# data[].attributes.body
Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. Spiegel & Grau, an Imprint of Random House, 2019.

# data[].attributes.body
Because he is mixed, if Trevor was seen calling his mom "mom" in public, she would risk being arrested. Because of this, he was always either kept inside, or he would have to go outside with a colored caretaker named Queen. According to Trevor, "Queen would walk next to me and act like she was my mother, and my mother would walk a few steps behind, like she was the maid working for the colored woman." (Noah, 28)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Trevor Noah is the most successful comedian in Africa and is the host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning on Comedy Central. This year has been nominated for three Emmys, including Outstanding Variety Talk Series. Noah joined The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 2014 as a contributor.

It was recently announced that Noah will debut his 9th new comedy special on Tuesday, February 21 on Netflix. The special was shot before a packed house in New York City at the Beacon Theatre on November 5, 2016. Last year, Noah debuted his one-hour stand-up special, Trevor Noah: Lost in Translation, on Comedy Central. Noah was the subject of David Paul Meyer's award-winning documentary film which tells the story of his remarkable career in post-apartheid South Africa. His Showtime comedy special, Trevor Noah: African American premiered in 2013. He was nominated for "Personality of the Year" at the 2014 and 2015 MTV Africa Music Awards and won the award in 2015. Trevor's success has also spanned to sold out shows over 5 continents.

Born in South Africa to a black South African mother and a white European father, Noah has hosted numerous television shows including South Africa's music, television and film awards, and two seasons of his own late night talk show, Tonight with Trevor Noah.

In November 2016, Trevor released his first book Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, which was an instant New York Times bestseller. Additionally, his performance on the was Audible's highest rated audiobook of 2016, and has remained one of the top selling titles on Audible since its release. It was also nominated for two NAACP Image Awards, one for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author and another for Outstanding Literary Work in the Biography/Auto-Biography category.

The book is collection of personal stories about growing up in South Africa during the last gasps of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that came with its demise. Already known for his incisive social and political commentary, here Noah turns his focus inward, giving readers an intimate look at the world that shaped him. These are true stories, sometimes dark, occasionally bizarre, frequently tender, and always hilarious. Whether subsisting on caterpillars during months of extreme poverty or making comically hapless attempts at teenage romance, from the time he was thrown in jail to the time he was thrown from a speeding car driven by murderous gangsters, the experiences covered in this book will shock and amaze, even as they leave you rolling on the floor with laughter. The audiobook version performed by Trevor Noah is currently available from Audible Studios.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Trevor Noah is the most successful comedian in Africa and is the host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning on Comedy Central. This year has been nominated for three Emmys, including Outstanding Variety Talk Series. Noah joined The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 2014 as a contributor.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What makes The Daily Show's new host unique-according to South African comics

Bongiwe Mchunu-The Star/AP

CAPE TOWN, South Africa-When word circulated on Monday that standup comic Trevor Noah had been chosen to succeed Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show, South Africans hailed Noah in hyper-caffeinated terms as the country's " next great export" after Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Charlize Theron. On that day, I happened to be in Johannesburg shepherding students through the newsroom of The Star, where the lineup of stories at the morning editorial conference included a series of firefights between gangsters and police on public highways, allegations of corruption at every level of government, and the teetering condition of the state-run utility company, which regularly plunges the country into rolling blackouts. It was no wonder that news of a major U.S. television show hiring a 31-year-old mixed-race South African phenom as anchor had proven so welcome.

By now, the basics about Trevor Noah are well-known. He's the young, super-cool comedian with the cherubic face and itchy Twitter finger who, beginning in 2012, achieved global recognition by way of Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Jon Stewart. In a series of solo performances around the world over the last three years, he has blown up in ways that cultural figures from South Africa haven't since the 1960s and 1970s, when musicians like Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba packed music halls during the height of racial oppression back home.

