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Trevor Noah review – modern master of classic standup

O2 Arena, London His arena show about the global experience of the pandemic – with some added jokes for a UK crowd about footie and Meghan Markle – shows Noah to be a skilled performer with mass appeal

I s there a silver lining to the Covid-19 pandemic? Seeing the world’s most obnoxious nations forced to face their incompetence is a contender, suggests Trevor Noah . Boris Johnson and Donald Trump catching the virus after publicly playing it down, for example. Noah’s lively re-enactment raises cheers.

Back to Abnormal is a global show for a shared global experience. Noah uses his talent for accents to take us on a world tour, swapping his own South African inflection for English, American, Australian, French, German, Jamaican and more, as he fills the stage with characters. His refrain “I want to get back to the way things were” punctuates the show. But as he tackles different flavours of racism and nationalism, it invites the question: were things really that great before?

Some jokes are a little obvious. A segment on his hatred of Zoom recalls conversations we’ve all had during lockdown, while observations about the Olympics, food and dancing feel familiar. As fans of his Daily Show monologues might expect, Noah is strongest when he’s exploring weightier subjects. He probes the absurdity of some of the things done in the name of freedom: the French niqab ban , American gun ownership, and protesting against masks.

There’s an impressive amount of material tailored to his UK audience – mention of Indian restaurant Dishoom gets a big cheer, and the England football fan who put a flare in his bum crack during the Euros inspires a great joke about race. Meanwhile, the treatment of Meghan Markle, racist football fans and our colonial hoarding of other nations’ treasures get a well-executed roasting.

A flawless performer, Noah skilfully speckles the set with sillier stuff too, including a nice bit about aliens deciding which areas of Earth to destroy, and acting out a T-rex attempting to don a mask. He incorporates audience interjections seamlessly. And he wraps up with a story set in an Indian restaurant which plays with political correctness and offers a neat ending. He sometimes relies on cliche, but Noah is a master of classic standup and has mass appeal in the best possible way. Back to Abnormal squeezes much-needed laughs from a difficult 18 months.

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Trevor Noah at The O2 review: the audience's roars of laughter nearly lifted the roof off

W elcome to the world of Trevor Noah . And I mean world. The well-travelled stand-up’s latest tour, Off The Record, finds him telling tales about time spent on numerous continents. From America to South Africa. India to London. What every story had in common was that they all elicited roars of laughter that almost took the roof off the O2.

The former host of The Daily Show , who quit partly to get back to his first love of live comedy, made his job look frighteningly easy as he strolled seemingly casually around the arena stage, barely breaking sweat as he slipped in and out of accents, pulled faces, acted out punchlines and dispensed with the script for a fruitful Q&A session.

In the past, Noah has been more overtly political. His breakthrough 2012 show, The Racist, was about growing up under apartheid with a South African mother and Swiss father. Here the approach was more general. A routine about a visit to Germany learning WW2 history, a swipe at Donald Trump. The latter was satire-by-numbers but the bumptious language-mangling impression was on point.

This was an outing that frequently dealt in Michael McIntyre-style universal observations as he ran through a range of relatable experiences. Who, for example, hasn’t dreaded getting the middle seat on a flight? For Noah this meant an inevitable battle for the armrests that he was determined not to lose.

His material about national stereotypes could be crass in less skilled hands, but Noah brought a freshness to his portrayal of aloof French waiters or angry Glaswegians. On recalling a Scottish news report about an attempted murder he compared it to places he's lived: “Attempted murder? That’s a good day.”

Apart from a routine about struggling to get the volume right when viewing pornography this was the apotheosis of clean-cut humour. There was nothing controversial. The globetrotting gags didn't go anywhere near the Middle East. Noah would rather talk about airport security strip searches than the Gaza Strip.

In purely comedic terms, though, it was impossible to fault a performance that ran for almost two hours without an interval and flew by. He can certainly generate new content. Some entertainers milk the same shorter set for years. Noah last visited in autumn 2021 and this is already all-new killer and very little filler.

At the start he took in a sea of clicking smartphones and reflected on the way people are too fixated on filming things to enjoy life. “Picture, picture, picture, memory full, delete, delete, delete.” Sometimes we are so busy snapping we barely notice where we are. Memories are precious, he added. And so is Noah.

O2 Arena, to November 25; buy tickets here: ticketmaster.co.uk

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Trevor Noah: Off the Record, O2 review - welcome return to standup for the polyglot motormouth | reviews, news & interviews

Trevor noah: off the record, o2 review - welcome return to standup for the polyglot motormouth, back on tour, the former tv host has lost none of his charisma and charm.

The O2 has to be the K2 of comedy peaks: a vast ovoid drum of a place where those right at the back have to be content with watching magnified images on screens. And for a standup, there are no electric instruments to drown out the echoing acoustics.

So it’s a measure of Trevor Noah’s charisma and charm that he cut right through these handicaps. It’s not the worst place he has played since his return to live comedy from hosting The Daily Show on US TV. That would be the giant tent his promoters booked for him in India, which had to have a score of air conditioning units on the go: there was no masking the whirring and humming and whooshing of those (we know what they sounded like as Noah always provides every sound effect), and eventually that part of his tour had to be cancelled.

Even so, he is clearly relishing being back on the road, especially doing three nights in London, so clean and safe after New York, he claims, where Covid trapped him for more than three years. London, clean and safe? Noah has a South African mother and Swiss father (and these days an embryonic afro). Did he really travel to docklands that night on the tube? Walk down dark back streets unperturbed? And as a rather famous face now, was he really bumped from business class on his flight over, because of a faulty seat?  

This is the only flaw in Noah’s 1hr 45min set, the slightly too obvious way the material has been massaged into being Comedy. There’s a core truth to it, but it’s essentially observational comedy that’s been embroidered and manipulated, its context possibly even invented.  

Who cares when the material works so well? The business class seat problem leads to a terrific section on armrest-sharing, complete with the regular sound of the suction toilet just behind him in operation. Even better is his English captain’s clipped, breathless chat over the PA system, which he imagines is happening while the man is being fellated by a crew member.  

Each accent – Spanish, French, Indian – is a hilarious approximation of the real thing, often descending into a slurry of words with just the right tonality to identify what it is. Only his English accent needs help here and there: he’s okay at cheeky, ducking-and-diving Brits, with only a hint of Dick Van Dykery, but less accurate in nailing Boris’s peculiar vowel sounds, excelling only when Boris descends into his trademark wibbling-waffling wordless head-shaking.  

Then there is Noah’s supreme achievement: his Donald Trump. This is a gurnathon beyond your wildest dreams, where the man’s nonsense pronouncements are projected through a face distorted into a mask that is unmistakably Trump’s, eyes closed, mouth stretched into an unfeasible-looking parallelogram. Magic.

The Trump section is a rare venture into the political comedy with which Noah made his name and got his TV job. This is a people-pleasing set that would probably land with most of the audience – he checked out the ethnicities there at the start, and it was a pretty global showing. He got a round of applause for his comments on the Germans’ attempts to keep their transgressions in full view, for fear of making the same mistakes again, and possibly could have earned more claps with more pointedly political material.   His South African section could also be beefed up, especially the linguistic acrobatics of Xhosa, the clicking language his mother speaks.

But Noah is a top-tier act, a man with the most gymnastic mouth in the business. He is sharp and direct, strong on his feet, and even in that barn of a venue fielded questions and made his 20,000-strong audience feel they were in a much smaller room. I first saw him in one such room at the Edinburgh Fringe: thankfully, the vibe (a favourite word of his) of his act hadn’t changed.  

A word for his excellent warm-up act, Wil Sylvince, an American whose family emigrated to the US from Haiti. He too deserves a more intimate room, and a longer set.

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Trevor Noah’s Stand-Up Comedy Tour Is Getting Great Reviews

14 sep 2021 by jasmine stone in celebrities , comedy , entertainment , trevor noah.

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[imagesource: Twitter / Trevor Noah]

There was a time when Trevor Noah was immensely popular with South Africans.

His tours sold out, his DVDs were dished out for birthdays and Christmases, and people would rattle off jokes of his at braais to knowing nods of approval.

Since he headed to the US and started hosting The Daily Show , his popularity seems to have taken a knock, due in part to the fact that he offers political commentary that is unkind to Donald Trump, for example.

Now he’s off on a world tour, dubbed ‘Back to Abnormal’, and the early reviews from his UK dates are pretty damn good.

Some South Africans are also a little upset that his world tour doesn’t include a stop in South Africa, but that could still change.

The Guardian gave Noah four stars for his O2 Arena, London, show:

Noah uses his talent for accents to take us on a world tour, swapping his own South African inflection for English, American, Australian, French, German, Jamaican and more, as he fills the stage with characters… A flawless performer, Noah skilfully speckles the set with sillier stuff too, including a nice bit about aliens deciding which areas of Earth to destroy, and acting out a T-rex attempting to don a mask…. He sometimes relies on cliche, but Noah is a master of classic stand-up and has mass appeal in the best possible way. Back to Abnormal squeezes much-needed laughs from a difficult 18 months.

That’s pretty glowing.

There have been questions regarding whether he should be touring during COVID-19. He would probably argue that in the UK, more than 48 million people have had a first vaccine dose (close to 90% of over-16s) and more than 43 million (80% of over-16s) have had both doses.

Even The Telegraph , which loves publishing think pieces decrying ‘woke culture’ and so on, was full of praise for his stand-up.

They also gave Trevor a four-star review, noting that he kept the crowd engaged throughout his entire two-hour set:

…on Friday the South African comic delivered a set palpably tailor-made for the occasion. A tight opening half-hour took in everything from his disappointment with punting in Cambridge to a peculiarly English strain of faux-pained apology, via more obvious big topics (the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, racist football fans)…

Image: Twitter / Trevor Noah

There are few comics who can hold a crowd this adeptly for a full two hours, not least in the O2 – a ghastly barn of a venue where even good jokes often fall flat.

He’s clearly doing something right.

