Joey Chestnut Is My New God

If anyone who reads this actually knows me, you will know that I am obsessed with competitive eating. Joey Chestnut ate 59.5 hot dogs, smashing the worlds record. Joey will bring back the hot dog title to the USA this year, and I will be there to witness it. Come 4th of July, America will once again be on top of the world. Also, I think I have a hook up this year so I might get a photo pass. Hot damn.

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Best Of 2014

These “Best of” posts keep coming as I slowly get all my images organized. The 2013 best of gallery was a bit of a turning point though because at some point during 2013 I got a little more organized and so a lot of the work is already done. It goes a lot faster. I am actually done with 2016 too but I will wait to post the best of 2015 first. But, not one bit of this is interesting so let’s start talking about the reason we are here: 2014.

I think I peaked as a photographer in 2014. I lost my favorite client in the middle of 2014 over some shit that I had very little to do with, and then my life sort of detonated in 2015. I have shot a bunch of stuff that I am fairly proud of since then, but looking back at the first half of 2014 I really shot some stuff I loved. My shoot with Raven Rockette at Rock-a-Hoola and my shoot with April O’Neil and Shay Laren at Murphy’s Ranch were two of my favorite shoots of all time and they happened in the same week! 

Some other highlights of 2014 included following Hannibal Buress when he opened up for Aziz Ansari at Madison Square Garden, hanging out with Iggy Pop in Miami, and watching Joey Chestnut propose at the Coney Island hot dog eating contest. I got to shoot Motley Crue from a million miles away on their “last tour” and I got to shoot Miley Cyrus which was surprisingly enjoyable. I shot MIA and a hologram for a tequila and a ton of fun stuff for Sailor Jerry including the Sailor Jerry House at SXSW

I shot a ton of stuff for the Village Voice including two of my favorite assignments of all time, Antiques Roadshow and the Westminster Dog Show. I shot some festivals for them as well including 4 Knots, Fool’s Gold Day Off, and of course the Gathering of the Juggalos. The girl I was dating for a bunch of 2014 was a writer for the Voice and we covered a bunch of stuff together, but the one thing we did together that didn’t end up in the Voice was our trip to the Creation Museum in Kentucky. It was so fucking insane. 

I feel like I got a couple more things left to mention before I let you guys get to the 300+ photos. 2014 Art Basel was the last time I went down there after I managed to somehow lose money. It was still a great trip though and I got to see a Dolphins game so I shouldn’t complain too much. I got to shoot John Amos for an article that I don’t think ever ran, but it was great to meet a legend like that. Speaking of legends I also got to shoot Robert Rodriguez, Robert Duvall and a bunch of other actors and directors not named Robert during the SXSW Film Fest including the cast of Silicon Valley. Oh, also I should mention that I shot this Rockabilly convention in Vegas incase you are wondering what all the insane haircuts are all about. Fair warning. 

The one thing I hate about looking back on all these photos is seeing the people I will never see again. The last photo I ever took of Dust La Rock is in this gallery. My really good friend DJ Jess died three years ago this week. I feel like I don’t have a ton of photos of Spam because he was usually behind a bar working but I found a couple and included one in this gallery. My brother from another mother Denny is in this gallery too. Too many people gone.

Lastly, I  should mention that I only found one naked girl gallery I hadn’t published. That’s a good thing because I have way too many that I still need to publish. The one I did find was of a girl named Alison Faye who left the adult industry shortly after we shot and I just never got around to posting them. The set was fairly small anyway, so I just decided to upload the whole thing to Girls of Driven By Boredom so it’s there if you want to see it. 

Okay, now click here look at this massive gallery of the best photos I took in 2014.

Miley Cyrus

Westminster Dog Show

Chelsea

Diarrhea Planet @ SXSW

Alia Shawkat

Nina Hartley At The AVN Awards

Gathering Of The Juggalos

Hannibal Buress & Chris Rock

Raven Rockette

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Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest – 7.4.14

Once again I spent my 4th of July in Coney Island taking photos of people eating hot dogs. There is nothing more American than that! The Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest is now in its 98th year and for the 8th time in a row Joey “Jaws” Chestnut won. At 61 hot dogs he was nowhere near his record of 69 but it was enough to outlast Matt Stoney who had the lead midway through the 10 minutes of hot dog eating. Chestnut won another way too.. before the contest he proposed to his long time girlfriend and fellow eater Neslie Ricasa.

On the women’s side there was a big upset. Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas lost for the first time in the history of the women’s competition. She was beaten by Miki Sudo 34 to 28. Thomas holds the record at 45 but with a crazy storm going on it was apparently bad day for eating hot dogs. Sonya is from my hometown of Alexandria, VA so I have been a fan of hers for many years. I hope she can mount a comeback next year!

