Immigrant of the Day: Trevor Noah (South Africa), comedian, talk show host, book author
Born in South Africa, Trevor Noah is a comedian, writer, producer, actor, media critic, and television host. He was named to replace Jon Stewart as the host of the The Daily Show, the television talk show on Comedy Central.
In 2011, Noah moved to the United States. He became the first South African stand-up comedian to appear on The Tonight Show and became the first to appear on Late Show with David Letterman.
In 2016, Noah published an autobiography, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. An engaging and interesting book, Noah writes of his humble beginnings in apartheid South Africa, his family’s hard scrabble existence there, and ends with the shocking domestic violence suffered by his mother — she was shot by Noah’s step-father. Here is an abstract:
“Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.”
KJ