South Africans were quick to pounce under this tweet , accusing Trevor of making jokes about former president Jacob Zuma, but not President Ramaphosa.

One really does offer far more material than the other, but perhaps in years to come, Trevor will expand and update his repertoire.

[sources: guardian & telegraph ]

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Review: trevor noah proves he's king of comedy during four-night stand in mpls..

Trevor Noah's departure from "The Daily Show" was a huge loss to late-night TV. But it might have been the best thing to happen for stand-up in years.

After leaving the Comedy Central series, the South African-born comic embarked on a world tour, showing off his greatest gift — brainy, brilliant observations that would never be on the radar of his peers. He wraps up his four-night stop in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Thursday's performance at the Orpheum Theatre kicked off with an airline joke. He also made obligatory nods to Prince and our cold weather. At one point, he promised to try a Juicy Lucy before leaving town.

But most of Noah's act revolved about subjects you don't hear much about in live comedy shows. The heart of his current act consists of stories about Martin Luther King Jr., German history, Columbus Day and national anthems. One bit hinged on knowing at least a little about Andrew Jackson's treatment of his slaves.

Noah assumes his diverse fans brought their brains. Based on the enthusiastic response, he's right.

They may seem like highbrow topics, but Noah has the ability to make them relatable, even if it means incorporating a Darth Vader impression.

He also manages to get personal without turning his show into a therapy session.

This was not the Noah who spent eight years on TV chastising the media and politicians. This was the Noah who wrote "Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood," a memoir that dared to see the world through a global lens. (He confirmed that there's still a movie version in the works, with Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o playing his mom.) It was also the Noah you can get to know in the Spotify podcast "What Now?" that launched earlier this month.

His delivery is as gutsy as his choice of material. Most comics panic if they go 20 seconds without getting a laugh. Not Noah. He' s willing to dedicate more than a minute to setting up a joke, a risky stunt that paid off over and over again.

What may have been most mind-blowing about Noah's performance Thursday was that we may have only seen 0.06% of his arsenal. During a lengthy Q&A session at the end, he responded to questions about his love life, Donald Trump's legal troubles and his decision to wear an H&M shirt with fully formed routines that were as impressive as the prepared bits.

Before taking over "The Daily Show" in 2015, Noah was largely unknown in the United States. But he was already celebrated in other parts of the world as a stand-up genius. Minneapolis — and the rest of America — is just catching up.

If you're going to compile a list of the top five comedians working today, Noah must be part of the conversation.

Neal Justin covers the entertainment world, primarily TV and radio. He also reviews stand-up comedy. Justin is the founder of JCamp, a non-profit program for high-school journalists, and works on many fronts to further diversity in newsrooms.

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Trevor Noah Where Was I Review: Comedian's Special On Experiences From World Tour Are Astute, Needed To Be Longer

Updated Dec 19, 2023, 05:09 PM IST

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Trevor Noah will launch a U.S. comedy tour a month after ending ‘Daily Show’ run

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Trevor Noah is going off the record — but will still be very much on the record — for his new comedy tour.

The outgoing host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” has lined up his first major post-hosting gig. On Monday, he announced his 2023 Off the Record Tour, a 28-city stand-up comedy run that will launch in January, mere weeks after he signs off his news-satire program.

Noah, whose final “Daily Show” episode is set for Dec. 8 , will kick off his tour at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta on Jan. 20, tour producer Live Nation said.

The tour includes five shows in California: A June 2 gig at the Santa Barbara Bowl in Santa Barbara and four shows at the Masonic in San Francisco on Nov. 30 through Dec. 3, 2023. (No stops in Southern California have been announced yet.)

I am excited to announce my 2023 Off The Record Tour, with the first dates kicking off in the US! 🕺🏾🙌🏾 Signup for the presale code on my website, to get tickets before they go on sale! https://t.co/L7bDKHCHyQ See you in 2023! 😁 #OffTheRecordTour pic.twitter.com/RAdY7PtS1P — Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) November 14, 2022

Noah, 38, will also make stops in Austin, Texas; New Orleans; Boston, Chicago and New York, with several previously rescheduled shows being sprinkled throughout the tour. Live Nation said he plans to announce international dates at a later time. The South Africa-born comedian plans to perform in his homeland too, with several shows already lined up in Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria.

Fans can sign up for a presale code on the comic’s website to get tickets before they go on sale to the general public on Nov. 18.

The “Born a Crime” author has also booked another Netflix original comedy special, “I Wish You Would,” which is set to begin streaming on the platform on Nov. 22. His previous special, 2018’s “Trevor Noah: Son of Patricia,” received an NAACP Image Award and a Grammy nomination.

Trevor Noah plans to do ‘everything’ (and stand-up, of course) after ‘The Daily Show’

Trevor Noah, who announced that he’s leaving as host of ‘The Daily Show,’ stopped by ‘The Tonight Show’ to discuss what’s next.

Oct. 14, 2022

Noah continued to tour during his seven-year stint hosting “The Daily Show” after succeeding Jon Stewart as the face of Comedy Central’s late-night talk show. In September, Noah told his studio audience and viewers that he would step away from the post, which at various points involved him criticizing former President Trump, interviewing luminaries , weathering the volatile COVID-19 pandemic and even feuding with embattled rapper Kanye West .

“It’s time,” Noah said. “I realized there’s another part of my life that I want to carry on exploring. I miss learning other languages. I miss going to other countries and putting on shows. I miss just being everywhere, doing everything.”

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An independent show guide not a venue or show. All tickets 100% guaranteed, some are resale, prices may be above face value. We're an independent show guide not a venue or show. We sell primary, discount and resale tickets, all 100% guaranteed prices may be above face value. We are an independent show guide not a venue or show. We sell primary, discount and resale tickets, all 100% guaranteed and they may be priced above or below face value.

Trevor Noah Reviews

Comedy & Stand-up Social Commentary Breaking Boundaries

Number of reviews: 22

Page: 1 2 3 4 All

TREVOR NOAH

SAW HIM AT CASINO RAMA AND THE SHOW WAS FANTASTIC HE WAS HILARIOUS. I WOULD DEFINITELY SEE HIM AGAIN AND AGAIN. GREAT REPLACEMENT FOR JON SREWART AS WELL.

ANNIE IN LAS VEGAS

Trevor is a great comedian. I was so happy to see him! He is super hot! His comedy brings people together and makes the world "seem" perfect if only for a couple hours. I wish EVERYONE thought like him. Loved his show.

HE WAS WHO I THOUGHT HE WAS

Hilarious! Good blend of topics, one liners, ad lib and of course bashing of the political hypocrisy which is Trump. I love comedy but am picky about who I go see. I include him on a short list in my lifetime that includes Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tommy Davidson and Steve Harvey. But a comedy show is a good night out in downtown Phoenix. Pre show at Arrogant Butcher, and post at Squid Ink.

My addendum after seeing Trevor Noah on 2-2-18 in Austin He is so funny,talented and an all around great comedian. His show is well worth every penny spent. It looks like he may have a new book out soon,so looking forward to seeing him again

We got to see him here in Austin back in 2016. The show was wonderful. It was very soon after the "election", so he had a lot of material. Also he had a sort of "meet and greet" after the show. You had to bring his book,and he took pictures with those of us that bought the book. He is so nice and patient. I'm sure he was tired after the show,and many people stood in line. I'm so excited to see him again on Friday. Too bad he doesn't have a new book out. I treasure my selfies with him. I would rescue those pictures if I had to exit my house because of a disaster. Yes, he is that good!

HILARIOUS! HE IS THE BEST!

Saw him in Ottawa TD place last evening & he had us crying with so much laughs. His material felt like he connects with everyone regardless of race & color at the most fundamental level. My friends & I thoroughly enjoyed his show! Please come again Trevor!

LAUGHED TIL I CRIED AND NEVER STOPPED!

Charlotte at the Spectrum 9-14-19. Trevor killed! What a fun night. I will seek out more tickets immediately for other tour stops. Congrats on a great show. Timely topics, that Trevor swagger . . .

LOVED THE SHOW!

Last night's performance in Medford, MA was just the ticket to uplift the spirits with laugh out loud fun throughout the night. Trevor's wit and intelligence pulsate within his humor, and his delivery is spot on. If you're looking for something in this world to lighten the mood, despite it all, Trevor Noah can deliver.

TREVOR NOAH / S.F. CHASE CENTER 12/7/2019

Went to see Trevor with great anticipation & excitement. Trevor delivered. The show was great. My daughter & her friend who have been working 12+ hours a day on end of term U.C. Papers really needed a break from all the stress, and this was the ticket.They laughed so hard they were almost crying. All I can say is thank-you Trevor for your gift of healing through comedy, and much needed laughter . We love you.

LOVED, LOVED THE SHOW!

Trevor Noah did not disappoint and was as humorous and entertaining as I expected him to be. He is a great imitator, both in voice and actions and so very funny. Trevor’s material was current , covering everything from cell phone use to the dismal state of American politics. Trevor, you were wonderful.

MORE THAN JUST LAUGHS

I really, REALLY enjoyed the show, especially when Trevor Noah took the stage. At times I laughed so hard that tears were flowing out of my eyes; yet, underneath the humor was a thoughtful commentary about issues we are dealing with today including the Omicron variant, gun violence, prejudice, human interaction, and the environment. His statements were not really a criticism on one particular group (there was an element of humbleness), but he spoke words that made one think about one's own attitude. I actually learned something.

TREVOR NOAH FANTASTIC

At the Forum Inglewood He connected with this 50000 audience so well people were falling out of their seats in laughter. A masterful performance helped survive the sting of a 45 dollar parking charge

BRILLIANT AND HILARIOUS

Trevor is brilliant, his content and humor is incredibly good and I love his impersonations!

Laughed til I cried. He was really great but not quite as on as I've seen him on recorded shows. He seemed a little sun tired, might have been limping, and put off by the overly drunk balcony yelling. Actually all of us were bothered by that too. He was so so funny, just a little grumpy. So much ❤

I LOVE TREVOR NOAH BUT...

