User:Chicago Smooth/Alan Roger Currie

Alan Roger Currie is an American writer, public speaker and radio personality.

General Background
Currie was born on March 3 in Gary, Indiana. Currie attended Indiana University (Bloomington) where he earned a B.A. in Economics  and was a member of the predominately African-American fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi.

Entertainment Industry Pursuits
In the mid-80s, Currie began to land roles in local, regional and national television commercials, and later gained some degree of notoriety when he won a national contest for up-and-coming comedians held in Chicago in 1989. Currie beat out fellow finalist Sheryl Underwood to earn $3000.00 as the Grand Prize Winner of the Miller Lite Comedy Search. Currie has made brief appearances as himself on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Phil Donahue Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

In the mid-to-late 90s, Currie's interests shifted from acting and stand-up comedy to writing and screenwriting. Currie started writing his own original comic books when he was as young as six-years old which he sold for $0.05 to $0.15 to his classmates. In May 1994, after completing one year in the Kelley School of Business MBA Program, Currie moved to Los Angeles, California where he began pursuing a career as a screenwriter and filmmaker. Currie was hired into the highly selective NBC page Program in Burbank, California and began working for NBC Studios. Currie later worked for Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in their Guest Relations and Special Events department.

Dating and Relationships Author
When Currie was in his 20s, he developed a reputation for approaching women and expressing his dating desires, interests and intentions to them in a very bold, upfront and provocatively straightforward manner. Currie later developed "The Four Modes of Verbal CommunicationTM" in October of 1990 and published his first pamphlet in 1998 entitled Mode One: Let Them Know What You're Really Thinking.

In his Currie's 26 page pamphlet, he outlined the general characteristics of each of his "Four Modes" of Interpersonal Communication:


 * Mode One Behavior - An interpersonal communication style with women which his characterized as highly self-assured, upfront, unapologetic and straightforwardly honest


 * Mode Two Behavior - An interpersonal communication style with women which his characterized as pleasant, polite, cautious and "beat-around-the-bush"


 * Mode Three Behavior - An interpersonal communication style with women which his characterized as phony, cowardly, deceptive and fawning


 * Mode Four Behavior - An interpersonal communication style with women which his characterized as resentful, vindictive, misogynistic and harshly critical

Currie converted his initial pamphlet into an eBook in 1999 and began selling it over the Internet on sites such as the "Love & Relationships" message board of AskMen.com. Book Author and Comedian Ian Coburn described Currie's principles and philosophies as "refreshing and truly helpful" and Coburn felt that Currie's advice "encourages men to become confident and tells them how to do so." Currie believes, "If you are attracted to a woman, the best way to capture her attention is tell her what your intentions are; She may initially gasp in shock, but she is more likely to go out with you." Currie encourages single men to be very straightforward with women because "You cut through the bullsh** quicker. You get right to the point about your desires, interests and intentions, which in turn enables women to be upfront and straightforward about their desires and interests. Attraction, in large part, is about quickly identifying who is on the same page as you ... as far as your desires and interests ... and who is not."

Currie now has two books sold on the Barnes & Noble website as well as Amazon.com: Mode One: Let the Women Know What You're REALLY Thinking (2006) and Upfront and Straightforward: Let the Manipulative Game Players Know What You're REALLY Thinking (2009)

Criticisms against Pickup Artists and the Seduction Community
Currie has resisted having his name associated with the well-known Seduction Community, which features authors, dating coaches and seduction gurus such as Neil Strauss, Mystery, Ross Jeffries and Tyler Durden, among others. Currie is quoted as saying, "The main weakness in most of the behavior of the typical Pickup artist (PUA) is they tend to be deeply afraid of harsh, subjective criticisms from women, as well as abrupt rejection. When you are afraid of negative responses and/or harsh criticism, that puts you into Mode Two Behavior; when you are afraid of being rejected and/or indefinitely ignored, that puts you into Mode Three Behavior. PUA’s are manipulative in their behavior, which in turn, opens them up to be easily manipulated." Currie is very critical of attraction and seduction techniques which emphasize or utilize misleading or manipulative tactics. Currie said, "Manipulation can provide benefits in the short-run, but very rarely if ever in the long-run. At some point, your real, true self will come to the surface. That's problem #1.  Your true desires, interests and intentions will always eventually be exposed.  Secondly, when you attempt to manipulate others ... you actually become more vulnerable to being manipulated yourself. This is the key point that most men and women don't realize."

Career as a Radio Personality
After being interviewed on the nationally syndicated radio program, The Countdown, hosted by legendary African-American radio personality Walt "Baby" Love about his book, Currie discovered the BlogTalkRadio Internet Radio Network and started his own talk radio show entitled Upfront & Straightforward with Alan Roger Currie in June 2007. Currie's show primarily centers on interviews and discussions with dating coaches, relationship experts, sexologists, seduction gurus, marriage counselors and life coaches, and is designed to help improve the love lives, sex lives and social lives of single men and women. Currie has interviewed a number of notable authors and experts, such as Hill Harper, Tasha Smith, Finesse Mitchell, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Karen McCullah Lutz, Nina Hartley, Mr. Marcus, Dr. Susan Block, Dr. Yvonne K. Fulbright, Dr. Debby Herbenick, Alexandra Katehakis, Dr. Helen Fisher, Dr. Richard Milner, Dr. Carole Lieberman, Author Robert Greene, Zan Perrion, M. Gary Neuman, Dr. Carol Queen, Dr. Scott Haltzman, Ian Coburn and Doc Love among many others.

Because of the popularity of his books and talk radio show, Currie was quoted in the July 2008 edition of Essence magazine, a publication which is primarily designed for African-American readers and African-American women in particular. Currie was also featured on the "Relationship 101" segment of the former FOX Network morning television talk show, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet which was previously hosted by Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy. Currie was also hired to teach an Adult Education Personal Development course through The Division of Continuing Studies on the campus of IU Northwest in his hometown of Gary, Indiana. The six-week course is entitled "Dating for 21st Century Singles," and the course was so popular and well-received during the Spring 2009 semester, that Currie was invited to teach the course again during the Fall 2009 semester.