STAND-UP GREATS: Trevor Noah on Reinventing ‘The Daily Show’ and Finding Humor in Hard Times

Summary

Podcast Summary: STAND-UP GREATS – Trevor Noah on Reinventing ‘The Daily Show’ and Finding Humor in Hard Times

Podcast: Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist
Host: Willie Geist
Guest: Trevor Noah
Date: November 22, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this engrossing episode of Sunday Sitdown, Willie Geist sits down outdoors—on a sweltering 102-degree day in New York City—with Trevor Noah: comedian, bestselling author, host of The Daily Show, and global observer. The conversation covers Trevor’s pandemic experience, his philosophy on humor in times of crisis, the reinvention of The Daily Show, processing tragedy in the news, the pitfalls of outrage and social media bubbles, his return to stand-up, and upcoming projects. Throughout, Trevor offers insights delivered with his signature thoughtfulness, warmth, and wit, inviting listeners to rethink comedy’s purpose in a tumultuous world.

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Setting the Scene

Timestamps: [03:02] – [03:48]

• The interview takes place in a New York City park, in peak summer heat, across from The Daily Show studio and beneath a billboard bearing Trevor's image.
• Both men joke about their inappropriate attire (army jacket and denim jeans) for such a hot day, immediately setting a relaxed and self-deprecating tone.
  • Trevor Noah [03:48]: "Well, what I like is to have a billboard to remind me that I did have some semblance of a professional job before the pandemic."

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Living and Working Through the Pandemic

Timestamps: [04:12] – [05:30]

• Trevor describes the emotional phases everyone faced during the pandemic—from initial denial to accepting a new reality.
• He highlights the uneven impact due to resources, but emphasizes the universal sense of being "affected."
  • Trevor Noah [04:19]: "I've gone through phases... There was the initial period...21 days...then I thought, you know what? It might be two months... it's non-stop. I've been surviving, and I think like many people out there, I've been coping... But it has definitely not been a normal situation, nor do I try to make it normal."

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Reinventing Comedy and The Daily Show

Performing Without a Live Audience

Timestamps: [05:30] – [07:21]

• Trevor discusses losing the in-person feedback loop of live audiences, and how he learned to "play to one set of eyes"—imagining one viewer at a time.
• This intimacy forced a deeper authenticity and honesty in his comedic delivery.
  • Trevor Noah [07:21]: "There's an intimacy that comes with this... it's almost like a mirror... I think I've learned... how to be more authentic, how to be more honest, how to be less afraid of sharing my opinion and having a conversation even though somebody's not there."
• Willie notes that this forced focus is a new skill set for stand-ups.

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Moving Forward, Not Back

Timestamps: [08:11] – [09:33]

• Trevor stresses the importance of intentionally applying lessons learned in the pandemic, personally and professionally.
  • Trevor Noah [08:24]: "I'm not going back. How am I going forward?...these are all the things I'm trying to play with. But what I don't want to do is try and go back to a life as if this thing didn't happen."
• He challenges returning to "normal" as denial of world-changing events.

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Personal Reflections and the Value of Relationships

Timestamps: [09:33] – [12:14]

• The pandemic revealed what truly matters: time, people, and relationships.
  • Trevor Noah [10:23]: "If everything was taken away, which in many ways it was, then what was the most important thing for me? I found it was my friends, was my family, was the people that I loved..."
• He uses the metaphor of a train that finally stopped, giving society a rare chance to pause and choose whether—and how—to resume the journey.

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Processing Tragedy and Finding Humor

Timestamps: [12:14] – [14:23]

• Trevor reflects on how The Daily Show handled the deluge of grim news: the pandemic, protests, political upheaval.
• He sees comedy as a coping and connection tool, not a way to diminish tragedy.
  • Trevor Noah [12:55]: "I use humor as a coping mechanism... I use humor to remind myself of where I wish to be as a person...and that's what I think comedy does. You want [people] to remember how they were before that pain entered their lives."
• He aims for honest conversations first, trusting the humor will follow.

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The State of Conversation and Media Bubbles

Timestamps: [14:23] – [19:50]

• Trevor laments the rise of sound bites, performative outrage, and tribalism caused by social and conventional media.
• He advocates for targeted, civil conversations with those willing, rejecting "bad faith actors" and the idea that polarization is inevitable.
  • Trevor Noah [19:03]: "...in media, I think we have a role to play. Are we only broadcasting conflict or are we trying to have civil conversations?...I hope we can start to do more of in society is agree on a reality, then we can fight about that reality."
• Uses the basketball analogy: we need to agree that the ball and rim exist before arguing over the rules.

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Politics, Outrage Culture, and Navigating Administration Change

Timestamps: [19:50] – [24:39]

• Trevor notes the shift from the Trump to Biden administration: less chaos, more focus on substantial societal issues.
  • Trevor Noah [22:02]: "Biden delivered on one thing... he's going to be the president that nobody wants to talk about. That's been great, because now we get to delve into issues that affect everybody."
• He draws a distinction between what offends people and what actually affects them, counseling awareness and self-care in confronting outrage culture.
  • Trevor Noah [24:20]: "You're living in Ohio and you're gonna get angry about what someone said in another country... We cannot live like that."

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Returning to Stand-Up and the Power of Live Comedy

Timestamps: [24:53] – [26:52]

• Trevor prepares for a new tour, reignited by an impromptu set alongside Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock.
  • Trevor Noah [24:57]: "I could feel the audience was starting to learn how to be an audience again...comedy is something I can never let die..."
  • Trevor Noah [26:36]: "I'll be glad to take a break from politics...At the end of the day, we're going to have to live in the same world. So if we can't find spaces and places where we can interact with each other, then we're doomed."

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Born a Crime: From Book to Film

Timestamps: [27:00] – [30:31]

• Trevor reflects on the unexpected, enduring success of his memoir, "Born a Crime," soon to be adapted into a film starring Lupita Nyong’o as his mother.
• His mother is more interested in how Trevor's work impacts others than on her own depiction or his fame.
  • Trevor Noah [29:23]: "My mother doesn't care. My mother's happy that I can pay my own rent. My mother's happy that I have a job...how I affect people is more important than who I am in the world."
  • Trevor Noah [30:31]: "If that's how you judge yourself in life, then your life is always fleeting... fame can go away like this."

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The Double-Edged Sword of Fame

Timestamps: [31:17] – [33:23]

• Trevor shares how celebrity brings both blessings and burdens, particularly a lack of privacy and the need to self-censor even in everyday frustrations.
  • Trevor Noah [32:58]: "You lose a little bit of the way you would live if you weren't like, surveilled... It's one of those things."

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Behind the Scenes at the Grammys

Timestamps: [33:34] – [34:49]

• Trevor recounts hosting a unique, pandemic-era Grammy Awards, emphasizing the authenticity and creative spirit displayed by artists in an unusually intimate setting.
  • Trevor Noah [34:26]: "It was less performative and more authentic and I really enjoyed it...I'll cherish that experience forever."

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Deeper Dive: Handling the George Floyd Tragedy and Conversations on Policing

Timestamps: [36:33] – [43:55]

• Trevor describes the gravity with which he approached the George Floyd murder as both observer and commentator.
• He emphasizes the problem of instant reactions and the necessity of pausing to think and listen.
• Goes beyond “both sides” to encourage a nuanced, structural critique of American policing, advocating for solutions, not just rhetoric.
  • Trevor Noah [42:44]: "The problem with even the term both sides is that it implies that there are only two sides. And that is not how any object is...every angle tells a different story."
  • Trevor Noah [43:55]: "Until we have those Conversations, we're not having conversations. We're just shouting talking points at each other."

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Pandemic Fashion: The Rise of the Hoodie

Timestamps: [44:11] – [45:41]

• Trevor shares how his on-air hoodie collection began as a practical response to quarantine life and became a symbolic “uniform” of the era.
  • Trevor Noah [44:33]: "But in many ways, the hoodie has become...the uniform that I don for this period of time...It's become my ritual...my non spoken conversation with the audience. We're still in hoodie land right now as people and I can't wait for the day when we're not."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Insights

• "There's much more light than dark in the world, but that's sometimes a hard thing to convey." — Willie Geist [14:23]
• "I'll just try and be the change." — Trevor Noah [17:17]
• "What I hope we can start to do more of in society is agree on a reality, then we can fight about that reality." — Trevor Noah [19:03]
• "Comedy is something I can never let die...because how many times in life are we going to experience...hundreds or even thousands of people can come together for the purpose of laughing?" — Trevor Noah [24:57]
• "How I affect people is more important than who I am in the world." — Trevor Noah [29:23]
• "The problem with even the term both sides is that it implies that there are only two sides...every angle tells a different story." — Trevor Noah [42:44]

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Closing Thoughts

Trevor Noah’s reflections—in conversation with Willie Geist—offer a rich tapestry of resilience, empathy, and self-awareness. The episode balances humor and gravity as it explores how comedy sustains, challenges, and redefines us. Whether discussing the evolution of The Daily Show, the deep wounds of America’s racial past, the pull of outrage culture, or the humbling wisdom of his own mother, Trevor calls us to honest dialogue, to gratitude, and to a more intentional path forward.

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For Further Listening

• Standout Segments:
  • [05:48] Trevor on adapting to comedy without audience feedback
  • [12:55] Trevor on how and why we use humor
  • [19:03] Trevor’s “basketball” analogy about reality and debate
  • [24:20] Trevor on the difference between what offends and affects us
  • [42:44] Trevor on "both sides" and structural thinking in policing

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Transcript

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[Willie Geist]

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down Podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Got a great conversation for you today with the host of the Daily show. Also a superstar stand up comedian, a best selling author, he runs a production company. He's got a foundation that does great work around the world. He is Mr. Trevor Noah Trevor and I got together a few days ago on a sweltering New York City day. It wasn't just that it was hot, it was your swampy, thick, thick New York City humidity got us up to 102 on the heat index. Just peak afternoon hours too. We really know how to pick the day. So it became kind of a running joke as Trevor came out for the interview in a park in midtown Manhattan, which was right across the street from the Daily show studio. He was wearing a green army jacket and Moyo Boy did he pay for that? My goodness, it was hot out there. I'm in a pair of unbreathable green denim jeans. That wasn't my best selection either, but we had a few laughs as we dabbed our brows and our foreheads just incessantly during the interview. But once we got through with that, it was a great conversation just to set the scene for you. Backdrop is his studio across the street from this park with a giant billboard with his own face on the side of it. You're going to hear some fire trucks. You're going to hear some garbage trucks. You're just going to hear New York City in the summer and imagine it all coming through the prism of sort of air that's so hot and humid you can't quite see through it.

We talked about what it's like to.

Host the Daily show from home for more than a year now in a hoodie, and also to process and render into comedy all the wild, wild, sometimes tragic news that's been coming to the country over the last year. So a great conversation always right now with Trevor Noah of the Daily show on the Sunday Sit down podcast.

Trevor, thanks for doing this, man.

[Trevor Noah]

Thank you, man.

[Willie Geist]

We should stipulate a few things for people watching and listening. It's about 102 with the heat index.

[Trevor Noah]

Is that what it is? I don't know. I don't know.

[Willie Geist]

So if we're a little dewy.

[Trevor Noah]

Yes.

[Willie Geist]

That will. That'll be the reason why.

[Trevor Noah]

But we're outside, which is good.

[Willie Geist]

We're outside on a summer day.

[Trevor Noah]

Yes.

[Willie Geist]

And we should also say you demanded. It was in a note that you wrote. Hand wrote.

[Trevor Noah]

Yes.

[Willie Geist]

I have to be in front of a billboard of myself.

[Trevor Noah]

Well, what I like is to have a billboard to remind me that I did have some semblance of a professional job before the pandemic. So I like to have that as a reminder for myself.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah. There you are in a suit, looking very official. So let's talk about that. What it's been like. I mean, it's. When we all started this two marches ago, you probably thought, you know, I'll be in my apartment for a couple of weeks. And now here we are, what, 15 months later.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah.

