GreasePaint

Joey Thurmond can't be faulted for having a boring professional life: as a teenager, Thurmond set out to become a professional wrestler, but a back injury forced him out of the ring; he flirted briefly with rodeo riding before taking on a more sedate position as a police officer. But a chance visit to a circus museum convinced him that he was meant to be a clown, and an entrepreneurial impulse drove him to create his own mini-circus, with his wife, teenage son, and a Colombian acrobat as collaborators. Daniel Espeut's invigorating documentary focuses on Thurmond's NoJoe's Clown Circus as it travels from one small-town gig to the next. For all the merriment in the ring, however, life is anything but funny for Thurmond: a problem with the immigration status of his Colombian colleague creates a legal nightmare, while his son (a pleasant but reserved young man with no overt signs of desiring a show biz career) begins to rebel against his status as a baggy-pants-clad second banana. And the financial problems of running this operation are fairly obvious (one can count the number of audience members on both hands and still have fingers left over). Still, Thurmond's ability to spin his tumult-heavy life story into a happy-go-lucky misadventure is a testament to his skills as an entertainer. DVD extras include deleted scenes and a photo gallery. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)