The thing that makes the Art Of The Pickup stand out from other similar DVD sets is that it’s designed more like an interactive course on how to meet women than a simple recorded lecture, like you might get with other DVD courses.

This format works very well in an instructional sense, because it breaks down the different phases of pickup in an easy to follow way, and allows for quick reference of the different tactics available.

Watching Art Of The Pickup, it was hard not to think of some of the sex education videos I used to be forced to watch in High School.  Because the videos are meant to be educational rather than “documentary,” the scenarios in the video are staged with actors rather than candidly caught.

While this does a good job of actually demonstrating the techniques discussed, it makes the tactics seem forced and “fakey” while watching – in part due to the substandard acting involved in the vignettes (hence the “cheesy” sex-ed video feel).

Though this can make the examples in the video hard to watch at times, I don’t feel that it takes away from the validity of the tactics being discussed.  Some of these tactics include:

• Approaching
• Confidence Building
• Initiating Conversation
• Email and Phone Number Closing
• Creating Attraction
• Comfort Building
• Follow Up And Day 2s
• Making Your Move/Late Game

The worst part of the video series, at least in my opinion, is the narrator – a slick looking pick up guy (or actor?) who narrates the methods being talked about.  The guy’s voice is deep and I can see why he was picked to do voice over, but at the same time it drips with a kind-of sleaziness that is more than a little off-putting.

In fact, it’s almost obvious that the narrator is almost portraying a type of “pick up” guy, rather that coming across as genuine.

Though this can be distracting, the production of the DVD set more than makes up for it.  This isn’t some fly-by-night operation where guys are videotaping tactics on a 1985 camcorder in someone’s basement.  The series was shot on digital video, with professional lighting, graphics, and editing.  It really is a quality production.

While the acting is cheesy, the example videos are well made and quite explanatory, with freeze frames and narration intercut to discuss what is occurring in the vignettes.

The course breaks down as follows:

DVD 1 is the primary disk in the series.  It contains the foundations of the course, which is are the underlying principles, understandings, and psychology behind the tactics.

After that, there are 2 more sections to the disk, broken up by encounter (in this case, the first time you meet the girl, and the follow up).  In the 1st encounter segments, you’re shown how to approach a woman and get her contact information.  In the 2^nd encounter segments, you’re shown how to follow up the initial encounter, get a date, generate attraction, and finally seduce her.

The second DVD in the set is an “Extra” DVD, divided into two sections.  The first section has to do with Interviews of other pick up artists.  The experts interviewed are the two guys who run fastseduction.com – Jay and Ray, and Will the Dating Coach (of Double Your Dating fame).

This is my favorite part of the course because it’s not scripted, and you get to hear the guys talk candidly about their views and experiences.  Though these experts aren’t on the level as someone like, Neil Strauss, for instance, they still have some good things to share.

The second feature on the second disk is a series of affirmations designed to help re-enforce the teachings of the course.  The affirmations are audio only, though, and have no video features that go along with them.

Now, I’m not a big fan of affirmations, because I feel most affirmations are a series of mental masturbation meant to make you “think” you’re actually accomplishing something as opposed to getting you to take action.  But I do recognize that affirmations can help people stay on the right path in terms of keeping focused on goals, and in that respect, I think the affirmations included on disk 2 are pretty good.

A little bonus feature on the disk is some audio of Jay giving a presentation recorded from a seminar.  I think the audio was recorded at the 2004 Pick Up Summit, but I’m not sure.  Anyway, like the affirmations, this feature is audio only, and lasts for about 90 minutes.

All told, you get about 6 hours worth of media in the course.

Here’s the breakdown:

THE GOOD

• The tactics and techniques presented are sound
• The production quality of the course
• The organization and presentation of the media
• The interviews with experts
• The interactivity of the course
• The girls in the videos are hot

THE BAD

• I don’t agree with a lot of the evolutionary philosophy presented in the course
• The video segments come of as a little too staged and fake
• The acting is sub-par
• The narrator is too sleazy and disingenuous for my tastes

THE RESULT

Over-all, despite it’s flaws and shortcomings, I think the Art Of The Pickup is a very good course for beginners who are new to the dating/seduction scene and looking for a place to start.  I wouldn’t recommend it to advanced students of The Game, because the concepts presented are rather basic, but for your average Joe just getting into this, it would be a good place to start.

