by Matt Bower
Johnson Thinks Outside Bubble on Discovery TV (Click Here to watch the video)
Keith Michael Johnson holds a distinction few can claim – he’s a soap bubble expert. Johnson of Warwick works full-time writing and performing educational shows for elementary school students, but it’s his latest show, The Secret World of Bubbles that landed him a segment spot on Discovery Channel’s Time Warp. The episode featuring Johnson, “Dry Ice Bomb” airs tomorrow night at 8 and again early Thursday at 12 a.m. on the Discovery Channel.
Johnson said that was a unique experience because he had never done any performances on a national level before and didn’t realize how much time and detail went into the shooting process.
“A lot of time was consumed with the lighting, which needed to be so intense and perfect for the cameras to work. There was a lot of stop and go to get it right,” he said. “They were shooting at 10,000 frames a second in high definition, which means they were taking 10,000 different pictures a second of what was going on. An ordinary camera shoots at 30 frames a second.”
Johnson said he was excited when he got the call from Discovery Channel because of the amount of resources they were willing to provide him.
“It was more than I’d ever seen [for purposes] of studying soap film and I was excited to be a part of it,” he said. “I don’t know everything that’s going on [with the bubbles] so I think this will help.”
Johnson has been performing educational shows on math, science and history for schools and libraries since 1986, but it was when he had to write a weather show that he discovered the wonderful world of bubbles.
“I needed a soap bubble to last 30 seconds for a demonstration while I talked,” he said. “Through my research I discovered a lot of recipes for soap solution and interesting performance tricks you could do with it. That’s what snared my attention.”
Johnson said he spent the next three years in his basement and when he came out he had a new show to present to audiences. He soon received funding from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts to make his new passion a reality.
“I believe I’m the first to get government money to research, create and perform a soap bubble show,” he said.
Johnson was happy to work with Time Warp host Jeff Lieberman, a scientist and MIT teacher, because they both share an interest in science and art.
“It felt like the big time. We had the best equipment and worked with fine professionals from all over,” he said. “I was surprised by how much input they accepted of me. They were very respectful that way.”
Johnson said he doesn’t know what footage will be used for his segment, but he said he made bubbles within bubbles and even put Lieberman in a bubble dome during the shoot. He said he wasn’t able to perform some of the more dangerous tricks that were done back in the ’80s, such as fill a soap bubble with hydrogen and watch it explode into a ball of flame.
“Seeing what people could do with bubbles is what inspired me,” he said.
Johnson said the segment won’t be just about the art of soap bubbles, but will also include a bit about the science behind it.
“I talked about what we were seeing and what we expected to see with the host and then we did the shoot,” he said. “We stayed to really basic things. [For example], we asked the question of whether the film of a bubble is thicker at the bottom because of gravity and does that affect where the bubble breaks first, top or bottom.”
Johnson said the footage was reviewed at the end and he and Lieberman talked about the assumptions they had prior to the shoot and then what actually happened and the science behind why.
“The basics of what happens are known, but there’s so many ways of tracking what’s happening,” Johnson said. “You can add in different ingredients [to the solution] to change the result. You can make the bubble last longer or collapse rather than pop. I’m still learning and that fascinates me.”
Johnson said he’s as interested in the chemistry behind soap bubbles as he is in its history. His research includes newspaper articles from the 1800s about things he’s never heard of in regard to bubbles.
“People used to hold regular bubble parties as fundraisers across America,” he said. “They would hit bubbles over tennis nets and host dinner parties with bubbles [as decorations] that would last throughout the dinner. They would also fill the bubbles with natural gas and watch them bounce across the ceiling or the kids would play a game of croquet with bubbles.”
Johnson said he didn’t expect anything to come of his personal interest in bubbles, but it wasn’t long before he discovered that many others shared his interest. In addition to writing and performing his shows, Johnson has become a sought-after consultant on soap bubbles and he tests and develops products with individuals and corporations nationwide.
“I was just in South Carolina this past weekend, I’ve worked with inventors in Santiago and I’m currently consulting with a guy in Latvia,” he said. “I’m anxious to share what I’m learning, so I put a lot on the Internet. I started getting a lot of phone calls and e-mails.”
Johnson said as he shares his knowledge and experience with others, he finds that they too become interested in both the art and the science.
“I tell them the more you know about how bubbles work, the more interesting it will be, so they soak up the science,” he said.
Johnson said some of the more extreme things he can do with bubbles include pulling a small bubble out of a larger one, making a bubble cube and filling it with fog, making a bubble spaceship and filling it with helium and watch it fly around and even make a star-shaped bubble that spins like a pinwheel when blowing at the bottom of it.
“I put a kid inside a bubble in every show,” he added.
Other bubble shapes include the “Jurassic bubble,” which is a dinosaur inside a bubble, and caterpillar-shaped bubbles, but Johnson doesn’t stop there.
“I try to add something special that makes them different, so my caterpillars fly,” he sad.
Johnson said he uses four to five different bubble solutions in his show. He said he makes his own solution as well as uses commercial products, but he said weather conditions are what most affect bubbles.
“The magic ingredient is a really humid day,” he said. “I tell the kids the best time to make bubbles is on a cloudy day after a rain storm.”
To learn more about Johnson and his soap bubbles or to view footage of what he can do with bubbles, visit his Web site at www.bubbleartist.com. For more information on Time Warp, visit http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/time-warp/episode/episode.html
Providence Journal
10/22/2008 01:00 AM EDT
JOHNSON
Keith Michael Johnson of Warwick, who has been performing his “The Secret World of Bubbles” show to elementary school students around New England for years, will present part of his performance tonight to a national audience. Johnson is to appear on the Discovery Channel’s Time Warp show at 8 p.m., creating soap bubbles and discussing the science behind them.