Our story this week: Melanie Hamlett, yearning for the endless, intoxicating adventure of South America found herself couch surfing into a house full of clowns. Literal clowns. Bipolar, uncicycling clowns. Always on the lookout for a safe haven from the lecherous man-pigs of the road, Melanie thought she had found her respite from constant sexual harassment amongst those bronze boys of the circus arts. But then came a clown called Blue Angel, and everything changed.

Melanie Hamlett is a comedian, storyteller, world traveler , and two-time MOTH storyslam winner who has written for Marie Claire, Nerve.com, and her own book Leave the Lipstick, Take the Iguana. You can catch her performing in her storytelling show Adventures with Melaine Hamlett at the Under St. Marks Theater in New York on the 3rd monday of every month at 7pm, and at melaniehamlett.com.