The performance Friday 2/23 was a little weak. The entire first 15 minutes could have been tossed but for a few oneliners: authentic experience =poor, French lose wars etc. As an entertainer he's charming and lovely. Overall, however, his stories would be well served by good editing . Always a good night in Detroit with dinner (Ottava Via) and a show!

DISAPPOINTING SHOW

Saw him a few years ago at coffee underground here in Greenville, there he was great and very authentic. After living 21 years in South Africa I could appreciate his style and wit. Today is too busy trying to satisfy the American market and in some ways losing his South African style. I enjoyed the first part of the show as it reflected his old comedy, but further into the show it became a debate of sorts regarding women’s periods and continued to go down from there. Wouldnt consider seeing him again, even if it’s free. He just lost the plot last night. Needs to stay with his roots, he is much too talented to try to be something he isn’t.

NOT THAT GREAT GUY FROM THE DAILY SHOW

We went to see Trevor Noah in at Tucson Music Hall. The first opener was a ...mmm... comic(?) from New York or New Jersey... and he made Jewish jokes... and just really didn't connect with the audience or humor. The second opener... a wide eyed guy (Chicago?) made some racist and reverse racist jokes. Tucson Arizona didn't go for that either. Double buzzer. Trevor came on. We were hoping for the cerebral on-top-of-it savvy guy that he clearly can be (on The Daily Show). Instead we got bad Spanish and bad Chinese while remarking that our weather is warm. Yes, Trevor, our weather is warm. We kinda knew that. Now we know you do too. Overall the show last 90 minutes. 1900 - nothing 1920 - first opening act starts (lord help us) 1940 - second opening act 2000 - Trevor goes on and does a 90 minute routing 2130 - Time to go home. Nothing to see here. This guy was one of those I looked up to seeing. What a disappointment. E

LOW LYING FRUIT

I like Trevor & am a big fan of his nightly show. I saw his last show in San Diego as well & thought it was great, but tonight I personally thought his material was a bit weak. I mean come on how many comedians have used the “white people can’t dance” routine! Or I had to “fly coach”? Trevor is worth 100 million & no one in America who makes that much money flies coach, not authentic enough for me. I think he is more talented & better.

DISAPPOINTED WITH TREVOR'S PORN RANT

This was my first time seeing TN live last night at the pac Amp. It was a great show until it wasn't. Not sure why he deviated down a road of porn related story telling toward the end, but it was evident that he lost about 80% of the audience when he did it. Hopefully he swaps this for SA stories...he had none of those.

NOT THAT FUNNY

Saw Trevor Noah at the Daughters of the American Revolution Hall in DC. He was charismatic, likable, and does great impressions, but the content of his bits were for the most part very uncreative and predictable, hitting over-trodden racial and political subjects. Aside from three specific bits, it was very much a show that elicited an occasional smile instead of full on laughter. There were a couple of elongated story-style bits that, when concluded, left me with a, "That was it?" feeling. I do appreciate his clean and energetic style, but I found him to be more like that friend you know that is generally funny rather than a uniquely talented comedian able to keep the audience waiting on edge for his next innovative punch line.

DISAPPOINTED

I’m a big fan of Trevor Noah, I love his audiobook, I watch the daily show almost every day and he really helped me get through the pandemic, I couldn’t wait to see his one-man show. I saw him in Brussels. Weak jokes, bits way to long with predictable endings… I smiled a few times but never laughed out loud like I often do with the daily show. He used old material too. And as he was talking too loudly in the mic from time to time, we missed some parts and endings of stories because the sound was kind of saturated. I checked my watch a few times… I did 400 kms to go to see him… what a disappointment!

TIRED AND PREDICTABLE (AND EXPENSIVE)

Sooo disappointing. Not one fresh or clever observation. White people can't dance, horror of flying coach - been done over and over

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Trevor Noah Announces 2023 “Off The Record” Tour

Comedian Kicks Off World Tour By Visiting 28 Cities Across The United States

Tickets on sale to the general public starting nov. 18 at 11 am local time at livenation.com.

After the success of an extensive world tour in 2022, comedian Trevor Noah is heading back on the road with his 2023 Off The Record Tour. Produced by Live Nation, the world tour kicks off with its U.S. leg on January 20, 2023 at Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA making stops across the U.S. in Austin, New Orleans, New York, and more. International dates to be announced soon. 

In addition, Trevor Noah returns to Netflix with another original comedy special, I Wish You Would , premiering globally on November 22, 2022. True to form, Trevor hilariously shares revelations about learning to speak German, modern communication, and his love for curry.

TICKETS:  Tickets go on sale starting November 18th at 11 AM local time on LiveNation.com.

TREVOR NOAH: OFF THE RECORD 2023 TOUR DATES: 

* Rescheduled Show | ^ Not a Live Nation Date

January 20, 2023 – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theatre

February 10, 2023 – Louisville, KY – The Louisville Palace

March 3, 2023 – St. Louis, MO – Stifel Theatre

March 9, 2023 – Baltimore, MD – Hippodrome Theatre

March 24, 2023 – Durham, NC – DPAC

March 31, 2023 – Denver, CO – Bellco Theatre

April 5, 2023 – Boston, MA – The Wilbur^

April 6, 2023 – Boston, MA – The Wilbur^

April 7, 2023 – Boston, MA – The Wilbur^

April 8, 2023 – Medford, MA – Chevalier Theatre^

April 10, 2023 – Boston, MA – The Wilbur^

April 11, 2023 – Boston, MA – The Wilbur^

April 12, 2023 – Boston, MA – The Wilbur^

April 13, 2023 – Medford, MA – Chevalier Theatre^

April 20, 2023 – Austin, TX – Bass Concert Hall

April 27, 2023 – Spokane, WA – First Interstate Center for the Arts

April 28, 2023 – Bozeman, MT – Brick Breeden Fieldhouse*

April 29, 2023 – Missoula, MT – Adams Center*

May 4, 2023 – Memphis, TN – Orpheum Theatre

May 5, 2023 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium

May 10, 2023 – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre at Old National Centre

May 12, 2023 – New Orleans, LA – Saenger Theatre

May 19, 2023 – Schenectady, NY – Proctors Theatre

May 26, 2023 – Mashantucket, CT – Premier Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino

June 2, 2023 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl

October 6, 2023 – Richmond, VA – Altria Theater

October 9, 2023 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre

October 10, 2023 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre

October 11, 2023 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre

October 20, 2023 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre

October 26, 2023 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre

November 1, 2023 – Madison, WI – The Orpheum Theater

November 3, 2023 – Milwaukee, WI – The Riverside Theater

November 9, 2023 – Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum Theatre

November 13, 2023 – Chicago, IL – The Chicago Theatre

November 14, 2023 – Chicago, IL – The Chicago Theatre

November 30, 2023 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic

December 1, 2023 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic

December 2, 2023 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic

December 3, 2023 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic

MORE: 

Trevor Noah is the most successful comedian in Africa and is the host of the Emmy® Award-winning “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. Under Trevor, “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” has broken free from the restraints of a 30-minute linear show, producing engaging social content, award-winning digital series, podcasts and more for its global audience.  This year, “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” landed a record number of seven Emmy Award nominations.

Trevor’s success has spanned to sold out stand-up comedy shows over 5 continents. Trevor also served as the Grammy Awards host in 2021 and 2022. 

Trevor has written, produced, and starred in 12 comedy specials, including his upcoming, “I Wish You Would,” for Netflix. His previous special, “Trevor Noah: Son Of Patricia” received a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Variety Show, as well as a Grammy Award nomination.

Trevor is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” and its young readers adaptation, released in 2019, “It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood,” which also debuted as a New York Times bestseller. The Audible edition of “Born a Crime,” performed by Trevor, was produced by Audible and remains one of the top-selling, highest-rated, and most-commented-on Audible performances of all time. To date, “Born a Crime” has sold over 3 million copies across all formats.

Trevor’s production company, Day Zero Productions, a joint venture between Paramount Global and Trevor Noah, develops and produces diverse, high-quality creative content for a global audience. With projects set up both within the Paramount Global family, as well as at other studios, streamers, and live platforms, Day Zero focuses on entertaining and impactful content, with an eye toward authentic stories from diverse points of view. 

In 2018, Noah launched the Trevor Noah Foundation to improve equitable access to quality education for underserved youth in South Africa. Noah’s vision is a world where education enables youth to dream, see and build the impossible.

About Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com .

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Trevor Noah: Jill Fritzo | [email protected]  

Live Nation Concerts: Monique Sowinski | [email protected]  

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Trevor Noah steps away from 'The Daily Show', embarks on new standup tour

Terry Gross

Trevor Noah is stepping down as host of The Daily Show after seven years. We'll listen back to portions of two 2016 interviews with Noah, whose newest standup comedy special just premiered on Netflix.

Author Interviews

Trevor noah says he grew up 'in the shadow of a giant' (his mom).

Trevor Noah said he is leaving The Daily Show. Take a look at some memorable moments

Trevor Noah's 'Daily Show' departure hints at deeper problems in late night TV

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, in for Terry Gross. Trevor Noah, the host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," is stepping down next week after seven years. When he took over from Jon Stewart, he brought an international perspective to the show. He's South African, the son of a Black mother and white father whose relationship was illegal under apartheid. Noah grew up during the apartheid and post-apartheid eras. He became famous in South Africa as a comic and TV personality, and spent years doing standup internationally. And on "The Daily Show," he developed his own style and audience quickly and intelligently. He became looser and even more daring when hosting remotely during COVID. And by the time he hosted the infamously tricky White House Correspondents Dinner earlier this year, with President Biden in attendance, Trevor Noah was in easy command of his skills and the room. He even joked about his invitation to host the event.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TREVOR NOAH: You know, I was a little confused about, why me? But then I was told that you get your highest approval ratings when a biracial African guy is standing next to you. So...

