When Jo Koy was last in Toronto, it was as an opener for his friend Russell Peters, playing in front of 20,000-plus people in a free show at Dundas Square.
Some months later the two were on the same bill at another kind of homecoming -- in a sold-out show in Manila, many of them there to see Koy, a hot comic in general, and a comic icon among Filipino-Americans.
"It was definitely a homecoming, my first time home in almost 30 years," says Koy, who headlines the Ex's Queen Elizabeth Theatre Friday.
In many ways, the Las Vegas-raised Koy and Brampton's own Peters play the same street. Koy has been poking fun at racial stereotypes since the early '90s, when he performed under his given name of Joseph Herbert. For instance, he wants to know, what's with the cracks about Asians being bad drivers? They're the ones who make the cars, of course they know how to drive them!
"Jo Koy is a (Tagalog) nickname my aunt gave me, which I think has something to do with being funny. And from back in my open mike days, I realized I had to change my name. I was getting 'Joseph Pervert' and 'Joseph Sherbert.' "
So the kid whose mom would order him to do Michael Jackson impressions for family members (it's still part of his act), started talking about his life onstage to an initially all-white, older audience.
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"Eighteen years ago, I'd have to explain what a Filipino was. Now we got Manny Pacquiao, who's Filipino, he's the (WBO Welterweight) champion. Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, he's Filipino. People are more in tune with certain races.
"I have noticed that the audiences are younger now. When I started, it was hard to get someone 18, 19, 20 to even think about going to a comedy club. And now it seems to be the cool thing to do on the weekend. And of course we have different ethnicities coming out, which is also really cool."
Much of his slice-of-life material, though, is cross-cultural. "But it's all the honest truth, like my son wanting to go naked as soon as he was old enough to take off his clothes. I get parents of every culture coming up to me and saying, 'My God, my son does the same thing.' He'd ask, 'Why do we wear clothes?' "
He hopes to answer these and other existential questions in an upcoming sitcom based on his act. The as-yet-unnamed show is being produced for Warner Brothers by Tom Werner, sometime co-producer of The Cosby Show and Roseanne. "It's about my mom, my son, and me, a single dad and comedian raising his child.
"It'll be nice to be home (in L.A.)," he says of his upcoming production schedule and break from touring. "I love the road, seeing different cities. It's the best job, but I would love to take a nice little break and be home for a while -- just long enough to get sick of not being on the road."
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