Stream It Or Skip It?

For her second Netflix stand-up special, Leanne Morgan finds herself in a completely foreign place, navigating newfound fame as a sitcom star on movie sets. But having just turned 60, this comedian from Tennessee wants to remind us all that she’s still a good Christian, a wife, a mother of three, and a grandmother; and she aims to please her husband, whom she only refers to by his full name and to whom she does the titular “unspeakable things” to keep him happy.

The Gist: Morgan earned her first Netflix special, 2023’s I’m Every Woman, off the back of more than 5 million YouTube views of her debut special released for Dry Bar Comedy back in 2018.

The immediate success of I’m Every Woman, which Netflix claims is the most-watched stand-up special globally by any woman since the start of 2023, triggered another deal for two more stand-up specials, plus a sitcom deal which Morgan created with Chuck Lorre and Susan McMartin, and Leanne has been renewed already for a second season. So far this year alone, Morgan also co-starred with Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell in an Amazon Prime rom-com, You’re Cordially Invited, and presented at this year’s Emmys.

Morgan jokes about her experiences on and off of that movie set, and looks back fondly on stories from when her three children were babies.

Her youngest daughter, who tours with her and does her makeup full-time, introduces Morgan to stage for this taping in Wilmington, NC, and Morgan brings the whole family onstage at the end.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Not a special so much as how much we love Reba McEntire, the queen of country music who went on to star in her own sitcom.

Memorable Jokes: Morgan opens with gratitude and more than a bit of humble-pie self-awareness.

“Thank y’all for watching my first Netflix special,” she says. “That changed my life.” But when she watched it back herself (claiming she could only watch it once), all she could wonder was how she had developed “big ol’ Mamaw” breasts; so big she compared just one to the size of Reese Witherspoon’s head. Morgan’s also grateful for co-starring with Witherspoon and Will Ferrell on a major motion picture, although she didn’t quite anticipate gaining even more weight thanks to her introduction to craft services and the loads of down time between filming scenes with which to partake in them. Morgan goes into detail about the toll it took on her, but teases even more: “If I have time I’ll talk about my reflux.” 

Spoiler alert? She does not.

She does dish, however, about saying yes to an invite from the film crew to check out the Clermont Lounge, Atlanta’s oldest and most eclectic strip club. “This is more like Ripley’s Believe It Or Not,” she says, painting a picture of both the strip club’s attendees as well as its dancers. The Christian in her worries if she’ll find Satan in the strip club. The mother in her just wants to launder one of the dancer’s outfits.

Morgan did have a devil of a time trying CBD gummies for the first, and apparently last time.

The second half of this special jumps back in time a whole generation, as Morgan compares her time with her kids to seeing/hearing how her daughter-in-law talks to Morgan’s grandkids.“I think I said some crazy mess,” she confides. After recounting what she thought of J-Lo’s romantic history, Morgan reveals she was a hot mess, too, before she met her future husband, Chuck Morgan at the University of Tennessee. The kind of mess that had her kids’ Christian school praying for her and sending her meatloafs, when all she had done was replacing her IUD.

That’s all because of Chuck Morgan, too. Leanne recalls ways in which she realizes “He’s smart at work. Not at home.” From the clothes he brought her to wear upon leaving a hospital, to misadventures on the ski slopes.

Our Take: Morgan jokes that whenever someone suggests suggests she’ll get comedy material out of an experience she knows it’ll be traumatic.

But her own regular experiences speak another kind of truth to that. When she initially began developing the material for this hour, she took her youngest daughter on the road with her, sharing hotel rooms across Southern California. Why? She blames Chuck Morgan for this. And she says she only sprung for a second room when he decided to visit, because once he arrived on the scene, she knew he’d want her to do “unspeakable things” to please him.

While there’s some shock comedy value in reminding us that Grandma was young once, too, it also sometimes feels as though Morgan is wrestling not only with aging, but also with how her personal power dynamics have or haven’t shifted just as her fame has skyrocketed.

It’s most expressed by the tonal whiplash of the hour.

We start by recognizing how Morgan feels like a fish out of water on both a movie set and in a strip club. Then she’s contrasting that with how she felt as a young mother. In both cases, she’s second fiddle to her husband. His needs always trump hers.

Which might not feel that odd to other women in their 60s and older, having grown up with patriarchal customs. But considering how famous Leanne is now, it’s wild to see her still feel like she must be the good wife, even when she is the star of the show and of the family. When she invites Chuck Morgan and her three kids onstage at the end of the special, he doesn’t get any extra special treatment. He’s just one of the flock.

As Leanne joked earlier upon leaving the Clermont Lounge: “If times get bad, I think I’d be a big deal there.” She’s already a big deal.

Our Call: STREAM IT. I’m even more interested to see and hear where Morgan is coming from in her next special, though.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.