01 Mar Joey Diaz, Comedian And Artist of the Spoken Word
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Who is Stand-up Comedian Joey Diaz?
If you’re a fan of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and/or comedy that’s more than a little rough around the edges, you’ve probably heard of Joey “Coco” Diaz, a Cuban-American stand-up comedian, actor, and podcast host (and very unlikely star of a series of dog-themed holiday movies).
José Antonio Díaz was born in Havana, Cuba, on February 19, 1963. At three years old, the future comedian Diaz immigrated to the United States, where he was raised in North Bergen, New Jersey, and graduated from North Bergen High School in 1982.
As a comedian, Diaz’s comedic stylings are about as far from the family-friendly Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, with Iglesias’ warm and cuddly persona, as one can get.
Which isn’t to say Diaz isn’t popular. He has over a million subscribers on YouTube and over 163 million views. He’s also been cited as one of the most popular guests on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Joey Diaz tours regularly, acts in hit movies, and is a reliable podcast guest if you’re looking for someone unapologetic and uniquely deranged.
The orator and comedian Joey Diaz’s multi-hyphenate career bears a closer resemblance to country music star “Jelly Roll” than it does to that of a Jerry Seinfeld (yet as an actor, he’s amassed a better résumé than such greats as Chris Rock or John Mulaney).
Love him or hate him (or as one popular Reddit post has even asked, “Can somebody please explain the appeal of Joey Diaz?”) Diaz has enjoyed more time in the limelight than many comedians who perform far more palatable sets.
As a comedian, Diaz seems to personify abrasiveness, charitably termed “raw,” but as an actor, Diaz can evince a surprisingly salt-of-the-earth warmth.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that a comedian like Diaz would be acclaimed for his storytelling. After all, if you can say anything about Diaz, he’s certainly a character. And he certainly has some stories to tell.
So let’s learn a bit more about the man who once said, upon being asked if he was a Republican or Democrat, “I’m a felon.”
From Troubled Beginnings to Fame and Fortune
Following his mother’s death when Diaz was just sixteen, the future stand-up bounced around different families in the Bergen area who had taken him in. However, the troubled Diaz overstayed his welcome by committing petty crimes and abusing drugs. A change of scenery—moving to Colorado—did little to temper Diaz’s angst; he was eventually convicted of kidnapping and aggravated robbery.
While in prison, he went from inmate Diaz to comedian Diaz, as he claims he started performing mini-stand-up routines when the projector broke down during movie nights. Apparenty his captive audience ate up the impromptu routines, bolstering Diaz’s confidence. Upon his release, Diaz continued on his comedic journey (though by his own admission, it took him “maybe” a whole hour to return to his criminal lifestyle).
As to whether serving time and leading a “reckless” life helped propel him into a life of comedy, he’s somehow both sanguine and fatalistic in the same breath, stating:
When something happens and you add comedy to it, it makes it okay. So yeah, I think I was always doomed to be involved in some type of comedy because I was an only child, so I learned early on to justify everything in my head with comedy.
In 1991, Diaz would perform his first professional set as a comedian at Comedy Works in Denver. He would go on to keep playing at Comedy Works for several years, although at one point he was banned from the club, with the exact reasons remaining murky. 1991 would also be the year he committed to comedy full-time.
In 1995, Diaz moved to Los Angeles to make a real go of being a comedian. He’s acknowledged that if things didn’t pan out, he had a rather shocking fallback plan:
The motivation was also if I failed as a comedian, on the way back east, I was gonna stop in Colorado and just kill my ex-wife. Every day that she wakes up and looks at the sky, she has to thank the Lord.
Fortunately for Diaz (and very fortunately for his ex-wife, who, according to Diaz, would take their daughter to England away from her father, much to his chagrin), he did not fail as a comedian. He would even start acting throughout the late 90s, starring in such major films as Analyze That (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), and The Longest Yard (2005). Moreover, starting in 2009, he became part of a dog-themed holiday franchise, starting with The Dog Who Saved Christmas.
In 2013, he would star as Robert De Niro’s boxing trainer in Grudge Match.
His first stand-up special, fittingly titled Sociably Unacceptable, was released in 2016.
And as to whether Diaz still begrudges his ex-wife taking their kid to England, Diaz is pragmatic.
I said to myself, ‘Every day that I’m alive and doing better, she’s in Hell.’
In the midst of his burgeoning acting and comedy career, Diaz started branching out to new mediums (thankfully, it left kidnapping or murder off the table).
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Joey Diaz: Podcast Host?
In 2010, Diaz—already an actor and stand-up comedian—added another line to his resume when he started co-hosting a podcast, Beauty and Da Beast. By this time, Diaz had started appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which would signal the start of a long stint of guest appearances for the gravelly-voiced Diaz for the perpetually amazed, highly impressionable Rogan (who once wondered if he was “ruining” his brain with all the head trauma he was suffering in his martial arts training)
In 2012, actor and comedian and occasional sage Joey Diaz started another podcast, The Church of What’s Happening Now, with co-host Lee Syatt.
In 2020, Diaz started yet another podcast, Uncle Joey’s Joint.
Joey Diaz on Tour and Beyond
Man of many words, some to his detriment, Diaz is frequently on tour throughout the United States (as for why he’s not fond of performing abroad, in his words, “I’m scared of international travel…don’t trust it.”).
Many comedians let you get tickets right through their websites, but not Joey Diaz. You can, however, get 10% off “Alpha BRAIN” supplements, hawked by Mr. Alpha Brain himself, Joe Rogan. The supplement’s parent company, Onnit Labs Inc., was part of a class action lawsuit in 2024, which was admittedly dismissed the following year. It’s perhaps no surprise the lawsuit didn’t pan out with reviews like this:
Holy cow I’m an animal in the office with this stuff. My vocabulary is like a machine gun and my decisions are made with the precision of a eagles [sic] eye.
And yes, you’ll get some negative nancies too, such as the following review:
Horrific side effects with no seen benefits. The only thing I could “Focus” on was the frequent eye twitches, nausea so severe I could barely stand, diarrhea, all while feeling intensely dizzy. The taste of Instant is just absolutely rancid with water. The only way I was able to even drink it was with fruit punch, even so I had to drink ginger ale.
For Joey Diaz tour tickets, go to Ticketmaster.
In 2023, Joey Diaz co-wrote his autobiography, Tremendous: The Life of a Comedy Savage, with the help of Erica Florentine. The book went on to become a New York Times bestseller, with 59% of the reviews on Goodreads being 5-star.
If one were to flip randomly through the book, you might encounter tales from Diaz’s days at a Catholic school where he got in a fight with a nun, beating the woman in a hallway with several other boys, or the time his mother, buzzed on booze and cocaine, would impart life wisdom to her son that included a recommendation for his future sex life.
Great stuff.
Diaz, is nothing if not candid, and grateful for his fans. As he’s said:
I’m not the funniest guy and I’m a little bit offensive, but I want you to get to meet me. I want you to shake my hand. I want to put the face with the name on Twitter.
Yes, the charmed life that made him such a good podcaster, someone whose utterances are constantly a matter of public record, can be considered “a little bit offensive.” Whether it’s repeatedly dropping homophobic slurs while telling the story about trying to rob someone and getting beat up himself (hilarious) or joking (?) about coercing dozens of women into sexual acts for a supposed career boost—much to good buddy Joe Rogan’s delight—because, in Diaz’s words, “We’ve all MeToo’d “Somebody”—Diaz has certainly lived life on his own “unconventional” terms.
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If stand-up comedian Joey Diaz has taught us anything, it’s that laughter can get us through dark times, so let’s shine some light together.