Last Call

Geoffrey Esper, world class competitive eater

Veer Mudambi

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Hosted by Major League Eating, competitions across the country test not only your appetite but endurance and speed. In a normal year, there can be more than 20 contests a year by MLE and one of the biggest is Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island in New York. Anyone hoping to break the top 50 in MLE ranking needs to make a good showing on Independence Day. High school teacher and Oxford resident Geoffrey Esper is currently ranked second in the world for competitive eating and will be participating this weekend aiming to maintain his ranking. He sat down with Last Call to talk about how he got started and how he feels going into this year’s competition.

How did you get into competitive eating?

My story’s basically the same as anyone else who gets into it — I started off doing restaurant food challenges. I did well at a couple of those locally and I decided to try out in the qualifiers for Nathan’s at Coney Island. Came close the first time — lost by a few hot dogs — and qualified the second.

How do you prepare for events?

In a regular contest, I’ll try and find the same type of food as they’ll have at the contest and try and practice eating it. I’ll do about one or two practices usually but for Nathan’s I’ll do five or six.

On the day of the contest, I’ll get up early and eat a small breakfast so I don’t get tired. Some people fast but I can’t do that. I’ve found that if I just starve myself, I fall flat on my face.

What are the rules for contests? Are they the same everywhere?

Most are 10 minutes but some can be 6, 8 or 12 and how much you can eat in that time. Different for other contests. Some are first to finish — you get five pounds of food and race to finish. I do pretty well at those.

Tips for other competitive eaters?

I don’t know if I’d ever promote somebody else to go into it — it’s kind of a weird thing. Eating a whole bunch of the same food, it’s not like sitting down to a Thanksgiving meal. You can’t really enjoy it. It’s like a sport. I would say, if you’re just starting out, make sure you really really like it, because it’s not as fun as you think it is. If you’ve been doing it for a while, remember that regular exercise is very important because more fat means less capacity for your stomach, so you want to stay

Geoffrey Esper of Oxford, will be competing in the annual Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest on the Fourth of July. He’s currently ranked second in the world by Major League

Eating. SHEA COMMUNICATIONS fairly lean.

When’s your next shot at No. 1?

If you ever want to get to No. 1, you have to win Coney. And Joey’s got that locked for quite a while now. (Joey Chestnut holds the record of 13 wins at Nathan’s). Second place is pretty good competition this year and I think I got a pretty good shot.

Preferred food to competitively eat?

Pizza — you don’t get the flavor fatigue like with other foods. The ones that are a little bit greasy like tamales, you get sick of those after a few minutes.

Favorite food overall?

It might actually be pizza, that’s why I like it in contests.

How has this affected your view of food generally?

I don’t really have cravings anymore. Like some people say “I’m craving a cheeseburger,” I just think back to that time I ate 50 cheeseburgers.

How do you reach top ranking?

If you want to work your way up the list, you have to place up in contests. They don’t change the rankings very often but they’re pretty accurate. They look at how you’ve done in each contest and who you’ve beaten over a period of time.

What kind of contest is the hotdog eating?

Skills and capacity — it’s as much as you can eat in 10 minutes.

Your MLE profile implies you have a reputation for being serious. It says MLE officials have seen you smile “despite reports to the contrary.” Is there a story behind that? [Laughs] It’s more compared to the other guys there. A lot of them talk a lot, make a big show of it like WWE, but I’m not into that. I try to downplay it a little bit.