Eugene Khoza
Appearances
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So the people that you're playing with, they were only free at around 10 in the morning?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Do all of your friends that you play pickleball with have jobs? Yes. What do they do?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
The one who are there at pickleball.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
How many were you? 10 or so? Yeah, maybe.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So you all coordinated. That was a... You must come and join. You'd love it. I know. You'd love it. Do you find it weird when you are hanging around with, because you know how we grew up. It's not like after we finished metric grade 12.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
It's not like we went to university and studied a degree and then we went into the job market and gained experience. When you look at the friends that you have, let's say the group that you're playing pickleball with and you like, when are you, now you're a lawyer, advertising, whatever.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
They've put in years. Yeah. into this career that they have, and they're now asking someone, can I not be around, can I attend, so say, with my friend, and do fun things, which they actually really do enjoy. Do you look at your friends, because it happens to me, when I still used to have friends with jobs, And I'd look at them and I'd go, I hacked the system.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Because I don't understand how they do it. When you hang out with them, how do you pretend to be normal? Because in that situation, you are not normal. You could have done this at six in the morning.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Please tell the audience how you know how I mean it. Because I don't want to be the only guy who said it. Because we all know. When you're with friends, with friends. When they start talking about David Orders, you're like, yeah. Or contract renewals. You're like, smoothie.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But just like me, you have friends that are in business and then you have friends that are employed.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Do you feel like your code switch when you're with the two? What's the difference between the two?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
See this thinking small of yours. And I worry about these things when we are sitting.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So when you're with your friends with normal jobs and then you're playing pickleball and then they tell you, I have to go pick up someone at one. Or when they say, hey, my boss is there. Do you look away? No. When they look at a kind of car park and go, yeah, that's nice. Is there a part of you that joins into, yeah, do you look at them and go, yeah, that's also nice.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Because you're not saying it's nice because you can't afford it or you can't buy it or you can't have it. You've probably driven it and enjoyed it. So I'm trying to figure out what I'm trying to figure out. Because that's what I struggled with. I'm saying when people with normal jobs, like now when we're coming here. By the way, what jobs have you had in your life? I worked at a car park.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Doing what at a car park? There was like, before there were pay-as-you-go tickets, I introduced that system with my friends actually at the mall in Pretoria. So there used to be a booth at the end, at the exit and entrance of every car park. You come in, there's a boom. You come out, there's a booth. So I used to take the ticket and go. Oh, damn. Was this your first job? First, first job.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yeah, when I was 16. So that's what I did on weekends and school holidays. They give you the ticket, they pay and then you calculate. Yeah, yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
When people could do it without you. Yeah, I was happy. Really? Yeah, because I was in matric at the time. Then I was like, I don't need you. I'm out. And I left. Oh. But I was happy. So there wasn't a part of you that was like, oh, they took our jobs. No. I was happy. But one thing I always, the one thing that changed my life, because I worked, I started the car park at the mall.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And then when I reached metric, I worked inside the mall. What did you do in the mall? I worked at a CD store when those things still existed. CD like music?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And then... All your jobs are defunct.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Another defunct job. I worked at CNA and my job was to mend the magazine counter. And then my job was to go there and tell people who are on dates while they're waiting for the movies to start to stop paging through the magazine. I was going... Oh, you were one of those guys. And then one day I caught a smart guy. You were one of those guys who was like, you're not allowed to read. Yes.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And then I was like, no, but you're not allowed to read. The magazine. He was like, what if I go to another magazine? I was like, technically. You caught me. Elon. So that's what I did as well. So, but the one day that changed my life is I met the guy that owned Brooklyn Mall. A guy called Mr. Watson. Okay. He used to come there once a week. He drove a Jaguar.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
His driver drove a Jaguar and he would sit at the back and his wife would be in a mink coat even in the summer. And then one day when they're entering the new system of pay on foot, and then he happened to be the guy next in line. And then I helped this driver. And then I saw him and I remembered, I've seen this guy so many times. Then he asked me what my name was.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And I told him, he asked me how old I am. I said, yeah. He's like, so you do this every day? I'm like, no, no, not every day, only on holidays and weekends. And I said, what do you do? The audacity. My manager was behind me going... And then he said, no, I'm in business, but I live and I do things and I blah, blah, blah. Then I said, yeah, I want to do what you do.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I want to come to the mall during the week for no reason. Then he said, if you want it, you can do it. I hated when rich people said that. And then I only found out later in life when I worked inside the mall that that was him. Because now he was inside the mall. Remember I was in the parking lot when I first met him? Now I've got a job inside the mall.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Then I met him and everyone was just, the shop owners were always happy to see him. The restauranteurs were always happy to see him. Then there's the guy that owned the mall. And I think that was my first real realization of what being loved and being powerful, that combination, what it meant. He was a very powerful man. But he was loved. People loved him. And I think there was a side of him.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
This is the awkward part. How you start a conversation. It's the worst part of every conversation.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
A loved landlord. Yeah. He also loved them because he didn't have to be there. And that was a principle I took throughout my life. And I've spoken to you about this before. I said, I only do things that I love. I only hang out with people that I like. I don't go out to force a lesson of pain on myself and try to test how far my patience can go with something I don't enjoy.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So I'm only at places where I feel I'm wanted. I'm also at places where I feel like I want to be. And that was only from that interaction twice with this man who I've never met again. Damn.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
