Hey, there's one about dramas. Freddie Rodriguez. Welcome through those and me goes.
This is part two of our Beautiful Conversation with Angela Johnson Ray.
I am so good at talking. So I'm at this place in my life where I have nothing going on, and it's one of those where I'm like, oh, I think I have to move back home, like I gave it a good go. I don't have money to pay my rent and it's already I'm living at my friend's condo. She was. She was a professional dancer, touring with like every major artists who can think of, so she was doing really well. She let me rent a room out of her condo and I wasn't paying rent because I
couldn't afford it. But she was my best friend, so she was like, it's fine, just yeah, whenever you can. I was her Joey. She was my Chandler. You know how Chandler used to pay everything for Joe Like it was like that for us. So im as place have no money, my sister back home in San Jose is sending me gift certificates to the grocery store so I
could get food too. She's sending me some money so I could like pay my phone bill things like that, and she was very much like don't give up, like stay because they're like, I think I got to come home, and she's like, no, no, no, not yet, don't give up. And at the same time I also felt in my spirit like that same feeling of like I know I got something. I also felt in my spirit that God wasn't done yet. Even though my circumstance was showing me no, He's done. I felt like my spirit, my gut was
like not yet, you know. So I'm like, all right, hold on a little bit longer. I get a call. They're like, hey, do you want to do a set at the ice House? Pays twenty five bucks. I'm like, hell yeah, twenty five bucks. You know how many top promins A little bit of gas, that's all you need.
Five bucks.
And I lived in Glendell at the time. Glendale to Pasadena. Boom, I'll be there.
You can do it in Neutral too.
Ye hate you so much right now? So I do this set they behave in my twenty five bucks and it was for at the time, Verizon wireless. This is during flip phone era. Okay, so Verizon wireless was doing this thing where you can download a comedy clip onto your phone for a dollar ninety nine, Like that was that was the thing. So I go, I sign this
little paper and they give my twenty five bucks. I do my twelve minute set, and they're like, all right, we're gonna upload this to Verizon, and Verizon customers can download your comedy clips and watch you on your phone. That's a new thing. This is a new technology, right, And so it's like.
Okay, great, do you on your phone?
What?
Oh?
Yeah. So then maybe weeks after that, this brand new thing called YouTube comes out. Yes, who's gonna pay a dollar ninety nine for a comedy and they can watch it for free on YouTube. So then this company, the production company that paid all these comics that day to come and do their set, they ended up taking those clips and uploading it to YouTube. So this is now, Like that was filmed in two thousand and six, this
is now January two thousand and seven. My Space days okay, my MySpace page starts blowing up with messages from people people that I don't know, yeh okay, and they're like, hey, when are you coming to perform? In filling the blank Australia, Philippines, Crazy, Atlanta, you to all over the United States, Hey when are you coming to perform here? And I'm like what, yeah, what are you talking about?
And it's worth saying that when that platform launched, it was so new that whoever was uploaded there at the beginning got all the clicks it was on.
It was there, a gate was open.
It wasn't like they created they closed the algorithm now and you got to pay to get more engagement. If you got on YouTube, you can find that video, you know, So imagine the amount of people that eventually got to see your.
So you got uploaded right when YouTube started brand new, and then and then like the first few people who subscribe to YouTube were hitting you up.
Going like there was from January to February, there was four million views on this video, which at the time, Wow, was.
Crazy, incredible, crazy numbers.
Now, let me tell you if you don't have four million.
At the time.
Yeah, oh yeah, So it was going viral before viral was an actual positive term. Yeah. So I started getting phone calls from family members. They were like, Hey, there's this email going around at work and it's a video of you and my coworker sent it to me. She doesn't even know that we're related, but she sent it to me, and I'm like.
That's how I started.
What video is this?
Was there something about the video was it?
Was it a particular joke.
It was just a nail slot, nail salon. It was just that nail salon joke. It was four minute a four minute video. Yeah, this nail salon joke.
Okay.
And it starts going like crazy. So then my MySpace page is not only blowing up with people, Hey, when are you coming to fill in the blank city to perform? Now I'm getting messages that are like, Hey, I'm so and so the assistant to so and so executive at Fox, at CBS, at NBC, at all these different networks, at all these different production companies. Their assistants are going to MySpace to find me because I don't have an agent, so none of these executives know how to find me.
