Mr. JARRETT: Anything I'm doing on stage that looks like it's part of a circus act is something I would rather not do.

NPR: Keith Jarrett's Audience Connection

Then, of course, there was the 11-hour, five-minute circus act, performed over three days, by John Isner and Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010.

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"I don't want to be a circus act, " Hopkins said.

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It was a sporting tragedy that Gascoigne had to end his playing days in the lower divisions of English football before a stint with a second-rate Chinese outfit left him as little more than a novelty circus act for a curious nation.

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Still, circus acrobatic work takes a toll on bodies, so some performers like Bartlett find a third act in the circus.

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Twenty yards behind the cow, which now and then jumped awkwardly, crept this adolescent lion, which did not appear to be excited or even very much interested, as though the two of them were circus animals trained to act out a scene.

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It's a traveling Las Vegas act in which performers squeal gibberish and execute circus techniques with no regard for the rhythm of the very loud music.

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