EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,005 words- 0:00 – 2:22
Intro
- WSWil Sylvince
[upbeat music] I felt like I, I always thought out the box. Does that make sense?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Kinda like, 'cause I was very close to my grandmother, right? Because, uh, my, my dad used to always tell us, like, uh, uh, everybody's equal.
- TNTrevor Noah
Mm-hmm.
- WSWil Sylvince
Right? There's no such thing as gender roles. You gon- you learn how to cook, clean, wash, you know, also you learn how to fix electrical appliances. You learn how if, if a socket is broken, you learn how, what to do. You know, um, um, y- also my dad [laughs] , my dad used to do this thing where, so you know the, you know the when the gas come into the house?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Right? And there's a meter that-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, okay
- WSWil Sylvince
... so my dad forgot how to, to, to beat the company. He just, he would just unscrew the thing-
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
... and turn it backwards, and so now the meter's re-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah [laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
... run the other way.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah [laughs] .
- WSWil Sylvince
But he made sure that it didn't go all the way down, by what, you guys-
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
You guys didn't use any gas?
- TNTrevor Noah
You guys use anti-gas?
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
You guy, you guys use negative gas?
- WSWil Sylvince
Right. So he knew, he knew just the amount, and the, the gas, our gas bill was pretty low. And, um, uh, he, he knew how to also with the electric and the, the cheap and the ele- he used the, so there's different fuses. He'll get the ones with certain amount of resistance and, you know.
- TNTrevor Noah
No wonder the White people didn't want the Black people doing these kinds of-
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
Look at what they're doing with their engineering knowledge.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] [upbeat music]
- TNTrevor Noah
This is What Now? With Trevor Noah. [upbeat music]
- WSWil Sylvince
The, the difference is-
- TNTrevor Noah
But I'm saying, did you see what you did there?
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
You said, "Is Haiti still in the World Cup?"
- 2:22 – 5:00
Haiti Makes the World Cup & Chaos Before the Podcast Starts
- WSWil Sylvince
Haiti's in the World Cup.
- TNTrevor Noah
For the first time in 50 years.
- WSWil Sylvince
Is that a question or of, a statement?
- TNTrevor Noah
Congratulations, Will.
- WSWil Sylvince
Congratulations.
- TNTrevor Noah
Thank you.
- WSWil Sylvince
Congratulations.
- TNTrevor Noah
You guys did not hear about that?
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, you s- g- you didn't, you barely heard about it.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs] Do you even watch soccer?
- WSWil Sylvince
I, no, I d- I don't. That's why I wanted to know. I don't watch soccer, but I heard, you know, I heard the whispers.
- TNTrevor Noah
You're supposed to, you're supposed to, if you're from a small country like Haiti, you should just support everything they do.
- WSWil Sylvince
I do, I do. I do. That's, that's why I'm like, you know.
- TNTrevor Noah
You know what's cool about Haiti being in the World Cup, is that it's almost like you decided as a country that, "Guys, being a country's hard, but I think we can get back in the World Cup."
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs] Do, do you know what I mean? Like, if we use our, our-
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
We, there's too, too many.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
Do you know what I mean? There are too many pieces, but it's like this particular, it's just to get in the tournament.
- WSWil Sylvince
I just wanna apologize and say this podcast was not supposed to start like this, all right?
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, I didn't know we started.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, we started. And-
- TNTrevor Noah
I thought it was yabba dabba doing.
- WSWil Sylvince
No, that's what, I mean, we're always yabba dabba doing. I w- I thought I was gonna start this from, like, a really sincere place, and we were gonna get into it, and then, but then as usual, when we're in the same space, things devolve-
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
... and they go off track. You know what's actually gonna be really interesting, Dave? Maybe you'll, you'll, you'll let us know if this throws you off as the man on the street. Is it at all weird for you that Will has himself on his shirt? 'Cause it throws me off, I'm not gonna lie. It is very weird that I'm talking to a person, and then I, when I look down, 'cause you know sometimes when you're talking to someone, you don't look in their eyes.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes.
- WSWil Sylvince
You look away. But then I look down, and then he's looking at me as well.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes.
- 5:00 – 8:02
Will’s Sleep Problems & Life Doing Late Night Comedy
- TNTrevor Noah
start watching a TV show, and I'm wi- I'm wired. Okay, hold on. I'm, just so I can help you for real, is ex- explain why it is that, no, this is legit. Explain why it is that you are getting home at 2:00.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, g- I, I do shows at night. I do shows that end, like, 1:30, 2:00, or sometimes I get home at 3:00, 3:00, 3:30, 4:00, 'cause the shows go, go late.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, but-
- WSWil Sylvince
Comedy shows
- TNTrevor Noah
... but yeah, but I mean, we, we've, w- when we first met, how many years have we known each other now? What are we, fif- 15 years maybe?
- WSWil Sylvince
15. Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Maybe even more.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Funny enough. When I first met you, like, so when I first came to New York, I met Will, uh, at the Comedy Cellar, right? And you and I would be there until 3:00 AM, 4:00 AM, when the shows would go, like, f- we, we, we'd run the shows all the way from 7:00 PM until, like, 4:00 AM.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Right?
- WSWil Sylvince
Till the janitor come out.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. But I would go sleep. You don't sleep.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
I don't understand why you don't sleep. Like, what is it about, like, do you ... Is it, like, anxiety? Is it, like, a-
- WSWil Sylvince
It could be FOMO, fear of missing out.
- TNTrevor Noah
Of, of what?
- WSWil Sylvince
'Cause when I was younger, we had to be in bed by 10:00.
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay.
- WSWil Sylvince
Right? 10:00. And sometimes if there was a TV show that it was, like, a special TV show that lasted two hours-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... till 11:00, m- my brothers and I would put the cover over the TV, and one would watch out for, see my parents, so it's coming, and we'll watch TV till 11:00. And we thought, I always ... Now, may- m- maybe not we, but I always thought there was something special was happening at, after 11:00. You know? The only two times we were allowed to stay up past 11:00, past was, uh, uh, Christmas and New Year's Eve. 'Cause Christmas we'd stay to, the, December 24, we'd stay up till 12:00 midnight.
- TNTrevor Noah
December 25th, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
25th. Or 24th at night.
- TNTrevor Noah
Mm-hmm.
- WSWil Sylvince
And then when it becomes 25th, at 12:00 midnight, we open the gifts and we play for them for an hour and we go to bed. Then New Year's Eve-
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
... was another time-
- TNTrevor Noah
Already all of this is, is, uh, yes.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- 8:02 – 10:50
Growing Up Haitian in Brooklyn & Feeling Like Outsiders
- TNTrevor Noah
world will, will sort of track the first person, you know what I mean? One person goes. They tell their brothers and sisters, "Hey, I came here."
- WSWil Sylvince
Right.
- TNTrevor Noah
The next group comes, the next group comes, and then everyone starts to settle in the same place.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, I see.
- TNTrevor Noah
That wasn't, was that not, like, a big-
- SPSpeaker
Excuse me. Can I ask a question? Sorry, sorry.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, yeah, oh, always.
- WSWil Sylvince
Back to, um-
- SPSpeaker
Okay. As, you know i- in Star Wars. Is it Star Wars? Where-
- TNTrevor Noah
Well, you're the one who just asked it-
- SPSpeaker
Yes. [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
... and then asked us a question.
- WSWil Sylvince
You don't have enough information yet.
- SPSpeaker
Sorry. In Star Wars where they have that thing, as the movie starts they, there's, like, a-
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, the scroll
- SPSpeaker
... there's a scroll
- TNTrevor Noah
The crawl. The crawl I think it's called.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, the credits?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. No, no, no.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. Right at the beginning.
- TNTrevor Noah
The crawl. The beginning is not the credits. I think that thing, I think it's called a crawl. I think.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, the, where the-
- TNTrevor Noah
The Star Wars crawl. Yeah, it, what, where it comes from, "The Empire has built up its forces."
- SPSpeaker
Yes. That thing.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Yes. That thing.
- TNTrevor Noah
"The Rebel Alliance is growing stronger, but..." Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Yes.
- 10:50 – 12:10
Trevor and Will’s Comedy Cellar Friendship Story
- TNTrevor Noah
that resisted the French occupation and was one of the first colonies to free itself from enslavement."
- SPSpeaker
Okay. But now you're going a bit far. Okay?
- TNTrevor Noah
Whoa, you, you can't tell me how-
- SPSpeaker
No, no. Now we know, okay, cool, you guys are comedians, great buddies.
- TNTrevor Noah
Have you ever watched a movie with this guy? He's the worst.
- WSWil Sylvince
He's ... Oh, y- you'd be talking during, during the movie?
- TNTrevor Noah
He, he does this during the movie as well.
- WSWil Sylvince
You talk during the movies?
- TNTrevor Noah
He does this exact same thing during the movie.
- SPSpeaker
I'm, I'm ... Please. Okay.
- TNTrevor Noah
George Lucas put the crawl because of him.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
Now, now that we know, okay, you guys are great buddies. You're, you, you knew each other from comedy. Now, how, now you can go ... And you have a sleep problem. Now-
- TNTrevor Noah
But do you think it's a sleep problem?
- SPSpeaker
Now we can go into it. Cool.
- WSWil Sylvince
I never thought it was a sleep problem. I, I, I, you know what? I never went to the doctor for any specific reason.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
I d- I, when I, when I got older, when I found out, like, my white friends have a specific doctor, not just a doctor that tells you everything about your body, but the eye doctor, the lip doctor, the skin doctor. I'm like, "There's a doctor for that?" Like, I didn't know, I didn't know that was a thing. Like, you know, a therapist. I thought therapy was just for, you know... In the Black community, we just thought therapy was for crazy people.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right.
