Trevor Noah has spent a lot of time on the road lately. Since wrapping up his tenure as host of The Daily Show last year, the comedian has been hopping between continents to perform standup in some of the world’s greatest and most fascinating cities, from Berlin and Tokyo to Glasgow and Paris. His travels have also, unsurprisingly, given him more material to work with—much of which he explores in his new Netflix special, Trevor Noah: Where Was I, released on December 19. Condé Nast Traveler recently caught up with Noah—who also has a new Spotify podcast, What Now? with Trevor Noah, in the pipeline and will be returning as host of the 66th annual Grammy Awards in February—to talk national anthems, South African curries, and why travel has the power to shift our perspectives.
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Which places were you most excited to do a show in?
I was really excited about Paris. I'd spent my whole life wanting to go to Paris, and finally went for the first time a few years ago—I've been dying to go back and do shows since. And I’ve always wanted to do comedy in Japan, so that was on my bucket list as well. Right now I'm selfishly traveling back to the places I enjoy. I'll travel anywhere just to go and have one of my favorite dishes, see one of my favorite sights, or hang out with some of my favorite people.
You mentioned you'd always wanted to do comedy in Japan. I imagine different jokes land differently depending on where you are—for example, something that might bring the house down in Tokyo could fall flat in London. How do you adapt your sets depending on the place, and how do you read an audience culturally during stand up?
To be honest with you, that's the joy and the curse of doing standup all over the world. I think a lot of my audiences have come to know me as a comedian who caters a show to them when I visit their country. So if you see my show in London, and then you see my show in Glasgow, Scotland, it's completely different. There may be a few things that overlap but I really try to create and cater to the place that I'm in. It's hard. I try and do my best to understand all of the cultural nuances, but comedy is all about context. And if you don't have the context, you might find the joke doesn't go the way you'd like it to.
It's a tightrope walk and I think that's what makes stand up comedy fun. Live audiences understand that—it’s an unpredictable drama unfolding in front of your eyes. It's the joy of everybody knowing that they do not know what's going to happen. I think in a world where so many things are prepared, and so many things are reruns or sequels, it's nice to go to a show or attend an event where you don't know what's about to happen next. That’s what I love about stand up comedy.
You get into national anthems in the special. Why are you so fascinated by them and why did you want to poke fun at this type of patriotism?
I find a lot of the ideas that we carry around nationalism to be quite hilarious. It’s understandable, but at the same time pretty ludicrous that everyone has such a strong affinity to a place that they're told that they're from just because somebody else drew lines on a map. And the more I travel, the more I realize how ridiculous the concept is. So when it comes to national anthems or national identity, I'm forever intrigued by how powerfully some of those ideas connect with us and how others fall flat. National anthems are one of the best examples of that: depending on the day, depending on the event, people have an affinity for national anthems that they might not otherwise have. In a world where we have passports I don't know if national anthems are necessary anymore, yet people still do it.
Tell me a little more about how travel challenges your work—not logistically, but in terms of perspective. How does it impact your thinking?
It always makes me aware of the fact that there is no one way to be, and there is no one correct answer to every problem in life. You go from one country to the next and people drive on the other side of the road and they’re traveling in the other side of the car, or they’re eating their meals at different times in different orders. They speak to each other in different tones and in different ways. Traveling is a wonderful way to realize that although you may have been brought up thinking that there is one certain way to do things, there are actually many other ways that are just as valid. I think there's something humbling about experiencing that when you travel to other countries.
At one point in the special you talk about spending time in Berlin, and experiencing how Germany confronts its own difficult past at a time when there's an increasing inclination to bury or deny the darker parts of history, both here in the US and elsewhere. How do you think travel can illuminate and interrogate those notions?
What I love about traveling is that you get to experience history from a different perspective. It's one thing to experience America's history from America's point of view. But what is it like to experience, say, the history of the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese point of view? Or the history of England and America when you're in England? Regardless of where you go, even when the stories overlap as Venn diagrams, and may be pretty similar, there are still slight margins that give you a little insight into how stories and histories are told. Travel allows you to re-hear or relearn a story and understand that somebody else has a different perspective from you of something that shaped the world.
What do you think is South Africa's greatest untold story?
Oh, that's an interesting one. I think one of most fascinating South African stories is of the Zulu battling against the British in what was one of the biggest wars. It's this fascinating tale of how these African warriors, who just had spears and shields, went up against the Queen's army, who were equipped with guns, and put up a pretty valiant effort fighting and defeating the British across multiple battles. It's fascinating to relive moments like that and imagine living in a time when, you know, one country had firearms and another country didn't, and yet they still went to war and it was a close battle. I think that's pretty crazy and most people wouldn't know a story like that.
How can travelers best experience present-day South Africa?
Oh, goodness, if you're a traveler it’s one of the best places to be. I don't think there are many countries in the world that can offer what South Africa does. I'm biased in saying this, but I think it's true. There's just very few places I've been where in one day, you can go for a hike up a mountain, then go for a dip in the ocean, and then go out for a drive to a vineyard somewhere, and then later on that evening have dinner at a world class restaurant. It's everything, whether you want budget or luxury, or to see animals and natural landscapes. I think the country really is blessed in that regard.
And what do you like to do when you go home?
I love to eat! We have some of the best cuisine in the world because it's so mixed. You have Cape Malay, you have Dutch and German influences… You have, really, food from all over the world coming together with some of the best spices. Our curries, Cape Malay curries in particular, are quite special—you won't find South African curries anywhere else. We also have our version of a barbecue called a braai which is a lot more savory and a lot less saucy than American barbecue. People will watch a game or hang out at somebody's house and connect over this delicious flame-grilled food. I've been really lucky—growing up in a country with such a melting pot of cultures and flavors means I’ve always been able to eat almost anything.