The storm was pretty insane and Coney Island was empty on what is normally one of the most packed days of the summer. I was pretty prepared for the weather but it still made my job a lot harder. At some point my lens got fogged up but I couldn’t tell because I was shooting through a plastic waterproof case and I thought it was just my screen that was fogged. Fortunately I shot several hundred photos so I think there is plenty of madness for you guys to look at!

After the contest I ran into my friend Olivia and we rode the ferris wheel in the rain which makes the second time in two weeks I have been on the Wonder Wheel. We also went to the beach which was hilarious to see people trying to vacation in the pouring rain. After leaving Olivia and a slightly too long nap I ended up at the  private hot dog eating after party where I didn’t take any photos but did have corn starch poured down my pants by one of the best eaters in the world. And that’s how I spent my 4th of July…

Now click here to see all my photos from the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island!

Joey Chestnut & Miki Sudo

Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest

Nathan's Mustard Belt

Joey Chestnut Marriage Proposal

Joey Chestnut Marriage Proposal

Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest

Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest

George Shea Gets All The Ladies

 

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4th Of July Hot Dog Eating After Party – 7.4.12

Now as a hater of all Boston sports teams I would never intentionally walk into a sports bar dedicated to Beantown, unfortunately Crazy Legs Conti is not only a a legendary competitive eater but he is also a fan of the Boston Celtics and threw his annual 4th of July Hot Dog eating after party at Professor Thomas in the East Village. Despite being surrounded by vomit inducing New England Patriot memorabilia I had a great time. My lady Kimberly Kane is still in town so I dragged her out and a couple of High Life’s later she was having a great time too. I ran into my friend Doug Sakmann there too and weirdness follows him everywhere.

I didn’t really shoot any photos until ESPN rebroadcast the hot dog eating contest and I had to pull out my camera to get shots of professional eaters watching themselves eat. Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog champion and #1 ranked eater in the world Joey Chestnut walked me through the last minute of the contest and how he ate something like 8 hotdogs in the last minute cause he wanted to get to 68 again. It was pretty much like Michael Jordan explaining to you what it was like to hit a play off buzzer beater fadeaway jumper as he watched it for the first time.

I didn’t shoot a lot of pictures at Professor Thom’s but I dig all the shots so you should look at em real quick cause professional eaters are really fun when they get together and get really drunk.

Click here to see the pictures from the 4th of July Hot Dog Eating After Party at Professor Thoms.

Bonus Links: If you haven’t already make sure you check out my pictures from the actual Nathan’s Famous hot dog eat off and check the pictures from the 2010 Crazy Legs hosted hot dog eating after party!

Eat All You Can Eat!

New Yorks Fullest: Crazy Legs & Eater X

Deep Dish & Maria Edible

Joey Chestnut Watching Himself Eat Hot Dogs

Deep Dish Getting Patriotic

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Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest – 7.4.12

Although I missed it last year because of my epic road trip, I have been to 8 of the last 9 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contests. 4th of July to me is hot dog eating at Coney Island. In that time I have become friends with some of the contestants and now have a pretty good hook up to Major League Eating events so I got my press pass and headed down to shoot the madness.  I took A LOT of photos and the media riser is so far away that all the shots sort of look the same but you should flip through them anyway. There are also a bunch of nice shots at the end of contestants after the event. So let’s get to the important stuff.

The women’s competition was won by Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas a 100lb woman who has been dominating all other women and most of the men in competitive eating events for as long as I can remember. She is turning 45 this year and was determined to eat her age. She succeeded and in the process beat her own female world record by 4 hot dogs. She is amazing and she also happens to be from my hometown of Alexandria, VA so there are a LOT of pictures of her in the gallery.

The men’s competition was won by Joey Chestnut of course. The American champion has now won six years in a row and won by nearly 20 dogs. He ate 68 in ten minutes to tie his own world record that he set in 2009.  The only other eater in the world that could touch him, Takeru Kobayashi, has not competed the last three years after a contract dispute with the MLE. Kobayashi staged his own event at the exact same time and ate 58.5 hot dogs. Even if he had beaten Chestnut it wouldn’t have mattered since it was unsanctioned and done in different weather with different hot dogs. America wins again!

New York hero Tim “Eater X” Janus and Chicago favorite Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti came in second and third, as they almost always, do but it was Matt Stonie who impressed the most eating 46 hot dogs at only 19 years old. The long haired, skinny jean wearing Californian came in 4th and is set to become a super star in the world’s most important non-football sport.

