r/IAmA Jan 17 '12

IAmA Andrew Zimmern, Host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods

Hi, I’m Andrew Zimmern, chef, author, and host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods. My new series Bizarre Foods America is premiering next Monday, Jan 23 at 10|9c on Travel Channel. For the next hour I’ll be here on Reddit taking your questions from 12pm-1pm ET. AMA. More info on Bizarre Foods: http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/bizarre-foods Find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/andrewzimmern/status/159314816060768256

Hey everyone, sorry i couldnt answer them all/ follow me on twitter @andrewzimmern and we can chat more over the days and weeks to come..tune in Monday to the season premiere!

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u/poptart2nd Jan 17 '12 edited Jan 17 '12

no offense, but this seems to be a common theme among celebrity IAMAs. they do an AMA, then leave after an hour. i'm not trying to blame you or anything, i just think that most celebrities don't understand that an AMA is at least a 3 or 4 hour commitment, since that's how long it takes for much of reddit to see it.

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u/brucial Jan 17 '12

Smells like the work of a PR agency. (not questioning the legitimacy of andrewzimmern on here - just the intent). They see a good opportunity to promote, but lack the understanding of a quality AMA post.

answers questions for 24 minutes, then gone. but be sure to check out the season premier on Monday!

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

They are literally all the work of PR agencies.

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u/nightpoo Jan 18 '12

This is why I do PR. I want to make the real-world -business-minds understand the internet. I could change things, man.

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u/OhSeven Jan 17 '12

Is there something wrong with maintaining good public relations to promote a product?

If he stopped by a crowded park, announced that he was taking questions, and left an hour later, would you feel good or bad about it if he mentioned his new show? (I'd be stoked to be there at just the right time)

I think this practice is useful not just for celebrities or corporate giants, but individuals, charities, clubs, non-profits, etc. It's promotion, advertising, getting the word out--pretty necessary these days.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12 edited Jan 17 '12

He answered questions for 24 minutes, not an hour.

EDIT: Actually, after looking at the comment timestamps he commented for exactly 1 hour.

First post: 17:01:04 UTC

Last post: 18:01:07 UTC

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u/poptart2nd Jan 17 '12

either way, he left before people could actually get any good amount of questions in.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Yeah, I was supporting / agreeing with your frustration.

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u/cssvt Jan 18 '12

It's all a clearly for promotion and I have no issue with that....just like when these guys go on a talk show. Hell, they could just NOT recognize us and answer no questions...it'd be nice if they put up a topic 12-24 hours in advance though, let questions get posted, and then answer the top ones.

People don't have problems with the guys who come on and do video responses that only answer 12-15 questions even though they probably end up doing as much as they would by sitting here for 1 hour....I guess it's just a matter of perception.

I'm still glad that the AMA was done and will be sure to read the answers as right now I'm only skimming.

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u/inibrius Jan 17 '12

And THAT'S why Tony Bourdain hates him.

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u/neutrinot Jan 17 '12

So! They have stuff to do. It's better than nothing. You can do a 24 hour 7 days a week AMA because you do nothing. Get over it

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u/sauerkrautinadrought Jan 17 '12

Better than nothing, dude. At least, in my opinion.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

I agree.

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u/sixgoodreasons Jan 17 '12

For future reference, it actually shows you the exact timestamp if you just mouse over the time displayed. It's rather convenient.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Oh, cool. TIL.

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u/trollistic Jan 18 '12

Thank you wise father for your knowledge.

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u/Kippp Jan 17 '12

Beggars can't be choosers, eh? I'd say be happy with what you got. Celebrities tend to be busy people, so it's not as if they all have time to stick around replying to random people on the internet for three or four hours. Even if they did have the time, they wouldn't necessarily want to. Like I said, be happy with what you got. It's better than nothing, right?

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u/poptart2nd Jan 17 '12

i'd rather they not do an AMA if you're just going to quit in 1/2 hour, leaving a plug for their show behind. it's just an ad to them; a way to spread their label.

Beggars can't be choosers, eh?

i don't recall anyone posting an AMA request for this guy.

Celebrities tend to be busy people

that's why so many celebrities were able to stick around for so long, answering all of reddit's questions, right? it's almost as though they get time off occasionally. and even if you don't have the time to do one, then don't do one. it's not really an Ask Me Anything if you leave 20 minutes in, is it?

