Neil Strauss

Neil Strauss
Strauss in January 2009
Born	October 13, 1973 (1973-10-13) (age 38)[1] Illinois[1]
Nationality	American, Kittitian
Other names	Style, Chris Powles
Occupation	Writer
Known for	Pickup artist, writer

Neil Darrow Strauss (born October 13, 1973), also known by the pen names Style and Chris Powles, is an American and Kittitian^[2] author, journalist and ghostwriter. He is best known for his best-selling book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, where he describes his experiences in the seduction community in an effort to become a "pick-up artist." He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and also writes regularly for The New York Times.^[3]

Education and initial career

After graduating from high school at the Latin School of Chicago, Strauss attended Vassar College.^[4] While in school he began his career writing for Ear, an avant-garde magazine, and editing his first book, Radiotext(e), an anthology of radio-related writings for the postmodern publisher Semiotext(e). He moved on to the Village Voice, where he did everything from copy-editing to fact-checking before becoming a regular reporter and critic.^[5] He was invited by Jon Pareles^[6] to become a music critic at The New York Times where he wrote the Pop Life column and front-page stories on Wal-Mart’s CD-editing policies, music censorship, radio payola, and the lost wax figures of country-music stars.^[7]

He was then invited by Jann Wenner to become a contributing editor at Rolling Stone where he wrote cover stories on Kurt Cobain, Madonna, Tom Cruise, Orlando Bloom, the Wu-Tang Clan, Gwen Stefani, Stephen Colbert, and Marilyn Manson.

He won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for his coverage of Kurt Cobain's suicide for Rolling Stone and his profile of Eric Clapton in The New York Times Arts & Leisure section. Strauss also contributed to Esquire, Maxim, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Details, and The Source in addition to writing liner notes for albums by Nirvana and others.^[8] He has also appeared in Beck's music video Sexx Laws which also featured Jack Black, and as a guest star on the season six finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

The Game and the seduction community

After leaving The New York Times to ghostwrite Jenna Jameson's memoirs, Strauss joined a sub-culture of pick-up artists known as the seduction community, publishing an article in the New York Times about his experiences in 2004.^[9] In 2005, he published The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists (Regan Books, 2005), a book about his transformation into "Style", a pickup artist under the tutelage of Mystery. In addition to documenting his experiences with pickup artists like Mystery, Steve P, Rasputin (Hypnotica) and Ross Jeffries, it also describes his seductive interactions with celebrities including Britney Spears,^[10] Tom Cruise, and Courtney Love. Strauss writes of his distrust of pickup artists "Tyler Durden" and "Papa", the co-founders of Real Social Dynamics.

The book made a month-long appearance in the New York Times bestsellers list in September–October 2005, and reached the #1 position on Amazon.com immediately after its release in the United States. Strauss appeared on various TV shows, including The View and ABC Primetime, and he participated in many book signings.^[11][12] It was optioned to be made into a film by Spyglass Entertainment, with Chris Weitz adapting and producing.^[13]

After publishing the book, Strauss temporarily retired as a pickup artist and settled with a longtime girlfriend Lisa Leveridge, who played guitar in Courtney Love's all-female band The Chelsea.^[14]

An article in the Sunday Mirror, suggested that Leveridge broke up with Strauss in February 2006 to date Robbie Williams.^{[15][dead link]} Strauss denied the Williams rumor, but confirmed his breakup with Leveridge on his mailing list a few months later.^{[citation needed]}

His follow-up book, a controversial graphic novel How to Make Money Like a Porn Star, came out in 2006 on September 26. By 2006 Neil Strauss also came out with "Shoot", a short film about becoming a rockstar that he co-wrote, directed and performed in. That same year, in collaboration with Dave Navarro and Entourage writer Cliff Dorfman, he created a one-hour TV drama The Product for FX.^[16] In 2007, he released a follow-up to The Game, Rules of the Game, a two-book boxed set.

Strauss has continued to be involved with pickup artistry through his dating coaching company Stylelife Academy. Stylelife was founded in 2007 and whilst most of the coaching is done by employed coaches other than himself, Strauss does make appearances at yearly conferences and in some video products sold by the company.

