Ever since she can remember, Mandy Levy ’05 has been obsessed with hot sauce.
This obsession might finally be paying off. Levy is in the running to star in a Frank’s RedHot commercial and win 25 thousand dollars, “which would be insane,” Levy said.
While at DePauw, Levy was involved in D3TV, WGRE and was published several times in The DePauw.
Soon after her DePauw journey ended, Levy began writing a diet book, with a focus on—you guessed it—hot sauce.
Levy describes the book as the only hilarious diet book ever written.
“I wrote it when I was on a diet, a plan that I had created, and was more or less journaling about my experience day-to-day,” said Levy.
After a while, she realized that her particular voice and approach was something that did not exist in the world of diet books.
“I realized I had something special.”
On top of that, the diet was working. Levy lost 40 pounds while on her diet.
She wrote the book and largely put it away for about four years, when she met the woman she describes as her “fairy godmother,” Caroline Knecht.
“I was out at a bar in New York when I met an hilarious young woman who loved Strangers with Candy, Wayne's World and Keeping up with the Kardashians as much as I did,” said Levy. “We hit it off and I found out she worked in publishing.”
Mandy took a chance and told her about her book, which the publisher loved. Within a week, she had herself a book deal.
“Together, and with the help of amazing my amazing photographer, illustrator and set and costume designers,” said Levy, “we created the most visual and vibrant, fun and funny, cool and creative diet book the world has ever seen.”
The book, entitled Calorie Accounting, focuses on Frank's RedHot Buffalo Wings Sauce, which was a favorite condiment of Levy’s through her weight loss program.
“I dipped everything in it to make boring healthy food delicious,” said Levy, “and it's zero calories.”
Her book mentions Frank's a lot, and she has been “singing the Frank's gospel” from on my book tour, on TV, in print and on the radio.
“I've been trying to get them to notice me for ages,” said Levy. “I want to be the Jared to their Subway, without the scandal.”
But nothing seemed to be getting their attention. That is until a recent contest caught her eye.
The challenge was to create a video centered on the #IPTSOE, which stands for “I Put That Shit On Everything.”
“I found out about the contest and realized I had about three days left to submit something,” said Levy. “One particularly productive Saturday was all it took.”
She submitted the video and was officially in the running. After a voting and judging round, Levy’s video made it into the Top 25.
Saturday is the last day to vote. Voting is limited to one per day and can be found at iptsoe.com/videos/80.
“This can be DPU's greatest claim to fame since True Detective,” said Levy, adding, “If I win, I’ll do a Boulder run.”