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I've lived a life where I've never really fitted in

anywhere in any particular way.

Even now people still debate on what I am,

where people will say, "Oh, you're black."

And then someone will turn around and say,

"No, but he's not black.

He's not black. He's colored."

And then colored people say, "But you're not colored."

And then when you get older,

it's cool because you've just you've‐‐

you've lived everywhere and nowhere.

You've been everyone and no one,

so you can say everything and nothing.

And that's really what affects my comedy

and everything that I say.

And if ever this comedy thing doesn't work out,

then I've got poverty to fall back on,

and I'm pretty sure I'll be cool there.

[child speaks indistinctly]

[singing in foreign language]

[honking]

[Trevor] We've only recently come out of a time

when everything we could say and everything

that we were allowed to hear was censored

that's the biggest challenge in this country,

it's for us to get to the point

where people accept the fact that we're free,

free to say what we feel,

and really free to express ourselves.

[crowd cheering]

[singing in foreign language]

A lot of misconceptions though I have realized,

people think when they say "a comic from South Africa"

they expecting somebody to jump

on stage wearing leopard skins,

dancing around going.

[vocalizing]

Let me tell you a joke about monkey now.

I do actually have very good jokes about monkeys

but I refrain from telling those.

People have these‐‐ these opinions of you

and they're not right,

you know, because South Africa is not as third world

as many people think it is.

Standing in the airport terminal building,

there was a woman who was standing next to me

in the passport line, she looked over at me

and very eloquently said, "Oh, my God, you talk funny."

"Excuse me?" She said, "Yeah, you talk funny.

Where are you from?" "I'm from South Africa."

"Oh, my God. Like Africa?"

"Yes." "Oh, wow.

Like Africa‐Africa?"

"No, the one next to it."

[singing in foreign language]

[Takunda] Standup comedy as like a‐‐

as an art form and as a profession,

has obviously only come in to the fore in recent times.

It developed quite late in South Africa.

So it's almost like comedy has developed in waves

and in each wave or each generation,

there's like a band of guys who have kept it going

from Mel Miller and Joe Parker and Barry Hilton, Mark Banks,

some of the older guys who are still performing now.

...Other people who say to you, "Oh, yes, as you get older,

things get better."

Bullshit.

[Takunda] And then obviously now you have like,

you know, your John Vlismases and Riaad Moosa,

David Newton...

Our soccer is shit.

Now we're inviting the whole fucking world to see how shit we are.

[Takunda] Who was gonna become the first pioneering in black comedians.

I would definitely attribute

that to Kagiso Lediga and David Kau.

They got on to the circuit as the first ones

and obviously had to deal

with the challenges of performing

to all of these different audiences

that were not used to one comedy,

and two black comedians at that.

This whole idea, you know,

the American cultural imperialism‐‐

...and I started saying like

can you imagine like whenever like

when Nelson Mandela was black but a young revolutionary,

if he was like into Ben 10

and he was like listening to Snoop Doggie Dog

and shit, you know, walking with a swagger,

big medallion with an M on it, you know.

[vocalizing]

And knock the mic.

"Brothers and sisters of South Africa, wassup?

This apartheid shit is whack, yo.

We need to rock a revolution in this motherfucker.

Fuck the police."

[Takunda] And then that set the tone for the new generation.

Trevor Noah has been, uh, sort of been this young guy.

He's spiked, you know, he's like so...

he came like from nowhere really.

[Takunda] For the first time, we have a comedian

who is not stuck by race or ethnic group.

He's from a white family, so a part of him is white.

He's from a black family. A part of him is black.

A part of him is colored 'cause, you know,

he's his experiences would have included that.

He's lived everywhere from the township

to like mainstream suburbia

and then on top of that he speaks about,

what, four, five languages.

[speaking in foreign language]

My mom speaks Xhosa.

[speaking in foreign language]

...which loosely translated means...

"I will backhand you so hard, you idiot of a child."

So, so uh, generally I speak English

because it brings back good memories.

So he can relate with pretty much

everyone right across the board.

And everyone right across the board

can relate with him.

For the South African public

I think that guy becomes like the everyman,

You know, he is not black, and he is not white.

he's just, just like whoa, he's mine, he's everybody's.

As someone who's only been doing comedy

for just over two years, I don't even think I know fully,

I don't even know myself yet fully.

I think I'm very far from even calling myself

a good comedian.

I'm just okay for now.

There's something about comedy, man,

there's something about the fact that,

you know, you can just‐‐ you can never get it right.

But then black people never get a break.

Ever notice that? You'll say stuff, and then they'll fix it.

You will be like, "Yeah, that‐‐ that is when I realized

that it was better for us to be part of 'menagement.'"

[laughter]

"No, no, Jabu, management." "Eh?"

"It's not 'menagement,' its management."

"Menagement."

"No, no, management. Go up early. Management."

"Menagement."

"No, no. Not with your body. With your words. Management."

"Management." "Very good. Management."

"Management."

"Well done, Jabu. Well done.

It's wonderful you can speak so well now.

That's amazing.

Yeah it's great. Oh, hold on two seconds.

Yes, what's that, Sara?

Mm‐hmm. Really?

Wow, so the country's theirs now.

I see.

'Menagement,' Jabu.

Yes, now teach me, teach me, teach me."

[cheering]

You've got a country of 50 million people.

But we don't have any real comedy clubs.

If we want to perform,

we have to rent out a music club

and it's on their off nights.

So most people don't even know there's a show going on.

We do have some comedy festivals

but these are pretty rare

and people really come to see the international acts,

not to see you.

You can't really say comedy is that big here.

It's big corporate wise, you know.

Yeah, I mean, companies have now got into the thing

of "Yeah, let's get comedians

'cause we've had everybody else."

Okay, where will I be performing?

Beside the choir.

Can we go and check that out now?

Yeah.

The faces I pull while shaving are the same ones

I pull while having sex.

I can't use a razor.

My skin is sensitive like our country's history.

You're almost faced with the challenge

because as a comedian, you've got to choose

well, do I want to earn a living,

still doing comedy and almost being censored?

Because companies in themselves,

they're very careful with regards

to what they accept and what they don't accept.

You're allowed to swear.

No, I don't. I don't swear though.

Okay, but everybody‐‐

I swear in like daily life,

you know, but I won't swear in there.

I don't swear in corporates.

I don't swear on stage generally,

but in the streets I'm like, "Yeah, fuck that shit."

Thank you, thank you very much.

That was one of the worst intros I've ever got.

[laughter]

This is horrible.

One of‐‐ not the worst, one of the worst.

Yeah, it was one of the worst.

Am I standing in front of the projector?

Do I have, like, "Microsoft" on my head? I do?

Don't you want to turn that off, please?

It's not a privilege for me to have somebody say,

"Don't speak about who you really are.

We saw you do what you do, and that's why we called you.

But now we want you to water that down,

just filter out anything that might be controversial."

Yeah, you should have spent a day with me tomorrow.

Then I would have shown you‐‐ not tomorrow, Wednesday‐‐

I would have shown you corporates,

corporates that don't end, from nine in the morning

until nine at night, I'll be doing corporates.

Andrew's father, who's a very nice man,

decided to help me out.

He looked over and he said, he said,

well, you know, Andrew, in some people's cultures...

[music playing]

[woman] Enjoy Siphokhzi.

Enjoy Siphokhzi, ladies and gentlemen.

[cheering]

They can't do that shit to us. What the fuck?

I can't do that while people are playing music

in the middle of the‐‐ that never happens.

Can we just move stuff around?

No, moving stuff is fine but I can't have people

in the middle of our show going...

[vocalizing]

It wasn't that bad.

My performance time

as in the contract was 7 o'clock.

Alright. Okay.

[Trevor] The boss of the company, he said to me‐‐ what did he say?

