August 7, 2025 • 35 mins
In the first part of this exclusive interview; comedian and actress Anjelah Johnson joins Wilmer and Freddy to share her journey from NFL cheerleader to viral comedy sensation. Widely known for her unforgettable characters Bon Qui Qui and the nail salon lady from MADtv, Anjelah reflects on building a career rooted in authenticity and hustle. She talks about navigating Hollywood, creating a lasting impact through comedy, and staying grounded through it all. With multiple stand-up specials, film roles, and millions of fans, Anjelah brings laughs, heart, and real talk to this special episode.
“Dos Amigos” is a comedic and insightful podcast hosted by two friends who’ve journeyed through Hollywood and life together. Wilmer Valderrama and Freddy Rodriguez push through the noise of everyday life and ruminate on a bevy of topics through fun and daring, and occasionally a third amigo joins the mix!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
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.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Well let's see here we have esteemed comedian, former NFL cheerleader,
former Mad TV cash member, Angela Johnson.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
And come on, come on, I mean we have such
a big audience here. They told that to cheers much.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
It's Angela Johnson Rays. Now I added my married name
name in the game.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We all appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
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.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
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
on your phone. This was the Thomas Guide and everything
(01:21):
like that. I would print out my map from the
computer at home, my my Yahoo maps, and I would
print it out, and if I ever got lost, I
would call my dad and tell him what street I
was on, and then he would navigate me to get
to my 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
(01:42):
grew up here in LA and then moved to the Bay.
My mom's from the Bay from San Jose.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Ethnically, where are your parents from?
Speaker 4 (01:51):
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
(02:14):
born here, I think in Utah.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Yeah, what tribe?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
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
(02:44):
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,
(03:07):
in Arizona when I was a little kid. But I
don't know anything about it. I wish I did.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
And both of your parents are from the same tribe.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
No, I don't know what my mom's bloodline is connected to.
I only know from my dad's side.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
And so you lived up in the Bay And when
did you decide to come down to Los Angeles two.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Thousand and three, I moved here. I was a cheerleader
for the Oakland Raiders.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Before you came here.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
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
(04:00):
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
(04:22):
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.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
What you put in the resume because I have, you know,
I put the most unnecessary stuff and in special skills?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
How did you fill your out?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
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.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
And you did absolutely no acting before.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
You did no, zero, nothing. You were just like I
want to be an actress, like high nothing like that.
I love it.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Was doing she was doing it. She was a yah,
I knew.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Somebody famous was this is just like how how do
I do?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Like holding up the rasher tell you I'm such a
similar moment to yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
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.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
An actual past.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
You have some kind yet.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
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
(06:37):
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,
(06:58):
you should come try out, and I started to think
about it. I was like, you know what, I'm.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Gonna go try out interest and challenge like yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
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.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So unfortunately, if you hadn't made it.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Let me tell you what was.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
The tryout? Like what did so?
Speaker 4 (07:32):
It was in Oakland. There was seven hundred girls at
this open call audition the first.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I mean everyone wanted to be a Raider girl dude
like in the day dooms.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
They're hanging out sandwiches. Everyone shows up.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
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
(08:16):
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.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Now, did you have any dancing experience, You're like.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
No other than the Pop Warner cheerleading.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I had a rhythm, yeah, yeah, yeah, yah.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I could dance.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
You could probably remember choreography.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
And sync exactly, but I didn't know technical dance moves
like purowets.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, and you know that that job was giving to
that one person that can do it. Everybody else can
do the dance.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
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.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Like, oh, it's a performance. Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
And it was a whole different vibe from what I
grew up doing.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Did you feel like you were getting character too, Like,
were you like somehow embodying something else?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
I definitely it was one of those like till you
make it.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
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.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And then all of a sudden something else wakes up and.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
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
(09:41):
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 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.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
My hair, right.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
But that's what they're looking for.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
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.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
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.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
Dance experience, no way.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
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.
(11:02):
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
(11:24):
did it for one year. We went to the super
Bowl that year, like what a year?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Topict.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
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
(11:52):
an extra on Friends. That was my first Still to
this day, it's my favorite job.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
I wait, wait, so talk so so walk us through
that experience.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Oh magical experience, let me tell you.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
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
(12:24):
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
(12:47):
that code for something?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
No?
