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On June 8th, as part of The Hollywood Fringe Festival, I walked into Open Fist Theater to see That Beautiful Laugh presented by Four Clowns. Seeing as my life is in a state of perpetual disaster, I was late, inappropriately dressed, and seated next to a three-year-old. I doubted if anything, clowns included, could improve my mood. At the very least, I was certain I’d be distracted by a toddler through the duration of this performance. As usual, I was wrong.

As testament to Four Clowns’ dazzling and captivating performance, that three-year-old didn’t budge once. He was enthralled. He wasn’t the only one. The 99-seat house was packed with an incredibly diverse audience. It seems the one thing that unites Los Angeles is a quest for laughter and a slew of bulbous, red noses.

Conceived by Orlando Pabotoy and directed by Turner Munch, the show is set in a world in which everyone has forgotten how to laugh and follows a wise old man and a troupe of clowns on a poignant quest to rediscover That Beautiful Laugh. On this interactive journey, we laughed, we cried, we were scared and sometimes we got lost. Through movement, music and some pretty elaborate props, Four Clowns tested us. They surprised us, they gained our trust and they broke our hearts. After all that, they asked if we were ready to find laughter again. And we were. This originally developed piece was rewarded with a standing ovation.

As I was leaving the theatre that damn 3-year-old was still in tow. He was seemingly riveted by a Four Clown’s postcard as he sauntered down the street. In his distracted state, he tripped and fell. His mother was closely behind and we all froze to see how he would react. He should have cried, our pouted, or screamed for his mommy but instead…he just laughed.

- Alison Royer

CRITIC’S PICK

All the world loves a clown, and for the past two annual Hollywood Fringe Festivals, L.A. has loved Four Clowns, naming the troupe best physical theater and dance entry in 2010 and the coveted Top of the Fringe last year. This time out, with “That Beautiful Laugh,” the quartet has become a septet, perhaps indicating that those mandatory fake red noses are cheaper to buy in quantity.

There’s nothing here to ponder as these seven young performers with no physical boundaries or even a soupcon of inhibition make infectiously silly fools of themselves. The thin premise is that our friends travel from the moon, all emerging from a battered steamer trunk to help a world that has forgotten how to laugh. In the next hour of pratfalls and bare-bones gimmicks, from a shadow puppet diorama of Hollywood (complete with a cutout labeled “smog”) to a contest deciding who can come onstage sporting the largest nose (the final one barely fitting through the side curtains), these folks succeed splendidly in taking the cares of the world and packing them away—along with the audience laughter they collect in a glowing mason jar.

- Travis Michael Holder

EDITOR’S PICK

Four Clowns come with a powerful, humor-fueled physicality that’s fearless, fun, and full of mayhem. After touring the country, winning a bunch of awards, and bringing down the house during last year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival with their rendition of Romeo and Juliet, Four Clowns are back, and they’re looking for laughs — literally. That Beautiful Laugh involves a wise man who wants to end cynicism by replacing it with joy and curiosity instead. The untethered clowns are set on a quest to find the eponymous laugh, and they won’t stop until they get it.

- Kenneth Hughes, Flavorpill

That Beautiful Laugh is the kind of show I hope to see every time the light disappears, and a cool anticipatory excitement fills the darkness. Full of tricks, joy and laughter, this is one wonder of a show. Magic.

For children and adults alike, the show is a delish delight. There were moments that transformed my heart to that of a child. In this cynical world, this pleasure of a play successfully incites a childlike sense of wonder and adventure. Against the background of the jaded, industry-heavy, broken dreams of Los Angeles, That Beautiful Laugh rises above as if we were all floating high over the stress, pollution and traffic, high above the broken hearts and lost smiles, far beyond any earthly pain or pleasure… just floating like a dream.

There were stupendous physical and comedic performances across the board. These clowns endear themselves to every open heart. But it was not all happiness. There is also a striking sense of reality that pins us to our seats, and leaves us in a contemplative marvel. Throughout the relatively short run time (about an hour), we are completely captivated, shaken, fulfilled, tickled, moved, entertained as we all learned to love and cherish That Beautiful Laugh.

- Tony Bartolone

Four Clowns bring their tremendously funny show That Beautiful Laugh to this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival. Developed with Orlando Pabotoy, directed by Turner Munch, That Beautiful Laugh is the story of an old man who travels from the moon with a group of clowns to overcome cynicism and rediscover joy and curiosity. But, let’s be honest, the plot of a clown show is totally besides the point. It’s all about the laughs, and this show is packed with them.

With seven clowns it could turn into a discordant mess as each fight for the stage, but That Beautiful Laugh is well balanced among the clowns, each getting a solo turn in front of the audience. These are wonderful moments of play and surprise.

