Trevor Noah will be the Entertainer at Next White House Correspondents Dinner
Feb 14, 2022
Washington [US], February 14 : Trevor Noah, the host of 'The Daily Show', will be serving as the entertainer at the next White House Correspondents' Association dinner when it returns on April 30.
According to Deadline, the event is scheduled to make its return after a two-year absence, with the 2020 and 2021 dinners being cancelled due to COVID.
There is an expectation that US 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. He added, "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.
This upcoming gig of Noah, while high-profile in nature, has historically been a challenging one -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.
As per Deadline, the venue itself, in the basement ballroom of the Washington Hilton, has far-from-perfect acoustics.
