His son is well… unfortunately in the fourth grade, but at Jo’s level of comedy we can look the other way when it comes to such a paltry detail. Jo knew that education was never his cup of tea. “I was a really bad kid, I didn’t retain any of this information at all. I’m so happy you called to distract.” When he was just ten-years-old, Jo had decided on his career of comedy. His first experience of stand up was actually as a kid. He was at an open mic night and his sister told him that he would be funnier than the guy that was up. He signed up and marched straight on stage.
“When I went up for 30 seconds I wanted to kill myself. I remember my mouth just drying up. I’ve never witnessed that before, I didn’t even know that type of nervousness that your entire mouth can get dry instantly.”
Thankfully Jo didn’t let his severe and shocking lack of saliva deter him from giving it his best. “I remember an interview with Eddie Murphy about stand-up and he said that he bombed about the first eight times. I held onto that thought when I went on stage and thought if Eddie Murphy can bomb eight times and be where he is, then I am going to be OK.” ‘OK’ is grossly modest when you consider Jo Koy is one of the few to receive a standing ovation on Jay Leno.
When I asked Jo what he recalled of the day he fervently responded, “I can walk you through the whole entire day!” Jo did indeed proceed to do just that, with a level of detail indicative that he may have reflected upon the experience more than once.
“The producers came up to me and they told me Joaquin Phoenix has the flu and he might leave early so we’re going to need to talk to you for an extra five minutes on the couch. This was about to be the most TV time of my life.
“Then when I was just about to go on the producers came back to tell me Joaquin was going really long so I couldn’t sit with Jay. So now I’m pissed because Joaquin screwed me out of the panel. I was so mad and full of energy that the only thing going through my head was that I had to kill it. I just put that energy into my performance and then I got that standing O.”
It’s a fairly good indication that a comedian is good when he has to abbreviate the habitually repeated phrase ‘standing ovation’. “The best part was when it was over Jay looked at me and said, ‘Hey I never got a standing ovation, that was amazing’. That made my day when Jay said that. When I got the standing O Jay was waving me over to the panel.” Jay ended up pulling Jo’s audience on stage for a picture which Jo still cherishes: “I just think that was so classy to make my family feel so special.”
Jo’s mother is no stranger to being a part of Jo’s successes. “These days it’s not really about Philippinos but about my Philippino mum and she does some funny stuff. I get people coming up to me that aren’t Philippino but they say their mum does exactly the same shit and I love that.”
Jo laughed at the idea that his mother would be bothered by being mentioned so often. “Heck no, you know what’s crazy? I just shot my second show Lights Ou’ and at the end of the taping my mum comes up to me and the first thing out of her mouth was: ‘Jo, you forgot a couple of jokes about me’. She didn’t give a shit, she’s more concerned about not hearing material about her. The more about her the happier she is.”
And what of harrowing stand-up tales? Jo’s got some stories. “Earlier in my career. I was doing a lot of bars across the country. I was doing a joke about sex and this whole table to my left kept pointing to this one girl and laughing out loud. I looked at her and said, ‘Is this the town whore?’
“All of a sudden this big silhouette of a cowboy wearing a hat goes, ‘Hey man that’s my sister’. I wanted to die. First of all it’s just so surreal. Did a man just stand in front of a spotlight and say ‘that’s my sister?’ Am I really in Idaho by myself?”
Safe and sound, Jo Koy has most recently joined the Chelsea Lately team. “I think I get off on the conversation. I love those types of conversation where we are all just freestyling. Chelsea always has the last laugh so your goal is to always aim to be just a little bit funnier than her.” So it’s a competition as well as enjoyable? Jo chimed in enthusiastically. “Yeah exactly! No matter what, when you do Chelsea’s show she’s always going to be funnier. But you still have to try.”
Jo Koy has won over international audiences, narrowly avoided being punched by a cowboy-hatted cliché, and now returns to Australia. “I love Australian audiences. Australia has the best looking women. Damn. I got culture shock. I got to Australia and I was like, ‘Jesus we are doing something wrong in the States’. You guys are doing something very right.”
Less than an hour talking to Jo and I am beginning to understand why people love him. Cheeky, charming, and extremely cheerful: Jo is a delight to talk to and simply superb to see perform.
BY TESS WOODWARD
