Midway through the first act, King Kong made his first appearance in the new Broadway show bearing his name, and the audience just didn’t know how to deal with what they were seeing.

“Is that … is that … video?” asked my wife, Robin, trying to make sense of things.

“No,” I answered, “I think that’s actually on stage right now.”

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

My wife and I were enjoying a rare date night, and we’d gone to King Kong at the Broadway Theatre. Obviously, any story with Kong in it is going to need to have a gigantic ape — the promotional materials teased his appearance heavily. We were quite curious to see how they would pull this off.

The show starts from the top down. The first people we see are lowered into view from the ceiling, hanging on to the hooks of cranes. In the background, New York City is lurching into the sky, as work crews scramble around on high steel. It’s a showstopper of a moment right away, immediately hitting the audience with vertigo, and the musical works hard to keep you off balance after that.

We’re introduced to Ann Darrow, portrayed by Christiani Pitts, who quickly expresses a desire to be the “Queen of New York” in her introductory number. Pitts brings tremendous strength to Ann, and her running joke is that she is incapable of screaming in fear, only in rage and defiance.

But this is Depression-era New York after all. Ann finds herself down on her luck very quickly. That doesn’t stop her from being noticed by Carl Denham (Eric William Morris) who quickly establishes that to him, ambition is everything. He convinces Ann to join him on a voyage to make a movie, but won’t tell her where.

What follows is another showstopper of a moment as the stage transforms from the city of New York into the deck of a ship. The cast and crew do an excellent job of keeping the audience off balance by making the entire theater seem like it is bobbing up and down on the sea as it travels to Skull Island.

King Kong story variations

We know the beats of the story of King Kong already, so perhaps this is a good point to stop and note the differences. Jack Driscoll, the traditional romantic lead of King Kong, is excluded from the production. This is wise, as Ann is strong enough on her own to never need a rescuer. It also sets up a more powerful dynamic between not only Ann and the conniving Denham, but ultimately, King Kong himself.

Some elements of King Kong have not aged well. The tribespeople included in the original film are definitely part of this, and it’s difficult to watch them in the film now without wincing at the racist stereotypes woven into the story in that more insensitive time. Happily, the Broadway production leaves all of that aside. Ann, Denham and the crew must deal directly with the mystical Skull Island before facing King Kong.

Now it was time for King Kong to appear. He’s teased at first. You hear him coming. It feels like you’re the kid in the car in Jurassic Park, watching the glass of water vibrate with each step. Then you’re given glimpses. Eyes. Teeth. Roars reverberate. A massive hand. Paw?

Then King Kong springs into action. And nobody knew how to deal with what we saw.

How King Kong comes to life

We spoke with the cast and crew after the show about King Kong. It takes an entire team of people to operate him physically, although you barely notice them. They move so well together, and in sync with everyone else, that they disappear for the most part, and look like spiders or wraiths when they are in view. All in all, the King Kong “character” weighs around two tons, is operated by over a dozen highly trained people at any given time, and every single moment he is on stage he is a show stopper and and a half.

Many more people help bring him to life remotely, including his voice, his movements, and how he is transported from the stage to the top of the Empire State Building. Because yes, that scene happens. King Kong charges through the jungle, carrying Ann in one hand. He battles another giant beast and, later on, Denham and his crew.

Pitts is in a unique situation here, having to perform alongside what is essentially a giant ape, but she rises to the challenge admirably, always maintaining her presence. She not only holds her own with King Kong, but also establishes a rapport with him.

She is the key for believability here. If we don’t see that Ann believes that King Kong is real, then we won’t believe that King Kong is real. Without Pitts’ performance in these scenes, the entire show would not work.

King Kong is, as we know, captured by Denham and his crew and returned to New York. The city really has always been inextricably tied to the story mythology. Any souvenir shop around NYC will have a little Empire State Building with a King Kong on it, so it was wise to make New York integral to the show as well. The city’s name features prominently in the musical numbers, and many of the tried and true tropes about New York are tied into the story.

As the show races to its climax, it brings you even more show-stopping scenes including Kong’s escape from Denham and his inevitable scaling of the Empire State Building. But one scene in particular stands out for its simplicity in presentation, if not execution:

After his escape, Kong stands alone. He walks to the very edge of the stage and simply looms over the audience. It sent murmurs and nervous laughter trilling through the theater.

You may not want to bring very young kids, but the older set will be blown away by the show. If you have friends or family visiting and you want to make their very first Broadway experience memorable, this would be a good choice.

Like New York City itself, King Kong looms over you. It shows you that even though you might be familiar with a story, it can still thrill you, intimidate you, and ultimately fill you with wonder.

Back in the day, I was a nerd who worked at FAO Schwarz. I read too many comics, collected way too many action figures, and lived and breathed toys. And every year, I tried to find a way to get into Toy Fair New York.

