WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1660 - Leanne Morgan

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Leanne Morgan was a late bloomer in comedy but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t in her heart for a long time. Despite a life in Tennessee filled with tobacco farms and door-to-door jewelry sales, a trip to The Comedy Store in the early ‘90s left Leanne with no doubt as to what she wanted to do with her life. Leanne talks with Marc about her several false starts in show business and how she was worried she would have to give up the comedy dream until social media and Netflix changed everything for her.  Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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This is my podcast. Welcome to it. How's it going? I don't even know what day it is. Do you? Is everything alright? Today I talked to Leanne Morgan. You know, I didn't know her. And she came to comedy pretty late in life

and had a huge success with her first comedy special, I'm Every Woman. Since then she's released a book called What in the World? And now she has a sitcom produced by Chuck Lorre coming out on Netflix later this month. And it was kind of amazing to talk to her because she's been at it and she's the real deal and I just I didn't know her off of my radar until she wasn't then I'm like, holy shit this is a she's she's the real deal and it was great to talk to her.

I'm back at Largo for a comedy and music show on Wednesday July 23rd. Tickets are at Largo-LA.com or you can get them at WTFPod.com. Got a new band. The old band was great but I just wanted to try playing out with some different folks. Pretty excited about the songs we're singing and we're getting a lot of timing. I actually did some vocal work with Paige Stark, who is going to be drumming. And she was like, you gotta fucking do some vocal work so we can get the vocal and harmonies right. I'm like, what?

There's a job to this? So we hammered that out, but look, man, there's a 80% chance I'll choke anyways, just the way I am with music. I'm like the choke king. Speaking of music, this was a while back. I guess it was a couple weeks ago now, not quite. But I got to be honest with you, that farewell Black Sabbath performance, that farewell Ozzy performance, because he's ill and, you know, he's going out on his own terms. I've only seen some clips of it, but it looked like the greatest fucking goodbye I've ever seen in my life.

If only more of these boomers who aren't sick would, you know, bow out respectfully. It'd be nice. And I, you know, I get shit for this. It's fine. But I'll tell you man, Ozzy is one of the best. One of the best front men, Black Sabbath, one of the best rock bands ever, and the men, Black Sabbath, one of the best rock bands ever. And the humility of him and the humanity of him sitting in what was a throne and deserves to be a throne, going through the catalog, having great contemporary acts and just fans of his come up and do it,

Guns N' Roses, I think was there. And I don't know, man, it just was so, it was heartbreaking and elevating and it was just beautiful. It just seemed like a beautiful event for everybody involved. And you know, some people get on my shit about this. You know, it's hard for me to watch rock stars that I grew up with.

I grew up loving when I was a younger man. Sometimes it's hard for me to watch them as they get very old. Not older, very old. And some people think I'm being ageist and you can, fuck you, I'm not. I just look, I'm not begrudging them. If they want to go out and play, fine, I just can't, it's hard for me to watch because the sadness overwhelms the idea of isn't it great these guys are still playing? I mean, the stones barely make the cut.

I mean, that makes me a little sad. Even though they're churning pretty hard and they're doing a great job, it's just hard for me to watch because they represent a vitality to me that drove me as a younger man. And that old stuff still drives me now. And look, again, knock yourself out, fellas. Go out and get that money. Go out and make the fans happy. But it's really hard for me to watch

because there was something vital about the music and the fact that they can still do it does not, it doesn't make me happy. I mean, I'm glad they're having a good time, but I don't watch it and think like, yeah, fucking rock and roll. Yeah, I'm just watching it like, oh man, oh man, we're all gonna die.

God damn it. But again, not ageist, just from where I'm sitting, it's hard to watch. Again, I think some people should turn it in, but what are you gonna do? But sometimes it's nice to stop on your own terms, and I don't think Ozzie and the fellas are gonna do another farewell.

He's not well, and it's heartbreaking, but it was beautiful closure. There's a lot to be said for beautiful closure on one's own terms. This is an ad by BetterHelp, people. A summer vacation can be a great way to relax and recharge your batteries, but it isn't a long-time solution to stress. Don't forget that therapy can help you navigate whatever challenges the workday or any day

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mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. WTF listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash WTF. That's better, h-e-L-P dot com slash WTF. It's weird, man, because I'm out there. I got a lot of things coming out in the next few months. The special on HBO panicked out August 1st. I got stick on the air. I got the bad guys coming out, got the Bruce Springsteen movie coming out, the documentary, I don't know where that's gonna end up. I don't know where the film I did in memoriam is gonna end up, but mostly in terms of comedy,

you know, it took me a long time to put that set together and I was working on it right up until whenever I taped that, June 10th or 11th now I've got till August 1 to continue to do the material live and I'm waiting for new stuff to come It's not coming and it's only been a couple months, but it's not coming and look I'm not freaking out about it used to be I'd be like shit. Is it gonna come? Is that it? But now like I don't care. I don't care, man. I'm gonna be 62 in September.

I know a lot of you are like, hey, man, just keep working. Just keep working. I'm gonna. But I'm not feeling any anxiety about it or desperation about it. I assume it'll come. But there's part of me that's, you know, just... I'm going to the comedy store, I'm doing the good shows.

I'm a little more detached than I used to be, but I think it's a professional detachment, I think that somehow or another, I have finally managed to figure out how to do comedy that doesn't, is not on the edge of life or death for me in terms of connection, and I can kind of give the audience their experience, and I can have mine with a little bit of boundaries

there. It's fine. It's good. I'm doing the work. I can do it, but I don't know where the new stuff is going to come from. But I never do. But just not a lot of stress happening. Right?

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That's simply safe dot com slash WTF for 50% off in your first month free. Simply safe dot com slash WTF. There's no safe like simply safe So look I Got a problem. I don't know what's going on. I got a problem So I got this little I got a hedge in front of my house a big one then I got a little one I think they're called box plants. It's just like a, maybe a foot and a half, two feet maybe, out in front of the big hedge and there's a little space in between.

So it's got, you know, like a, yeah, little hedge there. And lately, lately I've been finding little bags of dog shit in the same place behind my front hedge, in between the two hedges. The other day I found three bags of dog shit and a couple of paper towels. And that means this is somebody's thing. That's their thing. They're walking their doggy,

they're carrying around a bag of shit, and they're like, this is where I put the dog shit. And look, I can appreciate a habit, but initially I was like, is this somebody, is this a sign? Is this somebody registering a protest against me? Are they trying to dog shit me out of the neighborhood? What is happening?

How do I read this? Is this somebody saying, go fuck yourself? And then the other day had a plumber come over to deal with a pipe and right in front of my gate, he stepped into a wad of gum, almost brought into my house I'm like I said to him I said do you look like it was put there on purpose a giant wad of gum this part of the push this is this attached to the dog shit situation is this a dog shit wad of gum full press trying to terrorize me out of the neighborhood now

that's the way my brain works. And at some point you gotta reel it in, reel it in. I would say looking at it rationally that the Wadda Gum and the dog shit were not connected events. And the dog shit itself is probably not some sort of, you know, act of trying to frighten me, right? You think that they go a little heavier

with the dog shit, right? It's just something someone's doing. Some people are saying, get a camera out there. But to catch the dog shit villain, do I need a camera on my head so I can go like, I got you, you bag dropper. You fucking shit dropper. You fucking shit terrorist. So I'm not going to do that. Maybe I don't know what I'm going to do. I tend to like, you know, what am I going to do if

I catch him? It'd be a nice moment. That's a nice human moment. When you catch someone doing something not terrible, but annoying and deliberate, and you're just like, hey, what's going on with the bags of dog shit in my yard? Can we not do that? Does it mean anything? Is it just something you enjoy doing? And they're like, oh yeah, just, uh, bih-bih-bih-bih. And then you're like, can we not do that?

Uh, bih-bih-bih-bih. And that's a nice moment. You know, you have to get all, you have to lose your shit. And I imagine that the other person's not going to be like, go fuck yourself. This is what I'm doing. This is where I'm putting my shit. But that's the current attitude culturally. Just double down.

