August 25, 2023 • 25 mins
Mythbusters' Adam Savage joins us on the Dragon Con Pre-Game Show to talk about his Dragon Con, his passion for cosplay, his influence on kids who grew up to be scientists, and being busier than ever now working on his Adam Savage's Tested Youtube channel.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
This is the dragon Con pregame showpowered by Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space
Science Center, where you can learnthe science behind the fiction. My guest
is a visual effects artist, producer, actor, Webby Award winner, six
time Emmy nominee, you know andbest for his work on MythBusters, and
Adam Savage is tested. It's misterAdam Savage. Welcome, Thank you very
(00:25):
much, thanks for having me.So this is not your first go at
dragon Con. You have been before. I've seen you before at dragon Cone.
It's a unique convention. I knowyou you do appearances a lot of
these things, but this one isnot like all of the others. It's
special in its own way. Whatis it that gets you coming back to
dragon Con? Dragon Con is dragonCon is the deep dive. And it's
(00:53):
not to say that people aren't divingdeep at other cons, but there's just
a level that the cause players bringto dragon Con that's of a that's fundamentally
of another order. And I really, I'm really here for that culture.
And I actually one of the lovelythings about traveling around and doing different cons
is that they each do have uniquecultures to them and it's been a long
(01:19):
time to do. You're right,I've done dragon Con a few times,
but it's been a while and I'mreally looking forward to getting back in to
get them back there. I'm gladyou mentioned the cosplay because I do think
it's it's among the best. It'sthe best as far as conventions that I've
been to, and I've been tosome big ones, and I'm always wild
by what I see at dragon Con, and I know that cosplay has a
(01:45):
special connection for you. You haveundergone the incognito experience at some conventions before.
I remember years ago, right asthe Norman Retis was kind of hitting
it big in popularity for a showhe was working on, and I saw
(02:05):
him putting on a mask just togo to the bathroom from his table in
the autograph area. And I rememberseeing that and I remember going, well,
that's that's great. That's a greatidea that that works. You've been
doing that at a different level,going around and meeting people in cosplays yourself,
and it looks like having a reallygood time to do it. Other
(02:28):
than all the sweating, well,the sweating and the discomfort, they are
actually part and parcel of the wholecosplay experience. Yes, they are uncomfortable,
but frankly, the mild amount ofsuffering that we caused players get to
encounter is part of the culture ofcosplay. There is definitely there's definitely an
(02:52):
aspect of it to that, Andyou're right. The first time I did
it, I was doing it becauseI had a hit show. I was
all over television and I didn't thinkI could walk the floor at just as
me and so I thought, well, let me put together a costume that
covers me. And I didn't realizethat Number one, any costume that covers
you as going to be hot ashell. But the second one was any
(03:15):
costume you go to the length ofdoing the full body coverage is going to
be somewhat remarkable and people are gonnatake note. I thought I would blend
in in a full body covering costume, and in fact I stood out And
that was that was the first inklingI had that this the cosplay culture was
not as simple or as straightforward asI thought it was. And I mean
(03:38):
it's there that I found so muchof a family. And as you're in
these cosplays and you're walking around doingyou know, incognito and you're you're meeting
people and they're wanting photos with you. What do you think the percentages of
people that never make the connection thatit's you. Well, you know people
now now my Adam and cognito isa is a known quantity. And when
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people know I'm coming to a con, I think they walk up to a
lot of people in full costume andask if it's me. And still a
lot of times people don't realize thatthat's happened, that they're meeting me,
or that they're taking a picture withme until I tweet later on in the
day, And I absolutely love that. That makes me very happy. But
I will tell you I have hadlike I also sometimes just put a helmet
(04:26):
on to walk the floor, youknow, like I'll be wearing normal clothes,
but I'll be wearing some franchise moviehelmet. And I have still been
recognized by my gate, by theparticular way in which I walk, So
there's sometimes there's no escape. It'sgreat. Those are your real fans.
When they know your gate, they'rereal fans. You're totally right. It's
(04:47):
hard to hide the gate. It'svery hard to hide the gate. Any
plans for anything incognito a dragon Youcan't spoil anything, but any plans at
all a Dragon Con. I havevery mild plans for Dragon Con. We
have had an incredibly busy year attested my YouTube channel. We've just put
(05:09):
up some new videos for Bethesda's Bethesda'sgame Starfield, and we've been doing some
stuff with Princess Cruise lines and that. There's been some wonderful content we've gotten
to produce. They've made a lotof things possible for us, and that
means it's hard for me to puttogether elaborate costumes to come out. And
(05:30):
the summer got the summer disappeared quickly. So I'm bringing, I'm bringing,
I'm bringing an Incognito, but it'sgoing to be a lightweight one, gotcha.
I think a lot of people,as they get closer to Dragon Con
have that realization, oh my gosh, I haven't even gotten all this sorted
out yet. So there's a lotof people who put it together very quickly,
but to do it right, itdoes take a lot of extra planning.
