You’ve seen them. The ads in the Discovery Center catalog, that repository of yuppie activities. They proclaim “Party Mix: An Evening That Could Change Your Dating Life,” “Flirting–How to Do It Right,” “How to Take Charge of Your Single Life.” They promise to teach you how to “know the difference between romantic illusion and true love” and how to “learn from and deal with rejection.” And the name Gail Prince pops up in all of them.
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Listening to her precise, slightly stern voice run through the differences between “datable” and “matable,” I’m reminded of a no-nonsense aunt. “You have to interview when you date,” she says. “Ask questions that will reveal your nonnegotiables.”
The Prince plan comes packaged several different ways. Besides conducting the six-week class “How to Take Charge of Your Single Life” ($180) and “Party Mix,” an evening of “guided mixing through short dialogues” ($25) with clinical psychologist Basha Blumenthal, Prince has put out two videos “Flirting-How to Do It Right” and “Find Your Loving Partner”) and founded a singles board called the Friends of Leukemia Research Foundation. She conducts private consultations, which run $65 an hour. And she’s also known for her workshops at the annual singles event “Zazz Bash,” hosted by Sun-Times advice columnist Jeff Zaslow.
In Prince’s worldview, “The two key words of life are consciousness and change. I went through a great part of my life unconscious, that’s why I had two divorces,” she says. “You can’t have change without consciousness based on what you haven’t gotten and what you want to get. I realized I can’t be in a marriage in the traditional sense, but I have a committed relationship of 14 years and my boyfriend and I are happy the way we are.”
