Pod Insights The Oprah Podcast Oprah & Comedian Leanne Morgan: It's Never Too Late to Make Your Dreams Come True About this episode Comedian, actress and author Leanne Morgan is having an extraordinary moment in her career at 59. She’s joining this episode of The Oprah Podcast to share her sometimes challenging but always funny life story and her against-the-odds dream of making it big in Hollywood. Laugh along with Leanne and Oprah as she discusses growing up in a small town in rural Tennessee. Leanne Morgan tells Oprah she knew from the age of 5 years old she would become a star. From raising three kids, to selling jewelry in living rooms to getting her first stand up gig at a local sandwich shop, Leanne reveals to Oprah she’s worked for decades for this moment. Leanne’s comedy about everything from breastfeeding and parenting to menopause and marriage and becoming a grandmother has struck a nerve with audiences everywhere. Leanne Morgan is now starring in the brand-new, hilarious sitcom “Leanne” on Netflix produced by the legendary producer Chuck Lorre. Her stand-up special “Leanne Morgan: I’m Every Woman” is one of the most watched comedy specials in Netflix history, she starred opposite Reese Witherspoon and Will Farrell in the Amazon Prime hit movie You’re Cordially Invited and she is the author of What in the World: A Southern Woman’s Guide to Laughing at Life’s Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings.
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Transcript 14,478 words · 7 speakers
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0:00 Speaker 00 This Father's Day, do more with Dad and spend less with low prices guaranteed at The Home Depot. Get him fired up with the new grill and accessories, like the Next Grill 5 burner for just $299, so you can spend more time together while he becomes the grill master he was always meant to be. Or build memories with savings on top brand power tools, so you can tackle projects side by side. Gift more and do more together this Father's Day with help from The Home Depot. Exclusions apply. See homedepot.com/pricematch for details.
0:29 Oprah Winfrey? Hi, y'all. Everybody, thank you for being with me here on the Oprah Podcast. I'm already talking with a southern accent, because my guest is a true, blue, southern woman. She's having a breakthrough moment right now. It's one she's been working toward her entire life. And if you're listening in your car, on your headphones, or watching on YouTube, get ready to LOL for real out loud. Because joining me in my tea house is the oh-so-funny, hilarious comedian, actress, actress, author, wife, mother, and grandmama, Leigh Anne Morgan. So let me explain how Leigh Anne and I met.
1:13 Oprah Winfrey? So many people were telling me, "You have to watch this comedy special on Netflix." It's called "I'm Every Woman." Now, "I'm Every Woman" for many years, those of you who watch the show, know that was the theme song to "The Oprah Show," because I thought, "I'm every woman." So I was alone in my house, laughing out loud, and I'm thinking, "Who is this woman? And why am I just now finding out about her?"
1:36 Speaker 02 It comes in the middle of the night, like a ghost. And it's called perimenopause. And nobody talks about it. And they should, because it lasts 10 years.
1:48 Oprah Winfrey? So you talk a lot about menopause, and the women are crying and laughing. And then I told my producers, "Let's see if she will be a part of the menopause revolution." And you said yes to that special that we did on ABC. Can you believe your life right now?
2:06 Speaker 02 No.
2:08 Oprah Winfrey? What in the world?
2:09 Speaker 02 What in the world?
2:10 Oprah Winfrey? What in the world?
2:11 Speaker 02 Every day, I go, what in the world? Because this is the craziest and wonderful things happen one right after another for me.
2:19 Oprah Winfrey? Well, for anybody listening, that special is still streaming on Hulu on Menopause, where we actually get serious with some funny things from LeAnn about Menopause on Hulu. But, you know, I didn't know at the time that I met you that there was a book. And then the producer says, you know she has a book. I go, oh, my gosh, she has a book too? She has a book. And I started reading this book, and it is really, truly laugh-out-loud funny. And it's just you telling your stories. It's just you and your life. So let's talk about, one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on this podcast is because you are having a moment right now. And you have the book, and you have the Netflix special.
3:02 Oprah Winfrey? And you're gonna leave here and film the finale of your new sitcom premiering on Netflix.
3:10 Speaker 02 After 33 years of complete and utter devotion, you find out he's run off with a younger woman. How do you know she's younger? She has to be, otherwise I'm driving off a bridge. Any idea how long this has been going on? I'm no Sherlock Holmes. But I'd say right around the time Amazon delivered that nose hair trimmer.
3:29 Oprah Winfrey? This year, you're on the Forbes 50 for 50. You're, I mean, you're, you're just soaring in your life right now. And you always knew and felt this inside yourself. And you never gave up. And that's why I thought you would be so inspirational to anybody listening or watching us right now. Because you just never gave up.
3:53 Speaker 02 Well, thank you. That means the world to me. Well, I gotta tell you, I've got a literary agent. And he said to me, when I started the book, I wanted to tell every horrible thing that ever happened to me, all my sin in the 80s. Ever horrible. And I have done some stuff.
4:09 Oprah Winfrey? All my sins.
4:10 Speaker 02 And he, all my sin. And he goes, hey, um, honey. Um, you're not Joan Crawford yet. He goes, "Let's do a book that introduces you to the world, and then maybe a cookbook, and then you can tell your sins." So someday, I want to tell all my sins, but I did tell a little bit of it.
4:27 Oprah Winfrey? You did. And, and, and most sinning happens with men.
4:30 Speaker 02 Yes.
4:31 Oprah Winfrey? I mean, so you-
4:31 Speaker 02 Dumb man.
4:32 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah, well, you were very, very, very, I thought, your candor about your early days and dealing with men and the mistakes you made are so helpful to other women who are going through it. Because, you know, once we get to a certain age, you can see things that other people cannot see. And if anybody had told you at the time, you wouldn't have been able to see it, right?
4:53 Speaker 02 No, I didn't listen to anybody. But I remember watching your talk show, and one, you said one day, and I laughed until I cried. You said, "I dated some man that didn't even, that couldn't read."
5:05 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
5:06 Speaker 02 They didn't know who the president was.
5:07 Oprah Winfrey? Yes, absolutely.
5:08 Speaker 02 And I, I did too. But I look back on it, and they're probably, they probably know who I am, or remember me and think, "She was a ding dong." But anyway, yes, I do, and I do think we all have made, you know, mistakes, and it's okay to, you know-
5:22 Oprah Winfrey? You know what I think? I think about all of those bad men that we had in our lives, or bad relationships. I remember one day, being in my closet, looking at, looking through some old love letters that I had written to some of them, and I, like, wept for the woman I was. Like, what an idiot. How foolish. How not standing inside myself. How not owning my own self. And, so I don't blame any of them, because all of them were teachers, don't you think?
5:51 Speaker 02 Well, yes, you're right about that, Oprah. You look at the positive side. Yes, and, but I do too. I, when writing that, I would grieve for that little girl, twenty, twenty, twenty-one, flailing.
6:04 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
6:05 Speaker 02 You know, making horrible decisions. And I, and I wish I could go back and say to her, "It's gonna be all right. Everything's gonna be all right." But I'd say from like seventeen to twenty-four, I was a loose cannon. I mean, it was a, it was a booger.
6:19 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
6:19 Speaker 02 That time. Well, you know, I got married.
6:21 Oprah Winfrey? I know you got married-
6:22 Speaker 02 I got married really young.
6:23 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah. I don't know if his real name was William, or you changed the name in the book.
6:26 Speaker 02 I changed the name.
6:27 Oprah Winfrey? Okay, yeah.
6:28 Speaker 02 And he was beautiful, charismatic.
6:31 Speaker 02 But mean as a snake and it was, um, it was a bad, it was a bad time.
6:38 Oprah Winfrey? And then you married, you're not married, but then you dated this other guy, Evan. I'm sure that wasn't his name either.
6:43 Speaker 02 Uh, right, right. Well, that's the one I married. Uh, honey, there were so many men. You know, I've always loved men.
6:49 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
6:49 Speaker 02 Oh, I still love them. Short, big, I don't care. I've always been fascinated by them. But Evan was the one that I married at 21. And, and I want to say this, that, that this is one thing that I pride myself on. I remember him saying to me, he was very verbally abusive and he said, and he was probably, I don't know if insecure and intimidated and wanted to bring me down, but he said, "People are making fun of you the way you talk and you need diction lessons." And I remember thinking, there was a lot of things that I took to heart that he said and that damaged me, but that was the one thing that I thought, "He's wrong. This is who I am and I'm gonna be who I am and I'm not gonna change that."
7:31 Speaker 02 And I'm glad I didn't. I think that has helped me through my life, but anyway.
7:35 Oprah Winfrey? Yes, being, because when I first met you, I said, "Is this your real voice? Or is this, this is, this is you?"
7:43 Speaker 02 This is me from Adams, Tennessee, 500 people on the Kentucky-Tennessee border that grew dark-fired tobacco. And, and my people came and settled in that area and people didn't leave. And so we've got this very unusual accent that's in middle Tennessee, um, and around Dixon. Do you remember?
8:02 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah, I remember Dixon, yes, absolutely.
8:04 Speaker 02 I was in Robertson County, Dixon, Aaron, all down in there.
8:07 Oprah Winfrey? Can you share the moment when you were with Evan and he stormed out of the restaurant? He walked out and you didn't have enough money to pay for the meal.
8:16 Speaker 02 Yes, and I don't even remember what he got so mad at me for, but I walked on eggshells for the three years I was married to him and it was so volatile. I just didn't know from day to day what was gonna happen. And we, it was Christmas time and he got mad over something and walked off and left me in a restaurant, no cellphone, I had no money.
8:36 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah, it was a time where there were no cellphones, right.
8:38 Speaker 02 And, um, the waitress came up to me and I said, "I don't have any money to pay for this." And she said, "Honey, it's okay. I'm, I know or I get it," or what, something. Something in her face.
8:52 Speaker 02 I knew she had been through something bad. And I feel like that was one of those God moments where he sent her to me. And it was a sign like, okay, you need to get out. I'm shutting this door. And this, this part of your life, we're getting out and moving on.
9:09 Oprah Winfrey? I love that too, since we're talking about men. There was another, I don't remember his name in the book, but there was another guy you were dating. And there was a moment where he said, I just want to stay home. When, when we get married, I want to stay home and take care of the kids. And you make the living. And you said, get out of my car right now.
9:27 Speaker 02 That was an artist, honey, with long hair. I tell everybody he looked like my sister. But he had a bicycle that had a sticker on it that said, burn fat, not oil. He didn't have a car. I had the car. But he was beautiful and he could dance and he was emotional. But yeah, and he could make his own mayonnaise from scratch. I thought that was pretty nifty. And, um, and yeah, he said that to me and I thought, oh goodness, I don't have any earning potential. I want to be the mama. And I, I like a hunter and a gatherer. Yeah, I said, it's over. I like a hunter and a gatherer. I like a man that wants to protect and provide. I do, Oprah.
10:05 Oprah Winfrey? So I love this moment that you tell in the book. When the man is coming to sell insurance at the house. And what are you, five, six, eight years old? I don't even know.
10:12 Speaker 02 A little bitty child.
10:13 Oprah Winfrey? A little bitty thing. And tell that story. Man comes to sell insurance. There was a time, y'all, when people went door to door selling insurance. And my mom would always say, tell them I'm not here. And I'd say, my mama says she's not here. But the insurance man came in and.
10:30 Speaker 02 And I thought, I have an audience I need to tap. And I had no tap shoes or anything like that. We lived so far out and so rural that I never got to take any dance classes or anything. And then I projected that on to my children later and made them take every lesson that I could get a man. But I would, I put on a little shoe and started to do a dance routine. I had a whole dance routine made up. I had a whole thing and I, I danced for that poor man.
10:58 Oprah Winfrey? In your living room?
11:00 Speaker 02 In my living room. And I remember him.
11:02 Oprah Winfrey? Stomping because you didn't have tap shoes, yes.
11:04 Speaker 02 Yeah.
11:05 Oprah Winfrey? But you're doing that because you instinctively felt that you needed to perform and you wanted an audience. And this showed up over and over and over again in your life.
11:16 Speaker 02 Yes. And I went, I.
11:18 Oprah Winfrey? When did you know? Or how did, what, what does that feel like? Because people always, you know, I speak at conferences and go around and have conversations with people and people are always like, "How do you know your purpose?" I say, "It's a feeling inside that won't let go of you." It's something that you, it, it's almost like the voice of God, but it's not like Moses in the burning bush.
11:42 Speaker 02 Right.
11:43 Oprah Winfrey? But it is an instinct, an intuition, a feeling, a knowingness that my life is not meant to be this, that there's something else.
11:53 Speaker 02 And I always felt that. And I heard Steve Harvey say one time that God put that in his imagination when he was 10. The teacher wanted them to get up and say, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And he said, "I'm gonna be on television." And she made fun of him. And he said, "I was so devastated, but, because I knew this was..." He said, "I know God must have put this in my imagination. What 10-year-old would..."
12:14 Oprah Winfrey? Says, "I'm gonna be on TV."
12:16 Speaker 02 Yeah, and I've, and I was, I know I was 9 or 10 and I would tell everybody, "I'm going to Hollywood. I'm gonna be on TV." And I don't know where it came from before that, but I always felt it in my heart. And you're right, it would not let go of me. And it was a knowingness. And I remember, my high school friends remember me talking about it. "Oh, I'm going to Hollywood. And I'm gonna be in this magazine and I'm gonna do this." And, and then I, there were times when I would think, "Am I crazy? Nobody else is talking about this. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm like one of those little children on American Idol that thinks they're insane." You know? But then I was this little bitty country girl that...
12:56 Oprah Winfrey? That was cute, that was cute.
12:57 Speaker 02 I was cute and I could dazzle. And we owned the grocery store in the little town and my mama...
13:03 Oprah Winfrey? And y'all had a Coke machine.
13:04 Speaker 02 We had a Coke machine, which was a big deal. And everybody loved that Coke machine. And, um, and my little mama, Lucille, is, um, fun and positive and everybody wants to be around her. And she'd always have on a Richard Burton hairpiece.
13:18 Oprah Winfrey? And she knows how to skin a deer with a tennis ball, which I couldn't figure out how you even do that. Even the description in the book, to skin a deer with a tennis ball.
13:27 Speaker 02 Yes, so we had the grocery store. And then my little daddy, everybody kept saying to my little daddy, he had worked at Kroger cutting up meat.
13:34 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
13:34 Speaker 02 When they first got married and they had my sister in Bowling Green, Kentucky. And then they moved back to Adams to run the grocery store for my grandparents. And everybody, you couldn't make any money on a little grocery store. That was back then when you could... You, the farmers, their, when their crop money came in, they could pay off their bills. So they could charge all year.
13:53 Oprah Winfrey? That's right.
13:54 Speaker 02 And so, that, you just couldn't make any money, but-
13:57 Oprah Winfrey? Cause everybody's on credit.
13:58 Speaker 02 Everybody's on credit.
13:59 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
13:59 Speaker 02 And everybody asked my dad to cut up the meat, their meat for them, their livestock, their beef and hogs and everything. And so we, he decided to open up a meat processing plant. And that's when Lucille could skin a deer with a golf ball. You put a golf ball on a string, hang the deer up. I mean, I can't even talk about it, cause I, I'm not, I'm sissy. But she would, you take that golf ball on that string, go around and it skins a deer in two minutes. Well, she could.
14:26 Oprah Winfrey? That's your mama?
14:26 Speaker 02 My little, very feminine, glamorous, darling mama, Lucille. But worked like a mule for me and my sister, both of them dead, for us to go to college. And that's what they did. They worked hard, manual labor, in, in, in freezers. Like, there were freezers. But Lucille would take everybody's orders. She did all the counting. I've got a very smart mama.
14:48 Oprah Winfrey? So, you knew, though, that something, you certainly felt inside yourself that something bigger was coming. But college, not so much?
14:58 Speaker 02 I really didn't. But everybody was going. And my little daddy said, it's either that or the military. I was raised near 101st Airborne in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I was like, I can't go in the military. I don't even know how to mow. He wouldn't let us mow, was afraid our feet would get cut off. So, I said, okay, I'll go to college. And I was dating William, who you talk about. That was my high school boyfriend, and his family were farming people. And, uh, he was going to the University of Tennessee. And he was like, of course you gotta go to college. He was so smart. And I, and so I followed him. I hate to even tell you that, Oprah, but I did. I followed him and I thought, I'm not gonna stay here long. But in the back of my mind, thinking Hollywood, but I'm not
15:41 Speaker 02 gonna stay here at UT. I mean, I'm probably not gonna even finish, cause we're gonna raise tobacco and I'm gonna canter food and I'm gonna have six babies and, you know, I don't know. I was just loony.
15:50 Oprah Winfrey? Yes, yeah.
15:51 Speaker 02 But I went to, I never, it never dawned on me to pack up everything I own and go to LA, to go to Hollywood. Like, I see here, people do that. It never, I just didn't have the wherewithal or the- Confidence or go to Second City in Chicago because I love Saturday Night Live. I just didn't know what you would do to get to Hollywood.
16:11 Oprah Winfrey? You're waiting on the insurance man to come through so you can tap dance. Okay, so you, you, I was very moved by your story, your decision to return to school and finish college after divorcing so young because you were a divorcee.
16:25 Speaker 02 At 23.
16:27 Oprah Winfrey? At 23 because Evan turned out to be.
16:29 Speaker 02 And I was so embarrassed and ashamed.
16:30 Oprah Winfrey? Evan turned out to be a butthole.
16:31 Speaker 02 Right.
16:31 Oprah Winfrey? Yes, and for those of you who are listening, when you, you say in the book that when the times were good, they were very, very good, intensely good, and then that thing starts to happen, wants to separate you from your family and doesn't want other people calling you and before long, the goods aren't as good as they used to be.
16:50 Speaker 02 Right.
16:51 Oprah Winfrey? And the bads are more frequent and that's what happened with him.
16:53 Speaker 02 That's what happened. It was an abusive, it was physical, not as much as verbal. It was more verbal.
17:00 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
17:00 Speaker 02 But just chaotic.
17:01 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
17:02 Speaker 02 And I, I look back on it now and I think, um, probably mental illness, you know, and I just, you, back then, you just think somebody's mean, but I think that's probably what it was.
17:13 Oprah Winfrey? Didn't you run into him like 30 something years later?
17:16 Speaker 02 Yes.
17:16 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
17:17 Speaker 02 And he was still dredging up all, I mean, just still an unrestful soul, just still disturbed and it made me grieve for him because I thought.
17:28 Oprah Winfrey? Did he apologize?
17:29 Speaker 02 He did and he, and I, he married and had a beautiful wife and little children and I hope that he was better to her, you know, maybe learn, I don't know, but I did see him later and it, and I, for he had forgiven, I mean, it, it's like it never even happened to me. I had forgiven and let that go.
17:45 Oprah Winfrey? Mm-hmm.
17:46 Speaker 02 I really did.
17:47 Oprah Winfrey? But you, after divorcing, you went back to school. It seemed like a defining moment for you. Where did you, where did you find the courage to do that?
17:54 Speaker 02 Well, I was working behind a makeup counter in the mall and when I was married to him and, um, and I remember them saying, we want to promote you, we want to give you your own counter and I, my heart was beating out of my body and I was so tickled and she put on a piece of paper the salary.
18:12 Oprah Winfrey? We want to promote you and give you your own counter.
18:13 Speaker 02 Your own counter and you would make, you know, a commission and all that and I was like, what? And she pushed that piece of paper and with a total on it of my salary and it was below poverty level.
18:26 Speaker 02 And I remember
18:27 Oprah Winfrey? Do you remember what the number was?
18:28 Speaker 02 Twelve thousand dollars.
18:29 Oprah Winfrey? Okay. And that was gonna be your promotion?
18:32 Speaker 02 And that was gonna be promotion. Plus, you get a commission, but it wasn't one of the big lines. It wasn't Lancome.
18:39 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
18:39 Speaker 02 You know.
18:40 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
18:41 Speaker 02 So I just remember thinking, I mean, I was in a horrible marriage. I was scared out of my mind. I would see these people working in this department store. I became friends with all these people that were working, that were going to college, going to UT, and they had big futures ahead of them. And I just thought, I cannot, this is not what I want. I cannot do this. I've got to go back to school. And it was also like, he wanted me to quit. I quit because of him. I had dropped out of college to get married.
19:12 Oprah Winfrey? Because of the Evan.
19:13 Speaker 02 And so the whole thing, I thought, I've got to go back. I want to do this for myself. I'm gonna do this for myself. And I said to my little daddy, Jimmy Fletcher, I go, I'm gonna be 26 by the time I, because I had to redo all my... And he said, "You're gonna be 26 anyway. You might as well be educated."
19:31 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah. You were like, "I'm gonna be 26 when I graduate from college." He goes, "Well, you're gonna be 26 if you don't, so you might as well go."
19:38 Speaker 02 I know. And my little mom and daddy made sure that I paid all my bills and all that to live, but they paid for my school. They go, "We'll pay for you to go back." And I went back, and that's been one of the best things I ever did. That gave me so much confidence. After being through in something and beat down, it meant so much to me to finish something I had started.
19:59 Oprah Winfrey? Absolutely.
20:00 Speaker 02 And then the University of Tennessee, you won't believe what all they do for me. And they award me, uh-oh, Alumni of the Year. And they've just now awarded something that I will, uh, Professional Achievement Award. There's five of us in 2026. And my little mom and daddy will go and cry. And then it'll make me feel bad, because Chuck Morgan made straight A's in everything he did.
20:21 Oprah Winfrey? Chuck Morgan, your husband.
20:22 Speaker 02 Really hanging on, but anyway, it means a lot to me. And I love my school, and then I went back and finished.
20:29 Oprah Winfrey? Well, I love that. Hello, dear listeners. I hope you're enjoying my conversation with comedian, actress, and author, the hilarious Leigh Anne Morgan. From small-town Tennessee, where she raised three children, to selling jewelry in living rooms, then her first stand-up gig at a local sandwich shop, to a meteoric rise at Netflix in her mid-50s, LeAnn Morgan is proof that your dreams can come true when the time is right.
20:58 Speaker 02 And I promise you, as God is my witness, he spoke to me, and it wasn't an audible. It was in my soul. He said, "There's a reason."
21:07 Oprah Winfrey? Hold on.
21:08 Speaker 02 Hold on. There's a reason, LeAnn.
21:10 Oprah Winfrey? My hope is her story inspires you to keep pursuing whatever dream you may have for yourself. Stay with us. More of LeAnn's incredible story is next. Welcome back. Study.
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21:51 Oprah Winfrey? On this episode of the Oprah Podcast, I am joined by an extraordinary force of a woman who is the definition of manifesting your own dreams. Since she was five years old, comedian, actress, and author LeAnn Morgan just knew she was going to Hollywood. But when? It took her five decades and never giving up to make that dream come true. This is LeAnn's time, I'm telling y'all. She has a brand-new sitcom based on her life on Netflix called "LeAnn", produced by TV genius Chuck Lorre. She's the author of her bestselling memoir, "What in the World?", that's what it's called, and has one of the most-watched stand-up specials in Netflix history. LeAnn has been married to her husband Chuck Morgan for 33 years. Together, they raised three children, and now they are grandparents.
22:36 Oprah Winfrey? Let's get back to our conversation where I found it hard to stop laughing and talking like LeAnn. So, let's talk about Chuck Morgan. Let's talk about, you went through that range of bad men and bad decisions. And after divorcing Evan, you'd made a decision that you are just not gonna engage with another guy because you've got business to attend to. You're... Going to be your own woman and you've learned from that mistake. And along comes Chuck Morgan.
23:11 Speaker 02 Okay Chuck Morgan, and I had shaved, not shaved my head, but I had cut my hair off. I just, I was in therapy. I always believed in therapy and loved therapy and I, um, I got my degree in child and family studies, crisis intervention counseling. So I thought, I don't need anything from anybody, I don't want a date, I don't want any of that and he, we were working at the same restaurant while I was trying to finish my degree and he'd come back to get a masters in business. And, um, and very quiet, would not even hardly speak to me. I thought, who is this tall man that looks like a praying mantis? And I say that because he had lost some weight and was on a, um,
23:54 Speaker 02 he watches his weight and he was so thin, he's 6'4", he looked like the rifleman, remember the rifleman?
24:01 Oprah Winfrey? I remember the rifleman, Chuck Connors.
24:02 Speaker 02 Chuck Connors. And he, um, just standing there and I'd be like, and I would be talking to people, waiting for my tables to be, um, set. And he would, um, he fell in love with me. And, and started, if I said to my girlfriends that I was waiting tables with, "I love your Dooney and Burke purse, cute", there'd be a Dooney and Burke purse there with a big ribbon on it. If I said, "I've got a test and I can somebody pick up my shift", he would pick up my shift and give me the money for it. He would say, "I'm not taking this money, I want you to have this money."
24:37 Oprah Winfrey? No, this is when I knew he was, he is the, he's the man, is that part of your shift duty was to go in and clean up the ladies bathroom, right?
24:47 Speaker 02 Yes, which is like the shining. A woman's restaurant bathroom is like the shining, awful. The men's was not a big deal. You could clean the men all day long.
24:57 Oprah Winfrey? The shining?
24:58 Speaker 02 Oh, horrible. Women just spray and do and awful, uh. And he, he would do all my side work, every shift.
25:07 Oprah Winfrey? He would surprise you. You'd go into the bathroom and thinking you had to clean it and it would be done. I mean, what else do you want?
25:14 Speaker 02 I know, and he pursued me like old timey men would pursue and said, "I'll take care of you and I'll never hurt you." Because I was like, "No, I don't want anybody taking care of me." You know, I had been through something horrible.
25:28 Oprah Winfrey? I've been to college, I got my degree, I can take care of myself.
25:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, I don't need, I don't need all that.
25:32 Oprah Winfrey? Okay, so I want to take just a quick look at my favorite moment from the Netflix special. This is my favorite. I have lots of favorite moments in this Netflix special, but this one I love.
25:43 Speaker 02 But my husband and I met and I was so cute. And I was little, I had little britches and my thyroid was functioning. I felt good. And he was so enthralled with me and so in love with me and pursued me and bought me presents and vacuumed out my car and did all kinds of things for me. And we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this year. Thank God.
26:15 Speaker 02 And now, I truly believe he would not pull me out of a burning vehicle.
26:26 Speaker 02 My concert promoter said, "Leon, that's the ticket."
26:28 Oprah Winfrey? That is the ticket.
26:30 Speaker 02 That is the ticket. Because so many men, you know, you get in a relationship, you've been married 30 years and I wonder if something was on fire, would he come and get me?
26:38 Oprah Winfrey? I know, but I love that he cleaned out your car, the vacuuming of your car. I mean, I don't think men, who does that anymore?
26:45 Speaker 02 I know.
26:46 Oprah Winfrey? Who does that anymore for anybody?
26:47 Speaker 02 And he wants to take care of me. And he still wants to take care of me, but he's also bossy.
26:51 Oprah Winfrey? But I will say this, there was a moment where he's bossy, protective, and, you know, you say in the book, "Where would you be had he not been the kind of person that saved and wanted to protect and make sure you had things for the future?" But he was doing that, saving for retirement when you're...
27:07 Speaker 02 27 years old. He is, I guess, an old soul. I guess I would say that honest because he has worried about that and worried about these girls weddings when they were little. Like, I've got to pay for weddings and I've got to... That is his role. He wants to be our provider and take care of us.
27:24 Oprah Winfrey? But the most, the most, the moment that shows us the most who he is, is you're on the way to the hospital. You're on the way to the hospital. I think this was with Charlie, right?
27:34 Speaker 02 He drives like a maniac normally, still does. I mean, just aggressive driver. And he was going, I don't know, 20 miles an hour. I go, what are you doing? I was... My water had broken.
27:45 Oprah Winfrey? Your water had broken.
27:46 Speaker 02 I was holding on to the dash. I was hurting so bad. And he said, if we can wait till midnight, after midnight, they won't charge us today for the, for the hospital room. It won't go on the insurance or go against... I don't even know how insurance works because he's always taking care of everything. Yes, that's what he did to me. And then, and I was like...
28:03 Oprah Winfrey? So I'm driving slow so we can get to the hospital after midnight?
28:06 Speaker 02 After midnight.
28:07 Oprah Winfrey? So we don't have to pay for today?
28:08 Speaker 02 Yes.
28:10 Oprah Winfrey? Oh, my goodness.
28:11 Speaker 02 I know. And he would do it today. He would do it today. If I was gonna do, go into birth a day, he would do it again. He likes to save money. He would, if he flew out here today, I guarantee you'd be sitting by the toilet and coach. He'd say, we don't need to be spending that money. But, um, yeah, and I got to the hospital and my baby was breached and I didn't know it. And I had to have a C-section and, um, yeah, everything turned out okay.
28:36 Oprah Winfrey? But I also love the moment that, um, you, it was a friend that called and said, because you were going through challenging times, and they said you could sell jewelry. The sell, this is what I want to say to everybody. Whatever you're going through in your life, nothing is lost or wasted. Nothing is ever lost or wasted. Everything that's happening is leading to something else that was meant to happen. And so, the moment the friend called and asked you to sell jewelry, you thought you were just gonna be selling jewelry. Tell us about the moment you were selling jewelry in your living room and you made the woman pee on herself.
29:15 Speaker 02 Okay. Oh, right. I, you know, I'd married Chuck Morgan by now.
29:19 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
29:19 Speaker 02 He had pursued me at the University of Tennessee while he was getting his MBA. Then he bought a used mobile home business in foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. When I got up there, I thought, what have I done? I'm from rural, but not that rural. I mean, there were, you know, that was a whole different can of worms. But anyway, I had my first baby.
29:37 Oprah Winfrey? Whole different can of rural, that was, yes.
29:39 Speaker 02 I had my first baby Charlie, and I wanted to stay at home with him and nurse and stay at home. But I, we didn't have, I mean, Chuck was 26 years old, had a business and, you know, had employees and payroll and all that.
29:52 Oprah Winfrey? Mm-hmm.
29:52 Speaker 02 And, um, and I had my degree, but I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. All the time thinking, I'm going to Hollywood. Anyway, so she says, why don't you sell this jewelry? You can stay home with Charlie, Chuck can take care of the baby at night. You can meet friends in the Appalachian Mountains, because I was so isolated. And you can make a little money, and you can wear this cute jewelry, and it'll be fun for you. And I go, okay. I don't care a thing in the world about jewelry. I don't know, I, and I, but I thought, okay. I, you know, like Tupperware or Mary Kay. And, um, they gave me a spiel that you do, you know, and.
30:30 Oprah Winfrey? You're selling the jewelry?
30:31 Speaker 02 And they're selling the jewelry, and so I started selling the jewelry.
30:34 Oprah Winfrey? This is a 14-carat gold necklace, dah dah dah dah.
30:36 Speaker 02 Well, and it wasn't 14-carat gold, but, you know, the earrings were around $19.99.
30:41 Oprah Winfrey? Okay, okay.
30:42 Speaker 02 It was costume. We weren't supposed to call it that, but.
30:45 Oprah Winfrey? Okay.
30:46 Speaker 02 Okay, and I schlepped this big case and then put it out there. And then, you know, women in the South, somebody'd have a coconut cake, a dip.
30:53 Oprah Winfrey? Yep.
30:54 Speaker 02 A brownie.
30:54 Oprah Winfrey? (laughing).
30:55 Speaker 02 And, um, and I was supposed to tell this big spiel about, oh, you can put a clip earring on the, on the top of your pump and change the look of your shoe. (laughing). And do all that. And by then, I was pregnant with my second baby Maggie. And I was, um, Lord, I had breastfed.
31:12 Oprah Winfrey? Put a clip here on the top of your shoe.
31:14 Speaker 02 Yeah, all that. And they told us, "Wear as much jewelry as you can out the grocery store, so somebody will ask you about your jewelry." And I said, "But we all look like Mr. T." I mean, we all had on way too much. But anyway, I would, I started doing that, and I developed some of my first material that I ever worked in a comedy club. In those little living rooms, with you think about it, my demographic, sitting right there in like my own little comedy club. Everybody was young and, well, I mean, they were all ages, but there were schoolteachers, people at this, at the Methodist church.
31:48 Oprah Winfrey? And they're raising children.
31:49 Speaker 02 They're raising children. They're raising children, they're pregnant, they're breastfeeding, all that.
31:53 Oprah Winfrey? And they're just coming to your house to get some relief.
31:55 Speaker 02 Yeah, well, I would go to somebody's house. And then they started, people thought I was funny. And so they would say, "You need to book a party with her." Because, you know, everybody avoids those parties. Everybody's like, "Lord, so-and-so's having a cabbie. We're gonna have to go and buy something." But people wanted to go because they thought I was fun. And, um, the company, oh, well, but let me tell you about her pee peeing. So one night, I was telling some big tale, and Carmen McDonald, who works at my eye doctor, and I love her with all my heart, I still see her all the time, she laughed so hard that she peed on Janet Williams' couch.
32:31 Oprah Winfrey? First she spit out her teeth, didn't she spit out her teeth?
32:33 Speaker 02 She spit, peed, everybody had to get a towel, blot. But I'm telling y'all, I knew that moment, I thought, "I'm killing up here. I'm gonna be, I need to be a stand-up. That's what I need to be doing, I need to be doing stand-up."
32:49 Oprah Winfrey? But are you, killing them, but am I selling jewelry?
32:52 Speaker 02 I was selling a butt-load of jewelry, and I was booking so far in advance that the company noticed and asked me to start speaking at their big things about how I was booking so far in advance. But that was terrible, because I really couldn't say, "Well, I'm up here doing stand-up, and I'm fun, and I'm really not talking about jewelry. I'm talking about my hemorrhoids, and Chuck Morgan didn't hear the baby crying tonight, and I wanna kill him," that kind of thing. And, um, but I remember saying to people, which was so arrogant, but I would say to those women, "You can book a party with me now, or you can see me in Las Vegas later." Because I knew, I thought, I'm going to, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be big time. And those little women would, you know, get a piece of paper and write down they want to have a party.
33:35 Speaker 02 I stayed busy, covered up, doing these parties.
33:39 Oprah Winfrey? Okay, so the big breakthrough, though, was it the big breakthrough, the Mike's Sandwich Shop? Wasn't that it?
33:45 Speaker 02 Yes, okay, so, this little man in Morristown, Tennessee, um, came to the Kiwanis Capers. Okay, so the, my, in my Sunday School class, all these darling, we had a wonderful Sunday School class. We all had our babies together and we were all crazy about each other and it was so sweet. And one of the, the husband, Sandy, and I'm in the Kiwanis Capers, like Rotary.
34:09 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
34:09 Speaker 02 Can you come and emcee, because you're a ham? Can you, and I was, been, been selling this jewelry and they thought I was a cut-up in Sunday School. So he said, would you emcee this Kiwanis Capers? And you know, nobody else wanted to do it. And I was like, I'm on fire, I'm putting on a girdle, a heel, I'm like, uh, yes, I will do it.
34:27 Oprah Winfrey? Gonna put a clip on your shoe.
34:29 Speaker 02 Earring on my pumps.
34:31 Oprah Winfrey? On your pumps, and you're gonna change the look of your shoe.
34:34 Speaker 02 Yes, and then, so little Mike, that owned a sandwich shop and an oil change place, said afterwards, Lynn, I have bands that come to my sandwich shop. Would you ever want to do stand-up? That's the first time I'd ever really, somebody said, stand-up. Even though, before Chuck Morgan and I had married, we came out here to California to see my sister, she lived in Huntington Beach, and I got to go to the Comedy Store. I said, he said, where do you want to go? And I said, I want to ride around in the hirs and see where people got murdered in Hollywood.
35:05 Oprah Winfrey? And you did.
35:06 Speaker 02 And I had a ball. And Chuck said, this is the most morbid thing I've ever, and how do you know that Bugsy Siegel got shot through his front door? He said, you've got a lot of knowledge that's not, you know, necessary. But anyway.
35:21 Speaker 02 So we went through that and then I said, I want to go to the famous comedy store and my heart beat out of my body and I had a physical response. I mean, I thought this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
35:29 Oprah Winfrey? Just being in the comedy store.
35:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, this is what I'm...
35:31 Oprah Winfrey? Just being inside the comedy store.
35:32 Speaker 02 Yes, and this watching them on stage, I thought, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. But anyway, so, um, so, uh, yeah, little Mike saying, do you want to do, and I go, okay, and he goes, can you do 45? And I went, okay, 45 minutes, which was crazy and I should have never agreed to that. That, it was like, you know, people get up and do an open mic for three minutes. Yeah. The first time I ever got on stage and called it stand-up, I did 45 minutes.
35:58 Oprah Winfrey? And Mike's sandwich shop.
35:59 Speaker 02 Yes, and I'm sure it sucked. And I'm worried, I still get up at four o'clock in the morning thinking, did somebody film that? Is that going to come out somewhere? But anyway, there was a big window in front of the sandwich shop and he said, I'll give you the door money and you, and I'll make money off the sandwiches. And Chuck Morgan would drive with three babies, by then I had three, in a minivan back and forth and people would say, Chuck's driving behind you. Because it's a little town, everybody knew us. And I had to go to an ear, nose and throat doctor that day because I could not move my neck because I was so, I thought something was terrible wrong with me. He looked like Tim McGraw, by the way. And I said, something is bad wrong with me, do
36:41 Speaker 02 I have cancer? And he said, I think you are so scared about, because I said, I'm doing this thing tonight. He said, I think you are scared stiff.
36:49 Oprah Winfrey? His nerves, his nerves. You were literally scared stiff.
36:51 Speaker 02 I was scared stiff.
36:52 Oprah Winfrey? Wow.
36:53 Speaker 02 Once I got on stage, I was fine. Um, and I, I had a little...
36:57 Oprah Winfrey? Isn't the moment you, you stood in front of that microphone, you write, that the moment you walked in and you got in front of the microphone, the nerves in your neck relaxed and...
37:06 Speaker 02 I was fine.
37:07 Oprah Winfrey? You were fine.
37:08 Speaker 02 And it felt like home. It felt like, okay, girl.
37:13 Oprah Winfrey? I know exactly what that feeling is because I'd been doing news in Baltimore and had gotten removed from the news and they didn't know what to do with me and they put me on a talk show. And the very first day I did that talk show, it felt like coming home. I felt like, ah, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. This is what I'm supposed to be doing. And you knew that too.
37:37 Speaker 02 I knew it. I knew it. And in the middle of all that.
37:41 Oprah Winfrey? And that was the first time you got paid, like physically paid?
37:44 Speaker 02 I got paid. And he said, can you do it again? And so I would do it, I think, once a month. It was kind of like a little one-woman show. And people, it would sell out every time. And then, but in the middle of all that, there were, there was upheaval, like, you know, Chuck was trying to figure out, a young man had this business. He had all these employees and back and forth where, um, um, we moved to Myrtle Beach for a little while. His dad took over the business, so he, he thought he wanted to do something else. He came, we came back to Morris Town and, and we didn't have any money and he bought a, his dad, we had, we always had this business called Refurb Co. where he refurbished used mobile homes.
38:27 Speaker 02 And his dad had a double wad that had been set on fire. Somebody was gonna repo it. Had been set on fire. You could see black marks from smoke. When somebody's about to lose their home, a lot of times they'll take a hammer and like knock the sinks out and stuff like that, God love them. Okay, so Chuck said, just trust me, Leanne. I wanna move, I wanna move us back. I'm gonna work for this big mobile home manufacturing company that's now Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett Company. But he said, just trust me. I'm gonna put us in this double wad that's been set on fire.
38:59 Speaker 02 Out in the middle of this lot. But I'll be able to turn it and we'll make a bunch of money off of it. I'm gonna flip it and then we're gonna, we'll buy, uh, cause we'd had a beautiful home. I was a member of a country club for the first time in my life before all this happened. I took my little children up there and they, and we had a pool. Cause I was raised, I had to swim in a pond with Converse high top tennis shoes on cause there were turtles in it. Anyway, I had a pool, I was, I've had this wonderful life and I, it was, it was a wonderful life and then he decided some little upheaval in his, you know, career and what he wanted.
39:32 Oprah Winfrey? So you all had moved and you came back.
39:34 Speaker 02 Moved and came back.
39:35 Oprah Winfrey? So you lost that, lost that house.
39:37 Speaker 02 We sold that house and sold everything so he could go and do this new venture. We, then we got there and realized this is not what he needs to be doing. He took the LSAT, was gonna go to law school. I found I was pregnant with my third baby. He, he said, we can't, I can't do that. We got too many babies. So I, so we, we came back. He put me in this double wide and I, and I had to.
39:57 Oprah Winfrey? What did you do when you first saw that double wide?
39:59 Speaker 02 Oh, and nothing against people having to live in manufacturing homes, but I had, I mean, it was, I was devastated, I thought.
40:06 Oprah Winfrey? Didn't have back stairs, right?
40:08 Speaker 02 It didn't have back stairs and he owned a mobile home company where he had stairs in a field, a million of them. So I don't know if he was just overwhelmed, but I would have to like throw my babies up in it and I was big pregnant and had to get my leg up in it. And then the, he put, they put indoor carpet in it and that had been out and been weathered, you know, rained on and stuff. So we all had mold and allergies. My sister at the same time was getting married to this hoopy doo man. And I remember it was when Princess Di had passed away, cause I remember sitting on the couch and watching that Princess Di had passed away and Beth was planning her wedding to this hoopy doo man.
40:44 Oprah Winfrey? We all remember that, isn't it?
40:45 Speaker 02 And that's when I was in that double wide and, um, and, but I remember getting locked out of the double wide. It's in the book about, I got locked out of the double wide. I was big pregnant with Tess, my baby. Um, I had to walk down the road with two babies in two car seats. And so this little woman could drive me to Morristown to go. I went to church on Wednesday night because there was a meal. And all my friends were there and Miss Betty cooked and it was social for me. And I was so, you know, isolated.
41:14 Oprah Winfrey? So we moved out here in the country.
41:15 Speaker 02 We moved me out there with the double wide was out in the country. And I got, had to ride with this god lover, pitiful woman that said the F word in front of my children and smoked generic cigarettes that smelled so bad. And she let, she gave me a ride, god lover. And I was in this little bitty car that the floor was rusted out and I could see the highway under my feet and I had propped my feet up on this so that my feet wouldn't get torn on the road. And my little children were holding hands in the back and Charlie saying, "Nice car you got here." He was about three. And I drove, I mean, I remember riding down the road and, and saying, I mean, I just felt so like,
41:58 Speaker 02 what in the, how did my life turn to this?
42:01 Oprah Winfrey? How am I in a rusted out car?
42:03 Speaker 02 How did I get here? And I prayed about it and I said, "God, what, what have I done? I know I did some things in the eighties I shouldn't have. But what did I do to get this?" And I promise you, as God is my witness, he spoke to me and it wasn't an audible. It's in my soul, God saying, "Just hold on, Leanne. I got, I got you. This is all gonna, this story's gonna be told. This is, there's a reason for all of this.
42:29 Oprah Winfrey? This was a feeling you had, you had a feel.
42:30 Speaker 02 I had a feeling.
42:31 Oprah Winfrey? In, in that car where you can see it to the ground.
42:33 Speaker 02 Yes, I felt like he spoke to me and I, like I say, it wasn't like Morgan Freeman speaking to me. It was in my soul. He said, "There's a reason."
42:43 Oprah Winfrey? Hold on, hold on.
42:44 Speaker 02 "Hold on, there's a reason, Leanne." And I was like, "Okay, okay." And, but I've had several of those moments in my life.
42:53 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
42:53 Speaker 02 And now I can look back and I just know, you know, when you think you're good, whatever you call it, I feel like that's God speaking to me and he was with me the whole time.
43:03 Oprah Winfrey? You call them God moments, I call them God moments, God winks, yes.
43:05 Speaker 02 Yes.
43:06 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah. Coming up, listener, Leanne Morgan shares the clip that went viral, the moment she knew her career was finally taking off. At 54 years old, it happened to be the exact same day she dropped off her youngest child to live on her own. Talk about divine timing.
43:22 Speaker 02 And within a week, comedy clubs all over the United States, I was selling out one nighters. I couldn't even cash the checks.
43:29 Oprah Winfrey? From breastfeeding, going through menopause, and even sex after age 50, LeAnn explains why she believes her comedy hit a nerve. More with LeAnn Morgan right after this break, y'all.
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44:10 Oprah Winfrey? Welcome back. Comedian, actress, and author LeAnn Morgan is almost 60 years old and is finally living the life she dreamed about since she was a little girl. The road to success wasn't always easy. LeAnn got married, raised three children, and sold jewelry out of living rooms using it as practice for her stand-up. She didn't hit it big until the exact day she dropped off her youngest child to live on her own. Today, LeAnn has one of the most viewed comedy specials on Netflix. It's called "I'm Every Woman." And she has her own sitcom, LeAnn, also on Netflix, plus a must-read memoir appropriately titled "What in the World?" She sells out comedy shows all over the country. I'm taking some friends soon to go see her,
44:55 Oprah Winfrey? and I can't wait to see her live. She really is living proof of someone who never gave up and manifested her own dreams. Let's get back to our conversation. Wasn't there a moment where you thought, "Okay, maybe I'm just gonna throw in the towel"?
45:09 Speaker 02 Yes, it was my early 50s, and it really was not going well. And I was working a lot, but it wasn't the work I wanted. It really, I just knew in my heart, this is not... I mean, I wanted to be like Jim Gaffigan, Nate Bargatze, all these people I admired. And I thought, "This is not... These are horrible gigs. I'm staying in a hotel on the side of the interstate. I don't feel safe." I mean, I just thought, I just had it. And I broke down. We were at dinner at a restaurant.
45:33 Oprah Winfrey? Okay, before you tell that story, but when you were 42, like out of a fairy tale, a Hollywood producer... Called, right?
45:40 Speaker 02 Yes.
45:41 Oprah Winfrey? Saying he wanted to create a sitcom based on your life.
45:43 Speaker 02 Yes.
45:44 Oprah Winfrey? Pitching you as the next Roseanne, right? You flew to Los Angeles for meetings and then what happened?
45:50 Speaker 02 Um, the writer's strike hit, we sold it to ABC.
45:52 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
45:53 Speaker 02 Before we got out of the parking lot. Um, and, um, the writer's strike hit, that first writer's strike hit. When it like then reality show became such a big deal.
46:02 Oprah Winfrey? Then all the reality shows came, yeah.
46:04 Speaker 02 And they said, it's over. And one day they go, oh, sorry, Leanne, it's over. And I mean, I was flying back in Fort Worth. They were starting to talk about casting.
46:11 Oprah Winfrey? I remember that summer that of the writer's strike. And that's when, you know, all the reality shows started because there were no writers. Yes.
46:18 Speaker 02 Yes. And I, here I was in the middle, I was in Knoxville. I'd started out, Chuck had, we had been moved to San Antonio to be over South Texas for his company. I started really doing stand up in Austin, Texas. And that's how I got that, that first deal. And then we moved back to Knoxville and I, I got the television deal. And then I got, after that, I went into, I feel like I went into a deep depression. That was my first rodeo with Hollywood. It did not happen and I was on this high and then it was over. And it was just like, nobody cares anymore. I couldn't get booked. Um, Chuck brought me a little beagle from Ogden, Utah. I'd love a dog. Wanted to make, you know, make me feel better. I just remember thinking, it's over. I mean, nothing's ever gonna happen.
47:03 Speaker 02 So all the time I was living out in Knoxville, raising three children. Even if I wasn't one of the cool kids, I call them in LA and New York and all the people going and doing. I still, God would send me these things that would keep me going, even if they didn't make it, I would think.
47:18 Oprah Winfrey? What do you think now, though, looking back, Leanne? What was God, the life force, trying to tell you or teach you? Because when things don't work out, sometimes they don't work out for the best reason for you for the future. Because if it had worked out, then you would have to leave your children or move your children.
47:36 Speaker 02 I would have had to, they'd tell me, they'd go, your husband cannot quit his job. He needs to stay there with the children. You need to leave away from, live away from your children to see if this is gonna make it. It most likely will get canceled. So he doesn't need to quit his job. I mean, it was just like a crap shoot. And I was so caught up in it that I was willing, I thought, okay, well, we'll figure it out. And now I look back on it and I think, oh, my gosh, that was God's protection over me.
48:01 Oprah Winfrey? Yes.
48:01 Speaker 02 I could not have lived away from my children. Chuck was an executive, working, traveling all over the United States. There's no way it could have happened. But you know, I was caught up in it and I was caught up in the, you know, the, could I be famous? Could this, you know, be, I could finally be a sitcom star? This is gonna be da, da, da. Cause I was a working comedian and that was, you know, a dream of a lot of comedians. And, but I look back on it and that, God wanted me to stay in Knoxville, Tennessee, raise these children, have relatable material for when I was in my 50s and this blew up. And that's why all these women in the United States of America can relate to me. And I started talking about perimenopause.
48:43 Speaker 02 Don't get a special in until I'm in my late, mid, late 50s.
48:47 Oprah Winfrey? So when you were 54, actually, this was about five years ago, you had no website and you had decided to spend some money and hire two young men, right?
48:56 Speaker 02 Two young social media guys?
48:58 Oprah Winfrey? See if they could, on social media, boost, you know, your clips or whatever.
49:03 Speaker 02 So I could sell a ticket somewhere?
49:04 Oprah Winfrey? So you could sell a ticket somewhere. And they posted a clip of your stand-up call. I saw this. When you go to concerts with old people. I, I love this. It went viral. Let's watch this short clip.
49:15 Speaker 02 Woo, okay, let me tell ya. Have y'all been to concerts lately with old people? That are older than I am? So we go to Def Leppard and Journey and everybody there is our age. And, and everybody's worried about the snack bar. First of all. And I was too. And every once in a while, somebody would stand up and...
49:44 Speaker 02 And then they'd sit back down.
49:49 Speaker 02 I thought, isn't it funny how things have changed since I went to concerts when I was 20? Everybody was walking out like this cause everybody had inflammation in their feet.
50:04 Speaker 02 Trying to get to their car.
50:08 Speaker 02 And it was like 10 o'clock. I thought, what are we doing out here? What are we doing?
50:16 Speaker 02 We gotta get home. We gotta get in the van.
50:22 Speaker 02 That was the first time I'd ever told that story. Somebody got it on film. Wow. We had just, I'd just taken Chuck Morgan to go see Def Leppard and Journey. And some little guy filmed it for me and I gave it to those boys, those social media guys. And I thought, I'm gonna give this three months because it was expensive. I thought, I'm gonna give this three months. If nothing happens, then that's God telling me that I need to open a hardware store in Knoxville and I'll dazzle there. And I'll be a grandmama. I knew I was gonna have grandbabies. Yeah. And I thought, I have a child married. And I'll dazzle at the hardware store. I'll dazzle, I'll get a cheese wheel. Because my people, you know, that's my past, is I love a grocery store. I don't have a lick of sense over a grocery store.
51:06 Speaker 02 Cheese wheel, slice my own bacon and have canned goods, you know? Yeah. I thought, I'll just, and rocking chairs and I'll dazzle. And he said, you have lost your mind. Chuck, I was telling, I told him all this. I go, I'll just, hardware store. He went, Lynn, you've lost your mind. But anyway, I gave these three, these boys that's money and I thought, it lasts each effort and then I'll let it go. I'll be able to let it go and let this, let go. And that was the day they released that, the day that my baby child, we moved her into an apartment in Brooklyn to go to school for makeup for television and film, who now is my makeup artist and is on my show and all that.
51:49 Speaker 02 But we moved her in, she'd gone to college and then she said she wanted to do that. We moved her in and I looked on my phone and, well, one of, I think one of those boys called me and said, Lynn, something's happening, like, I don't know if you're seeing this. And you could just see thousands and thousands and thousands of views. People start, they watch that and can relate to that because who doesn't go to a concert and see Fall Cat and are worried out of their mind? And then, you know, everybody's got plantar fasciitis. And then they started looking to see what else I had done. So then all the views on my other things had gone up. And I had not done anything with my social media. I had babies, you know, children. I put up pictures of my dogs and stuff. And it started blowing up.
52:32 Speaker 02 And I mean, within, I don't even, I wish I had journaled it all. I think within a week, people were calling, trying to get me in comedy clubs all over the United States. And it had been like four months before that, I could not sell a ticket. The improvs, I'd done a couple of improvs in Florida and they were like, "We love her. She doesn't get drunk and fight in the parking lot, but we're not having her back. She can't sell a ticket." And I was just devastated.
52:55 Oprah Winfrey? Ah.
52:56 Speaker 02 Okay. And within a week, comedy clubs all over the United States, I was selling out one-nighters. I couldn't even cash the checks. Chuck said, "You're like a drug dealer in your backpack. You got all this money floating around." I was going from town to town to sold-out shows all over the United States.
53:13 Oprah Winfrey? Oh, my goodness.
53:14 Speaker 02 It was crazy. It was just like somebody turned a light on. But I tell you what happened. I found my audience. All those years when I would be talking about my, every hour, new hour I would come up with was what I was going through in my life. So birthing, breastfeeding, all that. Then elementary school, middle school, sports, kids.
53:35 Oprah Winfrey? Because you just take your comedy from whatever's happening in life.
53:37 Speaker 02 Yeah, and I'm a storyteller.
53:39 Oprah Winfrey? That's right.
53:39 Speaker 02 And then, um, and I would think the whole, all that 20 years where nothing was happening, and I would think, I know there's mamas out here and women that are going to Weight Watchers and are, and are fighting their weight and they're, and they're feeling the same way. And how do I get to them? I didn't know how to get to them. And then through social media, through those, when, when I hired those, it was the best thing. The manager I had at the time said, "You can't afford it. You don't need to be doing it." And I thought... I'm gonna do it anyway. I'm, I know what I'm talking about, cuz I would see Jim Gaffigan and all these people I admired, they had 'em. And I thought, that's the new TV, radio.
54:16 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
54:16 Speaker 02 All that. And, um, and I took a gamble on myself. And I, I invested in myself, which was crazy that I waited that long to invest in myself, but that's what I did. If I made money in gigs through the years, I'd buy these children uniforms, get their hair cut.
54:31 Oprah Winfrey? You were always spending money on everybody else.
54:34 Speaker 02 I was spending money. I had my friend did my website for me, out of the goodness of her heart. It was, you know, pitiful, but I mean, she just did the best she could. I begged her to do it. I never, I had maybe two headshots in 20 years, which was stupid.
54:48 Oprah Winfrey? So, and then it just took off? Coming up, why the legendary TV producer Chuck Lorre traveled all the way to LeAnn's front porch in Tennessee to picture the chance to make her own sitcom based on her life. We'll talk about her new Netflix show. You gotta watch that show. Stay with us.
55:07 Speaker 05 This episode is brought to you by Netflix. The Four Seasons is back for season two, starring Tina Fey, Will Forte, Coleman Domingo, Marco Calvani, Carrie Kenny Silver, and Erica Henningson. After a difficult year, your favorite group of friends continues their tradition of vacationing together, now with a baby in tow. From the Jersey Shore to upstate New York and Italy, their getaways are sure to take unexpected turns where comedy ensues. Watch The Four Seasons, now streaming only on Netflix.
55:36 Oprah Winfrey? I am back with the hilarious, hilarious LeAnn Morgan, who joined me in the tea house for the Oprah podcast to talk about this epic moment she's having in her career. Let's get back to our conversation that had me laughing out loud for real. Tell me about Chuck Lorre coming to your house.
55:57 Speaker 02 Okay, so I had, I got big tours. Once they saw me selling out in clubs, I got the first big theater tour, the big panty tour. I called it the big panty tour cuz I found, I realized I was talking about my panties a lot. And I, and I like a good, comfortable panty. I've done 100 cities. This is winding it down. Thank you. Thank y'all.
56:23 Speaker 02 And people ask me all the time, "Why'd you name this Big Panty Tour?" And I tell people, "I like big panties."
56:31 Speaker 02 Big panties say to me, "Freedom."
56:37 Speaker 02 Chuck Lorre flies to my home. He comes to see me at Pantages.
56:41 Oprah Winfrey? Chuck Lorre, the most famous producer of sitcoms and television, yes.
56:46 Speaker 02 He sat and held my new grandbaby on the back porch. We had lunch. I still worry that that bread was too hard. You know, southern women, we wanted people to eat and enjoy their food. Anyway, he came with my manager and they, um, he sat there and said the sweetest things to me, Oprah. Like, and I know you've read this book, you've read every book in the United States of America. But that book about 10,000 hours.
57:13 Oprah Winfrey? Yes.
57:14 Speaker 02 He said, "Lynn, I can tell you've put in, you've done that 10,000 hours and you've mastered it." He said, "You have mastered this and you are..." I, I, I wish that we had recorded it. The things he said to me, and for me to be, you know, a mom.
57:30 Oprah Winfrey? Validated, you were validated in that moment.
57:32 Speaker 02 Because in, in Comedy Central had never wanted me, you know, they were the, the big thing.
57:36 Oprah Winfrey? Yes, yeah.
57:37 Speaker 02 Never wanted me. I got so many no's, I didn't get to go to festivals. Very rarely would they let me go to Montreal or anything like that.
57:44 Oprah Winfrey? And I'm sure a lot of people were put off by your accent, right? They were like, "Who's gonna relate to you?" And women have it tougher anyway.
57:52 Speaker 02 Tougher anyway. And then I was talking, "I'm clean." I was talking about having babies in my stomach and Weight Watchers.
57:59 Oprah Winfrey? You're not cursing, you're not, yes.
58:01 Speaker 02 And they wanted edgy. There was times, you know, it goes through trends, they said they want edgy.
58:06 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
58:07 Speaker 02 And, um, and I was a little mama with a kitten on my arm.
58:10 Oprah Winfrey? Weight is always, one of my, one of my funniest lines that you, uh, write about in the book is, "Going on Weight Watchers nine, nine separate times and losing seven pounds."
58:23 Speaker 02 I've done Weight Watchers nine times.
58:28 Speaker 02 And I've lost seven pounds in all.
58:37 Speaker 02 It's because I don't follow it. And I know it works. I really do. I know it works. When you first start, you're so hungry that you could eat the wallpaper off the wall.
58:51 Speaker 02 But I, so I try to stay within my points. All right, my sister will go on it every time I will. And she lives in Clarksville, Tennessee. And she'll call me and she'll say, "It's noon and I've eaten all my points."
59:03 Speaker 02 I've just, I've got the app. I've got the app right now. And every once in a while, I'll go back and I'll start putting in.
59:07 Oprah Winfrey? I was on the board. I was on the board.
59:08 Speaker 02 Oh, I know. I thought, I, I know. We all know. And you were the one we all wanted to do it for and make it happen for. But I would get my friends, we would go have a ball. First week, lose water weight. It was our fault. It wasn't Weight Watchers. Weight Watchers works, but you gotta do it.
59:25 Oprah Winfrey? You gotta do it.
59:26 Speaker 02 And then my mama's done Weight Watchers. We've all, my sister will say, she said to me recently, "Are you doing something and you're not wanting to tell me? Is it Weight Watchers?" I go, "If I was doing Weight Watchers, I'd tell you. Why would I keep that from you?" "No, I'm shooting a sitcom and I'm scared to dance."
59:39 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
59:40 Speaker 02 "And I've lost a little bit of weight." But, oh, but yeah, Weight Watchers meetings to me were so fun. And you would hear them talk about, you know, what, what's your travel snack? And, you know, somebody said string mozzarella. And then somebody said a little pack of nuts. And then a little woman behind me said, um, or somebody said boiled eggs. Take two boiled eggs in a Ziploc bag. And she said, "You don't want to get in a car with me after I've eaten two boiled eggs." I mean, I just thought it was comedy gold. I thought it's like being at your own comedy club. Because everybody's, all these women are like, there's fat-free chocolate chip man ice cream at the Walmart off a Harriman exit. You know, and everybody's like trying to get out so they can go buy it. But I loved it. And I still, I have the app and I'll do it.
1:00:24 Oprah Winfrey? And the fact that you did it nine times. Nine times.
1:00:28 Speaker 02 I've never been able to stick with things. My mama loves a diet. My sister can do a diet. And I would try, but I've never stuck to anything. And I'm sitting up here, now you all see my fanny on TV.
1:00:41 Oprah Winfrey? This is the thing. I started watching your new series, Leann, on Netflix. They sent it to me. And you are so good. You were born for this. You were born for this, Leann. You were born for this. Listen, you're going to be with the greats because your comedic timing and your ability to tell stories. I just love the fact that it is based on your family and it doesn't even feel like you're acting. It feels like you're the Leann that's in front of me right now.
1:01:13 Speaker 02 Well, thank you. I hope that, I do think that these wonderful writers have gotten my voice. And that's hard. I am a Southern Christian woman, you know, from Tennessee. It'd be like if I went to write for a Russian family in New Jersey. You know, I wouldn't know that, but they have, they have really, I feel like they've gotten my voice. I'm a writer and executive producer on it too.
1:01:34 Oprah Winfrey? You must be, because as I was watching it, I said to my producer, Leann must be writing this herself.
1:01:38 Speaker 02 Oh, honey, no. But I tweak.
1:01:41 Oprah Winfrey? Okay.
1:01:41 Speaker 02 They, they give me all the room to tweak and this is how I would say it and this is, I don't like this way, if this is going, can we do it this way?
1:01:50 Oprah Winfrey? I think your mom and daddy, I love all the scenes with your mom and daddy. So it's your mom and daddy and...
1:01:57 Speaker 02 A husband that has walked off and left me after 34 years. So Chuck Morgan and I are still together. My little daddy, somebody told him on Facebook that we were getting a divorce. And I said, no daddy, it's like Beverly Hillbillies. You know, it's not true. But so it is not based on my real family, but I do think it has my essence.
1:02:16 Oprah Winfrey? Yes.
1:02:16 Speaker 02 Because I do think it would be weird to be based on my real family. I think I would be too protective of my children and my, but yes.
1:02:25 Oprah Winfrey? Some of the stories are taken out of your life situation.
1:02:29 Speaker 02 Yes.
1:02:30 Oprah Winfrey? So what do you want to say about it? I mean, the fact that now...
1:02:35 Oprah Winfrey? What, I mean, what in the world?
1:02:36 Speaker 02 What in the world?
1:02:37 Oprah Winfrey? What in the world?
1:02:37 Speaker 02 And to get a sitcom on today, in television.
1:02:41 Oprah Winfrey? When everybody says, "Nobody's doing sitcoms."
1:02:43 Speaker 02 Nobody's doing, and, and, and we, I, we went in there to sell that. Little Chuck Lorre and me, and I say that because I weigh more than everybody else in the room. And, and they, they said, "We'll do it, if, whatever." Because they want him so badly. And then they put these unbelievable writers with me that have had this wonderful track record, and then this cast around me. And, um, what I want to say about it-
1:03:07 Oprah Winfrey? You have kissing scenes with Tim Daly.
1:03:09 Speaker 02 I have kissing scenes, oh my lord. Oprah, you talking about somebody that has kept his weight down.
1:03:18 Speaker 02 And on the weeks he's, on the weeks he's there, I lose weight because we have to kiss and I don't want to burp in his mouth. And I eat Al toys and I get weak as water. But anyway, precious, precious guy. Sweet and a pro and made me feel comfortable when I have to kiss and do all that, rigmarole. What are you doing? I'm getting undressed. That usually happens at the end of the date.
1:03:45 Speaker 02 I can't go. This was a mistake. Carol, you're gonna have to call him and tell him I'm sick. We'll just try again in a few years. He's an FBI agent, he's gonna know I'm lying. You're right, he is. Because he's so good at his job and he's so good looking. You are too. Wait till he tries your meatloaf. I got that recipe from Southern Living, it's not even mine. I'm a fraud. But I hope people think it, I hope they like it and I hope, I think it's got wonderful jokes. I think it's got heart.
1:04:20 Oprah Winfrey? I think it has a lot of heart and I think we need to laugh now. Laugh about ourselves and laugh about our situations and our families. And I think it is so heartwarming. I always think comedians doing stand-up for so many years, um, have seen a lot of life. All of the different cities and, as you were saying, hotels by the freeway. Um, and that, that brings you kind of a world experience, don't you think?
1:04:49 Speaker 02 I think so. I think all of that, and plus, I got to have both. I got to raise my children. And when I did the movie with Little Reese Witherspoon and Will Farrell- She said to me every day on that set, "Leanne, you got to raise your own children. You really got to do both." And this happened to me in my 50s. Yes, did I want to be younger and thinner. Yes, did I think, you know, I had a lot of heartache, a lot of no's and rejection. But how, what a blessing that this happened to me. I got my children grown. They don't need me like they did. And I'm able to do this. I could not have gone out on the road and do a tour like I'm doing with little children. I couldn't have. I mean, I do 100 cities in a tour. The tour I'm on now is called the Just Getting Started Tour,
1:05:33 Speaker 02 and it's 200 cities.
1:05:35 Oprah Winfrey? Wow.
1:05:36 Speaker 02 And the Just Getting Started, I named it that.
1:05:37 Oprah Winfrey? Does Chuck Morgan come with you? Because how do y'all see each other?
1:05:39 Speaker 02 Sometimes, not a lot, because he's still working a big job. He's over a division for that Berkshire Hathaway company, and they need him. They kid and say, "Are you a flight risk? Are you leaving, Chuck?" But he wants to see that through because he's a loyal. He loves his company and wants to see that division through, make sure it's all right before he leaves. And also, Oprah, I don't want him to come on the road with me because I'll be in a hotel room and I'll have to do it. And then, you know, and then he's eating nuts and chomping and watching a basketball game. And that's my time to like get right in my head, get my girdle on, my eyelashes on. I can't be tended to him. And he needs to be tended to. Because he sees a hotel room and goes nuts. You know, when he's in a hotel room,
1:06:23 Speaker 02 it's on like Donkey Kong, and I don't need that. I'm trying to do shows. So I do, my daughter travels with me. That's been a blessing. And she can still lift and open, lift luggage and open up pickle jars. Like, my grip's gone. But anyway, we do, we get out and we do. And I'm in front of thousands every night that are women. I look out in that, it's a lot of men now too. But I look out in that and I think I'd be best friends with every one of them. I'm not kidding, all over the United States. I think these are my girls.
1:06:55 Speaker 06 Leanne, we are so excited for you. We have seen you three times, and we can't wait to see you again. We love you.
1:07:02 Speaker 02 And they know exactly what I'm talking about.
1:07:04 Oprah Winfrey? I think that's so wonderful. That is why The Oprah Show worked all those years, because I love the audience. I thought of myself as a surrogate for the audience. And everybody who came from all over the country, I just loved them. I just so appreciated them, right? I know that.
1:07:19 Speaker 02 Yes.
1:07:20 Oprah Winfrey? I know exactly what you're saying. I, I, I think that's so beautiful, that you so relate to them and they so relate to you. That's exactly what I felt too, every day.
1:07:30 Speaker 02 Oh.
1:07:30 Oprah Winfrey? And it's gotta be so, you know, don't you think it's so much more fun now? Because you are mature enough to know what to do with the money, to not to go crazy, to understand what it means to fail and try again and get up and keep moving and be disappointed. And you have done that again and again. And so that's why this moment is so glorious.
1:07:55 Speaker 02 Thank you. I do think I can handle it better. If I'd have been that 20 something year old.
1:08:00 Oprah Winfrey? Yes.
1:08:01 Speaker 02 Oh.
1:08:01 Oprah Winfrey? Or even at 42, when you were like starstruck by the idea of coming to Hollywood. Now you've had the, it may not work out, and so you are a lot more stable in moving forward.
1:08:13 Speaker 02 Oh, I am. I, I, I say I might need somebody to drive me around because I can't see at night. But other than that, I mean, I'm pretty down to earth, I feel like. You know, I've lived a lot of life and I.
1:08:25 Oprah Winfrey? But what's changed?
1:08:25 Speaker 02 I do like a nice pair of shoes now that I was on a budget so long with Chuck Morgan. But even that, I mean, I'm just, I'm tickled that I can help my children and.
1:08:34 Oprah Winfrey? What have you allowed yourself to splurge on?
1:08:36 Speaker 02 Oh, well, I've got, let me say this, and this is, I don't mean to come across sappy, but this really made me feel good to be able to do this. My little high school, I graduated 42 people, and it's a lot of Future Farmers of America. Now farms, people are not farming, so it's, you know, not the most booming area. But the little children, the vice principal got through me to some, from somebody to me, and said, "We need calculators from sixth grade to senior for all these children." Thousands, I mean.
1:09:11 Oprah Winfrey? Six to 12?
1:09:12 Speaker 02 Yeah, six to. And then they need them for the advanced classes, the, the Bad Mamma Jamma calculators.
1:09:18 Oprah Winfrey? Okay.
1:09:19 Speaker 02 And they said, "Would you be willing to donate any money toward these calculators?" And I asked, I said, "Chuck, I want to do this." So we did the whole thing. And. That means the world to me for these little rural children that don't have the money to get a calculator and that I'm able to do that and I'm and I want them to know because people kind of forget about the rural kids.
1:09:40 Oprah Winfrey? Yeah.
1:09:40 Speaker 02 And I remember going to the University of Tennessee and I was not prepared and there wasn't a lot of college prep classes in my school at all. We took, I took home ec, I learned how to make an omelet because they knew that a lot of us weren't going to school. And I remember people making fun of me at UT and somebody would read a paper of mine and say, "What are you even doing here? How'd you get in here?" And I would carry that, you know, and for me to be able to do that for those little children, you know, that people kind of forget about means the world to me.
1:10:10 Oprah Winfrey? I was saying, I was just gonna say, "What in the world?"
1:10:12 Speaker 02 What in the world? And I think that Chuck Morgan is very generous and charitable and then my middle child is in nonprofit and raises money for Children's Hospital and those two have taught me, I really think that's where joy comes from, when you can help somebody else. Now, I have splurged on an outdoor playground that does not splinter for my grandchildren. It was pretty nifty. That was one of the first big purchases I made. I go, "I'm doing it." And they're gonna have the best playground.
1:10:41 Oprah Winfrey? An outdoor playground?
1:10:42 Speaker 02 An outdoor playground that does not splinter.
1:10:44 Oprah Winfrey? Okay.
1:10:45 Speaker 02 And it's got nifty things on it and you can change it out, slides and what, you know?
1:10:49 Oprah Winfrey? Well, what have you done for you, Leanne?
1:10:51 Speaker 02 I have, okay, I did, I've raised these children in the same house all these years, 20 something years in this house. It's a beautiful home, it's where Chuck Laurie came. I did buy another home that I'm renovating that's got a tiny elevator in it and so my mom's had a debilitating stroke, is in a wheelchair, so I can take her up and down. And I made her, they've decorated for her, the wallpaper she wanted and all that, and a walk-in shower and everything's ADA wheelchair for her. And my mother-in-law's gonna be on the other side, she's on a walker, so everybody's gonna be able to go up and down and I would've never thought I'd had a house with an elevator in it. But it's got a beautiful view of the Smoky Mountains and the, um, and the lake water
1:11:36 Speaker 02 and it's a beautiful home and I'll, you know, have privacy and all that kind of stuff. Cause you could walk up into my house right now. People send me stuff all the time, a lot of cookies, people send me a lot of cookies. But I did, I bought a home, I haven't moved in yet, I'll get to move in in the summer.
1:11:52 Oprah Winfrey? So that's been my biggest thing. Okay, and even then, I don't know if you even realize this, those of you who are listening and watching us know, that even then, when I say, "What have you done for yourself?", it was all about what you did for your mother and your mother-in-law. You were that, because that's the kind of woman you are. I am so proud and happy for your success. And the fact that, you know, we often talk on this podcast about, what is the meaning of a well-lived life? I think you are living it right now. Thank you. You are living it right now. Thank you. And I love, I love that the book is called, "What in the World?", because every time something exciting or something challenging would happen in your life, you say, "What in the world?". What in the world? What in the world? What in the world? A valley or a mountaintop? We've all got them.
1:12:37 Oprah Winfrey? We got them. It's available anywhere you buy your books, and I have to say, you will be laughing out loud, and her Netflix stand-up special, "I'm Every Woman", it's a must-watch. Every time somebody new comes that hasn't seen it, I watch it again! And her sitcom, "Leann", is the breath of fresh air we've all been waiting for, we all need right now. It's streaming on Netflix, and I do hope you watch it. Thank you, my darling. Thank you, dear listener, for joining us today. Talk to y'all next week. Go well. You can subscribe to the Oprah Podcast on YouTube and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. I'll see you next week. Thanks, everybody.
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