| I'm fine-tuning an opener and would love feedback. Seems like there are three basic classes of openers, which I call the three O's: obvious statements ("This place is packed"), out-of-the-ordinary statements ("Whoa, there was a huge fight outside"), and opinion requests ("Got this situation and need an opinion").
I'm working on an out-of-the-ordinary opener that stacks into a consistency technique. I learned about consistency techniques from the outstanding book Influence, a classic of general game (game not specific to pickup). Basically, the goal is to get the target to commit to a view or position, and then make her act consistent with it. So here is the opener, which I call "two oddest things."
Two Oddest Things
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[Walk up to multi-set, over the shoulder]
Me: Man, I just saw the oddest thing I've seen all month. Actually, the SECOND oddest thing. [Hook]
Girls: [hopefully] What? Tell us.
Me: Gotta go in a second. [Body rock] So, I parked my car in the lot. I'm in a good mood, got a nice raise today [DHV]. So I'm walking up the sidewalk to the club ...
Girls [hopefully rivited]
Me: Wait, I gotta find Jill and her friends [DHV]. She said to meet at the couches, wherever that is.
Girls: Oh, the couches are over there. [hooked by the story, want me to go back to it]
Me: I can stay another sec. Jill never complains about waiting [DHV].
Girls: [hopefully throwing IOIs, want the story]
Me: So, I'm walking up the sidewalk, chilling. I look up and there are two guys standing there smoking cigars. [pause] In clown suits. You guys must've seen 'em. They're probably still out there.
Girls: [hopefully laughing]
Me: I kid you not. Big noses, bozo hair, yellow pants, the whole bit. What the hell are they doing there? What is this--the clown bar? Is this where clowns go to hang out after the circus?
Girls: [hopefully there are some IOIs by this point]
Me: So I walk past them an nod, you know. And this one clown looks at me deadpan and says, "Want to trade shoes?" I look down and he's got these HUGE Ronald McDonald shoes on. So I look at him deadpan and say, "No way, man. But I'll take your nose." The clowns bust up laughing.
Girls: [hopefully hooked]
Me: Bizarre, man. And that's not even the ODDEST thing I saw this month.
Girls: [hopefully begging to hear it]
Me: [looking them over] I gotta go in sec, and I'm not sure you all can HANDLE this story. I have no problem telling this story to a bunch of guys, and would feel OK about telling it to bad girls ... but you look like good girls.
[OK, this is the crucial point. Hopefully one of the girls says she is a bad girl, or "I don't know, I'm not so good." At which point I say, "So you're a bad girl, huh. Kiss me on the lips then." This is the consistency tactic. She made a claim, now she has to back it up. If she balks, say "What I thought. All talk. You girls aren't ready for this story." If she complies, a kiss-close and social proof out the ass. The set could go a bunch of ways at this point. In the best case, I have a target who has been IOI'ing me, and I can say, "You might be ready for this story. I'll tell YOU--over by the couches," and lead her away. So now to the second story.]
Me: I'm driving down [whatever street in town]. It's around noon. I'm driving over to my ex-girlfriend's place [DHV], listening to my CDs. There's a lot of traffic. So I happen to look over, and coming the other way is a black sedan--a Honda, I think. Anyway, I glance over right as the car passes, and in the driver's seat is this beautiful, well-endowed blonde. She's got this big smile on her face. Only thing, she isn't wearing a SHIRT. I mean no bra, nothing. Just the seatbelt.
Girls: [laughing]
Me: So I drive past thinking "What?" I figured I must not have seen right. Then I look in my rear-view and there are all these guys honking like crazy and shouting out their windows. The woman just tools down the road. [shake head] Never HAVE found a plausible explanation of that one.
Girls: [hopefully throw out their theories]
Me: Hey, let's go find those clowns. See if they want to party.
Anyway, any thoughts or constructive criticism?
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