“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
Leanne Morgan during an interview with host Seth Meyers during Late Night with Seth Meyers Season 12, Episode 1 on September 23, 2024.
Photo: Lloyd Bishop/NBC
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.
“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.”
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“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.”
