Jo Koy started his career as an entertainer at an early age when his mother would make him perform for large groups of friends and family during Filipino events in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington. Once he graduated from high school, Koy moved to Las Vegas where he attended UNLV (to appease his mother) while simultaneously plotting to become professional stand-up comedian. After honing his chops on the Vegas strip for a few years, Koy realized he need to move to Los Angeles in order to take his comedy to the next level. Koy has since appeared on The Tonight Show and has become one of the favorite panelists on E’s late night talk show, Chelsea Lately. Currently in the midst of his Lights Out tour, SanDiego.com had a chance to catch up with Koy from his home in Los Angeles and talked about his early years in comedy, advice on how to get representation as a young comic and why Filipino’s love Dr. Pepper so much.
From what I could gather your mom played a pivotal role in starting you out as a performer at a young age.
Jo Koy: She was in charge of this thing called the American Filipino Association. It was just a group of Filipinos that got together and hung out a lot and they would always through these events. She always seemed to be the one to take care of the talent, and that talent just happened to be my sister and myself.
Do you remember the first time you did stand-up?
JK: The first one was at a place called the Ventura Comedy Club and I don’t even know if that thing exists anymore. I didn’t tell anyone about it and I went up and I bombed so bad, I went right back to Vegas and it took me about a year and a half to get back onstage again. It was bad man, I didn’t tell anybody about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment