Photo by Chris Witzke
Dr. Pepper
Jason McNabb holds three competitive-eating Guinness World Records: consuming three Carolina Reaper chile peppers the fastest (10.95 seconds), three Bhut jolokia, or “ghost,” chile peppers the fastest (16.15 seconds) and the most ghost peppers in two minutes. “It feels like you have a mouthful of bees just stinging you all at once,” the 37-year-old dentist, aka Dr. Pepper, says.
McNabb created a bucket list after his brother died of cancer at 36. At the top? “Eat the world’s hottest pepper.” His dental practice was in Shively at the time. A USA Today story mentioned the bottles of hot sauce he stored on a shelf behind his desk. His receptionist first gave him a ghost pepper and, in 2013, helped get him on the show Guinness World Records Unleashed. McNabb competed against two other eaters. SNL mentioned his victory during “Weekend Update.” “A Kentucky man set a new world record when he ate 15 ghost peppers, which are 400 times hotter than a jalapeño. When reached for comment, the man said, ‘Somebody’s in here!’”
Aquaman
Jordan Proffitt remembers the Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel segment. It was about the man who holds the record for most world records. (Ashrita Furman, from Brooklyn, has set more than 500 and currently holds some 200). “The man said, ‘If you look hard enough, you’ll find something that you can break,’” Proffitt says.
Proffitt, now 34, began swimming competitively when he was six, so he figured his best shot at a record would be in a pool. In 2012, after a University of Louisville swim meet at the Ralph Wright Natatorium, he was ready for his attempt: swimming 50 meters underwater in a 25-meter pool the fastest. “You don’t really feel it in your chest. You feel it in your brain,” he says. “It is right before you black out. That first breath when you pop up is like an emergency breath.” When he looked at the clock, he realized he’d done it: 27.86 seconds. Three different camera angles captured the winning time, and witnesses provided signatures, which a Guinness judge notarized. “I think it can be beat,” says Proffitt, who teaches middle school in Henderson County and coaches swimming. “Michael Phelps could probably beat it with one leg.”
Gum Granny
Joyce Samuels’ grandson nicknamed her the Bubblegum-Blowing Granny. Her Guinness World Record? Blowing the largest bubblegum bubble…with the nose. How’d she get that idea? “Stupid Human Tricks” on Letterman. “I thought, ‘Well, if ya want something stupid, I can do that,’” she says. Her method: Wash the sugar off eight pieces of Dubble Bubble (any flavor) by soaking them in a bowl of water, then chew one at a time before forming a sort of gum rectangle to seal over the nostrils. In 2000, she set her record diameter of 11 inches on Guinness World Records: Primetime. The 71-year-old, who lives in Valley Station, says she has nose-blown bubbles as large as 16 inches, though not recently because the “gum’s not made like it used to be.” Over the years, several shows featured her talent. “The first time on The Tonight Show I was nervous because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it,” she says. “But when I began to blow, the crowd started chanting: blow, blow, blow!”
This originally appeared in the October 2016 issue of Louisville Magazine. To subscribe to Louisville Magazine, click here. To find your very own copy of Louisville Magazine, click here.