KING OF THE RING 2 – A Knock Out Competition

The other notable happening was a quantum leap in the Tandem section. For a long time I have regarded Tandem as a rather kitsch hang-on from the Tom Cruise/Cocktail era and just as I was explaining this to my non-Flair date for the evening, my foot became firmly lodged in my mouth, as five teams changed my perception of how two bartenders sharing the stage can look.

It used to be a one horse race in most competitions and had become extinct in some, but this may change after what went on.

To wrap all these things up were the Semi-Pros. The level of these upcoming stars was brilliant, and as with everything else at KOTR, the bar was raised, eyes were opened and jaws dropped. These guys (and girl) are by no means pro but showcased originality and creativity that in the past has been fairly sparse.

As a side note to all you future world champions, Christian Delpech , Rodriego Delpech and all the big boys aren’t scared of the people who copy them, they are scared of the kid that says “wow you’re good, but I have my own moves I’ve been working on, watch this!”

As was already stated above Rodrigo (pictured right) took it all down and walked away with the Ring, in what must have been a photo finish between him and big brother Christian. The buzz in the crowd after both routines couldn’t have put it much closer. If it were a Fight (like their tandem the year before), Christian would have come out of his corner a heavy favorite with his exceptional stage presence and a consummate performer. Rodriego would have weighed in, a slight underdog but with all the talent to go the distance. Christian opened with his silky bottle tin lines and drew 110% of peoples attention with that aura he seems to have such an abundance of. Rodriego countered with body blows of double and triple same hand misdirection’s and alternating forearm misdirections. huh? I hear you say, yeah, I was there and my jaw hit the floor a few times in seven minutes.

Never an easy target Christian (pictured left) came back with bottle two tin the way only Chris can do it, a mix of flats, singles and double rotations and exchanges that once again made holding back the whoops of excitement impossible. I didn’t look real cool to the date at this time, but we were at Carnival Court after all, so the drinks were stiff enough that I would still look cool at the end of the night. In any case Rodriego was not to be out done on this night and came back at big brother with the difficulty knob turned to 11 and put one to the chin, but there would be no standing nine count tonight.

There was no way nine seconds were going pass without seeing a flurry that would knock most of us mortals flat on our back. Two bottle tin haymakers flew and for obvious reasons I won’t even try to describe the three and four bottle sections from the Diamond Delpeche brothers accept to say you may have an aneurysm when you see the DVD. By no means was it a knockout win and it may well have even been a split decision, but in the end the underdog would take his first win against his big brother and I don’t think anyone could have been happier for him than Christian.

Third place went to Tim “Flippy” Morris (pictured right), probably the most entertaining behind the pine competing at the present time.

As always his interaction with the crowd was amazing and the infectious smile on his face can’t help but draw the crowd in. Flippy should almost take over the title as the “Tinman” with his four tin, bottle sequences leaving only one question, when are we going to see the five tin, bottle?

 

 

 

Fourth was taken by the big Lithuanian Mindaugas “Mig” Gradekas (pictured left). I hadn’t seen Mig compete since last years KOTR and for some reason thought he might not be practicing as much these days – wrong! I saw him in the practice room and was awestruck as usual, and finally plucked up the courage to ask him the question on everyones lips.. “damn dude, are you right or left handed?” Mig is totally ambidextrous and FAST and as usual his routine showcased all of that.

 

 

 

 

Fifth place was Canada’s Graham Warner (Featured on this month’s Masterclass page) who amazed most Flair people in attendance with his originality and fluidity. As I said before, the styles showcased throughout the competition were a large part of the amazement and Graham’s style was one of the standouts for my money. North American mixed with European, the result was something of its own, clean and elegant with varied arm roll exchanges which had me doing double takes and asking my buddy “wow, what the hell was that?” Also, just when I thought three tin sequences no longer had a place in the pro division of today, Graham put my foot back in my mouth. My personal pick for the “slow motion play” through the entire routine when the DVD comes out.

