Leanne Morgan

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Speaker 3 Hi, my name is Leah Morgan, and I'm tickled about being Conan.

Speaker 2 Can you tell I'm tickled?

Speaker 3 Hi, my name is Liam Morgan and I'm tickled about being Conan O'Brien's brand.

Speaker 2 Oh, that's so nice of you.

Speaker 2 Fall is here, hear the yell. Back to school, ring the bell, brand new shoes, walk in blues, climb the fence, books and pens.
I can tell that we are gonna be friends.

Speaker 2 Yes, I can tell that we are gonna be friends.

Speaker 2 Hey there. Welcome to Conor Brian Needs a Friend here with Son of Obsession, Matt Gorley.
How are you, gang?

Speaker 4 You're good.

Speaker 2 We talked about this earlier. David Hopping, who really took over as my assistant when Sona became a superstar.
David Hopping had to go back home to the Midwest, to corn country, as he calls it.

Speaker 2 So Sona stepped in to take over for him. So Sona's been my assistant for like two days.
Yeah. And it is, we didn't miss a beat.

Speaker 2 It is hilarious. We went right back to complete idiocy immediately.
Yesterday, we did some recordings, and then I had a doctor's appointment.

Speaker 2 So, Sona really had to be my assistant because they told me you can't drive there in case we need to dilate your eyes. It was for my eyes, and which are fine.

Speaker 2 But they said, No, we're just going to do a checkup. And so, I went to this eye doctor, and Sona had to drive me.

Speaker 2 And because, I swear to God, I behave badly when you're around because I want to make you laugh. And when I, when I'm outrageous, you laugh and then I go further than I normally would.

Speaker 2 So I was out of control yesterday. Out of control.

Speaker 4 I mean, we can talk about this. We, we get to the off the building where the eye doctor is.
Yep. And an elderly woman.

Speaker 2 She's coming out of this eye doctor. Yeah.
And she's maybe the oldest woman I've ever seen.

Speaker 4 She's very, very old. And And then she's also got kind of like, you know, the hunch like back that the old people do.

Speaker 2 She comes out and she's wearing the giant glasses. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And she's just kind of shuffling by.

Speaker 2 And I was fascinated by her. Like

Speaker 5 tragedy waiting to happen. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And so she walks by and I'm just doing all this comic reaction to her. She, she doesn't, she's moving on.
She's, I swear to God, she doesn't know what's happening.

Speaker 4 Do you remember what you said, though, when she walked by? What? You said, oh, God, look what they did to her.

Speaker 2 Well, she couldn't hear me. Could she hear me, Sona? No, of course.
But then I said, oh, my God, if that's her after the appointment.

Speaker 2 And then I walk in and there's a whole room full of people in the office. And I went, did you see that lady? What did they do to her? Did you really? I've never been to this doctor before.

Speaker 2 I don't know these people. Nope.
The people in the waiting room are like, what did they do to her?

Speaker 2 And then I was like, her, her, you're not going to do that to me, are you? And everyone in the room, I have to say, some of them

Speaker 2 were enjoying it.

Speaker 4 Some of them were, and others were like, who is this person?

Speaker 2 Who is this madman?

Speaker 2 But you're, you are, she starts laughing and going. And when she starts really laughing, and I'm sure she's done it here on the podcast many times, she goes, I can't.
I just can't.

Speaker 2 I know that. She is laughing really hard going, I can't, I can't.
And I'm saying, what? You monsters.

Speaker 2 And it's a doctor's office. It's a legitimate doctor's office.
I don't know anybody there.

Speaker 2 Anyone who knows who I am is thinking, it's so sad that he needs this attention, but I can't help myself, and I wouldn't be doing it if you weren't there.

Speaker 4 Yeah, well, and then the appointment, because you hadn't gone to the eye doctor in a really long time, and they wanted to do a lot of long, lots of tests. So it ended up being like over two hours.

Speaker 4 It was a really long appointment.

Speaker 2 And I did have a legitimate complaint, which is because my eyes are dry, they're watering all the time.

Speaker 2 And I think I've mentioned this before in the podcast, but there are times where I will be walking down the street and suddenly there just tears are rolling down my eyes.

Speaker 2 and it's the eye trying to keep itself from being too dry.

Speaker 5 And this is unrelated to the eye postule thing we talked about recently as well.

Speaker 2 Maybe, maybe not. All right.
Listen, my.

Speaker 4 There's so much shit with his eye. I know.

Speaker 2 Maybe it's just time to go blind. I know.
Maybe going blind would be the preferred way to go at this point because there's no maintenance then. But they were doing these tests.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then I had to keep walking by you, right?

Speaker 4 You had to keep walking by, but also at one point, because I wanted to wait for you, obviously, until you were done. And you felt bad because you thought it was taking too long.

Speaker 4 And I was like, I don't think you understand. I have just two four-year-old boys waiting for me, so you could take as long as you were quite happy to hang out.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and I'm

Speaker 2 saying, Stone, if you need to go, I'll get an Uber, just go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 But I was like, I'll stay. And then he would keep walking by, and then he did bits every single time he walked by.

Speaker 2 Every time he walked by. She's there.
That's my favorite audience is there. People think, oh, do you, is the podcast? How do you know your roles? It's like, no, no, no.
There's no, this is what it is.

Speaker 2 Yeah. This is, if the mics went down and never came back, we would just be doing this in this room.

Speaker 6 It's accelerated when the mics are off. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Exactly.

Speaker 5 Like you're on for the mics. I would say it's more the opposite.

Speaker 2 Oh, no. I mean, if we had had microphones yesterday,

Speaker 2 we were doing, I was doing so many bits, and there'd be times where they would say, okay, we're going to do one other thing, and I'd know I'd have to pass you again. I'm like, what do I got this time?

Speaker 5 So what did you do when you walked by?

Speaker 2 Are you doing like physical?

Speaker 4 I was doing a lot of physical stuff. Like, you know,

Speaker 2 I don't even remember. I was, I was,

Speaker 2 and then

Speaker 2 and then there was a there was a kid there who wanted to yeah picture who had glasses and i was having a whole shtick with him yeah it was fun yeah yeah yeah you you really work it's terrible it's the first time he was at this doctor's office too it's not like he knew this doctor knew the staff it's the first time he was

Speaker 2 walking going what did you do to her

Speaker 4 well and then also because the the you're a monster because it ran long we went back to get our car and the parking lot closed it closed.

Speaker 2 We were there so long. And I think half the time was bits.
I think one of the reasons we ran so late is because I was like, well, allowing for bits. The doctor said, this will take about an hour.

Speaker 2 And I'm like, well, it's going to be three. Think about how much your bits have altered the butterfly effect of the world.

Speaker 2 The world would be different if it weren't for your bits.

Speaker 5 Just by minor things that you've delayed.

Speaker 2 People's lives have been saved because.

Speaker 2 to stop to watch me do a bit on the street saved them from stepping out in front of the bus, but also people have been killed because I delayed them long enough to be hit by a bus.

Speaker 2 You have blood on your bits. I have blood on my bits.

Speaker 2 And no pun intended, I'm probably in the red. I've probably, my bits have killed more people than they've saved them.
Yeah. It's like 70, 30.

Speaker 4 That old lady, she's probably gone.

Speaker 2 She's left old. I don't think, I mean, my God.
I mean, this woman's

Speaker 2 110 years old. Yeah.
This woman cast a vote for Taft.

Speaker 2 She pulled the lever for taft as a middle-aged woman as a middle-aged woman she got in under the wire i can still vote i like taft uh she was very old yeah and i wish her well um but uh my god yeah it was just it was it was a lot of fun and sona yeah uh it's been really fun having you back in the mix what are we doing today I don't know.

Speaker 4 You have an appointment after this. That's right.

Speaker 2 My new butt plug. Oh, let's go.
Let's just move to the interview.

Speaker 4 I just realized I have to leave town too.

Speaker 2 I can't be here for that. You're taking a cast.
Yeah, Eduardo's going to fill in for me. Thank you.

Speaker 2 It's a bespoke model. Oh, God.

Speaker 2 Oh, I don't just buy them off the shelf.

Speaker 2 I get the bespoke butt plug.

Speaker 2 And so do you have to be there for the casting?

Speaker 4 I have to hold the cheeks apart.

Speaker 2 Why did I join why?

Speaker 4 That is the worst thing ever.

Speaker 2 And we're going to go to that office, and the door's going to open, and that same old lady is going to come out. She's just had hers done.
You're killing people with this bit.

Speaker 2 People are going to die because of this bit.

Speaker 2 And now I'm done. You can cross the street.
Look out.

Speaker 2 Shut up and save a life. All right.

Speaker 4 That lady got a butt plug. Oh, come on.

Speaker 2 I can't. Oh, older people don't have a erogenous zone? I think they do.

Speaker 2 Yeah, she writes fan fiction about Taft. It's all pretty sexy.
Here we go.

Speaker 2 Okay, my guest today is a comedian and actress who co-created and stars in the Netflix series Leanne. She now has a new Netflix comedy special titled Leanne Morgan, Unspeakable Things.

Speaker 2 Very excited she's here today.

Speaker 2 Leanne Morgan, welcome.

Speaker 2 I'm overjoyed that you're here. I will say that right up front.

Speaker 2 You are hilariously funny and you're one of those stories that just seems to make everybody happy, which is someone who deserves to be on TV and selling out concerts and bringing joy to people is doing it.

Speaker 2 It took you a while to get to this point, but it was inevitable you were going to. And in some ways, you have a bigger impact when you show up at this point.
Does that feel right to you at all?

Speaker 3 It does, my darling. It does.
I'm 60 years old. I'm a grandmother.
I've been doing this 25 years.

Speaker 3 I always tell people I thought I was going to be younger and thinner when this happened.

Speaker 3 I didn't know my butt was going to look so big on TV.

Speaker 2 And then I didn't have a chin. I don't know what happened to my chin.

Speaker 3 But I do look back without being sappy and I think, you know what, I got to raise my own children.

Speaker 3 I have these stories, what my act is about, and all my comedy and my stand-up is about all these children and their daddy and the life I've led.

Speaker 3 And I let it out in the middle of the United States, a pretty normal life that now people relate to when they hear me.

Speaker 2 All my favorite comedians have really lived a life, you know, and I believe that is essential.

Speaker 2 Like when I look at your stand-up and the way you talk to people, the word that just keeps coming through is authentic. It's really lovely to see.
I'll say that. Thank you, my darling.

Speaker 3 I've had people say that to me before, but yeah.

Speaker 2 That means more when I say it.

Speaker 3 It means a lot more than Jerry Seinfeld saying it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean, who are these people?

Speaker 2 You know, I the way I am. You know what I mean? I mean, that's a pretty much a dead-on impression.

Speaker 2 That really is. Excuse me.
I mean, close your eyes and you tell you, who do you think I'm, who do you, don't you think Jerry's in the room? Hi, Lei.

Speaker 2 You're all hated. You know, oh, my God.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry, Jerry.

Speaker 2 First of all, there's so much to talk about. First of all, you come from this very small town, and I am always doing jokes with David about the small town.
He comes from Carlinville,

Speaker 2 And I ask him a lot about growing up there. And your town was 5,000 people.

Speaker 7 Mine said 5,000, which I thought was tiny. And then I heard about yours.

Speaker 2 Yours is how many people?

Speaker 3 Well, I think today it's 624.

Speaker 2 So they change the sign every day.

Speaker 2 Like, oh, someone left. Someone went to the motel across the border.
And so they take it down one. It's an odd.

Speaker 3 I grew up saying 500 people. And we'd say a town of 500 people.
But then somebody told me the other day, it's 624 links.

Speaker 2 But I'm bus passed through just for the day, just for the day.

Speaker 3 But I graduated with 42 people in a little school, country school, and I went from with a kindergarten through 12, like 650 students. And I ate lunch with the kindergartners every day as a senior.

Speaker 3 So very, very rural farming community. Yeah.
Big future farmers of America.

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 3 Yep. I took home egg.

Speaker 3 I know you went to Harvard.

Speaker 2 Did you go to Harvard? Yeah, but I also majored in Home Ec as well.

Speaker 2 And I nailed it. I made a bunt cake my senior year, and they carried me off the football field on their shoulders.

Speaker 3 Basically, though, that's basically what happened to me. I made an omelette and graduated.
I mean,

Speaker 2 I'm not kidding.

Speaker 3 And a baked Alaska. I can't remember.
I wish I could remember that because that was pretty nifty. But yeah, and sold a pair of jobpers.
I mean, or sewed a pair of, sewed them.

Speaker 2 They fell apart.

Speaker 3 But yeah, it was a very, this is how rural and country the boys in my class would get out at 1 30 in the afternoon to work in the fields that's how old-timey doesn't that sound old-timey yeah it does but and but I had really smart people in my class that went on a lot of people went to college and all that but but very rural outside of Nashville Tennessee so 35 minutes from Nashville so we went into town to the doctor

Speaker 2 you know

Speaker 2 which was a big deal that was a big deal

Speaker 2 but he was also something else right it was probably one of those things where well he's a doctor but he's also the judge but he's also, you know, and works and volunteers at the fire department.

Speaker 2 Right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Andy's a boxer. You just go on and on and on.
I don't know. I think, first of all, I love that there's this, I remember John Mellencamp had this song about small town.

Speaker 2 You know, I come from a small town and the gist of it was, you know, there's no, we're not like you city folk. There's no gossiping.

Speaker 2 There's no, and I remember my friend Andy Richter, who's my sidekick for years, was like, heck no, what are you talking about?

Speaker 2 No, there's, there's everything in a a small town that there would be in a big city in just a slightly different way yeah it's the it's the essence of it oh yeah well you can see all of humanity in a town of 15 people probably yes and we gossip well probably more yeah well because how can anything happen that that's the thing that would hurt me in a really small town is the word would get out so fast that i was a freak you know and yeah there'd be no hiding from that yeah yeah everybody knows everybody what everybody's doing no i I would assume, and I'm not saying this because I've read anything or seen anything, you were always funny.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I mean, you can whisper, but that mic is good.

Speaker 3 I feel like, yeah, I mean, everybody always told me I was, and I felt like I could tell a story and I could get, I don't know, that I could get a laugh. I did.
I always felt that.

Speaker 3 But I grew up watching television, like match game.

Speaker 3 My little mama sent me to kindergarten at four before the law changed in Sennessee because she said, you're so much smarter than everybody. She always blew smoke up my butt.

Speaker 3 And then I needed a nap real bad at kindergarten at four. So then she let me stay home.
She goes, Does your tummy earn? And I go, yeah. She goes, let's stay home and watch Hollywood Squares.

Speaker 3 So I grew up watching TV and thinking, as a little bitty child, I want to do that. I want to do something.
I want to be an actor or a comedic actor or something.

Speaker 3 And I would love stand up and all that. But you're right.
At 18, it never dawned on me to get in a car and take $60, like you hear people say, and go to L.A. or go to Chicago to the second city.
Or

Speaker 3 it never, I did not know about that. Right.
So I went on to college because I, but I wanted to be in show business from the time I was little.

Speaker 2 It's interesting because you knew at an early age, I'm funny, but I'm growing up in this. What's the name of your town?

Speaker 3 Adams, Adams.

Speaker 2 Tennessee.

Speaker 2 Okay, you're in Adams, Tennessee, and you stick that in your back pocket, but I think it then becomes inevitable that that's going to happen at some point, even if you think you've left it forever.

