Over ten years ago, Sherri Shepard made the trek from the Windy City to Tinsel Town to follow her dreams of becoming a comedienne. She worked as a legal secretary by day and comedian by night. Sherri’s routine was crass and rude, laced with sex talk and profanity, a formula that guaranteed big laughs. Everything changed when she became a Christian.
"Once I made that decision to accept Jesus into my life, everything changed. When I started being clean and talking about stuff that I considered was boring, I thought, "Oh, my career is over. I have to go back to typing, being a legal secretary." I remember God saying to me as I was crying, "Do you have enough faith in Me to believe that I’m going to give you funny material?" And I went, "No, I don’t! I do not! There is no way. This is tried and true." But when I chose to let go; He gave me so much more material."
"When you don’t have the Lord, you just don’t have that joy. That is what I was like before I accepted Christ in my life. I was just always mad and bitter about everything." "Bitter because I didn’t have a man, bitter because I didn’t have money, just not happy. That is why I never had a boyfriend, because I didn’t know how to talk to men." "I was at a club and a guy had come up to me and I was coming out of the bathroom and he said "Excuse me, sister". And I said, "No, excuse me!" "I make my own money, I’ve got my thing going, so I don’t need you to tell me what to do. I do my nails, I do my hair, I got it all covered here. Now, what do you want?" He said, "I was just going to say you have some toilet paper stuck on your shoe."
How could someone like Sherri, with such strong Christian values handle the Hollywood lifestyle. She says "This is a business where it is really about you and you have to pray every day for humility. When it’s all about you, then sometimes you miss the assignment of "I have to pray with this person". When you’re so busy telling your funny story, you don’t realize that the other person is in pain."
"It is hard being a Christian in Hollywood, because everything is about the flesh. In Hollywood, it’s so in to be, Buddhist. It’s so in to be the higher power and throw it out to the universe. Those are the generic terms. But when you make a stand, you go, "I’m a Christian." People just go, "Oh man, it’s the holy roller. Are you going to do the little prayer circles? Are you going to be bringing your Bible in here?" It’s just like you go, "Lord, I need You with me, I need Your strength." There have been times I’ve been on sets with people making fun of me and that is not a good feeling."
Sherri has discovered that many of the celebrities share one common thread, "They are in so much pain and they’re trying to use money, drugs and sex, to fill the hole that was created by God for only Him. They are hurting and they need somebody to come in and not judge them. They need somebody to come in and go, "I love you and God loves you." It’s hard because you have to make a commitment and you have to make a stand." Taking a stand has not only proved to be a blessing when it comes to sharing God’s love to her fellow cast mates, but Sherri’s obedience to do what God has called her to do has taken her career to new heights. Today, she travels the country sharing her testimony in a hilarious way. More recently, she released her first comic CD called, "No Refunds, No Exchanges."
"I have a joke in my act where I talk about when I was going through my whole single thing and wanted to get married so bad. I was going to a single’s ministry and the pastor had said, "Ladies, if you’re out here and you’re messing around and you want to get a good man who is walking with the Lord, you need to stop and make a commitment to God and take yourself off the market." "So, I walked out the aisle after everybody left and I said, "Pastor, when you’re eighteen, you can take yourself off the market. I’m in my 30’s and not only am I not off the market, I’m in the front aisle with a clearance sign right across my chest. "Buy one and get it all free. No refund, no exchange."
"When wanted so badly to be married and now I’m married and I go, "Woo, it was so much fun being single, because marriage is a whole new set of issues." Her deepest prayer is "Lord, let me be an incredible wife to this gift that You have given me, Let me die to myself, not too hard, but let me die to myself." Whether in her role is as an actor, comedienne, or wife, Sherri’s goal is to share the love of God in her own way, through love, kindness, and of course, laughter.
