Edinburgh Fringe 2024 reviews: Anna Akana / Elliot Steel / Rosco McClelland

Anna Akana, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★

If you like morbid humour, you’ve come to the right place. Asian American comic Anna Akana, a YouTube star making her Fringe debut, dives in at the deep end with It Gets Darker, which deals with, inter alia, her sister’s suicide.

But before we get there, Akana sets the scene. She has returned to comedy after several years away, having left the scene because she was threatened by a long-term stalker who the LAPD told her they couldn’t arrest until he did something. As awful as it was, she acknowledges that having a stalker is great material for a comic. “My unique superpower is that when horrific stuff happens to me, I can monetise it," she says drily.

We also hear about her characterful parents – an ex-US Marines dad who after retiring decided he wanted to put on uniform again and volunteered to help Ukraine after the Russian invasion and a mum who can eat anything put in front of her, however ick it may be to her daughter.

The section about Akana’s younger sister, who took her own life as a teenager, is affecting but Akana finds a way into – and out of – the subject that avoids mawkishness but also respects her sister’s memory. Akana deals honestly with her own mental health too, where she can and does go for bigger laughs.

Some jokes don’t land this side of the pond but the ending is upbeat, as a short film ties the show’s elements together. It’s funny and touching and hits just the right note.

• Until 24 August

Elliot Steel, Underbelly Bristo Square ★★★

Elliot Steel has had the worst year of his life, he tells us at the top of Soft Boi Core. His dad has been ill, he went through a relationship break-up and then discovered something about himself that has rather unsettled him. And then there’s his mental health…

But Steel, despite having had a comfortable start in life – he admits to being a nepo baby (his dad is the comic Mark Steel) – is still a well of repressed emotions like so many males of his generation. And he comes to realise that his beloved MMA cage fighting – a macho culture if ever there was one – may not be the best place to deal with inner anxieties or anyone questioning their sexual preferences.

Much of his travails he mines for comedy; his dad’s cancer (now thankfully treated) gave a little boost to the younger Steel’s ego as it was him, not his dad, whom the oncologist recognised when they attended a hospital appointment together. So too the differences in social class between him and his middle-class ex provide some laughs, not least what their social groups might expect of a holiday abroad – cultural sights for hers, boozy lads abroad for his.

Steel also questions the boxes we so easily shut ourselves in; he describes himself as a feminist, but then says he doesn’t trust men who describe themselves as feminists. Equally, his politics are to the left, but he doesn’t necessarily have the full set of progressive views because he doesn’t have the energy to care about everything.

There are several strands to this show, which has plenty of laughs, but some themes are frustratingly underexplored. The meandering route to the finale lessens the impact of the big reveal – a very personal revelation – when it comes.

• Until 25 August

Rosco McClelland, Monkey Barrel @ The Hive ★★★

How do you make your possible death funny? All comics have a story about dying on stage, but Glaswegian stand-up Rosco McClelland knows more about death than most, having been diagnosed with long QT syndrome – or sudden death syndrome, in which an abnormal heartbeat can cause sudden death.

For most of Sudden Death the dark stuff is given a swerve as McClelland talks about more mundane matters, such as why so many great inventions were made by Scottish engineers – to offset the ennui from living in a place beset by bad weather, he says – being terrible at interviews (from when he used to be a plumber), the Scottish way with words, religious bigotry and his love of travel.

McClelland, a smiley presence on stage who achieves a rapid rapport with the crowd, weaves in details of his condition as we hear about childhood instances of blacking out, and then of his diagnosis, but it’s not until late in the hour we hear of the condition’s impact on his adult life and marriage.

The air seems to leave the room at this point and McClelland doesn’t have a zinger to undercut the moment. But he leaves us on a high note with a very good callback – and never have someone’s holiday snaps been made into such fun.

• Until 25 August
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