June 16, 2020 • 47 mins
Wells hangs out with comedian Jo Koy for some stories from his 30 years of standup. How he got a special on Netflix after being denied multiple times and a hysterical story of his first time on stage alongside a Lionel Richie impersonator.
Wells has history with Jo! We hear the story of how they first crossed paths back in Nashville.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Wells Cast with Wells Atoms and I
heart radio podcast. That's what it is, The Wells Cast.
What everybody over here doing well, Wells can't be expected.
It's a beautiful day here in Los Angeles, California, and
I'm very excited to uh to put forth yet another episode.
(00:24):
I gotta be honest with you, I am very excited
about this guest today because this is someone I've actually
interviewed in the past, not on this podcast, not on
my other podcast, but way back when when I was
a radio DJ and this was my actual job, and
I woke up at four thirty in the morning every
single day to slept my ass into lighting one, I
(00:45):
would have comics on my show. I would never get
musicians because no one wants to come in that early
in the morning for a morning show and sing. But
comics would coming said usually be on the Red Eye.
They'd come in, they'd come straight to my studio. We'd
hang out, which out to sell some tickets to their
show at zanies or whatever. So there was a time
in my career when I was hanging out with comics
all the time. And I've said it before and I'll
(01:07):
say it again. Comics are the smartest people in the world, period,
full stop, end of sentence. Ever, I fully believe that
if a really good stand up comedian wanted to be
an astrophysicist, he totally could. But he or she decided
and on now I'm gonna turn all this pain and
anguish of everyday life and I'm gonna make other people laugh,
because at the end of the day, if you're a
(01:28):
comic one you're the most brave person in the world
because you get up and tell jokes two hundreds thousands
of people, which is just terrifying in general, because comedy
is immediate affirmation. You tell a joke and no one laughs,
you know immediately you failed. With most jobs, that's just
not the case. I fouled this report. A couple weeks later,
your boss comes back. Your TPS report was incomplete. You
(01:50):
can have the dry aget okay, but you're on stage,
you tell a joke, you here crickets bam. Immediately you
feel like you're a failure. It's the most raw and
real job you can have, at least in my opinion.
And then, aside from the terror that is the job,
you have to be the fastest guy in the room,
(02:10):
the quickest witted dude in the building. Every time I
go to a comedy show, I am always amazed that
these people decide to do this job and are able
to do this job so well. But I digress. I
have interviewed so many comics. I was just trying to
go through like all my old like SoundCloud interviews to
(02:31):
find the interview of the guests that we're having today.
I couldn't find it. But literally almost every big comics
out there right now I have had on my show.
But it was back in like two eight, and I
remember when this guy came into my studio. I wasn't
that familiar with him, but he was so funny. He
made me laugh so hard in my interview. And usually
if you're coming in to do a morning show, everyone's
(02:53):
dragon ass, right, But he walked in and he had
the most energy. He was so freaking hilarious, and like
I said, I wasn't be familiar with him before the interview,
but he had me dying laughing. At the end. He
was like, what are you doing to night? And I
was like, I don't know nothing, and he said we
should come to the show. Put you on the list.
I said, Okay, I went to that show. I took
my then girlfriend and it was the funniest night of
(03:15):
my life. I'm not kidding you. I often tell the
story of the time that I interviewed Ingrid Michaelson and
she came in. She was like, hey, well, it's good
to see you. And I was like, oh my god,
do you remember my name? And I said, hey, what
do you want to play? Well? Three years ago and
I came on yr show. I played this song. Two
years ago and I came on the show. I played
this song this this year. I want to play something
different so the audience gets something different. Is that cool? Yeah? Sure.
(03:36):
I remember after that interview being like, Wow, the reason
why you're famous, aside from the fact that you're so talented,
is because damn you have foresight. You have thought the
same thing with my guest today. He came in. There
was so much energy, so much positivity. I remember afterwards
being like, oh, yeah, I totally get why hundreds of
people are gonna go see you with Zany's But now
(03:56):
I look at his career and it's just crazy, dude.
I mean, his aard Netflix special is out now. Just
to get one Netflix special is super tough. Dude's got
three of them. He's got an amazingly gigantic podcast called
The Koi Pond. Did he broke a record for the
most tickets sold by a single artist at twenty three
thousand tickets and and eleven sold out shows in Honolulu.
(04:20):
I don't even know there are many people in Hawaii. Dude.
He's breaking records left and Ryan so at six shows
at the war Field in San Francisco, broke in a
tennants record at the Club Region Events Center in Winnipeg
with four sold out shows, five sold out shows, and
at the San Diego Civic Center, the most consecutive sold
out shows for a comedian. And he recently became the
only comedian to sell seventeen thousand tickets over thirty shows
(04:44):
in one year at the Brea Improv. My dude got
the prestigious stand Up Comedian of the Year award a
couple of years back, and last year he reached number
one on the Billboard chart for a stand up comedy
album Live from Seattle. Honestly, this is an interview you're
not gonna want to decided from that that he's just
one of the funniest people I've ever come across. He's
also a guy whose story is bonkers, so don't go
(05:07):
anywhere becas on the Wells cast today, we've got the one,
the only Joe Koy all right back in the Wales cast,
very excited to have the one the only Joe Koy.
(05:29):
How are you my man? I'm good man. It's it's
it's crazy that I can't go in the studio and
be with you guys and get that energy going close range.
But this zoom will work. It'll work. So I was
doing the intro before we zoomed into each other. And
you probably don't remember this, but I used to. I
(05:51):
used to work for uh, this little indie radio station
in Nashville called Lightning one, and I was the morning
show host years ago. And you like, I would only
ever get comics to come my show because musicians never
want to come in at seven in the morning to
sing because their voices are shot, you know, because they've
been drinking whiskey the entire night. But but if you
(06:13):
were doing if you were doing a set at Zany's,
your asks would come on my show. And I remember
Ron from Zaney's hit me up and was like, hey,
Joe Koy, is coming in, and this is probably two
thousand eight or something like that. I was like, I'm
I'm unfamiliar, but I love having comics on my show,
and you came in. I remember I couldn't stop laughing
during the interview. I went like on SoundCloud to try
(06:35):
to find the interview because I wanted to see if
I could play it back because I just remember being like,
just couldn't stop laughing. It was so funny. And then
at the end, you're like, hey, man, what are you
doing to night? And I was like, I got nothing,
I'm a morning show host. And You're like, well, I'll
throw you on the list come to the show. Okay,
let's do that. So me and my then girlfriend went
to Zany's saw your show. It was one of the
(06:57):
best shows I've ever seen at ANES and ever since then,
I've been a huge fan of yours. So thank you
so much for coming on the show. Dude, thank you
so much. That's awesome. Man, that's a long road to
right there. That's a long time ago. Zany's. It looks
like a barn, right, it looks like a little barn,
like like there's there's like a big giant windows up
(07:17):
to the side right there. I remember that room. That
was a crazy time. You know, you've come a long way.
I was going through some of your stats. Twenty three
thousand tickets sold in like Honolulu. I didn't even know
that there were that many people in Hawaii. That's so funny, right,
you're selling out these huge, these huge rooms, these huge arenas.
(07:40):
What do you think it is? I man, I don't know.
I can't even explain it. The the craziest thing that
just happened was just before you know, the pandemic and
the quarantine started. I made it to the top ten
global tour So I was in the list of top
ten for global tour acts, and I was it was
like Elton John, Selene, Dion Tool and then I think
(08:03):
it was like Jerry Seinfeld and then Joe Cole, and
I'm like, is this really happening? Like all right, I'll
take it. I couldn't believe it. So, man, it's it's
nuts to see this. Uh just what how how it
went from Nashville to like now I'm doing an arena
in Australia out of all places. It's just crazy. Well, congratulations,
you're on your third Netflix special, the New Ones called
(08:27):
in his elements and I got to take a peek
at it. This is almost it's like I was trying
to put in new words. It's like part stand up
special and part documentary. Thank you. That's exactly what I
wanted and that's exactly what I wanted the viewers to see.
You know. I I talked about my culture. This is
my third affear and stand up and I made a
(08:48):
you know, beautiful living just talking about my people and
and my culture and my mom and this is my
way of giving back. And uh and you know, not
too many people know this, but it was it was
it was really hard to get into Netflix. You know,
my first special Life from Seattle. They didn't pay for it, Like,
they said no to it like five times, and then
I finally had to finance it myself and shoot it
(09:09):
myself and edit it myself, and then I brought it
back to Netflix and then finally they were like, yeah,
we'll take it. And and that's how hard it was
for me to get into Netflix. So when they gave
me this special, this this opportunity to shoot a third one,
my whole idea concept was like, now that I have
the door slightly open, let me get some other Filipinos
in here, and let's go to the Philippines and showcase
(09:30):
the Philippines and talk about our culture and celebrate it
and just show like the rest of the world, Like, dude,
people speak English in the Philippines. You can visit it,
you can perform there. People who love it, like, come
try our food. Like that's what I wanted out of
this special. Man. I will say this, and you know,
I'm in the entertainment industry as well. There's a certain
amount of ego that that goes with being in the spotlight.
(09:52):
What I was kind of blown away with with this
special was yes, you are the focal point of it,
but you're also like allowing other people to shine in
it as well, like Ronnie the breakdance Guru or whatever.
And there's all these like little characters that you're like,
what's the old saying, arising tide raises all ships. And
(10:13):
it was like it was kind of like, that's what
you're doing. And it was like, oh, not only is
this hilarious, because it was, but it's also like makes
me feel good that I'm watching it, thanks man. And
it was just like there's people in the Philippines that
are inspired by American culture and just trying to make
it in the Philippines is like so hard. So my
whole thing was like bringing people that that live in
(10:33):
American Filippino Americans bring their talent to to the Philippines
and then inspire some of these people that are living
in like the hardest conditions, like the Boy Ronnie, you
know what I mean. By the way, my relationship with
Ronnie goes back twenty something years. Man, we opened for
Snoop Dogg together. We used to do the Boy events
together and comedy shows, used to open my comedy shows,
So of course I wanted him to be a part
of this. And then I told him, let's go to
(10:56):
the tenement, like the hardest areas. You know, these people
are living with close to nothing and and hold an
audition and whoever the best answers are, Let's bring them
on stage and celebrate together. And man, you should have
seen it as as as hard it was as they
were living, they were having the best time dancing and
just auditioning and just knowing that there was an opportunity
(11:16):
that that that was in front of him. And that's
when I got out of that. Man. I was just
I was loving it. When you watched the special back,
what do you love the most about it? Um? I thought,
what I love the most is that my my aunt
is in it. You know, I got to put my
childhood aunt that. You know, the last time I seen
her was in the Philippines when I used to live there.
So from like when I was from six to eleven,
(11:37):
I used to live out there and my aunt, the
Opie was like she was the jock. She was the
one that loved basketball. She always talked about the Lakers,
and you know, she was that was my go to
you know, she was the one, the one aunt that
like sports and stuff. So you know I did. I
haven't seen her in so many years, so to go
back and and share that moment with her, she's you know,
she's got cancer. She's in a very uh you know,
(12:00):
she's in a very bad stage right now. Cancer. So
having her sit there and just knuckle through it. I
remember looking at her like, Auntie, you you can go
now if you want. She's like, no, no, Let's make
sure it's perfect. So it was really cute to see
her cook and and then my sister was right with her,
cooking with her, so it was like it was like
a real family affair right there in that scene. So
(12:21):
I loved it. Are you Elvis in the Philippines? Like,
are you the second Coming of Christ? Yeah? Yeah, I am.
Actually it's pretty cool. I'm not gonna lie. It's pretty cool, man,
And I love it and I love That's what I
love the most about, you know, the Philippines and the
people out there. They you know, they're very prideful people.
(12:41):
We don't have much of the Philippines, but we got
a lot of pride. So when someone you know, celebrates
it the way I have, uh they take it to
heart and uh uh they'll they'll fall on the sword
for me. So be careful what you say when you
go to the Philippine. Gonna drop your name every once
in a while. Yeah, yeah, you'll, they'll take care of you.
Oh you're related to joy in got here, I'll think. Godal,
(13:08):
that's the truth, bro. Everyone out there it needs to
go watch Joe Coy in His Elements. It's on Netflix,
and lord knows everyone's got Netflix right now because you
know stuck inside. You also have the Koi Pond. You're
really immensely popular podcast. Tell everyone about that that might
not know about it. Uh. You know, here's the thing
(13:29):
about the Koi Pond. I just enjoy riffing. It keeps
me sharp, you know what I mean. I go in
with absolutely no plan, no no topic. I just kind
of look at Dre Drey's my brother in law, and
I just look at him right in the face and
we hit record. Whatever we talk about we can talk about.
But I use that opportunity to just sharpen my ad
(13:49):
living skills. If I can come up with something off
the top, and if I could think of a joke
right there, I'm using it later. So I love I
love it. I love it. It's that opportunity where we shoot.
Can I curse or no? Yes, it's it's where we
just shoot the ship man and it's a lot of fun.
There's there's no production to it, just riff. I wanted
to feel like we're in the green room backstage at
(14:11):
the comedy club. Yeah. Well, Joe, I don't know if
anyone told you kind of what this podcast is. The
idea basically is origin stories. I'm kind of fascinated with
how people got to become famous and how they were
able to get you know, that blue check mark on
Instagram or whatever. It is, and your story is bonkers.
I mean you just kind of touched on a little bit.
You had moved back to the Philippines, you know, when
(14:33):
you were a kid. I was wondering if you'd be
so kind to tell us your story and where you
came from and how you got here. You know, like
I told you earlier about how Netflix didn't give me
the special And I think the reason why I didn't
react the way most comics that have been doing it
for almost thirty years would have reacted, you know, which
is it was a painful moment, you know, when they
(14:53):
said no to me, I was just like, are you
not seeing my numbers? Uh? You know that this is
my thirtieth year, Like are you kidding me right now?
Like I deserve it? Like I could have went on
Twitter and just blasted Netflix, like how dare they everyone
cancel your subscriptions now? But I didn't. And the reason
why is because that's that's been pretty much the journey
of my entire career. It's always been never an open door.
(15:16):
It's always been just like an obstacle, and I had
to prove myself. I had to kick the door down.
It's like everything, like everything that I've been on, it's
always been me pursuing or kicking the door down and
and and showing that they should say yes. And I
hate the fact that I'm making it sound like this
motivational type speech. But that's why when I started in Vegas,
(15:39):
there weren't that many comedy clubs. So I noticed that
I was getting quite a draw in Vegas when I
first started. And I remember the first comedy club I
got into was called catch Rizing Star, and they handed
me a stack of two for one coupons and and
the managers like handles out handles, not tell your friends, man,
And I noticed, like on a Thursday night, it was
all my friends, yet the headliners making all the cake.
(16:02):
And I'm I'm getting like twenty five bucks. I'm like,
wait a minute, wait, if they're coming to see me,
then I don't need to go here. And and that's
when I started renting out theaters and and I realized
the business of it. I realized, if you get the
theater yourself, you can sell the ticket yourself, pay the comics,
and then you make whatever whatever is off the top.
And then it got to the point where I'm gonna
(16:22):
get sponsors to pay for the theater. That way, I
get a hundred percent of the door and split whatever
with the comments. And then next you know, it's I
started shooting stuff and it was just like that's why
when Netflix said no, I was like, all right, cool,
I'm ready for this. I already know what to do.
I'll just rent a venue, hire some cameraman, and shoot it.
So yeah, man, it was a long journey to get
(16:42):
to where we are now. So you know, I'm glad
they said no, and I and I strongly suggest that
to anyone else when when someone says no, don't listen
to him. Show why they should have said yes. Man,
where did you grow up? I grew up in Tacoma,
and that's where I fell in low It stand up
like like nine one is when I saw Delirious. I
think it's like eight one. I think I think I
(17:04):
was eleven. And that's when I was like, oh, that's amazing,
and I'm gonna be him when I grow up. I
was like saving up for a red leather suit, like
I gotta be Eddie Murphy. And literally like four years
later or five years later, Eddie Murphy came to the
Seattle Colosseum. He was doing his Raw tour and I
I snuck on the phone. This is back, you know,
(17:25):
this before the internet. He had to call ticket Master
with the phone and I had my mom's credit card
and I bought two tickets to see Raw. I was
like fifteen, and you know that was back in the day.
You know, not too many people know what a Filipino
accident was. So they bought it was like hook line sinker.
I was like, yeah, I like to get through tickets
to see the Eddie Murphy show. Grand it guard like
they but they had no idea that that it was
(17:47):
a fifteen year old kid buying these tickets and uh.
And that's when I really fell in love with just
like seeing it live. When I was in that arena
Seattle colosseum Man and it was just it was packed. Man.
It was there was more people in there than the
Sonics ever had. And I remember I was like tenth
row from the stage and I was just looking up,
like yo, this is amazing. So that's when I fell
(18:09):
in love with stand up. And I knew I didn't
care that I was failing school because I was like,
right when I graduated, I'm just gonna I'm gonna start
stand up and that's where we moved to Vegas. I
was eight. Team moved to Vegas and then, Uh, my
sister was a singer. She wasn't like this. Uh this
competition called Starmania. It was like a bootleg star Search
and basically what they their whole pitch was they would
(18:29):
go to all these local bars and they throw this
star star Madia competition and the contestants had to bring
like ten family members or something so that the bar
could make money. I went to see my sister and
her show. There was a comedian that she was going
up again. She was singing, and there was a comedian
and she was sitting next to me and she was like,
oh my god, you would kill this guy. And in
(18:50):
my head I was already saying I was like, I know.
And so I went home that night called Starmania. I
booked myself, never told my family I was doing it,
and uh and it was on a bar on Chopican
and Eastern. Like a week later, I was on it,
and uh and I was going up against a singer.
I was going up against a Lionel Richie, a Lionel
Richie impersonator man. He even kind of looked like a
(19:11):
Lionel Richie and he killed it. He's saying like two
Lionel Richie songs like standing people in the bar and
going crazy. I was so nervous because I was only
like eighteen nineteen and there was a bar. So I
grew my baby hair. I had like that Asian baby
hair mustache, you know what I mean. I got my
mom's mascare, picking it a little, and I got in.
They didn't even card me. I remember they asked me
(19:32):
if I wanted anything to drink, and I said nothing.
I was like, oh, okay, because I didn't want to
like get carded or you know what I mean. So
I was just like, no, I'm good, just water and
I went up after that guy. I bombed so bad
my mouth, I remember, my tongue was sticking to the
roof of my mouth and I couldn't get off stage,
and I just kept looking at everybody, just bombing, bombing,
and then finally I just go, uh, hey, your mouth
every gets so dry that the tongue, your tongue sticks
(19:55):
to the roof of your mouth. And I was gonna
do the rest of the like try and think of
something funny, and then a lay he's sitting at the
damn bar. Uh drunk lady sitting at the end of
the bar. I already did this joke about condoms right earlier,
and it bombed. It was horrible. I was talking about yeah,
condoms out fit. It was whatever, it's stupid, right and
then uh so, then I was like, you ever you
(20:15):
ever have your tongue gets so dry, stick in the
roof of your mouth. And then the lady at the
bar goes stick a condom on it, and she fucking
crushed the whole room fucking crushed like they hoisted her
on her on their shoulders and carried her out like
that's how you do coming it. And I was just
(20:36):
standing there, just humiliated, man. And I walked on stage.
She got the biggest laugh. I sat next to this
Lionel Richie, impersonator. I wouldn't. I don't. I don't know
why I didn't leave. I don't know what it is
about people when they bombed so bad, they want to
sit there and take it like just they just want
to hear people, WoT you suck? What was that? Man?
I was awful, you know that. Thank God that lady
was here. And I sat next to the Lionel Ritchie
(20:59):
in person later and he literally he literally looked at
me and he goes, hey, man, I'm gonna say this
about you. You've got some great stage present. Just work
on your craft, but you've got some good stage present.
And I swear to god, man, if he didn't say that,
I probably want me doing stand up man seriously, and
I really wish I could. Maybe maybe I should hire
an investigator or something like to really research who that
(21:22):
guy was, because you know, you're eight team man, and
when something like that happens, man, usually that's just like, okay,
I'm done. I don't know what I was thinking, I'll
never do this those words from that guy. Man. I
remember going to work the next day and I was like, oh, man,
I think I know what he means by that, like
you know, you belong on stage, like just work on
the craft, you know, but but you look good up there.
(21:42):
So yeah, whatever that was, it motivated me. And as
you get shirts and say, put a column moment and
sell it. I made my money back for the joke.
He killed my joke? How does she kill my joke?
What a bitch? Man? Literally like that with an accident
and everything put it it's like it was like it
(22:03):
was like at the bar. She's like on one stool
and her feet or like on the other stool crossed.
Like it was just shitty situation. Put a codom on it,
just drinking out of her drink, just back sweat, just
all my hair standing up on the back of my neck.
It was awful, man, worst bomb ever. You know that
bar is still there. I went to it and I
(22:24):
walked in. It's still The stage is still in the
same spot. The bar where that bitch yelled at me
is still off to the left. Like I literally got
chills when I walked in. I was like, holy shit.
They never change it. It's on Eastern and Tropicana, and
I even think it's called the Eastern Bar. It's named
after the street. It's such a hole in the wall.
If you're in Vegas, go check it out, you guys.
