It’s no surprise that since Trevor Noah took over ‘The Daily Show’, the American audience has dwindled.

Sure, his South African supporters are right behind him, but hardly any of them watched the show when Jon Stewart had the seat.

In a move to address some personal issues since the show has lost ratings, Trevor sat down for an interview with Playboy’s contributing editor David Hochman, chatting about some of the various issues that he has to deal with, and how his background contributes to his current situation and American politics.

Below are a few snippets:

When you took over The Daily Show you vowed to continue the “war on bullshit” that Jon Stewart began. How’s that going in this crazy election year?

Waging the war isn’t difficult. Getting people to join you on that crusade is what’s harder than you’d expect, and not for the reason you’d expect. It’s because a lot of people simply don’t want the whole truth. They want only a mirror of their version of the truth. That’s true not just with Republicans and conservatives. I find that a lot of Democrats and liberals are not ready to hear the truth from their side.

How does the United States look to the rest of the world right now?

Insane, pretty much. But the whole world is changing. Certainly on a political level, we’re in uncharted territory everywhere you look. I mean, you see these fringe parties coming up in Germany, France and South Africa; that’s because you’re dealing with parliamentary systems for the most part. In those systems fringe parties don’t get anywhere. The difference is, because of the American system, there is no alternative. You have two parties, and the winner takes all. It’s been designed to make the strong stronger, but nobody ever anticipated that the strongest person would come from the outside. Trump could win his little ball of support and that could be it.

Eight years with a black man in the White House does not appear to have eased tensions around race.

This is hard to explain to white people, but the thing about race is that you can’t turn it off. If you’re black, you are constantly black and that blackness is always affecting you in some way or another. That’s a tough conversation to have, because it can be subtle. It’s often very small things, but they pile up. Cabdrivers don’t pick you up. It happens to me. Or you go into a corner store and get followed, or people say things about you. It’s often not blatant, but it’s entrenched in the system. Over time, it might change, but if you’re black in the United States, even after two terms of President Obama, you still feel black.

You are the first major comedian to emerge from South Africa. Are people just not funny there?

We are an industry that’s only as old as our democracy. There’s comedy everywhere, but there was no free speech. I’m lucky in that I’m a product of my time. A few comedians laid the groundwork for me. I’m the second generation that got to take it to the next level and make it work on a world stage.

How much rivalry do you feel with your late-night competitors?

Because I come from the world of stand-up, I realize that success is a cycle. People rise and disappear, they succeed, they miss, they return. As competitive as it is, you learn to celebrate the success of your peers because you know how hard that cycle is. I remember when I first came to America, Amy Schumer was running around doing comedy clubs. She was funny, but she was nowhere close to where she is now, and I loved what she was doing. Then you see her hit her stride, and it’s beautiful. There’s nothing more fun than seeing a comedian come into their own, especially if you’ve watched them on the rise. So for me, it’s Amy Schumer, it’s Jerrod Carmichael, it’s Hannibal Buress, it’s Michael Che. It’s people where I go, Man, we are the class of now.

Read the full interview HERE.

[source: playboy&timeslive]