Trevor Noah: The Man Himself

[formerlyfreedom]

Discuss all things about Trevor here!

[Miss Dee]

I loved the special last night. The MA writes intelligent material. And I love his delivery. He has one of those faces and voices that looks and sounds so sweet and adorable when he's saying something that it masks the sarcasm, pointedness and even anger very well. I hope he continues to do stand up as he hosts the Daily Show; I'll be watching.

[angora]

I loved it too!  Although I think he takes a few too many tangents at times (the whole getting pulled over/"I don't know how not to die" sequence was excellent, but I worried once or twice if we were ever going to hear what actually happened with the cop,) he's very talented, observant, and thoughtful.  I loved his insistence that "lone (white) gunmen" who shoot a bunch of people in "isolated incidents" deserve to be called terrorists.

 

I just about died laughing during the flying-during-the-Ebola-crisis sequence.  He's right; it's crazy how quickly and completely fear can make people do insane things.  I think my favorite part was how conflicted he felt when he realized the health officer didn't think he seemed "African enough" to be suspected of having Ebola.

[dusang]

I loved the special last night. The MA writes intelligent material. And I love his delivery. He has one of those faces and voices that looks and sounds so sweet and adorable when he's saying something that it masks the sarcasm, pointedness and even anger very well. I hope he continues to do stand up as he hosts the Daily Show; I'll be watching.

"The MA"?

I've watched previous specials - what was this one titled?

[Miss Dee]

Lol. "Man." Typing on my phone in a hurry is not conducive to impeccable spelling.

[possibilities]

The special was called "Lost in Translation."

[trow125]

The Ebola story was incredible. This is one special that really benefited from "limited commercial interruptions" -- otherwise Trevor's long anecdotes would have seemed really chopped-up.

 

I knew he was good at doing accents, but his work in this special just blew me away. The Southern accents in the part where he was talking about getting directions were amazing!

[jaytee1812]

I loved this, I love his style it's quick laid back but still about race and politics.

This is an earlier bit of stand up from the BBC that I love.

According to wiki Trevor's a polyglot which may explain why he's good with accents.

This is him speaking Xhosa and seducing Stephen Fry in the process.

[fastiller]

Man I wish they'd show QI here in the States!

[Miss Dee]

Damn, he's really kind of hot, you know. Don't blame Fry one bit.

[peeayebee]

I have the special recorded but haven't watched yet. 

 

Here's an NPR interview with Trevor. It's about an hour long.

[possibilities]

Great interview! I'm also impressed that every interview I read with him, he manages to say something different. Most people, after you've read one, you have pretty much read them all....

[Skyfall]

Man I wish they'd show QI here in the States!

BBC America I believe had/has it.

[peeayebee]

I just watched the special. Really enjoyable. Every bit he did was funny and spot on. One little thing I loved was the story about getting in the wrong side of his car and sitting there because he thought people were watching him. I feel the same way when I do something stupid. Then waiting for his driver cracked me up. 

[jaytee1812]

I found a show on Netflix called You Laugh But It's True which is about Trevor's first one man show in South Africa. It's really interesting he goes back to where he grew up, we meet his family.

I don't want to spoil it too much but they talk to other comedians about Trevor. The white comedians interviewed are fairly negative about Trevor, he's arrogant, he's just come along at the right time, he's not really a comic. I said to to a friend I was watching it with those people must've been seething with rage for the past year or so.

[possibilities]

He's not really a comic? What the hell? It's one thing to say you don't think he's funny, or you don't like him for some other reason. I was pissed off by some of his "jokes" from the past, and how he handled being criticized about them, and I get that there may be no accounting for taste in some instances. But to say he's not really a comic? That's a whole other level of WTF.

[Miss Dee]

Yeah, I don't see how you can make an audience of thousands laugh for an hour straight and not be considered a comic. Granted, he's intelligent and a lot of his material is carefully crafted and well thought out and doesnt rely on overly gratuitous language or gross-out humour for cheap laughs. That's unlike about 90% of the comics I've seen.

[fastiller]

BBC America I believe had/has it.

Yeah, I think I came to it too late. I did catch an episode or two On Demand. (I love all the British panel shows like QI and Never Mind the Bollocks, etc...)

[angora]

Hulu has three seasons of the show, including Trevor's episode (series 11, episode 6.)  He was probably the least talkative one there, but he still has some good remarks/knowledge; I liked it.  The Xhosa singing is the best, though!

[grawlix]

Interview with Linda Holmes:

http://www.npr.org/sections/monkeysee/2015/11/27/457375043/pop-culture-happy-hour-a-conversation-with-trevor-noah

[purist]

Interview with Linda Holmes:

http://www.npr.org/sections/monkeysee/2015/11/27/457375043/pop-culture-happy-hour-a-conversation-with-trevor-noah

 

Already posted above AND in the Media thread. :)

[Delwyn]

I just got a ticket to see Trevor's stand up show in February in Vancouver (Hasan Minhaj and Lewis Black will also be here for the same festival if anyone out there fancies a TDS hat trick).

