Learn 10 ENGLISH IDIOMS from Entertainment

Hi.

Welcome to engVid.

I'm Adam.

In today's video, we're going to look at 10 idioms from the world of entertainment.

Okay?

Now, although these come from entertainment and they apply to entertainment situations,

they also apply to other situations in everyday life.

So, we're going to look at "the show must go on", "to run the show", "be in the limelight",

"15 minutes of fame", and "a showstopper", "to start".

So, what does it mean, "the show must go on"?

So, I know most of you probably know this expression from Queen's song, "The show must

go on".

I'm not going to sing it for you because I don't have a very nice voice, but basically

that's what it means.

You keep going.

Nothing stops you.

Okay?

So, think about a performance.

You have a ballet or you have a theatre play.

Let's say we're looking at a ballet, and the main dancer, you know, she's twirling around

doing her dance, and suddenly she falls and breaks her leg.

So, what does this mean?

Does this mean that the dance or the show is over, and they stop it and they give everybody

back their tickets, their money?

No.

They take this dancer off, somebody else comes in her place or his place, and they continue

dancing and get back on track till the end.

Same with acting.

If an actor forgets his line or her line, the other actors, what they must do is they

must improvise, meaning that they have to look at the situation, make new lines, make

new words, get the story back on track of the play, and then continue till the end.

So, basically the show must go on means you can't stop.

If there's trouble, if there's problems, if something unexpected happens, it doesn't matter.

You must continue.

So, if you think about politics, if you think about a restaurant, okay?

Let's say in the restaurant, the chef is making some dishes and there's been an accident and

everything goes up on fire.

Do they close the restaurant and tell all the guests to go home?

No.

They put out the fire, they move things around, they improvise, and they get the guests their

dishes, their food, they make everybody happy because the show must go on.

You can't stop.

Okay? Politics, if a politician has an accident and can't come to vote, all the other politicians

must continue anyway.

That's the example.

To run the show, so somebody has to manage, somebody has to be in charge of making sure

that the show happens, the director.

But in any other situation, in business especially, we use this expression to show to be somebody

is in charge, somebody is in control.

So, for example, a lot of my staff are very angry and they don't want to do something

I say.

So, I have to tell them, "Listen, I'm the one running the show.

That's what I say, that's what you do, and that's what they do.

I'm the boss.

I am running the show."

Okay?

So, to be in control, in charge.

To be in the limelight.

Now, in the old days of performances, there used to be, like, a big spotlight on the actors

or the singers, etc.

And I don't know exactly, but it used to come from some chemical, like, associated with

actual lime.

That's how they made it very bright, and they put the light, you know, the big circle on

the stage around the actor or the singer, and he or she is very lit up.

That's called the limelight.

To be in the limelight means to be the center of attention, the center of focus, to have

all eyes on you.

Doesn't actually have to have any light involved, but it just means that you're the center of

attention and everybody's looking to see what you will do.

So, if you're in the news, for whatever reason, good or bad, means that you're in the limelight.

Everybody is looking to see what you're doing, what you're saying, etc.

Okay?

Which is somewhat related to 15 minutes of fame.

Now, in the 1970s, there was a famous artist called Andy Warhol.

Maybe you've heard of him, maybe not.

But he said that every person in the world will be famous for at least 15 minutes.

So now, we basically talk about somebody's 15 minutes of fame.

Today, you would think of it as something going viral.

Okay?

You know this expression because it's from the internet.

If something goes viral, it means it becomes very widespread, very quickly, and whoever

is in that video becomes very famous.

Usually, it's for a very short time.

There was an example.

There was a professor in Korea.

He was a British guy, I think, and he was talking about the situation with North and

South Korea, and he was giving an interview to the BBC.

And in the...

During his interview, he had a home office.

His two-year-old daughter walks into the room and, you know, she's dancing and singing,

having a good time.

And then his wife comes in and grabs the girl and takes her out, and the interview goes

on because, you know, the show must go on.

And then, the next day, the whole world knows about this little interview, and the little

girl, and they become famous, and they have more interviews, and today, if you ask anybody

about this situation, nobody remembers.

So, you know, that professor had his 15 minutes of fame, and now he's back to being just some

professor in a university somewhere in the world.

So, that he went viral.

And then there's a showstopper.

If something is a showstopper, basically, it means it stops the show.

Why?

Because it is so amazing that the rest of the show becomes meaningless.

So, if something is a showstopper, it means it's the best part, it's the most amazing

thing.

We can talk about this, about anything that we want to say is amazing or awesome.

Okay?

So, like, you have a wedding, you know, everybody's sitting down, it's a beautiful church, it's

a beautiful setup, flowers, everything, and then suddenly the bride comes out, and she's

just a showstopper.

She's just beautiful, and nobody notices anything else except for her.

And then the wedding goes on, and things like that.

Okay?

So, there are your first five.

Let's look at five more.

Okay, so now we're going to look at five more, and we're going to look at "steal the show",

to steal the show, to steal someone's thunder, bring down the curtains, break a leg, and

behind the scenes.

Okay?

So, to steal the show.

To steal the show means to basically grab all the attention, to take all the focus away

from what's around the person or thing in question.

Right?

So, let's think about a performance.

You have a play or you have a movie, and you have one actor whose performance is so good

that it makes all the other actors, you know, seem not so good.

Even if they are good, they're not as good because this one person stole the show, took

all the attention.

Now, in everyday life, let's say you're going to a conference, and there's all kinds of

experts giving speeches, but there's one expert whose speech is so powerful and so innovative

and so meaningful to so many people that this speaker has stolen the show and makes everybody

else look, you know, mediocre or average or nothing special.

So, that's what it means to steal the show.

To steal someone's thunder is similar, but a little bit different.

If you steal someone's thunder, it means you're taking the attention away from that person.

Okay?

Now, again, let me go back to the wedding scenario.

Everybody, you know, beautiful church, flowers, everything.

The bride comes in.

Oh, she's beautiful, she's a showstopper, everybody's looking at her.

But then suddenly, somebody in the crowd, somebody...

One of the guests faints, falls on the floor, and everybody rushes over to her to see what's

going on.

So, suddenly, all the attention is on this person who fainted, and nobody's really looking

at the bride anymore.

So, basically, her thunder, her impressiveness, her amazingness suddenly disappears.

Nobody's thinking about her.

Nobody's looking at her.

All attention is on this other person.

So, this person stole the bride's thunder, and the bride's day is just ruined, and she's

going to hate everybody for the rest of her life because somebody stole her wedding day.

So, bring down the curtains.

To bring down the curtains...

So, in a...

Again, in a play, when the show is over, the curtains come down; or in a movie, in the

old days, the curtains would close, and that's the end of the show.

Right?

So, if you're bringing down the curtains on something, basically, you're putting an end

to it.

So, again, politicians.

Let's say there's a scandal going on in Washington.

Somebody did something bad, everybody's talking about it, the media's talking about it, all

the other politicians are talking about it.

So, then the president says, "You know what?

I've had enough of this.

This person, you're fired.

Go.

You're done.

Nobody wants to talk to you."

So, the president basically brought down the curtains on the scandal, he put an end to

it, it's out of the way, nobody's talking about it anymore, and the show goes on.

The political show goes on.

Okay?

Now, actors always tell each other before they go on stage, "Break a leg".

Now, the idea is that it was bad luck to say to someone, "Good luck".

They're a little bit superstitious, apparently, actors, and if you tell an actor, "Good luck",

it's almost guaranteed or they think that it's almost guaranteed that something bad

will happen.

So, again...

So, what you want to do is you want to trick the gods, so you say, "Break a leg.

I hope something bad happens to you", so then the opposite, "Good luck" will come to you.

So, "Break a leg" means good luck.

And it's not just actors, we say to everybody, "You're about to go on a trip, you're about

to do something, like you're going to go give a presentation, you're going to start

a new business.

Okay. Well, break a leg.

Good luck."

Before you do that.

"Behind the scenes".

This basically means what it says.

Here you have the stage, you have all the actors, you have the background, you have

the city, you have a forest, you have whatever, and then you have people behind all this who

are actually making sure that everything works.

They're making sure the lights are good, they're making sure that the next actor knows when

to come in, they make sure that all the costumes are good.

Basically, they're making sure that everything runs smoothly, except that nobody can see

them. The audience can't see them.

So, then, everything is behind the scenes.

Basically means this is what happens behind what the public can see.

So, sometimes you'll see this in writing, you'll see a behind-the-scenes look.

That's a K. A behind-the-scenes look at the restaurant industry.

A behind-the-scenes look at whatever industry.

Basically, a reporter will go in and show the TV audience or whoever's watching what

actually happens in this industry that the public doesn't see.

So, for example, if you go to a restaurant, even if they have an open kitchen, you're

in the restaurant, you know, everything's nice, the lights are good, the atmosphere

is nice, the food is delicious, you have no idea what's happening behind the scenes.

In the kitchen, they're all going nuts.

It's a very stressful environment, the restaurant kitchen, especially the more fine dining,

the more, like, high-quality the restaurant, the crazier the situation is in the kitchen.

So, you don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but behind the scenes is what's

actually making the front of the house work properly the way it should be.

Okay?

So, I hope you remember some of these idioms.

You will hear or read them commonly, like, in regular situations, good to understand

what they mean.

Again, just to...

If you want to make sure you understand them, go to www.engvid.com, there's a quiz you can

take to test your knowledge of these idioms.

You can also ask questions in the comments section.

And I hope you liked it.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you did, and come back again and see more

great videos on English and idioms and other things like that.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.