Trevor Noah – from Soweto to The Daily Show

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/mar/30/trevor-noah-from-soweto-to-the-daily-show

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The first time I saw Trevor Noah he was playing a tiny room at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was 2012 and it was clear that this charismatic comedian was going to be a star. The South Africa-born standup was not only making everyone laugh, he oozed charm. It was a packed, sweaty venue and he was wearing a leather jacket, but he was so cool there was not a bead of perspiration on him.

It was clear that Noah was destined for international greatness. He was already famous in South Africa. But it is still a surprise that it has happened this fast. After only three appearances on The Daily Show on Comedy Central, it has been announced that Noah will be taking over as host when Jon Stewart leaves after 16 memorable years.

Mick Perrin, Noah’s promoter in the UK and Europe, remembers the Edinburgh gigs too. They instantly sold out and he was a sensation: “He is a cool dude indeed. Him and Bo Burnham are the only acts I’ve ever taken to Edinburgh and were surrounded on the first night by admiring fans. Trevor is the real thing. Clever, charming, insightful and above all funny. He has an incredible stage presence, something that cannot be taught, a real gift.”

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Perrin became involved with Noah through a mutual friend, actor and comedian Eddie Izzard: “I first heard about Trevor through Eddie who he met by chance at the Comedy Store in London. They struck up a friendship and exchanged emails. I contacted Trevor and we eventually met up in Johannesburg in 2010 during Eddie’s tour for Nelson Mandela’s 46664 campaign. I asked Eddie if he would co-produce Trevor in Edinburgh with me in 2012 and he readily agreed.”

Noah is dedicated to his work. Even when he had made a name for himself in the UK and was playing to full houses at the 3000-seater Hammersmith Apollo, the 31-year-old still went back to intimate clubs to hone his craft and roadtest new material.

London club promoter James Woroniecki remembers Noah coming to his venue, the 99 Club off Leicester Square. “He has done our club several times. Most recently he gigged for us where he was followed by Lenny Henry who was fulsome in his praise of Trevor, both in his set onstage and after he came off. Lenny even improvised a brief anecdote in his routine about his own experiences in South Africa in a nice doffing of the hat to Trevor.”

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Not bad for someone who grew up in the township of Soweto under apartheid to a black Xhosa mother and a white Swiss father. As he famously says in his stage show: “I was born a crime.” His parents could not walk together with him down the street. Yet despite these difficulties – or maybe as a way of processing them – Noah has found a rich vein of irreverent comedy when talking about his past. Of his father’s relationship with his mother he would chuckle and say “my dad was like, You know how the Swiss love chocolate”.

Having conquered South Africa and then the UK – a clip of him from BBC1’s Live at the Apollo has had over 3m views – perhaps it was only natural that he would look to America. In that Edinburgh debut in 2012 he was already quipping about the time he visited. On the flight he watched movies to learn how to behave like a black rapper, only to be mistaken for a Mexican at the airport.

On visits to America he appeared on The Tonight Show and Letterman and then last December landed his regular spot on The Daily Show. Inevitably a lot of his material was about race. In his debut appearance he joked about his arms aching. Not because he had flown all the way from Johannesburg, but because American cops had been pointing guns at him all the time and he had been constantly holding his hands up. It was the same potent blend of humour and satire that he had been doing in the UK and back home and it went down a treat.

Yet it was still a shock when he landed Stewart’s job. There have been reports that the likes of comedians Louis CK, Amy Schumer and Amy Poehler were considered. All would have been less of a curveball. If Noah had been lobbying for the job there was no sign of it. He is currently on his Lost in Translation world tour which runs until 22 October. Dates may have to be jiggled if he takes over sooner than that.

He was appearing in Dubai when the news broke and he expressed total shock before immediately coming up with a gag about hearing the news himself, demonstrating that he could still be effortlessly witty under pressure: “You don’t believe it for the first few hours. You need a stiff drink, and then unfortunately you’re in a place where you can’t really get alcohol.”

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Yet in some ways his appointment makes sense. American talk shows seem to have a penchant for outsiders at the moment. British Daily Show alumnus John Oliver has his own HBO show, Last Week Tonight; James Corden has fared well so far as the new host of The Late Late Show on CBS. And the job is not as much of a departure for Noah as it might initially seem. In South Africa the versatile soccer fan has already fronted his own talk show, Tonight With Trevor Noah.

Jon Stewart’s shoes are going to be a challenge to fill though. There is talk that Noah may not try to compete by taking the show in a slightly different direction, but that seems unlikely. It is a ratings and critical hit in its current form. Many young viewers get their news from The Daily Show and see it as a source they can trust.

It is, however, a significant time to take over though, with the 2016 Presidential elections looming over the horizon. The Daily Show is an overtly political programme. How will American viewers feel about an outsider telling them how funny the candidates and their campaigns are? Reports have suggested that Trevor Noah does not have a vote in America. It remains to be seen if TV viewers give him the vote. I suspect they will love him as much as those people back at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival loved him.