He said, he said, "If you don't fucking

get on stage right now, I'll fucking kill you."

Are we starting? Are we starting?

You guys at the back, are you getting sound?

Are you getting sound there? You good over there?

Everyone good?

You getting‐‐ you're getting too much.

We are trying to have

an important conversation over here.

Okay, I'm gonna try cut it down for you guys.

I'll try to speak from this side of my mouth.

Pleasure, Mike.

[Trevor] Every time I think I can keep doing this,

and then I just I can't. I can't.

I can't keep doing corporates for the rest of my life.

[man on radio] Yo, you're listening

to South Africa's Number 1 Hip Hop Station,

and I've got some exciting news

for y'all out there.

For the first time ever, Trevor Noah will be performing

his one man show at "The Daywalker"

at the Lyric Theatre in Gold Reef City.

[Takunda] Trevor's been in comedy for two to three years now

and ordinarily, I would not recommend

for a comedian to do a one man show

at this stage of his career.

Normally like a year or two years in,

yes, you might be a funny guy,

whatever, but are you strong enough a comedian

now to like let your opinions on the world go up there,

and be assessed and analyzed?

That's the problem with young comedians.

They haven't learned the art of comedy yet.

It took me 20 years to get a start.

They're trying to get it in like a year and a half, two years.

Doesn't work.

As a comedian, you have to develop and,

you know, you find your voice then you find your feet

and there's a certain sort of journey

that everyone has to travel

until they get to a certain level.

There's still so much more of his comedy

that he could develop and improve on.

Daywalker is gonna be about my life,

you know, it's‐‐ and I hope it's gonna be

also about the country.

I'm trying to make the show

everything that I am, everything that I was,

and how I was influenced by everything and everyone around me.

My comedy's based on my life growing up in South Africa,

so for the biggest show I've ever done,

it's nice to revisit all the people and places

from my past to help me prepare my material.

Trevor Noah.

I've never been able to write out my material.

I just come up with it and then I try and perform it

as much as possible and turn it into gags.

Thank you. Thank you, Siya B.

Thank you so much. This is so cool.

There's more comedians than...

just like people chilling watching the show.

We should have just gone to each table

and then just picked one person

and just done like a one‐on‐one session,

and just told them the jokes.

Would have been more effective.

except for you 'cause you were a shit.

But then, you see this is the one place

where we'll say that 'cause this is like a comedy,

you know, it's that kind of place is

where we're honest with each other

and be like "That was horrible"

and you know, that type of stuff.

I could be horrible as well, you know what I mean,

and then it would be worse 'cause I'm wearing a suit.

So if I'm horrible in a suit then they're like,

"What was that about?"

With you they're like, "Yeah, but he didn't look serious."

You know what I mean.

So it's better. So I've screwed myself over.

So it could be absolutely horrible,

could be absolutely horrible, but we'll see.

So much stuff to talk about, so little time.

Mmm, what should we talk about?

My life, maybe.

I always think your life is a good place to start.

♪ Daywalker... ♪

In South Africa, I grew up, I grew up in a world

where, where we're very focused on race.

I mean, we've only had democracy for 15 years.

Everyone's go to have

a very specific racial thing, you know.

You're black and you're white and then don't freak out,

I'm termed colored in South Africa

which isn't a derogatory term.

In South Africa, it means something totally different.

I grew up in a mixed family,

well, with me being the mixed one in the family

so, you know, my father is a white man, Swiss.

My mother is a black woman,

Xhosa, that's born in South Africa.

So that's how I came up like this.

And this was illegal at the time.

You know, you weren't allowed to have, obviously,

mixed relationships when I was born.

Obviously, my mom and my dad were rebels, you know?

They had the whole vibe.

My mom was obviously aspirational, she was like,

"Yeah, I'm going to get a white man, yeah."

You know. And then my dad, well...

Well, you know how the Swiss love chocolates,

so I mean, you know...

I don't, I don't think my parents considered me at all.

I don't think, I don't think they spent

one second thinking what color will our child be?

I wanted a child,

and I thought and I then asked him,

let me have a child, no strings attached.

He didn't like it, but he did it.

Marriage was not in my agenda

because those days it was illegal for black and white

to cross color and be married.

The laws of apartheid did now allow that.

I don't even know a definitive date

of when my parents split up.

I just know that I stopped seeing my father

when he moved to Cape Town.

I said, "You do want me to help you with anything?

Please tell me."

The kid said, "Help me to find my father."

I think that the last birthday card was 11 or 12.

He is no longer going to see his father,

and that was it.

I had my plans and I'm sure he had his plans,

so I couldn't move to Switzerland.

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

If I had my choice, we would've moved.

[Patricia laughs]

I would have moved.

Ooh, you would've missed on the sunny South Africa,

sunny Africa no place like home.

I live to the full.

Enjoy, go recklessly, no reserves, no regrets.

You learn, you live but once.

That's how I am, no, I don't cry about the past.

I'm very grateful and I'm at peace with my past.

Let's not lose who we are.

I agree.

Ah.

[speaking in foreign language]

I agree.

Did I scratch you, sweetheart?

Kiss, baba, sorry.

And this is my brother.

His name is Andrew.

Seven years old.

All he does is just like nothing.

He just likes breaking the rules.

Unbelievable.

See the criminals in South Africa.

It never ends. just never ends.

That's why us honest citizens

have to just try and, you know, quell this.

We've just got to try and,

just got to try and stop the crime.

But what do you do when the crime starts at home?

I mean, every black family, you got at least one brother

who's gonna go behind bars, you know?

You know, I'm just saying,

I'm not trying to be that cat son.

I'm just not trying to be that guy, man.

Yo, but I'll visit you, yo. You know what I mean?

I'll see you when you're there, man.

Isaac!

Oh, did you pump it?

Eh? Did he pump it?

Yes.

With what?

With a pump.

Your answers seem so simple.

Oh, okay.

His name's Isaac.

He's a 75 year old man.

Part of a failed experiment to try

and create human beings to be younger.

They succeeded, but then he lost all his memories,

and now he thinks he's my little brother.

I don't have the heart to tell him that he's actually

a 75 year old man, and I know you're thinking

can't he hear me now?

He forgets this every 15 seconds.

He's got like goldfish memory.

I call him‐‐I call him Pops...

[Trevor laughs]

So I'm gonna roll. Will I find you here?

Yeah.

Okay, I'll see you when I come back then.

All right, sharp, Isaac.

[speaking in foreign language]

Yeah, I used to,

I used to drive one of these on this same route.

When I was driving a taxi I was...

22.

It's not the easiest gig in the world and in the end,

it got, it got hijacked, you know, got stolen.

So... I'd say a few months later, then I got into comedy.

I think it was about the second time

I'd actually gone to watch comedy live

and we were at a comedy club and it was a quiet night,

and you know, my friends were like,

"Yo, man, why don't you go on stage?"

And I tried out. I did 5 minutes.

It was cool being the only colored kid.

I remember on the white side, they treated me special,

"Aww, look at him, he got a natural tan".

On the black side, they were a bit more crass.

"Ooh, he's delicious. This one. Alaah...

It's like he's washing with the milk. Ooh!"

You know, it's, it's a strange feeling

but it's like I'd always been there,

if that makes sense.

You know, I didn't, I didn't get on and feel awkward,

I didn't get on the stage and feel like

I didn't know what to do. It just came naturally,

I just felt like this is where I should be.

This is what should be doing.

[applause]

In any industry, in anything,

there's politics everywhere as there is

politics in comedy in South Africa, you know.

Imagine. Comedians been performing for 10 years, right?

And so you've worked,

you know, you work your butt off,

to get to a certain level

then you get some kid

who's been in business for a year or two years,

gets on the same stage as you, and buries you.

[Kagiso] I think a lot of the older guys are threatened by the newer guys.

It's evolution, right.

