Trevor Noah | Born a Crime

It is now our pleasure to introduce you to Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, before gaining worldwide recognition as the new host of this Emmy and Peabody Award-winning satirical news show, Mr. Noah had already gained global recognition with his racist one-man show at the 2012 Indian Berg Fringe Festival, the son of a white Swiss father and a black South African mother who had to pretend to be his father during the two brief moments of family interaction he had. . He experienced a deeply unconventional childhood towards the end of the tumultuous apartheid era. He was

born

as a

crime

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It's a tender, terrifying, and often funny coming-of-age memoir of a country at the crossroads, as well as a love letter to meeting his remarkable mother tonight. ABC News co-anchor Tamela Edwards will join the conversation at 6:00 Ladies and gentlemen of ABC News, please welcome Trevor Noah and Tamela Edwards to the Free Library of Philadelphia. Very good, as always, I have spoken with you so far. This is the best. crowd that will welcome Trevor Noah, thank you very much, thank you for coming everyone, thank you very much and, as you know, Trevor has a book called Born a Crime, it's a memoir, but I just told him backstage.

Like we went to a bar and he started telling me the craziest stories about him, they weren't in this book and I'll tell you I laughed out loud, people in the office came back wondering what was going on at my university, thank you. I really enjoyed it let's talk about a

crime

was

born

you say that at one point humans are humans and sex is sex nine months after it appeared people of mixed race began to appear but you occupied an unusual steakhouse no, he writes that it occupied a space unusual she would think it was a million problems.

Trevor Noah since basic humans are humans and sex is sex yes but unfortunately humans are humans so humans will hate you no and they found a way to condemn what was happening because the goal is to oppress the people in the South. Africa had to keep the minority ruling the majority and the way to do that is to make sure they don't get out of control. One of the ways they would inspire a lot of control is if they were allowed to procreate in a way that mixed their blood with white people you know and the rule was different than in the United States where there was the one drop rule that worked for the America because it made it simple: if you are mixed with a black person then you are black, you couldn't risk that in South Africa because that would mean you are emboldening the majority by increasing their numbers and now you are increasing their numbers with people who might pass for white, sometimes you know what will just challenge your system, so so they made that a rule and then they separated the people, so as much as people are people, unfortunately the law is still the law when you I saw it for the first time I thought it was okay, he would say it's colored, but you explained in the book that it's very It's a separate thing so how you considered yourself and what you went through, yes, in South Africa I colored and that was something that I had to learn when I came to the US.

I mean, I remember when I first came here, every time I said that the colored people looked at me like I ran away from us like a slave novel or something, and I always have to explain to people where I'm from this skin tone. is known as colored in South Africa, they essentially created a race that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world and it's not just a race, it's a culture where people speak with a different accent, they speak, they have a dialect and a language different and it's a completely different world, an area that is only populated by people who look exactly like me and who are generations upon generations of people where they can hardly be traced back to a white person or a black person, you know this because every time it was committed this crime they would take the child from that crime and then that child would be sent to an orphanage and little by little they grew these communities of people of color, but in my world because they never separated me from my parents because they never forced me to live in a community that I didn't belong to I grew up black, you know, I only know the black experience, I only know how to be African, as much as people wanted to call me colored because color is a culture in South Africa.

I realized at a very young age and I read about it in the book that was actually black, it's up to you if you want to tell the story or read it, but you say how crazy it was to try to go to the park with your parents or with your mother who Sometimes I think it ends and she left me and ran away like I was a bag of weed, what is that, like 50-somethings, where is that, I wonder where that is, if I knew that, yes, I knew the page I would read and I can tell you.

I probably know the words because I've told them to my friends many times, but I basically grew up in South Africa for as long as I grew up in one. One of the most important rules was that black and white people were not allowed to associate freely and this meant in all forms, you know, from casual interactions to sexual interactions and my parents obviously Briere broke these rules, but there was a price. to pay and one of those prices was that we couldn't be a normal family but my mom insisted that we try so that you would know that we would go out together and one of the days in particular that I remember was that we went out to Juba Pok it was basically the Central Park of Johannesburg, you know, there are big giant trees and a little lake in the middle and there are chess board pieces, you know, human-sized chess pieces that you can move and we went there together and my dad.

I was walking in front of us so I wouldn't look like I was part of the family and my mom was walking with me and she was acting like she was taking care of the kid who was colored and she was the maid and I saw my dad and then I started running towards him, You know, and I was like dad, dad, dad, and I chased him and he couldn't let me go to him, so he ran away and I thought, well, the game was on, so I chased him and then my mom chased me to avoid to chase him and in my head I was a kid having a wonderful day in the park with my parents and they were terrified because it was threatening our livelihoods, but that's what we did, you know?

If we weren't with my dad, my mom realized very quickly how the rules of a meaningless regime could be broken and how everything was divided by appearances of color or all that, because that's really what color and race is, it's just an appearance, so what? What mom would do sometimes is that if the police were cracking down on the city, she would look for a friend of hers who lived in our building, a woman named Queen and Queen was a woman of color, so Queen looked a lot like me and Queen. what my mom would do.

What we do is we would go out with Queen on the street and my mom would walk behind us dressed as a maid and make it look like she works for this colored family and I would walk and hold Queen's hand and look like I'm Queen's daughter. and I have pictures of me as a little girl where I'm walking with Queen and the streets and it looks like she's my mom and then there's this woman in the background who's taking all the photos and that's my mom, you know? and we tried and used every tool we could to navigate this system and my mom is stubborn and defined as she was even if she couldn't have Queen, if the police were still out there and wanted to take me for a walk, she would do it. and she would just walk around with me as a maid and act like I knew she was my caregiver, not my mother, and if the police showed up, then she would just put my hand down and act like she wasn't hurt.

