By Gary Kearney
Life for a stand-up comic can not be easy, but Comedy Central might be making
it a little easier for them by releasing DVDs of up and coming comics. One of
their newest releases is Jo Koy: Don't Make Him Angry, and for the past few
years Jo has been making a name for himself in the comic circuit and was named
one of the 10 Comics to Watch by Daily Variety. While he may very well be,
this DVD does not validate it.
His performance was recorded in 2008 during the New York Comedy Festival and
based on the title I expected that Jo was going to be some sort of ticked off
dude that went on huge fiery rants. But instead he talks about basic comedic
staples such as Alabama sucks, France is not nice, women make men wimps, and
other unoriginal ideas.
Jo is very personable on stage and has an interesting delivery that is both
nice and irritating. It's nice in small doses but he seems to overplay it and
several of the jokes. One bite, the longest, was about his mom getting a little
too aggressive and competitive while playing video games. Funny idea but WAY too
drawn out and I found myself wishing it would end...never a good sign.
He does have a few moments that made me smile but nothing that made me laugh
out loud. Actually that is only partly true. One of the bonuses on the DVD is an
older 20 minute routine that I found much more entertaining than the main
feature.
I've written reviews that I felt were very high quality and some that I know
were not my best work. I get the feeling that this is what happened here. Jo
seems like he would be very funny based on his general style, but this specific
performance isn't his strongest.
Final Rating:
