Profiles In Eccentricity

This week Aaron completes the Harry Houdini odyssey, exploring the first escape artist's superstardom, WWI patriotism, spirtual skepticism, pettiness, fame in film, showmanship, magic history academia, and so much more before covering the "first superhero's" contrversial death and enduring, endlessly fascinating legacy!

This week, in preparation for COCAINE BEAR in theaters this Friday, we take a look back at Aaron's early profiles of the real story the film is based on, first in Episode 8 and later at a live show! Plus Matt and John's stories from the live show are included - another of which still has tons of cocaine! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week A-a-ron begins the electrifying saga of Eric Weiss aka Harry Houdini from his childhood as a Jewish immigrant through his middling vaudeville performances in comedy and magic and forays into spiritualism before creating a sensational new act; the escape artist.

This week Matt brings us to the bizarre zone of comic book advertising and the strangest mogul of backpage scams like x ray spex, a Jewish man who gravitated to a strange political affiliation and made too much money from his work to be properly called out!

This week Johnboy takes on the story of the traumatized child who started thieving for survival before becoming a folk hero who successfully evaded police for years while teaching himself how to steal and fly planes from the Puget Sound to the Bahamas during his time as a fugitive, challenging society!

This week Matt regales the boys with the story of Caresse Crosby, the wealthy socialite that invented the bra, published works by legendary artists and writers, married drunk morons and entered into a suicide pact with her sleazy, shell-shocked proto-goth husband!

In the final installment, Johnboy talks about Doug Kenney building The National Lampoon print empire and expanding into huge Hollywood movie hits, dying mysteriously and doing so much cocaine! Plus bawdy pahts!

This week Johnboy takes on the endlessly partying National Lampoon's Doug Kenney in his childhood through his college years and time at Harvard, but before that a mini-profile of the bizarre life of his friend Peter Ivers.

The boys are back with a Christmas gift from each of us to you! John's got a disabled vagrant murderer from Ireland, Aaron's got a British theologian and archaeologist who ate a king's heart, and Matt and John share two different outsider gangsters from New England.

This week Johnboy gets the lads frisky about conspiracy while trying to make sense of the motivation, history and legacy of the "turd in the punchbowl" theorist, David Icke, who's spiritual awakening led him to spearhead a movement against the supposed enslavement that extraterrestrial lizards control earth from in the illuminati!

This week the boys get lost in another mess of videos, cartoons, clips, ads and PSAs including but not limited to madness at McDonald's, Freddy Kruger porn and a Far Side comic that went too far!

This week Matt brings the boys the story of the original groupie who dealt in sex and drugs while serving as a muse and challenger to artists in the 60s, 70s and 80s, chronicling the experience in veiled fiction to wide acclaim!

This week Johnboy tells the lads about the notorious mafia hitman that veered into serial killer territory after growing up a victim of bullying and becoming a martial arts champion!

From the patreon, a peek at some of the shit we do there: the first instance of John's new game, Aaron has some hot new yelp reviews, Matt has things to blame Jazz for, and then we end with Orson Welles' history lessons.

This week Johnboy takes us through the story of an early black aviator who's daring and deceit made him a brash war hero, gun runner and braggadocio who would parachute over Harlem while playing the saxophone!

This week Matt wraps up the saga of the murderous polygamist church leader whose imprisonment and even death couldn't stop the bloodshed when his progeny get a hold of a list of names and take their father's mission to a chilling crescendo!

This week Matt weaves us through the early history of Mormonism leading to the creation of the offshoot polygamist church of one man that would use murder to eliminate his rivals, including his own brothers! Plus John and Aaron want to play a game...

This week Johnboy tells the lads about some of the members of the American Nazi Party in the 50s and 60s including the grand dragon of the NY chapter of the Klan who was secretly Jewish!

This week Matt concludes the saga of the notorious lone star football team where at first a change in leadership can't stop the winning machine but all good things must come to an end!

This week Matt shows us how the Dallas Cowboys began as a middling NFL team before a management shake up and some daring and bizarre roster additions led them to take two superbowls in a row!

This week Johnboy wraps the saga of the 1970s leftwing terrorist group that had one wing become a death cult while the other became an international terrorist menace in an absurd, tragic series of bizarre events that mystify to this day.

This week Johnboy tells the lads the beginnings of the Japanese Red Army, a terrorist group borne from the student protest movement following the second world war. Plus Canada's amputee mystery man!

This week Johnboy shares the life story of the famed writer Eric Blair aka George Orwell through his time pioneering embedded reporting among the impoverished, his imperial police days in India, revolutionary socialist military volunteer era in Spain and beyond while trying to make sense of the politics, neuroses, compromises and legacies of a still relevant but complex individual.

This week Matt breaks down the history and absurdity of the tradition of dueling from the nobles and elites of the dawn of the ritual in Europe through the more popular version of the ridiculous act of petty pride in the Old West and highlights some of the most preposterous matchups along the way!

This week Aaron unveils the portrait of a prodigy who's faith, aptitude and search for knowledge led him to unprecedented access and power in 16th century Britain at a time when the scientific method was as mysterious as magic.

