His job is to pour drinks behind a bar. There is nothing special about bartenders, however what sets Mr. Matt Boke from other bartenders is flair. That is, the art of flipping, spinning, throwing, balancing and catching bottles, shakers and many other bar gadgets.

And while we might think of Flair bartending as a hobby, Mr. Boke takes it as his full time job. After all, it has been about ten years since he started practicing and showcasing his skills in North America and Europe. Moreover, Flair bartending did not just teach him how to spin bottles; it also spun his life, changed Matt’s career plans and shaped his personality.

“It all started when I saw the 1988 movie hit “Cocktail”, starring Tom Cruise in a role of a talented and ambitious bartender. I just could not get my eyes off a screen watching Tom Cruise pulling off some unbelievable, crowd energizing drink-mixing performances.”

Finding some common grounds with Tom Cruise’s character, Mr. Boke decided that it was the time to do some flair on his own. He grabbed the few empty bottles, a copy of the movie and started practicing.

“Just like the main character in this movie, I used to work as an ordinary bartender, in Marmaris, a small but very popular tourist destination in Turkey. Being in part ambitious and materialistic guy, I figured that if I use some bottle flipping tricks it could add the few extra bucks in my tip box, attract crowd to our bar and make a name for myself”, Matt continues to talk about the very first moments of his career.

After about six or seven months, he finally started catching some bottles rather then breaking them.

“Broken glassware, spilled liquor, cut fingers are all inevitable part of it”, he shrugs off misfortunate situations.
“You perform in front of real customers, you don’t have cameras, movie directors and producers who can stop taping a scene and repeat it the few more times. You have to be concentrated, persistent and have a lot of patience. It takes time but at the end your effort gets you to the top, where the biggest prize is a cheering and crazy crowd.”

His words are credible, as Mr. Boke is a winner and participant of the numerous contests and exhibitions. Flair bartending events happen every year in many countries around the world and attract hundreds and thousands bartenders and fans.

The very first show took place back in the mid 1880’s, when a famed American bartender Jerry “the professor” Thomas created his famous “Blue Blazer” drink. He was pouring flaming scotch and water from a mug to mug in a long blazing stream, always shocking and amusing bar customers.

Some 150 years later, Flair bartending has its own association and keeps entertaining people in bars, restaurants, clubs and casinos. The Flair Bartenders’ association was established in 1997 by two American bartenders Alan Mays and Toby Ellis. Initially, FBA had 30 members from USA and Canada and this number grew to 6681 flair bartenders in over 112 countries. Not bad just for a hobby!

“It is crazy when you look at numbers!”, Matt, a long time member of FBA says about the flair bartenders. “We have some major competitions in Las Vegas, London, Orlando and even Australia. And each single of them attracts so many bartenders, that it truly makes all these events as one big international bartending summit.” Among them, most popular and challenging are “The Legends of Bartending 7″ and “The Best in The West”, all in Las Vegas, “Sky Vodka Big Apple Shutdown” that took place at Jacob Javits Center in NYC and “Roadhouse World Flair” in London.

These are just the few places and they are growing every year as more and more bartenders turn to flair.

Stepping into the 21 century, Flair bartending tries to keep up with high standards. It requires all its bartenders to be accurate, fast and entertaining. It believes that service should always come first, before flair but flair is a fundamental part of it. It is the working and real life entertainment to them.

“It is fun, fun, fun. It is cool to meet new people, to be around enthusiastic fans and bartenders and to see so many different places. What I do, I do because I like to do and that is the best part of it”, concludes Matt cracking a huge smile.

Buckle up because it is Flair time!

P.S. If you need some extra information regarding Matt and his flair bartending, you can visit his web site www.flairtime.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 20th, 2005 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.