Frangela

Frangela, the comedy duo of Frances Callier and Angela Shelton, came to the PUB MPR on Thursday night, Feb. 10.
They shared their humor with students while sporting identical red Eastern shirts.
Themes of their show included friends, college life, tolerance and being true to yourself. They had the audience screaming, “The biggest lie is the lie you tell yourself.”
A bit of advice from Frangela was, “Don’t ever say, ‘It just happened.’ Nothing in life just happens. You don’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘Wow, my taxes are done? I don’t have to do them this year. It just happened.’ In the same way, don’t try to take the blame off your own actions by saying that the result of them ‘just happened.’”
Callier and Shelton have been friends for about 14 years.
“We met at [The] Second City in Chicago in 1998, but we didn’t become a group until 2003,” said Callier. The Second City is a improvisational comedy business located in Chicago.
Shelton and Callier have done many projects together in different settings.
The duo is in the 2009 movie “He’s Just Not That Into You,” and they appear regularly on VH1.
Callier and Shelton have their own show called “The Week According to Frangela.”
“My favorite show that we’ve ever done was in New York at Radio City Music Hall last year. It was fantastic. I’ve been in the entertainment circle for a long time and I was really excited to go there. Radio City is a famous place, and it’s where everyone in entertainment wants to be,” said Callier.
Besides their group accomplishments, Callier and Shelton both have a claim to fame because of their personal achievements.
Callier said that she thought it would be fun to audition for the role of Roxy on Disney Channel’s popular show, “Hannah Montana.”
She got the part, and she acted with Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana’s bodyguard.
“It was a lot of fun. It was a great set and everyone was a lot of fun.”
Taylor French, an EWU student who attended the show, recognized Callier as Roxy.
“I saw Callier’s face on the poster and I remembered her from Hannah Montana when I used to watch it,” said French.
Shelton has voiced several shows and video games, including a villain in “Spider-Man 2.”
Callier and Shelton enjoy working together.
“We spend a lot of time together every week. We aren’t always together because I’m married and I have a daughter, but we write and we talk. We spend a lot of time talking. The best part of my career is working with my best friend every day,“ said Callier.
The duo loves to see smiling faces in their audience.
Callier smiled as she said, “Our inspiration is that we love to make people laugh and we enjoy having a good time.” - The Easterner (Eastern Washington University)

Nick Dimico , Staff Writers
February 13, 2012
Filed under Entertainment
Frangela amuses students through social commentary, political satire, personal experiences, pure attitude
Frangela, comedic duo and best friends, brought laughter as well as a message of respect during their performance
Wednesday evening.
“I thought those girls were ride-to-die b!****s,” said Jordan Ferraro, 18, theat.
ASNIC Student Events hosted the two stand-up comedians, Frances Callier and Angela V. Shelton, with the combined name of “Frangela.” The two have been involved with numerous TV and radio shows, most notably VH1’s “Best Week Ever” and the 2009 movie “He’s Just Not That Into You.” They can be seen weekly on Twentieth Century Fox’s new show “Wedlock or Deadlock.” The duo also wrote and and starred in the award winning show “Hey Monie.”
When the NIC show began Frangela’s humor took a political tone through the many perspectives of today’s society.
One joke represented free will. They stated how it is so wonderful to live in the United States because one is allowed to have all the opinions one wants, but when it comes to hate, only in one’s home. Once you step out into society though, one needs to be a civil human being.
“I thought Frangela was great,” said Amanda Behringer, 26, business administration. “They were extremely down-to-earth in a way that if you met them at a bar you would become best friends with them right away.”
The twosome have been in stand-up comedy for about five years. They met when they moved into the same apartment complex where many performers of “The Second City” (an improvisational comedy enterprise in downtown Chicago) lived.
The first week that Angela moved in, they ran into each other in the hallway of the building and did the awkward first friend date thing like “want to go to a movie?” Since then they have been inseparable.
They have toured all over Idaho, Washington and Montana and developed more than enough real-life experience for their comedy act. One such instance was the time Frances was pulled over because the police thought a child was driving.
“This country is heightist!” joked Angela.
Or the inability most people have at telling them apart.
“My husband called me Angela,” said Frances.
“My shrink called me Frances – I think that’s worse,” joked Angela.
Much of Frangela’s humor was commentary on American society and its modern issues.
“They were awesome,” said Amber LaVigne, 26, environmental science and engineering. “My favorite joke was when they said that it seems like people are afraid they will get accidentally gay married…it’s not like you’re going to be sitting in a restaurant and they bring you a lesbian instead of a sandwich. Out of all jokes that was the one made me laugh until I couldn’t breathe.”
Frangela incorporated messages of respect and responsibility throughout the hilarious performance.
“We, as Americans, are fond of lying to ourselves,” said the pair. “One of the lies we tell ourselves is ‘I live an active lifestyle,’ while we eat pasta and bread bowls in bed while watching “Jersey Shore” marathons….The worst kind of lie is the lie that you tell yourself.”
After the performance, students gathered around to take pictures and ask the duo many questions about their career and background.
For information about the event or upcoming events contact ASNIC Student Events by email at asnic_events@nic.edu. - The Sentinel (North Idaho College)