Speaker 3 I do think because I live close to Nashville and I would, and the country music stars live in Hendersonville, where it's close to Adams, where I was raised.

Speaker 3 And so we would go into town and go to the mall or go to Sherwin-Williams to pick up paint or something. And I would see country music stars.

Speaker 3 And so I would see somebody with star quality that was on the Grand O'Opry and on TV and variety shows. Johnny Cash, Gene Carter Cash.
I saw them buying paint one time.

Speaker 3 Saw the Mandrell sisters buying panties and bras at dealers. My heart beat out of my body.

Speaker 2 You saw Johnny Cash buying panties and bras.

Speaker 2 He was buying paint.

Speaker 2 I'm just trying to get you in trouble.

Speaker 3 He was buying paint with big fur coat on, long fur coat on, because that's how country music people roll. And I remember thinking, oh,

Speaker 3 there's somebody that's a star. Like, I thought it is.
I mean, I don't know if I thought it was attainable, but that was familiar to me.

Speaker 3 As a little child, I would see people in Nashville that were big deals, that had variety shows and all that.

Speaker 3 So I saw that, but then I remember thinking, none of my friends are talking about going to Hollywood.

Speaker 3 And I kind of thought, maybe I'm crazy. Something's wrong with me because I want to talk about that and nobody else does.

Speaker 3 So it was both things.

Speaker 2 Who are you seeing in comedy on TV?

Speaker 2 Whose do you feel is talking to you? Who are you identifying with?

Speaker 3 I loved Sarah Night Live.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And my mom would let me sit up and watch it, and it was filthy. It was Dan Aykroyd,

Speaker 3 The Bees, remember the Bees, Masturbating. And my little daddy would say, She don't need to be watching this, Lucille.

Speaker 2 This is filthy.

Speaker 3 But she knew I loved it, and she would let me stay up with me and watch it. And then I loved, I love Lucy, Carol Burnett.

Speaker 3 And then I would see, you know, Joan Rivers, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno. I would see all, you know, watch the car Johnny Carson.
Right. And all of that set me on fire.

Speaker 2 Yeah. All of it.
Yeah. And also, on some level, that's not even conscious, you're knowing it can be done.

Speaker 2 So, obviously, you had kids. How many kids? Three kids? Three.
Three kids. I think you had an early relationship where someone was trying to tell you to lose, you could lose your accent.
Maybe.

Speaker 3 I got married. Y'all are going to say she is country.
I got married. I was at the University of Tennessee, dropped out and married a man, a boy.
I was 21 and then got divorced at 23

Speaker 3 because it was bad and went back to school and finished and then met the daddy of these children, Chuck Morgan, who I'm really making him a Hollywood career, really.

Speaker 2 Oh, but anyway, I know, I'll just say this before you continue. I know your husband, and we all do.

Speaker 2 Like, you talk about Chuck, and it is, it's so funny because we all know Chuck now through your comedy.

Speaker 2 I hope he's cool with it. He is, he is, and he's getting a big head over it.
Yeah. Oh, good.
Oh, good.

Speaker 3 He came out at this last special and went on stage like that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 And he is an introvert, does not speak.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and now he has a long fur coat. Yeah, now he's going to have a long fur coat.

Speaker 2 He's going to go to Sherman Williams. Miraby Paint.
The name's Chuck.

Speaker 3 But yes, that first husband told me that I sounded stupid and that people, he said, you need diction lessons. You sound, people are making fun of you behind your back.

Speaker 3 And he said a bunch of other stuff to me that I believed, but I didn't believe that one. And I thought, I don't think so.

Speaker 3 I think, I mean, this is my people, and I'm, um, I'm proud of where I came from. And it just never dawned on me to change it.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And I think it helps me. And I think because it's different, but I, and I know that I've got a thick accent, but what I talk about is universal.
Yeah. So I just think I do it with a flair.

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Speaker 2 I was up half the night last night watching a World Series game. It was very exciting.
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Speaker 2 It's a taste you can depend on because Miller time is always a good time. I'm out there throwing the pig skin around.
I used to just throw pig skin. Really? Chunks of pig skin.
Wow.

Speaker 2 I never had a football. Where would you find the pig? Oh, yeah.
I went to a farmer. Oh, good.
Yeah. And the pig had fallen into a shredder.

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Speaker 2 Just hawking pig skin around. I like to raise a Miller Light in the air and celebrate a great pass,

Speaker 2 throwing chunks of pig skin around.

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Speaker 2 It would have been complete lunacy to change anything about yourself. Do you know what I mean? That's what makes it all work.
That's how it all comes together.

Speaker 2 And you have your, I always look for really good images.

Speaker 2 You know, I like it when a comedian, when they're talking, they create, they, they tell stories, but they're creating these great images that I can see in my head, even if I haven't lived that life.

Speaker 2 And you, I think it was in one of your specials, I think you were talking about how you're not dressed till later in the day. And you said, I stay in my gown until the third hour of the Today Show.

Speaker 2 And I was like, I could so see in my head that if we're a country of 350 million, there's 70 million people who know exactly what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 And I could picture you, I mean, not in a creepy way. I've pictured you in your gown, and it's a nice gown.

Speaker 2 But not in a creepy way. Not in a creepy way.
And then I went and checked and I looked in your window.

Speaker 3 It's nice if somebody thought of me in a creepy way.

Speaker 3 I would like to get attention in a creepy way now.

Speaker 2 Well, you've come to the right place.

Speaker 2 I'm going to be calling you at four in the morning,

Speaker 2 alien.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 no, it's absolutely true. Like, you said that, and I thought, that's a great image that does so many things at once.
It puts me there.

Speaker 2 It also connects you to all these other people in a very specific way. It's not a time of day.
It's the third hour of the Today Show.

Speaker 2 So that, I mean, to me, that's the essence of great comedy writing.

Speaker 3 Oh, my darling. That means so much to me for you to say that.

Speaker 2 Thank you. But, well,

Speaker 2 it's happening reflexively. It's not happening because someone taught you to say it that way or you learned it.
That's just how it's funny. That's the miracle of this kooky business we're in.

Speaker 2 And the thing that makes me really happy is when people get to the place they were always supposed to be, which is what happened for you. Well, thank you, my darling.

Speaker 3 It was a lot of no's, a lot of rejection, all that, like everybody goes through, but I would, something would come to me like another television deal, like a development deal for a sitcom, and it wouldn't go far, but it would give me enough to keep going.

Speaker 3 Because I was in Knoxville, Tennessee. You know, when people around Knoxville were sweet to me, they'd let me be on local news, come on and say a little funny something.

Speaker 3 And I was doing private corporate gigs and some clubs every year. But, you know, Chuck Morgan is an executive with a company and he traveled all the time.
So

Speaker 3 I wanted to raise these children. And it was just hard doing a traditional path.
But I somehow, you know, did it and hung on. And the only time I thought I might quit, I really got discouraged.

Speaker 3 I was in my early 50s and it really was not going well.

Speaker 2 And I just thought. Let's talk about that point because what was happening at that point? Because all along, you've been getting positive feedback.

Speaker 2 So what happened in your early 50s that was discouraging?

Speaker 3 Okay, I was doing the, and I always say this, and I love them, they're precious, but I was doing the Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce.

Speaker 2 I'm doing that next week.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 don't brag to me.

Speaker 3 And they're darling. But I remember being hurt thinking, because they had a nighttime event.
I thought, y'all are not hiring me for the nighttime event. I'm over the luncheon.

Speaker 3 But I was doing that, and I had a manager at the time that said, I mean,

Speaker 3 God love him. I mean, just things were not, I mean, he didn't know what to do.
I didn't know what to do. I was looking at, I had social media.
I was putting up pictures of my dogs and stuff.

Speaker 3 I didn't know what to do.

