Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo

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Emiko Tamagawa produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web. MIXED PLATE: Chronicles of an All-American Combo by Jo Koy is the comedian’s autobiography and is written and narrated by himself. I knew the minute this came out, I had to listen to it on Audible. I normally prefer to read rather than listen to a book, but Jo Koy is such a fantastic storyteller so I really believe this is the best way to get all the nuances of the autobiography. (And besides, I love hearing him imitate his mother!) All that stuff was indirectly embedded in me, you know, just watching how my mom made things happen and seeing her grind and her hustle,” he says. “So I took that on. And thank God I did, man, because it helped me a lot.”

Korean entrées include kalbi and meat jun. Some side dishes are taegu, a dish made of shredded codfish, and kongnamul muchim, a dish made of seasoned soybean sprouts.I liked the writing style ... like his comedy routines, it was funny and sarcastic. I liked him as a person and he sounds like a nice caring fella. But he also speaks from the heart as he talks about his childhood and the struggles and hustles to achieve his dream. As a head's up, there is swearing. I sold out massive arenas everywhere I went. I owned a house in the Hollywood Hills. My son was about to graduate from private school. He didn’t have to scrounge for spare change to get lunch from a vending machine like I did when I was a kid—he had a fancy debit card to buy f***ing filet mignon in his cafeteria! Comedian Jo Koy is beloved around the globe for his relatable humor about his family: his overbearing Filipino mom, his rebellious sister, his “indirectly” racist American stepfather, his own smart-ass teenage son. In this funny and moving memoir, Koy uncovers the stories behind the stand-up: the conflict, the drama, and the laughter as he struggles to find his place in an industry, a country—and the world.

Entrées of Hawaiian origin include kālua puaʻa (roast pork) and laulau (pork or other meat or fish wrapped in a taro leaf). Some side dishes are lomi-lomi salmon (salmon salad) and haupia (a coconut dessert). There’s a little rice for Asians, there’s Korean barbecue, there’s tempura, there’s spam, there’s mac salad. So when you look at that plate, I think of me. It’s like a little bit of all these cultures just mixed up into me. I just felt like that’s a good representation of what this book is and about my life in this world.” I don’t want them to leave my show being like, “Oh man, the depths of your pain and heartache, f***!” I want them to cheer, “Bro, you killed it! I never laughed so hard in my f***ing life!”

After Koy begged her, his mother ultimately gave in and made room in the budget for an HBO subscription. He writes about how HBO became something like a textbook, binging stand-up specials and studying comedians. The traditional mayonnaise-based macaroni salad is an American contribution. Another notably American element is the hamburger steak, a ground beef patty smothered with brown gravy served atop rice; adding a sunny-side-up egg makes it a loco moco. This is something I've experienced firsthand and always had to keep to myself because you live in a country where it's almost normalized and accepted, where Asian culture tends to be quiet and not really speak up,” he says. “And now we have a generation of people that are speaking up now and defending and letting our voices be heard.” But no matter who I saw, no matter who I talked to, rich or poor—every single person was smiling. Every one of them was full of life and happy.

Walking through the streets of the Philippines, this place I’d once so briefly called home but which held the key to so much of who I am, it hit me that it was a land of contradictions.

Hours

The grilled beef teriyakiis probably my husband’s favorite entrée (and it may be mine, too, it’s so hard to say). I love tender, SUPER thin slices of beef that you can cut with a fork. The marinade for the teriyaki beef is also just downright delicious. I love cooking up the leftover marinade and pouring it over the beef (and sometimes over the rice) to make sort of a beef stew. So, so good. Our Favorite Kalua Pork If you have ever been to Hawaii, chances are you have had this kind of lunch. I literally lived right across the street from L & L on Oahu and went there all the time for their plate lunches. So. Good. There were also several little lunch wagons in the area that had plate lunches with meat and scoops of white rice or another starch. My favorite, however, is when we would get together with our local friends and they would dish up a homemade plate lunch. THE BEST. What is in a Plate Lunch? Jo Koy built a successful stand-up career mining his Filipino heritage, with sold-out shows and three Netflix specials.

In all the ways I’d ever hoped, I’d made it. And yet, even as I walked down the streets of my childhood with a film crew follow- ing along, even as I realized just how much I’d accomplished, deep in my mind I could still hear my mom the very first time I told her I was gonna be a comic. My mom literally had to build up the courage to walk up to people and ask them what they were,” he says. “And that's what that joke is. It's like, yeah, it's funny, but just imagine my mom's struggle at that point.” In this book, I get serious about my funny. And I want to make you laugh a little while I do it. I’m like Hawaii’s favorite lunch—the mixed plate. Little bit of this, a little bit of that. My book Mixed Plate is too.Mixed Plate is also something that brought me to tears - and not entirely because of how funny it is. Jo opens up about his life - his trauma of being an 'other' in school, of learning how to make people laugh to fit in, of dealing with family drama and hiding it deep down inside. Jo strives to gain his mother's approval - an Asian mother's approval is of the highest honor - and I think she will be proud of this book. I used to worry about what other Americans would say when I told them I was Filipino, how they’d respond, how they might judge me. TV networks turned me down over and over again, say- ing my story was too “ethnic” and white people wouldn’t “get it.” Koy's life really has been filled with a lot of ups and downs, which totally makes me understand why he and a large company decided to publish this book. We need more stories about multiracial people, about immigrants, about artists, about family conflict involving divorce and loved ones with severe mental illness. And we need to see those stories be filled with love and joy as well as not sugar coating the hardships many people like Koy face regularly. This time I was here to shoot my third comedy special for Netflix—my third! I wasn’t some struggling LA comic who worked three jobs on the side and could barely pay his rent. I was living the American dream. Humor helped him fit in during this difficult time, he writes. Humor allowed him to connect with his peers — who didn’t understand how important his heritage is to him — without having to serve as an ambassador to Filipino culture and food, he says.