Comedy Central must have really done its research and as a member of its
audience I thank them for introducing us to Trevor Noah. To get a
comedian all the way from South Africa, an unknown face to most of the
American public, as the presenter of a headlining
show is a gamble they took. I hope it will pan out for the both Noah
and the network. With two years under his belt The Daily Show hosted by
Trevor Noah is slowly inching up in the ratings chart and holding it
steady after an initial slow year.
Born a crime is a powerful account of coming of age in a historically
important time and place, lived through and written by one of the astute
commentators on society and culture of our times. Definitely worth a
read.
Reading his memoir, Born a Crime, I am all for team
Noah and want him to be successful. The man has come a long way from
his humble South African beginnings. The book was an eye-opening
introduction to what is like to grow up straddled
on the race fence in South Africa during apartheid (albeit it was in
its final descent.)
As a child of a forbidden union, a secret child who
needed to be kept invisible and then later on as a young man who defied
categorization and racial profiles, Noah's a staggeringly mind-blowing
journey. From the teen hustler churning out
copied CDs in the slums of Soweto to the interesting new face chosen to
replaced the legendary Jon Stewart, it almost seems like an impossible
hop.
Noah dedicates his memoir to his mother, "For my
mother. My first fan. Thank you for making me a man." An extraordinary
woman in an extraordinary time, she chose to have Noah because she
wanted a child, her child, who will have everything
she didn't have. She did not have Noah to consummate her marriage. For
there was none between her - a South African Xhosa woman and his
Swiss-German father who was twenty years her senior. In a way, Trevor
Noah and the way she brought him up was her raising
the middle finger against apartheid and boy, I am sure he has made her
proud!
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