, let's take hot dogs, the biggest event of the year.
You got to learn to separate the hot dog, eat the hot dog while you're dunking the bun.
You know, you got to practice your technique.
That's very important.
And the third aspect is your capacity.
You've got to be able to fit the amount of food.
Like take my world records, 13 and a half pounds of fudge in eight minutes.
It's a lot of frigging fudge man.
Like one and a half pounds is nothing to be sneezed at, but you've got to have that space
in your belly to be able to do that.
So stretching your stomach is very important.
You know, I'm very, look, you Americans are blessed man.
Buffets, all these buffets for like 20 bucks.
You go and smash food.
Then you know, leading into a contest, like let's say the contest is a Saturday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, I'm at a buffet all like until I can't move.
Like I'm talking like borderline legitimately passing out.
Right.
Food coma.
And then Friday you don't eat, you just hydrate.
So then you kind of let your body relax and obviously pass through.
And then Saturday you're starving as anything ready to chew your armor at the contest.
Jeez.
So you're not starving yourself for like a week before you're doing heavy training and
then only just one day before the competition, not eating.
Yeah.
I know some of the boys they'll do two, like two days.
Now, two days without food.
I'll kill someone like, like hang on man.
Like I'll kill someone.
Now do you think that that's like a, it's like a talent that you're born with or you
just have inherently?
Cause even before you started training, you know, you were crushing these challenges and
then of course, you know, you're getting better with the training and stuff.
Or do you think that's something like you can like take me for an example, just, you
know, normal eater, normal guy.
Like would I be able to train myself to do what you do?
Look, I think there's an element of natural ability.
Look, I was a fat kid growing up.
Like I mentioned, I had a mom and a bubba that their food ridiculous, you know, at any
point in anyone's house in my family, I could go to the fridge and make myself a full-blown
meal of leftovers.
Like, like I had man boobs, like I had boobs bigger than people's heads as a kid.
Right?
So I believe food was ingrained into me from a young age.
You know, I was exposed to food, good food.
And you know what it's like, you go to Bubba's house.
If you're not eating, you're sick, you know, bread, have this, have that, you know?
So I believe I was a big eater from a young age.
I was really into my soccer.
So I used to eat big after soccer.
Right.
And then into bodybuilding again, you eat big.
So I always was a relatively big eater, but I never measured myself and be like, how much
do I eat versus how much you eat?
I never really thought to do that.
Right.
And then it's like anything.
Me I don't, I'll be honest with you.
Like I don't have any hobbies.
Like when I quit soccer, I took up the gym.
Then all I did was go to the gym.
Like I don't really have, you know, people have like 10 hobbies.
No, I do one thing.
Now eating is my thing.
I'm like, all right, how do I be elite at eating?
You know, like when I was in the gym, I'm like, how do I get shredded?
When I was playing soccer, I was like, how do I be the best?
You know, now I'm just like, I want to be the best eater.
So now I train to eat.
So I probably had a decent base, but now with training on top of that base, like it's crazy.
And you got to be a bit crazy up here.
You could trade to be a competitive eater, but you know what?
Competitive eating is like boxing.
Okay.
A boxer and elite athlete.
Elite as hell, disciplined as hell, loves the sport, trains the house down, puts their
body through hell.
But on game day, they're going to get punched in the face, right?
It's inevitable.
It's a part of boxing.
You're going to get punched in the face.
Now let me tell you, eating 13 and a half pound of fudge in eight minutes is like being
punched in the face.
Right?
So up here, you're not all, we're not crazy, but we're like, it's for punishment.
You know what I mean?
Like we just love punishment.
Like we want to just push our body to its limits in weird ways.
Right?
I feel like you could practice to do it, but it's like, how much are you willing to go
up here?
You know, like I could tell, you know, I could tell you I'm full, man.
I'm done.
Are you full?
Are you going to tell yourself, no, no, like I want to keep going just for a couple more
minutes.
Right?
You know what I mean?
Like that kind of mental aspect, I believe that's the trick to competitive eating.
Like, yeah, obviously it's a lot physical, but a lot of it's mental too.
That's an interesting point.
I feel like a lot of that carries over to, you know, like weightlifting, bodybuilding
that you have to, you know, embrace the pain, you know, in order to see the results and
get bigger.
So that's, that's interesting.
You know, that, that probably has helped you in that aspect.
Sure.
So what, so you've done, what do you think hundreds of challenges by now in these last
three years?
What do you think was the hardest or what was the hardest one for you and why?
In terms of like quote unquote food challenges, I've got a pretty good record, but now obviously
with social media and my channels and my, my reach getting 40 plus million views a month
across all my channels.
Right?
So my core business now is not so much food challenges.
It's more promotional work for brands and restaurants.
So now restaurants use me as like a virtual menu board instead of eating their 10 pound
or their five pound burger that I can do with ease.
They're like, how about we just give you our whole menu and you can just promote our whole
menu.
Right?
So to be honest, I've done a couple of like, I've tried to take on like four people food
challenges, like a 20 pound pizza that damn near killed me.
I left once, I was so annoyed.
One day I'll go back and eat that pizza.
But now to be honest, like every other day I'm doing something crazy.
That's challenging me.
Um, you know, I'll do a, like today I did a barbecue, a barbecue restaurant.
