Episode Five Of Welcome To Your Fantasy: A Chippendales Calendar Leads To A Death

  On this week's episode of Welcome To Your Fantasy, a Chippendales calendar mishap escalates tensions between Steve Banerjee and his partner Nick De Noia, leading to the latter’s demise.

Joined by former Chippendales creative director Eric Gilbert, show emcee Dan Peterson, tour manager Candace Mayeron, dancer Hodari Sababu, Nick De Noia’s former officemate Robin Voris, and more, the group discusses Banerjee’s million dollar mistake and how this aggravated the already strained relationship between Banerjee and De Noia:

In the episode, Nick De Noia’s former officemate, Robin Voris confesses, “I knew something bad happened. I called the office and Will picked up and said, ‘they've shot Nick.’...and I just thought, ‘this can't be real. What's happening?’” 

During this episode, podcast host Natalia Petrzela says, “Later, authorities will find the bullet lodged in a book on Nick's shelf. The book is called ‘Words That Sell: To Help You Promote Your Products, Services, and Ideas.’ The bullet cut right through the phrase, ‘In today’s competitive marketplace…’”

In the 1980s the “male exotic dancers” of Chippendales were everywhere, selling the promise of women’s liberation for the price of a few dollars in a g-string. But behind the powerful mullets, oiled pecs, and non-stop parties lies a much darker story of greed, corruption and murder. In the eight-episode series host and historian Natalia Petrzela exposes one of the great, sordid, unexamined stories in American culture.

 

WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY is the story of how two men — an immigrant from India and a children’s TV producer from New Jersey — transformed a seedy nightclub in Los Angeles into a global phenomenon, and how paranoia and greed turned Chippendales into a hotbed for drugs, corruption, and murder.

Beyond the well-known cuffs and collars, cheesy dance routines, and unlimited supplies of body oil, the series examines the club’s role in the late 70s/early 80s rise of female sexuality, gender roles and masculinity, and the corruptible power of capitalism.

Podcast host and co-producer Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Ph.D. is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture and is currently writing a book on American fitness culture, FIT NATION: How America Embraced Exercise As The Government Abandoned It.

You can listen to the podcast here. 

 

 

by

Frank Racioppi