Can two phone books with their pages interlaced support the weight of a pasty TV personality in glasses? How did robot-on-robot combat lead to one of the best TV shows of the past decade? Can a medieval suit of armor stand up to a barrage of paintballs fired from a massive gun turret? These questions and more can be answered at the Mythbusters ‘Behind the Myths’ live stage show, which I had the pleasure of viewing at the OnCenter in Syracuse, NY, Wednesday night. I’m a huge fan of the show Mythbusters, and it was a blast (sometimes literally) to see the stars Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman on stage joking and performing for the audience. Their star power really sells their live tour.

Unfortunately, the name is a little misleading. Whereas I was hoping for a real science-based spectacle full of anecdotes and stories about working on Mythbusters, the performance was actually more geared towards wacky hijinks and silly, but simple, science demonstrations. Little of it would actually qualify as peeking ‘behind the myths’, as it were.

Show rating: 4/5: Good.

If they had brought that much anger to the stage, it would have been a very different show

That’s not to say the live performance by Savage and Hyneman was not entertaining. The two-hour show was often very funny, and the two stars were obviously having fun on stage. They interacted well with the audience, both those who joined them on stage and those who remained seated. But on a TV show dedicated to weighty scientific pursuits, I was hoping for more of the same to sink my teeth into. I wanted more science and less silliness.

Join me for more after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry →