February 14, 2011 (cont.): Valentine's Day Evening and "The Dating Game"!

Before reality television (waaaay before) —there was the television game show! Earlier in the week I had seen some signs at Wahoo’s Lounge advertising that tonight- Valentine’s Day evening—Wahoo’s was staging a local version of the old school American television show popular in the Late Sixties and Seventies – The Dating Game. Wahoo’s co-owner Noele even placed the following ad in several local publications about their exciting new game show promo:

“REMEMBER Wahoo's will be hosting SAN PEDROS FIRST EVER DATING GAME Come on down and sign up to be a contestant on our new game show.
All you need to be is single and willing to go on a date. If you don't remember the concept (or are too young) here is a description from WIKIPEDIA: Typically, a bachelorette would question three bachelors, who were hidden from her view; at the end of the questioning period, she would choose one to go out with on a date paid for by the show. Occasionally, the roles would be reversed with a man questioning three ladies; other times, a celebrity would question three players for a date for themselves, a co-worker or a relative of theirs. Many celebrities played the game looking for love themselves. The pre-stardom Farrah Fawcett, Suzanne Somers, Lindsay Wagner, Tom Selleck and Lee Majors appeared as "contestants" on the show in the 1960s and early 1970s. We are going to start this new weekly “game” show right here in San Pedro on VALENTINE’S DAY 2011, which falls on a Monday this year. If the show proves successful (and judging by how many applications we have already received it will be) the show will be ongoing and will be supported by the local TV station. In addition to being a lot of laughs it should help bring the community together and maybe even strike up some love and even marriage between our friends and neighbors! Yes, even some San Pedro “celebrities” have expressed interest! Come on down and sign up today!”

I decided to check the Belize version of The Dating Game out for laughs. But in the meantime I was starving to death again so I visited a famous local place called Waruguma. I had walked by Waruguma many times but- for some reason- up to this point I had never stopped in. I decided that tonight was the night. I had noticed that the place was always packed with tourists. It was literally a “hole-in-the-wall” (it had only six tables) but the food was supposed to be cheap and fantastic. They are famous for their delicious “papoosas” and are operated by an entire family from El Salvador. On my first visit I had their rice, beans and chicken plus two Belikin beers for a total of about US$8.00. Waruguma definitely lived up to its reputation.

I returned to Wahoo’s Lounge about 7:30 PM but the game had not started yet. Everyone was outside—on the beach side of the bar – and a local television camera crew and the television host were setting up for the production. A crowd was starting to gather--- both locals and tourists—and at about 8:30 PM the game got started.


One of the Winning Couples at Wahoo's

The crew at Wahoo's tried to follow the game plan of the classic daytime game show created by the legendary producer Chuck Barris back in the Sixties. The original TV show, hosted by Jim Lange, first aired in 1965 (boy—am I embarrassed that I actually remember this…). Lange hosted through 1973 and then handed off to Chuck Woolery. Ultimately, the show had over two thousand episodes on the air! On the popular Dating Game TV show they always put one unmarried man behind a screen to ask questions of three women who are potential mates, or one woman versus three men - thus hearing their answers and voices but not seeing them. The audience could, of course, see them all. The various suitors were able to describe their rivals in uncomplimentary ways, which made the show work well as a general devolution of dignity. Questions were often obviously rigged to get ridiculous responses, or be obvious allusions to features of the participants' “private parts”, etc. Many of the questions asked on the show were masterful innuendos, often with “sexual overtones”. For example, a question might have asked what the participant would want for dessert after they went out on a date including a delicious gourmet dinner. The answer might have been something like: “I won’t say what the dessert will be but it will involve whipped cream.”
Noele had told me that her primary purpose in hosting the Dating Game event was to ingratiate the bar with the locals. Most of the show participants were locals, many of whom were actually looking to get hooked up with someone interesting. After three or four rounds they had started to run out of volunteers, so Noele suckered me into participating as one of the three “potential mates”. You can see Noele’s husband Doug (the master of ceremonies) interrogating me in the photo below:

Ronaldo is In the House!  (in the blue shirt to the left of Doug)

Along with the other two prospects, I had to answer the lady’s questions to the best of my ability. Thankfully, she didn’t pick me (she was a local—and I was leaving the island in a day or two). But it was another interesting night at the place that “puts dive back in dive bar”—and the best damn bar in Central America!


The Wahoo's Crew!