Is Neil Strauss still a pickup artist?

No. After The Game he wrote more books, including The Truth (2015), which deals with his struggle to build a lasting relationship after years in the pickup community. His later bestsellers, such as The Creative Act with Rick Rubin (2023), have nothing to do with pickup.

What happened to Mystery from The Game?

Erik von Markovik, known as Mystery, left the company that became Love Systems in 2006 and founded Venusian Arts. He then hosted VH1's The Pickup Artist (2007–2008) and co-wrote further books, including one with Neil Strauss in 2010.

What happened to Julien Blanc?

In November 2014 Australia cancelled his visa and the UK refused him entry after protests against his seminars. He apologised publicly and in 2015 started his own YouTube channel and personal-development seminars.

What Happened to the Pickup Artists of The Game?

When Neil Strauss published The Game in 2005, a small online community of men who studied how to meet women suddenly had a bestseller about it. The book spent two months on the New York Times list and returned to the spotlight in 2007, when VH1 launched The Pickup Artist.

Two decades later the people it made famous have gone very different ways. Here is where the main figures ended up, based on well-documented sources. We describe only what is well documented, and we say where we could not verify something.

Neil Strauss (Style): from pickup to relationships

Strauss was a journalist who joined the community undercover and wrote under the name Style. After the book he published a follow-up, Rules of the Game (2007), and founded the coaching company Stylelife Academy.

Then he turned away from the scene. His 2015 book The Truth looks at his difficulty with long-term relationships after years of pickup, and in the same year he said the community included some damaged people with hateful, distorted views. Since then he has written widely read books on other subjects, among them The Creative Act with Rick Rubin (2023).

Mystery (Erik von Markovik): the face of the scene

Mystery, a Canadian former magician, is the mentor at the centre of The Game. His Mystery Method, written up in a 2006 book with Chris Odom, became the best-known system of the time.

He left the company that grew into Love Systems in 2006 and founded Venusian Arts. In 2007–2008 he hosted VH1’s The Pickup Artist, which brought the scene to a mainstream TV audience. He co-wrote another book with Strauss in 2010. Critics have long accused him of promoting manipulative behaviour.

More on him: Mystery (Erik von Markovik).

Owen Cook took the name Tyler Durden from the film Fight Club. Together with Papa (Nick Kho) he founded Real Social Dynamics (RSD), a Los Angeles company that taught men in the field, in bars, clubs and cafés. The Game describes how it came about.

For years RSD was among the biggest names in the industry. It came under heavy public criticism in 2014 during the Julien Blanc affair (see below). Cook said at the time that the video behind it had been posted for shock value. We found no reliable recent reporting on what the company does now, so we leave that open.

Ross Jeffries: the godfather

Ross Jeffries was already teaching in the 1990s. His “Speed Seduction” draws on NLP and hypnotic language and made him a pioneer of the scene. Strauss describes shadowing him in The Game and calls him the godfather of the modern community.

Film director Paul Thomas Anderson named him as an inspiration for the seminar guru played by Tom Cruise in Magnolia (1999). Jeffries kept publishing for years afterwards, for example Secrets of Speed Seduction Mastery (2010) and Subtle Words That Sell (2018).

David DeAngelo (Eben Pagan): from dating to business

“David DeAngelo” is the pen name of Eben Pagan. His e-book Double Your Dating helped shape modern dating advice with ideas such as “cocky and funny”.

Pagan later moved into online business training. In 2018 he published Opportunity, a business book about spotting and choosing opportunities, which has nothing to do with dating.

More on him: David DeAngelo (Eben Pagan).

Julien Blanc: the 2014 backlash

Julien Blanc, a Swiss coach at RSD, became known worldwide in autumn 2014. A video from Tokyo and photos he posted under a hashtag about choking women drew protests, and a petition against him gathered several hundred thousand signatures. Critics said the material made light of violence against women. Blanc said it was a failed attempt at humour taken out of context.

Australia revoked his visa on 6 November 2014, and the UK refused him entry on 19 November. Singapore said he would not be allowed in, and Brazil said it would deny him a visa. After apologising in a CNN interview, he started his own YouTube channel in May 2015 and turned to personal-development seminars, later under the name Transformation Mastery.

Roosh V: from travel guides to deleting his sites

Daryush Valizadeh, known as Roosh V, became known through his “Bang” travel guides, starting with Bang in 2007, and later ran the blog Return of Kings. In 2015 planned speaking events in Montreal and Toronto met petitions and protests, and in 2018 Amazon removed several of his books.

In 2019 he announced a turn to Christianity, stopped selling his pickup books and began to criticise casual sex. In 2023 he closed his forum and took down his websites. He says he now wants a regular job and a quiet religious life.

Mark Manson (Entropy): from pickup blogger to bestselling author

Mark Manson started a blog with dating advice in 2008, wrote as “Entropy” and self-published Models: Attract Women Through Honesty in 2011. His focus was already on honesty and personal growth rather than tricks.

He then widened his writing to life advice in general. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016) reached number one on the New York Times list in 2017, and he followed it with Everything Is F*cked (2019). In 2021 he worked with Will Smith on the actor’s autobiography, Will.

Love Systems: Nick Savoy and Cajun

Nick Savoy and Mystery formed the Mystery Method Corporation in 2004, which was later renamed Love Systems. Savoy became its long-time president and wrote Magic Bullets. Cajun, a Canadian coach, joined in 2007, when the company was still called Mystery Method Corporation.

In 2016 the European investment firm Agile Wings bought Love Systems. We could not verify what the company does today.

What the scene looks like today

The place where pickup happens has moved. The forums, e-books and weekend bootcamps of the 2000s have largely given way to YouTube, podcasts and dating apps. Blanc’s own channel, started in 2015, is one small example.

At the same time the tone has changed. Several of the best-known names ended up in self-improvement, business or religion, as the sections above show. The 2014 protests and a large retailer’s removal of Roosh V’s books made clear that the public no longer accepts advice that treats women as targets. Today the reputable end of the dating-coaching world talks about confidence, communication and respect for a woman’s “no”.

What you can learn from them

1. Practice beats theory. Almost everyone in this story agrees on one point: nervousness about talking to women shrinks with repeated, small attempts. The wiki entry on approach anxiety explains how.

2. Honesty ages better than scripts. According to his coach profile, Owen Cook moved away from memorised routines because women kept saying they had heard them before. Manson’s career follows the same idea: being straightforward about what you want works longer than any line. See how to attract women.

3. The goal is a good life, not a high count. Strauss himself concluded in The Game that a life built only around picking up women is a poor way to live. Manson and Pagan went on to write about growth and success in general. Treat women as people, accept a no, and work on the rest of your life as well.