Noah is a post-Apartheid comic who specializes in mining material from melancholic episodes of his own harsh upbringing. His mother, Patricia, is a Xhosa-speaking black woman from Soweto township who fell in love with a white man from Switzerland in the early 1980s, a period when cross-racial romance was still illegal. Noah was born an outsider's outsider-a light-colored boy in a black community who had to learn to cross multiple lines of difference, including language, color, and culture. Noah put it to a documentary filmmaker this way: "I've lived a life where I've never really fitted in in any particular way. Even now, people still debate on what I am. People say, 'Oh you're black,' And then someone will turn around and say, 'But he's not black, he's coloured.' And then coloured people will say, 'But you're not coloured.' And then when you get older it's cool because you've lived everywhere and nowhere, and you've been everyone and no one, and so you can say everything and nothing and that's really what affects my comedy and everything I say." Perhaps his greatest strength as a comedian is his ability to serve as a translator across all these intersecting lines. In a polyglot world, he's made it his trademark to explain ourselves to one another.

In the days since Noah's appointment, on the airwaves and online, in casual conversations around Johannesburg and Cape Town, reactions have run the gamut from brimming pride to utter surprise, which turned to apprehension as the media in the United States and elsewhere latched onto some of Noah's past portrayals of African Americans and seemingly anti-Semitic, sexist, and otherwise offensive tweets.

The uproar over Noah's comments has been perplexing for South African comics steeped in the country's often sharp, scatological, and confrontational brand of humor-particularly since Noah's style is milder than that of many of his contemporaries. "The controversy just seems ridiculous from our vantage point," said Kagiso Lediga, a veteran comedian from Johannesburg. Noah has "always been the most clean, polite comic on stage. He's the one you'd take your mom to watch. He didn't use obscenities, and never used racist or sexist material in his act. Trevor was our cuddly guy."

Lediga grew up in the battle-scarred 1970s and belongs to a circle of mostly black comics who are edgier and more aggressive than Noah. He co-produces a popular Daily Show-esque program in South Africa with Loyiso Gola, whose known for taking the stage with brash authority, promptly dropping f-bombs, and regularly challenging the prejudices of his fans.

Noah's signature, in contrast, is to sheath his barbs and cushion the blow of his most difficult material with slow pitches, wide smiles, and shy shrugs. He delivers his lines in proper English (though he riffs on the six languages he speaks fluently), and dresses in stylish suits and impeccably polished black shoes. He isn't interested in blustery displays of machismo, or targeting audience members for insults and send-ups. Even his talent for mimicry is usually deployed for inoffensive purposes like invoking the voice of Mandela in a tender way (exceptions include his portrayal of privileged, witless, white American women and his devastating portrayal of South Africa President Jacob Zuma). In other words, Noah is a Boy Scout among lovable scoundrels. That might explain why his comedy has translated so well in Europe and the United States.

When I visited the Cape Town Comedy Club's Pumphouse one night this past week, I found several hundred people wedged in between a spare stage and a massive bar. The audience consisted mostly of South Africans, with a sprinkling of European tourists. Martin Evans, the white master of ceremonies, launched into an energetic and jittery routine, roaming the stage and pouncing on select audience members; he speculated repeatedly about the penis size of an 18-year-old Afrikaans-speaking white man from the rural Western Cape and needled a woman nearby for appearing to nuzzle her cell phone between her breasts. "I talk dirty for a living," Evans explained to the crowd. Nobody, black or white, was immune. When a white woman, seated at a table surrounded by black folks, told Evans that she and her friends were in the midst of a going-away party for Lucky, a black man, the comic upbraided her for presuming to speak for blacks in the new South Africa. "Lucky doesn't have to do fuck-all now because he's free of the clutches of your racist company!" he shouted, as she squirmed. Welcome to a post-Rainbow Nation discourse about race.

