The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air): Season One, Episode 2 (The Cricket)

Speaker 2 Welcome to Night Vale has a lot of really amazing merch, and it's all at welcometonightvale.com.

Speaker 2 And you click on store, we've got t-shirts, leggings, blankets, stickers, posters, mugs, bags, holiday carts, throw pillows, blankets, etc., etc. Oh, ugly Christmas sweaters, whatever you need.

Speaker 2 Even if you've been to our merch store before, it's different now. We're constantly taking down old things and putting up new things.

Speaker 2 So, if something looks pretty dope to you, get it soon because who knows if it'll be there for long. I'm really right now, I just got a bunch of stuff.

Speaker 2 I'm really enjoying my mutated vegetable tea towel designed by Jessica Hayworth, my University of What It Is sweatshirt, and of course, my Moonlight all-night diner coffee mug.

Speaker 2 Plus, we have dozens more things for you or someone you love for the holidays or just on a lark. Go to welcometonightveil.com and click on store.

Speaker 4 Summer is turning to fall, which frankly, rude of summer to do, but don't worry. Quince is here with fall staples that will last for many falls to come.
We're talking cashmere, denim.

Speaker 4 This is quality that holds up at a price that you frankly just won't believe.

Speaker 4 We're talking super soft, 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters, which sounds like the kind of item that you need a credit check to even imagine, and it starts at just $60.

Speaker 4 Plus, Quince partners directly with Ethical Factories, so you get top-tier fabrics and craftsmanship at half the price. I got an adorable dress for my daughter, which she helped pick out.

Speaker 4 She wore it at her first day of school. She loves that dress.
It has pockets, if you know, you know. I also got myself a mulberry silk sleeping mask, and every night since has been a luxury.

Speaker 4 I have never gotten better sleep than with mulberry silk draped upon my eyes.

Speaker 4 Experience what it must be like to be wealthy without having to, you know, have a bank account that doesn't make you wince when you check it.

Speaker 4 Keep it classic and cool this fall with long-lasting staples from Quince. Go to quince.com/slash nightfail for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.
That's quince.com/slash nightfail.

Speaker 4 Free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com/slash nightfail.

Speaker 2 Hi, Jeffrey Grainer here. This is episode two of the eight-episode debut season of the Orbiting Human Circus of the Air.

Speaker 2 You're receiving this recording on the Welcome to Nightvale feed because Orbiting Human Circus is the latest podcast from Nightville presents, but after episode 3, that's it.

Speaker 2 If you want to hear the entire first season of Orbiting Human Circus, go subscribe to them on iTunes or wherever it is you get your podcasts. And hey, enjoy the show.

Speaker 6 As night begins to fall on Paris.

Speaker 6 Backstage at the broadcast ballroom, busy preparations for this evening's broadcast of the Orbiting Human Circus of the Air begin.

Speaker 6 But before we listen, there's one thing I think you ought ought to know.

Speaker 6 You'll remember, last week, seeking forgiveness, the janitor snuck backstage to clean host John Cameron's dressing room as the last song of the evening played.

Speaker 6 And that music, and this is what I really wanted to tell you, was performed by the Orbiting Human Circus Orchestral, a rare African bird that can mimic all 47 instruments of the orchestra at once.

Speaker 6 The orchestral is something of a Parisian Bigfoot, believed only to land where orchestras are rehearsing. Many people claim to have seen them, but one has never been filmed or recorded.

Speaker 6 Yet, there one was, perched in its cage, on the stage, in full view of the entire studio audience, beautifully mimicking a waltz. With no visible strings or wires.

Speaker 6 Even the stagehands don't know how it's done.

Speaker 6 And it's that way with all the acts.

Speaker 6 With that thought, we take you back to last week in host John Cameron's dressing room, where the janitor cleans with greater and greater enthusiasm until... Look out!

Speaker 6 In his exuberance, the janitor accidentally knocks a small crate marked, For Mr. Cameron's eyes only, exclamation point,

Speaker 6 off the table. Out of it spills several tiny tomes of sheet music and some bird seed.

Speaker 6 Suddenly the door opens, and in sneaks stagehand Jacques, guiltily starting to light a cigarette.

Speaker 1 Kid, I'm supposed to throw you out on your ass.

Speaker 11 I won't tell the tissue you were smoking. You wouldn't.
I won't if you let me finish cleaning. Cleaning?

Speaker 1 This place is a wreck. Look at that on the floor.

Speaker 3 Whoa, whoa.

Speaker 1 Look at that crate. Is that what the bird came in?

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hey, let me see that.

Speaker 3 Whoa, look at this.

Speaker 12 I just gotta know how this bird works.

Speaker 13 I was thinking it's gotta be a robot.

Speaker 3 It's not a robot.

Speaker 1 What's this white stuff?

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 3 it's not a robot. It's not a robot.
Ugh.

Speaker 1 Here's paper towel. Alright, so what do I got here?

Speaker 14 Suddenly, a commotion out of the hall.

Speaker 1 Oh shit, I'm supposed to be out there helping her.

Speaker 12 And if she catches me in here, and I'm talking to you, please, you've got to let me finish cleaning.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 12 But you get me in trouble.

Speaker 6 I'm going to break your legs. Meanwhile, at home, the listeners sat back and listened to

Speaker 6 this.

Speaker 7 hi this is Drew Callender and on behalf of the whole orbiting human circus gang we'd like to welcome you to our second episode good to see you again and thank our sponsors Atom Tickets and Audible use the Atom Tickets app to buy movie tickets and concessions invite friends and skip box office lines when you use the code OHC at checkout you'll get five dollars off your order download the free app that's ATOM tickets from the Google Play or Apple App Store.

Speaker 7 If you enjoy the Orbiting Human Circus, we're sure you'll enjoy Shirley Jackson, A Rather Haunted Life, available now on Audible to our audience members for free, along with a free 30-day trial membership.

Speaker 7 Just go to audible.com/slash OHC and enter Shirley Jackson in the search bar.

Speaker 7 You can also find her other books, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Lottery and Other Stories.

Speaker 7 After you're done browsing Shirley Jackson titles, you can check out Audible's gigantic library of audiobooks, short stories, and even radio plays from the 30s, just like the ones Julian listens to.

Speaker 7 Go check out Audible today. Go get your free audiobook with a 30-day trial at audible.com/slash OHC.
That's audible.com slash OHC for Orbiting Human Circus.

Speaker 7 If you live in the northeastern United States, this November the janitor will be cleaning a venue near you, giving you the chance to walk into the world of the orbiting human circus.

Speaker 7 And you too can be there by going to orbitinghuman circus.com slash shows and finding a tour date near you. And now please sit back and enjoy episode two.

Speaker 16 Eldred the Tap Dancing Mouse.

Speaker 16 Broadcasting from the top of the Eiffel Tower, the orbiting human circus of the air.

Speaker 17 To start us off, as part of our continuing series on the formative influence of Judaism on rock and roll, we give you this 1921 recording by Cantor Moisha Leibowitz, clearly an influence on the song Surrender by popular singing group Cheap Trick decades later.

Speaker 14 Breya Ma Mission Nain

Speaker 14 My Mission Ain

Speaker 14 Ma

Speaker 8 Kommital

Speaker 8 Maja

Speaker 8 Ali

Speaker 8 Ali

Speaker 6 Meanwhile, as the broadcast continues, high in the shadowy outer walls of the Eiffel Tower, far from the microphone's hearing, the sound of a single mop

Speaker 6 and a lonely silhouetted figure holding it. This of Julian, janitor of the Eiffel Tower, banned from the broadcast ballroom for his on-air interruptions.

Speaker 6 Follow him as he mops the tower's outer walls and climbs higher, dangerously high, without scaling gear, ropes, or scaffolding to hold him.

Speaker 11 I don't need that stuff. I've been climbing my whole life.

Speaker 6 With one free hand, he scales the tower.

Speaker 6 Spilling soapy water from the bucket he holds and nearly dropping the mop, still he goes higher and higher and higher, like a small animal climbing a tall tree to escape its pursuers. Much too high!

Speaker 6 My God, what's he doing? Has he no fear of heights at all?

Speaker 11 It's for the last thing I'm afraid of. Up high, you're safe.

Speaker 6 But still, he climbs higher and higher, and the higher he climbs, the calmer he becomes.

Speaker 11 Everything looks so beautiful from up here.

Speaker 11 There's not a thing that can touch you.

Speaker 6 The janitor leans back on one of the tower's utmost girders and gazes off as if lost in memory.

Speaker 11 When I was a kid, my stepfather used to be afraid of heights.

Speaker 11 I used to climb this water tower. We had this water tower.
It was the tallest structure in our town, and I'd like climb up it and I'd stay up there for hours.

