A Different Kind of Bootcamp: The Pickup Artists

By Michael Jameson |

"The fact of the matter is most guys have a lot that’s awesome about them. Everyone has something that would make their life a movie worth watching, but people have a hard time conveying that." - Allusion, Pickup Artist

They go by names like Kid44, Allusion and RedpoleQ. When they talk to each other they use terms like Social Proofing, Rapport, Indicators Of Interest (known as an IOI), and Frame Control. Together, they are Pickup Asia, and they are Pick-Up Artists.

It’s Friday night, and they have agreed to meet with me for a short talk at Starbucks, just before the start of their Bootcamp: a weekend-long course claiming to teach unfortunate men the “skill” of interacting with women. The three Pick-Up Artists have created a buzz with their presence in the coffee shop, sucking in the attention of the room. They laugh and talk loudly with each other and playfully flirt with the female customers at the tables nearby.

I introduce myself to Kid44. I guess his age to be around 40, but his nickname suggests he might be a little older. He looks like a well-dressed gothic magician (indeed, I later find out that he was a former magician by trade). He is tall, slender, has piercing brown eyes and is stylishly dressed almost entirely in black. He is wearing a pair of $1600 black snakeskin boots that were, “a present from my girlfriend today.”

RedpoleQ and Allusion stand in line, chatting with the female customers waiting to get their coffee. The girls appear to be taken aback by the Pickup Artists’ seeming lack of social convention, but they respond by giggling and appear quite interested. Allusion seems to emulate the distinctive style of the hosts in Kabukicho or on Dotombori – his hair is impeccably placed and hair-sprayed; his collared shirt opened to show the top of his bare chest, and the rest of his ensemble demonstrates a conscious attention to detail: a blazer with a silver broach on the left lapel, ripped jeans, rings and jewellery. RedpoleQ is wearing a flashy purple collared shirt, dark sunglasses, pointed black shoes, and has his trademark afro-pick sticking out on the back of his hair. In follow-up meetings with him, I will see at least a dozen beautiful women start conversations just by asking about his afro pick. This is in addition to the girls that he chooses to talk to, which are many.

The Pick-Up Artist community began years ago online, originally started by men sharing information on how to succeed with women on internet forums. With the international success of Neil Strauss’ 2005 New York Times bestselling expose, The Game: Penetrating a Society of Pickup Artists, it has since exploded into mainstream consciousness. Strauss spent two years undercover as “Style,” living with and learning from famous Pick-up Artists like Mystery (a Canadian who recently starred in his own show, The Pick-Up Artist on VH1, in which he teaches seven unlucky-in-love guys how to pick up girls in bars), learning their secrets and eventually, himself, becoming a leader of instructional Bootcamps and seminars. His international bestseller has been translated into more than 15 different languages, and has spawned a burgeoning money-making industry out of what was a just few years ago a small online sub-culture. Pickup artists are popping up across North America, Europe and Australia, offering to teach what they can over a week or a weekend – for a price.

Pickup Asia are the first of their kind to start a business in Japan. “We basically set up Pickup Asia as a club,” says Kid44, “so we could hang out with guys that are like us. Next thing we knew we had people asking us for help. And we’ve got bigger goals now.” They have already run successful bootcamps for groups of students in Tokyo, Osaka, and Korea, with plans to expand to other parts of Asia in upcoming months.

So just what happens at a Pickup Artist bootcamp?

"We’re ugly, but we still get girls. What’s your excuse?" - Kid44, Pickup Artist

“Great, she likes me? I like her back.” According to RedpoleQ of Pickup Asia, this is most guys’ response to a girl who shows interest. The problem is this ultimately leads to unfulfilling and unsatisfying relationships, because the man never feels that he has any real choice of a partner, or worse: that he is trapped in a relationship he isn’t satisfied with for fear of not having better options. Many of the Pickup Asia’s clients who take the bootcamp, confess they feel a scarcity of women who are attracted to them.

“These are guys who say to themselves, my image of who I really am is not matching my reality of what’s going on around me, and I want to do something about it,” says Kid44. Indeed, this is reflected in the personal histories of Pickup Asia. RedpoleQ had gone to an all-boys private school in the United States, and had always felt that a lack of social interaction had made him shy around girls. He spent his post high school years hanging around guys that were successful with women attempting to emulate their success. “I always saw that there were people around me that were better with women than I was, and I always thought I could learn to be more like those guys.” When he eventually discovered David Deangelo’s Double Your Dating (a popular EBook about interacting with women) his “success” increased exponentially and he hasn’t wanted to stop learning since. Being good with women is a “learnable skill set”, he tells me.

Kid44 sounds like a military lieutenant as he describes the difficulty and intensity of the upcoming bootcamp. The first three hours are spent learning about the students’ goals and perceived limitations, “and then the next twenty-five hours we push them into sets (groups of girls) and we ruthlessly rip apart everything that they’re doing wrong so they can do things right. So that at the end of the bootcamp, they’ve got a skill set that’s wired into them.”

