1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:03,520 Speaker 1: Make your business official with Google and Squarespace. When you 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: create a custom domain and a beautiful business website with Squarespace, 3 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:10,360 Speaker 1: you receive a free year of business email and professional 4 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:14,200 Speaker 1: tools from Google. It's the simplest way to look professional online. 5 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:17,959 Speaker 1: Visit squarespace dot com slash Google to start your free 6 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: trial and use our offer code works w O r 7 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:24,959 Speaker 1: k S for ten percent off your first purchase Google 8 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:29,960 Speaker 1: in Squarespace, make your professional, make it beautiful. Hey, everybody 9 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, we're also looking 10 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:35,640 Speaker 1: at you. Oakland. We are coming out to Sketch Fest 11 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:38,000 Speaker 1: this year again for the second year in a row, 12 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 1: and we're doing it rare Sunday afternoon jam, so that 13 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:44,640 Speaker 1: is Sunday, January at one pm. You can come see 14 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 1: us live and tickets are gonna go fast, So go 15 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:51,440 Speaker 1: to s F Sketch Fest dot com and just click 16 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: on the little ticket links or look at the lineup 17 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: and follow us there and we can't wait to see everyone. 18 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:58,880 Speaker 1: It's one of our favorite cities to perform in and 19 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: uh go to s F Sketch Fest dot com Oakland, 20 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: San Francisco. We will see you soon. Welcome to stuff 21 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:16,360 Speaker 1: you should know from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, 22 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,080 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's 23 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:23,759 Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry Roland and that 24 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:29,000 Speaker 1: makes this stuff. You should know the podcast. Yeah, who 25 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,800 Speaker 1: would have ever thought that we could do more than 26 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:37,360 Speaker 1: one podcast on fleas? Had I thought about flea circuses, 27 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,200 Speaker 1: I would have thought that. Yeah, we covered it a 28 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:42,679 Speaker 1: tiny little bit. I went back and looked just to 29 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 1: make sure we weren't being too redundant, and uh, we 30 00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 1: just sort of mentioned it briefly. But how delightful to 31 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:51,800 Speaker 1: dig in even further. Yeah, I mean, like, there's no 32 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:54,560 Speaker 1: way that we really got into it because it's one 33 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 1: of like the least documented aspects of popular culture I've 34 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,160 Speaker 1: ever come across, man, And there's so much misinformation, and 35 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,640 Speaker 1: you run across people who act like they know exactly 36 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:08,800 Speaker 1: what they're talking about, and then you do more research 37 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:10,840 Speaker 1: and you find out they really are wrong in a 38 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:13,640 Speaker 1: lot of it. It's it's really it was crazy. It 39 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:15,839 Speaker 1: was a crazy research. Yeah, and you go to web 40 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: pages that are solid green with white letters punctuation. What's that? Yeah, 41 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:29,320 Speaker 1: it was a little weird, but yeah, people take us 42 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:32,239 Speaker 1: to task on the accuracy of this one. Then we'll 43 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: be like you, you go do better. So um, I 44 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:39,200 Speaker 1: think we kind of gave it away. The cats out 45 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 1: of the bag, and so are it's fleas. We're doing 46 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:45,680 Speaker 1: flee circuses. We're talking about flee circuses, and they actually, 47 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,519 Speaker 1: like I think of police circus is fairly old timey, 48 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: but I usually think of him as like the twenties 49 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,120 Speaker 1: or thirties, maybe even the forties from like that old 50 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 1: tech savery flee circus cartoons or um. But they go 51 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:01,520 Speaker 1: way further back than that, or even the concept of 52 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,919 Speaker 1: of training fleas in some way, shape or form goes 53 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,840 Speaker 1: even further back than that. Yeah, which will we'll get 54 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 1: to it. But training them as a bit of a misnomer, Yeah, 55 00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:14,280 Speaker 1: that's a stretch for sure. It's sort of like tying 56 00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:18,520 Speaker 1: and gluing things to fleas and just let them be fleas. Yeah, basically, 57 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:22,360 Speaker 1: as you will probably come to the same conclusion, flee 58 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 1: circuses are really mean. Yeah, they're cruel. No matter how 59 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:28,959 Speaker 1: you feel about flease they are. Yeah, they're cruel, cruel 60 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: acts of barbarity. I think that's how the East to 61 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 1: buille it. Actually, Yeah, tiny cruel acts of barbarity comes 62 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:40,000 Speaker 1: see Professor long Hair and his flee circus which torments 63 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 1: but they're small, so who cares? Right? Uh? So fifteen 64 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,320 Speaker 1: seventies is uh. If this is accurate, we're all gonna 65 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: go all the way back to a man named Mark 66 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: Scalliot who uh did not have a flee circus, but 67 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:58,040 Speaker 1: he was supposedly in London one of the first people, 68 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:03,040 Speaker 1: or perhaps the first person to use a flee as 69 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:06,000 Speaker 1: a prop of some sort. Yeah, to basically show off 70 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,240 Speaker 1: his skills as what as a he was a blacksmith. Yeah, 71 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: it was a smithy. And he made like this really 72 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,280 Speaker 1: really tiny intricate caller that he put around to flee 73 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:20,280 Speaker 1: and he said, check this out. Yeah, and everyone was. 74 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:25,360 Speaker 1: I guess because this apparently other people, uh like watchmakers 75 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:28,040 Speaker 1: and stuff would would make little tiny watches as well 76 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:31,159 Speaker 1: as gimmicks. But I guess the thing they were trying 77 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:33,479 Speaker 1: to show is the only thing I can think of 78 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 1: is if I can make something this tiny that works, 79 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:38,880 Speaker 1: imagine what a real size human watch would look like. 80 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:43,120 Speaker 1: It would work even better. But he got kind of 81 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:46,720 Speaker 1: famous from it from what I understand, and the idea 82 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:50,520 Speaker 1: of using fleas called on kind of kind of well, 83 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:53,400 Speaker 1: it took a couple of hundred years. But if if 84 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:57,039 Speaker 1: you look into fleas and flee circuses, like I just 85 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:59,719 Speaker 1: took him for granted, I never stopped and thought why fleas, 86 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:04,160 Speaker 1: But there's actually really good reasons why fleas, and it 87 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:07,760 Speaker 1: has to do with For one, fleas used to be everywhere, 88 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:11,159 Speaker 1: Like no matter where you lived in the world, you 89 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 1: shared your living space with fleas, which must have been 90 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:17,480 Speaker 1: pretty awful. But apparently it was just a fact of life. 91 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:21,080 Speaker 1: So that's one thing. They're ubiquitous, they're easy to come by. 92 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:25,680 Speaker 1: The other one is that fleas are really really good 93 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:30,040 Speaker 1: at jumping, and that actually makes them, under the right circumstances, 94 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:33,840 Speaker 1: really good for this flee circus idea. Yeah, and we 95 00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:37,680 Speaker 1: we you know, if you really want to itch yourself, uh, 96 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 1: go to listen to the fleet episode. Um. But they 97 00:05:41,279 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 1: come in a couple of thousand varieties, and the ones, 98 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: apparently for circuses are the little flat, reddish brown ones 99 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: about two point five millimeters in length, and um, they 100 00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:55,560 Speaker 1: can jump though two point five millimeters. They can jump 101 00:05:55,640 --> 00:05:57,600 Speaker 1: sometimes as high as eight nine inches in the air. 102 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:00,880 Speaker 1: I saw it to ten. Oh, well, where you getting 103 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:06,640 Speaker 1: that was from? The Royal Air Force experimental station. They 104 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:09,320 Speaker 1: apparently set up some equipment in the sixties and we're 105 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:12,680 Speaker 1: photographing fleas jumping. Oh yeah, see here that they said 106 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:15,559 Speaker 1: that um, at the start of a jump, a flea jump, 107 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:18,520 Speaker 1: they experienced forces greater than a hundred and forty times 108 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:21,920 Speaker 1: out of gravity. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. They have these 109 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:25,839 Speaker 1: little um what are called elastic cuticles in their legs 110 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:29,040 Speaker 1: and they can store a tremendous amount of potential energy, 111 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 1: and when they release them and they jump, that potential 112 00:06:32,279 --> 00:06:35,880 Speaker 1: energy turns into kinetic energy. And since that it's basically 113 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:41,360 Speaker 1: this elastic um connector that's really storing the energy, they're 114 00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:43,320 Speaker 1: not having to use up a lot of their own. 115 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:45,800 Speaker 1: So they can jump like this, like thousands of times 116 00:06:45,839 --> 00:06:49,159 Speaker 1: in an hour. And apparently when they jump. I don't 117 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:51,880 Speaker 1: I'm sure we said something somewhat contradictory in the actual 118 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:56,360 Speaker 1: Fleas episode, but the relation of their jumps to their 119 00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:00,720 Speaker 1: body size, um, it compared to humans of like us 120 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:05,200 Speaker 1: jumping over the Statue of Liberty or something along those lines, 121 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:09,560 Speaker 1: which is very hard to do, ken harder every day. Man. 122 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 1: I was kind of thinking about these fleas jumping and 123 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:17,640 Speaker 1: like evolutionarily speaking why, And I guess they're just so 124 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:21,640 Speaker 1: small that when a dog goes to scratch or bite 125 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 1: at it, or whatever animal tried to get the fleet off, 126 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:27,600 Speaker 1: they can't just be like, well, let me run away 127 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 1: as fast as I can, because the dog's bite will 128 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:33,640 Speaker 1: still get it. So they learned, I think, quite literally, 129 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:36,920 Speaker 1: how to jump and get the heck out of there 130 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 1: very very quickly in order to survive. And the coolest 131 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:45,880 Speaker 1: fleas make the Bionic Man sound when they jump if 132 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:50,280 Speaker 1: you listen really close. All the hipster fleas, right. Uh so, 133 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:54,040 Speaker 1: I guess we should talk about the main dude though, right, 134 00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: who we owe all of us owe a great debt too. 135 00:07:57,040 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: I'm not saying his name, you know, you've got to 136 00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:00,960 Speaker 1: say his name. This is the eight teen twenties, and 137 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:06,440 Speaker 1: uh he was an Italian impresario in London named Louis 138 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:13,920 Speaker 1: Berte Lotto nice. Yes, yeah, there's so many ohs and 139 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:15,840 Speaker 1: t s. I thought I messed it up. No, I 140 00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:19,000 Speaker 1: know it's a it's an unusual name. Yeah. So he's 141 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:23,720 Speaker 1: the guy in London who said, uh, I want to 142 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:27,760 Speaker 1: be really famous one day, and my big idea is 143 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:32,160 Speaker 1: to take fleas and put them in shows. Yeah, and 144 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:37,160 Speaker 1: it worked. It did work. I saw somewhere that the 145 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:42,080 Speaker 1: the origination of flee circuses it was um due largely 146 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:44,800 Speaker 1: to him. But I didn't really see anybody else sighted 147 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:51,679 Speaker 1: earlier than him. You know, the watchmaker, the smithy, Um Mark, Mark, 148 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:55,600 Speaker 1: the blacksmith. He wasn't doing any kind of shows or tricks. 149 00:08:55,679 --> 00:09:00,319 Speaker 1: Louis Berte Lotto Um said, you know what, the fleas 150 00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:02,560 Speaker 1: aren't props. The fleas are going to be the stars 151 00:09:02,559 --> 00:09:05,440 Speaker 1: in my show. That's right, And I think he may 152 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:07,520 Speaker 1: have been the one who had the the original idea 153 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:10,360 Speaker 1: to do this. Yeah, I love our own article said 154 00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:15,040 Speaker 1: his show was part action, part humor, part social commentary. 155 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:18,000 Speaker 1: But I think that was the case. You know, they would, uh, 156 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:19,760 Speaker 1: well we might as well talk about what these things did. 157 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:24,880 Speaker 1: They would do everything from high wire x to uh 158 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:30,240 Speaker 1: sword fighting too, uh. Political and historical re enactments. Yeah. 159 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:33,840 Speaker 1: They re enacted the Battle of Waterloo dressed dressed in 160 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:38,560 Speaker 1: like military garb. Yeah. They would play a soccer or football. Uh. 161 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:43,760 Speaker 1: They would do um, high diving, pretty amazing stuff, the 162 00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:48,240 Speaker 1: little pools of water. They would a little chariots and carriages. Yeah, 163 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:50,520 Speaker 1: that was one of the first ones. Because you know, 164 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:53,600 Speaker 1: I think, especially back in the early nineteenth century, people 165 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:56,400 Speaker 1: didn't know everything there is to know about fleas like 166 00:09:56,480 --> 00:10:00,680 Speaker 1: we do today. So the idea of watching a little, tiny, 167 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:05,679 Speaker 1: tiny flee, like a three millimeter long flee pulling like 168 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:09,920 Speaker 1: a hearse or a chariot or a cart um that was, 169 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:13,160 Speaker 1: you know, hundreds of times its own weight. Any better, 170 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:16,120 Speaker 1: it's gonna it's gonna impress you, especially if you're a 171 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:19,280 Speaker 1: five year old Chimney sweet who's owned by the guy 172 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:22,600 Speaker 1: who bought you from your parents. Yeah. Or I actually 173 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:26,400 Speaker 1: looked up some flea circuses on YouTube. Uh there were 174 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:28,920 Speaker 1: just little kids. There was one and I think Denmark 175 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:31,560 Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifties that I looked at. I saw 176 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:34,679 Speaker 1: that and like in Telfair, Yeah, people were just delighted. 177 00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:38,760 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I watched some of the videos too, 178 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:41,840 Speaker 1: and I noticed that, like my hands were classed together 179 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: beneath my chin. I think it might have been the 180 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:49,920 Speaker 1: perfect post election uh youtubing that I could have done. Actually, yeah, 181 00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:56,000 Speaker 1: it worked pretty well. Uh so Bert sorry, Bert, his 182 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:59,120 Speaker 1: uh his act was not small if you think, well, 183 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:02,559 Speaker 1: sure he did this at some county fairs and sideshows 184 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:05,640 Speaker 1: uh and then his wife made him stop. Yeah, not 185 00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:08,719 Speaker 1: true at all. He actually got really famous for this. 186 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:11,920 Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean they likened him to Elvis Presley. 187 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:14,240 Speaker 1: I don't know if he was that big. I think 188 00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: the point the authors making is like that this guy 189 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:20,840 Speaker 1: wasn't some some like, he wasn't Internet famous, he was 190 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:23,520 Speaker 1: like famous famous, Like he traveled the world doing this. 191 00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:27,360 Speaker 1: It's good for him, right, Yeah, And he didn't. As 192 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:30,200 Speaker 1: he traveled the world, people were like, I can do 193 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:33,640 Speaker 1: that too. Tired of working, I want to do this. 194 00:11:34,120 --> 00:11:36,480 Speaker 1: But it turns out that from what I can tell, 195 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:40,000 Speaker 1: as far as showbiz goes, running your own flee circus 196 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:42,920 Speaker 1: has got to be one of the more demanding side 197 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:46,200 Speaker 1: shows there there are. Well sure, I mean part of 198 00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:49,920 Speaker 1: the problem is your performers. Well, first of all, it 199 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:52,520 Speaker 1: says in here and this is like again with this research, 200 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:54,199 Speaker 1: you just sort of have to take some of these 201 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:57,000 Speaker 1: people at their word. But they say that about one 202 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:01,079 Speaker 1: in tin fleas can even make the cut, right. Uh. 203 00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:06,840 Speaker 1: Once you find your your champion team of they're they're 204 00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:10,160 Speaker 1: gonna die and there need to be cared for and 205 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:15,600 Speaker 1: traveling all over the world with your prized fleas is precarious. Well, yeah. 206 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:19,680 Speaker 1: Especially um, if you're traveling to do shows and colder 207 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:22,920 Speaker 1: climbs there aren't fleas, and fleas don't do very well there. 208 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:25,840 Speaker 1: Your whole troop may die the night before a show. 209 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:29,439 Speaker 1: Can you imagine? But apparently it happened a lot. There 210 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:31,320 Speaker 1: was a guy I read and I'm not quite sure 211 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:35,040 Speaker 1: who it was, but they he had a a standing 212 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:40,960 Speaker 1: gig in I think Switzerland maybe or somewhere somewhat northern Europe, 213 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 1: and he had to send down No she I'm sorry, 214 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:47,560 Speaker 1: she had to send down to Majorca to get um 215 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:51,439 Speaker 1: fresh shipments of fleas like every two weeks because hers 216 00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:53,800 Speaker 1: just kept She couldn't keep them alive any longer than Yes, 217 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:56,360 Speaker 1: I have offers from all over the world to take 218 00:12:56,400 --> 00:12:58,840 Speaker 1: my show, but you're afraid of one thing when you 219 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:00,560 Speaker 1: get out of the country, can you at fleas? I 220 00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:02,319 Speaker 1: went to Sweden and I had to send to ma 221 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:06,200 Speaker 1: Yorka in Spain to get fleas fortnite every fortnight. Who 222 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:09,880 Speaker 1: was that? It was a woman a sword swallower right? Uh? 223 00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:13,400 Speaker 1: Was that Professor Tomlin? No, I can't remember her name, 224 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:18,400 Speaker 1: but she's like a legendary sword swallower. Um professor tests No, 225 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:22,160 Speaker 1: Professor Chester. No, none of the professors, And that was 226 00:13:22,200 --> 00:13:24,439 Speaker 1: another thing I noticed from this too, but I couldn't 227 00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:27,560 Speaker 1: really find the origin. Apparently, if you had a flee 228 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:30,480 Speaker 1: circuses from from like the nineteenth century to the early 229 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:35,280 Speaker 1: twentieth century, you the flea master, build yourself as professor 230 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 1: or whatever. So there's just all these really weird trends. 231 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:41,800 Speaker 1: But the in the history of flee circuses, it was 232 00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 1: like one person would come up with an idea and 233 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,600 Speaker 1: then they go and show it and for some reason 234 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:49,360 Speaker 1: it would attract a bunch of other imitators, and that's 235 00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:51,360 Speaker 1: that's basically the history of it. I would have built 236 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:55,400 Speaker 1: myself as account oh man, you know, that would have 237 00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:58,080 Speaker 1: broken new ground. But they would have to pay money. 238 00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:01,200 Speaker 1: And this says in the nineteen fifties professors still said 239 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:03,360 Speaker 1: we pay six shillings a dozen, although there have been 240 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:05,800 Speaker 1: times of shortage when a single flea has cost as 241 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:08,679 Speaker 1: much as two shillings. Well, you know, also, if you 242 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: look around today, at which I did, I couldn't find 243 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:15,880 Speaker 1: anywhere to buy fleas. You have to send off for 244 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:20,160 Speaker 1: um overseas um. But I've thought, surely there's some weirdo 245 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:24,640 Speaker 1: somewhere who's selling fleas to flee circuses and there are none, 246 00:14:25,760 --> 00:14:30,160 Speaker 1: none whatsoever. Well, there is a flee circus in Germany. Still, yeah, 247 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:33,800 Speaker 1: at the Munich October Fest. Where else would you have one? 248 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:39,480 Speaker 1: Oh it's Mimi Gono, that was her name, the flee circus, 249 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,560 Speaker 1: uh woman? Okay, yeah, alright, so you wanna take a 250 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:46,040 Speaker 1: little break here, Yeah, all right, well let's break. Let's 251 00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:49,000 Speaker 1: go pick the fleas from our own bodies. I know, 252 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:51,480 Speaker 1: I'm I'm itching or scratching. Then maybe we can train 253 00:14:51,560 --> 00:15:19,440 Speaker 1: them to finish this episode for us. So, Chuck, we 254 00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:21,760 Speaker 1: we kind of made it as far as Bertie Lotto, 255 00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:24,000 Speaker 1: and there's actually a lot of mystery surrounding that guy. 256 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:27,040 Speaker 1: Here's the weird thing. Okay, I'm going to confess something 257 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:30,560 Speaker 1: to you. When I first read this article, I was like, well, 258 00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:33,800 Speaker 1: here's a stinker. Then I dug in a little further 259 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:37,360 Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I'm being tortured with research 260 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:39,120 Speaker 1: to do a stinker. And then the more I did, 261 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:41,120 Speaker 1: the more I did, the more I dug in, I'd 262 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:43,760 Speaker 1: find these weird little things that kept popping up that 263 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:49,480 Speaker 1: combined create the the the history or the culture of 264 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:53,120 Speaker 1: flea circuses. And and the more I came upon these 265 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:54,880 Speaker 1: little things and putting them together more the more. I 266 00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:57,480 Speaker 1: was just totally delighted. But then I think, like you 267 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:00,000 Speaker 1: when I when I finally hit YouTube and it was like, okay, 268 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:01,800 Speaker 1: I need to see some of these. Then I was like, 269 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:04,920 Speaker 1: I love flee circuses. I could sit here and talk 270 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: about him all day. Well, we'll try and keep this 271 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 1: all day. So I just realized I didn't finish my thought. 272 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:15,440 Speaker 1: The um the weird little thing that I found out 273 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:24,000 Speaker 1: about Professor bar Lolo, thanks man Um, he just vanished, 274 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: he disappeared. He was like as famous as as an astronaut, 275 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:30,600 Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden he's gone. And there's 276 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:34,560 Speaker 1: a guy um who is uh. I think his name 277 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:39,080 Speaker 1: is Andy Rich. He's like basically the foremost Flee circus 278 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:44,840 Speaker 1: researcher working today. And he found Professor Berto Lotto. Apparently 279 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:47,160 Speaker 1: he moved to Canada and lived out the rest of 280 00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:50,680 Speaker 1: his life and anonymity. Wow, yeah, I have a question. 281 00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:54,720 Speaker 1: Why do you always use asked not as a fame indicator, 282 00:16:55,320 --> 00:16:59,960 Speaker 1: it's uh, it's as Simpsons reference. It's Homer was saying, 283 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,880 Speaker 1: somebody who's richer than an astronat. I was gonna challenge 284 00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:08,239 Speaker 1: you and say, name an astronaut. Oh, dude, Jim Lovell No, no, no, 285 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:11,400 Speaker 1: name a current astronaut. Oh current astronat We got Mark 286 00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:16,400 Speaker 1: Kelly and Scott Kelly. Okay, alright, t get back off. 287 00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:19,879 Speaker 1: Then her their parents called them Project Jim and I, 288 00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:22,720 Speaker 1: oh that's cute. But they think they not just made 289 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:25,919 Speaker 1: that up? Oh really? Yeah? Oh man, that would have 290 00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:29,919 Speaker 1: been surely someone as I thought of that. If not, 291 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:33,320 Speaker 1: I'm gonna trade market. Uh yeah, and then you could 292 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:38,960 Speaker 1: blackmail them. I feel like you want this nickname. I 293 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,480 Speaker 1: know you're richer than an astro. Alright, So early nineteen hundreds, 294 00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:45,760 Speaker 1: if you're talking imitators over here in the United States, 295 00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,520 Speaker 1: we had a man named William Heckler, and he was 296 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:50,879 Speaker 1: one of the first dudes over here to be a 297 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:56,200 Speaker 1: successful fleamaster. And uh he did the usual things, made 298 00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:59,280 Speaker 1: them box and race and juggle. And we're gonna tell 299 00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:00,760 Speaker 1: you some of these secret it's by the way. If 300 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:04,480 Speaker 1: you're wondering how these things are accomplished, just hang in there. Uh. 301 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:06,959 Speaker 1: And he said at one point he was bringing in 302 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:12,240 Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars uh day or performance in 303 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,959 Speaker 1: a in a day of performances, a day. Yeah, so 304 00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:19,639 Speaker 1: many many performances. And here's the thing if lee I 305 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:21,840 Speaker 1: kind of wondered I was, because I didn't find it 306 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:24,040 Speaker 1: until later in the research, like, well, how do you 307 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 1: see this stuff? But you wouldn't have very many people 308 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:29,560 Speaker 1: in there. You'd have like ten or fifteen people crowded 309 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:33,200 Speaker 1: around a little table for six to ten minutes. You 310 00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,800 Speaker 1: would shuffle them out and bring in the next group. Yes, 311 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,320 Speaker 1: I saw somewhere that if you were really dedicated to it. 312 00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:41,439 Speaker 1: I think Cecil Adams wrote it on the on the 313 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:44,680 Speaker 1: Street dope that if you were like a really dedicated performer, 314 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:50,320 Speaker 1: you could conceivably do fifty ten minute performances a day. 315 00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:53,920 Speaker 1: So that's basically like ten hours with a ten minute 316 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:56,440 Speaker 1: break every hour. And if you're not a really dedicated 317 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:58,200 Speaker 1: flea master, then just get out of my face. What 318 00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: do you even bother? Seriously, though, I mean is when 319 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:04,280 Speaker 1: we talk about how to do this, it will become 320 00:19:04,359 --> 00:19:08,480 Speaker 1: clear just how much work this must be. Yeah, alright, 321 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:10,640 Speaker 1: well let's talk a little bit about that. Um, every 322 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:13,240 Speaker 1: flee is different. And like I said, uh, if you 323 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:16,160 Speaker 1: believe the research, about ten percent of the fleezer fit 324 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:19,920 Speaker 1: for the job, and it's like we mentioned, you don't 325 00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:23,320 Speaker 1: really train them. What you do is back in the day, 326 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,960 Speaker 1: you would take either some silken thread or some really 327 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,320 Speaker 1: thin gold wire, like hopefully you can't even see it, 328 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:34,920 Speaker 1: that's sort of the idea, and you tie a little 329 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:41,080 Speaker 1: tiny noose of sorts around this fleezer neck. And apparently 330 00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:45,159 Speaker 1: that was really hard to do because when a fleet 331 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:51,320 Speaker 1: eats the blood of their master, which is true, we'll 332 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:54,480 Speaker 1: get to that again later, but their next well, so 333 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:56,879 Speaker 1: you can't tie it too tight or else they're gonna 334 00:19:57,200 --> 00:19:59,640 Speaker 1: die and your prize flee could die. Or if it's 335 00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:03,360 Speaker 1: too loose, then the flea goes away and the chariot 336 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:06,280 Speaker 1: stays behind, and that's no good. And you just hear 337 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:11,399 Speaker 1: a tiny bionic man sounds right, So um, that's very hard. 338 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:16,159 Speaker 1: Number one. Number two the idea that you have to 339 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:21,240 Speaker 1: do that with new fleas every I would guess probably 340 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:25,399 Speaker 1: every few weeks if you're on average, because fleas, I 341 00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:29,600 Speaker 1: mean they live maybe a year. Most fleas live about 342 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:32,960 Speaker 1: three or four months. So you've got like a some 343 00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:37,080 Speaker 1: star performers and they're just they're performing, you know, for 344 00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:39,400 Speaker 1: a few months or whatever. So you're having to basically 345 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:44,600 Speaker 1: constantly harness fleas all the time, and and again before 346 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:46,600 Speaker 1: you even harness them, you have to sort them. So 347 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,560 Speaker 1: you have to study and observe the adult fleas see 348 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:52,840 Speaker 1: which one's like to jump. Um. There's an old legend, 349 00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:57,240 Speaker 1: uh that apparently came from Professor Heckler's son, if not 350 00:20:57,320 --> 00:21:01,919 Speaker 1: Professor Heckler himself, who said, um, you you put a 351 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:05,119 Speaker 1: lid over a jar, and you can train them not 352 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:07,359 Speaker 1: to jump too high because they'll hit their head on 353 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:09,399 Speaker 1: the jar and they don't like to do that. So 354 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,320 Speaker 1: they learned not to jump. Then they've passed their first test. 355 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:17,920 Speaker 1: It's not clear whether that's actually hocum or not, but um, 356 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:21,880 Speaker 1: that's for for a very long time, that's been part 357 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:24,840 Speaker 1: of the lower of training fleets. The problem is, I 358 00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:27,960 Speaker 1: think you said it, please can't actually learn anything. They're 359 00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:32,119 Speaker 1: not really being trained. They're actually being physically restrained in 360 00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:35,560 Speaker 1: lots of ways, including that harness and starting with the harness. Well, 361 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:39,560 Speaker 1: I don't know, though, Heckler. Professor Heckler that is also said, 362 00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:42,160 Speaker 1: and this was fascinating to me as far as whether 363 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,199 Speaker 1: or not these fleas can learn anything. He said that 364 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:46,800 Speaker 1: he would to get the best fleas, put them in 365 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:50,480 Speaker 1: a glass jar. Uh, that's too tall for them to 366 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:53,080 Speaker 1: jump out. And he said that he would notice the 367 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:57,520 Speaker 1: really good fleas would jump up on the side, fart 368 00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:00,880 Speaker 1: out a little bit of sticky stuff, whatever that is, 369 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:03,679 Speaker 1: and then spend the rest of the time trying and 370 00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:07,200 Speaker 1: trying to hit that identical spot again to grab hold 371 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 1: of the sticky stuff basically a foothold to be close 372 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:14,879 Speaker 1: enough to the top to leap out. Amazing. I don't know, 373 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:17,239 Speaker 1: hope I believe it. He well, yeah, I mean he 374 00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:21,120 Speaker 1: was a showman, consummist, showman, Like he didn't just basically 375 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:23,639 Speaker 1: point and be like, look at the fleas, came your money, 376 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:27,880 Speaker 1: please leave now, Like you were like carrying the show on, right, 377 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:30,560 Speaker 1: you had to tell this this this, You had to 378 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:33,880 Speaker 1: help the performance along, your professor, for god's sake, right, 379 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:38,080 Speaker 1: when this guy is being interviewed over the years, I 380 00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:42,320 Speaker 1: can't imagine he didn't like ham it up in the interviews. 