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In 2014, Lane Moore and her roommates were huddled around a phone looking at Tinder. As they swiped left and right, skating through endless profiles of the horny and brave, Moore remembers coming across a confusing and alarming photo.“Is this guy’s penis on fire?” she said as she gazed horrifically at a random man’s confusing featured photo.
Not quite sure what to make of what she saw, Moore rushed to get her camera. After filming a few minutes of her and her friends riffing on the cringey ways men present themselves on the app, the Brooklyn-based comedian and author had an idea. “This is a comedy show,” she says. “I could project this on screen. We could go through the weird profiles, and it would be hilarious.”
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Nearly a decade later, that’s exactly what happens at Tinder Live with Lane Moore. Combining Moore’s preferred modes of comedy—namely, improvisation and audience interaction—the show takes its audience down a dating app rabbit hole, with Moore, a self-proclaimed lifelong loner, as a cheeky and audacious guide.
The show is coming to the Comedy Fort in Fort Collins on February 10 and the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder on February 11, just in time for Valentine’s Day. In preparation for the event and the holiday, I sat down with Moore to discuss online personas and modern love. I even got her take on my own dating profile (gulp).
5280: Is the show completely improvised?
Lane Moore: Totally. I don’t have jokes prepared in my back pocket. I don’t like going for the easy jokes. I like going a little deeper when riffing on the profiles. I notice the little things. I think that’s really what so much of the show is, noticing things people would never usually notice and then immediately having a joke for it.
Are you on dating apps yourself?
Oh, no. Because, like everyone else, this show comes from a very relatable place of being exhausted by online dating. I’ve seen the frustrations. I’ve seen how tough it can be out there. I’ve done my time. I was very active on dating apps for a long time, then I reached a point where I was like, I do this so much for work, and I just don’t know, I can’t do this anymore.
Do you get criticized from men or people in general for poking fun at the personas online? They’re already so embarrassing.
On dating apps, women get sexually harassed, like, all the time. There’s so much misogyny, homophobia, or racism on these apps. We know now, for the most part, that most of what dating apps are is bad. What I’m doing is something that is never punching down. I know it’s really empowering for women to watch. So, the criticism is silly to me. I am not just pointing men out and saying how much they suck. That would be the cheapest, silliest, most pointless thing to do. Dating apps can just feel so lonely, so I like doing it together with an audience. Any guy who doesn’t see that is missing the point and clearly has not been on dating apps. The show really creates community.
What would make you swipe right on a profile during the show? Any advice for people looking to get roasted?
What we’re looking for, as a loose guideline, is white guys with cornrows named Amen. My guidelines are about looking for someone with a profile with a lot to unpack. I am looking for a profile that is really wild. I am looking for someone who is weird and silly, because 10 times out of 10 that person ends up being just as weird as I’m being, so it’s fun.
I haven’t had much luck with dating apps in Denver. What makes a city a good place to swipe?
I think that’s one of the greatest things that I’ve learned from being on tour. Literally every city is weird for dating online. It’s not just your city. It’s something I hear from so many people: ‘My city is so weird and the worst for dating online, and I’m sure other cities aren’t like this.’ If it makes you feel any better, I’ve never been to a city where everyone was great online. A place where people are like, ‘Online dating is so easy here.’ Like, no, we’re all struggling.
Here’s my profile. What do you think?
Oh, you’re covered in blood.
Yeah…
Okay well, I am a diehard Scream fan. Like, the Scream movie was in my book dedication for How to Be Alone. So, I am loving this. I also wanna say, I don’t go through women’s profiles in the show. The reason is because women’s profiles are only super insane, like, 10 percent of the time. Also, the way I look at it, the world is making fun of women constantly. There’s no reason to add to it. So, I think you seem very cool.
Right. Cool.
Well I like … I barely understand the bloody-mouth, baby lamb, but I’m into it. That is something my Tinder Live character would send to someone. Just, like, a bloody lamb, and be like, ‘You figure it out.’
