The celebrity TV host, and comedian Trevor Noah pointed out in last Friday’s Sharjah International Book that writing enables one to express themselves and deal with past issues that need to be dealt with.
“In life there are two factors that’ll determine where you end up. One is how hard you work, and the other is your luck”, he said while responding to Fade’s query about whether the Daily Show’s host could’ve predicted his remarkable journey of success, one that he recounts in his book, New Memoir.
“Luck is something I have no control over, yet cannot discount”, added Noah, saying his mother taught him that these blessings are not promised to anyone.
He adding “my friends are the reason why I wrote it because they wanted me to put my stories – the ones I would share live with my audiences during my travels around the world – in a book”.
The process of writing, Trevor admitted wasn’t easy. Trevor has lent his unique storytelling voice to the audiobook version of New Memoir which has earned global appreciation and acclaim.
Despite the fact that an in-depth account of Noah’s childhood is presented in his memoir, the author said to the audience’s surprise that he never journaled. How did he manage such a descriptive narrative then? “I’ve been blessed and cursed with a very good memory, which means that I can remember most of the things that happened to me in my life,” said Noah.
Noah’s mother was integral to his book-writing journey who helped him fact check and remember things properly when the author was unsure.
Trevor described his book as a “tribute to his mother”, and went on to say, “I am lucky to be my mother’s son. I didn’t get to choose who she would be, I didn’t ‘work hard’ to get my mother”, he said throwing an air quote. “And yet, she is the reason I got everything I did in life”, Noah continued, adding “she was the person who worked the hardest to get me here; she was the person who made me love books in the first place”.
Talking about how he did not always get the toys or clothes he wanted as a child because his mum could not afford them, the Daily Show’s host proudly said: “She always made sure that we had books”.
Reading all those books that his mother brought home from book clubs or garage sales as buying them wouldn’t always be possible, would take Noah “to a different world”.
Kris, a father of two young daughters said he struggled to get them off their screens. “What do we do?”, he inquired Noah, which turned the conversation towards the topic of social media.
“If we are lucky, we have about 4,000 weeks to spend on this earth. So, it’s time to stop living on autopilot,” was the last word of advice by the young man as he concluded an electrifying conversation with his SIBF 2021 audience, encouraging them to write their story even if they never publish it as, according to Noah, it is one of the best ways to express oneself and also tackle with and put a rest to unresolved emotions from the past.
