Who is Christopher LaVoie? Man behind ‘4 Days’ reality shows has history of run-ins with police, dubious business ventures
Last week, four days after the New York Times published an article featuring an investigation into questionable business deals behind the creation of reality TV shows like “Cash Cab” and “Hollywood’s Most Dangerous Mind.”
LaVoie, the creative mind who created four different reality TV shows, including a hit reality show about the Las Vegas underground rock club, “4 Days,” came under fire from many quarters.
“It’s not a joke, it’s not fun,” LaVoie told the Times. “There’s some kind of serious issue at hand.”
LaVoie’s reality shows were supposed to be created from scratch by his team and then be sold to networks. One of the shows was called “Hollywood’s Most Dangerous Mind,” a scripted show that involved LaVoie in a number of scenarios that he found absurd. The story was that “it was to be a sort of reality show about an eccentric inventor.
“He would go to the doctor’s office and say, ‘Do you have any medication that can be used to take the human mind to the next level?’” the story begins. “He would then give the drug to himself and say, ‘Now, do it!.’”
LaVoie was called into a meeting with the president of VH1, who asked him, “Do you have any crazy ideas?” LaVoie proceeded to give his ideas on how to develop a show out of “his” idea of a reality show.
“I have a friend who is a lawyer and he’s never told me a good idea,” LaVoie said. “He tells me crazy ideas.”
LaVoie said that he and his business partner Paul Ziffren, a businessman who owns one of Viacom’s cable networks, were trying to sell him the rights to the show. “Paul was trying to sell me the rights of ‘4 Days’ and “Hollywood’s Most Dangerous Mind,” LaVoie said. “He did tell me that V