Trevor Noah on the Moment Jon Stewart Handed Over The Daily Show to Him: ‘I Honestly Felt Like Charlie and The Chocolate Factory’
Trevor Noah recalls the moment Jon Stewart offered him the hosting gig for The Daily Show, saying it was straight out of a movie.
Speaking with comedian Kevin Hart for the Thursday episode of his podcast Comedy Gold Minds, the two spoke at length about Noah’s career.
Noah said, as a young comedian, he was invited by Stewart to visit the show during a taping day. “We just hit it off. I just watched them make the show. And I was like — I remember even sitting there — he said, ‘What do you think?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I could never do this.'”
He remembered Stewart telling him, ‘”No one knows it until you know it. He says, ‘You’re a smart guy. You’ll get it.'”
Noah recalled Stewart offering him to do a bit on the show about coming to America from Africa. The whole conversation had Stewart and his staff laughing and they insisted that Noah return for more episodes.
“He was like, ‘What do you think of New York?’ And I said, ‘Well, to be honest, I think the roads are shitty … I came from a third world country thinking I was coming to a first world country. And then I was like, whoa, we got better roads back home,'” Noah laughed. “That’s how it started. Yeah, that was it. And then he said, come back. And I said, ‘Well, I’m going home. I’ll — I’ll be back.'”
“I think I was back maybe a month later. And then he was like, ‘You gotta come back again.’ I was like, ‘Ah, John, I don’t –‘ And I came back, and then he quit. And then he was like, ‘You should do it.’ I felt like, I honestly felt like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory,” Noah said, referencing the classic 1964 Roald Dahl book.
“I felt like Willy Wonka was just like, ‘What do you think? You like the chocolate, ah kid, it’s yours,'” he added.
Stewart hosted The Daily Show on Comedy Central from 1999 to 2015 when Noah took over the role. Reportedly, Noah beat out Amy Schumer, Louis C.K., Amy Poehler, and Chris Rock for the gig.
Listen above via Comedy Gold Minds with Kevin Hart.
