Jo Koy: Live from the Los Angeles Forum Review: A Laughter Riot that Pulls Everyone In

With a runtime of 1 hour 14 minutes, Jo Koy: Live from the Los Angeles Forum was released on Netflix on September 13, 2022. This stand-up is Jo Koy’s fourth comedy special with Netflix and it brings him out to the public after two years of being holed up by the Covid-19 pandemic. The comedian comes out with his usual big bang and not only performs the self-written piece of stand-up but is also invested in the project as one of the executive producers along with Joe Meloche.

Live from the Los Angeles Forum is a living testament to his perseverance that pushed him to make his first comedy special – Live from Seattle – in the first place. He acknowledges that some people have to go the extra mile to make things happen in life but the most significant truth of all is that everyone’s story deserves to be heard. Koy is indomitable and exposes the brunt of systemic racism as he openly admits that “not all of us get that same shake”.

The official Netflix synopsis reads:

Jo Koy owns the stage in a rousing stand-up set about public sneezing, perseverance, the indignities of sleep apnea and getting lost in the Philippines.

-Jo Koy: Live from Los Angeles Forum Review Contains Mild Spoilers-

There are several positive takeaways from his stand-up episode, and even though Joy Koy too accepts that someway along the path, his comedy routine may have turned into a TED talk, it’s still all worth it. In a society where most comedians consider the ‘other’ side as the butt of their jokes, Jo Koy keeps up a respectable narrative.

Being a Filipino himself, his comedy isn’t constricted to his own self living in America, rather, he brings his community along. And that’s why performing at the jam-packed LA Forum is such a big deal, and he doesn’t understate it for a minute. Picking up right from there, he pokes fun at the way the whole Covid-19 lockdown period turned our lives into a massive joke.

Possibly the most entertaining aspect of Jo Koy’s comedy is that he doesn’t simply crack or tell jokes; he performs them. He narrates the whole story to you and makes you feel as if you’d been a first-hand witness of the scene. If he’s making a joke about how a person with sleep apnea sleeps, he will actually show you how they do it by performing the whole scene, accompanied by all the possible gestures and sounds. You get the front-row experience till the end. The same also involves the utilization of the bare minimum props standing on the stage with him – his mic and the stool.

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Telling a story about a camcorder and how kids of the new generation don’t know what it is, he will pick up the stool and pretend that it is the camcorder and then complete his story. Or, if he’s telling you about sleep apnea, as mentioned before, he will use his mic’s wire to wrap around himself as if it were the mask needed by people suffering from it at night.

In no time, Jo Koy will interweave the tale of the Covid mask with that of the one needed for sleep apnea, and you’ll feel blessed to have witnessed his great storytelling skills. He feels the urge to let you hear every sound effect that goes along because mind you, it’s a performance, an act that needs to be put up for you as the audience to get to the depth.

Unlike the unceasing list of comedians who perform their stand-up with a deadpan expression on their faces, Koy goes the other way and actually laughs with the audience at certain intervals. The audience is having a riot while he often interacts with them and even pulls them to be a part of his story, which eventually becomes their own, and at a later point, the difference simply starts to blur.

Thereafter, Jo Koy goes on to talk about bidets, toilet paper, etc., all originating from his initial Covid rant. And this is where it becomes a relatable talk for Indians as well.

He’s not necessarily commenting on an issue as much as he’s narrating bits of his life, but it’s his great storytelling technique that makes his story turn into everyone’s story. It’s relatable and even if it isn’t for some, it sure is funny. Koy often assumes the roles of various characters throughout his narration, and the vision is commendable as the camera keeps up with his pace. It follows his split-second character switches and keeps us on our toes.

Jo Koy: Live from Los Angeles Forum: Worth the Watch?

This is a must-watch. Through his story, Jo Koy reveals the most important aspect of comedy – “I can tell you about my culture, and you can relate to it or you can’t relate to it. That’s fine. At least you get to hear about my life, my story, and just hear, ‘Oh goddamn'”. He brings everyone together and not once does he put down any culture or community as a tokenistic comic relief. He rather uses people’s peculiarities to his aid by bringing everyone together under the banner of comedy. And yes, there’s a difference between the two.

There is an acknowledgement on Jo Koy’s part since he’s encountered such setbacks himself. He knows that “the joke isn’t (a mom’s) accent. The joke is about a mom being a mom”. It resides in the banality of the experience itself. What he does is, he takes you on a journey as you navigate your way through his comedy, the same way a Filipino man in the Philippines would give you directions to Starbucks, as Koy puts it. And through these adventures, he puts the Phillippines back on the map for those who didn’t think people there understood ‘their’ language.

Some bits in there are still not meant for kids, hence the ‘Adult’ rating. Other than that, there’s nothing stopping you from watching Koy create comical magic on stage, so head over to Netflix and watch his genius grow on you within seconds.

Jo Koy: Live from the Los Angeles Forum is now streaming on Netflix.

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