(22:44):
Vegas is open. We can go do that. Anyone who's
familiar with your comedy knows that you talking about your
family a lot, especially your mom. I'm wondering, like, what
was your mom saying to you about what you wanted
(23:07):
to do back then to stop to completely stop go
to school. It's so crazy. Because Filipinos love to like
showcase their kids talent, you know what I mean. So
from the age of like one to eighteen, Oh, my
kid has so much talent. And then when it's time
for the kid to get a real job, it's like, okay,
enough with your talent. That's in faith bites, go through school,
(23:31):
get an education, Like stop this joking jokes? Does that
made the red So? Yeah? It was. It was. It
was a battle with my mom. I mean, this is
an example of my mom. I got the Tonight Show.
It took me about fifteen years to get the Tonight Show.
I was working at North Iraq. I was cleaning yachts.
I was cleaning these yachts on Saturday and Sunday. I
(23:53):
would clean these yachts from six to nine thirty and
then I would literally drive from the yacht to the
Laugh Factory in my waiter outfit. There's like mustard and
ship all over me. And I'm performing. I'm opening for
Chris Rock at the Laugh Actoring on a Saturday, and
Dane Cook and Harlem Williams and and then after that
I have to go home and make sure I'm home
for my son. He's like one to three years old,
(24:14):
you know what I mean. So it was hard. It
was a hard life, you know what I mean, coming
up and and then all of a sudden, I got
the Tonight Show and literally, I mean I got a
standing ovation on the Toy Show. Right, this is like,
this is that one piece of tape that might change
my career, you know what I mean. It might take
me out of the yachts and out of out of
Northstrom wrack folding sweats in the summer. And here's my
(24:36):
mom after I just crushed. This is what my mom said,
good job on the Tonight Show. Um, have you thought
about full time job? Literally? Have you thought about full
time job? Joseph, My god, it's it's really time, a
full time job, No celebration, no cake. I just got
(24:59):
on the most iconic show. I got a standing go
and literally Tonight Show did change my life because after
the Tonight Show, I got to quit everything because I gotta.
I got a TV not a TV deal, but I
got a TV commercial, like a national spot, and I
was like their campaign guy, like the face of their
uh it was called aunt Mobile, and they paid me
so much money. They're like like, have this phone and
(25:21):
talk about this phone, I did commercials and I did
like a local tour for them, and it was it was.
It was pretty amazing because I never looked back after that.
Who was the host? Then this is post Carson, right, yeah,
this is Jay and literally What's Crazy? Joaquin Phoenix and
Alattis Forest that was on it. I remember the whole show,
and Waukin was, you know, he got all the I
think he got like an Oscar nomination or he was
getting ready to get it. Everyone thought that he was
(25:43):
the vet for a Walk the Line or something like that,
the movie with the Walk the Line was in and
the Johnny Cash movie and uh so he was like
everyone wanted to interview Joachin, right, so he's on my show,
of course, and he went super long, super long. So
I was supposed to sit on the couch. So I'm
like bouncing backstage. I'm getting ready to walk out there, man,
and uh the producers run up to me and they're like, hey,
(26:05):
walk he went long, So we had to change it up.
You're not going to the couch. There's a mark. You'll
see a little X where you stand when you say
good night. They said, just stand right there and Jay's
gonna walk up to you and say good night. I'm
still happy because I'm doing the Tonight Show, but I'm
pissed because it was my dream to sit at that couch,
you know what I mean. So now I'm like, I'm
(26:26):
just standing. I'm bouncing. There's these two security guards, this
one uh, this one one guy, one girl, and I'm bouncing.
Then they start bouncing with me, and they're like they're like,
are you ready? And I'm like, I've been waiting my
whole life for this. I don't want to clean the
yacht again. And you hear him say Joe Coy and
I walk out welcome back. Good when actually has a
(26:47):
young commedity from Las Vegas. You can see him on
Comedy Central, Premium, Blend for Every Three, also regular at
the Laugh Factor right here in Hollywood. This is his
first appearance on the Tonight Show. Please welcome Joe Coy.
M Yes, okay, I am Asian, so stop looking at
(27:15):
me like a math problem. At you guys are looking
at them like what flavor is that? Living in a
hollyway to get the worst compliments, the worst living out here.
When you tell people you're Asian, it's like, oh, you're Asian,
I love orange chicken you're talking about. It's not a compliment,
that's an insult. What they expect you to do when
(27:37):
they say that, Like I'm supposed to go thinking you
sh chicken bag okay, ho chick the lie it is
good though, it's delicious. I love orange chicken. Don't take
(28:02):
Asians for orange chicken. They the Mexicans, they know how
to cook it. Don't aunts that. You don't know what
I'm talking about. You gonna pant express the only Asian guy.
There's one taking your order. You're looking at the kitchen.
Seventeen Mexican cooks. Both Mexicans cook orange chicken, so good.
(28:27):
Chinese people like, now fat's on Chan? How you doing that?
Jusse that is an under river briar love it is
how dangy, just like Mama make head because it's I
can't tell you a family secret. I teach Chinese people.
(28:49):
I'm just joking. We need Chinese people American These Chinese people.
Everything in America is made in China, right, Everything in
this jacket, these pants, the shoes, China. They just wake
up and start sewing for no reason. Everything in America
has made that should be our slogan America Made in China.
(29:13):
We love everything about Chinese culture to Kung Foo. We
love Kung Foo right, Kung Fu movies. Chinese food, we
love it. We can't get it up with Chinese food.
We don't care how horrible the service is. Right, they're
the rudest waiters on earth. They just want to hurry
up and serve you, sit you down, and let you
go right. They don't even have time to say hi
at a Chinese restaurant. Do you ever walk into a
(29:35):
Chinese and they don't go hello, well, come right right?
You're walking? How many true? What are you yelling at? Play? Oh?
(29:57):
Doesn't matter how busy to play? These places could be empty,
and they're always in a hurry. Never knows that. It's like, okay,
you too, you you to come here? You come unnun
and they'll sit you in the worst spots. They don't care.
They mean, okay, you do you sit right here? You
said right here? He said, what is this? I want
to sit by the aquarium. But we don't complain. We
(30:21):
don't complain, you know why because the food comes out quick? Right?
How are you even complain with the food's already on
the table? Right. You ever noticed how the food's already
on the table right when you say it right, the
words barely come out of your mouth. It's already on
the table. It's like you ready to order? Yeah, can
I get some Kung pun? Chien? Could do it again?
Say in the rim bride, that's my time. I don't
(30:45):
jumped plays. And I got that standing ovation man, literally
the full house it stood. I'm standing there. You can
watch the video. You can actually see me staying there.
And then I looked to my right and I'm looking
at a and Jay's waving me over than I. So
(31:14):
I run over there and I sit at the couch.
He gives me one by one set up question. We
do the joke. I know you have a little boy,
a little boy two and a half. It's weird though
he doesn't want to talk yet. It's like, you know,
two and a half and he's all bad and you
gotta figure out what he's saying. And this is how
I know girls are smarter than boys, because I got
a friend Stella. She's got a little girl two and
(31:36):
a half, same age. She's already talking like articulate too,
like mommy, can I have a sandwich? I'm like, wow,
there's a d N sandwich. Every time we go here,
she shows up, Mommy, can we go out and play? Well? Me?
Can we go upstairs play with the toys? Mommy? Little
Joe is hungry. Can can we eat something? And then
and then of course she's like, yeah, we can eat someone.
(31:56):
Let's find out what little Joe wants. What do you
want to eat? Joe? He wants a sandwich? Where's your helmet? Job?
I didn't know that. Good job? Right back a lot
of and I go, hey, man, I'm so sorry, Ja,
(32:19):
but they told me to stand at the mark because
they said that we were running on. Yeah, but it's
my show and you got the standing innovation. I'm not
gonna let you get a standing innovation stand at the back?
Are you kidding me? You know that to this show?
You standing ovation? Are you kidding me? And I had
to had you stay at the couch. Man, I'm sorry,
good job, Jock. That was the most amazing moment man,
That that tonight show set changed my life. Jay. Having
(32:41):
me come to the couch was just it was glorious. Man.
I would have loved it if there was a drunk woman.
And then back to said just put a kind of
such a good callback at the end of my tonight
shows that put a cod is your mom? Is she
on board yet? Or is she still? Like? Ah, so,
you know it's so funny she on board? That's such
(33:02):
a funny question. She um, I don't think it's the
reality has really hit. Yeah, you know where I live
now and how I travel, and she doesn't get it.
Can you still? Can you do this birthday party? They
love you? Just before they cut the cake, just do
five me names? No, Mom, I'm not gonna do five
(33:24):
minutes at a birthday party. Well right up, they're your
biggest fans, Like, oh god, she just doesn't she doesn't gain.
But I love her, man, It's genuine. It's from her heart,
you know what I mean. Like, no one's more honest
than my mom. And that's the truth. I did a
Samuel Adams commercial like this, this big commercial where they
wanted me to toast my mom and and in my head,
(33:46):
I was just gonna toast her beer because I thought
that'd be funny. You know, hey, Mom, I love you,
thank you, and toast the beer and take a couple
of drinks. You know what I mean? With my mom?
Drinking beer with my mom and uh, and right when
they said action, I started crying, you know. I mean
I was like, oh, this is a a lot deeper
than I thought. I mean, like, thank you for sacrificing
everything that leaving the Philippines let me chase my dream
(34:09):
as a commun I love you this, I love you
that I'm crying and and uh, you know, I think
it wasn't until that moment that I really really truly
realized that what she sacrificed for me is the only
reason why I'm able to live the life that I
get to live now. Man. And and now we went
full circle too. That's why that that this special in
his elements is so special to me, because this is
(34:31):
kind of like my way of saying thank you to
my mom and and the Philippines and the Filipino culture
and the people just celebrating it, you know what I mean.
So that's what that all is. I guess I didn't
really realize it until that that that toast. So going
back to like whenever was two thousand and eight when
I when I had you on my radio show. I
remember you were talking about your son. I remember the
(34:54):
bit was he just smells like his like his breast
smells like I don't think his teeth. Uh So now
we're like ten years down the road, he's I'm sure
an adult. Now what does he think about what you do?
I'm so happy that where my career is happening now,
the things that are happening now in my career, because
(35:14):
he's at that age where he could really appreciate it.
Because my first two specials man and going on tour
with them. He didn't get it. Man, he was too young.
He didn't understand what any of that was. You know,
me telling jokes, you know when he was a kid.
He didn't understand any of that stuff. He didn't get it.
He didn't know what it was. And it always kind
of hurt me inside because every time, like someone else
would come to the house like like like, uh, you know,
(35:37):
just a friend of mine that was doing something else
he was so interested in, like WHOA, that's cool you
ride motorcycles. I'm like, man, you're a professional skateboarder. Wow,
that's awesome. And I'm like, you know, your dad's a comedian.
What is that? No one knows what that is, dad.