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
But you know what, I gotta tell you something.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
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.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
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
(13:27):
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,
(13:47):
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.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
Yeah I do.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Like live audience, the whole thing, some monsters.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
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
(14:34):
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 like the
(14:56):
most you get the SAG voucher. Once you got three
of them, then you got to join the union. 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
(15:16):
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
(15:41):
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 nextally, I'm gonna bring you
(16:02):
back again. Next you know, I was an extra for
season nine and ten. I'm in the background.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
You can see me like making a living.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Also that at that time friends had I mean yeah,
they were like the biggest show.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Oh, the best service.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
So the craft service was like you know, probably corn
dogs and lobsters. Oh one night did they recorded Friday Nightdays?
Speaker 4 (16:40):
It was magic.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Did you ever cut a reel of like all of
your like walk away? I should do that, you should.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
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
(17:09):
screen and I see myself walk by in the background,
and it was this magical movement.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
Yes, of like this is.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
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.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
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, 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.
(17:51):
Going back to the set of friends. You were there
for so long, like how was the cast? Was the
cast credible?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
There will really cool people.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
You were there so often that at some point you're gonna.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
That's so crazy.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
And did you did you have you bumped into any
of them? Since you no interesting, I haven't interesting.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Should you should invite them to one of your shows?
Speaker 4 (18:48):
I should?
Speaker 5 (18:50):
And and then and then that should be a part
of your show.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Done that for that.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
To make it happen.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yeah, if you're entire castcast too well. I do have
a funny story of one time I was a stalker.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeahed to break.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
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,
(19:34):
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.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I'm like, bliss, oh.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
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.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
Didn't you didn't tell her your name, or it was
just a weirdo.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
I didn't buy anything, I didn't bite.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I can't. Nobody teaches us well say like no, I
don't what to say in that situation, you know, like
what do you say?
Speaker 4 (20:20):
It was such a weirdo.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So now you have to invite Marda Coffin in your
podcast if you're watching.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
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?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
And then which ones were those?
Speaker 4 (20:42):
I crashed every audition I could love it. 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.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Up with your friend that Oh yeah, I was.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
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.
(21:26):
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
(21:46):
on your resume. Just say you were like Yolanda or somebody.
And he's Hector and everything, right exactly, So every basically
everything he was on probably Latinos. There there's some chola
next to him, you were the chola. Just put Yolanda.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
I was mousey.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
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.
It's not extensive, it's not thirty things, there's like six things,
you know, like I'm still getting started out.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, a perfect heist. Oh the perfect.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
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
(22:48):
cast that show. I don't remember you.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Ah, oh my god? Why why?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Okay, just go it's weird.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
But did it Did it say like the actual episode
you were on?
Speaker 4 (23:08):
No, it just said the show and my character.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I think, yeah, I mean, but at this point, like
to you and I remember everything your cast?
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah, twenty three episodes show.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Did you get the part?
Speaker 4 (23:23):
I booked it. It's one of those things. I always
remember you.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
But on the beginning, I don't know what I got
to do.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
To get in here, but I got to show you
I can do this. It was training, but I can
do it.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
The beginning of this podcast, we all kind of shared,
you know, the the delusion of bliss and outgoingness of
the hustle. Yeah, and we talked about those moments where
we just kind of hacked the game a little bit.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And in order to.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
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, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
And and that story reminds me so much.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
When when we talk about like I used to go
to Backstage West and go to the agent submission only
auditions because we know those were the good ones. Cata
Cauls were like, you know, here we go, but like
agent submission. So I would show up and I will
memorize my auditions. I memorize from like people's shoulders, you know,
and I just.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Rise because I didn't get his sighs.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
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.
I just memorized, memorized, and then I put like you know,
Smiths and Associates because I thought it was like a
very Caucasian.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
And then in the number, I like to put my
pager because I was like, yeah, it was pretty it
was pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
So you reminded me of that moment because that's like
sometimes especially we we have to be scrappyard, you.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Know, also like we can't.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
We're not gonna we're not gonna enter through the front door,
you know, and no it us really into through the
front door.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
We have to kind of bullishly get optimistic and.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
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
(25:33):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Little lights the fire up again.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
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.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
I don't know what that thing was. And the same
with you, right, you knew you had something in you.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
So yeah, we could sit there and hack the system
and crash auditions and all that, but all of that is.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
But once we're rod.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah, yeah, it's predicated you knowing that there's something there
which is beyond like, oh, I just.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Want to be famous.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Oh, yeah, or like a dream, you know, your inner self,
you know, you possessed something.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
So you booked a bunch of guest stars and then
a few few guests and then you landed.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
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.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Can you can you say what, Joe?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Yeah, it's called Love and it was on upn.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Love Love Ink Loving Club Love Ink.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
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
(27:28):
and the cast said, well, what about Angela?
