Unsuccessfully. For those of you who have read the book, The Game, by Neil Strauss, you'll know what I am talking about. For those of you in the dark, maybe the rest of the book title will help: Undercover in the Secret Society of Pickup Artists.
It's an autobiography of a journalist who infiltrated this "Secret Society" and blows apart all the rules and tricks these wanna-be Pickup Artists use to try and pick up (sarge) women. I finished the book last week and distinctly remember shaking my head in wonder and laughing out loud at sections of the book that described in detail the techniques that these men would use to pick up women. 'Lo and behold, last night at the On Anon bar/club in London, Maria and I were the unwilling targets of these very techniques.
It all started with 2 men coming up to us, each was the other's 'wing'. One of them was 'peacocking' by wearing a white fedora mobster style hat. Peacocking is used to draw people's attention, often by looking outrageous, and it also acts as a good opening line to start a conversation. The particular 'opener' the guy who wasn't wearing the hat was, "Do you think my friend looks like Al Capone wearing this hat or does he look stupid?" I personally thought he looked stupid but was too polite to say. They then tried to establish some quick rapport by asking questions eliciting lots of yes responses,this is the 'yes-ladder' technique, "Do you speak English?" My response - "Yes". "High five!", followed by more stupid questions and more juvenile high-fiving action.
The next technique was to ask questions out of the ordinary, ie. not the normal pick up line gambits. The question the Al Capone-wannabe asked was, "What is the most difficult word you can think of in the English language?". "Err...I dunno", was my response. "What word rhymes with mouth?", "South?", "High Five!!"
It was around this time Maria pulled out the best defence of all against these pick-up artists, 'The Fiance'. Sam the Man saved us.
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