City MuchMusic hopeful gets boot into Loser Loft

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/03/2006 (7402 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THERE’S reality TV. And then there’s reality.
>Sometimes, it seems like one has very little to do with the other.
Take the curious case of Larissa Tobacco. The 22-year-old Winnipegger was bounced out of the TV-job competition and into the Loser Loft in this week’s episode of MuchMusic VJ Search: The Series.

In previous episodes of the Canadian reality-TV series, Tobacco was portrayed as the show’s raging diva, a self-consumed, argument-seeking, excuse-inclined drama queen despised by pretty much everyone else in the swanky VJ Search penthouse.

When she got the boot in Monday’s instalment, the other contestants didn’t even try to contain their glee.

“That is the biggest sigh of relief EVER!” flamboyant Regina native Sean Gehon shouted. “Tension in the penthouse just walked out the door.”

But in an interview with the Free Press yesterday, Tobacco did her best to paint a happy face on what seemed to have been a rather ugly experience.

“There were a lot of times when I laughed, and I had fun, and I got along with the people there,” she insisted during a brief phone chat from Toronto, where she will stay in the show’s Loser Loft, along with fellow castoffs Norm Alconcel and Nathalie Morgan, to provide commentary on goings-on in the penthouse.

“It’s just unfortunate that when they happened to catch me (on camera), it wasn’t when I was smiling and laughing… It’s unfortunate how they decided to portray me.”

Tobacco’s performance in the show’s challenges appeared to be dismal (celebrity judge Robin Black summed her efforts up with a terse “You sucked”). But during yesterday’s interview, the university student and part-time APTN personality called the fast-forward VJ audition a rewarding challenge.

“It was a huge learning experience,” she said. “The challenges were tough — I had to learn things very fast…

“I got to meet 10 or 20 of the top people in my field; I got to see different personalities and see how they work; I got to meet all the people at Much, and I made a few friends, as well.”

Tobacco has had the opportunity to see a couple of VJ Search episodes and assess how the show’s makers portrayed her. It’s on that point that reality TV and her account of reality seem to go their separate ways.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I’m human. I have feelings. I always try to be very nice, and I didn’t once talk bad about anyone. I just tried to be very nice to them, so, yes, it hurt.”

Tobacco said she was looking forward to getting home to her family — her grandmother in Winnipeg, with whom she resides while attending school, and her mother and two brothers in Lac du Bonnet (another brother lives in Thompson), along with dozens of relatives and friends whom she said she misses desperately — and was a bit surprised to learn she was headed for the Loser Loft rather than the airport.

“Of course, I wanted to go home,” she said. “It was a huge shock. But when I got there, I realized that I was with Nathalie and Norman, and I love those guys. It kind of sucks because I don’t get to go home to my friends and family, but at the same time, I get to experience this with Norm and Nat, and they’re just awesome.”

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca