ho ho ho ha ha ha ha Reviews

Washington City Paper- Highly Recommended

"...The show defies easy explanation, and it refuses to explain itself, instead requiring the audience to give in and get on its wavelength. Masli emerges onto the darkened stage, her face illuminated by a light on her wrist and wearing a bizarre costume of a wire-encrusted bike helmet, a lumpy blue garment, and a mannequin leg on her arm. (The show lists three costume designers: Alice Wedge, David Curtis-Ring, and Annika Thiems.) She performs a series of vocal exercises before descending into the crowd and getting audience members to follow along as a sort of warm-up. She then moves through the theater asking people to tell her their problems."

MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended

"...If you find yourself in need of catharsis more than cranberry sauce this holiday season, head to Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, where Julia Masli wants to soothe your soul. Masli’s “ho ho ho ha ha ha ha,” a one-woman wonder directed by Kim Noble, is unlike anything else. With minimal words, a sparse set, and a flaming bucket of absurdism, Masli’s singular presence brings balm to real-world problems that shift the show’s trajectory each night depending on what the audience shares. As Woolly’s interim artistic collective member Sonia Fernandez notes, Masli “creates an environment that allows for vulnerability and connection as well as laughter.”"

BroadwayWorld- Recommended

"...There are no cheap laughs in a delightful performance that bends more toward art. Indeed, her opening gambit of chanting "ha ha ha ha" is not like a laugh, but more like the breathing exercise that begins Laurie Anderson's "O Superman." She encourages randomly chosen people in the front row to mimic her "ha" and banishes those who won't play along. Then comes her forever inquiry: "Problem?""

DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended

"...OK. When the average person hears the words "improv show," often the instinct is to run in the other direction - too many cringeworthy tales of bad comics and awkward situations. And yet that could not be further from the truth for the wholly improvised, entirely delightful ho ho ho ha ha ha ha now playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. In a show newly reimagined for the holiday season and back after its successful run in summer 2024, creator and performer Julia Masli weaves together an experience of compassionate, off-kilter group therapy meets absurdist, sock-stealing tomfoolery that is unlike anything I've ever seen before."