Shannon In The Morning Big Show Daily Podcast

Brad Blanks caught up with Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog-Eating Contest female champ Miki Sudo as she prepares to go to battle Saturday!

She shares her hot dog consumption secrets and the unique relationship she has with her boyfriend Nick Wehry, who happens to be the 8th ranked competitive eater in the world!

The contest will air live on Saturday, July 4, at noon on ESPN. The one-hour telecast marks the 17th consecutive year ESPN has televised the event. Coverage kicks off at high noon, with the women’s championship, followed by the men’s championship.

The annual contest, an American holiday tradition will take place in a private, indoor location with COVID-19 safety measures in place

You may know him as “Murr” on the hit TV show “Impractical Jokers,” but Staten Island’s own James Murray is also a best-selling author and a successful businessman!

Murr’s new book “Obliteration” is out NOW in stores & anywhere you buy books online! It’s the 3rd book in his “Awakened” sci-fi/horror series and he says there will be “many more” in the future!

“Impractical Jokers” airs on TruTV, It stars James, Joe Gatto, Sal Vulcano & Brian Quinn, four life-long friends from Staten Island who take dares to do wacky stunts out in public.

We asked James if he’d ever gotten roughed up while filming a skit, and he was brutally honest about it, “We look like the guys you can easily smash with your fist, so people don’t tend to fight us” he jokes, “look at us, we’re the type of guys you settle for!”

We asked James to take us back to that religion class in Staten Island in 1990 where he met his future Tenderloins brothers. When it came to who made the first move to say hi, he said he couldn’t remember, but he knows which one made him laugh first.

“It was Joe (Gatto)” he says, “he would ‘nose’ people, he has a rather large protrudence on his face, he would secretly drop his nose on people’s shoulders and we would be crying!” James says “it was an all-boys school, what else do you do other than prank each other?”

From Monsignor Farrell High School on Staten Island, they joined an improv club and later on started their own troupe called “The Tenderloins.”

Years later they are 8 seasons into 'Impractical Jokers,' selling out Madison Square Garden, London’s O2 Arena & they put out a successful movie with the guys this year “Impractical Jokers: The Movie.”

You can purchase Murr’s new book ‘Obliteration’ here: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062868992/obliteration/

Photo courtesy of truTV / Jeremy Freeman

It's a big day for two of the Big Show dad's!

Harvey Blanks graduates from 5th grade and Alexandra Pulice is now a kindergarten graduate!

Listen as we pay tribute to the little ones we've watched grow up in front of our very eyes (Oh, and it's also the birthday of Kathleen Shannon!)!

We also talk about a funny newspaper situation that needed to be addressed! 

4-time World Series champion, number 51 in your program, the great Bernie Williams joined us to talk about the start of the 2020 baseball season and a special challenge he’s putting out to fans.

We asked Bernie about the delayed start of the 2020 baseball season and his thoughts on the new rules like putting a runner on 2nd base in extra innings.

Bernie was diplomatic in his response, saying “they have to be careful messing with the essence of the game,”

Bernie told us about a song he created “Para Don Berna” to honor his father's memory, and he needs help adding the right lyrics to his tribute!

“My father was my hero”Bernie says, “he was the one who taught me the game of baseball, and he introduced me to music by playing his guitar for us at night.”

Go to www.breathlessballad.com to submit your lyrics! Deadline to submit is September 1st. The selected lyrics will be chosen LIVE on Bernie’s Facebook page October 15th! 

Bernie says “We’re really excited about the possibilities to find one that would fit, having the opportunity to record the song with a leading person in the music industry.”

This initiative is part of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Breathless campaign, a national effort to educate those who may have the lung disease IPF. Bernie lost his father Bernabie to IPF in 2001 (Idio-pathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.)

Brad Blanks interviewed a trainer he met through a friend that is BEAR CRAWLING the New York City Marathon.

His name is Devon Levesque, a personal trainer with 362,000 followers on Instagram. The guy is a freak!

Brad & Devin talk about the bear crawl, taking off the covid-19 pounds and improving that “junk in the trunk.”

Devon Levesque, a renowned fitness expert, entrepreneur and Partner of Performix House, will be the first person to embark on the historic feat of “bear crawling” 26.2 miles.

This November he will be taking on the incredible endeavor across the streets of New York City to raise funds for FitOps Foundation (www.FitOps.org), a nonprofit organization which holds month-long “live on” camps to train and certify veterans to become elite personal trainers.

Rock & roll hall of famer David Coverdale can’t wait for the world to get back to normal.

“SO I CAN DO MY RETIREMENT TOUR” David screams as he talks to the big show about COVID—19 cancelling live concerts this year. David had to cancel Whitesnake’s 2020 tour right before the pandemic hit because of hernia surgery, which he still hasn’t been able to do. “My surgeon has recommended I wait a little bit longer” he says.  

David checked in to talk about his latest release. “Whitesnake: The Rock Album” which is out now on CD, White Vinyl & digital at www.whitesnake.com.  The 16-Track collection spotlights revisited, remixed and remastered versions of the band’s best rock songs.

It includes the previously unreleased song “Always The Same.”

