From Cheerleader to Comedy Queen with Anjelah Johnson

How you doing.

This is Freddy Rodriguez and I'm about the rama. Welcome to those amigos today. Uh three amigos and Gus, yes, the little it's you know, introduced our incredible guest today.

Well let's see here we have esteemed comedian, former NFL cheerleader, former Mad TV cash member, Angela Johnson.

And come on, come on, I mean we have such a big audience here. They told that to cheers much.

It's Angela Johnson Rays. Now I added my married name name in the game.

We all appreciate that at.

Those Yeah, yeah, yeah, I took about ten years of us being married before I was like, all right, well you had it for ten looks like you're sitting around so.

So, you know, here at the Amigos, we we love asking the way back questions, you know, like where you're from, you know where you're parents from.

Yeah, I'm from the Bay Area, from the Bay Jose, San Jose. My dad grew up in LA And funny story, when I first moved to LA to pursue my dreams to be an actress, if I would get lost going to auditions. And again this is before you know GPS

Audition from memory.

Yeah, from memory wow.

Yeah. So he'd be up in San Jose and he would navigate me to my audition in LA. But my dad grew up here in LA and then moved to the Bay. My mom's from the Bay from San Jose.

Ethnically, where are your parents from?

I'm Mexican and Native Americans, fourth generation my dad, yeah, and they both have Native blood as well, mainly my grandpa my dad's side, but both my parents do have Native blood.

But I'm fourth generation.

My my grandma was born here, I think in Utah.

Yeah, what tribe?

If I may ask, Tigua Tigua, and I don't know too much about it.

I wish I knew more.

I wish, And then I would ask my grandpa. Anytime any of us asked our grandpa to give us like answers on things, it was always different answers. He's since passed, but we all got different answers. How we got the last name Johnson, We all have different answers. He told us something about a Swedish ship came here one day, hooked up with a Native American person something whatever. He told us so many different stories of our origin. And then I I just I wish.

I knew more.

Like our family reunion when I was young, was on a reservation in Phoenix, in Arizona when I was a little kid.

But I don't know anything about it. I wish I did.

And both of your parents are from the same tribe.

No, I don't know what my mom's bloodline is.

Connected to. I only know from my dad's side.

Wow.

And so you lived up in the Bay And when did you decide to come down to Los Angeles two.

Thousand and three, I moved here. I was a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders.

Before you came here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was twenty And the only reason why I auditioned to be a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders is because I wanted to be an actress. And I was using that as my sign if I should pursue the entertainment industry, you know, And at first, the entertainment industry was just a fantasy, a very far fetched fantasy. That's that's not for people like me. That's not for people where I grew up.

That's for them. You know, I don't know. I don't know how to I don't even know how to do it.

And then I remember when the Internet first came out and everybody had AOL dial up. I remember logging onto AOL dial up and trying to search how do you get an agent? And being in San Jose and I was like trying to search how do you start being an actor?

And I found like an acting school in like a modeling agent.

They're like, okay, send your resume, and like what resume? Like I don't have yeah, And then so I remember I just made up a resume.

What you put in the resume because I have, you know, I put the most unnecessary stuff and the special skills?

How did you fill your out?

So my first resume, before I knew anything, I don't even know. There was not even a proper like structure to it. It was just like what school I went to, and then any kind of acting. I wasn't even an acting class in school, but I just like made up stuff and put on there. I was like, I can do this accent, I can dance. I can't.

And you did absolutely no acting before.

You did no, zero, nothing. You were just like I want to be an actress, like high nothing like that. I love it.

Wow you I didn't do any of it.

And I remember I printed it was like in purple ink and I printed. I was like, let me at least make it pretty.

Yeah.

Yeah, And I just mailed it out to a bunch of people, and of course I didn't hear back from anybody. And so I ended up having a friend, a friend of a friend at the time, who had moved to LA from San Jose, and she was in a Ross commercial.

And she was in an instinct.

She was doing she was doing it.

She was I knew somebody famous was this is just like how how do I do.

Holding up the rasher? Tell you I'm such a similar moment to yeah.

And I remember I get on the phone with her one day and I was like, hey, I want to do what you're doing, Like how do I do that? And she was like, okay, Well, if you ever moved to LA, I'll help you. I'll help show you the ropes I'll help you get started.

