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There's something I haven't told you before. What? What? Camellia. Season 5. Dr. Dante. A production of Campside Media. Oh. Dr. Dante.
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The morning of Dr. Ronald Dante's big comeback show, Bradley, the documentary filmmaker who'd been following Dante for years, woke up feeling elated to finally be at the end of his Dante journey. With this comeback show, he was finally going to get the last bit of footage that he needed to get this thing across the goal line.
Bradley was an experienced filmmaker, and for filmmakers on shooting day, there's comfort in the preparation. As he took the elevator up to get Dante from his hotel room, Bradley had peace of mind, knowing that everything was in place. Dante's tux was ready, the venue was confirmed, the convertible they rented for Dante was waiting downstairs, the crew was ready, and the audience had all RSVP'd.
Bradley planned everything out like he did for any other shooting day. But what he failed to take into consideration was that Ronald Dante was not like any other subject. It really never crossed my mind that Dante wouldn't answer the door when we knocked. But then, when Dante didn't come to the hotel room door, it was like a splash of cold water.
"Shit," Bradley thought. "Of course." "Oh, I've been making a film about a scam artist? Why was I so confident that this man would fulfill any obligation?"
Dante had spent his whole adult life bailing on obligations and disappearing in inopportune moments. He failed to turn himself into authorities. He failed to appear at mandatory court dates. He ghosted on his wife, Lana Turner. His whole life was a never-ending sequence of him not showing up.
And Bradley knew that Dante was a well-documented flake because he was more than two years deep into being the one documenting it. And now, all that Bradley had in the way of an explanation was a cryptic note that Dante had left for him at the front desk. And it just said...
"Bradley, I'm out. I'm not gonna compete with Bobby Gold." "I'm not gonna compete with Bobby Gold?" "What the fuck does that even mean?" Dante's godson, who was only in the show because Dante said he wanted him in the show, that Bobby Gold? It just didn't check out.
We just had a great night, wining and dining Dante. And he didn't say shit about not wanting Bobby to be there. Not a thing. Bradley stood, staring at the note, waiting for it to make sense. But it wouldn't. Not without actually talking to Dante. I asked the person at the front desk if they knew where he went, and they said, yes, he took a train. A train? Dante really was skipping town.
So confronted with a Dante-less Dante comeback show, Bradley switched into brainstorm mode with his crew, playing out all the ways that they could try and salvage the shoot and in a larger sense, the project that he'd invested so much in, monetarily and otherwise. They could maybe go to some of his old haunts. Maybe Bradley could just film Bobby doing a version of the show that he saw Dante do in the 80s or something.
But obviously, that wouldn't be a satisfying fix. You can't have a comeback show without an appearance from the person making the comeback. I mean, things got frantic. Then it quickly changed to, let's chase him down and bring his ass back to LA. I've got too much riding on this. So Bradley grabbed his camera, ran out to his car, and sped off to see if he could make it to the train station in time.
On the way there, he kept calling Dante, trying to get him to answer his phone. This is Dr. Dante. I'm not here at the present time. Dr. Dante, it's Bradley here. I just wanted to let you know that if you don't want Bob to be involved... Memory is full. Memory is full.
As Bradley hit the accelerator, he scoffed, thinking of all the wannabe hypnotists responding to Dante's ad in the paper, plugging up his answering machine. And once we were at the train station, we were running along and filming at the same time, going from car to car, looking for Dante.
Bradley ran through the train end to end, holding his camera with one hand and sliding the door between the cars with the other. He stormed down the aisle, head swiveling from side to side, hoping, praying to spot that famous Dante Perm poking up above one of the seats. - Sorry guys, I'm looking for a passenger. I can't find him. - The whole thing felt like we were actually in a movie. I remember thinking, we're gonna see him any second and convince him to come back with us.
There had obviously been some misunderstanding, and if Bradley could just sit with the man and talk through the show, everything would be back on. He was certain of it. - That didn't happen. - Dante wasn't on the train, so Bradley stepped off and watched it pull out of the station. Dante had a reputation for disappearing, and not just that. If he decided he was done with you, good luck ever finding him again.
But Bradley wasn't ready to give up yet, because he knew this version of Dante had fewer escape hatches. He didn't have the money to make it very far, and by his late 70s, he'd burned every bridge he ever had. There was really only one place he could go. So Bradley got back in his car.
