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Marple Newtown High School Teacher Robert Speca: Inspiring a New Generation of Domino Topplers
People in Places feature by Holly Stupak
Marple Newtown High School teacher Robert Speca is not your typical science teacher. He also happens to be a professional domino toppler, known as the “Domino Wizard,” the “Domino King,” and the “Father of Domino Toppling.” For the past 40+ years, he has been toppling all over the world, and appearing on such shows as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and The Late Show with David Letterman. He is listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as holding the record five times.
Toppling is the art of standing up dominoes in sequence, to create a chain reaction also known as “the domino effect.” Only the first domino should be toppled by hand. Robert started domino toppling back when he himself was a student at MNHS in the 1970s. He became inspired when his 10th-grade math teacher, Mr. Dobransky, lectured his class on math induction theory and compared the theory to a row of falling dominoes. After the lecture, Robert bought himself four boxes of dominoes, set them up on his dining room table and pushed the first one over. Since then, he has been hooked.
Robert said watching the dominoes fall one by one was hypnotic and his fascination is something he can’t explain.
His domino displays for neighbors and friends caught the attention of a family friend who featured him in the local paper, The County Leader. Shortly after that, he got the opportunity to be on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where Johnny referred to his domino toppling as a form of “art in motion.” By age 18, he had set the first official world record for the highest number of dominoes toppled in a chain reaction: 11,111 pieces.
After graduating from MNHS in 1975, he went on to pursue a degree in Astronomy from the University of Pennsylvania, but his teaching career didn’t start until many years later in what Robert calls his “second act.” He graduated from Penn in 1979 and traveled around the world, creating domino displays for charities, publicity events, corporate meetings, colleges and high schools. His displays are elaborate creations that are painstakingly assembled, with names like “The Tarzan Swing” and “Six Days ’til Sunday.” Set-up for those displays can take a week or more.
Glow in the dark paw display Robert Speca created for the Animal Planet Puppy Bowl that aired on Super Bowl Sunday in 2019
Photo courtesy of Robert Speca
Over the years, Robert Speca appeared on other shows such as Ellen Degeneres and Mister Rogers, and Robert’s displays have been featured in TV ads, The Puppy Bowl, and most recently on the Netflix show Master of None. Robert also wrote two books: Championship Domino Toppling and The Great Falling Domino Book, both of which teach readers how to set up their own domino creations “Rube Goldberg style.” Information about Robert’s books as well as videos and fun facts can be found on his website: www.DominoShow.com.
Robert Speca giving a domino toppling demonstration to students
Photo courtesy of Mark Monroe
After many years as a professional domino toppler, Robert decided to get his teaching certificate, and began teaching in 1998. Since 2005, he has taught science and has run the Rube Goldberg Society, a club at Marple Newtown High School, inspiring a whole new generation of domino topplers.
In 2013, Robert and his students helped celebrate the success of MNHS’s book drive for Read Across America (March 2 this year), by creating and toppling dominoes and books that spelled out the message “MN Reads.” The display, which included 1400 multi-colored rectangles outlined by 200 large and small hardcover books, traveled up ladders, walked the plank, dove into glasses of water and flipped from mouse traps.
As a teacher, Robert said he’s glad he can use his own experience to inspire the students. “It’s really enjoyable to see the ideas the students come up with,” said Robert.