Could you not put the dog shit in my hedges? Could you maybe go a few extra feet, find garbage cans? Go fuck yourself. What are you going to do about it? This is where I'm putting my dog shit. Well, do I have to get the law involved? Do we have to have a discussion with the police about, you know, like this guy's, you know,

that would make a good reel for Instagram. A nice kind of minor problem police activity reel solving the dog shit bag issue. I wonder if they double down on the shit bags. A lot of doubling down going on. It's annoying. It's annoying. Oh my god, it's all coming to a close. Huh? Good times. So look, Leanne Morgan is here and she's a great comedian and she has a new sitcom coming out produced by Chuck Lorre called Leanne. It premieres on Netflix on July 31st

She's also out on tour right now Go to leannmorgan.com to see where she'll be and get tickets and this is a a lovely conversation with Leanne Morgan Looking for your perfect place to call home Looking for your perfect place to call home? Lethbridge Land is shaping the future of our city with incredible communities like crossings, Riverstone and Watermark. Each neighbourhood is designed with innovation, passion and responsibility to enrich your life today and strengthen Lethbridge for tomorrow. From vibrant urban hubs to serene, coolie views, there's a community waiting for you. Discover the lifestyle you've been dreaming of in a Lethbridge Land community. Visit lethbridgeland.ca and take the first step towards your new home today.

So I don't think we've ever met. We have, but it was very briefly. Where was that? Comedy store. Okay. I did the Belly Room. That's the only thing I've ever done at the comedy store. That's crazy, yeah.

And you were- How long ago? That was, oh gosh, two or three years ago. And they told me to get out of the hallway. Oh really? Sorry. They said, get out of the hallway. And then you, I've stopped you because I've known who you were all my life.

And you were precious to me. Oh good. You really were. And you were looking at me like, who is this country woman? Because I probably hung you and tried to grab you, you know. I'm available for that. I'm usually open for that. I'm not going to be scared. I'm glad I was nice.

You were very sweet to me and you went, who are you? But I had done the belly room and was scared to death because I've done the Belly Room and was scared to death because I've done the improv and all that. You know, I was in Knoxville, raising a bunch of kids, doing comedy for over 20. You just met my daughter, she was 27, I started when she was 18 months old.

So I had never been, I've never done the Comedy Store and all those kind of things. So they said, you can do the Belly Room. And some darling man was talking about something really nasty. And then I went up after him and talked about somebody bringing me a meatloaf after I got my IUD replaced at my children's Christian school. And so I didn't know how it was going to go. And how did it go? Really well. And then, yeah, I had a good go. And how did it go? Really well.

And then, yeah, I had a good set, and all these young people came up to me and said, can I hug you? And so I think I'm like a warm blanket. I'm like a grandmother, you know, I am a grandmother. A warm blanket. And then I found you, and I wanted to meet you so badly that I came up to you and you were precious,

but they said get out of the hallway. So then I went out on the patio thing and kept my mouth shut. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's odd because I watched a special and I know you've been doing it a long time, I kinda knew, but I never, you weren't on my radar, but a lot of people aren't.

But the special was great. I, because I'm getting old. And I don't see it as much as people that have families. You know, when you're just this solitary guy aging without kids, you know, every day, you know, I look in the mirror, I'm like, I'm still good. And then I see pictures of me and I'm like, not really. No.

But something else happened when I was watching it just in terms of what you were talking about, gave me some insight into, there's this assumption that people that live cosmopolitan or urban life are condescending or elitist or whatever. And I realized watching you and also like my friend Nate, you know, Barghetti, that there's just, we don't know about the life.

That you know, comics, it's rare that they really talk about their life, first of all, and I always gravitate to that. But second of all, that, you know, the voice of, you know, what it's like to live in where you grew up, it's not part of the broader comedy conversation. I thought, there's a couple bits you did, but that bit that Nate did on his last special about the different types of Christianity was hilarious. But it's like I'd never heard anybody say it like that. You hear people talk about religion in a basic way, but he's talking about people who came

back to the church, were fanatical, and then as more kids came, became less, like the last kid, it was like, fuck it. But it was such a framing that, like, just, and also from your point of view as a woman at the age you're at and talking about just regular stuff of your life gave me insight into something I have no idea about. And it's great. Oh, thank you. Because I'm not condescending. I just don't know.

Yeah. But you assume, but because of the response of the audience and the way you were talking about a woman's role in the type of families that you were brought up in and that it was so sort of like received. I'm like, holy shit, this is like, this is regular stuff for so many people. And to me it's like, wow, I've never heard that before.

You know? Well, thank you, my darling. Yeah, but like there's a couple of questions, some of them are just practical. I've always been sort of half fascinated with tobacco farms. Oh, really? Yes. Cause I never really understood the business

and I was a smoker forever and I was obsessed with tobacco and I always thought like, can I grow my own tobacco? Would that be a feasible thing? Is it legal to do that? Is there a way to dry it and cure it? But you grew up on a tobacco- It would take a lot. You don't want to get into that. But yeah. So that's the business you grew up in? Yes, well in my yes for generations on both sides back or farming people in that area

That is known for dark fire tobacco. What's that mean? That fire? That makes dip, skull and Copenhagen. We made four skull and Copenhagen. You were growing for them. That was your, you were a contracted farm for those companies? Well yeah, and we would sell our crops to US tobacco that would then make it into, you know, sell it to them. Yeah. Because there's also burley, there's other types of tobacco that make cigarettes

that are good for cigarettes in the land, which I smoked too in the 80s and I loved it. Oh yeah. And I dream of one day getting to smoke again, maybe in assisted living. You know, and take salsa lessons and smoke. That's what I wanna do. You can take the salsa lessons,

they're not gonna hurt you. But I am glad I've got that monkey off my back, because it was gross. I have a Zen in right now. I've never been able to get off the nicotine fully. Oh, my darling. Yeah. I have for a couple, I have here and there, but I don't know. It's hard. Well, yeah. I wore a patch.

Yeah, I got patches in there to get off of these. I've been through this so many, I can't... Well, I got pregnant with my first baby and I had to stop. I mean, that, you know, that motivates you, but anyway. Yeah, once you get off them for a few days, you're good. You know, and you can. Oh, it took me months and. Yeah, and you can adjust to it and you don't need them anymore. But then, well, you had a baby because if you get off the nicotine and you got nothing else going on, eventually

you're going to be like, well, why am I I alive if I don't have that reward of being able to wake up and just smoke with a cup of coffee I know but isn't that crazy like you go you go to bed at night just thinking like tomorrow I'm gonna have a couple cigarettes and my husband hated it like when we first started dating me he bought my cigarettes because he was trying to get me. Yeah, big spender. Yeah, well he would pump my gas and you know, you need a pack of smokes or whatever. I was like, oh.

And then he turned on me and said, you stink and the smell and I don't know if I can deal with this. It went through the whole thing. But thank God he got me off of, okay. But yes, my little mom and daddies, all my generations back grandparents and everybody are farming people.

But my little daddy, we still have our family farm. We lease it out and people, big farmers grow. But the government pays them, I don't even know what's happening now, but they used to pay them not to grow it. Because of competition or because they were, I don't fully understand. To keep farmers alive and going and doing, but to grow other things, but tobacco was I guess so much more lucrative. So now they grow alfalfa, soybeans, all that corn, all that for fruit, corn syrup, all

that. But, so my little daddy, we had a grocery store in our little town of 500 people. We owned the grocery store and then he started cutting everybody's meat in the back and you couldn't make money on a little grocery store because we were so rural, people would drive into bigger town and go to the grocery store. So, this was, when I was a baby, they were still like, you could still charge your groceries like on gun smoke you could Charge to my mom and dad and then when their crop came in they could pay it all right so anyway Everybody started getting my dad to cut their beef

So then he realized I need to open up a meat processing plant I make more money so my family they we worked in that and all my family worked in it and we did everybody's hogs, beef, and grass fed, all that like you have now. But back then, and deer when people hunted. And then- So they just bring a deer in and you butcher it.

