LAUREN FREYER, HOST:
When you're looking for love, who better to be your wingman or wingwoman than a really good friend? Pitch-a-Friend takes dating offline and lets the people who know you best explain why you are such a catch. Reporter Buffy Gorrilla checked it out.
BUFFY GORRILLA, BYLINE: It's Thursday night in Philadelphia. The romantic comedy scene is set. Men and women are checking in at a club on the 52nd floor of a centricity building. If you choose a white sticker, it means you are single and ready to mingle. Everyone looks and smells like they've put a little extra effort into their appearance tonight.
CHRISTINE OLLEY: This is my first time at the Pitch-a-Friend events, and I have zero expectations, but I'm excited.
GORRILLA: At a corner table, an outgoing Christine Olley and her friend, Jackie Dougherty, are eating shrimp cocktail. Soon, Dougherty will be standing at the front of this very large, dimly lit room, going through a presentation she created about why Olley is dateable. But how does Olley see herself?
OLLEY: I have a heart of gold. I'm very, very kind. I love my nieces and nephews. I would give somebody the shirt off my back, and I don't want to do life alone anymore (laughter).
GORRILLA: Olley is ready for whatever her friend says about her.
OLLEY: I have not seen Jackie's presentation. She asked me if I wanted to see it, and I said, you know what? YOLO. I trust you.
GORRILLA: At this very moment, Olley's future someone special could be ordering a cocktail from the bartender she thought was hot.
OLLEY: There's a couple of people I have my eye on, so we'll see.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Welcome to Pitch-a-Friend.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Whoo (ph).
GORRILLA: Pitch-a-Friend works like this. In a three-to-five-minute PowerPoint, the pitcher lays out why their friend is a great catch and what they think their friend is looking for. Will Ahern has been to one of these events before. He says there are some real pluses to this real-life format.
WILL AHERN: Your friends can sell you in ways that you're not supposed to brag about yourself 'cause a lot of us don't even see ourselves in the same light that our friends see us.
GORRILLA: The two friends wait as the other presenters step up to the mic. Pitch-a-Friend's website has prompts to help if you're not sure where to start. But most people run through the first-date basics - education, job status, star sign and passions, like travel, fitness and pets. Then it's go time for Dougherty.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: So we're going to welcome back Jackie and Christine.
(CHEERING)
GORRILLA: Olley stays in her seat, watching her friend walk slowly to the mic.
JACKIE DOUGHERTY: Christine has a big heart, a cat named Steve and a stellar sense of humor.
GORRILLA: On the next slide, she compares Olley to three TV shows - "My So-Called Life" meets "Ted Lasso" with a splash of "Project Runway." Dougherty's confidence grows as she talks about her good friend.
DOUGHERTY: She needs someone to be the steady to her sparkle. She's a real sweetheart.
(CHEERING)
GORRILLA: As the applause fades, Olley runs up to hug her friend. After the presentations, people mingle. A few days after the event, Olley sent me a voice memo reflecting on her experience.
OLLEY: I didn't walk away with a phone number. I did walk away with something a little bit more valuable - confirmation that, even though I do want a partner, I know what I want, and I'm not willing to force connections just for the sake of not being single.
GORRILLA: Olley says she's not sure she'd go back to Pitch-a-Friend, but the idea is catching on with more events popping up nationwide. For NPR News in Philadelphia, I'm Buffy Gorrilla.
(SOUNDBITE OF TWICE SONG, "I GOT YOU") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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