“I feel like there should be a rule in America [where] you can hate immigrants all you want; but if you do, you don’t get to eat their food. No Dominican food, no Asian food, nothing. Only potatoes.” It’s the kind of thought-provoking and irreverent barb you’d expect to hear from stand-up comedian Trevor Noah, the host of the Emmy-award winning “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. Immigration is just one of myriad political and social topics to be explored and exploited at Noah’s “Back To Abnormal Tour,” that’s circling the globe.
“It’s a world tour,” Noah said to his Facebook fans. “We’re kicking off with the U.S. dates, and then we’re going everywhere. And I mean everywhere, Europe, Africa, Asia. If you live in a city, we’re coming to that city, and if you don’t live in a city, I’ll come close to your place and you come to the city and I’ll meet you there. Let’s do it.”
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Produced by Live Nation, Noah’s “Back to Abnormal Tour” revolves around the Covid-19 pandemic with the repeated refrain, “I want to get back to the way things were.” But while jeering about Zoom meetings and wearing masks, Noah stealthily attacks various social-isms, including racism, nationalism, etc., and questions if things were really better before lock-downs.
Produced by Live Nation, Noah’s “Back to Abnormal Tour” revolves around the Covid-19 pandemic with the repeated refrain, “I want to get back to the way things were.” But while jeering about Zoom meetings and wearing masks, Noah stealthily attacks various social-isms, including racism, nationalism, etc., and questions if things were really better before lock-downs.
Noah is from South Africa and is considered the most successful comedian in Africa. His No. 1 New York Times bestseller, “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood,” has received the Thurber Prize for American Humor, two NAACP Image Awards and has sold more than one million copies across all formats. The Audible edition of his book, performed by Noah, remains one of the top-selling, highest-rated and most commented-on Audible performances of all time.
“The Daily Show” catapulted Noah to late-night TV acclaim with its interactive and engaging social and digital experiences, podcasts, scripted and unscripted packages and biofilms on notable figures. In 2021 “The Daily Show” was ranked the No. 1 most engaging late-night show with more than 118 million engagements, 2 billion views across platforms and 3.3 billion minutes consumed on YouTube. LL
Related reading
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of “The Daily Show” began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Popular podcast
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: Ears Edition
Listen to highlights and extended interviews in the “Ears Edition” of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, from Comedy Central’s podcast network.
Fast facts
• Noah, whose net worth is estimated at $100 million, is biracial and was born in Johannesburg during apartheid when it was illegal for different races to engage in sexual relations.
• Noah, who will be turning 38 this year, debuted on TV with a cameo in one of South Africa’s biggest soap operas, Isidingo, when he was just 18.
• Noah is fluent in English, German, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana and Tsonga.
• In April 2018 Noah launched The Trevor Noah Foundation, a youth development initiative that empowers youth with the foundation for a better life: access to high-quality education. Noah’s vision is a world where an education enables youth to dream, see and build the impossible.
• According to various media reports, Noah recently listed his $29.75 million, 11,000-square-foot Bel Air mansion for sale in California. He owns a $10 million penthouse in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood and is renting his Tribeca neighborhood home for $52,000 a month.
• Noah has written, produced and starred in 11 comedy specials, including “Trevor Noah: Son of Patricia,” on Netflix that received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Variety Show as well as a Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album.