Because most reality TV shows are about as authentic as a three dollar bill, lots of
these series will often bring in experts on various subjects to boost their credibility.
History Channel's Pawn Stars often makes use of specialists who themselves have become
quite famous thanks to frequent appearances.
These men and women can help determine whether a big ticket item is the real deal or just
a piece of junk.
But who are they really?
Here's a look at what you don't know about the 'experts' on Pawn Stars.
Bob Yuhas
An antiques restorer who first appeared on Pawn Stars during Season 8, Bob Yuhas specializes
in "restoring, repairing and the conservation of antiques."
In his own words, he can make "old things look new and new things look old."
Yuhas' restoration abilities are no joke, although his line delivery could use a little
work —
“This safe was built 140 years ago with old world craftsmanship.”
— which is odd, because in addition to Yuhas' work with antiques, he's also an actor.
If you're a fan of the Food Network reality series Mystery Diners, he might look familiar.
He appeared in an episode titled "Night Shift" as the buddy of a late-night bartender that
was supposedly undermining his unsuspecting boss.
We say "supposedly" because as Radar Online reveals, the show was busted for fakery.
With Pawn Stars dodging its own accusations of staging, Bob Yuhas' addition to the series'
list of experts feels somewhat ironic.
Bill Tsagrinos
Specializing in collecting and restoring classic vehicles, Bill Tsagrinos runs The Underground
Garage, where he fixes up awesome rides like his signature 1967 Volkswagen Bus.
Before Tsagrinos appeared on Pawn Stars, his love of cars played out on the Bill Goldberg-hosted
reality TV show known as Bullrun, where he and his brother George successfully auditioned
to appear during the second season.
The brothers raced their 1967 Volkswagen bus against 11 other teams.
Sadly, they didn't win.
While Pawn Stars fans know Tsagrinos primarily for his love and knowledge about old cars,
there's another industry for which he's known: tiles.
Tsagrinos founded T Brothers Tile, a company "specializing in tile, granite, laminate,
wood, carpet, window coverings, and water jet cutting services."
The company claims they've installed more than 26 million square feet of tile — enough
to cover just over 450 football fields.
Dr. Phineas T. Kastle
One can't help but instantly become a fan of the charmingly eccentric Dr. Phineas T.
Kastle, better known as "Doc Phineas."
When the guys at Pawn Stars have no idea whether an item is authentic or even what the heck
it is, Phineas is the expert they bring in to figure it out.
In addition to his vast knowledge of antiques, Doc Phineas is a huge steampunk fan, so much
so that he helped produce the Las Vegas-based Steamathon, a weekend-long celebration of
all things steampunk.
Although known as "Doc" Phineas, he could technically change his name to professor.
According to Phineas, he's taught college classes for over 45 years.
Docs Phineas is also an actor, singer, and he's known to dance every now and then too.
Rock, on, doc!
Sean Rich
The owner of Tortuga Trading, Sean Rich is an "antique arms and armor specialist" as
well as an expert on shipwreck treasure.
This may be why Disney turned to Rich when filming Pirates of the Caribbean.
He was generous enough to lease and sell items for the making of the second and third movie,
and he also provided props for AMC's American Revolution-based drama Turn.
Rich appeared on Pawn Stars series in 2011, but then walked away because, according to
Rich, both the Pawn Stars producers and the History Channel required an "exclusive contract."
Rich said, "[The contract would] lock me down, control me, my business, future, my appearance,
how I make a living to provide for my family."
In 2013, Rich opted to hop over to National Geographic to host and star in the series
Lords of War.
The History Channel must have come around eventually, because he returned to Pawn Stars
in 2014.
Jesse Amoroso
Pawn Stars' vintage musical instrument and amplifier specialist, Jesse Amoroso happens
to own the famous Cowtown Guitars.
Amoroso and his wife Roxie, who also appears at Cowtown, were known locally for their "sleaze-rock
band" Pigasus before buying Cowtown in 2011.
Fun fact: Cowtown was actually founded in 1990 by Bob Seger touring guitarist Mark Chatfield.
Cowtown has thrived under the ownership of Amoroso, thanks in part to the celebrity he's
gained as a frequently featured expert on Pawn Stars.
The boom in business might be why Amoroso ultimately decided to relocate — he's now
"within walking distance of the legendary Gold & Silver Pawn."
Through Cowtown, Amoroso happens to own "one of the largest collections of vintage instruments
in North America."
For a true music lover, it doesn't get much better than that.
Jeremy Brown
It seems pretty common for Pawn Stars experts to relocate their businesses to be closer
to the Gold & Silver Pawn.
Jeremy Brown, the show's go-to sports memorabilia guy, moved his Ultimate Sport Cards & Memorabilia
business in 2012.
Brown's business was doing pretty well for itself before he made the big move, but he's
said he wanted to "fully embrace the opportunity that the show has provided and be near other
fellow experts."
Brown said that his life as a sports memorabilia expert began with an addiction to collecting
baseball cards.
According to Sports Collectors Daily, Brown feels working with Pawn Stars is "an absolute
blessing" as the show allows him to share his love of sports memorabilia "with millions
of people."
