June 18, 2022 • 37 mins
Alex Wagner sits down with Trevor to discuss the value of leading honest conversations during difficult times, how the Daily Show “cinematic universe” finds success in its News Team, and the power optimism has in comedy.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Comedy Central. Welcome home. I guess this
is this is the studio that you first were in
with live human beings, and now you're back. You you
spent some time holdaway in your apartment, but recently you
guys moved the show back to a live studio audience.
(00:23):
It's been it's been fun, it's been different. It's it's
interesting that you say welcome home because for me, the
home is less of the place and the people. UM
Flow manager says that all the times you says welcome home,
and what I loved about the idea was moving with
the home people as opposed to the space. So what's
been fun about coming home isn't necessarily where we physically are,
(00:43):
but who we physically with. So the audience has been back.
UM stuff is slowly coming back, so you know it
does it feels like but it feels like new home.
It's like post pandemic home. Yeah, you guys are one
of the first shows to get back on the air
after the pandemic and you sort of rebooted the format
in a completely different way. Talk to me a little
bit about how you came up with that concept. Um,
(01:06):
what do they say necessities the mother of warn invention.
It was just a situation of realizing that the twenty
one days that they told us about was going to
be a little bit longer. And um, we were at home.
How do you create a show from home? What is
that show? How do you stay sane? I think that's
really what it was about, you know, And I've I've
really been, um, you know, blessed to have people say
(01:26):
thank you for getting us through the pandemic, thank you
for being with us through. But really it's the other
way around. I go, thank you for getting me through
the pandemic. I had things to do. I didn't have
to try and bike bread. I didn't have to. It
was just trying to get through it. And so that
was an interesting time to be in with everybody because
I was in New York. I didn't get to leave.
I didn't want to leave. I didn't even know you
(01:47):
could leave, should leave. I was just here. You were
allowed to leave your apartment if you wanted, but you
apparently didn't want to have people like we're in Miami,
we're in this plas like I'm in New York. Um.
And so I think that that moment of the pandemic
was an interesting one because it's not often that we
get to talk about a situation that we are intrinsically
(02:07):
part of. You know, it's the same thing for news,
I guess, you know, sometimes you're talking about a story,
but you're not in the story. And yet here we
were all of us going through the same thing, the
same fear, the same not knowing of what's what's going
to happen, And and so that that was a journey.
And then we had an interim period where we knew
we couldn't go back to an audience yet, but we
were allowed to be out of an apartment. And what
(02:28):
is that journey? And what is that show? And so
I just looked at it as learnings. You know, you
go to one place you learn something, you go to
the next place you learn something new. What is the
thing that you learned from that pandemic chapter? I mean
the show was really intimate, not just because you were
going through the same thing that everybody else was going,
but the show actually became you were closer to the
(02:50):
audience in a lot of ways, right, I mean, we
felt viscerally with you in that room, and I wonder
how that informed when you came back to the big
studio audience, like what did you want to you differently
apart from like snack a lot in your part? I
think no, that was my goal was to not put
on what do they call them, the pandemic pounds. Everyone
was doing it, and I promised myself, was like, I
(03:11):
don't want to come out and then be sad, and
it was the whole thing. So what what was the
biggest change for me? I think it was probably being
in an environment where I didn't have an audience to
interact with, and so I had to imagine them. I
had to think about who I would wish the audience
to be. You know. It wasn't me responding to the audience,
but me thinking about the idea of an audience and
(03:32):
and then even getting the word audience out of my
head and thinking more about just the people I like.
Who do I laugh with? What do I laugh with
them about? Why do we laugh you know? How do
we handle an issue, what do we argue about? What?
All of these pieces came together, and so I found
myself in a place where I started thinking about these
people who I was speaking to, you know, and I
(03:53):
think what what that did for me? Which which was
really great was it helped me remember that the thing
we do here, uh is, you know, in many ways
the beginning of the conversation that I have with the
audience at home. You know, that is where the viewer is.
And so when I first started on the show, it
was an interesting dilemma for me because I've done stand up,
(04:15):
you know, and then I've done TV shows, But there
was this world where's a live audience and who are
you really performing too? And what is the purpose? And
what is that and and and I think that creates
an evolution for me. So when I came back here,
the biggest thing I wanted to make sure of is
that I didn't forget the people who are still at home,
because those are the people who got me through the pandemic.
And the people who come here, all those people, it's
just they come to see the show live. And so
(04:37):
it really became an amalgamation of those two worlds. Now
where I don't think of this as the in studio audience,
and that's the home audience. I go, You're all the audience,
some of you just come in person. It feels like
you think um greatly about your responsibilities as a host
as a television figure. But I also wonder how you
conceive of your responsibilities as you know, a public figure
(04:59):
with the back round that you have, right, I think
a lot of people have come to know you, not
just through the Daily Show, but through Born a Crime,
your memoir, and the fact that you have firsthand experience
with issues concerning race and racism, gun violence in a
way that not only a few people in Late Night do,
but a few people in American journalism understand those issues
(05:21):
in this sort of visceral personal way that you do.
And I guess I wonder as you think about your role,
how do you balance the desire and the need to
entertain audiences with the kind of responsibility of being true
to those issues and those experiences and the people affected
by those issues. I mean, that's a very delicate line
to balance. The first thing that helped me was when
(05:44):
I came to the realization that I wasn't trying to
entertain the audience. I think that was the biggest shift.
I realized that I am not on the Daily Show
because I want to entertain the people who are watching it.
I want to try and create a space where we
come to engage in ideas. You know, like you and
I will have conversations about everything. You know. It can
(06:05):
be something trivial, it can be something serious. Will laugh, We'll,
we'll get serious, We'll we'll go into it, will we'll argue,
whatever it may be. I think that's the best space
to be in with other human beings. I love that,
you know. And so what I realized was, oh, I'm
actually not trying to entertain people. When I do that,
then I don't give my truest feeling. I I don't
delve into a topic the way I really think it
(06:25):
should be delved into. I I find myself thinking about
performing and entertaining as opposed to communicating as honestly as possible.
I laugh, you know, I use laughter the process pain.
I used laughter to point out absurdity. I use comedy
to process information in the world. So for me, I
then realized, that's what I'm trying to do with the audience.
I would like to get to know the audience and
(06:47):
I would like them to get to know me. And
in that we start to build context. And I think
every conversation needs context. Without context, no joke makes sense,
you know, no issue can be can be tackled because
it's it's it's far too complicated. But with context, you
start to develop a familiarity, just you develop a trust.
And so what I realized was, I'm just being Trevor.
(07:08):
I'm trying to be as much Trevor as possible, and
I want the audience to understand that this is Trevor.
And as I get to know the audience and as
they get to know me, we start to develop more
of a bond where we where we just exist naturally.
And so you know, people understand the wise now, which
change what we can talk about, how we can talk
about it, and what we can put on the show.
(07:29):
And so I'm not thinking about, oh, this is a
story involving domestic abuse, how do I entertain the audience?
This is a story involving gun violence? How do I
I don't think about that. I think how do I
communicate most honestly with them? And part of that honesty
is that I use comedy to process a multitude of
emotions that may not necessarily be ha ha funny. Yeah,
(07:49):
I think that's the human experience to write. Humor is
a way of processing the events around us. Sometimes funerals
can be funny, My grandmother's funeral is one of the
funniest experiences I've ever watched in life. I want to
extend my condolence as she sounded like an incredible eighty.
She was fantastic. Thank you. Yeah, And I know that
she plays a big role and kind of you know
(08:11):
who Trevor Noah is. How did her passing affect you?
I mean, what do you think you will carry with
you from her? I think it's exactly that. It's it's perspective.
You know. We when we went down to South Africa
and we were there for the Global Citizen Festival, and
(08:35):
we never planned a thing around my grandmother. You know,
I planned to take the show to my childhood home
and let them see a bit of the neighborhood that
I lived in for many years. And we never plan
I never assume anything of my family. I don't, you know,
go grand You're gonna be on TV and no. But
she just you know, wanted to talk to the people.
