I did a deconstruction of some great video of renown pickup and seduction artist Mystery in action.

Thanks to popular demand, I’m back with a second, longer (7 minute) more in-depth video of Mystery, that shows the progression of a single pickup, rather than Mystery bouncing around between groups of people.

Video below so you can follow along:

00:13 “So you didn’t answer me about the costume.” Wow. Strong, strident, petulant voice — this woman on the left is seriously shit-testing Mystery (on the right, in heavy club attire).

He replies with, “I’m changing the subject! Do I have to answer every single question you ask? Who the hell are you, missy….” Mystery is clearly not impressed or intimidated by this little girl-woman. Note: she’s pretty hot, too.

00:23 And he shuts up. Notice how long Mystery is willing to wait for the girl to respond to what is (to my mind) really a rhetorical question? Where other guys would try to plow over the thread and engage other threads, filling empty time, Mystery just lays back and waits. You can SEE the shifting emotions on this girl’s face: is he serious? Is he playing? Is he for real? Finally she provides her name (seeking rapport).

00:45 Mystery picks UP this rapport-based thread with a boring question (”what do you do for fun?”) and she instantly turns it back around (”What do YOU do?”) She’s clearly intrigued but smells something fishy — the outrageous costume, the height, the strange Alpha attitude, who is this guy? Guys: be careful about following her lead into rapport. She might not be done shit-testing (as this girl clearly is not). In fact, following a false lead into the rapport phase of the interaction (which comes directly after the ball-busting shit-testing attraction phase) too early is a common hangup.

01:05

Mystery: I’m a glorified bum.

HB8: (after some tense silence) …and you have on more eyeliner than I do.

She’s pissed and frustrated; how dare he be so inscrutable? He’s clearly not in awe of her (considerable) physical beauty, and he’s clearly interested in her (i.e. NOT gay), but he has on more eyeliner than she does. This doesn’t…make….sense!!

You can see a guy trying to push in and getting blown out at 1:20-25. It’s quick, you might miss it unless you’re paying attention…he says “Excuse me!” and the girl just kind of smiles at him. Attention snaps back onto Mystery. He’s sucked her into his frame.

Notice also, right before 1:20, how she’s making noises like she’s going to leave, and he brushes it aside “Okay, well if you have to run along….” totally unconcerned. But she stays, and he just plows with his game.

1:37

Mystery: Telling a story, blah, blah blah, blah blah

HB8: Waitwaitwait. ANSWER THIS. (pointing to his outfit).

She literally cannot leave until she figures out the mystery of Mystery!

But Mystery knows this, and he’s not going to fail the shit test by giving her the simple, logical, rational, masculine explanation she wants; instead he’s going to hook her in with his presence and deploy other theatrical tools to amp her attraction for him.

Notice the girl, Sarah, is also deploying what’s called a “false time constraint”: “She [my ride] looks like she’s going to be on her way.” The subtext is, “Perform for me NOW! So I can discard you NOW and go on to more interesting guys NOW.”

Guys, if I’ve learned it the hard way once, I’ve learned it a thousand times: DO NOT fall for these kinds of false time constraining shit tests with women. “Oh I’m about to leave.” “Oh I think I have to go in a few minutes.” “Oh but I’ll never see you again.” All these messages come from the girl seeing herself as HIGHER VALUE THAN YOU, and using the threat of her presence-withdrawal to draw out of you whatever information or value she wants.

Notice this is the EXACT same tactic that we, as guys, have reverse-engineered and deploy with the ladies to great effect.

It works both ways, but don’t let it work against you. Be indifferent to her presence or absence. If she really wants the information, she’ll have to stick around to get it, or meet up with you later (which necessitates a solid number exchange). That’s just the way it is.

Back to the video, Mystery just plows right through this false time constraint.

1:43

HB8: “We’re supposed to go to Sky Bar.”

Mystery: “Anyway. Think in your head — do you have a middle name? Yes or no.”

HB8: “Yes.”

Mystery: (runs game)

HB8: (eats it up)

This really the turning point of the interaction, at around 3:00. Mystery gets the illusion right (guessing her middle initial) and she’s basically tranced-out and open to him from that point onwards. As we’ll see, there will be some residual shit-testing, as this girl is seriously squirrely (especially once her friend comes around), but this is the beginning of the end of her resistance and shit-testing.

3:19 Mystery finally gives in: “I’m an illusionist, a magician.” Which just happens to be true, and is therefore extremely congruent with everything he’s been doing to her thus far in the interaction. She eats it up, “Really! Nice.” Seeming genuinely happy. The next shit test is more subtle: she is still confused, but not putting out a testing, petulant vibe — she’s now more clearly inquisitive, little-girl curiosity as she actually touches his furry vest.

