Well, what I noticed was that it was a tense situation. But there's things that just either they aren't your responsibility-- if you get involved in things that aren't your responsibility, or that you're really not equipped to handle, or that you don't have a specific plan, a plan that's thought through to a conclusion, you probably should re-evaluate what you're doing. Every aspect of the set and the crew-- and rumors had sort of cooked around. So the place is pretty much packed. And I have this big, heavy flashlight, like your cop flashlight-- 4D cells, the metal case, the whole thing. So we are not yet at fiasco. And those are these really nice silk pillows. No, really. But I sort of kept staring at it. So she does that. As a comedian, when people laugh, it's very exciting. I also happened to be team leader on the roof last month when we had occasion to try the system during the Visigoth attack about which so much has been written. The wife just looks around and just starts to cry. Somehow that's how this entire play ended. Production help for this rerun from Noor Gill, Stowe Nelson, and Matt Tierney. And one or two mistakes, even big ones like this, they're going to let that ride. I didn't want to do a spit take. Well, let's begin today with a woman who dreams of directing a play in the small town where she lives, a college town, somewhere below the Mason-Dixon line in the hills of Appalachia, a town which will remain, for our purposes today, unnamed. Coming up, man versus squirrel, specifically cop versus squirrel. This American Life rises and falls on the abilities of its journalists and storytellers, and Carrier is one of their best. OK? From This American Life Cut and share your favorite podcast on social media. There was this huge crew. What could be more American than the person who sees something they've never done before, dreams they could do it, goes after that dream? One or two mistakes, even big ones like this, they are going to let that ride. At the same time, I was choking. LEWONTIN: And the beauty of that ideology is that it justifies what is the greatest, uh, social agony of American life, namely, it justifies the inequalities that exist in a society which is said to be based on equality. Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Why don't we move the furniture away from one of the corners, and we'll put the couch in the corner, and the squirrel will probably move along with the couch because it's the only cover available to it. And one ingredient of many fiascos is that great, massive, heart-wrenching chaos and failure are more likely to occur when great ambition has come into play, when plans are big, expectations great, hopes at their highest. And the mother made me coffee, but I was too nervous to drink it. Every actor was in a role that was just a little too big for them, every aspect of the set and the crew. And it becomes clear right away that the people that they've hired to run these flying apparatuses really aren't quite clear on how they actually work. I realize what's going on here. Before you do this, I just want to explain-- when we say breaking down the fourth wall, what we mean is the wall between the actors and the audience. Our website, thisamericanlife.org. Act Four, Fiascoes as a Force for Good. Don't even ask. Yes. Trending pages. And luckily for me, it was another guy who was pretty new. From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. Were we dirty? It was about five minutes away. They call for a squirrel. At the end of the day, GPA is far less important for future success—and important for a much smaller time in a person’s life—than their strength of character, honesty and work ethic. And luckily for me, it was another guy who was pretty new. Because, of course, his hand is now nakedly exposed to the audience. So the high school students, couple of college students maybe, they started to laugh out loud. Of valley speak terms. And I felt like it was pretty important that at some point, I better drain that coffee cup. If the very premise of your character is that you have a hook, your name is Captain Hook, literally all that's going to happen for the rest of the show is people are going to refer to you by that hook. She was beautiful. I mean, it took a long time to even tell people about it. MAX MORATH: Slowly but surely, you began to hear sort of rumors about this production. This guy is bleeding all over the place on his carpets. And I'll be honest, Ira, I might have been one of those first people to laugh. I mean, you make plenty of mistakes. And then sometimes they're just stationary? And I shine it up through the hole in there. They want blood. And in this particular production, there's a big bed with all the three kids in it. Right, exactly. But there we stood. Stay with us. I crunched my body up underneath 'cause I'm realizing, gee, I don't know where this thing is. And sure enough, the kids sort of suddenly just lurch into the air. A beam of focused light. Slowly, but surely, you began to hear sort of rumors about this production. You can hear it. That is, when social order breaks down, that can be a force not just for chaos, and for entropy, and