A FLAIR BARTENDER WITH HEART! – Matt Maze Interviewed

Updated: May 1, 2008

From starting out learning Flair at a local TGIFridays to packing his bags and moving to bartend in Las Vegas… Mr. Matt Maze. He is a Flair bartender with a big heart, putting the most money up for the Flairbar.com cover auction at Dakota’s Challenge 2 and now in the pages of Flairbar.com, we get to know a little more about Matt with “A Flair Bartender with Heart!” as he shares without holding back his insights on the world of Flair bartending… So sit back, relax and indulge in a Skyy Vodka, Midori, X-Rated or Finest Call cocktail and enjoy…

Age? 27.

Where are you from? Springfield, MO.

How long have you’ve been Bartending? 6 years.

And Flair Bartending? I have been Flair bartending for 5 years.

Where do you work? Village Bar @ the Rio in Las Vegas.

What got you into Flair Bartending? I started at Friday’s in Springfield and wanted to learn so I tried there in store comp and was hooked and before you know it I was out here in Vegas!
How did you start out learning to Flair? It all started out getting drunk and flipping empty bottles in my kitchen! Then I found a website called barproducts and I thought I found heaven! I bought a Legends 4 dvd and used slow motion A LOT!!!!!!! I was so confused by everything! Like, how do they get the bottle so far in the tin! I didn’t realize everyone was using 750′s.

Tell us about the Flair Bartending scene at the Rio? That is kinda hard to say! You have to understand that the Rio is a union property. So that makes the wages GREAT! We all know about what it is like to make $2.13 and hour or something along those lines!

But when I moved out here I was used to working your way up by merit or working you’re ass off! But out here it is ALL seniority. That makes it kinda hard to really push and make it work if the people in front of you aren’t passionate about it! For example, almost 90% of the bars at the Rio used to be “Flair bars”. Then, The union stepped in and changed almost every bar to a “non-Flair” classification. Leaving VooDoo lounge, Village bar and the now Defunked Club Rio left standing as the ONLY Flair bars on property. I guess you could say I’m lucky to be holding one of the last “Flair shifts” left. Have you been to the ibar?? Its only a level 2 Flair bar. Luckily, most of the staff are level 3 bartenders, and might I add great mixologists as well. Its just really tough to put the “Aces in their Places” at the Rio. For example: One of the best all around bartenders in the world and one of my “top five” to work with Steve Dorsey is stuck working a service well… on graveyard. He is such a talent, not only in Flair and mixology, but also as a classic bartender who knows it all. Yet, he is not rewarded for his skill, he’s is just wasting away in that hell hole!

Describe to us your style of Flair? I don’t know, that’s kinda hard! I like a lot of different grips, weird catches, double releases, multi-object stuff, and I love to try new juggling patterns. I guess you could say, if its new to me, I’ll try it.

What makes you stand out from other Flair Bartenders? I feel I have the ability to have fun on stage and entertain a crowd! My goal it to “take over the stage” and make the camera have a hard time following me. I learned it from one of the greats… Lets all say it together now… Tim “Flippy” Morris.

What do you hope to get out of Flair? Actually I feel that I have got a whole lot out of Flair already! I have a great job! Hell, a dream job! Awesome friends, a wonderful girlfriend, two houses, a nice car! I get to travel all over the country doing what I love meeting great people at comps. I’ve traveled all over with Chico for ChicoSun.com doing gigs. I don’t know I feel pretty lucky so far!

What is your favorite Flair Bartending competition and why? I really had a blast at Colin Griffiths comp at Kalahari! It was awesome, and Kahunaville rocked!! It was at an indoor water park in Sandusky Ohio! I think that Colin really hit it on the head with this one! I think that he was trying to get away from all the Bullshit and give everyone an opportunity to let go and have an awesome time! He set up a bunch of mini games! He had a ping pong tourney, Wii play off, hot dog eating contest, and a wing eating contest! Plus did I mention the Indoor Water Park! oh yeah, there was a waterpark too!!

Who do you look up to in this Sport? I’ll give props to anyone who has the balls to get on stage and try to put on a show!!!