Sixth was taken by the U.K.’s Tom Dyer. In case you’ve lived under a rock for the last few years, Tom has probably the most technically difficult moves out there and owing to the fact he’s about 6’4″ and has some of the longest arms you’ll see, his moves couldn’t be done by 95% of people even if they did have his skill level. To me, Tom is the guy who puts all the hardest stuff he has in his routine every time he competes and he the one who everyone knows “if he hits his routine, the other competitors are in big trouble”.

 

 

 

 

 

Tom can struggle with consistency, but damned if everyone doesn’t drop what they are doing and take notice when he is on stage. As you will see in some of the photo’s this month Tom has taken to stalling bottle sideways on the brim of a Finest Call hat. Now, what you might not see in the DVD is Tom in the practice room goofing off with Dario Daimo throwing bottles 40ft over his shoulder to a forearm stall or throwing a bottle around his back into a stall on his forehead.. stalling it on the pour spout that is.

Eighth was grabbed (pun intended) by the only person who can beat Tom Dyer for the “Stretch Armstrong” award, the Italian Dario Daimo (pictured left), who also won the prize for most contemporary European haircut and finally made my managers see that my hair isn’t that strange for a bartender. Another bartender with amazing moves facilitated by his 6’7″ arm span and what would seem like most to be double jointed arms. What amazed me also was that even with all those arms he can still juggle a storm, do multiple position changing bumps and make it look good.

Seventh was Italy’s Franchesco Leoni, one of the most laid back, fun guys I’ve met in Vegas. The passage of time has smoothed Francesco’s style like a river rock, with seamless flow from move to move, he’s always a pleasure to watch. His addition of the chest bump to the Flair world last year was followed up this year with a shadow pass thrown to a bump in the middle of his back, between his shoulder blades. God only know what we’ll see Franchesco bump or stall in the near future.

 

 

Ninth went to the veteran Argentinean Juan “say hello to my little friend” Llorentte (pictured right) with his amazing freestyle routines and exchange oriented, velvety flow.

Scarface was in the house and Juan managed to pull the wig off his head mid way into his juggling patterns and pass them through his columns, but Juan couldn’t have surpassed the achievement he had made just half an hour before, but more on that to come.

Rounding out the top ten for the Pro division was the Ukraine’s Vladimir Buryanov who rounded out the new wave of original styles that made this year so amazing with his own slant on a European technique. For all of us in the US, Vlad will be one to watch for when we go to compete in Europe.

 

 

 

 

 

Honorable mentions must go to some standout competitors that didn’t make it to the finals, Sebastian Ouguic of France who had some of the most mesmerizing moves and three bottle flair like no one has ever seen on US soil. Josh Nemerow of Carnival Court who came from second in Semi pro last year, to blow a lot of people away with his amazing combos and my pick from last month, Brooklyn’s own Phillip Tedesco soon to be nicknamed “cap-cracker” for breaking the most bottles during practice, from the most aggressive tin captures you’re likely to see.

Tandem Division

As I stated earlier, my thoughts were that this section was never my favorite and could easily have been set aside in the flair world. I’m the first to admit when I’m wrong about something and this is a big one of those. You go to a competition and expect the Delpeches, Dyers and Daimos of this world to blow you away, so when you’re not expecting it, and you get hit with something like this, it tends to make it all the more amazing.

Taking first place and in my opinion changing the way tandem will be viewed for some time to come, Team Argentina’s boys of Shadow Bar, Christian Oldan and Juan Llorentte.

The stage was set, literally, with a giant banner (pictured above) explaining a story of the Native American Mohicans, when the banner was moved, barbacks, adorned with full costume and a drummer, framed a stage with a ten foot cylinder (pictured right) center stage. The music started with tribal drums and as they peaked the large cylinder of cloth dropped to reveal Juan standing on Christians shoulders. Juan backfliped from his shoulders and what ensued was some of  the best choreographed interactive tandem flair I have seen.

The basis of the routine was not a mirroring style but instead, the emphasis was upon flowing transfer of object between the two and moves like, Christian swiping a bottle through Juan backflipping off a chair.

