Last week the family hopped on a plane and took a little vacation. What’s unusual about this is that we decided to stay within the U.S. and explore an American city this time. The kids, even though they’ve traveled throughout Europe, have never been to New York City. We decided to remedy that. 



Before we left, I had reserved tickets for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Unfortunately, the only day available was the day we arrived and we had to be at the studio to check in by 2:30. Our flight arrived in Newark on time and our driver was waiting to take us to our hotel, so that was good…but, of course, we had to deal with the traffic. By the time we arrived at the hotel, we had just enough time to dump our bags in our rooms before catching a cab and heading to the studio…through more crazy, city traffic. We arrived at the studio at 2:28! But we made it. We got our tickets and ran to get a quick slice of pizza before the show started because we were starving!

Once we arrived back at the studio, we waited in line a bit more and then a guy came out to tell us about the rules. We would be allowed to use the bathroom before entering the studio, but once in the studio there would be no leaving (so no more bathroom breaks).  Chewing gum was not allowed. Nor was eating or drinking. 

After our bathroom break, we went through security (just like at the airport) and then into the studio. 

We sat for a while and some guy came and explained what would happen, and what was expected of us (lots of enthusiasm and applause – not too hard to do!) and eventually, the warm-up comic, Angelo Lozada, came out. He was very funny and interacted with the audience quite a bit, even us! At one point he asked people from out of town to raise their hands and then he called on Tim. When he asked him what he did for a living, and Tim answered “airline pilot,” he was off with a whole thing about pilots. And, if you know Tim, you know he had some funny responses. He asked Tim who he was with, meaning…at the show….and Tim answered with the name of his airline. That got a good laugh. But eventually he answered his wife and kids and Angelo talked to the kids a bit about their studies at college. Very entertaining!

And then…Trevor came out. And the audience went wild. He spent a bit of time answering questions from the audience and was charming and funny. Tim even got to ask a question, “If you could go back in time to any one day, what would it be?” His answer, after first saying he wasn’t sure about going back in time as history hadn’t always been kind to blacks, was to a year ago when everyone was laughing at the idea of a Trump nomination so he could warn us all to take it seriously. 

And then the show began. And it was great. 

The Daily Show
The Daily Show, part 2 
The Daily Show, part 3