How did you start out learning Flair? Everybody has a Flair story so here is mine… As I said earlier I started bartending at TGI Friday’s in Springfield MO. Well in June of 2003 I came out to Vegas for the first time. It was amazing. I came with one of my friends to visit his parents. He and I went all over town. We ended up going to a few Flair bars and I was blown away! When I got home I was stoked and all I did was practice!

About a month later his mom called to tell me that the Rio was having a try out for Flair bartenders. I actually kinda blew it off, cause I kept thinking there’s no way, there’s no way I’ll ever make it. But then the other bartenders found out about it and told me that I had to go(Thanks Steve, Billy, Durand, Mike, Scotty, and Ryan!). So I got on a Greyhound bus and headed to Vegas. What an experience, I’ll never ride a Greyhound AGAIN! So when I got to Vegas I went to the try out and there were almost 500 people there! I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t believe how many people were there. We did all sorts of stuff and I couldn’t believe that I made it to the second day for the interview. So I went out to by a shirt and tie for the interview. When I was in the interview I felt everything went well but they said they would call me in a few days, so I decided to head home. I ended up getting a call when I was at a bus stop in Ft. Worth TX. They asked if I could be there in a week to start training. To say the least I went crazy and said of course!

When I got home my little brother and my dad helped me pack as much stuff in my car as possible and started a road trip to Vegas to find a place to live. When we got there we stayed at the New Frontier cause I had an interview at Polo club apt the next day. When I came out to the car to head to Polo Club I found my car had been broken into and everything to my name was gone besides what I took to the room that night! So I ended up getting the apartment and signed a 6 month lease.

Then I showed up for the first day of training with the Flair Devils! Little did I know I didn’t have a job! It was Flair Training! Anyway I started my training with the Flair Devils and it was amazing they were so helpful showed me the ropes and teaching me great Flair. I ended up getting the job at the Rio and the rest is history!

Why did you get involved with Dakota’s Challenge 2? I actually met Rob Turek through “Knockout” Nick Houck just after the first Dakota’s Challenge, and got to hang out with him and get to know him when he we were in town to judge for a Flair comp at the Rio! I knew then that I wanted to get involved when as soon as possible so I bought his dvd. I told him if he ever did another one I’d be there! And the rest is history, we had a blast and raised a lot of coin for a brother and a friend in need.

Tell us about your experience at the event? It was an awesome experience! I look at Flair bartenders as a small community, like family. We may have our differences, we may not all get along all the time but, when one of us is in need Like Cody and Rob we all come together to try to help! It was great to see everyone there and to also see the community come out from all over Ohio to help raise money to help pay for Cody’s medical bills.

What were your overall thoughts on Dakota’s Challenge 2? I’m blown away by Rob and by Cody! They deal with more in a single day then most of us do in years of our life. I just wish we could do more!

How often do you practice? Practice? Hell I’m a member of “Team Wing It”!!! Actually not as much as I should.

What is your advice to some of the new people wanting to move to Las Vegas for Flair bartending? Right now it’s a little hard to get a job to in Las Vegas if you want to start off as a Bartender. Remember, Las Vegas is a union town. If you have patience to work your way up then there are more opportunities. There are actually not as many jobs out there as you would think and all of the Flair gigs are great jobs so nobody is quitting their job any time soon. If you are looking to move out to Vegas I would try to set up try outs and interviews and try to get the job before you move to town. It can be hard once you get here. On the other hand, I feel there is no better place to live in the world if you want to be around and learn from the best Flair bartenders. There are SOOOOO many great ones here!

Why did you move to Las Vegas? Flair of course!

Tell us about currently working in Las Vegas as a Flair bartender? …

Tell us about your experiences competing in bartending competitions? …

Tell us about your first Flair Bartending Competition and your experiences there, What were you feeling, Did everything go as planned? …

If you could help influence Flair to change our sport somehow, what would it be and why? I would try to change the general direction that it is moving in. Try to make it more main stream, more about entertainment, get more sponsors! Why limit sponsors to just our industry, Hell look at Nascar. What does Budweiser have to do with racing? We all know that nobody should be racing after you’ve be drinking Bud! Does anybody realize that James “Franchize” Hadhazy and I ran a comp together… “Flair Fusion 2″ without liquor sponsors! So it can be done, and more sponsors means more money for everyone! Take MMA, “UFC” for example, their big sponsors are Harley Davidson, Amp’d mobile, Mickey’s and Xyience energy drink. None of which have to do with full contact fighting. The UFC has been fighting to “break in” to the mainstream for 15-20 years. I believe they are on the right track because they make it a show. Take “XFA” or “WEC”, Have you ever heard of these promotions?? No?? Well, they are “just fighters” while “UFC” is a show with fighters. I think Flair bartending can take a page out of their book.

