Gonna be on Mythbusters in SF tomorrow

On August 18 2013 00:00 PassiveAce wrote:
yo i still want to know what happened!
or are you not allowed to tell us until it airs?

Technically, I'm not supposed to talk about it. (Maybe that IS the experiment?) I'm going to anyways.

The show may not even air, some of the guys there had volunteered previously and some of their stuff was never aired, or aired only in Australia, or scheduled to be aired eventually but just hasn't for over a year. At the very least, they took pictures though and they are supposed to email them to us eventually.

I took a greyhound bus at 11:30p to arrive around 7:30a, cost me 32$. I got dropped off like 35 miles north in LA to catch the bus. The bus station was surprisingly filled on a tuesday night. And so was the bus. I got on last and every seat was booked. There were 2 nuns opposite sides of the same row hogging 2 seats. Sort of ironic considering they are supposed to be unselfish. The bus ride is very uncomfortable for me because I am 6'2"/200lbsand the seats don't recline enough or have enough leg room especially since you are wedged in next to another body. The bus makes a stop about 3-4 hours in the middle of nowhere (I can't recall the city name), to fuel etc. There is a subway, a taco place, and a gas station/liquor store that makes a killing selling shit here. A bunch of busses are stopped there around the same time. about 25% of the people who get out are chainsmoking. Those stray feral kitties act like squirrels but they probably get so many scraps every day. They couldn't be more than 6 months old. I spent most of the trip texting to my ex who was working graveyard shifts coincidentally, and listening to podcasts (dr. drew, old lovelines, adam&drew show).

I arrived early morning and went to 24/hr fitness took a shower and locked all my shit in a locker. I went to rent a bike but I didn't realize that you have to put 300$ deposit down. So I didn't. I went to eat at some 50s style diner which had a decent priced meal. Then I went exploring. I actually ended up going the wrong way a couple of times which probably wasted 40 minutes and about a miles worth of walking. I went to a place called nob hill which I think was the highest place in the city. It's actually not that big of a city as I thought it was. After that I went towards the east bay bridge and the wharf and there was various stuff going on everywhere. Surprisingly a lot of construction going on all over the place.

There are a lot of bums in the city. I would say about 2 average each little block. Also not uncommon to see bum shit on the sidewalks and paths. I actually saw some crazy asian bum take a shit on the pier and then shower himself using wet naps. Some of the bums here have multiple carts full of stuff. I also noticed there were not very many fat people around (I attributed that to the fact that everyone is walking all the time and the terrain is super hilly). I saw some rich lady driving a brand new Lotus (I didn't take a pic because I was too busy trying to figure out what kind of car it was) it looked pretty sick. I also saw some graffiti on a street/park called south park and they incorporated the characters of the show into it. I didn't get a good pic of it though because the wall was opened and dudes were working construction there.

I made a big circle and decided to stop by the lounge where the shooting was going on way early. There was a few crew people outside who checked me on the list and I went to go hang at starbucks up the street a few hours and pickup some stuff from my locker. I just checked maps and stuff about the city while I wasted time. Side note, people are really friendly in the city as well.

I came back about 15 minutes before the time it said and there were already like 10 volunteer dudes joking around sitting on the couches inside. They were mostly talking about careers and making terrible hopeful guesses as to what we were going to do. I didn't join in, I was too busy observing and analyzing the whole situation and area. Then we had to fill out release forms or whatever.

When the crew guy came back he said that they overbooked and only needed 9 people (there was about 20 of us). They said they normally overbook because people flake and this was a shitty situation. Luckily for me and others, they purposefully chose the people who traveled the furthest first. They didn't actually tell us what was going to happen until the 9 were chosen and they were ready to start the experiment.

We filed into the other side of the building where Adam, Jamie, The producer, crew men, a ton of hidden cams, and 9 tables with the ladies already seated. I noticed there was a bunch of shots of jaeger and half drunken drinks on the bar, so I assumed that the girls were there for a while and they were hanging around drinking with the crew. Nobody seemed drunk, but probably had a few drinks to lower their inhibitions a bit (maybe that has something to do with the experiment).

A few of the girls seems pretty uneasy about the situation as well as many of the guys. I had a bit of adrenaline/apprehensive thing going on but I was cool and I knew it would be fine. I tried to go over all the simple pickup and PUA stuff in my head really fast; on breaking the ice, kino, and other stupid shit that works. Lucky for me, I thought of this beforehand and I made sure I had a somewhat interesting bracelet on and I wrote 'MIKE!' on my nametag. I wish I had known way ahead of time and prepared some hardcore stuff and try and kiss a girl, cause that would have been pure badass.

Anyway, I strolled in last in line and they fucked up the shooting so they had us go back out and do it again. The crew guy outside noticed that I had a decal on my shirt and had me button up my dress shirt really fast and I didn't even get it to button all the way before I walked in (its funny because they said no decals and no stripes, which I had both on). I had to button it as I stood at the table (maybe the continuity got messed a bit). They had us choose a table to sit at but since I was last I just defaulted. Ironically, it was the hottest chick in the room (maybe this has something to do with the experiment?) It was super awkward just standing there waiting to sit down while they got the cams right and stuff. I could tell this girl was nervous, I think her name was Megan.

