>> Well, great, Trevor.
Thank you for joining us.
It's wonderful to have you back.
You spend some time with us
years ago when we were doing these in person.
But tell me, you've been
working from home for a year now,
just like so many of the rest of us.
But unlike the rest of us,
we get to see your work every day.
You've been sharing it with the world.
How does it feel? What have you
learned after a year of working from home?
>> I think I've learned that you
can do anything if the need arises.
The old adage, "Necessity is the mother of invention."
That's what I've learned during this time,
is that we can do
anything that we need to do as human beings.
But I do think I've also learned that there are
limits to what we can do
within the confines of the way we exist now.
I know the first few months of the pandemic,
all I was constantly existing in was
a space of discovery
and adventure and excitement
and just constantly learning new ways to do what
I was doing because we were all locked at home.
After a certain point, I came to
realize we're missing the human connection,
the human moments as I think social scientists call it,
when magic is sparked by individuals
being in the same space together and
just a small body movement or
an inflection or tone shift
is something that sometimes sparks
an amazing idea that can oftentimes change the world.
That's probably what I've learned during this period
is we can do many great things
but we can't do them without each other.
>> When you go back and
we all are hoping that we're getting
increasingly close to that day when we go back to
something that resembles life as it was before,
will there be some things that shall do
differently than you did before because of this?
>> Well, the rule I've used for
my team is that we don't use the phrase going back,
we use going forward.
What we've decided to do is I've said to everybody,
I don't want to go back because
then I'm inclined to design
a system that remembers how everything
was and doesn't incorporate everything that now is.
I've gone, when we go forward, what are we going to do?
When we go to a studio, what are we going to do?
How do we move this show to a studio?
Because what I don't want to do is be in a space
where you can fall back into the old
because systems are so
powerful that they can just rope you
into the way things were and how things were done,
how you ran meetings,
why you had meetings?
Did you need to do everything
the way you did the same way?
I think the answer is no. For myself and my team,
what I've said is, let's move forward.
Let's take the horrible experience
we've had during coronavirus
but extract all of the positive things
we've learned from it and
apply that to the future going
forward, hopefully June, July.
It'll all depend on what
happens in America and in the rest of the world.
But yeah, I'm hoping that going forward,
we create a completely new experience that ties in
the old with this
new very abnormal period we've lived through.
>> I love that phrase.
That's well put. Let's imagine
what it will be like to go forward.
Trevor, one of the things
that I think is so amazing about
you is your personal story and many people know it.
You've shared it in your book,
you've shared it in different slices.
There'll even be a movie about it.
But it often brings to me a couple of thoughts.
One is, what computers are meant for your life?
One is, what's your journey
from South Africa to the United States has been like?
One is your philanthropy.
I got to be with you three years ago this month when you
launched the work at
the new nation school in Johannesburg.
If you take those different things
and you think about going
forward outside of your work
as a stand-up on the weekend
or you're on The Daily Show each evening,
what are the other things that you
want to take going forward
and where do you see some of that
perhaps changing because of this time?
>> That's an interesting question because I think
it's going to require a moment of thoughts.
This is something I've shared with
my friends and family as I've said,
the one thing I've promised myself is I'm going to
create the time to think when the world opens up.
Because I don't want to fall victim
to the idea of just having to go.
I just want to breathe.
I think we take for granted that
when we watch a movie and
there's an asteroid headed towards Earth,
we take for granted that because
we're watching the movie,
we plan what's going to happen in our heads.
We're calm. When zombies invade the planets in a TV show,
we take for granted that we're observers,
so we plan accordingly.
We think about what we would do.
But now we're in that situation.
Nobody warned us about the situation.
No one told us that this was going to be
the movie before we started it.
When 2020 began, no one said,
"Oh, what is the synopsis of 2020?"
No one gave us that warning.
Because of that, we got thrust
into something and we'd been reacting ever since.
What I want to do is when this ends,
I want to think so that I'm not just reacting,
I want to go, "Okay, Trevor. What do you want to do?"
Well, first of all, I want to acknowledge that
the office isn't the only place
where work can be created.
I also want to acknowledge that the office fulfills
more purposes than just being a workspace.
It's a social space,
it's a human space,
it's a connection space.
It's a space where people learn and enjoy other people.
I also want to take with me the idea
that as human beings,
we can connect in different ways.
I don't know about you, but I think I've
connected with more people than I would have
during this time because
I've come to understand that I don't always have
to wait for the physical connection
to inspire some conversation.
Those are things that I want
to take with me moving forward.
I think all of that. It's funny
that you asked for the question of the computers.
That's all of that is wrapped
and encapsulated in that world.
Because without a PC, that wouldn't have been my journey.
I genuinely did not think that
now in 2021 I would be back
on my PC typing again
and doing all the things that I didn't think.
I was like, "Oh man, I need this even more than ever."
I've taken for granted those things,
but I've also been appreciated for how
much that has been a part of my life.
It's been imbued in the culture of how I live my life.
Whether it's making a television show from
home or just jotting down your thoughts,
creating ideas in a space,
I think that journey
for me has been one that I hope to carry on.
Finding my space, thinking about my piece and then moving
forward and incorporating everything into
one giant movement for myself.
>> Now, I think those are words of wisdom.
I think we're all going to need to
pause a little bit and think.
We were talking here this morning about the summer
being a time to, I think in some ways, recharge.
Think we're all going to need to recharge a bit.
I think reconnect because as you point out.
We've all found with the beauty of technology,
we can connect with more people in more ways,
but not necessarily with
everybody in all the right ways that
interpersonal connection needs to be rekindled,
and then ultimately renew.
I think it's going to be a time for us to renew
ourselves and renew what we're working on.
I look forward in
the chance for us to be together and we're all
going to look forward to seeing how
you take things forward.
Because as you said, we're not going backwards.
We're going forward. Thank you for joining us today.
>> Going forward my friend, forward all the way.