Oprah & Comedian Leanne Morgan: It's Never Too Late to Make Your Dreams Come True

26:34But he was doing that, saving for retirement when you were. 27 years old. 27. He is, I guess, an old soul. I guess I would say that. Honest because he is 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. But 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? He drives like a maniac normally. He still does. I mean, he's just an aggressive driver.

27:09And he was going, I don't know, 20 miles an hour. I go, what are you doing? I was—my water had broken. Your water had broken. 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 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. So I'm driving slow so we can get to the hospital after midnight. After midnight. So we don't have to pay for today. Yes. Oh, my goodness.

27:41I know. And he would do it today. he would do it today if i was gonna do it 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. But I also love the moment that you, it was a friend that called and said, because you were going through challenging times, and they said you could sell jewelry. This is what I want to say to everybody.

28:21Whatever 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 going to be selling jewelry. Tell us about the moment you were selling jewelry in your living room and you made the woman pee on herself. Okay. All right. You know, I'd married Chuck Morgan by now. He had pursued me at the University of Tennessee while he was getting his MBA. Then he bought a used mobile home business in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

28:58When 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. A whole different can of rural that was, yes. I had my first baby, Charlie, and I wanted to stay at home with him and nurse and stay at home. But we didn't have, I mean, Chuck was 26 years old, had a business and, you know, had employees and payroll and all that. 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?

29:33You can stay home with Charlie. Chuck can take care of the baby at night. You can meet friends in the Appalachia 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. But I thought, okay. You know, like Tupperware, Mary Kay. and they gave me a spiel that you do, you know. You're selling the jewelry. You're selling the jewelry. And so I started selling the jewelry. This is a 14-carat gold necklace, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, and it wasn't 14-carat gold, but, you know, the earrings were around 1999.

30:11Okay. It was costume. We weren't supposed to call it that, but. Okay. Okay, and I schlepped this big case and then put it out there and then, you know, women in the South, somebody would have a coconut cake, a dip, a brownie. And I was supposed to tell this big spiel about, oh, you can put a clip earring on the top of your pump and change the look of your shoe and do all that. And by then, I was pregnant with my second baby, Maggie, and I was, Lord, I had breastfed and had hemorrhoids. Put a clip earring on the top of your shoe. Yeah, all that. And they told us, wear as much jewelry as you can out at the grocery store so somebody will ask you about your jewelry.

30:51And I said, but we all look like Mr. T. I mean, we all had on way too much. But anyway, 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, there were all ages, but there were schoolteachers, people at the Methodist Church. And they're raising children. They're raising children. They're raising children. They're pregnant. They're breastfeeding and all that. And they're just coming to your house to get some relief.

31:25Yeah, 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 going to have to go and buy something. But people wanted to go because they thought I was fun. And the company, oh, well, but let me tell you about her pee pen. 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 pee-peed on Janet Williams' couch.

32:00Or she spit out her tea. Didn't she spit out her tea? 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 going to be, I need to be a stand-up. That's what I need to be doing. I need to be doing stand-up. Killing them, but am I selling jewelry? I was selling a buttload 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.

32:40I'm talking about my hemorrhoids, and Chuck Morgan didn't hear the baby cry in the night, and I want to kill him, that kind of thing. Yeah. And 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 going to be I'm going to be big time. And those little women would, you know, get a piece of paper and write down they won't have a party. I stay busy, covered up doing these parties. So the big breakthrough, though, was it the big break breakthrough, the Mike Sandwich shop?

33:14Wasn't that it? Yes. Okay, so this little man in Morristown, Tennessee, came to the Kiwanis Capers. Okay, so 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 husbands, sadly, and I'm in the Kiwanis Capers, like rotary. Yeah. Can you come and emcee, because you're a ham. Mom, can you, and I had 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.

33:50And I was like, I'm on fire. I'm putting on a girdle, a heel. Yes, I will do it. Going to put a clip on your shoe, an earring. Clip, earring on my pumps. On your pumps, and you're going to change the look of your shoe. 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.

