September 24, 2024 • 34 mins
Need a laugh? Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, my podcast guest, is one of the most successful stand-up comedians today with six comedy specials streaming on various platforms and selling out theaters across the world.
She may be most well known for her hilarious Nail Salon Sketch that's become part of our everyday vernacular. Most recently she launched a Mental Health podcast called Funjelah that focuses on gratitude, because, in Anjelah's words, "When you remind yourself of what you’re grateful for and say it out loud, you’re not only speaking good into the world, but good into yourself." Funjelah offers dose after healing dose of gratitude and humor. Enjoy a few laughs on us! ~ Delilah
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Oh, where did the month go? September was here with
lots of birthdays, lots of big birthdays in my family,
and then wish the month was gone. I did find
myself saying that often I'm in a perpetual state of
surprise with every passing month, every passing season, every passing year.
(00:27):
Now when they say it all goes by so fast,
they aren't kidding. You know what happened in a nanosecond.
My babies grew up. My first born son, Isaiah, turned
forty forty forty this month, and my second born, Sheila,
(00:54):
will have her thirtieth birthday before the month is over.
Remember being in awe when they were five and fifteen,
but nothing prepared me for this. I am, however, happy
and grateful that they are happy and well and living
their best lives or raising their own children, beautiful children.
(01:16):
I'm even hearing more than a few heavy size from
them that time is moving too swiftly and their babies
are growing up too fast. But you know what the
best balm is to everything, humor. If you can laugh,
If you can have a good laugh once or twice
a day, ah, it makes all the other things survivable.
(01:43):
Today's podcast guest offers dose upon healing, dose of humor.
Angela Johnson Rays is one of the most successful stand
up comedians today, with six comedy specials streaming on various
platforms and selling out theaters around the world. Her most
(02:04):
recent special, Say I Won't, debut on YouTube in twenty
twenty three with over four point two million views in counting.
She might be best known for her nail salon sketch
that was memorized line by line by all my daughters
and nieces and maybe one or two myself, and has
(02:29):
been quoted at family gatherings. Angela, who was born and
raised in San Jose, California, is of Mexican and Native
American descent. Her life and her family feature prominently in
her comedy sketches. She published her first memoir titled Who
Do I Think I Am in twenty twenty two. She's
(02:49):
guest starred on shows such as Life and Beth, Superstore,
The Shield, Ugly Betty, and Curbear Enthusiasm. Her film roles
in clin Lude Enough Said, Our Family Wedding, and My
Favorite Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Squeak Quell. Angela also
joined Eddie Murphy and Tracy Ellis Ross in the Amazon
(03:13):
Prime feature Candy Cane Lane. In February, she returned for
the second season of the Hulu original series Life and
Beth and hosted the to be original series My Crazy Quins,
which dropped in me. Most recently, she launched a podcast
about mental health called Fungela that focuses on gratitude because,
(03:37):
in Angela's words, when you remind yourself of what you're
grateful for and say it out loud, you're not only
speaking good into the world, but good into yourself. Can't
wait to get into our conversation with Angela and share
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and Love twenty four with me on today's edition of Love.
Someone is Angela Johnson rays You're so pretty.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Thank you. I put makeup on for you.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I put makeup on for you. I put my lips on.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Look at that like it's a good Yeah. Here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
I growing up, like teenage twenties, I would rarely wear
lipstick because my lips were like already vibrant, like I
didn't need it. And I remember my thea Mary, who
lived to be one hundred and two years old. She
wore lipstick till the day she died. She loved putting
on her lipstick. And I would be I'd be like,
why is she still putting lipstick on? I don't care.
And then now that I'm aging a little bit more,
I notice, I'm like, oh, I need to put.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Some lipstick on. Like now I care about putting lipstick on.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I don't. If I'm going to go out, I have
to have my lipstick on. And I have a granddaughter
who lives on my property. She's five. She's so cute
and every day but she's just starting kindergarten. Before kindergarten start,
she comes her. They have an apartment that's on my property,
and she runs over to the farmhouse where I am
(06:49):
says Gramma, NA, I need my lipsticks, and it's flural.
I need my lipsticks.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Special that she gets to run to Grandma's house before
school and get her lipsticks.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Also, your properties sounds amazing. Can I move in?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
You can? There's plenty of room there is there's fifty
five acres and so you're you are more than welcome
and your husband. I have a music room above my
carport for my kids because I'm old and cranky. So
when they want to like jam, because they're not professional
musicians and it's really loud and noisy, they can go
(07:25):
above the carport and jam. So he could probably put
his equipment up there and something incredible. Yeah, yeah, we
have a fire pit in the backyard so he can
like play under the stars and oh magical.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
This is so dreamy what you're describing right now. I
love this. I love this for us. Since I now
live there.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
You and I can just tell stupid jokes all day long.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Do it like?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You make me laugh Angela so hard I pee myself
thanks to lan well sneezing makes me pee myself. So
that's a compliment, but take it with a grain of Yeah.
My girls had memorized your whole pretty nails routine years ago,
(08:09):
and every time I would say, because I don't do
my nails. You can see here. I'm a farm girl.
I have animals and I've been canning. But my toes.
I gotta do my toes. I just I cannot have coffee.
I can't.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
No, no, I can't.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I'll cut my own ankles with my one foot and
I'll be like, oh, no, I gotta go get a petty.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, it's time to get a petty when you're cutting
yourself with your on toenails. And I would say, I'm
you know, don't bother me. I'm going to be gone
for an hour or two. I'm gonna go get a pedicure.
They're like, ah, you got a boyfriend. They would do
your whole routine.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, it's wild how that joke is seventeen years old.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It's very old, and yet it's open.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
It's part of our vernacular now. Yes, it's become like
I cannot say anything about a petticure and to make
my husband go with me without one of my girls saying, ah,
you got a boyfriend.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's wild.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I was just having this conversation with somebody about how
my joke has become a part of people's everyday life,
like they quote it on a regular even just like, hey, yeah,
the grocery story, give me an apple?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
How many? Just one?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And they throw that in there in any part of
their daily life. And I think about like the movies
that I quote, Dumb and Dummer, Wayne's World, like from
my era that still are in my everyday life. I
quote these movies and I'm like, that's wild to me
to think that my joke is a part of somebody
else's life that they quote when they do every time
they do this one thing.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I love that. What's your favorite favorite all time movie
to quote?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Oh, those two that I just said, but probably Dumb
and Dumber, I would Yeah, it has to be Dumb
and Dummer.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, so for me, stop it now, I mean it.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
What's that from?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
You were supposed to say? Does anyone a benut? You've
never seen Princess Bride? You've not watched Princess Bride? Angela
that one you?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Everyone hates me right now?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I know, no, No, As one of my favorite comedians,
I have to tell you before the day is over,
you have to watch Princess Bride at least once, if
not five times. Okay, this is one of those things
that I knew I was going to marry my husband
when we became friends and he started quoting Princess Bride,
and I'm like, oh my.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
God, he's the one.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
He's the one. He's the man with six fingers. You know.
You have to watch it.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Okay, I'll do it just for you, and I think
about you the whole time.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Do do There are so many great characters in it,
and there's so many great lines in it. You're gonna
you're gonna call me back and you're gonna just like.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
They just quote again. I can finish it.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Now, Yeah, I can do it. I can do it.
I'm not a witch. I'm your wife, all right. Okay.
So something that you helped me understand in your comedy,
not even knowing you helped me understand it. I didn't
know the what ifs were anxiety. Yeah, I didn't know
the what ifs were anxiety.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yep mm hmm. Here you were just thinking you were
a healthy, old, thriving.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Thriving mama bear uh, and that the what ifs are
actually like maybe anxiety. Yeah, this is how bad my
what ifs are. They're as bad as yours.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Tell me, tell me.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I have a best friend and I didn't hear from
her one day and like we talk every day, it's
a sad I hadn't heard from her, and so I
called her, and then I called her and left jerky comments,
you know, on her flassage. And then I texted her
and she didn't text me back. And after like you know,
(11:58):
the second text, I was sure she's got some very
steep stairs in her house that I said, my daughter,
you did she lives a mile away, I said, my daughter,
because I was sure tripped on the stairs, dog ran
underneath her, lost her balance and what happened. She was
(12:20):
not happy when midnight my daughter is waking her up.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Wait, you were calling.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You were trying to get a hold of her at midnight, well,
because I hadn't heard from her during the day, and
by because it was all day.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah, I see, And by the time I got to
the end of the day, you're like, I can't, I
can't go by. You know, we could have avoided.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
We could have avoided this, thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, but you let the whole day go by. That's
good on you.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I recently had my brother here visiting and he's up early,
like seven am. He's already gone for a rind and
come back and it was like almost eight am, and
he still hadn't come downstairs yet.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
My first thought he died.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
He died.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
He's right upstair.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
I'm like, oh my god, somebody poisoned him. Somebody broke
in last night, he tripped and fell.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I didn't hear it. He's for sure dead.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
And then I text him you good good morning, and
he didn't reply.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And I was like, oh my god, this is the day.
This is the day. And then like ten minutes later
he comes downstairs. But it was just the day. He
was flying out, so he was busy packing up.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
His suitcase whatever, whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
But back, how dare you pack up.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Your suitcase and make me think that you're dead. So
in one of your specials, you were talking about how
you how you signed your husband up for the find
Me app find a Friend app on your phone? You
signed him up on.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Sure, I did.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I gotta steal my friend's phone so I can sign
her up on my phone.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Okay, there's a better one I'll tell you about. Okay,
So Find my Friends comes on Apple phones, Like everybody
gets that one. But there's another one Life three sixty.
I think it's called girl. This one is nosy. This
one I get alerts on my phone. Manuel just finished
a thirty mile drive. His mac speed was seventy six
(14:10):
miles per hour. Yes, it'll tell me. I think it'll
even tell if he used his phone while he was driving,
Like it's no sock. Oh yeah, it gives me all
the goods.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
And so do you have to download the app on
the other person's phone in order for you to follow them?
So how am I gonna find? How am I going
to get hold of my adult children's phones and download
a party?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Everybody, come over.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
We're having dinner at the farm, the ranch, whatever you said,
you had right to come over. We're doing a little dinner.
But this one. Listen, you guys, no phones. You guys
are always on your phones. Everybody put your phones right
here on the counter.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And leave your password on.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Your password right there next to it.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Because I have adult children, I would do that with
what's your worst? What if? I mean the one of
your husband, which is in your routine, dying on the
freeway outside of your house.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
That was I thought he was dead. I looked it was.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
The story is he went to the movies with friends
and he called me when he was on his way back.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I fell asleep. Okay, Well it was too hot in
the room, so.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
He just slept on the couch, is what it was.
But I woke up at two in the morning and
he was not there, and I was like, no. I
talked to him at eleven pm. He was on his
way home, and he's still not home. And his bed
hadn't even been lived in, you know what I mean,
Like it was still flat. He had not even It's
not that he came in for a little bit and
he got up, it was still flat. I said, oh,
he's dead. Immediately he died. I call him, he's not answering.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Oh damn. And then I checked the friend finder. It
shows his phone on the side of the freeway, like
it lied to me. I would have been okay, but.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
It showed he was in the house somewhere and they'd
be like, okay, I'll let me just go.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I wonder if there's like somebody that can control that,
or going, let's mess with her, let's really mess with her.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
How did this happen? Like, how was that even possible?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
It was literally a mile away on the side of
the freeway, like it was a lag of some I
don't know what, but I really thought he was dead
until I came downstairs and I saw him on the couch.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I really was like, how do I But you.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Hadn't called the cops or or an adult daughter to
go check on him like I did.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
No, I started playing in the funeral in my brain.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, and what were you wearing? What were you gonna
wear to the funeral?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Something very modest? Something.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
But I don't want people to think I'm already back
on the market, you know what I mean? Like it's
just something cover up because if I so much to
cleave and then be like, ooh, she trying to get
wiped up again?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You know what I mean? Just no, just so.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Covered dress, slack suit, jumpsuit, like.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Not a dress, No, it would be pants, definitely can
mm hmmm yep, he.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Are you flat flies? But my husband always loved it,
loved it like he's already died.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
He uh, okay, dress up the best.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Maybe I do that for him the best.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
The best part of that was when you said I
didn't even think about that he might be cheating, that
he might be out with somebody else. I thought he
was dead, because if he was cheating, it'd be.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Dead, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Please ah, you kill me. So many of your routines
just like speak to my heart in such a sweet way.
