you have people you have an Entourage and a stylist and somebody who does your makeup even if it's your daughter you still have a makeup artist yeah it's impressive thank you I don't want to do the intro can we just start I thought we did oh okay good oh you can include that I don't care okay okay all right you beauty uh you beauty you beauty and I'm telling you ABY and I'm not blowing smoke up your butt you've always been a beauty but it's you're the the best you've ever been my darling your hair color I love you because getting old on TV is not easy well honey you not age one bit your Skin's beautiful your layups have always been pretty um and you your skin is so smooth and honey let your light shine I love you for that thank you get turning 40 uh well I'm 40 I'm almost 43 but turning 40 in the public eye it's like oh gosh this is drooping this is falling I got to get the what's happening it's it's interesting when I turned 40 Chuck Morgan said meet me at the post office on Cedar Blum to get your um passport picture M cuz we had to go on a trip with his company I think to Mexico or somewhere and I had to have a passport and I had cried so hard about turning 40 that my passport pitcher I'm doing this and I'm speckled from crying you know when you cry you have Speckles and because I had to show this passport this weekend in Montreal and I looked at that and I thought I thought that was old oh my Lord if I could tell you anything this is the best time and eat blueberries and salmon don't eat goldfish with that baby in the car with a Diet Coke I know you got a lot on you and you got all them kids but but try to do a good foundation now because in your 50s things start hurting and I and I think it's all that white flour and sugar eight and you say stay away from it stay away from it you don't eat any white flour or sugar yes I do and look at me I'm inflamed night sweats the whole bit a night sweats you know have wear a big tight girdle you are so I need to lose weight because a little woman in the airport the other day said you are so much thinner in person than you are on your Netflix special and I and I know she meant it from a loving place but I thought which I did my head was the size of the beu my breast but anyway okay well okay first of all not true I thought you looked beautiful in your Netflix Special A and B I don't know why anybody thinks that would ever be a compliment when way more people see you on the Netflix series than they do in person like such a backhanded I know people are but she was sweet she had on a capri oh bless her I know she didn't mean it ugly H well of course not okay so we have got to talk about your journey has been so fun to follow for all these years I've worked in Knoxville almost 20 years and so I've know known about you for all these years and always I've seen you perform at charity events and you have made me laugh and just to see you on this National stage has been a joy a true Joy thank you my darling I am so proud of you okay so let's I want to start with the beginning because you have such an interesting story and 2019 was your magic year so talk about literally you were what in 2019 52 52 so you hit your Prime in your 50s mhm so tell me about how it all began how did you get into okay Chuck Morgan and I met at the University of Tennessee and I and let me go back and say this I always in my heart knew I was going to be in Show Business I thought I was going to be a movie star which might happen but I as a little bitty child in Adams Tennessee 500 people on the Kentucky Tennessee border outside of Nashville in my heart I feel like I feel like God revealed it to me that I was going to be in Show Business business and I but then I also would think am I crazy nobody else says talks about this and and I remember going through high school and telling my friends I'm going to Hollywood and um but then I did you know I was a little country kid I didn't know how you know had to go to Second City I was a big fan of site live but I I I could have never I didn't have the guts to say to my parents I'm going to La at 18 I'm going to try to make it you know I mean it that just was I it didn't even cross my mind so so everybody said you're going to go to college or the military and I was like Lord I can't go in the military so I followed at my high school boyfriend the University of Tennessee and we broke up right after we got here um and I really thought oh I'm not going to finish UT I'm going to marry him we're going to farm and uh through you know back and forth at UT and quitting and then I went back to college and I was getting my degree in child and family studies and I really wanted to be a therapist if I wasn't going to be in but in my mind the whole time thinking I'm going to Hollywood but I might be a therapist so I got my degree in ch family studies Crisis Intervention counseling I met Chuck Morgan who's from moristown Tennessee and I always want to be a mama and a Hollywood movie star but I um married him having every intention of having babies but in my mind thinking but I'll be in h but I'm going to do Show Business and so we moved to Bean Station Tennessee we were in our 20s he bought a used mobile home business that refurbished mobile homes in Bean Station behind the post office moved me there and I am a people person it was very difficult for me I didn't know anybody he worked all the time I had his own business my friend in Nashville said I'm selling this jewelry like Mary Kay and Tupperware it's called Premier Jewelry you would be wonderful at it land you'll meet people and you can make a little money and because I by then I got pregnant with Charlie my oldest who's going to be 30 this year and I wanted to nurse him and stay at home so I started selling jewelry and I didn't even care about jewelry and I started selling jewelry for this company out of Dallas and I and I had my host party where I invited all my friends from church and I was you know pitting out and a denim I wore a denim shirt with a skirt and a WRA skirt and I had a Spiel I was supposed to tell and then people were going to book parties from that and then that's how it got going well and I was so nervous and all that but I know that I probably used humor in it but I booked parties well I started booking like a year in advance women thought I was funny cuz i' I'd go to somebody's house and and schlep this big case and I'd put it out on the card table and they were like 1999 ear rings and I think who doesn't love a 1999 ear ring and yeah not real yeah and somebody make a damp in a brownie and we would have a ball and and then I would get up and I was supposed to be talking about jewelry and I would talk about breastfeeding and hemorrhoids and all that and women thought I was funny and the and a girl named Carmen who I'm still good friends with pee peed on a couch one night and I am not kid she got so tickled she Ted and I in my mind that was a God moment where it was like okay you got it she just peed on this couch you could go you could do stand up I'd always L stand up when I said I want to be in Hollywood I'm not kidding my mama would keep me home from kindergarten she' go is your stomach hurt I go yeah she goes let's watch Hollywood Squares let's watch Match Game she loved it too she loved comedy television film and she would say you're going to be a movie star and she would and she would say this you're you're going to be Maran row because you've got blonde hair on your body and that photographs well in my mind I thought oh makes sense that makes sense but anyway she would keep me home and let me watch all that Paul ly all these people and I um I'm sorry I got off on a tangent oh but so anyway I'm back I've always loved it and I Harman peed and you were like kman P and and I can go back to times where I thought I've got something I can do it I can do it I don't know how but I can do it but that was one of the moments where I thought all right I I really I have something the company noticed started asking me to speak at their big things like at opland hotel regional thing I'd be in front of all women I'd breastfeed by then I had Maggie my middle one who's 27 I remember breastfeeding Maggie in a toilet in Ary Land Hotel then handing her to my mama and then going on stage and I was supposed to be talking about how I was getting books so far in advance but I got up there and told jokes and then women came up to me at that thing and said you need to be a stand up and that gave me the the strength and the encouragement okay I can do it I don't know how but I can do it so I started doing around moristown Tennessee like I would go do the rotary I'd do something for the rotary and to drop my kids off at preschool or whatever and then um I got pregnant with my third baby by then I couldn't be sing all that jewelry with three babies and my husband sold went to work for a big company Clayton Homes manufactured housing the biggest in the United States and they moved us to San Antonio Texas and I had a comedy club for the first time but I had been I had done a comedy club in Nashville I had opened for Billy Gardell Billy Gardell uh Mike and Molly and I'm sorry I got a hair stuck to something and he um I had a ball and Brian Dorfman who owns Zanies in Nashville who is huge in comedy still to this day and a good friend of mine said Ling I think you you got something but you've got three babies and there's no way you can do this traditional like go work in comedy clubs every week you're not going to get to raise your own children if you do that and it made me mad and I but he was right he was right and I thought okay I'll just find another way so I moved to San Antonio got a there was a comedy club I started doing I did open mate one time and they mve me up to opener and um and then there was a comedy club down the road in Austin Texas called Cap City Comedy Club was one of the best comedy clubs in the United States Rich Miller owned it who was Dennis Miller from serut live brother his their other brother's Jimmy Miller who has will frell Ellen degenerous all these people they sent my CD I had my first CD that I shot in a mobile home park in Halls a picture of me holding a baby in front of a trailer and um and they sent it to Jimmy and I got my first still with ABC and Warner Brothers for a sitcom Paula deine was going to play My Mother by then we had moved back to Knoxville and I was on tour with the southern fried chicks and it was me and two other female comedians and we we worked the Tennessee theater and came through here but anyway that was things were happening for me like I all I couldn't do comedy clubs like traditional stand-ups do but things were happening for me and I got signs that you know I've got something how old were you I was 38 in San Antonio and just turning you know probably 40 when I came back here we came back here in 2004 but you're in the middle of probably the busiest part of your life with kids oh babies and doing and activities and school pickups and all the stuff and my husband traveled all over by then he had been promoted to come back to Knoxville that's why we came back and he was over a fourth of the United States for Clayton Holmes so he traveled Monday through Thursday or Tuesday through Friday so I was the one that picked them up and did all that so I tried to do like you talk about we would be together at events and stuff I had to do I wanted to do well I they thank God for Knoxville hiring me to do things that I could do around just to keep my foot in it my toe in it and your Creative Juice is Flowing it probably it fulfilled something in you yes and knowing that I I did work like five clubs a year but I just could not go out on the road and not raise my own children I didn't want that I couldn't I mean women have done it and it's and it's been really hard on them and I didn't want to do that I wanted to raise my children but I kept it just burned inside me keep going keep going and then I got while I was here Nick at Knight's funniest mom picked to do that I didn't win I'm always the bridesmaid never the bride I didn't win got I got uh runner up but I always had things like that happening from Hollywood and things that kept me encouraged to keep going you were on live at five a lot too honey y'all are the ones that let me come on and my kids I would pick them up from school I'd go take them we go to WB I'd say get get yourself a Dr Pepper and some popcorn down in the basement you know there was an there was a treadmill or an electrical machine I'd say don't get on it the dungeon they're not going to let us back if y'all get on that and they would I couldn't do a thing with my they were the only ones who ever got on that treadmill but they had a ball they were like oh Mom's on WB and and I look back I've got those tapes I've got somebody sent them to me and sweet Mora K I never said Mora right that angel had have me on Beth Russell my little Todd he you know I went to church with Todd and his kids went to school with mine sweet Todd y'all were like my family and kept me I felt like I was doing big things cuz y'all would let me come on and I just talk out of my head well and everybody loved you I remember when you showed up to that charity event it was I can't even remember what it was for I think