After the eating at Coney Island “Crazy Legs” Conti threw an after party in the East Village. I showed up and took some pictures which I am going to post about twenty minutes from now so come back for that…

Now click here to see all the pictures from Nathan’s Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island.

And click here if you want to see my pictures from older contests!

Joey Chestnut & Sonya Thomas

Sonya Thomas Breaks Her World Record

Sonya Thomas - American Hero

IFOCE Founder George Shea

Joey Chestnut Ties His Own World Record

Deep Dish Shows Off His Hot Dog

The Next Great Eater Matt Stonie

Joey Chestnut - American Hero

Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas Eats 45 Hot Dogs

 

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Hot Dog Eating Contest After Party – 7.4.10

Seven months ago I ran into Crazy Legs Conti, New Yorks most notorious professsional eater, at Lit Lounge.  I recognized him and struck up a conversation. Turns out he is actually a fan of this site after I gave him one of my cards at the Nathan’s Famous 4th of July hot dog eating contest a few years ago.  He told me that every year he throws and after party and all the eaters come and drink as much as they ate and that I needed to come take photos.

Well here we are in July and Crazy Legs invited me to the party just like he said and people drank just as much as he said.  Nearly all the eaters from Nathan’s showed up except the ladies and Bob Shoudt.  Joey Chestnut was there, as were Tim “Eater X” Janus and Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti who were first, second and third in the contest respectively. Legendary eaters like Eric “Badlands” Booker and MLE commissioner “Hungry” Charles Hardy made apperances as well.  There were probably about 20 eaters in total all taking down shots of tequila during the almost three hour open bar.  By the time I got to thinking about leaving things were getting pretty out of hand.

The highlight of my night aslo involved drinking. I don’t actually drink except on rare occasions but I have a gift for chugging beer.  I am not sure why I was given this gift but I always had it. It was not something I developed or practiced.  I was just born to chug beer. My friends in college used to take me to bars to challenge frat dudes and win money betting on me.  To this day I have never lost. I made an off hand comment about it to Eater X and he told me that I needed to challenge Deep Dish Bertoletti. He told me Deep Dish was the best and he would take on all comers. He was game and we went pint of Bud Light to pint of Bud Light.  In his defense he had eaten 37 hot dogs only 8 hours earlier and he was allready drunk, but we tied. Seriously, it was dead even. So now I know that if I can stand toe to toe with the 4th ranked professional eater in the world in a drinking contest, I can probably throw beers down with anyone. I think this is an important thing to know about myself. In the world I live in of skinny jeans and gay dance parties it’s good to know I can man up when I am called to the table.

Anyway, I am clearly losing my mind due to lack of sleep once again, so I will stop this crazy talk about hot dogs and beer. What you need to do while I try to sleep for 15 hours is to click right here to see all the pictures of professional eaters getting really drunk at a midtown bar called Redemption.

Until tomorrow… Eat all you can eat.

Joey Chestnut

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Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest – 7.4.10

It’s that time of year again. The 4th of July hot dog eating contest at Coney Island. It has become a tradition in my life ever since I made my way down to Coney Island in 2004 after the Richmond, VA based  band I was managing at the time drove up to NYC to play a show on the 3rd.  I returned the next year, intentionally booking the band a show so I could make the trip.  The year after that the bad actually played the contest and the last three years I have been covering the event as a journalist.  The last two years for the Village Voice.  I have seen some amazing feats.  I was there for Kobayashi breaking his own record with nearly 54 hot dogs in 12 minutes which no one ever thought was possible.  I was there when Joey Chestnut defeated him in a contest which shocked the world and I was there last year when Chestnut ate an impossible 68 hot dogs in just 10 minutes.

This year records were not broken.  It was so hot that eaters across the board had troubles eating.  Chestnut, who ate 72 hot dogs in practice, managed to win the contest eating 54 hot dogs. Five years ago this would have been an incredible feat, but this year people questioned if he wasn’t pushing himself without a serious contender.  You see, this year Kobayashi watched from the stands.

Due to a contract disagreement between Kobayshi and the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) the Japanese legend did not compete. Right before the contest started he appeared in the crowd and people began chanting his name.  He was wearing a “Free Kobi” t-shirt but seemed content to watch from the stands. When it was over and Chestnut had one, Kobayashi made a break for the stage.  His translator said that he wanted to eat for the people for free, others said he just went  up there to congratulate Chestnut, the Larry Bird to his Magic Johnson. Either way he was grabbed by police and carried of stage.  He clung with all his might but eventually was pulled off.  He was arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest and spent the evening in jail.

