Imagine you are in a luxury suite on the 14th floor of a posh hotel in downtown New York. The fine textures and rich colours that accentuate the suite's decadent furniture add to the room old world charm. The balcony door is open and you feel a slight breeze and the warmth of the afternoon sun on your face. The suite is filled with the swinging sound of lounge music and the thick fog of cigarette smoke.

You are here because you have been invited to play a game of poker with former child star turned rock musician, Shermy Sheldon.

Imagine Sheldon sits across from you with a drink in hand, wearing black nail polish, diamond rings, dark aviator sunglasses and a vintage tuxedo with an open collar. He is one cool cat and he knows it. Before you begin your game you politely thank him for inviting you to this soiree. He assures you it is his pleasure, but then, without so much as a wink, he changes his tune.

"The pleasure, as a matter of fact, might all be yours by the time we're finished."

He laughs and starts to shuffle the cards. You ante a couple of dollars. Like any good conversation, you start yours off with the weather. 

"I don't mind the sun and I don't mind the shine as much as I mind the sweat," says Sheldon. "I like to keep my sweat to proper occasions. Improper and unauthorized sweat is not welcome upon my face or brow."

Sheldon assures you, however, that there are proper occasions for a good sweat, such as playing a show or telling a good story. An authorized sweat, Sheldon says, is a state of mind.

You hold a pair of threes and bet. Looking at Sheldon you marvel at the path he has traveled. Once the comedic little kid that took center stage on prime time television in the early 80s as Huff, the star role in NBC's Harlem Huffington, Sheldon has now resurrected his celebrity career by fronting the Hollywood Superstars, a crude dose of low ball, Los Angeles smack rock. 

Sheldon still has issues with the way things went down the first time around. Harlem Huffington was cancelled after just a few episodes and Sheldon's acting career took a massive hit. The child star's future turned black. He spent the next decade drowning in drugs and obscurity. He found himself in and out of jail and court. It wasn't long before Shermy Sheldon fell off the celebrity map. 

Now he is back on top of things. He has his health, he has his music, and he has a second chance. Sheldon raises your bet.

"I hope to have a third chance after this second chance is up. I hope to have a fourth chance. I am celebrity. There is no ifs, ands or buts about it. Some people aspire to that. I don't believe in aspirations. I believe in destiny."

Sheldon is as confident as he is cool. Not happy with your pair of threes you fold your hand. He takes the pot, he takes a sip of his drink, and he takes to continuing on with the story of Shermy Sheldon, destined celebrity extraordinaire. 

"I believe in responsibility and dedication," says Sheldon. "I feel that if you're not in it to win it, you're out."

You deal another hand. Sheldon continues. He tells you about his celebrity lineage, about his blacklisted Vaudevillian grandfather Shemp Sheldon, and about fulfilling his own destiny under the new racket of rock star. 

"I was born into this role in life. I was born under a spotlight. I impregnated my own mother from a higher star. I believe I personally impregnated my mother from above in the heavens to bear me. I saw her as someone who would be destined to push me in the right direction."

Sheldon is as whacked-out as he is cool and confident. You begin to think that maybe all the drugs he did as a kid had some long-term effects. Is Sheldon the celebrity messiah? You hold two pair, nines and queens, so you bet. You want to know more about the second coming and have become increasingly curious as to whether or not Sheldon is as real as he claims to be. 

"I just want to live forever," asserts Sheldon. "Immortality is a very real thing and I don't know if I believe in death. I've faced death. I've been legally dead three times. Los Angeles, beautiful city, it is the place where I was born and the place where I legally died three times and if I spend my eternity there it won't be long enough."

Sheldon raises and so you call his bet. Your two pair is better than his two pair. You take the pot. 

Desperate to bring the conversation back to a level, temporal plane, you ask about his love for the television medium. Can a former child star, having been once delegated to the cutting room floor like an unwanted piece of television trash, ever learn to love again? Would the great Shermy Sheldon ever accept another job on the small screen if it were offered to him? 