- WSWil Sylvince
I'm not sure that's the right thing to-
- TNTrevor Noah
No, no, you're right. You're right. But it's true.
- WSWil Sylvince
For, for crazy people.
- TNTrevor Noah
When we were growing up, they'd say that. They, like, in, in Z- Zulu or something they'd just be like, "You're ‹foreign language›." You're just crazy.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
There was no ADHD. There was no... Do you know what I mean? Anything.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, autism. This, that. No. You're crazy or you're not crazy.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes. Yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
So, so, yeah, it's, it's, it's a
- 12:10 – 17:19
Therapy, Sleep, and Immigrant Attitudes Toward Mental Health
- TNTrevor Noah
similar thing in, in, like, South African and, I would argue, most African culture as well.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. And you don't go to the doctor, you just figure things out. You just figure it out.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. You're sick or you're not sick.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. But I'm saying, if you were sick, you figure out how to not to get, be sick on your own.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
That make sense?
- TNTrevor Noah
Or, or you go to, like, a doctor, 'cause you're, like, dying sick.
- WSWil Sylvince
That's different. That's-
- TNTrevor Noah
Like, you wouldn't go-
- WSWil Sylvince
Now you need the doctor
- TNTrevor Noah
... you wouldn't go to a doctor because you, you can't sleep.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes.
- WSWil Sylvince
Or 'cause-
- TNTrevor Noah
That I agree with
- WSWil Sylvince
... 'cause you thinking about, um, other women when you're married.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
There's a doctor for that, right? Or th- or a therapist.
- TNTrevor Noah
A therapist, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
A therapist.
- WSWil Sylvince
Like a, a, a, a couples therapy.
- TNTrevor Noah
Couples, couples therapist.
- WSWil Sylvince
Right. Which I, which is crazy. Why don't you just talk to your wife?
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs] Because it's, it's awkward to say to your wife that you're thinking about other women.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
That that's why the therapist exists.
- WSWil Sylvince
So you could say, you could... So it's not awkward when you, your wife, and a person you don't know, you're talking, you talking to that person. Almost like how people talk to dogs. Or a strange, they see a stranger with a dog, like, "Hey, buddy. How you doing?" Uh, you know, they talking to the dog. Like, "Is he treating you good? Is he giving you, feeding you right?" You ever, you ever see that happen?
- TNTrevor Noah
You know what I've noticed?
- WSWil Sylvince
What?
- 17:19 – 18:12
Will the Engineer: Curiosity, Electronics & Comedy
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
That's generally how engineers roll. [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
Good point.
- TNTrevor Noah
But tell, like, tell me a little bit about, like, young Wil Sylvince. 'Cause you see, like, that, that story about you and your brothers, I feel like you grew up in the strangest world, and it's made you the comedian and the person that I know you as today. Because every, every time we hang out, you tell, like, a new story about growing up, and I'm always like, what-
- WSWil Sylvince
Okay
- TNTrevor Noah
... like, what world- Did you grow up in-
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh-
- TNTrevor Noah
Like how, how... So wait, l- let's go back to the beginning. So your, your parents were born in Haiti?
- WSWil Sylvince
Born in Haiti.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yep. Uh, they moved to America 'cause of Papa Doc. You know Papa Doc?
- TNTrevor Noah
No, I don't know Papa Doc.
- WSWil Sylvince
Papa Doc, uh, François Duvalier, he was the president of, of Haiti in the early '60s-
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay
- WSWil Sylvince
... 1960s. And, uh, he, he promised a lot of changes and stuff,
- 18:12 – 22:18
Papa Doc, Dictatorship & Why Will’s Parents Fled Haiti
- WSWil Sylvince
and then he actually became very bad. And within a month, two, like, he started killing Haitians that disagreed with him-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... within, like, immediately. Um, I wonder how, uh, did, how quick do di- dictators do that?
- TNTrevor Noah
It depe- it depends on the situation.
- WSWil Sylvince
Like, when they promise to do good for the country, they, they get elected, then how quick do they start, like-
- TNTrevor Noah
It literally depends on the situation. Some take years.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm.
- TNTrevor Noah
Some w- it'll be, like, within a few months. I, I think, I think maybe. I'm not a historian, but I think maybe it has to... Like, Dave reads a ton of history books because, like, he just doesn't have friends.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
But, like-
- SPSpeaker
That is-
- TNTrevor Noah
Um-
- SPSpeaker
That is a incorrect reason.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
Which, which, which part? He said so many things.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs] No, no, no.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
But, but I think it's... I, I genuinely think it just depends on the, um... I think it depends on the structures within the country.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm-hmm.
- TNTrevor Noah
Maybe I'm wrong. I could be completely wrong, but I think depending on how entrenched certain, like, systems are in a country, that's how quickly you can turn into, like, a murderous dictator.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm.
- TNTrevor Noah
You, you, you know what I mean?
- WSWil Sylvince
Or maybe that w- maybe that was your plan all along, and then when you got in power you decide... 'Cause you n- 'cause dictators don't start out like, "Hey, if you disagree with me, I'm gonna kill you."
- TNTrevor Noah
No, never, never, never, never.
- WSWil Sylvince
They never start out like that, right?
- TNTrevor Noah
No, never. Never, never.
- WSWil Sylvince
They, they start out like, "Hey, buddies, we're gonna help everybody out."
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. Yeah, I would argue most dictators have the m- have the best messaging.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm.
- TNTrevor Noah
Like, I, I don't think there's a single dictator whose speeches you can see before they were a dictator-
- 22:18 – 26:47
Dictators, Oppression & How Evil Systems Stay Powerful
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
No, no, no. But you get what I'm saying?
- WSWil Sylvince
Who's the, who's the they?
- TNTrevor Noah
Uh, the, the, the, the white apartheid government.
- WSWil Sylvince
The whites? Okay.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they were saying-
- WSWil Sylvince
So it was like-
- TNTrevor Noah
There were sanctions. So the s- yeah, there were sanctions on South Africa
- WSWil Sylvince
... changing what you g- you, allies won't do business with you.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
So they figured out, "Well, we'll figure out how to-"
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, they were like, "It's fine. We'll, we'll keep the racism going-
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm-hmm
- TNTrevor Noah
... and we'll just figure out our own thing."
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm.
- TNTrevor Noah
And they developed new ways. One of the most, like, impressive was they found a way to make fuel from coal.
- WSWil Sylvince
So is that, what's that phrase? Pressure creates...
- TNTrevor Noah
Uh, pressure creates?
- WSWil Sylvince
Something. Creates you to be... Like, when you're up against the wall, you f-
- TNTrevor Noah
Is it pressure, or is it n- necessity's the mother of invention? I don't know. I've never heard a pressure one. Is there a pressure one?
- WSWil Sylvince
The one when you, when you... It's almost like a pressure cooker, and if it, it, it, it figures out how to cook.
- TNTrevor Noah
I don't, I don't know that one.
- WSWil Sylvince
You, maybe-
- SPSpeaker
I think you just thought of, like, coal and diamonds.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh.
- SPSpeaker
No, no. It is a ph- it is a phrase, like-
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
That I, that I know of.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- 26:47 – 28:36
Will’s Solar Paint Idea & Engineering Mindset
- WSWil Sylvince
At the time, it was three coats of paint, you know, nano, um, ground and antho, and then, and then paint the whole house, and then you had these huge capacitors in your basement that collects energy and stores, save it for later. And this other, um, system that dissipates the energy slowly throughout the rest of the house. It doesn't ... 'Cause cap- capacitors, once you use the energy, it complete- it depletes completely. So this, this other, this other device that slowly d- um, released the energy to the rest of the house as you need it.
- TNTrevor Noah
This is one of those situations-
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
... where I don't know enough about electricity-
- WSWil Sylvince
Well, actually, there's a company now-
- TNTrevor Noah
... to be able to call you or not
- WSWil Sylvince
... there's a company now in Aus-
- TNTrevor Noah
You could be completely bullshitting me right now and I don't know.
- WSWil Sylvince
No, no. [laughs] There's-
- TNTrevor Noah
No, no, you could be, and if you h- if you've done it, well done.
- WSWil Sylvince
Right. So I've been-
- TNTrevor Noah
Congratulations to you, Wil.
- WSWil Sylvince
I've been talking about it in podcasts and radio shows, blah, blah, blah-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... for a long time. That, then I found out there's a company in Australia, 2014, they started developing a solar power p- p- uh, power paint.
- TNTrevor Noah
Did you reach out to them and tell them-
- WSWil Sylvince
No, I didn't
- TNTrevor Noah
... that they stole your idea?
- WSWil Sylvince
No, I didn't.
- TNTrevor Noah
You didn't.
- WSWil Sylvince
I didn't have the money to patent it, so I didn't, I, I couldn't afford the patent at the time.
- SPSpeaker
Okay. Question. U, uh, your parents, how old are they when they are leaving Haiti?
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, early 20s.
- TNTrevor Noah
Early 20s?
- WSWil Sylvince
Early 20s. Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Wow. That's young.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. They, they left Haiti early 20s.
- TNTrevor Noah
Was it easy to get out?
- WSWil Sylvince
No, because Papa Doc, um, would not let people leave. Like, you could go visit, but, but you had to come back. Y- you know, like, like in North Korea, they like, "Oh, see, we see why other countries there, they let, let them leave," and they ... So now what? North Korea don't let their people leave at all.
- TNTrevor Noah
Right. Yeah.
- 28:36 – 32:25
How Will’s Parents Escaped Haiti
- WSWil Sylvince
"Oh, you, oh, did you try to leave?"
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
"This, this visa expired two years ago. What were you ... Did you forget?"
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
And they'd be like, "Oh, you gotta go to, you gotta go to boot- boot camp."
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
Boot camp is jail. [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, man, I'm just picturing them at, [laughs] at the border office just being like, "Oh, did you tr- did you forget?"
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
But, but how did your parents get out, Rick? What did they do? Did they-
- WSWil Sylvince
They ... So my w- w- so my dad and my mom got together, um, because my dad was in the milit- Haitian military.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
And, and the reason why, uh, my dad, they, how they met, uh, uh, my mother's father, my grandfather, was always talking shit about, uh, François Duvalier.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, wow.
- WSWil Sylvince
Like, before he got elected, right? 'Cause he saw, he saw it before. Because François Duvalier was in politics, and then, and my grandpa kind of said like, "Look, once you, once you have a taste of that, you ..." It's like, once you, once you have cocaine, you always gonna be coked up, right? I, I, I, I, I never did cocaine, I'm just saying.
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay.
- WSWil Sylvince
From someone that's, someone that told me that
- TNTrevor Noah
For those of us, François Duvalier is Papa Doc.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes. Yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
You know what I'm saying?
- WSWil Sylvince
Okay.
- TNTrevor Noah
Just so you-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, yeah. François Duvalier-
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay
- WSWil Sylvince
... AKA Papa Doc.
- TNTrevor Noah
So your grandfather-
- WSWil Sylvince
AKA Papa Doc
- TNTrevor Noah
... was always talking, talking about-
- WSWil Sylvince
He always smack, smack about and say, "Yo, don't, this guy's a ... " You know, and people, people was against my, my, my grandpa saying like, "No, that's not true. This guy-"
- TNTrevor Noah
So he was, like, publicly saying this stuff?
- 32:25 – 35:28
Will’s Father Secretly Sabotaging Papa Doc’s Military
- WSWil Sylvince
they recognized each other immediately and, and, you know, they fell in love. But my dad, my mom was like, "We can't really get together because, you, you know, it's a conflict of interest. You, you work for the man." 'Cause also, if you was in the military, you was not allowed, allowed to leave the military, because that's another thing that happened. When he became president and became a dictator, so many people in the military wanted to l- "I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna work for this guy." But then he wrote a law saying that, well, you can't leave the military, otherwise you- you'll get arrested and-
- TNTrevor Noah
Right, yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... executed. So-
- TNTrevor Noah
I think mo- I think most militaries in the world, you're not allowed to leave when you want to.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, yeah. What, AWOL?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, pretty much.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. So, so it's like, um, um, so my dad was stuck, but then also he wanted to get with my mother and it was, like, a conflict of interest-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... of, like, you know, you, you guys killed my, my dad. And then so-
- TNTrevor Noah
Whew
- WSWil Sylvince
... and at the time, my dad had five houses in Haiti. He was planning on opening a mechanic shop where he was gonna fix cars and stuff. He w- he was a mechanical engineer, you know? Uh, and-
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay. Okay
- WSWil Sylvince
... in fact, my dad was, um, my dad would... So while he was in military, he would sabotage some of the trucks so they w- when they would send them out to a village to go and kill people, the trucks would break down.
- TNTrevor Noah
No. [laughs] That's how you-
- WSWil Sylvince
Not close enough to the village-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... but to the base where they could go get new trucks and, but not close enough to the village where they could walk. So they had to, like, oh, we, it's closer to walk back to the base.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
By the time they got back, they were tired, and like, "We'll try tomorrow." And he would sabotage also some of the weapons. The guns would get, would jam up. You know, after a while, the, they started looking back, "Who worked on this truck last?" [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
So he had to, like, I, he had to chill on sabotaging the-
- TNTrevor Noah
Damn
- WSWil Sylvince
... the weapons and the trucks. Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
So, so how long was he, was, was he in the military? How long was your dad still in Haiti?
- WSWil Sylvince
So w- so once he met my mother, they-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... started dating. They started, you know, um-
- TNTrevor Noah
This is like Haitian Romeo and Juliet for real.
- 35:28 – 38:20
Starting Over in America as Haitian Immigrants
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
I be back. [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
Or, or, or better, I be back, okay? [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs] What were your, um, what did your dad say that... 'Cause they came, did everyone come to the United States?
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes, yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
What did he say he was... What did he tell the United States government? Refugee or was it-
- WSWil Sylvince
So at the time, the US was actually giving visas. They was accepting people. It was not like how it is now. They were letting people in if you had a skill.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
You know, my mother, she went to school for, to be a seamstress, you know, and she also went to school, culinary school. So she had those two skills-
- TNTrevor Noah
Right, right
- WSWil Sylvince
... so it was easy for her to get a visa. You know, and my dad was a mechanical engineer, so it was easy for him to come in and, and so you, you just had to have a skill. I, I can't remember what my cousins- ... uh, or, or what the, w- you know, what their story was. But-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes
- WSWil Sylvince
... but once you had the skill, it was easy. You know, early '60s, they was accepting people like crazy here.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes.
- WSWil Sylvince
You know?
- TNTrevor Noah
Damn.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
So your parents come over to the US, settle in Brooklyn-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, well, then-
- TNTrevor Noah
And then
- WSWil Sylvince
... before that, my dad, my dad interviewed people, 'cause the main places to go when you leave Haiti was Dominican Republic-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... Miami-
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay
- WSWil Sylvince
... Montreal, Boston, and New York. Those are the main places.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh.
- WSWil Sylvince
You know, there was other places like Chicago and, um, but, but those are the main places Hai- Haitians was fleeing to.
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay.
- 38:20 – 43:10
Racism in Boston & Haitian Immigrant Reality
- WSWil Sylvince
Interview. Well, well, you, you, you, you trying to figure out where, where you ... 'Cause also, li- you know, back in those days, people would just leave-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... and just figure things out, you know? Uh, for Haitians, it was a, you, you know, you want to leave, but let me figure, figure it out. I don't want ... My dad was, like, pretty, like, aware and smart about things. Let me just ask a few people, see which way ... His, his main thing was education a- and, um, educ- what was it? Uh, education and, and jobs.
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay.
- WSWil Sylvince
You know, what, what, where can he go-
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay, so where are the opportunities?
- WSWil Sylvince
Opportunities, yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay, got it. So education, opportunities for the kids-
- WSWil Sylvince
And, uh-
- TNTrevor Noah
... and then opportunities for the family.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes. Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
All right, got it.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. Um, and so Montreal was not good, 'cause he met, he, he, he talked to someone where, where they w- they were pretty, they were pretty mean to him. I can't remember just details of it. I'm, I'm getting the story from my aunt. Um, um, um, Miami was just no real opportunity.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, that makes sense. Back then-
- WSWil Sylvince
So the weather was nice like Haiti-
- TNTrevor Noah
Uh-huh
- WSWil Sylvince
... but it was, you know. Um, Boston was, was pretty racist. He met, he met a la- a, um, a lady. He talked to her and her sister, and the sister's husband moved to Boston, and-
- TNTrevor Noah
And you don't have to explain. Sorry, continue.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
They were, they were doctors.
- TNTrevor Noah
It was ... You just said Boston in the '60s.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
A, a Haitian. Shouldn't, shouldn't ... Is Boston in the '60s welcoming to Haitians?
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs] You know. We can, uh-
- WSWil Sylvince
So all three were doctors. When they went to Boston-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... they got reduced to nurses. So you had to take a test. You just can't be-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
- 43:10 – 47:41
Trevor Relates South African Apartheid to Haitian Stories
- TNTrevor Noah
who was her boss at the company or at this training institute said to her, "What is the point of studying what you're studying? Because at the end of the day, you'll always be"... And then they use the word in South Africa, kaffir. He was like, "You're going to be a kaffir, so what's the point?"
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, wow.
- TNTrevor Noah
But it's, it's crazy that you're saying this.
- SPSpeaker
She's also a woman, remember.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, she's a woman.
- SPSpeaker
So what I'm saying, so it's double.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Double.
- TNTrevor Noah
But that's what I mean. Like, it's, it's, it's crazy that you, you're telling me about a story in Boston-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- TNTrevor Noah
... and then I'm going, like, "Oh, yeah, my mom told me this story from South Africa." And then the, the, the, the, the compounded thing of it all is the, um, the pain and the-
- SPSpeaker
The time, you know who gets this kind of story, is when you listen to, to, like, white as- uh, like, aspiring white rappers. They sort of tell this story as well.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
Which rapper?
- SPSpeaker
You know what I mean?
- TNTrevor Noah
Do you hear what this guy-
- WSWil Sylvince
Well, no, no
- TNTrevor Noah
... yo, do you hear what this guy-
- WSWil Sylvince
Just name the rapper
- TNTrevor Noah
... do you hear what this guy-
- SPSpeaker
There's only one who made it
- TNTrevor Noah
... do you hear what this guy just said, W-
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs] Do you hear what this guy just said?
- SPSpeaker
They do have the same story.