And I and my friend who was with us was directing,
said hey, you you you want to can we capture
(08:57):
this my grandsada. I don't really mind at all, And
so it was really interesting to have such a candid
conversation with somebody who I've only known love from my
entire life, but who I never got into any of
those specific conversations with because I had never come with
the attitude of the Daily Show. And here I was
talking to my grant, not just about food or about
(09:18):
life or about me being a child, but about politics.
And here was this woman saying to me, Yeah, I
know the country is struggling now, but you can't tell
me it's worse. She's like, were you in apartheite, you know,
did you experience this? If you didn't, you can't say
it's worse. And she gave me perspective, and I think
that was something she always did for myself, for my family,
(09:39):
as she put things into perspective. When you have lived
for nine decades, the perspective that you have on progress,
on you know, on on I guess, you know, progressive ideas,
on on just improving your life as a person, whatever
it may be. The perspective you have is a really
interesting one, you know. And I think she taught me
(10:00):
to not allow the frustration of the moment to overwhelm
the idea of progress over time, you know. And and
I'm eternally grateful because she has left an indelible impression
on the Daily Show. She's part of my Daily Show
that you can't separated from that. And so yeah, it
was you know, grief is a is an interesting emotion
(10:23):
because you know, everyone said, you said, I was like,
it's not sad, it's it's it's more, it's multifaceted and
so um. And again that's from my grant, is that
we knew we were saying goodbye over the last two years,
you know, because she's old, but you're still never ready
for that moment. And and I think that's that's who
she was and that's what she left me, always laughing,
(10:45):
always remembering, always appreciating, and just trying to remember where
you were, where you are and where you're trying to
be well and maybe a little bit hopeful beyond a
little bit. Yeah. One of the things that I think
is so notable about this show and all that it does,
and we'll get to all that it does in a second,
is there's a philanthropic side to this, right, there's not
(11:05):
just the commentary itself, but it's the desire and the
efforts to make real change, whether that's you know, donating
proceeds from merchandise sales to certain organizations, be it the
Equal Justice Initiative or A to six national um, the
you know, the companies that you partner with to make
the merchandise, lifting up marginalized voices, you know, black women
(11:28):
owned businesses, or even issuing a call to your audience
to say, hey, we're going to maybe be short on
poll workers in election, you should volunteer. Where does that
desire come from? Because I think a lot of people
think comics and late night show hosts are cynics, right,
that they're there to be this kind of satirical take
on what's happening in society, but embedded in that philanthropic
(11:52):
work seems to be a real optimism that changes possible.
I think comics are cynics on the surface and eternal
optimistic at heart, because just by the very mere fact
that they get out there and say things and then
think that people might laugh tells you about a certain
optimism that we have to possess as human beings, just
(12:13):
a naked help. I mean, if we were truly cynics,
we wouldn't even try, you know, would be like this
is never gonna work. But we wouldn't even do it,
but fundamentally we do it. I think, you know, it's
it's maybe it's a defense mechanism, it's you know, not
allowing ourselves to be too hopeful because the world has
hurts us so many times. And so with the show,
it was really again us experiencing what was happening in
(12:34):
the world. It was it was us seeing how many
people needed help. The pandemic was I mean it was
it was widespread. It didn't matter who you were, where
you were, somebody was feeling something in and around your
world and everything collapsed in and you know, on top
of itself, you had you know, nonprofit organizations, you had
you know NGOs, you know, non governmental organizations. They they
(12:54):
just stopped getting help. Nobody could get help. And then
people who never needed help now needed help. And you
had food banks and you had all of this happening.
And one thing I've learned, especially about America, that I've
I've always um really found admirable is you know, America
is one of the most charitable countries in the world.
Um people love giving, but oftentimes people don't know how
(13:15):
to give away, to give to, you know, And and
what we realized was we could just be the conduits.
We could just take time out of our show to say,
here's an issue you you may you may be you know,
four against you may whatever it may be, but here's
how you can connect to these people, you know. And
it started with disasters, you know, before the pandemic, where
you know, chef Jose Andreas would be telling us how
(13:35):
he's feeding people, whether it would be in Puerto Rico,
whether he'll be traveling to Haiti or whatever it may be.
And we'd see the difference. And on my set, I
don't feel like we're sacrificing, we're giving up. We're literally
just using a bit of our airtime to help the
audience touch base with the issue. And it makes a difference.
And so we decided why why not do that? You know,
(13:59):
one of people showed up to volunteer to be polar
It's it's amazing, It really really is amazing. And so
it's it's um that's been great to see as a
byproduct of of what we do, because you can't fix
everything all the time, but if you can help in
the little way that you can, then why not. I mean,
I think you are doing this sort of philanthropic angle
is express most specifically in those donations and the sort
(14:23):
of calls to action, but there's also the kind of
be the change you want to see in the world
aspect to your actual production staff, like that you have
late night television journalism in general, the media in general
in America tends to be fairly monochromatic and mal and
what you have done, being one of the few late
night hosts of color is change your You've changed your
(14:46):
team to be more reflective of the America that we
are all in. Tell me a little bit about, you know,
when you started this show, what you wanted to do
in terms of hiring people of color, women, having a
more diverse room. When you sat down to craft the
Daily Show, well, to be honest with you, I wanted
to continue something that I was asked to be a
(15:07):
part of. You know, I will never take for granted
the fact that John Stewart started changing the Daily Show,
you know, before he left. I mean I was asked
to join his show. You know, so was Hassan Minhaj,
you know, so was you know, you you had all
these people who had been brought in they will asked
to join that show, and I I loved that world.
(15:28):
I loved who we were and where we had come
from and how we would communicate. And it seemed like
a natural journey to carry on, you know. And and
one thing I enjoyed is I've had a team that
understands that you can continue growing. It's it's adding, you know,
It's not a zero some game people make it seem like, oh,
you've got to kick all of these people and then
you're gonna get these people in. But but it's not
that we've grown over the years as opposed to the
(15:50):
show shrinking down and cutting people off, you know, we've
found ways to include more people. You know. I I
don't often think of it through the lens of good
or bad. I think of it more through the lens
of knowing or not knowing. You know. In in this industry,
just like in many other industries, oftentimes referrals or how
people get a job. When you understand that that's the process,
(16:10):
you realize how important it is to look outside of
the general referrals because we normally refer who we know.
We normally know who we've been allowed to know. And
then America tells you a story that helps you understand
how we got to this point. So, you know, I've
been really really lucky that that my team. You know, now,
for instance, my show run a Jen Flan's like she's
been one of the people who always I would say
(16:31):
to her, Hey, what's what's out for my blind spots.
I'm not a woman, so just let me know if
I'm missing anything. We don't have to make it heavy.
We don't have to make it something that's you know,
it's like it's, oh, there's this wall that's holding us back. No,
let's let's speak up, let's move, let's talk. You know,
if we have members on staff, we are part of
the LGBTQ community, they can say something, Hey, I don't
know if you noticed this. I don't if you saw that.
Hey this is something. Yeah, great, let's do it because
(16:52):
it's not supposed to be as heavy as everybody makes it.
You're trying to be a team. And I think what
a good team does is everybody finds the position that
they're good at, and you talk to your teammates, you say,
watch out for that, look out for that gap, watch
out for that space. And that's what we've continually tried
to do. We've tried to be in a space where
we give everybody an opportunity to get to the show.
(17:13):
We understand that not everybody had the opportunity to be
seen by the show before, you know, And so all
we're doing is trying to bridge that gap the other
way around and find people who just bring value to
the show. You know. Now you have people from you know, Uganda,
South Africa, you have Nigerians, you have English people, you
have Americans from the West coast, the East coast, from
the South, the Burmese. You're here now, you see. They
(17:37):
asked me about Burmese and then now here you are.
And that's how you make it happen. And yeah, it's
like it's one of those things that only adds just
to the flavor of what you're trying to create. Yeah, well,
I mean it's hard to imagine the downside of having
a staff that is better reflective of the country but
also knows more collectively, right, Like you're blind, spots are less,
(18:01):
there are fewer of them. There. Downside is that it's harder.
