Ahead of a sold-out Tacoma Dome show, comedian Jo Koy returns to his Tacoma high school

Jo Koy left Tacoma’s Foss High School in 1989 with a diploma and a few bucks in his pocket.

On Tuesday, he returned to his hometown on a chartered plane and a $30,000 check for the school’s scholarship program.

“This is literally where I started stand-up,” Koy said looking around a classroom where he took accounting.

“Miss (Kris) Cournoyer, she was my accounting teacher. I should have failed. Seriously,” he told a small group. “She used to tell me not to do any more jokes for the rest of the class. ‘If you just stop joking around for the last 10 minutes of class, I’ll let you do like five minutes in front of the class.’ And she put me right here, right here in front of everybody.”

From Tacoma to Tinseltown

Koy took those early comedic gigs and turned them into a career. Now, the comic and actor sells out arenas — including the Tacoma Dome on Dec. 10 — and has several Netflix specials and a motion picture under his belt.

Koy spent nearly two decades of first bombing at comedy clubs, then running his own club in Las Vegas and then finally making it to the big time in Los Angeles on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.

His strength, his fans agree, are the family stories he tells — many from his days in Tacoma. Success came when he realized that his “crazy, uniquely Fillipino family” had universal appeal.

Coming home

Tuesday’s visit conjured mixed emotions for Koy.

“I was kind of a depressed kid,” he told The News Tribune in an interview after touring the school, speaking at a student assembly and posing for photos with students and staff.

A broken home added stress to an uncertain future, Koy said. He knew he wanted to be a comic but wasn’t sure how to make that happen. He felt pressure from his family to pursue a more conventional path in life.

“And so, it’s just kind of like, a scary time for me, you know?” he recalled Tuesday.

During the assembly, Koy donated a poster from his 2022 feature comedy movie, “Easter Sunday”, along with a blown-up cover of Variety magazine and the microphone he used to open his current tour.

He and his entourage, which included sister Gemma Herbert Simmons, brother-in-law Andre Simmons and Koy’s son Joe Herbert, tossed Jo Koy merchandise to eager students during the assembly. Simmons and his wife are also Foss graduates.

Koy also donated stacks of his 2021 memoir, “Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo” to students. He said he hoped his appearance at Foss would send a message to students there.

“If you have a dream, you gotta pursue it,” he said. “That’s what you’re here for, you know, you can make things happen. Don’t let someone else decide what you’re supposed to be with your life.”

Koy realizes his own success might send the wrong message.

“A lot of kids think that that’s what success is ... the money and the fame,” Koy said. “It’s not. It’s living.”

Jo and Joe

Jo Koy is the comic’s stage name. His real name, the one he used while a student at Foss, is Joe Herbert. The younger Joe Herbert said his father had been nervous but excited about visiting his former high school.

Herbert is used to seeing his father mobbed by fans, but there was something special about seeing his dad walk through halls he hadn’t trod since he was his son’s age.

“It’s crazy,” Herbert said. “It’s definitely a different experience.”

Stories about Herbert, who is 19, figure prominently in his father’s acts. Herbert said he doesn’t mind being talked about on stage. Koy said his son is more talented than he is.

“He knocks it out of the park,” Koy said. “He’s really funny.”

Herbert had never seen snow falling until Tuesday. Koy and his son live in Los Angeles.

“When I lived here, it only snowed maybe twice,” Koy said. Other schools would close for snow when Foss did not, still a sore spot for the comic. “We never got snow and then the day we land with my son, it snows. So that was kind of a cool moment.”

Sent to the principal’s office

Herbert was keenly interested in his father’s school stories, particularly ones that involved Koy being disciplined.

In the school’s library Tuesday, Koy immediately went to a desk and pulled open a drawer that was kept locked when he was at the school.

“I opened it with a paperclip, and I took stuff out of it,” Koy recalled from his high school days. “And I got in trouble. Big trouble. And I went to (then principal Ethelda Burke) and they called my mom. I stayed in that office all day. She came and got me. She cried.”

Burke, now retired, was at the assembly and reunited with Koy. She said she had only vague recollections of him from high school but she was thrilled at his success.

Swimming laps

Later, at the edge of the school’s indoor pool, Koy and Simmons reminisced about the mandatory swim classes they had to take during second period. Simmons, who had Jheri curls at the time, was forced to wrap his hair in a bag.

“You just smelled like chlorine all day,” Koy said. “My eyes were all red.”

The pair spent numerous days swimming laps.

“Oh my God, this is bringing back horrible memories,” Koy said.

‘Funny is Funny’

Koy will be back in Tacoma Dec. 10 for his “Funny is Funny” world tour. After he finishes his show that night, he said he’ll find a small club somewhere in Tacoma to perform stand-up — even if there’s only four people in the audience.

“I just love getting in front of people and telling jokes,” Koy said. “It’s what I was born to do.”

The Tacoma show is sold out as have others at Radio City Music Hall in New York, The LA Forum , San Francisco’s Chase Center and venues in The Philippines, Dubai and Australia.

Koy said he enjoys living in Los Angeles, but Tacoma will always be his hometown.

“This is where my heart will always be,” he said.