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TREVOR NOAH: LOST IN TRANSLATION The new Daily Show host proves that his stand-up career is blessed with quality
When South African stand-up Trevor Noah arrived in Edinburgh three years ago, backed by the heavy endorsement of Eddie Izzard, it was clear that he was a quality act who was going places. But few people would have guessed that at the end of his next Fringe trip, he’d be preparing to host the world’s number one satirical news programme. Taking over from Jon Stewart as the anchor for The Daily Show is perhaps an unenviably impossible task (some wags have suggested that he’s all set for a fall as an inadequate David Moyes-type figure who won’t be able to fill the void left by an all-conquering ‘Sir Alex Ferguson’). Whatever his future holds (and if those digging around Twitter for dirt have quite finished?), we
should be grateful for one last opportunity to witness a stand-up who has gone very far in a relatively short space of time. His 2012 debut show, The Racist, was a beautifully
scripted and wonderfully performed true tale of being born mixed race in a nation that was still six years away from even starting to topple the worst excesses of apartheid. With Lost in Translation, societal and racial matters may still be part of his mix while if anyone is savvy enough to have a new spin on old material (Oscar Pistorius?), it’ll be Trevor Noah. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Trevor Noah: Lost in Translation, Assembly Hall, 623 3030, 28–30 Aug, 10.30pm, £15 (£14).
20–31 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 35