They gave me like their family barbecue pack that serves eight people.
So that's the challenge because that's for eight people.
Right?
It's like 10 pounds, right?
Crazy.
So like, I'm constantly being challenged in that respect these days because it's not a
food challenge.
It's more of a, it's for a video.
It's for social media, PR, marketing piece.
So yeah, but like at the same time that's helping me prepare for a contest because it's
strict rather than having to go to a buffet.
I've got 10 pounds of barbecue in front of me and a stopwatch.
I'm going to use this as my training.
Right?
So I'm done a few crazy things.
Like I've tried to eat whole menus or restaurants, you know, 20 pound pizzas.
I tried to eat.
So I tried to eat Australia's largest burger, which was nine and a half kilos, which is
over 20 pounds of burger.
I tried to fail miserably.
I ate about 15 pounds.
Wow.
Yeah.
Look, I've done some crazy things and look, yeah, it all kind of falls under the food
challenge bracket, but a lot of it is just customized for me to make a funny video from.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
But it also doubles as your training, like you said, and you mentioned, uh, you mentioned
the hot dog eating contest, which is big here in the U S for sure.
And there's, I'd say like two household names in competitive eating for people like that
don't even follow that or watch that.
But everyone in the U S knew, you know, Kobayashi and Joey chestnut.
And on that topic, I wanted to ask if you have any sort of people that you looked up
to either in the competitive eating space or just athletes in general, who you sort
of had as role models.
Yeah.
So look, um, look, let's talk about competitive eating first.
When I first discovered competitive eating and I started like watching film and video
and YouTube and whatnot, Kobayashi and Joey chestnut, they are the goats.
They are the goats.
Right.
Um, when it came to hot dogs, no one's matching them.
They're in a league of their own.
I've actually beaten Joey chestnut in a couple of contests.
Wow.
Really hot dogs, different, different animal.
He's a beast when it comes to hot dogs.
Right.
So man, as an eater to compete against Joey, look, to be the best, you got to compete with
the best and get your ass kicked by the best.
That's how you learn.
Joey has tailed me up more times than I can imagine, but now I've beaten him four times
in other things, not hot dogs.
So he's kicked my ass two years in a row at the hot dog contest.
This year I want to match it.
Like I want to, I want to give him a run and see how close I can go.
Knowing what I know now, he's been doing this for 20 years.
I'm in my third year experiences, everything.
Right.
So I want to see how much I match up against him, but whether I get beaten by him, lose
to him, even if I beat him in any contest, it's respect, he's the goat.
Right.
So obviously look up to Joey.
He's a beast, man.
He was one of the first to turn eating into a career and make money from it.
Right.
So of course, look up to him.
Before that, I was really into my bodybuilding.
You know, a lot of elite bodybuilders when I first started showing my age now I'm 35.
So when I first started bodybuilding, man, like Branch Warren, Phil Heath, Jay Cutler,
Ben found ways to monetize what they love.
Right.
How the hell do you make money from bodybuilding?
You know, that's awesome.
Getting paid to train.
It's freaking awesome.
Right.
That's what got me into the gym in the first place.
And then before that, I was really into my soccer.
Right.
So looked up to a lot of pro soccer players, you know, actually I was a goalkeeper.
One of my favorite goalkeepers ever was Iker Casillas, his Spanish.
And the guy was a beast.
He played till he was like 42 years old.
Animal.
But I've always looked up to people in different respects, but in life, man, my dad, my dad
is the goat.
So like soccer, bodybuilding, food, business, whatever.
Like my dad's like my go-to guy.
And I kind of just, I want to mimic what he does in life.
In my eyes, he's a very successful man.
He provided me a great life, my family a great life.
So to be fair, when it comes to role models, it's my dad at the top.
And then depending on what realm of life I have, like people just below that.
That's an awesome answer, man.
Yeah.
I really, I really liked that, that answer there.
James, I only got about a minute left here, a minute and a half.
I don't want to take up too much of your time, but sort of last quick two questions for you.
Future plans, future challenges.
What are you looking forward to this year?
I know you mentioned Hungary, Germany, Japan coming up, but yeah, talk real quick about
what you got prepared for the future.
Next weekend in DC, I'm defending my donut world record.
I want to defend that title.
I want to win the, I want to go top three at Nathan's one day.
I want to win Nathan's.
I promise you that I'm going to win one day.
And then what's, what's next for me, obviously America, then Hungary, then Germany back to
America to defend a few of my titles.
Hey, look, I'm currently ranked number five.
I want to get that top three spot.
That's awesome, man.
I'll let you go ahead and shout out your social media handles, you know, your tick tock Instagram
right here.
And I'll include links below.
Thank you.
I'm look search jwebby can eat on every platform.
Jwebby jwebby can eat.
It's all me.
Awesome.
James, the last question here, and I really appreciate you taking the time, but you got
to make it out to Croatia at some point.
And if you had to do a food challenge over there, what would you do?
Well, it's got to be chivapi man.
Like I've had chivapi lots.
I just need the real stuff.
And the lepina.
Well, forget it.
Oh, you're making me hungry right now, man.
I'm going to go make some lunch or something.
But James, awesome.
Really appreciate you having you on, man.
Thank you for having me.
Have a good time.