Mark: This Sunday the gloves come off and you take on two powerhouse T dances.

Mike Mazer: It’s not a matter of the gloves coming off. It’s not a matter of us trying to take business away from anybody. There’s an audience that’s not being addressed, the 21 to 25 crowd. They’re not really going out to T Dance. 

Mark: Why do you think that is? 

Mike Mazer: They don’t want to be in a dark venue, an indoor venue. And T Dances have typically not been indoors. The Jackhammer party is an excellent party. They do a great job. It is what it is. The music’s great. You can’t knock it. 

Voodoo Lounge has been doing a great job for three years. It is what it is. I think they lost it a little bit when they enclosed the patio. Again, not to knock anybody, it’s just different than what we’re going to do. Our T Dance is on the water. It’s going to be a fun, outdoor, energetic T Dance. 

Mark: So where does the new business come from? 

Mike Mazer: I don’t think Jackhammer is going to suffer from our event. I don’t think Voodoo is going to suffer. I just think we’re all going to have to get better. I think that people who come early to our party might end up going later for the drag shows at Voodoo. We’re all going to have to be better at what we’re doing. 

Mark: There’s been a dramatic shift in how people party.  

Mike Mazer: Everybody’s been saying for the past four, five or six years that the Circuit is dying. What’s next? What do you have to do to get the big crowds out again? I’m not sure the big crowds are going to be coming again. I don’t think the really big clubs are ever going to be really good except for on big holiday weekends for many years to come. It’s been that way for a while now and I don’t see it changing anytime soon. 

Mark: So what do you think is next? 

Mike Mazer: Well I started coming in here [China White] about a year ago and I liked what Jason [Tamanini] was doing. It’s not that there’s a cheap cover, there is no cover. So people come in here to drink and they’ll spend whatever they need to be a part of it. If you tried to charge this crowd at the door, they’d walk away.  

Mark: They want to spend their money inside.  

Mike Mazer: That’s right. When I was growing up we had to go out to gay bars to socialize and be gay. You don’t have to do that anymore. Younger guys are more socially adjusted than we were.

Mark: Back in our day we came out in college and adjusted to being out. Now, with the advent of the Gay Straight Alliances in high schools, kids come out of high school adjusted and they don’t need that big club experience once a week to feel gay. 

Mike Mazer: Today they go out to straight clubs and nobody cares that they’re gay. 

Mark: That changes everything. 

Mike Mazer: It does. Can I tell you something? I had so much fun this past weekend just hanging out at Pridefest with these guys from China White. I laughed the whole time. 

Jason Tamanini: It was so much fun.  

Mike Mazer: These guys all just hang out and have fun. There’s no attitude. There’s no ego. They just work, play and have fun. And that’s what we want simple T to be. 

Mark: Sounds easy. 

Jason Tamanini:  No, it sounds simple! 

Mike Mazer: You’re going to be surprised who our go-go boys are. They’re our bartenders. There are poles on all of the bars and there are poles behind the bars. And they’re just going to jump up on the bars and work it for a while. Who needs to pay go-go boys when you have some of the hottest guys in town working at your bar? They’re not doing this because we’re telling them to. They’re doing it because they want to. 

Jason Tamanini:  We went on an outing to Automatic Slims. We’re all gay, except Rodney. [group chuckle] And here we were having a blast in a straight bar. They only allow girls to dance on the stripper poles. No guys allowed. And Steve [Soto] pays the bouncer fifty bucks to let him take one twirl. Not a dance. Fifty bucks for a twirl. 

Mike Mazer: These guys are just fun.  

Jason Tamanini:  We’ve got a bar that has a waterfall on the back and that’s going to be our Jell-O shots bar. Simple T is going to be fun. Nothing serious, all fun. There’s going to be nothing serious about the music. Just come out and don’t worry about it, you’re going to have fun. Come in and relax, look at the water, watch the boats go by. It’s beautiful. There are restaurants so you can eat. You can get a $5.99 dinner nearby. 

Mike Mazer: And it’s good food! 

Jason Tamanini:  It’s a no brainer. We’ve been looking for a year. And I was sitting at a restaurant and looked at it [Whyte Noise] from across the water and I went, “that’s perfect.”   

Mike Mazer: He had me down there in a matter of minutes and we decided to do it. 

Jason Tamanini:  So we’ve got Don Bishop for a DJ and the people who remember what T Dance is supposed to be will know him and they’ll come out for him. And then you’ve got my crowd who really don’t know what a T Dance is. They don’t know how fun it can be. They just think a bunch of old people go to a club and dance. 

Mike Mazer: I got an email from this guy I know today and he told me he didn’t think he could do it because he has to work on Monday mornings. I said , “It’s from four to ten. You’ll get plenty of sleep!” He said, “You’re doing a daytime party?” 

Jason Tamanini:  He has never heard of T dance. 

Mike Mazer: He didn’t even know what it is. And that’s the crowd we’re after. I remember the days when they used to just park a trailer in a parking lot on South Beach and the drag queens would come out of the trailer and perform on the roof. People would dance in a parking lot. The cops would be there to keep the straight people form bothering us. 

Jason Tamanini:  I grew up during that time. The 80’s were all about drugs. The 90’s were all about just say no. Say no to drugs. Say no to sex. Say no to unprotected sex. Don’t, don’t… don’t, don’t, don’t. 

Mike Mazer: And there’s even a difference in the drugs. Drugs back in the 80’s were feel good drugs. Today it’s these drugs that you spiral down into a hole on. They’re dark and it’s affected everything. 

Jason Tamanini:  Now we’re trying to just get back on an even plane. The perfect example is Winter Party. They had signs in all of the restrooms that essentially said, “We know you’re doing it. So do it safely. Don’t have unprotected sex. If you’re using drugs make sure you have a condom in your pocket.” 

Mark: I was amazed. It was such a good, direct message. 

Mike Mazer: The younger crowds that are coming out are drinkers. They don’t want to hear about drugs. They want to get trashed and drunk and have fun. Which is what we used to do before I came out. 

Jason Tamanini:  And that’s what it came from. We used to be stereotypical focused group. We all did what gay people did because that’s what we did. And now that being gay is so much more acceptable, we’re doing what everyone around us is doing and now more of the people around us are straight, and they drink. 

We don’t have to go out to the big clubs like Salvation anymore. I’ll bet if you looked around Salvation you would have seen a lot of guys that were just standing around. The weren’t there to dance. They were just there because everyone was there. It’s what you did. And now those people are gone. They don’t have to go to the big clubs to meet other Gay people. 

Mark: You also do these big one off parties, what do you bring from that to this? 

Mike Mazer: It’s all about the dynamic of the party. It doesn’t matter if it’s 4,000 people or 400. The bottom line is people just want to have fun.  

Mark: And that’s what Simple T is. 

Jason Tamanini: Simple fun. Show up Sunday and be ready to party, play and have fun with your friends.