ANJELAH JOHNSON-REYES interview with Rex

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Hello, Hello, is it you? I'm looking for a yes, Hey,
what are you doing? Rex?Over here on C one oh one?
We didn't we talked to like sixmonths ago or something like that.
But you you did a lot morein the last six months than I did.

(00:22):
You've been like crazy busy. Iwas looking at your whole layout here.
You have like four pages of stuffthat you're doing and things that you've
done, which is incredible. AndI already watched most of your comedy specials.
Say I won't on YouTube and peoplecan actually watch that thing for free.

(00:44):
What made you say, you knowwhat, I'm just gonna put this
out on YouTube instead of doing youknow, I guess the traditional you know,
movie thing where you have to goand subscribe to something. You've You've
pretty much made this whole thing free. What was the reasoning behind that.
It's a very full circle moment forme because my career started on this brand
new thing called YouTube back in twothousand and seven. One of my videos,

(01:08):
the Nail Salon video, is thefirst comedy video to go viral,
and it popped off my career andit catapulted me to where I am today.
From there, I did mad TV, where I did one quickly,
I did comedy special after comedy special. I'm now in my sixth one,
and it just felt very full circleto bring it back to the platform where

(01:30):
it all started for me. Ais it a curse? The nail thing?
Is? I mean, because Iimagine anywhere you go people want you
to do that voice and to sortof reenact some of that original YouTube video
for them. Do you. Imean, I'm sure you love it.
I mean, it's what essentially launchedyou into fame. But is it one

(01:52):
of those things where you're like,look, I've got other stuff too.
Oh yeah, totally. It's Ican't not do the joke at my live
shows, like it's it's my scarewayto Heaven. I definitely I have to
give it to everybody, but therenow I present it in my show kind
of like as a thank you,as as an encore, like thanks for

(02:13):
riding with me for this long,like we just had an amazing time.
You heard a bunch of new material, and now here's the joke that has
become so nostalgic for you, andit's it's memories. It reminds you of
your your mom, it reminds youof that one time when you and your
friends were quoting me back in highschool and like all the things. So

(02:34):
it's it's a joke that's become biggerthan a joke. It's like nostalgic for
people. It's really cool. AndI was noticing Angela Johnson Rayez, did
you just add this? When didyou do the hyphen thing? How long
has that been going on? Listen? I was about my tenth year in
marriage where I was like, Okay, I think he's earned it. I
think, yeah, I think he'sproved he's gonna stick around. I think

(02:59):
I'll give it to him all rightnow. How how many products from Costco
are you currently wearing right now?Because that's one of the things that you
address in your comedy special and beingsomeone that is I'm new to Costco.
I never went until like the lastyear because being in in Corpus Christie,
we don't have a Costco there.But my girl and I we bought this

(03:22):
kind of cool farmhouse thing near likeFort Worth, and Costco is everywhere.
And I'm telling you right now,I'm wearing a Kirkland's bathrobe and Kirkland's T
shirt and kirkland shorts and Kirkland socksright now, I don't know what they
is. It an a company ascan be. I can't help it.

(03:43):
I love it. I follow Costcoaccounts on social media, yeah, and
they'll post like all the new thingsthat are at Costco. But then I'll
go to my local Costco and theydon't have like the new Kirkland slides are
the new kirk In sweatsuit And I'mlike, how where do I get this?
I want the new Kirkland because I'mpart of that Kirkland gang gang.

(04:05):
Yeah. My latest Costco purchase wassomebody posted on TikTok these led solar lights
and I went and bought three boxesof them, and I love them.
Twenty five bucks a box. I'mlike, yes, this is perfect.
Costco is the best. There.You go and you address that in your
comedy special and it is absolutely falldown hilarious. The one thing that I

(04:28):
noticed is that you never in yourspecial, you never really take that slow
beat. It just seems to belike hit after hit after hit. Did
you write it like this before?And how much of this comes to you
spontaneously when you're on stage? Well, this is the show that I was
touring with all last year, andI had the best time with this material.

(04:53):
I had so much fun. Iwas, you know, once we
record a special, we release it, then it's done. Then you got
to move onto new material. AndI was honestly kind of sad to see
this material go because I had somuch fun with it and just putting it
all together. And I love seeingthe response from people just in the comment
section and they're reposting me on socialmedia, they're taking videos of their family,

(05:18):
like sneaky videos of their family laughingat my show, and I love
seeing that. I love seeing people'sresponse to this hour of material that I
curated and talk about my life andhow much it relates with people, because
that's always my number one goal,Like yes, to make people laugh,
but also to connect with people ona human level and have people be like,

(05:41):
oh my god, me too.Yeah. It's really It's the bottom
line is when you're finished watching it, you're happier than when you started.
So it's like goal achieved. Ithink for you know, you being a
comedian, it's like you're making peoplereally happy. You know. Sometimes you
go I could tell you about acomedy show that I went and saw in