And now you're doing a podcast Fungela.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Yeah, I am. I.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I started this podcast because it was one of my
tools that I use in my mental health and on
the road touring.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
It's like I talk about my anxiety and that one
special and the wood ifs and all that kind of stuff,
just struggling with anxiety sometimes depression sometimes just like the
intrusive thoughts, like all the stuff that I'd be dealing with.
And I had different tools over the years, different supplements
that I would use, different breathing techniques that I would use,
(18:20):
my gratitude journal, prayer, whatever it may be. And the
one that I would go to the most because it
worked quickly, it was efficient, it was free, and it
was right there within you is gratitude. And when we
start practicing gratitude, you say the thing that you're grateful
for out loud, and then you hear yourself saying the
(18:40):
thing that you're grateful for. So it's one thing to
think about what are you grateful for? And you're already
changing your mood just thinking about these things. Think about
something positive instead.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Of something negative. You already did a step in changing it.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
But then when you say it out loud, now you
actually hear yourself. So you're using different senses too, now
your mind, now your ears, you're saying it out loud.
So it's this big gratitude circle that goes in and out,
in and out of your body. You just start raising
your vibration, raising it to like this level where you
start attracting like beautiful things in your life. And so
I said, I'm going to do a podcast based on
(19:12):
gratitude and just practice gratitude with people. So I bring
guests on and we talk about five things that they're
grateful for in their life, and it leads to amazing
stories that they have. And we also do one mattitude
and the one mattitude is the thing that's making you
mad these days, giving you a bad attitude.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Or as I like to call it, a matitude.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
And so we start with the one, we get it
out of our body, we let it go, and then
we move into gratitude and we just talk about stuff
that we're grateful for, put out the good vibes.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
What a wonderful tool.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
What is your matitude today?
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Ooh, my matitude today. Let's see you know, today's been
a really good day.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Okay, you put your makeup on, so I put my
magamon on for you. I had to, although I almost
I'll be honest. I started walking up to the office
to come beyond here. But I was a half hour
early and I had no makeup on. I was like, ooh,
I'm be late.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I was like, wait, I have a half hour, so
I put makeabon.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
My mattitude these days is these little gnats and I
don't know if they're coming from the sink.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Fruit flies, but are they gnats or fruitflies?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I think they're nuts because sometimes I'll see them.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Nats are lighter colored, but fruitflies, fruit flies can go
in the bathroom. How scary? Did I know this?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Well, I mean you live out on some acreage, so
I'm sure you have a lot of knowledge of critters
and insects and stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
And I'm canning. It's canning season.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
What's that mean?
Speaker 1 (20:41):
It means I garden all spring in summer stupidly hundreds
of acres or dozens of acres, and then fall hits
and I'm like, I am five hundred bushels of corn
that I have to blanch and freeze and can and
dry and dehydrated.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Oh, I see what you're saying, actual canning of food
to eat and use and store.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Oh. During twenty twenty, I started a garden and.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
I absolutely loved it. And I ended up pickling my
own cucumbers. Oh my gosh, it was so fun and
they were so No, I've never tasted a pickle as
good as my pickle, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Like, it was so fun.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
And then we moved and then now I split time
and I'm not in one place long enough to actually
have a garden and take care of it.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
But I miss it. That was so fun.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah, if I had, if I had to do that,
I would figure out how to do a portable garden.
I don't know. I it's my happy place.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
It is. And do you feel more? This is what
I only did it for that one year. But do
you feel like connected.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
To God or source or whatever you call it? Like,
do you feel I feel connected to God when I garden?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah, I'm in the garden of Eden house. My farm
is the garden of Eton. It really truly is. I'm
I'm obsessed with my plants, not like I know the
names of them. I just know them, like, oh, I
love that. I have a girlfriend who knows the names
(22:18):
the scientific you know, genus, species, blah blah blah. She goes, oh,
that's you know, miraculous, slovaculous. I'm like, okay, I just
you know, but I know them, and I know there's seasons,
and I know what they like and what they don't like.
And it's like I have relationships with my plants. That
(22:41):
sounds right.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I fully know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
That's why I say I love that, because that I
feel like that's how I was for that year that
I did my garden, and it was almost like they
were characters in my life. And so anytime I would
go in tend to the garden, it was I was
talking to my garden. I was communicating. I was like
speaking life over my garden. I would just be like, tomatoes,
y'all look good.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Like it was just a whole thing.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
I mean, I have sassy ones. They talk back, They're
like I know I do. Yeah, don't you wish you
look this good? Ah?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Then I look at how ripe I am.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Uh huh uh yeah. And they were just my garden
became like characters. And then every time I would leave
to go back because my garden was up on a hill,
and then I might have to go back down the
steps to my house. So every time I would leave,
I would say bye to my garden. I would thank
my garden. I'd be like, okay, guys, see you tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Like it was a whole No. Granted was twenty twenty COVID.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
We were all home, so they were my company, but
it was it was very special time.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I really really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I enjoy talking to my garden more than I enjoyed
talking to a lot of people. I know that sounds terrible,
but I love being out in my gardens.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I you have a favorite part of your garden.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
It's all, you know. It's all different in like different
moods and different plants have different personalities.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
And what fruit trees do you have?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I have over one hundred fruit trees.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I mean you have all those acres. Of course you do.
But what okay, just.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
So we don't do any it's not warm up here,
so we can't do like citrus. There's no oranges? Oh
really okay, yeah, it's all like apples plums, pears, peaches, nice.
My plum trees were so loaded this year they broke.
The limbs broke. Oh, I had so many plums.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
So I grew up with a plum tree in our backyard.