(05:51):
And I know from watching the Incognitoseries, I know that you you
don't want to do that. Youdon't want to rush it well, And
I mean to my Cosprey play Brothersand Sisters and everybody else. I mean,
the amount of feverish work that ishappening all over the country right now
preparing for dragon Con is real,and it's I like, I'm so excited
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to get there and see it.I guess the real difference between dragon Con
and all other cons is the dragonCon really goes twenty four seven for its
whole length. The whole time dragonCON's happening, something is going on and
people are still in costume at fourin the morning, and the elevators and
I'm just I'm so here for it. I can vividly remember an incident where
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I think it was about three inthe morning. I was standing in there's
an area where they used to doa drum circle that went all hours of
the night at dragon Con, andI was standing there with some of the
Ghost Hunters guys from that show,and I get a text from my wife
that Steve Irwin had died, andall that sort of happened at once,
And it's just part of this surrealmemory that I have when when people talk
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about dragon Con Gallic going all hoursof the night. That's one of the
things I always remember is just thatsurreal moment of standing there in this room
of a drum circle with you know, Steve Gonsalvas and telling him, Hey,
look, Steve Irwin just died.It's just such a it's such a
bizarre thing, the fact that itdoes go on. Speaking of those guys,
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I can remember one year in particularthat I was with them and we
ended up bumping into Tory from MythBusters, and he at some point was like,
Hey, I'm about to go toa party up in Grant Imahara's room.
You want to come? And Isaid sure, So I've been to
a party in his room at DragonCon. I always think of him every
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year at Dragon Con, and Iknow you guys were close. It's just
it's one of those things where Ialways end up thinking about him this time
of year. Sure, yeah,I can totally. Yeah. I was
just an open thought, which wasa a maker based con here in San
Francisco, it would be the bestway to describe it. And yeah,
(08:07):
I saw a lot of my oldmutual friends with Grant and there was a
lot of sharing about that. It'sparticularly the people that Grant intersected with at
cons. That was one of themain avenues. I think a lot of
people got to experience Grant's deep kindnessand loving personality. Yeah. Absolutely,
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just the nicest guy. And seeinghim on the floor, just walking around
looking at the cosplay and just withfans and people and just interacting. It
was just great. He was aspecial guy. Can we talk a little
bit. I was just thinking abouta cosplay, a last minute cosplay that
might be something I could pull off. I was thinking about maybe a guy
drowning in the ocean and a BillyJoel video. Got any tips for that,
(08:52):
anything you could? Well, youknow you're referring to my very first
acting job, which was being akid that drowns in Billy Choll's video You're
Only Human. You know. Iactually got that part. I got cast
in that part because of the glassesI brought to the audition because they thought
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they were so weird and fun looking. And then I got into the water
on set when we're filming the video, and the very first thing I did
was lose those glasses in the water. They were they were very nice about
it, but I imagine they wereprobably pretty pissed off about it. Well,
the glasses are very much a signaturelook for you anyway. Yes,
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but those those that was that wasa compromise. They grabbed someone's rabands and
pop the lenses out in order touse those glasses. Yeah, gotcha,
gotcha. So it was a differentpair of glasses that you were wearing while
you were drowning. I was wonderingwhy you were swimming in glasses. Yeah.
You had to maintain the character,that's right, Just stay in the
in character you. I mean,you've got this, you know, growing
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up with interacting with Sesame Street andthen obviously that being the Billy Joel video
being an early job for you.I mean, it had to be an
interesting childhood working your way into thecareer that you ultimately ended up in.
Well so, I as you know, when you look back at your career
from the vantage point of the present, it always looks fairly linear. And
(10:26):
the reality is it couldn't be fartherfrom that is that that couldn't be farther
from the truth. But yeah,I you know, I grew up with
an artist. I grew up myfather was a painter and an animator,
and I got to I got towatch his process and I got to watch
how important that creation was for him. And so that was sort of the
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water I grew up swimming in.And I feel really lucky to have been
privileged with that kind of upbringing,to be able to see someone do something
creative that didn't pay them any moneybut really fed them in a vital way.
And I'm really grateful for that becausethat kind of the respect for that
path has been part of my entirecareer. And I just feel really lucky
(11:13):
that I get to, like,you know, I live here in San
Francisco a couple of blocks from myshop, and I get to ride over
to the shop every day and kindof build whatever I'm thinking about, and
that just feels like an incredible grace. Do you ever stop to think about
and you talk about being able tobuild things, and your ability to build
things is uh, you know,at a very high level. I mean,
(11:33):
we see you doing that on youron your YouTube channel, and if
you'd been born at a different time, it would it could have been wasted.
Do you ever think about that?I mean, how unique it is
the time that we are born andwhen we live into what our abilities are.
My kids are adults now, they'retwenty four adults. Is and quotes,
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but specifically when your kids are oldenough to leave the house and go
sort of, you know, startto brave through their lives on their own.
It has given me lots of timeto reflect and pause on how remarkable,
remarkable it is to be born atthis moment in time and to be
able to have had the adventures thatI've gotten to have regular Every now and
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then, a conversation will come upabout something bizarre and I'll realize I've done
it. I'll realize I've tried thatthing that that's being talked about, and
you know, it just thinks inthat like you know, fort for thirteen
years on MythBusters, I get tohave a weekly set of unparalleled experiences.