the butterfly fund and you did a whole thing and I was like I we you had I have a Vera surgery repair is that that one yes and you had that whole place cracking up I think it was about raising teenage girls too you were so awesome thank you and I mean I just kept thinking God Le she's got to just hit it big at some point it's got to be she's got to go National at some point and you you seem to always be just there yeah had I always I had four I've had four television deals for sitcoms with huge writers and showrunners and all that I'd be going back and forth to LA and then you know getting to my kids and pickup line but I I on the national scene as far as like selling tickets I could not sell tickets and which is crazy to me you could hear at the beu sweet Tom bug that books the beu in the Tennessee theater because I've known him for a hundred years would let me come here before here there was s Splitters I remember Sid Splitters it was Comedy Zone and then it was Sid Splitters Comedy Zone they wouldn't have much to do with me I was a mom you know it just wasn't he Comedy Central was big Comedy Central wouldn't take me they you know they wanted young edgy guys or or women that were you know kind of nasty and I just did not fit and you so I got a lot of rejection a lot of rejection but then s Splitters came in and I got to tell this story cuz s Splitters that by the time s Splitters came in there that kitchen had a grease fire every time that I went the law would have to come the fire department it would get so hot in there the air conditioner would and you you would just slide across the floor in Hills trying to get to the green room because it was greas but the man that booked that said to my manager in La um yeah we'll have her like he begged let ly come she's she might have a following in Knoxville because of WB so they he books me and gives me some unbelievable door deal and thinking I'm not going to sell any tickets sweetful people came out sold that weekend out that man had to give me a lot of money he was so mad he said to my maner all those Christian people came in here and drank all the Diet Coke and I was like well I bet they were sweet people came in here and they were not the kind to get in the parking lot and get drunk and fight and the law come like other people attracted but anyway from then on I never got that Dell again but um but that closed down and then sweet Tom I don't know how it came about but he let me come to the beu and every year I would torment him and say how many tickets have I sold do you think I'm I'm selling out like I'd literally be out here on the street barking come to my show promise I'm funny and y'all would let me come on wvr all the radio howerin everybody would let me come at wik and try to sell those tickets and I always sold out but it'd be the last day you know and then in okay so jump forward to 2019 I'm at a restaurant in Knoxville with Chuck Morgan crying having a crisis saying it's not going well you know that nobody cares about me I'm going I'm going to open up a mertile and sell canning goods and I'm going to have a cheese a big cheese wheel some rocking chairs some rocking chairs and we and like maybe sell pocket knives and we can all just I'll just Dazzle people as they come in went are you crazy and first you know Chuck is an NBA you don't know how to run a business it wasn't thinking about the artistic I mean I think it would kill anyway he goes that ly it you and I go well and I knew I was going to have a grandbaby Charlie got married right out of college and I knew I was going to be a Grandmama and I'm from the country so grandmas take care of their grandbabies and I thought I'll just have my grandbabies and I'll bow out of this thing but it kept burning in me and my my manager at the time said Dry Bar is they're doing specials dry bar is a platform online that the people started in Salt Lake City and he said they want you nobody's ever heard of it he goes it's not going to cuz I couldn't get Netflix or anything like that he goes with it's they're doing comedy specials with clean comedians nobody will ever see it nobody cares but we'll get film and try to get you more shows okay that week that I shot that special I was doing the debuk Chamber of Commerce luncheon that's how bad my career was going which I love the people debuk I don't want to talk about debuk cuz they're beautiful people I don't know where those people come from it's stunning but anyway I was doing the debut Chamber of Commerce lunch in that's how bad things were going and he said Dry Bar wants you to shoot a special you're going to be out west anyway they're going to pay you a couple of thousand dollar we'll never see it again but we'll get we'll get um clips from it and you get more Chamber of Commerce luncheons and I just thought my life is over anyway I buy an outfit and I go out there and I shoot that special and I he said just do old material that that's not anywhere that nobody has seen because but you know people used to tell me oh the internet you need to social media and I just could not wrap my mind around how important it was going to be and um I had you know a few followers on Facebook my my personal page I was putting up pictures of dochin you know I didn't know what I was doing so he says go out here and do this special so I did it we didn't think of think it took a long time for it to come out they put it on Facebook 50 million views now and but at the time I thought um I mean I could not sell tickets it came out it was doing really well I got a bunch of fans on Facebook maybe like 25,000 fans and so my manager triying to call around and get me booked in clums I did a few clums could not sell tickets they they said we love her she doesn't get drunk and fight in the parking lot cuz a lot of comedians get drunk and fight in the parking lot but we're not going to have her back she can't sell tickets and that's that's when I went to dinner with Chuck and cried and said I'm getting a cheese wh okay so then it's a lot of rejection a lot of rejection and even selling even having millions of views online did not translate to ticket sales so I and if you can't put butts in seats it's up I mean you I mean at my age yeah at my I mean it's just a nightmare you know and I didn't my children were grown but I didn't want to get out and start doing the club circuit at my age and do all that and not be able to sell tickets and so um so the dry bar thing did not translate into tickets well but it did give me some money not a lot of money but it gave me enough money to kind of invest in myself over 25 years I'd had like two two or three head shot