Toy Fair, for those who don’t know, is the annual trade show where toy companies show off their wares and try to get you excited about the products they have coming out in the new year. While that can be a hit or miss prospect for getting store buyers excited for new lines, it never fails to thrill nerds like me.

You see, I used to agonize over not being able to get into Toy Fair. I may have worked in toys, collected them, and amassed vast knowledge about them, but I wasn’t a buyer and I wasn’t press, so I wasn’t getting in there to see all the awesomeness.

Well, things change. Thanks to the interwebz, I’m now officially press. And because I write about this nerdy stuff, I’ve gotten to attend Toy Fair these last three years, an ambition of mine that’s been literally decades in the making.

Toy Fair has become more than just being about the toys. It’s the people making, distributing or reporting on those toys that really makes Toy Fair awesome. Attending Toy Fair gives you a backstage pass to the toy industry, and it introduces you to some great folks along the way. After all, anyone can take pictures of all the toys to be seen there, but the really interesting stories are why some of these people are at Toy Fair in the first place.

Marty Abrams is well known by avid toy collectors, and even if you don’t know his name, you know his work. Marty is the man behind Mego, which made iconic toys in the 1970s. If you didn’t have these eight-inch action figures from Star Trek, DC, Marvel or even from Happy Days, then you know someone who did. So it’s really nice to see the gregarious Marty Abrams back at Toy Fair, bringing these beloved toys back!

Todd McFarlane is another rock star in the toy industry. I’ve been a fan of his ever since he drew Batman: Year Two in the ’80s, and watched with awe as he became a comics superstar. He started his own company, Image Comics, which revolutionized that industry, and then subsequently started up McFarlane Toys which revolutionized the toy industry.

McFarlane now handles multiple hot licenses, including Fortnite, Game of Thrones, and all major sports leagues. It also just acquired the rights to DC Comics’ characters. Because of that, Todd himself was being pulled in 80 different directions at once while I was touring his booth. But he still took a few moments to come over and chat with me and pose for a picture, because I’m a nerd, and so is he.

Charlie Friend, president of Green Toys, is also passionate about the products he makes but he fills a unique niche. Green Toys are made of completely recycled material, right here in the USA. They have everything from active play toys to vehicles, and their message of sustainability and respect for the planet we live on is a necessary and pertinent one. His enthusiasm for what he does is impressive and admirable.

Zach Oat is with Diamond Select Toys, producing figures, props and statues meant for adult collectors. I knew him from ToyFare magazine, one of the periodicals that used to tell me about Toy Fair. We had a grand conversation about some of the things he’s seen and had a hand in, including the show Robot Chicken, which came from Toyfare magazine.

Some folks I’d gotten to know weren’t there this year, but in Christine Kaskey’s case, this was a good thing. She started her own company, Kaskey Kids, and became famous for her “Sports Guys” figures. While I did miss seeing her at the show, I was happy to see it was for a good reason, as she had sold Kaskey Kids to Masterpieces, a well known toy and game company.

Toy Fair also provided me the opportunity to meet other writers, vloggers and influencers I either already knew or was a fan of. Dan Larson of Toy Galaxy was there, as were Nerds in a Bar, Toy Shiz, and many others. I’m happy to report they’re all great folks.

But what was especially nice was hanging out with other dads and parents I’ve gotten to know through City Dads Group. Granted, some of these folks I now only see at events like this, but when you work at home a lot, it’s actually very nice to have “work friends” again, people like Gregg Jobson-Larkin from Darleen & Gregg, Adam Cohen from Dada Rocks and Denise Comeau from Game On Mom.

When I was a kid, I wanted to work with toys somehow. Whether it was making them, selling them, whatever, and my career has reflected that. Now that I’ve been going to Toy Fair for a while, it’s been a welcome and pleasant surprise to discover that the people who share that passion for toys are just as nice as one could hope they’d be.

Toy Fair is awesome. But what makes it awesome is not just the toys, or even getting to see all of the new lines, but meeting the people who work with those toys. Seeing them again is what I most look forward to from Toy Fair next year.

All photos by Chad R. MacDonald.

The best shows to take your children to are the ones that make you all laugh and have fun. The New Victory Theater has been specializing in shows like this for some time now, but they’ve really outdone themselves by bringing in the Reduced Shakespeare Company to perform William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged).

First things first: No, you don’t have to know a lot about Shakespeare to enjoy this show. But here’s the kicker, you probably already know more about Shakespeare than you think you do, anyway. As actor Austin Tichenor pointed out, “People are always surprised to learn how much of their everyday language comes from Shakespeare, so we play that up.”