So I'm getting all these dms on MySpace. I started getting all these meetings. I had to buy a calendar. I didn't even have a calendar. I what do I need a calendar for?
I had to go.
I went to Staples to buy a calendar, because this is before your phone where you have your I coount. I went to Staples to buy a calendar because I started get all these meetings to go meet with production companies and network executives. And I remember going into and I'm so green, like I don't know anything. And I go into this meeting and there it's pilot season and they're like, we want you to read for this pilot. Can you just step out and go run the lines
real quick and come back in Yeah? And I don't know to say anything like can I come back tomorrow? Can I, you know, go.
Coach in there?
Yeah?
Can I just go coach with somebody? Can I have a minute to like process? Who is this character?
You were seizing the opportunity?
Yeah? So I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, just right here in the hole.
Yeah cool, easy, five minutes, let's go.
We're back bye. Yeah. And then of course no trash because I don't know what I'm I'm doing. Yeah, But I start making all these relationships and this is like January to February, and then I end up getting a new agent, a new manager. I end up getting auditioned from Mad TV. So then my audition for Mad TV. They're like, you need to come in with three original characters and three celebrity impressions. What do you mean in three original characters. I didn't go to Second City, I
didn't go to Groundlings. I took a free joke writing class at a church on Tuesday night. That is my education. So I was like, Okay, in my joke writing class, I wrote a joke about my grandpa and like how he's not good with technology. So I'll just say it's my grandma and I'll act it out more and I'll be like, this is you know, grandma's son, so who doesn't know technology? And I basically just recited my joke from my stand up but in character, and that was
one of my original characters. And then I did saw another one, and then the last one was Bonquiki. I said, this is my sister. She wants to be a rapper, and then I became Bonquek. The audition and they're like, okay, we need three celebrity impressions. So I went on this brand new thing called YouTube, and I was like, all right, well, who's Latina and famous that I can try to mimic?
Obviously Jennifer Lopez. So I started watching Jennifer Lopez videos her on the Red Carpet, and I'm like, okay, she waves like this. She doesn't wave like this, she waves like this, Okay, and then when she laughs it's kind of like nasally, and so then I start doing her laugh in her wave. So I said, Okay, this is Jennifer Lope, she's on the Red carpet.
Did you how does that? You still do it? And you don't know what anymore?
I mean, I really just it was just like I don't know, like the best.
Part of my impersonations is like even when they're bad, it's like really good.
Yeah.
And so that all the producers were asking me questions, Jennifer, who are you wearing? My answer to everything was a laugh and a wave, and they thought it was hilarious, a hilarious choice that I made that Jennifer Lopez doesn't know how to answer the questions. All she does is laugh and wave. That's hilarious. No, that's all I knew how to do, right, That's all I could master. And then the other one I was it was like Paula Abduel on American Idol was always drunk at the time.
So I did drunk fallow on American Idol and they you know, her little drunk clap and they.
Love, oh my god, you're looking down and clap and it's perfect.
And then the last one was Rosslyn Sanchez. I watched so many episodes of her Without a Trace, and I did my impression for her one day.
I was going to ask you that because I know you guys know. Yeah.
So my impression of her was, these are just the little things that I noticed and I could pick up. I'm like, oh, let me just exaggerate them. And it was that when she talked, she always talked like with her chin up, and she talked down off of her nose whenever she was talking to fall down. And when she speaks Spanish, her Spanish is at the tip of her mouth. It's not from the back like just regular talking.
It's very much to the tip of her mouth where he and it's very fast the way she speaks, very fast like this, And so I started to like, I'm like, let me just exaggerate all of these things. And so I did this, as you know, ross and Sanchez on Without a Trace, and I just made up some scene and exaggerated those things. And I'm like, oh my god, that's amazing. And then I booked Mad TV and that was in May of two thousand and seven, and then
I wrote more stand up and I started touring. By the end of the year, I was now a touring comedian. So it started with January two thousand and seven, I had no money to my name, unemployment checks ran out, no agent on nothing to By the end of the year, I had my agent, my manager, I was on Mad TV, and I was a touring stand up comedian.
Wow, man, God is good.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's how it works.
It all falls in place in such an unexpected way, and then you wake up and you're like, oh, I'm actually doing this right, Like you're in that struggle of trying to get that and then you're like, oh, I got a check on how I spread this over the next six months because you're probably not going to get something else, And there another six months and then all of a sudden.
You're just like, oh, I'm making a living.
Yeah, it's really thank you for sharing all of that. What a beautiful journey, what a very clever instinct. But you know, it's a great value and of the hustle that you have to have in order to break it, you know, you got to. And also what you did, you know, almost accidentally, but quite literally on purpose, is you broke a mold and you build a new one, and you build the mold that only you could fit. And in those times, in the nineties and early two thousands and that in that era, you had to be
so different to stick around. You could be one like the others because those are inexchangeables. So you have to break the mold, you have to build a new one. And they noted for them to get what you provide, what that product is is they got to keep hiring you. You know, you having the versatility to be a Matt TV. It's like genius because also a very funny woman. It's
a very powerful performer, you know. And at the time, with stereotypes were boxing as all and like he's the hot guy, he's the door key one, he's the you know, she's the bomb show or whatever. Humor comedy was a weapon. Very few people there to give each other those roles. I mean, that's that's just remarkable. I see myself so much in that story too. But I got to say,
it's it's amazing. It's amazing to think about that and like, you know, you go from Matt TV and go on touring and then you've had tons of specials, like you've done comedy specials.
I'm working on my number seven right now. What was your first special? My first special is called That's How We Do. It was for Comedy Central in two thousand and nine.
And what was what was that like to go like, like Wolmer just went through your whole path, right, What was it like to like, yeah, you were touring, you were doing your thing, but like to like land your first.
Honestly, it was really unheard of for someone who had been doing stand up for as little time as I have to get an hour special on Comedy Central. Yeah, it was unheard of. And even the way I started with stand up, I only you know, you hear about comics the feature for years and years. I featured three times before I started headlining because of that YouTube video. Because they saw that I could sell tickets just because
of that YouTube video. So I had to write material so that I could get to a headliner place, so I had material to give the audience. So I featured three times and then I started headlining and working my butt off and writing material, and I became a comedian. Even though acting was always my dream and what I wanted to do, stand up was the thing that was taking off for me. So in the beginning of my career,
I fought stand up. I kept like I would go on the road and do my shows, but I kept looking over my shoulder back at Hollywood, like, are you guys ready for me? Net No, not yet, Okay, I'll be out.
Here on the road.
Then let me know when you're ready. Yeah, And then they never got ready.
What's kind of not true.
I think you're You're always in that, you know. I believe you're always in the shortlist of like Okay, we're gonna go pilot season and all that stuff.
You know.
I think it's about you know, to me, the big question is, you know, now you're such an accomplished comedian, right, you're obviously a great actress. Do you want to do that leap and commit to a show or that?
I would love to?
Yeah, I would love to. I mean I've pitched so many shows, you know how it is, development deals and you know, all that kind of stuff. So over the twenty years that I've been here, starting from the ground up, I've had different development deals, show deals, and it's been some of these shows that we've done have been such great ideas. Oh oh my god, this would have been amazing, you know that kind of thing. And I still dream
for it. I still want it, and I think it's in a different way now to where I've definitely embraced stand up as my career and my show. Having my show one day is like the icing on the cake, so to speak, Like I would I would love to have my show, but it's not where it would break me if I didn't get it, sure, Whereas.
This is the moment where you, by the way, will get your show. And we're breaking it here because that sounds so much no, no, and actually I kind of have kidding but like mostly serious. And the fact that like when you are able to let go, it's when it all happens, when you take when you get let go of the rope is when you learn how to swim, you know, in many ways, right, but I think metephobia, what I'm trying to say is that you you you
poison for that you're in that moment. I think we're young enough and old enough to to really take charge on some things and and I just see it happening. You know, I feel like we're kind of we're breaking news here, would you get We're manufestent to show up it because because I will say that we really could use you on prime time television.
We really, we really need you on that screen, you know.
And there's very few people in our game that can do really disruptive and most importantly, you know, uh stereotype you know, breaking uh you know, vibes and performances and characters that could really elevate our community and the way that we needed. And very few you know, can can do what you do as as you know. But we just really hope that you crack it in the next year. We can really, So, you know, what what what would be ideal for you?
What was if I may ask, like what was some of the stuff.
That I don't know, I don't know how.
To ask this, but like that you've pitched in the past, or like what would what was something that you thought would be would be cool?
You know, like I would want to know, like.
What would your idea for an ideal TV show be for you?
So I always my dream is always a multiicam sitcom.
Yeah my friends, Yeah, it's taking it back to the beginning exactly exactly.
And I feel like every time I would pitch it, the multiicam's dying, it's dying, No, don't. I was always non multicam's just single cam, think single camp. I'd pitch single cam shows and then I would still go back to, okay, what about this my family? It's always, you know, based in my family. And then it's so interesting to think about how my pitches have gone from fresh out of college woo woo woo, and then it's like new mom, and then it's like midlife. Listen, are they going to
stay married? They're not sure, their child's grown up and in high school now, and it's like all the different I'm waiting. I'm like, okay, this ship's sailed, that ship saliled. I'm like, okay, maybe it's this one, right. But it's always something based in my life and my family. That's how I write my material. My material is always based around relatable connective tissue. How am I connected to you
as a human being? When I write my stand up, it's always like, obviously I want to make you laugh, but I want to connect with you on a human level. How are we both human, because that's what's going to tie us together to where you go, oh, I see myself in you, And then when I make you laugh, the laugh is that much harder because you relate to me and you connect to me, and you're like, oh that's me, Oh that's my husband. Oh my gosh, my
daughter does that. Oh my god. And now we're all just a bunch of humans laughing having a good time. Like That's that's how I approach my material. That's how I approach my TV show. Idea is how can I connect to other humans and bring joy and tell some stories?
Yeah, and and and the person that you are now as someone who's who just had a baby, right, yes, two years ago.
Yeah, I became a dom in my forties daughter daughter, daughter.
May we ask your daughter's.
Name, Yes, her name is Rosalie Harlow Reyes. We call her Rosie. And your husband's name Manuel, Manuel, Manuel. We're teaching our daughter our full names right now. So she knows my full name because she's on the road with me. So she hears my intro video. Will they say, please welcome Angela Johnson Reyes. So now she'll be in her crib at six forty five in the morning and going, please welcome ange Reyes. You know she gives me the announcement, Oh yeah, the best.
What is the most significant thing you discovered as soon as you held your your child will copy in you.
I didn't have that immedia. Oh my god, I'm so in love feeling.
It's a little in first and all the beginning you're just trying to keep the baby alive.
I'm trying to keep you alive, and it's like, who are you right?
What right?
Hold on? What came alive in me?
Is?
I would say, like everything is for her, like my my joy, Like I get excited thinking about what I'm going to feed her for lunch, Like that makes me happy, Like I wonder if she'll like this, Like it's the simple little things. Where before it was always my career, everything my career, which is why I didn't want kids. I didn't have kids to my forties because I didn't want kids. I wanted my career. And then COVID happened and everybody's career went away for a little while. Sure,
and during that time I didn't miss it. I was like, hmm, if I never go back, I think I'll be okay, And I never in my life imagined myself saying if I never book another gig, that's fine. Like I always wanted more and more and more. And then here I was going, it's not as fulfilling as I thought. Like, it's fun. I enjoy it, don't get me wrong, but it's not fulfilling in this like deep level. And so
I was like, huh, should I have had kids? All my friends tell me like kids are so fulfilling, and like, should I have had kids? Oh my gosh, did I mess up? So now I'm in my late thirties going like, all right, well, let me go to the doctors and see if I even have eggs. I don't even know if I have eggs left. Before I start saying should I have kids? Girl, you don't even know if you got options? You owed. So I went to the doctor and they did all the tests and they're like, you
you still have some eggs. Your levels and everything that they checked, They're like, you still have some, but not much. So you got to hurry up. Whatever you want to do, you got to hurry up exactly. And I still wasn't convinced I want of kids. So I was like, all right, let me save my eggs with your partner. Oh yeah, we're married twelve years ago. Oh okay, twelve years. So
I'm like, all right, let me save my eggs. So that way, at least we have some options in the future, right, So that I go through the process of saving my eggs, and then every time I would go through it, I would get bad news. And bad news started with twelve eggs and they're like, no, you only have six. Oh, just caking, there's only four. And it was like that
whole thing love IVF. And it was like the more they would give me bad news, they were like, this may not be for you, you know, because every time we go through this process, you don't really have any eggs by the end of it, Like, this might not be for you. The more they would tell me it might not be for me, the more I wanted it. Now. It switched from I'm saving my eggs to no, I
want kids. I'm trying to get pregnant. And so we went through IVF a couple of times and I ended up getting like, after those couple times combined, end up getting like five or six eggs, and then we went and made embryos. None of the embryos were viable, and they're like, you got to start over, and that's a journey. At this point, I'm on tour. I just came out with my book. I'm on my book tour. I have a bunch of dates for the whole year and a half, and I'm like, what am I going to do IVF again?
I don't have time to do this again. So then I was like, all right, you know I have one month off in November. I planned one month off for myself. I said, I'll do IVF one more time in November. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, that's it. So I said, I'm also filming my special in October, so let me just focus on my special. I started, let me get my body right, get it tight. I started not drinking alcohol, not eating club food after the shows,
like you know that kind of thing. I said, I'm going to work on myself, get myself ready for my taping because I'm gonna tape my special. So I'm gonna get right. I'm working out of the gym, I'm eating healthy. I didn't realize I was also preparing my body to get pregnant. So I'm scheduled to do IVF again in November. I end up getting pregnant naturally in October right before my taping. Oh did you I was pregnant during.
I don't even know I was so before you're taping, like.
The week before?
Yes, so you were? How about how long how long pregnant were you there? Like, would you like a month? Two months? Three months? Well?
No, not even like a couple of weeks, like.
A couple of weeks.
And do you feel that because you were getting your body prepared for it? That That's was one of the reasons why.
I also did a bunch of like through the IVF process. They were like, oh, you have fibroids. You got to get your fibroids out. Oh okay, So I scheduled surgery to get my fibroids out. Then then they went in for fibroids. Did you're like, oh, you also have endometriosis, we got to get so yeah. I found out a lot of stuff about my body I didn't know through the IVF process. So even though I didn't get pregnant via IVF, I'm grateful for the process because I wouldn't
have known. I would have kept trying to get pregnant and never got pregnant because I had fibroids and got endometriosis. Yeah, got me all cleaned up, and then I got my health right and then next thing, you know, it was like the perfect recipe for me personally, and I ended up getting pregnant and now I have a two year old.
Oh my god. So okay, thank you for that.
So a week two weeks before you're special, you get pregnant. Your special happens in October, but then you were scheduled to have IVF in November. So by the time November comes around, do you I was pregnant, so you knew I.
Was gonna ask you.
Do you start going like, okay, I'm about to start IVF, but man, I'm sleepy.
Oh it was all the things. It was my period was late, which is never late, and I was like, hmm, yeah, that's weird. Yeah. And then let me tell you too. After my taping, we celebrate it, and I remember we went to d C. I went with the Latino Group to DC and we went to the White House and it was a whole thing. And then they had a big party for us and I celebrated there too. Ay, And then after that weekend.
I'm not supposed to drink.
Yeah, but you didn't know. I didn't know. I had no clue. It was just like I was just living my life. But then all of a sudden, I was like, wait a minute, Periy's late, this is happening whatever. And then so I remember the next weekend, we were on the road and the venue got us like a bottle of champagne and you know, sold that show. Here's some champagne. And then in my head, I was like, maybe I
shouldn't drink this, just in case I'm pregnant. And I'm like, I have a pregnancy test at home in my drawer, but I'm on the road and I'm like, I'm not gonna have a runner, go get me a pregnancy test. It's a random venue in Cleveland, Ohio, you know what I mean. So I'm like, I'm just gonna wait till I get home. So they give me champagne. I just do like a little sip, and I'm just like, let me do just in case. And then I get home. I have not even twenty four hours that i'm home
before I get back on a flight to leave. So I get home, I take my pregnancy test.
So you do it with ham or my.
Husband's gone already, so our next I get home from Cleveland and then we're going to Hawaii. I have shows in Hawaii, but it's also gonna be like a little vacation, right, So my husband he went ahead and I'm gonna meet him there. So I'm by myself at home with my dog, and I'm I'm like, that's me and you Bonzo, like me and you son. Let's let's see if I'm pregnant. So I did a little pregnanty this, and part of me I'm like, there's no way.