No, but I'm saying that's a beautiful thing.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
and that's what you took from them that's all I took from them because I realized how much power there was because also I started seeing it around because obviously if you work in a CD store people come there to come buy music but also to buy time so they hang around so when I would see people at the mall at 11 in the morning I would like what do you do that allows you to be at the mall at 11 I want to do that so it became my quest to come to interview people while they're they're buying their CDs or listening to what was it about the mall that you were so abundant
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Oh, yeah. To cut the awkwardness.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Everything is there. You don't go to the mall to win the shop. People go to the mall to look at things that they like and they can just buy them or they just go to hang out with people that they like. The mall was a gathering place. It was obviously, obviously 20 years ago. Yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
To an extent, yeah. I go to malls. I like going to malls. I like walking at malls. I go to Mall of Africa all the time. When I go to a new place, I go to a mall. Just in America, I haven't gotten a chance to go to it because I like Central Park more. So I walk around and go to churches. But I like malls. I like the feeling of abundance. I think that was my first glimpse of it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
When I was working at the mall, I knew at the end of the month what I wanted to do with my money. And go to the mall? No, no. Things I'd see.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yeah. I knew what sneakers I wanted. I knew what headphones I was going to buy with my money. I always enjoyed the feeling of abundance, but also it taught me a certain discipline in life that just because it's there doesn't mean you must take it. Sometimes you just have to wait. Sometimes you can just walk past it. Sometimes the idea of being around it is even better than owning it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I could go into a sound system store and just listen and just have a good time. I didn't have to take it home.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
As cheesy as that sounds, it was my mom. My mom used to, she was a nurse. She's retired now. She had four kids. I was the third one. What she would do every month end was she would come to school and pick us up. Pick one up. So we had a roster. So every month end, one child gets a turn to go to town with her. Oh, damn. But she made a point to come before break. At school.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But it was also a Township Power move. Because everyone here will know whose house this is.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Go to a principal's office. Did your mom have a car? No. Okay.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So you're getting in a taxi. Yes. That's why she has to pick one. No, no. Also... It's what's going to happen in town when we get there. What's going to happen? You'll see. Okay, sorry. And then she would come to school and then talk to the principal and then I'd be like, there she is. And then she would come to my class. Would you know who she's coming to fetch? Of course.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
No, no. We're not at the same school at the same time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
No, no, no. You're all at the same school and then your mom would walk in. You just see her head past those big windows at school and then they'll be like, Eugene, your mom is here. And I'd be like, oh man, my mom. take my backpack and we're out. And then we would get, then we'd high five each other in the passage there. Then we'd get in a taxi and then off we go to town.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Then when we go to town, the first thing she did was we go to the park. Then we sit at the park and then she'd say, think of anything that you want, that you want us to buy today. Think of anything that you want. Then I'd be like, bye. Yes, yes. Yeah, I want that one. Beggar. Ninja tightly. Yeah, I want that. Okay, okay, I'm done. She's like, you're done. Sharp. Then we'd go.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
and buy all the things that I wanted. And then I realized how many things I passed going to the things that I wanted that were insignificant at that point. Then you buy all the things you want. And then now we're doing groceries. Now we get to the nuts and bolts of it. Now she buys groceries for the whole house.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And then what she used to do for all of us was she would buy a slab of chocolate for all of us and a tub of one liter ice cream for all of us. That was ours to do as we wanted. So that's what she did. She showed me abundance. And my mom had a concept, when it's finished, it's finished. I've never struggled with loss, with loss of anything, especially finances.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
We've done things with cars and had fun and made money and lost money and do whatever. I've never struggled with that concept at all because she taught me when it's there, it's there. When it's not, it's not. But as long as you're here, you can always make it again.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But just like you pass the things that you didn't want at the store to go to the things that you wanted, those things will always be there. So I've learned abundance from her. And what she would do is she would take the rest of the month's money and give it to you. And then say, when someone needs something, they're going to come fetch it from you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So you understand that it's there, but it's there to be used. So the value of money for us was it buys bread. It's a taxi ride for someone. It's a school thing that popped up out of nowhere. It's this, it's that. Someone coming to borrow money from the house. It's that. So the value of money was never to look at it as a thing that exists to make you feel good.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
It was there to help facilitate things that just might come up in life. Some things are small. You end up with more money. Some things are big. You end up with less money. But it was there. So she would go, if it was there when it was needed, it did its job. So I look at life like that. And I'm glad for those lessons in life because I've had a chance to look around.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And that's why I was asking you about friends with employment. I was not making fun of them at all. Because I have friends like that as well who would say, I have a day off. A friend of mine on our way here called me, but I didn't answer his phone. But he sent me a text before saying, do you want to go ride in the mountain tomorrow because I'm day off?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But I'm like, my life doesn't work like that. I can go write any tea. But if you have to think of it like that, then it means your world is centered like that.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Gym is kindergarten for people with regrets.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yeah. I feel like my upbringing, my conditioning, and also the way I view life has made me survive loss better. I have things that I love that I don't use.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I have things that I love that I've lost. Okay. Both of those things are not with me currently, or I can choose not to be using them or with them. Does it make sense?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So I walk past my bike all the time in the morning.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Okay. I choose. And sometimes I can go four months without riding the one and, but it's there. But if I wake up one day and it's no longer there, the feeling of it not being there won't be horrible to me. Oh, damn. Because I deal with it all the time. I look at my daughter, she turns 16, now started grade 11. My daughter's 16 now? Yes, she's turning 17 in September.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yeah, 16. So I look at her and I look at how she thinks and how she processes things. And she's taught me that letting go is actually the best thing you can do. She's been with me, obviously, forever.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And we've lived in different places and different houses. And she's at different rooms. And she's changed schools two, three times in her life. But the way she moves around the universe... Amazes me all the time. She looks at life as something that's going to happen anyway. She looks at life as something that's going to happen. Yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
