1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:04,400 Speaker 1: Hi everyone, It's Josh and for this week's s Y 2 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:08,239 Speaker 1: s K Selects, I've chosen How Flee Circuses Work. It's 3 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:11,840 Speaker 1: actually one of my all time favorite episodes. By the 4 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 1: time we recorded it, there was a ten percent chance 5 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:19,120 Speaker 1: that I still didn't know whether Flee circuses are actually 6 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:23,279 Speaker 1: real or illusions tricks of the imagination. It was a 7 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:27,200 Speaker 1: thrilling experience, to say the least. I hope you enjoyed 8 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 1: this episode because it was a fun one to do. 9 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of My 10 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the 11 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:47,519 Speaker 1: podcast on Josh Clark and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, 12 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 1: and there's Jerry Rowland and that makes this stuff you 13 00:00:52,159 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: should Know the podcast. Yeah, who would have ever thought 14 00:00:57,520 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: that we could do more than one podcast on fleas 15 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,720 Speaker 1: Had I thought about Flee Circuses, I would have thought that, Yeah, 16 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:08,319 Speaker 1: we covered it a tiny little bit. I went back 17 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: and looked just to make sure we weren't being too redundant, 18 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: and uh, we just sort of mentioned it briefly. But 19 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:18,039 Speaker 1: how delightful to dig in even further. Yeah, I mean, like, 20 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:20,840 Speaker 1: there's no way that we really got into it because 21 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 1: it's one of like the least documented aspects of popular 22 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: culture I've ever come across. Man, And there's so much misinformation, 23 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:32,679 Speaker 1: and you run across people who act like they know 24 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: exactly what they're talking about, and then you do more 25 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:37,360 Speaker 1: research and you find out they really are wrong in 26 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,120 Speaker 1: a lot of it. It's it's really it was crazy. 27 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:42,200 Speaker 1: It was a crazy research. Yeah, and you go to 28 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: web pages that are solid green with white letters and 29 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:53,560 Speaker 1: turned back to tone punctuation. What's that. Yeah, it was 30 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:56,400 Speaker 1: a little weird, but yeah, people take us to task 31 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 1: on the accuracy of this one. Then we'll be like you, 32 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: you go do better. So, um, I think we kind 33 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:06,360 Speaker 1: of gave it away. The cats out of the bag, 34 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 1: and so are it's fleas. We're doing flee circuses. We're 35 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:13,440 Speaker 1: talking about flee circuses, and they actually, like I think 36 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:15,880 Speaker 1: of flee circus is fairly old timing, but I usually 37 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:18,240 Speaker 1: think of him as like the twenties or thirties, maybe 38 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: even the forties, from like that old tech savery flee 39 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 1: circus cartoons or um. But they go way further back 40 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:29,520 Speaker 1: than that, or even the concept of of training fleas 41 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:32,520 Speaker 1: in some way, shape or form goes even further back 42 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:34,880 Speaker 1: than that. Yeah, which will We'll get to it. But 43 00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: training them as a bit of a misnomer, Yeah, that's 44 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:41,120 Speaker 1: a stretch for sure. It's sort of like tying and 45 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 1: gluing things to fleas and just let them be fleas. Yeah, basically, 46 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 1: as you will probably come to the same conclusion, flee 47 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 1: circuses are really mean. Yeah, they're cruel. No matter how 48 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 1: you feel about fleas, they are. Yeah, they're cruel. Cool 49 00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:58,520 Speaker 1: acts of barbarity. I think that's how they used to 50 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: buill it. Actually, yet tiny cruel acts of barbarity comes 51 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:06,679 Speaker 1: see Professor long Hair and his flee circus whitchy torments. 52 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 1: But they're small, so who cares? Right? Uh So fifteen 53 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: seventies is uh if this is accurate, we're all going 54 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:16,480 Speaker 1: to go all the way back to a man named 55 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:21,000 Speaker 1: Mark Scalliot who uh did not have a flee circus, 56 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:24,680 Speaker 1: but he was supposedly in London, one of the first people, 57 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: or perhaps the first person to use a flee as 58 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:32,680 Speaker 1: a prop of some sort. Yeah, to basically show off 59 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,920 Speaker 1: his skills as what as a he was a blacksmith. Yeah, 60 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:38,600 Speaker 1: he was a smithy and he made like this really 61 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:42,640 Speaker 1: really tiny intricate caller that he put her on to 62 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 1: flee and he said, check this out. Yeah, and everyone 63 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: was I guess because this apparently other people, uh like 64 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: watchmakers and stuff would would make little tiny watches as 65 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:57,600 Speaker 1: well as gimmicks. But I guess the thing they were 66 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 1: trying to show is the only thing I can think 67 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:02,320 Speaker 1: of is if I can make something this tiny that works, 68 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:05,520 Speaker 1: imagine what a real size human watch would look like. 69 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: It would work even better. But he got kind of 70 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,400 Speaker 1: famous from it from what I understand, and the idea 71 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:17,200 Speaker 1: of using fleas called on kind of kind of well, 72 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:20,040 Speaker 1: it took a couple of hundred years. But if if 73 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:23,719 Speaker 1: you look into fleas and flee circuses like I just 74 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: took them for Granted, I never stopped and thought why fleas, 75 00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:30,840 Speaker 1: But there's actually really good reasons why fleas, And it 76 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,400 Speaker 1: has to do with For one, fleas used to be everywhere, 77 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,920 Speaker 1: Like no matter where you lived in the world, you 78 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:41,600 Speaker 1: shared your living space with fleas, which must have been 79 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:44,159 Speaker 1: pretty awful. But apparently it was just a fact of life. 80 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:47,800 Speaker 1: So that's one thing. They're ubiquitous, they're easy to come by. 81 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 1: The other one is that fleas are really really good 82 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:56,680 Speaker 1: at jumping, and that actually makes them, under the right circumstances, 83 00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:00,480 Speaker 1: really good for this flee circus idea. Yeah, and we 84 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:03,480 Speaker 1: wed you know, if you really want to itch yourself, uh, 85 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:07,840 Speaker 1: go to listen to the fleet episode. UM. But they 86 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:09,880 Speaker 1: come in a couple of thousand varieties and the ones 87 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:14,440 Speaker 1: apparently for circuses are the little flat, reddish brown ones 88 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:20,000 Speaker 1: about two point five millimeters in length, and um they 89 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:22,280 Speaker 1: can jump though two point five millimeters they can jump 90 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:24,279 Speaker 1: sometimes as high as eight nine inches in the air. 91 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 1: I saw it to ten where you getting your fleas? 92 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 1: That was from the Royal Air Force Experimental Station. They 93 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:35,960 Speaker 1: apparently set up some equipment in the sixties and we're 94 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:39,360 Speaker 1: photographing fleas jumping. Oh yeah, see here that they said 95 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:42,200 Speaker 1: that UM, at the start of a jump, a fleet jump, 96 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:45,239 Speaker 1: they experience forces greater than a hundred and forty times 97 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:48,599 Speaker 1: out of gravity. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. They have these 98 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:52,520 Speaker 1: little um what are called elastic cuticles in their legs 99 00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:55,680 Speaker 1: and they can store a tremendous amount of potential energy 100 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:58,840 Speaker 1: and when they release them and they jump, that potential 101 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 1: energy turns into connect energy. And since that it's basically 102 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:08,040 Speaker 1: this elastic um connector, that's really storing the energy they're 103 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 1: not having to use up a lot of their own, 104 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:12,480 Speaker 1: so they can jump like this like thousands of times 105 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,800 Speaker 1: in an hour. And apparently when they jump, I don't 106 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:18,599 Speaker 1: I'm sure we said something somewhat contradictory in the actual 107 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 1: fleas episode, but the relation of their jumps to their 108 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:26,960 Speaker 1: body size, um it compared to humans to be like 109 00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: us jumping over the statue of Liberty or something along 110 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:35,240 Speaker 1: those lines, which is very hard to do. It can 111 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:37,599 Speaker 1: harder every day. Man. I was kind of thinking about 112 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:43,479 Speaker 1: these fleas jumping and like, evolutionarily speaking, why And I 113 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 1: guess they're just so small that when a dog goes 114 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:50,120 Speaker 1: to scratch or bite at it or whatever animal tries 115 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:53,120 Speaker 1: to get the fleet off, they can't just be like, well, 116 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,280 Speaker 1: let me run away as fast as I can, because 117 00:06:56,680 --> 00:06:59,320 Speaker 1: the dog's bite will still get it. So they learned, 118 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:02,440 Speaker 1: I think, quite really, how to jump and get the 119 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:06,159 Speaker 1: heck out of there very very quickly in order to survive. 120 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:10,320 Speaker 1: And the coolest fleas make the bionic Man sound when 121 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: they jump if you listen really close. All the hipster fleas, right, 122 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:19,480 Speaker 1: uh so, I guess we should talk about the main 123 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: dude though, right, who we owe all of us owe 124 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:24,960 Speaker 1: a great debt too. I'm not saying his name, you know, 125 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:26,840 Speaker 1: you've got to say his name. This is the eighteen 126 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:32,000 Speaker 1: twenties and he was an Italian I presario in London 127 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:40,200 Speaker 1: named Louis Berte Lotto. Nice. Yes, Yeah, there's so many 128 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:42,280 Speaker 1: ohs and t s. I thought I messed it up. No, 129 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:45,400 Speaker 1: I know it's a it's an unusual name. Yeah. So 130 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:50,320 Speaker 1: he's the guy in London who said, uh, I want 131 00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 1: to be really famous one day, and my big idea 132 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:58,679 Speaker 1: is to take fleas and put them in shows. Yeah, 133 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:02,040 Speaker 1: and it worked, It did work. I saw somewhere that 134 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:08,120 Speaker 1: the the origination of flee circuses it was um due 135 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:11,000 Speaker 1: largely to him. But I didn't really see anybody else 136 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:15,640 Speaker 1: cited earlier than him. You know, the watchmaker, the smithy 137 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:21,240 Speaker 1: Um Mark, Mark, the blacksmith. He wasn't doing any kind 138 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:26,160 Speaker 1: of shows or tricks. Louis Bertelotto Um said, you know what, 139 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:28,600 Speaker 1: the fleas aren't props. The fleas are going to be 140 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:31,800 Speaker 1: the stars in my show. That's right, And I think 141 00:08:31,840 --> 00:08:33,320 Speaker 1: he may have been the one who had the the 142 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:36,400 Speaker 1: original idea to do this. Yeah, I love our own 143 00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:39,440 Speaker 1: article said his show was part action, part humor, part 144 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:43,280 Speaker 1: social commentary. But I think that was the case. You know, 145 00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 1: they would uh well we might as well talk about 146 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:49,960 Speaker 1: what these things did. They would do everything from high 147 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:55,520 Speaker 1: wire x to sword fighting too. Uh. Political and historical 148 00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:59,080 Speaker 1: re enactments. Yeah, they re enacted the Battle of Waterloo 149 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,880 Speaker 1: dressed dressed in like military garb. Yeah. They would play 150 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:07,680 Speaker 1: a soccer or football. Uh. They would do um high diving, 151 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:13,479 Speaker 1: pretty amazing stuff, little pools of water, a little chariots 152 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:16,320 Speaker 1: and carriages. Yeah, that was one of the first ones 153 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:19,160 Speaker 1: because you know, I think, especially back in the early 154 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:22,160 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, people didn't know everything there is to know 155 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:25,960 Speaker 1: about fleas like we do today. So the idea of 156 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:29,840 Speaker 1: watching a little, tiny, tiny flee like a three millimeter 157 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:34,640 Speaker 1: long flea pulling like a hearse or a chariot or 158 00:09:34,679 --> 00:09:38,000 Speaker 1: a cart um that was you know, hundreds of times 159 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:40,760 Speaker 1: its own weight does get any better. It's gonna it's 160 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:43,520 Speaker 1: gonna impress you, especially if you're a five year old 161 00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:46,400 Speaker 1: um chimney sweet who's owned by the guy who bought 162 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:49,679 Speaker 1: you from your parents. Yeah. Or I actually looked up 163 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:53,839 Speaker 1: some flea circuses on YouTube. Uh, there were those little kids. 164 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:56,240 Speaker 1: There was one and I think Denmark in the nineteen 165 00:09:56,400 --> 00:09:58,680 Speaker 1: fifties that I looked at, I saw that, and like 166 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:04,040 Speaker 1: in Telfair, people were just delighted. Oh yeah, I mean 167 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: I watched some of the videos too, and I noticed that, 168 00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:10,640 Speaker 1: like my hands were classed together beneath my chin. I 169 00:10:10,679 --> 00:10:13,959 Speaker 1: think it might have been the perfect post election uh 170 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:17,160 Speaker 1: youtubing that I could have done. Actually, yeah, it worked 171 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:23,520 Speaker 1: pretty well. Uh so Bert, sorry Bert? His Uh his 172 00:10:23,559 --> 00:10:26,199 Speaker 1: act was not small if you think, well, sure he 173 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:30,079 Speaker 1: did this at some county fairs and side shows. Uh 174 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:32,560 Speaker 1: and then his wife made him stop. Yeah, not true 175 00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:35,920 Speaker 1: at all. He actually got really famous for this. I 176 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:38,559 Speaker 1: don't know. I mean they likened him to Elvis Presley. 177 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:40,880 Speaker 1: I don't know if he was that big. I think 178 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:43,160 Speaker 1: the point the authors making is like that this guy 179 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:47,480 Speaker 1: wasn't some some like, he wasn't Internet famous, he was 180 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:50,199 Speaker 1: like famous famous, Like he traveled the world doing this. 181 00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:54,040 Speaker 1: It's good for him, right, yeah, And he didn't. As 182 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:56,840 Speaker 1: he traveled the world, people were like, I can do 183 00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:00,200 Speaker 1: that too. I'm tired of working. I want to do this. 184 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:03,120 Speaker 1: But it turns out that from what I can tell, 185 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:06,200 Speaker 1: as far as show biz goes, running your own flea 186 00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:08,800 Speaker 1: Circus has got to be one of the more demanding 187 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:12,760 Speaker 1: side shows there there are. Well sure, I mean part 188 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:16,520 Speaker 1: of the problem is your performers. Well, first of all, 189 00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:18,480 Speaker 1: it says in here and this is like again with 190 00:11:18,559 --> 00:11:20,600 Speaker 1: this research, you just sort of have to take some 191 00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:23,040 Speaker 1: of these people at their word. But they say that 192 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:27,760 Speaker 1: about one in ten fleas can even make the cut, right. Uh, 193 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:33,480 Speaker 1: once you find your your champion team of they're they're 194 00:11:33,559 --> 00:11:36,800 Speaker 1: gonna die and there need to be cared for and 195 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:41,319 Speaker 1: traveling all over the world with your prized fleas is precarious. 196 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:45,480 Speaker 1: Well yeah, especially um if you're traveling to do shows 197 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:48,560 Speaker 1: and colder climbs there aren't fleas, and fleas don't do 198 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:51,839 Speaker 1: very well there. Your whole troop may die the night 199 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:55,520 Speaker 1: before a show. Can you imagine? But apparently it happened 200 00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:57,360 Speaker 1: a lot. There was a guy I read and I'm 201 00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:00,440 Speaker 1: not quite sure who it was, but they he had 202 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:05,320 Speaker 1: a a standing gig in I think Switzerland maybe or 203 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:09,240 Speaker 1: somewhere somewhat northern Europe and he had to send down 204 00:12:09,559 --> 00:12:12,200 Speaker 1: no she I'm sorry, she had to send down to 205 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:16,520 Speaker 1: Majorca to get um fresh shipments of fleas like every 206 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:19,240 Speaker 1: two weeks because hers just kept she couldn't keep them 207 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:22,319 Speaker 1: alive any longer than I have offers from all over 208 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:24,800 Speaker 1: the world to take my show. But you're afraid of 209 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:26,480 Speaker 1: one thing. When you get out of the country, can 210 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:28,520 Speaker 1: you get fleas? I went to Sweden and I had 211 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:31,120 Speaker 1: to send to Majorca in Spain to get fleas fortnite 212 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: every fortnight. Who was that? It was a woman, a 213 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:39,040 Speaker 1: sword swallower right? Uh? Was that Professor Tomlin No, I 214 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:43,280 Speaker 1: can't remember her name, but she's like a legendary sword swallower. Um, 215 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:48,520 Speaker 1: Professor Testos, no, Professor Chester, no, none of the professors. 216 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:50,400 Speaker 1: And that was another thing I noticed from this too, 217 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:53,720 Speaker 1: But I couldn't really find the origin. Apparently, if you 218 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:56,640 Speaker 1: had a flee circuses from from like the nineteenth century 219 00:12:56,640 --> 00:13:00,480 Speaker 1: to the early twentieth century, you the flea master, build 220 00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:04,360 Speaker 1: yourself as professor whatever. So weird, there's just all these 221 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:07,800 Speaker 1: really weird trends. But the in the history of flee circuses, 222 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:10,000 Speaker 1: it was like one person would come up with an 223 00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:12,680 Speaker 1: idea and then they go and show it and for 224 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:15,600 Speaker 1: some reason it would attract a bunch of other imitators, 225 00:13:15,679 --> 00:13:17,640 Speaker 1: and that's that's basically the history of it. I would 226 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:21,800 Speaker 1: have built myself as account Oh man, you know that 227 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:24,240 Speaker 1: would have broken a new ground. But they would have 228 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:26,080 Speaker 1: to pay money, and that says in the nineteen fifties 229 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:29,640 Speaker 1: Professor Testo said, we pay six shillings a dozen, although 230 00:13:29,679 --> 00:13:31,560 Speaker 1: there have been times of shortage when a single flea 231 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:34,880 Speaker 1: has cost as much as two shillings. Well you know, also, 232 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:38,040 Speaker 1: if you look around today, at which I did, I 233 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:42,240 Speaker 1: couldn't find anywhere to buy fleas. You have to send 234 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:46,040 Speaker 1: off from overseas um. But I've thought, well, surely there's 235 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:50,360 Speaker 1: some weirdo somewhere who's selling fleas to flee circuses and 236 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:54,480 Speaker 1: there are none, none whatsoever. Well there is a flee 237 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:59,240 Speaker 1: circus in Germany still, yeah, at the Munich October Fest. 238 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:02,120 Speaker 1: Where else would you have one? Alright, so you want 239 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:04,120 Speaker 1: to take a little break here, Yeah, all right, well 240 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:07,520 Speaker 1: let's break. Let's go pick the fleas from our own bodies. 241 00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:11,080 Speaker 1: I know I'm itching or scratching. Then maybe we can 242 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:38,840 Speaker 1: train them to finish this episode for us. So chuck, 243 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:41,480 Speaker 1: we we kind of made it as far as Berto Lotto, 244 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:43,680 Speaker 1: And there's actually a lot of mystery surrounding that guy. 245 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:47,000 Speaker 1: Here's the weird thing. Okay, I'm gonna confess something to you. 246 00:14:47,640 --> 00:14:50,440 Speaker 1: When I first read this article, I was like, well, 247 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: here's a stinker. Then I dug in a little further 248 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:57,080 Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I'm being tortured with research 249 00:14:57,160 --> 00:14:58,800 Speaker 1: to do a stinker. And then the more I did, 250 00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:01,040 Speaker 1: the more I did, the more I again, I'd find 251 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:04,600 Speaker 1: these weird little things that kept popping up that combined 252 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:10,200 Speaker 1: create the the the history or the culture of flee circuses. 253 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:13,200 Speaker 1: And and the more I came upon these little things 254 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:14,800 Speaker 1: and put them together more the more I was just 255 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:17,800 Speaker 1: totally delighted. But then I think, like you when I 256 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:19,760 Speaker 1: when I finally hit YouTube, it was like, okay, I 257 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:21,520 Speaker 1: need to see some of these. Then I was like, 258 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:24,640 Speaker 1: I love flee circuses. I could sit here and talk 259 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:27,360 Speaker 1: about them all day. Well, we'll try and keep this 260 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:32,000 Speaker 1: minutes all day. So I just realized I didn't finish 261 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,680 Speaker 1: my thought. The um, the weird little thing that I 262 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:42,760 Speaker 1: found out about Professor Barlo Dolore you thanks man Um. 263 00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: He just vanished, he disappeared. He was like as famous 264 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,000 Speaker 1: as as an astronaut, and then all of a sudden 265 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 1: he's gone. And there's a guy um who is uh. 266 00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:57,160 Speaker 1: I think his name is Andy Rich he's like basically 267 00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:01,280 Speaker 1: the foremost flee circus researcher working today. Hey, and he 268 00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:05,960 Speaker 1: found Professor Barte Lotto. Apparently he moved to Canada and 269 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:09,520 Speaker 1: lived out the rest of his life and anonymity. Wow. Yeah, 270 00:16:09,640 --> 00:16:11,920 Speaker 1: I have a question. Okay, why do you always use 271 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,600 Speaker 1: astronaut as a fame indicator? It's uh think it says 272 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:20,560 Speaker 1: Simpson's reference. It's Homer was saying somebody was richer than 273 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:23,960 Speaker 1: an astronaut. I was going to challenge you and say, 274 00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:27,960 Speaker 1: name an astronaut. Oh, dude, Jim Lovell No, no, no, 275 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:30,920 Speaker 1: name a current astronaut. Oh current astronaut. Well you got 276 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:34,160 Speaker 1: Mark Kelly and Scott Kelly. Okay, all right, the twins 277 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:39,000 Speaker 1: get back off. Then her their parents called them Project 278 00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:42,120 Speaker 1: Jim and I. That's cute. But they did not just 279 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:45,560 Speaker 1: made that up? Oh really? Yeah? Oh man, that would 280 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: have been surely somewhat thought of that. If not, I'm 281 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:53,000 Speaker 1: going to trade market. Uh yeah, And then you could 282 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:58,640 Speaker 1: blackmail them. I feel like you want this nickname. I 283 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:03,200 Speaker 1: know you're richer than an astro Alright, So early nineteen hundreds, 284 00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:05,400 Speaker 1: if you're talking imitators over here in the United States, 285 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:08,240 Speaker 1: we had a man named William Heckler, and he was 286 00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:10,560 Speaker 1: one of the first dudes over here to be a 287 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:15,639 Speaker 1: successful flea master. And uh, he did the usual things, 288 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:18,760 Speaker 1: made them box and race and juggle. And we're gonna 289 00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:20,439 Speaker 1: tell you some of these secrets. By the way, if 290 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:24,159 Speaker 1: you're wondering how these things are accomplished, just hang in