Wednesday, August 25, 2004           

By JENNIFER MASTROIANNI Repository food writer  

Canton Reporter, Ohio 

  Rarely do I get nervous about an interview. But I did thinking about meeting a guy named “Coondog” who once had an untimely upchuck captured on a Jumbotron in front of a crowd of 24,000 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, and who once ate 45 hard-boiled eggs in 8 minutes and 10 seconds.

You might wonder why I mentioned the 10 seconds. Believe me, as I came to discover, seconds matter in the sport of professional eating.

When Dave “Coondog” O’Karma walked into the office, the first thing I noticed was the mohawk. Next, the fiery look in his eyes.

I kind of expected him to slap me some skin and “Yo Dude” me instead of shaking my hand.

Big appetite. Even bigger personality. After getting to know him, one can’t help but want this gustatory athlete to bring home the gold.

“At one time I held the world records in bratwurst, pizza, doughnuts and hard-boiled eggs,” says Coondog, a wiry 48-year-old who looks more like 28, and whose hands are flecked with white latex from his sort-of-full-time career as a house painter. “I don’t eat eggs anymore. I think they are disgusting. I hate them.”

Eggs are disgusting, but steer testicles aren’t that bad, says the man who earned a wild card seat in Fox Television’s Glutton Bowl in Los Angeles by eating “31⁄2 bulls’ worth” of mountain oysters. (“They’re kind of weird, like biting into a baseball mitt,” he says.)

Alrighty then. Better start at the beginning.

“I was an eating prodigy. I was a skinny kid, always hungry,” says Coondog, who at 6-foot-2 is a lean 190 pounds. “It was 1972. There was no cable, no satellite TV, no digital. I was 15, I had the Buddy Holly glasses and I was a dork.”

“The Big Chuck and Little John Show” was his favorite television show, and pizza-eating guest star Mushmouth Mariano Pacetti was his hero.

“He was godlike to me,” Coondog says. The teen practiced eating pizza and, unbelievably, finagled a spot on the show. “I kicked his butt. Only two people had ever beat him.”

The geek turned instant celebrity. Coondog got his first taste of fame and has been eating it up ever since.

In his years as a professional speed eater (a term loosely applied; there is no union), he has downed everything from doughnuts, wings and bratwurst, to hot dogs, pineapple and spaghetti. Coondog has been featured on local news shows, CNN, ESPN, The Travel Channel and The Food Network. He has a feature article in Cleveland magazine this summer, and has been in national and international publications.

“My big thing is to see how far I can go with nothing,” Coondog says. “And I’ve gone pretty far with nothing. I thought it would be five minutes of fame, and it’s been years. I’ve done lots of things, GQ magazine, Wall Street Journal, a lot of big stuff, Sally Jesse Raphael, and a trivia question in the new ‘Trivial Pursuit’ game.”

Yes, it’s true. The answer, by the way, is “vomiting.”

About being in “Trivial Pursuit,” the married father of three muses: “Is that a good thing or a bad thing to be so trivial? Am I that trivial to be a question in “Trivial Pursuit”? It’s still cool.”

About that barfing incident in 2002, Coondog cringes at the memory.

“It’s the biggest eating event in the sport of competitive eating,” Coondog says of the Wing Bowl in Philadelphia. “El Wingador was the champ. I had to take him. It’s like boxing — if you’re going to take him out, you have to do it early.”

Coondog was leading with 126 wings in 16 minutes, and then ...

“I had an accident,” Coondog says. “A little sneeze. I got a little sick.”

Instant disqualification. Coondog threw a fit.

“There were 24,000 people booing,” he says with obvious glee. “The place was shakin’! So I said, ‘This is what I think of Philadelphia!’” He gave the crowd a special, um, salute.

The place went wild. “Let me tell you, I am truly a big star in Philadelphia,” he says. “I am the most hated villain ever to participate in the Wing Bowl.”

Speed-eating fans are a lot like wrestling fans. “Afterward I was like a star, signing autographs,” he says. “I like being a performer. The eating kind of sucks, but I’m good at it.”

Coondog’s accomplishments include eating 5 pounds of pineapple in 1.58; 30 cream-filled doughnuts in 5.28; and 3 pounds of bologna in 3.21.

His secret? “You’d be surprised how much you can eat,” Coondog says, “if you’re dumb enough to keep eating when your stomach tells you to stop.” Before an event, he makes sure he is hungry, but not famished, and his technique is to take small bites and swallow often.

“I get into a rhythm,” he says. “Once I get going I don’t stop because I’m fighting my brain. It’s a war between common sense and the competitive spirit.” Sometimes after an event he gets a little sick, but not often.

One of his favorite competitions is Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island. Sadly, the Japanese dominate. In 2001, Coondog ate 17 hot dogs to Takeru Kobyashi’s 50. Kobyashi achieved an unprecedented fourth victory this year and set a new world record — 53.5 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes.

Which begs the question: Why would anyone stuff their belly full of wienies, or anything else, for that matter?

Prizes, travel, notoriety, Coondog admits. And for him, it is so much more.

“I would like to bring some pride back to Northeast Ohio,” he says. His sights are set on a national championship, such as a Wing Bowl.

Until then, Dave “Coondog” O’Karma will keep eating his way toward a gold medal.

“My one talent in life has to be so weird,” he said. “Why couldn’t I just have been a porno star? That would have been more fun.”