LAS VEGAS, Nev. – What happens when four fat guys who run a pawn shop become worldwide TV stars?

“It gets a little weird sometimes,” says Corey (Big Hoss) Harrison, one of the “Pawn Stars.”

Six months ago, Corey thought he had broken his leg and was in the hospital. “I’m sitting there in a wheelchair and a guy was trying to take my picture,” he says. “It was the first time I really flipped out on a fan. Gritting my teeth in pain, I told him, ‘I will punch you if you don’t get away from me!’”

Immortalized as a bobble head, his mug emblazoned on everything from golf balls to T-shirts to slot machines, Harrison’s life has been completely turned upside down. Together with his dad Rick Harrison, Rick’s father Richard (Old Man) Harrison, and Corey’s lifelong pal Austin (Chumlee) Russell, he finds walking around his city impossible.

“When we go out in public it’s hat and shades,” says Rick Harrison. All four have personal assistants, often kept busy fetching beer and cigarettes.

Seems you can take the boys out of the pawn shop, but not the pawn shop out of the boys.

Their teeth are whiter and their bodies slimmer. Corey, who had his stomach stapled a year or so ago is now Medium Hoss after losing 50 kilograms. Chumlee, once as rotund as his Walrus cartoon character namesake, has shed 40 kilograms.

They stay away from the free doughnuts and pizza sent to the store from surrounding merchants. Corey also says he boxes an hour each morning.

The new lifestyle doesn’t mean they’ve gone Hollywood. They’d still rather be riding their motorcycles than talking to the press, even in a luxury suite at the Wynn Hotel.

They’ve been all over the world promoting the series, including Buenos Aires, where 12,000 fans showed up at an arena-sized appearance.

“It looked like you were sitting in the Thunderdome,” says Corey.

Rick just got back from the United Kingdom and Germany. The series is a hit in Japan; a trip to Asia is planned. Chumlee is heading to Toronto in August to make a convention appearance at Fan Expo.

Chatting with press from Canada, Latin America, the U.K. and Asia this week, the Harrisons admit they didn’t see the fame coming. After all, this was a series about a pawn shop, depicted for years as a seedy joint in movies and television.

“We’ve all seen ‘Pulp Fiction,’” says Corey.

Rick, 48, the show’s resident expert on just about everything, points out that pawn shops were, “until around the 1950s, the No. 1 form of consumer credit in the United States and most likely Canada too. What did a person do when they needed money for the weekend before ATM cards and credit cards? They went to a pawn shop.”

“They’re mentioned in the Bible,” says Rick.

Adds Corey: “It’s the second oldest profession — and paid for the first.”

It’s not easy getting into the Harrisons’ Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, placed a safe distance from the glitzy hotels and casinos of The Strip. Between three- and five thousand people line up every day in the hot Nevada sun just to walk through the doors. Only the casinos are a bigger tourist draw in Vegas.

Many visitors are from Canada. The series, seen on the History Channel, consistently pulls a half-million viewers for new episodes, tops in non-sports specialty.

There are Canadian items for sale. Amid a case full of diamond-encrusted World Series and Super Bowl rings there is a 2001 Grey Cup ring from a member of the Montreal Alouettes. It’s not really for sale, says the jeweller — some items are left on display to draw fans — but he’d let it go for a mere US$30,000.

A cigar box which once sat on President John F. Kennedy’s desk in the White House is priced at US$125,000. It contains seven cigars, none Cuban. “Kennedy kept only cheap cigars on his desk for visitors,” says Rick. The Cubans were stashed upstairs.

Rick claims he never watches his show and rarely watches television. “It’s like hot dogs,” he says. “Once you’ve seen how they’re made, you really don’t want to bite into them.”

Besides, he doesn’t have time to watch. He’s too busy cranking out two episodes a week, 70 a year. The series is in its eighth season.

Rick is taking time out to get married. He’ll tie the knot with third wife DeAnna on July 21 in Laguna Beach, Calif. The Harrisons’ friend, Danny Koker, often seen as an expert on “Pawn Stars” and star of his own spin-off series “Counting Cars,” will perform the ceremony.

“He plans to wear a tux with a muscle shirt,” Rick jokes.

Getting married may not detract female fans. “I’ve literally had girls run up to me and start kissing me in front of my fiancee and everything,” he says.

“Trust me, it never happened before,” says his son.

History has, until now, resisted showing celebrities on “Pawn Stars,” but this coming season, Steve Carell wanders into the shop.

“They come in once or twice a week,” says Corey, naming Dave Chappelle, Jon Bon Jovi and Ron White as recent visitors. “The list is never ending.”

Some staffers get a little star struck. “I actually had to set a policy with the employees not to bother the celebrities,” says Corey, who was getting flak from publicists.

Then there are the celebrities hassling Rick, Corey, Chumlee and The Old Man for their autographs.

“It’s a weird world we live in,” says Rick, “where everybody loves four fat guys in a pawn shop.”

———

Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.