I went to the Ritz Theater last night to help Taylor and Jim celebrate two years of Flak Radio podcasting with a live recording.
Originally uploaded by Chuckumentary.
As I walked in the door, Taylor asked if I was interested in the pizza challenge. Not taking a moment to think about what the pizza challenge might actually entail, I said “sure!” and was offered a seat at a table off to the side from where the audience was sitting.
The short of it is Randy’s Premier Pizza in Oakdale makes these gigantic pizzas and if you and a certain (limited) number of friends can eat it in a limited amount of time, you get it for free (that’s a $50 pizza). In this case, four people have 30 minutes to eat a 30″ thin crust pizza. Each pizza quadrant has one vegetable and one meat. I drew the pepperoni/green pepper combo.
Despite my growing apprehension, I committed to the challenge. Me and three guys dug in and did our level best to finish it. Which we didn’t. When you divide it up, one quarter of a 30″ pizza amounts to about one large pizza per person. None of us finished our respective quarter of the pizza, but I thought we did pretty well. I actually ate a lot more than I thought I could. (I’m not proud of that.)
Randy said — after the fact, wisely — that there’s about a 15% success rate, to which I say let’s think about our definition of “success.”
The pizza challenge was followed by an interview with Randy and a dough-tossing demonstration which included some audience participation which the audience was not expecting.
(See also: Aaron Landry’s review of Randy’s Premier Pizza.)
So while the pizza eating was going on, Jim and Taylor were talking to Pioneer Press consumer tech writer Julio Ojeda-Zapata about Twitter and his new book Twitter Means Business.
Originally uploaded by Chuckumentary.
All in all, a great show. I regret that in my discomfort I wasn’t really paying attention at the very end. I’ll have to listen to it when the podcast goes live. Congratulations to Jim and Taylor! Another fine episode of Flak Radio.
6 Comments
Nice write-up. My favorite Flak Radio yet. I hope they continue to do more live stuff.
I’m still very tempted to gather a few friends and try that challenge, even after seeing the spectacle last night. Hopefully I come to my senses soon.
It was nice to meet you finally though!
Thanks! Next time we’ll have to actually talk to each other some more. ;-)
I’m thinking I know some teenage boys who would be up to that pizza challenge.
Now that is something I’d like to see.
Despite my personal decision to never partake in such an event ever again, I really want to see someone actually eat the whole damn thing.
I am confident that myself and three of my huskier friends could easily tackle that pizza. After all, I raised quite a ruckus when denied more tacos when the sign promised all I could eat. I left bitter but was vindicated when the restaurant that stiffed me went out of business.