Right, and after everything you've gone through.
There's no way. It's just I'm late, I'm stressed. The road I say it says pregnant and I and I videotaped the whole thing, so I was like, let me just in case, and I videotaped myself. My heart dropped. My it's beating so fast, and I'm like, oh my god,
I have nobody to like share. It's just me and my dog, and I'm like, no way, no way, and it's I can't even call my husband because he's on a plane to Hawaii on the phone either, like I want to see him in person, and I'm like, well, I can't tell any of my friends before I tell my husband, Like what do I do? I try calling my IVF doctor and I'm like is this can this even happen? And then she's not answering her phone. I'm like, nobody's answering their phone that I need to. And I'm like, Okay, well,
I guess this is just between me and God. That's it. And Bonzo Me got in Bonzo, that's it. That was for us. And so I had a full not even twenty four hours, like a little bit more of this information just to me and myself. Because then when I got to why, I had to tell my husband and like surprising with that information and it was just yeah, it was a wild experience. So then obviously no more IVF.
And yeah, is your husband also a comedian?
No, he's in music to music, yeah Scarlett Santana.
Yeah, yeah, which also makes it so bizarre pregnant.
He still has pretty remarkable Did you.
Not know my husband's in music? He started in Christian music, Okay, Yeah, then he moved out of that into just you know, regular mainstream music, and then now he does sink music for TV shows commercials.
It's amazing.
So speaking of how special and special, Yes, it's a perfect seguay to talk about your special. Yeah you have a special, you shot it already, you're promoting it.
Like, well, my most reason hour was called say I Want What's on YouTube? My first self produced, self financed special we founded at the Rhyme and Auditorium Tennessee. Let me tell you put it up on a YouTube. It's been incredible. And my next special I'm gonna put on YouTube as well. Yeah.
Like comparing that to like, you know, your your specials on like the Commontential or Yeah, what's that been like sort of the difference.
In regards to everything. Okay, So I get to see all the information, know all the information, be a part of all the information, make the decisions that I want to make. That that's the best part. Yeah. And when my special first went up, the amount of views I was getting on my special was right up with the top specials that were happening on Netflix, but I was
just happening on YouTube. And YouTube has now become the place where, like you said that, you get to own your own stuff and it carries weight in regards to if you're a touring comedian. A lot of these people are finding my special on YouTube and Facebook videos. It's wild the amount of people that have come to my shows after I've been touring for seventeen eighteen years now, and I ask my audience, who hears this is your
first time at my show? And it's seventy five percent of the people there is their first time seeing me because they're finding my YouTube that's my special.
Has there been any cons, Like we're just talking about all the pros and cons. Yeah, of it not being on a Comedy Central or HBO versus like YouTube.
The con is optics.
Mm hmm, which affects.
It how which affects in industry because YouTube is not respected in the way Netflix is, right, So it's the optics.
Of it all.
So there's so many times fans will be like, oh, I saw I saw your Netflix special, but they're not talking about Netflix. They're talking about my when that's on YouTube. But now Netflix just goes with comedy special, so they said, oh, what are you doing your nets Netflix special? Because Netflix is.
So known for standards such a major category.
Exactly, so people just assume, oh, Netflix is the place, like that is the peak if you can get a Netflix special, you got street cred, You've made it.
It's like that it used to becoming.
Yeah, so how does the optics affect you though.
Well, I would guess in storytelling within industry, like it's still like the yes and nohers at the top that Netflix still plays a really big role in things, whereas I can show you my YouTube numbers.
But oh, you mean if you mean, if you're trying to ascend to.
Like sure, getting booked for something, getting my show sold, like it's a really it'll be eventually it will mean the same thing that Netflix means. But right now it's still like, oh, I'm on I'm on CBS or I'm on Fox or I'm on Netflix. It still says something different than oh, I'm on YouTube. Well, anyway, it can be on YouTube right right now? Has that not quite?
Because YouTube is doing some really disruptive programming. Yeah, programming around here's programming around networks, and you know, it's most of the world who can't access or can't pay for a subscription, and it's finding amazing content, original content actually there and they're being elevated on like single camera level, like it's it's actually.
