Scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson Hilariously Reveals He Almost Became a Stripper While Studying at Columbia

Neil deGrasse Tyson revealed astrophysics is not his only talent!

While on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Thursday, November 9, the scientist told host Kelly Clarkson about his dancing days, where he even considered making a little extra cash by stripping.

The segment began with the “Since U Been Gone” singer being surprised that deGrasse Tyson can bust a move in the first place.

“We have been around each other too many times for me not to know that you were a dancer,” she said.

“I don’t tell people that,” he responded as Clarkson pulled up a black-and-white photo of deGrasse Tyson during his dancing heyday.

“Look at that chest hair! Out to play!” she joked. “I had no idea.”

“Kelly, that was 50 pounds ago,” he quipped. “If you could measure time by weight accumulated…”

“Were you talking like that to the dancers?” the American Idol alum teased.

“I was a performing member of three different dance companies in my day — in another day, in a different chapter of my life,” the father-of-two explained. “There’s nothing like dance shape because you’re strong, you’re limber, you’re flexible — and graceful.”

“Totally, just like me! Just like me, that’s what I say,” Clarkson chimed in.

deGrasse Tyson then dropped a bombshell by divulging he once considered becoming a male stripper.

“I was still studying astrophysics and I had fellow dancers who were making extra money because I needed money because we weren’t paid much. And one of them said, ‘Why don’t you come down with us?’ Because some of them danced at a strip club, a guy’s strip club,” he stated.

“So I went, and I was cut and flex — I could do a full split. So I was, but I went to just investigate, I wanted data first,” he noted.

However, once he got to the club and watched his fellow dancers up on the stage, he changed his mind about the possible venture.

“So I go there, I’m watching [the dancers] come out, and they had asbestos-lined jockstraps that had been ignited with lighter fluid, and they came out dancing to Jerry Lee Lewis’ song, ‘Great Balls of Fire,’” deGrasse Tyson said with a laugh. “Let me just say, I’m embarrassed that only in that moment when I saw their genitals on fire did I say, ‘Maybe I should be a math tutor.’”

Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!

deGrasse Tyson is now a famed astrophysicist, who received a BA from Harvard University, a MA from the University of Texas at Austin and his PhD from Columbia University. He is married to wife Alice Young, whom he shares kids Miranda and Travis with.