Romance reunited with randomness on Friday, Sept. 27, as comedian Lane Moore returned to the University of New Hampshire (UNH) with her famous “Tinder Live” show at 9 p.m. in the Memorial Union Granite State Room (MUB). 

The event, boasting a near-packed house of eager students and the introductory presence of MUB staple David Zamansky, once again saw Moore leading her audience into a 90-minute journey of chaotic and intense proportions as she swiped left, right and all around the popular Tinder dating app to seek a perfect match or a trolling good time, and sometimes a little of both. 

The show arrived with several requirements in tow, however: if an audience member’s profile popped up, they had to identify themselves; and if the profile of a familiar friend appeared, friends of the user were encouraged to identify themselves as that person’s friends in the name of innocent fun.  

“I think it’s so interesting that people are able to find me, because I’m not in town that long and it takes a while for Tinder to show that you’re in New Hampshire, so it’s really interesting that people are able to swipe right so fast,” Moore told The New Hampshire afterward as she described how her own profile only briefly stays in the performance location before vanishing for the next show. 

With each new match came a chance for the crowd to help Moore decide whether to “like” them (swipe right) or reject them (swipe left), but not before careful, and often sidesplittingly shocking, investigations into the subject’s Tinder profile. Most cases simply came down to basing a potential match based on their profile – or lack thereof – and one or two good or misplaced photos or catchphrases.  

However, not every profile was clean-cut, with some featuring more than one person per photo, encouraging Moore to lead one of the show’s more frequent games-within-a-game, “Which One Is It,” where the audience would have to guess which of the guys owned the profile in question.  

Despite such challenges, the fun truly began in earnest when Moore struck a match, in which she asked the audience for suggestions on how to kick off the conversation. Although several matches – such as a spark between Moore and a supposed brain surgeon named “Leonel” who was asked by Moore to do surgery on her – provided relative success over the course of the night, others like “Ryan” caught on quickly they were on “Tinder Live,” after which Moore would immediately un-match with. 

For all the craziness that proceeded, however, it was a match between her and “Ben,” who had “super liked” Moore’s profile before they matched, that proved to be the most thrilling of her suitors. What followed between Moore and “Ben” was a strange and chaotic conversation packed with deep and abstract analyses of philosophy, vows to write to one another via email while “Ben” was supposedly drafted overseas, an invitation to “cemetery hill” and the search of the “meaning of life.” It all came to a head, though, when Moore asked “Ben” for his “size,” only to leave her and an anxious crowd waiting for over 10 minutes and for “Ben” to offer “10 inches of reason to live; do you live or do you die?” 

It was not long before Moore killed the show to rapturous applause and positive reactions from student attendees. 

“It’s a really funny twist on a thing our generation does, and it’s a good way to put a comedic light on it,” sophomore communication sciences and disorders major Emma McDonough said. 

“I think it’s really good that UNH puts on events like this so students can feel involved on campus and have something we relate to; it’s something we use and now it’s going to be extra funny,” junior journalism major Sadie Burgess added. 

Although Friday marked Moore’s third time at UNH, she has already called it one of her favorite colleges to perform at nationwide, with the nostalgia from last year’s performance, particularly memories of the “Tinder Live” poem from computer science major Nathan Cannon, ever present throughout the room. 

“I think online dating can be really lonely and frustrating and isolating,” Moore said, “and I think ‘Tinder Live’ brings a levity to that that’s really nice and, like, you kind of realize how silly these profiles are; and when you’re online dating at home, it can feel kind of lonely and s****y, but when you’re in a room with other people, you remember that online dating can be light and silly and… there’s a hidden optimism to ‘Tinder Live’ that’s just like, ‘You know what? We’re all just people who are trying to figure it out.’”