Steve Grad
A Professional Sports Authenticator who appeared on Pawn Stars between 2013 and 2014, Steve
Grad got caught up in some embarrassing controversies that make it very unlikely he'll reappear
on the show anytime soon.
The trouble started when Grad found himself at the center of a 2011 lawsuit.
Apparently, his company has tried to pass off a signature as belonging to famed aviator
Charles Lindbergh.
Lindbergh's own daughter came forward with an expert and successfully challenged the
claim.
It turned out that Grad's "expert opinion" had cost collectors hundreds of thousands
of dollars after he allegedly approved scores of forgeries as legitimate.
And it gets worse: despite heavily implying that he'd been educated at the prestigious
Columbia School of Journalism, further research determined that Grad had actually attended
Columbia College Chicago instead, and he never even graduated.
In fact, during a court-ordered deposition, he’d revealed he'd received no formal training
of any kind to back up his "expert" label.
He instead credits much of what he knows to being mentored by the "King of Memorabilia"
Bill Mastro — a man who landed in prison after being busted for various acts of fraud.
Mark Hall-Patton
Unlike fraud Steve Grad, Mark Hall-Patton was recognized by the Los Angeles Times as
"the real deal."
Hall-Patton is the museum administrator for the Clark County Museum system.
Although nicknamed "The Beard of Knowledge," he readily admits that if he doesn't know
something, he's always ready to perform detailed research.
Most of us would turn to Google, but Hall-Patton can also pull facts from his personal library
of over 20,000 books.
He's appeared on close to 100 episodes of Pawn Stars, making him one of the show's better-known
experts.
His wife, Dr. Colleen Hall-Patton, wrote a Celebrity Studies article on her husband's
sudden fame, and he even has a group of fanboys in the Washington State Penitentiary.
And sometimes, for fun, he pretends to be zombie.
No, really.
“Ha, I can’t keep it up.”
Stuart Lutz
Appearing on Pawn Stars during its eighth season, Stuart Lutz authenticates "historic
documents, manuscripts and letters," and he's also one of the few experts to be granted
a seal of approval by the Appraisers Association of America "in the field on Books and Manuscripts:
Historic Documents."
Lutz has an online catalog of historic documents, autographs, letters, and manuscripts, and
also owns one of just three authentic castings of President Eisenhower's hands, something
that's either really awesome or really creepy.
We can't quite decide.
Lutz wrote The Last Leaf, a book about the last known survivors to witness major historical
events or interact with now deceased celebrities.
That’s…kind of morbid.
Brett Maly
A fine art appraiser who appeared on Pawn Stars between 2010 and 2014, Brett Maly also
earned a bit of celebrity for his 2011 appraisal of an authentic Andy Warhol sketch, which
was purchased for just $5 at a garage sale.
Not content to leave the fine art world to the rich, Maly published a 2014 book called
The Pocket Picker: For Fine Art, which features a foreword penned by Pawn Stars' Rick Harrison.
The book is meant to help the average person procure and profit from fine art…and avoid
selling off rare art that they happen to own for a meager $5.
Interestingly, long before his current highbrow occupation, Maly worked as a DJ for KOOL 105.5
in Florida, where he was often responsible for radio voiceovers and board operations.
So…that's pretty random!
Rebecca Romney
The only female expert featured on Pawn Stars, bibliophile Rebecca Romney's expertise is
"rare and antiquarian books and documents.
But there's a bit more to her than dusty old texts: in addition to English, she speaks
French and Japanese fluently, and can actually read six languages, including Latin, Ancient
Greek, and Old English.
And, in case you're not impressed by that, Old English actually looks and sounds like
this:
She also hosted a Reddit "ask me anything" in 2014, during which she admitted to going
on double dates with Pawn Stars' Rick Harrison.
And she once brought filming on the Pawn Stars set to a halt because a rare book wasn't being
handled properly.
Now that's a bibliophile.
Murray Sawchuck
Better known as "Magic Murray," Murray Sawchuck is easily distinguishable from the other experts
thanks to his spiky, bleach-blond hairstyle.
The celebrity magician and funnyman is called upon from time to time to give his expert
opinion on all sorts of "magical items."
The self-proclaimed "Dennis the Menace of Magic" is no stranger to the reality TV show
circuit.
He also made appearances on both America's Got Talent and the reality dating series Blind
Date, which detailed his magical search for love.
“Hello.”
“Hey, how you doing?”
“How are you?”
Although things didn't work out with Georgia, Magic Murray did find eventually love with
Britain's Got Talent performer Chloe Crawford, and the couple were married in 2012.
Sadly, a few years later, Crawford dumped him for rival illusionist Criss Angel.
Harsh.
Well, they say what goes around comes around, and Crawford was reportedly dumped by Angel
less than a year after she left Sawchuck.
Looks like these magicians know how to make a relationship disappear.
Matthew C. Shortal
He claims to be an expert on all things military and aviation — and Matthew C. Shortal definitely
has the résumé to back it up.
Not only did he achieve the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marines, Shortal
is also a former U.S. Navy Blue Angel Pilot and an honest-to-goodness graduate of the
elite TOPGUN program.
Additionally, Shortal is an avid triathlon competitor, and has competed in Ironman 70.3
as part of a team.
Sounds like he feels the need…for speed.
“I feel the need...the need for speed!
Ow!”
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