A funny, sad, at times pathetic but also kick-ass tale of how a half-Filipino, half-white kid whose mom thought (and still thinks) his career goal was to become a clown became a success. Not an overnight success, because that would have made for a really short read, but an All-American success who could give Jo Koy’s immigrant mom the kind of life she hoped for when she came to this country, and his son the kind of life he wished he’d had as a kid. With all the details of what it felt like to get the doors closed in the comic’s face, to grind it out on the road with his arsenal of dick jokes, and how his career finally took off once Koy embraced the craziness of his family, which he always thought was uniquely Filipino but turns out is as universal as it gets.
In this book, Jo Koy takes you behind the mic and behind the curtain. From growing up with a mom who made him dance like Michael Jackson at the Knights of Columbus, to some real dark stuff, the stuff most don’t talk about often enough as immigrants. Mental health, poverty, drinking. And show you the path to Koy’s American Dream. Which was paved with a lot of failure, department store raffle tickets to win free color televisions, bad jokes, old VHS tapes, a motorcycle his mom probably still hates, the only college final he aced (it wasn’t math), and getting his first laugh on stage.
In this book, the comedian get serious about his craft. Koy compares himself to Hawaii’s favorite lunch—the mixed plate. Little bit of this, a little bit of that. His book Mixed Plate is all this too.
Mixed Plate illuminates the burning drive and unique humor that make Jo Koy one of today’s most successful comedians.
Pre-order the book HERE, it will be released on March 23, 2021.