There are all kinds of situations in which ordinary citizens may find themselves engaged in sustained interactions with politicians. This article focuses on novices - those citizens who become involved in advocacy and mobilization activity without the support of a structured organization, political skills, or any accumulated activist capital. Our sociological approach has several advantages. It reminds us that political skill is acquired through practice, reveals the tensions involved in advocacy work, and enables us to identify, in a regulated set of relationships, some of the specific characteristics of the political profession today.