Mythbusters

Mythbusters Description

The men behind the myths

By Caroline Fontein

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman like to blow stuff up. Fans of the hit Discovery Channel series "MythBusters" already know that, but you can hear all about their passion for pyrotechnics firsthand at their "Mythbusters Behind the Myths Tour" at the Palazzo. As co-hosts of the popular TV series and the live show, Savage and Hyneman have countless stories to share.

Performing in front of a live audience means that Savage and Hyneman can't actually blow anything up on stage, but they do debunk a few less explosive myths with live demonstrations and assistance from people in the audience. If you've ever watched the show and wanted a chance to ask the guys how they did something or what their most surprising discovery was, this is it. Last winter and spring, the show performed a 28-city national tour, playing sold-out performances all over the country. This is the first time the tour has come to Vegas.

The Behind the Myths Tour has an interactive approach with lucky guests from the audience being called on stage to assist with demonstrations. For one of these instances, Savage selects a mother and daughter to join him on stage to help with a phone book demonstration. After the mother and daughter fold all of the pages of the phone book, Savage demonstrates its surprising strength by being lifted in the air with one end of the clamped phone book hooked to his harness and the other end hooked to a rope being pulled by Hyneman. There are other demonstrations like this throughout the show, giving audiences a chance to see and learn about some of the MythBusters' tested scientific principles firsthand.

During the show, both Savage and Hyneman also take turns doing a separate Q & A with the audience where anyone can raise their hand and ask a question. It's a fun opportunity to learn some of the behind-the-scenes stories about the MythBusters, their experiments and how the show got started. 

Hyneman explains that before "MythBusters," he and Savage were notorious in the robot wars community for their robot, Blendo. They were featured on various TV shows about robot wars including "Beyond 2000," where they worked with Peter Rees. Rees later developed a TV show idea about urban legends and asked Hyneman to host the show. Hyneman asked Savage to join him, and the show concept evolved into "MythBusters." 

Another highlight in the show comes when Savage and Hyneman ask volunteers to come on stage and demonstrate a crazy facial expression for their high-speed camera. Then, they slow the footage down and broadcast it on large screens for people in the crowd to enjoy. The slow-motion reveals hilarious details about each volunteer's facial movements, resulting in laughter from the crowd.

One of the Discovery Channel's most highly regarded and watched series, "MythBusters" is now in its ninth season. Co-hosted by Hyneman and Savage, "MythBusters" mixes scientific method with curiosity and plain old-fashioned ingenuity to create its own signature style of explosive experimentation – and supporting or de-bunking of urban myths that we live with day-to-day.

Hyneman and Savage have become spokespersons for applying science to real life -- most recently as hosts of the Discovery Channel special "iGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World," and have appeared on numerous shows including "Late Show with David Letterman," "Good Morning America," "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," "The Colbert Report," NPR's "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" and many more. "MythBusters" has been invited to participate on a panel at Comic-Con, where their appearances have sold out four years running.

In their live show Savage and Hyneman encourage scientific exploration. They remind people that in humor and playing around you can discover and test many scientific principles. Some of their demonstrations may seem like they're just for fun, but there's a deep science behind them.

"Don't underestimate the power of play," says Hyneman before doing their final demonstration for the night.

If you love "MythBusters" then you won't want to miss a chance to see Savage and Hyneman performing live in Vegas.