Oh yeah, And I was like, hmm, all right. Now it's like I have an actual past.

You have some kind yet.

Exactly exactly if I want to, Like I've been trying but I don't know what I'm even looking for. But now I have a girl saying well, if you come out here, i'll help you. So right around that same time, I ran into an old friend who I grew up doing pop Warner cheerleading with since I was eight years old and hadn't seen her in years, and we were at some club.

We were dancing.

We're like, oh, yeah, how you been, and she's like, oh, I'm a raiderete now and I'm like, oh, good for you.

And she's like, we have tryouts next week. You should come.

And I was like, oh no, that's not really my jam. And of course, because i'm like tomboy, you know, and when you think of like raderets, you think of like sexy pretty And I'm like I'm good, thanks, and she was like, no, you should come try out, and I started to think about it.

I was like, you know what, I'm gonna.

Go try out interesting challenge, like yeah.

Not even because I want to be a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders. But I'm going to use it as my sign.

If I make the squad, right, then I'll go to LA and my friend says she would teach me how to get started, so then I'll do it. But if I don't make the squad, I'm gonna use it as my sign that the entertainm ministry is not for me, and I'll just figure something else out.

So Unfortunately, if you hadn't made it.

Let me tell you what was.

The tryout?

Like what did so it was in Oakland.

There was seven hundred girls at this open call audition the first.

I mean everyone wanted to be a Raider girl dude like in the day dooms.

There was like it was kind of costumes like cats, like just why anybody came. Everybody came, whether you were mentally healthy or not. Everybody came to this audition.

They're hanging out sandwiches. Everyone shows up.

Well, yeah, there is over seven hundred girls there.

In the first round of the audition is really just you stand on a stage with like twenty other girls at the time.

They break it down in groups.

And then one at a time, you like step forward and you answer a question and then you step back and that's it.

That's the whole first call.

And then so I made it past that round, I'm like, oh, okay, great, this is good. And the next round was you had to learn a routine and perform the routine in front of judges. Now it's down to like maybe three hundred girls.

Now, did you have any dancing experience, You're like.

No other than the Pop Warner cheerleading.

I had a rhythm, yeah, yeah, yeah, h I could dance, You could probably remember choreography and.

Synchron exactly, but I didn't know technical dance moves like purowets.

Yeah, and you know that that job was giving to that one person that can do it. Everybody else can do the dance.

So the dance routines that were doing in Pop Warner are very like stiff I'm a cheerleader, you know, and this was more like.

Purohet turn, flip your hair, yeah yeah yeah, And I'm.

Like, oh, it's a performance, oh yeah yeah.

And it was a whole different vibe from what I grew up doing.

Did you feel like you were getting character too, Like, were you like somehow embodying something else?

I definitely it was one of those like till you make it.

Yeah, think about the contrast, right, You're like, oh, I'm kind of like a tom girl that you know, I don't know about that.

And then all of a sudden something else wakes up and.

You're like, yeah, y, yeah, I think it was.

I knew I had rhythm. I couldn't really do the move that she was teaching.

We were in this like.

Banquet hall of a hotel and there's a stage and the choreographer is on stage with her Britney spears microphone and she's like teaching us all the choreography and there's like three hundred us trying to learn it. And they're doing you know, like turn and slip your hair and all the thing. And I'm just like, well, I have attitude, and I have like you know, I know how to sell it, and I have personality.

I know how to work it. So I was just working it and I was like, what what are I cam?

As long as I enjoyed, I can flip my hair.

I probably won't spot where everybody else is spotting, but you're gonna see.

My hair, right.

But that's what they're looking for.

They're looking for that comfortability, that confidence. Yeah, the steps are the steps you can learn that. Nobody has enough time to learn them anyways. You know they're just looking for, like, who is just enjoying it, who's having.

Well, it's a little bit of that.

But also you gotta be in line with everybody when you're doing the performance up front.

You gotta know what you're doing.

So there was definitely that moment of the choreographer coming off of stage, weaving her way through the three hundred girls and coming up to me and saying, clearly, you have no.

Dance experience, no way.

That was.