3:30 When Mystery doesn’t provide her enough of an explanation for his clothes, she gets tired of not “knowing” and provides her OWN reasoning: “You wanna standout. WHICH IS WHY I will sometimes wear a sticker on my face and look like I’m 5 ’cause I wanna stand out”. She is now QUALIFYING herself to him: it’s OK that you wanna standout, because *I* wanna standout, but “I don’t usually go that far” (gesturing to Mystery’s get-up). Subtle, subtle dig, but also a dig made from a position of trying to find common ground. She hasn’t given up yet.

3:50 Set merging…which is just seduction industry jargon for “Introduce me to your friends.” Sarah touches Mystery, prompting a “Don’t do that — don’t just TOUCH — this shit ain’t for free”. Money, money frame.

4:14 Clear it with the friends. You want always want to get “in” with a girl’s peer group (if possible), so they’ll help you guys make the logistics of a hook-up possible, rather than fighting it.

Mystery makes some steps in this direction, then gets temporarily bogged down in an adversarial battle with the peer group:

Mystery: Well, she and I (HB8), we like each other. Are you OK with this? (to friend)

HBFriend: Uh, Yeah!

(crosstalk)

HBFriend: She’ll tear you to shreds…. (shit-test)

HB8: (trying to interject but failing) — he guessed my middle initial….

Mystery: I’ve eaten girls like her for BREAKFAST… (qualifying himself; beta)

HBFriend: Ya think so, huh? (challenge) You’ve just gotten to know her then. (non sequitur, drunk talk?)

Mystery: Really?

HBFriend: (looks happy, and drunk)

HB8: You eat pieces of shit for breakfast?

(silence)

(laughing)

Mystery: Hey, wanna see my hair? (plowing)

Notice the TOTAL non sequiturs that happened, the conversational speed bumps.

Mystery never said he eats “pieces of shit like you for breakfast” — although that IS a line from a popular Kanye West song. What he said was, he eats GIRLS for breakfast.

But his target, the HB8, doesn’t respond to WHAT HE ACTUALLY SAID, she responds to what she thinks he said, based on her social programming — which includes the cultural influence of Kanye West (”I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast / what!?, y’all eat pieces of shit?”)

But everybody laughs, and Mystery just plows, so it’s quickly forgotten.

5:00 Mystery’s hair is impressive, there’s some minor shit-testing going on about whether or not she’s going to laugh or swoon when she sees it, in my opinion Mystery is too defensive and cocky here, but his long pauses and solid “you gotta be kidding me” eye contact do serve as a sort of counter-shit test. He puts his hat on her (time-honored trick), which doesn’t work for her, but he pushes it, and she accepts it. At 5:30-40 he’s playfully dominating her, which she clearly likes, and is now appealing to her friends that she’s “such an asshole” to him.

At 6:00, Mystery pulls a genius move by ascribing all her shit-testing to “a very strong personality”, and then opens and closes his own thread (closed-loop conversation) by asking, “Were you beaten as a child? Don’t answer that, I don’t wanna know.”

(Closed-loop conversation, which might warrant its own article, is just what he’s done there: it’s not as obviously rhetorical as a rhetorical question, in fact, the first part of the loop is delivered in such a way so that the girl is GEARING UP to answer, but he closes his own thread so quickly that she doesn’t get a chance to, and feels cheated, and wants to talk more. It’s just another form of a hook, only it’s a closed loop: he shows the hook and then takes it away. It works so well that she answers it anyway, not seriously, but in a funny way, and the group vibes about it for a bit.)

6:25 The conversation really stalls out here. I don’t know of Mystery is doing this intentionally or not, but the entire set energy just PLUMMETS. It’s almost painful to watch. He was doing fine riffing on the roommate-similarity between the two girls and could have bridge that into a Lesbian Lovers or Sisters or Best Friends test or any number of other routines, but for some reason just lets everything just sit.

6:30-40 “Don’t let the charm fool you. I’m not an [animal?]. I’m not as smart as I seem.” The girl is really opening up to Mystery here; he runs some minor lines about her being very classy, behind that rough exterior, that really seem to miss the point of her attempt at rapport.

Finally she starts asking buying questions

HB8: How old are you, Eric?

Mystery: Guess.

HB8: …37.

Mystery:…you’re such an asshole. Forget it. I’m not gonna play with you (pushing her shoulder playfully and turning away; mini-takeaway).

HB8: You’re not gonna walk away. You’re not gonna walk away.

Mystery: No, but I’m gonna SIT away….

“Sitting away” during an interaction is sort of a small venue change….it changes the dynamics of the interaction, but often these variables are WORTH changing, especially if you can get a girl into your lap.

7:17 Mystery comes clean:

Mystery: At some point in our rapport-building, you’re gonna have to turn off the asshole, and turn up the sweet princess inside you.

This is as strong a bid for rapport as I’d ever probably make in a nightclub pickup such as this one.

The video basically ends shortly after this, but it’s clear the girl has been hooked and is basically leaving aside all the shit-testing and moving (tentatively, but still moving) into rapport. We can see this most clearly from the hug and pose at the very end.