They are the ultimate network executive’s dream: they pull in viewers from ages five to 75, they’ve developed a cult following in countries right across the globe and they do it all without nudity, bad language or violence (apart from the odd explosion).
If you crossed a computer geek with a special-effects artist, threw in a bit of thrill-seeking stuntman and poured the resulting mix into the mind of a nine-year-old boy, you’d get Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, stars of the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters.
They were in Cape Town this week to shoot a “super-sized” two-hour special episode about sharks — a topic they covered previously in the Bahamas, but wanted to do again — bigger and better. They came to False Bay because it offered some of the biggest sharks they could find, and because the Great Whites there apparently breach much more frequently than anywhere else in the world.
Unfortunately, gale-force winds this weekend drove them back to dry land, so they cooked up plan B — to visit a game reserve and see if elephants really are afraid of mice. (I foresee footage of stampeding jumbos and flattened film crews —).
Lucky lives
One gets the sense neither of them can quite believe their luck in having landed a job that allows them to investigate just about anything that piques their curiosity, from whether cellphones can actually make petrol stations blow up to whether you can save yourself from a shark attack by punching it on the nose. (“If that doesn’t work, you stick your stump in its eye,” deadpans Savage.)
Having worked their way through numerous pig carcasses in some of their more gruesome experiments (apparently porcine physiology is similar to that of humans in terms of fat and muscle structure) the duo certainly display a ghoulish enthusiasm for some of their more grisly stunts. “I can’t believe they keep letting us show that stuff on TV,” says Hyneman in the tone of a small boy who has not just been allowed, but actively encouraged, to do something utterly gross.
The overwhelming impression of the pair is that their child-like sense of curiosity and wonder is very much intact, and that they’re enjoying the process of problem-solving far too much to be particularly worried about the outcome. In fact, says Savage, “the best days are when we are completely wrong”.
He gets a kick out of the fact that parents tell him that their kids are learning about science from the show, but is at pains to point out that they too are learning as they go. “If we actually knew what we were doing, we wouldn’t be any fun to watch,” chimes in Hyneman. Both shy away from the notion of their programme as overtly didactic, preferring to see any educative value as a happy by-product. “If we tried to educate viewers, it probably wouldn’t work,” adds Hyneman.
Screwing around
Both clearly revel in having achieved what most of the planet only dreams about: finding something you absolutely love doing and getting paid for it.
“We’re exploring the world at large and seeing things we never thought we’d see,” explains Hyneman. The trick appears to be not to take it (or themselves) too seriously. “We’re just screwing around and having a good time” he adds dismissively. “This job gives us an excuse to get into absolutely anything we are curious about.”
That freedom is clearly more valuable than any financial reward. “If I won the lottery tomorrow, this is pretty much what I’d still want to be doing,” enthuses Savage. “In my dreams I’m an action hero; [through Mythbusters] I get to live my life as if I’m in an action movie.”
While the dynamic between the pair is a big part of the show’s success (Savage is energetic and impulsive, Hyneman calm and methodical), interestingly they don’t exactly consider themselves best buddies. “We’re not friends, but we do have respect for each other,” says Hyneman.
Part of their attraction seems to be that in an era of over-specialisation they epitomise the lost age of the gifted amateur. “I’m not a master craftsman, but I am a collector of skills,” says Savage, who has worked as a child actor, movie projectionist, set designer and special-effects artist, including a stint with George Lucas at Industrial Light Magic where he worked on Star Wars. “I have a set of different skills which are like arrows I can shoot at a problem.”
Upcoming episodes include ascertaining just how easy it is to shoot fish in a barrel or build a lead balloon. But how many more myths are still out there waiting to be bust? Hyneman puts it succinctly: “We’ll run out of myths when people stop doing stupid stuff.”
Season four of Mythbusters continues until September, Monday to Friday at 8pm on the Discovery Channel