Bill Nye the Science Guy, for all his reputation as a funnyman, is quite serious when he talks about something near and dear to his heart.
We’re talking toys — gyroscopes, to be exact.
“It’s got to be durable,” Nye expounded. “It’s got to be built so the spindle never jumps out of the cage. That’s what I used to hate when I was a kid.”
Nye’s exacting standards have now been applied to a new line of toys, one of which is Bill Nye’s Extreme Gyro. The gyroscope — sort of a metallic top that, when spinning, can do nifty tricks — is made by Tedco, the same Ohio company that has been making gyroscopes since 1917.
But Nye’s version is new and improved, including clear and understandable instructions that the Science Guy himself wrote.
Now that’s attention to detail.
You wouldn’t think the 43-year-old Nye, the creator of TV’s “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” would have time for such things.
But the Emmy Award winner has managed to add on not only a toy line, but also a new book, “Bill Nye’s Big Blue Ocean,” to his list of responsibilities.
Nye is in the middle of a coast-to-coast book tour to promote “Big Blue Ocean.”
The usually energetic Nye sounds a tad tired during this phone interview, but he had a red-eye flight to New York to look forward to, as well as many, many more books to sign.
“I wear a wrist brace,” he said.
And that’s the toughest part about being Bill Nye — being in demand.
“Input management” is how he puts it.
“The show has been so popular that now I have to pay people who handle requests for my time,” he said.
Nye’s mission has really been a simple one — to show people how much fun science can be. He blended an oddly diverse background into “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” which debuted on PBS seven years ago.
The show is no longer producing new segments, but continues to be shown in syndication.
Nye’s fast-paced, often hilarious “Science Guy” show introduced millions of kids — and their parents — to everything from physics principles to human impact on the environment.
“There’s nothing funnier than physics,” Nye said. “Actually, we do work really hard on the jokes.”
While growing up in Washington, D.C., Nye became fascinated with how things work, leading him eventually to Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. After graduation, he headed for Seattle to work as an engineer at Boeing.
But Nye, anything but a buttoned-down pocket-protector kind of guy, had a yen to be funny. So he did Boeing by day and stand-up comedy at night.
Eventually, he segued into a fortuitous combination of both science and comedy as Bill Nye the Science Guy, performing and writing on Seattle’s KING-TV for a late-night ensemble comedy show.
He created a pilot for a local PBS station, and Disney became a co-producer in 1993. After national PBS picked up “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” his popularity spread.
Nye has also been seen in the “60 Seconds of Science” segments on the Disney Channel, and has a Web site — http://www.nyelabs.com/
Now Nye is off to a variety of new projects, such as being the spokesman for the digital TV network Noggin, which has purchased cable-exclusive rights to the 100 “Science Guy” episodes. Nye is developing content for both the network and its Web site.
Outside of the Science Guy realm, he is also an inventor: Nye recently was issued a patent on a collapsible, water-filled magnifying glass. He also is working on an out-of-this-world project with NASA and several universities, designing and building the first sundial to land on Mars.
Oh, and then there are the toys and the books.
The other toy in the Nye line is Bill Nye’s Discovery Scope of Science, a magnifying device to bring bugs, leaves, rocks and other items into closer focus. More items in the toy line are planned.
He’s also the author of “Bill Nye the Science Guy’s Big Blast of Science,” an introductory science text from Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., and “Bill Nye the Science Guy’s Please Consider the Following” from Disney Press.
But he’s thrilled with his latest, “Big Blue Ocean” (Hyperion, $15.99, for ages 7 to 10), which hit bookstore shelves in September. “It’s the best book of the three I’ve done,” he said. “Big Blue Ocean” resembles a “Science Guy” TV show converted to print. Lots of brightly colored illustrations, science experiments to try at home, and pithy bits of information are sprinkled liberally throughout.
The main point of the book seems to be that we live on a very wet planet, with less known about what’s beneath the surface than you might think.
Nye’s trademark humor is also there to hook readers. Would you believe . . . a guitarfish?
Nah, just kidding.