It was a mess. It was because we never like
harvested them or anything.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
You just let them drop on the ground and attract
the bees.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, I was too young. I didn't know anything about it.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Did you ever step on a bee while you were
out in the backyard with a squishy po isn't that
the worst?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
My?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Okay, so this was a sad part. Right before we
sold our house, we didn't know we were going to
be leaving. I thought we're going there for years and years.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
And I had just.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Planted orange tree, apple, lemons and limes, avocado, which I
know is like a five year investment, but I was
super excited about it.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
And I had just planted my trees. Maybe I had
them for like five months.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
And then you moved and then we moved.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
It was so sad.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
And then I kept in touch with the people who
bought her house, and did you say.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Send me the avocados when they start coming on? Okay,
because those are mine?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Well, here's the sad part.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
I had asked them one time how the garden was doing,
and she's like, oh, I don't even go up there. No,
did I just think about like my tomatoes.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Just be like what happened?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Where did you go?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
I had to say goodbye to my girl.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I cried.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
I cried when I said goodbye to my garden. And
like now I'm gonna sound like crazy garden lady. I
bawled my eyes out saying goodbye to my garden.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I get it, my friends.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I have one plant and it's just a little spider plant.
Started in my grandma's garden and it was in her
garden and all of us got a piece of it.
And so I got my piece and I planted it
in my garden at my house. And then when we
sold the house, and you may believe, I was out
there with a shovel. Ohay, my grandma plant with me,
(26:20):
believe it.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
And now it's in a little pot in the front
of our California house that we have, and so it
just stays on the porch and a little.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So you go back and forth between Nashville, we do
catching up with comedian Angela Johnson, Rays and looking forward
to the rest of our chat. Just want to pause
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are you touring now?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I am.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
I'm not on a tour, like a specific name tour,
but I am on the road because this year was
my writing year where I write my new Hour.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
So I go to a lot of different.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Comedy clubs, casinos, and I just get that repetition in
show after show, off to show, so I can try
different jokes, try it a different way, play with it
a little bit, mold it, get.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
My hour to where it is.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
And then next year I'm about to announce, actually I
think coming up soon, I'm about to announce my next
big tour that's going to start next year, and that's
going to be a huge, big theater performance run.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
We got to come up with a traveling garden for you,
like are you on a van? Are you on a bus?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Are you to be on a bus?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
You'll be on a bus. Maybe maybe a little spider
plant that you can give some window access to on
the bus.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
That's actually a good idea because then because my daughter's
coming with us, my first time doing a bus tour
with uh a child being old. She's fifteen months now,
she'll be two. Your bus tour fun, so.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
That'll be some fun. We can, you know, feed our
plant every day and you know something.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
That's the most fun age though for me, like two
to four. Oh my gosh, the things they say every day,
their little expressions. Does she speak Spanish? I know you
never have you learned yet?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I'm working on it.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Our nanny speaks Spanish to her, So now I for
sure have to learn Spanish.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
You know what I mean, because I got make sure
they're not talking about me.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
But I'm a back uh.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
But yeah, So she's learning Spanish, and there's sometimes she'll
point to something and say something and I was like, what.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Are you saying? And I'm like, oh my god, I
about you. She's saying it in Spanish and I just
don't know the word.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Except in one of your specials you said that you
were going to learn that. That was like a few.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Years ago, since I was a teenager.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
A Mexican American who doesn't.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I can order real well and sing some of the
lyrics of the songs.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Oh that's right, Gadora, Now now sing the next line.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yeah, marinbo.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Angela. Where can folks find you? Where can they find
your podcast? Where can they find when you make your
big announcement that you're going on tour. I can tell
people you're on at least four different platforms because I
had to go to one. I had to go to
YouTube to find some stuff to watch, and then I
had to go to Netflix to find other stuff to watch.
And then there's some things that aren't even have subscriptions
(31:01):
to that you're.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, I'm I'm just all over the place where you
can find things. Look for me. I might be there,
but you could try my website angela dot com. It's
spelled a n j E l a h dot com.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
And I'm most active on Instagram for social media, but
I am on all the platforms. I'm on TikTok, I'm
on Facebook, I'm on all the platforms, and I'll be
announcing my tour on all of the platforms. My podcast
is called Fungula.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
We just put out.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Gratitude and Good Vibes and right now where every every
other Tuesday, but we'll be moving into weekly soon. And yeah,
so Fungela and my tour is coming up. You can
check out my newest special. It came out last year
and it's called Say I Won't and it's on YouTube
and that's My special life filmed at the Ryman Auditorium
(31:52):
in Nashville, Tennessee, and it was amazing and I had
a great time and I'm so proud of it.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
So if you want to check that out, it's on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
And it's funny. It's hysterical, it is. It is so funny.
I want all of my listeners to go because when
I laugh out loud, I laugh out loud, it's it
means I'm happy. It's the best. And I laughed out
loud the entire special when I watched it.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Thank you, thank you so much, thanks for having me on,
Like what a treat break, gidding me. Look at just
me and Talila talking about gardening, like living our best lives.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I thought we were talking about you moving out here
and helping me garden. That's what I got out of this.
And I'm going to call you when I start doing
the what ifs. Please, I'm going to call you because
oh my gosh, Corn, Please, yeah, Corn, and help me
because I can't get hold of my oldest son, who's
this sergeant on the police department.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
I got you?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Do you know the what ifs that come with being
the mother of a sergeant of a police department who's
also a leader on the swat team. Do you know
what Iff's.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Come with that couldn't even imagine?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, No, you don't wanna. You don't wanna, so I
will call you. Fungela is the name of her podcast.
Check it out and look up Angela a n J
e l ah dot com. Thank you have a great day, honey.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Thank you so much for having me. This was a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Sometimes life feels heavy. Sometimes it feels too fast, too fleeting,
too frantic. I also get caught up in the dizzying
craziness of it all. But then I'm reminded by caring, grateful,
hilarious people like Angela that life is also an absolute hoot,
that humor is a salve and elixir, And if you
(33:48):
can find a mustard seed of faith and a tiny
grain of funny, that's enough to get you through anything
the universe is capable of throwing at you. Seasons come
to a close, children grow, h life chugs along. If
you're weathering your own personal storm, even before the impetus
nature of fallen winter are upon us, know that this
(34:11):
too shall pass. Angela can help you find some humor
and a Little Chuckle does an amazing job of letting
the light in catch up with her and everything she's
got going on at Angela dot com. That's a n J. E.
