On Saturday in the Grand Theater at Foxwoods, standup comic/"Daily Show" host Trevor Noah came and faced an impressively diverse audience in the mostly-full hall. Those crowd demographics spoke to his appeal in a big way — and he responded impressively.

Dressed in a black T-shirt, black slacks and tennis shoes the color of a Caribbean lagoon, the polite, cheerful, erudite and oft-self-deprecating entertainer focused on life in America from the perspective of a mixed-race native of South Africa. With a solid and diverse resume as an actor and comedian in his home country, Noah moved to America in 2011 and has steadily increased his profile through touring, Comedy Central specials, "The Daily Show" and a bestselling 2016 memoir called "Born a Crime."

The overall tone of Noah's Foxwoods set one of was cautionary admonition. Noah is an artist who clearly enjoys the life and opportunities implied by America, but feels regret that our potential as a multicultural society is flawed by racism, indifference, injustice and entitlement. If that sounds as though Noah came out swinging viciously at — let's face it — the core demographic that elected President Trump, well, those folks were certainly targets.

But Noah's approach was mostly gentle, for the most part very funny, and many of his observations — I hesitate to call them "bits" or "jokes" because he employs very little of the set-up/punchline blueprints typically associated with standup — began with derivations of "What I've learned about America ..." Often, he supported these barbed and broad-reaching themes with a personal anecdote suggesting his own missteps or naiveté.

The range of material and delivery was pretty diverse. Noah is a master mimic and his caricatures of Trump and Barack Obama were spot-on. Too, Noah frequently relied on two representative and symbolic character-voices. One might be called "Society's Vanishing White Yuppie Dude" and the other would be "Petulant, Ignorant Southern White Guy Who Ain't Going Anywhere."

But impersonations were a small part of the presentation. Language and the difference in word meanings was a recurring motif, and that of course supported an overall theme of race, immigration and America's history as a nation of immigrants. A long anecdote about tacos and two different cultural definitions of "napkin" was hilarious — as were the etymology of "wife beater" shirts and an "AIDS" versus "aids" misunderstanding. More touching was the difference between the N-word in the States as opposed to South Africa.

Noah also drew constant laughter with riffs about replacing historical images on American money and South African bills; a visit to Obama's White House; the possibility that the only things white people love more than themselves are animals; and the peculiar inclinations, when listening to hip hop while driving, to recline the driver's seat.

Noah saved his takes on Donald Trump till the very end, and his thoughts are best summarized by, "I wake up most days terrified that he's the president of the most powerful nation on earth. But I'm not gonna lie. I also wake up most days knowing I'm gonna laugh at something he does." 

To me, the most resonant thing Noah said all night was when he noted that anyone in America can pick up the phone and call their congressperson — and most of us can't be bothered. In an incredulous voice: "Do you know how many people across the world would kill for that?! You just called in to vote for someone in a singing competition, but you don't have the time to call your congressman?!"