-You got so much going on.
-A lot, a lot, a lot. -You got a lot going on.
"Easter Sunday" is out this Friday.
-Yes. -In theaters.
-Unbelievable. -This is a big deal.
Your Funny is Funny world tour, selling out arenas.
Arenas. -I know, I know, I know.
It's crazy. [ Cheers and applause ]
Even saying it. -That's --
How is that for you, doing arenas?
-You know, you got to bring the energy up.
It's not like a club. You know what I mean?
I'm used to coffee houses and just telling jokes.
But now it's like, you got to look up to section 300.
They really think I'm talking to them, but I'm not.
-Yeah, but it's a lot of people. -It feels good.
-Yeah. -I'll even point,
and they're like, "me?" "Yeah, you!"
-Yeah, it's 18,000 people.
If you go to jokoy.com for more ticket info.
Who was your comedy influences when you started,
when you were growing up? -I mean, of course it's gonna be
Richard Pryor on the tapes, and then when I got HBO
for free, like on a weekend -- [ Laughter ]
That's what broke people did back in the '80s,
for all you young kids that don't know what that is.
-Yeah. -You remember they would give
free HBO on the weekend? -"We get HBO this weekend?"
-Like, "What? Where's the tape, let me record everything!"
-Everything. -Yeah.
[ Both laugh ] And I'll get --
You remember? You would break the little square tab.
-Yeah. -Remember? It would be like --
-And then, if you want to tape over,
you had to put Scotch tape over the tab.
-Over the ta-- yes! -It was a big deal.
-And I recorded "Delirious," and I would watch that
probably a million times.
I fell in love with Aunt Bunny and Uncle Gus.
-Wow. -And mom with the bionic ear.
All that. I was like, "That's my family."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And literally got to see him perform when I was 15.
-Really? -Yep, I saw him --
-Your parents took you? -Nope.
Okay, here's another thing for you young kids out there.
We didn't have the Internet. Ticketmaster was actually
a little kiosk inside of a department store,
and you had to phone your phone call in.
You had to buy it on line with a credit card,
and then they left it up, the person selling it,
to figure out if that was really you
that owned the credit card just by your voice.
-Wow. -So I just --
I was 15, and I used my mom's voice.
There was no way they could tell.
[ Laughter ]
I just -- There's no way they would --
I was just, [ Filipino accent ] "I'd like two tickets to..."
[ Laughter ] "...the Eddie Murphy
comedy show, please." [ Cheers and applause ]
[ Normal voice ] I swear!
This is not even a lie, Jimmy. And then they were like,
"Okay. Um, well, what kind of seats would you like?"
[ Filipino accent ] "Oh, the best money can buy."
[ Laughter ] "Please."
[ Normal voice ] And, literally, I got tickets to see
"Eddie Murphy Raw" at the Seattle Coliseum.
-Wow. -I remember my mom driving me,
'cause we lived in Tacoma. And she thought it was a movie,
and it was me and my best friend at the time.
And we were driving, and she's like,
[ Filipino accent ] "This is a long way for a movie."
[ Laughter ] "One hour? You couldn't get
a theater closer to the house?" [ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] And then dropped me off.
And she was like, "This is a concert!
Oh, my God!" 'Cause there was no cellphones,
so she had to drive around for like two hours.
-Yeah. -"You better be out here
in two hours!" [ Laughter ]
-Mad at you. -Swear!
That's how it went down. -Here's the best part.
Here we are -- what, is it 35 years later?
-35 years later. -And you yourself
have played that arena. -Yeah.
-So, look at that. [ Cheers and applause ]
-The Climate Pledge Arena.
-But I was -- Eddie was sitting here --
Eddie was on stage here, and I was sitting right there.
And before we -- before that show started,
I took my son, and we sat in the same exact seats
where I sat and saw Eddie. [ Audience "Awws" ]
-Isn't that cool? Come on.
That's the greatest. -Yeah.
I'm getting teary-eyed thinking about it right now.
-Yeah, it's the best. I mean, it's such a fun ride
to do all this.
Because you remember starting out.
I mean, when did you start doing stand-up?
-I started in 1989. -Yeah.
-Yep. -Teenager.
-Oh, the worst. I had baby hair.
I had a little Asian baby hair, and I let it grow for like
two weeks, and I used this mascara.
Because it was at a bar. The bar's still there.
It's on Tropicana and Eastern. I swear!
-You used mascara on your wispy mustache?
-Yeah. It was so wispy, too.
[ Laughter ] It was so wispy.
-It was flying around. -Yeah, when the doors opened,
my mustache opened, too. [ Laughter ]
It would open and go, "Hello," and then close.
[ Laughter ] It was so bad.
And I remember darkening it and going to this bar.
I was like 18, 19. And I remember
"Don't order a drink," because they might ask for your I.D.
And I went up, and I bombed. I bombed so bad.
All I could talk about was, I think, condoms?
I thought that was edgy. [ Laughter ]
I was like 18 years old, buying con--
No one laughed at the condom joke.
The guy before me was a Lionel Richie impersonator.
He crushes it. -Ugh!
-Yeah, I lost to a Lionel Richie impersonator.
[ Laughter ]
And when I was onstage, while I was bombing, my mouth got dry,
and my tongue started sticking to the roof of my mouth.
And I go -- And I started talking about it.
I was like, "Hey, you ever -- your mouth get so dry,
it sticks to the roof of your mouth?"
And this lady at the bar goes, "Put a condom on it!"
[ Laughter ]
And crushes! -Crushes.
-Crushes! Crushes with the joke I bombed with!
