Trevor Noah! You know Trevor Noah, the 31-year-old South African comedian who only made his first appearance on The Daily Show in December. The rumor had been going around all weekend and was confirmed by Comedy Central this morning. Noah, who speaks six languages, has been doing stand-up internationally for years, and his act tends to focus on issues of race and international relations. His first segment on The Daily Show was about America’s perception of Africa, emphasizing that many American cities are in worse shape than African ones, joking, “I never thought I’d be more afraid of police in America than in South Africa.â€
This news comes a little less than two months after Jon Stewart’s announcement he’d be leaving the show he’s been hosting since 1999. For anyone following the story, it seemed Comedy Central didn’t have an easy time finding a replacement. John Oliver, the correspondent most prepared to take over, had left the year before to host his own comedy-news show. And since Stewart’s news, other current correspondents or contributors have also left the show or explicitly said they didn’t want the job. Not to mention that outside of The Daily Show, there is a dearth of prominent young political comedians.
A start date has not been announced.
If you’d like to familiarize yourself with Noah, start with his set Live at the Apollo, where he explains his background:
Watch him impersonate Nelson Mandela in You Laugh But It’s True, a 2011 documentary (available on Netflix and Vimeo) that follows Noah as he prepares material for his first one-man comedy show:
And for a more in-depth perspective on Noah’s style of comedy, watch his one-hour 2013 Showtime special, African American, currently streaming on Netflix.