TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 256 – An Interview with Leanne Morgan
Jenna [00:00:04] I'm Jenna Fisher.
Angela [00:00:05] And I'm Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:00:06] We were on The Office together.
Angela [00:00:08] And we're best friends.
Jenna [00:00:09] And now we're doing the ultimate Office lover's podcast just for you.
Angela [00:00:13] Each week we will dive deeper into the world of The Office; with exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes details, and lots of BFF stories.
Jenna [00:00:21] We're the Office Ladies 6.0.
Angela [00:00:25] Hi there.
Jenna [00:00:27] Hello, everyone.
Angela [00:00:28] We have a hilarious lady joining us today on Office Ladies 6.0
Jenna [00:00:34] Yes, we love her. It is comedian Leanne Morgan.
Angela [00:00:38] Now you might know her from her New York Times best-selling book, "What in the World? A Southern Woman's Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings."
Jenna [00:00:48] Or you might have seen her live, because she has been touring the standup circuit for years. And now you can catch her very successful standup show on Netflix called "Leanne Morgan: I'm Every Woman." It is worth a watch. And now, you can see her in her new television comedy show, "Leanne." It is premiering July 31st on Netflix.
Angela [00:01:12] And you know, Jenna and I have both loved watching her stand up. If you want to laugh at the everyday domestic craziness that we all struggle with, you need to follow her Instagram.
Jenna [00:01:23] Oh, it's so true. So like many of you, Angela and I share comedy clips back and forth with each other. And I would say like two thirds of them are Leanne.
Angela [00:01:34] You know what? I actually want to play one to kick us off that cracked me up. It's Leanne doing stand-up and she's talking about her sister who was going to marry a country club man. Let's hear it.
Leanne [00:01:47] [clip from a live stand up show] There was never alcohol in our house until - my sister is a little bit older than me and she was going to marry late in life. She's going to marry this hooptie doo man, country club man. I had to explain to a woman in North Dakota what that was. Hooptie Doo, you know, country club. Because I'm from a town of 500 people, farming people. We never seen anybody play tennis. I see somebody on TV and I think, "Oh, that's the queen and her people." So we didn't know anything about a country club. So she's gonna marry this country club man. Some country club people like to drink. So to get her married off, we all started drinking. My little momma and daddy never drank alcohol. My mom drank a glass and a half of wine and got out of my car and said, "I can't feel my arms."
Angela [00:02:47] It just cracked me up.
Jenna [00:02:49] I love her so much. You know, we have to share. Angela, one day you just slid into her DMs.
Angela [00:02:56] I did.
Jenna [00:02:57] And you started messaging back and forth. You're just like, "I am a fan of you," and it turns out she is a fan of The Office and here on Office Ladies, we are fans of highlighting funny women. So we said, "Do you wanna come on Office Ladies and just talk about your career in comedy? Talk about your new Netflix show." And we had such a ball talking with her and I'm so glad we did.
Angela [00:03:23] Me too, and you know, we hear about her journey. Her quote, "overnight success" is about 25 years. She just has been out there, putting her comedy up on stage year after year and we're just so happy for her.
Jenna [00:03:36] So why don't we take a break and then when we come back, here is our interview with Leanne Morgan.
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Leanne [00:03:51] Oh my darling girls, I love y'all both so much. Y'all don't know how much joy y'all have given me. And I tell you, I'm on planes all the time. And I go to my office, honey. I go to The Office and watch it on planes. It's just my comfort.
Angela [00:04:08] Oh, that makes me so happy. Well, Leanne, I feel like we should share a little bit how we got here. I don't know if you know this, we've been trading messages, but years ago, my niece and my sisters went to see you in Wichita Falls, Texas. Because that's the big town near my small hometown, when people say "you're goin' into town," you're drive 26 miles to Wichita Falls. They saw you and they were like, "Ange, we know you love comedy. You're gonna love this gal. She's so funny." So I started following you on Instagram and I was like, "She is the real deal. So funny, so down to earth, so relatable." And I have been a fan ever since. Jenna, same thing. Jenna was like "oh my gosh." We would trade messages.
Jenna [00:04:55] We trade your videos.
Angela [00:04:57] Yes.
Leanne [00:04:57] Y'all. Oh, I just can't even believe it.
Jenna [00:05:03] I mean, you're saying we keep you company on a plane, but I just had the craziest morning with my kids. It was just all the insanity: the dog ate the turkey sandwich when my back was turned and we couldn't find the drum key and I'm getting a hot flash and of course, it's all happening on the one morning I have something to do at a certain time. That's what your comedy is about. When I listen to you, it's like you help me laugh at all the insanity that was my morning. I love you.
Leanne [00:05:36] Aw, thank you my angel.
Jenna [00:05:38] I can hear you in my head. I can hear you talking about my dog eating the sandwich. You would mine that for gold.
Leanne [00:05:45] Yes I would. I may still do that. I've got to come up with a third hour for Netflix by 2027. So I may have to, yeah.
Angela [00:05:56] We'll just DM you all the shenanigans that happen trying to get kids out the door because you did that. You did that for years and we'll just be a refresher course.
Leanne [00:06:07] I raised 3 and then now I have two grandbabies: two boys that are two and four.
Angela/Jenna in unison [00:06:13] Awwwwwwwwwwwww.
Leanne [00:06:13] They are yummy. But I feel like my best material was when I was y'all's age doing all that. I feel like - I can talk about menopause. That's good stuff too. That is good stuff.
Angela [00:06:30] And, and I'm so glad menopause is kind of having a moment right now. People are finally talking about it.
Leanne [00:06:37] Yeah. Hallelujah over that.
Angela [00:06:39] I know. I think of our poor grandmothers, no one told them anything.
Leanne [00:06:45] And mine was in a house dress with a landline and she would just twirl herself in it cooking three meals a day. Little farm woman and nobody helped her and she looked 100 when she was 50 and now everybody's so - Lord, Halle Berry has a lubricant And she used to do it with people. It's a whole new world out there.
