June 11, 2024 • 58 mins
In November 2022, one Philadelphia man took it upon himself to eat a rotisserie chicken every day for forty days. Why? Jamie flew across the country, went to his house, and interrogated him.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Cool Zone media. If there's one thing Americans love, it's excess,
and the most intense example of all that is one
that I'm a bit of an authority on, not to brag.
It's the Nathan's Hot Dog eating Contest on Coney Island
on the fourth of July. I've been twice. By the
(00:21):
time you hear this, I may have been three times,
and I regret to inform you that competitive eating is
the most interesting thing in the entire world, bar none,
and like many of the most interesting things in the
entire world, bar none, there's a ton of weird baggage
stuffed into the arteries of this contest. I have written
a literal book on the topic, but as a lover
(00:42):
of the extremely bas I legally must watch the Nathan
Hot Dog Contest every single year, preferably in person, preferably
with questionable press credentials, and so believe me when I say, folks,
there's such a thing as too many hot dogs. The
man who can eat the most high dogs at present
is someone you may have heard of before, and someone
(01:04):
I have performed a two hour fan fiction piece about
on stage for about a year and a half.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Hi, my name's Jamie Bethany Chestnut, and I was Joey
Chestnut's wife. What a weird accident that I had nothing
to do with it. I'm so grateful. No one plans
to investigate what did not happen.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
His name is Joey Chestnut and that show was called
Missus Joseph Chesnut America USA. And this man, this king,
has eaten seventy six hot dogs in ten minutes. I
saw it, and you're going to see history.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Bud.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Wow, what a rash you were hearing unofficially seventy six
hot dogs and bonds for Joey Chestnut, which, if confirmed,
would they yet another world record?
Speaker 5 (02:04):
And rich The crowd wanted this moment, Joey wanted this.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Moment, and we may just have it.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
This is probably the event that most people in the
Western world associate with competitive eating at large. Not only
is it wrapped into a jingoistic and false idea of
what America is, it's also highly publicized and on TV
every year. But competitive eating actually took a long time
to catch on in America. It was Japan where the
concept of mass consumption first took off, creating celebrities and
(02:33):
popular televised events. Hell, it's where Major League Eating's first
great champion came from. The incredible to Karo Kobayashi, whose
explosion onto the American scene in the two thousands immediately
began doing laps around the nearest Western competitor. He made
the Coney Island event what it is today and has
inspired virtually every single professional eater who's come since, and yes,
(02:57):
that very much includes Joey Chestnut. Kobayashi was the eater
who showed the US that eating an excess was something
that one had to train their body to do. He
was a slim guy, but he had this very specific
technique and preparation process, one that most eaters still use today.
There's an incredible thirty for thirty about Joey and Takaro's
(03:17):
rivalry in the late two thousands, one that heavily relied
on Major League Eating's chairman, George Shay stoking racist sentiments
about Kobayashi. Because yes, this is a very American contest,
and if you want to know more about that, the
link to my book is in the description. Anyways, when
I first heard of this episode's main character, my mind
(03:39):
went directly to Joey, who I'm pretty sure I am
still legally married to today's main character, traffics in the
disciplined consumption of food that can kill you, and became
a folk hero in much the same way, but unlike
Joey Chestnut and to Karo Kobayashi. The only reason I'm
talking about it now is because this character, as is
often very dangerous, had a weird idea and then posted
(04:03):
about it on Twitter. Because the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating
Contest and Major League Eating in general has certainly benefited
from but isn't defined by the Internet. If anything, the
biggest media bolster of the Hot Dog Eating Contest has
been ESPN, which broadcasts the contest every year and promotes
it in the way that other news networks promote war,
(04:24):
and it's supported by the wave of traditional media that
represents it. The Internet comments along, but it's never been
the engine of why the event endures as it does.
But as the years of worn on, more and more
of Major League Eating's champions have emerged from the Internet
or made most of their money by adapting to it.
The only eater who has ever defeated Joey Chestnut, this
(04:46):
guy named Matt Stoney, began as an eater on YouTube
and then later stepped away from Major League Eating and
found even more success by continuing to create his own
eating challenges online. One of my favorite eaters, who if
you haven't seen, Oh my god, his name is bad
Land Booker.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
I'm the Baddest Man, I'm the bad Lamp.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Is still a prominent figure in Major League Eating, but
is even more famous and very likely it makes more
money doing chugging videos on YouTube. I know you've heard
of makes the pepsi and milk and getting what's called.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Pilk, but have you ever heard of doing.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
It with chocolate milk.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Well, we are going to do it today, folks.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I present to you the Chocolate.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Pilp Chuck and the Biggest dos ever.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And this all kind of makes sense, right, Like, if
there's one thing the Internet loves that isn't spewing hate
speech with complete anonymity, it's a performance of excess that
could very possibly kill you. I used to do it
too when I first moved to Los Angeles and was
working as a fact checker at Playboy. Oh and for
the record, I checked and all the breasts were in
fact large. I didn't online performance piece called Shrek nudes
(06:02):
somebody where I painted myself green and sold my own
nudes to make money for Planned parenthood. The year after,
I was working at a bookstore and had sold a
lot of David Foster Wallace to guys who were rude
to me, and I did this different performance art piece
that I just posted on Twitter where I ate a
third of a copy of Infinite Jess. Do I stand
by these actions today? Fuck you, none of your business.
(06:24):
She was having fun. All this to say, when it
comes to people doing weird things for attention online, I
am in no position to judge, and I would never
Today's main character stands bravely and with great physical discomfort
at the intersection of a physical challenge and an Internet stunt.
From one jokey tweet, one man was lifted by the
(06:47):
algorithm to infamy, forced to consume day after day, tempted
by capitalism and politics along the way, and depending on
who you ask, united or disgraced the nest of the
American colonial Project for a single afternoon Philadelphia, Chicken Man,
your sixteenth minute starts now. Now, this is the first
(08:00):
episode of sixteenth Minute, where I have to admit, if
this one didn't catch you, I don't really blame you.
But even if you don't know who the Philadelphia Chicken
Man of twenty twenty two is, today's character Alexander Timinski.
The phrase chicken man is a potent one. Maybe you've
heard it before. Con Thank a lifetime supply of frozen
(08:22):
chicken butt your cook on. Imagine you the chicken for
a year.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Now. Another exciting episode in the life of the most
fantastic crime fighter the world has ever know, Junior.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Everywhere, or in an extremely specifically ric sent to me
by my brother shout out ben.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
Here when it blew up the Chicken Man and Philly
last night.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Whether we like it or or not, the very concept
of the Chicken Man, whatever the fuck that means, surrounds us.
This is kind of a special episode because I wasn't
really planning on making it. When I hear Philadelphia Chicken Man,
I think, Eh, maybe too regional. Eh, doesn't sound like
there's much of a story. Sure, it meant a lot,
(09:20):
and I mean a lot to the people of Philadelphia,
but didn't mean anything to anyone else. But the Chicken
Man was calling to me out of nowhere. About a
month ago, my friend Andrew and Philly reached out to
see if I could headline a comedy show on short notice.
I could. I really really like Philadelphia. It kind of
reminds me of Boston, the kind of place where people
(09:42):
get angry with you for no reason and set their
uncle's car on fire if their sports team loses. They're
very different places. But when I'm in Philly, I feel
like I get it. And then I remembered there was
a main character in Philadelphia who's been brought up to
me a lot, and it's a fairly recent story. Come
with me if you will to November twenty twenty two.
(10:04):
I know, I know, we were just in October for
the Coffee Wife episode, but bear with me, because twenty
twenty two is a weirdly huge year for main characters.
Something was in the water. November twenty twenty two, gay
marriage is legalized in Japan. Everyone's having a meltdown about inflation.
In the US, the midterm elections are sending everyone into
(10:25):
an absolute hailspin. And in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a man named
Alexander Taminski ate a rotisserie chicken in one sitting for
the fortieth day in a row. It all began with
me doing math to figure out that this started on
September twenty eighth, twenty twenty two, Alex and I'll let
(10:46):
him introduce himself. In just a moment, Alex ate an
entire rotisserie chicken in one sitting. Prior to this, he
was living his life with his wife, working for money
as a server at the Barclay Prime Steakhouse in the
Ritzy Rittenhouse Square, our neighborhood, and in previous years worked
as a musician. The first chicken went down easy. Our
(11:06):
boy wanted this chicken. It was a twat, maybe, he
tells his wife. And it's a near certainty that his
coworkers saw him do the deed before a shift began,
but it's an act relegated to Alex's personal circle. On
day two, he thinks, you know what, let's do Round two,
Stay three, day four, and at some point before he
(11:27):
goes public on day eleven, he decides he's going to
keep this thing going, and by October eighth, he takes
to his occasionally active Twitter account at alex icon Tom
display name smooth Recess. He hadn't tweeted since September twenty seventh,
Retisserie Chicken Eve the.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Tweet I am jealous of people that can shit in
public bathrooms without anxiety. A tweet from the same day,
the ghouls have started to arrive.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
It all feels eerily connected, like an omen and by
the time that Alex twet on October eighth, his life
has changed. He posts a picture of himself at the
restaurant he works at. He's a white guy in his
early thirties with a beard, a hoodie, and a hat,
sitting in front of a chicken that he's already started
in on, and looking confident. He makes eye contact with
(12:16):
the camera with a near indiscernible smirk, a cloth napkin
bib tied in, with his fork and knife in each hand,
pointing upward, ready for war. The rotisserie chicken itself is
already skinned, but no salt or sauce is in sight.
A glass of water, a vanilla polar seltzer, and a
conspicuously gigantic carrot sit on the table before him. Most
(12:38):
chillingly of all, it is broad daylight.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
The tweet reads, I would like to invite you all
on a journey that I am on. I am eating
a rotisserie chicken every day for thirty days. Today is
day eleven. I will keep you all updated as I
get closer to my goal. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
At the time I'm writing this, this tweet has five
hundred forty favorites and forty seven retweets. Respectable, sure, but
nowhere near the heights that this character in this story
will reach. You'll also notice that he's saying the challenge
goes for thirty days, when we citizens of the future
know that it actually goes for forty days. Anyways, this
(13:22):
first chicken post is supported mainly by Alex's existing followers.
He gets a hell yeah, he gets a do you
eat a giant carrot? Every day? As well. He thanks
everyone for their support and posts again the next day,
accompanying a picture of Alex looking at a yet to
be tampered with rotisserie chicken gazing down in a scenic
public park. It's a repost of his Instagram story saying.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
Enjoying day twelve of eating a rotisserie chicken every day.
A beautiful chicken on a beautiful day in a beautiful park.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
It keeps going from there. Alex eats chicken on the floor,
Alex kisses the chicken, and as time goes on he
starts to look sick. Is it a performance. He'd probably
say no, I'd probably say yes, But no matter who's right,
it's interesting to look at. By day nineteen, he's holding
his head in his hand in exhaustion. On day twenty
(14:14):
four he's standing in active discomfort. Day twenty five is
the first time we see him say fuck it and
eat the damn thing straight out of the bag in
the grocery store. The goal changes to forty chickens, and
as Alex inches closer to thirty rotisserie chickens with polar
Seltzer at the end of October twenty twenty two, the
internet is growing interested. He hits thirty chickens on October
(14:36):
twenty seventh, and it's a post he's sitting at the
same table at the restaurant he works at, Alex looking
full of sodium and triumph as he sits before an
uneaten rotisserie chicken with candles that announce thirty along with
a little CVS centerpiece. Sixty four retweets, eight hundred and
thirty six favorites we're cooking. Later that day, things really
(15:00):
start to kick up. Alex posts an image to Twitter,
one that will live on in temporary Internet infamy into
the literal day that I'm writing this. It's a simple
white poster with three pictures of him eating chicken in
distress and the following announcement in all.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
Caps, come and watch me eat an entire rotisserie chicken.
