Transcript - “Listening Time” Episode 18

Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. I'm Conner from [Link] and
you're listening to Episode 18 of the Listening Time podcast. This podcast is designed to
help English learners practice their listening skills. So, if you're in the process of learning
English, and you're having trouble understanding native speakers when they speak fast,
at normal speed, then you can listen to this podcast to help train your ears and give
yourself more practice for your comprehension. In this podcast, I talk about different
topics each episode. And in each episode, I speak normally, naturally, using normal
words and phrases and expressions. But I speak a little bit more slowly, and a little bit
more clearly than the average native speaker. So, I'm speaking using natural words and
phrases, but a little bit more slowly so that you can understand a little bit better.
So, eventually, after listening to this podcast for a while, your ears will start to get
better, become more skilled at understanding me. And then, hopefully, you'll be able to
transition and start listening to normal podcasts made for English speakers. Also,
remember that for each episode, the transcript is available. You can access it in the
Details part of the episode. So, you can listen to each episode multiple times, and
maybe the first time, you don't use the transcript, and then the second time, you use the
transcript to help you understand the words and phrases that you missed the first time.
And then maybe you can listen again without the transcript to see if you can understand
those words and phrases the third time. That's just one example of how you might want
to use this podcast. And remember that I'm not reading a script. So, everything I'm
saying is natural, and I'm just speaking as the words come to my mind. So, this podcast
should be a good resource to help you understand English better.
And I just want to note that in some episodes, my voice sounds a little worse than
in other episodes. This is because sometimes, I record this podcast early in the
morning, like today. And so my voice is just barely waking up, so it doesn't sound as
great as in other episodes. And also, I want to note that, I think, the schedule for the
podcast has become pretty regular. So, you might have noticed that I'm uploading an
episode every week now, one episode per week, and I upload each episode on Monday,
so I think that this schedule will stick. When I say that it will "stick", I mean that it will
stay. It won't change. And so, you should expect a new episode every Monday. And,
yeah, I think that I've found the schedule, the rhythm that works for me.
So today, we're going to talk about the circus. This is an interesting topic. I'm sure
you'll enjoy it. So we'll talk about that today. And before we start, remember to sign up
for our $1 Listening Practice Seminars at [Link] and, of course, remember to
like this podcast, and give it a rating, a review, and share it with anyone who might find it
useful. Alright, let's get started.
Okay, so today, we're going to talk about the circus. The reason why I chose this
topic for today's episode is because on the weekend, I actually went to the circus. So,
it's on my mind, and I thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss. So first of all, I
want to mention that this was the first time that I ever went to a classical circus. So, it
was an interesting experience for me. I didn't know what to expect exactly. But of
course, I had some ideas from movies that I had watched, because, of course, I think
we've all seen the circus in a movie or a TV show before. So obviously, I had some
ideas, but it was interesting to finally see one in real life.
 So, this was a small circus, very small, actually. And it was just a modest
production. In English, when we say that something is "modest", we're saying that it
wasn't very expensive, or extravagant or fancy. It was just a nice, simple performance.
So, it cost only... I think it costs only $1.50 or $2 to enter here in my city, in Mexico. And
there aren't many seats at the circus here, but I think there are enough for the amount of
people that go. And so the first thing that you'll notice about the circus, anywhere is that
it takes place in a tent. We usually use the word "tent" when we're talking about
camping, right. You sleep in a tent, usually on the ground. Well, at a circus, you also
have a very big tent... obviously, much bigger than the type of tent you use for camping.
So, you go inside this tent, and you find your seat, and then the show begins. So,
at this show that I went to, at the circus that I went to, there were a few classic elements
of any circus, I think. For example, there was a ringmaster, as we call him. The
"ringmaster" is the person who introduces all of the different acts. Right. He's the one
who's hosting the event. When someone "hosts" an event, we're saying that they are
the person who is in control, they're doing the event. So, the ringmaster hosts the event,
and he talks into the microphone and interacts with the audience. And as I said, he
introduces each individual act. So, there was a ringmaster. And there were clowns.
"Clowns" are those people that dress up in funny clothes, and they paint their face, and
they wear a wig. A "wig" is fake hair, right. If you're bald, you can wear a wig so that it
looks like you have hair. So, clowns often wear a wig, and they wear a lot of funny
things because the purpose of the clown is to be funny.
So, there were a couple of clowns there, and then there were also acrobats.
"Acrobats" are the people that fly through the air holding a rope, and they do many
scary... they do many scary tricks and maneuvers in the air, and it's one of the classic
elements of a circus, I think. So there were acrobats. And then one other element, one
other act that we saw was the tightrope walking. A "tightrope" is a very small rope that
goes from one side to another. And then the "tightrope walker" is the person who walks
along this rope, and they balance, so they don't fall on the ground, and they do different
tricks and things on this small, thin rope. So, it's very very difficult, but this is something
that the tightrope walker trains for... probably very often, and they get very good at
walking on this very thin rope. So, those were some of the elements that we saw at the
circus.
In general... at circuses, in general, there are also many other common elements
or acts at the circus. For example, there is juggling. "Juggling" is the act where people
have three or four or more objects, and they throw them in the air, and they use both of
their hands and they keep these objects in the air. The objects never fall to the ground.
