At various venues, Thursday to Saturday, February 18 to 20

The first weekend of the JFL NorthWest festival saw a variety of comedy stylings at venues throughout town. The biggest name, and draw, was The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah at the Queen E.

Maybe it was ye olde expectations factor playing a role (I haven’t warmed to him as Jon Stewart’s replacement and didn’t think much of one of his standup specials), but I was impressed. The affable South African has got chops aplenty.

He started out by commenting on his surprise at the number of Asians living in Vancouver—and my hopes weren’t up—but he came at it from a unique perspective. He explained that they just don’t have Chinatowns in Africa.

He’s like a modern version of Yakov Smirnoff, except with less setup and punch, and more animated act-outs. He’s noticing the differences between his old country and new surroundings. For instance, they "hoot" the car horn in South Africa, whereas it’s "honked" here. Not much there until he performs an extended scene on trying to get a driver’s attention. Or another where napkins are confused with diapers at a taco stand. Good stuff. Not groundbreaking, but fun and well-done.

Noah gave a shout-out to the Georgia Straight, which scored an exclusive interview with him prior to his arrival. He said he found it a bit unnerving, when walking throughout “the gay district” of Davie Street, to see his face under the big word Straight.

The crowd at Miranda Sings at the Centre on Saturday was made up mostly of prepubescent girls wearing red sweatpants and badly drawn-on lipstick. The shrieks were Beatlesque and ear-piercing. In other words, this show wasn’t for me. Thing is, it wasn’t for them, either. Inappropriate songs with lyrics about dicks and whores and “your vagina smells like cat food” are probably not what the parents accompanying the kids had in mind. Or maybe it was. Who knows? They ate it up.

At the Comedy MIX on Thursday, Ari Shaffir was the funniest I’ve ever seen him, and that’s saying something. It would appear New York has been good to the formerly L.A.–based comic. Over at Yuk Yuk’s on Saturday, former Saturday Night Live stalwart Tim Meadows was affable and funny, more when he strayed away from his material on O.J. (hot off the presses!) and his Ladies Man character.

Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj did his one-man show at the Rio on Saturday. It only looked like standup, but it felt more grounded. Tales of life growing up brown took us from his junior high school through to the prom and beyond. Slides accompanied the presentation. There were laughs sprinkled throughout, but they weren’t the purpose. We cared about the outcome of the stories more than waiting for the next joke.

Nick Thune at the Biltmore, also on Saturday, made a seamless transition from one-line joke slinger with guitar into storyteller. I can’t think of another comic to do that 180. We didn’t miss his guitar at all. And his proven ability to write jokes really kept the stories jumping without ever lessening the impact of his tales on a suicide bridge jumper in Portland, signing up for an ESL class at a community college, and being almost beat-up by street goons in Denver.

Now that the festival is in full swing, next week looks to be equally inspiring.