Speaker 3 And I thought, I know there's a lot of people like me, and I know that

Speaker 3 there's got to be all these women and men that are going through the same thing I am that would, would, I think, enjoy me, but I don't know how to reach them because Comedy Central didn't want me, never wanted me.

Speaker 3 I would, I got to go to JFL one or two times, but like I would audition for Aspen and all those comedy festivals, and I was just not edgy or whatever at the time.

Speaker 3 You know, it was big, like Sarah Silverman was big on comedies. And I was, hey, I was a mama with a with a Capri on that had birds on them with a little

Speaker 3 kitten heel with a bulb, you know, and I wasn't the hippest thing, I guess, or edgy or whatever. So I wasn't making any headway there.

Speaker 3 But I always admired Jim Gaffigan. I would see these people, and I knew they had social media, and I was trying to figure out how, what are they doing that I could be doing to maybe reach my audience.

Speaker 3 Anyway, my manager at the time said, there's this thing called Dry Bar, and I don't even understand it. He didn't understand the internet.
And he said, it is going to be a clean comedy platform.

Speaker 3 And he goes, probably nobody will ever see it, Liam, but they want you to do a special. And they paid me a couple of thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 And he said, let's just do it so that we can have more film for you to get more Chamber of Commerce luncheons

Speaker 2 and corporates.

Speaker 4 And so that's the dream.

Speaker 2 Yeah. No, the dream is the Chamber of Commerce dinner.

Speaker 2 We're going to get you there one day.

Speaker 2 City on a hill. We'll get there.

Speaker 3 And he said, it's in Salt Lake City. You know, just top on over there and do this.
So I went and I did a bunch of old material. I had not been working very steady.
So I felt like I sucked.

Speaker 3 And I did that special thinking, nobody's ever going to say this. They pay me a couple of thousand dollars and I'll go home.

Speaker 3 Well, that thing came out and clips from it and the whole thing went viral, like 50 million views, which I was tickled, but at the same time, I hated my hair color.

Speaker 3 See, I'm southern, so I sit and worry about, I think I'm the it girl.

Speaker 2 Crazy.

Speaker 3 Anyway, I didn't like my jean. It had a big cuff, cut my leg off.
Anyway, I just, the whole thing made me sick.

Speaker 3 So anyway, it, I started, I mean, I got fans from that, but it did not translate into ticket sales. I don't know who those people are that are watching drive bar because they don't buy tickets.

Speaker 3 And I was working some clubs, a big chunk of clubs in there, and they were sweet to me, but they said, you're not selling tickets. We love you.

Speaker 3 You're not, you don't get drunk, fight in the parking lot, but we're not having you back. And I was so discouraged.

Speaker 3 and i but but that dry bar special i made a little money off of it quarterly they'd send me a little bit of money and i thought i'm gonna do what jim jim gampkins got social media people i'm gonna go out on limb and i'm gonna hire these young guys to work with me three months that's what i could afford at the time i never put that's another thing i was really stupid about if i made any money i with doing stand-up i bought my kids haircuts and uniforms and all that that was our unspoken thing between me and chunkboard i bought the extras and I didn't save for my taxes and I didn't get headshots made.

Speaker 3 I had like two headshots in 25 years. Okay, sorry, in 20 years.
So I thought, I'm going to invest in myself. I'm going to pay these boys three months.

Speaker 3 And if something doesn't happen, I feel like that's God's way of telling me. It's been a good run.
Let's get out.

Speaker 3 And they put out one or two videos that went viral. And one of them, I think the one that did it, was me taking Chuck Morgan to go see Def Leppard and Journey.
Hilarious.

Speaker 2 Thank you. Hilarious.

Speaker 3 And now everybody looks sick. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Thank you.

Speaker 2 And then you, when you notice,

Speaker 2 someone in Def Leppard has a hernia. Like you're all,

Speaker 2 everyone's sore, tired, and sick at this experience. People in the audience, the people in the band.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And that, I think that people related to that, and then I started selling out all over the United States. I mean, like somebody went in a dark room and turned a light on after 20-something years.

Speaker 2 Well, I think what those videos did is people,

Speaker 2 okay, we know who this is. We love her.
And now you can really take your time and unfold your stories. That is something that can't be done with like one joke.

Speaker 2 I might be getting too analytical about it all.

Speaker 3 I think you're right. And that, and I think I never got any kind of late night TV or anything because I didn't have enough time.
I don't have rapid jokes.

Speaker 3 You know, it'd take me three minutes to say, I'm Leanne, you know?

Speaker 2 That was four minutes.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I always wanted to be on those, but I don't think I would have been good on them, you know, because I need- I don't know about that.

Speaker 2 I mean, I think it's our loss, but it's a mistake. It's wrong, you know.
I'm just so glad it all worked out for you.

Speaker 2 And when I say worked out, I mean, how are you handling the fact that it's not just gotten big,

Speaker 2 you're huge, you're a force, all the good things.

Speaker 2 How are you handling it?

Speaker 3 Good, I think, my darling. I'm taking a lot of supplements.

Speaker 2 I prioritize my sleep. Look, I'm worried about you in these supplements.
We don't want to lose you. You're one of the greats.

Speaker 2 I don't like you popping supplements at night. Magnesium.
Okay, all right. All right, now we're down.

Speaker 3 I love magnesium. Oh, and vitamin D, B12.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 Iron. But, um, uh-huh, but I.

Speaker 2 I think these are gateway drugs, to be honest with you. I think this leads to bigger bigger stuff.

Speaker 3 If I had made it at 20 or 30 or

Speaker 3 I started when I was 32, really with three little children, I think I would have ended up on dope. I've been out here in Hollywood.

Speaker 3 It's a lot of pressure and pressure is privilege, and I'm so thankful.

Speaker 3 But I think because I'm 60 years old and I've lived a full life that I can, I think I'm handling it pretty well. Oh, yeah.
You know, if I'd have been younger,

Speaker 3 I'd be walking these streets doing God knows what.

Speaker 2 Well, I think you'd just be looking for supplements.

Speaker 2 And when you say dope, dope is, I mean, dope is just

Speaker 2 dope is a blanket term. I think so.

Speaker 3 Well, I grew up thinking marijuana and all dope, really, all dope. And it's just so funny to me out here and in New York when I'm, because Tennessee, nothing's legal with marijuana.

Speaker 3 And I'm, and it's my age growing up with a don't do dope. And now everything is, you want some dope? I mean, do you know that? Do you need a gum?

Speaker 2 Sona's high right now. I am all right.
We all look good.

Speaker 2 I know. She's got gummies and, you know, she's got twins.
She's got

Speaker 2 little four-year-olds. I do.

Speaker 4 I just recently got a stash box that has a little combination lock so my kids can't get into it.

Speaker 2 That's good. That's good.
Good for me.

Speaker 4 I did it. I shouldn't have talked.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 No, I'm glad that we included you in the conversation because I'll say this. She's an excellent mom.
Sona's a great mom, but she is whacked out of her head at night.

Speaker 3 How old are they?

Speaker 4 They're four. They're twin boys four.

Speaker 3 Twin boys, four. Yeah.

Speaker 2 How old's your grand, your grandkid?

Speaker 3 Two and a half, redhead.

Speaker 2 That's why I keep staring at him, which I hope everybody, I hope everybody.

Speaker 2 Let me tell you. You tried to diaper me when you came in.
And I was okay with it, Leanne.

Speaker 2 I was okay with it.

Speaker 3 But just let me say, I mean, your hair, you've got a good head of hair.

Speaker 2 This is what I got.

Speaker 3 And honey, men don't, I realized since when I got out here to shoot my series that all these little boys are having to go over to Turkey with bloody heads coming back from these transplants, these Turkish plants, because everybody's worried to death about their hair.

Speaker 2 Aren't you thankful that big head of hair? I have estrogen treatments. I do whatever I

Speaker 2 just to keep my hair nice and thick.

