Dennis Hof: Sex and the TV

Source from:  smokemag.com By Evan Dashevsky  07/14/2008

Dennis Hof has a great life. He owns his own business and makes his own rules. But the proprietor of delight and star of HBO's top-rated reality series, Cathouse, can't sit still, and delights in taking his desert party nationwide, spreading his vision of sexual capitalism. The world's oldest profession is long overdue some credit for planting the seeds of protocapitalism that grew into the world's first business. Skip ahead a few millennia and we, of course, find the "business" has lost the openness it enjoyed in this country as recently as prospector times. And as for legal recognition, its "deviant" status is a far cry from its standing in other corners of the world, both modern and otherwise. And yet, after the sun goes down, millions of Americans are tuning in to premium cable to catch an unedited glimpse of the industry that's shunned during the day. "With my TV show I've allowed America into my house, my cathouse - over five million people watch and the ratings are just as good as the day it first aired. I'm a rock star now," says Dennis Hof, newly-minted TV star and proprietor of Carson City, Nevada's most infamous, lucrative, and very legal business, the Moonlite BunnyRanch. For more than six years, the nation has been invited to visit "the Ranch" via the HBO series Cathouse, which chronicles one of America's very few tax-paying brothels. The show is HBO's highest rated reality program and has allowed Hof to make the transformation from businessman on the outskirts to celebrity-cum-pundit on the A-list. After a morning stop at The Howard Stern Show, but before a visit with Tyra and then Maury, this master of publicity stopped by Smoke headquarters to rap about his business, newfound fame, and the on-going fight for the right to "party." Hof commands the attention of any room he enters (not entirely undue to the sheer physical size of the man), but with a broad smile this constant salesman easily charms away any preconceptions of his profession. Aside from some frank references describing his chosen trade and a few choice comments on the first thing coming to mind when he sees a woman smoking a cigar, Dennis comes off just as much Panda Bear as he does Huggy. In 1992, after a stint with real estate and "hospitality projects - time shares, hotel projects, etc.," Dennis got into a whole new hospitality game when he purchased the BunnyRanch, a legal brothel with a 40-year history residing between the western tourist Meccas of Reno and Lake Tahoe. But he went from entrepreneur to rock star when he was introduced to America in the 2002 HBO documentary special Cathouse. The original Cathouse documentary focused America's late night attention on the work lives of the "working girls," customers, and affable owner of the Ranch. The special drew in huge ratings leading to a second special the following year, two seasons of Cathouse: The Series (with a third on the way), and even a televised Cathouse: The Musical that debuted this past New Year's Eve, which Dennis describes with signature smile in tow: "It used to be Dick Clark in Times Square at midnight, now it's Big Daddy from the BunnyRanch." Cathouse: The Musical aside, some portions of the series obviously borrow techniques from other "reality" shows in that certain "behind the scenes" moments are staged in order to push the narrative along. However the most fascinating facets of the franchise stem from the series' unstaged footage. "When we were first trying to make a deal with HBO, we had many meetings on how to put a show together," recalls Dennis, who was courted by both HBO and Showtime to bring the BunnyRanch to the small screen. "We finally came to the conclusion that the best idea would be to put hidden cameras in a couple of rooms and record the negotiations. Then after the negotiations are through, we'll ask the customers to sign a release so we can include it on the show. In a two-week span of filming, 40 out of 45 people signed the releases." And from that adult-oriented update of Candid Camera, a hit show was born, featuring some of the most fascinating documentation of the human condition this side of National Geographic. A reality show about a brothel may sound like soft-core porn - and in some instances, that is exactly what this late night fare offers. However, when at its most genuine, the show offers as much fascination as titillation. Capitalism collides with millennia of human instinct as customers negotiate exactly what sort of "party" they want to have with the lady of their choice, such as the case with the 22-year-old virgin being strattled by one of the Ranch's girls as the young man's mother - fearful her grown son isn't interested in women - sits on the bed next to them and the three negotiate the night's deflowering. "Earth shattering, amazing stuff," salesman Hof boasts with the Cathouse logo proudly emblazoned on his golf shirt. "Now, since then, we don't do anymore hidden camera, but the popularity has carried on and the numbers are outrageously high and I think that I single-handedly have sanitized this vice, or at least done a real good job at it." And sanitizing his business has indeed become another goal for Hof, who is as much a mainstay on primetime cable news talking politics and punditry as he is on late night cable talking commerce and copulation. "I'm pro-legalization nationwide, it's the right thing to do. If you want to eliminate exploitation of women in this business you legalize it completely. If you want to take disease out of prostitution, you legalize it." Dennis' pro-legalization stance led him to throw his support behind the ill-fated, but well-meaning Presidential campaign of Congressman and advocate of microscopic government, Ron Paul. "When I first heard of Ron Paul, I thought 'this guy makes absolutely too much sense.' He's for states rights: if the state wants it, do it. He doesn't think big brother Fed needs to be watching over everybody." After meeting Paul through friend Tucker Carlson during a Nevada campaign stop, Hof and some of the Ranch girls began a "Pimpin' for Paul" drive, which included a donation box at the Ranch which some of the girls asked customers to donate to in lieu of tips. No word on exactly how much made its way to the Paul campaign, but with little publicity compared to the other candidates, the Texas Congressman did end up being one of the highest grossing Republican nominees of the most recent political cycle. "Eventhough Ron wasn't a user of prostitution, he said if the state wants it, then that's ok. Same way with smoking cigars where you want, same way with everything!" Enditem