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Yeah, she's always saying a line?
Speaker 4 (27:32):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
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 reside.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
The entire scene. Some stand ins, you know, choose to
perform the whole scene for.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
When, by the way, the cameras are not rolling, but
they're performing this scene with the other stand ins to make.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
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.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Okay, why do you think they would say not to
perform it?
Speaker 6 (28:33):
I don't know, fear they that I'd be better and
then Jennifer Aniston would be no more.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
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,
(29:06):
an acting class, production if you want to get a production,
there's production class. Because it's a church in Hollywood, so
they know that most of their congregation is people trying
to be the entertainment industry. So they had all these
free classes that they offered. I was in their acting
class and we would play improv games and I would
be funny in the improv games. And then there was
a woman who was there who said, Hey, do you
(29:27):
want to come take my joke writing stand up comedy class?
And I was like, I don't know. 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,
(29:48):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I love it when people say that.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
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
(30:22):
audience knew this was a graduating stand up class. They
knew just laugh it was not funny. Is a warm wind?
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah? Of course.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
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
(30:50):
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
(31:14):
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?
(31:38):
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
(32:00):
restaurant I can waitress at, and I'm doing stand up
comedy kinda like I didn't want to be a comedian.
I wanted to be an actress. So every now and
then I would go do like a five minute set
at whatever bar, whatever, laundry mat whatever, you know what
I mean. But I didn't want to be a stand
up so I wasn't like pursuing it. And I get
(32:25):
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,
(32:48):
I think, excuse me, sir, she has to go. This
was so fun, so much. Tune in for part two.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
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.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Angela Johnson Rayes. Please say tune for Part two of
Those Amigos.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Dose Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
Michael through That Podcast Network, hosted by me Freddie Rodriguez
and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts
and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by
Madison Devenport and Helo.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Boy Our cover our photography is by David Avalos and
designed by Deny Holt.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Claw And thank you for being a third amigo today.
I appreciate you guys always listening to those amigos.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
More podcasts from my Heart, visit the r Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
See you next week, assass
How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
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.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Well let's see here we have esteemed comedian, former NFL cheerleader,
former Mad TV cash member, Angela Johnson.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
And come on, come on, I mean we have such
a big audience here. They told that to cheers much.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
It's Angela Johnson Rays. Now I added my married name
name in the game.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We all appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
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.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
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
on your phone. This was the Thomas Guide and everything
(01:21):
like that. I would print out my map from the
computer at home, my my Yahoo maps, and I would
print it out, and if I ever got lost, I
would call my dad and tell him what street I
was on, and then he would navigate me to get
to my 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
(01:42):
grew up here in LA and then moved to the Bay.
My mom's from the Bay from San Jose.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Ethnically, where are your parents from?
Speaker 4 (01:51):
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
(02:14):
born here, I think in Utah.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Yeah, what tribe?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
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
(02:44):
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,
(03:07):
in Arizona when I was a little kid. But I
don't know anything about it. I wish I did.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
And both of your parents are from the same tribe.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
No, I don't know what my mom's bloodline is connected to.
I only know from my dad's side.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
And so you lived up in the Bay And when
did you decide to come down to Los Angeles two.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Thousand and three, I moved here. I was a cheerleader
for the Oakland Raiders.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Before you came here.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
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
(04:00):
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
(04:22):
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.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
What you put in the resume because I have, you know,
I put the most unnecessary stuff and in special skills?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
How did you fill your out?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
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.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
And you did absolutely no acting before.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
You did no, zero, nothing. You were just like I
want to be an actress, like high nothing like that.