Speaker 19 But

Speaker 11 the first time I came to Paris, I never saw anything like this.

Speaker 6 Yes, Eiffel really knew what he was doing.

Speaker 11 I mean, it was the tallest thing I'd ever seen in my life.

Speaker 11 All the buildings were I mean

Speaker 11 I was ten

Speaker 11 I ran away to Paris at ten? Well I I knew I had this great grandpa and he was a stage hypnotist

Speaker 11 so I snuck on a train.

Speaker 11 I went to the train station, I went under the turnstile, I I went down and nobody saw me and I I I got in onto one of the trains when no one was looking and I got under the bench seats

Speaker 11 and I was down there

Speaker 11 by everyone's feet. I could see everybody's shoes, and

Speaker 11 the train started moving like nobody caught me.

Speaker 11 And

Speaker 11 I didn't even know, I hadn't thought about where I was going or how I was gonna eat or survive. And the next thing I knew, we got in Paris.

Speaker 11 And when we got in Paris,

Speaker 11 there were posters from my great-grandfather's show

Speaker 3 everywhere.

Speaker 11 So I

Speaker 11 I found the theater where he was playing and I I snuck backstage well what happened

Speaker 11 he took me home with him

Speaker 11 and

Speaker 11 he lived in these wonderful apartments

Speaker 11 there was red velvet everywhere and and

Speaker 11 there was all these famous people like actors and actresses like people I knew I mean from from posters and and and

Speaker 11 and there were always parties

Speaker 11 and my great-grandpa was just handsome and and elegant and and oh my god and I remember I remember some nights he even forgot to feed me like he didn't know he didn't know how to take care of kids but

Speaker 6 I didn't care.

Speaker 11 I I mean he forgot that I had to go to school. He never thought about that

Speaker 11 which was amazing.

Speaker 11 I just wanted to be near him.

Speaker 6 Sounds like he was very special.

Speaker 11 There was this one time

Speaker 11 I was in his office and I was hiding. He didn't know I was watching him.
And he was sitting at his desk and he was writing. And he started, he had the cigar in his mouth.

Speaker 11 And he started blowing these smoke rings.

Speaker 11 But he wasn't looking at them.

Speaker 11 And they started getting bigger and bigger

Speaker 11 and bigger, and he still wasn't looking. And then they slowly, slowly started getting smaller and smaller and smaller

Speaker 11 and then without looking he just lifted up his left hand and he extended his finger and he snuck it right through the center of the ring

Speaker 11 and he put both of his hands in front of his face and he started puffing

Speaker 11 And when he took his hands away, there was a perfect smoke polar bear

Speaker 11 just floating

Speaker 11 in the middle of the room and it was even there was even a polar bear shaped shadow on the carpet

Speaker 11 and it drifted up and up until it reached the ceiling.

Speaker 11 I wanted to know how to do that.

Speaker 11 I just wanted to stay with him.

Speaker 11 I wanted him to show me how to be a show person.

Speaker 11 I wanted to live like those people.

Speaker 6 Did you get to

Speaker 6 No

Speaker 6 The Janitor takes his bucket, looks down at the glowing lights of the city far below, and begins to mop.

Speaker 6 Meanwhile, below, in Paris, People gather round their radios. You see there's a rumor that something unusual, something quite unprecedented, is going to happen on the orbiting human circus.

Speaker 6 It's going to happen during the feature presentation. You know the strange story that ends each episode, which all Paris waits for? What's going to happen?

Speaker 6 Well, all Paris is going to have to wait to find out.

Speaker 6 But I can show you.

Speaker 6 We zoom in on a small enclosed space that looks a lot like the janitor's pocket. A dark, womb-like space where a small figure lies curled in a fetal position.

Speaker 6 Well, I don't know if they have fetal positions.

Speaker 9 You see, it's an insect.

Speaker 6 And what does an insect have to do with the feature presentation? Well, it must be something.

Speaker 6 Because backstage at the broadcast ballroom, the large tape machine which usually plays the feature presentation is still tucked away, and stagehand Jacques pays little attention to it.

Speaker 6 Hey, hey, somebody help me lift these pies onto the stage for the next act.

Speaker 6 Meanwhile, above at the tip of the Eiffel Tower, the janitor leans perilously off the side, mysteriously pauses mopping, and puts his ear to the metal girders to listen.

