[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]