When I sound sceptical that a guy could enter a weekend bootcamp an LBH (loser back home) and walk away a pickup artist, Allusion sets me straight. “This bootcamp is really the beginning,” he says. “It’s what you do after that decides your results; how much you go out there and practice what we’ve taught and build that social skill set.”

Kid44 beams a smile when talking about demonstrating his abilities to his students: “It’s one thing to talk to a guy about what to do. What we do is, we’ll give the theory, and then we’ll show you exactly how it’s done. That’s what we call the ultimate convincer. Because I’m not handsome… no matter what anybody says, I’m not a good looking guy. I’m tall, I’m thin, I’m weird looking. I’m what some people would call creepy. I don’t believe that – but... Look, this is Pickup Asia.” He pauses and gestures to Allusion and RedpoleQ. “You can’t convince anybody we do it based on our looks alone.” The guys crack up.

RedpoleQ chimes in, “Hey,” he says, still laughing. “That’s a Kid44 quote – not us.”

Criticise Me

"There’s an underlying structure, just like in music. But there’s also improvisation, just like in Jazz. And artists are the ones that can consistently get results, and yet make it look so sweet and so beautiful." – Kid44, Pickup Artist

They tell me that during their bootcamps they critique their student’s vocal tonality, eye contact, body language and fashion. I ask what advice they would give to me if I were a student. Allusion tells that for him to do that, he first wants to see me approach a group of girls.

“A group of girls?” I ask, trying to stall and feeling slightly caught off guard. My relaxation, as the passive interviewer, suddenly turns into a ball of nervous energy in my stomach. He tells me to start chatting up the girls sitting at the table behind me. “Just try to talk to them,” says Allusion. “We’re not looking at what you’re saying. We’re looking at your body language; how you’re coming across, how you’re presenting yourself.”

I feel like the three Pickup Artists are watching and waiting for my reaction. It’s one thing to talk with girls you don’t know, but it’s quite another to have your “skills” (or lack thereof) critiqued by a group of professional pickup artists. “But wouldn’t you give your students something to say first?” I ask, desperate. “We would give you something to say… But, you know, you haven’t taken our bootcamp.” They laugh.

“Just ask them anything, where to get takoyaki in Osaka. Anything.” I nervously turn around and interrupt the four very attractive girls at the next table and ask if they have a recommendation for a good takoyaki place in Osaka for me and my friends. We talk for a bit, I feel my face change shades of red, and then I hear Allusion say over my shoulder, “you’re staying on the opener (opening conversation topic) too long. Change it.” I ask them if they’re students (they look about university age), and then jokingly ask if they go to high school. After what seems like forever, I finally hear RedpoleQ say, “Okay, that’s enough. Eject.”

I turn around and face the guys, feeling all my power as the interviewer gone.

“So, how do you think you did?” asks Allusion.

“Um, terribly.” I say, laughing, mostly just glad that it’s over.
Allusion starts to dissect my approach. “Okay, you didn’t show too much interest, that’s good. You came in from the side, that’s good too.” Positive feedback. Hmm, maybe I didn’t do that bad, I start to think.

“But your voice,” Allusion booms, “was way too quiet. Everyone at the whole table has to be able to hear you. I mean, we’re in a coffee shop. If we were in a club you’d have to amp it up at least three times.”

“Leaning in!” RedpoleQ yells across our table. “You were leaning in to the set.” He tells me that leaning in toward a girl demonstrates too much interest in her, before she’s earned it. They also tell me that I should touch more – not be creepy – but just casually a touch on the arm here and there, to come across as a person who is naturally tactile and social. “If someone touches you, you pay attention.” Says Kid44.

The Students

"To be honest – I’m scared shitless of approaching girls." – Ixtlian, Pickup Asia Bootcamp student.

A student of their March Bootcamp, who goes by the moniker Little Drummer Boy - a self-described average thirty-something from Canada who came to Japan to teach English -relates how he felt before taking the course. “I would spend $50 to $100 a night going out and getting drunk, hoping to get up the nerve to talk to a girl I was attracted to. Even if I could approach, it was kind of like the dog that catches the car. Okay... Now what do I do? She’s beautiful, I don’t know what to say to her.”

Little Drummer Boy recounts his bootcamp experience as being, “a combination of stressful and very fulfilling.” I ask him whether the price of the bootcamp (about US $1000) was worth it. “Definitely," he says, adding that stepping out of his comfort zone in this area has led to other positive changes in his life. “It’s not just about meeting women. You realize, okay, what other potentials do I have that I’ve been scared to approach? Like being afraid to start the business I wanted to start.”

I briefly meet with this weekend’s students before they begin their 28 hour “experience”. One student in particular seems quite nervous, and not at all the type I imagined to take a course like this. Ixtlian, his Pick-up name, is taken from the god of desire in pre-Mayan civilization. He confesses that he has spent the last twenty-some odd years of his life in America doing nothing but swimming competitively and being immersed in role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons and World of Warcraft. He fidgets with his rings as he talks. “To be honest – I’m scared shitless of approaching girls.” Nonetheless, he has decided to take control of an area of his life that has been a cloud of confusion in the past. I wish him luck, secretly thankful that it’s him, and not me, taking the bootcamp.

