Trevor Noah caps remarkable rise with 'Daily Show' appointment

When Trevor Noah first appeared on the hit US satirical comedy, The Daily Show, he used his razor sharp humour to have a not-so-subtle dig at western perceptions of Africa.

Jousting with Jon Stewart, the programme's host, the South African comedian explained that he was still a little nervous about being in the US, "between your cops and, frankly, your Ebola". Mr Stewart recoiled: "You are from Africa, it's your Ebola."

"No, no South Africa. We haven't had a single case in over 18 years," Mr Noah countered. "In fact, my friends warned me, they were like 'Trevor, don't go to the US you'll catch Ebola'. And I was like, 'you know what guys, just because they have a few cases doesn't mean we should cut off travel there' - that would be ignorant right?"

His point was made to cheers: while the deadly Ebola virus wreaked havoc in three west African states - Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia - the outside world was woefully wrong to lump African nations together on the huge, diverse continent. And this week Mr Noah unwittingly thrust African comedy into the spotlight after he was announced as the surprise choice to replace Mr Stewart in The Daily Show hot seat when the veteran presenter steps down this year.

He has not had a rosy start. The comedian has had to defend himself after a social media storm erupted after some of his old tweets were deemed sexist and anti-Semitic. Still, his appointment by Comedy Central marks the remarkable rise of a 31-year-old who grew up in Soweto, the Johannesburg township, during the last decade of white minority rule, a mixed-race child of an illegal relationship under apartheid.

Mr Noah's success - he made his US television debut in 2012 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno - is also symbolic of the rise of South Africa's vibrant comedy scene, which has flourished in the post-apartheid era.

During apartheid, comedy was essentially illegal, particularly for non-whites. "There were no black comedians - as a black person you were lucky if you were allowed to speak, never mind tell jokes," Mr Noah told NPR, the US radio network, in a 2012 interview.

When he began doing stand-up comedy, he did not realise it was a profession. His mother wondered how he could make a living telling jokes.

"She thought maybe I was a drug dealer . . . 'How you paying the rent?'" he said. "She said: 'I've never found you entertaining enough to pay you anything.'"

Much of South African comedy takes a satirical tone, poking fun at the country's oppressive past, its racial sensitivities and the scandals and characters that colour the young democracy today. Often, it is self-depreciating and edgy, with comedians playing on racial stereotypes. Being of mixed race gave Mr Noah a particular perspective. His handsome, suave, clean-cut good looks helped.

"He stood out because he was really good and really funny. He's like that very good looking guy so ladies always wanted to see him as well," says Kagiso Lediga, a founder of Late Nite News, an Emmy-nominated South African satire partly inspired by The Daily Show. "It kind of added a pop star element to South African stand-up comedy."

Mr Noah was always extremely driven and ambitious, he says.

"Like any given time when you were sitting with him he would be telling jokes - at some point you were like, man I just want to enjoy my flight," he adds "But then afterwards you'd see it on stage, and wow, unbelievable."

As his profile grew in South Africa, he got a big break in 2010 when he was chosen as the face of a big advertising campaign for Cell C, a mobile operator, which put him before a mass audience. He then began taking his act overseas. Conrad Koch, the country's top ventriloquist, says Mr Noah has had to overcome significant challenges to make it overseas, as South Africans face cultural and financial barriers to success.

"What the American audiences and UK audiences don't get is the level of cultural divide it takes for Trevor to reach to where they can understand his world view," he says. "That he's managed to traverse that and compete at the same level as the best in America, we should be standing on the highest mountains and cheering."

Still, his peers are predicting more success. "He'll be awesome. It's kind of like you have this crazy Rolls-Royce engine and then you put this nuclear fuel in to it," Mr Lediga says. "I think it's going to be crazy."

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