November sixth will be the fortieth consecutive day that I
have eaten an entire rotisserie chicken. Twelve o'clock noon, the
chicken will be consumed on that abandoned pier near Walmart.
And most critically, this is not a party.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
This poster is just decisive and weirdly phrased enough that
it starts to do numbers online because, as I said,
Philadelphia is a sports town, and the combination of a
contentious midterm election coming up in a week and two
important teams still in play at the time the poster launched,
the Phillies were headed for the World Series, the Philadelphia
(16:00):
Union was set to compete in the Major League Soccer Cup.
Philly was up, and Alex continued in the days leading
up to what I've decided to call the event. And
here's where the story balloons from local weirdo does thing
near the docks to a full blown national human interest story.
And can I just say. Human interest pieces have got
(16:22):
to be some of the most dreadful writing on the
face of the fucking planet. Every single one of these
stories lightly echoes the other, reducing the human it claims
to be interested in with the same three or four
collection of traits, no matter who's reporting it. Anyways, here's
what the New York Times said. The city had lost
the World Series and the Major League Soccer Cup final
(16:44):
on Saturday in a span of about five hours. But
at twelve pm on Sunday, at an abandoned pier along
the Delaware River, a bearded man in a white sleeveless
shirt sat at a makeshift table and stared intently at
the plate as dozens gathered around. They braced for gusts
of wind in order to cheer him in the final
stretch of a self imposed challenge to devour forty rotisserie
(17:06):
chickens in forty days. Maybe the man Alexander Tominsky thirty
one would like to be the one to bring them
redemption after a miserable weekend filled with defeat. Most of
these pieces, the one in Food Network magazine, the one
in Philadelphia Magazine, the one in the Philly Inquirer, and
on and on and on, all feature the same matters
(17:27):
of information. Alexander Tominsky is thirty one, his day job
is server at restaurant, and all of this somehow has
to do with Philadelphia sports and from where I'm sitting
and the main character's opinion. The story is even less
complicated than this implies, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
In the ten days leading up to the event, Alex
(17:49):
introduces cauliflower florets as a side dish to the chicken.
On day thirty four, He's pulling over a thousand likes
on every Chicken post by day thirty five, twenty two
thousand life by day thirty seven, and on the eve
of the fortieth Rotisserie Chicken, a picture of Alex palming
a chicken on the pier and scowling has forty six
(18:09):
thousand likes. And then it happened. On the morning of
November sixth, twenty twenty two, at nine twenty one am, Alex.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Tweeted, I hope they greased the poles.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
At eleven twenty three am, he posted the tableau of
where he'd be eating as promised, on that abandoned pier
near Walmart, and while as he said it was not
a party. A makeshift red carpet was held down with
bricks leading up to a simple table with a white tablecloth.
The setup is as it was in the previous thirty
nine days, a rotisseriy chicken, a polar seltzer, a single seat.
(18:41):
At eleven fifty three am, he posted a picture of
his view from the table with a caution tape line
across the end of the red carpet, where a crowd
of hundreds of people are gathering to watch the fortieth
chicken be consumed. Alex enters through the I have to admit,
very polite crowd and walks to the right of the
red carpet. He's really big on this not being a party.
(19:03):
There's no music playing, and he doesn't seem to be
interested in interacting with the most festive thing about the
space the carpet. One of the assembled members asks him
where the chicken came from. The crowd continues to grow
(19:27):
as the noon start time ekes closer and Alex keeps
the crowd laughing. In the meantime, the clock strikes noon.
(20:00):
The whole event takes about an hour, and Alex is
milking it. It's an unseasonably warm day, but still pretty
windy right on the pier, and the act of eating
forty chickens is so intense on the body that no
one is surprised when the chicken Man needs to remove
layers until he's down to that white tank top that
men wear that's nicknamed after domestic violence. It's an undershirt.
(20:22):
It's a white undershirt. We can retire the other word.
And as the Chickenman gets closer, wind sing through it,
crushing the water bottle beside his trusty polar Seltzer, the
crowd starts to get rowdy, but to be clear, this
is not a party, and when that last piece of
(20:48):
heavily processed chicken clears, Bruce Springsteen's Streets of Philadelphia begins
to play, and the crowd is permitted to rush past
the yellow caution tape and embrace the Chickenman. In celebration,
he gives a short speech announcing to the crowd.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
I'm no hero, I'm but a man. I ate the chicken.
I did the best I can. I just thank you
all for being here and thanks for watching me consume.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
His final tweet on the matter has one hundred thirty
eight thousand likes and ninety seven hundred retweets. It's a
picture of Alex, his face flushed with sodium and adrenaline,
holding the empty rotisserie chicken tray above his head in celebration,
shouting to the crowd of thrilled Philadelphia denizens, He's done it.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
It's captioned forty days eating an entire rotisserie chicken hashtag chicken.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
When We Come Back. I walked from my friend's apartment
in South Philly to go and see the Chicken Man.
Welcome back to sixteenth minute. I was the president of
(22:02):
something I called Mad Cow Club in the fourth grade,
and I'll say it again, it was not my plan
to interview the Chicken Man. But as I walked down
the street to where the Chickenman lives with his wife
and his dog in South Philly on that Saturday, four twenty,
to be exact, I couldn't help but think it was
meant to be. I'd been having a hard week and
it would turn into a few hard weeks, but Philly
(22:24):
was kind of my last stop to really enjoy myself
with my friends, and I wanted to make the most
of the day. The Chicken Man had replied to my
DM on Twitter within a few days and said he
was usually available Saturday afternoons. Just let him know where
we should meet. I thought about asking him if I
should bring chicken, but then remember a dah fuck. When
I was writing about hot dogs, the last thing I
wanted to do was eat a hot dog with a stranger,
(22:47):
so instead I asked him if he wanted Dunkin Donuts.
He didn't, and when I got to his house he
answered the door and a homemade Philly's hat. I had
a lovely time. Here's my talk with the Chicken Man.
And just so you know, this interview has been edited
for time and clarity. Okay, first, if you could just
introduce yourself.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Sure, my name is Alexander Timinski.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Thank you so much for welcoming me into your lovely home.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Yeah, my humble abode.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yes, I mean I feel like people say that in
Philly and then you're like, this is the nicest place
I've ever.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Seen in my life in comparison to New York City.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I would say, well, I guess I'll just how are you,
How are things? How's life?
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Things are good? You know, everyone has their ups and downs,
but for the most part, I've been feeling pretty optimistic
when I wake up every day.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
So it's been I guess it's been what a year
and a half now since.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
It's just about it was a November of I think
twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Two since the incident. The incident, so I guess for context,
I've done. I was trying to figure out how I
was going to write it out in the show. It's
like I've done protracted almost performance already internet stuff before,
but I've never completed it, and I feel like it's
(24:01):
I mean, on my end, it was almost certainly because
I was too ambitious and I was like, I'm going
to eat a whole copy of Infinite Jest was the goal?
Like that would kill you. You can't do that.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
It wouldn't be easy, but maybe your body would acclimate
After chapter.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Three, Yeah, then it really picks up and you're like, no,
I see, I still kind of like I don't really
I didn't read it. But you completed a challenge that
you sent for yourself. How did you get there? What
was where did the idea come from? Sure?
Speaker 4 (24:35):
So I guess I just ate a whole chicken and
it felt really good. I'm a very impulsive person, so
I'll get like micro ob sessions about certain things, and
sometimes it's outlandish, but yeah, I just felt this strong
(24:56):
urge to just keep going and there really wasn't any
reason to it at all.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
What are what are other examples of micro obsessions of yours?
Speaker 4 (25:08):
I got really obsessed with cracking bull whips for a while. Whoa, yeah,
right now getting my ass kicked by thirteen year olds
on chests online chests.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Okay, Okay.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
I was doing this one really strange thing where I
was cutting traffic cones with copper wire in my basement
to an end, uh the very end.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Okay. What was it for? Though?
Speaker 4 (25:41):
It just felt really relaxing to do. Really Yeah, Like
I'd come home from work and you would start, you know,
rubbing the wire against the cone, and then you'd see
like smoke coming up off it, and then once you
got a nice ring, it felt and then you could
also see on the ground all these rings of the cone,
and you kind of felt this, I don't know, like, oh,
(26:03):
you're being productive. You can see the evidence of your
hard work.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I feel like that applies to the chicken challenge too.
I'm very satisfied by that kind of activity too, where
you can actually physically see this is what I have done.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah, absolutely, what would you do with.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
The chunks of traffic home? Once there?
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I think it's Yeah, it's still down in the basement,
like kind of tucked away in a corner. There's just
a nest of copper wire and you know, pieces of
traffic home. Yeah. So sometimes I'll forget that it's down there,
and then I'll see it and I'm like, oh, yeah,
I remember that really strange obsession that I had that
(26:42):
I really didn't tell munch people about because it would
probably seem a little bit alarming.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
That's good. I mean most people just like play the
drums or something. Yeah, but you're innovating. So you've always
sort of had this kind of hyperfixation personality since you
were you were really young. Where did you Where did
you grow up? It get back to the beginning, Chicken Man.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Yes, So I grew up in Rhode Island, and I
was always a pretty strange kid. And the thing is,
I didn't realize how strange I was, but people would
make sure to tell me how strange I was. Not
in a bad way, but yeah, just my brain has
always seemed to navigate the world a little bit differently,
(27:29):
if that makes any sense.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
I used to like bring wild dogs into school. Yeah,
I was doing this thing where and there was like
stray dogs for some reason near my school, and I
would bring them in and bring them into class and.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Big dogs, small dogs.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Well, there was one dog I bring in twice. Okay,
so I guess I've only done it three times.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Three times feels like a habit.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Yeah, and I feel like I did it also to just,
you know, get to rise out of some of the
other students. That makes any sense, it does.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Yeah, No, I when I was a kid, I mean
I did. I kept a lot of it to myself.
That was more of a copper wire in the basement
kind of thing. Okay, so you grew up in Rhode Island.
How do you end up in Philadelphia.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
I used to play music, and I played in Philly
a few times.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
And what kind of music?