At the end of the day,

the propeller like airplane is always going to be

looking at the jet engine going, "Motherfucker,

you're taking my business away."

Trevor Noah.

Very talented guy, arrogant.

The arrogance that this man shows is ridiculous.

I mean, you know, because

I don't mind self‐confidence, everybody‐‐

We're all in this business.

You have to have self‐confidence.

But there's a thin line between self‐confidence and arrogance.

When you step over that, that's when the shit begins.

It's hard to say anything about Trevor,

he hasn't already said about himself.

The timing of his life and his ability is like

the perfect intersection.

He's got to respect that.

To me, he doesn't do that yet.

So I don't see Trevor,

this is gonna sound fucking arrogant,

he's not a comic as far as I'm concerned.

[man] Do you have any thoughts on Trevor as well?

Can you just switch the camera off quickly?

I've heard everything these guys say.

I don't have time for that...

I live my life...

and that's it for me.

I do what I do.

Daywalker.

Actually saw the posting...

the billboard when I was going to Soweto.

The Daywalker... sounds quite interesting.

I don't know what the Daywalker means.

Is it similar to...

What's its name?

The...

Vampires' old story, yeah?

I think it would be talking about

all sorts of people in our country

and just the random people that you find on the street

and the things that would happen...

so that's what I am thinking.

It sounds good.

Then they go...

I'm like‐‐ Then they say, "And..."

[Kagiso] South African comedy,

it's still very much a growing industry.

Those of us who are in it, I think, besides obviously

sustaining a profession and career

and making money from it.

We also have the dual role of actually developing

our industry at the same time.

The major obstacle that we face, as comedians,

is that there are so few comedy clubs.

I have met people, and they say it's the first time I've ever come to a comedy show.

I've had that more than enough times.

And I go, "Shit."

[Trevor] What scares me about Daywalker is not doing it right.

And that's pretty much it. Man, it's just so huge.

And we don't know what one‐man shows

are really in South Africa.

Not on a wide scale.

I mean, I've never been part of something

this big in my life, you know.

It's... we're starting something new.

[Dave] People hate on Trevor,

but they don't realize there is a need

for Trevor to open it up for everybody.

Then, when I do my one‐man show,

then people will go, "Oh, it's a one‐man show.

Remember that thing Trevor Noah did?

Dave is doing it now."

[Trevor] If people don't like your one‐man show,

it's not just you that they'll blacklist.

In South Africa, you represent the industry

every time you go out there.

Because standup comedy is still so new here,

it's still so small, so if you're bad,

then we're all bad.

Thank you very much. How you guys doing?

[cheering]

Great, thank you. My name is Trevor Noah.

[speaking in foreign language]

Oh, we love bananas in Africa.

♪ Welcome to the daylight village and slums ♪

♪ Let's walk to this progress of poverty ♪

♪ While I be killin' them drums ♪

♪ Mr. Daywalker ♪

♪ Rip up a floor with my knicker... ♪

When we lived in Hillbrow, which is downtown Johannesburg,

I lived in an all‐white neighborhood with my dad.

But I had to stay with my mom,

and my mom had to act like she was the maid...

which was really strange for all of us.

How are you?

I'm good, man.

You know, I used to stay here.

Yeah.

That's the Hillbrow Tower.

That used to be the tallest structure in Africa.

This used to be like the symbol of like our success.

And now it's almost become

the symbol of the inner city and its demise.

♪ I said, watch out for the evil one ♪

♪ We call it home... ♪

When apartheid ended, people panicked.

They just panicked and they ran away,

like all the white people.

Some of them even left their houses.

They didn't even try to sell them.

They literally dropped everything and they ran.

This seems ridiculous, but this is what they did.

Because everyone ran away, there was no regulation of this.

'Cause now you just had all these empty buildings.

So now what you had was a sudden

influx of black people into the inner city.

It was a free‐for‐all. It was chaos.

The inner city just became,

it just became decrepit.

You know, I mean, it's a bit better now,

but it just became like a slum now.

Every single time elections come up in South Africa,

people always start to panic, you know.

Every since our first democratic elections in 1994,

Nelson Mandela was about to become president,

people started panicking.

You remember that?

There were people, you'd hear them,

"I'm leaving. I'm going to Australia.

I'm going.

It's been fun, Mary, but it's time to go,

hey, time to go.

They're gonna take over now."

And then Mr. Mandela became president

and they all stayed.

"He's a wonderful man, wonderful man."

"If it wasn't for him I would have left, hey.

A wonderful man, yeah, he's really great."

Next elections came, Thabo Mbeki was about

to become president, people panicked again.

"I'm leaving! I'm going to Australia, I'm going!

I said, I'm leaving, Mary, hey.

Now that Mandela's gone you know they're gonna eat us.

It's time to go. I'm going. I'm going to Perth."

And then Thabo became president

and once again they all stayed.

He left.

[applauding and cheering]

Then it was Kgalena Mothlanthe's turn.

Yeah. In and out.

That was so cool.

People panicked then, didn't they?

"I didn't even vote! I didn't even vote.

I can't believe it.

One minute I go to bed and Thabo Mbeki's president.

And the next thing I wake up

and we've got Kgalena Mothlanthe.

I can't believe it! I'm going to Australia.

I'm going."

Oh, and then it was Jacob Zuma...

Ooh... The original Boogeyman.

Yeah, that's when you hear people panicking.

Things were different now in South Africa

'cause for the first time in our history

you heard black people going,

"Eesh, how much is that ticket to Australia again?"

Get your pockets right, son. Get your pockets right.

This is where we must watch for pickpockets, son.

Yeah, this is where I grew up all over here, you know.

This is where I used to come and play with my mom.

This was the park, this was like the spot to be.

I used to chase pigeons here

when I was little, a youngin' yeah.

I kicked them

but they were asking for it.

Everyone walked individually and then we'd meet up

at like a rendezvous point.

I had a colored woman who'd walk with me.

Someone who looked like she could be my mom and then,

that's how we used to roll.

Well, 'cause of the laws of the land, you know.

You couldn't walk with a mixed family.

There's no‐‐ You shouldn't even have a mixed family.

I wasn't even supposed to exist.

I was like Project X.

If you're a mixed race child from a black person

and a white person, then you are colored.

That's actually a racial group.

I always say I'm colored by 'color' but not by culture.

'Cause in South Africa, they are an actual culture.

Mixed race people from the very beginning.

From the time of the Dutch Settlers,

they stayed together and they made their own culture.

They became their own people

'cause they weren't allowed to mix and diversify.

South Africa was so segregated

into the different racial groups that to have anyone

that's not the same color in your family

is just such a ludicrous thing.

So, I mean, in the township, a lot of people don't believe

that my grandmother's my grandmother.

She tells people.

I'm sure they think she's senile, you know.

My brother would tell people,

he'd be like "That's my brother."

And they be like "That's not your brother.

Why is he not the same skin color as you?"

'Cause it's just very strange in South Africa

to have any sort of mixed‐ness in your family.

It's still very new.

So I grew up in a country

where I look like a certain group of people,

but I'm not like them.

I didn't grow up like them, but the people

I did grow up like, I don't look like them.

I don't even like the term "colored."

I like to think of myself more like a B.E.E. baby, you know.

Yeah, you laugh but it's true 'cause I'm like mixed, you know.

I've got like a percentage share‐‐like it's that type of thing.

It's like a whole deal.

I know some people get picky and they're like,

"Oh, well if you're B.E.E. then who's got more shares?

Are you 51% white or 51% black?"

I'm like well, I don't know, I don't know.

I think sometimes I'm 51% black.

I, I generally think that.

Although I must admit sometimes

when I go to the toilet

and stand next to a man from Venda,

I wish I had a little more black empowerment.

But I'll plant the tree. You know.

See the Venda guy at the back he's like, "Dah...

