Trevor Noah credits his mother for his global stardom
SHARJAH: The Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF 2021) ballroom couldn’t hold another soul on Friday night. The sight was reminiscent of a sold-out rock concert with hundreds of fans stretching their arms out trying to raise their phones higher than their neighbour’s to get a beter shot of the historic moment Trevor Noah walked through the SIBF 2021 doors.
“Are we ready?” asked the UAE’S loved voice on radio, Kris Fade, eliciting the loudest roars and cheers from the anticipation-filled fans who couldn’t wait to meet the celebrity TV host and comedian.
“In life there are two factors that’ll determine where you end up. One is how hard you work, and the other is your luck,” he said while responding to Fade’s query about whether the Daily Show’s host could’ve predicted his remarkable journey of success, one that he recounts in his book, New Memoir.
“Luck is something I have no control over, yet cannot discount,” added Noah, saying his mother taught him that these blessings are not promised to anyone.
In an answer to another question about whether his friends actually knew where Noah came from before reading New Memoir, he said: “A lot of people asked me ‘ why did you write the book, or how did you write the book?’, adding “my friends are the reason why I wrote it because they wanted me to put my stories – the ones I would share live with my audiences during my travels around the world – in a book.”
The process of writing, Trevor admited, wasn’t easy. Trevor has lent his unique storytelling voice to the audiobook version of New Memoir which has earned global appreciation and acclaim.
Despite the fact that an in-depth account of Noah’s childhood is presented in his memoir, the author said to the audience’s surprise that he never journalled. How did he manage such a descriptive narrative then? “I’ve been blessed and cursed with a very good memory, which means that I can remember most of the things that happened to me in my life,” said Noah.
Noah’s mother was integral to his bookwriting journey who helped him fact-check and remember things properly when the author was unsure.
Trevor described his book as a “tribute to his mother”, and went on to say, “I am lucky to be my mother’s son. She was the person who made me love books in the first place.”
Reading all those books that his mother brought home from book clubs or garage sales as buying them wouldn’t always be possible, would take Noah “to a different world”.