- You might think the only person
who could be trusted with your love life is you, right?
Wrong.
Enter the Board of Dating, a group of friends, family,
and even co-workers you enlist to do the choosing for you.
Guided by a relationship expert, that's me, Spicy Mari.
they're not leaving until they make a match
because when it comes to dating,
we could all use a little help.
This is Board of Dating.
I am geeking right now,
because I'm on my way to go visit Abimbola.
- My name is Abimbola, I'm 31 years old.
Some of my really, really, really close friends,
they call me Beverly.
And, I've never had a serious relationship at all.
- 31 and never had a boyfriend
means there's something going on there.
- I was in this, I call it a situationship,
on and off for like three years.
- [Mari] I'm gonna dig a little bit deeper
to this whole, you know, situationship
that she had going on.
- Hi! - Hi!
- How are you?
- All right.
We are gonna get into it right now.
I'm so excited to talk to you.
- [Abimbola] Thank you.
- I heard you were in a situationship before?
Describe that to me.
What was that experience?
- We're literally hang out all the time.
We talked on the phone every night before we went to bed.
We even said I love you,
but he didn't want to get in a relationship with me,
and so, after three years,
he actually got into a relationship with someone else.
- [Mari] Did he break your heart?
- It's not like entirely broken,
but he broke like a piece off.
Yeah.
- That pain sticks with you,
but that pain is a learning lesson.
You're gonna have grown from that situation.
- Yeah.
- You say you're ready for this relationship.
Who's gonna help us find this person for you?
Who's our team?
- So I'm Meghan.
I am Beverly's roommate.
- She basically knows what I'm going through
when it comes to dating, 'cause after every date,
I'll come home, and she'll be like, "How was it?"
And I'll let her know what's going on.
- Hi, I'm Alex, and I know Abimbola.
We work together, actually.
We instantly clicked and we became work besties.
- I honestly think she might know
what type of guy I want more than me.
And then, my best friend of 18 years.
- My name is Dana, and I know Beverly since eighth grade.
- She basically jokes
that I'm the longest relationship she's had.
18 years is a very long time.
- Very long time. - Yeah.
She's more than a best friend.
I don't know why I'm getting teary-eyed.
She's basically been there with me
for the hard times and.
- It's love, that's like real love.
I mean, I'm happy that she's on the Board,
'cause we have to have those kind of people
and those kind of relationships in our corner,
but if you started dating someone,
and they don't have a love like the love you have for Dana,
you know you gotta split. - Yeah.
- [Mari] They are not worth it.
- Beverly's a great catch because she's awesome.
She's funny and she's so blunt,
but it's almost like so blunt that it is funny,
'cause you're like, all right, I get it.
- She's so authentic.
- Beauty, brains, and she's a blerd,
if you know what that is.
- What is that?
- Black nerd.
- Oh, amazing, that's true.
- I really think that you need to focus
on what your core values are.
So, give me some of them.
- I'm really family oriented,
so I would like my significant other
to also be close to his family,
and open minded to my culture,
because my culture's everything to me,
so I want someone to also want to learn more about me
and my culture, and where I'm from.
Sense of humor.
If I can't laugh with him, I don't know what we're doing.
- She maybe hasn't been matched
or met the person that supports her
and reciprocates back to her everything
that she gives in a relationship.
I feel like she's open.
- I feel like she's open she doesn't have a type.
- Yeah, she doesn't really have a look type.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
As long as they don't look like they're gonna like--
- Kill somebody.
- Yeah.
Well definitely not that.
- So what are some of your deal breakers?
- I've never made the list of like
this is not what I want.
- We got to come up with the deal breaker list
because we need to know what we won't
compromise or accept.
- Deal breakers.
Smoking and has kids.
- That list only has two things on it,
which means there's a million other things
that you're gonna accept and compromise.
You gotta have more deal breakers in this honey.
- It's 'cause I know what I want.
- It's easier to write the wants,
'cause those are the fun exciting things
we have to look forward to.
We get to daydream about those,
but when you have to write the deal breakers,
the reason why that's so challenging
is because you want to be in a relationship so bad
that you don't want to take anything off the table.
- I don't know where my head's been all this time,
but thank you for that.
