For the past 20 years, Savage and Hyneman have worked alongside one another doing special effects for big-time blockbusters such as “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” and “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” and “The Matrix” trilogy.

The State News: How was the idea for “MythBusters” developed?

Adam Savage: The idea for “MythBusters” (was developed when) … an Australian television producer contacted … Jamie and I … (with interest) in (us) hosting a show … about urban legends. We (compiled), on very little information, a demo reel, which we sent to them, and they liked it so much they showed up three weeks later, and we have been filming “MythBusters” literally ever since.

TSN: How has “MythBusters” evolved during the past decade?

AS: I’d say there are several differences from when the show began and where it is now. One of them is the fact that Jamie and I have come to understand on a much deeper level the scientific method and how to apply it. Also, the stories we tell now are more complex than the stories we used to tell. I think that the amount of experience we have gained on the show makes us want to go deeper into the material and tell stories that end up being, by their nature, more complex.

TSN: Thus far, what has been your favorite experimented myth?

AS: I love the stories where I know that our methodology and the science is right, and I also like building weird, cool stuff; and for me, that all came together in an episode we did a few years ago called the lead balloon. It’s absolutely the best example of how much Jamie and I really like the problem-solving involved in working on the show. We built this 14-foot diameter helium balloon out of 28 pounds of rolled lead — I guarantee you no one (has) ever done it before. There’s a good reason — lead is really hard to work with, and it doesn’t make balloons very easily, but we succeeded. We succeeded because of all the different contingency problems we solved along the way, and that’s one of my favorite parts of this job.

TSN: How will “MythBusters” live differ from the televised version? In what ways do you bring the revered myths to a live stage?

AS: The show that we do onstage is both similar to the show on television and also different. The problem that we were originally presented with was we can’t show up and bust myths on stage simply because if we were coming to do a genuine experiment, that might take hours. So what we really tried to copy was our sense of humor, excitement and reverence. We bring up a ton of audience members, and we mess with them; we challenge their perceptions, we alter the way they see things, sometimes directly — it’s really fun, and it’s different every night.