He moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a stocker at Nordstrom Rack and Barnes & Noble and cleaned yachts to make ends meet for himself and his young son, Jo Jr. Soon he found himself filling that house, then joined the Black College Comedy Tour and appeared on BET’s “ComicView” and “Showtime at the Apollo.” (“And I won it,” he says with pride.) He still couldn’t get those coveted top-of-the-bill spots, though, so he put his own money into renting a theater and persuaded local businesses to sponsor him, printing coupons for them on the backs of his tickets. Attendance steadily improved.Įventually, he realized people were coming to see him, not the headliners. In his early 20s, after being spotted by someone from the comedy club chain Catch a Rising Star, Koy became a regular support act for headliners and canvassed the streets, handing out two-for-one coupons. Koy built a name in comedy through sheer will. (The stage name “Jo Koy” comes from a mishearing of his aunt calling him to dinner in Tagalog: “Jo ko, eat,” or “My Jo, eat!”) The family moved to Las Vegas during his high school years and he began performing stand-up at open mics in 1989. His Air Force veteran father left the family when Koy was 10 and his mother raised the kids from there.
Joseph Glenn Herbert grew up in Washington state.
And that’s why I’m not sleeping, man,” says Koy with his trademark enthusiasm, despite a jam-packed schedule. “If they’re willing to take a chance for my culture and my people to have a voice, then I’m gonna do whatever it takes to make sure everyone goes and sees it. The movie, “Easter Sunday,” is all the more improbable because it’s a major studio comedy (Universal via DreamWorks, Rideback and Amblin Partners) about a Filipino American family. 1 on the call sheet in a feature film and seeing his face on billboards and bus stops all over Los Angeles. Koy, who once hustled to get people into shows he wasn’t even headlining, eventually advanced to selling out arenas and creating four stand-up specials (two on Comedy Central, two on Netflix).
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