Speaker 1: And I see her pull into a seven eleven like
Speaker 1: I'm at the stoplight and I see her, and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, that's Marta Kaufman. So I
Speaker 1: like pull into seven to eleven and at this point,
Speaker 1: I'm broke. I have no money, but I was like,
Speaker 1: I need to talk, I need to like say something,
Speaker 1: and like, I don't know like what I thought. I
Speaker 1: was about to like get on whatever new show she
Speaker 1: was on, and so I walk into seven to eleven
Speaker 1: and I'm just like eyeballing her. She's with her child,
Speaker 1: for the love of God, and I am walking in
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, let me just pretend to buy
Speaker 1: something and get in line behind her. Brian, when I
Speaker 1: tell you, I didn't have money to pretend to buy something,
Speaker 1: So I just got in line behind her and I go,
Speaker 1: are you Marta Kaufman And she goes, I am, and
Speaker 1: I was like hi, and I left. Hey, I'm Angela Johnson. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm an actress, I'm a comedian, I'm an author. I'm pregnant.
Speaker 1: I have chapped lips right now. I'm very well. Hello there, everybody,
Speaker 1: and welcome back to a brand new episode of Off
Speaker 1: the Beat. I hope you're having a fantastic Tuesday or
Speaker 1: whatever day you're listening to this. As always, I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner. Now, as you just heard today, we are
Speaker 1: bringing on I'm very excited about this my friend, hilarious
Speaker 1: comedian Angela Johnson Reyes. Now you may know her from
Speaker 1: her extensive comedy career, perhaps from her character as bomb
Speaker 1: Qui Qui and the nail salon Lady. That's right, Angela
Speaker 1: was behind one of the first ever videos to go
Speaker 1: viral on YouTube. Yeah. I know it's hard to believe
Speaker 1: that there was a world before going viral was just
Speaker 1: a part of normal life. But look, as someone who
Speaker 1: was there, I can tell you there was, and to
Speaker 1: be one of the four fathers, if you will, of
Speaker 1: the Internet, I mean, it's kind of like being Neil
Speaker 1: Armstrong and going to the moon. And I'm sure that's
Speaker 1: exactly how she would describe herself an astronaut. But in
Speaker 1: all seriousness, Angela has done so much amazing stuff. She
Speaker 1: took her YouTube fame and she toured the world. She
Speaker 1: found herself on the set of Friends first, and then
Speaker 1: she wrote a memoir. She released multiple hit comedy specials.
Speaker 1: She is what I like to call freaking awesome. So
Speaker 1: with that said, I say we just bring her on
Speaker 1: so she can tell us about it, all of it,
Speaker 1: her life on the road as a stand up comedian.
Speaker 1: Listeners far and wide, please give a warm I'm welcome
Speaker 1: to Angela Johnson Reya's bubb I love it, Bubbalunchquik bubble Unch,
Speaker 1: Quaker Cookie, every moleft over from the nut Pole. Hi Angela,
Speaker 1: Hi Ryan, Thanks for having me. How are you? Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm doing well. I am. I got some sleep last night.
Speaker 1: I've been having insomnia, so last night I actually got
Speaker 1: some sleep. Well. I have to say, congratulations, I understand
Speaker 1: what There's a bun in the oven? Is that? Do
Speaker 1: you still say that? Yeah? I meant I am with
Speaker 1: child bun in the oven. Congratulations on that. I want
Speaker 1: to I want to get into that a little bit late.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go We're going to go really deep here
Speaker 1: and a little bit existential later on. But I have
Speaker 1: to mention, do you know we have a really good
Speaker 1: mutual friend who mister mal Hall. No, yes, he is
Speaker 1: a very good friend of ours. In fact, my wife
Speaker 1: used to hear his earliest joke pitches in college before
Speaker 1: he was a stand up comedian. Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: love that. That is so special. I have a few
Speaker 1: friends that they'll remind me that I used to practice
Speaker 1: my jokes in front of like in the living room,
Speaker 1: in front of the fireplace, like I'm a kid doing
Speaker 1: a show for their parents, and I would full on practice.
Speaker 1: Like my early jokes would be like, okay, you guys
Speaker 1: have five minutes at buzz cafe. Let me just do
Speaker 1: this where you really quick, and like practicing for them
Speaker 1: before I go do my five minutes were us? Where
Speaker 1: are they supportive? Oh my god, so supportive. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because I have friends that, you know, just so
Speaker 1: supported from the beginning. And I have two friends who
Speaker 1: particularly I remember one time I was thinking. I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I think I'm an a beatbox in my
Speaker 1: act because I could beat box a little bit. And
Speaker 1: I remember being in the backseat of their car and
Speaker 1: you know, my two friends driving in the passenger. I
Speaker 1: was like, tell me, if you guys think I should
Speaker 1: beat by start beatboxing for them, and they were both
Speaker 1: like no, you know, but then did you anyway? I did?
Speaker 1: And yeah. One of my most quoted jokes that people
Speaker 1: always will like quote me or they try to do
Speaker 1: the beatbox with me when they see me in a
Speaker 1: meat and greet or something, and I'm like, that's funny.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's what my friends heard when I
Speaker 1: m all right, well, I want to go back. And
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess the central question I should ask
Speaker 1: you is you wrote a book. Who do I think
Speaker 1: I am talking about? Grow up there in San Jose,
Speaker 1: caught between two worlds. Talk to me a little bit
Speaker 1: about that. You're growing up. So I am Mexican American,
Speaker 1: and I grew up wishing I was more Mexican than
Speaker 1: I felt that. I was like, we didn't speak Spanish
Speaker 1: growing up, We didn't live like in the hood, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to live in the hood. Like I wanted
Speaker 1: there to be low riders in my neighborhood. I wanted
Speaker 1: there to be cars just primered up on blocks, sitting
Speaker 1: on the grass like you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: I want there full on to be just stray dogs
Speaker 1: roaming around. That's That's where I wanted to live. And
Speaker 1: we lived in a nice, little middle class neighborhood. It
Speaker 1: was very diverse. We had everybody like Portuguese, you know,
Speaker 1: a few Latinos. It was mostly like older white people,
Speaker 1: but we had like Mexican Indians, like, we had a
Speaker 1: lot of different people. It's very diverse. And I wanted
Speaker 1: to be like this tough Chola chick, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, right, And I was not that, but I
Speaker 1: tried real hard. And my last name was Johnson, and
Speaker 1: I always wish it was like Rodriguez or Sanchez or
Speaker 1: like something with it is like just give me as
Speaker 1: at the end, like that's all I wanted. And so
Speaker 1: that's why I felt like I wanted this thing that
Speaker 1: I felt that I wasn't. But it's really, how can
Speaker 1: you be something more that you already are? You just
Speaker 1: innately are I am Latina. That's just who I am
Speaker 1: in my blood. I just look different. I'm just a
Speaker 1: different version of Latina. And it took me years and
Speaker 1: years to get to that realization. But I struggled with
Speaker 1: that growing up. Did your parents speak Spanish? No? Oh,
Speaker 1: so no one spoke Spanish, just my grandma because my grandma.
Speaker 1: We're fourth I'm fourth generation Mexican American. So when my
Speaker 1: grandma was speaking Spanish, she didn't want her kids to
Speaker 1: get made fun of, to get punished for speaking Spanish.
Speaker 1: So she made them all speak English. So my mom
Speaker 1: is a sibling of eight kids and she's the youngest
Speaker 1: of eight. So the young kids don't speak Spanish, but
Speaker 1: the older kids do. Okay, the older ones. They still
Speaker 1: my Nina, she's in her eighties, she speaks Spanish. But
Speaker 1: my mom, who's the youngest and she's like sixty, she
Speaker 1: does not speak Spanish. Okay, So this, I mean, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get We're really gonna get into this later, I promise.