So we started driving back to the place where I knew he'd be heading. Bradley merged onto the I-5 and started heading south towards San Diego for a final showdown with Dante. Answer the door. I'm not leaving until you talk to me. From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, I'm Sam Mullins, and this is Dr. Dante. You're listening to Chameleon from Campside Media.
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From ITN Productions and Sony Music Entertainment, listen to The Greatest Scam Ever Written. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes now, or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts. The following interview is being videotaped at the Dade County Public Safety Department, Miami-Dade County, Florida. And sir, would you identify yourself? My name is Robert F. Carver III.
In 1976, a man in Florida tells a cop he has a confession to make. But instead of becoming his victim, I became his confidant, one of the people closest to him, as he recounted and was tried for his horrific crimes.
From Orbit Media and Sony Music Entertainment, listen to My Friend the Serial Killer. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes now or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to Chameleon from Campside Media.
As Bradley raced towards Dante's trailer park in search of answers, he couldn't stop replaying everything Dante had said in the days leading up to the comeback show. But when he looked back, there were no red flags to be found. There were no clues, no indications that Dante had been planning this escape.
If Dante, a 78-year-old, didn't feel like performing or didn't feel up to the physical challenge, that would have been one thing. But if he was going to say that the reason he was bailing was because of Bobby Gold, Bradley was going to need someone to fill him in on what the hell was going on between Godfather and Godson.
And speak of the devil, as Bradley's car whipped past the Pacific, as if on cue, an incoming call from the one person who might be able to shed some light on all of this. Hey, Bob. Hey, I just thought I'd call you because I've got a break here, and this was when I was, you know, arranged to get some things. Yeah, we'd love for you to help, Ron, but unfortunately, we got a note... A note? At the front desk that says, I don't want to compete with Bob.
And he's back. What does that mean? Exactly. That's why. You don't even have to be there. I've told Ron that, that you're not trying to steal his thunder or anything like that. And I don't know why he thinks that, to be honest. No, I was never the entertainer. He was. I was actually a shy kid who came along to help. And he was really a friend of my dad's. But Ron was a master. He was one of the greats.
And here, as Bobby tries to get his head around what's happened, you can hear young Bobby emerge. The kid Bobby who was wowed by his Uncle Ron's tales of the road in the first place. The Bobby who couldn't believe his good fortune when his uncle asked him to come to California to tag along with him.
For those years on the road with Dante, first with the hypnosis seminars and then with Permaderm, they became a perfect duo. With Dante always as the headliner and Bobby as the emcee, warming up the crowd.
But everything came apart after Dante insisted on playing fast and loose with the law, even as the feds closed in on Permaderm. And so Dante and Bobby broke up. And like many breakups, it was acrimonious. The thing that really pissed Dante off was that for a time after they parted ways, Bobby partnered with one of his star students. And they tried their hand at their own off-brand version of Permaderm.
He was with this other woman and they stole the idea because it was my idea and all my idea. And he took away all my students. For years we didn't talk to each other. Well, Dante did drop a line periodically. I kept on writing him these nasty letters. There's no trick in fucking a friend. There's no trick in screwing a friend.
In the end, Bobby ended up breaking up with his business partner and got out of the permanent makeup racket altogether. So he finally had a clean slate and he pivoted toward a new yet familiar path.
Bobby decided to become a stage hypnotist. He'd honed his craft during his years with Dante, but now he was going to do his version of a hypnotism show, complete with a full rebrand as a person. I had a period of time where, I don't know why, but I had just a really good time.
He grew out a luscious mullet, dyed it and his mustache jet black, and then he started hitting the tanning bed to make his piercing blue eyes pop even more. And then, to match his newfound good-lookingness, he came up with a stage name. And if you're changing your name from Bobby Gold, a name that seems like it was auto-generated by a Vegas marquee, you better have a hell of a stage name. Hit that smoke machine.
Bobby Gold was old news. From now on, whenever he stepped on stage, he would become Robert Kensington. That's K-E-N-N-Z, Ingtin. In big block letters hurtling through space, we see the word Kensington. And then the word explodes. And then we see the title of the show, Hypnomonon. And then lightning shoots out of the letters. And then the tagline.
The show of the new millennial. I cannot emphasize enough how different Bobby's show is from Dante's. Dante's show was slick, intimate. He'd captivate through just the use of his voice, his eyes. You'd become hypnotized without realizing that you've been hypnotized.
