EXCLUSIVE: Trevor Noah - Unplugged and plugged in

Comedian and television presenter Trevor Noah is one of South Africa's biggest entertainment success stories. After breaking through on the local comedy circuit, he packed his bags to seek his fortune in the United States. Little did he know he would end up hosting one of the most politically astute shows and most watched late night television shows The Daily Show on Comedy Central Network succeeded the hugely successful headliner Jon Stewart this is a world of highly vetted ratings downloads measured in millions and the power and influence to make or break politicians Now, in an NCAA

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, Trevor Noah gives his first television interview as he sits down with the network to talk about the pressure to succeed, writing and filming the show and why politics in the United States right now is the gift that keeps on giving.

Trevor, first of all, a big welcome to CA. This is a great interview for us and thank you very much for joining us as we sit in a meeting room. I think right above your studio. I think it's been just a year since you were here. took the reins it's everything you expected to be right I guess I'm lucky because I didn't expect it to be anything you know, I've approached every step of my career because that's the next step the next challenge, the next opportunity, you know, The Daily Show is a very outstanding program, it is an opportunity to interact with people on really serious topics, it is also a great platform to try to bring people together, what is the world I come from, it is what I like.

I never anticipated being on a show, a comedy show, that would be scrutinized as much as the daily show, and to a certain extent, you know it's an accusation on the news in America when you get to a place where you realize it. that people scrutinize a comedy show more than the material that that comedy show itself is scrutinizing so it's a strange place to be where you realize how bad it's gotten because I mean, in any situation, the gesture should never be the one that is questioned in any As a result of that scrutiny, you have enormous influence and I suppose that influence has grown gradually, hasn't it?

Yeah, definitely, I mean, any platform gives you leverage. You know, any platform gives you an opportunity for my guests to exert influence. so The Daily Show is no different and I have learned it and continue to learn it every day. I want to go back if we can to the first night and that moment where terror and emotion must have crossed give us a sense of what that was like are those adjectives are the correct adjectives maybe they are different just one if it is terror it is a it definitely flies by it is a you know is extreme but you are extremely nervous at that moment you question everything your mind goes over every decision you have made to get to that point you go over all your preparations again you realize that you really can't change anything this is the moment and then , in an instant, it's over and then I think the biggest emotion was really the dread because you get through it, it's going well and then you realize you have to do it tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day, you know, so your victory is short-lived, your successes are one. what you can't, you can't insist on because you have to do it every day, at some point you must have realized that you were starting to find your way, that you were getting a following, look, we just took a look at the numbers that have been released for the second quarter of this year and it looks really encouraging, that must fill you with a lot of pride now that you reach a kind of plateau on the way to the summit, yes, definitely look, I'm proud of the team and I'm proud of the program and I'm proud of what I'm doing because people take for granted the fact that we've started a new program.

You know, yes, we took over from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but essentially it's a new show that you should anticipate. the fact that some viewers of the old show don't join this iteration of the show and that's what needs to happen if that doesn't happen essentially it means your show hasn't changed it means no new show Because you have to attract new ones viewers, at some point you have to lose the old viewers and that doesn't mean age, it just means people who see the purpose of the show from a different perspective or even look at who is hosting the show. in a different way, so that's something that I think we anticipated, you know, and I mean, you also have to know that when you're looking for younger viewers, especially in the U.S.

Younger viewers don't watch TV the way in which all the spectators do. You know people watch it on their phones or their tablets, so you know how to use apps and then websites and Hulu, etc., so it's not just about linear ratings, I think. He influenced us with that. You said you understand that advertisers are still dictated by that, so you're still trying to achieve it. It's very important to get to that place, but I've always been a firm believer and guess in South African comedy. that the content comes first, in a strange way, the ratings will always follow, you can't chase ratings because it's something imaginary, you can't chase the people who watch your show, what you can do is chase making the best show you can make and then If you achieve that, you hope people connect with that.

Trevor Noah, the South African host of The Daily Show, speaks

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ly to ENC and our conversation from his New York studios continues in a moment. If people criticize you, then at least you are in the space where you are worthy of criticism. I always say that in life you should be hated or loved, but not beat men. Trevor Noah took over from Jon Stewart in March 2015, he's now had over a year to find his comedy chops and to discern what works and what doesn't in the US, our conversation continues, the pressure to succeed was and it's still huge because, again, I understand your point about content replacing grades, but the reality is that you work in a very competitive time. space on television that must also be weighed down for you each and every day before you start writing.

I don't really give it up, not because the pressure implies that I guess to some extent it has to happen or or it implies that there is a failure in terms of success, you know, I don't really live my life through the filter of being, you know, fear, I don't think in things and I go, I'm afraid, what if it doesn't work? What's wrong because then you shouldn't do anything? There's a whole month throughout your career, yeah, you have to do it, you just have to keep going, so I don't like it, at what point do I call it a failure?

You know what I am saying? I mean, for me, being able to pay the rent during comedy in South Africa, that means I had been successful and then I thought no, now I was successfully touring the country and then I thought, oh, that means I've been successful and then if I try to go. international and I failed. I wouldn't call it a failure of myself. I'd say, oh, that didn't work. I focus more on this so that you find another way. Know. I always think that he lives life like a river, it just flows. You find the path of least resistance and over time the current gets stronger give me some of that self-confidence I don't know if we can find it it's not self-confidence it's just believing in something bigger than yourself you start to realize I think that as people we are largely governed by the world's perception of what success is and if you really believe that everything is helping you, you don't know why that is helping you, you don't know when it will help you. .

Help, if you really believe that, then you will find that you can only win in life, you can only get to the place where you need to be, but we spend a lot of time fighting against it and we don't know why. I suppose, to some extent, you feel like a nerd in the face of some of the criticism you would have faced initially and that you probably still fill that great John's shoes, perhaps without necessarily understanding the deep and refined nuances of American politics, but so It's how you do it. You have to roll too, you have to accept that you know the point of following John Stuart because he obviously he didn't replace him, he left and then I filled an empty space.

You know, the whole point of following John Stuart is to take on a role. impossible task those are the most exciting tasks, they are impossible so if it is impossible you have two options you don't do it and it was obviously impossible or you achieve it and then you have achieved the impossible so why do any task if it is ? If it's not impossible, that's what's exciting, so in terms of criticism you have to understand that taller trees get more wind, so if people criticize you, then at least you're in the space where you're worthy of criticism. , I always say.

In life you should be hated or loved, but don't be angry, yes, again, give me a little of this. I wish I had a hiker, Noah, let's put all that aside for a moment. How does the day work so you wake up at what time? morning time wake up depending on the day say 7:00 a.m. get up to give away secrets but you don't know we're faking distance I'm at least 15 minutes 15 minutes no more outside of work because there's traffic New York is like that and I say I want to be, I don't want that to be part of my day and it's so unpredictable that I wake up at 7 am.

I meditate and then I exercise a little I read the news I watch the news I consume as much information as I can, so read the news on your tablet. I guess oh my phone, yeah, yeah, everything, no newspapers, no newspaper. The New York Times can't fathom your stats on my phone, so you're the New York Times. I know it's all it's a bunch of posts everything new I see wearing stones no no it's not right no I really don't I try I do my best to consume news coming from South Africa let's just say I come from a place where in for the most part I mean recently we are struggling with it but for the most part the news is just a fact driven thing there is very little enthusiasm other than the content that is generated by the facts being covered there is very little bias its inflection is almost the mark of bad journalism that's an editorial you're taking now you know, so whether you're interviewing Julius Malema or Nelson Mandela, you're interviewing Peter Case or you know FW de Klerk, your tone shouldn't give you away, no we should know who you support as a news reporter, we shouldn't know who you are as a journalist or support you when you are private in a booth and that's what the news should be but now once the news deviates into the world of opinion, it's not news anymore, they shouldn't even call it news, it can't be right, no, I try my best not to consume news from those sources and that's from both sides, not just Fox books, like if it were left. -bowing properly and then I say it's not news, I'm trying to go to places that are bipartisan and I say that's the fact and that's it, so you're medicated, you've worked, you've worked.

I've read a little bit and at that point, if you have an idea or the framework or maybe the shadow of a concept, you're starting, yeah, to get into that, that's where you know I'll try to work on an idea of ​​what the program it should be that day and then I walk into the office and then I walk in and then we sit for about an hour, where do you think we sit? We have a writers room, we sit together and we work on the show that people mention things that they may have seen in the news, we talk about it and then we get to the diary, which is an hour, yeah, every once in a while we sit down and then we start the day and we start creating the show because a lot of what makes the show long, the process is production, you know you're producing elements, whether it's creating videos, whether it's knowing graphics, whether it's trying to finding a little illustration that will help Joe come to life, those are the things that take a lot of time. you can't do that in a matter of moments and then write and then research, you have to make sure that what you're talking about is correct, you know, I've realized the importance of the platform and We've realized the importance of that people at least understand that in this space the facts are handed out, whether they're inconvenient or not, they have to be true and that's what we focus on and then, then, layer all of that with the right amount of comedy at what point. it all comes together it all comes together around 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. 16:00.