Speaker 3 I've got it is a beautiful color.

Speaker 2 I'm trembling bra right now.

Speaker 2 Monstruating. A lot of doctors for it.
Yeah, I just, but I will do anything to keep the hair.

Speaker 2 The hair so far seems to have stayed on its own, but I thought if I ever lose the hair, that's it for show business because that's how people know me. Yeah.
I'd have to get like a crazy wig.

Speaker 7 Y'all get one of those transplants she's talking about?

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. No, no, I'd get a wig that literally ties around the chin.
That takes no effort. I would be totally open about it's a wig, but people want me to be that Conan guy.

Speaker 2 So bam, this is what we're doing. It's cute.
Well, thank you. You're welcome.

Speaker 3 But two and a half for that redhead, and then the white-headed one, the toe-headed one, is going to be five in December.

Speaker 2 Oh, and they wrestle all day long every day until they sweat.

Speaker 3 So I wondered, is that what you're always doing? Sweating and wrestling.

Speaker 4 Yeah, if they're not running around, they're fighting. Yeah, it's just constant wrestling.

Speaker 2 And she brings them here and it's chaos. Yes.
Yeah. Because I turn into, I love kids when I turn into a child when I'm around kids.
And I behave often more insane than they do.

Speaker 2 I'm the one that needs calming down afterwards.

Speaker 3 And you get them riled out.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think you are a kid. And then they come, and then it allows you to be yourself.

Speaker 2 And my wife, Liza, always used to, she'd be trying to get the kids R2 down to get them, transition them into bedtime, get in the crib.

Speaker 2 And I would get them spinning around like cops.

Speaker 2 And then the minute they had to go to bed, I'd be like, well, I'm going to go watch Game of Thrones.

Speaker 2 Why did you?

Speaker 2 Yeah, and they're just banging around in their room because I had them playing a game called Murder Death.

Speaker 2 But whatever. It was

Speaker 2 probably not the best influence. Yeah.
I've heard you talk about playing the Christian comedy circuit. And I was thinking, I've watched a lot of your work and I love it.

Speaker 2 It all feels to me that it would work fine in the Christian comedy circuit because I don't know why they would have any, why it would be limiting.

Speaker 2 It It seems like you're able to talk about a lot of things that don't conflict with what

Speaker 2 someone who considers themselves a hardcore Christian would think is okay. You found it a little limiting, but I don't know what it is they'd be objecting to.

Speaker 3 Early on, I got invited to do shows in churches and it just did not feel right to me.

Speaker 3 It's just a different kind of stand-up. It's got a different pace.
It's got some people that do that,

Speaker 3 have an altar call and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 Honey, I don't know anything about that.

Speaker 3 I love the Lord, but I don't, and I want to be able to talk about real stuff. Sure.

Speaker 3 I always, and I don't mean to, I know I keep bringing up Johnny Cash, but I don't, and I'm not comparing myself to him, but I remember him in an interview saying, I am a believer, but I want to be able to talk about folsome prison.

Speaker 2 Yeah, of course.

Speaker 3 And getting high in a cave and, you know, all that that he went through. And, and I like to talk about peeing in a bathing suit.

Speaker 3 I mean, and you just don't know who's going to be upset or prostitute myself to Chuck Morgan so these children have good shoes. I mean, and I know Jesus loves me and he knows that I've had to do it.

Speaker 2 But, but and has walked through it with me. So Chuck Morgan's now a pimp.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 3 He has held money over my hand.

Speaker 3 And he's got testosterone because he plays tennis.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Well, it's been hard.

Speaker 2 Okay, but

Speaker 2 what I love is that, I mean, I'm being naive, but whatever your religion, you should be able to hear about those things.

Speaker 2 I'm not a prude, but when I watch a movie where every other word is the F word or F bombs are flying left and right, I think it's just lazy writing. But everything you talk about.

Speaker 2 Peeing in a bathing suit should be something a congregation can hear.

Speaker 3 I mean, I think most of them can. Yeah.
I just don't want to feel weird. It was more me.

Speaker 3 Nobody ever said anything to me, but I just thought, I don't think this is where I'm supposed to be. I want to be a mainstream comedian.
Sure.

Speaker 3 And I consider myself clean, but I have innuendo, you know, about Chuck Morgan. So I wanted to be able to be free, and I feel like I couldn't have been free.

Speaker 3 And I still, I can do a women's, honey, you're talking about a good time, is go do comedy for a bunch of women in a church on ladies' night where they've got a taco truck out front and somebody's selling Mary Kay in the lobby.

Speaker 3 Honey, they throw their person there. You could say anything and they go nuts.

Speaker 3 So I do fine at that kind of thing. I just early on, I was kind of getting not pushed into that, but you know, opportunity would come up.

Speaker 3 And I just thought, I don't think this is where I'm supposed to be. I enjoy clubs.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 I enjoyed clubs and then and then talking about my Sunday school class in the club, you know, dropping a little seed.

Speaker 2 I like the community. I love being around writers.
I love being around comedians. I love just being absolutely ridiculously silly and the back and forth.
It's just fun.

Speaker 2 So fun. Some of your years in the wilderness where you're raising kids and you're under the cruel boot heel of Chuck Morgan.

Speaker 2 I feel like, oh, that might have been a little lonely at times because you get such a high, a natural high from being around audiences and other comics and talking about this stuff.

Speaker 3 It's weird how my career would go. There were, you know, every year I stayed kind of busy and then there would be a big boom and I'd get to go on a little tour with other female comedians.

Speaker 3 And, you know, we'd all be together and that'd be fun. But there were a lot of times where I couldn't get booked.
But then I'd get a television deal.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 From ABC. You know, something crazy like that, but then it wouldn't make it.

Speaker 2 So then you get a call, Chuck Laurie, who is probably got the longest winning streak of creating hit sitcoms. He calls you and says he wants to do.

Speaker 3 He flew to Knoxville and sat on the back porch. We fed him lunch.
You know, he barely eats

Speaker 3 in his pants.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 2 me, but make it sound like there wasn't even a TV deal.

Speaker 2 He just showed up on your back porch and you had to feed him. And then later on, he said, hey, maybe we could do a sit down.

Speaker 2 That's hilarious.

Speaker 3 But me as a southern woman, I was more worried about the food.

Speaker 2 Yeah, of course.

Speaker 3 But he came there, Warner Brothers flew him, and he sat on that back porch and said, I've watched your special. And

Speaker 3 I'd like for you to do a television show with me and ask me. Ask me.
And said that whole 10,000-hour thing. Like, Leanne, I can tell how much time you put into this.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 That it was 20 years and that you put your time in. And that meant the world to me.

Speaker 3 Because I really have gone through times in my career where I thought, am I like one of these kids on American Idol that thinks they can sing?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Maybe I don't have it. Maybe I'm crazy.
So

Speaker 3 through the years, like Matt Williams at Created Roseanne and Home Improvement, I had a deal with him. When it's people like that that believe in you, but yeah, Chuck Laurie.

Speaker 3 And let me tell you, it went quick. It was like, Chuck Lorry, we're going to Netflix.
We're going to talk to him. They bought it in the room.
Like, we'll do anything y'all want to do.

Speaker 2 But here's the thing. Crazy.
You've been managing it really well. I mean, you've been, you've been pulling it off, but it's no, it's no small feat to do that.

Speaker 3 Well, the first three weeks, I cried every day and said to my youngest child, T.S., who's my makeup artist and makeup artist on the series, she does that for a living. And she took care of me.

Speaker 3 And she says now she's my caregiver. And she didn't sign up for that.
But anyway, for three weeks every day, I was like, pack your bags.

Speaker 2 We're leaving.

Speaker 3 I don't need this. You know, because I'll be on a huge tour and 100 city tour, 150 city tour for the last few years.
And

Speaker 2 that's where I feel comfortable.

