On Saturday, August 1 I participated as a contestant in a doughnut-eating contest at Top Pot Doughnuts in downtown Seattle. The event was hosted by El Vez and some lady in a doughnut bikini. I and my eating companion Adam from Barsuk Records won second place.
The format was that a random selection from audience volunteers would be matched with representatives from local record labels who sponsored the event. The audience volunteer and the label rep would comprise a tag-team, and together the doughnuts they ate would be tallied. The team with the highest number of doughnuts eaten in five minutes would win. There were five tag teams, and also there was a guest professional eater named Billy the Fridge who was competing alone as a returning champion of the event.
Before going there, I knew that I wanted to be in the contest, and when I got there I was really disappointed to see that a lot of other people had submitted their names to play. I wrote my name on a piece of paper and threw it into the collection from which names would be drawn, and then checked out the place. Top Pot makes good doughnuts, and their shop on 5th Avenue is relaxing even with a huge crowd there. My friend Dean was there and I went there with Lee, and I asked people there about the competition. El Vez showed up in a convertible with his girl when it was showtime. I had been wanting to meet this guy since I heard about him in 2002, and actually have planned to go to his concerts several times but it had always fallen through. It made me feel so good to meet him.
He announced that his girl would pull contestants’ names from the batter bowl, and the first name she pulled was mine. I was thrilled! Already I was feeling heady from meeting El Vez and from the excited crowd and from not having eaten since the day before in anticipation of competing, and now I was feeling a rush. I had been reading about Takeru Kobayashi‘s strategy and I decided that I would dunk the doughnuts in water before eating them so as to make them slippery enough to slide down my throat without chewing them. I requested a large mixing bowl at my station for this purpose and I thought I would be the only one to have one, but then the barista gave them to everyone, assuming that they were to collect vomit.
at my workstation
Getting paired with another person was a surprise for me, but I got the best partner of the reps there. Adam was way cool and scarfed hard when our time came. We each ate four to give a total of eight, three of the other teams barely finished seven, and one team only ate six. Billy the Fridge ate nine by himself so obviously he deserved to win first place, but I was happy to get second place.
The other labels there were Sub Pop, Hardly Art, Light in the Attic, and Suicide Squeeze. They gave all the contestants cds and Top Pot gave me the certificate, a t-shirt, a discus, $15 in doughnut gift certificates, and more doughnuts. I really appreciate groups that put events like this together.
I would like to compete again, but would want to practice swallowing more first. I still instinctively chewed the doughnuts, and I was talking to Billy the event and he said that was a mistake that I could train away.