Trevor Noah, Off The Record Tour, OVO Hydro, Glasgow. Tuesday 21st November 2023

I have history with Trevor Noah. 

The first time I saw him was in 2012 at the Soho Theatre in London for his show,The Racist. I particularly remember it because we arrived early and were near the front of the queue only to discover when we got to the downstairs door that my email confirmation of ticket purchase was insufficient for entrance. I had to go back up the stairs to the box office to pick up the actual tickets while the rest of the massive queue for the sold-out show filed into the room. Fortunately, the bouncer let my then-girlfriend in to save us two seats. That gig was rowdy but still brilliant. You could see even then why he was such a success back home in South Africa. 

I was next due to see him at the SEC Armadillo in 2015 but that tour was cancelled when he was offered (and accepted) hosting duties on The Daily Show, taking over from Jon Stewart.

Tonight's gig was originally scheduled for Wednesday, 9 September 2020 but it got rearranged because of the Pandemic. A number of dates were cancelled altogether but he managed to avoid that for Glasgow. I wondered if it was because he felt bad at cancelling last time but more likely it was because the only tickets remaining at that time were Platinum ones at £145 a pop. 

A lot can happen in three years. For one thing, the show's title changed a couple of times so I had no idea what material he would perform tonight. 

I hadn't paid for Platinum tickets but was happy enough with my seats in the third row of block 004. I kinda forgot that sitting on the left that close to the stage meant having to turn your neck at a 45-degree angle for most of the show. It would be great if the seats swivelled.

The other downside to having seats so near the front is you get to leave the arena last. Everyone else is in front of you on the way out. 

Before the show, two young girls sat in front of us in row B. They were black and chatty and Face Timed their momma to show her where they were sitting and tell her how excited they were. They were still on the phone to her when the people who'd paid for those seats turned up. The girls should have been in row BB, not B. The now-involved security man had to escort them to their own seats. If only they had just moved over when the attendees approached them, they could have stayed at the front because it appeared that not many of the Platinum seats had sold, the front row remaining fairly barren. My wife remarked that maybe those ticket holders hadn't survived the postponement, a joke also made later by Trevor.

His support act was Wil Sylvince, a New York comic, who swaggered onto the stage to warm us up for fifteen minutes. He was surprised to discover how many non-white people had come along, something that surprised me too. It was very much a multicultural audience with every race represented, much more varied than my usual gig experience. That reflected Trevor's inclusive demographic, appealing to everyone. Wil reminded me of Richard Pryor in that most of his material centred on him being black and the experiences that arose from that. He did his job well.

Trevor is such a brilliant stand-up, he makes it look so effortless. He just tells stories about his funny encounters, using his talents for mimicry to depict all the people he meets, such as the Glasgow ned who wanted a photo, the London airport security jobsworth who hassled him over his unprinted boarding pass, the Parisien airline employee who persuaded him he didn't need his lost luggage, and the Berlin tour guide, who cringed every time Trevor asked him what the building was used for before. In less experienced hands, his accents could become racist caricatures but he does them so well that he ensures we identify with them as a person not as a people. 

Towards the end, he invited questions from the audience. After receiving a few non-question call-outs, with him having to explain what he meant by a question, he regaled us with a few more stories explaining his answer or opinion. It might have been rehearsed material, part of his set, but it didn't feel that way. It felt more like bonus material, akin to his Behind The Scenes segments on the Daily Show. He was giving us our money's worth after having waited so long to see him.

A great show, with him performing for around one hour forty-five, finishing at 10.30 pm.

As is my thing, I like to report on the people around me. This time two black women were seated on my left. One had a neat bob and the other, the one beside me, had a dreadlock beehive that tumbled over her right shoulder like twisty brown lava from a volcano. She was big and wasn't shy about sharing my personal space, her elbow rubbing against my love handle whenever she moved, for example when she stuffed her face with chips or reached down for her pint. Not that I could smell either substance as her scent overpowered everything. As Raymond Chandler could have written, "The dame smelled like vanilla but she was chocolate through and through". The pair had such a laugh, in hysterics at everything Trevor said. They kept commenting on his jokes as if they were appearing on Gogglebox. The nearer one even took to shouting out Trevoah at the end of each big laugh as if that was his nickname, not just how she pronounced his name. I'm sure they must have thought the whities beside them were awfully reserved and didn't know how to enjoy themselves. But we did. We just did it in our own way, along with all the other cultures in attendance. 

Ticket Price: £113.50 plus £5.95 Collector Ticket from Ticket Master. 

(The collector ticket was a plastic card that clipped onto a black lanyard, with the seat details on one side and the ticket barcode on the other, along with the SSE Hydro logo - yes, they were sent out that long ago, when the venue still had the old sponsor)  

Tour Poster