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Call it the Live at the Apollo Effect. Or the QI Effect. Recent appearances by affable South African Trevor Noah have boosted his popularity to the point that he is now extending this tour. America likes him too. Next up is a sitcom pilot made by Will Smith's production company.
Noah’s well-crafted performance mixes the observational with the autobiographical. The opening section is mostly about dodgy phone signals, funny spellings of English cities and banter about the lack of sun here.
This softens up the crowd for the second half in which he talks about growing up under apartheid with a white father and black mother: “I was born a crime,” he explains.
In this handsome entertainer’s skilful hands even racism becomes funny. He thought he might be seen as black on a visit to America but was mistaken for a Mexican. Nobody sugars the political pill like Noah, whose relaxed manner puts everybody at ease. Hard-hitting stories, such as one about verbal abuse in Nashville, end in smart punchlines and smiles all round.
There are distinctive gentle anecdotes too. A typically engaging tale recalls a trip to Zambia where locals were excited about a new shopping centre escalator: “The mall was empty, the escalator was full.” Everyone was going up and down. There is no doubt which direction Noah is heading.
Hammersmith Apollo, W6, Saturday; Shepherds Bush Empire, W12, January 22 and 24 (0844 844 0444, ticketmaster.co.uk)
