Four years ago, you’d have never heard of her.
Today, it’s impossible to think of stand-up comedy without thinking of Leanne Morgan. And soon, she’ll be unavoidable.
Subscribe to Netflix? Then you’ve probably already seen her special, “I’m Every Woman.” Netflix has commissioned two more specials from Mrs. Morgan and will soon start shooting a 16-episode multi-camera sitcom featuring her humor.
Like the movies? Mrs. Morgan will be seen with Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon in “You’re Cordially Invited,” set for release next year.
Browse the bookstores? Look for Mrs. Morgan’s memoir, “What in the World?!,” out this month.
Mrs. Morgan has come into the spotlight swiftly. There’s a reason for her sudden emergence: She speaks to people who until now haven’t had a voice in comedy.
Mrs. Morgan gets laughs from being surprised by middle age, from wondering how all that Jello went to her stomach, from talking about old boyfriends and perimenopause and empty nest syndrome and chicken pot pies. Most of all, she plows the ground of family life with love and hilarity. Watch “I’m Every Woman” and you’ll come away knowing her husband Chuck and their three children almost as well as you know your own family. That’s the point.
“I have an audience out there: moms and everyday people,” Mrs. Morgan said in a recent interview. “They’re unseen. Hollywood’s forgotten them.”
“I am one of them,” she added. “I always lived in Tennessee, raising my children, and having a normal life, and from that, I built my years of material that people can relate to. It’s like me sitting in a coffee shop talking with my girlfriends. It really is. And it’s all because I’ve lived a normal, everyday life in the middle of the United States.”
Life as Comedy
Mrs. Morgan grew up in Adams, Tennessee, a town of about 500 people near the Kentucky border. Her family ran a meat-processing plant in their backyard. The smell did not encourage suitors for young Leanne. “But I was soooo cute! It helps to be cute when you smell like meat. I still had boys after me.”
“What in the World?!” details her childhood growing up wanting things that were different from her surroundings. She had an early fascination with tap dancing, which she says she would still love to learn.
She did the usual things. She went to college and dated and got married and divorced, and then she found The One: Chuck Morgan, who worked for a mobile home restoration firm. They moved to a place called Bean Station, Tennessee. Meat processing, manufactured housing, and a town called Bean Station: The cliches could hardly have been deeper. Out of this, Mrs. Morgan wrestled several stand-up routines’ worth of laughs, at the same time honoring the values of hard work, honesty, and family that all those moms and husbands out there hungered to hear celebrated.
Though her comedy is understandably aimed at fellow women, men love her humor, too. “I have loved men,” she said. “I celebrate men: my husband, my son, my dad—and I do it in a way that is loving. I can see men in the audiences elbowing their wives saying, ‘That’s you!’”
Leanne and Chuck Morgan have been married for over 30 years. “I don’t know how we’ve done it. There are times when I get so mad I could spit, ’cause he’s not a talker. But we have the same values. We worship our children and these grandbabies, and he still thinks I’m soooo cute!” Chuck’s stoic silence and his husbandly enthusiasm for Leanne after all these years are frequent subjects of her jokes.
One Big Leap
It seems impossible now, but a few years back, Mrs. Morgan nearly gave up. “I’d been doing comedy for over 25 years, and when I was in my early 50s, I was just about to quit,” she recalled. Bookings were infrequent, and her son was on the verge of giving her grandbabies. Maybe leaving comedy, she thought, would be for the best.
“It was a bad time in my life. I was in perimenopause in my mid-40s, and my kids were moving out or starting middle school and high school. There was a tragic death in our family, and my best friend that I’d had for years just dumped me one day. I couldn’t get booked and no one cared about my comedy.”
Then, she took one last look at the successful comedians around her and noticed something: “I saw they all had social media people. So, I said to my former manager, ‘I think I need social media people.’ And he said you can’t afford it and it’s not a big deal. I did it anyway.” She hired two brothers who ran a social media firm in Texas.
On the first day of their contract, October 1, 2019, her social media professionals promoted a single video of Mrs. Morgan’s stand-up bit about taking her husband to see Def Leppard and Journey in concert. The clip went viral. Suddenly, gigs started to pour in, and within months, Mrs. Morgan was booked on a national tour.
“I could feel it happen. Months before, I could not sell tickets. Comedy clubs would say, ‘We love her, she’s sweet, she doesn’t get drunk and fight in the parking lot, but she can’t sell tickets.’”
But things changed virtually overnight. “It was like a switch turned on in a dark room. People saw that video and started looking for my other stuff, and then they were calling comedy clubs all over the country and asking, ‘When are you going to book Leanne Morgan?’”
The pandemic disrupted her new success, but she persisted, posting videos about how important it was to keep going. One of those videos caught the attention of Reese Witherspoon, who later remembered the comedian during the casting of one of her movies.
Mrs. Morgan emerged from the pandemic a major comedy star. “It’s been one wonderful thing after another,” she said with a tone of wonder in her voice. “I’m just getting started at age 58.”
The responsibilities of celebrity do weigh a bit heavily on her shoulders. “Every night when I look out in the crowd, I think I could be best friends with every one of these people. They are precious to me. They will message me things like, ‘You helped me get through chemo’ and that kind of stuff. That’s hard for me because I keep thinking I’m not worthy. These people deserve so much, and who am I to give it to them?” She went through a period of impostor syndrome. She writes in her book that having faith in God’s plan for her helped get rid of her doubts. “I’m getting over it now,” she said.
Of all the projects that are now crowding in on Mrs. Morgan, she talks with most enthusiasm about the yet-untitled sitcom. “It was always my dream to be in a sitcom. I grew up loving sitcoms like Ray Romano’s,” she said. The comedy series is being produced by Chuck Lorre, widely known as the “King of Sitcoms,” with “Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men” among his credits. And it will be “based on my comedy, but not my real life,” Mrs. Morgan said.
Then there is the movie that Reese Witherspoon recruited her for, “You’re Cordially Invited.” “I play her big sister in a wacky wedding movie. Two families have double-booked a wedding venue in the south. Comedy ensues as our families fight over the venue,” Mrs. Morgan described.
Despite her sudden popularity, Mrs. Morgan insists she’s just one of the people in her audience. She just happens to be on stage instead.
“Every night before I even say a word, people give me a standing ovation. It’s not that I’m Michael Jackson. It’s them saying, ‘Here comes our friend.’”
It’s Showtime!
Grew up in: Adams, Tenn.
Lives in: Knoxville, Tenn.
Loves to: cook, make people laugh
Got her comedy career started by: telling jokes while selling jewelry at house parties
First breakout special: “So Yummy,” which has over 50 million views on YouTube
First national tour: “The Big Panty” tour in 2020
Latest tour: “Just Getting Started” with 145 shows in 72 cities, and counting
Family members: husband, 2 daughters, 1 son, 2 grandchildren, 1 beagle
This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
