| I want to explore Gambler's familial opening technique in this thread.
For those of you who aren't aware, he elicits a reaction from the girl across the club/bar, by doing some kind of gesture, then approaches her in front of her friends and opens with "How've you been?" While putting out his hand. This disarms the obstacles because the familiarity of his approach makes them believe he already knows the target, and he's not just "some guy" trying to hit on her.
I really like this concept, simply because of the way it disarms the obstacles right of the bat. If done well, they'd probably be absolutely fine with you isolating the target right away; if it seems like she already knows you, why wouldn't they?
However, I feel like this opener also has the potential to fall flat on it's face. If you open with "How've you been?" And the target responds, in front of her friends, "Do I know you?" It's going to have the exact opposite of the effect you intended. So I suppose Gambler uses this opener in an attempt to get into "cahoots" with the target; there's a "we don't really know each other, but play along," subtext, or perhaps, when put on the spot, she acts as though she actually does know you from somewhere - and even convinces herself of it - out of politeness.
So I was wondering if you guys have had any experience with this opener, and how you would react if the girl did pull the "Do I know you?" response, or similar.
The other interesting part of the technique is the "forcing eye contact" he does from across the club, followed up by a comical gesture, point or wave, in order to elicit a reaction from her. I can see why this would be an almost essential precursor to the opener, because it builds a tiny degree of situational comfort and pads the "directness" of the line.
BUT - let's bear in mind that Gambler is a physically attractive guy and so women are going to be more predisposed to reacting positively to a gesture from him across the club than others! I don't know if it's just the bars and clubs I go to, but I don't know if I'd do this. It's devaluing yourself and in my opinion, setting yourself up for rejection after giving the girl a mild ego boost. I have no doubt that it works extremely well for Gambler - being the master he is, it's probably done in just the right way, with just the right connotations. But I'm not sure how it would work for rookies. Nonetheless, I'm going to try it.
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