“It’s just a total labor of love for me” David says about reworking his catalog, “to put a fresh coat of paint on the albums I made 40 years ago.”

“It’s been really hard for me getting a sonic consistency with different albums…it’s really exciting, I got blue birds flying out of every orifice!”

WHITESNAKE: THE ROCK ALBUM is the first release in the band’s “Red, White and Blues Trilogy,” a series of fresh, new collections organized by musical themes that will include: Love Songs (red), The ROCK Album (white) and The BLUES Album (blue).

David founded Whitesnake in 1978. Before Whitesnake, Coverdale was the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976, replacing Ian Gillan. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Deep Purple in 2016.

Kevin Costner has starred in some of the greatest baseball themed movies of all time, from his character Crash Davis in Bull Durham to Field of Dreams to veteran pitcher Billy Chapel in For the Love of the Game.

Kevin talked a little baseball with Brad Blanks, saying he misses the game amid the pandemic. They also chatted about what’s to come on season 3 of “Yellowstone,” the concept album from Kevin Costner and Modern West, Whitney Houston, physical fitness & much more!

Kevin stars in the television show, Yellowstone. The 3rd season Premieres this Sunday evening on the Paramount Network. “Everybody wants what he has” Kevin says of his leading character, “let’s see where the writing takes us.”

Kevin's band Kevin Costner and Modern West is a country rock band and he has released a new record called Tales from Yellowstone.

Kevin tells Brad it's a concept album for the TV series and explains the intimacy of the songs, grabbing inspiration from his late father for the song “last time” and the last time they went hunting together.

Kevin shares a great story about hitting his first home run ever while filming Bull Durham. “I was an undersized kid for my age” Kevin says to why he didn’t hit one out of the yard in his early days.

But during the filming of Bull Durham he finally hit one out of the park against minor leaguers trying out for a spot in the movie, “after the first two swings I said to myself what are you worried about, you have a job” and he hit one out!

“It was just like one of those funny moments when you say, wow.”  

GRAMMY & EMMY award winner Harry Connick Jr. and his daughter Georgia took a road trip in an RV to thank and celebrate essential workers keeping us safe across America.

Georgia documented Harry’s interactions and out of it comes the emotional 2-hour special “United We Sing: A Grammy Tribute To The Unsung Heroes” that airs Sunday night at 8pm on CBS.

Harry got some of his famous friends to help out along the way. Sandra Bullock, Drew Brees, Queen Latifah, Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey and Renée Zellweger deliver surprise messages to America’s unsung heroes.

The special features performances by Harry, along with Jon Batiste, Andra Day, John Fogerty, Jamie Foxx, Herbie Hancock, Cyndi Lauper, Little Big Town, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Matthews, Tim McGraw & more!

The Connicks’ journey begins at their home in Connecticut, and after stopping in various cities along the way, they reach their final destination of New Orleans. At each stop, the father-daughter duo listens to the stories of essential workers in healthcare, food preparation, sanitation, law enforcement, trucking and more to honor their dedication and public service during this unique moment in history.

The two-hour special event ends in Connick’s hometown of New Orleans, with performances by Connick, Trombone Shorty and Irma Thomas at iconic locations throughout the city.

The special will invite donors to contribute to charities that support underserved children, such as No Kid Hungry and the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in New Orleans, as well as to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund, a charitable organization of the Recording Academy.

“United We Sing: A Grammy Tribute To The Unsung Heroes” was filmed with a minimal crew practicing social distancing and with extensive safety precautions in place.

Gabriel Iglesias is one of the most watched comedians of all-time with over 500 million views on YouTube! And now “Fluffy” is celebrating his acting with season 2 of his Netflix comedy “Mr. Iglesias” which is streaming today.

Gabriel plays a good-natured public high-school teacher who teaches gifted but misfit kids.

Gabe is essentially getting to play out an alternate auto-biography, depicting what it might have been like if he had chosen to become a teacher. “The hours kind of kill me” he jokes about flirting with the idea of becoming a teacher in real life, “but I think about it a lot.”

He tells us about his high school teacher June who inspired him to pursue comedy and she even drove him to his first comedy gig! “It just takes that one special person to give that extra push” he says.

“Mr. Iglesias” also stars Oscar Nunez of “The Office” and Sherri Sheppard & fellow comedian Jo Koy stars in an episode of season 2!

Go to www.fluffyguy.com for everything fluffy & check out season 2 of “Mr. Iglesias” streaming now on Netflix.

Dr. Oz checked in with Scott & Patty to talk about a wide variety of topics.

On Friday, Dr. Oz shared an emotional video update on his mom Suma, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease last September. He says she is just "treading water" when it comes to the disease, so we talked about steps families  

When it comes to keeping coronavirus infections & deaths down, Dr. Oz says we have the control over it.

"It's actually a manageable problem if you know how to take care of yourself" Dr. Oz says about spreading the virus. "In homes where the Husband gets the virus, the wife only has a 10 percent chance of getting it."

He shared a story about visiting a meat packing plant in the west where one person infected wound up infecting 280 people at the plant.

Catch season 11 of "The Dr. Oz Show" weekdays at 1pm on FOX-5.