How to Kick Ass and Take Names at an Eye Gazing Party

Actually, that title is just a blatant land grab for the phrase ‘eye gazing party’ in search engines. Still, I’ll try to offer some tips.

Via Neatorama, I read about this peculiar variation on speed dating:

Here’s how it works. An even number of singles meets in an attractive space over drinks and world beats. After a fun mini-lesson in the art of eye contact, the group splits into pairs, and each pair spends two minutes looking at each other’s eyes, no talking, with inviting beats in the background. The pairs switch up every two minutes, for a total of half an hour. Then there’s a party afterwards, with drinks flowing and luscious beats vibing. The eye gazing has an electrifying effect on the party; simply put, three minutes of eye contact is the Cadillac of ice-breakers.

Is this a brilliant idea or a stupid one? I can’t decide. As the article goes on to say, “stripped of words and, even better, pickup lines, the gazers resorted to gestural cues. Posture, facial expression, the placement of hands – all gained greater significance.” The eyes are the window to the soul, but I’m not sure how much (or how accurately) you can glean from this eyes-only approach. Of course, it’s followed by a conventional mixer, so you can confirm your suspicions there.

It seems profoundly intimate–how often do you really look into somebody else’s eyes for three minutes? Not very often, and it’s generally someone you’ve already seen naked (or, you know, at least snogged).

Julie and I then did a mental survey of all our friends, to assess how’d they’d come off at this social experiment. It’s a fun game–ask yourself who would be entrancing and who would seem vapid. We decided that our friend Chez (pictured above) would clean house, because she’s got big, kind eyes and is an actor, so she’d have plenty of confidence.

By the way, somebody should start an eye gazing party here in Vancouver–it’s just the sort of goofy social thingy that our vapid town would love.
I’ve never been to one of these things, but here are some obvious tips for the eye gazing set:

• Take care of your eye brows. Women usually have this sorted, but as us men get older we can get a pair of Black Forests over our eyes.
• Get a good night’s sleep the night before.
• Think happy thoughts.
• Keep your hands below the table. I’m a big fiddler, and I know I’d be playing a shell game with my cutlery if I let myself.

What tips would you offer?