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After 22 years in standup comedy, Leanne Morgan is having a breakout year. She completed a 100-city comedy tour, her first Netflix special ranked in the platform\u2019s top 10, and she landed a part in her first movie (a forthcoming Amazon release starring Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell), fitting this interview into her Atlanta filming schedule.<\/p>\n
But just a few years ago, the 57-year-old mother and grandmother was on the brink of quitting comedy altogether. \u201cI told my husband, \u2018Should I just bow out and start a mercantile business?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgan, with her trademark Tennessee drawl and shock of long blond hair (\u201cyesterday\u2019s set hair\u201d), had come close to several sitcom deals and was on the verge of a 50-city tour in 2020 when the pandemic shut everything down. But she felt called to persevere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI prayed about it and God never shut the door,\u201d she told CT. \u201cHe knew so much better than I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Morgan began offering \u201cporch talks\u201d on Facebook during the early months of COVID-19, wearing no makeup and relaying anecdotes about living in close quarters with her husband, running down the garbage man, and making Jell-O salads for her elderly parents.<\/p>\n
She signed off each porch talk by saying, \u201cDon\u2019t worry\u2014everything\u2019s going to be alright!\u201d Followers found comfort in her relatable pandemic struggles, zingy humor, and funny comedy clips<\/a>.<\/p>\n Morgan\u2019s mostly-PG material fits in with clean comedy circles and is featured in Dry Bar Comedy, the popular platform launched by Angel Studios (then VidAngel) in 2017. Andrew Stanley, son of Atlanta megachurch pastor Andy Stanley, often opens for her.<\/p>\n As a Christian, Morgan sees her comedy as a way to share joy and light with a world badly in need of it. \u201cRight before I walk on the stage I say, \u2018God, somebody needs to laugh today. Please let me be a blessing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n She often shares anecdotes about her family, like this bit about recovering from hernia surgery: \u201cGod forbid I get sick with something bad, because my husband and children would let me die. I laid up in the bed for three days and nobody checked on me. I finally hobbled over to the top of the stairs and yelled down, \u2018Are we going to eat anything?\u2019 \u2026 All I could hear is somebody rummaging through my purse.\u201d<\/p>\n Her tales of parenthood and church casserole meal-trains stick out compared to the darker stories in typical standup sets. But when touring in Los Angeles this year, some younger, edgier comedians sharing stories of drugs and addiction heard her show and asked for a hug afterward.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople say I\u2019m like a warm blanket,\u201d said Morgan, a mother of three and grandmother of two. She is quick to laugh and touches your arm as she speaks. \u201cWe [deal with] hard stuff all the time, and people just want to hear something familiar and safe.\u201d (Later, she urges this writer to \u201cdo a beef stroganoff in a Crock-Pot\u201d to survive swim team season.)<\/p>\n
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