Speaker 1: But so your early work where you speak a lot
Speaker 1: about your family growing up, that's all fictionalized. Fake. It's
Speaker 1: me trying to be who I thought people wanted me
Speaker 1: to be. And I remember I would go on stage
Speaker 1: and I would think to myself, like, I'm at this point,
Speaker 1: I'm new to the game. I just started doing stand
Speaker 1: up and I'm just trying to be funny, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I know how to do an accent. I'm real good
Speaker 1: at accents. Just do a Spanish accent. I'll pretend this
Speaker 1: is my mom and this is my dad, and you know,
Speaker 1: and so I portray them that way. But they did
Speaker 1: not speak Spanish. And it wasn't until probably my second
Speaker 1: Hour special, which was I had already been doing stand
Speaker 1: up for maybe like five years that I really started
Speaker 1: to just own who I was and tell more stories
Speaker 1: from an authentic place. And like, instead of pretending that
Speaker 1: my parents speak Spanish and they're this person that I
Speaker 1: think people want them to be because they expect that
Speaker 1: from a Latina, let me just be honest about who
Speaker 1: they are and who I am and make fun of
Speaker 1: that and talk about my insecurity within that. So when
Speaker 1: I started talking about I don't speak Spanish, you guys,
Speaker 1: and all insecurities around it, I felt like I was
Speaker 1: more relatable because you can tell that I was coming
Speaker 1: from an authentic place and I wasn't just trying to
Speaker 1: put him here's a funny joke, and that's what I
Speaker 1: was doing in the beginning. I was like, let me
Speaker 1: just get as many of these little hits that I
Speaker 1: can in there, and then I started getting comfortable with
Speaker 1: myself and then telling people who I really was. Well,
Speaker 1: it's interesting, though, that your name is which you make
Speaker 1: fun of and you just referenced it before Johnson. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like that you made a decision. Now, was this based
Speaker 1: on the way you look or that you thought you
Speaker 1: looked that you needed to reference that because like, no
Speaker 1: one is going to put you in that pigeonhole, yet
Speaker 1: you choose, chose in a way to put yourself there.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? I don't know what I'm saying. No,
Speaker 1: So I like I said, I always wanted to be
Speaker 1: super Latina. So I just okay, I knew that even
Speaker 1: though my name on paper was Angela Johnson. I know
Speaker 1: once I walk on stage. I have brown hair, I
Speaker 1: have brown eyes. I have these like super thin nineteen
Speaker 1: nineties eyebrows that I didn't recover from. Like it's just
Speaker 1: I know what I look like. And I also know
Speaker 1: my stories that I'm I'm gonna tell right, I'm still Mexican.
Speaker 1: I still have stories of like, oh my big, huge family,
Speaker 1: Like there's my Grandma's got eight kids, she was a
Speaker 1: sibling of twenty five. Like I still have like my
Speaker 1: Mexican roots. So I'm still going to be talking about that.
Speaker 1: I would just put extra on it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Yeah, your first performing, as I understand, was
Speaker 1: as a Pop Warner cheerleader. Yeah, now you still like
Speaker 1: to dance. I mean this dancing is seems very much
Speaker 1: a part of you, both publicly and privately, based on
Speaker 1: what I've seen what made you want to do that?
Speaker 1: Was that something that all of your friends did or
Speaker 1: was there something specifically that drew you to being a cheerleader.
Speaker 1: Early on, my sister and my older cousins were all cheerleaders.
Speaker 1: And when I first started cheerleading, I was eight years old.
Speaker 1: I had no rhythm, Like I couldn't step clap at all,
Speaker 1: Like it was embarrassing, But I had rhythm inside of me.
Speaker 1: I think I just didn't know how to do choreography.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to like how do you do
Speaker 1: step and a clap at the same Like I couldn't
Speaker 1: do it, but I wanted to be like my sister
Speaker 1: and my cousins. And so that's how it all started.
Speaker 1: And then I went from Popcorner all the way up
Speaker 1: to college All Stars to professionally for the Oakland Raiders
Speaker 1: and yeah, and then even when I moved to LA
Speaker 1: that's how I started. Like it was like get in
Speaker 1: where you fit in, you know, Like I didn't have
Speaker 1: a resume to go audition for acting parts, but I
Speaker 1: did have a resume for dance just because of the
Speaker 1: Oakland Raiders, And so I would use my Oakland Raider
Speaker 1: at headshot and I would submit it to dance agencies
Speaker 1: and that immediately just got me in right away because
Speaker 1: they were like, oh, she's a trained dancer. She was
Speaker 1: a professional, but I'm not a trained dancer. I just
Speaker 1: I faked it and I got on the squad, is
Speaker 1: what it was. And they just saw my head shone.
Speaker 1: They're like, okay, cuckoo, cool, we'll take her. And so
Speaker 1: I would go to these dance auditions and a lot
Speaker 1: of times I was again just trying to fake it
Speaker 1: till I make it. But I ended up booking like
Speaker 1: an ice cream commercial because they needed dancers, and so
Speaker 1: my dance agent would send me out on this audition
Speaker 1: for you know, Dryer's ice cream because we're doing like
Speaker 1: five eight counts. We jump off off the couch and
Speaker 1: we just do a quick five, six, seven and eight
Speaker 1: and that's it. I'm like I could do that, And
Speaker 1: so then I started booking like little acting roles as
Speaker 1: a dancer. Okay, you try out, you get it. You
Speaker 1: are rookie of the Year of the Raider Rats and
Speaker 1: the Raiders go to the super Bowl. This is a
Speaker 1: hell of a year for you. I mean, was this
Speaker 1: did you love this? Was this a dream come true.
Speaker 1: I meant you left after one year, so I guess
Speaker 1: you didn't see it as a full time career. But no.
Speaker 1: I when I first auditioned for the raider As, it
Speaker 1: was really because I wanted to be an actress and
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to be an actress. I lived
Speaker 1: in San Jose, but I did have a friend who
Speaker 1: was from San Jose. She moved to LA and she
Speaker 1: started acting and she was in a Ross commercial, she
Speaker 1: was in an in sync music video, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I know somebody famous, like hey, And
Speaker 1: I remember telling her one day like hey, I would
Speaker 1: love to do what you're doing. And she was like,
Speaker 1: all right, well, if you ever moved to LA, I'll
Speaker 1: help you. I'll help you get started. And I was
Speaker 1: like WHOA, Like now this like far fetched fantasy actually
Speaker 1: looks like an attainable dream that I can actually go
Speaker 1: for it because before that I knew nothing like I was.
Speaker 1: This is early in internet days, like dial up, AOL days,
Speaker 1: and I remember I would go online and I was
Speaker 1: trying to find like how do you make a resume
Speaker 1: for acting? And at my first resume, I just put
Speaker 1: like random things on there that I don't know what
Speaker 1: I was thinking, but I put like all my accents
Speaker 1: that I knew, I put like in an acting class.
Speaker 1: If I even read like two lines of a play
Speaker 1: just in class, I was like, I was in this play.
Speaker 1: I did it always lies. I remember my resume was
Speaker 1: in purple ink and it was there was no format
Speaker 1: to my resume. I just like put things places, and
Speaker 1: I remember I printed it out and I looked up, like, okay,
Speaker 1: where's a talent agency in San Francisco because I was
Speaker 1: from SAMAS And I mailed off my purple located resume
Speaker 1: and mailed it to anybody who I could find, and
Speaker 1: of course nobody calls him back, like they were like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, this special needs person, she is adorable.
Speaker 1: You should really really just bless her. And nobody calls me.
Speaker 1: And then so my friend tells me this that she'd
Speaker 1: help me if I moved out there, and I was like, whoa, Okay,
Speaker 1: that would be awesome, but that requires me leaving my
Speaker 1: mom's house because at this point, I've only lived with
Speaker 1: my mom in my room my whole life, and this
Speaker 1: means moving to Hollywood, and I'm like, whoa, that's like
Speaker 1: big girl stuff. And around the same time, I had
Speaker 1: another friend who was a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders
Speaker 1: and she was like, you should come try out and
Speaker 1: I was like, well, it's not my jam. But then
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, I prayed about it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, God, what do I do with
Speaker 1: my life? Like I'm at this point, like twenty years old,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I don't know what I want to
Speaker 1: I want to be an actress on how to be
Speaker 1: an actress? And by the end of this conversation that
Speaker 1: I had with God, I was like, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: going to go try out for the Oakland Raiders, and
Speaker 1: if I make the squad, I'm going to do it
Speaker 1: for one year, and I'm going to use this as
Speaker 1: my sign to pursue the entertainment industry. And if I
Speaker 1: don't make the squad, then I'm going to use this
Speaker 1: as my sign that the entertainment industry is not for me.
Speaker 1: And then I'm just going to block it out of
Speaker 1: my mind and tuck it away in my heart and
Speaker 1: just be like, well, that was just a little fantasy
Speaker 1: that I had, And I'm going to go be a
Speaker 1: massage therapist because that's the only other thing that I'm
Speaker 1: good at, and I end up going to the audition.
