As a woman prepares to pitch her friend to an audience of roughly 200 eager singles, a few of their pals skip around the room, hold up cardboard signs that say “Team Jason” and hype up the crowd. A live band plays early 2000s pop music while the eligible bachelor makes his way to the stage and sits on a velvet blue couch under a spotlight.
“Who is Jason?” the woman says into the mic, before signaling the crowd to turn to her PowerPoint-style presentation showing on two TV screens. This slide shows some of his baby photos.
“A boy looking for a gal in this sad, lonely L.A. world,” she continues.
Single attendees are asked to put a sticker heart on their sleeve to indicate what they are looking for at the dating event.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
The woman begins listing reasons why her friend is a catch: He’s artsy, financially stable, is family-oriented, goes to therapy and is “over six-feet on and off Tinder.” When he bashfully stands up to prove her statement, the crowd roars in excitement.
“He’s the only guy I’d let date my sister and you should let him date yours too,” the woman adds.
Not your typical singles mixer, All Hands on Deck is a high-energy matchmaking event where participants pitch their single friends to an audience of mostly singles with a slide deck presentation, the kind one might give to their team at work in a data report meeting. Co-founders Andrea Ramirez and David Greenberg — who have been hosting speed dating events in L.A. through their company, the Next Fun Thing — launched All Hands on Deck in April after seeing a similar event take place in Seattle.
“Everybody is just tired of the dating apps,” Ramirez says. “We don’t love hosting mixers or things where people show up and they’re just left on their own. So we started to think about what else we could bring in L.A. to get people to meet in person.”
Shakoul Bailey makes a memorable entrance as he is introduced at All Hands on Deck, a matchmaking event in the Arts District.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
Audience members laugh as Shakoul Bailey walks to the stage.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
Although it may seem strange, slide decks outside of work or educational settings have been growing in popularity with people using them to host PowerPoint presentation parties, pitch family vacations and recap their dating lives on social media. And for many who are abandoning dating apps, events like All Hands on Deck are an exciting way to meet potential suitors offline.
Held at the House of Cocotte in the Arts District, Ramirez and Greenberg, who have been dating for roughly five years, wanted All Hands on Deck to feel like a full-on production. There are bright stage lights, a live band and prizes (usually sex toys, but on this night it was free tequila shots). Greenberg, who wears a sailor hat and serves as the dynamic host, tells the audience that “silence is not golden” and encourages them to interact with the participants. (During one presentation, a crowd member yells, “She’s a baddie!”)
Ahead of each event, Ramirez combs through more than 200 online submissions from interested participants, then selects up to 15 people based on which ones have the most intriguing and entertaining slide decks.
“It’s like a live dating profile,” says Monce Mejia, 33, an audience member who attended All Hands on Deck for the first time.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
When attendees arrived at the Hawaiian-themed event, they were given a lei to put around their neck because “you’re guaranteed to get laid,” Greenberg jokes. Then singles were asked to put a color-coded heart sticker on their sleeve, which indicates who they are interested in. Pink represents women, blue is men and yellow means you are open to all genders. (They are allowed to double up the stickers as well.)
Then participants began taking turns presenting their four-minute slide decks, which are filled with images, videos, playful stories and fun facts about their mate. Some people even threw in extra theatrics and party favors to liven up their pitch. One woman passed out chocolate bars with a handmade label of her bestie’s Instagram handle and another blew bubbles onstage during their entrance. Another woman performed a remix of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” to talk about her childhood best friend. And one man who was being pitched drew an image of his ideal woman while onstage.
If an audience member sees someone they like, they can virtually raise their hand via a website on their phone.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
If an audience member sees someone they are interested in (or they think they have the perfect person for them), they can virtually raise their hand by clicking a “pick me!” button on a website on their phone. Then it’s up to the single’s bestie to decide whom they will go out with.
“It’s like a live dating profile,” says Monce Mejia, 33, an audience member. “You are seeing the guy. You are looking at their mannerisms. You’re seeing why you should date them and it’s actually more enriching than your typical bland answer on a dating profile. It makes you a lot more excited to reach out to the guy and just like say ‘Hey, I’m interested in you.’”
She adds, “It’s not him putting out what he thinks is best about him. It’s his friend, so you get a lot more insight into who he truly is.”
Ellen Colvin, left, gives a presentation about her childhood best friend, Audrey Nguyen, to an audience of mostly singles.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
In a rare case of reverse Uno, childhood friends Audrey Nguyen and Ellen Colvin pitched each other. Nguyen, who’s a photographer, attended the event a couple of months prior and was surprised by how creative and interactive it was. So she decided to pitch Colvin so she could help her find a man and also flex her creative muscles.
“I was like, no. If you jump, I jump,” says Colvin, 33. “That’s kind of our friendship in a nutshell.”
Nguyen spent hours prepping for the event, hand drawing illustrations to include in her presentation. “I think we all have a lot of good things to say about our friends,” says Nguyen, adding that she has played matchmaker for Colvin before. She posted an ad for potential suitors on Craigslist. “There’s so many good things to say about her. She deserves it and I really want to see her happy.”
Mariah Harvey filled out the All Hands on Deck questionnaire to pitch her friend Shakoul Bailey without his knowledge, but when she realized that they were probably going to be picked, she had to tell him. Thankfully, he was game, and appreciated the gesture.
David Greenberg holds up Jason Chadwick’s sketch of his “ideal girl” at the matchmaking event.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
“Shakoul is such a good-vibes person,” says Harvey, 28, adding that he has tried to set her up with men over the years so she wanted to return the favor. “I want people to see the different aspects of how he makes people feel so [I included] some videos of him dancing and skating that I think highlights who he is.”
Hannah Cole’s entire friend group pitched each other for the event, but it was her presentation about her mate, Milo Jordan Baum, that ended up being selected.
“I’m a librarian who [focuses] specifically on education,” says Cole, 35, adding that she’s glad PowerPoints are cool again. “I already think it’s a really fun medium to do, so the format of it was appealing to me.”
Once the presentations are done, attendees mingle and dance at the after-party at the House of Cocottee in the Arts District.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
Baum, who identifies as bisexual and uses all pronouns, said they wanted to be a part of the event because they enjoy doing “ridiculous things” with their friends.
“I’ve been on dating apps and have been to a couple of mixers,” Baum says. “But I don’t do well in crowds if I don’t know anyone, which is why I forced my bestie to be the one presenting me. My ideal way to meet someone is someone else being like, ‘This person is great,’ and then I can play off that, so I was like, ‘This is perfect.’” Although the event is inclusive to all genders, only one other queer person was presented that night.
All Hands on Deck
When: The next event takes place on Dec. 7.
Where: House of Cocotte, 2028 E. 7th St., Los Angeles
Cost: Tickets start at $20, plus fees. If you are interested in pitching a friend — or nudging your friend to pitch you — fill out this form to be considered for the live show. The hosts will select pitches before Thanksgiving.
When the presentations wrap up around 9:30 p.m., the crowd moves toward the front of the large venue, where a DJ is spinning house music in a pink-lit room. Bartenders are mixing cocktails, while attendees dance, flirt and mingle. One guy leaves with a girl he sat next to during the event, and several other folks exchange phone numbers.
The event left Monce, who virtually raised her hand for a few of the participants, feeling hopeful about dating.
“One of the things that I thought was so cool,” she says, “is you realize that you’re not as unique as you think and what you are looking for is actually out there.”