She doesn't look at it as a thing that's going to happen if she does something. Yeah. Okay. I understand what you mean. So I've started to look at life like that. When I see something new and exciting, I move towards it. When I was at the parking lot, I walked around cars because I love cars. That was the best part of my job. When I went into the mall, I faced abundance.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
When it happened once a month when I was young, or once after four months when my mom takes me to town, now it happened every day. When I started doing comedy, I realized you can hang out with your friends and laugh all the time. We had more fun offstage than onstage. We would travel and then someone pays for it. We would sleep in a hotel and someone pays for it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And then people would pay to hear me talk for 15 minutes and I would go back and I would still have fun and time with my friends. So all of my jobs and my choices... We're all linked to my passions. I've never had a job I hated. I've never had a job that landed me in places I didn't want to be in. I've been fortunate in that way. I'm abundant in so many.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Our friendship led me to so much abundance. I got to experience being in a private jet with you. I got to experience in a penthouse. And man, I got to experience those things through you, through our friendship and our love for comedy and our pure natural gift that was just to stand in front of people and have a good time. So when I close my checking account every night, that's what I do.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I look at the things and the people that I love And I go, did they bring me closer to my passions and my joy and things that I would have never come close to had I not had these things? And I go, your job is done. So it's not different from the water of cash my mom had. And then she'll say, if someone comes and needs something, take it from there. Don't ask too many questions.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
They came because there's a need, but they know that you have it. So I send everyone to you and I say, he has it, go get it. It's an interesting lesson to learn. So I choose to do that.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yeah, but I think because of missionaries, we never as black people thought that God is with us. God was brought to us. So we always have to identify ourselves and also separate ourselves from the non-believers.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
You don't have that feeling? I do, but I processed it quicker because I know it was going to happen anyway. So it's my choice to live in it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So when it happens, I immerse myself in the feeling and then let the feeling pass through me. So what I used to do before, I would let the things get stored in me. I had this huge anxiety when I was growing up of what's going to happen to me after school. And it ruined most of my high school life.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
No, when school finishes. Oh, like school as a concept. When high school finishes.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And I look back and I have these gaps in my memory of what fun I could have had in high school had I not had that worry. If someone had a crystal ball to show me how my life would have turned out, I would have enjoyed every moment of that school. It was the best time I've ever had. But I was too concerned. You know, I was worried about what's going to happen.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Because in my world, people who did well were people who were educated, who were Who are successful, you know, who studied something and have gotten a job. So my chances were lower and lower and lower as I saw myself getting to grade 11. Because of the school you went to.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And then I knew that my chances of being successful. So when I was in a car park, I was like, I can be happy by proxy. I'm here. I'm looking at these fancy cars. I'm around them all day long and I get paid to be here. I love music. I listen to music and then I get paid to be here. I walk around the mall. I get paid to be here. I do comedy. I get paid to do this. I chose a path.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
It was either do the worrying and die or do what I love and just live. But I chose that because it was my only option. I had to learn the lessons and remember them from my mom. So I just carried them through.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
It's the exact same way. Because remember, if I lose a watch that I loved and I wore every day, right? Sentimental value as I remember the things that I did to get the watch. I remember the place that I wore the watch in. Those memories are with me. So the watch is with me because I never wore it to my sleep. I never wore it to a shower. So the watch is with me.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
When my son passed away, I also realized in the three months I spent the most amount of time with him to even the day before he passed away. It was just the two of us for a few hours. The last picture I took was when we were just together. In a room. How old was he when he passed away? Three months. Damn.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So when I think of that loss, whether it's a watch or a loved one, I think of what do I miss about not having this person around? Grief is an extended phase of regret. Yeah. Things that we never got to do with that person. I got to do all I could do at the time that he had.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Had I been absent for three months and he passed away in three months, I would have been so distraught because I would have nothing to miss. But now I miss him, the person that he was, because I knew him. If I lose my watch, I miss my watch. I don't miss the things that the watch did for me. It's an object. It told time. Another object can tell time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
If it was about our money, I can buy another one. But him, there's no more time that I could have extended with him. It ran its course. I'm not dealing with guilt of something I did wrong or something I could have done better. But I was going, I wish we could do more. But when I look at my daughter, I go, we can do more. She's here now. Oh, wow. If I look at a watch, I go, there are more watches.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I can go buy another one. But I can't cry for things that never happened.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