BIANCULLI: Watching him on "The Daily Show," it was often funny and enlightening to hear his take on American life and politics. We're going to listen back to portions of two of Terry's interviews with Trevor Noah. The first was recorded early in 2016, a few months after he'd taken over "The Daily Show." It began with a segment from the show in October 2015, when he was comparing Donald Trump's rhetoric with statements made by African presidents and dictators.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH")

NOAH: What I'm trying to say is Donald Trump is presidential. He just happens to be running on the wrong continent. In fact, once you realize that Trump is basically the perfect African president, you start to notice the similarities everywhere, like the level of self-regard.

DONALD TRUMP: I say not in a braggadocious way, I've made billions and billions of dollars.

I made a tremendous amount of money.

I'm really rich.

I have a great temperament.

They love me anyway. I don't have to do this.

I've done an amazing job.

I was born with a certain intellect.

God helped me by giving me a certain brain.

NOAH: I bet that's the one time that God's like, I don't need the praise. It's cool. That's you. That's you. I'm cool. Now, is that extraordinary level of bragging presidential? Well, let's ask a man who actually was president, Idi Amin, former president and best president of Uganda.

IDI AMIN: People love me very much.

I am very popular.

I am very powerful.

I am the one who has got the money.

I have got a very good brain.

NOAH: I have a very good brain. And I know this because every time I ask people if I have a good brain, they say, of course, Mr. President. Now please, let my family go. You've already killed my sister. I think you've proved your point.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

TERRY GROSS, BYLINE: That's Trevor Noah on "The Daily Show." Trevor Noah, welcome to FRESH AIR. Thanks so much for coming. Had you seen "The Daily Show" in South Africa?

NOAH: Yeah. But interestingly enough, when I first started watching "The Daily Show," we used to see it on CNN. And so my perception of "The Daily Show" was very different. I thought that Jon Stewart was a news anchor who didn't take his job seriously because I would always see this show...

GROSS: You're kidding, right?

NOAH: No, I'm being serious. In a lot of regions, CNN actually broadcasts "The Daily Show." So there's a global edition of "The Daily Show" that's one episode. And in countries where there's no Comedy Central or the show itself is not picked up, it'll be on CNN. And because it looked like a news show and it had the same colors as CNN and the ticker, and I just worked under the assumption that it was part of the news programming. And so I was just like, this is a really funny show. And that's how I knew it.

GROSS: So what is your role now in writing and editing the show?

NOAH: From 8 a.m. in the morning, we start dissecting the news, discussing it, looking for angles, looking for takes, building a show, rewriting it, getting it together, gathering materials. We work throughout the day. And then in the evening, after we've rehearsed it and rewritten it, then I go out and we tape the show. And then after that taping, we sit down, and we dissect the show, see what could be better, work to get better every single day. Because that's really the nature of a late-night show, especially something that's on daily, is that you're on daily. So, you know, it's not unlike the news, funny enough. I was chatting to Rachel Maddow about it. And she was saying, you - the quickest thing you have to learn is your best show only lasts for a night and your worst show only lasts for a night. And then you're back doing it tomorrow.

GROSS: That leads to manic depression, doesn't it?

GROSS: Your show's great, you feel great. Your show's bad, it's like, oh, this is so horrible.

NOAH: Yeah. That's why you have to learn to live outside the show. I think one of the biggest things I've had to learn is TV destroys your perspective. You know, when I think back to myself and I go, if anyone who tries to convince me otherwise, I have to stop sometimes and go, not - what? - 25 years ago, I was living in basically a very elevated hut with no running water or indoor sanitation. And so, like, problems - I can't trick myself into getting stressed by first-world problems. Things are going great. Things are going very, very well.

GROSS: So in your standup comedy, you've talked about being excited about coming to America, where you would be defined as Black instead of - I don't know - colored or mixed race in South Africa, because your father is white, your mother is Black, and you were born during the apartheid era. So you did some comedy in the U.S. about opening a bank account in America and having to fill out your race or ethnicity, and you don't really know what to write in. And a bank representative is helping you fill out the form. So this is Trevor Noah from his 2013 album "African American."

(SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SPECIAL, "TREVOR NOAH: AFRICAN AMERICAN")

NOAH: She was really helpful. She was like this blonde woman. And she was like, yeah, you can go ahead and fill out everything you need to. And yeah, we'll just go ahead and open that bank account. So, OK, I don't know what to do here. And she's like, let me have a look. Well, you can just - yeah, you just go ahead and tick whatever race you want to go with. I said, what do you mean, whatever race? She's like, well, look. It's just for statistical purposes. So, like, you can choose whatever you want, and then you can do it. I was like, choose whatever? I was like, I've never been given that option before. I looked at the boxes. I mean, there was Black. That's the reason I came. The Black box was there. I was like, well, that's it. So I'll choose it. But then I looked to the left, and there was the white box. And, oh, it looked good. It just...

NOAH: I mean, don't get me wrong. It was the same as the other boxes. But there must have been a reason it was first in line. It's just like, you know, that was prime box right there. That was just - I looked at that white box, and I was like, yeah, yeah. And so I looked at her, and I said, any box? And she's like, yeah, yeah, any box. I played it safe. I said, so I can go with Black? She's like, you know what? A lot of them choose Black. Yeah, yeah. And so just because she said that, just because she said that, I looked at her, and I said, no, you know what? I'm white. I'm going with white.

And then she did this thing that I've come to learn is the reaction of white liberal woman in America. Whenever they hear something or see something that they can't truly comprehend, they don't agree with it, but for fear of being judged, they internalize the emotions. And then they almost have like this malfunction, like a robot. I don't know. It's amazing to see because as soon as I said white, I said, I'm going with white, she went, I'm sorry. Did you say white? I said, yes yes, white. I'm white. She's like, oh, OK. OK. OK. Like, white? Yeah. Yeah. It...

NOAH: Bzzt, bzzt (ph).

GROSS: That was Trevor Noah in 2013.

When you started doing comedy, which was - when? What year are we talking?

NOAH: I started comedy 2005, I want to say - yeah, 2005, 2004, somewhere there.

GROSS: So apartheid was already over. Were you performing in front of Black and white audiences? Were the audiences mixed?

NOAH: Yes. Yeah, the audiences - one thing South Africans rushed to do as soon as segregation came down is South Africans rushed to meet each other. You know, that was a beautiful thing about it, is that a lot of people do want to integrate. A lot of people do want to. But it's just - the question is how. And one thing that was great about comedy was it presented people with the how. It gave them a place to come together and laugh.

GROSS: So what were some of the subjects that you talked about in your early comedy when you were first in front of diverse audiences?

NOAH: First, it was - I guess it was just stories. I relayed stories of my life, things that I was going through, observational comedy, anecdotal stuff. And then, I spent a lot of time talking about what was happening in society, you know, because I've always been in the middle. So I've always felt I - one thing I suffer from and I also feel is my gift, is the ability to see the other side.

You know, I grew up in a world where people were very, very, very angry and hated a lot of white people, if not all white people. And I would have to speak up to my friends and say, hey; I know white people that are really cool. You know, my dad is one of them. And so because of my dad, I met his friends and people like him who were great. So I can't put all white people in the same bucket. And by that same token, I would meet white people who would be terrified of Black people. And I'd have to explain to them or be like, hey; you can't think like that. You can't hold these views because you're generalizing everybody. So I've always been on both sides.

BIANCULLI: Trevor Noah speaking to Terry Gross in 2016 - more after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHARLIE HUNTER SONG, "MIGHTY MIGHTY")

BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to Terry's 2016 interview with Trevor Noah, shortly after he had begun hosting "The Daily Show." Next week, he steps away from the Comedy Central TV franchise after seven years.

GROSS: So racial identity is a big part of your comedy when you're doing stand-up. Your father is white. Your mother is Black. Your father is, I think, of Swiss and German ancestry. Do I have that right?

NOAH: Yeah, he's Swiss. He's Swiss.

GROSS: And your mother is Sosa (ph).

NOAH: Xhosa.

GROSS: Thank you. I don't think I can do that.

GROSS: And I know your mother was jailed - briefly, I hope - in South Africa, I assume...

NOAH: (Laughter).

GROSS: ...For opposing apartheid, for doing some kind of dissenting action.

NOAH: Yes. Well, the dissenting action was being with a white person and going into...

GROSS: Oh, that's why she was jailed?

NOAH: (Laughter) Yes, yes.

GROSS: Was the white person your father?

NOAH: Yes, he was. Yeah. So - but that...

GROSS: Was he jailed for it, too?

NOAH: No, no, no. No. White people didn't get jailed for that. That was - white people were warned and asked not to do it again. But then, if you were a Black person caught fraternizing across color boundaries, then you'd be arrested. But my mom opposed the system as a whole, so she never let that stand in her way, you know? And I think I pick up a lot of - I have a lot of my mom's demeanors that - she never even - even when she told me the story, she was never angry. She just went, it's a stupid thing, and so I refused to listen to it.

But she never came at it from a place of anger. If anything, she defied it. And she didn't give it the credibility that it was trying to create in the world. And so that's something that I inherited from my mom, is that in my family, we just - we're not quick to anger. If anything, you know - I mean, obviously, there are moments where you find things ridiculous or ludicrous - but not quick to anger, rather find a way to laugh about it or to minimize it using humor.

GROSS: So they couldn't live together. Where did they live? And where did you live?

NOAH: Well, I lived with my mom. So the way it works in South Africa is you were allowed to downgrade. So, you know, you could go - you could almost forfeit your rights and then go live in an area that was deemed inferior to the one that you were allowed to live in. So I was living with my mother in Soweto and my grandmother and the rest of our family. And then, my father lived - he lived in the city center. And so I guess - there were times when my mom would sneak us in to go meet and hang out as a family when we could. But for the most part, that's where I spent most of my time.

GROSS: So describe what your neighborhood in Soweto was like when you were growing up.

NOAH: Oh, it was wonderful. It was electric. You know, it's - even today, Soweto is a - it's a beautiful community, you know? Everyone knows everybody's names. You know, there's a - there's just a sense of togetherness. And I think because everyone was going through the same thing, it was a shared experience. It was - it didn't feel like it was suffering. You knew that there was a cloud hanging over our nation, but there were lots of moments of joy within that time period.