Yeah, and then somebody else killed it off property. But we always had our farm and had a sharecropper farming for us. And then we've been able to hold onto that land in Middle Tennessee right outside of Nashville. Wow. But my dad put me through, my sister and I through college with the meat processing plant. That's a great story. I mean, it's so fundamentally American and family driven and like Self-supporting somehow I know and then and they would ask me and my sister to work in it and we were not good help

I mean and we were in the 80s with big hair blonde cared about our you know, yeah beauty and And then we had to deal with this mate. I mean and dear mate is sticky I tell you when I opened it when I was in sixth grade, I did not eat meat. I guess I was what the California people call vegan. Yeah. Vegetarian. Yeah. Until I went to the University of Tennessee,

and then I was able to eat a hamburger again when I got away from it. So you could. Because I was in it. And you couldn't do it. Yeah, and I could smell it, and I could see it, and I mean, you know. Did you feel bad for the animals? Yeah, I mean, not for food,

because I know people have gotta eat, but I don't care if people hunt or all that, but I can't, yeah, I can't be doing all that. But like tobacco, so do you remember the tobacco farm? Yeah, oh yeah, and I worked in tobacco. I dropped sticks when I was 10 years old. I wanted a job. You, once the, it's harvested, once they cut it,

so the plant, they cut it, then they lay those plants down in the rows. Yeah. On the same day you lay sticks down, some little child goes in or somebody lays sticks down and then they put those plants on those sticks. Right. Then they hang it on whatever that's called.

What is that called? A rack? A vehicle, a trailer kind of thing that's got the like scaffolding or whatever, that you can hang the plants on those sticks, then they take it to a barn, hang it in the barn, then smoke it. Smoke it with like what?

They have a slow going fire underneath and smoke it for, you know, I should know this, but days, weeks, I don't know. But when I would come on from college in September. So it cures it. Yeah, it's curing that tobacco and you can smell it and it's all over everything. But it's a good smell.

It's a good smell. I'm getting excited just thinking about it. And it made me feel like I'm home when I would smell that smell. I could, you know, I'd know it anywhere. Wow. And they still do that. They still do that in my town.

The tobacco business. Yeah. Oh yeah. It can't be as big as it used to be because no one's smoking anymore. Yeah, you know, sedentary is the new smoke and they say, so yeah, I do think it's gone down and you guys are making dip. It was dip and my high school boyfriend was the skull representative at the University of Tennessee. Yeah. So I have put a skull thing in my mouth one time. Yeah. Just to see. You need to get the sick.

And I, oh, the room was spinning. I think I threw up. Yeah. But, and then he went on to work for US Tobacco and traveled all over the world and bought, sold and bought tobacco like in France and all over. That's crazy. So he, his family was big in it, but everybody was. Everybody went to Husko when. But like, do people- They were all farming people.

Well, I guess like, do you, like do, do you keep some of the tobacco for yourself and kind of make your own cigarettes or make your own- Maybe my granddaddy did, but my people, my little mom and daddy didn't. Yeah. No, but yeah, my granddaddy chewed big old like tobacco. Yeah, and was darling and sweet. And my grandmother was this short little round woman, short as she was round.

And she would make three meals a day, heavy, big meals. And the field hands would come in and eat yeah and she didn't waste anything I mean when I they lived off of nothing but were able to have a you know a good life. Did they have livestock too? Yeah, cows I've been raised around cows, chickens I've seen her ring a chicken, pluck it, fry it right in front of my face and I was a child. I saw that once and it really fucked me up. Like I saw a guy get a chicken and cut its head off, watched it run around and then cut the legs off

and then put it in the hot water to take it. It was devastating. But I don't know why, cause you know, we talk about tobacco and obviously there's bad implications to big tobacco, but there's still something about the organic nature of it that I just find fascinating and I'm just like, I always wondered about how all that tobacco is processed. Because in my mind, I'm like, why wouldn't you just make your own cigarettes? Because you can make your own dope because people are rolling all that dope.

Sure. Well, now there's big farms for that, of course. That's the new business, kind of. Yeah. Are they farming that down in Tennessee? They do a little hemp. Yeah. But it's hard.

But hemp's old school. I mean, that's been around for a long time, but like, smokable cannabis. Oh, yeah. Marijuana, not in Tennessee. None of it. We can't do any of that. Yeah. I think people are on the streets doing it, but no, it's not legal.

Yeah. Well, you talk a little bit about that in your special. I'm just shocked that everybody's doing dope. You know, you grow up and they go, don't do dope. And then everybody's on dope. I know. Well, I think the image of it has shifted. That in the big picture, you know, dope doesn't turn out to be that terrible. You know what I mean? But you know where they're smoking a lot of dope in LAX in the baggage claim. It burns my eyes every time I'm thinking, who is in here? Once it was legalized, it was everywhere. I mean, like, and I used to smoke, but I've been sober a long time.

But, and I don't mind it, but like, it's kind of amazing because I know it gets you fucked up. So you just know, like everyone around you is stoned. It's not passive. It's not like cigarettes. People are literally like, nah, you know. And, but you do smell it everywhere. That was a funny joke you made.

Thank you. Everywhere I go, in and out of hotels, elevators, everybody's on dope. The fact that that joke landed so hard, that your point of reference was like, who's boiling cabbage everywhere? It does smell like cabbage. Did you grow up eating cabbage? Not really.

Okay, well see, my people, Irish, German, English, a lot of cabbage. Boiling that cabbage. They were boiling, lot of cabbage. Boiling that cabbage. They were boiling a lot of cabbage. I love cabbage, I eat it now, but I don't, I like a cabbage salad. Oh, I do too. Yeah, you know, like cut up, like a slaw of some kind. Yeah, I do too.

Yeah. So you're growing, so did you make a, it doesn't sound like you had to be like, I'm out with your farming family. You just kind of went and did your own thing? Yeah, well, my little mom and daddy said to me, because I graduated with 42 people and in my precious high school.

Oh my God, so you just know everybody. I knew everybody. I went to church, we all grew up together, everybody. So you know them all now? Yes, and stay in touch. And, but a lot of kids got out and worked in farms and owned farms and owned land and do great. There used to be factories, you know,

people would go out and work in a factory. But my dad just said, "'You're going to college or the military? "'Which one is it?' And I was like, oh Lord. Because I was raised near 101st Airborne. The boys that flew in, the Navy SEALs that went in there to get O'Day and Cousey, that's right on the

Kentucky-Tennessee border near me, like 30 minutes from me. And I was like, ew, I can't, I mean, I'm too sissy and cute to be in the military. So, all my life though, I mean from the time I was like nine or 10 I thought I'm going to Hollywood. I mean I'm gonna be in show business. And so when they would say to me, you need to go to college and my sister wanted to go,

it's not that I wanted to go to college, but the same time I thought, I'm going to Hollywood. But anyway. What were you gonna do in Hollywood? I just grew up watching Serenade Live, sitcoms, comedy. Stand up. Yeah, stand up. And I just thought that's what I'm supposed to be doing.

But I was this little bitty farm girl that it never dawned on me at 18 to get in a car and go to Chicago to Second City. Or I didn't even know what it was. Or I didn't have the guts to say I'm going to LA and I'm taking everything I've got on $35 like't have the guts to say I'm going to LA and I'm taking everything I've got on $35 like people do. So I thought I'll go to college and just see what happens. Yeah

Flailed around in college graduated through the skin of my teeth and then So yeah the farming like they never said do you want to farm? Do you want to take this farm over? It never dawned on me. I'd get out there and every once in a while bail hay, work in tobacco fields, sit on the back of a setter,

you put the plant in and it plants it. You know, pick plants and when it's hot, July, beating down on you. I didn't want, you know, they didn't want me to do it and I didn't want to do it. And so anyway, I went to college and then married my husband who moved me to the foothills of the Appalachia Mountains and bought a used mobile home business after he got out of MBA school and I started selling jewelry. I had my first baby, Charlie. Oh, and I want to tell you real

quick about Charlie because I think that you would love him my he's my first child old soul he He researched and found out what tobacco plant they would have grown in the early 1800s In Adams, Tennessee and grew one on the back of his porch just to see what it looked like So I think you would get along with him because he was fascinated He's been fascinated by our people and what they did and that crop. How was it? What was it different?

