Kevin Thomas Strahle (born January 6, 1984), better known as the L.A. Beast, is an American professional
competitive eater
Competitive eating, or speed eating, is an activity in which participants compete against each other to eat large quantities of food, usually in a short time period. Contests are typically eight to ten minutes long, although some competitions c ...
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. Strahle started making videos in his hometown of
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958,Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. After several years at his home in California, he moved back to his hometown of Ridgewood. As of 2023, his channel has over 2.8 million subscribers. He has 500 million total views as of 2023. In addition to his online presence, he has made appearances on ''
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014.
The fourth incarnation of the ...
'', '' The Today Show Australia'' and '' Tosh.0''.
In 2015, Strahle led a successful campaign to bring back the soft drink
Crystal Pepsi
Crystal Pepsi is a clear cola soft drink made by PepsiCo. It was initially released in the United States and Canada from 1992 to 1994. Online grassroots revival efforts prompted brief re-releases throughout the mid-2010s. It was briefly sold ...
.
Early life
Strahle was born on January 6, 1984, and grew up in
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958,
As a child, Strahle developed a love for eating and later used his natural bulk to join the football team at Ridgewood High School. In his free time he would often accept money from his classmates to complete outrageous food challenges. Strahle is of Italian and Irish ancestry on his maternal side and German and Irish on his paternal side.
After high school, Strahle was recruited to play football for the Fordham Rams of Fordham University in New York. In his four years on the team, he started on the offensive line in almost every game for the 2004–2006 seasons.
In 2008, Strahle moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
and obtained a job working for Pepsi. After two years, he quit after a manager told him he was not "persistent enough" to be a salesman within PepsiCo. That criticism would later drive him to spearhead the 'Bring Back Crystal Pepsi' campaign.
Kevin is shown to feel quite
nostalgic
Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", a Homeric wo ...
when mentioning his childhood as seen in some of his videos, including his
Crystal Pepsi
Crystal Pepsi is a clear cola soft drink made by PepsiCo. It was initially released in the United States and Canada from 1992 to 1994. Online grassroots revival efforts prompted brief re-releases throughout the mid-2010s. It was briefly sold ...
videos.
Internet videos
While Strahle was in Los Angeles, he uploaded his first YouTube video where he performed a milk chugging challenge. Noticing the positive response the video received, he started his own channel under the user name "skippy62able" on August 7, 2010. Having completed Fatburger's XXXL burger challenge, Strahle's roommate commented that he was 'a beast' for finishing it so fast. Starting in 2011, Strahle would often refer to himself as either "Beast" or "L.A. Beast", eventually choosing the latter as his official nickname.
In September 2015, Strahle and fellow eaters
Takeru Kobayashi
, also known as Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, is a Japanese competitive eater.
Described as "the godfather of competitive eating", Kobayashi is a six-time champion of Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest and is widely credited with popularizing the spor ...
,
Bob Shoudt
Bob Shoudt (born October 16, 1966), also known as "Humble Bob" or "Notorious B.O.B." (the name of his YouTube channel), is an American competitive eater from Royersford, Pennsylvania.
He holds a number of eating records, including the most food ...
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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to consume an entire cooked goat. This eating challenge was performed with the intention of lifting the infamous Chicago Cubs curse. The Cubs would go on to win the World Series the following year.
L.A. Beast's YouTube channel features dozens of videos in which he films himself performing a variety of over-the-top eating and drinking challenges. In some cases when he is unsuccessful at these challenges, the featured entertainment value is the schadenfreude and
gross-out humor
Gross out is described as a movement in art (often with comical conotations), which is intended to shock the viewer(s) and disgust the wider audience by presenting them with controversial material (such as toilet humor and fetishes) that might be ...
of him experiencing pain and vomiting copious amounts of food and drink. His comedic approach also includes outlandish but extremely specific descriptions of what the experience of eating or drinking these substances is like. In addition, Strahle has a number of humorous catchphrases and frequently used terms, and he usually edits his videos to include
picture-in-picture
Picture-in-picture (PiP) is a feature that can be found in television receivers, personal computers and smartphones, consisting of a video stream playing within an inset window, freeing the rest of the screen for other tasks.
For televisions, pic ...
visual puns and other images to accompany the sayings, such as a map of the Bering Strait (or a photo of machine bearings) when he says "I need to get my bearings straight," or amusing photos of animals such as seals that appear as if they are making the vocalizations that L.A. Beast makes as he dry-heaves and retches.
Competitive eating
In November 2011, Strahle competed in his first professional eating contest at the Wild Turkey 81 Eating World Championship in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
In 2012, Strahle was ranked the 16th best competitive eater in the world, and ranked 17th in 2013.
In June 2012, Strahle consumed 25 hot dogs in 10 minutes at the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier in Cleveland, Ohio. Though Strahle lost to eating veteran Crazy Legs Conti, he was beaten by only a quarter of a hot dog.
In February 2016, Strahle competed at Wing Bowl 24 where he ate a cactus live on stage. To qualify for the competition, Strahle ate 24 raw eggs in under four minutes.
On May 3, 2017, Strahle broke the Guinness World Record for the most chicken nuggets eaten in 3 minutes by consuming of chicken nuggets beating the previous record of .
Later that morning, Strahle also broke the Guinness World Record for the most
bhut jolokia
The ghost pepper, also known as ''bhut jolokia'' (which literally means 'Bhutan pepper' in Assamese), is an interspecific hybrid chili pepper cultivated in Northeast India. It is a hybrid of ''Capsicum chinense'' and ''Capsicum frutescens''.
...
peppers eaten in 2 minutes by consuming of peppers, beating the previous record of .