I always said I felt like a sack of wheat, your mother is an interesting figure in the book, the book is very much a tribute to her and she is an interesting woman in the sense that she refuses to accept it, she is the architect in her head almost of the life you live now and tells a story of her guiding you around places and places and sometimes she would lift you over a door so you could look in and say yes, almost like she wanted to see but she wanted you to see that There is something else that was one of the best gifts my mother gave me.

I always tell people that that is what I encourage all parents to give their children is knowledge and not just the knowledge you get from books. , not just information but knowledge, my mother imparted to me the knowledge that there was more than what we had there was more than what we were told we were allowed to have and that is why my mother made it a point to take me to places and spaces that we were not allowed to go to. belonged, take me to places I would never see, there was a possibility. I was never going to see this in the future, there was no end in sight for us, there was no idea that apartheid was going to end and what we do is random weekends, my mom would take me, you know, we would come back from the church.

We would drive back to where we lived, which was in the suburbs, and we would go through rich white neighborhoods and my mom would stop the car and we would just look at people's houses and their giant walls and we could never see over them. and these properties and then my mom would lift me up on her shoulders like a little periscope and I would look over the wall and just describe everything I could see, I'll be like they have a pool and there are dogs and there's a car and there's a house two stories and there's a you know and I would just tell you that the beginning just describes this world that I saw and what was powerful to me was the fact that there were a lot of kids that grew up in my neighborhood that never knew about these things they didn't know. that you could have a pool in your house they didn't even know what a pool was they didn't know about tennis courts they didn't know that some people could have a driveway in their house.

I remembered how that blew me away the first time I saw it. I thought they had a path inside their house. She blew me away and that's what my mom did. She took me to spaces that I didn't. I don't have access and I think the importance of that was and I appreciate that today people often say to me: Did you ever dream that you would be where you are today? I say no, I say no because my imagination doesn't go that far, you know? And sometimes when people say follow your dreams, I say that's a little limiting depending on where you're from because you can only dream about what you can imagine and sometimes your imagination is limited by the limits of your world.

So, there are many children in Africa who grow up and do not dream of being astronauts, and it is not because they do not have aspirations, it is because they have never been shown that man can go to space, it has never been shown to them, that's all. possibility and I think that by just showing me that world my mom gave me the ability to imagine that one day I would enter that world you want to do a party trick don't have fun come on in the book you talk about the importance of language and what stands out about you is that you can be some kind of chameleon because you can speak everyone's language and they don't know what to do.

I try and I want everyone to understand how wonderful this is. Do you want to say a word or a phrase in every language you know, yeah, I mean, I said a few in English, so we're fine, it's your life a couple of times, so in Afrikaans it would be a you know, if I say something, she would say we. It's not yellow, this vanilla counts for a litter of ones, don't argue, that means it's nice to meet you all, good night, that's in Afrikaans, which is a derivative of Dutch in Zulu, it says anniebanany without a code and Yaya wouldn't even be born . one turn which means I'm good evening everyone, it's a pleasure to see you here.

I'm trying to think of which ones in Tirana I could say le bateau as I understand Trevor Noah, my name is Trevor Noah, you know, I'm trying this. so many phrases so many words my favorite phrase in my mom's language is um at Home, which is one of the click languages, everyone calls it because of my amazing tan spine, which means I'm going to hit you idiots over the head. a child, so yes, but it's an unusual and special talent, it's almost like a superpower that you have to fit into all these groups, how does it serve you now?

How does that ability to merge serve you? Do you use it now to discover something? people's languages ​​and cultures Yes, yes, I think we all do it to some extent, but I definitely do it, now you know how to travel the world and I'm still trying to learn languages. You know, I can carry on a basic conversation in German. I'm trying. learning Spanish in Portuguese now also because I have realized that it opens up worlds for you, it opens up people to you, what is more important, you don't even realize the barriers that exist until it affects you, it affects you on a broader level .

On a level level, for example, we were talking briefly about the election backstage and it was funny to me how so many people were surprised by how Hispanic voters turned out in this election and were like, "Oh, no one could have predicted that so many Hispanics would vote." by Donald Trump and no and I read fascinating articles from Hispanic journalists saying no, we knew this, we knew this all along, no one listened to us and then the pollster said how we were wrong, it's like you didn't speak to them in a language they understood and. It's such a small and stupid thing that people take for granted, but everyone assumed that they approached a Hispanic person in English and gave them their information when taking a survey,They assumed they were getting the right information and assumed. that the person would be honest with her when she spoke a language that wasn't hers and yet she finds out that her survey would have been completely different if she had spoken to her in a language they understood that you take it to another level and think about places like Michigan where they found that people just hated elites, people didn't want to talk to Wisconsin, did they show that people stopped being surveyed because they got irritated listening to these people at the University?

You know, people like us hate these elites, we don't listen to any of you and, again, if someone had spoken to you in your language, even if it is still English, it is simply a different language that separates you from the class of students at a class that has not done so. I didn't have the opportunity to have an education, suddenly you communicate differently and that's why I think I still use that today, you know I know people and I have connections with them that normally they wouldn't have because I know how to speak their language and even in English. there are different languages ​​oh, I said, it's not surprising, you know, when people go, how could they vote for Trump? and I go as an immigrant.

