Bro in Tights: Nerd Speed Dating (Part I)

By Brogrammer on April 18, 2012

It’s C2E2 weekend again, and this year we decided to do things right. Instead of attending as spectators and press, we stepped things up, nerded-out, went in costume, and assimilated into the culture. Well, that’s my justification for blowing $300 on a costume for one day, anyway.

[Pause here to picture me in my Green/Blue Lantern costume.]

The convention is a whole different kind of place when you’re in costume. Everyone instantly loves you, and you’re posing for pictures almost non-stop. It doesn’t matter who you are out in the real world, you’re part of something at the con. And it’s definitely a confidence-builder to have hundreds of people want to take your picture because you just look so epic.

Just as I was starting to feel confident in my skin-tight spandex costume, my colleagues at BrohamNation pointed out a speed dating event coming up.

Steel Trap: “How great would it be to get a first-hand account of nerd speed dating?”

Me: “That sound’s awesome. Who’s going to do it?”

Steel Trap: “Well, we all have girlfriends or are married, so I guess that means you’re nominated.”

Me: “Great. Nothing makes a guy feel more confident than the prospect of 20 first dates in skin-tight spandex, which will wind up on the internet. Let’s do this before I come to my senses.”

We show up to the event about 45 minutes early, but the event was already pre-registered-full. The organizer explained that some people end up not showing, so if we form a line and stick around we might still get in. I’d made it this far, so I decided to camp out. The organizer, Ryan Glitch, and I started chatting while I waited for the event to start.

The very first things I asked – the questions on the minds of nerds everywhere – Are the girls hot and does this whole speed dating thing really work? The answer to the former is a clear pant-tightening “yes” for some (say 20%-ish) and a “heeeell no” for most of the rest. Apparently, though, the whole process works. Six couples who met at Sci-Fi Speed Dating (the name of the company) events are currently engaged and another 35 couples are dating. Ryan himself met his fiance at a speed dating event – one he was running, no less (which makes him a baller in my book): “Yeah, I was running the event, and she just came up to me after and we hit it off… She basically raped me. Just kidding. It was mutual, it’s cool.”