[Willie Geist]

What is it like for you now as compared to the beginning? Have you settled into this kind of show?

[Trevor Noah]

You know, I don't think anybody has settled into anything during this period. I think what has been interesting about this period of time is that unlike any other time in human history, no matter who you were, you were affected by the Pandemic in some way, shape or form, some of us managed it better than others because of the resources we had. And some of us didn't, you know, some of us had a. Took a mental, you know, toll. It took a mental toll on us that maybe other people didn't experience. And so I think what's been really interesting is the best way to answer your question is to say I've gone through phases. You know, there was the initial period of the pandemic where I thought, you know, I'm going to be fine. It's 21 days. Because that's what they said, 21 day plan, 21 days. And I thought, I can do 21 days. And then I thought, you know what? It might be two months. And then we hit that period, especially when we got into like, you know, the winter months, where it was like, man, this is just unrelenting. It's non stop. It just keeps on going. And yeah, the best way I can put it is I've been surviving and I think like many people out there, I've been coping. And then there's moments where I feel like I cannot cope. And then there are moments where I go, like, I'm fine, I can do this. But it has definitely not been a normal situation, nor do I try to make it normal.

[Willie Geist]

So how do you, as a performer, you're a stand up comedian, your life is in front of an audience, you tell a joke, you get the response right, you get the affirmation. The thing I thought of right was great. How do you adjust that doing a late night comedy show where you're in a little nook in your apartment?

[Trevor Noah]

I adjust it because I have to. And that's what's been. The one thing that has saved me mentally is understanding that the situation is, therefore I have to be, you know. And so one of the quickest things I did with the pandemic was I accepted the reality of what I was living in. And I think that's where a lot of people struggled is they didn't accept it. They went, when are we going back to the office? When are we, when are kids going back to school? When? And it's good to ask those questions, but not to live in a perpetual state of not accepting your reality. And so for myself, I literally just had to say, well, what if there were never audiences and what if you never were in a studio and what if you never had space and what if you never, never, never, never, never act accordingly? Because what I, what I realized very quickly was I was Going to lose my mind if I kept waiting for something that was never going to end.

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Trevor Noah]

Or something that might never change. And so, yeah, I found as a performer, I had to find a different gear, a different conversation that I would be having with an audience, because, like, you and I now, this is similar to how I make the show. I think of one person, think of one set of eyes, one almost like, collective idea of a human being who watches my show. And it's almost the imprint from all the people who came to the studio. And I go, okay, that person is here. Now I'm talking to them. What would I like to say to them?

[Willie Geist]

Is there something I don't want to say better about that? But is there something you've learned about doing comedy from having to be that focused and not counting on 15,000 people in an arena roaring at a joke? Is there a different skill you've developed from doing this?

[Trevor Noah]

Definitely. Definitely. I think there's an intimacy that comes with this. You know, there's an authenticity as well. Sometimes when you exist in a place or when you exist in a space where people are constantly acting or reacting to your every move, you can sometimes find you don't know who's doing the thing. Is the audience making you perform, or you're performing and then making them an audience? When you're alone, you exist as authentically as you can, you know, because in many ways, it's almost like a mirror. It's just. It's just you with the eyes. And so what I think I've learned during this period is how to be more authentic, how to be more honest, how to be less afraid of sharing my opinion and having a conversation even though somebody's not there. Because I think in America, and slowly, as the world just becomes inundated with social media, we're becoming more and more afraid of having conversations.

[Willie Geist]

Definitely. Definitely. So, I mean, life is springing back to normal. There are a lot of shows that are thinking about coming back or have come back. How are you viewing the next few weeks or months and getting yourself back into that studio?

[Trevor Noah]

Well, that's the first thing I've had to do, is say, I'm not going back. How am I going forward?

[Willie Geist]

You know?

[Trevor Noah]

And so, like many people who have been lucky enough to emerge from the pandemic, I've had to ask myself, what are the lessons I've learned from this time, and how will that affect or augment my life moving forward? And that is no different to the office. I have to ask questions for all of us. How many days a week do we need to be here physically? What are we doing and why are we doing it? How are we doing it? How do I want to live my life? You know, in accordance to the show and the show in accordance to my life. How do I want to figure out those pieces? I think those are some of the things that I. That I'm trying to figure out now. So for myself, what is the studio? What is the studio I go back to? What is the journey I move forward to? These are all the things I'm trying to play with. But what I don't want to do is try and go back to a life as if this thing didn't happen.

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Trevor Noah]

Because I say to everyone in my life, if you are going to live as if the pandemic didn't happen, man, you're almost living in denial. Because this has been one of the greatest existential threats to humankind that we've seen in a very long time and.

[Willie Geist]

Has people asking big existential questions about their own lives. What am I doing with my life? Is this the right job? Do I live in the right place? Definitely valuing relationships in a way, maybe you didn't. So have you thought in those larger terms? I'm not saying you're gonna change your gig tomorrow, but have you thought about what am I doing with this time I have here?

[Trevor Noah]

Definitely. I think my time has become so much more intentional than it ever was before.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, I realized this during the pandemic. The thing that most people were fighting for wasn't really whether they could go to the office or not, or whether they could go to a restaurant or not, or whether they could go to the movies. People's framed it that way. I want to go do this thing. I want to go do this thing. But what they were really saying for the most part was, I want to be with people.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, I don't. I don't want to eat alone on Zoom with people. I want to be physically in the same space. I want to. I want to have the opportunity for the human moments to occur. And so I've asked myself those questions. What is important in my life and why is it important? If everything was taken away, which in many ways it was, then what was the most important thing for me? I found it was my friends, was my family, was the people that I loved, you know, because I think you can always create again if you have those things with you. You may not be able to create or you may not even want to create if you don't have those support structures and that love in your life. And so for myself as a human being, that's the big question I've asked.