Speaker 1: I make the squad. As soon as they call my
Speaker 1: number that I made it, my first thought was, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm going to be an actress. Like it
Speaker 1: was not even about the Raiders at that point, it
Speaker 1: was just about acting. Yeah. So I did it that
Speaker 1: one year and came home from the Super Bowl, packed
Speaker 1: up my bags and drove to LA and started from
Speaker 1: the ground up as an extra. Now what was it?
Speaker 1: What was it about being an actor? Why did you
Speaker 1: think that's what you wanted to do. So I would
Speaker 1: go to the movies and I would be sitting there
Speaker 1: mad that I wasn't in it. Like I remember again,
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a Chola real bad. I remember
Speaker 1: going to the movie theater watching Training Day, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of gangsters in that movie. There would
Speaker 1: be scenes where there's like these cholos and there's neighborhood
Speaker 1: and there's all the extras in the background, and I
Speaker 1: remember seeing these Cholas and I was like, I could
Speaker 1: do that. I can totally stand by that car I
Speaker 1: just before that cars parked. Somebody needs to tell me
Speaker 1: how to stand by that car, Like I would just
Speaker 1: see these movies and I'd be like, I can do that.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to get in it, but I
Speaker 1: know I could do it. And then there wasn't a
Speaker 1: lot of Latinos on TV and movies that you could
Speaker 1: like just look up the screen and be like, see
Speaker 1: she's doing it, I can do it. So my person
Speaker 1: that I saw in movie these that I was like, hmm,
Speaker 1: I could do that with Sandra Bullock because she looked
Speaker 1: like me, Like she's fair skin but she had brown hair,
Speaker 1: and she was like the closest to Latina that I
Speaker 1: could find. And so I'd watch her in Speed, and
Speaker 1: I remember I had it on VHS tape and I
Speaker 1: would just watch it every single day. That was my
Speaker 1: favorite movie, like all summer long, and we would just
Speaker 1: watch Speed all the time, and I would just look
Speaker 1: to Sandra Bullock and be like, yeah, I can do that.
Speaker 1: And it was just I didn't know how. It was
Speaker 1: so far I was like I might as well say
Speaker 1: I want to be a princess. That's how far fetched
Speaker 1: it was. It was like, how do you even do this?
Speaker 1: I don't even know how to do this, but I
Speaker 1: know I could. Early on, I understand was it. In
Speaker 1: high school, you played an alcoholic from London with the accent.
Speaker 1: This is my question. I want you to tell me
Speaker 1: that it's just a god given gift, because I don't
Speaker 1: have it. If I have to do an accent, I
Speaker 1: need months with a special linguistic trainer. Where where did you?
Speaker 1: Where did you? Where did you get that? Was that
Speaker 1: just something you were born with? I think it's definitely
Speaker 1: something I was born with. But also I do mean
Speaker 1: there's a few accents that I got. I could do this, this,
Speaker 1: and this the second you asked me to do this
Speaker 1: other accent for the love of God, like, there's something
Speaker 1: about the Australian accent that I cannot do. It always
Speaker 1: turns into something else, Like I'll start and one of
Speaker 1: my closest friends is from Australia and I hear her
Speaker 1: talk all the time and I can't do it. And
Speaker 1: I start like I can copy what she says, And
Speaker 1: the next thing you know, I'm I'm from London all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, and she's like, no, now you're British,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, damn it, And I'll try it again,
Speaker 1: and she'd be like, now you're in New Zealand now
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh yeash. So it's like there's certain
Speaker 1: accents that I really have a hard time with for
Speaker 1: some reason, but I just have an ear for sounds,
Speaker 1: and so like, I like to sing because I can
Speaker 1: copy what I hear, but I can't harmonize because harmonize
Speaker 1: means that this girl doing a note and this girl
Speaker 1: is doing a different note, and then I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: do a different note. And I'm like, this is not
Speaker 1: gonna happen because I'm going to do whatever you guys
Speaker 1: are doing because that's what I do. I just copy
Speaker 1: what I hear. You start in Los Angeles, you move,
Speaker 1: your friend is helping you, and fairly quickly you get
Speaker 1: to do that thing, which is stand by a car
Speaker 1: and you're on friends. Is this right as a regular
Speaker 1: extra for a couple of seasons. Yes, I don't remember you,
Speaker 1: but I believe you were there. Listen. I people will
Speaker 1: screenshot me and tag me on social media. Sometimes they'll
Speaker 1: be like is this you? And I'm like, yeah, girl,
Speaker 1: believe it. And my hair was so long it was
Speaker 1: like down to my waist, like I was like young
Speaker 1: and vibrant. But yes, I remember, I thought I had
Speaker 1: made it. I was like, this is it. I'm here
Speaker 1: and living in my dreams and even the story of
Speaker 1: how that happened. I remember going to Central Casting, where
Speaker 1: you know, they cast all the extras for TV shows
Speaker 1: and movies, and my friend who said she was going
Speaker 1: to help me get started, she kept her word and
Speaker 1: she told me exactly what to do. She was like,
Speaker 1: this is what I want you to do. I want
Speaker 1: to go to Central Casting. There's gonna be a line
Speaker 1: of people waiting out the door, but don't wait in line.
Speaker 1: I want you to come with a tray of cookies
Speaker 1: and your raider at head shot, and I want you
Speaker 1: to just go to the front window and ask for
Speaker 1: Sam and then give him your head shot and the cookies.
Speaker 1: Tell him you're new to town and you want to
Speaker 1: be an extra. And I was like, this sounds real sleazy.
Speaker 1: It's just I don't know what cookies mean in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: but you listen. And so I show up to Central
Speaker 1: Casting and sure enough, there's a line of people outside
Speaker 1: waiting to sign up to me an extra on TV.
Speaker 1: And I'm like passing all these people with my sleezy cookies.
Speaker 1: And I was likely know exactly what I'm doing, And
Speaker 1: this is probably, like I don't know, a month after
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. This is after the readers were just
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl. I show up and I'm waiting
Speaker 1: for this guy Sam. He comes walking out from the
Speaker 1: back offices and he's wearing a Raiders hat and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, no way. And he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: what's up. And I give him the cookies and my
Speaker 1: Raider at head shot and I was like, this is
Speaker 1: for you. And he sees my Raider at headshot and
Speaker 1: he's like what, no way, Like clearly he's just like
Speaker 1: the biggest Raiders fan. We just came off the Super Bowl, Like,
Speaker 1: no freaking way, Raider at Oh my gosh whatever. And
Speaker 1: he's like, yeah, here, give me your name and number.
Speaker 1: I'll call you blah blah blah whatever. So I do
Speaker 1: that and I leave. I don't even sign up, and
Speaker 1: he calls me like two days later, and he was like, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to be an Extrong Friends? And I
Speaker 1: was like, you mean, like my favorite show of all time? Yes,
Speaker 1: I do want to be an extron Friends. And so
Speaker 1: he signs me up in the system and I don't
Speaker 1: know what I'm doing, but he gives me all my
Speaker 1: instructions parking this parking lot, walk to this stage, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. And I remember my first time
Speaker 1: walking on the Warner Brothers lot and it was just magical.
Speaker 1: It was like butterflies and just goose bumps and walking
Speaker 1: by the sound stage and then you know the smell
Speaker 1: of a sound stage, like it's that paint in wood,
Speaker 1: and there's just something about it. And it's just like
Speaker 1: all the things are like, this is wow, this is movies,
Speaker 1: this is TV, this is I'm doing it. And I
Speaker 1: remember walking into the stage at the big door was
Speaker 1: open and I just walk right in and you see
Speaker 1: like here's the guy's apartment, here's the girl's apartment, here's
Speaker 1: central perk, and here's you know, the studio audience where
Speaker 1: the audience sits. And I just remember walking in and
Speaker 1: being like a kid in a candy store. Could not
Speaker 1: believe I was living my dream, like I was just
Speaker 1: here to be an extra, but that was not even
Speaker 1: what was on What I was on my mind was
Speaker 1: like I cannot believe I made it, Like I am here.
Speaker 1: This is wild. And I ended up making friends with
Speaker 1: the ad who was very funny, and I was funny,
Speaker 1: so we would just make each other laugh. And so
Speaker 1: he'd be like, Okay, I'm gonna bring you back tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, cool, I'll come back tomorrow. And
Speaker 1: then he's like, okay, I'll bring you back next week.
