In a small office in Melrose Park the phone rings constantly with questions about the upcoming Erot-o-Con and Bondage Fest-a-Rama. Can I bring my wife? Will there be girls? Do you need dancers? How much is the cover?
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“Just think of it as Taste of Chicago for the sex industry,” says J.P. Strauss, who fields the calls with his partner Donna. The two publish and edit the Gentlemen’s Pages, a guide to adult entertainment in Chicago. This weekend’s Erot-o-Con will be a sort of Gentlemen’s Pages come to life, with adult videos, vendor booths, dancers, topless massages, models in hot tubs, bondage shows, and contests like the orgasm shout and the banana suck-off.
Donna and Strauss say they chose to hold the event in northwest Indiana because the adult entertainment laws are more liberal than in Illinois. “You cannot put a girl on a pool table in Chicago without the cops coming down on you,” says Strauss. “If a two-day event like this gets broken up, it would be disastrous.”
