For six seasons on Showtime’s reality series ‘Gigolos,’ Garren James has let viewers into the world of male companions that specialize in offering companionship to women. In a world of online harassment and unsolicited dick pics, Garren has managed to create something that breaks the mold. He created an agency rooted in class, grace and chivalry and built a steady clientele of women who pay for male companionship and attention.

Garren has been doing some publicity recently about Cowboys 4 Angels, and we bet there are some tidbits in the interviews that you weren’t aware of. For example, do you know how Garden came to start his famous male companion agency?  Here are some highlights from the interview, Gigolo 2.0: How Garren James Built A Dudes for Ladies Escort Empire, with the Blasian Bytch Blog. Keep watching social media for highlights from other interviews.

So I guess I just wanted to know how did you come into and get the idea to provide the services that you do?
I was actually dating a woman who ran an agency, woman for men, when I first met her. I knew nothing about the industry and so started learning from her and sort of helping her with different things. She looked at me one day, and said, “Why don’t you start an agency for women?” I went online and I couldn’t find anything, and I said, ” I don’t think so because there isn’t anything.” And she said, “Well, there you go.” And I said, “Okay.”

Garren went on to say that in his research he saw some men listed that saw women, but they also wrote that they would see men.  He didn’t get a good feeling that women would want to see men who were also seeing men. So he decided to do completely 100% straight men for women only. Lucky us, ladies!

When did you see things start to take off?
I put the website up and found a few guys and there was no response at all.  I remember just thinking “What is going on here?” But then I got a call from the Tyra Banks show.  The show Hung came out after I started the agency and was popular at the time. Suddenly people wanted to talk to a male companion, so I went on the show. The day that episode aired, Cowboys4Angels was in the top ten Google searched sites in the nation. There was an incredible buzz, and since then, it’s just been crazy with all the media attention. We’ve been on Dr. Phil, 20/20 and Nightlight News. Then we started the Gigolos show. We’ve done six seasons on Showtime so far, and it’s a very popular show. So basically since the Tyra show, we really haven’t looked back.

That’s kind of cool, I guess.  It seems like the idea came from the demand, but once the idea got more popularized especially by such women-friendly mainstream media outlets, the ladies came out of the woodwork.
Yeah, that’s it. I think that women have always liked the idea of hiring somebody for the evening. I just think that they were turned off by the fact that most of the men were seeing men also. Cowboys 4 Angels seemed to be the first company in the United States that said, “Hey listen, we’re only for women,” and we were serious.  We got ridiculed at first.  Some people want to think there’s no such thing as a straight male companion.

People always say “These guys must be secretly seeing men on the side because women aren’t allowed to hire a guy.”  But women are allowed to do this.  It was mostly male reporters that were sort of giving that vibe, and it was just uncalled for.  Men shouldn’t be the only ones with the power or the money to hire a companion. There are plenty of powerful women out there, too.

What type of women do you see? Who would be your average customer?
That’s a good question. I wish I could say that there is an average, but there really isn’t. We have so many different spectrums of clientele. We have the very beautiful, fun, client that is a very successful woman  traveling to a city and she doesn’t know anyone. She’s there on business and wants to go out and have a good time. We have the clients that need men for business functions or weddings, We have the clients that have gone through a bad break up who just want to have some fun, or gone through a bad divorce or have lost a spouse. These women have been with the same person for twenty plus years, and they are scared to go out and date again, so they want to use us to get their feet wet. We have special needs clients that have gone through some sort of traumatic experience in their lives and just are afraid of men.

I’ve had women call and say, “My therapist suggested that I hired a man for the night to help get me going again,” So there’s a big spectrum of women who either need the service or are just doing it for fun that call us for a person who is well reviewed, charming, and background checked. They feel safe and comfortable for a no-strings-attached, this-guy’s-not-gonna-call-me-tomorrow-type experience.

I’m kind of glad that a lot of your clientele are using the money to overcome stigma.
A lot of women are just tired of going on bad date after bad date. They call and say “Listen. I’ve gone out on bad date after bad date, after bad date, after bad date, and I’m looking for a guy to be like the old perfect gentleman again” or say “I’d rather pay somebody to treat me like a queen instead of wasting time going on bad Tinder date after bad Tinder date after bad Match.com date.”

What was the most interesting request that you’ve had?
God, I’ve had so many different kinds of interesting requests. You know, one that really stands out for me one was a woman who was overweight and not happy. She went on a long-term diet. She hired a nutritionist, and her goal was to lose 100 lbs.  She said, “Garren, you know, I’m gonna set up weight loss goals and if I meet my goal for the month, I’m gonna treat myself to an overnight appointment,” and I said, “Okay.” Each month I would check with her for her weight loss goal, and then before the appointment, she would send me a picture of the scale. It took over a year, but she lost the 100 lbs, and it felt great to be a part of that with her. I also got a call from a woman who was terminally ill with cancer and always wanted to go to India. It was on her bucket list. She was a little frail and couldn’t travel alone, but she didn’t want to hire nurses to go with her, so she hired one of the men to go with her on a week-long trip to explore India. She did pass away, but the letter I got from her after her trip was pretty incredible just thanking us. Those are just two of a whole host of really special clients.

