- Adam Savage
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Adam Savage
Savage in July 2011Born Adam Whitney Savage[1]
July 15, 1967
New York City, U.S.Nationality American Education Tisch School of the Arts Occupation MythBusters co-host, designer/fabricator, actor, educator Spouse Julia Savage (2002-present) Children Two Website http://www.adamsavage.com/ Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967)[2] is an American industrial design and special effects designer/fabricator, actor, educator, and co-host of the Discovery Channel television series MythBusters.[1] His model work has appeared in major films, including Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and The Matrix Reloaded. He is a prominent member of the skeptic community. He lives in San Francisco with his twin sons and wife, Julia.
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Early life and education
Born in New York City, Savage was raised in Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County.[3] He graduated from Sleepy Hollow High School in 1985.[4] His father, Whitney Lee Savage, was a painter, filmmaker, and animator known for his work on Sesame Street, and has a permanent exhibit in the Avampato Discovery Museum.[5] His mother is a psychotherapist. His sister Kate Savage is also an artist. As a teenager in Sleepy Hollow, he routinely visited the local bike shop to have flat tires fixed. The shop showed him to do the repairs himself. From this experience, Savage said, "I realized you could take a bike apart and put it back together and it wasn't that hard...I've been building and putting bicycles and putting together bicycles since then."[4]
Adam Savage began acting as a child, and has had five years of acting school.[1] His early credits include voicing animated characters that his father produced for Sesame Street, Mr. Whipple's stock boy "Jimmy" in a Charmin commercial, a helper in the special effects of Star Wars, and a drowning young man saved by a lifeguard in the 1985 Billy Joel music video "You're Only Human (Second Wind)."[6] He attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for acting for six months before dropping out.[7]
Describing the early abandonment of his acting career, Savage said "...by the time I was, I guess probably nineteen, I had passed on that in favor of doing stuff with my hands – graphic design, assistant animation in New York, and then eventually working in theater in San Francisco, and film special effects. Then MythBusters came along and it was the perfect marriage of two things, performance and special effects."[8] On 25 November 2011, Savage will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Twente (Enschede, Netherlands) for his role in the popularization of science and technology; Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will be present during the ceremony.[9]
Career
Savage in July 2008Savage has worked as an animator, graphic designer, carpenter, projectionist, film developer, television presenter, set designer, toy designer, and gallery owner. He worked as a model maker on the films Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, The Matrix Reloaded, and Space Cowboys, among others.
Savage played the role of a helpful engineer in the film Ever Since the World Ended[10] and the role of an army surplus store owner who sells a man a rocket engine for his pickup truck in The Darwin Awards, which also featured MythBusters co-star Jamie Hyneman.[11] He made a cameo appearance along with Jamie Hyneman on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on the May 1, 2008, episode "The Theory of Everything." In the "making of" material for The Matrix Revolutions, he appears in his role as a special effects artist and discusses some of the miniature effects used and the difficulties involved.
He previously taught advanced model making in the department of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.[1]
Savage has become a regular presenter at magician James Randi's annual skeptics' conference, The Amaz!ng Meeting, since first appearing in January 2006.[12] He also appeared in the UK, giving a talk at the first Amazing Meeting London from 3–4 October, 2009, hosted at the Mermaid Conference Centre, Blackfriars.[13]
Savage was a featured performer at the three w00tstock v1.x shows in 2009, and is scheduled to appear in four w00tstock v2.x shows in 2010. He also appeared as a guest on Diggnation's 220th show.[14]
Savage has also been a regular guest speaker at the annual Maker Faire since 2008, speaking on different topics such as his obsession with the dodo bird and problem solving, and also taking questions from the audience members about the Mythbusters and other things.
Savage also hosted an episode of the Discovery Channel series Curiosity, in which he speculated as to whether or not it is possible for humans to live forever. During the program various topics such as limb regeneration, organ printers, and even age reversal are discussed.
MythBusters
Savage has been involved in MythBusters since its creation. His role in the show (that he shares with all the other talent) is to either disprove ("bust") myths or confirm them through testing and experiments done at different scales. If the myth is about a one-time occurrence and not about whether or not something can happen at all, it is often deemed "plausible" instead.
Savage's demeanour on MythBusters is animated and energetic, providing a foil to Jamie Hyneman's more reserved straight man persona.[15]
Savage and Hyneman were the only hosts of the show for the first season of MythBusters, but starting with the second season, members of Hyneman's staff were introduced and began to appear regularly in episodes; Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and welder Scottie Chapman appeared in the second season. In the third season, Chapman was replaced by Grant Imahara, a robot builder and model maker. In an interview Savage gave during The Amaz!ng Meeting 5, he expressed an interest in proving natural selection over creationism on MythBusters.