381 00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:44,359 Speaker 1: So I don't know, like a lot of it's lost 382 00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:47,840 Speaker 1: too to time, what was true and what wasn't as 383 00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:50,880 Speaker 1: far as these these old guys go. Yeah, but he uh, 384 00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:53,159 Speaker 1: Professor Heckler also said when he was picking them out, 385 00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:56,760 Speaker 1: and he said, stodgy wins are broken to the merry 386 00:22:56,760 --> 00:23:00,640 Speaker 1: go round harness flight he fleas make good dancers. Those 387 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:05,119 Speaker 1: with especially strong legs will become kickers, jugglers and chariot racers. Yes, 388 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:09,480 Speaker 1: so you've got you've got fleas harness. That's like the 389 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,359 Speaker 1: first initial thing, but there's other things you need to 390 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:14,680 Speaker 1: do to them. To write. You can take that harness, 391 00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:17,520 Speaker 1: and the most basic thing you could do is take 392 00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:20,359 Speaker 1: that harness and actually hook it up to, like you said, 393 00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:23,280 Speaker 1: a chariot or or or a merry go round or 394 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: something like that. And yeah, people will be like, that's 395 00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:28,800 Speaker 1: pretty neat, that's cool. But before I could do that, 396 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,320 Speaker 1: you know, but you could do other stuff too, and 397 00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:34,719 Speaker 1: a lot of it involves glue unfortunately. So say like 398 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 1: you take a tiny piece of um of wood or 399 00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:43,000 Speaker 1: a tiny piece of metal and you glue it to 400 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:48,160 Speaker 1: the flea's arms, right, Yes, and we should say once 401 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:52,000 Speaker 1: that happens, that's it. That's never that's never coming off 402 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:54,920 Speaker 1: for the rest of the fleas life. Yeah. I mean, 403 00:23:55,520 --> 00:24:00,960 Speaker 1: do you think they even survived that day? I think so. Yeah. 404 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,480 Speaker 1: I think that they typically survive a few weeks of performing. Okay, 405 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:06,159 Speaker 1: so even if they had a little sword glued to 406 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:11,520 Speaker 1: their body. Yeah, I think they live horrible lives. I 407 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,560 Speaker 1: mean basically, we as a species should know more about 408 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: this because if the fleas have a rise up and 409 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,760 Speaker 1: become intelligent, like our backs are against the wall for 410 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:22,520 Speaker 1: what the flee circus flea masters have done to them 411 00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:26,040 Speaker 1: glued to the wall, they'll be like, oh, guess whose 412 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,240 Speaker 1: turn it is? Alright, so go ahead, Oh so you 413 00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:31,800 Speaker 1: you um, you glue a piece of stick or something 414 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:35,280 Speaker 1: to their arms, and remember already they're harnessed. And then 415 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:37,680 Speaker 1: you do the same thing to another flee and then 416 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,600 Speaker 1: you tie their harnesses down and you just kind of 417 00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:43,760 Speaker 1: tickle them or do something to stimulate them, and they 418 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,680 Speaker 1: start waving their arms and it looks like the sword fighting. 419 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:51,040 Speaker 1: So that's a really good example of a flee circus. 420 00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:53,680 Speaker 1: Like you're you're having them do things, and then the 421 00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:56,119 Speaker 1: flea masters like, well, look at this, this is a 422 00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:59,240 Speaker 1: sword fight, everybody see they're doing or fencing or something 423 00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:02,520 Speaker 1: like that, right, and train them to do so exactly exactly. 424 00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,720 Speaker 1: So there's there's these things were Really it's the interaction 425 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:11,359 Speaker 1: between a restrained flee, usually with the prop glued to it, 426 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:16,920 Speaker 1: defending itself or responding to some sort of noxious or 427 00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:20,160 Speaker 1: threatening stimuli and then the flea master coming in and saying, oh, 428 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:23,800 Speaker 1: they're they're fencing, or they're walking the high wire something 429 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:28,040 Speaker 1: or there. This is Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Yeah, 430 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:29,960 Speaker 1: they would play soccer. Like I said, So, what they 431 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:31,440 Speaker 1: would do there is they would get a little piece 432 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:34,240 Speaker 1: of cotton wool. Uh, they would soak it in something 433 00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:38,760 Speaker 1: that the fleet doesn't like, some odorous, malodorous thing. Yeah, 434 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,680 Speaker 1: I looked that up. Like lavender works really well, citranilla, 435 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:45,600 Speaker 1: cedar oil, those are all lovely. That's the shame. But 436 00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:48,520 Speaker 1: come to think of it, when you see natural flee sprays, 437 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:51,680 Speaker 1: that's what's in natural flee spray exactly. So they would 438 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:53,919 Speaker 1: soak it in that stuff and then uh, just the 439 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:55,720 Speaker 1: flee would literally just kick at it to get it 440 00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:59,480 Speaker 1: away like a little soccer ball. Right, they're either kicking 441 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:01,320 Speaker 1: at it to get it away or because they were 442 00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:05,679 Speaker 1: restrained and when they kick, instead of it propelling the 443 00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,679 Speaker 1: flea away, it's repelling the ball away from them. So 444 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:11,680 Speaker 1: if you have them this kind of do that back 445 00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:15,440 Speaker 1: and forth, then yeah, they're playing soccer. What about juggling, Josh, 446 00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:19,359 Speaker 1: love it what you do there is he would glue 447 00:26:19,359 --> 00:26:23,720 Speaker 1: a flee to its on its back basically and then 448 00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:27,560 Speaker 1: put another little tiny piece of cotton and their legs 449 00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:29,520 Speaker 1: and they would kick at it trying to get it off, 450 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:31,840 Speaker 1: and it apparently would just kind of go up and 451 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:36,560 Speaker 1: down and spin around like it was juggling. Amazing. Yeah, 452 00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:39,400 Speaker 1: and like this is this is uh thanks to Heckler 453 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:43,040 Speaker 1: in particular in the United States. Um, he really started 454 00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:48,320 Speaker 1: hitting the county fairs and um, the the the carnivals, 455 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:51,919 Speaker 1: so it became basically part and parcel with the with 456 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,280 Speaker 1: sideshows the circus. Like basically, anytime you went to a 457 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:58,359 Speaker 1: decent carnival, there's a flea circus there. Yeah. And I 458 00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:02,919 Speaker 1: get the feeling that these professors would try and they 459 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:04,600 Speaker 1: would try and innovate, They would try and come up 460 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:08,320 Speaker 1: with new tricks and new things that would delight people, 461 00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:11,520 Speaker 1: because you want to keep people coming back, you know, right, 462 00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:13,720 Speaker 1: So that's where you come up with things like the 463 00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:17,840 Speaker 1: the hype Howire act and the flea walls when it 464 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:20,439 Speaker 1: would appear as if a fleet orchestra was playing and 465 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:23,600 Speaker 1: fleas were dancing. Yeah, because there's there's other things that 466 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:28,280 Speaker 1: fleas respond to. Two besides um citronella. They respond very 467 00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:30,880 Speaker 1: well the heat. They can sense heat very well, and 468 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:32,760 Speaker 1: if it gets too hot, they want to get out 469 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,919 Speaker 1: of there. So if you apply heat from beneath on 470 00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:38,960 Speaker 1: say like uh just um, I don't know, a drumhead 471 00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,679 Speaker 1: or something like that, they'll all start hopping around. But 472 00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,280 Speaker 1: if they if they can't get away, if they're harnessed in, 473 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:46,800 Speaker 1: then it looks like they're dancing. If you put a 474 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:49,919 Speaker 1: little flea orchestra to the side with instruments glued to 475 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:53,719 Speaker 1: their their arms at a nice backbeat exactly, then you 476 00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:57,760 Speaker 1: have fleas playing music and fleas dancing to it. A 477 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,880 Speaker 1: fleet ball. Uh. So this all is delightful and well 478 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:05,720 Speaker 1: and good. Um, but what fun is a naked little 479 00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:07,840 Speaker 1: flee doing these things? If you could have a flee 480 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:12,400 Speaker 1: dressed up as Napoleon, right, And that's what they did. 481 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:19,120 Speaker 1: They apparently historical figures were lampooned. Uh. They would supposedly 482 00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:25,199 Speaker 1: get Mexican nuns who had quote nimble fingers tired and 483 00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:28,720 Speaker 1: eyes deteriorated. I don't see how that makes any sense. 