Did you hear that, baby?

And you thought I had two legs."

I went to the UK not so long ago.

That was interesting. I got out there.

I was doing a few shows and while I was

backstage at one of the comedy gigs

and I was talking to a comedian.

And he was, he was really interested

and he was like, "Oh that's amazing,

Trevor, that's amazing.

So tell me, where you from, yeah, where you from?"

I said, "Well, I'm from South Africa."

He was like, "Ooh, South Africa.

That's amazing, yeah, that's amazing."

"That's amazing. So what are you, Zulu?"

[laughter]

I said, "No, actually, actually, I'm not Zulu, I'm colored."

And he said, "Oi, don't say that.

That's racist, all right? That's racist.

Don't call yourself 'colored,' right?

That's a racist term.

Nobody calls themselves that and you shouldn't either right?

You're free here, brother, you're free.

Don't call yourself that, it's not, it's not right.

It's not right, all right? Don't call yourself 'colored,'

you call yourself 'mixed race,' all right?

Mixed race."

That's a PC term "mixed race."

On the flip side, you come to South Africa

and say to a colored person,

"Excuse me, are you mixed race?"

They'll probably be like, "Yo ma's mixed race"

So you must be careful.

For a new comedian, who's still developing

or who's still sort of making his mark,

a lot of theaters are rather reluctant,

you know, to take the risk and say,

"What, just a one‐man show, just you on your own?"

We were lucky enough that the Lyric Theater,

which is probably one of the best theaters

in the country, you know,

they were in between productions

and they said, "Okay, look, we got two days.

So if you guys think you can sell two shows

in that time, go ahead and do it."

And which bar does it drop from?

If you look up there, I've already put the curtain up.

[Trevor] I'm not just performing on this show.

I'm producing the show myself, so if things go bad,

it's all my fault.

It's on me.

People don't really buy tickets,

well, most people don't buy tickets

until the day of the show.

So you don't even know if you've sold enough

until you literally walk out onto stage.

It's just you, you know.

You can't blame it on the show if things don't go well.

You can't do it again.

I don't think I ever...

fully comprehended how...

how scary that actually is.

♪ Stand up, stand up ♪

♪ Come on, come on ♪ ♪ Prime time struggle ♪

♪ The land with your fire trouble ♪

♪ Do jack saw in my backyard ♪

♪ Is how I define trouble ♪

Under apartheid, people of color were forced by

the white government to live in impoverished townships.

So there was no, "Well, I feel like living in..."

No, no, no, no. You live in the township.

Soweto, black people. Lenasia, Indian people.

Your color determined where you could live.

Soweto was built in such a way that if,

if they needed to, they could block off

all the exit points 'cause it's like a basin.

So they were like,

"If the black people ever get out of hand,

we'll, um, get our airplanes and we'll get all of that stuff

and then what we'll do is we'll, we'll blow these people up."

[singing in foreign language]

My comedy's based on memories.

A lot of my comedy is from when I was in the township.

You know people say to me,

"Why do you go back to the township?"

I don't go back to the township, the township's part of my life.

It's, it's a place where I lived.

And it's, and it's a place where I lived not

because I wanted to, but because as a people

we were forced to by the government.

So I don't go back to the township,

I go to visit my grandmother.

So this is it, this is where I grew up.

As you can see my granny's ballin'.

She's got a wall, yeah, you know

you got to have that wall.

It's like MTV Cribs, yeah, you know,

you got to have that wall.

You got to have that painted gate,

you know what I mean? Yeah, that's right,

that's right, we be rollin' like that hard.

This is the township.

This is how we used to do it.

This was my driveway, but we never had a car.

It was just like a cool thing to have.

If you had a driveway but you didn't have a car,

you were ambitious, that was the key.

We started running out of space so people would move in,

and then they'd pay rent to you to like,

fill up the area.

So this was our house,

then everyone lived on the outside.

This is the toilet,

this is the most horrible thing ever,

ever invented 'cause you had to come outside,

so you never wanted to need the toilet late at night.

[woman] No. 'Cause then‐‐

Oh, there's someone in there. Sorry.

You see that's what would happen,

then you'd be like 'no' and then it's exactly the same thing.

[speaking in foreign language]

We didn't know there was anyone in there.

We didn't have "occupied."

And then this is my number one lady,

this is my number one.

This is my gran.

[speaking in foreign language]

Yes, yes. Here as you can see, I got my height from her.

This is my gran, Francis Noah.

How old are you now, Gogo? Eighty‐two.

Eighty‐two years old.

She still works, she still,

she still catches all those taxis that you see,

she doesn't want to retire.

She still scrubs... the floor.

She still cleans. Yeah.

This is my gran, rock and roll. Eighty‐two years old.

And I rock and roll. Eighty‐two years old.

Eighty‐two years old.

Eighty‐two years old.

[speaking in foreign language]

You hear my gran?

She just said, "He was naughty."

Yep, yep, hidings, hidings I got.

This is cool. Where's your car?

It's outside. I'll show it to you.

Is it, is it safe?

It's...

It's gonna be fine.

Did you leave somebody there at the car?

No, it'll be fine. They can't steal it, Gogo.

Are you sure? Mmm, they can't.

Is there magic there?

There's no magic. They can't steal it.

You'll be surprised.

No, they won't.

And people are watching it, there's so many people there.

So many people, do you know what type of people are those?

They might be hijackers.

Ah, Trevor. You‐‐

Gogo, you worry too much.

Did I sleep in this one? I don't even remember which one.

I just remember getting hidings in here.

This is, this is the bedroom, this is like it, everything.

And you had to make do.

And uh, you'd live, maybe two of you

or three of you could live in here,

you know if family needed you to.

This is where...

this is where it all was.

So there were like eight of us,

eight or nine of us that used to live‐‐

eight, nine, sometimes ten depending on who was...

So we would sleep here a lot.

Like, we'd sleep on the couches and...

Kids. Kids.

We used to sleep on the floor, yeah.

On the couch and on the floor.

It was really normal, it was just like...

you know, that's what we did.

And everybody was so happy.

So, yeah. So this is it.

That's as small as it is, ten people living here.

I mean, this was it.

It brings back such memories I think I might cry. Wow.

Don't cry.

No, I won't cry 'cause the camera's on me

and I'm just gonna look good, you know.

Yeah.

Oh, wow, that's still up there, "In everything give thanks."

Because you can't buy life.

Yeah.

Gogo, let me be off.

Please, you walk me out, so that they don't think

I just walked in by myself.

Let them see you with your grandson.

With my grandson.

Mmm. So that they say that‐‐

I've got to be on that side, eh?

It doesn't matter which side...

It doesn't matter which side you're on.

[singing in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

I knew, I knew, I knew I could never

bring my imaginary friend back

to my grandmother's house in Soweto,

Gogo, wait.

Say hello to Imagine‐Imagine my imaginary friend.

"Eh? What's that?"

He's imaginary.

"What he's shy?"

No, like, you can't see him. "Cause he's hiding."

No. He's invisible, Gogo. Only I can see him.

"Oh really? He's a witch, he's a witch!"

Next thing you know,

I'll be getting the beatings of my lifetime.

"You're going to take Imagine, you're going to take Imagine.

Going to take‐‐"

No, Gogo. Gogo! It's sore!

"Just imagine it's not, just imagine."

Andrew, help me!

"Hello, Andrew, welcome."

[vocalizing]

In this country, we're still dealing

with the scars of apartheid.

We're still dealing with trying to reconcile

all this races

and ethnic cultures into one society.

So... and that's why it ends up

being subject of choice for so many comedians, you know.

And also, comedy is about conflict,

human interaction and conflict.

Yeah, so like, if like a black person

and a white person try to kiss,

then these guys in uniforms would come and kick them.

[vocalizing]

But then like, but they wouldn't kick everyone,

they just kick the black people.