That's what people don't ever like to talk about. The
downside is that it's harder. You mean, to find the staff, no,
not not to find the stuff if you're if you're
looking for you because there are different voices. Yes, there
is nothing easier than being in a homogeneous space or
in a homogeneous group. You don't have to worry. You know,
(18:21):
when men were in a boardroom, it's like we're a
white man. You don't have to worry about what you
say because everyone gets you. You know what, Mr moris
club right? It is harder. You bring in the first
woman and then they go what can we say? What
can't we say? And then for the woman, she has
to do she has to represent all women. Now that
she has to speak up for every woman. Can she
beat that? She has to join the boys? It is harder,
and I think most things that are worth doing are
(18:42):
going to be harder. But if you look at it
only through the lens of how hard or how easy
it is, you don't think of it through the greater lens,
which is what can you improve, how can you grow?
What can you change? How many perspectives can you add
to a show? You know, So if if you're now
telling a story about you know, Nigerian's protesting against the police,
oh wow, having a Nigerian on staff really helps. Having
(19:06):
somebody who's connected to that part of the continent really helps.
You know, when you're telling a story about whatever it
may be, it just it just helps. It improves, you know,
the complexity with which you can tell a story. And
so it is harder, and that's the downside. But I
think the upside of it is what you can come
away with. I mean, you, speaking of heart, you guys
(19:27):
have taken it upon yourself to really screw it up
for the rest of us who just want to do
one thing at a time. Like I know people who
just want to write or just do television. But here
at the Daily Show, everybody does one trillion things. There
are podcasts, there are the correspondent segments and spinoffs. There's
like just a host of different pieces of content. You
(19:50):
guys are flooding the zone social there's like just there's
the viral clips. I mean, you are blanketing media both online, digital,
you know, broadcast, cable, whatever it is, and making it
really hard for the rest of us. That's not really
it's not a complaint, but I guess I wonder how
you think of the landscape we're in in terms of
(20:13):
content generation. You guys are a factory and at the
same time you're also doing a daily TV show. I
don't understand how that's physically possible. Have you bent the
time space continuum? And are the rest of it? Are
the rest of us expected to do the same? Thanks
to you, Trevor Noah. I you know what, I think
it is a combination of a few things. One, it's
(20:33):
people who are passionate about what they're doing. I find
oftentimes that helps people manage a workload in a different
way because they're not trying to chase a task. They're
trying to express their creative their creativity. Um you know,
so our digital team who are responsible for everything that
you see on Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, there's so many
(20:59):
different ones. They love it. They're on the platform. You know,
Like I remember when TikTok first started and they came
to me like, oh, there's a new thing, TikTok. When
I was like, oh boy, I actually sounded like a
fifty old man talk water is that? And now look
at it. They were passionate and so it was easy
(21:20):
for them to get into that space early. And you're
making it just sound like people kind of like, oh
I want to grow tomato plants, go for it. Years there.
You're you're establishing a certain culture inside the building that
is making people feel free enough to be creative, and
then execute on that those creative ideas. You want to
have fun. Here's the thing I mean, maybe you experienced
(21:41):
listen the pandemic. I know I did. I realized during
the pandemic you want to be in a world where
you're enjoying yourself. Everyone talks about life work balance, but
I live here as well. This is my life doesn't
stop when I come here. This is not an episode
of severance. You know. I work here and I have
to enjoy that. So I want to be with people
who I enjoy being and I want to have conversations
that are fun. I don't want to feel like it's
(22:03):
a laborious exercise that I'm you know, counting down the
hours until I get to leave the place. No, I understand,
this is what I'm doing for my you know, my living,
but I'm also living and and and so the people
that we we've managed to get, we're so lucky. It
was just in every team, in every department is people
who understand what we're trying to do. Why are we're
(22:25):
trying to do it? And then we just try to
think of new ways to keep on doing it. So
we understand that not everyone watches the show on linear television.
I know some people who watch the show on they
d v R. They give you are the whole week
and then they binge me. I didn't know that I'm
binge able. That's not a thing that It's not a
thing I haven't considered. So you have some people binging,
you know, you have some people who only watch the clips.
(22:46):
You have some people who are the biggest fans of
us and they go, I love your show on Facebook.
I'm like, well, I'll take it um. And instead of
fighting that, we've learned to embrace it. We've learned to
go find the people where they are, meet them where
they are, to the daily show to them, as opposed
to trying to force people to do a thing that
they're not doing. I think platforms are always going to change.
(23:06):
Content is the one thing that will remain ubiquitous. And
so as we keep on growing that that that that footprint,
we get the opportunity to grow. And that's where all
these other opportunities come in. To grow your staff, diversify
your staff, look at new ways to present yourselves, and
I think it becomes a win win in the end. Well,
but you also have these correspondents who have gone out
and built effectively franchises. Jordan Clapper is the one that
(23:28):
comes to mind because he's you know, some of his
work has met with great successful pustic halls, right, and
here you have Jordan's I mean, there's there are no
late night shows that have that same organizational structure. Right.
You have correspondents out in the field bringing the viewers
to Trump rallies which they almost certainly would rather not attend.
And that, I mean, that's that's breaking the mold. It's
(23:50):
giving a lot of independence to people who are part
of your world. And it's been successful, But there's also
an inherent risk in that, right, And I guess I
just wonder how did you think about doing that when
you you know, when you guys began sort of conceiving
that idea. Well, the riskiest part of anyone going to
a Trump rally is you know, Trump pointing at them
(24:12):
and saying, there's the media, the fake news media. You've
been to some of those rallies, that moment gets a
little hairy sometimes. Um. Other than that, Jordan has told
me stories of moments where they're at a rally and
sometimes people like, hey, you're the guy who talks to us,
let's talk. Sometimes they go, you're the guy who talks
to us, You need to leave. But luckily, you know,
he's managed to play it safe, he's managed to talk
(24:34):
to people. He's managed to give us a certain level
of insight, funny enough into what people are saying in
their world, which I've always find I've always found fascinating
because in America, so many people live in one world,
the bubbles as they call it, and then they're shocked
when things happened. I can't believe this happened. How did
these people vote like this? That was everyone in the year,
(24:54):
but these people were There's just nobody was talking to them,
nobody was bringing into your world. I'm not saying you
can change them, I'm not saying you can convince them,
but at least you can be aware of them to
understand what you're dealing with, you know. And so once
you understand that you're occupying the same space as people
that you may or may not agree with, you realize
that that space is occupied, You are your people, You're
(25:15):
in it, and what the correspondents have done. You know,
Jordan's a great example is he's taken us into a
world that many people were unfamiliar with and have now
become a lot more aware of as an idea and
as a concept and as an energy. And so all
the correspondents have have done that in different ways. And
what I've enjoyed is seeing each correspondent find their own thing.
(25:37):
What is the way they want to tell a story,
How do they want to tell it, Why do they
want to tell it, what makes it funny? What makes
it them? And what it then does for the show
is it means it's no longer just this, you know,
you know, monolithic blob of Trevor nous. It's me and
it's all the people I find funny. You know, I
laugh at half the things Roy saying I love and
other things do say is saying a lot of the
things Jordan is saying. I'm I'm I'm laughing because I'm
(25:59):
also of view, uh And and so what that's allowed
us to do is build this you know, almost cinematic
universe of the Daily Show where you you don't just
see it through one lens, because it shouldn't be seen
through one lens, some monolithic blob of trevornus Um. You
do a thing in your show that nobody else does,
which is, you have new authors on your program. You
(26:22):
have people whose voices are almost never given the platform
of something like The Daily Show. You have activists, you
have names that are not household names. You of course
also have big names as well. But talk to me
a little bit about why you chose to do that
and sort of what that means for the show because
of the conversations, you know, I I love having an
(26:45):
act on the show. I love having a performing on
the show, a musician whoever, I love all of that. However,
I also think it's great to have an author on
the show, someone who's shaping people's minds, telling stories they
may have written, you know, a fiction novel. That's that's
changing how young people see themselves in the world, what
(27:06):
informs them, how do they do it. I remember the
first time we had an artist on, you know, like
a painter, and when I asked him to come on,
he was like, but why, I said, because art shapes
how we see the world. You know, till this day,
people are shaping, you know, how we see the world
through art. What I want to talk to you. I
want to understand how you decide what's a shape or
how you shape it? Um you know you you. You
(27:30):
want to talk to activists themselves, not just to give
people a platform, but also to challenge people. I I
like challenging people. I like, you know, discussing ideas. I
love it when ideas clash while people still respect each other.