Speaker 1: And next thing, you know, I'm an extra for season
Speaker 1: nine and ten, like a regular, just in the coffee house,
Speaker 1: and they end up inviting me to their Christmas party
Speaker 1: and I was able to have a conversation with every
Speaker 1: single one of the cast members without me being that
Speaker 1: weird extra who's just trying to talk to them. You know, yes,
Speaker 1: it was. It was just an incredible experience that still
Speaker 1: until this day, twenty years leader. It's my favorite job
Speaker 1: I've ever had. Wow, that's amazing. Two things strike me immediately. One,
Speaker 1: that's the difference between Friends and my show. You would
Speaker 1: never have gotten a job on our show. I mean,
Speaker 1: Friends was so confident and how beautiful their cast was
Speaker 1: that a first year out of a Raiders Raider at Cheerlead,
Speaker 1: you can just sit in the background and be an
Speaker 1: extra because we are so confident and how beautiful all
Speaker 1: we are as people. Yeah, they would You would never
Speaker 1: have made it. In Stanton Pennsylvania. There is no there's
Speaker 1: no chants, no chants. And two because we had you know,
Speaker 1: we did. We were warehouse workers. Let's be clear that
Speaker 1: we had warehouse workers as extras, not other you know,
Speaker 1: customers in the coffee shop. But they were there a
Speaker 1: lot and kind of became a part. So you felt
Speaker 1: like you were a part, and everybody was kind and
Speaker 1: good to you during during your time there. That's so
Speaker 1: amazing to hear. Absolutely there was not one diva, not
Speaker 1: one rude person to each other, to the crew, to
Speaker 1: the extras. And you know, being an extra, you see
Speaker 1: a bunch of different shows and how people communicate. And
Speaker 1: I remember being on certain shows and watching actors communicate
Speaker 1: with the director or with camera a or whoever, and
Speaker 1: they're just like rude and snappy, and yeah, god, they
Speaker 1: were never not one ever was an attitude. It was
Speaker 1: really incredible that that was my first experience that I
Speaker 1: got to watch and learn from these classy, talented people.
Speaker 1: Have you run into any of them since I have?
Speaker 1: But of course I don't remember or recognize me, which
Speaker 1: I would never think that they would, right, But there
Speaker 1: was one time in the airport I ran into one
Speaker 1: of the creators of Okay, this is what I was weird.
Speaker 1: Marta Kaufman, who's one of the creators. I remember driving
Speaker 1: in Hollywood one day and I see her pull into
Speaker 1: a seven eleven like I'm at the stoplight and I
Speaker 1: see her, and I was like, oh my god, that's
Speaker 1: Marta Kaufman. So I like pull into seven to eleven
Speaker 1: and at this point, I'm broke. I have no money,
Speaker 1: but I was like, I need to talk. I need
Speaker 1: to like say something, and like, I don't know, like
Speaker 1: what I thought. I was about to like get on
Speaker 1: whatever new show she was on, and so I walk
Speaker 1: into seven to eleven and I'm just like eyeballing her.
Speaker 1: She's with her child, for the love of God, and
Speaker 1: I am walking in and I'm like, okay, let me
Speaker 1: just pretend to buy some thing and get in line
Speaker 1: behind her. Brian, when I tell you, I didn't have
Speaker 1: money to pretend to buy something. So I just got
Speaker 1: in line behind her and I go, are you Marta Kaufman?
Speaker 1: And she goes I am, and I was like hi,
Speaker 1: and I left. I had I froze. I don't know
Speaker 1: what to say. I just oh God, how good? Ay?
Speaker 1: It was right? You are Marta Kaufman, thank you, goodbye?
Speaker 1: What a stalker? So waits I actually we're gonna totally
Speaker 1: tangentialize here. Now that's not a word. Why say are
Speaker 1: you when you know it's her? Because this I've often said,
Speaker 1: this is the this is my worst fan interaction, my
Speaker 1: worst and I love, I love love the fans, and
Speaker 1: that's that is true. But when someone comes up and
Speaker 1: says it's usually this. Has anyone ever told you that
Speaker 1: you look like right? Or or what you said? Are you? Now?
Speaker 1: Why would you say that? What? What? Like? What was
Speaker 1: it in your brain? You have done a U turn
Speaker 1: screeched into a seven eleven parking lot because you knew
Speaker 1: it's her, yet that was your question? Why was that
Speaker 1: your question? I think you start doubting everything. You're like, wait,
Speaker 1: this is her, right? I okay, I want her to
Speaker 1: know that I know that that's her. And there was
Speaker 1: something about she was not one of the stars of
Speaker 1: the shows. You don't see her face every week. I
Speaker 1: saw her face because I was on set, right, So
Speaker 1: it was like, I need her to know that I
Speaker 1: know it's her. You're a Marta Kaufman, right, uh huh
Speaker 1: oh oh? So well at least I understand a little
Speaker 1: of the psychology of it now, because it's always so perplexing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's always so perplexing when I get you look like right,
Speaker 1: I It depends on what would I'm in me too.
Speaker 1: Times I just go I get that a lot and
Speaker 1: and they'll be like really, and then every now and
Speaker 1: I go, no, it's me. Yeah, it's it's a It's
Speaker 1: the toughest thing people, it is it because it's like
Speaker 1: what the person is wanting me to say is well, yes,
Speaker 1: that is I, which then just makes me weird, right
Speaker 1: right right to say like, yes, that is me, thank
Speaker 1: you for recognizing me. That's a weird thing for me
Speaker 1: to say. It's kind of like us just going you're welcome,
Speaker 1: yeah right, Oh are you Marta Kaufman. Yes, it just ends.
Speaker 1: Oh god, that's so good. Um. At this time, you're
Speaker 1: making jokes with the A D and he's bringing you back.
Speaker 1: But you also someone encourages you to take a joke
Speaker 1: writing class and you start you start writing jokes. Now
Speaker 1: are you thinking at this point, M stand up or
Speaker 1: are you just writing jokes? You're you're taking a writing class,
Speaker 1: You're trying to develop characters. What is that I've never
Speaker 1: taken a joke writing class, So clearly, at this point
Speaker 1: I did not want to be a stand up comedian. Okay,
Speaker 1: I've been to one stand up comedy show at a
Speaker 1: restaurant and it was an accident. I was just on
Speaker 1: a date with a guy that I don't even remember
Speaker 1: who he was like. It was just like a random sure,
Speaker 1: I'll go out with you, and we went to this
Speaker 1: restaurant and there is like an open mic or something.
Speaker 1: People were going up on stage, and that was the
Speaker 1: first time that I had seen life stand up comedy.
Speaker 1: And I remember watching that and thinking, oh, I bet
Speaker 1: you I could turn my little nail slum character into
Speaker 1: a joke, because at this point it it was a
Speaker 1: character that I would do for all my friends and family.
Speaker 1: I could do the accent, I would get into character,
Speaker 1: and I knew I could do that, but that was it.
Speaker 1: I had never wanted to be a stand up. Then
Speaker 1: I'm at this church and I get very involved in
Speaker 1: the church, and you know, on Sunday mornings, I'm doing
Speaker 1: like the Welcome Team where people walk in the door
Speaker 1: and I'm like, hey, welcome everybody. And then on Tuesday
Speaker 1: nights they would do their creative arts night. They were
Speaker 1: aware that everybody at their church was in the entertainment
Speaker 1: industry somehow, So on Tuesday nights they would have an
Speaker 1: acting class, a dance class, production class. We want to
Speaker 1: learn about production, whatever aspect of the entertainment industry wanted
Speaker 1: to be end they had a class. So I'm in
Speaker 1: the acting class. We would do improv games and I
Speaker 1: would be funny in the improv games. I've never taken
Speaker 1: improv classes before. I would just be funny. I was
Speaker 1: quick witted. I get it from my dad. My dad
Speaker 1: is quick, so I was quick, but I didn't know
Speaker 1: like rules of improv, and so that's what they were
Speaker 1: teaching us, you know, yes, and the rule of three,
Speaker 1: like all the things. And there was a woman in
Speaker 1: the class who did stand up comedy and she was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be teaching a joke writing stand up comedy class.
Speaker 1: Do you want to come take my class? And I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't know. Is it free? And she
Speaker 1: was like yeah, And I was like, I guess I
Speaker 1: had desired a median And I told her. I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I do this nail salon character. I think
Speaker 1: I can make that into a joke, and she was like,
Speaker 1: Nail Salan jokes are so hacky, Like everybody has a
Speaker 1: Nail Salan joke. Just steer clear of Nail Salan jokes.
Speaker 1: And I was like, but I don't know if people
Speaker 1: do it like me though, so I think I'll just
Speaker 1: do it anyway. And I did. And that was one
Speaker 1: of the first jokes that I wrote in this free
Speaker 1: stand up comedy class on Tuesday nights at a church.
