ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (Washington, DC)

Julia Masli is an award-winning clown from Estonia, based in London. All she wants to do is solve people’s problems and eventually win the Nobel Prize, presented to those who have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. But this plan keeps going wrong as she continually wins prizes for comedy. It was bad enough when she was the winner of the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality in 2019 and her debut show ‘Choosh’ – about a migrant’s struggles in the USA – was one of the most acclaimed comedy shows of the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022. But in 2023, things spiraled when she set out to help audience members in ‘ha ha ha ha ha ha ha’, which you can read about in The New York Times here. This serious, important event was nominated for Edinburgh’s top prize for Best Comedy Show and named number one comedy show of the year by the ‘Guardian’, before being invited for a four-week, completely sold-out run at London’s Soho Theatre. Despite the seriousness of Julia’s intentions, the show was once more shortlisted for Most Outstanding Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival after another total sellout season. From there, it transferred directly to a four-week run at Soho Playhouse in New York City.