'I was told not to f*** it up': Trevor Noah on his 'The Daily Show' journey

“I remember South Africans saying to me: 'Hey, man, if you fail, we all look bad. They’re never going to give any African any type of big TV show again. So don’t mess this up.'”

These are the words of SA-born comedian and host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah, who recalled what many told him before replacing longtime host Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's multi-award winning show five years ago.

Trevor, who graced the cover of Wall Street Journal Magazine’s September Men’s Style issue, opened up about his journey as the host of the show, and revealed he’d love to book Beyoncé as a guest.

Five years into his hosting duties for the hit show, Trevor said his biracial upbringing prepared him for the job. He took over from Stewart in 2015 after he had hosted the show from 1999. 

“My entire life, I grew up with a black family and a white family, and I had to translate what was happening between them,” he said.

Trevor said the pressure he got when he took over the show was mostly from people back home, including his friend, radio personality Sizwe Dhlomo.

“That is my favourite show,” Dhlomo told him. “Don’t f*** it up.”

He said he also got some pressure from black people in America.

Fortunately, Trevor has kept the show afloat and has not messed up.

Trevor has bagged many accolades for his hosting duties, including  the 2017 prime time Emmy for “Outstanding Short Form Variety Series”, 2017 MTV Movie + TV Award for “Best Host”, and 2019 Image Award for “Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series”. 

He was named one of “The 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media” by The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In 2018, TIME magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Last week, Trevor joined the prestigious Time100 TV special line-up for the first time ever, alongside US musician John Legend and royals Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

“The full 2020 TIME100 list - which features often-surprising pairings of the list members and the guest contributors TIME selects to write about -  multiple worldwide covers and exclusive photography and video packages will go live on Time.com on September 22,” reads a note on TIME Magazine.