Anna Akana is finding laughter amid darkness in Edinburgh debut

Anna Akana’s road to the comedy mecca of the Edinburgh Fringe hasn’t been straightforward.

She turned to stand-up comedy in the wake of her sister’s suicide in 2007, and was forced to temporarily leave the profession due to a stalker.

In the time in between, she built up a huge online presence (she has a digital audience of more than 4.3 million and nearly 3 million subscribers on YouTube), forged an acting career with roles in Marvel’s Ant-Man, Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy and Comedy Central’s Corporate, and is also an accomplished writer, working with HBO Max, Netflix and FX.

Now, she has returned to the stand-up stage, making her Edinburgh debut with It Gets Darker, a show that tackles tough subjects while still delivering laughs.

“I try to talk a lot about mental health issues but cloak it with laughs to give people an entertaining time,” she explained.

It was two years after her sister’s death that Anna saw Margaret Cho perform. She laughed for the first time in ages and it inspired her to offer others the gift that Margaret had given her: relief.

“The stand-up helped me to heal and gave me the opportunity to laugh and to not have my sister’s death be at the top of my mind,” Anna said. “I became very enamoured with the art form. But I was in my 20s and trying to talk about my sister and dark topics like depression and I was just not a skilled enough comedian to do so.

“Then, when I was 27, I had a stalker who kept threatening to come to a show and shoot me. Around this time, Christina Grimmie, who was a famous YouTube singer who went on America’s Got Talent, was shot by a fan. There was this frightening wave of fans becoming quite deranged, so I left the stage because it was a little too scary at the time. I took seven years off from stand-up.”

In the intervening years, Anna developed as a writer and performer, and her stalker was given a restraining order. She felt ready to return to the stage, but wanted to make sure she had something helpful and interesting to say, as well as being funny.

“I felt I had the ability to write jokes that weren’t punching down, that weren’t making fun of my sister or making light of the situation, but still have the gravitas it so rightfully deserves.

“I love being able to keep my sister’s memory alive and to share her. It’s fun to have people know about her without having met her.”

People regularly approach Anna after the shows with their own stories.

“So many have lost someone to suicide or have attempted to take their own lives. An alarming number of people after a show will tell me their father, brother, sister or partner took their own life. It’s always a reverent moment to share that kind of loss because I do think suicide is different – that feeling of guilt and shame and wondering if you could have done something and if you missed the signs.

“I feel really blessed when people tell me they get hope out of it. The subject matter is quite dark but, ultimately, I wanted the message to be one that celebrates life. I don’t want to be a bummer. I don’t want people leaving the show feeling down and heavy. I want them to feel quite energised and hopeful.

“I think the highest compliment I’ve had so far was from a couple of psychologists who came to me afterwards and said I handled the subject matter so responsibly and so beautifully from a psychological perspective. I wanted the show to be educational and informative, and to equip people with tools.

“I felt very validated.”

Anna Akana: It Gets Darker, Pleasance Courtyard – Upstairs, July 31-August 24 (except 5, 12, 19) 5.30pm