[Willie Geist]

That's I think, yeah. That sense of belonging, I think, has been so enhanced for so many people. I remember thinking, you know, you get in these ruts and you say, oh, I don't mind. I kind of like staying in. This is great. It's easier. And then the minute we would go out with somebody or go to a park, oh, no, this is what I like.

[Trevor Noah]

Right.

[Willie Geist]

I like being with these people. But it was easy to think, okay, I can live this way.

[Trevor Noah]

Yes.

[Willie Geist]

The truth is we don't really want to live that way, or most people don't anymore.

[Trevor Noah]

We want the balance. I think that's what it is.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, I think most of society was on this giant train that was just moving at full steam. You know, it was flying and you would be born and you jump onto it, jump on as quickly as possible. Now you're on the train now you're trying to move from one car to the next. You're trying to figure out what this life is. Never before has the train stopped. I mean, stopped, not slowed down, stopped everyone, everywhere in the world, it stopped. And now the train is slowly starting to move again. And now you have people asking, do I want to get back on the train? And if I do, how far do I want to ride this train? Why am I on the train? What is the purpose? Do I want to jump off at a different stop? It's become a really existential question that I think is good for people to ask, to be honest.

[Willie Geist]

No question. I mean, you've had, you think about the last year since the pandemic for you. Not personally, but you as a host of a late night show, you've had a pandemic. We've had a presidential election, a new president, an insurrection. You had the murder of George Floyd just over a year ago. When you and I talked, I think it was about three years ago.

Yeah.

We were in that studio and you said something to me. You said, I think at the end of the day, the show has to be funny. However, I deliver it differently than other late night shows. You gotta laugh at the end, right? So how do you navigate those heavy, heavy, heavy issues and those heavy moments in our society and still be funny about it in the way you've been for the last year and change?

[Trevor Noah]

I ask myself what the purpose of that funny is. And I think that's something that during the pandemic I've really crystallized in myself as a human being. I've come to realize that I don't use humor to belittle or to make fun of a situation. I use humor as a coping mechanism. I use humor to remind myself of where I wish to be as a person, you know, and that is in a place where I'm smiling, in a place where not everything is the worst in the world. And that's what I think comedy does. You know, when a child falls or a baby hurts themselves, what's the first thing you try and get them to do is to laugh again. You want them to smile, you know, not because you want them to forget the pain, but because you want them to remember how they were before that pain entered their lives. And so now when I make the show, what I realize is I can use humor as a pressure release valve, you know, for the moment. And I can also use humor to almost deconstruct what is happening. You know, sometimes humor helps you because it's very honest.

[Willie Geist]

Yes.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, and so what I'm really trying to do now is say to an audience, tune into my show if you would like to be kept abreast of what's happening in the world, and if you don't want to feel like it's all doom and gloom, because I don't believe it is. And I don't believe we can ever live like it is, because if that's the case, then we've lost all hope. And if we've lost all hope, what's the point of living?

[Willie Geist]

I'm so glad to hear you say that. I've been talking to my kids about that the last year and a half, because all they see in here is people are dying all over the world.

[Trevor Noah]

Right.

[Willie Geist]

There's crazy things happening in Washington. People are storming the Capitol building. That's all they see and know. And I always tell them there's much more light than dark in the world, but that's sometimes a hard thing to convey. And I'm thinking about in the days and weeks after George Floyd, how you come in to an office or to your apartment and sit down and make some sense of that for your viewers. How do you begin as a staff and as a host to say this really traumatic thing with huge roots and big implications happen? How do you dive into something like that and make some. And make some comedy about it?

[Trevor Noah]

The first thing I try and do is have an honest conversation. I try to have an honest conversation with myself. I try and have an honest conversation with my team and my staff, and then I try and have an honest conversation with the audience. I don't worry about where the joke is going to be. I have an honest conversation. If you know me as a person, if you get to know me, if we spend time together, you will see, even on my saddest, darkest days, there'll be a blip of comedy. You know, I don't control it, really. It's how I see the world. You know, I can be having a really tough time myself. Not even at other people's expense. I, as Trevor, will be having a really tough time, and I'll just be like, huh, that's funny. When you think about it, it's just a moment.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, and that's how my brain works. And so I'm not trying to even find the funny. I'm trying to find the honesty. I'm trying to find the conversations that we struggle to have in society. Because I think in many ways, we've become a society that's good at shouting.

[Willie Geist]

Yes.

[Trevor Noah]

We've become a society that's good at the sound bites. You know, whether it's the tweet or whether it's the Facebook post or whether it's the comment on Instagram, we're really good at that. And I don't think people shouldn't have opinions, but, man, we should get better at having conversations about those opinions. Because I don't know about you, but I grew up in a world where I didn't agree with my friends on everything, and that was fine.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

What made us friends was that we agreed on most things.

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Trevor Noah]

And so that's what I'm trying to do.

[Willie Geist]

So are you hopeful that we can have those conversations? I try to remain hopeful, but then I also know how people consume media, and people who agree with you will probably watch you, and people who don't will watch Fox or Oan or whatever the other networks are. How do we. And this is a big question. You may have the answer. How do we get back to some place where we can have conversations where it's not just about the tweet that was a burn or that, you know, that's what politicians do now.

[Trevor Noah]

Yes.

[Willie Geist]

They just want to signal to their side that I'm fighting for you? And here's a tweet. How do we get back somewhere not perfect, Somewhere in the middle where we can talk?

[Trevor Noah]

So I think there are a few things that I've had to acknowledge for myself as a person. Is one, who am I talking to? And why? You know, I think there are a lot of bad faith actors out there. A lot of people who don't want to have a conversation with you. They just want to, quote, unquote, own you.

[Willie Geist]

Yep.

