I was a 19-year-old metalhead when I ran away (thruhiked, actually, from Georgia to Maine) and joined the circus. "Circus Jerks" is about my travels with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Big Apple Circus in the 1980s. I lived on the train, which burst into flames in the middle of the night, illuminating the forest while rolling from town to town. It's a crazy book about sleazy carnies, creepy clowns, scrappy bike-riding baboons, raunchy cowboys, an ex-zombie rodeo clown, Zulu warriors, a runaway alligator, controversial elephants and a Russian bear trainer who looks like Rasputin. Read all about it in "Circus Jerks ".