At the bar between sets, Evans told me that the comedy scene in South Africa had seemed "so fucking racist" just five years ago, but was now undergoing transformative change thanks to new talent. "In African humor, we don't get upset, or upset each other, by having any sacred cows," he noted. The new generation of South African comics, he said, traded in open, impolite talk about ethnic, cultural, and racial differences. Noah, he added, deserves his success, "but you also have to admit that American comics are quite boring now. Too timid."

What makes Noah's comedy unique? "He's slick as fuck!" Evans replied. "But also super charming," added the young comic sitting next to him. He was a slight, Afrikaans-speaking man named Schalk Bezuidenhout, who sometimes opens for Noah when he's performing in town. Only 22 years old-the same age as Noah when he jump-started his career as a comedian-Bezuidenhout had just come off stage after a set about the hazards of dating a flight attendant ("a non-smoking fuck") and the unintended consequences of imposing a non-racial ideal on young people from South Africa's 11 different language groups ("There's nothing more messed up than a bunch of Afrikaans kids singing an African song").

Both men said Noah distinguished himself from other comics by resisting labels and "genre-based comedy." Bezuidenhout noted that Noah always identified himself as a mixed-race South African raised in straitened circumstances in Soweto without "using it as a crutch." Contemporaries who have shared the stage with him say he's unusually attuned to the audience, shifting direction based on the feel in the room, and Bezuidenhout has seen Noah drop chunks of material based on the city he's performing in. This was a quality that a number of immigrants in South Africa had already mentioned to me. Omega Chembhere, a waiter, told me that when he had arrived from Zimbabwe 10 years earlier, much of South African pop culture had seemed inaccessible. "Trevor's different, so good at it," he said. "His strength is that everything springs from his experience in life, but you understand his reality because he makes an effort to explain. "

Last up at the comedy club was a black comic from a small village in the Eastern Cape named Ndumiso Lindi. His round face was dominated by oversize black-framed glasses and split by a goofy smile, topped by a perky bowler hat. "So many white people in the front!" he exclaimed, blinking into the spotlight and backing away. Lindi told a story about being one of the first black students to integrate the country's best public schools back in the mid-1990s after Apartheid ended, and being subjected to sustained and vicious hazing from white students.

"At that time, my English was only at 40 percent and downloading," he said. The white students had screamed "Why are you here?" at their black peers, and one of them had told him, at the lunch table, that he was nothing but "shark shit." "Hm, I thought-that is so specific," Lindi said, letting the punch of the insult linger. His tormentor explained: "But sharks don't shit-so you are nothing. Nothing." The Pumphouse rumbled with nervous laughter, and the sound of chair legs shrieking on the floor.

Like many of those on stage that night, and on other stages all over the country, Ndumiso Lindi was rooting his performance in experiences of racial denigration and brutal violence and hardship-the kind of rough-hewn material that also inspires Noah (the difficulties that Noah's faced haven't been confined to his childhood; in 2009, for instance, his mother was nearly killed by her ex-husband, who threatened Noah as well).

It's damn hard for comedians to stay true to themselves and their history while creating humor out of such searing conditions. Harder still to translate laughs transmuted from this particular pain into universal terms. Fred Khumalo, the South African novelist and political observer, wrote me to say that Noah's "unique selling proposition," as they call it in advertising, is first and foremost that he does not pigeon-hole himself: his is not black humor or regional humor, a weakness among his contemporaries. Their gags are sometimes too parochial to be appreciated by the outsider-even if the outsider is black and South African.

