Deep in the California desert, inside a maze of painted faces, faded carnival props, and rooms overflowing with clown history, Steve has spent years building the museum that gives his life meaning. Loud, funny, fast-talking, and endlessly performative, he can keep a room entertained for hours, but beneath the jokes and the bravado is a man quietly battling severe OCD, loneliness, financial collapse, and the fear that the one dream he has devoted everything to may never survive.

As city permits stall, money disappears, and wildfires destroy his main source of income, Steve keeps moving forward the only way he knows how: with a painted smile, a nonstop monologue, and the hope that if he can just get the museum open, maybe he can finally quiet the noise in his head. Strange, funny, heartbreaking, and unexpectedly beautiful, Fears of a Clown is a portrait of a man trying to turn obsession into purpose and performance into survival. - Lucy Hanna, SF DocFest

Producer Josh Polon (SF DocFest alumni: The Legend of MexMan (2018))

Filmmaker expected to attend.