Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio has a new cannabis gummy partnership, aptly named Bananabis, and it all started with some shots in Miami.
Bill Foster, co-founder of the Forest Park-based cannabis cultivation facility King City Gardens, recognized Bananas while visiting Florida for his birthday about three years ago. Foster, naturally, approached him to take celebratory shots.
“One shot ended up turning into 16, and then we stayed in touch after that,” Bananas, a staple of MTV’s long-running hit show “The Challenge,” said.
The reality television star has made a name for himself over the last two decades, developing a loyal fan base through various shows.
Foster and King City Gardens, on the other hand, hoped to target that main demographic within his fan base.
“He has a great following, and he knows his market. He knows what exactly his demographic is,” said Foster, a Norwood High School grad who is also a co-owner of E+O Kitchen.
What is that demographic?
“Middle-aged housewives,” Bananas joked.
“They’ve all grown up with me,” said the 43-year-old, who first starred on “The Real World: Key West” in 2006. “When I started reality TV, I was 23. I got a lot of dads (in my fan base), a lot of moms, even their kids now that are watching the show. So, yeah, I really do think it’s perfect for my demographic. My fans are so loyal, and they have been for so long. They just want to support, and they’ll buy whatever I put out there. So we thought that creating my own strain of banana-flavored cannabis products was a home run.”
Finding the perfect banana flavor
The new gummies, available at dispensaries in Milford, Dayton and Columbus, are chocolate banana sundae flavored. King City Gardens has also developed a marijuana strain called Banana Fire Breath.
“Ever since we started this collaboration, we’ve been on a quest to find a great banana flavor,” said Richard Mursinna, King City Gardens director of operations and another Norwood grad. “So the quest is still ongoing. There’s a lot of (phenotypes) out there that we’re going through, but so far, Banana Fire Breath has hit the top of the ones that we have.”
Bananas joked that they considered taking some of his DNA for the strain.
“Last time I was like … ‘Can’t we just plant a cannabis plant, next to a banana tree and then just let them crosspollinate?’ That’s apparently not how it works,” he added.
‘I’m a true believer in cannabis’
Bananas’ interest in the cannabis industry started in high school.
“I had a whole collection of bongs in high school,” he said. “I actually put a lampshade on top of the blue plexiglass bong, and I hid it in my room until my mom found it one day and she smashed it over the tree in my backyard.”
He doesn’t consider himself a heavy marijuana user, but he appreciates the medicinal benefits.
“I’ve had injuries in the past. And as opposed to taking prescription meds, which I am not a fan of … I’ve found that not just the edibles (and) smoking, but also using THC products as well has helped out a lot in ways that medicine hasn’t,” he said.
He even recalled his former “Challenge” star and friend, the late Diem Brown, smoking marijuana during her cancer fight.
“She had never touched a drug in her entire life,” he said. “And again, she was on a bunch of different medications for her cancer. And then she started smoking weed for medical purposes, and she said it actually worked better for her nausea, for her pain than any of the pain medicine that they gave her.”
“So I’m a true believer in cannabis for recreational but also for medicinal purposes. Obviously, you do anything with within reason, you don’t want to overindulge.”
‘I’ve always had a very close connection with Ohio’
Although Foster played a role in the seven-time “Challenge” champ launching his new partnership in Cincinnati, Bananas has always had an affinity for Ohio.
While his parents raised him and his sisters in Southern California, his entire family is from Ohio. Bananas’ mom and dad met in Cleveland before moving out west for his dad to pursue a film career.
“Out of all of my family on both sides, mom and dad, me and my sisters are the only ones who didn’t grow up in Ohio,” he said. “I’ve always had a very close connection with Ohio. I spent almost every summer from probably the age of 7 to, like, 13 in Ohio.”
He first visited Cincinnati in August 2024 when he came to town to work with Foster and King City Gardens.
“It’s beautiful … what I love about the Midwest and the East Coast is how green it is and how lush it is,” he said. “Now that I have business interest here in Cincinnati, I’m sure I’ll be spending a lot more time here. Might f— around and get a place. Bill, you got a couch I can crash on?”
Bananabis gummies are found at Bloom in Columbus, UpLift in Milford and Off The Charts in Dayton.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why reality TV star Johnny Bananas launched a cannabis gummy line in Ohio
Reporting by David Wysong, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