Jenna [00:07:17] That's right, the older world. Leanne, now you are a household name, but I don't know anything about you. I know your comedy, I'm a fan, but could you share: how did you get into comedy? Like, what was your path?
Angela [00:07:32] It's been a long journey, isn't that right?
Leanne [00:07:34] It has. I've been doing standup now for 25 years. I got started when my baby was 18 months old. I say that when I actually got paid $50 at the Rotary Club to do the luncheon in Morristown, Tennessee. But from the time I was little bitty, all I wanted was to go to Hollywood and I loved television. My little mama, Lucille, is so funny, and my dad's a good storyteller, my grandparents. I was raised in a farming community where my aunts and uncles and everybody was around in and out all day long every day, and they were all funny. In kindergarten, before the state of Tennessee changed it to where you had to be five to go to kindergarten, I went at four, because I was born in October, and I needed a big nap, still, and I probably had some accidents. And my mama would say, "I shouldn't have sent you, even though you're smarter than everybody there." Which was a lie, but anyway, she would tell me that. But she said, "does your tummy hurt?" And I would go, "Yeah, it does." And she would say, "Well, let's watch Hollywood Squares and Match Game and not go to kindergarten." So I loved television, all that, and in my little mind at nine or 10 years old, I remember thinking "I'm going to Hollywood." So I went through life, but scared. I didn't have the guts, at 18, to get in a car and go to LA with $60 in my pocket like people do. It didn't even dawn on me. I didn't know that was a thing. And then I went on to college and did all that traditional stuff. Not well, I flailed.
Jenna [00:09:13] What was your major in college? What did you study?
Leanne [00:09:16] I ended up going back, because I dropped out, and then I went back and I got a degree in crisis intervention counseling under the Child and Family Studies, Human Ecology. And I loved it.
Jenna [00:09:26] Mm-hmm. I could see you being really good at that.
Leanne [00:09:29] Thank you. I wanted to be a therapist, a family therapist if I didn't make it in Hollywood. I think I've used that in my comedy. I like studying people and I just observe and I get details. As a storyteller, I like to have details when I'm telling something. But I married Chuck Morgan and he moved me to the foothills of the Appalachia Mountains and I started selling jewelry. I never used my degree. I got pregnant with my first baby, Charlie, who's 31, who's got my grandbabies. I started selling jewelry, and I don't even care about jewelry. Like, women sell Mary Kay and Tupperware.
Jenna [00:10:08] Mm-hmm.
Leanne [00:10:08] And I was in women's living rooms, two or three nights a week schlepping this jewelry around. Eating dip and having a ball. I talking about breastfeeding and hemorrhoids and all that stuff, and people thought I was funny.
Jenna [00:10:23] Mm-hmm.
Leanne [00:10:23] And I look back on it and I had my own little comedy club. Cause I was up in the foothills of Appalachian mountains. So I didn't have a comedy club, but I knew standup was going to be my thing. Cause before Chuck and I married, we went out to LA to visit my sister. She was living in California. He took me to the Comedy Store. I wanted to go to the Comedy Store and I wanted go in that hearse on that ghost tour and watch where people have been murdered in Hollywood. Chuck Morgan said, "That's the most morbid, twisted thing I've ever heard. And how do you know about Fatty Arbuckle?" Who was a comedian who fell on a woman and burst her bladder.
Jenna [00:11:01] Oh my lord!
Leanne [00:11:02] Yes, you can Google that.
Angela [00:11:04] You know who would know that is Kate Flannery. Kate Flanery, who played Meredith, knows everything about old Hollywood. She's just like a walking encyclopedia and she'll throw something like that out there and you're like, "What? The bladder? Burst, huh?"
Leanne [00:11:16] I love that stuff too. I'm right there with her. Bugsy Siegel or Sal Minio got stabbed in a alleyway. But I went to the Comedy Store and I came alive. I just thought "I can do that. I know I can." Anyway, I had my first baby and then I'm schlepping this jewelry and the jewelry company noticed and started getting me to ask to - Not perform, but I was supposed to be doing a speech about how to get booked far in advance because I was booking about a year in advance; these jewelry parties.
Angela [00:11:47] Because people loved you!
Leanne [00:11:48] And we'd have a ball, you know, and they could buy a pair of earrings for $19.99, you know? Put a little gold on, change your look. So that kind of gave me the courage there. Because I was in front of all these women, and I was talking about breastfeeding, again, and that gave me courage. Then my husband sold his business that we had, and we moved to San Antonio, Texas for him to work for a big company. And it had a comedy club and I started doing open mics. I went from open mic to them letting me open and then they put me up at midnight. I had three little children by then.
Jenna [00:12:25] Oh noooo.
Leanne [00:12:26] And they put me up midnight when everybody's high on marijuana. I would be talking about how somebody doo doo'd on a tee ball field, or going to Weight Watchers.
Angela [00:12:37] How did the marijuana crowd like that?
Leanne [00:12:40] Some of them liked it, some of them didn't. I said this the other day about my comedy, I think if you've ever been in a family. If you had a mama, a grandmama, or whatever then you kind of relate to what I'm saying, I'm lucky for that. But anyway, from there, I became a standup. But I raised my children. I got to raise my children, and we moved back to Knoxville for my husband's job at corporate. And I just tried to do what I could, y'all, to stay on stage and there was some bad times and there were some good times. Hollywood would come around, they'd want a development deal, it wouldn't make it. I'd take to the bed and overeat. Then I couldn't get booked, then I'd get booked. I would have inconsistent work and I mean it was very up and down. I got a lot of no's, but I just stayed on stage wherever I could. A lot of those were corporate, private, horrible things. And fundraisers, I was your fundraiser girl.
Jenna [00:13:41] Uh-huh.