- WSWil Sylvince
They... [laughs]
- SPSpeaker
It's the same.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes. I mean, in many ways, white rappers are the Black women-
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] Oh, you said white rappers
- 47:41 – 49:15
Papa Doc’s Secret Police & Living in Fear
- WSWil Sylvince
that, the Tonton Macoute. And, and then the guy said, "Hey, don't move. Stay right there." And so he's talking to this lady like, "Oh, shit, oh, shit." And then he went past my dad to someone else, and they got him on the floor and say, "Hey, what do you think you're doing? What do you think you're doing, huh?" And then it wasn't, it wasn't my dad. So they learned not to talk in, in the streets anymore like that.
- TNTrevor Noah
This is a, this is a crazy time. I mean, I, I'm, I'm picturing your dad, I'm picturing your mom planning to leave-
- WSWil Sylvince
Tonton Macoutes
- TNTrevor Noah
... Tonton Macoutes. Which, again, it, it, it's, it's really wild how every single authoritarian regime around the world has the same playbook.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
People in the community who listen to you, spies, spying, like, f- family spying on family.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, yeah, North Korea did the same thing.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, same in Russia, same... You know what I mean. Any place that there's been, like, an authoritarian regime-
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm-hmm
- TNTrevor Noah
... the same rules apply.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm.
- TNTrevor Noah
The government finds ways to get the people to spy on each other on behalf of the government so that you don't trust each other. And if you don't trust each other, then the only thing that has absolute power is the government.
- WSWil Sylvince
Same way with America, house Negroes and field Negroes.
- TNTrevor Noah
Say more.
- WSWil Sylvince
So, so if you, if you're a slave owner in America, right?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
You got your wife, you, your maybe two kids and a dog, but you have 80 slaves. How you, how you put, how you get, how you c- how c- how you get protection from 80 slaves from storming your house? So what you do is you divide them. You, you reward the ones-
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, yeah, divide and conquer. Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. The, you, you, you reward the ones to, that tell you, "Hey, th- they master, they planning on coming to
- 49:15 – 58:03
Divide and Conquer: Slavery, Fear & Informants
- WSWil Sylvince
your house tonight or leaving the field." And, and so, so that, "Oh, good, good. You get to sleep in the house." "Oh, thank you, ma, I got to sleep in the house." You know?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
And so the, the same thing, so that was their totomacuts, the house, the house Negroes.
- TNTrevor Noah
Damn.
- WSWil Sylvince
Dave, can you say the other N word for me, please?
- SPSpeaker
The which word?
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] House Negroes is...
- SPSpeaker
Oh, no. I was just think- well, I mean-
- WSWil Sylvince
You was thinking it? [laughs]
- SPSpeaker
No, no. The, the way I was thinking, I was thinking that I would've been a...
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh yeah, what would you have been, a house Negro or a field Negro?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, I would've probably been house.
- TNTrevor Noah
You-
- WSWil Sylvince
A house Negro?
- TNTrevor Noah
No, you wouldn't. He, he says that.
- SPSpeaker
No, no. The thing, you know why?
- WSWil Sylvince
Why?
- SPSpeaker
Is just at that, and I'm being genuine now. L- uh, like c- c- I don't know if you could have convinced me to forgo, like, l- comfort.
- TNTrevor Noah
I don't think this is true. I don't think you know yourself well enough.
- WSWil Sylvince
I think pressure makes diamonds.
- TNTrevor Noah
You, you are too, you know what, no, y- this guy.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
Did you just remember the quote now?
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
This guy just remembers the quotes, like, deep in the conversation. "I think pressure makes diamonds." You've been waiting to say that. Now that it came back into your... No, so here, here's, he says that, but here's why I disagree with you. I don't know anybody who is more charitable than you are. I don't know anybody who's more helpful than you are. I don't know anybody who is, like, friends with more homeless people than you are. And look, I don't know everybody, but what I... No, no, no, but what I'm saying is you say that about yourself.
- SPSpeaker
But I'm having a comfort time.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, I hear you, but I don't think, I think you are more, like, revolutionary than you, than you-
- SPSpeaker
Okay, maybe it should be this
- TNTrevor Noah
... paint yourself out to be.
- SPSpeaker
Maybe it should be this.
- 58:03 – 1:00:10
Growing Up in Brooklyn With Strict Haitian Parents
- TNTrevor Noah
them here." [laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
But wait, look what they're doing now.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
The, the AI company was building these, these massive, um, places, and they charging the people for the electricity.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, man.
- WSWil Sylvince
You, you know about that, right?
- TNTrevor Noah
So your dad was getting revenge before the-
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
He was, he was getting future revenge-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah
- TNTrevor Noah
... on behalf of humanity.
- WSWil Sylvince
A- and so my dad was like, "Everybody gotta learn e- everything."
- TNTrevor Noah
Right.
- WSWil Sylvince
So I knew how to sew. I knew how to cook. I knew how to fix electrical stuff. And, um, and so my dad used to always say, you know, "If you, if you have a good woman in your life, whether she's a, a, a girlfriend or a relative or a friend, always pay." You know, if you go out to eat, always pay because the world treat women like shit, and they don't realize women are really the, the ones, the backbone-
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, that's beautiful, man
- WSWil Sylvince
... of society. And so I, I'm, so I was so close to my grandma because of this. You know, my grandma's also, also nice, so, you know, I was probably gonna be close to her anyway, but my dad saying that and putting that into us-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. Yeah, yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... about, about treat women, you know, treat women with respect and all that. At the time, as, as a kid, I, w- respect, what, what does that mean, you know? [laughs] Like, I'm not gonna hit my grandmother.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
I'm not gonna curse her out.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
You couldn't curse, you couldn't curse to, you know, you couldn't even curse to your friends when your parents was around.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
You'd get your ass whooped, you know? Um, so, um, I just remembered that, you know, and, and, um, and I became close with my grandmother. So when actually my grandmother died, I was the only one at the funeral not crying, 'cause I was like, "You guys didn't see this coming? She was old." [laughs] You know, when you guys-
- TNTrevor Noah
Is that how your brain processed it?
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. I was like, like, "Yeah, guys, like, yeah, you guys, you know she was old. Like, you know this is gonna happen." I know when-
- TNTrevor Noah
How old was she when she passed away?
- WSWil Sylvince
65.
- TNTrevor Noah
All right. Well, yeah, I don't know how to put this to you, but that's not particularly old.
- WSWil Sylvince
For Black people, that's like 95, 98.
- 1:00:10 – 1:01:52
Respecting Women, Family Values & His Grandmother
- WSWil Sylvince
allegedly, if Papa Doc come back in power. Um-
- TNTrevor Noah
Everyone at 55
- WSWil Sylvince
... everybody died at 55.
- TNTrevor Noah
How did your mom and dad pass away?
- WSWil Sylvince
My, my dad, my dad had, uh, chest cancer, but he never smoked. So what happened was, y- you ever heard of Dristan to clear your nose of sinuses?
- TNTrevor Noah
The, the spray?
- WSWil Sylvince
The spray.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
So he, so one, one day he had a cold. He took Dristan And but the thing with Dristan, when you take it, it'll clear your nose.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
It, y- you're actually breathing more, better than when you, without-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... when you're not sick.
- TNTrevor Noah
Before you got sick.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. And, um, the thing about Dristan, after a while, your nose will get clogged up. You gotta let it clog up for a day and you, you get your breathing back. But my dad kept taking Dristan. He wouldn't-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, they, they call it rebound.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, so he, you know, when they, in the eigh- 80s, they had the shirts with the pocket right here.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
So he kept the Dristan in his pocket.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, man.
- WSWil Sylvince
And he just kept taking it.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, man.
- WSWil Sylvince
For many years.
- TNTrevor Noah
That is, that thing is ... Still even now, like, all those nasal sprays, i- if you're on it longer than I think like 14 days, maybe even less-
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh
- TNTrevor Noah
... you're in big trouble.
- WSWil Sylvince
Well, talk about 10 year, 10 years, maybe seven years. Seven to 10 years my dad was, you know, taking it.
- TNTrevor Noah
He just needed that to breathe at some point.
- WSWil Sylvince
He just, yeah. He just, he just kept taking it every day, and then, you know, he developed, uh, a form of cancer in the chest.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, well.
- 1:01:52 – 1:04:15
Losing His Grandmother, Mother & Father
- WSWil Sylvince
reaction. She had a stroke and, um, yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Damn, I'm sorry, man.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, it's okay.
- TNTrevor Noah
That's a, that's a crazy period to go through for you and your brothers. It's like ... Or how, how far apart were-
- WSWil Sylvince
Uh-
- TNTrevor Noah
Was it between your parents dying?
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, like 10 years. Uh, also, no, no, like seven years.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Also, my, my, um, when my mother died is when I realized the truth about hospitals. 'Cause I, I used to always think hospitals and doctors and nurses were n- not ... Nurses are still amazing, but they were all about wanna help and save people.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
So when my mother had a stroke and she was in a coma, she went, she went in a coma, and she was, she had ... She went without oxygen for like, I think like eight, eight to 13 minutes. You know, by the time they called the ambulance-
- TNTrevor Noah
Mm-hmm
- WSWil Sylvince
... to the house.
- TNTrevor Noah
Mm-hmm.
- WSWil Sylvince
And they, they resuscitated.
- TNTrevor Noah
Resuscitated her.