Heading off for a job that no African has done before-hosting a prime-time satirical comedy show a continent away-represents a nearly impossible challenge (imagine the reverse for a moment: Jon Stewart looking for the right angle to take in a standup routine at The Pumphouse in Cape Town). But for Trevor Noah, this journey across borders and cultures isn't quite as daunting as the distance he's already traveled out of Soweto.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Douglas Foster is associate professor at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and author of After Mandela: The Struggle for Freedom in Post Apartheid South Africa.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What South African Comics Think of Trevor Noah

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What makes The Daily Show's new host unique-according to South African comics CAPE TOWN, South Africa-When word circulated on Monday that standup comic Trevor Noah had been chosen to succeed Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show, South Africans hailed Noah in hyper-caffeinated terms as the country's " next great export" after Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Charlize Theron.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
About This Show

Show Info:

Listen to highlights and extended interviews in the "Ears Edition" of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. From Comedy Central's Podcast Network.Read more "

Listen Whenever

Related Shows

Most Recent Episode

Lev Parnas Exacerbates Trump's Ukraine Scandal | Susie Essman

Lev Parnas implicates President Trump in the Ukraine scandal, Michael Kosta and Roy Wood Jr. cover sports news, and actor Susie Essman chats about "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Read more "

Episodes of This Show

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Daily Show With Trevor Noah: Ears Edition

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Listen to The Daily Show With Trevor Noah: Ears Edition episodes free, on demand. Listen to highlights and extended interviews in the "Ears Edition" of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. From Comedy Central's Podcast Network. The easiest way to listen to podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC, smart speaker - and even in your car.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah | Comedy Central

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Daily Show is an Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning program that looks at the day's top headlines through a sharp, reality-based lens.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chad Batka-The New York Times/Redux
When I think of Trevor Noah, the first image I see is from his brilliant memoir, Born a Crime, of Trevor's mother throwing him out of a moving vehicle while he's asleep in order to save his life. Through other eyes this could be remembered as traumatic and harrowing. Through Trevor's it is bonding and hilarious, a testament to the love of someone who truly had to think on their feet.

That is how Trevor sees the world. A fantastic storyteller, he has always been a defier of rules, which he broke simply by being born in his native country. At The Daily Show, which he has truly globalized, Trevor seeks out comedians of color in every possible venue, no matter how small. He is determined to find the best talent representing the most diverse viewpoints.

Trevor, who grew up biracial in apartheid South Africa, has the unique ability to tell truths that bring us together. He is uncannily skilled at holding up a mirror to whatever room he is in. Trevor is always reaching out: across cultures, continents and boundaries. He makes us laugh with each other and brings us that much closer to understanding one another.
Nyong'o is an Oscar-winning actor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Trevor Noah: The World's 100 Most Influential People

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chad Batka-The New York Times/Redux When I think of Trevor Noah, the first image I see is from his brilliant memoir, Born a Crime, of Trevor's mother throwing him out of a moving vehicle while he's asleep in order to save his life. Through other eyes this could be remembered as traumatic and harrowing.

# data[].attributes.body
One day, Trevor decided to take one of Abel's old cars out. He took a license plate from a pile and stuck it on the car and went out for a drive. He was pulled over in Hillbrow. The policeman ran the plates, and found that they didn't match the car. They took Trevor in and charged him. They suspected him of carjacking and murder in addition to this. Trevor got a lawyer, and went to court. He was eventually released, after spending a week in jail. After getting out, Trevor thought "the thought of doing time in a real prison, I couldn't even imagine". (Noah, 242)

# data[].attributes.body
One day, while DJing at a party, there was a noise complaint. The cops came, and told Trevor to shut it down. Because the program was taking a while to shut down, the cop shot the monitor, which fried the hard drive. It erased the years of work Trevor had done collecting music.

# data[].attributes.body
After moving to Eden Park, when he wasn't at church or school, Trevor and his mom would explore. They would go to parks and go on drives. Ultimately, his mom was just trying to give Trevor what she never had.

