Mythbusters – Live

Let me get this out right from the start, in their live appearance the Mythbusters DO NOT Blow stuff up. Sitting in the sold out crowd at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall you could feel the collective hope that all the warnings and disclaimers about the show NOT containing explosions were false.

The two science geeks who host the popular Discovery channel show had a huge task ahead of them, how to entertain a group of people who would rather see you blowing crap up than talking about it.  I’m happy to report that Adam and Jamie (prompted by Host Rick Emerson) did a fantastic job of engaging and entertaining the audience for an hour and forty five minutes.

Billed as a ‘Behind The Scenes / Inside The Actor’s Studio for Science Geeks” the interactive talk gave an experience with Adam and Jamie that you just couldn’t get in an audio commentary on a DVD or in a behind the scenes snippet.  Shooting entirely from the hip both Mythbusters showed just how immensely entertaining they are, even in their every day life.

Peppered with video clips (which I wish they had more), the talk did have a few slow points, but Emerson did a solid job of moving things right along. The show reached its high point when members of the audience got to ask the Mythbusters their own questions.

Some of the nuggets of info gleaned from the talk:

• In their spare time they do the kind of experiments that Discovery Channel won’t let them do on TV.
• Upcoming episodes include ‘How to Polish A Turd” and “Slipping on a Banana Peel”
• Discovery Channel nixed “How Many Licks Does it Take to Get To The Center of A Tootsie Roll Pop”
• Jamie owns and runs his own company which does work for the private industry and the government
• An Airplane will take off on a conveyor belt runway…damn it (so stop sending emails)
• None should ever mess with Jamie’s béret
• Their absolute favorite episode is “Lead Balloon”
• The exploding water heater actually went up 750 feet in the air (with a 15 second hang time)

The finale of the show was a blooper reel and clip reel of some of their best explosions which they called “Explosion Porn” including a lot of footage from a high speed camera which was an absolute hit with the crowd.

The Mythbusters could have done a kitchy stadium style show for ‘the kids’ filled with explosions and pyrotechnics but they opted for a much more honest and informal chat.  I really enjoyed it but I think my sevenyear old son sill wanted to see explosions.