Scott Young’s advice to wannabe bartenders: treat your bar like a house party, and always, always, remember something cool to say.

Young, who made a name for himself blowing three-metre flames and whirling silver martini shakers in the air blindfolded at The Roxy in downtown Vancouver, is the founder of www.extremebartending.com , a West Coast company that lectures around the world on the art of freestyle “flair” bartending.

“The whole concept is about being entertaining, being exciting behind the bar,” he said, during a recent seminar at Edmonton’s Dante’s Inferno.

Young’s company has made 25 videos, delivered seminars in Singapore, Cuba and Jamaica, and transformed countless bartending wimps into replicas of Tom Cruise circa 1988.

Though most think choreographed bottle-flipping and glass-tossing died rightfully with the memory of Cocktail, Young points to Extreme Bartending’s success to contradict the myth.

At a time when lavish nightclubs are popping up faster than little gophers in a Galaxyland midway game, Young says bar owners are looking for ways to gain an edge on the competition.

“(Customers) are starving for entertainment, and (flair bartending) is an addition…to the music, to the dancing, to the pretty girls,” he says.  “Bartenders have to make sure everyone has fun.  It gives customers a reason to stay a little bit longer, spend a little more money.”

Dori Murphy, Dante’s general manager, hopes he’s right.  “If my staff can do half of what he can do behind the bar, they’re rich, I’m rich,” she says, smiling.

“The myth is that you can’t do this behind a bar without spilling,” says Young, grabbing a bottle by the neck and flipping it in circles around his body.  “That isn’t true.”

“It’s not a juggle; it’s just movement, style.  You should be able to do something cool with everything behind the bard: limes, straws, shakers, napkins, lighters, bottles, everything.”

He begins his class by teaching simple rotations and tosses (the motion’s like starting a lawnmower, he ways).  He moves on to lines, angles, speeds, and body positions (“Use your ass as a guideline,” he says).

As Young lets his class practise with empty, plastic bottles, one Dante’s bartender stands out amid the clamour of missed and bouncing bottles.

“I’m not Mr. Flair, but I’ve done this long enough to be good at what I do,” says Shadow Welch, as he coolly tosses a glass from behind his back and balances it smoothly on the back of his right hand before flipping it again to catch it in his left.

Welch learned his tricks as a bartender at the old Cocktail Club before recently landing at Dante’s.

“I’m not gonna lie to you,” he says.  “There’s nights when I drop two or three things, but in a night you make 500 drinks.  Every glass, every straw, ice…that’s 1,500 moves.

“It’s all about finding your individual style,” says Young.

“If you want to bring some style to your bar, start slowly.”

He points those at a loss for words – or recipes – to his web site (www.extremebartending.com).

“We’ve got 7,000 drink recipes and, like, 8,000 famous quotes and jokes.”

“A bartender should always have something cool to say.”