Comedy to the Rescue – The Art of Trevor Noah and Neal Brennan

Everyone loves the idea of the Christmas holidays.  In the United States, whatever your religion or heritage, they’re an opportunity to be in the company of people you care about under a banner of celebration.  It’s also a season of giving.  Add the whirlwind of parties, dinners and pressures of shopping, Christmas, for all its wonder, comes with its own set of stressors.

Comedy offers a well appreciated detour, an off ramp that lets you decompress and regroup through humor.  Thanks to streaming services like Netflix, it’s easy to sink into a comfortable cut and take appraisal of the world from smart, observant people whose special talent is being funny.  Their view of the world isn’t intended to guide us; but they certainly give us a clearer picture of what we’re contending with from one day to the next.  Comedians lighten the heart by tapping into feelings we all have in common.  Their bravery gives them the power of honesty.  Sometimes it’s raw and sometimes it’s hard, but when it used to illuminate a beneficial or healing truth, the humor of our jesters strengthens all of us.

Trevor Noah and Neal Brennan may approach comedy from very different directions, but they’re still good friends who have tremendous respect for one anothers work.  Their appreciation for each other goes back long before Noah took over The Daily Show seven years ago. At the time they crossed paths in California doing stand-up, they were both making about $300 a show on the LA comedy circuit.  Fast forward to today, and both now have wonderfully entertaining comedy specials running on Netflix. 

Noah’s I Wish You Would special kicked off right around the time he announced he’d be leaving his post at The Daily Show.  A boyish looking 38, the innocence he projects is soon swept away by the acuteness of his intelligence and the power of perceptions of the modern life.    Of course, he’s all over the place, giving us a peek at how a global entertainment force occupies space while he’s making his observations that help sharpen our cultural senses.  The show’s full of dialects and Noah impersonating his easiest target, Trump.   But in his free-wheeling extended routine, he also shows how precisely he can hone in on the tonal nuances of Obama and Biden.  Not only does he get their sound just right, he brings them to life by catching the subtlety that defines how they express themselves.  The effect is so startling it’s like getting an electric shock.   

The personal spin he takes when talking about preparing for a visit with his father wasn’t expected either. But it shows how life can be confronted in all its complexity and still end in a smile or a laugh.  The comedian bragged how well his learning German was going and told how much he was looking forward to impressing his Swiss Dad with his proficiency.  It was hilarious hearing Noah parody himself speaking German.  Through the skit, the art of comedy came through in high relief.  Stand up is simply a series of stories someone tells that very often end in a moral or lesson.  Comedians wrap them in adventure, takes them to surprising places of revelation and, as a bonus, makes us laugh in the process.    It’s that place of laughter where the shared humanity sits most visibly.  All comedians aren’t as effective as Mr. Noah when building these little jewel boxes of mirth.   His beginnings, middles and ends tend to be as tight as the security around Ft. Knox.  But in I Wish You Would, we learned the wily comedian can even outdo himself. 

Using his love of Indian food as his launchpad, he told a beautiful story about growing up as a child in South Africa with his best friend, a little Indian boy who brought his homemade lunch to school every day.  According to Noah, his own mother wasn’t a great cook and so he paid for his cafeteria lunch.  Trading lunches gave the comedian his first taste of India’s fascinating culinary legacy.  The story grew and moved to the present day with Noah taking a clutch of friends to an “authentic” Indian restaurant in Scotland.  Someplace he could show off his knowledge of his favorite cuisine by ordering for everyone. To absurdly gild the rose, he used his Indian accent.  There’s something irresistibly appealing about someone who makes fun of themselves and Noah’s soiree into self-deprecation displayed ruthlessness and brilliance.  Finely crafted and beautifully drawn, the skit about Indian food folded in the language of contemporary life, the dynamics of friendship and the folly of ego to show us how deeply we’re connected.  Not a bad gift to tap into at Christmas or any other time of year. 

Neal Brennan’s comedy digs into the inner person and finds comedy in the doubts and worries millions of us share.  A comedian who’s very much in touch with his personal turmoil, Brennan invests the time to turn the things that concern him around in his mind, pluck out the irony of our existence and turn it into knowing laughter. One of his greatest skills is to find a punch line in poignancy.   In his comedy special Blocks, he uses symbols representing issues at the forefront of our minds and puts them under the Brennan spotlight.  Guns, the opposite sex, weed, politics and much more get a turn on his examination table.  Vulnerability never looked so clear headed or sparked so much understanding compassion.  A co-creator on the Chappelle show,  Brennan’s genius is the way he can package his insights to produce humor that singes our core.

You could say that comedians like Trevor Noah and Neal Brennan are part of an indispensable culture of truth. They say things that entice us to enter places we might not venture into on our own.   Their courage to remove their armor and be honest about what they see frees all of us to be more honest and open people. 

Trevor Noah – I Wish You Would

Neal Brennan – Blocks

both currently running on Netflix