werbung
Tug van den Berg von Heavyhookedup, bekannt in der Flairszene vor allem durch sein langjähriges Engagement im Londoner Roadhouse, unterstützt Mixology seit kurzem als zusätzlicher Autor im Bereich Flair. Hier ist sein erster Bericht vom kürzlich in Mailand abgehaltenen Milano Flair Master, das mit 10 000 Euro dotiert war. Im Blog werden wir Tugs Berichte auf Englisch bringen. Die Flair-Rubrik in der Printausgabe wird weiterhin auf Deutsch erscheinen. Und ab hier übergeben wir auch schon Tug das Wort:
Hosted in the Metro Cash & Carry hall at this year’s Host Exhibition in Milan this competition was supported by Piazza Happy Hour and organised by the 9Bar Support team and Tug from Heavyhookedup Industries and brought together two great names in flair bartending as they were given the choice and budget of bringing the best flair bartenders to this competition.
We had quite a selection of International bartenders that agreed to do this competition and for a first prize of 10 000 euro’s, who would have turned down an all expenses paid trip to participate in this wonderful competition?
The players were:
Tom Dyer – United Kingdom
Rafael Arce – Argentina
Andre Fiore – Italy
Roberto Cucuruloo – France
Tomek Malek – Poland
Diego Dillon – Brasil
The competition consisted out of a working flair round in which the bartenders had to make 3 drinks and open a beer as well as exhibition flair round in which they had free reign to do whatever they liked as long as the show was good. The scores from the two rounds would then be combined to decide the winner.
Held in the Metro show amphitheatre the crowd could have been better but the flair did not disappoint.
Starting off with the working flair round and the people that witnessed this round were truly amazed as all the bartenders pulled out the stops to impress the judges. All of the competitors proved that they had extreme skills and superb originality and all the scores were pretty close going into the exhibition and final round but it was Rafael Arce that claimed victory in the day’s first round.
First up in the second round of the was Tomek Malek and he proved just why he got invited to this prestigious invitational event. Incredible bottle & 3 tin sequences combined with music interaction made for a stunning high scoring exhibition round which had the judges to their feet.
Going second in the exhibition flair round was Brazilian legend and winner of the 2005 Roadhouse Final, Mr. Diego Dillon. It has been a while since anybody saw this young man from Latin America in action and all eyes were most definitely on him at the start of the routine. He had some really great music interaction and theatrics in the start of his routine but unfortunately the routine lacked balance and variety as he entertained with only a bottle and tin for half of his routine and then had quite a few drops during the latter stages of his performances. Good to see him back in Europe nevertheless.
Third up and a bit of a legend in Italy was Andrea Fiore. This little man most definitely had what it takes to compete with the best in the World and some great originality made him one of the favourites to win some money.
Next up and originally from Italy but currently living in France were Roberto Cucuruloo. He has improved so much in the last year and he’s originality combined with a fantastic magical stage presence seriously impressed the judges.
Second from last in the exhibition flair round was another South American who also lives in France. Rafael Arce as all Argentineans just seems to have a natural talent for the sport of flair. Rafael has been competing non stop for the past year and you could see it in his routine. Seriously smooth routine whilst using multiple objects throughout made him a serious contender for the 10 000 euro first price but there was still one more to go before the judges could decide who walked away with the money.
Last in the exhibition flair round was 7 times UK champion Mr. Tom "the professor" Dyer. This young man also makes a rather good living from competing and he was most definitely on form at this competition. He combined all his signature moves with a couple of new ones added in which resulted in a near perfect routine and had the crowd truly to their feet.
A great competition and after the judges added up the scores the final scores looked like this:
1st place – Tom Dyer – United Kingdom (10 000 Euros)
2nd place – Rafael Arce – Argentina (3 000 Euros)
3rd place – Tomek Malek – Poland (2 000 Euros)
4th Place – Andrea Fiore – Italy
5th Place – Roberto Cucuruloo – Italy
6th Place – Diego Dillon – Brazil
Thanks to our team of judges who came to help with the event:
Andy Collinson – www.barwizardstv.com
Laurent Greco – Bar Academy Paris
Tom Sipos – Show Bar Austria
Special thanks to Piazza Happy Hour for sponsoring all the flights and Metro Cash and Carry for the prize money.
For more information regarding flair events please feel free to get in touch with tug@heavyhookedup.net or check out www.worldwideflair.com.
Text und Bild: Tug van den Berg
