South African comedian Trevor Noah has been the host of the US television news satire The Daily Show since 2015. Raised in Johannesburg, he started life under the apartheid system which deemed his parents’ mixed-race relationship illegal, informing much of the political edge to his later work. At 18 he began appearing in soaps and radio shows, before hosting the South African film and television awards and South African music awards. He transferred his focus to standup comedy and in 2011 moved to the US, appearing on The Tonight Show and Late Show with David Letterman. His book Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (£20, John Murray Press) is out now.
1 | Film
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
I’m a huge fan of fantasy: I wait to find a new film that takes me out of my world and, in a subtle way, has you thinking about issues we may be dealing with now. This was a beautiful film that spoke to everything, from global warming to belonging and identity, and themes of ‘us and them’. It’s what you hope cinema will be: a magical experience where I went somewhere else. I was a Harry Potter fan and had read the books, but what’s great about this is, as there is no book, it’s a new experience, where I couldn’t compare it to anything. Sometimes comparison is what steals your joy; in this instance there was none.
2 | Music
Frank Ocean, Blonde
Frank Ocean has an ability to make music that transcends what only the ear can hear. Whenever I listen to his albums I feel like I’m existing in all my senses at the same time – I feel like I can touch his music, hear it, smell it. One song will take many different shapes and parts, and he seamlessly shifts between genres. I can listen to the album on repeat endlessly; it feels like it’s one long beautiful flowing song. I loved Channel Orange too – Blonde has a level of sobriety, and a little less sadness, but still a lot of feeling.
3 | Book
Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy
This is about the south-side LA police department, where there are high levels of gang-related crimes and murders. The author gives you the facts on crime, and how the community is up against the odds, while at the same time the police are hampered by a system that almost doesn’t encourage them to be more compassionate. But the book also shares personal stories, and that’s often what’s missing in a lot of information we get: we read about crime, about immigration, Syrian refugees, but those things seem like giant themes. What Ghettoside does really well is it leaves you with stories of the people behind the news.
4 | Comedian
Gad Elmaleh
Gad is a huge French-Moroccan comedian who has been termed “the Jerry Seinfeld of France”, but really he’s the Gad Elmaleh of France. He’s a wonderfully absurdist and great observational comic – charismatic, very funny and energetic on stage. I first met him when we were both doing comedy in Montreal, only he was doing comedy in English for the first time. I remember doing comedy in German and you lose so many of your tools. Suddenly, you’re a novice again. To watch how he approached comedy in a new language in a new place was so much fun. I think he’s relocating to the US and I can see him doing really well there.
5 | TV
Atlanta
Atlanta is fun. Donald Glover, who writes the show, has done an amazing job of authentically creating a specific black world. He plays a guy who learns that his cousin is an up-and-coming rap star in Atlanta and convinces him to let him manage him. It takes you into a world of hip-hop that you don’t really see: it’s not the glitz and the glam, but also the crime is not as glamorised. I laugh, there are sad moments, there are intimate moments – I forget at times it’s acting, because of how real the stories are.
6 | Play
The Color Purple
This is a fantastic revival on Broadway. It has some of the most amazing acting, and the singing is out of this world – Cynthia Erivo has one of the most phenomenal voices I’ve heard. It’s a great performance piece, but it’s also a beautiful story of powerful black women living in a world that doesn’t recognise them as people, as free individuals, and it’s about how they fight to find their freedom. So often somebody comes and saves the damsels in distress, but in this story it’s the women who, through their pain and suffering, find each other and save themselves. It’s wonderful.
7 | Artist
Bradley Theodore
Bradley Theodore is just special. Art is a weird thing, where I can’t explain why I like it. Is it the colours? His imagery? What he paints? I don’t know. I just know he turns everyday images into beautiful art that works for me. I’ve seen his work in a few galleries, but originally I saw a mural he painted on a wall in New York, of Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld as skeletons. That’s what he does a lot: he’ll have a skull dressed up, or a person. They’re very gripping images that I enjoy.