[Katmai]

It's good to see Trevor has some fans, but I'm not one of them, nor is my 22-year-old son. Neither of us finds him funny nor remotely clever in a Jon Stewart way.

[possibilities]

Really enjoyed the episode with Trevor on "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" (streaming on crackle.com). Also caught "You Laugh But It's True" (I think it was on Netflix).

 

I like when he talks about his childhood. He tells a story about the first time he realized comedy was powerful, and even though it's a pretty annoying joke (that his uncle or grandfather or some older relative told when he was a child), it still comes across as very enlightening about how Trevor became the person he is.

 

I forget how young he is, too. It seems like he's not done developing his point of view, which is really interesting to me. Most of the time, by the time someone "makes it big" in a public way, their point of view has kind of ossified. But my sense of Noah is that he's really still taking it all in and hasn't fully settled yet.

[Tosia]

Maybe I'm still in PTSD after Jon's leaving, but I'm not feeling the new guy's vibe.  

 

Specifically, Trevor laughs TOO MUCH at his own jokes and at news items (that are not funny) like they were the most HULLAARRIOUSSS thing in the world.   Give me a fucking break.   Let the story land before you prompt us into undeserved hilarity.

 

I know tv performners and comedians do that as a cue or to lay groundwork that something's funny, cuz many times audiences (and some of us some of the time) will laugh at anything in anticipation of humor that is expected (or depending how tired/high/drunk/bored we are). 

 

My DVR priorities are Colbert, then Willmore, and then maybe Trevor --if I have time or need something on while I clean or fold laundry.  I deleted several shows without watching before Christmas just cuz it wasn't worth the time.

 

LOVE Jessica, though.  The Asian guy seems to be a one-note pony with the dad issue schnick.  

[Miss Dee]

I never watched the Daily Show regularly until Trevor took over. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

[Samsnee]

Last night was my first time watching the show in awhile. I'm afraid I have to remove it from the DVR list. I know he wouldn't be able to be a Jon but he just isn't funny. I hate his weird angry voice thing he does, how he laughs at his own jokes that aren't that funny, and he basically has no real comedic insight. He's just a better dressed Tosh 2.0 at this point.

[Delwyn]

Has anyone here from Boston or Seattle seen his live stand up show this week? I'm seeing it tomorrow night and I'm curious how it went.

[annabel]

Just listened to Trevor having a delightful conversation with Terry Gross on Fresh Air.

[Bosstonz16]

I saw him in Boston on Sunday and he was fantastic! Gregarious and mostly material I hadn't seen before. Good mix of boston-related humor and some good bits about Scotland.

[Miss Dee]

Feel free to post about it afterwards Delwyn! You too, Bosstonz16! I think the man is brilliant at stand up comedy and would love some links to videos or a small recap.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Miss Dee

[angora]

Thanks for mentioning the Terry Gross interview, annabel - I just finished listening to it.  Overall, if we're talking Trevor NPR interviews, I prefer the one with Linda Holmes, if only because this one felt a bit Trevor Noah 101 to me.  Terry Gross seemed kind of underprepared, like asking him whether he started doing stand-up in Africa before or after the end of apartheid (unless he started when he was a child...?) or if he'd had any dealings with police in America when the clip she'd just played of him talking about police shootings was from a larger routine about his first experience getting pulled over in the U.S.  (Yeah, the part she played didn't mention that, but still.)

 

Trevor, though, was lovely.  I really liked everything he had to say about performing comedy in different regions, having "conversations" at different levels of familiarity with audiences and learning what he can/should say where.  Along with that, his remarks about people using his jokes to further marginalize African Americans were very thoughtful; you could tell how horrified he was that that happened.  I also loved that, when Terry Gross asked him to describe what living in Soweto was like, he immediately launched into what a great community it was and then slowly dropped in details about the poverty.  The "racial demographics box" routine, which was my favorite part of his "African American" special, was fun to hear again, and I had an "Ohhhh - well, duh!" moment when he mentioned that South Africa doesn't put race on forms anymore.  In retrospect, it's obvious that they wouldn't, but as an American, I'm so used to seeing it that it didn't even occur to me to think it might be otherwise.

[DeLurker]

I just watched his special, African American

I thought he was great

[fastiller]

From the NY Times Style section: Lupita Nyong’o and Trevor Noah, and Their Meaningful Roles.

[trow125]

This may be the click-baitiest headline I've ever seen: 

“The Daily Show” is dead to me: Trevor Noah will never, ever be good at his job — also, thanks a lot for Donald Trump
We no longer expect Noah to be Jon Stewart. But the show has gone edgeless and dull just when we need it the most

Yes, Salon is actually (sorta) blaming Trevor Noah for Trump:

Quote

John Kasich remarked, before ending his own campaign, that Noah’s version of “The Daily Show” was tanking and that Trump was benefitting from the fact that Stewart was no longer at the helm.

[zxy556575]

What bullshit. It's The Daily Show's responsibility to be the liberal vanguard of TV now? I'm not sure Jon would have had any more to say about Trump if he was still at the helm. There is nothing more to say and neither Trevor nor anyone else is going to change the minds of Trump's supporters. It's all one big echo chamber of people who disagree with Trump pointing out his lies and deficiencies and the millions who like him not caring. Let me assure Salon that those people do not watch TDS and never did.

