Anjelah Johnson-Reyes on What It Was Really Like Being a Raiders Cheerleader + Fauci Pleads The Fifth

Adam Carolla Show

Comedian Anjelah Johnson-Reyes returns to discuss her time as a Raiderette in the early 2000s, revealing she earned $500 for the season after taxes and sold calendars at $15 each (wholesale: $6) to boost income. She reco

Key takeaways

• Anjelah Johnson-Reyes earned $500 after taxes as a Raiderette in the early 2000s despite being paid $80 per game

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) In this episode, Angela Johnson, very funny comedian, is back in studio. Also, we'll do the news with Rudy, and we'll do that right after this. Thanks for tuning into the Adam Carolla show. You can watch the full show on YouTube. Just search Adam Carolla Show and hit subscribe. So you never miss an episode. You can also get the podcast wherever you like to listen. And for extra content, add free episodes, and more. You can head over to our substack and see. Sign up today. From Corolla 1 Studios in Glendale, California, this is the Adam Carolla show. Adam's guest today, comedian Angela Johnson Reyes. Plus the news with Rudy Pavich. And now, Adam Carolla. Yeah, get it on. Get it on. A choice we're going to mandate you get it on. Thanks to tune in. Thanks for telling a friend. I love traveling around the country talking all your people, enjoy the podcast. Angela Johnson Reyes. Mm-hmm. is back in studio. Ugly Baby is the name of her special out on YouTube with 1.2 million views last time I checked, and it's only been out a couple months, which is a lot of traction on YouTube. Yeah. I mean, you know, 500,000 in two months is not too shabby, but 1.2, that's healthy. Thank you. Yeah, I'm really proud of it. If I'm being fully honest, there is a little bit of disappointment because it wasn't doing what my last one did, you know? And then so I start like comparing to what I did. Oh, 1.3. Sorry. One up 100,000. Oh, thank you so much, everybody who just did that. Yeah. Yeah, my last one, I released myself on YouTube as well. And it was tracking to do the same thing. But then what happened was is Kevin Hart's roast came out. and I feel like the algorithm switched because it wasn't just the roast. It was like controversy that came out after the roast. And everybody's talking Kevin Hart, like what drama is there. And now these people don't like each other from the roast. And then like there was just so much happening that I feel like the algorithm shifted. And it was literally right after the roast. We saw that the chart just dipped. It fully just dipped right after. And I was like, oh my gosh, we were on track. to like be doing what my last one did. And I'm not trying to blame algorithm, but I'm blaming algorithm. What was that? What did your last one do? We were at a million within like the first couple weeks. And was that the whole nail salon stuff that just sort of caught fire? That was old. That was from 2007. This last one that I did was 2003 it came out. And, oh, excuse, 2020, sorry. 2023, say I won't. I released on YouTube, and that one hit a million, like, within a couple weeks. Maybe the first month. I don't want to give myself too many. What is the math behind YouTube versus Amazon Prime or Hulu or whatever? I mean, to me, it really comes down to just ownership of it. Like, the math is they give you your fee, right? And then you have your special that lives on their app. platform and that's it. You got your fee and you get to have like the co-sign of like the street cred of Amazon or Netflix or whatever. But with this, it could mean so many different things with advertisements that I get, with even licensing out to other people because now I can license it to a different YouTube channel. So it's on my YouTube channel and it's on 800 pound gorilla's YouTube channel. And ultimately it translates into a ticket. sales. And that's the thing. My ticket sales business grew so much. I remember talking to my agents about it because I didn't have like a TV show that I booked that all of a sudden everybody's talking about me. I didn't have a movie come out and like I'm, you know, a standout. None of that happened. It's just my YouTube and all of a sudden we saw this huge growth with my ticket sales, my touring numbers. Yeah. You know, there are different jobs even back in the day. like show busy jobs where it's like MTV never paid that much, but they made stars out of people who were on MTV. And, you know, being on K Rock Radio in Los Angeles didn't pay that much, but they made celebrities out of the people that were on the station. So there's a kind of a two ways to make money. And like if you are on, you're a sidekick on a Howard Stern show, you wouldn't make a lot of money, but you could do tons of gigs. off of it and get paid. So