On May 12, 2017, Strahle broke two additional Guinness World Records for both the most powdered doughnuts eaten in 3 minutes, and the record for fastest time to drink a 32-ounce bottle () of pure maple syrup. The previous record for most powdered doughnuts eaten in 3 minutes was 6 doughnuts, set by Shamus Petherick of Australia. It was beaten when Strahle managed to consume 9 whole doughnuts in the same amount of time. For the second record, Strahle drank of pure maple syrup in 10.84 seconds, beating the former record of 26 seconds.
In September 2018, Strahle entered a competition at Jimmy Geez in Haledon, New Jersey, in which he ate 40 nuclear wings. Strahle completed the challenge in a span of 57 minutes and 22 seconds.
"Bring Back Crystal Pepsi" movement
In April 2015, Strahle rallied his fans to comment on
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi wa ...
's official social media accounts with the hashtag "#BringBackCrystalPEPSI" in an effort to revive the once-popular soft drink. This led to the creation of a
Change.org
Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...
petition and as of August 2016, it has over 34,000 signatures. The popularity of the movement also produced 15 billboards placed all around the Los Angeles area.
On June 8, 2015, Strahle received a message from Pepsi via
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, acknowledging his efforts to get Crystal Pepsi brought back to store shelves and hinting at the soft drink's potential return. The next day, a Pepsi spokeswoman confirmed the message's authenticity.
On July 26, 2015, Strahle released a song on iTunes called "The Crystal Pepsi Song" featuring production company That's Classic Media (now named Mac N’ Cheese Media). A music video was later released August 5, 2015.
On December 8, 2015, Pepsi announced the re-release of Crystal Pepsi in a limited quantity sweepstakes. In June 2016, Pepsi announced that Crystal Pepsi would be released in the U.S. on August 8, 2016 for an eight-week run.
Notable challenges
Eating
* Two cacti
* The entire menu of burgers from the Burger King menu while wearing a shock collar
* A of
Haribo
Haribo ( ) is a German confectionery company founded by Hans Riegel Sr.. It began in Kessenich, Bonn, Germany. The name "Haribo" is a syllabic abbreviation formed from Hans Riegel Bonn. The company created the first gummy candy in 1960 in the f ...
sugarless
gummy bear
Gummy bears (German: ''Gummibär'') are small, fruit gum candies, similar to a jelly baby in some English-speaking countries. The candy is roughly long and shaped in the form of a bear. The gummy bear is one of many gummies, popular gel ...
s
* Two jars of
Vegemite
Vegemite ( ) is a thick, dark brown Australian food spread made from leftover brewers' yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives. It was developed by Cyril Callister in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1922.
A spread for sandwiches, ...
* An entire
watermelon
Watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family and the name of its edible fruit. A scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, it is a highly cultivated fruit worldwide, with more than 1,000 varie ...
, including the rind
* 2 Chocolate Bhutlah Peppers
* 21 dimes covered in olive oil
* A 72-ounce steak meal in less than an hour
* A cluster of bananas and drinking two liters of Sprite
* An entire pineapple
* Two wooden pencils
* 27 Bhut jolokia, ghost peppers, including a video from 2011.
* 110 McDonald's Chicken Nuggets
* 5 light bulbs in under 10 minutes
* 60 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
* A cupful of sand
Drinking
* Drinking a 20-year-old bottle of
Crystal Pepsi
Crystal Pepsi is a clear cola soft drink made by PepsiCo. It was initially released in the United States and Canada from 1992 to 1994. Online grassroots revival efforts prompted brief re-releases throughout the mid-2010s. It was briefly sold ...
* A gallon of honey while covered with bees
* A whole bottle of Syrup of ipecac
* A mixture of milk and Red Bull from a 3-liter Beer glassware#Weizen glasses, beer glass
* Two liters of Sprite (soft drink), Sprite and a cluster of bananas
* Drinking a whole Mega Gulp iced drink as fast as possible, afterwards trying to cross a butter-covered floor with an armful of presents, then suffering from a compound fracture of one of his toes after falling and hitting a fridge
* A gallon of Habanero Tabasco sauce
* Approximately 3 pounds of Sriracha
* An entire bottle of Cristal (wine), Cristal Champagne
* 24,000 calories worth of olive oil from a 3-liter beer glass
* 50 raw eggs in two and a half minutes
Other stunts
* Inserting his hand into a jar full of Sodium acetate#Heating pad, hot ice (sodium acetate trihydrate) and burning his hand
* Placing his hands inside Paraponera clavata#Initiation rites, gloves filled with bullet ants for 10 minutes
* Solving a Rubik's Cube blindfolded while walking barefoot over a large pile of Lego bricks
* Inhaling various vaporized alcoholic beverages
* Ripping 30 phone books in half in 3 minutes
World records
Strahle currently holds eight Guinness World Records, which include the following feats:
* Most powdered doughnuts eaten in three minutes.
* Fastest Time to Drink a 32 oz. Bottle of Maple Syrup.
* Fastest time to eat all chocolates from an advent calendar.
* Most peanut butter cups eaten in one minute.
* Most gummy bears eaten with a stick in one minute.
* Fastest time to drink two litres of soda through a straw.
*Fastest time to walk across lego bricks barefoot with a relay team.
* Most ice lollies (popsicles) eaten in one minute.
* Fastest time to drink 6 Beers through your nose
In the past, he has held the records for:
* Most chicken nuggets eaten in 3 minutes (642.12 grams). Beating the record previously held by Todd Fernley (531 grams) on February 26, 2016.
* Most Bhut jolokia chili peppers (Ghost Peppers) eaten in two minutes.
* Most marshmallows eaten in one minute (no hands).
* Fastest time to drink a cup of coffee.