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ESL Podcast English Café 144
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 144
TOPICS
Saturday Night Live; Howard Stern and shock jocks; using “to” in who, what,
where, when, why questions; state of the art; ways to say “good job!”
_____________
GLOSSARY
live – a radio, television, or Internet broadcast recorded only once and shown
and broadcasted at the same time that it is being recorded; in person and not
recorded
* Tonight, my favorite group is giving a live concert at 8 p.m. and I don’t want to
miss it!
cast – the group of actors who regularly appear on a television or theater show
* This season, there will be three new people added to the cast of this TV show.
celebrity – a famous person, such as an actor, singer, or musician; a person well
known to many people
* When we visit Los Angeles, do you think we’ll see any celebrities?
sketch – in television shows or theater, a short scene that is part of a larger
show
* The actors did a funny dance during that sketch to make the audience laugh.
news anchor – a person who is usually sitting at a desk and facing the camera
and who tells news stories on television
* The news anchor dropped his script right before the program started and didn’t
know what to say during the news broadcast.
current events – important things that are happening in society and government
and are in the news
* Kelly knows all the current events from reading three newspapers every day.
to get (one’s) big break – to have an opportunity that helps one very much,
usually by advancing one’s career, especially in the entertainment industry
* My cousin Karin is an actress and got her big break last month when she was
hired to be in this new comedy show.
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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 144
controversial – a topic or issue that people have many different and strong
opinions about
* Whether people should own guns is a controversial issue.
shock jock – a radio host who says surprising things, including many things that
anger other people
* How can you listen to that radio station when that shock jock says such terrible
things about women?
to offend – to make someone angry by doing or saying something that he or she
doesn’t like
* Nancy told a joke at dinner that offended all of the men in the room.
fine – an amount of money that one has to pay for doing something wrong
* Bucky threw garbage on the ground and got a ticket. Now he has to pay the
$60 fine.
on the air – during a radio or television broadcast; while a radio or television
program is being recorded
* Please make sure that no one in the room makes loud noises while we are on
the air.
state of the art – the highest development in technology; the newest and best
version of something
* I knew that Derrick was building a new house, but I didn’t know that everything
in it would be state of the art.
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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2008). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 144
WHAT INSIDERS KNOW
The Production Schedule for Saturday Night Live
How is a weekly show that lasts 90 minutes “produced” (made) in just one week?
Here’s what happens in a typical week at Saturday Night Live.
Monday: The writers and cast members have a big meeting called a “pitch
meeting,” when everyone tells each other and the producer, Lorne Michaels,
about their ideas for the show. After the meeting, the writers each write two
scripts for that week’s show.
Tuesday : By Tuesday afternoon, the writers have completed over 30 scripts, but
not all of them will be used for the show. The “host” or special guest for that
week talks to the writers to see what he or she will be doing during the show.
Wednesday: Now that the scripts are done, the writers and the cast do a “read-
through,” which means that they will read the scripts aloud, but not act them out.
Then, the producer and the host decide which ones will be used for the show.
Thursday : The scripts that are selected but that need some “re-writing”
(changes; editing) are worked on by the entire writing staff. The news anchors
for the Weekend Update news sketch meet to decide which news items will be
included. The musical guests for that week’s show come in to the studio to
“rehearse” (practice) with the “crew” (people who take care of the technical parts
of the show).
Friday: The cast rehearses their parts. The “sets” (scenery and furniture used
for a show) and “costumes” (clothing used in acting) are made.
Saturday : The cast does a “run-through,” which means they practice as though
they are performing, but without costumes. Later, they do a “dress rehearsal,”
which is a practice in which everything is supposed to be the same as in the final
performance. From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., the cast performs in front of a “studio
audience” (people watching in the room where the performance is taking place);
20 minutes will “deleted” before the final broadcast. The show is shown on TV in
most parts of the U.S. at 11:30 p.m.