- The same love and loyalty and care
that you experience in your relationship with Dana,
we want that for you when it comes to the guy
that we're gonna set you up with.
- I know you're gonna do amazing things for me.
I can't wait.
- My one advice for Abimbola is
to not feel defeated in the process.
- Yes.
- Because I think she's really put herself forward.
- That's bomb advice.
- Yeah, oh my god.
- Hi. - Hey.
- Hello, welcome ladies.
Abimbola has shared a lot of amazing things
about your guys' friendship
and what she's looking for in a partnership with a guy.
Took me a while, I went through a lot of guys for her
and I narrowed it down to three.
So the first person is Stephen.
- My name is Stephen and I live in downtown L.A.
I just relocated out here from New York City
about three months ago.
Weekends are so short as they are
so I always try to go hiking or just be active.
An ideal first date for me would be
something super adventurous, something unique
like bungee jumping you know, something really cool
that you'll never forget.
As much as I speak about all those things,
I do have a stable job, and a pretty stable life.
So I think I could bring a lot to someone.
I think I can make someone very happy.
- Okay.
- All right.
- Okay, so the next person that I chose was Jay Stubbs.
Based on things that she's physically attracted to.
- What's going on people?
My name is Jay, I'm 29, live in Corona, California.
I do music and I work at Amazon.
I had two great parents.
Couldn't have asked for a better situation.
I have three older siblings, I'm the youngest.
Family's very important,
it let's me know if she's crazy or not.
Let me see your family girl.
What am I looking for in a partner?
She has to have a sense of humor.
If you don't have a sense of humor we won't work out.
I have fun.
I'm very ambitious, but a lot of times I get tunnel vision
and I tend to just forget about people,
not intentionally, but that's me, Jay Stubbs.
Holla back.
- Okay. - Okay.
Interesting, interesting.
- Last but not least, we have Manan.
Indian background, culture is very important to him.
- My name is Manan, I'm 30 years old.
I just moved here from Philly, I'm a artist.
I do music, I also write screenplays and scripts,
and also on the side I do some chess degreeing
for coming on five years now.
I have one sibling, younger brother.
He's like a super fit, workout gym guy,
and I was the opposite.
What do I do for fun?
I love writing, I write a lot, music, film, television.
Staying active, any outdoor things are always fun.
Thanks for the time.
Peace.
- Manan.
- Okay, do not make a decision yet.
I want to hear first some of the pros and cons.
So let's start with who we started with first, with Stephen.
- When he said she has to be a yes person,
I gather from that he wants--
- She's not gonna go bungee jumping.
- Exactly, he want's someone adventurous.
She's not doing that.
- [Mari] At all?
- At all.
- Okay. - Yeah, that's just not her.
I think he seems friendly,
but I don't think he seemed super funny and animated.
Like he's gonna work hard to make her laugh.
- [Mari] Let's see how we feel about Jay.
- [Alex] I think she would be impressed with his physique.
- [Meghan] And he's funny.
- My biggest con was the whole
"Oh, I like forget about people, like I'll get busy."
- Mr. Indifferent.
Doesn't sound good to me. - Yeah, it doesn't.
- Yeah.
- She needs someone who is empathetic
and caring, and interested.
- Yeah. - Devoted.
- [Mari] Let's talk a little bit about Manan then.
- He said culture means a lot to him.
- Yeah, he seems flexible, like he's not too much like.
- And he likes music.
- We had also discussed that we need to be
more aware of red flags when a guy is showing us signs
that it may just be a situationship.
Does he seem like somebody who might commit eventually?
Does he seem like somebody
that would be grounded? - I would hope so.
I don't know.
- Are you guys ready to vote?
- I'm about to meet my blind date.
I'm excited, but I'm also really, really nervous,
but my friends did pick him,
so I trust that they've made a great pick.
- [Manan] Hey, how you doing?
- Hi, how are you?
- Good, how are you?
- [Abimbola] I'm Abimbola.
- [Manan] Manan.
- Manan, nice to meet you.
- Pleasure, Abimbola? - Yes.
- Brilliant, I like that.
- Thank you, I like your glasses.
- Thank you. - I usually wear glasses too.
- Yeah.
- So, I mean, where are you from?
- Philly, I just moved out here like two months ago.
