Austin has always had a seedy underbelly. Escort services to strip joints, swinger’s clubs to movie theatres and bathhouses. The nightlife of adults in Austin has always been a smorgasbord of options to play and have fun. I have watched Austin change from “weird” to whatever it is now. I was there for many of the businesses and “experiments” in adult entertainment. From the swinger’s clubs to Plato’s Pagan Tantric Temple, to the escort services and “jack shacks” that littered much of Austin from Braker to south 35. I was not a part of the lifestyle or even working in the business of my own choices, I was born into an Austin dynasty of adult entertainment.
My first experience was when I was 17. I was watching an episode of Inside Edition; the Television gossip show many might remember from the late 80’s early 90’s and beyond I believe. They had this weird episode that had some strange “Tanning Salon” on the show with hidden cameras showing girls dancing on poles and offering use of self-tanning “lotion”. Was crazy and I was COMPLETELY naive to anything adult oriented. I had a girlfriend all through high school and just wasn’t knowledgeable about that stuff.
2 days later I am in my parent’s room talking to my mom and I saw a VHS movie in my father’s bookshelf. It was labeled with a sharpie, “TABU TAN”. It hit me because that was the name of the place on the Inside Edition show I had just seen! I waited till they left and watched the video and was confused. It was a video of someone walking around a darkly lit old house with dark red and pink walls, dark carpet, couches in each room and brass poles. I was confused and lost. I grew up with a dad that I always asked him if I could go to work with him. I knew he was self-employed all my childhood and I was always so confused why he never took me with him. This is how I learned why he did not.
Driving down 35, about 2 months later, I look to my right, and I see a pink house that says Tabu Tan on the side, my father’s Lincoln Towncar sitting in front then I see my father walking towards the road with a 357 revolver (I found out the gun later) firing over and over at a pick-up truck!! I’m a normal strait-laced kid just turned 18. I see my father in a gun battle on the side of the freeway next to this crazy place I just saw on National TV a few months prior, and it only got crazier from there!!!
I immediately exit 35 and U-turn to go back to where my dad was to make sure he is ok. I get there and he is gone. I found out later he jumped in his car and was chasing the truck down the freeway firing into the back. I knew I came from a crazy Italian family, but this was mind boggling! Im in this parking lot trying to understand what I just saw, and what I am in front of and my dad pulls back in and see me. He laughs and says how he wondered when Id pop up.
Long story short on why he was shooting, he fired some girl that had a drug problem, the girls made PHENOMINAL money in these places and her boyfriend wasn’t happy with my dad. So, he decided to try to shoot at him and got a rude awakening! Not that Italian! Turns out, my father is just like the guys I saw in movies!! CRAZY AF!!
well, I walk into this place, and it is CRAZY for an 18-year-old. I had never even been to a topless bar. I had seen and been with 1 girl at this point. I walk in and there are 6 really pretty girls, all dressed in lingerie (anyone saying there were never 6 hot girls, this was in the beginning. These girls were legit just dancing naked and making $5000 a day plus. My dad had some of the hottest 18-28 yo girls Austin had from strippers to regular college girls… One was of the 6 was a girl I went to high school with, and she was popular and a cheerleader!) It was WILD seeing this stuff. So, Im sitting in this dressing room area chatting with these girls and one walks in completely nude, sits down, spreads her legs, sticks a tampon in, grabs a lighter, lights the string and one of the other girls yell “RUN SHES GONNA BLOW” and this girl sticks 2 fingers in her mouth and snuffs out the fire as it hits her vagina and I’m just watching this stuff speechless and amazed…. I left realizing that my normal life just took a turn.
4 months later I am looking for work and my dad had been talking about opening a bar on 6th street. I’m dumb. Thinking a regular bar. I decide to pop into the place he rented and was renovating to open his bar and walked in to see a 20′ tall brass pole on the main stage floor and another pole downstairs at that stage, right on 6th street, just next to where Notorious Eds Underground Tattoos was near the river under the hotel. My dad was opening a topless bar on 6th. Foxxies Firehouse. So like any 18-year-old, I convince my dad to give me a job and for the next 5 months I lived in the dressing room on the couch. Some will remember the place where it was, a bar called Phaces…. Akram anyone?? OMG the stories!!! Follow me as I’ll be adding to the list of crazy adventures back when Austin was still WEIRD.
submitted by /u/IYKYKJohnny
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