The interactivity of the course makes it easy to follow, and the many examples are good at illustrating how the concepts are supposed to work.  The price of the course is $147, which may seem a bit steep for some, but considering it packs a bunch of the starting material into one format, you can save money by not buying some other courses that present the material in a less organized manner.

So bottom line:  The Art Of The Pickup is a solid course that I would definitely recommend to anyone getting into the pick-up game who want to build a solid skill set rather quickly.

Click Here To Check Out The Art Of The Pick Up For Yourself!

(What can I say?  I’m a charming dude.  =)

So anyway, I was kind of tired of Match.com and Yahoo! Personals, and MySpace was a little bit too played out, so I decided to check out eHarmony.  The big hook (supposedly) for eHarmony was that you get matches tailored just for you, so that chances for success in dating were increased dramatically.

Now, anyone who’s done online dating knows that the worst part is setting up your profile and crap like that.  It’s annoying and time consuming!  But if you think that’s bad, try signing up for eHarmony!  Not only do you have to take a long personality test, but then you have to go into your profile and answer a bunch of pre-set questions which will appear to your matches.  There just seemed to be pages and pages of stuff you had to fill out.  I got bored easily, and it took me the better part of two weeks to finish the whole damn thing.

Another annoying factor about eHarmony is that you aren’t allowed to browse other people’s profiles, like you can on Match.com or Yahoo.  Instead, matches are assigned to you based on compatitbility.

Now, this may “sound” like a good thing, until you actually start checking out the matches and seeing that a good 98% are UGLY women.

And I’m not talking about “plain” or “somewhat cute” here.  I’m talking about UGLY.  As in fat, buck-toothed, mildly retarded looking women.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some decent ones in the bunch (and a handful of hotties) but for the most part the vast majority of girls on eHarmony were not only beaten with the ugly stick, they were RAPED with it.  (This all, of course, assumes eHarmony didn’t judge my personality to be partial to ugly women, but I digress…)

It would seem that eHarmony just tends to attract the homlier sort of women, due to it’s promise of “true love based on personality,” which is an Oprah Watcher’s dream.  So not being able to search through the database of subscribers and seeing what the site has to offer is a big drawback in my opinion, because you could easily get stuck with a bunch of “perfect matches” you have absolutley no interest in!

But as though that wasn’t bad enough, you’re not allowed to start communicating with your matches right away.  Instead you have to go through a series of steps to start communicating with them.

This involves sending them a series of pre-selected questions they have to answer.  Then they send you questions.  Then you send them your “Don’t likes and must haves.”  Then they send you yours.  Then you send them more generic pre-set questions.  And on and on it goes.

And if you get ALL the way through that, THEN you can start “open communication.”

I guess this is eHarmony’s way of easing you into talking with each other, and allowing you to screen the other person more effectively.  However, when it comes to online dating, the only things I really care about is:

1.  How the girl looks in her pictures
2.  How they interact with me on the phone.

Because let’s face it, until you actually TALK to the girl, you have no idea if you two are gonna click or not — no matter how many emails you exchange.

When I date online, I want to send the girl some fantastic emails FAST to demonstrate my personality, and get her on the phone quickly to lock her in and set up a date.  eHarmony makes that IMPOSSIBLE.  I actually had maybe 2-3 good looking girls in My Matches page, but I lost them all because of their clunky forced communication process, whereas had I been able to email them straight away, I might have had a chance.

Not only that, but eHarmony only allows a minimum match radius of 30 miles from where you live, so you’re getting matches from girls who are really freakin’ far away!  Living in LA, a five mile jaunt can take up to an hour to drive.  Can you imagine how long a 30 mile commute would be?  Definitely a problem there.

Over all, I’d say that eHarmony is one of the WORST dating sites for guys out there.  Personally, I think that company is kept afloat by a gaggle of desperate, ugly women who struck out on all the other dating sites out there.  If you’re looking to get some quality results with online dating, go for a site that gives you more freedom and better search quality, like Match or Yahoo.

And if you don’t want to pay for it, stick to MySpace.