Julia Masli (born ) is an Estonian-born, London-based

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

who garnered wide attention and a number of awards at the 2023

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

for her show ''ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.''

Early life

Masli was raised in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

, Estonia. Her parents are lawyers. When she was 12, she was sent to a girls' boarding school in England. She did not speak fluent English at the time, leading her to often communicate by

miming A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...

Career

As a teenager, Masli intended to become a dramatic actor and to perform tragedies on London stages. She auditioned for British drama schools, but failed to get in, which she has attributed to her strong accent. She then trained at the

École Philippe Gaulier Philippe Gaulier (born in Paris, 4 March 1943) is a French master clown, pedagogue, and professor of theatre. He is the founder of École Philippe Gaulier, a prestigious French theatre school in Étampes, outside Paris. He studied under Jacques Lec ...

from 2014 to 2016. After returning to London, Masli has said she struggled to succeed as a clown. She has said that for a time, she stopped performing for 18 months and was so depressed that she could not get out of bed. In 2019, she took a show, ''Legs,'' which featured Masli shaking hands with audience members using her feet, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The show won a comic innovation prize. After the success of ''Legs'', she now tries to use legs in all her shows. In 2022, she returned to the Edinburgh Fringe with a solo show about a migrant's struggles in the United States called ''Choosh!'' In 2023, she brought her work in progress, ''ha ha ha ha ha ha ha'', to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The reception was strong enough that Masli ended up extending the run at a 1:30 a.m. time slot. The show features Masli dressed in Victorian clothing with a mannequin's leg instead of a left arm. She approaches audience members and asks: "Problem?" From the answers given, she responds to them with "leftfield efforts" to try to solve them. Her show ''Anna KareniNa Na Na'' with The Pushkinettes was nominated for an OffWestEnd Theatre Award. As well as developing her own work, Julia is currently working with Race Horse Company as a clown on their upcoming contemporary circus show.

Awards

Masli's 2023 show ''ha ha ha ha ha ha ha'' won for best show in the ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards, as well as the Comedians' Choice Award. The show also won the Malcolm Hardee 'Act Most Likely to Make a Million Quid' Award in 2023. In addition, she was nominated for the "Best Comedy Show" award in the 2023

Edinburgh Comedy Awards The Dave (TV channel), Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival ...

, the main comedy awards. Previously, Masli won the 2019 Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality, jointly with The Duncan Brothers, for ''Legs''.

Personal life

As of 2023, Masli's partner is the Norwegian comedian Viggo Venn, with whom she sometimes collaborates.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Masli, Julia Living people 1990s births Year of birth missing (living people) British clowns Estonian expatriates in England People from Tallinn 21st-century Estonian people