Well and as far as MythBusters goes, I think it's, uh, it's
(12:39):
unique in so many ways. Andwhat you guys were able to do with
the show, I feel like youcarry around a certain amount of knowledge that
can be you know, you needa certain responsibility to go with it with
great I'll say, I'll paraphrase andsay knowledge comes responsibility, because I mean,
one, it's got to be difficultwhen you you're someone in a conversation,
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maybe you're at a party and they'retalking about one of the myths that
you've busted, and you probably getthe urge regularly to go no, or
I mean, is that something thatyou feel like you have to kind of
reel in because you don't want tobe that guy? Or do you just
yeah, okay, so But atthe same time, I take that responsibility
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really seriously. I recently was talkingwith a friend about whether or not one
uses soap on their cast iron pants, and there are people that get very
precious about that and they have theirideas about it. I am not so
precious. But you know, myfriend was like, I never put soap
in the pan, and then heexpressed his understanding of what he thought the
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physics were of why soap was badfor a cast iron pan, and I
disagreed, but I didn't feel likegetting into it because you know, I
hadn't researched it, so like,I'm not gonna I'm not gonna stand on
my authority and go now that's notright, I'll go look it up right.
And also, frankly, I'm verynon confrontational. I don't I don't
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like I don't like telling people stuffthey don't want to hear. I will
if I have to but yeah,I am not here to be that guy
and go oh, actually, well, and you guys own a little piece
of real estate in my head becauseanytime I'm filling up my car and I
see the sign that says no cellphones, it could ignite the pump and
(14:26):
I go, oh, you guysneed to watch MythBusters. You need to
understand that this can't happen. We'vealready covered this. Oh, I will
tell you that that episode about cellphones at gas stations. The year before
we filmed that episode, on average, they were like, I think six
or steven fires at gas stations aroundthe world per year. It was a
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very low number when you consider howmany billions of times people fill their cars
up with gas. But the yearafter that episode aired, that number dropped
by like three quarters. It waslike from six people six fires a year
to like two fires a year.I think it's one of the most effective
episodes we ever felt. Well,that's great to hear, and that's got
(15:07):
to feel good when you think you'reable to help things. It probably I'm
just going to assume, and Iguess I need to ask this, but
how it feels knowing the impact thatyou had with the show. As far
as future minds headed towards stem careers, that's got to feel good. Well,
you know, as I say toyoung people who come to me and
tell me that they grew up onthe show and are in engineering because of
(15:31):
the show, and I often say, well, please apologize to your parents
because I'm sure you destroyed some propertyas you've learned your crabs. But you
know, it is remarkable every timesomeone comes up to me and says that
they're an engineer or a scientists becauseof what they saw in The Busters.
It is humbling. Every single time. It's astounding. And I also try
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not to spend a lot of timedwelling on it because the reason we were
effective, If there's any primary reasonthat Mitbusters was effective, it's because all
five of us hosts were honestly interestedin the stories we were telling. And
I am still interested in the storiesI'm telling and not worrying so much about
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their their long tail or their aspect. Just you know, it's it seems
to me, as a fifty sixyear old man in this world that it's
incumbent on me to pass everything Iknow onto people younger than me, Like
that's just my path right now.I was just watching on your tested channel.
You were talking, you were takingquestions from people who had written in,
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and you were talking about the giftof being able to help people that
you work with move on to otherthings, move on to other yilds.
Working in radio, it's a verysort of different experience where you have some
people who seem to want to kindof hold you back. I never understood
that with people that I worked with, and always did everything I could to
try to help people that were workingfor me or with me move on to
(17:04):
bigger and better things. I alwaysthought that was more of a reflection,
a positive reflection, than trying tohold them back. And I loved hearing
you talk about that, about justbeing able to do something to pass that
on to the people that you workedwith. Well, the thing that Okay,
so, first of all, allof my rants and in late stage
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capitalism rants, but if there's onething that makes me crazy the most about
capitalism is the idea of the zerosum game, which is that for every
action, someone has to win andsomeone has to lose. And the thing
that I've come to understand in twentyfive almost thirty years of working in the
entertainment. Sorry, thirty years,almost twenty years of working in television,
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thirty five years working in the entertainmentindustry, is that it's not a zero
sum game. There's room for everybody. There are a lot of people who
think that they have to keep youdown so that they can progress. But
one of the things I like tellingpeople is, even if you are a
selfish fastard, it is still inyour best interest to help along everyone that
(18:11):
you meet, because the long taleof that goodwill will come back and reward
you later in great, bountiful dividends. I not only believe that, but
I practice it, and I've benefitedfrom that, and so yeah, it's
not a zero sum game. AndI do believe in helping along people who
(18:32):
ask for help, people who yousee you can aid and a beat.
I like, my life is somuch better because of that. You mentioned
in this same episode about having acrew that was largely Australian. My wife
is Australian, and you mentioned thatthey felt like the show overall had an
Australian sense of humor about it,and I told her that, and she's
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like, what is exackly as anAustralian sense of humor? Well, the
Aussies. So you know, theAussie's sense of humor is slightly different,
but of a piece with the otherthe other Commonwealth countries like New Zealand and
the UK. There are a lotof cross similarities and one of the biggest
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ones is what the Aussies would calltaking the piss, and taking the piss
is just taking someone down a notch, because everyone needs taken down a notch
every now and then. And I, like, I fully believe that.