I enjoy that. And so I want to talk to
somebody and understand their points of view, be able to
disagree with them, come away with a deeper understanding of
(27:52):
what they believe in, and have the audience, you know,
be in the position where they get to choose what
they want to believe or how they see the topic now,
either from a different perspective or just from a slightly
more informed perspective. And so that's why I try and
have has as many different people on the show who
just come from different It's it's not just about entertainment,
because the world is not just about entertainment, you know,
(28:12):
there are many things that are informing entertainment, ironically, So
I want to talk to those people. I want to
see what their lives are about. I want to see
why we're doing what we're doing in the world by
talking to the people who are actually doing it. I
have two more questions for you, and then we'll be
giving you an Emmy. UM. The first is, you guys
are on every night pretty much, uh, and there's a
(28:35):
sort of responsibility to cover the big news stories of
the day, but you also cover things that other people
aren't necessarily covering, or you cover those big stories in
a way that nobody predicted, totally unique, Trevor Angle, How
do you guys decide on what you're going to cover
each night? What's that process like? The journey has evolved
over time. When I first started the Daily Show, UM,
I thought of it as I'm trying to do the
(28:59):
Daily Show. Over time, I came to realize, no, this
this place is a vehicle, and so my job is
to steer that vehicle in a certain direction. And the
way I do that is by having informed conversations with
the people I'm lucky enough to work with. And what
those conversations illuminate is what's oftentimes happening in the world.
(29:20):
So I've come to learn that there's an interesting thing
that's happened in America where people created this and I
don't know if it was the politicians purposefully, I don't
know if it was the news they created this this
this illusion that like politics is for as well, the
party rather the Beltway. Do you know what happened the filipbuster?
Do you know what? Yes? Yes, well, well the chairs
(29:40):
Senate chairman. Do you you understand the committee or you don't
know the committee? If you don't know the committee, you
can't participate. And then the people's topics are you know, tabloid?
And oh, what's happening with Kanye and Kim? Oh yeah,
well yeah, that's a tabloid topic. And I realized a
lot of the time it isn't that. First of all,
politics is literally of the people, and it's taken from
the Greek word. It's supposed to be what the people
(30:02):
are discussing. It affects you, you know, And if you
don't understand what the people are saying, that's because they're
doing that on purpose. What I'm always trying to do
is have the conversation in a way that we all
can understand. I'm not afraid to say I didn't get that.
Can you can you say to me again? Can you
explain that to me? And oftentimes you'll be surprised. And
how many times the politicians go like, well, I actually,
I don't really and I just I just say it.
(30:23):
And then there's the topic that the people are talking about.
You know, some topics may seem on the surface frivolous,
but they touch on an issue that maybe everyone is
going through. You know, they touch on ideas and complicated
conversations that we wish to have but oftentimes don't have
the tools to have. And and what I've allowed myself
(30:46):
and the Daily Show to do is be a space
where we engage in the real conversations we're having. You know,
I I think it is important to be in it,
to be in a place, and to be a place
we can say You're not just one thing. You know,
you have opinions on politics, You have opinions on news,
(31:06):
You have opinions on geopolitics, on the economy, on whatever
it may be. You don't think you do, but you do.
You know, do you own a home or do you
rent a home or then you have an opinion on
the economy, whether you think you do or not? You know,
do you have an opinion on laws that are being
written in Congress? Will you do whether you think you
do or don't. And so what I what I've tried
(31:27):
to do as much as possible is put the show
in a position where we have the conversations in the
most accessible way because they are affecting people indiscriminately. You know,
just because you don't understand an issue where you don't
care about it, doesn't mean it won't affect you. And
so what The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is trying
to do is not shy away from stories that may,
(31:50):
on the surface seem frivolous, when in fact those could
be the entryways to some of the best conversations that
you can have. In many ways. I think it's what
a lot of you know, lawyers or you know, consultant
slash whoever they are, they do for the Supreme Court.
They take something really small and that goes on to
(32:12):
define what the country is talking about. It's one person
who won't bake a cake. What does that have to
do with anything? Well, it's a larger conversation about who
should bake a cake or shouldn't bake a cake, or
who should they be allowed to not bake a cake
for or you see, But it's I mean, it's just
a cake, and yet all of these cake issues are
(32:34):
the issues that are defining how America is shaped as
a whole. I do think a lot of the Daily
Show audience thinks of this as their own supreme court. Um.
You have hosted the White House Correspondence Dinner, you have
hosted the Grammys twice, you have been interviewed at sixty minutes.
(32:56):
You've been doing the show for a little while now.
But this sort of feel is like a moment when
your voice is resonating as wanted in a way that
it hasn't ever. I mean, it's it's you've reached a
different stage in your career. It feels like I think
the Chinese zodiac this year is not the year of
the pig, but the year of Trevor Noah winning. Um.
(33:17):
But I mean, I guess I wonder, Um, why do
you think the media in particular, and I would say
American culture written more largely is responding to you. So
it's so keen to hear from you in this in
this moment as opposed to others. It's a difficult question
(33:40):
to answer because I would first have to accept your premise. Well,
it's not I mean, they keep asking you to do
these big deal, big ticket things. And it's not just
because no one else would do them, right. I mean,
I happily would have hosted The Great Ways. Nobody asked
Nobody asked me to host the White House Corresponden Center,
And so far sixteen minutes has not book my anner.
It's because you're doing I have other shows anyway. So
(34:02):
the point is, you know what why? Um? I hope
it's because people know that I work hard. I hope
it's because people appreciate what I bring to any project
that I step into. Um. I I think it's also
a culmination, you know. Um it's interesting that you said
(34:22):
you've been at this show for a while now. And
as I walked through the hallways, we we've we've hung
up pictures from our time at the show, and I
realized we're walking through the hallways. It's like, it's not
a show. It's been many shows, you know, for about
two years. I hosted The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
of Jon Stewart's you know, and I only realized that
(34:45):
in hindsights, you know. And then and then you look
at the next year's and it's like, Okay, this is
the Daily Show with Trevor Noah about Trump, you know,
because that's what it really was, processing this madman who
Americans have never seen it yet. For an African, I
found so familiar, you know. And then the next era
became doing the Daily Show but from home? What what
(35:05):
even is the Daily Show? Now? Now it is truly
just you. You've jumped out of bed and you you know, showers,
you got ready in your hoodie. It's a very intimate
space to be in with an audience. Now. Um, then
you in the post ish pandemic phase and what is
that thing? That's another show? And now I feel like
we are we are We're beginning a journey of a
(35:27):
completely new show once again. And so this show is
a culmination of all the other shows that have followed it.
This show is a is a culmination of every experience
I've had. It's it's it's everything we've done, you know,
whether it's us going on the road two places like Florida,
or you know, going out to Cleveland for conventions or
you know, or or creating parts of the show that
(35:47):
travel in unique and interesting ways, you know, creating a
Donald J. Trump Twitter library that that takes people into
the mind of of of the tweets. You know, it's
it's it's been a wonderful way to you know, to
explore what we do, why we do it, and how
we do it. And so yeah, what's what's invigorating is
the fact that it feels like it's a new one
(36:09):
yet again. And I think many people are feeling this
in life. You know, people have switched jobs, people have
switched cities that they live in, people have switched just
who they wish to be. And and so for myself,
you know, this, this this feels like that it feels
like we we left something behind and we're moving towards
something else, and we're taking the parts that we feel
(36:30):
we need to keep. This feels like it feels like
the best version yet. It feels like certainly the one
that wins an Emmy. I would hope so from you
hear us from your lips to the voters is I
think for anybody who has watched you from the beginning
of this journey, right when you were Trevor who to
(36:50):
now when you're hosting these huge, big ticket events, you're becoming,
dare I say it, the voice of a certain generation.
It's a big deal. And it's exist larrating to watch
someone do it with the grace and the consideration and
the intelligence that you have. So I'm not one to
offer accolades. I genuinely like shy away from them. But really, congratulations,
(37:11):
my friend. I'm really happy for you, and I hope
this year is your best one yet. Thank you so much,
Thank you. That will be a fun journey. Trevor Who
to Trevor who won the Emmy? Who guys, you did
it boy? I can hope. Watch The Daily Show weeknights
and eleven central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes
anytime I'll on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy
(37:36):
Central podcast
You're listening to Comedy Central. Welcome home. I guess this
is this is the studio that you first were in
with live human beings, and now you're back. You you
spent some time holdaway in your apartment, but recently you
guys moved the show back to a live studio audience.
