Dude Dad

Being a Dad while staying a Dude. DIY, Sketch Comedy, and all things fatherhood. Taylor Calmus is Colorado based video creator.
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He started Dude Dad two weeks before his son Theo was born as way to stay creative while learning to be a father. His purpose for the channel is to entertain, educate and inspire. Taylor is originally from the rural community of Howard, SD but also spent 10 years living in Los Angeles. There he was in numerous TV shows, commercials, and has had regular appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

09/29/2025

I'm just hear to say how grateful I am for our local community. Not only could we find 13 teams that would sign up to build mini golf holes with their own time and money, but 1,406 people showed up to play. It was WILD!

All in all we doubled our impact from what we were able to do last year, and ended up raising over $11,000 for Respite Care here in Foco. Every single dollar including anything from merch we sold is going to Respite.

I am so unbelievably proud that together, we could not only make a difference but have a heck of a lot of fun while we did it. At the very end of the weekend a double rainbow even shot over top of NB just to cap it all off!

Thanks to New Belgium for hosting us. Thanks to Fort Fun and Old Town Putt for lending us putters and balls. Thanks to the builders. And thank you to YOU the Fort Collins community for embracing this crazy idea and showing up.

See you all next year!!!

09/25/2025

As men, we are doers. We get accomplishment by finishing things. We are taught this from a very early age. Get good grades, check-- go to college, check-- get a degree, check-- get a good job, check-- get married, check --have kids, check.

But heres the thing... Those last two are not things that you can finish. You can't check marriage and fatherhood off of a list.

They are commitments that you must show up to every single day.

I recently started proposing to my wife of 14 years, whenever I think of it. It started as a joke but became something more. A physical act that pulled us both out of the busyness to briefly focus on each other and say, I choose you today. Again. Forever.kk

09/11/2025

Freshman year. My classmates and I had just arrived at shop class but we got shuffled into the classroom instead of the shop. Our teacher rolled out the big old tv on cart so we could watch the news. It was 9/11.

We were too young to understand it, confused by what had happened. How could a pilot accidentally run into a building? Now we are in geography class and the 2nd plane hits. The gravity of the situation starts to hit us. This is not an accident. This is an attack. This is war. This is violence.

Now we are in English class and we see what looks like people leaping from windows to avoid burning alive. Then the buildings fall. Straight down. The buildings imploded in and collapsed leaving a giant scar on our country.

This was the first major tragedy that my generation ever endured. Now we are parents and we have the responsibility of explaining the unexplainable to our own children.

What do I teach my children? Violence is never the answer. Hate is not a word we use. Our differences will strengthen us if we chose to listen-- as a nation, and as mankind.

The intention of this post is to honor the lives lost, and come together in our shared experience of tragedy. Please respect that.

Never forget.

09/05/2025

Building this channel has opened up so many doors for me and Heidi. One of things that I am most proud of is getting to throw local events. I have always loved crazy out there events like the Redbull Soap Box Race and had always dreamed of creating something similar.

Three years ago I approached New Belgium Brewing about doing a community build mini golf course. 12 teams build 12 different holes and we set them all up for one weekend at new Belgium to have fun and raise money for a local charity, Respite Care. I assumed it was a crazy idea, that would be full of insurance issues and hurtles but the New Belgium team just said, “Ok, what dates were you thinking?”

It’s a massive amount of coordinating for something that we and the other hole building teams do completely for free but it is SO flipping fun. The amount of creativity in our town and what people come up with is just so dang cool to see. 750 people showed up last year to support and play and I couldn’t be more proud of the community we have here.

This year will be our 3rd year. The theme is “Small Things Made BIG,” and I can tell you it’s going to be BIG. Ive seen a few pics of what people are building so far and I am pumped!

See you Sept 19-21st at New Belgium!!

08/29/2025

Find yourself a lady that will let you buy a house site unseen and then renovate it yourself for the next 5 years.

This is Heidi and I's first house we ever bought together. I knew it needed work and I was excited to do that. I had some construction experience from framing houses during high school and college but I had no idea just what I was in for.

After re-doing most of the interior and exterior and yard, we semi-accidentally had 2 more kids and decided to add on.

It took me all of 5 months to do but we lived through the construction. Heidi and the kids were out of the house for about 3 weeks total over that 5 months. We spent many evenings eating takeout on the deck or on the floor of the ramboard covered living room. We even had a makeshift waterslide for a weekend.

Through this we not only gained 600 sq ft, we also rearranged a bunch of walls to give us more storage, a mud room and the functionality our mid 70s split level just didnt have.

But the biggest accomplishment of all of this wasn't the house-- It was our relationship. Our ability to handle this type of stress, decision making fatigue and constant later of dust on everything is proof enough that we have what it takes to go the distance, or at least... a couple more days.

08/19/2025

This woman right here... She is the real deal.

When she first followed me to Los Angeles and started looking for a job, it was hard. There wasn't a ton available but she ended up putting in applications at 10 different places-- all in human services. A few months in with a dwindling bank account she finally got job offers from 3 different places, all at once. She of course chose the job with the WORST salary. Honestly, even calling it a salary would be an overstatement. The job was to work hands on with victims of human trafficking. She worked her way from the bottom to the top of that department and eventually created all of the future programming for it.

Once we moved to Fort Collins, she left her work. It was not easy for her at all but with a growing family and with us having more exposure and being more "public," It was no longer safe for her to be in that line of work.

But that hasn't stopped her from being who she is and doing what she can. She has since been our community outreach manager for Dude Dad-- meeting with local charities and finding ways for us to be involved.

These photos are from a Lunch and Learn she organized and hosted today for Realities for Children. They are building a retreat center for abused children and victims of human trafficking-- something that she knows from doing the work, would be an amazing asset to any care provider. She organized all of our most powerful and influential friends to come out and help out. Why? Becuase that's just who she is.

Love you babe. Can't wait to see what you do next!

Comment 🙋‍♂️ for a link on how you can be involved.

08/18/2025

Photoshop people... do your worst
You Betcha

08/15/2025

Keep your distance from the PTA mom...
Which character are you!?

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Howard, SD

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http://www.dudedad.com/

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