Not to be missed is the epic battle between Loretta, a self styled superhero and Peking Duck, a Tae Kwon Do “expert.” Before it is over, all the clowns are involved in this very inventive and very funny fight.

And while laughs abound, there are also moments of real stage beauty, of real gravitas… which always leads back into laughter. One of my favorite moments was two clowns on a hilarious speed date while the others sing a sweet version of “It’s A Wonderful World” in a dead on Louis Armstrong impersonation.

That Beautiful Laugh is fun for all ages, which doesn’t mean it’s childish… well… they are clowns… it just means you can take your kids OR you can take your friends and everyone is bound to have a good time.

- Larry Pontius

Two years ago, Jeremy Aluma introduced Four Clowns to the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Accompanied by Ellen Warkentine on an upright piano, melodica and an electronic keyboard, Angry Clown, Sad Clown, Mischievous Clown, and Nervous Clown led audiences on a journey through valleys of despair and over mountains of laughter to understand the four stages of life. The next two years would include a national tour, a little Shakespeare remix, and numerous awards. Amidst the 2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival, the Four Clowns are back, not as the original archetypal quartet, but as a company of actors behind the famed red noses—and they brought some friends.

Turner Munch is one such friend, and he joins forces with Aluma’s Four Clowns to direct That Beautiful Laugh at the Open Fist Theatre. Munch, director of last year’s original parody Porter’s MacBeth (a 2011 Best of Fringe nominee), revisits a production that was conceived and directed by Orlando Pabotoy for CSU Long Beach’s University Players—he just happened to be Pabotoy’s Assistant Director. Two of the original production’s cast members, Kevin Di Leo and Lis Roche Vizcarra, are joined by Andrew Eiden, Dave Honigman, Connor Kelly-Eiding, Raymond Lee and Bri Price to present a show that was tailored to fit this ensemble and their unique talents.

This first family friendly production of the Clowns (the others get a little too graphic and violent for the G-rating) is a quest that requires every member of this red-nosed A-team—the world has forgotten how to laugh. And so, Marvin the elder (complete with hat, glasses and red umbrella) leads Krumpitz, Tom, Peking Duck, O’Precious, RoBecca, and Loretta to rediscover that beautiful laugh. Over the course of an hour, these clowns will bring you to life—not themselves—you. You will laugh, cheer and celebrate the spectacle before you like you have never before, and at the end, you will find yourself victorious in a journey similar to their own. The fun factor skyrockets into outer space with That Beautiful Laugh, and the large house of the Open Fist space rumbles West Hollywood with a roar of collective guffawing. Turner Munch has assembled and bonded a veritable Magnificent Seven of the theatre, and he uses every bit of space available to create a pleasantly-enveloping theatrical experience.

With over 200 productions combining for over 1,000 performances between June 7th-24th, everyone’s Fringe experience can be tailored to fit their personal tastes, but if you can squeeze in one of the remaining performances of That Beautiful Laugh (information below), then you should--it'll be worth it. There is also the opportunity to catch the original Four Clowns production, one night only, Thursday, June 14th, so if you want to see how it all began, mark your calendars and get in line for waitlisting, because they may already be sold out.

- Marlon Deleon

Last year Four Clowns‘ production of Four Clowns: Romeo & Juliet and director Turner Munch’s Porter’s Macbeth were two of my favorite shows at the Hollywood Fringe Festival, so to say that my expectations for That Beautiful Laugh were high is a complete understatement. While the show delights, and left me with a smile on my face and with the warm glow of a few belly laughs, it fell short of my expectations for this talented company.

That Beautiful Laugh is the first Four Clowns’ production to be aimed at a general audience. The previous editions from the company featured bawdy humor and explicit language. This show, however, comes squarely from that part of the clowning instinct that appeals to children of all ages. The broadening of focus, however, is not the real source of trouble for this production. Let’s begin with what works, as it is my intent to make the case that you should see That Beautiful Laugh in spite of my issues with the show.

Munch brings his intense skills as a director to bear to create some truly magical moments: a schoolyard fight between two characters that evolves into company  wide affair and a shadow puppet tour of a nightmare landscape are the stand-outs among many of the vignettes over the course of the show. In fact, That Beautiful Laugh works best when approached as a series of lightly interconnected skits.

Unfortunately that is not how the production frames itself; instead the company reaches to tell a story about a world where laughter has been forgotten. It’s an interesting enough concept, one that is probably worth mining for comedy and pathos alike. Yet the sheer scale of the production– there are seven cast members who weave in and out of scenes– works against that quest. The story arc, which has the old clown Marvin (evoking maximum empathy by a Mickey Mouse-voiced Andrew Eiden) seeking the missing secret of laughter, comes into focus only when two or three of the cast are on stage at once.