(00:23):
It's been it's been fun, it's been different. It's it's
interesting that you say welcome home because for me, the
home is less of the place and the people. UM
Flow manager says that all the times you says welcome home,
and what I loved about the idea was moving with
the home people as opposed to the space. So what's
been fun about coming home isn't necessarily where we physically are,
(00:43):
but who we physically with. So the audience has been back.
UM stuff is slowly coming back, so you know it
does it feels like but it feels like new home.
It's like post pandemic home. Yeah, you guys are one
of the first shows to get back on the air
after the pandemic and you sort of rebooted the format
in a completely different way. Talk to me a little
bit about how you came up with that concept. Um,
(01:06):
what do they say necessities the mother of warn invention.
It was just a situation of realizing that the twenty
one days that they told us about was going to
be a little bit longer. And um, we were at home.
How do you create a show from home? What is
that show? How do you stay sane? I think that's
really what it was about, you know, And I've I've
really been, um, you know, blessed to have people say
(01:26):
thank you for getting us through the pandemic, thank you
for being with us through. But really it's the other
way around. I go, thank you for getting me through
the pandemic. I had things to do. I didn't have
to try and bike bread. I didn't have to. It
was just trying to get through it. And so that
was an interesting time to be in with everybody because
I was in New York. I didn't get to leave.
I didn't want to leave. I didn't even know you
(01:47):
could leave, should leave. I was just here. You were
allowed to leave your apartment if you wanted, but you
apparently didn't want to have people like we're in Miami,
we're in this plas like I'm in New York. Um.
And so I think that that moment of the pandemic
was an interesting one because it's not often that we
get to talk about a situation that we are intrinsically
(02:07):
part of. You know, it's the same thing for news,
I guess, you know, sometimes you're talking about a story,
but you're not in the story. And yet here we
were all of us going through the same thing, the
same fear, the same not knowing of what's what's going
to happen, And and so that that was a journey.
And then we had an interim period where we knew
we couldn't go back to an audience yet, but we
were allowed to be out of an apartment. And what
(02:28):
is that journey? And what is that show? And so
I just looked at it as learnings. You know, you
go to one place you learn something, you go to
the next place you learn something new. What is the
thing that you learned from that pandemic chapter? I mean
the show was really intimate, not just because you were
going through the same thing that everybody else was going,
but the show actually became you were closer to the
(02:50):
audience in a lot of ways, right, I mean, we
felt viscerally with you in that room, and I wonder
how that informed when you came back to the big
studio audience, like what did you want to you differently
apart from like snack a lot in your part? I
think no, that was my goal was to not put
on what do they call them, the pandemic pounds. Everyone
was doing it, and I promised myself, was like, I
(03:11):
don't want to come out and then be sad, and
it was the whole thing. So what what was the
biggest change for me? I think it was probably being
in an environment where I didn't have an audience to
interact with, and so I had to imagine them. I
had to think about who I would wish the audience
to be. You know. It wasn't me responding to the audience,
but me thinking about the idea of an audience and
(03:32):
and then even getting the word audience out of my
head and thinking more about just the people I like.
Who do I laugh with? What do I laugh with
them about? Why do we laugh you know? How do
we handle an issue, what do we argue about? What?
All of these pieces came together, and so I found
myself in a place where I started thinking about these
people who I was speaking to, you know, and I
(03:53):
think what what that did for me? Which which was
really great was it helped me remember that the thing
we do here, uh is, you know, in many ways
the beginning of the conversation that I have with the
audience at home. You know, that is where the viewer is.
And so when I first started on the show, it
was an interesting dilemma for me because I've done stand up,
(04:15):
you know, and then I've done TV shows, But there
was this world where's a live audience and who are
you really performing too? And what is the purpose? And
what is that and and and I think that creates
an evolution for me. So when I came back here,
the biggest thing I wanted to make sure of is
that I didn't forget the people who are still at home,
because those are the people who got me through the pandemic.
And the people who come here, all those people, it's
just they come to see the show live. And so
(04:37):
it really became an amalgamation of those two worlds. Now
where I don't think of this as the in studio audience,
and that's the home audience. I go, You're all the audience,
some of you just come in person. It feels like
you think um greatly about your responsibilities as a host
as a television figure. But I also wonder how you
conceive of your responsibilities as you know, a public figure
(04:59):
with the back round that you have, right, I think
a lot of people have come to know you, not
just through the Daily Show, but through Born a Crime,
your memoir, and the fact that you have firsthand experience
with issues concerning race and racism, gun violence in a
way that not only a few people in Late Night do,
but a few people in American journalism understand those issues
(05:21):
in this sort of visceral personal way that you do.
And I guess I wonder as you think about your role,
how do you balance the desire and the need to
entertain audiences with the kind of responsibility of being true
to those issues and those experiences and the people affected
by those issues. I mean, that's a very delicate line
to balance. The first thing that helped me was when
(05:44):
I came to the realization that I wasn't trying to
entertain the audience. I think that was the biggest shift.
I realized that I am not on the Daily Show
because I want to entertain the people who are watching it.
I want to try and create a space where we
come to engage in ideas. You know, like you and
I will have conversations about everything. You know. It can
(06:05):
be something trivial, it can be something serious. Will laugh, We'll,
we'll get serious, We'll we'll go into it, will we'll argue,
whatever it may be. I think that's the best space
to be in with other human beings. I love that,
you know. And so what I realized was, oh, I'm
actually not trying to entertain people. When I do that,
then I don't give my truest feeling. I I don't
delve into a topic the way I really think it
(06:25):
should be delved into. I I find myself thinking about
performing and entertaining as opposed to communicating as honestly as possible.
I laugh, you know, I use laughter the process pain.
I used laughter to point out absurdity. I use comedy
to process information in the world. So for me, I
then realized, that's what I'm trying to do with the audience.
I would like to get to know the audience and
(06:47):
I would like them to get to know me. And
in that we start to build context. And I think
every conversation needs context. Without context, no joke makes sense,
you know, no issue can be can be tackled because
it's it's it's far too complicated. But with context, you
start to develop a familiarity, just you develop a trust.
And so what I realized was, I'm just being Trevor.
(07:08):
I'm trying to be as much Trevor as possible, and
I want the audience to understand that this is Trevor.
And as I get to know the audience and as
they get to know me, we start to develop more
of a bond where we where we just exist naturally.
And so you know, people understand the wise now, which
change what we can talk about, how we can talk
about it, and what we can put on the show.
(07:29):
And so I'm not thinking about, oh, this is a
story involving domestic abuse, how do I entertain the audience?
This is a story involving gun violence? How do I
I don't think about that. I think how do I
communicate most honestly with them? And part of that honesty
is that I use comedy to process a multitude of
emotions that may not necessarily be ha ha funny. Yeah,
(07:49):
I think that's the human experience to write. Humor is
a way of processing the events around us. Sometimes funerals
can be funny, My grandmother's funeral is one of the
funniest experiences I've ever watched in life. I want to
extend my condolence as she sounded like an incredible eighty.
She was fantastic. Thank you. Yeah, And I know that
she plays a big role and kind of you know
(08:11):
who Trevor Noah is. How did her passing affect you?
I mean, what do you think you will carry with
you from her? I think it's exactly that. It's it's perspective.
You know. We when we went down to South Africa
and we were there for the Global Citizen Festival, and
(08:35):
we never planned a thing around my grandmother. You know,
I planned to take the show to my childhood home
and let them see a bit of the neighborhood that
I lived in for many years. And we never plan
I never assume anything of my family. I don't, you know,
go grand You're gonna be on TV and no. But
she just you know, wanted to talk to the people.
And I and my friend who was with us was directing,
said hey, you you you want to can we capture
(08:57):
this my grandsada. I don't really mind at all, And
so it was really interesting to have such a candid
conversation with somebody who I've only known love from my
entire life, but who I never got into any of
those specific conversations with because I had never come with
the attitude of the Daily Show. And here I was
talking to my grant, not just about food or about
(09:18):
life or about me being a child, but about politics.
