Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

You got it, she’ll hawk it

Shhhh! Tracy MacClatchey is trying to keep her job a secret.

"I don't talk about it that much," she says.

But why wouldn't the teen want people to know that she co-hosts a TV show?

Maybe it has something to do with the program's name: "Garage Sale Television." "People are like ... 'What's that?"'

Haven't heard of it either? Tracy's not surprised.

The show, in its fifth week on Metro 1, Cable Channel 48, is slowly gaining viewers for its Home Shopping Network-meets-the-classifieds format.

In the meantime, the 16-year-old is learning to deal with her budding local celebrity status. "I couldn't believe it. One of the kids in my (school) actually watched it. He's watched every show," she says.

That surprised her, since "Garage Sale Television" "is not really (geared) for my age group."

For $24.95, local folks can advertise their items -- from pets to dinettes, dressers to motorcycle parts -- and Tracy hawks them via short video clips that air at 8:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.

It's the West Coast version of a show she also hosted segments on in the Palm Beach, Fla., area before she and her family moved to Las Vegas three months ago.

"We heard that everyone here is big on swap shops and stuff like that," Tracy says. "There's so many people moving in and out that there's got to be people selling stuff and people looking for things."

Despite the name, you won't see any televised garage sales on "Garage Sale Television."

The title was meant to be ironic: garage sales in affluent Palm Beach? "It was kind of funny," she says. As for the Vegas version, "The name just stayed."

Tracy, who is studying communications as a junior in the Community College of Southern Nevada's high school program, joined the show a year ago. Her mother, Beverly, mans the video camera.

Hosting is tougher than it seems, the brown-eyed brunette says, especially since she improvises her lines. "I talk really fast on the air. Sometimes it'll take me two or three takes if I mess up."

It's easier when she knows about the item she's trying to sell -- like her family's furniture or her own '88 Mustang that she unloaded on the air.

Usually, she says, sellers "won't tell you that much" about their merchandise, especially vehicles. "They'll tell you what the car (make) is and what year it is. Those can be kind of boring to watch because there's not much to say."

The more fun videos, which take 15 to 25 minutes to film, are spots advertising businesses. "We got to eat their food," she says of a recent shoot at a local Chinese restaurant.

Too bad she didn't see the final product. "I don't like to watch," Tracy says, "because I'm like, 'Aw, I did that wrong' and 'I could have done this better."'

Besides, "I'm never really awake when the show's on. I'm sleeping."

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