you gig off it that way. So for you, you're a ratorette back in the day, right? Yeah. And that's a perfect example of that. I didn't get paid anything. Right. Well, we always, you know, I think we have a, especially Democrats, they have this wrong thing where it's like, these PAs aren't getting paid and they're just getting coffee. No, they're in a place where they're learning a lot and they're networking and they're physically there and it's invaluable. And yes, you could give them $12 an hour, but that's not the value. The value is the relationships, you know? And yes, cheerleading, you don't get paid, but you meet a lot of people and you're in a situation that's valuable. So with the cheerleading thing, we got paid $80 per game. We got paid at the very end of the season, after taxes and everything. My check was like $500-something for the whole season. But what I got not only just with relationships, but we were allowed to sell our calendar sales. So you buy them wholesale and then you sell them for the price that the team set. And it's up to you how much you want to hustle and do calendar signings. So that was up to us. Now, the calendar has all the ratarettes on it. So it's not your calendar per se, but it's the radarettes. And so what is the wholesale price approximately. We bought them, I want to say we bought them for $6. And again, this is 2000, 2002, 2003. I want, I could be getting misremembering. I want to say it was $6 and we sold them for like 15. Uh-huh. And you could do signing events. Oh, yeah. So you could do all the signing events that you wanted to do. Right. And you could make, you know, $10 a unit approximately. And so you could go out and do that. Yeah. And how many people would show up at a ratarette signing? So really it would depend. It was like the girls who had been on the squad for a while, they got the good shopping malls where people spend money. And then us newbies, we were out in the hood. Whereas just like people just want to stare at you and maybe you sell two calendars. But what I did was when I finished the season, we went to the Super Bowl that year. It's going to say, I was thinking about it. It was like, that was the 2002 season with Rich Gannon. Yeah. Yeah. It was the best year to pick to be a dreeter for the Oakland Raiders. We went, we did our calendar shoot in Hawaii. It was the first time they flew the whole squad out to Hawaii to do a photo shoot. We went to the Super Bowl that year. Like, it was like such a cool year. You got spanked by Tampa, but yes. Spanked. Spank. Vojolid. Not a lot to cheer about in that. I remember our after party, side note about the after-party. I want to say it was Green Day that was performing. And there was like seven people there in this point. Nobody came to the party. Like, what are we celebrating? But they still had to perform. That? Super Bowl was Jimmy Kimmel's first show aired the following Monday night. Really? Warren Sapp was the guest, Tampa Bay. And that was also the Super Bowl where an offensive lineman from the Raiders just wandered off. To Mexico. Do you know that story, Dawson? A offensive lineman for the Raiders at the Super Bowl in San Diego. Barrett Robbins, I think it was. Yeah, a couple days. I don't know if it was a couple days beforehand, just wandered into Mexico and didn't do the Super Bowl. Didn't come back. Have you ever heard of a, I think it was a starting offensive lineman, not necessarily the center, but he was starting. I might have made up that name, apologies if I did. Well, look it up. He was starting offensive linemen, went to T.J, had a mental situation, and like, did not play the Super Bowl. Biggest game of his life. How sad. It's weird, right? I mean, I guess it's sad. Yeah, you're right. Now, did that guy play for another team that was that? I think that was this last, and he never play again. That's a good question. And also, it's a weird omen for your team. Like, where's our right guard? He's in T.J. A horror house. Yeah, he went to Mexico and he never came back. It just played nine seasons with the Raiders. Was that his last season? Was the year he did show up? It looks like it. And he just. And is it Barrett Robbins? Yes. The night of the Super Bowl or the day before, he just left. It's crazy. I wonder what he's up to, No, he did? Yeah. He died at 52. No, he did? Yeah. Oh, I'm so sad. I know. I know. He died? Issues. I'm guessing. Oh, yeah, that's my calendar. Oh, that's sweet. Look at that. Look at us in Hawaii. I mean, I'm not on that page. People always think that's me, the girl in the pink, but that's not. That's my friend Rebecca. Well, you can do a lot work. than be mistaken for Rebecca. Oh, Rebecca's the, I love her. So anyway, weird Super Bowl, spanked by Tampa, and offensive linemen, starting offensive linemen, wanders