Speaker 1: The joke evolved over time time like, but the skeleton
Speaker 1: of it, the structure of it. This was the beginning
Speaker 1: of that joke and that Yeah, it ended up being
Speaker 1: what put me on the map. That's crazy. I was
Speaker 1: just listening to it again this morning, and well, what
Speaker 1: do you think the joke is about. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: I mean to me like, it's like the central humor
Speaker 1: is about being intimidated or constantly getting up sold. I
Speaker 1: guess I don't know. Sure, Yeah, this is the story
Speaker 1: of how I got got I got got by the
Speaker 1: nail Solon. They just really I was planning I'm spending
Speaker 1: twenty dollars when I walked in and I left paying eighty.
Speaker 1: How did you do that? Were you one of the
Speaker 1: first to be Internet famous. I think so my video
Speaker 1: was definitely the first comedy video to go viral. It
Speaker 1: was right around the time when like Justin Bieber blew
Speaker 1: up from YouTube so music, Yeah, yeah, so I was
Speaker 1: definitely in this comedy world now. Myself and Justin Bieber
Speaker 1: went on to live very different levels of lives. We
Speaker 1: both started on YouTube. Yeah. Do you think that viral
Speaker 1: success helped you to get mad TV? Oh? One, I
Speaker 1: would have never What happened was I did a set
Speaker 1: at the Ice House in Pasadena and there was a
Speaker 1: company there. They were going to be videotaping your set
Speaker 1: and if you come do ten minutes, they'll give you
Speaker 1: twenty five bucks. And I was like, hell, yeah, I
Speaker 1: need gas, I need groceries. This twenty five bucks is
Speaker 1: going to take me a long way because I'm broke
Speaker 1: at this time. Wait, they would give you twenty five
Speaker 1: dollars for them to film you, right, So it wasn't
Speaker 1: the Ice House. It was a separate company that was
Speaker 1: coming in. They were doing a special night during flip
Speaker 1: phone era. They were like, we're gonna videotape your set
Speaker 1: and we're going to upload it to Verizon cell phones
Speaker 1: and for a dollar ninety nine. People can download comedy clips.
Speaker 1: Oh no, on your little flip phone. So this is
Speaker 1: this is before YouTube. So I was like, hell yeah,
Speaker 1: So I go and I signed my life away and
Speaker 1: they give me my twenty five dollars and I do
Speaker 1: my ten minutes of jokes. I really at this point
Speaker 1: all I had was like twelve minutes tops, Like that's
Speaker 1: all I had. And so I do my whole set
Speaker 1: and they videotape it. And the next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: like within months, this brand new thing called YouTube comes
Speaker 1: out and they put it on YouTube. They put it
Speaker 1: on YouTube. So instead of doing comedy clips where people
Speaker 1: have to pay, who's going to pay when you can
Speaker 1: watch free things on YouTube? And all the sudden I
Speaker 1: started getting this is my Space days. I started getting
Speaker 1: messagers on my Space, emails from family members and friends,
Speaker 1: text message from family members and friends that were like, Hey,
Speaker 1: there's this email going around at work. And my cousin
Speaker 1: at the time worked for like a bank, and she
Speaker 1: was like, there's an email going around everybody sending it
Speaker 1: to each other of this video and it was of you.
Speaker 1: But they didn't even know that I knew you. They
Speaker 1: just sent it to me and that was the phone
Speaker 1: call that I was getting from people like my work
Speaker 1: is sending this video of you. And I was like,
Speaker 1: how do they know? And like what's happening? And I
Speaker 1: was like I don't know, Like what video are you
Speaker 1: talking about? And it's this nail slum clip and it
Speaker 1: starts blowing up. Then my MySpace page starts blowing up.
Speaker 1: People from all over the world. Hey, when are you
Speaker 1: coming to Australia? When are you coming to the Philippines,
Speaker 1: When are you coming to you know, Boise, Idaho? When
Speaker 1: are you coming phil on the blank and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I only have like twelve minutes of material.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm doing, you know, and going.
Speaker 1: I was so overwhelmed. I was getting thousands of messages
Speaker 1: a day from all over the world on my Space.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to be famous. Nobody teaches you.
Speaker 1: There's no course. So what I was doing was I
Speaker 1: was replying to every person who messaged me, because I
Speaker 1: didn't know that you don't have to reply to every person.
Speaker 1: So I was spending hours on my Space being like,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for watching my video, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for watching my video. Then I was like, Ooh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be smart. Copy paste, copy paste, And then
Speaker 1: I remember this one girl replying and being like, is
Speaker 1: this a robot? You already sent this to me? And
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I'm getting repeat fans. Sorry, I
Speaker 1: don't know how to be famous. My bad. This is
Speaker 1: really overwhelming. And I didn't have an agent. Nobody knew
Speaker 1: how to get a hold of me in Hollywood, but
Speaker 1: everyone was seeing this video, but nobody knew how to
Speaker 1: get ahold of me. So they were sending their assistant
Speaker 1: to my Space to come find me and leave me
Speaker 1: a message. So then I started getting messages that were like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm the assistant to so and so at Fox, at CBS,
Speaker 1: at ABC, like everybody was messaging me they want to
Speaker 1: have a meeting with you. Hey, they want you to
Speaker 1: come and read for this pilot. Hey blah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. And I was like, oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: had to buy a calendar. I didn't this is I thought, like,
Speaker 1: I went to Staples and I bought a calendar and
Speaker 1: some pins, and I was like, I had meetings that
Speaker 1: I was going to and I remember being in you know,
Speaker 1: the office at the CW Network and I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I have no idea what I'm doing. I have no
Speaker 1: guidance at this point of like an agent telling me like, okay,
Speaker 1: this is how you handle a cold read, right, And
Speaker 1: I was just like sitting there and they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we have this pilot that we're thinking for you. Can
Speaker 1: you read these lines? And I'm like okay, sure you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm like no idea what I'm doing. And it
Speaker 1: just started blowing up my spot. And so from that,
Speaker 1: I end up getting an agent, I get a new manager.
Speaker 1: I get auditions, and one of those auditions was for
Speaker 1: Mad TV. I end up getting an agent, I get
Speaker 1: a new manager, I get auditions, and one of those
Speaker 1: auditions was for Mad TV. My agents had sent the
Speaker 1: casting director my nail salon video and they were like, great,
Speaker 1: come audition for Mad TV. We need you to come
Speaker 1: in with three original characters and three celebrity impressions. I
Speaker 1: didn't have characters. I never went to Groundlings or Second City.
Speaker 1: I didn't have characters. I had my jokes that I
Speaker 1: wrote in a free joke writing class at church. Oh
Speaker 1: my god. So I was like, you know what, I
Speaker 1: can take my stories that I tell and I tell
Speaker 1: a story about my grandma, I tell story about my grandpa.
Speaker 1: I'll just pad them up a little bit and I'll
Speaker 1: act him out a little bit, and instead of being
Speaker 1: my grandpa, I'll make it my grandma and I'll say, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is my grandma blah blah blah. I did this
Speaker 1: bone Queki character who she wanted to be a rapper.
Speaker 1: So I was like, Okay, this is my sister, she
Speaker 1: wants to be a rapper. And then I did my
Speaker 1: bone Queki character. And so I was basically taking my
Speaker 1: characters from my stories that I tell in my stand
Speaker 1: up class and just kind of giving them a little
Speaker 1: extra mannerism, a little extra something, and I would just
Speaker 1: act them out for the casting directors. And they were like, okay,
Speaker 1: we need three celebrity impressions. I've never done impression in
Speaker 1: my life. I didn't know how to do celebrity impression.
Speaker 1: But this brand new thing called YouTube videos of different
Speaker 1: celebrities on there. So what I did was, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let me see who's famous Latina. Okay, I'll do her Lopez,
Speaker 1: Rosslyn Sanchez, and Paula Abdul. And this is when Paula
Speaker 1: Abdul was on American American Idol was okay, yeah, she
Speaker 1: was a little intoxicated. Yeah, I got you, I got you.
Speaker 1: I just did my Jo Paula clap, you know right.
Speaker 1: And I watched videos Jennifer Lopez on the Red Carpet
Speaker 1: and I noticed that in a lot of her videos
Speaker 1: she had the same wave. She waved like this, open clothes.
Speaker 1: It was not a finger wave, it was not this.