No, I mean, he just grew a big tobacco plant and a pot on the back of his porch just to see what that plant would have, because in the 1800s, Adams was known for, it was going to be the capital of Tennessee instead of Nashville. Yeah. And, um, some, the Bell family, he, that man ran for president. So that was known as the best place to raise dark fire tobacco, I guess in the United States. So Charlie just said, I'd like to know what that tobacco plant looks like and does it look different from the ones now? That have been genetically modified.

Yeah. And so I just think you would enjoy him. But anyway, I had him. So you get out of college, and then you just, you get married right away? Yeah, I got, well, okay, Mark, I got married at 21. You're gonna think, did you squat in a field and have a baby in the Appalachian Mountains? No.

Close? But close. Okay, so when I was at UT flailing around, I married at 21 to my first husband. Right. And got a divorce by the time I was 23. Oh, that happens, huh? Yeah, and it was bad, but fine.

And so I got divorced, went back to UT. But you didn't have a kid with him, so that didn't work. No, praise God. And let me tell you, Mark, I was fertile. I was gonna say to you, if you wanna have a baby now, maybe I could carry one for you. I'm gonna be 16 in October, I hate to even say that. But I think I could still probably carry a baby.

I've avoided it this long, I think I can continue on. Well, but let me tell you, girls that are raised for them, and we've got thick ankles, we can work in the fields, we're very fertile. But anyway, so I went back to the University of Tennessee, finished. After you got married and ruined your life for a few years. Yes, and then married Chuck Morgan, and then that's when he moved me to,

honest to goodness, the foothills of the Appalachia Mountains. Where, in Tennessee? In Tennessee, up in Granger County, and it was a little town called Bean Station, beautiful lakes and all that, but like, you know, 30 minutes from there, people didn't know who the president was. Sure.

Sweet, but I'm talking Appalachia. So then, and he had gotten an MBA and bought this business and is very entrepreneurial and very smart. I've got a very smart husband and very ambitious and a workaholic. So then I had my first baby, all the time thinking I'm gonna be a standup. Yeah, really?

He, while we were dating, my sister lived in Huntington Beach. We came out here to see her and he took me to the comedy store. He said, what do want to do out here? And I go I want to ride around in that limousine in that hearse and see where people have been murdered in Hollywood I want to say they had the death tour. Yes. Yeah had a ball Yeah, then and he thought was very morbid and didn't enjoy it

But I love to see where a bugsy single was shot You know, it's funny if you're fascinated with the myth of Hollywood and all that stuff, it's like, you know, people who aren't, they're like, I don't get it. And you're like, but there's something you can't even explain. If you're into like movie stars and weird gangster history and stuff, you gotta see it. I love all that. Yeah.

I love all that. And then I said, I want to go to the comedy store and I got to see Dom Arara. I'm saying this would have been, Charlie born in 93 so like 91. Oh yeah, I was a door guy there in 86 and 87. So like you know I can imagine the line-up. So you saw Dom and who else? I saw Dom and oh my gosh, who wrote for Richard Pryor? Paul Mooney. Paul Mooney? Yeah. And he went for, he probably did two hours.

You were at the end, it was probably late. At the end, yeah. And he told us all that Elizabeth Taylor had died and she hadn't, and he goes, I'm just kidding y'all. Yeah. He was wonderful, but I loved Dom Arer, and I've gotten to be with him through my career. I went up to him like I did at you at the comedy store

and talked to him, and I'm sure he was like, who is this country girl talking to me? But I told him how much I loved him. But anyway, so I went into the comedy store and my heart beat out of my body. I had a physical reaction and I just, I thought this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I just know it.

And you just have one kid at this point? I hadn't had any babies yet. It was for Chuck and I married. So then anyway we go and marry. I have this first baby and I want to stay at home and breastfeed him. So I but I had a degree but I didn't I wanted I thought Hollywood crisis intervention counseling and I thought if I don't make it in Hollywood, I'm gonna be a child and family therapist. Right. And I love all that.

Yeah. But anyway, I had Charlie, one of my friends said, I'm selling this jewelry like Mary Kay in Tupperware, Mark. Well, that's what, yeah, I just talked to a woman who talked about the evolution of Amway. She does a podcast about it and the type of people that saw that as a business and it becomes almost like this weird cult-like thing.

Yeah, I was not in a weird cult-like thing. I don't think I was. I was too busy breastfeeding. Okay, but I was selling jewelry really to just hone my act. All right, so, but I didn't, I mean, I realized that. What was the jewelry? Okay, it was this little jewelry company, not little, it was a big jewelry company, just costume jewelry, not fine jewelry,

out of Dallas, Texas. And you would go to these women's houses and put all this jewelry out, schlep this big case around, and then they would have a day up in brownies or something. And a few people over, they'd have color. Yeah, they'd have their friends over. And then I'm supposed to do a jewelry presentation.

And I would at first, but then it morphed into some of my very first material. And I was pregnant with my second baby while I was schlepping that jewelry. So I had all this material about hemorrhoids, breastfeeding, pregnant, all that. I was killing, Mark. And here I was in people's living rooms.

It was my demo. And I felt like it was my own little comedy club because I was so isolated up in the middle of nowhere. And it gave me social and I could be with people and I could make a little money and I could breastfeed my baby and stay at home with him. But I was honing my first 45 minutes. Getting the sets in.

Yeah, and then the company, I started booking so far in advance, like women would book me like a year in advance. And I remember saying- Because you got known as- Well, they said, she's fun, and these jewelry parties are fun. And so, yeah, it was funny.

And then the company started asking me to speak at their big things, and that's when I thought, okay, I could do this for a living. And then Chuck sold that business and went to work for a large mobile home company, Berkshire Hathaway Company, moved us to San Antonio, and I started working in Cap City Comedy Club.

I had three babies by then, and I would drive back and forth to San Antonio. I worked at River Center. What do you mean? Cap City in Austin. In Austin. The old one. The old one.

The big weird one. With Margie and Rich Miller and all them. Yeah, with the big room in front and then the little bar room. Yes. There's a big room in back and the little bar room. Yeah, and then there was, yeah, River Center.

It was a nightmare. Dude, I can't even. In the mall. I had some very traumatic times there. I feel like I did. Well, they had that, remember at the River Center, when they first opened it, they had that really nice condo,

and then it just turned to garbage. And then like by the time I played that place, the last time I played at the condo was just like, one of the worst examples of a comedy condo It's just like nasty But when they bought when I was out there when they first got it and I always wondered what are what are they? Laundering through here because I know his family was La Quinta Oh he did yeah, and then they opened LOL which is open now with the old. That's an old Alamo draft house

Yes, right you doll. Yeah But the old, that's an old Alamo draft house. Yes, you doll. Yeah, so I- I've worked that one too. I played that at the beginning. But the River Center, I didn't realize- But it was huge. Think about it. They were both too big for me.

You know what I mean? Like to play for 30 people at the River Center was a fucking nightmare. It's just like in a hanger sized room. And it's just, oh my God, and then you gotta walk out into that mall and walk along that fake river. But you get to see the Alamo

and I had a couple friends there. San Antonio's beautiful and I love living there. I was just there. I was just there. I played, I did all right. What did you play lately? What was the venue? LOL. No, no, I did a little theater. Majestic? Yeah. Oh, beautiful. What did you play lately? What was the venue? LOL?

No, no, I did a little theater. Majestic? Yeah. Oh, beautiful. Right, that was good. Yeah, that's beautiful. That's right down there by the river. Riverwalk.

Yeah, and I did all right, but I figured it out though, and someone had told me years ago that one of the reasons it's a hard place to do it is locals don't want to park down there. Like, you know, the River Center is a pain in the ass. So I wonder, because that club doesn't exist anymore, right? No. But LOL is there. Just LOL at the Alamo Drafthouse.

