Neil Strauss (Style): The "Who Lies More" Opener...

[goolio]

The ‘Who Lies More’ Opener by Mad Dash

“Hey guys, quick question...Who lies more...men or women?”

---(Girls talk for a bit, then you cut them off.)

“Ok, I can only stay a sec, my friends are waiting, but who
cheats more, guys or girls?”

---(Girls talk for a bit, then you cut them off.)

“I was waiting to get a haircut a few weeks ago, reading
one of those women's magazines, and it says that girls lie
more and cheat more...is that true??”

---(Girls talk about topic. Go into your next routine.)

==================================================


The Problem with the ‘Who Lies More’ Opener
- by Style

Whenever I'm winging workshops, and I go around the room
and ask guys what opener they use, half of them say, "Who
lies more, men or women?" And then I see them go out and
use it that night, and half the women usually respond by
either by asking, "Why are you asking us this?" or "Are you
taking a survey or something." Or by just giving them bad
body language and trying to end the conversation as soon as
possible, then laughing at them behind their back.

I remember the opener suddenly appearing in the community
like a year and a half ago, and can't remember who made it
up, though I think it was a workshop student. And it is a
great opener to learn, because it's so short.

The problem is, it's imperfect and incomplete. There's a
subtlety to any opinion opener: There must be a reason why
you’re asking it.

In other words, you can’t just walk up to a group and ask a
random question for no purpose. It's weird. You need to
root it in the time and place. For example, when I use the
jealous girlfriend opener, I mention that I'm asking
because I just got a phone call from my brother about it or
"we were trying to give my friend over there advice." When
I do the spells routine, I say it's about "my friend Will,
who isn't out with us tonight because he's with this girl.”
You must root your opener to make it a valid reason to
approach a group.

Maybe some people who use Who Lies More actually give it a
context, but no one I've heard. So if you are going to
continue to use this opener, you must modify it, or find a
new one. Examples of roots for the Who Lies More opener
include:

“I was reading Esquire today and they did this study, and
guess what the results were? My friends and I have been
debating about it all day. We disagree." OR, "My friend
over there just broke up with his girlfriend because she
kept lying to him about little things. And we thought it
was funny, because guys are the ones who have the
reputation for lying. But now he thinks women are worse. So
we're trying to save him from being bitter about women for
the rest of his life. Only you can help save him from
ending up a lonely, miserable old man, eating dog food in a
studio apartment downtown.”

These are just random roots I've put into the opener, off
the top of my head. I'll field test them and, in the
meantime, if anyone field tests a rooted version of Who
Lies More and it works as solidly as everything else,
please let me know. Let's complete this opener so that
everyone can start using it correctly and effectively.