Gabriel Iglesias was within the throes of an existential disaster or, in his phrases, “bummed out.”
“I was kind of thinking to myself, ‘What do we do now?’” remembers the comic, identified to followers as “Fluffy.” “Are we done? Have we jumped the shark? Should we call it a day?”
The downside was not a catastrophic failure, however an infinite success.
Captured within the Netflix particular “Stadium Fluffy: Live From Los Angeles,” Iglesias’ efficiency is packed together with his signature stand-up — touching on the whole lot from COVID, cockroaches and cancel tradition, to his beloved pet Chihuahuas — interspersed with moments of gratitude and awe. At one level within the particular, he pauses to take a smartphone photograph of a blimp hovering within the distance, which is flashing his identify and picture, and enthuses, “This is like a birthday and Christmas and the Super Bowl and the World Series and losing my virginity all at the same time.”
But after the dopamine excessive wears off, one is inevitably left — actually or figuratively — singing “Is That All There Is?”
“I still feel young enough to keep doing standup. I still feel relevant. But I don’t know that I can do something like this again,” says Iglesias, who paid a reported $250,000 in penalties and additional time charges for going over his contracted time slot, violating Dodger Stadium’s curfew guidelines. “So, the question was, can I find something big to do? What’s going to be the next thing?”
The reply got here in February 2024, when Iglesias shocked the gang at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, simply south of downtown L.A., by showing onstage to current comic Jo Koy with a plaque honoring him for his report sixth sold-out present at the venue. Iglesias instructed they do a present collectively “across the street” at SoFi Stadium, and the viewers erupted.
It wasn’t simply an idle remark on Iglesias’ half, however it took a whole lot of sweat and toil to make the thought a actuality. First, Iglesias needed to promote Koy on the idea.
“He was like, ‘I don’t know, Gabe,’” remembers Iglesias. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, come on. How many freaking sold-out Forums are you going to keep doing?’”
SoFi’s 70,000-seat capability is roughly the equal of 4 sold-out Forums, and when Koy noticed the seating chart up on the wall throughout an preliminary assembly with the venue’s administration, he was discouraged by the prospect of promoting these seats, in addition to the upfront prices they’d must incur. But Iglesias argued that, with their gross sales data and overlapping fan bases, the maths would all work out.
In the tip, “I bullied Jo into doing it,” laughs Iglesias.
Once Koy was absolutely dedicated, the actual work started. It took a yr of planning to make the present — scheduled for March 21 — a actuality. They made positive to present themselves loads of time to promote these seats. Pre-sales started on April 23, 2025, and their fears have been rapidly assuaged when 70% of the tickets bought in a matter of days. It is now a sellout.
Billed as “One Night Only,” the present won’t be televised, and they’re doing their finest to ensure it’s a novel expertise for these in attendance, from the introductory video and the shock particular visitors to the stage they carry out on, which will likely be thrice greater than at their common exhibits.
“They’re at a stadium, so it’s got to be larger than just the bill, and the bill obviously is crazy — me and him together on one card,” says Koy. “So we put a lot of money into that stage, and it’s massive. The amount of screens is ridiculous. But we want everyone to see it, we want everyone to feel it.”
At the second, no one is feeling it greater than Koy. The SoFi gig is a full-circle second for the comedian. Born at Misawa Air Base in Japan to an American Air Force grasp sergeant father and a Filipina mom, he spent greater than 5 years of his childhood within the Philippines, ultimately settling in Washington state together with his mom and stepfather, who was additionally within the army. Looking to jump-start the standup profession he launched after dropping out of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Koy started driving from Sin City to Los Angeles to carry out at open mic nights, however the pressure of the 10-hour round-trips grew to become an excessive amount of, and he determined to choose up stakes and transfer. But as a substitute of discovering an house in Hollywood, Santa Monica or one other industry-adjacent locale, he arrange home south of L.A. correct and discovered a job at Nordstrom Rack in Culver City.
“I lived in that area, and I remember driving past the Forum and just thinking to myself, ‘Someday,’” remembers Koy. “But to be able to play SoFi … It’s the biggest venue in L.A. This is going to be the most special moment of both of our careers. When we went there two weeks ago to do a photo shoot, we just hugged each other and said, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’”
Iglesias’ ties to the world are even stronger. Born in San Diego, the youngest of six youngsters in a Mexican American household, he moved continuously round varied Southern California cities, together with Riverside, Corona, Santa Ana, Baldwin Park and Compton, earlier than lastly settling in reasonably priced housing in Long Beach, the place he was raised by his single mom after his mariachi musician father dropped out of the image.
Iglesias launched his comedy profession within the bar of Long Beach’s Golden Sails Hotel in 1997, when he spontaneously stepped onstage to fill in after the evening’s emcee failed to point out. Before lengthy, he had give up his job in cell phone gross sales to decide to comedy full-time. In the quick time period, the choice was financially catastrophic — resulting in eviction, sofa browsing and automotive repossession — however inside three years, he was in a position to assist himself together with his stand-up. In 2003, he scored his first TV particular, headlining an installment of “Comedy Central Presents.” Three years later, he landed a spot on “Last Comic Standing.” He was disqualified for smuggling in a BlackBerry to ship emails to his household, however he made it into the late rounds of the present, giving him weeks of constant nationwide publicity that put his profession into excessive gear.