- WSWil Sylvince
And, um, but she was without. So she, they was not sure, if she do come out of the coma-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... how much brain activity she'll have. So, so we're s- my brothers and I were at the hospital, and the doctor came out. He said, "Hey, uh, your mother's in a coma, but we're not sure how long she's gonna be, and we're not sure how much brain activity she has, but she cannot stay here. She ca-" ... Oh, no, no. First he said, uh, "You guys have insurance?" We said, "No, we don't have any insurance." He goes, "You cannot, she can't stay here. She gotta leave. She can't stay here." Um, and then, and then he kept, this went on for like five minutes, yeah, about she can't stay here. Then we said, "Well, can we just find a place?" So my brothers and I went, went back to the house, went through my mother's paperwork, and we found she had insurance through a credit card. She had insurance, a, sh- as long as she uses the credit card, she has a, I think a, a, a, a million dollars worth of insurance.
- TNTrevor Noah
Wow.
- WSWil Sylvince
So we went back to the hospital the next day. We said, "Yo." The doctor, doctor came out and said, "Did you find a place for your mother to stay?" We said, "Yes. Uh, we'll, uh ..." Also do, we showed him the paperwork. "Do you think this d- this facility will take this insurance?" He looked at the paper and, no lie, he goes, "Your mother can't leave. If she leaves here, there's a risk of her dying."
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, oh, okay. [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, man.
- WSWil Sylvince
Like, like-
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh
- WSWil Sylvince
... we knew it was happening, but at the same time like, what if he's, what if he's real? Right? [laughs] 'Cause the first thing he said, "Did you find a place for your mother?"
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Look at the paper. "She can't leave." Okay. So
- 1:04:15 – 1:08:14
The Harsh Reality of the American Healthcare System
- WSWil Sylvince
she s- she stayed at the hospital till like eight months, and the doctor was like, "The money was running out. Your mother can't stay here no longer." [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
Wow.
- WSWil Sylvince
That's not funny?
- TNTrevor Noah
Man.
- WSWil Sylvince
Okay.
- TNTrevor Noah
No, I mean, it's-
- WSWil Sylvince
It, it's, it's-
- TNTrevor Noah
It's insane
- WSWil Sylvince
... too soon? [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
I mean-
- WSWil Sylvince
So then we found a place for her to stay. We moved her to this facility, um, uh, this home. And, um, and then me and my brother, brothers had a talk. Like, man, you know, if this happened to me, dude, pull the plug. Like, if there's no brain activity, like I don't wanna come back, you know, I can't say hello.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
I can't, I can't ... I barely could blink. Like, dude, pull the plug. Let me, let me leave. So once we all decided that, we just said, "Yo." So we, we unplugged her. I think she, she passed away like later that day or a day later.
- TNTrevor Noah
Damn.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. But-
- TNTrevor Noah
No wonder you can't sleep.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
This stuff you're telling us. I mean ...
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] That's not funny? I thought it was funny as hell.
- TNTrevor Noah
No, I mean, it's, it's very funny.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
I'm still ... Yeah, I, I, I don't know.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. I, I don't know. I'm trying to put myself in your, in your shoes in some of those moments and, and process it. I, I can't imagine what a lot of that is like.
- WSWil Sylvince
So after that experience with the hospital, I'm like, doctors are full of shit. Hospitals are full of shit. It's just all about money. It's all about business. But then I met some amazing nurses. They, they ... Nurses really wanna help. I'm not saying all doctors are like that, b- but, but that doctor, [laughs] he, you know what I'm saying, he, he, he wasn't about that.
- TNTrevor Noah
The, yeah, the, the thing, the thing that's tough from everything I've read, let's say specifically in American healthcare, it's, it's funny because it, it, it depends on the country you live in. Um, in, in South Africa when my m- my mom was shot and we were in the hospital, they said a similar thing to me. They said, uh, "Does your, does, does she have insurance?" And I was like, "I don't think she has insurance." And it was so crazy because my mom, she always had insurance. And then I wanna say like six months before the incident, she was like, "I don't need insurance." She's like, "This makes no sense. I'm just paying for this thing and nothing happens." Then I said, "That's what insurance is for. It's not if something ... It's, it's because something might happen, not because it does happen."
- WSWil Sylvince
Right.
- TNTrevor Noah
She was like, "No, I don't need insurance."
- WSWil Sylvince
It's like my friend who gave up his, um, fire extinguisher. He said, "Yo, I don't, I won't use this."
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- 1:08:14 – 1:11:18
Trevor Shares His Mother’s Hospital Experience
- TNTrevor Noah
uh, in a, in a, in a lot of America is there are companies that have bought out doctors' practices, so the doctors don't even sort of work for themselves anymore.
- WSWil Sylvince
Wow.
- TNTrevor Noah
And then there are also companies that own hospital groups.
- WSWil Sylvince
Right.
- TNTrevor Noah
So the hospital's also a part of a company, right?
- WSWil Sylvince
Right.
- TNTrevor Noah
And then they need to make money, and then the doctors that are in as part of this thing, so they feed into the hospital. They're also, their money's also going somewhere else. So the doctor's working a lot, but they're not necessarily earning the money of working a lot.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm.
- TNTrevor Noah
Right? And then the hospital is in cahoots with certain providers for certain procedures or certain medicines, and so. And it just becomes this weird world where everyone seems like they're being held hostage by somebody else, but they're also the hostage takers. I- I- I- I don't know, I don't know if I can explain this. It's, it's like a, it's like a weird rabbit hole where, like, the hospitals themselves will be like, "We're barely making a profit." And the doctors will say, "We, we barely make any money and we work, we work countless hours." And then the people who are in the hospitals are like, "We s- we don't have any money, and we're treated like shit," or, "We spend all our money." Who's making the money?
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm.
- TNTrevor Noah
And it's generally these big organizations that are, um, that they've designed systems that put an undue pressure on the medical industry. And unfortunately, the stories are a lot like what you're saying.
- WSWil Sylvince
So who, who's the ... There's gotta be somebody at, up top, right? Like, like, uh-
- TNTrevor Noah
Well-
- WSWil Sylvince
... they, they treat it like a company, right?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
There's a CEO.
- TNTrevor Noah
It's generally, yeah, but it's generally the big, the big companies. Like, there's a few. I, I don't know them by name, so I won't, like, say the wrong one-
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm
- TNTrevor Noah
... and then, you know-
- WSWil Sylvince
Right
- TNTrevor Noah
... get in trouble or whatever.
- WSWil Sylvince
No, no, I'm, I'm, I'm just saying like-
- TNTrevor Noah
No, no, but I know there's big-
- WSWil Sylvince
So there's one, like a c- like a, like a company.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. Yeah. Th- th- no, but there are actual big companies that own these groups.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm.
- TNTrevor Noah
And they, and they're trying to consolidate more and more, and that's what's leading to the systems being worse and worse and worse and worse. But then there's also weird things in American medicine, like, um, like when it comes to prescription medications, for instance. You have these things called pharmacy benefit managers, I think it is. I think it's pharmacy, yeah. But, but basically what they do is they're like the middleman between you and your prescription, but they can also, like, decide a price that your insurer pays-
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm
- TNTrevor Noah
... which also determines the price that you pay, which also determines the price of the medicine, and it determines the price of what the med- m- medicine maker is getting. It is as convoluted as I'm, as I'm saying it right now. Do you know what I mean? It's not like it's not-
- WSWil Sylvince
Almost like if it's in demand. Like, like when you buy, when you try to buy a ticket to a concert.
- 1:11:18 – 1:15:24
How Healthcare Became Controlled by Corporations
- TNTrevor Noah
That's what it is. But I like that your-
- WSWil Sylvince
But your guess was pretty. [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
It was fantastic.
- WSWil Sylvince
Big butt lactose.
- TNTrevor Noah
Big butt lactose.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
Hey, you got that big ba- big butt lactose over there, man.
- WSWil Sylvince
So wait, you, you was gonna get a BBL for real?
- TNTrevor Noah
No. [laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh. I'm like, damn, how bad is it what's in this country-
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
... that the girls got f- they got.
- TNTrevor Noah
No, you see, Dave's dad told him when he was very young, he said, "There are no gender roles in this house."
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
"Men can get BBLs and women can get BBLs."
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
And Dave was very close to his grandmother.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
So Dave was like, "I'm gonna get a BBL as well." [laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
So th- there was a guy who invented i- insulin. You know the story about the guy who inven- invented the insulin for, for diabetic patients?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. I think I know s- w- which story?
- WSWil Sylvince
Well, he wanted it to be, to be cheap for everybody.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
I think a dollar or something.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Some company bought it-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... and he said, "Hey, you can buy it, but as long as you make s- make it available for everybody and really cheap."
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
They say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." And then they actually jacked up the price to, like, 300, 400, even $1,000.
- 1:15:24 – 1:20:03
Discovering Comedy Through Rodney Dangerfield & Joan Rivers
- SPSpeaker
specific generation.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
So my mother would go around the table, "How was school today? Any stories happen? How was school? What happened?" And just ... And then got to my dad. My dad a, my dad say, "Yeah, I w- I was, uh, in downtown. Someone came with a gun, put it in my face, asked me for my wallet. I gave it to him, and then he go away." And we're like ... And my dad was like, "Mm. Anything anybody else have stories?"
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
It be like ... And then he pr- by the way, he pistol whip my dad. P- he hit him with the g- the face with the gun. But he's telling this story like it's like, "Oh yeah, I went to the park and I swung, swung on the swings." That's how he told the story. You know?
- SPSpeaker
But you're having a very, um, I don't wanna say ... You're having like a very well-grounded family s- life. You know, sitting at the table.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
No, I mean in the sense of your, your upbringing. Sitting at the table with the whole family, mother saying each person tell the story. You know, that kind of thing. So this is a very, like, almost like a, the family that we, that TV has told us is a family. You had that childhood, in a way.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. Uh, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Or a certain portion of it.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, I, I guess, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Y-
- WSWil Sylvince
I mean, eating together was like a, was the norm. I never, I ain't, I ain't even think it was not ... I thought all families eating together.
