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.’”
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“I’ve always been open to just letting people be inside my life,” Koy said. “So when I said I was going to write a book, of course I’m going to tell them everything. Or else, you’re not going to really know the story of how I got there.”
Koy, who’s sold out stadium shows, has aspired to make people laugh since age 11. He didn’t “speak school” and was never interested in conventional pursuits like college. For him, earning US$5 doing stand-up on an open mic in a coffee house was more thrilling. By the 1990s, he had followed his mother and stepfather to Las Vegas, California, and started doing comedy contests and small clubs there. In 2001, he decided to make the big move to Los Angeles.
The comedy club circuit wasn’t exactly receptive to his biracial appearance. “You come to Hollywood, and they have no idea what they’re looking at – as horrible as that sounds,” Koy said. “‘What’s your story? We don’t get it. Where do we put you?’”
Koy took whatever gigs at comedy club chains like The Improv and the Laugh Factory – even the ethnic “theme nights”. Meanwhile, he juggled as many as three part-time jobs. By 2003, he also had to factor in his newborn son.
In the book, he recounts performing at the Laugh Factory while a then-unknown Tiffany Haddish would be off to the side watching his son.
“We had that little bond of ours, you know, that we both had seen struggle,” Koy said. “I love Tiffany, that she was there during that process. She still is in my life to this day, which is even more amazing.”
Seeing his toddler son play with his mother, it hit Koy that family life could be funny fodder. While mimicking his mother’s accent and mannerisms is now classic Koy, he initially hesitated for fear of being labelled “the Filipino comic”. But he saw that all audiences seemed to find anecdotes involving his mother relatable.
“That’s when I knew. I was like, ‘Oh, I got something good here. I know how to do it now,’” Koy said.
With three Netflix comedy specials under his belt in the last four years, including one filmed in Manila, Koy said people often think that the streaming service discovered him. But like other times in his life, he was rejected by them for their 2017 comedy slate.
Determined to give them a reason to say yes, Koy put on his own special. He booked a theatre in Seattle and paid for a high-quality crew to film it. The final product was enough to elicit an offer from Netflix.
Since then, Koy has built a reputation as an in-demand comedian. With plenty of on-screen experience, including being a panellist on US comedian Chelsea Handler’s old E! talk show Chelsea Lately, Koy seems one sitcom or film away from the next level of stardom.
One of his Netflix specials got Spielberg’s attention. The director’s production company, Amblin Entertainment, is producing a starring vehicle for Koy, Easter Sunday. Based on Koy’s own experiences, the movie comedy follows a family gathering on the titular holiday.
Even with all these opportunities, Koy’s mother sometimes asks him if he’ll drop stand-up for a regular job “with benefits”.
“I don’t think about retiring. I’m gonna die on that stage,” Koy said. “That’s kind of hard to explain to an immigrant parent. They don’t understand that. But you know what? We’re all enjoying this.”
