Kosmo

Kosmo (aka Alvaro, if you play that way) won on the first season of VH1's reality TV show The Pick-up Artist.

Age: 23

Occupation: Cameraman

Alvaro is a self-professed dreamer who claims he needs to be drunk to meet women. He cannot talk to a female when he is totally sober and he generally freezes. He often finds himself unable to think of anything to say to women most of the time. The only reason he has dated women in the past is due to the fact that they approached him. There other times where he has talked himself out of great situations with women because he got too nervous and just couldn't stop talking. He cites specific insecurities that have held him back. Growing up, he was short, and he still sees himself that way (even though he's not). Alvaro often covers his mouth, stutters and bites his nails when he gets nervous around the opposite sex. To make matters worse, Alvaro admits to being very picky when it comes to choosing a female. He spends his free time break-dancing and claims he could teach any of the guys in the house how to do so. Along with break-dancing, Alvaro loves boxing and can easily hit a punching bag, he just cannot seem to hit on an attractive woman. Alvaro's mission is to ultimately overcome his insecurities to win the heart of a woman he likes in Miami.

Maybe you were wooed by his break-dancing moves, charmed by his tears or freaked out at his hyper tendencies. Maybe you just liked looking at his bod in a Speedo. Ladies liked him enough to kiss close and bounce to new locations, and Mystery liked him so much that he named him The Pick Up Artist. Yes, Kosmo is King!

In our first interview installment, Kosmo opens up about the moment Mystery changed his life, the way some fellow contestants talked to trees, and why his acting career doesn't necessarily make him a ladies man. Make sure to make the jump to find out why he thinks Scott is like a...

Want to clear the air about your occupation?

I'm not a computer programmer! I'm a film maker, I'm a camera operator, I break dance. I'm an actor. That's what I do for a living. And so now they're saying that the whole show is fake. It's not, and I'm not.

So just because you're an actor doesn't mean you can't be uncomfortable around women. Actors are not perfect human beings. Actors also have problems picking up women. Leonardo DiCaprio one of the most handsome guys in Hollywood - came up to Mystery one night in a bar, and told him he had problems picking up women his whole life, and was never the guy to go up to girls. I have pictures all over my MySpace showing that I'm an actor. It's something that I'm proud of, I'm not going to hide it.

You cried a lot on the show. Are you really that emotional?

I grew up in a Latina household where it's not cool to cry. Men cannot wear pink, men cannot show emotions. You have to be a man. And me, I've always been like - if I'm pissed off, I'm gonna tell it to your face. If I need to cry I'm gonna cry! Whatever I feel I have to vent out. And my whole life I was holding everything in.

How did you get on The Pick Up Artist?

I hate to make my life sound like a fairy tale, but I went out with a couple of friends and I said, You know what? I can't go out with you guys anymore. Everytime we go out, you're all talking to girls and having a good time, and I'm in a corner. I want to talk to girls! I want to get over this fear. I don't want to drink 85 beers to build up the courage to talk to a girl. The next day, I woke up to a random phone call. We saw your audition tape somewhere. We don't really know how we got it, but do you really have trouble picking up women? Out of nowhere I got this phone call. That's how I got on the show.

What was your first impression of Mystery?

On the first episode I called him fake. I didn't believe sh*t! I was like, He's fake, why is he wearing mascara, I don't like him. It doesn't work.' Even when he went into the field I still didn't believe it. But he sat me down and talked to me the second episode and really changed my life with a couple words. I suffer from anxiety attacks I did, not anymore and he helped me work through that. I don't know if it was something he said or his energy, but I believed every word that came out of his mouth and trusted him. He told me that we don't have that much time to live and life is too short. We connected. After that talk, I changed completely.

What friends did you make from this experience?

We're all good friends. Scott bothered me sometimes with some of his remarks. So I just ignored him. I'll honestly never be able to relate to Scott, I honestly think Scott is a robot. Like if we sprayed water on him, he would break down. I can't relate when people hide their emotions, which is what Scott and Pradeep did a lot and Fred too. But I loved everyone. Joe D. was my number one guy. I'm going to go meet up with him in five minutes. This guy's amazing. I'm helping him out, we're going to the gym. He's my best friend. I'd never think that I'd be able to make friends with like, nerds. People that weren't in my social group. But, I never thought I'd be friends with people not like me.

Did anyone not deserve to be there?

I think Fred shouldn't have been there. He mocked the thing the whole time. Either that or he just didn't get it. But I think he was a waste of space. Scott tried the hardest. That poor kid would go talk to trees; he would practice 24/7. That kid tried as hard as he could.