So, you know, the streets were dusty. There weren't many tarred streets. You know, the houses were very modest because the government would allocate land, and that's where you could live. So everyone found a way to make ends meet. I mean, there were seven or eight of us at one point living in a one-roomed house or a two-roomed house at some point. And, you know, we had outdoor sanitation. It was like everyone - every four or five houses would share one toilet outdoors. And then, you would have one faucet outdoors that you could go and get your water from.

And so this is - but this is how everyone lived. And because everyone was doing it, then it's normal. So, you know, I'm very lucky in that I never look back at it as a tough upbringing because it was the only upbringing I knew, and everyone was doing it with me. So essentially, it's like being in a very stringent fitness class.

GROSS: (Laughter).

NOAH: If everyone's suffering together, it doesn't seem so bad.

GROSS: Were your parents still a couple when apartheid ended?

NOAH: No. No, no, they weren't. They weren't. I - well, I think they were - let me think. Actually, they were probably until I was maybe 10 or 11 years old. But they remained friends, I guess, because they had been through so much that I always knew them the way they were. So I wouldn't call it a split because essentially they were never together. So they spent as much time together after apartheid as they did before.

GROSS: But there didn't need to be a charade anymore. Like what was the charade that you would have to enact when the family got together under apartheid?

NOAH: Oh, well, I wasn't enacting anything. I was a kid, so I was just - I was living my life. My mom would - she was - she went through very elaborate - you know, through very elaborate schemes. I mean, she would disguise herself as a maid to act like she was working in my dad's apartment so that she wouldn't get caught. She would act like she was babysitting me for somebody else. And, you know, it was all these, I mean, very elaborate scams, I must admit.

Very funny when you think about it, because everyone, you know, everyone thinks of, like, a maid outfit as like a very sexual or interesting costume. And yet my mom - she was like, this is a functional thing I need to get my family together. So that - she was going through all of that. My dad didn't have to do much because he was on the, I guess, the right side of the law, as they would say. So yeah. So my mom was doing all the heavy lifting for all of us.

GROSS: So after your parents separated, your mother married a man who became the father of your two brothers. How old were you...

GROSS: ...When they married?

NOAH: I think I was maybe 12 years old or 13. Yeah, maybe around there.

GROSS: So you've described him as becoming alcoholic and abusive. Did he abuse you?

NOAH: No, no, no, no. My mom was very protective of me, so I didn't suffer, you know, much of that. But I mean, a home that is terrorized by an abusive drunk is terrorized all the same. You know, I feel like we were all in the same boat because we were. But physically, I was spared much of that torment.

GROSS: And what did he - he hit her?

NOAH: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is - you know, it's widely documented, and it's something my mom raised me not to be ashamed to speak about because that was always the biggest thing she said was, we live in a world where, for some strange reason, women are taught to be ashamed of the fact that they have been abused. And then the victims are running around with the shame, whereas we should be shaming those who are the abusers.

So yeah, so he hit my mom and, you know, and that was the craziest thing is you're living in a world where it happens - it happened sporadically. Like, you know, it wasn't an everyday thing, but it was - once is enough, you know. But it was a very harrowing experience to go through. And so, you know, the combination of the alcohol and a bad temper led to that environment.

GROSS: She left him, and then...

NOAH: Yeah.

GROSS: ...Went with another man. And when he found out about this other man after he and your mother were divorced, he shot her twice.

NOAH: Yeah, well, my mom didn't leave to go to another man. So my mom completely left the home, moved out with my brothers. I was really out of the home at that time. And she went and set up a new life. And then at that point, one day, they came home from church. And then he pitched up, and he was drunk. And then he threatened to kill the whole family, including himself. And then he shot my mom twice.

GROSS: In the face and in the back.

NOAH: Yep, that's correct.

GROSS: But she survived.

NOAH: She did. She did.

GROSS: What kind of shape is she in now? Did she have a full recovery?

NOAH: Oh, yeah. My mom is a soldier. And now, I mean, now we joke that she's bulletproof because it was - I mean, it was - it really was a miracle. And the doctors hated using that term, and they were the ones who said it, you know? My mom is deeply, deeply religious. And her and I have always fought about religion over the years. I challenge her on it, and she completely immerses herself in it. But then, I mean, when someone gets shot in the head and suffers no brain damage and is alive and needs to go through no surgery and a bullet completely passes through the head, then you almost have to concede. I mean, who was I to say I don't believe in miracles when I've seen this happen in my life?

So, you know, we laughed about it. We joked. I mean, that's really the hallmark of my family is - I mean, a few days afterwards in the hospital, my mom was the person who cracked the first joke. You know, I was crying by her bedside. And she said to me - she said, don't cry. Look on the bright side. She said, now you're officially the best-looking person in the family. So (laughter) you know, so we've, you know, we've overcome a lot because of laughter, I think, and that's why I love comedy so much. It's because it's the thing that has kept my family going through every single type of adversity.

BIANCULLI: Trevor Noah speaking to Terry Gross in 2016. Last week, he unveiled his third standup comedy special for Netflix, called "I Wish You Would." Next week, he steps down as host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and is about to embark on a new stand-up tour. After a break, we'll listen to another of Terry's conversations with Trevor Noah. And film critic Justin Chang reviews "The Eternal Daughter," in which Tilda Swinton plays both a mother and her daughter. I'm David Bianculli. And this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE TRIO'S "HAM HOCKS AND CABBAGE")

BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, professor of television studies at Rowan University, in for Terry Gross. We're listening back to our interviews with Trevor Noah, the host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," who's stepping down next week. He took over in 2015 after the departure of Jon Stewart. We're going to listen to another interview with Noah, recorded with Terry later in 2016 after the publication of his memoir, "Born A Crime." Trevor Noah was born in South Africa in 1984 during apartheid.

GROSS: Your book is called "Born A Crime" because you are officially the product of a crime. Your mother is Black. And your father is white - part Swiss, part German. And your book opens with the law, with a word-for-word version of the law that made that relationship illegal.

GROSS: It's the reason why your book is called "Born A Crime." I want you to actually read the wording of this 1927 South African law.

NOAH: So this is the Immorality Act of 1927. (Reading) To prohibit illicit carnal intercourse between Europeans and natives and other acts in relation thereto. Be it enacted by the king's most excellent majesty, the senate and the house of assembly of the Union of South Africa as follows. Point No. 1, any European male who has illicit carnal intercourse with a native female, and any native male who has illicit carnal intercourse with a European female, shall be guilty of an offense and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years. Any native female who permits any European male to have illicit carnal intercourse with her, and any European female who permits any native male to have illicit carnal intercourse with her, shall be guilty of an offense and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding four years.

GROSS: So how aware were you growing up that you were the product of a crime, and if people saw you, they might realize that your mother was officially guilty?

NOAH: I wasn't aware at all. And I was really lucky that I wasn't aware because I think that would've changed my childhood and my view on the world drastically. You know, I existed in a space where my mother was a Black woman, my father was a white man. And that's how I saw the world. I was just like, you know, some dads are white. And some moms are Black. And that's how it is.

GROSS: But that's not how it was in South Africa.

NOAH: Definitely, yeah.

GROSS: So how were you protected so that you were able to see yourself and your parents that way?

NOAH: Well, it was just how my parents treated me. It was the world they decided to show me. I was really sheltered. My grandmother kept me locked in the house when I was staying, you know, with the family in Soweto. And every household, for instance, had to have a registry of everyone who lived in that house.

And so the police would check in on you randomly. And they would come into the house. And they would look through that registry and look at all the names of all the people who were registered to be living in the house. And they would, you know, cross-reference that with the actual inhabitants of the dwelling.

And I was never on that piece of paper. I was always hidden. My grandmother would hide me somewhere if the police did show up. And it was a constant game of hide and seek. But I didn't know why anything was happening. You're a child. If you're told to go to the bedroom and, you know, go under the bed, then you go under the bed. But you don't - I never saw it as a fearful moment. I never saw it as something that was governing my life because I was so young that I didn't ask questions.

GROSS: Your mother was arrested several times during your childhood...

GROSS: ...During apartheid because of her relationship with your father, because they had carnal, sexual intercourse.

GROSS: And you were the product of that. So how much time would you estimate she actually spent in prison?

NOAH: I was really lucky in that my mom and dad never got caught in the act, so to speak. So my mom was caught fraternizing with my dad. My mom was caught, you know, in the building that my father lived in. My mom was caught in a white neighborhood past curfew without the right permits. My mother was caught in transition. And that was key because had she been caught in the act, then, as the law says, she could've spent anywhere up to four years in prison.

So on and off, my mom would spend a week in jail. She would spend a day in jail here - a week again, a week and a half, two weeks. My grandmother tells me stories of how, you know, because I would be at the house, I wouldn't notice that my mom was gone because she would be at work sometimes. So it was just, like, time when my mom would be gone. And my grandma would tell me she'll be back. And nobody knew where anybody was.

The police didn't afford you a phone call. You just disappeared for a while. And what was scary was we lived in a state where some people disappeared forever. You know, if the police believed that they were planning any form of resistance against the state, then you were just gone. Nobody knew where you were. And you just hoped to see that family member again.

GROSS: I found it interesting that there were Black people who also hated your mother for having relations with a white man. You tell a story about being in a minibus, which basically functioned like a taxi...

NOAH: Yeah. Yeah.

GROSS: ...Because there were no taxis in the townships. So you're in a minibus. And the driver, realizing that you are your mother's son, you know, figures out that she must've had relations with a white man. And he starts calling her a whore.

GROSS: And she tells you, when the minibus slows down, you got to jump. And she, like, throws you out of the van. And you had an infant brother at the time. So she jumps out, holding him in such a way as to protect him when she jumps out. And then you had to hit the ground and run. But anyways - so it must have been totally bizarre to get that kind of hatred from Black people, too.