(06:01):
Vegas and I walked out and Iwas in the worst mood ever. I
don't want to tell you who Isaw. It didn't it didn't strike me
like personally or anything. It's justwhen you're waiting to see the comedian and
I have to watch, you know, four forty five minute sets before the
superstar hits the stage. I wasalready drunk and over it. I'm like,

(06:23):
oh God, I came here tosee this guy, and I know
somebody just oh. It's like,don't you know, don't make people wait
through four openers that are forty fiveminutes each. When you when you do
your shows, I assume you useeither a local opener or somebody you tour
with, and it's pretty much,you know, a quick set and then
onto you, which is cool.Yeah. I do a two man show,

(06:46):
so I bring my opener. Hedoes about twenty five minutes, and
then I come out on stage perfect, perfect that. That's what we do.
That's all the people, that's allthe people want, that's all they
need. It's like, give mewho I paid to see. Now.
Was the move like for you goingfrom California to Nashville, Because I've heard
a lot of people are moving toNashville. I've got friends in Nashville that

(07:08):
are, you know, photographers anddifferent people in the music industry and whatnot.
How what made you pick Nashville?Is you just because it's booming right
now. Well, my husband's inthe music industry, so it makes sense
for us to be there. Healways has writing sessions there, and we've
been going to Nashville for years andyears because of his music career. But
it's been like little things are different, you know, like when I go

(07:31):
to a restaurant and I order aniced tea automatically comes with three pounds of
sugar in it, and you know, they call it sweet tea, We
call it diabete. You know,same, same. But I'm definitely learning
a lot being a California girl onthe South, that's for sure. And
that's what I'm talking about in thisspecial is sharing all the things that I've
learned moving to Nashville. Now.You are highly recognizable now, I mean

(07:58):
like people see you, they knowexactly who you are. Are. There
places you go where people don't knowwho you are, and you're surprised,
I mean, you're surprised by thator are you one of those people?
I mean, you walk in aroom and you go, okay, I
can tell who already knows who Iam when I get here. Oh,
it's it's all of the above.It's definitely you can tell when somebody clocks

(08:18):
you and then they're telling all thetable at the restaurant about you, like
you see the message flying, yousee all of that. And then there'll
be sometimes where I go to acity and they're like, what's your name
again? Who are you? Youknow? And it's like, okay,
I'm still growing in this market.I got you. I read you a

(08:39):
loud and clear. What do you? What do you? What do you
want to do next? Because you'vedone TV, You've done film, the
comedy special, I mean what happensnext to each one of those things?
Just get bigger? Or is theresome goal that you haven't achieved? Is
there something that claus at you thatyou haven't done yet? All of the

(09:00):
above, Yes, it all getsbigger. And I hope to have my
own sitcom one day. I wouldlove to do my own show. That's
definitely. It's surprising to me thatthey haven't already had you do that?
Tell you the truth? You know? Well? Thank you? Can you
tell everybody you know that, pleaseI will. I hadn't even thought of
that doing your own sitcom. Butnowadays, the way TV works, I

(09:22):
mean, things are so easily missed. You know. It's like, I'll
tell you the honest truth. Ijust finished watching all of Lost. That's
how bad I am, and Iam currently watching every episode. You're going
to be shocked of Friends. Ijust wasn't into it. Oh, I

(09:43):
wasn't into it when it came out, and then now finding these things,
it's like sitting down and going,Okay, which service has this show that
I'm looking for? You know,it's well, here, here's a little
fun fact for your I started mycareer as an extra on Friends. Did
you really? Yep? So whenyou get to seasons nine and ten,

(10:05):
the last two seasons, look forme in the background and you will see
me. Oh that is cool.Did you do extra work on films and
stuff like that when you were clawingyour way up? Oh? Yeah.
That was how I survived was Iwould be an extra and I would go
to the craft service table, andthat I would fill up my backpack with
groceries at the craft service table.That's how I survived. Wouldn't it the

(10:28):
best thing if you're at the crafttable. Some people understand what we're talking
about it, some people don't.If you ever been an extra in a
movie, there's like where the bigstars eat that you're not allowed to go,
and then there's sort of the crafttable and celebrities that are like on
that film or whatever. If theyvisit, you know, the commoners,
that's a big deal, you know, if you're oh yeah, they walk

(10:48):
into that tent where you are,and everybody's like, how can I make
myself shine? How do I getnoticed? How can I be a featured
extra? That is so cool?All right, Well, you can check
out Angela Johnson Rayas say I won't, and you're going to find it right
there on YouTube, easy enough.I'll make sure that we share the link

(11:09):
on all of our social media stuffover here at the radio station. But
thank you so much for taking sometime and hanging out with me this morning. Thank you