Long before he took over The Daily Show, Trevor Noah was the subject of a 2011 documentary, You Laugh But It’s True, that captured him at the start of his career.
The film followed a 25-year-old Noah as he prepared his first one-man show in South Africa’s small, still-developing stand-up scene, despite having little stage experience. It drew on his childhood in a township under apartheid as the son of a Black mother and a white father, a relationship that was illegal when he was born, and showed the pushback he faced from other comics along the way.
Watched now, it is a fascinating look at a comedian who would go on to sell out arenas around the world, and at the scene he helped put on the map.
Sources: Maysles Documentary Center.
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