In my child-drowned state, I’d forgotten that for people who don’t spend their pre-coffee moments cleaning up spilled juice and pulling toddlers out of the fridge’s egg tray, a dose of kid energy is something special. I erased the mental images of debauchery I’d created and realized how much crazier it would be for us adults to get bananas with the kids instead of away from them. And, of course, the inverted bonus was that the kids would get to see these fabulous adults playing—like during the best part of a wedding, when Grandma and the five-year-old tear up the dance floor. That’s the sort of authentic pleasure that forms a basis for respect on both sides, reminding people not to underestimate someone because of their age.

Our Freaky Salon, as it came to be dubbed by my seven-year-old, Beatrice, had been born when I attended an indie cabaret night. The first act, a vignette, had been sarcastic, foul-mouthed, and hilarious, and my heart

sank for my friend Sikeena, who’d been next up—to read from her novel about cultural displacement in Kenya. Talk about buzz kill.

What happened next was equal parts social alchemy and the magic of open minds. The room, raucous just moments before, had become electrically still as Sikeena prepared to begin. When she was finished, she earned a full round of applause, and the segue to the next performer— a comedian riffing on his former career as a run-way model in Milan—was seamless.

I remember thinking, as I wiped away tears of laughter, If there’s such a thing as a playground for grownups, this must be it. I knew I wanted to create a cycle of trust between the audience and the art, or just complete the cycle so that there was no barrier at all. I’d been creating things for years—kids, articles, essays—but nothing like the loony, heartbreaking acts of that indie cabaret. Afterward, I said to Sikeena, “We have to do one of these!”

The guests who

weren’t parents were vociferous

about including

the kids. They

didn’t want to

do the salon

in spite of the kids;

they wanted to do it
because
of them.