THIS GUY EATS HOT WINGS WITH CELEBRITIES FOR A LIVING

Meet Sean Evans. Evans, 30, is the host of a YouTube series called Hot Ones, which airs every Thursday. His job: to interview celebrities while he and his interview subject eat chicken wings coated in sauces with increasing levels of heat. Evans and his guest are presented with 10 wings covered in hot sauce. The first is the mildest wing; the last is the hottest. Evans interviews the guest as the two make their way through the wings.

If the person finishes the wings, then he or she gets 30 seconds to plug whatever they want.

How did you get here?

Chris Schonberger (FirstWeFeast.com editor-in-chief) had this idea to interview celebrities but have them eat, like, violent-hot chicken wings. It was kind of inspired by Alexa Chung, who used to do these offbeat interviews on this English TV channel. We thought, we can introduce this sort of disruptive element.

Did you ever see yourself doing something like this?

My earliest memory as a kid is my dad would tape Letterman during the week and binge-watch them all on a Saturday. I’d make him do this thing whenever the audience laughed, I’d make him pause the VCR and explain the joke to me. In a weird way, this was probably all created because I just want to make my dad laugh the way Letterman made him laugh. I became obsessed with Letterman and the interviews.

How do you prepare for the heat?

I just die every time. People always ask, “Do you line your stomach?” No. I just have that experience. I’m not a superhero and I go through it and it sucks at times.

Growing up, my dad would always have hot salsa. When I was a little kid watching Chicago Bears games, hot salsa would be on the table and the first time I was like, “Ah, this is hot, Dad. Get mild salsa,” and he was like: “Not in my house.”