If you've read some of my other posts, you'll know that I don't like discos. I look for other venues to practice in. Last night in 5 hours of sarging I crashed and burned where I was most comfortable, and had some real success and improvement in my least favorite spots.
The night started in a large, popular bookstore that has a café where patrons can take coffee into the aisles. Holding a coffee cup and browsing gives the illusion of being a shopper instead of a PUA.
I approached an 7 looking at a table of fitness/weight loss books. I laughed to myself (so she could hear it) did a 1/4 turn to her and said over my shoulder "Put down the damn fork! There, I just wrote every book on this table in 3 seconds. It's not that hard people!" as I waved my had over the table. The 7 chuckles and appears a little shocked and amused. The problem was, I froze and didn't have any other material. I back up a bit to change stance and knock a big metal sign off a display behind me, causing a huge racket. The 7 girl is like WTF? and turns to leave as a sales person comes to investigate. I crashed HARD and I felt like a first rate idiot. Not a great way to start the night.
I move to another section and spot an 8 looking at a shelf of personal finance books. Just to her left on the shelf is a book by Jim Cramer, that insane finance guy. He's featured on the cover with a smug, Fuck You If You Don't Buy My Book look on his face. I re-attempt the "Laugh-and-make-a-comment-about-something-funny" opener. "(Laugh to myself) Look at this guy, he's practically daring you to buy his book. It's a challenge." The 8 laughs and IOIs, smiling and initiating a conversation about funny books. We talk a little bit about Denis Leary, who she really likes. She seems genuinely interested but I run out of material and the convo peters out. "See ya later." Awkward exit. Damn. She was very cute, in a girl-next-door way.
As I'm driving home to shower, change clothes and get ready for the night club district, I'm pissed off at myself and wracking my brain for good, funny original stuff. I don't want to use any canned material - I am genuinely funny so I've been told, so I try thinking like a comedian instead of like an AFC and I come up with a couple of jokes/openers. In the shower, I set a goal for myself: Open a set in a friendly place, get to A3 and bounce them to one of the discos to use them as pawns/social proof, and #close at least once. I work on a few good stories/jokes during the drive back into the city.
I walk in to a friendly pub/lounge and with no anxiety and no second thought, I immediately open a two-set at the corner of the bar, a 6 and a beautiful 9, both mid-20s. They're sitting next to a very awkward and creepy/nerdy AFC who's silently watching television. Approaching the bar I ask the 6 "who her friend is," cocking my head towards Mr. Chump. She laughs and says "oh he's my boyfriend" with a smirk. They ask me why I'm there by myself, and I said I was single and wasn't looking for a date, although Mr. Chumpy is giving me the googly eyes - maybe he's trying to pick me up. They ask me if I like that, and I get off one of my first jokes: "No, I gave up sucking dick. Men don't know how to form relationships." They register shock and amusement and are hooked. Set is blown open.
The 6 completely dominates the conversation and goes into way too much boring detail about her job and possibly moving to another city. I interrupt her and recount her story completely backwards to make it silly and neg her on being over-technical, but with a subtle sexual undertone (laughter). The 6 is an office girl and the 9 is a student. They ask me what I do and I tell them "I'm a signmaker" (which is true) Turns out the 9 is a graphic design student, and she blasts me with IOIs, asking me all sorts of questions about my work. After a minute or so of being badgered with questions, I neg her for being too bossy and she should let her friend talk (laughter). Without getting into too much boring technical detail, I set them up for one of my new jokes. I tell them that I make all kinds of signs, indoor, outdoor, signs for the handicapped and blind, you know, those ones with the little bumps on them. (they nod) "After 4 years of being a signmaker, I still haven't learned to speak Braille." (9 looks at me quizzically, the 6 laughs) "It's not my fault. Every time I try to practice my Braille on a girl, I get slapped." Big laughter. IOIs flying all over from both girls.
9 girl looks around and start talking a little quietly to each other and with a little prodding, I am able to get them to spill the inside joke. Turns out they just spotted a creepy old guy who has been a fixture in the night club district for like 20 years. He looks like he just broke out of a mental institution. I joke, "Wow the dude's got game." They laugh and I tell them I'll bring him over and make introductions. They p'shaw, so I turn and walk directly at him like I'm going to go retrieve him. The girls freak out, begging me to come back. I know I'm definitely in with these girls.