[vocalizing]

And then they'd tell the white people,

"Don't do that again.

I know it was a mistake, so don't do it again.

You..." [vocalizing]

There is a need to use your voice to tell your audience

what they feel and then you can sugar coat it

because you tell it in a joke,

even though you're telling the truth.

We can talk back. We can say, "Look here, man.

This is not the way to do shit."

I become a voice for people who sort of voiceless.

If you're poor you could not give a fuck

about global warming 'cause what is global warming?

"Ooh, if we don't save the earth,

ooh, then we might die in 200 years."

Poor people are like,

"Yeah, but if I don't eat now, I will die next week.

Next week, that will be my ass.

Next week, I'll be fucked."

You want to be heard, you want to be heard.

I think everyone wants to be heard.

I think people who hide behind facades,

"Oh, don't say this, don't say this,"

it's like rubbish, I mean, come on, the truth.

The more we tell the truth,

the quicker we'll get to the front of the line, you know,

the better, the better chance we stand.

That's the problem with South Africa

is that too many people don't want to admit the things.

So they don't want to admit that shit is wrong,

they don't want to admit

that there's still massive levels of poverty.

They don't want to admit that AIDS is,

you know, is something that's destroying the Nation.

They just don't‐‐ Nobody wants to admit anything.

We just want to live in this hoo‐ha Utopia world

and it's not like that.

As a comedian, you've got,

you got the platform to tell the truth.

You got to be that guy out there saying those things.

And, I mean, I mess around a lot of the time,

you know, I'm not even the guy.

I always admire, like Loyiso for that

because Loyiso is the kind of guy who says that.

It was crazy.

And I was walking down Long Street

during the campaign time.

I was walking down Long Street and I was walking

and I'm walking against the traffic.

And I can see these DA posters...

and I'm thinking "Well, it's a one way street

and I'm walking against the traffic..."

[laughter]

That's a cocked plan.

Then I thought to myself, who goes,

I mean, that's how you lose a thing.

You know what I mean, what about the people

who are driving, they don't see the posters.

It's only the people walking against that,

and then I thought about it, who votes for the DA anyway?

Paranoid white people, they drive around like this.

[laughter]

The white Cape Townians still fear

coming to the townships.

Today you meet someone and they're like

I've never been to a township, I've never been to Gugeletu

and the person lives right across the street...

It's like ten minutes away, you know.

I don't know what they're scared of.

I don't know what they expect to find.

I don't know what they expect to find.

This is an invite to white people

who are freaked out about the ghetto.

Check it out.

It's cool. It's cool.

You might like it.

You actually might want to move here.

Settle down with the kids.

I'm from Cape Town, man. I grew up in‐‐in Guguletu.

[cheering]

Yeah man, I grew up there man.

I was actually back there today man.

It was quite cool.

Do you white people know where Guguletu is?

[cheering]

Well you should know, you put us there motherfuckers.

[cheering and applauding]

Well they must not give me this bullshit about

it's their first time to be able to speak.

Bullshit these guys were one or two years old

when we had the transition.

They had fifteen years.

Maybe it's a therapeutic thing for them.

Maybe it's good to talk about the apartheid thing.

But when do you say enough is enough.

The black and white experience, it's enough now.

It's gone. It's finished. We must get past that.

A black guy will get up and one of the first things,

"So you know what it was like when we were in the townships?"

And I'm like you've got to be kidding me.

Like a guy gets chosen

because he's a young black South African,

not because he's a professional comedian.

They have B.E.E. policies.

They have to hire black people or colored people

for black economic empowerment.

They all went to private schools you know.

So they must not give me this bullshit

that they were previously disadvantaged.

Like sometimes you'll tell a joke

and you get a racist crowd that will laugh at it

taking it the wrong way.

It's because of apartheid.

Because you can't blame the whole thing on...

This shit is only fifteen years ago.

Yeah, but it ended fifteen years ago,

but then you must remember it's not like it's instant.

Do you know what I mean? It's not instant.

I don't understand.

People always say hey you black people must get

over this apartheid shit.

No one in the world will go,

yeah you know, you know, you Jews must forget

about this Holocaust, yeah please.

You know what I'm saying?

Because with atrocities there's no measurement.

There's no instrument that measures

how much an atrocity or how,

you don't go how the Holocaust was worse than

Bosnia or Bosnia was worse than,

you know what I'm saying?

You just have to respect them.

In South Africa, we've always suffered from segregated audiences.

It's always... is it a white show?

Is it a black show? Is it a colored show? Who's gonna come to the show?

There's so much we share in common that we don't even realize.

And when you laugh at the same things,

you start realize how much you actually share.

Every show is like‐‐ who is the audience going to be?

I just want it to be you‐‐ you South Africans‐‐ not even South Africans,

internationals‐‐ just human beings.

You know what I mean.

Just‐just if you're human just come to the show.

I'm not saying dogs mustn't come,

but I'm just saying like if you're human, you know?

Just come to the show, that's all I want.

I don't want it to be about age or race or religion or anything.

It's not about that. It's about people.

Jacob Zuma was supposed to be

the craziest president South Africa ever had.

It was the only reason that I voted for him.

This is madness. I look at him.

He's comes in and he wears a tie and a suit.

He's stopped singing.

He's got a cabinet that looks like

they know what they are doing.

He's going to fight corruption

and he even fired Manto Tshabalala Msimang.

I was expecting a mad man, a crazy guy someone who was

just going to throw the country away.

And look who I got,

someone who's actually doing their job.

I can't believe it.

Once again the ANC has failed to deliver.

[laughter]

I wanted Jacob to be wild.

I pictured this guy walking into Parliament

four hours late not even wearing a shirt,

you know, his tummy hanging out,

walking in there, wearing a little plastic crown,

busy singing to himself.

Helen Zille and the other guys in Parliament losing it:

"Jacob, you're late, you can't just come here!

You can't come four hours late,"

Hey, shut up, shut up.

Hey, shut up, hey...

Late for who, late for who?

Late for who? It's my time now.

Hey, hey, shut up.

Yeah.

I thought he was gonna be crazy,

you know, Helen then fighting with him,

"No, Jacob, you can't just run this place

the way you want."

Jacob getting angry whipping his penis out

hitting on the forehead.

[vocalizing]

No, 'cause I mean it's not sore, it's not sore.

It just makes that sound you know like...

You know, like that.

And I mean like what are you going to do if someone

does that to you, like, what, are you gonna go to the police?

Like, what do you, what do you do?

What do you tell them?

I mean, is it assault or is it sexual harassment?

How does it work? You know, I just, I just...

You never know.

I mean, what do you even say at the Police Station?

Can you imagine walking in there

and them asking you that question?

You'd be there, "And then?

He... who hit you? Who?

With what?

On your head?

Just, just tell this guy. Tell him what happened.

Tell him.

I'm not laughing, I'm not laughing.

Hey.

Yeah.

Either you are very short, or he's very gifted, eh?"

[Rabin on computer] So do you know that look a girl

gives you before she wants sex?

Yeah, me neither.

It doesn't happen.

And you can't, you can't start with a sex gag.

You must, you must start with gags

that tell us who you are, like first.

Why don't you introduce yourself?

It takes like a second.

What? To say, "Good evening?"

Yeah.

I always wanted to get, get a laugh

in the first 30 seconds. Either that or‐‐

Yes, but not a sex‐laugh though. It's just very, like...

Alienating lots of people,

like it just doesn't work for all the crowd.

Like if my mom was watching then she'd already be thrown.

She'd be like "Ah, this guy."

'Cause you're the king of, like, short gags.

So you've got the luxury of bringing your gags,

just giving, yeah, like have the, the right intro, yeah.

So sex must be like in the middle...

Yeah, in the middle of the set...

...and it must be in the middle after a gag that kills.

