00:00It's my honor and pleasure to declare today, Sherry Shepard Day in Hollywood!
00:12Thank you so much.
00:14Take it away, take it away.
00:17Hey family!
00:19Yes, Sherry!
00:22I'm not going to make this long because I'm not done yet.
00:27Just, I'm not done yet.
00:28But I do want to say thank you so much to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for giving me such an honor.
00:37And I'm just, I need to thank Jesus.
00:43I got to, everybody who knows me, I don't thump you over the head with my beliefs, but I'm a very spiritual person.
00:51And I know that I would not be here without my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ.
00:56Because, like Tyler said and Niecy said, you don't see what goes on behind the smile, but God does.
01:04Those deep desires that you never talked to anybody about, those dreams that you have, God knows those dreams.
01:12And so I'm so just, I just got to say, thank you, Jesus.
01:16I'm so grateful for everything you have done for me.
01:19And those dreams of mine, those tears that you have wiped up, Father God, I thank you.
01:25I thank you that you've never left me nor forsaken me.
01:29I thank you, Father God, that you've always said, do you trust me?
01:35And sometimes I was honest and said, hell no, I don't.
01:38But that you never gave up on me and you never stopped loving me.
01:43And I thank you for that.
01:45I thank you.
01:45I thank you, Father, that you've blessed people to see a side of you that loves to laugh.
01:51The side of you that is joy.
01:53So I thank you and a special shout out to you.
01:57Amen.
02:00You know, Hollywood means something very special to me.
02:04Hollywood, I used to live on the corner of Franklin and Argyle in a studio apartment.
02:10I was paying $350 a month.
02:13I used to look out the window because there was roaches all in my apartment, in my studio apartment,
02:19but I couldn't afford anything else.
02:20My mother had put me out the house because I just was too much for her.
02:24But I would look out the window every day and I would dream.
02:27I would see the cast of Beverly Hills 90210 going inside the clubs.
02:33And everybody doing their thing.
02:35And I would just sit there and look out and dream about maybe one day I could be a part of this community.
02:43Then I got evicted from that studio apartment.
02:47I moved over to 1200 June Street, which was off Santa Monica and La Brea.
02:53And I used to dream and dream.
02:55But then I found out landlords don't live on dream.
02:58They need money.
02:59And I got evicted from that apartment.
03:03And I would walk all the way because they would, they repossess my car.
03:08And I walked all the way to the comedy store pretty much every night where I would do stand-up comedy.
03:14Because that was the only thing that kept me going.
03:18And when I didn't have a place to stay because I got evicted so much, I would stay on people's couches.
03:24And I remember they didn't have pay phones or pagers.
03:28You remember they had, I mean, they didn't have the cell phones.
03:31They had pay phones.
03:32So remember you needed a quarter and you'd have to put it in the pay phone.
03:36Or if you didn't have any money, you would make a collect call.
03:39And the operator would say to the person, hi, so-and-so is calling collect.
03:44And you would have three seconds to say your name.
03:47In that three seconds, I was like, girl, I ain't got no place to stay.
03:49Hey, can I stay on your couch?
03:52And then they would have to say whether they accepted the collect call or not.
03:56And instead of that, they would go, girl, I can't be home until 10 o'clock, so you got to come then.
04:01So in between that time that I was waiting to spend the night on somebody's couch,
04:06I would wander back and forth.
04:08I would go to the McDonald's on Highlywood and Highland.
04:11And I was sitting past the time.
04:13I would walk up and down Hollywood, go to Janet Jackson's star and different people's star.
04:19And I would just cry and go, maybe one day that could be me.
04:24When I had nothing, I just was like, maybe one day that could be me.
04:30And the fact that I'm here right now, and it is that day, 30-something years later,
04:37that God said, yeah, it's you.
04:40And I wouldn't be here without some very important people.
04:46I want to thank Debmar Mercury, Mort Marcus, and Ira Bernstein, and the whole Debmar Mercury team
04:53for believing in me, for believing in me and giving me the chance to show people
05:02that this dream of mine was not futile.
05:06I've dreamed about having my own talk show since I was a little girl,
05:10and I would have my toilet paper roll in front of all of the dolls.
05:14And I've always dreamed about that.
05:16I used to always dream that I was going to be somebody,
05:19because on my report card, it always said,
05:21Sherry is amazing and she's wonderful, but she talks too much.
05:26So before I got in trouble, I knew it was going to pay off me talking too much.
05:33And I'm so thankful.
05:34Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mort and Ira, for giving me a chance.
05:38I appreciate you.
05:39I want to thank my Sherry team who came out here,
05:43all of the people who make me make it look easy to do a talk show.
05:49It's not easy doing a talk show and being here four seasons,
05:53and it takes a lot of people to make it look easy.
05:56And I thank y'all so much.
05:59I got a special shout out.
06:01My very first agent, Mike Eisenstadt.
06:04I don't know where Mike Eisenstadt is.
06:06Who believed in me and who took me on.
