I like to tell stories and relate to people and get everybody having a good time. I don't ever want to be in a situation people feel the need to tell me their opinion. So I stay away from any kind of material that would cause somebody in the audience to shout me their opinion.
— Anjelah Johnson
I'm not very good with the Twitter.
Nobody wanted to help me get my start, not to mention it's tough being a female in a man's world of stand-up comedy. It's a very competitive world, and it was a challenge to find my own voice, stick to my guns.
I had this little piece of me that always wanted to be an actress, but I would never say it out loud because it was kind of embarrassing because where in San Jose do you become an actress? You don't, really. It was very far-fetched. It was similar to me saying, 'I want to be a princess.'
I started doing comedy in a church.
My sister was always supportive. When I first moved to L.A., she was like 'I know you can do it!' But my parents, in the beginning, not so much. They were kinda like, 'I'll believe it when I see it.' But when I actually started booking things, my dad was like, 'Oh, I knew it all along.'
Few comedians can go to their shows and have people yell out bits that they want to hear. It's like going to see your favorite band and yelling out your favorite songs and to say the words along with them.
When I really started just giving them the truth of who I was, that's when my fan base really started to grow.
When people didn't really know who I was, and I would get on stage, they would be distracted by what I looked like, so I would have to dumb myself down, in a way, for people to feel safe to laugh.
People usually want to show me their impression of me, which is always awkward.
My stand-up is clean; it's not too edgy. I've played it safe since the beginning.
There's been roles that I have turned down. There's no rule book or handbook... It's just... whatever I'm comfortable with.
One of my best friends growing up was Vietnamese, and he and his mom would teach me how to say certain things so I could impress my nail girls. Then the nail girls would teach me how to count to 100 and basic things like 'Thank you' and 'You're welcome.' It's funny, because any accent that I do now always turns into Vietnamese.
It's always nerve-wracking when people say they look up to you or that you're a good role model. It's such a double-edged sword, because you realize you've been put on this pedestal, and you have to make sure that you don't do anything to get torn down.
I'm a very observational storyteller, and I'm always relational - a lot of stories stem from relationships, whether it's me with my husband, me with my mom or my siblings.
I stay far away from political humor.
Once, I was doing Bon Qui Qui in Miami, and this black girl was in the audience, and she yelled out, 'That's not funny!' which was really funny because she sounded exactly like the character I was playing.
I've been doing the Vietnamese nail lady impressions since my mom first took me to get my nails done when I was 12.
I was lucky to grow up in a culturally diverse area knowing a lot of different people from all different walks of life.
I'm so lucky to do what I do, traveling across the country and making people laugh.
Ellen DeGeneres is great. She has this natural style, and she makes comedy look so easy.
I like to be the only one who uses my toothbrush.
I think people know what they're getting with my name, because they've seen my specials on Netflix.
There's a joke that I do where I make fun of myself for being bow-legged, and I compare myself to a camel and how a camel walks and sits, and that has become a joke that people - when I deliver that joke, people are in tears.
A majority of Bon Qui Qui is my little brother, who is ghetto fabulous. He has no filter whatsoever. He just says what's on his mind.
I never thought I was going to be a comedian.
I do a joke in my stand-up where I say I'm a Christian, but I'm not a Christian comedian. I think that's definitely how I see my acting. I'm an actor who happens to be a Christian.
I went to L.A. to become an actress, and I started from the ground up. I worked as an extra, and then I started taking this joke-writing class because it was free. I didn't want to be a comedian, but I was like, 'Free education? Yeah, I'll take a class.'
I've realized that I can never not do the nail salon joke, and I will have to talk about Bon Qui Qui for eternity.
I love sharing my life with people.
I'm used to performing. I'm comfortable in front of people. I'm never the one who's fighting for attention, but I've always been comfortable.
Deep down inside, I'm really a black girl stuck in a Mexican girl's body. But I'm also in touch with my inner white girl and my inner Asian girl. I feel like a little bit of everybody.
One of the first jokes I wrote was this nail salon bit that ended up blowing up on YouTube. That's kind of what propelled me into standup.
Sometimes you hear about people who can't wait to leave their hometown. I did not have that feeling at all. I love San Jose, I love the Bay Area, and I love coming home to visit.
Everyone who comes to my show has their own struggles. There's so many people dealing with so many things; I love that I get to be part of their healing process by making them laugh.
I really just got married for the material, to tell you the truth.
I'm Mexican. I eat salsa with everything.
My goal's always to connect and relate to my audience. I want them to leave my show feeling like they got to know me better - not only that, but like we could be friends. I want people to leave going, 'Oh my gosh, I could totally hang out with her!'
People pay their hard-earned money to come and watch me perform live. That's a blessing.
Don't try to be anyone else. Don't try to emulate what someone is doing. Play to your strengths.
I live my life not to please my pastor or my church or fellow Christians. I live my life according to my own convictions and morals and core values and principles, and a lot of times, that's not going to add up to other Christians.
People want to call me racist for doing the Bon Qui Qui character, and I'm like, 'Look, Bon Qui Qui is a representation of a hood chick. That's it.' There are lots of hood chicks out there: some are black, some are Mexican, some are Salvadorian, and some are white.
I'm from San Jose, CA, which is very diverse, and I grew up around a lot of different types of people.
Don't try to be anybody else, because that's what I do. I do me. I'm not trying to impress anybody. I'm not trying to please my pastor at church. I'm not trying to even please my mom, to be honest.
You don't want to let people down, and that's so hard because you're never going to please everybody. There's always going to be someone that's a naysayer.