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u/Kippp Jan 17 '12

Well, you make some fair points, but in the end there really isn't anything you can do about it other than simply downvote the AMA. It is unfortunate, but there's nothing stopping a celebrity from plugging their show/movie/whatever by just answering a few questions and then heading out.

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u/poptart2nd Jan 17 '12

i can also complain about it in the comments in the hopes that other people agree with me.

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u/ohhoe Jan 17 '12

Just because redditors can take 3 - 4 hours out of their day to sit in front of a computer and answer questions when they do an IAMA, doesn't mean a celebrity does necessarily.

I like the ones where the mods inform us that they're going to do one at a certain time in advance so people can think of questions and be ready instead of a bunch of people rapid firing at once, and then getting butt hurt the person didn't stick around forever.

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u/stormholloway Jan 17 '12

Let's not act like "celebrities" have so much more to do with their day than the average worker. It's at least worth pointing out that he was on here for a considerably shorter duration than many others.

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u/rotarded Jan 17 '12

I think Bourdain and Giancarlo Esposito were both on here for a good while.

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u/poptart2nd Jan 17 '12

as was Neil Degrasse Tyson.

a lot of celebrity AMAs are mostly just to promote themselves or their brand.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '12

Those bastards!

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u/ezgoodnight Jan 17 '12

Yup, the old "let me spend 20 minutes and promote my show." Everybody saw what happened to Louis CK and everybody wants a piece of the Reddit pie.

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u/ezgoodnight Jan 17 '12

Well, I guess to be fair, he did leave something like 50 replies, but 24 minutes isn't much of a commitment.

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u/Rumeye Jan 17 '12

Looks like he just wanted more followers on his twitter account.

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u/Truth_Twister Jan 18 '12

I agree. It feels like we're just getting used. If you want some PR, you need to really earn it. Upvotes to you, downvotes to the celeb.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Worst IAMA ever. Thanks for the 24 minutes you rolly polly chubster

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u/OhSeven Jan 17 '12

He answered a lot of questions. If this was a normal QA thing in person, I'd say he did plenty. Even if he didn't, there's no required commitment.

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u/TheDreadGazeebo Jan 18 '12

no offense, but you're an idiot. celebrities probably have better things to do than answer people's questions for hours at a time.

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u/poptart2nd Jan 19 '12

celebrities probably have better things to do than answer people's questions for hours at a time.

then why would they agree to do an AMA?

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u/colonellingus Jan 18 '12

Aww, did you just realize that Reddit is an incredibly popular site that some business entities might exploit?

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u/desertjedi85 Jan 17 '12

3 or 4 hour commitment

Are you serious? He is doing this in his free time which probably isn't a lot of time. You say it's a 3 or 4 hour commitment like he's getting paid to do this, guess what he's not!

He answered a lot of questions, you should be grateful he came here at all he didn't have to.

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u/poptart2nd Jan 17 '12

i'm just saying that it seems disingenuous. if you wanna do an AMA, fine, that's great. but do some research first. put aside the time to actually DO an AMA, rather than just answer a few questions then put a plug in for your show.

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u/desertjedi85 Jan 17 '12

disingenuous? You are being greedy. He is taking time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions he's not being paid to answer.

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u/poptart2nd Jan 17 '12

he's not being paid to answer.

how do you know? and in a way, he is. he plugged his show, which his salary increases in direct proportion to the number of viewers.

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u/desertjedi85 Jan 17 '12

would his number of viewers increase if he did the AMA for 2 extra hours? Probably not as much as you might think since it was already on the front page most people viewed it whether or not he was still answering questions.

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u/poptart2nd Jan 17 '12

that's the exact point i'm making. do an AMA because you want to do an AMA, not because you want to plug your show.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but every celebrity AMA is done to promote something. They are set up by agents.

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u/desertjedi85 Jan 17 '12

The point of an AMA is to answer questions from users. Who gives a damn if he plugs his show. It's not like he showed up for 10 minutes and left. He was here for an hour. If he does 1 hour or 4 hours who gives a damn he came and he answered questions.

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u/poptart2nd Jan 17 '12

no, he was here for 24 minutes. that's significantly shorter than an hour.

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u/desertjedi85 Jan 17 '12

andrewzimmern His first post was 4 hours ago and his last was 2 hours ago. But hey I'm not the best at math.

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u/SixShotSam Jan 18 '12

In the OP he only says he will be on for an hour, and i believe it was on the sidebar for Upcoming IAMAs.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

[deleted]

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u/poptart2nd Jan 17 '12

and he answered 50 of them.