Not long ago, when comedy dynamo Jo Koy would pop by Houston, he’d be staying a lot longer. “Houston market was crazy, I would always play the Improv there and it was always two weeks in a row doing like 12 shows,” he says. “I thought that was a lot, when you do the numbers, like 400-500 a show I think. You crunch those numbers and it you realize that it took me two weeks to hit 6,000 people. It was such a grind!”
Nowadays, Koy is making the most from busy schedule and outdoing himself again.
The headliner will be filling the Toyota Center on September 6, giving thousands more Houstonians the chance to catch his best new bits in the best way possible.
“It is so insane to be even say that to you, because it just doesn’t make sense,” he says with that giggling humility his fans know well. “I’ve been doing it for a while now and I still pinch myself. When you’re a road dog like I was and you are literally living on the road 4-5 days a week doing these comedy clubs meant two shows on Thursday, two shows on Friday, two shows on Saturday, its just like what? I now get to roll into play at the same place the local basketball team plays – this doesn’t make any sense. Crazy to even think like that.”
Koy has had high profiles moments in the last few years, like being a quick-turnaround host for the network return of the Golden Globe Awards, or his big screen turn in a rare theatrical comedy with star vehicle Easter Sunday. But Koy estimates it was his steady good work on streaming that has led to this career leveling up. “I think what clicked it over was the Live from Seattle special. I had the bubbling in Houston or any of these markets, but what got more eyes on the page was Live from Seattle and my specials on Netflix.”
His latest, Live From Brooklyn only hit the service a few months back – but the workhorse is already deep in process on his next hour on this current leg of his tour. “Brooklyn was my favorite, out of all of them. Live from Seattle will always have a special place in my heart, but Brooklyn was so oh my god, I loved everything about it: from the looks, to the way it was shot, to the energy of the room, my content, I was just in the moment.”
Among the reasons Koy is feeling so accomplished is the special features a truly unexpected labor of love in the form of an inspired Biggie bit that was never meant to be. “That one took a while because I wanted to make it right,” Koy says. “There was a moment there that I did, that I already had told the crew I wasn’t gonna do. I told the director Shannon and Michelle my producer and I even told my DJ and sound guy that I was not doing any music bits. None of us were prepared for that moment because we knew it would be expensive to do it.”
“And then for some reason at that moment, I was in Brooklyn and the energy was just right and I literally told myself ‘Bro, do that joke.’ And it was only on that second show, that second show was when I did it. When it happened man, Brooklyn showed out. They literally embraced that routine the way I thought they would.”
Koy continues: “I remember walking back and saying, ‘well, we’re gonna have to cut that out.’ You know what I mean? We’re not gonna be able to afford it! Then when we saw the edited version with it out, you could just tell there was a jump. There’s a shift. So then I wanted to see what it looked like with it in. Michelle, my producer, was just like hoping I would say that. She pressed play on the unedited version and the minute that we watched it, I looked at her and said ‘Yeah, let’s buy it.’ That was the most expensive 4 minutes I’ve ever purchased! That one, we had to talk to the Biggie people, I knew that was gonna be expensive. Just the samples alone, oh no. It was so worth it because that moment alone was so special.”
Unlike other art forms, stand-up often seems so casual that even devotees might be surprised at the level of thought that goes into what makes the cut for a show and what doesn’t. Shocking to some, but funny is NOT the only consideration, Koy reveals. “You also have jokes you have been working on for a while that never make the cut because it doesn’t fit the theme or the outline of that hour. Like, I try to keep it within in the same thread, you know, when I’m doing my specials. I want them to have a consistent theme. So there are those jokes I have in my back pocket. Now I’m working on this thing now where my son is 21, and now preparing for the empty nest and taking on this other role in my life now.”
Building an hour on the hinge of a unifying theme is undergirding that sets Koy’s specials apart – especially as the comic remains an in-demand talent who is producing new full hours near-annually. “I don’t think I’ve been asked that question, but one thing that I love is that yes, I do have an idea!” Koy exclaims. “I have the most minuscule idea of where I want to go. But as far as when I’m on stage, I love to improvise. I love to be in that moment. Sometimes the audience will create something off of an idea for me and it just turns into this thing. Unconsciously, it starts to write itself. When it hits and lands the way I know it is supposed to land, and know that its not just a particular joke for this group of people – and by that I mean, locally. Like they’ll only get it here in Dallas or Houston or Omaha. I want to be able to tell the Omaha joke in Hawaii and they’ll get it. If I can hit that moment genuinely, then I’ll keep it. I do know vaguely where I want to go, but unconsciously it develops on its own.
Koy says that thematic notion is something he’s prepared to keep asking even himself when putting together a final set list for the next recording. “I’m literally gonna save that one for myself,” he says with a laugh. “Because I don’t think that people understand the process. It’s a lot going into this shit, bro – it’s so hard!”
Among the many shows he’s got lined up for his tour, it’s clear from talking that he’s uniquely pumped for his Lone Star State leg. “Its all about energy of the room, together we are one piece. That’s a perfect way of dictating which way they want to go and what you want to talk about. You can feel anything. I love it, the energy of the room is always important. That’s one thing I love about Texas, y’all love to laugh, bro. I’ve said this before but you can actually Google a time in Improv history where they were shutting down Improvs because people weren’t going to them. The one place they never shut down were the Texas Improvs. That’s a proven fact! Houston Improv, it never left, but it just got bigger. Y’all come out! I’m thinking… like, you bought out a Rainforest Café and made it an Improv. Houston has always been a comedy town… you all like to laugh.”
For stand-ups, part of the craft is the process – and thankfully Koy is happy he can’t rest on his best ofs of the past to please crowds. The new material is literally the job. “Always, hands down,” he cosigns. “The surprise element is the best. It is so important to not do what you did on TV. If your audience is coming out because they saw you on Netflix, then they pay all this money to see you live. And then I just do my Netflix special live. It’s like, they’re not coming back. What the fuck, was this an Unplugged version? It’s not like music, music you can do that. You can write a hit song and play it for the rest of your life and people will keep paying to hear it. It’s a different vibe. Comedy can’t do that. The most important part is the punch. If you know the end of the book, why are you going to watch the movie? Can’t kill doing an old bit.”
Koy’s performances is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday, September 6 at Toyota Center, 1510 Polk. For more information, call 713-758-7200 or visit toyotacenter.com. $49-95
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
