His once upon a time started when he was born on 20th February 1986 in South Africa which was finally beginning to wake up from the long nightmare of apartheid. Few would have thought that Trevor Noah would one day go on to host one of the highest-rated satirical shows in the US. Nor could many have foreseen that his recently announced departure from that programme – The Daily Show – would fuel a slew of rumours and incite seemingly endless media speculation as to what he – and the show he left behind – would do next.

Much of his success has been down to a singular approach to interviewing, which typically sees him having measured conversations with subjects who hold conflicting viewpoints. This has seen him truly stand out during an era when political views have become ever more polarised and debate has frequently been stifled by attempts to ‘cancel’ those with opposing beliefs from both ends of the political and cultural spectrums.

A Knight in Shining Narratives

Typically, the 36-year-old host has wittily reflected on his past life experiences. These have ranged from the relatively trivial, such as subsisting on caterpillars during months of extreme poverty and making comically hapless teenage passes at clearly disinterested girls, to his experiences in jail and his encounters with various murderous gangsters. One recurring theme in his many monologues is his singular take on racism. Having been raised by his Xhosa mother and his Swiss-German father, Noah was always viewed as coloured, with this identity having shaped many of his beliefs and values.

When not busy in Hollywood, travel is one of his go-to pastimes, with this, too, having been incorporated into his comic routines. Famously, this saw him reflect: “I find that what rich people want to do on vacation is what poor people are trying to escape. My friends said let’s go camping. There’ll be no water and no electricity. It’ll just be us and the great outdoors. “For my part, I’d be like: ‘Yeah, that was my life. Do you know how hard I worked to never go camping again? Every day I wake up in my bed and I’m like: “Thank God I’m not camping!”

The American Dream

At one point, he was named both one of The 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media and one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People in the World. Amid all this, several examples of his rare blend of quirkiness and media savviness emerged. Arguably, one of the best instances of this saw him lead the Daily Show staff in a bid to help out a homeless white man who has been living outside their studios for four years in a bunker built from just blankets.

In a monologue that typified his brand of humour, Noah told viewers: “This guy’s homeless, but he’s racist and sexist to black employees and women, but never says anything to the white guys. So, he’s got this weird power dynamic where he goes: “So I’m homeless, but, yeah, I’m still white.’ Then, I’m like: ‘But you’re homeless.’ It’s a really interesting dynamic. In terms of accordance with the rules of wokeness, I don’t know how it works. I don’t know what the rules are.”

Such encounters are all very Trevor Noah – relentlessly kind and infuriatingly earnest, the kind of person who asks questions and then pays attention to the responses. He’s also the kind of person who, though offended by racism, remains analytical about it. “I don’t want to be the hardest-working man in Hollywood. I don’t want to be on the Forbes list. Forbes Happiest List—put me there if there’s such a thing.” he says.

The Rainbow after the Rain

When it was revealed that Noah would take over as host of The Daily Show, things initially got off to a rocky start. At the time, the then-31-year-old relative Hollywood newbie was not a well-known name State-side, and many were stunned that Comedy Central had not opted to go with a bigger domestic star as the anchor of its flagship show.

Controversy then broke out on account of a series of unearthed tweets that some branded as decidedly misogynistic. Together, these negative rumblings saw the show initially lose more than 700,000 viewers per night compared to the figures sustained during Jon Stewart’s final year. The ratings eventually rebounded, partly helped by the show expanding its online reach. To his credit, once he settled in, few people saw him as a little-known black kid permanently filling in for Jon Stewart.

He was open and honest about dealing with depression and anxiety, and he discussed how running The Daily Show, with its rigid schedule, helped him. He also discussed how it can be challenging to maintain your mental health when working as a traveling comedian. “Because you don’t work a 9-to-5 job, stand-up comedians often fail to recognize the symptoms of depression.

So, you assume this is just the life of a comic when some days you wake up at 4 p.m. and sleep all day and other days you can’t get to sleep till 4 a.m.,” he remarked. “Then you understand that it’s not normal and that it has power over you.”

The Rest Is Still Unwritten

After seven years of hosting The Daily Show through a period characterised by both political unrest and the upending of the TV industry, Noah announced his intention to leave the satirical program, with his last episode scheduled to air on 8th December. When he was asked why he is leaving, he responded with a simple “Why not?” Expanding on this, he said: “It’s better to leave when people ask why you’re leaving than leaving when the reaction is ‘good-riddance’.”

Between 2015 and 2022, both Noah and the show went through huge challenges, while also enjoying equally huge successes. The question now, of course, is how does he follow that? Well, his next project is said to be a docuseries, The Tipping Point, which is to have focus on a variety of highly emotive topics, including voter suppression, political polarisation and the tensions surrounding the ever-prickly issue of immigration.

Along with a series of scheduled performances in South Africa next year, he is also reportedly to spend more time with Dua Lipa, with his budding romantic relationship with the British-born disco diva having been celebrated in any number of online memes.

Whatever the future holds, Trevor Noah is just beginning, with his saga ending unplanned.

 

(Text:Joseff Musa)