Speaker 11 If you put your ear up against the metal, you can hear things. The tower picks up radio signals from all over the world, depending on which girder.
Here, listen.

Speaker 6 The janitor presses his ear against the girder.

Speaker 11 Or listen over here.

Speaker 11 And if you put your ear up to this girder here, listen to what you can hear.

Speaker 17 That was Yermak, the pie-eating Cossack!

Speaker 15 Yermak, ladies and gentlemen!

Speaker 11 You know how I live in the janitor's closet? There's no electricity, so I can't have a radio. I come up here for hours and listen.

Speaker 17 Yer Mack!

Speaker 17 And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's nearly time for our feature presentation.

Speaker 8 I gotta go.

Speaker 6 Where are you going?

Speaker 11 Down to the show. It's almost time.

Speaker 6 And so the janitor begins a frenzied climb down to the ballroom. But they won't let you in.

Speaker 8 Look, look at this.

Speaker 11 I got it here in my pocket.

Speaker 6 It's a cricket.

Speaker 8 Come on, we gotta go.

Speaker 3 I'll explain about the cricket.

Speaker 11 Late at night, after everybody goes, I'm allowed to clean the axe cages.

Speaker 6 An important job.

Speaker 11 I was just finishing up, and I went to the new orchestra bird's cage, and it wasn't in there.

Speaker 6 You mean the orchestral, the rare African bird that can mimic all 47 instruments in the orchestra at once? The Orbiting Human Circus's one bird band?

Speaker 11 I looked everywhere for it, and it wasn't anywhere.

Speaker 8 It was all my fault.

Speaker 11 And sometimes the lock doesn't lock. I was scared it ran away.
Everyone was gonna know I did it. But then I heard something in Mr.
Cameron's office.

Speaker 6 You mean John Cameron, host of the Orbiting human circus, whose dressing room you've invaded on multiple occasions? You didn't.

Speaker 11 I had to. It was dark.
I turned on the light, and there it was. The orchestral was standing right over this cricket like it was gonna eat it.

Speaker 8 But it didn't.

Speaker 6 It was listening. Listening?

Speaker 11 I swear to God, it looked like the cricket was telling the orchestral a story.

Speaker 3 Oh, it's through here.

Speaker 8 It's time. Listen, it's talking about me on the air.

Speaker 18 Last week, ladies and gentlemen, we demonstrated the Cricket Song Transmigrator, a machine that allows us to hear the cricket song as the cricket hears it.

Speaker 18 After the show, I discovered Julian toying with that machine, violating a great many rules. But for once, we're glad he did.
The machine caught a cricket backstage in mid- anecdote.

Speaker 18 And for the first time, a cricket story was translated into the human tongue. I realized we simply had to share it with you.

Speaker 18 We discovered not only that crickets are the greatest storytellers in the world, but why they are.

Speaker 18 When a cricket is caught by a bird, he is always given a chance to tell a story. And if it's a good one, that bird will spare that cricket's life.
So, let's bring out the cricket.

Speaker 17 Our janitor, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 18 Put him in my hand, Julie.

Speaker 6 Roll out the machine, Jacques.

Speaker 18 Little cricket, up on the platform you go.

Speaker 18 And now, ladies and gentlemen, we make radio history, a cricket's own story, our feature presentation, the extraordinary tale of Ladislaw Koskovsky.

Speaker 9 Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 15 It is we crickets who see what no one else does. But there is no mystery more beloved amongst us than that of Ladislaw Kolbskovsky.

Speaker 15 Ladislaw Kolbskovsky was a promising young clockmaker who believed due to certain incontrovertible laws of physics, clocks would run more accurately counterclockwise. And he was correct.

Speaker 15 His clocks were too accurate, in fact. Who wants to own a clock that runs runs a different time than all others? Nobody.
He cannot afford to eat. His whole life is his shop and his shop is failing.

Speaker 15 He had to find some way to make people want his clocks. But he finds it impossible to work.

Speaker 15 Through the ceiling of his workshop come piercing the voices of the two children who live upstairs, as if in the room with him.

Speaker 15 The children constantly beg for dolls he knows the parents cannot afford. Christmas will come.
Bring disappointment. Hysterics.

Speaker 15 Ladislaw finds himself gathering small bits of fabric from his wardrobe, materials from his workshop, and beginning to fashion the children two dolls, one for the boy and one for the girl.

Speaker 15 They will be good dolls. He will ask only for peace and quiet in return.

