FISH & CHIPS & FLAIR – Tom Dyer

Updated: May 1, 2005

You can’t go far in the UK Flair world without hearing the name of this months Flairbar.com interview star behind bars… Tom Dyer. You’ve seen him at Roadhouse, King of the Ring, Legends and many other Flair bartending competitions across the globe. Now get to know the man behind the glasses. So put down that Flairco practice bottle and Grab one of your favorite Finest Call cocktails mixed with Skyy vodka and sit down and enjoy!

Age? I am 22. My birthday is 2nd June 1982.

Where are you from? London England.

How long have you’ve been Bartending? Been bartending for nearly five years on and off.

And Flair Bartending? Flair bartending for about four and a half years.

What got you into Flair Bartending? I’m not sure really. I think it was that I got a passion for it when I landed my first move. I wanted to learn more and more.

How did you start out learning to Flair? I would go home and practice whenever I could at home. Every time I came into work I would show everyone I had a new move I had learnt or made up. After a short while of Flairing I had so many moves, but I just couldn’t land them all.

Why do you Flair now? I love it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I get to travel all over the world and get paid for something I love to do. What more could you want!

Describe to us your style of Flair? Technical. I seem to come up with difficult moves. It’s difficult to describe yourself and some people have told me that I am also very smooth.

What makes you stand out from other Flair Bartenders? Probably my height and arms. I have been described as an alien by some people and once was told I must have been genetically modified for Flair. (Sorry to disappoint but I haven’t). Plus I think I have quite a unique style.

Tell us about the UK Flair scene and the bars out there? Well the UK Flair scene is small. There are not a lot of Flair bars that I know of in London. Obviously the most famous being Roadhouse then you have TGI Fridays. Other than that the really isn’t many other bars where you can go and see Flair, other than your basic American style restaurants or a few cocktail bars. As for the other areas in England. I have heard of a few Flair bars in Manchester and Leeds, but I have never had the chance to go check them out. There are a lot of cocktail bars in London where you can go and get very good drinks. Probably the best in the world! Mixology is quite big here and drink quality is an important factor in a bar.

What do you hope to get out of Flair? I hope one day I can get a world title. I have had a few chances but each time it has slipped through my fingers.. literally! Other than that I want to continue what I am doing and I hope I can still be original, make people happy with my Flair and put on a good show for years to come.

What is your favorite Flair Bartending competition? Has to be the one and only ROADHOUSE!!! But I must say that King of the Ring is an extremely close second (good job guys).

Who do you look up to in this Sport? I look up to Nicolas St jean. The first ever competition and professional Flair I saw was the Roadhouse 2000 final, and it was then I first saw Nicolas. His originality and style are amazing. I have seen many people mesmerized by him, just Flairing with one bottle. They are probably wondering what he’ll do next.

Where do you Work? At the moment I work for a company called Behind Bars.

Tell us about where you work? Behind Bars are an events and Flair agency. I work mainly on the Flair side doing Flair shows and training, but I also do private parties and the odd function here and there.

You recently competed at King of the Ring, Tell us how it went and your thoughts on that? I love this comp because you don’t need to bring anything with you, except maybe music. They have everything you need from tins to chewing gum. I got through to the finals and placed 6th. I was hoping to do better than last year (last year also 6th ), but it wasn’t to be. I was very excited about going on stage, but ended up having some drops which affected my show a bit, but I still enjoyed every minute on that stage. The crowd was awesome and I can’t wait till next year.

What are your plans now? To have fun. That’s what it’s always been. I really want to do well in comps too, but it won’t last forever, so I want to enjoy it while I can. Maybe that World title will be in my plans somewhere too.

How often do you practice? When ever I can, but not as often as I used to. Obviously I practice more when I have big competition coming up though. If I lived on a beach where the sun always shone then I think I would practice a lot more.

What is your advice to some of the new people wanting to get into Flair? You have to be prepared to practice. But practice by yourself to start with and don’t watch all the Flair DVD’s all the time. You will find you will end up doing everyone else’s moves, and copying someone’s style. If you practice by yourself, you have nothing to influence you and you will come up with your own moves and style. Once you have these moves then you can watch the DVD’s to see how original they may or may not be.

Tell us about your first Flair Competition and your experiences there, what were you feeling, did everything go as planned? All I remember is that I dropped A LOT! And I forgot all my moves, and then when I came off stage I wanted to go straight back on. So basically I was really nervous and nothing went as planned, but it was a good experience and I enjoyed it.

Tell us all about the Roadhouse competition and why it is one of the biggest Flair competitions in the world? The crowd are very educated in Flair at Roadhouse, so they can be difficult to impress but also kind. They know how long people have been practicing and appreciate it. It also has a lot to do with the people who compete there and the venue. The crowd are really close to you and it creates more of an atmosphere, you have the best Flairer’s from all over the world coming to compete and the organizers (Andy and Tug) put in a lot of effort to make sure it stays that way.

What is your favorite drink? Big fan of Coca Cola. Alcoholic? It changes all the time. At the moment I’m enjoying what’s known as a Bon Bon. It is very sweet and has Vanilla, butterscotch schnapps, Lemonchelo, fresh lemon juice and some other stuff I can’t remember.