made like if I made money at the butterfly fund I went and bought my kids uniforms I got their haircut I never put it back into myself I didn't have a website I mean I don't know what I thought I was doing well Chuck wouldn't let you probably Chuck Morgan too was like yeah but um and he Pro and he would say you're not saving for your taxes I have to pay your ta I mean you know it was like a like L's little cooky hobby really yeah and cuz I I I was taking it seriously in my mind but I didn't really have a business model or anything and I had a manager but he didn't bless his heart he didn't know so anyway um but he was sweet okay so I take a little bit of that money from drar and I I had been watching Nate bargi who I love it's a good friend of mine Jim gaffan all these people I admired and they were selling out theaters and I I wanted that and I thought what are they doing so I I told my manager I said they've got somebody doing their social media I need somebody to do my social media he goes you can't afford it you you you don't need to be doing he didn't understand he knew less than I did and I just went against him and I took a gamble on myself and I hired these two boys out of Plano Texas two young guys that are you know close to age my children and it was a fluke I found them I think it was a God thing and they got me I I thought in my mind I'm I'm going to give it three months cuz it's very expensive I'm going to give it three months and if nothing happens I know that's God telling me I'll just start cooking Pitto beans and a house dress and I'll tend to all these grandchildren okay and I'll bow out and I'll be okay and then and and M they started in October 2019 we were moving my baby into uh apartment in Brooklyn New York she was going to school for makeup for television and film and they put out one clip of me talking about taking chunk Morgan to go see de leopard and journey at Thompson Bowling Arena and how everybody looked sick and old and everybody had pled Fus and it started going viral and I and I and I remember we were getting suitcases out of a tiny hotel room in in Brooklyn and I said to my family I think something's happening and everybody went shut up the uers here and I and they just didn't real I and I felt it Abby I felt a wave of something happening and I would you know throughout the day I mean I was you know cleaning her apartment and you know getting her uh Dawn dishwashing pods and I was you know trying to get her moved in but I would look and I would think it was being shared thousands of times and people that that I think that blew me up I'm not kidding people saw that and thought who is that and what else does she have so then they started looking at everything else I had and so all of a sudden I I mean within I don't even know how long I should have journaled weeks maybe two or three weeks Comedy Club start calling over the United States who is that can we get her we're getting calls to see her so I started selling out all over the United States people lined up trying they're trying to add shows it was the craziest thing I I started working places I never worked before and and you were like this is what I've been waiting for yes and let me tell you this I didn't have an agent and nobody wanted to take me they be my manager at the time begged people to take me and they' pass me up and I was selling out and I don't know if they looked and thought she's 52 this is a fluke I think a lot of them thought she's one of these people that's doing digital like a character and she is not really a standup they didn't know I'd been doing it for 20 years so I I think think they thought it's a fluke and um they wouldn't sign me and my manager finally got somebody to take me as a um as a favor and he started booking me all over the United States and and then I got um 100 City Tour offer from Outback concerts out of Nashville that's the biggest comedy Bookers I mean or promoters in the world and I got my first 100 City deal in theaters like Tennessee theater, 1500 seats to 2 200 seats and um I mean it was just crazy and then and they'd already like started selling tickets started putting them on sale and selling out and but Dar if Co didn't hit and that shut it down and I sat and rung my hands and thought the biggest thing's ever happened to me it's not going to happen and then but I started getting on the back porch doing video like everybody else sitting there cooking a chicken casserole and I just would you know no makeup looking like a pig J bird I get on the back of the porch and say well I've cooked a chicken Cass roll and I drank a glass of wine in my home you know normally I didn't do that I mean we all did you know terrible unhealthy things freaked out and I had elderly parents that were my mom was sick and I was helping take care of her and I'd drive back and forth and I would talk about taking care of care my mom and she at the time she had had a stroke couldn't eat solid foods so I would talk about making her a jello salad because that's what my people have always had it you know cuz I'm from the country and and people would send me jello salad recipes for my mama soup um casseroles and and let me tell you and I don't mean to get sappy but that's when things I knew something this was I mean yes I knew I had a h 100 City Tour and I was you know unbelievable but during that I saw I don't know what I went from on Facebook maybe 450,000 followers to 1 point8 million maybe I don't even know but it was um a community it became a community of people mamas seeing my children me talk about my El taking care of elderly little mom and daddy cuz how many people are going through that and then trying to raise your own children or launch your own children and and I would say to people people everything's going to be all right about the co and people felt I guess comforted by me and my voice and that that's that built it even bigger what I thought was going to squish it and it was not going to happen because of Co made it bigger well it gave you a real opportunity to use what you were already building on and that connection and the humor and what we were all dealing with you provided some joy to people's lives in a in a time that really was not joyful thank you Abby and I really I really was just you know my social media little guys that were so precious would say well I mean can you do some kind of content you can't do stand up so I would you know every once a while I cook a recipe or my baby all right she had graduated from that big fancy television and film school had gotten her first movie with Sony they had to shut it down so she had to move in with us after living in and going to school in Manhattan she had to live with us and but she's a wonderful cook and a wonderful makeup artist so she would do makeup videos on me and stuff like that they would go viral because people just sitting there and didn't have anything else to do and so and so all these middle-aged women you know named Deborah are are texting TS or messaging her what I do for concealer I feel like my under eyes creepy so then TS was you know tending to all these people but it became like a big community of best friends it really did and it was more SP than anything I ever thought about and it was more than comedy and entertainment it really was it just happened to be that thing in time and and people felt like I was their friend I you could be my best friend you could be my mom you could be my you know Sister well you say thanks all the all the stories you have I just I relate to so much and I you know I'm not I'm not with the older kids yet but all of it reminds me of like good old Americana like life oldfashioned stories like that are are real and they're they're not gross and it's not some kind of like awful form of Comedy it's like things that we can all relate to well thank you my darling and I get that all the time and I get that I'm not political people enjoy that you know that everybody's so tired and worn out and the world seems like it's coming to an end people don't want to talk about that anymore I don't think I mean my audience says thank you for not being political thank you for not you know being uncomfortable and and I knew something special was going on when I was doing the comedy clubs before Co hint there would be like an 85y old little woman with a little brooch in the front row who you know has never been to a comedy club before and it so it would be like generational it' be like an 80-year-old mom her 50y old daughter her 25y old daughter the generations you have Mass Appeal it was that and that was special and those Comedy Club people said to me the managers where have you been and when can you come back because they had never seen that before and um and they could all relate and they didn't have to be embarrassing for their Grandmama you know it was just yeah so that was special so then Netflix comes calling was this like the the mecca I mean is this this is the biggest deal yeah I me two 100 city tours which have now you've done one you I did one the big panty tour and I was talking about my panties we had a ball talking about my panties I love that you love comfortable underwear same not to get too in depth same well and when in outb concerts had a had a meeting with me to tell me they were going to give me this 100 City Tour and I was shaking and i' known those men for 20 years and theyve all been in my corner but I was still just like what and and there's young girls on their marketing team uh young women that are you know in their 20s and 30s and they said what do you want to call this thing I said I think I want to call it the big peny to her cuz and I just said you know I like a comfortable peny and I feel like I'm talking about my panties a lot in my a and and one of the young girls took a deep breath and she went I get it and I thought okay if she gets it then you know I don't think I'll turn men off I don't I hope I don't because I love men and I I want them to be able to I didn't want them to think oh this is some big you know all girls night because it's really dark why is she promoting big underwear we really yeah so I didn't I thought I was worried I thought is that going to be all right what is you know but it turned out it was all right and okay so well I go all over the country talking about all kinds of things but some of it my big panties and women brought big panties that looked like it could fit on the hood of a car I don't know where they buy them like four women standing in them and they and people throw stuff at me blow kisses at me it was so it blew my mind and it kind of messed with me I kind of had imposter syndrome and I kind of thought I'm not worthy of this people are so good to me and we love you ly and we want we you're you're speaking for us and we want you to win you're you know you're but women you can do that and and that kind of messed with me I thought I'm not worthy so I went through all that and then um my people kept trying to sell Netflix and it you know and they they didn't turn me down but it but it wasn't you know they weren't like oh yeah yeah yeah yeah we'll do her that so I thought um maybe I put it on YouTube by myself which is people are doing that it's a great yeah it's great for people but I wanted that Netflix that's the stamp of approval if you get Netflix that is like you're legit that's the bomb and they kept you know talking to Netflix and so so anyway Netflix bought it or well I produced it I own it but I leased it to Netflix that's the deals people are doing now and I and they want to shoot it in Lexington Kentucky and I uh we sold out five shows they they filmed the last two and um and it has really done well well it's done great talk about your viewership members well it's it dropped April the 11th it's called I'm Every Woman and um it I have been I have stayed in the top six but I I've hovered around four kind of De now I'm back at 4: I mean who knows how long it'll but I'm the top woman of this year I guess since uh in viewership maybe since 2021 over Amy Schumer over Chelsea Handler big comedians who I'm huge fans w l who's hilarious and has been around forever I mean that has to be like a holy moly holy moly yes um yes I mean I and like um it's you know getting a lot of Buzz Netflix wants me to do another one and I was just in a Comedy Festival the biggest Comedy Festival in the world uh just for laughs in Montreal Canada and you know Netflix was there and they're precious to me I said oh am I going to get like Mari Carey and I my feet can't even touch the ground cuz they I don't know if they think she's feeble we've got a walker through the streets I don't know they all hold on to me but I think this is what it is I don't want to like downplay my talent or anything cuz I'm bad about you know self-deprecating but I think I just I've hit a niche that they have ignored and they admitted like people out in the middle of the United States that you know moms just women of a certain age we have neglected them and they realized they needed you know that I had gotten this Niche with this big tour and and they wanted to be a part of that and it has paid off well Hollywood is is notorious for for getting women at the age of 40 I believe I think it's 40 like women just kind