Kazu Kusano Makes San Francisco Fringe Festival Debut With PRETTY BEAST

Growing up with a schizophrenic mother and an alcoholic father in Japan, Kazu Kusano learned to use comedy to heal her wounds and process her trauma. In school Kusano was frequently considered the "class clown," an identity at odds with Japanese societal norms for women and girls.

Despite the odds, comedy became more to Kusano than just a shield, it was her ticket to freedom. In her solo show, Pretty Beast, Kusano revisits the past in order to reclaim her present as an in-demand, LA-based comic and storyteller. At turns devastating and devastatingly funny, Pretty Beast takes on family dysfunction, mental illness, societal sexism, and what it means to discover your own superpowers while there's still enough time to use them for good. Winner of "Best of the Fest" at the Crazy Woke Asians Solo Fest, "Hottest Selling Show" at the Vancouver Fringe Festival in 2019, and a "Stand-Up Acts Out" Jenny Award at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in 2022.

Pretty Beast, written by Kazu Kusano and directed by Jane Morris, plays at the San Francisco Fringe Festival from September 10-17 at EXIT Theatre, Stage Left.