Events

[COMEDY] Comedian Jo Koy is going on vacation this week, but he doesn’t exactly know where. He doesn’t really care because he’s been touring relentlessly, and frankly he’ll take any break he can get. He actually hit the stage for the first time 1989—right out of high school—he tells me on a long-distance phone call from his home in Tacoma, Washington. “It’s my passion and it’s what I believe in,” says Koy, who comes to Helium Comedy Club this Thursday, August 13 through Saturday August 15. This week we talked to Koy about how he plans to make a replica of Eddie Murphy’s famous red leather suit using fabric from an old couch.

How has comedy changed since you started your career in Vegas in the early 1990s?
I actually hit the stage for the first time in 1989, right out of high school. I used to go to comedy clubs in the 1980s. It wasn’t a hip thing to go to the comedy club with your friends; it was something your dad did. Now I’ve got teenagers coming to my shows, it’s like, the young hip thing to do.

Do you think social media has had anything to do with that?
I love social media, it’s the greatest thing to happen to anyone’s career. When I first started, social media was me going to Kinkos and printing out flyers and stuffing them in the windshields of cars. Actually, to this day I still do that, but boy that Instagram and Facebook are lifesavers. I love it. 

If you weren’t a comedian, what would you do?
I would definitely be hands-on somewhere with comedy. Owning a comedy club or writing for somebody; just something that has to do with making people laugh. It’s what I’ve wanted to do since I was 10 years old when I saw my first standup special: Eddie Murphy Delirious. I was hooked, I was like “I gotta do this.” I need a red leather outfit, for god’s sake. I’ll wear it to school, I don’t give a fuck if we live in Seattle.

How come you haven’t busted out the red leather outfit then?
I know, right? Now that I have the money and the opportunity to go buy one, I should do it man. A nice red leather outfit with red shoes and a red leather cardigan jacket. You can’t get any cooler than that.

It might be tough to find, though.
Oh, that’s custom work right there. That’s an old red couch turned into an outfit. Make this pillow a jacket, make the ottoman some pants. There ya go.