Adam Savage makes sure Jamie Hyneman can hear him.
Prior to launching their first “MythBusters” tour in 2012, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, the comical co-hosts of the popular Discovery Channel science show, were making a handful of appearances at private corporate events and university lectures.
But as their Emmy-nominated “MythBusters” grew in popularity, Savage and Hyneman started getting requests from TV shows like “Good Morning America” to perform their action-packed myth-busting experiments during segments. The guys would typically turn down such offers because it was too difficult pulling off full-scale demonstrations in a three- to five-minute timeframe.
The science buffs had a better idea.
“The requests were so constant we eventually started to think, ‘If we had control over the evening, what kind of stuff would we want to do as a performance of myth-busting, as opposed to the practice of myth busting, which is what our show is,’” Savage told Venues Today. “Out of that eventually came the stage show.”
Now in its third year on the road (the TV show debuted in 2003), MythBusters: Behind the Myths will hit the road for a 25-city North American tour, beginning June 21 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. From there, Savage and Hyneman will visit Australia and New Zealand for a month-long stint of arena dates in August. Those include Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Aug. 20, through to Perth Arena, Aug. 27, with tickets priced $139.90-$89.90.
The MagicSpace Entertainment-produced tour resumes Nov. 21 in Williamsport, Pa., and wraps Dec. 18 in San Jose, Calif. The majority of this year’s U.S. and Canadian dates are markets the tour hasn’t yet visited.
Additionally, the 17-city stretch Down Under will mark the tour’s first international performances.
“They’re legends in Australia,” MagicSpace CEO Lee Marshall told Venues Today, noting that the TV show originated in the country 12 years ago. “Every year they’ve gotten offers to go down there, but really until we put this show together they really didn’t have something they wanted to put on stage in an arena configuration.”
Similar to past editions, the live shows promise brand new experiments with the help of volunteers, behind-the-scenes stories from the TV show, video presentations and questions from the audience. Over the years, the pair has worked with tour director Jim Millan to design a two-hour show that covers everything from how a bed of nails works to shooting a suit of armor with a paintball machine gun.
Hyneman swings the hammer during the MythBusters' interactive science show.
Marshall describes the MythBusters tour as variety science show. “It’s similar to an old-fashion variety show in that they have acts, vignettes and bring up some of their old myths that have been busted on TV, as well as a few that have never been seen and are done live on stage,” he said.
Savage wouldn’t give any spoilers about what experiments to expect this time around, but said that he and Hyneman will explore what they call “the DIY superhero.”
“Batman has always been our favorite superhero, specifically because he builds his own stuff,” Savage said. “As makers of our own stuff, we realize that making stuff is in and of itself a little bit of a superpower. We want the audience to get a little bit in touch with that – the ability you have to make your own world the way you’d like.”
About 80 percent of the tour’s tickets have already been sold, thanks to a significant push on social media, as well as email blasts from the buildings.
“Without spending any traditional advertising -- radio, TV and print -- we sold tickets just by reaching out and touching people who were avid fans of them and the show,” said Marshall, whose company has a royalty deal with Discovery to produce the Mythbusters tour.
In North America, the Mythbusters tour primarily visits 2,000- to 3,000-capacity venues and averages about 2,500 people per show, according to Marshall. He estimates that about 70 percent of the audience consists of adults between 45 and 65, with the remainder being kids with their parents and students. Each show sells about 50 VIP meet-and-greet tickets.
Marshall, who routes the tour in conjunction with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment’s Clint Mitchell, said he relied heavily on TV ratings when first booking the tour in 2012.
“I looked through all the television ratings to try and handpick what I thought were the best markets,” he said. “And markets that wouldn’t be on that list surprised us and sold out. We do mostly sellout business on everything we’ve done to date.”
After two tours, Savage feels that he’s finally getting the hang of being a live performer.
“The show is five-times as good now than when we started a couple of years ago,” he said. “I personally feel that over the past couple of years of doing this tour that I’ve gotten a Master’s Degree in stage performance — from listening back to the shows at the end of the night, listening for laughs and listening for stories that could’ve been more refined, and then trying them in different ways the next night.”
Interviewed for this story: Adam Savage; Lee Marshall, (801) 355-2200