Johannesburg

South African comedian Trevor Noah has credited his mother for the seamless transition he’s enjoyed as host on The Daily Show.

Noah, who’s expected back in South Africa in three weeks’ time for his next tour, NationWild, said Patricia Noah gave him good advice about hosting the news parody show.

In an interview with late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday, Noah said his mother’s words proved true in preparing for the show.

Noah said he phoned his mom, who told him his job anxieties were the same as giving birth.

“It’s like for months and months I was pregnant and that I knew I was going to have to one day give birth to this thing. Then people would judge me on how I raise it and how I treat it. But in the end, I would be proud of it and some days I would hate it with all my heart,” he quoted his mom as saying.

Noah also revealed to Kimmel that he was close to being deported after he moved to the US. He said he was performing stand-up in tiny clubs across the country when he was stopped in El Paso, Texas. He was looking for a mall, but was instead led by Google to the Mexican border.

“I was like, ‘I’m going to the mall to buy some sneakers’,” Noah said. “The next thing you know, I’m in a group of people. I was like, ‘Oh, this mall must be very popular’.”

Noah, travelling without his passport, tried turning around, but the border patrol insisted he go to Mexico. Luckily, Google was still there to help him.

“The guy was going to deport me and then luckily I said ‘Google me.’ Google got me into it, but it also got me out of it.”

Noah also paid a visit to the Ellen DeGeneres show this week and shared his views on growing up in South Africa.

When asked if it was tough growing up in apartheid because his parents, who were a couple back then, are multiracial, he replied: “For them, but not for me.

“I grew up in a great time… I appreciate how democracy changed our lives, but I wasn’t in apartheid for so long that I can say it truly affected me negatively.”

He was also commended by DeGeneres for the “great job” he is doing on The Daily Show.

Meanwhile, Noah is said to be thrilled to be returning home, having last visited South Africa in July. And he could be bringing his model girlfriend with him too.

US Weekly reported this week that he is dating American model Jordyn Taylor.

Noah reportedly introduced his girlfriend to the world at The Daily Show premiere party in New York City last week.

He was last linked to Cape Town physiotherapist Dani Gabriel.

Although Taylor hasn’t shared pictures of them as a couple on Instagram, four weeks ago – ahead of Noah’s Daily Show debut – she did share a Daily Show advert of Noah on a bus in New York with the caption reading: “Tonight’s the night! Tune in at 11/10c (sic).”

Taylor, 24, is said to have been introduced to Noah’s family during a visit to South Africa in July. -IOL