Speaker 4 (28:27):
More like kind of like avant garde sound stuff, Okay,
sometimes performative as well. Like I would basically just buy
different electronics and then pour water on it. Whoa, yes,
and then the water would react to or the electronics
(28:52):
would react to the water. It felt really pure, like
this is the exact sounds that need to be made
because the water is like kind of the one in control, right,
and I could only use them once, so I'd have
to spend a lot of money on this stuff. And
then I'm kind of upset about it now because I
(29:12):
use a lot of tape machines. Yeah, and the inflation
on those machines are astronomical. I'd probably be pretty rich
if I so, I guess I'm a bit of a masochist. Yeah,
I think about it.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
I mean, that is really interesting that. I mean, I
guess that means you can perform live rarely? Is that?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Uh yeah, occasionally? And I'd like to backtrack. I meant
my wife in Providence or to be Yeah, she lived
in Philly, so oh okay, that's what sealed the deal.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Nice.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Well, I do have to say that Philadelphia is the
best city in the entire world.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
I agree with you.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Yeah, there's an air of honesty that I just crave,
and everyone is just so real and everyone's kind of
like going through the sh and like we all realize
it and it's like almost like we're all on the
same team, but a team that also hates each other.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
When did you get to Philly?
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I think it was about nine years ago. Now, Okay,
it was crazy. When I first moved here, it seemed
like the locals like somehow new, like like people would
yell out at the window of their car, a lot
of heckling for no reason. Yeah, and then once maybe
(30:30):
a certain time passes, are you like this weird like
spiritual energy of Philly like floods your brain and your blood,
Then they know that you're here now. So yeah, I'm
definitely acclimated because no one yells at me anymore.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I'm coming back around to the chicken and promise. I
am interested to hear that you were an artist, because
in all of the articles, it's so funny, like reading
through and you're only identified as as a server in
all of these articles. Was that intentional? Was that just
sort of how it.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Went or yeah, I mean that's pretty much it. I
had no intention of being like, oh, I'm creating this
art piece. I think I was just doing this thing.
I mean maybe my inner artistic self kind of had
some sort of influence, but I didn't set out to
do it as a sense of for art. And for
(31:24):
that reason, I didn't want to say, oh, I'm an artist.
I didn't never tell anyone I'm an artist. I'm just
I think I'm just a weird guy navigating a weird world. Yeah,
that's all I am right now as a server, which
I'm flyind to say.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. To me, it feels
like an art piece. And this was sort of a
continuous thing throughout the coverage of it. There's like this
purity to it, because I think so many of the
stories that I've covered or found online, there is this
it starts as a pure thing and then becomes something
(31:59):
that is eventual we monetized or like continued or merchandise
or whatever it is, and sometimes like whatever, I'm not
passing judgment, but that seems to be the general tendency.
So when you started it was for fun, what made
you decide to continue? Why? Forty Well?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Very christ like, Yeah, well it it became something that
like I enjoyed, I really enjoyed eating it, and then
slowly it turned into something that was really challenging. And
I liked the idea of like feeling the pain and
to like push through it and to like kind of
(32:39):
focus on this transition of something that's so tasty, so
good into something that's barely tolerable. Yeah, just to push
through felt good. I was gonna go to thirty, and
then thirty just didn't feel right, and then so forty
seemed like the right number, and a lot of people
going back to the monetization thing, offered me a lot
(33:02):
of money to like it, sponsor the next event, to
do this and that, but it had to be finished
at forty because it just felt like that was It
felt like the end of the book or something like.
As much as people offered me, it would destroy the
whole purpose of it, because I didn't do it to
make money. I don't want to turn it into something
that's for money. I did it for myself and it
(33:26):
ended up being something that made a lot of people happy,
which that in itself was rewarding enough.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yeah, I mean, and that was something as I was
reading through these pieces that it seems like people who
as people who came to kind of this grand finale,
really valued and appreciate it. Was the fact that it
hadn't turned into a graven thing, even though and I
don't know if they would have known that you had
those opportunities. When did that? When did the project like
(33:55):
start picking up and changed from like this is something
that your friends and maybe Philly knows about to something bigger.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Sure. So the whole like kind of midway through I
was my brain was like cycling all these ideas and
then I would focus back on the chicken thing because
it almost had a sense of routine and stability. It
became so I was like, maybe I'll like eat it
(34:23):
on the pier, the last one, and because it would
be so much fun if like I was the only
one there, yeah, and if there were people there that
would be cool too.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Alone It's like a Norman Rockwell painting kind of Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
So there was one day I had to go to
work in like two hours and I was like, Okay,
I'm just going to do this. I made a poster
on Photoshop within like ten minutes and I printed out
like fifteen posters. And I can be kind of shy
at points, even online. I don't really posts very often.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, and it.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Was really hard for me to even put up the
posters because like I didn't want to concern anyone or
I just I don't know people would be surprised to
hear it. But I'm a very shy person. And so
I put all the posters up and it was really
exciting at the end of it because I went all
(35:22):
the way down near like Cheese Steak Avenue and as
I was walking back home, each poster at each pole
there was like six people like looking at it. And
so it's really I don't think this whole thing was
like spiritual in any sense, but it had this weird
(35:45):
power that I don't know. I think myself and other
people really felt it, and it felt good to share.
And it also felt really good that growing up and
being afraid of exposing some of the weird side of
me was accepted. Yeah, not only by people with like
a creative mind, but every sector chapter of seemed like
(36:09):
it was widely accepted, which has really helped me feel
good about who I am and the fact that I
can be exactly who I am and if you do that,
people will definitely cherish and accept it.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
We'll be right back with more of my interview with
the Chicken Man. Welcome back to sixteenth minute. I know
what the Chicken Man's home address is. Here's the rest
(36:45):
of our interview. I mean, I have a lot of
questions about sort of that last day, but leading up
to it, just pragmatically did you get the chicken from
the same place every time? Did you mix it up?
Speaker 4 (36:57):
I mixed it up. Getting back to the fact that
I have come to realize them a bit of a
masochist is I would always try to choose the like
the worst chicken, what qualifies as the word like super
dry and unseasoned.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
So there is one place, Rittenhouse Market, which is right
next to where I work, and I got to say,
the staff there are so nice and it was really
fun to see how confused and concerned they were at
the start, and then towards the end, before you know
this even took off, they started to get kind of excited,
which was fun. But they had the blandest chicken. So
(37:38):
I would get that a lot. But it all depend
depended on like what was available and.
Speaker 5 (37:42):
Where I was.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Okay, so you were personally hand picking there rotissery chicken
every day.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Oh yeah, so most of them come in bags. Those
are the ones I prefer because you can kind of
touch it and feel it. The ones that are firmer
were the ones that I would choose because you know,
the firmer ones were the dryest.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Right. How does your relationship to eating the chicken, whether
it's duration approach, whatever, how does it change over time?
Speaker 4 (38:09):
So to start, it was really quick, I could probably
do it in fifteen minutes, no problem. And then when
I started, I would use a fork and knife, which
is kind of weird. As the days passed, it just
became more barbaric, use the hands, and then it would
slowly take longer by the end, and people think that
(38:32):
I'm like exaggerating, but it would really take about like
sometimes two hours, and so my technique would kind of change.
Like I wouldn't be able to eat it before work
because you know I had, or i'd go in super
early and just before the staff got there and enjoy it.
The hostesses would be there and they'd be like, oh
my god, Alex. There was definitely a clear transition from
(38:57):
day one to take day forty, which also made it
interesting for me.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
There ended up being like a water component at some point.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Yeah, so when it gets dry, it's almost like like
dust or like like it's hard to explain.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
So it's like it would take longer because your mouth
is just drying out with every single bite.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
From the salt too.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Yeah, so I would use like sparkling water. Okay, that
seemed to help and kind of swish it around in
my mouth and it would create this almost like paste.
And then I realized that if I put like a
little bit of lime or lemon, that acid would make
it a bit easier as well.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Okay, all the hot dog competitors will, you know, dip
the buns in water and like have this wild technique
that does sort of enable them to almost kill themselves
on TV everywhere?
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Are they required to drink the water?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
No, No, that's good. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
There was one time that there was no chicken, so
I had to result to like a garlic seasoned Wow.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yeah, brutal.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
I know.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Thank you for your honestly.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
Yeah, I don't think I've mentioned that yet.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
But can I. I mean, I'm just curious because I
feel like every you know, description of a corporate offer
feels a little cursed. Do you remember sort of the
nature of how people were approaching you. What kind of
stuff were you being offered? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (40:24):
Like every angle, when someone gets a lot of attention,
I think people want to like latch onto it. Like
there was there was an election day. Yeah, it was
the following day, and there was different politicians trying to
get in touch with me. Really or their staff at
(40:46):
the very least. So they were calling like the restaurant
I work at, and like trying to get my phone
number somehow. I have no idea how someone got my
number and was texting me and it was like, can
you please come down and do what you did? And
you did chicken for democracy? Like come on if like
at least it like asked me like for an endorsement
(41:11):
or something. But I wanted to leave politics out of
all of this because it's for for everyone, really, different
grocery stores, different sponsorship offers. People were asking to make
the poster a what's that crypto thing where they take
(41:32):
pictures or like posters. Yeah, someone offered me, and who
knows if this is true or not, but they seemed
like a like a legit source one hundred thousand dollars
to make it an NFT. And then also I would
get like a percentage from each sale of the NFT. Okay,
(41:52):
but that seems so stupid, so I passed that up. Yeah,
I don't want to like go into it too much,
but I was offered a lot of money. People were
trying to send me their like clothing brands to like
for free, but clearly they wanted me to like post about.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
It, wear it while eating chicken.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
Something like that. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much every stupid thing
you could think of.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Yeah, it's funny because I think about like that and
not to like generalize where I live too much, but
I think about like this happening to anyone in LA
and how quickly they're like, yep, great, let's do it.
It feels very philly to be like.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
No, fuck that, Yeah, exactly, fuck that. And there's there's
I mean, I'm in a lot of credit card debt sadly,
but there's times from like oh man, maybe I should
have done one or two of those things, and then
I snapped back to reality and like, no, I would
have I wouldn't change anything. I mean, I could have
(42:56):
used this easily. I could have gone to fifty. I
could have gone to sixty. Yeah, I could have gone
to three hundred and sixty. But I wasn't looking to
chase and get more out of it. When it ended,
that was it was complete.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
And I think it's interesting to hear that people wanted
to extend it too, because that makes me, I don't know,
I'm like hot dog killed, but like the that reminds
me a lot of that sort of world too, where
it's like it's just like a push to hurt yourself.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
Yeah, a lot of people were into it for that reason,
which is fine. You know a lot of people were
into it for their own reason.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:34):
I think I made a post like after the fortieth
I was like, I'm done eating chicken, you sickos.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
How did you feel at the end of the forty days?
Speaker 4 (43:46):
Physically, my body was super severely affected. Like a lot
of those chickens are pumped with hormones and then they
actually take like saline baths. That's what makes them like
really salty and tape. Okay, So my stomach was just
so twisted that I had zero appetite. I would get
(44:07):
like cramps, my joints would hurt, which is weird. And
then you know, with not having an appetite, it would
make me really fatigued. And it took like a week
after I finished for my body to reacclimate to you know,
my regular self.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Have you returned to rotaserie chicken at all?
Speaker 4 (44:27):
Sinse I ate one piece not to be rude for
this one interview. They surprised me with it, and it
was on that pier. Yeah, and I took one bite
and it was a great reminder of why I'll never
eat another rotisserie chicken, probably for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
I mean, that's that seems probably for the best. I mean,
I want to go through the final day. So you
hang up the signs at what point? Do you how
far it advanced? Do you hang up the signs for
the final day?
Speaker 3 (44:59):
Do you?
