Zane Lamprey

Zane Lamprey is often told he has the greatest job in the world. A bold claim, but when considering that for the last decade Zane has been hosting and producing shows about travel, drinks, food, and all things awesome, the statement seems pretty much on par. For example, Zane's latest adventure, CHUG (Premiering on National Geographic Channel, 11/24 10:30 PM), chronicles his journey to discover the drinking cultures and customs of various regions from around the world by drinking with the locals. This is not Zane's first dive into the world of travel and exotic drinks though. After working on various projects for MTV, VH1, and Comedy Central, Zane became the host of the widely popular travel show, Three Sheets. The show followed Zane as he drank in various cities around the world. It ran for four seasons and earned Zane a legion of fans that continue to follow and support his efforts. 52 episodes aired from 2006 to 2009 on networks like Mojo HD, FLN, Travel, and Spike. After 2009, Three Sheets may have been done, but the journey for Zane was far from over. Lamprey sought to continue his drinking adventures but instead of traveling abroad, he decided to bring the fun home to the US. This new show would soon be known as Drinking Made Easy. While featuring similar concepts as Three Sheets, Drinking Made Easy was focused on exploring drinking within the United States (and sometimes Canada). At this same time, Zane developed the Drinking Made Easy Comedy Tour, a live comedy show to accompany the production of Drinking Made Easy the show. Zane and his crew traveled the nation in their tour bus, shooting the TV show during the day, and performing a live show that very night. The show ran for three seasons on Mark Cuban's HDNet and AXS TV channels. During this time Zane and company continued to throw live events and connect personally with fans of the shows. After Drinking Made Easy finished in 2013, Zane Lamprey was ready to pitch his next show, CHUG. While the general consensus around town was that networks were not looking for drinking shows, Zane's fans wanted another international drinking show. So Zane decided to give the power back to the people and launch the Chug Kickstarter in May of 2013. After 45 days of campaigning and promoting, Chug was funded with a total of $591,803, exceeding the goal of $500,000. For the next year, Zane and his team worked to shoot six hour-long episodes set in Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Fiji, Vienna, Rome and Budapest, and to fulfill backer rewards for the 8,177 backers that funded the project. Zane also found time during this period to co-host National Geographic Channel's Showdown of the Unbeatables, which pitted the world's most advance technology against their prospective counterparts, like the world's strongest safe vs the world's strongest jackhammer. All while developing projects in the entertainment sphere, Zane was also working on a passion project, Zane Lamprey's Monkey Rum. One of the most frequently asked questions for Zane is "what is your favorite drink?" So instead of trying to choose from the countless drinks he has tasted over the years, Zane decided to create his own. Lamprey spent three years researching, sampling, and developing a new rum that would exceed his standards and be worthy of the title of his "Favorite Drink". In July of 2014, Monkey Rum began its launch in New York City and will expand nationally throughout 2015. Today Zane is working on CHUG and Monkey Rum while also developing new shows and products. Drinking Made Easy has also made a return as a tips-and-tricks based web series.