off. Maybe a dare to, and I was there. I didn't go to the game. Oh. I was there, we're there in San Diego, shooting a commercial. I had no idea then that I was going to be, a comedian, but I knew I wanted to be an actress. That's the whole reason why I tried out to be a ratarette for the Raiders. I was I was like, um, I want to be an actress, but I don't know anything about being an actress. And I've never lived anywhere but my mom's house. So moving to Hollywood feels like a really big risk. And so I was like, I'm going to take this as my sign. I'm going to try out for the Raiders. And if I make the squad, the Raiderettes, I'll do it for one year. And then I'll move to Hollywood and become an actress. And so I did. We went to Super Bowl, and I came home in the very next weekend after the Super Bowl, I packed up my car, my little station wagon, and drove here. I started as an extra. From Bay Area. Yeah, San Jose. It seems hard just to be a raiderette. Like, you must have had quite a bit of experience in gymnastics or cheerleading or, I mean, something. You can't just go, no, you can't just show up and expect to be a Raiderette Yeah. I did competitive cheerleading growing up since I was eight years old, like competitive stuff. Yeah. Oh, you did competitive stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I didn't do dance. Like I wasn't a trained dancer, but I was a competitive cheerleader. Ah, now you say Pop Warner stuff. Pop Warner football has cheerleaders, but it's not competitive. We go to cheer competition, Pop Warner cheer competitions. Oh, they have Pop Warner Cheer. Yeah, and we were good. Let me tell you. You know what I think is the weirdest job in the world? What? Cheerleader competition where they're throwing people in the air and they're doing pyramids and stuff. and there's a dude called a spotter. Uh-huh. And he has to stand back there in like black turtleneck and black sweatpants and just stare up the cooch of underage girls. And if he looks down, he gets fired. That's right. But if he stands there, like I'm saying, in any other job, if a young girl in a skirt climbed up a ladder and you just stood under her and just stared up. Any other job, that's a felony. It's a fucking felony. Yeah. This is the only job where you get. fired if you don't do that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wonder. Oh, no. I'm just picturing a guy like, listen, Ted, we got to let you go. I looked. I looked the whole time. I never even checked my phone. I know, but you had a boner. And some of the parents noticed. And you're in prison. He's like, I'm just a man. This God created me. Yeah. So did you do all stuff where they're throwing you up in the errand doing on? And he hadn't have a dude spotter guy, right? I did. I was on a co-ed team when I was doing that. So we had guys on our squad. And I did partner setting competitions where it's just me and my one partner. The way they do it now, I was never that good. Like there's girls, they'd be flipping up into the air, just them and their one partner and flipping down and then like twisting back up. Like I was not that good. I was doing more basic stuff. It's still pretty hairy. Oh, I did do. I had a show. What's your best move? I don't know. Cupid, where the guy has one hand up and both my feet in his hand. One hand. That's called Cupid. But I did do. I had a show in New Orleans. And I was walking down Bourbon Street. That's what it is, right? Bourbon Street, the popular one. And there is these college kids there. They were partner stunting, kind of just like as a street act or whatever. They pulled out their mat and they're just doing stunts and stuff. and I was like, oh, can I play? And they're like, oh, you know how to do it? I have the video, too. I was sending it to my phone's out there. But I was like, yeah. And so they let me do it. And so I was doing, we did toss to hands. I want to say, we did Coupie. We did pop off the front. How long ago was this? This was within the past five years. Just walked right up. Yeah. Wow. Still got it. Drunk? No. Well, you're on Bourbon Street. I thought maybe. That's a drunk move right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I wouldn't do. Well, if I was drunk, I couldn't tell you what I would do. Yeah, that's my point. Bourbon Street. I was fully sober committing to that. Wow. That's pretty bitching. Yeah. I was pretty good. I imagine Wurf, you're at all those competitions and everything. Yeah. I did all the college all-stars. Did you ever fall in love with your partner? No. I would think you'd almost have to fall in love with that guy with the QP hold? No. No? Mm-mm. muscular guy, nice haircut. No, we, no. And we switch partners a lot. Oh, okay. It's not like you have your one, like your detectives for seven seasons. You