(35:58):
So it's just my soul will get crushed every time
someone else would come into the into my house or
hang out with my son. So when he got you know,
it wasn't full. He got like fourteen fifteen, and then
like his friends started recognizing me, and like now everyone's
like talking about my specials. His teachers are talking about
my specials. And then he started getting older and now
he loves stand up comedy. That's when it's just like
(36:20):
it was. It's just so much more fun to share
it with him. Those moments coming in Hot, you know,
he's an associate producer, and coming in Hot, you know,
my second special, you know, I mean, he helped me
pick up my outfit. He helped me pick out the songs.
He he he told me which jokes to do at
the end, like he he was really like creatively, he
was a big part of it for me. And I
got to share that with him, and shaking his hand
(36:41):
at the beginning of that special was amazing. And then
and then you know, I did the Forum, the you know,
the the Great Western Forum. I sold two shows out
at the Forum here in Los Angeles, and you know,
I I had my bus, you know, I got this
bus and my tour bus, and I gave it to
my son. I go, I go to bring all your
friends from school. Just bring him, Bring him to the
(37:01):
merch table, grab whatever they want. You ride the bus
of the forum, pull up v I p through the back.
You know what I mean. Your dad's name is written
on the wall from everyone that put performed here at
the at the at the forum. And and then and
I brought him out on stage and hugged him in
front of all those people. Man, it was it was
It was incredible, man, It was like twenty five thousand people.
It was. It was nuts. Man. Do you have to
(37:23):
get approval from your family to tell jokes about them?
It's my words, man, it's my story, you know what
I mean. So they live a good life, by the way,
So uh, everyone's got to sacrifice something if you want something.
So yeah, it's I've been I'm in a position where
(37:44):
I could, uh give back to my family, so they
better let me say whatever I want. I had Dave
Kuyer on he was talking to me about kind of
like his graduating class and in terms of everyone that
was like doing the improv or the comedy store, and
and his his graduating class was crazy. Was like Jerry
(38:05):
Seinfeld and Mitch Hedberg, and let's just goes on and on.
You're a bit younger than him. What is your kind
of graduating class of comics and who influenced you the
most or who did you think it was like the
funniest guy coming up? Mine was Mine was a pretty
cool class the comics. Man, My come up was with well,
(38:25):
of course, Kevin Hart and I we were you know,
we we came up together. We did so many shows
together at the beginning. I got so much footage of
Kevin and I. Man, I should I should, you know,
put that out there. It's so cool. And Gabriel Iglesias,
dr Ken, you know, we were all coming up together.
Who else Dane Cook was already at like he was
like already doing arenas. But but every week it was
(38:47):
him and I at the Laugh Factory. So it was
day and me always like it was always him and I.
And of course John Lovetts. A lot of people don't
know this, but John Lovitts was stepping into the world
as stand up comedy, and it was him and I
were kind of starting together at the Laugh Factory. Whitney Cummings,
Bert Krisher Sigura, like those guys were kind of like
my class when I moved to l A. And it
was a beautiful time. You want to hear a crazy
(39:08):
one my premium blend. You know, back when Comedy Central
the host was Damon, Wayne was the host, and then
my four was Azzies, Billy Gardel, myself and uh, oh
my god, who's the fourth one? When I remember, I'll
tell you, I'll tell you what. I can't remember his
name right now, off the top man, but that that
was my my premium blend. It was nuts. None of
(39:29):
us had our specials, yet those were our little five minutes,
seven minutes segments on Comedy Central. I lived for those, man.
I remember every afternoon they'd be on Comedy Central, like
replaying them, Assis, Billy Gardell, and myself. That was the four.
Damon was the host. They all, all of those guys
are just beasts, and I love it. You know, you've
(39:49):
done so much and you've been so successful amidst like
so many hurdles. You know, the whole kind of idea
for this show is like how the hell did you
get here? Um? Would you say, like, is the one
piece of advice that you've used that's help with your success?
You know? The key to me is man, Uh, jealousy
(40:12):
will destroy a person, you know what I mean. And
you've got to learn how to control that because it's
it's one thing to be. You know, everyone gets a
little jealous. You're allowed to do that. That's a natural feeling.
But don't let it ever control you and take over you.
You know, there there there were so many opportunities in
my career where jealousy would have just destroyed me. And
(40:33):
and you know, seeing people that I helped bring up,
you know what I mean, getting shows or specials or
or I came up with that are in movies and
and blowing up. And you know, there were times where
I could have been like, Yo, what am I doing wrong?
This sucks. I guess it's only for them. I guess
there's none for me, you know, I mean I could
(40:55):
have done that. But you don't. Man. What you do
is you you really just you take that as inspiration, man,
and you also look at as the opportunity, Like if
that person is selling out arena, then you know that
you can sell out arena. It doesn't mean that they
only want to see this guy, because there's enough for everybody,
you know, I mean, there's enough for everybody. Man. I
always say this, Man, if you if you ever fly
(41:17):
over the Rocky Mountains, right, you ever fly over if
you ever go to Denmorid, you fly over the Rocky Mountains.
There's not enough people in this world to stand on
top of every mountain inside the Rocky Mountains, there's not
there's not enough. What I mean by that is everyone
gets a mountain, man, everyone gets a mountain top. You know,
when you're the king of your mountain and you're you're
(41:38):
up there and you're trying to push other people down,
like no, no, no, it's only me, I'm the king. Bro.
They're gonna go up to another mountain and you're you're
gonna be looking eye to eye with that person. So
instead of being that way, share it, bro, pull them up,
help them. Man. There's enough for everybody. Man. That's what
I don't understand it. And you gotta learn that also,
Like I had to learn that as well. Like I
(41:59):
had to understand that, Like, don't be jealous of these
people making it. Use them as an example, knowing that
it's possible. If it happened for them, it will happen
for you. Just take your time. It's not your time yet.
Just stay on that path, Stay on that path. You
know who wins the most racist? Man, those horses with
the flaps like this, I said that to my boy
Brendon's shop. I just go, this is what you do
(42:21):
when when when you when you have a lot of
negative energy coming at you from the sides. Right, A
lot of people get that negative energy that's hitting them
from the side, and they engage and look at it
and go and and hit them back with energy, you know,
I mean, negative energy, negative and then both both of
you just end up standing right here and not moving
anywhere because you guys are constantly doing this. No one's
moving forward. But you know who's moving forward, that person
(42:42):
that's getting all that negative energy hitting them on the side,
and they got those horse flaps like this, and they
just keep trucking through like that, just running, just racing,
winning that race. You know what I mean, Get those
horse flaps. Man, you won't even see you won't even
see that ship on the side. You just see one
thing in front of you, the pride. Oh man, that
was deep. But it's true. It's true, man, it is true.
(43:06):
And also like positive positive energy breeds positive energy, and
like positive outcomes and if you're always pissy about other
people's success, that means you're putting that negative energy out
there and it's just not helpful. Yeah, man. And you
know what else, it's crazy your negative energy on someone
else is actually their positive energy. You don't say that
(43:27):
if that makes any sense. If you cast hate on somebody,
here's a perfect example, just the lame. This is just
a little tiny example of what negative energy. How negative
energy becomes positive energy for the person you're trying to
hate on. Right. Okay, So so if there's someone that
you hate and say, I got I got a million followers, right,
I got a million followers, and there's a guy that
(43:47):
I don't like, or there's a female NOWN like and
I and I tweet out to my million followers this
person sucks. And then I say their name, right, and
then I hit send. You know what you just did.
You just told a million people about this person, and
go look at this person and then judge for yourself.
I guarantee about sixty are gonna be like, hey, I
(44:10):
like that person, thanks for telling me. The other like, hey,
not that bad. I don't really agree with you. And
then let's that small five percent that's like, yeah, that
person does suck? Who cares about that five percent? You
know what I mean? That's that's that's how I look
at it. Man, If you're gonna say my name, if
you're gonna have a platform where you're gonna actually say
(44:31):
my name, whether it be good or bad, it's always
gonna be good for me. Man, Yeah, I feel that. Man.
Before I let you go, do you have time to
do rapid fire questions? Of course? All right, rapid fire question,
Thanks Joe. Rapid fire questions with Joe Koy Number one
favorite pizza top top Pepperoni, du biggest mentor? Oh man,
that's a tom Man. Why do you got to do that?
(44:53):
I'm gonna throw John Lovetts out there. You mean mentor
like real human person that I actually physically talked to,
and you know, spearby or just someone that inspired me
indirectly either way. Okay, indirectly it's Eddie Murphy. Okay. But
John Lovitts was very kind and took me under his
wing and and and really really showed me some cool stuff.
Man about this business. Who's your first kiss? Oh, my god, Dina,
(45:15):
my very first kiss. What was the first concoct you
ever went to? First? Eddie Murphy Raw second console was
Best Boys. How dope was that? Dude? Yeah? Licensed to
ill Bro licensed ill Man the most amazing in at
the Paramount Theater. It was maybe even people. Man, I
had prime seeds. Dude, we were moh in hard Bro.
What was your first car? First car was a Volkswagen
(45:37):
Rabbit and I hit a I hit a cop, totaled it. Baby,
Uh celebrity, You're mistaken for That's obvious, man, Brad Brad
pitt Um. Everyone always says Vin Diesel. I'm like, man, stop,
but I'll take it. Who would you call to get
you out of jail? My sister, Gemma, she asked to
she controls all my money. If you want an oscar?
Who'll be the first person you thanks in your speech?
(45:57):
My mama? Yeah, last one. How did get your stage name? Oh?
Joe Koy And that's actually in his elements. I tell
that story in uh this specials, So when you watch
it tonight you will see the story behind Joe Koy.
But I'm gonna tell you anyways. Joe Koi is actually
a nickname from my aunt. My auntie Evelyn, gave me
Joe Koy. I used to go up with my real name,
Joseph Herbert. People would laugh kind of like what you're
(46:20):
doing right now? And I would get so angry on
stage because I didn't know why the funk they were
laughing at my name. So it'll always be like seven
minutes and an open micaul me bantering with people making
fun of them because they laughed at my name, and
then I would never get to my jokes. And then
finally I was at my aunt's house. I was with
my cousin Mona, and I was like, I gotta change
my name, and we're trying to figure out my name.
(46:40):
And my aunts always called me Jokoy, but she says
it out loud, like JOKOI eat, and that was it.
We both looked at each other, was like, that's the
name Joe Koy, and it's been with me for thirty years, man,
Joe Koy. But if you watch in His Elements tonight,
you'll actually find the rest of that story. That name
was like your first blinders because when you say Joseph Herbert,
you were all over the place. Yes, I was all
(47:01):
all in the place. Stop making fun of my name
as whole. Joe Coy in His Elements is on Netflix
right now go watch it. It is hilarious and inspiring
and absolutely beautiful. It's not just like we were saying
in the beginning, it's not just a comedy special. It's
a documentary. It's talking about not just comedy but also
(47:21):
shining a light on the Philippines, which is which is
super cool. And also if you haven't seen his other
two specials, go check it out. Listen to his podcasts,
The Koi Pond, Joe Koit. Thank you so much for
being so awesome. Man, I really do appreciate it. You
m or what? Or I'll just give you my phone number. Okay,
just press stop. Yeah here, let me do this. Hold on,
(47:41):
Hold on a second. Subscribe to Wealth Cast on I
Heart Radio, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
It's the Internet.
