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

Brian Heater

a Convention goer stands close to Ork from Warhammer 40,000 through the 2010 ny Comic Con during the Jacob K. Javits Center in new york October 8, 2010. (Timothy A. Clary, AFP / Getty Images)

Looking for a gf whom 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 aided by the synthetic Freddie Krueger glove.

“Sure,” I answer, a bit baffled. Provided the unlimited conversational subjects presented by the jam-packed meeting occurring above our minds, i might do not have guessed we’d broach the task associated with “Tik Tok” singer therefore quickly.

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

There’s a 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 nyc Comic-Con and that track are clear, she states. First, the convention is downtown. (really, the Jacob K. Javits Center is perhaps not downtown, but we don’t correct her. Nobody likes a know-it-all.) The freaks part, she claims, is inherent—the geeks, the dorks, the nerds (my words), all decked call at costumes and paraphernalia.

The “hole when you look at the wall part that is confusing. I’ve got a few theories, but because of the fairly restricted period of your date, We have them to myself.

Finally, all of it results in that last line. Ny Comic-Con, it appears, is a dirty free for several.

Of course, there’s absolutely nothing that is particularly“dirty on in space 1A20. The area 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, simply take one step to their right, and start anew because of the next available girl.

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

The statement isn’t completely accurate. He’s a guy that is big certainly—a self-proclaimed stereotypical showgoer (hefty, white, nerdy)—but there’s no Jedi paraphernalia on their big framework. We have been 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 generally lamenting the dearth of X chromosomes.

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

It really is a concern, without doubt, provided by both relative lines, and Glitch along with his scantily clad gf begin the entire process of flagging down ladies.

Glitch announces reassuringly to your type of dudes which he came across their “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 early july in Orlando. It absolutely was the first-time Glitch’s one-man business, Lightning Fast Speed Dating, had taken component such a show, and it also ended up being a rousing success, by many reports.

As soon as we first spot him downstairs in the Javits Center, nevertheless, he’s exchanged their Jedi robes for sunglasses and a black colored T-shirt. It’s only after an assistant hands him a black leather-based 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 from the future to facilitate nerd love, offer water containers in return for Star Gate trivia, and break jokes of dubious style in blended business.

Ours may be the 2nd of three such sessions held during the period of brand new York Comic-Con’s three times, and one about speed dating throughout the meeting appears to have captured the imagination regarding the show’s attendees. The lines are long, and Glitch will ultimately turn individuals (mostly guys) away before opening the doorways. He counts from the women and an equal quantity of males, cutting from the line right before me personally.

“Can we speak with you for an extra?” I ask.

“Am I in big trouble?” the Terminator reacts.

He daf-dating is told by me that I’m aided by the press. That I’m right here to report from the event, undercover.

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

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

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