Comedian Anjelah Johnson entertains large audience over weekend

McCain Auditorium resounded with laughter on Saturday night as comedian Anjelah Johnson, whose main claim to fame is her portrayal of Bon Qui Qui on the sketch comedy show "MADtv," performed her stand-up routine in front of a crowd of almost 700 people.

Johnson's routine ranged the spectrum throughout the night from sports, to religion, to marriage. Even with the variety of topics, her jokes centered primarily on her family.

One of the bits that got the most positive reaction was about Christian rappers. Johnson used to do a joke poking fun at them, saying they should name themselves "Luda-Christ" and "Jay-Jesus." However, she married Manwell Reyes, a member of Christian rap group, "Group 1 Crew."

Johnson also grew up in a devout Christian home, so she credits her faith as a big influence on her comedy.

"It's my life, it's just my foundation," Johnson said. "It's just kind of built in me. It's like a subconscious influence because it's who I am."

Another main focus of Johnson's routine was sports. She started off with a joke about the EMAW incident last fall, saying, "Now is it EMAW or EPAW everybody? I don't want to offend anybody."

Before working as an entertainer, Johnson was a member of the Oakland Raiderettes, the cheerleading squad of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League. She said her time with the Raiders helped her shift into the entertainment business.

"It's kind of easy transitioning to telling jokes when you cheer for the Oakland Raiders," Johnson said. "But yeah, it was good exposure into the entertainment field, and I just made my way out into Hollywood."

While Johnson's routine received positive responses throughout the night, she got the loudest laughter and applause when she performed parts from her Bon Qui Qui character. On "MADtv," Johnson played Bon Qui Qui, a fast-food cashier who treated picky customers negatively.

Though "MADtv" no longer produces episodes, Johnson said her character lives on and has a heavy influence on her comedy.

"My short season on 'MADtv' was a complete blessing because the character I created ended up living on beyond 'MADtv,'" Johnson said. "Bon Qui Qui still lives on. It was a great opportunity to be on that show, and it was a great experience."

Before Johnson performed her routine, comedian Aaron Aryanpur performed a brief opening routine, which also received positive reactions from the crowd.

Both comedians were pleased with the reactions they got from the crowd and the event, which was put on by the Union Programming Council.

"I didn't really know what to expect," Aryanpur said. "It was a very warm, welcoming crowd and I felt really loose up there. We were all just rolling with it and I had a lot of fun with it."

The UPC has been promoting this event for over a month now, as tickets went on sale on Jan. 18, a full month before the event.

Representatives from the UPC said that the planning for the event presented some unique challenges due to the fact that they usually only prepare for smaller-scale performers.

"It was all kind of surreal," said Cassandra Smith, UPC entertainment co-chair and senior in life sciences. "We plan a lot of smaller comedians, so to have a big comedy show is a really big deal for us."

According to Laura Oxler, UPC multicultural co-chair and junior in pre-journalism and mass communications, said that the biggest challenge was coming up with ways to promote the event.

"We had a couple of clever promotion ideas," Oxler said. "We wrote all the information on a nail file, which is a reference to one of her comedy bits. Then I dressed up in the Union as Bon Qui Qui and handed out sliders and acted like her."

Overall, the crowd, the UPC and the comedians all seemed pleased with how the event turned out.

"I really enjoyed the crowd here," Johnson said. "I never [know] what it's going to be like when I go to a small town. But this was a very diverse crowd, and that was good. It was a good show."

Johnson is currently on tour. Her next stop is Biloxi, Miss., on Feb. 24.