Mermaids, creator of underwater burlesque show fired from Wreck Bar, they say

The underwater mermaid shows at Wreck Bar that began nearly two decades ago would not have happened if it weren’t for Marina Anderson pitching the idea and bringing it to life.

Anderson started the mermaid shows at the Wreck Bar in Fort Lauderdale in the early 2000s, and it eventually grew from her alone swimming to her training others and the performances developed over the years, including the addition of their popular, one-of-a-kind underwater mermaid and mermen burlesque shows. Now she and her pod of 16 mermaids and mermen have been fired, and loyal followers are threatening on social media not to return to the bar without them.

It was a gut punch last week, Anderson said, when the hotel’s management told her “the typical, ‘we’ve decided to go in a different direction.'”

A second group, the Coral Reef Mermaids, started performing there in 2022, according to the B Ocean hotel’s website. Now, the Coral Reef Mermaids have taken over the shows entirely, one of Anderson’s mermen said.

“What they did is absolutely horrendous … I never thought it would be that cruel and that heartless,” Anderson said. “I feel very betrayed. Wow, is all I can say. I have no other words other than, wow. And it’s a teachable lesson, let’s just say, for performers I hope.”

B Ocean’s resort manager did not return a voicemail Thursday afternoon or multiple emails this week requesting an interview. The chief operating officer of Performance Hospitality, B Ocean’s resort management company, did not respond to multiple emails this week seeking an interview. The creator of Coral Reef Mermaids hung up on a reporter when reached by phone Thursday and did not respond to a text message requesting an interview.

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As of Thursday, Wreck Bar’s Instagram account said their shows are “home to” Coral Reef Mermaids, while the hotel’s separate Instagram account still shows photos of Anderson and her MeduSirena stage name to promote shows. One page on the hotel’s website credits Anderson for bringing the bar’s shows into existence in 2006, while another page uses the same language to instead credit the leader of the Coral Reefs Mermaids for introducing the shows in 2022.

” … Marina is the mermaid there,” said Janelle Smiley, a long-time mermaid in Anderson’s pod. “She’s done it for 19 years. She saw an opportunity 19 years ago. For them to say they’re going in a different direction, no they’re not. How? It’s mermaids that are here because of Marina. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Wreck Bar, a Spanish Galleon-themed bar nestled inside the boat-shaped hotel formerly known as the Yankee Clipper on Fort Lauderdale’s beach, is a historic site with its porthole windows that give the customers a view into the underwater world where Anderson has long performed. It is one of only a few porthole bars still in the country, “a dying art” since their heyday in the ’50s and ’60s, Anderson said. The only other porthole bar to offer a similar show is nearly 3,000 miles away, the Sip ‘n Dip Lounge in Great Falls, Montana.

Smiley and merman Boaz Even-Haor said Thursday that they are still missing about two months of paychecks. Anderson was missing two months of paychecks as well earlier this week but said she was paid Thursday evening.

“I’m sure it’s a monetary decision … I don’t know exactly what their perspective is, but obviously it’s upsetting because the humanity is not there,” Anderson said of her firing.

Anderson said management told her she needed to get insurance for the performers, and she agreed. But she said she needed to be paid for two months of work she had yet to receive. They then told her “they didn’t require my services anymore,” she said.

“It felt like I was being squeezed out, which probably is the case,” she said.

Smiley, whose mermaid name is Pilikia, the Hawaiian word for “trouble,” said she has not been paid for about 30 different gigs between late February through April, totaling about $4,000. “And that’s just me,” she said, noting other performers have also not been paid.

Smiley has been swimming at Wreck Bar for the past seven years and said having to “chase down our checks” was nothing new, but the decision to fire her and the rest of Anderson’s group was unexpected, especially considering that their brunch shows were often sold out.

Some loyal fans of Anderson and her pod have voiced their discontent in comments on recent B Ocean’s Facebook posts.

“We were planning a visit this month. No MeduSirena Marina no visit! Even canceled our room. What a disgrace! We are not returning until Marina & her crew does!” one wrote.

“I won’t be back until MeduSirena Marina is back,” another person commented. “That was the reason I went.”

Another said, “You just WRECKED your bar by firing MeduSirena Marina and her crew.”

Even-Haor, whose merman name is Pōhaku, traveled from Colorado to perform with Anderson’s group at Wreck Bar twice a month. He moved away from South Florida about seven months ago but loved participating in the shows so much that he purchased flights to come back for weekend mermen burlesque and the brunch shows. He, too, is missing about two months worth of pay since being fired, he told the Sun Sentinel on Thursday.

Talking about the group being fired brought Even-Haor to tears, thinking of the bond he has made with Anderson, his mentor Smiley, the rest of the crew and the audience. Some customers told him they would come to the shows any time he was in town to see him, he said.

“I feel like I really built myself in this show as a person. I learned from Marina so much, I learned form Janelle, I learned from every one of them,” he said. “It just felt like putting a costume (on) and being myself for the show.”

So, what’s next for Anderson and her pod?

Even-Haor said he thought about trying to perform at Denver’s Downtown Aquarium, which offers its own Mystic Mermaids show on Friday nights, but their tails and styles of swimming are different from what he knows and decided against it. He booked a flight to South Florida for Memorial Day weekend to perform at Wreck Bar, and despite the fact that he won’t be performing, he plans to return anyway to visit, he said.

As for Anderson, she said she needs time to deal with the loss, after dedicating many years of her life to the shows.

“I honestly have no idea at this point,” she said. “I’m still quite raw.”

As of Thursday night, the hotel’s reservation website continues to advertise the “MeduSirena AquaBurlesque Show” but no option to purchase tickets for one. Eventbrite, a third-party site the resort uses for ticketing, shows that the mermen burlesque show scheduled for next Thursday is canceled. Tickets are available to purchase for an upcoming family-friendly Saturday night show and a Sunday brunch.