The show suffers from what I call Multiple Character Syndrome (which I go into detail on in a recent critique of the film Prometheus), which is almost ironic given the company behind the production. The genius of last year’s Romeo & Juliet was that the four clowns played all the parts within the Shakespeare masterpiece, which let the inherent personalities of each of the clown characters to comment on the action of the play. Here character fatigue sets in right from the start with the sheer size of the cast. An hour isn’t a lot of time to fall in love with a large group of characters presented on a level playing field.

Perhaps the production would be better served if it ditched the narrative conceit altogether and allowed itself to breathe free as a variety show. Yet this option belies the promise of the concept, and the talent of the producers. I can’t help but shake the feeling that with some tightening– either of the size of the cast or of the production’s narrative structure– That Beautiful Laugh could blossom into something truly special.

As it stands this latest effort from the Fringe veterans is an intriguing hint as to how the company, headed by Artistic Director Jeremy Aluma may evolve. One that is, judging from the laughter of the kids in the audience, fun for the whole family.

- Noah Nelson

Jeremy Aluma, the artistic director of Four Clowns, spoke during the Bitter Lemons Fringe panel about the benefit of packing the house during the first weekend of shows, and I can absolutely see why. It definitely helps the vibe of the show to have a full audience reacting, and this was definitely the case when I saw That Beautiful Laugh. It was delightfully funny, surprisingly touching, had very unique props/set, and made me interested in seeing other stuff by them. I do feel like I’ve been spoiled by the excellent clowning I saw while at UCI, but I found this production successful nonetheless. I find this type of work to be very important– to bring a childlike sense of wonder and joy into the lives of adults– so props to them for facilitating that.

- Maureen Chesus

Four Clowns is an award-winning Los Angeles theater company specializing in performances of…

Wait for it…Clowns.

Jeremy Aluma serves as Four Clowns’ razor-sharp founder/artistic director and he seems to be everywhere at once at this year’s Fringe—taking in shows and making the rounds at Fringe Central Station. His potent energy matches his ideas and after two successful years at the Hollywood Fringe, he’s back with his team for a third with the family-friendly premiere of That Beautiful Laugh playing at Fringe Central’s Open Fist.

“I trained in physical clowning,” Aluma describes his background. “But I’m not an actor. I behave like one but I’m not.”

Aluma is no stranger to creating magic on an LA stage. He directed a 2010 production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariat (Urban Theatre Movement at Company of Angels), earning plenty of critical praise for successfully helming its 23-person cast in the 99-seat venue.

The inaugural Four Clowns production (actually called Four Clowns) was conceived and directed by Aluma in 2010. The original adults-only show was developed from Aluma’s concept of four archetypal clown characters (sad, angry, nervous and mischievous) each experiencing the primary phases of their life (childhood, adolescence and adulthood) which would reveal how they came to be who they are.

Aluma’s clever concept seemed an artistic crap shoot in the beginning but quickly grew into a hit that has now toured around the country for over two years, collecting more accolades along the way and still selling out on stops in Los Angeles.

“Our audiences grew exponentially each time,” Aluma says of the original show. “We had no idea it would work when we started but we did end up being very popular. Which is always nice.”

The new family show seems poised for similar success, ranking consistently near the top of the 2012 Bitter Lemons Fringe Meter tallied from direct audience feedback online.

That Beautiful Laugh tells a story described to expose “the joys of laughter” using seven clown performers in a story conceived by Orlando Pabotoy and directed by Turner Munch. Aluma kept a watchful eye throughout the Beautiful Laugh process.

“The interaction with the audience is essential and, I think, the most interesting component of clown,” Aluma says. “I think it’s the one thing I’m trying to discover the most with each show and how we play with that.”

Four Clowns has plenty of work on the local horizon with an upcoming gig at South Coast Rep where they will be creating a main stage children’s show, directed by Aluma, as well as smaller performances on deck. Always check show details carefully, because this clown troupe serves up equal parts risky adult humor and family fare, depending on the show. But when it comes to skills, Aluma looks for the same things in a Four Clowns audition room no matter what the clown content.

“They are all actors first. It’s hard to find people who just do clowning,” Aluma says. “But you have to have some [clown] training; you have to know what it means to fail and work through the muck of failing.”

Whatever his theatrical task, Aluma has plenty to smile about and does.

Just two shows left for That Beautiful Laugh…

- Amy Tofte

All I can say is “WOW!” It was beautifully crafted, with seven clowns looking for the perfect laugh – it was heartwarming, sweet, sad and extremely unforgettable as this cast of characters stole its way into our hearts. They have truly perfected the art of audience interaction, and made themselves at one with each of us. This is a definitely DON’T MISS event.