know, everyone who does dancing with the stars end up poking up because that's their partner. That's like sexy moving and hooking your body. I don't know, but there's a lot of sweat exchange. I mean, it's different, but it's still a lot of like physical touching with somebody. And you have to have chemistry with that. person to like trust them with your life. So yeah, there is an element of that. I don't think I just and there probably are girls and guys that do. But I didn't. Yeah. I just feel like you'd have to fall in love with that guy. And also they're so strong and they're handsome. We had half the football team too when I was in high school. I went to Guntersson high school for a year. And we had convinced the football team to come and cheer for competition. So they came and learned. stunts just to be on our squad for competition, but they were the football players. I don't want to brag, but I can do, here we come a trucking in. Whoa. Yeah. Morgan and Morgan. Well, one of my buddies had an accident, and I kept telling him, hire an attorney, help recoup and compensate. Good some compensation for that, and he didn't. And the cost kept piling up. It couldn't work for a while. And now that ain't a good thing. And that's why I encourage people to use Morgan and Morgan. Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. They have over 100 offices nationwide, probably one near you, and more than 1,000 lawyers. So if you're injured by the negligence of another, you deserve to be paid. And that's where Morgan and Morgan comes in. It's Morgan and Morgan, right Dawson? Their fee is free unless they win. Yes, that's right. Their fee is free unless they win. To learn more, go to forethepeople.com slash Adam or click the link in the description below. To learn more, go to F-O-R-the-people.com slash Adam or click the link in the description below. This is a paid advertisement. Hello, and welcome to Plutofo. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto TV. where all your blockbuster favorites are landing all summer long. Catch Anchorman, the legend of Ron Burgundy. Fantastic. The Matrix trilogy. Welcome to the real world. Shut up. Titanic. I'm the king of the world. And so much more. For showtimes, press nothing. They're free 24-7. That is so fast. On Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never. Whoa. I don't often drag that one out, but I... Let's hear it. Here we come a trucking inch. Chchchch, chch, ch. Bet you wonder where we been. Yeah. We're the team that can't be beat. Because we're funky on our feet. And I'd do a move. You know, it's like a kind of Scottish thing. You were the guy? You did the moves? I did here we come of trucking in. Wow. I learned all the cheers because we did the powder puff football game where the girls played and the guys cheered. And I took the cheering very seriously. And I learned like 12 cheers. And I got them. Like, ready? Okay. I just imagine you, imagine you behind the building by yourself practicing your cheers. We're in my garage, late at night. The cheerleaders are like coming over and teaching us all the cheers. I love that. I was very serious about it. But eventually, about halfway into the game, I realized that I had an full bleacher section filled with people. And I had a microphone. Oh. And I was, because we were doing our cheers like into the microphone, but at a certain point, I just got the mic and was basically doing crowd work. Yeah. You know, like I started acting like a stand-up. I mean, I didn't know what I was doing. Yeah. I was just working the crowd and making stupid jokes and doing commentary and stuff. And it was a little risque and, you know, there were parents there and that sort of thing. Were you the guy in high school? Were you that funny guy? Even though you didn't know you were doing stand-up, Were you the funny guy? I got class clown in high school, but I was also captain of the football team. So I was kind of a jock. So I didn't really, I was mostly into being a jock. I just like to fuck around. You know, I was like, that just popped off and fucked around. But I wasn't really focused on, I wasn't in drama or acting or, I didn't know that that was a job. Yeah. I thought I could play football. and baseball and then but if someone gave me a microphone i would fuck around you know so i was just doing it sort of instinctively i didn't really know also nobody really back then ever like stopped you and went like hey you know some counselor or something that said adam you're not going to be professional football player but maybe you could do comedy like it seems like this is what you want that was there was none of that was all just kind of shut up as a matter of fact the next year we did next year we did powder puff again, and I was like, okay, and Mrs. Tani, who