484 00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:32,840 Speaker 1: So they're these they they're nimble fingers grew tired in 485 00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:36,080 Speaker 1: their eyes deteriorated as we're making these things. Okay, I 486 00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:38,600 Speaker 1: thought that was that was a good quality they look 487 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:43,280 Speaker 1: for in a Mexican nun. Seems stress. How are your 488 00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,680 Speaker 1: nimble fingers feeling? That's kind of tired. They're tired. That's sad. 489 00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 1: Actually then, so they would get apparently these Mexican nuns 490 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:55,680 Speaker 1: to make these tiny little costumes, and um, they're still 491 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:59,240 Speaker 1: on display today if you go to uh, how do 492 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,640 Speaker 1: you pronounce that name? England? Mispronounced everything in England. It's 493 00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:08,720 Speaker 1: spelled Hertfordshire show Cambridge, all right, Cambridge, England. I think 494 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:13,120 Speaker 1: it's where at the Rothschild Zoological Museum there are two 495 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:17,160 Speaker 1: fleas dressed as Mexican fleas on display, and right in 496 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:20,600 Speaker 1: our lovely Edinburgh, Scotland that we adored so much. Had 497 00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:22,880 Speaker 1: I sped at home, had I known that there was 498 00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:27,360 Speaker 1: a museum of childhood there with a flea wedding party 499 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,200 Speaker 1: dressed up on display, I would have gone in a second. 500 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:33,960 Speaker 1: But yeah, it was a thing. I think it was 501 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:38,800 Speaker 1: already a thing in Mexico, and the flea circus masters 502 00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:42,760 Speaker 1: said hey, I need to get some of those, so chuck, 503 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,560 Speaker 1: if you have a bunch of fleas and they're making 504 00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:50,440 Speaker 1: you money. You want to keep them alive, right, how 505 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:54,080 Speaker 1: would you do that? Well, as we all know, fleas 506 00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:58,120 Speaker 1: or parasitic blood suckers. Uh. And so they would just 507 00:29:58,160 --> 00:29:59,720 Speaker 1: go down to the blog bank and get a bag 508 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:02,320 Speaker 1: of blood right right, and let the fleece swim around 509 00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:04,959 Speaker 1: in it. Yeah, and they loved it. Know what they 510 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:07,360 Speaker 1: would do is and this is like, it gives me 511 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,200 Speaker 1: chills thinking about it. They would roll up their sleeves 512 00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:12,960 Speaker 1: and stick their arm down there and let the fleas 513 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,280 Speaker 1: feed on their bodies. Yeah, a couple of times a day. 514 00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:20,440 Speaker 1: But apparently apparently though it was part of every single 515 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:22,800 Speaker 1: show that you would end the show with. And now, 516 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:26,080 Speaker 1: since these fleet performers have done so great, I shall 517 00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:28,920 Speaker 1: let them least on my blood, and the crowd would 518 00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,840 Speaker 1: be like you gross? That makes sense. Yeah, it was 519 00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:36,600 Speaker 1: part of stage pattern, but apparently at least Heckler, but 520 00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:41,680 Speaker 1: I'm sure others actually did let the fleece feed on them. Uh. Yeah. 521 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:45,440 Speaker 1: I mean, what's a good flea master to do? Well, 522 00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:48,720 Speaker 1: feed your fleas blood Either that or have like again, 523 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:51,400 Speaker 1: a chimney sweep that you bought from a chimney sweeper 524 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:54,760 Speaker 1: to let the Fleece feed on. I hope that the 525 00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,880 Speaker 1: episode has come out, but it's going to be really confused. Yeah, 526 00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:01,600 Speaker 1: or it'll be really delightful when it does come out 527 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:05,920 Speaker 1: and they'll be like, oh that makes sense now. Hey, 528 00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:09,760 Speaker 1: one more thing about Heckler. So there was a Heckler Sr. 529 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:14,560 Speaker 1: And Junior, and apparently Junior kept it going in Times 530 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:18,760 Speaker 1: Square until like the late fifties had a flee circus going, 531 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,840 Speaker 1: and Heckler's flee Circus shows up in a scene an 532 00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:25,600 Speaker 1: Easy Rider. No way. Yeah, I couldn't figure out what's scene. 533 00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:28,560 Speaker 1: I didn't have time to go check, but there's a 534 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,440 Speaker 1: scene an Easy Rider where in the background there's Heckler's 535 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:33,680 Speaker 1: flee Circus. And then they were pushed out of Times 536 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:37,360 Speaker 1: Square by peep shows, and then the peep shows were 537 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:42,520 Speaker 1: pushed out by Walt Disney and Giuliani. Yeah, Heckler tried 538 00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:46,920 Speaker 1: at first to do pants less flee circus, but it 539 00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:49,959 Speaker 1: didn't work very well. Yeah, no one wants and finally 540 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:51,959 Speaker 1: just packed it up. All right, Well, let's take one 541 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,760 Speaker 1: final break here and we will talk about another kind 542 00:31:54,800 --> 00:32:22,120 Speaker 1: of flee circus right after this. So check one thing 543 00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:24,640 Speaker 1: that I found. I'm pretty sure you found it too, 544 00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:29,120 Speaker 1: was that when you start looking into flee circuses, some 545 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: people think that there is never such a thing as 546 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:35,600 Speaker 1: flee circuses that used real fleas. Yeah, I thought you 547 00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:37,720 Speaker 1: were going to say, when you start looking into flee circuses, 548 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:40,840 Speaker 1: there's no going back, you'll never be the same again. 549 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:45,680 Speaker 1: That's definitely your like, unchanged forever. Yeah. I always thought 550 00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:49,040 Speaker 1: that flee circuses were a complete ruse and that there 551 00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:53,640 Speaker 1: were never any real fleas performing, right, Apparently, No, that's 552 00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:57,160 Speaker 1: not the case. There have been, and indeed, ours recently 553 00:32:57,200 --> 00:32:59,880 Speaker 1: as the nineties, there have been flee circuses that you 554 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:04,920 Speaker 1: real fleas following these traditions that we just mentioned. But 555 00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:08,320 Speaker 1: if you believe that there are plenty of flee circuses 556 00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:11,880 Speaker 1: out there that don't use any fleas whatsoever, you're right too, 557 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:16,280 Speaker 1: because there's both. Yes, there's the type of flee circus 558 00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:19,520 Speaker 1: that doesn't use fleas is called a humbug flee circus. 