“ My goal this year is to prove natural selection on the show. It's gonna take a while, it's gonna be very hard to make it fascinating on film in the context of our narrative structure, but I figure screw it. The sky's the limit. Let's do natural selection. I'm sick of fifty percent of this country thinking creationism is reasonable. It's appalling. And I have the unique ability, maybe, to sell this idea to Discovery, and they'll, they might allow me to do it, and I'm gonna try as hard as I can.[16] ” Savage also stated that such an episode is unlikely because MythBusters has a policy against trying to disprove supernatural phenomena.[17]
He is soon to be known as dr.h.c. Adam Savage, since the University of Twente has decided to confer him (together with Jamie Hyneman) such titles for their role in popularizing science, with the occasion of its 50th anniversary, on November 21, 2011.[18]
Personal life
Savage and his current wife Julia were married in 2002. He has twin sons from a previous relationship (as referred to during his participation in a podcast from Chris Hardwick's Nerdist site).[19] He wears a hearing aid on his left ear due to a congenital condition.[20] He is a practiced juggler, as seen on Mythbusters. He is also an atheist.[21] He has a lifelong interest in costume making. He said, "I remember my mom getting me a 'Jaws' costume when 'Jaws' came out...and wearing a Batman costume. Back then, everyone dressed up as hobos." He strives for authenticity with his costumes. While in high school, he and his father made a suit of armor out of aluminum roof flashing that had 700 rivets. He said, "I wore it to school and passed out from heat exhaustion in math class. I woke up in the nurse's office and the first I said was 'Where's my armor'?" In 2011, he built a costume based on the character No-Face from the film Spirited Away.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d Adam Savage (2008-08-20) (Audio/.MP3). Interview with Steve Novella, et al.. The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. http://media.libsyn.com/media/skepticsguide/skepticast2008-08-20.mp3. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
- ^ The Editors of Chase's (2009). Chase's calendar of events 2009. McGraw-Hill Professional. p. 363. ISBN 9780071599566. http://books.google.com/books?id=WoV51PohNjwC&pg=PA363&dq=%22Adam+Savage%22+AND+%221967%22&hl=en&ei=VIe7TdLTE8fz0gG9rsnLBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Adam%20Savage%22%20AND%20%221967%22&f=false.
- ^ (.PDF) Bio-Adam Savage 2008. Symantec. Archived from the original on July 27, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080627061420/http://vision.symantec.com/upload/adam_savage_bio.pdf. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
- ^ a b c Kramer, Peter D. (2011-10-29). "Local Legend: 'Mythbuster' Adam Savage has roots in Sleepy Hollow". The Journal News (Journal News Media Group): pp. B1-B2. http://www.lohud.com/.
- ^ "Artist Profile: W. Lee Savage (1928-1998)". http://www.avampatoart.com/profiles/lee-savage.pdf. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
- ^ "Adam Savage, Co-Host". The Discovery Channel. http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/meet/adam-savage.html. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
- ^ MythBuster Adam Savage's Colossal Failures. FORA.tv. 2009. http://fora.tv/2009/05/30/MythBuster_Adam_Savages_Colossal_Failures. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
- ^ Dwyer, John Stephen (May 5, 2010). "The men behind the MythBusters". Blast Magazine. http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/tv/2010/05/the-men-behind-the-mythbusters/. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
- ^ UT awards honorary doctorates to MythBusters, two leading scientists and a business pioneer - website of the University of Twente
- ^ "Ever Since the World Ended (2001)". The Internet Movie Database. 2008. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283337. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
- ^ "The Darwin Awards". The Internet Movie Database. 2008. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428446. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
- ^ Wagg, Jeff (February 4, 2008). "The Amaz!ng Meeting 6". James Randi Educational Foundation. http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/component/content/article/156.html. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
- ^ "Amazing Meeting London (2009)". Speakers at Amazing Meeting London. 2009. http://www.tamlondon.org/speakers/. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
- ^ Episode 220: Mythnation! at Revison3
- ^ Strauss, Gary (2008-01-15). "'MythBusters' is the stuff of legends, tall tales". USA Today: pp. 1. http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2008-01-15-mythbusters_N.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-14.
- ^ Adam Savage (2007-02-13) (Audio/.MP3). Interview with "Swoopy". Skepticality (0:12:15). http://media.libsyn.com/media/skepticality/046_skepticality.mp3. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
- ^ Adam Savage (2008-07-01) (Audio/.MP3). Interview with "Swoopy". Skepticality (0:30:00). http://media.libsyn.com/media/skepticality/080_skepticality.mp3. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
- ^ Eredoctoraten voor Mythbusters Aandrijftechniek, July 1, 2011.
- ^ Purdy, Kevin (2009-05-30). "MythBusters' Adam Savage Talks Tech, Obsessions, and Science". Lifehacker. http://lifehacker.com/5190354/mythbusters-adam-savage-talks-tech-obsessions-and-science. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
- ^ Savage, Adam (May 4, 2009). "Adam Savage: @jayyoozee Yes I wear a he ...". Adam Savage Twitter. http://twitter.com/donttrythis/status/1701444283. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
- ^ Savage, Adam (April 2010). Food for The Eagle (Speech). Boing Boing. http://www.boingboing.net/features/savage.html. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
External links
- Adam Savage's personal website
- Adam Savage at the Internet Movie Database
- Adam Savage on Twitter
- Adam Savage's biography from the Discovery Channel
- Interview with Adam at The Sneeze
- Interview with Adam from Reddit.com
- Adam Savage interviewed on Penn Radio
- Adam talks about his newfound fame
- Savage Presentation at The Entertainment Gathering (December 2008)
- Adam Savage on Diggnation (September 2009)
- Adam Savage interviewed on Geek a Week
MythBusters Episodes Other Categories:- American actors
- American skeptics
- American atheists
- American engineers
- American educators
- American television personalities
- People from New York City
- People from Westchester County, New York
- Special effects people
- 1967 births
- Living people
- American artists
- Academy of Art University faculty
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