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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2008). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 144
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 144.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café episode 144. I’m
your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational
Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com. You can download this episode’s Learning
Guide, an 8 to 10 page guide we provide for all of our current episodes that gives
you some additional help in improving your English. You can also take a look at
our ESL Podcast Store, with additional courses in English, as well as our ESL
Podcast Blog, where several times a week we provide even more help in
improving your language proficiency.
On this Café, we’re going to talk about a very popular and funny television show
in the U.S., called Saturday Night Live . Then we’ll discuss a man named Howard
Stern and the meaning of the expression “a shock jock.” You’ll learn why some
people love Howard Stern and some people hate him, but he is known by most
Americans. And as always, we’ll answer a few of your questions. Let’s get
started.
Our first topic today is a popular TV show called Saturday Night Live .
Sometimes we simply call it SNL – Saturday Night Live . It’s a “comedy,” a funny
show that is made to make people laugh. It “airs,” or is shown on the television,
every Saturday night and lasts about 90 minutes. It was first produced in 1975
and continues to be produced today. So, it has been around for more than 30
years. I remember the first Saturday Night Live television shows back in 1975; I
was – let’s see – 12 years old or so.
Saturday Night Live is filmed, or recorded, live in New York City. If a show is
“live,” we mean that it is shown on television at the same time it is being
recorded. Many shows – most shows are not live on television, but Saturday
Night Live is. On a live TV show, if an actor makes a mistake, of course, the
audience will see it and so will everyone watching on television. Often the actors’
mistakes make the live show even funnier than it would be if it were more
carefully filmed and edited.
Saturday Night Live has a cast, just like any television show. A “cast” is a group
of actors who appear, or are on, a show on a regular basis. So, the cast consists
of the actors in the show. SNL has a cast of “comedians,” people who try to
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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2008). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 144
make you laugh. The cast of Saturday Night Live is joined every week by a
different “celebrity,” a different famous person, and musical group – a band. A
“celebrity,” as I say, is a famous person; it could be an actor, a singer, a
musician, even a politician. Saturday Night Live always has a celebrity host who
speaks at the beginning of the show and also participates in some of the comedy
routines – some of the funny parts of the show with the regular cast. So, they are
an actor that is part of the comedy show. Usually this is an actor, or a singer, or
someone else who’s famous, but there have been many different kinds of
celebrities. Even our current president, George Bush, was on Saturday Night
Live , so was Al Gore, the vice president under President Clinton. So, many
famous people go on the show. It’s considered a very popular show, and so a
good way for people to get to know you better.
Saturday Night Live is a series of short and humorous, or funny, sketches. A
“sketch” usually is a simple drawing, but when we’re talk about television shows
or theater, it’s a short scene that is part of a larger show. A “comedy sketch” is
where the actors say funny things, but it’s something that they’ve practiced in
advance. The opposite of “sketch comedy” would be “improv,” or “improvisation,”
where the actors are making up the jokes right there, as they go along; they don’t
practice anything in terms of the jokes. But Saturday Night Live is a sketch
comedy show, so there are number of small, three to five minutes scenes, or
parts of the show, that are supposed to be funny.
Some of the sketches became very popular, and the sketch characters, or the
people who appear in the sketches, repeat many times. So, you’ll see the same
character – the same person – act in different sketches about the same theme or
topic. For example, one popular sketch was called “It’s Pat!” The main character
was named Pat, but nobody could tell if Pat was a man or a woman. That’s
because the name Pat might be short for Patrick, or it could be short for Patricia.
Patrick is a man’s name; Patricia is a woman’s name. So, you would have this
character named Pat who would come out, and you couldn’t tell was it a woman
or was it a man, and of course, the name doesn’t help, so this lead to many funny
situations in the sketches.
Another very popular segment, or part, of Saturday Night Live is Weekend
Update. This is a part of every show. Weekend Update is like a news program.
You have usually one or two cast members act as “news anchors,” or people
who tell you the news on television. Some of their news stories are based on
very strange, bizarre things that have happened in the past week. They also are
about “current events,” things that are happening in society and government and
that are in the news that people have been talking about. So, they’re ways of
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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2008). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
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