Speaker 4 (44:59):
I can't member. I think it was five days, maybe seven,
and so.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Going into that day, do you remember, like what did
you have any expectations of how the day was going
to go? You made note that it was not a party.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, I mean it was just like I'm
there to like go to war, you know what I mean.
I didn't want people like drinking beers and like bringing
their hu hulul loops or is that? How do you says?
I just associate that with like large gatherings for some reason.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah, I feel like it's almost like Coachella just turning
into red tasty chicken Coachella.
Speaker 4 (45:37):
Yeah, that's I did not want that. It just it
was more of like a stand and wash, but.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
It seemed like people did that anyways.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
Yeah, there was a few people that drank beer. Well,
there was some laughter, but the cool thing is there
was less laughter more or like excitement. As I am shy.
I normally am comfortable and like performing in front of
a lot of people, But it's different when people are
(46:11):
watching you eat. Yeah, it's a very vulnerable thing. And
then like imagine if like I got like stage fright
and couldn't eat the chicken, how different all of this
would have been. Right, I would have turned around and
probably jumped in the water, and which be it would
have been cool.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
But and then your your wife was at the event too. Yeah,
so I'm curious. I mean, as this is gaining momentum
throughout the month plus that's going on, what do they
say when they realize they're doing this or they're like, oh, yeah,
this is an Alex thing. This makes sense.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
Well. I brought it up to Mallory like kind of
when I was just like brain like, I thought of
the idea and I told her and she seemed really
like she's like, oh, yeah, okay, Alex. Sure, And then
once it picked up, I don't know, she's like, oh,
(47:09):
Alex is actually onto something. Not that she doesn't support
all of that stuff. She would have been maybe the
only one there watching me eat the chicken, and she
would have had a big smile on her face. But uh,
it was nice because some people were pretty confused, especially
my family's. And the funny thing is it's interesting how
(47:30):
you know a lot of people accepting something can give
them validation or something or you know what I mean,
like life, Like.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
There is a shift once what you're doing is validated
by something larger than yourself that all of a sudden,
people who I'm close with, I mean, like their attitude
towards all of a sudden, it was like a little
cooler that I was doing this disgusting thing I've been
doing for for three months.
Speaker 4 (47:56):
Yeah, I mean I was concerned with my family thinking
that I was having like a mental breakdown or something,
so I I didn't post it on Instagram. That's why
I used Twitter because most of my family doesn't use Twitter.
Good for them, yeah, I know, right ye. At a
certain point I started posting it on my stories, and
I think one of them was like Alex everything, Okay, yep.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
I think that's the sign of a good family member.
You gotta check in when you see your your loved
one becoming the chicken man. But My last question about
the final event is that you made a some kind
of speech once the job was done. Yeah, was this planned?
Did you write it? Did it just come out of you?
Speaker 4 (48:45):
Yeah, it just came out of me. I like to
do everything off the cuff, like. That's why I really
enjoyed making the music I made, because vulnerability I crave
and and also like it does add a sense of
purity for sure. And so I don't remember what I
said something about, Oh they're yelling hero, yes, Hero, hero,
(49:06):
and I said, I am no hero.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
I've got it here.
Speaker 4 (49:10):
Oh yeah, what is it you said?
Speaker 1 (49:12):
I'm no hero, I'm but a man. I ate the chicken.
I did the best I can. I just thank you
all for being here and thanks for watching me consume.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
Oh yeah, it's a good way to end it. I
didn't think they'd be calling me hero freeding chicken. You know,
how could I expect something like that?
Speaker 1 (49:28):
For some reason, it was often like, oh, there were
two championships that Philadelphia lost, and then the chicken man
took it home for everyone. Did you feel connected to
that narrative at all? It was just when I saw
come up a lot.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
Yeah, I thought it was really cool that it happened
that way. There's nothing I enjoy more than making people happy.
I'm like getting emotional, But yeah, I was really lucky
that I got to comfort the city of Philadelphia. It
was a really nice perk to the whole thing. I mean,
(50:06):
Philly loves their sports, so people were broken in half
for sure. But yeah, I feel really fortunate that I
got to, you know, lighten up their day somehow.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
And just going back to like how you described, you know,
people yelling at you and sensing the newness to Philly
on you when you arrived to you know, whenever. Seven
or so years later, this like huge embrace from the
entire city. That's so cool.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
Yeah it was. I'm a really lucky guy because a
lot of people do really interesting stuff and stuff that's
even more impressive than what I did. Eating the chicken
wasn't that impressive. But I got lucky that it took off.
It was a very lucky thing to happen.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Eighteen months later. How do you feel about having done this?
Speaker 4 (50:55):
You know, when it first happened, it was very overwhelmed.
The day after when it was really everywhere, I was
driving and called mouth and I was like, I got
to stay out of the city and I got a
hotel room in Trenton, New Jersey, and for some beautiful reason,
(51:18):
my phone broke and so I was just left to,
like myself, to internalize everything, and that that sort of
feeling lingered a bit. It was very confusing and overwhelming.
It was extreme. I got very depressed. Actually really, yeah,
(51:42):
I got really it was everyone reacts to different things
in their own way. But yeah, yeah, it was like
it kind of fucked me up for sure.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
What was it bringing up for you? I'm sorry, like
and like what was sort of prompting that?
Speaker 4 (51:59):
Uh, it was like my reality that I was very
comfortable with, that felt routine was disrupted. Yeah, everything from
people trying to like leech off the attention, throw me money.
It pissed some people off too. People were like, oh,
(52:21):
he's he just wanted to be famous, which is such
a stupid thing. Like like I was eating chicken. Narcissists
were finding we're finding a like a tool or vessel
to to release their anger. Yeah, but then there was
people that you know, enjoyed it and that helped balance
it out. But slowly, I guess I acclimated to the
(52:45):
attention and it's weird. It really hasn't gone to my
head at all.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
I think it's interesting too, just that like there's been
no story, regardless of what it is or what is
actually happening within the story, that doesn't come with this
wave of reactionary like anger, which seems like too much
for one person to have to absorb.
Speaker 4 (53:08):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It took a lot of energy
to absorb. I would kind of hang out in the
house a lot, not go out very much. It was psychotic.
I'm like walking down the street and like people were,
you know, running up to me, or I think someone
threw like trash out their window at me. So it
was like all these extremes, Oh my god. Yeah, but
(53:30):
the narcissists have found other things to worry about. So
now it's pretty much positive reactions, which is nice. I
don't know, I do struggle with depression a bit, and
so that's like one little element that can kind of
help pull me out. Knowing that and I keep saying
it over and over again, but to like make other
(53:51):
people feel good makes me feel good, as that's my
reaction to it. So it really has helped me a
lot in.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
The long that's amazing. Well, thank you so much for that.
Speaker 4 (54:03):
Such a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (54:05):
I really, I am just so grateful that you found
this interesting enough to talk about.
Speaker 1 (54:09):
I guess, oh my god, No, I was really really
excited that you wanted to talk. And also I just
feel like there's like a unique purity to this saga.
Speaker 4 (54:19):
Well, I also going to thank you for not asking
me the same stupid ask questions.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Thanks so much to Alex for inviting me into his home.
To Alex's wife Mallory for taking the dog out for
about an hour or so so I could come by
and see you next time you're in Boston. I mean,
what else is there to say? Actually this because I
was unsure where to put this in the episode, and
I say this as a hot dog and processed meat scholar,
even if you are not a vegetarian. The vast majority
(54:44):
of rotisserie chickens on shelves have died horrific deaths in
processing plants where the human employees are treated nearly as bad.
It is an absurdly frustrating and complicated issue whose villain
is squarely the owners of the plants themselves, who have
routinely abused animals and not allowed death dignity, all while
cutting corners with employee safety and producing a tremendously unhealthy
(55:05):
product for a majority poor consumer base Buck Ties in
Foods Fox Smithfield. I write about it extensively in my book,
but it felt bizarre to have an episode that so
thoroughly addressed processed meat without mentioning that. But as for
the Chicken Man himself, he's still polarizing in some circles
of die hard what does it mean to be from
(55:25):
Philadelphia types?
Speaker 6 (55:27):
And I get it.
Speaker 1 (55:28):
I get it the same way when someone living from
Boston does something to Boston. But the more time that passes,
the more the Chicken Man's legend becomes solidified. As far
as the kinds of art side projects that Alex talked
with me about, there is one more thing I want
to say, something I think is kind of funny. In
twenty twenty three, Alex was spotted selling t shirts on
the side of the road in South Philly that read
(55:50):
this is not a Party. I spoke with several South
Philly residents who recognized the Chicken Man back at it,
and a few of them even took him up on
the twenty five dollars price point and just day before
I'm recording this, an impostor surfaced. A man in New
York masked like a coward, started flying with a poster
in Alex's exact style. The poster reads, watch me eat
(56:13):
this entire jar of cheeseballs. Union Square Park, April twenty seventh,
three pm. Alex responded in stride, posting a screenshot of
a news report on ABC with the cheeseball controversy. The
chiron reads chicken man rip off. He captions the image.
Speaker 6 (56:30):
It can't be a ripoff because this cheeseball guy didn't
eat them for forty days. Also was clearly a party.
Everyone on that pier was simply there to see me
go to war. Very different hashtag Philly, But in a.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
Town like Philadelphia, they don't take kindly to their heroes
being threatened. A Philly resident named Eric Fink quote tweeted
the cheeseball guy sign, replying, New.
Speaker 6 (56:56):
York just ripping off our chicken man. Be original, nyc.
Speaker 1 (57:00):
Our chicken man. And so the Chicken Man enters the
pantheon of local legend. But as for here, Philadelphia, chicken Man,
your sixteenth minute ends now, And for this week's moment
of fun. Our amazing executive producer, Sophie Lichtemann sent me
(57:21):
this TikTok of an old man who wears a T
shirt with the barcode for Rotisserie Chickens at Costco to
expedite the process of buying Rotisseri Chickens at Costco.
Speaker 5 (57:34):
Enjoy.
Speaker 1 (57:34):
See you next week.
Speaker 5 (57:36):
You know who I am.
Speaker 1 (57:37):
I don't want any trouble.
Speaker 6 (57:39):
I got five chickens.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
I don't want any led on them.
Speaker 6 (57:42):
Nun scan my shirt five times, buddy, five times.
Speaker 2 (57:47):
I hit the Costco for.
Speaker 1 (57:51):
That's a regular credit.
Speaker 2 (57:53):
I hit the Costco.
Speaker 1 (57:53):
Okay, hold on, I got one.
Speaker 6 (57:57):
Here you go?
Speaker 2 (57:58):
What's you?
Speaker 6 (58:01):
And don't want to chog it on this card?
Speaker 1 (58:03):
I want to work on this plot scan it.
Speaker 5 (58:06):
I think he's a stick talk.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
I think he's a TikTok scannon.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
I did okay.
Speaker 3 (58:18):
Done sixteenth minute as a production of Cool Zone Media
and iHeart Radio. It is written, posted, and produced by
me Jamie Loftus. Our executive producers are Sophie Lichtman and
Robert Evans.
Speaker 1 (58:34):
You amazing. Ian Johnson is our supervising producer and our editor.