Lah dot com. You can also find her on all
the major social media platforms, on YouTube, on her many
(34:34):
and varied TV shows. She's on Netflix and Hulu, and
you can subscribe to her podcast Fungula for a healthy
dose of hilarity and gratitude. Whenever you feel the need,
be kind to yourself and to each other, my friend,
go out there and love someone
Oh, where did the month go? September was here with
lots of birthdays, lots of big birthdays in my family,
and then wish the month was gone. I did find
myself saying that often I'm in a perpetual state of
surprise with every passing month, every passing season, every passing year.
(00:27):
Now when they say it all goes by so fast,
they aren't kidding. You know what happened in a nanosecond.
My babies grew up. My first born son, Isaiah, turned
forty forty forty this month, and my second born, Sheila,
(00:54):
will have her thirtieth birthday before the month is over.
Remember being in awe when they were five and fifteen,
but nothing prepared me for this. I am, however, happy
and grateful that they are happy and well and living
their best lives or raising their own children, beautiful children.
(01:16):
I'm even hearing more than a few heavy size from
them that time is moving too swiftly and their babies
are growing up too fast. But you know what the
best balm is to everything, humor. If you can laugh,
If you can have a good laugh once or twice
a day, ah, it makes all the other things survivable.
(01:43):
Today's podcast guest offers dose upon healing, dose of humor.
Angela Johnson Rays is one of the most successful stand
up comedians today, with six comedy specials streaming on various
platforms and selling out theaters around the world. Her most
(02:04):
recent special, Say I Won't, debut on YouTube in twenty
twenty three with over four point two million views in counting.
She might be best known for her nail salon sketch
that was memorized line by line by all my daughters
and nieces and maybe one or two myself, and has
(02:29):
been quoted at family gatherings. Angela, who was born and
raised in San Jose, California, is of Mexican and Native
American descent. Her life and her family feature prominently in
her comedy sketches. She published her first memoir titled Who
Do I Think I Am in twenty twenty two. She's
(02:49):
guest starred on shows such as Life and Beth, Superstore,
The Shield, Ugly Betty, and Curbear Enthusiasm. Her film roles
in clin Lude Enough Said, Our Family Wedding, and My
Favorite Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Squeak Quell. Angela also
joined Eddie Murphy and Tracy Ellis Ross in the Amazon
(03:13):
Prime feature Candy Cane Lane. In February, she returned for
the second season of the Hulu original series Life and
Beth and hosted the to be original series My Crazy Quins,
which dropped in me. Most recently, she launched a podcast
about mental health called Fungela that focuses on gratitude because,
(03:37):
in Angela's words, when you remind yourself of what you're
grateful for and say it out loud, you're not only
speaking good into the world, but good into yourself. Can't
wait to get into our conversation with Angela and share
some laughs with this very funny lady. First, let me
share a few words about one of today's podcast sponsors,
(03:59):
and then we will dive in. Have you been looking
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and Love twenty four with me on today's edition of Love.
Someone is Angela Johnson rays You're so pretty.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Thank you. I put makeup on for you.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I put makeup on for you. I put my lips on.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Look at that like it's a good Yeah. Here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
I growing up, like teenage twenties, I would rarely wear
lipstick because my lips were like already vibrant, like I
didn't need it. And I remember my thea Mary, who
lived to be one hundred and two years old. She
wore lipstick till the day she died. She loved putting
on her lipstick. And I would be I'd be like,
why is she still putting lipstick on? I don't care.
And then now that I'm aging a little bit more,
I notice, I'm like, oh, I need to put.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Some lipstick on. Like now I care about putting lipstick on.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I don't. If I'm going to go out, I have
to have my lipstick on. And I have a granddaughter
who lives on my property. She's five. She's so cute
and every day but she's just starting kindergarten. Before kindergarten start,
she comes her. They have an apartment that's on my property,
and she runs over to the farmhouse where I am
(06:49):
says Gramma, NA, I need my lipsticks, and it's flural.
I need my lipsticks.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Special that she gets to run to Grandma's house before
school and get her lipsticks.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Also, your properties sounds amazing. Can I move in?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
You can? There's plenty of room there is there's fifty
five acres and so you're you are more than welcome
and your husband. I have a music room above my
carport for my kids because I'm old and cranky. So
when they want to like jam, because they're not professional
musicians and it's really loud and noisy, they can go
(07:25):
above the carport and jam. So he could probably put
his equipment up there and something incredible. Yeah, yeah, we
have a fire pit in the backyard so he can
like play under the stars and oh magical.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
This is so dreamy what you're describing right now. I
love this. I love this for us. Since I now
live there.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
You and I can just tell stupid jokes all day long.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Do it like?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You make me laugh Angela so hard I pee myself
thanks to lan well sneezing makes me pee myself. So
that's a compliment, but take it with a grain of Yeah.
My girls had memorized your whole pretty nails routine years ago,
(08:09):
and every time I would say, because I don't do
my nails. You can see here. I'm a farm girl.
I have animals and I've been canning. But my toes.
I gotta do my toes. I just I cannot have coffee.
I can't.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
No, no, I can't.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I'll cut my own ankles with my one foot and
I'll be like, oh, no, I gotta go get a petty.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, it's time to get a petty when you're cutting
yourself with your on toenails. And I would say, I'm
you know, don't bother me. I'm going to be gone
for an hour or two. I'm gonna go get a pedicure.
They're like, ah, you got a boyfriend. They would do
your whole routine.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, it's wild how that joke is seventeen years old.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It's very old, and yet it's open.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
It's part of our vernacular now. Yes, it's become like
I cannot say anything about a petticure and to make
my husband go with me without one of my girls saying, ah,
you got a boyfriend.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's wild.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I was just having this conversation with somebody about how
my joke has become a part of people's everyday life,
like they quote it on a regular even just like, hey, yeah,
the grocery story, give me an apple?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
How many? Just one?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And they throw that in there in any part of
their daily life. And I think about like the movies
that I quote, Dumb and Dummer, Wayne's World, like from
my era that still are in my everyday life. I
quote these movies and I'm like, that's wild to me
to think that my joke is a part of somebody
else's life that they quote when they do every time
they do this one thing.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I love that. What's your favorite favorite all time movie
to quote?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Oh, those two that I just said, but probably Dumb
and Dumber, I would Yeah, it has to be Dumb
and Dummer.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, so for me, stop it now, I mean it.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
What's that from?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
You were supposed to say? Does anyone a benut? You've
never seen Princess Bride? You've not watched Princess Bride? Angela
that one you?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Everyone hates me right now?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I know, no, No, As one of my favorite comedians,
I have to tell you before the day is over,
you have to watch Princess Bride at least once, if
not five times. Okay, this is one of those things
that I knew I was going to marry my husband
when we became friends and he started quoting Princess Bride,
and I'm like, oh my.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
God, he's the one.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
He's the one. He's the man with six fingers. You know.
