Chonda Pierce

She was born in Covington, Kentucky, a preacher’s kid in a dysfunctional family. Chonda was sixteen when her twenty year old sister died in a car accident. Chonda’s father, already suffering from a severe bipolar disorder, couldn’t cope with the tragedy. He soon abandoned the family, only months before Chonda’s younger sister died of leukemia. Chonda and her mother were all alone, struggling to survive emotionally and financially.

As a college student Chonda took a job at Opryland USA. She was supposed to sing and dance but when she couldn’t learn the dances, and after her boss warned her that she better come up with something, Chonda memorized and performed three pages of Minnie Pearl jokes to keep her job. Her impersonation of the beloved comedian was a hit. Chonda says she still loves to sing and she still tries to dance but she fell in love with comedy at Opryland and it will always be her first love.

Despite the pain of her own past, this gusty lady has been able to take personal tragedies that would’ve crippled many people and use them to bring her audiences to tears of laughter. In a career that is still arcing upward, Chonda has already written best-selling books and released comedy DVDs with gold and platinum sales. Her Emmy nominated comedy is featured regularly on XM and Sirius satellite radio.

Through it all she’s used the healing power of laughter to share God’s message of hope. This blond dynamo who claims to have cut her funny bone on the comedy of Carol Burnette is squeaky clean and feel-good funny!

In today’s southern quote we hear this speaker, comedian, author, singer, wife, and mother of two speak about the course of her career. Chonda Pierce has said, “I’d like to say that God appeared to me and said, ‘Go, ye, and be funny’, but it was more than that. I believe we should all aspire to impact the world with what we do.”

Hugs,
Shellie