Speaker 15 When the family open the door to reveal Ladislaw holding presents, they are stunned. Ladislaw had never been the least bit friendly to them.
And yet here he is. Merry Christmas, is all he says.

Speaker 15 Ask them to keep quiet for me. And avoiding all eye contact, he dumps the packages in their hands and runs away.
The baffled curiosity of even the parents cannot be contained.

Speaker 9 The packages unwrapped immediately.

Speaker 9 How much the children loved their dolls cannot be measured in words. Then, a miracle happens.

Speaker 15 Customers begin coming into Ladislav's shop.

Speaker 6 As the cricket's voice rings out, the cast and crew listen, and Chief Stagehand Letitia is so touched that later that night, she tells the story to her downstairs neighbor.

Speaker 3 They are like, coming into his shop.

Speaker 5 All of a sudden, where are they coming from? You know, he's not like the people who used to come. No, these people are...

Speaker 5 They are wearing stylish clothes. And more importantly, they begin buying his clock.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 they smile at him and they come in and they are like, Oh, Ladislaw, you know, you are you are a genius and all this.

Speaker 3 Oh, and he is like,

Speaker 5 Some of them they are very beautiful women, you know, and say, See, Ladislaw, you know, he is like, Whoa,

Speaker 5 you know what it is like when you have not been with someone for a long time, and then this beautiful person comes in and is like looking at you.

Speaker 5 You know, he is like, Oh my, like his uh his face is on fire, you know. But he's like, I'm gonna buy myself a new suit and I'm gonna buy myself like a new hat and he's gonna make a difference.

Speaker 5 And I'm gonna go talk to those people. I'm gonna go to the party because this one girl, she had invited him to this party, so he's gonna go.

Speaker 5 He arrives at the party, so he comes to Marie's door, he knocks on the door, and

Speaker 5 the butler opens the door.

Speaker 5 And I'm Lalisla Koskovsky, I've come to the party, and he looks inside, and there is Marie, and she's like, like oh you know like uh kind of a little bit like shocked or something but then oh you know she is very happy and she's inviting him in and he walks into this uh amazing party with the champagne you know on the trays and everything is like sparkly there like it is all so beautiful you know the people but also the way they laugh it is like crystal or something so this blush on his cheeks is just deeper and deeper you know like a beat beat or something, but it's okay.

Speaker 5 He's like going from room to room, you know, with Marie and she is like, this is this room and this room and the terrace and you know the terrace it smells like

Speaker 5 like a whole garden is out there blooming, you know, in the midnight with the stars and the light and it is all so fragrant, you know, he comes back inside and in every room he go into with Marie there is a clock of his.

Speaker 5 The people are all smiling at him and you see his clock is in every room. Like

Speaker 5 I did not know this was my home. I did not know this was always where I was going.

Speaker 5 And then suddenly there is something in him. It is like coming up, like tingling.
What is this feeling? It is like rising and rising and rising, rising. What is this?

Speaker 5 It is in his throat and out of his mouth. And

Speaker 5 it's a sob.

Speaker 5 There is something in him like coming up like a like a like a boulder, gaining speed, you know, rushing toward him, and he feels it coming up through his body.

Speaker 5 And just as he comes into the big grand ballroom and he sees his clock on the other side of the wall, it is like

Speaker 5 they are laughing at me.

Speaker 5 They don't like the clock, they think it is a joke. They brought me here to make fun of me.

Speaker 5 And he he

Speaker 5 cannot control the

Speaker 5 pain and the rage. It is like uh pours out over him and through him and it is rushing over like the whole ballroom, like uh like the snow just

Speaker 5 you know, like like he is like a like a doorway through which uh winter comes rushing.

Speaker 5 And uh

Speaker 5 he is crying on the carpet and uh making a scene and just like cannot move, like

Speaker 5 frozen to the floor. They ask the butler, the butler, you know, he comes, everyone's a little bit nervous, you know, because there is this crying

Speaker 5 clockmaker on the floor, and they pick him up and they kick him out because,

Speaker 5 you know, they're going to clean up this mess on the carpet now.

Speaker 6 And stagehand Jacques tells it to his elderly aunt.

Speaker 12 So listen, that night, he smashes all the clocks. He smashes his own prized possession.

Speaker 1 He takes, you know, his little squeaker clock, the one that goes off in the morning, and he fucking hurls it across the room.