She became my parent. We have this running joke, her and I, where I say, in our life before this one, she was my mom. And then now I get to pay her back. But it looks like she still has to do it again. She was just a happy person every time. I would look forward to the day she comes back from school. And then she would high five me and tell me all sorts of stories. She had no time for my sadness.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Like I would be like, today is just like, let me tell you. Then she would go on and on. Then it became my exercise to remember her friends' names. Because now I didn't want to be left behind in a story. And I was like, this person is laughing. She's smiling. And she only met her brother the day he passed away at the hospital when he was certified dead. Damn.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So this kid who faced that, what I had, I had three months of seeing him because he was incubated, but he couldn't have contact because he was born too early. So obviously a child would have brought germs into the house. So he couldn't be in the same room with her. So the only time you saw her was then. So I compared our losses. And in retrospect, you must think of it this way.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
As a sibling, she would have had more time with him than I would have ever had as a parent. He would have outlived me. So she has never had that three months with him, but I had. So what right did I have to wallow in self-pity when all I could be doing now is telling her about how great this person was? Because she's telling me about strangers at school and about how great they are.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And here we are. And then she was there teaching me how to be strong. She was my mom again with that wad of cash saying, yeah, spend it on things that matter. And if someone comes and asks for it, give it to them generously. Don't ask questions, just share. She was that person for me and she still is for me. When I was walking down now to come into the car, she was like, do you have your phone?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And I was like, yes. Do you have something for your lips? Yes. Do you have a power bank? Yes.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Life is about us meeting our teachers. Life does not have built-in meaning. Life is meaningless. And you see that when you lock yourself in a room and do nothing. Everything else happened without you. Traffic happened. Restaurants were open. Until you get out the room and interact with the world, then meaning happens. Then you walked a long distance. Then you ate this great thing.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Then you played pickleball with your friends. So life has no built-in meaning. We give it meaning. But what makes life interesting is we're here to learn lessons and we keep meeting our teachers along the way. And one of the reasons why I think our friendship, you and I, has endured so long, and it's actually almost the same age as my daughter's relationship, is because of your childlike nature.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
You look at the world with wonder. You don't look at anything as impossible. I remember one time you and I were driving somewhere and we were stuck in traffic and you said, Eugene. And I said, yes. Because that's how we talk to each other. You said, you know what we must do? And I said, what? You said, we must buy a plane.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I said, eh? He said, yes, we must buy a plane. And I was like, planes are expensive. He said, yeah, yeah, but they're small ones. You know, we can buy a Cessna. You know what we can do? If four comedians come together and we put a hundred, a hundred, a hundred, a hundred. If we need to go somewhere, then we can just fly the plane. Then I was like, but what if we need to go different?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
He said, yeah, then we'll book shows. Then we can all fly in together. We can fly in, fly out. Then we'll make it home again. You're like, yeah. Then I was like, okay. There are many times that you and I did things.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But fast forward 13 years later. No, no, no. I'm with you. You see what I'm saying? So you've always had that. The day you immigrated to America, I remember I was at your house. You said, come over. And then I came. Then we played Army of Two. And then you're like, I have to go now. Then I was like, where are you going? You're like, I'm going to America. Then I was like, is it a restaurant?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Can I come too? What's going on? And you're like, no, no. Then you packed your bag, you switched off the thing and you're like, oh, you can have these games. I'm not going to play them anymore. I was like, are you really leaving? You're like, yeah. Then I was like, but what time do you need to be there? You're like, I need to be there 30 minutes ago. Then there you were in great tracksuit pants.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
You were gone. You went to go start a new life and a new career elsewhere. And I always looked at you and I go, I was telling a friend of mine, when you first started to become prominent in American culture or in the American space, I said, this guy would have been successful even though he was a plumber. Comedy did not help him become successful. TV did not help him become successful.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
No, thank you, man. With anything, it would have been fine because he just looks at things like a kid. He looks and he goes, tinkers, he opens at the back and he touches this thing. With America, he was like, where's the most comedy clubs? Where's the most comedy clubs?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
you narrow it down to a place okay how many shows can i do okay how many people can i see okay how many how many how many how many how many you look at things like that and i always look at your life and i go if i was like you i would have been where you are if you were like me you would have been where i am the wonder and the beauty of how we are as two people is we're not alike that's why you and i can sit and speak about everything but comedy we speak about cars we speak about life
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So I'll always have time for a person who looks at life like that.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I thought you didn't need penicillin because you can pray. Go put on clothes. It's not cancer time yet. But also churches in the township, that's where you would see family structure. Yes. That's where you'd see people dressed up nicely because parents used to leave very early. So you never see them wearing nice clothes except for on a Sunday.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
When I look at what you're doing. Oh, boy. No, but you... Yeah. You and her taught me that. Adventure.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yeah. You show me that all the time. When I see you doing something, I'm like... Adventure does pay off because you go on this wilder and you look at... Yeah, but no, no.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And then also cars as well. You'd see your principal or the local doctor. They would park their cars. So church has always been aspirational. I don't think anything has changed from back in the day to now. And also missionaries offered people to go to university. Nelson Mandela was that beneficiary. So a lot of people that went and played cricket and went to school because of churches.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
You were there that day and I wasn't there. And I was there that day, you were not there.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yes. It's a have to.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Our job as humans, we have to tap into our DNA and remember why we are here. Why do you think we're here? To live and fix the things that we didn't do the last time. I think our lives are a continuous journey. Our souls know why we're here. This body is just a vessel. We're just here to remember.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