I completely understand this, it's, it's climbing the ladder syndrome, it's as simple as people taking for granted how many Latinos liked Trump's message it was a woman in Cleveland that woke me up. She was in Cleveland for the Republican convention and there was a woman in the streets and she was proudly chanting Trump's name as she marched. around the Convention Center around the arena and I took her to the side of her and said, please do me a favor and help me understand. I told him: are you Latino? and she said yes, I'm from Mexico and I said, "you're voting for Trump." and she said I love Trump and I said why and she said because I want him to get rid of all these illegal immigrants and I said okay then you're legal and she said yes and I said but why do you want him get rid of all of them and she and she said because they have given me a bad name I am not illegal, they must leave and they are blocking the way for my family who is trying to come legally to this country, so get rid of all of them so that more people like me can enter and I was fast.

I had never heard this before. I never and immediately realized that there is a different conversation that is not being had just because people are not communicating with each other. but as an immigrant, as someone who has come to a world, as someone who has seen immigration problems in South Africa, we have the same problems and maybe sometimes it is easier to see them because in South Africa we do not have the racial aspect applied as well. You know, we have immigrants who come from Zimbabwe and they are black and black South Africans are reacting to them in exactly the same way that some Trump supporters act towards Mexicans and here, because of the added layer of race, sometimes you can't get to the underlying thing and that's just tribalism and the fear of someone coming to take away what you've worked for and the book where you talk about the situation you're in and you end up spending a lot of time alone and talking about hanging yourself .

Next to a mulberry tree, everyone else is in a group, but no one goes out with Trevor, so he says, "Okay, I'll pick my own mulberry tree, yeah, and you see, in fact, you almost don't know how to be alone because you almost do." you prefer." You know how to do what people would look at you and think this guy does until he's a comedian. He must love being in a crowd and being surrounded. How does that comfort with loneliness work in your life and what do you do? I love it, I love being. alone, so when I was growing up, my grandmother was extremely protective of me because if the police discovered me in Soweto, a black area, they would take me, okay, the police would confiscate me from my parents and send me to an orphanage because they didn't want any mixture, no mixture of blood that could upset the status quo of their regime, so my grandmother protected me, you know, with life and limb, you know, she tells me stories of how she used to dig a hole under. the door to escape like a little dog, I would make her close all the doors and she would find this little hole and I would leave and she would be chasing me down the street and on every corner someone would just be pointing because everyone knew her and everyone knew me and I was the only person she could be looking for and I was the only person who looked like me in my neighborhood, so you just saw this little light-skinned boy running in a sea of ​​black.

People and everyone said yes, that's how it is, but she was extremely protective, you know? And she was like that because she didn't want to lose me and I didn't know it at that age. I just thought she was protective because she was a grandma and she didn't want a kid to go outside, so I stayed home and read and went out and I'll be good at being alone and I'm still great, so that's the wonderful thing about it. I guess because of the escape from the books, I always tell people that people go, it must have been horrible, it was heard in the house and of course, it was everywhere in the world, you know, I spent summers in Narnia, you know , I traveled to, you know?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I was in England. I've been everywhere, you know? And that's why I found solace in books, and the way they served me and continue to serve me is when you're good at being alone, sometimes you just watch the flow of people around you, you sit in a corner and you're not worried about go with the flow or with the herd, you monitor what's happening, you see, you know, you're almost watching. Life is like a nature documentary, you just sit on the side like David Attenborough and just look at the waterhole and you can comment on another one in your mind and I still use that tool today so I actually enjoy the company.

I love hanging out. I hang out with people, but you'll never hear me say the phrase "I'm alone," I'll just say "I'm alone," so if I want to know who's the cheetah and who's the gazelle in the situation where I'm always sitting. the side that just commented on the book has moments of great pain, there are times when your family is very poor, you are literally talking about eating goats, goat heads, worms, what are goat heads on a good day, by the way Yes, in the worms you couldn't sell to the world. all the worms were not good at sleeping in cars and then of course the most painful chapter, what happens with your stepfather's abuse and what happens to your mother when she is shot and yet what I noticed in the book is that you speak almost with exasperation if I can be profane Oh, for the love, here we go again, but not you.

No, I missed something like that. It's quite surprising. I attribute it to my mom. My mom was never bitter. My mom always recovered. My mother never minimized the pain or suffering we felt. she was experiencing but she didn't believe in letting it define her, she didn't believe in letting herself be defined by that experience. I remember there is a trait that I learned from my mom that I still use to this day and that is, Did you know that when we were driving or walking down the streets, someone would yell a racial slur at my mom?

You know, in traffic, some random person would just yell something and my mom would smile and she would tell them. They already know it and it's this, it was the craziest thing I had ever seen in my life because there was a kid who didn't understand what was going on and I thought: didn't you hear what they said? and then my mom told me no. She said no, how can they ruin my day because they said something now I must feel a certain way no, she said, you know you have no power over me, she said no, she said, I will fight you and I recognized that you were oppressing me, but I.

I'm not going to let you ruin my day because I'm having a wonderful day. I'm walking, the sun is shining and now, because you say something, I must feel, so she would throw it in his face and with a smile someone would shout. something like oh you know, damn monkey and she would say oh God bless you God bless you and she would say yes oh my monkey Bravo God bless you and you could see that people didn't know what to do because The point of hate is to inflict pain if the person interprets it as love and returns it to you.

What are you doing now? And that's how my mom faced life. She was the bitterness that you have, you are the only one who supports. If you experience it, if you are bitter about this place that oppresses you, about the system that oppresses you, what is happening with that bitterness, it doesn't help you, it doesn't do anything, you are the one who sits with that in your life, in your heart. . your house but my mom said no, we are going to be happy and we will be, we will be smiling and then when we go out we fight and then when we come home we live our lives and that was my thing, I think one of the greatest gifts greatest things my mom gave me was that she never made me feel sorry for myself.

