Farce is a tricky thing.

Done well, it’s a delicate acting/directing dance that demands clockwork precision, impeccable comedic timing and, no matter how implausible, respecting the plot.

Done badly, it can get as sloppy and silly as a kindergartner trying to paint like Jackson Pollock.

Stephen Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” is farce’s best litmus test. Surprising, then, that Fountain Hills Community Theater’s current production of it manages to illustrate both the best and worst of farce. It’s funny and messy, like watching a baby eat chocolate cake by hand.

Thankfully, the good far overshadows the bad. In a show that blends pre-Christ Roman high society, prostitution and, oh that sweetly barbed Sondheim music — here, it’s a gut-buster with big laughs every minute thanks to actors Bruce Halperin (Pseudolus) and Terry Gadaire (Hysterium), two slaves to the house of Senex (played by Ted Weiss) who plot to hook up — as the kids say — Senex’s son (Aaron Bradbury, in a toga and sneakers) with the winsome virgin prostitute (Tina Grieger) who lives at the pimp Marcus Lycus’ (Matt McDonald) pad next door.

Did I say pimp? I meant courtesan seller.

Halperin, who killed in Is What It Is Theatre’s production of Sondheim’s “Assassins” last year, chews up the stage and spits it out as the manically hilarious slave who only wants to be free. And Gadaire — in all his pinch-mouthed, hammy-faced glory — plays his servant like Howie Mandel channeling Paul Lynde. (“I live,” he says, “to grovel.”)

The rest of the cast is ridiculously good, too, but it feels like director Peter Hill loosens the reins a bit too much, with too many recurring jokes and too many opportunities for the actors on stage to try cracking each other up, which they do. That’s fine on “Saturday Night Live,” but this “Funny Thing” could have been even more rewarding with more precision, especially considering the antics have to work on a stage so small the set pieces curve inward like Mickey’s Toontown.

But I’m not attacking Hill. The man deserves big applause for assembling such a fine cast and letting his standouts shine. This “Forum” is the funniest thing happening right now in local theater.