NOAH: But that's the sadness. And I guess that is the strange part of the human brain that, you know, people have studied for eons, is hatred and self-hatred, you know? People going, how can you hate somebody that is of you? But that's what people do successfully in any regime that is governed by hate. You can convince people that the problem is not coming from the top but is, rather, being created by the people who are being oppressed.

And so what the apartheid system was really good at doing was convincing groups to hate one another. And so what you do is you convince Black people that the reason they are being oppressed is because there are some within their community who just can't behave. And if only they could behave, then everyone else would have more freedoms and liberties, which, of course, is not true.

But if you can convince people of that, then you can get them to focus their hatred on their fellow man, who is trying to achieve freedom, as opposed to focusing on the oppressive government. And we see that happen all over the world, regardless of race. It's a tactic that is used over and over successfully.

BIANCULLI: Trevor Noah speaking to Terry Gross in 2016. More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF HERBIE HANCOCK'S "DECK THE HALLS")

BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to Terry's 2016 interview with Trevor Noah, who has a new comedy special on Netflix and is stepping down next week as host of Comedy Central's "The Daily "Show" after seven years.

GROSS: Your mother sounds incredibly brave because she was always kind of flaunting the law when she married your stepfather, who's - they're separated now.

NOAH: Yes. Yeah.

GROSS: He wanted her to be, like, the traditional wife, and she refused to be that.

GROSS: She - like you said, she just defied all conventions when she wanted to, and she talked back to people. I mean, she...

NOAH: It's funny you say that because I - when I wrote the book, I thought that I was the hero of my story. And in writing it, I came to realize, over time, that my mom was the hero and I was - you know, I was just a punk-ass sidekick.

NOAH: I was lucky to come along for the ride. And she really is an amazing woman. And the world we lived in, in South Africa at the time, was a very matriarchal society because so many Black men had been removed from the home.

GROSS: Either in prison or in exile.

NOAH: Either in prison or in exile, or even sent off to work in the mines. And, you know - and so families were living separately from the fathers. And so although, according to African culture, men were the head of the household, the truth is women were the ones who were raising everybody including men. And growing up with my mother, that was something I really learned to appreciate.

GROSS: Because your mother is Black and your father was white and you were officially designated as colored...

GROSS: ...In South Africa, wherever you were, you were the anomaly.

NOAH: I was.

GROSS: Yeah. And so it was always hard for you to figure out, like, where do you fit? And you seem to have learned so many ways of dealing with that including learning different languages and different dialects. So how many languages do you speak?

NOAH: I speak six currently.

GROSS: Name them?

NOAH: So I speak English obviously, Afrikaans, which is a derivative of Dutch that we have in South Africa. And then, I speak African languages. So I speak Zulu. I speak Xhosa. I speak Tswana. And I speak Tsonga. And, like, so those are my languages, the core. And then, I don't claim German, but I can have a conversation in it. So I'm trying to make that officially my seventh languages (ph), and then, hopefully, I can learn Spanish.

GROSS: And it sounds like this is something you picked up from your mother, who also spoke several languages...

GROSS: ...And used them in a very kind of cunning way when she needed to, to make sure that she wasn't, you know, imprisoned or - although she was imprisoned. (Laughter) But I mean, she got out of it sometimes.

NOAH: Yeah, but she got out of many situations, yeah.

GROSS: Yeah, yeah. And so there's a passage from your book that I'd like you to read that's about how your mother used language and how you use language...

GROSS: ...To help navigate difficult situations.

NOAH: (Reading) Living with my mom, I saw how she used language to cross boundaries, handle situations, navigate the world. We were in a shop once. And the shopkeeper right in front of us turned to his security guard, and he said in Afrikaans, (speaking Afrikaans) - follow those Blacks in case they steal something. My mother turned around and said in beautiful, fluent Afrikaans, (speaking Afrikaans) - why don't you follow these Blacks so you can help them find what they're looking for? (Speaking Afrikaans), the man said, apologizing in Afrikaans. Then - and this was the funny thing - he didn't apologize for being racist. He merely apologized for aiming his racism at us. Oh, I'm so sorry, he said. I thought you were like the other Blacks. You know how they love to steal.

(Reading) I learned to use language like my mother did. I would simulcast - give you the program in your own tongue. I'd get suspicious looks from people just walking down the street. Where are you from, they'd ask. I'd reply in whatever language they'd addressed me in, using the same accent that they used. There would be a brief moment of confusion. And then, the suspicious look would disappear. Oh, OK I thought you were a stranger. We're good then. It became a tool that served me my whole life.

(Reading) One day as a young man, I was walking down the street. And a group of Zulu guys was walking behind me, closing in on me. And I could hear them talking to one another about how they were going to mug me - (speaking Zulu). Let's get this white guy. You go to his left, and I'll come up behind him. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't run. So I just spun around real quick and said, (speaking Zulu) - yo, guys, why don't we just mug someone together? I'm ready. Let's do it. They looked shocked for a moment, and then, they started laughing. Oh, sorry, dude. We thought you were something else. We weren't trying to take anything from you. We were trying to steal from white people. Have a good day, man.

(Reading) They were ready to do to me violent harm until they felt that we were part of the same tribe. And then, we were cool. That, and so many other, smaller incidents in my life, made me realize that language, even more than color, defines who you are to people. I became a chameleon. My color didn't change, but I could change your perception of my color. If you spoke to me in Zulu, I replied to you in Zulu. If you spoke to me in Tswana, I replied to you in Tswana. Maybe I didn't look like you. But if I spoke like you, I was you.

GROSS: That's Trevor Noah reading from his new memoir, "Born A Crime." I like that passage so much in part because when I hear you on "The Daily Show" and on some of your stand-up comedy that I've heard on recording, you do accents and voices so well. Like, you can mimic other people really well. And it seems like that's something you learned to do out of self-preservation when you were young.

NOAH: Yeah, definitely. I think it was something I inherited from my mother, who learned to do it. You know, I, like a baby duckling, was merely mimicking the survival traits that my mother possessed. And I came to learn very quickly that language was a powerful, powerful tool. Language and accents govern so much of how people think about other people.

GROSS: I want to ask you another question about your life. We've talked about how race and being biracial affected you growing up in South Africa. You mentioned in the book that you had terrible acne as a teenager - like, really bad.

GROSS: OK. So that affects how people literally see you.

GROSS: It covers your face. So people were already seeing you through a certain lens because of your race, you know, because of being biracial, and you didn't fit in any place as a result of that. How did having acne complicate your whole sense of identity?

NOAH: Well, the one thing I was lucky - I feel I was lucky about is when this happened, I was in high school. And during the period I was in high school, race almost went out of the window because high school was oftentimes almost like a classist society. But the classism isn't about money, it's about coolness. What is your cool factor? How much cool do you possess? And that determines where you go. Are you good at sports? Then you get to go into the coolest places. Are you super good-looking? Then you get to be in the cool club, and so on and so forth.

And I possessed none of those qualities. I wasn't good at sports. I was on the chess team. I had, like - I had such bad acne. I mean, people ask me now - they go, well, let me see pictures. I'm like, I didn't take pictures for that reason. I shied away from any type of photograph that you would find because I thought that I was hideous because in my eyes, I was. I had to go on medication repeatedly. And the medication makes you suicidal and depressed. And then you have to go off it because of your kidneys. And it was just such a trying time.

And, I mean, in school, that's your cachet. How you look and what you can do determine everything in school. And, you know, so I was one of those kids who just stayed in a corner and watched the world pass them by. You know, you're watching the world, and the world exists without you.

GROSS: You mentioned that the medication led to depression. And in - The New York Times Sunday Book Review has a Q&A called "By The Book." And you were interviewed for that. I think it was in that that you said - the question was, what books would you have that we would be surprised that you were reading? And you said self-help books about depression.

GROSS: Yes.

NOAH: Yeah. That's one of the biggest things. And I'm proud to say that. That's another stigma that I think we need to get rid of is improving our minds and our mental health. You know, when you suffer from depression, you go, this is something that I have, and I can work on it, you know? I often think of depression, though, as more of a symptom than a cause. You know, I go - I trace depression back to things.

So I go, OK, I look back, and I say, my self-esteem was affected because of my skin and because my family had no money and I was ashamed of how poor I was. And I look at all of that, and I was trying to hide myself. And so I felt like I was less than I was. And so that then leads to you being depressed. And I work on these things, you know.

And I think all of us should seek help. And not help as in a - you know, help shouldn't be seen as a frightening thing. Help shouldn't be seen as a weak thing. You get help at the gym. No one complains about that. You get help from your trainer. That's commonplace. And I think we need to spend more time doing that with mental help. You know, a lot of us have issues that we don't work on, and we don't deal with. And I try. I try my utmost.

GROSS: Trevor Noah, thank you so much.

NOAH: Thank you for having me. Thank you. I'm a huge fan, so thank you. This is great that we get to be in the same studio for a change.

BIANCULLI: Trevor Noah speaking to Terry Gross in 2016. His newest stand-up comedy special premiered last week on Netflix, and he steps down next week after hosting "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central for seven years. Here he is talking to that show's audience during a recent taping explaining that one reason he wants to quit the show is to do more traveling. He asks for suggestions about where to go, and one woman suggests Easter Island.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Easter Island.

NOAH: Eastern...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Rapa Nui - Easter Island, off the coast of Chile.

NOAH: Easter Island. I thought you said Eastern Ireland. I was like, no one's ever said it like that.

NOAH: It's like Eastern Ireland - (impersonating Irish accent) ah, yes, Trevor, a part of Ireland no one's ever been to before, a special part that nobody's ever been to.

NOAH: OK. Easter Island. All right. All right. I'm going to check it out. I will. And Ireland - I'm going to go back to Ireland. This is - it's too much fun. The world is like - you know, if you can travel, travel. That's the way I see it. And I've - you know, I was locked up like many of you were. We all - and then, you know, now I'm - see what's out there in the world. You know, get out and about and, you know, taste the food and, you know, that experience - tasting a new thing and being like, ah, this is disgusting. But I love the experience.

