Sharing himself with the world
At his Toronto JFL42 performance and on The Daily Show, this comedian plans to be himself
First, he’ll take Toronto. Then, The Daily Show.
When Trevor Noah steps onto the stage of the Sony Centre on Sept. 26 as part of JFL42, it’s safe to say the eyes of the world will be on him.
And that pressure will be there not just because he’s one of the hottest comedians around today, but because 48 hours later he’ll be taking over Jon Stewart’s long-held position as host of The Daily Show.
“It’s going to be a mission of discovery” is Noah’s initial statement about assuming the recently vacated throne of topical comedy king Stewart.
A lot of funnymen in the same position would dodge the issue or joke their way around it, but not Noah. On the phone from Edinburgh, where he was packing houses during the recent festival there, he displayed no compulsion to wisecrack his way through an interview.
“I don’t think it’s strange that I’m doing a standup act just before I tackle my first night on The Daily Show. I’m going to let the two feed each other. Standup is a great deal of who I am and The Daily Show will be me sharing who I am with the world,” he says.
The South African-born Noah has played a lot of countries on that globe in his 31 years, but he insists that “I would never say that I know the world better than Jon did. No way. In fact, Jon and I have very similar takes on the world, which you’ll learn as soon as I start talking on the show, although mine might be more varied because of the way it was shaped.”
That might rank as one of the understatements of the year.
Noah is the son of a black South African woman and a white man born in Switzerland. Noah was born in 1984 during the apartheid era, which means the relationship that created him was illegal and his mother, in fact, was imprisoned for it.
Rather than hide or ignore his origins, Noah has let them fuel some of his most acerbic comedy, such as explaining his father’s interracial relationship by saying, “You know how those Swiss love their chocolate.”
But Noah won’t play the martyr or claim unique status because of his South African origins. “I honestly think everybody’s journey is pressing and challenging in different ways. Just because I grew up in apartheid doesn’t mean I’ve got a leg up on a kid who grew up in a really tough, white, middle-class background in America. Everybody’s journey is different.”
When pressured about some of the darker moments in his youth, he admits, “I only had one way to go and that was up.”
The bottom came six years ago when the South African man his mother later married and divorced, shot and severely wounded his mother and then hunted Noah, intending to kill him.
“When you’re in the middle of a situation like that you’re trying to stay alive, but later on, yes, we all made jokes about it,” Noah recalls. “You have to understand that we grew up in a family that had laughed at everything.
“Laughter is often the Band-Aid that helps you heal the wounds, that helps you process the information.”
He looks back on his upbringing now with mixed feelings.
“I think it’s a gift and a curse. You learn how to be resilient and outspoken and that’s the gift.
“But it’s also all so outlandish that the jokes almost write themselves and that’s the curse.”
In fact, although Noah had been in show business since he was 18 as both an actor and a host, it was only after his mother’s near-death experience that he went into comedy, rising rapidly to the top of the South African scene, making his mark in Europe and then moving to the United States in 2011.
Besides speaking English and four different African languages, he taught himself German “so I could do standup for my father,” he joked.
“I actually found it a very weird experience. You have to learn the language as a whole and learn it thoroughly because only then can you understand what makes something funny in that language. I still don’t feel I can perform at my best in German, but I’m working on it.”
Noah’s meteoric rise to the top of the American comedy market and his sudden coronation as Stewart’s replacement, announced in March 2015, put him under a lot of scrutiny.
Some of his early tweets that mocked Jews and women were proposed as examples of what an inappropriate choice he was as host, but Noah put it in perspective by saying, “To reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn’t land is not a true reflection of my character, nor my evolution as a comedian.” The Comedy Network backed him 100 per cent.
Perhaps a little trickier was explaining away an earlier statement he had made that “I don’t think comedy and celebrity mix,” since he’s about to become one of the biggest celebrities on television.
When I asked him about it, he chose his words carefully.
“Celebrity to a certain extent is a choice. There’s a certain element of fame that’s not a choice: people will know your name and recognize you. But there’s another element of celebrity — the whole showbiz circus side of it — that you can choose not to subscribe to and I will try not to.
“For example, I admire Jimmy Fallon for the juggling act he pulls off. He’s a celebrity in the sense that people know him, but he also has people on his show who play the celebrity game up big and he’s not one of them. I like that.”
Is he nervous about his first session as host of The Daily Show?
“I’m of two minds about it,” he says. “On one level, I just want to get through it and have the first one over with so we get on with doing the show.
“But I also want to relish something that important. I’d never want to forget that opportunity. The best way I can put it is that it’s like a first kiss with somebody. You’ve got a conception of what you think it will be like in your mind, but the reality is beautiful in a totally different way.”
He also wants to make it clear to all the fans at Toronto’s JFL42 that despite the pressure he won’t be giving us his second best.
“I’m always in the moment and standup comedy is what I do. When I’m onstage, it’s my No. 1 priority. I’m a downto-earth, fun-loving comedian. I hope people are braced for good laughter.
“And honesty is the most important thing. I never try to be controversial. But I do like to tell the truth.”