Within the first few minutes the performers hilariously point out, with plenty of examples, that all of Shakespeare’s plays have been remade as Disney movies. That quickly sets a kid-friendly tone, and the players proceed with a high energy and very silly show with plenty of madcap antics, costume changes and gut-bustingly funny scenes. And be aware that if you’re sitting in the front row, your children’s skills with a water gun may be called upon to provide “special effects” by spraying the cast during a storm.

Ah, the storm. The storm, or “Tempest” is the crux of this show, as a storm is integral to the plot of many of Shakespeare’s plays. That’s the idea behind William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged), that the Bard repeatedly used the same story elements again and again. Big storms. Identical twins. Misunderstandings. Men dressed as women and women dressed as men.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company also runs with the idea that the Bard’s plays all shared the same universe with each other, like Marvel Comics’ movies do. The plot revolves around a quarrel between the magical Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ariel from The Tempest. (Performer Teddy Spencer’s first appearance as Ariel is a play on Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and that leads into the aforementioned bit about Disney ripping off Shakespeare.)

The show is broken up into two acts, about 40 minutes each, with the intermission allowing kids to check out The New Victory Theater’s vast lobby. We’ve been there before, but this was the first time we hit the concession stands and we were knocked over to find … wait for it … healthy and affordable snacks for the whole family! In New York! In a Broadway Theater! Can you believe that?

The upside is that you can get snacks for just a few bucks. The downside is the line for the concession stand is pretty long, although very well managed. We’d recommend ordering your concessions before the show so you can just pick them up after the first act.

Full disclosure: This writer has been a fan of The Reduced Shakespeare Company for 25 years, and as I’ve studied The Bard’s plays extensively, I knew going in that this was going to be a favorable review. But I really was pleasantly surprised at how accessible the show was, and how much even experienced Shakespeare scholars still managed to learn while laughing really hard.

Because that’s the thing about Shakespeare. His works are surprisingly familiar to the unfamiliar, and the Reduced Shakespeare Company takes his works, and makes them not only accessible, but wildly enjoyable and fun.

And when your kids are having fun, they won’t notice how much they’re learning. Win-win!

Buy tickets through the New Victory website to see the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s “William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged)” at 209 W. 42nd St. in Manhattan, playing through Sunday, March 11.

Members of the NYC Dads Group recently left New York City entirely … to travel to the Marvel Universe Live. And what a tremendously fun trip it was.

Marvel Universe Live, coming Feb. 22-25 to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and nearby locations in March, is a show about Marvel superheroes such as The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America — only one of the hottest and most well-known comic book properties ever. Our evening included a behind-the-scenes look at the show. We met the performers, learned how they did their amazing moves, and participated in all kinds of awesome activities. What’s more, our dads and their children were given a chance to fight alongside their favorite heroes.

A selfie station with props, including Iron Man’s gauntlets, Thor’s mighty hammer and Star Lord’s mask, proved popular with all. You also could get an up close and personal look ar Dr. Strange’s Cloak of Levitation and many other costumes from the show, or learn how to manipulate a flaming globe on a rope, and more.

The performers were friendly and approachable, and helped the children learn various fight moves. One by one, every boy and girl got to strut their stuff in hand-to-hand combat, and even learned how to duel with swords!

Kids would see that they could be superheroes too, and finally know what it’s like to toss around the bad guys, and save the day with heroic feats of derring-do, no matter how small they might be.

They even put on a parkour display, flipping and tumbling over objects like superheroes do. Parkour, or “free running,” if you haven’t seen it, is an amazing way to move your body, and this writer has long wondered why superhero films don’t hire parkour professionals to portray Spider-Man, Daredevil or Captain America as they leap and tumble on the rooftops of New York City, or as they battle their way across an alien landscape.

Full disclosure: This writer tried his hand in the acting field a long time ago, and a lot of the reason I wanted to be an actor was for the action sequences, fighting the bad guys, running and jumping through dangerous environments, and so on and so on. I was certified in Stage Combat, and did minor stunt work, too. I figured I’d see nothing here that I couldn’t do.

Welp. I’ve been wrong before, and I’ll be wrong again, so it wasn’t a surprise I was wrong about this. These performers were miles beyond anything I’d ever been capable of.

Nik Nieves, the show’s fight captain, told me that he holds several degrees and certifications in martial arts, just to start. He is also required, as many of the actors are, to play the roles of many characters in the show. He could be Dr. Strange one night, and Iron Man the next, he said, so he and every performer had to learn the choreography for pretty much all the characters to be ready for what came next.

As for the performers’ training regimen, to say it’s superheroic would be an understatement. We regular mortals would not be able to keep up, although it’s assured to make you lose your dad bod.

To put the show together and running smoothly, James Hadley, director of Marvel Universe Live, assembled an “Action Team” featuring a fight director, a stunt director. and an aerial choreographer.

