Buy you a drink?
Do these pickup artists like women or the idea of women?
Every guy goes out for a different reason. Some want to hook up, some want a girlfriend, some want to just lose their virginity. There were some guys who wanted the power, not from women, but from men who would see them as successful with women. It's complicated.
How many men out there are part of this organized community?
I would say there are thousands of active guys. There are hundreds of thousands involved peripherally. And if you include everyone on E-mail lists and everything, over a million. It's just not talked about because it's embarrassing. It's not cool to not know how to talk to women.
Now that you're promoting your book, do you feel a need to show everyone that you still have it by hitting on lots of women?
Not at all. My girlfriend just moved in a couple of weeks ago and we've been dating for over a year. There's no way I'd have had the confidence to be with someone like her before getting involved with this. I would have always lacked confidence and gone through life hunched over and staring at the ground like the characters in books I read. I'm short, I'm scrawny. I used to think about having plastic surgery.
But didn't it help that you were a big-shot reporter who knew all of these musicians?
I can honestly say it had zero effect because I was a big-shot reporter for six years before any of this started. I could tell people I'm a ghost writer and reporter and that just doesn't ring any bells. There's one rock star, I can't tell you his name, but he's the singer, the guy in front of 50,000 people and he contacted me privately [to teach him]. You think these guys have it all, but he called me from the bathroom on dates asking for advice.
What will women get out of reading this book?
It'll confirm their worst fears, but it'll also show them that men are more scared and vulnerable than they think. Most women imagine guys as these players and assholes, but it's not true. It's fascinating to me what goes on in men's minds. Most would rather cut off a finger than be rejected sexually by a woman. –Vicky Hallett
advertisement
