The Fabulous And Very Candid Zoe Hansen
Interview By: Ginger Coyote
I adore Zoe, she is so beautiful inside and out, sweet, and very candid about her life. A truly inspirational human being.
My dear friends Bebe Buell, Melinda Roberts, and Donna Destri also admire Ms, Hansen. Please enjoy my interview with the delightful and insightful Zoe Hansen
Punk Globe: Thanks so much for the interview, Zoe. Can you give the readers some background on yourself?
Zoe: I came to NYC at seventeen years old. I had a background in hairstyling as I had been involved with the whole hair extension craze in the early 1980s in London while working at Antenna. I moved to NYC after I had secured a job at Girl Loves Boy in Soho NYC in 1984. My drug addiction arose again and I shifted around the fashion and art world, styling, doing hair and makeup for MTV videos, club gogo gigs, and other fun nightlife styled existence. Until I started working as an escort to help with the drug bills. I loved the sex industry, the comradery between the women, the feeling of getting over on ‘the man’ while counting my wad of cash as I was driven home in a cab.I soon discovered that would be my calling. I worked as a phone girl, then escort, I also worked in the Oak Room in the Plaza Hotel, brothels, and massage joints. I then opened my first brothel in 1999 on Park Ave. I went on to open four more brothels and one massage studio. It was my own business and made great money and loved all the people who worked for me. I also owned two clothing boutiques called Jezebella, I was catering to the rubber-wearing crowd, strippers, witches, and other people who liked esoteric books and underground topics at the time.
Punk Globe: You have recently done some shows with Ron Athey and Lydia Lunch at The Philosophical Research Society were you reading?
Zoe: I was reading from a new project called Toil and Trouble, A Witches Guide to self-help. The title might change, but it’s basically a self-help book for middle-aged women, who’ve found themselves looking in the mirror saying, “What’s next?” I offer my own personal experience, which is vast, around the topics of men, witchcraft, and finding oneself in this scary MAGA world. I believe I can offer sound help to those seeking it. The piece with Lydia was about sleeping on the blood-stained bed that I slept on for years while living at the Chelsea Hotel. Lydia and I have worked together for many years. She’s one of my biggest supporters, and Ron, well he’s a legend, so It was a fabulous night of artists, writers, and musicians.
Punk Globe: Were you ever in a band in New York City?
Zoe: Never in a band, Would have loved to have but my addiction always got in the way of scheduling.
Punk Globe: Are you or have you been a model?
Zoe: I did a little underground modeling. Mainly for my extreme look at the time. I did a national advertisement for Maxell blank cassette tapes! I walked in a few runway shows and did some other work as I had dreadlocks at a very young age & no one had really seen them on a white girl so it was a thing I became known for.
Punk Globe: This is your second show at The Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz . Your first show must have been a smash success.
Zoe: The first one was at Zebulon which was excellent. The Philosophical Research Society was absolutely beautiful, and I’d love to read there anytime. When Lydia comes to town she gathers the family, and we all show up and perform, she calls us “Show Folk.” So I’m always honored to dash off a story and read. It helps my huge social anxiety issues. I like to put myself in uncomfortable situations because afterward, I feel great.
Punk Globe: Have you done similar shows when you were in New York City?
Zoe: I had a night at Bowery Poetry Club called Sex Workers Literati. I invited sex workers of all persuasions to read their stories. It was a huge success. I then had other events around New York that invited me to read. Lydia and I did a three-month residency at the Roxy Hotel, which was exquisite. I’d say for the past fifteen years I’ve read my work in a lot of places. I had a memoir that ultimately I shelved because it went through so many incarnations, and it became sour, so I let that go for the time being and am concentrating on this newer version of a memoir, with the self-help.
Punk Globe: You are sporting some great ink. Tell the readers who did the ink and where you got them done.
Zoe: Most of my ink is from New York, and I forget the other artists. I got a little LAMF Heartbreakers tattoo I got in Miami a long time ago. I only have my arms and hands. I’d like to get some more. Who’s good out here?
Punk Globe: My dear friend Louis /Louie Perez is great you can find him on Facebook and Instagram.
Zoe: Oh I will thanks doll!
Punk Globe: What prompted your move to Los Angeles from New York City?