Really cool people watch YouTube more than Netflix. Like Netflix is the number one streaming excuse me, YouTube is the number one streaming platform and it's YouTube and Google is where people look for information. They look for their shows. Most people are watching their shows on their phone, so YouTube is really where people are spending their time. But it's the same thing as if you got your show on Fox, on NBC, CBS. It has a prestige, it
has some street cred to it. Even if it's subconscious, it still has something with all these yes and know whers at the top something I feel.
Like you're doing what you did with Verizon and what you did with you know, YouTube at the beginning, coming back full circle to fundamentals, you know, you're going to be available to and also think about an international markets. If you're not distributed, if any if like you know, you're not in Netflix UK.
Then no one's going to see you're specially in Netflix UK, right like.
That, you know, very there's a certain amount of programs that actually are unlocked for a global platform. You know, some things are regional, you know, so I think YouTube is one of those where you're like if if you're somewhere in India, you're like I can find you, you know, on YouTube, which I think is very very disruptive and really really cool. And besides your specials and being that
forward thinking, you launch a podcast as well. Yes, with fungula right, what what prompt you for for a podcast?
If you weren't doing ready?
I was like, how can I stay home more? How can I be with my family, be with my daughter? Touring is great, but I have to leave. How can I be home? And I love having great conversations. So my podcast is about gratitude. And gratitude is one of the main tools that I use in my mental health journey with anxiety, with whatever it is that I'm struggling with or dealing with. Gratitude has always been the easiest tool to use. It's free, and it's right there, it's
right in your pocket. You just you. You elevate your vibration with gratitude. You change your perspective with gratitude. So I practice gratitude in my life life. And I said, let me have these great conversations with my guests about what are they grateful for in their life, whether it be a mentor they had when they were in third grade, whether it be they found twenty dollars in their pocket
on the way here, like whatever it is is. Sometimes it's super simple, and sometimes it's super deep and an opportunity for maybe if you don't practice gratitude regularly, to reflect and think about those moments in your life that you are super grateful for. Because I helped you get to hear and woo, and I've been able to have some really cool conversations with people all centered in gratitude.
And we also do our matitude. We do our one maratitude, and that's what's the thing that's making you mad these days, like getting on your nerves. And even that could be something so simple as my husband choose too loud.
I don't know.
He tooos so loud. I can't even handle it. And then sometimes it's very deep stuff about their family, my relationship with my dad. It's not great and I wish it was better. And so it's just a really fun experience to have deep, meaningful conversations with people, enlightening conversations and we laugh so much and then we cry, and it's just such a journey that I get to go on with people, learn about different people's lives. It's so fun that I get to do that.
No, And also you can see so much of what you're working through in other people and through other people and their experiences, and sometimes the secret sauce is in other people's stories.
Oh yeah, you.
Can really walk away with those little diamonds that you're like, Oh man, I really needed that.
You know.
We find here all the time.
I mean, we have some really interesting conversations that kind of realign perspective, realign priorities, you know, and most importantly, kind of realize the stillness of we should be present right now.
You know.
It's so hard to not think about what am I doing tomorrow?
You know, but but the stillness of the of the world now, I think is the is It's really really great.
You know.
I'm so grateful that you came to share with us today. I know how busy you stay, and I know how much you're on the road all the time, and and to be able to share with your fans and our listeners and everybody on the show, you know, just kind of your perspective and your beginning is make you make you appreciate how iconic it is where you are right now.
Thank you know, it's just really good to reflect.
You know, because we we never look back right, like you know, when you're grinding, you're like, you know, five years ahead, five years yeah, So it's beautiful to look back and to see you relieve those memories.
It's very special.
Thank you, Thank you for share these with you.
Thank you for thank you for being our guest.
Appreciate you, my pleasure.
This is Freddie Roger and I'm Wilmer Valdama. Thank you for being here on Those Amigos. If you're watching us, what's up if you're listening to us, also what's up?
And this was Angela Johnson Rayes. Thank you so much for being with us.
Thank you, Thank you.
Dose Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's Michael through That Podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez and Wilmri Valdorama.
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Our executive producers are Wilmri 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 art photography is by David Avalos and designed by Deny holtz.
Claw And thank you for being there 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.
Is youre next week?
Mm hmm