As Trevor Noah winds down his final days at The Daily Show (which has already included a headline-making interview with Barack Obama) the late night host hasn’t been shy about his desire to get back to his one true passion: Stand-up comedy. In fact, Noah already got a jump on his career pivot by dropping a brand new Netflix special, I Wish You Would.
While promoting his third special for the streamer, Noah recently opened up about his decision to leave The Daily Show, and it’s hard to not get the feeling that he’s tired of talking about politics. In fairness, Noah started his run on the show during the rise of Donald Trump, which begat a whirlwind administration followed by a global pandemic and an insurrection. That’ll wear a guy out. Via The Hollywood Reporter:
Stand-up has always been a wonderful outlet for me because The Daily Show exists in a hyper-political space. In my opinion, contrary to popular belief, I don’t think people should exist constantly in politics. I don’t think it’s healthy. I don’t think every conversation should lead with, “Who did you vote for?” Or, “Did you see what happened in Florida?” If you start conversations with politics, people have very few ways to connect because it’s one of the more divisive topics we have. In my humble opinion, that’s part of the problem in America: politics has become like sports and everyone is engaged in it, so there are fewer and fewer cultural touchpoints that people share now.
As Noah expanded on his love of stand-up, which he literally plans on doing until he dies on stage, the outgoing Daily Show host shared that he’s looking to a more nuanced approach to topics.
“I think we forget that we’re also having human experiences,” Noah said. “In my comedy, especially in this period of time, I want to share with an audience the idea that we can have more grace for each other and we can understand that people can make mistakes and good people can do bad things — and that doesn’t necessarily mean we have to define them as just bad or just good. I think life is a lot more nuanced and complicated.”
Trevor Noah: I Wish You Would is now available for streaming on Netflix.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)