[ Laughter ] I was, like, so --
-That's when you know it's bad. -Humiliating!
Was like, "How did it work for you?
I wrote it!" -Yeah.
It's good delivery right there. -Yes!
And then the Lionel Richie guy was like, "Hey, man,
you were bad tonight, but you've got good stage presence."
I'm like, "Thanks." But thank God he said it
'cause if he didn't say that, I probably would've just had
a really nice mustache. [ Laughter ]
-Look at you now.
Look at you now selling out arenas.
Come on, buddy -- Funny is Funny.
Come on, bud. -Thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I want to talk about your movie.
-Yes. -This is a big deal.
This is in theaters this Friday.
It's called "Easter Sunday." -Unbelievable.
-Tell the story, if you can, how -- I'll set you up.
But how is Steven Spielberg involved in your life?
And this is -- -This is nuts.
-It's great. -So, my special came out
on Netflix, called "Coming in Hot,"
and we get a call from Amblin.
And Amblin's like, "Hey, we want a meeting."
So, you know, I thought it was a general.
-Yeah. -I thought it was --
Yeah, it's Steven's company.
I call him Steven. [ Laughter ]
Steve! -Since when?
-Hey, Steve! [ Laughter ]
-Have you ever met him? -No. No.
[ Laughter ]
-Come on, bud.
[ Laughter continues ]
-Oh, that was so good!
Oh, my God!
I have an e-mail, and I'm gonna frame it!
It's amazing! [ Laughter ]
No, but what happened was, they brought me in for --
[ Laughter ]
That was so good!
I'm crying right now! Okay, okay, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. All right.
-All right, so he sees your special.
-Why'd you have to call me out?!
-I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
[ Laughter ] I didn't plan on that.
I didn't plan that. Sorry.
-So, we get the call. [ Laughs ]
Okay. All right, all right. Stop, stop, stop.
Okay, so we get the call, and I think it's a general.
And we go in. And, literally,
it's me and my manager, and it's, like,
every other person that's walking up to me is like,
"Steven can't stop talking about you,"
"Steven loves your comedy,"
"Steven thinks you're so funny."
Like, literally, "Steven, Steven, Steven."
We get to the meeting. Holly and Jeb's in the meeting,
and they're like, "Steven loves your comedy."
And I'm like -- I stop them.
And I'm like, "Look, are we talking about
Steven from accounting?"
[ Laughter ]
-"Or..." -"'Cause there's no way you're
talking about 'E.T.' Steven?" -The one and only.
-And they're like, "No, it's Steven."
And they're like, "He's been telling everyone
to watch your special, and he loves you,
and he wants to make a movie with you.
And what movie idea you have?"
And I pitched "Easter Sunday" in the room.
They bought it in the room.
And then, literally, we went to lunch --
[ Cheers and applause ]
It's crazy.
We went to lunch, and even then we're like,
"Okay. This isn't gonna happen."
And then we go to lunch, and then Holly calls and is like,
"All right, we're making moves right now.
We're gonna look -- find a writer.
We're gonna start looking for your director."
And I'm like, "What?"
And then the pandemic hit.
Everything shut down. I'm like, "Oh, there we go.
Yeah, here goes that dream.
It's not gonna happen." And they didn't care.
They're like, "When something opens up,
we're gonna make this movie."
And Vancouver opened up, and right away...
-He made it. -He made the movie, yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Eight months later.
-Eight months later. -You've got a great director.
-Jay, uh -- -Jay Chandrasekhar.
-Jay Chandrasekhar is one of the funniest dudes out there.
-And I was with him last night, and he said he wanted me
to tell you that he loves you so much.
-I love that dude, man. -Yeah.
-He's one of the funniest dudes ever, man.
-He's incredible. -What a great story.
You're making some history here.
Tell everyone what "Easter Sunday" is all about.
-Well, it's just -- it's a family.
It's my family. It's like, yeah, we're Filipino.
And it's specifically Filipino but it's not specific.
You know what I mean? It's people that we live with.
We're all in here right now, we're hanging out.
-Yeah. -The lights are off.
We're all the same color. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. -You turn the lights on,
all of a sudden, we're separate, and it doesn't makes sense.
So that's what this story is about.
It's just a story about a family that happens to be Filipino.
We're gonna laugh about it, we're gonna cry.
We're gonna enjoy their pain, and we're gonna enjoy their joy.
And you're gonna realize that a mother is a mother,
a son is a son, and a family is a family no matter what you are.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-That's great. I want to show --
I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Jo Koy and Tiffany Haddish
in "Easter Sunday." Take a look at this.
-License and registration.
Joe?
[ Laughing ] Is that you, Joe?
-Vanessa! -Yes.
-Wow. Man, you're a cop now?
-Yeah, have been for the last 10 years.
You would've known that if you wouldn't have ghosted me
the way you did. -Yeah.
-And this your dad? -Yeah.
-You know me and your daddy, we used to be
real intimate back in the day. [ Laughter ]
-Oh, really?
-Yeah, I could've been your mama.
But clearly I'm not. I'm not.
Yeah. Joe Valencia.
-Yes. -I can't believe it.
In a Subaru, at that.
What happened? You just gave up, huh?
[ Laughter ]
You know, when I saw this Subaru,
I was thinking to myself, "That gotta be two ladies
and a Labradoodle." [ Laughter ]
But nope! It's you, Joe.
-Yeah, it's me. -It's you, Joe.
-It's me, Vanessa.
-Get the hell out the car!
-Yeah, that's exactly right! [ Cheers and applause ]
Jo Koy, everybody!
"Easter Sunday" is in theaters this Friday.