You know, I didn't think we were poor, I just thought we were black, which often means the same thing, but it wasn't like that. make me feel like I was in a situation, I felt like this was just a life, everyone around me was living the same life, you know, everyone around me was poor, everyone around me ate what they could, when they could, everyone around me They were going through the same things in different ways, so there was no point where I felt like I was having an experience. He was just saying, "This is life, isn't it great.

There are points in the book where I think I know where Trevor Noah ends up." I read the story and that this story in this story this is unlikely when he is burning the house when he is running away from the guards when the house burned I did not ask for time to burn to burn the house burned see the ashes yes when he escapes from the guards chasing you for shoplifting and then there was a time when you leave school and start making CDs and this is your thing, you guys have a plan in place and you were in one of these homelands and that's what you're doing it and I wonder how the hell it went from selling these CDs and playing at parties to where it is now and yet this is the beauty of your life, the improbable life is beautiful, you make everything connect, how?

That happens. I feel like you're constantly moving forward. You know, I've always loved the analogy. You know, the phrase live life like water. I always loved it because I think that's how my mother lived, that's how she taught us to live with water. It flows constantly, takes the path of least resistance, but it is one of the most powerful forces you know. When you look at the water in a day, it will look like a rock is blocking its path, but the water is slowly eroding that rock and it won't happen overnight, but over time the water will still be there and the rock will be long gone, you know. , and it's almost as if the water realizes that it's useless to try to hit that rock, it will just keep going around it.

I know that he will adhere to the blockage that the rock imposes, but only through his action and his will, little by little he will make that path better and better for himself and that is basically what my life has been, that is what that my mom taught me. that's what she did, I didn't even realize that she imbued me with that and you know I was imbued with my mother's progressive mindset, she just got better, read more books, learned to type, studied real estate, learned to count. She just wanted to be better and better in a world where there was no future.

Don't forget that you know this is growing up in a country where, as a black person, you have come and been condemned to menial jobs. I grew up in a country where a black person was not allowed to have a job in an office a black person was not allowed to do anything but clean, pick or farm that was your position that was your life and this wasn't hundreds of years ago of years it is in my life you know but my mother she refused that she said I'm going to learn to read I'm going to learn to write by myself I don't care if I use it or not and she was always trying to go from one step to the next, from one step to the next, and then I did that in my life too, so I never set out to be here, but you know I just went from one thing that led me to the next. thing and I'm selling CDs one day and then I'm a DJ another day and then being a DJ leads me to a career in radio and then in radio and then there's comedy and then and it all comes together in the end, but it's just a little bit. step that takes you forward, the book is a theme, it is the role of humor and how to live life, but you don't necessarily talk about comedy, like you don't explain how you got there or the routines or what led you to do this moment . you decide to do it on purpose or just how the book turned out.

I decided to do it on purpose because I ran out of space. No, what happened was that these were the stories I wanted to share. This is not a book about fame. I did not do it. trying to write a book about it I'm not trying to write a book about celebrities this is not a book about it was never intended to be a you know, tell all or it's nothing associated with fame or celebrity at all it was sharing stories from a South African childhood, it was sharing stories that I feel, even though they are so specific and in a world that seems so extreme, I found stories that connected with people from another continent, you know, I met people in the United States that I'll just be having a random conversation and they say: I had exactly the same experience.

I had the desire. The same domestic abuse in my family. I had the exact same experience as the first black person in my family to study or travel. or do something with melife you know I'm the first my mother was the first to do this my parents couldn't be together due to the fact that they were stigmatized and even if it wasn't race it could be a multitude of factors but I realized that in the specificity of In telling these stories there was a larger narrative, there were larger themes, so I just needed to tell those stories. and I think basically what happened was I realized that even though this book has my name on it, it's actually a book about my mom.

You know, I was given the opportunity to write a book and, without realizing it, it wasn't a book about me, but it became a love letter to my mom, you know, a chronicle of our life, but she was the heroine. , you know, I was just a companion and all of these stories are the ones that really encompass that journey together because I once went out into the world. so I lived life predominantly on my own, which is very important to your mother's religion and you talk about the fights when she was a child and she didn't want to go to church, she wanted to go to church and at the end, when she shot, it's almost a miracle how she survives, yes, and one thing you don't get into towards the end is that it's pretty clear how she will view religion.

I want you to tell us about the role of religion and growth and how you see religion now in that event. with your mother because you're done at that point in the book, you're glad you don't have to go to church, does that change the way you view religion? Well, mine is that we grew up in a super religious home. and as I say in the book, most black people are extremely religious, you know, and religion was imposed on many black people around the world and you know, I don't have the phrase in the book. I'll probably paraphrase it, but it was, you know?

The colonizers landed on African shores and told the natives that they said you need Jesus and the people said why and the people said because you need to be saved and it was like saved from who and it turned out from them but but religion plays an important role in African culture, often superseding or rather replacing the traditional religions that many people had and in my family we were, I mean, my mom was into it, we were in three churches every Sunday and you know, because I wanted a little bit of Every church that wanted, you know, the analytical vibe of a white church, loved it, how a white pastor would break down the Bible and look at each verse from three or four different angles and try to interpret what was being said and you know, and then she would want us to go to a black church because she loved the feeling of the spirits and you know black church lasted for hours if you've ever been to a black church.

