'The Daily Show' Tackles Chicago's Pizza, Rat Problems & Youth Violence On 2nd Night In Town

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 18, 2017 2:05PM

Trevor Noah in Chicago, image courtesy Comedy Central. Photo Credit: Getty Images.

Trevor Noah's jaunt to Chicago with The Daily Show in tow has so far covered the same ground other visiting talk shows have tackled when visiting the city, while managing to inject what could be tired observations with a new energy. We were at Tuesday night's taping and were struck with how simultaneously cool and at ease Noah was as he warped the news comedy show from its usual behind-the-desk setting into something that felt more like a sharply focused stand-up routine.

Noah's personality is an outlier in the late night landscape, mixing a cool outward reserve with an incredibly quick mind and mannered delivery that lends a delightful sharpness to his observations. It's this approach that aids he and his team in finding new ways into topics others have done to death. Like the great New York versus Chicago pizza debate. Daily Show correspondent Ronny Chieng is no fan of deep dish, but he found himself converted to one style of Chicago-based pizza: the pizza created by the inmates at Cook County Jail as part of that institution's Recipe For Change training program.

The NYC vs. Windy City rivalry was also touched upon at the top of the show, as Noah celebrated Chicago's rise to the top as the "rattiest" city in America. We should warn you that the next clip also begins with a bit of humor about the Cubs latest drive towards piling on additional championship accolades, since this might sting a little in light of last night's final score. And to be fair, the joke that appeared in the show wasn't quite as funny as one Noah told during a later commercial break wherein he observed Cubs fans were no like one-time virgins who have now experienced the wonders of sex: You begin by begging for the wondrous act to happen just once, but once it does, you want it to happen "forever!"

While most of The Daily Show guests this week pile on the more obvious star power—Common, Lena Waithe, Vic Mensa—last night's interview guests offered a powerful and timely look into how some people on the ground are countering violence amongst Chicago's youth through the CRED program. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Curtis Toler joined Noah to talk about the roots of some Chicago violence, and included a powerful admission (that didn't make it into the broadcast but is included in the extended interview below) from Duncan that when he left the Chicago school system to join President Barack Obama's staff, he thought that violence in the Chicago Public School system had hit "rock bottom" and "couldn't get any worse." Obviously he was wrong, and it was his horror at his own naïveté that drive him to get involved with CRED upon his return to Chicago.

Hopefully you take the time to watch the full extended interview above, and once you have, we'll send you off with this final behind the scenes snippet of Noah entertaining the audience between commercial breaks with his impression of "resting Mitch face."

Tickets for the Chicago run on The Daily Show are long since sold out, but you can still get a taste of the program by visiting The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library this weekend when it visits the Great Hall at 225 Canal St. from Oct. 20 to 22.