Comedian Jo Koy sells out 6 concerts, adds seventh

Comedian Jo Koy’s Nov. 26 show at Blaisdell Concert Hall sold out so quickly — before tickets were even offered to the general public — that a second show that same evening was added. The frenzy continued, with more performances added, and after essentially selling out six shows, scheduled for Nov. 24, 25 and 26, he has announced a seventh comedy concert, at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20.

Tickets for the Nov. 20 concert go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Saturday via ticketmaster.com, by phone at 800-745-3000 and at Ticketmaster outlets, including the Blaisdell box office. Tickets are priced from $35 to $45.

Tickets for this seventh concert are being offered directly to the public. Paul Meloche, vice president of sales for Icon Concerts, which is presenting the shows, said Koy wanted to add a seventh show because tickets for the previously offered concerts were sold out largely during a presale period, when registered fans of the comedian had early access to tickets.

The string of sold-out solo appearances may set a record for the Blaisdell Concert Hall. While Koy has appeared in Honolulu several times, he has not sold this many tickets at once before.

“It’s bananas this time around,” Meloche said.

According to Meloche, more than 12,000 tickets had been sold for Koy’s 2017 concerts — the approximate equivalent of two sold-out Blaisdell Arena shows, in the configuration typically used for comedy concerts.

A key factor in Koy’s exploding popularity among Hawaii audiences has been his Netflix special, “Jo Koy: Live from Seattle,” released March 28. Koy self-funded the special, which finds laughs in stories of his life as the son of a Filipina mother and white Air Force veteran father, and as the father of a teenage son.

Honolulu audiences have responded to his Asian-American stories, Meloche said, but since the release of the Netflix special, Koy’s ticket sales have ballooned across the U.S., with sold-out concerts in venues as diverse as Jacksonville, Fla., and Winnipeg, Canada. Concerts on Saturday and Sunday in Santa Rosa and Napa Valley are also sold out.

“He’s been really social, engaged with the fans; it makes a difference,” Meloche said. “We’ve seen a big jump in ticket sales, even in markets we didn’t anticipate.”