The love doctor checked himself in and saw new patients this past weekend on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville campus.

David Coleman, also known as “The Love Doctor, ” referred to himself as the real life version of Will Smith’s character in the movie Hitch.

Coleman created a relaxed and open environment in the Markee Pioneer Student Center. The doctor gave advice and encouraged the audience to participate as much as they wanted.

If audience members were honest and participated, they normally would have been rewarded with a piece of chocolate, but his luggage had gotten lost, so Campus Relations and Programming improvised with what they call “CPR Swag.” Swag items included things such as a deck of cards and sunglasses. Throughout the discussion the audience often had to either repeat things back to him or speak with the people close to them in the audience.

Coleman started off his show by saying, “You will not find the right person until you become the right person.” He also suggested that in order to become the right person you have to be able to look at yourself at all times and say, “I would so date me.”

The audience was taught the ABCs of Initial Interest. The ABCs are attraction, believability, chemistry and desire. Each ABC is unrelated to the appearance of the other person, but instead intended to show how you feel about each other. Once you have the initial interest in someone you then are supposed to spend one hour with them to make sure that the interest is still there. If you spend one more hour with them things could still change and you could lose interest. However, the rule is then to stop hanging out with them after an hour so you can have some topics to talk about for the next time you see each other.

Coleman then gave the audience some hints on what to look for when trying to determine if someone is interested in you.

In addition to the positive signs people give when first meeting, Coleman also shared some red flags to look for in new relationships. One is if they want to be too physical too quickly in the relationship, which may mean they live an unhealthy lifestyle. Someone might have a questionable relationship history where they have either dated a lot of people or not dated anyone, either way you have to consider why.

Coleman finished his presentation with insight into what qualities people look for in one another. A sense of independence, confidence, a fun-loving sense of humor, they’re interesting, have some mystery to themselves, are successful and can communicate without losing control. Coleman stressed that if you can find someone with these qualities, then you have found someone who you can love.

Following the Love Doctor discussion, speed dating began. According to Greg Frechette, junior electrical engineering major and one of the CPR event producers of the night, there were 31 women who signed up and 45 men. Along with running the event Frechette also participated. Frechette’s girlfriend, Hailey Wells junior electrical engineering major, also participated. Both Wells and Frechette decided to make a competition out of speeding dating. The person who got the most matches would win and the loser would have to pay for dinner.

“It was Greg’s idea to do it,” Wells said. “Speed dating was a great way to meet people and make friends.”

Speed dating took place inside the University Rooms in the MPSC. Every participant was given a number and a sheet of paper. Each person was asked to write their contact information on the sheet and were told to write down the number of the person that they were interested in. Then at the end of the night you turned the sheet in and if you and another participant wrote each other’s numbers down, then CPR would inform you the following Monday that you matched. If you were matched with someone, CPR provided your matches with the contact information you filled out at the beginning of the night.

Coleman then gave the men instructions before starting, telling them that they needed to shake the womens’ hands and asked them to sit before the timer started. Everyone had three minutes to talk and try and spark an interest in the other person. Approximately an hour after it began, Coleman decreased the time down to two minutes and thirty seconds so participant could mingle with more people before the event ended.

When the results of speed dating went out, it was revealed that Wells beat Frechette by getting 60 percent of the male participants’ contact information and Frechette only getting 55 percent of the female participants’ information.

“I felt kind of guilty because some of the guys that I was talking to didn’t know that have a boyfriend,” Wells said.

With additional reporting by Christian Solano and Samantha Hoppert.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]