DINNER PARTNERS with Christopher & Eric

Welcome to Black Friday Month, when Christopher and Eric offer discounts on the many shades of black— from the darker side of retail, to the gorier side of gratitude to the glory of giving and receiving. In this installment of Christopher & Eric’s True Crime TV Club, your hosts serve up THE ABERCROMBIE GUYS: THE DARK SIDE OF COOL, in which a brand that exemplified all American masculine perfection became a front for toxically masculine abuse. With the recent arrest of the fashion label’s former CEO Mike Jeffries, this BBC expose on the dark goings on at Jeffries’s isolated Hamptons compound and other private playgrounds seems more relevant than ever. It’s a disturbing tale of what happens when the rich and powerful distort the boundaries between consensual sex work and human trafficking and young queer men are taught that their bodies are the only things they have to offer.

If you’re anything like your hosts Christopher and Eric, the date of November 5, 2024 has been burning a hole in your calendar for almost a year now. But this episode isn’t about politics. It’s about how we deal with situations that feel entirely out of control. We turned to you, our beloved Party People, by way of The Dinner Party Show’s Facebook page to find out how you manage anxiety and the sense of being constantly overwhelmed by a world in which the media seems determined to both divide and frighten us at every turn.  No matter which way the US Presidential Election has shaken out by the time you hear this, this is an inspiring and uplifting episode that reminds us of the basics of a positive outlook and whatever else it takes not to spend your days screaming into the void…or Facebook.

To celebrate Halloween Season, Christopher and Eric have tried to find a way to merge their two greatest loves — true crime stories and preposterous theories of the paranormal. Have they found a winning combo in the new Hulu series OUT THERE? They’re so determined to find out, they’re bringing you not one, but two separate episodes of the show. Eric pranced off to meet the “Pope Lick Goatman”, and Christopher joined a hunt for some “Ghosts of Chinatown”. Find out who broke the most Ouija boards in this special face off episode. Also, as we mark the sad anniversary of Billy Newton’s murder, we reflect on the justice we were able to find, thanks to a special message and update from the LAPD homicide detective who worked with us to help solve the case.

The second episode in a true crime pairing about one of the most prolific serial killers — and most prolific killers of queer men — of all time, Christopher and Eric finally find a true crime inspired drama that doesn’t have them scrambling for Wikipedia after every ridiculous scene. The BritBox produced DES features fine performances and impeccable production values (along with the occasional moment of wooden scripting.) But does it convey the true horror of both the cold, calculating monster at its center and the desperate chapter in Britain’s history that Des sought to exploit?

How is it possible two avowed true crime junkies like Christopher and Eric haven’t heard of a serial killer alleged to have been one of the most prolific in history? Could it have anything to do with the fact that this killer’s victims were mostly queer men? In the first of this true crime pairing on Dennis Nilsen, your intrepid hosts brave the grandiosity, pretentiousness and sheer evil of a media-savvy monster who never met a dire situation he couldn’t exploit to his own evil ends. Is a childhood trauma to blame for all this madness, or is that part of the story just another manipulative ploy from this endlessly narcissistic menace? On next week’s episode, find out how celebrated actor David Tenant brought Nilsen to life in the British television series, DES. Also, having recently celebrated what would have been the 83rd birthday of beloved Premiere Party Person Anne Rice, your hosts have a special announcement about her legacy.

In this personal and intimate conclusion to Double Identity Month, Christopher and Eric turn to you, their beloved Party People. On The Dinner Party Show’s Facebook page, we asked if any of you have been profoundly deceived by an Internet con-artist. Your answers made for some shocking stories in the retelling, igniting an engrossing conversation about the ways in which the anonymity afforded by cyberspace can be used to abuse. Eric shares his own story of dismantling his charming personal Internet catfish through evidence collection and persistence. Your hosts also offer theories on what drives some people to pretend to be someone they’re not. Especially when money doesn’t seem to be the objective.

There are certain questions your hosts Christopher and Eric return to again and again on this true crime-centric podcast. What is the true nature of justice? Is it possible for victims of violent crime to ever get closure? What the hell is bitcoin? In episode 5 of season 1 of the Canadian – not that there’s anything wrong with that – true crime series RICH AND SHAMELESS, entitled “The Mysterious Disappearance of a Bitcoin Millionaire”, we get a crash course in how this confusing Internet based currency allows for con artists and criminals to rook people out of their savings. Meet Gerry Cotten, founder of one of the largest Bitcoin trading platforms in the world. Now get a good look at him because he’s about to jet off to the other side of the world and die suddenly of a disease no one knew he had after locking your money away in a digital wallet only he had access to. His new wife doesn’t even have the code. Do you? Does anyone?

Your hosts Christopher and Eric are both bestselling authors who are never reluctant to share personal details about their lives. But at the end of the day, what does an author of fiction truly owe their audience when it comes to their own life story? This is just one of the questions that defines the twisty and edgy tale of literary phenomenon J.T LeRoy as Christopher and Eric serve up episode 2 of season 4 of one of their favorite series, VANITY FAIR CONFIDENTIAL, entitled “The Boy Who Cried Author”.  As Double Identity Month continues, we travel from West Virginia truck stops to San Francisco night clubs to the vaunted offices of New York publishers as the line between fiction and memoir gets stretched to the breaking point. Christopher also shares his own experience at the hands of a literary catfish who took the romance writing world by storm.

After having thoroughly conspiracy wearied themselves last month, Christopher and Eric are desperate for a little justice and closure. Here they kick off a new batch of episodes devoted to con artists getting their just deserts. Welcome to Double Identity Month. Open wide, bastards! Hell hath no fury like a woman conned. That’s certainly the case in THE TINDLER SWINDLER, a popular Netflix documentary that forces us to answer the question, if a handsome stranger invited us to hop on a private jet to Bulgaria at the end of our first coffee date, would we go? By the end of this delicious serving, Eric coins a new phrase, “Don’t **ck with Dutch women!” Listen to find out why.

Conspiracy Weary Month’s final installment takes us back to a sweltering New Orleans summer in 1990, when an innocent request for pancakes landed young Christopher — and his adorable dog — on the set of one of Hollywood’s biggest films, ultimately giving birth to a lifelong obsession that has now claimed Eric Shaw Quinn as well. (Almost.) That obsession is the lies, bigger lies and damn lies in Oliver Stone’s overwrought, unwieldy and at times barely comprehensible film, JFK, a Hollywood hack job that turns a corrupt, criminal real life New Orleans district attorney into an ethical crusader for truth. In addition, the film further maligns the reputation of Clay Shaw, whose only apparent crime was being discreet about his homosexuality, a fact Garrison used to his corrupt advantage. While it’s distortions were roundly derided upon its release, they didn’t stop its success at the box office, and its homophobia has gone largely unquestioned over the years. Don’t worry. Christopher and Eric are more than up to the ask.