Let’s get it on, says Noah

‘The Daily Show’ is reaching a wider audience, says comedian

TREVOR Noah has likened his job as anchor of The Daily Show to making porn movies.

“This thing is like a sex tape — people watch to get off on seeing both people having a good time,” he told the audience before filming Thursday’s show. “So, you have to give me your all because I’m going to give you mine.”

The Sunday Times attended the recording at Comedy Central in New York and asked Noah if he ever waved the local flag on the international stage as proof that he remains proudly South African.

“I always think of my responsibility to comedy first — that’s the most important thing.

“Everywhere I go, I’m a South African — I don’t have to try to be South African, I am. I just do my best at what I do and that’s how I keep the people proud.”

It’s hard to believe that Noah has been at the helm of the show for just seven months.

“I’ve seen people queuing from 10am even though the show only records at 6pm,” said a worker in the building who NOT REALLY X-RATED: Trevor Noah with his TV colleagues asked not to be named. “People fly in from out of the country . . . we get a lot of Australians and South Africans lately.”

Walking onto the set in his signature Tiger of Sweden suit on Thursday night, the 32-yearold had an unassuming confidence that not even the chill of a New York night could shake.

That the Johannesburg-born comedian has made it was underscored by the kaleidoscope of nationalities — including Chileans, Dutch, Australians and, of course, South Africans — in the audience.

Nadia van Popering, 25, from the Netherlands, said she and her sister had queued for two hours for tickets to the show.

“I’m a huge fan of Trevor Noah — he’s the reason I started watching The Daily Show,” she enthused.

“I tried watching it before with Jon Stewart but it wasn’t very funny to me — it’s a very unpopular opinion but it’s true. Trevor got me interested in the show and politics in the US.”

Although Van Popering had nothing but praise for Noah, some critics have lambasted his style of hosting, saying he has bitten off more than he can chew. Their argument is bolstered by declining viewership ratings for the show since he took the reins from Stewart.

But Noah says the slip in viewership “makes sense”.

“If my ratings weren’t down, I’d be offended on behalf of Jon Stewart because it would make sense that people are going to see him out as the king.

“There are multiple streams of viewership now — so we may be down on television but we have more than doubled digitally . . . American ratings also don’t take international viewership into account and we’re up in many countries,” Noah said.

“The most important thing to me is, are you creating good content and is that content connecting with the people — the measurement will catch up.”

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah airs Tuesday to Friday at 9pm on Comedy Central, DStv Channel 122.