‘Leanne Morgan: Unspeakable Things’ Review – The Most Likable Comedian in the World
Leanne Morgan is so southern that it can sometimes feel like a joke in itself, like someone doing a very exaggerated impression that, if it were an impression, would probably be too silly to be believed. But as Morgan points out during her second Netflix special, Unspeakable Things, she’s from a town of 500 people on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. She’s from “farming people”. This isn’t a character, it’s all her, and it’s a huge part of the reason why she’s the most likable working comedian in the world right now.
And the world is catching up to this, it seems. Morgan has been in the stand-up game a long time, but it isn’t too long since she was catapulted into the mainstream with her first Netflix special, I’m Every Woman, and then her eponymous sitcom, Leanne. Her third special on the streamer is already in the pipeline, since the Big N knows a banker when it sees one (the special-sitcom-special blueprint having been deployed to great effect with Shane Gillis in the one-two punch of Beautiful Dogs and Tires. Another special will surely follow, but in the meantime, Matt McCusker filled the gap.)
I love Leanne Morgan. I don’t know her, obviously, but I feel like I do, and that’s her appeal. She embodies the homely vibe of an older aunt you don’t see very often but always treasure, or that friend’s mother — never your own, for some reason — who seems impossibly caring and reassuring, like she has everything under control. It’s an impossible-to-fake demeanour. And while she obviously leans into it, it’s clearly natural. One gets the sense that the bulk of Morgan’s material revolves around her family because her life continues to revolve around her family, however globally famous she might be becoming.
Morgan’s “baby daughter”, for instance, is her full-time makeup artist and travels with her. Her husband, Chuck Morgan — always referred to by his full name — comes up repeatedly, but never with any qualifiers such as “My husband, Chuck.” He’s just Chuck Morgan. We’re all expected to know that. And we do, intuitively. After a while, his money-saving exploits on trips to California and ski slopes feel like a typical quirk of someone we know personally. So does his fondness for hotel hanky-panky, which is what the special takes its name from. Morgan’s acknowledgement of having to do “unspeakable things” for the sake of keeping the peace in her marriage is the most risque things get, which works for Morgan. And thank goodness for that. This isn’t a social-issues special. And while there’s a strong theme of motherhood running throughout, Morgan doesn’t pretend like having children is something only she has ever experienced.
Morgan was in Prime Video’s You’re Cordially Invited with Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell, but her experiences on-set are relayed only through anecdotes about how much food she ate and the size of Witherspoon’s head relative to one of her boobs. Fame doesn’t seem to be changing her. In fact, she seems grateful for the opportunity to be herself on bigger stages; all the better to share her experiences in Atlanta’s most iconic landmarks — the Clermont Lounge, the city’s first and longest continually-operating strip club — and with nibbling a CBD gummy, the latter presented with the same gravity with which another comic might recall smoking too much weed.
Even more specific bits like a brief rundown of J-Lo’s various romantic partners aren’t mean-spirited. They’re very funny, though, as is the whole thing, effortlessly and without any pretense at all. Some people are born to do certain things, I believe. However many years it might have taken Leanne Morgan to receive due recognition in comedy, she was born to be a comedian. It just comes so naturally to her, every aspect having a just-right quality in how it’s written and delivered that you can only achieve intuitively. Grandiose claims like “best special of the year” are too subjective to be taken seriously, but I will say this — Unspeakable Things is the one I like the most.