Rise Of The YouTube Pickup Stars

RSD is releasing their hot seat at home; a travelling infield pickup footage seminar, as an online product.

Those guys I respect, and admire the work ethic and courage required to film hundreds of hours of secret camera footage, and release it to the public. It’s not easy to be a public figure, especially not is such a controversial industry where even your fans can be cynics.

Anyway, this post is about the rise of the pickup YouTube stars, and the split from coaches to entertainers. RSD are some of the pioneers of infield vids, and they are primarily coaches. There’s a new generation of pickup dudes who are skipping the educational part, and using their skills to create entertainment.

Some of the earliest infield videos were released on YouTube, and are mostly cringe inducing, creepy newbie vids.

Guys like Mehow created some of the first higher end infield videos featuring guys like JTTran, Hypnotica, Speer… and helped brand a few others. They were a lot more oldschool pua back then, and used a lot of acronyms, and tactics. Useful stuff, but very oldschool and underground. In 2016, looking at that footage might seem underwhelming. But at the time, it was revelatory to see anybody doing pickup on camera.

They paved the way for shows like The Pickup Artist on VH1, and Keys To The VIP. Both of which were eventually canned because of political correctness. But the mainstream media’s rejection didn’t stop them from posting themselves on YouTube. And until YouTube decides to censor them, more and more pickup dudes are going to upload their game footage–for better or worse. The videos are just becoming higher quality, better produced, and more accessible. Expect a few stars to arise, and a lot more public outrage over certain characters whose actions are deemed harassing or offensive.

Infield videos are incredibly popular. I’ve only posted two videos of my own, and they both received over 12k views and 200 subscribers in the first month. That’s pretty astounding considering my more educational, talking head style vids struggle to reach more than 200-400 views. Infield vids are lucrative. Many guys are breaking 20k subscribers in their first year just doing cold approach vids.

We’re moving from the realm of shaky, pov, low-res and somewhat creepy productions, to multi angle, professionally edited web series—complete with happy go lucky soundtracks—for mainstream consumption. And now a new aspect of the culture: coaches are moving out of teaching teaching pickup via infield videos, and instead using their cold approach skills for social experiment and prank vids. And the Internet loves it.

Cold approach and seduction skills are pretty amazing to watch, whether you are looking for a few tips, or just watching viral videos of motor-boating a thousand boobies. It’s just damn impressive, and entertaining. Sex sells. Always will.

What the mainstream Internet hates, is the educational part.

The idea that you can study pickup as a science, as it objectifies women, and disrespects them (in their view, not ours). I believe that’s why some YouTubers took to pranking, social experimenting, and cuteifying their vids. To make it less offensive and more palpable to the masses.

These cuteified vids do show a side of pickup that the educational vids often don’t: that flirting is harmless, funny, cute, and normal. And that sexuality and sexual expression is normal and healthy. It’s the “manipulation” aspect that pisses people off. That and the fact that most pua style vids, the woman is recorded and shared on YouTube secretly without her consent, and for profit.

So the cuteified method has been pioneered by guys like Simple Pickup. They started out as three pickup guys who wanted to inspire men by handicapping themselves. They wore fat suits, and dressed like Batman, or accidentally dropped dildos on the ground.

While many hardcore pickup guys dismissed them as clowns, the mainstream mass YouTube audience shared their vids and they now have millions of subscribers. They’ve created their own media empire. They don’t even need to teach pickup. They can just make entertaining, sexy prank vids.

Two examples of pickup guys making “prank” style vids are Adrian Gee and Honest Signalz. Some of their vids are the pickup advice sort, but most are Simple Pickup style, where they use props, or dress up in weird costumes and say dumb shit to attractive girls. Only to point at the camera at the end and go “It’s a prank!” They’re pretty entertaining, funny, endearing, and just damn good tv.

Unlike the loathed pickup artist, these guys actually have female fans, and attract groupies the way a regular TV celeb might. The prank or social experiment angle is a socially acceptable way to make pickup videos.

As long as you make the viewer laugh, and don’t go all meta, talking to the viewer about psychology, the viewer just assumes you’ve always been this charismatic and awesome guy.

As a coach I know these guys worked their butts off to look so calm on camera. It took them years of practice. That’s why they make such great performers. Seduction is art. But it is also a business. Some infield YouTubers such as Adrian Gee, and Tom Torrero have been busted for using actors in their vids.

Nobody wants to be the next Julien Blanc. Isn’t it funny though, that if you make videos that teach pickup, it’s considered creepy and offensive—but if you make prank/social experiment videos—you are rewarded with mainstream adoration, money and attention from women?

I’ve always felt that dating coaches are no different than rockstars, or poets. We are fun, confident and talented. The only difference is unless you’re Gene Simmons, or Motley Crue, you don’t verbalize your conquests. Nobody likes a braggart. Many pickup dudes are bragging in the guise of coaching. But, that’s what sells their programs and keeps them travelling the world. There are also lots of great coaches making really useful content, and helping men change their lives for the better.

In the traditional coaching realm, new guys are popping up all the time. You have guys like Daniel Blake, Tom Terrero, Sasha Daygame, and so many more. Daniel Blake actually shows meeting a girl to bringing her home. And this has lead to viewers expecting, often demanding, we actually show the girl we secretly filmed, riding our cocks in High Definition.

Some of these guys have such high viewership, they can live off of YouTube partnership and advertising money.

All they need to do is continue putting out infield vids. Good for them.

There are also guys like David Bond, who are making lifestyle/vlog pickup vids of their day to day adventures. His vids aren’t secretly filmed. It appears the girls are fully complicit, and down for the GoPro.

David has caused massive outrage around Asia because of the audacity of showing and shamelessly discussing his sex life on YouTube. Maybe that angle isn’t the path to popularity. But his viewership and fan/hater base is growing quickly towards double digit viewership. So who cares about a few million haters in Taiwan?

Now, I love watching this stuff too. I haven’t made any more infield pickup videos. But I’ve been thinking: why even make educational secret vids and deal with the wrath of the muggles, when I could make “social experiment” or cuteified “prank” vids, with full consent from the women. Why even write dating advice when I could be a YouTube clown?

I have had the idea of creating a travel blog and YouTube, where I go to other countries, and talk about their dating cultures, expat cultures, and more. I think I would like doing that more than writing about pickup, and filming secret videos. Then again, I would also like to finish my next novel, and my daygame product. Too many ideas. Not enough completion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHCA2Gw9AB4

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Check out the vids, and list any more infield vid favourites below. I’m sure there will be more and more guys making infield porn/prank/social experiment vids in the years to come. It will be interesting to see some of these guys either enrage half the world or become YouTube celebs. Personally, if I utilize YouTube, I’d rather do so to attract the love admiration, rather than the wrath and disgust of women.