Speaker 12 Smash. He takes his grandfather clock, he pushes it down the stairs.
It tumbles, it tumbles, it tumbles, and crack at the bottom. All right, he's just chucking them everywhere.

Speaker 2 It's hitting the ceiling, you know.

Speaker 1 One of them, you know, crashes out the fucking window. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 12 Like, like, this guy is so pissed off. Everybody's waking up in town, you know, the neighbors, the people upstairs.

Speaker 1 He hurls one, it smacks against his fucking plumbing. You hear water coming out.
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 This guy's going crazy.

Speaker 12 So then, they hear like a shuttering of the doors.

Speaker 1 Here's the thing.

Speaker 12 After all that, he never came out.

Speaker 6 And even later that night, Janitor Julian tells it to Coco, elderly night watchman at the Eiffel Tower, who counts on the janitor's nightly telling telling of the radio show to help pass his lonely watchman's hours.

Speaker 11 They thought he was dead.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 11 And after a few weeks, kids started, you know, saying that it was haunted, and they'd dare each other to go up and tap on the window or to try and get as close to the window as they could.

Speaker 11 And then, of course, they'd all run off. And then, suddenly, there started to be these sounds.

Speaker 11 Late at night, there'd be these crazy sounds like knocking,

Speaker 11 banging, really scary sounds. I mean, it would terrify the people that were living upstairs.
And all the noise would happen all night, and then in daylight, it would stop, and we get quiet again.

Speaker 11 And this went on for weeks. Wow.
And then one morning, the sun was rising, and the shades on the shop window just went up.

Speaker 3 There was a doll shop.

Speaker 19 No.

Speaker 11 Nobody could believe their eyes. And the window displays were amazing.
And the dolls, the dolls had this thing that just

Speaker 11 makes you feel safe and happy and warm. Kids loved them.
It became a sensation.

Speaker 11 I mean kids just wanted to even be in the shop and they'd press their faces up against the window and their breath would fog it up. There were people lining up for blocks.

Speaker 3 No.

Speaker 11 Vladislas was there right in the middle of it.

Speaker 11 He went out and he found all the people

Speaker 11 that were at that party and he gave them dolls for free just as gifts for their kids and

Speaker 11 he found the people that used to come into his shop just to keep warm, that he used to kick out and yell at. And he gave them dolls for their kids and

Speaker 11 their friends' kids.

Speaker 11 It got to where Ladislaus was like the most famous person in Bucharest.

Speaker 6 But Ladislaw's story does not end there. In fact, it doesn't end at all.
But I'll get to that in a moment. As we all heard, live on the air.

Speaker 9 One morning,

Speaker 15 Ladislaw Koskovsky disappeared.

Speaker 6 Both he and his doll shop gone.

Speaker 6 Without a trace. What happened? All Romania wanted to know

Speaker 6 what happened to Ladislaw Koskovsky.

Speaker 6 But it is not what had happened to Ladislaw Koskovsky. It is what he had done.

Speaker 6 On every doll he had created, there was hidden a tiny catch.

Speaker 6 This catch was protected by a thin layer of varnish which, lovingly handled, would wear off in no less than a year.

Speaker 6 The exact same amount of time it would take for a child to bond with their doll completely.

Speaker 21 Then, the first time the child would drop the doll or place it down roughly, the catch would trigger and set into motion a mechanism that, faster than the eye can see, would replace the original face with another that lay hidden inside.

Speaker 22 The same face, but with a new expression. A horrific expression of hatred, such pain, such monstrous, mortal accusation.
It would traumatize the child who loved it for the rest of their life.

Speaker 22 For their dolly turned to them now hideous with pain, Ladislaw's pain, with bitterness, Larislaw's bitterness.

Speaker 22 With hatred, Ladislaw's hatred, to fill the dreams of the children of Bucharest with nightmares to last a lifetime.

Speaker 15 And once the faces had changed, the mechanism would lock forever.

Speaker 15 No one would know how it happened.

Speaker 15 Only the horror it produced.

Speaker 15 And so...

Speaker 6 But

Speaker 6 the story went no further, because though Stagehand Jacques, Chief Stagehan Letitia, and our janitor Julian all thought it was a a good story, there was one key member of our cast who did not.

Speaker 6 Which will become increasingly apparent in just a moment. As look out!

Speaker 6 The orchestra escapes its cage and lunges at the cricket, who, abandoning the story, skitters off with the bird in hot pursuit and the janitor dashing madly close behind.

