Steve Spangler. He's been our science
guy for 22 years now and people all
over the country know him from being
the science guy on The Ellen Show.
He has done it all,
but where did it all start? People
gonna be explosion
of some kind. No, not really. Ohh 30
years of making science fun.
Steve Spangler is a household name.
Ellen, you're gonna hold on to this.
No I'm not. Tick tock
YouTube. A Guinness World Record
and helping to set the new
Guinness World Records achievement
for the largest physics lesson.
Congratulations, but it all
started in the classroom in 1991.
Steve was a science teacher at Willow
Creek Elementary in the Cherry Creek
School District doing library shows.
In his spare time,
an executive producer who was working
for NBC business video at the time
approached me. Afterwards, her kids
were at this little show and said,
hey, how would you like to?
Beyond TV and I said, sure,
Fast forward nine years and it was Ed
Green that got Steve on to 9 news.
He invited me to come and do
a little segment with him in
the backyard during his weather
and the rest as they say, is history.
Steve and Company became regulars on 9 news.
Jack would sit in Mark Kobrick's
lap and open the 5:00 O'clock
news when he was four years old.
If I want more information
about this experiment
today, where do I find it?
You go on to 9news.com and click on.
4:00 o'clock baby then
the brand Steve Spangler.
Science came to life selling science
kits to major stores nationally.
25 years later we sold it so we had grown
about 45 employees. We
were we had 350 products that
we had produced on the market
and a company came along
and said how about you?
Let us take it to the next level
and I said I'm not sure if my
wife says you are selling it now.
Over the years our next guest has
taught us a lot about science.
He's also taught us the importance
of updating our insurance policy.
Becoming best friends with the
Warner Brothers fire Marshall.
Please welcome back our
science guy Steve Spangler.
So how did Ellen come about? Channel
9 subscribe. To that feed and
so that was pretty cool and
one thing led to another.
They called and said,
would you like to do some science
since 2007? Steve has appeared on Ellen
Show more than 25 times already. Here we go
321. Flip it on. She would
always push me bigger,
so when I said to her producers,
hey, I like this thing where
I mix cornstarch and water.
I've done it. Channel 9 you know.
And so I'd show them the videos
and they go. That's cute.
What would happen if you did it
bigger and I go well, 10 boxes?
That'd be pretty crazy and they're like,
how big could you get?
Well, that that segment ended up the
cement truck 2500 boxes according
starts 800 gallons of water and
a small pool and you could walk
across what we made quick, save
and then you leave. And then you leave.
Them to deal with the mess that's leftover,
so let's talk about that.
So I during these pitch
meetings I was saying, you know,
I probably shouldn't do that,
and here's why I shouldn't do this,
so I shouldn't do 3000 film canisters.
And because who's going to clean that up?
And finally, one of the producers
who was really smart said to me.
So let's make sure you understand
your job is to make Ellen smile.
She smiles. We get to keep our
job and you get to come back.
We'll take care of everything,
just make her smile.
Thinking back to when you
first started to where you are
now and all that, you've done
all the billion of views and
the YouTube videos and Alan and
everything what comes to mind.
What are your thoughts? How do you
feel about it? I feel just I'm extremely
grateful that the people around
me have given me this opportunity
when I'm done and I'm all gone.
Maybe somebody back in time will
come back and go that guy kind of
made science fun for people and
that's what we all want as teachers.
Wow. And
you have just done it all.
That is so awesome. It's so fun.
It's so cool to look back.
We have insurance on this side.
We're good right there?
OK, that way we haven't
worked together a lot,
have we not so silly COVID
that silly COVID that brings
up something very interesting
because we took it all the way
back to your teaching days, right?
And the Cherry Creek School district.
But before that, this all stems from
your parents being magicians. Yeah,
so I grew up in a family and
magicians dad had a real job.
So the joke is always what's the
difference between a magician and a pizza?
And the answer is a pizza
feeds a family of five,
so he had to have a real job,
but always did magic.
First recollection was really
down at the Paramount Theater,
watching Mom and Dad do their show.
Their kind of cabaret show.
We cut mom into three pieces.
Dad was a fire eater,
so McKinley Elementary,
that's where I went to elementary.
Here in Denver,
Dad came to school and ate fire for
show and tell because I told kids my dad
eats fire and they're like he doesn't.
I go, he does.
And he did there.
And so it was just a it's great.
And today almost all my work is in
professional development with teachers.
And it's fun to go back to those days.
To say I was sitting in that.
I imagine magicians all sitting around going.
Hey, I got a gig for the Lakers.
We gotta make the girls disappear and
the Tigers appear and they all go OK.
And then they think about that
process and backwards engineering.
So today when we're talking about science,
technology, engineering and math,
how fun to be able to go?
Well I was just around when people said OK.
And there's never anything
that was couldn't happen.
Yeah, you just have to figure it out.
Yeah, yeah,
so the last year last Ellen Show today.
Yeah yeah it's gonna air.
Must be pretty bittersweet,
but what what's next?
I mean you sold the company and Ellen's over,
and I'm busier speaking than ever before,
so our little team now is 3 and we're,
you know, pre COVID we were.
I was on the road maybe
75 to 100 times a year.
Lots of keynotes for associations,
lots of professional development work,
consulting.
That kind of stuff,
but I loved stick two or
three thousand teachers in an
auditorium and let me talk to him.
And now I'm getting to talk to
business groups who want to know
about engagement strategies. They go.
How did you get a billion views?
So you're a nerdy science guy
and you got a billion views.
How does that work?
Yeah,
so I'm just I'm humbled,
and I'm grateful and all our
friends here at channel 9 you
guys continue to allow my.
My key still scans.
It's weird. I can't believe
that. Yeah, well, Ellen's over,
but we are not. So yeah,
see, and you did a lot
of the trial. Experiments in our Nine
News backyard always and then you just
made it bigger on Ellen and she didn't
know any of the experiments prior.
Ohh did she was fanatical about it.
They would. They would put up pipe and
drape or even one time a wall around all
the stuff I was doing so she couldn't
see it when she was walking through.
She wanted that sense of excitement
that her audience would see to be
real and so kind of taught me what
was possible and she was always super
super kind and the lowest level guest.
I mean there's D level guests.
And then there's Steve.
And she made me feel like a rock
star and a team like real real quick.
We're about out of time,
but what do you think was her
favorite that you did?
I anytime where she would we would open
the door and all the people were there
and she'd be like how did you pull this off?
I mean they'd make this Dexter kill
room you'll see today Dexter kill room.
Yeah yeah.
And it was just crazy.
So she says goodbye.
I don't haven't seen the segment yet.
She says goodbye and the smoke is up to
her neck for this last thing that we did.
So that's
a teaser. So Steve's final
episode on Ellen Airs today
at 3:00 PM over on Channel 9.
You can bet it's gonna be big.
She essentially said I don't need
the studio anymore. Go crazy,
just tell. Pretty good,
blow it up. You're the best man.
Thank you for having me. You're
very, very, and thank you
for this wonderful story.
I'm humbled. Thank you, alright.