 

 

It sounds a little trife but the music played a large part in peoples perception of what was happening on stage, a quick glance to the side showed a good part of the crowd looked to almost be dancing with the song, so take that into account next time you choose music for a routine.

All in all Juan and Christian (pictured left) were amazing and will be one of the first things I watch when I get the DVD.

Coming in second were last years champions Steve “Paycheck” Pacheco and Tim “Flippy” Morris (pictured below) who were not far behind Christian and Juan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They took to the stage with incredible difficulty, including a juggling sequence where they wore and exchanged the same jacket, their patented “superman pour” and Flippy sitting on Steves shoulders with a pyramid on his forehead.

I see these two teams as starting a renaissance in tandem, which will only add positively to our “sport” and convince many people, including myself to rethink tandem and give it a go.

 

 

 

 

In third place were the other Carnival Court team of Duane Viloria and Scott “Daddy Rugs” Rogers whose routine had difficultly but lacked a little bit on the flow side of things was paired with a good theme of Milli Vanilli and ended with quite a bang from the confetti cannon.

Fourth place and of interesting note was the Canadian team of Matty Jones and Kelly McNeil (pictured left).

The fact that Kelly has only been flairing for two months and that this was her first competition, played to her nerves going in, but they rose to the occasion and the excellent choreography made the ballroom dancing inspired routine, smooth and on the whole it looked very good. What they lacked in difficulty, for obvious reasons, was more than made up for in what I would once again refer to it as being a “tight” routine.

 

Fifth place went to the Rio team of James “Frenchfriez” Hadhazy and with their flair version of Peoples Court and had all the entertainment of a Franchize routine.

Semi Pro

Semi Pro this year contained two people featured on last months cover of Flairbar.com and the eventual winner. All I have to say is that the state of flair is moving upward very quickly and if the level of our semi pro’s is this high, flair is poised for great things. No longer would the average person ( a customer really ) look at the Semi Pro’s and not be impressed with them as they may have been in the past.

First place went to California native Jeff Clark (pictured right) who works at the Rockin’ Taco in Orange County and whoever the training consultant is there, must be a good and has taken some of these rising stars to be, and guided them in the right direction.

Jeff also took the award for causing two simultaneous heart attacks, for Jim Allison and Andy Collinson on the judging table in the second round when he threw a sugar glass bottle into his three bottle pattern and smashed it squarely on the top of his head.

 

 

 

 

Later the judges confessed they where waiting for blood to come squirting out and a lawsuit to ensue. Jeff will be another name to watch in the future when he makes the leap to the big leagues this year.

Second placed bartender for the second time this year wasn’t even a bartender, Rob Vergara is a barback at Carnival Court and has a great personality on stage and let it shine through better than I know I did in my first few competitions.

Third was taken by a recent Floridian transplant to the Rio, Tim Plummer, who like each of the five finalists, showed more original moves than most people thought, but had a few nerves on stage and with experience will be another up and comer.

Fourth place went to Branden Stewart (pictured left) another barback at Carnival Court who wowed the crowd with all the flow of what the Pro rounds used to look like a few years ago, not to say Pro rounds a few years ago were bad. just how much further they have come.

 

 

On to fifth place with one of my favorites, another Rockin’ Taco bartender, Teri Leeseburg (pictured right).

Teri has the biggest heart and practices and competes on par with most of the boys and will be a beacon for the girl flair bartenders to chase someday soon.

Well, how can I wrap this up, I don’t there could be much more said about this competition except that I can’t wait for next years already.

How much higher will they push what we do? Try to think of where we might be? Chances are it will be even higher than you can imagine now.

 

 

 

 

Who would have thought Flair could lure a giant sponsor like Coca Cola. Did you think there would be so many differing styles that you can’t even describe them. Will the top ten be similar or will there be some names you hadn’t heard before? Will one of those names be YOURS?

Practice it, Love it, then Practice it some more and we’ll see you next year.