Are you looking for a fun last-minute date idea for Valentine’s Day in D.C. on Wednesday night?
Story District hosts “Worst Date Ever: A Valentine’s Day Contest” at Howard Theatre at 7:30 p.m.
“This is such a perfect thing to do on Valentine’s Day if you’re not into the cheesy, Hallmarky stuff,” founding director Amy Saidman told WTOP. “We all know that romance is hard and dating is harder. … I had so many terrible dates and I’d come home and it was such fodder for friends, they wanted to hear about the disasters, it was so entertaining, so it occurred to me that it could make a great show, so we started ‘Worst Date Ever.'”
A carefully curated group of eight contestants will get up on stage to share their dating horror stories.
“We have a pitch form on our website … we listen to them, follow up, do callbacks and over time we figure out which stories are a good fit,” Saidman said. “Most of the people that are gonna get up on stage have never told a story before, maybe never been on stage before, but Story District’s whole mission is to promote the art of storytelling, help teach and coach, so anybody in your listening audience can get up on stage with Story District.”
What are some of the craziest stories told in past years?
“One of my favorites told a story about a guy who came in and ended up being like, ‘Look, I’m on this date but I fell in love with someone else, then he tried to sell her insurance,” Saidman said. “He brought out like a briefcase full of insurance policy things.”
Other hopeless romantics ended up in dangerous situations.
“Last year, Reggie went to see someone he knew when he was younger and he thinks it’s going to be this great night,” Saidman said. “It ends up that she also invited this other dude, this big dude that could open canned food with his teeth, and this woman wanted them to fight over her, but he decides to jump out of this second-floor window and run instead of facing off with this guy because Reggie is like half of his size.”
Some dates even ended downright disgusting.
“Darryl tells this story where he meets this guy at a bar, he’s super cute, they’re flirting and he’s like, ‘Why don’t we take a walk?’ He thinks this will be a great way to just move things along,” Saidman said. “They’re at Dupont Circle and this guy says, ‘Give me one sec, I’ll be right back,’ he takes a minute but Darryl realizes he was taking a dump in Dupont! … He sees the guy behind a bush and the guy is going to the bathroom … like No. 2! That ended badly.”
Fittingly, the winner receives a golden plunger.
“This whole contest is meant to be fun, lighthearted and the worst date wins,” Saidman explained. “Each person will tell their story about seven to eight minutes long, then we bring them back up on stage and we have our panel of color commentators, they’ll ask them a bunch of silly questions, then the audience gets a chance to vote. … We put a QR code up, people scan it and vote on an online form. … They pick who truly had the worst experience.”
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