You're probably still there now. The black church never ends and I always said I used to think we're not sitting there when I was a kid. I thought, I think it's because black people have more to pray for. You know, white people just go. Go in to review and be like we're still good, it was still good and they leave like people say oh we need time, we need time, but religion religion was something that I think was necessary in my life in our lives at that moment. because the only thing that religion gave us was a hope, you know, it was a hope that there was something greater to aspire to, it was a hope that something was taking care of us, it was what it gave my mom, you know , Courage.

Behind her decisions my mom was very brave and many of the decisions she made and I think it was because she had the belief that God was always with her, so fundamentally I didn't have any problem with religion growing up. I didn't like people. about religion that was my problem so I used to argue with my mom she would say let's go to church The church was an hour away we had a horrible car we were cold the car would break down no matter what and I would say For her, why do we need to go to church?

The Bible says if three or more gather in my name then I am in their presence, there are two of us, we find one more person and God will join us here, that sounds like a nice It was a very nice deal for me, so I constantly worked within the rules, that's what my mom taught me to do. You know, she had done the same thing with apartheid and I was just applying that to religion. I was going to say, these are the rules, so I'll do it. play with it, I will apply them as you have taught me, you know, and I loved religion when I was a child, again it was my, it was my, you know, there were my fantasy stories as a game.

I didn't have superheroes growing up. I loved it. Samson, you know, I was reading stories about Joseph and his coat, I was, I was, I was fantasizing about, you know, partying in a Red Sea like Moses, that was my, those are my stories, just throwing sticks on the ground trying to turn them into snakes It was like this was my world, but as I've gotten older and I guess even to this day, to answer your question, I've been constantly frustrated by the gap between religion and the people who worship. You know, I go to religion by itself, if almost if it's like if. people don't touch it, it's a beautiful idea, you know, great stories give you something to aspire to and many times it's a manual for life, there are wonderful stories that you can learn from the Bible, relationships, you know, friendships, difficulties, ideas, perseverance, there are so many great themes, but I hate the way people use it to control other people and that's what always turns me away from religion, but then after my mother was shot, you know a bullet that hit your mother in the back of the head passed through her head, no. affect her brain, not affect, not completely disfigure her, I mean, she literally lost a piece of her nostril, which was miraculous to be in that situation and then walk around with 100% conviction that there is no God, it's like you know one of those things. where I fought with my mom and she said, well, tell me and I said I have a couple more for Trevor and then it will be time to answer your questions, so start thinking about the stories that you will have like a page or so of thoughts about different things and one of them really stuck with me.

I could imagine you awake in the middle of the night and in a dark apartment and this was really something you wanted to put on the page and this is what you wrote. a couple of sentences we spend a lot of time fearing failure fear of rejection but regret is what we should fear most you will never know and it will haunt you for the rest of your days yes, what did that come about and something was it? happening when you put that on the page no, it has been the theme of my life and when I put it on the page it came because it comes from Zahara's story, that is my only regret in life, the girl who didn't tell her that I liked her when I was in eighth or ninth grade.

She was in ninth grade and I didn't tell her and it sounds stupid, but there was a girl at my school and she was just the most beautiful woman and person I've ever met. He had met me I wasn't popular I had acne I was a clumsy little kid that people made fun of and I have comedy to defend myself but I wasn't I was just surviving you know high school is one of those places where you just try to make it to the end for some people and that was me and yet as a hero it was this oasis where she, I mean, all the men were after her and yet she was just giving me time as a human being and I was madly in I love her as a person and I never, never told him because I was taught, in my school you know that wasn't my place, you know that's the reason I still hate fairy tales to this day.

I hate all fairy tales. because, what do fairy tales tell you? They tell you that only the prince is supposed to keep the princess. You know there are seven dwarfs. None of them kissed her. She didn't even have one. You tell me that none of them were meant to be with her and that you have to wait for the rich boy to come with his horse and he catches her and it's a story reinforced over and over again your job is that you, like the clumsy boy in next door you will be her friend and you know it and I used to be I just never said anything because I was afraid of being rejected and she left school abruptly during one of our summer vacations and I found out when we got back to school that she was gone and He had not only left but had emigrated to the United States.

I could not believe it. I thought, what do you mean she immigrated and left and then her friend, who was the reason I found myself here? There was a girl named Johanna who I was best friends with my whole life? We had been in the same schools all the time and she was always popular and she was like oh yeah, I'm so sad, she's going to tell me and I was like, I'm so sad and she was like oh yeah, and it sucked because she really liked me. Did you like it? I said, what are you like?

What do you mean? She said yes, she was very in love with you and it was easy to talk about her and I mean you can broadcast at that age where none of your peers have expressed anything. kind of affection there was only one woman who loved me and that was my mom, you know, and here I was listening to this, but she was gone and to this day, to this day, that stays with me, you know, I do not regret anything. in my life bad decisions things that I shouldn't have done everything I do has led me to this point including that moment I suppose but the regret of not knowing it you know fail if you are going to fail succeed if you are going to succeed but no Don't regret it because if you don't You do it and you never know that you don't have an answer, you express it with that idea of ​​what if and that to me is something that I have promised myself and that I will never allow it to happen. once again and finally, of course, we're all still trying to cross the plot, cross-check, figure out the choices.

I'm sure you've spent the last week thinking about it, where are you with this right now? What do you think just happened and what? You think about how people should see it. I'm in a good place right now. And this is just me as a human being. You know, I fight. I used to fight a lot about this with my friends, but I recover very quickly. I heal very quickly. I haven't had as I tell people. I haven't lived a life where I have the time and luxury to be in pain for a long time. You know, the first story in the book I tell. about how I got thrown out of a moving car and my mom jumped out with me and I didn't have time to stand up and be like I'm in pain you have to keep moving and luckily I recovered quickly and it was thrown out by the election of Donald Trump not only by Donald Trump and America, but by the way it feels like the world is moving towards you, you know, and if you look at this only through the prism of America, you can get a very limiting picture.