And here was this woman saying to me, Yeah, I
know the country is struggling now, but you can't tell
me it's worse. She's like, were you in apartheite, you know,
did you experience this? If you didn't, you can't say
it's worse. And she gave me perspective, and I think
that was something she always did for myself, for my family,
(09:39):
as she put things into perspective. When you have lived
for nine decades, the perspective that you have on progress,
on you know, on on I guess, you know, progressive ideas,
on on just improving your life as a person, whatever
it may be. The perspective you have is a really
interesting one, you know. And I think she taught me
(10:00):
to not allow the frustration of the moment to overwhelm
the idea of progress over time, you know. And and
I'm eternally grateful because she has left an indelible impression
on the Daily Show. She's part of my Daily Show
that you can't separated from that. And so yeah, it
was you know, grief is a is an interesting emotion
(10:23):
because you know, everyone said, you said, I was like,
it's not sad, it's it's it's more, it's multifaceted and
so um. And again that's from my grant, is that
we knew we were saying goodbye over the last two years,
you know, because she's old, but you're still never ready
for that moment. And and I think that's that's who
she was and that's what she left me, always laughing,
(10:45):
always remembering, always appreciating, and just trying to remember where
you were, where you are and where you're trying to
be well and maybe a little bit hopeful beyond a
little bit. Yeah. One of the things that I think
is so notable about this show and all that it does,
and we'll get to all that it does in a second,
is there's a philanthropic side to this, right, there's not
(11:05):
just the commentary itself, but it's the desire and the
efforts to make real change, whether that's you know, donating
proceeds from merchandise sales to certain organizations, be it the
Equal Justice Initiative or A to six national um, the
you know, the companies that you partner with to make
the merchandise, lifting up marginalized voices, you know, black women
(11:28):
owned businesses, or even issuing a call to your audience
to say, hey, we're going to maybe be short on
poll workers in election, you should volunteer. Where does that
desire come from? Because I think a lot of people
think comics and late night show hosts are cynics, right,
that they're there to be this kind of satirical take
on what's happening in society, but embedded in that philanthropic
(11:52):
work seems to be a real optimism that changes possible.
I think comics are cynics on the surface and eternal
optimistic at heart, because just by the very mere fact
that they get out there and say things and then
think that people might laugh tells you about a certain
optimism that we have to possess as human beings, just
(12:13):
a naked help. I mean, if we were truly cynics,
we wouldn't even try, you know, would be like this
is never gonna work. But we wouldn't even do it,
but fundamentally we do it. I think, you know, it's
it's maybe it's a defense mechanism, it's you know, not
allowing ourselves to be too hopeful because the world has
hurts us so many times. And so with the show,
it was really again us experiencing what was happening in
(12:34):
the world. It was it was us seeing how many
people needed help. The pandemic was I mean it was
it was widespread. It didn't matter who you were, where
you were, somebody was feeling something in and around your
world and everything collapsed in and you know, on top
of itself, you had you know, nonprofit organizations, you had
you know NGOs, you know, non governmental organizations. They they
(12:54):
just stopped getting help. Nobody could get help. And then
people who never needed help now needed help. And you
had food banks and you had all of this happening.
And one thing I've learned, especially about America, that I've
I've always um really found admirable is you know, America
is one of the most charitable countries in the world.
Um people love giving, but oftentimes people don't know how
(13:15):
to give away, to give to, you know, And and
what we realized was we could just be the conduits.
We could just take time out of our show to say,
here's an issue you you may you may be you know,
four against you may whatever it may be, but here's
how you can connect to these people, you know. And
it started with disasters, you know, before the pandemic, where
you know, chef Jose Andreas would be telling us how
(13:35):
he's feeding people, whether it would be in Puerto Rico,
whether he'll be traveling to Haiti or whatever it may be.
And we'd see the difference. And on my set, I
don't feel like we're sacrificing, we're giving up. We're literally
just using a bit of our airtime to help the
audience touch base with the issue. And it makes a difference.
And so we decided why why not do that? You know,
(13:59):
one of people showed up to volunteer to be polar
It's it's amazing, It really really is amazing. And so
it's it's um that's been great to see as a
byproduct of of what we do, because you can't fix
everything all the time, but if you can help in
the little way that you can, then why not. I mean,
I think you are doing this sort of philanthropic angle
is express most specifically in those donations and the sort
(14:23):
of calls to action, but there's also the kind of
be the change you want to see in the world
aspect to your actual production staff, like that you have
late night television journalism in general, the media in general
in America tends to be fairly monochromatic and mal and
what you have done, being one of the few late
night hosts of color is change your You've changed your
(14:46):
team to be more reflective of the America that we
are all in. Tell me a little bit about, you know,
when you started this show, what you wanted to do
in terms of hiring people of color, women, having a
more diverse room. When you sat down to craft the
Daily Show, well, to be honest with you, I wanted
to continue something that I was asked to be a
(15:07):
part of. You know, I will never take for granted
the fact that John Stewart started changing the Daily Show,
you know, before he left. I mean I was asked
to join his show. You know, so was Hassan Minhaj,
you know, so was you know, you you had all
these people who had been brought in they will asked
to join that show, and I I loved that world.
(15:28):
I loved who we were and where we had come
from and how we would communicate. And it seemed like
a natural journey to carry on, you know. And and
one thing I enjoyed is I've had a team that
understands that you can continue growing. It's it's adding, you know,
It's not a zero some game people make it seem like, oh,
you've got to kick all of these people and then
you're gonna get these people in. But but it's not
that we've grown over the years as opposed to the
(15:50):
show shrinking down and cutting people off, you know, we've
found ways to include more people. You know. I I
don't often think of it through the lens of good
or bad. I think of it more through the lens
of knowing or not knowing. You know. In in this industry,
just like in many other industries, oftentimes referrals or how
people get a job. When you understand that that's the process,
(16:10):
you realize how important it is to look outside of
the general referrals because we normally refer who we know.
We normally know who we've been allowed to know. And
then America tells you a story that helps you understand
how we got to this point. So, you know, I've
been really really lucky that that my team. You know, now,
for instance, my show run a Jen Flan's like she's
been one of the people who always I would say
(16:31):
to her, Hey, what's what's out for my blind spots.
I'm not a woman, so just let me know if
I'm missing anything. We don't have to make it heavy.
We don't have to make it something that's you know,
it's like it's, oh, there's this wall that's holding us back. No,
let's let's speak up, let's move, let's talk. You know,
if we have members on staff, we are part of
the LGBTQ community, they can say something, Hey, I don't
know if you noticed this. I don't if you saw that.
Hey this is something. Yeah, great, let's do it because
(16:52):
it's not supposed to be as heavy as everybody makes it.
You're trying to be a team. And I think what
a good team does is everybody finds the position that
they're good at, and you talk to your teammates, you say,
watch out for that, look out for that gap, watch
out for that space. And that's what we've continually tried
to do. We've tried to be in a space where
we give everybody an opportunity to get to the show.
(17:13):
We understand that not everybody had the opportunity to be
seen by the show before, you know, And so all
we're doing is trying to bridge that gap the other
way around and find people who just bring value to
the show. You know. Now you have people from you know, Uganda,
South Africa, you have Nigerians, you have English people, you
have Americans from the West coast, the East coast, from
the South, the Burmese. You're here now, you see. They
(17:37):
asked me about Burmese and then now here you are.
And that's how you make it happen. And yeah, it's
like it's one of those things that only adds just
to the flavor of what you're trying to create. Yeah, well,
I mean it's hard to imagine the downside of having
a staff that is better reflective of the country but
also knows more collectively, right, Like you're blind, spots are less,
(18:01):
there are fewer of them. There. Downside is that it's harder.
