Experiments Steve did on Ellen – Elephant’s Toothpaste | Smoke Rings | Anti-Helium
Let’s just say it’s all kind of a blur… three experiments, lots of laughs and an invitation to come back. I couldn’t ask for any more. My wife and I left Denver on Wednesday to fly out to Burbank, California to tape the show on Thursday. As you might imagine, all of my “stuff” was trusted to the great people at FedEx because the airlines don’t really understand why passengers should travel with beakers, strange liquids or trash cans used to blow smoke rings. We arrived at the studio at 12:30 PM on Thursday to get ready for a technical rehearsal at 2:00 PM. I was most nervous about finding my demos and getting everything set-up. The Ellen Show has an amazing staff – all of the producers and backstage people did anything possible to accommodate our every need. Contrary to what you might think, I didn’t meet Ellen DeGeneres at the rehearsal. Instead, the segment producer played the role of Ellen as I ran through everything that I was going to do on the show. This is the time when the technical people (directors, camera operators, props people) got to see exactly what I was going to do. We made a mess in rehearsal – foaming suds everywhere and a studio filled with smoke. In a matter of minutes, a crew of people whisked my demos away with a quick reset and I was off to the green room to get ready.
From that point on, everything happened very quickly. My wife and I watched the first few minutes of the show from the dressing room and then it was off to the studio. The first time I met Ellen was when I stepped out onto the set. She was extremely nice… very funny… and really seemed to enjoy the demos. But I think her favorite was knocking cups off of people’s heads in the audience with giant rings of smoke. At the end of the segment, the music started to play… everyone started to dance… and Ellen invited me to come back to do more science in November! And yes… I got my Ellen underwear and a whole bunch of goodies as a parting gift. Thanks for asking.
