Dovetastic’s Microwave Theater, as it is called on You Tube, has garnered a rather odd and huge following of people since its inception in 2006, with over 20,000,000 views since when it first aired. The show is ran by microwave master Kenny \”dOvetastic\” Irwin, who claims to have over 30 years worth of microwaving experience.

Each episode features a different piece of electronic hardware or other strange items that he will then place in a microwave. Once the item is placed, Irwin then lets the viewers observe the disintegration or explosion of said item(s). When they cool he shoots an industrial-sized stream of fire extinguishing foam from his hydro sonic boom blaster as he yells, \”BOOM!! BOOM!\” and then examines the roasted melted electronic carcass with a spatula and usually says, \”Oh, look at that, that is much more beautiful than it was before.\” He then proceeds to offer up the item on E-bay along with some weird artistic creation such as a glass skull filled with prosthetic eyeballs. That’s a typical day in the life of Kenny Irwin.

We got the chance to ask Kenny a few questions about his profession and his experience microwaving gaming consoles.

Irwin said he began his fixation with microwaving back in 1979 with a simple item–a light bulb. He said that he was so mesmerized by the effects the microwave made on the bulb and how strange microwaves were that he thought it might look cool to have a television show based on just microwaving things. In 1984, at the age of 10, Irwin made his first recording of microwaving and in 1991, he began recording more sessions so that members of his family that loved his exploits could watch them over and over. As part of a graduate project in college Irwin put together 22 episodes of microwaving with items such as the light bulb, Christmas lights, tin foil, silverware, etc. The result was a high ranking grade and as Irwin pointed out,

\”…people were amazed by the idea of using a microwave to entertain people and people had no idea what microwaves could do. The closest thing to sci-fi in reality they had ever witnessed.\”

Irwin’s microwave theater came under scrutiny when a young group of college guys set up their own microwave theater in May of 2007 and began poking fun at Irwin and his show. The group of young men gathered a ton of fans and extreme approval from the higher ups at YouTube. It got so bad that Irwin and his microwave theater were banned and he ended up paying $1400 to get it back. The second ban had Irwin looking at the BBB and CAIR to get his show back on, and he went all the way to Washington, D.C. CAIR headquarters attempting to help save his show. At one point one of the young college men blackmailed Irwin asking him to pay $100,000 to come on their show and say whatever he wanted, and then once that was done they would end their show. Everything worked out though and things are going better than ever.

Irwin has microwaved all sorts of electronics such as iPhones, iPads, consoles, headphones, televisions, etc. He said that he used to really love playing video games but has stopped since his brother fell into a coma after being in a car crash. Despite that he still makes time for playing them–or, microwaving them, that is. We asked him to tell us based on his experiences of microwaving gaming systems over the years which company makes the strongest products. He replied:

\”I would say Nintendo has stood up the best out of all the consoles I have microwaved. Nintendo has proven themselves on its own. Their Wii U deluxe console is built like a tank, but the GamePad is a little weak. X-Box’s stand up pretty well too.\”

Irwin currently has over 652 episodes in his microwave theater catalog on YouTube along with a cooking show, a food processing show, waffle this show, pool heater cooking show, and the ironing chef show. You can also find his tests on all of the other fine Nintendo products on his microwave theater channel on YouTube.

Microwaving My New Nintendo Wii U Deluxe

Smashing My New Nintendo Wii U Deluxe

What do you think of Irwin’s microwave theater? Leave a comment here on Nintendo Enthusiast.