Leanne [00:13:42] I did clubs when I could, but it was hard with three little children. This did not blow up until I was about to quit. I was so discouraged. I was in my early 50s. Because I'll be - I can't even say it. I'll 60 in October. I'm really having a hard time with it.
Angela [00:14:00] Come on now, you're looking awesome. You're crushing it. Seriously. Everybody I know is talking about you. So bring it on, 60. Come on.
Leanne [00:14:11] Well, you angel. I had my premiere the other night for my television series that's dropping and my face - I've never seen myself like that. I thought, "Where did my chin go?" And then Kristen Johnson, who plays my sister, said, "Don't let that get in your head, Leanne. It's about being funny. Think of Carol Burnett making faces." You cannot worry about that.
Jenna [00:14:33] Yes!
Leanne [00:14:34] But at first, the shock was a lot. But I saw that premiere the other night, and every expression, I feel like I'm doing this. [is presumably making a face] I'm just twisted up, but I was also so scared, I couldn't even - I'm sure that was fright and being 59 years old. But anyway, I don't know how I got off on that tangent.
Jenna [00:14:55] This is Office Ladies. We love a tangent here, Leanne. It's what we do.
Angela [00:14:59] We're ladies, we're gonna talk about a scene between Dwight and Michael, and next thing you know, we're talking about the fact that I had one boob that made more milk than the other. I don't know how we got there, but we get there.
Leanne [00:15:10] Oh, y'all, that is my kind of talk. I love talking about breast milk. I love talkin' about Michael, and I love all of that. Oh my gosh.
Angela [00:15:22] Well, you know what, Jenna and I have talked a lot about our journey to get here. You know, we're not from Hollywood. I'm from a small town. My family's from Texas and Louisiana. Jenna is a St. Louis gal. No one in our families ever did anything like this. The thought of going across the country to California, are you crazy? So we know what it takes to just keep at a dream that people around you question. But do you remember the moment that you were like, "Oh my gosh, this is the turning point. I can actually maybe have a career in this." Was there a moment?
Leanne [00:16:03] Um, in stand up, when I got my first development deal. It was with Warner Brothers and ABC. And it was right before that first writer strike. Do y'all remember that first one? That was awful, but I had a call come in from Mike Clements, the producer, and he worked with Tom Warner. They did Roseanne, all those shows. He said, "We know we can build a sitcom around you." And I had done my first 45 minutes. Back then it took 10 years to get your first 45 for standups. Before social media and all that. I had done a few little touring things and gotten some attention. But when they called and said, "We can built a sitcom around you," I thought, "okay. I'm not crazy. I'm not one of those little children on American Idol that thinks they can sing." It took something like that to validate me. Now, it did not make it. That writer's strike hit, and it was over in seconds. I was devastated. After that, there would be times when I just could not get booked or I could get booked, but it wasn't what I'm doing now or anything like that. But there would be some little something come along that would give me the hope to keep going.
Jenna [00:17:24] I talk to aspiring actors a lot. I go to universities or classes. It's a hard thing to explain to your family at home, because they only see the milestones that actually end up on television or end up on stage. But there are so many of those moments, like a development deal that actually doesn't happen but is still a turning point, and is the thing that keeps you in it. I had so many rolls I didn't get. But maybe it was a callback to a level of producers that I hadn't gotten to before. That was the validation that I needed to not give up.
Angela [00:18:02] I had a big audition, this was before The Office, it was for a movie and I couldn't even believe I had the audition and I didn't get it. On my way there, they called me and I had prepared and prepared and they said, "You know what, the offer went out to Jennifer Aniston and she took it." So I didn't even audition and called my mom, I was so heartbroken because I had worked so hard and I was like, "Mom, they offered it to Jennifer Anniston" and she said, "Oh honey, your disappointments are getting bigger. That's a good sign." I was like, okay.
Jenna [00:18:39] I love that though.
Leanne [00:18:39] I know I do too. Good night, Jennifer Anniston. I mean, that was a big deal.
Angela [00:18:44] I didn't even know you could offer something to people. I was so green I was like, "What? That just happens?" But yeah and I was like, "Okay. Alright mom, you're right."
Leanne [00:18:56] I don't know how y'all done what y'all done. I've auditioned just for a few things and I know I'm not good at that. My baby child, who's 27, had to do it under a ring light here in the dining room and she tried not to roll her eyes. Well, I did it. But I don't know how ya'll done it. I think ya'll got the hardest job in the world. Stand-up's hard but I don't know. I think what ya'll do is harder.
Jenna [00:19:24] Really? I think what you do is harder because you- Somebody else writes all the words for me. I don't have to come up with the material. I just have to deliver it. That's what's so fascinating to me about stand-up comedy is that you have to do the whole thing. Like, how do you do that?
Leanne [00:19:41] But, Jenna, if you did the turkey sandwich and the baby turned their back, the dog ate the turkey sandwich, you lived it, you saw it, you could write it, and then you could say it. And you'd remember it. When I got the television series, I was calling home and crying and saying, "I cannot learn this script. What in the world?" People go "But you do your act! An hour and 20 minutes every night." I go, "Yeah, but I lived it. I wrote it, I know it. And I talk out of my butt sometimes and change it up." And they said to me, "You'll build this muscle. It's a muscle, Leanne." And I was like, "No, I won't." And they're right, though. You do, you build that memory muscle of learning lines. By the end of it, I thought, "Okay, I know there's a rhythm and a way to do this." They did hire a woman, who was from heaven, to help me. Then we worked like mules.
Angela [00:20:36] Yeah, it's so helpful to have someone to run lines with you. I have to say, my husband says that he can tell: if I get an audition - Then now for everything, you have to set up a camera at home and do it, I'm like, "What am I doing? Now I'm running a casting session, are you kidding?" I think that it is sometimes harder to learn lines that are not a natural way to speak, or a natural cadence. I always joke that I could never be on ER. Now that's great writing, but I couldn't say, "Pulmonary, get the tube, cardiac, code 49." I don't know, no one would believe that. I'm never getting cast on that show. But I hear you, it's a challenge sometimes to learn these lines, but it's a lot easier when they're your lines that you already know are funny.