I think the Aussies are totally right. We all do need to take ourselves
less seriously. And it's one ofmy favorite things about learning about that country
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and its people was also learning howto take the piss from the Aussies.
I completely agree, and that wasthat was my guess as to the answer.
And I'll say this, my wife'sgonna hate that I'm sharing this,
but my favorite expression that I learnedfrom her, and you probably would have
heard this from the Aussie's working withyou, but one of my favorite express
is to tell somebody, ha,suck a fart. I always love the
(20:06):
term of something that something that istotally messed up as a dog's breakfast.
Yes, it makes me very happy. And I think while watching this,
I spotted you drinking a Bundy gingerbeer. Is that what you were drinking?
I dude, Bunderberg ginger Beers theking of all ginger beers, one
of my all time favorites. Andin fact, the company itself, which
(20:29):
is based in Australia, sent mesome Bunderberg ginger Beer over COVID with my
face on the bottle. They werevery, very kind and printed up some
custom labels for me. Now therewas no danger of them getting boycotted and
anybody like you know, you didn'trun any risk of that with your face
on the bottle. I doubt it, but we'll see. I just want
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to make sure there's no controversy involvingyour face. I would like to have
a Bundy bottle with your face onit. That would have been a great
collectible there. It's very it's veryentertaining. At this point the show has
been like MythBusters started in two thousandand three. And what I'm learning now
is I move around the world,is that some people who grew up on
the early seasons of the show areactually running things now. And so when
(21:17):
we go to labs and engineering firmsand stuff like that. We'll run into
crew leads who quote grew up onthe show, and that's just really lovely
to me. I can't believe thatwhen I move out, move around the
world, to run into people likethat. So you did the show thirteen
years and then suddenly you're not doingthe show anymore anytime, you know,
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they talk about divorce and career changeand those sorts of things are some of
the most traumatic things that we experience. But at that point, after doing
that show, you know, goingthrough its peak, and then you get
to the end and you had tojust be standing around going all right,
now, what yeah, one dIt was very a very weird reality after
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doing the same thing for so long. I had. I have a good
friend who is on one of theCSI shows for more than the better part
of a decade, and she toldme a year before we rapped the show.
I told her that it was coming, and she said, just I'm
going to give you a warning.She said, you're gonna go insane,
(22:22):
and she was totally right. Idid certainly lose my mind for a few
weeks, so just like didn't knowwhat to do with myself. But I
also think that humans dislike change.I think it's a natural human condition to
dislike and resist change, And allthat being said, it is amazing to
me. Now we are. Weare the show wrapped in the last episode's
(22:42):
aired at the beginning of twenty sixteen, So we are. We're almost seven
years from the rapping of the show. I am so happy right now,
not being on television, but beingon YouTube. The creative the creative breadth
of what I get to do onYouTube far surpasses anything I've ever got to
(23:03):
do on television, working with thebest team I've ever worked with, and
I'm just so happy right now.Well, it's obvious you found a way
to move on because you seem busier, at least seem busier than you were.
Well, I think I am busier. I'm not flying quite as much,
but I am busier. Normally,I like to wrap interviews by giving
folks an opportunity to tell their fansthat are coming up to see them any
(23:27):
last words for them. But Ikind of feel like maybe you should have
just addressed the Cause players who arepanicking here with a week Togo Cause players.
I want to tell you just toremember that the costume is never done
it's never completed. It's never finished. There's always something that's left by the
wayside in the interest of getting doneon the schedule. And that's okay.
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The costume does not have to beperfect. It is good enough that you
show up. I love you askingme to talk about that, because I
know there's all these people freaking outat sewing machines and of three D printers
and trying to get stuff ready.And I I said earlier on in this
interview that the discomfort of cosplay isa key part of it, and so
(24:12):
is the panic before the con.I love it. You said all that.
The only thing you didn't mention wasthe hot glue guns. But but
but hearing you say all of that, we know that you're one of us.
Well, and I'll see you guysall on the floor at Dragon Con
in Atlanta very shortly. Adam Savage, thank you so much, hey man,
(24:33):
thank you so much. That wasthat was really fun. And that'll
do it for the twenty twenty threeedition of the Dragon Con pregame show.
To learn more about Cure Childhood Cancer, visit Cure Childhood Cancer dot org For
more information about Columbus State University's CocaCola Space Science Center in Columbus. Visit
cc SSC dot org for more informationabout dragon Con, or to purchase your
(24:56):
membership, visit DragonCon dot org.Thanks again to our guests Adam Savage,
Phil Lamar, Dan Carroll, KristinConnor, and doctor Seawan Kruzen. Thanks
to Sam, Greg Tillman and therest of the media relations team at dragon
Con, and thank you for listening. I'll see you at dragon Con.