“We worked closely with Marvel to make sure that characters who had only recently debuted in the films and shows, or had movies coming up, were featured in the show, so Black Panther has a big part, Iron Fist appears, and The Wasp shows up as well,” he said. “The other exciting thing is that we’ve put together both The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy … We use the voices from the cartoon shows, so the characters all sound very familiar to the fans, kids and adults alike.”

Marvel Universe Live is more than just a “fight show,” said Hadley, who used his background with Cirque de Soleil to incorporate plenty of aerial work and acrobatics into the performance.

“I was looking for specialists who could do aerial work, stunt work, martial artists, and then we needed to cross train them, because an aerialist might not be trained in martial arts, so we took them to our Marvel Boot Camp in Florida where they learned different types of fighting, stunt work, and even fire manipulation, and they came out with all of these different skills,” he said.

Marvel Universe Live plays Feb. 22-25 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with tickets starting at $30, a train ride away in Bridgeport, Conn., on March 1-4, and at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., on March 22-April 1. The show runs about an hour and 45 minutes with an intermission in between for when the kids start getting itchy, which is ideal for most parents. You can click HERE for tickets.

One more full disclosure – it’s no secret to anyone that my son and I are giant superhero fans, but it should be clear that Marvel Universe Live is for everyone, not just superhero aficionados. So if you’re looking for a fun and exciting show to take the family to, look no further than Marvel Universe Live.

When a child is born, a parent is born. It’s a simple and obvious concept.

And so our partner, WaterWipes, the world’s purest baby wipes, launched its #ParentIsBorn campaign with a party in New York City featuring well-known media influencers, celebrities, and member of our very own City Dads Group.

The campaign aims to showcase and celebrate parents’ journey, something that is too frequently overlooked amid the fuss of snapping baby photos and the routine drudgery of diaper changes.

City Dads Group co-founder Lance Somerfeld, appearing on a panel speaking to the #ParentIsBorn experience, reinforced WaterWipes messaging that there is no such thing as perfect parenting and often one must simply trust your instincts.

“Parenting is being in the trenches, but with a ray of sunshine,” Somerfeld said at one point of the night, causing heads to nod throughout the room. “When they use the word ‘parent,’ a lot of people are talking about the mom. The bar for dads is still extremely low, and I try, as often as I can, to help elevate that bar. The more society portrays parents as a team, the more it’s going to make mom’s life easier as they won’t feel as much pressure, that they’ll feel they have a partner in this, that they don’t have to shoulder all the responsibility.”

The discussion — which also featured included Motherly co-founder Liz Tenety; doula and co-founder of Birdsong Brooklyn Erica Livingston; and actor, designer and new mother Whitney Port — was by turns funny, enlightening and even chilling as the speakers recounted their moment of realizing they were born as a parent.

The panel proved encouraging and inspiring, but the night wasn’t finished when the panel concluded. WaterWipes put out a good spread of food and beverages, and even provided massage therapists. Members of our NYC Dads Group in attendance enjoyed an evening mingling with old friends and making new ones.

During the panel discussion, WaterWipes — makers of a soft and gentle moist towelette made from 99.9 percent water and a drop of fruit extract, debuted their stirring new commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIjT5FdPqxo

“Parenting is full of your highest highs and lowest lows, and we wanted to bring that to life in a way that felt powerful and true,” Sarah Lipes, brand marketing manager for WaterWipes USA, said about the #ParentIsBorn campaign. “Crashing waves signify rough times and tranquil water brings us back to those intimate, beautiful moments. As a brand that was founded by a parent, it’s important for us to accurately capture the parenthood experience and showcase the entirety of the journey.”

Many of our attending dads brought their children along to enjoy the evening, and having the kids around drove home the points of the campaign – that parenting is in fact full of ups and downs, and the journey we’re all on is something we don’t have to go through alone.

Evenings like this, with friends, food and fun, when you’re validated as a parent by others who are on the same journey, are absolutely priceless. Big thanks to WaterWipes, for a wonderful time, and reminding us of how important a time it is when a #ParentIsBorn.

All photos by Chad R. MacDonald.

Disclosure: We proudly partnered with WaterWipes and were compensated for this event and post.

What do you get when you add together the NYC Dads Group, the GOOD+ Foundation, and Plum Organics?

Food and clothing delivered to the underprivileged for the holidays, starting on Giving Tuesday.

Plum Organics, the nation’s leading organic baby food brand, delivered pallets of food — most weighing over 400 pounds, to various cities around the country with chapters of City Dads Group. Here in New York, the Plum Organic products were delivered to the GOOD+ Foundation, a nonprofit group that works with a network of more than 100 community-based organizations throughout the United States to distribute essentials to families in need. GOOD+ Foundation added care packages of children’s clothing to the outgoing food deliveries.