You have something that cannot be taught ah, And I.

Knew exactly what she meant.

She was right, I didn't have dance experience, and she was also right, I do have something in me, and I know it. I didn't have acting experience from high school. I didn't have it, but I knew I had something something. I knew I had something to offer. I knew there was something within me, and I ended up making the squad. And I remember when they called my number. I think I was like number eighty nine or something. I forget, but I remember they called my number that I had.

Made the squad, and my first thought was not. Oh my gosh, I'm a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders like I made it. My first thought was.

I'm going to be an actress.

Yeah, yeah, this is I'm going to be an actress. This was my sign and so I did it for one year. We went to the super Bowl that year, Like what a year?

Topict.

So the very next weekend after the Super Bowl, I came home, I packed up my room and I moved to LA and my little station wagon, my hand me down station wagon that my mom gave me. I packed up my room, drove til the very next weekend after the super Bowl, and my friend kept her word and she helped me get started as an extra.

I was an extra on Friends. That was my first Still to this day, it's my favorite job.

I wait, wait, so.

Talk so so walk us through that experience.

Oh a magical experience, let me tell you.

Yeah.

So my friend she kept her word and she's like, Okay, this is what I want you to do. I want you to go sign up at Central Casting and to go be an extra.

When you get there, there's gonna be a line of people out the door waiting to sign up to be an extra.

I don't want you to wait in line. I want you to go to Ralph's. I want you to get a tray of cookies, and I want you to bring a raider at headshot. Go to the front window. Ask for this man. When he comes out, give him the cookies.

Give me your headshot. Just say I'm new to town and I want to be an extra. That's it, That's all you need to do.

And immediately I start thinking like, oh my god, people have told me about casting couches.

I'm not trying to be that girl one of these sleazy cookies. You try to have me drop off? What you sprinkles mean? Is that code for something?

No?

Thank you?

But you know what, I gotta tell you something.

The cookies was a real thing, dude, because all of us brought cookies to casting directors, to aid jans to like you know, yeah, like I that was the thing. I remember I brought cookies to something yeah before.

So she knew what she was doing.

And I.

Show up, I do the thing. There's a line of people out the door. I'm like, oh my god, she was right. I'm walking past people with my sleazy cookies and I'm like, oh my god.

They all know, like they're all judging me right now as I walk past them with my cookies and I go inside as you know is you know, say I'm here. I don't remember his name and say I'm here, and she's like, yeah, hold, I'll help you right out. This guy comes walking out from the back offices and he's wearing a Raiders hat no and I'm like, oh, hello, this is for you, and it's my Raider at headshot and we're fresh off the super Bowl like a month ago.

We're just at the super Bowl.

Immediately he's like, Raider's no way, Oh my gosh. Then we start talking about you know, Raiders stuff, and it's like, oh my gosh. So you're here, all right, great, give me your number, blah blah. Next week he calls me. He's like, hey, I have a spot on Friends. If you want to go on Friends. I'm like, oh, my favorite show in the woid world.

Yeah I do.

I do want to be on Friends, Thank you so much. And so I go to be an extra on Friends. I don't know what I'm doing.

It's my first time being on the set of an actual TV show. I don't know anything, Like my friends trying to prepare me like, okay, this is.

What you do, you know, like live audience, the whole thing, some monsters, like.

What it's going to be like just know your place, don't be trying to talk to everybody. Just you know, She's give me all the tips that she could give me to prepare me. And then at the time, I don't know if you guys.

Remember this, the hustle to try to get your SAG card.

But it was like being an extra. You get your non union voucher or your union voucher, and you had to get like three union vouchers in order to join SAG, right right right, But so all these non union extras were waiting for a union extra to not show up so that they could get their their vouchers. So that's how it worked. So if this union SAG extra didn't show up, now we have an extra SAG voucher for somebody, and so people would get it, and whoever the ad

Yeah.

Well, this guy put me in the computer system as a SAG extra, So immediately I just started getting SAG vouchers right away because he just hooked me up. And then I had all these extras trying to learn from me, going how do you get to sag?

How do you get a SAG voucher?