Zoe: Well, that’s a long story. The short version is that I split from my ex HDM. After a terrible public split, him having me arrested on false charges and publicly tried to humiliate me. I was 5150 ed after a suicide attempt. I was at my bottom, finally after 40 years of consistent drug abuse. I just cracked. I was so riddled with substances I didn’t know where I was for 3 days. They wanted to keep me for a month. Luckily I have a cousin who worked in a high position at Bellevue and she was able to make some calls and help me get out of there. Men and women were on one floor, drugged out mental patients, it was terrifying. I spent a week locked up in the mental ward in Gracy Square. The stories…! Jerry flew me out to LA once I was released from the hospital. I went straight to the airport. I had to have security with me, so my ex wouldn’t come near me. I still have confusion and feelings about the whole incident. I made the incredibly hard decision to leave my child, my life, and my son, to save myself, and be a better mom. I knew, without a doubt in my mind, that had I not been locked up, I would be dead. The relationship had gotten so desperately awful and he was so abusive that I tried to end my life. It sounds crazy, but I had fallen into a drug addiction so bad, I don’t know how I made it back to life. Jerry was the entire reason I am here today. He showed me how to live a sober life, and I love my life today and give thanks to the goddess who showed me the way. Today I am extremely close with my son, and he understands everything that occurred and why it did. I am so very fortunate to have a son who Is also my best friend. Today I know I made the correct decision. But It caused me to have a breakdown and took years to find myself, to know who I was, and to reacquaint myself with life in general. I had been asleep for decades. To anyone suffering from addiction, if I can quit so can you. Harm reduction at best is great. The booze was the worst for me. Having grown up in an era where it was okay for kids to drink. I recall my six-year-old friends pouring bottles of wine down their little throats after a dinner party and getting wasted and none of the adults knew. Parents open your eyes to what your kids are doing. I think alcohol should be illegal just like meth. Please to my people suffering, go to a meeting, it’s free and talk to someone there. You will find help I promise. I’m happy to talk to anyone regarding these subjects.
Punk Globe: Did it take a while to find a place to live in L.A.?
Zoe: I moved right in with Jerry in Highland Park. I didn’t know anyone. It took me forever to find my people. I have since found NYC people are my favorites out here. I am an isolator and LA is very isolating, it’s hard to meet people, so when I do I cherish it. I try hard to go to places when I am invited and to engage more. I’m actually kind of shy and have lots of social anxiety which no one believes because I am social, but it’s hard. I thought everyone suffered from anxiety, I thought it was normal to be like this, but it’s not, I’ve since found out.
Punk Globe: I see photos on Facebook of your dogs you brought them from the East Coast right?
Zoe : No, my black pups are LA babies (rescues). Lolas my black Shepard, she a wolf and my angel. Bob is a mixed black pup, who is just on this planet to kiss Lola, he’s obsessed with her beauty, and I am with him, he smells like a biscuit! We like to adopt animals that get looked over, and we were told no one wanted the black dogs, so I snatched them up.
Punk Globe: Tell us all about your son and what he is doing in the military. I have seen photos of him in uniform, he is very handsome
Zoe: My golden child. He is an Infantry Marine and expert Rifleman. He’s literally the best kid imaginable. He’s perfect in every way. Never cried as a kid, just laughed and smiled. He grew up going to art and music shows with us, and being around gay, trans artists helped him to be the accepting smart New York City boy he is. He’s also a UFC fighter, Mixed Martial arts, so he’s a tough kid and can take good care of himself, that’s all we want as parents, for our kids to be able to take care of themselves. Support our troops!
Punk Globe: Tell us about your marriage to Author Jerry Stahl. And your honeymoon in France.
Zoe: Well, I basically dragged him down the aisle. He’s been married three other times, so he was kinda embarrassed to go through it again, but at our age, this is it, and I knew I’d marry him, he’s my soulmate, my everything. I knew 28 years ago when I first read Permanent Midnight and saw the picture of him on the back cover. I knew that was my guy, and I would marry him. How would I meet him? I did not know. He wasn’t anywhere online and we lived across the country from one another. But I had an image of us that stayed with me. Then our paths crossed, and he emailed me to be in an anthology called The Heroin Chronicles. I almost fell off my chair when I received that e-mail, The great Jerry Stahl e-mailed me!!? I wrote a great little story which I got some attention for. I just knew this was it, Jerry was my destination there was no other. After I dragged him down the aisle, during the biggest hurricane of the century, (I thought it the perfect time to get married to my soulmate) Jerry was flown over to Paris by his publishers, to do a lot of press there. The French know good writing and love his work, so we, and I mean I, thought it a good time to have a honeymoon in the most beautiful city imaginable, Paris.
