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It’s Saturday night in DC, and the lights are low at the UDC Phoenix Theater. The room is buzzing — sold out, every seat filled. Erick Acuña, the creator, director, and producer of Meet Cute: Live Blind Date Comedy Show, steps onstage with a grin and calls out: “Who’s ready for a Friday night date?”
“It’s Saturday!” people shout back, laughing.
“Even better,” he replies, without missing a beat.
This is Meet Cute, the live blind date comedy show that’s traveled from Capital Fringe to Edinburgh Fringe and now lands squarely in the heart of the very first District Fringe Festival. It’s part theater, part improv, part reality dating experiment — and 100 percent chaos (the good kind).
The premise is simple: Two strangers go on a real blind date. Onstage. In front of everyone. And a team of improv comedians listens closely, waiting to turn every awkward pause and flirtatious stumble into full-on improv sketches.
Tonight’s date: Josh and Jivanji. Josh is already sitting on stage when we walk in — a quiet guy in marketing who once wrote a national museum tagline: “History Moves Us Forward.” Jivanji joins him moments later — poised, warm, a tech worker who grew up in India and New York. Neither has done anything like this before.
Their chemistry? Casual. Cordial. Not fireworks, but enough spark to keep the audience leaning in. They trade stories: he loves darts and ping pong; she’s into bachata and true crime. He lives in Bethesda; she’s in Rosslyn. She once went hiking in Montana, got a flat bike tire, accidentally maced a stranger while trying to hitchhike, and later spotted what she thought was a severed hand sticking out of a pickup truck. (She stayed calm. Sort of.)
From the moment they start chatting, the audience becomes a third wheel — the harmless, giggling kind. Every time Josh or Jivanji reveals something new, four improv actors waiting in the wings later leap into action. One moment, they’re acting out a woman who can’t stop macing her friend in a bar and in his apartment; the next, a tourist in Death Valley looking for corpses and police tape and a ranger serving OOTD’ed vibes (you had to be there to get it). Later, a man invents heartfelt taglines while his wife is in labor. “Doctors. Thank you.”
We return to the date. This time, with cue cards. The questions get more revealing. “If you were reincarnated, what would you be?” Josh says a terrier. “They don’t do anything, and people pick up their poop.” Jivanji raises an eyebrow. “Sounds like someone avoiding responsibility.” He grins. “Not in this life. Next one.”
She says she lives like this is her only life, and earlier she shared that her dad already passed away. It’s a small moment. The room gets a little quieter.
The rest of the questions keep it playful — pet peeves, hidden talents (Josh can speak phrases backward), favorite household items (his: a bobblehead collection that becomes a future HR violation in the improv sketch). She can’t stand people who chew with their mouth open. He hates when people mix up “your” and “you’re.” She jokes she won’t text him. He recommends Grammarly.
Each answer gets absorbed and reborn onstage in the final round of improv. Josh’s grammar obsession triggers texting-induced sweat attacks among his friends. His bobbleheads? Part of a civil rights slogan recital — in multiple languages, including Spanish. His “unfunny” friends almost cancel him and defend their comedic honor.
Was it polished? Not always. There were mic issues in the beginning — but they got fixed quickly, and the audience stayed with it. That’s the spirit of Fringe, after all: a little scrappy, a lot spontaneous, and totally unforgettable.
Meet Cute isn’t really about finding love (or is it? We need the blind-date-to-marriage stats on its veteran participants — where are they now?). It’s about the tiny, human details that make us laugh, cringe, and maybe, just maybe, feel a little less alone in the messiness of dating. Whether you’re single, partnered, or just here for the punchlines, it’s one of those shows that reminds you why live theater matters — because anything can happen.
And sometimes? It starts with a blind date.
Meet Cute: Live Blind Date Comedy Show
Improv by Erick Acuña Productions
Running Time: 60 minutes
Date and Time: Saturday, July 12, 8:30p
Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: Meet Cute Blind Date Comedy Show
Genre: Improv
Performed by: Erick Acuña, Jordana Mishory, Eva Lewis, Jhon Carrol, Mia Bloomfield
The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.