They way it works, as Adam explained; is he would be off camera and ring a bell every 3 minutes, then we would get up mark our cards (our name, table #, girl's name, Interesting 1-5, attractive 1-5, would you like to see the person again). That part was funny because it's pretty awkward to have to judge a person like that right in front of them. Most of us turned away and marked them while we stood (I actually asked the crew guy beforehand if we could mark it straight out in front of them on the table, and he lol'd and said that's an interesting question and no one had asked anything like that so far-they had been filming this for like a week. The producer/director told us specifically not to do that right before shooting though.)

The conversation with Megan was shit, we were both just trading worthless info about what we do where we live etc. I knew it was bad but I just chalked it up to warmup for the next 8 tables. She seemed like she was interested in me but she wasn't comfortable and I wasn't exactly guiding the conversation properly. The next table the girl was really nervous too but she was fumbling up her preloaded questions and stuff. It was cute. I think that one was a fail. After that the next 7 tables were easy. I stopped taking it seriously and I made a joke between tables when we are supposed to sit still and quiet for continuity. I also realized that (as directed by Adam & Jamie) we would never see these people again, and even if I did, I live hundreds of miles away anyways.

Side note: a lot of crew and all the dudes who didn't make the 9 were upstairs just observing. So I'm sure that added to the stress for the anxious people.

All of the girls were pretty attractive and interesting. I think I marked most of them 3s and 4s, and only marked Megan the 5 after going through all the tables and realizing she was the hottest. Props to her. The 3rd or 4th girl I talked to had a bunch of tats and she was genuinely interested in the fact that I am an artist and she said she just moved from LA. She really wanted to write my number/info down (even though we were not supposed to) so I just handed her a business card. She didn't try to contact me yet though.

I think only maybe 2-3 of the chicks weren't interested in me, and I think I marked like 4 or so not interested. One of the chicks was cool and we talked about movies, but she was on the thicker side, and I'm just being honest. One of the chicks had like wall or cross eyes and it was distracting talking to her. She wasn't very interesting either so she got the worst score. Almost every chick after the first 2 tables seemed disappointed as the bell rang. I usually ended up getting up mid sentence and sort of whispered the rest of what I was saying. For the most part the chicks wanted to know what kind of art I do and were curious about events that I do; one is for kids (I actually had to do an artwalk the following day back in my hometown). The last chick I talked to actually started talking about graffiti and stuff before I even brought it up and then she finally asked and it was kind of funny.

Side note B: Curiously, all the girls were white and most of their hair was dark colored and mid ranged length. I think only 1 was blonde and it was bleached. The Megan girl had like auburn brown/red hair. I was totally hoping to have diverse races of girls, especially considering that our group was asian, white, middle eastern, and I think a black guy too. Perhaps that has something to do with the experiment.

I think part of the reason why I did well was because, there were a number of really awkward nerdy AFC types in our group. I was one of the tallest and more good looking in the group and was probably the most cool headed, as everyone was anxious and nervous as hell. After it was over my ego was boosted and I was disappointed that I couldn't talk to the girls anymore (I thought about hanging around outside but I settled on going to starbucks on hopes one of them would show up. nope.)

The next part of the show they took us back to the other room and filmed individual interviews (again I was last, as the theme of the entire trip went). The questions were pretty banal from the producer, and the answers people were giving were copy catted from other people before them and vapid at best.

I think they went; "What are the 3 things you find attractive about a woman?" "Go into detail about why you prefer X trait" and something else maybe but I forget. I told them mid to long dark or black hair, pretty symmetrical eyes (still have that cross eyed chick in my thoughts here), and then a booty. To which the camera guy blurted; "Finally we got an honest man in the building!" I got the feeling the producer didn't like me. Adam & Jamie smelled bad. I think maybe they had been working long hours and hadn't showered or something.

It was sort of messed up that one dude who took the bus from LA as well got a free shirt from adam because of that fact, but they didn't give me one. I wasn't about to be all 'low rent' about it on camera and in front of all the chicks though. The other crew guy who knew I got shafted said he would get me one too, but he never returned and the other guy wasn't aware so I just said fuck it and I left. I got some free protein bars, snacks, and stickers though.

I think it was all done by about 5:30p and I spent a few hours chillin at starbucks, my feet hurt pretty bad from walking about 8+ miles with dress shoes up and down the hills. I collected some stuff from my locker for the last time, walked to 711 to buy another bus ticket, then I ate at Chipotle and took a shit. I just barely missed the 6p bus and for some reason the 9p bus took 12 hours, so I had to wait for the 10:30p bus that arrived at 5a. I was ridiculously tired having only been on a few crappy hours of sleep from the previous night, all the walking around, etc. So I changed back into my sleepin/travelling clothes and stretched out on the horribly uncomfortable benches in the depot. I think I got an hours worth of sleep, I was probably snoring.

When the bus finally arrived it was much nicer and more importantly way less people, so everyone got a row to themselves pretty much. (Pro tip, always sit in the front and put a bunch of shit on the seat and try to act like you are sleeping so people pass you by and most likely bunk with someone towards the back.) I watched the crazy fog roll over the tops of the buildings as we departed. It was kinda shitty that I was so tired because the view even at night was pretty cool as we went to Oakland and southbound. I slept pretty much all the way to that podunk town and saw the kitties again, gave em some water again. I think I spent my last couple dollars on a hotdog. Listened to a couple more podcasts and slept until we got into LA.

My ride was there waiting right on time thankfully, and I drove home and slept all day and then rushed to get all my shit together for the artwalk.

The whole thing was pretty surreal and I literally left myself with 0 dollars going through it all, but I would probably do it again for the experience.

Gonna be on Mythbusters in SF tomorrow - Page 2

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