Ed BalintCanton Repository
Nick Popa recalls the moment when the competition on the wacky new game show "Human vs Hamster" got serious.
The 25-year-old Plain Township native had crawled in oversized tubes in a race against a hamster that crawled in a scaled-down version of the tubes. The 2018 GlenOak High School graduate also had to take on a rambunctious rodent in a corn-eating competition.
Things got wilder and wilder until he found himself running on a human-sized hamster wheel.
"I didn't realize how challenging running in a hamster wheel could be," he said with a big laugh. "That looked easy to me. What you don't think about is the wheel doesn't stop, and the faster you run, the faster the wheel spins, so it naturally just speeds everything up and your body has to give up at some point.
"I definitely fell out and definitely tumbled a few times."
It was all part of the zany and unique new game show, "Human vs Hamster," which began streaming Thursday on Max, formerly known as HBO Max. Episodes also will run starting Fridays on the Magnolia Network.
Popa's episode will be on Max and then on the Magnolia Network on cable television at 9 p.m. Dec. 6 . Chip and Joanna Gaines are executive producers of the new show.
"We were so impressed with how the show turned out," he said of watching the episodes.
"I was still on the edge of my seat watching how close some of the challenges really were," Popa added. "Those hamsters put up a good fight."
What in the world is 'Human vs Hamster'?
Max describes the eight-episode series like this: "In this innovative interspecies competition series, humans and hamsters square off in epic battles of skill, strength and agility for cash prizes."
The fun takes place in what Popa calls a "massive, whimsical hamster playground."
Celebrity connection: North Canton man wins thousands on 'We Are Family' game show
Popa, a professional magician who lives in Mansfield, competed on a team of two with his longtime friend, Jack Grady, a 25-year-old fellow magician who lives in Eastlake. Popa also is the kitchen manager at Roosters in Mansfield.
Popa, who is 5 feet 9 inches and weighs 135 pounds, also competes as a professional Onewheel racer in the Onewheel Racing League. A Onewheel is a self-balancing electric skateboard with a single tire.
"The whole time it just felt like a 'pinch me' moment," Popa said of appearing on the game show. "It's always been a dream of mine since growing up to appear on TV and specifically perform some magic on television. And we do a little bit of magic in our episode as well, so that was a dream come true."
The series is hosted by comedian and "Saturday Night Live" cast member Sarah Sherman and media personality Kyle Brandt, a co-host of "Good Morning Football" on the NFL Network. The game show's third host is Brian Balthazar.
How does the game show 'Human vs. Hamster' work?
Popa and Grady appear in episode six, "Magicians and Dancers."
The competition consists of two teams of two people going up against hamsters in scaled challenges. One person from each team competes against a hamster in the same challenge, Popa explained.
If the human beats the hamster, that team wins a cash prize. The team with the most money after the first four rounds, moves on to the fifth round, which is in the style of the obstacle course in the TV show "American Ninja Warrior."
A total of 10 hamsters, or "hamstars," face the 16 two-person teams. "Human vs Hamster" was filmed in Scarborough, north of Toronto, Canada.
Popa was picked for the show after auditioning for the "Floor Is Lava" television show on Netflix. Although he didn't make it, the casting department of "Human vs Hamster" reached out to him.
Popa's curiosity was piqued.
Multiple video interviews followed before Popa and Grady were selected.
"We created a magic routine using a hamster," Popa said. "We went to the pet store and got a pet hamster and created a magic routine from it (for the audition) to just show how serious we were, and they loved it."
Nick Popa was perfect pick for 'Human vs Hamster'
Popa's brother, Matt Popa, also a Stark County native, said his brother was the perfect pick for the bizarre game show.
"Oh my gosh," Matt Popa said excitedly. "I was ecstatic for him. I thought it was right up his alley. He's the perfect character type to really be a good personality on a show.
"It was quite a concept to hear about," said the 23-year-old sibling, an actor and musician living in California. "I don't know if he fully knew what he was getting himself into when he was telling me about it."
Matt Popa said his brother has been preparing for a moment like this his entire life.
"He became a magician when he was 9 years old," said the younger Popa, a 2019 GlenOak graduate. "He was fearless and would walk into a crowd and just be the star of the show. He has no fear to be himself and share that with everybody else, and ... if an opportunity arises, I'm sure he's going to make the absolute best of it."
The hamsters 'definitely put up a solid fight.'
Matt Popa said his brother's reflexes and agility made him a worthy rival of the hustling hamsters.
And his Ohio roots proved to be an advantage in the corn-eating competition.
"Corn is kind of our thing," Nick Popa said amusingly.
"They definitely put up a solid fight," he said of the hamsters. "I was impressed. There's a couple of teams of firefighters, and to be a firefighter, you've got to be very physically fit, and even they got stumped on a couple of challenges."
Competing against hamsters was surreal
The final stage of the show was a ginormous hamster cage.
"I'll keep a little bit of mystery on how all of those (challenges) went," Popa said. "But we did end up going to the final round.
"I definitely remember standing at the start of the cage ... and I'm just froze because this is the most important challenge of the show," he said. "And the stakes were really high, and it all came down to that moment.
"The fact that we even had gotten that far was just surreal to me."
Reach Ed at ebalint@gannett.com. On X (formerly Twitter @ebalintREP) and Instagram at ed_balint