Speaker 1: It was an open, closed wave. So I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: she does a wave. That's a thing. And her laugh,
Speaker 1: her laugh was very like high pitched and nasally and
Speaker 1: like from the back, and so I was like copying
Speaker 1: her laugh. And so there was one interview that she
Speaker 1: did where the guy tells her, you know, this is
Speaker 1: for a station in Philly, and she just looks in
Speaker 1: the camera and she goes hihy and then she laughs.
Speaker 1: And so I just got that sentence down. And I
Speaker 1: remember being in the room. I said, this is Jennifer
Speaker 1: Lopez on the Red Carpet. Every question that the casting
Speaker 1: director would ask me, my answer was hi, Philly and
Speaker 1: I would play in our black And that was they
Speaker 1: thought it was genius, says is just and they were
Speaker 1: like Oh my god, genius. But really, that's all that
Speaker 1: I could do of Jennifer Lopez. Yes, okay, but hold
Speaker 1: on a second, because you know, I had a conversation
Speaker 1: with Kevin Pollock. Kevin Pollock is an amazing impression as
Speaker 1: stand up comedian for a good jillion years. And you
Speaker 1: know what you're doing the same thing that he talked
Speaker 1: to me about, which is finding a hook. You may
Speaker 1: not have even known what it was at the time, right,
Speaker 1: but you had the instincts to go, like, what is
Speaker 1: the hook? What is the one one thing the drunk clap?
Speaker 1: Like you were finding that hook from so early on.
Speaker 1: I'm impressed by that, and too, I'm impressed that I
Speaker 1: did not know that bon quiqui, this was a creation
Speaker 1: of yours before mad TV. Yeah, yeah, wow, wild crazy.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this I saw on YouTube today.
Speaker 1: It says Angela Johnson, American actress, and so it made
Speaker 1: me wonder, well, are you an actress? Are you a comedian?
Speaker 1: Where did it say that? That's so funny. I consider
Speaker 1: myself an actress and a comedian. Okay, that's interesting to
Speaker 1: hear you say, because now, especially in the age of
Speaker 1: social media, when people are famous on TikTok for being funny,
Speaker 1: but they're not comedians. They're like, they're a married couple
Speaker 1: from Wisconsin who do funny videos and challenges and they
Speaker 1: make people laugh and they have like millions of followers.
Speaker 1: And if they ever are interviewed, like, here's comedian so
Speaker 1: and so, but really, this is a dad from Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: But what do you call them because they're still being
Speaker 1: funny and they're still entertaining people. Is do we need
Speaker 1: to come up with a new word, like is that
Speaker 1: an influencer? So, but you could be an influencer who
Speaker 1: just does makeup, you know what I mean. She's not funny,
Speaker 1: she just does makeup tutorials and she has millions of followers.
Speaker 1: So when I hear comedian, I do think of people
Speaker 1: doing stand up. But I'm aware that now the term
Speaker 1: is so broad. When they're introducing this is comedian so
Speaker 1: and so, and I'll be like, oh, they do funny
Speaker 1: videos is what they do. But they're still being funny.
Speaker 1: I don't discredit the fact that they're being funny. I
Speaker 1: just know that they don't actually do stand up, So
Speaker 1: maybe it's we're just stand up comedians. Like a comedian
Speaker 1: is so general but I'm a stand up comedian. I
Speaker 1: don't know, right. I mean, so what you're saying is
Speaker 1: if you consider me funny, then I can be considered
Speaker 1: a comedian because that is someone who makes someone laugh.
Speaker 1: But I think it's about the approach and in some ways,
Speaker 1: how you define yourself, which is why I ask you
Speaker 1: the question. Like for me, my intention, generally, it's not
Speaker 1: about I was going to say, it's not about making
Speaker 1: people laugh. That's a lie. I do try to make
Speaker 1: people laugh, but my whole basis is about creating characters,
Speaker 1: and the comedy comes from behavior as opposed to jokes.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, totally. And it could come down to stories,
Speaker 1: it could come down to a facial expression, it could
Speaker 1: come down to whatever that is. I know there have
Speaker 1: been times where I've seen, like earlier on, there's a
Speaker 1: talk show and they're like, please welcome comedian so and so,
Speaker 1: and I'd be like, she's not a comedian. An actress
Speaker 1: is very successful, yes, but ensure she's done some funny roles,
Speaker 1: but right, comedian. But I mean, at this point I
Speaker 1: should worry about me, and I do me, so you
Speaker 1: don't define it. Honestly, I'm a comedian and an actress,
Speaker 1: and if my managers and agents get involved, and then
Speaker 1: it's my whole resume comes in. She's an author, she's
Speaker 1: an actor, ye, But no, I just say I'm an
Speaker 1: actress in the comedian. And also it also depends who
Speaker 1: I'm talking to and what mood I'm in. So if
Speaker 1: I'm on an airplane, I say I'm in the entertainment industry,
Speaker 1: and and just like that. And then if they're like,
Speaker 1: pry a little bit more than I say actress, and
Speaker 1: they'll go, oh, have I seen you in anything? I
Speaker 1: can name a couple of things and be on my way.
Speaker 1: But the second I say I'm a comedian, whoa, it's
Speaker 1: like mind blowing. And now they have all the questions
Speaker 1: right median, and I'm like, oh, this is gonna be
Speaker 1: a conversation a long time. I really respond with that
Speaker 1: is if I got time and I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm in the mood to chat, sure, I'll say comedian
Speaker 1: and answer all the questions. But a lot of times
Speaker 1: I'll stick to as vague as I can, and I'll
Speaker 1: say actress and I'll name a couple of things that
Speaker 1: I did, and they'll be impressed and they'll go Oh wow,
Speaker 1: that's very cool. And then I'll be like, what do
Speaker 1: you do? Tell me about accounting? Tell me these things
Speaker 1: we talked very early on about your fictionalizing your parents
Speaker 1: and talking about your family. I feel like you have
Speaker 1: chosen to be at least outwardly very personal and connecting
Speaker 1: with your fans. You're bringing your fans into your life
Speaker 1: with your husband about the birth of your child. And see,
Speaker 1: that is something that I don't do. And so is
Speaker 1: that the difference between someone who's a comedian and or
Speaker 1: an actor. Now, certainly there are actors who do that,
Speaker 1: but for me, if I am going to play a role,
Speaker 1: I believe it serves me to be as anonymous as
Speaker 1: possible in my personal life. You've chosen the other way,
Speaker 1: and I wonder why and if that has to do
Speaker 1: with your connection to fans through through your stand up comedy.
Speaker 1: I think it's definitely that my role as a stand
Speaker 1: up comedian, my goal is not necessarily just to make
Speaker 1: people laugh, but it's to connect with people on a
Speaker 1: human level. And so when I'm writing jokes, it's is
Speaker 1: this funny? But also is it relatable? And am I
Speaker 1: going to connect with people? And so a lot of times,
Speaker 1: I'll talk about my husband, I'll talk about my sister,
Speaker 1: I'll talk about my dog and things that my dog does,
Speaker 1: because I know this is very human. You may not
Speaker 1: have a husband, but you have a relationship in your life,
Speaker 1: be a co worker, your next door neighbor, you have
Speaker 1: a relationship with someone that is a human connection that
Speaker 1: you can see some of yourself in me in what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And so I do that on stand up
Speaker 1: and then in my social media. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: a way to make my stories tangible and give a
Speaker 1: picture to what I'm saying, kind of like when you
Speaker 1: watch a movie and it says based on a true story,
Speaker 1: and then at the end of the movie they say,
Speaker 1: here's the real guy who invented this, and it's like,
Speaker 1: you see who the real person is. You see this
Speaker 1: as his wife, you see this as a picture of
Speaker 1: him in his real office where he created this thing,
Speaker 1: and it does something that connects the story that you
Speaker 1: just heard to like a real person. So I feel
Speaker 1: like with social media when I am so generous with
Speaker 1: my family and friends and I show people, I like
Speaker 1: to invite people into my world. But again with what
Speaker 1: I'm comfortable doing, like I wouldn't do a reality show
Speaker 1: where there's a producer deciding what if my life gets
Speaker 1: shown to the world, right, But I will do my
Speaker 1: Instagram stories where I'm comfortable showing you this is me
Speaker 1: and my husband and my dog and they're asleep, but
Speaker 1: I'm awake at four in the morning because I have insomnia,
Speaker 1: and this is my husband sleeping, like choking me with
Speaker 1: his hand over here and like, And immediately in that
Speaker 1: I have people replying, oh my god, my husband sleeps
Speaker 1: the same way. He's always whatever. And so I'm connecting
Speaker 1: on a different level. And I'm connecting. And then when
Speaker 1: people come to my shows, they're like, they feel a
Speaker 1: part of my life and what I'm doing it makes
Speaker 1: total sense because you're playing a version of yourself in
Speaker 1: front of thousands of people, yeah, and so enabling them
Speaker 1: in a way to validate that truth. Bas you're showing
Speaker 1: things that support the version of the story that you're
Speaker 1: telling or the character that you're creating of yourself. Because
Speaker 1: obviously there are things that happened that you don't show, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and there are things that happen that you don't show,
Speaker 1: maybe because they don't validate the story that you're telling.
