Comedian Jo Koy Talks New ‘Blue in the Face’ Netflix Special & More with Rich

Jo Koy arrived with a new Netflix special, a tour, a DreamWorks movie, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star on the way, and a tote bag.

Blue in the Face dropped on Netflix the day he sat down, and the first thing Rich noticed was the hat, whose script looks conspicuously Dodger-ish. Koy did not deny it.

What he wanted to explain was why a special release day is not purely a celebration.

"The thing about comedy, I'm married to these jokes," Koy said. "I get a little sad whenever a new special comes out, because I don't do them after. Once the special drops, I won't go on tour and repeat them."

He landed on the metaphor and then sat in it.

"It's a marriage and then it ends in divorce. It's a happy moment, very sad at the same time."

This one carries more than the usual weight, because it is about his stepdad, who was a huge Dodger fan. So is Koy. The whole thing builds to the last story in the special, which is about taking him to a game.

Not just any game. It was an NLCS game that went 18 innings, and his stepdad was on oxygen by then.

"It was the last game," Koy said. "I don't want to give it away, but it's just one of those stories where it was very sentimental."

The Dodgers had clinched a postseason berth the night before, notably without champagne. Dave Roberts led a toast instead, which Rich heard described on the radio that morning as a gentleman's toast.

"That's what happens when you win two in a row," Koy said. "We're not just celebrating a postseason berth. We're going to pour some, like gentlemen, and toast each other."

That, both agreed, is the Dodger way.

Then came the part of the interview Koy had clearly been waiting for. He threw out a first pitch this year and he would like everyone to see it.

"Best pitch of the year. Down the middle. Fastball. Are you kidding me?"

He claims it was clocked at 101, a number Rich received with the appropriate amount of journalistic skepticism, which only made Koy push harder. He asked producers to pull the video. He asked whether Rich thought he was lying. He clarified, unprompted, that he threw it from the top of the mound rather than from the grass.

"How dare you question that, Rich?"

Rich offered his own credential, having thrown a ceremonial first pitch at Dodger Stadium once. The organization's confidence in him was communicated clearly by the choice of catcher.

"They sent the backup catcher at the time to catch it, which gave me an indication they didn't really believe in me," Rich said. That backup catcher was Kenley Jansen, who has gone on to a considerable career, which Rich is comfortable taking credit for.

Koy had a similar claim ready. Tommy Edman caught his, back in mid June, while still on the injured list.

"And then he came back after I threw that first pitch, and I don't know if you guys noticed, he's been playing really, really well," Koy said. "You're welcome."

Edman, for the record, told him afterward that the pitch was heat. Koy quotes him on it.

The two of them then worked through the strange indignity of being the major leaguer assigned to catch a ceremonial pitch, which led Rich to a recent Yankees and Angels game where Mike Trout handled the duty himself, because Eric Dickerson was throwing it the day after the Rams bought the team.

Koy's actual baseball roots are farther north. He grew up in Tacoma, which makes Ken Griffey Jr. a permanent fixture, and the Dodgers came later through his son, who was three when Koy first threw from that mound and grew up with the team as a result.

The Seahawks fandom runs deeper still, and reciting it took a minute. Jim Zorn. John L. Williams. Brian Blades. Curt Warner, with a C. Steve Largent, all day.

Largent produced the best tangent of the segment. Koy brought up the season when Largent got knocked out of a game in Denver, then got his payback later that year, and he was insistent enough about it that Rich started assigning homework to the control room. The hit was delivered by Mike Harden. The year was 1988.

The Kingdome came up next, and Koy has a claim there too. He watched Michael Jordan play in it.

"I was in section 300 up by the roof."

The Bulls drew so many fans that the configuration had to be extended, and Koy ended up on what amounted to the empty side, watching a small dot play basketball.

"At least I got to say I saw him."

Rich's Kingdome associations run in a different direction. Bo over Bosworth, obviously. And his Yankees losing to the Mariners in extra innings in 1994, courtesy of Griffey.

That led to a Mount Rushmore of Yankee killers, which Rich started with Edgar Martinez and would not be talked out of. Jay Buhner qualifies too, given that the Yankees once traded him away for Ken Phelps, a transaction that Seinfeld has already adjudicated. Jose Altuve got a mention. So did Mookie Betts, whom nobody can get out.

Koy's grievance is the mirror image.

"You took all of our players. You took everything that potentially was going to make Seattle better."

Rich countered with Lou Piniella, a Yankee when he was growing up, who recently turned up in Seattle for an anniversary celebration and looked great doing it.

On the tour, Koy is playing Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on the 19th, which is both sold out and a first for him. He usually plays T-Mobile Arena, which he has sold out twice, and he is the only comic to do it.

Then Caesars made one of those offers casinos are uniquely positioned to make.

"And I'm like, T-Mobile, what?"

New phone, who this.

The rest of the month is Battle Creek, Michigan, where they make the cereal, and Hammond, Indiana, which Rich immediately identified as the place the Bears are talking about moving to.

That set off a genuinely baffled exchange about NFL geography. Koy does not understand teams building stadiums out in cornfields. Rich corrected him that Hammond is industrial rather than agricultural, and then the two of them worked through Phoenix playing in Glendale and San Francisco playing closer to San Jose than San Francisco, a fact Koy can confirm because he stayed in San Jose for the Super Bowl.

He has been to two, both with Seattle, both against New England.

The first one still stings, and he was in the stands for it.

"I have never seen a crowd flip in a snap of a finger," Koy said. "All the fans who were happy were crying, and all the fans that were crying were happy."

He watched the Patriots fans around him leave after the Jermaine Kearse catch, convinced it was over. Koy was happy to see them go.

Rich then introduced a man named Malcolm Butler.

The other project is The Forgotten Island, in theaters September 25, another DreamWorks film in which Koy voices a character. Getting there is a story he tells with real affection, and it starts with Steven Spielberg.

"His love for Filipinos is amazing," Koy said, and traced it back to Dante Basco playing Rufio in Hook.

Koy was in Hawaii shooting his Coming In Hot special when the process started. An email had gone out to the entire staff at DreamWorks and Amblin saying to get him in for a meeting. He credits Holly Bario, Spielberg's right hand, who took the meeting with all the department heads and showed him the email. Spielberg emailed him directly after that.

Rich asked whether they are email buddies now. Koy declined the promotion.

"We're not email buddies. I'm going to put that out there. We exchanged emails together."

That led to Easter Sunday, which is on Netflix, and eventually to this film, with H.E.R. in the lead. What Koy keeps marveling at is how little friction there was.

"Everyone always says it's hard to get things approved when you're making a movie. I swear, it's different when your friend is Steven Spielberg." A beat. "He's not my friend, by the way. I love him to death."

Whatever he wanted on that movie, he got.

"That's why I'm in love with that company. They do it right and he does it right."

Rich noted that Koy's heart was lighting up, and then flagged it as an E.T. reference for the kids.

There is a Walk of Fame star coming next year. There is a Kia Forum date in April, which Koy extended an invitation to, complete with full VIP treatment, after establishing that Rich lives 15 minutes away.

There was also a brief dispute about whether Koy invited Rich to his SoFi Stadium show in March. Koy insists he did. Rich insists he did not.

"That's because we weren't friends yet," Koy said.

Before leaving, Koy produced gifts: a hat, a Blue in the Face tote bag for Rich's wife, and the hoodie off his own back, in extra large.

Rich inspected the tag and reported the size as husky, which took the conversation directly to the JC Penney catalog and a bar mitzvah suit.

Koy's assessment of the studio was more generous.

"This is the best man cave ever."