This song does not take place at a circus: the "clown" is a stand-up comedian and the setting is a comedy club where he is performing. "The protagonist goes to a club to cheer himself up," songwriter Tony Hazzard told Songfacts. "While he's there he's excited by a girl on the dance floor and starts to chat her up. He thinks he's getting somewhere and then his excitement is deflated by her announcement that she's married to the comedian who then, in turn, laughs at him in the chorus."
The Yardbirds covered this later the same year and reached #45 on the US charts.
This was written by the English singer/songwriter Tony Hazzard, who also wrote Manfred Mann's "Fox On The Run." "The premise of the song is about someone who makes people laugh, having the last laugh," Hazzard said in his Songfacts interview. "It reminded me of a situation I'd heard about in my teens where two guys were arguing about who should go out with a particular girl and then I came along and beat them to it. No direct connection, of course, but that's what sometimes happens in songwriting: it's the flavor rather than the reality."
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