Later at the after party competitors, friends and family were cheering for Joey, themselves and America as the ESPN highlights showed on TV.  They had a big USA, USA! chant going on.  But when they showed Kobayashi being arrested a silence fell over the room until people started booing.  Everyone hated such a thing happen to a man they respected so much. The story should have been about Chestnuts 4th straight victory, but instead, it was a sad day at Coney Island and a sad day for Major League Eating.

Click here to see all the photos from the 4th of July hot dog eating contest at Nathan’s Famous in Coney Island. Pictures from the after party will be up tomorrow. God bless America.

Ps. Just wanted to give a special shout out to Crazy Legs Conti who invited me to the after party and introduced me to a lot of the eaters.

Free Kobayashi!

Takeru Kobayashi Arrested

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Invite Them Up Reunion – 9.18.09

Now that my site is running reasonably smoothly again we can finally get the photos I took LAST Friday during the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. Yeah, we are behind, let’s get started.

Friday night’s show started with a reunion of my favorite comedy show in New York City. The show has appeared on this site before, most notably when I covered their last three shows. But when I shot their 5th year reunion was also important because it happened to be the first time I had shot nightlife photography with an on camera flash. It was sort of the starting point for me taking event work slightly seriously.

I had to see Invite Them Up get back together if only for a night. The show is hosted by Bobby Tisdale and Eugene Mirman and features a number of comics inter spliced with weird chants and bits from Bobby with Eugene taking his 10 minutes towards the end of the show. Often times there is music.

Friday Bobby was in full swing playing out his infamous mic checking bit for longer than anyone reasonably should. Bobby is not a reasonable man. Bobby lead the crowd in a number of rousing chants, although he unfortunately left out any mention of Connie Chung or Margaret Thatcher, two ladies who get a lot of play in Bobbys chanting.

Bobby brought on SNL writer John Mulaney to open the show. John sat next to me on the plane to South by Southwest this year and we had a very awkward conversation where I accidentally talked shit about several projects he worked on. I don’t mean to not like SNL I just think most of the cast is annoying, and yeah I like Dimitri Martin live more than I like his show, but John is a funny fucking guy and had me laughing his whole set.

Next up was Morgan Murphy who I saw opening for Patton Oswalt and Eugene nearly for years ago. When I moved up to NYC she was opening for Neil Hamburger at Piano’s and tried to sneak me in to the sold out show. I have sort of have had a crush on her since then from a far, but now she lives in NYC so now I am probably going to run into her on the street and not make eye contact. I have seen her a few times and she was hilarious as always. She also did a bit of prop comedy with some Jewish New Year 5770 shades which were pretty epic. She told me she had been wearing them all day.

After Morgan was John Hodgman who I have never actually seen do stand up, but I am a big fan of. Considering half his bit was about how everyone recognizes him from his TV commercial you probably know him as the PC guy from the Mac Vs PC commercials. I ran into the Mac (Justin Long) at McDonald’s the other day, so now I have my bases covered. I personally am a fan of John from his work on This American Life and Boing Boing, two of the more nerdy things I have been obsessed with in my life. His roast of Obama was also pretty outstanding. It was good to get to see him do stand up.

Next was an Invite Them Up staple called 30 seconds of stand up where a comic does EXACTY 30 seconds of generally improvised stand up. The very funny Joe Mande stepped up and did his 30 seconds on Friday. He was then followed by Eugene who brought up Larry Murphy to help him do a bit involving Daniel Day-Lewis trying to figure out how to use a Blue Ray DVD player while staying in his There Will Be Blood character. This was all followed by John Westley Harding doing a few songs for a short musical break to the comedy.

Speaking of music, up next was Reggie Watts who makes the most insane music you have ever heard using only his voice and a Line 6. He was brilliant as always, but there is nothing really to say about it. You just need to see him for your self. Your mind will be blown. Even watching him on tape does not do him justice.

The headliner of the show was former Daily Show correspondent and American hating Red Coat John Oliver. I have seen him do stand up a half dozen times and while I am always near tears in laughter, I always leave with just a little more hatred towards the British. His humor is so elitist that he has figured a perfect way to make hipsters laugh by attacking Americans as a whole which hipsters feel a sense of superiority over. So when he makes fun of American’s for being ignorant gluttons the audience some how feels he isn’t actually making fun of them. I think it is brilliant and completely hilarious and had a real sense of pride when I explained that only Americans would create a hot dog eating contest, then get beaten in it and make it a statement of national honor to win it back. And as I hope you know by now, I am a HUGE Joey Chestnut fan. USA! USA!

