Ny Comic Con’s Speed Dating for Geeks

Trying to find a gf whom really loves horror film paraphernalia and anime? She that are sitting across away from you at ny Comic Con’s speed-dating event. Brian Heater reports.

Brian Heater

a meeting goer appears close to Ork from Warhammer 40,000 throughout the 2010 nyc Comic Con during the Jacob K. Javits Center in new york 8, 2010 october. (Timothy A. Clary, AFP / Getty Images)

Trying to find a gf whom really loves horror-movie paraphernalia and anime? She might be sitting across from you at nyc Comic-Con’s speed-dating event. Brian Heater reports.

“You understand Ke$ha, right?” asks the girl with all the synthetic Freddie Krueger glove.

“Sure,” I answer, a bit baffled. Because of the limitless conversational subjects presented because of the convention that is jam-packed above our minds, i might not have guessed we’d broach the job of this “Tik Tok” singer therefore quickly.

“There’s a song,” the lady explains, “Take it well.” She recites the chorus,

There’s a accepted place downtown, where in actuality the freaks all come around. It’s a hole into the wall surface. It’s a dirty free for many.

The parallels between https://datingranking.net/de/sdc-review/ ny Comic-Con and that track are clear, she claims. First, the convention is downtown. (really, the Jacob K. Javits Center is certainly not downtown, but we don’t correct her. No body likes a know-it-all.) The freaks component, she says, is inherent—the geeks, the dorks, the nerds (my terms), all decked call at costumes and paraphernalia.

The “hole into the wall surface” component continues to be ambiguous. I’ve got a couple of theories, but offered the duration that is fairly limited of date, We have them to myself.

Fundamentally, all of it results in that final line. Nyc Comic-Con, this indicates, is a dirty free for all.

Of course, there’s absolutely nothing particularly “dirty” going on in space 1A20. The space is sterile and well-lit, with 40 chairs that are folding arranged. as soon as every three full minutes, the guys are instructed to face up, just take a step to their right, and begin anew using the next available girl.

Emcee and self-styled geek standup Ryan Glitch operates a rather well-oiled device in a meeting space therefore steeped in intimate awkwardness you can cut it with a light-saber reproduction. “They call me personally ‘Giganakin,’” Glitch announces before the session commences, “because I’m overweight, and my costume is Anakin.”

The declaration is not completely accurate. He’s a big guy, certainly—a self-proclaimed stereotypical showgoer (hefty, white, nerdy)—but there’s no Jedi paraphernalia on his big framework. We’re first introduced to him outside, as he separates us into lines of male and female, forbidding pre-show inter-gender conversations, muttering the phrase “sausage-fest” many times, and usually lamenting the dearth of X chromosomes.

“What kind of geek are you?” a lady asks me personally. We hesitate for a brief moment and respond, “Comics, i suppose.” It’s not as popular a remedy when I expected.

It’s a concern, without doubt, shared by both lines, and Glitch along with his scantily clad gf start the entire process of flagging down females.

Glitch announces reassuringly to your type of dudes he came across his “lovely associate” at a previous event—C5, he informs me later on, quick for Celebration, a semi-annual Star Wars meeting, the 5th of that has been held come july 1st in Orlando. It had been the very first time Glitch’s one-man business, Lightning Fast Speed Dating, had taken component this kind of a show, and it also ended up being a rousing success, by many reports.

Him downstairs at the Javits Center, however, he has traded his Jedi robes for sunglasses and a black T-shirt when we first spot. It’s only after an assistant hands him a black colored fabric coat|leather that is black} and fake synthetic shotgun with a bright orange tip that he’s more than simply a speed-dating host; he’s a cyborg sent through the future to facilitate nerd love, offer water containers in trade for Star Gate trivia, and break jokes of dubious style in blended company.

Ours may be the 2nd of three such sessions held during the period of New York Comic-Con’s three times, then one about speed dating through the meeting seemingly have captured the imagination associated with the show’s attendees. The lines are long, and Glitch will fundamentally turn individuals (mostly guys) away before opening the doorways. He counts from the ladies and an number that is equal of, cutting from the line prior to me.

“Can we keep in touch with you for an extra?” I ask.

“Am I in some trouble?” the Terminator responds.

We make sure he understands that I’m aided by the press. That I’m here to report regarding the event, undercover.

“Are you single?” he responds. We nod.

“Are you right here simply to report, or are you currently looking for someone?”

“Well,” I answer, “you never understand.”