Dude, it's like a horrible gag is like a horrible girlfriend.

You keep doing her until somebody tells you to stop.

No. But these guys have the blazing.

They're fucking‐‐

Stop it. Stop, stop protecting her.

She's no good for you.

Just leave it. Just leave it. She's no good for you.

So I read recently that Joburg is getting it's first sperm bank,

and I got a bit sad.

See, like, this was just unnecessary.

I think you must say it like it's a sad thing.

That's where you‐‐ that's where the sad emotion comes in.

So you go, this is you, you go, you go...

You say: "They opened the sperm bank

and I got really depressed." You got to say that.

But then I'm smiling when I'm saying it and that's weird.

Or do you think that's funny because I'm saying that I got‐‐

But you're a comedian, you can smile

while people are dying, as a comedian.

You can be like "My gran died,"

You could. As a comedian you can do all of that.

They never believe you anyway.

So... like, like when my mom got shot when,

two weeks ago, my mom got shot in the head.

Really? Yeah.

Then when I said it on stage, everyone was just like‐‐

Then they, they don't‐‐

What happened to your mom?

She got shot in the head. She got shot twice.

Like when you‐‐ Up the road, here. Seventh avenue.

Wow.

Yeah. Just...

[man] Whose mom? My mom.

My younger brother phones me.

He's like, "Trevor, where are you?"

He says, "Come to the, the hospital now."

So I'm, like, "Okay. Something's obviously wrong."

But I think something's wrong with him.

Then he says, "Mom got shot."

When he's telling me the story,

the guy, he came out he was‐‐

she was on the street and then

[gunshot]

...the guy shot her.

[gunshot]

The guy shot her in the head.

I was just freaking out. So I drive to the clinic.

I get there, and there's blood all over her face,

there's just like, you know, like it's just open,

there's blood everywhere.

You know, like she sees me and then she's like, "Uh, uh..."

She's like trying to talk in the end,

you know, I'm just like, "Whoa."

I'm just, "I'm gone."

I love, I love South Africa, I really do.

I love this place with all my heart.

And then this was the first time

when I was like, "I'll leave."

Well, obviously I was, I was surprised

that that happened to his mom.

I don't think he intended to talk about it.

I think that the conversation

just lent itself to him outing it.

Yeah, I mean that is something you want to tell someone.

You'd be choking yourself by not telling someone else.

My dad's killing was 11 years ago.

My, my dad was shot and killed like for a cell phone.

Which again, it was, you know how...

to show the‐‐ I don't want to say how common it is,

but how these things happen in South Africa,

but it's not, it's not uncommon.

We're desensitized to crime.

People get like a loved one

killed or shot to get whatever.

Sure, the personal tragedy's big,

but it just seems as if we all...

we all just get back on with it.

[Trevor] After my mom was shot,

she's the one who basically went,

"No man, things need to keep running, things need to keep going."

'Cause she was in the hospital and I was like,

"I can't, I can't go make people laugh after this,

you know, I have to, I have to chill with you and stuff."

She was like,

"No, you need to go out there and make money."

I was like, "Forget money."

And she was like, "No, no, no.

Maybe now is a good time to tell you,

I don't have medical aid."

And I was like, "Oh wow.

Okay," I was like, "Okay.

Maybe I should go out and make some money."

You never put something like that behind you.

I can't wait and I shouldn't wait.

Why should I wait?

If anything, an experience like my mom

getting shot shows you why you shouldn't wait.

I've got to go on and do the show.

The Daywalker.

No, I don't know what that means.

I don't know what that means.

The Daywalker?

No idea. No idea.

Yeah, I don't know what the Daywalker means, no.

The one president that was always the furthest

from being crazy was Nelson Mandela, you know?

And I mean, Mandela recently turned 91.

I, I just can't help wondering to myself,

when you turn 91,

wouldn't you throw a huge party?

You know, I mean, you're 91 years old.

I would‐‐ I don't know.

If I turned 91, I'd get wasted.

I'd just be that guy, you know.

You have all these famous people visiting you,

throw this huge party, knocking down the tequilas,

having a good time.

But I know people never want to think of it.

No, Mandela doesn't get drunk, no.

People don't want anything‐‐

they're like, no, Mandela doesn't fart.

His bum just suggests things.

He's got that vibe, you know.

But I mean he's still a man at the end of the day, you know.

I would have loved for him to let just loose

and get totally wasted on his birthday.

It would be so crazy seeing Madiba pop out

like into the garden,

you know, out of nowhere, his shirt open.

There he is, one of those colorful ones.

Him walking around...

"I'm fine. I'm fine.

Do you know who I am?

Do you know...

Don't touch me.

Who are these people? Who's that?

Ah, Bill Clinton. Bill.

Come, come here, Bill, come here.

[speaking foreign language]

Thank you for coming, eh.

Let, let me tell you a joke, Bill.

Let me tell you a joke.

I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

[laughing]

That, that was a good one.

I'm just saying.

Oh, oh, here comes Julius.

And he's going to talk...

[vocalizing]

I was also president of the Youth League.

[vocalizing]

Julius is killing me.

Two seconds. Julius. Six times five.

Okay, he's fine. It will be‐‐ it's fine.

He'll be there for hours. Yeah, let's carry on.

Let's carry on.

Okay we're going to drink, all of us.

We're going to drink.

But before we drink, I want to propose a toast.

All those people who thought I wouldn't make it to 2010.

Yeah, he'll never make it, he'll never make it.

I'm still here at 91...

91, yeah, 91.

Even Michael Jackson died before me.

Even Michael died before me.

Yeah, Michael Jackson.

[vocalizing]

Who's bad now?"

[thunder rumbling]

Coming there from Sunday,

I got busted.

Went in this side and went out there.

I'm not bitter about it all.

I became better.

Number one, I celebrate life.

It's a miraculous healing that today

I'm here talking to you.

I have a stiff, stiff jaw but that's minor.

All my senses are here.

I can still jump and dance in church

and break my heels.

So what more? What more?

What more? What more?

We look at religion in two different ways.

Someone will shoot at my mom.

She will believe

that God will protect her from the bullets.

Yes.

I believe God gave me the reflexes to duck.

[Patricia laughs] I was just gonna say you must,

you must make sure about your court dates though.

I'm not worried‐‐

No, you see you always say that to me.

Just listen to me, you know, I'm just saying. Please.

Listen, sweetheart. You are in control.

You do what you are in control of.

Yes, but that‐‐

but are you not in control of that?

You're not in control of...

No, but you're in control of your dates.

That's what I'm asking you. You're not.

You are, because if you‐‐

if you have given it all, knowing‐‐

it's your‐‐ y‐you should know. Did you get [indistinct]

I did, sweetheart. I've done that. That's what it must be.

I've done that part. And I do think you see it is in your control...

just to show a level of interest

after you've been shot in the head.

Just a little bit of‐‐ little bit of interest. [laughs]

Just a little bit.

Okay.

A little bit. Okay.

You know there's not many countries in the world

where a person can shoot someone in the head

and then get bail.

That's just, does‐‐ it's the most ludicrous thing ever.

Those are times when you just‐‐ you do want to escape.

Yes, you want to escape.

I have tension with my love of South Africa

as much as every man has tension

with the land that he lives in.

I don't know what would have happened if my mom died.

I might have left or it might have been the catalyst

that made me stay here and fight even more.

I, I don't know.

I do need to leave though.

Just for a little bit.

I just can't keep going on like this

without taking a break.

You know it does, it's got that feeling.

It's just got that feeling like anything can happen, you know.

Like your wildest dreams can come true.

I dream of becoming a waiter.

I just feel like this town can cater to me.

Oh, Inglewood.

I'm loving it already because there's,

there's references from rap songs out here.

Wow, are those Mexicans doing the garden?

You don't know how strange this is for me,

driving in a neighborhood where there's like no walls.