Leanne [00:21:28] Mm-hmm and sweet people on my show are trying to learn how southern people speak.
Jenna [00:21:34] Oh, yeah.
Leanne [00:21:35] But you know, they just don't know. They just they can't help it. They've never lived in the South, but they were sweet about saying, "Leanne, would you say it a different way? Let us know." So I would rewrite a little bit and those writers say things in such a flowery way. I'm just so country, I just don't say that in that way. But they would be very sweet, and it would help me if I could change a little bit, you know. But the movie that I - You know, I've only done one movie.
Angela [00:22:03] It's a huge movie though, so many big movie stars!
Leanne [00:22:05] I know. Can you believe that, y'all?
Jenna [00:22:09] I know. On Office Ladies, we love a behind the scenes tidbit. Do you have a behind-the-scenes tidbit of working with Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell? I did a movie with Will Ferrel and he was on The Office.
[00:22:18] Oh, honey, Blades of Glory.
Jenna [00:22:20] He's the best.
Angela [00:22:20] Yes! Yes.
Leanne [00:22:21] I said to somebody the other day, they go, "What do you want? What would you want to do?" And they were talking about how successful Nonas, the show that had so much heart and women of a certain age on it with Vince Vaughn. They thought that might be something in the vein that I'd want to. And I said, "Yes, that with Blades of Glory or Talladega Nights. Could I do that with Nonnas?" Because those are some of my favorites. Will Ferrell was a doll, and would just-
Angela [00:22:53] He's a sweetheart.
Leanne [00:22:54] Oh, sweet. He would just walk on set, and there was one thing where they wanted me to say something nasty about a man's parts. And I call that "doings." A man's doings, or somebody's doings,
Angela [00:23:10] We call it business. Your lady business - I don't know if you talk about your man business.
Jenna [00:23:18] Mhhm.
Leanne [00:23:18] I don't know how i started calling it doings. Lady doings, I could say men's doings and Will would walk on set and just go, "Pssst. Leanne, doings" at me. But let me tell you, little Reese Witherspoon is one of the smartest people I've ever met in my life. And everything she's ever said to me, it was right. So if she tells me to do something, I do it. And that little thing is tiny.
Jenna [00:23:44] Mm-hmm.
Leanne [00:23:45] And she'd look up at me and at first I said "You're like looking at Elvis." She goes, "Still?" I go, "Yeah." Then by the end of it we were talking about how much magnesium do you take at night? "Can you poop? I can't poop. Can she poop? What's she taking?" "She doubled her magnesium." I mean, we we're all talking about the same stuff, but that Nick Stoller was from heaven and just let me riff. I just loved it and I wish I could do that again. I was so scared and freaked out. You know, just nervous, but I wish that I could do that all over again. Because I think I could do it better. I didn't know how things worked. Little Fortune Feimster, the comedian, looked at me and said, "There's a piece of tape on the floor, Lynne. Go stand on it. That's your mark."
Angela [00:24:31] [laughing] I love Fortune.
Leanne [00:24:33] I was like, "What?" But everybody there was so helpful to me. But let me tell y'all that when they called me and said, "Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell want you to do a table read for a movie," I went, "what's a table read?" I was getting off a stage, (I was doing a casino in Pennsylvania that Janet Jackson had just been to, which thrilled me) they said, "You've got to get on a plane. We'll switch your plane flight and go do this table read." I was scared to death, but I did it. I had a ball and everybody was there. I didn't know how all that worked. And then - This is comedy: one minute you've your foot in the back of an Uber in a baby's diaper. Some little mama is driving Uber and you've gotten your foot in a Burger King sack or a dirty diaper. The next minute you're doing a table read with Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon. And then the next day you fly to Georgia. I don't know what that fundraiser was, but I got on a plane and I sat next to Machine Gun Kelly.
Angela/Jenna in unison [00:25:39] [gasps] What?
Leanne [00:25:39] Next to me on the plane, little Machine Gun Kelly. And I said to my kids, "I got Machine Gun Kelly sitting next to me." And they go, "He would be flying private, mama. There's no way." And I go, "Well, he's six foot seven. He's got a size 15 shoe. He's got on a bunny hat that's bloody looking." It wasn't real blood. It was just made to look like blood. "And," I say, "there's some things hanging out of his eyebrows." And they say, "OK, that's probably Machine Gun Kelly." Normally, I don't talk to people. I promise I don't, but I thought, "Megan," you know, he's had that volatile relationship with Megan.
Angela [00:26:14] Oh no.
Leanne [00:26:15] I said, "You're not gonna believe this, but she's from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, right where I've raised my children." And he went, "What? That's effing sick." So anyway, I sat and bonded with machine gun Kelly and had a ball but it was four days of just crazy mess happening.
Angela [00:26:31] And you're like, "What is my life right now?"
Leanne [00:26:33] What is my life?
Angela [00:26:34] Yes, Jenna and I text each other that because these moments happen, where one day you're just trying to find the shoes for camp at Walmart that everyone wants and you can't find them and your cart's got the weird wheel and all the stuff. Then the next day it's like, "Okay I just sat in first class next to Alicia Keys. Do I say hi to her? What do I do? Does she watch The Office?" I don't know what to do and also I forgot all my comfortable underwear and I'm gonna land in New York with no underwear. These are your lives, but it's just wild, isn't it?
Leanne [00:27:07] It's wild. That's why I wrote a book (that almost killed me) and I named it, "What in the World?" Because I feel like every day I go, "what in the world?"
Angela [00:27:22] My sister actually took a photo of her reading that book by the pool and texted it to me. I'm telling you, the Kinsey women, they are going to your shows, they're buying your stuff, they love you so much and they can't believe I'm talking to you today. They're just so tickled about it.