This is the Wells Cast with Wells Atoms and I
heart radio podcast. That's what it is, The Wells Cast.
What everybody over here doing well, Wells can't be expected.
It's a beautiful day here in Los Angeles, California, and
I'm very excited to uh to put forth yet another episode.
(00:24):
I gotta be honest with you, I am very excited
about this guest today because this is someone I've actually
interviewed in the past, not on this podcast, not on
my other podcast, but way back when when I was
a radio DJ and this was my actual job, and
I woke up at four thirty in the morning every
single day to slept my ass into lighting one, I
(00:45):
would have comics on my show. I would never get
musicians because no one wants to come in that early
in the morning for a morning show and sing. But
comics would coming said usually be on the Red Eye.
They'd come in, they'd come straight to my studio. We'd
hang out, which out to sell some tickets to their
show at zanies or whatever. So there was a time
in my career when I was hanging out with comics
all the time. And I've said it before and I'll
(01:07):
say it again. Comics are the smartest people in the world, period,
full stop, end of sentence. Ever, I fully believe that
if a really good stand up comedian wanted to be
an astrophysicist, he totally could. But he or she decided
and on now I'm gonna turn all this pain and
anguish of everyday life and I'm gonna make other people laugh,
because at the end of the day, if you're a
(01:28):
comic one you're the most brave person in the world
because you get up and tell jokes two hundreds thousands
of people, which is just terrifying in general, because comedy
is immediate affirmation. You tell a joke and no one laughs,
you know immediately you failed. With most jobs, that's just
not the case. I fouled this report. A couple weeks later,
your boss comes back. Your TPS report was incomplete. You
(01:50):
can have the dry aget okay, but you're on stage,
you tell a joke, you here crickets bam. Immediately you
feel like you're a failure. It's the most raw and
real job you can have, at least in my opinion.
And then, aside from the terror that is the job,
you have to be the fastest guy in the room,
(02:10):
the quickest witted dude in the building. Every time I
go to a comedy show, I am always amazed that
these people decide to do this job and are able
to do this job so well. But I digress. I
have interviewed so many comics. I was just trying to
go through like all my old like SoundCloud interviews to
(02:31):
find the interview of the guests that we're having today.
I couldn't find it. But literally almost every big comics
out there right now I have had on my show.
But it was back in like two eight, and I
remember when this guy came into my studio. I wasn't
that familiar with him, but he was so funny. He
made me laugh so hard in my interview. And usually
if you're coming in to do a morning show, everyone's
(02:53):
dragon ass, right, But he walked in and he had
the most energy. He was so freaking hilarious, and like
I said, I wasn't be familiar with him before the interview,
but he had me dying laughing. At the end. He
was like, what are you doing to night? And I
was like, I don't know nothing, and he said we
should come to the show. Put you on the list.
I said, Okay, I went to that show. I took
my then girlfriend and it was the funniest night of
(03:15):
my life. I'm not kidding you. I often tell the
story of the time that I interviewed Ingrid Michaelson and
she came in. She was like, hey, well, it's good
to see you. And I was like, oh my god,
do you remember my name? And I said, hey, what
do you want to play? Well? Three years ago and
I came on yr show. I played this song. Two
years ago and I came on the show. I played
this song this this year. I want to play something
different so the audience gets something different. Is that cool? Yeah? Sure.
(03:36):
I remember after that interview being like, Wow, the reason
why you're famous, aside from the fact that you're so talented,
is because damn you have foresight. You have thought the
same thing with my guest today. He came in. There
was so much energy, so much positivity. I remember afterwards
being like, oh, yeah, I totally get why hundreds of
people are gonna go see you with Zany's But now
(03:56):
I look at his career and it's just crazy, dude.
I mean, his aard Netflix special is out now. Just
to get one Netflix special is super tough. Dude's got
three of them. He's got an amazingly gigantic podcast called
The Koi Pond. Did he broke a record for the
most tickets sold by a single artist at twenty three
thousand tickets and and eleven sold out shows in Honolulu.
(04:20):
I don't even know there are many people in Hawaii. Dude.
He's breaking records left and Ryan so at six shows
at the war Field in San Francisco, broke in a
tennants record at the Club Region Events Center in Winnipeg
with four sold out shows, five sold out shows, and
at the San Diego Civic Center, the most consecutive sold
out shows for a comedian. And he recently became the
only comedian to sell seventeen thousand tickets over thirty shows
(04:44):
in one year at the Brea Improv. My dude got
the prestigious stand Up Comedian of the Year award a
couple of years back, and last year he reached number
one on the Billboard chart for a stand up comedy
album Live from Seattle. Honestly, this is an interview you're
not gonna want to decided from that that he's just
one of the funniest people I've ever come across. He's
also a guy whose story is bonkers, so don't go
(05:07):
anywhere becas on the Wells cast today, we've got the one,
the only Joe Koy all right back in the Wales cast,
very excited to have the one the only Joe Koy.
(05:29):
How are you my man? I'm good man. It's it's
it's crazy that I can't go in the studio and
be with you guys and get that energy going close range.
But this zoom will work. It'll work. So I was
doing the intro before we zoomed into each other. And
you probably don't remember this, but I used to. I
(05:51):
used to work for uh, this little indie radio station
in Nashville called Lightning one, and I was the morning
show host years ago. And you like, I would only
ever get comics to come my show because musicians never
want to come in at seven in the morning to
sing because their voices are shot, you know, because they've
been drinking whiskey the entire night. But but if you
(06:13):
were doing if you were doing a set at Zany's,
your asks would come on my show. And I remember
Ron from Zaney's hit me up and was like, hey,
Joe Koy, is coming in, and this is probably two
thousand eight or something like that. I was like, I'm
I'm unfamiliar, but I love having comics on my show,
and you came in. I remember I couldn't stop laughing
during the interview. I went like on SoundCloud to try
(06:35):
to find the interview because I wanted to see if
I could play it back because I just remember being like,
just couldn't stop laughing. It was so funny. And then
at the end, you're like, hey, man, what are you
doing to night? And I was like, I got nothing,
I'm a morning show host. And You're like, well, I'll
throw you on the list come to the show. Okay,
let's do that. So me and my then girlfriend went
to Zany's saw your show. It was one of the
(06:57):
best shows I've ever seen at ANES and ever since then,
I've been a huge fan of yours. So thank you
so much for coming on the show. Dude, thank you
so much. That's awesome. Man, that's a long road to
right there. That's a long time ago. Zany's. It looks
like a barn, right, it looks like a little barn,
like like there's there's like a big giant windows up
(07:17):
to the side right there. I remember that room. That
was a crazy time. You know, you've come a long way.
I was going through some of your stats. Twenty three
thousand tickets sold in like Honolulu. I didn't even know
that there were that many people in Hawaii. That's so funny, right,
you're selling out these huge, these huge rooms, these huge arenas.
(07:40):
What do you think it is? I man, I don't know.
I can't even explain it. The the craziest thing that
just happened was just before you know, the pandemic and
the quarantine started. I made it to the top ten
global tour So I was in the list of top
ten for global tour acts, and I was it was
like Elton John, Selene, Dion Tool and then I think
(08:03):
it was like Jerry Seinfeld and then Joe Cole, and
I'm like, is this really happening? Like all right, I'll
take it. I couldn't believe it. So, man, it's it's
nuts to see this. Uh just what how how it
went from Nashville to like now I'm doing an arena
in Australia out of all places. It's just crazy. Well, congratulations,
you're on your third Netflix special, the New Ones called
(08:27):
in his elements and I got to take a peek
at it. This is almost it's like I was trying
to put in new words. It's like part stand up
special and part documentary. Thank you. That's exactly what I
wanted and that's exactly what I wanted the viewers to see.
You know. I I talked about my culture. This is
my third affear and stand up and I made a
(08:48):
you know, beautiful living just talking about my people and
and my culture and my mom and this is my
way of giving back. And uh and you know, not
too many people know this, but it was it was
it was really hard to get into Netflix. You know,
my first special Life from Seattle. They didn't pay for it, Like,
they said no to it like five times, and then
I finally had to finance it myself and shoot it
(09:09):
myself and edit it myself, and then I brought it
back to Netflix and then finally they were like, yeah,
we'll take it. And and that's how hard it was
for me to get into Netflix. So when they gave
me this special, this this opportunity to shoot a third one,
my whole idea concept was like, now that I have
the door slightly open, let me get some other Filipinos
in here, and let's go to the Philippines and showcase
(09:30):
the Philippines and talk about our culture and celebrate it
and just show like the rest of the world, Like, dude,
people speak English in the Philippines. You can visit it,
you can perform there. People who love it, like, come
try our food. Like that's what I wanted out of
this special. Man. I will say this, and you know,
I'm in the entertainment industry as well. There's a certain
amount of ego that that goes with being in the spotlight.
(09:52):
What I was kind of blown away with with this
special was yes, you are the focal point of it,
but you're also like allowing other people to shine in
it as well, like Ronnie the breakdance Guru or whatever.
And there's all these like little characters that you're like,
what's the old saying, arising tide raises all ships. And
(10:13):
it was like it was kind of like, that's what
you're doing. And it was like, oh, not only is
this hilarious, because it was, but it's also like makes
me feel good that I'm watching it, thanks man. And
it was just like there's people in the Philippines that
are inspired by American culture and just trying to make
it in the Philippines is like so hard. So my
whole thing was like bringing people that that live in
(10:33):
American Filippino Americans bring their talent to to the Philippines
and then inspire some of these people that are living
in like the hardest conditions, like the Boy Ronnie, you
know what I mean. By the way, my relationship with
Ronnie goes back twenty something years. Man, we opened for
Snoop Dogg together. We used to do the Boy events
together and comedy shows, used to open my comedy shows,
So of course I wanted him to be a part
of this. And then I told him, let's go to
(10:56):
the tenement, like the hardest areas. You know, these people
are living with close to nothing and and hold an
audition and whoever the best answers are, Let's bring them
on stage and celebrate together. And man, you should have
seen it as as as hard it was as they
were living, they were having the best time dancing and
just auditioning and just knowing that there was an opportunity
(11:16):
that that that was in front of him. And that's
when I got out of that. Man. I was just
I was loving it. When you watched the special back,
what do you love the most about it? Um? I thought,
what I love the most is that my my aunt
is in it. You know, I got to put my
childhood aunt that. You know, the last time I seen
her was in the Philippines when I used to live there.