This has been the dragon Con pregameshow powered by Columbus State University's Coca Cola
(25:22):
Space Science Center. Learn more atccssc dot org and transmission now
This is the dragon Con pregame showpowered by Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space
Science Center, where you can learnthe science behind the fiction. My guest
is a visual effects artist, producer, actor, Webby Award winner, six
time Emmy nominee, you know andbest for his work on MythBusters, and
Adam Savage is tested. It's misterAdam Savage. Welcome, Thank you very
(00:25):
much, thanks for having me.So this is not your first go at
dragon Con. You have been before. I've seen you before at dragon Cone.
It's a unique convention. I knowyou you do appearances a lot of
these things, but this one isnot like all of the others. It's
special in its own way. Whatis it that gets you coming back to
dragon Con? Dragon Con is dragonCon is the deep dive. And it's
(00:53):
not to say that people aren't divingdeep at other cons, but there's just
a level that the cause players bringto dragon Con that's of a that's fundamentally
of another order. And I really, I'm really here for that culture.
And I actually one of the lovelythings about traveling around and doing different cons
is that they each do have uniquecultures to them and it's been a long
(01:19):
time to do. You're right,I've done dragon Con a few times,
but it's been a while and I'mreally looking forward to getting back in to
get them back there. I'm gladyou mentioned the cosplay because I do think
it's it's among the best. It'sthe best as far as conventions that I've
been to, and I've been tosome big ones, and I'm always wild
by what I see at dragon Con, and I know that cosplay has a
(01:45):
special connection for you. You haveundergone the incognito experience at some conventions before.
I remember years ago, right asthe Norman Retis was kind of hitting
it big in popularity for a showhe was working on, and I saw
(02:05):
him putting on a mask just togo to the bathroom from his table in
the autograph area. And I rememberseeing that and I remember going, well,
that's that's great. That's a greatidea that that works. You've been
doing that at a different level,going around and meeting people in cosplays yourself,
and it looks like having a reallygood time to do it. Other
(02:28):
than all the sweating, well,the sweating and the discomfort, they are
actually part and parcel of the wholecosplay experience. Yes, they are uncomfortable,
but frankly, the mild amount ofsuffering that we caused players get to
encounter is part of the culture ofcosplay. There is definitely there's definitely an
(02:52):
aspect of it to that, Andyou're right. The first time I did
it, I was doing it becauseI had a hit show. I was
all over television and I didn't thinkI could walk the floor at just as
me and so I thought, well, let me put together a costume that
covers me. And I didn't realizethat Number one, any costume that covers
you as going to be hot ashell. But the second one was any
(03:15):
costume you go to the length ofdoing the full body coverage is going to
be somewhat remarkable and people are gonnatake note. I thought I would blend
in in a full body covering costume, and in fact I stood out And
that was that was the first inklingI had that this the cosplay culture was
not as simple or as straightforward asI thought it was. And I mean
(03:38):
it's there that I found so muchof a family. And as you're in
these cosplays and you're walking around doingyou know, incognito and you're you're meeting
people and they're wanting photos with you. What do you think the percentages of
people that never make the connection thatit's you. Well, you know people
now now my Adam and cognito isa is a known quantity. And when
(04:01):
people know I'm coming to a con, I think they walk up to a
lot of people in full costume andask if it's me. And still a
lot of times people don't realize thatthat's happened, that they're meeting me,
or that they're taking a picture withme until I tweet later on in the
day, And I absolutely love that. That makes me very happy. But
I will tell you I have hadlike I also sometimes just put a helmet
(04:26):
on to walk the floor, youknow, like I'll be wearing normal clothes,
but I'll be wearing some franchise moviehelmet. And I have still been
recognized by my gate, by theparticular way in which I walk, So
there's sometimes there's no escape. It'sgreat. Those are your real fans.
When they know your gate, they'rereal fans. You're totally right. It's
(04:47):
hard to hide the gate. It'svery hard to hide the gate. Any
plans for anything incognito a dragon Youcan't spoil anything, but any plans at
all a Dragon Con. I havevery mild plans for Dragon Con. We
have had an incredibly busy year attested my YouTube channel. We've just put
(05:09):
up some new videos for Bethesda's Bethesda'sgame Starfield, and we've been doing some
stuff with Princess Cruise lines and that. There's been some wonderful content we've gotten
to produce. They've made a lotof things possible for us, and that
means it's hard for me to puttogether elaborate costumes to come out. And
(05:30):
the summer got the summer disappeared quickly. So I'm bringing, I'm bringing,
I'm bringing an Incognito, but it'sgoing to be a lightweight one, gotcha.
I think a lot of people,as they get closer to Dragon Con
have that realization, oh my gosh, I haven't even gotten all this sorted
out yet. So there's a lotof people who put it together very quickly,
but to do it right, itdoes take a lot of extra planning.
