How to Be Playful: 4 Tips You'll NEED

how to be playfulA reader writes in:





He raises a good point.





Goldilocks and the Three Bears

You probably know the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, right? Pretty common childhood story for most people in the West.

Just in case you don't though, it's the story of a little girl with golden locks who walks into an empty house one day (the house of three bears, unbeknownst to her) and tries a big bowl of porridge, a middle bowl of porridge, and a small bowl of porridge, all set out on a table, and breaks a chair by accident after trying the other two, and falls asleep in a bed after trying the other two. A theme of the story though is her search for the bowl, the chair, and the bed that is just right.

Learning how to be playful needs to have a strong vein of this search for what is "just right," otherwise you can very much overdo it.

Playfulness is incredibly attractive to women when done right.

Yet, it's also incredibly annoying and off-putting to women when guys go overboard with it, and it can create far too much tension when guys don't employ it at all.

So, you can think of the three phases of playfulness like this:

  1. Annoying, entertainer guy (too much)
  2. Weird, tension-creating guy (too little)
  3. Attractive, comfortable guy (just right)

Because, you see, playfulness serves a function of alleviating tension and is an attractive quality... so long as it isn't used too much.

It's getting to that "just right" place that most guys struggle with, though.

"That Guy"

When I was first teaching myself how to pick up girls, I stayed away from the local meetings of guys learning the stuff because there was a problem I noticed in them, and the biggest problem was this:

Most of them were TOO playful, or NOT ENOUGH.

So you'd end up with this odd mixture of guys: a big chunk of the guys were these joke-cracking rib-nudging funnymen, while a smaller chunk of guys sat around creating spheres of uncomfortable tension around them that people tried to get away from. It was bizarre.

I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was at the time - I just knew that these weren't guys I wanted to learn from or spend too much time around when I was learning and impressionable (you become like the people you spend your time with). So, I went out on my own in the wilderness (allegorically-speaking), until I started meeting guys who were naturally extremely good with women whom I could learn from.

But these days it's easy to pinpoint: these guys were cracking too many jokes, and at the wrong times. OR, they weren't cracking any AT ALL.

And this misfiring playfulness killed their coolness, their attractiveness, and their social desirability.

It turned them into those kinds of guys everyone else ends up looking out of the side of their eyes at in the party and saying, "What's that guy's deal?"

And I'm not certain any of them even knew it.

Timing: It's Everything

When I was in 7th grade and I decided to start developing a sense of humor (formerly, I didn't have one), I spent a lot of time watching David Letterman's The Late Show, as well as the then-funny MadTV (they still have a few skits that have stood the test of time... most of them no longer seem quite so witty, though. Humor changes fast as the times change).

I was studying the kind of humor that worked best, the timing it was employed with, and who it was used on. Within a year, I was able to deftly crack jokes in the middle of class that both the teachers and my classmates loved. I had sharp, witty lines for every occasion when guys and girls would come to talk to me. And I focused heavily on timing, because I knew it was an important element in being both funny AND cool.

You see, there's two kinds of funny:

  • Cool Funny, and

  • Clown Funny

... and the two are as separate from one another as night and day.

"Cool Funny" is the kind of funny you get when a really cool guy says or does witty or amusing things. You know, that guy that steams coolness off of him and girls like and guys want to hang out with, and sometimes he just drops a line that people crack up at BUT YOU DON'T SEE HIM AS A COMEDIAN. He's just a cool guy with a good sense of humor.

"Clown Funny" is the kind of funny you get when an otherwise ordinary guy says or does witty or amusing things, and you can tell he's doing them a lot and you can tell he's trying to be funny.

One is natural, the other is not.

One seems effortless, the other does not.

Are you picking up on the difference here?

The Law of Least Effort and the rules of sprezzatura are every bit as vital - actually, perhaps even more vital - to your efforts to learn how to be playful as they are to anything else.

The man who respects them interjects wittiness and fun only when it is easy and effortless to do so, and his timing is impeccable.

The man who does not respect them forces his humor in willy-nilly, and as fun as it is, it shows you he is not so cool, not so desirable, and not so attractive to women.