- Wow, why?
- Music and writing, I've been doing a lot of writing.
I figured this is like the hub.
What about you?
- I'm from all over basically.
My dad was in the military, so we moved around a lot.
Then I moved to L.A. five years ago.
- That's brilliant.
- I don't know how you are when it comes to painting,
but for our date we're gonna paint pottery.
- Cool.
- And we're gonna get some pizza.
- I love pizza, I'm terrible at painting.
- I love pizza, I'm terrible at painting too.
- Good so you're not gonna make me look bad on camera,
that's perfect. - No, no, no, no, no.
So let's go, let's have some fun.
How tall are you?
- [Manan] I'm six-four.
- [Abimbola] Manan I love that.
- Yeah.
- I was like debating, like oh when it comes to shoes
should I wear-- - Could you imagine
if I'm like, hey!
And you're like yo get this guy the fuck out of here.
We are strapped now.
- This is fun. - We're locked and loaded.
- I don't know where I'm, where do I look?
Oh, there.
- There.
I just keep looking I'm like, I was like,
I can't paint, but you're gonna get some some
really abstract pottery, for sure.
Like, Dali, melting animals. - Like colors, oh my gosh.
I decided that I would pick the thing that
he would paint, and then he would pick mine.
I picked a cupcake.
- I picked a frog. - For him.
- Oh my god, there's a squirrel with a nut?
- No.
I feel like it's gonna look better when it's done,
but he'll like it regardless, because I did it.
- Alright.
I know what you're doing.
- We finished; that's my face.
- Close up on that.
- Billy. - Billy.
- Yeah.
His cupcake looks amazing.
Give it a turn.
- It's not edible though guys, but.
- Looks so good.
So now we're gonna go get pizza.
Glitter pizza.
- Glitter pizza. - Is what it's called.
I'm excited 'cause I love pizza.
I love food in general.
- And I love glitter.
So, this is about to be.
Oh my god.
- Ta-da! - Magical.
- [Abimbola] It's so good.
- [Manan] Look how I'm holding it, this is so weird looking.
- We got the glitter pizza.
- It's legendary.
Abimbola's great.
I love her energy,
she's funny, she's smart.
- Okay. - Hi.
Take a seat, take a seat.
- [Abimbola] I'm excited.
- [Mari] So am I,
'cause you know I've been dying to hear how it went.
- Oh I know you've been dying.
- Just start, on a scale of one to 10, how'd it go?
- Nine.
- Wow.
- Yeah, it went really well.
- Not that I was surprised, because Abimbola's so charming.
- Like honestly it was really cute, like it looked like
they clicked and everything was awesome.
- [Meghan] It looked like they were vibing.
I loved the ideas of painting and pizza.
- I didn't know who I was gonna meet, obviously.
So when I saw him walking towards me, I was like oh okay.
And then when I stood up, I was like and you're tall.
We just have this back and forth, chemistry, it's like,
it's not fake.
We have a lot of things in common.
He's like "you're so dope.
"You're so dope."
- And what does that mean, how did you interpret that?
- That I'm so cool.
Like I'm amazing.
- And you are amazing.
- Yeah. - Yes.
- I feel like he was really lucky to go out with her.
Like he's so lucky we chose him.
- We admit our friends are better
at choosing our dates than we are?
- To be honest, yeah, 'cause I don't know
if I would have picked him on my own.
- My job is to console her through the dating world
and keep pushing her so she finds the one.
- And he literally told me, like,
I'm going and I have like, all this travel,
but like, he got my number, he's like
"we're definitely gonna keep in touch."
So. - I love that he
communicated his schedule in advance.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So you knew that you-- - So I knew.
- [Mari] Could start plotting the calendar out.
- I mean and he was just like, "Oh I'm going
"to a party later, would you wanna come with me?"
- Based off the connection, and chemistry,
I feel like they should have a second date.
- You're gonna have to go out with him.
All you need to do is just be yourself.
This experiment that you just went on was amazing,
- It was fun though.
- And if it doesn't work out with him,
my door is open for you to come back.
- Thank you.
- Alright, enjoy yourselves tonight.
- Thank you so much. - Bye.
- I appreciate you.
♪ SoulPancake ♪