So, this is one very common act at circuses. And then another act is unicycling. A
"unicycle" is like a bicycle, but it only has one wheel. So, I think, at some circuses, there
are unicyclists who juggle or do other things while they're riding a unicycle. And one
other act that I can think of is knife throwing. This is where someone throws knives in
the direction of another person, but they don't actually hit the person, right. They hit the
wall behind the person. They get very close to hitting the person with the knife, but
obviously, they don't actually hit them. So, this is another classic act at circuses.
So, one major element that circuses used to have that nowadays, they often
don't have is animals. So, when people think of circuses, usually, one of the things they
think of is lions and tigers and elephants and interesting animals like that. However,
nowadays, I think that most circuses don't include this element because people have
complained about animal abuse, and they complain that animals are mistreated at
circuses. So, I think because many people complain about that, circuses have been
forced to abandon this element. I don't really know much about the issue, but I've just
noticed that animals are often excluded from circuses nowadays, and maybe they're
always excluded... I don't really know. As I said, I haven't been to other circuses, so I'm
not quite sure if others circuses have animals or not, but I think that most of them don't.
Another reason why circuses might not have animals is that they can have some
pretty bad accidents with these animals. I think that, for example, if you have a lion, this
lion can attack the performer. Maybe they're not very well-trained or something like that
or maybe they get very frustrated or something, and they can attack humans. So, I'm
sure that's another reason why having animals is not the best at these circuses. So, let's
just talk a little bit about the cultural significance of circuses and a little bit of the history.
From my research, I found that circuses began in the 18th century in England. So, the
first modern circuses took place in the 1700s, I think, in London, and at first I think they
didn't always use a tent. They might have used a real building, but later on, they
adopted the style of using a tent and traveling around with this tent.
So, the traveling aspect of the circus is another very important element. In the
past, circuses would travel around the country, and so the performers would have to
travel between cities, and they would spend weeks or months on the road. And this is
something that you've probably seen in movies or read in books or things like that, you
know... circuses would come to town, as we would say. So, the circus would appear in
your town, and then you would go see the show. So, this is an important element about
circuses, is that they travel. Nowadays, I don't know if this is still true. If circus
performers have to travel all the time and go on tour, but I'm sure they do, because
different circuses like to perform in different cities. I'm sure they still do some traveling
like that.
And circuses are something that capture the imagination of children. So, I think
that children have always been interested in circuses. And if you see circuses in movies
or TV shows or in books, you can always see children getting very excited to go
because circuses are very mystical or magical events. They involve a lot of strange
things that we don't normally see in our daily lives. And so, it's very interesting for
people, especially for children, to see these strange elements and strange people and
strange events at a circus. So, I think even in my experience, when I went to the circus
this past weekend, I could see the children very very captivated by this performance.
When we use the word "captivated", we're saying that someone is very interested in
something that's happening. They can't turn their head away from... from watching this
performance. They're captivated by the performance. So, the children there looked like
they were having a lot of fun, and it was something really cool and different for them.
So, I think that circuses have changed throughout the years and they're different
now from how they were in the past, but I'm sure that circuses will continue to exist
because I think that children will always be intrigued by them. So, as long as children
are interested in circuses, I think that there will be circuses. So nowadays, I think, in the
United States circuses aren't extremely popular. Like I said, I think they will continue to
exist, but I have to admit that I think most people in big cities don't really think about the
circus that often. Like I said, I had never been to the circus before this past weekend,
but one style or one type of circus that people do really like is Cirque du Soleil. You
might have heard of this company before. This is the name of a very famous circus
company based in Montreal, Canada. The name Cirque du Soleil is a French name, and
this company is very, very famous because they have really good performances. Their
shows are extremely well done and very professional. And so, everyone loves watching
these performances.
I've been to one Cirque du Soleil performance before. It was in Las Vegas, and it
was extremely impressive. I had never seen anything like this before. The level of skill
and the level of danger that I saw at this circus performance was amazing. The type of
tricks that they were doing were really, really incredible. It was a little scary to watch
because I felt like the people there... the acrobats, they were doing things that were
really, really dangerous, so it's kind of hard to watch in my opinion. But it's really
amazing, and I was captivated the whole time when I watched that performance. And I
think for adults, it's just as interesting as it is for kids. So that is one style of circus that's
very popular nowadays.
And there are other themed circuses. When we say that something is "themed",
we're saying that it has a style or story or appearance that is different from the classic
version. So, one example of a themed circus could be a horror circus, a scary circus. I
I've seen some of these along the side of the road here in Mexico. These types of
circuses are designed to scare you. They're designed to be scary, and not only
entertaining, like normal surfaces, but scary. So, I know there are some different themed
circuses as well. So there's a variety in the world of circuses.
Okay, so I'm going to stop there for today. Hopefully, this episode was interesting
for you. And hopefully, it was good practice for your ears. Make sure to sign up for our
$1 Listening Practice Seminars at [Link] and please give this podcast a like a
rating a review and share it with anyone else who might find it useful. Thank you for
listening to this episode, and I hope you'll come back for Episode 19 of the Listening
Time podcast.

*IMPORTANT: This episode was recorded a while ago, and I don’t use the Polyglossa
website anymore. Now, you can access my Listening Practice Seminars by becoming a
member at [Link]/listeningtime