Punk Globe: Jerry is a very successful writer and a screenwriter along with being a Libra. What books do you like the best… I know the answer, All Of Them, right?
Zoe: Yes, I love every book of his, he’s written 10 books, I think three best sellers. Permanent Midnight is his first memoir and Ben Stiller played Jerry in the Movie, of the same title, they are best friends to this day. Robert Downey Jr. just optioned his latest memoir Nein, Nein, Nein! So we can look forward to that movie. I love his book, Happy Mutant Baby Pills, and Bad Sex on Speed. He wrote for Hollywood for years, his CSI episodes were some of the most viewed ever! One was about plushies, people who dress up in furry cosplay outfits. He’s an extraordinary talent and teaches me so much just being around a brilliant mind, makes me smarter. And it’s interesting how I am drawn to Libras, it’s a love-hate relationship with them. My mother was one, and we don’t talk, but they are usually fascinating people, one or two exceptions come to mind.
Punk Globe: What is in store for you in the future Zoe?
Zoe: Well, the goddess says I must finish this book. I shall continue doing live readings. I draw and paint, and I love to decorate. I’m wallpapering right now. And I speak to the dead on a daily basis, probably more than I do alive people, and I’m obsessed with the paranormal. It’s my hobby to communicate with the dead. So I’d like to continue to discover proof of the spirits’ reality. I am also starting a project with one of my dearest friends in the world, Anne Hanavan who’s a talented artist, filmmaker, and writer. She’s read a few times at Sex Workers Literati in NYC. We are collaborating on a book of stories about our experiences as sex workers. She had a very different experience than I, but yet the same. She is truly an inspiration to me, and anyone who’s been down, very down, and then to turn it all around is amazing to me. Jerry was listening to Anne and I talking about the old days while at dinner one night. Jerry said, “You both need to write a book.” Anne’s eyes lit up, and seeing her enthusiasm, I jumped at the idea. So I look forward to beginning work with Anne. I was a part of Lydia Lunch and brilliant filmmaker Jasmine Hirst’s documentary about Anxiety, Rage, and Depression. A poignant film about artists who suffer from mental illness, we are all similar and as a community how we deal. Jasmine Hirst is an incredible filmmaker and photographer, witch and clairvoyant. I’m always working on a new project, loving to be a part of other people’s visions and continue to live among the living. I do my best to be a kind loving being, here for my fellow artists in any way I can.
My life today is- I wander around my big old Pasadena haunted house lit in candlelight, my dogs are cuddled on the couch in the 1970s-styled den, leaves rustling in the big garden, artwork and hundreds of books and inspiration hanging all around. Jerry typing in his study is very relaxing. It’s ASMR to me. I love LA and supporting my friends, I want to stay alive and plugged in. I was dead for too long, and life can be exhilarating when you actually live, I just learned how to. I’d like to meet new friends out here who are interested in the same things.
Punk Globe: Do you have any Internet addresses you would like to share with the readers?
Zoe: Well, thank you for asking Ginger, I might as well tell you I’m still in the game. Go to Zoehansen_ on YouTube (it’s a smoking fetish channel). I make fetish but smoking fetish started it (all fetishes) videos for customers wanting something a little odd. I’ve filmed so many various kinks. Things you’d never think were sexual. But nothing I’ve filmed is ever overtly sexual. The kink is it’s truly a kink. You will be hard-pressed to find much of what I do very sexy, but it is for the paying client. It was a natural extension for me, coming from a Dom/sex worker background. It’s a side hustle. For those interested, email me and go to my YT channel, or Instagram. I film on weekends and have a loyal customer base instagram.com/thezoehansen https://youtube.com/zoehansen_ I don’t do Twitter (gross) but I love sharing photos of my passions on IG stories.
Punk Globe: Describe yourself in three words Zoe.
Zoe: Passionate, wandering, soul.
Punk Globe: Any last words for the Punk Globe readers?
Zoe: Thank you so much to you my darling. This is a huge honor as I follow all you do on social media and thanks to your fabulous readers for letting me give you a little insight into my world.
