Teh One Who Knocks
11-10-2021, 01:31 PM
Madeline Wells - SFGate.com
https://i.imgur.com/KC8H3P9.jpg
Coming out of a one-two-punch of the pandemic and a breakup with his boyfriend of 1.5 years, Kyle Keyser was feeling restless and unhappy. He decided to do something drastic. He printed out “rebound wanted” brochures and started distributing them around town, as first reported by Broke-Ass Stuart.
"After just feeling like s—t for a long time, I just decided that I wanted to stop feeling like s—t," said the San Francisco man.
He’d had an email sitting in his drafts for weeks, where he’d been writing a manifesto of everything he desired in a future partner.
"I was sitting on the Bay Bridge in traffic, and it just hit me that I should put this out there," said Keyser. "I didn’t know what that meant at the time, except that I should make this a physical thing, and that was kind of how it was born."
What started with a taped-together trifold he showed to a friend for a laugh grew into a very detailed brochure he began leaving copies of wherever he went: restaurants and bars around the Mission, dispensaries in the Castro, grocery stores, waiting rooms, airplanes and even ATM machines.
What he is looking for is very specific — a “mutually agreeable rebound” with “real low stakes” who will “travel, work remote, realize our creative projects, and give us both something to focus on in these annoyingly trying times,” writes Keyser, who is currently in graduate school for screenwriting.
But at the same time, his criteria is also very broad — his future rebound can live anywhere, even internationally, as Keyser is a seasonal employee with an airline and can travel anywhere.
“I wanted to keep it super low pressure,” explained Keyser. “...Let’s have all the trappings of intimacy and friendship and partnership but with an understanding that this is random as f—k, and the timing is awfully strange. But if you're willing to take a chance, I’m willing to take a chance.”
https://i.imgur.com/VoNmlO5.jpg
Printing out photos of his face and leaving them around San Francisco wasn’t the scary part for Keyser — it was taking the search to social media. You can now apply to be Keyser’s rebound on his very own website, and he is also chronicling his search on TikTok. He’s even started sending the brochures to Tinder and Grindr matches.
"I was passing out the brochures a good three or four weeks before I made the jump to social because I was terrified of putting it out there in a bigger way," he explained. "It’s a fun thing, but it is still a vulnerable thing."
Now that Rebound Wanted is all over the internet, some might see it as a social media stunt designed purely to get followers. This is an assumption that Keyser understands but immediately dismisses.
"I’m trying to be transparent with my history and who I am, and I try to be genuine in the approach," he said. "It is a stunt in a sense, but it is not without an authentic and genuine starting point. Some people are going to like that, and some people aren’t going to like it. And that’s fine."
He admits that the project has the benefit of being fulfilling for him creatively, but at its heart is a real desire to meet someone — or at the very least, get his mind off his breakup.
https://i.imgur.com/FLo5u86.jpg
"In some ways, I’ve already succeeded on one level, because I have created a little passion project that has swelled like a balloon in my soul," said Keyser. "It’s pushed aside...a depressive cycle, it’s pushed aside thoughts of breakup. So in that sense, I’ve succeeded at feeling better and doing something fun and creative. The bonus is I meet great people and talk to them, which I love to do."
He’s already received some responses, from a person on Grindr who was so intrigued by the brochure he wanted to talk on the phone immediately, to old friends who took the brochure as a chance to reconnect. A FedEx employee helping him with an order of brochures even promised him she’d pass it along to her friends.
https://i.imgur.com/M6PgOvp.jpg
"I got a very long email from a very well-educated and super interesting woman, and her life story was fascinating," said Keyser. "I was like well, you’re not exactly my demographic, but I am so happy to know you."
While he hasn’t met up with anyone in person yet, he thinks he’ll know when the time is right to do so.
"Every word on that brochure is genuine... When the eligible bachelor is giving me that in return, I’m going to be able to sense that this is a good opportunity, a good person," said Keyser. "So this brochure, it isn’t written for everyone really, it’s written for one person, or maybe three people. And when those people see it, hopefully, they respond and take a chance."
