Whoo Hoo! Trevor Noah To Serve As Entertainer At Next White House Correspondents Dinner!

Whoo Hoo! Trevor Noah To Serve As Entertainer At Next White House Correspondents Dinner!

"Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, will serve as the entertainer at the next White House Correspondents’ Association dinner when it returns on April 30.

The event is scheduled to make its return after a two year absence, with the 2020 and 2021 dinners canceled due to Covid.

There is expectation that President Joe Biden will attend the event, as had been tradition until President Donald Trump skipped the dinner during the four years of his presidency. The WHCA, in announcing Noah, noted that this year’s dinner “will be the WHCA’s first since 2019 and offer the first opportunity since 2016 for the press and the president to share a few laughs for a good cause.”

Noah also will host the Grammys this year, and he is in the midst of a comedy tour, Back to Abnormal.

“Trevor is an incredible talent who keeps us laughing — and thinking — four nights a week,” Steve Portnoy, the president of the WHCA, said in a statement. “We can’t wait for him to help bring our 100-year Washington tradition ‘Back to Abnormal.’”

Even without Trump, the dinner continued to be a draw for Washington’s media and political insiders, yet Hollywood figures, a fixture when President Barack Obama attended, generally stayed away. This year could see more showbiz personalities, given Biden’s support from the industry in 2020, and the participation of Noah.

The last dinner, in 2019, featured no entertainer and instead was headlined by historian Ron Chernow. The previous year, there was some controversy over performer Michelle Wolf’s biting comedy material, directed at some members of the Trump administration who were in attendance.

Noah is taking a gig that, while high profile, is one of the more challenging for comedians. In past years, the entertainer has come on stage after the president, with his own comedy bit, and carries the risk of immediate comparisons. The venue itself, in the basement ballroom of the Washington Hilton, has far-from-perfect acoustics.

The WHCA entertainer’s performance also can prove to be a career highlight, as happened to Stephen Colbert when he headlined in 2006. In his conservative-host character from The Colbert Report, Colbert delivered a roast of then-President George W. Bush, who was there. The reaction from the crowd in the room was mixed to negative, at best, but it took off online and draw praise from a number of critics. The next year, the WHCA avoided controversy altogether, choosing Rich Little as their act.

Bob Bain Productions will produce the event this year. Proceeds go to the WHCA operations, as well as to journalism scholarships and to press awards. The dinner, held for the first time in 1921, is the best known of Washington media-political gatherings, as it is televised on major cable networks and, like in Hollywood, features a red carpet." - Deadline.com