of but there's a lot of women that are proving that them wrong in that department and I feel like movie studios have taken notice there's a lot of TV shows with older women there's a lot of uh reality shows with older women I mean it really seems like they're catching on finally instead of just shoving women away when they turn a certain age I think so and I think what do I know but I think Jennifer Aniston palro they're all talking about menopause they're all you know in their Martha Stewart for goodness sake was on in sports illustrator uhhuh with Snoop doll looking great looking wonderful and you think of um Jane Fonda and Lily Tom all the movies Netflix Frankie graceon Frankie is one of the top shows so yeah I think they're all realizing yeah and and but but the people in the United States of America they forget about the East Co they want you know they I think a lot of times they go what does the East Coast want in the uh New York and LA but there's a lot of people out here in the middle of the United States who just you know want to see their children do well and they want to you know send their kids to college and they they want to know what to cook and they just are normal everyday people they want to wear big underwear they want to Bear wear a big penny that goes over your stomach that's a good microfiber you know these women need you you provide joy and hope and love and happiness it's I mean we need we all need you in our lives thank you little ABY you Angel honey you got the World by the tail but you know life is hard it kicks you in the teeth this world's rough and I do think that um people need humor and people want you know lighthearted yes you can find comedians that want to talk about politics and and that's great but that's just not what I do what's been the most amazing part of this journey of going truly National selling out clubs hitting Netflix all of these things the B the biggest moment well here in Knoxville Tennessee the biggest moment I just did the Knoxville Civic Auditorium and sold out two Arena shows that was a big deal that you know and they're saying I'm going to be in some Arenas you know hopefully next tour um an arena tour but that was a big moment what's an arena how many people um probably about five to 7,000 so when before you were looking for, 1500 to 2500 now you're looking at even like a lot more yeah cuz right now I'm like I'm still I'm working a lot of Tennessee theater capacity anywhere from like 1,500 to 4,000 but they're adding second and third shows so I could do Arenas in these T but they're trying to figure out I've got the most unbelievable touring team that that looks at like what is she doing in Atlanta Fox Theater too so that's 8,000 tickets so then next time we'll put her here so right now I mean there's some Arenas in this one but um but the biggest thing the biggest thing was all right I was work in a casino in Bethlehem Pennsylvania and then I was headed down to hey hyra Georgia to do a a I still do private events every once in a while what have time for but I was you know they work you like a mual let me tell you this when when things are hot those Hollywood people work you like a meal so they're like we got to go go go so I was going going going and they called and they go okay L this is weird but Reese Witherspoon and will frell want you to do a table read for a Nick Stoler movie and I I go what is a table read I didn't know what they were talking about and they go we're going to have to reroute you from Pennsylvania and go out to LA I was there for less than 24 hours you know shaking B what and they sent me the script and they wanted me to read for ree Witherspoon's big sister and I and I I went to high school with a boy I graduated 42 people and I was in speech and drama and I just happen to have a lot of talent to people in my class for to be all these country kids there was a there was four boys that had a little country music Bank that did pretty well and got a record deal and then they ended up they all dispersed and went to college and got married and all that but one of them went to juliard and is an actor that's been in movies and television oh my gosh and his daddy was my Methodist Minister and they were Dairy Farmers but anyway I called my David my best I mean I I grew up with him and I said David what's a table read and he had to walk me through and he went what you're doing a table read were you with Will frell and I walk in yes I walk into hello sunshine Reese with spoons production company and they've got bagels and of course grainfree things because people in Hollywood don't eat grain and they had all these producers Nick Stoler who did Forgetting s Marshall Bros all these wonderful movies and he's standing there and his production partner and all these writers and all these producers and then they've got our scrips and it's uh elevated like this one down here and they've got my character and then people in the back and it's all these actors and people from s not live and all these and some people made it some people got the part some people didn't and I and will frell walks in little ree Witherspoon all right Reese and I met at a cma's Afterparty before coid nobody knew who I was my friend snuck me in my shoes were killing me they were too tight I was I met Reba McIntyre her fny is the size of my two fast I I was going around and they they were like is she here to dust but I met little ree Witherspoon and she we locked eyes and I said my mom's had a stroke cuz my mom just had a stroke at vanderville and she went what happened to your mom and she truly wanted to know and we held on to each other and we bonded and so during the pandemic she started following me and would say little things and my people would do like a Jello-O contest on my social media what's your favorite jello salad she'd pick the pink one Legally Blonde and um and she would message me back and forth you know and um and really like read like shared my podcast at the time and very sweet to me but that but that's where you know it left it and then so she's the one that said I bet she could play my sister and she knew I had a Netflix special coming out so I read for that thing and I I think I did some things well some things I think I sounded like hello my name is Leanne and I am going but anyway I laugh there's a script involved right and I I I didn't even know how to read a script like I didn't know when because they say you know the door's open the lights are on du D du I didn't even know am I supposed to say that who is saying that but anyway I get in the in the car and I go to the Head airport and I think you know what