After all, as Keyser says his own mother encouraged him, “fortune favors the bold.”
https://i.imgur.com/KC8H3P9.jpg
Coming out of a one-two-punch of the pandemic and a breakup with his boyfriend of 1.5 years, Kyle Keyser was feeling restless and unhappy. He decided to do something drastic. He printed out “rebound wanted” brochures and started distributing them around town, as first reported by Broke-Ass Stuart.
"After just feeling like s—t for a long time, I just decided that I wanted to stop feeling like s—t," said the San Francisco man.
He’d had an email sitting in his drafts for weeks, where he’d been writing a manifesto of everything he desired in a future partner.
"I was sitting on the Bay Bridge in traffic, and it just hit me that I should put this out there," said Keyser. "I didn’t know what that meant at the time, except that I should make this a physical thing, and that was kind of how it was born."
What started with a taped-together trifold he showed to a friend for a laugh grew into a very detailed brochure he began leaving copies of wherever he went: restaurants and bars around the Mission, dispensaries in the Castro, grocery stores, waiting rooms, airplanes and even ATM machines.
What he is looking for is very specific — a “mutually agreeable rebound” with “real low stakes” who will “travel, work remote, realize our creative projects, and give us both something to focus on in these annoyingly trying times,” writes Keyser, who is currently in graduate school for screenwriting.
But at the same time, his criteria is also very broad — his future rebound can live anywhere, even internationally, as Keyser is a seasonal employee with an airline and can travel anywhere.
“I wanted to keep it super low pressure,” explained Keyser. “...Let’s have all the trappings of intimacy and friendship and partnership but with an understanding that this is random as f—k, and the timing is awfully strange. But if you're willing to take a chance, I’m willing to take a chance.”
https://i.imgur.com/VoNmlO5.jpg
Printing out photos of his face and leaving them around San Francisco wasn’t the scary part for Keyser — it was taking the search to social media. You can now apply to be Keyser’s rebound on his very own website, and he is also chronicling his search on TikTok. He’s even started sending the brochures to Tinder and Grindr matches.
"I was passing out the brochures a good three or four weeks before I made the jump to social because I was terrified of putting it out there in a bigger way," he explained. "It’s a fun thing, but it is still a vulnerable thing."
Now that Rebound Wanted is all over the internet, some might see it as a social media stunt designed purely to get followers. This is an assumption that Keyser understands but immediately dismisses.
"I’m trying to be transparent with my history and who I am, and I try to be genuine in the approach," he said. "It is a stunt in a sense, but it is not without an authentic and genuine starting point. Some people are going to like that, and some people aren’t going to like it. And that’s fine."
He admits that the project has the benefit of being fulfilling for him creatively, but at its heart is a real desire to meet someone — or at the very least, get his mind off his breakup.
https://i.imgur.com/FLo5u86.jpg
"In some ways, I’ve already succeeded on one level, because I have created a little passion project that has swelled like a balloon in my soul," said Keyser. "It’s pushed aside...a depressive cycle, it’s pushed aside thoughts of breakup. So in that sense, I’ve succeeded at feeling better and doing something fun and creative. The bonus is I meet great people and talk to them, which I love to do."
He’s already received some responses, from a person on Grindr who was so intrigued by the brochure he wanted to talk on the phone immediately, to old friends who took the brochure as a chance to reconnect. A FedEx employee helping him with an order of brochures even promised him she’d pass it along to her friends.
https://i.imgur.com/M6PgOvp.jpg
"I got a very long email from a very well-educated and super interesting woman, and her life story was fascinating," said Keyser. "I was like well, you’re not exactly my demographic, but I am so happy to know you."
While he hasn’t met up with anyone in person yet, he thinks he’ll know when the time is right to do so.
"Every word on that brochure is genuine... When the eligible bachelor is giving me that in return, I’m going to be able to sense that this is a good opportunity, a good person," said Keyser. "So this brochure, it isn’t written for everyone really, it’s written for one person, or maybe three people. And when those people see it, hopefully, they respond and take a chance."
After all, as Keyser says his own mother encouraged him, “fortune favors the bold.”