ANJELAH JOHNSON

People pay their hard-earned money to come and watch me perform live. That's a blessing.

People usually want to show me their impression of me, which is always awkward.

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've been doing the Vietnamese nail lady impressions since my mom first took me to get my nails done when I was 12.

Don't try to be anyone else. Don't try to emulate what someone is doing. Play to your strengths.

I'm not very good with the Twitter.

I like to be the only one who uses my toothbrush.

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.

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.'

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.

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!'

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.'

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.

I love sharing my life with people.

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'm from San Jose, CA, which is very diverse, and I grew up around a lot of different types of people.

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.

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.

I'm Mexican. I eat salsa with everything.

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.

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.

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.

There's been roles that I have turned down. There's no rule book or handbook... It's just... whatever I'm comfortable with.

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.

I was lucky to grow up in a culturally diverse area knowing a lot of different people from all different walks of life.