“Can I please take your picture so that I can show Santa what I want for Christmas?”
Please do not think that I am trying to hit upon you; you are way out of my league.What I was trying to do however, was give an example of a pickup line. Fancy phrase pickup line. So what exactly does a pick up line mean to you? A pick-up line or chat-up line is a conversation opener with the intent of engaging an unfamiliar person for romance, or dating. According to me however it is nothing but an ice breaker between a girl and a guy. A good pick up line doesn’t ensure that things will be all lovey dovey but a bad pickup line will certainly ensure that things become helter skelter.
Like any tasty dish, a tasty pickup line(pun intended) is also made up of certain ingredients - they are C,D and E : Content, Delivery and Evaluate.
First and foremost comes the content - this is like the prepared speech section in Toastmasters. You know the objective - impress someone. The content should be witty and chatty. By chatty I mean something which will ensure that you get a reaction from the audience. A pickup line should not be corny like - “Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk through the door again” might result in the door being banged on your face. Neither should it be straight forward like “Let’s date because I think we are made for each other”- it never works trust me I am speaking from experience. If you can come up with something humorous then it will do the trick because everyone likes a person who can make them laugh - the politicians and the project managers are an exception. Being original helps and I always believe in the horses for courses thumb rule. Whatever works for one girl won’t work for another. And just in case you cannot think of anything, even a simple hello or hi can do the trick. Remember the motive is to strike up a conversation. A word of caution - I have seen guys trying to wish a girl in a different language like Bonjour in French, Guten Tag in German, Hajimamashite in Japanese etc. Do it at your own peril - if the girl can speak that language and you cannot, then the cat is out of the bag. Another tip is to pay attention to the person or the ambience. The easiest way to start conversation with someone is to speak about the weather but then again if you are in a nightclub it isn’t a good idea to walk up to someone and say “What a beautiful sunny day it is.” Remember your content is the king.
Next comes the clincher - the delivery. It is either going to grab her attention or result in your extinction from her mind. A simple pickup line delivered properly can surpass the best pickup line delivered ordinarily. The delivery is composed of three C’s the first being - Confidence: there is no substitute to confidence when it comes to an ice breaker. Eye contact is a must. Speaking too fast or too slow is a sign of lack of confidence. But always remember - confidence is good, overconfidence is fatal. The next C is conviction - you have to believe in what you are saying. Yes you really don’t mean it when you are saying that “You are really pretty” but you got to deliver that with conviction. Once again shaky voice or avoiding eye contact denotes that you do not believe in what you are saying. The final C - Courage. The school where I studied had the motto - Courage to Know. For a successful pickup line the motto is Courage to Go. This is where 99% of the guys are filtered out or rather chickened out. We all have had an instance in our lives where we see a gorgeous, mind blowing, princess like lady being accompanied by a pauper like guy and you are like... “Lucky dog”. It is infact not a lucky dog but a brave dog. He didn’t fear about rejection and as a result now they are in conjunction.
Finally comes the evaluation part. Now the question might be what are we evaluating? Our mistakes. Yes and no. By evaluation I mean evaluating the response of the person. Every great speaker can feel the pulse of the audience and adapt accordingly. Similarly for a pickup line study the person in front of you. Is she smiling? Yes. Is she smiling because she is impressed or you sound like a joker? Is she frowning? Yes. Where is the nearest exit. Exiting a conversation is another art. If your ice breaker did not go down well with the person in question, leave amicably. The problem with most men are that we have a big ego and we cannot accept rejection in the right spirit. However, not everyone will like you and vice versa but hey we are a species of around 8 billion and even probability gives you a chance greater than zero. So definitely you can be someone’s hero. As Farhan Akhtar had stated in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara “Insaan ka kartavya hota he koshish karna, kamyabi upar wala ke haath mein he” We can only try and do our best, rest is our fate.
Dear friends, a pickup line is just like a speech in Toastmasters. Sometimes prepared, sometimes impromptu. Do not use it as with an intention to flirt even though the intention is to flirt. Consider it as a light hearted conversation starter and go with the flow.
