This month, Jokoy stars in “Easter Sunday” as Joe Valencia, a Filipino American comedian on the verge of getting his own sitcom — as long as he goes along with the director’s demands to do a “half-Filipino accent.”
“My mom was going to churches and looking for brown people that looked like her,” he remembered.
Over the years, the comic has gone from appearing in “Star Search” knockoffs in Las Vegas to headlining some of the country’s most storied venues and sports arenas. On a recent afternoon, over lunch at the London West Hollywood hotel in California, Koy, 51, talked about growing up funny , his comedy inspirations and his recent split from Chelsea Handler . These are edited excerpts from our conversation.A: I fell in love with standup so young. Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams. I already knew I wanted to be a standup comic when I was 10.
A: There is a “but.” When you’re so stupid and you know you’re going to get hurt, then I have to laugh. They’re doing this tortilla challenge right now. Seeing these people get smacked so hard with the tortilla, I can’t stop laughing.A: We’re always going to be friends. We’re better friends than we are as a couple. But her future is beautiful. What she’s getting ready to do is amazing.A: Oh, yeah. My ex-wife is my best friend. I just bought a house, and she lives right next to me.
A: I love it. I love it when I hear “Josep” being yelled at a baseball game. Because I’m doing exactly what they said wouldn’t work. They said it was too specific, audiences wouldn’t get it. But my mom is just like your mom. She has an accent, but she’s still a mom. So every time I see somebody who’s not Filipino yelling “Josep” from across the terminal or out of a car, I love it. Keep doing it.