Trevor Noah Live

I have been a fan of Trevor Noah since he replaced Jon Stewart as the head of The Daily Show. No, Trevor is NOT Jon Stewart, but I've found him to have his own unique brand of thoughtful hilarity. And so I jumped at the chance to see him perform at the Homecoming celebration at UMBC, my alma mater. He is also doing an upcoming performance at the Hippodrome in Baltimore, but tickets started at $80, whereas tickets to the UMBC show were $35. Plus UMBC is after all my alma mater. Although I had forgotten just how uncomfortable the seats in UMBC's RAC Arena are, seeing Trevor perform live in so personal a setting was well worth it. It also gave me the opportunity to meet a current study-abroad student from England.

While Trevor's stand-up act is different from his satire of current events on The Daily Show, he did touch upon politics and current events, from the recent "once-in-a-lifetime" hurricanes (how many lifetimes are we living?!) to, yes, Donald Trump (where his refrain was Donald...J... Trump. - who IS this guy?). He also brought his unique experience as a South African to his sketch, addressing issues ranging from British vs. American English to racism.

One of Trevor Noah's gifts seems to be his ability to address the difficult topics that make us uncomfortable with humor, insight and nuance. On the topic of racism, he did just that. His "no immigrants=no spice" argument is crying out to be made into a poster. We also learned why a South America might have a different reaction to being called the N-word than an African-American. (In a South African language, the word for "to give" is pronounced similarly, so yes, "nigga" was used liberally in his sketches).

But for me, the most side-splittingly funny bit of the night was Trevor's (likely exaggerated) tale of his first time eating tacos. It began with his California surfer-friend's reaction to his confession of being a "taco virgin" (Dude, you've never had tacos? You mean to tell me you've NEVER had TACOS?!) and continued with his bewilderment over the concept being served food from a truck. The story reached a height with his shock and disgust over being offered a napkin with his tacos...you see, in South Africa a napkin is what Americans refer to as a diaper.

The entire act managed to capture the hilarity in these type of "lost in translation" experiences. These, along with accents and impressions, are also gifts of Trevor Noah's. Even if you aren't a fan of the Daily Show, the man is very funny and well worth seeing live.