While on a recent trip I formularised a new little frame/tease to throw into sets. Nothing groundbreaking or conclusive, just nice spiking and framing. Allow me to share. One girl I’m working on long game has bright purple hair. Rid all images of face-pierced shaved-temple tattooed feminists from your mind. This is a delightful slim beautiful young Russian art student who is feminine in every respect….. she just happens to dye her long hair purple for aesthetic reasons. While on a short first coffee date:

Me: You know, I’ve just realised [chuckling to self]…. when you walked in I knew you reminded me of someone famous but I couldn’t remember who. Now I’ve got it!

…. tap tap tap into google image search on my phone….she’s in rapt anticipation…

Her: aaaaahahahahhahahhahaaahahaaaa!

A bit later on she’s telling me about her art college in a different town.

Me: I imagine it’s a very different atmosphere over there having all those art students in one place. Here in Krakow it’s quite traditional. Probably when you walk down the street with that purple hair old grannies tut and little children point. But I’ll bet that in Lodz girls like you are ten-a-penny.

Her: Haha etc

Me: In Lodz you probably feel like when a girl who goes to a party and sees another girl in the same dress. There’ll be all these purple-haired girls walking past and you’re thinking “bitch”. You don’t feel like a special unique snowflake anymore. You’re just common.

Thinking about this gave me an idea that this is a repeatable routine on any girl’s deliberately affected quirks.

• Step 1: Identify a quirk. Perhaps it’s her hair, or subculture fashion (punk, metalhead, goth etc), or other affectation.
• Step 2: Compliment her that it’s nice
• Step 3: Playfully sympathise that it must be hard in tradtionally-minded towns. Use the tutting of grannies and pointing of small children.
• Step 4: Contrast it with how utterly common and non-special it is in her imagined chosen environment (town, social group etc).

This tease works because you are bouncing from opposite sides of the spectrum – she’s both a misunderstood rebel and an utterly conformist bore – while giving her a playfully unflattering frame at both sides. You’ve got her bang to rights and women love being called on their shit in a non-angry way. You can generalise the theme further. Imagine you’re chatting to a catwalk model. Obviously it’s important not to be overawed by her job and presumed lifestyle. So run this pattern.

Me: Catwalk, eh? Hmmmmm…. interesting. I suppose it must be quite a contrast in life. Here you are on Oxford Street striding down the street like an angry cat. Very pretty and stylish. You’re the tallest girl here, like Gulliver being in Lilliput. All these other girls seem like oompa loompas and you’re a giant, having to duck when you walk through shop doorways…. and then you go off to a casting and suddenly the whole room is full of giants. You’re just another tall girl in a whole sea of tall girls, all scratching and biting to get the contract. That must be really difficult to get used to, going from being a unique snowflake to just another pretty girl.

You can always find a way to use a girl’s unique high-value attributes as a playfully-framed negative, whether it’s her large breasts, long legs, thick hair, big eyes, great fashion. Creatively invent dual scenarios where the attribute begins as a blessing and ends up as a curse.