Speaker 6 The orchestra's gotten out of its cage.

Speaker 16 Oh my god, I didn't look.

Speaker 16 I didn't look it. Oh my god, who's the house?

Speaker 16 Save that cricket!

Speaker 16 Good boy, he'll eat him alive!

Speaker 8 I've grown very fond of that cricket.

Speaker 17 Make the orchestral play the end music.

Speaker 6 And the orchestral does begin to play the music while chasing the cricket, while being chased by the janitor round and round in dizzying circles.

Speaker 18 And that's it for this week. Tune in next week when our safely returned cricket will continue his story.

Speaker 17 Broadcasting from the top of the Eiffel Tower, the orbiting human circus wishes you a good night.

Speaker 20 This is Robbie Cucciar of the Orbiting Human Circus, and we'd like to thank Atom Tickets App for supporting the Orbiting Human Circus of the Air podcast.

Speaker 20 Atom Tickets app is the free mobile movie ticketing app that makes going to the movie super convenient.

Speaker 20 So, today, I'm very excited to bring you guys along on my first adventure with the Atom Tickets app. Okay so I'm on the Atom Tickets app.
There are a few movies I'm interested in.

Speaker 20 They have the trailers, user scores, and a Metacritic score. Now I've selected my movie and it's prompting me to invite some friends.
I'm gonna invite my sister Daria and my buddy Julian.

Speaker 20 I'm not sure if they'll come, but we'll see. And now I'm at the concession window and I'm ordering some popcorn and soda.
Ooh, they have kettle corn seasoning.

Speaker 20 Okay, now I'm at the payment window and I've put in my info and used the orbiting human circus code OHC and I got $5 off. That was over 30% off the ticket price.

Speaker 5 Wow.

Speaker 20 Alright, I'm at the movie theater and of course I'm running totally late but I've got my QR code and my electronic ticket and thank God because there is a long, long line here right now.

Speaker 20 Alright here I go.

Speaker 20 Hey there, I have an Atom tickets app. QR code?

Speaker 7 Theater 5 on the left.

Speaker 20 Alright, thanks a lot, man. Alright, that was super, super easy.
Awesome. Download Adam, that's A-T-O-M, tickets for free from the Google Play or Apple App Store for the ultimate movie experience.

Speaker 7 Hello again, this is Drew Callender. Remember, go to audible.com/slash OHC to get a free audiobook with a 30-day free trial.
Thanks, Audible.

Speaker 10 Bundle and safe with Expedia. You were made to follow your favorite band, and from the front row, we were made to quietly save you more.

Speaker 10 expedia made to travel savings vary and subject to availability flight inclusive packages are at all protected

Speaker 5 i'm amy nicholson the film critic for the la times and i'm paul shear an actor writer and director you might know me from the league veep or my non-eligible for academy award role in twisters we love movies and we come at them from different perspectives yeah like amy thinks that you know joe pesci was miscast in good fellas and i don't he's too old let's not forget forget that Paul thinks that Dune 2 is overrated.

Speaker 1 It is.

Speaker 5 Anyway, despite this, we come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where we talk about good movies, critical hits, fan favorites, must-sees, and in case you missed them.

Speaker 5 We're talking Parasite the Home Alone, From Greece to the Dark Knight.

Speaker 5 We've done deep dives on popcorn flicks, we've talked about why Independence Day deserves a second look, and we've talked about horror movies, some that you've never even heard of, like Kanja and Hess.

Speaker 5 So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure.

Speaker 13 Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 5 And don't forget to hit the follow button.

Speaker 2 Hey, Jeffrey Kraner here to tell you about another show from me and my Night Vale co-creator, Joseph Fink.

Speaker 2 It's called Unlicensed, and it's an LA Noir-style mystery set in the outskirts of present-day Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 Unlicensed follows two unlicensed private investigators whose small jobs looking into insurance claims and missing property are only the tip of a conspiracy iceberg.

Speaker 2 There are already two seasons of Unlicensed for you to listen to now, with season three dropping on May 15th.

Speaker 2 Unlicensed is available exclusively through Audible, free if you already have that subscription. And if you don't, Audible has a trial membership.

Speaker 2 And if I know you, and I do, you can binge all that mystery goodness in a short window. And if you like it, if you liked Unlicensed, please, please rate and review each season.

Speaker 2 Our ability to keep making this show is predicated on audience engagement. So go check out Unlicensed, available now only at Audible.com.