If the writers at Salon are desperately longing for someone to smite Trump and this election cycle in general, they can do it themselves. Remember journalism? Opinion pieces?

Edited May 18, 2016 by lordonia

[angora]

Oh good - it's been, what?  A few months now, since we last got a think-piece about how Trevor has set fire to political satire and danced on the ashes, bringing western civilization as we know it to its knees.  I was starting to worry that Salon was slipping.  Good grief.

How many times on the boards lately has someone commented about how it feels like TDS and other comedy shows have been taking Trump to task way harder than actual news shows?  I think Trevor and co. have been doing a nice job of covering him in a responsible way:  acknowledging the outrageousness/craziness, keeping the "seriously, you guys, this isn't even funny anymore" dread at the forefront, never dismissing a hypothetical Trump win as impossible, looking at media and GOP complicity in the creation of Trump, and recognizing that, for Trump supporters, there IS no line but still making their points anyway because they need to be made.

[shok]

I guess what I miss most about Jon's Daily Show is his exposure of how ridiculous the media coverage is of Trump. Jon would have shown them making such absolute fools of themselves instead of just Trump being the fool.

[ChelseaNH]

I succumbed to the Salon article to see what lengths they would stoop to this time.  You'd think Trevor Noah staged a coup to wrest the show from Jon Stewart, possibly killing the author's dog in the process.

Instead of harping on how much you hate Trevor Noah, just go enjoy the ferocity of Full Frontal and get on with your life.

[trow125]

This is an excellent interview with Trevor from Playboy.com (SFW now that they don't run pics of naked women any longer!). I learned a lot from it. And I didn't know he had a book coming out later this year: "Born a Crime," publication date Nov. 15.

[scarynikki12]

Trevor's in Nashville tonight! I'll try to remember details. 

[tenativelyyours]

Trevor has a book coming out this fall: Born a Crime

[AmandaPanda]

Trevor's Daily Show just has different priorities than Jon's DS did. And that's perfectly okay! Jon was really passionate about exposing media hypocrisy and taking on issues like the 9/11 First Responders Bill. Trevor just seems to be passionate about other things. This is Trevor's first election in the United States. It makes perfect sense that he doesn't have the same reactions to coverage of Trump that Jon would. I really respect the fact that Trevor seems to be covering more global news stories and social issues (like the transgender bathroom bills) that I don't know we would have seen from Jon. Plus, I think Trevor's doing a pretty terrific job at taking shots at Trump. I really like that he's focusing so much on the extreme sexism that comes from Trump. 

[Bastet]

Netflix has Trevor's 2013 stand-up special, African American, and also a documentary, You Laugh But It's True, about him preparing for his first one-man show (The Daywalker) in Johannesburg and also about the evolution of South African stand-up in general.  It provides interesting looks into his background (we meet some of his family) and people's perceptions of him as an emerging comic in South Africa at the time (including much "it's been 15 years; black comics should stop talking about apartheid" grumbling from white comics).  I recommend it for some good insight into Trevor and his comedy.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Bastet

[angora]

I saw Trevor in Minneapolis last night, and he was fantastic!  He performed for a good hour-and-a-half and was just hilarious throughout.

He had a few bits that were expansions of jokes he's done on The Daily Show, which was interesting to me, because in clips I've seen of his standup, I haven't seen really direct crossover there.  Like, he talked about South Africa's method of changing the white people on their money to animals before switching to Black people, he had a bit about Obama being the coolest president, and he complained about the word "pussy" denoting weakness when vaginas are so powerful.  I didn't mind any of the repeats - like I said, there were new jokes attached to each routine, and either way, he's still just wonderfully funny to see - but I thought it was interesting.

Great stories, of course.  He had hilarious bits about going to the Met Gala, drinking with friends in Scotland, and having both "White Christmas" and "Black Christmas" with the two sides of his family growing up in South Africa.  He had a terrific riff on Idris Elba as James Bond - how much he'd love Elba in the role, the online gnashing-of-teeth over the idea, and an extended sequence of what a Black Bond movie might look like.  I also loved his compare-and-contrast of Nelson Mandela and Obama, particularly his imagined scenario of Mandela teaching Obama how to do "first Black president voice" when they met years ago.  Some election stuff, not a ton.  He had a fun bit on how trying to argue with Trump is like trying to argue with a 5-year-old and some good jokes about Sanders supporters.

Awesome show - absolutely loved it!

[trow125]

Sounds like a great show, angora. Thanks for the report! I hope there'll be another Comedy Central special with some of these bits once he's toured with them for a while.

[shok]

Thanks for the report angora. Great to hear what he does live and that you enjoyed it so much.

[trow125]

Trevor is going to appear as a guest on "Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Wed., Sept. 14.

[fastiller]

Debated posting this in the media thread; I decided this thread would work too.

Trevor Noah: The First Time I Drove a Car. (I Was 6.)

[purist]

What a great piece. He's a good writer. Thanks for posting, @fastiller!