34:29He said, where do you want to go? and I said, I want to ride around in the herds and see where people got murdered in Hollywood. And you did. And then I won an idea, 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. 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.

34:59The comedy store. Yeah, this is what I'm... Just being inside the comedy store. Yes. And just watching them on stage, I thought, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. But anyway, so, yeah, little Mike said, 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. 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. And Mike sandwiched up. Yes, and I'm sure it sucked. And I'm worried. I still get up at 4 o 'clock in the morning thinking, did somebody film that?

35:35Is 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 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 and wrong with me.

36:11Do 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. It was nerves. You were literally scared stiff. I was scared stiff. Wow. Once I got on stage, I was fine. And I had a little... Isn't the moment you stood in front of that microphone, you're right, that the moment you walked in and you got in front of the microphone, the nerves in your neck relaxed and... I was fine. You were fine. And it felt like home. It felt like, okay, girl. 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 on the very first day I did that talk show, it felt like coming home.

36:59I 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. I knew it. I knew it. And in the middle of all that... That was the first time you got paid, like physically paid. 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 it would sell out every time. And then, but in the middle of all that, 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 we moved to Myrtle Beach for a little while, his dad took over the business, so he thought he wanted to do something else.

37:44We came back to Morris Town, and we didn't have any money, and he bought a—his dad, we always had this business called RefurbCo where you refurbish used mobile homes, and his dad had a double wide that had been set on fire. Somebody was going to 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, Leigh Ann. I want to move us back. I'm going to work for this big mobile home manufacturing company that's now Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett Company.

38:22But he said, just trust me. I'm going to put us in this double wide that's been set on fire. 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 going to flip it. And then we're going to, we'll buy a, because we had 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 we had a pool. Because I was raised there. I had to swim in a pond with Converse high-top tennis shoes on because there were turtles in it. Anyway, I had a pool. I had this wonderful life.

38:57And it was. It was a wonderful life. And then he decided some little upheaval in his career and what he wanted to do. So you all had moved, and you came back. Moved and came back. So you lost that house. We sold that house. and sold everything so he could go and do this new venture. Then we got there and realized this is not what he needs to be doing. He took the LSAT, was going to go to law school. I found out I was pregnant with my third baby. He said, I can't do that. We've got too many babies. So we came back. He put me in this double wide. What did you do when you first saw that double wide?

39:29Oh, and nothing against people having to live in manufactured homes, but I had, I mean, I was devastated, I thought. You didn't have back stairs, right? 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 they put indoor carpet in it that had been out and had 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 hoopty-doo man.

40:04And I remember it was when Princess Di had passed away. Because I remember sitting on the couch and watching that Princess Di had passed away. And Beth was planning her wedding to this hootie-doo man. We all remember that, isn't it? And that's when I was in that double wide. But I remember getting locked out of the double wide. It's in the book. I got locked out of the double wide. I was big pregnant with Tess, my baby. 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.

40:39And all my friends were there, and Miss Betty cooked, and it was social for me, and I was so, you know, isolated. So we moved out here in the country. We moved me out there. The double-wide was out in the country, and I 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 gave me a ride, God love her, 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 to prop 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 said, nice car you got here.

41:19He was about three and I drove up. I mean, I remember riding down the road and saying, I mean, I just felt so like, What in the, how did my life turn to this? How am I in a rusted-art car? What did I get, 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 80s 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 said. Just hold on, Lynn. 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.

41:59This was a feeling you had. You had a feeling. I had a feeling. In that car where you can see the ground. Yes, I felt like he spoke to me. And like I say, it wasn't like Morgan Freeman speaking to me. It was in my soul. He said, there's a reason. Hold on. Hold on. There's a reason, Lynn. And I was like, okay. Okay. But I've had several of those moments in my life. Yeah. 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. You call them God moments. I call them God moments, God winks.

42:35Yes. Yes. 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. Within a week, comedy clubs all over the United States, I was selling out one-nighters. I couldn't even cash the checks. From breastfeeding, going through menopause, and even sex after age 50, Leanne explains why she believes her comedy hit a nerve. More with Leanne Morgan right after this break, y 'all. From athletic stuff like a full-court pickup game, swish, to athletic-ish stuff like a half-mile stroll.

43:18Get those steps in. Head to Sierra or Sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all. From athletic to athletic-ish, Sierra's got it. Welcome back. Comedian, actress, and author Leanne 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. Leanne 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, Leanne has one of the most viewed comedy specials on Netflix.

43:54It's called I'm Every Woman, and she has her own sitcom, Leanne, 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, 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 going to throw in the towel? 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.

44:32I just knew in my heart this is not—I mean, I wanted to be like Jim Gaffigan, Nate Berganzi, 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. Before you tell that story, but when you were 42, like out of a fairy tale, a Hollywood producer called, right? Yes. Saying he wanted to create a sitcom based on your life. Yes. Pitching you as the next Roseanne, right? You flew to Los Angeles for meetings. And then what happened?

45:06The writer's strike kit. We sold it to ABC before we got out of the parking lot. And the writer's strike hit, that first writer's strike hit, when, like, then reality show became such a big deal. Then all the reality shows came, yeah. And they said, it's over. And one day they go, oh, sorry, Lee, and it's over. And I mean, I was flying back and forth. They were starting to talk about casting. I remember that summer of the writer's strike. And that's when, you know, all the reality shows started because there were no writers. Yes. Yes. And here I was in the middle. I was in Knoxville. I started out.

45:38Chuck, we had 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 first deal. And then we moved back to Knoxville, and I got the television deal. And then I got a—after that, I went into a—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. Chuck brought me a little beagle from Ogden, Utah. I'd love a dog. Wanted to make, you know, make me feel better.

46:16I just remember thinking, it's over. I mean, nothing's ever gonna happen. 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 L.A. 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. 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.

46:53I would have had to. They tell me, they go, your husband cannot quit his job. He needs to stay there with the children. You need to live away from your children to see if this is going to make it. It most likely will get canceled. so he doesn't need to quit his job. I mean, it was just like a crapshoot. 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. Yes. I could not have lived away from my children. Chuck was an executive working, traveling all over the United States.

47:24There'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, could I be famous? Could this, you know, be, I could finally be a sitcom star. This is going to be da-da-da. Because I was a working comedian, and that was, you know, a dream of a lot of comedians. 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.

47:59Don't get a special until I'm in my mid-late 50s. So when you were 54, actually, it was about five years ago, you had no website and you had decided to spend some money and hire two young men, right? Two young social media guys. See if they could, on social media, boost, you know, your clips or whatever. So I could sell a ticket somewhere. 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 love this. It went viral. Let's watch this short clip.

49:00And then they sat back down. 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 because everybody had inflammation in their feet.

49:20Trying to get to their car. And it was like 10 o 'clock. I thought, what are we doing out here? What are we doing? We got to get home. We got to get in the bed. That was the first time I'd ever told that story somebody got it on film. Wow. I'd just taken Chuck Morgan to go see Def Leber 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 going to give this three months because it was expensive. I thought, I'm going to give this three months. If nothing happens, then that's God telling me that I need to open a hardware store.

50:05In Knoxville, and I'll dazzle there. And I'll be a grandmama. I knew I was going to have grandbabies. Yeah. And I thought, I had 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. I love a grocery store. I don't have a liquor sense over a grocery store. Cheese wheel. Slice my own bacon. And have canning goods, you know? Yeah. I thought, I'll just, and they're rocking chairs, and I'll dazzle. And he said, you have lost your mind. I told him all this. I go, I'm just a hardware store. He went, and you've lost your mind.

50:40But anyway, I gave these boys that's money, and I thought, it last-ditch 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. 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, I think one of those boys called me and said, Lynn, something's happening. Like, I don't know if you're seeing this.

51:20and you could just see thousands and thousands and thousands of views. People start, they watch that, could relate to that, because who doesn't go to a concert and see Foghat 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 all my other things had gone up, and I had not done anything on my social media. I had babies, you know, children. I put up pictures of my dogs and stuff, and it started blowing up, 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.

51:58And 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. Okay, 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. Oh, my goodness.

52:30It 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, 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. Because you just take your comedy from whatever's happening in life. Yeah, and I'm a storyteller. That's right. And I would think all that 20 years where nothing was happening, I would think, I know there's mamas out here and women that are going to Weight Watchers and are fighting their weight and they're feeling the same way.

53:09How do I get to them? I didn't know how to get to them. And then through social media, through those, 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 going to do it anyway. I know what I'm talking about because I would see Jim Gavkin and all these people I admired. They had them. And I thought, that's the new TV, radio, all that. And I took a gamble on myself. And 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 and get the haircut.

53:48And so this was finally... You were always spending money on everybody else. 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 and I begged her to do it. I never, I had maybe two headshots in 20 years, which was stupid. So, and then it just took off. Coming up, why the legendary TV producer Chuck Lorre traveled all the way to Leanne'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.

54:21Stay with us. From athletic stuff like a full-court pickup game, swish, to athletic-ish stuff like a half-mile stroll. Get those steps in! Head to Sierra or Sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all. From athletic to athletic-ish, Sierra's got it. I am back with the hilarious, hilarious Leanne 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. Okay, so I got big tours. Once they saw me selling out in clubs, I got the first big theater tour, the big panty tour.

55:07I called it the big panty tour because I realized I was talking about my panties a lot. And I like a good, comfortable panty. I've done 100 cities. This is winding it down. Thank you. Thank y 'all. Thank y 'all. And people ask me all the time, why'd you name this Big Panty Tour? And I tell people, I like big panties. Big panties say to me, freedom.

55:38Chuck Lorre flies to my home. He comes to see me at Pantages. Chuck Lorre, the most famous producer of sitcoms and television. Yes. 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. And we want people to eat and enjoy their food. Anyway, he came with my manager, and 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. Yes. He said, Lynn, I can tell you've put in, you've done that 10 ,000 hours.

56:20Malcolm Bible, yeah. He said, you have mastered this. and you are, I wish that we had recorded it. The things he said to me and for me to be, you know. Validated. You were validated in that moment. You know, because in Comedy Central had never wanted me. You know, they were the big thing. Yes, yeah. 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. And I'm sure a lot of people were put off by your accent, right? They were like, who's going to relate to you? And women have it tougher anyway. Tougher anyway. And then I was talking, I'm clean.

56:56I was talking about having babies in my stomach and Weight Watchers. You're not cursing. You're not, yes. And they wanted edgy. There was times, you know, it goes through trends. They wanted edgy. They wanted edgy. Yeah. And I was a little mama with a kitten alone. Weight is always, one of my funniest lines that you write about in the book is going on Weight Watchers nine, nine separate times and losing seven pounds. I've done Weight Watchers nine times and I've lost seven pounds in all.

57:38It'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. 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. 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. I was on the board. I was on the board. Oh, I know. I thought, I know. We all know. And you were the one we all wanted to do it for and make it happen for.

58:17But 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 got to do it. You got to do it. 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? No, I'm shooting a sitcom and I'm scared to dance. Yeah. And I've lost a little bit of weight. But, oh, but yeah, Weight Watchers meetings to me were so fun.

58:47And you would hear them talk about, you know, 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, somebody said boiled eggs. Take two boiled eggs and 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 chipmint ice cream at the Walmart off of Harriman Exit, you know, and everybody's like trying to get out so they can go buy it.

59:22But I loved it. And I still, I have the app and I'll do it. And the fact that you did it nine times, nine times. 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 ought to see my fanny on TV. This is the thing. I started watching your new series, Leanne, on Netflix. They sent it to me. And you are so good. You were born for this. You were born for this, Leanne. 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.

