Chelsea Lately Comic Jo Koy Dishes on Chelsea Handler and Tiger Penis; Performs this Weekend at Celebrity Theatre

How funny is comedian Jo Koy? The Filipino-American comic’s hilarious jabs at himself and stereotypes of Asian culture (he “love you long time”) cracked up enough people to land him his own Comedy Central special, Don’t Make Him Angry, and spots on several shows, including two seasons of Showtime at the Apollo, Comic View, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Chelsea Lately, the late-night talk show of comedienne Chelsea Handler.

Koy’s coming to Phoenix with three other Chelsea Lately regulars — Chuy Bravo, Whitney Cummings, and Josh Wolf — on Saturday, June 19th, and he’s got an all-new standup routine planned for the show. We recently caught up with him to discuss Handler’s obsession with hard-boiled eggs, tiger penises, and why he’s a Phoenix Suns fan.

You take a lot of abuse from Chelsea Handler on Chelsea Lately. What’s your revenge fantasy?
I don’t really have one. I kind of enjoy the abuse. She does that to everybody, so I don’t feel left out. I love the attention, and she’s great. She’s got the best show on late night television, and I’m not just saying that because I’m on the show. I would watch it even if I weren’t.

You have a video skit on your website called “Dr. Woo’s Medical Institute,” where you’re a Filipino playing a Chinese doctor that someone thinks is Korean. Are you trying to say people can’t tell Asians apart?
(laughs) I didn’t even think about that, actually. That skit came about because I went to a medicine store in Chinatown in L.A. and I was freaking out at some of the stuff they had there. That place is an actual medicine store in Chinatown. It wasn’t staged. We rented out the building, and the stuff in the skit was stuff they really had there, crazy stuff like dried sea monkeys.

There’s a huge tiger penis in the skit, too. Was that real?
(laughs) No, the tiger penis was an exaggeration. That was just a pork loin or something.

There were a lot of hard-boiled eggs flying around in the skit on Chelsea Lately where she’s giving you your “employee review.” What’s up with that?
Man, I got pelted with so many eggs during that. Chelsea loves hard-boiled eggs, by the way. She keeps a bag of them on set and eats them throughout the day. But she only eats the white part, she won’t eat the yolk. So she was throwing the yolks at me.

You mentioned before that your father lives in Phoenix. Besides having family here, what do you like about the Valley?
The Suns. I’m a Suns fan now, because my son is. My son is 7, and he really took a liking to Steve Nash, for some reason. I think it was the black eye he got during the playoffs. So the Suns are my team now. I can’t be a Lakers fan, because my son’s a Suns fan, and I can’t battle him on that.

Jazz hands: An effective defensive strategy in basketball or not?
Yeah, totally. (laughs) Jazz hands will stop everybody from driving forward. You can always stop them from getting to the basket with your jazzy hands.

Jo Koy is scheduled to perform with Chuy Bravo, Whitney Cummings, and Josh Wolf at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 19, at Celebrity Theatre. Tickets cost $35 and $45. Visit www.celebritytheatre.com or call 602-267-1600 for more information.