16 Sep / Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo by Jo Koy [in Booklist]
That Jo Koy has created a sold-out, standing-ovation-earning stand-up career making people laugh while mining intimate family stories means no one else could possibly narrate his memoir. His hard-earned superstardom translates seamlessly into an audiobook, giving him a double-debut credit as author and narrator, presenting audiences with an intimate eight-hour set filled with laughter, sure, but also plenty of struggles, frustrations, tears – and cursing. Artfully inserted, of course.
As much as he’s used his own life as fodder, “I never really opened up – until this book,” he admits. His band-manager Filipina mother married his “poster boy for white, traditional America” U.S. military father in the Philippines. Jo grew up “a half-breed Filipino in suburban America.” His mother judged and criticized, his father left, his schizophrenic brother manipulated. Poverty, struggle, and pain were real. Making people laugh saved him.
Racist barriers loomed, especially in the entertainment industry. But he willed a successful career “brick by brick and show by show.” Both homage and exposé, Jo Koy’s “mixed-up, mixed-plate story” proves to be “something beautiful … Something magical. Something universal.”
Review: “Audio,” Booklist, September 1, 2021
Readers: Adult
Published: 2021