Playfulness Women REALLY Like

As I first talked about with you in "Reactions from Women, or Result with Women?," a lot of guys get fooled by women's reactions into thinking they're doing things that are attractive... when they're not.

"She's laughing - that means I'm getting somewhere with her!" they think excitedly.

"She's spending time with me - she must like me!"

But women laugh at a lot of things they have no interest in going to bed with, and they spend time with a lot of people they'll never take as lovers.

Most guys miscalibrate by focusing on the wrong things.

If you want to know if she's into you, here are the questions to answer:

  1. Does she move with you when you tell her to move with you?
  2. Does she agree to meet up with you when you text her for a date?
  3. Does she come home with you when you invite her home?
  4. Does she take you as her lover?

If what you're doing is actually working, the answer to these will be "YES."

If it ISN'T, the answer is "NO."

And it's as simple as that.

Focusing on laughter, flirting, that sort of thing is training yourself the wrong way. Why? Because there are women who will flirt like CRAZY with guys they'd never go to bed with, and there are women who won't show it at ALL with guys they'd sleep with in a heartbeat.

Yes, you may well have passed up girls who would've done anything to have you as their lovers simply because you didn't move things forward with them, and you may well have spent weeks or months or more chasing after women who weren't remotely interested in you simply because they flirted with you because that's just what they do.

How's THAT for a wake up call?

What kind of playfulness do women actually like, then?

Women like men who know how to be playful by teasing girls effortlessly, by flirting with girls effortlessly, and touching girls correctly and attractively.

You'll notice it isn't just "teasing girls" or "flirting with girls;" it's teasing girls effortlessly; it's flirting with girls effortlessly. It's touching girls correctly and attractively.

When you do it wrong, it's off-putting and pushes women away (or you into the friend zone).

But when you do it right... it's a sight to behold.

How to Be Playful... Effortlessly

Now of course, this won't actually be effortless when you're learning it. As we discuss in those posts linked to earlier on the Law and on sprezzatura, it isn't actual effortlessness that we're going for here - if women were actually most attracted to the most effortless men, guys at home in bed would be through the roof in hotness.

They're not, of course.

What women are attracted to, rather, is maximum apparent result with minimum apparent effort.

how to be playful

Basically, if one guy seems to be chilling out not doing much but women are around him and appear entranced by him, and another guy is around women who seem kind of interested but he's doing a lot of obvious work talking and laughing and joke-cracking to keep them that way, the first guy wins. Maximum apparent result, minimum apparent effort.

You need to have this in mind as you employ playfulness.

You need to be playful with women... but it needs to seem natural and effortless.

Natural and effortless... ground that into your skull. Too many guys focus on the thing itself, without focusing on how it's presented. But presentation is everything.

And here are the keys to yours - how to be playful in a way that women really respond to:

#1) Have an Audience of One: HER

A lot of guys starting off learning humor as a "power of the crowd" thing. They think, "I've got to get everyone laughing. Then they'll all like me - and so will SHE!" So they make a joke - and make sure everyone here's it.

"Wow, look at those eyes!" a guy might say loudly to the group, pointing at the girl he likes. "You must be drunk already!"

Everyone laughs... and the girl feels embarrassed and insulted.


Instead, the guy who actually GETS it does this: he leans into her, when no one else is paying attention, all of them absorbed in their own conversations, and he whispers, "So you've got this kind of quiet-sage-looking-over-the-crowd thing going on... what's the story with that?"

And she laughs, and he laughs a little with her, and she starts telling him about herself or what she's feeling.


#2) Build Her Up; Don't Tear Her Down

Another glaring difference you might note between those two examples in #1 was the first guy tearing the girl down - "Look at those eyes! You must be drunk!" with the second guy building her up - telling her she looks like a sage.

Most guys do #1. Girls do NOT respond to this.

You see, it's easy to be funny being critical of someone - it's one of the easiest ways to crack jokes: doing so at others' expense.

People just don't like it much, is all.

What's far more challenging, but far more EFFECTIVE, is creating "inside humor" - humor that build her up, or builds the two of you up, without offering anyone up to the sacrificial alter of humor.

But that isn't all - you see, truly strong guys, the alpha males of the group, don't tear people down because they're far more interested in building allies than enemies. They know that the more you tear others down, the more THEY wan to tear YOU down... and it's only a matter of time before they do. So instead, truly strong guys take care of the people in their group - and women can recognize guys that know how to do this - they're the guys who are free from cynical, critical humor, and only use build-them-up-style humor instead.

#3) Get to Know Her - Don't Just Be a Comedian

Socially talented men employ playfulness for exactly TWO reasons:

  1. Breaking the ice, and
  2. Reducing tension


Now, breaking the ice is pretty straightforward - you know when to use that (whenever you're resuming a conversation with her or starting it for the first time), but how do you know when to reduce tension? That one's a little harder to get a handle on, and probably warrants a post in its own right (I see a "Breaking the Ice and Reducing Tension" post coming up at some point), but go by this rule of thumb for now: any time a conversation starts feeling too "heavy," some tension needs to be defrayed (or, you need to escalate things to the next step - don't get so obsessed with being playful that you forget to keep things moving forward!).

Once you've done something playful, you need to shift focus back to deep diving and getting to know her very quickly.

I can always tell a guy's mastered pick up these days when I watch him in an interaction and see him tease a girl very warmly, just the two of them, and she's laughing and he is and then he completely flips it and starts having her tell him about herself again. Anytime you see that, you're watching a man who's got the conversational element of a seduction down cold.

And to the GIRL, this just feels like she's in an AMAZING conversation with a man who knows EXACTLY how to make her feel the way she wants to feel. It's heaven. So fun... so comfortable... and so exciting.

#4) Toss in Some Pauses and Stares

We talked about pregnant pauses sometime back. What's really fun (and somewhat counterintuitive) is running through a process like this:

  1. Tension is rising in the conversation
  2. You make sure you're positioned with your face close to hers
  3. You defray some of that tension with playfulness
  4. You then STOP... and just hold eye contact with her, and let the tension ramp right back up as the two of you sit there in silence staring into each others' eyes

This is the point where most guys are going to go for the first kiss, but I'd suggest you NOT do this the first time you take a girl here. Instead, create this high tension moment... hold it for a few seconds... and then, very calmly, make a cold read about her.

It might look like this:

Her: So THEN I told my friend I just can't have that dog at my place anymore. Done.

You: I bet your life's been a lot more peaceful and less messy since then.

Her: Yeah! [laughs]

You: [laughs]

Her: ...

You: ...

[staring into each other's eyes, no one saying anything]

Her: ...

You: ...

You: You're a very interesting girl.

Her: What do you mean?

You: I mean, you're funny, and you're charming, but I feel like there's more there that you're afraid to show. But you shouldn't be.

Now, what you follow the pause up with is INCREDIBLY important. Incredibly.


Because what you follow it up with is going to tell her if you're perfect lover material, or perfect boyfriend material.

We're already getting a little more in-depth into this than I meant to in a post on how to be playful with girls, so suffice it to say this: if you change topics and try to act like nothing happened after the pause, it defuses too much tension and she'll feel like you're NOT a guy who is accustomed to too much sexual tension, which means she's less sure about you now and will need you to work harder to prove your virility in order to get her (so you end up going through a more traditional boyfriend dating routine to get her).

But if you escalate things by making a comment about her, you communicate to her that you are totally in-tune with the emotions, and you're going to explore her even more deeply.

And thus, you take a playful comment, and use it to create emotional depth and sexual desire in this girl who'd just been telling you a story about a dog.

That's how you use playfulness. Not giving a girl a hard time about her hairdo.

What About Nonverbal Playful?

how to be playfulBefore we wrap up here, here's one final topic: what's the story on nonverbal playfulness?

You know I'm a big proponent of nonverbal attraction and the importance that nonverbal communication plays in ALL social interactions, seductions most especially included.