It was a great show and I was glad to see Invite Them Up back if even only for a night. The room was too dark though and so the photos aren’t great.  They aren’t even as good as the pictures from the day before. That being said, stand up comedy photos aren’t exactly riveting, but I hope you guys check out all of these comedians and if you get another chance to see Invite Them Up you should get on that.

I also wanted to mention that there were four people in the show named John.  I had this idea for a long time to collect autographs of famous people named John as an art project.  I think once I moved to NYC and started being around celebrities a lot more the idea of asking anyone for an autograph seems super awkward even if it’s mostly for an art project. Still, when I saw John Hodgman and John Oliver talking outside, I probably should have added them to the collection/project. There is a pretty good explanation of the John autograph idea here if you want to know what the hell I am talking about.

Anyway, let’s move on.  I need to get some sleep. I have to cover an adult convention in NJ tomorrow which I am sure will be super weird.  I have this idea of turning my car into a photo booth and trying to convince porn stars to pose in it. Not sure if that will actually happen, but it sounds really funny to me right now.  So, please click here to see all the photos from the Invite Them Up reunion and I will talk to you guys when I get back.

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Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest 2009 – 7.4.09

You haven’t heard from me in a few days and there is a reason for it.  Really there are two reasons for it.  The first is that I got so unreasonably sunburned at the hot dog contest that my arms actually blistered.  I spent the entire day Sunday in bed just laying next to the air conditioning suffering.  I got absolutely no work done what so ever.  It was a struggle to move.  I was slightly better today, however, when I sat down to work I took a new medicine that is supposed to help me focus on work. Unfortunately I grabbed the wrong bottle and I didn’t notice that I had taken too sleeping pills accidentally.  This is actually the SECOND time this has happened.  The pills look almost exactly the same. I ended up getting high as hell, but because I had just woken up, sleep was not an option, but neither was working on my site so I went into the city and bought a bunch of Soul and R&B records.  Supremes, Commodores, Teddy Pendergrass etc… I also picked up some Hall & Oates, Willy Nelson and some Kurtis Blow.  It was a pretty good haul and the guy gave me a pretty big discount.  I also had a picnic while I was really really messed up on these sleeping pills.  It was sort of an intense feeling just floating around.  I talked to a former heroin addict turned Jesus freak bicycle salesmen and lent a friend $150.  Then I came home so I could listen to records and talk to you about hot dogs… So let’s talk about hot dogs.

As I prayed, predicted and hoped for, Joey Chestnut took his third straight Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog title at Coney Island.  I heard him talking about trying to eat 68 hot dogs but I wasn’t sure he could really do it.  Two years ago he set the record for most hot dogs and buns eaten in 12 minutes with 66 dogs.  The problem is, last year they cut two minutes off the official eating time, and it is now down to just 10 minutes.  Last year he ‘only’ ate 59.  This year, he ate 68 dogs in 10 minutes and you got the idea if he had an extra 2 minutes he might have eaten 80.  It was amazing.  Takeru Kobayashi never stood a chance.  Also broken was the women’s record of 39 dogs.  That record was also set in 12 minutes, so it was go to see my future wife Sonya “Black Widow” Thomas beat her own record by 2 dogs in 2 less minutes.  Deep Dish and Eater X also broke the 50 dog mark which is unreasonably impressive.  You can eat 53 hot dogs in 10 minutes and not even get a third place trophy.  Amazing.

Anyway, there are a TON of photos in this gallery and I am going to post a bunch here.  I will do it in reverse order with the hot dog eating at first and then post some shots of the weirdness that goes on before the event to build the proper dog an pony show state fair atmosphere.  I mean you have 50k people in Brooklyn being filmed by ESPN you need some carnival style hokeyness to really appreciate what you are about to see.  The low budget, yet highly entertaining theatrics included dancers, trampoline artists, jugglers, an actual dog show, clergy, acrobats, dwarves, rapping eaters, dancing hot dogs, T shirt cannons, trivia contests and of course a strong man bending steel girders with his neck.  It is just not really a party until someone bends metal beams with the most defenseless and vulnerable part of their body…. and it was a party.

Also, thanks go the Shea’s.  They run Major League Eating and and the IFOCE. They are great guys.  Rich I met a few years ago and always gets me press passes and his brother George is the host of the event and he is absolutely one hell of a host.  Not many people can just grab a mic and keep people entertained for 4 hours in the hot sun.  He does it every year.  (Even if his MJ tribute was slightly lacking… The Smooth Criminal shoes were a nice touch at least…)

Click here to see all the 4th of July hot dog eating madness!

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