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Nitro Joe provides science-based
entertainment at the Lincoln Public Library
[June 20, 2026]
Thursday, June 18, Nitro Joe
returned to the Lincoln Public Library with his science-based
entertainment.
Before starting his program, Nitro Joe said with science, you must
follow three rules:
1. No talking while I am talking. That way, you can listen.
2. Don’t touch my stuff. Sometimes science stuff can be dangerous
and poke, shock, cut, hurt or blow you up.
3. Have fun.
Nitro Joe started the program by having a helper come up and keep a
close eye on the clear box he was holding. He said you always need
to pay very close attention because if you are not observing
closely, any odd thing can happen and change. When he covered the
box with a black handkerchief and then uncovered the box, there was
a stuffed cat in the box.
Magic is about deception. Science is about observation. Nitro Joe
said everything he was going to show the audience would involve
either a chemical or physical change.
For the next experiment, Nitro Joe took a bottle of water and asked
the audience if he could turn it into juice. Everyone said yes. He
then had a volunteer open the bottle and pour the water into a
glass.
After everyone said abracadabra,
the water in the glass had turned red. Nitro Joe explained that the
thick glass caused an illusion by hiding a small amount of chemical
at the bottom of the glass. The chemical changed the color of the
water.
Pouring some cold water into a blue cup, Nitro Joe asked everyone to
guess where the water was. He had a volunteer hold the cup to make
sure it did not have holes before pouring water into it.
Three cups were on the table and
the one in the middle contained water. Nitro Joe moved the middle
cup slowly to the right then poured water into another cup and moved
them around quickly.
One spectator guessed the cup with water was on the right side. When
there was no water in that cup, everyone guessed the middle cup held
the water. That cup did not have water in it either, so everyone
guessed it was in the cup on the left, but when he turned it upside
down, no water came out. Nitro Joe previously said that he would
pour water on the volunteer’s head. The volunteer was lucky no water
came out when he turned over the cups.
None of the glasses appeared to
have water in them. Nitro Joe explained there was sodium
polyacrylate in the cup that had water in it and that had turned the
water into a solid object. Sodium polyacrylate is the active
ingredient inside of diapers.
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A bag of packing peanuts was used
in the next experiment. Nitro Joe and his helper each had a film
canister. Both of them tried to put twenty packing peanuts into
their canister. Though packing peanuts are full of air, he said it
takes “brute force” to push them into a canister. Nitro Joe said by
adding a chemical to his canister, it melted the packing peanuts so
he could push them down more easily. He had the volunteer put the
packing peanuts in a glass tube and pour the chemical in the tube to
demonstrate how it worked.
In the next experiment, Nitro Joe told the audience he was going to
change the size of his head. He had a spinning wheel that was half
white and half black and he placed it in front of his face as it
spun around. After everyone stared at the wheel and he moved it away
from his face, his head temporarily appeared larger because of how
everyone’s eyes work. As Nitro Joe said, sometimes people try to
trick and fool you.
A board full of nails was used for the next part of the program.
Nitro Joe said he spent a whole day putting 930 nails on the board.
To prove the nails were real, he put an apple on them. The nails
created holes in the apples.
Nitro Joe sat on the board full of nails and had a volunteer throw a
balloon at it. The balloon did not pop even after it was thrown at
the nails several times. He said there was a pattern for the nails
with all of them being nine to eleven millimeters apart for equal
distribution of weight. As long as the balloon hit the middle, none
of the nails were strong enough to make the balloon pop. When Nitro
Joe hit the balloon against a lower corner of the board, it popped.
Fire is often used for magic tricks, so Nitro Joe did an experiment
with fire. He had a red chemical in a bottle that can make objects
go boom when a lit match is added. Nitro Joe gave long tubes to
three volunteers and added the chemical to the tubes. The volunteers
shook the tubes, and he added a lit match to each. When the lit
match reacted with the chemical a burst of flame flashed through the
tubes.
Nitro Joe also created fire by pouring coffee creamer through a
funnel and then blowing through a hose.
For his final experiment, Nitro Joe
used a handheld tassel (wand) with an electrical charge and placed
it by a light bulb, which made the bulb glow. Putting the wand
against a plastic bottle filled with a chemical caused the bottle to
spark and confetti came out.
More of Nitro Joe’s experiments can be found on his
website.
Next Thursday, June 25, magician Richard Landry will perform comedy
magic at 10 a.m. in the library annex.
Nitro Joe at the Lincoln Public Library photo slideshow
Nitro Joe and his volunteers
makes fire in tubes at Lincoln Public Library video
[Angela Reiners] |
