Back in 2015-2017, I did some research on some Stern guests, similar to the above article.
Elegant Elliot Offen
Offen was banned from the Sirius offices in March 2006 after punching a hole in a wall. Since being banned, Offen's attire and behavior have remained unchanged.
In October 2008, Offen claimed to be "ambushed and sandbagged" by bellboys at a Miami Holiday Inn who took offense at what he was wearing ("girl's black g-string exercise body attire"). One of approached Offen and said, "Fag, get out of the hotel," followed by, "Fag, you heard me, get out of the (edited) hotel or get locked up or get jacked up". In December 2009, Offen announced he was suing the Intercontinental Hotels Group for $21 million over the incident. The case was dismissed in March 2010. The paperwork for the dismissal officially refers to the plaintiff as "Offen, Elegant Elliot".
In April 2014, a user on reddit claimed he saw Offen jogging on the corner of 1st Ave and 69th street in Manhattan wearing "a white guinea tee with pink lingerie over, no pants, the lingerie was convering his front but his behind was in full view." The user claimed this happened at 830pm, and that it was "about 20 degrees and windy as all hell".
In January of 2015, Offen was spotted at a Manhattan Kmart "completely flipping out on some of the workers and demanding some kind of refund for something he claims to have bought in 2012". The incident ended with Elliot "screaming about how they hate him because he had on a vagina high negligee".
Paul "Freck" Morgan
Back Story: Paul Morgan is an ambulatory paraplegic who planned to livestream cutting his feet off using a homemade guillotine over the internet. He was called the 'cutoffmyfeet.com' guy.
In 1986, Morgan was drunk and tried to climb from the cab of a truck into the boat being pulled behind it. He fell off of the truck, was run over by the boat trailer, receiving a spinal injury that left him paralyzed from the knees down. He was able to walk about half normal speed with the aid of molded plastic braces. Medicare and Medicaid wouldn't cover the cost of surgery, prosthetics and rehabilitation because it was deemed an "unnecessary surgery", but he felt if he were to have "fake feet" instead, he would be able to walk better and even run again.
Show: On July 27, 2001, Morgan called in to the Stern show to say that he planned to cut his feet off using a homemade guillotine live on the internet to raise $150,000 to cover the cost of prosthetics, follow-up surgery and rehabilitation. Those willing to pay $20 would be able to broadcast video of the event over the internet. His website featured a cartoon drawing of a man with his feet being cut off by a guillotine.
Afterwards: Soon after Freck's call, the state of Mississippi contacted Freck's lawyer with concerns and an offer.
"A spokeswoman for Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore said state officials had been in touch with Morgan's lawyer about the matter. "We have heard about this and we have contacted his attorney because we are concerned," said Nancy East, Moore's spokeswoman. East said the state had offered to have Morgan evaluated by a surgeon in Jackson, the state capital, if Morgan agreed not to go ahead with the amputation. East said the Internet amputation could violate a number of state laws, including a mayhem statute and laws protecting consumers from fraud."
As of August 30th, 2001, only 20 people had signed up to watch the event. The date was originally scheduled for Halloween night, but due to lack of sign-ups, it was moved to January 5, 2002.
On January 16, 2002, Freck called back into the show to say that "production costs and corporate lawyers are holding up the event." However, the live amputation never happened. During his original call, Morgan said he wouldn't go through with it if he couldn't get enough people to buy in. He also said there'd be a money back guarantee if he didn't end up doing it.
"Freck had trouble raising money. He made an initial fund-raising attempt by selling off access to video of him building the guillotine, and some people bought in, but not enough for it to be worth it. The whole thing fizzled out, Internet aficionados found something else to be interested in ... and the world forgot about cutoffmyfeet.com guy."
Vinnie Penn
Back Story: Penn began his career in radio on WELI AM in 1996. In 1997, Penn joined KC101 (WKCI FM, New Haven CT) as a member of the station's "Morning-Zoo Type" show alongside Glenn Beck (before Beck moved on to a nationally syndicated show). He also wrote a humor column for the New Haven Register and a music column for the Connecticut Post.
Show: Penn's second appearance on the Stern show was on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 (9/11). He sat in "The Jackie Chair" while Stern was live-auditioning people to replace Martling (Craig Gass guested Monday, Artie Lange was on the Friday before that). Stern later said, "I heard good things about Vinnie so I figured let's give him a shot". After the planes hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Penn later admitted he "was the last one in the room to catch onto the seriousness of it."
Afterwards: In an interview five years later, Penn said this appearance changed his life.
I went back to a hotel room alone that night, decided I was going to quit my show, pursue other things, and I got married in Vegas a few weeks later. By the next year I was a father.
Penn, however, did stay on at WKCI FM until the station replaced him in 2005. He moved to Sirius Satellite Radio, creating segments for several channels including the comedy station Raw Dog. Some of his own stand-up was aired in these segments. In 2008, he wrote a humor book titled "Guidos Credos: The Paisan Point of View on Everything from Marriage to Macaroni". His short story "Diary Of A Superhero" was turned into a TV movie in 2009.
In January 2011, Penn returned to WELI AM with a weekday morning talk show "The Vinnie Penn Project". He has also written three more books.
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