Trevor Noah postpones December shows, including his SDSU and Pechanga performances

San Diego Union-Tribune

Dec. 5, 2018 5:20 PM PT

It’s no laughing matter. Comedian and TV host Trevor Noah has had to cancel at least six of his December tour date performances because of severe vocal problems that prevent him — at least for now — from speaking.

His postponed dates include one at San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena on Dec. 15 and two — an early show and a late show — at Pechanga Resort & Casino on Dec. 14.

No new dates have been set yet, but tickets for the postponed shows will be valid for the new dates or can be refunded at point of purchase.

According to a press release issued by Pechanga, “due to vocal issues and under the direction of a health professional, Noah has had to make the difficult decision to postpone his remaining 2018 tour dates.”

However, the South African native’s website indicates that — while he has postponed six U.S. shows this month — his sold-out DB Arena performance on Dec. 21 in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates has not been postponed, at least not yet.

In a post on his Twitter page, Noah indicated he was “postponing all this year’s stand up shows.” To do otherwise, he wrote, would risk “losing my voice forever.” (His full tweet appears below.)

This past weekend saw Noah host the Global Citizen Festival: “Mandela 100” in Johannesburg, after which he taped a special episode of his late-night show from his South African hometown. He lost his voice somewhere between there and returning to New York, where his late-night TV program, “The Daily Show,” airs from a Manhattan studio.

Tuesday’s show saw him appear on “The Daily Show” set at its regularly scheduled broadcast time. However, he was unable to speak, which led to four of his show’s correspondents stepping in for him, as Noah sat wordlessly beside them at his desk.

Here is his full tweet:

george.varga@sduniontribune.com

Twitter @georgevarga

Arts | Culture

George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”