Enter the NYC Dads Group. Gotham’s fathers sorted the clothing by gender and size so it would be ready to go out to needy children in the community.

If you’re going to have enough clothes to make a difference, then you are going to need a lot of clothes, and a veritable mountain awaited our dad.

The dads weren’t daunted in the least. They immediately set to work, determined to have everything ready to go for Giving Tuesday.

As all parents know, getting time away from your family isn’t the easiest thing to do, but the opportunity to help Plum Organics and the GOOD+ Foundation assist children and families in need got a huge turnout.

When asked why they were doing this, our volunteers gave enthusiastic answers. “I’m here to help the community,” said NYC Dads Group member Jeff Chew.

“I look forward to this every year,” said Larry Interrante, a longtime group member from Queens. “How can you not want to help out children living in your community?”

The dads ended up having quite a lot of fun that night. When you’re doing good, and doing it along side some good friends, well – surprise – you get into a good mood.

“We’re proud to be working with Plum Organics, and helping the GOOD+ Foundation get some much needed clothing and food to the underprivileged in our community,” said NYC and City Dads Group co-founder Lance Somerfeld. “Hanging with a bunch of great guys just adds to all of it!”

It was amazing how quickly our dads tore through their work. It seemed to be all done in mere moments. Inspired dads are efficient dads.

It turned out to be an entertaining and fulfilling evening. You’d be surprised how much fun you can have sorting children’s clothes.

Few experiences are as rewarding as helping children who need it. In many ways, that’s exactly what being a fathers should be about.

You don’t inspire people with your words, you inspire them with your actions. If you’re a father, you’re a role model, whether you like it or not. Your job is to set a good example. Full stop.

Thank you, Plum Organics, for helping us be good examples.

(All photos by Chad R. MacDonald)

October in New York is a beautiful, special month to me. I first arrived in this city in the month of October, the air crisp and the leaves brilliant. Fittingly, as the man who inspired my desire to come here as a boy was Reggie Jackson, baseball’s Mr. October himself.

Reggie Jackson’s name comes up often in New York City baseball circles. Even with no team in the World Series, Mr. October always makes New Yorkers feel included, if only on a peripheral basis. He puts Yankee pinstripes on our minds.

He could be arrogant and unrealistic. He had a pronounced swagger even when he wasn’t producing. He was hated as much as he was loved back in his 1970s heyday. Even today he’s a polarizing figure, with all the old arguments rising up again:

“Reggie Jackson was great!”

“No, he was a big jerk.”

“Yeah but you can’t deny how good he was.”

“Yeah, well you can’t deny he was an ass!”

Looking back with a grown-up’s eyes, Reggie Jackson’s faults are more in focus. I see similarities in how he was seen then with how Alex Rodriguez was perceived here in his New York Yankee years: arrogant, and a bit too full of himself. Kind of a jerk.

In my memory, Reggie could do no wrong. He was one of those athletes that awakened the imagination of a child. “Larger than life” is a phrase that is tossed around too easily these days, but it aptly describes Jackson. He was a mythical figure on par with Superman or Luke Skywalker. He seemed capable of anything. He was my hero. I saw none of his bad traits. That day he hit those three home runs in a 1977 World Series game? My breath catches just thinking about it.

He had a profound effect on my young life. Mr. October planted the seed in my head to move to New York City. when I was just a 7-year-old boy, a million miles away, growing up in a tiny seaside village. NYC may as well have been on another planet. But I knew even then I would live here someday.

Not long ago, my son and I played catch in Macombs Park, the place where old Yankee Stadium stood. We played baseball right on the spot where Reggie hit those home runs. And while that was a thrill for me, I realized my son was seeing it in an entirely different way.

It didn’t matter to him that he was playing baseball where Reggie Jackson once played. It mattered to him that he was playing baseball with me.

Describing the myriad of feelings that swirled around me in that moment is difficult. So many emotions welled up and flowed over. Love. Gratitude. Disbelief. And yes, worry.

Those swirling feelings were followed with a frightening thought: If Reggie Jackson’s image could morph and change for me, if he could go from Superman to schmoe, would that then also happen for my son with me? Right now, my son thinks I’m the greatest, but will he eventually find out that I’m just another schmuck?

And then I took another breath. Of course, he will. Nobody can maintain the image a small child has of you. It’s impossible. They have to grow up, they have to change.

All we can do as fathers, is our best for our children. Spend time with them. Share what we love with them. Let them share what they love with us. Despite our faults, despite our shortcomings, when it comes to helping our kids through childhood, we must swing for the fences.

Reggie Jackson’s era has come and and gone, as has Don Mattingly’s and now Derek Jeter’s. Over the course of my life, many things have changed, but my love of this great city remains strong, and I will share that love with my son.

