Dating Around

I've known Justin for four years now,

and he's one of my best friends.

Justin is definitely a bachelor,

but I think that he would be a great boyfriend.

I know he wants to settle down.

Justin wants somebody to meet his fire,

but there's some sort of inner turmoil

that he's fighting with, like, who he's supposed to be with

versus who he wants to be with.

I do believe there's a woman out there for Justin.

I just feel like he hasn't met his match.

I want Justin to find love and his place in this world.

Justin is one of the most real people I know,

but he goes for party girls.

He just needs to find an amazingly sincere woman.

Like, Justin is an amazingly sincere man.

Hello!

- Barbara. - Justin?

- How are you? - Oh, good. How are you?

Nice to meet you.

- So nice to meet you. - You look so pretty.

Thank you so much.

- Is this your first blind date? - It is my first blind date. I have never--

I was hoping that you could walk me through this.

Oh, gosh! Yeah. I have no idea where we're going.

If not, we can both say that this is our first blind date,

and then it started on Bourbon Street.

- Perfect! - Like, really...

I don't think that you can go any higher than that,

or any more extreme than that, to be honest with you.

Oh, this is cute.

It's a good vibe. Thank you.

So, how are you today?

- Blessed and highly favored. - Yeah?

How are you?

I am super excited.

I mean, blind dates are, like, one of those things that...

just, like, things can either go super right or super wrong.

- No. Yeah. - But yeah,

first impressions, I mean... You know what I'm saying?

I'm Justin.

- Hugs? Okay. Hi. - I go in for hugs.

- Okay. - My palms get too sweaty

on these first dates.

- My armpits are sweating right now. - Okay, cool. Noted.

It's dripping like...

Oh. So, where are you from?

- I'm born and raised here. - Me too!

I'm probably a hundred percent sure that we have, like, mutual friends.

- I'm pretty sure we have mutual friends-- - You're Filipino though, right?

- No, I'm not. Do I look Filipino? - No, I'm just kidding you.

- Are you Filipino? - I am Filipino.

Why are you shaking my hand? Like...

- No, 'cause you're doing this. - You stuck your hand out.

- I'm sorry. All right. - I'm sorry. I'm bad at dates.

I need a shot of tequila... and I'll get a cocktail too.

- Let's go! - Is that too much for a first date?

No, no, no, no, no.

I don't know how to flirt. That's kinda my way of flirting.

"Hey, um, let's take a shot."

You from here?

I'm not. I am from, like a nomad.

- Go ahead. - Um...

born in Ohio, moved to San Antonio, Texas,

and moved to Houston, went to school in Alabama.

- I'm gonna write this down. - I know, right?

Are your parents in Chalmette?

Yeah.

They did the whole Hurricane Katrina thing and they stayed...

- Okay. - ...and they rebuilt,

and they're in the same house.

'Cause it happened to me during my senior year in high school.

- Oh, wow. Where did y'all go? - So, like...

So, we went to Houston.

So, I went from this school that had, like, 500 students

to a school which had, like, 5,000 kids.

That Houston school was pretty rough.

First day, I was eating at a lunch table like this,

and then all of a sudden, like,

somebody hops over the table, and this brawl between New Orleans

and Houston happened.

I was like, you know what?

- No. - I'll take the hurricane!

- Yeah. - That's... That's... crazy!

Yeah.

- What is it that you do down here? - I'm a singer.

Ooh!

I don't really have residency anywhere.

I just really put on my own shows, and I travel and do other shows.

- That's amazing! - Yeah.

I always wanted to be a singer.

You always wanted to sing?

Yeah. I could never sing though.

But karaoke, I'm, like, great. Karaoke I'm okay.

- We might have to try. - Maybe after this...

I'm the photo-lead for an eyewear company in New Orleans.

- Nice! - So what do you do?

The main thing that I do, my nine-to-five, is I work in finance.