I don't know how yeah, and I'm like this guy laugh and I was like cookies, just like, yeah, bring sprinkles. So I ended up getting my SAG vouchers like immediately within my first three times of being an extra, and ended up making friends with the A D. Because I was funny and I would make him laugh and he was funny and I would laugh at his jokes, and so we would just goof off with each other and he'd be like, I'm gonna bring.

Friends yea, yeah, yeah yeah.

And so he'd bring me back and then the next da, I'm gonna bring you back again. Next you know, I was an extra for season nine and ten.

I'm in the background.

You can see me like making a living.

By the way, Oh this is my living. This is my groceries.

Let me tell you yeah craft service, Yeah, that was my groceries.

You better believe I came with my satchel a bunch of Wriday there.

Yeah.

Also that at that time friends had I mean yeah, they were like the biggest show.

Oh, the best service.

So the craft service was like you know, probably corn dogs and lobsters. Oh one night did they recorded Friday Nightdays?

It was magic.

Did you ever cut a reel of like all of your like walk away?

I should do that.

You should.

I've been tagged, Like people will be watching an episode and they find you, they find me, and they'll tag me and on Instagram and I'd be like, oh, that's me.

Yeah, totally.

There was one moment though, cutting ahead a little bit, but there was one moment. I had booked a movie and it was filming in Alabama, and I'm in the gym at the hotel and I'm running on the treadmill at the gym, and I'm watching Friends on the TV screen and I see myself walk by in the background, and it.

Was this magical movement yes, of like this is where I started.

Yes, And here I am like on location yea to like film something where I get to say words yeah, you know, like so magical.

Such a cool, cool experience.

To reflect on that, right to just say, like, one day you said I just need a sign, and.

God gives you the most miraculous sign.

You know, I made you in the squad so you can go do your destiny, like you made it to the Raiders in the super Bowl, just so you can go your destiny. And then you see yourself and reflecting that. It's really really, really special. Going back to the set of friends. You were there for so long, like how was the cast?

Was the cast credible? Yeah, there will be really cool people.

I definitely had moments where I got to speak to all of them and be very like friendly with them. And and I think it's really because I knew my place.

Like I wasn't trying to be friends, be friends or anything.

You were there so often that at some point you're.

Gonna have And then they would say hi to me because they recognized me, and you know, they would just have their moment, Hey, good to see you, and I'm like, oh my god, she's happy to see And they even invited me to their Christmas party, their holiday party.

I was like one of the only extras there.

That's crazy.

And did you did you have you bumped into any of them? Since you no interesting, I haven't interesting.

Should you should invite them to one of your shows? I should, and and then and then that should be a part of your show.

Done that for that.

To make it happen.

Yeah, if you're entire castcast too well. I do have a funny story of one time I was a stalker.

Yeahed to break.

News one time I was a stalker.

I do have a comedy special called Technically Not Stalking, but that's that was about my husband. But Marta Kaufman, one of the creators of Friends. One time I was driving in Beverly Hills and I saw her getting out of her car and walking into a seven eleven and I was like, oh my god, that's Marta Kaufman.

I have to go say something to her. I could be like on her next show or something. This is like that young desperate actor.

I'm like, bliss, oh.

And like Martin, it's a sign. Marta Kaufman is right there.

I pull into seven eleven and I follow her in to the seven eleven and I'm just like going up and down the aisle, just like fully stalking her.

Then she gets to the register. I don't know what I'm gonna say, and I'm like, excuse me, are you Marta Coffin. She's like yes, and I'm like, it's so nice to meet you. And then I walked out.

You didn't you didn't tell her your name or that was just a weirdo.

I didn't buy anything, I didn't bite.

I can't.

Nobody teaches us well say like no, I justn't what to say in that situation, you know, like what do you say?

It was such a weirdo.

So now you have to invite Marda Coffin in your podcast if you're watching.

When from from from those moments of you know, being an extra? Why were your first auditions that eventually were like, oh I'm going for a part, like how how long?

And then which ones were those?

I crashed every audition I could. I my first bookings were commercials.

I booked a.

Sprint commercial and that was a I crashed that audition. My friend got that call and I just showed up with your.

Friend that Oh yeah, I was a national car Oh yeah, yes I.

I my first speaking role for an actual like show. A character that I auditioned for was the Shield and I lied on my resume. So my friend who showed me the ropes, she was like, Okay, we gotta get you a real resume. I had nothing to put on it, so she helped me put some things on it. And then I had another friend at the time, Noel Noel Googliami Noel g So he gave me all of his credits that he had ever done, and he was like, just put this on your resume. Just say you were

Probably Latinos. There, there's some chola next to him, you were the chola. Just put Yolanda.

I was mousey.

Yeah, I was mousey.

So I started adding all these credits to my resume that I was not on. But are you really going to go look for these two lines in this one episode? It was one of those kind of things, right, So now I have this resume of it's not extensive, it's not thirty things, there's like six things, you know, like I'm still getting started out.

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, a perfect heist.

Oh the perfect.

I go to the audition and immediately the casting Dirk, I forget what show it was.

All these names leave my brain.

But so she's reading my resume and she says, oh, I'm just gonna make up a show here, because I don't remember which one it was.

So let's just say. She's like, oh, you were on CSI Miami and I'm like mm hmm yeah. She's like, oh, that's funny. I cast that show. I don't remember you.

Ah, oh my god? Why why?

Okay, just go it's weird.

But did it Did it say like the actual episode you were on?

No, it just said the show and my character.

I think, yeah, I mean, but at this point, like to you and I remember everything your cast?

Yeah, twenty three episodes show.

Did you get the part?

I booked it. It's one of those things. I always remember you.

But the beginning, I don't know what I got to do to.

Get in here, but I got to show you I can do this. It was training, but I can do it.

The beginning of this podcast, we all kind of shared, you know, the the delusion of bliss and outgoings of the hustle. Yeah, and we talked about those moments. We we just kind of hacked the game a little bit. And in order to hack the game, you have to be foolishly just optimistic about the fact that you are the chosen one, you know, and that's something that, like we all kind of you have to possess if you're going to enter like the five percent of working people,

Rise because I didn't get his highs.

I don't have an agent, so like I look down and I just like like I'm like okay, no, no, no, and I'm like okay, he's going, and I'll go this okay, just memorized, memorized, and then I put like you know, Smiths and Associates because I thought it was like a very Caucasian.

And then in the number, I like to put my pager because I was like, yeah, it was pretty it was pretty crazy.

So you reminded me of that moment because that's like sometimes especially we we have to be scrappyard, you know, also like we can't. We're not gonna we're not gonna enter through the front door, you know. And now it us really into through the front door. We have to kind of bullishly get optimistic and.

Guests and those stories are such good reminders for us even where we are today, in our own careers, in our own lives, where we may take for granted, or we may get jaded, or we.

May feel.

Bummed about something, or the colors of your dream start to look a little muted, it starts to pale a little routine, right, you know, it's a little bit of of that. And then when you remind yourself of these stories, it almost like ignites something in you and then the colors of your dream start to get a.

Little lights the fire up again. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

But you said something interesting earlier. You said I had no experience. I did knock when I was a kid, but I knew that I had something in me.

I don't know what that thing was. And the same with you, right, you knew you had something in you.

So yeah, we could sit there and hack the system and crash auditions and all that, but all of that.

Is but once we're rod.

Yeah, yeah, it's predicated you knowing that there's something there which is beyond like, oh, I just.

Want to be famous. Oh yeah, or like a dream. You know, your inner self, you know you possessed something.

So you booked a bunch of guest stars and then a few few guests and then you landed.

What so I was went from an extra to a stand in on a different show. Yeah, So the a D once Friends was done, he left and went to this show and he brought me with him.

Can you can you say what Joe?

Yeah, it's called Love and it was on upn Love Love Ink Loving Club Love Ink.

Yeah.

So it was like a dating service show. Right, it's a sitcom. Yeah yeah, yeah, And so I'm a stand in now on that show. And that's where so the.

Shield came after this, because this is where I got my actual first speaking role. And I was a stand in for the entire season and the very last episode they didn't cast one of their co star roles and the cast said, well, what about Angela?

Yeah, she's always saying the line.

Yeah, what about her? Why don't you give her this role? And they're like okay, And.

That's how I got my first speaking role. I didn't audition for it, but that's how I got my first speaking But.

Also, you know, one thing to explain to everyone who doesn't understand what a standing is.

