Don’t expect explosions at ‘MythBusters’ show in Raleigh

For 13 years, Adam Savage has been co-host of Discovery’s popular science show “MythBusters.” He and partner Jamie Hyneman test everything from urban legends to improbable movie scenes, all to see if there’s a grain of truth there. In the meantime, things get blown up or destroyed – lots of things.

Yet this isn’t just destruction for destruction’s sake, Savage says. This is science.

“We try only to do things with which we can build a control to compare the results of our experiment,” he says, talking from a tour stop in Kalamazoo, Mich. “The comparing with something else is effectively giving you a second vantage point.”

As for the myths, they can come from anywhere; Savage, Hyneman and co-executive producer Dan Tapster are always on the lookout for them, and their ever-evolving master list is hundreds deep. Yet Savage denies that social media – say, the spread of rumors or misinformation on Facebook or Twitter – propagates myths any faster than before the information age. In true scientific fashion, he backs up his opinion by referencing a study on the spread of jokes in the ’70s and ’80s.

“Humans are storytellers first and foremost,” Savage says. “Telling stories is how we understand the world, and science is merely a rigorous methodology for telling stories that are true.”

Wednesday, Savage and Hyneman bring the stage show “Mythbusters: Jamie and Adam Unleashed” to Raleigh’s Memorial Auditorium. The News & Observer caught up with Savage to ask how the TV show translates to the stage, whether the experiments still frighten him, and if anyone has tried “MythBusters” experiments at home.

Q: I’m curious how you take something that, on TV, involves blowing up cars and dropping things from helicopters and put it on a stage.

A: On a day-to-day basis, the process is radically different. We make “MythBusters” as a fairly intimate affair with a small crew of about 15 people in San Francisco, and we take the stage show around with a crew of 12 to over 250 cities now in front of thousands of people. Obviously, we did not bring destroying cars and explosions from the show. We did bring our sense of humor and our sense of play.

It’s a very different communication medium than television. I’m a performer. I am also a maker. I’m a communicator. I realize all of those things get joined together nicely under the rubric of storyteller. For me, the stage show is like a master’s degree in storytelling. Probably one of the best ways to describe our performance is it’ll feel like a magic show, except instead of magic, it’s science.

Q: I want to ask about fear, and has your fear ceiling gotten higher as a result of this job, or do you just get scared a lot?

A: What I think I can confront has definitely risen over the past 13 years. I still try and maintain a healthy fear of things that are scary. I am afraid every time I feed a piece of wood into my table saw, and the day that I’m not is the day that I’m gonna get bit. I can’t stand that tool, even though it’s the most useful tool in my shop. When we’re blowing stuff up, we’re still afraid about it – it’s explosives and they’re dangerous and we should be afraid. That keeps us on our toes.

Q: Have you heard of any imitators, people who have tried things that you have specifically said, “Do not do this at home?”

A: No, actually. There have been several news stories of people over the years who claim to have tried to do things they saw on “MythBusters” that we hadn’t done on the show – there’s plenty of MythBusters imitators to be confused by.

We have had some trying it at home that was to the positive benefit; we did two episodes on what to do if a car goes underwater and how to escape from it. To date, at least five people have written to me and Jamie and telling us that what we uncovered in that episode allowed them to save their lives when their car went into the water. One of the most recent ones came a few years ago from a pair of cops in northern Europe who drove into icy cold water in the middle of the night and knew immediately what they needed to do and they got out. They’re alive because of that episode.

Q: Does the stage show allow you to bring people into things they wanted to try but thought were too dangerous?

A: Not quite – we’re not going to put the audience in actual danger, but we do give people who come up onstage experiences they wouldn’t otherwise get. I’ll put it that way.

Q: What’s the future hold for “MythBusters”?

A: This is Jamie’s last year of touring. Jamie is a tinkerer and a thinker and wants to focus more on stuff he’s building in his shop. It’s not that he doesn’t like being onstage, it’s just that he’d rather focus on that come next year. Next year I will be taking out a show on my own. As far as “MythBusters” goes, we’re going to keep making that show until they lock the doors.

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Don’t expect explosions at ‘MythBusters’ show in Raleigh."