Review: Anna Akana: It Gets Darker

LA-based Anna Akana has many strings to her bow, and a whole lot of life experience. An acclaimed stand-up, author, YouTuber, producer, director and screenwriter, Akana also lost her sister to suicide at 17 and secured a restraining order against not just one but two stalkers in the six years since she last performed stand-up. 

In her first ever UK show, Akana covers all of the above and more in an hour that moves deftly between light and dark, flippancy and sentimentality. It was her sister’s death that encouraged her into comedy and her stalking experience that forced her away from it – but now she is back and ready to talk about both. 

The subject matter is as dark as the show’s name suggests, and the tension is palpable when its difficult themes first emerge. But the audience soon relax when it becomes clear they couldn’t be in safer hands than those of Akana, who has built a YouTube following since her sister’s death by talking about issues such as suicide prevention, PTSD and mental illness. Her expertise is apparent and her empathy palpable – but not at the expense of the comedy which is consistently pitch black and biting. 

These are not easy topics for anyone to grapple with, let alone someone so close to them. But Akana handles them with ease, wit and daring in an assured UK debut.