Are there any movies that go from the development stage to the big screen with zero problems along the way? Absolutely not, but it’s a particularly bumpy ride for filmmakers flying solo, without the assistance of a production company and that’s exactly how Punching the Clown came to be.

The film stars Henry Phillips as Henry Phillips, a singing comedian who can put anything from trying to sharing drugs with hookers to school nerds taking revenge with guns to a catchy tune. Of course this doesn’t jibe with everyone’s sense of humor and a particularly rough performance compels Henry to leave the open road behind and settle down in LA to try to build his career.

In honor of the movie’s October 22nd release at the Quad Cinema in New York City, Phillips and his co-writer and the film’s director, Gregori Viens, sat down to tell us all about the winding road they took to make Punching the Clown a reality. In fact, that road is so long and unusually structured that it’ll take two videos to get all the juicy details out there. We kick things off with part one in which the duo describes the transformation of Punching the Clown the documentary to Punching the Clown the narrative feature all the way up to the casting process.

Check out part one of the interview below and be sure to check back for part two as well as a video of Phillips performing one of his tunes-in-the-works for his new CD “LA Dream.”