Speaker 1: Instagram is the highlight reel. So I'm not going to
Speaker 1: show you guys an argument with me and my husband,
Speaker 1: but I will talk about it on stage. I'll talk
Speaker 1: about this is how my husband argues. He likes to
Speaker 1: ask a lot of questions. Now, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: show you that argument on Instagram, but I'm obviously not
Speaker 1: going to blow up my camera when we're in like
Speaker 1: the heat of like a passionate argument and then be like,
Speaker 1: tag at Mammal, which character that you created had the
Speaker 1: greatest impact on your career, the nail salon. They both
Speaker 1: blew up and we're crazy. But the nail salon. If
Speaker 1: you are going to go get your nails done and
Speaker 1: you google nail salon, you're gonna see the new nails
Speaker 1: on your neighborhood. But my video is also going to
Speaker 1: pop up, and it's something that's generationally stuck around because
Speaker 1: that joke is sixteen years old, and now with every
Speaker 1: new social media app that comes up, there's a new
Speaker 1: version of my joke that goes out like I'll be
Speaker 1: out somewhere, and it depends on what is hot right now.
Speaker 1: So people would be like, oh my gosh, I saw
Speaker 1: your video on YouTube for years and then it's now,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you're a TikTok a right right, But
Speaker 1: they know me from my stand up comedy. They saw
Speaker 1: my special that I did for Comedy Central in two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine that they saw on TikTok. Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: This just happened to me that it was probably about
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine. I don't know what. I just
Speaker 1: got sent three times in one day, and in the
Speaker 1: airport this weekend, someone referenced it to me that they
Speaker 1: saw me do the like lady and gentlemen start your
Speaker 1: engines at a NASCAR event that I did ten years ago,
Speaker 1: but it was a TikTok thing. They sent me to
Speaker 1: the TikTok And it's the same thing with hate mail too,
Speaker 1: so like some people will send me when they're very
Speaker 1: upset about something that I said my Second Hour special,
Speaker 1: I talked about my honeymoon and I went to Saint Lucia,
Speaker 1: and the whole story about it was I was comparing
Speaker 1: it to going on a mission's trip, and there were
Speaker 1: some Saint Lucians that were real upset with that joke. Now,
Speaker 1: when the joke first came out, nobody cared nobody said anything.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, like five years later, I get
Speaker 1: just a slew of hate messages from Saint Lucian's pissed,
Speaker 1: and I was like, whoa, this special came out like
Speaker 1: five years ago. What happened? So I'm like, okay, either
Speaker 1: my special just got released in Saint Lucia, like they
Speaker 1: got it late, you know what I mean. On some streamer,
Speaker 1: there's some third party involved that all of a sudden
Speaker 1: put this joke back on the map for this particular
Speaker 1: group of people. So I'll notice that as well, like
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, this one joke that I did
Speaker 1: that people are very upset about me talking about an
Speaker 1: experience that I had in London. And then I get
Speaker 1: people very upset about it. I was like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: definitely came out ten years ago, but somebody must or
Speaker 1: now it's an Instagram or a TikTok account that has like,
Speaker 1: you know, hundreds of thousands of followers. They just so
Speaker 1: happened to post it and all of their fans solid
Speaker 1: so they're the ones messaging you know crazy. I saw
Speaker 1: a video you posted recently where you've talked about the
Speaker 1: grind of being on the road and the time you
Speaker 1: took during COVID shutdown to enjoy your house and enjoy
Speaker 1: the things and settle back a little bit. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like you're now finding balance and taking some time
Speaker 1: for yourself and your family. I definitely feel like this year,
Speaker 1: I am going to do that now that I'm having
Speaker 1: a child. Twenty twenty one, I went very light in
Speaker 1: the year. Twenty twenty two is my busiest year I've
Speaker 1: ever had in my life. However, I was more balanced
Speaker 1: about my health and I came in a little more
Speaker 1: refreshed having taking that year off to realign with what
Speaker 1: do I really want to do, saying yes to the
Speaker 1: things that I really want and saying no to the
Speaker 1: things that don't matter to me. But twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: was an insane year for me. I filmed two hour specials,
Speaker 1: I launched a huge tour, I released my book. But
Speaker 1: by the end of the year, my husband and I
Speaker 1: we had a conversation and he's like, I noticed that
Speaker 1: you aren't as depleted as you normally are. Typically by
Speaker 1: the end of the year, I'm just done. I'm like
Speaker 1: this is too much, and I'm complaining about everything. I'm like,
Speaker 1: why do I do this? Why do I say yes
Speaker 1: to this? Why do you say yes to that? And
Speaker 1: this past year was the first year that by the
Speaker 1: end of it he was like, I've never seen you
Speaker 1: have this much energy and joy. At the end of
Speaker 1: a year, you were still okay, it didn't kill you.
Speaker 1: And I think that has a lot to do with
Speaker 1: the boundaries that I gave myself about saying yes to
Speaker 1: things that matter and things that don't. Like seeing it
Speaker 1: like a garden, you know, and every all of us,
Speaker 1: whatever industry we're in, we have this garden, right, and
Speaker 1: there's all these things, some are thriving and some are
Speaker 1: not thriving. And then you got weeds growing everywhere. And
Speaker 1: because it's this hustle mentality of like, oh, everybody's doing
Speaker 1: a podcast. I got to do a podcast. Everybody has
Speaker 1: a YouTube channel. I got channel TikTok. That's what we're
Speaker 1: doing now. Okay, let me get out. How do we
Speaker 1: do TikTok? What buttons do you press? Like all the things,
Speaker 1: all these things and you start like planting stuff in
Speaker 1: your garden, and next thing you know, it is just
Speaker 1: like a whole mess. Right, And so I feel like
Speaker 1: twenty twenty was the year where I took my hands
Speaker 1: off the garden, and I let things wither away and
Speaker 1: things die that were not meant for me in my garden,
Speaker 1: and whatever was left that was still thriving, that still
Speaker 1: had life, I was like, Okay, that's for me. That's
Speaker 1: where I meant to grow and bloom. So I start
Speaker 1: feeding and investing in those. Everything else was like, that's
Speaker 1: not for me. So I feel like when I drew
Speaker 1: boundaries for myself. Yes, twenty twenty two was the busiest
Speaker 1: year that I've ever had, but I was busy doing
Speaker 1: things that were meant for me. It's really smart, really smart.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you're you've found that. Do you interact
Speaker 1: with a lot of fans after your show? Sometimes I
Speaker 1: do meet and greet. I used to come out and
Speaker 1: meet everybody, But then that's another thing that would just
Speaker 1: deplete me because that's like a show after a show,
Speaker 1: you know. I saw I saw one of your videos
Speaker 1: where you were meeting people, and that's why I ask,
Speaker 1: because to me, that personal interaction after a show, as
Speaker 1: nice as it is at time, that is the thing
Speaker 1: that exhausts me the most. Oh yeah, yeah, because it's
Speaker 1: a show after a show. But also you don't know
Speaker 1: what you're going to get from people. And then it's
Speaker 1: people energetically taking your energy from you. And and then
Speaker 1: a lot of times it's robot like you get in
Speaker 1: robot mode. But even that is exhausting when we should
Speaker 1: be resting before we go out for our second show
Speaker 1: of the night, you know. So now I when I
Speaker 1: do a meet and greet, it's a very small group.
Speaker 1: I can take my time with each person and they're
Speaker 1: not rushed like cheese. But I choose by and it's
Speaker 1: before the show, so I have a little bit more
Speaker 1: energy and that's it. And then sometimes I don't do
Speaker 1: a meet and Greece. When I've been pregnant, I stopped
Speaker 1: doing Meet and Greece just because I'm trying to like
Speaker 1: stay healthy and not I've like just super close interactions
Speaker 1: with people. So it's different. Every situation is different for me.
Speaker 1: I love meeting people and hearing their stories, and also
Speaker 1: I feel like I listen to God in these interactions
Speaker 1: with people, because they're not just a fan that came
Speaker 1: to tell you that you're funny and they like you.
