- Our next guest is a very funny man, who took us on a virtual
tour of the Philippines, when he was here last summer. He's since become an author and his book's called Mixed Plate. And it's out now, please welcome, Jo Koy. How did you come up with
the title of your book? Mixed Plate? How did you come up with that? - Mixed Plate, it's just like, okay. One, I'm in love with Hawaii.
- Yeah. - You know what I mean? Hawaii really embraced me right away when my first special came out I broke a record in Hawaii. - [Kelly] Wow.
- I got my own day in Hawaii. I sold like 27,000 tickets at this theater called
the Blaisdell theater. I broke Mariah Carey's record.
- What? - Yeah, it was like the
most tickets ever sold. And I gave it my own day and
I just love the culture there. I love the people there. And one of the things I love
to eat was the mixed plate. And when you look at the mixed plate, it has everything like every
ethnicity is on the plate. - [Kelly] Yeah. - There's a little rice for Asians. There's Korean barbecue. There's tempura, Japanese. There's spam on it. 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. And I just felt like that's
a good representation of what this book is. And about my life in this world. - That's a beautiful way
to look at the world. - Yeah, 'cause you put all
that stuff on one plate and it just becomes this
beautiful plate of food. You know what I mean?
- [Kelly] Yeah. - And I feel like that's
what it took to make- - But I just mean, it's society. It's cool to look at the world like that. Like we all count. We all matter. We all make the plate beautiful. - Yeah, you put it all-
- Even spam. Even redneck spam.
- Even spam. You put spam next to a flaming yawn. You know what I'm eating that spam. - [Kelly] Fine, it's fancier. Tastes better already.
- Right? - Well, you're candid
about your dad in the book. - Yeah. - So how did that relationship evolve? - You know, we, it was at
the beginning, you know, it was tough, you know,
product of divorce. You know what I mean? And you know, I've never really
talked about it publicly, you know what I mean?
- Yeah. - And how I struggled with identity. You know my dad's white,
my mom's Filipino. My dad and mom divorced. And here I am being, you know, with my mom pretty much
my whole teenage years being raised by my mom.
- [Kelly] Yeah. - And I never really had that
relationship with my father, but when we rekindled it was hard. I mean, it was good. It was hard in a good way. And now we're just like
the best of friends. But it's, you know-
- Yeah. - When people see me go up there and talk about my mom a lot,
it's like, that was my story. You know what I mean?
- Yeah. - That was my childhood. Those are my stories. And then, and now I'm building
this story with my father and it's great. - I think that's really
important 'cause it's so funny, 'cause I know I'm from
two divorces with my mom and it's one of those things
that I find in my experience, not that this is a statistic by any means, but that women are more apt
and open to talk about it rather than men.
- Yeah. - So I think it's actually
really cool that you own that. Like something felt like it was missing and you wanted that
relationship and that's okay. - Yeah.
- You know? - And you know what,
another thing, you know, I'm from a different generation
when divorce was still new and you know, and my dad had to like, he stepped away and whatever it is that he did, he did, right? But I think what I learned from it was I don't ever want my son
to feel that feeling. - [Kelly] Yeah. - And I know that divorce is hard- - [Kelly] Yes.
- But you can make it work. We're still best friends. Me and my ex-
- [Kelly] Yeah. - Were the best of friends.
- [Kelly] That's beautiful. - She has all the codes to my house. She has the keys to my front door. She can walk in whenever she wants. - Wow.
- We are the best of friends. When we go on vacation, she comes. Whatever she has at her
house is in my house. Like my son never feels this difference between the two. We're a loving family and we can work. You know what I mean? Like, just because you're not married, it doesn't mean you can't
be the best of friends. You still have the responsibility to raise this beautiful child together. And it's fun to see my
son see his parents happy. - Absolutely. - Oh, she gets to the world. She lives right next to me. Everywhere I move. She moves next to me, so. - Wow.
- Yeah, yeah. - I got to say you and Gwen
know how to nail a divorce. You know how to really do it
and be successful afterwards. - Yeah, it's not hard though, right? - Yeah.
- You got great kids- - It is hard-
- It is. - coming from experience currently. It's hard. - I know, but I think sometimes
you just got to step back and just look at those kids
and just go, you know what? It's for them. What are all suffering?
- [Kelly] Yeah. - [Jo Koy] Whatever.
- No, that's the easy part. - [Jo Koy] Yeah. - I think that's the easy part. - [Jo Koy] Yeah. Well, everybody, Joe's
book is called Mixed Plate. Be sure to check it out.
