Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live and Monster Jam come to Long Island

All married couples fight. But Cody and Taylor Holman battle in public — driving Monster Trucks on an arena floor during the Hot Wheels Monster Truck Live Glow Party.

The couple met because both of their fathers also drove monster trucks. And now, Cody maneuvers the new, red 5 Alarm fire-themed truck and Taylor controls Demo Derby. 

“We basically just gave each other a high-five, that's how it all started,” Taylor says. She told him, “nice job” after a show in 2016, and the romance took off from there.

This winter offers monster truck fans two opportunities to meet drivers such as Cody, 28, and Taylor, 26, in person at preshow and VIP events, and to see the drivers perform tricks, flips and races as they compete to wow the audiences in their behemoth vehicles.

The Hot Wheels Monster Truck Live Glow Party comes to Nassau Coliseum on Jan. 20-21, and then Monster Jam comes to UBS Arena at Belmont Park in Elmont on Feb. 2-4.

Dancing on two monster truck wheels 

While the Holmans will be dueling during the Hot Wheels show — “I always tell him not to take it easy on me,” Taylor says — Weston Anderson, 26, plans to make his monster truck dance during Monster Jam.

You’ve heard of Michael Jackson’s famous moonwalk? Anderson pitches Grave Digger forward until the truck stands balanced on its two front tires, causing Anderson to be looking down through the windshield at the ground. Then he inches the truck backward.

“You’re looking at the dirt the whole time. It’s a very difficult trick to do,” Anderson says, explaining that it looks like the moonwalk. “The crowd goes insane for it.”

Cody’s favorite way to test his Hot Wheels truck is through wheelies, which is the opposite of a moonwalk. If you wheelie too high and your truck flips over onto its back, your score plummets, Holman says. “The judges are all about truck control,” he says. Unintentional flips have happened to him. “Most of the time you walk out with a bruised ego more than anything else,” he says.

Sometimes, a total back flip is part of the plan, with the truck landing on its wheels, Anderson says. “It’s like a person doing a back flip, but we’re doing it with a monster truck,” he says.

In addition to moonwalks, wheelies and back flips, the shows might include long jumps over crushed cars, doughnuts and motocross.

'Having the most fun' 

Helping audience members to have that good time at the Hot Wheels show is co-master of ceremonies Freddie Sheppard, who says he spends much of his time bouncing around the crowd dressed in pants and a jacket covered with lights. “You can’t miss me, I look like a human Christmas tree,” Sheppard says.

Sheppard will call on audience members to weigh in with scores for the trucks during the different events or might challenge them with Hot Wheels fun facts. How to get chosen? “We always call on the ones who are having the most fun,” he says.

Both shows include an intermission; both have preshow opportunities for fans to meet the drivers, take photographs and get autographs for an additional fee.

Sheppard says his whole show is “just a giant, loud party” with “the ability to take families away from this crazy world we live in. There’s nothing better than watching the kids’ and parents’ eyes light up,” he says. “When the first monster truck lights up, it takes the air out of the room.”

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.