When we first decided to build the Faraday cage, we really didn’t know how the audience would react. “Surely they will be too afraid to partake!”, we said. We were so very wrong. At the first debut of the cage, we had so many people clambering to get picked, and unfortunately hadn’t developed a solid system for choosing victims participants. Honestly we still don’t. At DragonCon,  someone even tried to bribe Joe in order to gain access. Tony and I eventually decided that, to be completely fair and unbiased, we would barter. Jokes for cage access! So far it’s my favorite system for getting volunteers.

Although not afraid to get into the cage, most people, when actually given the opportunity to get inside the cage, tend to stand there in awe. University of Dallas is another story altogether.  At this show particularly, the focus of the cage segment of our show shifted from our Tesla coils, to a cage dance off between rivaling students.  If there is anything I’m one hundred percent behind it’s a dance off.  Hats off to you UD and your wicked dope step game, and thanks for having us!

Last week on Wednesday,  ArcAttack had the pleasure of performing at our first high school gig.

I remember being in high school and forced to go to countless boring assemblies where some performer would do his best to relate to us youngsters and trick us into learning valuable lessons with the power of infotainment. Usually they were along the lines of why drugs are bad, you shouldn’t drink and drive, the dangers of huffing gasoline and other things that fall in the “DON’T DO THIS” category.  That was all well and good, but I always thought  the subject matter to be a bit grim and depressing.  Our message is a bit more positive:  Science is bloody awesome!

I was pretty nervous at first and thought the kids weren’t going to enjoy it and act  as I did during my high school assemblies, which usually meant me sneaking out my gameboy and being  grateful for the fact that I was out of class for an hour.  Luckily, they seemed to enjoy the show and the atmosphere seemed  more like a rock show than anything else.

The peak moment of my entertainment was when Mr. Wright, one of the masterminds behind the whole assembly, hopped into the Faraday-cage and busted out some wicked dance moves.  And by wicked,  I mean wicked for a high school science teacher.  The response from the crowed  sounded more as if  Justin Timberlake had just sang one of his sexy songs,  rather than a science teacher trying to get a chuckle from his students.

So here’s to you,  Mr. Wright! Thank you for “bringin’ science back”, and thank you Claire Austin of McCallum High School for setting up this show!