“Every moment is a pop culture moment,” according to the comic duo Frangela.

Frangela, comprised of Francis Callier and Angela V. Shelton, performed to a full house at the Great Hall on Thursday, March 24, as part of the Junior Ring Week celebrations.

The duo, best know for their stint on VH1's popular entertainment commentary show, “Best Week Ever,” provided commentary on everything from Charlie Sheen to Rebecca Black to topics relevant to the UMW community.

Like many fans, they miss “Best Week Ever!” and were happy to have the opportunity to perform on campus.

“[We] miss having a more regular forum to talk about pop culture, especially when you have Charlie Sheen and other meltdowns,” they said. “[We love to] communicate with people; [to] say whatever everyone else is thinking.”

Frangela not only provided entertaining commentary on pop culture but also on UMW. They commented on the most recent issue of the Bullet and admitted that they loved the newspaper’s recipe for “Omelet Rice,” saying it was perfect because they could make it while hungover. They also made a few references to a piece called “Top 5 Best Places to Get It On at UMW.”

Frangela said that they “prefer college shows over comedy clubs” because the audiences at comedy clubs tend to get wasted and not be good audiences.

“Comedy is very male,” they added, asserting that it is hard for female comedians like themselves to be in a room full of “lots of guys trying to ‘out-guy’ each other.”

They said that their favorite pop culture news right now is Charlie Sheen and if they did not have to perform the night his one-man show opened in Shelton’s hometown of Detroit, they would love to attend.

“[It] is a bad place to open, [but] Detroit does love crazy” they joked, which made it a fitting place for Sheen.

The show ended on a great note, with Callier saying that Shelton had a problem “collecting white girls” and proceeding to single out a white girl in the audience who they thought looked like she was having a bad day. They made her recite “I am a Nubian Queen and I won’t take your shit!” to cheer her up.

Frangela was consistently funny and had the crowd laughing up for their entire set. - The Bullet (University of Mary Washington)

What do you get when you combine a comedic pairing that have combinable names? The hilarious duo known as Frangela of course. Frangela is comprised of Frances Callier and Angela V. Shelton, both of whom appear regularly on VH1's show "Best Week Ever" as Frangela, and wrote and starred in the award winning animated show "Hey Monie!"

Along with her appearances on Best Week Ever, Angela has also appeared in numerous television shows and has a part in the soon to be released film Strange Wilderness.

Frances has had roles in the shows My Name Is Earl, According To Jim, Hannah Montana, among many others. To learn more about this hilarious comedic duo you can visit their website at Frangela.com.

Q: The staff here at WickedInfo are huge "Best Week Ever" junkies. If we have one complaint, it's that we want more "Frangela" per episode! Any plans for you two to have your own show on VH1?

Frangela: We think it's imperative that intelligent and discerning viewers like you make your feelings known to VH1. We love the job -it's the bestest job in the world - we get to complain to each other and get paid! But, being lovers of democracy, we cannot continue to ignore the burgeoning grass roots movement to get us our own show on VH1 - it would be unpatriotic. Right now, we don't know of any plans to give us our own show, but we are often the last to know what's going on in our own lives, so it could be in the works - it would help if you had ten thousand or so people call/email and ask though.

