NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON:
with science communicator
extraordinaire Bill Nye.
And I asked how his
interest in comedy
and his background
in engineering
coalesced into the identity
of the Science Guy.
Let's check it out.
BILL NYE: It's a wonderful
thing to get people
to laugh at your comedy jokes.
And so I started doing standup,
or trying to do standup.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Like
in standup clubs and stuff.
BILL NYE: Yeah, yeah.
So I would work on
a drawing board,
and then I would go
home, and take a nap,
and then go to comedy clubs.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON:
So you were engineer
by day, comedian by night.
BILL NYE: That's it, Yes.
Or that's I was trying to do.
The problem, the thing
that always troubles--
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Is
engineering still in your head
at some point?
BILL NYE: Yeah, I miss it.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON:
While you're doing that.
BILL NYE: Yeah, I, yeah,
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: So was the
schtick engineering informed?
BILL NYE: Yes that's
what I say, hilarious
jokes about
electrocuting yourself
while trying to fix a blender.
Wow, is that funny.
And chewing marshmallows
frozen in liquid nitrogen
so that steam comes
out of your nose.
It's hilarious, come
on, it's a payoff.
And I realized that
what I wanted to do--
you know, I came
of age at a time,
for me as a mechanical engineer,
it was really troubling.
We had the Chevy Vega
and the Ford Pinto.
And these were just
badly designed cars.
The Administration
decided not to embrace
the metric system, something you
and I haven't fully agreed on,
is my belief.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON:
This is America, Jack.
BILL NYE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I felt like the
United States was
falling behind industrially.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON:
This is America.
BILL NYE: So I got very
concerned about the future.
I'm not kidding, very concerned.
And I realized, working at
the Science Center in Seattle,
that young people were
the key to the future.
I mean, this is obvious,
but they're the key
to our industrial future.
They're the key to our
economic competitiveness.
They're--
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: The key
to the future of civilization.
BILL NYE: Civilization.
And so I wanted to get
kids excited about science
in the same way I had been
excited about science,
by my teachers and
a television guy
named Don Herbert, Mr. Wizard.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON:
I remember Mr. Wizard.
So all this came together--
BILL NYE: That's right.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: --into
a unique arc of life.
BILL NYE: That's my claim.
That's my story.
[applause]