So from like when I was from six to eleven,
(11:37):
I used to live out there and my aunt, the
Opie was like she was the jock. She was the
one that loved basketball. She always talked about the Lakers,
and you know, she was that was my go to
you know, she was the one, the one aunt that
like sports and stuff. So you know I did. I
haven't seen her in so many years, so to go
back and and share that moment with her, she's you know,
she's got cancer. She's in a very uh you know,
(12:00):
she's in a very bad stage right now. Cancer. So
having her sit there and just knuckle through it. I
remember looking at her like, Auntie, you you can go
now if you want. She's like, no, no, Let's make
sure it's perfect. So it was really cute to see
her cook and and then my sister was right with her,
cooking with her, so it was like it was like
a real family affair right there in that scene. So
(12:21):
I loved it. Are you Elvis in the Philippines? Like,
are you the second Coming of Christ? Yeah? Yeah, I am.
Actually it's pretty cool. I'm not gonna lie. It's pretty cool, man,
And I love it and I love That's what I
love the most about, you know, the Philippines and the
people out there. They you know, they're very prideful people.
(12:41):
We don't have much of the Philippines, but we got
a lot of pride. So when someone you know, celebrates
it the way I have, uh they take it to
heart and uh uh they'll they'll fall on the sword
for me. So be careful what you say when you
go to the Philippine. Gonna drop your name every once
in a while. Yeah, yeah, you'll, they'll take care of you.
Oh you're related to joy in got here, I'll think. Godal,
(13:08):
that's the truth, bro. Everyone out there it needs to
go watch Joe Coy in His Elements. It's on Netflix,
and lord knows everyone's got Netflix right now because you
know stuck inside. You also have the Koi Pond. You're
really immensely popular podcast. Tell everyone about that that might
not know about it. Uh. You know, here's the thing
(13:29):
about the Koi Pond. I just enjoy riffing. It keeps
me sharp, you know what I mean. I go in
with absolutely no plan, no no topic. I just kind
of look at Dre Drey's my brother in law, and
I just look at him right in the face and
we hit record. Whatever we talk about we can talk about.
But I use that opportunity to just sharpen my ad
(13:49):
living skills. If I can come up with something off
the top, and if I could think of a joke
right there, I'm using it later. So I love I
love it. I love it. It's that opportunity where we shoot.
Can I curse or no? Yes, it's it's where we
just shoot the ship man and it's a lot of fun.
There's there's no production to it, just riff. I wanted
to feel like we're in the green room backstage at
(14:11):
the comedy club. Yeah. Well, Joe, I don't know if
anyone told you kind of what this podcast is. The
idea basically is origin stories. I'm kind of fascinated with
how people got to become famous and how they were
able to get you know, that blue check mark on
Instagram or whatever. It is, and your story is bonkers.
I mean you just kind of touched on a little bit.
You had moved back to the Philippines, you know, when
(14:33):
you were a kid. I was wondering if you'd be
so kind to tell us your story and where you
came from and how you got here. You know, like
I told you earlier about how Netflix didn't give me
the special And I think the reason why I didn't
react the way most comics that have been doing it
for almost thirty years would have reacted, you know, which
is it was a painful moment, you know, when they
(14:53):
said no to me, I was just like, are you
not seeing my numbers? Uh? You know that this is
my thirtieth year, Like are you kidding me right now?
Like I deserve it? Like I could have went on
Twitter and just blasted Netflix, like how dare they everyone
cancel your subscriptions now? But I didn't. And the reason
why is because that's that's been pretty much the journey
of my entire career. It's always been never an open door.
(15:16):
It's always been just like an obstacle, and I had
to prove myself. I had to kick the door down.
It's like everything, like everything that I've been on, it's
always been me pursuing or kicking the door down and
and and showing that they should say yes. And I
hate the fact that I'm making it sound like this
motivational type speech. But that's why when I started in Vegas,
(15:39):
there weren't that many comedy clubs. So I noticed that
I was getting quite a draw in Vegas when I
first started. And I remember the first comedy club I
got into was called catch Rizing Star, and they handed
me a stack of two for one coupons and and
the managers like handles out handles, not tell your friends, man,
And I noticed, like on a Thursday night, it was
all my friends, yet the headliners making all the cake.
(16:02):
And I'm I'm getting like twenty five bucks. I'm like,
wait a minute, wait, if they're coming to see me,
then I don't need to go here. And and that's
when I started renting out theaters and and I realized
the business of it. I realized, if you get the
theater yourself, you can sell the ticket yourself, pay the comics,
and then you make whatever whatever is off the top.
And then it got to the point where I'm gonna
(16:22):
get sponsors to pay for the theater. That way, I
get a hundred percent of the door and split whatever
with the comments. And then next you know, it's I
started shooting stuff and it was just like that's why
when Netflix said no, I was like, all right, cool,
I'm ready for this. I already know what to do.
I'll just rent a venue, hire some cameraman, and shoot it.
So yeah, man, it was a long journey to get
(16:42):
to where we are now. So you know, I'm glad
they said no, and I and I strongly suggest that
to anyone else when when someone says no, don't listen
to him. Show why they should have said yes. Man,
where did you grow up? I grew up in Tacoma,
and that's where I fell in low It stand up
like like nine one is when I saw Delirious. I
think it's like eight one. I think I think I
(17:04):
was eleven. And that's when I was like, oh, that's amazing,
and I'm gonna be him when I grow up. I
was like saving up for a red leather suit, like
I gotta be Eddie Murphy. And literally like four years
later or five years later, Eddie Murphy came to the
Seattle Colosseum. He was doing his Raw tour and I
I snuck on the phone. This is back, you know,
(17:25):
this before the internet. He had to call ticket Master
with the phone and I had my mom's credit card
and I bought two tickets to see Raw. I was
like fifteen, and you know that was back in the day.
You know, not too many people know what a Filipino
accident was. So they bought it was like hook line sinker.
I was like, yeah, I like to get through tickets
to see the Eddie Murphy show. Grand it guard like
they but they had no idea that that it was
(17:47):
a fifteen year old kid buying these tickets and uh.
And that's when I really fell in love with just
like seeing it live. When I was in that arena
Seattle colosseum Man and it was just it was packed. Man.
It was there was more people in there than the
Sonics ever had. And I remember I was like tenth
row from the stage and I was just looking up,
like yo, this is amazing. So that's when I fell
(18:09):
in love with stand up. And I knew I didn't
care that I was failing school because I was like,
right when I graduated, I'm just gonna I'm gonna start
stand up and that's where we moved to Vegas. I
was eight. Team moved to Vegas and then, Uh, my
sister was a singer. She wasn't like this. Uh this
competition called Starmania. It was like a bootleg star Search
and basically what they their whole pitch was they would
(18:29):
go to all these local bars and they throw this
star star Madia competition and the contestants had to bring
like ten family members or something so that the bar
could make money. I went to see my sister and
her show. There was a comedian that she was going
up again. She was singing, and there was a comedian
and she was sitting next to me and she was like,
oh my god, you would kill this guy. And in
(18:50):
my head I was already saying I was like, I know.
And so I went home that night called Starmania. I
booked myself, never told my family I was doing it,
and uh and it was on a bar on Chopican
and Eastern. Like a week later, I was on it,
and uh and I was going up against a singer.
I was going up against a Lionel Richie, a Lionel
Richie impersonator man. He even kind of looked like a
(19:11):
Lionel Richie and he killed it. He's saying like two
Lionel Richie songs like standing people in the bar and
going crazy. I was so nervous because I was only
like eighteen nineteen and there was a bar. So I
grew my baby hair. I had like that Asian baby
hair mustache, you know what I mean. I got my
mom's mascare, picking it a little, and I got in.
They didn't even card me. I remember they asked me
(19:32):
if I wanted anything to drink, and I said nothing.
I was like, oh, okay, because I didn't want to
like get carded or you know what I mean. So
I was just like, no, I'm good, just water and
I went up after that guy. I bombed so bad
my mouth, I remember, my tongue was sticking to the
roof of my mouth and I couldn't get off stage,
and I just kept looking at everybody, just bombing, bombing,
and then finally I just go, uh, hey, your mouth
every gets so dry that the tongue, your tongue sticks
(19:55):
to the roof of your mouth. And I was gonna
do the rest of the like try and think of
something funny, and then a lay he's sitting at the
damn bar. Uh drunk lady sitting at the end of
the bar. I already did this joke about condoms right earlier,
and it bombed. It was horrible. I was talking about yeah,
condoms out fit. It was whatever, it's stupid, right and
then uh so, then I was like, you ever you
(20:15):
ever have your tongue gets so dry, stick in the
roof of your mouth. And then the lady at the
bar goes stick a condom on it, and she fucking
crushed the whole room fucking crushed like they hoisted her
on her on their shoulders and carried her out like
that's how you do coming it. And I was just
(20:36):
standing there, just humiliated, man. And I walked on stage.
She got the biggest laugh. I sat next to this
Lionel Richie, impersonator. I wouldn't. I don't. I don't know
why I didn't leave. I don't know what it is
about people when they bombed so bad, they want to
sit there and take it like just they just want
to hear people, WoT you suck? What was that? Man?
I was awful, you know that. Thank God that lady
was here. And I sat next to the Lionel Ritchie
(20:59):
in person later and he literally he literally looked at
me and he goes, hey, man, I'm gonna say this
about you. You've got some great stage present. Just work
on your craft, but you've got some good stage present.
And I swear to god, man, if he didn't say that,
I probably want me doing stand up man seriously, and
I really wish I could. Maybe maybe I should hire
an investigator or something like to really research who that
(21:22):
guy was, because you know, you're eight team man, and
when something like that happens, man, usually that's just like, okay,
I'm done. I don't know what I was thinking, I'll
never do this those words from that guy. Man. I
remember going to work the next day and I was like, oh, man,
I think I know what he means by that, like
you know, you belong on stage, like just work on
the craft, you know, but but you look good up there.
(21:42):
So yeah, whatever that was, it motivated me. And as
you get shirts and say, put a column moment and
sell it. I made my money back for the joke.
He killed my joke? How does she kill my joke?
What a bitch? Man? Literally like that with an accident
and everything put it it's like it was like it
(22:03):
was like at the bar. She's like on one stool
and her feet or like on the other stool crossed.
Like it was just shitty situation. Put a codom on it,
just drinking out of her drink, just back sweat, just
all my hair standing up on the back of my neck.
It was awful, man, worst bomb ever. You know that
bar is still there. I went to it and I
(22:24):
walked in. It's still The stage is still in the
same spot. The bar where that bitch yelled at me
is still off to the left. Like I literally got
chills when I walked in. I was like, holy shit.
They never change it. It's on Eastern and Tropicana, and
I even think it's called the Eastern Bar. It's named
after the street. It's such a hole in the wall.
If you're in Vegas, go check it out, you guys.
(22:44):
Vegas is open. We can go do that. Anyone who's
familiar with your comedy knows that you talking about your
family a lot, especially your mom. I'm wondering, like, what
was your mom saying to you about what you wanted
(23:07):
to do back then to stop to completely stop go
to school. It's so crazy. Because Filipinos love to like
showcase their kids talent, you know what I mean. So
from the age of like one to eighteen, Oh, my
kid has so much talent. And then when it's time
for the kid to get a real job, it's like, okay,
enough with your talent. That's in faith bites, go through school,
(23:31):
get an education, Like stop this joking jokes? Does that
made the red So? Yeah? It was. It was. It
was a battle with my mom. I mean, this is
an example of my mom. I got the Tonight Show.
