Science Show Spectacular

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"How many of you think I look like a scientist?" Pause for hands up.  

  "How many of you think I don't look like a scientist?" Pause for a moment...

    "...because I'm too good looking?"  Laughter.

  "I don't think I look like a scientist, and it has nothing to do with how handsome I am. " 

  "Scientists usually wear two things that I am not currently wearing.  What is one of them?"  Pause for answer.

"Yes!  A lab coat.  I'll put mine on."  

  "It's like an artists smock.  Its keeps chemicals off my skin and clothes."

  "Mine, as you can see, is heavily autographed".

That is how I open my 'Science Show'.  If you've ever seen me perform I was most likely wearing a white, blue, or grey lab coat covered in colorful autographs.  Signing my lab coat started almost 20 years ago, when I was doing demonstrations in Ireland.  Some girls really liked my experiments, and took my lab coat and wrote messages on it.  I liked it so much, that I made 'getting autographs of future scientists' part of my science performance. 

Now, I have 9 of these coats.  They are all covered in autographs from lots of different people.  I have Bill Nye, Mayor Daley (on several), Governor Quinn, candidate (not yet Mayor) Emmanuel, Ernie Banks, the Mythbusters, members of Tributosaurus, and thousands of enthusiastic children.

Those jackets, are very reflective of my personality, and they set the perfect tone for a science show full of entertaining and surprising experiments.

In over 16 years of living in Chicago, I estimate (conservatively) that I have performed more than 700 science shows for a total audience of more than 100,000 people.  I have been in every neighborhood of the city, and countless surrounding suburbs.  I've engaged audiences in huge auditoriums, tiny classrooms, and church basements.  If someone wanted science, I'd be there.

The vast majority of my shows were done free of charge.  It was always important to me that any school, regardless of means, should be able to bring some science excitement to their students.  I never wanted a price tag to be the deciding factor for a school.

Offering this for free was also very liberating in terms of how I was able to access different parts of Chicago's diverse student population.  I never needed show business so most of my bookings came from word-of-mouth recommendations.  As long as someone could reach out to me through phone or email, we could probably set something up.  

Despite the hectic schedule, this kind of work wasn't hard.  Over time, I refined the show to a tight 45 minute performance with 12 different experiments.  Things would rotate in and out, but there were no big changes.  All of my experiments and glassware would fit neatly inside two plastic bins that never really left the trunk of my Jetta.  I was always ready to entertain with science.

So now, after all this time, I am getting ready to pack up my lab coats and leave Chicago.  An opportunity came up to fulfill a promise I made to my wife when we got married.  My family is moving to Florida, and my shows will go on hiatus until I find my feet again.  

One of the many things that I will miss about Chicago, is my weekly ritual of driving to a new part of the city to impress a new group of students and parents with a table full of exciting experiments.  Seeing an audience of parents and kids equally excited and inquisitive regardless of their age, never got old, and it was never a chore.

Those lab coats will be a constant reminder of the fun I had in Chicago.  They will remind me of the rich reward that comes from sharing your passion.  They will also show me the city of Chicago, and everyone in it, loves science!