We're rehearsing to see what it looks like when we do it, making sure all the elements are together and then at 38 5:30 we're rewriting, just tweaking the script and finishing it, getting it ready to record, the audience comes in and then we're recording 6: 00 6:30 7:00 and then the show ends, so you literally leave that show, how was it? Good thing because the cat is away and you're starting, the next show starts, how do you know when? one line or a joke or the big reveal or something in the monologue is that it's actually working or if it's not working it's actually an experience that's your craft it's pure experience that's all it is I compare it to music I listen to comedy Of the sameway that musicians Listening to notes, you know, so it doesn't mean I'm a businessman, but I can hear them, I can identify when it's right, it doesn't mean that you can always write the right song or that you can play the song. right notes but I can hear them and that's just years and years of experience and the more I do itThe more I learn even in a year of doing it on the Daily Show, the faster I do it now, but you have to have a balance between risk and going further there, yes, with what also works as well, and somewhere in between is the Holy Grail, definitely, yes, yes, and you realize more and more, like you, one thing that I learned from South Africa to the United States is culturally how do you know how offenses change, that's something so strange to me, you know, in America there is racism that we don't even think about, in South Africa there is a history that is completely foreign to us, while in South Africa there is very little or no history of racism and oppression by the general population that allows us to say that the Asian population because they were considered black, so they were like the Chinese, you know.

I guess under the same oppressive thumb in America there's a totally different story to that, so let's say if you do it, if you have a British accent in America and if you put a Russian accent into an Italian accent, people are fine, you do a Chinese accent. , you are racist, so I come, although I do not understand what, what, how can it be racist if it is and then you. I understand there's an oppressive history to that accent, the way it was used on the merits, like how do you never get your way, that you use the equipment, yeah, everyone discusses that and sometimes I push , sometimes I go, no, let's do it. do it because I want it to be a topic of discussion because I want it to be that way if that's the point of calling the outcome we go back yeah sometimes you want to sometimes you want that to happen to start a conversation to move something forward if comedy just exists in a safe space then it's not really comedy you know then you're safe you know you're making some jokes here and there this is the story of a South African comedian holding his own in recent times.

US late night television circuit against the names of Jimmy Fallon Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert our conversation continues. I'm getting better every day. The most important thing is not to be afraid to say my part. What we loved most about Trevor Noah was fame. It really went to his head despite working in a rarefied world of Booker caretaker programmers and supervising a team of 30 writers, he was still interested in talking about local politics, the recent election and how a well-known politician has lost a lot of weight. Take advantage of your rapier wit, third of our conversation now in New York City as we speak, one of the big topics of the last few days has been black lives matter and a black lives matter protest, yes, as a result of this Dallas tragedy. that we would see how that influences what you are doing well, I think you know more than many problems, this affects me because for all the obvious reasons, yes, yes, but it is something that I don't understand how.

It can even be a topic of discussion, you know, and that's why I look at South Africa and even in our darkest days you look at something like Marikana, you know we are miners and they were killed and I mean, you can't deny that then. There are images of these miners charging at the police with weapons and yet the country was not happy with the result and there were still questions: couldn't there have been rubber bullets plus tear gas? Why were you in lethal mode and then? We traced it back to the instructions from the day before and I mean the fact that we as people like the value of human life in that sense, it is still seen, especially the State and how the State exercises its right to take away the life to a citizen. and yes, Africa has a huge fight against violence in terms of crime and so on, but you still cannot rule out the value of life, especially when it is exercised by the State and things like that I was raised in a world in which I recognize the importance of that, I acknowledge responsibility and yet in the United States you are in a situation where I was even surprised by this, I mean, one day I was driving and a police officer stopped me and said, I know I stopped you.

I told him no. and he said because you were you were speeding I told him I wasn't speeding and he said you were speeding I was like AB really wasn't speeding and he was like I said do you have a like? Your radar caught what you did and he left. I saw you pass and I assumed you were going for my life. "I couldn't believe I even used that word in real life," he said. I guess I come from a place where The cop not only has to point a laser at your vehicle to get the reading, but he also has to show you that reading and say, look, do you recognize that this number is on this piece of technology that am I showing you? there is some responsibility, I come from a place where you know the police still have to give you some burden, there is a burden of proof and living in this world and that is happening now with black lives.