Speaker 1: They're a human being who has their own life, their
Speaker 1: own trauma, their own situation, they're dealing with. Somebody's in
Speaker 1: the hospital, somebody's going through a divorce, something's going on
Speaker 1: in their lives. So I feel like I feel in
Speaker 1: my heart that I need to say something more to
Speaker 1: this person. And whether it's just oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: love your sweater. It's so pretty. That color looks really
Speaker 1: good on you. Even if it's just that, if I
Speaker 1: think it in my head, that's a pretty color on her,
Speaker 1: I'll say it because words are powerful and it does
Speaker 1: something that I have no idea. But I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to listen to my spirit and say what I hear.
Speaker 1: And there's when times where like I'll have a couple
Speaker 1: come through the line and I'll say to a guy,
Speaker 1: I'll be like, you're a good dad. You're a good dad,
Speaker 1: hunt and the mom that the wife would be like,
Speaker 1: he is a good dad. And I'd be like, I
Speaker 1: can feel it, just like the way you're talking to me,
Speaker 1: like in your voice, like I feel like you're a
Speaker 1: good dad. And it's just a simple sentence. That's something
Speaker 1: that is doing something in him in her that I
Speaker 1: have no idea. I just planted the seed and let
Speaker 1: it go. So I love doing meet and greets for that.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Now I really like and I feel very
Speaker 1: much the same way. But I know, you know, you're
Speaker 1: doing a couple of shows at night, often you're on
Speaker 1: the road. It's got to be difficult. But so I
Speaker 1: hope one that you take care of yourself, especially now.
Speaker 1: Other times who cares? But but that's awesome. God, I
Speaker 1: could talk to you forever. We're going to do a
Speaker 1: lightning round game ready. It's called the Set Memories Game
Speaker 1: with Angela Johnson. It's the first time we've ever played
Speaker 1: this game. Here you go, one reaction from some of
Speaker 1: the multiple amazing shows that you've been on. Any reaction
Speaker 1: that you have starting now, curb your enthusiasm. I was
Speaker 1: so intimidated by everyone on that cast. I was like,
Speaker 1: who do I think I am to be here on
Speaker 1: this set? But they were so welcoming and they played
Speaker 1: with the yes and all everything. But I remember being
Speaker 1: like the odd dacy to walk on the set with
Speaker 1: these people. Love that ugly Betty. Oh. It was my
Speaker 1: favorite show at the time. I was so honored to
Speaker 1: be a part of it, and I remember I would
Speaker 1: I watched every episode and I loved the show. And
Speaker 1: when I actually got to be a guest star on
Speaker 1: the show. It was just like a wild dream come true,
Speaker 1: Like no way, I've seen every episode of the show,
Speaker 1: Alvin and the Chipmunks, Alvin and the Chipmunks. I remember
Speaker 1: I was very proud of myself because it was one
Speaker 1: of the first like things that I really like, I
Speaker 1: auditioned for and I booked it like I got it,
Speaker 1: you know, like a real big director and a big
Speaker 1: movie franchise, and I auditioned just like everybody else, and
Speaker 1: I booked it, and I remember being very proud of myself.
Speaker 1: And finally, because this is the whole reason we played
Speaker 1: the game. Enough said with James Candellfoene star struck and
Speaker 1: I don't usually get that way, like I'll be quiet
Speaker 1: and I know my place, but if you interact with me,
Speaker 1: I interact back. But with him, I was just like
Speaker 1: one word dance. Yeah. I remember him calling me out
Speaker 1: on it and he was like, you're you're a quiet one,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm actually not, like I'm just
Speaker 1: being that way with you and I don't know why, like,
Speaker 1: and then he started like softening me up, like he
Speaker 1: would see me on set and give me a hug.
Speaker 1: He would call me mama, Hey, mama, and like then
Speaker 1: I was like able to interact with him. And I
Speaker 1: remember he came to my trailer one day with his
Speaker 1: son and he knocked on my door and he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: my son's a big fan. Can you get a picture
Speaker 1: with you? And I was like, oh my god, James
Speaker 1: Gonnafini is coming to me to ask me for a picture.
Speaker 1: This is wild. And I would thinking yeah, if I
Speaker 1: can get one with you, sure, But yeah, that was
Speaker 1: an incredible experience. Do you like being on set or
Speaker 1: being on stage in front of people more? Such a
Speaker 1: tough one. There's no feeling like being on stage saying
Speaker 1: a joke and having the immediate response of laughter and
Speaker 1: energy vibrations just shooting back at you. Like there is
Speaker 1: no feeling like that. But there's also no feeling like
Speaker 1: walking on a sound stage and that smell, that nostalgic
Speaker 1: smell of the sound stage and knowing that you get
Speaker 1: to be a part of like movie magic, and they're
Speaker 1: so different and both so special in their own way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you reference the nail salon and or bond weekly
Speaker 1: in all of your shows? I have to, That's what
Speaker 1: I can now. The nail salon has become my thank
Speaker 1: you to the audience. So at the end of the show,
Speaker 1: I kind of present it as an encore almost, and
Speaker 1: I just like, listen, I know there's a joke a
Speaker 1: lot of you want to hear, and as soon as
Speaker 1: I say that, it's just eruption, and I let them
Speaker 1: know that this joke put me on the map. And
Speaker 1: there's sometimes when I go to do this joke and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my God, again, here we go. But
Speaker 1: then there's times when I go to do this joke
Speaker 1: and I'm reminded of stories that I've heard over the
Speaker 1: years from fans about how my comedy has impacted their
Speaker 1: lives and what this joke now means to them. And
Speaker 1: for that, I say, thank you for riding with me
Speaker 1: for so long. Here you go, and then I present
Speaker 1: it to them like that. So it's now kind of
Speaker 1: like my thank you. I love that you just wrapped
Speaker 1: up a big tour and you've joined forces on an
Speaker 1: upcoming Prime holiday comedy, Candy Cane Lane that's out in
Speaker 1: the holidays. Yeah, I hear it's coming out this Christmas.
Speaker 1: They're very motivated to get it done because they're still
Speaker 1: filming my part's rappor Eddie, but they're still filming and
Speaker 1: it's supposed to come out this Christmas with Eddie Murphy,
Speaker 1: Tracy Ellis Ross, some really talented, funny people, and I'm
Speaker 1: honored that I got to be a part of that.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Congratulations on the pregnancy again and on all
Speaker 1: your success. I hope you get a chance to rest
Speaker 1: this year, and we'll see you at the holidays. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure back on stage. What September, I'm coming back.
Speaker 1: I'm a little ambitious. I don't know what I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: but I'm coming back in September already. Good for you, Angela,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: This has been a fun, super fun conversation. Oh and
Speaker 1: I will say this. I started on YouTube years ago,
Speaker 1: and I just finished filming my sixth one hour special
Speaker 1: and I'm going to be releasing it on YouTube. So
Speaker 1: I'm coming back to YouTube where it all started, and
Speaker 1: back to YouTube. Yes, and I'm going to release my
Speaker 1: new hour special on YouTube. What is that in May?
Speaker 1: On May four teenth. You're the first person to know
Speaker 1: that I haven't even announced it yet, that May fourteenth
Speaker 1: on YouTube. Let me ask you a question. Does that
Speaker 1: company that paid you twenty five dollars still own the
Speaker 1: nail Lady clip on YouTube? So they do? People thinking
Speaker 1: people think I made millions of dollars off of that video.
Speaker 1: I made, not one, not one penny. Stop it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they don't own the joke, no, of course not. But
Speaker 1: they all that clip, the one that went viral and
Speaker 1: has the millions and millions of you that's there as
Speaker 1: they own it, the one that I watched this morning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you on their behalf. Thank you. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: Well you're gonna get it back this uh this may
Speaker 1: on YouTube. That's right. Good luck to you. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Thank you Angela. Not a penny, not one penny. Well,
Speaker 1: I guess things worked out just fine. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming on today. It was such a pleasure
Speaker 1: to have you on, and to all of you out
Speaker 1: there listening, thank you, As always my trustee companions. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be back next week, same time, same place,
Speaker 1: with another phenomenal guest. Also, make sure to follow us
Speaker 1: on Instagram if you haven't already, at Off the Beat
Speaker 1: and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you
Speaker 1: for all your support and we will see you next week.
Speaker 1: Off the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Senior producer is
Speaker 1: Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and
Speaker 1: Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and
Speaker 1: our intern is Sammy Kats. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak,
Speaker 1: performed by the one and Only Creed Brett,