06:09I didn't know what I was doing, doing auditions.
06:11I did have my auditions with my back to the audience, to the casting director,
06:16but she stayed in there with me.
06:17My team from Three Yards, Mark Shulman and Troy Zion,
06:21who I've been with for seven-something years, for believing in me.
06:25Hey, Jeff, and I want to thank you.
06:27I want to thank everybody on my team, my lawyers, my business managers, everybody.
06:32Y'all believed in me, and that's been so important to me, and I thank you.
06:36And a shout out to my very first boss at my law firm.
06:43And I'm going to say her name is Sandy Williams because when I was in jail and had to call in Sid,
06:50so many people, we're Sandy and Danetta, we're Sandy and Danetta.
06:56So many people think that I am lying about this.
06:59Can you stand up, Sandy, and tell them that I was in jail for eight to ten days
07:03and called you to call in Sid?
07:06Could you let people know because they think?
07:08You just got to stand up and say yes or no.
07:11Was I in jail?
07:12Well, but even then, she didn't fire me.
07:20I just called and said, I need to take my vacation.
07:24And she never fired me.
07:27She wanted to fire me, but she knew it was some greatness there, Tyler.
07:31See, we both didn't think we'd be over here at this star.
07:34And Danetta McKinney, who told me, from the law firm, when I said, I think I want to try stand up.
07:40And everybody said, no, you're making $40,000 a year.
07:44You got your pension.
07:46It's going to take you 10, 20 years to make it in the business.
07:49And it was my friend Danetta McKinney who said, if you don't try it, you'll never know.
07:54And I thank you, girl, for believing in me and pushing me to try stand up comedy.
07:59And I want to thank all of my ride or dies, my sunshine queens, all of my girlfriends who are right here in the audience.
08:08Because y'all know the struggle.
08:11You know the pains.
08:12You know the tears.
08:14Niecy, you know what we've been through.
08:17When we smile, we know what we've been through.
08:21So I want to say thank you to my family who put up with me, who came to see me at the comedy club.
08:27Where's my family?
08:28They're somewhere over here.
08:29This is all my family, who all came and flew out and saw me at the comedy clubs, but always bombed on the day that they came.
08:38And all my family would sit there and they'd give me a half smile.
08:42And I knew they would run back and tell my father, my grandmother, that Sherry ain't no good doing this.
08:49But they stuck in there.
08:50And they supported me and they had people come to the show.
08:54And I'm so thankful.
08:55I'm thankful for my grandmother, Mary Shepard, who's no longer here, but I know she watches over me.
09:02Because every time I would call her and say, grandmother, I got an audition.
09:06This is what she'd do.
09:07She said, Jesus, this your baby, Mary Shepard.
09:10I don't ask you for much, Father God, but my baby want to do this little program.
09:17So please, bless her to get the program.
09:20And so I'm thankful for the prayers of people who got me here.
09:25But my biggest shout out is to my son, Jeffrey Tarpley.
09:40My son, who was born at 25 weeks, a pound, 10 ounces.
09:46And everybody told me he wouldn't be here.
09:51And I couldn't laugh for a year.
09:53And I had to put that on the shelf with fine china to take care of my son.
09:59Everything that I do, everything that I am, is for my calling my baby.
10:06He's 20.
10:07But he will always be my baby.
10:11And I'm so thankful for the times that Jeffrey goes, bruh, you all right.
10:21I'm thankful for the times that my son looks at me and goes, mom, why can't you be like other moms and not wear wigs?
10:29And come home and not go on trips.
10:32But I'm thankful that he understands I'm doing what I love.
10:35And I hope that it inspires him to do what he loves.
10:39And before I go, I just want to say to everybody who has a dream and they feel like they've been forgotten.
10:46And they feel like God is not listening.
10:50I want to say to you, he never forgets the dreams of his people.
10:56He will not forget your dreams.
10:58Hold on to those dreams.
11:03Hold on to that childlike wonderment where you're going, one day, could that be me?
11:10Because the answer is yes.
11:12There's a lot of room up here on the top.
11:15There's a lot of money to be made up here.
11:17That very thing that scares you when you wake up, run towards that very thing that you fear.
11:28Because on the other side of fear are where all the open doors are.
11:33On the other side of fear are where all of the blessings are lying.
11:41Don't pay attention to that voice that tells you you're not enough.
11:44You're too old.
11:45You're too this.
11:46Run towards it.
11:48Because if you can run towards that fear and jump over it, move it out the way, push it out the way, your wildest dreams are sitting right there.
11:56So I just want to say to everybody, thank you for everybody who pushed me to be here.
12:02Bernard Hampton, who's here.
12:04John Murray, who pushed this.
12:06Simone Smalls, my publicist.
12:09Edie, who's my assistant for about 14 years, who sees the side of me.
12:15Sees the side of me that nobody gets to see.
12:18Y'all don't get to see the side of me.
12:19Because I'm very serious about making people laugh.
12:22My sister Lauren, my nieces and nephews, I just want to say thank you.
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