There's times when we find passions and we find places that we're familiar with, but we don't know from where. It's because we've been here before. We're trying to remember. And that's what makes life interesting for me. When I go to a place and I'm like, this is interesting. I'm like, I remember. There must have been something great here.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
that happened somewhere, sometime, that brings me back here again. And I live in that world of wonder where I go, I've been here before. I've done this thing before. That's why when I lose something, I'm like, I must have had it before and I had it again and it was time for it to go. So something can happen now. I need to feel something.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
My job in this world with this vessel, with this body, with all of the friends and the environment that it has brought me in is to feel something. If I feel happy, I know I'm feeling.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So a lot of people are very conflicted when it comes to religion and this topic because somehow they benefited from it. now they can't separate themselves from the lies of it as well and the oppression of it as well. But people in other countries who are not part of the system of going to that, because if you think of a church, such a small building for a big community.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
It makes total sense. It's just that... As people, we avoid that because it will now make us question everything that we are. The choices that we made, the people that we know, the places that we've been. Yeah, and I think of all of that as an experiment. It's a giant experiment.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So it's already on its, by merit, it already is an exclusive club of people. The believers, there's the believers that are believing in proxy, There's believers that are dedicated in coming here and giving money and dressing up and showing up. It's a place for people to gather once a week to come and say what they need to say. So, Tina, the organization of it ended for us when church ended.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I think of it for pets. I'm like the first person that tried to tame a wolf. Now we have puppies. It's pretty crazy. By the way, have you seen... Doing it for you, Trevor. So you can walk in the mall with this thing one day.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Look, one concept that blew my mind away and also changed my life was When I read somewhere, I don't remember where, where it says everything that you're experiencing is what you want to experience. So everyone in my life is a character that I created for me to have the sum total of a life experience with feelings and emotions and a quick fast forward to the journey that I need.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
What I signed up for before I was born, I knew which characters must come into play for me to achieve what I need to achieve. So for you to be here in a room with me is because I wanted it to happen. In the back of my mind, somewhere in my lesson, in my past life, this should have happened so that I can lead to something else. Same with you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So we keep meeting these soul families, a group of five individuals that will make a great impact in your life as you go along. So even if it's the first stage of your life, there'll be five that you can mention that matter. As an adolescent, there'll be five that matter. In your career, there'll be five that matter. Those are soul groups.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So those are people just come in into your life and they exist purely for your assistance. They're here to push you. They're here to teach you. Even heartbreak is a lesson. Not all good time. That's why I was asking you in the beginning, why do you think pain features so much in the Bible? It's because heartbreak is an accelerant. Hurt and pain and loss is an accelerant to feeling something.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
You can be comfortable all your life and not feel anything else. But as soon as you feel loss and pain, you will remember that you also had a good time. So that's what pain and suffering is for. But suffering is voluntary. So suffering, you choose it and use it as a medication. You take it in doses so that you can remember how good you have it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Someone in a hospital right now who has no chance of leaving doesn't have this privilege that you and I have to walk downstairs, to walk around, get in the car, press buttons. And that's all they want at this moment. But they've had it maybe for 50 years and never cared for it. But the suffering accelerated the memory of the good times that they had.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So if you think about life like that, you can walk around the mall and see hundreds of people. But if you think about how many people you've called and sat with and chatted with, in most cases, they won't exceed number five. It's that group of people that you can rely on and trust and they always accelerate you to go further. And those are the people that will bring heartache.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
They'll bring laughter. They'll bring lessons. They'll bring admiration and adoration at the same time because you need those two to balance. As much as you admire someone, someone needs to adore you. That's when the base romantic relationships work. When there's a khutman in the group, someone gets admired and someone adores the other person.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But for people in power, it kept on continuing the whole week through. Because people who run the church, run the church, they don't have other jobs. The believers have other jobs.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
They adore the fact that they admire them and they admire them for the fact that they adored them. So that's how things work. This balance that we're always seeking and just knowing that once you start feeling something, then something is happening. Growth is pain. Kids go through that all the time. Oh, my elbow. Oh, my back. Because they're growing.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Then they go and rest and everything feels better again. But as adults, what do we do? We just go and try to make pain not exist because we feel like when we're feeling pain, we failed. And when you're feeling pain, you're growing. When you're tired, like we walked the other time and we felt it, yeah, then we did something.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
The Pope's job is to run the church. The other ones, it's for them to go and collect money and come back and give it back to the Pope. I'm conflicted when it comes to church because I think... You love church?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Because this thing is happening.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But you're not suffering. Yes. So animals know this better than anyone. So they migrate because they know that if they stay here, they're going to suffer. And that's optional. So they walk towards the pain so they can avoid the suffering. So that's what the thing is. So it's an accelerant in that way that we need to walk towards it. But if you stay, you suffer.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So suffering is always a regret of things you would have done had you enjoyed the pain. Yo, damn, that's deep.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So you're there doing it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But just say that again. So suffering is if you stay. And then pain is what you go through when you walk away from suffering. So it's like you choose, do you... Because it's going to be regret and suffering. No, you can apply it to everything.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Being unhealthy and dying.