- Our first guest is one of the hardest working women
in Hollywood.
You can catch her in the Netflix movie "A Week Away",
the ABC show "Call Your Mother"
and co-hosting the podcast "Two Funny Mamas".
Please welcome the hilarious Sherri Shepherd.
(audience applauds) (upbeat music)
I'm so happy slash angry for you right now.
(laughing)
What has happ- You look amazing.
- Girl, thank you, I'm so nervous
because this is the first time I've ever worn this outfit.
It's been my goal outfit. - You should feel amazing
about it.
- Thank you.
- That barn door opened and I'm still standing.
We're still standing.
We haven't even sat down yet.
- This is what happens when you let go of an ex husband.
I'm gonna let you know that. - Oh my God.
When does that happen?
- It happens.
- That does not happen for all of us.
- Yes, it will.
I'm here to promise you that.
- I was like I'm looking for that Adele plan.
Like when does that happen?
What inspired you?
You already looked beautiful.
So what inspired you to just trim down?
- My, you know what, I have to say when Jeffrey,
you know my son, Jeffrey.
He's got special needs and he was sitting in the car
and I was eating like a candy bar.
And he said, "Mommy, if you die who's gonna
"be my body guard?"
That's what he said.
And I said, "What?"
And he said, "If you are not here,
"who's gonna take care of me?"
And it literally hit me like,
"Sherri, you got to change your life."
So this is that's my baby.
And this is my third year with no sugar.
And I stopped eating pork and beef and dairy
'cause I said, "I wanna be healthy for Jeffrey."
Now the park is I get to put
on this little Vici body suit and go. (laughing)
- And you put it on.
It looks so good.
That door opened.
I was like, "I'm so angry."
- Thank you.
- I'm like, "What in the world with the dress?"
- Yes, this is my birthday photo shoot
because I turned 54.
- What?
- Yes, to 54 y'all. (audience applauding)
- What?
- I wanted to show people - - I don't wanna cheer anymore.
- Look at you. (laughing)
I just wanted to show people that, you know
you're not counted out.
'Cause sometimes people, Hollywood is not kind
to you as you get older.
And I wanted to show people
you still got it.
- Or society in general.
- Or society, yeah.
So this is like my health journey.
This was the perk to my health journey.
And I wanted to pay homage to like
you know, glam Hollywood.
Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne and Dihann Carol.
So that's my photo shoot that I did.
- Jesus, take the wheel.
You look amazing.
So this is your fourth time here.
So since you look so fabulous
every time someone has been here four times
we give him a little present.
You're gonna look real good in this.
- Oh wow.
- And maybe get
you a smaller size. - Oh my God.
Oh my gosh,
I got my team Kelly. (audience applauding)
I got my team Kelly jacket.
I have a convertible so I can put this
on in my convertible car and drive.
I'm gonna look cute girl.
And I'm manifesting a date in my team Kelly jacket.
- In your team Kelly jacket.
- Yes baby, yes.
- All right, so your friend
and "Two Funny Mamas" co-host Kim Whitley.
She's also been here four times and I hear that.
Are you each other's like emergency contact
like in case of an earthquake?
- Girl, the last earthquake,
the last two earthquakes that happened
I called Kim up and I was so scared
'cause I'm traumatized from earthquakes.
Because the big one that we had back in 1995
somewhere around there, I was on a booty call.
And that was the worst
because I thought that Jesus Christ was coming.
It was like, boom, boom.
And I realize, "Oh my gosh, Jesus is coming.
"He gonna knock on my door
"and I'm on a booty call with somebody I don't even like,
"first of all."
So I made him get on the floor.
We were butt-naked and we were praying
for forgiveness through the whole earthquake.
I was so traumatized.
So that's all I remember is being on a booty call.
Earthquakes mean booty call, bad booty call.
So I'm just like, so whenever we have an earthquake
I call up Kim and I'm like
you just got to walk me through this girl.
Woo, I don't like them.
- I have to pretend 'cause I have little kids right.
So I have to pretend that everything's fine.
I'm like, "It's gonna be great.
"It's gonna be great."
Like it's still shaking and I'm like
and I run to their bedrooms, whatever.
And anyway, I have to act like I'm not freaked out
but I'm freaked out because the whole freaking
earth is moving. - Don't you hate?
Jeffry, he's 16 so he sleeps through earthquakes
but I'm always afraid that I'm gonna wake up
and I ain't gonna have no clothes on.
So you gotta have your earthquake clothes.
So as soon as it starts shaking it
and ain't your boob shaking,
you gotta run and grab the clothes and put it on.
- You know, this is true TMI.
(laughing) But like I
generally like sleeping naked.
I don't like, I get hot.
I don't like it, you know,
whatever TMI. - You have kids.
- But you can't do that in this state.
- No, not in an earthquake. - Because I know
that my ass will be caught.
Some firefighter will have to come get me out
of my roof caving in
and I'll just be sitting there in the buff.
- Wall that's what you want is a firefighter
to see you butt naked girl.
- Maybe after I've been on your plan.
But right now it'd be be a little much.
Like I dunno.
You're welcome mom.
So you are in a musical on Netflix.
It's called "A Week Away".
So did you like doing the singing and dancing
or were you terrified?
- I can't sing Kelly.
I can't sing.
I can't dance.
I was voted off "The Masked Singer".
I was voted off
"Dancing With the Stars". - How did you
land a job where you're singing and dancing
if you can't do either?
- Girl, I don't know.
I think it's my sheer personality, force of will
that did it.
But you know, the way they had me sing.
Like I admire you, Kelly.
They had me go in the studio and sing each word.
And then they strung the best of together.
- Oh they edited it all together.