Emergency and subsequent writing

On March 4, 2009, The New York Times wrote that Strauss (along with rock biographer Anthony Bozza) had started his own publishing company, Igniter, as a subimprint of HarperCollins. Igniter's first title, the Times reported, will be "The World According to Bozo the Clown." ^[17]

Strauss's book, Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life (Harper, 2009), for which he spent three years amongst survivalists, tax-dodgers, billionaire businessmen, and the government itself, was hailed by Rolling Stone as an "escape plan" for the current world crisis.^[18] It entered the New York Times bestseller list at #3.^[19] The rights to the movie were picked up by Columbia, with Robert Downey Jr. attached as a producer and likely star.^[20] In 2010, Strauss received the James Joyce Award from the Literary & Historical Society of University College Dublin.^[21]

Neil Strauss's latest book entitled Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys Into Fame and Madness was also a New York Times bestseller.^[22] Released March 15, 2011, the book is a compilation of more than 200 celebrity vignettes conducted throughout Strauss's career as a pop culture journalist.

Bibliography

• Radiotext(e) editor, with Dave Mandl (1993)
• The Long Hard Road Out of Hell with Marilyn Manson (1998) ISBN 0-06-098746-4
• The Dirt with Mötley Crüe (2001) ISBN 0-06-098915-7
• Don't Try This At Home with Dave Navarro (2004) ISBN 0-06-039368-8 ISBN 0-06-098853-3
• How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale with Jenna Jameson (2004) ISBN 0-06-053909-7
• The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists (2005) ISBN 0-06-055473-8
• How to Make Money Like a Porn Star, illustrated by Bernard Chang (2006) ISBN 0-06-088405-3
• Rules of the Game (2007) ISBN 0-06-154045-5
• Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life (2009) ISBN 0-06-089877-1
• Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys Into Fame and Madness (2011) ISBN 0-06-154367-5

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Strauss, Neil (2009). Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life. Harper. p. 407. ISBN 978-0-06-089877-9. 
2. ^ Leddy, Chuck. "Infiltrating the survivalists", The Boston Globe, March 21, 2009.
3. ^ "Times Topics - Neil Strauss". The New York Times. http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/s/neil_strauss/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=neil%20strauss&st=cse. Retrieved Jun 17, 2011. 
4. ^ http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0106/0106thegame.txt
5. ^ Slushpile interview with Strauss
6. ^ Interview with Strauss on MediaBistro
7. ^ Strauss, Neil (November 12, 1996). "Wal-Mart's CD Standards Are Changing Pop Music". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/12/arts/wal-mart-s-cd-standards-are-changing-pop-music.html. Retrieved May 20, 2010. 
8. ^ [1] Chicago Tribune, "Nirvana Box Set Stunning
9. ^ Strauss, Neil (January 25, 2004). "He Aims! He Shoots! Yes!!". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 12, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5ydDj9R8U. Retrieved May 12, 2011. 
10. ^ http://www.esquire.com/features/what-it-feels-like/ESQ0805WIFL_100_14
11. ^ Neil Strauss Book Signing Video from Los Angeles, Calif
12. ^ Neil Strauss on ABC Primetime Live
13. ^ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002074610
14. ^ Emma Forrest: "All the right moves." The Observer, September 11, 2005
15. ^ "Exclusive: She's the 6ft One", SundayMirror.co.uk, February 19, 2006
16. ^ Daily Variety, August 18, 2006, "FX amps up rock drama" by Denise Martin
17. ^ HarperCollins Puts Its Money on New ‘It Books’ Imprint
18. ^ Rolling Stone Emergency review
19. ^ [2] The New York Times bestseller list, March 29, 2009
20. ^ An 'Emergency' For Robert Downey Jr., Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2010
21. ^ Neil Strauss Receives the James Joyce Award
22. ^ [3] The New York Times bestseller list, April 10, 2011

External links

• Neil Strauss - Official Website
• Neil Strauss on Myspace

Persondata
Name	Strauss, Neil
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 12, 1973
Place of birth	Illinois
Date of death
Place of death