Tiffany Haddish was his babysitter: Netflix comedy fave Jo Koy on his slow rise to stardom – Spielberg’s company has given him a movie deal
- Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo shows how the comedian’s mixed-race background shaped his brand of comedy
- You’ll find stories of his family, his struggles to find work early in his career, and instructions on how to make Filipino dishes like lumpia and chicken adobo
Like many famous comics, Jo Koy had early struggles at comedy clubs. But, unlike them, the half white, half Filipino comedian could only seem to book spots on ethnic theme nights like “Wonton Wednesdays” and “Asian Invasion”.
“There’s a lot of comics that had to do it. I’m not just saying Asians – Black people, Latinos, anyone that was ‘other’ had to do these themed shows. And it sucks,” Koy recalled recently.
Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo is an ideal companion to Koy’s stand-up comedy with its humorous – and at times painful – origin stories behind some of his most popular bits. The book shows how Koy’s mixed-race background ultimately shaped his brand of comedy, and his determination not to give up on his childhood dream.
“I’m not trying to pat myself on the back. It was a long road,” Koy said. “And when I finally got to this point in my career, I just looked at my manager. I was like, ‘Man, I would really like to tell people, you know, this struggle, and how hard it was to really get here.’”
