The Bindlestiffs

"The Bindlestiffs" documents a year in the travails and triumphs of The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus. Sixteen years ago, Stephanie Monseu and Keith Nelson created the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, one of the last true touring vaudeville shows in America. Their shows combine traditional circus high wire aerialists, clowns, and juggling with sideshow denizens like swords swallowers, fire-eaters, and burlesque dancers. With these basic ingredients, The Bindlestiffs cook up an alchemical brew that promises to enthrall audiences. But their showbiz dream does not come easy. It takes hard work, dedication, time and more than just standard juggling. The company is precariously balanced and fighting off bankruptcy. Without a patron of any sort, and a national economy in tatters, Stephanie and Keith must find the will to make it happen. The show must go on. The path they find, and the heart and strength it takes to get there, involves gunning a motorcycle across a wire twenty-feet in the air, cracking