Q: Despite this being 2007, the entertainment industry still hasn't rewarded black entertainers with as many opportunities as they rightly deserve. Ladies how has your African American heritage been a blessing and a challenge in your careers?

Frangela: Some of our favorite things about being black are: the food is better, we get to say "don't blame me you know we aren't in charge" when we go to foreign lands that aren't so fond of America, and we get to express attitude more freely it seems than other women - plus knowing that we're responsible for Japanese rap stars, well that makes us proud.

I think that it would be hard to argue that being black in America puts you at a career advantage in almost any industry across the board. Being a black actor means that there are less parts for you and the majority of the parts that are available tend to require a very narrow range of performance ability; i.e. can you roll your neck and say girl at the same time. That's one of the reasons that a show like "Grey's Anatomy" is so amazing, it has all these actors of different ethnicities and it doesn't portray them as being all the same. As writers we've found that often people will read our ethnicity into our work, when it isn't there, just because they know we are black. For example, we submitted a bunch of sketch comedy samples to an agent once and he said he thought that there were the funniest things he'd read in ten years, but did we have any that weren't about race - and in fact only one scene had any reference to race/ethnicity - he simply read them that way.

Q: Angela, you originally hail from Detroit, MI. Is it true that Michigan has two seasons: Winter and Construction?

Angela: It's true, yet, one cannot speak of Michigan without talking about our lovely fall foliage, seriously, it's amazing. People literally weep all of September from the sheer beauty, it causes traffic accidents.

Q: Frances, you're a Chicago native. If you were to give us a tour of your home town, what three stops would you consider "must sees"?

Frances: The Green Mill, Giordonna's Pizza, The Music Box - if it's still there, and Millennium Park.

Q: Angela, if love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

Angela: Frances always says: "There are some shoes, some outfits that are only meant to be worn from the bathroom to the bed."

Q: Frances, what's your theory on why they put Braille on the number pads of drive-through bank machines?

Frances: I think it's too remind us all how ignorant we are to other languages - it's just the banking industry's silent protest against the woeful lack of language instruction in public education.

Q: Angela, what would be some trivia about yourself that your fans would be shocked to know?

Angela: I've never had a pedicure - I do my own nails on my hands and my feet . . . and I can put my legs behind my head-but I think I did that on Best Week Ever once.

Q: Frances, what people would you list as most inspirational to you?

Frances: Angela (she's typing this), my mother, Angela's mother, Oprah - duh, Tina Turner, and of course the Wiggles - for they hold some sort of magical power over my baby, I am in awe of them.

Q: Where can we catch more of you ladies in 2007?

Frangela: We seem to be doing a lot of pop culture punditry if you will on CNN, Headline News, MSN, Dateline, Red Eye, The Big Story with John Gibson, the Mike and Juliet morning show, and most recently NPR - and we're sure - wickedinfo.com - Simon Thorn

How would you like to spend every day gabbing with your best friend and getting paid for it? Frances Callier and Angela Shelton, best known for their commentary on CNN, MSN and shows like VH1’s Best Week Ever, have made a name for themselves doing just that as the comedy duo Frangela. We would totally hate them for having the perfect job, but we just can’t stop laughing. Clearly, Frangela knows what makes people tick. Well, we found out what makes Frangela tick when the dynamic divas stopped by Torrid for an interview and a photo shoot.
How did you first discover you were funny?
Angela Shelton: Our number-one goal on stage is to make each other laugh, so it’s fairly surprising that we’ve been able to make a living at it.
Frances Callier: I said to Angela one day that I would love for our friendship to be what we do, and now we get to do that, just talk all day.
Both: And get paid for it!

Did a lot of people try to discourage you? What made you keep going?
FC: My mother told me, “When you’re 35 and you’re sitting on wicker furniture, don’t complain to me!”

Do you ever get competitive with each other?
FC: [Shaking her head] No.
AS: No. Whoever gets [the project], the other one’s going to get all the benefits too. She’s still coming to the set. She’s still going to dinner. You might as well hire both of us because we’re both going to be there.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve done so far?
FC: We’ve done a lot of cool things. We’ve done a pilot for Fox. I love doing the radio show. That’s incredible, getting to talk to people.
AS: We got to talk to Orlando Bloom on the phone last week because we were doing an interview with the head of the Obama campaign. And he was like, “I’m here with Orlando Bloom. Do you want to say hi?” That was hysterical. We couldn’t get it together after that. [Gasping] We just talked to Legolas! We’ve definitely had the opportunity to work with some really cool people.
FC: We went to Disneyland and got the royal treatment. We got to go through all the back lines, all that stuff. That was fun.
AS: Oh! We got to do “No on 8” PSAs [public service announcements].

