Search

By Francesca Rockwell

If you’re out with a friend and you’re trying to meet new dating prospects, you want your pal to help, not hurt, your chances of success. You want someone who makes you even more attractive to the opposite sex. But things can go bad for many reasons.…

Successful Partnership
Here are a few things your pal should bring to the table to be a good wingman or wingwoman:

• Be attractive, but not too attractive. Your friend should be someone with a nice smile and a friendly manner. But you don’t want someone much hotter than you on your wing. You want your potential dates to be looking at you, not drooling over your friend.
• Be funny. If your buddy is boring, then the hottie across the room is not going to stay longer than two seconds when you’re trying for flirty banter. You don’t want to use all your jokes and funny stories up right off the bat, so your friend needs to give you opportunities to smile hugely, gaze in each other’s eyes and nod about how hilarious your pal is.
• Be smart. Your friend who has your back needs to really have your back. That means scouting out what’s going on and not letting you get involved with someone who’s already attached, who’s attractive to you only with your bar goggles on or who’s otherwise a mismatch for you.
• Be casual. Your pal’s job is to put you and the target of your affection at ease. You want someone who can help fill the conversational gaps when you and your potential sweetie have those awkward silences that happen when you first meet.
• Be attached. Even if your friend isn’t hotter than you, the danger is always there that he or she will connect with the target of your interest better than you will. You’ll have better chances if your friend is already attached and gives off that vibe.
• Be dignified. You don’t want a loudmouth or overbearing buddy by your side while you’re trying to woo someone. You don’t want a pal who tells insulting jokes or has to be the center of attention either. You want someone respectable. You want someone who makes you look like you have good judgment in friends.

Dramatic Failure
If you don’t pick your sidekick wisely, you could end up with the wingman who pulls a woman over and says, “Hey, this guy really wants to meet you! He’s been looking at you all night and thinks you look like his ex-girlfriend who just dumped him!” Or you might be shocked to hear your wingwoman say, “We picked you out of all the hot guys in the bar because you look like marriage material!”

Again, the key is for your winged pal to lift you up and help you soar with your new sweetie, not to steer you toward a crash and burn before you two can even get off the ground. So for your next night out, choose carefully!