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Moderator: Welcome to our live chat with MythBusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. Likely you're coming here having just seen the premiere of Boom Lift Catapult, but don't feel compelled to keep your questions limited to that episode. Adam and Jamie are here to answer your questions about the series, mythbusting in general or whatever's on your mind. So ask away.
Adam: Hi, MythBusters here. We're glad to have a chance to respond to you, because we get so many emails we don't usually have time to reply. But we read every one!
Jamie: I'm sitting here playing with my snake, Gomez, in case anyone wanted to know what his name is.
BlckWidowNor: Adam and Jamie, how did you meet?
Adam: I used to work in theater in San Francisco, doing all sorts of different things like rigging and carpentry. I got a reputation for making props that nobody else knew how to make. Somebody I was working with at this shop worked with Jamie for a weekend on an animation job, and he told Jamie that he had to meet me. Jamie called me, probably back in 1993 or 1994, and it was a great interview. I brought in a box of toys and talked about props I liked, and I told Jamie how cool I thought all the props from Arachnophobia were, before he told me that he had actually built those spiders from the movie.
Jamie: In this line of work, we get a lot of applicants for jobs. It's seen as a fun way to earn a living. So one has to filter those things. In Adam's case, I kept getting his name put in front of me by various people in different paths, so eventually it stuck and I brought him in. He's turned out to be one of the better people as far as range of skills and speed. Speed is crucial in our business, and Adam is fast!
Striderswife: What has been your favorite myth to bust so far?
Adam: Jamie's favorite is the "Rocket Car."
Jamie: And Adam's favorite was the "Escape From Alcatraz."
Adam: Alcatraz to me was one of the most fun because from a technical point of view, I read all 1,800 pages of the FBI report on the Alcatraz escape, and I felt we came up with the most detailed reproduction of exactly the kinds of rafts they built to escape. I had no idea until I got in the boat whether it would sail immediately or carry us to shore. It was very exciting to reach the shore in exactly the amount of time we expected to.
Jamie: In my case, the rocket car is very simple. I'm not that fascinated by the myths, at least not as much as Adam is. I just like to build neat things. And as far as a neat thing, a radio-controlled full-size car with a rocket is about as neat as I can imagine! I would probably opt for taking a ride to the moon instead, but short of that, this was right up there.