So this month, Reggie’s month, is one of reflective joy. It’s OK if you don’t understand. It’s just a little thing I have. We all have our quirks, Reggie sure did, and this is one of mine. I’m here in part because of him. So I suppose it’s fair to say my son is here partly because of him, too.

It’s October once more. Autumn in New York is poignant and beautiful. And while for everyone else this month has 31 days, for me, October’s number is 44.

Disclosure: We proudly partnered with WaterWipes for this event and post.

The wonderful thing about being a parent is playing with your kids. The not-so-wonderful thing about being a parent is cleaning up after your kids.

So when you’re having a big kids’ party, you can be sure there will be a lot of fun and many messes to clean. That’s exactly what happened when our NYC Dads Group held a pizza party for some of our children at The Playroom NYC. We were quite thankful that it was sponsored by WaterWipes – makers of the world’s purest baby wipes.

The day started off with a movement class. Talented performers got our dads and their kids to sing along with beloved children’s songs like “No More Monkeys,” “You Are My Sunshine,” and, of course, “Eye of the Tiger.”

Oh, yeah — this shindig was off the hook.

But with any party with young children, especially one with a plethora of snacks available, messes were made and diapers needed to be changed.

Thankfully, we had a large supply of gentle, cleansing WaterWipes on hand. WaterWipes, made with 99.9% water and a drop of fruit extract, are the world’s purest baby wipes. Plus, the National Eczema Association has awarded the Seal of Acceptance to WaterWipes.

“My wife and I have been using WaterWipes for a long time, actually, since way before this event,” said Ben, a member of NYC Dads Group. “She’d been looking for a product without any chemical irritants and they were the best thing she found. They have a soft, natural touch.”

And just like that, the most stressful part of the party — the cleanup — was taken away and we could concentrate on fun. We danced, we sang, there were disco lights and bubbles. And finally, pizza!

As veteran dads know, pizza is delicious but messy when you’re hanging with the younger set. It didn’t take long for slices to get dumped upside down onto the floor, and smeared all over little faces and hands.

It was WaterWipes to the rescue again, because they’re not only soft and safe for sensitive skin, they’re effective. Pizza mess is serious mess, after all, and you need a serious product to clean up after it. WaterWipes were more than up to the job.

“My daughter is really active,” said NYC Dad Group member Jason. “She’s always climbing, always playing in the dirt and sand, running around, so she can get really dirty. WaterWipes do a great job of cleaning her up, which we need to do a lot!”

Fully confident we could handle any mess that came our way thanks to WaterWipes, the dads and kids all proceeded to have a wonderful time singing, dancing, eating, playing with puppets, blocks, slides, trains and more. The WaterWipes Playroom Pizza Party was all of the fun, and none of the stress! We couldn’t ask for anything better than that.

Thank you, WaterWipes!

He soars through Central Park, his flight path twisting and turning to the delight of passersby, his satin cape shimmering and  red hair ablaze in the early afternoon sun.

My son, Liam, and I sometimes get cooped up at home for far too long. Liam is on the spectrum for autism, and although he’ll have a typical childhood and go to typical schools, it will be because he was diagnosed early and received the care and therapy he needs. Four weekdays out of five, he either has therapists visit in the afternoon or must be taken to an appointment. Another therapist spends time with him at his pre-school every morning.

In short, my son puts in a lot of work every week. His only afternoon off is Wednesday so we always try to make the most of it. Liam’s favorite thing to do is to run, to fly, and Central Park is the best place in the world for that.

His magical world in Central Park

Our route through the park is long and winding. We usually enter at Columbus Circle, head east to the Central Park Zoo, and then turn north. We will go past the sailboats of Kerbs Boathouse, the Alice in Wonderland sculpture, all the way up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then we cut across the park to Belvedere Castle, and wind our way through the wooded pathways to the Bethesda Fountain. From there, we go to the bandshell, down the promenade, and hook right past the Carousel and baseball diamonds, to Heckscher Playground. There, Liam will run and play for an hour or so before we head back home.

Liam runs ahead of me the entire time, through his magical world of Central Park.

There’s a man who regularly plays the fiddle by the Heckscher Playground. He knows Liam by name, although he always calls him Batman, or Flash, or whichever identity he has chosen that day. Liam squeals in response, and the fiddler plays music for him to dance to.

My son’s imagination saves the day

Autism has not affected my son’s mental or cognitive faculties. He is as sharp as a tack, remembers everything and misses nothing. But one issue he had was with imaginative play. He was prone to lying on the floor, simply rolling a car or train back and forth in front of his eyes, fixated on its wheels, unwilling to expand his world out from his toy vehicle.

One of Liam’s therapists, Diane, found the key to coaxing him away from this laser focus on toy cars and trains. He would always get very excited when he heard a garbage truck outside, and would run to the window to see it. One morning, Diane pointed out the sanitation workers loading the truck. Liam simply had not registered them. He would only see the vehicles, not the people inside them.

This was partly our fault. His favorite television program was Thomas the Tank Engine, and he would watch some of Disney’s Cars every day. Both shows featured anthropomorphic vehicles and little to no human interaction. My wife and I had been unintentionally reinforcing his tendency to lock in on vehicles and ignore the humans operating them.

I’d been buying superhero toys and clothes for Liam since he first arrived. I make no apologies for being an unabashed nerd. It’s a big part of who I am. But when faced with the question of how to help Liam incorporate people into his play routines, and to help him branch out into role-playing and other types of imaginative play, I found the answer in superheroes.

Superheroes are big and bold, bursting with color, and impossible to ignore. Many of the toys come as vehicles and playsets. Now he would be required to deal with human characters when he played with vehicles. Capes, masks, accessories and clothing were easy to find, and encouraged imaginative roleplay.

Superheroes drew my son into more typical and varied realms of play. Once he saw how a cape flew out behind him when he ran, he became hooked. Now he would not only run, he would fly. His imagination would kick into overdrive.

He was no longer Liam, he was a superhero.

Watching people react to Liam as he dashes by has become one of my greatest pleasures. He actually lights people up. They smile. They laugh. They will try to take a picture of him, but he’s too fast. Their cameras only catch a brightly colored blur streaking away from them, but his picture stays in their mind, like the image of the sun does after you glance at it.

Walking next to my son is like walking next to the sun.

A dynamic duo

Liam isn’t the only one to dress up, of course. I’m all too eager to don a super suit as I follow him through Central Park. Liam chooses which superhero he wants to be, and then picks one for me. The end result is I add an extra kick to the sunny impact he has on people. Those folks already smiling about the pint-sized Batman who just ran past tend to break into even wider grins when they see an enormous Robin bringing up the rear with the stroller.

Dressing up as a superhero with my son has unintentionally practical benefits, too. Liam is more difficult to lose in a crowd, being an easily spotted explosion of color and energy in playgrounds swarming with kids. Conversely, my costume makes it easy for him to find me. Without planning it, our superhero outfits have become safety features, ensuring that we will never lose each other.

The superhero outfits, surprisingly, have also made me more approachable. Like a lot of dads on a playground full of moms, I’ve felt out of place at times, like an intruder. Granted, this feeling subsides (mostly because it isn’t really true) but that sense that I’m unwelcome, that I’m viewed with suspicion because I’m a man, comes back from time to time.

That all goes away when you’re wearing a Green Lantern outfit and your little Superman is directing you where to go to stop the next fiendish threat to the planet. It’s difficult to be perceived as a threat to anyone when you’re saving the world. You are immediately considered a safe space by all, and parents and children alike will come over and talk to you.

Making friends as a grown-up can be unnecessarily difficult, and a superhero shirt can circumvent that.When you’re focusing on what’s fun for your kid, you’re not worried about how others might be seeing you, and that’s the key to improving playground time for your child and you.

It’s seems weirdly ironic to not worry about how others see you when you’re wearing a Batman mask, but there it is. Superhero outfits can make you less self conscious while simultaneously making you more conspicuous. Funny, that.

So while I originally intended for superheroes to help Liam work through his issues, they’ve also ended up helping me with mine. But the secret here is not the costume but the time we’re spending together. Superheroes may be the conduit for that, and they can be switched out for anything else. Use whatever you are into — sports, music, bottle caps — as a starting point to find what your child really likes and how you can encourage him or her. That’s kind of a big part of what parenting is all about.

The point is, you don’t need to use superheroes, and you don’t need to be in Central Park. You can do this anywhere, with anything.

From Dynamic Duo to Justice League

It’s time for the play-date now. Liam’s preschool friends frequent Central Park as well, and we meet either on the Great Lawn or one of the playgrounds most every Wednesday. It’s a recent development, but a welcome one. The other kids all make sure to let me know they want capes, too. No problem. We have enough.

So we’ve gone from a Dynamic Duo to a full-on Justice League. Batman and Captain America team up with Wonder Woman and Paw Patrol Boy, or whomever else the children dream up. Now, whenever you visit Central Park on Wednesdays, you must keep an eye out for lots of low flying superheroes.

A little over a year ago, Liam was still barely speaking. He still had a tendency to withdraw into himself, and was slow to socialize with other children. To see him now, leading the Avengers in a charge across the Great Lawn seems nothing short of miraculous. Which is the kind of thing superheroes do, I suppose.

He soars through Central Park, his flight path twisting and turning to the delight of passersby, his satin cape shimmering, and the golden late afternoon sun setting his red hair ablaze, like a joyful fire.

