Striding onto the Brooklyn stage in November 2023, Jo Koy immersed himself with the crowd, displaying his charismatic and infectious smile as he scanned the magnificent King’s Theatre where he recorded his 2024 Netflix special “Live from Brooklyn” — his fifth special on the esteemed network. Striding atop a stage that extended into the theater, the comedian exuded delight with the scads of grinning faces before him.
“This one was my favorite because I brought it into the crowd; I brought the whole stage into the crowd this time,” Koy said of the special in a recent interview with Inked, adding, “I wanted to feel like you were in a moment, and I captured the essence of the theater.”
During the show, the former b-boy declared his preference for old-school hip-hop over modern rap music and offered an unabashedly descriptive shoutout to moms in a bit that could come off as offensive, hilarious, or anywhere else across the board of emotions. Much like the mature material of big-name comics he revered in the 80s, such as Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, it was no-holds-barred.
Straight Talk with a Standout Standup
When we spoke with Jo Koy, he was a few months out from his highly-analyzed Golden Globe Awards hosting gig — supporters like Steve Martin congratulated Koy for taking on “the toughest gig in show business,” while critics claimed his jokes didn’t hit the intended marks — and was on the home stretch of his “Funny is Funny World Tour” while readying himself for his upcoming European Tour. “After that — that’s when I get to rest for the summer,” he said. However, it’s merely a brief reprieve until he heads to Houston in September to kick off his next tour “Just Being Koy.”
On that April day, Koy’s left wrist was freshly inked from the night before with a blackout band boldly adorned with an adjacent number 89 and the phrase “When you’re not dreaming, you’re not livin.” He extended his inked-up arms, revealing textured tribal designs with honeycomb, mountains, bands, and branches, with a Jeepney emblazed with his mother’s maiden name on his right forearm. His left bicep was beautified with additional blackout — a coy fish seemingly swimming through the white spaces. The new tat is housed where “Joe” once occupied the space, coexisting with a crown and cross in the periphery.
Directing attention to his right arm, Koy said, “I dedicated this whole arm to my mom and my son and my Filipino culture, and then, of course, on this side is my comedy arm. So, my journey, my path, is on my left arm.”
Koy touched on his ongoing battle with his CPAP machine, lactose, sciatic nerve pain, and modern technology, and was candid about the reality of getting older, a common talking point for the comedic powerhouse, saying, “This [technology] is all new to us, but to our kids, they grow up with this and it’s as easy as writing their name on a piece of paper.
“I feel like the old guy that’s just like, ‘How did you do that with the lights?’ I feel like I do that with my son every single day when he grabs my phone and he’s like, ‘Like this, Dad. Like this,’ And you see his fingers doing this,” Koy said laughing, swiping and flicking his finger on an imaginary cellphone.
“Life was easier when we had to pick up the phone and do a rotary dial. It was so much easier — when you could hang up and really make it a statement by slamming it. You can’t do that anymore. You just touch the little red dot and it’s off,” Koy said. Recollecting pre-cellphone days, he added, “It’s like, no man, we got to slam the phone seven times when we were mad. You know?”
The days of landlines continue fading into yesteryear, but it’s clear that Koy still thrives on making a strong statement. Fans of the comedian already know the 53-year-old metaphorically slammed the phone when he bet everything on himself in 2017 with his comedy show “Live from Seattle.”
Koy knew he was funny yet was completely aware he needed a larger platform to notch his comedy career up another level. Without Netflix’s financial backing, he took matters into his own hands and paid for the entire project himself, crossing his fingers that the network would pick it up after its release. “If we didn’t put that project together on our own it wouldn’t have happened, you know? It was one of those moments we were like, let’s just do it. Why wait?” Koy explained. “I remember saying, ‘I’m almost 50. I can’t wait anymore. We got to make a move.’”
It turned out, the mega network and fans of funny gobbled it up. Netflix did indeed pick up the special, propelling the performer to new heights. “It really changed everything for me,” Koy said.
Koy started standup in 1989. Looking back at those early entertaining days, you’ll find Koy seldom passed on an opportunity to get in front of an audience, even if it was only for five minutes. “Now you can really get the exposure that you need, whereas back then it was hard — you had to do it yourself,” he said, explaining, “It was a lot of sending out videotapes to comedy clubs and showcasing at comedy festivals.”
It was 2005, Koy said, when he finally started headlining in the competitive comedy circuit. “’Just for Laughs’ put me on the map and those were the avenues you had to take to make it in this business,” he said. Exposing your craft to the masses is simpler today compared to 20 years ago, he explained, “Now you got TikTok and you got Instagram where you can really get right to your fans with content right away and it helps — it helps tremendously.”
5 Things You Might Not Know About Jo Koy
Fans of Koy already know he’s a Filipino-American comic whose mother and son are mainstays in his material and everyday life. In fact, his son Joseph Herbert Jr. accompanied him on his “Funny is Funny World Tour,” which Koy said was “a dream come true.” But we uncovered some gems that might surprise even his most diehard comedy buffs.
He plans to open a clandestine venue for creatives.
“I want to get this venue going that I have, that I’m going to start out here in LA. It’ll be more like a secret show-type vibe,” Koy spilled to Inked. “I wanted to provide an area where up-and-comers would have a spot, where it’s not like a rundown bar, but it’s like a sick venue that you can get 150 people in to watch.
“You could do acoustic, you could do comedy, you can do poetry, whatever you want to do — sing,” he explained further. “I built the best stage and I feel like it’s the perfect venue. So, it’ll be secret shows. It’s not a weekly thing, but it’s going to be amazing.”
He has a Batok-style tattoo.
About a year ago, an indigenous tattoo artist known as Ate Wamz (@atewamz) inked a traditional, Batok-style tattoo on the right wrist of Koy’s Filipino family and culture arm. The tattooist then inked Koy’s nieces and nephews, who were vacationing with him, with the same tattoo.
Calling it “the poke,” Koy said he didn’t “really feel it. I think you’re distracted by the noise, too, though, which clicks, like click, click, click, click, click. It’s kind of fascinating.”
He wrote his first book.
In 2021, Koy released “Mixed Plate,” an autobiography outlining the opportunities and obstacles of his past. In the book, readers get acquainted with Koy’s upbringing, support systems, influences, parenting skills, and the extra efforts he implemented to reach the next level of stardom.
He’s a “big-time foodie” with big-time plans.
In “Mixed Plate,” Koy discusses the Filipino food that fueled him in his adolescence, which he grew to appreciate more in adulthood. When asked about the lumpia recipe — a traditional dish in the Philippines — he shared in the book, Koy said, “It’s so funny you said lumpia because that’s exactly what I want to get into and get that out. So, get ready for something with me involved with lumpia. I can’t say the name yet because it’s not done; the deal’s not done, but we’re making the deal happen. It’s amazing, by the way, too.”
Honolulu named a day for him.
After selling 23,000 tickets and 11 sold-out shows at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu in 2017, the mayor’s office declared November 24 “Jo Koy Day.” “I always wanted to know what it felt like when someone goes, ‘Oh, he’s got the keys to the city.’ And it actually happened. Like, what is going on?” Koy shared.
Every year, Koy returns to Hawaii around “Jo Koy Day,” bringing family along to help soak up the love. “It’s been fun,” he said. “It’s been something I brag about a lot, especially when I’m in Hawaii. I love it.”
From muscling his way into the comedy world where “there was no room for amateurs,” to selling out arenas and appearing on some of the most beloved television shows, Koy is continually finding joy in an incredible journey that is his life.
