Durban - There’s no doubt South African-born comedian Trevor Noah, who is Comedy Central’s Daily Show host, would be considered good looking by most women, given the number of his female fans.
But, growing up, Noah wasn’t popular with the girls.
The first time he asked a girl out was when he was pressured by schoolmates to find a Valentine’s date.
His friends even suggested someone to ask, but it still proved hard because he had never done it.
Noah reveals all this in his newly released book, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.
“The week before Valentine’s, Maylene and I were walking home together and I was trying to get up the courage to ask her. I was so nervous. I’d never done anything like it. I already knew the answer, her friends had told me she’d say yes, but it was still tough because I knew anything could happen.
“I didn’t know how to do it. All I knew was I wanted it to be perfect, so I waited until we were standing outside McDonald’s. Then I mustered up all my courage and turned to her.
“Hey, Valentine’s Day is coming up, and I was wondering, would you be my Valentine? She responded: Yes. I’ll be your Valentine.’
“And then, under the golden arches, we kissed. It was the first time I ever kissed a girl,” writes Noah. He was 12 at the time.
Unfortunately, Maylene dumped him on Valentine’s Day, so his happiness was short-lived. She had been asked out by a more popular boy at school and chose him over Noah.
In another chapter Noah reveals that he suffered from acne, which also negatively affected his popularity with the fairer sex.
“In high school, the attention of girls was not an affliction I suffered from. I wasn’t the hot guy in class. I wasn’t even the cute guy in class. I was ugly. Puberty was not kind to me.
“My acne was so bad that people used to ask what was wrong with me, like I’d had an allergic reaction to something. It was the kind of acne that qualifies as a medical condition. Acne vulgaris, the doctor called it.
“We’re not talking pimples, people. We’re talking pustules - big, pus-filled blackheads and whiteheads.
“They started on my forehead, spread down the sides of my face, covered my cheeks and neck and ravaged me everywhere,” said Noah.
In the book Noah says that as a teenager, girls were not his only challenge, he was also bullied. His family moved around a lot and he had to adapt to new places and keep making new friends.
Living in Eden Park was hell for him.
“Eden Park was a coloured area. There, everyone looked like me, but we couldn’t have been more different. It was the biggest mind**** I’ve ever experienced. The animosity I felt from the coloured people I encountered growing up was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with,” he said.
He also spoke about his relationship with his mother, being of mixed race and how he dealt with his family moving around Joburg.
Noah’s experience growing up in a racially segregated South Africa made him all the more determined to succeed.
His book was launched on Tuesday. It’s available at most book stores.
Independent Media