The Pick-Up Diary

The Penny, Nicholas, and Dime Routine by Style is a simple routine to demonstrate higher value (DHV). The best DHVs are those that make the woman or the group you

approach have a great time. These types of DHVs set you up as the guy who creates the good time for them. Everyone wants to be around that guy.

For the Penny, Nicholas and Dime Routine you’ll need a penny, a nickel and a dime. You could carry the coins around, but you could also use this opportunity to create an opener.

“Hey, do you have a penny, nickel, and dime? I want to show my friend something cool.”

Once you have the coins, it’s time to begin. Here’s how it goes:

“My friend showed me this cool game. It’s a trip. You ready?

OK…”

Present your left hand palm up, fingers together, to create a table for your effect.

Spread the coins out in your palm, heads up, in a line.

Place the penny nearest your finger tips, the nickel in the middle, and the dime nearest your wrist. This ordering will move the energy of the game directed toward you as you do the pointing.

Now say and do the following:

“Ben’s mother had three children: Penny, Nicholas, and …”

When you say “Penny”, point at the penny.

When you say “Nicholas”, point at the nickel.

If whoever you’re playing the game with isn’t looking at the coins, make eye contact with her, then shift your gaze to the coins, so she will follow your gaze and look at the coins.

Then point at the dime and keep quiet. She’ll feel the conversational lead and attempt to fill in the verbal blank.

They might say something like, “Dime-o”, or “Dime-us” or some other name that isn’t correct.

Go ahead and stop reading this passage for a moment, and figure out the right answer for yourself.

Got it?

The third child’s name is Ben because this whole game started by saying “Ben’s mother had three children…” Then two of the children (Penny and Nicholas) were named, by process of

elimination the third child must be Ben because it’s his mother!

Now, if she doesn’t get the correct answer, then repeat the exact same procedure over.

When you repeat the the patter feel free to put the coins in her hand by saying, “Gimme your hand,” or you could just proceed by gently taking her wrist, lifting her hand, with the fingers together, palm up, in a platform position. Place the coins on her palm in a line in order, penny, nickel, and dime pointing at you.

Repeat the quote while pointing at the appropriate coins.

“Ben’s mother had three children: Penny, Nicholas, and …”

If after a few repeats she still doesn’t get it. You can remove the coins and say, “Now don’t think about the coins, close your eyes and just listen.”

Now when you say the phrase again emphasize the words BEN and THREE. “BEN’S mother had THREE children…”

Usually, this gives her that “A-ha!” moment and she gets it. Without the visual stimulation of the coins and pointing, it’s much easier to solve the riddle. The reason why this works is

because of the visual misdirection. The penny-Penny and nickel-Nicholas connection made an inference that there was some indirect link between what was spoken and what was seen, namely, the dime.

If she still can’t get it, promise to tell her the secret of the Penny, Nicholas, Dime game later or the next time you hang out. This intrigue will help secure another date, or, if she’s the

intensely curious type that can’t wait, she might hang on your arm, begging “Tell me. Tell me!” Which isn’t a bad thing either. Tell her you will show her the secret only if she knows a friend there at the venue that you guys can play the game on together.

When you’re performing for an audience of one, especially one you have a special interest in, ground the emotions and anchor the good feelings to you. After she achieves the game’s revelation, you can add some romantic patter to enhance your relationship

and bring you two closer together:

“Now isn’t that amazing! It’s funny how once we see things in a certain way, we can’t ever go back to seeing them the old way again. Like with this game, there was some connection right in front of our eyes and ears but we couldn’t see it or hear it. Yet the pleasantly surprising solution appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.”

P.S. There are tons of great routines in the book Magic Bullets.