Beyond the historical confines of Ringling Bros. and scorning the big-budget schemes of Cirque du Soleil, these tightly knit troupes focus on bringing audiences thrills spun around an ideological center. From the sick-out shockfests of the infamous Jim Rose Circus Sideshow to the anarchic burlesque of the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus to the obscure but elegant puppetry of the Cloudseeding Circus of the Performative Object, Freaks and Fire brings readers into the diverse and all-consuming world of circus as commentary, lifestyle and play.

The only book to chronicle the rise of the alternative circus, Freaks and Fire gives us much more than just the show as spectacle. By examining the role of the freak in society and the re-emergence of the tribe, it also gives us a snapshot of society itself, of the larger audience vaudevillians seeks to dazzle and challenge.