Make-up is Alexa Prisco’s forte – she knows what works and what doesn’t. Her talent, harnessed over a decade, was first spotted on Style Network’s Jerseylicious. With her business going at the same time, the network decided she would make for an interesting subject in her own reality series and The Glam Fairy was born. Debashine Thangevelo found out how life in the spotlight has transformed the new mom and savvy businesswoman…
IF there is one thing reality shows have confirmed it is that any subject can be turned into a series.
Style Network’s The Glam Fairy, a spin-off series from Jerseylicious, is a manifestation of this fact.
Now I’m not going to slam this show or its airy-fairy title – after all, it is Alexa Prisco’s branding – as it is a show that caters for women and their desire to put their best face forward, so to speak.
Besides, it isn’t about over-the-top drama and vain personalities fighting for screen time, which is a huge plus.
Tonight chatted to Prisco about season two of The Glam Fairy, now airing on our screens.
On how it started, she says: “We were shooting Jerseylicious and they (the network) kept giving me scenes, telling me there were interested as there weren’t many people who had stories in their personal lives that would be big enough to carry a show. I wasn’t your stereotypical Jersey girl.”
I didn’t know what a “stereo-typical Jersey girl” was, but decided to push on with the chat; I didn’t want to stir up a hornets’ nest.
One thing is clear with the soft-spoken but assured Prisco: she is all business.
Of the second season, she laughs: “When we were shooting, I was very pregnant. It was exhausting. I think with the production company and, in a situation like that, you are not going to bite off more than you can chew. Beyond the fact that it was exhausting, it is my brand and (whatever happened) I wanted to protect the integrity of it. You want to make sure that everything is an extension of your brand.”
With a reality show giving her business great mileage, Prisco continues: “It is a double-edged sword. It is so much exposure for my business, but it is also about putting that exposure in other people’s hands.”
What is she busy with now?
“We finished filming Jerseylicious, season five. And it is nice to just be able to enjoy motherhood. I am still running a business, but had to change things a bit. Right now, I do regular business at my house and take my appointments there (The Glam Factory). And the Glam Academy is bigger than ever,” shares Prisco.
Prisco is glad she gets to share “all the important moments in my daughter’s life”. She says her objective has always been to deliver.
“I want to transform people. But I don’t like abusive people. And brides in the Jersey and New York area are, ironically enough, very cruel and can be monsters when it comes to the day of their wedding. I have now perfected things and make sure all my basis are covered. I want people to be beautiful, but I’m not going to be a wimp.”
Prisco says a common mistake among women is that they never change their make-up over time.
She explains: “People start doing a certain look at a certain age. There is a certain order to their look even though their wardrobe changes. When you redefine that, in a way, they are incapable of seeing that you are changing the filter in their eyes in the way they see beautiful. My mother, for example, always wears coral lipstick. I told her, based on her skin colour, that a rose lip would be best. But she does not listen. Although it works for her!
“Some people do the thick black eyeliner look. They keep doing it – like 10 years later. I would then say: ‘I’m going to cause you a bit of pain, we are going to fix the eyeliner.’”
Although a third season hasn’t been announced, Prisco says: “I sort of want to go into a different area of my life right now. If I continue to be on TV, I will make sure it is a balanced thing.”
•The Glam Fairy airs on Style Network (DStv channel 173) on Tuesdays at 10.05pm.
OTHER NOTABLE SPIN-OFFS:
• The Real Housewives franchise was inspired by the hit TV show Desperate Housewives. It started with The Real Housewives of Orange County and mushroomed to now include spin-offs for Atlanta, New Jersey, New York City, Beverly Hills, Miami and, believe it or not, Vancouver.
• Miami Ink put tattooing on the reality map. That snowballed into several other series – LA Ink, London Ink, NY Ink and Madrid Ink.
• That trashy Jersey Shore series that everyone was addicted to saw more shows involving certain characters like Nicole Polizzi and Jennifer Farley bagging their own show, Snooki and JWoww. And DJ Paul DelVecchio got his own series, The Paul D Project, while Vinny Guadagnino landed The Show With Vinny.
• The drama behind child pageantry made waves in Toddlers & Tiaras, which then lent itself to popular kid star Alana Thompson being signed on for Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
• The Only Way is Essex created a lot of hype when it was released. Several seasons later, some cast members left. Amy Childs, after a stint on Celebrity Big Brother 8, landed It’s All About Amy and Mark Wright, who took part in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, was signed on for Mark Wright’s Hollywood Nights.
• The list of spin-off shows – I won’t even get into the insipidness of Keeping Up With the Kardashians and the shows attached to it – is long, but you get the picture of this trend in TV land.