Whereas a Robert Kensington show more had the vibes of a Super Bowl halftime show. You are going to become the world's karate champion. The Kensington show is a fever dream. Limbs flying, dancers carwheeling. The induction was abbreviated with a flash mob of sexy dancers and Phil Collins music. Hold it. Blow it out. Outstanding. Six. What's your name?
My name is Linda. Hi, Linda. And what do you do? I'm a mental health therapist. He used elaborate sets and costume, incorporated fire-eating, and had a lighting grid fit for a Beyoncé show. One of his signature bits was getting his hypnotized subjects to recreate moments from famous films. You will not even be who you were. You will not be who you are. In the moment when you wake up, you're going to be the greatest heavyweight champion that ever lived. You're going to be Rocky Bill Bullock.
But before the residencies and the big venues and rowdy shows, when Bobby took his uncertain first steps in the world as Kensington in the mid-90s, he was often plagued with anxiety and doubt. He'd show up in a town and see posters of his face in the window of the venue, and he'd start spiraling with panic. And when he did, there was really only one person who could talk him off the ledge. I call Ron.
Bobby and Dante had buried the permaderm hatchet by then, in the way that family members do. As Elizabeth, Dante's ex-wife, says, Dante always had a hard time saying no to Bobby. He goes, just picture worst case scenario, all goes wrong and just accept it. I go, I can't do that. And he goes, you'll be fine. He goes, just go out there knowing what you know. He goes, you got to understand, they do it to themselves. See, this is what he's so great at.
He understands how to give other people confidence. Because as we know, Dante's a tremendous confidence man. See what I did there? Con is short for never mind. As the Kensington shows got better, Bobby would mail Dante tapes of his performance from the road, and Dante would give him notes. You're standing on the girl wrong. You're pushing too hard here. You've got a bit. It's working. Why are you trying to make it...
And he was right. But while Dante was supportive at first, when Bobby started filling venues and really making a name for himself with the Kensington Act, something seemed to permanently change in the relationship between Godfather and Godson. Do you remember the first time that Ron came to see that show? He never saw me in person. He had a thing about it. Oh. Because, um, it wasn't that I'm better than him, but I produced. What I want you to do is look me right in the eyes, right here.
- Relax deep, deep, deep asleep. - No, he used to plan on it. And then at the last minute, he'd go, "I didn't want to make you nervous." - Bobby wondered if Dante saw the production value and ambition of the Kensington show as an affront to his own show. That Kensington was something bigger and better than what Dante had ever done. But to Bobby, the thought of Dante feeling insecure about Kensington was ridiculous.
He knew that the whole thing was an overcompensation. I wanted the bells and whistles basically because I knew. I mean, seeing a guy as good as him, he just needs a mic.
that I'm not him, so I better have bells and whistles, you know? They were very different performers, but Bobby always saw their differences as complementary. And the reason Bobby kept sending tapes and inviting Dante to his live show was because Bobby had this fantasy in his head that one day Dante would see so clearly what Bobby saw all along, that they were meant to share the stage together as a duo. I actually wanted to make us like Siegfried and Roy because we were so opposite.
Look at Penn and Teller. I mean, duos, I thought we'd have been great together. With the big production I had, let him do the induction with that voice, let him do all the mysterious stuff, and then I come out and have a guy eat fire. Dante's mysterious stuff and Bobby's fire-eating? I mean, who wouldn't be into that? You put the two of us together in the right show.
Oh, yeah. Him and me together would be like magic. So there's little wonder why, when a documentary filmmaker asked Bobby to help with the Dante comeback show, that Bobby leapt at the opportunity to finally share the stage with his hero and mentor. But it wasn't meant to be. And with this final snub, Bobby had to accept that his dream was never going to happen. I wanted that. He never wanted that. One of my disappointments in my life
If this show was going to happen, Bobby couldn't come anywhere near it. So, he was out. "I didn't care." "Oh, I understand that. Bob, you've been nothing but great and I appreciate it." As Bradley hung up with Bobby and approached the exit near Dante's, he started wondering how his confrontation with Dante would go.
I was pretty sure he was just kind of done performing and done with me and done with the film. I wasn't at all confident that I could convince him to actually do the show. If Dante was there, what would Bradley even say? As we got closer, I got nervous and kind of questioned why I got involved with a con artist in the first place.
