Either way, I don't perform magic. All I'm saying is that trying something new is not to be discouraged and just because a bunch of unfortunate saps got rejected in some random situations doesn't mean that everyone will experience the same kind of failure.
I consider my advice to be a counterpoint. Let me give you a little context here.
I used to have a couple of online haunts in college that were hang-outs for musicians and music fans. I had a great time. I met a lot of cool people and learned about bands, genres and even whole eras of music I didn't know I liked.
However... A couple times a year, we got a thread by a guy saying, in effect, "I want to impress this girl. What's a good song to play?" As inevitably as the tides, dudes swarmed the thread to offer one of the following three responses:
1. Something incredibly cliche and unimaginative but which these guys genuinely believed women thought was totally romantic. (i.e. Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, Layla by Derek and the Dominoes, Every Breath You Take by The Police*)
2. Something really (over)laden with sentimentality or pathos. (i.e. Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton, While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles, Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel**)
3. Bad joke (Rape Me by Nirvana, **** Her Gently by Tenacious D, pretty much anything by Cannibal Corpse or other extreme metal bands)
Each of these categories would get no less than 7 different recommendations each. About 4 people would actually pick a really good song that was catchy, fun, good for parties, and would get listeners grooving. About 2 people would actually say, "Just be an adult and ask her out, for god's sake." I see a similar pattern emerging among magicians.
Do these things work? Occasionally. But nowhere near as reliably as most of you guys seem to think. These ideas are not as original and creative as you think they are. Especially once you get to college. I guarantee you, the prettier the girl the greater the odds she's seen it already. By the time she reaches 25, there's a 100% chance that no matter what pick-up line or gimmick you've come up with, she's seen it. At least twice.
So that in mind, and given the vast litany of trite, unoriginal ideas that 90% of the people giving them have never actually tried, is my suggestion that you should just act like a man and ask the girl out like a non-serial killer really that bad? Really?
As for where I went to high school, you clearly have never been to Western Pennsylvania. Academics there can be safely broken into two categories: football and not-football. I lost track of the beatings I received because I didn't like football but considered reading to be a form of entertainment. You can probably imagine how well singing a Clapton song off-key or doing card tricks for a date would go over.
*Side note: that song is actually about stalking, and I'm convinced that none of the guys who recommended it have ever spoken to a woman without having to show some cash or give their credit card number first
**Side note: this one kills me because it's one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite musicians