Yeah, I mean, people will say things like,

"Hey, I thought you wanted to get away.

You know, don't you need a break

from comedy and everything else?"

But I just can't help it.

I start off on a holiday and the next thing you know,

I'm up on stage again.

I just, I have to be up there.

I just hope people like it.

Yes.

You know there's two things that make it,

make you more nervous.

It's hearing how loud a crowd can be

and then how quiet they can be on the flip side.

Because if they can be really loud,

then the silence becomes so much louder.

[woman] Coming to the stage next,

we have a gentlemen, he's from South Africa.

Mm‐hmm, yep.

So I want a big, loving, supportive LA

welcome to this next dude.

Let's hear it for South African native

Mr. Trevor Noah.

But I've, I've realized Americans,

Americans have a very strange perception of Africa.

I don't blame you guys though, you know.

It's 'cause of the images that you're fed on TV.

You know, the stuff that you see of us.

You just get all these UNICEF ads, you know.

Those infomercials, those are horrible.

That's all I've seen of home, you know.

You've got these people and they're really gaunt

and they're skinny and they're just like, you know.

And they've got the Kwashiorkor and everything

and they just look as horrible as possible.

They just get there and you know, they are shooting this,

and then Penelope Cruz will start talking

as the woman's holding her starving baby in her arms

and will come in and be like,

"Every year, more than 5 million children

are starving in Africa.

You can make a difference if you donate $10 dollars a month.

You can donate a family's life and you can change everything.

Look at this child."

And they show you the kid and you know,

and they go in there, and I understand,

I understand this is a painful thing. I understand.

But I just don't understand the small elements.

Why do they include that, you know.

Why is it that in every single one of these infomercials,

why do they always have to have these people with the fly?

What is up with that fly?

I don't understand this.

What is, what is going on with the fly?

It's always the flies.

And it's not just the flies in the shot.

It's not just the shot.

It's not just the flies there but they've got the flies

and they sit in a very specific place.

They always sit on their mouth, like always on the top lip.

It's always on the top. How do they get the fly?

I've tried, it's very difficult

to get a fly to sit on your top lip.

How do they achieve this goal?

I'm sitting there watching this, you know.

And they always get it.

It's almost like they don't shoot without the fly, now.

It's like the fly has become the watermark

of a starving African.

Is it like a trained fly? Is it one of your Disney flies?

Is it one of those? Is it one of those?

"Come on boy, come on boy, get in there and...

stay.

Okay, we're ready, and 'Action'"

"Every year, more than 5 million children are starving.

You can make a difference if you donate $100."

It's just madness. What is it?

And it angers me. It really does.

I understand. There's people starving.

Yes, there are people starving in Africa.

I do understand this. There are people starving.

But I don't, I don't understand

why they need to make us look that bad.

And yes, I will say it. They do make us look bad.

They make the whole of Africa look bad.

They make me look bad. And they make me angry.

'Cause I grew up in a black family in Africa.

And no matter how poor we were,

no matter how hungry we were, no matter what,

we could still do this...

The show was amazing.

He's really in tune with the differences of the culture,

and he totally nailed it, the way that he brought that

and applied it to an American audience, like,

he had the whole place hysterical.

I didn't know if the comedy would translate,

but the comedy did translate.

I liked his American accent.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God, you're from Africa.

How did you get here?"

Never thought of South Africa is place

that a comedian was gonna come from.

[woman 1] So exciting. Thank you.

[woman 2] You were awesome. Thank very much.

Thank you. I'm‐I'm having a great time.

Pleasure to meet you.

Pleasure meeting you. Yes. Sorry.

You're totally LA'd out right now.

I am?

You are totally LA.

That's good to know.

Good to know that I'm fitting in a little bit.

But I am a stand‐up comedian

from South Africa, Johannesburg.

Do you know where that is? Yes, no?

I only ask that because I realize Americans

don't know a lot about South Africa.

In fact, I've realized Americans don't know much about Africa.

In fact, I've realized Americans don't know much about anything.

[laughter]

'Cause you guys have those very strange names

like Da'Shawn and‐‐and Requanda, and all of those things.

And you always ask people where they got the name, and they say, "It's African."

We don't‐‐we don't have those kinds of names.

[audience laughs]

My family threw this huge party for me.

They were like, "Yeah. You're going to America.

This is the best day of your life."

I was like, "No, it's not." They're like "It is, it is."

Like, why?

They're like, "Because for the first time in your life,

you're going to be black."

I was like, "What are you talking about?"

They were like, "Well, in America,

they can't call you colored. That's racist.

They're going to have to call you black."

I was like, "Really?" and they were like, "Yes, really."

I did research, and found it's true.

So when I sat on a plane for 18 hours,

I watched black American movies,

started practicing being black.

'Cause I've always wanted to be black.

That is so cool. You got that thing, you know.

Just sat there watching like all my gangster movies,

you know, Boyz n the Hood and stuff.

And as we landed I was so happy

and I was fluent in my black American,

"Fo‐shizzle my nizzle."

Yeah.

And as I walked into the terminal building,

the first guy that spoke to me was actually a cleaner.

He looked up at me and he said to me, he was like...

[speaking foreign language]

Eighteen hours of flying, and I still wasn't black.

I was a Mexican.

[Trevor] When I went to the States for the first time,

it was, it was strange to see the fact

that they don't understand

what the concept of South Africa is.

And I don't blame them.

Instead of going, "Those people are ignorant,

they don't know anything about us,"

I'd rather say my goal is to go there,

and try and give them a better picture of who we are.

[school bell ringing]

I would like to welcome Trevor Noah to class.

Can you guys say good morning, please?

[students] Good morning, Trevor.

Hey.

You guys are pretty good at that.

He's real excited to be here today

and I know you guys have a ton of questions.

Do you like the Los Angeles vibes so far or do‐‐

would you rather be back at home right now?

I like LA. You know it's interesting.

I mean there's things I've seen out here

that I've never seen before.

What? Like what?

Uh, like Latino people.

You don't have, you don't have New Year's?

No, we've got New Year's.

Everybody's got. We got a calendar.

Everybody with a calendar has New Year's.

Do you have any favorite movies?

The Matrix. The Lion King.

I love the Lion King.

[girl] I love the Lion King.

I love the Lion King. I love it.

Yeah, I love the Lion King 'cause the Lion King

is so close to my heart.

You know it's like, what, it's like us at home.

Like we walk 'round the streets like just sing

'A‐weema‐weh. A‐weema‐weh.'

So I love the Lion King.

So the same way you guys think that we like ride elephants

and run off the lions and stuff.

Like the same, and that's, that's the same way

when we think of like Mexicans we just think of...

[vocalizing]

It's like the same.

[teacher] When you see commercials for Africa

or when you see advertisements or movies...

[girl] You see like animals.

You see animals.

You see poverty.

You see, um, disease.

You see all of these things.

You don't think when I told you that he was a comedian,

you guys all stared at me like, "They have comedy there?

They laugh?"

How do you go from your experience to comedy?

Yeah, there's nothing funny about it.

In life, you always choose to see things

in a good or bad way.

You know, it's, it's your outlook.

It's how you choose to perceive it.

So you can choose to perceive things in a positive way

even if they're negative.

And for me that's what comedy really is about.

Good or bad.

I will, I will speak about it and you can make it funny.

It just depends on how you look at it.

The one thing I really appreciated

about going to LA was seeing

how much potential we have in this country

for comedy.

My, my dream for Daywalker is that it will be remembered

as one of the shows, one of the many shows,

that helped comedians to own their destiny.

♪ I'mma get what's needed ♪

♪ Because I want it ♪

♪ I gotta have it ♪

♪ Because I want it ♪

♪ You see ♪ ♪ I'll be there for the... ♪

Everybody has a voice.

Everybody has something to say.