Well, when it comes to learning how to be playful, I'd strongly suggest you treat nonverbal here no less significantly than you would anywhere else.

Reason being, nonverbal is one of the most potent, effective ways to communicate a LOT of information as EFFORTLESSLY as possible.

And thereby, it satisfies our primary rules of playfulness right out of the gate: maximum apparent result, minimum apparent effort.

How do you use nonverbal playful?

  • She says something smart-alecky to you, and you give her a skeptical look and a mischievous grin and lightly push her away

  • You see something funny you want to call her attention to, so you give her a nudge with your elbow and motion her to look in a certain direction with a quick shift of your eyes from hers to the place and a slight nod of your head in its direction

  • You eye-code her during group conversations - e.g., some guy says something ridiculous, and you lock eyes with her and raise your eyebrows like, "What did that guy just say?" (she'll smile back and make some, "I KNOW!" look)

  • Playing with her body: this is one you can play around with quite a bit, and it's actually quite effective once you get it down right. This is things like having her sit on your lap, having her put her legs over yours, playing with her stomach. I had a friend who would always play with girls’ breasts when he'd first meet them (after they were in a good conversation and having fun and they clearly liked him); he'd start by patting the underside of their breasts, allegedly to see if they're real or not, which women have less natural resistance for (since guys who are drunk or molesters or whatever tend to just grab women's breasts inelegantly from the front or top).

    Playing with her hair over her face to give her a moustache or beard if it's relevant to the conversation is another one. Lots of things like this.

  • You can kick a girl (lightly) or nudge her with your knee if you're sitting next to her and the occasion calls for it (she says or does something silly)

All of these require some calibration, and you'll like go through some periods as you learn how to be playful where you're making yourself do things that feel a little unnatural for you and might feel a little unnatural for the girl.

But that's part of the learning process.

Go through it, get comfortable with doing things like this (maybe not the breast one, if that's not your cup of tea), and keep your focus constantly on optimizing these for yourself and making them progressively more natural and progressively more effortless. As you improve, you'll get better and better - and women will respond better and better.

And before you know it, you'll be one of those cool, sexy guys who's got his playfulness down just right. And all the girls will know it, too.

Chase Amante

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Phil's picture


Dude I love you. I always ask my friends that are good with girls how do they do it. They always reply idk I just do it. For them it comes naturally(since they've put in hours of practice) but they can never explain their experiences or they can't put their insights into words. Fortunately for me and many others you guys made this website, and it has changed my life completely. For that I thank not only you Chase, but to all that make this website happen. Your work is much appreciated! Also I was hoping you guys could do a post on what to wear. I'm not sure if you have any post on brands of clothing or stores to shop at, if you do my mistake. I've been trapped in my mind with what to wear since I usually wear basketball clothing(footlocker), and it's been bugging me cause I know baggy clothes are unattractive. Any help will be cool. Drink lots of water and stay out of traffic!

Chase Amante's picture

Re: What to Wear


Hey Phil,

That's awesome to hear, and you're very welcome (from me and the team!). Hopefully you keep the change momentum up, here and in every aspect of life. There's always more to do.

Clothing-wise, yes, we definitely need a post on that here. Brand-wise, I've always found a lot of really interesting items at Guess, almost to the point where I won't buy stuff elsewhere much of the time. But I'll do a post on it soon.


Walls's picture

One of the best articles yet!

This is great, you are great, this site is great. Everything's great!

Just one question about this:

I do these things sometimes, and I always feel as if that could be considered "tearing them down." Would that be considered reactive and/or tearing someone (the ridiculous guy) down?

Chase Amante's picture

Eye-Coding: Tearing or Not?


Hi Walls,

Solid question.

You typically want to do it when someone's either a) saying something COMPLETELY off the wall, or if b) someone's saying something embarrassing that the girl might conceivably guess you share the same viewpoint on (I'll occasionally be out with some guy who just has no social sense, and you hate to have to throw the guy under the bus, but if he's going to shoot himself in the face socially and you can't stop him, it's better to cordone him off in his own little social awkwardness bubble, at least until you can take him aside and explain).

