Trevor Noah played three consecutive nights at London’s O2 Arena in November 2023 – Thursday 23rd, Friday 24th, and Saturday 25th – as part of his Off The Record world tour. Doors opened at 6:30pm each evening, with Noah taking the stage at 8pm. The set ran approximately one hour and 45 minutes to two hours without an interval. Tickets were priced from around £52 to £152 through AXS, the O2’s official ticketing partner, with remaining seats limited to less desirable locations by show week.
The South African comedian, born Trevor Noah on 20 February 1984 in Johannesburg, grew up in Soweto during the final years of apartheid. His mother was a Xhosa woman and his father a white Swiss man – their relationship was illegal under South African law at the time of his birth. The Interracial Morality Act was amended in 1985, a year after Noah was born, but his early childhood was shaped by the need to conceal his parentage from authorities. He has spoken publicly about being hidden from police as a biracial child, since mixed-race children were routinely removed from their families under apartheid legislation.
Noah began performing stand-up in South Africa in 2002 and hosted several television programmes before breaking into the American market. He joined Comedy Central’s The Daily Show as a correspondent in December 2014, and in March 2015 was announced as Jon Stewart’s replacement as host. His tenure began on 28 September 2015 and lasted seven seasons, during which the show accumulated a record seven Emmy nominations in a single year. Noah left in late 2022, citing a desire to return to live comedy and touring after spending two years performing from his apartment during the pandemic.
His 2021 O2 shows carried particular significance: Noah was the first comedian to perform at the 20,000-capacity venue after COVID-19 restrictions lifted, playing two dates in September 2021 as part of his Back to Abnormal tour. The O2, which opened in 2007 on the Greenwich Peninsula, is the world’s busiest indoor arena and sold over 1.2 million tickets in 2023 alone. Billboard named it “Venue of the Decade” for the 2020s.
The Off The Record tour was a departure from Noah’s previous politically charged material. Reviews described the show as observational comedy drawn from his globe-trotting lifestyle – routines about business-class armrest disputes, a Mexican man insisting Noah must speak Spanish, impressions of insouciant French workers, and his trademark Donald Trump impression, which The Artsdesk called “a gurnathon beyond your wildest dreams.” The Guardian noted that the material was assembled from countries Noah had visited during the tour itself, while The Standard observed that “some entertainers milk the same shorter set for years” but Noah delivered entirely new material since his last London visit. His warm-up act was Wil Sylvince, a Haitian-American comedian.
A set from the Off The Record tour became Noah’s fourth Netflix stand-up special, Where Was I, released in 2023. It received a 2025 Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album, as well as Emmy nominations for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special. Noah has been nominated for four Grammys across his career: Son of Patricia (2019), I Wish You Would (2022), Where Was I (2025), and Into the Uncut Grass (2026).
Noah’s Grammy hosting record is unmatched among contemporary comedians. He has presented the ceremony six consecutive years – from 2021 through 2026 – with the 2026 edition billed as his final time. Only Andy Williams, who hosted seven times in the 1970s, has hosted more frequently. Under Noah’s stewardship, Grammy ratings recovered from a pandemic-era low of 8.8 million viewers in 2021 to 16.9 million by 2025.
His publishing career runs parallel to comedy. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, published in November 2016, became a number one New York Times bestseller and has sold over 3 million copies across all formats. The Audible edition, performed by Noah, remains one of the platform’s highest-rated audiobooks. A film adaptation starring Lupita Nyong’o as his mother has been announced. In October 2024, Noah released Into the Uncut Grass, an illustrated children’s book about a child’s journey beyond the boundaries of home, which debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list and was nominated for a Grammy in the spoken word category.
Following the O2 dates, Noah has continued to perform in London at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith – three shows in June 2025 and a further three in December 2025. Ticket prices for the Eventim Apollo ranged from £46.25 to £266.50 for VIP packages that included signed copies of Into the Uncut Grass and a pre-show cocktail hour. Doors for those shows open at 7pm, with the performance starting at 8pm. Noah’s 2026 international tour dates include shows in Bend, Oregon (July), and South African dates in Pretoria (September) and Cape Town (September) as part of the Bafunny Bafunny comedy festival.