I love it.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Was doing she was doing it. She was a yah,
I knew.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Somebody famous was this is just like how how do
I do?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Like holding up the rasher tell you I'm such a
similar moment to yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
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.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
An actual past.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
You have some kind yet.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
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
(06:37):
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,
(06:58):
you should come try out, and I started to think
about it. I was like, you know what, I'm.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Gonna go try out interest and challenge like yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
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.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So unfortunately, if you hadn't made it.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Let me tell you what was.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
The tryout? Like what did so?
Speaker 4 (07:32):
It was in Oakland. There was seven hundred girls at
this open call audition the first.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I mean everyone wanted to be a Raider girl dude
like in the day dooms.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
They're hanging out sandwiches. Everyone shows up.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
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
(08:16):
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.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Now, did you have any dancing experience, You're like.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
No other than the Pop Warner cheerleading.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I had a rhythm, yeah, yeah, yeah, yah.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I could dance.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
You could probably remember choreography.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
And sync exactly, but I didn't know technical dance moves
like purowets.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, and you know that that job was giving to
that one person that can do it. Everybody else can
do the dance.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
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.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Like, oh, it's a performance. Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
And it was a whole different vibe from what I
grew up doing.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Did you feel like you were getting character too, Like,
were you like somehow embodying something else?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
I definitely it was one of those like till you
make it.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
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.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And then all of a sudden something else wakes up and.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
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
(09:41):
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 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.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
My hair, right.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
But that's what they're looking for.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
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.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
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.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
Dance experience, no way.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
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.
(11:02):
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
(11:24):
did it for one year. We went to the super
Bowl that year, like what a year?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Topict.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
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
(11:52):
an extra on Friends. That was my first Still to
this day, it's my favorite job.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
I wait, wait, so talk so so walk us through
that experience.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Oh magical experience, let me tell you.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
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
(12:24):
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
(12:47):
that code for something?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
No?
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
But you know what, I gotta tell you something.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
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.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
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
(13:27):
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,
(13:47):
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.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
Yeah I do.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Like live audience, the whole thing, some monsters.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
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
(14:34):
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 like the
(14:56):
most you get the SAG voucher. Once you got three
of them, then you got to join the union. 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
(15:16):
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
(15:41):
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 nextally, I'm gonna bring you
(16:02):
back again. Next you know, I was an extra for
season nine and ten. I'm in the background.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
You can see me like making a living.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Also that at that time friends had I mean yeah,
they were like the biggest show.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Oh, the best service.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
So the craft service was like you know, probably corn
dogs and lobsters. Oh one night did they recorded Friday Nightdays?
Speaker 4 (16:40):
It was magic.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Did you ever cut a reel of like all of
your like walk away? I should do that, you should.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
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
(17:09):
screen and I see myself walk by in the background,
and it was this magical movement.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
Yes, of like this is.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
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.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
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, 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.
(17:51):
Going back to the set of friends. You were there
for so long, like how was the cast? Was the
cast credible?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
There will really cool people.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
You were there so often that at some point you're gonna.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
That's so crazy.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
And did you did you have you bumped into any
of them? Since you no interesting, I haven't interesting.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Should you should invite them to one of your shows?
Speaker 4 (18:48):
I should?
Speaker 5 (18:50):
And and then and then that should be a part
of your show.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Done that for that.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
To make it happen.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yeah, if you're entire castcast too well. I do have
a funny story of one time I was a stalker.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeahed to break.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
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,
(19:34):
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.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I'm like, bliss, oh.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
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.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
Didn't you didn't tell her your name, or it was
just a weirdo.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
I didn't buy anything, I didn't bite.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I can't. Nobody teaches us well say like no, I
don't what to say in that situation, you know, like
what do you say?
Speaker 4 (20:20):
It was such a weirdo.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So now you have to invite Marda Coffin in your
podcast if you're watching.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
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?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
And then which ones were those?
Speaker 4 (20:42):
I crashed every audition I could love it. 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.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Up with your friend that Oh yeah, I was.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
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.
(21:26):
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
(21:46):
on your resume. Just say you were like Yolanda or somebody.
And he's Hector and everything, right exactly, So every basically
everything he was on probably Latinos. There there's some chola
next to him, you were the chola. Just put Yolanda.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
I was mousey.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
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.
It's not extensive, it's not thirty things, there's like six things,
you know, like I'm still getting started out.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, a perfect heist. Oh the perfect.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
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
(22:48):
cast that show. I don't remember you.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Ah, oh my god? Why why?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Okay, just go it's weird.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
But did it Did it say like the actual episode
you were on?
