True to its word, the show does indeed get darker. An impressive feat, given that Akana essentially opens with a Hiroshima joke, and then tells the audience of her sister’s suicide. A suicide prevention advocate and YouTuber, Akana had to give up comedy for six years because of a stalker who threatened to kill her, and repeatedly turned up at her house.
It’s wild the trauma that one person can go through in life, and it’s even crazier how resilient people can be in the face of that. To go on stage and tell an hour of jokes about it? That takes a real special kind of person. Or, as Akana said, her power is being able to monetise her trauma.
This isn’t all gallows humour though. Akana has a wit and self-deprecating style that leaves the audience on their toes – if not on edge – about what she’ll say next. The sold out Pleasance Upstairs audience were definitely along for the ride, although you could see that some were visibly unsure about whether or not they were permitted to laugh at the more risque jokes? People, it’s a comedy show, nobody’s judging!
That’s not to say everything was funny. There were certainly jokes that failed to land, and the whiplash transition between lighthearted humour and really dark comedy wasn’t always handled as seamlessly as others.
Akana also talks about her family dynamic, and in many ways her parents become co-stars of the show. The mother who eats everything under the sun, and the father who will seemingly do anything to avoid keeping the promise he made to move abroad. ‘It Gets Darker’ is, in its own way, a show about family; the importance, the fragility, and the unique idiosyncrasies that make up our typically first and closest relationships.
Concluding on a touching segment, this is a show that takes a big risk and for the most part succeeds in the execution.
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