Miranda did it on Sex and the City.\ Will Smith did it in ""Hitch."" Even the 40-year-old virgin did it. And now, people in real life are doing it too, and it's happening right here in Madison. It's called ""speed dating,"" and it's quickly becoming one of the hottest, most talked-about ways to meet Mr. or Ms. Right.
If you're not up on your pop culture and think speed dating is some kind of new Olympic event, think again.
Described by Kristi Moe, founder of Madison speed dating service Flirting in the City, as ""musical chairs for grown-ups,"" speed dating is a matchmaking process in which each person attending can have anywhere from 10 to 20 dates in a single evening. That's more dates than even Paris Hilton could handle in a night, so each date takes place in intervals of only four to six minutes, quickly switching from table to table.
Frecky Lewis, a 30-year-old anesthesiology resident in Madison, has attended five local speed dating events.
""Five minutes is a difficult amount of time to work with in trying to meet someone, but it really depends on what you want to get out of the five minutes,"" he said. ""You need to try to highlight the most important things about a person in a short amount of time, like seeing if they have a similar communicating style to yours, a good sense of humor, and if you feel comfortable with them.""
At the end of the night, in a very junior-high-like fashion, it's as simple as checking ""yes"" or ""no"" boxes for each person you clicked with or didn't; then two days later, voila! The names of all the speed daters that also checked ""yes"" for you will be revealed.
Surprisingly, speed dating was started in the early ‘90s by a Jewish rabbi in California who noticed that Jewish singles were having a hard time meeting each other and created speed dating events as the answer to their dating troubles.
Although it has been around for years in places like New York and Los Angeles, speed dating finally made its way to the Midwest. Within the last year, it seems like speed dating events in Madison have become almost as frequent as parties on campus. OK, maybe not yet.
""I started up Flirting in the City last October, because as a single girl myself with many single girlfriends, we found it frustrating to meet people in Madison and we were tired of bars and online dating,"" Moe said.
After Flirting in the City was established, more dating opportunities followed. Fast Dater, a national speed dating company, began having events in Madison. Crush Madison, a local organization that specializes in putting on social events, also offers speed dating events here for singles.
""Speed dating is an interesting way to meet other folks in Madison,"" Lewis said. ""I tried the online scene with mixed results, and speed dating seemed like a good opportunity to meet people you knew were most likely looking for other single people.""
Although speed dating is definitely not a conventional way to go about meeting ""that special someone,"" it does have its fair share of success stories.
Take Kim Olson, a Madison single in her late 20s who had never tried speed dating until she attended a Flirting in the City event in Nov. 2005.
""I signed up for speed dating with a couple guy friends of mine,"" Olson said.""We didn't know what to expect but thought we might at least meet some nice people and walk away with some new friends. I didn't really take the event seriously.""
To Olson's surprise, she ended up with a boyfriend from trying speed dating.
""We soon became friends, and one thing led to another and we have been together ever since.I know my boyfriend and I did not expect to walkaway from speed dating together, butfinding each other has been the best thing that hashappened to both of us so far,"" Olson said.
All in all, if trying to meet someone in a sea of obnoxious, drunken guys at the bars results in the same old hopeless pickup lines, or if that girl from the online personals drops you for a guy named Fabio she met in a chat room, perhaps it's time to give speed dating a shot.
""Speed dating may seem to look at first like a seventh or eighth grade mixer, starting out with girls on one side and guys on the other, but once you get comfortable, it gets surprisingly easy to strike up a conversation. Because what's the worse that could happen? It always ends up being a fun evening either way, so you've got nothing to lose,"" Lewis said.
For upcoming speed dating events in the Madison area, visit www.fastdater.com, www.crushmadison.com, or
www.flirtinginthecity.com.
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