Trevor Noah's rags to riches story is one of the most inspiring stories ever told. The comedian has done so well for himself that he is now considered one of the wealthiest comedians by Forbes.
An important part of his story is his upbringing and he never shies away from talking about it. Trevor mostly opens up about this in his comedy shows but now he sat down with American journalist Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes with CBS.
“Here’s the thing that I always say to people. Being poor in a group or in a community that is poor is not as bad as being poor when you know what you’re missing out on. So when I grew up, we played with bricks as cars. And you’d smash them into each other. And it was one of the most fun games I’ve ever played,” said Noah.
Trevor then spoke about the food they would used to eat in Soweto and worms was one of them, “The same thing with eating mopane worms. What I didn’t like was when we couldn’t eat anything else and my mom said, ‘We’re gonna have to eat these mopane worms for longer because we don’t have money to buy chicken’.”
Trevor Noah toured the world stages and amassed support worldwide, but when he got offered a job at The Daily Show, he saw it as a downgrade in his salary. But little did he know, he would easily become one of the highest paid comedians. He said the last host before him, Jon Stewart, had to basically beg him to take the job.
“He said 'I'm not offering you the glitz and glam of your life, I'm offering you a home for a while that I think you will come to enjoy.' That intrigued me, I have always wanted to have a home, I have always wanted to belong, so I though this could be the chance.”
Watch more clips from his interview below:
“People didn’t even know me and they hated the idea of me,” Trevor Noah says about the beginning of his tenure as host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” https://t.co/c2ANACRJeWpic.twitter.com/HzlYWymGGj
“Being poor … in a community that is poor is not as bad as being poor when you know what you're missing out on,” Trevor Noah says about the poverty he experienced growing up in the Johannesburg, South Africa, township of Soweto. https://t.co/xHwqgcJ2mlpic.twitter.com/Zx53Xl8B3o
When Trevor Noah was offered the host chair at “The Daily Show,” he says it meant taking a pay cut and giving up his life on the road. It also provided him with a more permanent home. https://t.co/zeDcdpHDzfpic.twitter.com/7nN7t4zAXL
Trevor recently sparked outrage when he announced a world tour but he excluded Mzansi, just like every other global star.
His return to stage was inspired by Kings of Comedy Dave Chapelle and Chris Rock, who encouraged him that it was time to go back, "When you haven’t been on stage in almost a year and Chappelle tells you it’s time to get back on stage, you get back on stage!
"Few things in this life have meant more to me than having these two legends as my mentors and friends. All 3 of us share a love for stand up that only fellow comedians can truly understand, and it’s easy to keep that love going when you get to share a stage with the greatest to ever do it! DC. It’s time to get back on stage, let’s do this people!"
And so he did...his Back To Normal World Tour featured American cities and parts of Europe but not in Africa. "UK, Iceland, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Germany, & Canada dates are already up on my website! Will be adding more world to the world tour soon. Stay tuned."
It was inspired by how the pandemic put a lot of things on a stand still but he made a return, “The pandemic shut us down for a while but now we are back . I'll be on the road in the fall.”