So we finally get back to Dante's trailer park outside of San Diego and I've got my film crew with me. Now we're staked out at his house down in Oceanside waiting for him to arrive. We've kind of been chasing him around paparazzi style.
Dante's car is parked in the driveway, but all of the blinds to his house are drawn, and it's unclear if he's home. We just started, like, doing laps around his trailer and banging on his windows and peering in, trying to catch a sign of life and yelling his name. Ron!
Dr. Nante. It all felt like completely juvenile and his neighbors didn't seem to notice or didn't seem to care. Answer the door. I'm not leaving until you talk to me. But after an hour and a half, the sun started dipping toward the Pacific and there was still nothing. You can hear Bradley start to lose hope. Oh, I don't think he's here.
When Bradley thought about it, he couldn't get past the fact that Dante had nowhere else to go. He had to be in there. And if he was in there, of course he wasn't answering the door.
Dante had been through much worse pressure and interrogation. Like, he wasn't in a cave in the first hour of us knocking on his door. Bradley's standing with his hands on his hips in the driveway when a gaggle of kids cruise by on their bikes and scooters when Bradley gets an idea. Anybody want to make an easy $10? I said, does anybody want to make an easy $10? You guys know Brad Dante? We hire a couple of kids. The guy lives there.
Neighbor kids, we give them $20 to knock on his door for two hours. Yeah, you gotta do it loud. Like really keep going with it. Might have to try the front door too or any of the windows. Bradley would see the kids slacking off and be like, "Hey, I thought we had a deal." Nine more minutes! But still, even with the contracted knockers, nothing. The kids took their cash and carried on down the road as it was getting dark.
And Bradley's left for the first time to really reckon with how completely fucked he is. I'm willing to do anything to get him there because I've got so many, you know, there's so many levels. There's the money, there's looking like an idiot. I had executive producers who were flying in from New York to meet Dante. I had called in all these favors from everyone in my LA film community.
And now it's all for naught. Bradley had spent countless hours sifting through Dante tape, listening to him boast about all the people he'd swindled, listen to him flippantly brag about all the times he'd left people high and dry, and then just laugh about it. I mean...
But now Bradley was the mark out of thousands of dollars. And because of that, he refused to leave. He thought, you think you can outweigh me? I'm not going anywhere. I go back and I'm just pleading with him through the door saying,
to let me in and talk to him. Just anything I could do to get him to come to the door. "Dante, you're killing me. I've invested in you. I believe in you. I'm trying to help you jumpstart your career. This was your idea." And finally, after hours of knocking, the door opens.
And there's Dante, with a confoundingly calm expression that in no way acknowledges the events of the day. He invites me in. We have a seat on the Lazy Boys. And immediately he's on the defensive saying, I don't want Bobby to be involved. So the whole conversation became about Bobby and how Bobby's show was so different from Dante's.
From watching the tapes that Bobby would send him, Dante was never into the stagecraft that Bobby used. He has this very fancy stage equipment that he uses. He uses a computerized method. It all flew in the face of what Dante thought a stage hypnotist should be. And more than that, Dante was afraid that if Bobby showed up with all of his Robert Kensington gear, the props and the pyrotechnics,
that he'd end up being upstaged at his own comeback show. "Well, it wasn't his show. It was not supposed to be a show." But the thing that really made Dante bristle, the thing that made him write the note and get on the train, was because of what Bobby had proposed to Dante for their final act. "You stand on a girl and I'll have the meat fire." But with this suggestion in particular, Bobby was walking on sacred ground in muddy hiking boots.
Dante's signature closing bit where he would stand on a planking woman's torso
was not up for discussion. So Bradley reassures Dante that Bobby is out, tells him that Bobby won't be there at all. No matter what I say, Dante won't shut up about Bobby. So I remind Dante this was all his idea. It was his comeback show so he could provide for his grandson. But Dante remained unmoved. At some point, Dante just calmly says, "Bradley,
I'm over it. I'm not coming to do the show. And that's it. And then to Dante's surprise and to Bradley's surprise, something wells up inside Bradley. At some point, I just break down and I start crying and I'm yelling and I'm like, Dante, you don't understand what I've done to get you to this point.
I've got this crowd of people that's going to come see you. You have to do this for me, Dante. And they're like real tears. They're not fake. In the countless times that Dante put people out of their money, he almost never had to come face to face with the consequences of it. He never saw Lana Turner after he left. He would never meet any of his Columbia State students. But here was Bradley on his doorstep, weeping, pleading, crying.
I was trying to explain to him that we needed each other and he needed a comeback and I needed an ending and I was totally fucked if he couldn't go on. And I could see Dante, when I started crying, kind of soften a bit. And I thought, okay, we might have a chance here. Maybe it was Bradley's tears. Maybe it was just the vote of confidence of having someone say that they really needed him.
Whatever it was, it worked. At some point, he's just like, "Okay, okay, I'll be there. I'll be there. I'll be there." Please, just stop crying. And I'm like, "All right, thank God." Bradley composed himself, told Dante that they'd make the arrangements to get him back to LA. And then before he left, he gave Dante a hug. The moment called for it. And then as Bradley was leaving the trailer, he turned to Dante. I say, "Are you really coming?"
And he says, I'll be there, okay? Bradley got into his car and started driving back to L.A. God help him. Believing the comeback show was back on. You're listening to Chameleon from Campside Media. You're listening to Chameleon from Campside Media.
Since Bobby was squeezed from the show, Bradley still wanted someone on stage with Dante to help him with any physical feats, move any furniture, or perhaps bail him out if anything went weird or sideways. So Bradley needed to find a last-minute assistant. Ideally, it would be someone comfortable with chaos. Someone game and able to think on their feet.
And after the day Bradley just had, it felt like he was owed a gift from the hypnotism and show business gods. And they delivered. Bradley's producer was in a bar where there, writhing in the middle of the dance floor, was Bebe.
And I was just being wild and crazy. And I think I was drunk and I was like rolling around on the ground singing like Florence Foster Jenkins and like making a scene. You know, I used to do that a lot. One of Bradley's producers saw her, stood up from his bar stool and pointed to Bebe and said, her. And then he was like, you're the one. And I was like, okay. So we helped her off the floor and they introduced themselves.
My name is Bebe and I currently am a wig shop owner in Hollywood. Bradley's producer told her the whole deal. And said, would you be interested in being a magician's assistant? I was like, that sounds perfect for me. Perfect. But the thing about this comeback show is that no one was very clear about what exactly Dante would be doing up there.
Would he be doing his classic hypnotism act? His new hobby of making roses out of toilet paper? Would he just tell everyone how married he was to Lana Turner? They didn't know. They were just glad he showed up. Wait, he did show up, right? He did show up the next day, thank God. We rented him a tux, hired a makeup person, got him all dolled up.
And he loved it. He loved the attention. This wasn't Dante's first comeback. He'd come out of prison and back to the stage before, in the 70s, right into a solid gig at Knott's Berry Farm, where he was doing multiple shows a day. And it was like he never missed a beat. But Dante was 78 now. He hadn't performed hypnotism in a proper venue in over a decade.
Bradley had heard all the lore and legends of his heyday, the raucous crowds, the celebrity admirers. He'd seen the tape. But for this, he wasn't sure which version of Dante would show up. Dante was chipper. He was funny. He acted like nothing had happened. Not a word about me crying at his feet 12 hours prior. He also seemed very confident and just at ease with everything.
Hi, I'm Bebe. I'm going to be your assistant. Hi, I'm Dante. We're on Dante. I'm very excited. Bebe's first impression of the man? He seemed smooth to me. He seemed like he was a smooth talker, a smooth operator. He really did. Every time Dr. Dante would enter a room where everybody was, he was in full control. And he would have the jokes one after the next or pull out a trick one after the next. He was never not on. Even when the camera was off, he was always on.
He made little poodles out of Mardi Gras beads for the women on set. You made me a poodle. Poodle. Oh, that's so cute! Good. And everyone would be wrapped with the stories from his heyday. 20, 30 thousand people there. And I'm telling them that they're going to appear to be naked. But they didn't get the word "appear" because it was echoey, echoey, echoey. And they just started to rip off their clothes. Oh my god! What would you do? While Dante schmoozed in the green room, Bradley was sweating.
I was kind of a nervous wreck because I had no idea if Dante could pull this off or not. Bradley was greeting all of his friends in the lobby, trying to remain calm. He ushered in the last audience members to their seats and helped the crew with some last-minute tweaks. And finally the time had come, so I went backstage to get Dante, and I was like, Dante, it's showtime.