Speaker 3 And I know it's just me and I know what to do. This was scared me to death.
I never, I didn't know what camera blocking was. I didn't know.

Speaker 3 I had to learn a script every week and I had not built that muscle up. Eventually, I feel like kind of did.
I didn't know about table reads. I didn't know all this stuff.
So it was a lot.

Speaker 3 And I was freaked out. I thought, I've wanted this all my life.
And do I really want it? And then I kind of settled into it. So if you promise me, you'll watch, like, you'll go from episode six on.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Because in the first few, I feel like you can see it in my face. I was torn up and freaked out.
But they did put prose around me and they all helped me.

Speaker 2 But also, that's every single show.

Speaker 3 And I do feel like I thought during all that, and I was scared to death. I thought, well, I know I've got timing.
I know I've got comedy timing.

Speaker 3 I know if they can get me in front of a live audience, I'll be better for that. And I did.
We filmed it in front of a live audience on Friday nights, and that helped me.

Speaker 3 I did feel like going in, I think I could be good at this

Speaker 3 because of my timing. Yeah.
So I did have, I felt that confidence about myself. And then Jerry Seinfeld called me and said, was really sweet to me about his sitcom and all the things you said.

Speaker 3 He said,

Speaker 3 Liam, we didn't even get picked up. And then they, they were going to pick us up, then they weren't, and all that.

Speaker 3 And he said, you'll find that, and it'll feel, you'll eventually feel like you're you're walking into your home yes and you'll feel more comfortable and it really helped me what he did but and he also said you've got to remember lean you got yourself here you you put in this work and you know what you're doing and you're the one that can get in front of a live audience and make people or in front of you know a theater of 3 000 people or whatever and make them laugh for an hour and a half you've got to remember that that's what you're bringing to the table not everybody can do that of course yeah so that made me feel good he really really helped me through that i didn't know who else in the world to talk to well i called you and you didn't take the call

Speaker 2 he said she's still on with jerry

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 2 i would have died if you'd have called me but uh

Speaker 2 i can't work my own phone that's david's fault i said get leanne and you got pierce morgan on the phone it was weird i don't know that happened yeah um he just yelled at me uh

Speaker 2 where are you now when do you start the second i'll start in january okay

Speaker 3 and we have 10 episodes we're going to do. You know, Netflix does eight or 10.
The first one was 16. And the first plan was to drop eight, and then my new Netflix special in the fall.

Speaker 3 Like, we'll drop eight in the summer, then the Netflix special, and then eight next spring. But they said they had got a wild hair and said, let's just try 16 and see what happens.

Speaker 3 But most everything they do is eight to 10.

Speaker 3 So this time we're going to do 10 because they were, you know, I think my audience, they either binge watched it it did great yeah but that they either binge watched it and watched it two or three times the season or they saved it like it was network television yeah and so they were looking at the completion rate also i i mine dropped the same time as those girls that were killing those boars in their panties the hunting wives oh yeah oh yeah well you now you got to fight fire with fire

Speaker 2 an episode about you in panties girl on girl action What? No, hunting boar. No, I was not going to say that.
That's what they do.

Speaker 3 Well, that's what they were doing. And killing boars in their panties.

Speaker 2 They weren't. Wait, so it's girl on girl, and then they kill boars? Yeah.
Where have I been?

Speaker 2 You just described my ultimate television. The only person missing from this scenario is Leanne.

Speaker 2 All right. Well, man,

Speaker 2 I have a question. Does

Speaker 2 the evil Chuck Morgan now,

Speaker 2 does it bother him that your special is about you being single?

Speaker 2 Does that bother him and you're going to be kissing guys?

Speaker 2 Does that bother him?

Speaker 3 At first, when they announced it, I think really people thought that it was like a reality show and that Chuck Morgan had truly left me for somebody.

Speaker 3 And people started saying horrible things online to Chuck.

Speaker 3 I didn't even get on social media.

Speaker 2 Yeah. But he said, He said some heat at the Dairy Queen's.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 And he said, do something, Leanne.

Speaker 3 People think that I've left you. And my own little daddy, somebody called him, his friend who's in his 90s said, I hate so bad that Leanne's getting a divorce.
And I said, Daddy, it's not real.

Speaker 3 It's like Beverly Hillbillies. You know, it's not real.

Speaker 2 That's not real.

Speaker 2 I still think that's real, by the way.

Speaker 3 But, yeah, Chuck at first, and I kind of bumped on it. It felt weird to me that Chuck Lorry wanted to do that.

Speaker 3 But then I thought, now i realize how smart he was because it because of the c sin lean i think whether it's divorce or a job or a death or whatever everybody it's universal having to start over yeah yeah and he said i think that uh frankly you and chuck are boring

Speaker 3 He said, that's just been done.

Speaker 2 Yeah. You know?

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And he said, I think because of that bit in my, also in my Netflix special, I talk about my friend, my girlfriends, if we said, if we had to get out and date, one of my girlfriends said, I think I could show somebody my left breast.

Speaker 3 The right one looks bad.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 3 he liked that bit.

Speaker 3 And so, you know, in your late 50s, if you had to get out here and, you know, cat around.

Speaker 3 Which, by the way, I do get to make out with Tim Daly in this, sweet Tim Daly, who is precious. And I did say to Chuck Morgan, I'm kissing Tim Daly this week.

Speaker 3 They want me to kiss Tim Daly, and I was scared to death. And Chuck did not care.
And say this,

Speaker 3 I think he really liked for me to make money.

Speaker 2 And I don't think he cares.

Speaker 2 There he is, pipping you out again.

Speaker 3 Plus, he knows I'm in menopause, and you're probably like, she's not going to do anything.

Speaker 2 She doesn't feel good. She's on all those magnesium pills.

Speaker 2 She's so doped up on magnesium.

Speaker 2 She's a magnesium junkie. You're buying it in parking lots.

Speaker 2 Well, Leanne, you are a tonic. You're just an absolute joy.
And I was so excited you could come in.

Speaker 2 And I'm delighted for you, but I'm also delighted for everybody that likes comedy because you're fantastic. You're really great.
And this is

Speaker 2 a joy. Just a joy having you here.
And I hope you come back. Honey, I would love to come back.
Because this is a fun place to hang. You'd like to.

Speaker 3 I'll be here in January through April, and I can mop and I can

Speaker 2 dishes.

Speaker 2 I can do whatever y'all bring those babies in here.

Speaker 2 I can tend to your babies. Okay, yes.
I don't, no, you don't want to do that.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'll bring them in an oxidal. I'll just drop them off.
Dolly would. Okay.

Speaker 2 Or soon, Nate's Disney World and he's

Speaker 2 Nateland.

Speaker 3 Where Opryland was. I grew up going to Opryland.
Can you believe them?

Speaker 2 I've been to Opryland years and years ago. I went to Opryland and I got on stage at the grand old Opry at one point.

Speaker 3 Oh my God.

Speaker 2 My God. I loved it.
Just loved it. I want to go back and

Speaker 2 I want to play some music there someday. That's my dream.

Speaker 3 You play music?

Speaker 2 I started playing years and years ago. I was doing rockabilly, which is kind of where it's Elvis Sun Session and Cherry Lee Lewis and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 But some of it sounds like country and now I've become friends with some country music guys. And I'm always looking at them thinking, I think this is kind of what I'd love to do.
Oh, my low.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Clint Black.

Speaker 2 Clint Black's a friend of mine. Guitar, yeah.
Oh my darling. So I guess I got to go live in Nashville because all my friends live there now.

Speaker 3 All your friends move there?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And you know, when I knew people were moving, hoop-de-doo, LA people were moving to Nashville, their Nordstrom shoe department, honey. All of a sudden it was Chanel.

Speaker 2 It was like a good cork.

Speaker 3 Yeah. You know, a good orthotic.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Where everybody could get a normal, everyday, sensible shoe. No, it's.