(05:51):
And I know from watching the Incognitoseries, I know that you you
don't want to do that. Youdon't want to rush it well, And
I mean to my Cosprey play Brothersand Sisters and everybody else. I mean,
the amount of feverish work that ishappening all over the country right now
preparing for dragon Con is real,and it's I like, I'm so excited
(06:15):
to get there and see it.I guess the real difference between dragon Con
and all other cons is the dragonCon really goes twenty four seven for its
whole length. The whole time dragonCON's happening, something is going on and
people are still in costume at fourin the morning, and the elevators and
I'm just I'm so here for it. I can vividly remember an incident where
(06:41):
I think it was about three inthe morning. I was standing in there's
an area where they used to doa drum circle that went all hours of
the night at dragon Con, andI was standing there with some of the
Ghost Hunters guys from that show,and I get a text from my wife
that Steve Irwin had died, andall that sort of happened at once,
And it's just part of this surrealmemory that I have when when people talk
(07:01):
about dragon Con Gallic going all hoursof the night. That's one of the
things I always remember is just thatsurreal moment of standing there in this room
of a drum circle with you know, Steve Gonsalvas and telling him, Hey,
look, Steve Irwin just died.It's just such a it's such a
bizarre thing, the fact that itdoes go on. Speaking of those guys,
(07:24):
I can remember one year in particularthat I was with them and we
ended up bumping into Tory from MythBusters, and he at some point was like,
Hey, I'm about to go toa party up in Grant Imahara's room.
You want to come? And Isaid sure, So I've been to
a party in his room at DragonCon. I always think of him every
(07:46):
year at Dragon Con, and Iknow you guys were close. It's just
it's one of those things where Ialways end up thinking about him this time
of year. Sure, yeah,I can totally. Yeah. I was
just an open thought, which wasa a maker based con here in San
Francisco, it would be the bestway to describe it. And yeah,
(08:07):
I saw a lot of my oldmutual friends with Grant and there was a
lot of sharing about that. It'sparticularly the people that Grant intersected with at
cons. That was one of themain avenues. I think a lot of
people got to experience Grant's deep kindnessand loving personality. Yeah. Absolutely,
(08:28):
just the nicest guy. And seeinghim on the floor, just walking around
looking at the cosplay and just withfans and people and just interacting. It
was just great. He was aspecial guy. Can we talk a little
bit. I was just thinking abouta cosplay, a last minute cosplay that
might be something I could pull off. I was thinking about maybe a guy
drowning in the ocean and a BillyJoel video. Got any tips for that,
(08:52):
anything you could? Well, youknow you're referring to my very first
acting job, which was being akid that drowns in Billy Choll's video You're
Only Human. You know. Iactually got that part. I got cast
in that part because of the glassesI brought to the audition because they thought
(09:15):
they were so weird and fun looking. And then I got into the water
on set when we're filming the video, and the very first thing I did
was lose those glasses in the water. They were they were very nice about
it, but I imagine they wereprobably pretty pissed off about it. Well,
the glasses are very much a signaturelook for you anyway. Yes,
(09:39):
but those those that was that wasa compromise. They grabbed someone's rabands and
pop the lenses out in order touse those glasses. Yeah, gotcha,
gotcha. So it was a differentpair of glasses that you were wearing while
you were drowning. I was wonderingwhy you were swimming in glasses. Yeah.
You had to maintain the character,that's right, Just stay in the
in character you. I mean,you've got this, you know, growing
(10:01):
up with interacting with Sesame Street andthen obviously that being the Billy Joel video
being an early job for you.I mean, it had to be an
interesting childhood working your way into thecareer that you ultimately ended up in.
Well so, I as you know, when you look back at your career
from the vantage point of the present, it always looks fairly linear. And
(10:26):
the reality is it couldn't be fartherfrom that is that that couldn't be farther
from the truth. But yeah,I you know, I grew up with
an artist. I grew up myfather was a painter and an animator,
and I got to I got towatch his process and I got to watch
how important that creation was for him. And so that was sort of the
(10:46):
water I grew up swimming in.And I feel really lucky to have been
privileged with that kind of upbringing,to be able to see someone do something
creative that didn't pay them any moneybut really fed them in a vital way.
And I'm really grateful for that becausethat kind of the respect for that
path has been part of my entirecareer. And I just feel really lucky
(11:13):
that I get to, like,you know, I live here in San
Francisco a couple of blocks from myshop, and I get to ride over
to the shop every day and kindof build whatever I'm thinking about, and
that just feels like an incredible grace. Do you ever stop to think about
and you talk about being able tobuild things, and your ability to build
things is uh, you know,at a very high level. I mean,
(11:33):
we see you doing that on youron your YouTube channel, and if
you'd been born at a different time, it would it could have been wasted.
Do you ever think about that?I mean, how unique it is
the time that we are born andwhen we live into what our abilities are.
My kids are adults now, they'retwenty four adults. Is and quotes,
(11:54):
but specifically when your kids are oldenough to leave the house and go
sort of, you know, startto brave through their lives on their own.
It has given me lots of timeto reflect and pause on how remarkable,
remarkable it is to be born atthis moment in time and to be
able to have had the adventures thatI've gotten to have regular Every now and
(12:16):
then, a conversation will come upabout something bizarre and I'll realize I've done
it. I'll realize I've tried thatthing that that's being talked about, and
you know, it just thinks inthat like you know, fort for thirteen
years on MythBusters, I get tohave a weekly set of unparalleled experiences.
