In his book, My Life Under the Big Top, the Rev. David Fly shares his life's journey as a standup comedian, a professional television clown, and an Episcopal priest.

The three roles became increasingly intertwined throughout his life. The big top of the circus came to represent for him the church with its sense of wonder and mystery—a world from which no one is excluded.

The role of the clown and the Christian is to play Stan Laurel to the world's Oliver Hardy, exposing the folly of pretense and the vanity of pride.

The book is both a memoir and a theological reflection.