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And making other people have to live through that.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yes. Should I have met, should I have cancelled and said, ah, I'm busy. And I didn't go. Now I'm going to sit here and suffer and regret. Who could have been doing this? I could have just been here. I walk towards it. I had to do this. I had to do that. Yeah, I don't want to get up now. Oh, should I get dressed now? Oh, let me go. Then I'm here. Then the pain.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Then I'm here at the mountaintop, like you said, and I'm looking at this view. Animals do it instinctually. They know that if they stay, they suffer. If they move, they feel pain, but it's ultimately worth it because it's an accelerant to good times. Always when you have to have a little bit of pain, the reward is far greater.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So when people have become numb, like you said, that's where the pain starts. That's where the meanness in people is. That's where the impatience is. That's where the intolerance is. Because we now avoid suffering and pain at the same time. Now you're living, now you're numb. So that's why I say when the day finishes and I'm in pain, I know that I did something nice. Not when I have regret.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I shouldn't have gone there. Why did I even go if my instinct was telling me not? I shouldn't have gone. Why? But if I'm going, oh, my neck. Oh, this. Oh, my finger. Because of doing this all day. Oh, this and that. I've never regretted those days. I always wake up the next morning and go, I know exactly why this part is sore.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But because that pain accelerated me to learn a new skill and learn how this person... We've sat in cars so many times, you and I. And we don't like sitting in cars, but we love cars. In the car, we know that we play music in the background and I've always criticized your music choice. But it allows conversation because we're not just saying... It allows conversation.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I was playing there Tchaikovsky and all these... And I'm like, Trevor...
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
is this an elevator like sort of and then we're there we have these conversations we're in a contained environment in traffic like you said but we don't see the traffic and we we get to have these conversations extendedly but then when I look at myself I'm like I hate being in a car for that long but when we're together we're having this conversation it accelerated that for us it facilitated that so when we start looking at people events time our bodies and objects as an accelerant for us to remember we're
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
who we really are and what we're here to do, then life becomes this journey where regrets don't exist because everything that happened that I didn't enjoy was accelerating me to my growth. And why would I hate something that made me grow? I loved all of it. That one, missing that half, most of the day of school that day had homework to catch up on.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I couldn't trade that for the world when I'm sitting with my mom. I often think when I was 10 years old, My mom had just turned almost 40. She was young. She took the time. She could have hung out with her friends. I'm 43 right now. She could have hung out with her friends, you know? It is weird to think about how young our parents were. Yeah, but she chose to.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
She made sure she swapped shifts with someone. She took that shift. She would take me and we would hang out. So I think of those times and I go, if I think of the homework that piled up and my friends were telling me about the soccer match that they had after school, blah, blah, blah. And I'm thinking about the time I laid in the grass with my mom in the park.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And I'm like, I couldn't swap that for the world. Now I appreciate the effort she put into making sure that she accelerates my growth. By feeling that little bit of pain of homework catch up, she accelerated me in knowing who I really am. I love nature. I love being at the outside. I love being at the park. I love laughing.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I love dreaming and just lying there and looking up and having a good time. So when I look at my life in my late 30s and 40s, and I look at my life in my 10s, and I'm like, there was always grass. There was always a park. I was at Burgers Park, a park in Pretoria that's derelict. And I got to spend time in the most prestigious park in the world that people dream of going to.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And I got to lie in the grass there and daydream again about my life. And things that I thought of three years ago in that park, I have them now. Hmm. So I'm not wrong. Somewhere, somehow, there's energy that's vibrating towards helping me get to where I'm going. What do you do when you feel disconnected from that?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
How do you get back to that? I look at pictures. Phones are the greatest invention ever. I look at places that I've been to and I remember the feelings that I had there. Then I go, what is the quickest way I can replicate this if I can't go there? Then I'll find a patch of grass and I'll find a park. Then I'll find sunshine.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I'll wear my walking shoes and I'll start walking for kilometers and kilometers. You've got walking shoes? Yes. What are they? Adidas shoes. But I use them for walking. It's just walking shoes? No, they're running shoes, but I use them for walking. Oh, I thought it's like this is the only thing they can do. Like if someone chased you, you're like, hey, buddy.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yeah. When I look at those and I put them on, I know I'm going to walk now and I know what that means to me and what I'll remember. The thing that we do worst in our lives is not to remember. We must remember. You and I have memories between us. We don't have anything physical.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Nothing at all. But we have memories. We go, ah, that guy. There was this time when we did this. Then we laugh. Then we move on to other people and other things. And then after that, we remember things that they did. And we come back to the memory again. Remember that thing. So that's all I have. So when I feel like... dive deep into that hole of suffering. Then I realized this is self-imposed.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
My bike is outside. My thing is there. My daughter's in the other room. My PlayStation. So I go, why are you choosing this? And I go, yeah, but yeah, but I go look at my sneakers and I go, I can wear those to go outside right now. And it's within my grasp and reach. And I tell you now, whenever I walk, I see the cars that I love.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I see a Porsche 911 driving past and I'm going, if I was in my room, I would never seen this. Is this a coincidence?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Comedy was our uniqueness. Can I add something else to your dumb luck? When I came back from PE two years ago, I found this place on the internet without even looking, without even viewing it. I just moved in. We just moved from the beach house to here. And then you bought the house 12 minutes away from me. Dumb luck.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