1:00:11It feels like you're the Leanne that's in front of me right now. 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 really, I feel like they've gotten my voice. I'm a writer and executive producer. I say you must be because as I was watching it, I said to my producer, Leanne must be writing this herself. Oh, honey, no. But I tweak. Okay. 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.

1:00:49This is going, can we do it this way? I think your mom and daddy, I love all the scenes with your mom and daddy. So it's your mom and daddy, and... A husband that has walked off and left me after 34 years. Yes. 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 yes 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 um but yes some of the stories are taken out of your life situation yes yes you know so what do you want to say about it I mean the fact that now what I mean what in the world what What in the world?

1:01:38What in the world? And to get a sitcom on today in television. When everybody says nobody's doing sitcoms. Nobody's doing, and 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 they said, we'll do it, 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 what I want to say about it You have kissing scenes with Tim Daly I have kissing scenes Oh my lord Oprah You talking about somebody that has kept his weight down 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 Altoids 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.

1:02:39What are you doing? I'm getting undressed. That usually happens at the end of the date. 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 think it's got wonderful jokes. I think it's got heart. I think it has a lot of heart, and I think we need to laugh now.

1:03:26Laugh 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 have seen a lot of life, all of the different cities and, as you were saying, hotels by the freeway. And that brings you kind of a world experience. Don't you think? I think so. I think all of that, plus I got to have both. I got to raise my children. And when I did the movie with Little Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell, she said to me every day on that set, Lynn, you got to raise your own children. You really got to do both. And this happened in me in my 50s.

1:04:08Yes, 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. No. I mean, I do 100 cities in a tour. The tour I'm on now is called the Just Getting Started Tour, and it's 200 cities. Wow. And the Just Getting Started, I named it that. Does Chuck Morgan come with you? Because how do you all see each other?

1:04:41Sometimes, 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.

1:05:16I can't be tending the ham, 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, 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, and that's been a blessing. And she can still lift luggage and open up pickle jars. I think 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.

1:05:54All over the United States, I think these are my girls. Leigh Ann, we are so excited for you. We have seen you three times and we can't wait to see you again. We love you. And they know exactly what I'm talking about. 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 love them. I just so appreciated them, right? I know exactly what you're saying. 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.

1:06:31And it's got to 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. Thank you. I do think I can handle it better. If I'd have been that 20-something-year-old. Yes. Oh. 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.

1:07:14Oh, I am. 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. But what's changed? 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. What have you allowed yourself to splurge on? Oh, well, 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 with 42 people, and it's a lot of future farmers of America.

1:07:52Now 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 from somebody to me and said, we need calculators from sixth grade to senior for all these children. Six to 12. Yeah, six to 12. And then they need them for the advanced classes, the bad mama-jama calculators. Okay. And they said, would you be willing to donate any money toward these calculators? And I said to 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.

1:08:36And I want them to know because people kind of forget about the rural kids. 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. 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 did 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.

1:09:11I was just going to say, what in the world? 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 going to have the best playground. An outdoor playground. An outdoor playground that does not splinter.

1:09:46Okay. And that's got nifty things on it. And you can change it out, slides and what, you know. Well, what have you done for you, Leanne? 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 been a beautiful home. It's where Chuck Lorre 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. It's 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.

1:10:23And my mother-in-law is going to be on the other side, and she's on a walker. So everybody's going to be able to go up and down, and I would have 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 lake water, and it's a beautiful home. And I'll, you know, have privacy and all that kind of stuff. Because 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. So that's been my biggest thing.

1:10:55Okay. 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, Mother. You are living it right now. Thank you, Mother. And 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?

1:11:33What in the world? What in the world? What in the world? A valley or a mountaintop. We've all got them. 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 and hasn't seen it, I watch it again. And her sitcom, Leanne, 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 you all next week.

1:12:07Go 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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