You gotta wonder what a guy who’s worked at Industrial Light & Magic and whose current TV show is a household name would be doing at Radford University. But nerds across the New River Valley–myself included–were thrilled to watch a presentation by Tory Belleci from the Discovery Network’s Mythbusters and get a little Q&A time with the show’s biggest daredevil and/or test dummy.

After a bit of a sharing how he landed one of the coolest jobs on earth and giving a mini dream-career pep-talk, Belleci showed a blooper reel from the show, footage of a pipe bomb he and his friends exploded in his parents’ backyard before he made it big, his audition footage for the show (which attempted to bust the myth that “women don’t fart”), and a montage of injuries that have taken place on the Mythbusters set.

During the Q&A, audience members of all ages asked questions and learned about the craziest explosions, insurance clauses, and made him laugh by asking how much he thought the rip-off Discovery show Smash Lab sucked. Another offered a house in Arlington, Va., to the show for demolition!

Belleci graciously stuck around after the program signing autographs and taking photos with fans. He may not have imagined being in a spotlight this big when he dreamed of working behind-the-scenes on films as a kid, but he’s taken to it pretty well. It was a nice reminder that most everyone’s dreams are at least plausible.

Taryn Chase wasn’t so sure about Tory, Grant and Kari when they first came on the show, but now she can’t imagine an episode without them.