But that might be better because it's... There's parking. That's right. Yeah, so you lived there for a while? About three years. So you just started, so after the jewelry business, that was your husband's business or no, you just signed out? No, he had a mobile,, that was your husband's business or no? You just signed out.

No, he had a mobile, he used mobile home refurbishing business. And then he went to work for a huge manufacturer housing company that's a Berkshire Hathaway company. That manufactured housing, but that's like just prefab houses. Yeah, modulars and mobile homes.

They're doing some, but they're doing some cool stuff with that. Oh yeah, oh you wouldn't believe it. Does he do those ones that are kind of modeled on freight containers? Have you seen those like the giant freight container houses? They don't do that cool, but they do, but they have, but it's nice and they have tiny homes that are,

that would blow your mind and all that kind of stuff. You just set them up, if you got water and power, you can just make a piece of land. Yeah. Wow. And you know, they're out here. I know, people get them. And people get them and they're in Malibu.

I mean, it's crazy. That's the place to do it. Because like, you know, Malibu, if you're into that beach life, there's a very famous, I don't know if it got leveled by the fires. It's a famous trailer park down there. Yes, Chuck Morgan, when he's been out here,

said, I wanna go look at it. Did he go? Yeah, he did. But I do, I wonder if it got burned. I don't know, I tried to find out, cause I know a guy who- Paradise or? Something like that, Paradise Cove.

Paradise Cove. I don't know if it got leveled. But when do you just start doing open mics? I went to open mic at the River Center. They moved me up in me, I don't think I did it one time. They moved me up to opener. But I't think I did it one time. They moved me up to opener. But I was a mom.

I was different from everybody. I mean, I just looked back up. But I had been, I think I skipped all the open mic stuff because I'd been doing that in women's living rooms, selling that jewelry. And I was kind of not seasoned, but I was kind of ahead of the game just because of the whole diet right well

You could tell a story and tell a story Yeah, and I was just different there wasn't a lot of mamas and a kitten hill with a you know a capri pant with a bird On it and a bob Doing comedy and and let me say more during Comedy Central all that Boomin and all y'all to go and doing, they didn't want me. Like I was not, the comedy world didn't want me, but I did okay with audiences. But what's interesting though is that from doing the jewelry thing, you knew exactly who your audience was. And it was a real audience and a huge audience. It was just not an audience that

was marketed to. Right, but I didn't know how to get to them. Once the jewelry shows were over, then I was in comedy clubs and I didn't know until social media in my early 50s did I really find my audience. Isn't that amazing? I just.

Because there were women, like I knew Brett Butler real well before she went off the grid. And she started in kind of country entertainment. I think she used to write for Dolly Parton and stuff. And then she built her brain and then became kind of a bit of more intense performer. But then Roseanne, and that was similar,

but still a little more aggressive and darker than what you do. But there, but I think what's interesting about you is that it's always, it's all pretty honest. You're not, there's no device, you know, you're not trying to have a hook or anything. You're just talking about your life as it is. And it's crazy that you, that the business didn't gravitate

towards it because I guess they were looking for something else because there's I mean there's more women in the world than there are men you know in numbers wise and you got to figure at least 75 80 percent of them are going through exactly what you're talking about. But I think they had an aversion to women talking. I don't know what it was, but I would have, Hollywood would come after me every once in a while and I'd get a deal, a development deal. Yeah, I had those. And then they wouldn't make it.

What, back in the 90s? Yeah, well, probably early 2000s was my first one. My babies were still elementary school and middle school. So it was like a point of view deal that gave you developed money to hook you up with a writer? Yeah. And then you write the- Tom Warner. Tom Warner. Now we sold it to ABC. Right. Writer Strike Hit. They didn't make it. Then I had a second one with Matt Williams that created Rosanne and Home Improvement. Yeah. Went to Nick at Night. He took it back from them. Then it went to TV Land. So I was kind of, I was in the mix,

but not really, like I only worked so many comedy clubs a year that would book me. Nobody else, they didn't, most of them didn't all wanna book me. But the issue was there was no way for you to build a following without exposure that would get you one. Right. But what about like, were you part of the regional circuit?

You know, like in the- Not really. Really? I mean, the Stardome would work me, Zany's in Nashville, Brian Dorfman, Yeah, great. who was precious to me from the word go. Chattanooga, that little comedy club,

Austin would always have me back, but I was, I did get on a, you know, after Blue Collar blew up. That's what I'm thinking, yeah. An agent guy put us three women together and it was called the Southern Fried Chinks. And that, Lord, that was the early 2000s. Who was on that?

Etta Mae. You remember Etta Mae? I do, what happened to her? She's still out there, honey, working theaters. Okay. And then Karen Mills, who's a dear friend of mine, who she'll open for me on tour. Yeah.

And we did okay. We didn't do like the blue collar guys, but it kept me on stage, working for about three years pretty consistently, and Chuck would take care of the babies during the week, I mean during the weekend, and I could take them to school and pick them up and do everything.

You could stay at home. I could stay at home, because Brian Dorfman said to me, I went when Tess was 18 months old. Are you back in Nashville now or where are you back in Knoxville? Back in Knoxville. And I drove to Zainy's, I asked him if I called on the phone and said, can I come and open?

And he goes, okay. Open for Billy Gardell. She was 18 months old. She's now 27. And Brian Dorfman afterwards, he said, let me talk to you. And he sat me down and he said, I think you've got something.

But he said, but as a mom of three children, there's no way you can do this route, Comedy Club. And I remember being so mad and thinking, I'll show you. But I looked back on it and he was right. I really think you just don't see a lot of mamas out here really doing what y'all did, because I couldn't have raised my own children. And their daddy was an executive,

so he was working and traveling all over the United States. Somebody had to raise these babies, and I wanted to raise my children. So I just had to find a different path than what all the people that I admired and the cool kids and who I loved and admired and watched all these years. I could not do what y'all were doing.

I had to take a different path. But the interesting thing is is that now that it's worked out, but the priority was the family. And it seems like you weren't bitter about that. No, no. And you weren't quite bitter about not being able to pursue comedy full-time.

You just accepted the circumstance. I did, and I just had to do, I did a lot of private corporate stuff. I did a lot, I was your breast cancer girl for fundraisers. I just took anything I could get to be on stage. And then I would work those few little clubs after the Southern Fried Chick went touring. Yeah. There would be lulls where I mean, I couldn't get arrested.

Nobody cared. And then I get a Hollywood deal. And it just was enough to keep me. I know that one. Yeah. Like, you know, you don't got money coming in and then all of a sudden you get this deal deal and like, whether it goes or not, you feel like you're in the game and you've got money. Yes. And then you just watch it, you know, get away from you somehow that doesn't even make sense. It's like, no, we're taking it to this place. And I, you know, we, they didn't like it, but they might want, and then all of a sudden it's like, what's going on with that? And they're like, oh, yeah, it's not, It's not happening. It's over.

And I didn't know how all that Hollywood stuff worked. I still don't usually. I just know that someone's lying to me and eventually it'll just go away. I mean, it's a little different now, but the business is different. You know, the fact that you got, like it makes total sense.

Like I remember those deals. You and I are kind of the same age. You know, I was out there, you know, for years without a following or without anything, you know, until this podcast. And, you know, and I had had, you know, and I'd been on Conan, like, you know, 50 times, but I couldn't sell a ticket. I couldn't sell tickets. I didn't sell tickets until after I started this podcast, after a few years after that. So I was out there, what, 20 some odd years? I was... Seeing I didn't know that, I was thinking Mark Mayer,

I just always thought, oh my gosh, he's... No, I mean, I was visible, and I think I was respected on some level, and I would show up on late night shows, but that day, it wasn't like the old days, I didn't guarantee you a following. And I'm weird. I'm not for everybody. But there's an interview of me where I said I did 50 Conans,

but America did not care. Yeah, by the time I started this podcast, I was in the middle of a divorce and I didn't have any money, and it was not looking good. And that was 2009. So it didn't turn around for me until I was, you know, whatever, 40 something, 50, 45. Well, and I remember going to Montreal and they said, Mark Maron's doing his podcast

and we all ran. And it was full. I don't know if you remember it. And you were, I mean, I just remember sitting there thinking, would he ever interview me? Come on. I did. Because I thought- What year was I thought that would have been 2011 I think. So we're a couple years in, it's still a new thing. People aren't sure what it is, but it's making like all of a sudden people are aware of podcasts. Like I don't even, we're still doing you know just talk, no video. But was it one of those shows where there was like four people, four comics? I just remember Caroline Ray, you talking to her.

Yeah, we go way back. Yeah. Oh, I loved her and I was on her gala or whatever. Yeah. It was a mom thing and they let me, Nick at Night or somebody let me on that. And I think I went over because I couldn't find the clock and the light. But, and I was so embarrassed. It was me and Tammy Pascatelli and Caroline Ray.

Yeah. But I went, you know, you could go to different things. I went to see you. And Nate Barghese is a good friend of mine. And we've talked about, I would say, but you were one of the cool kids. He goes, I've never felt like one of the cool kids. I go, what are you talking about?

You were in New York. And I was just a little mama in Knoxville, Tennessee, but I always kept my thumb on the pulse of what was going on. I always knew who was coming up, who was doing. I was fascinated by it. Yeah, I love Nate. And I just, I was down there, I saw him in Nashville

and yeah, he opened for me. He used to open for me a bit, you know? And it was so funny because I remember seeing him and before he was, before he broke, it was like the Michigan Comedy Festival. I'd met him in New York, but I didn't know him in New York. I mean, he was in New York, but he wasn't doing the Comedy Cellar. He was doing this room with Dustin, that guy who opens for him. They had this little room and I'd met him, but he was still drinking and sweaty and chubby and not really confident. I

don't remember meeting him, but I remember seeing him in Michigan at the Traverse, one of the Grand Rapids Comedy Festival on just a showcase. And it was like, who the fuck is this guy? And I was like following him around. I'm like, where the hell are you come from? You know, he opened for me at Carnegie Hall. And I told him this story recently when I did it for the New York Comedy Festival.

He did great. And I floundered around for two hours at Carnegie Hall. But after, I just remembered this, I just told it to him. After the show, I was out front, and I was about to just go walk with my buddy, and I'm like, do you got any of those skull packets? You got any of the skull pouches? And he had like six and a tin left,

and he goes, just take it. And I'm like, this is the best part of the night. And I'm like, back to tobacco. Back to tobacco. But yeah, like, it's just, I'm having, like I'm having, Cathy Ladman is gonna open for me. Oh wow. And there's just something about the strangeness

that women in general, but certainly women who have had a life, don't have more voice or aren't more popular. It's bizarre to me because it's a whole world that I realize watching you and also watching Kathy that's sort of like, I don't know anything about this. I'm not married and I'm not a woman. And I don't have kids. But I imagine it's like got to be like 90% of the people have the experiences you're having, but you don't, it's underrepresented.

I know. And I'm, and I think I'm the only one in my lane. Will you think about Netflix giving me a special and I thought it would never happen. I thought there's no way they're going to have a middle-aged Grandmama from Easton C on there, but they did they took a shot on me and it has been wonderful Now what did you had you done a special before that? I had okay I was just about to quit. I was not, it was not going well. Okay, this was in 2000 and maybe 17, something like that.

And I had, my manager at the time said, this thing called Drybar online, because I don't even understand it, but they want you to shoot a special. They're gonna pay you a couple of thousand dollars. You don't have anything else going on. That's what he said to me. Why don't you go and do it in Salt Lake City?

We'll get clips from it and you can get more. That week I was going to work the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce. That's how bad my career was going. Not that I don't love Dubuque, but I was working the luncheon at the Chamber of Commerce and I was probably in my late 40s, early 50s and I thought this is not how things should be going. But I thought, okay, I'll shoot this special. I thought nobody will ever see it. He said nobody will ever see it. It will never see the light of day, but it will give you feelings. But this is early YouTube? This was 2017, so no, not really.

Okay, so Drybar was this clean comedy thing. I remember it, I remember it kind of. Okay, so I go and shoot that thing. They put it out. It gets like 50 million views. On YouTube. On YouTube and their platform. Now Drybar, was that the one that they had cameras

at certain clubs? No, that was rooftop. Now, Drybar, was that the one that they had cameras at certain clubs? No, that was Rooftop. Rooftop, right. Which I loved, because I could get a little bit filmed and use that. I loved that, but no, not them. And it was this clean comedy thing, and they've done a million of them,

but I thought, nothing's gonna come from that. And it really didn't. It wasn't selling tickets. I got millions of views. I think people were starting to know something like 50 million views on this thing. For the whole special. And my hair looked terrible.

I can't even watch it. And I was rusty, I was barely working. I felt like it sucked. So, but what it did, I did get work from it, but it wasn't good work. It was just like little piddly things, but it gave me enough money to then, I thought at the last ditch effort,

I cried to my husband, I said, it's not going like I wasn't getting development, like nothing's happening, I may have to give this up. And I knew Charlie had gotten married right out of college, but it waited five years, was about to have my first grandbaby. And I thought, who is now about to turn five in December, and I thought, I'll just, country people,

grandmama stay home and cook pinto beans and tend to these grandbabies. I said, that's what I'll do, and I'll just forget it. And maybe I can open up a hardware store, and Chunk was like, you've lost your mind. So anyway, it gave me a little bit, I didn't even have a good website. Like my friend had done my website I never invested in myself if I made money. I would buy my kids uniforms

I get their haircut that kind of thing was I should have been smarter than that. But anyway, so I take that I appreciate it. I know when I've got precious babies smart you love every one of them and my grandbabies to grandson Yeah, but um, so But so I took the money I was making off the dry bar thing and I thought I'm gonna get social media people. And I said to my manager at the time, because I love Jim Gaffigan, I was watching Nate blow up, I go, they've got social media people. I need social media people.

He goes, no you don't, you can't afford them. And I just did it anyway. And I found these young guys and that was crazy. These young guys that worked out of Dallas, Texas, and they understood my voice and I thought I'm going to give them, I can do this three months. Cause it was expensive. I thought I'm giving it three months. If nothing happens, I'm out and I'll just tend to these grand babies.

So, which I was fine with. And this is what, 2018? This was in 2019, something like that, 2018. Yeah, somewhere in there. And my baby that you met, I was moving her into her apartment in Brooklyn. She was going to school in New York. And those boys put out a clip of me talking about taking Chuck to go see

Def Leppard and Journey and how everybody looks sick and old and had plantar fasciitis. And I had never even done that bit. I'd just been to the concert. Somebody got it on film. They decided, they thought it was funny. They put it out. It went viral. The day we were moving her in, I could, thousands, it was thousands TikToking on Facebook back then. And like I'm talking, it felt like in a week, people were, clubs were calling all over the United States because I think people could relate to that, men could too, because everybody goes and go,

you know, you go and see the Eagles or whoever and you realize, you know, you go and see the Eagles or, you know, whoever and you realize, you know, everybody's looks bad and feel bad and everybody's got a hernia and all that. And then people started looking, well, what else does she have? So then clubs started calling that would not have booked me and had booked me a little bit before that and said, we love her. She didn't sell tickets. She didn't get drunk, fight in the parking lot, but we're not having her back. Right. Then I started begging. And I started selling out all over the United States.

It was the craziest thing. It was like somebody turned on a light switch overnight, could not get arrested, to all of a sudden, I was in demand. And I found my audience, is what I'm trying, long story short. I found these women and men, but women out in the middle of the United States, it's race children that are just normal everyday people.

