Gimme a C! Raiderette cheers for comedy now
Judith Salkin
Desert Post Weekly
August 23, 2012
You don’t often see professional cheerleader and comedian together on the same résumé.
Transitioning from the Oakland Raiders Raiderettes squad to the stand-up stage wasn’t part of Anjelah Johnson’s career plan at 21, either. But a week after cheering the team on at Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003 (they lost, badly), Johnson landed in Hollywood to try her hand at acting.
“I thought I could be a rape victim on ‘Law & Order: SVU,’” she said recently from Los Angeles. Accompanying a friend to a comedy class altered her career path one more time. “I wanted to do really serious drama,” she said. “And then I found comedy.”
Johnson is bringing her stand-up act to Spotlight 29 on Saturday for her first valley performance.
Since appearing on “Mad TV” and creating a couple of comic personas (Nail Tammy, the King Burger drive-thru girl), Johnson has added film credits, including “Our Family Wedding” and “Marmaduke.”
But Johnson, 30, has no plans on giving up her stand-up career anytime soon.
“There aren’t a lot of Latina comics out there,” she said. “I want to be relatable for other Latinas; I want girls to see that you can be funny and Latina at the same time.”
DPW: Did you plan on using your time as a Raiderette as a segue to comedy?
JOHNSON: No. When I started I was in junior college in San Jose and I really had no specific plan for school. A friend told me the Raiders were holding auditions and that I should try out. I thought if I made the squad I’d take it as a sign I should be doing something other than college with my life. I tried out and the next weekend I was on the squad.
The best part of that year?
We got to go to the Super Bowl, which was kind of crazy and fun.
How did you get to comedy?
My friend Jamie Allman (“The Shield”) found a stand-up class and thought we should do it together.
Acting was my passion, but I figured if stand-up opened some doors, I’d have something else to present to casting directors.
And I started getting more comedy work like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Ugly Betty.”
How did you start doing characters and where do they come from?
When I started, it was easier for me to be a character than myself on stage.
Nail Tammy was one of my first characters, and she’s really easy for me to jump in and out of.
You spend a lot of time on the road. What the best thing about that and the worst?
The best thing is traveling because I get to see so many places and meet people. The worst is traveling because I’m jet-lagged all the time and I’m always moving around. I want a cabin somewhere I can escape once in a while and no one can find me.