[Trevor Noah]

I'm not trying to have a conversation with that person, but there are many people who I am trying to have a conversation with. And so when you ask me how I think we can get there, I don't know how the we can be collectively, but to go to the old adage, I'll just try and be the change. You know, I'll try and talk to as many people I don't agree with as possible. I'll try and engage them in a civil manner. You know, I try and stay away from, like the straight up, like, bam, bam. You know, don't get me wrong, I'm still going to tell jokes. I'm still going to have fun with that. And if you come at me, I will come. I'll come back at you with a joke. That's. I mean, I'm still a comedian in that way, but when it comes to, like, hard conversations, I would like to have those more and more with people. You know, I would like to have more moments where I engage someone in a space where we know we don't agree, but we both see each other as human beings.

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Trevor Noah]

I want to practice that more and more and more as a person. And so on a societal level, I don't think it is possible for us to ever get back to that until we look at all of the things that, that make it impossible. So social media. Social media fundamentally makes it impossible because it is designed to get as much engagement as possible. That's how they generate what they generate, you know, and so maybe there's a way to clean that up. Maybe there's a way to say to social media companies, hey, we're incentivizing you to find some way to make people not just enemies with each other. Stop putting these posts up of Willie where Trevor says he wants to burn down his house. You know, he doesn't need to see that. How is it helping him?

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Trevor Noah]

And in media, I think we have a role to play. You know, are we only broadcasting conflict or are we trying to have civil conversations? You know? Cause the thing that I always try and explain to people is this. You know, this is like how I think of my show. I go, I don't pretend to not be biased. I have my opinions and I share them with people. What I hope we can start to do more of in society is agree on a reality, then we can fight about that reality.

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, so think of it like a game of basketball. Everyone is fighting over the same ball in the same rim, but they all agree that those things are there. Then they can fight about how the game is played. That was a foul. That wasn't a foul. You know, you've got this many points, I'm going to beat you. But you're agreeing on the reality of the game.

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Trevor Noah]

Right now in society, we're getting to a place where we don't even agree that there's a ball.

[Willie Geist]

So I mentioned new administration. How has it been for you digging into the Biden administration? Obviously much different from the Trump administration. But do you approach the show differently with this man in the office?

[Trevor Noah]

Definitely. Yeah, definitely. I mean, there is no lying that Donald J. Trump was, I think it was Jeff Zucker who called him this back in the day. He's a one man publicity wrecking ball machine. That's what he sees. Just chaos.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

There's no denying that that's what Donald Trump brought. Now, while that I think had good elements because it brought people into politics that weren't necessarily interested before, the downside was it all became about him. And I honestly believe that most issues in society are not about Donald Trump. They're not all his fault, they're not all because of him. He might be a symptom, but he's not the cause. And so because he was really good at garnering that attention, it then made society unable to have conversations around the real issues that were taking place. You know, and so now I'm trying to focus more on the issues than on the politics of the issues. Because that's the thing about America as well, that I've really come to realize, especially during the pandemic, is America makes everything political. Everything is left or right, everything is red or blue. I didn't grow up like that. You know, I hear people all the time in America saying, well, as a Republican, well, as a Democrat, I've never said that phrase in my life because we've never done. In South Africa, no one says, well, as an ANC support, as a DA support, no one says that.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

In fact, where I'm from, we would spend more time criticizing the people we voted for than the people we didn't vote for. Because you elected them to do something that you want.

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Trevor Noah]

Ergo, you would criticize them.

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Trevor Noah]

America's really interesting in that regard. And I think that that discourse doesn't lead people to have real conversations. A Mask isn't political.

[Willie Geist]

Shouldn't. You know.

[Trevor Noah]

Right. And so how you use it, in a way, these are things that people can discuss, but it shouldn't be political. You get what I'm saying?

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

Trash shouldn't be political. Any conversation in life shouldn't be political. There's so many that shouldn't be political, and yet we are making it that. And so what I'm trying to do now, and Biden delivered on one thing that he promised on, and that was he's going to be the president that nobody wants to talk about. That's been great, because now we get to delve into issues that affect everybody. Because one thing that I think every American can agree upon is regardless of who's in office, there are still people who are struggling to pay the rent. There are still people who are struggling. They haven't seen a wage increase in years. There are still people who don't know whether their children will be able to go to school. There are still people who don't know how they're going to put food on the table. There are still people who don't know if they can afford health care. That will always happen from administration to administration. So I think it goes beyond politics. And so now on the show, I look at the issues, and then we'll touch on the politics that may affect it. But I think we need to have more interesting conversations about what affects us as human beings.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah, I mean, you, I think you, you had a pretty good strategy during the Trump years, which you said in our previous interview, too, is you just. I refuse to be perpetually outraged. You just can't be outraged every minute of every day and have a healthy life or run a comedy show. So did that help you get through those four years of Donald Trump where you, you couldn't look at every tweet and set your hair on fire?

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah, definitely. You know, I think a lot of people also like to get enraged. Oh, Trump tweet. You know, be like, oh, Trump tweeted this. It's like, yeah, but you don't have to look at all his tweets. Oh, Trump made this joke at a rally. Yeah. He made that joke to his people. You don't have to get angry about everything that the person is doing. I would always say to people, think about what's offending you and what's affecting you. They are two separate things. You know, I, I would even say that with. It even happened with comedians in. And around that time, you know, people were getting angry at comedians and they were like, how can you say that? How can you say that? How could you say that? And I don't think people shouldn't be held accountable. Don't get me wrong. But I also think people have to ask themselves sometimes in life, are you allowing yourself to become enraged by things that are not happening to you necessarily? You're gonna go out of your way to find a thing that somebody said. Look at what this person said in Thailand on the train. Is that gonna make you angry now?

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Trevor Noah]

You know what I mean? You're living in Ohio and you're gonna get angry about what someone said in another country, on another continent, to another person. Man, we cannot live like that. And so what I learned to do was ask myself what is affecting us and what is just offending us. The things that are affecting people. Let's deal with those issues. Things that are offensive, you can have fun with them. That's comedy.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah, well, you're right. The most important point is their entire groups of people who. It serves them well to be outraged at all times. That's how the rent gets paid for a lot of people. Perpetual outrage. You're also going back and doing stand up. I understand you got a tour coming up.

