Photos and text by Stacie Joy
Dan Perino.
If the name isn't quite familiar, perhaps his headshot is — or, more likely, his flyers.
Ten years ago, Perino started plastering the neighborhood and other parts of NYC with flyers stating that he was "Looking for a Girlfriend," prompting various levels of contempt and curiosity.
After a nearly 10-year hiatus, the flyers returned with the same headshot in the spring, this time "Looking for the Perfect Woman."
In recent weeks, the messaging has evolved with declarations of "Starting my Gangster Rap Career" or "Looking for my Next Ex-Wife" ... and in a nod to the most recent presidential debate, "They're Eating all the Pussy in Springfield."
In a Facebook post, I wondered if Perino was OK.
He responded and, after an exchange, agreed to an interview.
Perino, 61, lives in the East Village.
We met on the sidewalk near his apartment (sorry, ladies — I didn't get to go inside). He looks leaner than in his 2014-era headshots and now has a beard speckled with gray.
Perino had just been to an afternoon wine tasting, he confides. He showed up with a stack of flyers under one arm and a roll of masking tape on the other — always on the job.
Trying to narrow down 50 questions at once, I ask, What gives?
"I was never looking for a girlfriend, never looking for the perfect woman. I was presenting a question to the public," he says. "I get a lot of answers. My goal was to question people, and I've gotten answers from Africa, Germany, all over the place ... people wanting to marry me. And famous people wishing me luck. If I found my version of what I was looking for, I wouldn't run away."
He continues. "I am entertaining the public. It's a social experiment, a study of human behavior and self-promotion. I'm an actor. This is performance art."
Perino says that he made 70,000 flyers with his new series. He boasts he can post 300 flyers in an hour. He "pretapes" as he's walking, "so I can put the flyer up fast. It's a special way I pretape them."
He goes out several times daily to post and beyond the East Village, flyering up all downtown areas.
Perino estimates he's gotten over 5 million replies and claims to have kept a record of them. He gets calls, texts, and emails and has a separate phone for each.
"If it's a sincere question, I will answer it," he says.
He estimates that sometimes he receives 100 texts an hour or 150 phone calls. He mentions constantly deleting voicemails.
He says that since he's walking 15 to 20 miles daily and posting flyers, he's slimmer than in the original photos. Still, despite the years of looking for girlfriends, Perino remains single, and has only dated two women he met through his flyer posting.
"I'm a workaholic. I get up at 5 a.m. or earlier and think about stuff. People don't do that anymore," he says. "I might create an art piece and then plan my day. And at 11 p.m. I'm still up, reading a book."
So, what does Dan Perino do when he’s not creating and posting flyers?
"I started out as a house painter and plasterer. And I still do that; I make a lot of money," he says. "I am also a visual artist and designer."
He posts 16 different flyers for his painting and plastering business — using different fonts and styles to attract different clientele. (He started hanging flyers in NYC in 1979, he says.)
"You know, some flyers will have some misspelled words. Some have fancy fonts. I use different flyers for different responses."
When I asked him if he printed his own flyers, he said no. He has a business he uses in Midtown that prints them, and he’ll pick them up and do the cuts himself. He uses a local storage place to store his extra materials and supplies. He also says he hires two designers to assist him with his creations.
Does he ever get a negative response when hanging his flyers on the streets?
"A lot of middle-aged women took it hard. They said, 'How dare you?' and how could I be looking for the perfect woman if I'm not perfect? I tell them it's fun, opening a conversation; it's performance art," he says, claiming that businesses and restaurants like having his fliers posted outside as it draws interest.
"I'm working on a P. Diddy flyer, mentioning the baby oil."
