Mike Miller Photography
Jo Koy returns to Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas for three performances this weekend.
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021 | 2 a.m.
A major development took place during Jo Koy’s pandemic life. His son grew up, literally.
“When the pandemic started, the top of his head came up to my nose. He’s taller than me now,” Koy says on this week’s Sun on the Strip podcast. “He’s got a beard now. He was just a baby two years ago. What’s going on now? It’s pretty cool.”
Koy, who hails from the Seattle area but spent some of his formative years living in Las Vegas, is grateful that he got to spend a tremendous amount of time around his son and family, an experience the globe-trotting comic wouldn’t normally have.
“I was sad I wasn’t on the road but extremely happy to have a year and a half with my son, because I haven’t done that his whole life. I’m a road guy. This was the first time where I was here on a Thursday, when I’m usually on a plane. But I loved it.”
When the time came for Koy to hit the road again, he renewed plans not only for a stand-up comedy tour, but also for a book tour to properly promote his new autobiography, “Mixed Plate.” COVID put a bit of a wet blanket on its release in March, but Koy is eager to get it out to the masses and proud of its completion.
“I never knew how emotional it was to do a book,” he says. “And when I did the audio book, reading it back was the most therapeutic thing I’ve done in my life. I’ve never cried so much. I didn’t want to relive some of those moments, but it was good to get it off my back.”
Koy’s colorful Filipino family and personal experiences provide much of his onstage material and the book digs even deeper into those aspects of his life. But his fans will get to see another side of his story in April 2022 when his long gestating movie project, “Easter Sunday” will hit theaters. The film completed production in Canada despite pandemic restrictions.
“I’m literally living my dream right now, to have a Hollywood studio produce a movie about Filipinos and also have it be a comedy. I can’t explain it,” he says.
Koy’s tour brings him back to the Strip to perform three shows this weekend at Wynn’s Encore Theater, where he’s already done two sold-out sets this summer. “Those first shows were electric and I have three more this week and the anticipation is nuts,” he says. “People are ready to laugh. They’ve been holding onto those laughs for almost two years now and they just want to escape.”
Find this week’s Vegas entertainment news, interviews and more every Wednesday with the Sun on the Strip.
