Professional Pigs Gorge on Publicity

June 28, 2005 — -- Bob Dylan once sang, "Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king." The same could be said of competitive eating: Eat 10 hot dogs in 12 minutes and you're a fat slob. Eat 53 and a half, and you're an international TV star.

Takeru Kobayashi, the little man from Japan who casts a giant shadow over the international sport of competitive eating, returns to America this week to defend his hot dog crown at the July 4th contest, which will be broadcast live from New York's Coney Island on ESPN and ABC Radio networks, with yours truly serving as a commentator.

As the great gladiators of gluttony gather, the story is not Kobayashi. The four-time champ doubled the world's record of 25 frankfurters in 2001, and never turned his back. He set a new record last year, passing the 50-dog mark for the third time, and still, no other rival has yet to down even 40 dogs.

The story is not the fact that little skinny guys and petite women dominate the sport. The International Federation of Competitive Eating's top three gurgitators -- Kobayashi, Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas and Rich "The Locust" LeFevre -- weigh 130, 101 and 130 pounds -- a combined total that's significantly less than the No. 4-ranked eater, Eric "Badlands" Booker, who tips the scale at 420 pounds.

In my opinion, the story now is that competitive eaters are becoming stars. They're already getting media attention most professional athletes would envy. Now, they're looking to turn gastric greatness into something more than mass media rubbernecking. Perhaps the champions of chomping may one day be gorging themselves on endorsements.

Already, the prize money is increasing. At next month's Alka-Seltzer U.S. Open of Competitive Eating -- another ESPN event -- 32 top eaters will compete for $40,000 in prizes. This is a major step away from the hot dog-eating contest, which offers the winner nothing more than bragging rights, a year's supply of Nathan's franks and a bejeweled yellow belt of undetermined value.

The nonstop TV exposure has created many unlikely stars. Booker, who still works as a New York City subway conductor, has become a frequent guest on "Last Call with Carson Daly," serving as a guest announcer and "Eater in Residence." He's also cut a rap album, "Hungry and Focused."

"The way the sport is evolving, you need money to just to prepare," says Booker, who lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children. "I am looking just to pay for my costs."

A major event -- like the hot dog contest -- can require eight weeks of gut-busting training, wherein the food eater will work on stretching the elasticity of his stomach. Some competitors will practice with drills such as drinking a gallon of water in under a minute.

Kobayashi is said to earn about $150,000 in international competitions. Some U.S. competitors see corporate sponsorship as the way of the future, to pay for training costs.

"I'd like to see myself completely covered with advertisements, just like a NASCAR driver," says Ed "Cookie" Jarvis, a 429-pound world-class eater, who has criss-crossed the country over the last few years, setting records in ice cream (one gallon, nine ounces in 12 minutes), French fries (4.46 pounds in six minutes) and cannoli (21 in six minutes).

With more than 100 appearances on TV shows, Jarvis sees himself as the perfect human billboard. "I've been on Jay Leno and the cover of The Wall Street Journal," he says, "I reach a pretty broad audience."

The No. 6-ranked eater says he'd even retire from competition for the right offer. "I want to be the next Jared," he says, referring to Jared Fogel, the Indianapolis native who lost 245 pounds by eating only Subway sandwiches -- and then became a company spokesman.

Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of the competitive eating circuit is that its stars come in all shapes and sizes, and can therefore appeal to any group an advertiser wishes to reach.

In what other sports do men and women of all ages compete against one another? The top-ranked American eater, Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas of Alexandria, Va., is a 37-year-old assistant manager of a Burger King at Andrews Air Force Base.

Thomas, a 101-pound dynamo, is ranked only behind Kobayashi in international competitions, and holds 18 world records, including top honors for cheesecake (11 pounds in nine minutes) and hard-boiled eggs (65 in 6 minutes, 40 seconds).

Any potential advertiser could just as easily look at the No. 3-ranked eater, 62-year-old Rich "The Locust" LeFevre of Las Vegas, and see an instant hero for elder Americans. The retired accountant holds records in SPAM (six pounds in 12 minutes) and Watermelon (11.5 pounds in 15 minutes), routinely beating eaters half his age.

Moreover, LeFevre often competes with his wife, Carlene, a former makeup saleswoman who is now known as "the grand dame of gluttony" and holds the record for posole (6.8 pounds in 12 minutes).

If it's starting to occur to you that competitive eating has all the self-exploitation necessary to make a good reality TV show, you're one step behind MTV. Tim Janus, another entrant in next week's hot dog derby, is getting ready to star in "The True Life of a Competitive Eater."

The 28-year-old Manhattan bachelor was crowned the tiramisu champ in March, inhaling 2.9 pounds of cake in less than four minutes. Janus supports himself as a day trader, riding the ups and downs of the NASDAQ market.

"You need intestinal fortitude to trade equities and to eat competitively," says Janus, who trains by consuming four pounds of scrambled eggs chased by a gallon of water.

Perhaps it was apparent Janus was destined for reality TV when he studied political science at Southern Methodist University, and was famous for painting his face at basketball games to heckle the other team.

Janus will wear that face paint -- inspired by pro wrestling star, the Ultimate Warrior -- when he steps up to the plate at Coney Island. All that separates him from immortality is 50 hot dogs (more or less) and one enormous stomachache.

Win, lose or vomit, the prying eye of a reality TV camera will be watching.

Buck Wolf is entertainment producer at ABCNEWS.com. "The Wolf Files" ispublished Tuesdays.