How Leanne Morgan Got Her Start in Comedy As a New Mom: "I Was Schlepping..."
"I had my own little comedy club," the comedian, author, and actress told Seth Meyers.
Leanne Morgan has written a New York Times bestselling memoir, she's sold out stand-up shows all over the U.S., and given fans many belly laughs throughout her decades in comedy with relatable jokes about everything from marriage to parenting to plantar fasciitis. And the comedian's incredible journey all started while she was "schlepping" jewelry as a new mom in rural Tennessee.
During a September 2024 appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Morgan recalled how she always knew she was meant to be a comedian, and told Seth Meyers how she first developed her voice around an audience she could relate to at jewelry parties.
Leanne Morgan developed her comedy material as a new mom "schlepping" jewelry to parties
Morgan once had dreams of being on Saturday Night Live, as she told Seth Meyers in September 2024. But life took her in another direction when she was younger and starting her family.
"I went to college, did a bunch of stuff in the '80s I shouldn't have done and dropped out of school, went back to school, married Chuck Morgan," she said, referring to her husband who she's been married to since 1993. "He moved me to Bean Station, Tennessee and I had my first baby, Charlie ... I wanted to be a mama more than anything, but I knew in the back of my mind, I'm going to Hollywood ... I just thought, this is what I'm supposed to be doing."
While Morgan knew in her heart that she'd one day be working in entertainment, she got a flexible job to earn some cash years ago. "I started selling jewelry in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains to make a little money to get my hair highlighted," she continued, making the Late Night audience erupt in laughter.
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"Sure. We have all been there," Meyers chimed in. "We're all in the foothills selling jewelry."
Morgan explained she now realizes she made great use of this captive audience — her prospective jewelry buyers — to hone her blossoming comedic talents.
"I was selling jewelry so I could make a little money and I didn't have to leave my baby during the day and I could breastfeed," Morgan recalled. "I didn't even care about jewelry ... But I look back on it now and I had my own little comedy club."
"I had women, my demographic, they were going through the same thing I was going through, and I developed a schtick," Morgan continued. "I developed an act. Some of my first material, I said in people's living rooms when I was schlepping that jewelry."
Morgan added that the jewelry company took notice of how successful her parties were, because she was getting booked "about a year in advance."
"I remember saying — this is so arrogant, but I remember saying to these women, I had all that jewelry out on somebody's kitchen table and we'd eaten some dip and I said, 'Book a party with me now or see me in Vegas later,'" she shared with Meyers, who jokingly assured Morgan, "We all get a little cocky after we have some dip."
Leanne Morgan went viral with a standup joke about "old people" going to concerts
While Morgan was certainly a hit at her jewelry parties, she didn't truly get her flowers as a comedian until she was a grandmother in her 50s. And during a September 2024 appearance on TODAY, she shared how one video kickstarted her now-unstoppable rise to fame.
"I hired these little boys to do my social media," Morgan told Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb. "They put out one clip about me talking about Chuck Morgan and me going to [a] Def Leppard and Journey concert and how everybody looked sick and had plantar fasciitis. And that went viral and I started selling out all over the United States."
"It was like somebody turned on a light in a dark room, I'm not kidding," she added. You can watch Morgan's viral "When You Go To Concerts With Old People" video here.
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Long before that video got the attention of millions, Morgan was working hard and putting in hours at comedy clubs after first working on her act at those jewelry parties.
"[My husband] went to work for a big company that sent us to San Antonio," Morgan shared on TODAY. "I had 3, 5, and 7 — that's how old my babies were — and I started driving back and forth to Austin to the comedy club and I started doing open mics. That's where I consider my home club, that was 20-something years ago."
Now, Morgan has worked with a growing list of stars, including Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell. She even got some solid advice from Jerry Seinfeld before she went on to star in her own sitcom, Leanne.
"He said, 'Leanne, you go in front of thousands of people every night, you can make them laugh for over an hour. You know what you're doing, you know what's funny, you can do this,'" she shared during a July 2025 interview on TODAY. "I know that sounds simple, but it gave me the confidence to think, 'Okay, I can do a sitcom.'"