When you look at the world, when you look at what this means, it becomes much scarier, you realize that there is a change that is happening throughout Europe and Australia, and now in the United States, a change in which the populism of right It's coming up and it was a difficult moment for me because I thought, you know, I always say this to the people I go to when you read the story. Do you ever think that you are the person that is going to be? at that time in history no one thinks that i think you know no one thought to themselves that they would be in world war 2 no one thought they would be in world war 1 it seems like a ridiculous sight we read stories now and I often hear people say that's not it It can happen to us, you know, they don't worry, Donald Trump, you isolate, it can't happen to us, we have, we have systems, yes, we will look at where they have those systems.

I got you, you know, the man has continually shown you that the buttress that people believed existed, didn't you know that Donald Trump? I say it's going to be the biggest stress test for American democracy because it's going to expose everything that's wrong with it, a lot of the ideas that the United States has implicit agreements, you know, these are implicit agreements that people have, they're supposed to. that the president is supposed to release his tax returns, that's not a law, you know, the president is supposed to divest his interests, that's not a law. The president must have blind confidence in that, it is not a law that none of these things allow, he has to return to live in the White House, not a law, it says, he must be willing to relocate, it does not say, he has to relocate, it is not a law, all of these things, children. involved in racing is not a law these are all things where you've just taken them for granted, I guess we all have and now you're in that space and I guess all I'm saying is this, I'm going, it's hard, I know it's difficult because I struggle with it, as people tell me. like on Thanksgiving Day or next.

I had so many friends who said I don't want to go home. My brother voted for Trump. My uncle voted for Trump. My mom voted for Trump. These are people who suit me. I could have sworn my dad wasn't like that. but I could have sworn my bachelor's degree, you know, I'm a black man, how did my brother vote for Trump? I'm a gay man, how did my mom vote for Trump? There are so many people and what I had to tell them is try it. You approached them as a human being and not as a political opponent.

Try to approach them as if you really believe that they think they were doing the right thing according to their views, because a lot of times people are and when you know it when you look at it, when you look at it. Through a broader lens, you realize that Donald Trump was simply theperfect person to capitalize on where the world is right now and where America is right now, but not all of those people are voting for one thing, they're not a monolith, they're not all. voting for an idea, there are all these little people who I think were able to project whatever they wanted onto Trump and they all said, you know, the newspapers are kind of very smart and they said, hey, this guy doesn't say anything.

I said yes, but to those People, it says a lot because when you don't say anything, the person can project anything on you and that's what they did when they said friends, we're not going to win anymore and then if you were a black person. you could look at him and say he's right we're not winning anymore and if you were an immigrant you'd say you're right you know we're not winning anymore and why would people say we're not winning in it. Everyone was saying, "This guy's right, we're not going to win," no one asked him what that means, no one asked him where he's going, but people held on to that because that's where the world is moving, a lot of factors, there are Isis, there are taxes, premiums increase with Obamacare. there are so many ideas and then of course you have those extra layers, the icing, what to call them, the icing on the cake, racism and misogyny, we never forget those things, but people are still people, people can change people .

It can grow and one thing I learned growing up in South Africa is empathy. It's always easy to think that empathy is top-down. It is always easy to think that empathy should be expressed by those in power, but the most difficult place to express empathy is when you are the person who is being oppressed and yet I feel that many times that is the time when Nelson is needed most Mandela was a great example that while in prison he spent most of his time trying to teach his god trying to teach his prison warden why he himself was a prisoner he saw that man was in a worse situation than him because I always tell people in America I'm going to think this way even as a black person I'm going as a black person you're just oppressed you're being oppressed by the laws, but once those things open up you're free because you were already imagining to someone who is stuck in their mind that's something people need to empathize with and I hope we can move on and if we can then you know we're in a better place these are some of the questions that have come up from the crowd Trevor , okay, I'll try to review them well, this is a sweet question from a fifth grader, what advice would you give to a biracial child living with a single woman? black mom her name is Caleb and PS: what is your favorite wild animal?

Okay, okay, what advice do I give you? The best advice I have for you is to try to listen to your mom. She know she seems crazy. I know everything she says is wrong for you. right now but she's a lot smarter than you think you probably won't appreciate it now but learn to appreciate her while she's still around she loves you you know she's with you for a reason and remember one of the most important things is you are a team , you know, you are a team, you are on this journey together, you are in a unique position together and I will tell you this: you are in one of the most exciting places in the world because not many people have the superpower of living in multiple worlds and that It's what you have, you know you can be as black as you want, you can be as white as you want and in the end I feel like that's what everyone should try. do it enjoy it Caleb sometimes it seems like a curse but it is a blessing you are a wild animal and my favorite wild animal would probably be the giraffe it is just unnecessary wow this is your family you will never have Wow who saw that coming maybe few but they are committed if the reincarnation is real, what do you hope Donald Trump returns?

As if reincarnation is real, do I hope Donald Trump comes back? How I hope Donald Trump comes back as a Muslim woman who is an immigrant who has entered a country. beauty pageant in one of her competitions I don't think I have what it takes to accept it What's the best advice you've ever received? The best advice I ever received was that everything is helping you. It is one of the most difficult concepts to understand. It's not the same thing that everything happens for a reason it's a difference there's a difference but it's that everything is helping you and it doesn't mean that everything is helping you in a good way everything is helping you get to where you're trying to go now sometimes you're trying to get you to a bad place, sometimes you're trying to sabotage yourself, so when I say you know people do great, but what happened to this time with this relationship?