That was luck of motion.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Those steps that you've just mentioned, what I would do before this conversation, I would clap them all together into motion. I would look at it as I did something and they did something and then we did something happened. I wouldn't look at it as the way that you broke it down. It makes so much sense now. And I also feel like we've become lazy to dream.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I think most of us, that's the one thing we have for free, our imagination, our dreams. You just lay back and just think of what you want and it will appear in front of you. And I learned this weird concept. I was telling this friend of mine, I said, everything that I've had that I enjoyed and that I acquired immediately was I never put time to it. I said, I have this thing and I have it now.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And I can't wait to touch it and feel it. And that thing happened. But there's things that I've always put far ahead in my life. And I said, yeah, one day, one day, one day. Because I've been nonspecific about what I want. The thing keeps becoming a dream. And I said, I'm very aware that also that can be an addiction on itself. Postponing your own joy, success, and happiness into the future.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
because somehow you feel like you yourself you're undeserving you're not worthy you're not ready so you keep saying one day i'm gonna make a lot of money one day what's a lot of money and then you keep saying that because you don't want to be because you want to commit yourself to it you know same way i don't write my set down there's things i'd never want to commit myself to and now i'm specific if i want to see a 9-11 a red one i'll say to myself and i'll see a red one
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And I'll see it twice in a day. And I'll be like, yeah, I saw it because now I'm aware. Now you've made me aware. It is my awareness that's heightened. But I also was in motion. And uniqueness. And uniqueness. And I was specific. And I also get specific about what I want. So I'm learning that now, recently, that I must be specific with what I want. I even see it in my mind's eye.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
We don't know. That's what brings me to the initial subject that we started with when I said when we hang out with people that have normal jobs. Because we get to experience their milestones from the outside. So when someone, that's what I said to you, when someone looks at a car and says, that's a nice car. You and I remember a time when they looked at another car. And said, nice car. Oh, yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
When we hear them going, I can't get off because of. But you and I remember a time when they wanted the gig.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So that's why I said, this is coming full circle. That's where I find when I'm with friends that have structured normal jobs. That's where I get to measure what people's needs really are versus what they want are. Because they wanted this thing so bad. They dreamt about it. They knew if they reach this level and get this kind of a job and position, this is what it means.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But when I'm with them now, I don't have the time for this anymore. You know how much things here cost. The thing that they dreamt about the most.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yeah, but that's not connecting. 100% is connecting. Bro, that's not connecting. You know how you mentioned... That's not connecting.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
How many times have I spoken to you on WhatsApp?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Choosing this pain. You know what I mean?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
This guy. I think where religion and church is concerned, and I hear your point about it almost feels like as humans we need structure. And I remember days when my parents were not at home. Well, my dad was always not at home. But when my mom was not at home, I would have the most amount of fun. When I was the youngest, I used to think I need this woman here.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
People react to extremities all the time because we want to feel. People don't know that they want to feel something. When they watch a football match, they want to feel something. They want to feel joy or disappointment. There's two teams playing.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yes, when people come to your show, they want to feel something. Sometimes they think it's laughter, but it's not. It's actually getting to know the person next to them. They want to be around normal people and hear normal conversation. People want to feel.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So when people that are seen as outliers are reacting towards the universe from what they're feeling on the inside as individuals, the whole spectrum of people that they know gets to feel something simultaneously. Yes. So when you are acting on something that you're feeling inside, as an individual, as Trevor, around people, myriads of them that know you that you don't know.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
When you're acting on your feelings, it ripples towards everyone else that knows you. You don't have to know them. And then they start feeling something. They feel disappointment. They feel anger. They feel like you're being ungrateful because they're in places where they're feeling something. They are suffering.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
When are you going, no, the pain of knowing that you will feel this way is worth it for me because staying was suffering. As an individual, I had to make this decision to have this pain so I can end the suffering, so I can walk towards something else. So we get to feel that from other people. A lot of people felt it. I was lucky enough to be around at the Daily Show on your last week.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And I could see the reaction of how it made people feel. I could feel the rumblings of the audiences before the take started to happen. I could sit with you at the office before you went on the show. Then we got to walk in the streets and go have food. And all I knew was you made the right decision. And I wish people that know you and I
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
could know you the way I know you because they would know that that what you did came from a good place. I knew that you took care of the people that work closely with you and some people that will never know that you took care of them in that space, in that job, in that particular environment. You left an everlasting legacy of kindness, of working together, of having everyone have a voice.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I hope so. I was in one of your writing sessions and I would feel like the energy say, something! And then you'll be like, yeah, say, but if you don't want to also say, you can also not say. But that's the culture that you bred. But those are the things that people are going to queue up and tell you about.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
That's what you must know innately inside of you as a human being, that my reactions are always going to cause a ripple effect to people that know me that I don't know. But they're only reacting towards who I am, not what I am. Because you've changed what you were. You were a host. But who you are is Trevor. You've changed what you were, a boss. But who you are is a friend.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
