Bill Nye of 'The Science Guy' fame collapses during speech at USC [Updated]

Popular TV personality Bill Nye collapsed onstage Tuesday night in front of hundreds of audience members during a presentation at USC, campus officials said.

Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics and USC's department of public safety responded to the scene about 8:40 p.m., but it was unclear if Nye was treated or required transport. There was no information available on his condition late Tuesday.

Some accounts posted on Twitter said Nye fainted more than once and demonstrated slurred speech.

Nye, 54, is best known for making science palatable to young audiences through humor and elaborate contraptions on the Emmy Award-winning show “Bill Nye the Science Guy” that ran during the 1990s.

The Studio City resident was scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. at Bovard Auditorium about his experience on the show and his views on science education.

[Updated at 10:52 p.m.: Tristan Camacho, a USC senior who attended the lecture, said Nye was walking toward the podium when he collapsed mid-sentence. "Then after about 10 seconds, he popped back up with much gusto and asked everybody how long he was out for and went on with a story about how a similar thing happened to him that morning."

Nye appeared determined to finish his presentation, but began slurring his words and stumbled against his laptop, Camacho said. At first, Nye refused the offer of a chair and continued taking sips from a water bottle. Camacho said Nye was eventually removed from the stage.

"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that just perplexed me beyond reason," USC senior Alastair Fairbanks said. "Instead, I saw students texting and updating their Twitter statuses. It was just all a very bizarre evening."]

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Comments

[gus]

The Internet was a bad idea to begin with, and it's getting worse every month.

[Robert NO longer in LA]

A friend would black out without notice, then 'pop' back to life.....had a 'pacemaker-type devise implanted.

[Anonymous]

"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that just perplexed me beyond reason," USC senior Alastair Fairbanks said. "Instead, I saw students texting and updating their Twitter statuses. It was just all a very bizarre evening."

First of all, not true.

Second of all, Alastair, I don't think I saw YOU getting up on stage when he first collapsed. What were you doing, updating facebook instead of twitter?

And third of all, once it was clear it wasn't an act, he needed the help of a medical professional. Are you qualified and able to provide that kind of help? I know I'm not, and I doubt many of the audience members were/are.

[donnie]

Usually at such events, somebody in the front row, if not the emcee, should be the "de facto" responder to an emergency on stage. I've been at two events where the speaker fainted, and both times one person ran up promptly to successfully catch them from falling. In this case, all the students who were texting would have been no use crowding the stage anyway.

[dani]

how disturbing.
how utterly disturbing.

[redrider63]

It could have been a T.I.A. I had two, double vision then out like a light. A minute later I was up and talking. It's a warning that shouldn't be ignored.

[Anonymous]

People didn't go up to help him because they thought it was part of the show. The people who work in the auditorium called DPS right away. The second time Bill fell over someone from the audience jumped up on stage to help him. People were on their phones calling 911, not updating twitter or facebook statuses. Bill was able to finish the entire lecture. He was not escorted off stage. They asked if paramedics can look at him so he walked back stage so they could check him out. The guy running the show decided to cancel the Q and A. Apparently Bill was up early that day and didn't eat much. He's fine. Stop over exaggerating to try and get a "good" news story.

"The media will shine a magnifying glass on ants and then write a story about the flaming ant epidemic."

PS These were the last words Bill said during the lecture and it's something cool to think about. ‎"You are a speck, on a speck, orbiting another speck, in the middle of speckness. Yet your brain, an even tinier speck, can imagine all of that and that is amazing. Fight on!"

[Tom]

Mr. Fairbanks was sitting in the balcony, so he was hardly in a position to leap to the stage and help. Those off to the sidelines of the stage have few excuses.

[anonymous]

I was also there, but on the very top balcony. Those of us who were up so high could not have as easily rushed to his aid. However, I walked down to see whether or not the staff was taking action. For everyone who said they did not know whether it was part of his act or not, I really do not think anyone would have something as severe as collapsing on stage as an act without alerting staff members beforehand of their plans. Despite whether or not he got up and continued, when someone collapses, for whatever reason, it means something is wrong. The fact that it took him to faint a second time for any action to be taken shows the sad and shocking truth that majority of people either do not how to react in crises or are desensitized enough to not think something like that is worth attention.

[Felix Doof]

What is this world coming to? How can a notoriously animated prankster dramatically collapse during a presentation about gravity and go _5 whole seconds_ before standing back up? Why wasn't every student racing toward the stage with their defibrillator paddles already charged?

Kids these days with their twitters and their facebooks. Why back in my day, we _never_ socialized. Not under any circumstances! As was made terribly clear today, socializing just takes your attention away from the people around you who could collapse at any moment!

Everybody is terrible and deficient except me!

[mugabo]

to the "it was part of his act" justifiers, would your first reaction to being involved in a riot be "cool flashmob, bro," or your reaction to an earthquake be "great special effects?"

[USC '14]

I was one of the lucky students who got to see Bill that night and almost cried when I saw that insulting Yahoo article. We all grew up on Bill and we know how he rolls. He's extremely animated and very comical, and the first time he collapsed we could not be completely sure if it wasn't part of the act. It happened at a comically apropos moment, when he was talking oxygen levels in the air and gooing around on top of a roof. The hang time came from people trying to make sense of the situation, wavering between "oh, it's part of the act" and "wait, he's too old to be falling down like that anymore". People whipped out their phones so they could ask their friends about it. It was even more confusing afterwards because he tried to play it off as a joke to save face, but when he collapsed the second time, the staff provided aid immediately.
The witness and the writer have done a huge disservice to his fans that night. I didn't see a single person exiting who wasn't shocked and concerned for him. Thank you for helping to get the full story out, and I hope to see a follow-up article from Yahoo in the near future.

[c.]

Bill, Get Well... please!!

[Anonymous]

Its not California's fault.. they're USC students. What more can you expect?

[Hugh Bowen]

The incident of the “Science Guy,” Bill Nye, passing out on stage at USC when about to give a speech - and no student coming to his aid, just having fun using their mobile phones to post notes about the episode - is grotesque. What were they thinking? I can only surmise they were living in the “media world” rather than the real world. Helping a man who might have been seriously ill, in the real world, was not in their minds. Rather, it was a media event, so they posted to online sites about it.
Sadly this shows how we live through media. We think media is reality. The average American watches four hours of television a day (according to the US Census, which also points out that we spend more time consuming media than anything else - it is the dominant thing in our culture, the most significant thing about us). The Gantner Group projected that by this year in developed countries we would relate to people on screens ten times as much as we relate to them in person. Texting is way, way up, hugs are down. It’s a sad state of affairs. In my study on this phenomenon, which I call the fragmentation of the modern mind, I found in a national online study that most people think we’re talking faster and interrupting more. That, to me, means we’re not communicating. And I fight this, but still do it myself a great deal. Two-thirds of all Americans keep the TV on during most meals. Some people sleep with their Blackberry on their beside, and if they get a call in the middle of the night, wake up to anwser (that’s nuts, and that’s why they call it a crackberrry).
In short we need to get back to earth, spend more time face to face with people we care about. Turn off the TV. Slow down on the texting, and the net flicks. I know we can do it, the human animal is wired to be social, it’s one of the most important things about us. Without it, we lose our ability to empathize with others. So think about it, folks!
For more on my study on the topic, and a review of key books on the subjects, see thefragmind.com There’s a condensed Power Point of my study with video on each slide explaining the major points (because of course we’re in a hurry and it has to be visual and pitchy and online to be heard at all!).

[anonymous]

Excuse me, I am a USC student and am very offended by this article, and the comments I am reading. If you had been there, you would know it was a very strange and unexpected situation--students thought it was a joke, and initially did not know what to do--I know that USC has the rep of being the "University of Spoiled Children" but as a student here, I know that this is far from the truth. Please back off and mind your own business.

[Slugmother]

Syncope, the medical word for "fainting spells", can come as an effect of just about anything. It is very doubtful that he had a stroke or anything nearly that serious. If he explained himself with the fact that he had eaten or drank very little all day, then it is probable that dehydration led to a drop in blood pressure causing his syncope, or severe hypoglycemia (low blood sugar level) caused the syncope from not eating all day. I'm sure Bill is fine now, and just needed a day off to relax and regain healthy status. Nevertheless, get well Bill!

[Nony]

Actually, the texting is the only fairly new element to something that is a part of our normal psychology. It's known as the bystander effect and it's been shown many, many times that when someone is in trouble, even in a large crowd of people it is unlikely that they will be helped unless there is a trained professional like an EMT or police officer in that crowd because everyone feels that it's someone else's responsibility to help. People have been stabbed in grocery stores and laid there dying where others continued to shop by just stepping over them. So while the students were texting, that fact is really inconsequential to what was actually happening. I'm glad Mr. Nye is ok, though, he's probably the reason I understand science today.

[USC Audience]

It's ridiculous that the opinions of one student is being picked up by the national media as the facts. This one USC student who clearly has no idea what he is talking about has made USC and the event organizers look foolish and unprepared when in fact this crisis was handled excellently.

As someone who was there and knew what was going on there are many inaccuracies in the article.
1. At first- everyone thought the first fall was part of his act. Even then, the organizers of the event were on alert. What the audience didn't see was the full staff of people behind the stage and in front alerting each other that there may be a possible situation. As with all well planned events the audience sees only the tip of the ice berg.
2. When he fell a 2nd time event organizers came from infront and behind to help him and to offer assistance and chair. He refused both and only after he clearly refused did they step back. At the time, the authorities were notified immediately and discretely. So James I'm sorry you were "sad" but part of being a good event planner is doing things discretely so you don't embarrass the talent unnecessarily. There was no need for you to meddle and cause more confusion for the emergency responders.
Rather then rush the stage and accomplishing nothing USC students respected Bill Nye's privacy and cheered him on and let the proper authorities handle the situation.

The LA Times should fact check their "stories" better in the future. Rather than trying to sensationalize to get more readers, it would be better to speak with the organizers or atleast a few audience members so they can make sure what they report is true and accurate.

[croman]

Please update your article to clarify that no one texted while he was on the ground. As a member of the audience I can say we were all confused and surprised for those 5 to 6 seconds, and were simply frozen. I don't know who this Fairbanks person is who gave the quote, but they were gravely mistaken and caused a lot of hell to us USC students undeservedly.

[James R. Steele]

Yeah, I honestly think a fascist dictatorship could happen here, because we have all the elements, including a completely worthless populace who would probably be texting on Twitter and uploading videos to YouTube of their neighbors being dragged off by the secret police.

[casketsalesman]

that's crazy, hopefully he's ok

[Samantha]

Although I was not there to know or hear about how he fainted/passed out,All I do know is that he is a great man!And I wish him all the luck to feel or get better for whatever happened someone who was there should of helped him and called ambulence first,I am only 14 But must I say , my Science teacher Ms.Jirsa told a few of her students to look up what really happened and know that I have my facts, I will show them to her. Iam myself a big fans of Bills it is very sad hearing that he kept passing out. All I think happened , was that he probally was not feeling well or was already sick,because if he told a story about that happening that same morning there was something wrong with him in the first place. Well I just hope Mr.Bill is feeling much better and im ready to hear and watch some more of his Experiments.Thank You for listening.(:
Sincerly,
Samantha Moran-Aldridge.

[Kirsten]

This is terrible I grew up watching his shows to learn....He is alright. Right?