Well and as far as MythBusters goes, I think it's, uh, it's
(12:39):
unique in so many ways. Andwhat you guys were able to do with
the show, I feel like youcarry around a certain amount of knowledge that
can be you know, you needa certain responsibility to go with it with
great I'll say, I'll paraphrase andsay knowledge comes responsibility, because I mean,
one, it's got to be difficultwhen you you're someone in a conversation,
(13:01):
maybe you're at a party and they'retalking about one of the myths that
you've busted, and you probably getthe urge regularly to go no, or
I mean, is that something thatyou feel like you have to kind of
reel in because you don't want tobe that guy? Or do you just
yeah, okay, so But atthe same time, I take that responsibility
(13:22):
really seriously. I recently was talkingwith a friend about whether or not one
uses soap on their cast iron pants, and there are people that get very
precious about that and they have theirideas about it. I am not so
precious. But you know, myfriend was like, I never put soap
in the pan, and then heexpressed his understanding of what he thought the
(13:43):
physics were of why soap was badfor a cast iron pan, and I
disagreed, but I didn't feel likegetting into it because you know, I
hadn't researched it, so like,I'm not gonna I'm not gonna stand on
my authority and go now that's notright, I'll go look it up right.
And also, frankly, I'm verynon confrontational. I don't I don't
(14:05):
like I don't like telling people stuffthey don't want to hear. I will
if I have to but yeah,I am not here to be that guy
and go oh, actually, well, and you guys own a little piece
of real estate in my head becauseanytime I'm filling up my car and I
see the sign that says no cellphones, it could ignite the pump and
(14:26):
I go, oh, you guysneed to watch MythBusters. You need to
understand that this can't happen. We'vealready covered this. Oh, I will
tell you that that episode about cellphones at gas stations. The year before
we filmed that episode, on average, they were like, I think six
or steven fires at gas stations aroundthe world per year. It was a
(14:46):
very low number when you consider howmany billions of times people fill their cars
up with gas. But the yearafter that episode aired, that number dropped
by like three quarters. It waslike from six people six fires a year
to like two fires a year.I think it's one of the most effective
episodes we ever felt. Well,that's great to hear, and that's got
(15:07):
to feel good when you think you'reable to help things. It probably I'm
just going to assume, and Iguess I need to ask this, but
how it feels knowing the impact thatyou had with the show. As far
as future minds headed towards stem careers, that's got to feel good. Well,
you know, as I say toyoung people who come to me and
tell me that they grew up onthe show and are in engineering because of
(15:31):
the show, and I often say, well, please apologize to your parents
because I'm sure you destroyed some propertyas you've learned your crabs. But you
know, it is remarkable every timesomeone comes up to me and says that
they're an engineer or a scientists becauseof what they saw in The Busters.
It is humbling. Every single time. It's astounding. And I also try
(15:54):
not to spend a lot of timedwelling on it because the reason we were
effective, If there's any primary reasonthat Mitbusters was effective, it's because all
five of us hosts were honestly interestedin the stories we were telling. And
I am still interested in the storiesI'm telling and not worrying so much about
(16:18):
their their long tail or their aspect. Just you know, it's it seems
to me, as a fifty sixyear old man in this world that it's
incumbent on me to pass everything Iknow onto people younger than me, Like
that's just my path right now.I was just watching on your tested channel.
You were talking, you were takingquestions from people who had written in,
(16:42):
and you were talking about the giftof being able to help people that
you work with move on to otherthings, move on to other yilds.
Working in radio, it's a verysort of different experience where you have some
people who seem to want to kindof hold you back. I never understood
that with people that I worked with, and always did everything I could to
try to help people that were workingfor me or with me move on to
(17:04):
bigger and better things. I alwaysthought that was more of a reflection,
a positive reflection, than trying tohold them back. And I loved hearing
you talk about that, about justbeing able to do something to pass that
on to the people that you workedwith. Well, the thing that Okay,
so, first of all, allof my rants and in late stage
(17:25):
capitalism rants, but if there's onething that makes me crazy the most about
capitalism is the idea of the zerosum game, which is that for every
action, someone has to win andsomeone has to lose. And the thing
that I've come to understand in twentyfive almost thirty years of working in the
entertainment. Sorry, thirty years,almost twenty years of working in television,
(17:49):
thirty five years working in the entertainmentindustry, is that it's not a zero
sum game. There's room for everybody. There are a lot of people who
think that they have to keep youdown so that they can progress. But
one of the things I like tellingpeople is, even if you are a
selfish fastard, it is still inyour best interest to help along everyone that
(18:11):
you meet, because the long taleof that goodwill will come back and reward
you later in great, bountiful dividends. I not only believe that, but
I practice it, and I've benefitedfrom that, and so yeah, it's
not a zero sum game. AndI do believe in helping along people who
(18:32):
ask for help, people who yousee you can aid and a beat.
I like, my life is somuch better because of that. You mentioned
in this same episode about having acrew that was largely Australian. My wife
is Australian, and you mentioned thatthey felt like the show overall had an
Australian sense of humor about it,and I told her that, and she's
(18:55):
like, what is exackly as anAustralian sense of humor? Well, the
Aussies. So you know, theAussie's sense of humor is slightly different,
but of a piece with the otherthe other Commonwealth countries like New Zealand and
the UK. There are a lotof cross similarities and one of the biggest
(19:18):
ones is what the Aussies would calltaking the piss, and taking the piss
is just taking someone down a notch, because everyone needs taken down a notch
every now and then. And I, like, I fully believe that.
