As a child, Joey Thurmond played many of the games the other children played; the one exception being clowning, which fascinated him from the start. His parents disapproved of the idea, but he found an outlet for performance as a wrestler. This lead to a chance to perform with the WCW, where he was power-bombed in the ring, breaking his thoracic vertebrae. After spending months in a full body cast, Joey tried to return to wrestling but it was determined too risky. The WCW did, however, pay not only for his treatment but for him to attend the police academy. While protecting and serving, he tried his hand at the rodeo, but he was admittedly bad at that. He then tried his hand at clowning, forming a small circus act for weekend parties. When he and his wife discovered that they made more on the weekend then at a job that made Joey miserable, they decided to put everything they had into a starting a real traveling circus. The documentary follows their first year on the road as Joey deals with expenses, replacing equipment, adverse weather, unscrupulous employers, and bureaucratic hell when immigration fails to file a performance visa for Columbian performer Hernan. We also see his relationships with his wife Jamie (as manager, behind the scenes technician, and burgeoning performer dealing with a fear of heights), his son Tyler - simultaneously a moody teenager and an adept performer - his employees, and living in such close quarters with his real and extended family. It's more of a touching story of a family than a study of clowning as an art (rather than an occupation) a la Federico Fellini's CLOWNS despite the talking head participation of other clowns and circus historians.