Post-Bootcamp

"I just kept talking to her… until she elbowed me in the stomach." – Ixtlian, Bootcamp Student

It’s Sunday, two nights after I originally met the Pickup Asia crew. I manage to catch RedpoleQ and Allusion at a fast food restaurant while they are debriefing their students after the bootcamp. Their students tell me the weekend was a huge success. Leaps and bounds.

Beach Boy, an attractive 35 year-old who takes his name from his bleach blonde hair, says the bootcamp was incredibly difficult. “I had no idea it would be this hard. I am completely, physically exhausted.” His eyes are slightly bloodshot, and he does look a bit worse for wear – a factor only of the long hours and late nights, as the students are not allowed to drink alcohol the whole weekend.

“I’ve only ever talked to women when I was drinking,” says another student, Rockstar2 (just Rockstar, was already taken), a Brit in his early thirties. I asked why a guy like him – most women would consider him quite good looking - would pay to get help with women. “I just want to save some cash and be healthier. That’s the best thing for me, actually, knowing I can be fun and social without alcohol.”

The camaraderie among the group is contagious, as inside jokes and stories of the weekend’s ups and downs flow freely. Even Ixtlian, the shy World of Warcraft swimmer looks visibly more confident and laughs heartily as he tells about how a girl poured a drink on his foot to get him to go away. “I’m not scared of girls anymore. It’s great.”

Again, the group has become the center of attention of the entire room – this time including the bootcamp students. They have created an “aura” of fun and unconscious enjoyment. A group of girls giggle and check out our table as they walk by. Rockstar2 smiles and says “watch this” as he stands up, beaming confidence. He cracks his fingers and takes a look at the three girls who just passed. He does a double take. “Aww… Too young!” he says to us, loudly, sitting back down, and we laugh. “Aww…Too old!” the cute 20-something girl-in-line yells back in broken English, smiling and blushing. Another bootcamp student sitting beside me leans in and whispers in my ear, “It’s so on…”

On the way out, Allusion confesses that he quite enjoys his work. “For me, it’s really rewarding. To see these guys that need help, and to be that person that can help them. It’s cheesy, and I’m the last guy to normally say things like this, but I actually feel like I’m adding value to the world, like I’m making the world a better place.”

Manipulations

"I teach men how to have awesome lives. And that includes being able to go after and be with, the women that they feel match the image of who they want to be." – Kid44

Allusion tells me a story of a woman that is great in every way, except she doesn’t get great reactions from men because she doesn’t wear makeup. Then one day, she spends a few dollars on makeup and a nice haircut, and suddenly guys are turning their heads and noticing her. “That’s really what we offer,” he says. “Cosmetics for men where it matters.” Personality. Conversational ability. Body language. Conveying sexuality.

“It’s all about choice,” says Kid44, “and for some guys that choice will be that they want to have multiple relationships with girls, and for others, they want to find that one special girl and settle down and get married.”

As I’m quietly doubting how many of their students sign up to meet that one special girl, Kid44 shares a favourite success story. “We had one guy who took a bootcamp, who recently sent us an email: I met this awesome woman here in Japan in McDonald’s. I opened up a five set (started talking with a group of five girls), got all of their phone numbers, went after the one that I liked the most… I’ve been to China twice to see her, visited her and met her family, and we’re getting married next year. Thank you guys so much.” Kid44 pauses. “This guy, we had to get him past that expectation that because he was big, he wasn’t attractive. What men are attracted to visually is not the same as how women are attracted to men.”

I ask the guys in Pickup Asia whether they ever feel like they are being manipulative in what they do. “Yes,” admits Kid44, and takes a long pause. “Yes. I train guys how to manipulate women into having awesome dates with them, so that the women are happy. So that the women are laughing. So that the women are thinking my god, this is the most interesting man I’ve ever been with. So that these women spend years of their lives with these guys that they believe are absolutely awesome – they are awesome. They’re manipulated into having great relationships with them, great sex with them, great marriages with them, great children with them. I’m terrible. I’m an awful guy. Because if I’m successful, these men will be able to manipulate these women until the very end of their lives, so that at the very last moment, these women say, I had an awesome life with this guy. Then, I hope I’m guilty as charged.”

He looks in my eyes, beams a sincere smile, and at that moment I believe him. Either way, I had a great time interviewing them.

You can find more information on Pickup Asia, their bootcamps, seminars on sexual mastery, storytelling, and other topics at www.pickupasia.com

Upcoming Events

6/19 Tokyo - Free Mini-Seminar (7 - 8:30pm, Roppongi Starbucks)
6/20-22 Tokyo - Boot Camp
6/21 Tokyo - Magic for PickUp
6/22 Tokyo - Sub-communication and Body Language
6/22 Tokyo - Free Mini-Seminar (7:30 - 9pm, Shinjuku Terrace Starbucks)

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