559 00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:23,880 Speaker 1: It's all it's all stage magic, it's all illusion, and 560 00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:29,040 Speaker 1: it's pretty pretty awesome. Actually. Yeah. There was a man, 561 00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:33,400 Speaker 1: a magician named George Tollerton in the nineteen thirties, and 562 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:38,840 Speaker 1: he wrote a booklet actually um outlining fake flee circuses 563 00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:42,560 Speaker 1: and skits that you can do wherein you're sort of 564 00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:46,360 Speaker 1: the I mean, while the carnival barking was going on 565 00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,760 Speaker 1: in the real flee circuses. Um, you you really want 566 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:51,520 Speaker 1: to take center stage if you have a fake flee 567 00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:56,440 Speaker 1: circus as then not only introducing the death defying feats, 568 00:33:56,480 --> 00:34:00,000 Speaker 1: but then you are are following these fleas, jumping around 569 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:03,880 Speaker 1: on with mimicking it with your eyes and following it around, 570 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,160 Speaker 1: you know, by moving your head around as if the 571 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:12,040 Speaker 1: audience is looking at some invisible thing, which they are, right, right, 572 00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:15,279 Speaker 1: they are, and you're basically just using your powers of 573 00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:20,080 Speaker 1: suggestion to get them to think they're seeing what you're saying. Right, Yeah, 574 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:26,279 Speaker 1: that's the most like basic humbug flee circus there are, right, 575 00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:29,239 Speaker 1: But there's one in that that started like that. I 576 00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:36,400 Speaker 1: guess the genuine stagecraft stage magic um humbug flee circus 577 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:41,960 Speaker 1: came about from Michael Benteen, who was a goon actually, right, 578 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:46,640 Speaker 1: remember that explain that the goons showed up in the 579 00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:50,840 Speaker 1: Monty Python episode. They were the direct predecessor of Monty Python, 580 00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:54,839 Speaker 1: Spike Milligan and his goons. Yes, he wasn't a hockey 581 00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:58,279 Speaker 1: playing goon. That's a different thing. Or a goon on 582 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:04,439 Speaker 1: Scooby Doo or a goony, right, just a regular old goon. Yeah, 583 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:07,320 Speaker 1: Michael Benty and he was a British performer and entertainer 584 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:12,239 Speaker 1: and he uh in nineteen fifty performed that the UH 585 00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:15,239 Speaker 1: called the Royal Variety Show. I guess I think so. 586 00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:19,880 Speaker 1: And it was a little, you know, fake flee circus 587 00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:23,720 Speaker 1: apparently pretty elaborate one, yeah, because rather than just using 588 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:27,600 Speaker 1: like his um power of suggestion, he was using things 589 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:33,400 Speaker 1: like magnets and remote control pumps and mechanical devices to 590 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,960 Speaker 1: really kind of do this exaggerated simulation of a flee 591 00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:42,359 Speaker 1: doing stuff going through the circuit of his flee circus. Right. 592 00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:44,000 Speaker 1: So he would say, have a magnet or a piece 593 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:46,480 Speaker 1: of string of something or something pushing a ball or 594 00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:49,719 Speaker 1: rather pulling a ball up a hill an incline, and 595 00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:52,520 Speaker 1: he would say that this is the uh, the flee 596 00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:55,799 Speaker 1: sysiphus and he's pushing this ball up a hill, right 597 00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,080 Speaker 1: or um, this is this is my favorite. This gets 598 00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:01,439 Speaker 1: me every time a flee going up on the high 599 00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:04,920 Speaker 1: dive board and then so as he's going up there, 600 00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:08,560 Speaker 1: the wrongs of the ladder, each one gets depressed right, 601 00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:10,920 Speaker 1: so you can see the fleece progress up. The ladder 602 00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:13,200 Speaker 1: gets up to the end of the board, jumps a 603 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:15,719 Speaker 1: couple of times, so the springboard goes up and down, 604 00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:18,240 Speaker 1: and then it makes a springing sound as he jumps 605 00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:22,360 Speaker 1: off right exactly dives into the water, and there's like 606 00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:25,600 Speaker 1: this huge splash, which a fleet could never make a 607 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:29,080 Speaker 1: splash to begin with, but a huge one. It's just hilarious. 608 00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:33,279 Speaker 1: Or I like the one the sand table. They would 609 00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:35,399 Speaker 1: have a little sandbox in the fleet with the fake 610 00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:38,840 Speaker 1: fleet would invisibly jump around, but it would create a 611 00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:41,600 Speaker 1: little splash of sand everywhere. He dropped all over the 612 00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:45,840 Speaker 1: place and again, all with magnets, all fake ery. Yeah, 613 00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:48,840 Speaker 1: but really really clever. I get the impression. He was 614 00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:52,040 Speaker 1: not um, not terribly old at the time when he 615 00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:56,160 Speaker 1: first debuted on tv UM, And in the grand tradition 616 00:36:56,200 --> 00:36:59,319 Speaker 1: of flee circuses, some other people saw it and said, 617 00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:02,000 Speaker 1: I want to do it too, So the Humbug flee 618 00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:06,040 Speaker 1: circus took off and became pretty popular, and like the 619 00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:09,520 Speaker 1: second half of the twentieth century, I should say popular 620 00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:12,719 Speaker 1: as far as flee circuses go, which is to say, 621 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:17,160 Speaker 1: not very popular, right, popular among weirdos. Yeah, I'm really 622 00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:20,479 Speaker 1: kind of wondering about this burta Lotto and his fame, 623 00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:24,560 Speaker 1: like he might not have been I don't know. I 624 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:26,759 Speaker 1: mean just because you travel the world. I mean, he 625 00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:28,799 Speaker 1: could have been traveling the world performing in front of 626 00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:32,120 Speaker 1: you know, sixty people a day. That's not exactly Elvis. 627 00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:36,840 Speaker 1: It's true. This whole thing is under a cloud of suspicion, 628 00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:41,000 Speaker 1: is yeah. Man, it's really tough to figure out the 629 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:44,360 Speaker 1: what's from the who's, and the winds and the why 630 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:48,319 Speaker 1: and the fleas from the magnets. Yeah. Yeah, because once 631 00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:53,240 Speaker 1: you introduced that humbug ury into it, everything comes into question. 632 00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:56,600 Speaker 1: There was, actually, though, there was a book that I 633 00:37:56,640 --> 00:38:00,000 Speaker 1: want to get. It's a it's a pamphlet basically turned 634 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:04,040 Speaker 1: into a book from that a guy named Tom Palmer wrote. 635 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,120 Speaker 1: It's called the Famous Flee Act, and it teaches you 636 00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:12,000 Speaker 1: everything you need to know to do a humbug flee circus. 637 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,680 Speaker 1: I just want to read it just for funzies. You know, 638 00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:20,160 Speaker 1: Christmas is coming up. I bet you someone out there 639 00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:22,800 Speaker 1: I'll send that to you. I was talking to you. 640 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:27,640 Speaker 1: That's just someone else out there. Well okay, uh my 641 00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:30,759 Speaker 1: call to you. The public listening stuff you should know 642 00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:34,000 Speaker 1: public is Ano. They're doing this in October Fest. But 643 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,879 Speaker 1: somebody needs to bring this back in a big way. Well, 644 00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:41,799 Speaker 1: a woman did in the nineties, but it didn't take 645 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:43,920 Speaker 1: for very long. But I mean it was pretty big 646 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:48,160 Speaker 1: in the nineties. Um. Her name was h what is it, Chuck, 647 00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:52,640 Speaker 1: Maria Fernanda Cardoso. Okay, did you read about her? No, 648 00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:54,960 Speaker 1: you should check out her act. You didn't see the 649 00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:58,480 Speaker 1: video of it. No, there's like a seven eight minute 650 00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:02,200 Speaker 1: vimeo of her and apparently it's just the highlights, So 651 00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:05,320 Speaker 1: I guess their act was longer, and she's a performance artist, 652 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:10,280 Speaker 1: so um it was. She did it at like different places, 653 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:12,440 Speaker 1: like she did at the New Museum in New York 654 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:16,080 Speaker 1: and um, San Francisco and just kind of some some 655 00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:18,640 Speaker 1: pretty neat places places you wouldn't expect to see a 656 00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:21,080 Speaker 1: flee circus, is what I'm saying. I guess. But she 657 00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:26,520 Speaker 1: used live fleece in the grand tradition of flee circuses 658 00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:31,040 Speaker 1: and uh made a very beautiful, neat almost circutus, so 659 00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:35,920 Speaker 1: laish flee circus in the nineties. Yeah, but there's a 660 00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:38,279 Speaker 1: video of it, or there's plenty of videos. I'm sure 661 00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,160 Speaker 1: of it out there. Um, just flick her up and 662 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:45,360 Speaker 1: look for the flee circus video with with our thumbs 663 00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:47,400 Speaker 1: up on it. Yeah, and you know, we kind of 664 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:50,759 Speaker 1: joked about this being cruel it. Um, it's easy to 665 00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:53,839 Speaker 1: say this is a fleece and who cares. But I'm 666 00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:55,839 Speaker 1: sure there are people that get up in arms about 667 00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:59,759 Speaker 1: using any sort of you know, mistreating and animal for 668 00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:07,359 Speaker 1: any kind of or insects, animals. Let's just say for 669 00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:10,600 Speaker 1: this argument, for sure, for the entertainment of humans. You know, 670 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:13,160 Speaker 1: there's probably at least one person out there that thinks 671 00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:15,239 Speaker 1: this is a very cruel thing to do. Know, there's uh, 672 00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:19,800 Speaker 1: there's apparently um societies that are dedicated to preventing cruelty 673 00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:24,560 Speaker 1: to insects in particular, and they have called specifically for 674 00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:27,759 Speaker 1: flea circuses to be banned outright. And they make a 675 00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:31,680 Speaker 1: pretty convincing case, especially if you don't allow yourself to 676 00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:34,520 Speaker 1: stop and remind yourself that these are fleas we're talking about. 