there. Uh. 291 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:26,680 Speaker 1: And he said at one point he was bringing in 292 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:31,960 Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars uh day or performance in 293 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,680 Speaker 1: a in a day of performances a day. Yeah, so 294 00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:39,320 Speaker 1: many many performances. And here's the thing I Philip, I 295 00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:41,560 Speaker 1: kind of wondered I was because I didn't find it 296 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:43,720 Speaker 1: until later in the research, like, well, how do you 297 00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:46,520 Speaker 1: see this stuff? But you wouldn't have very many people 298 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:49,240 Speaker 1: in there. You'd have like ten or fifteen people crowded 299 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:52,879 Speaker 1: around a little table for six to ten minutes. You 300 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:55,480 Speaker 1: would shuffle them out and bring in the next group. Yes, 301 00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:58,960 Speaker 1: I saw somewhere that if you were really dedicated to it, 302 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:01,119 Speaker 1: I think Cecil Laden Road it on the on the 303 00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,400 Speaker 1: straight dope, that if you were like a really dedicated performer, 304 00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:10,000 Speaker 1: you could conceivably do fifty ten minute performances a day. 305 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:13,639 Speaker 1: So that's basically like ten hours with a ten minute 306 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:16,160 Speaker 1: break every hour. And if you're not a really dedicated 307 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:17,879 Speaker 1: flea master, then just get out of my face. What 308 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:20,439 Speaker 1: do you even bother? Seriously, though, I mean as when 309 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:24,000 Speaker 1: we talk about how to do this, it will become 310 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:28,200 Speaker 1: clear just how much work this must be. Yeah, alright, 311 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:30,359 Speaker 1: well let's talk a little bit about that. Um, every 312 00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:32,919 Speaker 1: flee is different. And like I said, uh, if you 313 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:35,880 Speaker 1: believe the research, about ten percent of the fleezer fit 314 00:18:36,119 --> 00:18:39,640 Speaker 1: for the job. And it's like we mentioned, you don't 315 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:43,040 Speaker 1: really train them. What you do is back in the day, 316 00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:46,680 Speaker 1: you would take either some silken thread or some really 317 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:50,000 Speaker 1: thin gold wire like hopefully you can't even see it, 318 00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:54,640 Speaker 1: that's sort of the idea, and you tie a little 319 00:18:54,680 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: tiny noose of sorts around this fleas neck. And apparently 320 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:04,879 Speaker 1: that was really hard to do because when a fleet 321 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:10,360 Speaker 1: eats the blood of their master, yeah, which is true. 322 00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:14,000 Speaker 1: We'll get to that again later, but their next well, 323 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:16,280 Speaker 1: so you can't tie it too tight or else they're 324 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:18,800 Speaker 1: gonna die and that your prize flee could die. Or 325 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:22,480 Speaker 1: if it's too loose, then the flea goes away and 326 00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 1: the chariot stays behind, and that's no good and you 327 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:30,200 Speaker 1: just hear a tiny bionic man sound. That's right. So um, 328 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:35,399 Speaker 1: that's very hard Number one. Number two the idea that 329 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:39,280 Speaker 1: you have to do that with new fleas every I 330 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:43,920 Speaker 1: would guess probably every few weeks if you're on average, 331 00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:47,920 Speaker 1: because fleas, I mean they live maybe a year. Most 332 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:51,120 Speaker 1: fleas live three or four months. It's an old flee. 333 00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:55,040 Speaker 1: So you've got like a some star performers and they're 334 00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:57,920 Speaker 1: just they're performing, you know, for a few months or whatever. 335 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:02,000 Speaker 1: So you're having to basically constantly us fleas all the 336 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:05,439 Speaker 1: time and and again before you even harness them, you 337 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:07,280 Speaker 1: have to sort them. So you have to study and 338 00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:11,359 Speaker 1: observe the adult fleas see which one's like to jump. Um. 339 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:15,320 Speaker 1: There's an old legend, uh that apparently came from Professor 340 00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:20,560 Speaker 1: Heckler's son, if not Professor Heckler himself, who said, Um, 341 00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:23,520 Speaker 1: you you put a lid over a jar, and you 342 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:26,440 Speaker 1: can train them not to jump too high because they'll 343 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:28,439 Speaker 1: hit their head on the jar and they don't like 344 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:30,600 Speaker 1: to do that. So they learned not to jump, then 345 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:34,640 Speaker 1: they've passed their first test. It's not clear whether that's 346 00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:39,840 Speaker 1: actually hocum or not, but um, that's for for a 347 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:42,439 Speaker 1: very long time. That's been part of the lower of 348 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:45,240 Speaker 1: training fleas. The problem is, I think you said it, 349 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:48,960 Speaker 1: fleas can't actually learn anything. They're not really being trained. 350 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:53,000 Speaker 1: They're actually being physically restrained in lots of ways, including 351 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:56,240 Speaker 1: that harness and starting with the harness. Well, I don't know, though, Heckler, 352 00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:00,560 Speaker 1: Professor Heckler that is also said and this was fascinating 353 00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:02,560 Speaker 1: to me as far as whether or not these fleas 354 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:05,560 Speaker 1: can learn anything. He said that he would to get 355 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:08,880 Speaker 1: the best fleas, put them in a glass jar. Uh, 356 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,639 Speaker 1: that's too tall for them to jump out, and he 357 00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:14,119 Speaker 1: said that he would notice the really good fleas would 358 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:17,919 Speaker 1: jump up on the side, fart out a little bit 359 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:22,280 Speaker 1: of sticky stuff, whatever that is, and then spend the 360 00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:24,560 Speaker 1: rest of the time trying and trying to hit that 361 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:27,840 Speaker 1: identical spot again to grab hold of the sticky stuff 362 00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:31,400 Speaker 1: basically a foothold, to be close enough to the top 363 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:35,320 Speaker 1: to leap out. Amazing. I don't know if I believe it. 364 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:38,520 Speaker 1: He well, yeah, I mean he was a showman, consummist. 365 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,439 Speaker 1: Showman like you didn't just basically point and be like, 366 00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:44,520 Speaker 1: look at the fleas, came your money, please leave now, 367 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:47,719 Speaker 1: like you were like carrying the show on. Right, you 368 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:50,520 Speaker 1: had to tell this this this, You had to help 369 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:54,200 Speaker 1: the performance along, your professor, for God's sake. Right, when 370 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:58,080 Speaker 1: this guy is being interviewed over the years, I can't 371 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:02,159 Speaker 1: imagine he didn't like ham it up in the interviews. 