This week John drops the linear path of the famed sicko porn actor who started as a poor youth aspiring to be an actor but not sell out, then became a porn actor who didn't sell out, went to the far reaches of kink without being unkind and surprisingly left behind an incredibly touching story.

This episode John shares scattered(!) debauched stories of porn legend Jamie Gillis who came up in porn through the peep show era in the early 70s and launched the reality and gonzo genres in the early 90s and was accused of murder and unabashedly defended depraved sex in his personal and public life!

This week Johnboy gets into the juicy, violent saga of the leftwing militant group that abducted a wealthy heiress that was groomed - or just convinced - to join their dysfunctional revolutionary struggle as the world watched, befuddled!

This week Matt concludes the saga of the brainstorming pitchman and entrepreneur Alfred Lawson by zeroing in on his final role - that of a cult leader peddling pseudoscience and personal hunches!

This week Matt shares with us the story of a man who buys his own bullshit - but is it with good reason? Alfred Lawson was a successful and unsuccessful baseball player, baseball manager, baseball promoter, publisher, aviator and airplane manufacturer - what will he do next? And has he got something or is he just an asshole?

This week, a preview of what you might find on our Patreon: Matt brings the story of the Greatest Western Outlaw, some dull yahoo, and John introduces his plan to get Johnny Depp's Veleno guitar.

In this episode Aaron and John bring the Unabomber's saga to a close, discussing the bombing campaign, the iconic sketch and legendary manifesto in addition to Ted's acrimonious relationship with family, women, neighbors and dogs!

In this episode Aaron and John tag team exploring the origins of the man who created a decades long campaign of terror in the U.S., the investigation of which cost more than all serial killers combined.

This week Johnboy tackles the dandy rich boy who abruptly decided to take to the rough life of a pirate and we see how his fate brings him into the company of hostile navies and legendary pirates like the notorious Blackbeard!

This week Matt brings us the story of the astronaut who returned from the moon and had an epiphany, began espousing parapsychology, allying himself with Uri Geller and founding an institution exploring the metaphysical.

This week Johnboy tells the lads about the black aviators who crossed the country during the depression in a collapsing aircraft and used the good will of the segregated black and white communities to make sure their journey was a success.

This week the boys return to wrap up the saga of the most Batmanian villain of modern history and dissect the intricacies of crime and punishment, fame, empathy, incarceration and intelligence and try to grapple with the legacy of guilt that comes with imprisonment in America.

This week Johnboy begins the saga of the criminal who grew into legend as one of the most famed prisoners in history by the expanse of his intellect but was unflinching in his view of justice as a victim of abuse. The story of Robert Stroud starts here. Plus! Lenny Dykstra of the 86 Mets is a gifted lover?

This week Matt brings us the epic conclusion of the raunchiest team in baseball's rise to the top. The Mets head to the playoffs, a legendary error occurs during the world series' 6th game and Dwight Gooden watches a parade from his dealer's apartment!

This week Matt takes on the team in baseball who were at their best at their very worst. In 1986 a crew of vile rogues is assembled, led by Keith Hernandez and, while being flagrantly debauched, lead the season for all but 10 days. Stay tuned for the conclusion next week!

This week Marcella Lentz-Pope guests again as we wrap up the saga of the mysterious billionaire as he goes deeper into seclusion, drug addiction and insanity!

This week Marcella Lentz-Pope rejoins us to continue the saga of the original eccentric billionaire as he breaks new ground in aviation, defies movie censors and helps with the war effort before beginning to show the first signs of madness.

This week Johnboy begins the legacy of lunacy of Howard Hughes, the inventor, producer, pilot, business man, bachelor and maniac. Helping us focus this episode on his early years, Hollywood career and romances with actors is our friend Marcella Lentz-Pope!

This one is rough, heads up! This week John shares the harrowing yet fascinating story of Donny The Punk, who started as a gay activist before being jailed as a conscientious objector, repeatedly raped in jail and became a zen prison bottom!

This week Aaron brings us the heartwarming tale of a man who went from riches to ruin in a day before being reborn as the city of San Francisco's chosen oddball king.

This week Johnboy tells the lads about the gentlemanly bank robber Willie Sutton, famed for his 3 maximum security prison escapes, numerous bank robberies totalling millions of dollars and a quote he never actually said! Plus, major league sports teams with players that never existed!

This week Matt shares the fascinating saga of the ruddy midwest vagrant who later joined Fidel Castro's guerrilla forces and served in the regime as a famed public executioner before his undoing and mysterious end!

This week the lads have another buffet of media miscellany to pore over! The boys unveil diabolically insane songs, show off their favorite news failures and reveal the tastelessly surreal excesses of porn and public access television.

We're off this week, but bringing you another peak at the Patreon. In this one we talk Devo and Ireland, bring in some listener comments and suggestions, and bring up the a man going to the Sybian in the sky. Then George Brett asks who's pitching today. Join the Patreon for $5 a month and get an extra episode every week. https://www.patreon.com/profilesineccentricity

This week Johnboy tells the lads about the tawdry, tasteless, tacky saga of the men who killed lodgers and drifters in 19th century Edinburgh to gain measly sums selling the bodies to anatomical scientists all while everyone is absolutely shitfaced on whiskey!