Binghamton University will get an inside look into the world of myth busting when electronics and radio control specialist Grant Imahara speaks at the Anderson Center on March 31.
Imahara, a member of the Build Team on the Discovery Channel’s hit show, “MythBusters,” will be discussing his long career in film and TV, along with a few secrets from the show. There will also be a question-and-answer session for audience members.
“He’ll be sharing a lot of stories about what goes on behind the scenes on ‘MythBusters,’” said Aaron Cohn, the Student Association Programming Board’s variety chair. “He’ll be telling everyone how they select the myths, stories about other cast members, etc.”
Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for the general public, and are expected to go on sale in the dining halls during the first week of March.
Imahara’s visit is the next in a line of programs that the Student Association has procured from Wolfman Productions. In the past year, Wolfman Productions provided BU students with the highly popular Great Pot Debate between Steven Hager of High Times Magazine and Bob Stutman of the Drug Enforcement Administration in fall 2007, as well as last semester’s Great Porn Debate, which featured porn star Ron Jeremy.
“We’ve been in business for over 20 years and we have a very diverse group of speakers,” said Greg Bura, the senior regional account manager of Wolfman Productions for New York. “We’ve done a fair amount of work with Binghamton University, and this one’s gonna be a blast.”
Imahara earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California. Aside from his work on the show, Imahara was an animatronics engineer and model maker for George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic, a motion picture visual effects company.
He has worked on movies such as “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” and the last two “Matrix” movies, “Reloaded” and “Revolutions.”
“He’s the best of the best in that industry and he’s the person everybody likes,” Cohn said.
He has also created his own robot, “Deadblow,” to compete in the BattleBots competition, which he won. He wrote a book on robot creation called “Kickin’ Bot: An Illustrated Guide to Building Combat Robots.”
“You instantly realize that he’s a good-old, kindhearted person, and even more, that he’s absolutely brilliant,” Bura said.