No, no, it could all be helping to lead you down a spiral. that will end in your demise, but remember that everything is helping you, you get fired, you get hired, you win, you lose, whatever it is, everything helps you get to where you need to go, but you have to really believe and want to go to that place . You're going to love this one. Do you feel like you're living up to John Stewart's legacy? Oh, you know, one of the greatest gifts Jon Stewart gave me, besides the daily show, was complete humility and honesty, you know what I am?

I was really lucky to be able to meet Jon Stewart before all this craziness happened. Jon Stewart and I, our relationship started a year or two before anyone met me, you know? And it's like we had a private relationship that no one really knew about and that was This guy saw me in the world on tour doing stand-up, he saw me on the Internet and he said he literally said he didn't know he said that, but he told him to someone in the office that this guy can have my desk when he's there. ready and this didn't happen for years and I don't know why he said that, but he set out to find me and said I want you to come and join me here at the show and he didn't say anything to me.

You know, he just said come hang out and I want to show you how it all works and he did and I enjoyed it and we just enjoy hanging out and we see the world in several very similar ways, it's just that we have different experiences and the good thing is that John and I always joke that if we were doing math we would both get the same thing but our formulas and equations are very different but we still get the same answer and one of the things he taught me is that I have to do it the way I want to do it. and that was one of the main reasons he wanted me to host because he knew I was the only person who wouldn't try to be like him because oddly enough I was never in love with him and he liked that about me .

He said you don't really know who I am and I said yes, you did it with a guy. I understand you have a TV show and you're John Stewart and he says. No, I love this about you because you don't worship me, so you won't try to emulate me. He said: I want you to come on the show and that was the gift he gave me. He said everyone thinks they know. how it should be done, make the show that you feel should be made and with him in my corner I thought everyone can tell me what they want to tell me, but you know, as long as I have their blessing and their support, just make the show that I think is necessary to do, there would be many more Jon Stewarts and Trevor Noahs in the world, so this one comes and I apologize if I say the name wrong.

Margery chata cough, mother of Adam chata cough, so what are they? the daily show this is so funny oh you know, she wants to know if the Electoral College should be abolished oh yeah, it should definitely be abolished, it should be abolished because I mean it's a vestige of a racist era, you know, and there it is again where we are going America is that there are so many problems that America faces and on top of all that you have the veneer of racism which just doesn't help and as a South African I understand this because we too are facing the same problem.

You know, all over the world we see it with Briggs and we see it with what is happening in Greece and in Austria, there is a rise of right-wing populism, you know, and it is very easy for that to arise because it is very, very simple to fix the whole solution that they promise you you declare yourself a politician you say that the problem is due to them this is the we got rid of them the problem disappeared and because of that simple solution people accept it because they are desperate I know and and that's scary, but now, when you you add race on top, it's much harder to dismantle because now there's a face attached to it, now there's an extra layer, now it's not just acidic, but it looks like. like the butts have been attacked because now there's a paint color attached to it, you know, so I think the electoral college is one of those examples that needs to be abolished, it needs, like I always say, the United States needs to update its software, that's it, America has amazing software, but it was never updated, you know, a constitution is something that should live and breathe in my opinion, and I remember going to Washington DC and one of the most beautiful quotes that I paraphrased and butchered, I forgive. me, but I think it was at the Lincoln Memorial and it says that you can't expect a man to wear the same coat he wore as a child and it still fits like it did when he was young and that's what should apply to laws that always they should be growing and changing with you you know how you can have no laws about technology when we there is nothing in the book of the founding fathers about an iPhone there is nothing they wrote nothing about this they wrote every one all men are created equal because that was a time when women didn't exist it needs to be updated all people are created equal those are little things we take for granted in the newsroom you know you think about it we live in a time where just in my life I've seen a change from president to president, those are little things that we don't think you even think about how the world is designed to oppress and it's just that we've lived in it like the normal police firefighter, you know? these are things that we just accepted, you don't know, misogyny is the basic lens through which we see the world and it's such a soft level that you don't even realize that it's happening all the time and that racism is too one of them. of those electoral college has to go and wherever the lady.

Charlie cough is I don't know where she is oh there you are, can you just tell you that woman over there, your son, her son is the driving force behind The Daily Show. Honestly, I was lucky enough to inherit your son from Jon Stewart and he stayed on board and holds that program to such a high standard, knows every fact, researches every idea he discusses, holds us to a standard that I often fight with. with him and I say that even the news doesn't fit the standard. and he says well look at the news and tell me what work they're doing you know so I just want to say another mom another mom not all the news not all the news but to another mom thank you thank you know you know when I say you know I'm talking about cable news , OK? and you know you know there are people we have protests in Philadelphia, it's not a question, but a lot of people have been wondering how to view the ongoing situation.

You protest and I heard you say something and I thought it was worth asking you about it again. How do you see the protests that are happening right now? I think protest is a beautiful form of expression, especially in a democracy, it is something that is needed. something that goes beyond just saying you know, because the powerful thing about protest is those images and that's what people like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King understood the power of images, that's what Selma was really about, because you realize Realize that you can, you can fight everything you can.

