Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman bust myths with honesty

MythBusters star Adam Savage isn’t easy to pigeonhole. He’s a Hollywood props geek, set designer, high-functioning hoarder, do-it-yourself hobbyist, science educator, and actor. He’s also a brilliant communicator who likes blowing things up on a television show that’s been running on the Discovery Channel for 14 years.

“It’s resonated because it’s true,” Savage tells the Georgia Straight while riding a bus on the way to Tucson, Arizona. “I don’t just mean true in terms of science truth. I watch a lot of reality television these days. I see a lot of producers writing down what people say and telling them what to say and what to film. I don’t see a lot of authenticity in that.”

Savage maintains that on MythBusters—a show that strives to determine whether or not there is truth behind myths and urban legends—his dialogue and narratives with cohost Jamie Hyneman are real and not prepackaged. If they disagree on the direction, Savage says, they’ve learned to go wherever the story leads them. “I think people can tell when something like that is genuine,” he says.

Savage shows an equal level of candour when talking about his upbringing. He doesn’t conceal that he grew up in privileged circumstances as the son of a psychotherapist mother and a director, artist, and animator father. In the 1970s, his dad would spend three or four months a year creating spots for Sesame Street, which enabled him to paint for the rest of the year.

“They showed me a way of living that involved doing the things I wanted to do,” Savage says. “They also provided me with the financial ability to do that. I knew I could quit a terrible job because they could help me out. That was really important. I was incredibly privileged to have that.”

He recalls interviewing the film director Jason Reitman, who was unabashed about being a wealthy Beverly Hills kid. Reitman’s father, Ivan, is a successful director, and according to Savage, this gave Reitman “the luxury to wait and choose his first film, Thank You for Smoking, very carefully”.

“Most people aren’t as honest about how their privilege and their upbringing helped them in what they did,” Savage says.

He reveals that Richard Dreyfuss, who played the oceanographer Matt Hooper in Jaws, was one of his early science heroes. Then he recalls how the police chief counterpart in the film, played by Roy Scheider, remarked that Hooper was a rich kid.

“Dreyfuss goes ‘Yup,’ ” Savage says with a chuckle.

When asked which scientists he admires, Savage has no difficulty rattling off a list of names. He starts with his friend Phil Plait, a.k.a. the Bad Astronomer, then mentions Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Heineman, Danny Mills, and Marvin Minsky.

“There is no end to the wonderful communicators that I have been lucky enough to read and meet and sometimes even to collaborate with,” Savage says.

He acknowledges his reputation for collecting props—including the chair used by Capt. James T. Kirk on TV’s original Star Trek—but he also reveals that he’s gotten rid of three truckloads of stuff in the past six months. “It’s always an ongoing process: the gathering and the culling.”

Savage and Hyneman are in the midst of touring their stage show to 32 cities over 35 days. Savage says it operates very differently than the television episodes, suggesting it’s like a magic show full of illusions but also offering scientific insights.

“I think of myself as a storyteller first and foremost,” he declares. “I think it’s an innate human need to tell and hear stories. And those stories that resonate with us are the ones that are about the deeper things.”

The live stage show MythBusters: Jamie & Adam Unleashed will be at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Tuesday (December 15).