That's what people don't ever like to talk about. The
downside is that it's harder. You mean, to find the staff, no,
not not to find the stuff if you're if you're
looking for you because there are different voices. Yes, there
is nothing easier than being in a homogeneous space or
in a homogeneous group. You don't have to worry. You know,
(18:21):
when men were in a boardroom, it's like we're a
white man. You don't have to worry about what you
say because everyone gets you. You know what, Mr moris
club right? It is harder. You bring in the first
woman and then they go what can we say? What
can't we say? And then for the woman, she has
to do she has to represent all women. Now that
she has to speak up for every woman. Can she
beat that? She has to join the boys? It is harder,
and I think most things that are worth doing are
(18:42):
going to be harder. But if you look at it
only through the lens of how hard or how easy
it is, you don't think of it through the greater lens,
which is what can you improve, how can you grow?
What can you change? How many perspectives can you add
to a show? You know, So if if you're now
telling a story about you know, Nigerian's protesting against the police,
oh wow, having a Nigerian on staff really helps. Having
(19:06):
somebody who's connected to that part of the continent really helps.
You know, when you're telling a story about whatever it
may be, it just it just helps. It improves, you know,
the complexity with which you can tell a story. And
so it is harder, and that's the downside. But I
think the upside of it is what you can come
away with. I mean, you, speaking of heart, you guys
(19:27):
have taken it upon yourself to really screw it up
for the rest of us who just want to do
one thing at a time. Like I know people who
just want to write or just do television. But here
at the Daily Show, everybody does one trillion things. There
are podcasts, there are the correspondent segments and spinoffs. There's
like just a host of different pieces of content. You
(19:50):
guys are flooding the zone social there's like just there's
the viral clips. I mean, you are blanketing media both online, digital,
you know, broadcast, cable, whatever it is, and making it
really hard for the rest of us. That's not really
it's not a complaint, but I guess I wonder how
you think of the landscape we're in in terms of
(20:13):
content generation. You guys are a factory and at the
same time you're also doing a daily TV show. I
don't understand how that's physically possible. Have you bent the
time space continuum? And are the rest of it? Are
the rest of us expected to do the same? Thanks
to you, Trevor Noah. I you know what, I think
it is a combination of a few things. One, it's
(20:33):
people who are passionate about what they're doing. I find
oftentimes that helps people manage a workload in a different
way because they're not trying to chase a task. They're
trying to express their creative their creativity. Um you know,
so our digital team who are responsible for everything that
you see on Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, there's so many
(20:59):
different ones. They love it. They're on the platform. You know,
Like I remember when TikTok first started and they came
to me like, oh, there's a new thing, TikTok. When
I was like, oh boy, I actually sounded like a
fifty old man talk water is that? And now look
at it. They were passionate and so it was easy
(21:20):
for them to get into that space early. And you're
making it just sound like people kind of like, oh
I want to grow tomato plants, go for it. Years there.
You're you're establishing a certain culture inside the building that
is making people feel free enough to be creative, and
then execute on that those creative ideas. You want to
have fun. Here's the thing I mean, maybe you experienced
(21:41):
listen the pandemic. I know I did. I realized during
the pandemic you want to be in a world where
you're enjoying yourself. Everyone talks about life work balance, but
I live here as well. This is my life doesn't
stop when I come here. This is not an episode
of severance. You know. I work here and I have
to enjoy that. So I want to be with people
who I enjoy being and I want to have conversations
that are fun. I don't want to feel like it's
(22:03):
a laborious exercise that I'm you know, counting down the
hours until I get to leave the place. No, I understand,
this is what I'm doing for my you know, my living,
but I'm also living and and and so the people
that we we've managed to get, we're so lucky. It
was just in every team, in every department is people
who understand what we're trying to do. Why are we're
(22:25):
trying to do it? And then we just try to
think of new ways to keep on doing it. So
we understand that not everyone watches the show on linear television.
I know some people who watch the show on they
d v R. They give you are the whole week
and then they binge me. I didn't know that I'm
binge able. That's not a thing that It's not a
thing I haven't considered. So you have some people binging,
you know, you have some people who only watch the clips.
(22:46):
You have some people who are the biggest fans of
us and they go, I love your show on Facebook.
I'm like, well, I'll take it um. And instead of
fighting that, we've learned to embrace it. We've learned to
go find the people where they are, meet them where
they are, to the daily show to them, as opposed
to trying to force people to do a thing that
they're not doing. I think platforms are always going to change.
(23:06):
Content is the one thing that will remain ubiquitous. And
so as we keep on growing that that that that footprint,
we get the opportunity to grow. And that's where all
these other opportunities come in. To grow your staff, diversify
your staff, look at new ways to present yourselves, and
I think it becomes a win win in the end. Well,
but you also have these correspondents who have gone out
and built effectively franchises. Jordan Clapper is the one that
(23:28):
comes to mind because he's you know, some of his
work has met with great successful pustic halls, right, and
here you have Jordan's I mean, there's there are no
late night shows that have that same organizational structure. Right.
You have correspondents out in the field bringing the viewers
to Trump rallies which they almost certainly would rather not attend.
And that, I mean, that's that's breaking the mold. It's
(23:50):
giving a lot of independence to people who are part
of your world. And it's been successful, But there's also
an inherent risk in that, right, And I guess I
just wonder how did you think about doing that when
you you know, when you guys began sort of conceiving
that idea. Well, the riskiest part of anyone going to
a Trump rally is you know, Trump pointing at them
(24:12):
and saying, there's the media, the fake news media. You've
been to some of those rallies, that moment gets a
little hairy sometimes. Um. Other than that, Jordan has told
me stories of moments where they're at a rally and
sometimes people like, hey, you're the guy who talks to us,
let's talk. Sometimes they go, you're the guy who talks
to us, You need to leave. But luckily, you know,
he's managed to play it safe, he's managed to talk
(24:34):
to people. He's managed to give us a certain level
of insight, funny enough into what people are saying in
their world, which I've always find I've always found fascinating
because in America, so many people live in one world,
the bubbles as they call it, and then they're shocked
when things happened. I can't believe this happened. How did
these people vote like this? That was everyone in the year,
(24:54):
but these people were There's just nobody was talking to them,
nobody was bringing into your world. I'm not saying you
can change them, I'm not saying you can convince them,
but at least you can be aware of them to
understand what you're dealing with, you know. And so once
you understand that you're occupying the same space as people
that you may or may not agree with, you realize
that that space is occupied, You are your people, You're
(25:15):
in it, and what the correspondents have done. You know,
Jordan's a great example is he's taken us into a
world that many people were unfamiliar with and have now
become a lot more aware of as an idea and
as a concept and as an energy. And so all
the correspondents have have done that in different ways. And
what I've enjoyed is seeing each correspondent find their own thing.
(25:37):
What is the way they want to tell a story,
How do they want to tell it, Why do they
want to tell it, what makes it funny? What makes
it them? And what it then does for the show
is it means it's no longer just this, you know,
you know, monolithic blob of Trevor nous. It's me and
it's all the people I find funny. You know, I
laugh at half the things Roy saying I love and
other things do say is saying a lot of the
things Jordan is saying. I'm I'm I'm laughing because I'm
(25:59):
also of view, uh And and so what that's allowed
us to do is build this you know, almost cinematic
universe of the Daily Show where you you don't just
see it through one lens, because it shouldn't be seen
through one lens, some monolithic blob of trevornus Um. You
do a thing in your show that nobody else does,
which is, you have new authors on your program. You
(26:22):
have people whose voices are almost never given the platform
of something like The Daily Show. You have activists, you
have names that are not household names. You of course
also have big names as well. But talk to me
a little bit about why you chose to do that
and sort of what that means for the show because
of the conversations, you know, I I love having an
(26:45):
act on the show. I love having a performing on
the show, a musician whoever, I love all of that. However,
I also think it's great to have an author on
the show, someone who's shaping people's minds, telling stories they
may have written, you know, a fiction novel. That's that's
changing how young people see themselves in the world, what
(27:06):
informs them, how do they do it. I remember the
first time we had an artist on, you know, like
a painter, and when I asked him to come on,
he was like, but why, I said, because art shapes
how we see the world. You know, till this day,
people are shaping, you know, how we see the world
through art. What I want to talk to you. I
want to understand how you decide what's a shape or
how you shape it? Um you know you you. You
(27:30):
want to talk to activists themselves, not just to give
people a platform, but also to challenge people. I I
like challenging people. I like, you know, discussing ideas. I
love it when ideas clash while people still respect each other.
