Comedian Jo Koy’s memoir Mixed Plate is of course hilarious, but truly heartbreaking and heartwarming as well. As seems to be the theme with comedians, he did not have an easy childhood being raised by a single mom with four children after her husband moved them to the United States from the Philippines. Part Pilipino and part white, upon coming to America as a young boy, Koy noticed at once something was not right with this picture!
His Pilipino mother was extremely strict and Koy was always pushing her to the limit. With no father figure in his life and an older brother who had schizophrenia and was very abusive, to say Koy’s childhood was filled with trauma would be putting it mildly. So, he turned to VHS tapes and television especially comedy specials with Eddie Murphy and Whoopie Goldberg as a way to drown everything out. He knew at an early age he wanted to be like them and was told by friends and family he was very funny. His mother wanted him to work a nine to five job with benefits after going to college. She still does!
The book opens with his mother and all his siblings at a store trying to win a television. His mother you see is very, very frugal. But the lengths they went to win the television is a masterclass in being thrifty!
Fame did not come easy, and it came much later in his life. He would not stop and worked many jobs while trying to hone his craft. Back then, the only true comedians were white, and all the rest had days of the week, other than a Saturday to perform. But that did not stop Koy. He created his own comedy machine by renting out spaces and hiring other comedians with his mother and himself selling tickets to the events!
Televison gigs were hard to come by and he was continually turned down to star in a comedy show as the lead comic. So, he decided to create one on his own. One they could not take no for an answer to. And he did just that. With the help of his mother, her eye doctor and himself, he produced a comedy special. When Netflix (who had constantly turned him down) saw it, they bought it. And that’s how Koy finally put his feet in the cement of the comedy business. Just as an aside, since then Netflix has created at least four comedy specials of Koy’s.
Along the way, he met and married a woman named Angie and they have a son, little Joe. Although the marriage lasted less than a year, they are each other’s best friends and have co-parented since Koy finally realized when his son was young that he didn’t want to be his father.
Mixed Pate is filled with humorous, sometimes unbelievably horrible stories about his life growing up and the pain he went through. But Koy seems to have come out of that time strong and with a perspective on life everyone should have. The one theme throughout the memoir is love will get you through. It is quite obvious just how much he cares for his family, friends and fans. But his mother is still waiting for him to get a job with benefits!
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