Trevor Noah announces cancellation of Bengaluru shows citing 'technical issues', apologises
Mumbai (PTI): Popular comedian Trevor Noah, who is in India for a comedy tour, called off two stand-up shows in Bengaluru due to "technical issues" and apologised to the audience members for the inconvenience.
After three gigs in New Delhi last week, the 39-year-old comedian was scheduled to perform at the Manpho Convention Centre in Bengaluru on September 27 and 28 as part of his "Off The Record Tour".
A video clip on social media purportedly shows Noah apologising to the crowd that he won't be able to perform with "bad sound" and promised fans a refund.
Noah also took to his X account on Wednesday (September 27) night to make the announcement.
"Dear Bengaluru India, I was so looking forward to performing in your amazing city but due to technical issues we've been forced to cancel both shows. We tried everything but because the audience can't hear the comedians on stage there's literally no way to do a show," the Emmy Award-winning comedian wrote in the post.
The former "Daily Show" host assured all ticket holders will receive a "full refund". The tickets were priced, beginning from Rs 2000.
"... and again I'm so sorry for both the inconvenience and disappointment this has never happened to us before," he further said.
Online ticketing platform BookMyShow, producers and promoters of Noah's tour, issued a formal apology and promised a complete refund to ticket holders within "8-10 working days".
"Bengaluru, we are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused at Trevor Noah's Off The Record show at Manpho Convention Centre on September 27th. The Bengaluru leg of the India Tour for both September 27th & 28th stands cancelled.
"All customers who purchased tickets for both shows will get a complete refund within 8-10 working days. We deeply regret this experience that our valuable customers faced and hope to be able to bring Trevor back to this amazing city at the earliest," the platform said in a statement shared early Thursday morning on X.
Social media users commented on Noah's post, with some saying Bengaluru played a "joke" on the comedian himself and others criticising the organisers for giving a bad name to the infrastructure of the city, known as the 'Silicon Valley of India'.
A section of netizens also claimed that the comedian got stranded in Bengaluru traffic and reached his own show late.
According to producers and promoters BookMyShow Live, Noah is next set to perform at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai on September 30 and October 1. This is his maiden trip to India.
That was @Trevornoah saying sound guys can’t figure out how to fix this. I won’t be able to perform like this. Sorry for the situation. He said everyone will get their money back. Just want to add, the venue didn’t even have proper bathrooms. Dei @bookmyshow pic.twitter.com/UXVEyRfNQq
— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) September 27, 2023
Dear Bengalaru India, I was so looking forward to performing in your amazing city but due to technical issues we’ve been forced to cancel both shows.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) September 27, 2023
We tried everything but because the audience can’t hear the comedians on stage there’s literally no way to do a show. We’ll make…
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Priyanka Gandhi: Cong's talismanic campaigner enters Parliament after 'long, long time'
New Delhi (PTI): Will she? Will she not? And on Saturday, she did. After years of frenzied speculation, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is finally entering the Lok Sabha after a resounding win from Wayanad with many a hope that she will re-energise her party and its dwindling electoral fortunes.
The 52-year-old, who joins her mother Sonia and brother Rahul as an MP in what is a rare instance of three members of a family together in Parliament, would visit Parliament as a teenager to listen to her father Rajiv Gandhi speak as prime minister. Four decades later, she joins as member herself -- her detractors crying nepo politics and her party supporters laying out the proverbial red carpet for a promise finally met.
She should have been a politician to the manner born given the Gandhi legacy. But Priyanka Gandhi took the long and winding way into mainstream politics. First were the questions of whether the mother of two would join active politics, and then whether and when she would contest elections.
In September 1999, she told a journalist her entry into politics may take a "long, long time". And it actually did. She took the plunge 20 years later in 2019 and was later appointed Congress general secretary.
Five years after that, Priyanka Gandhi begins her journey as an elected representative of the people.
With a winning margin of more than 4.1 lakh votes, she has surpassed the tally of her brother Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad in Kerala.
Priyanka Gandhi's entry into Parliament comes at a difficult time for the party, which has been jolted by electoral defeats in Haryana and Maharashtra. It would be interesting to see if she is able give a much-needed fillip to the grand old party and help put it back on electoral track.
Often drawing comparisons with her grandmother Indira Gandhi for their similarity in looks and way of speaking, Priyanka Gandhi has been the go-to campaigner for the party since her entry into active politics and even before that when she campaigned for her mother Sonia and brother Rahul.
And more than both, she is the one who many say has the easiest touch when it comes to communicating with people, individuals and crowds, and also in articulating the party's viewpoint on a range of issues. That she is often seen with her brother, sometimes teasing, sometimes chiding and always affectionate, has added to the image of the convivial politician.
Frequently referring to her childhood, the pain of her father Rajiv Gandhi's assassination and her mother's grief, she steered the Congress' campaign during the general election, adroitly walking the tightrope between striking a familial chord and discussing national-level issues. She proved to be a strategist, orator and mass mobiliser -- all rolled into one.
Most of her speeches are akin to a conversation with the crowd, establishing a connect and giving people the impression that here was a person who was known to them, someone sharing her feelings and thoughts with them.
As star campaigner and strategiser, Priyanka Gandhi helped the Congress make impressive gains in some states as well as in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier in the year. Her campaign helped the Congress get 99 seats in the general election, up from 52 in 2019.
As the curtains came down on the 2024 general election, analysts totted up the numbers to highlight that she has proven to be the party's talisman. Priyanka Gandhi took part in 108 public meetings and roadshows. She campaigned in 16 states and a Union territory, and also addressed two party workers' conferences in Amethi and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.
Priyanka Gandhi has often been projected as a possible challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi and also as a successor to Congress veteran Sonia Gandhi in the family pocket borough of Rae Bareli.
Soon after the Election Commission announced the Wayanad bypoll, the Congress declared that Priyanka Gandhi would be its candidate from the seat in Kerala. Rahul Gandhi, it decided, would retain the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh and vacate the Wayanad seat he won for the second consecutive time.
After her name was announced for the Wayanad bypoll in June, Priyanka Gandhi said, "I am not nervous at all.... I am very happy to be able to represent Wayanad. All I will say is that I will not let them feel his (Rahul Gandhi's) absence. I will work hard and try my best to make everybody happy and be a good representative."
"I have a good relationship with Rae Bareli as I worked there for 20 years and that relationship will never break," she said, adding that both she and her brother will work together in both the constituencies.
Priyanka Gandhi was made Congress general secretary in-charge of the crucial eastern Uttar Pradesh region in January 2019 and then general secretary in-charge of the entire state.
In December 2023, Priyanka Gandhi was made Congress general secretary "without a portfolio". She helped strengthen the organisation and led the party's campaign in Himachal Pradesh, where the grand old party wrested power from the BJP.
Born on January 12, 1972, Priyanka attended New Delhi's Modern School and the Convent of Jesus and Mary. She holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, and also has a master's degree in Buddhist studies.
Priyanka Gandhi is married to businessman Robert Vadra. The couple has two children -- Raihan and Miraya.
Her entry into Parliament has been long awaited by party's workers and supporters and they are hoping she will provide the booster shot the party needs in its difficult phase at the hustings going forward.