[Trevor Noah]

Yes, I am.

[Willie Geist]

What's the plan there? Is there one yet?

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah, there is. There is. I'm excited, man. This has been the longest period since I've started stand up that I haven't done stand up, you know? And so I actually was going to wait a little bit longer. And then I did a show with Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock and Michelle Wood Wolf at the Stand in New York. It was a surprise show. Dave Chappelle said, come and watch a show. And then he tricked me. And the next thing I was on stage. And so, yeah, and he was like, why aren't you on stage? I said, I. I don't actually know. I'm waiting. He said, man, it's time. Let's go. And what I realized, even in that moment when I was on the stage, I didn't have anything prepared for that moment. I didn't have an idea. But you know what? It felt like home. And I could feel the audience was starting to learn how to be an audience again. We were all experiencing this thing together. And that's why, for myself, comedy is something I can never let die. Because how many times in life are we going to experience or how many times have we taken for granted a space where hundreds or even thousands of people can come together for the purpose of laughing? Willy. Laughing, laughing, having a Good time, enjoying themselves. Not there to fight, not there to argue about which team should win or shouldn't. We're not there to cheer about politics, but just to laugh, man. I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now. I've always loved it, but post pandemic, I appreciate it more than ever before. And so I'm getting back on the road. I'm excited to be doing shows again. I'm getting ready. I've got my show and I'm preparing things. It'll be a little bit of what's happened, a little bit of nothing, which is great. I'll be telling jokes about, I don't know, 16th century England. You know, I'll be glad.

[Willie Geist]

Topical stuff.

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah. I'll be glad to take a break from politics. That's what. That's what I miss about stand up as well. You know, I used to do shows where, like, I would have, like, people who would be like, I'm Republican. People even say, I don't like your politics, but I like your comedy. And I was like, well, come to my comedy then. Come to the show.

[Willie Geist]

Good enough for me, right?

[Trevor Noah]

Hey, man, we're human beings. At the end of the day, we're gonna have to live in the same world. So if we can't find spaces and places where we can interact with each other, then we're doomed.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah. And you've also got the film coming up, Born of Crime, which I was looking back, that book sitting on the New York Times bestseller list literally for years. I can't. You never could have imagined, could you, when you said, I'm just going to sit down and tell my story here it is, that it became this phenomenon.

[Trevor Noah]

No, I told a story and I shared an experience. I think I shared my story. I shared a story of a mother and her son, and I shared a story of a country coming out of one of the craziest periods in human history, which was apartheid and trying to establish itself as a democracy. I honestly did not think in any way, shape or form this would become what it is today. I didn't think people would be still reading the book years later. It would still be on the New York Times bestsellers list. You know, it would be the number one audible book of all time. I. I didn't. I didn't think that. I didn't think kids would be learning it in school.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah, they are. My kids have read it. My kids have read it. They're middle school. Middle school age. And now your mother must be pleased that Lupita's playing her.

[Trevor Noah]

My mom was really happy. Yeah, My mom was really.

[Willie Geist]

I bet, yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

What's interesting. So my mom doesn't care for celebrity at all. She doesn't keep up with it. She doesn't know anything about it at all. She was just happy when she saw the. She saw the picture. My mom doesn't know who Lupita is, but she was just like. Because my mom hears about things from people in the street, which is hilarious for me. So someone will come up to her in the street and be like, wow, you're gonna be in a movie? And my mom's like, what? Why? Why in a movie?

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Where.

[Trevor Noah]

Where am I in a movie? And then she'll phone me and be like, I'm gonna. You put me in a movie. And I'm like, no, you're not gonna be in the movie. I'm making a movie about our book and our life. And she's like, oh, okay, okay. And so I'm like, someone's gonna be acting you. And she goes, who? I go like, oh, Lupita Nyong. She's like, who's that? I'm like, okay, I'm gonna send you a picture. And this is her. And I sent her. And she's like, oh, okay. No, I'm very happy. I'm very happy. I'm very happy. I'm happy that this is an African woman, because I'm an African woman. And I was like, did you think I was gonna ask Julia Roberts to play you? Like, what? Where does this come from? But my mom is just like, nah, she's simple and living her life.

[Willie Geist]

That's awesome. That is incredible. What does she think about all of this? Not just the movie, but we're sitting in a park with billboard on the side. Not much.

[Trevor Noah]

Not much, No. I mean this in the humblest fashion possible. Sometimes people think I mean it in a bad way, but my mother doesn't care. My mother's happy that I can pay my own rent. My mother's happy that I have a job and I'm living my life. And one of the most important things she actually judges me on is how other people respond because of me, you know? So she'll go, hey, I met a man who had cancer and his daughter and him watched your comedy while he was going through chemo. And they laughed and he was in pain, but it was really helped them. And they told me this in the street. Thank you. And I'll go, oh, cool. Did you also like that comedy? She's like, I don't I don't have time for that. I just wanted to say thank you.

[Willie Geist]

Wow.

[Trevor Noah]

So. So she's always not graded me, but rather my mom has always drilled into me how I affect people is more important than who I am in the world. You know, fame can go away like this. Fame is one of the most frivolous things that can ever happen to you as a human being. You know, you famous today, nobody knows you tomorrow.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

So if that's how you judge yourself in life, then your life is always fleeting. Whereas my mother has always gone, how do you make people feel? Who are you as a human being? And that's good enough for me. And so for her, she never celebrates like a. Like a Hollywood achievement. She celebrates, like a life achievement, you know, so she'll go, wow, you did the Grammys. Congratulations. Then I'm like, oh, you watched the Grammy? She's like, I don't even really know what that is, but people told me it's a big thing. And I'm happy for you. Well done. I'm very happy for you.

[Willie Geist]

But that keeps you humble, too. That's great, right?

[Trevor Noah]

Yeah. It helps less than humility. It helps me remember that this is not the most important thing in life. It's a blessing, and it's wonderful. But this is not the only thing that should matter in life.

[Willie Geist]

It's good perspective because, as you say, it goes away. You better be rooted in the right stuff. So if it goes, you still have that. But what about for you personally to walk into the building with a billboard in New York City on the side? Given where you've come from, everybody's read the story in your book. Do you ever stop yourself and go, wow, I can't believe how this has turned out?

[Trevor Noah]

Here's the truth of it. The truth is it's a gift and a curse. Everything in life, I think, has its gifts and its curses. On the one hand, obviously, coming from a life where sometimes in my family, we didn't know if we would have food on a day to live the life I'm living today. I'm like, man, I can't believe. This is insane. You know, I can order a mains and a starter if I want. That's one of the biggest things where I go, I've made it. I'm not even lying. I'm not even lying. I look at the menu and I go, I have both. And I really still go, man, I'm blessed. I'm really blessed. And then there are times when I see a billboard or I see a poster. And I'm like, that's me. That is. That's insane. That is me. This. I can't believe how far I've come. And I'm happy because I've brought my family with me and I brought my friends and my community, and I've been able to help people because of that. That's a gift. The curse is the fact that you have a billboard. You know what I mean? Like, people take this for granted. If I'm in a. Let's say I'm in like a. I'm in a line somewhere and something goes wrong. Someone spills something or someone kicks me, whatever. I can't just be like, baa. You've just got to breathe. Because if you're not careful, someone's gonna take a video of you. Like Trevor losing his cool. But we should all be allowed to lose our cool, Willy.

[Willie Geist]

Yes, but I. But I.

[Trevor Noah]

Because if I'm not careful, then the thing. So it comes with its curses.

[Willie Geist]

Yes.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, because you. I think you lose a little bit of your. Of the way you would live if you weren't like, surveilled.

[Willie Geist]

Of course.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, like, you get to the point now when, like, when you eat, you're like, is someone taking a picture of this moment? This is how I eat. Small bites, nothing too big. This is how I eat. Because, you know, the one time you're like, that's the picture. They go, ah. You get what I'm saying?

[Willie Geist]

Oh, yeah, of course.

[Trevor Noah]

It's one of those things.

[Willie Geist]

Well, you're surveilled more than most, too. I can still walk around and shove a cheeseburger in my face. You've got a head on a swivel. Keep your head on a swivel. Was that Grammys experience?

Cool.

I have to say, all the. Of all the award shows, with all due respect to the others, that was the one where it was like, okay, they. They figured it out. It didn't feel zoomy, and it was just so well done.

[Trevor Noah]

That was so amazing. I've just got to there. I give credit to the team who made it happen. I was lucky to be a part of the team, and I was lucky that they brought me in early enough, you know, so everyone at Viacom, CBS was like, hey, we need you to jump onto this early because Ben Winston, who was producing the whole thing, he was executive producing. He said, we're gonna do this.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, and it was great to have the artists. I've never experienced anything like the grand. And what I mean by that is not that I haven't experienced a star studded event. Not that I haven't experienced a glam. No, it felt from this. It felt this, you know, seeing, seeing the human side of artists.

[Willie Geist]

Yes.

[Trevor Noah]

You know, seeing, seeing Dua Lipa just enjoying a song from somebody else. You know, like, like single seeing Bad Bunny enjoying a moment somewhere else. Seeing Cardi B just like going like, oh man, I'm going through my routine. But, but it wasn't big. It wasn't. It was less performative and more authentic and I really enjoyed it. I didn't expect it to be like that, but I think it was. And I'll cherish that experience forever.

[Willie Geist]

I wonder if they stay with that because I mean like you say to watch like hair. Oh, there's Harry Styles sort of in the shadows, but he's singing along to Billie Eilish song. Oh, this is. It was a different. It was very cool. It really was. It was very well done.

Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Trevor Noah right after the break with Venmo.

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[Willie Geist]

Welcome back to the Sunday Sit down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Trevor Noah.

We were talking about George Floyd and how you handled that situation. You were out on hiatus when he was murdered, Right. Two maze ago. What were those couple of weeks or those days like for you as it sort of stewed in your mind and you figured out how to handle it?

[Trevor Noah]

When. When George Floyd was murdered and when we started to witness America in one of the most tumultuous periods we've ever seen, I was actually grateful for the fact that I wasn't on air because I now didn't have to react to what was happening, but I could observe, I could listen to people. I could see what was happening, and I didn't have to immediately say something about or even feel like I had to say something about it. And I think what that does for you as a person is it gives you pause to contemplate not just what's happening, but why it's happening, how it's happening, and how you respond to it as a human being. Which is, funny enough, something I think social media has robbed lots of us of. We love the instant response now. And it's fun, don't get me wrong. In many moments, it's fun, you know, but what's also. What's also scary about it is we go with our first instinct. We go with our first thoughts. You know, we do before we think. And so when that happened, I mean, the biggest. The biggest emotion I had was sadness. You know, Like, I see a lot of people now who try and create a martyr out of George Floyd, and they go like, man, what George Floyd did and what. No, George Floyd did nothing. What was done to him? You know, he didn't choose to be a martyr, nor did he want to be, nor should he have been. And so when I was experiencing this, as many other people were, you're asking so many questions about life. Why is it so hard for us to have honest conversations about policing in America? You know, why is it hard for us to connect as human beings in and around a life that was lost? Why does it have to feel like. Like acknowledging the lives of those that were lost means you have to diminish those of police officers. Why is all of this happening? Why are people failing to see the humanity in others?

[Willie Geist]

You know?

[Trevor Noah]

And so in that period, that was the one thing that I kept on thinking was, do you understand what level the community has to get to, to the point where they're marching in the streets? And do you understand what level people have to get to to be there? And so for myself, I felt like. I felt like I could not only observe, but then process and then try to articulate what I could see was happening in the world just by listening and observing the people that were going through it the most.

[Willie Geist]

Even listening to you talk about that, both sidesism is obviously a dirty term, and that's not what you do. But just hearing you say this terrible thing happened, did you also think about how hard it is to be a cop or the job they have to do? Is that a place you try to find in general? I'm not even specific to that, but in general, say, hey, let's find the common humanity here.