My heart burns there, too.

“You will travel far, my little Kal-El, but we will never leave you, even in the face of our death. The richness of our lives shall be yours. All that I have, all that I’ve learned, everything I feel, all this and more, I bequeath you, my son. You will carry me inside you, all the days of your life.

You will make my strength your own, and see my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine.” ~ Marlon Brando/Jor-El in Superman: the Movie

I grew up playing, watching, and talking about hockey.

Since we lived in a little fishing village far enough away from everything as to not really have a home team and I was enamored with New York City, even planning to move there as a grownup, the New York Rangers became my team. I loved them then, love them still, and that’s why I suffer annual playoff pains.

It can be hard when you love a team this much, regardless of the sport. You become personally invested to such a degree that your mood soars to the sky when they win, and falls to the deepest depths when they lose.

Years ago, when my team would finish with a loss, either not making or being eliminated from the playoffs, it would dampen my spirits for days. Many a drunken bender would follow yet another disappointing finish. That would lead to a hangover, some hair of the dog, and a dour look on my face for an extended period of time.

At night, I’d stare impotently at the ceiling, playoff pains throbbing ceaselessly about within my skull: “No more hockey. No more hockey. No more hockey.”

Another year, another playoff disappointment

Yet every year I’m right back there with my team, cheering them on relentlessly, thinking this year will be the year! I fall back in love with the Blueshirts all over again, once more going all in for my team.

This year, once again, was supposed to be the year. In the first round of the playoffs, the Rangers were up against the Montreal Canadiens, who were absolute monsters this year, and heavily favored to beat us. Yet the Rangers pulled out a Series win in six games, sending Montreal packing. Next, they faced what seemed to be a much more palatable opponent, the Ottawa Senators, who virtually no playoff pundits picked to beat us.

The excitement around the city was palpable. This was going to be easy, we were going to sail through to the Conference Finals!

My son only added to my excitement. Liam, now 4, seemed genuinely interested in the sport as opposed to just being a mini-me I dressed in Rangers gear on game days. He had a hockey stick, a toy hockey rink of his own, and a habit of chanting “Let’s Go Rangers” as we kicked around the city. How wonderful was it going to be to watch our team excel together!

Which is, of course, not at all what happened. Ottawa kept finding ways to tie games in the dying seconds then taking them in overtime. My beloved Rangers, who would have taken the series easily if they could have just held on for a few more minutes in three games, were shown the door.

That last night was awful. As much as I held out hope, the writing was on the wall. My team, who had continually been unable to hold on to a multi-goal lead, now was in a deficit in the closing minutes. Our goalie went to the bench in a last-minute gamble to get a desperation goal, tie the game, and send it to overtime, where maybe we could win it.

I mean, we were due! How many times do we have to put up with the indignity of having victory snatched away from us at the last minute? It’s way past time that we got even with —

And then Ottawa put one in our empty net.

‘It’s OK, Daddy.’ 

It was late, but I was already restless with playoff pain. I decided to take a walk, let the cool night air try to clear my head, knowing it wouldn’t. I passed a sports bar on the next block, with fellow Rangers fans spilled onto the sidewalk, cursing, smoking or saying their goodbyes to each other. A few noted my jersey, exchanging glum nods with me as I passed. They also were now beset with playoff pains.

I returned home in time to kiss my wife goodnight. I would stay up. Sleep would not come soon, and another beer was in order. I settled on the couch to watch the talking heads tell me about what went wrong for us and what went right for them. Like I didn’t already know.

Liam doesn’t make much noise when he gets up in the middle of the night, and this occasion was no different. Suddenly he was just standing there, looking up at me.

“Daddy? Did the Rangers win?”

“No, buddy, they didn’t. They’re all done now.”

“Oh. Are you sad?”

“Yeah, buddy. Yeah, I am.”

My son reached his arms up to me. I picked him up for a hug. I realized he was gently patting me on the back in our embrace, the basic human expression of sympathy and empathy.

“It’s OK, Daddy. It’s OK.”

After he was asleep again, I realized he was right. Yes, my team had lost, and yes, I was disappointed, but things were OK.

I was lucky to be married to a woman who put up with my playoff craziness. I was lucky to have a son who wanted to be involved in that craziness. I was a lucky man.

In light of that, playoff pains seemed rather insignificant. There would be another season. I will get just as excited about it as I’ve done in the past, and this time, I’ll share it with my son. And watching the Rangers win together will be sweeter than it could ever have been to watch them win alone.

So I watch the Stanley Cup Finals, starring two teams I don’t care about, and I don’t feel playoff pains like I did before. I still love hockey. I still love the New York Rangers. But I love my family even more.

Bring on next season!

All photos contributed by the author.