What are some of the other big issues that are really important to you?
FC: Oh, the economy. We’ve been talking about it for the last year on the radio. We’ve been saying we’re headed toward a depression, and it’s hard because you’re watching 10,000 jobs go.

Did the outcome of the election give you any hope for the economy?
Both: Oh, absolutely!
AS: Yeah. It’s got to be better, right? [Obama’s] already working it.

Where were you on election night?
AS: We stayed home because it was just too emotional. We got invited to several parties, but I didn’t want to be [there]. Those tears were real tears. They weren’t fun tears. My friend was like, “Let’s pop the champagne.” But I was like, are you sure? When I hear it out of McCain’s lips, I’ll be okay. What I expected him to do—and I’m glad he disappointed me in this way because it made me gain some respect for him; that speech he gave was one of his best speeches—but what I expected him to do was fight it. Fight the results, be a pain and drag it out.

At what point did you just lose it and start crying?
AS: Jesse Jackson, for me, crying.
FC: I still couldn’t believe [that Obama won]. I got up at three in the morning to turn the TV back on.
AS: And when [Obama’s] family all walked out, I was like, oh, my god. They’re going to be in the White House. I still can’t believe it.

You’re “pop culture pundits” on Best Week Ever, the Today Show and Dateline, but you mentioned in a recent LA Weekly article that you like to talk about more important issues.
FC: Yes, we do.
AS: You know what? There’s only so much you can say about Britney’s panties. One week—I think it was the week Paris went to jail—we were on what seemed like every media outlet: CNN, MSN, VH1. By Friday of that week, I was like, is she out of jail yet? Because I’m really sick of it. That’s why we love doing our radio show. We started at Second City, and so the prejudice I’ve felt in terms of “can you be funny?” is that people see [Second City] on your resume and automatically think you do sketch comedy and that’s it. People decide that that means something about your performance. That you do big, wacky characters with big wigs, even though that’s not what Second City does. Second City does sociopolitical satire.

Are you worried about your writing being pigeonholed into just comedy?
AS: You know, we like comedy.
FC: We love comedy.
AS: We’ve never sat down and said, “We need to write something serious.” I guess maybe if we tried to. But we’re not a “Tonight, on a very special Frangela…”

And these days, comedy seems more important than ever.
FC: We have a lot of people write to us at our Web site and they say, “Thank you for helping me get through this tough time.” You have no idea that you’re doing that when you’re out there, just kind of talking and making each other laugh, - Torrid.com

