On this week’s episode of Two Friends: A Nice Time Hanging Out With People Who Know Each Other Well, we bring you a second installment in a Two Friends subgenre that we like to call “friends who are also basically twins.†(The first being Eliza Coupe and Elisha Cuthbert.) Comedians Jo Koy and Howie Mandel reconnected on our Instagram — looking shockingly indistinguishable from one another — to talk about Koy’s new book, Mixed Plate. And if there is one thing that is made perfectly clear during this conversation, it’s that Mandel loves the Philippines. He loves Filipino culture, he loves Filipino cars, but most of all, he loves Filipino food, which Koy introduced him to years ago.
Mandel and Koy aren’t sure why Filipino food hasn’t caught on in the States the same way other cuisines have, but it’s entirely possible they will be the ones to finally remedy this. “Howie and I are gonna invest in a Filipino restaurant,†Koy announced. At first, one might think this is a cute bit between friends, like how we’re all planning to move to the country one day to buy a bunch of land and rescue every dog. But if you listen to even five minutes of Mandel talking, it’s clear he has no plan that he is not fully committed to seeing through. “The only difference between the people who make it and don’t make it are the people who just stop or don’t do it,†Mandel said when Koy brought up his work ethic. This has all the makings of a Shark Tank episode I am absolutely dying to see.