Our theme song is by Sad thirteen and pet shout
Outs to our dog producer Anderson, my Kat's flee and
Casper and my pet rock Bird cool outlive us all Bye,
Cool Zone media. If there's one thing Americans love, it's excess,
and the most intense example of all that is one
that I'm a bit of an authority on, not to brag.
It's the Nathan's Hot Dog eating Contest on Coney Island
on the fourth of July. I've been twice. By the
(00:21):
time you hear this, I may have been three times,
and I regret to inform you that competitive eating is
the most interesting thing in the entire world, bar none,
and like many of the most interesting things in the
entire world, bar none, there's a ton of weird baggage
stuffed into the arteries of this contest. I have written
a literal book on the topic, but as a lover
(00:42):
of the extremely bas I legally must watch the Nathan
Hot Dog Contest every single year, preferably in person, preferably
with questionable press credentials, and so believe me when I say, folks,
there's such a thing as too many hot dogs. The
man who can eat the most high dogs at present
is someone you may have heard of before, and someone
(01:04):
I have performed a two hour fan fiction piece about
on stage for about a year and a half.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Hi, my name's Jamie Bethany Chestnut, and I was Joey
Chestnut's wife. What a weird accident that I had nothing
to do with it. I'm so grateful. No one plans
to investigate what did not happen.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
His name is Joey Chestnut and that show was called
Missus Joseph Chesnut America USA. And this man, this king,
has eaten seventy six hot dogs in ten minutes. I
saw it, and you're going to see history.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Bud.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Wow, what a rash you were hearing unofficially seventy six
hot dogs and bonds for Joey Chestnut, which, if confirmed,
would they yet another world record?
Speaker 5 (02:04):
And rich The crowd wanted this moment, Joey wanted this.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Moment, and we may just have it.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
This is probably the event that most people in the
Western world associate with competitive eating at large. Not only
is it wrapped into a jingoistic and false idea of
what America is, it's also highly publicized and on TV
every year. But competitive eating actually took a long time
to catch on in America. It was Japan where the
concept of mass consumption first took off, creating celebrities and
(02:33):
popular televised events. Hell, it's where Major League Eating's first
great champion came from. The incredible to Karo Kobayashi, whose
explosion onto the American scene in the two thousands immediately
began doing laps around the nearest Western competitor. He made
the Coney Island event what it is today and has
inspired virtually every single professional eater who's come since, and yes,
(02:57):
that very much includes Joey Chestnut. Kobayashi was the eater
who showed the US that eating an excess was something
that one had to train their body to do. He
was a slim guy, but he had this very specific
technique and preparation process, one that most eaters still use today.
There's an incredible thirty for thirty about Joey and Takaro's
(03:17):
rivalry in the late two thousands, one that heavily relied
on Major League Eating's chairman, George Shay stoking racist sentiments
about Kobayashi. Because yes, this is a very American contest,
and if you want to know more about that, the
link to my book is in the description. Anyways, when
I first heard of this episode's main character, my mind
(03:39):
went directly to Joey, who I'm pretty sure I am
still legally married to today's main character, traffics in the
disciplined consumption of food that can kill you, and became
a folk hero in much the same way, but unlike
Joey Chestnut and to Karo Kobayashi. The only reason I'm
talking about it now is because this character, as is
often very dangerous, had a weird idea and then posted
(04:03):
about it on Twitter. Because the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating
Contest and Major League Eating in general has certainly benefited
from but isn't defined by the Internet. If anything, the
biggest media bolster of the Hot Dog Eating Contest has
been ESPN, which broadcasts the contest every year and promotes
it in the way that other news networks promote war,
(04:24):
and it's supported by the wave of traditional media that
represents it. The Internet comments along, but it's never been
the engine of why the event endures as it does.
But as the years of worn on, more and more
of Major League Eating's champions have emerged from the Internet
or made most of their money by adapting to it.
The only eater who has ever defeated Joey Chestnut, this
(04:46):
guy named Matt Stoney, began as an eater on YouTube
and then later stepped away from Major League Eating and
found even more success by continuing to create his own
eating challenges online. One of my favorite eaters, who if
you haven't seen, Oh my god, his name is bad
Land Booker.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
I'm the Baddest Man, I'm the bad Lamp.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Is still a prominent figure in Major League Eating, but
is even more famous and very likely it makes more
money doing chugging videos on YouTube. I know you've heard
of makes the pepsi and milk and getting what's called.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Pilk, but have you ever heard of doing.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
It with chocolate milk.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Well, we are going to do it today, folks.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I present to you the Chocolate.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Pilp Chuck and the Biggest dos ever.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And this all kind of makes sense, right, Like, if
there's one thing the Internet loves that isn't spewing hate
speech with complete anonymity, it's a performance of excess that
could very possibly kill you. I used to do it
too when I first moved to Los Angeles and was
working as a fact checker at Playboy. Oh and for
the record, I checked and all the breasts were in
fact large. I didn't online performance piece called Shrek nudes
(06:02):
somebody where I painted myself green and sold my own
nudes to make money for Planned parenthood. The year after,
I was working at a bookstore and had sold a
lot of David Foster Wallace to guys who were rude
to me, and I did this different performance art piece
that I just posted on Twitter where I ate a
third of a copy of Infinite Jess. Do I stand
by these actions today? Fuck you, none of your business.
(06:24):
She was having fun. All this to say, when it
comes to people doing weird things for attention online, I
am in no position to judge, and I would never
Today's main character stands bravely and with great physical discomfort
at the intersection of a physical challenge and an Internet stunt.
From one jokey tweet, one man was lifted by the
(06:47):
algorithm to infamy, forced to consume day after day, tempted
by capitalism and politics along the way, and depending on
who you ask, united or disgraced the nest of the
American colonial Project for a single afternoon Philadelphia, Chicken Man,
your sixteenth minute starts now. Now, this is the first
(08:00):
episode of sixteenth Minute, where I have to admit, if
this one didn't catch you, I don't really blame you.
But even if you don't know who the Philadelphia Chicken
Man of twenty twenty two is, today's character Alexander Timinski.
The phrase chicken man is a potent one. Maybe you've
heard it before. Con Thank a lifetime supply of frozen
(08:22):
chicken butt your cook on. Imagine you the chicken for
a year.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Now. Another exciting episode in the life of the most
fantastic crime fighter the world has ever know, Junior.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Everywhere, or in an extremely specifically ric sent to me
by my brother shout out ben.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
Here when it blew up the Chicken Man and Philly
last night.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Whether we like it or or not, the very concept
of the Chicken Man, whatever the fuck that means, surrounds us.
This is kind of a special episode because I wasn't
really planning on making it. When I hear Philadelphia Chicken Man,
I think, Eh, maybe too regional. Eh, doesn't sound like
there's much of a story. Sure, it meant a lot,
(09:20):
and I mean a lot to the people of Philadelphia,
but didn't mean anything to anyone else. But the Chicken
Man was calling to me out of nowhere. About a
month ago, my friend Andrew and Philly reached out to
see if I could headline a comedy show on short notice.
I could. I really really like Philadelphia. It kind of
reminds me of Boston, the kind of place where people
(09:42):
get angry with you for no reason and set their
uncle's car on fire if their sports team loses. They're
very different places. But when I'm in Philly, I feel
like I get it. And then I remembered there was
a main character in Philadelphia who's been brought up to
me a lot, and it's a fairly recent story. Come
with me if you will to November twenty twenty two.
(10:04):
I know, I know, we were just in October for
the Coffee Wife episode, but bear with me, because twenty
twenty two is a weirdly huge year for main characters.
Something was in the water. November twenty twenty two, gay
marriage is legalized in Japan. Everyone's having a meltdown about inflation.
In the US, the midterm elections are sending everyone into
(10:25):
an absolute hailspin. And in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a man named
Alexander Taminski ate a rotisserie chicken in one sitting for
the fortieth day in a row. It all began with
me doing math to figure out that this started on
September twenty eighth, twenty twenty two, Alex and I'll let
(10:46):
him introduce himself. In just a moment, Alex ate an
entire rotisserie chicken in one sitting. Prior to this, he
was living his life with his wife, working for money
as a server at the Barclay Prime Steakhouse in the
Ritzy Rittenhouse Square, our neighborhood, and in previous years worked
as a musician. The first chicken went down easy. Our
(11:06):
boy wanted this chicken. It was a twat, maybe, he
tells his wife. And it's a near certainty that his
coworkers saw him do the deed before a shift began,
but it's an act relegated to Alex's personal circle. On
day two, he thinks, you know what, let's do Round two,
Stay three, day four, and at some point before he
(11:27):
goes public on day eleven, he decides he's going to
keep this thing going, and by October eighth, he takes
to his occasionally active Twitter account at alex icon Tom
display name smooth Recess. He hadn't tweeted since September twenty seventh,
Retisserie Chicken Eve the.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Tweet I am jealous of people that can shit in
public bathrooms without anxiety. A tweet from the same day,
the ghouls have started to arrive.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
It all feels eerily connected, like an omen and by
the time that Alex twet on October eighth, his life
has changed. He posts a picture of himself at the
restaurant he works at. He's a white guy in his
early thirties with a beard, a hoodie, and a hat,
sitting in front of a chicken that he's already started
in on, and looking confident. He makes eye contact with
(12:16):
the camera with a near indiscernible smirk, a cloth napkin
bib tied in, with his fork and knife in each hand,
pointing upward, ready for war. The rotisserie chicken itself is
already skinned, but no salt or sauce is in sight.
A glass of water, a vanilla polar seltzer, and a
conspicuously gigantic carrot sit on the table before him. Most
(12:38):
chillingly of all, it is broad daylight.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
The tweet reads, I would like to invite you all
on a journey that I am on. I am eating
a rotisserie chicken every day for thirty days. Today is
day eleven. I will keep you all updated as I
get closer to my goal. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
At the time I'm writing this, this tweet has five
hundred forty favorites and forty seven retweets. Respectable, sure, but
nowhere near the heights that this character in this story
will reach. You'll also notice that he's saying the challenge
goes for thirty days, when we citizens of the future
know that it actually goes for forty days. Anyways, this
(13:22):
first chicken post is supported mainly by Alex's existing followers.
He gets a hell yeah, he gets a do you
eat a giant carrot? Every day? As well. He thanks
everyone for their support and posts again the next day,
accompanying a picture of Alex looking at a yet to
be tampered with rotisserie chicken gazing down in a scenic
public park. It's a repost of his Instagram story saying.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
Enjoying day twelve of eating a rotisserie chicken every day.
A beautiful chicken on a beautiful day in a beautiful park.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
It keeps going from there. Alex eats chicken on the floor,
Alex kisses the chicken, and as time goes on he
starts to look sick. Is it a performance. He'd probably
say no, I'd probably say yes, But no matter who's right,
it's interesting to look at. By day nineteen, he's holding
his head in his hand in exhaustion. On day twenty
(14:14):
four he's standing in active discomfort. Day twenty five is
the first time we see him say fuck it and
eat the damn thing straight out of the bag in
the grocery store. The goal changes to forty chickens, and
as Alex inches closer to thirty rotisserie chickens with polar
Seltzer at the end of October twenty twenty two, the
internet is growing interested. He hits thirty chickens on October
(14:36):
twenty seventh, and it's a post he's sitting at the
same table at the restaurant he works at, Alex looking
full of sodium and triumph as he sits before an
uneaten rotisserie chicken with candles that announce thirty along with
a little CVS centerpiece. Sixty four retweets, eight hundred and
thirty six favorites we're cooking. Later that day, things really
(15:00):
start to kick up. Alex posts an image to Twitter,
one that will live on in temporary Internet infamy into
the literal day that I'm writing this. It's a simple
white poster with three pictures of him eating chicken in
distress and the following announcement in all.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
Caps, come and watch me eat an entire rotisserie chicken.
