‘MythBusters’ to bring live show to the Fox

The duo have turned their show, now in its 11th season, into a live theatrical event, which they will bring to Atlanta on Aug. 30 at the Fox Theatre.

They also will appear at Dragon Con, the pop culture convention where adolescent glee and scientific rigor are regarded highly, and where “MythBusters” events are usually mobbed.

The new season of “MythBusters” is being cross-promoted with the AMC show “Breaking Bad,” about a chemistry teacher gone wrong, which gives Savage and Hynemann the opportunity to test a few of the “Breaking Bad” stunts.

A more perfect TV marriage there never was. The synergy is evident when our myth busters test a compound called mercury fulminate that “Breaking” bad guy Heisenberg supposedly tosses, like a bomb, to dispatch his enemies. Can 50 grams blow up a room? Perhaps. If you set it off with a blasting cap. And quintuple the amount.

Hynemann and Savage, who also run a special-effects shop, spoke about their theatrical version of “MythBusters” and about the inherent dangers of producing the television show year after year.

About the possibility of mishaps in a show that includes so many outlandish stunts, including an underwater escape from a sinking car:

“We figure that our number is up,” Hynemann said, “considering all the crazy stuff we’ve done, but everything we do adds to our experience. … We have a foundation of experience of what we can get away with and what we can’t. Having lived through the first few years got us over the hump.”

On how the science can help avert such mishaps:

“You end up in a vehicle headed for a brick wall at highway speed,” Hynemann said, “and you say: ‘I think I’m going to be all right. I did the math.’ ”

About the possibility of explosions at the Fox Theatre:

“While we don’t actually blow anything up,” Savage said, “we give the audience a deeply satisfying ‘MythBusters’ experience.”

On how the pair, who’ve both been awarded honorary doctorates in engineering (neither is trained as a scientist), stumbled into useful discoveries:

Hynemann said they’ve been contracted by the Office of Naval Research to develop lightweight armor to deflect blast pressure. “The stuff we’ve ended up playing with is real, and it’s had real applications. … A lot of times what we’ve ended up seeing is the most important things that one comes across are not actually what was being sought at the time.”

Why pyrotechnicians, who usually work with special-effects crews, are not always the best choice for “MythBusters” stunts:

“MythBusters” tried to disprove the legend of a medieval Hungarian village whose chiefs used a hollow tree for a cannon to defend against attackers but ended up destroying the village when the tree exploded. Our heroes discovered that their modern tree cannon did, effectively, fire a hand-chiseled granite cannonball using 6 ounces of period-appropriate gunpowder.

They also discovered that when the charge was boosted to 5 pounds of gunpowder and the barrel was plugged, the wooden cannon would explode with enough force to wipe out a small village. And/or a Discovery Channel television crew.

“It sent 70- to 80-pound chunks of wood over the tops of all our heads,” Hynemann said. “That was the last time we used a pyro. Now we go with the bomb squad (as consultants). They have a different sort of mentality. One of their basic tenets is ‘get behind a building.’ ”