Speaker 2 And then it was just all of a sudden Gucci, all that, LA No, Nashville has become probably too fancy for me, which is, it's, it's amazing. It's great, but I love it there.
Absolutely love it there.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's great. And great people, really lovely.

Speaker 3 And then Knoxville see up in East Tennessee in the Appalachian Mountains is all that bluegrass, that unbelievable bluegrass that is wonderful.

Speaker 3 And my son plays the banjo and the mandolin and the mountain dulcimer. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Well, now he's got two babies. He doesn't get to do anything.
But, I mean, he grew up playing those and taking lessons and all that because he loved gospel bluegrass.

Speaker 2 All right. I'm going to open for you doing really bad country music.
That's going to hurt you badly. No, it wouldn't.

Speaker 3 Everybody would be on fire.

Speaker 2 We'll see. We'll see.
We'll talk. We'll talk.

Speaker 2 I'll do it for free. Yeah.
I'll pay you to do it. Leanne,

Speaker 2 just continued crazy success to you, all the good things. And we're all so thrilled that we got to meet you.
This is a real treat.

Speaker 3 Honey, this is my treat. Thank you for having me.
I feel like I'm with Elvis.

Speaker 2 What?

Speaker 2 Let's stick with that. Yeah, we'll go with that.
Yes.

Speaker 2 Print that. Print it.
Print it. Oh, no.

Speaker 2 Hey, Sona, I heard you got a new car. Yeah.
You know, David usually gives me a ride to work, but I'd love it if you. No, no, no.

Speaker 4 You're not. I'm sorry.
You're not allowed in my new car.

Speaker 4 My Palisade is my oasis. It's my happy place.
So you're not allowed in Palisis.

Speaker 2 Wait a minute. What are you talking about? I made you.
You, when I found you, you were wandering the streets with a bucket on your head. What?

Speaker 2 And now you're Sonoma Obsession and you're driving around the Palisade. You won't give me a ride.

Speaker 4 This is why I don't let you in my happy place because you talk about me walking around with a bucket on my head. Why would I let you into my personal oasis if this is the way you're going to talk?

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Speaker 2 That's insane. Yeah.
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Speaker 2 You know me, I love to travel. You love to travel the world.
I do it

Speaker 2 professionally for my travel show, but I also just like to, sometimes with my wife, go and visit a foreign land and try their different cuisines.

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Speaker 4 I didn't even know there were 215 countries.

Speaker 2 Oh, that's just, well,

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Speaker 6 We haven't done a state of the podcast in quite some time, and that's where we bring on the great Adam Sachs to tell us about how the podcast is doing, where we are, where we're heading.

Speaker 2 Yes, this is very good because I feel like I'm working on a submarine and not getting a lot of feedback. People on the street often say to me they're enjoying the podcast.

Speaker 2 And I recently went to the Philippines and people there would come up to me and say, I just was listening to you on the podcast in the Philippines, which is really cool.

Speaker 2 But other than that, I get no feedback, intel. I don't know what's happening.
So, Adam Sachs, you are the podmeister, the pod whisperer.

Speaker 6 And not since our lawyer David Melman have I seen so many notes.

Speaker 2 I'll explain why.

Speaker 6 But yeah, so, you know, it's this, we've been doing the show now for seven years.

Speaker 2 That's unbelievable to me. Seven years.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 That's crazy. We're close to the business.
I forget that. Yeah.
It's insane.

Speaker 4 We had babies in the time.

Speaker 2 Sona and I made babies.

Speaker 2 My children were like little when we started. They're in their late 50s now.

Speaker 1 I know. I was four when the show started.

Speaker 6 The crazy thing is, so seven years in, I'm going going to, the reason I, there's a few things on this paper, but one thing I wanted to do is read off some of the accolades that the show has gotten because we don't talk about this really ever on the show, or even we don't talk about it much off the show either.

Speaker 2 It's a very Irish Catholic podcast. I know.
But I was like, you know what? We don't really ever celebrate this.

Speaker 6 These are just 2025 honors. So seven years in, I wanted to, these are some things that the show has been honored with this year.

Speaker 6 A bunch of awards, including the 2025 Webby Award for Best Host, the 2025 Signal Award for Best Host.

Speaker 2 Which host are they talking about?

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 they didn't say.

Speaker 6 2025 AMBY Award.

Speaker 2 AMBY sounds like it's short for Ambient.

Speaker 2 2025. You put people to sleep?

Speaker 6 This is the AMBI is the Academy of Podcasts.

Speaker 2 There's an Academy of Podcasts.

Speaker 6 Yes. It's actually 2025 AMBI Award Winner for Best Comedy Podcast.

Speaker 4 Oh, check us out.

Speaker 6 2025 iHeart Podcast Award winner for best ad read. Now, this is an award, Conan, you've won

Speaker 6 almost every year, if not every year.

Speaker 2 Because when I read the ads, you can tell that I'm unhinged. Yes.

Speaker 6 I think that's a huge part of it.

Speaker 2 I can't seem to read an ad without behaving like a fool. Yeah.

Speaker 6 The important thing is advertisers keep coming back. So the unhinged ads also work.

Speaker 2 And by the way, it doesn't matter. I'm just going to interject that it's best host or whatever.
It's a team effort. And I don't mean that at all.
I'm glad you feel that way.

Speaker 4 Yeah, because I feel like when you do ads, there is somebody else sitting across from you who's helping you with like the ads and stuff.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think you're really good at saying, uh-huh, that's true. Or, oh, you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm damn. I am.

Speaker 4 I am.

Speaker 4 There's something about the ads that are crushing it. And also, if you were here just sitting by yourself, I'd be scared.
You wouldn't be good. Yeah.
It would make you better. You're welcome.

Speaker 4 Hey, and you know what?

Speaker 2 That is true. That is true.
Oh, I don't want you to agree with me.

Speaker 4 It makes it worse when you.

Speaker 2 I know, and that's why I'm getting you.

Speaker 2 Anyway, back.

Speaker 2 There's apparently more awards.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And then also some bigger things.

Speaker 6 Like Time Magazine this year put out their 100 best podcasts of all time. Conan by Needs a Friend was on there.
That's cool.

Speaker 6 Hollywood Reporter this year put out the 44 most powerful players in podcasting in 2025. Conan, you were one of the 44 most powerful players in podcasting.

Speaker 4 Ooh, fancy guy.

Speaker 6 And also.

Speaker 2 I'm going to get a t-shirt made that says I am one of 44.

Speaker 6 We should shout out a great journalist from Vulture, Sean Mallon. He wrote a book, The 101 Podcasts That Change How We Listen.

Speaker 2 Oh, cool. And look at that.

Speaker 6 Conan Bright Bryan Needs a Friend has a nice feature in this book.

Speaker 6 So that's why I have this paper because this is all just in the seventh year of the show, which is pretty amazing. So we have not jumped the shark.

Speaker 2 We will. Yeah.

Speaker 6 So that I wanted to talk about.

Speaker 2 I think when we put contact lenses on while we're doing the

Speaker 2 podcast, our viewers, our listeners will never forgive us. And I think that's coming up soon, if it hasn't already aired.

Speaker 4 If we could get past that, hey, hey, hey, game, then I think we're capable of anything.

Speaker 2 It was high, high, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi.

Speaker 2 We've committed some terrible crimes for which we have not been prosecuted. Time magazine.
Yeah, there's an Academy of podcasting, but not a war crimes tribunal out podcasting.

Speaker 2 Let's talk more about these nuts. Yeah.
These nuts. These nuts.
Yes. Wait, you were okay.
There's more.

Speaker 6 The other thing I wanted to, you know, we've had great guests just recently.

Speaker 6 We've had people like Nate Bergatzi, Rose Byrne, you know, Kesha, Io Debri, Diego Luna, the cast of Spinaltat, the rest is history guy.

Speaker 6 So the sh, the, the, uh, and then a bunch of returning favorites, Bob Odenkirk, Tim Olafant, Sarah Silverman, Martin Short, Mark Marin.

Speaker 6 The show gets great guests.

Speaker 6 And then the other thing.

Speaker 2 Are you convincing yourself or us?

Speaker 6 I don't know.

Speaker 2 I'm just reading it off the paper.

Speaker 2 These are all.

Speaker 2 I was pretty happy coming in today, and now you're telling me, I don't think you're dying. This is good.
All these awards. Come on.
Come on. That's pretty good.

Speaker 2 And you're very healthy.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Had him practicing this in the mirror before.

Speaker 6 Well, the other thing, like, this is the state of the podcast. Last time I was on, we talked about video, if you remember.
This was like a long time ago.

Speaker 6 We talked about how video is becoming a more and more, a bigger part. It's becoming the number one, YouTube is the number one distribution platform for podcasts.

Speaker 6 More people get their podcasts on YouTube now than anywhere else.

Speaker 6 And so last time I was on, we said we were experimenting with doing full-length episodes. We hadn't really done it

Speaker 2 regularly.

Speaker 6 It's going really well.

Speaker 6 And one of the questions we had was, and while we were sort of testing it, is it going to be like a substitute audience?

Speaker 6 People who were listening are now just going to shift over and watch on YouTube and maybe the total pie of audience would stay the same?

Speaker 6 Or are we going to get new people watching the show, discovering the show through YouTube?

Speaker 6 And what we have found is that it is almost entirely incremental audience that is coming from YouTube, which is pretty amazing. So that means the audience for the show has grown tremendously.

Speaker 2 Oh, wow.

Speaker 6 The full-length video, we launched it in May and it has already almost 20 million views on this whole length video.

Speaker 2 No one told me this shit.

Speaker 4 Oh my God.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 we dress like hobos. Yeah.
I'm not wearing makeup. I'm literally dressed like hospitals.
What are we?

Speaker 2 No, you mean

Speaker 2 you're clothing by Box Car Willie.

Speaker 2 I'm with you on that.

Speaker 2 Oh my God.

Speaker 2 No one told me this. They'll never make this.

Speaker 2 Jeff Ross doesn't tell me any of this stuff. What is he doing? Cut to a golf course.

Speaker 2 Pretty good. Cut back.

Speaker 2 Seriously, what's happening? I should lose some weight. Oh, you need to.
No, no, no, no. I don't like that.
I don't like that. You're beautiful.

Speaker 4 Oh, well, that's very nice. Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 You need to lose weight. I will lose some weight.

Speaker 2 But I'm glad we're on YouTube so people can check this out.

Speaker 3 Never ever make a joke about me wearing tweed again.

Speaker 2 No, I'm saying today,

Speaker 2 this is something Scott Kronick found. It's a cool shirt.
It's very inexpensive. I just like to put that out there.
Keeping it real. Oh.
And I wore it this morning and I keep getting compliments.

Speaker 6 I didn't say I didn't like it. I'm just saying, leave me alone.

Speaker 4 Yeah, you, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I'm the Dean of Poetry at.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 4 Now that we know this, what if we come in like the Kardashians?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 4 All like done up. We look different.
You

Speaker 2 look good giant boobies. Do you remember when you were driving me the other day and we were stopped at a crosswalk and a woman walked by and you said,

Speaker 2 BBL? Big time.

Speaker 2 She had had a Brazilian butt lift.

Speaker 2 And I swear to God, I've never seen anything like it. I think you could put a whole dinner tray

Speaker 2 with like a turkey dinner on it. Can't believe it.
And it was completely, it was a,

Speaker 2 you know, her back went down, and then it was a 90-degree turn. Yeah.
I think it went out like eight inches. Yeah.
Not that I've seen eight inches.

Speaker 2 Anyway, how's Time magazine doing with this? Oh, yeah. Hey, Newsweek just came out.
A worst podcast.

Speaker 2 But anyway, it went straight out. Yeah, it was.
And I thought, that's just insane.

Speaker 4 And you were just like, oh,

Speaker 4 is something wrong? Like, you really

Speaker 2 wanted to get out of the car and help.

Speaker 2 I thought she had been injured.

Speaker 2 I honestly don't even know how that's possible. What's the engineering behind it? But you said this is a big thing now.

Speaker 4 That's a BBL. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Aren't they dangerous?

Speaker 6 I've heard, I don't know why, I've heard that it's a dangerous surgery to get.

Speaker 2 I this is gross.

Speaker 4 We googled whether or not it smelled because it was in the news recently about it having a specific kind of smell. What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 Why would it tell you how to smell lift? Yeah. Wait, aren't we just talking about putting silicone or something in your bottle?

Speaker 4 Yeah, but there's there's something about the way the procedure is done where it emanates this awful smell and it's a BBL

Speaker 4 it's a button.

Speaker 2 This is a thing. Yeah.
And people are talking about it.

Speaker 4 Look it up. Look it up the BBL smell.

Speaker 3 Is this coming from?

Speaker 9 I don't even know how to ask a question.

Speaker 4 Okay, so the reason we looked into this is because a high-profile person

Speaker 4 has one, and then her ex said that her butt smelled like

Speaker 4 trash in Manhattan in July or something.

Speaker 2 What a lovely relationship they have.

Speaker 2 What kind of, does he have her back?

Speaker 2 I was going to say, does he have her back? How could he not? But I mean, how do you, what?

Speaker 2 First of all, I love that this is all coming from a state-of-the-podcast discussion. And we're now talking about the Brazilian butt lift and how it smells.
We might have to do a two-parter.

Speaker 2 Yeah, the term BBL smell refers to a temporary unpleasant odor that may occur after a Brazilian butt lift.

Speaker 2 It may be due to bacterial overgrowth.

Speaker 2 The surgical site can become a breeding ground for bacteria. Fat necrosis.

Speaker 2 When some of the transferred fat cells die, they release a foul-smelling substance. Poor hygiene or compression garments.

Speaker 2 Wearing tight compression garments for extended periods can help trap moisture and bacteria. Okay, well, anyway, just to, I was shocked.
I got to go out in the world with you, Morrisona.

Speaker 2 I don't see these things when I drive around, but when you drive around, you know, it's a Dr. Seuss world we're in.

Speaker 2 And people were paying good money to have their butts turned into furniture. I mean, this was a shit.
She had a schiferobe hanging off her ass. It was incredible.
It was a, it was a, you know.

Speaker 2 What the hell was that?

Speaker 2 The freaks. There's Sona was playing with, there's a collapsible

Speaker 2 podcast.

Speaker 2 This is the state of the podcast. I mean, this is very indicative of our entire podcast, I would say.
And we're not brand. We're going to have to make this a two-party.

Speaker 2 I wish to say the state of the podcast is strong.

Speaker 4 Well, I wanted to say, next time we see a BBL, we should ask if we can smell the butt. Just like go up to herself.

Speaker 2 I'm so glad we didn't get out when we had the chance to get out. He almost got us out.
The elevator door was almost closed, and you ran in and stopped it for that?

Speaker 2 I just sprayed fart spray in the elevator. So that's great.
Conan O'Brien gets out of a car.

Speaker 4 Hey, you!

Speaker 2 I want to smell your ass! Get over here!

Speaker 2 It's for the podcast.

Speaker 9 All right, part two coming next week.

Speaker 2 Part two coming next week.

Speaker 6 Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonam Ovesian, and Matt Gorley. Produced by me, Matt Gorley.
Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Frost, and Nick Liao.

Speaker 6 Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.
Take it away, Jimmy.

Speaker 6 Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and Mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns.

Speaker 6 Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Kahn.

Speaker 6 You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Cocoa Hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message.

Speaker 6 It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at seriousxm.com/slash Conan.

Speaker 6 And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

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