372 00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:04,080 Speaker 1: So I don't know, like a lot of it's lost 373 00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:07,560 Speaker 1: too to time, what was true and what wasn't as 374 00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:10,280 Speaker 1: far as these these old guys go. Yeah, but he 375 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,840 Speaker 1: Professor Heckler also said when he was picking them out, 376 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,400 Speaker 1: and he said, stodgy wins are broken to the merry 377 00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:20,480 Speaker 1: go round harness. Flighty fleas make good dancers. Those with 378 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,800 Speaker 1: especially strong legs will become kickers, jugglers and chariot racers. Yes, 379 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:29,159 Speaker 1: so you've got you've got fleas harness. That's like the 380 00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:32,080 Speaker 1: first initial thing. But there's other things you need to 381 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:34,360 Speaker 1: do to him to write. You can take that harness, 382 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:37,240 Speaker 1: and the most basic thing you could do is take 383 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:40,040 Speaker 1: that harness and actually hook it up to, like you said, 384 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:43,000 Speaker 1: a chariot or or or a merry go round or 385 00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:45,960 Speaker 1: something like that. And yet people will be like, that's 386 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,480 Speaker 1: pretty neat, that's cool. But before I could do that, 387 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:51,040 Speaker 1: you know, but you could do other stuff too, and 388 00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:54,440 Speaker 1: a lot of it involves glue unfortunately. So say like 389 00:22:54,520 --> 00:23:00,080 Speaker 1: you take a tiny piece of um of would or 390 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,679 Speaker 1: a tiny piece of metal and you glue it to 391 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:08,520 Speaker 1: the fleas arms, right, and we should say, once that happens, 392 00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:11,919 Speaker 1: that's it. That's never that's never coming off for the 393 00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:15,439 Speaker 1: rest of the fleas life. Yeah, I mean, do you 394 00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:20,680 Speaker 1: think they even survive that day? I think so. Yeah. 395 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:24,240 Speaker 1: I think that they typically survive a few weeks of performing. Okay, 396 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:25,840 Speaker 1: so even if they have a little sword glued to 397 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:30,080 Speaker 1: their body, yeah, okay, I think they live horrible lives. 398 00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:33,920 Speaker 1: I mean, basically, we as a species should know more 399 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:36,199 Speaker 1: about this because if the fleas of a rise up 400 00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:39,359 Speaker 1: and become intelligent, like our backs are against the wall 401 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:41,960 Speaker 1: for what the flea circus flea masters have done to 402 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,480 Speaker 1: them glued to the wall, they'll be like, oh, guess 403 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,520 Speaker 1: whose turn it is? Alright, so go ahead, Oh so 404 00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,159 Speaker 1: you you, um, you glue a piece of stick or 405 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,840 Speaker 1: something to their arms, and remember already they're harnessed. And 406 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:57,199 Speaker 1: then you do the same thing to another flee and 407 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:00,240 Speaker 1: then you tie their harnesses down and you just kind 408 00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:03,280 Speaker 1: of tickle them or do something to stimulate them, and 409 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:05,560 Speaker 1: they start waving their arms and it looks like the 410 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:10,000 Speaker 1: sword fighting. So that's a really good example of a 411 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,879 Speaker 1: flee circus. Like you're you're having them do things, and 412 00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:15,600 Speaker 1: then the flea masters like, well, look at this, this 413 00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:18,440 Speaker 1: is a sword fight. Everybody see they're doing or fencing 414 00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:20,240 Speaker 1: or something like that, right en, I've trained them to 415 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:24,400 Speaker 1: do so exactly exactly. So there's there's these things where 416 00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:29,719 Speaker 1: really it's the interaction between a restrained flee, usually with 417 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:34,879 Speaker 1: the prop glued to it, defending itself or responding to 418 00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:38,439 Speaker 1: some sort of noxious or threatening stimuli, and then the 419 00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,480 Speaker 1: flea master coming and saying, oh, they're they're fencing, or 420 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:44,639 Speaker 1: they're walking the high wire something or there. This is 421 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 1: Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Yeah, they would play soccer. 422 00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:50,200 Speaker 1: Like I said, so what they would do there is 423 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,480 Speaker 1: they would get a little piece of cotton wool. Uh. 424 00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:55,199 Speaker 1: They would soak it in something that the fleet doesn't like, 425 00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:59,280 Speaker 1: some odorous, malodorous thing. Yeah, I looked that up. Like 426 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:02,840 Speaker 1: lavender works really well, sit, tranella, cedar oil, those are 427 00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:06,119 Speaker 1: all lovely. That's a shame. But come to think of it, 428 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,359 Speaker 1: when you see natural flee sprays, that's what's in natural 429 00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:11,879 Speaker 1: flee spray exactly, so they would soak it in that 430 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,520 Speaker 1: stuff and then uh, just the fleet would literally just 431 00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:16,680 Speaker 1: kick at it to get it away like a little 432 00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:19,720 Speaker 1: soccer ball. Right, They're either kicking at it to get 433 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:23,560 Speaker 1: it away or because they were restrained and when they kick, 434 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:27,119 Speaker 1: instead of it propelling the flee away, it's repelling the 435 00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:29,560 Speaker 1: ball away from them. So if you have them this 436 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:32,320 Speaker 1: kind of do that back and forth, then yeah, they're 437 00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:37,119 Speaker 1: playing soccer. What about juggling, Josh, love it. What you 438 00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:40,760 Speaker 1: do there is you would glue a flee to its 439 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:45,119 Speaker 1: on its back basically and then put another little tiny 440 00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:48,280 Speaker 1: piece of cotton on their legs and they would kick 441 00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,200 Speaker 1: at it trying to get it off, and apparently would 442 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:52,560 Speaker 1: just kind of go up and down and spin around 443 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:57,080 Speaker 1: like it was juggling. Amazing. Yeah, and like this is 444 00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:00,080 Speaker 1: this is uh thanks to Heckler in particular in the 445 00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:04,160 Speaker 1: United States. Um, he really started hitting the county fairs 446 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:10,200 Speaker 1: and um, the the the carnivals. So it became basically 447 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,399 Speaker 1: part and parcel with the with sideshows the fleet circus. 448 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 1: Like basically anytime you went to a decent carnival, there's 449 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:18,719 Speaker 1: a flea circus there. Yeah, and I get the feeling 450 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:23,439 Speaker 1: that these professors would try and they would try and innovate, 451 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:25,760 Speaker 1: they would try and come up with new tricks and 452 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:28,840 Speaker 1: new things that would delight people, because you want to 453 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:32,200 Speaker 1: keep people coming back, you know, right, So that's where 454 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,640 Speaker 1: you come up with things like the the high high 455 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:38,040 Speaker 1: Wire Act and the flea walls. When it would appear 456 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:41,840 Speaker 1: as if a fleet orchestra was playing and fleas were dancing. Yeah, 457 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,640 Speaker 1: because there's there's other things that fleas respond to. Two 458 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:48,800 Speaker 1: besides um citronella, they respond very well the heat. They 459 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:51,680 Speaker 1: can sense heat very well, and if it gets too hot, 460 00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:53,800 Speaker 1: they want to get out of there. So if you 461 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:57,640 Speaker 1: apply heat from beneath on say like uh just um, 462 00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:00,000 Speaker 1: I don't know, a drumhead or something like that, they'll 463 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,560 Speaker 1: all start hopping around. But if they if they can't 464 00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:04,919 Speaker 1: get away, if they're harnessed in, then it looks like 465 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,600 Speaker 1: they're dancing. If you put a little flea orchestra to 466 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:11,120 Speaker 1: the side with instruments glued to their their arms at 467 00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:15,400 Speaker 1: a nice backbeat exactly, then you have fleas playing music 468 00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:19,280 Speaker 1: and fleas dancing to it. A flea ball. Uh. So 469 00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:23,359 Speaker 1: this all is delightful and well and good. Um, but 470 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,400 Speaker 1: what fun is a naked little flea doing these things? 471 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:30,720 Speaker 1: If you could have a flee dressed up as Napoleon, right, 472 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:37,040 Speaker 1: And that's what they did. They apparently historical figures were lampooned. Uh. 473 00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:42,479 Speaker 1: They would supposedly get Mexican nuns who had quote nimble 474 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:47,639 Speaker 1: fingers tired and eyes deteriorated. I don't see how that 475 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:51,600 Speaker 1: makes any sense. So they're these they they're nimble fingers 476 00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:55,679 Speaker 1: grew tired in their eyes deteriorated as we're making these things. Okay, 477 00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:58,159 Speaker 1: I thought that was that was a good quality they 478 00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:02,719 Speaker 1: look for an a Mexican nun seems dress right, How 479 00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:05,720 Speaker 1: are your nimble fingers feeling? That's kind of tired? They're tired. 