Last year, Jo Koy sold out 11 shows at the Blaisdell Concert Hall, breaking box-office records for a comedy performer. On Wednesday, he appears at a slightly larger venue — Blaisdell Arena — in the first of four sold-out shows.

“It was unbelievable. We had the intention to do, at most, two, because of what happened the year before. We did the math in our heads and thought two (arena shows) would be great,” Koy said, calling from New York.

But the tickets kept selling — and selling. His management thought three arena shows might be the limit, but when the third show sold out, arrangements were made to do one more.

The sellouts are all the sweeter for the history behind them. Hawaii first saw Koy in 2001 when he appeared at Blaisdell Arena as the opening act/emcee of a Snoop Dogg concert, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. But opening musical act Ludicris didn’t go on until 9:15 p.m. and Snoop Dogg didn’t take the stage until 10:45 p.m.

Until then, as the minutes dragged and the crowd grew restive, Koy was sent out again and again to do something — anything — to entertain people who were definitely were not there to see Jo Koy.

Each time, Koy found a way to connect with the audience, coming up with something that got the crowd laughing and applauding.

In the years that followed, Koy came back to Honolulu regularly and played to bigger crowds each time. He isn’t the only entertainer who has played multi-night sellouts in Blaisdell Arena, but the list is a short one.

KOY PAID out of his own pocket for the show that became his first Netflix comedy special, “Jo Koy: Live From Seattle,” in 2016, after he was told Netflix wasn’t interested. But all that has changed.

“I’m going to frame the review (of the 2001 show) side by side with this story, and then with the Netflix poster above it,” Koy said. “Netflix is on board now. They’re 100 percent on board.”

He sold his self-produced special to Netflix, and “Jo Koy: Live From Seattle” was released in March 2017. Eight months later, he sold out those 11 shows in Honolulu. After that he didn’t have to sell Netflix on a second show — and there was never any question about where he was going to shoot it, Koy said.

“You’ve seen how those crowds in Honolulu are,” he said. “They’re amazing. They’re so receptive, they’re the best.

“I had to shoot this in Hawaii, because no one responds or reacts the way that you guys do. I get love right now across the world, but nothing compares to Hawaii.

“I love Hawaii, I love the family culture here, and I wasn’t going to shoot this special anywhere else.”

Being able to reach racially and ethnically diverse audiences was always his goal.

”When I first started my career, I was doing a lot of the black comedy shows,” he said. “I was part of the black college comedy tour. I was on ‘Def Jam’ (and) ‘Showtime at the Apollo.’ …

“Then I started doing the Latino market, and Asian was like the last demographic that I hit, so I was able to build that audience.”

Although Koy has yet to join Adam Sandler, Jeff Foxworthy and “Weird Al” Yankovic on the list of artists with multimillion-selling albums, and doesn’t yet have a Grammy Award like comedians George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Sam Kinison, his visibility continues to grow.

For instance, there’s his podcast, “The Koy Pond,” that he hosts each week on iTunes and at Jokoy.com.

Doing a show with no script and no rehearsal is a weekly “test” that he loves taking.

“I go into that ‘Koy Pond’ with absolutely no script,” he said. “We start that topic the minute I open my mouth, and whatever comes out of my mouth, we just go for an hour. I love that because to maintain the funny and the intensity, and to keep it relevant, keep the listeners interested, is a hard order to fill.

“It keeps my skill set sharp. It keeps my improv skills sharp, my ability to ad lib sharp, and I love doing it.”

KOY WILL be arriving in Honolulu a few days early to attend the screening of a movie that marks his debut as a film actor: “Wake,” a fantasy/comedy, at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Dole Cannery.

In the film, Myndy Crist stars as Molly Harrison, a grieving widow, whose mother and daughter give her a life-size inflatable male doll as a gag gift — somehow the doll comes to life, at least for Molly. Koy plays the living doll. The movie is showing as part of the Hawaii International Film Festival.

Sometime early next year Koy will make his debut as a serious — as in, dramatic — actor. He’ll be seen as the Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in “Anastasia,” a fantasy adventure in which the Grand Duchess Anastasia — who was murdered along with her parents and siblings by the communists in 1918 — escapes through a time portal to the year 1988.

“I love being the villain,” Koy said. “I want to show off my range. I want to show people that I got acting chops, I want to show that I can do characters. I (already) do it on stage: When I talk about my son I become my son, when I talk about my mom I become my mom, and when I talk about my step-dad I become my step-dad. I become them. I like that. I like that part of my skill set. I love the fact that I can really get into a character and become that role.”

Koy approached the Lenin role with the same attention to detail he brings to the stage as a comedian.

“I hired a linguist, I wanted to make sure that my accent was right — I had to study that for a while. We had three days to shoot, and I literally had no rest. Three days, straight shooting; but I’m still friends with the director, I’m still friends with the producers, they really like the performance and I feel like I did my best. I’m excited to see it.”

The real-life Lenin did not personally murder Anastasia and her family in 1918, but in this version of the story he does. Koy’s character shoots Anastasia’s father, Czar Nicholas II — Russia’s last imperial ruler — who is played by Brandon Routh of “Superman Returns.”

“I take Superman out. How cool is that?” Koy asked. “It’s crazy!

“I’d like to do more character acting — mainly because I’m not a ‘leading man.’ I’ll do what it takes to show off my acting skills. And if I have to produce it myself I will. I want to get this moving. I’m done waiting.”

Koy’s next big project is “This Functional Family,” an animated sitcom about his real-life family, for Tru-TV. The pilot is currently in production.

“I’ve been working on this cartoon for seven years,” he said. “It was always loosely based on my stand-up, and of course my situation with my ex-wife. … I just cannot wait to see what the pilot episode looks like.”