NOAH: I love the experience.

BIANCULLI: Trevor Noah, who's leaving "The Daily Show" next week after a very impressive seven-year run. Coming up, film critic Justin Chang reviews "The Eternal Daughter," in which Tilda Swinton plays dual roles as a mother and her own daughter. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF RAMSEY LEWIS TRIO'S "HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS")

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Trevor noah sets next act with ‘off the record’ tour.

A month or so after he signs off at 'The Daily Show,' Noah will kick off his latest global stand-up tour.

By Lacey Rose

Executive Editor, Television

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Trevor Noah ’s 2023 is taking shape.

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In late September, Noah announced that his time at The Daily Show was up, citing a desire to be back on the road, learning and exploring. “I spent two years [of the pandemic] in my apartment, not on the road, and when I got back out there again, I realized that there’s another part of my life that I want to carry on exploring,” he said at the time. “I miss learning other languages, I miss going to other countries and putting on shows, I miss being everywhere and doing everything.” He’s scheduled to formally sign off on Dec. 8.

Despite a demanding schedule over the last seven years, which has also had him tethered to New York four days a week, Noah never stopped touring. In fact, save the early days of the pandemic, he’s spent most weekends on the road. During his Daily Show run, theaters became arenas, and Noah solidified his status as one the most successful comics working, having sold up shows across five continents. He’s racked up Netflix specials, too, including his latest, I Wish You Would , which drops on the service Nov. 22. Noah has historically veered away from political humor during his stand-up sets, and the new special is no different.

The Off the Record tour will have the South African stand-up hit international cities, too, though those dates and destinations have yet to be announced.

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Trevor Noah Announces ‘Off the Record’ Stand-Up Tour Following ‘Daily Show’ Departure 

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Trevor Noah isn’t taking his time moving on from The Daily Show. The comedian and host will embark on a 28-city North American stand-up tour, a run billed as Off the Record , beginning in January 2023 — just over a month after his final appearance as host on the Comedy Central show.

The Off the Record tour will kick off on Jan. 20 in Atlanta. Noah will make stops in Louisville, Baltimore, Austin, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, Richmond, Phoenix, Detroit, Chicago, and more cities. He will spend six total nights at The Wilbur in Boston, three at New York’s Beacon Theatre, and four at The Masonic in San Francisco.

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Trevor Noah Off the Record 2023 Tour Dates Jan. 20 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre Feb. 10 – Louisville, KY @ The Louisville Palace March 3 – St. Louis, MO @ Stifel Theatre March 9 – Baltimore, MD @ Hippodrome Theatre March 24 – Durham, NC @ DPAC March 31 – Denver, CO @ Bellco Theatre April 5 – Boston, MA @ The Wilbur April 6 – Boston, MA @ The Wilbur April 7 – Boston, MA @ The Wilbur April 8 – Medford, MA @ Chevalier Theatre April 10 – Boston, MA @ The Wilbur April 11 – Boston, MA @ The Wilbur April 12 – Boston, MA @ The Wilbur April 13 – Medford, MA @ Chevalier Theatre April 20 – Austin, TX @ Bass Concert Hall April 27 – Spokane, WA @ First Interstate Center for the Arts April 28 – Bozeman, MT @ Brick Breeden Fieldhouse April 29 – Missoula, MT @ Adams Center May 4 – Memphis, TN @ Orpheum Theatre May 5 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium May 10 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre at Old National Centre May 12 – New Orleans, LA @ Saenger Theatre May 19 – Schenectady, NY @ Proctors Theatre May 26 – Mashantucket, CT @ Premier Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino June 2 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl Oct. 6 – Richmond, VA @ Altria Theater Oct. 9 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre Oct. 10 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre Oct. 11 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre Oct. 20 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre Oct. 26 – Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre Nov. 1 – Madison, WI @ The Orpheum Theater Nov. 3 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Riverside Theater Nov. 9 – Minneapolis, MN @ Orpheum Theatre Nov. 13 – Chicago, IL @ The Chicago Theatre Nov. 14 – Chicago, IL @ The Chicago Theatre Nov. 30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic Dec. 1 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic Dec. 2 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic Dec. 3 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic

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The Daily Show Writers Stand-Up Tour is coming and I can’t wait

A fan and pracitioner of satire riffs on post-COVID late-night comedy and why hosts have turned into YouTubers.

Four writers behind the Emmy-winning Daily Show with Trevor Noah are touring their own stand-up comedy show, and they’re stopping at Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse September 3 and 4, 2021, to give the nation’s capital a taste of TDS ’s trademark political humor … and jokes about “their failed dating lives” as well. 

The Daily Show Writers Stand-Up Tour will feature writer-comedians Randall Otis, Matt Koff, Joseph Opio, and Kat Radley. Otis has performed around the United States—including at the New York Comedy Festival—and has been featured on  The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ,  VICE , and  The Huffington Post.   Koff is an Emmy-winning staff writer on The Daily Show, and has toured with John Oliver and Bo Burnham. Opio , a Ugandan satirist, has performed stand-up on three different continents and has written over 360 episodes of The Daily Show . Radley ’s debut comedy album, The Important Thing Is That I’m Pretty, premiered at #4 on the iTunes Comedy Charts. 

Audiences will be in for a treat seeing the satirists behind one of television’s top late-night shows show off their individual comedic styles. Maybe afterward we’ll tune into The Daily Show and finally get a sense of which jokes are whose. Sometimes we forget that there are tens of individual writers who spawn the words that come out of a host’s mouth. 

For reference: according to an article in Vulture , the Daily Show with Trevor Noah writing staff is 19 writers strong, including one head writer, two senior writers, and Trevor Noah himself. That’s the thoughts and commentary of 19 people going into the monologue that one man delivers. Perhaps that’s why the practice of bringing a writer out for one of a show’s “interview” segments, giving them a soapbox of their very own, has become increasingly common . Amber Ruffin ’s soapbox on Late Night got her a show! 

I’m both a fan and a practitioner of satire — albeit a young one. I’m lucky to have been the political cartoonist for The Lincoln Project this past year, and I host and show-run The Hilltop Show political comedy show and satire publication operated by over 50 undergraduates and graduate students from around the world, based at Georgetown University. As a college student who wants to go into this business, I for one am especially excited to meet the actual humans who come up with this stuff, and perhaps better understand how their individual comedic stylings blend together to become what we know to be The Daily Show with Trevor Noah . 

I know (based on many, many informational calls) that many if not most late-night writers have to “write for the host.” In September 2019, I took the Hilltop Show team to a lunch in New York City with a group of writers from various late-night shows, and a Daily Show writer was in the mix (I remember the writers collectively asked us to not attribute their names to any advice we gave, and I will obviously respect that). She told us that Noah plays a prominent role in directing the course of the show, and that writers suggest and comment on subjects they predict Noah will be interested in, hoping those subjects will make it to the teleprompter. Who knows how that system has or hasn’t changed over the past two years? But regardless, the writers aren’t the stars of the show. I’m excited to hear right from the writers what topics they’re interested in, and hear their individual takes on those topics in their stand-up. 

The Daily Show Writers Stand Up Tour comes at a time of reckoning for the late-night genre. With late-night shows returning to in-person audiences, many have wondered what COVID-era elements will stay, and which will be replaced with February 2020 fare. Seth Meyers’s Late Night and even The Daily Show — both among the more newsy and political late-night shows, and nominated for the Outstanding Variety Talk Series Emmy this week — have been critically acclaimed for their adjustments to the medium of late-night-sans-audience. Many critics have gone so far as to say these two shows’ current audience-lessness plus the resulting adjustments outclasses their old ways.

Meanwhile, Comedy Central has announced that The Daily Show will have a “brand-new look and feel” starting September 13 after a summer hiatus. Trevor Noah recently mentioned in an FYC Chat with Arsenio Hall that he and his team have a “few surprises” in store.

“As for going back to the studio, I have a few surprises as to what that will look like. I’m working on a few things with the team, and we’re really excited because I want it to be intentional. People always say, ‘When are you going back?’ I’m never going back, I’m only moving forward.’” 

That last bit caused me pain, but awesome, can’t wait. 

What is this “new look and feel”? Will The Daily Show change the elements that have gone over well during COVID? Will they have audiences? As the delta variant surges, this is not guaranteed.

In the FYC conversation, Noah suggested that he might not even wear a suit when he’s back in the studio. “I might never put on the suit or the shoes or whatever. I don’t know. This is who I am. I think the pandemic has stripped a lot of people of that pomp and ceremony. I think it’s a good thing. We see each other a little bit more. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to the suits and the leather shoes. If I do, I do. If I don’t, I don’t — but I will no longer think this is something I have to do.”

This Daily Show viewer kind of likes the formalities, but I understand his point. I also understand as an aspiring host myself that hosts can more easily lean into their strengths in particular clothes. For example, John Mulaney’s old-fashioned suit, his 1930s-radio-host vocal intonations, and his contemporary, oft-indecorous material have frequently been cited as a genius combination: a meeting of the old and new. 

Noah seems to be in his element when he’s in a hoodie instead of a suit. To each his own. I like suits.

Retrospectively, the pandemic, despite all the struggles it imposed on them, also gave the late-night hosts a unique time where they and their staff were “allowed” to flounder, be vulnerable (see: Jimmy Fallon’s inclusion of his children in his bits, which is objectively charming), and experiment. And that allowance gave them time to better understand their personal strengths — where they, as people, and their respective show formats shine, and where they struggle. 

In a recent conversation with Uproxx , Seth Meyers asked Late Night producer Mike Shoemaker if the audience-less version of the show is “the most natural version of the show we’ve ever done,” to which Shoemaker said, “Yeah. Definitely, yes … I think we always took how something would play to an audience into account.” 

While some hosts like Stephen Colbert are self-professed audience-needers (at least according to his wife), other hosts like Seth Meyers have hit their stride speaking right to the camera, cutting out the middleman of the studio audience as an additional group to entertain, in addition to millions of viewers online. Late-night is weird.