480 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:09,440 Speaker 1: That's sad. Actually. Then, so they would get apparently these 481 00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:14,080 Speaker 1: Mexican nuns to make these tiny little costumes, and um, 482 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:18,120 Speaker 1: they are still on display today if you go to Uh, 483 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,000 Speaker 1: how do you pronounce that in England? I mispronounced everything 484 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:27,960 Speaker 1: in England. It's spelled Hertfordshire show Cambridge, all right, Cambridge, England. 485 00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,480 Speaker 1: I think it's where that at the Rothschild Zoological Museum. 486 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:35,400 Speaker 1: There are two fleas dressed as Mexican fleas on display 487 00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,560 Speaker 1: and right in our lovely Edinburgh, Scotland that we adored 488 00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:42,479 Speaker 1: so much. Had I known, had I known that there 489 00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:46,719 Speaker 1: was a museum of childhood there with a flea wedding 490 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:49,360 Speaker 1: party dressed up on display, I would have gone in 491 00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:52,840 Speaker 1: a second, for sure. But yeah, it was a thing. 492 00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:56,200 Speaker 1: I think it was already a thing in Mexico. And 493 00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:00,560 Speaker 1: the flea circus masters said, hey, I need to get 494 00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:04,480 Speaker 1: some of those, so chuck, if you have a bunch 495 00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:07,120 Speaker 1: of fleas and they're making you money, you want to 496 00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:12,160 Speaker 1: keep them alive, right, how would you do that? Well, 497 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:17,160 Speaker 1: as we all know, fleas or parasitic blood suckers. Uh. 498 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:18,560 Speaker 1: And so they would just go down to the blood 499 00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:21,000 Speaker 1: bank and get a bag of blood right right, and 500 00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:23,160 Speaker 1: let the fleece swim around in it. Yeah, and they 501 00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:25,680 Speaker 1: loved it. And know what they would do is and 502 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:28,080 Speaker 1: this is like it gives me chills thinking about it. 503 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:30,760 Speaker 1: They would roll up their sleeves and stick their arm 504 00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:34,680 Speaker 1: down there and let the fleas feed on their bodies. Yeah, 505 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:38,080 Speaker 1: a couple of times a day. But apparently apparently though 506 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:41,120 Speaker 1: it was part of every single show that you would 507 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:44,360 Speaker 1: end the show with and now, since these fleet performers 508 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,000 Speaker 1: have done so great, I shall let them feast on 509 00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,959 Speaker 1: my blood and the crowd would be like you gross, 510 00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:53,640 Speaker 1: that makes sense. Yeah, it was part of stage pattern, 511 00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:57,720 Speaker 1: but apparently at least Heckler, but I'm sure others actually 512 00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:01,840 Speaker 1: did let the fleas feed on them. Uh yeah, I mean, 513 00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:05,719 Speaker 1: what's a good flee master to do? Well, feed your 514 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:08,520 Speaker 1: fleas blood Either that or have like a again, a 515 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:12,320 Speaker 1: chimney sweep that you bought from a chimney sweeper to 516 00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:15,040 Speaker 1: let the fleas feed on. I hope that the episode 517 00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: has come out, but people are going to be really confused, yeah, 518 00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:21,280 Speaker 1: or it'll be really delightful when it does come out 519 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:25,640 Speaker 1: and they'll be like, oh that makes sense. Now, Hey, 520 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:29,400 Speaker 1: one more thing about Heckler. So there was a Heckler Sr. 521 00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:34,200 Speaker 1: And Junior, and apparently Junior kept it going in Times 522 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:38,440 Speaker 1: Square until like the late fifties had a flee circus going, 523 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:41,520 Speaker 1: and Heckler's flee circus shows up in a scene an 524 00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:45,280 Speaker 1: Easy Rider. No way. Yeah, I couldn't figure out what's scene. 525 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:48,280 Speaker 1: I didn't have time to go check. But there's a 526 00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:51,120 Speaker 1: scene an Easy Rider where in the background there's Heckler's 527 00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:53,360 Speaker 1: flee circus, and then they were pushed out of Times 528 00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:57,120 Speaker 1: Square by peep shows. And then the peep shows were 529 00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:01,840 Speaker 1: pushed out by Walt Disney and Julie Annie. Yeah, Heckler 530 00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:06,440 Speaker 1: tried at first to do pants less flee circus. Well 531 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:09,000 Speaker 1: it didn't work very well. Yeah, no, one wants that. No, 532 00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: and finally just packed it up. All right, Well, let's 533 00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:14,000 Speaker 1: take one final break here and we will talk about 534 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:41,720 Speaker 1: another kind of flee circus right after this. So check. 535 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,280 Speaker 1: One thing that I found I'm pretty sure you found 536 00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,840 Speaker 1: it too, was that when you start looking into flee circuses, 537 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:51,600 Speaker 1: some people think that there is never such a thing 538 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:55,560 Speaker 1: as flee circuses that used real fleas. Yeah. I thought 539 00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:56,960 Speaker 1: you were going to say, when you start looking into 540 00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:59,920 Speaker 1: flee circus is there's no going back and you'll never 541 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,400 Speaker 1: be the same again. That's definitely true too, Like I'm 542 00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:06,800 Speaker 1: changed forever. Yeah. I always thought that flee circuses were 543 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:10,320 Speaker 1: a complete ruse and that there were never any real 544 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:14,520 Speaker 1: fleas performing, right, Apparently, No, that's not the case. There 545 00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:18,120 Speaker 1: have been, and indeed, ours recently as the nineties, there 546 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:22,880 Speaker 1: have been flee circuses that used real fleas. Following these 547 00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:26,920 Speaker 1: traditions that we just mentioned. But if you believe that 548 00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:29,120 Speaker 1: there are plenty of flee circuses out there that don't 549 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:33,960 Speaker 1: use any fleas whatsoever, you're right too, because there's both. Yes, 550 00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,600 Speaker 1: there's the type of flee circus that doesn't use fleas 551 00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:41,040 Speaker 1: is called a humbug flee circus, and it's all it's 552 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:47,400 Speaker 1: all stage magic, it's all illusion, and it's pretty pretty awesome. Actually, yeah, 553 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:52,360 Speaker 1: there was a man, a magician named George Tollerton in 554 00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:55,920 Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, and he wrote a booklet actually um 555 00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:59,920 Speaker 1: outlining fake flee circuses and skits that you can do. 556 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:04,640 Speaker 1: We're in you're sort of the I mean, while the 557 00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:08,560 Speaker 1: carnival barking was going on in the real flee circuses. Um, 558 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:10,840 Speaker 1: you you really want to take center stage if you 559 00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:14,280 Speaker 1: have a fake flee circus, because then not only introducing 560 00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:18,880 Speaker 1: the death defying feats, but then you are are following 561 00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:22,120 Speaker 1: these fleas, jumping around with mimicking it with your eyes 562 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:25,400 Speaker 1: and following it around, you know, by moving your head 563 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:30,240 Speaker 1: around as if the audience is looking at some invisible thing, 564 00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:33,520 Speaker 1: which they are, right right, they are, and you're basically 565 00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:36,680 Speaker 1: just using your powers of suggestion to get them to 566 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:40,640 Speaker 1: think they're seeing what you're saying. Right, Yeah, that's the 567 00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:46,719 Speaker 1: most like basic humbug flee circus there are, right, sure, 568 