Detroit audiences will get a front-row seat to the unfiltered chemistry of comedians Sherri Shepherd and Kym Whitley when the longtime friends bring their hit podcast “Two Funny Mamas” to the Sound Board at MotorCity Casino Hotel on Friday, May 8, for a live recording.
The Detroit date is part of the duo’s ongoing tour built around “Two Funny Mamas,” a three-time NAACP Image Award-winning podcast where the comedians hold candid conversations about motherhood, relationships, aging, faith and the realities of working in entertainment, all filtered through decades of friendship and humor.
Recorded in front of a live audience, the Detroit show will blend stand-up, storytelling and crowd interaction, turning the podcast into a shared experience rather than a traditional taping. Shepherd and Whitley are known for letting the energy of the room shape the conversation, often veering off-script as personal confessions spark improvised riffs.
The podcast pairs two entertainment veterans whose careers intersect across television, film and stand-up comedy. Shepherd, an Emmy Award winner and former co-host of “The View,” currently hosts her daytime talk show “Sherri” – which will air its final episode May 21 – and has appeared in projects ranging from “Precious” to “30 Rock.” Whitley, an Emmy nominee, has built a career that spans stage and screen, with roles in series such as “Young & Hungry” and decades of work as a touring stand-up comedian.
An original podcast
“Two Funny Mamas” almost didn’t happen – several times – but finally came together in the most unexpected way.
“I had been wanting to do a podcast for a long time,” Shepherd told the Free Press, “and I only wanted to do it with Kym Whitley. My team kept suggesting other comics, and I said, ‘No, no, I can only do it with Kym.’”
But Whitley didn’t take Shepherd seriously, and continued to dodge the idea.
“She put me off like a man trying to chase her,” Shepherd cracked. “She put me off for so many years because she had better things to do. She was busy, she was getting engaged to this one, she broke up with that one when the other one was getting engaged to her … I just said to her one day, ‘Kym, let me pay for the podcast. I’m telling you, it’s going to be the best thing since sliced bread.’ I wore her down like the men she almost got married to – the six of them!
“Kevin Hart wanted to produce our podcast. Jamie Foxx wanted to. We had a lot of takers, and we were going to start on Mother’s Day – but when we were about to sign the deal, something called COVID happened. So, we borrowed equipment and started our podcast during COVID on Mother’s Day. Three NAACP Image Awards later, with thousands of followers of the chaos that we put out there, we are still going strong.”
Whitley proudly took credit for Shepherd’s success since the podcast launch.
“Let me tell you the truth,” Whitley said. “Sherri’s always wanted a talk show, since the day she started talking – and boy, can she talk! She kept asking to do a podcast because … when you’re a comic or you’re a runner, sometimes you have to feed that desire. And I believe she wanted the podcast because she had to get it out.
“What I love is that (when) she did this during the pandemic, it was really preparing her for her own show, the ‘Sherri’ show. Even though she did ‘The View,’ this was her own thing. She got to keep that muscle going, just like stand up. She got to keep that talk show muscle going, and it came right up against her sitting in for Wendy (Williams) and going on to her own show. So, I want to take credit for her being her best.”
“I won’t argue that,” said Shepherd.
“I fell in love with Detroit”
Both performers have deep history with Detroit, and said they’re excited to return.
Whitley said every time she’s in town, her must-visit list includes the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, PizzaPapalis (“I always get the deep dish seafood pizza!”) and Oak Park’s ElMar Furs.
Her first visit to the city was in the late 1980s, while touring with playwright Shelly Garrett’s urban theater megahit “Beauty Shop.”
“I got to experience Detroit because it was the first stop on the tour,” she recalled. “So young, excited, with a group of other young actors. And we got to live in Detroit, on First Street. I remember, we all had our own little apartments and we performed at the Music Hall. We were here for a month, and then we came back, so I really got immersed into Detroit. I have a couple of friends here, and they would drive us around and hang out. The people … I fell in love with Detroit.
“I became friends with a group called Raw Voyces later on, and Mike Jeffers, who is a singer and part of Raw Voyces. He really showed me Detroit, and we’re friends to this day. I fell in love with the African American Museum. We had a family reunion here last year; I’ve got a bunch of cousins here. We’ve been on the riverboat.”
Shepherd remembered sneaking off to Detroit to have fun in her youth.
“I love Detroit because, first of all, it was four hours away from Chicago; I am from Chicago,” she said. “So all my people, we always go to Detroit. If there’s a good spades game, we are there. Give me my American hot dogs anytime, any day. I love the people from Detroit. They tried to set up like an American dog in California, but it’s just not the same.”
Both Shepherd and Whitley confessed that, at one point, they’d intended to buy properties in the city, but waited too long.
“Detroit is just fun,” Shepherd said. “The people are real. Downtown is just so vibrant right now. I love to see it. They have so many Black-owned businesses, which I love to frequent. There are so many places to eat really good food. Detroit is a great city to be in – except, I don’t want to run into my ex-husband. Other than that, it’s amazing.”
“It’s true,” Whitley chimed in. “I got exes here too!”
“This was the stomping ground back in the day,” Shepherd said. “Let me tell you something: When I was in high school, we’d go over to Detroit. My mother thought I was babysitting – we were in Detroit!”
Bringing it to the stage
Friday night’s audience can expect to laugh until they ache – which is also what happened during the course of this interview.
“We haven’t been onstage together in a year,” said Whitley. “But we’re always together. They can expect to see stand-up; they see us on our podcast, but we are also stand-up comics, and they’ll get to see us do our separate bits. But, what they’re really going to see is Sherri probably blow me off the stage, because she’s been on tour, and I’m really afraid to get up there this time. But I’m gonna put my big girl panties on and go up onstage with her.”
Shepherd countered that statement.
“What they don’t see is Kym – this is her second residency in Vegas, at the Jimmy Kimmel Comedy Club,” Shepherd said, “and Vegas is so difficult because you have people from all over the country coming in. They’re not necessarily coming in to see a person … after they drank all night at the casino. And you the unenviable task of making all those people from everywhere laugh. Kym has done it; she did it successfully once and they asked her back twice. What I admire about her is she has been out here doing all of these gigs and selling out.”
Shepherd said that, in addition to the podcast taping and individual stand-up sets, an audience Q&A segment will also take place.
“When we get together onstage,” she said, “we have a really good time because we’ve known each other for almost 31 years. We lived across the street from each other – I got evicted before Kym did. I have stayed at her house when I’ve had fights with the ex-husband. We just have a good time, and we have such a good time that it’s contagious.”
Whitley agreed.
“Yeah, they can feel it because it’s a real friendship based in struggle, growth, family – instead of Hollywood,” Whitley said. “We are true friends.”
For fans of the podcast – and for those simply looking for a night of unscripted comedy – the May 8 live recording offers a rare chance to experience Shepherd and Whitley’s signature blend of humor and heart in real time, with Detroit joining the conversation rather than just listening in later.
Two Funny Mamas
Featuring Sherri Shepherd and Kym Whitley
Friday, May 8, 2026
8 p.m.
Soundboard at MotorCity Casino
2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit
Tickets from $64.65
313presents.com
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Sherri Shepherd, Kym Whitley bring laughs to Detroit Friday night
Reporting by Duante Beddingfield, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