for evil, but, in fact, that can be a force for good. Well, see, I would disagree with you. It's how she gets around. They had pillows arranged around one corner of the couch next to the fire. The fire alarm's going off. This bulb comes just dangling down and sort of hangs around. We're right under it. That was actually the ad lib. Exactly, exactly. And I find an iron, but I couldn't find a board. But I, for one, am simply tired of hearing about the slippery stain on the village steps. Oh, don't worry, honey. And then with about eight inches to go, I took one more swipe, and the thing just bolted out from underneath the couch. It was hard to not laugh at this. So I'm moving it along, and everything's going very well. And I just turn into this drunk Little League dad. Now, I have this big, heavy flashlight, your cop flashlight, the four D-cells, the metal case, the whole thing. Contributing editors for today's program-- Jack Hitt, Margy Rochlin, and Consigliere Sarah Vowell. And it's really not such a big deal, but it's really not our thing. And he's going, listen I'm really sorry to bother you. That's just part of that job. So we walk inside. I was so new. At the same time, I was choking. The Secret Life of an American Teenager Transcripts F.D. It's beginning to dissipate. Some have said that they were on the verge of abandoning their attack before the oil was cast upon them, which I assure you is not true. For instance, how were we to get a 1,9000-pound brass cauldron onto the roof? And on the postcard somewhere would be a picture of a nose, and there would be liquid coming out of it, sort of like my logo. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. But she seemed really nice. Musical help today from John Connors and Damien Graef. So we're wondering, gee, where is the squirrel? Speak to her in your secret, private argot. And about six inches from the front of my face was this squirrel at eye level with me, kind of reared back on its legs. [LAUGHS] That is not what you want to be saying at the end of the day. And the squirrel is moving down along. Yeah. She finally gets the kite. So while all of this is happening-- and several people are attending to David. The smoke alarms are firing away. And then several of them start to circumscribe these circles in the air, where it's clear that the people running the machines have just set them off on these oval courses that spiral farther and farther out. I was beside myself. There were papier-mache mushrooms everywhere of different sizes. So we walk up to the door with all our stuff on-- the nylon coat, the vest, the belt, the whole nine yards. I'm nervous about the thing. And the pressure is on, which is, of course, the setting for a possible triumph or a possible fiasco. I'm like, I like jazz. And what's really interesting about a fiasco is that once it starts to tumble down, the audience wants to push it further along. She sort of said, on second thought, maybe I can swim. I mean, it wasn't flaming or anything, but it was smoking, and there was a little bit of fire coming off the tail. It may have seemed more odd or extreme, since the perpetrators were greasy and thereby more offensive. Today's show, Fiasco, our own inquiry into the nature of what makes a fiasco, when you have left the world of mishaps, stumble, human error, and you enter into the much more rarefied realm of fiasco. We have nothing but boxes. And this woman who lived in the building opened the front door for me with her key. I'd never been sent out under these kind of circumstances before. I was really embarrassed, but simultaneously, I couldn't breath. And the audience is totally in his pocket. And this is all within about five minutes. ... One definition of a fiasco is when something simple and small turns horribly large, and this event fits the bill. The cauldron's arrival on the roof was quite a moment. But I don't have that part of my brain. He says, well, we were having kind of a romantic evening down in the living room, and we heard a scratching upstairs. Then another thing that happened was later on in this scene, if you remember, Wendy gets trapped on an island. And we had a rerun scheduled for this week, and we decided in this stressful time it might be nice to keep things light and funny. [MUSIC - "I WON'T GROW UP" BY RICKIE LEE JONES]. So I'm ironing my pants. We were vigilant. Well, little darling, [INAUDIBLE]. So we run downstairs. And we finally get the fire out. At this point, the actors are just falling apart. And Peter Pan comes in and has a little speech where he says, anybody can fly. And I start up the ladder. It's a good sign. Act Three, Squirrel Cop, in which a bushy-tailed visitor threatens to take down two police officers, a married couple, a couch, and a house. But there was one moment in this first opening scene that kind of put the audience on notice. And the first speaker comes on the stage, and he's an 11-year-old boy who survived leukemia. That's right. He's on his back. She kept hopping all over me. One of the great things about audiences, especially in a live theater production, is that they're very forgiving. 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