Sheryl Underwood has been in the comedy trenches for a minute.
On her grind since the late 80s, the standup comic and longtime radio veteran hit the career jackpot last year when CBS’ daytime chat show “The Talk” added her as one of its five co-hosts.
The plum gig, however, came after nearly three decades of hustle on the black comedy circuit, which led to multiple appearances on HBO’s “Def Comedy Jam” and BET’s “Comic View,” and bit parts in such feature films like “I Got the Hookup” and “Beauty Shop.”
THE TALK co-host Sheryl Underwood is surprised by “The Young and the Restless” star Christian LeBlanc who announced that she’ll have a cameo on “Y&R” as a Justice of the Peace for a big wedding, Tuesday, January 3, 2012. (L-R) LaBlanc, Underwood, Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Aisha Tyler and Julie Chen.
“The Talk” is definitely a feather in the cap of a long journey. And ironically, Underwood, 48, believes she “would not have even been on the radar” for the show had it not been for the early support of her ABC rivalsWhoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd of “The View.”
“I did ‘The View’ twice. I would always go see it when I was working for Caroline’s Comedy Club,” she told EURweb exclusively at the TCA press tour last week. “I happened to be in the audience and Sherri introduced me to the audience, and Whoopi said, ‘Joy , you need to put her on your Comedy Corner. That’s how I got on ‘The View.’”
After performing on co-host Joy Behar’s segment, Underwood said ‘View’ executive producer Bill Geddie asked her if she’d ever been auditioned or interviewed for his show.
“I said no,” the comic said she told Geddes. “I don’t think my agent at that time had submitted me.”
Needless to say, Underwood doesn’t have that agent anymore. In fact, she is currently doing her Hollywood thing – including the launch of her own production company – with neither an agent, nor a manager.
“I just decided to do some things for myself, and get me a good lawyer who’s an accountant and business manager,” she said. “So when we got the call here, we didn’t really believe it was CBS because I’m always the bridesmaid and never the bride. We were just shocked that it happened.”
Sheryl talks more about her “good friends” Whoopi and Sherri here.
