Los Angeles Bootcamp Night 1

CaptainCanada · #1 (**permalink**) 08-23-2008, 11:07 AM

"I'll tell you what - after seeing Los Angeles, and this here story I'm about to unfold, well, I guess I seen somethin' every bit as stupefyin' as you'd seen in any of them other places. And in English, too. So I can die with a smile on my face, without feelin' like the good Lord gypped me."

- The Stranger: "The Big Lebowski"

Night 1:
I'll save the daytime stuff for the review, when I write it up, but I decided to throw down a field report for our first night in LA.

At the very beginning of the night we hit this bar called LAX. As luck would have it, the instructor/student ratio is just about 1:1. The evening portion of the course starts at 10, so the bar isn't really busy. This makes it easy for us to get in, as well as having the added effect of lowering the intimidation factor of having to wade into the fray.

We're standing in line, and right away one of the Approach Coaches in from Seattle(I don't know your handle) opens a four-set right behind us, one of whom is an absolute bombshell. It's just a warm-up set to get us in the mood and it works beautifully. I'm not running any routines, I'm just sort of bantering, but I bail out when I can't move the conversation in any meaningful way and the line starts advancing. When two of the other students and I get to the front of the line the bouncer and the guest-list girl, a gorgeous tatted-up asian, start mildly gaming us saying "Uh oh, these three are trouble!" and then cold-reading us a bit. I thought this was hilarious and it put me in a great state entering the bar.

At this juncture I suppose it's important to note that the goals for the evening are simply to open consistently with openers we had chosen beforehand - mine was "Moustaches" - and transition into normal banter. I, personally, am trying to take Braddock's advice of staying in sets until way past the point where you're done or until you're blown right out. Everyone on the bootcamp has some experience with cold approaching girls, but in my case it's not something that I've done consistently. I'm prepared for a night of blowouts and failures, but I've resolved to let it make me stronger.

What actually happened was well beyond my expectations. I start opening sets slowly at first, it's not too busy early on in the night, but in the hour and a half we spent in the bar I approached half a dozen sets and I'm not getting blown out. Sure, the conversation fizzled after a time and only one of my sets "had to go to the bathroom". The others were happy to just stay and banter with me until I left. I wasn't building any attraction, but I wasn't failing like I expected I would at first. Things are going really well. I've basically already met my goals. I'm opening and transitioning almost effortlessly.

We bounce to another bar called The Well. This one's more of a sit-down cocktail lounge kind of place. Not as loud, and not as busy, but opportunities are wherever you look for them. At this point I feel like I'm falling behind in the race. All of the guys are so empowered by our successes with opening that it's become an unconscious competition. I winged one of the other guys in a set and even the girls asked "Are you guys having some kind of competition?" which obviously isn't ideal, but still they were perfectly happy to let us stay and chat, bringing some excitement to their otherwise dull Friday night.

My lagging is short-lived however, as the instructors start to get a little more directive with sets and they feed us with more material to push our comfort zones. "See those two asians at the bar?" says Braddock. "Go and open them, and when it's time to transition tell them 'I'm not usually into black girls, but you guys are fucking hot'". Works like a charm. I've got them laughing and playing guessing games. It's time to bounce again, but I've decided that I'm going to go for the number close. Again, effortless. I thought this was going to be such a big deal, and it's just a non-issue. Of course, it takes the poor girls so long to figure out my Blackberry that I end up losing the guys on the way to the next bar. Solid #close. I end up doing some text message bantering with her later in the night.

I find the guys pretty easily, we're not really peacocked, but the confidence our crew is radiating is noticeable from across the street. The next bunch of bars we kind of crawl our way along. We don't stay long, there aren't that many sets in each of them and we're tapped out pretty quickly, but at this point we're pushing the envelope even further.

The boys from Seattle were just amazing with helping me along, and answering my questions on the spot. Any time I wanted a quick debrief on something they were right there with just what I needed. My body language was too direct on one set, and that's why they blew me out. Problem solved. One set wouldn't blow me out because they were attracted to me and were waiting to see what I would do. That's not something I would have thought about on my own. I always saw cold approach as being an oppositional kind of thing at first. I heard it, but I never really believed that women will actually hold your hand and guide you through their own seduction, until I saw it first-hand. Thanks guys. I hope you guys are having as much fun with this as I am, and I can't wait to go back into the field with you.

At the end of the night we're in some tiny bar that is packed, and playing ridiculously loud industrial music interspersed with disco and 80's rock (weird I know), and it's time to switch gears. I'm good at projecting my voice for the most part, so I'm not really worried about being heard over the music, but this isn't the time or the place for witty conversation. Braddock tells me "Fuck it man, go direct! Just walk up to that girl right there and say 'You are fucking hot, what's your name?'" Instant success. I did it a couple of times and it went great. Thanks Braddock. It sounds cheesy, but I feel like you had faith in my abilities and weren't setting me up for failure. I appreciate the help.

Only one blowout in that bar, and it's the strongest no I've gotten all night. She doesn't even speak, she just puts out her hand to stop me as I approach. This one wasn't going to go well no matter what I did. She looked like she was on the verge of tears over something. Way beyond my skill right now to change her emotional state that radically.

Then it hits me: I just got straight-arm rejected. Probably the most hostile thing I would ever expect a girl to do to me, and it didn't affect my emotional state. At all. I am fucking invincible.

Got to head down for day 2 now. Man, I was excited for day 1, and I was worried about not being able to do this. Now the fear is gone. I am charged for day 2!

Oh Los Angeles. I'm coming, and hell's coming with me!