Appearing today for the first time in 10 years, ladies and gentlemen, introducing Dante! Thank you.
You can tell that he recognized that this was a legitimate opportunity. The type of opportunity that hadn't happened for him in a very long time. The type of opportunity he knew might never happen again. Are we on? I hope. Are we on? Can you hear me? Okay, I'm not saying anything, that's why. Dante starts, and that magic voice of his sounds a little unsure of itself. There's one thing that we insisted upon, and that's no tomato throwing.
I mean, you can do whatever else you want to do, but don't throw any tomatoes, please. Polite laughter. Okay. Is this microphone -- It's like, it sounds like it's not really on that loud. It is loud? Okay. Uh...
But after the initial stiffness, you can see it happen. Old Man Dante begins to transform into the Dante of old. As soon as he gets people on stage and under his spell, his command starts to come out. One, two, three. Try to drop your arm, but you cannot strain. I want to see you strain. Don't try to patronize me. I want to see you strain.
And I count to three, clap my hands, go drop your arms. One, two, and three. Clap in the air. There you go. B.B. stands on the side of the stage watching closely as he starts in on the induction, watching the power of the great Dr. Dante in action. Yeah, he seemed like he was so in control. I mean, his voice was extremely commanding and powerful and handsome. He had a very handsome-sounding voice. There's little white, puffy, cottony clouds above you.
Visualize yourself falling down through these clouds, going down deeper and deeper. You can see them get them one by one. Their heads start to bob, their arms slack by their side.
Watching the show filmed in 2007, you're suddenly transported to a Dante show from the 70s again. You can see it. You can feel the ghosts of the thousands of performances, the thousands of adoring audiences. You can hear Dante in his prime, making a smoke-filled nightclub feel electric. Completely relaxed, going, "Wait!"
For Bradley, this is exactly what he was hoping to capture. A master making everything feel effortless. Vintage Dante.
And the most vintage Dante thing was his closer, the dangerous bridge bit. You're listening to Chameleon from Campside Media. You're listening to Chameleon from Campside Media. Dante sends his first set of volunteers back to their seats. And we're finished. One, two, and three. Why do we wait? How about a nice round of applause? Thank you.
Okay, you may go back, you see. And then, in his signature way, he begins the final act. I want a young, slender, sober girl. A slight woman takes her place on the stage. Dante sets up the chairs and begins to hypnotize her. When I count to three, I want you to imagine that your body is made out of a piece.
Once she's sufficiently under, Dante gets some large men from the audience to act as spotters and help him transfer her planking body to the top of the chairs for the big finale. Head back. Stiff and rigid like a steel shaft. Stiff and rigid like a piece of steel. Stiff and rigid like a steel shaft. So stiff and so rigid like a piece of steel.
Dante climbs onto a chair and stands just behind her, her body a perfect beam before him. The audience is rapt, pins dropping, literal edges of seat. He moves forward, when suddenly you can see something change in Dante. Like the possession of the incredible Dr. Dante leaves the room without warning, and all that's left is an old man perched on a chair, wobbly, unsure.
It's not clear if he can do this, but it becomes clear that he still wants to do this. So after a long pause, he lifts a leg toward her body, hoping to salvage the moment. He starts leaning on his spotters, awkwardly, fumbling, trying to get higher. He reaches out to the mic stand and grabs it to steady himself. "Stiff and rigid like a piece of steel."
Stiff and rigid. Dante looks at her torso like it's Everest, one last mountain to climb. He lifts his leg in the air. His hand is reaching toward her when he stops suddenly and climbs down from the chair. Well, thank you. She's stiff and rigid anyhow. I can't do that. Stiff and rigid. Pick her up. One, two, and three. Right away, right away, right away. The energy in the room is undiluted awkward.
The applause is one of pity and confusion. As the woman and his spotters leave the stage, Dante slumps over in his chair, clearly out of steam. The audience is frozen, waiting. I couldn't get up there. I'm lucky I can walk to the 88. Bebe pats his back comfortingly. Oh my God. Huh? Huh?
May I have some water, yes? Bradley calls from the audience. Still fantastic, right? And Dante sits deflated, exhausted, an old man in a rented tux. As Bradley captured this rare moment of vulnerability from Dante, the day before's events were suddenly much clearer to him. I think that's what he feared the most, and it actually came to...