God I know it's up to you whatever you want I don't I don't know this is crazy get on a plane next to machine Gun Kelly what my kids I text my kids and I go I think I next to Machine Gun Kelly I was on my way to Atlanta then had to get in a rental car drive myself to a town called hihara Georgia which they were precious but I I in in t goes no way Mom he doesn't fly commercial I go well does he have a size 16 shoe and he's got things hanging out of his eyebrows I think this is Machine Gun Kelly and it was and we had a wonderful no but I said to him I go cuz I was sitting right next to him I said Megan Fox is from Oak Ridge and I'm from Knoxville Tennessee and I can't believe that her body looks like that with three little babies he goes oh my gosh I'm going to tell her you said that that'll make her feel good and I thought does Megan Fox have low self-esteem do I need to mother her but anyway he was and I said I just did a table ring with Will willf far and re with he went what that's sick and he was he was reading he was doing a cameo in a film in Atlanta cuz so much is filmed in Atlanta and he was reading for that anyway I bonded with machinga Kelly anyway it was just a crazy like 48 hours and I drove down to hyra Georgia and they were darling and and I just the whole time thinking there's no way I'm getting that there's no way that I'm going to get that and like two weeks go by and I'm on the road and I think I land in Evansville Indiana and um I get an Uber with a a little mama who's driving Uber and you know I put my foot in a dirty diaper and my agent calls and says you got it and you could tell he was just as shocked I mean they were all cuz now I got like 25 people you know on different management and they were all going oh my Lord Lan you got it and so they had to move my I had I already started my new tour just getting started tour a whole new Hunter City tour which let me say this Vanity Fair has partnered with me because I was talking about my panties Vanity Fair sent me a bunch of panties and bras loved them and they said we would like to partner with you um to help women get started in whatever they want to do so they have got they have got these like scholarships seed money and so many women have applied and are if they want to you know go back to college if they want to start up business if they want to go start be a yoga instructor whatever in their this age in their life if they want to you know anybody 30 to I don't even know if they've got an age limit on it but if they want to get started with something in their life cuz it's never too late and they look at me and think you know who would have thought this would happen to me and I'm 57 years old any it so the just getting start I named it that because I feel like I'm just getting started and so they wanted to partner with me to give women money to get things is that not the sweetest thing you've ever so we're going to that during this tour there will be stops like Sugarland Texas I think and maybe Nashville at the ryen they're going to give women bring these women up and we're going to tell their story and give them money to get started I know it's this is all so much sweeter and more special than anything it's more than comedy it really is it makes me want to cry I get out there and I look out and they and they stand up and and give me a St Ovation before I've ever started they blow me kisses there's women holding signs that say I just got through chemo I'm now just getting started you know I mean it's just a lot it's there it's it's better and sweeter than anything I could have imagined and it's not about me it's really not about me and I know that it is about them feeling heard and and joy and feeling you know like somebody's speaking to them and I'm just very lucky that I got to be the one you know to break through maybe on Netflix you know for more maybe more acts that are like me or you know that are just these you know female comedians out in the middle of the United stat you know that are that talk about just normal things but anyway didn't mean to get all that change so I get this movie and now of course writer strike his own and sag um strikes but we we got it wrapped before that ever happened and I shot in Atlanta and I had a ball I didn't know what I was doing every day and Rees Witherspoon are they great Precious Precious Rees is the size of this Apple watch and she I feel like I held her like a baby by the time it was over cuz she's so tired she's got so much on her she does look tired I mean she I think she is human she gets tired but you talk about somebody going and doing and and her mind working the whole time you can tell that little thing is brilliant and her her mind's working the whole time like this could be a business this could be a I mean and raising a family and I mean it's unbelievable she's unbelievable but precious lifted me up like Le you can do this this is I mean she believed in me and wanted to lift me up that's sweet I know and Will frell was Precious Precious well I have no doubt he's so lovable very kind spirit I was very intimidated he and he made me feel like you deserve to be here was precious and we hope to do more things in the future talking about hopefully when this strikes over about doing more but his middle child was on set and for a little while and and just a sweet sweet kid you can tell has been R sweet and I mean they're just very kind people it's all it is to it Nick Stoler precious to me I I I I think I said a couple of times I was so intimidated do y'all want me to like dust this say it do you want me to vacuum cuz they built a you know under it's unbelievable what they do and they were like no l we don't need you to dust but I just felt so you know like I had this is what I feel like and my my second runner showrunner for my second sitcom deal was Matt Williams that created Rosanne and Home Improvement who we have stayed close friends our show didn't make it but you talking about somebody one of the most prolific people in television history and he said he was from um I think he was raised in Evansville Indiana and didn't come for money or anything like that and all this happened for him and now he gives to so much charity he builds schools in Haiti and you know he has a board of people that run all that money and he said this is what I feel like and this is and I know exactly what now what he means you know when you go to the county fair or the Tennessee fair and you can play games and there's a little ducks in the water and it's got a number on the bottom of it and you pick up if you get the right number you get a big old stuffed animal I