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THE FLAT EARTH SOCIETY Population: 1, The View's Sherri Shepherd

Sherri Shepherd is one of the most successful Christian comedians in America. A year after this conference she would be hired as a co-host of The View on ABC. Shepherd told me that whenever she plays a church, her comedian friend Bone Hampton sits her down and explains which parts of her club act won't fly.

"A black person who goes to church, we've still got an uncle or a cousin that's been in prison, that's on drugs, that's crazy," said Sherri Shepherd, "so you can go ahead and talk about it""There's so much stuff that Bone says all the time: 'You can't say that in church.' And I say, 'Why can't I talk about my breasts?' You see a woman with huge breasts, and I got a lot of cleavage, but I can't talk about it onstage? And he says, 'Christians don't want—they already have a visual, they don't want you to talk about it and maybe cause them to stumble,' and I'm like, 'You're kidding me.' So there's a lot of stuff that I do that I can't do in church." Not that she doesn't understand. "You have to respect the audience that you're in front of. They're paying you, so to assault them with stuff is disrespectful. But there's a lot of stuff that I have to remind myself, That's not where these people are. I did a Church of Christ—they don't dance, the women wear skirts—and that was a hard one for me. First of all I'm a black woman, I'm a little ghetto, I have to really be on my p's and q's, because even my Christian comedy, I call it adult Christian comedy. I don't even allow kids in my shows because I talk about adult stuff, even being a Christian."

And that's not all, she continued. "Sometimes you have to change up your material for white Christian audiences versus black Christian audiences. Black people sometimes are a little more liberal as far as what we can give to them, because a black person who goes to church, we've still got an uncle or a cousin that's been in prison, that's on drugs, that's crazy, so you can go ahead and talk about it. Sometimes I find that with white Christians they're like"—here she slipped into an uptight white accent—"'We've been delivered from that; we don't have to go there.'"

Still, Shepherd does understand the importance of limits. "I'm a Christian first and a comedian second," she said, "so there's some things I forgo saying that would be hysterical, because there's people out there that are watching, and I know they're looking at me and I'm a role model. So I'm gonna let that part die because there's a greater thing that I'm doing here."

Besides, she added, there are some things comedians can do in church that they can't do in clubs. "I love doing churches because I can talk about my journey with God. With secular comedy clubs, I'm not there to beat them over the head with a Bible, I'm there to make them laugh. Also, church audiences know the lingo. With churches I always talk about submission, because that's what a lot of churches teach: submitting to your husband. And so I can say, 'I'm trying to submit to my husband,' and the church ladies aren't going to go, 'Oh my God, what?!' But in a comedy club, if I say I'm trying to submit to my husband, I'm going to have a hundred women going, 'Is he beating you? Has he brainwashed you?' So I have to say, 'I'm trying to get along with my husband, I'm trying to be a good wife.' I basically say the same thing, but I take out Jesus and I change up stuff so they can understand it."