How do you come up with your original Flair moves and style? Well, I think 1st you have to ask… What are original moves?? Flat behind the back?? stall?? I feel that your style and presentation makes YOU unique, individual and ORIGINAL. Not your moves. Thats what I love about Flair. I can be myself. Out on that stage and at my bar, you are getting ME… no one or nothing else. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people pride themselves on originality. I think organizations focus on the wrong things like variety and difficulty. No one in the crowd cares. Ex: when you go to a U2 concert do you look at the fingers of the guy on guitar, or do you critique the drummers technique?? NO. Of course you don’t, you want to be entertained and have a good time. ENTERTAIN ME!! SHOW ME SOMETHING COOL!! thats it.

What are your thoughts on Flair bartending and how it is being judged in major Flair comps? …

What are your plans now? …

What obstacles do you see our sport of Flair Bartending encountering in the near future and in your opinion, how can we overcome them? First of all I just want to say that is it just my opinion but here it is. I don’t really feel that Flair is a “SPORT”, I feel that it is entertainment. I’m going to just combine the next Question in with this so Sorry but I feel they work well together!

To me I just feel that we as Flair bartenders get all caught up in trying to make this a sport and forget that we need to ENTERTAIN first! Why? Like a great man once said “We need to make Flair a sellable product.” We need to bring Flair into the “main stream”. How?? how did the UFC do it?? Have they done it?? Is “mainstream” 2 million pay-per-view buys a month?? Maybe we have to beat the “Hey, Tom Cruise” line. I want to here “Hey, (ANYONE ELSE)” Cocktail was a movie about getting hitched to a rich chick. NOT FLAIR BARTENDING!! Guess what, Tom Cruise is “mainstream”. That’s why they associate Flair with him and not the other way around.

Do you think the entertainment value of Flair bartending will help with future sponsors and television? Everyone is so pre-occupied with televising a Flair comp. How about a Flair reality show. Not Just about competition, but everyday life. Trying to keep your Flair up-to-par for your job, trying to find practice time, trying to find people to practice with. Who you love. Who you hate. Who you want to beat. Who you want to see do well. That’s what the world is interested in. Oh yeah, They want to decide the winner too. American Idol, America’s Best Dance Crew, and Dancing with the Stars are the most successful shows on television. And the viewers decide the winner. Even Franchize and myself had a surprise “text vote” at Flair Fusion 2 so the crowd would be more involved.

What are some common obstacles you face as a Flair bartender opposed to a regular bartender? Sometimes I feel like a rockstar!! And other times I feel like I shouldn’t Flair. As we all know, there are MANY types of guests that come into the bar. Some love Flair. Some hate Flair. Luckily for me, the 151 is not too far away for those pricks!! lol!! If they don’t like Flair… after you give them a little 151 they seem to switch into party mode. “The haters then become BIG TIPPERS”!!

Do you think corporations and sponsors investing in Flair bartenders is an effective way to promote and educate and why? Do they invest in Flair bartenders?? I thought they only invested in the competitions?? I haven’t seen any $$ from the “big guys”. I feel the best way to invest their money is the front lines… us, the bartenders. NOT CORPORATE. Lets talk about “point of sale” the bartender pushes ANY liquor they want. I can sell Ketal One all night long if I want, The guests always want a good drink. Then again if a liquor company gives a kick-back to “X-casino” for selling “Y-vodka”. When their money runs out, so does the deal. So we can’t sell “Y-vodka” at “X-casino” anymore because they pulled it off the shelf and made “Z-vodka” our house spirit.

What is your favorite drink? New Castle or Boddingtons and a nice glass of Grand Ma or Grand Ma 100!!! and I like Jager.