Bottomless Stomachs

Large quantities of candy that most households don’t dole out in a single Halloween night could be devoured by six competitive eaters on Oct. 31.

They are the steel-lined stomachs of Major League Eating’s latest “sporting” event named “The Halloween Candy Bowl.”

Held in conjunction with the online gaming company, DraftKings, the eye-popping drama will be live-streamed at 7:30 p.m. (Eastern Time), Oct. 31, from an outdoor deck of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel. Voyeurs can patch in on DraftKing’s YouTube and Twitch platforms.

The contestants will vie for $5,000 by shoveling down six pounds of Halloween candy in six minutes or less—or by eating the most amount at the six-minute mark. Each bowl will brim with six different types of Halloween favorites measured out in one-pound portions—peanut butter cups, candy corn, Milky Way Bars, M&M’s and the like.

Adding stiff competition to the match is Joey Chestnut, a 30-something champion of a hot dog contest held July 4 in New York’s Coney Island. Chestnut grabbed top honors for consuming 75 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, all on buns, in 10 minutes. (Pass the Rolaids, please.)

Major League Eating normally holds between 65 and 70 competitive eating events around the country each year since its founding in the late 90s. They attract crowds of onlookers witnessing contestants eating mass quantities of hard-boiled eggs, glazed donuts, matzo balls, chicken wings, and (gasp!) straight-up mayonnaise.

“But since Covid, we’ve had only a few events and without audiences,” said Major League’s president, Richard Shea, who revealed to The Hash Star that a “Thanksgiving Eve” eating contest on Nov. 25 was recently added to the calendar. That too will be held at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, although the bill of fare will focus naturally on classic Thanksgiving Day dishes.

(Photos courtesy of Major League Eating)