Television shows will do almost anything to generate publicity, but it would not be correct to say that the people at the History channel locked me in this suffocating metal container until I agreed to write something about their new series. I actually asked them to lock me in here.

That was about 10 minutes ago. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, though, I’m thinking better of it. When I can think at all. Which I can do only intermittently on account of the oxygen deprivation.

The series “Full Metal Jousting” has its premiere Sunday night, and it features the real thing, not the fake theatrical jousting you see at Renaissance fairs. Guys on horseback charge at each other with 11-foot wooden lances. They’re wearing armor. Which is how I came to be sealed up in this sartorial sardine can.

Image Neil Genzlinger tries out the gear, not the action. Credit... Channon Hodges for The New York Times

We’re in a press room at Madison Square Garden, where Shane Adams, the show’s genial ringmaster and a champion jouster himself, has arranged to put on a demonstration at halftime during a bull-riding event. And while waiting his turn in front of the Garden crowd, he has agreed to let me try on a suit of the armor being used in the show.