You want to, but when people see your fight, you win, it filters down when people see your passion, it changes them, it leaves an indelible mark on your mind that you can't create from any other form of communication, that's what makes you. The protests are so powerful, you know, but I implore all people. When I go, you have to be careful and learn to channel your anger, and because I come from a country where I mean one of the most painful uprisings in South Africa occurred on June 16, 1976, where the young people of South Africa rose up, the young people blacks and said that they refused to be taught in a language that was not theirs, the language of the oppressor, they were forced not to learn in their language, which would obviously impede their learning and they fought and Marched peacefully and still the police He pointed guns at them and killed dozens of these kids and there are images of them running through the streets bleeding and charging at each other and you know we're lucky not to experience that right now, we saw bits and pieces of that. in Ferguson and you know in other places where there were shootings and there were protests but with this always tell people that I go even in your moment of greatest anger you don't understand when you throw that bottle at a police officer when you turn on the lights of that car you haven't burned a car, you have burned the purpose of your protest and don't get me wrong.

I'm not saying that violent protest is not good. What I'm saying is that there are times for it and there are times when it doesn't work, you know, when people protest against a system and an idea, it seems like exceptions are being made, but if black people go, this system is against us, they can only protest and they have to shake the world in which they find themselves. You have to burn it. something you need to break something because then it's felt, but if you're protesting to show that Trump is not your president, that's a protestproud that has been seen and felt all over the world, why give them the opportunity to shut you down because I threw a stone at a policeman a stone and then thousands of people can no longer speak you know that you are giving away your voice just for that moment where you express your anger and the worst thing is that you didn't even hit him the helmet bounces and it's cold, you know, but you protest and protest, but just remember that approach and when I read about Selma, it was one of those moments where I realized the importance that Martin Luther King pointed out and said: we have a purpose, we have an objective, not fighting back is going to be difficult, it's going to be difficult but we have to make sure that the reason he wanted that is because he knew what he was trying to achieve, so that when you protest, never stop thinking about what you are trying to achieve after the election, most of us are experiencing disbelief, sadness and fear given your story, can you give us some reason for hope?

There is always hope as long as people are willing to work there is always hope as long as people are willing to believe there is always hope South Africa had no hope and yet we are a country where we went through a bloodless revolution the power changed of hands through democracy, so it was a peaceful transition and we are functioning today people point to our violence and our crime and our economy and I say that we are a functional country that has been in a much better place than any other country in the world where power was forcibly taken away from one group and I moved to another and I see hope every day, you know, don't be fooled because sometimes the news only reports what they want because that's what sensationalism sells, but there's a lot hope and even in the United States I feel that there is There is a lot of hope because at the end of the day the weakness of the populist is that he cannot deliver the weakness of the populist is that most of it is a lie and that is why over time time is your friend time It's your ally and the only one What I tell people is being built now, while you still remember, don't wait, you know, I've heard it said that you can't start your revolution six months before the election, you start building that now and while remember now, if you are. a liberal, if you're a democrat or a progressive, this is the moment when you look at yourself, point the finger like this, self-introspection and think, what can I do better?, what can we build now so that, if The day comes, that person?

Is the law no longer in force? Are we in a stronger position? Are we in a better place to move it forward? South Africa is the best example that we elected our Donald Trump, right? He is currently serving his second term. He's almost done. We are in the countdown that he has had. countless scandals his story has many parallels with Donald Trump he arrived, you know, with 700 charges of corruption Donald Trump has four hundred lawsuits against him, he arrived with a rape case hanging over his head Donald Trump has the same thing that his children are in business that I can benefit from your relationship with the president.

The same thing happened to my president, but I will say that the press has done an excellent job. The courts did an excellent job and, most importantly, the people did an excellent job. They made his voice heard. Social networks have changed. everything the people marched, the people protested and the importance of the votes, the only thing I think about in America as I go, everyone talks about who voted for Donald, who voted for Hillary, why, why, and I go, let's talk to that 50% who did not vote, what is it. What happened there, half the country didn't talk and that's almost scarier because if people don't believe that democracy has a purpose, then you're in a very dangerous place.

Trevor loves your show and I'm a grandmother, which has been more surprising. About African American culture, the most surprising thing about African American culture is how similar it is to African culture. I mean, it sounds the same, but it's beautiful. I've traveled halfway around the world and then I find out that "I'm at home alone with the different accents, one of the things I admire most and love most about African American culture is its resilience, its beauty, its magic, its energy, you know, the African American culture, I always say it's a, you know, create, just create. create music, create life, create style, create personality, create a lot and what I find magical is that you create in the face of adversity, you create against all odds and that.

It's probably one of the most exciting things for me. It's just seeing a group of people who against all odds have continued to persevere and continue to push too or continue to be proud you know and if you look at it you don't even realize how much of a change you are. You're affecting everything you're creating in the world and then you realize? I remember one day I was at a hockey game and I was invited to a hockey game in New York and there were just white people across the board and we were sitting around. there, watching their hockey game, the guys were skating on the ice and then during one of the timeouts the music came over the PA system and it was hip-hop and everyone in that arena was nodding their head or smiling, some people were talking and singing and I It was like you didn't even notice that change because it's like water that's been flowing.

There was a time when hip-hop, are you kidding me, in a white environment, that personification of black blackness was seen as the enemy, and yet now it's slowly gone? Filtered white kids don't even see themselves the same way white kids saw themselves 40 years ago. Now it's starting to melt and it takes time, it's like an erosion, it takes time, but when you step back sometimes and notice the difference and then you say, how can you not say there is hope? You know, and that's one of the most magical things to me is that from such a small group of African-American people they've been able to inject so much that it's become the status quo of American life and that to me is truly magical, we've reached the end. of our time with Trevor and I want to do something I've never done before, which is to thank you personally for what a long week and a very long day.

I was wondering how I was going to get through this. I needed this. I think it's just wonderful.