Michael Yo
Michael Yo
Michael Yo’s St. Louis fans will be the first to see what the actor-comedian is up to since the pandemic started. He brings new material to the St. Louis Funny Bone this weekend for his first headlining shows.
Yo has had plenty to write about since his 2018 special, “Blasian.” That title reflects his roots: His mother is Asian, and his father is Black.
He’s had a second child, his first daughter, and he relocated his family from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. And he contracted a serious case of COVID-19 early in the pandemic.
“This is the first club where I’m doing all the new stuff,” Yo says of his new show. “Life has totally changed. You’re going to get that.”
Yo is known for appearances on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” “The Wendy Williams Show” and “America’s Got Talent.” He has been a red carpet interviewer and came up under Chelsea Handler and Jo Koy.
Yo enjoys his St. Louis audiences, and he has an affinity for the Funny Bone. “It’s family owned, and I’m trying to help keep it open,” he says. “It’s about spreading love and getting people out.”
Yo eased his way back into comedy clubs a month ago in Las Vegas.
“The clubs here have shown me so much love,” he says. “I’m just so appreciative. They don’t have to put me on their stages. Without those stages, I can’t practice.
“I was so excited to be back onstage, especially when I started working on this new material. It’s like a puzzle you keep working on — that never-ending puzzle where you’re seeing if this works and what else can I add.”
Pushing his comedic chops, he wrote material directly addressing his near-fatal bout with COVID-19 and pneumonia. He suspects he contracted it while performing last March in New York City and was hospitalized for eight days.
Yo posted a video on social media on March 30, 2020, updating his fans on his situation.
“I could barely talk,” he says. “It was full of raw emotion. It went viral. I think the bad turned to good. I informed a lot of people that it can happen to you. Hopefully I saved a couple of lives in an indirect way. Hopefully I was that messenger.”
Yo looks back on the ordeal with gratitude.
“I’m grateful my family is alive — grateful I can wake up and breathe the air that God gave us,” he says. “It was so bad, almost dying from it, pushing through it and being in so much pain. Then having to deal with what some people call survivor’s guilt, when you see over 530,000 people have died.
“What crushed me, the biggest thing, was being asked (whether I was) afraid to die. What I thought about was I didn’t know if my daughter and son would know how much I love them.”
Yo says he didn’t feel well — “100%” — for another eight months. He has written several minutes of material about his experience.
“What I love is I’m telling a story about me dying, and people are laughing,” he says. “That’s the beauty of it. I take the worst thing that has happened to me personally, and you’re laughing. I found the funny in it. It’s solid. I know it’s really good when other comics come up and say it’s really another level of comedy.”
Actor-comedian Tone Bell (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” “Sylvie’s Love”) is Yo's special guest at the Funny Bone shows. Yo calls it a “two-man show.”
“When I lived in LA, he lived a block away from me,” Yo says of Bell. “We’d been friends and didn’t even know it. Tone is one of the most genuine, greatest people you’ll ever meet. He’s a brother to me. When I was going through COVID, we socially distanced, but he would pop by and make sure I was OK. He’s that good.”
Bell works in marketing for Anheuser-Busch in Atlanta and Dallas. He trained in St. Louis and still has family here.
“I pop in on his shows; he pops in on my shows,” Yo says. “We’re all just trying to practice right now. It’s like boxers who haven’t been in the ring in a while.”
Yo’s new material is in preparation for his next comedy special, which he expects to film in November for release next year. The plan is for the new special to start where “Blasian” leaves off.
He says “Blasian” is his “Taylor Swift” special. “It’s very poppy, very digestible where anyone can enjoy it and laugh along. On my next one, my writing has gone through the roof. Other comics have noticed it and say I’m taking something dark and the audience is laughing the entire time.”
Yo’s new podcast, “Morning Yo,” is something he decided to pursue after surviving COVID-19. It features Yo solo and with guests. Recent installments have included his takes on Asian hate and the royal family.
“It’s helping me out a lot and helping out other people,” he says. “We get to get these thoughts out, and it’s a good environment — an open space.”
Yo seems perfectly suited for his own podcast, which he kicked off three months ago. “I love talking and interacting with people and creating an environment for that.”
What Michael Yo • When 7:30 p.m. March 25, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. March 26-27 • Where St. Louis Funny Bone, 614 West Port Plaza • How much $15-$20 • More info stlouisfunnybone.com
March 24, 2021 at 10:15PM
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Comedian Michael Yo finds the funny after near-fatal bout with COVID-19 - STLtoday.com
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