I think the Aussies are totally right. We all do need to take ourselves
less seriously. And it's one ofmy favorite things about learning about that country
(19:41):
and its people was also learning howto take the piss from the Aussies.
I completely agree, and that wasthat was my guess as to the answer.
And I'll say this, my wife'sgonna hate that I'm sharing this,
but my favorite expression that I learnedfrom her, and you probably would have
heard this from the Aussie's working withyou, but one of my favorite express
is to tell somebody, ha,suck a fart. I always love the
(20:06):
term of something that something that istotally messed up as a dog's breakfast.
Yes, it makes me very happy. And I think while watching this,
I spotted you drinking a Bundy gingerbeer. Is that what you were drinking?
I dude, Bunderberg ginger Beers theking of all ginger beers, one
of my all time favorites. Andin fact, the company itself, which
(20:29):
is based in Australia, sent mesome Bunderberg ginger Beer over COVID with my
face on the bottle. They werevery, very kind and printed up some
custom labels for me. Now therewas no danger of them getting boycotted and
anybody like you know, you didn'trun any risk of that with your face
on the bottle. I doubt it, but we'll see. I just want
(20:52):
to make sure there's no controversy involvingyour face. I would like to have
a Bundy bottle with your face onit. That would have been a great
collectible there. It's very it's veryentertaining. At this point the show has
been like MythBusters started in two thousandand three. And what I'm learning now
is I move around the world,is that some people who grew up on
the early seasons of the show areactually running things now. And so when
(21:17):
we go to labs and engineering firmsand stuff like that. We'll run into
crew leads who quote grew up onthe show, and that's just really lovely
to me. I can't believe thatwhen I move out, move around the
world, to run into people likethat. So you did the show thirteen
years and then suddenly you're not doingthe show anymore anytime, you know,
(21:38):
they talk about divorce and career changeand those sorts of things are some of
the most traumatic things that we experience. But at that point, after doing
that show, you know, goingthrough its peak, and then you get
to the end and you had tojust be standing around going all right,
now, what yeah, one dIt was very a very weird reality after
(22:00):
doing the same thing for so long. I had. I have a good
friend who is on one of theCSI shows for more than the better part
of a decade, and she toldme a year before we rapped the show.
I told her that it was coming, and she said, just I'm
going to give you a warning.She said, you're gonna go insane,
(22:22):
and she was totally right. Idid certainly lose my mind for a few
weeks, so just like didn't knowwhat to do with myself. But I
also think that humans dislike change.I think it's a natural human condition to
dislike and resist change, And allthat being said, it is amazing to
me. Now we are. Weare the show wrapped in the last episode's
(22:42):
aired at the beginning of twenty sixteen, So we are. We're almost seven
years from the rapping of the show. I am so happy right now,
not being on television, but beingon YouTube. The creative the creative breadth
of what I get to do onYouTube far surpasses anything I've ever got to
(23:03):
do on television, working with thebest team I've ever worked with, and
I'm just so happy right now.Well, it's obvious you found a way
to move on because you seem busier, at least seem busier than you were.
Well, I think I am busier. I'm not flying quite as much,
but I am busier. Normally,I like to wrap interviews by giving
folks an opportunity to tell their fansthat are coming up to see them any
(23:27):
last words for them. But Ikind of feel like maybe you should have
just addressed the Cause players who arepanicking here with a week Togo Cause players.
I want to tell you just toremember that the costume is never done
it's never completed. It's never finished. There's always something that's left by the
wayside in the interest of getting doneon the schedule. And that's okay.
(23:51):
The costume does not have to beperfect. It is good enough that you
show up. I love you askingme to talk about that, because I
know there's all these people freaking outat sewing machines and of three D printers
and trying to get stuff ready.And I I said earlier on in this
interview that the discomfort of cosplay isa key part of it, and so
(24:12):
is the panic before the con.I love it. You said all that.
The only thing you didn't mention wasthe hot glue guns. But but
but hearing you say all of that, we know that you're one of us.
Well, and I'll see you guysall on the floor at Dragon Con
in Atlanta very shortly. Adam Savage, thank you so much, hey man,
(24:33):
thank you so much. That wasthat was really fun. And that'll
do it for the twenty twenty threeedition of the Dragon Con pregame show.
To learn more about Cure Childhood Cancer, visit Cure Childhood Cancer dot org For
more information about Columbus State University's CocaCola Space Science Center in Columbus. Visit
cc SSC dot org for more informationabout dragon Con, or to purchase your
(24:56):
membership, visit DragonCon dot org.Thanks again to our guests Adam Savage,
Phil Lamar, Dan Carroll, KristinConnor, and doctor Seawan Kruzen. Thanks
to Sam, Greg Tillman and therest of the media relations team at dragon
Con, and thank you for listening. I'll see you at dragon Con.
This has been the dragon Con pregameshow powered by Columbus State University's Coca Cola
(25:22):
Space Science Center. Learn more atccssc dot org and transmission now
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