An Interview with Comedian Jo Koy

By Adam Quesnell
Contributing Writer

Jo Koy has been performing stand-up comedy since the early 90’s. Koy has certainly paid his dies in the club circuit, and has recently started performing in large theatres rather than playing in theirlocal comedy club. Much of Koy’s explosive new popularity is due in no small part to his involvement on the tremendously successful Comedy Central series, “Chelsea Lately”. There Koy often appears on a panel of comedians that crack wise about the current entertainment and other events of the day. Jo Koy was nice enough to call me for an interview prior to his performance at the Fargo Theatre on Wednesday October 12th. We discussed everything from waking up early, to writing new material, to being on E!’s “Chelsea Lately”, among other things…

Adam Quesnell for HPR: So, you had to wake up earlier than normal for this interview?

Jo Koy: Oh yeah, for sure man- this is a crazy time for me. When my son spends the night at my house, that’s even crazier because my son wakes me up at like six o’clock.

HPR: What do you do when your son wakes you up?

JK: I gotta make his breakfast. I gotta make his lunch, I gotta serve this kid like a king [laughs]. Then I need to drive to his school, and LA traffic is brutal. Then he treats me like a chauffeur. He goes to aprivate school and he’ll be like, “Right here is fine.” I should drop him off at 711 and say good luck.

HPR: Are you excited about coming to Fargo?

JK: I can’t wait man. I can’t wait to hear the accents, see the culture and the lifestyle of Fargo. That’s one of the things I love about my job. A lot of people will to go abroad abroad, like they will go see Europe or Asia…and it’s like have they seen America?  There are so many things in America you need to see first. It’s great to see the people and see how they live. One of my favorite places to go every year now is Nashvile. Like, I look forward to going back every year. I always have the best time of my life and all my shows are amazing. I brag about it all year, I tell all my friends, “Have you been to the Nashville yet?”

HPR: I’m glad you’re excited about coming and doing the show.

JK: Yeah, I’m bringing my new hour too. I’m recording a new hour special for Comedy Central in two days [Friday the 7th], so I’m bringing an all new hour. I can’t wait, I’m so excited about this one.

HPR: About how long does it take you to develop a new hour of material?

JK: This one took about 8 months. Then, I’ve already starting writing the next hour…So, I’m already onto the next hour after this one. I’m always on top of the writing, I always want to keep moving forward.
The fact that people have seen me on YouTube or seen me on Netflix, they’ve seen the bits…it’s always been a goal of mine to give people at shows at least 15 or 20 minutes of new stuff they haven’t seen.

HPR: That’s interesting. How long have you been doing comedy?

JK: This is actually my 20th year.

HPR: Congrats, man. So, you’re pre-Internet anyway, which kind of brings me to my next question. Has the Internet directly affected how much new material you generate because people can see you’re stuff on
demand.

JK: The Internet has really forced me to keep up on the writing. Because it spreads like wild fire, and it’s a double edge sword because it made me popular, but I also hate it because once that joke hits, it’s over with, it’s done. You might as well retire that joke. It sucks, I’ve seen some bits of mine being capture by cell phone, and it’s like, come on man. What really sucks is when fans say, “When are you going to put that on YouTube?” How am I going to feed my kids and survive? It’s a completely different art form for us. If a singer gets popular on YouTube then someone hires them to sing that song live. With a comedian, people don’t want to hear the same punchline they’ve heard so it’s like, back to writing.

HPR: You said you’re bringing a new hour. How do you generate your material when you’re writing an hour? Are there smaller workout rooms or showcases that you go to? Are you sneaking new stuff into your
booked shows? How and where do you work on your stuff?

JK: It’s crazy man, it used to be, back home, I would just go up to the local club and get some time up there. But now I don’t have any time. I’m literally on a plane on Wednesday and I come home on Sunday night, you know? So, all I got is Monday Tuesday now. I haven’t been to local club in two year now, because when I’m home I don’t want to go up on stage, you know? [laughs] What I do is, when I’m on the road, I’ve got my core jokes that I know will get some laughs and then I slip in something new, and then I’ll be like, “well that tanked” and then I go into a bit I know is going to work. So that’s what I’ll do. I’ll sneak the new jokes in here and there.

HPR: Of course, the Fargo Theatre is not a comedy club, and I know you’re doing more theatre shows now. What’s the difference for you between working a comedy club and playing these theatres?

JK: The thing about comedy clubs, is that they’re so intimate, man. You know? Theatres are great because nothing is more awesome than to hear a thousand people laughing at your joke. It’s the biggest turn on. I can’t even get turned on better than that. There’s not a drug that can do that. And nobody in the audience can get what we’re feeling when you hear a thousand people roaring and laughing and clapping. It’s crazy; it’s hard to take in some time. But, with comedy clubs there is intimacy. That’s why every big name goes back to the comedy clubs. Any given day in LA, you’ll see Dave Chappelle or Chris [Rock] or Robin Williams will hit a stage somewhere in Hollywood. Yeah, they’re working out for the theatre show, but they will tell you there’s nothing like a comedy club for intimacy; nothing like being able to look the last guy in the last row right in the face. There’s just something about a comedy club that can’t be touched.

HPR: Many of our readers probably know you from you’re appearances on “Chelsea Lately,” tell us a little bit about that, when did you do the show first time? How did you get hooked up with that gig?

JK: Chelsea and I go way back, like before she blew up. She was already familiar with my work. We kind of worked with John Lovits together, and I saw it happen. I saw the whole thing go down. I saw the executives coming in with this show idea, and then she approached me about that show idea, and then the next thing you know it’s on TV and it blew up. And now Chelsea knows all these comedians and she’s on this show that’s huger than life right now. A lot of people are on stand-by going, “is she going to call me or what?” [laughs]. She acts like such a b*tch, but in real life she’s such a giving and loving person, she loves her family, you can tell that. She always has her family on, she’s just such a warm loving person.

HPR: My last question I guess is related to the fact that we’ve had more and more people interested in doing comedy in the Fargo-Moorhead area, and I was wondering if you have advice for new comedians…and if
that’s too broad, what’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

JK: The best advice I’ve ever gotten is, don’t be afraid of silence. A lot of comedians think, if there is silence in the room during a particular part of their routine, that they’ve lost the crowd, but they’ve got to understand that when you have complete silence in the room, you’ve got control of the room. Sometimes it’s good to control the room and just take them for a nice little ride.

If you missed Jo Koy at the Fargo Theatre, watch for his new hour special on Comedy Central or catch him as a regular panelist on E! and Chelsea Lately.

Questions and Comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

[Editor’s Note: Adam Quesnell is a stand-up comedian and writer working out of Moorhead, MN. Follow him on twitter at twitter.com/adamquesnell or visit ]http://www.adamquesnell.com]

Listen to an exclusive HPR podcast of this interview.