Jo Koy's Tour Has Hundreds of Unsold Tickets

September 24, 2024

Comedian Jo Koy could be feeling the effects of his 2024 Golden Globes jokes, which many have said made for awkward viewing, as his January tour dates fail to sell out.

The 81st Golden Globes took place on January 7, and numerous celebrities gathered to celebrate the industry and hopefully take home an award. A full list of winners can be seen here.

Like every year, the ceremony is hosted by a well-known celebrity or celebrity duo, and this year, it was funnyman Koy's turn.

However, anyone who viewed will have noticed that some of his jokes fell flat and failed to impress the live audience, with the star receiving backlash online.

His jovial jabs took a shot at stars such as an unimpressed Taylor Swift and at the popular film Barbie, with social media becoming a hub of chatter about his jokes and hosting abilities.

Koy joked about Oppenheimer and Barbie competing and how the former was based on a "721-page, Pulitzer Prize-winning book" and how the latter was just based on a "plastic doll with big boobies." He also got Swifties' backs up with remarks about the NFL focusing too much on Taylor Swift when she supports Travis Kelce at a game. His speech can be read in full here.

So now the dust of the awards is starting to settle, did his time in the coveted award host role help his current tour?

Koy started his world tour in January 2023, with multiple dates added through 2024.

He has sold out venues before, and with several Netflix shows under his belt, some may think it would be hard to get a ticket for his 2024 tour dates.

Koy broke a record in 2017 for the most tickets sold by a single artist of 23,000 tickets and 11 sold-out shows at The Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall in Honolulu, according to Off The Kerb. CBC also reported that he broke the record at Winnipeg's Club Regent Event Centre in 2018 with the Break the Mold tour for four sold-old shows.

However, Ticketmaster shows that there are still plenty of opportunities to see the comedian this month, with empty seats at all seven of his January shows. His website also shows that only his February 17 show in Los Angeles at the Kia Forum has been sold out, with another show added due to demand. He has 51 shows currently advertised for this year on his website.

Newsweek has looked at tickets available on Ticketmaster for January, and as the dates progress, more and more seats are available. This could be due to the negative feedback from his Golden Globes performances, among other factors.

Newsweek has reached out to Jo Koy's publicist and Ticketmaster via email for comment.

The fact that there are still plenty of tickets on sale goes against what happened to Chris Rock and his stand-up show after the famous 2022 Oscars. While hosting the awards, Rock commented about Jada Pinkett Smith's appearance, prompting Will Smith to get out of his seat, walk onto the stage, and smack the comedian.

Rock's first gig after the Oscars sold out, but Koy's first performance after the Golden Globes on January 12 at St. Louis' Stifel Theatre still has tickets. The venue can hold 3,100 people, and when this article was published, there were around 50 tickets left.

Other available tickets in January range from only 33 at the 2,308 capacity The Orpheum Theatre Memphis venue on January 13, to thousands of empty seats in Miami at Kaseya Center on January 20. This venue is a 20,000-seat multipurpose sports and entertainment arena, and the Ticketmaster website shows 22 seating sections, all advertised as having 100+ tickets left, as well as multiple other sections with free seats.

Numerous factors have to be taken into consideration, such as last-minute ticket purchases, geographical location, and venue size, but it is clear Koy has yet to benefit from the same level of ticket sales as Rock did.

Koy is still a popular topic online with many social media users not a fan.

Sharing a collage of celebrities looking uncomfortable, a user on X, formerly Twitter, said: "Never invite Jo Koy to one of these again please. So, so awful."

Another said: "Jo Koy did NOT understand the assignment. Reactions to him hosting at the #GoldenGlobes2024 were brutal. I got second-hand embarrassment from watching."

A third added: "Jo Koy career is finally over we used to pray for times like this."

Uncommon Knowledge

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