It's like people notice this to me. It's a country where the police have a wide range of power, you know, they can just say you're arrested for Can you express yourself? You find your honest feeling in it. You know I'm getting better every day. At best, I'm not afraid to say my piece. You know, when I got here, everyone threatened me with the same line and that was no. Don't forget what happened to Piers Morgan, don't forget you come to this country and tell the Americans what to do, they'll kick you out now. I've gotten to the point where I'm doing well, so they should expel me.

You know, let me get kicked out for saying what I believe, I can get kicked out for telling the truth, well, I don't want to keep hiding, you know, it's not that I don't have a home to come back to, it's not that I don't have a place. which I would love to live in apart from the United States. You're kidding, that's the process. Is it easier to tell the truth here or at home? That is interesting. I think it's easier to say at home because I'm African, you know, I think it's also easier because I know every piece of information.

I am well versed in everything in the United States. I am very careful not to speak out of turn because I see many people do it even in the United States. who are not fully informed, know that even Donald Trump is one of those people who blatantly jumps into conversations with very little information and even I, as a person who is learning the system, it seems like you are learning this with me. There's hell going on, you know, so it's a strange place to be, yeah, funny, you should mention Donald Trump, but as we're writing this interview, I think in a day or two you'll be heading to Cleveland, Ohio, your daily show. coming from there for the republican convention, what's the point of this disappearing down a political rabbit hole so you can try for me?

Yeah, I think they should all disappear down a political rabbit hole, you know. I find it interesting how politicians have somehow successfully done this. It seems that political politicking is reserved for an elite, yes, whereas the word politics, you know, political came from the Greek, it was for the common people, that's what it should be and somehow we have entered this complicated space where it has become. so complicated that the layman is not supposed to understand it and you are excluded from talking about it if you don't, you know the verse and that is what I am fighting against.

I'm going to break this down to its very basic elements and argue them the way they should be argued and that's in a way that every layman can understand, so to me everyone should be going down a political rabbit hole, but what we should do is take politics and bring it back to the bottom. Are you thinking about the specter of a Trump presidency? I may suffer from too much optimism, but I don't think America votes that way. I don't think the majority of a country votes for a man. Who is this divisive person who votes for an idea that is fundamentally opposed to what America is about?

You know his world and his words speak for themselves, so I don't think if that happened and I mean, crazier things have happened. I don't know if America could recover from this. I don't even think Republicans are being honest with themselves in thinking they can control this person. You know, I come from a world, we come from a world where you. I have seen that they are uncontrollable politicians. You know that you put them in the right position, you put them in the right place and you realize that controlling them is not something manageable. There are people who thought they could control Julius Malema.

He meets other people who thought they could control Jacob Zuma, but you realize that when you put the wrong man in the right place you can cause the most damage. You have so many Satta goals in this country. Do you miss them? President Zuma Josmell Emma. I make a tremendously cool montage, a tremendous Saudi monsoon. Yes, Julius, especially skinny. I mean, I'm sad because I lack values. You know, the man has lost a lot of weight. Yes, the boys are fit and running and exciting, and you know, I miss it. I miss all the old people.

I miss what's happening at home. You know it's exciting. I mean, how did I miss Saudi Arabia? How did I leave? You know, like 90/10. I mean, come on, I wish I was around for that. You know many times. I have shows rejected by the SABC here like I want to be present during all of this, just one more thing, um, you have a book coming out, yeah, in November, tell us about that, finally getting to the end of writing my book, right? . a memoir per se, but it's a collection of stories throughout my life, I grew up with my mother, I grew up during apartheid, you know, I grew up after a date, you know, after democracy and just navigating that world, you know , I've lived a really fun life and interesting life, you know, a combination of, you know, code switching, switching between learning to interact with different races in the country, where you know how hard it is, you know languages, races, genders, you know to my mom and me fighting against, you know the position of a black woman. which in South Africa has been very strange, that's why the love-hate relationship black women are known as the force and the rock, but then they are not given many of the opportunities or that rock has a glass ceiling to which you can aspire.

The book really talks about all of those topics and I hope it can connect with people and the deepest, darkest secrets of my life and the funniest stories I've never told. Trevor, now you can continue living in such a fascinating and interesting way. life and thank you very much for inviting us thank you to the lair so to speak thank you very much are you ready see you yes, see you