It was
a no Last Week Tonight, no Daily Show week, so have a review of
another Trevor Noah standup special (thanks, YouTube.)
Filmed
in Johannesburg, this special starts out really
similar to Noah’s Lost in Translation
show from Comedy Central. He opens with
the same riff on “woohoo,” touches on the same idea of Black people’s fractious
history with the police, and tells the same story about his mother and
grandmother’s reactions to him getting the Daily
Show gig. At first, I thought it was
going to be the same basic show, albeit in slightly different packaging; I like
his comment that white people don’t have the problem of going to jail “by
mistake,” and I think it’s interesting that, in the anecdote about his mom, his
mentions his younger brother being named “head prefect” at school, while in the
American-made Lost in Translation, he
says his brother’s made “student council.”
After
the first 10-15 minutes, though, it’s entirely different, mostly fantastic
material. He has an amusing riff on
smartphones, complete with a dramatic reenactment of a woman taking a “candid”
selfie. He discusses South African
president Jacob Zuma’s latest scandal and how he’s rebounded from it – I love
Noah’s delight at Zuma making fun of the way someone else talks, and his speculation about how Zuma learned to eyeroll
is great. I pretty much always enjoy
Noah’s observations about interactions between different cultures, and he has
some nice material on accents here, doing a terrific routine on the origins of
the South African Indian accent as well as drawing clear distinctions between
someone’s accent and their level of intelligence.
Speaking
of accents, it turns out Noah’s chief edict from his countrymen before joining The Daily Show was not to lose his. My favorite part of the special is an extended
sequence about The Daily Show’s
effect on his life at home and in the States.
He describes himself as “well-known” rather than “famous” and tells the
crowd about his experiences being invited to celebrity events. From the chaotic nightmare of the red carpet,
to “rubbing shoulders with” people who have no idea who he is, to desperately
trying not to fanboy in front of everyone he’s ever idolized, it’s an excellent
picture of what it’s like to have just gotten his first seat at the table.
The
other long routine I love is a story about South Africa’s frequent
load-shedding (rolling blackouts.)
Returning to South Africa from New York, Noah can’t get past the
electric gate for his own house due to a power out, and he muses on the perils
of trying to jump his fence before getting swallowed by the soul-crushing
exercise of ringing up a government department.
The references here are South-Africa-specific, but trying to call a
bureaucracy isn’t. Between the automated
voice, the endless hold music, and the completely-unhelpful live operator who
picks up just when Noah has lost all hope of ever speaking to another human
again, the anecdote is both totally South African and absolutely universal.
Overall,
I think Lost in Translation is still the
best I’ve seen so far, but this special is super funny, really personable, and
a lot of fun.
Warnings
No comments:
Post a Comment