It took me about fifteen years to get the Tonight Show.
I was working at North Iraq. I was cleaning yachts.
I was cleaning these yachts on Saturday and Sunday. I
(23:53):
would clean these yachts from six to nine thirty and
then I would literally drive from the yacht to the
Laugh Factory in my waiter outfit. There's like mustard and
ship all over me. And I'm performing. I'm opening for
Chris Rock at the Laugh Actoring on a Saturday, and
Dane Cook and Harlem Williams and and then after that
I have to go home and make sure I'm home
for my son. He's like one to three years old,
(24:14):
you know what I mean. So it was hard. It
was a hard life, you know what I mean, coming
up and and then all of a sudden, I got
the Tonight Show and literally, I mean I got a
standing ovation on the Toy Show. Right, this is like,
this is that one piece of tape that might change
my career, you know what I mean. It might take
me out of the yachts and out of out of
Northstrom wrack folding sweats in the summer. And here's my
(24:36):
mom after I just crushed. This is what my mom said,
good job on the Tonight Show. Um, have you thought
about full time job? Literally? Have you thought about full
time job? Joseph, My god, it's it's really time, a
full time job, No celebration, no cake. I just got
(24:59):
on the most iconic show. I got a standing go
and literally Tonight Show did change my life because after
the Tonight Show, I got to quit everything because I gotta.
I got a TV not a TV deal, but I
got a TV commercial, like a national spot, and I
was like their campaign guy, like the face of their
uh it was called aunt Mobile, and they paid me
so much money. They're like like, have this phone and
(25:21):
talk about this phone, I did commercials and I did
like a local tour for them, and it was it was.
It was pretty amazing because I never looked back after that.
Who was the host? Then this is post Carson, right, yeah,
this is Jay and literally What's Crazy? Joaquin Phoenix and
Alattis Forest that was on it. I remember the whole show,
and Waukin was, you know, he got all the I
think he got like an Oscar nomination or he was
getting ready to get it. Everyone thought that he was
(25:43):
the vet for a Walk the Line or something like that,
the movie with the Walk the Line was in and
the Johnny Cash movie and uh so he was like
everyone wanted to interview Joachin, right, so he's on my show,
of course, and he went super long, super long. So
I was supposed to sit on the couch. So I'm
like bouncing backstage. I'm getting ready to walk out there, man,
and uh the producers run up to me and they're like, hey,
(26:05):
walk he went long, So we had to change it up.
You're not going to the couch. There's a mark. You'll
see a little X where you stand when you say
good night. They said, just stand right there and Jay's
gonna walk up to you and say good night. I'm
still happy because I'm doing the Tonight Show, but I'm
pissed because it was my dream to sit at that couch,
you know what I mean. So now I'm like, I'm
(26:26):
just standing. I'm bouncing. There's these two security guards, this
one uh, this one one guy, one girl, and I'm bouncing.
Then they start bouncing with me, and they're like they're like,
are you ready? And I'm like, I've been waiting my
whole life for this. I don't want to clean the
yacht again. And you hear him say Joe Coy and
I walk out welcome back. Good when actually has a
(26:47):
young commedity from Las Vegas. You can see him on
Comedy Central, Premium, Blend for Every Three, also regular at
the Laugh Factor right here in Hollywood. This is his
first appearance on the Tonight Show. Please welcome Joe Coy.
M Yes, okay, I am Asian, so stop looking at
(27:15):
me like a math problem. At you guys are looking
at them like what flavor is that? Living in a
hollyway to get the worst compliments, the worst living out here.
When you tell people you're Asian, it's like, oh, you're Asian,
I love orange chicken you're talking about. It's not a compliment,
that's an insult. What they expect you to do when
(27:37):
they say that, Like I'm supposed to go thinking you
sh chicken bag okay, ho chick the lie it is
good though, it's delicious. I love orange chicken. Don't take
(28:02):
Asians for orange chicken. They the Mexicans, they know how
to cook it. Don't aunts that. You don't know what
I'm talking about. You gonna pant express the only Asian guy.
There's one taking your order. You're looking at the kitchen.
Seventeen Mexican cooks. Both Mexicans cook orange chicken, so good.
(28:27):
Chinese people like, now fat's on Chan? How you doing that?
Jusse that is an under river briar love it is
how dangy, just like Mama make head because it's I
can't tell you a family secret. I teach Chinese people.
(28:49):
I'm just joking. We need Chinese people American These Chinese people.
Everything in America is made in China, right, Everything in
this jacket, these pants, the shoes, China. They just wake
up and start sewing for no reason. Everything in America
has made that should be our slogan America Made in China.
(29:13):
We love everything about Chinese culture to Kung Foo. We
love Kung Foo right, Kung Fu movies. Chinese food, we
love it. We can't get it up with Chinese food.
We don't care how horrible the service is. Right, they're
the rudest waiters on earth. They just want to hurry
up and serve you, sit you down, and let you
go right. They don't even have time to say hi
at a Chinese restaurant. Do you ever walk into a
(29:35):
Chinese and they don't go hello, well, come right right?
You're walking? How many true? What are you yelling at? Play? Oh?
(29:57):
Doesn't matter how busy to play? These places could be empty,
and they're always in a hurry. Never knows that. It's like, okay,
you too, you you to come here? You come unnun
and they'll sit you in the worst spots. They don't care.
They mean, okay, you do you sit right here? You
said right here? He said, what is this? I want
to sit by the aquarium. But we don't complain. We
(30:21):
don't complain, you know why because the food comes out quick? Right?
How are you even complain with the food's already on
the table? Right. You ever noticed how the food's already
on the table right when you say it right, the
words barely come out of your mouth. It's already on
the table. It's like you ready to order? Yeah, can
I get some Kung pun? Chien? Could do it again?
Say in the rim bride, that's my time. I don't
(30:45):
jumped plays. And I got that standing ovation man, literally
the full house it stood. I'm standing there. You can
watch the video. You can actually see me staying there.
And then I looked to my right and I'm looking
at a and Jay's waving me over than I. So
(31:14):
I run over there and I sit at the couch.
He gives me one by one set up question. We
do the joke. I know you have a little boy,
a little boy two and a half. It's weird though
he doesn't want to talk yet. It's like, you know,
two and a half and he's all bad and you
gotta figure out what he's saying. And this is how
I know girls are smarter than boys, because I got
a friend Stella. She's got a little girl two and
(31:36):
a half, same age. She's already talking like articulate too,
like mommy, can I have a sandwich? I'm like, wow,
there's a d N sandwich. Every time we go here,
she shows up, Mommy, can we go out and play? Well? Me?
Can we go upstairs play with the toys? Mommy? Little
Joe is hungry. Can can we eat something? And then
and then of course she's like, yeah, we can eat someone.
(31:56):
Let's find out what little Joe wants. What do you
want to eat? Joe? He wants a sandwich? Where's your helmet? Job?
I didn't know that. Good job? Right back a lot
of and I go, hey, man, I'm so sorry, Ja,
(32:19):
but they told me to stand at the mark because
they said that we were running on. Yeah, but it's
my show and you got the standing innovation. I'm not
gonna let you get a standing innovation stand at the back?
Are you kidding me? You know that to this show?
You standing ovation? Are you kidding me? And I had
to had you stay at the couch. Man, I'm sorry,
good job, Jock. That was the most amazing moment man,
That that tonight show set changed my life. Jay. Having
(32:41):
me come to the couch was just it was glorious. Man.
I would have loved it if there was a drunk woman.
And then back to said just put a kind of
such a good callback at the end of my tonight
shows that put a cod is your mom? Is she
on board yet? Or is she still? Like? Ah, so,
you know it's so funny she on board? That's such
(33:02):
a funny question. She um, I don't think it's the
reality has really hit. Yeah, you know where I live
now and how I travel, and she doesn't get it.
Can you still? Can you do this birthday party? They
love you? Just before they cut the cake, just do
five me names? No, Mom, I'm not gonna do five
(33:24):
minutes at a birthday party. Well right up, they're your
biggest fans, Like, oh god, she just doesn't she doesn't gain.
But I love her, man, It's genuine. It's from her heart,
you know what I mean. Like, no one's more honest
than my mom. And that's the truth. I did a
Samuel Adams commercial like this, this big commercial where they
wanted me to toast my mom and and in my head,
(33:46):
I was just gonna toast her beer because I thought
that'd be funny. You know, hey, Mom, I love you,
thank you, and toast the beer and take a couple
of drinks. You know what I mean? With my mom?
Drinking beer with my mom and uh, and right when
they said action, I started crying, you know. I mean
I was like, oh, this is a a lot deeper
than I thought. I mean, like, thank you for sacrificing
everything that leaving the Philippines let me chase my dream
(34:09):
as a commun I love you this, I love you
that I'm crying and and uh, you know, I think
it wasn't until that moment that I really really truly
realized that what she sacrificed for me is the only
reason why I'm able to live the life that I
get to live now. Man. And and now we went
full circle too. That's why that that this special in
his elements is so special to me, because this is
(34:31):
kind of like my way of saying thank you to
my mom and and the Philippines and the Filipino culture
and the people just celebrating it, you know what I mean.
So that's what that all is. I guess I didn't
really realize it until that that that toast. So going
back to like whenever was two thousand and eight when
I when I had you on my radio show. I
remember you were talking about your son. I remember the
(34:54):
bit was he just smells like his like his breast
smells like I don't think his teeth. Uh So now
we're like ten years down the road, he's I'm sure
an adult. Now what does he think about what you do?
I'm so happy that where my career is happening now,
the things that are happening now in my career, because
(35:14):
he's at that age where he could really appreciate it.
Because my first two specials man and going on tour
with them. He didn't get it. Man, he was too young.
He didn't understand what any of that was. You know,
me telling jokes, you know when he was a kid.
He didn't understand any of that stuff. He didn't get it.
He didn't know what it was. And it always kind
of hurt me inside because every time, like someone else
would come to the house like like like, uh, you know,
(35:37):
just a friend of mine that was doing something else
he was so interested in, like WHOA, that's cool you
ride motorcycles. I'm like, man, you're a professional skateboarder. Wow,
that's awesome. And I'm like, you know, your dad's a comedian.
What is that? No one knows what that is, dad.
(35:58):
So it's just my soul will get crushed every time
someone else would come into the into my house or
hang out with my son. So when he got you know,
it wasn't full. He got like fourteen fifteen, and then
like his friends started recognizing me, and like now everyone's
like talking about my specials. His teachers are talking about
my specials. And then he started getting older and now
he loves stand up comedy. That's when it's just like
(36:20):
it was. It's just so much more fun to share
it with him. Those moments coming in Hot, you know,
he's an associate producer, and coming in Hot, you know,
my second special, you know, I mean, he helped me
pick up my outfit. He helped me pick out the songs.