"NBC has got a lot of redeeming to do in my mind," confesses Sheldon. "I understand business. I understand that one and one sometimes don't make two. But, you know, if they called tomorrow I would have to seriously think about it. I'm not sure. Maybe I could become a game show host."

It is right then you realize what Sheldon really is - a rock n' rolling game show host. He lives his life by taking chances. He is loud and brash. He is a personality of sleazy proportions, all screaming, skuzzy vocals, white teeth smiles, warm handshakes, and dry martinis. He comes complete with a sequined wearing blonde on each arm. Sheldon's life is a game show where there are winners and losers but everyone gets rich.

"I think when people get a lot of money all at once it's always a good thing," says Sheldon. "I would like to give $1 million to somebody who might be criminally insane just to see what happens; distribute the funds a little differently because I don't really know that the people who have it deserve it."

With all this talk of money you decide to play another hand of poker. 

"I believe that money has its place," Sheldon continues. "I believe that money would be something that may be redistributed in the right way. I believe there's fame and there's fortune and I believe that some people aspire toward both. Neither one necessarily is a guarantee and together the combination could prove deadly."

Sheldon has played that deadly round. This time seems to be different. You look around at the hotel room and at the way Sheldon just seems to fit in, like a pearl in the mouth of an oyster. You might swear there is diamonds sitting in the bottom of his glass. You wonder how a rock n' rolling game show host might spend a little of his own earnings. 

"I like to distribute my money at random," admits Sheldon. "I like to give some people a little bit more and some people a little bit less. I give some people who don't even deserve a dollar, two dollars. Every once in a while I like to go out and I like to give somebody a foot message."

You look at your hand. You are straightening. You check. Sheldon checks. He seems more interested in talking than he does in playing cards. So you play that game instead. Aside from sharing his wealth in an almost maniacal way, you wonder what else makes the man tick. 

"I really enjoy a good meal," he says without hesitation. "I have a couple select restaurants in the Beverly Hills area I like to frequent. I have my own table in three restaurants and that means that if you're sitting there and I walk in, the maitre d' will politely tap you on the shoulder and move you to another table. Preferably by the kitchen or bathroom. I like a nice piece of fish. I enjoy an occasional drink, an infrequent drugging. I like to sit down with friends around the pool at night and look up at the sky and think about things that might be."

Sheldon, the Hollywood superstar himself, has plenty to think about these days. For starters, his band is reaping success from their new album, Let it Shine. Unlike the dark solitude his child acting career offered, Sheldon has found a bright new life with comrades Master Thurmann Sermon, Brackish Waters, Wyrd Haroeld Hanover, and Captain T. 

"What we're offering to the music world is a little bit of fun, a little bit of entertainment. I got together with these cats, they're great players. I believe what I have taught them is a little bit more of the vaudevillian sense of entertainment and what they've taught me was the genuine love for music. It's almost like a dance. It's like a five way tango."

You picture the Hollywood Superstars on stage and what you see is anything but a tango. More like a three-ring rock n' roll circus, a high-wire juggling act that is bound to go horribly wrong. You look at Sheldon and wonder how much more bravado this self-proclaimed slave to entertainment and indentured servant to celebrity has left in him. 

"I don't believe in personal settling because there's no such thing," he assures you. "Every day when I wake up I think of those three words my grandfather left me and those three words are 'Let it shine,' and I don't know how one could settle if that's your personal philosophy."

Imagine that Sheldon's glass is empty and his cigarette has been extinguished. The deck of cards is sprawled across the table amongst a pile of loose bills. You aren't looking at a jilted ex-child star that has dragged himself out of the gutter to climb the mountain of celebrity status once more. No, instead you are looking at a sleazy rock n' rolling game show host, the kind of man who would spit on you if he didn't think it would be a waste of spit.

Imagine that you thank Sheldon for the game and tell him that the pleasure was indeed all yours, just as he had promised. Curious as to what he has planned for the rest of the day, you ask him what he is going to do. 

"I'm going to keep riding the horse of truth into the sunset somewhere out West in the hills of Beverly," he pronounces as though it were a judgment. " I'll be screaming my battle cry for as long as I can scream...'Let it shine, baby!' " www.hollywood-superstars.com - JW Warren