6 girl has something to prove and she goes back into her boring over-technical job related story again. The 9 is looking bored, scanning the room and I catch her attention with my fingers and call her out for not paying attention by pointing at her eyes and then to my eyes and neg her for being too ADD (laughter). We get to talking about education, and I get to work a little piece of vulnerability/DHV Awww material by sharing with them my part time Masters research w/ blind and disabled kids (which is also true). They gobble it up.
We finish drinks and I suggest a bounce to the sports bar down the street that has a quieter section where I knew we can get a table. We have a drink there (I'm drinking cokes at this point because I had my one beer for the night). Turns out this place is 22yo-Chumpville. They're annoyed by getting hit on by drunk college kids, who literally break three bottles near us in 10 minutes of being there. We down our drinks and I bounce them to the disco further down the street so I can finally finish my social proof goal. Light kino on the 9, like touching her back as we move through crowds. She's a tall, skinny long haired brunette, dressed in skin-tight leather. Yowza.
We go in - place is loaded with HBs. They immediately want to hit the dance floor, so before they settle in, I move them around to the back of the club to "find a place to dance," meanwhile showing everyone in the place that they're with me. I lead the hot 9 by the hand through the crowd. The place is pretty packed and the music is so loud it's really hard to talk. While we're dancing I do a compliance check on the 6 - take her hand and spin her around, put my hand around her waist (she's thicker than I thought - eh). I am able to get off some jokes about some of the people acting badly on the dance floor. Unfortunately I am not able to use my two new friends to open any other sets because I can't get them off the dance floor. With the energy waning and sensing that they're looking to dump me and get ripping drunk, I find a time to naturally #close with both girls, a quick hug/polite cheek-peck and exit.
Next I take a quick spin through an adjacent club that I've never been in, attempt to open a 2-set with a 7 and a 9 and get shut down hard by the 7. Sensing I'm on a downward slope, but feeling I accomplished my goal for the night, I pack it in for the night.
Total sets attempted: 4
Sets opened: 2
# closes: 1 (with 2 girls)
k-closes: 0 (friendly hug/peck on cheek doesn't count)
Lessons learned:
Sarging in retail stores is not as ideal as I thought. Natural approaches are easier but keeping natural convo going can be tough. The sexuality of the playfulness needs to be scaled way back. If I'm going to do that, I need to have a lot more stories primed and read to go. Women aren't necessarily in bookstores to have fun and check out guys, they're shopping and their attraction switches aren't necessarily primed to be flipped. It's easy to look like an ass, too (the knocked over sign) and hard to recover from that. It seems like a good a place to practice icebreakers and maybe getting to A2 but there's little chance of starting kino at a bookstore without looking like a rapist. Could be a place to open a set and bounce, but there's no good locations nearby to bounce to. Any set opened here needs to go all the way to A3 and #close for a follow up Day 2, which will be difficult to do with no kino. The only reason to keep doing it is that I'm more likely to find smarter girls in the bookstore than at the disco, but one never knows...
Finding a natural context to work in some funny, original material is key no matter what the location. Success in the bookstore came from contextual ice breakers. In the bar it came from having two or three routines in my repertoire and being able to use them appropriately and effectively. This kept the convo going and getting past the opener and into solid A2 territory. Also key is finding the right atmosphere - where there are beautiful women and where the music is quiet enough to work my material.
I bounced my two ladies to the disco sheerly for my social proof goal and to maybe open more sets, but lost the set when I couldn't keep up the energy because of noise, lack of places to isolate/escalate. I suppose some NLP and body language work could have been a good substitute for verbal game, but I need to get my verbal & head game worked out before I move on to more advanced stuff. I was already at A3 and with a bit more playfulness and the right choice of locations, I might have been able to isolate the 9 and escalate a bit, but the bounce went bad. Finding that good destination is now essential to making this work, and that will be my next goal.
Back at the original pub/lounge, I confidently opened a set and ran with it instead of creating a false time constraint, circulating around, then coming back to them. I stayed with that first set and played them for the rest of the night. Had I worked the room a little bit, I might have found more hot girls, got more practice, and maybe even had a stronger rapport that could lead to Day 2 follow up.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment