Leanne Morgan On Storytelling, Authenticity, Just Getting Started Tour

Riding high on the success of her Netflix
NFLX
debut, comedian, actress and author Leanne Morgan is in the midst of a massive tour (one which resumes October 26, 2023 in San Diego).

In the first six months of the current run, Morgan sold in excess of 100,000 tickets, selling out iconic venues like Chicago Theatre as well as arenas like the Knoxville Civic Coliseum in Tennessee (capacity 13,000).

Making the jump from clubs to larger spaces following her breakout I’m Every Woman special, Morgan is scheduled to perform across the country this fall, through the winter and into the spring and summer, with a recently announced extension to her current “Just Getting Started” tour set to wrap up June 29, 2024 in Huntsville, Alabama.

While she’s experienced recent traditional success on platforms like Netflix and TikTok, Morgan’s brisk ascent has been anything but conventional. Named one of Forbes 50 Over 50 this past August, her incredible year was decades in the making, with the comedian paving a unique path to success entirely on her own terms.

Initially eschewing a life spent in hotels and on the road between America’s comedy clubs, Morgan opted to raise her children in rural Tennessee, within the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, anything but a booming comedy metropolis.

“Well, Brian Dorfman at Zanies in Nashville told me, ‘Leanne, you’ve got three babies. This is going to be very hard for you to do.’ Because I wanted to do comedy clubs,” explained Morgan backstage in August following the sold out performance at Chicago Theatre. “I did a few clubs every year. But I just tried to get anywhere on a stage that I could – but raise my children number one,” recalled the comedian of her priorities. “So, if you needed someone for a fundraiser, I was your fundraiser girl. Or the rotary club. Then I got on a tour early on with little Karen Mills called ‘The Southern Fried Chicks.’ I was really the opener. And that was in 2004,” said Morgan, looking back. “And that really was kind of like my comedy club. I really developed my first 45 minutes on that tour. We did about 50 dates a year. It was on the weekend and so I didn’t have to have a babysitter,” she said. “I was always working, it just wasn’t always the traditional path.”

Early on, Morgan famously cut her teeth selling jewelry, Avon or Tupperware-like events in which Morgan hosted parties in people’s homes, her sense of humor on full display as she culled from her daily life in order to generate both sales and laughs.

But her love of comedy didn’t start there.

“It was before that,” confirmed Morgan backstage in Chicago. “My husband and I, before we married, went to visit my sister in Huntington Beach. And I told him that I wanted to go on the graveyard tour in Los Angeles, where you go around and you see where Sal Mineo was stabbed and the Manson family and all of that. I was really into morbid stuff at the time,” she recalled with a chuckle. “But then I said, ‘I want to go to The Comedy Store and watch stand-up.’ Since I was a little bitty girl, I wanted to be in Hollywood. I walked into The Comedy Store that night and my heart beat out of my body. I watched Dom Irrera and thought, ‘I could do this. I know I could do it,’” said Morgan. “So, it was before Chuck and I got married. But I knew in my heart, ‘That’s what I’m going to be doing.’”

Morgan graduated from the University of Tennessee and married Chuck Morgan, moving to Bean Station, TN to support her husband’s foray into the mobile home business. A move to San Antonio, Texas followed as Morgan prioritized raising the couple’s three children.

On stage, Morgan is a masterful storyteller. Growing up in Tennessee, she was exposed to country music from an early age, developing an embrace of the storytelling that has long defined the country and western songwriting tradition.

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“Honey, I don’t know how else to do it,” said Morgan with a laugh, detailing her approach to narrative-driven comedy. “My parents are both good storytellers. And my grandparents were. And that’s just how I do it, you know? I grew up outside of Nashville. And I would see a lot of country music stars. Minnie Pearl, Roy Acuff, Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton. Probably more than comedy,” she explained. “I always loved Joan Rivers. David Letterman, Jay Leno, Kevin Meaney. I love all of them – the whole art of it,” she said. “I’ve always wondered, ‘Oh, what if I was like Jerry Seinfeld and I could write a joke about a cotton ball?’ But I just don’t even think about that. My set is more things that have happened to me.”

In her act, Morgan draws from daily life as she spins tales centered upon topics like marriage, motherhood and menopause.

Crafting hilariously relatable stories, the comic brings to her work a rare authenticity, the result of a wisdom and perspective gained only with time, superserving an underserved audience.

Following her set at Chicago Theatre, Morgan surprised a small group of fans assembled near the stage door, exuding a characteristic warmth as she greeted each fan individually, autographing signs while posing for selfies, part of a unique give-and-take between artist and fan.

“Oh my gosh. That’s what I got overwhelmed with and probably needed a therapist for,” said Morgan. “It was ‘The Big Panty’ tour where my mind was reeling. The first 100 cities. I’ve had time to process it since then,” said the comic of her first major tour. “But when this blew up, it was very hard for me to see that that first time. Because I thought, ‘Oh no. I’m not worthy of these precious people saying this stuff to me.’ It really messed with my head,” explained Morgan of her first dates following the success of the Netflix special and the visceral fan reaction her work was starting to generate. “Now, I mean, I still have impostor syndrome – but I know what it is. It’s like a bunch of best friends. It’s like a community. It’s more than comedy – I’ve always said that,” she explained. “I’m speaking to a bunch of people that I think have been ignored. No one is speaking to them. I’ve hit a niche. They’re precious. And they want to see me win! Could you tell that?” asked Morgan following the impromptu Chicago alley meet and greet. “They want to see me win. And they believe in me! They feel like I’m one of them – which I am.”

While several potential sitcom opportunities over the course of the last two decades ultimately fell short, Morgan will star alongside actors Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon in the forthcoming Amazon
AMZN
wedding comedy You’re Cordially Invited.

In addition to the new film and heavy touring, Morgan is also prepping the 2024 release of her first book What in the World? (Random House/Convergent).

“Now, let me tell you – I wanted to talk about all of my sin in the 80s. And my literary agent goes, ‘You know what? You’re not Joan Crawford yet.’ So, these are funny essays to introduce me to the world – funny essays about my life,” said Morgan of her first book. “It’s about me getting started selling jewelry in women’s houses and being married to Chuck Morgan in the mobile home business in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Being raised in a town of 500 people in a farming community. And telling everybody, ‘Oh, I’m going to be a movie star,’” said the comic with a wink. “They probably thought I was crazy. At times, I thought I was crazy!”

While hindsight is usually 20/20, Morgan is thankful for her unique path, continually doubling down on relatable storytelling in an era when authenticity is often in short supply.

“I’m really enjoying day-to-day now that I’ve been through it one time before,” said Morgan of life on the road at 58. “I was so cute in the 80s! I thought this was going to happen for me when I was younger and thinner – but it’s OK! I think that’s part of God’s plan – that I was supposed to go through menopause before this happened,” said the comedian with a laugh. “I got to raise my children and raise them in Tennessee and they’re who they’re supposed to be. And I think it may not have been that way otherwise. And Chuck Morgan is so tickled that I’m adding to our retirement,” said Morgan with a smile.

“I think people are drawn to authenticity,” the comedian continued. “I did have people say to me, ‘You need to change! You need to get diction lessons. You need to enunciate. This is too country.’ And I just was always proud of it. I’m proud of where I came from. I’m proud of my people. I’m from farming people and they’re sweet and strong. It didn’t bother me,” explained Morgan. “I just thought, ‘This is who I am!’ And I never tried to change it.”