Punching the Clown

Winner of the Audience Award at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, this sharp new comedy tells the story of Henry Phillips, a hapless modern day troubadour who grinds his way through the heartland, living out of his car and singing his twisted satirical songs to anyone who will listen. After a booking mishap involving a Christian fundraiser, he decides he's hit rock bottom. Seeking to shake things up, he moves to L.A. where his luck changes overnight.

Thanks less to his inept manager than to a wild case of mistaken identity, he falls backwards into a string of packed gigs, a record deal and even the promise of love. But he who lives by the whimsy of show business dies by it, and reality hits him like a fist in the face: an innocent miscommunication over a bagel starts a vicious rumor about him in the tabloids. Luckily, somewhere between rock bottom and the middle of nowhere lies the perfect terrain for his dark and hilarious songs.