- Yeah, they edited it
and all done to I sound like a black Pat Benatar.
That's what I sounded like.
'Cause it was like, "Ah, ah, open, open, uh, uh."
And they just took everything and put it together.
The Bible, the Bible, the Bible.
And then I sounded like Pat Benatar. then it's all.
- Oh my God.
I love you so much right now.
'Cause it does sound funny when they edit
and it's a different energy as well
from a different take. - Yes.
- And you'd be like intimate.
And then oh.
- I heard it and I was like, "Oh my God."
So when I come back on, can we do like a duet?
- Yes.
- Can we do like "Proud Mary"
- Yes. - or something?
- But I wanna do it like weird edited version.
(laughing)
I want it to be like "This is what our edit was."
- Exactly.
- People don't, it's a real thing.
But you recently had a birthday
and that's the way, I did too.
So how did you celebrate?
- I celebrated my birthday, Kim Whitley.
She is one of us.
She has a tennis court in her backyard.
So we do Whitley on wheels.
It's a skating rink.
She calls it Whitley on wheels
and it's our own private skating rink.
And so she threw me-
- We do that at my house. - Yeah.
- We built a tennis court
and we got roller skates. - And you just skate.
- We get bikes and -
- Absolutely.
And that's what we do, we skate.
This is her tennis court
and we just skate
on her tennis court. - Look at how good you are.
- And I love it 'cause Kim doesn't skate.
She just rides her bike around the court.
- Directs everybody. - And tells everybody.
Yeah, she screams and she goes, "Hey, it's duet."
"It's man and woman skating."
And so it's a skating party that she threw me
for my birthday
'cause I love roller skating. - That's awesome.
That's awesome.
My whole thing I always say is "It's a couples skate."
Like it's like. - Yes.
- 'Cause that was the time I generally get off the floor.
- Oh you by yourself. (laughing)
- You know, Like in like junior high when you're like,
"Cool, I'll just be over.
"I mean I was, I been wanting some nachos anyway."
- See, when you go to adult skate
like you gotta come over Kim's house.
When it's couples skate and we don't have anybody
to skate with we get a shot of tequila.
And then we, with our shot of tequila
we just skating around.
- Yeah, it makes you feel good.
Doesn't talk back.
- You don't know you're by yourself,
I'll tell you that.
(laughing)
- You're with everyone.
So how did you learn to roller skate?
Why did you do that?
- I started, you know what?
Because roller skating is such a culture
in the African-American community.
I saw 70 year old skating
and 90 year old skating at the rink.
And so Danielle Hawkins who she came
and she was teaching me how to roller skate.
So we go to a park and we skate on the basketball court.
That's Danielle and it's so funny.
'cause all the teenagers would sit there
in the swings and laugh at me.
But I realize even when they were laughing at me, I said,
"But I'm actually trying it."
Like, that's the difference between a dream and a reality.
You make it happen.
So now when they see me, they're like, "Go ahead mama.
"Go ahead Auntie."
(audience applauding) So it's so great.
And I feel free when I roller skate.
I love it. - It's fun.
- It's so much fun.
- And it kind of makes you feel
like a child at heart, again.
- Absolutely.
- Yeah, but I don't wanna break anything.
So there's that fear.
It's funny how you fear nothing when you're a kid
and you're doing those things and now it's like,
"Wait, so if I break this and I won't be able to do that job
"and I won't be able to - " (laughing)
- That's what you think
'cause you know, the hips don't have the bounce back
like when we were 12 and I'm always like this.
Oh, oh, oh and you gotta know that you're gonna fall.
But when you fall, you get back up.
- Oh absolutely. - That's what it is.
That's with everything.
- So you also started pole dancing.
- Yes I did. - I remember you
talking about this.
So how are the lessons going?
- The lessons are going slow, but it's, they're going.
'Cause I, you know, I have - - It's hard.
- Well, Danielle Hawkins, who was also my pole dancer.
She also pole dances with skates on by the way.
But she always, the moves that she has me doing.
I'm like, "Girl, I got arthritis in that part of my leg."
And then she'll say -
- Inflammation.
- Thank you, the inflammation.
But she'll say like, "Now we're gonna bring our legs up."
And I go, "With what muscles?
"Ab muscles?
"I ain't got that."
(laughing)
So I'm going through, but it works your abs, your core,
your arm, your thighs. - Muscles you didn't
even know you had.
- Muscles you didn't even know your had.
- Dude, I tried it once at this hotel randomly
it had a pole in it.
Look, it was a bunch of people.
Wasn't freaky like that
but there's nothing wrong with it
if you wanna be freaky like that.
But I just mean, I tried one and the loudest
it was just like, it was like, and this was when I was
in shape and I got on it and just boof.
- Fell right to the floor. - I was like, wait, what?
I was like.
- You tried too hard.
I'm gonna tell you, I went
and did a movie in Vancouver for Lifetime.
And I brought, you can take the pole with you.
I have a pole in my bedroom.
- Wait, it's a travel pole?
- Yes, it's travel poll.
I have it in my bedroom.
Jeffrey came in the room and he said,
"I wouldn't have my daughter doing this."
And I was just like, "What?"
So this is in Canada, but I didn't put it up right.
And so the asbestos all fell from the ceiling
in my mouth. - Ugh.
(laughing)
But it was so funny to see the Canadian police
'cause they were like, "What is this?"
And I said, "It's my pole." And they said, "What are you,
"What is it for?"
And I said, "It's when I dance."
And they go, "And why are you here?"
I said, "I'm doing a movie."
So I think they thought I was doing a porno.
It was all right. - Oh my God, oh my God.
I love that explanation to people
showing up at your door. - Yeah, I just, it's my
dance pole. - That is amazing.