was one of the counselors, she didn't like me, Mrs. Tani was like, no microphone for you this year, Corolla. And I was like, I was there last year. No, no. No mic for you. And I was like, I'm getting hold of that mic. Because I had a full crowd at night. The audience grew. They heard about your last show last year. tail had spread throughout the land. And next thing you know, there's there. And I got my, I got that Mike. Miss Toni. Yeah. She couldn't stop me. Please. Yeah. Where are you now, Miss Toni? Probably not with us, but. You know, Mrs. Tani, look up Mrs. Tani, North Hollywood High. Let's see. She, you know, everyone was, everyone's old when you're 17 and a half. Yeah. Yeah. But she was probably 30. You know, she wasn't an old, she wasn't an old. She wasn't an old. counselor, you know. There was only, only Mr. Spath was old, and he was like 75. But everyone else, when you look at him now, it's a big head full of brown hair and they're young, you know, and we should have never listened to him because they didn't what the fuck they were talking about, you know. When you thought 30 was old. Oh, man. I had a weird, I remember very distinctly being in the back of my mom's VW square back with no air conditioning driving somewhere in July. And I remember having, I remember we all did the math on where we would be in the year 2000. We're like, wow, we're going to be in the year 2000. Because this was in 1977, you know, it seemed like in crazy, like the year 2000. We're going to be flying robot cars. No war. Yeah. Everything has been solved by 2000. Yeah, we figured it out. Yeah. I don't know the first name of Mrs. Tani. And by the way, that's how it should be. How do you spell Taw N-I? Maybe T-O-N-I. We've looked her up. T-A-U-N-Y. I've spelled it all of those ways. We found my yearbook once, and she was in it under the counselors. By the way, I don't know anyone's first name because no one dared tell any teacher by their first name. It was a simpler time. And I remember when I went to my daughter's second grade class once, and she had her 26-year-old teacher with the go-go boots and a nose ring. And I was like, she had her Starbucks cup with the big dome on it, the frappuccino with the whipped cream and everything. And her first name was on it. And it was facing out toward the class. And it was sitting on her desk. And I was like, I walked up and I went, you may want to do it. turn that around so they can't see it And she goes, they all know my first name. And I was like, oh shit, we've lost the battle. Yeah. Did you feel like such a senior citizen at that moment? I did. I felt like old fart, except for my old fart shit, I'm always right about it. Like, it's old and it's right. Yeah. It's sort of Greek, you know, it's sort of, you know, it's sort of Socrates shit. Yeah, it's old, but there's wisdom there. It's not just old. when we were younger our teachers had a sense of mystery to them we get to know them in class and we only know their last name but we know like a little bit of their like class personality but we don't think they have any other personality outside of class personality like no we don't know anything about that we don't even think that there is anything there but nowadays kids their teachers are on social media if i found out that like mr bacchus's son was gay, my fucking head would have exploded. I would have been like, holy shit. Like I didn't, forget him. I didn't know what kind of car they drove. Yeah. Or even that your teacher was gay. It was a weird novelty just to see him pull out of the lot every once in a while. You're like, oh, right. Mr. Bacchus is driving a Ford Maverick? What the fuck? Like everything was revelatory. Like, yeah. Because their first name would have been Steve or Dave and we would run, oh my God. Yeah. Like, of course they have just a fucking normal first name. And they were kind of kind of like celebrities too, a little bit. A little bit because of the mystery. It was sort of like, it's like what we used to have with Robert De Niro. That guy never talks. He never does interviews. He's a genius. Next thing you know, he's on the view. Fuck Trump and fuck him in the fuck toll. And he's a dope. And now it's so sad because there used to be this thing. Oh, he's a genius. Because he never opened his mouth. He just knew him from the movies, you know? There is also, like back to the teachers being celebrities. Like the one cool teacher that everybody knew was cool and everybody wanted that teacher for their next year. Like when you're in elementary school and you don't switch classes yet. Everybody wanted. Yeah, before you saw. Yeah, right. You know, Mrs. Allen or whoever. If you got Mrs. Parker, you were screwed and if you got Mr. Bacchus, it was the best day of your life. And everyone knew it. Mm-hmm.