It's just so funny because I'll start by saying,

"Yeah, I'm an accountant." And they're like,

"Oh, so you're great with math?" And I'm like, "No!"

And the next thing is, like, "But you're Asian."

And I'll be, like, "Also a disappointment."

My mom would love it if I was an accountant.

- Anyone would love that. - My mom was super happy

that I went into accounting.

Now, it's, like, "Oh, Justin, you could have been a doctor.

Why didn't you do that?"

I'm, like, "You told me to do this!

This was your idea!"

So, like, around New Orleans, what are your favorite things to do?

Other than drink?

Yeah, I mean, 'cause I can go on and on about where I drink, right?

I'm really not here that often on the weekends.

- I've been, like, full of weddings. - Too many weddings?

- Yeah! - You have too many friends.

- I know! - Weddings are probably

- my favorite things to go to. - I know.

- Oh, amazing! - Here you go.

Yes.

- Oh, my goodness. - Oh, let's get it.

- Cheers. - Cheers.

To first blind dates.

So, what kind of music do you dance to?

Uh, hip-hop.

- Hip-hop? Okay, cool. - Yeah.

So are you kinda, like, the break dancing...

Or are you just kinda, like, the smooth beat vibe?

I mean I feel like I can get into the smooth vibe...

- Or are you, like... - ...but I can also go into, like... ayyy.

- Okay! - Yeah.

No, we gonna stop that right here.

This is-- We have had one drink and we're not starting that!

No more, or you'll be carrying me home. Period.

Okay.

Every time that I get semi drunk, I'm, like...

- Let's go get a tattoo. - I'm like, "Let's go get a tattoo."

Then my mom is like, "Justin, I'm going to cut your skin off

- if you do that." - Aw.

- Let me ask you, how old are you? - I'm 31.

That sounds about right, 'cause Asians don't raisin.

- Guess my age. - Twenty...

- Twenty? - ...eight?

- Twenty eight? - Thirty?

Oh, I know you did not just-- Thirty! Really?

Twenty...

All right, this date needs to end right now.

I'm sorry.

You can see your way out!

- You can see your way out! - No.

If I had to guess, I'd probably say, like, 25.

- Twenty six, actually. - Oh!

You know you're lying. You said 20 or 30 at first.

Pardon my interruption. Our table is ready.

- Oh, amazing. - You wanna follow me.

- Sure. - Cool.

I'll get your chair.

- Thank you. - After you.

Here's a couple of menus.

Thank you.

Are we good with the drinks for now?

Let's do another shot of tequila.

- Yep. Yeah. - All right, yeah.

I kinda wanna switch to tequila now that you've been drinking tequila.

All right, so you're ready to party.

I might get the chicken liver mousse.

- I've never had liver... - Chicken liver mousse.

...but I'm down to try it tonight.

Let's do it.

See, that's how first dates go great.

Did you grow up lower middle class?

I feel like I grew up mid to lower middle class.

I don't know.

- So, growing up... - It's always really vague.

...it was more like a community-type thing where we grew up,

and we kinda, like, stayed in our little circle.

I could have been an upper-class person,

but, like, according to people outside of the city,

I was probably broke.

- Yeah. Yeah. - Yeah.

I went to a lot of private schools, which I was very thankful for,

but we were, like, Payless and a hand-me-down.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I was, like, why does everyone have this Micheal Kors bag...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

...and this pink Razr phone?

- Why can't I have a pink Razr phone? - Razr phone!

So, as far as photography goes,

are there certain things that you wanna photograph?

I'm really into outside, natural lighting.

- Yeah. - Really flowy, motion blur...

I'm, like, Photoshop queen.

- I can do anything. - Really?

'Cause I've always wanted to go to England.

I'll just take a picture of you out here in New Orleans,

- and Photoshop you in London. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Put me in front of Buckingham Palace. - That's it.

- Next to the Queen. - Okay, next Instagram post!

Something I do to kill time, I don't know if you are familiar with this

but I like to do mukbangs.