- SPSpeaker
No, no, no, no. That's not normal. Or, or rather it-
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
... or rather it is not as ubiquitous as it may seem. Not everyone is doing it.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm. We used to play together also.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, all these things.
- WSWil Sylvince
Um, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Dave's right. This is very wholesome.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
So wait, were you the, were you the funny kid in the family?
- WSWil Sylvince
I was to my, to, to my brothers. My, my dad, you know, you, you get your ass whooped. [laughs] Uh, but I was, I used to do prac- I used to like hide and scare them, or like I used to-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... like switch their plates. You know, remove the burger and put like more lettuce in there, and when they bite it-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
... and, and where is it? And, and I'll be holding the burger. "Are you looking for this?" You know, um-
- SPSpeaker
What was, what was the first thing you remember seeing that made you think, "I wanna get into comedy"? Like specifically comedy. 'Cause I know every comedian has something they saw that made them think-
- WSWil Sylvince
Two people.
- 1:20:03 – 1:24:13
Meeting Dougie Doug & Starting Stand-Up Comedy
- WSWil Sylvince
for, for the birthday?
- TNTrevor Noah
No, I don't remember this.
- WSWil Sylvince
So you didn't see Rocky IV? You didn't see Rockys?
- TNTrevor Noah
No, I saw Rocky IV. I just don't remember the robot.
- WSWil Sylvince
Rocky III?
- TNTrevor Noah
I don't remember-
- WSWil Sylvince
Did you see Rocky III?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes, I've seen all the Rockys.
- WSWil Sylvince
You don't remember a big robot that came out-
- TNTrevor Noah
I don't
- WSWil Sylvince
... with a big, round head?
- TNTrevor Noah
I don't. That's not, like, the thing.
- WSWil Sylvince
Do, do you see Rockys?
- TNTrevor Noah
I did.
- WSWil Sylvince
Do you remember the robot?
- TNTrevor Noah
I can say that-
- WSWil Sylvince
It's a yes or no question. He's a politician
- TNTrevor Noah
... it's a no, I do not remember it.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
I'm gonna look this up right now.
- WSWil Sylvince
But I may remember the party. Do you know what I mean? Like, I-
- TNTrevor Noah
I'm gonna look this up right now.
- WSWil Sylvince
The robot's name is Sico.
- TNTrevor Noah
Sico spelled how?
- WSWil Sylvince
S-I-C-O.
- TNTrevor Noah
Is this when you're an engineer?
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was working at th- that, that company.
- TNTrevor Noah
Where did you go to school?
- WSWil Sylvince
I went to school in, uh, New York Tech and City College.
- TNTrevor Noah
And then you be- and then there was-
- 1:24:13 – 1:27:13
Bombing on Stage for the First Time
- WSWil Sylvince
And so when I saw, I was like, oh, comedy's for everybody. It shouldn't just be for a group or, or, you know-
- TNTrevor Noah
Just your people.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, or your people. You just gotta find a way to get ... It's all about language. How do, how do I interpretate this, you know? This is why-
- TNTrevor Noah
How do I what? It's funny that he said in, he said, he just said it's about language, and then Wil pulled a Wil and said-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah
- TNTrevor Noah
... "Did you say interpretate?"
- WSWil Sylvince
Interpretate.
- TNTrevor Noah
Man.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] N- Dave, Dave don't, he's not Haitian.
- TNTrevor Noah
Do you have that dictionary?
- WSWil Sylvince
No, I know what you were saying. I, I know what you were saying.
- TNTrevor Noah
'Cause you interpretated it in your head.
- WSWil Sylvince
I did interpretate it in my head.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs] Have you always done that, by the way? That's probably one of my favorite things about you as a human being.
- WSWil Sylvince
What's that?
- TNTrevor Noah
Is that, like, you, you've just substituted words in your head.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, my, my brain look for, for the nearest word.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Like, that should be it.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, but you, like, you've done this with ... You just say, like, the craziest word, where I'm like ... But it's always adjacent.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. We know what you're saying.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. Like, interpretate. I'm like, yeah, that's correct.
- WSWil Sylvince
And, and the way-
- TNTrevor Noah
I'm willing to accept-
- WSWil Sylvince
What, what's the word then?
- TNTrevor Noah
If it was a game show, I would accept it.
- WSWil Sylvince
Interpret.
- TNTrevor Noah
Interpret.
- WSWil Sylvince
W- w- w- so what's interpretate?
- TNTrevor Noah
I don't think that's a thing at all.
- 1:27:13 – 1:30:58
“Interpretate,” Language Mistakes & Why Will Is Naturally Funny
- SPSpeaker
thing ever.
- WSWil Sylvince
That's what I said.
- SPSpeaker
It's a valid word, but it is often viewed as a not real word.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
Wow.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
That is a-
- WSWil Sylvince
'Cause I, I remember my teacher used to tell me, "Oh, j- conversate is not a real word." Go, uh... Kids would be like, "Yeah, I was conversating with..." And the teacher would stop the whole class, "That's not a real word. You, it's converse."
- SPSpeaker
Yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
That is a, but it is a real word.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, I, well, look, look, according-
- SPSpeaker
Every word is sort of like a real word, but-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... but, but so, but what I'm saying is, is that certain words sound like they could be a word.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes. Conversate is one of them.
- SPSpeaker
Conversate, interpretate, yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
Some are, like, b- are, like, wrong.
- TNTrevor Noah
I think you're just ahead of your time, Will.
- WSWil Sylvince
Also, a word, a, a, a word is misused for a number of period of time, it becomes a word.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes. That's true.
- WSWil Sylvince
Right? Except for Pacific or specific.
- TNTrevor Noah
Well, Pacific is 'cause it's an ocean.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, but Pacific people use as p- p- p- specific.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] I was having a stroke. Versus, you know what I'm saying? But that never became...
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, because it's Pacific already.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh.
- TNTrevor Noah
It's gotta be a new word.
- 1:30:58 – 1:35:18
Getting Booed at Black Comedy Clubs
- SPSpeaker
want to... Or this is what I've heard, at least. I don't want to interrupt your performance.
- TNTrevor Noah
That w- no, it was, it was like that. When I did, when I did shows in Japan, then there were a lot of Japanese people in the audience, and I, I thought I was just not connecting with them at all. And then there were a lot of expats as well, so people from all over the world who live in Japan. They were having a good time. And then I remember after the show, I, I met a bunch of people in the streets. This was in Tokyo. And then a lot of Japanese people came up after the show and they're like, "Oh, you know, can I get a selfie? Can I get an autograph?" Et cetera. And then there were a few people, and you know how it is as a comedian, you remember the people.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
And I was like-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah
- TNTrevor Noah
... "Yo, you didn't laugh once." And then he was like, "Oh, no." He's like, "I couldn't laugh." He's like, "I didn't wanna laugh while you were there. It was very funny, but I didn't wanna interrupt you." And I was like, "Man, that is the exact opposite reaction that we were looking for." This is the exact opposite reaction
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] You know, I was in China, right? Uh, th- this is how amazing Chinese people are. I did shows in China, and there would be Chinese people sitting in the audience not laughing, right? And then they'll come... And then so there was this one Chinese guy, he followed me to all my shows. By the seventh show, I'm like, "Dude, you come to the shows, you're not laughing." He goes, "I'm learning English."
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
Oh, wow.
- WSWil Sylvince
They would just come to the show to learn English.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
That's how dope Chinese people are. They just... I just... And then he said the first show he didn't speak any English. By the seventh show, he was having a, a fairly good conversation with me. My-
- SPSpeaker
He was going around saying your act.
- WSWil Sylvince
No, no. [laughs]
- SPSpeaker
Basically, yes. Not lying.
- WSWil Sylvince
He, he said th- he, he was just figuring out at my show. I'm like, "Oh."
- TNTrevor Noah
You know what I'm, I'm, I'm loving right now, is the idea that there is a Chinese man somewhere, maybe still in China, who's walking around saying, "Interpretate-
- WSWil Sylvince
"No more ugly girls for me."
- SPSpeaker
Interpret-
- TNTrevor Noah
... Interpretate and Pacific. [laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] I thought you were gonna say, "No more ugly girls for me."
- SPSpeaker
But sorry, so you, you're replaying this thing in your head-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... but you didn't go on stage.
- WSWil Sylvince
I didn't go on stage. No, no, no.
- TNTrevor Noah
So you're still back at the robotics firm now.
- WSWil Sylvince
I was trying to figure out... I was st- I, I stay there. I worked at robotics for a long time.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
You know, um, uh-
- TNTrevor Noah
How many years?
- 1:35:18 – 1:38:39
Working in Robotics While Chasing Comedy
- TNTrevor Noah
you don't go, "Let me make this joke because this joke works." You're going, "I like this joke. Let's figure it out, and I can afford to like this joke."
- WSWil Sylvince
That is true.
- TNTrevor Noah
You know what I'm saying?
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because when, when you're, when you're doing it because you have to survive, you'll, you do whatever thing you gotta do-
- TNTrevor Noah
Exactly
- WSWil Sylvince
... to get for the last-
- TNTrevor Noah
Exactly
- WSWil Sylvince
... so you could keep getting work.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Versus like, I'm just, you know, "Hey, it didn't work. We'll, we'll try another time."
