Jo Koy on the presidential election, sleep apnea and Chelsea Handler's benevolence

By Kalen Deremo Wed., Oct. 24 2012 at 12:03 PM

Categories: Comedy, Events, Interviews, Q&A

Comedian, Jo Koy

You probably know him best from his weekly appearances on E!'s Chelsea Lately, where host Chelsea Handler frequently questions his sexual orientation and capitalizes on stereotypes related to his Asian-American heritage. But Jo Koy isn't just a basic-cable punching bag. He's been climbing his way up the comedic echelon for over fifteen years, and is now working on his third hour-long special for Comedy Central.

Westword recently caught up with Koy, who will be appearing at Comedy Works South tomorrow through Saturday, to talk about the downside of touring, women's basketball and everything in between.

Westword: So, how's tour life treating you these days?

Jo Koy: It's been tough. It's been really stressful being on the road a lot, especially when you're a dad. You miss your son a lot. But you gotta make it work because you get to live a good life. I have to sacrifice. I always think about when I was a kid and I didn't have anything and now I get to see my son live a good life. But I'm happy at the same time because I'm doing what I love to do. There's a lot of people that work just to put food on the table, so you have to grateful to be in this position.

You incorporate your son into your act a lot. Is he growing up pretty fast?

Oh, yeah. He's going to private school now and it's kind of stressful for him. The curriculum is a lot harder than it was in public school, so I think he's stressing out about that. I'm having to get a tutor. It's a whole different world, what I'm dealing with now.

Is he still overly fascinated with his "ting-ting"?

No, he stopped. But we all know it's going to start right back up again when he hits his teenage years.

You say your mom cursed a lot when you were younger. Does she curse around your son and is he starting to pick up any bad words?

My whole thing is, I'm a comic and I curse. I know in three years my son is gonna get some words that are worse than what I say. I mean, what little boy isn't cursing in middle school? He said "fuck" to the PE teacher last year. I wish I would have saved the voice mail. It was the funniest thing ever.

Your Wikipedia page says you're 6-foot-4 and you say your mom is 4-foot-10. Is your dad secretly Andre the Giant?

No, I'm not 6'4". I'm 5'11". I don't even know who wrote that damn thing. There's so much stuff on Wikipedia that doesn't make any sense. I need to go in and take care of that right now. But you know what's crazy is that my mom is the tallest one in her family. She's abnormally tall for a Filipino lady. So I'm assuming I got my height from her even though she's short -- as funny as that sounds.