- He didn't run away because he was worried about Bobby. He was afraid that if he went through with it, that we'd all see he didn't have it anymore, that the magic was gone. And it's really kind of a sad scene. - And that was like the last scene we ever shot with Dante. - Everyone in that room knew unequivocally that it was over. There would be no comeback. There would be no final chapter for Dante after this.
This moment comes for all of us, where we try one final time to do the thing that we love the most or the thing that we're best at. Like an athlete who's suddenly one step behind on the field. And all that we're left with is the weight of what we've done, the legacy of our choices. And the legacy of Ronald Dante?
depends on who you ask. When he came out the stage, like, you knew you were seeing a star. He loved helping people. The most evil person I have ever interacted with. But if you ask Dante... I think whatever I'm doing is by, is on the gray line. Is, is, is, is, I'm, I'm close to...
It's a big gray line. He put black and white in the blender and pulverized it to create his own special shade of gray. And he lived there his entire life. What do you say to the critics that say Dr. Bronte is smart, he's charming, he's witty, but ultimately he's a con artist or a scam artist? I say they're right. Yeah, I was. I was a con man. I was a good con man.
You know, I was cheerful. I made people, I said what people wanted to hear, just like all con men do.
We tell our children that they could be anything they want to be, but we all know that there are caveats to this idea. In order for this to really be the case, you need to be dealt a good hand. And Ronald Peller was dealt straight-up gifts. Even his enemies concede that he was special. What he had in charisma, wits, and he'll be happy to hear me say this, looks, he could have done anything.
He could have walked on the moon or been president. He could have started a billion-dollar business like his brother. Or he could have genuinely helped people. One of his favorite things to boast about was his immense charitable contributions. He'd tell reporters that he was opening orphanages all over the world to help children. If that's true, I couldn't find any evidence of it.
If he were still alive, I'm sure he would frame his life as an act of punk rock, a consistent sticking up of his middle finger to authority. But I'm not seduced by this. When I look at the sum of his life, the choices he made along the way, I'm left just asking, why? A question that Jennifer Sharp asked him in her final interview. So in all of these endeavors, being a hypnotist,
having these schools, being an inventor, being married to all these people. What are you driven by? What drives you to do these things? I don't want to die. I don't want to die. Because I'm basically, I'm an atheist and I don't know what's going to happen next. I have no idea what's going to happen. I mean, I don't know. I don't believe in heaven or hell. I don't believe in the devil. I don't believe in any of that bullshit.
The one thing none of us knows for sure, and lots of us have theories about, the great bullshitter will not bullshit about. He knew that he didn't have much time left. And he knew that for once in his life, he was facing something that he couldn't dodge, couldn't fake, couldn't charm his way out of. I don't think anybody's ever going to come back and tell the story. In a few short years, Dante would be dead.
But right now, he had, for the final time in his life, an audience there to see him. After failing the closing bit of his comeback show, no one in the audience got up to leave. Everyone sat in it with him. Eventually, Dante stands up and walks over to the microphone. And he does exactly what you'd expect, and in a way, what you'd hope he'd do. Anybody have any questions you want to ask?
about my life, my past. He left his final audience with some dirty jokes and some half-truths. You want to hear something? These are raunchy. These are raunchy, though. These two guys get busted for a drug charge, and the judge says, I'm going to tell you what, I'm going to let you go. I'm going to let you go.
Before we go, one more thing. We want to dedicate this season to the loving memory of our sound designer and mix engineer's mom, Jamie Tiedemann. She devoted her life to advocating for people who'd been wounded by this world and was an unwavering supporter of Garrett, his family, his life, and his work.
She passed away near the end of this show's production and was as excited for the show's release as anyone on the team. It's an understatement to say she'll be greatly missed and that this world will be a little bit dimmer without her in it.
Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment. Dr. Dante was written and hosted by me, Sam Mullins. It's produced by Aboukar Adan and edited by Karen Duffin. Our associate producer is Tanita Rahmani. Original music, sound design, and mixing by Garrett Tiedemann.
Additional music by APM and Blue Dot Sessions. Fact-checking by Lauren Vespoli. Our consulting producer is Bradley Beasley. Special thanks to Johnny Kaufman and to our operations team, Doug Slaywin, Aaliyah Papes, and Destiny Dingle. The executive producers at Campside Media are Josh Dean, Matt Scher, Vanessa Grigoriadis, and Adam Hoff.
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