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Angela [00:27:50] I know how much Jenna's friendship meant to me, through all of it, because we started - We were not famous. We didn't think The Office was going to make it, Jenna and I both were temping. We even didn't stop our other jobs after the pilot because we didn't know what was going to happen. So much of the fame part: a red carpet, a table read, what do you wear, how do you stand, where do you put your hands? Do you do the smile where you look constipated or do you show your teeth? We found all of that together. We failed together. We had little triumphs together, but I couldn't imagine doing it without her. Do you have your core group? Is it a group of gals? Is it Chuck? Is it a combo?
Leanne [00:28:37] In stand-up, I call her little K, but Karen Mills and I have traveled together on and off since 2004, and she has been my ride or die. If I had a horrible gig and called her on the way home and said, "I think I need to quit," she would talk me out of it. Then she'd call me the next week and say, "I'm going to quit," and I'd talk her out of it. If I didn't have a gig, like if she did a booking, she'd say, "You need to get Lincoln Morgan next" and I would do that for her and we kept each other going. I call her and I'll go, "What do you think about this material? And when you look at my Netflix special, both sets and see which one, what material you like out of both," she is my standup. Now that this is my TV series, which I'm scared to death, it comes out July 31st, y'all gotta help me through that. Cause I just, I want people to love it and I don't know, and there's just the uncertainty of it all and I'm hysterical. But Kristen Johnston plays my sister, and we had immediate chemistry. Lord, she's been every sitcom mom and Third Rock from the Sun and Righteous Gemstones and in movies. She has helped me so much. I didn't know all this camera blocking and all this stuff. They'd say something and I'd go, "Hold on, that's a Hollywood word. What does that mean?" And she would tell me and tell me how things should work and encouraged me. So she's been sent from heaven. I couldn't have done that if I hadn't had her on this 16 episodes. I told her in our press junket, I had a press junk for the first time. I've never been so tired in my life. I felt like I had the flu when it was over.
Angela [00:30:21] Oh yeah you're just mentally tapped out. By the end of them, I was like "I don't know if anything I said made sense. Did I say words? I don't know."
Leanne [00:30:29] We were all, just, crazy.
Jenna [00:30:32] You know what? Melora, who plays Jan on The Office. She has been an actress since she was a kid. She was on Little House on the Prairie and her mom and dad are both actors. So of anyone in our cast, she was truly the most seasoned. I remember I did my first press junket for a movie. It was over the weekend, we were shooting The Office and she said, "You look so beat up this morning." And I said, "Oh, I had this press junket." I was describing it to her because they take you to a hotel and you sit in a chair in front of a poster of your thing (your movie, your TV show) and then just one after the other, different reporters come in and ask you almost the same questions. But you have to be fresh and funny and interesting and delightful -
Angela [00:31:33] And sound like you've never said it before.
Jenna [00:31:35] And you do that for two days. It makes you feel a little bit like you're in a dream state. Like, "am I talking? Is that my voice? What is happening?" Well, Melora, she was like, "Well, didn't they get you the hotel room at the hotel so that you could take a nap and be by yourself during lunch?" And I said, no. She goes, "Oh, Jenna. They won't get it for you, but if you ask for it, they will." So she started coaching me on all these ways that I could ask for space and self-care. She was like, "You have to have that lunch break completely alone, no one in the room with you. Lay in a bed in the dark, or you're going to go crazy. You're going go crazy!" So I was so grateful that we had Melora.
Angela [00:32:23] She really helped us understand that it's okay to have boundaries and to take care of yourself and that you can only be your best self if you have had rest or even water. Things that I was like, "Oh, we can ask for a chair? I didn't know that," for while you're waiting in the wings.
Jenna [00:32:41] And when you're just starting out, you're so eager to please, you know? I think especially as women, too, you don't wanna be branded as difficult. There's all these ways that you can kinda just get, I don't know, maybe even a little taken advantage of.
Leanne [00:32:57] I can see that. Everybody was wonderful to me, but you're right.
Angela [00:33:02] Well, Leanne, can you tell us about your show? We're so excited. We want our listeners to hear all about it. It's called "Leanne," and it's gonna be on Netflix. It's a half hour comedy. Is that right?
Leanne [00:33:13] I think these episodes are really around 17 to 20 minutes, my darling. Because there's no commercials. They're going to drop all 16 the same day.
Jenna [00:33:23] Ooh, so we can binge it.
Leanne [00:33:25] Binge it. Please binge it. Everybody binge it. They said, "Tell everybody to binge it," and then i'm telling everybody on stage. Every night that i have a live show, I go "Please run it while you're vacuuming in the background or while you are putting something in a crock pot."
Angela [00:33:37] We'll just turn it on when we leave for the day and just let it go and then re-cycle.
Jenna [00:33:42] Every day. I mean that's how people watch The Office, honestly.
Leanne [00:33:47] Because it's so comforting, it is my friend.
Angela [00:33:50] Yes. Tell us about the actors on it and the premise of it.
Leanne [00:33:56] Okay, the premise is that my husband has walked off and left me for another woman after 34 years. I am in my late 50's and I'm a mother and a grandmother. I'm taking care of elderly parents, trying to launch children, and then this has happened. Now what in the world's gonna happen to me? I thought I didn't want it to be based on my real life because that would be weird. Me and Chuck Morgan are still married. But my fans went crazy, y'all, as soon as they told what the premise was. People were going, "Chuck Morgan can't deal with her success. That's what's happened."
Jenna [00:34:35] Oh no, people blurred the line!
Leanne [00:34:38] My little dad, who's 85, one of his friends who is 90, called him and said, "I'm so sorry, Jimmy, that LeAnn's getting a divorce." And daddy said, "Do something," and I "Go, daddy, it's like Beverly Hillbillies. You know, that was not true."
Angela [00:34:52] Right!
Leanne [00:34:53] Anyway, I had to be at my Netflix special talking about if I had to get out and date again because I've got a friend who had to date. My other friend, when we were talking about dating, she said "I think I could show somebody my left breast." I think that's a common thing. Not just if somebody got divorce, but starting over.
Angela [00:35:19] Yes.
Leanne [00:35:20] Things happen in life and it kicks you in the teeth and everybody has to start over doing something: if it's another career or whatever. Y'all, I've got to tell you I don't mean to be sappy but when this blew up and I started getting big tours and all that in my 50's, women would say on social media that this has inspired them. "If you can do this, if this can happen to you after all these years then I can go back to school. I can start a business. I can sort of non-profit." So my very first tour, the big panty tour, Vanity Fair panties, did a thing with me on tour where women could submit: if they wanted seed money for a business or to go back to school or whatever. They gave five women the money to do whatever they wanted to do in midlife, to start over again.
Jenna [00:36:07] That's wonderful.
Leanne [00:36:08] And so, Chuck Laurie knew all of that.
Jenna [00:36:10] Leanne, I'm getting choked up. Yeah.
Leanne [00:36:13] I'm telling y'all, I should have gotten a therapist when all this started happening to me. It was so much bigger than comedy. Women would say to me, "You got me through a divorce." "I watch you at night, I'm going through chemo.""I've lost my parents," or whatever. It would be so hard to receive that. I'd think "I'm not worthy." I would think, "I'm not good enough for these precious people." I would get out on stage, I would not even say a word, they would stand up and blow kisses at me and do a standing ovation before I ever said a word. What I think it was, is that I think that my demographic has been ignored. I think Hollywood kind of ignores them. I think there's no other comedians in my lane. I hit a niche where it's just a bunch of darling, fun women out in the middle of the United States, and their precious husbands in a half-zip golf pull-up, who just wanna talk about normal life. So anyway, Chuck Lorre just said, "I think, Leanne, we need something in there with conflict. You and Chuck have been married all these years. You're always together. Your kids are intact. They're doing well."
Angela [00:37:22] You've done a good job, Lady!
Leanne [00:37:25] Yeah, but he said "everybody's got to be flawed." We're flawed, but you know what I mean. So then he told me this premise and I kind of just thought, "I don't know about that. I don't know, it doesn't feel authentic to me." Then I I thought "Well, that's crazy." I didn't want it to be based on my real children, that would be terrible for them. So we went with it and Ryan Styles plays my husband who has left me, but he is so lovable in this. And we wanted him to be, I wanted there to be redemption and forgiveness.
Angela [00:38:00] Ryan is so funny too. I'm so thankful that you're surrounded by these good people.
Leanne [00:38:07] I know. Well, honey, they put a bunch of pros around me because they knew I was green and didn't know what I was doing. Because I am a church going girl, and I do Zumba and I've done jazzercise many a time in a Presbyterian gym.
Angela [00:38:23] That's right.
Leanne [00:38:24] So we've got a lot of those kind of scenes that I wanted to be authentic, like, real church scenes. There's all these women, like there's a book club scene, but anyway. It's really based on real life and some of my comedy and my sensibility, but I think it's got heart. I think it is something people can relate to. But I think its funny. I think it's funny and it's different than anything I've ever seen before. Leanne, the character Leanne, explores the idea of maybe dating again.
Angela [00:39:02] Oh, hey.
Leanne [00:39:03] Can you imagine, if you had to?
Jenna [00:39:05] No, no, no. I can't imagine.
Leanne [00:39:09] So a lot of that, yes, and I feel like if I do get another season, I can be more equipped to be. Because I am a writer on it and an executive producer. I feel like I can give more now that I've been through this first rodeo.
Angela [00:39:22] And you know what, all of the firsts are done. Fortune telling you where to stand on the tape, that's done. It's a learning curve and you're getting it. It was the same for Jenna and I. We're all still learning and that's the thing Jenna and talk about, is that you're never too old to be curious. You don't age out of being curious, you know? I think a lot of your stand up does speak to people who are, maybe a little part of them that they dreamed up, they tucked away. You're just like, "No, no those dreams they can live and they can come to fruition," and I just think it's so inspiring.
Leanne [00:39:58] Thank you, my darling. People ask me all the time about all of that and I do say that you have to take risk. You have to persevere. I went through a whole stage during standup when it was big Comedy Central. I was not what they wanted. I was a mama with a pair of kitten heels on with capris with birds on them. I tell people, I was not Comedy Central. But you have to persevere, whatever it is that you want to do in your life, and I also think that you only get one time around this world. Why not give it your all? What do you got to lose? If it don't work out, it doesn't work. I tell y'all who inspires me. I watch him all the time on Instagram or whatever he comes up on: Steve Harvey.
Jenna [00:40:47] Mhm.
Leanne [00:40:47] He talks about being homeless, but you got a jump off that cliff. There's a bunch of things he talks about. If you do take that leap, you are gonna get bruised and bloodied and all that, and there's gonna be a bunch of no's. But you're not gonna know until you jump off of that cliff. And one day it's gonna work and it's going to go. Yes, I'm 59. I'm worried that I look like I don't have a chin. I'm telling y'all my fanny was pretty big on that screen. I knew I had a big fanny. I didn't know it was... I mean, I thought you could set a cafeteria tray on my fannie.
Jenna [00:41:24] This is the hard part, I think, about our industry. Which is that when you're just at home and you're being a mom and you've taken care of people, you're not looking in the mirror all the time. I remember I went through this big stretch where Angela and I were just podcasting. We're not on camera, it's just our voices. It was five years, the pandemic, and then I got this part in Mean Girls, the movie musical. I sat down in the hair and makeup trailer and I had not looked at myself in a mirror for 90 minutes straight in five years. Couldn't believe what I was looking at. I was like, "What is that vein on my neck? When, where, has that been there? Like, is anyone else worried about it? I did not know that vein was bulging like that. Can you cover that with makeup? I don't know." Every wrinkle, every sag was suddenly like... I thought, "Oh, this is because I have not looked in a mirror for a long period of time." Or if I'm taking a selfie, I just throw a filter on it. My skincare routine is a filter. My skincare routine is soap and some oil of Olay. That is my moisturizer, and it's not even regenerist. It doesn't have hydroxy-whatever in it, or the retinol. It has none of that. It's like the mildest whatever I got at Walgreens. That is my moisturizer.
Angela [00:42:59] Right, because you were going there to get other things.
Jenna [00:42:59] Honestly, you know what my face cleanser is most of the time? It's leftover baby shampoo because I have run out of whatever cleanser I bought once and now I'm scrounging around under the cabinets in the bathroom and found some old Honest baby shampoo and that is literally what I'm washing my face with right now, and then oil of Olay.
Angela [00:43:26] And you put your arm as high as it will go when you take that picture. Don't reach to your ear, reach well above your head when you take that picture.
Jenna [00:43:35] And then I told you, Leanne, for the picture we took; you just set your chin on your hands -
Angela [00:43:41] Oh, that's a good one, and maybe should do - Wait, Cassi, can you take another one?
Cassi [00:43:44] Okay, here we go. One, two, three!
Angela [00:43:50] That was amazing.
Jenna [00:43:51] See, it's great. It solves all the problems.
Angela [00:43:53] Leanne, we know you've got to go because you're busy lady, but we end our interviews with the thing that was on our call sheets. It's called "the call sheet questions." There's just five questions.
Leanne [00:44:03] Okay.
Angela [00:44:05] Here we go. Number one. What was your first job in entertainment?
Leanne [00:44:11] Does the Rotary count, for that $50 when I dropped my baby off?
Jenna [00:44:15] Yes, I think it does.
Leanne [00:44:17] Okay, the first time, really, I got paid doing stand up was when a little man that owned a sandwich shop. He saw me MC, for free, for somebody in my Sunday school class at the Kiwanis Capers. "Leanne, can you come induce comedy at my sandwich shop and I'll give you the door money and I make money off the beer." That's the first I ever got paid. That was my first job in show business.
Angela [00:44:40] At the Sandwich Shop.
Leanne [00:44:42] At the sandwich shop, for Mike. Sweet Mike, gave me a shot. I still fear that somebody taped it and it'll come out. Because he goes, "Can you do an hour?" And I go, "Oh yeah." I got up there and talked out of my butt for an hour. No telling what I said. I don't know what I saying. But anyway, that was the first time I got money.
Jenna [00:45:08] All right, our second question is, do you speak any other languages or do you play a musical instrument?
Leanne [00:45:15] No and no. Now, I went to a little tiny country school that was big in Future Farmers of America and Home Ec. I do know how to make baked Alaska, but I played basketball and Spanish was during basketball practice and they just told me I didn't have to take it because I was tall.
Angela [00:45:34] And they wanted you on that basketball team.
Leanne [00:45:38] So yeah, I don't have that, but I am gonna try to learn the drums and Fred Armisen from Saturday Night Live is trying to help me learn how to play the drums.
Jenna [00:45:46] Fred is a close friend of mine!
Leanne [00:45:47] He is from heaven!
Jenna [00:45:49] From heaven, truly.
Leanne [00:45:51] And he messaged me and was so precious about saying "I like your stuff" and all that. He was so sweet and I got to meet he and his wife behind the John Mulaney show But I said "I'm gonna be 60 in October. Is it too hard for me to learn the drums?" I've always loved Sheila E and Prince and he's a big Prince fan. He made a video for me to start, on a pad. So hopefully the next time I'm on with y'all I can say "Yes, I'm a drummer."
Angela [00:46:17] Yes, I love that.
Jenna [00:46:19] I love it!
Angela [00:46:20] OK, next question. What's a place you've been to that you absolutely love?
Leanne [00:46:26] Oh my gosh, I go so many places that I've absolutely loved. Y'all, I've been to so many, let me think. Greece, there was Mykonos. That was pretty nifty. That's the only place I've ever been over in Europe, was Greece.
Angela [00:46:45] That sounds lovely though, I've never been to Greece.
Leanne [00:46:48] It was the islands, and Mykonos. It was beautiful and did not look real. Oh, but I could say Alaska, too. Alaska was beautiful, it didn't look real, you know? It looked like a picture book.
Jenna [00:47:02] All right, next question. What do you like to do on the weekend?
Leanne [00:47:06] I like to have the grandbabies over and cook what they want and let them go down this Costco roller coaster that I bought them.
Jenna [00:47:15] Costco roller coaster? Wait, I've seen that! I have seen that. You can buy a roller coaster for your backyard. I've see clips of that online and I kind of didn't know it was real. That's real?
Angela [00:47:28] Oh, it's for little kids.
Leanne [00:47:30] Yeah, it's only probably a little above your waist.
Jenna [00:47:33] It's like a little thing. Like a train thing.
Leanne [00:47:37] They love it. It's got a little red car on it and my son will push and I mean, they will go all the way to the other end of our property and they go nuts and love it. I also like to put out- Right now, it's hotter than Hades. I just got something, from Target probably, that I put the hose in and water squirts up. They put on the swim trunks and go and play in that water. I like to have toys out there, like lizards and stuff, that they can put in there. I also bought them some riding toys for the yard. So I always have those. If I'm out on the road, which most of the time I'm on the road. But if I am at home, I like to have all my kids there. I like to go and buy a bunch of good stuff to eat.
Angela [00:48:19] Mm-hmm.
Leanne [00:48:20] And I like everybody to cook and do and be together. That's my favorite thing. And to watch these babies play. I think I pick out good toys.
Angela [00:48:28] Yeah, that sounds wonderful.
Leanne [00:48:30] And as a grandmother, we were on such a budget when I was a parent. They got Christmas and they had toys, of course. But now I can go, "I'm going to the Costco to get the roller coaster and everybody kiss my foot."
Angela [00:48:46] You know what, you work hard, you should be able to enjoy that hard work with your family.
Leanne [00:48:53] Thank you my darling, thank you.
Angela [00:48:55] Last question, what is your favorite midnight snack?
Leanne [00:49:00] Oh y'all, I do love salty and sweet. Can I say that I would like to start out with something salty? I do like a chip. I don't have a lick of sense over a tortilla chip with cheese dip. I do like guacamole, I like salsa, but I do a love a cheese dip. But I've got to finish it off with a dark chocolate with almonds. If I'm really lucky, I might have a Cadbury fruit/nut bar near. Which I want everybody to have at my funeral. I've always said to my children for my celebration of life, I want to everybody to come in and get a big size Cadbury fruit/nut bar. Have y'all ever had one?
Angela [00:49:40] No!
Leanne [00:49:40] You'll lose your mind. You'll lose your mind. Now somebody told me that they're better when they're made in England. If you can get them in Canada, they don't have all this waxy stuff on them. I don't notice the wax. I get mine at Walgreens. Jenna, if you're going in there, try to get you some.
Jenna [00:49:55] To get my oil of Olay.
Leanne [00:49:57] Yes, go to the candy aisle and get the big bar of Cadbury fruit and nut. Now that's a milk chocolate. I'm a connoisseur of chocolate, but I love that milk chocolate. It's got a fruit and a nut in it and just let it melt in your mouth, you will lose your mind. I don't know if I should even told y'all that because I don't want y'al to get hooked on it. But I do love a sweet and salty, and it is fun to eat at night and watch a show.
Angela [00:50:23] Yeah, have a little treat. I love it.
Jenna [00:50:26] Yes. I think everyone listening needs to go get the Cadbury fruit/nut and watch Leanne on Netflix.
Angela [00:50:34] This is it. We're not sponsored by Cadbury, but you know... Feel free to reach out.
Leanne [00:50:38] Y'all should be. I know we're probably going to sell a lot of fruit/nut bars.
Angela [00:50:44] Yeah. Leanne, this was a joy. Thank you for making the time. You're so busy right now and just know you got two gals who are rooting for you. We're here for you and we cannot wait to just cheer you on.
Leanne [00:50:58] You angel.
Jenna [00:50:59] And thank you for getting me through menopause. Thank you for letting me laugh at that new thing that is the hot flash.
Leanne [00:51:08] Oh my darling.
Jenna [00:51:09] Thank you so much. I laughed so hard, I sent it to my husband and I was like, "Babe look. I feel seen."
Leanne [00:51:16] I'm so glad, Jenna. Tell me, is somebody doing your bioidentical hormones? You got somebody?
Jenna [00:51:24] I have all the doctors helping me through. My big thing is acupuncture, for hot flashes.
Leanne [00:51:31] Oh, good.
Jenna [00:51:33] Yeah, it's working. It's great.
Leanne [00:51:35] Oh wonderful.
Jenna [00:51:36] And a fan that blows on me at night, as you know, about the fan.
Leanne [00:51:40] Oh y'all are so yummy and precious and as sweet and yummy as y'alls were giving us all this joey all this time. Thank y'all so much. I've had a ball.
Jenna [00:51:49] Thank you so much. All right. Well, we'll be in touch. I want to meet you in person sometime, Leanne.
Leanne [00:51:54] I would love that.
Angela [00:51:55] We're gonna go for a walk. We'll do a walk and talk next time you're in town.
Leanne [00:51:58] Walk and talk and maybe even find a church basement Zumba or Jazzercise class. We could do that.
Jenna [00:52:04] There is a Zumba class within walking distance of my house.
Leanne [00:52:08] Okay.
Jenna [00:52:09] So I'm just throwing it out there.
Leanne [00:52:11] Oh my Lord, okay y'all.
Jenna [00:52:14] So it can happen.
Angela [00:52:14] It can happen.
Leanne [00:52:16] Okay, I would love that.
Angela [00:52:17] Oh my gosh, if the three of us walked into that Zumba class... I would just love it.
Jenna [00:52:23] People would lose their minds, I think.
audio cue [00:52:25] [outro/intro musical sting]
Angela [00:52:30] I mean, how fun is she? I love her and I seriously want us to do a Zumba class together.
Jenna [00:52:36] Lady, I have been wanting to do the Zumba class. I was gonna ask you if you wanna do it, but I think the three of us need to do it.
Angela [00:52:45] I'm serious. I want to do Zumba with you and Leanne. I wanna make it happen.
Jenna [00:52:50] I'm here for it. Listen, a big thank you to Leanne for joining us on Office Ladies and for helping us laugh at everyday life.
Angela [00:52:57] You can catch Leanne on tour right now in her, just getting started, stand-up show. We'll put a link in stories for her show dates. Of course, check out her new TV show, Leanne, starting July 31st on Netflix.
Jenna [00:53:10] So listen everyone, before we go, we are off next Wednesday. We're gonna be revisiting our interview with Billie Eilish, but be sure to tune in on Friday, August 8th for a little surprise. In fact, every Friday in August, starting August 8, we're gonna have a little something extra for ya.
Angela [00:53:29] Mm-hmm. I'd really like to give you a hint, but I can't. Can I do rhymes with?
Jenna [00:53:35] Yeah, do rhymes with.
Angela [00:53:36] A little bit of Schmaper.
Jenna [00:53:38] Yeah, it has to do with Schmaper. Okay lady, I have to get packed for Chicago and you have a family vacation to get to.
Angela [00:53:47] I do. I'm going to Iceland and I'm gonna go to that penis museum.
Jenna [00:53:51] Oh, I can't wait to hear about that. All right, everyone, thanks for listening.
Angela [00:53:56] We hope you have a good one.
Jenna [00:54:01] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.
Angela [00:54:03] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:54:08] Our executive producer is Cassi Jerkins, our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico. Audacy's executive producer is Leah Reis-Dennis.
Jenna [00:54:19] Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.