He used charm, others’ personal tragedies and fake celebrity endorsements. How Christopher LaVoie cast his reality show and reeled in successful entrepreneurs.”
“To get to LaVoie was to walk into the history of show business, the lifeblood of today’s television,” LaVoie said.
LaVoie’s show, on which he played the character of a reality TV personality, was a departure from the standard format on reality television shows.
He didn’t just wear a suit and a tie. He wore a fake black T-shirt and a wig he had put on his head, he said.
“I liked to be somebody else. I liked to be somebody else’s friend,” he said.
LaVoie made it a point to appear in interviews in his authentic persona, he said.
At times, LaVoie felt pressure to appear in the show, which drew on personal tragedies.
“I was very aware of every moment of my life,” LaVoie said.
He recalled attending a funeral, where he had not spoken to his mother in years.
“When I talked with her I realized that she was happy,” LaVoie said. “I realized that she was happy for me. I realized that she was happy that I was talking to her. She was the one who’d been pushing me to do better.”
LaVoie’s mother was diagnosed during his childhood with a heart condition and she died in 2001. He and his daughter were only in contact occasionally, he said.
“When you’re in the spotlight, especially when you’re a reality show celebrity, you have to live a very public, very public life,” LaVoie said. “If you live it right it becomes the most normal of all lives, not just the most unusual, but normal.”
LaVoie also did not do his research well. When he traveled to Paris, he took a tour of the Louvre, which he thought the most beautiful museum in