I know what you’re thinking: I don’t like clowns. Why would I like a play about the son of a professional clown? Because said son is 1) handsome, even when wearing a red rubber nose, 2) a master of falling down stairs/off ladders/through trapdoors and making it look easy, and 3) a talented Cirque du Soleil and Broadway alum with the kind of true story you can’t make up.

Sure, Lorenzo Pisoni’s solo show Humor Abuse, his coming-of-age tale coadapted by friend and director Erica Schmidt, clowns around a bit, but each incredible pratfall is delivered with a sad smile and a sigh, as evidence of a life Pisoni can’t escape. “I was born to be my father’s straight man,” he says. Or his protege: At age 2, little Lorenzo wandered into the ring of the Pickle Family Circus at intermission and made his “uninvited debut.” By age 6, he was a contracted member of the clown show. He spent a childhood inside a trunk on his father’s back, dressing as a gorilla, and juggling clubs till his hands bled. He loved it. But it’s not always easy growing up with a father who thinks it’s funny to put a plastic banana in your lunchbox. Every day.

With the help of family photos projected onto a backdrop and a dry sense of humor about the “abuse” he sustained as a child, Pisoni wraps us up in his colorful past, and gets us to think about the man behind the clown makeup. Turns out that smile is painted on for a reason.

Humor Abuse is at Seattle Repertory Theatre through Oct 23.