Flair bartending

It has become a sought-after talent among venue owners and marketers to help advertise a liquor product or the opening of a bar establishment.

Flair can include juggling, flipping (bottles, shakers), manipulating flaming liquors or even performing close-up magic tricks (also referred to as "bar-magic").

Recently, there is a noticeable rise in bartenders combining prominent mixology knowledge and working flair skills all over the world.

The earliest record of a flair bartender is barman Jerry "The Professor" Thomas, who poured fiery streams of boiling water and flaming whisky and mixed an original cocktail called the Blue Blazer in the late nineteenth century.

[citation needed] Flair bartending was also prominently featured in the 1988 film Cocktail starring Tom Cruise, as well as the 2000 movie Coyote Ugly.

Friday's hosted the first national flair bartending competition called "Bar Olympics" in Woodland Hills, California.

In 1987, after interviewing 34 bartenders, John JB Bandy was approached across the bar by Touchstone Pictures to assist in training Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown for the 1988 film, Cocktail.

Friday's is credited for modernizing and popularizing flair bartending in the United States beginning in the mid-1980s because they allowed artistic personality freedom behind the bar.

London (Roadhouse) and Orlando (Quest for the Best at Pleasure Island's Manniquins) were the hotbeds of flair bartending in the early and mid-1990s.

[1] The global competition has continued to today with divisional champions from across the US, Latin America and European Divisions coming to compete in Carrollton, Texas.

This event is held at the IBA's annual congress of members, together with the organization's World Classic Cocktail Competition (inaugurated in 1955).