- TNTrevor Noah
Exactly. That's d- that's genuinely my opinion.
- WSWil Sylvince
So-
- TNTrevor Noah
But I mean-
- SPSpeaker
Sorry, question. No, no. In, while you're doing this kind of comedy and stuff... No, no, I mean work/comedy, work/comedy. How long is this work/comedy going for?
- WSWil Sylvince
I don't know.
- SPSpeaker
No, I mean-
- WSWil Sylvince
I can't remember
- SPSpeaker
... you know, is it like from day one of working at the, at the engineering, or is it like towards the end? You know what I mean.
- WSWil Sylvince
No, no, no, no. Towards the, um, the middle-ish.
- SPSpeaker
Middle-ish. Okay, cool.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
And then are your family seeing you?
- WSWil Sylvince
No, because my... It was, we were not allowed to do... Because comedy was like my, my dad, my mother was like, "Well, no. Well, uh, just make us laugh if that's the case."
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
You know?
- TNTrevor Noah
You're throwing your future away.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. Like, you know, you had to be engineer, you had to be a doctor, you had to be a lawyer, you know? And, and because, because the, the thing was, you know, education, good job, then you get a family, then you take over the house.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
You know, only in America, where you, you, when you turn 18, you leave the house.
- TNTrevor Noah
Uh-huh.
- 1:38:39 – 1:39:40
Haitian Parents vs Choosing Comedy as a Career
- WSWil Sylvince
and then, and then they w- I, it was acceptable. I g- I, I guess when they see there's a, there's a way to make money, there's a, is a living or, and then laughter also, it brings people together. So there's so many things happening, I guess, when my mother first saw me on TV for the first time.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
She was like, she, first of all, she was like, "Is that, is that Wil?" You know, I, I, I try to picture, like, what was going through her mind-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
... when she was wa- you know, first of all, she, it, is that, it's 1:00 AM. What is she doing up at 1:00 AM, you know? You know, that's number one. Number two, she's just flipping through the channels, look, look, probably looking for the news.
- SPSpeaker
That's wild. And she bumps into you.
- WSWil Sylvince
And then she, she, she flicked-
- SPSpeaker
What was, do you remember what the show was?
- WSWil Sylvince
The, uh, some show about the, the Appo- not the Apollo.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
The other, it's another show the Apollo was producing. And, um, and then, and, and then my, my brother told me, 'cause not my mother, but she was flipping through the channels. And then she stopped and, and what made her stop was 'cause she, "Is that Wil?" And she just, you know, watched it [laughs] you know,
- 1:39:40 – 1:46:22
Will’s Mother Accidentally Seeing Him on TV
- WSWil Sylvince
and then-
- SPSpeaker
That's insane. [laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
That's really amazing.
- WSWil Sylvince
It is?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. The, just think of all, all the variables that have to come together for that to happen.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Your mom has to be up past her bedtime-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yep
- TNTrevor Noah
... which she isn't normally.
- WSWil Sylvince
Normally, yep.
- TNTrevor Noah
Your mom is flipping through channels. Remember, there's no TV Guide when this is happening.
- WSWil Sylvince
She normally, if she's up, she's making tea.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
She's on the phone to a-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, so now she's flipping channels.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm-hmm.
- TNTrevor Noah
She bumps into you. I'm assuming you're not doing a long set on the show.
- WSWil Sylvince
No, no, five, five minutes.
- TNTrevor Noah
Five minutes.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
So she has a five-minute window to catch you.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
She catches-
- WSWil Sylvince
A 30-minute show.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
In that, within that five minutes of 30.
- TNTrevor Noah
And so she catches this five minutes of her son, and he's not bombing.
- SPSpeaker
You know what-
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- 1:46:22 – 1:48:30
Making It at the Comedy Cellar
- TNTrevor Noah
life is finished, but when you look at your career in comedy now, you have to admit it's pretty crazy that y- you, you, you've done shows with like, you know what I mean? You, you are touring with-
- WSWil Sylvince
And Damon Wayans
- TNTrevor Noah
... like, the Wayans brothers.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, Wayans brothers.
- TNTrevor Noah
You know?
- WSWil Sylvince
Damon Wayans, Wayans brothers.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Katt Williams.
- TNTrevor Noah
Katt Williams.
- WSWil Sylvince
Katt Williams a ma- by the way, don't listen to none of the stuff about Katt Williams. He's, he, that dude is amazing.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, that's the stuff I heard. What do you mean?
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. The, oh, oh, 'cause he was-
- TNTrevor Noah
What's the other stuff?
- WSWil Sylvince
That he's, he's, he's nuts. He's not. He's not. Katt Williams, he's the only person that I know, you might know someone like this, he's the only one that I know when he gets to a town, he'll get the local paper and read the whole paper, and his first 10, 15 minutes or 20 minutes will be on that town. The crowd go crazy. It's almost having, like, a local open or open.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
He-
- TNTrevor Noah
But it's Katt Williams.
- WSWil Sylvince
But it's Katt Williams that's telling jokes about your people. He's one of the, one of the most fascinating people I ever met.
- TNTrevor Noah
And he, and he loves comedy, man.
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
That man loves-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah
- TNTrevor Noah
... comedy.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Loves comedy. One of my favorite things that ever happened in my life was, it's, I, I, I probably, like, credit Katt with even giving me an opportunity in comedy in, in, in Los Angeles. I used to try and get spots at the, um, uh-
- WSWil Sylvince
Comedy Store?
- TNTrevor Noah
No. The Laugh Factory.
- WSWil Sylvince
Laugh Factory.
- TNTrevor Noah
Couldn't get any spots. They were always just like, "Yeah, come back next week. Yeah, come back next week."
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- 1:48:30 – 1:49:39
Touring With Katt Williams & Legendary Comedy Stories
- TNTrevor Noah
of hope.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
So-
- WSWil Sylvince
All right. Then something happens. I discovered you. Remember I helped you out.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, that, that's literally it.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
So I'd go to The Comedy Store, and I'd be like, "Can I perform?" And they'd be like, "Uh, what are your credits, kid?" And, "What have you done?" And, "What are you... " I was like, "Oh, you know, South Africa." They're like, "No, no, we mean real credits. What are your... " You know? And I'd go to another club and another club, and anyway, I would, it was just like-
- WSWil Sylvince
You pull out your credit cards?
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs] And it was just-
- WSWil Sylvince
Nothing soon
- TNTrevor Noah
... and I would just go, "This is, this is something I'm trying to do. I'm trying..." Well, whatever. I, I didn't really mind. And so one day I'm at the, The Laugh Factory, and the comedian, um, the guy who was running it, actually, Pooky Wigginton. You know Pooky?
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, everybody knows Pooky.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah, yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
So Pooky would, like, put on this show called Chocolate Sundaes. And they go, "Hey, the comedian who was supposed to go on dropped out. You're here, like, every week." They're like, "You gonna, you ready to go up?" I was like, "Yeah, I'm ready." So they go, "Okay, you're gonna go on before the, the host, before the opener."
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, you have to warm up for the host.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, but they didn't tell me that. They didn't explain that, 'cause I don't know if you know this, Dave. I didn't know this. In some clubs in America, they have a comedian who comes on before the show starts.
- 1:49:39 – 1:57:10
Trevor’s First Big Break in Los Angeles Thanks to Katt Williams
- WSWil Sylvince
I did not know this.
- TNTrevor Noah
But that's, like, the worst slot in all of comedy because-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah
- TNTrevor Noah
... they don't even play music for you when you walk out. Like, you are, you exist before the show.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. I didn't know this.
- WSWil Sylvince
Because the host is, is a, a prominent name.
- TNTrevor Noah
Not even. Not even. It's just a, like- You, you, you, you know those, you know those stories they would tell in war of certain soldiers who were chosen to be on the front lines just as fodder?
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
Your job was to be killed in the front lines-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah
- TNTrevor Noah
... so that, like, the respected soldiers could actually survive the fight.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
That's what that, that, that position is in comedy. You're gonna go up there, you're gonna talk, no one's gonna listen, but at least it sets in motion the idea that a show is going to start.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
And then the host comes up and the music plays.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm.
- TNTrevor Noah
So anyway, I go on stage. I ask very naively, I say, "Uh, is someone gonna introduce me?" [laughs] And then the guy's like, he's like, "Nah, man."
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs] He's like, "You, you, you, you're up first. Yeah, get on stage."
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
So I'm like, "Goddamn, okay." So I walk on stage. No one is paying attention. They're getting food orders. They get... Like, it is, it's the worst position you can ever be in. So I start, I start doing, like, my set. You know, I'm, like, t- telling the joke, but no one is listening. No one. I had... They gave me four minutes or three m- I even remember then, I was like, "Three minutes?" Like, what do you say in three minutes?
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
Hello, and you know. So I start doing my set, and about, like, a minute in, it's now just silence.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm.
- TNTrevor Noah
So the room is... They've, they've, they're done taking orders-
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah
- TNTrevor Noah
... but now it's just silence.
- WSWil Sylvince
They g- you got their attention.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, but the attention is just like, "What is this man?"
- 1:57:10 – 2:01:36
Aziz Ansari’s Movie “Good Fortune” & Acting
- TNTrevor Noah
have endings-
- WSWil Sylvince
Not, not the typical ending
- TNTrevor Noah
... yeah, that leave people, like, you walk out of the cinema be- cinema questioning yourself, like-
- WSWil Sylvince
Like Sixth Sense
- TNTrevor Noah
... not even. That's like a, that's like a chill version.