feel like God has said picked up this duck and said it's you L it's your turn it's you you win you win I mean because AB I'm telling you after doing comedy for 23 years and I didn't know think I would get emotional but you know you're my friend and we've known each other a long time but but I think this hitting for me at in my 50s because I just watched Burke ker at 50 get the standup comedian of of the Year award in just for last Comedy Festival and um there were people from the office there and there were movie stars there and they were giving these Awards and he cried so hard he could not get his breath he could barely get out to thank you and he and I talked about it afterwards this hiton at this age I think it you realize how few people make it in Show Business you know it's like professional athlet it's like you know it's you know kids grow up and I'm going to be in the NFL how many people make it to the NFL it's like that and and I think I appreciate it so much more that because I know how this is so unusual and I'm so lucky and it's and I'm not the most talented and I'm not all that but I have been given this at this point in my life after getting to raise my children I got to have both worlds you know a lot of people in Hollywood don't you know a lot of women don't have children cuz they're trying to work on their career career and all that but I got to do that I got to raise them and they're I didn't raise them in LA and they're who they're supposed to be you know they wouldn't have if those television shows had made it they would not be the people they are today so that was God's protection over me but um but it I realized that with this happening to me at this point in my life what a gift and if this had happened to me at 30 and I had to sustain this or I had to I was not right in my head then I could not have I don't think would have appreciated it I don't I think I would have who knows what would have happened to me I don't know my kids wouldn't have been the same it just this was the best timing it was God's timing and it was so much better than what I thought I thought I was going to hit it the sitcoms in my you know at 40 when I was younger and thinner and you know it just wasn't that was not I was not ready it was not supposed to happen but and and this was the best thing that could have ever happened happen this timeing it's amazing so what's next I mean you're just the the next tour is just getting started you have a book coming I've got you know more of those cities this fall is 65 shows between August December I have a book coming out next year called what in the world that will be another tour they think you know if I find a nurse to go with me with an IV sack then um I hope television and movies they're telling me that I liked it I liked it and and Me growing up in the 80s 70s and 80s to me when I got started I thought and in my mind I thought a sitcom star that's that's the Ray Romano Roseanne you know all that was by the Tim Allen of success now television's changed so much you know network television people you know they don't it's all so deluded and split up because of streaming and all that so I mean I would like to do a television series I think I want to do movies you got the bug I think I got the bug I think I got the bug and then they talk to me about voice over you know stuff because and I think oh my voice is not pretty but there's something about it that must be trustworthy so maybe kind that kind of stuff but um but yeah the touring's going well they you know they a like that's just going up you know praise God who knows what's going to happen if it all stopped tomorrow I I've got two grandbabies three precious children I've had a ball you know I I never this is anything from here on is icing on the cake cuz I never it it has been so much sweeter and better than anything I ever dreamed of that that I if it if honey I need to buy a motel in Townson and get a cheese wh you know and Dazzle have maybe a little mertile have you know things you can camp with food items pancake mix cheers you know redo a little Motel it's on yeah there's a swimming pool little din that's always your backup plan that's always my backup cuz I waited tables here in Knoxville at the grades that's where I met Chuck Morgan where he started stalking to me I've always love food service I always thought you know I could have a hot dog stand always thought I could pop popcorn at NASCAR I've always thought that was a fun job you know I've got backup is what I'm saying I've got other things I can do you're amazing thank you this was such a pleasure thank you my precious Abby and you know right and I texted you the other day I was watching you I watch you when I'm home and I and I told you I you are more beautiful than I've ever seen you you are and I hope that you look at me in the eyes and receive this when I was your age I thought oh you know this is time is passing by and is dripping yes and it's not and when you look and I need to think that at my age cuz when I get to be 70 something I'll go man you were a beauty at 57 L you your fanny wasn't that bad you should have been wearing small underwear you should have been wearing tiny little hateful evil panties no I will never go back to a tiny evil Penny unless it's something you know biblical haben in at home that needs to happen for choke Morgan but I um but I hope you realize this is a wonderful time my darling I know you got alone you got a bunch of little children and you're going to wake up one day and they're going to be you're not going to be in that car with anybody but yourself but I remember just being in a car all the time and there was a lot of snacks a lot of crying but but that'll you know that'll go by and so I know you're taking advantage of every day but you do you have to live every day and find the joy in it that day you know and then 52 will come and 52 will come things and there will be some hot flashes and there will be some you know what is happening to me but that's all good too see I got two grandbabies now you talking about yummy my mom says they're way better than kids and I and I worship my children and I'm in love with them this is a whole another love my grand my two and a half year-old said to me the other day I was in my gown and he was walking me up my stairs he's two and a half and he wi hold on Grandmama and I thought he thinks I'm feeble but I don't care I was just like I hope he thinks I'm r car and I you know my feet can't touch the ground but anyway I'm having a ball with them yeah it's all wonderful my darling I'm so proud of you thank you it's awesome we're done you're good
