The Mythbusters are based in San Francisco, but they recently toured Australia, Canada, and the U.S. for a Behind the Myths Tour, a live show dedicated to their passion for scientific inquiry, play, and bone-rattling explosions. I sat down with the 47-year-old Savage in his tour bus before a show in Worcester, Massachusetts. Despite a grueling tour schedule, Savage greeted me (and a glowing, beaming Finn) with a warm welcome. He's the affable, verbose, and hyperactive half of the Mythbusters team—but what does not translate on-screen is his quiet thoughtfulness. Savage listened carefully and paused for long stretches of time to run his fingers through his ginger hair as he answered my questions about the ingredients in the Mythbusters’ special sauce: experimentation as narrative, failure as opportunity, and learning as play.

I asked Savage to explain how he and Hyneman have succeeded at entertaining and educating their fans since the show launched more than a decade ago.

Look, we never set out to make something that was educational. That was not on the list of things we were thinking about. But I do know that kids don’t like being talked down to; they’re just opening a door and watching something happen, and there’s nothing more thrilling than that. If we teach them something, that’s great, but I’m with Rilke; I think it’s best to remain ignorant of your best qualities.

He went on to explain to me that everything that happens on Mythbusters—the direction of the filming, the narrative arc of the episode, the priorities of the cast and crew—are all subject to the unpredictability of the experiments at the heart of the show. Fidelity to that goal, he said, is what differentiates Mythbusters from other shows that have tried—and failed—to package education as entertainment.

Usually, we know what the last experiment in the story is going to be, and then we build towards it. Sometimes, building towards it doesn’t go as intended, so we change direction. The experiment takes precedence over the filming. I’m equally interested in the rigor of the experiment and the overarching story it fits into, and balancing these two things is both the most tiring and most fun part of doing the show.

The Mythbusters have a wide array of cool gadgets at their disposal at M5, their television studio and workshop. Savage and Hyneman have, according to the show’s introduction, “30 years of special-effects experience,” and they need every bit of that experience to build the robots, remote-control cars, human-analog dummies, electrical circuits, physical sets, and other equipment they need to investigate myths. Part of the show’s appeal for Finn is watching the Mythbusters use those resources to create something they need out of spare parts: a welding torch, some screws, and a two-by-four.