Allegedly, two aspiring club owners left Ybor City in a cloud of broken promises, confusion and bad checks after promising to deliver a hot new gay club.
On June 23, a Facebook page popped up under the name Tampa Infusion, announcing a new nightclub in Ybor City. Postings advertised an all-star cast for the July 9 opening night, including RuPaul’s Drag Race cast members Bebe Zahara Benet, Shannel, Morgan McMichaels, JuJu Bee and Raven.
Raven and Morgan McMichaels agent, Sunny Stewart, said Parker and Brock originally contacted her in early June with a request to book the two performers for a club they planned to open in North Carolina. Less than a week later, Parker and Brock informed her that they would be opening in Tampa instead.
The house of cards began to fall when Nathan Brooks, an entertainer and promoter in GaYbor, contacted the owners listed on the Tampa Infusion Facebook page, Seth Parker and Ron Brock. Brooks was interested in managing the bar and helping with promotions.
“Seth seemed legit as he asked me for a copy of my resume, samples of my work and a list of references which he did call and check on,” Brooks said.
Brooks said after the conversation, he went to see the prospective location, which turned out to be a condemned building with no roof, windows or doors. When he followed up with Parker and Brock, Brooks found out that they had not yet arrived in Tampa or seen the location but stated that it would open in 14 days. Brooks said he decided to launch his own investigation, looked up records for liquor licenses and found no record of an application. According to Brooks, a criminal background check revealed computer theft and a weapons charge.
A search on the scam-busting website 800notes.com also revealed that Parker and Brock have been behind a few telemarketing scams in North Carolina.
With this information in hand, Brooks said he contacted Shannel, who told him that Parker and Brock were planning to move her to Tampa to become entertainment director of Tampa Infusion. Later that day, Brooks said he received information from Parker they were shifting the club’s location to the building currently occupied by Czar. When the Czar general manager Sandi Hein caught wind of this rumor, she immediately posted a comment targeted at Infusion on Facebook.
“Actually, Czar is still Czar and open for business as CZAR,” Hein posted. “Although there was talk of helping Tampa Infusion with a temporary home for their party in our Imperial Theatre, neither I nor the owner are aware of any such agreement. Spreading false rumors of the sale of our business is not only in very poor taste but it could be quite detrimental to [Tampa Infusion’s] future business, as well. I’m sure [Tampa Infusion’s] potential customers wouldn’t appreciate being misled in such a way…”
Brooks said within 48 hours he called the rest of the scheduled performers to inform them of the situation. In doing so, he found that they had been given neither flights nor confirmation numbers even though contracts were signed by both parties.
After that, Tampa Infusion posted “F*ck Tampa” on its Facebook page before being deactivated on July 6. However, Watermark was able to contact Seth Parker through the club’s MySpace account.
“You can write an article about why we aren’t coming to Florida,” Parker replied. “We’ve decided to open in another city and state.”
As of Friday July 9, Club Infusion on MySpace was still promoting the July 9 event.
Their motivation is unclear. Collateral damage seems to be minimal; a few broken promises and some advertisements paid for with bad checks.
“It was simply like a big dust cloud blew through,” said Carrie West, co-owner of the popular Ybor City novelty shop MC Film Fest.
In the end, it was the entertainers who received the biggest blow. Most had no way to recoup the money they lost from the booking and had no flights to Tampa to try to make it up with new bookings. Hamburger Mary’s, The Honey Pot, G.Bar, The Flamingo Resort and Nathan Brooks Entertainment stepped up and booked Shannel, the one entertainer who was given a confirmed ticket to Tampa for July 9 and July 10. Morgan McMichaels and Raven are scheduled to perform in GaYbor within the coming weeks.
According to Brooks, Shannel was asked to fly in on July 8 to meet up with Brock at Disney to discuss any “miscommunications.” Brooks said after numerous phone calls and excuses, Brock never showed up for the meeting. On Friday, Brock contacted Shannel again. This time he asked her to meet him at his hotel in Tampa. Shannel went at the set time but was stood up again. Meanwhile, “Shannel was receiving nasty emails from [Brock’s partner] Seth,” attacking her for booking other venues in Ybor, Brooks said.
Brooks and Shannel said they invited Brock and Parker to Hamburger Mary’s, The Honey Pot and G. Bar to watch the shows. When they failed to arrive, Shannel and Brooks contacted them and Brock claimed he was turned away at the door at Hamburger Mary’s.
“I find that hard to believe,” Brooks said. “No one even knew what they looked like and Hamburger Mary’s would never turn away a customer.”
Since then, none of the parties involved have been able to get a hold of either Parker or Brock.
Raven and Morgan McMichael’s manager Sunny Stewart said Parker and Brock still owe her $5,000 for the performances booked.