Speaker 4 (23:08):
No, it just said the show and my character.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I think, yeah, I mean, but at this point, like
to you and I remember everything your cast?
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah, twenty three episodes show.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Did you get the part?
Speaker 4 (23:23):
I booked it. It's one of those things. I always
remember you.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
But on the beginning, I don't know what I got
to do.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
To get in here, but I got to show you
I can do this. It was training, but I can
do it.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
The beginning of this podcast, we all kind of shared,
you know, the the delusion of bliss and outgoingness of
the hustle. Yeah, and we talked about those moments where
we just kind of hacked the game a little bit.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And in order to.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
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, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
And and that story reminds me so much.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
When when we talk about like I used to go
to Backstage West and go to the agent submission only
auditions because we know those were the good ones. Cata
Cauls were like, you know, here we go, but like
agent submission. So I would show up and I will
memorize my auditions. I memorize from like people's shoulders, you know,
and I just.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Rise because I didn't get his sighs.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
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.
I just memorized, memorized, and then I put like you know,
Smiths and Associates because I thought it was like a
very Caucasian.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
And then in the number, I like to put my
pager because I was like, yeah, it was pretty it
was pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
So you reminded me of that moment because that's like
sometimes especially we we have to be scrappyard, you.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Know, also like we can't.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
We're not gonna we're not gonna enter through the front door,
you know, and no it us really into through the
front door.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
We have to kind of bullishly get optimistic and.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
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
(25:33):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Little lights the fire up again.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
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.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
I don't know what that thing was. And the same
with you, right, you knew you had something in you.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
So yeah, we could sit there and hack the system
and crash auditions and all that, but all of that is.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
But once we're rod.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah, yeah, it's predicated you knowing that there's something there
which is beyond like, oh, I just.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Want to be famous.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Oh, yeah, or like a dream, you know, your inner self,
you know, you possessed something.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
So you booked a bunch of guest stars and then
a few few guests and then you landed.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
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.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Can you can you say what, Joe?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Yeah, it's called Love and it was on upn.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Love Love Ink Loving Club Love Ink.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
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
(27:28):
and the cast said, well, what about Angela?
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Yeah, she's always saying a line?
Speaker 4 (27:32):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
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 reside.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
The entire scene. Some stand ins, you know, choose to
perform the whole scene for.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
When, by the way, the cameras are not rolling, but
they're performing this scene with the other stand ins to make.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
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.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Okay, why do you think they would say not to
perform it?
Speaker 6 (28:33):
I don't know, fear they that I'd be better and
then Jennifer Aniston would be no more.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
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,
(29:06):
an acting class, production if you want to get a production,
there's production class. Because it's a church in Hollywood, so
they know that most of their congregation is people trying
to be the entertainment industry. So they had all these
free classes that they offered. I was in their acting
class and we would play improv games and I would
be funny in the improv games. And then there was
a woman who was there who said, Hey, do you
(29:27):
want to come take my joke writing stand up comedy class?
And I was like, I don't know. 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,
(29:48):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I love it when people say that.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
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
(30:22):
audience knew this was a graduating stand up class. They
knew just laugh it was not funny. Is a warm wind?
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah? Of course.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
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
(30:50):
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
(31:14):
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?
(31:38):
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
(32:00):
restaurant I can waitress at, and I'm doing stand up
comedy kinda like I didn't want to be a comedian.
I wanted to be an actress. So every now and
then I would go do like a five minute set
at whatever bar, whatever, laundry mat whatever, you know what
I mean. But I didn't want to be a stand
up so I wasn't like pursuing it. And I get
(32:25):
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,
(32:48):
I think, excuse me, sir, she has to go. This
was so fun, so much. Tune in for part two.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
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.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Angela Johnson Rayes. Please say tune for Part two of
Those Amigos.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Dose Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
Michael through That Podcast Network, hosted by me Freddie Rodriguez
and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts
and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by
Madison Devenport and Helo.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Boy Our cover our photography is by David Avalos and
designed by Deny Holt.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Claw And thank you for being a third amigo today.
I appreciate you guys always listening to those amigos.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
More podcasts from my Heart, visit the r Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
See you next week, assass
Hosts And Creators
Wilmer Valderrama
Freddy Rodriguez
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