You have to watch it.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Okay, I'll do it just for you, and I think
about you the whole time.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Do do There are so many great characters in it,
and there's so many great lines in it. You're gonna
you're gonna call me back and you're gonna just like.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
They just quote again. I can finish it.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Now, Yeah, I can do it. I can do it.
I'm not a witch. I'm your wife, all right. Okay.
So something that you helped me understand in your comedy,
not even knowing you helped me understand it. I didn't
know the what ifs were anxiety. Yeah, I didn't know
the what ifs were anxiety.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yep mm hmm. Here you were just thinking you were
a healthy, old, thriving.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Thriving mama bear uh, and that the what ifs are
actually like maybe anxiety. Yeah, this is how bad my
what ifs are. They're as bad as yours.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Tell me, tell me.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I have a best friend and I didn't hear from
her one day and like we talk every day, it's
a sad I hadn't heard from her, and so I
called her, and then I called her and left jerky comments,
you know, on her flassage. And then I texted her
and she didn't text me back. And after like you know,
(11:58):
the second text, I was sure she's got some very
steep stairs in her house that I said, my daughter,
you did she lives a mile away, I said, my daughter,
because I was sure tripped on the stairs, dog ran
underneath her, lost her balance and what happened. She was
(12:20):
not happy when midnight my daughter is waking her up.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Wait, you were calling.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You were trying to get a hold of her at midnight, well,
because I hadn't heard from her during the day, and
by because it was all day.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah, I see, And by the time I got to
the end of the day, you're like, I can't, I
can't go by. You know, we could have avoided.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
We could have avoided this, thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, but you let the whole day go by. That's
good on you.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I recently had my brother here visiting and he's up early,
like seven am. He's already gone for a rind and
come back and it was like almost eight am, and
he still hadn't come downstairs yet.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
My first thought he died.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
He died.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
He's right upstair.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
I'm like, oh my god, somebody poisoned him. Somebody broke
in last night, he tripped and fell.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I didn't hear it. He's for sure dead.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
And then I text him you good good morning, and
he didn't reply.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And I was like, oh my god, this is the day.
This is the day. And then like ten minutes later
he comes downstairs. But it was just the day. He
was flying out, so he was busy packing up.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
His suitcase whatever, whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
But back, how dare you pack up.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Your suitcase and make me think that you're dead. So
in one of your specials, you were talking about how
you how you signed your husband up for the find
Me app find a Friend app on your phone? You
signed him up on.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Sure, I did.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I gotta steal my friend's phone so I can sign
her up on my phone.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Okay, there's a better one I'll tell you about. Okay,
So Find my Friends comes on Apple phones, Like everybody
gets that one. But there's another one Life three sixty.
I think it's called girl. This one is nosy. This
one I get alerts on my phone. Manuel just finished
a thirty mile drive. His mac speed was seventy six
(14:10):
miles per hour. Yes, it'll tell me. I think it'll
even tell if he used his phone while he was driving,
Like it's no sock. Oh yeah, it gives me all
the goods.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
And so do you have to download the app on
the other person's phone in order for you to follow them?
So how am I gonna find? How am I going
to get hold of my adult children's phones and download
a party?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Everybody, come over.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
We're having dinner at the farm, the ranch, whatever you said,
you had right to come over. We're doing a little dinner.
But this one. Listen, you guys, no phones. You guys
are always on your phones. Everybody put your phones right
here on the counter.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And leave your password on.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Your password right there next to it.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Because I have adult children, I would do that with
what's your worst? What if? I mean the one of
your husband, which is in your routine, dying on the
freeway outside of your house.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
That was I thought he was dead. I looked it was.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
The story is he went to the movies with friends
and he called me when he was on his way back.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I fell asleep. Okay, Well it was too hot in
the room, so.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
He just slept on the couch, is what it was.
But I woke up at two in the morning and
he was not there, and I was like, no. I
talked to him at eleven pm. He was on his
way home, and he's still not home. And his bed
hadn't even been lived in, you know what I mean,
Like it was still flat. He had not even It's
not that he came in for a little bit and
he got up, it was still flat. I said, oh,
he's dead. Immediately he died. I call him, he's not answering.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Oh damn. And then I checked the friend finder. It
shows his phone on the side of the freeway, like
it lied to me. I would have been okay, but.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
It showed he was in the house somewhere and they'd
be like, okay, I'll let me just go.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I wonder if there's like somebody that can control that,
or going, let's mess with her, let's really mess with her.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
How did this happen? Like, how was that even possible?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
It was literally a mile away on the side of
the freeway, like it was a lag of some I
don't know what, but I really thought he was dead
until I came downstairs and I saw him on the couch.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I really was like, how do I But you.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Hadn't called the cops or or an adult daughter to
go check on him like I did.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
No, I started playing in the funeral in my brain.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, and what were you wearing? What were you gonna
wear to the funeral?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Something very modest? Something.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
But I don't want people to think I'm already back
on the market, you know what I mean? Like it's
just something cover up because if I so much to
cleave and then be like, ooh, she trying to get
wiped up again?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You know what I mean? Just no, just so.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Covered dress, slack suit, jumpsuit, like.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Not a dress, No, it would be pants, definitely can
mm hmmm yep, he.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Are you flat flies? But my husband always loved it,
loved it like he's already died.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
He uh, okay, dress up the best.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Maybe I do that for him the best.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
The best part of that was when you said I
didn't even think about that he might be cheating, that
he might be out with somebody else. I thought he
was dead, because if he was cheating, it'd be.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Dead, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Please ah, you kill me. So many of your routines
just like speak to my heart in such a sweet way.
