Words matter. These are the best Jo Koy Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I always told myself I’d never be like my mother if I had a kid, but here I am, the same thing. I don’t know how this happened. The same type of disciplining, the same kind of forcing him to perform in front of people, not buying him things when I could afford whatever he wanted – it’s crazy!
Everyone is where they are at because they worked hard for it. Don’t ever hate on someone’s hustle. Just figure out how you can get there.
I do enjoy Dennis Miller, I do enjoy Chris Rock when they do their political humor, but it’s never been my goal… I love relatable humor.
I started in 1989. I was the booker, the promoter, the headliner. I wore all the hats.
I didn’t realize how many people watched ‘The Tonight Show.’
The coolest thing for me is that I’ve been blessed with a nice following. The people that come to see me are fans, and that happens in Vegas, too.
I knew when I got out of high school that I was going to be a stand-up comic.
What I enjoy the most about being Filipino is our culture.
Something about Floridians, man – they are good to me. I’m glad my comedy translates to them.
Me and my son’s mother, we’ve been divorced for a while,but we’ve been really great parents. We’re good friends. We’re very relaxed when it comes to our son’s time with one another. We have an open door.
Whatever I talk about onstage is just my story. My fan base is broad… We all have the same mom; it’s just that ours has an accent.
For every stand-up comedian, Just for Laughs is our Super Bowl. Every comic in the world goes to Just for Laughs in Montreal. And they presented me with the Stand-Up Comedian of the Year award for 2018. This is my Oscar; this is my Emmy. That’s my baby now.
The stand-up world is very, very hard. There is a lot of competition, and there are not that many venues, and there are not that many opportunities. You have really got to stand out.
It’s neat seeing people that aren’t necessarily part of my demographic who really get the jokes. I love it.
My real name is Joseph Herbert. My dad is white; my mom’s Asian, Filipino. And when I started stand-up 22 years ago, I used to go up as Joseph Herbert, and I would just have to defend my name. Every time I went onstage, it was so annoying. People would heckle.
My mom raised us like we were still in the Philippines. She tried to cure everything at home like a real Filipino woman. You had to die to go to the hospital. My mom cured everything with Vicks VapoRub. I should’ve died nine times when I was a kid!
What makes me laugh is hearing the stuff about my son or the stuff about my mom. I was a big fan of Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy; they talked a lot about their moms and their kids. Those are the things that inspired me to do stand-up.
Everything I put on stage is real; that’s what my life is. My emotions – I wear them on my sleeve. I’m definitely putting my heart out there when I’m on stage.
The appearance on ‘The Tonight Show’ was one thing, but the YouTube afterlife was incredible.
I was working at Nordstrom Rack, Borders Books, and I was cleaning yachts on the weekends for private parties and being a busboy. I had to break down the tables and roll the forks up in napkins. And I was still doing standup.
My dad’s my biggest fan. When I went to college, my dad came into my life in full-on dad mode. I was doing comedy, and he was so excited for my comedy, whereas my mom wasn’t. So we bonded through comedy.
I always wanted to build something in Vegas, especially off The Strip. I know how it is for locals. They don’t like going to The Strip for entertainment or even to eat.
I love storytellers. When I was growing up, my inspirations were watching Eddie Murphy, Dennis Wolfberg, and Louie Anderson. These guys were great at telling stories, and I made that my own style, talking about things that happened to me and trying to make them funny.
Whenever I talk about my culture, I want to shine a light on it. Even though I’m having fun, I want to make sure it’s uplifting. I’m proud of it, and that’s always been the foundation of my jokes.
Just to talk in front of people is scary. And now you gotta learn how to be funny, and now you gotta learn how to make people laugh at what you think is funny. That’s not easy.
I love being a friend to my son. We go to the mall together. We shop. He picks out my clothes. We hang out. We go to different cities together. We like the same music. I think that’s why he appreciates his mom and me so much – we treat him like a friend.
Comedy is not the first choice in Vegas for entertainment.
A lot of people ask why I don’t talk about my dad, and I want to, I just don’t have that many stories. When he moved out, he moved to a different state, so it was just my mom and I.
With the blessing of social media and platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix, you get this broad audience that I don’t think we knew about when we were kids.
Comedy is just an unspoken language. Everybody understands it. Funny is funny. When it’s not funny, they’ll let you know.
There’s a lot of open mics, a lot of comedy clubs. Whatever money I could make was OK with me. As long as I could pay the rent, eat food, and tell jokes, doing it was good enough for me.
My son – oh man, I think, every year, I’m getting 25 to 30 minutes of material from talking about him. He just keeps growing.
There’s nothing more fun than seeing the things that you dreamed about when you were a kid come true. I’m headlining an iconic theater in New York City during the New York Comedy Festival. When you’re starting off as a comedian, you don’t think that’s ever going to happen.