November sixth will be the fortieth consecutive day that I
have eaten an entire rotisserie chicken. Twelve o'clock noon, the
chicken will be consumed on that abandoned pier near Walmart.
And most critically, this is not a party.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
This poster is just decisive and weirdly phrased enough that
it starts to do numbers online because, as I said,
Philadelphia is a sports town, and the combination of a
contentious midterm election coming up in a week and two
important teams still in play at the time the poster launched,
the Phillies were headed for the World Series, the Philadelphia
(16:00):
Union was set to compete in the Major League Soccer Cup.
Philly was up, and Alex continued in the days leading
up to what I've decided to call the event. And
here's where the story balloons from local weirdo does thing
near the docks to a full blown national human interest story.
And can I just say. Human interest pieces have got
(16:22):
to be some of the most dreadful writing on the
face of the fucking planet. Every single one of these
stories lightly echoes the other, reducing the human it claims
to be interested in with the same three or four
collection of traits, no matter who's reporting it. Anyways, here's
what the New York Times said. The city had lost
the World Series and the Major League Soccer Cup final
(16:44):
on Saturday in a span of about five hours. But
at twelve pm on Sunday, at an abandoned pier along
the Delaware River, a bearded man in a white sleeveless
shirt sat at a makeshift table and stared intently at
the plate as dozens gathered around. They braced for gusts
of wind in order to cheer him in the final
stretch of a self imposed challenge to devour forty rotisserie
(17:06):
chickens in forty days. Maybe the man Alexander Tominsky thirty
one would like to be the one to bring them
redemption after a miserable weekend filled with defeat. Most of
these pieces, the one in Food Network magazine, the one
in Philadelphia Magazine, the one in the Philly Inquirer, and
on and on and on, all feature the same matters
(17:27):
of information. Alexander Tominsky is thirty one, his day job
is server at restaurant, and all of this somehow has
to do with Philadelphia sports and from where I'm sitting
and the main character's opinion. The story is even less
complicated than this implies, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
In the ten days leading up to the event, Alex
(17:49):
introduces cauliflower florets as a side dish to the chicken.
On day thirty four, He's pulling over a thousand likes
on every Chicken post by day thirty five, twenty two
thousand life by day thirty seven, and on the eve
of the fortieth Rotisserie Chicken, a picture of Alex palming
a chicken on the pier and scowling has forty six
(18:09):
thousand likes. And then it happened. On the morning of
November sixth, twenty twenty two, at nine twenty one am, Alex.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Tweeted, I hope they greased the poles.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
At eleven twenty three am, he posted the tableau of
where he'd be eating as promised, on that abandoned pier
near Walmart, and while as he said it was not
a party. A makeshift red carpet was held down with
bricks leading up to a simple table with a white tablecloth.
The setup is as it was in the previous thirty
nine days, a rotisseriy chicken, a polar seltzer, a single seat.
(18:41):
At eleven fifty three am, he posted a picture of
his view from the table with a caution tape line
across the end of the red carpet, where a crowd
of hundreds of people are gathering to watch the fortieth
chicken be consumed. Alex enters through the I have to admit,
very polite crowd and walks to the right of the
red carpet. He's really big on this not being a party.
(19:03):
There's no music playing, and he doesn't seem to be
interested in interacting with the most festive thing about the
space the carpet. One of the assembled members asks him
where the chicken came from. The crowd continues to grow
(19:27):
as the noon start time ekes closer and Alex keeps
the crowd laughing. In the meantime, the clock strikes noon.
(20:00):
The whole event takes about an hour, and Alex is
milking it. It's an unseasonably warm day, but still pretty
windy right on the pier, and the act of eating
forty chickens is so intense on the body that no
one is surprised when the chicken Man needs to remove
layers until he's down to that white tank top that
men wear that's nicknamed after domestic violence. It's an undershirt.
(20:22):
It's a white undershirt. We can retire the other word.
And as the Chickenman gets closer, wind sing through it,
crushing the water bottle beside his trusty polar Seltzer, the
crowd starts to get rowdy, but to be clear, this
is not a party, and when that last piece of
(20:48):
heavily processed chicken clears, Bruce Springsteen's Streets of Philadelphia begins
to play, and the crowd is permitted to rush past
the yellow caution tape and embrace the Chickenman. In celebration,
he gives a short speech announcing to the crowd.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
I'm no hero, I'm but a man. I ate the chicken.
I did the best I can. I just thank you
all for being here and thanks for watching me consume.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
His final tweet on the matter has one hundred thirty
eight thousand likes and ninety seven hundred retweets. It's a
picture of Alex, his face flushed with sodium and adrenaline,
holding the empty rotisserie chicken tray above his head in celebration,
shouting to the crowd of thrilled Philadelphia denizens, He's done it.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
It's captioned forty days eating an entire rotisserie chicken hashtag chicken.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
When We Come Back. I walked from my friend's apartment
in South Philly to go and see the Chicken Man.
Welcome back to sixteenth minute. I was the president of
(22:02):
something I called Mad Cow Club in the fourth grade,
and I'll say it again, it was not my plan
to interview the Chicken Man. But as I walked down
the street to where the Chickenman lives with his wife
and his dog in South Philly on that Saturday, four twenty,
to be exact, I couldn't help but think it was
meant to be. I'd been having a hard week and
it would turn into a few hard weeks, but Philly
(22:24):
was kind of my last stop to really enjoy myself
with my friends, and I wanted to make the most
of the day. The Chicken Man had replied to my
DM on Twitter within a few days and said he
was usually available Saturday afternoons. Just let him know where
we should meet. I thought about asking him if I
should bring chicken, but then remember a dah fuck. When
I was writing about hot dogs, the last thing I
wanted to do was eat a hot dog with a stranger,
(22:47):
so instead I asked him if he wanted Dunkin Donuts.
He didn't, and when I got to his house he
answered the door and a homemade Philly's hat. I had
a lovely time. Here's my talk with the Chicken Man.
And just so you know, this interview has been edited
for time and clarity. Okay, first, if you could just
introduce yourself.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Sure, my name is Alexander Timinski.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Thank you so much for welcoming me into your lovely home.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Yeah, my humble abode.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yes, I mean I feel like people say that in
Philly and then you're like, this is the nicest place
I've ever.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Seen in my life in comparison to New York City.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I would say, well, I guess I'll just how are you,
How are things? How's life?
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Things are good? You know, everyone has their ups and downs,
but for the most part, I've been feeling pretty optimistic
when I wake up every day.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
So it's been I guess it's been what a year
and a half now since.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
It's just about it was a November of I think
twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Two since the incident. The incident, so I guess for context,
I've done. I was trying to figure out how I
was going to write it out in the show. It's
like I've done protracted almost performance already internet stuff before,
but I've never completed it, and I feel like it's
(24:01):
I mean, on my end, it was almost certainly because
I was too ambitious and I was like, I'm going
to eat a whole copy of Infinite Jest was the goal?
Like that would kill you. You can't do that.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
It wouldn't be easy, but maybe your body would acclimate
After chapter.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Three, Yeah, then it really picks up and you're like, no,
I see, I still kind of like I don't really
I didn't read it. But you completed a challenge that
you sent for yourself. How did you get there? What
was where did the idea come from? Sure?
Speaker 4 (24:35):
So I guess I just ate a whole chicken and
it felt really good. I'm a very impulsive person, so
I'll get like micro ob sessions about certain things, and
sometimes it's outlandish, but yeah, I just felt this strong
(24:56):
urge to just keep going and there really wasn't any
reason to it at all.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
What are what are other examples of micro obsessions of yours?
Speaker 4 (25:08):
I got really obsessed with cracking bull whips for a while. Whoa, yeah,
right now getting my ass kicked by thirteen year olds
on chests online chests.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Okay, Okay.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
I was doing this one really strange thing where I
was cutting traffic cones with copper wire in my basement
to an end, uh the very end.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Okay. What was it for? Though?
Speaker 4 (25:41):
It just felt really relaxing to do. Really Yeah, Like
I'd come home from work and you would start, you know,
rubbing the wire against the cone, and then you'd see
like smoke coming up off it, and then once you
got a nice ring, it felt and then you could
also see on the ground all these rings of the cone,
and you kind of felt this, I don't know, like, oh,
(26:03):
you're being productive. You can see the evidence of your
hard work.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I feel like that applies to the chicken challenge too.
I'm very satisfied by that kind of activity too, where
you can actually physically see this is what I have done.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah, absolutely, what would you do with.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
The chunks of traffic home? Once there?
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I think it's Yeah, it's still down in the basement,
like kind of tucked away in a corner. There's just
a nest of copper wire and you know, pieces of
traffic home. Yeah. So sometimes I'll forget that it's down there,
and then I'll see it and I'm like, oh, yeah,
I remember that really strange obsession that I had that
(26:42):
I really didn't tell munch people about because it would
probably seem a little bit alarming.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
That's good. I mean most people just like play the
drums or something. Yeah, but you're innovating. So you've always
sort of had this kind of hyperfixation personality since you
were you were really young. Where did you Where did
you grow up? It get back to the beginning, Chicken Man.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Yes, So I grew up in Rhode Island, and I
was always a pretty strange kid. And the thing is,
I didn't realize how strange I was, but people would
make sure to tell me how strange I was. Not
in a bad way, but yeah, just my brain has
always seemed to navigate the world a little bit differently,
(27:29):
if that makes any sense.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
I used to like bring wild dogs into school. Yeah,
I was doing this thing where and there was like
stray dogs for some reason near my school, and I
would bring them in and bring them into class and.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Big dogs, small dogs.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Well, there was one dog I bring in twice. Okay,
so I guess I've only done it three times.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Three times feels like a habit.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Yeah, and I feel like I did it also to just,
you know, get to rise out of some of the
other students. That makes any sense, it does.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Yeah, No, I when I was a kid, I mean
I did. I kept a lot of it to myself.
That was more of a copper wire in the basement
kind of thing. Okay, so you grew up in Rhode Island.
How do you end up in Philadelphia.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
I used to play music, and I played in Philly
a few times.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
And what kind of music?
Speaker 4 (28:27):
More like kind of like avant garde sound stuff, Okay,
sometimes performative as well. Like I would basically just buy
different electronics and then pour water on it. Whoa, yes,
and then the water would react to or the electronics
(28:52):
would react to the water. It felt really pure, like
this is the exact sounds that need to be made
because the water is like kind of the one in control, right,
and I could only use them once, so I'd have
to spend a lot of money on this stuff. And
then I'm kind of upset about it now because I
(29:12):
use a lot of tape machines. Yeah, and the inflation
on those machines are astronomical. I'd probably be pretty rich
if I so, I guess I'm a bit of a masochist. Yeah,
I think about it.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
I mean, that is really interesting that. I mean, I
guess that means you can perform live rarely? Is that?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Uh yeah, occasionally? And I'd like to backtrack. I meant
my wife in Providence or to be Yeah, she lived
in Philly, so oh okay, that's what sealed the deal.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Nice.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Well, I do have to say that Philadelphia is the
best city in the entire world.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
I agree with you.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Yeah, there's an air of honesty that I just crave,
and everyone is just so real and everyone's kind of
like going through the sh and like we all realize
it and it's like almost like we're all on the
same team, but a team that also hates each other.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
When did you get to Philly?
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I think it was about nine years ago. Now, Okay,
it was crazy. When I first moved here, it seemed
like the locals like somehow new, like like people would
yell out at the window of their car, a lot
of heckling for no reason. Yeah, and then once maybe
(30:30):
a certain time passes, are you like this weird like
spiritual energy of Philly like floods your brain and your blood,
Then they know that you're here now. So yeah, I'm
definitely acclimated because no one yells at me anymore.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I'm coming back around to the chicken and promise. I
am interested to hear that you were an artist, because
in all of the articles, it's so funny, like reading
through and you're only identified as as a server in
all of these articles. Was that intentional? Was that just
sort of how it.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Went or yeah, I mean that's pretty much it. I
had no intention of being like, oh, I'm creating this
art piece. I think I was just doing this thing.
I mean maybe my inner artistic self kind of had
some sort of influence, but I didn't set out to
do it as a sense of for art. And for
(31:24):
that reason, I didn't want to say, oh, I'm an artist.
I didn't never tell anyone I'm an artist. I'm just
I think I'm just a weird guy navigating a weird world. Yeah,
that's all I am right now as a server, which
I'm flyind to say.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. To me, it feels
like an art piece. And this was sort of a
continuous thing throughout the coverage of it. There's like this
purity to it, because I think so many of the
stories that I've covered or found online, there is this
it starts as a pure thing and then becomes something
(31:59):
that is eventual we monetized or like continued or merchandise
or whatever it is, and sometimes like whatever, I'm not
passing judgment, but that seems to be the general tendency.
So when you started it was for fun, what made
you decide to continue? Why? Forty Well?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Very christ like, Yeah, well it it became something that
like I enjoyed, I really enjoyed eating it, and then
slowly it turned into something that was really challenging. And
I liked the idea of like feeling the pain and
to like push through it and to like kind of
(32:39):
focus on this transition of something that's so tasty, so
good into something that's barely tolerable. Yeah, just to push
through felt good. I was gonna go to thirty, and
then thirty just didn't feel right, and then so forty
seemed like the right number, and a lot of people
going back to the monetization thing, offered me a lot
(33:02):
of money to like it, sponsor the next event, to
do this and that, but it had to be finished
at forty because it just felt like that was It
felt like the end of the book or something like.
As much as people offered me, it would destroy the
whole purpose of it, because I didn't do it to
make money. I don't want to turn it into something
that's for money. I did it for myself and it
(33:26):
ended up being something that made a lot of people happy,
which that in itself was rewarding enough.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yeah, I mean, and that was something as I was
reading through these pieces that it seems like people who
as people who came to kind of this grand finale,
really valued and appreciate it. Was the fact that it
hadn't turned into a graven thing, even though and I
don't know if they would have known that you had
those opportunities. When did that? When did the project like
(33:55):
start picking up and changed from like this is something
that your friends and maybe Philly knows about to something bigger.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Sure. So the whole like kind of midway through I
was my brain was like cycling all these ideas and
then I would focus back on the chicken thing because
it almost had a sense of routine and stability. It
became so I was like, maybe I'll like eat it
(34:23):
on the pier, the last one, and because it would
be so much fun if like I was the only
one there, yeah, and if there were people there that
would be cool too.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Alone It's like a Norman Rockwell painting kind of Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
So there was one day I had to go to
work in like two hours and I was like, Okay,
I'm just going to do this. I made a poster
on Photoshop within like ten minutes and I printed out
like fifteen posters. And I can be kind of shy
at points, even online. I don't really posts very often.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, and it.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Was really hard for me to even put up the
posters because like I didn't want to concern anyone or
I just I don't know people would be surprised to
hear it. But I'm a very shy person. And so
I put all the posters up and it was really
exciting at the end of it because I went all
(35:22):
the way down near like Cheese Steak Avenue and as
I was walking back home, each poster at each pole
there was like six people like looking at it. And
so it's really I don't think this whole thing was
like spiritual in any sense, but it had this weird
(35:45):
power that I don't know. I think myself and other
people really felt it, and it felt good to share.
And it also felt really good that growing up and
being afraid of exposing some of the weird side of
me was accepted. Yeah, not only by people with like
a creative mind, but every sector chapter of seemed like
(36:09):
it was widely accepted, which has really helped me feel
good about who I am and the fact that I
can be exactly who I am and if you do that,
people will definitely cherish and accept it.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
We'll be right back with more of my interview with
the Chicken Man. Welcome back to sixteenth minute. I know
what the Chicken Man's home address is. Here's the rest
(36:45):
of our interview. I mean, I have a lot of
questions about sort of that last day, but leading up
to it, just pragmatically did you get the chicken from
the same place every time? Did you mix it up?
Speaker 4 (36:57):
I mixed it up. Getting back to the fact that
I have come to realize them a bit of a
masochist is I would always try to choose the like
the worst chicken, what qualifies as the word like super
dry and unseasoned.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
So there is one place, Rittenhouse Market, which is right
next to where I work, and I got to say,
the staff there are so nice and it was really
fun to see how confused and concerned they were at
the start, and then towards the end, before you know
this even took off, they started to get kind of excited,
which was fun. But they had the blandest chicken. So
(37:38):
I would get that a lot. But it all depend
depended on like what was available and.
Speaker 5 (37:42):
Where I was.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Okay, so you were personally hand picking there rotissery chicken
every day.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Oh yeah, so most of them come in bags. Those
are the ones I prefer because you can kind of
touch it and feel it. The ones that are firmer
were the ones that I would choose because you know,
the firmer ones were the dryest.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Right. How does your relationship to eating the chicken, whether
it's duration approach, whatever, how does it change over time?
Speaker 4 (38:09):
So to start, it was really quick, I could probably
do it in fifteen minutes, no problem. And then when
I started, I would use a fork and knife, which
is kind of weird. As the days passed, it just
became more barbaric, use the hands, and then it would
slowly take longer by the end, and people think that
(38:32):
I'm like exaggerating, but it would really take about like
sometimes two hours, and so my technique would kind of change.
Like I wouldn't be able to eat it before work
because you know I had, or i'd go in super
early and just before the staff got there and enjoy it.
The hostesses would be there and they'd be like, oh
my god, Alex. There was definitely a clear transition from
(38:57):
day one to take day forty, which also made it
interesting for me.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
There ended up being like a water component at some point.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Yeah, so when it gets dry, it's almost like like
dust or like like it's hard to explain.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
So it's like it would take longer because your mouth
is just drying out with every single bite.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
From the salt too.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Yeah, so I would use like sparkling water. Okay, that
seemed to help and kind of swish it around in
my mouth and it would create this almost like paste.
And then I realized that if I put like a
little bit of lime or lemon, that acid would make
it a bit easier as well.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Okay, all the hot dog competitors will, you know, dip
the buns in water and like have this wild technique
that does sort of enable them to almost kill themselves
on TV everywhere?
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Are they required to drink the water?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
No, No, that's good. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
There was one time that there was no chicken, so
I had to result to like a garlic seasoned Wow.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yeah, brutal.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
I know.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Thank you for your honestly.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
Yeah, I don't think I've mentioned that yet.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
But can I. I mean, I'm just curious because I
feel like every you know, description of a corporate offer
feels a little cursed. Do you remember sort of the
nature of how people were approaching you. What kind of
stuff were you being offered? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (40:24):
Like every angle, when someone gets a lot of attention,
I think people want to like latch onto it. Like
there was there was an election day. Yeah, it was
the following day, and there was different politicians trying to
get in touch with me. Really or their staff at
(40:46):
the very least. So they were calling like the restaurant
I work at, and like trying to get my phone
number somehow. I have no idea how someone got my
number and was texting me and it was like, can
you please come down and do what you did? And
you did chicken for democracy? Like come on if like
at least it like asked me like for an endorsement
(41:11):
or something. But I wanted to leave politics out of
all of this because it's for for everyone, really, different
grocery stores, different sponsorship offers. People were asking to make
the poster a what's that crypto thing where they take
(41:32):
pictures or like posters. Yeah, someone offered me, and who
knows if this is true or not, but they seemed
like a like a legit source one hundred thousand dollars
to make it an NFT. And then also I would
get like a percentage from each sale of the NFT. Okay,
(41:52):
but that seems so stupid, so I passed that up. Yeah,
I don't want to like go into it too much,
but I was offered a lot of money. People were
trying to send me their like clothing brands to like
for free, but clearly they wanted me to like post about.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
It, wear it while eating chicken.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
Something like that. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much every stupid thing
you could think of.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Yeah, it's funny because I think about like that and
not to like generalize where I live too much, but
I think about like this happening to anyone in LA
and how quickly they're like, yep, great, let's do it.
It feels very philly to be like.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
No, fuck that, Yeah, exactly, fuck that. And there's there's
I mean, I'm in a lot of credit card debt sadly,
but there's times from like oh man, maybe I should
have done one or two of those things, and then
I snapped back to reality and like, no, I would
have I wouldn't change anything. I mean, I could have
(42:56):
used this easily. I could have gone to fifty. I
could have gone to sixty. Yeah, I could have gone
to three hundred and sixty. But I wasn't looking to
chase and get more out of it. When it ended,
that was it was complete.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
And I think it's interesting to hear that people wanted
to extend it too, because that makes me, I don't know,
I'm like hot dog killed, but like the that reminds
me a lot of that sort of world too, where
it's like it's just like a push to hurt yourself.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
Yeah, a lot of people were into it for that reason,
which is fine. You know a lot of people were
into it for their own reason.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:34):
I think I made a post like after the fortieth
I was like, I'm done eating chicken, you sickos.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
How did you feel at the end of the forty days?
Speaker 4 (43:46):
Physically, my body was super severely affected. Like a lot
of those chickens are pumped with hormones and then they
actually take like saline baths. That's what makes them like
really salty and tape. Okay, So my stomach was just
so twisted that I had zero appetite. I would get
(44:07):
like cramps, my joints would hurt, which is weird. And
then you know, with not having an appetite, it would
make me really fatigued. And it took like a week
after I finished for my body to reacclimate to you know,
my regular self.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Have you returned to rotaserie chicken at all?
Speaker 4 (44:27):
Sinse I ate one piece not to be rude for
this one interview. They surprised me with it, and it
was on that pier. Yeah, and I took one bite
and it was a great reminder of why I'll never
eat another rotisserie chicken, probably for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
I mean, that's that seems probably for the best. I mean,
I want to go through the final day. So you
hang up the signs at what point? Do you how
far it advanced? Do you hang up the signs for
the final day?
Speaker 3 (44:59):
Do you?
Speaker 4 (44:59):
I can't member. I think it was five days, maybe seven,
and so.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Going into that day, do you remember, like what did
you have any expectations of how the day was going
to go? You made note that it was not a party.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, I mean it was just like I'm
there to like go to war, you know what I mean.
