If you didn’t happen to view us on Matt Rife’s Instagram story last week, the Her Campus at Pace team was invited to attend the Sherri show this past Tuesday! If you also thought I could make it through the first sentence of this article without name-dropping Matt Rife – sorry to disappoint!
If you’re unaware, the Sherri show is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show hosted by comedian, actor, and best-selling author Sherri Shepherd. The show debuted in 2022, with the former The View host ready to welcome guests like Robin Thicke, Danny DeVito, Idina Menzel, Tyra Banks, John Stamos, and so many more iconic figures. The show graciously invited Her Campus at Pace to attend the Tuesday, Nov. 7 show, with guests Marlon Wayans, and (surprise!) Matt Rife.
My roommate (and fellow Her Campus at Pace writer) Grace Jeffrey immediately told me to check the club’s group chat when she heard about this invite, and knew we would absolutely want to attend. Not only had I never been to a talk show recording, but the comedians attending were both people I’ve always admired. Marlon Wayans has starred in absolutely hilarious shows and movies like White Chicks, Little Man, the Scary Movie series and so many more. With such an iconic film as White Chicks was, it’s hard not to think highly of this man. Some of my favorite memories of my sister include us absolutely blasting the TV while the “A Thousand Miles” scene from this movie played, until our parents inevitably told us to turn it down (or off). Needless to say, Wayans and his brothers have been producing niche, hilarious, silly, and raunchy films since I can remember, and Grace and I were both so excited to see him on the show, getting the recognition he is so deserving of.
All this to say, I was so excited to attend the show when I heard Marlon Wayans was attending. This excitement was only amplified by about 10 million when I also found out Matt Rife, a rising comedian (and TikTok heartthrob) was also going to be in attendance. The absolute guttural, prime teenage girl squeal that can be summoned from someone is going to come from 19-year-old girls when Matt Rife is brought up. Specifically, it can be found coming from Maddie Hobart, another close friend of mine and Her Campus at Pace writer. The group chat between Grace, Maddie, and I that night covered the tragic wake-up time of 6:00 a.m. to meet before the Sherri show, and what skirt we thought would best impress Matt. Needless to say, it wouldn’t have passed the Bechdel Test, oops!
Matt Rife is a comedian and actor who quickly rose to fame in 2022 for posting clips of his comedy routines on TikTok. It also helped that Matt fits the heartthrob image for many of us, making most of his fans find him simply dreamy. He has self-produced many comedy specials and appeared on the sketch improv, comedy, and rap show, Wild ‘n Out. He was invited to the Sherri show to promote his new Netflix comedy special, Natural Selection.
As someone who has never been to a recording of a talk show, I can now confidently say I think it’s an extremely cool event anyone who enjoys TV should experience. Grace and Maddie were seasoned with this concept, having gone to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers, but we all still found it such an entertaining and personable experience. Considering Sherri has only been up and running her own show for a little under two years, the energy at the taping was absolutely captivating. The producers and crowd control personnel were friendly, funny, and so energetic. It made for an extremely memorable and enjoyable show.
What made this experience even more enjoyable for me was the personal energy given by Sherri herself. Before starting the show, Sherri makes a point to introduce herself to the crowd, and thank everyone for coming. She specifically pointed out, Maddie, and Grace in the crowd and called us “a cute trio,” a compliment I don’t think I’ll ever get over. She continued to ask how old I was, and after I told her I was 19 years old she referred to me and my friends as “the 19-year-old girls” to every guest during the show. Being pointed out to Marlon Wayans and Matt Rife is something that I don’t think I’ll personally ever get over, nor will anyone on any of our social media, as I think we each posted about it five different times. Matt Rife even made sure to like a group photo on Her Campus at Pace’s Instagram, of our members with himself and Sherri, taken at the end of the show. If you haven’t already seen the 10 different photos I posted of said picture, (each a different angle) you can find me standing right next to Rife in the picture he posted to his Instagram story.
All jokes aside about Rife and the celebrity status I felt being pointed out by Sherri, the talk show was an incredible experience for me and my friends, and we’ve already started planning our trip back. The ability to sit in an audience with some of your best friends, and just fangirl and soak in everything pop culture, from Khloe Kardashian’s daughter to Mary J. Blige’s choice of high heels is a niche type of joy I definitely won’t take for granted. Thank you, Sherri, for this incredibly cool opportunity.