Argh! It’s **** stinging my mouth.
My name is Tom, and I like to challenge myself
because I want to become a legend.
Argh!
So close, yet so far.
Argh, argh.
I’m here in the Southwest of England,
the home of nettle eating, to meet a legend who needs no introduction.
Phil Thorne is a three-time nettle eating world champion
with a mouth of steel,
who’s going test my nettle in a showdown to see who is
the ultimate sultan of sting.
-Hello, Tom. -Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.
I hear you’re a bit of a legend in the nettle game.
Well, yes, I’m the record holder, world record holder in nettles.
What made you think, “Oh yeah, nettles, I fancy that?”
I don’t know, I just fancied having a go.
-The record at the time was 76 feet. -Right.
But I knew that I’d beat it, and I did.
I did 80 feet that year.
-80 feet in your first attempt? -Yeah.
That sounds like a lot of feet of nettles.
Let me see your nettles.
Well, the nettles are just down here,
-prime eating nettles. -Nice.
The stomach is a big issue.
It’s quite a fibrous diet.
My **** are going to be, what, that hurt?
It’s a bit like being a cow, you know?
OK, so it’s going to be like a colonic irrigation--
-Yeah, that’s it. -via nettle.
Not that I’ve ever had a colonic irrigation, but I can imagine.
Do you get stopped on the street?
Occasionally, it has happened.
Do people ask you just to eat nettles, randomly?
They do, yes.
With fame comes these challenges.
So, when you’re eating the nettles,
what’s your preferred drink of choice to wash it down?
Oh, you’ve got to have cider.
And I hear you’re a bit of a connoisseur yourself.
-You make your own? -I do, yes.
Do you just get your own apples out of nowhere, or--
Apple trees, usually. That’s the preferred place.
Fair play.
Is this the nettles?
These are prime eating nettles.
These are some of them, we might need a few more.
Argh!
Don’t be such a wuss.
Is that like a big-- Argh, that is stinging, man.
It’s definitely stinging.
Or am I just freaking out, am I being like...
Right, I’m going to put the gloves on, is that alright?
-I don’t know if I should try one. -Well, you eat these bits.
Ah, man. The way you ate that.
We go like this, yeah.
I eat Maccy’s fries with that same kind of energy, but...
Yeah, go on.
-Take your gloves off. -Nah.
-But you’ve got to. -**** sake, man.
It’s against the rules.
-And what, like? -Well, this is going to be easy.
What, I just put it all in my mouth, like, how do you do it,
-what’s the technique? -Well, how do you eat?
Well, I eat like ****, I don’t know how I eat,
I just stuff it all in.
Well, go for it then. That’s it, that’s what you’ve got to do.
OK, cool.
Your mouth goes black,
-Argh! -or something.
You alright?
Argh-ha-ha.
It’s **** stinging my mouth.
This is the ultimate veganism, really.
-It is, yeah, absolutely. -Argh.
It’s definitely stinging me, man.
When does it stop stinging?
When you’ve eaten them.
Maybe actually, you become immune to the stinging.
You become, like, this nettle man.
-That’s it. -Yeah, that’ll do, won’t it?
Alright, we’re good to go with my big bag of green.
Alright, good effort. See you at the competition.
Yeah, I’ll look forward to it.
OK, so here we are in Phil’s gaff at the table of destiny,
which actually looks like there's quite a lot going on here.
And I guess these are all the trophies you won?
Yeah, this is the three trophies.
-And this is the home-made cider? -That’s the home-made cider, yeah.
I am desperate to try it, to be fair.
It looks delicious, I have to say.
-Cheers. -OK, cheers, nice one.
Get it on.
So, we’re going to go for ten minutes.
Three, two, one, go.
Argh, **** hell, man.
You eat nettles like I’ve seen people eat pingers on a weekend, man.
This is like my first leaf,
I don’t even know which one I got this from.
I’ve done one leaf and I’ve stung my hand.
Argh, it really hurts, man.
Argh.
Phil’s done four stalks.
I’ve done, I think, about four leaves.
Argh.
To be honest, it just tastes like pain.
Go on.
You’ve got to get a spurt on.
If I can do this one stalk...
I’ll be happy with that.
Argh, my whole mouth, man.
Oh dear.
One minute to go, Phil is clearly a professional,
but I feel like I'm still in it.
Aah!
Even though it’s stinging the **** out of me.
Argh!
I did it though, that’s the one.
I’ve done it, I ate one stem.
That was some of the worst stuff I’ve ever eaten.
And I've eaten a lot of bad stuff.
So, we’ve come to the end of the ten-minute nettle eating challenge.
I can't really talk, as you can tell,
because my mouth is really hurting from nettle stings.
I managed to get through one stick.
Phil’s managed to get through, how many did you get through?
You’ve nearly got ten.
So that's a lot of sticks, to be fair.
I’m honoured to actually share the same nettle eating table as you.
Cheers.
Thanks again. Cheers for the cider as well.
So, I traveled four hours outside London to challenge a world champion,
and I got stung by a man in a rainbow-colored pullover.
There is no doubt in my mind that Phil Thorne is a local legend.
But, you know what?
I’m proud of myself because I put some stinging nettles in my mouth,
and they were really painful.
[Legend Status 42% Achieved]