Anjelah Johnson | Bon Qui Qui, Comedy Fame & Her Days as a Friends Extra!

Off The Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe

PodcastOne

Society & Culture, Tv & Film, Comedy, Talk Radio

4.4 • 21.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

#881. Before she was selling out theaters, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes was a Bay Area girl chasing signs from the universe — like making the Raiderettes squad or landing a role as an extra on Friends. In this episode, Anjelah takes Kaitlyn through the ride of how her comedy career began!

She shares how a simple stand-up class birthed her legendary “Nail Salon” bit, the behind-the-scenes chaos of writing and filming Bon Qui Qui for MADtv (and why she was fired), and the moment her sister’s unwavering belief kept her from packing up and quitting comedy altogether.

The two also dive into Anjelah’s wildest fan encounters, her pregnancy journey, and what it was like to be a regular at Central Perk before becoming a household name herself. This episode is the perfect combo of comedy, heart, and everything in between!

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EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

(3:31) – The stand-up class that changed everything: how one joke turned into her iconic “Nail Salon” bit and launched her comedy career.
(7:45) – Behind the scenes of Bon Qui Qui: the chaos, the sketches, and the shocking reason she got fired right after it went viral.
(15:00) – Her pregnancy journey revealed: from natural conception to the unexpected twists along the way.
(29:43) – From San Jose to Central Perk: how she became a regular on Friends — her dream show — before anyone knew her name.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of Off the Vine is brought to you by Boulevard. For a limited time, Boulevard is offering new customers 20% off your first year subscription.
0:08.3	Learn more at J-O-I-N-B-L-V-D.com. Figs. If you're in healthcare or you're shopping for someone who is, you can get 15% off your first order at wherefigs.com with the code figs rx and progressive visit progressive
0:23.4	dot com to see if you could save on car insurance you're listening to off the vine with
0:31.6	kately bristow hey vinos real quick if you are listening now, which obviously you are, you wouldn't be hearing this,
0:39.0	can you hit the subscribe or follow button on whatever platform you're on?
0:42.7	Please, that one simple thing helps more than you even realize it allows me to keep growing on this podcast
0:48.4	and making these episodes the best they can possibly be obviously for you.
0:53.3	That's the only favorite I'm going to ever ask,
0:55.0	okay? It truly means the world to me. Thank you. Now let's get into it. Hey everybody, welcome to Off the Vine. I'm your host, Caitlin Bristow. And today we have, how funny was she? We just had a full session giggles. We get to learn all about her time as an extra on friends. I'm sure she did not come here to promote that part of her business, but I was like, wait, can we focus on what it was like to be
1:13.4	on the set of friends? But she has made such a career for herself 19 years of touring. She's been on Mad TV. You definitely know her from certain skits. She's now on her family reunion tour and I just think you're going to sit back. You're going to leave this conversation feeling good. And that's what she wants you to feel when you leave her tour.
1:29.0	And I really do. I feel really good after that. So please welcome Angela Johnson. I want to go back, back to like growing up because you grew up in what the Bay Area. Yeah. Yeah. And were you, I always like to know people's like how it started for them or like what they were like as a kid. Yeah. Were you always into comedy or was this something that kind of developed over time?
1:47.5	Or what were you like?
1:48.9	Developed over time.
1:50.0	Although my whole family is funny.
1:51.9	My dad is hilarious.
1:53.7	My grandpa is hilarious.
1:55.5	He's always playing.
1:56.6	Yeah, practical jokes on people.
1:59.2	His big practical jokes were he lost his pinky finger in some sort of accident growing up.
2:07.9	He had his pinky finger missing and he would pretend to pick his nose in public.
2:12.2	And he'd go like this and he go like, huh, like that.
2:14.4	And then I'd be like, grandpa, I don't know which one's creepier.
	...

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