Trevor Noah: Where Was I

Firstly, I miss Trevor so very much. Quick-witted and brilliant and more worldly than people three times his age. "Where Was I", was less stand-up and more of story telling experience; perhaps, a little TED-talky. I laughed a lot and loved his affable silliness; his impressions are world-class. He did kept it pretty light and could have elaborated a bit more on a few issues where I felt he skirted them a bit. I won't give anything away; you'll have to be the judge. Nothing earth shattering was introduced which is a bit unusually for Trevor. He is the rare comedian with the chops and the intelligence to pull off "Earth-Shattering". But... if I'm honest... I don't always want my earth shattered by a comedian. (BTW... if you haven't read Born a Crime... you should. ;-)

I'm a huge fan of Trevor Noah and any of his Standup programs are a must-watch for me. But as this one went on, I kept asking myself more and more if he had always been this obsessed with low-bar "us and them" jokes. Yeah, he always had the occasional funny stereotype, but in this one, he seems to be playing to the lowest common denominator.

Case in point - I don't recall Trevor using this many "guy, that's how women are, right?" and "ladies, that's how men are, right?" bits in his shows. It's lowest-common-denominator humor creeping into a show that has all the world-aware potential to be much more.

As someone who has read his autobiography "Born a Crime", I also can't help but raise an eyebrow at his anecdotes of his youth. Now, don't get me wrong - a stand-up comedian has to embellish, that's his job. But it seems that Trevor has stripped every little bit of his South African childhood from his routine, not even acknowledging it and instead trying his hardest to make everything relatable to the American reality. There's nothing to learn here, only a somewhat tired filed-down, safe bit.

Speaking of embellishment, there are also outright incorrect statements here. Trevor is a Comedian who usually helps you learn stuff. He tends to talk about other countries in a way that's funny, but also educational. In this show, he outright mistranslates the German national anthem (because the actual translation wouldn't be a good punchline) along with several other factual misses. This puzzled me - I've never been aware of seeing him do that.

Ultimately, I feel confident still giving five stars based on Trevor's personality and the wit that sometimes shines through. It's entertaining enough, but I found this special extremely disappointing. From beginning to end, it feels like Trevor is running down a safe routine for an American audience that's not aware of his work so far. As a fan, I hope that this doesn't herald a new approach to his material.

From detroit michigan, after hosting the daily show for so long. That must have been difficult to give up. A sixty eight minute standup special on netflix. He touches briefly on the dark history of germany. The history of columbus day in the united states. The use of public bathrooms.. by anyone! Gay marriage. Star wars. Germany and its new national anthem. Funny stuff. Cheerleaders and their past dating life. Lost luggage, and being left behind by his mother. Shopping in paris. And why there are so many tornados in the midwest. Trevor's history, and how he came to be where he is now. It's pretty funny! Directed by david meyer, also a long timer at the daily show.

Yes, its not over the top hilarious and Trevor Noah took his time to tell the first joke but it was enjoyable.

Its not your typical cuss words, swearing, Eff this, Eff that stand up routine... Its an intellectual and well-written show which you can enjoy with the whole family.

Also, if you are familiar with Trevor Noah's work - he always has the political, national theme to his work even before The Daily Show.

It is clean, well-written with some hard hitting facts which honestly comedian deliver way better than any of the politicians or people claiming to be on the "right" side of the things and an hour well spent.

This guy is awesome. He is one of the comedians i always enjoy because his stand ups are always so clean and so pure and smart. No swear words or vurglar language. Also the humor is not based on sexist jokes about women but really smart points on how he views the world. This one is based on jokes about countries and people all over the world and once again i give it 10/10 because he does not try to force the jokes, but he's genuine and really careful with words, which modern stand up comedy is missing. It's been a long time since i laughed with a stand up more than 5 times throughout the show, but this one did the trick. It's hard to be genuine nowadays and i hope Trevor Noah does not change his style of being respectfully funny.