SERIOUSLY? *This* is how simple it's been this whole time??

Man who posts flyers looking for a girlfriend reveals he has had 118 ‘hook-ups’ so far





IT’S a tough marketplace to stand out in. So when New Yorker Dan Perino wanted to settle down amid Manhattan’s brutal dating scene, he took an inventive approach.

The actor and part-time web designer made a flyer with his picture and contact details along with the words “looking for a girlfriend” and “this is not a joke” and plastered it across his local neighbourhood.

Now six months on, the 51-year-old has become a national celebrity and posted more than 40,000 pictures of his face around New York, in an unusual approach to dating that has seen him score hundreds of dates and 118 ‘hook-ups’ so far.

“It’s been going great” he told news.com.au. “I’ve had ... hook-ups with 118 girls, but the dating is a lot more than that.”

The unorthodox approach gained him national media attention when it first came to light in August last year. Since then, Mr Perino has made a documentary, written a short story and is hoping to fund a reality show from his exploits.

“At that time I just wanted to find a girlfriend, I had no idea. I built the flyer with a friend of mine, thinking that I would find one within a week. That wasn’t the case. Then CBS news wanted to interview me and it just kept going and going with the media,” he said.

“I was getting 200-300 calls per day. I couldn’t get back to everybody, it was difficult. I’ve got back to everybody by now, there’s been over 8000 phone calls. I posted well over 40,000 flyers. I try to keep it below 14th street although I do go up to mid-town sometimes.”

The flyers have led to plenty of text messages and at least one or two phone calls a day, although Mr Perino said some are intimidated by his new found ‘celebrity’ status.

“A lot of girls get nervous around me on a date because of the celebrity thing. They’ll read all the articles on me on Google ... They’re just scared, they’re not used to it I guess. I walk down the street and get stopped 10 or 15 times a day for my picture,” he said.

While initially he would take his dates out to dinner, the huge number of prospective girlfriends meant it was costing him a fortune and he’s now downgraded his dates to coffee — albeit with a red rose.

The project has led to plenty of scepticism over whether it’s all a piece of performance art but Mr Perino insists he is genuine.

“It didn’t start of as any kind of media thing, it just started as me to find a girlfriend, but I didn’t really realise that until later in the game ... I guess you could call it a piece of artwork,” he said.

One of his short stories details how a 25-year-old woman in town with her father on business sent a limo to pick him up and bring him to her hotel. Some of his other more bizarre exploits are expected to be featured in the upcoming documentary.

While’s he’s now going on more dates, Mr Perino said women are still the ones who hold all the cards in the dating scene.

“Women are actually picking up me. There’s an interview process. Even if you go on a coffee date, there’s an interview process the women does. They kind of ask you questions without you knowing … to see if you’re going to be strong enough and attractive enough to be with them there’s no such thing as men picking up women, it just doesn’t exist.”

http://www.amny.com/news/dan-perino-s-looking-for-a-girlfriend-fliers-in-nyc-led-to-hook-ups-with-118-girls-he-says-1.10006768
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/man-who-posts-flyers-looking-for-a-girlfriend-reveals-he-has-had-118-hook-ups-so-far/story-fnet0gly-1227245980924