Hit Or Myth

By Kyle Hall

Busters of myth Adam Savage (left) and Jamie Hyneman are coming to town to blow fans’ minds with a live show called MythBusters: Behind the Myths Tour. “It’s a series of semi-controlled experiments that involve a lot of audience participation,” says Hyneman, who costars with Savage on Discovery Channel’s Emmy-nominated hit show MythBusters.

Hyneman, Savage and their science-loving cohorts are known for building off-the-wall contraptions and setting off grandiose explosions. They’ve blown to smithereens everything from a lawnmower to a cement truck to a model home.

Hopefully, they’ll leave downtown’s Civic Theater and its patrons intact.

“Obviously, the use of high-explosives and automatic weaponry is not appropriate for a stage-show,” says Hyneman, who nonetheless promises fans an element of danger. “I can’t spoil things, but in several scenarios, the people we bring up will be required to wear protective gear.”

To keep the crowd engaged despite the lack of C-4 explosive, the show is loaded with laughs.

“We have a high-speed camera that works real-time,” says Hyneman. “We bring audience members up to use it, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to be hilarious.”

On MythBusters, the series, Hyneman and Savage often encounter unforeseen malfunctions with their experiments, forcing them to improvise on the spot. The live show will be no different.

“Sometimes, stuff just simply doesn’t work. Things break down,” says Hyneman. “We’ve assembled something that has a little room for making mistakes and errors, and the audience sees how we deal with it.”

Given MythBusters’ popularity over the past decade, special-effects wizards Hyneman and Savage may have done more to popularize science and critical thinking than anyone else in modern times. But the brilliant duo remains humble.

“We’re just a couple of kids with a very large playroom and some pretty advanced toys, so the fact that people are really learning stuff from what we’re doing is just a gift,” says Hyneman. “It’s not something that we intended to do.”

10/13: MythBusters: Behind the Myths Tour
Civic Theatre
1100 3rd Ave., Gaslamp
mythbusterstour.com, 619.570.1100
Tickets: $47.50 - $77.50

Air Males

MythBusters takes flight

Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage are currently constructing a flying machine with a 35-foot wingspan, flapping wings and an electric motor the size of a grapefruit. Set to debut on MythBusters in early 2014, the contraption is being built in collaboration with Dr. Todd Reichert, a Canadian professor who recently won the $250K Sikorsky Prize for achieving human-powered flight. Reichert produced the power for his invention by himself, pedaling a modified bicycle to rotate four large propellers. Check it out on YouTube.