Star Wars fans go speed-dating and find true love

The Sci-Fi speed-dating was started after numerous other companies failed to help fans find love

The founder of sci-fi speed-dating, Ryan Glitch (YouTube)

For “Star Wars” fans who are looking for love in Alderaan places, Ryan Glitch has a solution: sci-fi speed-dating, which he hosts at Comic-Cons around the country.

In five years of geek speed-dating, the events have led to 112 couples who are dating seriously; 43 couples who are currently engaged; and 74 couples who have tied the knot. “Our 19th baby was just born,” Glitch adds.

Glitch, now 29, was single when he starting hosting the speed-dating events five years ago. “They had a version of speed-dating at Con Atlanta, and it was atrocious,” he said in a phone interview this week. There was another con coming up, so he suggested a speed-dating event. “They had me do it for them and it just kind of blew up,” he says.

Glitch met his girlfriend at one of his events. “She came up to me afterward and mentioned to me that she thought the host was funnier than the guys in it,” he says. “We started shooting the breeze online,” and they eventually became a couple.

When asked about his favorite “Star Wars” relationship, Glitch quickly dismisses Anakin and Padme (“he wound up killing her so that’s probably a bad one”).#

"I really like the Han and Leia relationship you see in the movie,” he says, “where Han is kind of cocky and she’s like: Who gives a s—? She’s not impressed by him, but she is enamored by him. That’s one of the reasons they work.”

Similarly, Glitch says his girlfriend is impressed by his one-liners and his wit — but they don’t blow her away. The Han and Leia love affair is reminder, Glitch says, to just be yourself in relationships. “Don’t try to impress people,” he adds.

Glitch has dated “normal” (his word) women before, but they haven’t always been enthusiastic about his “Star Wars” obsession. Glitch recalls being on a first date with someone who asked, “So you dress up?” When he said that yes, he did, “she went to the bathroom and never came back.”

But sci-fi super-fans can fall in love with “normal people,” Glitch says, as long as the non-fan fully accepts his partner’s obsession. “Tolerance is not the same as the acceptance,” Glitch points out.

Everyone’s a fan of something, he says, adding that he’ll never understand NASCAR fans.

Is there speed-dating at the Daytona 500?

Copyright: Washington Post