In a surprise appearance at a secret show in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, comedian Chelsea Handler opened up about how her boyfriend, fellow comedian Jo Koy, has “redeemed (her) faith in men.”
In a long set before Koy went on, Handler explained that Koy loves her “confidence and my unwillingness to take shit from anybody.”
“Instead of having to shrink my personality, I can be completely myself,” she said as the audience applauded.
In a story about a recent trip to Hawaii, she recounted how she’d lamented discovering cellulite on her arms.
“And he goes, ‘Honey, cellulite is what makes a woman a woman. That’s f---ing sexy. The more the merrier,’” she said. “I’m like, ‘Is that a sentence?!’
‘Hold on, let me write that down!’”
In another anecdote, she explained how Koy insisted on buying tampons for her in New York City at 2:30 a.m.
“I said to him, ‘You have redeemed my faith in men. Meeting you has made me understand that there has to be more men like you out there,’” she said. “And we all need to know that.”
In Koy’s subsequent set, he agreed that he does think “cellulite is sexy.”
“If you don’t have cellulite, then I mean …let me see a dimple,” he chuckled, adding that “when there’s nothing, I’m like, ‘What is that? That hasn’t seen anything.’”
“We need s---. We need dimples and stretch (marks),” he said. “That kind of a woman… can do anything. Not sexually, just anything! That’s a tough f---ing woman.”
We need dimples and stretch (marks). That kind of a woman… can do anything.
jo koy
Handler has talked before about how Koy made her realize that love was a possibility for everyone.
“I just want women to understand, like, if I fell in love with somebody and I feel this way, so excited and committed and devoted, then I really do believe there is a lid for every pot,” she said on an episode of her podcast, “Dear Chelsea,” in October.
The two met before either of them were famous after being introduced by comedian Jon Lovtiz, Koy said later in his set on Tuesday.
He said Handler invited him to be her “sidekick” as she pitched her show, “Chelsea Lately” to networks, but he declined to pursue his standup career goals — despite still working his day job at Nordstrom Rack. He made regular appearances on the show, however, and the two stayed friends.
At the time, Koy said, his son was just 1 year old and comedian Tiffany Haddish would often babysit in the balcony of the venue the Laugh Factory while he performed his standup.
“She watched him all the time,” Koy said, adding that occasionally the audience could hear the baby gurgle happily from the balcony. “Then when I finished my set, she handed him over to me.”
In the October episode of “Dear Chelsea,” Handler and Koy explained they’d eventually lost touch but rekindled their friendship during quarantine when Koy asked Handler to pen an intro for his book, “Mixed Plate.”
“It went from lunch to lunch and coffee, then lunch, coffee and ‘What are we having for dinner?’” Koy said. “And then from lunch, coffee, dinner to ‘Let’s have a drink.’”
In the episode, Handler explained that after spending a “romantic comedy” week together in Los Angeles and then going to Las Vegas together as friends, she decided to make a move.
“I knew (Koy) respected me too much and was never going to do anything,” she laughed. The two returned from Las Vegas and went to dinner in Los Angeles' Koreatown.
After asking him if he wanted to hold her hand while he was driving (he did!) and going back to her house, she asked him what the “f---ing situation” was.
"I made a move and I was like, let's get the f---ing show on the road already," she said.