[Trevor Noah]

Well, here's the thing that I think sometimes people are robbed of in American conversations is people don't like to look at the cause in this country. You know, America is a country where you'll see a thousand ads about a medicine that you should buy to treat a symptom. But a lot of the time, people are not thinking about the cause. Oh, your joints are sore. Oh, your stomach is bad, or you. They don't think about the cause. Here, take this pill. Take this pill, and then you'll take this pill for the side effect of that pill and this pill and this pill and this pill. What is the cause? You know, if we don't think about the causes, we're always going to treat symptoms and we're always going to deal with the side effects when we get down to the core. I've been lucky enough to have conversations with police. You know, I've had police tell me, hey, man, the structure of the thing we do is always going to be fundamentally flawed. If you design a system where these people have to generate income for their cities, are you creating a system to protect and serve all, or are you creating a system that is punitive and designed to extract money from those on the streets? And I'm not blaming individual police. I'm just saying we have to look at the structure of that. What is the purpose of that and how are we doing it? How do we even determine punishments? Oh, they pull you over, they give you a fine. Why did we decide that a fine is the correct thing to do? People be like, it's fair. Who is it fair to? You know, it creates a system where those who can afford to pay can carry on living their lives. Those who cannot are now trapped within a system that'll keep them spiraling further and further away from the society that everyone says they don't want to be a part of, when in fact they do. And so in these things, I think we don't have honest enough conversations. If you're sending police out there to stop and Frisk everyone. What do you think is going to happen? You know, and so now in the, in the private rooms of the police, they tell the police, you have to do this. If you don't do it, you're fired because you're not meeting quotas. But then in the public, people chastise the police. But that's why we talk about it as a structural thing. And that's what I try and do as a person is I think the problem with even the term both sides is that it implies that there are only two sides. And that is not how any object is. You know, we're not just looking at every angle tells a different story. And I think we're supposed to be doing that. You know, if policing were an industry or if policing were a profession where there weren't so many other things that were going wrong in it, I think we wouldn't have the suicide rate that we have with policing. Like these are the issues that I look at. I go, these are human beings as well. Why are police going through this as well?

[Willie Geist]

And it goes back to the tribal conversation we were having.

[Trevor Noah]

And that's the problem.

[Willie Geist]

On that side or on that side, you like the cops, you hate the cops, right?

[Trevor Noah]

But there's two worlds. And so that's why I go, why don't we have more structural conversations? You know, when you're looking at what is the police and why is the police, you're not trying to dismantle the person, you're looking at the structure that they themselves are a part of something that is hurting them as a human being. I don't think that any human being should be put in the position where they're going out shooting other people. You know, there's a reason police have to go for counseling after that is because it's not the right thing for us to be doing. And then for communities to be subject to that, what do you think is going to happen? You just to have having a loop. It's a never ending loop. And then you don't have an honest conversation about it. Oh, this person was killed. This person shouldn't have been killed. Is there a way to do it without just killing people? Oh, you're anti cop? No, I'm not. I'm pro the cop. I don't want that cop to ever have to take somebody's life. That let that be the final, final last resort where we all, as society go, man, something failed here. We failed this person or we failed that police by putting them in that position. Until we have those Conversations. We're not having conversations. We're just shouting talking points at each other.

[Willie Geist]

See, this is nuance, Trevor. You can't do that in America. Last thing, I've got to ask you about your collection of hoodies. Every night go in there, there's some different color or rainbow, whatever it is. How many hoodies do you have?

[Trevor Noah]

Everyone asks me this and I'm afraid to count because I think what happened is so first, to understand the hoodies, you have to understand life. I'm at home, I don't know when I'm going back out into the world. Hoodies are what I wear at home.

[Willie Geist]

Sure.

[Trevor Noah]

I love hoodies.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Trevor Noah]

This is just my life. Okay. Yeah, I'm gonna be making a show from home. It's like, I'm not gonna wear a suit. I'm at home. I don't want to feel like I'm. No, I'm at home.

[Willie Geist]

Right?

[Trevor Noah]

We're all in sweatpants on our zooms, etc, etc. That's why I dressed the way that I did. Then I was like, man, I'm running out of hoodies because I thought it was gonna be 21 days, right? So I had to buy a few more hoodies and I had to get a few more hoodies and I had to get. The next thing I know, there's just hoodies. There's just hoodies everywhere, Willie. There's hoodies in every nook and cranny of my cupboard. There's just hoodies everywhere, showing up everywhere. But in many ways, the hoodie has become, you know, the uniform that I don for this period of time. It's become, you know, it's become my little safety blank. It's become my thing where I get into a mindset like, okay, it's time now, go and do this thing. You put it on. And it's how I've created a sense of normalcy in a world that is completely abnormal right now. And so that's really all it is, is me going, okay, how do I get to, you know, just step into the zone? What's that moment where I go, okay, I'm doing this now? And that's what that's become. It's become my ritual. It's become my, you know, non spoken conversation with the audience. We're still in hoodie land right now as people and I can't wait for the day when we're not.

[Willie Geist]

Well, that's coming pretty soon. But your audience might be disappointed if you come out in a suit now. They want to see those suits oh, maybe.

[Trevor Noah]

You never know. Maybe I'll find. Maybe I'll do hoodies on Tuesdays and suits on Wednesdays. That's what I mean about I'm not going back. I'm only going forward.

[Willie Geist]

There you go. Hoodie Tuesdays.

[Trevor Noah]

You never know.

[Willie Geist]

Thanks, man.

My big thanks again to Trevor for a great conversation, for really hanging in there through that heat and through all the New York City noise. Always appreciate his time and his thoughtfulness. The Daily show, as I mentioned, will be on hiatus for a few months this summer, but will return on September 13th. My big thanks to all of you for tuning in again this week. If you want to hear more of our conversations with my guests every week, be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And of course, don't forget to tune into Sunday Today every weekend on NBC.

I'm Willie Geist.

We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit down podcast. Cast.

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