- WSWil Sylvince
Sixth Sense was not, no one expect-
- TNTrevor Noah
That's the, yeah, that's just the twist
- WSWil Sylvince
... expect. Mm, okay
- TNTrevor Noah
... that's, Dave would watch, okay, this is the kind of movie Dave would watch. It would be Sixth Sense, but everyone would be French, and then the child, instead of seeing ghosts, would say that, like, they see the pain that the world is in, and then instead of Bruce Willis it would be a flower. And then instead of an-
- WSWil Sylvince
Then they would talk into the whole time
- TNTrevor Noah
... instead of, like, a two-hour movie, it would be, like, four and a half
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
Those are the kind of movies that Dave watches.
- WSWil Sylvince
That's a lot of reading.
- SPSpeaker
No. Um, the, one of the reasons is it's a version of what you're saying, is that you, I like the thing of not knowing what's gonna happen.
- TNTrevor Noah
I, that's what I credit to you.
- SPSpeaker
Yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
I'm not even slamming you.
- SPSpeaker
No, no, no. So I'm saying in an ideal world, it would be contained almost, like, within normal.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes. I know what you mean.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. Like, so, 'cause every now and then you'll see, let's say a rom-com-
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... where you know, you sort of, like, know what's gonna happen in a rom-com.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yes. You know exactly what's gonna happen
- SPSpeaker
But the things are so refreshing within it that you're like, "Wow, I was-"
- TNTrevor Noah
That's how I felt about Good Fortune. And I'm not saying that 'cause you were in it, I'm not saying that because of Aziz. I genuinely enjoyed that somebody tried to make something, and I think succeeded-
- WSWil Sylvince
Mm
- TNTrevor Noah
... that upended a lot of the ideas that you would have of how a plot and a story are supposed to go.
- SPSpeaker
Yes.
- WSWil Sylvince
Right.
- 2:01:36 – 2:02:50
Boxing, Discipline & Why Will Started Training
- WSWil Sylvince
you know. And a f- and then Father Brennan or Father John, one of them-
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay. Yeah
- WSWil Sylvince
... came up to me. He goes, "Why you not, why you not greeting?" I'm like, "I, I never hugged anybody. I don't, I, I don't know what to do. I'm..." He said, "You never hugged nobody?" He said, he had the big brown robe on with the big-ass arms. He said, "Come here," and he opened his arms, and I just went in and he hugged me. And I was like, "Holy shit, it felt so good."
- TNTrevor Noah
Aw, Will.
- WSWil Sylvince
But my penis didn't get hard. That's how I knew, I was like, you know what I'm saying?
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
No one thought your penis got hard.
- WSWil Sylvince
It was genuine. It was ge- genuine.
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
No one, no one thought that.
- WSWil Sylvince
Huh?
- SPSpeaker
Nobody thought that
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
[laughs]
- WSWil Sylvince
No, bec- [laughs] Because this guy-
- TNTrevor Noah
You added a, you added a-
- WSWil Sylvince
This guy said, this guy said-
- TNTrevor Noah
"Would you like some, uh, can I have some popcorn? And we're not gonna put gravy on top."
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
We didn't think that popcorn coming with gravy.
- WSWil Sylvince
No, because I hope the whole, you get someone pregnant.
- TNTrevor Noah
You just said, "Wil said."
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh.
- TNTrevor Noah
That's how I knew it wasn't genuine. [laughs] That's how I knew it wasn't genuine.
- WSWil Sylvince
But he's a guy.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, man.
- WSWil Sylvince
Because, because I'm like, "Okay, no one's gonna get preg- if it, it happened to be a girl," it was just a hug.
- TNTrevor Noah
It was just a hug.
- WSWil Sylvince
Like, wow. It was, it ain't got nothing to do with sex. It was just a hug.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- 2:02:50 – 2:05:09
Strict Religion, Fear of Girls & His First Hug
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, look at that.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. With who I... My first girlfriend. Uh, but I, with the, I, I avoided having sex with her.
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay.
- WSWil Sylvince
Because I was very religious.
- TNTrevor Noah
That's good. That's fine.
- WSWil Sylvince
Didn't have sex till I was 24. I was a virgin till I was 24.
- TNTrevor Noah
Wow.
- WSWil Sylvince
But I, I used to lie to girls. Be like, "Oh sh- oh, I gotta, I gotta go. I'm, I gotta go to work," or, "I gotta do some homework. I gotta go back to class."
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh, when, when it was-
- WSWil Sylvince
We'd be, we'd be butt-naked. "Oh, no, I forgot. I gotta..." And I'd get, and I'd, and I s- leave, leave the place.
- TNTrevor Noah
Damn. You were s- 'cause you were so scared of sex because you were religious, you were like, "I gotta get out of this situation."
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
Resisting temptation, essentially.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yes, yes.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah. And then you were like, "My boss gave me the keys so I can, I can c- c- clock in at any time."
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah. [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
"There's a work order waiting for me. I gotta go."
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
And then you'd run out.
- WSWil Sylvince
I'd run out.
- TNTrevor Noah
Oh.
- WSWil Sylvince
And, and she goes like, "Okay. Uh, all right. Um, all right." Yeah. [laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
I wonder if one of your girlfriends thought you were s- like a superhero.
- WSWil Sylvince
Or-
- TNTrevor Noah
'Cause that's what, like, s- Peter Parker does. Think about it. Peter Parker will be on a date-
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh, yeah, yeah
- TNTrevor Noah
... and then out of nowhere will be like, "I gotta go."
- WSWil Sylvince
Right.
- TNTrevor Noah
And it's like, "What happened?" And it was his Spidey sense.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- 2:05:09 – 2:06:30
Losing His Virginity at 24
- WSWil Sylvince
until later on, until, you know... W- what changed my life about health was two, two things. I did a show with a tank top on, and I was dating this girl, and I, I did a, a great show, and I got off stage, and she said, everybody was saying, "Good job, good job." She said, "Either do, either wear a shirt or wear the tank top without the stomach." I go, "What? What does that mean?" [laughs] I had a big stomach, but nice arms.
- TNTrevor Noah
What did you, what did you weigh at your heaviest?
- WSWil Sylvince
Uh, 220.
- TNTrevor Noah
Have you seen Wil's pictures at his heaviest?
- SPSpeaker
I have not. I've only ever seen this Wil.
- TNTrevor Noah
If you see Wil's pictures-
- WSWil Sylvince
I was 220, yeah
- TNTrevor Noah
... at his heaviest, it's, it's a pretty amazing-
- SPSpeaker
Oh, really?
- WSWil Sylvince
Transformation?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
I used that word correctly?
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, you used that word...
- SPSpeaker
When did the transformation happen?
- WSWil Sylvince
Uh, 2007. I, I gave up, I gave up, in fact, every year I was giving something up. That year I gave up poultry. All, all, all types of turkeys, chicken.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
I gave up poultry. I thought that was gonna be very hard. And I gave up poultry. The next year I gave up, um, oh, fried things. Anything fried.
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay.
- WSWil Sylvince
Right? Uh, then in the year after that I gave up, um, uh, ice cream and, and like, you know, n- like a lot of sugary things.
- TNTrevor Noah
Okay.
- WSWil Sylvince
But I, sugar always kept coming back and forth. Then the 40-
- TNTrevor Noah
Sugar's the devil, man.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- 2:06:30 – 2:13:30
Health Journey, Weight Loss & Giving Up Sugar
- WSWil Sylvince
Oh.
- TNTrevor Noah
Wil sent me a, a DM this morning about sugar.
- WSWil Sylvince
Yeah.
- TNTrevor Noah
That's probably, like, the only thing Wil sends me.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs] And then-
- TNTrevor Noah
He'll just send me, like, a random message out of the blue, "Sugar is killing you. Let me tell you what sugar does to the human body."
- WSWil Sylvince
Uh, dementia.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Um, inflammation.
- TNTrevor Noah
I know it. You sent me the video. I know.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
I know. I know.
- WSWil Sylvince
And then, um, the, the hardest thing-
- TNTrevor Noah
It's almost like you know when I'm on my couch about to have ice cream-
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
... and then you DM me, and then I'm like, "Huh, what's this?"
- SPSpeaker
"Sugar will destroy your life."
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
"Sugar will make cancer in your brain."
- TNTrevor Noah
Then I'm like, "Aw, thank you, Wil."
- WSWil Sylvince
And, and so the one year, uh, the, this is the fourth or fifth year, I was giving up dairy. I'm like, "Oh, if I gave up chicken, I gave up this, it's gonna be easy."
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, yeah.
- WSWil Sylvince
Dairy was so hard. I, 'cause I love cheese. I put, I used to put cheese on everything. If there was cheese, put extra cheese. If n- it never had cheese, well, let's try it and see what happens, you know? And, and, uh, and then I read up on why is this so hard, and that's when I first started doing research on health. And it's addicting. It's, um, ch- dairy's probably the worst thing you can put in your body. So mu- it causes so much inflammation.
- TNTrevor Noah
No, but which dairy? You always say this, and I always fight against this, Wil.
- WSWil Sylvince
[laughs]
- TNTrevor Noah
Which dairy? You gotta be specific. 'Cause, like, it can't just be dairy.
- WSWil Sylvince
Mil- mil- milk.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, but what I mean is, like-
- WSWil Sylvince
They use milk for so many things.
- TNTrevor Noah
Yeah, but what I mean is this, right? This, this, this is like [sighs] ...
Episode duration: 2:19:03
Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript
Transcript of episode lQwQCgkyNvA
