clowndown If the press release is to be believed, “Four Clowns is a physical, musical and emotional journey into what it means to be a human being.”

If you put the emphasis on the “a,” it’s true enough.

An opening voiceover basically tells us that these four clowns—Angry Clown, Sad Clown, Mischievous Clown and Nervous Clown—have existed forever in a sort of stasis, but now have come to life because of the audience. The basic idea is that these four emotions can combinatorially represent all the possibilities of human existence.

That this is playing fast and loose with humanity doesn’t matter much, since the meat of the play doesn’t really explore this idea. Rather, Four Clowns is a series of look-ins on the lives of four individuals at specific stages of their lives: childhood, adolescence, adulthood and a depressing demise (though senescence is not dealt with, interestingly enough).

Each of these four threads adumbrates the development of a damaged personality, one that is shaped through the enjoyment of and suffering through various life experiences. Angry Clown, for example, is subject to a sadistic older brother; Nervous Clown is molested by a primary-school teacher.

It’s not clear why all we see is their suffering, but that does not make Four Clowns a morbid show, not really. This is due to the comic exuberance of Alexis Jones, Kevin Klein, Amir Levi, and Raymond Lee (aided to perfection by pianist Mario Granville, who is more than mere accompanist). All four deliver inspired, athletic performances that get them sweating early in the show and rarely give them any chance to rest. allchildren

While the plot lines of the vignettes (Sad Clown’s mother programming her with the idea that she’s fat, Mischievous Clown’s antics as a successful trial attorney) are adequate to their purposes, when they take flight, it’s all in the how, the ways in which director Jeremy Aluma and cast have conceived how to get across the details, the vocalizations and pantomimes and absurd little flourishes that always give us exactly what we need to get the point even while our focus is on how funny the moment is.

The improvisational flow here is key, and the clowns constantly sprinkle the spontaneous within the structure, a flavoring that goes down so well because Aluma has quite consciously cooked it up that way. On the night I attended, the cast jumped so smoothly and so immediately on a gentlemen’s need to exit for the restroom that my companion swore this must have been a plant (which I later confirmed was not the case). Jones, Klein, Levi, and Lee physically and verbally maneuver through the show like four robots sporting individualistic programming but a common goal, each moving toward that end with unique and cooperative perfection.

Warning: These clowns are foul-mouthed. This is not a kids’ show, on any level. But for all the cursing, it never seems gratuitous, in that it’s always genuinely funny. When these clowns cuss or go off script or break the fourth wall, it always feels like you couldn’t have planned it any better.

Groundbreaking human truths? Probably not. Funny? Oh yeah.

 FOUR CLOWNS ALIVE THEATRE at the LONG BEACH PLAYHOUSE • 5021 E ANAHEIM ST • LONG BEACH 90804 • 562.508.1788 ALIVETHEATRE.ORG • THURS-SAT 8PM • $10 FOR STUDENTS • THROUGH MARCH 19