Secret lives are no fun if no one knows about them. So next time you are passing through the Parnassus office of Hematology/Oncology, ask Camper English, resident writer, veteran clubber and all-around authority on swag, scams and what happens after midnight, for some tips. Or you might consider buying a copy of English's new book "
Party Like a Rock Star (Even When You're Poor as Dirt)."
The 200 pages of advice on how to navigate club waiting lines, score free tickets, pump up your reading material (raid recycling bins for last month's magazines), and snare the best clothes at thrift shops (go on Thursdays) are a speedy read through English's own bargain-hunting lifestyle.
Has he done everything suggested in the
book?
Some of my craftier friends gave me some good tips. But a lot of the advice comes from my own experiences trying to survive as a freelancer. It's all about the free stuff," says the once blue-haired, Boston University physics grad.
Be forewarned. Living the free life requires strategy, pluck and a shamelessness sometimes bordering on delinquency. Consider this:
"Want a free dinner? Take out an online personal ad and keep fishing around until someone offers to pay for your meal."
Or this:
"When it's your birthday (or when you say it is), make sure your coworkers know it. Tell them in advance and you might get a cake out of it, or spring it on them at the last minute and get taken out to lunch."
Or better yet, to get into a club for free, make your own phony press credentials. Want health benefits? Join a union. Too cheap to pay for a drink? Go to a tourist hotel and chat up a business traveler drinking alone. Need an umbrella? Go into a bar, ask if they have a lost-and-found, then describe it. "Collapsible. Black." English chuckles. "That one works all the time."
For someone so adept at deception, English is quick to credit blind luck for his current chance at fame. A publisher happened to read some of his freelance writing on - what else?-- clubbing and partying and liked his self-described "clever, snarky style."
"They asked me if I had any book ideas." English proposed the edgy how-to (38 ways to save on eating out, 70 low-cost dates…) then took a year to write it. It was a perfect fit.
"I've been going out clubbing since Chuck E. Cheese's Teen Night," says the 34-year-old author. "I've always been a night person. Clubbing is active entertainment and designed experience, unlike passively watching television or going to the movies or even reading. It's more on the level of playing sports: you're doing the same thing each game but it's different every time."
Indeed, English considers himself an amateur sociologist, an ace of blades, who with pen and panache brings readers the inside story. Life is strategy, after all, and smart moves need not be confined to the after hours.
"When I was looking for a part-time job, I picked UCSF because I could get benefits," he confides.
Where to next? "I'm working on a new book proposal, my twist on household hints."
In the meantime, as English writes, "There are shows to be seen, drinks to be drunk, dance floors to rock, parties to hit, people to see….Rock on!
Source: Jeff Miller
Related Links
Camper English's website