00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:49,240 Speaker 1: but there's one in that that started like that. I 569 00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:56,360 Speaker 1: guess the genuine stagecraft stage magic um humbug flee circus 570 00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:03,240 Speaker 1: came about from Michael Benteen, who is a gooon actually right, remember, 571 00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:06,280 Speaker 1: then explained that what it is the goons showed up 572 00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:09,319 Speaker 1: in the Monty Python episode. They were the direct predecessor 573 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:14,200 Speaker 1: of Monty Python, Spike Milligan and his goons. Yes, he 574 00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:17,719 Speaker 1: wasn't a hockey playing goon, that's a different thing, or 575 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:22,799 Speaker 1: a goon on Scooby Doo or a goony, right, just 576 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:25,680 Speaker 1: a regular old goon. Yeah, Michael Benty And he was 577 00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:29,000 Speaker 1: a British performer and entertainer and he uh in nineteen 578 00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:34,080 Speaker 1: fifty performed that the h called the Royal Variety Show. 579 00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:37,120 Speaker 1: I guess I think so. And it was a little 580 00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:42,319 Speaker 1: you know, fake flee circus apparently pretty elaborate one, yeah, 581 00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:46,440 Speaker 1: because rather than just using like his power of suggestion, 582 00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:51,160 Speaker 1: he was using things like magnets and remote control pumps 583 00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:56,080 Speaker 1: and mechanical devices to really kind of do this exaggerated 584 00:34:56,200 --> 00:35:00,440 Speaker 1: simulation of a flee doing stuff going through the circuit 585 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,080 Speaker 1: of his flea circus right, So he would say, have 586 00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:04,880 Speaker 1: a magnet or a piece of string of something or 587 00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:07,920 Speaker 1: something pushing a ball or rather pulling a ball up 588 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,640 Speaker 1: a hill an incline, and he would say that this 589 00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:14,160 Speaker 1: is the uh, the flea sisyphus and he's pushing this 590 00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:18,000 Speaker 1: ball up a hill right or um, this is this 591 00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:20,280 Speaker 1: is my favorite. This gets me every time a flee 592 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:23,719 Speaker 1: going up on the high dive board. And then so 593 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:26,160 Speaker 1: as he's going up there, the wrongs of the ladder, 594 00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:29,400 Speaker 1: each one gets depressed, right, so you can see the 595 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:31,960 Speaker 1: fleas progress up the ladder gets up to the end 596 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,200 Speaker 1: of the board, jumps a couple of times, so the 597 00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:36,640 Speaker 1: springboard goes up and down, and then it makes a 598 00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:41,399 Speaker 1: springing sound as he jumps off right exactly dives into 599 00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,400 Speaker 1: the water, and there's like this huge splash, which a 600 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:46,960 Speaker 1: fleet could never make a splash to begin with, but 601 00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:50,839 Speaker 1: a huge one. It's just hilarious. Or I like the 602 00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:54,160 Speaker 1: one the sand table. They would have a little sandbox 603 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:58,080 Speaker 1: in the fleet with the fake fleet would invisibly jump around, 604 00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:00,720 Speaker 1: but it would create a little splash of sand everywhere. 605 00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:04,200 Speaker 1: He dropped all over the place and again all with magnets, 606 00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:08,000 Speaker 1: all fakery, Yeah, but really really clever. I get the 607 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,520 Speaker 1: impression he was not um not terribly old at the 608 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:15,080 Speaker 1: time when he first debuted on tv UM and in 609 00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:18,839 Speaker 1: the grand tradition of flee circuses, some other people saw 610 00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:20,759 Speaker 1: it and said, I want to do that too, So 611 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:24,920 Speaker 1: the Humbug Flee circus took off and became pretty popular 612 00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:28,200 Speaker 1: and like the second half of the twentieth century. Yeah, 613 00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:30,840 Speaker 1: I should say popular as far as flee circuses go, 614 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,759 Speaker 1: which is to say, not very popular, right, popular among weirdos. Yeah. 615 00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,640 Speaker 1: I'm really kind of wondering about this Burt to Loto 616 00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:44,120 Speaker 1: and his fame, like he might not have been I 617 00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:45,920 Speaker 1: don't know, I mean just because he traveled the world. 618 00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:48,320 Speaker 1: I mean, he could have been traveling the world performing 619 00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:50,759 Speaker 1: in front of you know, sixty people a day. That's 620 00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:55,920 Speaker 1: not exactly Elvis. It's true. This whole thing is under 621 00:36:55,960 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: a cloud of suspicion, is Yeah. Man, it's really tough 622 00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:03,040 Speaker 1: to figure out the what's from the who's in the 623 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:07,600 Speaker 1: winds and the why and the fleas from the magnets. Yeah. Yeah, 624 00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:11,960 Speaker 1: because once you introduced that humbug ury into it. Everything 625 00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:16,040 Speaker 1: comes into question. There was, actually, though, there was a 626 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,600 Speaker 1: book that I want to get. It's a it's a 627 00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:22,560 Speaker 1: pamphlet basically turned into a book from that a guy 628 00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:25,760 Speaker 1: named Tom Palmer wrote. It's called the Famous Flee Act 629 00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,000 Speaker 1: and it teaches you everything you need to know to 630 00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:33,480 Speaker 1: do a humbug flee circus. I just want to read 631 00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:36,880 Speaker 1: it just for frenzies. You know, Christmas is coming up. 632 00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:40,839 Speaker 1: I bet you someone out there, I'll send that to you. 633 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,719 Speaker 1: I was talking to you. No, that just someone else 634 00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:48,960 Speaker 1: out there. Well okay, uh my call to you. The 635 00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:52,839 Speaker 1: public listening stuff. You should know. Public is another doing 636 00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:55,719 Speaker 1: this in october Fest. But somebody needs to bring this 637 00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:59,080 Speaker 1: back in a big way. Well a woman did in 638 00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:02,640 Speaker 1: the nineties, but it didn't take for very long. But 639 00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:04,759 Speaker 1: I mean it was pretty big in the nineties. Um. 640 00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:10,040 Speaker 1: Her name was what is it, chuck, Maria Fernanda Cardoso. 641 00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:14,319 Speaker 1: Did you read about her? You should check out her act. 642 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:17,560 Speaker 1: You didn't see the video of it. There's like a 643 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,919 Speaker 1: seven eight minute video of her act and apparently it's 644 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,560 Speaker 1: just the highlights, so I guess her act was longer 645 00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:28,520 Speaker 1: and she's a performance artist, so um it was she 646 00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:30,880 Speaker 1: did it at like different places like she did at 647 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:34,239 Speaker 1: the New Museum in New York and um, San Francisco 648 00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:37,600 Speaker 1: and just kind of some some pretty neat places places 649 00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:39,400 Speaker 1: you wouldn't expect to see a flee circus, is what 650 00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:44,600 Speaker 1: I'm saying. I guess. But she used live fleece in 651 00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:48,120 Speaker 1: the grand tradition of flee circuses and uh made a 652 00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:53,880 Speaker 1: very beautiful, neat almost circutus so laish flee circus in 653 00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:56,759 Speaker 1: the nineties. Yeah, but there's a video of it, or 654 00:38:56,800 --> 00:39:00,000 Speaker 1: there's plenty of videos, I'm sure of it out there. Um, 655 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:03,560 Speaker 1: just lock her up and look for the flice circus 656 00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:06,520 Speaker 1: video with with our thumbs up on it. Yeah. And 657 00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:09,600 Speaker 1: you know, we kind of joked about this being cruel it. Um, 658 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,080 Speaker 1: it's easy to to say this is a flee so 659 00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:15,000 Speaker 1: who cares. But I'm sure there are people that get 660 00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:18,080 Speaker 1: up in arms about using any sort of you know, 661 00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:23,200 Speaker 1: mistreating and animal for any kind of or insects, animals. 