An arena headlining stand-up in his native South Africa, Trevor Noah has started to make waves internationally and in recent times has landed coveted appearances on the likes of The Tonight Show, The David Letterman Show and, in the UK, QI and 8 Out Of 10 Cats. With an increasingly impressive CV, and an engaging style of observational humour – of which an uncanny gift for mimicry is a notable feature – Noah has all the credentials to make a sizeable impact in 2014.
Later this month, he arrives in Dublin for a date at Vicar Street, where he will perform his show The Racist. Despite the attention-grabbing title, the comic says race isn’t a particularly strong theme of the evening.
“I chose the title because that was what was on my mind when I first created it in Edinburgh,” explains Noah, more measured in person than his larky stage persona might suggest. “I thought it was a catchy title and that I may as well go with it. It’s not a controversial show by any means – they’re really light-hearted stories about South Africa and myself in the world, whether it’s London, Ireland or wherever I may be. It’s not based on race, but it’s one of the themes I’ve chosen to play with in this show.”
Observations about South Africa play a big part in Noah’s superbly-honed comedy (he does a particularly brilliant Jacob Zuma impression), and of course the country found itself in the news internationally recently following the death of Nelson Mandela, whose funeral took place the day before our interview. What did Trevor make of the occasion?
“I thought it was a fitting farewell to a great statesman and leader of a nation,” he opines. “I think it was a good balance of sadness and happiness; it embodied everything that the nation felt about him.”
Himself a native of Johannesburg, Noah notes that the city shares many of the cosmopolitan aspects of places like London and New York, although poverty remains a legacy of South Africa’s difficult history.
“It has that similarity to major cities in terms of the hustle and bustle,” he observes. “All the businesses are there, it’s a financial hub, and that’s what it’s all about. But yeah, there’s a lot of poverty in South Africa. For many years, you had
a majority of a nation that was subjected to and forced into poverty. So, it’s a taking long time to correct that, and it’ll take many generations to get it even close to where it needs to be.”
Interestingly, during 2013 Noah did a three-month tour of Africa. How did he find the experience?
“It went fantastic,” he enthuses. “It’s my home continent, you know? The places are slightly different, but you learn about the people everywhere you go. I try and do as many countries as I can. I’ve done South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia – wherever I can go, I try and take the show. The stand-up scene is growing, there’s comedians popping up everywhere. Obviously it’s not as big as it is in the UK or the US, but it’s expanding which is great to see.
“There’s a lot of comedians coming up in South Africa itself. The styles are changing, the performers are evolving – it’s become something really special in the country and that’s been wonderful to witness as well.”
As mentioned earlier, Noah has been making inroads Stateside, appearing on a couple of the big talk shows. How did his Letterman slot go?
“It was fun,” he recalls. “It’s very short, which is always difficult, and it’s very broad, but other than that, it’s great. It goes away as quickly as it came about. In terms of how it happened, I was in New York doing gigs for two months, and the producers wanted to find out if I’d like to come and do the show. I mean, why wouldn’t you? I’d already done Leno, and not many guys get to do both Leno and Letterman.”
Noah has also been developing a sitcom with Overbrook, the production company owned by Will Smith (“We haven’t met – we just work together,” he laughs), although the project remains in its early stages.
“We’re working on something right now, but nothing’s ever guaranteed,” he says cautiously. “We’ve penned a deal with Fox and we’re looking to make something work out. It could happen and it may not happen, but we worked very hard and long on it. I developed it with the writers while I was there. We pitched it to the studios and worked through that, so that’s something we’ve been building on. We’re looking to get it to the pilot stage, so we’re still in the very early stages. But there’s no rush.”
He may be moving in glamorous TV circles, but perhaps unsurprisingly, the understated Noah is a bit underwhelmed by the LA lifestyle.
“It’s not the must fun city in the world, I won’t lie,” he shrugs. “It’s very industry-driven and not very real, so it’s not one of my favourite places to go. I think I’m more of a New York person.”
Having toured hectically during 2013, Noah plans to take a breather in January – Vicar Street date excepted of course – to plot his next move. Interestingly, the comedian remains based in South Africa whilst continuing to grow his profile
internationally, spending around half of each year in his home country. This means he frequently finds himself departing winter in the northern hemisphere for summer in the south, which presumably is a bit of a headwrecker.
“It is sometimes, especially if you go at the peak,” nods Noah. “You’ll leave a snow-covered London and fly into a 35-degree South Africa, which can totally throw you. You pack accordingly because your suitcase literally becomes obsolete between continents. It’s something you just have to get used to!”