You can catch BWE favorites Frangela hosting Best Day Ever every night this week at 11pm ET on Vh1. We sat down with them to talk about the origins of Frangela, their favorite things in pop culture, and some very alarming plans they have for The Jonas Brothers. Check it out!
Here’s the most important question. Do people call you Frangela individually?
Yes – and we prefer it that way – it keeps people off balance, they never really know who is Angela and who is Frances.
Where are you from? How did you two meet?
Angela is from Detroit, and Frances is from Chicago – you may know them as two of the cities where our country keeps its black people.
We met because we were both working at Chicago Second City and Angela moved into the same building as Frances – to the apartment right above Frances, in fact. We have been inseparable best friends ever since…touchy feely moment coming. We think we’ve probably been friends in every other life we’ve ever had. We are each other’s other half…ahhh.
Are you married? Any kids? Pets?
Frances is married to a very old man and they have a beautiful brilliant daughter named Abbey – yes that’s right they didn’t name her after her godmother Angela. Angela has two dogs and has refused one marriage proposal because of her decision to not get married until it’s legal for everyone to get married – equal rights people. Well, that, and the prison wouldn’t let her use an outside caterer for the reception.
Read the rest after the jump!
How much time do you really spend together?
All of it. And we generally refuse to be separated. The hospital wouldn’t let Angela in the room when Frances had her baby, some crap about the father being important blah blah blah but other than that unfortunate incident, we are never willingly away from each other.
Do your boyfriends or husbands mind how much time you spend together?
Not at all! Frances’ husband is like a brother to Angela and he often accompanies us to movies, etc., if only to be our designated driver.
Angela’s boyfriend, Keith Olbermann, is not aware that he’s dating Angela and so he is completely supportive of her relationship with Frances.
What does Frangela do when they’re not doing BWE?
So many things, really, we just give and give and give. We have a number of hobbies such as collecting white girls, which means we act as life coaches to ‘black up’ a variety of white girls including Jessica St. Clair and Melissa Rauch – two of our favorite white girls. We also like to stop at strangers’ homes and rate their house and landscaping as a free service. We spend a great deal of time judging people and telling them how they should live their lives, while making none of those changes in our own.
What are the kinds of gigs you ladies like to do when you’re not in front of BWE’s construction paper backdrop?
It’s about the art for us and the ability to reach people and change the world, so basically we’ll do any gig that’s got at least fifty bucks in it for us.
Come on…don’t be modest. Isn’t one of you basically a superstar with Disney Channel fans?
Yes, we hang around toy stores and ice cream trucks so that Frances can act surprised when hundreds of children assault her for her autograph. She plays “Roxy” on Hannah Montana, and is desperate for the adulation of minors.
So, you do go your separate ways once in a while. Does Angela have any solo plans in the offing?
Later this summer Angela will fulfill a life long dream in the Ana Farris film, “House Bunnyâ€?, in which she will play a mean prostitute. Hopefully it will lead to real prostitutes wanting Angela’s autograph.
What TV shows would you want to be on?
We have been desperately trying to get auditions for The Tudors, Deadwood, Big Love, Gossip Girl and Brothers & Sisters.
You must really love those shows, especially Deadwood, because that’s not even on anymore…what else are you currently obsessed with?
TV shows: Lost, South Park, Top Chef, Project Runway, Weeds, Intervention, Celebrity Rehab, Entourage. Any show about prison – basically any show with junkies, criminals or marginally talented people.
Fave books for Frances: The Good Earth, anything by Tom Wolfe or John Irving. Harry Potter.
Fave books for Angela: On War by Claus Von Clausowitz, Moby Dick, Native Son, Mrs. Dalloway, anything by Robert Greene, Harry Potter series, Beloved, Invisible Man, and anything else about how badly black people were treated
Fave comedians for both: Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Red Foxx, Bob Newhart, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle (pre-Africa).
Fave moisturizer – Butter.
Fave snack – Butter, or white boys, or butter on white boys with a brown boy chaser.
Let’s hear about some of Frangela’s fantasies…
Fantasy Job: Personal assistants to Paul F. Tompkins. Should we send him our resume?
Fantasy Weekend: Watching movies while lying on a couch in our slankets (A blanket you can wear! They rock!) while Frances’ husband, Tom BBQ’s - Best Week Ever

Television
Fox – The Cleveland Show
Fox – Drive
Fox – Mike and Juliet Show
Fox – Wedlock or Deadlock
Fox News – Red Eye
Fox News – The Big Story
MSN – The Big Debate
CNN – Showbiz Tonight
CNN – Headline News
NBC – I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here
NBC – My Name is Earl
NBC – Frasier
NBC – Significant Other’s
NBC – The Today Show
NBC – Date Line
HBO – Curb Your Enthusiasm
HBO – Mr. Show
ABC – According to Jim
ABC – Emily’s Reasons Why Not
ABC – It’s All Relative
ABC – It’s Fight to be Tied
Oxygen – Girls Behaving Badly
WE Television – I Can’t Believe I Wore That
WE Television – Junk Yard Teddies (Pilot)
Nickelodeon – Drake & Josh
WB – Like Family
WB – The Tyra Banks Show
Disney – Hannah Montana
Disney – The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
PBS – The Cheap Show
CBS – Grounded for Life
CBS – The Doctors
Oprah’s Funniest Stand Up’s in the County
VH1 – Best Week Ever

Film
Strange Wilderness
Mardi Gras
House Bunny
Cloudy Chance of Meatballs
He’s Just Not That Into You

- Sophie K. Entertainment