FLAIR VEGAS FINALS!

Kicking off its beginning at an after party to the first UFBC competition, Flair Vegas quickly became one of the most fun and least stressful competitions for competitors to look forward to.   The last Tuesday of every month was a fun night for Flair in Las Vegas.   Not only was it a chance to flip some bottles for friends, but it gave the family of Flair bartenders a chance to all hang out together at everybodies new favorite Flair bar, the Red Room Saloon.   With the help of Skyy Vodka, and Finest Call as the major sponsors, Rick Barcode, Mike Taing, and Erin Conelley put on one heck of a competition.

During the eleven month qualifier we were able to see a lot of great moves and fun shows created by Flair bartenders from all over the world.   Unfortunately I was unable to attend all the qualifiers, but with Rick, Mike, and Erin’s genius idea to have different types of qualifiers we were able to see the most diverse and sort of an unexpected group of finalists and I am very glad I was there to see that show.   We saw finalists from rounds which took the top female, the top asian, best rookie and my personal favorite, the old people round for those who are over the age of thirty.   Whoa!!

Not only did the winner of each round of Flair Vegas get something, but lucky for the last place finishers, they were able to win as well.   A punch in the arm from every competitor and judge gave competitors more incentive to practice hard and not come in last place.

The last Tuesday of may 2007 was a fun night.   With 3 dollar Skyy Vodka drink specials people were not only a little bit tipsy, but were also having a great time watching the amazing performances put on by the finalists.   Competitors included Mike Ingersol receiving the punches in the arm, Brian Prestage with his red neck performance, Robyn Closson (like the pickle), Shawn Oana (the canadian), and Justin Keane, representing Area 51.

Also competing in the competition with a surprise performance was Tom Alley.   Oops! Did I say Tom?   I meant Ken Hall.   Yeah, that’s right.   Buying the mystery competitor spot at Best in the West was Ken Hall, who by coming out of retirement for Flair Vegas definitely put a smile on everyone’s face that night.   With a great introduction with a very funny Michigan/Ohio State change of words between Tom Alley and Chico we finally saw the point of Chico’s rambling about how he thinks Ohio State is a great team.   (side note- We all know Michigan is better)   Anyway, after Ken put on an awesome show there was a break in the Flair competition for all the competitors to take a chance at making the best Finest Call stall.

Some of the most creative inventions for the Finest Call stall were attempted during the Finest Call stall competition.   My personal favorite was Bat’s attempt to stall it in the Red Room’s ceiling.   It actually almost worked!   I suppose we won’t be seeing that anytime soon since the Red Room is one of the few places we will actually see a Flair competition with a low ceiling.   With that being said, Vladymyr Buryanov took away the five hundred dollars for the best Finest Call stalls.   With each competitor making three attempts at their best stall I think the stall that won Vladymyr his five hundred bucks was his three bottle plus one Finest Call double muliti-plex, over the shoulder to a stall.   I wish I could explain it better, but it was quite amazing and I’m sure those who saw it would agree.

Coming in eigth place for the Flair competition was Sean Story from Kahunaville in Las Vegas.   Ati, who coming in seventh place once again showed that even if a competitor makes a big mistake the show is never going to be lost.   After about killing the judges with a stray tin she found a way to build that into her show proving that she is definitely one of the most entertaining Flair bartenders to see on stage.   James “Franchize” Hadhazy obviously put some time and a lot of practice into his show.   A very entertaining Flair show to the beat from beginning to end made a lot of people disappointed when he ended up finishing sixth, but that alone just goes to show that the top five at the Flair Vegas finals were amazing and some great shows to make buying the DVD well worth it.

Coming in fifth place was Bat from South Korea, who also won the qualifying round for the top asian.   Fourth place was one of my personal favorites to watch for difficulty and originality.   Behnam had a great round with very few drops which secured him fourth place behind Rodrigo Cao who once again made his level of difficulty and ability to hit moves to the beat seem completely effortless.   Coming in second place was the “Ukrazian”, Vladymyr Buyanov.   Having one of the most difficult and clean Flair rounds many of us have seen in a while, he surprised a lot of people by coming in second place.   His placement at Flair Vegas just goes to show that if you want to beat the master at Flair you REALLY have to beat him.   Once again Christian Delpech came out at a competition as if it was just a pit stop in his daily life and took away the number one trophy in another Flair competition.   Maybe one day someone will make the ability to win seem as effortless as he is able to do.

With the finals of Flair Vegas being over and done with all of us in Vegas are looking forward to and hoping that the crew at Red Room will definitely be running another year of this new and exciting competition.   Just remember as long as the competitions are running at Red Room the ceilings will not be raised on competition night.