mikey's lab wants to know mythbusters demanded that you acquire a wide variety of skills in a
short time if you could offer one insight or tip on how you acquired the skills what would it be um
yeah that was fun like getting trained to drive by so many different stun people
um getting trained to do dorado or jump off of buildings by stunt people
i mean yeah all of that skill collection was really delightful
every skill i have learned whether it is using a wood lathe or leather work
carpentry welding every skill there is this moment at which i have learned enough to know what i'm
supposed to do with this blade and that material and i'm about to do it and because i'm nervous
i'm clenched up i'm tense my hands are tight my arms are tight my jaw might
be clenched i kind of want to get this right and in every single case
you got to relax and relax your shoulders you're going to relax your jaw got to relax your hands
got it like understand that the crafts person who does this for a living is not tense about
doing it and that tension is actually part of your problem as a newbie you don't want to be so loose
that you know you can't make straight cuts but i keep on finding this moment of like if i can't get
something right i tried it like four times i check in with my body and if like part of my body is
really clenched up i relax that and all of a sudden things get easier
um i like to joke that it's less is more but that's not what lessons more actually means as a
cultural phrase but yeah in this don't force it um which is one of the three rules of a knife
what are the other two rules keep it sharp always point it away from yourself and never force if you
do those three things keep your knives super sharp always point them away and never force
you're going to end up with a lot less stitches in your hands than i have and every time you're
about to force a blade and you're thinking to yourself could this be dangerous i swear you
will not be able to finish that thought because you'll be can this be and then you're going to
drive that blade right through your finger i have 70 stitches to tell that story um yeah
i feel like that is a key piece of advice so try it out and tell me how it works for you
um oh right there was a question i checked in last night that i really liked let's see here
okay so i'm going to start here vicky bly who i asked are you
related to william bly she believes that william bly is in her husband's family tree nice um vicki
bly wants to know what was your first thought when jamie asked you to come on board so this is the s
this is april may of 2002. i am working on the matrix sequels out in building 11 and alameda
uh we are building the dock of of zion and i had been traveling to new york once a month for the
previous six months to have these weekend-long meetings with some writers and producers about
making a television show about kids dreams and we were like talking to networks and we were writing
we were beating out episodes and it was it felt like given the team that we had which was some
good veterans of children's television that we had a going concern here and i thought that that tv
show was definitely like i was investing in it i was flying myself to new york once a month said go
to keep on doing this thing i thought that that was the highest percentage
successful thing i had in my future and then jamie called and said hey i know you're working on the
matrix but i got a call from the discovery channel uh they wanna they wanna they wanna demo reel
because they're making a show called mythbusters so first thought i had was that is a terrible name
for a television show you just never know yeah i was like well we can come up with a better title
there's no better title but my my brain was like no i don't think that title is that great
but what jamie didn't know was um earlier that year the san francisco uh uh i want to call it
mays field because that's what it always should have been called but san francisco giants opened
their their beautiful ballpark uh down off of king street near the water in san francisco
and as part of that opening um a big store downtown had uh their windows devoted to ballpark
themes and i did a job for that company and did one of the window displays i built a mechanical
arrangement in one of the window displays i did a terrible job at this but i and i did a terrible
job they still kind of got what they were looking for i got paid i got paid a lot and this is one
of those freelance jobs that comes up every now and then where you actually make real dough doing
the thing and because they needed it in a rush i doubled the price that's the standard thing you
do in the rush and so as soon as i finished that job i bought myself my first new laptop
it's just the best moment i bought myself my first new computer and it was the power
book piece mode the first one devoted to digital video editing and i spent some of the
other dough buying myself a sony trv10 digital handycam dvcam and i've been teaching myself
digital filmmaking i was storyboarding out ideas and filming them in the house on the weekends
and that's about the moment that jamie called and said we need a demo reel so
i had this little production studio ready to go and i went into his shop the next day and again
i'm still thinking this kid's television show is the high percentage thing i remember having
a lunch with tori belache out on alameda uh just before i went to shoot the pilots and he was like
dude you got all these things going on what is going to take what's going to happen i'm like
well i think this children's television show is going to happen and then jamie and i shot
this demo reel for the show called mythbusters and taurus like dude that sounds amazing mythbusters
tori was exactly like you imaginatory was which is exactly like tori is just tons of energy just
so much fun to talk to and he's like mythbusters sounds amazing i think that's the high percentage
one i'm like no you're crazy it's show business man this is the demo reel we sent it's not going
to go anywhere those are some of my thoughts when jamie called me and asked me to join mythbusters
adam savage here in my cave with a thank you to everyone who has joined the tested channel
memberships thus far it truly allows us to keep up this high level pace of video production
and frankly it energizes us a lot to talk to you guys in that vein i have also loved diving back in
to doing the live stream specifically tested member questions have been
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keep an eye on this space to find out when and where and we have also heard your feedback and
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levels and we truly hope you will actually join thanks guys i'll see you next time