Some Pretty Cool Science in a One-Ring Circus

Michael Frith is fluent in the complex languages of science and Shakespeare, but as a child, tests often left him grasping for words.

The reason, undiagnosed until his late teens, was that Frith has dyslexia, a neurological condition that can affect a person’s ability to process language. It is estimated that 5% to 15% of the population is dyslexic to some degree.

“All I knew was that I was different,” recalled Frith, 41. “I was given the impression that I wasn’t as smart as other people.”

But instead of impairing him, Frith’s learning difficulties helped him develop a flourishing career as an entertainer and educator. In his touring show, Dr. I. Wonder’s Science Circus, he helps school-age children look at science in unorthodox ways, even if it means they get a crick in their necks.

An accomplished circus performer and actor, the six-foot-tall Frith spends much of the show atop four-foot stilts, juggling everything from a bowling ball to flaming torches as he teaches audiences about gravity, air resistance, sound vibrations and other principles.

The Science Circus will be presented three times daily Saturday and Sunday in the rotunda of Crystal Court in Costa Mesa. The shows are sponsored by the Launch Pad science center; $5 tickets include the performance plus admittance to Launch Pad, a Q&A; session with Frith and an entry in prize drawings.

Because Frith didn’t test well, his teachers would sometimes let him improve his grades by doing extra-credit projects. It turned out he had a special knack for science, and his projects were often winners at local science fairs. Frith was also a theater buff (he made his debut at 5 as a bee in a school play).

“I loved that process of being in front of people,” recalled Frith, who went on to study theater in college and then spent 10 years acting in various companies, including Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., and Round House Theatre in Silver Spring, Md. He also developed a one-man show centered on a character called Ace Backwards, a dyslexic clown who makes Shakespearean literature less intimidating to students.

Science and Shakespeare--what he calls “the Big Subjects”--have remained Frith’s special passions. Several years ago, upon returning to his hometown of Nashville, he found a way to combine his interest in them with his performance skills, particularly in the areas of circus arts and physical comedy.

“The Cumberland Science Museum was one of my favorite places when I was a kid, and when I came back here, I ended up building the Dr. I. Wonder show for them to go around [schools and educational facilities] in Nashville.”

The doctor apparently wasn’t meant to stay home for long. Within months, Frith had been booked by facilities across the East and Midwest, eventually landing a three-year stint as a founding member with Ben & Jerry’s Traveling Show Bus. He’s played sold-out shows at the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center and London’s International Children’s Festival, and is looking into developing television shows featuring the Dr. I. (for Inquisitive) Wonder character.

At his Costa Mesa shows, Frith will perform feats of agility and strength that he thinks best demonstrate certain scientific principles. From atop stilts, he’ll juggle balls and scarves to demonstrate gravity. Performances on a Kenyan drum and a tube flute, and an audience-participation kazoo concert, demonstrate how sound is carried through the air. He’ll show audiences how to find the center of gravity of an object (the point at which its weight is evenly divided). In this case, the object is a wheelbarrow, which he’ll balance on his chin--while standing on stilts, of course.

Whenever possible, Frith says, he likes to get audiences physically involved in the show. Viewers are instructed to repeat with him the name of each principle as it’s shown and combine them with memorable (read: goofy) hand and body gestures. Children are routinely brought on stage to assist him at various points.

Although he’s impressed by the computer software, television programming and other high-tech teaching tools available to kids today, Frith says he’s most interested in helping young people tune into “the television set right above their eyes.”

“All of us have our own mental screens; they’re really the ultimate television,” Frith said. “If you can’t imagine something--see it on the TV in your own brain--you can’t see it at all.”

* What: Dr. I. Wonder’s Science Circus

* When: Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m.

* Where: Center court, lower level, Crystal Court shopping Center, 3333 Bear St., Costa Mesa.

* Whereabouts: From the San Diego (405) Freeway, exit at Bristol Street and drive north. Turn left on Sunflower, and left on Bear.

* Wherewithal: Show tickets are $5 for children and adults and include admission to the Launch Pad science center in the mall, a post-show Q&A; session with Frith, and entry in prize drawings.

Where to call: (714) 546-2061.

MORE KID STUFF:

Children’s recording artists Janet & Judy, Dave Kinnoin and Orange County’s own Jim Rule, along with magic, dance, clowns, games and a fireworks finale can be found at Taste of Orange County (see story, Page 3) Friday through Sunday at the Irvine Spectrum grounds, corner of Alton Parkway and Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. Free with admission of $3 to $6. (714) 490-4944.