I enjoy that. And so I want to talk to
somebody and understand their points of view, be able to
disagree with them, come away with a deeper understanding of
(27:52):
what they believe in, and have the audience, you know,
be in the position where they get to choose what
they want to believe or how they see the topic now,
either from a different perspective or just from a slightly
more informed perspective. And so that's why I try and
have has as many different people on the show who
just come from different It's it's not just about entertainment,
because the world is not just about entertainment, you know,
(28:12):
there are many things that are informing entertainment, ironically, So
I want to talk to those people. I want to
see what their lives are about. I want to see
why we're doing what we're doing in the world by
talking to the people who are actually doing it. I
have two more questions for you, and then we'll be
giving you an Emmy. UM. The first is, you guys
are on every night pretty much, uh, and there's a
(28:35):
sort of responsibility to cover the big news stories of
the day, but you also cover things that other people
aren't necessarily covering, or you cover those big stories in
a way that nobody predicted, totally unique, Trevor Angle, How
do you guys decide on what you're going to cover
each night? What's that process like? The journey has evolved
over time. When I first started the Daily Show, UM,
I thought of it as I'm trying to do the
(28:59):
Daily Show. Over time, I came to realize, no, this
this place is a vehicle, and so my job is
to steer that vehicle in a certain direction. And the
way I do that is by having informed conversations with
the people I'm lucky enough to work with. And what
those conversations illuminate is what's oftentimes happening in the world.
(29:20):
So I've come to learn that there's an interesting thing
that's happened in America where people created this and I
don't know if it was the politicians purposefully, I don't
know if it was the news they created this this
this illusion that like politics is for as well, the
party rather the Beltway. Do you know what happened the filipbuster?
Do you know what? Yes? Yes, well, well the chairs
(29:40):
Senate chairman. Do you you understand the committee or you don't
know the committee? If you don't know the committee, you
can't participate. And then the people's topics are you know, tabloid?
And oh, what's happening with Kanye and Kim? Oh yeah,
well yeah, that's a tabloid topic. And I realized a
lot of the time it isn't that. First of all,
politics is literally of the people, and it's taken from
the Greek word. It's supposed to be what the people
(30:02):
are discussing. It affects you, you know, And if you
don't understand what the people are saying, that's because they're
doing that on purpose. What I'm always trying to do
is have the conversation in a way that we all
can understand. I'm not afraid to say I didn't get that.
Can you can you say to me again? Can you
explain that to me? And oftentimes you'll be surprised. And
how many times the politicians go like, well, I actually,
I don't really and I just I just say it.
(30:23):
And then there's the topic that the people are talking about.
You know, some topics may seem on the surface frivolous,
but they touch on an issue that maybe everyone is
going through. You know, they touch on ideas and complicated
conversations that we wish to have but oftentimes don't have
the tools to have. And and what I've allowed myself
(30:46):
and the Daily Show to do is be a space
where we engage in the real conversations we're having. You know,
I I think it is important to be in it,
to be in a place, and to be a place
we can say You're not just one thing. You know,
you have opinions on politics, You have opinions on news,
(31:06):
You have opinions on geopolitics, on the economy, on whatever
it may be. You don't think you do, but you do.
You know, do you own a home or do you
rent a home or then you have an opinion on
the economy, whether you think you do or not? You know,
do you have an opinion on laws that are being
written in Congress? Will you do whether you think you
do or don't. And so what I what I've tried
(31:27):
to do as much as possible is put the show
in a position where we have the conversations in the
most accessible way because they are affecting people indiscriminately. You know,
just because you don't understand an issue where you don't
care about it, doesn't mean it won't affect you. And
so what The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is trying
to do is not shy away from stories that may,
(31:50):
on the surface seem frivolous, when in fact those could
be the entryways to some of the best conversations that
you can have. In many ways. I think it's what
a lot of you know, lawyers or you know, consultant
slash whoever they are, they do for the Supreme Court.
They take something really small and that goes on to
(32:12):
define what the country is talking about. It's one person
who won't bake a cake. What does that have to
do with anything? Well, it's a larger conversation about who
should bake a cake or shouldn't bake a cake, or
who should they be allowed to not bake a cake
for or you see, But it's I mean, it's just
a cake, and yet all of these cake issues are
(32:34):
the issues that are defining how America is shaped as
a whole. I do think a lot of the Daily
Show audience thinks of this as their own supreme court. Um.
You have hosted the White House Correspondence Dinner, you have
hosted the Grammys twice, you have been interviewed at sixty minutes.
(32:56):
You've been doing the show for a little while now.
But this sort of feel is like a moment when
your voice is resonating as wanted in a way that
it hasn't ever. I mean, it's it's you've reached a
different stage in your career. It feels like I think
the Chinese zodiac this year is not the year of
the pig, but the year of Trevor Noah winning. Um.
(33:17):
But I mean, I guess I wonder, Um, why do
you think the media in particular, and I would say
American culture written more largely is responding to you. So
it's so keen to hear from you in this in
this moment as opposed to others. It's a difficult question
(33:40):
to answer because I would first have to accept your premise. Well,
it's not I mean, they keep asking you to do
these big deal, big ticket things. And it's not just
because no one else would do them, right. I mean,
I happily would have hosted The Great Ways. Nobody asked
Nobody asked me to host the White House Corresponden Center,
And so far sixteen minutes has not book my anner.
It's because you're doing I have other shows anyway. So
(34:02):
the point is, you know what why? Um? I hope
it's because people know that I work hard. I hope
it's because people appreciate what I bring to any project
that I step into. Um. I I think it's also
a culmination, you know. Um it's interesting that you said
(34:22):
you've been at this show for a while now. And
as I walked through the hallways, we we've we've hung
up pictures from our time at the show, and I
realized we're walking through the hallways. It's like, it's not
a show. It's been many shows, you know, for about
two years. I hosted The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
of Jon Stewart's you know, and I only realized that
(34:45):
in hindsights, you know. And then and then you look
at the next year's and it's like, Okay, this is
the Daily Show with Trevor Noah about Trump, you know,
because that's what it really was, processing this madman who
Americans have never seen it yet. For an African, I
found so familiar, you know. And then the next era
became doing the Daily Show but from home? What what
(35:05):
even is the Daily Show? Now? Now it is truly
just you. You've jumped out of bed and you you know, showers,
you got ready in your hoodie. It's a very intimate
space to be in with an audience. Now. Um, then
you in the post ish pandemic phase and what is
that thing? That's another show? And now I feel like
we are we are We're beginning a journey of a
(35:27):
completely new show once again. And so this show is
a culmination of all the other shows that have followed it.
This show is a is a culmination of every experience
I've had. It's it's it's everything we've done, you know,
whether it's us going on the road two places like Florida,
or you know, going out to Cleveland for conventions or
you know, or or creating parts of the show that
(35:47):
travel in unique and interesting ways, you know, creating a
Donald J. Trump Twitter library that that takes people into
the mind of of of the tweets. You know, it's
it's it's been a wonderful way to you know, to
explore what we do, why we do it, and how
we do it. And so yeah, what's what's invigorating is
the fact that it feels like it's a new one
(36:09):
yet again. And I think many people are feeling this
in life. You know, people have switched jobs, people have
switched cities that they live in, people have switched just
who they wish to be. And and so for myself,
you know, this, this this feels like that it feels
like we we left something behind and we're moving towards
something else, and we're taking the parts that we feel
(36:30):
we need to keep. This feels like it feels like
the best version yet. It feels like certainly the one
that wins an Emmy. I would hope so from you
hear us from your lips to the voters is I
think for anybody who has watched you from the beginning
of this journey, right when you were Trevor who to
(36:50):
now when you're hosting these huge, big ticket events, you're becoming,
dare I say it, the voice of a certain generation.
It's a big deal. And it's exist larrating to watch
someone do it with the grace and the consideration and
the intelligence that you have. So I'm not one to
offer accolades. I genuinely like shy away from them. But really, congratulations,
(37:11):
my friend. I'm really happy for you, and I hope
this year is your best one yet. Thank you so much,
Thank you. That will be a fun journey. Trevor Who
to Trevor who won the Emmy? Who guys, you did
it boy? I can hope. Watch The Daily Show weeknights
and eleven central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes
anytime I'll on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy
(37:36):
Central podcast
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