# data[].attributes.body
One day while still living with his whole family, the weather was horrible. Trevor had to go to the bathroom, but he didn't want to go outside in the rain to the communal toilet. Naturally, he decided to go on a newspaper, but he didn't realize that his great grandmother was sitting right by him. She was blind, so she couldn't see what he was doing. Trevor disposed of it in the trash and thought that it was over with. After a while, Trevor's grandmother came home, and his great grandmother told her that there were weird noises and a horrible smell, so they called in Trevor's mom. Eventually, his mom found the evidence in the trash. After finding the evidence, his mom came to the obvious conclusion that there was a demon in the house. She got Trevor up, and an emergency prayer meeting was called. The neighborhood came, which Trevor describing the seen as "Moments later the grannies came streaming in with their Bibles, through the gate and up the driveway, a dozen or more at least." (Noah, 46). They burned the newspaper and its contents while the whole neighborhood prayed to cast out the demon who did it.

# data[].attributes.body
While living with his grandma and the rest of his family, they would host neighborhood prayer groups in the house. Trevor would always have to participate in these, and say prayers. According t the book, he would always pray because "Whenever the prayer meetings were at our house, because my prayers were so good, my grandmother would want me to pray for everyone." (Noah, 40)

# data[].attributes.body
After operating his Tuck Shop business for a while, Trevor met a few new kids to the school. They were Chinese, and also had a CD writer. They would use it to pirate music and movies and sell it. After one of them left, they decided to give Trevor the CD writer. Trevor began taking requests from people and would pirate music for them. As he made money, he slowly upgraded his equipment. He started making mixed CDs, and eventually Trevor's friend, Bogani, came up with the idea that he could make tracks and be a sort of DJ. Because of this, the business exploded. The began getting venues, and making a ton of money.

# data[].attributes.body
When Trevor was 7, his mom was dating a man named Abel. He lived in a white family's garage. This family also had a maid who lived in the backyard. At this time, Trevor also happened to be obsessed with fire, saying "At that age, my love of fire was in full bloom." (Noah, 88). One day, he was sitting inside the servant's quarters on an old straw mattress with his fire making equipment, a magnifying glass, matches, and turpentine. Then he got distracted, and when he came back, , the entire room was engulfed. He ended up burning down the entire house, except for the garage, but Abel was still kicked out.

# data[].attributes.body
Trevor and his friend Teddy would always go out and walk around together. Some nights they would go to the mall, where they realized that at a certain shop, if they stuck their arms through the gate, they could reach these chocolates filled with alcohol. They did this often for a while, until one day, a mall cop saw him do it. Teddy and Trevor ran, and the mall cop chased them. More and more cops chased them as they ran back towards their houses. Eventually, they reached a dead end. Trevor knew that there was a hole in the fence that he could go through, but Teddy didn't. Teddy turned back, and Trevor kept going. Teddy was caught, Trevor wasn't. Later, at school, Trevor was called down to the office, since the cops knew that he was Teddy's friend. They had footage of the whole incident, but because the film was poor, the cops assumed that Trevor in the video was actually white, so Trevor was never caught.

# data[].attributes.body
Zaheera was a friend of one of Trevor's friends. Because of this, Trevor and Zaheera got to know each other. Trevor found that he really liked Zaheera, but she would always ask him about other guys, so Trevor assumed that she just thought of him as a friend. Ultimately, Trevor would het her phone number, and they would talk every day. Trevor decided that he would slowly become closer to her over time, but all this was ruined when one day, she suddenly moved to America.

# data[].attributes.body
Because of his mixed racial status, Trevor was never really accepted. In this instance, Trevor was picking berries at a mulberry tree, when some kids decided to start throwing berries at him. Some berries were ripe, while others were still hard. Trevor told Abel about it, who was drunk at the time. Abel went and had Trevor help him find the kids. They all ran, but Abel caught one before he could escape, and started whipping him with a tree branch. Trevor said "I had never seen fear in someone's eyes than I saw in his." (Noah, 125) The kid was only about twelve years old.