Shoemaker elaborated in the Uproxx interview: “Pre-COVID, we had a test audience, which is, basically, during our rehearsal, we would invite people from the building, 25 tourists. And we didn’t always rely on it, but that [drove] a lot of the choices. We tried everything that way, and then that was kind of the barrier to entry. And that’s all gone. It’s really like brain-to-mouth to television.” 

Perhaps this has to do with the fact that the more political late-night shows play out closer to the style of a monologue delivered by a cable news host. If Chris Cuomo, a host known for his reporting combined with comedic commentary, had to play to an audience, his show would have quite a different pace and feel (it would not work). And yet, it seems that late-night hosts and Cuomo are merging their styles into a similar genre of left-leaning, facetious news commentary, all ingested by, typically, the same audience … but that’s a Pandora’s Box if there ever was one. Focus, me!

Ultimately, the audience-less approach to late-night comedy has turned the hosts into YouTubers. The Daily Show has frequently opted for images swooshing across the screen, quick cuts between bits, zoom cuts for emphasis, and hoodie-wearing hosts. You know, YouTube. 

Today’s late-night shows are frequently critiqued for seeming to want to appeal to young people but feel like Johnny Carson flossing. (Or if you’re older than 20, Johnny Carson doing a particularly rigorous TikTok dance that captivated a nation for a frighteningly extensive period.) The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is less subject to these critiques than other shows, but the late-night genre itself carries an air of tradition, as if it’s something your parents probably like and thus you should cast it back into the fiery chasm from whence it came. Perhaps that’s why I like the suits. 

In a time when YouTube and Twitter audiences are demanding the late-night shows adjust to their appetites, and COVID robbed the shows of their characteristic audiences, it is understandable that the transformation to YouTuber-dom has begun, consciously or unconsciously (you’ll have to ask the showrunners). Frankly, going full Markiplier is a smart move for a commentary show if you can’t get an audience. Why reinvent the wheel if you’re also making audience-less videos where a funny host talks into a camera, to YouTube ? And if The Daily Show is attempting to reach young people, which its comedic stylings and political foci frequently indicate, the YouTuber approach might be its ideal medium.  

But it will be up to each show to reflect on its past year and determine what, in a post-COVID (knock-on-wood) world, is best for its team and its host. Part of me fears that John Oliver may never leave his “white void” (I’m still wondering how the Season 7 finale — his exit from the void and its triumphant, Death-Star-explosion-esque destruction — narratively parses with his quiet return to his interdimensional prison in Season 8. We’ve got a continuity error, boys! Tim Carvell, I’d like a word). 

Based on the last year, I think The Daily Show with Trevor Noah would work well as a laugh-track-less series. But, I also want to sit in a Daily Show audience again before I die. I’m happy to duct-tape my mouth if they want.

And who knows? To match their more YouTuber-like style, and Noah’s observation of a genre increasingly “stripped” of its “pomp and ceremony,”  the shows might begin to supplement their political, informational content with increasingly, if you will, secular fare. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, I can’t wait to see The Daily Show writers’ personal takes on both.

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Trevor Noah Off The Record Tour

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Trevor Noah is at the Wilbur Theater April 6-12 for his Off The Record Tour. Expect a hilarious evening featuring Noah's famed sharp wit and intelligent commentary interlaced with unmistakable charm. Covering a range of topics from politics to race and his childhood in South Africa, you can be sure he'll touch on any breaking news to ensure every single show is a bit different from the last. Get tickets  here .

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Trevor Noah: The Nationwild Comedy Tour

Trevor Noah (Self) Dusty Rich (Self) Robby Collins (Self) Dillan Oliphant (Self)

David Paul Meyer

What do you get when you take some of the funniest people in South Africa and put them on the same stage? That's the question Trevor Noah answered with SA's first Nationwild tour. Featuring the likes of Dusty Rich, Dillan Oliphant, Robby Collins and of course Trevor Noah. From Zuma, to ladies feet and Afrikaners to Oscar Pistorius, no subject is left untouched in this show.

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Trevor Noah: The Nationwild Comedy Tour

What do you get when you take some of the funniest people in South Africa and put them on the same stage? That's the question Trevor Noah answered with SA's first Nationwild tour. Featuring ... Read all What do you get when you take some of the funniest people in South Africa and put them on the same stage? That's the question Trevor Noah answered with SA's first Nationwild tour. Featuring the likes of Dusty Rich, Dillan Oliphant, Robby Collins and of course Trevor Noah. From Zu... Read all What do you get when you take some of the funniest people in South Africa and put them on the same stage? That's the question Trevor Noah answered with SA's first Nationwild tour. Featuring the likes of Dusty Rich, Dillan Oliphant, Robby Collins and of course Trevor Noah. From Zuma, to ladies feet and Afrikaners to Oscar Pistorius, no subject is left untouched in this... Read all

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• Trevor Noah
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• Robby Collins

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• March 27, 2015 (South Africa)
• South Africa
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• Trevor Noah's Nationwild Comedy Tour
• Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City, Johannesburg, South Africa (location)
• Ark Angel Entertainment
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Trevor noah: the nationwild comedy tour.

2015 Directed by David Paul Meyer

This is the Nationwild Comedy Tour!

What do you get when you take some of the funniest people in South Africa and put them on the same stage? That's the question Trevor Noah answered with SA's first Nationwild tour! Featuring the likes of Dusty Rich, Dillan Oliphant, Robby Collins and of course Trevor Noah. From Zuma, to ladies feet and Afrikaners to Oscar Pistorius, no subject is left untouched in this show. All the laughs you can fit on a DVD plus more. This is the Nationwild Comedy Tour!

Robby Collins Trevor Noah Dillan Oliphant Dusty Rich

Director Director

David Paul Meyer

Writers Writers

Trevor Noah Robby Collins Dillan Oliphant Dusty Rich

Black Sheep Films

South Africa

Releases by date, 27 mar 2015, releases by country.

• Theatrical 13PL

94 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Preyesh Sankarparsad ★★½

I'm South African, but I've never really been a fan of South African stand-up comedy... however, that being said, Trevor Noah has always been a cut above the other so called "comedians" that we produce here. And with him being given the job of host of the Daily Show, Trevor was suddenly shot into the spotlight of a wider and different demographic than he was usually accustomed to... But its amazing for him, and great that he is a local guy, proudly representing his motherland, on one of the most viewed talk shows in the world. His performance at the abovementioned Nationwild Comedy Tour, was his usual smart and witty 90 minutes that we've become accustomed to. Tackling issues in…

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In Self-Deprecating Return to ‘The Daily Show’, Jon Stewart Beats His Critics to the Punch: TV Review

By Alison Herman

Alison Herman

• ‘The Sandman’ Spinoff ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Adapts Neil Gaiman’s Comic as a Zany Teen Procedural: TV Review 2 days ago
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These similarities are lost on no one, least of all Stewart himself. Apart from an extended runtime and a quick appearance by former correspondent Jordan Klepper, there was little to announce tonight’s episode as a major event or break from routine. From the monologue to the staged “field” segment to the interview to the Moment of Zen, the run of show proceeded as usual — or rather, as it usually did until 2015, the last time Stewart occupied the chair. The primary feeling was not of triumphant return or even nostalgia, but déjà vu. For long stretches, it was as if Stewart had never made an abortive attempt at an animated news show for HBO, nor made an Emmy-nominated series for Apple TV+ until the tech company flinched at potential controversy . You could almost believe Stewart had stayed fixed in the seat where he still clearly feels comfortable, cuing up montages of news clips and grimacing at political gaffes.

Popular on Variety

Jokes at Stewart’s expense helped to dispel the initial awkwardness, but they don’t resolve the fundamental tension underlying everything from the election to Bob Iger’s second stint at Disney to Stewart’s own full-circle moment. We’re at a crossroads where systems are stuck in a loop, running their own expired playbooks to increasingly diminished returns. “The Daily Show” itself runs on a network with increasingly little original programming, owned by a conglomerate frantically searching for a new owner as its value grows progressively smaller. Bringing Stewart back is a momentary bright spot, but there’s still another three days a week of episodes to fill. What are those going to look like, and for how long until a longer-term solution comes along — if it ever does?

Anyone who has living memories of the War on Terror is powerless to resist Stewart’s particular blend of cynicism and moral righteousness. Yet the lack of pomp and circumstance around his return means that its meta aspects become the most meaningful. Stewart could mock Biden’s fraying faculties or point out Trump’s infinite shortcomings in his sleep. It’s not the punchlines themselves that help demonstrate the snake-eating-its-tail absurdity of the current news cycle. It’s the man delivering them, and how many times we’ve seen him before.

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Inside WFU – news for the Wake Forest community

Face to face speaker forum to welcome trevor noah.

April 19, 2024

The Face to Face Speaker Forum offers single event tickets on the day of the keynote event to faculty and staff for free on a first come, first served basis (subject to availability). Faculty and staff can pick up their tickets outside of Reynolda Hall between 1 and 5 p.m. Additional single tickets are available for purchase here . Use promo code FACE20 for a 20% discount on your ticket purchase.

In addition to hosting “The Daily Show” from 2015-2022, Noah expanded the show’s audience by producing engaging social content, award-winning digital series, and podcasts for its global audience. In January of 2024, “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” won an Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series. 

He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” and its young readers adaptation, released in 2019, “It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood,” which also debuted as a New York Times bestseller. Noah’s book “Into the Uncut Grass,” a modern fable for readers of all ages, is scheduled for release in the fall of 2024.

In 2018, Noah launched the Trevor Noah Foundation to improve equitable access to quality education for underserved youth in South Africa. His vision is a world where education enables youth to dream, see and build the impossible.

The community-facing Face to Face Speaker Forum brings world-renowned, influential voices to the greater Winston-Salem area to discuss topics in a variety of areas including political affairs, arts and culture, business and innovation, and social justice and global issues. 

The Face to Face Speaker Forum with Trevor Noah is presented by Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management. A complete list of Face to Face Speaker Forum sponsors is available here .

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