'Abbott Elementary' star Janelle James on 'It's Always Sunny' crossover, love of drumming

In USA TODAY’s The Essentials, celebrities share what fuels their lives, whether it's at home, on the set or on the road.

Janelle James is schooling us on her Essentials.

The actress and standup comedian helps "Abbott Elementary" score an A+ with Principal Ava's manicured hands-off approach and one-liners sharper than a fresh No. 2 pencil.

ABC's Emmy-winning comedy returns from winter break Wednesday (8:30 p.m. ET/PT) with the first of two crossover episodes featuring the cast of FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

"I've been a fan since the first one," James says of "Sunny," which premiered in 2005. "I was in in high school defending it. 'No, it's funny. It's meant to be satire,'" she adds with a laugh.

Mild mayhem ensues when the "Sunny" gang – Charlie (Charlie Day), Frank (Danny DeVito), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) – shows up at Abbott to volunteer. (The second installment of the characters mixing things up in the City of Brotherly Love will air as an episode of the FX series at a later date.)

"It was cool and surreal to have them on our set and to be on their set in Paddy's Pub," James adds. "Everybody was cool and nice, and Danny DeVito's short and charming."

Now onto the items making up James' supplies list for life and comedy, from her top-tier comedian to her "rich people" wellness routine.

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One name comes to mind for James' all-time great comedian: the late Richard Pryor. "I have all his albums on vinyl," she says. "That's my main."

James applauds the "deceptively dark" Pryor's ability to find the light of a punchline in a grim situation.

"Everybody's gone through things," James says, "and I think the point of comedy is to talk about those things in a humorous way so people can feel that we're all in this together."

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Detoxing from devices with vinyl

James recently acquired an Andover-One record player on which she spins the tracks of John Coltrane, LCD Soundsystem and Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall. The latter "is lovely," she says. "It makes me feel like I'm on 'White Lotus,' somewhere exotic."

When James is listening to music, she's looking to relax and break from her devices.

"I love to smoke a joint and lay on my floor and put my headphones on and listen to it that way," she says.

Time for her hobbies, which include the drums

James longs to get back to her hobbies and the things she "used to do that didn't involve work and scrolling the internet."

She jams out on the drums and has started bass lessons.

"I would love to learn to play all instruments," she says. "So that's a commitment I'm making it to myself this year."

And she wants to pick up her paint brushes once again. "I used to paint. I have all the equipment," she says. "It's just the doing."

Infrared saunas and compression therapy

Now that James lives in LA, she's doing as the Angelenos do and paying attention to her wellness.

"I've been crisscrossing the town, trying all the rich people (stuff) like float tanks," she says. She's fallen in love with infrared saunas and her sauna blanket, but not cryotherapy, which she describes as "torture."

The Therabody JetBoots Prime compression device is a must-have for her legs "because Ava wears heels every day, and I'm always running and flipping and doing (stuff) on this show," James says. "I hurt myself every season, so that's why I have all these things to keep myself together so I can continue to do this very physical comedy."

Working out with Claire Underwood intensity

"My co-star Tyler (James Williams), every season, tells me to get on the ball because we're doing so many episodes and this really is a strenuous gig,” James says. "Every season I come back bloated on margaritas from the summer and then I have to get in gear."

Getting in shape previously meant James running late at night on her treadmill. But after injuring her ankle, she's turned to her rowing machine for cardio. And since James is an actress, it may come as no surprise that in the gym she adopts a persona: Claire Underwood, Robin Wright's character from "House of Cards."

"I'm not a Type A (person). I really struggle with discipline," James admits. "So what do I have to do? I have to become someone else in order to accomplish this, and so that's (when) I'm like I am in this this show and I'm this person, and I'm rowing my ass off."

James also incorporates workouts with her Tonal, a recommendation from Williams.

"So I just rotate those things, and I stay in marginal shape," she says laughing.

Candle warmers that keep her from burning down the house

"I'm obsessed with my house smelling good, but I can't be trusted to not fall asleep with candles (blazing), because many times I fall asleep and I wake up and it's looking at me, still lit," James confesses. Her solution: Cozyberry Querencia candle warmers, which heat the candle and diffuse the scent without a flame.

Her favorite scent, which she planned on gifting her cast members for the holiday season, is Byredo's Bibliothèque.

James detects a hint of crushed roses and perhaps vanilla in the warm scent that she loves for winter.

"I guess it could be a library in 'Harry Potter,'" James says with a laugh. "Not like the New York Public Library or something."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abbott Elementary, Always Sunny crossover: Janelle James spills