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