He he he told me which jokes to do at
the end, like he he was really like creatively, he
was a big part of it for me. And I
got to share that with him, and shaking his hand
(36:41):
at the beginning of that special was amazing. And then
and then you know, I did the Forum, the you know,
the the Great Western Forum. I sold two shows out
at the Forum here in Los Angeles, and you know,
I I had my bus, you know, I got this
bus and my tour bus, and I gave it to
my son. I go, I go to bring all your
friends from school. Just bring him, Bring him to the
(37:01):
merch table, grab whatever they want. You ride the bus
of the forum, pull up v I p through the back.
You know what I mean. Your dad's name is written
on the wall from everyone that put performed here at
the at the at the forum. And and then and
I brought him out on stage and hugged him in
front of all those people. Man, it was it was
It was incredible, man, It was like twenty five thousand people.
It was. It was nuts. Man. Do you have to
(37:23):
get approval from your family to tell jokes about them?
It's my words, man, it's my story, you know what
I mean. So they live a good life, by the way,
So uh, everyone's got to sacrifice something if you want something.
So yeah, it's I've been I'm in a position where
(37:44):
I could, uh give back to my family, so they
better let me say whatever I want. I had Dave
Kuyer on he was talking to me about kind of
like his graduating class and in terms of everyone that
was like doing the improv or the comedy store, and
and his his graduating class was crazy. Was like Jerry
(38:05):
Seinfeld and Mitch Hedberg, and let's just goes on and on.
You're a bit younger than him. What is your kind
of graduating class of comics and who influenced you the
most or who did you think it was like the
funniest guy coming up? Mine was Mine was a pretty
cool class the comics. Man, My come up was with well,
(38:25):
of course, Kevin Hart and I we were you know,
we we came up together. We did so many shows
together at the beginning. I got so much footage of
Kevin and I. Man, I should I should, you know,
put that out there. It's so cool. And Gabriel Iglesias,
dr Ken, you know, we were all coming up together.
Who else Dane Cook was already at like he was
like already doing arenas. But but every week it was
(38:47):
him and I at the Laugh Factory. So it was
day and me always like it was always him and I.
And of course John Lovetts. A lot of people don't
know this, but John Lovitts was stepping into the world
as stand up comedy, and it was him and I
were kind of starting together at the Laugh Factory. Whitney Cummings,
Bert Krisher Sigura, like those guys were kind of like
my class when I moved to l A. And it
was a beautiful time. You want to hear a crazy
(39:08):
one my premium blend. You know, back when Comedy Central
the host was Damon, Wayne was the host, and then
my four was Azzies, Billy Gardel, myself and uh, oh
my god, who's the fourth one? When I remember, I'll
tell you, I'll tell you what. I can't remember his
name right now, off the top man, but that that
was my my premium blend. It was nuts. None of
(39:29):
us had our specials, yet those were our little five minutes,
seven minutes segments on Comedy Central. I lived for those, man.
I remember every afternoon they'd be on Comedy Central, like
replaying them, Assis, Billy Gardell, and myself. That was the four.
Damon was the host. They all, all of those guys
are just beasts, and I love it. You know, you've
(39:49):
done so much and you've been so successful amidst like
so many hurdles. You know, the whole kind of idea
for this show is like how the hell did you
get here? Um? Would you say, like, is the one
piece of advice that you've used that's help with your success?
You know? The key to me is man, Uh, jealousy
(40:12):
will destroy a person, you know what I mean. And
you've got to learn how to control that because it's
it's one thing to be. You know, everyone gets a
little jealous. You're allowed to do that. That's a natural feeling.
But don't let it ever control you and take over you.
You know, there there there were so many opportunities in
my career where jealousy would have just destroyed me. And
(40:33):
and you know, seeing people that I helped bring up,
you know what I mean, getting shows or specials or
or I came up with that are in movies and
and blowing up. And you know, there were times where
I could have been like, Yo, what am I doing wrong?
This sucks. I guess it's only for them. I guess
there's none for me, you know, I mean I could
(40:55):
have done that. But you don't. Man. What you do
is you you really just you take that as inspiration, man,
and you also look at as the opportunity, Like if
that person is selling out arena, then you know that
you can sell out arena. It doesn't mean that they
only want to see this guy, because there's enough for everybody,
you know, I mean, there's enough for everybody. Man. I
always say this, Man, if you if you ever fly
(41:17):
over the Rocky Mountains, right, you ever fly over if
you ever go to Denmorid, you fly over the Rocky Mountains.
There's not enough people in this world to stand on
top of every mountain inside the Rocky Mountains, there's not
there's not enough. What I mean by that is everyone
gets a mountain, man, everyone gets a mountain top. You know,
when you're the king of your mountain and you're you're
(41:38):
up there and you're trying to push other people down,
like no, no, no, it's only me, I'm the king. Bro.
They're gonna go up to another mountain and you're you're
gonna be looking eye to eye with that person. So
instead of being that way, share it, bro, pull them up,
help them. Man. There's enough for everybody. Man. That's what
I don't understand it. And you gotta learn that also,
Like I had to learn that as well. Like I
(41:59):
had to understand that, Like, don't be jealous of these
people making it. Use them as an example, knowing that
it's possible. If it happened for them, it will happen
for you. Just take your time. It's not your time yet.
Just stay on that path, Stay on that path. You
know who wins the most racist? Man, those horses with
the flaps like this, I said that to my boy
Brendon's shop. I just go, this is what you do
(42:21):
when when when you when you have a lot of
negative energy coming at you from the sides. Right, A
lot of people get that negative energy that's hitting them
from the side, and they engage and look at it
and go and and hit them back with energy, you know,
I mean, negative energy, negative and then both both of
you just end up standing right here and not moving
anywhere because you guys are constantly doing this. No one's
moving forward. But you know who's moving forward, that person
(42:42):
that's getting all that negative energy hitting them on the side,
and they got those horse flaps like this, and they
just keep trucking through like that, just running, just racing,
winning that race. You know what I mean, Get those
horse flaps. Man, you won't even see you won't even
see that ship on the side. You just see one
thing in front of you, the pride. Oh man, that
was deep. But it's true. It's true, man, it is true.
(43:06):
And also like positive positive energy breeds positive energy, and
like positive outcomes and if you're always pissy about other
people's success, that means you're putting that negative energy out
there and it's just not helpful. Yeah, man. And you
know what else, it's crazy your negative energy on someone
else is actually their positive energy. You don't say that
(43:27):
if that makes any sense. If you cast hate on somebody,
here's a perfect example, just the lame. This is just
a little tiny example of what negative energy. How negative
energy becomes positive energy for the person you're trying to
hate on. Right. Okay, So so if there's someone that
you hate and say, I got I got a million followers, right,
I got a million followers, and there's a guy that
(43:47):
I don't like, or there's a female NOWN like and
I and I tweet out to my million followers this
person sucks. And then I say their name, right, and
then I hit send. You know what you just did.
You just told a million people about this person, and
go look at this person and then judge for yourself.
I guarantee about sixty are gonna be like, hey, I
(44:10):
like that person, thanks for telling me. The other like, hey,
not that bad. I don't really agree with you. And
then let's that small five percent that's like, yeah, that
person does suck? Who cares about that five percent? You
know what I mean? That's that's that's how I look
at it. Man, If you're gonna say my name, if
you're gonna have a platform where you're gonna actually say
(44:31):
my name, whether it be good or bad, it's always
gonna be good for me. Man, Yeah, I feel that. Man.
Before I let you go, do you have time to
do rapid fire questions? Of course? All right, rapid fire question,
Thanks Joe. Rapid fire questions with Joe Koy Number one
favorite pizza top top Pepperoni, du biggest mentor? Oh man,
that's a tom Man. Why do you got to do that?
(44:53):
I'm gonna throw John Lovetts out there. You mean mentor
like real human person that I actually physically talked to,
and you know, spearby or just someone that inspired me
indirectly either way. Okay, indirectly it's Eddie Murphy. Okay. But
John Lovitts was very kind and took me under his
wing and and and really really showed me some cool stuff.
Man about this business. Who's your first kiss? Oh, my god, Dina,
(45:15):
my very first kiss. What was the first concoct you
ever went to? First? Eddie Murphy Raw second console was
Best Boys. How dope was that? Dude? Yeah? Licensed to
ill Bro licensed ill Man the most amazing in at
the Paramount Theater. It was maybe even people. Man, I
had prime seeds. Dude, we were moh in hard Bro.
What was your first car? First car was a Volkswagen
(45:37):
Rabbit and I hit a I hit a cop, totaled it. Baby,
Uh celebrity, You're mistaken for That's obvious, man, Brad Brad
pitt Um. Everyone always says Vin Diesel. I'm like, man, stop,
but I'll take it. Who would you call to get
you out of jail? My sister, Gemma, she asked to
she controls all my money. If you want an oscar?
Who'll be the first person you thanks in your speech?
(45:57):
My mama? Yeah, last one. How did get your stage name? Oh?
Joe Koy And that's actually in his elements. I tell
that story in uh this specials, So when you watch
it tonight you will see the story behind Joe Koy.
But I'm gonna tell you anyways. Joe Koi is actually
a nickname from my aunt. My auntie Evelyn, gave me
Joe Koy. I used to go up with my real name,
Joseph Herbert. People would laugh kind of like what you're
(46:20):
doing right now? And I would get so angry on
stage because I didn't know why the funk they were
laughing at my name. So it'll always be like seven
minutes and an open micaul me bantering with people making
fun of them because they laughed at my name, and
then I would never get to my jokes. And then
finally I was at my aunt's house. I was with
my cousin Mona, and I was like, I gotta change
my name, and we're trying to figure out my name.
(46:40):
And my aunts always called me Jokoy, but she says
it out loud, like JOKOI eat, and that was it.
We both looked at each other, was like, that's the
name Joe Koy, and it's been with me for thirty years, man,
Joe Koy. But if you watch in His Elements tonight,
you'll actually find the rest of that story. That name
was like your first blinders because when you say Joseph Herbert,
you were all over the place. Yes, I was all
(47:01):
all in the place. Stop making fun of my name
as whole. Joe Coy in His Elements is on Netflix
right now go watch it. It is hilarious and inspiring
and absolutely beautiful. It's not just like we were saying
in the beginning, it's not just a comedy special. It's
a documentary. It's talking about not just comedy but also
(47:21):
shining a light on the Philippines, which is which is
super cool. And also if you haven't seen his other
two specials, go check it out. Listen to his podcasts,
The Koi Pond, Joe Koit. Thank you so much for
being so awesome. Man, I really do appreciate it. You
m or what? Or I'll just give you my phone number. Okay,
just press stop. Yeah here, let me do this. Hold on,
(47:41):
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