Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman might be the poster boys for MythBusters, but Kari Byron
was a huge part of what made the show great bringing lots of flair, personality, and humor
to the show.
Here's a few things you might not know about Kari Byron.
Getting into the biz
Breaking into a new industry can be tough and it sounds like Kari Byron endured her
fair share of struggles early on.
In an interview with The Verge, she opened up about making her first tentative steps
in the special effects industry.
Initially, she had quite a hard time finding a gig.
Shortly after she graduated from San Francisco State University, it felt like nobody wanted
to hire her.
As she put it:
"I have this image just that all of my resumes fell into some bin that said 'Reject.'"
Eventually, a friend urged her to pay a visit to M5 Industries, where a thoroughly unimpressed
Jamie Hyneman leafed through her portfolio.
Hyneman eventually found one thing he liked: a photograph of a sculpture she'd made of
an elderly man.
And that was enough for Byron to get her foot in the door.
She started off at M5 Industries as an unpaid intern, working another job at night to make
ends meet.
"Everybody loves an intern.
They work hard, they're trying to prove themselves, and they are cheap or free."
Her first paying gig
We all start somewhere.
Speaking to Dame magazine, Kari Byron revealed that her first paying gig in the special effects
industry was her brief appearance on the second episode of MythBusters.
And since the show was just getting off the ground, we aren't exactly talking big bucks.
She was only paid $100 for the job, which amounted to Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage
making a 3-D scan of her butt.
Hey, it's nice work if you can get it.
"It really looks great.
It's really — really nice —" "It really looks great?
You like that?"
In case you're wondering, that scan was subsequently used to create a pair of artificial buttocks.
They were testing to see whether or not a heavyset person could actually get stuck on
an airplane toilet if they flushed while sitting down.
As Byron told Dame magazine:
"At the time, I didn’t think the show would grow to what it is today.
I definitely had no idea that that would be the first thing that comes up when you Google
my name."
Becoming a MythBuster
Just a few weeks after landing her internship at M5 Industries, opportunity came a-knocking.
As she told The Verge:
“I just kept showing up until one day, they asked if I wanted to help out with MythBusters.”
At first, she was just doing behind-the scenes work with Tory Belleci.
Little did they know they were both about to become co-hosts.
As Byron tells it, producers were starting to worry Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman wouldn't
be able to produce enough MythBusters material on their own.
And one day, she got the big news along with Belleci and former Mythbusters co-star Scottie
Chapman.
Byron claims producers basically told them:
"'Okay, you're hosts now.
Go!'"
And then… they did.
The bear mace incident
It's only natural to take your work home with you on occasion but when you're a MythBusters
co-host, that can have some unexpected side effects.
Case in point: When Kari Byron's brother-in-law got his hands on a leftover prop from the
show.
In a season fifteen episode, the MythBusters tested out various techniques for repelling
animals.
As it turns out, one of the world's most popular spices also happens to be a total turn-off
to grizzly bears.
"Cayenne pepper — a tasty condiment in cajun cooking."
After the experiment, Byron reportedly attached a container of cayenne pepper to her keychain
just to be on the safe side.
It could have come in handy when she subsequently went on a camping trip with her baby, sister,
and brother-in-law.
When Byron retreated into her tent to take a nap, her brother-in-law spotted the container
and assumed it was sunscreen.
That was a mistake.
He reportedly sprayed some onto his arms and rubbed it in and that's when all the running
and screaming began.
Byron subsequently shared the anecdote on Twitter, as one does, calling the experience
the "best camping trip ever."
And that's why you should always follow the instructions in the MythBusters introduction.
"Please, do not try what you are about to see at home."
"We're what you call experts."
Mythbusting while pregnant
When Kari Byron was pregnant with her daughter in 2009, she kept working almost right up
until her due date.
Suffice to say, some unexpected challenges came along with Mythbusting while pregnant.
"Only these guys would try to make a pregnant woman throw up."
"It's payback."
Due to the unique nature of her job, a few issues needed to be ironed out to ensure Byron
wasn't putting her unborn child at risk.
As she told the Inquiring Minds podcast:
"I'd be going to my doctor, saying, 'All right, so when do I have to stop shooting guns because
she has ears?"
Byron's doctor reportedly had no idea.
She'd never been asked that particular question before, and needed to do some research.
And then Byron would ask how far she'd have to keep away from a C-4 explosion in order
to keep her unborn child safe, stumping her doctor yet again.
In case you're wondering: they did find the answer to these questions.
For instance, a baby develops ears at five months, so that's when Byron took a break
from shooting guns, making sure to stay behind safety glass when the situation called for
it.
Her love of pranks
If you're a MythBusters fan, you've no doubt picked up on Kari Byron's off-kilter sense
of humor.
How come the clown wouldn't wear a seatbelt?"
According to The Verge, Byron absolutely loves pranks and we're not talking whoopie cushions
and joy buzzers, either.
She claims she's even asked her friends in the special effects industry to "reanimate"
her body after she dies.
Wondering why?
Byron told The Verge:
"So I can jump up from behind the headstone.
GOTCHA!
That would be my wish to prank people for the rest of eternity.”
Byron even tried turning her love of pranks into a television show, along with fellow
former MythBuster Tory Belleci.
They once filmed a pilot for a science-themed prank show called Prankenstein.
"Please report, report!"
"He came out, the body came out!"
"Oh dear god."
Could Prankenstein be a reference to Byron's post-mortem prank plans?
We'll probably never know because the pilot never got picked up.
But if you want to see what the show might have been like, Byron uploaded an 11-minute
sizzle reel to YouTube in 2019.
It's definitely a sight to see.
Her artistic undertakings
The casual MythBusters viewer might not know that Kari Byron is a talented artist.
It seems her time on MythBusters really influenced her recent work.
According to The Verge, she stores her art supplies inside a, quote, "vintage ammo canister."
And she makes paintings using clay and controlled explosions.
In contrast to her cheery disposition on MythBusters, her gunpowder paintings are rather dark affairs,
featuring lots of leering skulls and sinister skeletons.
Byron uses her artwork to teach her daughter Stella Ruby valuable life lessons.
For example: To get Stella Ruby to stop picking her nose, Byron created small sculptures called
"booger monsters."
She told Stella Rose that these creatures eat boogers, and if she keeps depriving them
by picking her nose, they'll crawl into her brain.
In other words, when Byron's not busting myths, she's busy creating new ones.
The Tory Belleci rumors
When two famous people display an inkling of onscreen chemistry, there are bound to
be rumors of behind-the-scenes romance.
Over the years, there's been some speculation about the relationship between Kari Byron
and former co-host Tory Belleci.
That's not surprising, really… can't you feel the sexual tension crackling in the air?
"Oh my… oh my god!"
In an interview with Blast magazine, Byron addressed these rumors and made it clear that
their relationship has never been a romantic one.
In fact, she's been with the same partner, artist Paul Urich, since long before her first
MythBusters appearance.
Byron says Belleci is like a brother to her, because they pick on each other so much.
Twitter anxieties
You'd expect someone like Kari Byron to embrace every new tech development that comes around
especially considering her time on MythBusters, and the fact that she lived a good chunk of
her life in Silicon Valley.
That's not exactly the case.
In a 2011 article she wrote for Wired, Byron opened up about her longstanding aversion
to social networking sites.
As she explained it, she basically fled Silicon Valley when the Internet started exploding,
way back in the Friendster era.
After an extensive period of backpacking, she returned to the daily grind and discovered
that most of her peers were, quote, "drenched in technology."
She was quite wary of this new way of life, asking her friends:
“Why would I want to be in a chat room?
I can just go to an actual place where people are!"
But when she saw her 19-month-old daughter Stella Ruby deftly navigate her iPhone to
play an episode of the kids' show Yo Gabba Gabba, she realized it was time to either
catch up, or get left behind.
And how did she overcome her suspicion of social networking?
She started a Twitter account.
Initially, she found the microblogging site rather daunting and worried that no one would
follow her, or perhaps she wouldn't have a single good thing to say.
And what if she accidentally said something awful and offended everyone?
It looks like she's gotten over those hangups.
As of the making of this video, she's quite active on Twitter, posting several times a
week.
For science!
Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone who was on a show all about experiments, Byron is
totally committed to getting young girls interested in STEM.
"Unless you've been living in a cave — no offense — STEM stands for Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics."
According to Discovery, Byron is doing everything in her power to destigmatize professions that
can perceived as "nerdy" or "geeky" to young kids.
And what's the best way to get children interested in these fields?
Byron told Discovery:
"I think that the most important thing to getting kids, girls especially, involved in
STEM is being excited about it yourself, as a parent."
Byron herself didn't pick up her interest in science in school.
She became fascinated by the subject when she saw how much her father loved it.
Byron is also the chief creative officer of Smart Gurlz, a toy company that manufactures
self-balancing robots and action dolls.
According to the official Smart Gurlz website,
"[These toys] engage and encourage girls to learn to code."
Here's her philosophy in a nutshell:
"'Girls can't code.'
What the…?
I'm Kari Byron from MythBusters.
And this… is total crap."
Her mysterious Mythbusters exit
Of course, all good things must come to an end.
In 2014, co-hosts Tory Belleci, Grant Imahara, and Kari Byron unexpectedly left MythBusters.
Why that happened is anyone's guess.
According to Business Insider, the show basically fired the Build Team.
Following her departure, Byron tweeted:
"After a decade of the Mythbusters, we are no longer with the show."
In another tweet, she wrote:
"The show is taking a new direction.
It was an amazing run.
I learned so much about myself and the world."
Meanwhile, executive producer Dan Tapster told Entertainment Weekly that the powers
that be wanted the Build Team to continue on the show, but negotiations fell through.
He says that Byron, Belleci, and Imahara all ultimately decided to opt out.
Several sources claim they left the show over a salary dispute.
Whatever the reason, there's no bad blood between the Build Team, Adam Savage and Jamie
Hyneman.
In fact, Savage says he considers the three of them very good friends and never wanted
to see them leave.
The Build Team even returned to the show in 2016 to shoot a special reunion episode…
where Kari and her old friends reminisced about all the good times:
"There was a time when I had to try to extract methane from your poop?"
"I'm sorry."
"Aah!"
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