Welcome back brave adventurer. Time to finish off the second day of Stan Lee’s Comikaze. Last we saw our “hero”, he was in line for the Super Single Geek’s panel, a happenstance that turned into a wonderful experience. My first observation were the number of men and women who were in line with me. My expectations were shattered. I thought for sure that there would be a heavy ratio of men to women, but I was wrong. There were quite a few women there, and they were just as single and ready to mingle.
The room we were ushered into looked large enough to fit in a few hundred people, and at least half of it was filled. From what I could see, there were a few couples, there to help out their friends, others there in cosplay, and some seemed uncomfortable and others seemed sheepish. On the monitor there, waiting for us, were some geek pickup lines. You could hear some hearty chuckling and laughing at some of the absurd phrases. The two men behind me seemed adamant to try and use those lines on some of the women at the panel.
Our hosts were a couple familiar faces to the convention scene. Voice actor, Dino Andrade and geeky matchmaker, Dina Kampmeyer, came out and started it all off with some dating advice. There was some talk of where to find people to date, where to mingle, some recommended reading, and what we would be doing for the night. But before we began the festivities, they introduced a couple of websites to help geeks find love. SoulGeek.com and the Single Geeks in LA MeetUp group. A couple of websites I may have to look into.
Now onto our “group” activity. It was like being in college again. Here I thought there would be some teaching, more advice, maybe even an infomercial for the respective dating sites, but nope, it was a group project. I’m not a fan of group projects. So, the game of the evening? Single Geek Bingo! It was a fascinating idea and it was remarkably effective. The goal of the game was to find singles throughout the room who met requirements on your game card. If you found someone, they’d write their name on the card, and you either talked a bit, or quickly moved onto the next person. It was ingenious, because you technically got to know a little bit about the person you tried to talk to. Something I did notice though, which was unfortunate, and was actually brought up by the hosts, was that the single folk sought out the attractive ones first, which I felt was inevitable. None of the mattered though, because the game made people assertive. Fears were squelched thanks to the promise or prizes when the game was won.
As men and women went to work, talking, introducing themselves, and shaking hands, I (unsurprisingly to everyone), sat back and observed. I helped a few people out, I talked to a few folk, and was just having a great time people watching. Actual, real connections were made and I was witness to it.
Some of the most fascinating events were two guys becoming buds after a shared love of League of Legends and DOTA2, a girl frantically in search of some male admirers she had met earlier, and large groups of strangers holding, what looked to be, spirited conversations. There were exchanging of e-mails, twitter handles, and even arrangements to meet after the panel. The entire hour was dedicated to the bingo game, and people kept playing even after the last prize was dealt. That stereotype of geeks being awkward or having social anxiety seemed to only apply to a tiny portion of nerds, myself included.
Now, I don’t know what happened to me near the end of the panel, because I too began talking with people. I actually broke out of my usual, anxious shell and spoke with a couple of the single women there, and had some very nice chats. I had an especially lovely conversation with one particular woman who has challenged me to watch the Emperor’s New Groove as well as Kronk’s New Groove. Challenge accepted. Oh, and Chelsea, if you’re reading this, I hope you got your Yzma pin.
This event has rekindled my passion to do Geek Love Radio again. This panel really opened my eyes to the great potential for geeks to couple up, to date, to find love, and that fills my rather black heart with joy. There is hope for those who’ve claimed to be “forever alone” and all that business. All they needed was a common ground. Okay, I really should start GLR again, I just need a female perspective, and I think I’ll revive the podcast. We’ll see what happens. But thank you to the Comikaze Expo for having a panel like this. It was enlightening, it was great to see the guys and gals finding a new acquaintance, or hopefully a new date, and I even got out of my comfort zone for an hour. As for those wondering if I found a date or at least a new acquaintance (because people seem to care for some reason)? I have no idea, but I was probably too oblivious to notice.
Tomorrow, I’ll be writing up on the final day of Comikaze. Until then. Excelsior!
