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Meeting the Mythbusters

April 23, 2008 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: Interviews, Recent Events, Writing

I guess there are some perks to being a part-time freelance writer. Also to being a huge nerd. On April 22, Kari Byron and Grant Imahara of Mythbusters came to Penn State Berks and I was there to meet them.

PSB (that’s Penn State Berks for those not hip to the lingo) is my alma mater, and by a freak chance I checked their events bulletin board a few months ago and noticed that two mythbusters were coming to town. Unfortunately, I had initially misread the post and thought that Kari and Grant had already came and gone, and that fate was torturing me by showing me this post too late. A few hours later I reread the post and realized that I was an idiot, and that the event was scheduled for April (which hadn’t arrived yet).

In a bolder-than-usual fashion, I set out to meet them. I love Mythbusters and watch it often; every cast member of the show plays a unique role in creating a very entertaining dynamic. So instead of simply getting tickets, I wanted to actually be involved. The only way for me to do that was to fall back on my freelance writing credentials. I contacted the man in charge and arranged to be part of the press.

I’m not a reporter by any means…but I have had enough experience to be properly prepared for these sorts of things. I generated a healthy list of questions, some for Kari, some for Grant, some for both. I put on a nice collared shirt, and grabbed my digital camera. That’s all a reporter needs, right?

I wasn’t sure what to expect upon arrival. At a few previous interview events I’ve been to, a bunch of us media-types sat in a conference room with the celeb-person and we all talked communally and asked questions. I figured this would probably be similar, but couldn’t be sure. When I showed up, Grant popped out of a nearby bathroom and walked into the media office. I flashed him a look that said "I’ll be speaking to you shortly my friend," but which he probably interpreted as "creepy."

I went in, met with the event coordinator, and he escorted me into a private office where Kari and Grant were waiting. To my delight and surprise I was granted ten minutes of personal interview time with them! In a professional, relaxed, and all around cool manner (…pretty much) I introduced myself. We sat down and I asked them a couple of my preset questions. I tried to stay away from obvious ones that they probably hear constantly and would likely be covered in the presentation to follow. We also chatted a little about the campus, the area, and why they decided to go on a campus tour.

Before I knew it my time was up. I shook their hands and wished them luck in their presentation. It was a pretty awesome experience, but I didn’t have time to enjoy it. I needed to address my next concern - getting into the show itself.

I noticed that people getting in line had physical tickets, and I had none. I tracked down the coordinator and secured a press-pass ticket (to my relief). I was a little worried that my journey would be cut short half way through. I went into the auditorium and took my seat. After an introduction and blooper real of Mythbusters, Kari and Grant took a long Q&A session and revealed some very cool behind-the-scenes info about the show. I don’t want to go into too much presentation detail here, hopefully I can write up a real article about the event and link to it.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any really good pictures. I snapped a few crappy ones though - I’ll post those once I figure out if they are usable or not.

After all was said and done, I’m very happy I took the leap and met with Kari and Grant. They were awesome and hopefully Mythbusters stays on the air for a long time to come!

***update - my interview was published with associated content, check it out here - http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/738599/penn_staters_get_a_behind_the_scenes.html

images - http://www.tvguide.com/images/pgimg/mythbusters20.jpg, http://www.mythbustersfanclub.com/mb2/images/stories/grant-bunny3.jpg

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 and is filed under Interviews, Recent Events, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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