Tomb

It’s a Saturday night at Tantra Nightclub. An eager man in his early 20s slides his way over to a table of two attractive girls tucked away in a corner. Things appear to be going well. The girls are smiling and laughing and the young gentleman looks to be making some headway. The next moment, however, another young man approaches the table and drags the would-be player off to look for his next “set.” As soon as he is out of sight, one of the girls moves the chair he was sitting on and they start laughing and whispering — mocking their recent interaction.

Ouch. But it’s par for the course for the new Rockstar Seduction recruit.

I first met two of the three entrepreneurs who run this Calgary operation about a month ago. The aim of Rockstar Seduction is to turn students into studs, by teaching them how to befriend people and maybe even meet a woman or two.

I’ve been out of the dating scene for the past four years due to a long-term relationship, so this program was my first insight into a growing underground international market of confidence-enhancing services for the dating-challenged.

Founder — and man about town — Ryan Thornhill is a 26-year-old with a sleeve of tattoos, sparkly plugs and a toned physique who’s been running Rockstar for four years. When he told me what he did for a living I was immediately intrigued. “Everything is situational but it’s just learning how to deal with those situations on the fly, having the confidence to do it and having the balls to go up and talk to someone,” he says.

The Holy Bible of scoring babes — The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss — was released about five years ago. I had never heard of the book before meeting Thornhill and his two partners, Mark Westby and Carson Varney, but virtually all Rockstar Seduction clients have read and reread this manual. Strauss, a successful and well-known journalist, confesses in the first pages of The Game that he couldn’t close a deal if his life depended on it. After two years of following Mötley Crüe on the road for a biography, The Dirt, he hadn’t even received so much as a kiss, with the exception of one from Tommy Lee. By following and documenting some of America’s greatest pick-up artists, Strauss set out on a path of new personal discovery.

Interested in learning how these locals teach the fine art of wheeling ladies, Thornhill, Westby and Varney happily let me join them and four students for a three-day weekend boot camp that costs $950 a pop and takes place in the clubs, parks and streets of Calgary.

The first night, a Friday, is a crash-course seminar on how to meet anybody, not just women. The guys admit that the presentation’s material can be found on the Internet and in Strauss’ book, but terminology like “IOI” (Indication of Interest), “sets” (groups of girls, guys and mixed genders) and “kino” (non-threatening physical contact) are all explained at the seminar. To penetrate a set, the students are given various tactics to employ, using a series of quasi-psychological information and soccer-play strategies that sound as though only David Beckham could pull them off.

Immediately after the lecture, the crew makes its way to a waiting limousine in order to roll up in style at a busy downtown club, Vinyl. After the limo pulls away, we find out Thornhill’s connection failed to come through with a promise of no line and no cover, so we are left standing out front with our hands in our pockets. So much for a rock-star entrance.

So we haul ass on foot to the next bar: the always-classy Cowboys. I instantly discover why they call this a boot camp. Any hesitation on the part of the students is not tolerated. The teachers point to a group of guys or girls and if one of the recruits tries to pull back, they are dragged over like naughty children. One message is drilled into the students time and time again: “Why are you here? This is what you are paying for. If you don’t get over there you are never going to succeed.”

“Eventually they are going to find that approaching isn’t that scary and they are going to get rewarded for that,” explains Thornhill. “And instead of saying ‘I don’t want to do this because it feels bad,’ they are going to say ‘I want to do this because it feels a lot better and all that social conditioning that has taught me differently is completely wrong.’” No one, including the instructors, are allowed to drink or rely on “liquid courage” at boot camp.

It’s not easy watching these students fail time and time again. It’s a train wreck. Thornhill confesses to me that at one time he was an oddball loner in the bar trying to make friends. But after a couple years of practise and learning how the game works, one would never guess. He’s a bar star. He walks around like he owns the place — any place — and the girls swarm in.

Hanging around with Thornhill reminds me of George Costanza when he hangs out with Elaine’s cool boyfriend: It’s almost a privilege to be in his presence, yet there’s a feeling that what he does isn’t attainable for everyone.

After exhausting what little crowd there is at Cowboys (post-Stampede this isn’t the hottest place in town), we make our way to the Drum and Monkey. Packed to the gills, the students are back on track trying to find any and all openings. No group, they are told, is too big or too small to penetrate (even at this hipster pub). More failure, so we make our way to 17th Ave. S.W., where the pupils are told to say hello and try to initiate conversation with each and every person who walks by. The young men appear to be making some progress in “bringing out their inner extrovert.”

Westby, a law student, is a firm believer in their program and likens what they do to a male empowerment movement.

“A lot of these men have worked really hard at school, or at their businesses and they are hard-working, kind people… who can find the perfect girl for them and vice versa. They’ll be able to find a woman who values and appreciates them for what they have to offer,” Westby says, noting that the $950 fee goes beyond the weekend crash course — the teachers follow the students’ progress for at least six months.

The guys explain that Rockstar isn’t only about getting laid by strangers at the bar. The goals and successes are determined by the students themselves — some simply want to increase their social circle and learn how to make new friends.

Friday night ends on a high note at Classic Jacks when two of the more enthusiastic students dance with a couple of ladies. Watching them is a proud moment for the party professors, as the students put their newfound knowledge to use, practicing kino and spontaneous conversation. The dance lasts only a few minutes and ends at that, but it would seem as though a couple players were born that night.