The pair have identified one another for greater than twenty years or, as Iglesias likes to say, “since we both had hair.” They grew to become buddies after assembly at the Laugh Factory on Sunset Boulevard in 2004, and earlier than lengthy, Iglesias had invited Koy to go on the street with him. Koy turned him down, partially as a result of his son, Joseph Jr., was a yr outdated at the time. But that wasn’t the important thing cause.
“It was like, man, I want to get out there and be a headliner on my own,” remembers Koy. “To this day, he says, ‘Remember when I was going to take you on the road and you said no? How dare you?!’”
Other than their bald heads, the 2 are bodily dissimilar. Trim with Filipino tribal tattoos operating up his arms, Koy tends to decorate in black, whereas Iglesias — whose measurement has been fodder for each his comedy and his picture (“I’m not fat. I’m fluffy.”) — favors dishevelled shorts and shirts with daring colourful designs, together with one he wore for his stadium present dotted with photos of Funko Pop Fluffy collectible figurines sporting Dodger gear.
But they’ve quite a bit in frequent comedically, together with formative influences like Eddie Murphy. More considerably, each draw closely on household and cultural id of their materials. Iglesias made frequent references to his Mexican American mom, Esther, in his act previous to her passing in 2012, and Koy’s mom, Josie, nonetheless makes common appearances in his routines.
Koy has obtained backlash for what some regard as his exaggerated portrayal of his mother’s high-pitched Filipino accent and cultural quirks, however he argues that the tales are actual, the voice is spot-on and, extra importantly, they’ve a common attraction.
“It has nothing to do with ethnicity. It has nothing to do with color. It has nothing to do with anything other than my mom is a mom, and this is how she raised me,” says Koy. “There’s nothing better than Martin Lawrence telling me, ‘Oh, my God, my mom is just like your mom.’”
Lawrence was one of many stars on hand — together with Iglesias, Tisha Campbell, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas and others — when Koy was immortalized with a hand and footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Feb. 12.
“It was a surreal moment,” marvels Koy, who, throughout his speech, recalled visiting the Chinese Theatre as a child and placing his arms in Murphy’s handprints. “When I was at the podium talking about it, I felt my life flashing before my eyes in a matter of seconds. I went back to being a kid doing that.”
“Surreal” can be the phrase Iglesias makes use of to explain his current landmark Hollywood second, receiving a star on the Walk of Fame on March 3.
“I’m honored, but I don’t feel worthy of it because, in my head, these are for movie stars and Academy Award winners, somebody that’s done multiple films and stuff like that,” says Iglesias.
You can name it false modesty, however it’s revealing that the multimillion-dollar car assortment Iglesias maintains in his 14,404-sq.-ft. warehouse-turned-clubhouse in Long Beach-adjacent Signal Hill is dominated by varied fashions of the standard Volkswagen microbus — some 30 of them — slightly than Porsches or Ferraris.
But there’s no denying that each Iglesias and Koy are massively profitable. On the year-end Billboard Boxscore chart for top-grossing comedy excursions of 2025, Iglesias was ranked No. 4, incomes $35.3 million from 100 exhibits, whereas Koy got here in at No. 8 with $20.9 million from 83 exhibits. And that’s only one yr of many for the 2 veteran performers. The numbers are all of the extra spectacular when one considers the low overhead for touring comics relative to musical acts and different giant dwell productions, which require exponentially extra individuals and tools, onstage and off.
Both have additionally performed a string of Netflix standup specials, lent their voices to quite a few animated initiatives (e.g., Iglesias as Speedy Gonzalez in 2021’s “Space Jam: A New Legacy”) and acted in dwell motion initiatives — from Iglesias’ three-season stint on the Netflix sitcom “Mr. Iglesias” (2019-2020) to Koy’s main position within the semi-autobiographical comedy function
“Easter Sunday” (2022).
Of course, there are downsides to being within the highlight. In 2024, Koy agreed to step in at the final minute to host the 81st Golden Globes, and was rewarded with a chilly reception within the room. (“Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue? Shut up,” he snapped at one level.) It was a number of the worst critiques of his life.
And final October, each he and Iglesias have been a part of a contingent of comedians lambasted on social media for taking huge paychecks to carry out at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, regardless of the nation’s well-documented human rights abuses and the content material restrictions it positioned on their routines.
“There are some places that are a little bit more selective, Saudi Arabia being one of those places,” says Iglesias, who first carried out there in 2012. “I’m willing to play by the rules when I do a corporate event here in America. Don’t make fun of Google. Don’t talk about the CEO. Don’t talk shit about his shoes. Don’t make fun of his wife. There’s always rules no matter where you go.”
When Iglesias performed Dodger Stadium, he discovered just a few guidelines that can serve each of them at the SoFi gig, significantly relating to the time it takes the sound of the gang’s response to succeed in the stage.
After his efficiency on the primary evening, “a friend who’s a comic goes, ‘Dude, you waited too long [for the laughs],’” remembers Iglesias. “So, the next night, I went out there and performed at my normal speed.”
As a stadium novice, Koy is much less positive about methods to calibrate his efficiency.
“A theater is a comedy club on steroids, but it’s still intimate,” he observes. “Arenas are like five theaters, and you’ve got to keep that pace up and maintain that energy. A stadium …? Bro, I don’t know what to think.”