How do you handle calls if their request is very eclectic? How do they choose who they will go with? Do you have a hand in matching ladies with cowboys?
I try to get them to pick out two or three men they like on the website, and then I’ll sort of feel out their personality. If they have  a type A personality, they might not like Joey who is a laid back southern California-type attitude. So I try to listen to the clients and feel out their personalities to see who they’ll like more. If they are educated, I find someone that’s gonna match their education level. If she’s going through a rough time, then I want a guy that’s funny who can make her laugh.

So I try to do my best to guide people. Sometimes a woman will call and say, “I like the way this guy looks. I want to hire him.” So we just roll the dice and hope it’s a good match. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t.

It sounds like you have to gauge what women actually fantasize about versus what society tells people women fantasize about. What do you think is more in line with reality?
Something I learned right away is that when women are hiring men, they’re doing it because they want attention. Maybe before they’ve gone on dates and had to give a lot of attention to the guy, and they’re like, “Hey listen, I want to sit back and be pampered.” It’s just like going to get your nails done, going to the spa, or getting your hair done. You just want to sit back and be served. So that’s a big part with training the guys now.  I tell them to do everything that your mother taught you to do – open every door, hold her hand when you’re walking somewhere, push in her chair, and throughout the night compliment as much as you can. You can’t give enough compliments, but we don’t lie to a woman. What we do and what many women are looking for, is to feel special, to feel loved,  to feel warmth, and to feel beautiful. At the end of the day, the most important thing is making her feel special, because if you don’t do the little things, she’s not gonna feel like she spent the money well.

What other types of training do the men get? If any?
We have an employment page on our website, but the vast majority of men who apply are not hired. If I like their photos, I schedule a phone call to get a sense of their personality. Do they make me feel comfortable right away? Are they personable? There are a lot of good looking, smart people that are very introverted, so that wouldn’t work. And then there are guys that all they can do is talk about how amazing they are and every single woman wants them, and that’s a warning signal that the guy’s ego is just way too big for this job. This job is about others, not about us. After eight years of doing this, I can sort out anyone who’s not going to be good at this job on a five to 10-minute first call.

Once they’ve passed that first phone conversation, I do a Skype interview unless I can meet them in person. It that one, I get a sense of their manners, how they present themselves, and how they speak. Then they’ll get a list of the agency rules – the do’s and don’ts. Then I do a follow-up conversation with them going over the rules again. We have women that have been with the agency for many years that are sort of like testers. So they will get a slightly discounted rate to book an appointment with someone new, and they give feedback on each individual guy. We do a review after a date with each client, and we give the gentleman any pointers that a client mentions, and that’s pretty much it. It’s like a learning process just like any job. Some people can do this job and some people just can’t.

Do you call yourselves gigolos?
Well, you know, Showtime approached the agency with the name of the show as Gigolos and I was like, “Are you serious?” When you hear the word gigolo, it’s like, “Oh, here’s a man who’s preying on women to pay his rent.”  I didn’t like the name of the show at first, but it’s sort of grown on me and I feel like we’re changing the perception of that name. These guys are providing a service and they’re being paid for their time.” They’re not con-men. It’s very honest and up front on what we’re providing for a client and the men do not exchange any contact information with the client. We don’t do that. We’re a very professional classy service.

One guy wrote saying this is all fake. These guys aren’t being hired and women don’t do this type of thing, almost insinuating that they weren’t allowed to do it. It seemed very sexist to me, like it was putting it down. There was  a lot of media that came to talk to us just to find out “What kind of woman would do this?”

That infuriated me, and I was like, “Are you serious? What do you mean? Why can’t it be your neighbor who would want to do this? Or why can’t it be your boss or your fellow employee? Why are they not allowed to do this?”

It’s funny, too, that a lot of women when they call, they say, “I’m really nervous calling you. Uh, this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. I just want you to know.” Like trying to say like, “Hey, I don’t do this all the time. I’m not a bad person.” And I’m like, “Listen, it’s okay that you’ve never done this before. Don’t worry about a thing. We’ve been doing it for eight years. You’re in good hands, and I’m gonna promise you the best experience we could possibly give you.” We have a high standard and a high goal to introduce someone to something they’ve never done before and make it amazing for them. I take the business of people having fun very seriously.

If you want to read the full interview, go here.