I didn't want people like drinking beers and like bringing
their hu hulul loops or is that? How do you says?
I just associate that with like large gatherings for some reason.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah, I feel like it's almost like Coachella just turning
into red tasty chicken Coachella.
Speaker 4 (45:37):
Yeah, that's I did not want that. It just it
was more of like a stand and wash, but.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
It seemed like people did that anyways.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
Yeah, there was a few people that drank beer. Well,
there was some laughter, but the cool thing is there
was less laughter more or like excitement. As I am shy.
I normally am comfortable and like performing in front of
a lot of people, But it's different when people are
(46:11):
watching you eat. Yeah, it's a very vulnerable thing. And
then like imagine if like I got like stage fright
and couldn't eat the chicken, how different all of this
would have been. Right, I would have turned around and
probably jumped in the water, and which be it would
have been cool.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
But and then your your wife was at the event too. Yeah,
so I'm curious. I mean, as this is gaining momentum
throughout the month plus that's going on, what do they
say when they realize they're doing this or they're like, oh, yeah,
this is an Alex thing. This makes sense.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
Well. I brought it up to Mallory like kind of
when I was just like brain like, I thought of
the idea and I told her and she seemed really
like she's like, oh, yeah, okay, Alex. Sure, And then
once it picked up, I don't know, she's like, oh,
(47:09):
Alex is actually onto something. Not that she doesn't support
all of that stuff. She would have been maybe the
only one there watching me eat the chicken, and she
would have had a big smile on her face. But uh,
it was nice because some people were pretty confused, especially
my family's. And the funny thing is it's interesting how
(47:30):
you know a lot of people accepting something can give
them validation or something or you know what I mean,
like life, Like.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
There is a shift once what you're doing is validated
by something larger than yourself that all of a sudden,
people who I'm close with, I mean, like their attitude
towards all of a sudden, it was like a little
cooler that I was doing this disgusting thing I've been
doing for for three months.
Speaker 4 (47:56):
Yeah, I mean I was concerned with my family thinking
that I was having like a mental breakdown or something,
so I I didn't post it on Instagram. That's why
I used Twitter because most of my family doesn't use Twitter.
Good for them, yeah, I know, right ye. At a
certain point I started posting it on my stories, and
I think one of them was like Alex everything, Okay, yep.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
I think that's the sign of a good family member.
You gotta check in when you see your your loved
one becoming the chicken man. But My last question about
the final event is that you made a some kind
of speech once the job was done. Yeah, was this planned?
Did you write it? Did it just come out of you?
Speaker 4 (48:45):
Yeah, it just came out of me. I like to
do everything off the cuff, like. That's why I really
enjoyed making the music I made, because vulnerability I crave
and and also like it does add a sense of
purity for sure. And so I don't remember what I
said something about, Oh they're yelling hero, yes, Hero, hero,
(49:06):
and I said, I am no hero.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
I've got it here.
Speaker 4 (49:10):
Oh yeah, what is it you said?
Speaker 1 (49:12):
I'm no hero, I'm but a man. I ate the chicken.
I did the best I can. I just thank you
all for being here and thanks for watching me consume.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
Oh yeah, it's a good way to end it. I
didn't think they'd be calling me hero freeding chicken. You know,
how could I expect something like that?
Speaker 1 (49:28):
For some reason, it was often like, oh, there were
two championships that Philadelphia lost, and then the chicken man
took it home for everyone. Did you feel connected to
that narrative at all? It was just when I saw
come up a lot.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
Yeah, I thought it was really cool that it happened
that way. There's nothing I enjoy more than making people happy.
I'm like getting emotional, But yeah, I was really lucky
that I got to comfort the city of Philadelphia. It
was a really nice perk to the whole thing. I mean,
(50:06):
Philly loves their sports, so people were broken in half
for sure. But yeah, I feel really fortunate that I
got to, you know, lighten up their day somehow.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
And just going back to like how you described, you know,
people yelling at you and sensing the newness to Philly
on you when you arrived to you know, whenever. Seven
or so years later, this like huge embrace from the
entire city. That's so cool.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
Yeah it was. I'm a really lucky guy because a
lot of people do really interesting stuff and stuff that's
even more impressive than what I did. Eating the chicken
wasn't that impressive. But I got lucky that it took off.
It was a very lucky thing to happen.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Eighteen months later. How do you feel about having done this?
Speaker 4 (50:55):
You know, when it first happened, it was very overwhelmed.
The day after when it was really everywhere, I was
driving and called mouth and I was like, I got
to stay out of the city and I got a
hotel room in Trenton, New Jersey, and for some beautiful reason,
(51:18):
my phone broke and so I was just left to,
like myself, to internalize everything, and that that sort of
feeling lingered a bit. It was very confusing and overwhelming.
It was extreme. I got very depressed. Actually really, yeah,
(51:42):
I got really it was everyone reacts to different things
in their own way. But yeah, yeah, it was like
it kind of fucked me up for sure.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
What was it bringing up for you? I'm sorry, like
and like what was sort of prompting that?
Speaker 4 (51:59):
Uh, it was like my reality that I was very
comfortable with, that felt routine was disrupted. Yeah, everything from
people trying to like leech off the attention, throw me money.
It pissed some people off too. People were like, oh,
(52:21):
he's he just wanted to be famous, which is such
a stupid thing. Like like I was eating chicken. Narcissists
were finding we're finding a like a tool or vessel
to to release their anger. Yeah, but then there was
people that you know, enjoyed it and that helped balance
it out. But slowly, I guess I acclimated to the
(52:45):
attention and it's weird. It really hasn't gone to my
head at all.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
I think it's interesting too, just that like there's been
no story, regardless of what it is or what is
actually happening within the story, that doesn't come with this
wave of reactionary like anger, which seems like too much
for one person to have to absorb.
Speaker 4 (53:08):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It took a lot of energy
to absorb. I would kind of hang out in the
house a lot, not go out very much. It was psychotic.
I'm like walking down the street and like people were,
you know, running up to me, or I think someone
threw like trash out their window at me. So it
was like all these extremes, Oh my god. Yeah, but
(53:30):
the narcissists have found other things to worry about. So
now it's pretty much positive reactions, which is nice. I
don't know, I do struggle with depression a bit, and
so that's like one little element that can kind of
help pull me out. Knowing that and I keep saying
it over and over again, but to like make other
(53:51):
people feel good makes me feel good, as that's my
reaction to it. So it really has helped me a
lot in.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
The long that's amazing. Well, thank you so much for that.
Speaker 4 (54:03):
Such a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (54:05):
I really, I am just so grateful that you found
this interesting enough to talk about.
Speaker 1 (54:09):
I guess, oh my god, No, I was really really
excited that you wanted to talk. And also I just
feel like there's like a unique purity to this saga.
Speaker 4 (54:19):
Well, I also going to thank you for not asking
me the same stupid ask questions.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Thanks so much to Alex for inviting me into his home.
To Alex's wife Mallory for taking the dog out for
about an hour or so so I could come by
and see you next time you're in Boston. I mean,
what else is there to say? Actually this because I
was unsure where to put this in the episode, and
I say this as a hot dog and processed meat scholar,
even if you are not a vegetarian. The vast majority
(54:44):
of rotisserie chickens on shelves have died horrific deaths in
processing plants where the human employees are treated nearly as bad.
It is an absurdly frustrating and complicated issue whose villain
is squarely the owners of the plants themselves, who have
routinely abused animals and not allowed death dignity, all while
cutting corners with employee safety and producing a tremendously unhealthy
(55:05):
product for a majority poor consumer base Buck Ties in
Foods Fox Smithfield. I write about it extensively in my book,
but it felt bizarre to have an episode that so
thoroughly addressed processed meat without mentioning that. But as for
the Chicken Man himself, he's still polarizing in some circles
of die hard what does it mean to be from
(55:25):
Philadelphia types?
Speaker 6 (55:27):
And I get it.
Speaker 1 (55:28):
I get it the same way when someone living from
Boston does something to Boston. But the more time that passes,
the more the Chicken Man's legend becomes solidified. As far
as the kinds of art side projects that Alex talked
with me about, there is one more thing I want
to say, something I think is kind of funny. In
twenty twenty three, Alex was spotted selling t shirts on
the side of the road in South Philly that read
(55:50):
this is not a Party. I spoke with several South
Philly residents who recognized the Chicken Man back at it,
and a few of them even took him up on
the twenty five dollars price point and just day before
I'm recording this, an impostor surfaced. A man in New
York masked like a coward, started flying with a poster
in Alex's exact style. The poster reads, watch me eat
(56:13):
this entire jar of cheeseballs. Union Square Park, April twenty seventh,
three pm. Alex responded in stride, posting a screenshot of
a news report on ABC with the cheeseball controversy. The
chiron reads chicken man rip off. He captions the image.
Speaker 6 (56:30):
It can't be a ripoff because this cheeseball guy didn't
eat them for forty days. Also was clearly a party.
Everyone on that pier was simply there to see me
go to war. Very different hashtag Philly, But in a.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
Town like Philadelphia, they don't take kindly to their heroes
being threatened. A Philly resident named Eric Fink quote tweeted
the cheeseball guy sign, replying, New.
Speaker 6 (56:56):
York just ripping off our chicken man. Be original, nyc.
Speaker 1 (57:00):
Our chicken man. And so the Chicken Man enters the
pantheon of local legend. But as for here, Philadelphia, chicken Man,
your sixteenth minute ends now, And for this week's moment
of fun. Our amazing executive producer, Sophie Lichtemann sent me
(57:21):
this TikTok of an old man who wears a T
shirt with the barcode for Rotisserie Chickens at Costco to
expedite the process of buying Rotisseri Chickens at Costco.
Speaker 5 (57:34):
Enjoy.
Speaker 1 (57:34):
See you next week.
Speaker 5 (57:36):
You know who I am.
Speaker 1 (57:37):
I don't want any trouble.
Speaker 6 (57:39):
I got five chickens.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
I don't want any led on them.
Speaker 6 (57:42):
Nun scan my shirt five times, buddy, five times.
Speaker 2 (57:47):
I hit the Costco for.
Speaker 1 (57:51):
That's a regular credit.
Speaker 2 (57:53):
I hit the Costco.
Speaker 1 (57:53):
Okay, hold on, I got one.
Speaker 6 (57:57):
Here you go?
Speaker 2 (57:58):
What's you?
Speaker 6 (58:01):
And don't want to chog it on this card?
Speaker 1 (58:03):
I want to work on this plot scan it.
Speaker 5 (58:06):
I think he's a stick talk.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
I think he's a TikTok scannon.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
I did okay.
Speaker 3 (58:18):
Done sixteenth minute as a production of Cool Zone Media
and iHeart Radio. It is written, posted, and produced by
me Jamie Loftus. Our executive producers are Sophie Lichtman and
Robert Evans.
Speaker 1 (58:34):
You amazing. Ian Johnson is our supervising producer and our editor.
Our theme song is by Sad thirteen and pet shout
Outs to our dog producer Anderson, my Kat's flee and
Casper and my pet rock Bird cool outlive us all Bye,
Host
Jamie Loftus
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