That in essence is what guys like Mandela and Sisulu

fought against for so many years for freedom of speech.

And that's what your one‐man show is.

It's you coming out and saying,

"This is what I think."

I've tried to tie everything up

and try and make it one seamless story,

trying to make a chunk of my life

fit into an hour.

It's not an easy challenge, but that's what Daywalker is.

That's what comedy is really.

♪ Don't even try to race me it's hard to outrace me ♪

♪ I'm take the trip to ♪

♪ and meeting up with new fans ♪

♪ a really new day ♪

♪ History in the making ♪

♪ They used to hate now they love it ♪

♪ Because they feel I made it ♪

♪ Damn it, I'm almost famous ♪

♪ It's so close I can smell it ♪

♪ and I can even taste it ♪

♪ Sometimes the world can be hellish ♪

♪ But now never wasted ♪

♪ I'm on the edge but I'm blessed ♪

♪ With enough connects ♪ ♪ that I can get some rest ♪

♪ And let go of stress ♪

♪ Imma get what's needed ♪

♪ Because I want it ♪

♪ I gotta have it ♪

♪ Because I want it ♪

♪ You see I'll be there for the ♪

As I perform comedy,

I hope I can bring people together.

I want to be here building things.

This is the place where I want to,

I want to put‐‐ I want to leave my mark.

[man] He is described as a phenomenon,

destroying audiences all over the country.

And this world class act has already performed

in the US and the UK.

Here to perform in his very first, much anticipated,

one‐man show, ladies and gentlemen,

give it up for the Daywalker, Trevor Noah!

What's up, Johannesburg?

"I'm leaving, I'm going to Australia."

"Just imagine it's not so, imagine," I was like, Gogo!

Oh, Andrew, help me!

'Cause when it hits you, it makes that sound,

it's just like...

"Even Michael Jackson, the king of pop,

died before me.

Who's bad now?"

And then my dad, well, well you know

how the Swiss love chocolate.

So...

And I see some white people getting a bit uncomfortable,

is he going to preach?

No I'm not, I'm not preaching.

This is just a back story, so you guys are getting

a bit like "Woo, is this", no, it's not one of those.

It's over in my mind. It's, yeah.

It's, I couldn't be around, if it wasn't for you guys,

so I, you know...

I'm not even, yeah.

As, as Nelson Mandela would say, "We forgive you."

So that, so that's, so that was the back‐story.

So my mom, my mom couldn't state who my father was

on my birth certificate, you know.

So they just had to, like, leave that whole thing blank

and, and, and what happened was,

she went back to the townships where we had to stay

and then my dad had to stay in town.

And my mom couldn't tell anyone

that the father of her child was white.

So she just left everyone to their own assumptions,

which is not generally the best choice.

Basically people assumed that I was, in fact, an albino.

You laugh, but it was true.

They still loved me though, they still loved me.

Apparently when I got home, you know,

my family was gathered around, as I walked in,

my gran looked and she, like, opened the blanket

and she was like "Yoo...

Oh, shame...

ooh, little alby.

No, put the umbrella, he's going to burn,

ooh‐ooh."

And so I grew up, I grew up for a,

for a large part of my life as an albino, which wasn't bad,

I mean, the township they accept everyone

the way they are, you know.

I got old enough to roam around on my own,

and the other albinos heard about me,

they'd see me walking in the streets.

And they'd see this kid, and then the rumors spread,

you know.

They apparently went to each other

and they started talking,

they were like, "Do you know about him?

They say that he's one, he's one of us.

But his hair, it's black.

No freckles, nothing.

And he can walk anytime of the day.

No sunscreen. No umbrella.

He's the one.

The Daywalker."

They were shocked.

And they came up and they recruited me,

they were like, "Yo, man, do you want to hang out with us?"

I was like, "Yeah, why not," you know.

I hung out with them. We were like in a whole crew.

We called ourselves the 'Glow in the Darks.'

We were just like, you know.

It was wonderful, you know, it was wonderful

until about 1990 when apartheid ended

and the truth about my identity

could come out.

And then my mom told everyone in the house, she was like,

"You know actually, his father's white,"

and they were like, "What do you mean?"

"His father's white, so he's not actually an albino,

he's colored." And they were like, "What?"

Everyone lost their minds and it was a big party

and everyone was so happy and overjoyed.

So they were like...

Oh, oh, ah...

oh, ah...

Oh, oh. He's not albino, oh, oh.

And it was beautiful.

It was music to their ears.

But then I had to go back to my friends, to the crew,

you know, to the 'Glow in the Darks',

tell them the news.

As I was walking up to them, you know,

they were standing in the crew,

like under the willow tree, in the shade,

where we normally used to hang out.

And as I came up, they were like,

"Yo, D. W., what's up, dawg?"

Cause they couldn't call me 'Daywalker'‐‐ it was just too long.

They were like, "Yo, D. W., what's up, man?"

Then I was like, "Hey, Pacino, what's up, dawg?"

And he was like, "Yo, man, what's happening,

you look sad."

Then I was like, "Yeah, guys I've got bad news."

Pacino was like, "Ah, what is it, D. W.? What is it?

Is it really bad?" I was like, "It's really bad."

He's like, "Ah, Nivea is out of stock again."

I was like, "No, guys, no, it's worse than that,

it's worse than that."

And the other guy was like, "Yo, global warming".

I was like, "No, no, no, it's, um,

there's something I need to tell you guys, um...

I'm not an albino."

I just looked around and there was a silence.

I said, "Guys, did you hear me? I'm not an albino."

"Yeah, D. W., we know, we all knew!"

I was like, "What, you knew?" He's like, "Yeah, we knew.

Of course you're not an albino."

"Wow!" He's like "Ya.

We are all not albinos, we are people.

Viva, D. W., Viva!

D.W.!"

[vocalizing]

You guys have been so great, thank you very much

for coming out.

My name's Trevor Noah. Thank you.

♪ You go to rise above ♪

♪ And face the music ♪

♪ But you'll get strong with love ♪

♪ Love, love ♪

♪ We keep it moving like father time ♪

♪ Every time I fall I know that soon I have to climb ♪

♪ Even through the dirt, I have to shine ♪

We have a talented young comedian, from South Africa...

♪ Yeah, keep going keep pushing ♪

♪That's what I do ♪

♪ That's what it is ♪

♪ Love life and I love to live too ♪

♪ And I wanna give ♪

♪ All that I can give give to them ♪

♪ Give to you too ♪

♪ Till everybody's eating many pieces of the pie♪

♪ Africa, the love of my eye... ♪

Yo. I stopped 'cause you were tired.

[speaking foreign language]

♪ But you'll get strong with love ♪

♪ Laid in the midnight hour ♪

♪ You feel you lost your power ♪

♪ But I'm dependin' on you ♪

♪ To be as bright as a flower ♪

♪ Who doesn't complain ♪

♪ Who don't know how cold the game ♪

♪ But simple and plain ♪

♪ You got your own got your own ♪

♪ You got your own thing ♪

♪ Don't let life beat you up ♪

♪ Just get strong with love ♪

♪ Just get strong with love ♪

♪ Then till everything's sweet ♪

♪ Everything's nearer ♪

♪ Closer when ♪

♪ You don't give up ♪

♪ Don't give up, don't give up ♪

♪ Don't give up ♪

♪ Got to rise above ♪

♪ Got to get up ♪

♪ At first it ain't easy ♪ ♪ Don't stay there ♪

♪ But you'll get strong with love ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Get up ♪

♪ When life beats you up ♪

♪ Get up ♪

♪ And rise with love ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Rise with love ♪

♪ Rise with love ♪

♪ Oh, late in the midnight hour ♪

♪ You feel you lost your power ♪

♪ But I'm dependin' on you ♪

♪ And the whole world's too ♪

♪ For you to be as resilient as a flower ♪