FR#7: Sneaky Boyfriends

Date: 2009-10-12 Thursday

Place--Webster Hall

Time--03:00

9 Approached

2 Hooked

1 #Closed

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It's raining as I walk to the club. In front of me are two well-dressed girls huddled under a broken umbrella; we must be going to the same place.

I gain on them and as I pass, I say over my shoulder, "Hey, mind if we share that umbrella?" I'm in. Turns out there's another guy with them and we get in line. The guy has booze. He tries to stash it, but the bouncer sees him.

I present my ID and am told I don't get the $1 discounted entrance because I have no collar. I've never worn a collared shirt here before, but it's completely up to the bouncer. I fork over the $25 cover and swear never to return un-collared.

Inside the club, I get accosted by a man who wants to give me a cigarette lighter. I don't smoke, but I accept it to use for incense. The man gives me a coupon for buying cigarettes despite my resistance. I turn around, and the my first set of the night is gone. Oops.

At this point, I had been reading Juggler, who says you don't need canned material. What I do not understand how to approach a girl in a club. Obviously, the AFC openers like "Hey, how're you doing?" are really lame, but I decided to forget openers for the night. I just opened with, "Hey, Sparrow. What's your name?"

Anyway, I enter the main dance floor and grab a drink at the bar as I look at for targets. I see two girls sitting on a couch, and another girl with a group of guys at the side of the room. I approach the group on the side and leave after introducing myself to the woman's fiance.

I try the two girls - Blond HB7 and Brunette HB8 - on the couch and open them. I go in confident and they seem thrilled that someone came to speak with them. I throw negs around, have my hand on the Blond's knee, and they seem to love it. They are sitting next to each other and I am next to the Blond, so I bounce the conversation back and forth between the two girls to keep the Brunette engaged.

After about 5 minutes, I get the number of the Blonde and we keep fluffing until after 20 minutes into the set, they say something about speaking with the bouncers. I say, "Okay, let's go." They seem a little taken aback and get very cold towards me as we get up and go to the front. It's incredible how quickly things can change.

They speak with the bouncers and we get opened by a group of girls. My set is being careful to keep their back to me and I know it's lost. Anyhow, we go back into the dance hall and a ridiculous performance starts. I leave my set after a bit and go around approaching sets, get blown out of every single one. Oddly enough, four or so of the approaches end with, "Uhh, my boyfriends right there," and the girl would point behind me and there would be a tall dude eying me two feet away.

After the ninth blow out, I just leave. I am still confused about Juggler - he specifically criticizes AFC-ish openers, yet I have a very difficult time pulling random opening conversation topics out of my butt in a club. Somehow, I don't feel that telling a girl she's pretty will do the trick in this club environment.