A standing is is.

Another performer who who has the job to kind of prep the scene before the actor comes in to perform. So they stand on the mark that the actor blocks when they rehearse, you know, and they technically recite the entire scene. Some stand ins, you know, choose to perform the whole scene for when, by the way, the cameras are not rolling, but they're performing this scene with the other stand ins to make.

Sure the cameras can practice, the lights can get there and everything.

Yeah, sometimes they ask you not to perform.

Sometimes they would be like, don't they don't want you to, They don't want you to like perform it.

And then some they would just let you have your moment. Listen, she was a professional.

Okay, why do you think they would say not to perform it?

I don't know, fear they that I'd be better and then Jennifer Aniston would be no more.

Sometimes they just.

Want you to walk, hit your mark, say like the beginning of the sentence and then whatever and like that's it. But so that's how I got my first speaking role was on that show. So I went to be a stand in while I'm a stand in on this show. I'm going to this church and every Tuesday night at this church was their creative arts ministry night, and so they would have a dance class, an acting class, production if you want to get a production, there's production class.

Is it free?

And she was like yeah, it's just in this room over here, and I'm like, oh, okay, sure. So then I leave the acting class and I go to the stand up comedy class, and that's where I first start writing jokes. And I remember at the time, I was like, yeah, I could probably do that. I do this Nail Salon character. I'm sure I could make that into a joke, and she was like, Nail Salan jokes are so hacky.

Everybody has one stay away from Nail Slan.

I love it when people say that.

And I was like, you know what, but I don't know. If anybody doesn't like me, I think I'll still do it. And I took this class and at the end of the class and it was like a two month class. Every Tuesday night, our graduation was we had to perform at a real comedy club and it was a bringer. Everybody had bring ten people, right, so everyone in the audience knew this was a graduating stand up class.

They knew just laugh it was not funny. Is a warm wind?

Yeah? Of course.

We all wrote jokes and.

The teacher went through everybody's set and she picked your five minute set from everything you wrote in these past two months. She picked your five minute set, and then when it got to me, she said, just do all your jokes.

So I had twelve.

Yeah.

So I go on stage, I do my joke and my closer is this Nail Salon bit, which at the time looked and sounded a little bit different because the.

Ending of that joke was a callback.

This new thing I learned called a callback in my class was a callback to a joke I did earlier where I talked about me being an extra. I wrote a joke about me being an extra and how my parents were so proud of me. And so the end of the nail salon joke ended with me calling my mom saying, this girl's talking the nail salan lady's talking about me. And she goes, oh, she doesn't know who you are.

Show her who you are.

And then I get up and I just start walking silently back and forth because that's what I did as an extra.

So that's my I'll show you who I am. Oh amazing. So that's how that joke ended. Should I bring it back? I think?

So I did this stand up comedy class while I'm a stand in on this show. Then the show gets canceled and my friend the ad who basically just took me to every show he was on, now he's not on a show, so he didn't have any work either. So now I'm on unemployment and I'm waitressing at whatever restaurant I can waitress at, and I'm doing stand up comedy kinda like I didn't want to be a comedian.

But I didn't want to be a stand up so I wasn't like pursuing it.

And I get I'm I'm this is around the time when I have no agent, I don't have any auditions coming in, I'm waitressing, I'm on unemployment, and now I'm at the end of unemployment.

Unemployment checks run out. I don't know if everybody knows that, but they don't last for.

So unemployment checks are done, and I'm kind of in this place where I'm like, oh, I.

Think, excuse me, sir, she has to go. This was so fun, so much. Tune in for part two.

Actually, yeah, very good place to uh, you know, split this one in two. We're gonna we're gonna embrace this one as our part one of our conversation with Angela Johnson Rayes. Please say tune for Part two of Those Amigos.

Dose Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's Michael through That Podcast Network, hosted by me Freddie Rodriguez and Wilmer Valdorama.

Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.

Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson, and Leo Klem at WV Sound.

This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison Devenport and Helo.

Boy Our cover our photography is by David Avalos and designed by Deny Holtz Clau.

And thank you for being a third amigo today. I appreciate you guys always listening to those amigos.

More podcasts from my Heart visit the r Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

See you next week, MHM