- The viral video of my next guest, Ricky Smith,
surprising his 14 year old daughter
with the dress of her dreams.
With over 13 million views and counting.
Most dads don't even like going shopping.
So how did you find this dress?
- I got a call from her mother about a month before.
She was supposed to have a formal dance at her school.
And she said "Well, Nevaeh's gonna need a dress,
shoes, and her hair done" and I'm like
(sighs)
I'm not looking forward to this.
So, we go down there, we're looking for the dress,
she's looking around, looking around, looking around.
She said "Dad, I found one."
I said "Okay."
I was like "How much is it?"
She was like "It's $200."
I said "Alright, I should be able to do it."
So, then, when it came around for the time to get the dress,
some other things came up,
and basically I was like,
"Baby, I'm not going to have the money."
"You're going to have to find another dress."
So I called her mom and told her and we discussed it all.
She went out to go try to find a dress for her
and then right before the formal,
I called her and said,
"Hey I got the dress."
She came and sat down and I was like
alright well, your grandma bought you a dress.
- You told her that her grandmother a dress.
- Her grandmother bought it, yeah.
- [Steve] She went "Uh," - Yes she--
- "Not that dress lord help me."
(audience laughing)
And when your grandmamma buy you a dress,
you gon' look like her at the--
(laughing) (clapping)
- So then I went ahead, went in the back of the office,
grabbed the dress, brought it out to her.
And she was like, "Well Dad is it a two piece?"
I said, "I don't know, it's a dress."
Like, I don't know. (laughing)
That's when I zipped it and she seen it.
And just started balling.
(laughing)
- Now Nevaeh, you're actually wearing the dress right now.
(audience cheering and clapping)
So Rick, you were working two jobs
to buy extra money for this dress.
How did if feel to do something special like that
for your daughter?
- It felt good.
It's been a long time since I was really able to
do anything that they wanted, when they wanted it.
I always had to make a way and budget out my money,
and it's been hard, but to see her so happy about the dress
I loved it, I love to see the smile on her face everyday.
(audience clapping)
- Now Nevaeh, let me ask you a question.
Was the dress a hit at the dance?
- Yes it was.
All my friends were telling me how beautiful I looked in it.
And they asked me where I got it.
They asked me how much money it cost.
(audience laughing) (audience clapping)
(Nevaeh laughing)
(audience cheering) (audience clapping)
- Oh y'all wanna see the dress?
(audience cheering) (audience clapping)
Now Rick, there's a special part to your story man.
Cause you been through some things,
and you've actually turned your life around.
What was the turning point for you?
- I had went to prison for six years.
Did some things in my life I ain't proud of,
but at the end of the day it was a learning lesson.
And she came to see me before they took me up.
She was standing there, she was about three years old,
and her coming in and seeing me,
there was a door and she's standing there looking,
and she's trying to get through the door
and couldn't get through it.
So it crushed me, made me cry.
I was so mad and so hurt that she had to sit there
and go through that.
But it was just hard, I can't do that to my babies.
They've been through too much.
(audience cheering and clapping)
- There are a lot of good men locked up
that just made a mistake.
(audience clapping) It's a lot of good people man,
that just made a mistake.
It don't make you a bad person man,
and I think the quality of you as a man has shown through.
The fact that you love your daughter no matter what.
Your first hurt was she couldn't get to you,
that bothered you. - Yeah.
- And then you just wanna see her smile.
Man you just gotta-- (audience clapping)
It's alright.
And we as people,
we gotta be just a little bit more forgiving
and a little bit more understanding
when you hear some bad news from somebody.
Because man, if you really knew about everybody,
you wouldn't have any friends.
If the whole truth really got told,
(audience clapping)
you really not.
Now Nevaeh, we got a little surprise for you.
We reached out to the New York Dress Company
who heard about your story.
And they wanna make sure that your next school dance
is just as special.
That's why they're hooking you up
with a new dress for up to $1,000.00.
(audience cheering and clapping)
Girl you gon' be dancin' so hard that night.
(laughing) (clapping)
- [Ricky] I'll be there.
- Girl let me tell you something,
you had it turned up with the $200 dress.
They put a thousand dollars on you,
we gon' have to bring back Soul Train.
(laughing) (cheering)
But that's not all.
We heard about this story Ricky,
they also know how hard you worked
to get your daughter her dream dress.
So to make things just a little bit easier on you,
they're giving you $5,000.00.
(audience cheering and clapping)
Yep, that's for you man.
That's a pretty good deal.
Thanks for being here.
(upbeat music)