And I connected with them. And then Netflix gave me a special. Well, it's so funny because that's who you were connecting with in the living rooms. In the living rooms. It was always that. I just didn't know how to find them for 20 years. Right, and now you had these platforms that you,

it just clicked. It just clicked, because for years I would say, because I always had management and stuff out here, but I would say, how can I get to these? I just didn't know how to get to them, because I wasn't out working clubs all the time. I was doing little corporate things, these agents that'll put you to do these. I mean, they pay more for the shrimp than they did me. I wasn't making a lot of

money, but I was able to keep things going. Pete Slauson Well, that's so, it's like, thank God for that stuff. Julie Pong I know. Pete Slauson Yeah, I don't know that without the podcast and now, I mean, I have a social media guy, but I don't know how much that Brings in you know I do you know I have an audience, and it's fine. It's good. You know but um But again, I'm pretty specific, but oddly a lot of middle-aged women are coming to see me, too I bet cuz you're cute in that shirt and your pants

Yeah, I gotta wear this shirt and this pants those are cute jeans on you, and you've kept your weight off honey You look good. Well, you know, it's part of my job, I think. You know, it's weird when you don't have kids and other pressures. You know, you can just compulsively focus on yourself. Well, now that I've seen my butt on screen, I'm more conscious of... Because I look at my Netflix special and think,

who's breasts are those? They're not mine. They're here, mamal breast. But anyway, and now with the television show, it's really, I thought, I don't have a chin, what happened to my neck? I mean, I don't know, this show business stuff is crazy. Yeah, with these high def TV, you know, it's like you can't hide.

No wonder everybody's beautiful out here. Well, I mean, you gotta compete. So Netflix, you just start selling out clubs and theaters. Yeah, then I get up my first tour with Outback Concerts, Brian Dorfman, that angel from heaven. Yeah. They give me a 50 city tour and I sell out almost immediately.

Then they give me another 50 and then COVID hits. And I didn't get to do any of them until 2020 or the end of 20 or 21. But in the meantime, I just sat on my porch and talk about taking care of my elderly parents. On Instagram. During COVID, uh-huh. And I would just, my social media guys said,

yeah, do whatever you want to, Liam. We don't know what to do. You know, everybody shut down, we didn't know. I did the same thing. I just did a talk show on my porch. Just me talking about my life, wandering around my house. So were you doing it live? I was doing that.

Not live, but I would just do a video about what I was cooking, or what I would cook for my little mom and dad. Because you think about how many people take care of elderly parents and launching children. So really, it wasn't contrived. I just was doing what everybody else was doing, but just saying, well, I cooked this,

or don't watch the news, everything's gonna be all right. You just wanna stay engaged. Yeah. And that took off too? And that built me even more. That built me even more because people could relate to what I was saying because of elderly parents and babies and kids and all that and husbands and then

I was able to tour that went really well big panty tour I called it the big panty tour because I talked about my panties a lot. Yeah, then Got the second tour just getting started which I'm still doing that one and I named it just getting started because I feel like I'm Just getting started in my 50s. I mean, it's been really nifty. And what, throughout all of this, was your husband always like supportive? Yeah, I mean, he's a very engineered mind,

math, practical, and I remember saying to him when my babies were little, Chuck, let's sell everything, I can make it. I know I've got something. I can make it. I'll cook off a hot plate. We can live in an RV. And he was like, are you crazy? We need health insurance. Thank God for him that he's practical because I'm a dreamer and I would have been out here doing God knows what. But keeping me there in the middle of the United States helped me

develop this, I mean, I was able to have real experiences I could talk about on stage, and I did a movie with Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell called You're Accouragely Invited that's on Amazon, and Reese Witherspoon stood by me every day and said, Leanne, you got to raise your own children. You got to raise your own, and I would be like, well, yeah, but I know now what they mean.

Because people come out here and they have to work like mules, and you're gone and you're doing and all that, but I really did, I got to raise my children and then have this second act. Yeah. Is that Reese Southern? Yes, she's from Nashville.

Her little mama was born and raised up in East Tennessee, where I raised my children. Oh, yeah. Darling wants to see me win. Tiny, I could hold her on my hip. Precious, smart, thinking all the time. I'm as smart as a whip. Yeah, yeah.

But she's the one that got me that part. And I had a ball, a ball. I played Gwyneth, her big sister. That was the first thing I'd ever done. Scared me to death. And then the second tour was going, and then Netflix, because my special did well, and I think my special did well,

because there's just nobody in my lane on Netflix. Or anywhere. Yeah. And so then they gave me a television show. I know, I watched a couple. You did? Yeah. Mark, what do you think?

Well, it's great. It's like, it's the type of sitcom that you do like, you know, every time I see a straight ahead, old school, three camera sitcom. Multi-cam, yeah. I'm sort of like, are we in a time machine? Do what, but that's what Chuck Lorre does. And it's good, it's well written.

I don't know that I, I can't remember the last three camera sitcoms I've watched, but it's a familiar format. You're great, the story's good, the jokes are solid. What's her name, Kristen? Kristen Johnston, honey. Yeah, she's great. Unbelievable.

Did you see any with Tim Daly in it? Remember Tim Daly from Wings and Madame Sincretan. Of course. I saw the one I saw Ryan Stiles Yes, who plays my soon-to-be ex-husband. No, I didn't get to the Tim ones yet. Okay. Well, he's my love interest Really? Yes, and he's a pro and what they've done is they put you know, like Ray Romano. They put pros around Well, yeah, around you cuz you don't know what you're doing I didn't know what I was doing and when we went into Netflix, I really wanted to do a one camera I was single camera because that to me that was my sense of humor I love Parks and Recreation office all that and I haven't watched a sitcom in years

But they were like we want to bring that back and when you do this, we think you're perfect for this. And then Chuck Lorre, that's what he does, even though he did Kaminsky Method and he ... Kaminsky Method, yeah. They had a success with that. Yeah. But he's like, let's give it a whirl. So yeah, they ordered 16 episodes, no pilot, nothing.

I mean, we went straight to, which is unheard of now, and I felt like I had won the lottery. This is the dream. I know, honey, and I'm, okay, but let me tell you, it's harder than I thought it was gonna be, but yes, that was the dream because I'm 59 years old, so I grew up watching all these sitcoms. Yeah, and wanting to do that. And wanting to do it, cheers.

That was the structure of the system, though, it was like your comic will build a show around you. And you got deals at that time, probably the tail end of when those were really happening. Yes. In the early 2000s. Yes. When the last one that didn't make it, like, it was going to go to TV land and fresh off the boat was coming out, Modern Family was huge.

And they just looked at me, I'm sure, and thought, you're too traditional and you're married and got big kids, who cares? And it didn't make it. And I understand that. It was more of modern family and that kind of. But yeah, I grew up watching those. I loved Cheers, I loved Frasier, I loved all that,

Wings, I loved all that. And so when they wanted me to do one, to me it felt, is this too old timey? I'm just not used to watching them anymore. Like every once in a while I'll pull up chairs on a plane. But then now that I'm in it, I mean, I do think it's comforting and people love that format and miss that.

Well, I think what happens, it's not unlike how, you know, you were able to make a break, is that because of the nature of the platform, like everyone's got Netflix, it's not network beholden. So there's no, like, you know, you gotta go to this place to watch this show to get this amount of numbers. So if it's on Netflix and everyone has Netflix, is that it's not about the network, it's a matter of whether the people that like you

will find your show on this thing that everybody has. is that it's not about the network, it's a matter of whether the people that like you will find your show on this thing that everybody has. So you can have weird shit on there and you can have your stuff on there because they did all right with the Kaminsky method. And there's a generation of people that still, everyone has Netflix. It's easier to be on Netflix

than it is to be on like Hulu or Amazon because then people are like, where is that? I don't have that hooked up. I know. But Netflix is so everywhere that, you know, if the people know that it's there, they'll come see it. Did it start yet? No, it drops in July, this summer.

But like Young Child and all these things that Chuck Lorre's doing, they're like number one on Netflix right now. The Young Child that was on network. So the people that didn't watch on network and watch it all at once. Yeah. That's the other benefit. All that's coming over. Right.

Sure. Wow. I know. So there's still- And Big Bang Theory, good lord. I mean, everybody sits and watch Big Bang Theory all the time. And Friends keeps going. And Friends. Yeah, it's crazy.

So there are people who love that and comforted by that, and I do think ours is funny, and I think it's also sweet, and it's heartfelt. Yeah, I like it. And I've got these wonderful people, Celia Weston plays my mother.

Yeah, oh, she's great. Wonderful. So funny. And Blake, old Blake Clark. Blake Clark! Blake Clark's been around forever. I know and he's precious. He used to see him do comedy when I was a door guy. Oh, he said, oh, Leanne, I did stand up for 30 years and then somewhere in Florida at the

yuck yuck, I don't even know somewhere, coconut something, he said everybody was renting throwing stuff at me and I quit that and I said I can't even know somewhere, coconut something, he said everybody was throwing stuff at me and I quit. And I said I can't do it anymore. But anyway, you know, yeah, he's been in all those Adam Sandler movies and all that. But I've got wonderful writers, Nick Bacay, Susan McMartin.

Nick Bacay? Nick Bacay. Oh, I haven't talked to him in years. Darling. How's he doing? Good, good, we have a ball. We talk too much, we talk about smoking in the 80s and then don't learn our lines. Cause he's a talker like I am.

And we want to talk about, you know, dancing to Prince and when Dove's crying and all that. But yeah, and Susan McMartin is a show runner and they've all written and done stuff with two and a half men. Sure. You know, all that. Mom, all that.

They know how to do it. Yeah, no, the jokes are solid, it moves along, the characters are defined. I mean, the real trick to those things is that, you really, like on paper, it's a joke to joke thing. So the characters have to be dug in and believable enough that you don't notice that that's really what's happening. You know what I mean?

And it worked good. I mean, I thought it was funny. And I'm happy that your marriage didn't actually break up. Oh, I know. And let me tell you that my sweet fans like were so worried and torn up and thought that I was really, that Chuck Morgan had an affair on me after 34 years.

And everybody, they were like, he didn't deserve you anyway, Leigh Ann, on Facebook. And I'm like, I'm still with Chuck Morgan. This is fiction. This is not reality, you know, like a reality show. People have a hard time distinguishing between reality and not reality. It's kind of crazy.

Crazy. But, well, I'm so happy for your success. Thank you, my darling. I'm glad it all came around. Thank you. Is it crazy or it all came around. Thank you. Is it crazy or what? No, it's amazing that you had, like you were ready.

Do you know what I mean? Sometimes these things, like with me, like for whatever reason, if you stay in it enough and you do have, if you're ready and you have the talent, you know, who knows how it's gonna happen? I mean, I didn't think I was gonna do it. It wasn't looking good.

You know, I was almost out. But it's weird when you wanna get out, you don't really know what else you're gonna do. Like even if you were gonna go be a grandma, it's, you still, are you? Yeah, I mean, there's always been, I've always had something where I gotta have a side hustle or I've gotta have something going.

I just, even though I was stay at home mom and I got to do all that, I always had this going. Yeah. I just, even if this didn't work out for me, I was telling Chuck, Morgan, I go, I'm gonna open up a hardware store or something. I'm gonna be slicing bacon. I gotta do something. Big cheese wheel. Yeah. Sell canning goods. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something. Yeah. I just have, but, but my family had that meat processing plant. My mama ran it and I

just feel like I've got to have a bit, I got to have something going. They still have it? No, that they retired retired from that but we still have our farm People begged them to open it back up, but they're in their 80s now and then people said would y'all do it no Now there's those grass-fed. You know there's more of that around but back then I mean Everybody came from Nashville. We did all the country music stars beef all that kind of so how but how So people would bring their livestock to be butchered? No, we had a little man, Mr. Gower, who was missing some fingers. He was a doll.

But he would go to somebody's farm, kill. We were not a slaughterhouse. And they would bring then already dressed and everything, whatever you call it. And then my dad and my grandfathers and my aunts worked in it, all these people and the people in the town, then they processed it, wrapped it. And my mama would take the orders while she smoked a Winston light and would say, you know, how many pounds of hamburger meat, depending on

how many was in their family. She could remember it in her mind for all these families for years, for 20 something years. How thick do you want your rib eyes? You know, all that. How many chuck roasts do you want? So they would get cattle in dressed already and then they'd take the organs.

Let them hang for like 14 days. And then they knew how to cut them up. And then deer season was a nightmare. We didn't have Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving for, because deer season opened up and it would be cold enough back then, they would hang them in the trees until we had freezer space for them

because we were so busy. That was a thriving business for years. And then we did people's hogs. So my mama had a sausage recipe that people still say, is there any way y'all can make that sausage? And we're just like, nobody wants to get in there and grind all that sauce.

But I have thought about it. I thought if I don't make it in comedy, I could, you know. Make sausage. Yeah. And smoke it, and then you smoke it in a smokehouse. Do you still have the recipe? There's people doing it illegal in Tennessee. Sure, of course.

You still have the recipe? I do. I do have the recipe. All right, well at least you have that. I have that, my darling. That's the backup. I, of course. You still have the recipe? I do, I do have the recipe. All right, well at least you have that. I have that, my darling. That's the backup. I do have that, but it also can be just a grandmama and put on a house dress and start cooking petal beans.

All right, well it doesn't look like you need to do that unless you, you're gonna do it anyways. I'm gonna do it anyway. When I go home to Knoxville, and I'm about to wrap this, and then go move back home, I've been out here seven months, rentin' and doin' during fire, during, you know, a lot y'all got goin' on. And then heavy stuff. And then I'll go back to Knoxville, but I go back on tour.

I'll tour all year, the rest of this year till the end of the year. Then I gotta come up with a whole new hour and you may have to write it. Me, oh, you kidding? It takes me a year and a half to come up with an hour. Well, as well it should. Yes, yes.

For to get it right, to hone it down. Oh my darling, how exciting, I can't wait. And you're gonna look so cute on film in your pants. Well, thank you. Nice talking to you. Nice talking to you. There you go, Leanne Morgan. Her Netflix sitcom, Leanne, premieres on July 31st.

Check out her tour dates at leannemorgan.com and hang out for a minute, folks. Will ya? Would ya? I'm Joshua Jackson and I'm returning for the audible original series Oracle season 3 murder at the Grand View. Six forty somethings took a boat out a few days ago. One of them was found dead. The hotel, the island, something wasn't right about it.

Psychic agent Nate Russo is back on the case and you know when Nate's killer instincts are required anything's possible. This world's gonna eat you alive. Listen to Oracle Season 3, Murder at the Grandview, now on Audible. What's better than a well marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy zero dollar delivery fees on your first three orders. Service

fees exclusions and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over deliver. Hey people, six years ago on WTF we had an episode that people still talk to us about all the time. It was episode 1034 with David Lee Roth. My first singing teacher had two numbers on his forearm. One was his camp number and the other was his orchestra number. And as a punk kid I once asked him in front of the class, I said, so what happens if you don't sing good? And he was very explicit.

He said, if you didn't sing good, you went up the chimneys. I think of that every single time I sing, every single time I get ready to sing, every time my inner child goes, fuck it, you don't need to sing. Don't worry about it. You'll sing fine.

I remember that. And I remember, I think it was Ricky Weiss or whatever, Jesus, we were 13, 12 years old, saying to him, no, I remember him saying to me more than once, Mr. Roth, if you can't find it within yourself, to sing on behalf of those who went up the chimneys with a song in their hearts, sing so you don't go up the chimneys. Really? Oh yeah.

And that's where that fire for run with the devil, how long are we gonna dance? We're gonna dance the night away. Hey how about these words? Let's jump. Okay? Oh they're all verbs. Think about that, all right? We're gonna run with the devil. Are we talking about love? No, we ain't talking about love. And by the way do you jog? No, I run. Who do you run with? The devil. That's episode 1034 with David Lee Roth. You can listen to that for free in whatever podcast app you're using. To get every episode of WTF ad free, sign up for WTF+.

Go to the link in the episode description or go to WTFpod.com and click on WTF plus. Before we go a reminder this podcast is hosted by Acast and here's a little groove I locked into So, let's go. So So So So So So Boomer lives, monkey in the fond to cat angels everywhere.