662 00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:29,400 Speaker 1: Let's just say for this argument, for sure, for the 663 00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:32,200 Speaker 1: entertainment of humans. You know, there's probably at least one 664 00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:33,960 Speaker 1: person out there that thinks this is very cruel thing 665 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:37,440 Speaker 1: to do. Know, there's uh, there's apparently um, societies that 666 00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:42,080 Speaker 1: are dedicated to preventing cruelty to insects in particular. There 667 00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:45,640 Speaker 1: you haven't, and they have called specifically for flee circuses 668 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:49,160 Speaker 1: to be banned outright, And they make a pretty convincing case, 669 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:52,560 Speaker 1: especially if you don't allow yourself to stop and remind 670 00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:55,960 Speaker 1: yourself that these are fleas we're talking about. But they 671 00:39:56,080 --> 00:40:00,239 Speaker 1: you know, they're held in captivity their whole lives. They're held, um, 672 00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:03,719 Speaker 1: they're connected by a harness that keeps them held down 673 00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:08,160 Speaker 1: their entire lives. The tricks that they're performing are actually 674 00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:17,160 Speaker 1: like stress behaviors, um, and they die probably prematurely. Yeah, 675 00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:19,600 Speaker 1: well as what went off on fleas in the fleet episode. 676 00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:23,200 Speaker 1: So I can't really say anything about that. Sure, I've 677 00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:28,200 Speaker 1: had bad infestations and I had no problem grabbing them 678 00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:31,680 Speaker 1: between my hands and holding them underwater until they slowly drowned. Right, 679 00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,880 Speaker 1: They're like, please just crush me, and you say, never drown. 680 00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:39,040 Speaker 1: You can't crush them. You can crush a fleet if 681 00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:41,560 Speaker 1: you get it's hard eat finger nails, that's your problem. 682 00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:43,440 Speaker 1: You butt your finger nails too much. Yeah, But you 683 00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:47,080 Speaker 1: try to smash a flee and he just goes dying. 684 00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:54,120 Speaker 1: Do do do do do do Yeah, anything else? Um, 685 00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:57,200 Speaker 1: you can buy flee circuses ready made flee circuses if 686 00:40:57,239 --> 00:40:59,919 Speaker 1: you want. Well, that's fun. Yeah, um like an ant. 687 00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:04,319 Speaker 1: Good luck finding fleas is the thing, right, And I 688 00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:08,880 Speaker 1: think that's it. Man, that's a flee circuses. Just go 689 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:12,040 Speaker 1: watch some Flee circus videos on TV or on the 690 00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:14,799 Speaker 1: computer TV. You're gonna love it. Yeah, it's a good 691 00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:17,920 Speaker 1: way to just dumb it down and check out. Yeah, 692 00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:22,080 Speaker 1: it's delightful though too. Uh. Since I said it's delightful 693 00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:24,719 Speaker 1: if you want to know, that's right, I got all 694 00:41:24,719 --> 00:41:27,520 Speaker 1: the order I was thinking about flee circuses. If you 695 00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:29,319 Speaker 1: want to know more about Flee circus's do what I 696 00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:31,160 Speaker 1: just said. And you can also type those words in 697 00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:33,400 Speaker 1: the search part how stuff works. And since I said 698 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:39,160 Speaker 1: it's delightful. Before it's time for a listener mail, I'm 699 00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:41,960 Speaker 1: gonna call this what the writer called it, which is 700 00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:46,000 Speaker 1: pick me for listener mail. Thanks from a teacher. Okay, 701 00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:49,319 Speaker 1: it's hard to resist, Josh, Chuck and Jerry. And finally 702 00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:51,040 Speaker 1: writing to you all. I've been listening stuff you should 703 00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:54,160 Speaker 1: know for years. I think I've listened to nearly every episode, 704 00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:56,480 Speaker 1: even the ones from the Dark Days. When the discussion 705 00:41:56,520 --> 00:41:59,160 Speaker 1: lasted fewer than ten minutes and Josh was still looking 706 00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:02,600 Speaker 1: for his perfect pot casting partner, my sister introduced me 707 00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:04,839 Speaker 1: to you. So if you picked this for listener mail, 708 00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:07,400 Speaker 1: please do be extremely cool. If you give my sister 709 00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:11,000 Speaker 1: Laura a shout, well, that is really nice. If you 710 00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,560 Speaker 1: chuck it is you're feeling very generous regardless. I've been 711 00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:16,799 Speaker 1: meaning to email my thanks and praise for your work. 712 00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:19,680 Speaker 1: I was at high school english teacher in Illinois, but 713 00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:24,080 Speaker 1: recently relocated Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I've been moved on where 714 00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:27,160 Speaker 1: I moved on to become a community college professor. Uh, 715 00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:31,080 Speaker 1: a professor. Maybe she could train please. Your podcast has 716 00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:33,000 Speaker 1: been a great supplemental teaching tool, not to mention, a 717 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:36,120 Speaker 1: guaranteed way to keep my mind occupied during long road 718 00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:39,160 Speaker 1: trips to and from undergraduate and graduate school or while 719 00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:42,120 Speaker 1: running with my dog. Views the episode on book banning 720 00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:44,960 Speaker 1: several times while teaching to Kill a Mockingbird or informing 721 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,800 Speaker 1: students about Banned Book Week. I've also used the episode 722 00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:51,880 Speaker 1: about police interrogation during a unit featuring Walter Dean Myer's 723 00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:54,520 Speaker 1: novel Monster, about a boy who was on trial for 724 00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:57,479 Speaker 1: a crime. He may not have committed that sounds good. 725 00:42:57,600 --> 00:43:00,160 Speaker 1: It does, and more recently, I use a listener all 726 00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,160 Speaker 1: about the benefits of hunting as an example of how 727 00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:08,239 Speaker 1: to structure an argument. Let's hear that. I want to 728 00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:12,360 Speaker 1: hear that argument. We'll shows are right back in. The 729 00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:14,720 Speaker 1: students got to laugh out of Josh's comments about waiting 730 00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:16,520 Speaker 1: for the deer to fall over and collecting the dead 731 00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:20,399 Speaker 1: bodies instead of actually killing the animal. Anyway, Really enjoy 732 00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:22,160 Speaker 1: the show, look forward to new episodes every week. If 733 00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:25,000 Speaker 1: teaching doesn't work out for some reason, I think podcasting 734 00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,080 Speaker 1: would be a pretty great career. And that is from 735 00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:35,160 Speaker 1: Sarah Amato Professor Amato and uh shout out to Laura yep, 736 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:39,440 Speaker 1: her sister, Laura Amato or whatever her name is. Shout 737 00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:43,200 Speaker 1: out not presuming they have the same last name. A 738 00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:47,920 Speaker 1: modern guy you are anyway, you have a beard. Thanks 739 00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:51,440 Speaker 1: for teaching and doing what you do, Professor Yeah, and 740 00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:55,600 Speaker 1: thanks for writing in smart Thinking with the subject line word. 741 00:43:56,520 --> 00:43:58,640 Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch with us, you 742 00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:01,680 Speaker 1: can tweet to us. I'm a josh um Clark at 743 00:44:02,040 --> 00:44:05,279 Speaker 1: Twitter and you can also follow the official s Y 744 00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:08,000 Speaker 1: s K podcast on Twitter. Can hang out with Chuck 745 00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:11,799 Speaker 1: at Charles W. Chuck Brian on Facebook or Facebook dot 746 00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:13,879 Speaker 1: com slash stuff you Should Know if you can send 747 00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:16,560 Speaker 1: us an email to Stuff Podcasts How Stuff Works dot 748 00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:18,400 Speaker 1: com and has always joined us at our home on 749 00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:24,799 Speaker 1: the web. Stuff you Should Know dot Com. Stuff you 750 00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:27,560 Speaker 1: Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. 751 00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:29,840 Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart 752 00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:32,400 Speaker 1: Radio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your 753 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:33,080 Speaker 1: favorite shows.