677 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,680 Speaker 1: But they you know, they're held in captivity their whole lives. 678 00:40:38,719 --> 00:40:43,040 Speaker 1: They're held um, they're connected by a harness that keeps 679 00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:47,000 Speaker 1: them held down their entire lives. The tricks that they're 680 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:53,120 Speaker 1: performing are actually like stress behaviors. Um, and uh, they 681 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:58,360 Speaker 1: die probably prematurely. Yeah, well as what went off on 682 00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:01,160 Speaker 1: fleas in the fleet episode, So I can't really say 683 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:06,319 Speaker 1: anything about that. Sure, I've had bad infestations and I've 684 00:41:06,320 --> 00:41:09,480 Speaker 1: had no problem grabbing them between my hands and holding 685 00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:13,360 Speaker 1: them underwater until they slowly drowned. Right, They're like, please 686 00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:16,400 Speaker 1: just crush me, and you say, never drown. You can't 687 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:19,439 Speaker 1: crush them. You can crush a flee if you get 688 00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:22,640 Speaker 1: it's hardy fingernails, that's your problem. You butt your fingernails 689 00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:24,520 Speaker 1: too much. Yeah, but you try to smash a flee 690 00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:30,919 Speaker 1: and he just goes dying. Do do do do? Yeah? 691 00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:36,319 Speaker 1: Anything else? Um, you can buy flee circuses, ready made 692 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:39,319 Speaker 1: flea circuses if you want. Well that's fun. Yeah, um, 693 00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:43,600 Speaker 1: like an ant form. Good luck finding fleas is the thing, right, 694 00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:47,919 Speaker 1: and I think that's it. Man, that's a flea circuses. 695 00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:51,560 Speaker 1: Just go watch some flee circus videos on TV or 696 00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:54,520 Speaker 1: on the computer TV. You're gonna love it. Yeah, it's 697 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:57,799 Speaker 1: a good way to just dumb it down and check out. Yeah, 698 00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:02,120 Speaker 1: it's delightful though too. Uh, since I said it's delightful 699 00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:05,200 Speaker 1: if you want to know, that's right, I got all order. 700 00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:07,719 Speaker 1: I was thinking about Flee circuses. Yeah, if you want 701 00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:09,319 Speaker 1: to know more about Flee Circus, it's do what I 702 00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:11,160 Speaker 1: just said, and you can also type those words in 703 00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:13,399 Speaker 1: the search part. How stuff works. And since I said 704 00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:19,200 Speaker 1: it's delightful, before it's time for a listener mail, I'm 705 00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:21,960 Speaker 1: gonna call this what the writer called it, which is 706 00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:26,040 Speaker 1: pick me for listener mail. Thanks from a teacher. Okay, 707 00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:29,400 Speaker 1: it's hard to resist. Josh, Chuck and Jerry, and finally 708 00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:31,080 Speaker 1: writing do you all. I've been listening stuff you should 709 00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:34,200 Speaker 1: know for years. I think I've listened to nearly every episode, 710 00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:36,480 Speaker 1: even the ones from the Dark Days when the discussion 711 00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:39,200 Speaker 1: lasted fewer than ten minutes and Josh was still looking 712 00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,880 Speaker 1: for his perfect podcasting partner. My sister introduced me to you. 713 00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,400 Speaker 1: So if you pick this for listener mail, please do 714 00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:48,040 Speaker 1: be extremely cool. If you give my sister Laura a 715 00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:51,719 Speaker 1: shout wow, that is really nice. If you, Chuck, is 716 00:42:52,080 --> 00:42:55,680 Speaker 1: you're feeling very generous regardless, I've been meaning to email 717 00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:57,160 Speaker 1: my thanks and praise for your work. I was at 718 00:42:57,200 --> 00:43:01,880 Speaker 1: high school english teacher in Illinois, but reesely relocated Chattanooga, Tennessee, 719 00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:04,640 Speaker 1: where I've been moved on where I've moved on to 720 00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:08,360 Speaker 1: become a community college professor. Uh. A professor. Maybe she 721 00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:11,480 Speaker 1: could train police. Uh. Your podcast has been a great 722 00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:13,680 Speaker 1: supplemental teaching tool, not to mention, a guaranteed way to 723 00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:16,640 Speaker 1: keep my mind occupied during long road trips to and 724 00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:20,120 Speaker 1: from undergraduate and graduate school or while running with my dog. 725 00:43:20,640 --> 00:43:23,120 Speaker 1: Us the episode on book banning several times while teaching 726 00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:26,359 Speaker 1: to Kill a Mockingbird or informing students about Banned book Week. 727 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:29,880 Speaker 1: I've also used the episode about police interrogation during a 728 00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:33,799 Speaker 1: unit featuring Walter dean Myer's novel Monster, about a boy 729 00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:35,839 Speaker 1: who was on trial for a crime he may not 730 00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:39,280 Speaker 1: have committed. That sounds good, it does, uh. And more recently, 731 00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:41,680 Speaker 1: I use a listener mail about the benefits of hunting 732 00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:46,640 Speaker 1: as an example of how to structure an argument. Let's 733 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:50,800 Speaker 1: hear that. I want to hear that argument. We'll schefs 734 00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:53,239 Speaker 1: are right back in. Uh. The students got a laugh 735 00:43:53,239 --> 00:43:55,200 Speaker 1: out of Josh's comments about waiting for the deer to 736 00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:58,040 Speaker 1: fall over and collecting the dead bodies instead of actually 737 00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:01,080 Speaker 1: killing the animal. Anyway. Really enjoyed the show. Look forward 738 00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:03,080 Speaker 1: to new episodes every week. If teaching doesn't work out 739 00:44:03,080 --> 00:44:05,760 Speaker 1: for some reason, I think podcasting would be a pretty 740 00:44:05,800 --> 00:44:10,960 Speaker 1: great career. Uh. And that is from Sarah Amato, Professor Amato, 741 00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:16,560 Speaker 1: and uh shout out to Laura yep, her sister, Laura 742 00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:21,040 Speaker 1: Amato or whatever her name is. Shout out not presuming 743 00:44:21,040 --> 00:44:25,160 Speaker 1: they have the same last name. My modern guy you 744 00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:28,680 Speaker 1: are anyway, you have a beard. Thanks for teaching and 745 00:44:28,920 --> 00:44:31,880 Speaker 1: uh doing what you do, Professor. Yeah, and thanks for 746 00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:36,799 Speaker 1: writing in Smart Thinking with the subject line. If you 747 00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:39,280 Speaker 1: want to get in touch with us, you can tweet 748 00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:43,000 Speaker 1: to us. I'm at josh um Clark at Twitter, and 749 00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:45,640 Speaker 1: you can also follow the official s Y s K 750 00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:48,960 Speaker 1: podcast on Twitter, Getting Out with Chuck at Charles W. 751 00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:52,680 Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant on Facebook or Facebook dot com slash Stuff 752 00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:54,640 Speaker 1: you Should Know. You can send us an email to 753 00:44:54,800 --> 00:44:57,480 Speaker 1: stuff podcast how Stuff Works dot com and has always 754 00:44:57,560 --> 00:44:59,560 Speaker 1: joined us at our home on the web, Stuff you 755 00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:08,960 Speaker 1: Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands 756 00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:19,720 Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how Stuff Works dot com. MHM