# data[].attributes.body
When Trevor entered H.A. Jack primary school, he had to take an aptitude test. He scored well, and was put into the top class. Trevor noticed that the majority of the class was white, with there only being a few kids who weren't in the class. When recess came, Trevor got to see everyone else in the school. It didn't take long for his to realize that the school didn't have a white majority, but there majority of the school was actually comprised of black students. Eventually, he started taking to the black kids and realized that he was in the wrong class. When he asked to switch to the lower class, the counselor told him that he didn't want to do that, and that the people in there were dumb, and wouldn't be friends with him. Trevor insisted though, and he ultimately seemed to make the right choice.

# data[].attributes.body
At Trevor's school, there was a little shop where students could buy food and drinks. It was called the Tuck Shop. Before lunch, the whole school was required to attend an assembly. Because Trevor was a good runner, he was always first in line to the Tuck Shop. He realized that if he could get people to pay him to take orders, he would make a huge profit. If he was there first, he would be able to get them their food faster, and plus, according to Trevor, "if you got there late, the best food was gone." (Noah, 139) This also helped him meet more people

# data[].attributes.body
After they're car broke down, Trevor, his mom, and his little brother Andrew had to take a minibus to get home from church. After getting on the minibus, they realized that the driver and themselves had different ethnicities, which were in conflict at the time. Trevor's mom and the driver had a verbal exchange, and the driver started speeding dangerously. Ultimately, in fear of being killed, Trevor's mom threw Trevor off the minibus, and then jumped with his baby brother Andrew. As soon as they hit the ground, they ran away. The captors tried to chase them. Trevor described it, saying "The men stopped the minibus, and got out and tried to chase us, but they didn't stand a chance." (Noah, 16)

# data[].attributes.body
After living with Abel and slowly losing contact with his dad, Trevor Eventually completely lost contact. After being apart for about ten years, Trevor's mom suggested that he went to go find his dad. Trevor got his address in Cape Town and went to visit him. This is when his father told him that he had actually been keeping track of Trevor's progress through life. The book said "It was a scrapbook of everything I had ever done, every time my name was mentioned in a newspaper" (Noah, 109). Then they talked and watched Formula 1 racing.

# data[].attributes.body
In order to escape they're family who didn't treat them well and to move to a "colored area", Trevor and his mom moved from Soweto to Eden Park. There, they were able to get they're own house and even a car.

# data[].attributes.body
When Trevor's mom married Abel, Trevor wasn't able to see his dad as much. Abel didn't like the idea that Trevor's mom was with another man at one point. He was also very aggressive and an alcoholic, which would affect Trevor for years. According to Trevor, "We had gone from living under apartheid to living under another kind of tyranny, that of an abusive, alcoholic man." (Noah, 107)

# data[].attributes.body
After high school, Trevor moved here to escape Abel. He continued his pirating business with his friends. He worked in the hood, and got to know many people. He began making more and more money as well through new deals.

# data[].attributes.body
At this point, Trevor was sure that he would never get a date to the dance. That was, until he made a deal with someone named Tom. Tom said that he would get Trevor a beautiful girl to go to the dance with if he could get a better cut off of Trevor's business. Trevor met Babiki, and hung out with her and her family. When the time came around, Trevor got new clothes and did his hair to get ready. He picked her up in a neat up old car. He was going to take a better one, but Abel changed his mind at the last minute, telling Trevor "'I need my car tonight'" (Noah, 174). Trevor eventually picked her up, and began driving towards the dance, but got lost. By the time they arrived, they were two hours late. Then Babiki wouldn't get out of the car. After talking to some of his friends, Trevor realized that Babiki didn't speak English. They never actually had a converstation.

# data[].attributes.body
Maryvale was a private Catholic school. One of the events that led up to him leaving was when he wasn't allowed to take communion because he wasn't catholic, so he went behind the alter and ate all the crackers and drank all the grape juice. When he was caught, his argument was that because Jesus wasn't catholic, he wouldn't even be able to eat his own body and drink his own blood. Another incident that was ultimately the last straw was Trevor brought a knife to school. This resulted in a trip to the psychologist and him leaving the school.