‘Mythbusters’ stage show reveals behind-the-scenes facts

The Keller Auditorium filled up with excited kids, amused parents and generally nerdy college-aged folks as Adam Hyneman and Jamie Savage of the Mythbusters went live on stage last Saturday night.
Mythbusters, a Discovery channel show started their “Behind the Myths” tour which was part experiments with audience participation and part getting to know the show, its history, and the two hosts.
The show started off with Hyneman giving a virtual tour of the Mythbusters office in San Francsisco. Savage invited audience members up to participate in a series of activities starting with banging a power measure with a big hammer and small hammer to demonstrated the relationship between strength, mass, and momentum.
Savage also had a father and son volunteers to interfold each page of a phonebook to which he used to hoist himself up high in the air later in the show.
“This is what the Internet looked like,” said Savage as he hands the father and the son two phonebooks.
“The only thing that’s keeping me comfortable is the fact that i understand the physics going on in between these two phonebooks,” said Savage as Hyneman hoisted him up in the air. He also explained that their insurance requires them to lay an air mattress down underneath him.
Two more volunteers were called up to demonstrate the process of producing power and started peddling bikes. after about 15 seconds, they were made aware that they were each filling up a water balloon that hung above the other, and the one that peddled slower would get wet.
The next two volunteers raced to complete simple tasks wearing goggles that skewed depth perception with the lenses being reverse magnifying. While they were setting up the goggles on the second volunteer, crew members switched out key props to smaller boxes and chairs, and a very tall hat hanger, and two mini-sized Hyneman and Savage look-a-likes at the end.
One of their favorite tools they use on set is their slow-motion camera, explained Savage. They requested for people who weren’t afraid to be humiliated and had them shake their face and make blubbering motions with their mouths.
Towards the end they pulled out a volunteer and outfitted him in a suit of armor, which Savage said he bought on Ebay, so that Hyneman could shoot him with a paintball machinegun designed for jets. the volunteer stood in front of a clear barrier with his back to the audience so that they could have the point of view that the hosts usually have in similar experiemnts.
Hyneman and Savage both did a quick Q&A session separately during the course of the show. In a way it was one of the most interesting parts of the show. Hyneman talked about how he came to create the show and called upon Savage who he worked with earlier to co-host the show.
Savage explained that he was very talented individual growing up in New York but was not ambitious. He eventually moved to San Francisco and did some sculpture work, special effects and lived out his dream of working on Star Wars.
The show proved to be extremely entertaining to all the age groups present, as Savage’s quick humor and natural host-talk ability kept the show moving smoothly without too much awkwardness. Hyneman’s cool and less talkative demeanor was made possible by balancing out with his partner.
Some of the experiments were blatantly simple and obvious and were not terribly exciting, but at least Savage injected plenty of humour in those situations. These experiments were probably more for the younger fans anyhow. The more interesting part of the show was the fact that Hyneman is in fact, not a robot, and basically getting to know the hosts and the show.
“I have twin 12-year-olds, and taking care of them is like dealing with one drunk 22-year-old,” said Savage, to which mostly the older audience got a kick out of.
The two also explained the progressions of their show, in terms of trust between the producers and insurance people and how at the beginning they were capped at 90 mph in closed courses but know they are pushing “about 120 or 140” said Hyneman.
At one point, Hyneman was told that he could not do a certain experiment by their insurance because it was too dangerous, but Tory Bellici who also works on Mythbusters could do it. But the hosts did not like the direction the insurance was taking them and was able to turn things so that they actually did more crazy stunts.
“We make sure that the experiments we do are doable by most reasonably shaped people, because, frankly, that’s what we are,” said Savage.
And they finished with their motto, “Please don’t try this at home. Thank you.”