You can also do a milder version of this in milder situations. e.g., someone starts going off on a wild tangent, or ranting about strongly-held political views or something like that, and you make eye contact with your girl and widen your eyes like, "Whoa."

In these cases, it's actually necessary to show SOME sentiment, because if you don't people will assume you're just going along with it and hence yielding leadership to some off-the-wall person. But you don't want to get into challenging them directly on their craziness, because then you'll end up in a pointless fight debating worthless arguments. Women are aware of this, and when you give them a little hint like this, it's a way of reassuring them, "Trust me, I'm as put off by this as you are."

So - there is a degree of knocking the other guy in there, but it's slight and it's called for, which makes its effect almost entirely positive. Sort of like if some guy walks up to your girl and starts calling her names and you get her away from there and then say, "That guy was an ASSHOLE." Yeah, you're knocking him, but it's called for, and she'll bond with you more because she KNOWS you're on her side, not that crazy guy's side.


Phil's picture


Thanks for the reply chase, ill def keep up the momentum I've always been a proponent of self improving. Ill check guess out and looking forward to the what to wear post. Keep up the great work, and this site is gonna be huge in no time. Peace.

Dick's picture

Great post, it goes against a

Great post, it goes against a lot of what I have learned from other guys. I thought maybe I was just doing it wrong but this makes a lot of sense. So after reading your other posts about not having to be funny or make girls laugh, I went the ultra serious route. It's been working better for me, but I feel like a jack-ass inside. After reading this, I'm gonna have to reprogram this stuff!

Hunt's picture


Hey Chase, like the post :)

I was wondering about the "reducing tension" part of this article. Is some of this tension actually sexual tension rather than just plainly social tension? If so, then would it be a good idea to still keep some of the tension there? I think that if all of the tension went away, then so would that mysterious and exicting vibe, and the girl would be left with just a cool, comfortable guy rather than a sexy, dangerous one.

Chase Amante's picture

Tension: Social or Sexual?


Hey there Hunt,

Good question.

Tension can be a lot of things. The tension we're primarily relieving here is social tension... e.g., she doesn't know what to say and it feels awkward. Or, it feels like she's being expected to say or do something and it's awkward.

You'll typically shift the playfulness as you progress through an interaction more towards sexualized nonverbal playfulness and chase framing that serves to use playfulness and humor to actually increase sexual tension.

For instance, you'll be using it to create sexual thougths and expectations in her, and then you simply won't answer them (like, you pick a girl up, spin her around, then stop for a second and stare into her eyes seductively, then slowly pull away).

You want to reduce social tension (usually; unless she's socially adroit and is purposely raising social tension, but that's a special circumstance), while creating sexual tension (but not letting it get too high until you're ready to take her to bed).


Leonard's picture

Thank you so much

Thank you so much .. though is too late for me that i came across your article. i was actually googling "why the girl i like doesn't want to talk/text to you." Then i found yours.

i have read a couple of it and you make me realize what i should actually do. i like this girl, she's my classmate, told her i like her and then all the mistake man would do that you have mention from all the previous article. Had actually came true. i think i can describe myself as a nice guy .. do alot of things for her. I went out with this girl for 6 times now. Yes we never bedded cause i have a mindset of sex after marriage and i think i will still stick to that. Then she told me that she treat me as a friend after i confess to her, guess i am in the friend-zone right ? haha. We are still going out now even though i confess to her but it is getting cold as ever. i'm actually very tired.. mentally.

So thanks again ! i think i will drop off and move on


your article is awesome !

Chase Amante's picture

Letting Her Go


Hi Leonard,

Glad the article helped. Sounds like you've got the right idea with the girl... let her go.

As you work on yourself and get more experienced with women, she might come back. Or she might not. But you'll meet lots and lots of girls as you go along and upgrade yourself and your skill set, so to speak.

It looks like you're really just getting started.


Wowed! :))'s picture

thumbs up!

Wow!! I came across your site by accident!
It's just great!
I'm a girl and I truly think your website should be taught to boys at school!! Like as a compulsory subject! ;)

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