Let's see if I can remember back into the distant past to when I was a dancer.
It's quite a long journey.
Like any job, you get into a rhythm. The questions are part of it. You need to elicit some kind of immediate connection with your target, and the best way to do that is to ask an inane question about them. It gets them to share information with you about them. That makes a quick, simple conversational bandage that holds you together for a short time until you can get into weightier topics or, you know, get down to it.
It's hard to have serious convos with dozens of people all day long when all you want to do is make a buck. Maybe two.
These quick questions are like a waitron asking how your day is going before asking for your order. They don't care. It's a pleasantry.
I HAVE done a few things as a dancer to try to break the monotony. Let me know how you would have reacted to these.
- sitting at the table without asking, putting my head in my hands and just staring into her eyes.
- sitting at the table and just saying, "buy me a drink". The tough guy act wasn't really me, but it was a fun part to play once in a while.
- playing trivia by asking questions like "what's the fastest land mammal?" Then I'd pretend to write that down as I sat at their table.