You've changed all of those things. And of course, there was going to be suffering. There was going to be suffering from people who don't want to let you go. But you let them go first because you're teaching them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So what made you decide to go into podcasting? Decide to go into it? Is that your podcast? Is that your podcast voice?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But as soon as she said there's food in the fridge, you know where the TV remote is, have a good time. And I'm going to be gone for eight hours. I was like, can you leave sooner? The overtime there. Because in my world, that's when I realized I don't actually need someone to tell me what to do. I learned that very early. So some people need structure and some people don't.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yeah, but why don't you retire the company? You can't afford it. You can't afford to starve yourself.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But I think also people are deep and steeped in religion, have abdicated their responsibility to be good people to someone else, to a higher power. So when they go to a pastor, when they go to their reverend and when they speak to God on their behalf, they feel like they don't have to be good people. They can always ask for forgiveness.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
In the seven years?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
But I feel like if people who go to church took that same mentality that they have for that hour and a half at church and actually spread it around in real life every day, day to day, the world would be a better place. Because I think love should be preached more than religion. I don't think someone should tell us Jesus died on the cross for all of us to be here and then ends there.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Look, I don't think you're wrong, but stories help.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
You know, we had this type of conversation, but not obviously in this depth. While we were standing there, you came back and we were standing at your place. And then I looked at the shoes by the door and I was like, wow, there's so many shoes here. And then you looked at me and you said, Eugene, people are not supposed to walk in with shoes in this house.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
my place in New York then I was like oh as I looked at my feet and I saw my shoes on my feet And it's just that you know this, obviously, personally. I'm a very private person on social media.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I don't put out my life. But if there's one thing that I wish people knew about you, a few things. How nice you are as a human being. Oh, shucks. Thanks. How generous you are as a person. And I'm talking about your time. And how loving you are to everyone. Because I think us all as your friends, you know our stories personally. As your friends, we don't feel like we are part of a group.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Everyone feels like they know you and you know them. And when I experienced you at work, remember, I know you from Horror Cafe. I know you from your polo. I know you from great tracksuit pants running to the airport and going to start a new life and a new career. And then I get to see the same guy at the helm of what became an institution, American pop culture.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
And I see the same guy who asks the PA, have you eaten? Is there something that I can do? Did you order that thing? Is that thing? Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Good night. And I see you doing that. And I'm going, I wish people could see this and know this about you, how nice and caring of a person you are. I've never caught you on a bad day. They've never caught you on a bad day.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
You are a genuinely nice person. And I always, whenever I think of what we are going to do when you say, let's hang out, I always go, I know what I'm going to get here. If there's one thing that's going to happen here is I'm going to experience generosity, kindness, not a bad word about anyone, and just pure... Some bad words. Pure childlike joy. And, you know, people around you will never...
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
have less of that ever, as long as you're still here and the day you're gone, because we're all going to go some point. But this is what you must know about yourself. is you have it in you. It's not a thing that you earn through money, through fame, through success. You were born into it. That's why your grandmother asked you to lead a prayer.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
She saw something in you that a lot of the world was soon to see. And she just wanted you to take center stage and claim it. That there's an inner power in you that makes people gravitate towards you, that make people go, I believe in what you're saying. And a lot of what you're experiencing It's because of that you were groomed to be that person of a shining beacon.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
You bring your friends together. You brought an office together. And now here you are bringing all of us together. And these people will get to hear what I have to say because of you. So you must be proud of yourself. When you go to bed, when you're closing your checking account like I usually do, take that one thing off.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Be proud of yourself for being a nice and kind person who has no bad word to say about anyone. Damn, Eugene. Yeah. I mean it. Thank you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Yeah, but the Bible is a big book of suffering. Yes. But life is a big book of suffering. You see? So it's all about someone did something and then found redemption. Someone did something and then found redemption. Yes. There's never someone just having a good time. There's lots of people having a good time in the Bible. Who? Lot's wife turned into salt? Because she looked back.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Job whose investments were tarnished and then he had to... Who? Show me one person in the Bible who had a good time. Who was someone who had a good time? People were in the bellies of the whale. People were kicked out of Eden. Yeah. They were having a good time before they were kicked out of Eden. They were having a great time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
This is entertainment. But where are the good times in the Bible?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
What did King David do?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So he was a wise king.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Send him to war and put him in the artillery. Yes, but he was having a good time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Did the husband have a good time? Did the extended family? Eugene. The funeral cover. Okay, now let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Which TV show has people having a good time? The Apprentice. No, I'm joking. No, but seriously, which TV show? No one's having a good time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So then every sermon in church, obviously, they're picking from this book and they decide maybe we are going to preach about Job.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
There's going to be how Job suffered and then how is you suffering right now and how you can end your own suffering by doing what? By praying it away. Okay, so. Because Job did not pray away. So I feel like. God said to him, who are you to question me? But I feel like here what's happening is.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
No, no, no, not at all. But I'm not. I'm trying to get you to defend the characters. No. In the great book of Oz.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I think it's a podcast.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
Hey, my life trumped my thirst. Oh, man. I wanted to do them both at the same time. Oh, man.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
I was playing pickleball. You need a difference between pickleball and paddleball. Because I've heard you speak. You and I went to go play paddleball for the first time. Yeah, paddleball. And I whacked myself in the face. That's the problem with paddleball is people hit themselves.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So is the racket smaller?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People [VIDEO]
So when it hits the... Yeah, but the pedal has more of like a...