And now you're doing a podcast Fungela.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Yeah, I am. I.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I started this podcast because it was one of my
tools that I use in my mental health and on
the road touring.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
It's like I talk about my anxiety and that one
special and the wood ifs and all that kind of stuff,
just struggling with anxiety sometimes depression sometimes just like the
intrusive thoughts, like all the stuff that I'd be dealing with.
And I had different tools over the years, different supplements
that I would use, different breathing techniques that I would use,
(18:20):
my gratitude journal, prayer, whatever it may be. And the
one that I would go to the most because it
worked quickly, it was efficient, it was free, and it
was right there within you is gratitude. And when we
start practicing gratitude, you say the thing that you're grateful
for out loud, and then you hear yourself saying the
(18:40):
thing that you're grateful for. So it's one thing to
think about what are you grateful for? And you're already
changing your mood just thinking about these things. Think about
something positive instead.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Of something negative. You already did a step in changing it.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
But then when you say it out loud, now you
actually hear yourself. So you're using different senses too, now
your mind, now your ears, you're saying it out loud.
So it's this big gratitude circle that goes in and out,
in and out of your body. You just start raising
your vibration, raising it to like this level where you
start attracting like beautiful things in your life. And so
I said, I'm going to do a podcast based on
(19:12):
gratitude and just practice gratitude with people. So I bring
guests on and we talk about five things that they're
grateful for in their life, and it leads to amazing
stories that they have. And we also do one mattitude
and the one mattitude is the thing that's making you
mad these days, giving you a bad attitude.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Or as I like to call it, a matitude.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
And so we start with the one, we get it
out of our body, we let it go, and then
we move into gratitude and we just talk about stuff
that we're grateful for, put out the good vibes.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
What a wonderful tool.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
What is your matitude today?
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Ooh, my matitude today. Let's see you know, today's been
a really good day.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Okay, you put your makeup on, so I put my
magamon on for you. I had to, although I almost
I'll be honest. I started walking up to the office
to come beyond here. But I was a half hour
early and I had no makeup on. I was like, ooh,
I'm be late.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I was like, wait, I have a half hour, so
I put makeabon.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
My mattitude these days is these little gnats and I
don't know if they're coming from the sink.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Fruit flies, but are they gnats or fruitflies?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I think they're nuts because sometimes I'll see them.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Nats are lighter colored, but fruitflies, fruit flies can go
in the bathroom. How scary? Did I know this?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Well, I mean you live out on some acreage, so
I'm sure you have a lot of knowledge of critters
and insects and stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
And I'm canning. It's canning season.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
What's that mean?
Speaker 1 (20:41):
It means I garden all spring in summer stupidly hundreds
of acres or dozens of acres, and then fall hits
and I'm like, I am five hundred bushels of corn
that I have to blanch and freeze and can and
dry and dehydrated.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Oh, I see what you're saying, actual canning of food
to eat and use and store.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Oh. During twenty twenty, I started a garden and.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
I absolutely loved it. And I ended up pickling my
own cucumbers. Oh my gosh, it was so fun and
they were so No, I've never tasted a pickle as
good as my pickle, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Like, it was so fun.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
And then we moved and then now I split time
and I'm not in one place long enough to actually
have a garden and take care of it.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
But I miss it. That was so fun.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah, if I had, if I had to do that,
I would figure out how to do a portable garden.
I don't know. I it's my happy place.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
It is. And do you feel more? This is what
I only did it for that one year. But do
you feel like connected.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
To God or source or whatever you call it? Like,
do you feel I feel connected to God when I garden?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah, I'm in the garden of Eden house. My farm
is the garden of Eton. It really truly is. I'm
I'm obsessed with my plants, not like I know the
names of them. I just know them, like, oh, I
love that. I have a girlfriend who knows the names
(22:18):
the scientific you know, genus, species, blah blah blah. She goes, oh,
that's you know, miraculous, slovaculous. I'm like, okay, I just
you know, but I know them, and I know there's seasons,
and I know what they like and what they don't like.
And it's like I have relationships with my plants. That
(22:41):
sounds right.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I fully know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
That's why I say I love that, because that I
feel like that's how I was for that year that
I did my garden, and it was almost like they
were characters in my life. And so anytime I would
go in tend to the garden, it was I was
talking to my garden. I was communicating. I was like
speaking life over my garden. I would just be like, tomatoes,
y'all look good.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Like it was just a whole thing.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
I mean, I have sassy ones. They talk back, They're
like I know I do. Yeah, don't you wish you
look this good? Ah?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Then I look at how ripe I am.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Uh huh uh yeah. And they were just my garden
became like characters. And then every time I would leave
to go back because my garden was up on a hill,
and then I might have to go back down the
steps to my house. So every time I would leave,
I would say bye to my garden. I would thank
my garden. I'd be like, okay, guys, see you tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Like it was a whole No. Granted was twenty twenty COVID.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
We were all home, so they were my company, but
it was it was very special time.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I really really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I enjoy talking to my garden more than I enjoyed
talking to a lot of people. I know that sounds terrible,
but I love being out in my gardens.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I you have a favorite part of your garden.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
It's all, you know. It's all different in like different
moods and different plants have different personalities.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
And what fruit trees do you have?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I have over one hundred fruit trees.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I mean you have all those acres. Of course you do.
But what okay, just.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
So we don't do any it's not warm up here,
so we can't do like citrus. There's no oranges? Oh
really okay, yeah, it's all like apples plums, pears, peaches, nice.
My plum trees were so loaded this year they broke.
The limbs broke. Oh, I had so many plums.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
So I grew up with a plum tree in our backyard.
It was a mess. It was because we never like
harvested them or anything.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
You just let them drop on the ground and attract
the bees.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, I was too young. I didn't know anything about it.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Did you ever step on a bee while you were
out in the backyard with a squishy po isn't that
the worst?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
My?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Okay, so this was a sad part. Right before we
sold our house, we didn't know we were going to
be leaving. I thought we're going there for years and years.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
And I had just.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Planted orange tree, apple, lemons and limes, avocado, which I
know is like a five year investment, but I was
super excited about it.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
And I had just planted my trees. Maybe I had
them for like five months.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
And then you moved and then we moved.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
It was so sad.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
And then I kept in touch with the people who
bought her house, and did you say.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Send me the avocados when they start coming on? Okay,
because those are mine?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Well, here's the sad part.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
I had asked them one time how the garden was doing,
and she's like, oh, I don't even go up there. No,
did I just think about like my tomatoes.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Just be like what happened?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Where did you go?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
I had to say goodbye to my girl.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I cried.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
I cried when I said goodbye to my garden. And
like now I'm gonna sound like crazy garden lady. I
bawled my eyes out saying goodbye to my garden.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I get it, my friends.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I have one plant and it's just a little spider plant.
Started in my grandma's garden and it was in her
garden and all of us got a piece of it.
And so I got my piece and I planted it
in my garden at my house. And then when we
sold the house, and you may believe, I was out
there with a shovel. Ohay, my grandma plant with me,
(26:20):
believe it.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
And now it's in a little pot in the front
of our California house that we have, and so it
just stays on the porch and a little.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So you go back and forth between Nashville, we do
catching up with comedian Angela Johnson, Rays and looking forward
to the rest of our chat. Just want to pause
for a moment to tell you some good stuff about
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(26:47):
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(27:52):
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are you touring now?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I am.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
I'm not on a tour, like a specific name tour,
but I am on the road because this year was
my writing year where I write my new Hour.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
So I go to a lot of different.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Comedy clubs, casinos, and I just get that repetition in
show after show, off to show, so I can try
different jokes, try it a different way, play with it
a little bit, mold it, get.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
My hour to where it is.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
And then next year I'm about to announce, actually I
think coming up soon, I'm about to announce my next
big tour that's going to start next year, and that's
going to be a huge, big theater performance run.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
We got to come up with a traveling garden for you,
like are you on a van? Are you on a bus?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Are you to be on a bus?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
You'll be on a bus. Maybe maybe a little spider
plant that you can give some window access to on
the bus.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
That's actually a good idea because then because my daughter's
coming with us, my first time doing a bus tour
with uh a child being old. She's fifteen months now,
she'll be two. Your bus tour fun, so.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
That'll be some fun. We can, you know, feed our
plant every day and you know something.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
That's the most fun age though for me, like two
to four. Oh my gosh, the things they say every day,
their little expressions. Does she speak Spanish? I know you
never have you learned yet?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I'm working on it.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Our nanny speaks Spanish to her, So now I for
sure have to learn Spanish.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
You know what I mean, because I got make sure
they're not talking about me.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
But I'm a back uh.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
But yeah, So she's learning Spanish, and there's sometimes she'll
point to something and say something and I was like, what.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Are you saying? And I'm like, oh my god, I
about you. She's saying it in Spanish and I just
don't know the word.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Except in one of your specials you said that you
were going to learn that. That was like a few.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Years ago, since I was a teenager.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
A Mexican American who doesn't.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I can order real well and sing some of the
lyrics of the songs.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Oh that's right, Gadora, Now now sing the next line.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yeah, marinbo.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Angela. Where can folks find you? Where can they find
your podcast? Where can they find when you make your
big announcement that you're going on tour. I can tell
people you're on at least four different platforms because I
had to go to one. I had to go to
YouTube to find some stuff to watch, and then I
had to go to Netflix to find other stuff to watch.
And then there's some things that aren't even have subscriptions
(31:01):
to that you're.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, I'm I'm just all over the place where you
can find things. Look for me. I might be there,
but you could try my website angela dot com. It's
spelled a n j E l a h dot com.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
And I'm most active on Instagram for social media, but
I am on all the platforms. I'm on TikTok, I'm
on Facebook, I'm on all the platforms, and I'll be
announcing my tour on all of the platforms. My podcast
is called Fungula.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
We just put out.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Gratitude and Good Vibes and right now where every every
other Tuesday, but we'll be moving into weekly soon. And yeah,
so Fungela and my tour is coming up. You can
check out my newest special. It came out last year
and it's called Say I Won't and it's on YouTube
and that's My special life filmed at the Ryman Auditorium
(31:52):
in Nashville, Tennessee, and it was amazing and I had
a great time and I'm so proud of it.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
So if you want to check that out, it's on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
And it's funny. It's hysterical, it is. It is so funny.
I want all of my listeners to go because when
I laugh out loud, I laugh out loud, it's it
means I'm happy. It's the best. And I laughed out
loud the entire special when I watched it.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Thank you, thank you so much, thanks for having me on,
Like what a treat break, gidding me. Look at just
me and Talila talking about gardening, like living our best lives.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I thought we were talking about you moving out here
and helping me garden. That's what I got out of this.
And I'm going to call you when I start doing
the what ifs. Please, I'm going to call you because
oh my gosh, Corn, Please, yeah, Corn, and help me
because I can't get hold of my oldest son, who's
this sergeant on the police department.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
I got you?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Do you know the what ifs that come with being
the mother of a sergeant of a police department who's
also a leader on the swat team. Do you know
what Iff's.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Come with that couldn't even imagine?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, No, you don't wanna. You don't wanna, so I
will call you. Fungela is the name of her podcast.
Check it out and look up Angela a n J
e l ah dot com. Thank you have a great day, honey.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Thank you so much for having me. This was a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Sometimes life feels heavy. Sometimes it feels too fast, too fleeting,
too frantic. I also get caught up in the dizzying
craziness of it all. But then I'm reminded by caring, grateful,
hilarious people like Angela that life is also an absolute hoot,
that humor is a salve and elixir, And if you
(33:48):
can find a mustard seed of faith and a tiny
grain of funny, that's enough to get you through anything
the universe is capable of throwing at you. Seasons come
to a close, children grow, h life chugs along. If
you're weathering your own personal storm, even before the impetus
nature of fallen winter are upon us, know that this
(34:11):
too shall pass. Angela can help you find some humor
and a Little Chuckle does an amazing job of letting
the light in catch up with her and everything she's
got going on at Angela dot com. That's a n J. E.
Lah dot com. You can also find her on all
the major social media platforms, on YouTube, on her many
(34:34):
and varied TV shows. She's on Netflix and Hulu, and
you can subscribe to her podcast Fungula for a healthy
dose of hilarity and gratitude. Whenever you feel the need,
be kind to yourself and to each other, my friend,
go out there and love someone
Host
Delilah
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